It's A Perplexing Life

I've been watching It's A Wonderful Life about 1000 times lately and,even though I have seen it a few hundred times already, I've just noticed a few things about the movie that make no sense at all!  

1). When Uncle Billy is in the bank...
In this scene, we see Uncle Billy counting $8000.00 and filling out a deposit slip when he runs into Mr. Potter.  He has a newspaper in his hands that display the headline praising his nephew, Harry, for being a war hero. He walks up to Potter, gloating about his nephews accomplishments and then accidentally puts the $8000.00 inside the newspaper and gives the newspaper to Mr. Potter.  He goes to the teller to deposit the money but realizes he no longer has it.  
Making no sense at all, Uncle Billy then returns to the building and loan looking for the money and, when he can't find it there, he supposedly tears his house apart in an attempt to locate the missing money.  How does he not remember that he had counted the money at the bank and therefore, it cannot possibly be at the office or at home but somewhere at the bank.  

2). The kids had school on Christmas Eve day???...
According to the story line, Zuzu won a flower at school that day...and that day was Christmas Eve day. 

3). Zuzu catches a cold walking home from school...
Again, according to the story line, Zuzu won a flower at school that day and caught a cold because she walked home without zipping her jacket so that she wouldn't ruin the flower.  First of all, one cannot catch a cold that way.  But what really does not make sense is how fast she catches said cold.  We are supposed to believe that she left school completely healthy and arrived home minutes later with a cold because she did not zip up her coat???  Ummmm...nope. 

4). How does the teacher even know that Zuzu is sick???...
While George is home, the teacher (Mrs. Welsh) calls to check on Zuzu.  Since we are supposed to postulate that Zuzu got sick on her walk home from school, how is the teacher even aware that she is unwell?

4).  Mr. Welsh just happens to be at the same bar as George...on Christmas Eve...
Prior to the scene at the bar, George gets on the phone with the teacher and vituperates her for letting Zuzu walk home without her coat zipped up (and incidentally, the teacher could not have knowledge of the coat debacle unless she was walking home with them!). Naturally, the teacher becomes upset, prompting her husband to get on the line and threaten to harm George for treating his wife that way.  
Later on, after George gives his family a verbal tongue-lashing, he leaves home and goes to the local bar.  There, in an inconceivable coincidence,  he runs into the teacher's husband, Mr. Welsh, who then punches George in the face.  

5).  Your mouth's bleeding, George...
After getting punched by Mr. Wells, George's lip is bleeding.  He leaves the bar, drives drunk, and crashes into a tree.  He then gets out of the car and walks to a bridge where he is contemplating jumping into the water to commit suicide. Here, he meets his guardian angel who jumps into the water himself, forcing George to save him.  
After a sequence of events that gives George a look of what life would be like had he not been born, he returns to the bridge and begs to "live again."  Here, enters the policeman who exclaims "you okay George, your mouth is bleeding."  Really?  The jump in the water did not clean the blood off his lip?  

Despite these dubious scenes, the movie is great and one of my favorites.  

Why I Am Ready for Christmas Break

We have a late Christmas break this year.  While we don't start break until Thursday afternoon, we then do not have to be back to school until January 8th.  I think I will enjoy the start back time but truthfully, I am ready to be done RIGHT NOW!  


I love my job, I love what I do, and I love my students. But the never ending, "Ms Koeck......." lately is doing me in and I am ready to wave the white flag of defeat.  

This was the list today(and I must add that these things are said at the MOST random times).

"Ms. Koeck, look, I have my own hand sanitizer" (as a bag of mini hand sanitizers gets shoved in my face." 

"Ms Koeck, one time I went to Let's skate and I wiped out." 

"Ms. Koeck, I got this pen at Funspot" (as a bendable flower pen gets shoved so close to my face that I have to back up just to see it.)

"Ms Koeck, look what I can do." while balancing a backpack on top of the head.  

Which led to

"Ms Koeck, I can do this." balancing the lunch box on the head. 

"Ms Koeck, I need a paper."  To which I respond, "I'm sure if you would just wait 0.2 seconds the paper passer will put one on your desk."  (OK, I didn't say that...that is what I felt like saying).  

And, my personal favorite from last Friday...as we were cleaning out desks, "Ms. Koeck, I found a pretzel in my backpack."

Class----Ms. Koeck has changed her name!!!!!

Thunder and Lightning

After a majorly disappointing season last year where the Lightning didn't even make the playoffs, they are off to a "thunderous" start posting a 21-6-2 record, which puts them in first place in the Atlantic Division. 

They have racked up 44 points and have scored 110 goals while giving up only 74 which means a differential of 36.  The differential for the second place team is 17 and the third place goes all the way down to 3.  

So, yes, they are hot right now.  Last night, C.J., Zack, and I headed down to Tampa to see them hopefully extend their 3 game win streak.  They played the Winnipeg Jets who also have a great record at 17-8 with a goal differential of 16.  

It's safe to say that the game could not have gotten off to a worse start.  Winnipeg scored just a minute and a half into the game, the Lightning had 0 shots in the first 8 minutes of the game, and they also did not win a single face off in the 7 attempts during that time period.  

But after some shift changes, they hit their groove and started becoming the aggressive players we are used to seeing this year. Goals were traded throughout the game ending in a tie and overtime (although I'm at a loss as to understand a goalie interference call that negated a Lightning goal and resulted in a couple rounds of "refs you suck" cheers - basically a Lightning players was close to the goalie and then got pushed from behind by a Winnipeg player which made him fall into the goalie.  How is that the Lightning player's fault???)

Anyway, 30 some seconds into overtime Brayden Point scored on a breakaway and the Lightning pulled out the win.  Terrible reffing aside, it was a fun game to watch.  

I miss my camera.  I have to see about replacing the internal battery.  

A Birthday

In all the years I have been teaching, I don't recall ever receiving a gift from my students.  This year, however, I was completely overwhelmed as one kid after another came through the door holding a present.  

Of course, I loved the homemade cards just as much as the gifts. 

Sad story...one of my students and his mother made the cupcakes but we could not have them because they were homemade and we can only give out store bought food.  He was obviously upset and started to cry.  So I took one and gave one to him and we ate them together.  Then I took about 10 of them to hand out to the teachers.  

I felt very loved. 💗

HHN House Reviews Cont.

The Fallen

I wrote a little about the Fallen in this blog post in September.

The atmosphere in this house was intense.  And, as if there wasn't enough to look at around you, there are creatures flying around above you...which was plain old cool.   

American Horror Story

My only complaint about this house is that due to consistently long wait times, I could only get through it one time.  I think it would have been a house I would have really liked. 

Scarecrow: The Reaping

This is another house that also had long wait times so I only got through it about 3 times. I would probably have ended up loving it had I been able to go through it more.  I mean, who wouldn't love walking through a scary corn maze with scarecrows attacking you from every angle?

Six houses down...three to go.  

Macy's Parade

I wanted to post these pictures of the Macy's Christmas Parade at Universal Studios.  I was happy with how they turned out since I had to use my phone to take the pictures.  I NEED to get a working camera soon...one of the reasons my blog has been suffering from lack of posts.  

Coming soon...more HHN house reviews.

House Reviews

Again this year an express pass for Halloween Horror Nights was not a priority in my so called budget.  To clarify, an express pass enables you to pretty much skip the long wait times to go through the houses.  It is a separate line that moves along much faster so your wait times end up being between 0-5 minutes compared to the 10-60+ wait in the regular lines.  C.J. get it every year but since I get in free, I make it work without the express.  

This means, however, that I don't get through a lot of houses which makes it impossible to rate them.  I went through Hive and Blumhouse the most (too many times to count) because they were at the back of the park and the lines were generally short.  

 *the review will be in no particular order*.

Ash vs Evil Dead

Before going through the house, I watched about a half dozen episodes of Ash vs Evil Dead so I did not know a lot about what to expect but knew just enough to understand what was going on.  I only got through this house twice but it was enough for me.

Dead Waters

The swamp sunken steamboat facade was the definitely the best thing about this house. 

But after the facade, the house kind of disappoints.  It's pretty dark inside and, in my opinion, never really gives you the full feeling of a voodoo ridden swamp.  I went through this house a handful of time and it wasn't bad...but it wasn't great either.  

Saw

This was my first house this year and in all honesty, I have only seen the first movie so many of the rooms did not make any sense to me.  Again, I only went through this house twice and it was enough for me.  


And that's three of the nine... 

Cat Bites are No Joke

We've had our little Sadie for a little over a month now.  She is a great cat with a sweet temperament - 99% of the time.  

She enjoys lying around on soft surfaces, looking outside windows, and is especially attached to Zack.  Her greatest joy in life is eating.  

Her least favorite thing would be Ollie.  Truthfully, if Ollie were a normal dog, I think she would be fine.  But I think I've already mentioned that Ollie is certain everyone and everything loves him as much as he loves them and, for him, there is no such thing as a  personal space bubble.  

Monday morning I was carrying Sadie to my room so I could leave for work when Ollie spotted her in my arms and started jumping up on me to get to her.  Before I had time to do anything, Sadie freaked out and bit me on my hand.  

OMG!!!  PAIN!!!  I literally could do nothing for about 10 minutes.  Every time I tried to move I felt dizzy and nauseated and broke out in a cold sweat.  While most of the immediate pain subsided, the residual pain lasted all day long and my hand started swelling up.  By Tuesday morning I was positive something was not right.  My hand looked terrible.  

Thankfully, our school receptionist is also an EMT and she took one look at it and told me to get the doctor ASAP.  

You can see the redness in the picture but it doesn't really show the amount of swelling that I had.  

Anyway, it turns out that 80% of cat bites end up becoming infected.  Because of the amount of bacteria that is in their mouths, cat bites are 8 times more likely to become infected than dog bites.  I received a tetanus shot, an antibiotic, and some pain pills with instructions that if it got worse, I needed to go back to the ER for IV antibiotics.  This is the case for about 50% of the people treated. 

I am happy to report that my hand was so much better today - so no IV for me.  Yay!   

And that is my cat bite story.  They are serious stuff and not to be taken lightly.  

Bill and Ted Has Come to an End

After 26 years, Bill S Preston, Esquire and Ted "Theodore" Logan (aka the Wyld Stallyons) have performed their final show at Universal's Halloween Horror Nights (cue the sobbing).  

Even though I have only been able to see the last three years, it has hit me hard.  It is hard for me to comprehend that the show has come to an end and it's impossible for me to imagine Halloween Horror Nights without it. Truthfully, right now, I am not even excited about HHN next year.  

No real reason was given for cancelling the show which is packed full of pop-culture parody and no replacement has been announced yet.  

To quote Ted, "This is most non-triumphant." 


A video showing a sample of all 27 years.  

One of the best parts of the show this year (*sound only*)

Highlights of this year's show.  

Saturday Interrupted

Saturdays have become quite routine for me and I have come to love them.  I usually work from 10-12 on Saturdays so getting up at 9:15 and rushing out of the house is not always appreciated but, once work is over, its home for a quick walk with the dog, a small something to eat, and then a dramatic flop into bed for a long afternoon nap.  When I wake up, I take Ollie for another walk, put a pizza in the oven, and watch a movie while working on stuff for school.  

Last week on Saturday, in the middle of my afternoon snooze, I got a call that the oldest was on his way to the emergency room with a kidney stone. I decided to forego the nap and went to the hospital to sit with him.  

He was at Orlando Regional Medical Center in downtown Orlando. On the positive, the doctors and nurses were very nice and the personal treatment he received was good.  On the neg. I was pretty clueless as to why, with a 67 room ER department, he was put on a stretcher in the hallway.  

After a CT scan revealed the stone was small and should cause no problems for him, we were able to leave.  The entire 4 hours was spent in the hallway.  

This was C.J.'s second stone and with each one he was fortunate enough to not suffer prolonged pain and was able to pass them without medical intervention.  Jon has also already had one and, judging from the fact that their dad is prone to get stones, it probably will not be their last.  

The Bane(s) of my Driving Existence

I never had road rage until I moved to Orlando but I swear, driving in this city (and really, the whole state) is enough to make even the mildest of mild mannered people looooooose it!  

Here are a few of my driving pet peeves...and, unfortunately, I experience these on an almost daily basis. 

1.  My number 1 pet peeve is without a single doubt, people who ride the right lane when they are not passing anyone.  And - HELLO people- it is against the law.  I have no problem honking at these people as I pass them on the right.  This, however, embarrasses my kids greatly.  

2. People who see a cop on the side of the road and decide that slowing down to 10+ miles under the speed limit is good idea.  I guess they think they will be issued a speeding ticket for going the speed limit.  

3. People who do/will NOT turn right on a red light.  And I'm not talking about the lights that have 'no turn on red' signs present. I wish I was kidding. UGH.

4. When a light turns green and a driver has like three car spaces between them and the car in front of them because, I am guessing, they don't know which pedal is the accelerator!  In this city where lights last fooorevvver, I say to myself, "three more cars could have gotten through this light."  

5. People who SLOW DOWN when they see a green light.  And OMG it happens all the time.  Again, lights last fooorevvver and I get behind these people that slow down to 30 MPH in a 45 MPH zone. Than, after they are through the light, they speed back up and I am usually left to sit through the a fore mentioned red light that takes fooorevvver.  

6. People who move over and ride a right turn exit only lane in a traffic jam to get a head of a grand total of 5 or 6 cars and then need to get back in the correct lane.  I call them 'the entitled ones'.  

7. Finally, people who weave in and out of traffic on the interstate.  That's how accidents happen people.  And Orlando has multi accidents every single day. 

Well...that about covers it.  Makes my blood boil.  

Our New Family Member

A few weeks ago, when we were visiting my sister in Daytona Beach, a cat walked up to Zack and me as we got out of our car.  We both bent down to pet it and, instead of running away, it could not get close enough to us.  Originally, I thought it was a stray and thought about taking it home but, after talking to my sister, we found out that the cat "belonged" to the man in the apartment upstairs.  

I say "belonged" because she actually was his roommate's cat but the roommate left and, for some reason, did not take her along.  

Yesterday, we went to Daytona again and the cat was again outside.  And, according to my sister, she had been outside for a whole week now not being taken care of.  My sister had taken over feeding her and making sure she had milk and water to drink.  She also had had something similar to scabies that went away after she started to be fed regularly.  

Anyway, long story short, we decided to take her home and love her and give her a good home.  She is a very nice cat.  She is not shy at all and loves to be held and pet.  She purrs constantly.  The only problem is..Ollie.  

Ollie LOVES all living creatures and thinks that they love him too.  He has no regard for personal space and will be overbearing in his offer of friendship so, for now, we are keeping the cat in Zack's room and will occasionally put Ollie in my room with the door shut so she feels safe to explore the rest of the apartment.  

So...meet Sadie

Happened Last Night

It was pouring last night...I almost backed out of Halloween Horror Nights.  But I am sooooo glad I didn't.  It turned out to be a very special night. 

First of all, we went through what is now my very favorite house ever - The Fallen.

The video does not accurately depict the number of things going on around you or what an amazing set it was.  

The theme is somewhat of  a good vs. evil battle in an ornate cathedral complete with scareactors flying overhead, which was just plain cool.  

Then, after last night's Bill and Ted show, C.J. and I were able to get in the line to get our pictures taken with them.  They only have enough time between shows to accommodate 10 people so we were more than fortunate to be 2 of the 10.  

                          Bill on my right...Ted on my left.

It was an awesome experience...even if we were "up close and personal" with arms around each other and they were both a sweaty mess (ha ha).