Austin's Lesbo BBQ

I'm having a moment with my computer box....I'm shipping it out tomorrow...and I will be without it for 5 to 7 days*...it's getting the damn optical drive fixed...FINALLY. I haven't been able to insert a CD into my pricey (and still fairly new) computer since July. But, of course, the first thing they do when they go to do computer box surgery is clear off the hard drive, so, behold...5 months later...I've successfully backed up my data. Go me! No procrastination here...

I'm imagining that things will NOT go smoothly...because, well, they never do. It's been hypothesized, perhaps even here in this blog, that I may very well possess Powder-like qualities...basically, everything electronic that I touch putters and fizzles well before it's reasonable "death" date...Although, I've never healed a wounded animal with my touch alone, I HAVE picked up my cat while she was hacking up a hairball and placed her outside...solved the problem in my book...ANYWAY...I will say, sometimes it's through theft, or physical destruction that the device passes on...still, lots of the times it's just due to electronic weirdness.

So, I'll be forced to, yet once again, to live computer-free for a few days...really, it's for the best...

Maybe I can use this time to focus on other things! I'm not sure what...oh...maybe, my semi-employment? Or...the impending Christmas holidays? Or my New Year's trip to Memphis (yay, tiny!)...or where my next "move" is going to be made...I'm not really talking about a physical move this time...although, I've been fantasizing about joinig the Peace Corps for the past 6 years, I think I'm stuck in Austin for the moment...

And, I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I've been tutoring expelled high school kids twice a week...for about a month or so...I've actually really been enjoying this...in fact, this is the first time I can EVER remember enjoying being in a classroom (outside of Latin, huzzah classical nerdiness!)...and I think it's because I generally know all the answers...but, one of the major things that I've doubted in myself during this new endeavor has been my overall, *cough*, maturity...

Take today, for example...every morning, teacher asks the students if they know of any news for the day...this morning, the main news story dealt with the mauling of a 76-year-old woman by a pack of ravenous dogs...teacher brings up the topic then looks around the classroom...waiting patiently for one of the students to fill in the details of the story...she occasionally glances towards me as well...and, if nobody else can fill in the blanks, THEN she asks me if I know...

I think she can usually tell if I know what she's getting at...I get pretty antsy...my foot starts tapping and I get this unmistakable smirk when I have something to say...so, after a minute or so of waiting for the 10th graders to answer, she pointed at me...

Teacher: "Do YOU know what I'm talking about, Mel-a-rific?**

Me: "Yeah! I do! A 76-year-old grandma was eaten by a pack of wild dogs!" In less than half a second, Teacher shot me a sideways look and I quickly scrambled and re-stated, "Um, I mean, she wasn't really eaten...but, an elderly woman was fatally mauled by her neighbor's six dogs...it was horribly tragic..."

On the upside, the classroom is usually full of no more than 8 kids, so I only got a few confused looks...

Hey Kids! I'm an A-dult! A...D...U...L...T! Adult! Wooooo!

So, I don't know...I can't decide if it's scary or not that the county is allowing me to play a part in the education of children..I swear, my intentions are based in sincerity..it's just that, I don't know, I have a tendency to take things lightly even when I recognize their significance...I guess it's more important that I know when to be serious and when it's ok to goof off...but, as long as I can remember, I've always danced on that very thin line...

Many a year I've been waiting for God to throw that lighting bolt and strike me down...but, it hasn't happened yet...perhaps, if it this did occur, it would reverse my electronics curse, and, in its place, it would grant me the power to predict the future...THAT would be cool...

*maybe it's not going to be fixed after all...maybe it's going to a special camp that caters to laptop computers during their transitions from "girls to women"...ok...I know that comment was a little out there...but, it came to mind when I was on the phone with the tech help lady and I just had to share it.

**I gain more street-cred when I go by Mel-a-rific...my real name is quite trivial.