Some of my students dropped by my office the other day to turn in their papers. (Good! More to grade!) I asked what they'd be doing over the weekend, and they said they were going to redecorate their dorm rooms. I joked, "Would you like a cow?"
I have more than a hundred cows of various kinds lurking around in my office. There are cow stuffed animals, cow magnets, cow pencils, cow picture frames . . . you get the idea (partly). All of the cows are gifts from other people, a legacy of a bad pun that got out of hand. (Long ago, in high school, I'd called calculus "Cow Class". That joke was the basis for my first cow gift, and they've reproduced themselves exponentially since then, you might say).
So when I asked, "Would you like a cow?', it was a reflection of my own office motif. I didn't expect my students to answer, "Sure!". But they did, so (remembering my 100 Thing Challenge), I grabbed a cute terra cotta cow and handed it over.
Here's a more complete update on the Challenge, which is going slowly. (The plan, such as it is, is to try to give away 100 things sitting around our home to people who could actually use those things. I guess office things count, too).
I have more than a hundred cows of various kinds lurking around in my office. There are cow stuffed animals, cow magnets, cow pencils, cow picture frames . . . you get the idea (partly). All of the cows are gifts from other people, a legacy of a bad pun that got out of hand. (Long ago, in high school, I'd called calculus "Cow Class". That joke was the basis for my first cow gift, and they've reproduced themselves exponentially since then, you might say).
So when I asked, "Would you like a cow?', it was a reflection of my own office motif. I didn't expect my students to answer, "Sure!". But they did, so (remembering my 100 Thing Challenge), I grabbed a cute terra cotta cow and handed it over.
Here's a more complete update on the Challenge, which is going slowly. (The plan, such as it is, is to try to give away 100 things sitting around our home to people who could actually use those things. I guess office things count, too).
- Train-shaped birthday candle holders to my little buddy Catherine and her baby brother Tony.
- Math book to the Harbaugh Club.
- Aloe plant, in a spare pot, to the Harbaugh Club.
- Six canning jars to a friend who wants to can olives.
- Cat Condo to Melissa.
- A free turkey we got from the grocery store, to a family at church who told our pastor they weren't going to be able to get a turkey this year.
- Cow figurine to my students Jill and Emily.
- Latin vocabulary cards to a different Emily.
- Your Money or Your Life to Justin
Only 91 to go!
Do you have a Freecycle group in your community? The advantage that has over donating stuff to, say, the Goodwill is that people will come to pick up small lots of things and even single items from you. An example of how I got rid of some things I didn't want anymore that were taking up valuable space: Someone posted on our Freecycle chain recently that he wanted old bath towels (he runs a boarding kennel) and I answered the call--I had too many old towels to ever be able to use them all as rags here at home.
ReplyDeleteGood idea. I did sign up for Freecycle once, but I wasn't computer-savvy enough to figure out how to sort through the long lists of gives and wants without spending gobs of time on it. I have been meaning to try again, though. This will probably be one of my New Year's goals! -- MM
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