Literally blowing over.

This morning I got to work in the Jeff City office and noticed that my dad had texted me "hope you are ok and stayed safe, love ya."  I will admit I was still in a slight morning haze, part of which entailed me not realizing I had one of my pant legs tucked into my sock.  Fortunately I noticed this myself before anyone could further ponder how I've done relatively well in life and can't even get dressed properly at age 27.  Needless to say, in reading the text, I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.  I sat there thinking hope I'm ok?  Well, I mean I slept pretty well last night and I was safe driving here. That Chuck.  So dramatic.  Then I opened the interwebs and saw that storms and tornadoes blazed a trail of destruction through several mid-western states last night.  I'm honestly glad that it just rained in Columbia for the obvious reasons, but also because I had no idea tornadoes were an option so I was ill-prepared to handle anything more than a few rain drops on my clothes.  Among the places hit was Paducah, KY, a little town on the Ohio River that I've grown particularly familiar with over the last few months, and Branson.  In all seriousness, I think people learned from Joplin, and take those warnings seriously.  Still, it's amazing to see how quickly so much damage can happen. 

Speaking of Joplin, I'm sitting in a Drury Inn here right now.  The Drury is in the same parking lot as the Hampton Inn my parents and I stayed at when we moved to Texas.  Memories!  In the wake of last night's storms, today was windy as hell.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that I almost blew over in the parking lot of my office.  Then, while getting gas before leaving for Joplin, a gust of wind blew my car door closed onto my leg.  I yelped, almost like a dog, and then muttered a series of expletives that drew a look of concern from a homeless guy walking in front of my car.  The wind also whipped a strand of my hair directly into my eyeball before I could blink.  Quite a battle I had with this moving air.  And the whole drive to Joplin was a two hands on the wheel affair so I didn't drive off the highway.  But, here I am!

And now, it's bedtime.  Long day tomorrow. Toodles friends.

Random Photos

I'm entirely too lazy to write an actual post, so here are some pictures instead.

This was essentially me clicking randomly in my albums and here is what we came up with.  Enjoy!

Twenty....seven?!

The rumors are true.  I will be 27 on Saturday.  I'm not sure how this happened, as I'm pretty sure it was last week that I insisted my parents bring lots of cupcakes to Miss Cindy's Nursery School to celebrate ME.  But alas, here we are.

At 27, I've learned a lot.  One thing I've noticed recently (well, not recently- I've always been a grammar hard ass) is that for the most part, people don't know how to use correct grammar or punctuation.  It's fresh on my mind because Summer and I just had a conversation about it, but I really wonder how people get so far in life (or not) without being able to construct a proper sentence.  I will admit, I'm guilty of the occasional brain fart where I'm typing so fast that my mind tricks me into thinking I need "you're" instead of "your" or something along those lines.  BUT, those evens are rare, and I pretty much immediately correct myself, lest anyone think I really say "your welcome."  (God, it was even hard to type that just now.  My thumb is resisting the urge to mousepad its way back up to that word.)  Actual Facebook comments/statuses:

"YOUR SO BEAUTIFUL!" 

"I was their.  It was awsome."  (you were their what?! Cat?  Dog? Sex slave?  I need to know!!)

"u know i want 2 go."  This was typed by someone MY AGE.  Sigh.

As a result of our acceptance of these poor practices, people like Summer and our other brave educators have to sort through pages upon pages of papers from students who think "wanna" is the proper way to say "I want to" or "I would like to" and "kinda" is the same as saying "slightly" or "marginally."  Save the grammar!  I know grammar isn't cuddly like a baby seal, and it won't hug you like an endangered monkey, but we really need to stop sucking at this.  For the future of our youth.  And to decrease the chances of me having an aneurysm. 

I'll tell you this.  I'll be damned if I ever accept a text message or note from my kid saying "Hey Mom, goin 2 a friends house.  C U l8tr."  NOPE.  Not happening.  Don't let bad grammar happen to you.

So ends my PSA/birthday announcement.  Toodles.