Hello there.

Well hello! Yes, little blog how are you doing? It's been a while. You know, for the longest time I had no idea what this "blogging" occurrence was. I'm still not sure what the actual term 'blog' means, but I'm pretty sure it's what I'm doing now. Writing and stuff...I think the special things about blogs is that they are supposed to have a focus....ummm, well, my life is a good enough focus for me.

Anyways.... I just got back to the STL and am hyped up on energy drinks. That's a lie. I'm hyped up on about a third of an energy drink. I'm pathetic when it comes to caffeine, the slightest bit makes me pretty insane. I have another job fair this weekend. This one for a district I know nothing of, but figured beggars can't be choosers, so any district willing to offer me a job would be a good one. My principal wrote me a letter of reference/recommendation tonight. It is very nice, really makes me want to stay and work with her actually, but she's moving on and I as well need to. I don't have anything planned for tomorrow and am looking forward to it. Maybe go for a run, fill out a ridiculously long application for the fair Saturday, play some piano, drive around town, who knows? It will be nice.

I talked for a while (nearly the whole drive home actually) to a friend about life and randomness and it was great. It's so relaxing and uplifting to just have a conversation with no agenda, with just enjoying talking to each other.

That's everyone's assignment for this week: converse with someone for at least an hour just to talk and listen. Maybe you do that a lot with people, maybe not (I know I never do), but it really is neat to see where the conversation goes and what will come up. Hopefully it will leave you with a feeling of gladness and relaxation. If not....I'm sorry I had the idea.

Oh, and I realized some of my very favorite smells this week(or was thinking about them at least). I'll share them: hotel hallways that smell like pools (they did a deep clean of the school late one night while I was still up there and it smelled wonderfully of bleach/chlorine). Really I guess any hallway with that smell is great, but I always relate it to vacationing long ago with the parents and getting to play in the indoor pools. My second smell I really love is after a thunderstorm outside. The feel of that smell is just great for me. I used to love to sit on my parents back porch swing and watch the rain pour and lighting zig zag across the sky just to wait for the calm afterward. The rain after slamming against the wood deck would splatter and mist my bare feet. I can still hear the swing squeak as I slowly rocked back and forth waiting for the rage of the storm to settle into the peacefulness that always came post-fury. And a last favorite smell: sawdust and cigarette smoke. Slightly strange, yes.. Meaningful to me, also yes. Working in my grandfathers woodshop basement with my dad and grandpa is now a cherished memory of mine. Everyone was happy down there. We'd work on whatever meaningless project we planned for that week in good company and happy to be making something we knew we could later have pride in. Ironically enough that favorite smell was what killed my grandpa (the smoking, not the bandsaw or other terribly dangerous machinery he had down there). I, luckily, relate that smell to good times, instead of the agony it caused of me loosing a loved one. My grandpa was the first one to let me taste beer. He always washed the dishes after dinner so me and my brother wouldn't have to. He played rummy with me as often as I asked to. He was a good grandpa. It hurts to think of all the pain I had to watch him endure before he passed, he wasn't the same man the last year or so of his life because of, but I try to remember the good and not dwell on what makes me angry. Yet I've gotten off track...actually I've said all I wanted to say. In conclusion, those are my three favorite smells. You can thank my AMP for the long ramblingness of reminiscence.