It's been a few days since I've posted, so I suppose I should begin with a quick recap.
Wednesday
I spent the morning on the phone with the insurance company, the student medical clinic, and my ophthalmologist's office. The insurance company won't cover my visit because I failed to get a referral from the student medical clinic first. Why didn't I get a referral? Because I didn't know to do it because I failed to read my policy cover to cover. I just sort of figured since they didn't have an ophthalmologist on staff (similar to how they don't have a dentist or dermatologist on staff), then I would just go straight to my own ophthalmologist...and dermatologist. Wrong-o. Even though vision isn't covered by the insurance plan, it apparently shows up somewhere under the medical services...not sure how that works...and therefore requires a referral from the medical clinic. This means I have to make an actual appointment to be seen by a physician at the university to be told, "Nope, we sure can't look at your eyes, by golly," get my grubby hands on the referral, and THEN make an appointment with a real ophthalmologist. Same goes for dental and dermatology. Interesante. The scary thing is that I didn't do this for my orthopedic visits earlier this year with all the herniated disk nonsense...my insurance appears to have cleared, but I'm just waiting for a thousand-dollar bill to waft its way into my mailbox. I hate insurance.
Wednesday didn't get much better mostly because Robert was doing so badly. Not going into details to protect the innocent, particularly before the whole ordeal is resolved this week. But the long and short of it is that Robert is unbelievably miserable in the high school classroom and has received little to no true support from his coordinating bodies. Several times Wednesday I was close to marching into one of these individual's offices and blessing her out for being such a horrible person to my fiancé. Wouldn't have helped, so I kept my mouth shut. We'll call Wednesday the low point in both our semesters. It was a very hard day.
Wednesday did perk up, though, because Robert's birthday present for me came in the mail. He got me the entire collection of Kenneth Brannagh Shakespeare films! Is Amanda ecstatic? Yes! I had mentioned it to him as a sort of wishful thing...I eventually wanted to be able to own all of the DVDs, but I hadn't imagined I'd get them all in one go! It was very exciting, and I can't wait to get into them. I haven't seen the majority of them yet, although I did get to see one in a private screening before it was released to the general public. Shakespeare conferences are fun. :) (Or BardCon, as one of my colleagues playfully calls it.)
Thursday
Ugh. Thursday was ever more of the same. Although, I did get a great deal of work done on my midterm exams (both regular and make-up), and was able to complete them and the midterm review sheet so that my students could have that in their grubby hands by Friday's class (a week before the exam).
I did go to the running class again on Thursday, which was better than Monday. Thursday we didn't walk the route (which we'll get back to this forthcoming Monday), but instead we walked laps around the gym's lake (six) until we had walked two miles. I walked faster than on Monday, and met a pretty cool older guy who kept me company (my sister had an exam that evening and had to miss class). We also had a podiatrist on site who watched us walk barefoot--I apparently have an almost "perfect" walk. This just means that when I walk, my toes and knees point forward, and that my joints don't try to come in (like I don't walk with my knees coming inward or my ankles rolling inward). I was pretty happy with that result because guess who can't afford a new pair of shoes or shiny new inserts?
Friday
Yesterday was fine. I decided not to teach, so I had the students write an in-class reading response. I graded the two o'clock bunch during the three o'clock class, and I'll grade the three o'clock bunch today. I went over the midterm review sheet with them, as well as the midterm exam format. I think they'd all agree that I'm being extremely fair and forthright in my exam; I shouldn't receive any complaints the night before...but I'm sure I will. When I got back from class, Robert was feeling much better. I think the decision we've come to is going to be good, and we just have to wait for a few meetings on Tuesday before I can officially tell people because it might not play out the way we want it to.
We're doing Beowulf on Monday, and I have a wonderful lesson plan for Monday already. It's the lesson I was observed for last Spring, so I've got all this great stuff planned for me. I love when I'm prepared, lol. Couldn't have come on a better weekend because I have way too much crap to do to be worried about a dinky ol' lesson plan.
Saturday (today)
Today is the Auburn-Tennessee game...and I'm not going. This is one of my favorite match-ups in college football because it's such a friendly game, but I can't go today because of the amount of work to do. Although I don't really have to read Beowulf again, of course I will. I have to clean the apartment in a bad way. I have to do laundry in a bad way. I have to grade those in-class reading responses as well as work on their mid-semester grade reports. I also have to work on all my thank-you notes from back in July (for the engagement party) up to this birthday. I feel horrible, but I hope that people won't be mad at me for being a few months behind schedule. I think to make my life a little bit easier, I'm going to print off address labels for my return address. We'll see how big the ones I have are and if that'd be okay-looking. And the most important thing I have to do is to read for my exams. I'm almost an entire month behind schedule at this point. I don't know if I want to read according to my schedule anymore...I kind of just want to grab a book from the pile and go for it. Maybe that'll work okay. But I need to get a few plays read today, or else. Which sounds stupid. Hm. I think Robert's planning on coming over to watch a little bit of the game with me, so I think what I'll do is get my non-game-watching homework done first (i.e. the reading), and then I can do the mindless stuff (the grading, cleaning, laundering) while the game's on. That sounds like a decent enough plan to me.
Ugh. I'm getting to a point of resentment with my program...or at least with my placement in my program. I'm tired of everything. *frown*
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
My new normal
Well, I had to have another mole biopsied yesterday at my dermatology appointment. It's a small enough mole that the biopsy pretty well removed it. We'll know in 7-10 days what's going on with that particular bunch of cells. My new dermatologist (maybe) told me that if it comes back clean, then obviously I don't have to come back for another year; if it comes back as atypical in anyway, I'll go back to make sure she got it all and left clean margins.
Most of you remember I went through this song and dance last year, having a moderately atypical mole removed in August. The mole she was referring to didn't look the same as the one I had removed last year, but it didn't look like the rest of my moles and freckles either. When she got to it, she said, "Hmm...I don't like the looks of that one. Have you noticed changes in it before?" I replied, "I haven't really noticed it before." Red flag. She recommended removing it right then and there, and how could I argue?
So, having had this done twice has left me with the decision to change up my normal. I learned last year that my father's side of the family is rife with skin cancer...but because they're a good Southern family, they've kept it under wraps. "We just don't speak about unpleasant things, you see." What bull. So, anyway, I have to change my normal routine now. After my dermatology appointment, I went to the grocery store and purchased some new facial lotion that has SPF 30; I have sunscreen for the rest of my body. I know we've always heard that we should wear sunscreen everyday, but I never really took it that seriously. Guess I have to change my normal routine around, hm?
Most of you remember I went through this song and dance last year, having a moderately atypical mole removed in August. The mole she was referring to didn't look the same as the one I had removed last year, but it didn't look like the rest of my moles and freckles either. When she got to it, she said, "Hmm...I don't like the looks of that one. Have you noticed changes in it before?" I replied, "I haven't really noticed it before." Red flag. She recommended removing it right then and there, and how could I argue?
So, having had this done twice has left me with the decision to change up my normal. I learned last year that my father's side of the family is rife with skin cancer...but because they're a good Southern family, they've kept it under wraps. "We just don't speak about unpleasant things, you see." What bull. So, anyway, I have to change my normal routine now. After my dermatology appointment, I went to the grocery store and purchased some new facial lotion that has SPF 30; I have sunscreen for the rest of my body. I know we've always heard that we should wear sunscreen everyday, but I never really took it that seriously. Guess I have to change my normal routine around, hm?
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Tuesday: The Results Show
I have a dermatology appointment (just a regular ol' check-up) in about an hour, so I have to make this quick. In order of their discussion yesterday:
1. My meeting with my dissertation director went well enough. We're not going to extend my exam date yet because she's concerned about squeezing the time I have on my dissertation. It's all very limited, especially because I'm what's called an "internal" grad student. Basically means I got both degrees here, so I have fewer paid graduate hours than "external" applicants have. I understand the recommendation, but I am just a little bummed about it. I could have used the peace of mind that comes with knowing my exams are a year away rather than a few months away. But she said we'd reevaluate in December to see where I am and how I feel. Even though the results weren't what I wanted, she did manage to calm me down a great deal. She always does that, though. I'm very fortunate to have the kind of relationship with my director that I have. Not many grad students have the same relationship with her or with their own directors. I certainly don't take it for granted. (Case in point: when I told two other students who are under her direction that I was going to meet with her yesterday, they both gave me a wide-eyed, fearful look and said, "Oh God, good luck.")
2. The running class wasn't so bad. We walked for two miles at a pretty good pace, so it wasn't super easy, but it wasn't super hard, either. I started to feel a little discouraged about at the half mile mark (because my sister and I were bringing up the rear and it just felt like the distance was increasing between us and the rest of the class), but at about that point this man in the group started to hang back to chat with us. Turns out he's been doing this class for the past four or five years or so (it's been going for 14 years), so he could have been in the very front with the leaders. My sister and I were very grateful for his willingness to hang with us in the back. He kept our minds off of how difficult it was and offered encouragement through the whole walk. He said that around week 2 or 3, it gets easier because you find a groove.
Well, I have to end here and get myself ready for the dermatologist.
More later, if I have time.
1. My meeting with my dissertation director went well enough. We're not going to extend my exam date yet because she's concerned about squeezing the time I have on my dissertation. It's all very limited, especially because I'm what's called an "internal" grad student. Basically means I got both degrees here, so I have fewer paid graduate hours than "external" applicants have. I understand the recommendation, but I am just a little bummed about it. I could have used the peace of mind that comes with knowing my exams are a year away rather than a few months away. But she said we'd reevaluate in December to see where I am and how I feel. Even though the results weren't what I wanted, she did manage to calm me down a great deal. She always does that, though. I'm very fortunate to have the kind of relationship with my director that I have. Not many grad students have the same relationship with her or with their own directors. I certainly don't take it for granted. (Case in point: when I told two other students who are under her direction that I was going to meet with her yesterday, they both gave me a wide-eyed, fearful look and said, "Oh God, good luck.")
2. The running class wasn't so bad. We walked for two miles at a pretty good pace, so it wasn't super easy, but it wasn't super hard, either. I started to feel a little discouraged about at the half mile mark (because my sister and I were bringing up the rear and it just felt like the distance was increasing between us and the rest of the class), but at about that point this man in the group started to hang back to chat with us. Turns out he's been doing this class for the past four or five years or so (it's been going for 14 years), so he could have been in the very front with the leaders. My sister and I were very grateful for his willingness to hang with us in the back. He kept our minds off of how difficult it was and offered encouragement through the whole walk. He said that around week 2 or 3, it gets easier because you find a groove.
Well, I have to end here and get myself ready for the dermatologist.
More later, if I have time.
Monday, September 22, 2008
The children! :D
Pictures of the children from my new Sony camera! :D I'm still playing with the camera settings and whatnot, but I think these turned out pretty well. I have the most adorable kids! ;)
Callie-cat: age, 4 years old
Beatrice (or "Baby Bea-Bea"): age, 2.5 years old
Milton: age, 4-5 years old
(Milton is Robert's dog. He's a 90-lb Chowbrador, and is just about as sweet as you could possibly imagine. I love that pup so very much. I hope he and Ms. Callie-leigh will get along...she's very skittish about dogs.)
Callie-cat: age, 4 years old
Beatrice (or "Baby Bea-Bea"): age, 2.5 years old
Milton: age, 4-5 years old
(Milton is Robert's dog. He's a 90-lb Chowbrador, and is just about as sweet as you could possibly imagine. I love that pup so very much. I hope he and Ms. Callie-leigh will get along...she's very skittish about dogs.)
Needing a strength boost to my resolve
A couple of (unrelated) things are happening today for which I have a great deal of nervous energy.
1. At 1 p.m., I'm having a meeting with my dissertation director to discuss something that I've pretty well kept under wraps from most of my family and friends. My parents don't even know about this meeting, which is something I've never done before academically (keeping them in the dark, I mean). But I came to the decision that at this stage in my academic career, as an independent student whose parents aren't providing money for the education, I'm not required to clear anything with them before making big decisions. I'll of course tell them after I have the meeting.
So, what's this mystery meeting about? I'm going to meet with my dissertation director (who also directed my Master's thesis) about the possibility of pushing my preliminary exams back to next August. Why? Because last December when we made the plans to have my exams in January/February, we didn't know that I would be diagnosed with a herniated disk and we certainly didn't know that I would have to have surgery. When all this did come about, my committee members asked if I thought I'd be okay...before the surgery. Of course, being the stubborn, ambitious woman that I am, said, "Yeah! I'll be in recovery, so I'll have lots of time to sit there and read." Yes...and be drugged up on pain killers. Robert and I did read a few plays this summer. Last night, he quizzed me on some of the finer points of these plays...and I can't remember them. This is bad. This means that even if I had been able to read more, I wouldn't have been able to remember anything and would still have to reread it all.
I'm going to basically beg for an extension on the exams because I'm so far behind. I was near tears last night when talking to Robert about it (getting my pep talk before today, actually), and I asked him if back surgery is a legitimate excuse. I said, "I couldn't avoid it, right? There's nothing I could have done about it, right? I couldn't have exercised it away or dieted it away. It just happened, and now we have to reevaluate, right?" I think he was surprised that I had to convince myself of this, but the reality is that sometimes I do feel guilty about my back because I've never been interested in making up excuses in order to avoid challenges.
Two more hours and then I meet with my dissertation director. Keep your fingers crossed for me and say some little resolve strengthening prayers...I'm faltering.
2. At 5 o'clock today, I'm starting the running class at the gym (with my sister, too). This I don't feel quite as much a sense of dread as I do about the former point, but I do have a lot of nervous energy about it. My sister's personal trainer is the instructor for this class, and she told my sister that there will be a podiatrist there to watch us walk barefoot. He'll then make recommendations based on whether we pronate or supinate while walking. I'm glad we're having a professional there to help us out, especially since I am post-op. I may have changed my walk since surgery (or even perhaps before) as a reaction.
I'm nervous because most of the response I've received from my friends and colleagues is how they hate running and could never do it...so...we'll see. I've never claimed to be a runner, but I did learn to enjoy it on the treadmill back when I was running on the treadmill...back before the herniated disk issue. I'm hoping this class will teach me to love running again. At the very least, it's a ten-week class which will get me moving and motivated. The instructor has promised dramatic results by December in most cases. I hope that's likely, and I hope I can stick to it enough to make it happen. The class meets three days a week (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday). I can do Mondays and Thursdays, but I tutor on Tuesdays, which is inflexible. I e-mailed the instructor, and she told me the deal would be that I could come to class on Mondays and Thursdays, and make up the third day on my own time. I mentioned to Robert the possibility of going on Wednesday afternoons together. I think that should work out just fine. I'm a little skittish about missing the second day of class, but I think I can get my sister to sort of catch me up.
Nervous energy is good, right?
Ugh, I'm so nervous. I hope this dissipates by the time I teach this afternoon.
1. At 1 p.m., I'm having a meeting with my dissertation director to discuss something that I've pretty well kept under wraps from most of my family and friends. My parents don't even know about this meeting, which is something I've never done before academically (keeping them in the dark, I mean). But I came to the decision that at this stage in my academic career, as an independent student whose parents aren't providing money for the education, I'm not required to clear anything with them before making big decisions. I'll of course tell them after I have the meeting.
So, what's this mystery meeting about? I'm going to meet with my dissertation director (who also directed my Master's thesis) about the possibility of pushing my preliminary exams back to next August. Why? Because last December when we made the plans to have my exams in January/February, we didn't know that I would be diagnosed with a herniated disk and we certainly didn't know that I would have to have surgery. When all this did come about, my committee members asked if I thought I'd be okay...before the surgery. Of course, being the stubborn, ambitious woman that I am, said, "Yeah! I'll be in recovery, so I'll have lots of time to sit there and read." Yes...and be drugged up on pain killers. Robert and I did read a few plays this summer. Last night, he quizzed me on some of the finer points of these plays...and I can't remember them. This is bad. This means that even if I had been able to read more, I wouldn't have been able to remember anything and would still have to reread it all.
I'm going to basically beg for an extension on the exams because I'm so far behind. I was near tears last night when talking to Robert about it (getting my pep talk before today, actually), and I asked him if back surgery is a legitimate excuse. I said, "I couldn't avoid it, right? There's nothing I could have done about it, right? I couldn't have exercised it away or dieted it away. It just happened, and now we have to reevaluate, right?" I think he was surprised that I had to convince myself of this, but the reality is that sometimes I do feel guilty about my back because I've never been interested in making up excuses in order to avoid challenges.
Two more hours and then I meet with my dissertation director. Keep your fingers crossed for me and say some little resolve strengthening prayers...I'm faltering.
2. At 5 o'clock today, I'm starting the running class at the gym (with my sister, too). This I don't feel quite as much a sense of dread as I do about the former point, but I do have a lot of nervous energy about it. My sister's personal trainer is the instructor for this class, and she told my sister that there will be a podiatrist there to watch us walk barefoot. He'll then make recommendations based on whether we pronate or supinate while walking. I'm glad we're having a professional there to help us out, especially since I am post-op. I may have changed my walk since surgery (or even perhaps before) as a reaction.
I'm nervous because most of the response I've received from my friends and colleagues is how they hate running and could never do it...so...we'll see. I've never claimed to be a runner, but I did learn to enjoy it on the treadmill back when I was running on the treadmill...back before the herniated disk issue. I'm hoping this class will teach me to love running again. At the very least, it's a ten-week class which will get me moving and motivated. The instructor has promised dramatic results by December in most cases. I hope that's likely, and I hope I can stick to it enough to make it happen. The class meets three days a week (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday). I can do Mondays and Thursdays, but I tutor on Tuesdays, which is inflexible. I e-mailed the instructor, and she told me the deal would be that I could come to class on Mondays and Thursdays, and make up the third day on my own time. I mentioned to Robert the possibility of going on Wednesday afternoons together. I think that should work out just fine. I'm a little skittish about missing the second day of class, but I think I can get my sister to sort of catch me up.
Nervous energy is good, right?
Ugh, I'm so nervous. I hope this dissipates by the time I teach this afternoon.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
27
I turned 27 yesterday, and I had a very good birthday. My parents came into town, Mom made a birthday cake, and we all celebrated with presents and football.
Is it weird that I still take a step back to look at my life and wind up amazed at how wonderful everything is now?
It occurs to me on occasion that when my family gets together, we're a party of six instead of four or five...we're all happily coupled up, and sometimes I sit back and wonder how I got to be so fortunate to meet Robert.
This is a strange time in my life--I'm 27 years old. Sometimes the number seems so young, and other times so much older. I'll be 30 before I know it, but my life will be remarkable by then. By the time my mom turned 27, she was almost a full month pregnant with me and had been married for five years. Granted, she and Dad got married when they were 22 and had been trying for five years to get pregnant (I'm the oldest of two kids). Robert and I decided to go on to graduate school when we were 22 (well, I think he was 23), which puts us on a different life path entirely from either of our parents. I'm grateful for graduate school for many reasons, the best of which is having been given the opportunity to meet Robert and fall in love with him. There are times I catch myself complaining about going on to graduate work, wondering aloud why I couldn't have just been satisfied with some 9-5, working for an editor or publisher or something. Robert then reminds me two things: 1. I'm a highly ambitious woman, which is one of the qualities he loves most about me, and 2. had I not gone into graduate school, we would have never met. I'm learning to be grateful for the difficulty of graduate school because I have benefited so much despite those challenges.
I drifted off topic...but that's okay.
There are many things I've learned in these 27 years, and I wanted to somehow chronicle them all. I'll figure out a way, and then I'll make time to share it with all of you.
Aside from the lessons and very thoughtful nature of my 27th birthday, I suppose I could share some of the more fun parts of yesterday. Yes, I'm sure we all know the outcome of yesterday's Auburn-LSU game...we were disappointed to lose (particularly on my birthday), but I'm not such a nut that I would let a football game ruin an otherwise wonderful day. As I said, my family got together to celebrate--all six of us together in my sister's apartment, opening presents and eating way too much food (before heading to Robert's family's tailgate...for more food, lol). The loot list is:
--a Department 56 Globe Theatre model from my sister. This is particularly special because this model has been retired since...I think the '90s or so. Of course, I didn't start my Department 56 (London) collection until a couple of years ago, and I've always been sad that the Globe Theatre is gone. My sister found it on a complete lark for much cheaper than on eBay at a thrift store this summer. She was so excited to give it to me, and had originally planned to give it to me for Christmas. I'm so glad she gave it to me for my birthday--now I can use it to decorate my apartment this Christmas! :)
--pieces for my Willow Tree nativity set from my parents: a crèche, an ox and a goat, and a metal star background. My parents had already gotten me the main pieces for the Willow Tree nativity set last Christmas, which came with the Holy Family and the Three Wisemen (plus their camel). Because I got it for Christmas last year, I haven't used my new nativity set yet. This Christmas will be the first time, and now I have a complete set! I'm so excited!! I turned to Robert after I unwrapped all this and said, "Honey, we're going to have the most darling house at Christmastime!" Lol...he rolled his eyes, but I know he'll love it. I picked up on the Christmas decorating bug that my mom has--I love love love decorating for Christmas and can't wait to put my apartment in order this year.
--a Sony Cybershot camera from my parents!! So so so so so excited about my new camera!! I've been wanting a replacement for my 2000 Olympus digital camera for most of this year, especially since I discovered that they no longer make the memory card that fits my camera. My old camera is a brick. My new camera is slim and sexy and will fit very easily in my purse! I'm so excited to get to use it--I had to charge it during the game, so it wasn't broken in then, but I'll start taking pictures of the cats and of Milton pretty soon. Eventually, Robert and I will get a professional-level camera, but this purchase will come after we're married and both have jobs. (Hehehe, so funny. I mentioned this to Robert this morning, and he froze. He said, "Wait a minute..." I laughed and said, "No! I mean after we both have jobs and real 'big' paychecks!" He sighed and responded, "Okay, good. Because I was a little worried that you were already starting to spend the money from the job I don't have yet." Lol...no, honey, not yet. ;))
So, yesterday was a very good birthday. I'm excited for Christmas and decorating! I'm a little sad, but also extremely excited, that this will be my last Christmas in this apartment. This will be Christmas number five, and I've decorated and celebrated every single year since I moved in. Every year, my decorations became less and less Wal-Mart style and increasingly grown-up style. I'm a little sad to know that I'll be leaving this place...but unbelievably excited about where I'll be next year!! Next Christmas!! Oh my word...next Christmas I'll be married to Robert! And we'll be decorating our little home together...*happy sigh* Yes, I'm "sad" that this is the end of a chapter. But I am so thrilled that the chapter I'll be starting is the one with Robert as my husband.
I am now the age I will be when I get married. I'll be married by my next birthday. Robert will be married by his next birthday. This is a beautiful place to be in. :)
Is it weird that I still take a step back to look at my life and wind up amazed at how wonderful everything is now?
It occurs to me on occasion that when my family gets together, we're a party of six instead of four or five...we're all happily coupled up, and sometimes I sit back and wonder how I got to be so fortunate to meet Robert.
This is a strange time in my life--I'm 27 years old. Sometimes the number seems so young, and other times so much older. I'll be 30 before I know it, but my life will be remarkable by then. By the time my mom turned 27, she was almost a full month pregnant with me and had been married for five years. Granted, she and Dad got married when they were 22 and had been trying for five years to get pregnant (I'm the oldest of two kids). Robert and I decided to go on to graduate school when we were 22 (well, I think he was 23), which puts us on a different life path entirely from either of our parents. I'm grateful for graduate school for many reasons, the best of which is having been given the opportunity to meet Robert and fall in love with him. There are times I catch myself complaining about going on to graduate work, wondering aloud why I couldn't have just been satisfied with some 9-5, working for an editor or publisher or something. Robert then reminds me two things: 1. I'm a highly ambitious woman, which is one of the qualities he loves most about me, and 2. had I not gone into graduate school, we would have never met. I'm learning to be grateful for the difficulty of graduate school because I have benefited so much despite those challenges.
I drifted off topic...but that's okay.
There are many things I've learned in these 27 years, and I wanted to somehow chronicle them all. I'll figure out a way, and then I'll make time to share it with all of you.
Aside from the lessons and very thoughtful nature of my 27th birthday, I suppose I could share some of the more fun parts of yesterday. Yes, I'm sure we all know the outcome of yesterday's Auburn-LSU game...we were disappointed to lose (particularly on my birthday), but I'm not such a nut that I would let a football game ruin an otherwise wonderful day. As I said, my family got together to celebrate--all six of us together in my sister's apartment, opening presents and eating way too much food (before heading to Robert's family's tailgate...for more food, lol). The loot list is:
--a Department 56 Globe Theatre model from my sister. This is particularly special because this model has been retired since...I think the '90s or so. Of course, I didn't start my Department 56 (London) collection until a couple of years ago, and I've always been sad that the Globe Theatre is gone. My sister found it on a complete lark for much cheaper than on eBay at a thrift store this summer. She was so excited to give it to me, and had originally planned to give it to me for Christmas. I'm so glad she gave it to me for my birthday--now I can use it to decorate my apartment this Christmas! :)
--pieces for my Willow Tree nativity set from my parents: a crèche, an ox and a goat, and a metal star background. My parents had already gotten me the main pieces for the Willow Tree nativity set last Christmas, which came with the Holy Family and the Three Wisemen (plus their camel). Because I got it for Christmas last year, I haven't used my new nativity set yet. This Christmas will be the first time, and now I have a complete set! I'm so excited!! I turned to Robert after I unwrapped all this and said, "Honey, we're going to have the most darling house at Christmastime!" Lol...he rolled his eyes, but I know he'll love it. I picked up on the Christmas decorating bug that my mom has--I love love love decorating for Christmas and can't wait to put my apartment in order this year.
--a Sony Cybershot camera from my parents!! So so so so so excited about my new camera!! I've been wanting a replacement for my 2000 Olympus digital camera for most of this year, especially since I discovered that they no longer make the memory card that fits my camera. My old camera is a brick. My new camera is slim and sexy and will fit very easily in my purse! I'm so excited to get to use it--I had to charge it during the game, so it wasn't broken in then, but I'll start taking pictures of the cats and of Milton pretty soon. Eventually, Robert and I will get a professional-level camera, but this purchase will come after we're married and both have jobs. (Hehehe, so funny. I mentioned this to Robert this morning, and he froze. He said, "Wait a minute..." I laughed and said, "No! I mean after we both have jobs and real 'big' paychecks!" He sighed and responded, "Okay, good. Because I was a little worried that you were already starting to spend the money from the job I don't have yet." Lol...no, honey, not yet. ;))
So, yesterday was a very good birthday. I'm excited for Christmas and decorating! I'm a little sad, but also extremely excited, that this will be my last Christmas in this apartment. This will be Christmas number five, and I've decorated and celebrated every single year since I moved in. Every year, my decorations became less and less Wal-Mart style and increasingly grown-up style. I'm a little sad to know that I'll be leaving this place...but unbelievably excited about where I'll be next year!! Next Christmas!! Oh my word...next Christmas I'll be married to Robert! And we'll be decorating our little home together...*happy sigh* Yes, I'm "sad" that this is the end of a chapter. But I am so thrilled that the chapter I'll be starting is the one with Robert as my husband.
I am now the age I will be when I get married. I'll be married by my next birthday. Robert will be married by his next birthday. This is a beautiful place to be in. :)
Thursday, September 18, 2008
I am in love.
With a couple of violinists. They're currently contenders on "America's Got Talent." They're in the top 10...last night's vote will be revealed tonight to see if they're going to be in the top 5. I believe they'll make it at least to the top 2. I hope they win because this is the kind of thing we need in the music world. They're called Nuttin' But Stringz (http://www.nuttinbutstringz.com/), and you owe it to yourself to check out their website. They have an album out already called "Struggle from the Subway to the Charts," which is available for purchase at both their website and iTunes--I chose iTunes just because I had some leftover money from old iTunes cards, hehe
I'm so SO in love with these two young men! I've always been silly about how much I love violin music, just because it's where my instrumental training began. As I've gotten older, though, I've fallen deeper and deeper in love with musicians who are able to bring violin music to a younger, more impressionable audience, which is what these two men do. They blend the classical elements of the violin with hip hop and R&B. Last night, for the Top 10 performance on "America's Got Talent," they had a drum line accompaniment...chills. I want these two young men to win so badly--Las Vegas deserves them!
Okay, that's the end of my little PSA for Nuttin' But Stringz. :) Go check them out!
I'm so SO in love with these two young men! I've always been silly about how much I love violin music, just because it's where my instrumental training began. As I've gotten older, though, I've fallen deeper and deeper in love with musicians who are able to bring violin music to a younger, more impressionable audience, which is what these two men do. They blend the classical elements of the violin with hip hop and R&B. Last night, for the Top 10 performance on "America's Got Talent," they had a drum line accompaniment...chills. I want these two young men to win so badly--Las Vegas deserves them!
Okay, that's the end of my little PSA for Nuttin' But Stringz. :) Go check them out!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Some kind of goal
My sister told me about a running class at our gym that starts in a couple of weeks. It's supposed to be gentle and basic (taking people who have little running experience into careful consideration). The instructor is my sister's personal trainer, and she's told my sister that if one commits to the three-days-a-week for ten weeks program, one can see dramatic results by December (its end date). Who wants dramatic results by December? You're reading her blog.
I'm no runner, but I did use to run. When I had a personal trainer a few years ago, she put me on a treadmill, which scared me to death. We started off walking, then added an incline, then ramped up the speed at certain levels, and before I knew it I was running for half an hour at a time. My mom has been running for several months now, and her weight loss has been remarkable and swift. Every time I see her, I'm so impressed with how healthy she looks. I want to look that way. I want to be able to look at myself in the mirror and be proud of my accomplishment. Sometimes I'm afraid I have a nasty tangle of body dysmorphia to deal with that will never go away, no matter how little or big I am. But maybe if I work hard I'll be more likely to shake this whole psychological mess.
It costs $50...and I'm not sure if that's a monthly fee or a one-time fee, but I'm going to need to rely on my mom for the money. And I know she'll help me because she's already offered it. I just want to feel good in my own skin.
I'm nervous with the thought of running as a main way of exercising because I'm nervous about whether or not I'll be able to keep it up. I'm nervous about whether or not I'll actually succeed. Will I get stitches in my side that prevent me from wanting to continue? Will I have a recurrence of those nasty shin splints? Will my back be ready for this? All these questions....
I'm just going to jump in, feet first.
I'm no runner, but I did use to run. When I had a personal trainer a few years ago, she put me on a treadmill, which scared me to death. We started off walking, then added an incline, then ramped up the speed at certain levels, and before I knew it I was running for half an hour at a time. My mom has been running for several months now, and her weight loss has been remarkable and swift. Every time I see her, I'm so impressed with how healthy she looks. I want to look that way. I want to be able to look at myself in the mirror and be proud of my accomplishment. Sometimes I'm afraid I have a nasty tangle of body dysmorphia to deal with that will never go away, no matter how little or big I am. But maybe if I work hard I'll be more likely to shake this whole psychological mess.
It costs $50...and I'm not sure if that's a monthly fee or a one-time fee, but I'm going to need to rely on my mom for the money. And I know she'll help me because she's already offered it. I just want to feel good in my own skin.
I'm nervous with the thought of running as a main way of exercising because I'm nervous about whether or not I'll be able to keep it up. I'm nervous about whether or not I'll actually succeed. Will I get stitches in my side that prevent me from wanting to continue? Will I have a recurrence of those nasty shin splints? Will my back be ready for this? All these questions....
I'm just going to jump in, feet first.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Shower recap: The Loot
The gifts we (or I) received yesterday:
Feather bed--yuuuuum. I love feather beds!
Manicure gift certificate and manicure scrub
Calphalon nonstick pan (which is also dishwasher safe!)
Halter nightie--from Frederick's of Hollywood, no less!
Spice rack
The Tempest necklace (it has "we are such stuff as dreams are made on" engraved on it)
Bed, Bath, and Beyond gift certificate
Willow Tree cake topper--yay yay yay!! This is what my sister got us, and I'm so completely thrilled! It's beautiful and will make a lovely decoration in our home after the wedding, too.
*clears throat* And from my mom...
1. A lacy thong
2. Newlywed journal
3. Satin nightgown and matching satin robe
4. Our first year together scrapbook calendar
5. Amazingly comfy and soft slippers
Feather bed--yuuuuum. I love feather beds!
Manicure gift certificate and manicure scrub
Calphalon nonstick pan (which is also dishwasher safe!)
Halter nightie--from Frederick's of Hollywood, no less!
Spice rack
The Tempest necklace (it has "we are such stuff as dreams are made on" engraved on it)
Bed, Bath, and Beyond gift certificate
Willow Tree cake topper--yay yay yay!! This is what my sister got us, and I'm so completely thrilled! It's beautiful and will make a lovely decoration in our home after the wedding, too.
*clears throat* And from my mom...
1. A lacy thong
2. Newlywed journal
3. Satin nightgown and matching satin robe
4. Our first year together scrapbook calendar
5. Amazingly comfy and soft slippers
Shower recap: Things Heard...
And now...the lists of quotes.
"Things You Heard at the Shower"
Oh my goodness
Are there scissors?
Thanks, yay!
Ooooooh!
Should I break the ribbon?
Do we get to decide where we have lots and lots of babies?
Yay!
Robert will love cooking with this!
I love our new nicknames.
Where's the other strap?
I didn't know about the baby rule.
This is so adorable!
You are the second person wishing me spice.
If Amanda loves it, Robert loves it.
In case we don't get everything else we need.
I didn't expect a present from my sister!
Yay! Yaaah!
I'm going to show you, hang oooonn!
Thanks, Mommy.
You want lots of babies?
Now I already know what it is.
It's a thong!!
Ahh, it broke!
We're going to have twins!
Yeah, we're up.
I'm going to have lots of headgear for the wedding.
Enjooooy!
I like that fabric; it's very soft.
Oh, my.
Can I wear them before we get married?
You don't want me to do anything.
"Things You'll Hear on the Honeymoon"
It's like sleeping in clouds.
You know your limit.
You little devil.
"Handling" fee.
We're of the same ilk.
Ahhh--yay!
I can't get it open!!
It's really great. It's easy to clean.
You're going to love this stuff.
Don't the handles get hot?
Man, that's sneaky.
Open the big one first!
Why can't I get into this!
Oh, dear.
It's our spice! Nice spice! Spice, that's good.
Where'd you find this?
That is exciting!
I'll be able to wear that during "the tempest."
I'm gonna open it! Aaahhh.
This is much prettier in person.
What's so great about this is as you turn it, it changes.
We don't want everyone seeing our panties!
It's in his blood, isn't it?
Have to start exercising now.
It's like puzzles...a whole one.
I have glitter all over my lap now.
I love it.
What happened over there?
"Things You Heard at the Shower"
Oh my goodness
Are there scissors?
Thanks, yay!
Ooooooh!
Should I break the ribbon?
Do we get to decide where we have lots and lots of babies?
Yay!
Robert will love cooking with this!
I love our new nicknames.
Where's the other strap?
I didn't know about the baby rule.
This is so adorable!
You are the second person wishing me spice.
If Amanda loves it, Robert loves it.
In case we don't get everything else we need.
I didn't expect a present from my sister!
Yay! Yaaah!
I'm going to show you, hang oooonn!
Thanks, Mommy.
You want lots of babies?
Now I already know what it is.
It's a thong!!
Ahh, it broke!
We're going to have twins!
Yeah, we're up.
I'm going to have lots of headgear for the wedding.
Enjooooy!
I like that fabric; it's very soft.
Oh, my.
Can I wear them before we get married?
You don't want me to do anything.
"Things You'll Hear on the Honeymoon"
It's like sleeping in clouds.
You know your limit.
You little devil.
"Handling" fee.
We're of the same ilk.
Ahhh--yay!
I can't get it open!!
It's really great. It's easy to clean.
You're going to love this stuff.
Don't the handles get hot?
Man, that's sneaky.
Open the big one first!
Why can't I get into this!
Oh, dear.
It's our spice! Nice spice! Spice, that's good.
Where'd you find this?
That is exciting!
I'll be able to wear that during "the tempest."
I'm gonna open it! Aaahhh.
This is much prettier in person.
What's so great about this is as you turn it, it changes.
We don't want everyone seeing our panties!
It's in his blood, isn't it?
Have to start exercising now.
It's like puzzles...a whole one.
I have glitter all over my lap now.
I love it.
What happened over there?
Shower recap!
Lauren's bridal shower for me was a great hit! :D When I walked into the room, most of my friends had already arrived and were waiting for me. There was a drink station (nothing alcoholic, lol), a pasta bar (complete with chef), a gift table, and desserts strewn all over the dining tables in between the place settings.
I got to wear a pretty daisy corsage and a cute (and silly) feathery tiara. The tiara eventually stopped fitting on my head and had to come off, but it was fun to wear for the majority of the afternoon. After everyone had arrived, I started the line at the pasta bar. I had tortellini alfredo. Now, here's what I expected when Lauren said there would be a pasta bar--I figured it would be a cold pasta bar (more like pasta salad)...I didn't know we were getting a chef! After we selected our pasta, the chef cooked our pasta in the sauce so that it was nice and freshly cooked for us. The food was amazing! :) After I chatted with my mom, Robert's mom, and my aunt while they waited in line, we all sat down and dug in--it was so funny because all that could be heard were compliments on the food. After our plates were taken away by the wait staff, the guests started eyeing the desserts that were all over the tables...when I say there were at least fifty types of desserts, I am not exaggerating. We were all calling out what desserts were directly in front of us for those who couldn't see. The desserts were from a selection called "Chocolate Extravaganza." When my mom and sister ordered it, they thought they were getting a small sample of a few chocolatey items. We got practically everything that could possibly have ever been made with chocolate--and tons of it! :) It was amazing. We were all so stuffed.
After eating, we played a few games: guess how many rings are in the jar (583, I think--my guess was 351), don't say the "m" word ("marriage" or any derivation thereof), and how well do you know the bride quiz. The answers during the quiz were hilarious, and a couple of my friends really hammed it up--they were the comic duo of the shower. Robert's mom turned to me at one point and whispered, "Those two ought to be rented out for all bridal showers! They're hilarious!" We just had too much fun. The other sort of "game" played was that my cousin wrote down some of the things I said in reaction to the gifts as I was opening them. The comic duo also wrote done some things. After I opened the gifts, my cousin's list was titled "Things You Heard at the Shower." My friends' list was titled, "Things You'll Hear on the Honeymoon." I kept the lists, and I'll be writing them up here after I post this entry (maybe after we eat breakfast, depending on how much time I have this morning).
Another fun tradition at bridal showers, which I had forgotten until my mom and future mother-in-law reminded me, is that during the gift-opening, if the bride has to break the ribbons around the package to get into it, that broken ribbon counts for one child the couple will have. I broke five ribbons, which means Robert and I, despite our desire to have only two children, will have five, lol. One of the packages actually had two ribbons on it...and I had to break both at the same time, which means I'll have twins. ;) Robert is carrying the twin gene on him, and the most hilarious part is that it skipped a generation--we're up. When Robert's mom and I told my mom about that, she got so excited and said, "If they have twins, I am definitely retiring from my job, moving to town, and playing with those babies! There'll be one for me, and one for you!" (speaking to Robert's mom, hehe.) Robert and I have talked about that phenom, actually--and we decided that if we end up having twins on the first pregnancy, we will reconsider the hard and fast "only two" rule because we do want to have two pregnancies. So, according to the ribbons, it looks like we're going to have one set of twins and a set of triplets, hahaha. It's just a lot of fun to be so silly and play these games. :)
After I had opened the presents and we played our games, the shower was over. We all helped in packing things up, and then we went our separate ways. We truly just had a blast! After the shower, my family (immediate family plus Lauren's boyfriend and my aunt, uncle, and two cousins) and Robert's mom all went out to "have dinner." Yeah...the women were not hungry in the least. Most of us just snacked on little things. Robert's mom didn't eat. My mom and I ordered little salads and only ate about half of those. We were so stuffed from all the delicious food and desserts at the shower that we just couldn't think about eating dinner. Once we finished having our dinner, we all went our ways for the evening.
This was such a fun day! I'm getting really excited about the wedding, too. We got engaged on Christmas morning last year, and then we were looking at a 17-month wait. Now, we're at eight months to go. We've already waited nine. I feel like the wedding's around the corner now! :) My mom and Robert's mom were talking to me about all kinds of silly girly things yesterday; I can't wait to go dress shopping with them!! :) I really feel like the most fun part of being engaged has officially started, and I'm truly enjoying myself.
(Oh, and I left the photo-taking to everyone else. So when I get pictures from people, I'll publish them on my Facebook.)
I got to wear a pretty daisy corsage and a cute (and silly) feathery tiara. The tiara eventually stopped fitting on my head and had to come off, but it was fun to wear for the majority of the afternoon. After everyone had arrived, I started the line at the pasta bar. I had tortellini alfredo. Now, here's what I expected when Lauren said there would be a pasta bar--I figured it would be a cold pasta bar (more like pasta salad)...I didn't know we were getting a chef! After we selected our pasta, the chef cooked our pasta in the sauce so that it was nice and freshly cooked for us. The food was amazing! :) After I chatted with my mom, Robert's mom, and my aunt while they waited in line, we all sat down and dug in--it was so funny because all that could be heard were compliments on the food. After our plates were taken away by the wait staff, the guests started eyeing the desserts that were all over the tables...when I say there were at least fifty types of desserts, I am not exaggerating. We were all calling out what desserts were directly in front of us for those who couldn't see. The desserts were from a selection called "Chocolate Extravaganza." When my mom and sister ordered it, they thought they were getting a small sample of a few chocolatey items. We got practically everything that could possibly have ever been made with chocolate--and tons of it! :) It was amazing. We were all so stuffed.
After eating, we played a few games: guess how many rings are in the jar (583, I think--my guess was 351), don't say the "m" word ("marriage" or any derivation thereof), and how well do you know the bride quiz. The answers during the quiz were hilarious, and a couple of my friends really hammed it up--they were the comic duo of the shower. Robert's mom turned to me at one point and whispered, "Those two ought to be rented out for all bridal showers! They're hilarious!" We just had too much fun. The other sort of "game" played was that my cousin wrote down some of the things I said in reaction to the gifts as I was opening them. The comic duo also wrote done some things. After I opened the gifts, my cousin's list was titled "Things You Heard at the Shower." My friends' list was titled, "Things You'll Hear on the Honeymoon." I kept the lists, and I'll be writing them up here after I post this entry (maybe after we eat breakfast, depending on how much time I have this morning).
Another fun tradition at bridal showers, which I had forgotten until my mom and future mother-in-law reminded me, is that during the gift-opening, if the bride has to break the ribbons around the package to get into it, that broken ribbon counts for one child the couple will have. I broke five ribbons, which means Robert and I, despite our desire to have only two children, will have five, lol. One of the packages actually had two ribbons on it...and I had to break both at the same time, which means I'll have twins. ;) Robert is carrying the twin gene on him, and the most hilarious part is that it skipped a generation--we're up. When Robert's mom and I told my mom about that, she got so excited and said, "If they have twins, I am definitely retiring from my job, moving to town, and playing with those babies! There'll be one for me, and one for you!" (speaking to Robert's mom, hehe.) Robert and I have talked about that phenom, actually--and we decided that if we end up having twins on the first pregnancy, we will reconsider the hard and fast "only two" rule because we do want to have two pregnancies. So, according to the ribbons, it looks like we're going to have one set of twins and a set of triplets, hahaha. It's just a lot of fun to be so silly and play these games. :)
After I had opened the presents and we played our games, the shower was over. We all helped in packing things up, and then we went our separate ways. We truly just had a blast! After the shower, my family (immediate family plus Lauren's boyfriend and my aunt, uncle, and two cousins) and Robert's mom all went out to "have dinner." Yeah...the women were not hungry in the least. Most of us just snacked on little things. Robert's mom didn't eat. My mom and I ordered little salads and only ate about half of those. We were so stuffed from all the delicious food and desserts at the shower that we just couldn't think about eating dinner. Once we finished having our dinner, we all went our ways for the evening.
This was such a fun day! I'm getting really excited about the wedding, too. We got engaged on Christmas morning last year, and then we were looking at a 17-month wait. Now, we're at eight months to go. We've already waited nine. I feel like the wedding's around the corner now! :) My mom and Robert's mom were talking to me about all kinds of silly girly things yesterday; I can't wait to go dress shopping with them!! :) I really feel like the most fun part of being engaged has officially started, and I'm truly enjoying myself.
(Oh, and I left the photo-taking to everyone else. So when I get pictures from people, I'll publish them on my Facebook.)
In preparation for the shower!
I've been working so hard in this damned apartment that I am sweating bullets. And it's just 9:30, lol. Well done, Amanda. I had to clean out my car, which had basically become a third closet for me leading up to and after my surgery--I just didn't have the energy to carry large armloads up to my apartment. Unfortunately, it just accumulated and accumulated. So, I spent half an hour out there unloading my car, and I look like a gross sweaty pig. Why did I need to unload my car? Two reasons: 1. I literally had no room to take the shower gifts back to my apartment. 2. In case there are little travel plans for today, I literally had no room to drive a single person around. So, now my car is "clean"...well, it's empty. It is in desperate need of a vacuuming and general washing, but when am I supposed to find the time to do that?
One of the trips from my car up to my apartment involved gigantic Rubbermaid tubs...two of which were filled with stuff from the car. I took two trips up, and had to rearrange my storage closet outside in order to make them fit. I'm...not sure where the shower gifts are going to live. My bedroom closet is a complete shambles, but I'm pretty sure that once I clear it out, too, it'll still be very filled. Robert suggested we take the presents to his parents' house (since they live in town whereas my folks don't), so I might be taking them up on that.
Whewee!
Okay, so next up on my plate is to go around the apartment spot-cleaning, which includes dusting and cleaning the bathroom. So...I better get on that. I still haven't eaten breakfast and am nowhere near the way I want to look for the shower. I think I'll be going curly-headed today. I don't have the energy to stand there straightening my hair for an hour. We'll see, though.
Bridal shower!!!!! :D I probably won't update until afterward, so...stay tuned for the recap of festivities!! :)
One of the trips from my car up to my apartment involved gigantic Rubbermaid tubs...two of which were filled with stuff from the car. I took two trips up, and had to rearrange my storage closet outside in order to make them fit. I'm...not sure where the shower gifts are going to live. My bedroom closet is a complete shambles, but I'm pretty sure that once I clear it out, too, it'll still be very filled. Robert suggested we take the presents to his parents' house (since they live in town whereas my folks don't), so I might be taking them up on that.
Whewee!
Okay, so next up on my plate is to go around the apartment spot-cleaning, which includes dusting and cleaning the bathroom. So...I better get on that. I still haven't eaten breakfast and am nowhere near the way I want to look for the shower. I think I'll be going curly-headed today. I don't have the energy to stand there straightening my hair for an hour. We'll see, though.
Bridal shower!!!!! :D I probably won't update until afterward, so...stay tuned for the recap of festivities!! :)
Friday, September 12, 2008
With a few minutes to spare...
...I will diligently recap the past few days.
1. Engagement pictures!
Robert and I had our engagement pictures on Wednesday afternoon. I got my nails done around 10, and when I left at around 11, I noticed that the sky was gray. Praying that it wouldn't rain, and recalling that I'm highly superstitious about rain, I drove back to my home rather than to Robert's first. I grabbed the umbrella I had originally forgotten with this thought running through my mind: if I don't have my umbrella, it will rain; if I do have my umbrella, it won't. This is called "magical thinking" in the pysch world--just means that a person believes he or she has the power to change certain events with the power of thought or behavior. It's where people develop their superstitions and rituals. Well, anyway, it didn't rain. So, I was right. ;)
It was 91 degrees and 100% humidity on Wednesday afternoon, so my hair was really threatening to go huge on me, but I think it held (what with all the maximum hold hairspray Ami put in my hair when she styled it right after class). We had a great deal of fun with the photos, and we love our photographer so much. She said that the photos will be ready to view sometime next week. I'll be checking religiously until then. I can't wait to see them!
After the engagement pictures, Robert and I had a fancy dinner. We figured (he figured, actually) that we were both dressed up nice, we shouldn't waste it. So, we went to a new nice restaurant in downtown, and sort of ate our way through the most delectable menu I've sampled in quite some time. Soooo good. It was "Wine Wednesday," which meant that bottles were half off, so we were able to buy something a little pricier than we usually buy. We had such a fun little night out. We celebrated our milestone before our wedding day, talked about the future, and also celebrated my birthday. (We decided, well, I decided, that it isn't logical to have two fancy dinners within a week of each other when we're both so poor as we are. He's going to cook for my birthday and take me out to a movie.) So much fun--I'm so excited to see the pictures! :)
2. Bridal shower!!
My sister has been planning this phenomenal bridal shower for the past several months, and I have been so excited for it. She hasn't let me help her a single bit, which she swears is how it's supposed to go. She and my mom have been entirely responsible for everything. I wanted to help make favors, but they delegated the responsibility to my cousin and aunt. My cousin assured me this morning that the favors are too cute and that I'll love them. I knew I'd love them before she said anything just because they worked so hard on them.
The shower is tomorrow at the university hotel and conference center. It's sort of a learning hotel, where hospitality majors can get their experience for their résumés. I haven't really had a horrible experience with it as of yet, so it's pretty good. They have a wonderful Italian restaurant attached to them, and they're basically catering the shower tomorrow. We're having a pasta bar where guests can create their own pasta dishes. And then there's apparently a dessert bar, I think...I can't remember if they decided to do that or not. But it's going to be a lot of fun. My sister has been planning games complete with prizes. One of the games requires an answer key, which I created. So I won't be playing that game...that would sort of be cheating. It's a "how well do you know the bride" game. We updated it with more contemporary references so that it's a little more relevant; I'm hoping it'll be fun for everyone. :)
Well, I have used up all my free moments before class and should end it here.
A recap of the bridal shower will come sometime in the next few days! :)
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Improving feline critical thinking skills, part 2
I bought a basket from Hobby Lobby this morning to put all the girls' toys in when they're not in use. Both cats noticed the basket and the goodies collected in there. Beatrice walked up to it and started pawing around at her toys before choosing one, taking it out, and playing with it. Callie...curled up in the basket and went to sleep. *blink*
They say that teaching an animal the complexity of choosing a toy out of a bowl or basket like that will help their critical thinking skills.
Me and my propensity for teaching my cats critical thinking skills.
I'm proud of Baby Bea-Bea for learning so quickly. Curious about Ms. Callie-cat...perhaps it's because she's a year older than Beatrice and is harder to teach? Perhaps because she's in love with sleeping in boxes and baskets, toys be damned? Probably the latter. *nod*
They say that teaching an animal the complexity of choosing a toy out of a bowl or basket like that will help their critical thinking skills.
Me and my propensity for teaching my cats critical thinking skills.
I'm proud of Baby Bea-Bea for learning so quickly. Curious about Ms. Callie-cat...perhaps it's because she's a year older than Beatrice and is harder to teach? Perhaps because she's in love with sleeping in boxes and baskets, toys be damned? Probably the latter. *nod*
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Throwing my hat in the ring
Okay, I'm making this brief because I really do need to get my day underway here, but I accidentally have The View on...it comes on after Ellen, and I try to change the channel in enough time, but sometimes I fail. Today I failed.
One of the first things they show during a segment they call "Hot Topics" was a clip from a speech Sarah Palin delivered where she repeated that Alaska's heart needed to be in line with God's heart for the good of the state. The question here was not whether or not Palin should be a Christian or should tell people that she's a Christian. The question was whether or not it starts to blur the line between separation of church and state when a political body asks for the consideration of God's will when making a state decision.
The women, of course, got off-topic, and they got off-topic because of Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. I generally have problems with Elisabeth for many reasons, most of them centering on her youth and immaturity. Although she is close to my age (she's 31), I find her to be much less mature than most of my age group. My problems with Joy are that, although we have similar political views (whereas Elisabeth and I do not), she is overbearing and loud and seems to mostly enjoy the sound of her own voice.
The two of them get into an argument within the first ten minutes of the show's beginning about whether or not Palin should have mentioned God's will in her speech. Rather than talk about the separation of church and state, they focus their conversation instead on God's will. Joy challenges Elisabeth to explain what she meant when she stated that sometimes "God will say no [to people's prayers]." Elisabeth's example was Katrina, which she likened to a parent disciplining a child...way out of line, there, I feel. Joy asked, "Then is the Iraq war God's will?" Elisabeth said, "There are some people who believe so. Some people believe that God's will is for there to be peace in the middle east." That's true. But Sherri Shephard, a good addition I feel, offered the response that there are people who believe that God's will is for there NOT to be a war in Iraq. The conversation then degenerated into an argument about what God's will is.
Here're my two cents. We are a nation of individuals. As a nation of individuals my first point is that most of us pray to a different idea of God. A good number of us don't pray to a god at all. It is extremely difficult to pinpoint whose will we're talking about when there is no standard in who God is. My second point is that we will never agree with what that Great Willpower wants for us. We are all so wrapped up in our own agendas (our own religious beliefs, values, prayers, needs) that sometimes it's easy to forget that if there is a God who has a will, we cannot possibly begin to know it. How can we know if Katrina or the Iraq War or my sinus infection last week were part of God's Will? I'm Catholic, so I like to believe in a larger plan, but I can't begin to pretend to understand that plan or explain it.
I'm so irritated with the distractions we're getting in this election. (Not like it's that surprising, though--we're always distracted away from the real issues by these sorts of riddling debates.) I want to know the clear-cut stances on the issues. I don't care about whether or not a politician should or shouldn't have mentioned a personal fact. They're just all distractions. Give me the political facts, the campaign platforms, and go away so I can make a decision.
One of the first things they show during a segment they call "Hot Topics" was a clip from a speech Sarah Palin delivered where she repeated that Alaska's heart needed to be in line with God's heart for the good of the state. The question here was not whether or not Palin should be a Christian or should tell people that she's a Christian. The question was whether or not it starts to blur the line between separation of church and state when a political body asks for the consideration of God's will when making a state decision.
The women, of course, got off-topic, and they got off-topic because of Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. I generally have problems with Elisabeth for many reasons, most of them centering on her youth and immaturity. Although she is close to my age (she's 31), I find her to be much less mature than most of my age group. My problems with Joy are that, although we have similar political views (whereas Elisabeth and I do not), she is overbearing and loud and seems to mostly enjoy the sound of her own voice.
The two of them get into an argument within the first ten minutes of the show's beginning about whether or not Palin should have mentioned God's will in her speech. Rather than talk about the separation of church and state, they focus their conversation instead on God's will. Joy challenges Elisabeth to explain what she meant when she stated that sometimes "God will say no [to people's prayers]." Elisabeth's example was Katrina, which she likened to a parent disciplining a child...way out of line, there, I feel. Joy asked, "Then is the Iraq war God's will?" Elisabeth said, "There are some people who believe so. Some people believe that God's will is for there to be peace in the middle east." That's true. But Sherri Shephard, a good addition I feel, offered the response that there are people who believe that God's will is for there NOT to be a war in Iraq. The conversation then degenerated into an argument about what God's will is.
Here're my two cents. We are a nation of individuals. As a nation of individuals my first point is that most of us pray to a different idea of God. A good number of us don't pray to a god at all. It is extremely difficult to pinpoint whose will we're talking about when there is no standard in who God is. My second point is that we will never agree with what that Great Willpower wants for us. We are all so wrapped up in our own agendas (our own religious beliefs, values, prayers, needs) that sometimes it's easy to forget that if there is a God who has a will, we cannot possibly begin to know it. How can we know if Katrina or the Iraq War or my sinus infection last week were part of God's Will? I'm Catholic, so I like to believe in a larger plan, but I can't begin to pretend to understand that plan or explain it.
I'm so irritated with the distractions we're getting in this election. (Not like it's that surprising, though--we're always distracted away from the real issues by these sorts of riddling debates.) I want to know the clear-cut stances on the issues. I don't care about whether or not a politician should or shouldn't have mentioned a personal fact. They're just all distractions. Give me the political facts, the campaign platforms, and go away so I can make a decision.
Coming up...
This week in Amanda's life!
Tuesday:
Tutoring and reading reading reading reading reading. I've got about five plays scheduled to make up for the fact that I didn't read at all this weekend. Gah. Here's hoping I'll be able to get it done without going completely cuckoo.
Wednesday:
Engagement pictures re-do! Robert has a sinus infection (diagnosed yesterday), but he's got azithromycin pumping in his system now, so he should be at least photogenic by tomorrow. I'm hoping...I really don't want to have to reschedule these pictures again. I'm getting really antsy to get them done.
Thursday:
Bill's birthday. Unfortunately, Robert and I cannot celebrate his father's birthday with him on his birthday, so we're going out to dinner on Friday. Thursday evening I'll be attending a seminar on Virgil, if I can get to it.
Friday:
Yummy dinner at a nice restaurant! It's okay to celebrate Bill's birthday a day late, right? Right. ;) Especially when it means we get to go to my favorite restaurant (okay, it's Bill's favorite, too). I can't wait!
Saturday:
The best day of the month!!!! My BRIDAL SHOWER!!! XD My sister has been working on this bridal shower for a very very long time now, and she is very excited about it and hopeful that it'll go well. I know it will. She's been really protective of it because of a lot of family drama going on--family members stealing her thunder, wanting to give me different bridal showers, people wanting to do things bigger better and way over her budget. But I told my mom this weekend (and I'll tell my sister this too), she's my SISTER. I side with her automatically in all things. Nobody can take that away. She's also my maid of honor for a reason, and not just because she's my sister. Under Robert, she's my very best friend. Who doesn't want her very best friend as her maid of honor? Lauren's bridal shower will always be above all else in my memory (aside from the wedding itself, of course, hehe), and all because it's the one she is throwing for me. She doesn't have to do everything she's doing in order to ensure that I'll love this shower. But I really appreciate it all. (The only hard part is knowing that somehow I'll have to at least equal this shower when I throw hers! Hehe.) I can't wait for my bridal shower on Saturday!!! :D
Sunday:
Back to the ol' grind: reading reading reading. (But at least this time with the memory of the bridal shower and engagement pictures in mind. *grin*)
Hm...I think I need to call my sister. Something tells me she's probably really nervous about this shower as the day approaches. So, plays will have to wait a few minutes while I call my sister. *nod*
Tuesday:
Tutoring and reading reading reading reading reading. I've got about five plays scheduled to make up for the fact that I didn't read at all this weekend. Gah. Here's hoping I'll be able to get it done without going completely cuckoo.
Wednesday:
Engagement pictures re-do! Robert has a sinus infection (diagnosed yesterday), but he's got azithromycin pumping in his system now, so he should be at least photogenic by tomorrow. I'm hoping...I really don't want to have to reschedule these pictures again. I'm getting really antsy to get them done.
Thursday:
Bill's birthday. Unfortunately, Robert and I cannot celebrate his father's birthday with him on his birthday, so we're going out to dinner on Friday. Thursday evening I'll be attending a seminar on Virgil, if I can get to it.
Friday:
Yummy dinner at a nice restaurant! It's okay to celebrate Bill's birthday a day late, right? Right. ;) Especially when it means we get to go to my favorite restaurant (okay, it's Bill's favorite, too). I can't wait!
Saturday:
The best day of the month!!!! My BRIDAL SHOWER!!! XD My sister has been working on this bridal shower for a very very long time now, and she is very excited about it and hopeful that it'll go well. I know it will. She's been really protective of it because of a lot of family drama going on--family members stealing her thunder, wanting to give me different bridal showers, people wanting to do things bigger better and way over her budget. But I told my mom this weekend (and I'll tell my sister this too), she's my SISTER. I side with her automatically in all things. Nobody can take that away. She's also my maid of honor for a reason, and not just because she's my sister. Under Robert, she's my very best friend. Who doesn't want her very best friend as her maid of honor? Lauren's bridal shower will always be above all else in my memory (aside from the wedding itself, of course, hehe), and all because it's the one she is throwing for me. She doesn't have to do everything she's doing in order to ensure that I'll love this shower. But I really appreciate it all. (The only hard part is knowing that somehow I'll have to at least equal this shower when I throw hers! Hehe.) I can't wait for my bridal shower on Saturday!!! :D
Sunday:
Back to the ol' grind: reading reading reading. (But at least this time with the memory of the bridal shower and engagement pictures in mind. *grin*)
Hm...I think I need to call my sister. Something tells me she's probably really nervous about this shower as the day approaches. So, plays will have to wait a few minutes while I call my sister. *nod*
Friday, September 5, 2008
Skipping over point four to get to something "new"
Yesterday morning, I was in a full-out, knock-down, drag-out PANIC. I had crafted my September reading schedule (general world drama), and there aren't enough days to do all the reading!! AAAAAAAA! I'm looking at an average of 200-300 pages a day, and this is seven days a week. I talked to my sister yesterday and asked her the bridal shower time. It goes from 1-5 p., and I'm not showing up to help set up (because it's apparently taken care of), and I'm also not staying late to break down (because that's also apparently taken care of). This is good news for me because I have one play reading scheduled in the morning before the shower followed by two more plays after the shower. Is Amanda going to football games this season? It's unclear right now. What is clear is my relief at not having gone in on season tickets with my parents this year.
Anyway, today is day two of my September reading schedule. I read three plays yesterday (the Oresteia trilogy) and one more this morning (Oedipus Rex). I'd never read the Oresteia trilogy before, so that was eye-opening...sort of. What was precisely eye-opening was that when you purchase the Dover Thrift edition of texts to save money, sometimes you get what you pay for in translations. The translation of this edition was horrid and so difficult to read. I've got a few more Dover Thrift translations of Greek dramas, but I'm hoping their translations will be a little bit better. I'm trying to be positive and chalking it up to Aeschylus being really old. Or something.
Robert and I are going to my parents' home this afternoon. I'm bringing Antigone, The Bacchae, Clouds, and Lysistrata for my reading homework this weekend. I've read Lysistrata several times before, but the latest translation I read was based on the Cold War, so some of the women in the play have Russian accents...no joke. It's quite weird. I purchased my own copy of Lysistrata so that I don't have to deal with the crazy accents and weird translation. I don't need something like that messing me up on my exams.
I should be finished with the Greek dramas after this group, I think. I'm moving on to Everyman and Second Shepherd's Pageant next, both of which I've read, but it's been a few years.
Well, time for me to dash over to the duplex, drop off my suitcase, walk Milton (who was very poorly disciplined for me this morning and got a swat on his rump because of it--I've never swatted him before *sad*), and go hop on the bus for school. La la la. Oh, how I love being busy. *sarcasm*
Have a good weekend everyone!
Anyway, today is day two of my September reading schedule. I read three plays yesterday (the Oresteia trilogy) and one more this morning (Oedipus Rex). I'd never read the Oresteia trilogy before, so that was eye-opening...sort of. What was precisely eye-opening was that when you purchase the Dover Thrift edition of texts to save money, sometimes you get what you pay for in translations. The translation of this edition was horrid and so difficult to read. I've got a few more Dover Thrift translations of Greek dramas, but I'm hoping their translations will be a little bit better. I'm trying to be positive and chalking it up to Aeschylus being really old. Or something.
Robert and I are going to my parents' home this afternoon. I'm bringing Antigone, The Bacchae, Clouds, and Lysistrata for my reading homework this weekend. I've read Lysistrata several times before, but the latest translation I read was based on the Cold War, so some of the women in the play have Russian accents...no joke. It's quite weird. I purchased my own copy of Lysistrata so that I don't have to deal with the crazy accents and weird translation. I don't need something like that messing me up on my exams.
I should be finished with the Greek dramas after this group, I think. I'm moving on to Everyman and Second Shepherd's Pageant next, both of which I've read, but it's been a few years.
Well, time for me to dash over to the duplex, drop off my suitcase, walk Milton (who was very poorly disciplined for me this morning and got a swat on his rump because of it--I've never swatted him before *sad*), and go hop on the bus for school. La la la. Oh, how I love being busy. *sarcasm*
Have a good weekend everyone!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Three is a magic number
Point number three is to talk about my school stuff. And I don't mean my teaching stuff...this is Amanda-as-Student here.
During the third year of a PhD program, particularly in English, most students are taking their exams and going "ABD," which is shorthand for "All But Dissertation." It indicates the stage at which the student has completed all coursework and exam requirements, and explains that the student has all but the dissertation completed in order to complete the PhD.
I'm on the verge of going ABD. I can't wait to call myself ABD. Since I completed my coursework last semester, I've been chomping at the bit to be ABD. Sometimes I slip and say something like, "Oh well now that I'm ABD...." If I ever say it in front of Robert, he corrects me so that I don't get ahead of myself, hehe. I'm almost ABD. The only thing in my way are my exams.
Because of my surgery this summer, we had to push my exams back to Spring rather than having them this Fall, which would have been "on schedule." I'm still on time and will graduate in 2010, but now I have a little less time to work on my dissertation. We're aiming for January/February for my exams. I will take three: early English drama to 1642 (my major area), Shakespeare (a minor area), and general world drama (my second minor area). My major area exam will be 4 hours long, and my two minors will be 3 hours long each. They are all in essay format, and they will span a period of three days. After my written exams I will take oral exams. The orals are a little intimidating because the typical format is for the examiners to ask the student questions the student either failed on the written exam or did not explain well enough on the written exam. On the one hand, it's an opportunity for the student to have a second chance. On the other hand, it's a second opportunity for the student to fall flat. Most committees are not interested in failing their students, so I just have to keep that in mind so that I don't paralyze myself with fear.
At this point, I haven't read as much as I really should have. So, I'm coming up with a new reading schedule right now to help myself out. It generally goes like this:
September: General world drama
This list consists entirely of plays. I can read a number of plays in a single day, so I should be able to devote a single month to this list.
October: Shakespeare
I've already read all the Shakespeare plays I'll be examined on. Now I have to go through and read the secondary (theoretical) material. I should be able to get through at least two books a day, depending on length. (There's a Bevington in there that's fairly sizeable, so I'll probably have to break that one up over a two-day period.)
November: Early English drama to 1642
I've read most of the plays on this list and none of the secondary material. I'll need to read very quickly and efficiently for this list because there is a great deal of material on it (we're talking close to 100 individual pieces).
December: Catch-up/Review
This month I'll go back over my notes and finish reading anything I haven't finished yet.
I should be examining either in January or February. I'll submit my dissertation prospectus in March to keep myself on track. Dissertations don't really take that long to write, but what is difficult is staying on track. I've known most ABDs to compose their dissertation in a matter of a couple of months, despite that it took them a few years to get to the writing stage. I don't have a few years any more. I will be graduating in one of the ceremonies in 2010.
During the third year of a PhD program, particularly in English, most students are taking their exams and going "ABD," which is shorthand for "All But Dissertation." It indicates the stage at which the student has completed all coursework and exam requirements, and explains that the student has all but the dissertation completed in order to complete the PhD.
I'm on the verge of going ABD. I can't wait to call myself ABD. Since I completed my coursework last semester, I've been chomping at the bit to be ABD. Sometimes I slip and say something like, "Oh well now that I'm ABD...." If I ever say it in front of Robert, he corrects me so that I don't get ahead of myself, hehe. I'm almost ABD. The only thing in my way are my exams.
Because of my surgery this summer, we had to push my exams back to Spring rather than having them this Fall, which would have been "on schedule." I'm still on time and will graduate in 2010, but now I have a little less time to work on my dissertation. We're aiming for January/February for my exams. I will take three: early English drama to 1642 (my major area), Shakespeare (a minor area), and general world drama (my second minor area). My major area exam will be 4 hours long, and my two minors will be 3 hours long each. They are all in essay format, and they will span a period of three days. After my written exams I will take oral exams. The orals are a little intimidating because the typical format is for the examiners to ask the student questions the student either failed on the written exam or did not explain well enough on the written exam. On the one hand, it's an opportunity for the student to have a second chance. On the other hand, it's a second opportunity for the student to fall flat. Most committees are not interested in failing their students, so I just have to keep that in mind so that I don't paralyze myself with fear.
At this point, I haven't read as much as I really should have. So, I'm coming up with a new reading schedule right now to help myself out. It generally goes like this:
September: General world drama
This list consists entirely of plays. I can read a number of plays in a single day, so I should be able to devote a single month to this list.
October: Shakespeare
I've already read all the Shakespeare plays I'll be examined on. Now I have to go through and read the secondary (theoretical) material. I should be able to get through at least two books a day, depending on length. (There's a Bevington in there that's fairly sizeable, so I'll probably have to break that one up over a two-day period.)
November: Early English drama to 1642
I've read most of the plays on this list and none of the secondary material. I'll need to read very quickly and efficiently for this list because there is a great deal of material on it (we're talking close to 100 individual pieces).
December: Catch-up/Review
This month I'll go back over my notes and finish reading anything I haven't finished yet.
I should be examining either in January or February. I'll submit my dissertation prospectus in March to keep myself on track. Dissertations don't really take that long to write, but what is difficult is staying on track. I've known most ABDs to compose their dissertation in a matter of a couple of months, despite that it took them a few years to get to the writing stage. I don't have a few years any more. I will be graduating in one of the ceremonies in 2010.
My second point is...
Next on my list of topics to cover are the deaths in my family of late.
My Auntie Ann died on Sunday morning, August 24th. It was a shock to me because I had no idea she had been sick for the week before. As I've already described, she was quite a remarkable woman and a staple in our family.
I found out yesterday that my dad's cousin died at the age of 49 on Wednesday, August 27th of a massive heart attack. He is survived by his wife and two young children (both under the age of ten). His father, Uncle Roger (my grandfather's favorite brother), died several years ago of a massive heart attack. My grandfather suffered a few massive heart attacks, the latest one in the '90s resulting in his need for a quadruple bypass. My grandfather has lost weight, increased his activity to an incredible degree, and changed his diet completely. His BP and cholesterol are still a little high, but that's hereditary; they're not nearly as high as they used to be. Most of the men on my dad's side of the family either suffered from or died early from massive heart attacks because of the rampant heart disease on that side of the family. My dad has an extremely stressful job, travels every day of the week except for one or two days, sleeps only a couple hours a night, eats whatever he can whenever he can (which means a hamburger at midnight, if he has to), and exercises rarely but tries to get to the park for a run when he's at home. Robert spoke to him earlier today, and my dad explained that his cousin, Michael, was a heavy smoker and had high cholesterol. To me, that's copping out--that's my dad saying, "Well, it won't happen to me because I'm not like Michael." But he has a lot of the same genes as Michael. And it scares me.
As for the lack of support portion of the note I made earlier, it basically follows this.
After speaking with my mom last night, I discovered just how completely full of shit my paternal grandmother is. My mom no longer has any biological parental figures. Her parents are gone (Grandpa died in 1996 and Grandma died in 2002), and now her second parents (her aunt and uncle) are gone (Uncle Lenny died after Grandpa and Auntie Ann just last week). My dad's parents are the only ones she has left. When she spoke to my grandmother to get a little support, my grandmother was very distant. First, she asked my mom if she had a nice trip to St. Louis (where her family is from).
My mom's response was, "No, Frances. I didn't. The flight was fine, but, no, the trip was not."
Grandmother replied, "Well, I'm sure the reason for traveling was hard...but I'm sure it was nice to see your family."
My mom was honest. "No. No, it wasn't."
See, here's the deal. When you're talking to a supposed mother figure, you should be able to break down the walls and be vulnerable. She's not an acquaintance who you just give a stock answer to--you don't say, "Oh, yeah, sure it was fine." No. My grandmother changed the subject when my mom opened up to her.
My mom then went on to describe the flowers that Robert's parents sent to the funeral. My grandparents sent nothing. No sympathy card, nothing. They had met Auntie Ann. They knew who she was for my mom. Robert's parents hadn't met her, but they still managed to show their support because they love my mom. When my mom described the flowers to my grandmother, she changed the subject.
The final bit of bitchiness from my grandmother came when she and my mom were talking about Michael's death. My grandmother explained about his widow and children who were left behind, and my mom expressed her sympathy for the poor woman. My grandmother replied, "Yes, well, she's a cold-hearted woman."
What the hell does that mean??? I was mad. I asked my mom, "So, are you telling me that my grandmother is so unkind as to imply that anyone deserves their spouse to die so young??" My mom replied, "Apparently." See, we didn't really know Michael and his family because they moved a bit far away. So I don't know his widow. But I do know my grandmother. And I do know that when a person does not know her very well (and even when they do), it's easy and safe to close up and protect one's feelings. It's very possible that Michael's widow was "cold-hearted" to my grandmother because my grandmother is a cold-hearted woman. Who says something like that about a widow? Nobody deserves a spouse to die, I don't care how evil a person they seem to be.
Robert and I are going up to my parents' house this weekend so that we can offer some support to my mom and dad. Basically, I'm going to help my mom remember to rest (because she's bone tired) and do the laundry or ironing or cooking or whatever for her so she can actually sleep as much as she needs to. Robert's offered to do the yard work because my dad is also really busy with work and won't be able to do much house stuff this weekend either. I just want to help them out...and I really just need to be with my mommy right now.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Start at the beginning, and when you come to the end, stop.
Disney World! I went to Disney World! :D Here's how it all happened:
Friday, August 29th:
I "taught" in the afternoon. By "taught," I mean that I gave my students a group work assignment so that they could teach themselves for the day. Made class shorter, which got me to Robert's duplex earlier, which got us on the road faster.
We arrived at Jack's house, visited for a while, met Steven, Robert and Jack told me where we were going for our trip, and then all four of us went out to Sal Grosso, a Brazilian restaurant. So much fun--we ate so much food...almost too much food. When you're seated, they give you a card that's red on one side and green on the other side. The servers then bring out spits of meat as long as the green side is showing on your table. When you don't want a particular cut, you just flip it over to red. Soooo freaking good. I wanted to marry the filet mignon. Sorry, Robert.
After dinner, we dashed over to Wal-Mart to try to find ponchos, but to no avail. Jack and I were...hm...kept in conversation with a couple of rednecks, one of whom (the younger) had a laugh a little like Goofy. Jack and I had to bite our tongues to keep from being particularly rude to them. We left Wal-Mart, got back to the house, and crashed because we needed to leave for the airport at 5:30 in the morning.
Saturday, August 30th:
We awoke ass-early. I was extremely groggy and ready to roll back over until I remembered: DISNEY WORLD! I popped out of bed, threw on my clothes and dashed to the extra bathroom to get myself a little less gross. The drive to the airport was easy enough, as was the wait for our plane. The flight was fine, and extremely short--we played trivia, and by the time we got our drinks from the drink cart, we were making our initial descent.
Jack had set us up with a great resort called Coronado Springs in the park. They had an awesome deal where they gave us labels for our luggage--if we chose to put the labels on, the resort would pick up our luggage for us from baggage claim and take it directly to the room. The warning, though, was that the luggage may not arrive at the same time as we did. But, that didn't matter, because the rest of the package gave us a park hopper pass as part of our room key (as in...our room key was our park pass). So, we hopped a bus from the airport (bypassing baggage claim), went directly to the resort, checked in and got our tickets/keys, and then headed to the park via the resort bus. (When we checked in, we snagged some ponchos from the gift shop, a point which does become relevant by the next paragraph.)
We went to Animal Kingdom first because neither Robert nor I had been there before. The first thing we did was get some lunch at the Rain Forest Cafe--we sat next to the elephants, hehehe. As we finished our meal, we observed several people running into the restaurant, shaking off umbrellas and themselves--Gustav's arm had rested over Orlando and it was pouring. We donned our ponchos and braved the storm to go play in the park. We went on the Harambe Safari, which was a lot of fun; a dinosaur ride hosted by Claire Huxtable (hehehe); and Jack and Robert went on a Mount Everest-based roller coaster while I took pictures. After Animal Kingdom, we went back to the hotel for a rest, saw our bags had been delivered, and then later hopped on another bus to go to Epcot.
We ate dinner in Epcot because that was pretty much all we had time to do. Unfortunately, Disney World has made it damn near impossible to eat anywhere for dinner these days without advance reservations. Jack called the dining help line on a whim, and there happened to be an opening in France for dinner. So, we high-tailed it over there, and had our dinner. It was...okay. Nothing to be particularly snooty about. We had a rude Parisian as our waiter who insisted on making Robert feel like a horrible man...which, of course, pissed me off. We only tipped him half of the suggested tip. The food wasn't fabulous, the service was worse, and we left feeling frustrated but at least fed. They brought out an amuse-bouche before our dinner, of course, which they described as zucchini with a salmon puree and piece of shrimp. In fact, it was a slice of cucumber with salmon paste and a whole limp shrimp. Jack and I took two big bites of the cucumber mess and then drowned it in our water. Robert took one bite and nearly couldn't keep it down. The waiter refused to assist us until Robert polished off his amuse-bouche. Jack had to help him out. Please. It's not that good and what if Robert had been allergic? Ridiculous. So, anyway, if you're looking for an authentic Parisian experience (complete with rudeness), then yes, by all means eat in France at the World Showcase. At least we had fun walking the World Showcase at night while everyone else was leaving.
Although it rained for most of the day on Saturday, we had a lot of fun. And because of the rain, the lines were very short and there were few bratty children out. We truly enjoyed ourselves and were completely worn out when we got back to the hotel.
Sunday, August 31st:
We started out in Epcot because we had spent so little time there the day before. We also had a nice little perk with being in a resort that allowed us to stay at the Magic Kingdom for extended hours past closing. So we weren't in a real hurry to get to Magic Kingdom anyway. Today was not rainy, but it was a little muggy and cloudy. We didn't miss the sun.
The very first thing we did in Epcot was go to Spaceship Earth--of course! We had a great time and marveled at some of the updates made since our last visits. Next stop was Mission: Space, which was hilarious--we did the difficult course and laughed the entire time. It was great. By then it was lunchtime and we were starving, so we went to Italy for lunch. DELICIOUS. Much, much better than France. We played around in Epcot a little longer (I'm starting to blank on all we did because we did so much--Jack's photos on Facebook chronicle it very well), and then we hopped on the Monorail (much to Robert's delight) and headed to Magic Kingdom.
At Magic Kingdom, all the brats were out to play. There children who were being extremely unruly and misbehaving very badly in front of their parents. I told Robert that if our children ever behaved that way, I'd yank them out of line so fast and make them sit out. We went on Pirates of the Caribbean, of course; then Splash Mountain (aaahh!!); Space Mountain; Thunder Mountain; and Laugh Factory. Not necessarily in that order. So much fun, but I hate roller coasters, so I was a little...nervous about some of the rides. I did have fun, though.
By about midnight (only an hour or so into the extended hours), we were wiped out. So we got back on the resort bus and headed home to crash.
Monday, September 1st:
We woke up early-ish to catch the bus to the airport. We had the option of checking our luggage at the resort to have them bring to the airport, but we were nervous about when the luggage would arrive. So, we just brought it with us. Our bus driver was hilarious. Security was swamped but we eventually got through it; got on the plane, and then we parted ways. Jack went back up to her home, and Robert and I went back to Auburn. When we got back to Auburn Robert and I passed out.
After a little nap, we went to dinner with my sister and her boyfriend to celebrate her birthday (which was the 28th). I gave her her present from Disney World (a little Donald Duck pin), which she adored.
I took a lot of videos of the trip, so once I've got them downloaded and edited to look decent, I'll put them on YouTube or something to share with everyone.
Thanks Jack and Robert for such a special weekend!!! I had such a wonderful time, and I am so grateful that you two put so much work into it for me. :)
Friday, August 29th:
I "taught" in the afternoon. By "taught," I mean that I gave my students a group work assignment so that they could teach themselves for the day. Made class shorter, which got me to Robert's duplex earlier, which got us on the road faster.
We arrived at Jack's house, visited for a while, met Steven, Robert and Jack told me where we were going for our trip, and then all four of us went out to Sal Grosso, a Brazilian restaurant. So much fun--we ate so much food...almost too much food. When you're seated, they give you a card that's red on one side and green on the other side. The servers then bring out spits of meat as long as the green side is showing on your table. When you don't want a particular cut, you just flip it over to red. Soooo freaking good. I wanted to marry the filet mignon. Sorry, Robert.
After dinner, we dashed over to Wal-Mart to try to find ponchos, but to no avail. Jack and I were...hm...kept in conversation with a couple of rednecks, one of whom (the younger) had a laugh a little like Goofy. Jack and I had to bite our tongues to keep from being particularly rude to them. We left Wal-Mart, got back to the house, and crashed because we needed to leave for the airport at 5:30 in the morning.
Saturday, August 30th:
We awoke ass-early. I was extremely groggy and ready to roll back over until I remembered: DISNEY WORLD! I popped out of bed, threw on my clothes and dashed to the extra bathroom to get myself a little less gross. The drive to the airport was easy enough, as was the wait for our plane. The flight was fine, and extremely short--we played trivia, and by the time we got our drinks from the drink cart, we were making our initial descent.
Jack had set us up with a great resort called Coronado Springs in the park. They had an awesome deal where they gave us labels for our luggage--if we chose to put the labels on, the resort would pick up our luggage for us from baggage claim and take it directly to the room. The warning, though, was that the luggage may not arrive at the same time as we did. But, that didn't matter, because the rest of the package gave us a park hopper pass as part of our room key (as in...our room key was our park pass). So, we hopped a bus from the airport (bypassing baggage claim), went directly to the resort, checked in and got our tickets/keys, and then headed to the park via the resort bus. (When we checked in, we snagged some ponchos from the gift shop, a point which does become relevant by the next paragraph.)
We went to Animal Kingdom first because neither Robert nor I had been there before. The first thing we did was get some lunch at the Rain Forest Cafe--we sat next to the elephants, hehehe. As we finished our meal, we observed several people running into the restaurant, shaking off umbrellas and themselves--Gustav's arm had rested over Orlando and it was pouring. We donned our ponchos and braved the storm to go play in the park. We went on the Harambe Safari, which was a lot of fun; a dinosaur ride hosted by Claire Huxtable (hehehe); and Jack and Robert went on a Mount Everest-based roller coaster while I took pictures. After Animal Kingdom, we went back to the hotel for a rest, saw our bags had been delivered, and then later hopped on another bus to go to Epcot.
We ate dinner in Epcot because that was pretty much all we had time to do. Unfortunately, Disney World has made it damn near impossible to eat anywhere for dinner these days without advance reservations. Jack called the dining help line on a whim, and there happened to be an opening in France for dinner. So, we high-tailed it over there, and had our dinner. It was...okay. Nothing to be particularly snooty about. We had a rude Parisian as our waiter who insisted on making Robert feel like a horrible man...which, of course, pissed me off. We only tipped him half of the suggested tip. The food wasn't fabulous, the service was worse, and we left feeling frustrated but at least fed. They brought out an amuse-bouche before our dinner, of course, which they described as zucchini with a salmon puree and piece of shrimp. In fact, it was a slice of cucumber with salmon paste and a whole limp shrimp. Jack and I took two big bites of the cucumber mess and then drowned it in our water. Robert took one bite and nearly couldn't keep it down. The waiter refused to assist us until Robert polished off his amuse-bouche. Jack had to help him out. Please. It's not that good and what if Robert had been allergic? Ridiculous. So, anyway, if you're looking for an authentic Parisian experience (complete with rudeness), then yes, by all means eat in France at the World Showcase. At least we had fun walking the World Showcase at night while everyone else was leaving.
Although it rained for most of the day on Saturday, we had a lot of fun. And because of the rain, the lines were very short and there were few bratty children out. We truly enjoyed ourselves and were completely worn out when we got back to the hotel.
Sunday, August 31st:
We started out in Epcot because we had spent so little time there the day before. We also had a nice little perk with being in a resort that allowed us to stay at the Magic Kingdom for extended hours past closing. So we weren't in a real hurry to get to Magic Kingdom anyway. Today was not rainy, but it was a little muggy and cloudy. We didn't miss the sun.
The very first thing we did in Epcot was go to Spaceship Earth--of course! We had a great time and marveled at some of the updates made since our last visits. Next stop was Mission: Space, which was hilarious--we did the difficult course and laughed the entire time. It was great. By then it was lunchtime and we were starving, so we went to Italy for lunch. DELICIOUS. Much, much better than France. We played around in Epcot a little longer (I'm starting to blank on all we did because we did so much--Jack's photos on Facebook chronicle it very well), and then we hopped on the Monorail (much to Robert's delight) and headed to Magic Kingdom.
At Magic Kingdom, all the brats were out to play. There children who were being extremely unruly and misbehaving very badly in front of their parents. I told Robert that if our children ever behaved that way, I'd yank them out of line so fast and make them sit out. We went on Pirates of the Caribbean, of course; then Splash Mountain (aaahh!!); Space Mountain; Thunder Mountain; and Laugh Factory. Not necessarily in that order. So much fun, but I hate roller coasters, so I was a little...nervous about some of the rides. I did have fun, though.
By about midnight (only an hour or so into the extended hours), we were wiped out. So we got back on the resort bus and headed home to crash.
Monday, September 1st:
We woke up early-ish to catch the bus to the airport. We had the option of checking our luggage at the resort to have them bring to the airport, but we were nervous about when the luggage would arrive. So, we just brought it with us. Our bus driver was hilarious. Security was swamped but we eventually got through it; got on the plane, and then we parted ways. Jack went back up to her home, and Robert and I went back to Auburn. When we got back to Auburn Robert and I passed out.
After a little nap, we went to dinner with my sister and her boyfriend to celebrate her birthday (which was the 28th). I gave her her present from Disney World (a little Donald Duck pin), which she adored.
I took a lot of videos of the trip, so once I've got them downloaded and edited to look decent, I'll put them on YouTube or something to share with everyone.
Thanks Jack and Robert for such a special weekend!!! I had such a wonderful time, and I am so grateful that you two put so much work into it for me. :)
Number of important topics
I have a number of important topics to discuss, but little time this morning. So, I'm going to jot down a brief list of them to expand when I have a longer moment.
1. The surprise trip to Disney World! Highlights: discovering the surprise, Sal Grosso, flight, parks (Animal Kingdom, Epcot--evil Parisians and roller coasters, Magic Kingdom), and resort stuff.
2. Family stuff: deaths in general, lack of support in particular
3. School stuff: fear, frustration, needing a hard core and unforgiving schedule
4. Teaching stuff: frustration, what I'm learning about myself
That's...about it for now. Quite a lot to update on, so expect several updates a day for a little while just so I don't have novel-length blog posts that are hard to read.
Something entertaining before I end this, though. I went to bed pretty upset last night, so upset that I basically had to hang up with Robert quickly because I couldn't really pull myself together enough to maintain a normal conversation. My eyes are baggy now because of all the crying. But, I promised something entertaining. Because of how upset I was when I fell asleep, my dreams were very bizarre. Right now, I can't really remember every detail, but the two highlights of my dreams were that I was pregnant and there was a huge tornado. Both dreams were connected through the "fact" that I was pregnant.
Pregnancy dream: Robert and I were visiting my parents, and I just couldn't shake this nausea. So, I went to the doctor who performed a pregnancy test on me (although I tried to assure him that it was quite impossible because I take birth control). Sure enough: pregnant. In the dream, Robert and I were still engaged rather than married...so imagine how shocked and freaked out we were at the prospect of having to inform both sets of parents. We told our friends first who were very excited and supportive. The dream changed just as we were sitting down with my parents to break the news to them, so I don't know how that turned out, thank goodness. One line I remember saying to Robert: "Well, that explains why I've been having difficulty losing weight." Lol. Suuuure.
Tornado dream: We were now on our way to tell Robert's parents, but we took a little detour up to Gainesville, GA to visit some of our friends (and to get a little more support before we had to face a second set of parents). While we were refeuling after our visit with our friends, we noticed how nice the weather was. But it suddenly changed and in the distance I saw a cluster of clouds that started to swirl around into a gigantic funnel. I grabbed Robert's arm and said, "Is that a tornado?" As I was asking, it grew, picked up speed and strength, and darkened in color. I ran inside the gas station and told everyone to get inside the interior offices. These two little girls were crying and clung to me, asking me where they should go because they lost their parents. Goodness. I woke up just as I was telling them to stay with my sister (who had suddenly appeared there) and wrap their arms around something stable.
I woke up with difficulty, stared out the window for a while before putting my hand on my stomach and checking. Lol, checking. Come on, Amanda. No way am I pregnant. Thank goodness. But sometimes those dreams can just be so convincing.
Time to get myself out of this funk and go teach Sapphic poetry. Here's hoping for a little maturity from my students today.
1. The surprise trip to Disney World! Highlights: discovering the surprise, Sal Grosso, flight, parks (Animal Kingdom, Epcot--evil Parisians and roller coasters, Magic Kingdom), and resort stuff.
2. Family stuff: deaths in general, lack of support in particular
3. School stuff: fear, frustration, needing a hard core and unforgiving schedule
4. Teaching stuff: frustration, what I'm learning about myself
That's...about it for now. Quite a lot to update on, so expect several updates a day for a little while just so I don't have novel-length blog posts that are hard to read.
Something entertaining before I end this, though. I went to bed pretty upset last night, so upset that I basically had to hang up with Robert quickly because I couldn't really pull myself together enough to maintain a normal conversation. My eyes are baggy now because of all the crying. But, I promised something entertaining. Because of how upset I was when I fell asleep, my dreams were very bizarre. Right now, I can't really remember every detail, but the two highlights of my dreams were that I was pregnant and there was a huge tornado. Both dreams were connected through the "fact" that I was pregnant.
Pregnancy dream: Robert and I were visiting my parents, and I just couldn't shake this nausea. So, I went to the doctor who performed a pregnancy test on me (although I tried to assure him that it was quite impossible because I take birth control). Sure enough: pregnant. In the dream, Robert and I were still engaged rather than married...so imagine how shocked and freaked out we were at the prospect of having to inform both sets of parents. We told our friends first who were very excited and supportive. The dream changed just as we were sitting down with my parents to break the news to them, so I don't know how that turned out, thank goodness. One line I remember saying to Robert: "Well, that explains why I've been having difficulty losing weight." Lol. Suuuure.
Tornado dream: We were now on our way to tell Robert's parents, but we took a little detour up to Gainesville, GA to visit some of our friends (and to get a little more support before we had to face a second set of parents). While we were refeuling after our visit with our friends, we noticed how nice the weather was. But it suddenly changed and in the distance I saw a cluster of clouds that started to swirl around into a gigantic funnel. I grabbed Robert's arm and said, "Is that a tornado?" As I was asking, it grew, picked up speed and strength, and darkened in color. I ran inside the gas station and told everyone to get inside the interior offices. These two little girls were crying and clung to me, asking me where they should go because they lost their parents. Goodness. I woke up just as I was telling them to stay with my sister (who had suddenly appeared there) and wrap their arms around something stable.
I woke up with difficulty, stared out the window for a while before putting my hand on my stomach and checking. Lol, checking. Come on, Amanda. No way am I pregnant. Thank goodness. But sometimes those dreams can just be so convincing.
Time to get myself out of this funk and go teach Sapphic poetry. Here's hoping for a little maturity from my students today.
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