Thursday Ten: No I Don’t Buy School Pictures edition

1. Both of my daughters have now had school pictures taken this year and I have done the unthinkable: I have not ordered any. I am so over paying a fortune for bad pictures that don’t even look like my kids. Last year, I ventured into taking my own and this year, I’m repeating that. My kids are beautiful and have beautiful spirits and attitudes and no school photo has ever been able to capture their magic. Why sell a kidney to pay for those? I almost felt guilty, not sending that order form back, but… nope.

2. I love my commute to work on autumn mornings. You really can’t starting with a view like this.

3. My laptop after several years of sporadic service has finally decided that it doesn’t want to work anymore. Boo. I’m actually surprised it lasted so long, but damned if it didn’t pick the worst time to die. (Also, I will never buy a [BRAND NAME] again.)

4. National taco day. National. Taco. Day. NATIONAL TACO DAY. Are you celebrating? You should celebrate. Oh, you’re not celebrating? I’ll eat enough tacos to cover your share. Yours too. Don’t worry, y’all. I got this.

5. Speaking of eating all the food – I saw a picture of myself from a few years ago and thought to myself, “Wasn’t it nice when I had all that time to work out and had those amazing arms?” Yeah. I miss those. I should be doing pushups now. I wish I could find a way to type vigorously enough to be considered a toning workout. I’d be rich. With arms to envy.

6. ArtPrize has been kind of a disappointment to me this year. I said that last week and then… last Friday was Lights In The Night – and? It was amazing. It’s in the Top Ten, and it’s got my vote and I know there are some who say it doesn’t count – but it moved me like nothing else that was entered this year. I was grateful to not have had my hair set on fire, and I was so happy to be down in the middle of it all watching these lanterns floating up towards the sky. It was really so beautiful. I felt like a kid seeing fireworks for the first time. It was really a sight that took my breath away.

7. Sooooo, the debates were last night. That’s all. Yep.

8. I stay up too late and I hardly read anymore. So, assume that it will take me a month to read the next book I start: What should I be reading?

9. I find at night after I’ve tucked in the girls, I put on my headphones to listen to music quietly… and then loudly belt on the songs that come on. Remember the days of “Shhhh, the baby’s sleeping?” and now it’s more like, “If she can’t sleep through my rendition of Lisa Loeb’s ‘Stay’ then she needs to TOUGHEN UP!” They both manage to sleep through it and I satisfy my need to sing loudly. Somehow everyone’s a winner in this really bizarre anecdote.

10. We’ve been talking a lot about Meyers Briggs at work lately – we’re hiring in our department and most of us are quite similar in personality. So similar that we all fall around the top line of the grid (we call it Bingo – since it’s almost a straight line across). And maybe I’m wrong to put so much stock in it, but I find those descriptions to be tremendously accurate for most people. I’m an INFJ and rely a lot on my intuitive nature – probably a lot more than most people. And when I read that description, I agree with nearly every aspect of it. Do you know where you fall on the Meyers Briggs grid? Will you tell me so I may analyze you?