making new friends

I will eventually get with the times & learn how to add photos to my blog. For now, dear reader, take my lack of skill as a chance to use your imagination in my storytelling.

The day before we left Oklahoma to have an old-fashioned Arkansas Christmas (yes, we even had a Christmas bonfire in the woods!), I spent the afternoon of Dec. 23rd at Full Circle books. It's the coziest spot in the wintertime--fire blazing, lattes steaming, and books surrounding you.

I was working on a project for Tanner's present---more on that in a future blog---and I thought this was the ideal creative spot.

I got about an hour's worth of work done when a small voice said by my left shoulder, "Hello, I'm Margo. What is your name?"

I turned to see a sweet gal probably in her 30s donning a beret and scarf standing right next to me. I knew Margo was similar to some of the students I work with in her processing abilities. She had a wide grin and friendly eyes. I took the opportunity to take a break from my project and began an interesting conversation with Margo.

As we chatted, she told me that she loved to write poems: "Do you know what a poem is?" she gleefully inquired. She told me she wanted to learn how to write better poems. I learned that she had participated in some of the programs that I currently get my students set up in, such as Dale Rogers, DRS, Special Olympics.

She told me she wanted to be a better reader because she loved to read. The idea struck me: how cool to have adults that are former special education students and are wishing to increase their reading skills go into elementary schools to read to children! That may already be a program, but I'm now inspired to look into it...

She ended up reading out loud to me. (My gift to Tanner was a book I wrote and she read parts of it to me & thus gave me some great third-party perspective). At one point I excused myself to go the restroom, which is quite a little jaunt from the bookstore since it is out in the mall.

"Margo, do you mind keeping an eye on my Mac while I run to the restroom?"

She did not & when I returned she was just a few feet away looking at a book. Yet when she saw me return, she rushed over to Mr. Mac and I.

"Lisa, I wanted you to know that when I went to look at books for a minute I told __name___ (the coffee barista) to watch your laptop."

"That's fine, Margo! Thank you!"

"Well, I didn't want you to think I wasn't watching it...because you're my best friend!" she announced with a wide grin.

I love where a random, lazy afternoon can take you.

I'm BA--ACK

I really never did intend to totally drop out of the blog world. Here's the deal...I have 3 email addresses that I tend to use when creating accounts. Not to mention the 4 or 5 staple passwords that I've had as ol' stand-bys for a few years.

I mean, come on, these days you have to have a password for your email, your Facebook, your Paypal, your ebay, your music website, your work email, your library code (for handy online reserve), oh and your EBSCO code for reading journals in college, your UCO student ID, your OCU ID (don't ask...yes, I'm going there now as well), your OG&E bill, your bank account, your ING, your Netflix, your credit card, your Southwest Airlines, your left nostril.....oh, oops, sorry I got carried away as I realized that this list truly never ends.

And I do quite well keeping it all down. Ok, so I get the OCU and the UCO numbers mixed up sometimes.

So you can understand that I finally dropped the ball. I wrote a few blogs & never wrote down the access information. "I've got it down," I suppose I thought. But, no, to my dismay, the urge to write a few thoughts over the past few months was quickly squashed when I couldn't log in to ThatCurlGirl.

You can bet your favorite Christmas sweater that I wrote it down now.

And if anyone has advice for dealing with this only-gonna-get-worse Post-Modern Problem, by all means, share.

My only solution is to keep a Word document with every password to my entire life written. Is that what you do, dear reader who must suffer from this same dilemma?

Of course, in the event that you have to call your fiance because for the first time in weeks you actually "shut down" your laptop (yes, I have it in Sleep Mode most of the time I am not using it) and hope to heavens HE may remember what your COMPUTER password is so you can log back on....well, your whole password list could be a giant wash anyway!

Geez, I'm too tired now to even write a REAL post. I have stories to tell....Margo & the Bookstore, Aubrey the Genius, My Surprise for Tanner, Winter Gardening for Dummies.....but I'll save that for another day since I can log back in again. Right? I saved it on my Word document . *looks at Word, breathes sigh* Ok, yeah, I will return.

And I wonder why I don't have anyone's phone number memorized anymore. Welcome to Life as We Know It.

G'night, Happy Password-Saving, and a Merry Christmas to all!!