This is what I at least pretend I am reading...

Well, The Music Man is finally over.

In case you are confused or haven't heard, Arsenal Tech puts on a Faculty/Staff musical every year, partly so the students can see the teachers in a whole new light and see a side of the teachers they rarely get to see, and partly so teachers can get to know each other (after all, Tech is a pretty big campus) and interact on a more casual level...

The past three weeks have been pretty intense- it's not easy to put a show together in that amount of time, especially when we all have so many other commitments (some people were only able to make it to a few rehearsals...). But we pulled it off (it helps to have enough dedicated people that are willing to rehearse even on snow days...). It has been a lot of fun- I love getting to meet new people (Tech is big enough that there are still people I haven't met, even after teaching here for two years). We got a lot of compliments, some who even said this has been Tech's best faculty musical ever!

...Still, it is nice to have a little time to myself again.

So, a couple of weeks ago, Emily and Steven posted photos of their nightstands, in part to show what they are reading. To start, here is a bird's eye view of my nightstand:




Here is a better front view of the same thing:


First, we have my CD player, easily dominating my little nightstand. Unlike most of my family members, I love to listen to music when I go to sleep. I was able to learn how to go to sleep with silence on my mission, but I definitely prefer soothing, instrumental music to take me away to the land of dreams... (just in front of the CD player, on top of the spiral notebooks, is the cover of my current CD selection, Secret Garden's album White Stones.)

In front of the CD player, on the left side of the photos, are two bottles of Aromatherapy Pillow Mists from Bath and Body Works (easily one of my favorite stores- it is practically a miracle if I can go through one of those stores without buying anything...). The black bottle is Black Chamomile; the dark blue bottle is Lavender Vanilla. Both are very relaxing scents that help calm the senses as I lay in bed...

The two spiral notebooks are my dream journals (the top one is the current one, almost full; the bottom one is for when I fill up the top one). This is something I started in high school, when my psychology teacher had us keep one as part of an assignment. I liked the idea so much, I have kept one ever since. It really can be interesting (sometimes bizarre) to go back and read what you have dreamed. Sadly, it seems like lately I am either too tired to remember my dreams, or I don't have time to write them down when I wake up and I forget them by the time I do have a few minutes. Alas.

Also on top of the journals, next to the CD cover, is my phone (a nice, jungle-green Sony-Ericsson Walkman :), being charged while I sleep. Sometimes, I play a little Bejeweled before drifting off.



Finally, we come to the right side of the nightstand. Here, we have my bedside lamp, a bottle of B&BW lotion (because I hate to have dry hands/legs/feet- this one is a bottle of Pearberry, one of my favorite scents!), and my Libro de Mormon (my Spanish Book of Mormon). This is sitting here because I had intended to try reading a little in it each night before going to bed. You can see by the way it is sitting UNDER the lotion and sticky notes how successful I have been in that venture. Still, I keep hoping to strengthen my resolve and actually do it, so there it remains, by my bedside.

So there you go. Not much in the way of actual reading, I suppose (usually, those books end up on the back of the toilet, but I thought I'd spare you a photo of that for now...) However, since Emily's actual challenge was to post a photo of my nightstand, that is what you get. Perhaps in a little while, I will actually post photos of what I am trying to read...

Of course, since few seem to read this blog anyway, we'll just have to see what I feel like I have time to do...

Signing off.