1.  ONE HUNDRED! WOO HOOOOOO!!

2.  Let’s just skip right over the incredibly long hiatus after #99 and keep it rolling.

3.  We’re not gonna pretend like we’re full force either, though, so this will be fast and furious.

4.  No, I’m not a fan of the series.

5.  Not that I have anything against the franchise, I just haven’t watched them.

6.  Call it Fast and Furious™, RFTM edition.

7.  Just kidding, don’t wanna get dinged with a fine.

8.  And that brings us to our random segment for today: ridiculously adorable animals guaranteed to lower your blood pressure.

9.  Baby hedgehogs. Seriously, google it.

10.  Snuggly kitties.

11.  Dogs. All the dogs. Big dogs, little dogs, young dogs, old and gray dogs, huge doggie nose boops. Basically all things dog.

12.  Baby elephants.

13.  Yes, it’s a heartbeat trend.

14.  But what about beautiful sunsets, Laura? Yes, yes, beautiful sunsets are also good for the blood pressure.

15.  Plus mountains, fields, lakes, oceans, woods, streams, and butterflies.

16.  Yeah, I said butterflies, there’s an abundance of those showing up for me at the moment.

17.  Guess I should add sitting in a giant overstuffed chair with a good cup of coffee to that list.

18.  🎼 These are a few of my fav-o-rite things!

19.  This week I grabbed lunch with my sister at an amazing Mediterranean deli. The food was delicious and MAN, they had an incredible gluten free bread.

20.  I know, I know. *Incredible* gluten free bread sounds a bit like the tooth fairy.

21.  Except IT’S REAL.

22.  Not the kind of real that looks like a desperate mama army-crawling across their kiddo’s floor at midnight, either.

23.  It’s honest to God, sink your teeth in yumminess.

24.  Sorry, guys, it’s been a while since I waxed poetic about bread. Phew.

25.  What else, what else.

26.  We’ve officially entered wtf will school supply shopping ever end season and it’s a doozy.

27.  I’m a bit stymied when I think about how many years I’ve rolled through this.

28.  There was my elementary, middle, and high school days. Then college with a bonus year for grad school.

29.  I guess that would have been the end of it but my big old Brad Brain went into education.

30.  Side note: Please tell me I’m not the only one who gets a Check out the big brain on Brad! reference.

31.  Add on another decade of back-to-school days with classroom supply runs galore.

32.  I had a few years off in there. I took a hiatus from teaching, then there were baby-toddler years when back to school shopping wasn’t a thing.

33.  And then? Then our kiddos boarded the Back To School train and it’s back in the saddle again.

34.  I feel like I’m pushing the boundary on an acceptable limit of quirky sayings but I can guarantee I won’t be up an extra hour editing tonight.

35.  Reader beware.

36.  You know what I’ve been thinking about a lot? Whether I would have come through the pandemic teaching.

37.  I had a few reasons I wasn’t interested in reentering the classroom once my kids were in middle school. A lot of that had to do with bullshit paperwork, intrusive state requirements, and an obnoxious entitlement my students’ parents brought to the table the last few years I taught.

38.  But I look at the past couple of years and think it’s a miracle we have any teachers left at all.

39.  Terrible pay, an unreasonable workload compounded by remote learning, health hazards in the workplace. We like to say “it’s a calling” but I think that allows us to justify not stepping up with better pay, vacation, sick days, and overall support for people tasked with educating our youth.

40.  That’s just bumping up against Covid, too. Add in banned books, regulated free speech, and laws scripting a revisionist history for the students and I have to wonder…who on earth is still willing to be a teacher?