Creatures of Habit, part 2

I found another one.  This woman is in my Early Reading Development class, so I see her once a week. She has established a routine that I find maddening but also intriguing.  Every week she brings fast food to class.  Sounds simple, right?  Nothing special.  Except for a few details: class starts at 4:15, and teachers contract hours end at 4.  We all have to drive and park at a building away from school.  She is ALWAYS in class by the time I get there.  Each week she brings something different!

Week 1: Subway
Week 2: Quiznos
Week 3: McDonalds
Week 4: Cosi
Week 5: Chipotle

I am jealous of her magical ability to teleport herself to various food places and to class in the time it takes me to make sure all the kids are on the bus.

Bottom line - the one thing I look forward to most when I walk into the room each Tuesday afternoon is to check out the weekly cuisine-in-a-bag!

The thrill of Week 1

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Fantasy Football has returned!! I really wish everyone understood the thrill of this pastime.  Over the past few years, I've managed to suck several friends into the FF vortex.  Some of them never even cared about football.  Now you can be sure to find my roommate and I glued to espn every Sunday.  You don't have to have a team you grew up loving - although I will still try to convince you to choose the Eagles - because your fantasy team gives you individual players to watch.  I get super intense when it comes to FF, but technically all you need is to be able to read, do some single digit math, and care about winning.  I'm 1-0, and it is going to be a great season.

San Diego

I had the opportunity to visit San Diego last week for the first time.  Amazing place.  The weather was between 65 and 75 degrees the entire time.  Barely a cloud in the sky.  It was the most beautiful weather I've even seen.  I wonder how low people's electric bills are?  They must never need to turn on the heat or the A/C.  It's also probably the best location to be homeless.  Food for thought.

Creatures of Habit

Why are we such creatures of habit?  Sure, I have a certain routine in the morning, I like to take the same route when I run, and I usually buy the same brands at the grocery store.  Actually, I buy whatever brand is on sale, but that's because my habit is being cheap.

What I find interesting is that I often cross paths with the same people, in their same routines.  There is a woman who lives in my condo building who I often see outside in the evenings.  She sits in the same spot near the loading dock.  She smokes a cigarette and talks on her cell phone.  While she sits, there is a 20 oz bottle of diet coke next to her.  I notice these small details just by walking by.  It would feel weird to walk by and see her drinking Sprite, or not there at all.  This woman - who I don't even know - and her habits are part of my routine. 

A-Rod

I think that if A-Rod took performance enhancing drugs, the Yankees should give the Phillies the World Series title for 2009.  It's only fair.

We are NOT kangaroos

I saw something really bizarre while I was running today.  There were two women running with a dog.  They looked super tall, so I took a closer look.  They were wearing these strange boots on their feet.  The bottom of each sole had what looked like a moon-shaped piece of plastic that was concave with the ground.  They looked riDICulous.  I've never seen something like that before.

After my run, I did an extensive Google search for "weird running shoes" until I found them.

Apparently it's a fad in Switzerland and in Manila to run in these "shoes" called Kangoo Jumps.  And then - because this makes so much sense - they list the price at PhP14,000.  That is the Phillipine Peso.  That converts to $321, in case you are racing out the door to go buy some.

Please, tell me that someone else has seen these before!

Odditites of the English language

I teach special education students how to read.  The "code" of our language is something that kids can learn, and they can recognize certain sounds within words.  But, it is things like this that drive me crazy:

Tangerine = tangerEEN
Nectarine = nectarEEN
Clementine = clementINE

WHY, when these three words end in the same pattern of letters, and when they all are types of oranges, do we pronounce one of them differently?!?

Temperature control

A few days ago, I saw a pregnant woman walking down the street.  While I was sweating and squinting in the sun, she looked perfectly comfortable.  Oh, it was 95 degrees.  And she was wearing a SWEATER.

What is up with that??

Praying to the Ritz?

When I was in Paris recently, I stayed near the Opera, also near the Place Vendome.  If you know anything about this area, you know that there are a bunch of expensive stores and hotels in this square - Cartier, Marc Jacob, Tiffany, etc. - and they all face a giant copper column with Napoleon at the top. 

We walked past Place Vendome several times, and it always had the most bizarre thing going on.  People stand in the open area in the middle of the square, in no apparent hurry to go anywhere.  Some read, some listen to music, talk on their phone, eat, or sell candles.  The strange thing is this: everyone, I mean EVERYONE, stands in a grid formation equidistant from each other.  Even if they happen to start a conversation with someone nearby, they awkwardly maintain the 10 foot space between each other.  They only stand on these larger square stones in the ground.  And they all face the same direction.  The kicker is this: it's not like they are standing and admiring a view or watching a performance.  Almost everyone in the square stands facing the Ritz, which is undergoing construction. 

Is it just me, or is this inexplicable?

That really just happened

I have been making a conscious effort lately to walk around with my head up.  Literally.  Texting, looking at pictures, and playing 94s while I walk around has become a bad habit.  With my track record I surely will knock something over or walk into a wall.  It can drain my phone battery.  The biggest issue though, is what I could be missing!! 

It is a terrible feeling to be missing something, and so my solution is to be more observant.  It is amazing the things that my eyes can stumble upon.  I've decided to keep track of some of the more interesting things I see.  I'm curious if anyone else notices people doing ridiculous things, or if I am the only one that finds those things out of the ordinary.  Let's find out.