Bow, curtsy, tap toes, wave, smile, nod. These are just some of the handshake alternatives that are enjoying their turn in the limelight. There are also peace signs, Spock signs, salutes, air high-fives. If you’re my middle school students, you might just take to greeting one another with a squirt of hand sanitizer. (Actually, don’t … [Read more…]
“You’re really writing a card for that?” “But, Miss. It was only a picture!” I’m lucky to receive gifts as a teacher. Of course, I have some favorite teacher gifts from over the years. But I treasure every time a student and their family thinks of me. Recently, it occurred to me that I’ve written … [Read more…]
Cue the confetti! She Picks Up Pennies, otherwise known as the little slice of cyberspace that you’re currently visiting, is a finalist for the 2017 Plutus Awards. Specifically, my blog was nominated in the best frugality blog category. Whaaaaaaat? I know. That was my exact thought when I first found out as well. Actually, I … [Read more…]
It was just before 11 am on the day of the total solar eclipse. A quick rap at the front door let me know that my dad arrived. He engineered a viewing party of sorts, offering to take turns holding HP and glancing outside, so I could experience the eclipse. It was, after all, a … [Read more…]
Last Thanksgiving, I spent the bulk of the afternoon darting in and out of the coat closet at my in-laws’ house. It was my first feature on Rockstar Finance, and I was absolutely mesmerized. Take a bite, catch up with a relative, check my phone. After three months of blogging talking to myself, people were actually … [Read more…]
Weekends are hard for me. Sundays in particular. No, I don’t dread going back to work the next day. The problem is that the weekends are a chance to slow down. Sometimes. And when I do slow do, I spend time catching up. Often times, I’ll read posts like “How to Pay Off $100K in … [Read more…]
Today marks the last day of my twenty-ninth year. Rather than spending my final weeks planning a skydiving adventure or jetting off to a tropical locale, I decided to see if I could make my idea of ordinary into something extraordinary. Every night before I went to bed, I chronicled some small moment that left … [Read more…]
Don’t fly in on a Sunday. Play in heavily trafficked areas. Always use a player card. Never use a player card. As soon as anyone heard we were dashing off to Sin City this past December, advice on how to beat the odds in Las Vegas bubbled over. Want the best odds of returning home … [Read more…]
To The Families Who Gave Teachers Gifts, I spent the day before winter break writing your children thank you notes that I am fairly confident you will never see. In fact, they’ve probably already been relinquished to the deep recesses of binders next to permission slips, school calendars, and progress reports or banished to the … [Read more…]