Not enough time in a day

Which is why I am always up so damn late. Down to the wire in college, as the semester ends in two short weeks.

I have spent the last few nights up working on my project for multicultural comm. Ya know, the English culture project. I should say that it was hard to wrap it up. The more i learned, the more i wanted to learn. I just found it all so interesting. And i can't help but dream about some day visiting. We decided (ok i decided, bc i took charge....my grade must be an A) that we would incorporate the whole tea tradition. I know i will not do it justice. But, I researched and figure i can pull it off to some degree. So, after telling our class all about the English culture, we will end with serving tea and scones and some very expensive cookie things I found at the grocery store that are supposedly popular over there and seem to go well with the tea thing. And i wound up buying two different kinds of teas bc silly me figured the tea made by Twinings, called English breakfast tea should surely work. Only to get home and read that when "having your own English tea" you should use Earl Gray or Darjeeling. I must admit, I would certainly love to serve Darjeeling bc while i have no idea what it might taste like or where to find it, i think the name sounds incredible. Therefore, it must be good, right? So, i settled with Earl Gray. And I initially set out to make my own scones...yes, you read that right..make my own. For a class of say, 20 ppl. Well, while doing some grocery shopping the past two days (yeah different stores, crazy, i know) i thought i would check their bakery sections. Low and behold, trusty ol walmart sells scones in their bakery. So, Helen, don't read this...I am serving Walmart scones with my tea. Shhhhh. LOL. Those things are 2.00 for 3 of them...however, they are fairly large in size and given the nature of the setting, i think we could cut them at least in half. Otherwise, we are looking at spending around 16.00 on scones for a school project. I am almost certain i am not even going to like them. Making them would certainly be cheaper...but i am not betty crocker and well, i would have opted for the recipe i found in my search that sounds like it would be rather bland tasting and boring. Buying them just saves so much time. ANd really, my partner offered to buy all that stuff seems how i have done most of the work. Bless her heart. lol. I have bought the tea and those one expensive cookies, though. So, yeah, it probably won't be anything like the real deal in England. But, im lucky in that none of the ppl in my class are from England and have probably never had tea in England (oh I hope)...so they will be ok. I do plan to talk about the whole thing and admit that the whole tea thing, while fascinating, sounds too darn fancy for this simpleton. lol. I will share a secret....on the rare occasion that I consume tea...it goes like this. I put some water in a coffee cup (what's the diff...lol) and pop it in the microwave for a min or so and then take it out, throw a tea bag in there and bounce it around (ok, steep) for a min. (not much longer, probably less than a min) bc i like my tea very weak. tinted water, if you will. When gma or others have tea for more than one...well, us hillbillies put water in the kettle,put on stove, wait for wistle. In the meantime, throw a tea bag in the cup so that when the water is ready, you pour it in the cup and voila, tea. Skip the whole teapot part. I do recall the first time i had to utilize a tea pot. WE were at my friend's gma's house. And I shouldn't dare say this was just perhaps, 2 yrs ago. Her gma was dying from cancer and was bedridden. My mom and friend's mom had to go somewhere. I was staying to sit with gma. Well, as they were leaving, i was asked to make tea for gma. Ha. She used a teapot. I got it all wrong. i was sooo darn confused. Why do we use that extra step of the teapot? And yes, friends, i am going to attempt to do up some tea thursday, English style. Be afraid.

So, need I mention that I do not own a teapot or tea kettle, for that matter. Nor do i own any fine China....Helen, do you really use fine China when you serve tea? LOL. Tell me you don't. ;)
So, i have to hunt said items down. And I know that Helen is headed to the US, but if you are reading this and can respond before thursday, would it really hurt if i used my "coffee cup" and saucer in place of the tea cup? I have cute little cups with saucers...they are as fancy as i get. Made by Corelle...white with an ivy. lol. Anyone know? I mean, i won't be graded on whether or not i used the proper pieces...but i don't want to be way off base. Here is a pic of the set of dishes i have. Do you think those cups/saucers would be ok? This is only being used for display purposes, bc i am seriously not serving my entire class from real dishes. They get styrofoam when the presentation has ended...lol.

I still have an English paper to type up that is due tomorrow night. Of course, beings that it is almost 230 am, it will already be wednesday when ppl read this. so, tonight, the paper is due. I have no idea where my time goes. Today was my day "off". Off from school, that is. You would think i could've accomplished quite a bit. Wrong. It was my day to volunteer in Makenneh's class. Of course, I must back up here and say that monday night, on my way out the door for my speech class, I slipped and fell, landing on my knee. It was excruciating pain. Jeremy had to help me up and i was crying like a baby. Well, I ended up going to class anyway bc it was speech day and if you miss it, don't usually get to make it up. I had called my instructor and he said i could stay home. he said he didn't think we would get thru all the speeched,but if we did, i might not be able to make it up, bc of time. So, i sucked it up and hobbled in, only 30 mins late. Add to this, i am getting sick. Soooo, back to volunteer day. I had thought about not going bc i am coughing so hard i pee my pants, my knee is throbbing and all the sitting on the floor, getting up, sitting in tiny mini chairs, getting up, etc was going to kill. Not to mention, wearing jeans really hurts...and that's mostly all i own. So, blah. But, the teachers have this nice way of guilting parents into this. They refer to the volunteer day as the child's "special day". Great. So, on your special day, you get to be line leader (leader of the pack in the hallway), sit at the special table for lunch/snack, do the calender, etc. Well, by using this terminology...special day, the child then feels that if mom or dad doesn't come to volunteer on said day, that the world is going to end. i do not want my child to be one of those children whose parents miss out on everything bc they have something better to do. I hate going into this classroom. I am not gonna lie. It just doesn't feel as welcoming as her classroom last year. The teacher seems like she would rather claw her eyes out with a spoon than be in the classroom, one of the aides that is sometimes there just rubs me the wrong way and then, nobody ever says what is really expected of you on this volunteer day. It's just a very awkward feeling. I mean, am i "volunteering" to help the teacher and do things for her or is it to be with my child on her special day and experience the classroom setting with her? And i say "volunteering" in "" bc well, i didn't volunteer to do this. Each month, they send home a calendar with the day you are to volunteer. (Your child's special day). So, the whole thing kinda gets at me. Last year, I would go up to her class on occasion. I would help out, hang out, whatever. But last year, her teachers made me feel very welcomed, they seemed to have great control over things and knew what they were doing. The teacher and aide could handle the classroom alone. I get the feeling that this year's teacher feels they need that one extra adult every day. That means, that at some points, there are upwards of 5 adults in this one tiny classroom. They have one lady (don't know who she is) that comes in every day to help with things. Anyway, all this ranting to say that, when i broke the news to Makenneh that i probably wouldn't go today, she burst out in the most heartbreaking tears. "But mommy, who will come to my special day?" That's when this whole thing really started to unnerve me. I was so upset that they use this underhanded guilt tactic. tHey had to know that the kids would react this way if mom or dad couldn't come. So, i assured her that i would be there. What else was i to do. I didn't want her sitting in class all day feeling bad bc her mommy wasn't there on her special day. Damn them. So, i had no time for a shower and i surely needed one. But, got myself and Sebastian ready and headed to her classroom. I should say, hobbled. WE had lunch with her...Sebastian was a monster. During circle/story time, he wouldn't sit still and was a huge disruption. So, i finally decided it was time to go. I whispered to makenneh that i had to go because sebastian was being disruptive. She was fine with this, kiss kiss, love you. I scooped a screaming, crying sebastian up and off we went. He cried the entire way home. On this one day off, i needed to work on my pile of homework, get groceries and catch up on laundry. However, my time was drastically cut and instead, I got some groceries (meaning i will have to go back to get rest) and didn't get anything else done...bc i only have a small window to do this in while she is in school. By the time she gets home, it's dinner, family time, baths, whatever. And then, i have to wait until they are sleeping to tackle homework..it's too chaotic, loud and otherwise disturbing to do much of anything while they are up. So, here I am, at 230am, having just finished up some homework (none of it is complete yet, i might add, but have to call it quits at some point) and now im ready to drop. AGain. The speech that i was supposed to give monday night gave me such fits that i was up all night sunday trying to get it down. I just couldn't for the life of me. Finally, at 4am, i decided that i would skip my math class to work on it in hopes that putting it down and going back to it later would help. So, i have no idea if we have a test tomorrow (er, today) or not. And if we do, well im screwed to be blunt. I just have to hope that it comes back to me as i sit with the test in front of me. But, again, i could sit up all night working on my math homework or i could get some much needed rest. I have to keep going. I can't stop now. But, it is getting nerve racking.

Well, that ends my novel. I have run out of energy to type, anyway. time to get some sleep. Even if only for a few hours. I really need to get up early and hit the books...math book, especially. Wish me luck! and if you know where i can get some more energy and superpower, let me know.