The Rantings of an Indentured Servant

The Thumb and Thimble

2010-02-18T11:28:00.002-06:00

Well, Chastity and I have started a business called The Thumb and Thimble. We are making 18th and 19th century clothing for living history. So far we are at least breaking even, which is cool. =) Check us out if you ever need some reproduction clothing.

We do stays, shifts, petticoats, corsets, crinolines, bustles, coats, breeches, trousers, ... pretty much anything you would need except for hats and shoes (at least for now.)

I'm getting Married... and other stuff

2008-03-16T10:12:00.003-05:00

Well, the first part is pretty self explanatory yes? I am getting married to the Marine =) We're having a May wedding and invites are going out or I'm personally delivering them this week. I am very happy and very excited about this.

I am also very, very busy. Weddings are not easy to prepare. However, things are going much better than expected and we are actually on track! Amazing. Now, let's just hope I don't go bridezilla on anyone.

New bed set and things...

2008-02-13T19:07:00.004-06:00

Well, my new bedset got delivered today. Yay!

I'm trying to put my room back together into some semblance of order. I do love the set though.

As for other things in life...

It's a little bit complicated (but then life is never really simple.) Well, Ktreva would be happy to know that shortly after new year's the sailor and I split (mostly his choice to break, but I understood the reasons and so it was on relatively good terms... much better than my last break as most of you know.)

I am currently with a wonderful person who is a gentleman and a scholar and I shall refer to as "The Marine" (mainly because he is exactly that, although he will be out next January.) I am very happy with him. Actually, I believe this is it. I've never been quite so sure of anything before. I would not be surprised if in the future I became Mrs. Marine to be honest. I know this is probably a statement that is going to get me called an idiot many times... I even realize how stupid I sound saying it.

But nevertheless, there it is. Life is falling into place piece by piece and I've finally found the piece to fit this part of my life. It's such a good feeling.

I am truly content with things.

Stupid meme

2008-02-03T20:10:00.000-06:00

(x)Rocky Horror Picture Show(x) Grease(x)Pirates of the Caribbean(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest() Boondock Saints(x) Fight Club(x) Starsky and Hutch(x) Neverending Story(x) Blazing Saddles( ) Universal Soldier( ) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events( ) Along Came Polly(x) Deep Impact(x) KingPin(x) Never Been Kissed(x) Meet The Parents(x) Meet the Fockers() Eight Crazy Nights(x) Joe Dirt(x) KING KONGTotal so far: 15
(x) A Cinderella Story(x) The Terminal(x) The Lizzie McGuire Movie() Passport to Paris(x) Dumb & Dumber(x) Dumber & Dumberer(x) Final Destination(x) Final Destination 2(x) Final Destination 3(x) Halloween(x) The Ring() The Ring 2() Surviving X-MAS(x) FlubberTotal so far: 27
() Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle(x) Practical Magic(x) Chicago(x) Ghost Ship() From Hell(x) Hellboy(x) Secret Window(x) I Am Sam(x) The Whole Nine Yards() The Whole Ten YardsTotal so far: 34
(x) The Day After Tomorrow(x) Child's Play(x) Seed of Chucky(x) Bride of Chucky(x) Ten Things I Hate About You() Just Married(x) Gothika(x) Nightmare on Elm Street(x) Sixteen Candles(x) Remember the Titans(x) Coach Carter(x) The Grudge() The Grudge 2(x) The Mask(x) Son Of The MaskTotal so far: 47
(x) Bad Boys(x) Bad Boys 2(x) Joy Ride(x) Lucky Number Slevin(x) Ocean's Eleven(x) Ocean's Twelve(x) Bourne Identity(x) Bourne Supremecy() Lone Star(x) Bedazzled() Predator I() Predator II() The Fog(x) Ice Age() Ice Age 2: The Meltdown(x) Curious GeorgeTotal so far: 59
(x) Independence Day(x) Cujo() A Bronx Tale(x) Darkness Falls(x) Christine(x) ET(x) Children of the Corn(x) My Bosses Daughter(x) Maid in Manhattan(x) War of the Worlds(x) Rush Hour(x) Rush Hour 2Total so far: 70
() Best Bet(x) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days(x) She's All That() Calendar Girls() Sideways(x) Mars Attacks!() Event Horizon(x) Ever After(x) Wizard of Oz(x) Forrest Gump(x) Big Trouble in Little China(x) The Terminator(x) The Terminator 2(x) The Terminator 3Total so far: 80
(x) X-Men(x) X2(x) X-3(x) Spider-Man(x) Spider-Man 2(x) Sky High(x) Jeepers Creepers() Jeepers Creepers 2(x) Catch Me If You Can(x) The Little Mermaid(x) Freaky Friday(x) Reign of Fire() The Skulls (x) Cruel Intentions(x) Cruel Intentions 2(x) The Hot Chick(x) Shrek(x) Shrek 2(x) Shrek 3Total so far: 97
() Swimfan(x) Miracle on 34th street(x) Old School(x) The Notebook(x) K-Pax(x) Kippendorf's Tribe(x) A Walk to Remember() Ice Castles() Boogeyman(x) The 40-year-old-virginTotal so far: 104
(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom(x) Indiana Jones and the Last CrusadeTotal so far: 110 (I’m actually beating Contagion at this point…)
(x) Baseketball(x) Hostel() Waiting for Guffman(x) House of 1000 Corpses(x) Devils Rejects(x) Elf(x) Highlander(x) Mothman Prophecies(x) American History X(x) ThreeTotal so Far: 119
() The Jacket() Kung Fu Hustle(x) Shaolin Soccer() Night Watch(x) Monsters Inc.(x) Titanic(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail() Shaun Of the Dead() WillardTotal so far: 123
() High Tension(x) Club Dread(x) Hulk(x) Dawn Of the Dead(x) Hook(x) Chronicle Of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe(x) 28 days later(x) Orgazmo(x) Phantasm( x) WaterworldTotal so far: 132 (are high numbers bad?)
(x) Kill Bill vol 1(x) Kill Bill vol 2(x) Mortal Kombat (It’s Grau’s fault for this one!)() Wolf Creek(x) Kingdom of Heaven(x) The Hills Have Eyes() I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman() The Last House on the Left() Re-Animator(x) Army of DarknessTotal so far: 138
(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi(x) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage (I know it as The Ewok Adventure)(x) Ewoks The Battle For EndorTotal so far: 146
(x) The Matrix(x) The Matrix Reloaded(x) The Matrix Revolutions() Animatrix(x) Evil Dead(x) Evil Dead 2() Team America: World Police(x) Red Dragon(x) Silence of the Lambs(x) Hannibal

Total: 154

I was way too lazy to space them at the moment... but I beat my blog daddy by four... bwahahah

Grown up things....

2008-02-03T19:59:00.000-06:00

Well, I went out today on a mission: to buy a bookshelf.

I own quite the number of novels, reference works, picture books, etc... Part of being an English major I guess (and English teacher!). I was also going to check out some beds and such. I've been sleeping on a futon since I got home. Now, I got a new futon mattress that helped increase the comfort level, but a futon is a futon.

I returned home the proud owner of a brand new (on sale) bedroom set. Complete with a classic Queen-sized Cherry Sleigh Bed, Dressor and Mirror, and 5 drawer chest. Don't forget the amazing real pillow top mattress and boxspring.

It felt almost like when I bought my car. lol. I was thinking to myself, wow... this is such a grown up purchase. I'm spending a lot of money. I know it's an investment. I can take this set with me to my future home. It came with things like warranties. That's good.

Yet, at the same time I was thinking to myself: wow... this is such a grown up purchase. Am I ready to really be a grown up? I'm doing okay at it so far, right? I have a career, I make my car payments, I pay my bills, I take care of my own needs... I actually even take care of other people's needs. That's rather grown up. Am I doing this alright? It's not like you can make the dean's list at being grown up really... no report cards that come in the mail telling you how you are doing at life.

I just hope I'm not going to blow it. I want to do this life right. It's the only one I've got.

22 annuals and other things...

2008-01-25T16:24:00.000-06:00

So... I recently turned 22 years old. Last Friday was the actual day of my doom to be precise.

You know, it actually does feel a little bit different when I sit down and think, yes. I am 22. I have been of age to consume adult beverages for a year now. I have pretty much nothing else to look forward to. There are no real "coming of age" years headed my way anytime soon.

All that is left is flat out life friends. And you know what? It's not that bad I guess.

My job is going well, life in general is going well, I really couldn't ask for more.

Well, except for maybe fewer students per class. That would be soooo sweet! *sigh* oh, well...

Eerie fortune cookies

2008-01-15T21:34:00.000-06:00

The General and I have long been claiming that essentially we are really the same person. We're not sure how this happened, or even why. The fact is that aside from our biological sex and one nut allergy (his, not mine...(wait a minute... out of the gutter kids!)) we really do have a buttload in common.

Today, for lunch we went to a lovely little hole in the wall chinese buffet. Now, I delicately dogged my honey chicken and rice as The General tentatively checked unidentified foods for the possible presence of any nut product. After both eating our fill, the server brought our check and fortune cookies by the table.

They say it is bad luck for you to pick your own fortune. I have a few problems with this because even if you are the person handing out the fortune cookies you are still basically deciding which one will be yours by delegating them to everyone else. Especially when there are only two of you at lunch... whichever one you do not pick for the other person you will have, in a roundabout way, picked for yourself.

Anyhow, The General grabs one and I take the other. We crack them open and would you believe it? I read mine out loud and he just starts laughing. What's so funny? It wasn't that bad of a fortune, right? Something about success and yeah, yeah, we all know to add "in bed." Really, you could add any prepositional phrase to the end of a fortune cookie to make it funny. For example, if a fortune is "You will come into great amounts of wealth" you could just as easily say "in the fridge" as you could say in bed. You sickies just decided to be perverted enough to choose in bed because of your dubious morals and base sense of humor. I know what's up.

Well, to get to the point... lo, and behold, The General and I had exactly the same fortune on our small little strips of paper. The interesting thing was that our lucky numbers and "learn Chinese" portions happened to be different. Thus, I am submitting this into evidence as further proof of our being the same person, minus the aforementioned two items. And now the lucky numbers and learn Chinese portion of our fortunes.

D&D is back baby!

2008-01-15T21:22:00.000-06:00

Well, to help me get out of my recent funk (it happens sometimes *shrug*) The General has decided to DM a campaign. Sunday was our first gathering.

Needless to say, man have I missed gaming! Granted, as of right now this is only a every other Sunday occurance. Enough to basically get a fix and hold us over 'til next time. But for now that is enough. I happen to be running a female half-elf lawful good Paladin named Aly who is rocking it out as an aspirant of the Knights of the Road in a kingdom where Elves pretty much are hated as much French people are in the United States... yea, I live dangerously.

There should be many grand (and hilarious) adventures to come.

And the carousel of life still spins

2008-01-12T10:55:00.000-06:00

Well, finals are here, term papers have been turned in (not yet graded, but at least we are done with the process), and my personal life has had better moments.

If there is one thing that I've learned in my near 22 years on this planet we call Earth, it is this: Life waits on no one. It is like at the carnival, when you are on the carousel. You are riding up and down on your little sparkle mount, when right in the middle of the ride something awful happens: your horse stops moving. What do you do? You can't just yell down to the Carny running the ride, "Excuse me sir! This horse is stuck. Could you please stop the ride so I can get onto a different one!" The Carny would simply laugh at you, if he even bothered to respond at all. He would just sit at the controls and keep the ride moving.

Life is much the same. It doesn't matter how bad things get or how much money you have... She does not discriminate by gender, race, or ethnicity. She does not hesitate for us to collect ourselves. She simply continues on, oblivious to the fact that we have not.

It's humbling, really. The human race, being as egocentric as we are, tends to believe that Life should pause for us, grieve with us, take mercy on us... But She is cold and turns a deaf ear to our pleas as she passes us by, the beautiful visage of one who has never worried or loved; smiled or cried.

Here we are, the stains of tears, the smile lines, the broken hearts, and a broken horse. She has left us with nothing to do but to finish the ride... because no matter the reason our horse has stalled, the carousel of life still spins.

Moving on up...

2007-12-21T20:53:00.001-06:00

Well, I had my second dance lesson tonight. Apparently I'm doing very well. My instructor wants me to move into the bronze program. She said I'm a natural and by getting into the program we'll be able to speed up my training. I'm pretty excited. She still has to speak with the owner of the studio to make sure it's okay to do that, since it's not standard protocol, but she doesn't think he'll have a problem with it. If he approves, then I'll have to test out of bronze 1 around the end of January.

It also means a financial committment, but I love dancing and would be really stoked if I was good enough to go into amateur competition ballroom. We'll see how things go.

Buddha, hole punch, and blow pop...

2007-12-21T20:19:00.000-06:00

Well, yesterday was the last day of school before winter break. And I actually got some presents from my students.

Well, I guess they were presents... I sort of look at them more as replacements, but I'll take what I can get at this point in my career.

I walked into my room and was promptly instructed by the General "do not sit in your chair." After giving him one of my more famous "yea, okay, whatever" looks, I pulled out my chair. On it was a neatly wrapped box with a tag that said "To Miss Virtue." Now I'm faced with a dilemma.

Hmm... do I open it now, before Christmas? Do I wait? If I wait, then I can't say thank you... and I like opening presents... open it now. (I never said it was a big dilemma, okay?)

Inside I found a small, skinny buddha candle set. I was moved. The General sees my gift and says, "Buddha?"

"Well, there's a story behind it."

Enter flashback: approximately two weeks ago...

Alison and John were horsing around during passing period and carried it into my room. Alison tried to push John and lost her balance... her elbow hit a tall, skinny Buddha statue that I had on my desk, knocking it off balance. (Now, I'm not Buddhist, and have the statue there for purely aesthetic purposes...but I do think it's interesting that I can keep a statue of Buddha or whichever other non-christian God that I want to in my classroom, but the idea of having a cross or something of that nature is worth a lawsuit...)

Anyway...upon her elbow connecting she then spun to see what she had hit, pushing the already teetering Buddha to the ground in a shattering of still unidentified material. I got it at Target, okay? It was probably some weird amalgamation of plastic and body parts.

It didn't really bother me that this happened. It was, after all, a four dollar Buddha statue there for looks. But she was extremely worried some sort of disciplinary action might have been taken on her. She kept repeating "I'll get you a new one Miss Virtue, I'm so sorry..." I told her to sit down and chill and put buddha's head in the trash can please.

And she really did. The gift was a Buddha of the same physical proportions and appearance (aside from the fact this one was sitting, not standing), missing only the lotus flower to be an exact replacement. I sort of like this one better, though, because it came with yummy smelling ginger candles. I still thought it was very sweet for her to go through all that trouble.

Now, moving on to my second gift of the day... a hole punch. Now, this gift was from a member of the male teenage species, therefore it was unwrapped and delivered not by surprise chairmail, but by removal from backpack with a "here Miss Virtue... it's for Christmas."

Equally touching... Flashback to the 2nd week of school...

Jeff broke his ID and needed to punch a hole in it for it to stay on his lanyard. He asked to borrow my hole punch. So I let him. Jeff is a good kid and I knew he wasn't going to steal it to hole punch somebody's nose or something. When lo, and behold... Jeff brings me back the hole punch in four different pieces. It couldn't take the strain of the ID and just fell apart.

My third gift was a blow pop. Joe brought in suckers for the class (the only student to bring a treat in for the holiday's... and he's jehovah's witness. Does that make any sense? lol.)

So, I'd say it wasn't a bad year all things considered... At least they thought enough of me to get me something.

Hmmm... food for thought.

2007-12-19T21:29:00.000-06:00

My blog mama, Ktreva, turned me to this in regard to my previous post about pirates... maybe I should convert?

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Pirate regalia mandatory!

Looking up...

2007-12-19T18:18:00.000-06:00

Well, I just got done paying bills for this month and I have to say... things are looking up. My debt is slowly but surely going away. It's such a nice feeling to be seeing the light and almost out of the tunnel. After next month I'll have even more stuff paid off and that money can then be diverted to paying more off of my car and student loans. I can actually pay twice the minimum payments on stuff! lol.

God has truly blessed my life and I am so thankful for that. He has given me a good family, good friends, a good job, good church, and a good man to boot. When things start to look down, I just remind myself of that and it makes everything else that worries me seem insignificant.

I can rely on Him, and keep him my focus and then I know everything will turn out for the best.

I always wanted to be a pirate...

2007-12-19T16:20:00.001-06:00

As a child, I watched Treasure Island, Peter Pan, and as an older child, read comics like Meridian, I always wanted to be a pirate. Pirates have always held some sort of inexplicable draw for me. Oh, to have been alive during the great age of piracy on the seven seas!

Well, I'm sitting here in Beef-a-Roo piggybacking onto their wireless network, and decided, hey I have 30 minutes before I need to be heading anywhere... why not blog ? Thereby fulfilling my goal of becoming a real life pirate... just not quite in the way I would have imagined.

As for what I ate: classic roast beef, med. fry, and baked potato with butter., butter, and extra butter (pirate's have healthy appetites okay?)... and a med. mountain dew to wash it down. Sadly, rum is not available for pillage or purchase at the local Beef-a-Roo. I determined MD would be an acceptable alternative.

Well, avast and shiver me timbers... I've some mates to pick up before the tide rises.

YAY! I didn't blow Contagion's Speakers!

2007-12-18T20:23:00.000-06:00

Well, good news everyone... that's right! I didn't blow Contagion's speakers =)

To elaborate...

During Contagion's company x-mas party, I was babysitting Clone. We had a lovely night of SuperCow and other amazing big fish games. That place has the most addicting games I've ever played in my life. Well, anyway, the evening was a success and Clone and I also played some Return to the Bakery and this puzzle game (zada or something to that effect. I can't remember the name, but he was verrry good at it.) Well, I get a call from Contagion the next day asking me what we did to his speakers.

I was like, wha? Clone and I had turned them up and then turned them down, and finally I muted them because as much fun as SuperCow is I am only human and after about an hour of the boingy boing barking from the game I was sorta getting a headache. And here's Clone going "louder, Virtue, where's the sound?" lol.

Now, I'm thinking to myself, oh my gosh... Clone and I blew the speakers when he turned it up loud that one time. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, Contagion and Ktreva are going to hate me and never ask me to babysit ever again! AHHAHAHA! (Or something to that effect.)

Turns out the speaker cable came unplugged from the back of the computer. HAhaha. *Whew* So I guess this means we're still friends and I may be invited back over on friendly terms again in my lifetime.

Thinking back, I wonder if I might've accidentally dislodged the plug while looking for a place to plug my laptop in on the power strip or something... it's possible I guess. But the point remains that we didn't blow the speakers and all is well in speaker land once more.

Back in the Swing

2007-12-18T17:11:00.000-06:00

Well, I signed back up for dance lessons today (ballroom that is.) I have really missed it and am looking forward to having that release again. The holiday party is Thursday, and my first lesson is also Thurs. with a group lesson right afterwards. I had to get new shoes b/c my old ones were destroyed in the last flood we had, but they should be here soon and then I'll be all set =)

Also, I had a surprise voicemail from my sailor today after school. Usually I don't get to hear from him until around midnight my time, since Guam is 16hrs ahead of us. He called at 6am his time, and then again at around 9. He was in between doing stuff I guess and just wanted to call me to say that he misses me, so it was nice to hear from him unexpectedly (granted, it's nice to hear from him all of the time). He's been so busy lately getting all of his work done that we haven't always been able to talk as much as I'd like to, but that is the nature of the beast I guess. I'm hoping I'll be able to go visit him sometime this summer, because if not I don't know when I'll get to see him next.

Everything will work out though. We're both staying positive about things and that's helping. It's nice to be in a relationship where we don't argue all of the time and are actually pretty happy with each other. lol.

So, I know this is nerdy, but we have "WoW" dates (world of warcraft) where we get online to wow at the same time and complete quests together. haha. But it's nice to be able to share some sort of experience I guess. We can't exactly go to the movies together or something, so this is the next best thing for now. Anyway... life is looking up and I'm happy. It's nice.

Arisen from the dead

2007-12-16T21:25:00.000-06:00

Well, I have decided that to stay sane I must indeed start posting blogs once again.

And on a regular basis. Ha!

As I have not posted since, oh, like last year I guess I should give a brief my life for the past year update... Here goes:

Well, I graduated college in Feb 07 and now have my own classroom teaching sophomore English in Rockford. Also, the fiance called it off. So yea... I took it hard at the time, but got over it and moved on, realizing in the long run it was better off that way. It usually is. Was I bitter for awhile? Sure... Am I thankful for it now. Yes. I learned a lot about myself in the time I was alone. One of the most important things being that you are never really alone. I had my family and my friends, and most importantly, I had God.

That is what pulled me through. I healed and life continued. Actually, much better than I had even planned. I had a chance meeting (and by chance, I mean CHANCE) with the man who would eventually become my current significant other and I'm glad for the way things turned out. He will be referred to as V, my sailor. (For obvious reasons, but he does happen to be in the navy, hence the sailor part.) V the sailor is currently in Guam on a three year tour aboard his ship which makes some aspects of the relationship difficult, but we are both staying positive about the whole thing. I love him very much. He is a great person, and granted has his faults (who doesn't) but we forgive each other our faults and love each other for them and/or in spite of them. It works and we are happy together. (And bonus points for us not fighting all the time =) hooray! and I thought I was disfunctional or something due to previous relationships!)

School is nice, and I have made a very good friend of my fellow first year English teacher there who I will refer to as the General. Let's just say he was (un)fortunate enough to have his parents name him after a very famous military figure. Good thing he doesn't teach history! lol. He has been a Godsend to my sanity and we keep each other laughing it off. He has an adorable son and his wife is pretty cool too (he's a second career teacher, so a bit older than me) so I hang out with them whenever I can.

Other than that, I got a saucy new laptop for Christmas and I am loving it (got to open it early since it's for use at my job.) I am staying at home for right now, but looking to move out early next year to end of next year with a friend of mine. We are searching for a decently priced place in this hellish city of high rent/low sq footage. It's panning out slowly but surely.

Sigh. Well, I've got to get back to grading term papers...

But I will return with hilarious stories and the like soon. I realized as I was looking at my blog name that it was very insightful of me to name this blog "the Rantings of an Indentured Servant." I can tell you, teaching sure feels like it could possibly be worse than indentured servitude sometimes... but at least equal to it on any day =) But I love it and wouldn't change a thing.

Goodnight all.

In town for the weekend

2006-08-12T02:24:00.000-05:00

So I am home... made it here about 5:30ish tonight. Spent some time with the man and my parents.

I brought back a ton of grading to do (laundry as well...but more grading) and I'm even trying to read a novel that's not a novel I'm teaching this term. Haha! I'm actually finally getting comfortable in my classroom. I'm getting a desk shortly and I am starting my first novel to teach next week. It's pretty exciting. I had a breakthrough this morning with my repeat 9A English class. They actually sat down, read the assignment, and almost all of them answered the assigned questions! On a Friday no less! It was like heaven was shining down on me.

I have to admit, student teaching is very draining. Teachers put in some of the longest days in any profession I think. English teachers especially. Even if I just check student's writing to make sure that they did it, without grading the content, it takes a couple hours just for one assignment. Every one page that I assign to a student is multiplied and becomes 165 pages that I have to read. That's a lot. Add into that the fact that I read everything they read... I work outside of school at leasttwo-three extra hours a night. That's like working 12 hour days. Ouch!

I'm excited though, because tomorrow I get to babysit Clone! He's super cute and usually very well behaved. We always have a fun time watching Shrek or Monster's Inc. and I'm a firm believer that parents sometimes need some mom and dad time without the kids hanging around. Keeps 'em sane... :-)

Alright... I'm off to forage for a blanket for bed... stupid college making me take all of my stuff back to school and then forget to bring my comforter back for bed this weekend. Gosh.

it's been a long time

2006-08-07T20:19:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone!

I know it's been a long long time since I've last posted. My new resolution is to post once a week just to keep up to date on things. Some new things that have changed since my last post include:

1) I am currently in Rock Island, student teaching and almost done with school.

2) I am currently engaged! woo hoo! (so if any of you know anything about planning a wedding, please let me know... it's in about a year and a half to two years, so when do I start doing everything?)

3) Well, that's about it I guess... but it just seemed better to have a three, you know?

So yeah. I started student teaching last week and it's pretty insane. Lots of cool things and lots of crazy things, but overall I'm loving it. (This is good I guess, since it's what I want to do for a career.)

I'm also very excited about the whole engagement thing. It sucks being two hours away from home now though. I'm coming home this weekend to babysit though, so I can at least see the man on friday night. I'm babysitting for Contagion and Ktreva.... I know I have to be there at 10am, but I forgot what time they said they were going to be back... oh well. I wonder how many times we can watch Shrek before they get back...? lol.

Anyhow... I've got some grading to finish and weekly journals to organize, but I'll update again soon.

IRELAND IS FOR SURE!

2006-04-13T21:19:00.000-05:00

I am officially accepted for IRELAND term next spring!!!!

11 weeks in the big green isle is so mine! Mwuahahhahaha!

But seriously... I am super excited that I was accepted and am stoked and already planning what I want to do when I'm not in classes. So, I know a lot of you are going to miss me next year... haha.. yea right... but I promise to bring everyone back a souvenir, so start giving me ideas so I can make a list!

oh yea... did I say that I'm going to be in IRELAND this time next year!?

lol.... on a bad note... I'm basically broke now because we had a 500 dollar deposit to hold our spot on the trip... but it's okay, cuz i'll work 12 jobs over the summer... so if anyone needs a babysitter, house cleaner, or knows any place hiring for the summer I have an AA and I'm almost done with my BA in language arts education... but honestly a secretary or anything that has good hours with decent pay is great!

The New Boy Toy

2006-04-05T20:59:00.000-05:00

Okay, so at Ktreva's comment on my last post about not filling in I'm prompted to write about the new boy toy *ahem* i mean boyfriend...

I will affectionately refer to him as Love Muffin (Muffin for short...) and you probably really don't want to ask why I call him that because it's a long boring story that only myself and the thirty other people who attended a certain live performance on campus would understand/find humourous at all...

So, Love Muffin was previously referred to as choir boy in an earlier post where we were supposed to have a psuedo date at the DQ. We ended up hanging out all day and having a blast. Then I went on spring break, and we talked on the phone a bit while I was in WV.

When I got back, I needed to come home for my job but I didn't have a car, so he came to pick me up from school, brought me a rose and drove me home. Aww.... how cute. We hung out again over the weekend and really clicked, so now we're dating etc.

He's a pretty groovy kid and personality wise is a lot more compatable with me than McGuyver Guy was (although we're still friends... though he's a pain in my arse a lot of the time...)

We went to the movies and had about 30 minutes to kill so we went into the arcade and played street fighter two! WOW! I haven't had so much fun in forever! He beat the crap out of me kind of (I killed him once or twice) but it was so much fun. He's a gentleman and drove like, 25 minutes to get me beef a roo because I had a craving. lol... now that's nice!

Basically, long story short... he's cool, I like him, my parents like him, and he likes me, and things are going nicely right now (aside from the 2hr away thing and him having 18 credit hours and a job along with my crazy schedule... but oh well...)

Alrighty... I've really got to go finish my homework, because I'm still two days behind due to mono...

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

I'm ALIVE!

2006-03-31T22:43:00.000-06:00

So... um, yeah... I'm actually alive and stuff. Contrary to popular belief. I've been seriously lacking in my posting though. I have a huge course load this term as well as clincial observations where I teach in a classroom two days a week. I really feel like dying might be a better alternative.

a quick update on everything:

the new boy toy is working out fairly well.... I think I'll keep him for a while longer :-)

The old boy toy is turning out to be almost more trouble than he's worth... *cue stereotypical post-break-up question* How on earth did we ever get along before and why in the world did we go out in the first place?

I have mono!!! Hooray! (This is actually a large part of my blog-o-sphere absence... I've been sleeping over 14 hours a day... These past couple of weeks have flown by!)

I'm two novels behind and I think I may be losing my mind... or maybe I'm one of those people who think they are insane but really end up being like, some crazy super genius who's going to take over the world!........ mwuahahaHAHahahah!

(j/k)

Anywho... MACTOWN (re-enactment) is APRIL 29th! Wooo Hooo! and Chastity's gettin' murried too! (it makes me feel old and stuff!) so, yeah... I'm alive and I'm going to try and post but I can't make any guarantees. At least until I fully recover from mono.

(I guess that means no making out with you guys for a while... or girls for that matter... HAHA. Just kidding. Sickos...)

Building houses for those who have none

2006-02-22T18:04:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I'm going to be gone until march 4th because I'll be sleeping on a floor somewhere near Franklin West Virginia.

Augustana Habitat for Humanity is going on our annual spring break build over our spring break. Sadly I don't think I'll have access to a computer so there will be no new posts from me. I know, I know... you're heartbroken, eh?

But I promise to fill everyone in on the high points when I return :-)

Happy Next week or so!

Men are like...

2006-02-20T09:54:00.000-06:00

Okay, so my real life dad sent me this via e-mail, and I thought it was too funny to pass up. If you're a guy, just pretend you're not for a minute and read it...

1. Men are like ...

Laxatives. They irritate the crap out of you.

2. Men are like ...

Bananas.The older they get, the less firm they are.

3. Men are like ...

Weather. Nothing can be done to change them.

4. Men are like ...

Blenders. You need One, but you're not quite sure why.

5. Men are like ...

Chocolate Bars. Sweet, smooth, & they usually head right for your hips.

6. Men are like ...

Commercials. You can't believe a word they say.

7. Men are like ...

Department Stores. Their clothes are always 1/2 off.

8. Men are like ...

Government Bonds. They take soooooooo long to mature.

9. Men are like ...

Mascara. They usually run at the first sign of emotion.

10. Men are like ...

Popcorn. They satisfy you, but only for a little while.

11. Men are like ...

Snowstorms. You never know when they're coming, how many inches you'll get or how long it will last.

12. Men are like ...

Lava Lamps. Fun to look at, but not very bright.

13. Men are like ...

Parking Spots ... All the good ones are taken, the rest are handicapped.

Thanks Dad! :-)

quiztime!

2006-02-15T17:45:00.000-06:00

So I saw this at The Reality Ranch and thought it was cute :-)

You Are Fozzie Bear

"Wocka! Wocka!"You're the life of the party, and you love making people crack up.If only your routine didn't always bomb!You may find more groans than laughs, but always keep the jokes coming.

The Muppet Personality Test

A little something ...

2006-02-14T14:05:00.000-06:00

well... Happy Valentine's day everyone. My first one in over three years that I'm single! w00t!

However, I have a pseudo date this saturday! Yeah! I'm not completely deformed and grotesque after being in a long term relationship!

It's this guy I used to go to elementary school with and in middle school we were in the same choir (I shall refer to him as Choir Boy.) He used to be really shy and short, but now... hubba hubba! (hahaha! too bad he's got a girlfriend...)

So I was on a field trip with my 6th graders for my student teaching stuff and there was this kid that totally reminded me of Choir Boy. That night when I went on AIM, I IMed him, but it was someone else using his screenname or something. Anyway... yesterday he IMed me back.

We seriously talked until about 5 in the morning and made an ice cream date to catch ourselves up when I'm in town this weekend. I know it's not a real date because he's seeing someone, but I think it's my first step back into the world of being single.

I actually feel like it's possible for other people to find me attractive and want to hang around with me! (Even if it's only for the occasional gratuitous cleavage shot!)

And it's super cute because I was his first crush he says.

So... I'm going for ice cream on a pseudo friendship date with the Choir Boy.

P.S. I got a valentine from Dale and Shaun slipped under my door last night! How cute is that?

P.P.S. Wes gave me my first extra tipper when I was home two weekends ago! I practiced the other night for my friends and used it and it was beautiful!

Not all good things last...

2006-02-04T02:18:00.000-06:00

Well, McGuyver Guy and I officially called it quits today (at least as a dating relationship goes.)

I guess sometimes one good thing has to end so another can begin. The whole when God closes a door he opens a window theory.

It just hasn't been the same since our pseudo break-up/big fight a while back. That extra something that you need to make it work just isn't there for either of us anymore. And that sucks, because we both love each other very much. He really is my best friend.

I'm very saddened that it had to end. I wish to God that it didn't have to happen. But I know that there's a reason we spent three years together in this relationship and I'm also very thankful for all of the happiness I've had because of it. I have a feeling that I won't lose him as a friend, and we may better off as just friends.

I'm sure it will be ackward and a little weird at first, but I just have a hunch that all will end well.

It was a mutual decision and there were no harsh words or regrets. (Which is what probably would have happened if we tried to stay together for too much longer.) We just weren't as close after the big fight and I think it really hurt us as a couple, and maybe we were just too young/inexperienced to recover.

I know we've made a lot of mistakes in our relationship, and we tried to fix them as we went, but I feel almost like it's the passing of an era. We learned all we could from each other as a couple. Hopefully we can continue to learn from each other as friends. Hopefully we will have learned from our mistakes for future relationships.

I probably sound really callus in this post to try and put everything so objectively, but I'm actually crying right now (as I have been on and off all night/morning) so it's not like I'm completely okay with it. Three years is a long time and you can really become attached to someone. They become like an extra limb, you know? When it's severed you have that phantom limb thing going on, but you know deep down that it's gone for good and you can't just grow it back.

I'm just glad we're not bitter or resentful of each other, and I hope that we can get over the ackward lump and have a real friendship. Really, for the last two months that's basically what we've been anyways. We just cut out the make-out and bingo! Friend behavior.

I've heard mixed reports as to whether this can work or not, so I know that it could either A) blow up in my face B) won't really do anything and we'll just stop talking to each other or C) become almost like best friends... which is what I'm hoping for.

I think I really am heartbroken, but at the same time I know that it's for the best for both of us so the logical side of my brain says stop crying because it'll be okay.... but then there's that pesky little female emotional self that says "but you just ended a three year relationship and even though there's no spark you still love him."

To which logic side responds "Yes, but you are not in romantic love with him anymore. You have companionship with no passion and you cannot settle for less than what you need. Neither can he. You love him like you love your best friend, not a husband."

I think I used to however, and that's the tragedy. What could have been.

But I know that this is right and there is a purpose for it all. Right now that's about all that I can find comfort in.

Why can't life ever go as planned?

P.S. I'm coming home in the morning to see Little E and family and hopefully some friends. Contagion, are you going to be around for some help with blog code? Wes, I won't have your shirt, but I'll try and stop by to show you the bodhran.

BAAAAAABBYYYYY (CONT)

2006-02-02T23:59:00.000-06:00

She's here!

Little E (Chastity's baby) was delivered tonight via C-section. There were some complications, but all is well now and thank you to everyone who read Contagion's Post and offered her happy thoughts.

Little E is a girl, 6 lb 14 ounces and 20 inches long. Last I heard Mother and Baby were nursing, and then mom was going to try and get some rest.

Give me a call/e-mail if you want the hospital info and everything. Chastity will be there until Sunday.

*sigh* I'm an auntie! *tear*

**This post will remain at the top of today for the rest of the day since I'm so proud of both mama and baby!**

Why I want to be a teacher....

2006-02-02T19:59:00.000-06:00

So, I taught my sixth graders more adjectives today (superlative/comparative.) I also was observed by a middle school teacher with 40 yrs experience who basically holds the rest of my teaching career in his hands....

Somehow, everything went perfectly...

He actually told me that there wasn't anything he could see that I didn't do wonderfully at!

I don't know, why... but God was shining down on me today. The kids were so "on." I don't know if you understand what I mean by that, but some days there are just two steps ahead of where you were expecting them to be, and they ask all of the right questions and lead themselves exactly where you wanted to take them. It was, as some might say, "Brilliant!"

I couldn't have asked for a better group/day/lesson to be observed teaching, but I'm glad it was this one. I think maybe it was a sign from the higher power that this is what I am supposed to do.

It's always nice to have that little bit of reassurance every now and again. :-)

So I told my folks, and now they think I have a big head... geez, do something wrong and they gripe, do it right and be happy and you're full of yourself... lol. Good to stay grounded, but dang I'm happy with what those kids learned today!

I'm in!

2006-02-02T13:45:00.000-06:00

YESSSS.... I made it in the Bad Example Clan!

I want to join the Bad Example Clan because...

2006-02-01T21:31:00.000-06:00

I want to join the Bad Example Clan because...

Well... okay... see...

1) Both of my (blog)parents are members of the Bad Example family, and so that makes me one too... so I kind of want to feel liked and stuff, you know?

2) My platy (fish) and guppy(fish) somehow managed to breed and make two baby platuppies (fish/fry) and that's pretty cool that they did that in my fish tank, you know?

3) umm... I don't really know how to put this, but ... wellll... so I was thinking that if it was possible to have a blog-crush, I would probably have one on Harvey (I know, I know, he's my grand-da and all, but still) because he's so dreamy, and a real sensitive type too. The kind of guy you can sit down and talk about your feelings with. Harvey is to blogging what Sean Connery is to the Film Industry.... he adds that certain amount of class through his distinguished air... and that accent! (well, I kind of made that part up... but you could read the blog with an accent)... you know?

4) Well, I just want to okay? I like to feel that sense of belonging.

So can someone pleeeeeeaaaaasssseeee sponsor me?

BAAAAABBBYYYYY!

2006-02-01T21:28:00.000-06:00

Alright. Chastity is at the hospital as I am typing this probably going into labor.

She was taken there at 6 pm tonight so they could induce her because the baby is late. She should have little Eiley Grace by noon tomorrow. Call me on my cell if you want more information. I'll be up all night.

(You people don't answer your phones, I swear!)

If you want to be included in the rounds when she actually gets here (the baby that is) let me know. I'll be calling/posting again as soon as she arrives.

Miss a week, Miss a lot

2006-02-01T21:25:00.000-06:00

So.. I have strepp throat, a massive amount of homework and I have to teach tomorrow... That's why I kind of missed a week of blogging there. (And I was doing so darn well.)

So, over the week I ordered ballroom shoes, almost didn't get the courses I need to graduate, and my grandma went into ICU at the hospital for internal bleeding. She's alive and doing alright for now, so that's always good.

Anyways... there's a lot of other stuff I want to blog about, but I thought I should catch you up to speed.. so moving onward....

Whew! 6th grade is rough!

2006-01-24T14:53:00.000-06:00

I had clinicals today (where I go out into the schools and am paired with a veteran teacher so that I can get real life practice before I start teaching.)

Right now I'm in a 6th grade classroom in Iowa. Today, I taught my first lesson at this school. I taught three classes the concept of "adjective."

It actually went surprisingly well. The first class has about 30 students in it, so that was harsh. Especially since we were going group work and had to move around the room in stations. It was a tight squeeze, but it turned out okay.

The second and third classes had 12 and 13 students respectively.

This was heaven. The group activities went super smooth and the kids were relating to me about stuff. I wore my pink chuck taylors to use as an example about how adjectives help us identify which one, because if I just said I wore my shoes today and I have more than one pair of shoes they wouldn't know which ones I meant. But if I said I wore my pink shoes then it would give them a clearer picture.

They were actually wishing that the class period was longer so we could do more of the stuff I had planned. Boy if that doesn't give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside :-)

All things considered, I'm ready to teach them again next thursday... comparative and superlatives here we come!

But what exactly IS weird...?

2006-01-23T15:52:00.000-06:00

You Are 30% Weird

Not enough to scare other people...But sometimes you scare yourself.

How Weird Are You?

via Sarah of That's Not Very Nice!

A little help here?

2006-01-23T15:43:00.000-06:00

I'm trying to convince Chastity, my real life best friend and re-enacting sister to start a blog.

I mean, c'mon. Once she pops that bun out the over what's she really going to be doing with her time? (That was a joke... I know babies are trouble, but still...)

But, we're having some trouble coming up with a blog title for her. She told me if I could come up with one that she likes she'd do it. So, everyone that knows Chastity, think of some good blog titles so I can give her a good selection. :-)

This just made me laugh... not in that ha ha funny kind of way, more in that oh, that is sooo sad kind of way

2006-01-23T15:38:00.000-06:00

I read this post at Bodhran Roll Please! and just shook my head in that resigned "this is what the world has come to" kind of way. It really makes me wish I had worn leiderhosen to school to celebrate my swiss heritage or something... I would at Augie, but since we're a hugely scandanavian school I don't think it'd make quite the same impact.

However, the irony just struck me to the core.

Wes would be proud of me...

2006-01-23T15:19:00.000-06:00

So, I've gotten the checks in for my birthday now. Usually I use them to pay tuition or make payments on my credit card that I use to purchase books.

This year, I decided... you know what. I want to actually buy something for my birthday. I know it was last week, but what the hell. Live dangerously for a change Virtue!

So... after contemplating what I should buy I came up with two things that I really want that I would actually use...

1) a pair of ballroom shoes

2) a bodhran (Irish drum)

I sat down and thought about the pros and cons of each item.

Ballroom shoes- Well, I've already got character shoes which I dance in right now and for the most part they work alright. Slippery sometimes, but danceable. Ballroom shoes do have a suede sole rather than the patent leather sole my current shoes have. They would probably be prettier too.

Bodhran- I haven't been able to play since I gave my loaner from Wes at Bodhran(drum) roll please! back. He taught me everything I remember and everything I've forgotten too! If I had a bodhran, I could practice, and then take it to Ireland with me. I could also really irritate all of the drunk whores on my floor by practicing really early Sunday morning before church when they've only had like, three hours of sleep... hmm....

So, I bought a bodhran. It was a pretty cheap one (about 40 on sale) but I'm not that good, so I didn't splurge too much. Now I'm just waiting for it to come in so I can play it! I'm pretty excited because ever since he taught me to play I've wanted to buy one of my own, so I finally just got off my arse and did it!

My roommate Fletch is a percussionist, so we want to get a drum circle that meets every two weeks or so started to jam out to since we have a hand drumming group on campus.

Anyway, I thought of Wes when I bought it and how he'd be damned disappointed if I picked the ballroom shoes over the bodhran.

It made me remember that I've got his leine still too. I'm trying to design a knotwork with his initials to embroider on it (since I've had it for like, five years now. Talk about me procrastinating, right?) so I plan on embroidering it during our habitat spring break trip and dropping it off to his house the next time I'm in town.

Thought I would have ranked higher...

2006-01-22T12:55:00.000-06:00

Apparently I'm only a level three nerd... strange... I thought I definately would have ranked higher...

href="http://www.liquidgeneration.com" target="_blank">

How I spent my weekend... part one:Virtue's brush with death

2006-01-22T12:11:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I had to run to Rockford to get some stuff from home (mainly my new cell phone and some props for a benefit performance.)

Friday, after class, I got my backpack in order with a change of clothes, homework that I knew I would never even look at, and my old phone and charger. It started snowing. No biggie.

I was driving McGuyver Guy's car (he was in the passenger seat) and had Fletch(my roommate) and Fernando (a male friend) in the car with us because we were giving them a ride to Rockford so they could hook up with their family for the weekend.

As we started driving the snow started getting worse and worse. The plows weren't out yet and it was starting to come down pretty thick. For about 45 minutes we were going 10 miles per hour on the highway because I couldn't see more than two feet in front of me. During this time I was also heading a caravan of about 25 vehicles behind me who were following my tire lines. (Minus the occasional you know what who had four wheel drive so thought they could go 50 and it's okay.)

Now my back was permanently hunched from trying to see where the road was at and there was a layer of ice formed over the headlights, so they weren't helping very much at this point. Many were pulling off onto the exits to wait it out, but I decided that we would continue on.

After a while, it cleared up a bit. The roads were a little clearer and I could see tail-lights of a car in the distance. I saw that we were coming up on a bridge. I let off the gas and just let the car coast. We were probably going about 40 and decelerating. About 20-30 feet onto the bridge I felt the back end of the car start to fishtail. I turned the wheel gently in the proper direction, not trying to correct it, just getting traction. I felt the tires catch and I began to straighten us out when about 10 feet later we started to fishtail in the other direction... fast. I tried to turn the wheel the other way now to get the needed traction and then....

The car stalled out. Which probably wasn't a bad thing at that point. Because now we were spinning backwards. I turned to look over my right shoulder and out the back window. We were about halfway across the bridge at this point and in the middle of both lanes going backwards into the concrete walls of the bridge.

Alright, I thought, I can do this. It's just lack backing up in my alley after snow.

I shifted the wheel a little bit and felt them catch. I pressed lightly on the brake and we started slowing down. I looked over my shoulder again and saw us approaching the concrete wall and pressed a little harder, hoping it wasn't going to make us spin out again. Luckily, it didn't.

The car stopped, perpendicular to the median. Well, that wasn't so bad. I look to my right out of the passenger side window and see what's left of the caravan from earlier about 90 seconds off from hitting us.

At this point, McGuyver guy's shock had worn off and he was going into panic.

"Um, guys, we need to get out of the car... now!" He started taking his seat belt off and opening the door.

I'm thinking to myself... We're in the middle of a blizzard on a bridge with no pedestrian walk and you're going to get out and go... where?

I told him to just hold on. The car had stalled, if he just gave me 10 seconds I could get it started and we would be fine. I turned the key but the car didn't start. He was really starting to panic now. I checked and saw that the car was still in drive... duh, I should have checked that first. So I put us in park and then proceeded to successfully start the car and turn us around to continue across the bridge. The entire episode probably took all of 45 seconds and we were back on the road to Rock-Town.

After we had been driving for a minute or two, I realized something:

I didn't freak out at all during the entire spin out.

I didn't panic, I didn't freeze, I didn't slam on the break. In fact, I kept my head about me fairly well. I handled the situation to the best of my abilities and didn't cry and pee my pants like a pansy.

I learned something about myself on Friday. I can face a crisis and respond quickly, intelligently, and not freak out. And I think I respect myself a little bit more because of it.

Of course, I'm sure there was a little bit of divine guidance/intervention... because if a semi would have been behind us we would have been shredded like iceberg lettuce on a taco.

Whiteboard of the Week: To Fletch

2006-01-22T12:08:00.000-06:00

To my roommate upon returning from a weekend home:

Without you, my life was as empty as a keg after a frat party.
~me. That's right. I made that up all on my own.

Welcome back Fletch!

I got MEMEd by my mom...

2006-01-20T09:35:00.000-06:00

So, Ktreva tagged me with a MEME. It was bound to happen eventually. Here it is:

Four Jobs I’ve Had:
I was a waitress/cook/delivery driver at pizza hut

I work at Kohls

I work for the admissions office as a student ambassador

I work in the Dean of Students office as a work mule, I mean student assistant.

Four Movies I could watch over and over and have:

Phantom of the Opera

the King and I

Little Women

Last of the Mohicans

Places I’ve Lived:

Rockford, Illinois (for most of my life and the summers...)

Rock Island, Illinois (During the school year...)

Four TV Shows I love to watch:

I don't really watch a lot of TV, but I do like to watch these occasionally.

Dancing with the Stars

Grey's Anatomy

Nip/Tuck

Four Places I’ve been on Vacation:

Florida

New Mexico

Arizona

Ohio

Don't judge me...

Four Websites I visit Daily:

Augie Webmail

Various Blogs

Dictionary.com

Google

Four Favorite Foods:

Pizza

Goulash

Steak and Rice

Chicken Nuggets

Four Places I’d rather be:

Asleep in my bed

Ireland

Re-enacting (UPDATE: crap... looks like I stole that one from Contagion...)

Home

Four people I’m passing this onto:

Basically everyone I know who it's ok to pass this too either has done it already, or is "legally deceased" so I guess I'm not passing it to anyone... is that okay or am I breaking some unwritten code of meme conduct with this?

Oh well... can't win them all.

Wow... I can't wait to have an orgasm...

2006-01-19T18:16:00.000-06:00

I found this quote from Anais Nin and found it, well, interesting. I think it's going to go on our DDR shirts for school...

"Electric flesh arrows... traversing the body. A rainbow of color strikes the eyelids. A foam of music falls over the ears. It is the gong of the orgasm." From The Diaries of Anais Nin.

This beats the mannequin fetish I think.

PS My mannequin got her boobs put on yesterday. All I have to do is add the cover and she's ready to be used for making clothes!

I'm not an asexual spore anymore!

2006-01-18T22:23:00.000-06:00

Hooray! Now that Ktreva has a blog she had agreed to allow me to call her blogmama so I'm not just Contagion's byproduct by asexual reproduction! (No offense, or anything... Contagion's a great blog dad, it's just *sniff* now I feel like a real boy, um, I mean girl.)

This is such a happy day!

Guess who's 20?

2006-01-18T18:20:00.000-06:00

Okay. So I'm 20. I figured that was post worthy.

Do I feel different? Not really.

Do other people see me differently. Not really.

Did I die? hmm... nope. Still have a pulse.

I did have a rather interesting day that started at 6:45 this morning however.

The phone in my room rang. Many, many times. It just kept ringing. I sleep with my bed lofted and Fletch sleeps with hers not lofted, so she got the phone. Then she does the weirdest thing by handing it to me.

I groggily say hello and am awakened by a "HAAAAPPPYY BIIIIRRRRTHHHDAYYY!"

It was my dad. Now, this is really sweet that they would like to be the first people to wish me a happy birthday (and I admit, he did this last year when I was away as well, so I should have expected it ) I just think it would be polite of them to wait until I am actually awake on my own.

At least my mother has talked him out of calling at 12:01. Actually, this may not be such a bad thought, since at least then I'm still up and haven't passed out into a sleep coma yet... I'll have to talk with them about this.

I believe his next words were:

"You're 20... you're old...that means you're going to die soon... Happy Birthday...here's your mother..." I was pretty tired though, so I could have misheard.

Although, I've finally figured out why he intentionally wakes me up to harass me on my birthday...

According to an article in this month's TIME magazine for the first 10 minutes when you're awake most people experience symptoms similiar to that of being legally intoxicated... so he waits for me to be incoherent and clumsy to make fun of me so I cannot defend myself! Doh!

Well, I'm going to get ready for Tango class! Yea! So have a great evening everyone!

I'm going to Ireland! (maybe) YAY! (and I bought a mannequin)

2006-01-16T20:13:00.000-06:00

So... I just got back from a foreign term meeting to go to..... that's right! Ireland!

I am super excited.

We'll be going next spring, and the trip can take 32 students. Since I have senior credit standing even though technically I'm only a sophomore and I have a nice gpa I'll probably have a really good shot of going!

I have to fill out the app and turn it in by April 1 (kind of a funny day to turn in an app. I thought) and then give them a $500 deposit. I'm not sure where that's going to come from yet (out of my butt probably!) but I am so excited about this trip that I will make it happen. I will work so many extra hours at work and baby sit so many kids people won't know what hit them!

This week is definately starting off on a better foot than last week!

Also:

I purchased a mannequin over the weekend! That's right, my very own foam mannequin on a stand. Very similiar to a dress form only with unrealistic measurements. So I bought some batting and stuffing and fabric from walmart to make my mannequin the same size as me! That way I can use it when I make costumes! I named her Sharon and she's really starting to fill out! I'll keep you updated on that as it goes.

Also, Also:

Apparently my parents bought us new phones (so now I have a flip LD walkie talkie phone) so if anyone tried to call my cell and it wierded out on you that's probably why.) Now I have to come home this friday night to pick my phone up plus a couple of other things I need for school and spring break. Then I'll probably come back to school saturday afternoon so I can go dancing saturday night. We'll see. I may decide to stay the whole weekend. Anyway...

What a great Monday!

I'm turning twenty on wednesday...

2006-01-15T11:19:00.000-06:00

So I'm excited because this Wednesday I am starting dance lessons. For January, it's going to be Tango!

The instructor I danced with from the lesson at the dance last night (in my last post) is going to be teaching the lessons so I'm pretty excited.

I'm also going to be 20 on Wednesday. Now that's scary.

I have to say that I'm feeling my mortality creeping up on me. It comes in the vision of Death carrying a baseball bat saying "almost there, not quite, two more steps... Got her!"

I think because my grandfather died when I was very young, but old enough to have vivid memories of the experience I've always had this feeling that death was never very far away. I could die at any moment and I wouldn't even know. I know that sounds very fatalistic and morbid, but I think it's true.

I'm not an unhappy person. Quite the opposite. But I think a lot of that happiness comes from the fact that I anticipate death every day. I know I won't be here forever, but I want to get the most out of the time I have. When I was younger I thought that I would be one of those people to die before they hit 25. I'm not sure why, I just did.

I don't think I'm neccessarily going to die before 25 now, because, let's face it: I haven't even started on my magnum opus. But I think it's important to have at least an inkling of our own mortality. I think also that by keeping that in mind you are more likely to treasure what you do have than to complain about or resent what you don't.

Alright, enough of that deep thought talk stuff. I'm going to lunch. I'll probably have to write another post explaining what I meant in this post because it's incoherent and I'm hungry, so it'll just have to wait 'til later.

What a night!

2006-01-15T10:59:00.000-06:00

So I just got out of the shower and I think I'm waking up finally. I'm hungry, my legs and arms are sore, and if I didn't know that I had too much stuff to do today I would probably say forget it and go back to sleep. (And no, I'm not hung over.)

We went out dancing last night. It was, as usual, Awesome! It was a real crush (there were a lot of people in a space designed for not so many people) for the first half, so I got to practice my "don't let your partner run backwards into something even though you're the girl" skills. (I didn't do too badly.) And I learned how to dance in close quarters, which is always useful.

We had about 10 people from school come and dance, which was sooooo cool! (Thank you to everyone who came with) Some of them left early, but I can understand. For a beginner it's intimidating to have to think about your feet, the moves, and not hitting other people every five seconds all of the time. It was also really hot in there. But I'm glad that they came for at least part of the time and I hope they all had fun.

I stayed for the whole night and had a couple of different partners. ( I usually don't come with a partner since McGuyver Guy doesn't dance and doesn't want to learn. That's cool though.) There was an instructor who is really good that danced with me for the lesson, and then for a few dances later, then I danced with some other gentlemen throughout.

There was one minorly embarrassing moment when my friend and I were both standing up to go dance and a younger guy came over to solicit a dance. He made eye contact with both of us and looked between the two of us and said "Would you like to dance?"

Now, my friend and I were kind of confused as to which person he was asking. I thought he was asking my friend and vice versa. She asks me "Do you want to dance?" and I say "I think he was asking you, you go ahead" and he is just looking at us not helping the situation. It was pretty ackward and I hope he really was asking her to dance, but no one else at our table could say for sure either, so ...

We did have a good laugh about it later in the car.

So, now I just have to wait for Wednesday until I can dance again. Until then I should probably write a post or so more and clean my room.

Blonde Joke... yeah, yeah, I know... I'm a blonde... I'm going to hell

2006-01-12T12:30:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I was doing my sporadic daily visit over at Bad Example and Harvey had the funniest blonde joke up. Now, as I am a blonde myself I was at first torn over whether to post on it or not, but I find I cannot help myself.

We've got to be able to laugh at ourselves before we can laugh at everyone else, right?

So head over and see the blonde joke.

(I'm such a bad person.)

Why I love Contagion... (that's right, now I know you want to read this...)

2006-01-11T20:41:00.000-06:00

So I got online today and went to check out Contagion at Miasmatic Review. Since he made my day by the comment he left in my Stuff, stuff... post, I thought I would at least attempt to return the favor.

On that note, since he had a bad day I thought I would try and cheer him up!

Why I love Contagion:

Reason 1:

Although he can be gruff at times, I can always count on an honest opinion from him. For example, one time at an event when I asked "Why can't I be abducted by the Indians, too?" He candidly responded:

"Well, because they already have two pretty girls for that..."

Now, this was a way of gently letting me down so that my hopes were not completely crushed while also telling me kindly that I was just not pretty enough to be abducted by Indians during the woods walk. What more could a girl ask of a blog-dad?

Reason B:

Who else would lend me cast iron, let me borrow his fly, and then drive me all over town to get a carriage bolt and washer and wing nut in a size that the store didn't sell, and still give me a ride back to the campsite? Contagion did. And he even wrote a blog entry about my mental breakdown in the store! That, folks, is love.

Reason III sec. 2. line 4. item 1:

Okay, this is probably the biggest one, and I know it's going to be sappy, so Contagion you don't have to read it if you don't want to...

He just made my day today.

I've been having one of those "everything is going wrong wednesdays" that started with my having to get up at 6 am this morning after four hours of sleep. I went to a pointless meeting with my clincials director and then had to suffer through straight classes until 4 o'clock. Plus, my stomach has been ready to heave itself out of my throat all day. (I still can't figure out who got me sick.) It was rough to say the least. Then I go to dinner... and they have absolute crap to eat. Like it could get any worse.

I come back to my room, and flick the computer on. I should check my blog, I say to myself. I see that I have a new comment! Joy! (I love getting comments :-)

I knew it had to be Contagion or Harvey, so I quickly click the link and wait excitedly while it takes 2 nanos to load. It's from Contagion! I knew he couldn't resist the line about showering hot and sweaty with Fletch!

Then I read it. And re-read it. And read it once more for good measure... it wasn't the "this whole post went straight into the gutter of my mind" line... I was expecting that... It was the

"... you are pretty enough as it is, nothing you do will change that."

I cannot even tell you how much this has made me smile! (He's probably going to shoot me for saying this, because we all know how much he wants us to think he doesn't have a heart!) I have been just walking around happy all day because of it. When I went to work out, I had just a feeling of, you know what? He's right. I am pretty and it doesn't matter if I lose weight or not.

Such simple things you can say, but they can mean so much... and he happens to say them when you least expect it and are in the most need, even if you don't realize it until afterwards.

So, my friends, that is why I love Contagion.

I hope your day at work is better tomorrow :-)

Quote of the Day

2006-01-11T19:59:00.000-06:00

So here's me, who's not that into American Lit. but I have to take the class for my major, and now that we're to the Romantics it's really not that bad. Anyway...

Today in my class, we were discussing Emmerson's "Self Reliance" which basically tells us all that we shouldn't be consistent and conformists. Now, I like the don't conform part. I think it's a big part of societal norms to conform to be part of the "in" group. Just look at Frats. (which by the way, McGuyver Guy is thinking about pledging for a frat this spring. I read him half the freakin' essay on not conforming and being your own person and I think it just went whoosh right over his head.

Back to the quote. So we were talking about the part of the essay where Emmerson says that by the invention of the coach we have lost the use of our feet. So everything we gain, we lose something like it's counterpart. This has a sort of balance of the universe feel, so I think I buy it. This got the class onto the topic people who use elevators to go down/up one floor and how lazy we are becoming as a society. We drive two blocks to go to the gym and use the treadmill. We take the elevator from the fifth to fourteenth floor to use the stairclimber. It's bazaar.

We are a society that makes a button for everything.

So to help us get a handle on all of this insightful discourse, Dr. Peters makes a prediction to the class. I thought it was funny at the same time as sad and on some level profound at the underlying truth of it. So said in the context of telling us how we have replaced/continue to replace so much by pushing buttoms, he feels that...

"...We're going to be a nation of skinny fingers and fat asses..."

I think it's at least something worth thinking about.

Stuff, stuff, and more stuff...

2006-01-10T23:41:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I could just shoot myself for becoming an English Ed. Major and wanting to finish it in under three years... What was I thinking?

On a brighter note: I haven't shot myself yet! Hooray!

This week marks the 5th week of our winter term aka midterms and I am really really thinking about cracking under the pressure. I know I sound like a whiney baby, but if it weren't for Fletch (my roommate) I would probably be even more insane than I was before. I'm in a 6th grade classroom for clinicals this term and I have a teacher in service next week. I also have to get up at 6 tomorrow morning...

Look, for you folks with good old jobs that's probably not that big of a stretch... for me 6AM=Death by slow poison. I am missing some work this week because I have too much homework and my only reprieve is this Saturday when we're going out dancing. Almost everything major will be done by then so I won't have so much to stress about.

On the bright side... I have a really good shot at studying in Ireland next spring and I am uber excited about that! Also, Fletch and I started working out together. Today was week two day two and our goal is to be hot and 20 lbs lighter by May.

I know, I know... Virtue... how could you possibly get any hotter you say... (well, at least let me pretend that that's what you would say. Please? Help a sister out...) But I say to you that there is always room for improvement.

Besides. I want to have more stamina.

Anyway... I'm hot and sweaty because we just got done so Fletch and I are going to go take a shower now. And I'm just going to let you take that how you will you dirty, dirty, people.

Busy busy going home!

2005-12-13T13:10:00.000-06:00

That's right folks, coming home again. Trying to plan a shower (actually, Ktreva is helping me out a lot with that one... God Bless her because I'm clueless...) get all of my junk together, christmas shopping, etc. Anyways... I've gotta run and get bustin'.

Oh! Contagion, you were absolutely right about most of your comments on the boyfriend. I appreciate you giving me a guys point of view, even if sometimes I don't want to hear it...

Why I love my roommate...

2005-12-09T17:28:00.000-06:00

I love my roommate. She is the best roommate anyone could ask for. Let me show you an example of why that is...

Not that anyone really cares about my relationship life, and honestly I don't blame you because I probably am really overdramatizing. I know this and admit to it, but when I'm just really pissed at my boyfriend and I need to vent my roommate is always there for me. (Boyfriend never ever reads this, so I know that it will be okay to vent here and not have to worry about hurting his feelings.)

So, here's what was bothering me...

Since he stopped working at his part-time job at Kmart (which he would work full time over the summer and then transfer to the kmart by school and work part time during the school year. This year he decided to not transfer and not go back to the store at home during the year either to keep his job.) So yeah, since that he's been being obnoxiously stingy about money. Ordering pizza once a month is like pulling teeth (even though we go halves)

Normally, I would understand this if he did't have any money to spend. Here's the kicker though. He's got over 3,500 dollars just sitting around in his bank account and his parents pretty much pay for everything for him. He also refs a couple of intermural sports events every week which is about 20-30 bucks a week. Whereas I have about 200 dollars in my name and I work two jobs to be able to pay for school. And he wants to complain about not being able to afford to order a pizza once a month.

He also complains about not having money.

To which I reply: find a job on campus or ref more games.

To which he replies: I have a job.

To which I reply: Then stop complaining about money or get another one.

Now, why is this important on tonight of all nights, you might ask... Allow me to enlighten you...

He called me when he was on his way walking back to the dorms after class today. This was around 4. He said he wasn't that hungry, I said neither was I, he asked if we should just eat dinner later then, and I said fine. No sense in eating if neither one of us is hungry yet. He says he'll call me back at 5 then and we could eat then. I said sounds good. Now pay attention... this is where it gets sketchy.

Supposedly, between the time he gets off the phone with me and the time he reaches his dorm, one of our friends who I shall call the Alpha Sig (it's our friends frat.) comes up to my boyfriend and asks him if he would like to go to dinner with him later tonight, because he, the Alpha Sig and some of the other Alpha Sigs were going to Poorboy's for dinner.

Rather than call me at the moment and say, "Hey, guess what just happened... would it be okay if I went to dinner with..." which would have been the SMART thing to do, this is what he does. He thinks to himself... well, I told her I was going to call her at 5 so I'll just wait an hour and tell her then.

5 o'clock rolls around and as expected the phone rings. I pick up. We do the usual hey, how's it going, what are you doing, etc. That's when he decided he should drop the bomb.

Him: Alpha Sig asked if I wanted to go to dinner with him tonight...

Now, I'm thinking he meant in the cafeteria and by "I" Alpha Sig meant Boyfriend and I, because I am friends with Alpha Sig and have been longer than Boyfriend and Alpha Sig.

Me: Oh, okay, that's cool.

Him: Yeah, we're going to go to Poorboy's I guess.

Wow... that's really funny. I could have sworn he just said poorboy's, which is a semi-expensive restaurant... wait, he did. This wouldn't have been so bad, but there's a back story to this bit. Yesterday, I slid down some stairs because of the snow making everything wet and slippery. I hurt my hip and ankle pretty bad and after work last night it was still snowing and my foot was swollen. I called boyfriend to ask him if he could take the two minute drive across campus because of my foot and pick me up from work.

He told me that he'd rather not because he didn't trust his car on one of the small hills outside the admissions office. Being diplomatic and trying to make it worth his while other than just being a decent human being I offered to buy taco bell for him because it's practically on the way back to the dorms from where I work on campus. He said he didn't really want to. He would walk partway to meet me, but if I could just walk back he would prefer that and we could just eat in the caf. Sure, whatever I say and I limp back to my room. Add this to the whining last week about ordering a pizza which I mostly paid for and you can see how I might be a little pissed.

Me: (probably not sounding as nice as normal) Well, that's cool. What time are you guys going.

Him: Oh, I guess we're leaving in about 15 minutes. But it should only be an hour and a half or so.

Now I'm thinking... boyfriend and Alpha Sig don't talk much, so when exactly did Alpha Sig ask boyfriend to go to dinner? And since I'm obviously not included in this "them" that Alpha Sig speaks of then who is?

Me: Oh. Well, who's all going?

Him: Alpha Sig, me, some other Alpha Sigs.

Interesting how he is ready to go to dinenr with only one other person that he knows and a bunch of strangers. If you know boyfriend, he's usually pretty shy and uncomfortable around strangers.

Me: so did Alpha Sig call you or something?

Him: No, he asked me when I was walking back from class.

Me: Oh. Well, why didn't you just tell me earlier then.

Him: Because it was after I got done talking to you, and I had to call you at five anyways, so I thought I would just tell you then.

Is this not the dumbest logic you've ever heard?

Silence for a few seconds. Now I'm thinking about what I know about the Alpha Sigs... they are drunks all of them. I've seen the Alpha Sig come back from parties and throw up over everyone and not remember in the morning... I also knew him last year before he pledged and he wasn't like that. Obviously, I don't exactly relish in the fact that boyfriend is going to go hang out with them under these dubious circumstances.

Me: (definitely sounding pissed off this time, but trying to be understanding and look at it from his point of view) Well, I hope you have a good time then.

Him: So, it's okay then?

Me: Sure. Fine. I'll talk to you later.

Him: Well, do you still want to watch a movie later?

Hell No! We were supposed to spend time together tonight because we haven't been able to all week. We were supposed to eat and go to the movie on campus and then hang out. I don't want your little consolation gift you fat jerk!

Me: I don't know. I don't want to be up too late because I have to work at 9:30 tomorrow morning.

Him: Okay. Well, do you want me to call you later?

Me: Fine. I'll talk to you later. Bye.

Him: Okay, well I love you.

Me: yeah, love you too. Bye.

Him: Alright, bye.

And I hung up as soon as I could without cutting him off, fuming. I'm seriously contemplating just telling him I don't want to talk to him for a long, long time. I'm thinking about maybe ever.I turned to my beloved roomie and said: Don't ever, ever get a boyfriend.

She looked at me, having only heard my half of the conversation and said, "I'll kill him. What did he do?" Then patiently listened to me tell the entire story above without interruption until the end when she said:

"Just tell me when and how. I'll make sure not to leave a mess."

That's why I love my roommate :-) She always knows how to make me feel better. We think maybe we should just become lesbian lovers and never have to deal with guys again... It would be quite convenient, since we're already roommates ;-)

j/k... a little.

Faculty Quotes of the day...

2005-12-09T16:05:00.000-06:00

"Nothing is so useful in life as knowing how to get rid of people"
~Jason Peters, Professor of English, Augustana College 12/9/2005
Said in the context of speaking of how to defend to your uncle your choice of becoming an English major when he suggests that carpentry might be a better trade to pursue. To paraphrase Peters, you could say that Thomas Jefferson made money by writing and in his autobiography he says that we should model ourselves after him. Since I think that he's a hell of a lot smarter than you are, I think I'm just going to take his advice instead. Thus, effectively getting rid of the unwanted relative. That's one valuable skill you learn as an English major. You know really good ways of getting rid of unwanted persons easily and in most situations... like those drunks at frat parties who think they become geniuses when they are inebriated.

"Vote the bastard out!"
~Karin Youngberg,Professor of English, Augustana College 12/9/05
Said in the context of a discussion of Richard III and divine right in regards to the Tudor Myth. The question was what could you do in the time period if you had a bad leader when it was, to someone of the period, obviously some sort of punishment from God. She replied, "If it were us, we'd just say 'Vote the bastard out! But for them, that would be impossible" Not only could you not go against the divine right, but it would almost be a challenge to God to suppose to know who should rule and who should not.

Do we have cool faculty or what?

Contagion tagged me so I guess I must comply or face his wrath!

2005-12-09T15:57:00.000-06:00

Alrighty.... so I babysit for the guy and this is all the thanks I get! I get tagged by a MEME. It's okay though, I forgive you Contagion, but only because Clone behaved and deep down I know that you're actually a nice guy :-) (Contrary to what you're always trying to get people to believe...)

So here it is folks:
1. Do you use an alarm clock to wake up in the morning?

I actually use the alarm clock on my cell phone... does that count? Since I'm in the dorm and my bed is bunked a real alarm clock would force me to actually get up and out of bed in the morning instead of being able to conveniently shut it off and go back to sleep for 20.

2. What time do you set it for?
Usually 7, or 7:05. Depends on what time I have class or what time I need to be to my middle school to observe. Some morning 6:30 (gasp) because of special clinical meetings. Talk about suck!

3. Do you hit the snooze button? If so how many times?
Too complicated for a cell phone. If you allow a snooze it goes off every five minutes. That interrupts my extra sleep.

4. Have you ever abused an alarm clock?
What do you think I am , a heathen?! I set the damn thing... I can't very well get angry when it goes off now can I?

5. It’s time to spread some “It’s Blogcess” linky love.This isn't a question. Does it actually count?
Rules of the game, so I have been told: (I copied all of this from Contagion, though.. so...)

First: Copy and paste #1 - #5 (Make sure to link to: “It’s Blogcess”, which is the link in #5. Because it’s always polite to link to the one who started the linky love.)
Second: Link to my site (because it’s polite to link to the site that tagged you).
Third: Go and tag up to five other blogs, or more if ya like.
Fourth: Email the owner of, or post on the blogs that you have tagged, to inform them that you’ve tagged them.

I'm deciding not to tag anyone though, because, well, I don't really know who to tag and who is likely to seek retribution. I'll wait for a few more before I start doing that I think.

Say hello Artemis!

2005-11-30T21:32:00.000-06:00

So I got a new betta fish! Yay! Now that makes two goldfish (Bacchus and Demeter) and two bettas (Apollo and Artemis), totalling three tanks! More to clean ! Hooray!

But I got Artemis settled into his new home today. He's having a little bit of trouble adjusting to the water differences, but hopefully he gets better and starts to enjoy his pretty little setup. I'm trying something new with the tanks this time around. I'm using real plants to help regulate the nitrite/nitrate levels of the tank. Supposedly this will help keep things a little cleaner/stabler.

Hopefully they don't kill the fish or the fish don't eat them. I'll keep you updated.

Back in the saddle again...

2005-11-30T21:23:00.000-06:00

Alright... so being home went by way faster than I would have liked. Sadly I didn't get to visit everyone I wanted to see either. I did see Contagion and Ktreva for a spell, but I didn't even get to spend time with Chastity. :-(

(I did get some cutesie stuff for baby though! I'd say what I got but she reads this sometimes so I'd rather play it safe.)

Anyway. I'm back at school and already it's back to hectic schedules of work, class, clinicals (this term I'm in a middle school to teach...) and extra curricular. I worked out last night with my roomie for an hour and a half. (lol... we're going to keep each other whipped into shape by showing no quarter when it comes to working out...) I figure, and hour and a half... that should cover the next two weeks... too bad we all know that I'll have to actually stick to it for results.

I'm going dancing this friday with the dance club, so I'm trying desperately to get all of my reading for American Lit. and Shakespeare finished. I'm also caroling in the District this friday with my choir.

Well, the sooner I start the sooner I finish. Oh, and I've come up with the idea that we should get maids in college. Especially since I pay 30,000 a year for tuition. I haven't done dishes since before break and I think they're starting to move on their own. At least we still have a couple plastic spoons I guess...

I survived....

2005-11-23T13:53:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I babysat Clone and have lived to tell the tale. However, right now I'm making pies for Thanksgiving and I've been working 8hr days at Kohls, so I won't get to tell everyone what happened until later tonight. So check back.

UPDATE:
Alright, so babysitting Clone was actually really really fun and I wouldn't mind doing it again. He was really good all night. We read a lot of books, and then watched some muppet babies, and the Incredibles. We ate a pizza together and just hung out putting puzzles together and the likes.

It was pretty fun. I almost thought about switching to teach younger grades, then I thought about what about the kids that don't have as many good days, and decided to stick with high school and just baby-sit toddlers occasionally.

I wonder if Contagion will maybe take a few months off of my indenture for that or if it's just part of the job detail. Hmmm....

HOWEVER

I have come upon a little quandry that I need help with.

There's this song by the Killers called "All these things I've Done" or something close to that.

There's this line in the song that goes "... I want to shine on in the hearts of men..."

Now the English teacher part of me is screaming "this has to be an allusion to something because this band couldn't come up with something so profound on their own!" but for the life of me I cannot drum up where this idea of shining on in the hearts of men comes from...

Can anyone help me find the history of this little phrase? It's driving me nuts!

This may be the last time you hear from me....

2005-11-19T15:39:00.000-06:00

That's right. I'm babysitting tonight, so if I don't make it back alive, well... pray for my soul.

Why, Virtue, you say... it's only a small child. What could he possible do?

If it were any other child I might agree. However, tonight I am babysitting *pause for dramatic effect*

Clone

That's right- Contagion's offspring.

Wish me luck!

(In all reality, I'm pretty excited about babysitting. I like kids if they're not a blood relation. I've never babysat for Contagion before, but I'm sure Clone and I will have an interesting evening. I'll be sure to post if anything uber cute or funny happens... assuming I make it back...)

Mama I'm Coming Home...

2005-11-16T12:28:00.000-06:00

HOORAY!

Finals are over! I have a week and a half break for Thanksgiving! I've kind of started Christmas shopping and I'm coming home tonight! Yeah!

I think I might try to surprise Contagion and Ktreva sometime by droppin' in sometime this week. I haven't seen them in a while (except for in passing at a funeral... but that's not a good place to catch up with friends) and I miss Contagion's surly-ness in person. Since I missed the last two events of the season I've been deprived of his derogatory comments towards me for quite some time now and I just feel like somethings missing from my life... HA!

And I get to see Chastity and her big tummy! It's so exciting that I'm going to be an auntie!

Okay... I'm going to pack my stuff now!

WoooHooo!

This is for us ladies...

2005-11-15T23:56:00.000-06:00

So I was over visiting Bad Example when I saw this post from Harvey basically talking about how women are like cars that don't run and that why men like them... Okay, so that was a really bad paraphrase, but you can read the actual post if you want to by clicking here.

So anyways... I thought that this was in the spirit of fun (and a little getting even for the ladies)

By the way, my dad sent me this e-mail but I just thought it was funny enough to post.

NEW EVENING CLASSES FOR MEN!!!
ALL ARE WELCOME
OPEN TO MEN ONLY
Note: due to the complexity and level of difficulty, each course will accept a maximum of eight participants

The course covers two days, and topics covered in this course include:

DAY ONE

HOW TO FILL ICE CUBE TRAYS
Step by step guide with slide presentation

TOILET ROLLS- DO THEY GROW ON THE HOLDERS?
Roundtable discussion

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LAUNDRY BASKET & FLOOR
Practicing with hamper (Pictures and graphics)

DISHES & SILVERWARE; DO THEY LEVITATE/FLY TO KITCHEN SINK OR DISHWASHER BY THEMSELVES?
Debate among a panel of experts.

LOSS OF VIRILITY
Losing the remote control to your significant other - Help line and support groups

LEARNING HOW TO FIND THINGS
Starting with looking in the right place instead of turning the house upside down while screaming
- Open forum

DAY TWO

EMPTY MILK CARTONS; DO THEY BELONG IN THE FRIDGE OR THE BIN?
Group discussion and role play

HEALTH WATCH; BRINGING HER FLOWERS IS NOT HARMFUL TO YOUR HEALTH
PowerPoint presentation

REAL MEN ASK FOR DIRECTIONS WHEN LOST
Real life testimonial from the one man who did

IS IT GENETICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO SIT QUIETLY AS SHE PARALLEL PARKS?
Driving simulation

LIVING WITH ADULTS; BASIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN YOUR MOTHER AND YOUR PARTNER
Online class and role playing

HOW TO BE THE IDEAL SHOPPING COMPANION
Relaxation exercises, meditation and breathing techniques

REMEMBERING IMPORTANT DATES & CALLING WHEN YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE
Bring your calendar or PDA to class

GETTING OVER IT; LEARNING HOW TO LIVE WITH BEING WRONG ALL THE TIME
Individual counselors available

To the three people who regularly read my blog...

2005-11-15T23:13:00.000-06:00

I'm not going to kid myself into mass readership stats here, because I know that I don't blog enough for huge quantities of readers, nor is my blog of the same calbre as those who speak on more profound or "current events" matters.

But I was thinking to myself...

Contagion, Harvey, and Grau are the three people who basically read when I post. (You could say regularly I guess... but I don't always post regularly, so it could get tricky.) If you aren't these one of these three then just be warned that I'm about to get sappy.

You guys always leave me comments, and you really offer me support... *sniffle* Well, I just want to say thank you. (That goes for everyone who reads and comments occasionally too, or even just reads, but these guys do it a lot more than they have to) It really keeps me going to know that no matter how shitey my blog entries are you find some aspect to comment on. I know I can't post as often as I'd like, but when I do post you are there and you make me feel like not such a blog loser for having no comments.

And Harv, you've plugged me on Love Notes twice and both you and Contagion have helped me with blog code. Grau... you're always there with the "don't give her weapons" or "are you crazy, she'll kill everyone!" comments. And that just makes me happy!

Now don't go getting all big headed on me or anything, because I know that I'm not the only puny blog you guys read and comment on and that makes me even more thankful. You guys really are good bloggers. And the fact that you make it a point to comment on my blog, even though you read and comment on so many other better blogs, is very cool to me.

This brings me to my next question:

How on earth do you have time for anything else???? What, do you bums just sit at your computer and blog all day?! And you talk about the kids these days spending too much time at the computer... golly-jeez.

But seriously... you guys are swell :-)

Brief Update- MacGyver Guy and I

2005-11-15T23:11:00.000-06:00

Okay, so for those of you who knew, MacGyver Guy and I were on the rocks for a little while, but I'm, well, happy I guess, to inform you that things have been successfully worked out for both parties and we are again an official couple. Sorry for all the confusion and you have my word that it won't happen again :-)

WHa? They're dating?! OMG

2005-11-15T22:50:00.000-06:00

Okay, so call me silly, but have you ever had a time in your circle of friends where two people start dating and nobody realizes it until one day someone says:

"You know, Raquelle and Mike have been spending an awful lot of time together... do you think they might be... you know..."

And everyone looks at that person and replies:

"Are you insane? They would make a good couple and all, but man... no way! They're just good friends..."

Fast forward to two weeks later and you're at the Culvers with said group of friends + Raquelle and Mike and I go:

"Should we maybe, you know, leave them seats by each other or something?"

And someone says:

"Wait, are they actually dating or something?"

And I say:

"Well, I dunno... it kind of seems like it. I haven't asked or anything. Do any of you know?"

And they all stare at you until someone breaks the ackward silence with:

"Well, why would we ask..."

And then I go:

"Well.... someone should because this is damnedably confusing."

Blank Stares.

"So who wants to do it?"

More blank stares.

Then Raquelle comes over with her food and sits at one end of the table and we all continue conversations that we never were actually having before so as not to appear obvious. Then Mike sits at the other empty chair at the other end of the table and all proceeds as normal ( aside from everyone giving each other that "ask them look" which is then returned by that "no, you ask them" look, until dinner is over and we're riding back to school.)

Then some of the group goes over to Erickson basement (a res. hall common area) to bake some cookies (yeah, that's what we do for fun sometimes, okay?) However, I decide to go back to my room and try on my new dancing outfit for Cha-Cha lessons and dance night next month. However, my roomie goes to the basement with T, Mike and Raquelle to bake.

I'm in the middle of writing a post and she barges in and is like:

"OMG! Raquelle and Mike really are dating!"

Now the question on everyone's mind is Now what are we going to do? They've apparently been dating for the last two weeks and nobody's realized it all the way. What happens if they break up? I am totally not taking sides in this. Not that they are the kind of people who would be all dramatic about it. I mean, they seem pretty level headed and all, but think about what this could do to the dynamics of the group!! Gad! It could shoot it all to hell!

However, after getting over the shock and writing this post I think they will deal admirably well together and may have a bright future ahead of them.

Gosh... I'm such a gossip.

I've decided that I really love to go dancing...

2005-11-13T13:10:00.000-06:00

So, last night I went dancing for my first time. Not that ghetto-fied booty bumping let's have sex on the dance floor with our clothes on type of dancing.

Social Dancing. You know, waltz, fox-trot, tango, rumba, cha-cha, etc. I absolutely loved it. I've been taking a social dance class for p.e. credit at school and our class decided to start a social dance club on campus. Some of the members are taking lessons at Arthur Murray (I'm looking into an instructing position there.)

Anyway, we found out about these monthly dance nights put on by USA dance at the American Legion and the Knights of Columbus. For five dollars you get a one-hour lesson in one of the dances that they are high-lighting and then from 8-11 there's a DJ that plays all sorts of social dance music.

Four of us decided to go to last nights event. The lesson was Bolero (the lovers dance.) Sweeeeet!

I had so much fun! Aside from the two elderly drunk guys who asked me to dance I had pretty decent partners for the evening. There were almost equal amounts of guys to girls. For a waltz I had an amazing lead. This guy was one of the best partners I've had ever! (I totally understand why the waltz was so scandalous when it was introduced to ballrooms back in the day. I never realized that your legs brush so much... wow.)

Then, there was a gentleman who asked me for a rumba. The only thing I know in rumba is the box, so I told him. He led me through crazy moves that I didn't know I could do! And I only messed up once at the end with this turn thing where my arms go over his head and stuff.

It was such a cool experience. I only got bumped into once and only got stepped on once. Not bad for my first time. Although, I did have this guy that partnered me for two dances in a row (a bolero and a cha cha) and man, he just couldn't find the beat! It was pretty bad.

Anyways... we are all going back next month for the cha cha. I can't wait. Who knew dancing could be so much fun?

Why I should be a teacher and other people shouldn't...

2005-11-02T19:08:00.000-06:00

So I was in one of my education classes today, talking with my table-mates (we sit in round tables with a group for the term. Yay for social learning!) about or made up Individual Education Plan for a made up student with disabilities.

The class I am in is about including individuals with disabilities in a "regular" classroom. We were talking about something, and it came up again how in my clinicals (the time I have to spend out in a classroom observing/and teaching) I was teaching a lesson and I asked my co-operating teacher where the dictionaries were and she looked at me like I had just told her that anthrax had been released in the vents of her room.

There weren't any, she told me. (I also noticed that the class was missing a world map, too.) I was relating this to my table-mates, and when meathead (affectionately called because he's a football player/ language arts education major) told me about something his co-op had told the class when they were doing a vocab assignment.

"I don't care what you think the word means, I care what the dictionary says it means!"

Verbatim. She told this to her classroom. I think to myself, brilliant. Just f-ing brilliant.

When I'm a teacher... If I ever get like that I think I'd have someone take me out and shoot me.

Hey everyone!!! I'm NOT a VIRGIN anymore!!!

2005-11-01T22:17:00.000-06:00

So.... I lost my virginity this past Friday night... wait, technically Saturday morning... so the 28th/29th of October 2005! WooHoo!

Wait a second... you have a dirty, dirty mind. Not THAT virginity.

I went to see my first Rocky Horrow Picture Show LIVE! (You silly kids these days, I tell ya.)

Let's just say it went splendidly. I dressed as Janet (meaning a bra, slip, and white panties for those of you who aren't Rocky Horror fanatics.) and I got to wear a big sign that said "Virgin... Be Gentle" as well as getting a big kiss from Frankie on one cheek and a huge V in lipstick on the other. Other than that the initiation to the Rocky Horror cult, I mean club, went pretty painlessly. I did the time warp almost flawlessly and I only got hit in the head with toast once. The only problem was it got cold in the theatre near the end of the show.

I'm waiting for pictures of this monumentous night, so keep an eye out. I'll post one as soon as I get them e-mailed to me.

UPDATE: Here's a couple pictures... enjoy! (One of these ended up as the facebook pic for Rocky Horror Club at Augie. I'm sure this looks great for me if any of my students ever find it...)

Above Right- Me and "Brad", the ever-faithful engaged couple

Above Left- That's me in my costumed glory! Don't I make a good Janet?

Rejected Bon Jovi Album titles...

2005-10-31T23:07:00.000-06:00

So, I was talking to MacGyver (Dr. Special has since become known as MacGyver... apparently he has worshiped MacGyver in secret for years and now has become known on campus as "that MacGyver Guy." I'm so proud.) and for some reason we got on the subject of Bon Jovi.

Now, I enjoy some good old Bon Jovi myself, but MacGyver was on to something... he started thinking up rejected Bon Jovi album names.
He came up with someand wanted to know if anyone could think of any more...

Rejected Bon Jovi Album Titles :
Children at Play
Dangerous Curves
Men at Work
Barrier Ahead
4315.6 degrees celsius
4588.705124 degrees kelvin
West Virginia
Rhode Island
One Mediocre Afternoon- Pre Recorded
100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans stand a pretty good chance at getting it right even if they all just answer "C" for the whole thing...

Any other LP titles that didn't maket the cut?

White Board of the Week

2005-10-12T22:51:00.000-05:00

To my roommate after she returned from a weekend at home:

To my dearest roommate

I have missed your company more than the blossom misses the sun when the shadow of the storm cloud passes overhead. Being without you is comparable to being one shoe alone in the lost and found of life. I am hopeful that your return will bring the sun out from behind the clouds. Oh, where are you other shoe?

Sincerely

Your roomie

I'm poetic aren't I?

Why can't it all just stop and be thanksgiving break already?

2005-10-08T19:48:00.000-05:00

So, I've muddled through to finally make it to mid-terms. I gave a tour to a family today and I also have a chick in my room right now that's staying the night. Hey, it's ten bucks and free dinner/breakfast... that's cool.

What sucks is that somewhere between clinicals, clinical journals, lesson plans, teaching lessons, work, class, work, portfolio, work, registering, choir, work, and sleeping/eating/showering, my re-enactment season has ended. I have no hope for Trail. It's depressing.

My mother told me that she was proud of me because I put my education first and did the responsible thing. I cannot wait until these whole 40 hr clinical experience per term things are over and I can get back to having a life, (or at least a life that consists of things other than those listed above.) I have decided, however, to create a historical re-enactment society of Augustana.

How's that for a creative way to bring my life back to me? Since I can't go to the event, I'll bring the event to my campus! It's brilliant! I'm awaiting feedback from the student body to see if I'll have enough support to lobby for organizational status. Let's hope word of mouth still works.

Alright. I've got to get back to hosting my overnight. I miss you blog-friends and family. As soon as Thanksgiving break hits I will write every other day!

Still breathing...

2005-09-19T22:13:00.000-05:00

So I thought this school year would be not so hectic.... ha!

I've had clinicals (where I sit and observe a classroom to see what it's going to be like when I'm a teacher) three days a week this term plus the five classes I'm taking. Which, since we're on tri-mesters, we're only supposed to take three-four at the very most.

I'm going to spontaneously combust or something.

I can't even make it to Belvidere this weekend for an event.

I know, I know. School first and all, but still....... I've been doing Belvidere for a long time. It's hard to miss an event. But there's no way I could go and manage to stay on top of my homework. I've got to prepare lessons to teach and two research projects.

I know when I'm a teacher this will all pay off, but right now it sucks major... yeah.. you know what.

Uhg. I'll write more as soon as I have time. I feel kind of bad for neglecting my blog, but... well... not failing just takes precedence sometimes.

Nobody can ever tell me I don't have my priorities straight.

A whole new world... my magic carpet ride revisited

2005-09-01T23:19:00.000-05:00

So I was iming a very good friend of mine tonight who I haven't spoken to in a while. Not an uberlong time, but a good amount of weeks. I really enjoy his wit and sense of humor, so it's a pleasure to talk with him when we get the chance.

As I was catching him up on the nitty gritty of life, I told him about Aladdin, from walmart. LoL.

His first reaction was "You're F-ing Sh-ing me!" and after assuring him that it was indeed no hoax, he began to make the various "rub my lamp," "I'm a genie in a bottle, baby" comments. It was all well and hilarious. And the conversation continued to other avenues.

However, as we were nearing the end of our conversation, somehow Mr. Morocco himself was brought up again. Something about creepy guys being not cool. The rest was pretty close to as follows:

Friend: Then it's just creepy.
Me: Like Aladdin...Ewww.
Friend: A whole neeeew woooorld.... A new fantastic point of view....
Me(as Aladdin): From my basement with a web-cam....
Friend: ...Let me share this whole new world with you....
Me: Think of it as Paris... in my trunk....
Friend: Well, you have to admit that sure beats buying real plane tickets...

I was laughing so hard so hard I actually started crying. My friend really did laugh out loud, and I spent the next five minutes trying to recover. Maybe it's not funny to you. Maybe it's one of those things where you had to be there.

But I thought it was freaking great.

I'll never be able to watch that movie the same again.

I think I did HaloScan right this time!!

2005-09-01T17:10:00.000-05:00

I think I did it right this time.

Check it out and let me know if it works.....

sanitizing drinking water with bleach or iodine

2005-09-01T11:29:00.000-05:00

So I know it's not like I get any regular readers other than Harv and Contagion, but I figure just in case by some fluke accident someone close enough to Katrina victims happens to read this (by some miracle of God) that I should link to it.

So... Harvey of Bad Example posted a quick how to on purifing water for drinking using bleach and iodine. So check it out and see if you can't get it to someone who can use it.

I'm proud to call him grandda! (Well, bloggrandda... but you know what I meant)

mmm... campfire

2005-09-01T11:21:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting in my dorm room reading Today's Love Note over at Bad Example, when a sweet, serene smell wafts in from my window... I instantly relax back in my chair and take a deeeeep breath. mmmmmmmmm.... campfire.

Now, this smell is also similiar to that of burning leaves, so it's possible that it's not an actual campfire that I smell, but some sort of burning foliage. But I don't care. To me, it's campfire, and that can mean only one thing... an event. (as in, historical re-enactment/rendezvous.) Ah sweet smokey burning.

They say that scent is the number one trigger for memory. I have to say that I agree. (Of course, I could just be in a sappy mood after reading harv's love note...)

Everytime I smell burning leaves or campfire I relax before my mind even has time to think of why. Then the conscious thought takes over and I relive good memories from past years.
Maybe it's just me, but I'm pretty sure this phenomena happens occasionally to every re-enactor. Allow me to divulge ...

When you get to an event, you're usually clean, in street clothes and you still smell pretty decent (not counting the two hour sweaty car drive where you spilled ketchup on you pants and got McFlurry all over your cup holder because it melted before you could eat it all...) Upon arriving, the smell of burning wood is one of the first things that assails your senses. This is classical conditioning at it's finest folks.

Now, once you get acclimated (aka, you smell so much like smoke yourself you don't notice anymore) you forget that you are still breathing in the smell. You go the whole weekend not noticing that you smell like (as Contagion would say) "funk and ass" and smoke. You have all of these good, happy times smelling like F&A and smoke, and then the weekend is over.

You put your street clothes back on, which now smell like everything else you brought with you (including your underwear that were in your trunk all weekend,) and you return to civilization. When you walk into that Arby's to pick up dinner on the way home, it hits you. You absolutely reek! I'm not talking a mild, unpleasant odor... I'm talking BO from not showering in three days with a strong burnt pine scent floating off your hair.

For days afterwards, everytime you take a shower that smell comes back (not so much the BO, but the burnt pine...) and you just stop for a moment and smile to yourself. Life is good. You wash your event clothes (at least, everyone but Contagion who likes to smell) but they still come out with the faint eau-de-smoke. Then you pack them away in your trunk which smells so much like campfire sometimes during off season you open it up just to take a sniff. (Yes, similiar to a coke addict, I guess...only less damaging and perhaps more embarrassing when you're caught.)

Yes, all of this from one deep inhalation of campfire. It's nice to reminisce sometimes.

So I take another deep breath and ... wait... is that... glass cleaner?! Damn cleaning people have to go an ruin a perfectly good trip into my private little world of thoughts stimulated by smell.

Anyone else got any good smell/good memory links, or am I the only weirdo in the family?

Reflections on New Orleans

2005-08-31T21:01:00.000-05:00

So Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and the deathtoll could be in the thousands.

Such a loss. Even if it's not in the thousands (pray that it's not) so many lives cut short.

Equal to that, the history of the city is 20ft below flood water. You can't just get that back.

So sad.

People. Homes. History. Gone.

I met a friend... yay! (now if I could only remember his name...)

2005-08-31T15:15:00.000-05:00

So I had my orientation for my peer mentor job on campus (I lead lost first years around for their first weekend so they don't get homesick for mommy and daddy...)

We had to sit through the reading of the schedule for the entire weekend, and it was pretty long and drawn out with jokes few and far between. At the break for lunch we had an hour and a half, so I decided to do some errands I needed to do.

(This is tangent to the meat and potatoes of this post, but I'm going to write it in this post instead of a different one, so deal)

I stopped by my 2nd job (secretary asst. in the Dean of Students office) to give D. the hours I can work this term so she could set up my schedule. They were supposed to be turned in last week, but my 3rd job (student Ambassador for the admissions office) didn't have the schedule done yet, so I didn't know when I was available for D. After getting that straightened out I had one more dreadful stop before going to lunch and back to my mentor job. The Office of Financial Assistance... *cue dramatic music*

After having a good, if embarrassing, cry in the financial aid lady's office, we got everything straightened out and I don't have to come home until the end of the school year. I don't know why I was so stressed about it, because I knew they would help me as much as they could, but I was still worried it wouldn't be enough. However, they worked with me and I'm supposed to stop back tomorrow to finalize everything. Relief. Huge relief.

(Back to the main point)

After my errands and talking to my mom about the monies situation, I ate lunch at the caf. It was only one and I didn't have to be back to orientation until 1:30, but I decided to just go back up to the loft (where we were meeting) and wait it out.

There were a couple of other people there with the same idea. I took a nap, and then at 1:30 we had a talk from a big wig that took about 10 minutes. Since it was supposed to take a lot longer than that we had a bunch of free time before we had to be paired up with out faculty advisor (aka partner in crime.) So I was talking with the girl next to me who lived on my floor last year, when this guy who has been sitting in the back pulls his chair up next to mine. I turn and look at him and he smiles and says:

"I see you have a pet-co card on you key ring." I had my keys hanging out of my back pocket. He lifts the key ring petco card to show me. "What kind of pet do you have?"
Smooth. Ask a gal about her pets. He knows how to get me talking.

I tell him about my beta fish, three cats, and golden retriever and he tells me about his calaco kitten. Then we introduce ourselves. He's from polo, a small town about 40 min? away from Rockford. We chat about Rockford and school and my major (although I never caught his) and then about who our faculty advisor is. It was a genuinely nice conversation. Not like the "my my" and "oh really?" chat I was having with the two people beside me earlier.

I would actually converse with this person again. Maybe even hang out or something. By the time our advisors came to collect us, I realized that I had maybe just started the beginning of an acquaintanceship. I made a sort of a friend today! Yay! It made me feel good about myself.

I'm not a complete social reject. And he didn't once stare at my boobs or ask me to go to a foreign country with him to stay with his family. It was nice.

So I was walking back to my dorm thinking, wow, there really are nice people still left on this planet. I'll have to look him up on facebook or something when I get back... Then I realized something. I'd forgotten his name! 25 minute conversation with this guy and I totally don't remember what his name is. Hopefully next time I see him he has his nametag on so I can pretend like I didn't forget.

*sigh*

I'm such a blond.

The Quizzy Bandwagon

2005-08-30T11:36:00.000-05:00

Katharine Hepburn
You scored 7% grit, 19% wit, 61% flair, and 19% class!

You are the fabulously quirky and independent woman of character. You go your own way, follow your own drummer, take your own lead. You stand head and shoulders next to your partner, but you are perfectly willing and able to stand alone. Others might be more classically beautiful or conventionally woman-like, but you possess a more fundamental common sense and off-kilter charm, making interesting men fall at your feet. You can pick them up or leave them there as you see fit. You share the screen with the likes of Spencer Tracy and Cary Grant, thinking men who like strong women.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 0% on grit

You scored higher than 20% on wit

You scored higher than 99% on flair

You scored higher than 26% on class

Link: The Classic Dames Test written by gidgetgoes on Ok Cupid

Virtue's magic carpet ride at wally world (Cue music: I'm too sexy for my...)

2005-08-29T17:51:00.000-05:00

So I went out to Wally World yesterday to get some essentials for the dorm room (Wheat thins, orange soda, curtain fabric and the likes,) and I was the quintessential 18th century harlot. Now, just in case you're not aware, in the 18th century all women covered their hair at all times in reverence to God, and they never, ever, would have considered showing elbow or ankle to anyone in public.

I was wearing a tank top, capris (although the high top chuck taylors did cover my ankles, a good part of my shin was exposed) and I didn't have any tipe of head covering on at all. This is the only reason I can think of to explain exactly what happened. Yes, there is a reason that I'm mentioning this. I'll get to it. Just keep that stuff in mind.

I get dressed in my dorm room, and go downstairs to my car. I pass the front desk and the desk assistant catches my eye as I'm leaving the building.

"Hey, what's up?" He says.

"Not much" I reply.

"Going out?"

"Yeah."

"Too bad I'm working, then..." He smiles and I am so taken aback that I stop and just stare at him for a moment with a "you really were talking to me?" look. Then I snap back to reality when he says "Maybe next time I guess."

"Sure." I smile and leave. That was a little odd. Not that I'm butt ugly or something, but I usually don't have guys notice me a lot, let alone initiate dialogue.

I get into my car and drive to walmart. At the stoplight by the gas station I get stuck at a red. I'm in the lane going straight. Now, I am in the pimp mobile at this moment, and that could very well be the cause for this specific incident. People can't resist the pimp mobile.

Two guys in a truck (a nice truck, not a semi) pull up beside me in the turn lane. The one on the passenger side looks at me, then says something to his driver friend, who then leans forward and does the same. The driver is now smiling at me and nods a hello. I lift an eyebrow, and if that eyebrow could talk it would have said "Can I help you with something?"

That's when I hear a horn blaring from the turn lane. Mr. Sexy Truck Man had a green arrow but was too busy trying to flirt with me to see it. I laughed as the guy on the passenger side looked back at me over his shoulder. That's only happened to me once before, and it was when I made Dr Special miss the turn to his house because I was driving beside him.

Fast forward.

Now I'm at wally world. In the parking lot I get at least two "Hey Baby's" and an almost discreet "Did you guys check her out?" (I say almost because I obviously wasn't far enough away not to hear.) In the store I get about four offers for assistance from male clerks as well as numerous "How are you today's" and smiles and nods. Now, if I were in Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, I would say people were just being friendly.

But I found it kind of weird that only they males were being friendly. So now I'm thinking, great, my boob is falling out or something and that's why they are all drooling. But a quick boob check confirms that the girls are tucked in. I also checked my fly and all seams on my pants. Everything was in perfect order.

I pick up what I need and head to the speedy checkout. While in line, I get an "I like your shirt" comment from a pair of guys entering the store. My shirt? It's a plain black tank top. What's to like? Whatever. I check out, and am on my way to the car. That's when my night goes from odd to just flat out bizzarro.

I get stoped by a 34 year old morocan Public Relation specialist named Aladdin. I shite you not.
He tells me his name is "Aladdin... like the lamp."

Now, I haven't watched Aladdin in a while, but I was pretty sure that the lamp itself was not called Aladdin, but that the main character with the monkey was. Am I not remembering correctly?

So Aladdin like the lamp is from Morocco and speaks french. I know because he asked me for assistance in french first and I have a few years under my belt. So I thought I would try to help him. Then he says that I can come to Paris with him and we can stay with his family. He has traveled all over the world. He says some stuff in French that I don't understand and then gives me his phone number and tells me to call him at "onze heurs. Promis." (11 o clock. Promise.) I nod and say okay so I can leave. It's kind of creeping me out. Then he asks if he can kiss my hand! What the fudge is up with this guy??!!!! I shake my head no and give him my best "Are you a freaking psycho?" look.

"I only ask" he says "because you remind me of a princess." Alright Aladdin, IF that is your real name. I don't know what kind of tarts you think we grow here in America, but if you think any girl in her right mind is going to fall all over herself because you ask to kiss her hand because she reminds you of a princess you'd best damn well forget it pal!

(I remind you of a princess. I expect nothing less that I am a princess and you want to treat me like one for the rest of my life. I.E. pay my tuition, give me spending money, and leave me alone.) Lol.... j/k. I wouldn't even fall for that one.

Creeeepy.

I'm flattered. But no.

After politely declining the offer to assist me in carrying my packages to the car I got the hell out of there.

On the drive back, I thought about the day as a whole. When I got back to my dorm, I was laughing pretty hard about Aladdin and our trip to paris. (I'm not going by the way. Too much homework... lol.)

That had to have been once of the oddest trips to walmart I've ever made. I felt kind of bad because I didn't call Aladdin at 11 like I said I would. But then, if I did call Aladdin, then who would be next, you know? One time it's Aladdin, the next thing you know I've got Mickey on line two with Timone and Pumba on hold for a threesome... ::Sigh::

Now, I can't think of a single thing that was different about me on that certain trip to walmart that would have caused such a response. It's not like I walked out of the dorm in a teddy or something. So, the only conclusion I could think of was that what was a turn on in the 18th century is still a turn on now. And I was exuding sex-rays from my hair and elbows and legs.

Based on this conclusion I have decided never again to go to walmart unless I am wearing a bonnet, long sleeves, and those really baggy pants that look like a skirt... what are they called?

This way I am never again invited to Paris by an Arabian Disney character who speaks french.

AAAARRRRGGGG!!!

2005-08-29T17:41:00.000-05:00

Well, I got all my stuff moved into my dorm. My parents were nice enough to pack the van up and drive down here to help me move in. (Although a special thanks to Contagion for volunteering half the guys with a large vehicle in the clan, as well as himself, to help ;-) You know you just wanted to storm my dorm in a kilt fully armed. When should I expect that, by the way?

It was actually sort of sad yesterday. After moving my stuff we went out to Godfather's for dinner, and although my dad and I got into a minor disagreement, I didn't let that get in the way of having a nice last supper with them.

What's really bothering me is that I don't have anything to do while I'm here except sleep and breathe. Work doesn't start until wednesday (then I won't have time for anything.) And I can't get the freakin' internet in my room. It says I'm connected to the network, but there is no internet. I should probably call ITS, but they are just going to tell me to configure to the network and restart. I already did that. So I'm in the Westerlin computer lab writing my posts.

It's sad.

On the plus side, today alone I've finished two sets of curtains for my room, and reupholstered the chair because it was itchy. I still have a little bit left to unpack, but I am trying to leave something for tomorrow. I even called my dad for a few before I went to McDonald's to get supper.

I'll probably go sew a little more and listen to some music before bed. I might actually start reading a book that I bought for Dr Special as a welcome back gift. I cannot wait for school to start.

Or at least for people I know to get here.

ARRRRGGG!!!

He's Alive!

2005-08-25T21:52:00.000-05:00

Well, I guess I can cross "his plane crashes" and "his bus gets rammed by a semi" off of my "What If" list for Dr. Special's trip to Washington.

He called me this morning to let me know that they arrived alright and were going to the fish market and a couple of other sights today. He sounded tired, but assured me that he was fine and it was just because it was early.

I'm still a little worried about him, but I've been trying to keep myself really busy so that I don't notice. He said he'll call me again tomorrow, but he's not sure when. so basically I'll have my cell glued to my person so I don't miss the call, and then after he calls me I'll tell myself how ridiculous I was and I shouldn't spend my entire day practically waiting for the phone to ring.

You would think after three years together I wouldn't be waiting for the phone like some luvstruck pre-teen. But alas, I do, and it's almost nauseating. I say almost because I guess if it didn't affect me very much when we are apart it would suggest that my feelings for him are not that strong. So perhaps it's a good thing. It still sucks.

I just hope he has a good time and comes back with all vital organs in working order.

Oh, and maybe a t-shirt or something for me, you know, like a souvenir to say "Hey even though I was in Seattle having a great time without you I thought of you enough to buy you this 10 dollar fish market shirt!"

Okay, so he's acually a lot better at buying souvenirs than that, but I'm melancholy right now, geez. I think I'm actually going to go to bed. and it's only 10 o'clock. It's a sad day when I go to bed at 10 o'clock. I need a life.

Back to school again

2005-08-25T21:36:00.000-05:00

"Mama please. Your child's come down with a fatal disease! ... Save my soul, the board of education took away my parole! It's back to school again..." ~Back to School, Grease 2

(yeah that's right, I said Grease 2. I love that movie so deal with it..)

Well, I've started packing up my junk for school. It sucks! How can one person have so much crap?? I don't know how I fit all of it into the dorm room last year, let alone in the freakin' car! I'm really thinking that the pioneers had the right idea. Take only what you could carry and absolutely had to.

It takes to much friggin' time to get the rest of the junk together. But on the plus side, I'm finding things that I thought I would never see again. I finally am done working until I get on campus so I actually have time to pack. I've still got that pesky list of things to get done before I leave though. ( This is when it's bad to procrastinate.)

I guess I have mixed feelings about going back.

On one hand, I'm happy because right now there are 15 people living in my house and the luxury of having a roommate (as in, singular) is pretty appealing. I'm also ready to get my degree done and get out into the world to find a "real" job.

On the other hand, financial aid is always an issue. My parents are supporting this household of 15 and filed bankruptcy 2 yrs ago. A 30,000 a yr private school costs quite a bit and if I can't come up with all of my first terms tuition at once then looks like I'll be taking a term off. Pray that won't happen though.

So, I'm packing and praying that something comes through and I get the extra four thousand that I need.

On the bright side, I finished a duvet cover today and hope on getting a friend of mine's stuff done before I have to leave. Oh well... back to the grind I guess...

Back from the land of the Internetless

2005-08-24T10:44:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the long absence. Technical difficulties and all. Let's not dwell on that, but let's just be happy that I am back and the man is in seattle for 10 days!

Woot!

That's 10 days of, that's right folks, freedom! Should be great, right?

NOT.

It would be great if I weren't such a worrywort. I enjoy having time to myself to sew, clean, read, and blog. But it would be a heck of a lot better if I weren't thinking at the same time that maybe something will go wrong.

What if...

his plane crashes
he falls off Mt. Ranier
his bus gets rammed by a semi
he gets bit by some poisonous insect, reptile, etc.
he gets bit by a not so poisonous but just as deadly bear or mountain lion or other indiginous man eater
he forgot clean socks
he gets lost on a trail, runs out of food, and eats his fellow campers (or worse, they eat him!)
he puts a pick ax in his foot as they are inspecting the rocks and can't get to the hospital in time so ends up bleeding to death

I could go on, but for the sake of sanity I will stop at that. You see what I mean? How can I possibly enjoy 10 days of that?! At least he left on good terms. We weren't fighting and nit-picking. Gad! I can't imagine how guilty I would feel if we were fighting and he left and something happened to him!

Of course, with him gone, I can make plans for myself without having to ask what he's doing. I can sleep in and pack my own crap for college instead of helping him pack his. So, I am happy that I have 10 days to just worry about myself, but I wish I could get myself to stop worrying about him too. ::sigh::

Only 9 days, 12 hours and 37 minutes before he's back.

Lions and Tigers and ...Burglars? oh my....

2005-07-28T00:51:00.000-05:00

So I get home from softball tonight after dropping the boy toy off at his house. It's about 10:30 or so.

I'm humming the Red Hot Chili Peppers song that was last playing in the car when I walk around the van to go up and open the gate and see the garage side door is open.

We don't actually keep cars in our garage, mind you. We keep stuff. Bicyles, motorcycle, lawn mower, stuff I don't need now but am taking back to college with me, etc. It has been broken into once before and they stole a bunch of tools and the likes.

Seeing as the side door is always padlocked shut, I edge by the van, still humming and close the gate behind me. I walk up the sidewalk and into the house, locking the door behind me. I go upstairs to my dad, (why, I don't really know. I think maybe this time he won't make me do it.) and say "Dad, the garage door is open I think."

Now, there's really no reason for me to be as anxious about having to check it out if I need to. I know self-defense and am quite capable of taking care of myself in shady situations. I just don't like putting myself in those situations if I can avoid it.

"You'd better go check it out and see if anythings stolen," he says. "Then see if you can shut it." As an afterthought he adds, "Take your brother with you if you want." Yeah... no offense, but I highly doubt my 12 yr old bro is gonna fend off some burglar in the middle of the night. I stand a better chance alone, not having to protect him too.

Dad gives me the keys to the padlock, because it's so old that the sprng doesn't really work anymore, so the only way you can shut it is by holding the key turned and clicking it up and turning the key back to latch it in place. It's basically ghetto, but what are you gonna do? *sigh*

So, I go downstairs and seek a flashlight. There are no lights in my garage. Since it's mainly storage we usually don't use it at night, and it's unfinished on the inside, so there isn't any electricity or anything like that.

Of course, the big camp lantern flashlight that would have been most useful was borrowed by my cousins a couple days ago, which means the chances of my family ever seeing it again are very slim. I settle for a long, medium weight one with batteries that are obviously about to go out, but it was the only flashlight we had that actually sort of worked.

Now, I'm not stupid. I'm not going near that garage without some sort of means of protection aside from my own two hands and elbows. I scrounge around the basement looking for something suitable. I was going to take a bow staff or something of the like since I'm familiar with them, but I figured if something did happen and I hurt this burglar with a butterfly sword it would probably look a little contrived on my part, y'know? So any martial arts weapon is out. hmm.... what else is there....?

I take a look around the main storage area in the basement.

chainsaw.... too messy.
ice pick... have to be too close to use it.
iron... not practical, as I said, garage has not electricity
grill fork... possibility
sledge hammer.... closer, but could possible hurt more that intended for the situation
aha!
A rubber mallet! Hard enough to knock out but not to crush the skull. Perfect!

So I take the sledge hammer imposter and my flashlight out to the garage. I am ready to do battle!

I quietly walk up to the door and click the flashlight on. I shine it through the window, so they will know I have come. If they want to come out now, I'll let them go peacefully. If I find them in there when I search, I'll kill them.

Mallet in one hand, flashlight in the other, I kick the door open and quickly survey the area. Everything seems in order. All bicycles accounted for, motorcycle in place, bean bags unharmed. That's when I hear it!

"Come out from behind the pantry unit!" I exclaim. I see a shadow move and hear the rustling papers. I shine the light to the source of the sound. Nothing.

I do another survey of the garage with the light and find nothing. I step closer to the pantry unti, a knot tightening in my stomach. Something moves quickly towards the door and I drop the rubber mallet on it, catching a wisp of something beneath the mallet before I hear a sharp cry pierce the night.

"Meeeeeooooooooowwww!!!"

It was the cats tail. He must have snuck in while the door was open.

I lift the mallet and look around one final time before shutting the door. Right as I swing the door shut my dad hollars out from the upstairs window.

"Did you find anything?!" I look up after about wetting my pants at the sudden sound of his voice. My brother is looking out the window with him.

"No. Doesn't look like anything's stolen, but I'm not really sure what was in there to begin with, so I don't know for sure."

"Well, lock up and get in the house." Gee, thanks for the overwhelming concern that your oldest child just could have faced burglars for you. He looks into my hands and sees the mallet. "What were you going to do with that?"

"Hit 'im in the head hard enough to knock 'im out! What do you think?" And then he laughed at me! Like it was funny! I had just risked my life and because I took some thought as to the means of my defense he laughs, like it's cute or something!

That's it. Next time there might be burglars in the garage, he can go look into it, and if he takes a mallet, I'm going to laugh at him. Won't be so funny when he gets hit in the head because he didn't take anything to protect himself with.

Oh, then come to find out, the two sisters are the ones who didn't properly lock the side door, which is probably why it ended up open like that. I'm going to have to talk to them tomorrow. Maybe next time I should make them go face the burglars.

Killer bees in my basement!!!

2005-07-28T00:23:00.000-05:00

So, over the past two days I have come to suspect that there is a bee-hive somewhere on the outside of my house near the windows to the basement.

Why? you may ask. Let me enlighten you.

In the past two days, I have killed ten, count them, ten bees flying around by the window near the basement stairs. This also happens to be directly outside of my bedroom. Nice, huh? Get up to go pee in the middle of the night and get swarmed by killer bees. I have had to resort to wearing flip flops or slippers because I might step on an unconscious bee while trying to fend on the rest as I make a path to my door.

As if this weren't bad enough, I don't like bees. It's not that I think they're mean or ugly or anything, it's just that a couple of years ago, while I was in high school, I was attacked by them.

We have railroad ties that surround the patio in my back yard. There was a hive located inside one of the ties, and as I was mowing by the patio the mower must have hit the tie and vibrated the hive. The next thing I knew I was in the house with my sister pulling bees out my shirt hair and I had about 20 stings on my person. Good thing I'm not allergic.

I had never really had any other encounters with bees, except for one time at my dad's company picnic when I got stung when I went to take a drink of my soda, but the whole being swarmed by a hive of angry bees bit was pretty traumatic. So, I've got a bad history with them. They scare me a bit.

So, the first day I see mr. bee flying around my room I shoo him out and get my dad.

"Dad, there are bees in the basement." I say. He knows what happened and that I don't like bees. However, my dad is the kind of dad who tells you you're going to help him fix the toilet, only to really mean that you're going to fix the toilet, he's just going to supervise and watch you get drenched because you didn't have enough common sense to turn the water off. Then say to you, "Guess you should have thought about that before, eh?"

He looks at me with this 'you're telling me this why' look and says "So kill them."

There's no arguing that he should kill it because I don't like them. I simply ask "How?"

He shrugs and says "Get the flyswatter." Because a fly swatter is going to protect me from a swarm of pissed of bees! Yeah, okay.... and this piece of cardboard should also stop that armor piercing bullet from killing me too. Thanks dad.

I take the flyswatter and a piece of thick cardboard to the basement with me, but I also have a secret weapon... hairspray!

That's right. Hairspray. It gets on their wings and in their eyes and it gives me an advantage. I have since found earlier this morning that OFF deep woods bug spray works much better to knock them out and I have altered my method to incorporate this element.

My dad still hasn't checked the outside of the house yet, so I keep coming downstairs to ambushes of the little monsters. But I have the flyswatter, the OFF, and my piece of cardboard at the bottom of the staircase so they can't catch me off guard. Tomorrow after work I think I will move the front to their domain and see if I can't win the war.

I guess a good thing that has come from this infiltration is that I am no longer as scared of the bees anymore. I have steeled myself so that they cannot smell the fear on me as I go into battle. Somehow, a small victory has been gained, I think. By conquering them on my own terf, I think I can successfully deal with them in the wild now.

But I'll feel much better when we find their hive and get rid of it. I don't want to spend every night in skirmishes with insects that are the size of my little toe.

Shh.... I hear buzzing.... quick, my flyswatter and bug spray! A moi, for God and Rockford!

Softball update

2005-07-28T00:10:00.000-05:00

So... Sun. practice was cancelled because of the heat index... wussies. 115 is nothing. Then...Tue. game cancelled because of "rain." It was sprinkling for pete's sake. wussies. However, tonights game with mom's company team went splendidly.

We won (the first time this team has won all season!) and we didn't make a ton of errors. I was surprised since practice on Tues was also practice do to "rain." And I batted 1.000! Sweet! (That means I had a base hit every time I was up to bat!)

So... yeah. Go me!

I would like to observe a moment of silence

2005-07-26T00:16:00.000-05:00

I would just like to let everyone know that one of my beta fish, Dionysus, was bitten by an earwhig who managed to get into his tank and it sent him into shock. He has since been flushed from our world into that of the great bowl in the sky.

It is with a heavy heart that I pushed the lever, but burial at sea seemed the only thing appropriate. (Plus, if I let him sit in the hospital tank much longer it was really going to start to smell.) So, If we could have a moment of silence for his passing ......

Alright. Apollo (my other beta and nysus's half-brother) is still alive and swimming, however, I can see that he feels the absence of his kin. It is a sad day for us both.

Just some more stuff

2005-07-23T22:19:00.000-05:00

First, sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days. I've been busy being a social butterfly, so you know... I appreciate your understanding. I did it for you anyways.

Two parties in two days... I'd say I'm rather popular huh?

The first of said parties was on Friday night. Friday afternoon bracemaster flex (my 16yr old sis- aka lesser bloodsucker,) her friend and I got out crafting together (This is when you devote a good 4-5 hours to going to various craft stores in town for supplies, ideas, etc...) We actually had a nice time and I picked up some much needed supplies for decorating the straw hat I bought at Theatiki. (My cross-eyed retarded kitty peed on the plume I had attached when I brought it home. Completely missed the hat, but absolutely ruined the plume. I was livid, to say the least.) I obviously can't go to the next event, Galesberg, with a plain hat, so I got some new plumage...

Anyhow, friday night a girl from our church softball league is having her 20th birthday party. It's a "cocktail" party and we are all encouraged to wear our "cutest summer attire." I figured that a clean pair of jeans and t-shirt that didn't stink wouldn't count, so I actually put some effort into my ensemble, albeit a small amount. Hell, I even took a shower before hand to boot!

The boyfriend (I just can't really think of any funny nicknames he's had of late... ) went with to help me temper the massive amount of socail exposure I was about to face. In case you're wondering, I'm not a largely social creature. I mean, I do have friends, but not an overabundance. I think quality over quantity. Asides from that, most of my friends are older family friends or re-enactment friends. In a way you could say that I'm wary of being friends with people of my generation. They're too inconsistent. I'm too cynical. It makes for a bad match. But I digress on my deeply rooted mistrust of the motives of people being nice to me.

Anyhow... We go to this shindig. We picked our softball buddy up an amusing card and a wiffle ball bat set. We don't know her extremely well so I didn't want to get to personal a gift or anything. Commit a social faux pas, y'know? There are snacks and the like on this table, and there's a juice bar set up on the patio and everyone is going nuts mixing juice drinks and living it up. Or pretending to anyways... It was a strictly juice bar... I think...

It's always interested me how people respond when in socail settings of a number of about 15 and the things you learn just by watching and listening. I swear it was like getting the latest on dit at a regency assembly or something. I sat there pondering the meaning of life while Stacey "absolutely couldn't believe that he would, like, do something like that. We've only gone out like three times and he thinks we're like going to get married or something. I was like, oh my god! Get a life, you know?"

So maybe I wasn't exactly pondering the meaning of life, but I was thinking of ways I could possible establish a re-enactors permanent trading post in Rockford and run it on the side of being a teacher. The idea has merit at least.

Of course, there was also the obligatory person playing an acoustic guitar throughout the night, and the coming and going of pairs in and out of the house for whatever gossip had to be guarded from the ears of them (i.e. the people that wouldn't really care what you had to say, but you don't want to say it in front of them because then it makes you look important. Basically, in most cases... me. Not that I feel left out or anything :-)

Chastity was there,(I know this is going to come off sounding spiteful or jealous, but I vow that it is meant to be taken as neither, it is just the way of things) but I've notice that when around the pack she tends to kind of assimilate. I'd almost say she's a different person depending on the people she's around, which is true of all of us, but with her I think it's at a deeper level. It can be hard sometimes to distingiush her self from just the influence of others on her self. It's just her personality type. At the core, she's an aim to please kind of person. (I guess I'm more of a bugger off, type of gal.) So we talked for a good part of the night, making comments on what good blogfodder I would have after the evening was over. The boy toy and I retired from the fete at around 10:45 or so.

Then, today, it was the cultmaster's birthday. (The boy toy's dad is in the masonic lodge-aka-the cult) So we had a huge bash at their place for the big 5-1. Mom#2 (boyfriends mom) had her family there as well as cultmaster's family. It was quite humorous to observe. Her family sat on the main floor while his family retired to the basement.

Now, part of this was due to seating I grant. But I can't help but think that part of it was definately due to the whole familial social circle. *Shrug* People are just so funny sometimes.

But I'm sure you've all tired of my Jane Goodall goes to birthday parties edition, so I'll just leave off. But if you have any good observation to add feel free. I think I may take a collection of party observations to write a book or something. "Observations on homo-homo-sapiens in the atmosphere of peer celebrations.. or something" hmm... the idea has merit...

Ahh reality t.v. and romance novels

2005-07-20T21:26:00.000-05:00

So, Dr. "Special" is a reality t.v. nut. Right now we're switching between Surreal Life (Where washed out celebs live together for so long in a carnival house,) Sports kids, Mom's and Dad's (the crazy parents who put their kids in sports) and Made (where losers are turned into BMXers, cheerleaders, or ladies men)

It's actually really sad that this is considered ok entertainment. Not that I'm anti-television or anything, but honestly, what kind of people do we expect to find in the world when that is what we fill our time with. I don't want to seem like a hoighty-toighty aristo or anything, but where the hell is the civilized culture?! What happened to people just sitting down and enjoying a novel (classic or contemporary, but just something with more than a fourth grade reading level!)

I understand not everyone shares my love of the written word, but it's getting bad when my boyfriend, who took AP English in highschool doesn't even know who John Keats is, y'know?

Yes, yes, I know what you're thinking. "Virtue, but you're an English Major. You want to teach English to high schoolers. Of course you're going to think it's important."

But even if I weren't biased I would still think it's extremely important for our current and next generations to have a working sense of literacy. We can't keep lowering expectations because we're not meeting them. If we want America to have a literacy rate over that of a fourth grader we need to stop lowering the vocabulary of the evening news and the reading level of the newspaper to that of fourth grade. Doesn't that make sense?

I'm not saying I expect every person in the country to have read every single novel in the classical literary canon, but still, I don't think it's too much to ask that people have a sense of what it is and have read a few high points, y'know? Do I ask too much?

And I don't want you to think that I only expect people to dabble in literary fiction. We should all be responsible for knowing some basics about the major fields of study. (Gads! I sound so pro-liberal arts studies don't I?) I just think we should all hold ourselves responsible for seeking knowledge and understanding.

I know we're not an egalitarian society, but we're not entirely a meritocracy either. So, although we all don't start with the same opportunities and it's impossible for us all to finish with the same results, I don't think we should let that make us complacent in our position.

I know some of you are going to say, "Yeah, but you don't know everyone's circumstances, and you don't know what it's like" and you're probably right. But, I do know what my circumstances are, and I come from blue-collar backgrounds. As much as I would like to say lower middle class, I think I have been disillusioned enough by the world to say perhaps middle working class. And I'm okay with that. But I don't let it excuse my ignorance. It drives me to exceed in an area where I can control how much effort I put in and what the results look like. Education. I'm aware that not everyone's educational opportunities can be equal, and I think it's bull crap. But I still think that it's important for us all to get as much of it as we can.

Literacy is the first step to that. So I beg you. Turn off the reality t.v. for an hour and pick up a book... or a magazine, or the newspaper, or something. Hell, keep something on the coffee table for commercial reading if you don't want to miss a show that much. I don't care what you read, just do it.

(I'll let you in on a secret... I don't read strictly classics or contemporary authors all the time... some of my favorite reads are historical fiction romances... anything is better than nothing.)

So just get out of your bubble and read a book.

you win some, you lose some

2005-07-20T20:57:00.000-05:00

Well, yesterday at Church Softball we won 16 to 1! Hoo-Ya! My batting was a little off, but other than that not much was different. However, at the Mom's Company League tonight we lost 13-11. It SUCKED!

Our regular pitcher is on vacation, so he wasn't there, and the sub stank more than a pile of poo. He couldn't really pitch, he couldn't throw, but worse than that, he had a bad knee, so he couldn't even get to the ball to pick up the grounders and stop the play! We should have just put a pitching machine on the mound for all the difference it would have made. At least then there wouldn't have been so many walks! I was pretty upset because he made some really bad throws to first base (which is my position) because he wasn't taking his time, he was just throwing without looking. Anyways... it wasn't pleasant.

I just strongly dislike it when people don't give it 110, y'know? But it's over, so I guess I'll let it go. But I really wanted to throw the ball at his head or something (at least then he wouldn't be able to procreate...)

However, Dr "Special" made me a pizza when we got home, so that makes it better a little bit. Food has a way of doing that I guess...

Riverfest... and creepy carnies

2005-07-17T21:07:00.000-05:00

So I would have posted sooner, but I got back from the Beloit Riverfest pretty late last night and I couldn't really find time between church, my great grandparents from Arizona visiting, and softball practice today.

Sooo.... The Great Beloit Riverfest... which was, might I add, more river and less fest. After going to see the Fantastic Four with my family yesterday afternoon we headed directly to Riverfest. The main reason we went was to see Collective Soul (who rocked, btw) but my parents thought it would be nice to make a day of it.

We get there, and it really wasn't that impressive. There were like, three stages, but only one was an actual stage. The other two were like, places you could plug your guitar in and play for like 10 people on a lawn. The first band that was playing was the 569 boys or something like that. I dunno... but they sucked! Hard! All they did were cover songs, and very poorly at that. It was bad enough that my dad actually invited the three bloodsuckers(aka my siblings) to walk down what I like to call "carnie row." It was a hundred yard span of bike path that was taken over by water boat racing, pop the balloon booths and other carnie specialties. Included were, you guessed it, carnival rides.

Taking the bloodsuckers down carnie row is basically like putting yourself in 200 dollars immeadiate debt. They cannot be content to just get away from the crappy music. Oh no! They have to ride every single ride twice. And this isn't cheap. Each ride costs about four to five tickets, which in turn are .75 cents a piece. Now I'm not a math major, but that's 3-4 bucks a ride per person= RIP OFF!!! And of course, my dad can't deal with the fact that I'm almost twenty and am not compelled to go on carny rides with my siblings. So instead he forces me to go.

I mean that literally too. He will seriously be offended and p.o.ed if I refuse to ride, causing major reprecussions for me in other aspects of life. (He noticed my second piercing the other day, which caused some tension. He basically wouldn't talk to me about it because he didn't like it and it would make him mad.) Not that carnie rides aren't fun. Not in that theme park roller coaster kind of way, but in that "I can't believe this ride passed inspection..." kind of way. (Occasionally the, "I wonder if it was even inspected at all..." kind of way.)

So, I go on the "sizzler" with the lesser of the bloodsuckers (I'm the oldest in my family, but the next oldest, one of my sisters, isn't actually that bad most of the time, which is why she gets dubbed the "lesser") This is basically like a scrambler ride. And because I am like, 5lbs heavier than her I have to sit on the outside. I got smashed. I even have a bruise on my side from getting shoved into the side of the seat.

After that we went on the zipper, which we both adore. It was magnificent. We topped out at 5.5 backward spins with a run of 4.5 spins three times in a row. Beat that!

Then we were out of tickets, which was fine by me, but the greater bloodsucker (my only brother and the 3rd oldest hellspawn) demanded more. Now I am obliged to ride the sizzler with the three bloodsuckers again. This time, it's a different carnie operater. He puts us in and says something carnie-esque and I manage a small smile so as not to be rude. Then he straps the greater and youngest bloodsuckers into their seats.

The ride starts and it's well and fun enough, except that everytime we pass the carnie he says "hi" or "hello again" and it's kind of creepy! Then the ride stops and he offers my sister and I his hand to get out of the car. Now, I'm not a man-hater feminazi or anything, but dude... two feet of the ground is not a huge drop, you know? Anyway... after that I gather the leeches and we are going out the gate when he stops us and gets kind of close.

"You know, if just you four (he says this while looking directly at me) want to come back later, you know, when it's just me here and not the other guy, I'll give you a free ride (on what, I didn't ask...) but you can't tell anyone else (uh huh... typical of serial kidnapping carnies) alright?"

In my mind I think, "fat chance a-hole" But I hide my disgust and mumble, "Oh, thanks... let's go kids..." We get to my parents and the lesser bloodsucker starts cracking up because "Virtue got hit on by a carnie because of her boobs and he offered us a free ride later tonight if we don't tell anyone!" Needless to say I got ribbed because of that for the next twenty minutes. Ick. (and fyi, no we didn't go back later when the other guy wasn't there... *shudder*)

After this traumatizing experience, we made our way to the main lawn stage and heard the last few songs of the second opening band. Then they tore down and set up and the show began.

Now, I've wanted to see Collective Soul for a very long time. Years. I love them. I'm also pretty short, coming up at about 5'5 on a good day. So when we got spots up by the fence that seperates the reserved seating from the rest of the crowd, I was excited. I would be able to actually see the stage!

You can imagine my angst when after about the third song, this, well, very full figured woman (in the worst possible way) steps in front of me with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Okay, she was huge and about as wide as she was tall. Plus her breath stank of cheap beer and she was holding her cigarette in my face. Now, I've been to enough concerts with mosh pits and the likes to hold my own against drunks in a crowd. I've also been to enough concerts where my view gets blocked because of said drunks. I have not waited since the 6th grade to see Collective Soul to have this fat drunken whore ruin it for me!

I stand on tip toe barely reaching her ear and shout "'Scuse me! Ma'am!" I'm usually a very passive-agressive person at concerts. You know, subtle elbows grinding on backbones, not realizing it because the crowd is just too packed. Stomping on toes while jumping because that stupid crackhead keeps pushing me behind his 6ft biker buddy. But for some reason, I just decided that I'd had enough. I was not suffering through another concert at the whims of incondsiderate wankers.

So when she ignored me, I just kind of lost it.

"Hey, you! Lady!" I'm practically in her ear and bellowing at the top of my lungs. "You're gonna hafta move." Nothing. I spend about two more minutes trying to be nice and getting her to move. I know she can hear me because from the looks I'm getting everyone else can.

She still ignores me! I can't believe it! This does me in. I'm kind of drawing a crowd at this point, because I think secretly, everyone else who was around me sympathized with my situation. Especially the short people. In their eyes they were saying "You go sister! We've been there! Stand up for yourself" (Of course, I could just be trying to validate my behavior, and they could have been really thinking "Shut up you crazy midget, you're ruining the show." But I choose to think it was the former.)

Feeling bolstered by their silent support, I tap drunken fat master on the shoulder. Finally, a response!

She turns to look at me, and the second her eyes make contact with mine my fist makes contact with her face.

"I said you were going to hafta move!" I repeat. She sneers at me, sizing me up, when she looks behind me. The crowd has gathered, packed tightly at my back. As drunk as she is, she sees it in their faces that if she messes with me, she messes with them.

"I-I-I... I was looking for my husband..." she mutters.

"Well, " I spit back, "He's not here, so get the hell out of my way."

She hesitates, actually thinking about taking on the crowd and myself, then obviously thinks better of it.

"I'm waiting" I say. And she mumbles something under her breath and saunters her drunk self right back where she came from.

The crowd cheers and lifts me up to body surf to the stage,where Ed Roland (the lead singer and songwriter) personally takes my hand and pulls me up to sing a duet with him. He is so enthralled by my beauty that he invites me backstage and falls immeadiately in love with me proposing marriage (which I honorably decline, as Dr. "Special" would be jealous.) He then pledges me his eternal friendship and support and drops me off at my house with a parting kiss...

Well, okay, so maybe that last bit didn't really happen, but it would have been cool. I did get the fat drunk lady to leave though :-) And the rest of the show was awesome. I wouldn't mind seeing them again... as long as it's nowhere near a carnival.

Guess what everyone... I got pierced!

2005-07-15T20:12:00.000-05:00

Okay, so it was only a second set of holes in my ears, but still. It was semi-traumatic, okay?

Chastity and I decided to go to ~cue dramatic music~ the mall yesterday. Now, she just got her second holes in may or so, and we have both been talking about it for the past couple years. So, we were there and she was just like, "Shut and and do it Virtue."

So we walked into Claire's and got my ear's pierced a second time.

It didn't hurt really (I was only about 3 when my first holes were made, so I don't really remember it) but the chick that pierced them was a, well, not very nice kind of stuck up tramp.

I asked for the white gold 3mm balls (the cheapest studs available, since I was just going to switch them out when I got home for some pink diamond ones) and the bimbo can't find any. So she goes into the back and comes back with the little box. She never actually shows them to me, but repeats that "You wanted the white gold, right?" "

"Yep" I say back.

She puts the purple dots on my ear and holds the mirror in front of me (which did virtually no good anyway since she's really bad at holding a mirror so you can see yourself in it) So I had Chastity do the are-they-even-check. After a curt nod from her I say, "Okay, looks good."

Madame peroxide blonde with fake highlights puts the gun to my ear and *click*

I fell a twince of sting and then some burning sensations as she switches to the right ear and *click* I'm done. She flips the mirror up for me to see for like, a second, then puts it away quickly and gets my stuff for me to come to the counter to pay. The kit I ordered was 19.00.

"That'll be 42.66."

Now, somewhere in my head, the optomist in me is thinking she's just joking. Then, the working college student in me thinking, Jesus, how many hidden fees can you have for an ear piercing? Does she work on commission or something?! Then, the retail employee in me is thinking, what exactly did she charge me for. I want to see a list or something. You know, official documentation that it's 42.66.

"Why is it so much?" I ask. I'm just about sure I would have been laughing at the look on my face is I could have seen it. Think lost puppy, naive child, and disgruntled customer all in one.

16 oz. Piercing antiseptic...........................$ 10.88
Cost of piercing............................................ $5.00
14 k white gold diamond stud..................$24.95
Tax...................................................... $1.83
Look on my face when snotty asst. manager tells me that brings the total to 42.66... Priceless

"14 k white gold diamond stud?!" I squeak. "I asked for the white gold 3mm ball." Silently, to myself, I added, how the heck do you mix those two up? Are you on crack! Then the thought occured to me that I had just gotten my ears pierced by a crack addict because by the look that came across her face when I said that she had mixed the two of them up.

Now, I'm usually understanding about things. And at least she didn't screw up the actually holes themselves y'know? But if I wanted to pay 40 bucks to get my ears pierced I would have gone to a professional at a tattoo parlor, not some washed out crackhead at Claires.

"Well," she says , "I have to charge you for those."

Like hell! I stare her down good and hard. "These aren't what I asked for. How can you charge me for them when you gave me the wrong product?" I'm thinking to myself, there's got to be some kind of law against this that I could use if I have to go to court and involve the authorities. Can you sue your ear-piercer for malpractice, or maybe misleading practices. Hmm.... I stare her down some more. She gets the manager.

This is where it gets all peotic justice-y. I have worked at Kohl's for a little over two years. The current manager of Claires is one of my former co-workers at Kohl's. Now, we're not best friends, but we were on good terms when she left. Ms. Asst. Manager explains the situation and my former co-worker just looks at her and is like, "If that's what she asked for and you screwed up you have to give them to her for the price of what she wanted." I wish I had a camera phone. I would have taken a picture of her face, made a t-shirt out of it that said "get your ears pierced by a crackhead," and handed them out in front of Claire's whenever she was working.

She rerung my purchase and didn't say anything else to me after she gave me my new total.

"20.24"

So, now I have these really awesome 14k white gold diamond studs instead of plain old balls. The sad thing is, for a moment, I felt really bad that she messed up. I didn't really want to screw them out of twenty bucks. I work in retail, so I know how people try to cheat the system. However, when I realized what a bonafide you-know-what she was (think alliteration poeple) , I kind of hope maybe she's done the same dumb thing before and is going to get in trouble for being such a stiff to customers.

Anyway... I am glad to have finally gotten them pierced and they are doing fairly well so far. When they were pierced as a kid I had a really bad reaction to them (We thought I had metal sensitivity, but now I wonder if it wasn't just imporoper cleaning and maintenence. Guess I'll find out...) but seeing as my ears haven't fallen off yet I think I'll live.

I guess if a few weeks go by and I don't have any knew posts you'll know that you should start wearing black armbands or something...

hehe... just kidding... sort of...

2005-07-13T23:31:00.000-05:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

We lost at softball and I hate Maury Povich (however you spell it)

2005-07-12T21:41:00.000-05:00

So... we had a softball game tonight. I play on two co-recreational leagues, one for church and one for my mom's company. These last two games for church I've been playing first base, and doing pretty well. My batting has been decent as well, going 3 for 4 last week (Which means I got on base 3 out of 4 times when I was up to bat, and either struck out or hit the ball but someone caught it or got it to first base before me the other time) and 2 for 4 with a sacrifice for an RBI (sacrifice= I was out at first but someone else scored because of it ~ RBI=run batted in)

I had a really nice line drive that the pitcher wouldn't have caught if it were only a foot higher. Dang. And I caught some nice outs at first. I think I make a pretty good firstbasemen. (I'm a lefty, so I have the natural advantage too!)

What pissed me off though was the other team. We were the away team, so at the top of the 1st (top of the first= the first half of the first inning. I'm not huge on baseball terminology, but it takes to long to explain it every time so bear with me...) so at the top of the first my team (River Valley) was up to bat. We did alright but didn't score any runs. So at the bottom of the first the other team was up to bat.

This is my church league that played tonight, mind you, but here they are, the first batter on the first pitch, and what does that bastard do?! He steps into it so it hits his leg! It was an inch inside (meaning off of the plate closer to the batter)! Are you telling me you crowd the plate so much that an inch inside is going to hit your thigh?!!! My arse! Then, later on, this guy comes up to bat who went to my high school and was on scholastic bowl with me (yes, that's right, I was co-captain of the academic bowl team for my high school... yea, keep laughing... I'll find out where you sleep...)

Now, in scholastic bowl he was real nice to me, y'know? He gets one ball, one, and the next pitch he doesn't even lift the bat. He just stands there like the arrogant wanker he is. That irked me. Even if you know you're not going to hit you have the respect to lift the bat. He wasn't even that good of a hitter. Hell, I hit harder than him and I'm a chick. Not that I'm not all about equality of the sexes, but I understand that my pectoral muscles will never in their natural state be the equal of a male of the same size as me. I've come to terms with this. But at least I lift the freakin' bat!

Then they had this kid that was like, stretch armstrong or something. This guy would stretch his arms out and catch fly balls that were 10 feet away from him! (fly balls-aka pop-ups- balls hit high into the air, not to insult anyone's intelligence, but just in case) We would be cheering like "Yes, he can't make it! Run!" Then Stretch reaches out his arm and next thing I know the ball is in his glove and I was standing there with my mouth open like a lost kid at the video store.

It was ridiculous to say the least.

At the bottom of the last inning (meaning, they were up to bat) we were winning by two. All we had to do was hold them and we had the game. The problem is our pitcher is sort of a liability because he gets angry really easily, and the other team knew this and played off of it. Part of my job at first base includes saying things to him between pitches like "deep breath," "let it go," and "play your game, not theirs." I know he's a guy, and they get really competetive and emotional over sports, but seriously... it's a church league, not the freakin' world series. Anyway, we ended up losing.

On a high note, a ball from the other daimond was fouled up and landed in our diamond. I fielded it (picked it up off the ground with my glove) and threw it back to their pitcher. Their shortstop then said to me, "Hey! How do you feel about signing a contract?" This made me feel pretty good, because for someone from another team to say that is a big compliment to my arm. It definately made me want to fluff my feathers a bit, y'know?

However, I politely declined because I am loyal to my teammates. (Although if they would have actually offered a contract I might have considered for the right amount... nahhh...) My mom's company league (Southern Imperial) plays tomorrow night, but my team has a bye week (meaning we get the week off while everyone else gets to play) so I'm a little disappointed. However, Dr. Special said we could practice tomorrow because his batting has been sucking lately.

Oh yeah. And I hate Maury Povich... however you spell his last name.

Back to 2005- weekend review

2005-07-10T23:12:00.000-05:00

I'm baaaaAAaaack. But seriously, I have returned to 2005 and it will take a day or two for me to adjust. While I bask in the delight of AC I'll recap my weekend for you.

So, we left on Friday at noon thirty as intended. This is the first time all season that both Chastity and I have been on schedule. Pappa Pizza (who will now be referred to as Dr. "Special") was good at whining enough to make us just want to get on the road so he would shut up! But it was effective, and we made it to my grandfather's house on time to pick up an extra A-frame and a fly, since it was supposed to be in the 90's and sunny all weekend. He told us that we'd have to stop at the hardware store to pick up a carriage bolt and wing nut for the fly, but other than that, everything was there.

That was fine for us, so we happily tossed the canvas in the van and off we went. The directions Contagion gave us were fine, they just took us about thirty minutes out of the way. I thought of it as extra bonding time. Dr. "Special" was in the back seat of the van with his legs propped up on trunks and bedrolls for most of the two and a half hour drive, but other than that everyone was comfortable, although there were a ton of crazy drivers on the highway.

We got there without major catastrophe, checked in, and after some sweet talking by me, we got to camp next to Contagion and Ktreva. (Actually it was because Clan Chattan, our re-enactment group, registered originally as military then no one else showed up. We didn't have any pieces since we were two women and a rookie. So we got to go civilian for this one.)

With some helpful pointers and advice from Contagion and Ktreva , we got our camp set up and they were so kind as to take us into town with them for dinner. We had an awesome all you can eat reasonably priced steak buffet. Then we got some groceries for the weekend and went to the hardware store for the bolt and nut to put our fly up (that's like a front porch, in case you're not familiar with the lingo. I forget sometimes that not everyone's a re-enactor :-) Contagion drops me off at Menard's and Dr. "Special" and I run in to get the items. Our list included:

one 1/2 inch diameter by 3 1/2 inch length carriage bolt
two 1/2 inch washers
one 1/2 inch wing nut

Seemingly normal things to find at a hardware store, right? One would think.

After 20 minutes of searching the two acre store for the "nuts and bolts" section, we finally find the aisle in question. Normally I would have asked an employee for directions, but sadly I didn't realize until later that those 12 year olds in the blue vests were in fact the employees, not an all boys school on field trip to Menard's. So I scan the shelf and find the carriage bolt size I need only to see that they do not sell them individually. My right to buy less at more cost has been taken away and I am forced to buy in bulk at an economy cost. Damn them!

This irks me a bit, but I pick up the bag of bolts and clench them in my hands. Washers are next on my list. I walk down the aisle with Dr. "Special" and he helpfully points out the right item. Again, sold only in packs of 10 for .75 cents. Now I know that may not seem like much, but I am a college student, and knowing that if I were at ACE hardware I could get just two washers for 10 cents, having to pay .75 for 10 really bothers me. What the hell am I supposed to do with the other 8? I don't exactly go through washers like socks or something, you know?

But I take the pack and keep walking. I keep saying to myself, 90 degrees and sunny. You want a fly. Next and last on the list is the one 1/2 inch wind nut. I can get this and get out.

Or not.

I looked around that nuts and bolts area for ten minutes for a sign or box that said "wing nuts." Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Knowing that I'm not crazy and they must have them somewhere I send Dr. "Special" to find a minion. He comes back five minutes later with one of those 12 year olds from the all boys school. After a glance at the name tag it's confirmed that "Dwayne" is in fact an employee of Menards and is "Hardware Certified" I ask him where to find the wing nuts.
After a look of confusion, I explain to him what a wing nut looks like and does and he gets this thoughtful expression on his face (like an idiot gets right before they catch the joke) and he leads us into this back corner of the store. You can tell that no one goes back there from the layers of dust on the shelves and the cobwebs woven throughout the aisle.

"You must mean these" Dwayne says. "They, um, told us about them in training but... " He shoots a glance around. He's sweating bullets. "I think I'd better go help that customer, Ma'am. I hope I helped."

I looked around and there wasn't another customer within a fifty yard radius. Figures. I get the green kid who doesn't know skat about his department and runs at the first sign of actually having to do something like work. Now I'm just downright frustrated.

I find the wing nuts in a box (each one sold individually for once!) but my high hopes are dashed as I read the sizes available. 5/32 inch, 3/16 inch(or something close), 1/4 inch, 3/8 inch. ....wait. read through again. Nope, I was right the first time. You guessed it. No 1/2 inch wing nuts. None. It's not even like they sell them and were just out or something. They didn't even have a spot on the shelf for them! At a freakin' hardware store! I throw the bolts and washers down and start yelling in the aisle. "Who the hell would sell 1/2 in. bolts and washers and not wing nuts?!" Dr "Special" is trying to calm me down, but it's not working. I continue ranting and raving about how am I supposed to get the fly up now and no, idiot, other nuts won't work. I had to do something and it called for speed and decisiveness.

I decided to get the 3/8 in. set of supplies instead of 1/2. How precise could the hole be? Even if it did'nt thread through it would still clamp the two boards together for the weekend. However, I am quite near real anger at this point, and coming from a girl who has been referred to as "she who smiles a lot" that's saying something.

As we walk to the checkout I casually bump into as many aisle displays as possible and trip as many 12 yr old employees as possible. By the time the Doc and I make it to the checkout Ktreva has sent Contagion in to find us, thinking we got lost in the giant store. I explain to him why we were detained, my voice raising slightly with each word until we reach the cashier and I am screaming at the top of my lungs. I stop, look at the cashier, smile and calmly set my things on the counter.

"Did you find everything alright?" She asks.

I blink, take a deep breath, and count to four before I leap across the counter and start pounding her head against the scanner. Contagion and the Doc jump the counter to get me off of her, but her nose is already bloodied and most of the damage has been done. Contagion grabs the items from the counter, hoists me over his shoulder and leaves a fifty on the counter. He tells the manager that it's for the damages and cleanup. They drop me in the back cab of the truck and Ktreva asks "What happened?"

"They didn't have the right size." I say. "So I complained." With that we drove back to camp, the Menard's sign impressed on my brain with that slogan in the commercials "Save big money at Menard's..."

Their slogan should be "We sell 1/2 inch everything else, but not wing nuts just to piss you off!!" Grrr....

To make matters worse, when we got back to camp to put our fly up, the 3/8 inch bolt wouldn't fit through the second hole in the fly pole. It was too big. All of that was for naught, because we still couldn't put up our fly! The irony!

But, other than that the weekend was pretty awesome. Contagion and Ktreva were lifesavers! We forgot so much stuff that it wasn't funny and they were kind enough to loan it to us, (they let us sit under their fly) and they even talked to us a lot! I felt really bad for not being prepared enough (I had forgotten how to put up my own tent, it'd been so long) but they were really nice about helping us out and showing us how to's and stuff. It makes me sad that they left the group, but happy that they are still my friends. I'm happy because they seem happy too, and that's the most important thing.

They even gave us each a piece of trade silver at the end of the event, which almost made me cry. Not only had they lent us their spoon for eggs, dish pails and dish soap for dishes, and their fly for shade, sunblock, Ktreva found an unused mug for Dr. "Special" so he didn't have to use mine, and they shared some of their dinner on Saturday night. Contagion also taught me how to make fire. (I'm a pro now, so watch out!) Of course, he also told me that I wasn't pretty... but I guess I can forgive that since he's my blogfather and all... :-) But don't tell him that, he'll think I'm soft or something and I'm going to milk that one for all I can!!!

There's a ton more of stuff, but I'll save it for tomorrow. I'm going to shower now, because we have running hot water in 2005, and I smell bad.

Oh! There was this guy walking around on sat. (funny story for later) and he took pictures of us. The he came back today and gave us each a copy of our pictures. It was EC Photography. They turned out pretty nice, so I included it on the bottom. Aside from the fact that I look sort of puritan-esque, it's not a bad photo of me...

Tomorrow is Theatiki! HooYa!

2005-07-07T21:57:00.000-05:00

So I'm Uber-excited that tomorrow at this time I will be sitting around a campfire with good friends time traveling back to the 1750's. Oh yeah. Like my blog-dad, mom, and grandda I'm a re-enactor. I still have to read up on the rest of the family, but I bet there's more out there. Pappa Pizza is supposed to be there along with Chastity.

(Pappa Pizza is being a pappa pain in my arse right now though, so he might just accidentally fall of the top of the van as we pass a river and just happen to be wearing cement shoes if you know what I mean... *evil grin*)

Anyway... It's my first time doing Theatiki and I am very excited. Ktreva, Chastity and I are supposed to have tea, and I put together this really awesome tea set. I like to think of it as ... how would you say...eclectic. That is, not a single piece matches any other piece. Prime if you ask me :-) Contagion sent a messenger pigeon to me today to give me the proper directions, so hopefully I don't get lost. I went to the Theatiki website ( http://www.theatiki.org/ ) and it looks like it's going to be a blast. My dad even swapped me his minivan for my pimpmobile for the weekend. (The mini-van holds three times as much gear!)

I'm going to be giving my corset it's maiden voyage so we'll see if it works or if I go back to the drawing board. I also made up a quick colonial jacket that I'm testing. I didn't have time for sleeves, but the weatherchannel said it was going to be really hot this weekend so maybe it's for the better. We'll see I guess. I could always make them there too.

On a different note, I wanted to say thank you to all of my blog family for the welcomes and hellos. I'm completely new to the blog sphere so feel free to offer constructive criticism (as long as you can deal with me bawling my eyes out for two hours on your shirt because I'm inadequate not only as a blogger but as a person... *sniffle*) just kidding :-) Also, I'm trying to read up on all of your blogs, but there are quite a few, so forgive me if it takes me a bit!

And with that, I'm going to look into this haloscan comments thing contagion was telling me about and then go through my trunks one more time before the big day! Yesssss......

2005-07-06T01:30:00.000-05:00

Well.... so this is my first post and I think it's fitting that I start out with this incredible story of what happened to me yesterday, July 4, 2005.

I spent the first half of my day (well, the first two hours anyway, since I got up at 11 A.M.) grilling in the rain with my father. It was down home bonding time. My future spouse (who will be referred to as Pappa Pizza) was playing video games. After he "beat the crap out of level 3" we decided that it was time to leave the biological family unit and head over to my good friends and mentors' maison for some good scottish partying. It rained, so we sat on the porch and had some good, wholesome conversation. It was a blast! I feel much closer to everyone who was in attendance, and that's awesome.

Later in the evening, everyone (excluding my best friend Chastity who ditched us for newer friends and her beau) went to a small township for some entertainment. You know, like fireworks and stuff. We end up at this little deserted hill by a cornfield under some power lines. Now, Contagion sets up two steel pipes to shoot some slightly illegal bottle rockets out of. It was cool. He even threw everyone a pack so we could share in the fun.

So here we are, shooting off our little bottle rockets. After about 10 minutes Pappa Pizza still hasn't shot one off while I'm well into my 6th or 7th. So, being the wonderful girlfriend I am, I give him the punk and say "Grow some balls and light one off." At this same time my friend Graumagus is returning from his vehicle. A noise is heard and I look up the hill to see a stealthy ex-navy seal turned cherry valley cop creep out from behind his shadow!

Startled, I turn to Pappa Pizza and say, "Umm... you might not want to do that right now..." He looks up at me and then at the ex-green beret and slowly backs away from the bottle rocket. Now, Officer Duncan D. Oughnut saunters down the hill in drunken master style, obviously betraying his six years training in the Shaolin Temple. He approaches our group, wary of the strange number of overly tall men present. I can see the fear in his eyes flash for a second before he puts on his trained samurai face for battle. He sizes us up, and because he is not that tall and has a napoleon complex he immeadiately picks out littlejoe, the tallest of our pride, to do battle with.

Littlejoe stoicly steps up to the former Toughman champion and braces himself for round one.

Cop: Thissus private property you're on, and ComEd is wantin' us to arrest folks. (Why does he has a redneck accent... do you have to ask?) I'm gonna hafta arrest one of y'all, (Here he pulls his little night stick out)... so who wants it? (I'm assuming he means who wants to get arrested... then he looks at littlejoe who meets his eyes in a steely glare) You...(he points with the stick) I saw you light two of em off. You got any I.D.?

Now, right here, Mr. Ex-WWF wrestler thinks he's won the round, but not on Littlejoe's watch. He stares that wanna be sheriff down until the sun sets. He takes ten paces to the former sumo wrestler and quicker than that man can blink, let alone raise his nightstick like he wanted to, littlejoe pulls out his photo I.D. and I saw the ex-FBI agent flinch as littlejoe looks at the nametag and memorizes the letters as the words spill off his tongue.

Littlejoe: Yes sir. (reading the tag) Officer Oughnut. Or should I say, Nough-nuts.

Round one~Littlejoe.

The failed used car salesmen turned cop swallows hard, looks around at the rest of the group, poised like tigers ready to strike. Even the runts have smoke bombs in one hand with lighters in the other. Realizing if he goes a round two he's going to get KOed the failed shoe-salesman takes down littlejoe's info and like the rent-a-cop he is turns tail and runs off with Contagions bottle rockets. He was so scared he didn't even give littlejoe back his I.D. Hopefully it comes in the mail soon, or littlejoe will have to file a lawsuit for the price of the replacement I.D.

Needless to say we didn't shoot any more fireworks off after that, but we did stay and watch the big display done by cherry valley. It was pretty nice. They had some neat ones and some not so neat. But I'd say that even thought the show was decent, it was the company that made the night.