twenty-seven

Today is my birthday! I'm 27 today, which puts me squarely in the "late 20's" category.

I went running over my lunch break and thought about how grateful and lucky I am for many things:

• The physical ability to run three miles. To run three miles and feel awesome. The ability to do so on my lunchtime, in the sunshine, without a coat, in February, on my birthday.
• My gentleman and my dog.
• My other family members who really enjoy celebrating birthdays.
• The company of good, old friends.
• To be able to celebrate future birthdays with my new nephew.
• That I am an awesome guacamole maker.
• The delicious birthday meal I'm looking forward to tonight.

January is definitely over.

Birthday Bacher out.

26 and counting

The perfect birthday card from my mom:


Seriously, woman. Where's my damn pony?

payment plans

My morning:

A girl play acted talking on her phone. Not super unusual, but at one point she "got a call" from her husband. She looked at me and said, "Ugh, my husband is on the other line. Can you hold on for a second?" The girl then walked to a different part of the empty room and stood over there, having a pretend argument (with a lot of attitude) with her pretend husband. Sometimes the way children play astounds me. This is learned behavior and I'm saddened that a 4 year old thinks playing includes fighting with yoru husband on the phone. She also said something about someone being on the line for a payment plan. Kids don't make up these phrases by themselves; they learn them somewhere.

Some of my kids learned "holy shit." As in "Holy shit, I found a card!" I think it's pretty funny but obviously can't show them that. I just ignore it because making a big deal out of it will make it ... well, a big deal. But inwardly I giggle.

My boy who chooses not to speak at school mouthed the word "fall" while we were walking down the steps. I put rhyming words on the stairs so they can step on the rhyme and say it at the same time, which is good reinforcement. Then as we were walking down the hall, he said a few things (which, sadly, I couldn't quite make out) but I knew they were words. It figures he chooses to speak during times when it's loud and you can't quite hear him. He also mouthed "good night" to me as I was covering him up for nap. I'm so close to getting this kid to talk... just a little bit more. I think the biggest deterrant is the other teachers. They make a big deal out of it and send the kid back into his nonverbal shell. He's not going to start talking because he was harassed into it.

I've been doing round 2 of the official benchmarking for kindergarten. Over all the kids have made some great progress - 4 kids weren't getting rhyming enough to even be able to score on the rhyming test in the fall; now all of them have moved beyond that and one girl even scored on target for kindergarten (she moved from none to 12). Letter naming has generally gone up as well; one girl scored 20 in the fall and 10 in the winter, but I think it's not that she stopped learning, just that the test is boring her. We'll see how the rest of them go. I'd like to recommend some changes for the classroom I work in for the next few months, mostly in terms of letter knowledge.

I'm going to be busy for the next few weekends: Erich and Katie come to visit this weeked; I go to Green Bay next weekend; Mom and Harry visit the weekend after that for my birthday. There will probably be some pictures at some point in the future... or not. It'll just be pictures of food.

twenty-four!

Goooood birthday weekend.

Some highlights:
-ran 3 miles nonstop Thursday (most ever)
-birthday cupcakes from Tessa
-good birthday celebration after the hockey game (which was sold out so I didn't get to go... boo)
-went to the Dartmouth game on Saturday where we won 3-1 and both figuratively and literally beat the crap out of them

Visual highlights:
My birthday cake - self baked and decorated. I think it looks awesome, but I have to say someone else drew on the tongue and nose. I just had a plain smiley face.

Tessa!

Tim and I!

Amir attack!

Erik and I.

Rachel, looking adorable.

Ryan, classy as always.


Marshall's birthday present to me. If you can read the writing, it says, "Happy Birthday, Ass."

February in pictures

Kari and I at the Spice Girls concert

Tessa and I!

My birthday cake and my candle!

I had to bake my own birthday cake... what is that about?

At least I have friends...

The view across my desk, out the living room window... I get a lot of work done obviously. A fine example of New Haven's exemplary plow job.

My birthday present from my grandma - new shoes! I got the exact same kind as a pair already owned. New shoes (left), 4 year old shoes (right).

My birthday present from Kari, an otter floating in the water.

Birthday update

Kari has come and gone, Tessa has come and gone; I think it's official to say that my birthday celebrations are over. It was a very excellent couple of days - although I don't think I've ever had a birthday I haven't liked (double negative alert!). Maybe it's just that I like my life most of the time so the only place to go is up.

Wednesday: Mom and I had birthday breakfast over Skype, which was nice. My grandpa used to take my mom out for breakfast on her birthday before school, and so my mom did the same thing with us when we grew up. I'm not sure when she started doing it, but it's lots of fun. She tells about when I was born, which pretty much consists of "my water broke and we barely made it to the hospital in time! I was admitted at 6:02 and you were born at 6:07" or something like that. I was a fast baby.

I did some stuff around school, picked up Kari at the airport and then drove to the arena for the Spice Girls. Had a nice Chipotle burrito (chicken fajita... I usually get steak but the guy gave me the wrong kind but I like chicken so it was ok) and almost immediately got really bad stomach pain, which lasted throughout the concert. Rocked out to the Spice Girls with Kari and the thousands of other late teen-early twenties girls who were 13 when the Spice Girls were popular. The concert started 30 minutes late (lame) and some of the girls who were sitting on the ground floor were nice enough to dance to the loudspeaker music for entertainment. It was super entertaining when they decided to do really explicit, vulgar dance moves so the whole back of the arena could watch. There's nothing better than watching two girls pretend to have sex for thousands of people... Ok, maybe there is. I'd say almost anything. Talk about the need to perform for people to gain a sense of self worth. It was so ridiculous to have these girls slap each other's asses for literally thousands of people, most of who cheered. I can't say I'm surprised, though, considering at one point during the concert Scary Spice locked up one of her backup dancers beneath a ladder and proceeded to give him a ladder dance, pushing her crotch in his face and ended it by pantomiming oral sex. Oh, the people we choose to emulate and make role models of...

After the concert Kari and I drove back to New Haven, my stomach still hurting through the whole concert and drive back. By the time we made it home, my abdomen had hurt for 6+ hours. I decided to go to the emergency room in case it was my appendix. I ended up sitting in the hospital for another 4 hours until 5 or 5:30 AM. It wasn't my appendix, but they think it was gall stones, which does fit with my family history. Apparently it comes on after you eat a fatty meal and can last for several hours. I got some medicine, so that's good in case it happens again. Kari had her laptop with her, so it was funny when the doctors gave their diagnosis because after they left the room, we immediately looked it up on wikipedia. I had to take it easy on food for the past couple of days, but it seems to be ok now. Kari and I can't go to concerts together anymore because I always get sick. I had mono when we saw Queen, I had gallstones when we saw the Spice Girls... I'd hate to see what I get if we go again.

Thursday: We slept in late from the long night before, went grocery shopping and to the liquor store for some wine and beer. I had an afternoon class, and Kari met me downtown after my class was done for a checkup with my doctor - he said everything's peachy. We had dinner at this good vegetarian restaurant downtown and then went home and watched The Prestige (awesome movie). Kari fell asleep so she missed most of it. She's lame that way, though.

Friday: I worked in the morning and had an afternoon meeting for V-Day and the Div school's production of A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer. It's going to be really cool. Kari and I had lunch with some friends, chilled out at my apartment and then met my friend Becca for dinner and a play at the Yale Rep. We saw The Evildoers, which was good but kinda weird at the end. Weird in a good way, I'd say. I feel like I'd have to watch it again to understand it fully, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Saturday: Low-key morning and afternoon, and then Tessa came into town around 5. She brought delicious cupcakes (not all gone yet - there are 3 1/2 of them I have to get rid of somehow...). We went over to my friend Ryan's house for a shared dinner of deliciousness - good chili! Sarah and Ryan/Duff (Ryan's friend) had a chili cookoff. I can't officially endorse one chili or the other, unfortunately. You have to let the people decide on that. Anyway, I made a cake and there were candles and singing and wine and beer... very good times. Lots of laughing, so I think that's a good sign. After the gathering with friends, Tessa, Kari, Marshall and I went to Archie Moore's, which is now my new favorite neighborhood bar. I might even have to move closer to officially declare it my neighborhood bar. Plus they have Smithwicks on tap, which makes me very excited. When we walked up, there was a Div school student standing outside and he said, "I know you, you're that sexy librarian." I thought it was cute. When he left, he kissed my hand, since I'm the birthday girl. The real question is going to be if he remembers it in the morning, since he was more than a little inebriated. Tessa, Kari, Marshall and I had a couple rounds and lots of fun. They're good people. I never know how people from different parts of my life are going to interact, but since I generally choose top notch, quality people as friends, it's no problem. I made some comment to Tessa that of all my friends here, I think Marshall would fit in best with my friends from home and she agreed. I think it's because he likes drinking a lot. We do too. In a good way. He remembered to bring back my Sports Night (I lent it to him literally months ago... September or October probably) and he lent me Six Feet Under, second season. I can pick up where I left off my freshman year of school, watching with Sarah and Jenna and Amy.

Sunday: Made some delicious cream cheese french toast for Kari and Tessa. It was quite excellent, I must say. They took the train back to NYC and Tessa helped Kari figure out how to get to JFK by train. Kari should get there fine, since she's quite the navigator. If not, she can come back and live with me. I'd be ok with that. This next week is a reading week, so I don't have any div school classes. I have two classes downtown that aren't off for reading week, but the professor for one of them is going out of the country this week - so canceled! I only have one class (and work - gross but good moneywise) so I'll be spending most of the week in my sweatpants watching West Wing and Six Feet Under. And, you know, doing homework and stuff. But mostly sweatpants and tv on dvd. Trust me on this one.

Now... Birthday pictures! The first three are from the concert and the last one is in the hospital waiting room. Lots of fun!

Birthday!

Bilbo Baggins: Today is my 111th birthday! Alas, eleventy-one years is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable hobbits. I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

Facebook announces your birthday to all of your friends, and considering the amount of well-wishes from friends, semi-friends and acquaintances, I feel the last sentence is somewhat pertinent.

It's my birthday!

Kari's coming in today to visit me, I'm leaving soon to pick her up and we're going to go rock out to the Spice Girls tonight! Lots of fun.

Before she got here, I wanted to make sure I got all of my work done. I have to summarize/lead discussion on a book and article for my class tomorrow, so I just have to finish two more chapters (just a couple of points from each), so it's not too much work. The book is called Authentic Fakes, or the integration of popular culture and religion - like how baseball, Coke and rock and roll have religious aspects to them, or are considered by some to be almost religious like. It's pretty interesting. There's a fascinating chapter on Reagan's use of sacrificial rhetoric in his national and foreign policy in conjuncture with Jim Jones' sacrificial language in getting his followers to commit mass suicide. Very interesting. The article I have to discuss is about the religious/spiritual aspects of Oprah's "empire," how she promotes spiritual/religious use of buying, writing and reading - buying as self-improvement, journaling and her book club as an interpretation of self-improvement. Also very interesting. I can pass along information on either of those, if anyone is interested in a little extra reading.

Anyway, I should get ready to leave to get Kari. Whoo! Exciting.

I popped the question!

I don't know where the concept came from, but someone somewhere at some point in time said that an engagement ring should roughly be one month's salary. I think it's way too much money to spend on a ring, but whatever. I just spent one month's salary on my school books for the semester. Going by that standard, does that mean that I'm engaged to school? Look for save the date cards in the mail.

I made a to-do list yesterday. Here it is:

End:
the legacy of White supremacy
global warming
conflict diamonds
sexism
hate

I canceled my iTunes subscription to The Colbert Report until the writer's strike is over. I figured if they're striking over online revenue, I might as well do my part and not give them any online revenue. This also includes watching on websites, so unfortunately I won't be watching at all.

Since I'm engaged (oooooh!) to my school work, I thought I should probably pick up some more hours at the library so I can afford that lovely dishwasher my beloved wants so badly. Not to mention the cost of the wedding! As I'll be living light and tight because of the new dishwasher and the wedding, it's just groceries and porn for me. No extra spending at all! I don't need the latest copy of Rolling Stone.

As my birthday is coming up soon, here are some suggestions for things you can get me:
Across The Universe (conveniently comes out the day before my birthday!)
The Keeper
A Cow
Money for Ireland

t minus 20 days until Kari comes to visit
t minus 50 days until I go to Ireland and see Andrew
t minus ?? days until I see Mom

Do you have a zombie defense plan?

One could say with some level of truth that I am indeed a grown up. I have my own apartment, I haven't lived with my parents for several years now, I shop responsibly at the grocery store*, hell I even have a savings account with more than $100 in it (barely). I don't know why I'm prompted to think of this, but it might be that for the first time in my life, I bought a sack of potatoes at the grocery store today. Not a bag, but a sack. Well, it was in a plastic bag, but I like saying "sack of potatoes" better than "bag of potatoes." Also, Friday night my lovely friend Rebecca had people over to her apartment for a dinner party. Her roommate Adrienne, a grad student in the sociology department (I'm not sure if she's Ph.D or just Masters), is a great cook and it was a really delicious meal. There was corn stuff and artichoke stuff and then banana frites for dessert. I can only remember the name of one dish that's not made out of a box at a time. I even dressed up - well, I changed out of my somewhat holey long sleeve t-shirt and put on something with a little more class. There were some Div students there, some sociology students, some School of Management students, some chemistry Ph.D students, ect. A good time. Of course, with such an opportunity for interdisciplinary mingling, I talked to pretty much only Div students. Ok, I talked a bit to some of the other people, but next time I'll do it some more.

Monday is my first midterm exam at grad school. Well, I had a somewhat midterm in my Iconography class, but it consisted of 10 true or false questions and 10 fill in the blank questions, so it wasn't a comprehensive, exhaustive exam or anything. My test is in New Testament, so along with the final and the exegesis paper, it's one of the main sources of points for the class. I wonder if you get points for good spelling. Anyway, I shouldn't be procrastinating as much as I am, but I'm thinking I'll be sleeping with my study guide under my pillow tonight. Education by osmosis.

Last night I went out with my friend Marshall and two of his friends from Chicago. It was really fun, I hadn't been out to the bar in awhile (not since Erich's wedding... so not that long really. A while since I'd been out in New Haven). People are already starting to get dressed up for Halloween, so we saw a Jack Sparrow out, and some other costumes. While Marshall and I were walking from the bar in search of a taxi, we passed these people dressed like zombies who were staggering along the sidewalk (I'm guessing from the alcohol and not from rigor mortis, since one of them looked like she was going to vomit on the Yale Art Gallery) and one of them decides to be weird and pretend to be a zombie. I'm sorry, but fake zombies are no issue. I don't care if you're drunk and want to weird people out, it's not going to work for me.

Real zombies, on the other hand, are a big issue and everyone needs to have a zombie survival plan. You need to think about your home, your work, the places you go and what to do in case of a zombie attack. Do you have big windows? How many entrances/exits in your residence or place of work? Do you have access to weapons? Have you considered different plans if the zombies are the slow, staggering Night of the Living Dead zombies or the fast, running, freak-your-shit-out zombies of 28 Days Later**? My old apartment was great in case of a zombie attack. Lock the door on Snelling (no windows to break through), lock the big metal down on Englewood and it's virtually impossible to get up to the apartment level. Plus, we could go across the rooftops of all the businesses on Snelling - all very useful businesses in case of zombie attack - a hardware store, a restaurant, all with very little street access. I should have lived there forever. But seriously. You need to prepare yourself, or at least have an idea of a plan. Consider yourself warned. It's like a public service announcement.

Next week is the Div School Saints and Sinners party. Apparently everyone comes dressed up as something saintly or sinnerly, and it's a good time. You can go literal (slutty anything) or metaphorically (someone wore a sign "Babylonian Isle" and put egg cartons all over them - so Babylonian Exile/Eggs-Isle). Erich and I were brainstorming ideas for both of us - something slightly offensive but still funny. He likes being someone "above reproach," so we were coming up with ideas like assassinated John Lennon or JKF. Katie and I are going as the same thing, but we're in different time zones so it's ok. I'm going as Joan of Arc, but post-bonfire. I think it'll be good, especially for the party.

Along with my quest to be more politically vocal, I'm also working on being more environmentally friendly. I don't know what it is, but here I'm more concerned with my "environmental footprint" than I ever was at Hamline. I think it might be at Hamline there really wasn't a lot of action - just a lot of talk, while here at least small things are offered, like using your own mug at the coffee shop or a place where you can keep dishes in the Refectory so if you want to reuse a plate, you can. Anyway, I've been thinking for awhile that I've wanted to buy reusable sacks for my groceries. I bought some at the store yesterday and I'm excited to go grocery shopping next so I can use them! It was kind of funny/irritating since I bought my sacks and started filling them up with my groceries, and the young gentleman who was checking my groceries finished scanning and started helping me pack by putting some of my groceries in plastic bags. I mean, I just bought reusable grocery bags and you're putting my groceries in plastic bags. Did he miss the point? Or thought I was running out of room in the bags? I don't know. Anyway. Now I have two Stop and Shop reusable bags. They have their logo on the side, so that's annoying, but whatever.

My birthday is a long ways off still, in February, but I know what I'm doing. Kari and I are hanging out! We are hanging out ... and going to see a Spice Girls concert. The things I will do for her, seriously. I can't believe it. A fucking Spice Girls concert. She had better get me an awesome birthday present (not from the concert, thank you). But at least I get to have birthday breakfast with her! Hopefully, anyway.

I think I've procrastinated here enough, and I can move on to my next procrastinating tool -washing dishes. Then, seriously, I am going to study. I think I'm going to go outside since it's a beautiful day. When I was walking down to the little market down the street (procrastination 1 of the day), my skin soaked up the sunlight like a sponge. I miss spending lots of time outside every day like I did during the summer. I am going to sit in the sun and get some Vitamin D, since my cave of an apartment barely lets any light in, and no directly sunlight (damn northern exposure!). It will be wonderful and I will absorb the sun and the New Testament at the same time.




* This means I don't buy exclusively Pringles and Pop Tarts. Sometimes, when I feel super grown-up, I get Pringles, Pop Tarts and Eggo Waffles. Ok, just kidding. Maybe.
**I know they aren't zombies in 28 Days Later, but the Infected. So technically they're still alive and don't need to be killed only by destroying the brain, but they're still zombie-enough where there's no coming back from being infected and the only thing you want to do is eat human flesh.