the day care conference, part one: the good.

new york state requires all day care teachers to complete a certain amount of training throughout the year. which means we have to attend a few conferences a year. which means giving up half a saturday every now and again. which is a drag.

but, it's okay, because the state also requires all day care teachers to have a weekly salary the size of a shot glass (almost). seriously, the other day, i was watching a movie in which the two main characters' salaries were both more than my own. which is no big deal, accept...

...THIS MOVIE WAS MADE 30 YEARS AGO!!!

but, even that's alright. because i still got my mojo.

mojo was the main theme of our keynote speaker today. again, not kidding.

she was great, though. her name was gretchen kinnel-- a fantastic and funny speaker, and noted author on the topics of potty training and biting. and how to keep from biting yourself while your toddler is potty training. or maybe just those first two things.

gretchen invited a rather large room to talk about things amongst ourselves a few times during her speech. and to regain everyone's attention, she yodeled. which made me love her to bits and several pieces.

she also taught me a new word today. "downgehangt." which was a term (...german? dutch? sweedish? probably not japanese, i'm guessing) meant to describe people who always complained about everything and everyone around them.

like the ladies who cut in front of me at the bagel line. "urgh, this is ridiculous!" they said. "why should we have to wait in this line behind all these people in front of the coffee, when all we want is a bagel???" so, they just cut in front of everyone-- a posse of around eight of them.

i just wanted a bagel. i hate coffee. i wasn't doing backflips of joy to be waiting in line for it, but kind of thought it was the right thing to do. so, when they didn't wait-- these pack of downgehangt women-- i punched them. right in the face, each and every one of them. WHAMMO!

alright, well, no. i didn't do that at all (probably). didn't even want to (for the most part). but i did shoot them some dirty looks while rolling my eyes in their general direction. that oughta learn 'em.

in their defense, though, maybe there should have been two lines, i dunno. i mean, it was a big honking group of underpaid day care employees, they had there. i actually came up with a plan to disperse the crowd, but it sadly only affected the people in back of me. didn't really think that one through, completely.

but anyway, i think this was a good example of what gretchen was talking about. creating your own mojo. not being a victim of your own circumstances. "don't cope with your environment! rise above it!"

they didn't do that. instead, they took the low road. they weren't rising above their environment, they were choosing not to accept it. and they pissed a bunch of people off in the process. "we're better than these people waiting in line," they thought. wow, thanks, ladies. how very westchester of you.

rising above your situation? well, that was the woman in front of me. while we were waiting in line together, she took the time to tell me a story that made us both chuckle. i don't even remember what she said, to tell you the truth. it was just two strangers sharing a moment of laughter. we'll most likely never see each other again, but, there it was, y'know? a brief moment of fun where once there was only boredom.

gonna try to be that person more often. chat with a stranger. make someone chuckle just because it's fun. wait for my bagel. get my mojo workin'.


the five things i fell in love with today...

1) gretchen. and the hopes that she'll read this blog some day and will send me some of her world famous cookies.
2) the bagel was worth the wait. poppyseed. with too much butter.
3) i own a pittsburgh steeler shot glass even though i don't really drink alcohol.
4) i'm more than halfway done my movie challenge! it's been pretty darn cool!
5) the question gretchen left us with: "what might be within you that could blossom and be very self-fulfilling, but hasn't yet?"

song of the day...
"mojo pin" by jeff buckley

movie of the day...
"the doors"