Tomorrow is a New Day

I work hard every day

I do my best to help others

But on days like today

You make me lose hope in humanity

Harsh words said

Not caring if what you want will cost me my job

It is all about you

And what you want

I am human

Just like you

I am not a doormat for you to trample

Nor am I less than you

The sun rises again

A new day begins

Your negativity is in my past

While it continues to drown you

(picture from http://planetxnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/rising-sun.jpg)

Hooker at Large

As a hooker (another name for a crocheter), I have a tendency always have a bunch of yarn around my house.  Stuff that I've bought with the intention of using for a project that I've never gotten to, remains of projects that have been completed, and skeins that people have given me because "I won't use it.  Danielle is a crocheter, let's give it to her!"  And, as any fellow yarn crafter will tell you, you never throw it away because you'll eventually use it for something down the road.  I am no exception to this either.

So, back in April, I got it into my head that I was going to sort through the yarn that I had, see what was there, and come up with some projects to use up the many  balls that could be found floating around my house.  Boy, was that an interesting experience.

My wonderful yarn hoard

What I thought would take me only about 30 minutes to an hour, ended up taking me around 3 hours to sort.  I will admit, I did get distracted by several skeins that I had forgotten that I had and my dear cat Gabby got it in to her head that she had to "help" me sort. (Her help was sitting in the middle of all of the yarn, watching me move it around the room)  I eventually got it all sorted out into worsted weights, thread, and specialty yarns (chunky, silky, etc).  Holy cow, did I have a lot of it, and sadly not enough to do a major project with one or two colors.

After a couple of weeks and a couple more donations of random skeins, the crocheting gods graced me with inspiration.  I am going to make hats.  My reasoning?  Because hats are fun, they don't take a lot of yarn to create, it will use up a lot of the random skeins, and I can be really creative with them.  And boy, have the creative juices been flowing.  I have several ideas, most of which will be my own designs, that I think will work well & could possibly sell.  If, and this is a very big IF, I manage to get a lot of these hats made, along with a few other things, I am hoping to vend at a fair this fall.  So, wish this hooker good luck as I dive deep into all my skeins and whip out some cool creations.

You Use It Everyday!

One of the phrases that makes my husband Lee cringe every time someone hears what he does is "I hate math" or "I never use the math I learned in high school".  He is a math teacher and teaches his favorite subject to (hopefully) the future leaders of our nation.  He hears that phrase from almost everyone; students, parents, strangers, and even some of his fellow teachers.  It honestly drives him up the wall.

So in honor of him, and great math teachers everywhere, I am here to address both of those phrases and silence those that continue to ridicule this great and very useful subject.

First, the phrase "I hate math" is a horrible thing to say to anyone who have dedicated their lives to the subject. Second, you don't understand it.  It is an inherent part of human nature to hate and fear what we don't understand.  How does one stop hating and loose that fear?  You educate yourself about the subject at hand.  One has to  realize that you do math every day of your life and way beyond figuring out how much money is in your bank account.  When you come to a stop at a stoplight, you are using math.  Your brain is calculating the velocity of your vehicle and the amount of pressure your foot has to apply to the brake pedal so that you stop before hitting the car in front of you.  When you make 3 batches of your awesome chocolate chip cookies for the school's bake sale, you are using math by calculating the amounts of each ingredient that you need from the original recipe.

The second phrase, which Lee hates more than the first one, "I never use the math that I learned in high school" or it's cousin, which is often spoken by students "Man, I'm never going to use this".  According to a great site called weusemath.org, a mathematician is considered the best job out of all jobs and the median annual income of one is $94,160.  Not to shabby if I do say so myself.  Now, telling me that other jobs don't really use math is a poor argument.  Below is some of the most popular jobs that I hear from my students that they want to do and what type of math is involved.  Included are links to those job descriptions that offer further explanations on how the math is used in that field.

Animator: College Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus 1 &2, Linear Algebra (http://weusemath.org/?career=animator)

Astronaut: College Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus 1, 2, & 3, Ordinary Differential Equations, Linear Algebra (http://weusemath.org/?career=astronaut)

Mechanical Engineer: College Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus 1 & 2, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Statistics (http://weusemath.org/?career=mechanical-engineer)

Nuclear Engineer: College Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus 1 & 2, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Statistics (http://weusemath.org/?career=nuclear-engineer)

Physician: College Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus 1 &2, Linear Algebra, Statistics (http://weusemath.org/?career=physician)

There are many other fields listed on that site and I could spend the next month explaining all the ways that we use math in every job out there, but I think that I have proven my point.  Remember, don't say that you hate math or that you never use it.  If you struggled (or still struggle) with the subject, simply say "I have trouble with math" the next time you talk with a math teacher.  More often than not, they will always be willing to help you become better at it.











(Photo from http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/images/mathslide.jpg)

Passing On the Love

I love to wander around little stores.  Most people have these in their towns.  Those little, non-chain stores that can be full of little treasures as long as you know where to look for them.  There is a little thrift shop run by volunteers really close to my house that is one of my favorite places to wander around.  I'm never quite sure what surprises will be discovered when I wander in.

So, after work the other day, I went over to that little thrift shop just to wander and unwind a bit from the long day.  I found a couple of goodies as I wandered before I decided I needed to go home and be a responsible adult.  As I got in line to pay, there was a lady who was a head of me, buying a pair of shoes.  She asked one of the volunteers if they would take $3 for the shoes instead of $4 since that was all the cash she had on her.  She then told them that she needed them for a job interview that she was going on since she had been out of work for a while.  I stood there, in line, quiet and listening to the lady's exchange with the volunteer.  Then I spoke up.  I told her not to worry about it, that I had her covered.  I told the volunteer to add the cost of the shoes to my purchase.  They both stared at me for a few seconds and the lady asked me if I was sure.  I told her that I had been in her place before and to do well on her interview.  She smiled and gave be a big hug, saying thank you.

After that little moment, I got to thinking.  With all the difficult and horrible things that are happening in the world, would that one little act of kindness, that act of love to a complete stranger make a difference in the grand scheme of things?  I honestly think that it will.  It helps to make my day & life better by helping a fellow human being make her life better.  It helps that lady who accepted my kindness face her upcoming interview with more confidence.  It helps the volunteers at that thrift store seeing that human kindness is not dead.  That simple act of love can have a lasting impression on not only those few people, but the people that they interact with in the future.

Remember, love can change the world.  Pass it on.







(Image from http://kimchilds.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/DChitwood_NoActOfKindness.png)

A Letter: A Never Ending Conversation

My best friend Maria and I have known each other since the second grade and have been friends since the third.  I can't remember what caused us to bond in those early years, but we must have seen something amazing in each other & thought to ourselves "Hey, this is an awesome person."

Years pasted and high school was approaching for both of us. We were both in different middle schools at this point but we were still the best of friends.  There were constant sleepovers at each other's houses and lots of phone calls.  The summer before we were to become freshman in high school, a blow rocked our world:  Maria was moving.  And it wasn't a small move either.  It was a move that would take her to the other side of the country.

Like many teen girls, we promised to stay in touch.  (Totally going to date myself here).  It would be hard for us to call each other (long distance phone calls on a land line phones could get expensive) and the Internet was still in it's infancy stages.  So we did what any person would do in order to keep in touch: we wrote.

We wrote long letters, short little notes on postcards, coded letters written in the wingdings font, and fun little notes stashed within in gifts to each other.  As we got older, the letters got more in-depth, revealing deeper insights into each other.  Our gifts to each other got more mature and even sillier as time went on.

My most recent postcard

Even though we are adults, calling each other has gotten cheaper, the letters still come and go.  And they mean as much now as they did when we started so many years ago.

Adult Silliness

Many know this familar face from our childhoods.  I don't know about you, but I loved getting a Mad Lib book.  My friends and I would sit around, filling in the blanks with the naughtiest words that we could think of and then giggled like crazy, little nutjobs when we read the completed story outloud.

With many of the world's population active on Facebook, this amusing past time has taken on a new form.  I have seen a few mad lib-like challanges before in my newsfeed but none that were as detailed as the one I was tagged in a few days ago.  It's complexity and length is what intrigued me, so I decided to fill it out.  Now, unlike the paper mad libs where you inserted your own words, this one gave you a list of selections for each part.  Each section had a specific way you picked the answer for each blank section.  It took a bit of time to fill mine out but it was worth it since I was laughing by then end of it.

So, for your giggling pleasure, here is my completed mad lib:

Dear Maria,
I don't know how to tell you this, our romance is over.  I think I realized it that night you picked your nose outside your office & I saw you carve your initials in my boyfriend.  I'm sure you're shamed enough to understand that I'm allergic to your earlobes.  I'm returning your nose hair clippers to you but I'll keep your neighbor's dog as a memory.  You should also know that I will not tell the authorities I'm off to lead a new life as a lemon,

Greeting to your frog Leonard,
Danielle



*If you would like to do your own, a copy of the blank mad lib can be found below.  Feel free to share your completed one in the comments.  I'd love to read them :-)












If you're looking for some hilarious entertainment, do this adult mad lib with a friend.

Dear (person's name you recently talked to),
I don't really know how to tell you this, (1). I think I realized it (2) (3) and I saw you (4)(5). I'm sure you're (6) enough to understand (7). I'm returning (8) to you, but I'll keep (9) as a memory. You should also know that I (10) and (11).
(12),
(Your name)

1. What is the color of your shirt?
Blue - I'm in love with your cat
Red - Our affair is over
White - I’m joining the Convent
Black -Our romance is over
Green- Our socks don't match
Grey - You're a leprechaun
Yellow - I'm selling myself for candy
Pink - Your nostrils are insulting
Brown - The mafia wants you
No shirt - Purple hedgehogs want to destroy you
Other -I dislike your eyelashes

2) Which is your birth month?
January - That night you picked your nose
February -When I quoted Forest Gump
March - When your dwarf bit me
April - When I tripped on peanut butter
May - When I finally changed my underwear
June - When you put cuffs on me
July – When I saw the purple monkey
August - When you smacked my ass
September - Last year when you peed your pants
October - When we skinny dipped in the bathtub
November - When your dog humped my leg
December - When I threw up in your sock drawer

3) Which food do you prefer?
Tacos - In your apartment
Chicken- In your car
Pasta - Outside of your office
Hamburgers - Under the bus
Salad – As you were eating Kraft Dinner
Lasagna - In your closet
Kebab - With Jean Chrétien
Seafood - In a clown suit
Sandwiches - At the Elton John concert
Pizza - At the mental hospital
Hot dog - Under a street light
Other- With George Bush and Stephen Harper

4) What's the color of your socks?
Yellow - Ignore
Red - Put whipped cream on
Black - Hit on
Blue - Knock out
Purple - Pour syrup on
White - Carve your initials into
Grey - Pull the clothes off
Brown - bite off
Orange - Castrate
Pink - Pull the pants off of
Barefoot - Sit on
Other - Drive over

5) What's the color of your underwear?
Black - My boyfriend
White - My father
Grey – The Catholic Priest
Brown – The Montreal Canadian’s goalie
Purple - My corned beef hash
Red – My knee caps
Blue - My salt-beef bucket
Yellow - My illegitimate child in Ghana
Orange - My Blink 182 cd
Pink – Your ‘My Little Pony’ collection
Other --The elephant in the corner

6) What do you prefer to watch on TV?
One Tree Hill - Senile
Heroes- Frostbitten
Lost - High
Simpsons- Cowardly
The news - Scarred
American Idol - Masochistic
Family Guy - Open
Top Model - Middle-class
Other -shamed

7) Your mood right now?
Happy - How awful you are
Sad - How boring you are
Bored - That I get turned on only by garbage men
Angry - That your smell makes me vomit
Depressed – That we’re related
Excited - That I may pee my pants
Nervous - The middle-east is planning their revenge on you
Worried - That your Ford sucks
Apathetic - That you need a sex-change
Silly - That I'm allergic to your earlobes
Cuddly - That Santa doesn't exist
Ashamed - That there is no solution to you being a dumb kid
Other - That your driving sucks

😎 8.) What's the color of your walls in your bedroom?
White - Your toe ring
Yellow - Your love letters to me
Red - The pictures from Vegas
Black - Your pet rock
Blue - The couch cushions
Green - Your car
Orange - Your false teeth
Brown - Your nose hair clippers
Grey - Our matching snoopy underwear
Purple - Your old New Kids on the Block blanket
Pink - The cut toenails
Other - Your Hannah Montana underwear

9) The first letter of your first name?
A/B - My virginity
C/D - Your photo with the mustache drawn on it
E/F - Your neighbors dog
G/H - The oil tank from your car
I/J - Your left ear
K/L - The results of that blood-sample
M/N - Your glass eye
O/P - My common sense
Q/R - Your mom
S/T - Your collection of butterflies
U/V - Your criminal record
W/X – Your sucide note
Y/Z - Your credit cards

10) The last letter in your last name?
A/B - Love your sweet, sweet ass
C/D - Always will remember the pep talks
E/F -Never will forget that night
G/H – Will not tell the authorites that you stole the whale from the backyard.
I/J – Mocked you behind your back constantly
K/L - Hate your cooking
M/N -Tol d in my confession today about the moose poaching
O/P - Told my psychiatrist about the bruises
Q/R - Get sick when I think of your feet
S/T - Always wanted to break your legs
U/V - Will try to forget that you broke my heart
W/X - Haven’t showered in a month
Y/Z – am better off without you

11) What do you prefer to drink?
Wine- Our friendship is ruined
Soft drink – I’m off to lead a new life as a lemon
Soda – I will haunt you when I’m reincarnated as an Eskimo
Milk - The apartment building is on fire
Water – I'm scratching my butt as you read this
Cider– I have a passionate interest for mice
Juice – You ruined my attempts at another world war.
Snapple/Vitamin water – You should get that embarrassing rash checked out
Hot chocolate – Your Cucumber-fetishism is weird
Whiskey - I love Oprah Winfrey
Beer – Thanks for the Cocaine
Other – you should stop picking your nose

12) To which country would you prefer to go on a vacation?
Thailand – Warm tingly sensations
Australia - Greetings to your frog Leonard
France - Love always
Spain - With tears of sadness
China – You make me sick
Germany – Please don’t hurt me
Japan - Go milk a cow
Greece - Your everlasting enemy
USA - Best of luck on the sex change
Egypt – Kiss my butt
England - Go drown yourself




(Image from https://botlist.co/system/BotList/Bot/logos/000/001/535/medium/madlibs.jpg)

A Month Wasted

Silence.

The soft click of keys tapping out answers, a mouse being clicked to go on to the next question.

The faint scratch of pencil on paper, working out a problem.

The silent & internal struggle of a difficult question crosses a young face.

Glazed eyes stare blankly at a computer screen, not understanding what they see.

Heads hung low with internal conflict, being made to feel stupid by a question they do not understand.

Sobs muffled behind closed lips so as not to disturb the testers around them.

A teacher's heartbreak as a special needs student begs for help that the teacher is prevented by test rules from giving.

Sigh of relief when answers can be submitted & the test ends.

Then the next day, it starts all over again.

Three weeks, almost a full month of learning lost & never to be regained to the monster of high stakes testing.

(Side note: Unfortunately, teacher are prevented from telling parents that they have the right to opt out of standardized testing.  Kids don't have to take these high-stakes tests.  While some tests are used to help gauge a student's academic level & see where they are struggling, high-stakes testing does not.  It also takes away learning time from the students.)