i want to go to there:

I saw a girl with this micro mini computer at school yesterday and then I saw it again today at Walmart for roughly $280. Clearly I want one (for Bobito!).

I do have a few reservations:

1) I use the computer for two things only: Gmail and Microsoft Word. I fear it lacks the later.
2) I am a Mac. Obviously.


Curtain.

Happy Memorial Day from the Weigleins & Simones!

What a great weekend!

Make way for Summer 09!
Say HEY to Summer 09! (to be sung in voice of the Genie)

someone's inside my head:

I like your style, Atelier Pompadour.

Have you heard the new rumor I'm spreading?


IKEA's COMING TO THE VB TOWN CENTER!

And just when you thought nothing could top that mini version of the 31st street Neptune Statue over by Ruth Chris'...

There's some buzz going around about the John and Kate boo-chee-chay, and rightfully so. I am still scarred by that torpedo belly from the opening sequence. But listen, those parents pretty much gave their children the Kiss of Death by signing up for a reality show taped in their house--- I dont even care if its on TLC.

Remember these guys???





OR THESE:



Comon, Kate. You made a deal with the devil (Joe Simpson).

this is my job:

So... in light of the horrid recession, budget and salary cuts and all out Swine Flu plague, HR has been tasked to boost morale by organizing a Team Building Day. Yay!! Ropes courses were outlawed to do some employees' concerns. So plans for a cookout and scavenger hunt at a local Episcopal retreat center are underway. I am bowing out of any decision making role as I will sadly be at class during this "Kick Off Cook Out" if you will, and fellow Ambassadors in Chains, I know you will...

Anyway, thought I'd share this email between my boss Sybil and our Motivational Speaker for the event as it pretty much sums things up (read it from bottom to top):

. . . . . . .

From: sspurgeon@homesforkids.org
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 11:26 PM
To: rweiglein@homesforkids.org
Subject: FW: ForKids Teambuilding Day

Mayday . . . have I ever mentioned my deep abiding hatred for headgear?

---

From: kisselltalks@cs.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 7:33 PM
To: sspurgeon@homesforkids.org
Subject: Re: ForKids Teambuilding Day

Sybil,

I was at AC Moore today, a craft store. They had really neat colorful visors for only a buck. They have some materials that can be used to decorate them. This would be cheaper than shirts! Everyone could decorate one and wear it outside. They are located on VB Blvd. Or Michaels may have them as well, just a thought.

Steve


-----Original Message-----

From: sspurgeon@homesforkids.org
To: kisselltalks@cs.com
Sent: Wed, 13 May 2009 4:37 pm
Subject: RE: ForKids Teambuilding Day

Hi Steve:

We are confirmed with our venue, Talbot Hall, for Monday, 6/8. That is our final date, I promise!!

Thanks for the great ideas for our afternoon – we have a lot to work with in planning!! I’ll be in touch soon.

-Sybil

it takes a village to raise Bobito

Tommy is in DC this week, Ana is on a tour de 64 de grandchildren and I started grad school today. All of this can mean only one thing: Bennett is watching Juan Bobo all week. I dropped him off on San Marcos Ct. this morning before work and Santiago gave me this warning, "Ruthie, I will watch him but I will make sure everyone knows he is not my dog."

Yesterday at church at least 3 people asked of Juan Bobo's whereabouts. People whose names I can't even keep straight. "He's my bud!" a nameless person told me, "Let me know if you ever need someone to watch him!" I smiled and sincerely thanked him. I mean, I actually spend time worrying that my dog has drowned in the toilet while I am at work- - I need all the help I can get.

Last week at work I received a call from a woman seeking shelter. She was 19, pregnant with twins and living on the street until she went into labor-- 3 months early. I had to tell her that because her babies were not yet born she did not qualify for our services. This girl was calling from the hospital where she was in pre-term labor with twins and was worried that if she went to Social Services for assistance that they would take her babies away.

She is having twins. She is 19. She lives on the streets!

I have never felt as helpless as I felt during that very brief phone call. Once I hung up my brain started working again. I could call someone at church, she could move in with me, I could call Ana! But I didn't know her name or where she had called from.

Since working at ForKids I have asked myself one question over and over again: How can you have no other option than to live on the street with your children? And I realize, my life and my wide net of support are not normal. While I want to find this girl's mother and shake her, I must remind myself that her mother probably lives on the streets as well.

It's situations like this that leave me thankful for my mother, who I have grown up watching fill her house and life with people in need. That is my normal.

King David said God "places the lonely in families (Psalm 68:8)" and I know with my whole life that that is true. Bobito reminds me how much I need a family and this girl and her two babies remind me of how far that family extends.

cositas saved my life

If we have had a conversation in the last 2 weeks I have probably dramatically told you my "Two Goals for Summer":
1) Paying for Grad School entirely without loans and
2) becoming a morning person.

Go big or go to bed!

The first goal is promising to steal away many of my current simple pleasures (read "cable and eating out") but the second goal, I am happy to say, I am making some progress on. Thanks to this sweet baby coffee maker:

I thought getting a tiny coffee maker would make me more likely to use it, and boy was I right! Who knew starting my day off with coffee would change my life?

Anyway, check out this awesome kindred spirit I found. Maybe I should start posting pics of all the Sculpy doll food I have made throughout the years. I know Ana still has it in her house.

when I was I child I acted like a child

I start grad school in 2 weeks. Buying notebooks and emailing professors has been making me nostalgic for the last time I started school. Let me just say that I am taking this opportunity to redeem myself from all the mistakes I made 6 years ago when I started college.

I got into W&M in November 2002, leaving me the rest of my senior year to just sail (read "scoot") by. I whole-heartily threw myself into my tumultuous teen love-life, or at times, the tumultuous lack thereof. Summer blazed by in a hot fury, leaving me with dyed brown hair and 17 Forever21 miniskirts to help the make the transformation into College Ruthie.

Here is a list of simple oversights that Grad School Ruthie W. BA will not make in her 2nd chance at higher ed:

1) Get my Student ID made. I am convinced that I must have gone to Williamsburg at leas 5x (Busch Gardens, baby!) the summer before I started undergrad, and yet I never took a moment to get my ID made. I showed up at my dorm on move in day, late, terrified and got whisked away to 11 meetings before I had a chance to de-bunk my bed. Thank goodness the Jewel lived across the hall and helped me pick a sock drawer after my family surrendered me to life with Laurel. My Orientation Aides had to makes a special trip across campus to "help" my get my ID. All in all, Hudson Evans took a look at it and said I looked "face-heavy and wet".

2) Register for classes. Somehow I missed this one. Everyone else came to school with at least 3 classes on their sched. They also came boasting of all the credits they brought with them from high school. Nerds. Again my Orientation Aides had to sit me down and HELP me register. They asked me what I was interested in and I picked out a few obscure upper level closed courses. They looked at me like I had lost it. Supposedly everyone else at W&M was all hyped up on learning. I was just hoping to meet some boys (and sadly I quote) "that drape themselves in all denim and carry books around in their back pockets." To translate, I was coming off of watching 3 years of Gilmore Girls and hoping W&M was chalk full of this guy:



3) Read my syllabi. So... it took me at least 2 semesters to figure out the purpose of that sheet of paper that professors handed out on the first day of class. I remember being proud of myself for finally remembering to bring the book that "we" had been reading in class only to find that everyone else had moved on to some new book. And were already 1/2 done with it. Eventually, I leaned over to another girl and whispered, "How did everyone know what to read?" She looked at me puzzled and answered, "It was on the syllabus..." Oh that thing?

4) Study. Enough said.


So anyway, I busy myself at work these days by writing To Do Lists of things I "forgot" to take care of the first time around. All I can think is, geesh, its a good thing I wasn't paying for school then. I would never have known to put a check in the mail.

Any advice you have for me?