two weekends in a row

This is the second weekend where I left the house on Saturday to go somewhere other than work. Aren't you proud of me?
Last weekend, I went salsa dancing with Alyssa and Lili. Then Michael came after work. I didn't dance very much, but standing around in high heels was enough to tire me out. I danced with Michael and not other people, not because I wasn't asked, and not because I am in one of those possessive type relationships, more because I don't really know how to salsa and my take charge personality works against me in the world of partners dancing where the man is supposed to lead. Who made that rule up? I want to spin the boy around and walk forwards sometimes, and in doing so not just step on someone's toes. So, I stuck with Michael. He is a born dancer and can make up something that looks good while I look tall and hunched over and rhythmless. I guess I should stick to types of dance that don't require me to touch other people.
Then last Sunday, (even though I was still drowning in homework) Alyssa and Trent came over to help eat all the wonderful food Michael cooked (chili and general tso's chicken and I made corn bread [we cook a lot on Sunday's for during the week, so no, that wasn't a planned menu, just a variety of foods from that afternoon])
Yesterday, Vanessa saved my butt by subbing in for an exercise class that was crazy insane and disorganized but successful to some extent. Then, nice girl that she is, she invited me to dinner with her friends. Later we went out to a smoky bar with a thumpy dj that played a variety of dance music I had not heard since college (the first time). We had fun playing an assortment of made up darts games (another thing I hadn't done since college the first time, as well evidenced by the number of darts I threw that flipped around and sort of bounced off the board). Going out to a bar...hmmm...it made me miss the Joyce in Durham, where you could sit outside on the picnic benches and listen to silly Irish music and drink yummy tasting beers, while still carrying on a conversation and not being completely assaulted by smoke.
Tonight I am headed over to Nora and Quinn's for dinner. I think I will make some potato soup to bring for their friend who is recently wisdom tooth free and therefore unable to eat solid foods. mmm. potato soup. I really need to download my pictures and give you that recipe.

literacy literature strikes again

um okay
I am reading this article/book chapter by Rumelhart about interactive reading models (did I lose you already? just hang on) and here is a sentence that made me yelp
"Perhaps the most commonly observed effect of this sort involves the semantic disambiguation of syntactically ambiguous sentences." mmmhmm. yeah, I got that, sure. Disambiguity strikes again. (oh and how annoying is it to you that I keep linking to my own old posts, I bet you wish blogger never restored my old stuff)
oh and here is a definition for disambiguate.

Internet shopping (alt. title: I think something happened to my brain or maybe my bank account)

Really, someone needs to take the internet away from me.
This summer I went to David's bridal and tried on wedding dresses with Caitlin and laughed a lot about Suzy average bride. I forgot about buying dresses until the moms in my life started reminding me (in a very nice way) that I might want to start looking. So procrastinating my thesis never looked easier and I started looking online to get an idea about what I might want. I drew some pictures I have some ideas, I probably need to find a good seamstress/designer.
Last night I won a bid for a j crew wedding dress on ebay. (its my back up dress, to take the edge of my insanity --cost less than $100)
Two weeks ago I paid off my credit card, ah debt free (except for those pesky school loans but those don't count)
Today I called Michael when I was on my way home from school, we talked about frozen pizza, and somehow I mentioned computers and the idea of getting Michael upgraded to an operating system that will actually allow him to run the programs he needs to do film scoring.
This afternoon, I bought Michael a new laptop, software etc. at the online apple store* (won't ship until March 3 now)

--so really its like "we" bought it with the whole combined finances, getting married thing, but truthfully when that computer ships in March he could cut and run and leave me with the bill --bastard--maybe I should start drafting a pre pre nup. hmmm. Can you do that for debt only if you don't actually have any assets. haha.

I really think I need to put down the internet and get back to clipping coupons and eating rice and beans now. Mmmm I see Ramen noodles and more $3.99 bottles of Crane Lake cab sav in my future.

*Don't worry mom I know what I am doing. The education discount is steep and we are doing well.

lame

I am still being lazy about posting pictures. Too busy watching crappy episodes of law & order while I procrastinate my school work and try to piece together invoices for my job from an old calendar and deposit slips...mmm falsification of records (just kidding I will check with all my parents and my dated behavior logs before I print anything legal for billing/tax purposes)

This laptop will be the death of me. Remember the good old days when I would have to wander down the hall from the office to watch bad t.v. while writing papers? I would think about disabling the internet while I work if my profs weren't so enamored with blackboard and if the online article databases weren't so necessary. Maybe I need to set up some parental controls for myself. Caitlin seems to know what I am talking about, except her guilty pleasure expands beyond E! and blogs to facebook where all the (baby) undergrads hang out.

again YAY!

So look around
TA DA

Again I must point out that my blog came back thanks to blogger support person Samantha. And below I just added the crazy posts I did on my replacement blog. I am sure if I was so inclined I could figure out how to merge the two blogs but I don't care. So, sorry if I omitted your comment from those posts, I still love you (well except if you were just some crazy lasik surgery spam and then I abhor you) Now I need to go watch tv and eat chex mix.

I have been cooking up a storm so when the motivation hits me I will download a ton of pictures and give you some yummy new recipes including the one I finished off tonight. Lovely warm potato soup, so easy and good for these rainy cold days.

today was very warm. We had a fire drill at school. I got paid $30 to jump on a trampoline for two hours.

tomorrow is my last day at the elementary school, and Monday I start a new placement. I will miss my little licey kids, I know they will (eventually) learn how to read without me, but I really liked helping them.

the posts I wrote when I thought my blog was deleted forever

Updates

I don't update for over a month, I update every 3 hours you just never know.
Here is a brief bio that I think might be necessary since the accidental (and idiotic) deletion of all my previous postings on the original site of the same name. So in a scattered inconsistent bulleted fashion here you go:

• I started writing on blogger August of 2004 after living by myself in Cincinnati for a month and falling into reading blogs instead of books during summer classes. For some reason I thought it would be less distracting to read little online diaries instead of books that summer, it took me only about a month to realize the addiction was worse than at the library because you could stalk and favorite author with the refresh button instead of finishing a book and having to reconnect with the real world. I immediately became one of those annoying stream of consciousness writers that refuses to capitalize, or edit beyond the whoa-fully inadequate blogger spellcheck.
• my first and now deleted posts were much like episodes of Seinfeld in that they were about nothing. (I miss them)
  
• then Michael came back from his one man east coast tour
• he asked me to marry him
  (but only after I mercilessly teased him for going away for a month and returning with only a bright red ben & jerry's t-shirt and no jewelry...leading me to believe I forced him into a weird situation and responding with "for real??" instead of the traditional yes. Apparently it wasn't my annoying welcome that spurred him, but our successful 5 year relationship (who would have thought?)
• That fall I continued working (sales&marketing asst) and going to school full time at the University of Cincinnati to get my masters degree in special education and teaching certification.

fast forward through lots of posts about my random thoughts about one year

• Michael went to Aspen in the summer of 2005, and I spent a lot of time drinking the wine out of Cincinnati with these girls, Nora & Caitlin
  
• in July of 2005 my only nephew turned one, and in august of 2005 my blog turned one...my nephew is infinitely cuter and a better public speaker (dunk dunk hook hook 2 points...Nice!)[he got a basketball hoop for Christmas]
  
• fall of 2005 I quit my job to do an unpaid internship at a suburban elementary school
• when I tell you the children I am teaching can't read, I am not lying. I teach 1st and 2nd grade and really they can't read ...but we're working on it so if you have any good picture book suggestions I will take them. We are working on basic letter recognition so any literacy activities are good. (literacy activities=reading, for Kate, like extra language= babbling, this is why I am getting the master's degree)
  
• not that it really matters because I should be changing internships in the next 2 weeks where I expect to start over with emotionally younger, non verbal children with more severe disabilities (yes, this is the placement I have my fingers crossed for)
• I do have two or three pseudo jobs working with other kids with autism in aba therapy at home and in an exercise class at a local YMCA.
• I am really looking forward to holding a real job next year with a real paycheck.
• I am in a constant state of stress when I think about
• writing my thesis
• moving to???? L.A.?, N.Y.? Miami? unknown other city?
• wedding plans
• and yet I am very excited to move if only to get the hell out of Cincinnati (not my kind of town, I want to be near an ocean)
• and speaking of oceans, I will be getting married near one (isn't that nice, I hope it doesn't rain but whatever, Angelique's wedding took place during a thunderstorm that was ridiculous and we had fun, she will have to write about that sometime)

that is all for now.
felt I needed a recap since the deletion
let me know if you have any questions.
posted by nancy at 1/13/2006 07:41:00 PMp

spoiled

Yeah, I am spoiled and ungrateful. Michael did all the laundry today and all I have to do is put my clothes away. Will I do that? Maybe sometime next week after I have shifted the pile from bed to dresser to other dresser to floor etc.
Yay! We are getting married.


(and I swear if we ever have a washer and dryer that doesn't require quarters (and/or four flights of stairs, I too will do laundry)
posted by nancy at 1/13/2006 04:21:00 PM

stuff

Yesterday, I made a bastardized version of this dish (Pelau) from the blog chookooloonks. Don't ask me how to pronounce it (the blog name or the dish) because I really have no idea. Also, I am pretty sure anyone looking for authenticity or even for me to use all of the ingredients listed would be sorely disappointed because really what I did (with help from Michael) is to hustle up some of the ingredients from our cabinets to try to find a dish to use up the huge amount of rice Michael made for burritos earlier in the week. He made a huge tupperware container full and is telling me it was only 2 cups dry but that is a lot of rice (even for me and I really like rice). I think I bought coconut milk when I read the recipe about a month ago because the recipe sounded so tasty. It was a good quicky version with boneless/skinless chicken breast and precooked rice. (maybe it was like the Rachel Ray 30 minute version but actually it probably was faster than 30 minutes). Next time I will make it spicier I think, and use the real ingredients like whole pieces of chicken and uncooked rice.
School
Today my supervisor came to observe me at school for the last time in this placement. She is a total space cadet and my mentor teacher and the SLP (speech language pathologist) can attest to this as she turned the conversation from the possibility of my moving to L.A. to the traffic in Atlanta after the Olympics (say what?).
Now that that is done I am feeling pretty open, especially because I don't have to "work" until Saturday. ("work" being all that which is not teaching, taking classes or going to classes, so anything where people actually pay me for a service instead of me paying them.)
After school I went grocery shopping and all sorts of lovely items like Wine, and sushi, and a beautiful French loaf of my favorite Shadeau bakery bread. yum.
Relaxation with Michael+minor trauma
I felt good thinking about my relaxing evening, my unusually full bank account (thanks federal student loan people), and then Michael came home. We ate sushi, and I made him a steak to go with it because he is a manly man (ha). Then I read blogs while he napped (under my halfhearted coercion, no one should have to work two jobs without a brief nap, and it is easy to get someone to fall asleep with food and exhaustion) on the futon. When he woke up from his nap he scurried (Doesn't the word scurried make you picture rats, what is the comparable word for human busy, organized moving around?) to get ready for work, walking back to the office, gathering stuff, putting on shoes, into the kitchen to fill his water bottle with caffeinated tea to get through the evening, and back out into the living room...CRUNCH! right onto his glasses, shattering the left lense and mangling the frame. The glasses now look like the kids glasses from the Christmas Story (or for the more literary minded like this).
Excusing my ranting post
What is the point you ask? Why am I reading this long ridiculous post? Because you are a voyeur and you love to glimpse into someone else's life. Especially when it makes you feel better about your life (yes the one with TiVo, cable, real couches, paycheck(s) and lasik eye surgery etc.)
but really the point was I am relaxing tonight (and only sort of doing school work)
So tonight is entirely dedicated to sitting on the futon, watching (network) TV and absorbing my class readings in through my lap because really I know it will be all TV and a little wine.
And really I can wait until tomorrow or Saturday to think about going with Michael to get new glasses. (luckily he is not as blind as me and can get along okay without glasses for a day or two, if I hadn't accidentally deleted my blog, I have a feeling I may be able to back link here a post about my broken glasses this fall, but maybe not. I have been pretty slack about this updating thing.)

p.s. Why does blogger spell check not know the word Blog but does know that the brand TiVo is capital T little i capital V little o? creepy.
posted by nancy at 1/12/2006 07:26:00 PM


Musical Theater/Movie

I have no idea if this came from another site or if she went searching for hall & oates but check it out. Caitlin
posted by nancy at 1/11/2006 02:43:00 PM

ets

Today I took the second standardized test that I need to pass to be a certified special educator in the state of Ohio. (Note that I will not be living in Ohio so there is a distinct possibility that I will need to take a variety of other tests to be a certified teacher in another state.) The test was ridiculous, in the most Michael sense of the word. I show up at 10:35, our pass key in says we need to be there at 10:45. The proctor is locked out of the testing room so we do not go in until 11:20. With the standardized directions we do not begin the test until 10:55. I am finished by 11:25 and am forced to sit in the room and stare out the window until 11:55 when we are all allowed to leave. It is like being punished for being a fast reader. The ETS company has a racket with this testing. You pay them ~$150 for every test you take. They are the only company that provides legit study materials which they charge for, from ~$30-$65. I bought none of these and study naught. If I need to retake this test I will be bled for another $150+ and probably study materials. So I can prove to a state I don't live in that my knowledge of critical assessments (usually done by school psychologists --not me--) and historical knowledge of disability law suits will make me a great teacher. bleh.
posted by nancy at 1/07/2006 03:33:00 PM

yes girls
It did get sunny out, briefly, and now it is just cold and spritzy again (that is not quite a drizzle but still needing windshield wipers less than intermittent, got it?)

I added my lovely commenters, and again will make changes when motivation strikes me.
my biggest attitude improvement has come from the pseudo resolution to stop listening to the news so much during my commutes. It is just making me depressed with the state of the world and therefore grumpier at home. Add to that a new bottle of red wine and some sushi and I am a happy girl, and yay! tomorrow is Friday. That is all.
posted by nancy at 1/05/2006 07:34:00 PM

deleted
yeah um, so going into my crappy first week of 2006 I just deleted my whole blog. All the posts since August 2004. I think my writing sucks but this has become such a habit. I feel like I just burnt down my house and lost all the stuff that brings back memories. I guess I gotta go take some ginko biloba now and cry into my bagel with fancy avocado spread that I made for dinner.

to let it all out here are some other things I want to stop happening to make 2006 a better year.
1. slipping on the stairs
2. driving home in thunderstorms with a broken windshield wiper
3. all of my 6 year olds forgetting how to read and calling the letter C --e.
4. receiving whiney emails from professors that talk about the shortness of the quarter and require pre-term reading.
5. being locked out of home after a "Christmas Vacation" in the National Lampoon's context
6. rain (yes I know we need rain to grow things etc etc, but can it just quit it for this week)

please show me your support and I will eventually re link your websites when the sun comes back out
posted by nancy at 1/03/2006 07:42:00 PM

back

look my blog is back!

Yay!

thanks so much to Samantha at blogger support. She rocks my world.

I will try not to be so quick to click okay or so stupid in the future, but no promises.

goal

So I haven't posted for almost a month for no good reason other than I needed to fully apply myself to my procrastination and not writing my thesis wasn't enough, I needed to also ignore this space. My goal for the new year has nothing to do with fitness (though Michael had to forego his full gym routine this morning because so many people are making good on their fitness resolutions) or our wedding plans, moving plans, or thesis writing. I have decided that I need to bring back the chatty letter type emails that I remember from college (undergrad) now my email is something dreadful that contains, bills, junk, work schedules and the like. I think I am going to start writing some nice letter emails to friends in hopes of brightening up my own in box. Wish me luck. Write me back.