ANOTHER Standard NotHannah Catchup List

Honestly, it's starting to feel like maybe I should just post only lists every two or three weeks, because that's how I'm rocking the blog lately.  I'm awesome. What can I say?

What I SHOULD say is that I'm sorry I've been out of commission for so long.  NOT that you're hanging on by your fingernails, clinging to a shred of hope that some day, some how, I will once again grace you with my bloggeriffic fantasticness.  But I have totally ignored my interweb friends for a few weeks now.  I haven't visited blogs, I haven't responded to emails, I haven't done anything but peeped up on a few FB posts and that, my friends, is not cool.  (If it makes anybody feel better, I've ignored many of my "hey, I can actually give you a hug without flying across the country and/or world" friends, too.  Have I mentioned I'm awesome?)  Anywho, to all of you whom I've neglected lately, I'm sorry.  Things are straightened out now and I am slowly crawling out of my cave of self-interest.  DANG.  It sure is bright out here.

Let the list commence:

1. I done made me a photography website.  In the professional photographer world, this is theoretically how one drums up business, while also offering clients a place where they can view a gallery of their session.  From a NotHannah standpoint, it's a responsibility that takes away from this blog, in that every time I sit down at the computer, I'm editing pictures, tweaking the site, or pining over new equipment.  (Okay, I will admit to also being sucked into a new FB game.  Gah.  Gardens of Time is a wicked, awful, beautiful time-vacuum.)  If you are so inclined, head on over to the site.  http://www.hrayphotography.com/  
2. I have been alternating between my feelings about the death of Osama bin Laden.  In a departure from many progressive friends, who are in a place of "we should all love one another and not be violent," I am genuinely happy that the man is dead.  HOWEVER, I do not feel it germane to be bouncing around the streets with glee about it.  HOWEVER, I understand the (mostly) young people who are doing it, if only because their entire lives have been spent in the shadow of a bogeyman who has been removed from the collective consciousness, so yay.  HOWEVER, I'm not all down with demands to see the body, which seems to be coming primarily from a group of folks I now call deathers.  (I'm pretty sure that at some point in time our president is going to have to prove that he is, in fact, alive.  Or human.)  I'm not down with that mainly because it strikes me as further proof that reality television is rotting our brains.
3. I received a notice that I could now pull the money from my Teacher Retirement System account.  It's a nice chunk of change, and I'll put it to good use, but it's rather weird to be closing that door officially.  Part of it is a sense of, "Oh, shozzbot, I have NO retirement."  Part of it is a sense of, "I really enjoyed the kid part of teaching."  On teacher appreciation day, two of my sweet babies thanked me.  It really meant a lot to me and made me thankful for the technology that allows me to keep up with former students.
4. This weekend, while walking with the family out on The Land, my brother Heath found a muddy, crumpled piece of what appeared to be a hymnal.  One of the hymns was "Were You There?"  It dawned on us that it was refuse left behind by the killing winds that swept through the South the week before.  We found bits of roofing paper, a shredded California map.  At a friend's house, I found the top of a doll's head.  My friend's contractor found a high school yearbook page.  Finding these pieces of life, snatched up and flung far away, is sobering and awful and freaky...and, of course, maddeningly interesting to a writer.  There's a story racing around my head that I think will have to be let out soon.  
5. I took up running again, which has apparently tickled the humidity gods PINK, because it has gotten hotter and more humid than May has a right to be.  It's hard to do ANYTHING, much less run for forty-five minutes every day, but I'm trying to force myself to do it, because while I've lost five pounds, I need to lose more and I don't feel very healthy lately.
6. It could be all the chocolate chip cookies I've eaten today.  Possibly.
7. I finished the bathroom!  (Actually, I finished it months ago, but I don't think I've shown you yet.) Ther are still touch ups I want to do, but it looks MUCH better.  

1. 
   
   
2. Yes, I know this should be "8."  But honestly, Blogger is on such crack that I can't figure out what the hell it wants me to do in order to insert a picture.  It makes me insane.
3. My garden is shot all the way to hell and back.  I have planted very, very little and what I DO have is fairly crispy.  I'm hoping to get some stuff in this week, though.  Really. 
4. On top of...
5. Y'all, this disjointed list is breaking my face.
6. We had our IEP meeting for next year.  Jeffrey's IQ was 143.  1.4.3.  Good heavens.  And while that's all great and everything, the boy still can't write legibly.  Last week was field day, during which I talked to another mother who had had virtually the same experience with her little boy this year.  Neither of us were very excited to find this connection.  Whheeee!  (When is school over, please?  Seriously.  I want it over NOW.)
7. I have replaced the sad, worn out office chair with my big exercise ball.  I don't know where I got this idea, but can I just say "Yay!??"  It is forcing me to have good posture, my legs and back aren't as sore from all the editing and writing, and I can even get a little exercise in.  RIGHT NOW I'm bouncing on the ball.  Exercising.  AND typing.  Yahooooooo!
8. Ahem.
9. I made cookies today.  Lime and white chocolate chip and regular chocolate chip.  I realize these are not healthy, per se.  Or any se, really.  Especially when you forgo lunch and eat cookies instead.  Cooookkkiiiieees.

Hope all of you are well.  Miss you.  Mean it.