Tis the season...to wear a gas mask!

Okay, it officially has begun. The annual stink that is Monitor Sugar during sugar beet harvest. I wanted to barf on the way to my masters class tonight. So, to help all you people who read this that don't live in Bay City, Michigan - I will give you tips for surviving sugar beet season should you ever visit.

1. The obvious - find an alternative route. Even if it means going 10 miles out of your way, it is worth it to avoid the assault to your senses.

2. Become a master at driving with one hand while plugging your nose with the other and breathing thru your mouth.

3. Try to find a happy place and pretend that you don't smell it. (HA)

4. Carry air freshener with you in the car and spray it at any sign of the nasty stench.

5. Grin and bear it, this too shall pass!

Personally, I am in favor of the #1&2 suggestions. I will be seeking alternative routes to SVSU in the near future!

Things I will never do again!

1. Sign up for a vacation package over the phone - they call and constantly harass me about it now. Literally 5 times a day. Sometimes every 20 mintues!

2. Blow insulation into my own house - seriously it's a HUGE mess, left my hand sore for 3 days (from chopping it up), and most of all it does NOT promote brotherly love --I really wanted to do my brother bodily harm by the end of that Saturday.

3. Drive 16 hours in a car to Kansas and 16 hours back over one very short Memorial Weekend- seriously, that was way too long of a trip. From now on any young group trip over 8 hours, I am flying to it.

4. Ride in the back of a bumpy school bus on a field trip - seriously, teachers should have permanent dibs on the front seat!

5. Put an offer on a house after only seeing it once - looking back, I think I jumped too quickly, was too excited. There are things I love about my little house but let me emphasize the word LITTLE. The bathroom needs at least 5 more square feet. I am sick of hitting my arms on the shower when I am trying to do my hair!

6. Take my niece to library story hour - tried that once but since I am not grandma, she threw a tantrum and embarrassed me greatly in a place that I used to work.

7. Climb a 300+ stair tower to the top of the Bunker Hill monument - the pain I suffered from muscle cramps for the next week wasn't worth the crummy view at the top. Take my advice, if you are ever in Boston avoid it like the plague!

8. Wear hairpins when going through airport security - I tell you, life as a flyer got much better when I discovered other options. Hairpins and security are a bad mix, without them it saves the embarrassment of them searching you (which I loathe!).

9. Start reading a new book 1 hour before I go to bed - I can never put a new book down until I know what is going to happen. Even when it's a bad book, I have to know what happens. I have to read when I have lots of free time on my hands or I don't have to be up early the next morning.

10. Fall so far behind on grading papers that I am up until 1 and then back up again at 5 the night before report cards are due - yeah, I really got that bad this semester. NEVER AGAIN. I won't recommend doing 28 parent teacher conferences on 4 hours of sleep.