Drinking on The Job

Today while I was working at the day-care (my second job) I was enjoying a nice lunch of "funeral potatoes," peanut butter cookies, and Rootbeer. A couple of the older boys approaced and we had the following conversation:

Boy #1: "What are you eating?"

Dawn: "Lunch."

Boy #2: "What is that you are drinking?"

Dawn: "Rootbeer."

Boy #1 to Boy #2: "She is drinking beer?!! My mom said that's bad!"

Boy #2 to Boy #1: "No it's not bad because her beer has 'roop' in it."

Boy #1: "Oh, yeah I forgot about the 'roop.'"

Well anyway, I enjoy the "roop."

I 'HEART' Movies

Some may know that I occasionally (every night) have a hard time falling asleep (until 3:00am). Now I could take sleeping pills but the risk of dependency and the weird reports of people "sleep-eating" (like I need to eat any more calories) have turned me off to that possible solution. But never fear, I have found a rather effective "sleep aid" with very few side effects: MOVIES.

All I have to do is watch the same movie a few (100 or 200) times and then I can use it to put me to sleep. The science (not actually science at all) behind this is quite sound; having watched a movie so many times I am able to listen to the movie without being required to watch it (allowing me to close my eyes which I have found to be key in the process of falling asleep). It is so peaceful to let the familiar music and dialouge invade your brain pushing out any annoying thoughts (man I probably sounded so dumb today when I said that dumb thing) and silly worries (do I have clean clothes to wear tomorrow?).

For a little while (maybe 5 years) I have enjoyed the eye-candy, humor, and deep-thought provoking film "Ocean's 11." There was really nothing that worked so well (do I sound like a drug addict?) to accomplish sleep. Unfortunately it recently lost some of it's edge (I think I do sound like a drug addict). So I found myself looking for a new "sleep-movie." That is when I stumbled across the new "Pride and Prejudice." I will admit it took a little work to get this movie to the place where it could be effective, but I have finally achieved the goal! (I like to keep my goals attainable-fear of failure and all)

Now each evening as I lie in my bed I listen to Darcy (who on first look shouldn't really be deemed 'attractive' but is SO attractive) and Lizzie (who I am secretly pretending to be) fall in love again. Oh, I 'heart' movies.

Finally Ready

The other day at the end of my afternoon preschool class the following "exchange" occured;

Sweet Little Boy: "Miss Dawn, you look cute all dressed for the day."

Miss Dawn: (a little surprised at the sweetness of the comment because this little boy has just finished trying to tackle all 9 of the other kids as they finished their snack) "Oh. Thanks bud."

Miss Dawn's Thoughts: "Does that imply that I don't usually get ready for the day, or does it imply that I don't usually look cute? Either way...."

Fate

So as you may know from my last post, this week in preschool we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. The last exhibt, before the giant sandbox of fun, is entitled "Mammoth Hunters." As the title suggests, depicted in bones, there is a huge mammoth and a handful of humnas with spears and big rocks trying to bring down the mammoth. (My personal favorite part is the human being smashed by the mammoth! Totally Sweet!!)
We gathered around and talked about why these people were obviously trying to kill this animal-something about there not being grocery stores and people still needing to eat. Then we started to head out to the aforementioned giant sandbox of fun.
As I tried to walk away I felt a little hand slip into mine, and heard a quiet voice asking me a question. She was not afraid, but her voice was full of curiosity, concern, and what can only be described as a 4-year-old version of a questioning of ethics, the little girl asked,
"Miss Dawn, when I die, will my bones be here too?"

Melting Skin, Bones, and Heaven-Just another day in Preschool

Today was the first day of our preschool unit on Dinosaurs, always a popular theme that involves a fieldtrip to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. My first problem came when I tried to explain how long ago dinosaurs actually lived on the earth. Apparently "millions of years ago" is a little abstract for 4 and 5 year olds so I tried again with, "before there were people." They seemed to accept that.
Then they wanted to know about the dinosaurs bones. So I explained "When a dinosaur died it would eventually get covered up with a lot of dirt, and be buried. They all stayed buried for a long time. Then a long time later when people were born on the earth some of those people started to dig up the dinosaur bones and tried to learn about the dinosaurs." I thought this was a great explanation. I guess I missed the boat though because Nate asked, "Miss Dawn, what happened to their skin?" Asa answered his question, "Oh, it just melts off and then all there is is bones." An approximately scientific answer, so I accepted it. Then Sammie displayed her most important knowledge by sharing, "Well, the dinosaur bones are in the ground but their spirit is in heaven."
It was a humbling experience to remember that while ABC's and 123's are important-the curriculum I follow does not always teach the most valuable lessons in a child's life.

Hotel Washburn

Today I blog to you live from the state's premier 5 star resort in Monticello Utah. Situated below the picturesque "horse mountain," Hotel Washburn can boast the highest rate of return visitors in all of Utah. And once you know all the amazing ammenities of this establishment it is not the least surprising that guests return as often as schedules allow. In fact there is hardly a weekend that goes by that all the rooms are not completely booked! Some of the aforementioned ammenities include the following:

*A rousing wake-up call as early as 12:00 noon.

*Made to order comfort-food for every meal. I suggest the waffles.

*Pristine mountain air.

*The aroma of a real wood-burning stove.

*A museum exhibit entitled, "Fashion Through The Decades-A Look Back At What The Washburn Girls Wore." (A must see and terribly moving.)

*An entire cupboard devoted entirely to sweet treats, and if you time your visit right-around Christmas or Father's day-those sweets will undoubtely contain See's Chocolates.

*An assortment of activities ranging from reading to napping to learning to cook. And I dare you to deny the activities director, one Spenser Simpson, when he graciously invites you to a card game or two.

In fact things have been going so well here at Hotel Washburn, that they have recently had to expand by "securing" up to three additional rooms at the adjacent Hotel Chapman and four additional rooms at Hotel Simpson located only 15 minutes south in Blanding Utah.

I can think of no better way for this blogger to ring in the new year than a stay here and I highly recommend a visit here to everyone-that is if you can get a reservation.

Happy 2008

Old

Having just turned 27 I have hit what some might call a "quarter-life crisis." This numeral, which seems innocuous, is in reality much too big a number and too many steps past 23 for me to feel entirely comfortable with it. Each year starting around the end of October I have started what I call the "aging-reconciliation-process." The process basically involves me telling people that "I am ____ years old." With the blank being filled in each year with my approaching age rather than my actual age. I don't know if I started this process each year because I was so excited to be another year older, or if it was because I really needed those extra couple of months to mentally adjust to the change.

However, 2007 has proved to be the end of the "aging-reconciliation-process." I didn't even want to say my actual age let alone the new/bigger number that was coming. I have been, GULP, 27 for a couple of weeks now and I am just barely able to say it. During my struggle leading up to my birthday I did, as I always do, talk about it with my friends and family. So many people have made "cute" comments about my feelings on aging and I wanted to share a few with you.

54 year old woman: "Please you are so young, you have all the time in the world."
*Note: Don't mom's always have to say that kind of stuff whether they mean it or not?

23 year old woman: "Well, how old are you going to be?" (I respond) "Oh." (making a face that looks like she just swallowed something undesireable) "I thought turning 23 was hard."
*Note: I hope that she has crows feet and gray hair at 27

19 year old girl: "I think its silly when people struggle with aging, I have never had a problem getting older."
*Note: That's because ALL children look forward to getting older!

21 year old guy: "Well I guess you can start dating guys in their mid-thirites now."

30 year old guy: "Don't worry, no one really expects much else from you."
*Note: Oh really, you, of all people, are going to judge my life. Ironic.

27 year old woman: "You should probably just get a cat or 2 or 500 and call it good."
*Note: Dawn-remember to discuss self-hatered with therapist.

You were probably thinking at the begining of this post that there would be some back story, the meat of my struggle,the touching moment where I had a personal epiphany and realized that 27 is not old, or I am okay with being 27, or some other load of crap, finished off with a concise morale of the story. Sorry to disappoint you, but that is not the case, I am still struggling with being 27 years old, I just don't like it. However, I am hoping to get used to it soon so that I can enjoy a few months free of age-related struggle before I get to 28 (heaven/therapy help me.)