Thursday, February 08, 2007

Same Old, Same Old

When you wake up to the alarm clock in the morning and groan out loud, then, spend an extra five minutes in the shower, that’s a good indication that your day might be a humdrum one because of your poor attitude. Nothing excited me today. If you are reading this, go ahead and click on your back button. I would! I didn’t even want to post on this journal today, but because I can’t keep my mouth shut, I’m going to post this meaningless drivel anyway. But if you care to stay, I’ll keep it as brief as possible.


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I noticed the Great Blue Heron, formally referred to by me as the “Stinker”, is back in his same old, same old place today. Today I viewed this majestic bird as a motionless, ceramic statue. This sighting compares to the same old, same old dinner I made tonight.

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Why is it that Mockingbirds are always perched and staring at me for an eternity, only a few feet from my face? Why couldn’t it be a Titmouse or a Pink Flamingo? I could upload at least twenty of these egotistical birds in the past thirty days because they are everywhere! I'm just sick and tired of potential "lifers" flying by my face and playing "hide and seek" with me.


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Jan, my good friend from Maryland posted a comment on my blog today telling me she had just taken a photo of an owl in her back yard. She doesn’t even like birds or nature! I get the same old, same old birds and she gets an OWL… She had better send me the photo. This is the first white throated sparrow I found in a tree instead of foraging on the ground.

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The most interesting piece of news I’ll share is that my Beta has a growth next to its eye. Is our water contaminated? I don't think so, but Chloe has a growth on her shoulder, too. How interesting…

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What is wrong with this picture? One of our female cadets did something wrong this morning and was forced to wear “the bucket” on her head all day. I didn’t ask the reason. All of the cadets sign a release to allow them to be photographed throughout their training but I had mercy on her and chose to photo from behind.

There have been only a few times in my life that I can remember being punished in view of my peers. First grade, around 1961 (ahem), I was caught with a pea shooter in the classroom. Several other children had them, too, so my humiliation was shared. My teacher threw the peas across the old wooden floors of the school house and demanded that we get on our hands and knees to pick them up.

In the second grade, I was caught by Sister Marie Timothy in the girls’ restroom (they were called "lavs") standing on toilets and throwing notes to my friend in the next stall. We were having a blast, but Sister didn’t think it was funny… My only punishment was her firm grip on my upper arm.

Years later, when I was a senior in high school, I broke into the school auditorium with several friends and found chairs with wheels. We had a roller party on the slope downwards and broke something near the orchestra pit. Exciting, huh? It was enough for a detention that day.
When I look back on what I’ve done wrong in the past that deserved punishment, it pales in comparison to what mischief I’d get into today…(wink). I was a good kid. Does anyone have memories of mischief and/or punishment to share?

I forgot something...I sat in the corner of the fifth grade classroom with bubblegum stuck on top of my nose with my friend Debbie. We giggled all afternoon about it.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does the bucket cover her eyes / face? Seems there are better forms of punishment than a bucket on the head, but what do I know about administering punishment.
There really isn't a good looking butt in the bunch is there? Except maybe the one on the right in back.
All I get are gulls Mary, I know what you mean about the bewds.
Anything we did as kids is nothing nowadays from what I hear. Oh yeah, I forgot they were called lavs. Let's see, I know I did some bad things, but I can't think of anything now. I do remember that my sixth grade teacher was a freak who had a golden metal ruler which was really large and she would beat kids hands with it out in the hallway. I never got that, but I know if I did my parents would have had a huge cow (I play piano and sew and etc. and you *don't* beat kids on the hands) Oh, and an 8th grade math teacher who had a yardstick would beat kids over the head with it. I was looking down writing one day and he thought I was snoozing and he beat my head with the yardstick. Talk about shocking. I do remember asking him why he did it even though I was really shy - I wasn't doing anything wrong! Teachers wouldn't get away with this now!

LauraHinNJ said...

I remember my 4th grade teacher throwing a chair once!

I hadn't even noticed the bucket in that pic.

;-)

I'm sorry you're bored Mary - me too. Doesn't it suck to be a grown-up sometimes?

Oh! I saw a red-winged blackbird today - that means it's almsot spring!

Susan Gets Native said...

Oh, you really don't want to hear about all my misadventures, do you?
Welllll, okay.
In no certain order:
1. Got thrown out of a Waffle House at 2 a.m. for dancing on a table (I was 19 and very drunk, but I was ROCKIN'!)
2. Got sent into the hall for calling a girl in my class a fag. (I was 6...and my older brother taught me the word, and not what it meant...what an idiot)
3. Got a spanking with a wooden paddle in the third grade for throwing rocks on the playground.
4. Got three days suspension for passing a note to a friend in Biology about the teacher making obscene noises while grading papers. (well, he WAS!!!)
5. Got caught by park rangers on a picnic table with my then boyfriend doing...well, you know, after dark when the park was closed.
6. Lots of garden variety telling-off for being more interested in socializing instead of listening to the teacher.
7. Almost got arrested for "aiding and abetting a criminal": My friend is a twin, and her sister stole her license and ran up a bunch of traffic tickets, etc, and the police came looking for my friend, so I hid her in a dugout at a ball field behind the house we partied at, and the cop caught me as I was coming in the back door. I did a lot of fast talking to get out of that one.
8. Got a serious yell fest from my Mom after coming in from a party at my brother's house next door, because he had fed me beer all night, and I was in the bathroom puking my guts out. And HE didn't even get a word said to him! (He was always getting me in trouble!)
9. Got caught shoplifting a pack of smokes (I was 15 and oh so stupid), and what makes it even worse is that I was on an outing with a church group at the time.
10. I'm trying to come up with a number 10, but I think I have blown everyone's image of me, so I better stop here.

Beth said...

I never did anything wrong. I was perfect.

Well, not really. But I'm too tired to remember anything fun right now..

MARY - THANK YOU FOR INCREASING YOUR FONT SIZE!

dmmgmfm said...

When I was in high school I didn't take home-ec, I took shop classes instead. During my senior year, they made the mechanical shop class change places with the home-ec class. We were supposed to stay in that class for 6 weeks.

I was outraged, as were the rest of the guys in the class. One of our first assignments was to make home-made dinner rolls for a banquet. The teacher left the room for a few minutes and I talked the boys into putting pieces of bubblegum into the dough. We made the dough into rolls, let them rise and a class that was held later in the day baked them.

Do you have any idea what kind of mess that made in the ovens? :-D. It took several hours to clean up, but we were back in mechanical shop the next day!

amarkonmywall said...

Your beta looks as though he has an eye fungus. I think it's called "white spot". No, I am not just ad libbing.

In your post just below: Cadets do pilates! I was part of an insurrectionist group of high school hippies who, when forced to contribute a float to the home coming parade, got stoned, waited until the last minute and then stole the public court tennis nets (brand new), draped them over somebody's VW bug, stuffed wads of kleenex in the net holes, spray painted peace signs all over it and called ir good. The principal didn't nor did the parks commissioner. We were quite publicly humiliated. But proud of our float!

Mary said...

Pam, you're right. All of that slapping around, ear-pulling, etc. we had to put up with won't happen today. The blue bucket is a hat in shape of a bucket. Her face wasn't covered, thank goodness - that's where I'd have to draw the line.

Laura, I haven't seen a red-winged blackbird since I left Delaware. We are supposed to have below avg. temps until the end of the month :(

Susan, if this were a contest, you'd win the prize! My favorite is #1. At least you were having a great time! LOL! And I'm glad you are not behind bars. We'd miss you.

Mary said...

Beth, I got tired of squinting, too.

Laurie, I'm with you. I hated home-ec.

Vicki, could be white spot. So you were a radical hippie, huh? I can see that VW in my mind. Those were the days... I've been trying to post a comment on your blog from work but it won't let me. I'll try from home tonight. I thought your Thursday 13 was great!

Anonymous said...

Interesting regarding the bucket! Hey love your photos of the Mockingbird and Sparrow! Always a joy to see and birds that I don't normaly see this time of the year!!

Hmm, I wonder who might be reading this, maybe I shouldn't tell any of my bad stories! This nature nerd use to be a little punk when a kid!

KGMom said...

My oh my Mary--you seem to have unleashed all this pent up guilt, so that your fellow bloggers come to you confessing!
I loved the photo of the cadets from behind, and until I read your description assumed that the point of the photo was the butt shot!
As for personal transgressions, well--since I was in boarding school in Rhodesia, you would need to understand the British system of education to know why my misbehavior even counted as that--e.g. not scoring high enough on a math test! That's bad?

Unknown said...

You naughty, naughty girl!

Being a teacher means keeping a straight face while disciplining a child who has done something wrong. Sometimes that is VERY difficult to do. We regularly share the stories in the staff room and let our laughter rain. Kids are endlessly inventive in their trouble. :)