#EveryDayinMay - Ten (New) Slices of Life

Go check out Crystal's Ten by clicking above!

Every day is an opportunity for new experiences. Some good, some bad, some completely unbelievable. Today's Tuesday Ten is also a Slice of Life brought to you by one experience that made me realize how many new things happen to us in a day that go unnoticed. I wondered if I could come up with a list of ten new experiences today, to notice each moment that otherwise might slip by without celebration.

Ten Things I Did Today That I've Never Done Before

1. Ate a veggie sandwich at Schlotzsky's. Sure, this doesn't seem like a big deal, but hey -- it was new to me. Lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, cheddar cheese, a spicy ranch sauce, all on a deliciously toasted sourdough bun. Tasty.


2. Shared one of my Google Docs with a stranger. Proof I'm learning to play nice with others. I recently created a rather lengthy planning calendar for the upcoming school year, filled with literary events celebrated on a global level along with monthly deadlines for district technology and literary initiatives. Yesterday I noticed a tweet by someone looking for a calendar of literary events to use in their school next year and I thought, "Why not?" If my overly neurotic need to plan can be of some use to a fellow human, I'm happy to assist.


3. Used Skitch to screen capture and annotate an article. I've used Skitch before on images, but haven't played with it to highlight text, take notes, and summarize my learning. I did this today in a Discovery Education training, and when our instructors and a few other teachers noticed what I was doing, they tried it out also. It was fun to watch this spontaneous learning spark across the room.
   
   

   

   I think it turned out well!



4. Ate half a brownie. Now, I could be wrong. There may be some completely forgotten time in my past where, halfway into brownie consumption, I pushed that scrumptious little morsel of gooey chocolate aside and said, "Oh no, thanks. I couldn't. I'm just stuffed." But I have a feeling it hasn't happened before. When it comes to chocolate, I'm all in. Or I was. Today I have the wrapped remains of my half-eaten brownie sitting in my backpack to prove me wrong.


5. Used my phone to video a person using their iPad to demonstrate how an app works. Now, this app is probably one of the coolest things I've seen in the world of all things appy, so my nerdfest device-o-rama was definitely warranted. A Heart Cam app. Awesome. Sauce. You can listen to my obvious glee in the video!

  heart cam AR app demonstration  I'd like to point out that I wasn't the one that asked if that was his real heart. Just sayin.

6. Gave a dog Benadryl. Grimm seems to be suffering from wonky allergies. He gets big welts sometimes, which I believe are from bug bites. The vet suggested dosing him up with Benadryl, and although I'm not a fan of dosing any living thing up on anything, the poor guy is all itchy and bumpy and sad, so I gave in. For the first time in his little dog life, he actually spit something out. I tried again by dropping the pill into a handful of treats, which he happily gobbled up. By the time Uno and I got home from our errand, all his bumps were gone!


7. Oh, the errand. This has to be the most sketchy and least worthy of celebration in my list of newness. Uno's car was towed the other night when he unknowingly parked in a spot that required a visitor's permit while spending the night at a friend's apartment. I went with him tonight to pick up his car, and about $400 later he emerged with his car from the fortress of steel and security cameras that will forever be known to me as Car Jail (Carcatraz??).

   

   Watch what you say, yo.



8. While waiting in line behind the four people ahead of us at Car Jail, a tow truck from another company drove up and the driver parked and walked over to join us in line. He was an older man that looked as if he'd had a life punctuated with discomfort. His mannerisms and quiet observation of the scene around him made my writer's mind start wandering, so I took out my phone and started a short character sketch. I've never used my phone to take writing notes like this before (I make far too many typing errors with my phone! Kudos to peeps like Lauren Oliver, who appear to have the ability write entire novels using their phone!), but I'm glad I had it because this wasn't the type of place where I wanted to take a leisurely seat in the dirt, pull out my fountain pen, and start writing away in my moleskine journal!


9. Followed Uno in my car. I'm accustomed to chauffeuring my kids around town. I'm becoming accustomed to having them follow me places now that they drive, and we sometimes need to take separate cars when we're out and about. I am absolutely not accustomed to following one of my children as they speed down the highway like an actual grown up human. It's weird, people. It's a weird, weird life we live.


10. Looked through a collection of Uno's photography to select some pieces to frame and hang in the house. Okay, I've done this with artwork before. All throughout the boys' childhood, I framed and placed their art around the house. But this feels different. These are black and white photography pieces from his first photography class in college. And they are timeless and hauntingly beautiful and a message about the uncapturable energy of youth. I love them, and not simply because they are a part of him.

Above photos by Steven Lifsey, who
doesn't like sharing as much as I do.