it was a pleasure to speak with you?

do i have a nice voice or something? someone who knows me personally, please let me know. i just got hit on, this time by a potential policyholder, a 26-year-old kid (well, i guess he's not really a kid, but whatever) whom i have never met - only talked to over the phone. the only other time this has happened (a year or so ago, by a man old enough to be my father), i had never met the guy either.

it cracks me up that this should happen, and kind of creeps me out a little. i'm not sure what to think.

happy anniversary!

no, not my anniversary (that's in august) though today is the one-year mark for our friends jimmy and nichole.

the man we are most proud of today is my amazing husband brian, who gave up tobacco and nicotine one year ago today! quitting was hard for him and i imagine it continues to be a struggle (especially with all our life stress lately), but he did it. i cannot even describe how insanely proud of him i am!

the keepers of our culture

the fort worth and las vegas school districts have started recruiting campaigns in california, aimed at luring away teachers - and our lovely state superintendent of schools jack o'connell just whines about it. he complained that it basically isn't fair for them to come in and pick off our teachers, because they make it sound like education isn't a priority in california.

hello?

am i the only one who thinks that he is out of touch with reality? i mean, when has education actually been a priority in california? it's not like the state schools (sfsu in particular) make it easy to get credentialed - it's a year and a half of full time grad school classes, and then a year of student teaching - unpaid, of course. if you're a normal (read: not independently wealthy) person, it's pretty difficult to live on that. after that, you get a job that pays a pittance of a salary, so you'd better have a spouse making some good money if you want to be able to pay your bills, because it's not like it's cheap to live in california.

oh, and then you have to deal with all the political crap (because, you know, education really ought to be a political subject). in the meantime, you also have to buy books and supplies for your students and classroom, because california schools are so chronically underfunded that they often cannot provide these things themselves. not to mention dealing with parents who just don't care.

no, we've certainly made education a priority. definitely.

* i admire anyone who has a passion and a desire to teach in this kind of environment, because you really have to have a calling to do it. i think teachers should be revered not only because they are the keepers of our culture and pass it on from one generation to the next, but because they do it in an environment that is so hostile to their profession.

ring lust

total lust:

obviously i have a bit of an addiction, and this month am being supported in that addiction by my lovely sister. it's good to be a girl.

dash my button!

as a seamstress, i love buttons. can't get enough of them. they're the icing on the cake, jewelry for your clothes. so of course i love this:

it's an antique button. how neat is that? a birthday gift courtesy of my fabulous sister, who always comes up with the most interesting and meaningful gifts. so today i learned a bit about buttons.

the earliest buttons are from about 2,000 b.c. (from egypt), but they appear to have been decorative rather than functional.

button was not used a verb in english until about the 1200s.

charles de gaulle and jackie kennedy collected buttons. louis xiv spent $6,000,000 on buttons over his lifetime.

in victorian times perfumery buttons were popular and contained little cotton swatches moistened with perfume.

buttons in intrigue: smuggler's buttons are like a tiny pillbox with a twist cap for hiding diamonds or messages inside. also, special army commandos sometimes had uniforms with these buttons on them, to carry poison (presumably in case the soldier was captured and tortured).

poison buttons are different: they have a sharp stud on top that was attached to a tiny vial hidden in the assassin's clothing. the assassin could just "accidentally" brush his victim's skin with the stud, and the poison would flow into the scratch.

dash my button! is an old-fashioned expletive. (love that!)

the end of everything

well, not really. but it was my last day at work, kind of sad. bittersweet because i am leaving to start a new position in a new town since we are moving... but i will miss my coworkers and my clients. i had built really great relationships with my clients and now i feel like i am abandoning them. but... on to a new chapter in my life.

on a completely unrelated note, how awesome is this new website? (yes, new new, not just-discovered, new-to-me new.) soooo right up my alley, it's insane.

mon anniversaire

i think i am supposed to be terrified and having a mini-midlife crisis, but i'm not. maybe turning 30 has not really hit me yet.

well, the night is still young.

and it truly has been a fabulous birthday, all things considered. i really have amazing friends and family who love and support me, and the absolute best husband in the entire universe. i know some of you married ladies out there may beg to differ, but you just don't know any better, because really, brian is the best. he will be completely exhausted when he gets home tonight (he was up at 4a for work this morning) but he will still be sweet and wonderful and make me feel like a princess on my birthday.