The book fair is done! All loose ends are tied up; everything is finished until next November, when I will be relating my book fair sob stories once again. For those of you who have asked WHY I do this to myself, over and over like one of those fifty-shades types of girls, well, I ask the same question of myself when I find myself photocopying, cutting, and sorting 420 draw forms, or answering “The posters are five dollars. Yes, that one is five dollars too. They are all five dollars” a thousand times, or handling all that warm, sweaty money. The answer is, of course, that my kids tell me that they are so excited I’m in the school doing the book fair, and when I walk down the halls I get random hugs from children, and the school librarian tells me how happy she is to be ordering more books for the learning and literacy program and the ESL students. I even got thank you cards made for me by a couple of students, which makes the memory of sorting through the reorder forms fade significantly.
This week is flying by; book fair, make up karate classes, and, of course, readjusting to regular life after vacation. Yesterday my girlfriend who was volunteering with me asked me to tell her all about our vacation, and I had that far-off feeling that I was on another planet some time ago, and now the memories are all that remain. I’m trying to keep that aloha feeling going, so without further adieu I give you…
Nicole’s Favourite Things, Aloha Edition
As always, my favourite things are just things I love and I think you might too. These posts are never sponsored, I received nothing for free, and I was not compensated by any companies to write this post.
Lulu Bands
Not to be confused with lululemon, these are essentially ponytail holders that don’t damage your hair and don’t leave those annoying ponytail bumps in your hair when you take out your ponytail.
as well as a set of aviators so I can pretend I’m actually in Top Gun. Can I just give a shout out to that flamboyant man? He gave me a totally mouth-turned-down frowny face every time I tried on a pair of glasses that didn’t suit me, shook his head, and said “Um, NO.” I kind of fell in love with him a little bit, especially when he told me that his “friend” was in town from Las Vegas, and they had some champagne on the beach watching the sunset. He also said, when I told him we were leaving soon, “Well, being in paradise doesn’t pay the bills, am I right?” Truth.
Coconut
We were on holidays! And so the freezer in our condo was kept well stocked with all sorts of frozen treats. I was feeling a bit sorry for myself as the boys ate sundaes and ice cream sandwiches, meanwhile the rice milk ice cream I had purchased for myself tasted exactly like sadness. Then I discovered So Delicious Coconut Milk products, and OMG people. OMG PEOPLE.
I used to think that I disliked coconut; it turns out I dislike artificial coconut flavour and also shredded coconut, the texture of which resembles old dried-out dental floss to me. GOD BLESS THE COCONUT. I use coconut milk in my cooking and baking, coconut oil, and now I am a coconut milk “non-dairy frozen dessert” convert. Speaking of coconut, the one thing I regretted from our last Maui trip was that I didn’t bring home any coconut scented lotion. “Really, you REGRET not buying a bottle of lotion?” my husband said, confused at my use of the word regret. Yes! I regretted it! So I made amends to myself:
Ah, it was a great trip. Now we are into March, my goodness, and it’s Friday! Which means wine time, also one of my favourite things.
Do you know what that’s called, when you say or write a word so much that it starts looking weird? “Semantic satiation.” I told JUST that thing to my kids last week and they sat there chanting “SEMANTIC SATIATION SEMANTIC SATIATION” until I thought I was going to lose my MIND.
I am – please note for if we ever hang out – very, very allergic to coconut.
I had no idea there was an actual term for this! Plan to start using immediately as this happens to me all the time.
I will never feed you coconut, I promise.
SEMANTIC SATIATION!
I even remember my very first instance of semantic satiation. It was when Ernie on Sesame Street kept saying the word closet, until I was convinced that the word meant nothing and he was having an attack of aphasia.
HOW DID I NOT KNOW about Lulu bands?
I love coconut in all its ways and forms. I am as we speak making a sweet potato red curry soup with coconut milk for my sick mother.
I’m supposed to run the book fair next year. I will sit at your feet and drink of your wisdom. Wait, that sounds gross. Oh well.
Come closer, dearie. I shall share all my wisdom with you. There are never enough moustache erasers.
the rice milk ice cream I had purchased for myself tasted exactly like sadness. — HAHAHAHA!
Was the man who was speaking about golf and dog breeds also getting a pedicure? I HOPE SO!
HE WAS. He was getting a mani-pedi. But not with polish or nail decals, sadly.
Semantic satiation!! A phrase for a thing that has bothered me all my life, but most especially since I started running the dayhome, because OMG SMALL CHILDREN AND THE REPEATING EVERYTHING.
I love getting pedicures but I almost never do. I have vowed that this summer, for sure. I need to start pulling myself together, here. I’m starting to look like a hobo.
Click. Wait, is that a word? It looks funny. So many consonants, not enough vowels..
“Tom, is click a word?”
“Of course it’s a word! Are you INSANE?”
“Is it a SLANG word? It looks funny…”
“Is this a hormone thing? Is it that time ALREADY?, what’s the correct answer here? What do you WANT me to tell you about CLICK?”
“Never mind. It just looks funny”.
Next time I can tell him it’s actually SEMANTIC SATIATION.
He will still think I am PMS-ing.
ALSO. Is that Hot Rod Red on your fabulous toes? I swear I have the EXACT same pedicure right now. Except yours is Hawaiian so not really.
It MIGHT be Hot Rod Red! It was an OPI shade, so maybe we are twinsies!!
I’ve been using coconut shampoo, coconut conditioner and coconut body wash lately so I’m sure I smell just like your finger. 😉
I think I might try your friend’s deodorant. I recently tried a different natural brand and I was a rather smelly lass for a week before I went back to my usual brand.
See, that’s the thing. I worried about having BO with using natural deodorant, and a very athletic friend told me she was using it and it worked, so I gingerly gave it a try, and IT IS AMAZING!!!
I am happy you didn’t have to eat sadness and you found happiness in a bag.
LisaDay
Maybe I need amazing deodorant.
I mean, not that I smell (I don’t think so? My kid says I do but he also doesn’t eat noodles so I don’t trust him) but the deodorant picture makes me smile. I should smell good, like lavender. when I smile at things on the Internet I want to have them.
Your favourite things are way more approachable and hilarious than Oprrrraaaaaah’s.