The Long Way Home

new blog

2008-06-15T12:40:00.000-05:00

I have a new blog, send me a note if you want the address.

A Little Drop of Rain

2008-03-04T18:37:00.001-05:00

I walked home in the rain today. I walked to work knowing that it was going to rain today, but it didn't bother me. It was a strangely enjoyable walk home too. It wasn't warm, not freezing by any means, but chilly. It was raining steadily and it was dark, but I had good music to listen to and, after all, I was going home for the night. As I listened to my music and the rain, and smelled the wood smoke from the houses I passed, it really made me think about camping in the summer. Seems totally unrelated, I know, but it worked for me. Often when I have gone camping in the summer it has rained. Sometimes poured, but it can still be fun even in the chaos of trying to keep all your belongings away from the side of the tent in a desperate attempt to prevent the tent from flooding. The wood smoke, of course, smells like a campfire and there is little that smells better. :) Anyway, for what many people may have thought would have been an awful walk home was in fact, quite delightful.

I got to see my dad this past weekend. He is in Boston for a few days for a conference and he didn't realize that I was so close to the area.So when I found out, I drove there and I stayed with some friends that live just outside of the city. I met up with Dad Sunday night for dinner. We had a great seafood dinner and I stayed in the hotel with him that night and took an early train back to where I had left my car, drove the 2 hours back home and went straight to work. It was a long day, but I wouldn't have traded it. I got to see Dad for only about 45 minutes for all of Christmas break and I really missed him. Even when I am home, I don't get to see him very much and it was so great to get to spend some time with him, as short as it may have been. I can't wait until this summer when Mike and I are road-tripping it back to CO and I can see mom and dad again and spend more time with them. It's a weird kind of homesickness that it hard to explain.

P.S. I love my job. :) 4 year-olds are amazing and beautiful and awful and fun and stressful and frustrating and fantastic and everything in between.

Things I am Grateful For

2007-11-26T16:43:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Londyn, I thought I would put my own list up.

*My amazing fiance*my closest friends who are always there no matter how far away*my family*my ability to basically support myself*my health and the health of those I love*the children at work who remind me why I chose the field that I did*music*dancing*knitting*fluffy sweaters*crisp air*mountains*blue skies*knowing that even though things seem rough sometimes, it will all be ok*laughing*snuggling in a warm bed*

Feel free to share your list. :)

Another Resurfacing. Cleaning, Autumn, and the so called 'Real World'

2007-10-08T16:43:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, I am getting into the horrible habit of updating with long periods of silence in between. Once again, I am back for an update-ish thing.

Recently Mike and I (who are now engaged!! woohoo!) and one of our house mates Sven cleaned and reorganized the main level of our house. After one house mate left and also left a good amount of her furniture, our living room was rendered useless. We also recently obtained a free TV and stereo. So, in the reorganization, we can now actually use our living room, see the fireplace which was previously covered with a couch and sit on a couch and watch a movie! Amazing! Mike and I also cleaned the upstairs and both of our rooms and the house is now much more comfortable and pleasant. :)

I am still on the job hunt. I don't really feel like elaborating a lot about it because it is complicated and I feel like I talk about it all the time. So, no job-talk. Until I have one.

Other-wise, fall is moving in. Despite the amazingly warm weather the last few weeks, it is actually autumn. The time of apple-picking, wearing scarves and vests and trick-or-treaters. This is my favorite season and I am excited to snuggle up in a sweater and walk around town and drink tea. :) I am hoping to go apple-picking soon and I can't wait to buy pumpkins to carve and put on the front step.

Finally, if I had a full-time job, life in the 'real world' would be pretty sweet. I have a good place to live. I am making friends, and I am engaged to the love of my life. The whole 'not really making very much money' and 'no consistent job every day' things are a bit of a bump, but overall life is still pretty good. I think I am doing pretty well compared to many who just graduated. I think it was good for me to go to school far from home (yes, I miss CO, but I still visit) because it really forced me to go out on my own and get myself set up. I still have help from my parents if I need it, but overall, they are not next door to run to every time I don't know what to cook for dinner. I have learned a lot about being more independent and I like it. It it hard, but very rewarding when you can sit back and say "I am living in this house and cooking myself meals with money that I earned." To be able to look and realize that I am supporting myself makes me proud of what I can do.

Happy Autumn! :) (') <---ok, so it was supposed to be an apple...or a pumpkin, use your imagination people!

A real post!

2007-08-30T07:39:00.000-05:00

Time for a real update. Here it goes.

First, let me just say that it feels really strange to be done with school. No more packing in August to go live in a dorm, no more registering for classes and trying to find cheap textbooks. Very weird feeling. Anyway, now I am off in the 'real world' looking for a 'real job', which can be quite the daunting experience. I finally got a part time position though. Working at a Children's Center for kids from 15 months to 5 years. I will start working with the littlest ones (15 months to 2 1/2ish) and then on a moth or so I will most likely move up to the 'older kids' (older meaning 4 and year olds). The director seems very motivated to help get me as many hours as she can, which is awesome. The other teachers there are great too. And one of the best parts is that it is literally 1 mile down the street I live on. So I can easily ride mu bike to work! I start in 2 weeks and I am excited. In the mean time, I found a part time thing at a textbook annex, helping with stocking and the registers during the first rush of the school year.

I am glad that this job seemed to work out so far. I feel like my life is starting to come together. I was really getting tired of searching for temporary jobs, applying anywhere I could find. I know a lot of people have temp or part time jobs for a while after college, but I really want a meaningful job; something that I liked (at least a little) or something that was near to what I wanted to do. And it looks like I might have found it and that makes me very happy. So here's to hoping. :)

Next week is Mike and my 4 year anniversary. I can't believe that 4 years have already gone by! It's pretty awesome though. :)

Uhm...wow, I can't think of anything else that I have to say. So, I guess this is it. :) Maybe more will come to me later.

Still here...

2007-07-30T05:51:00.000-05:00

Ok, I know it has been a while and people prolly stopped reading cause the same entry got really boring, but I have been busy and working a such. Anyway, I have two weeks left of my job at camp and I am sad that it has to end. I love it, it has been so much fun and I have met tons of new friends! :)

Mike and I have 2 weddings to go to this weekend! I am so excited, we get to go to Lake George for a few days!

I know this is really short, but I have to get ready for work this morning. Hopefully I will post a longer one soon, if I get all the presents and such done that I need to finish before this weekend!

Camp, here I come!

2007-06-11T10:08:00.000-05:00

I got the camp job! woohoo!

I am a unit leader at a Girl Scout Day Camp and I am so excited! Unfortunately, I did not know that this camp does not end until August 10th and so I had a cancel my week vacation with Mike and mom up at Lake George. :( We are still going up for Aunt Kathy's wedding, but we were going to stay an extra week. Oh well, maybe we can figure out another vacation to have. I am very happy about this job though. Canceling the vacation would have been a lot worse if I wasn't excited for this job.

Anyway, hooray for having a job.

Cross Your Fingers

2007-06-07T07:38:00.000-05:00

Well, still no job...yet. I had two interviews, one for Aubuchon Hardware and one at a Girl Scout Day camp. Both went well, I think the camp one went better.

The Aubuchon Manager was very nice and we got along, the interview lasted about 30 minutes, but the pay isn't great and the store isn't air conditioned, not too serious, but something to consider.

The camp one lasted an hour and 15 minutes and I didn't even realize I was there for so long. The Director who interviewed me and I hit it off right away and I actually had fun at the interview. :) I felt so comfortable there, not afraid or anything. :) I was actually interviewing for three different positions that are available at the camp. One is the Admin. assistant, mainly being there to run around since one of the directors is pregnant with twins and can't run. It would be doing the weekly shopping for the camp and other random stuff. There is a Unit Leader position available as well. This position sounds like fun. It is one step above the counselors, I would be in charge of the unit counselors (two or three) and between 10-20 girls in each unit. This position would allow me to actually work with one unit of girls of one age group for the whole time. The last position is the craft director. I would create the crafts for each day at camp and teach the units as they came in each day. This position would allow me to work with all of the groups and get to know the kids of all the age groups.
I think the unit leader and the craft director both sound like fun and I hope I get one of them. They would be a lot of work, but so is teaching, it could be great training. The pay is better for the camp, but it is only for the month of July. I would have to find another job for the fall. If this job works out, I was thinking that I could find some babysitting jobs for the end of June and keep applying for positions in August. I am crossing my fingers that I will get this camp job, I think I would love it much more than a hardware store, even if it is short term. Maybe I could go back next summer too if it works out.

Anyway, that is my life at this point. Think happy camp thoughts for me!

tcheuss!

Job Search Woes

2007-05-24T07:58:00.000-05:00

Let's start off with the fact that I now have a Bachelor's Degree. Searching for a job should not be this difficult. And it should be different from the last four (or more) years of searching for a summer job. Sadly, it is not.

I have applied many places....they all say when asked if they are hiring, "well, we are always taking applications, here fill one out". Translation: "We are not hiring, but will lead you on and never call you back". Sometimes when asked they will respond with, "Some of our people will be leaving and we will have some positions opening soon". Translation: "We will get your hopes up thinking we might actually call you back, but really we don't care about you so don't bother". Or such has been my experience thus far.

So on it goes. They say persistence in the key, but in my persistence my application and/or other important paper work has either been lost or failed to be submitted; failure on their part, not mine. Anyway, it has only been a week, but I am going crazy! Too much free time and no money! arr!

Otherwise, I am loving living down here. The house is pretty nice and I mom got me two goldfish--Gonzo and Beaker-- they are so cute. :) It is a good start for pets since I can't have a dog...yet.... :) Speaking of dogs. If you really want one, but can't have one, do NOT watch the clips of Breed All About It on the Animal Planet website. BAD IDEA. oops. :P

well, I should get back to job searching and filling out those super-fun applications! *sigh*

Holy Crap, I'm Done.

2007-05-16T14:32:00.000-05:00

No more homework. No more papers. I don't think it has really sunk in yet.

I graduated from college. woah. I am living in MA now, this is the first time in my life that I have not gone home to CO after school. I am like a grown-up or something. ew.

Now begins the job search. I started today, I am stalking Barnes and Noble cause I really want to work there. I have filled out numerous applications and today I gave one right to the manager and talked to her a bit. I hope I got it across to her that I really want this job. I was going to search and apply for more jobs, but I lost motivation and went to Old Navy (Mike found a $20 gift card in the hall while helping me more out of the dorms) and Trader Joe's instead. It started to rain too, so I had soup for lunch and decided to chill and unpack some more. I have so much stuff it is ridiculous.

I like it here. I am excited to be living out here and not have to commute to see Mike. I was really ready to move on from college and this is the perfect transition. I think I will adjust nicely.

I also have to buy a new computer. My laptop decided to stop turning on about 2 weeks before graduation. We figured out that is was the motherboard that went kaput, which would be about $600 maybe to replace--not worth it. So I am going to use some of my graduation money to buy myself a new desktop. :)

Let's see...not too much else going on. I am hoping to have a job and a computer within the next few weeks and then I will feel better down here. I hope I can get a job quickly because I am going to get bored really quickly without one!

The Golden Compass!

2007-05-03T08:39:00.000-05:00

The Golden Compass movie is coming out in December! wooooo!!!!!!! If you haven't already, read Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy. SO GOOD.

In the meantime, feel free to fill this out :)

http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/?70471

Counting the Days...

2007-04-19T19:07:00.000-05:00

23 days! Wooo!

This week is my last week (and completely solo week) of student teaching. It will be a busy week. I am excited to be done, but I will also be sad to leave because I really love my kids and my mentor teacher. It does mean, though that I will have very little to do until graduation.

I am still doing the job hunt ickyness. I am going to turn in a few applications next weekend, and hopefully I will hear back soon. I would really like to have a job set up before I go down to MA.

Every time I come here to write, I have such great ideas and then once I start writing I realize how much typing I have done in the last days and now I don't feel like typing anymore. *sigh* oh well. I am doing well. IM me if you need more info. :P

Thoughts

2007-02-22T18:20:00.000-05:00

*I am loving my student teaching. My kids are really fun and are a great group.

*Ed the security guard is nice. :) He gave me a ride back to my car when I forgot my room keys in it and then he gave me a ride back to my dorm.

*In less than three months I will be a college graduate.

*I had a bunch of things to write about, but now I forgot a lot of it. Oh well.

Student Teaching!

2007-01-28T16:45:00.000-05:00

I have been student teaching fr 3 weeks now and I am about to start my 4th week! I can't believe it has already been a month! Things are going really well; I love my kids, they are a great group and I really enjoy working with my mentor teacher. I am learning so much from her and she is letting me do as much as I am comfortable with. It is really nice. The moms I have met that come in to help out in class are very nice and have been very accepting to my presence and desire to listen to meetings with the teacher.
I have done a few things in the classroom, taught a lesson or two and read to the kids. So far I love it! :)

I am also taking a class through the school on teaching ELL (English Language Learners, like ESL) which is interesting.

The only other class I have in Senior Seminar and that is going to be interesting, but it will have a lot of work. Oh well. :) At least it only meets once a week even if it is from 730-10pm. ew.

Well, I am going to go to the gym, I know crazy! Peace out! :D

0-0-7 baby!

2007-01-02T11:38:00.000-05:00

It is so weird to think that is it 2007. It feels like just yesterday it was 2000. And to think that the younger generation (the primary school age, even high school age) will think that the 80's were sooo long ago! ha.
People are right. With every year that passes, it seems to take less time than all the years before. High school went fast, but I cannot even express how much faster college went. I really feel that it was just a little while ago when I moved out to VT for my freshman year, when it was almost 4 years ago. I have changed a lot since then. My goals have changed since then.
The Northeast feels more like home now. Colorado will always be 'home' and I will always be proud to be a Coloradan, but coming back to stay in New England feels normal, I feel comfortable here and I like it. I have a great family of friends and I feel very lucky. It makes starting my life out here exciting and not as frightening as it could be. :)
I will be starting my student teaching soon, next Monday in fact, in the first grade and I am very excited. I really like my mentor teacher and the kids are a good group this year. I know that this semester is going to go by even faster than the fall, but I am preparing myself for that and knowing that I am going to be having alot of fun makes it better. :)

I suppose I should be getting back to the Portfolio work that I was working on...I have to finish it before I start my student teaching.

Happy New Year Everyone!

SNOW!

2006-12-24T21:35:00.000-05:00

So, we are having a white Christmas. Yess indeedy, in fact, if you are not having one, we have enough to share! Almost 3 feet here and stranded in the house for a few days. It is pretty, when you are not on the roads. People do NOT know how to drive in the snow! ah!

Anyway, I am only home for a few more days and I hope that I get to see at leaast a few of my friends. :( Then off to celebrate New Years with Mikey! :D

Best...Class...EVER

2006-12-08T17:51:00.000-05:00

So, I went to the bar last night....for class. That's right, you read that correctly. I'll explain.
I am taking PH400, a seminar style course on CS Lewis and JRR Tolkein. We all had to do a project of our choice (mine was about the Chronicles of Narnia and the Seven Deadly Sins...very cool). Anyway, two students decided to do their project on Lord of the Rings and video games based off of them.
SO. There is a bar that recently opened up about 2 miles down the road called Fiddler's Green. One half of the place has about 10 PCs and a few gaming consoles. The two guys asked the owner if they could do their presentation there and he said it was fine and our prof was cool with it, so last night we all met at the bar and had a brew (oh, and the guys presented too). We just hung out and drank and ate and watched LOTR and watched guys play the games and I talked with my professor about random stuff (he is a unitarian pastor). It was by far the best class ever. :)
Sweet.

End of Part I

2006-12-05T14:40:00.000-05:00

First Semester is coming to an end. Crazy!

I will be going home for about 8 days and then coming back so Mike and I can finally have a New Years together! yay!

Not a while lot going on here except that I am working like crazy to get the projects and finals done before I go home!

I got to see the Nutcracker last weekend and it was awsome. I had not seen it in ages and it was a great weekend! :)

I think that is all for now....I don't feel like writing a lot. :P

Watching the Past

2006-11-07T14:26:00.000-05:00

The largest solar flare has just been recorded, but because the star is about 135 light-years from earth, the flare actually took plac around the year 1871. So, technically we are seeing the past. Pretty neat.

Meanwhile, here on earth, the winter is beginning to set in. It is becoming more overcast and cooling down a bit; but not too much, which is nice.

I am really excited for Thanksgiving. :)

I graduate in 186 days.

My dad is donating some of my old furniture to a family who, after living in shelters for a while, just got a house, but have no furniture. That makes me feel good.

Happy Election Day.

Nothing to Complain About

2006-10-25T12:16:00.000-05:00

I was thinking that I wanted to update this and post about something, but I could not think of anything to write about. Nothing dramatic, extraordinary-good or bad-has happened recently, everything is just going; so why not write about that?
I am extremely busy.
*I have my thesis work to do, which involves individually scoring 90 surveys that have been taken over the last month or so. Although, it is tedious and will take a while, it isn't hard, which is refreshing.
*I have a lot of reading to do, but it is all pretty good reading-books I got to choose myself for Children's Literature-which happens to be my passion and I hope to have a career with Children's Lit someday, Lord of the Rings for my seminar class, and even the psych we are reading is interesting.
*I have portfolio work for my Pre-Student Teaching Portfolio, but it is pretty easy; again tedious, but not hard.
*I have "work". I put this in quotes because I babysit for a family and I love it. Sure I get paid, but I don't do it for the money. I love the kids and the parents, it gives me a nice break from school and I know it is great experience for me. I do work hard while I am there; feeding, changing diapers, coloring, painting, making and decorating the occasional batch of cookies, ya know the usual. :)
I have a lot of work, but nothing is terrible. As I was thinking about what to update about, I realized that my life is pretty good right now. Apart from missing Mike terribly and being a little disappointed in Mother Nature's decision to cloud over and either drizzle or rain a lot here, I have nothing to really complain about. And I like that feeling. :)

It's hard to believe this is a real picture

2006-10-17T09:14:00.000-05:00

Or, a compilation of many pictures taken in a row. This picture of Saturn was taken while it was directly in front of the sun, so it is perfectly backlit. I was almost speechless when I saw it. It is beautiful and I thought it would be nice to share it. :)

Accepting the fact that, yes I do have to grow up...and being OK with it

2006-10-16T09:12:00.000-05:00

I never really wanted to grow up. I liked being a kid and I wanted to stay a kid forever. But slowly I began to realize that all those fun kid things I used to do I didn't do so much anymore. I had more responsibility. I had to keep track of my own money. I had more homework in school. The realization continued through the beginning of college. I am changing though. I know that I am no longer a kid. At heart, maybe, but in reality, I am growing up. Now, I am ready to be that grown-up. I want my own place to live. I am getting tired of sharing a bathroom and a bedroom. (Yes, I love my roommate, but we are still sharing a tiny room). I am tired of not having a kitchen and having the extent of my cooking be heating up something in the microwave. I am ready to get a job and normalize my life a bit. And I know I can still keep the coloring books and crayons nearby just in case.

208 days until graduation. Then my life will be changing. Until then, although I am ready for college to be over, I am going to continue to enjoy my fabulous roomie, great friends and have a great time. :)

The Year of Surprising Productivity

2006-10-10T13:15:00.000-05:00

I woke up at 8am to my alarm this morning and was wide awake. This rarely happens! I went to bed at midnight too. It was a great feeling though! I got up, took a shower, made a cup of coffee, worked on an assignment due later today. I was pretty proud of myself for that. :)

In addition, I am finding myself being much more productive than I have been in the past few years. In high school, I was an OK student, I did my work, but I did not give it my all. When I started college, I still procrastinated a lot still, but I did most of my work. Every now and then I would not do my homework, but I was pretty good. This year, however, I have found myself much more motivated to do my work and I am doing it earlier and I am much more productive overall this year. I think it is partly because I actually enjoy most of my classes and so I don't mind as much to do my homework.

Anyway, it's a good feeling :)

Loosing Faith in People?

2006-09-29T08:38:00.000-05:00

Here is a link to the article I am referring to. I really have to wonder what goes through their minds when people of the church do things like this. Two priests in Florida stealing $8.6 million dollars from a church?! That is disgusting. A bit impressive yes, I mean $8.6 million is a LOT of money, but they used the money to buy land in Ireland, condos in Florida, things for their 'girlfriends', one even payed for his girlfriend's son's expences in high school! Wait...girlfriends? These are Catholic priests. Celebacy anyone? No marriage? Hello?

I am sorry for the Catholic community that so many of their 'men of the cloth' have done these terrible things and given them such a bad rap. They don't deserve it. At least they caught the 79 and 63 year old priests who did this so they can't steal any more money from a church. Sheesh. What is this world coming to?

Which reminds me of another story. Here. This story breaks my heart. I just don't undestand what would possess someone to do something like this. What a sick old man. It makes me sick to my stomach to think about it. At least he is dead now.

Every Kid's Dream

2006-09-18T13:20:00.000-05:00

"But I can't eat my spinach mom, I might die!"

Sad that they can't figure out where the E. coli is coming from, though.

So remember kids, Don't Eat Spinach!

Amazing Weekend

2006-09-17T21:15:00.000-05:00

I drove down to Amherst this weekend and from there Mike and I drove to Gordon College to visit Jeff and Alice. Neither Mike nor I had ever been there before, so it was fun to find our way down there. :) We got there Friday night and Jeff and Alice had dinner cooking, which was awesome. Jeff made a GREAT meatloaf and it was delicious! We ate in Alice's apartment and played a game called Catch Phrase, which was highly entertaining.

After dinner we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dessert. :P yumm.......absurdly delicious. We headed to a beach after and it was really fun. Th

Saturday Alice had a tennis match and left before I got up, so I went over to Jeff's apartment and from there Jeff gave Mike and I a nice tour of the Gordon campus, which is very pretty. We headed over to the tennis courts and watched Alice play some of her matches. It was fun to watch and confusing to try to figure out the scoring and figure out what was going on with the score thingys at each net. :) That afternoon we went back to the Singing Beach that we had gone to Friday night. It was a beautiful day and we played frisbee on the beach. :D Then we played in the surf and the waves soaked our pants and only Alice and I had anything to change into, but there was nowhere to change. We drove to another place to see the ocean called Magnolia and there we got to change into dry shorts and we watched the sun set on the ocean. It was amazing.

We went back to Jeff's apartment and all worked together to make a great Indian meal that was delicious. :) We played more Catch Phrase and also played a game called Hoopla, which is AWESOME!!!! :)

Mike and I drove back this mornng after we went out to breakfast at this neat little diner. Overall, this was a perfect weekend. I got away from Norwich which is always nice; I also really like hanging out with Mike, Jeff and Alice cause all four of us get along great and we always have a great time together. :) I hope we can repeat weekends like this often. :)

Interesting Article

2006-09-07T07:31:00.000-05:00

Thanks to my Gmail homepage, which has Discovery News on it, I saw this article and was intrigued. Here is a like to the article. Entitled "Artificial Heart OK'd by FDA" I though to myself, 'wow! This is really cool, now they can save more people who cannot have a heart transplant!' I was only partly correct, however, because in reading the article I learned some interesting new facts.

First, the heart is too big for 90 percent of all U.S. women and many men, meaning that they are probably really cramming it in there.

Second, of the 14 men this heart was tested on, 2 died from the operation, 1 never regained consciousness after the operation, and "The rest survived only an average of five months, with one exception: a man who lived 17 months, until the mechanical heart wore out."

Wait. Wore out? In 17 months? Yep. Apparently this little (or maybe not so little) electrically powered heart has a life span of about 18 months-but the battery can go an hour without charging to allow the patient to shower!

I understand that this is a new development that was just OK'd by the FDA, but I feel that maybe they should continue to develop it before they put it into use. It doesn't seem to have given itself a very good track record so far and it is entering hospitals soon. I will say though that I think it is great that they have gotten as far as they have on this invention, if the bugs are worked out an artificial heart could save many every year.

Back at Norwich

2006-08-29T21:13:00.000-05:00

I am back here in Vermont and things are going well. I like my classes and Sarah and I are getting along great. Our room is fabulous and I think we are going to have a lot of fun this year. :)

It is strange to be here without the engineers and stuff. Most of the people that I hung out with are gone and I won't really ever have any need to go to the ME study or lab. Weird. The construction on campus is crazy, the LP is gone and is now a big pile of dirt with construction vehicles on it. The paths around to all of the buildings are all skrewed up too. It will take a few weeks, but I think things will settle down and get more towards normal.

This weekend is my three year anniversary with Mikey! :) We are going camping up in Northern New Hampshire and I can't wait! woot! :)

Anyway, I think this year is going to be good. :)

I know you think I vanished...

2006-08-08T08:48:00.000-05:00

but I am still here, I swear.

I have settled in at home nicely, I searched and thanks to the help of Melanna, got a part time job scanning documents (thrilling I know). It is boring, but it is only 4 hours a day and I get $10 an hour, so it is at least money. :) I am also doing some babysitting which has been a lot of fun! I am meeting lots of new people doing it and some of these kids are so cute!

I went to Marble and Glenwood with Dad and Sally and Steppie. It was really great to see Grandmother and Granddad again, I hadn't seen them in a long time. Granddad is 85 and is still bouncing off the walls! That man is crazy! :P

Mom and I just went camping in Jefferson (up 285, near Fairplay and South Park) for 4 days. It was gorgeous! We were up there over mom's birthday which was fun. We went fishing on her birthday and she caught a beautiful 10 inch Brook Trout! That was part of her birthday dinner that night. :) We also hiked part of the Colorado Trail, wow is that amazingly beautiful! It turned out to be an 11 mile hike! Let's just say mom and I were walking really slow that eveing and the next morining....ha.

Ian is coming up to visit this weekend, it will be nice to see him too. :) AND he is actually getting on a plane, yes an airplane, to come visit! It is cheaper for him to fly up here than it is for mom and I to drive down and visit. I am amazed we got him to go through an airport again!

Let's see......Melanna comes home in about a week! Yay! I can't wait to see her! Our birthdays are also coming up in about 2 weeks, we can just say that the week Melanna will be home is going to be freaking awesome! :D

I leave to go back to Vermont in just over 2 weeks, I can't wait to see mIkey again. :) Then it is off to Norwich, which apparently doesn't look so pretty anymore after they started construction...it was such a pretty campus! Oh, well. :)

Hope everyone is having a splendiferous summer!

Back in the U.S. of A.

2006-07-10T19:25:00.000-05:00

I am back. Actually, we got back on the 1st of July, but I have just been too lazy to write anything here. I am here in CO for the next six weeks or so, until I head back to NH/VT for my last year of college! ah!

Anyway, I am trying to find a job so I am not so broke, but so far no such luck. Hopefully I will hear back from somewhere soon.

Scotblog Link

2006-06-01T09:43:00.000-05:00

While I am in Scotland, there is another blog that you can read. Visit it at http://scotblog.blog.com.

I will continue here at the end of the summer. :)

Summer Time!

2006-05-17T08:54:00.000-05:00

Well, school is over. I am now a college senior. ah! The end of classes and finals went really well. All of my finals were take home, which may sound nice, but that means that they were all pretty challenging. My education final was an interdisciplinary unit (8 lesson plans) based on a social studies topic. We asked the teacher we had been working with for ideas that they might use in their classrooms, and my teacher gave me the topic of Vermont animals and their tracks. It was a fun unit to do, but it was really hard. We also presented our units to the teachers. My other hardest final wasn't really a final, but it was hard. For Thesis Prep, we had been working on our thesis and figuring out what we were going to do and for our final, we had to write and turn in our Human Subjects Proposal. The Human Subjects Committee looks at all of the thesis projects and just makes sure that they are ethical and are not harmful to the participants in any way. In order to prepare the proposal, we had to have all of the materials for our procedure. It was tough, but now it is done and I don't have to look at it again until the fall. :) Other than that, I had a few other take home papers and such, nothing too bad.
Our grades were posted, too and I GOT A 4.0 THIS SEMESTER!!!!!!!!! I have always gotten at least one B and this semester I didn't and I got all A's. :D woot and a half, man. Woot and a half.

Graduation was this sunday, and Mike is no longer a college undergrad student. :) The ceremony was really nice (kinda long at 2 hours). Our good friend Karthik was the valedictorian and gave a great speech. I am really gonna miss all my friends that graduated. All the engineers that I hung out with, Amanda; they are all going to be gone next year. So sad. :(

And best of all.....on Friday we leave for Scotland! For 6 weeks! :) I can't wait! I will have limited access to the internet, so I am not sure how much I will be able to update this thing, but I will try. :)

Hope everyone's summers are peachy :)

"I love Melanna" Post

2006-04-27T17:48:00.000-05:00

I would like to write a post entirely devoted to Melanna's trip out here.

She flew out on a Thursday night and we got back here at like 2am. Friday I skipped class (we were watching a movie in class, you wouldn't have gone either!) and after lunch Amanda came with us to Montpelier. We wandered around and went into this little boutique called Salaam. We were fooling around and trying on funny glasses and hats and stuff and the lady behind the counter told me I should be in their fashion show! I ended up doing it the next weekend and it went really well! We went back to school and two of Amanda's friends were up and so the 5 of us girls hung out all night and watched a couple movies.

The next day Melanna, Mike and I drive up to Stowe and went to the Ben and Jerry's Factory (because if you cometo VT, you HAVE to to go Ben and Jerry's) That was fun and we got free ice cream at the end too, it was yummy. :) We wandered around Stowe for a while and had lunch at a little diner. Amanda and Melanna did my hair and make-up and it was fun. I felt pretty. :)

Sadly, Melanna had a flight Sunday afternoon, so we had to leave in the early afternoon. It was a great trip out, though and it was really nice to see her and I am really glad that she finally got to come out to Vermont! :) Yay!

(Sorry I forgot to write it earlier, Melsie....please forgive me...) :)

I'm back!

2006-04-17T19:21:00.000-05:00

I know....it's been a while. But don't worry, I am not dead.

Spring Break was great and I know I didn't post a lot about it, but I took over 300 pictures in a matter of days, so that is a good sign that I had a good time. :)

Mike and I went home for Easter and it was a lot of fun. I saw his family again, which was fun; I hadn't seen them in a while and they are a fun group. I got to play with his aunt's new yellow lab puppy (so cute!) which fulfilled my puppy fix for a while. I also got to hold a 2-month old baby girl! She was ADORABLE! She was asleep the whole time, just lyin there all cute. hehe. Makes me want one....but not really.

I am babysitting and having a great time! Mainly for a 2 1/2 year old who is very bright and we have a lot of fun! I am also sitting for a 1 year old and she is great too. :D Plus it gives me some extra cash, which is always nice.

This weekend is Junior Ring! That means that I will be getting my Ring and there is all sorts of stuff to do! The ceremony is Friday, where we have dinner and get our Rings. I am on the committee this year for the ceremony and hopefully everything will go smoothly. The ball is Friday night too, my dress is so pretty! Saturday, Our Lady Peace will be here performing and there will be games and stuff to do, I can't wait! Mike said he has something planned, but I have no idea what it is; although it seems everyone else here does. :P I decided to splurge this year since it is my Jr. Ring this year and I am getting a manicure and a pedicure on Thursday! woot! That is going to be so nice!

Not too much else here, school is busy, we are all counting the days...

Once school is over, Mike, his mom, and I are headed on vacation for 6 weeks...to Scotland! :D I am so psyched!! It is his grad present from his mom and I was invited to go to!

Hope everyone's end of the year crunch isn't too bad!

Peace.

relaxin'

2006-03-15T21:53:00.000-05:00

Ah....Spring Break. I am currently sitting on a couch using wireless internet relaxing in Maryland with Heather. It is so loverly here, and it is nice to be able to relax and have no concrete plans.

So far we have gone to DC with her sister and walked around the monuments, and Annapolis and looked at the Naval Academy and met up with Heather's friend for a while. The weather has been great and it has been a great break from Vermont and the cold.

Sadly, somehow all Heather's pictures from DC got deleted, so we may go back on Friday to see the monuments again so Heather can get more pictures. I think we are going to take a picnic lunch and eat it on the Washington Green, which I think will be a lot of fun.

I don't really feel like typing a lot of details right now, but maybe I will in a few days or something.

:)

Spring Break is upon us...

2006-03-09T07:53:00.000-05:00

and I can't wait! I am going home with Heather this year; she lives in Maryland. :) It is an 11 or so hour drive, which could be interesting, but I am really excited. We are going to go into DC for one day and go to Annapolis too! The last time I went to DC was over Spring Break and I was probably around 11, so this is going to be awesome!

THEN, the week we get back MELANNA COMES OUT TO VISIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOHOOOOO!!!! That is just going to be amazing. :)

Ok, I have a little homework to do before class, or maybe I will finish reading Jamaica Inn..great book by Daphne Du Maurier I picked up at a used bookstore.

Hope everyone has a good break! :D

yay for school!

2006-02-20T16:14:00.000-05:00

Not something you hear very often, but I am talking about my first-graders that I am working with! They are so great and I am having a wonderful time! :D I taught my first lesson with them last week using my Shel Silverstein book Runny Babbit, and it went well. I was happy.

It has been pretty cold lately. Sunny, which is nice, but deceiving because it looks warmer than it really is. The wind chill was -15 over the weekend! Brr. We still have no snow though. All of the Nor'easters you may have heard about totally missed us. NY and parts of NH got pounded, but we got nada. Kinda sad cause now I can't use my new snowshoes. :(

Anyway, everything is going well. V-day was fun, I got sunflowers and a little box of chocolate and we went to Applebee's for dinner. It was a nice chill evening, nothing extravagant. It had been a busy day and it was nice to go to dinner and just relax. :)

Not much else going on here....Happy President's Day. :)

A much needed update

2006-02-09T18:15:00.000-05:00

Ok, so there are some new things.

First, I talked to my dad a week or so ago and he started the conversation with "you know how I said that things between Sally and I wouldn't be changing for a while?...well, things are changing." Turns out they are both selling each of their houses and buying a house together. wow. Kinda took me off guard. I seem OK with it for now, but I think it will be a lot wierder when I go to see him and they are living together. At least I like Sally. :)

Also, I got the results from my PRAXIS exam today! The PRAXIS II exam is a test that we have to pass here in order to do our student teaching. I took it at home over Christmas break. I got an envelope in my mailbox today from ETS, the people who give the PRAXIS. It was a certificate for getting a score in the top 15% of all the scores from previous tests! I hadn't even seen my scores yet! :) So I found professor Byrne later this afternoon and got my scores and I got a 183. The scores you can get range from 100-200 and I got a 183. :D Today was a happy day. hehe.

AND! Melanna has tickets to come out here in March! yaaaaay! I can't wait! Now I have to start planning things for us to do. :)

woot.

VT weather is poopy. But not always.

2006-01-29T15:54:00.000-05:00

So there I was, crazy excited to see OK Go in concert...finally! Mike and I left to drive up to Burlington. Norwich is at exit 5. The exit we needed is exit 14. Only 9 exits right? Well, for those of you who don't know I-89, the distance is about 50 miles. The exits are kinda far apart. So as we drive, it starts to snow....bad. By exit 11, the visibility was so low and there was so much snow that we turned around. I was really bummed. Not mad really, just really sad. I have been wating to see OK Go forever in concert and it was finally going to happen. Mike and I rented Brothers Grimm though and that was good, until I spilled my hot cocoa down my front. Don't ask me how I did it, it was a rough night. My feminine hormones at the times really helped everything too. haha.

So, no OK Go, but I am determined to see them sometime.

The weather was better yesterday though. It was so warm that Mike and I went for a run and I was in a sleeveless tanktop! Sunny and warm in VT in January? Something was seriously wrong...lol, but I wasn't complaining. :P

Mike, Karthik, Krenar, Ed, Kyle, Zach, and I all got together and made dinner last night. It was awesome and really yummy. Yesterday was a great day. :)

New Years Resolutions

2006-01-22T15:00:00.000-05:00

Yes, I know they are late. I usually don't sit down at the beginning of each year and write down resolutions. I always feel that they can be pointless and are forgotten within a month. This year, however, I felt like writting some resolutions that are realistic and that I will honestly try to follow. So here they are:

1. Keep running with Mike. (We started running 3 miles) My ultimate goal is to be able to do an entire run and keep up with him the whole time. Now he is ahead of me the whole time unless he slows down.

2. Stay more focused on school and reduce last minute homeworking. I know this may sound like it can easily be pushed aside, but I really want to try yo keep this one. It is too easy for me to mess up my priorities.

3. Complain less. I feel that I do a lot of pointless complaining. I don't really have that much to complain about. So I am going to cut out all the stupid complaints.

4. Work harder. In everything. This is pretty self explanitory.

5. Improve financial organization and smarter spending. I am going to be working more this semster I hope and I need to learn how to manage my money better. Save more, only buy what I *need* not *want*.

Just those 5. I feel adding too many will make it less realistic for me. So I am about to seal an envelope with these written down and I will open it next year and see how well I did. :)

Class-ay :)

2006-01-19T10:09:00.000-05:00

Here is a quick run-down of what my classes look like this semester:

EN202 (World Lit)--Same prof as last semester, she grades kinda tough, but he class is pretty good. Starting with Shakespeare and moving on up to contemporary stuff.

CM335 (TV Criticism)--This class is going to be a lot more interesting than I originally thought. We watch a lot of TV, which will be fun, but the professor is also doing a lot of lecture about what a critic is and what they do and how to become a critic. Neat stuff.

ED232 (Curriculum and Methods)--This is going to be an awesome class. There are only 2 of us, Erika and I, in the class and we are going to be at Barre Town for the whole class and learning about other parts of the school that we want to see. It is going to be really hands-on and I am working with a first grade class. :)

PY398 (Thesis Prep)--Ironically, this is where we start preparing for out senior thesis. We just talked about what ideas we had so far and prof Hamilton liked my idea and thought it would be good. So far I want to do an attitude study between here (Norwich) and Castleton State College and see if people's attitudes and then actions towards homosexuality differs. If someone says they have no problem with it, for example, but then around other people, treats them differently. Not sure how I am going to set it up yet, but I think it will be neat.

PY298 (Preface to Psych IV)--This is a kind of writing class. We will be learning how to put critical thinking down on paper. I think it will be good, not too big of a class and the prof is awesome. :)

PY198 (Preface to Psych II)--Yes I am taking PY198, 298, and 398 at the same time. This is a stupid class about writing html and making a website. It will be dumb and a waste of time. Oh well, it is only once a week.

So, those are my classes, I think it should be a good semester. Now all I need is a job. *sigh*

back to work....

2006-01-15T14:06:00.000-05:00

Christmas was good, I got to spend a lot of time with Melsie while she was home and that was good. I needed a good Melsie fix. :) It was a good break, got to hang out with friends, went up to Boulder with Steppie and got my cartiladge in my ear pierced. owey. New years was good, I was in boulder. Rode in a cop car, hehe. No, I didn't get arrested.

Unfortunately I don't really feel like typing so you are going to get the uber-condensed-and-not-very-interesting-sounding version of my break.

I spent the last week with Mikey at his house and that was fun.

Now I am back at Norwich and classes start tomorrow. I think they should be good. I hope so anyway.

That about sums it up and uses up my motivation for now. Tootles.

Weekend of Firsts....

2005-12-12T15:04:00.000-05:00

Man. What a weekend. Weather delayed Mike and I's departure to his house by a day, so Friday night we went over to Brandon's house to hang out. Caldwell, Mike, me, Brandon, his wife Krystyl (I think that is how you spell it), Steph and Kivelin were there. We watched a muppet movie I had never seen before, Emmet Otter and something.....it was cute. :P

Steph and Kivelin got engaged that night too! Right before they came over! I am really happy for them, they are so cute! :D

So, Mike and I left Sat. morning to drive to his house in NH. We got there fine, the roads weren't too bad. We dropped out stuff off and said hi to his mom and she asked us to use his truck to pick up a wooden cart thing she needed in another town. So we headed out and got a mile from his house. The roads were pretty slushy (and dirt, no pavement) and it was cold out. There was another car coming towards us on the road, kind of in the middle (no lanes..it is a small road) to avoid the snowy edges probably. Mike moved the car over towards the side of the road to get out of the way of this car and his right front tire went off the edge of the pavement into the ditch. (we were only going about 20mph). We ended up sliding perpendicular to the road for a little ways and hit a rock off the road and tipped over onto the driver's side. We are both fine, I am a little sore, but unharmed. I was dangling from my seatbelt and we had to shift around and climb out the passenger door, which was facing up. Let me just say that doors are heavy, especially when you are pushing it up against gravity. It happened just down and across the street from a house, so we used their phone to call his mom, who came down in her car. We called the towtruck guy in town and he had to bring a flatbed to take the truck out. It didn't look like there was a lot of damage done to the tuck, but the driver's side is all dented and the right front tire was punctured by a stick about an inch in diameter. There is a chance that the frame was bent, which makes it a lot worse. We are waiting to hear back from the garage to see if they totaled it.

His poor truck. It was new too. :(

The rest of the weekend was thrown off a bit after that, but we still got the Christmas tree like we had planned and decorated it and the house Sunday, which was a lot of fun. I cut down my first christmas tree! ok, well according to mom I did it when I was really little, but I remember this one and I did the sawing! :) It is about 12 feet tall and looks beautiful in Mike's house!

So needless to say, this weekend was one that I won't forget, but I am really thankful that both Mike and I are ok, and it really made me realize how easily bad roads can turn against you no matter how much you know about driving on them.

This week was not a good week for tragedies, man. Fire, car accidents....kinda freakin me out. Anyway, drive carefully and wear your seatbelts because it definitely saved my life this weekend.

Update.

2005-12-04T16:43:00.000-05:00

I would just like to say that I found out that no one was hurt in the fire last night. It was the Archetect house and someone left the stove on and that is what started it. The house is still structurally ok, but just damaged.

I am very relieved that everyone is ok. And people, don't forget to turn off the stove and blow out your candles when you leave the room or the house.

Awesome Power. (awesome not being a good thing.)

2005-12-04T00:50:00.000-05:00

I have just experienced one of the most terrifying things in my life. Mike and I were at his house just off campus, getting ready to leave when his roommate said to look out the window. Glancing through the blinds we saw that a house but a couple hundred feet down the road a house was completely engulfed in flames. It was...I have no words to explain it. I started to cry. All I could think was that someone's life was being destroyed in a matter of minutes. Gone. We later found out that some Norwich guys live there. I don't even know if everyone is OK. I hope so.

I have never experienced something so devastating so close up before. Fire is such a scary and uncontrollable phenomenon. There is not much you can do. It can destroy things so quickly, it is amazing.

All I can think now is how thankful I am for all that I have right now.

Happy 100!

2005-11-27T22:05:00.000-05:00

I have to just start by saying that this is my 100th post. woot! :)

Ok, enough of that....

Thanksgiving was wonderful. I got to see my grandparents and my mommy and my brother and my daddy and eat a LOT of great food. :D mmmm I love food. I went up to Boulder to see Steppie and I got to meet her super cool friends like her RA Vernon and her friends Rachel and Jen. :) We got ahold of Daniel and we met for coffee.....sorry "Coiwfeee" and walk along Pearl St. I hadn't seen Daniel in ages and it was great to see him again. :)

I am not in a very talkative mood. Now don't get me wrong, I am quite happy, I just don't feel like typing. lol. So I will say that I had a great break and now I have just over 2 weeks until I go home for a month and partay for Xmas. woot. :)

Home for the week.

2005-11-20T15:23:00.000-05:00

I made it home all safe and sound. :) I got home Friday night, and Ian came home that night too! It is nice to be home, I still really like the new house, it is so cute. :) We had our open house last night, lots of people showed up and it was great! I met a few new people and saw alot of people that I hadn't seen in years! It was a lot of fun to catch up with them again. Some of mom's close college friends came and stayed a while to talk. I got to hear so funny college stories from the olden days. :P Scott (a college friend) and his wife Sher were there and Sher has a new car....a 2005 Mustang GT. And I got to drive it. :D hehehehehe......I could totally get used to driving one of those.

I am here for the week, Grandma and Grandpa fly in on Tuesday for Thanksgiving. It is going to be a fun week. :)

hoo-ray.

2005-11-17T20:48:00.000-05:00

I go home tomorrow!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!!!!

Watch out Colorado, here I come!!!!

:D

shmerr....

2005-11-13T19:05:00.000-05:00

I hate being PMS-y when you just feel like crying eventhough it is for stupid reasons. *sigh* I kinda just want to go home right now. I miss my CO friends. And my mommy. At least there are only 5 days left....

Less then a week.....

2005-11-12T17:04:00.000-05:00

until I get to go home!!! Almost time for Thanksgiving.....I am very excited.

I also just found out that the radio station that I love back home (AM1510-KCUV) now is on the FM dial too! (FM 102.3) This is awesome because driving around town, I would often lose the station or it would get all fuzzy and annoying. Now I can listen to it here it school (kcuvradio.com) and more easily when I go home! yay! :)

I am in a really happy mood. woot. I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

btw, if anyone can think of a good place to start for a thesis for my english peper due monday talking about the religious satire in the movie Monty Python's The Life of Brian, let me know! It is a great topic, but I am having trouble getting started.

Be-dunked

2005-11-10T10:47:00.000-05:00

My roommate and I are rearranging the room today. The beds are being de-bunked. This is very exciting. :)

That is all. :)

update!

2005-11-05T19:15:00.000-05:00

Sorry, I haven't posted. A lot has happened since I last posted! wow!

Let's see.....

Halloween was a good weekend. I hung out with Sarah, Mindy and Christine, Brandt, and DC. We (and Dan and one of Sarah's friend Katie) went up to Burlington to go to Midnight Bowling. We stopped at Sarah's house first and got to see her mommy and pets, which was fun. :) Bowling was awesome. Nobody payed attention to the scores, we just bowled from 10-1am and had a blast. We had a slumber party that night and watched the L Word (best show ever!) and hung out. Saturday I had an edu club get together which was fun and then we had another slumber party that night. I really like hanging out with that crew, it brings out a part of me that doesn't get out much here at Norwich.

This weekend Jess, Sam, Chelsea and I went to Maine for an edu conference. We left Thursday and drove up to the hotel. It was about 3 hours up there, bt it was a good drive. After checking in and talking to Prof Cook (who was presenting at the conference and was the one who suggested that we come) we decided to get some dinner and go to the mall. Unfortunately, none of us really knew where we were going, so after driving around for a while we finally stopped and asked for directions. We weren't that far off, and easily found the mall. We ate at a brewery right next tothe mall and it was really good. :) We went into the mall and wandered around. We went into the Gap and Express I think, where Chelsea and Sam played dress up with me, it was fun. Cute and really comfortable clothes that I would never pay full price for. ouch. I did buy something though. There was a nice blazer on sale for $9!!! Originally it was $78!!!! I was very excited. We were there until the mall closed, hehe. We went back to the hotel and hung out for a bit before going to sleep. Friday was the conference and I learned a lot. It was a great experience and I am really glad that I went. It was alot of fun to hang out with Sam and Jess and Chelsea too. They are a fun bunch. :)

That is a quick overview of the last week or two. :)

**And can I just say that the weather has been fabulous!? It was almost 70 today! In November! In Vermont! woo!**

Friggen awesome!

2005-10-23T17:08:00.000-05:00

This weekend rocked. :)

Friday: NO classes!!!!! wooot! Mike and I got up and decided to head out to find a state park and take lots of pretty pictures. Lots of dirt roads later, we came to a trail head. It was the trail head to the summit of Camel's Hump (see pic)

The hike was about 6 miles round trip and we did 2300 feet of elevation gain! We thought it was the highest peak in VT, but were bummed when we found out that Mt. Mansfield is the tallest at a towering 4,393 ft. Camel's Hump is the 4th tallest (4,083 ft) but is the most climbed and the the highest undeveloped peak in VT (which means it has no structures at all on the summit). It was an awesome hike despite the ridiculous winds at the top. :P After getting back to the car and finally sitting (!) we headed off in search of food. (We did the whole hike on a cinnamon roll and juice from a gas station) We found a quiznos and oh man was it delicious. mmmm, yum. To finish off the day perfectly, we watched Mission to Mars all shnuggled up. teehee.

Saturday (3 days weekends are great!) we got up and decided to go exploring again. The town was having a scheduled power outage, so we didn't have a lot of time to surf the net to find places to go. We found a few places that looked neat and headed out. We tried to find Ainsworth State Park a few times, but finally accepted that fact that I think we just drove past it and there wasn't much to do there, if you could even get into it. So we drove on and found "Texas Falls" and part of the Green Mountain National Forest. It was beautiful. Took a bunch of pictures and continued on. We were going to find Middlebury Gap....we never did, but we found some awesome Nat'l Forest roads and drove down them towards a different town, which I think was so small we drove through it without knowing it, and eventually did one huge loop back to where we had been Friday. Strange. we drove home after stopping at good 'ol McDonald's (mmm) and watched a movie called First Knight with a young Richard Gere as Lancelot and Sean Connery as King Arthur. It was quite good.

Sunday I woke up, looked out the window and what was on the ground?! Snow! That's right. Really wet, heavy snow. Even took down some good sized tree branches. It looks like winter is coming a bit earlier this year. But this weekend was awesome. woot and a half. :)

woo! free stuff!

2005-10-19T22:34:00.000-05:00

We (the EDU crew) went up to B-town this evening to the NEA Expo. There were a ton of booths there and they had lots of books and materials that they were selling. We got catalogues with materials in them to order and some free books and things, very cool. :) Free stuff is awesome!

Marguaritas are yummy.....

2005-10-18T09:42:00.000-05:00

Well, I feel popular. I went out to two 21 birthdays in a span of 2 days! Saturday I went out with the engineers for Steph's bday. We went to a bar in Barre called Mulligan's. It was a really nice little bar, definitely would recommend it. Obviously I didn't drink since I am only 20 and was carded after being in the bar about 30 seconds. lol. I had a great time though. Nobody got really drunk while we were there so it was fun to sit around and just hang out. :)

Then on Monday, Sam turned 21. Erika made a FABULOUS dinner and some of the edu gals went to her house and ate and drank and were quite merry. I had some marguaritas and let me tell you...yummy. I think they got stronger everyone I had. I wasn't drunk, that was a definite, but I think by the time I left I was feeling happier than when I arrived. :P I hadn't really ever hung out with any of my edu gals and I had an awesome time! We def have to do it again! Unfortunately, after a wild and crazy night, poor Sam is not feeling well. The reading class was all very impressed with her attendance in class at 915 this morning though. Even if she did leave a few times...she was looking a little pale. :( Lots of sleep needed.

I really can't think of anything else to write about.....I am knitting a scarf! I just passed the "potholder size" stage, so I am well on my way! haha.

Yea...3 day weekend this week! woot!

2005-10-11T07:57:00.001-05:00

Picture Two (the road into Gilford)

2005-10-11T07:57:00.000-05:00

Picture One (the road going to the General Store in Stoddard)

Noah and the Flood?

2005-10-10T18:19:00.000-05:00

Well.....this weekend was quite the experience. From the top:

Mike and I left Friday around 1230/1245 and drove to Manchester, NH to pick up mom at the airport. The airport is tiny (you can walk from one end to the other in about 2 minutes). We walked around, but couldn't find mom. I finally asked about the flight and found out that it was late and has just arrived. So we found mom and drove to Mike's house. We got there and hung around, relaxed, read, it was good. I did laundry. :) Mike started dinner and his mom came home from work. We were going to go to the Sandwich Fair in Sandwich, NH on Saturday, but because it was forcasted to rain, we decided to wait and go on Sunday when the weather was supposed to be better. We got up Saturday and ate and hung around the house for a while trying to decide what there was to do in NH when it was rainy out. We finally decided to go to Concord to go to a thrift store for part of my Halloween costume and to buy Mike some shoes. Then it started to rain. And it rained. And rained. And guess what? It rained. We found everything for my costume and went to the mall for shoes. Not only did Mike find his shoes, but Mom and Mike's mom and I all found Columbia winter coats for $40! From $200! woah! So we all have matching coats now, haha. We drove back to Mike's house in Stoddard and ate a delicious dinner and fresh pound cake and maple syrup for dessert. mmmmm.......pound cake......Oh yea, it was still raining. A lot. In less than 24 hours we got 11-13 inches of rain. Yea, I know. It's a lot. Dood.

So the next morning we were going to be going to the Fair right? ha. We got up and got ready and (by then it was o longer raining) and started on our way. We took two cars because Mike and I were going to leave right from the fair to come back to school. We left the house and started to drive. And before we could leave the town we got to Picture One. This was the road out of town. And that was the lake he lived by. On the road. hmmm. So we got out and talked to some people and eventually decided to cross. It wasn't really deep and we got through fine. Until we got to the General Store, where the fire department was blocking the road because up ahead it was worse and they weren't letting people through. So we bought a NH map at the General Store and tried to find a way out. It turns out that every way out was either already flooded over and closed or lead right to the next road we needed which was flooded and closed, or in some cases the road was washed away and didn't even exist any more. We drove around some more and found Picture Two. This was the road into Gilford, NH. A huge truck(F-350 with a duptruck-looking bed) drove into the water to get across. At the deepest, it came up to the bottom of his windows, close to 5' of water! I was amazed that he didn't stall!

We climbed to the top of Pitcher Mtn. where a fire tower is for something to do. There was not a lot to chose from not being able to leave and having no TV, or computer. It was kinda nice though just to sit and read and talk and relax and not have contact. Except it was hard to keep updated on what roads were open and closed for info on getting out. We couldn't leave for the rest of Sunday and had to borrow a cell phone from Mike's aunt in order to make phone calls becuase long distance was out.

Monday morning Mike's aunt called and said that one road was opened and it was a road that let us get onto I-89 which leads us to Norwich. We were up off the couch, packed out the door and in the car within 5 minutes. No exagerration. It was crazy. Mike and I flew out of there because we were told that the road was only going to be opened for a little while. There is a dam that makes Highland lake and if it broke, the whole villiage of Stoddard would be flooded and probably destroyed. The dam was already breeched and had been since the night before, and it was still on red alert for fully breaking. We got through though and had no other problems getting to school. We got up here around 1230-1 maybe. I had missed 2 of my classes and a practicum at Williamstown Elementary, but I had called in and let them know that I couldn't make it in. I talked to one of my professors today and I have to say it is a great excuse for not being in class. heh.

It was, to be honest, a great weekend. The weather didn't exactly coroperate with us, but Mike's mom and my mom get along really well and we got to hang around a talk a lot. I definitely won't be forgetting ever.

Dancing is amazing.

2005-10-05T13:52:00.000-05:00

So I did indeed go dancing on last Wednesday and it was amazing. The lessons are in the basement of a church and are led by a woman named Amy Beth. (Good name, eh?) It turns out she used to live in CO (after moving from Albany at 5 years old) and she knows EJ and her mom, who also does some teaching, helped to run Estes Park! How wierd is that?! :) Anyway, the class consists of me and three beginners under the age of 12. And I love it. Amy Beth loves having a premier in the class because I know what I am doing, lol, and if she needs any help, I can pitch in. It is also nice because it is not really hard-core and after a year with out any lessons, I don't think I could handle hard core classes, like EJ's. I do miss EJ and her kids dearly though. I don't have my shoes, of course the one year I don't bring them to school, but mommy is coming out on Friday and she is bringing them for me. :) Not great dancing in socks or bare feet. After last weeks dancing though, my calves and right knee were NOT happy with me. Today is really the first day that my calves don't hurt and my knee still bothers me on stairs. But I am going back tonight and I may just take it a little easier than last week. But I have to say it is a great feeling to be able to dance again. I really missed it alot.

As mentioned before, my mommy is coming out on Friday! Yay! :D I am really excited. She is coming out for the weekend and we are going to the Sandwich Fair in NH. (Sandwich is the name of the town, it is not a fair with a lot of sandwiches). :P Mike's mom and my mom have never met, so this is the chance that they have to finally meet eachother! I hope it goes well! :)

woot. and la de da. :)

2005-09-28T13:04:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Mike and I went to his house for the weekend and on Saturday his mom, Mike and I went to the New Hampshire Highland Games! :D It was nice to go to a games since I can't go to Estes anymore because I am in school. It was a lot of fun. It was a good sized games, not quite as huge as Estes, but it had lots of bagpiper and dancers! :D In fact, I talked to the St. Andrews Society of Vermont and found out that there are dance lessons every Wednesday night not too far from me! So I may go and check them out and see what they are like and when my mommy comes to visit in October, she is going to bring my dance shoes. :) I am excited. I miss dance A LOT!

Not too much else to talk about, classes are going well. Life is good. Yup.

mystery weekend?

2005-09-18T20:16:00.000-05:00

UPDATED:
Ok, so for a while I had been instructed by Mike to keep a certain weekend free. That was it. Thanks to Norwich and its outrageous paperwork for a visitor that you never need after you fill it out, Mike had to tell me that Jeff and his girlfriend Alice were coming up for the weekend. Here is how it went:

Friday night: Jeff and Alice showed up around 10pm and we put her stuff in my room and then drove to Mike's place where we watched Monty Python. We came up with a few alternative activities in case it was raining. Then Alice and I drove back up to my dorm and went to sleep. mmm....sleeep.....

Saturday: Got up, went to Mike's place where he made us all breakfast (homefries, toast and bacon, and OJ). yum. Alice and I still didn't really know where we were going, but I was told I needed better shoes than my little sneakers. So we stopped by my room, where I put on my heavy sneakers and we left. Luckily it still wasn't raining. We drove up to Stowe, to Smuggler's Notch where Mike and I have been a few times before. It was really cloudy and foggy, so rock scrambling there was not the best choice, so we didn't. We went on a hike which ended at a lake up the mountain. It was only just over a mile up there, but there was some serious elevation gain. The lake was gorgeous, I attached a few pictures. :) We walked a little farther and found that we were at the top of the Smuggler's Notch Ski Area! We were right at the lift! So we climbed on the ski lift and took pictures. :) hehe. It started to rain a little bit and we were getting hungry for lunch, so we headed back and it rained the entire way down. Made the rocks a little bit more slippery, but it was tons of fun. We all had a blast. We went to a late lunch in Stowe at a pizza place, which was really good. We decided to take the back way home, instead of the highway. Mike was driving Mabel and if he can, he will always avoid highways. So we found the way on the map, but we missed a turn and ended up doing a complete circle. We were really confused, and it was raining, and the windshield wouldn't defrost. lol. quite entertaining. Oh, and you can't forget when we stopped to take pictures of the really cool yellow sky. We all got out and were taking pictures and it started raining hard. So we climb in the car, but Mike can't find the keys. He had been looking in the trunk for his camera stuff, so Alice and I had to go trunk diving from the backseat because there is no way to get into the trunk without the keys unless you go through the back seat. Finally, we found the keys and could continue on our way. We finally made it back, all in one piece and watched the Emperor's New Groove. :) Then Alice and I came back up to my room and went to sleeeeeeep.

Sunday Morning: We got up, ate, and then they headed back to MA.

Over all it was great, and we all had a really good time. Lots of great pictures and it was really nice to finally meet Alice. We get along really well and have crazy things in common. The 4 of us are quite the group. woah. :) Hooray and woot.

Stupid.

2005-09-05T15:49:00.000-05:00

So this morning (Monday 5 Sept) Mike and I decided to go to Breakfast around 930-10ish. As we approach the mess hall, we notice that it looks rather dark and empty. Lo and behold, it is closed. Even for those who got in before it closed, apparently there was no food.
After the failed attempt to eat food on this campus, strange concept I know, we headed over to the science building where Mike was going to get his homework. Yep, you guessed it. Locked. This building is normally unlocked on the weekends for those who need to get to work in there (primarily engineers). So, using the phone in the air lock in the science building, Mike called security to find out when it was going to be unlocked. Not all all today? Yep. It's a holiday, duh. No one has homework to do the day before classes on a holiday. Right.

This school can be very strange.

This goes out to the Soutern Coastal States

2005-09-02T13:28:00.000-05:00

May your thoughts go out to those in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. This has been said to be the worst disaster since 1909 when San Fransisco was almost razed to the ground by the earthquake and I believe it. 10s of thousands of people have been displaced and hundreds are dying every day.
www.cnn.com has good articles and vidoes if you are not up-to-date on the happenings.

The most disappointing and said part is the appathetic attitude of Bush. Sure he sent down help, but how long have the people down there needed it and he sent it now? They needed it the day after the storm. People have gone 3-4 days with no food or water for goodness sake. These two links are to cnn.com videos, one is a radio interview with the mayor of New Orleans and the other is a news brief with Bush. I suggest watching them both. He talks about "those who have been affected..." Almost the entire city of New Orleans has beed destroyed! He is talking as if a few hundred people are in need here.

javascript:cnnVideo('play','/video/us/2005/09/02/wwl.nagin.intv.affl');
javascript:cnnVideo('play','/video/politics/2005/09/02/sot.bush.new.orleans.cnn');

"I am looking forward to talking to the people on the ground" "I am looking forward to my trip down there, and I'm looking forward to thanking those on the ground..." I may be wrong here, but I am not sure the phrase "looking forward" is the appropriate term.

This is a catastrophic national disaster and it needs to be treated that way.

good year ahead

2005-08-30T11:25:00.000-05:00

This year is going to be a good year I think. I like my roomate, we get along well. My room is in Patterson, which is the dorm I have wanted the last few years. Ironically, this is the first year Mike is not in Patterson and is way far away in Flint (but Flint is a university house, so he has a kitchen! and cable! and his roomate Terrence is cool)

I really like my classes, I think I am most excited about Exceptional Child, where I wil be learning about students at the extremes at both ends of the spectrum. I have always thought about teaching Special Ed and I think this is the perfect oportunity to see if I think it would be good for me.

Other than that, I am just planning on having a great year. :)

And it starts again

2005-08-28T17:16:00.000-05:00

I am back up at Norwich. I like my room though, and I think my roomate is going to work out pretty well.

I drove out with dad and a friend from elementary school and it went really well. We dropped her off in PA at her school and then drove to Mike's house and after a few days there, Mike and I drove up to Lake George and stayed there a few days with Aunt Kathy and Bob and Scott and Andy and each of there friends. It was a really good time. :)

But alas, the summer is over and tomorrow classes start, but not until 10am. woot. :)

I need to pack!

2005-08-15T12:44:00.000-05:00

I leave in 3 days!

I need to pack!

I did just get new tires and an oil change for my car though. That is happy. :) And now my car is too. :)

*dances* I get to see Mikey soon! :D

Less than 2 weeks...

2005-08-09T13:25:00.000-05:00

until I leave to go back east! Which means that in less than 2 weeks I will be able to see Mikey again!!!! woooooohooooo!!!!! (not that I am excited or anything). I just found out that I might be adding a passenger and driver to our trip. Caitlin Eger from elementary school is interested in driving back with me and I really hope it will work. I think it would be a lot of fun and it would also be nice to have a third driver to help out. I think I will be finding out tonight if it will work out. :)

Once again, however, I am at the library and it is only minutes before I have to be at work and therefore the post must be short. oh well, we are getting DSL (and hopefully wireless if I can convince mom) on Thursday, so no longer will I have to make trips to the library to check my email.

I hope everyone has been having a nice summer. :)

And off to work with many small children I go.....

Summer is almost over...

2005-08-04T11:23:00.000-05:00

Well, we still don't have internet at the house. We tried for dial-up but it was retarded and never worked, but we will be getting DSL in a week, so woohoo! I leave on the 17th or 18th, still figuring that out. I can't believe the summer went so fast!

Yet again, however, I am at the Golden Library and now I must leave and go to work. I on;t work till 330 today though, yay!

a new home....

2005-07-27T15:46:00.000-05:00

Well, Mom and I moved last week. We had a bunch of help and we are grateful for that. Couldn't have happened without you guys. :) Mom and I are now in the new house and are starting to get things undercontrol and organizing things.

We still don't have internet and I am at the library and only have 5 minutes left, so this is going to be short. I really like the new house, though. Work is going well, I can't believe there are on;y 2 weeks left and then I am done! Which means in 3 weeks I will be driving across the US to go back to school!

Not too much else to talk about with 3 minutes and 15 seconds remaining, but hopefully I will post again relatively soon.

:)

2005-07-09T15:26:00.000-05:00

So far summer has been going well. I am really enjoying my job a lot. I have learned so much already in the 3 weeks I have been there. I never thought I would be able to tell as much about how a child is parented through simple actions of the child. And this is one of the bestthings for my patience. The philosophy of the Montessori idea promotes self-sufficiency; ie if a child comes up to a teacher to tattle on another student, they are told to go use their own words to talk to the child they are tattling on and work it out between the two of them. We teachers act as a mediator between conflicts not a solver or punisher. The children are reminded that they are responsible for their actions and how they may affect the other students. We don't yell. We ask. And remind. And we give the children choices. Sometimes they may make choices without realizing it and we let them know. For example, if a child is throwing sand, we tell them, "it looks like you just chose to find something else to play with on the playground because you showed us you cannot play with sand properly." Most of the time it works.

Mom and I are moving in a few weeks. We had out garage sale yesterday and sold a bunch of stuff including our family room furniture, my corner cabinet from my room and the dresser I was using. (I took my old dresser back from Ian's room). Moving is a strange experience for me. Hard to explain, but I seem to have almost to emotion towards it. I don't want to move, but maybe because mom and I are both excited about the new house, it is making it easier. We looked at a bunch of houses together with Jesse the realtor, found this one and both fell in love with it.

Speaking of mom, she did (rather, is doing) the Triple Bypass today. It is a bike ride over Loveland Pass, Squaw Pass, and Vail Pass (Over 120 miles and more than 10,000 feet of elevation gain) in one day. She is so amazing. This is the second year she has done it. I get to drive to Vail in a little while to go pick her up at the end. :) Woot.

Quick update...

2005-06-19T10:51:00.000-05:00

Well, so far the summer is going really well. The kids start tomorrow at work and I am really excited. (For those who may not know, I am working at a Montessori school for the summer). I am alos learning how to ride horses this summer from Claire's dad. I have always wanted to do this and now I finally am and it is great! In fact, the family is going to Europe for 10 days and they asked me to take care of their 3 horses and 3 dogs while they are gone. :) I am learning to get a lot more comfortable with being around and working with horses, a little less scared that they will squish me. :)

Mom sold the house (again). If you have heard the story from me, you prolly understand. The same people came back and mom accepted their offer. Hopefully nothing goes wrong this time. We will be moving in about a month.

Anyway, today is Father's Day and I think dad may be here....so I should prolly go....off to brunch! Tata!

I am still alive, worry not....

2005-06-05T12:22:00.000-05:00

OK, ok, I know it has been a while. I wil fill you in on what has happened the last few weeks. Over memorial day weekend, I flew out to the beautiful city of Seattle where I stayed with Melanna and got to see her other life. :) It was awesome and I had soooo much fun!!!! I got to see the city, the ocean, and we even went up to Vancouver, BC for a day! :) Melanna, you have an awesome city! :)

I also got a job working at the Montessori School of Golden working with the littel kids all summer. I am really excited! It is going to be a lot of fun and GREAT experience for teaching and helping me decide where I may want to go after I graduate. I don't start until the 20th of June, but hopefully I can find a part time job to make some money before that.

Unfortunately I have to go clean the house before I leave today because we are moving, so there are showings all the time here. We have to keep the house really clean for that.

I will try to update again soon!
Hugs!

Finally home for the summer

2005-05-21T08:39:00.000-05:00

I am home! Woohoo! It is really nice to be back in CO with the sunshine and mountains. It has been pretty hot though. AND, I BOUGHT A CAR!!!! woooooo! Finally! I have been talking to my neighbors since xmas about the '96 Corsica they were selling and the day after I got home, I bought it. My neighbor Eric fixed it up for me and it is a good little car. No AC, which can make it pretty hot in there during the days, but it's not that big of a deal. :) I am really happy and proud of myself because I have payed for every penny of this car with my own money out of my pocket. No help from parents. :) So now I am doing the job search thing, no luck yet, but I have calls into 6 or 7 different places. Hopefully I can get one soon.

This Wednesday my dear friend Amanda and her friend Michael are going to be stopping by here for a night. Amanda lives in California and she is driving back home from the East and since CO happens to be in between, she is stopping for a night. I am really excited. :)

And this Friday I leave for my fabulous and exciting vacation to Seattle to party it up with Melanna!!! Woohoo! We have been hoping a visit like this would work out, and it finally did. :) Quite happy.

Not much else. :)

2005-05-11T15:54:00.000-05:00

This is Maude doing the 5-yard dash with hurdles at the Rat Rampage! :)

3 DAYS UNTIL I GET TO COME HOME!!!!!!!!!

2005-05-11T15:27:00.000-05:00

I can't wait! I have taken all of my finals, the only thing I have left is to go and correct my developmental exam. I already did it cause it was a take home, but i have to go back to correct it. I leave on Sunday, right after Graduation. I just put most of my stuff in storage yesterday and now my room is a lot emptier, but it is nice to know it is all set for the summer. I will take one more run Sunday morning to put in some last minute stuff like my bedding and anything else I need to put in there.

I can't believe how fast this year has gone....it seems like yesterday I got here. I can't wait to get home, but it is also kinda scary that I am now halfway through college. Ahhhh!

Anyway, I will see everyone soon! :)

Things are coming together....

2005-05-04T15:26:00.000-05:00

I can't believe how quickly this year has gone! It still is hard for me to believe that in 11 days I will be home for the next 4 months and I will have finished half of my college career. Really now, that is insane. Who put Father Time on speed?! Anyway, things are going pretty well considering I am about to start finals. Some of the things that were driving me crazy are starting to fall into place and work out.

1. I found Maude and Allie (my two rats) a ride to TX. The problem was getting them from TX to CO. Now I found out that the boyfriend of the girl driving them to TX wants to road trip to visit his friends in CO. So that means I can get the two munchkins home. :) Very happy about that.

2. No matter what, because Mikey and his mom are totally awesome, they said they can take me to the airport. Another thing out of the way! :)

3. I have a lot of crap here. And we will probably be moving this summer. Therefore, I have been instructed by mom to bring home as little as possible. Mike also has some stuff he will not be taking home. Solution? Summer storage unit! :) Splitting the cost and that takes a lot of the shipping and packing stress off of me. Woot!

Now all I have to do is pass my finals, buy a box to ship some stuff home in, pack and leave! :) Can't wait to see all my CO peeps! :D

Maude rocks....like granite! :)

2005-04-29T20:59:00.000-05:00

The Rat Rampage was last Wednesday and it went really well. Maude performed pretty well seeing as how there were a ton of people in the room and it was really loud which kinda freaked them all out, but it's ok. She performed every event except the weight lifting, which she tried, but with the time and trials we were given, she didn't do anything. No worries, she was good in everything else. :) I don't care if she wins at all in anything, she did her best, go Maude! And now she is retired and can get as fat as she wants and never has to climb a rope again. :P I don't have many pictures, I am hoping to get some from my professor soon.

Our Jr. Ring ball pictures came in today and man do we look hot. rar. ;P Don't worry, I will bring them home this summer so you can see them. I don't have a working scanner or I would post one.

The weather is remaining good and I can't wait to go home! :)

2005-04-24T18:54:00.000-05:00

Thayer and Fairfield with their rings too! (Thayer's is 36 penny-weight!! Fairfields is probably 44!)

2005-04-24T18:53:00.000-05:00

Mike and Caldwell with their new rings! woo!

2005-04-24T18:52:00.000-05:00

Heather and I! :D

Jr Ring Weekend!

2005-04-24T12:49:00.000-05:00

Well, Friday evening was the Jr Ring Ceremony and that night was the ball. The ceremony was really well done. The civilian Juniors who bought a class ring were there and they did a really nice dinner and ceremony to give them all out. The Junior Ring is a really big deal here. Especially for the corps. As you can see from the title of this entry, there is a whole weekend devoted to the ring. After the ceremony, I got ready for the ball. Amanda did my hair and make-up, Imust say, I looke pretty sassy. :) My dress fit me perfectly! Mom did a brilliant job. The juniors get announced when they walk into the ball (they all go together). The civilians went in first and not a soul clapped or said anything. The minute they called the beginning of the corps, everyone crowded around and started cheering like crazy. Really makes you realize that it doesn't really seem the civilians are wanted here. Oh well. The ball was pretty fun, saw heather and a bunch of my friends. :) After the ball we crashed. So...tired....Sat was pretty good. Wached Solaris on a prjector in one of the classrooms in the science building. Didn't do much else during the day, and I was on duty that night. There were going to be a ton of activities on the UP like sump wrestling, jousting, a bull riding thing, a beer tent and the Dropkick Murphys came. But it was raining, so everything got moved down to the field house. Disappointing because I couldn't just look out my window and hear the concert, but good for being on duty because NO ONE was around. It was silent all night. While I was on duty, I watched the movie The War with Amanda, Terri (who was on duty too) and Tedward. It was a really good movie. :) It has little kid Elijah Wood in it! Who knew he was ever a little kid?! lol. Mike, Derek, Grotz, and Karthik watched a bunch of sci-fi movies. I stopped in for parts here and there, like part of 2001, and part of Tron. Woah, Tron is wierd. Apparently they also watched Santa Claus vs. Aliens or something. The things that people thought up decades ago. haha.

It was a good weekend. :)

Beautiful

2005-04-17T19:19:00.000-05:00

Doc's service in the chapel was today. It was really nice. This whole thing has seemed very surrealistic; it just doesn't seem like it happened. I didn't know Doc very well, but it just doesn't seem like he really is gone. It is a very strange feeling. But all of his family was here and a lot of students and friends and fellow faculty members. The whole service was people sharing stories about Doc. Happy stories, funny stories, there was a lot of laughing which was nice. Crying too, but that is ok. Crying is perfectly healthy. I think he would have enjoyed it. :) It was a bit of closure eventhough it feels like I am going to walk into class on Tuesday and see him sitting in his office.

On top of the beautiful and touching memorial for an amazing man, it was a beautiful day outside. It was 70 degrees and sunny. It is about time for nice weather around here. Unfortunately, after going to the memorial, I really felt like hopping in a car and driving to the occean or some place quiet and peaceful and just sit there. The bad part is that I have no car. Drat.

Viva le Doc

2005-04-14T10:18:00.000-05:00

Doc Hammond. Say that name in the psychology department and everyone knows who you are talking about even if they haven't had a class with him. He was an ispiration to all of us. His dry humor and no-shitting way of telling you what he thought wasintimidating as hell, but some of the best advice you could get. He was the head of the psych department here and had been struggling his painful way through cancer for a while. It had gone everywhere in his body. He was clearly ina lot of pain. But he, literally, dragged himself into school three days a week to teach Learning and Motivation. His dedication to teaching students was one of a kind and irreplaceable. This morning, the cancer took him. He was an amazing teacher and man. I only had him for this one class and that was all I needed to know who this man was and how special he was to everyone. He will be dearly missed, but his spirit will live on.
Doc, you were a one of a kind. Rest in Peace.

Great Saturday!

2005-04-11T21:06:00.000-05:00

This weekend was good. :) Amanda was on duty Saturday night and I had been wanting to try and see how rag curls would work in my hair for the Jr. Ring ball. So Amanda, Terri, Maggs and I got pizza, sooo good. :) Poor Terri was really tired, so she went upstairs to do a little hw and sleep. Meggan was on duty too (exec staff) and stopped by when we were going to do the curls and she knew how to do them so she covered my head in an old t-shirt. :) Somewhere in out talking ice cream came up and, of course, we wanted some. Meggan's fiance was going to come over so she called him and because Keith is AWESOME he stopped and got us each a pint of Ben and Jerry's and he didn't let us pay him back for it! He is so nice. :P We were very happy girls. We hung out listening to my strange collection of music, doing some trading and finally decided that it was time to see how the hair worked. Well....it worked a little. There was definitely curl, but not really in the back and it just needs some refinement. It was a lot of fun though. :) Maggs and I stayed up with Amanda until she was off duty at 2am and it was a great time. Mike and ACM was hosting a LAN party the same night, so he was off at the armory the whole day. I went down to visit a few times and it was pretty cool. Computers, XBox, hacking challenge, Pizza, chips and a LOT of caffiene. Wolf, a sophomore ME and a fellow teammate on the rifle team mixes his own music and was asked to DJ the event. He is amazing! They borrowed DJ equipment from one of the ME professors and Wolf technoed it up! :) AND, earlier that afternoon, Amanda took me to the gym! I know, hard to believe, but the really amazing part is that while I was at the gym, I actually worked out!! I know! I may even go again this week! :D Anyway. Really, it was a great day.

Tellyphone??

2005-04-03T12:25:00.000-05:00

Sorry that last post was so depressing. I am better now. So I was on duty last night, Mike was at a party so I was by myself. In fact I was enjoying rotting my brain in front of season 2 of Sex and the City, a terrible, but addicting show. lol. So there I was, watching smuty TV when all of a sudden my lights went out. Right at midnight. hmmmm I said to my self....and went downstairs to Chris who was on duty with me....and found out the entire UP was out. When Jose, our exec staff on duty got up to Dodge, the power had come back on, but he told us that the whole town had gone out. And both the power and the phones had gone out, and the phones are still out as of now. Wierd.

down and out....

2005-04-02T15:05:00.001-05:00

For some reason this week has had my head reeling about next year. Most of my friends outside of the engineers are going to be gone next year. Maggs and Terri will be graduating and Amanda will be in France. I guess it made me realize that I need a close girlfriend that will be here. I need my Colorado friends out here. I am not trying to say that I have no friends because I do, but I don't feel that I have many friends that I hang out with much. Sometimes I want to just hang out in my room and chill, talk, watch a movie, go to her room whenever, stay up to the wee hours in the morning talking about stupid stuff, I dunno. I can't replace friends from CO or those I have had for the past two years, but having someone there after these VT friends graduate. I feel like an asshole for typing all this. I love Mike. I love hanging out with the Engineers. I love my friends now. I feel that by writing this I am putting them all down, which is the last thing I ever want to do. I guess it has just been on my mind and I wanted to get it out.

I just looked out the ME lab window at our "student center" and the whole thing is dark. It is 330 on a Saturday after noon and the food is closed and the bookstore is closed and pretty much everything on this campus is closed or dark. Sad, very sad.

The fact that it is raining and gloomy today doesn't help, but sorry for the sad post.

PS send sun.

Yerp.

2005-03-29T09:48:00.000-05:00

The last week or so was really crazy, but I lived and am making it through this week. Last week I had a lot of work and class stuff to do as well as planning part of the Easter Egg hunt we put on for the kids of Northfield Saturday. It went well, but took haf the time we had posted. It was supposed to be from 10-12, but by 11 we were out of eggs and were pretty much done. oops. We painted boxes for it, to hid eggs in and a large space on the floor of the armory was covered in packing peanuts, bubbe wrap and shredded paper, it looked very cool. We also had games, which is the part I was in charge of. We had Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Bunny, Sack Races, Spoon and Egg Races, and Coloring. Terri used the Easter Bunny costumes we had and hopped around with the kids, who also got to race her in a few of the games. :) It was really cute. A few people showed up after we were done and cleaning up, but they stayed and colored and the little kids helped us pop the balloons. :) After that, Terri and her dad gave me a ride to meet Mike and his mom in Concord, NH where they were that day, so I could go home with them. We had a really yummy dinner at Mike's mom's place and watched The Terminal, very good movie. We got up bright and early Sunday morning and drove to his Aunt's place for a big family Easter lunch. YUM. It was fun to see his family again, I really like them. :) And there were doggies there!!! woohoo! I got my doggie fix! *dances* Can you tell I miss animal contact here?

And then I was on duty Sunday night. But it was nice and quiet. phewf.

I went to an etiquette dinner last night with Maggs, Amanda, Ted, and Terri. The Crawford RA staff put it on and it was really cool, they did a really good job. We all got dressed up and went down to Milano Ballroom and were walked through an entire dinner with etiquette rules and even clothes, what gift to take to a party, very cool. The food was delicious too, def worth the $5 we payed. Poor Mikey had lab so he couldn't go, but Maggs and I went as each others dates. It was a lot of fun. There was dancing afterward too, but the dinner ran over, so the dancing didn't start until about nine, so we left cause we had hw stuffs to do. I am really glad I went though, it was a lot of fun. :)

Just a Quickie

2005-03-24T15:50:00.000-05:00

Well, to continue the saga it shorter terms, the rest of spring break was good, we went to St Pete's Beach, Daytona Beach, Ocala National Park, Ft. Myers-ish, and the Kennedy Space Center. Lots of fun and warmness. :) No tan for me, but it was warm enough to make up for it. Saw the sunset on the ocean, that was awesome. Unfortunately, my camera pooped out on me the second to last day whilewe were at the space center. The zoom died and gave me a "lens error" when I tried to use it. So I had to send it back to Nikon today, that was sad. My poor little camera. Hopefully, because it is still under warrenty, I can get a new one free.

This week is crazy busy, we are doing an Easter Egg hunt for the town kiddies and that is taking a lot. Just lots of other work to do too. Busy week to come back to.

Spring Break Pt 2

2005-03-20T22:03:00.000-05:00

Ok, so the end of day one. We crammed into the back of the neon and drove to the registration office for the house. Unfortunately, the office wouldn't accept Caldwell's credit card and after driving around to find a bank and calling a ban, we found out we had to raise the spending limit on the card and after doing that got the *one* key for six of us and drove off to the house. We get there and the house is gorgeous, but the key doesn't fit into any lock into the house. There is a lockbox on the door, but we don't know the combo. Luckily, the house was open and we just walked in. We wanted to call the company to let them know about the lock and key problem, but alas, could not find a phone. Yup, they didn't put one in. So, we put out stuff in our rooms, and find that there are no lightbulbs in any of the lamps in the rooms. And a single roll of tp for a week. So we try to turn on the TV to watch some cable, nope, no cable either. So we used a cell phone and Desiree called the lady about the house. Unfortunately, she doesn't have very good professionalism or politeness when it comes to talking to the lady. Not good. But we dealt and relaxed the rest of the day.

The next day we decided to go to St. Pete's Beach. It was supposed to be a couple hours away, but because people in Florida can't drive and EVERYTHING in Florida is under construction, it took us almost 4 hours to get there. But we finally get there and found the beach and got out of the car and it was cold (relatively speaking). Not great lying on the beach weather. So Mike and I wandered down the beach and got some great pictures. Then we drove back and it took a little less time, but still more than it should have.

Well, I am tired and want to go to bed, so sorry this one is so short, but I will add more later. Night. :)

Spring Break Pt 1

2005-03-20T09:31:00.000-05:00

Well, alas, Spring Break is over. And we are all back in Vermont and at Norwich. I will give a shortened version of my break, since it would take pages to write the full version.

The first day was the most exciting. We had to leave Norwich at 130am because we had a 550 flight out of Manchester, NH a few hours away. So none of us really slept which made the drive down there interesting. We got to the airport, checked in and went to security. I thought I had remembered to not put anything bad in my suitcase because I was carrying on. But, they had to look in my suitcase. That is when I remembered I had put my nail clippers in there by accident and later remembered my mini leatherman was in there. No, that is not what they wanted, seeing as how the security guy saw both of them and said nothing. No, they had to empty half m stuff into a second bucket to tell me that my little belt buckle was at a wierd angle adn looked strange. With that over, we got to our gate and sat to wait because we were really early. They start to board, in the zones now, not by rows, and looking at my boarding pass I realized that neither Mike nor I have zones or seats. So we get in line anyway and when we get to the counter the lady tells us to stand to the side. The rest of the group was ok with seats, but they were talking about bumping us. They found a family to get bumped to another flight so we could stay together, but the girl who planned most of our trip I thought was going to jump over the counter at the lady. It was bad. But we got on the plane and flew through Pittsburgh and into Orlando. Beautiful weather! :D We took a shuttle to the rental car place and met Desiree and Caldwell (they had an earlier flight from Pitt) who had gotten one of our rental cars, a Dodge Neon. Now, picture this: 5 people-3 guys 2 girls, 5 peoples luggage-Desiree had two suitcases, and one small dodge neon. Interesting. But yes, beause we had no other choice, we fit 5 people and their luggage into that small little car by putting luggage ontop of the 3 lucky people sitiing in the back(Me, Mike and Grotz).

OK, that was exhausting. I think I am going to write this in a long series. This is number one. I will finish day one and go onto the other days later. *phewf*

YAAAAAAAAY!!!

2005-03-10T22:04:00.000-05:00

I AM GOING TO FLORIDA!!!!!!!! See you in a week!

kick

2005-03-07T11:06:00.000-05:00

Still having some roomate troubles...*pauses until she is not able to see the screen*...So, for some quick background info, I am learning how to juggle for my learning and motivation class. Doc (my prof) bought a bunch of new juggling balls and is lending them out to us if we need them. I currently am using three of them. So, I came back to my room one day and one of the balls was on my desk. Yes, only one. Needless to say, I wasn't too happy because last time I checked juggling balls didn't disappear on their own. So I looked around and found one on the floor by my bed and couldn't find the third one. I had to go, but when I came back later that day, the third one had magically appeared on my desk. Magic reappearing juggling balls! woah! I was going to talk to *her* about it, but never had a chance. Fast forward to the next day....I go to my room in the morning and what? two are gone again? more disappearing acts? Well, one was in my slipper....and the third? Who knows. So *she* came back and I asked her if she had used my balls. "no". "well two have showed up missing the last 2 days..." "i dunno". "did you use them?" "no". "do you know who did use them?" "i dunno. no." And then she leaves. Hrm...that doesn't seem suspecting. Dood. Fess up. I was not too happy with her. And still am not. But there is still hope of moving her out.

On a happier note, I LEAVE FOR FLORIDA IN 3 DAYS!!!!!! WooOOO!! I also saw Finding Neverland this weekend and omg is that movie good. I really need to own it. :) It made me cry. I haven't cried at a movie in a while. But it was really good. You all all should see it. Now. Go! Go right now and see it!!! :)

I am feeling pretty happy this week too! :) woot.

dances

2005-03-03T00:37:00.000-05:00

I am getting a car! Yaaaay!!!! I have been talking to Eric, my neighbor back home, who is selling his 96 Corsica. He only found one problem, but is fixing it for me and I am going to buy it from him! The onlt problem is getting it out here before I leave here in May cause I want to drive home. Between my electronics and Maude, who I want to bring home with me for the summer, flying will be a difficult option. I am worried about putting my record player and receiver and speakers on an airplane, or even ship them for fearof them getting broken(I already lost one record player, I don't want to lose another) and also the fact that I can't take Maude on a plane because they don't allow rodents. Sooooo...I am looking for anybody who may be driving out here, or knows someone who is that might be willing to drive my car out here for me. If you know of anyone, lemme know. :D

Other than that, not too much. I have two killer test on Friday that I am not looking forward to, but oh well. Wish me luck.

Grumph.

2005-02-28T11:02:00.000-05:00

This week is going to suck. And because I am going to go through the whole week thinking that, it will. Good 'ol self fulfilling prophecy at work. yay. I went to bed late last night (1am), yes I did decide to stay up, but of course I am tired today. I went to bio, that was ok, nothing bad there. Developmental Psych was ok, talked about screwed up kids in messed up families and parenting. But then I got to go to precalc. woohoo. I hate that class. It really wouldn't be so bad if I didn't hate my prof. I think he has the idea that everyone think mathamatically and the fact that he speaks with a strong Japanese accent doesn't help. I have failed ever quiz and test in there so far, but yet I understand and can do the homework. I am fine doing the work, but I can't remember the freakin formulas and certain ways you have to decipher how to do problems. I got a 9out of 20 on the quiz from last week. "These were pretty simple problems" he says. "If you didn't get these, you are in trouble". Great. So at this point I think I am bound to fail this class. I really don't want to, I am trying, but it is so hard when you feel like you understand and then you take a quiz or test and totally fail it. And he gives no support. I feel lost. I can't go to talk to him about it, he doesn't seem to give much support ya know? "How are you going to do well in this class if you don't come?" he asks me when I tell him I am missing two classes for an away match. You think I wanted to miss to full days of class? I think not.

And then I really kinda wanted to cosme back and maybe lie down between now and lunch, but I came back and my roommate is here playing gross country. Oh well. Hopefully this day or week will get better.

11 days until spring break......11 days till spring break.....

2005-02-25T12:59:00.000-05:00

I am so tired today...I really just want to sleep forever. I went to class and it took a lot to stay awake in the 0800 class. Developmental Psych wasn't bad, but then we had a quiz in precalc. That class is going to kill me. My prof Takahashi is so strange and confusing and can explain things in detail, but quickly. Not so much fun. I can do the homework and explain things in class, but when it gets to the tests or quizzes, I forget and can't do anything. I wish we could use our calculators, but more I wish we could have an equation sheet or something because it is really hard for me to remember all the different equations and formulas. If I am going to ever be doing this math later in life, I am going to be able to use resources to find what I need. grr.

Ok, enough grump. I have to write a reflection paper and go feed Maude.

Long weekend.

2005-02-20T22:36:00.000-05:00

We had a match this weekend...in Ohio. And we drove. We left on Thursday morning at 6am and drove allllll day to Akron, Ohio, about 12 hours. We got in at 7 or 8 and passed out at the hotel when we got there. We shot on Friday against Akron, they have a really nice smallbore range; electric targets so you don't have to pull the targets back yourself. :) I shot terribly, but no biggie. The air range was in a classroom, and I really didn't like the setup. But the match was really close, we were neck-in-neck during all the scoring. We were looking for extra points and we ended up being tied with them until Wolf, the good guy that he is, found a point on one of his targets that they shouldn't have given him and turned it in putting Akron ahead by one point. So they won and they also won in air by 15 points. So it was a close match, but still good. After that, we packed up and drove to Penn State. We stayed at the Nittany Budget Motel. The registration office was also "Brewsky's Bottle Shop" a liquor store. Kind of a sketchy place. lol. Our shooting didn't start until 11ish Saturday at Penn State, so we got to sleep in a little and got to go out to breakfast too. All of us shot horribly, but we still beat Penn State and VMI (Virginia Military Institute). We packed up and drive the 8 ours back to loverly VT. We got in at about 2 this morning. So it was along weekend, but it's over now. And we have no practice till Wednesday. Three of our teammates were sick up until we left on Thursday. Balaban, Dickinson, and Comfort all had a stomach bug and Dickinson and Balaban, esp Balaban were throwing up. I felt really bad, Balaban looked greenish pale when we left on Thursday. They were eating bread and crackers and water for a while on the trip. Def did not look like fun. I am really hoping that I don't get it.

Not much happening other than that. I am working on negotiating a price with my neighbor about his car and hopefully we can agree on something. Then I need to find someone who wants to drive it out to VT before May so I can drive home. :) Anyone wanna come out east? ;)

Time for Amy to go to bed now. Night night.

<3s and @)--^--s, and a little :(

2005-02-15T13:57:00.001-05:00

Yesterday started out a little ify. I went to class without a shower and was talking to my friend Patricyja (I think that is how you spell it, she is polish) :) and I found out that I thought I was going to be set back a semester. I should be taking a class, Experimental 1 this semester, but my advisor didn't tell to get into it. To make her not look so bad, cause it was an accident, even if I had tried to take it this semester, I dunno if it would have fit anyway. But, if I am supposed to be getting into Experimental 2 in the fall. So I have to take summer school and make up exp 1 before the fall. Ew and no fun. But the day got a little better when I realized I would not def be here another semester. Classes were fine. The whole last week Mike and his friend had been very sneaky around Desiree (Caldwell's gf) and I. So I found out we were going to eat somewhere, but all I knew was that I had to dress up. So, I went over to Amanda's room to get clothing advice and while I was gone, Mike went to my room thinking I was there with flowers and card and a box. I went back to my room and voila! There were flowers and a card and a box on my desk. :) Pretty roses. They smell pretty. The box had fresh, yes FRESH chocolate covered strawberries in it. *drool* In fact, I think I am going to have one now. :P I gave him a bamboo plant and a card. :) We went out to dinner and it was delicious; I had spinach ravioli. so good. It was a very happy Valentine's Day.

So in other news, we had another away match at Coast Guard this weekend, but I was on duty, so I could not go. Let's just say that coach is not happy with me. grr. If I can't be on duty on weekend, I have to change it for another weekend. I have one weekend in the whole month of Feb that there is not an away match and I would rather not be on duty that one weekend. So I was on duty this weekend and did not go to the match. Apparently coach has issues with me having a job that takes up precious shooting time. annoying. Anyway, I am going to practice today for the first time in a week or so, it may be interesting.

One of the rats for learning and motivation died. :( It was really sad. She had to have been sick because her human ( :P ) played with her all the time and took good care of her. But she just stopped eating, the poor thing and died this weekend. :( I feel really bad. I found her on sat after she died and there was still food in the cage. Our rats are supposed to weigh around 203 grams and when the little one died she only weighed 140. So little. The student has to withdrawl from the class now too. Poor thing. oh well.

Well, I have a bunch of work to do and I need to finish my laundry.

muah.

2005-02-11T19:35:00.000-05:00

This is Maude again. :)

I have a few more I may post later...but now you can see what she looks like.

2005-02-11T19:33:00.000-05:00

This is Maude :)

So Mike finally figured out how to post pictures for me. And this is my cute little rat. :)

2005-02-01T09:18:00.000-05:00

Getting the idea from Eleanor's blog.....

You're a Harp!

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