Why hello there! (and some shout-outs)

I bet some of you thought I had gone off the grid. Well, I kind of had. My two weeks or so since Fall Break have been epically crazy, both for good reasons and bad reasons. Some of the bad reasons:

-dealing with a massive plagiarism case. Most people that I talk to no a regular basis know what's up. But it's been a pain in my butt. I just handed over a 15 page packet of information to Mark yesterday. So now it's out of my hands. Plagiarism isn't as fun when you're not on Judicial Committee

-sicky, sicky- been in bed for the last few days (or at least dreaming about it). I even made a 12:30 am sojourn to Walmart in my orange Albertson sweatshirt, black cropped pants, black socks with pink hearts and black flats to buy Nyquil and Dayquil. Which didn't work. And I saw parents at Walmart with their little kids. I judged them harshly.

-students are sicky sicky- which means they don't come to class. Which means they have to come by later to make up their work. Or they don't and then they complain about their grade. Anyway, it's a lot hard to keep up with your grading when you never know what's going ot show up on your desk.

-busy schedule. For example, last week, I was out every single night. They were all good things but the driving back and forth in the cold and going to bed late and waking up early has made me a very cranky lady.

-my fight with the razor is only just healing. I have been having to wear flats all week and haven't been able to really work out which is probably why I'm sick. Cold feet usually leads to a bad cold with me.

- locking my keys in my car. This was kinda funny though. I was at the Henberg's Happy Hour and luckily Campus Safety was there. But those officers (Allan and Ben) were off-duty. They joked about getting me a hammer. But then they called Kristina and she got me out in no time. Thanks CS- you're the best!

But there has been some great stuff going on too. And sometimes it's the little things that really are what make me the happiest.

-my soon to be epic scar. Excuse my gross legs. As I mentioned earlier, I'm staying far far away from razors. The top half as almost healed, the bottom half is getting there. AND I can wear boots again. Hallejulah because it legitly snowed today. While driving too and from church. Fantastic.

-my Junior High Connections kids- we had a blast at the bonfire and guess who led worship? Lil old me! Crazy! Even after not touching my guitar in a month (and only really practicing a month before that!). We had such a good time, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, drinking cocoa, singing, laughing, having a good talk. Love these kids! Especially Miss Shelby.


-Having M3 time with a little Sherman time thrown in. And of course, having the greatest dinner at Mongo and then drinks at the HaPenny with Yosh and Michael. With the creation the Triangle of Trust club. Nothing better than hanging out with the guys. I've missed that so much! Here's to epic crapfest movie marathon on Tuesday with Michael. It really don't get any better than that!
-Night out with the girls. Which involved trying to avoid two creepers on the dance floor at Tom Grainey's (sorry Kris!), seeing Charlie Conway (from Mighty Ducks! No way!), telling a guy at Mack and Charlie's that we were all sad because we had just come from a funeral, saying goodbye to Kristen (that was not fun :( ), having a great dinner at the HaPenny with Miss Ariel Foster, such a great time!

-spending the weekend with Bailie. We watched Supernatural in the media room on the bestest couch in the whole wide world, made pizza, sang Carol of the Bells, went downtown with Jess and spent an hour at the Record Exchange trying on hats (Bay bought her monster hat!), DDR, DJ Hero, etc. She is one crazy kid.


-shout out to Candice Malandice! I finally caught up with the Mentalist so my Netflix queue is now indie movies and things I've been wanting to see for a long time. Like the Prison Break: The Final Break movie. It was nice to watch Michael and Sucre and Linc and T-bag again. Brought back happy memories. And of course, I couldn't help saying "It's the guy from the West Wing!" a la Abba when Mahone came on the screen.

-this one is totally superficial but I am so so so so so so so so so (etc.) happy that my bangs are long enough to tuck behind my ears. We are one step closer to uniform hair length! Huzzah!

-libraries- I've been getting some cool books at the library, starting with the Quiet American by Graham Greene for Alumni Book Club. I got an Anastasia book (or two) for help with my critical thinking lesson and have been rereading those as well as a new E.L. Konigsburg book I had never read before. She's awesome. I also got a Groupon coupon for $10 worth of books for $5. I know that's like one book but who cares? I do not. In other good news, Jasper Fforde has a new books (shout-out Beth!) and Laurie's coming out with two Sherlock-y books in 2011. Again, huzzah!

-cool music opportunities- This Wednesday night I"m singing at St. John's Cathedral in Boise for their Ecumenical service. I have no clue what that means, I haven't gotten the music yet but I have been assured that I shall be fine. I'm very excited. Then the following weekend, I have my Meridian Symph concert on Saturday which I'm excited about (minus Sleigh Ride- shoot me in the face) and then on Sunday I'm playing with Mick and Marcy and Matt (and I"m Michal, I just noticed that!) for a concert to benefit Kyli Stark and her YWAM school program. I'm cello-ing it and singing and super excited!

-i-chatting with 3/5s of my family (Youval was in a final and Abba was at work). And I promise I didn't mean it when I said "Let's delete Mom" and Shiri, your i-chat sucks more than the rest of us. True story.

So that's a mad jumble of my life right now! Also in the throes of getting together letter of recommendation packets, applying for sub positions, applying to BSU, grading, grading, grading, thinking of new travel plans for next winter, spring and summer that won't cost too much (anyone want to come to Vancouver with me? and shout-out to Rochelle and Andrea as possible Philly/NYC hosts? and of course ORKNEY for this summer), and wrapping up the end of the year (calendar, that is). I promise it won't be this long before my next update. I'm sure there will be a bad movie review on Wednesday (as in the movie will be bad, not the review).

Cheers!

CDs and Personality

I bought these five CDs (for a grand total of $25) today at The Record Exchange. What do you think this says about my personality. And.... discuss.

History of Britain

I have been a huge Simon Schama fan for quite some time. The first time I ever watched his History of Britain DVDs were the summer of my masters thesis. I had plenty of free time on my hand and Steve was kind enough to burn me copies of the five discs. Yes, History of Britain is fifteen hours long. Nerdy, I know, but I get jittery with excitement. The first time I watched these, I was pretty naive. I had been to London and the only places I had ventured out to were Liverpool, Edinburgh, Bath and Stonehenge. Not a huge list of places visited at all. There was certainly a way long list of places I wanted to go. I took notes, jotted down ideas, made a futile plan for over reaching trips and dreamed big.

Fast forward three years and a few months. I have a meeting (hopefully- still needs to be confirmed) on Friday with the grad school supervision at BSU and so have been thinking about narrowing down what I want to study. It's not urgent but I want to start thinking about it at least. I know I want it to be on English history, of course, but not sure what part or era. So I figured, why not watch some History of Britain and maybe a spark will fly. My problem is that I'm easily influenced. If I watch a section about the Battle of Hastings, I'll want to resaerch that. The next day, if I watch the section about the age of British Empire, I'll want to study that! So easily influenced! This might take me awhile.

However, what has hit me the most while rewatching History of Britain is how much larger my list of where I've been is. I'm only a few segments in but I can already count on both hands the places Simon talks about that I've been to. I've seen the Roman town in Dover; I've been to Stonehenge and Old Sarum; I saw the Alfred Jewel at the Ashmolean; I've visited the York Minster where Harold Hadrada is buried and the Durham Cathedral where the Venerable Bede is laid to rest; I've visited Westminster Abbey where Edward the Confessor ruled; I've smelled the pungent odor of the bath waters in Bath; I tramped through the Salisbury Plains and the Thames Valley. The shots of Britain and the explanations of certain areas are so much more real to me now that I've been there and I've seen these places with my own two eyes. And at the same time, the list of places I want to go visit has gotten even longer. I know it will probably take a lifetime to see all of these things but I can at least take it step by step. My top five choices?


5. Hastings- where William the Conqueror defeated all opponents to become King of England.

4. Bayeux Tapestry- this won't be too difficult because if I'm not mistaken, it's in Reading. Every train into London from Ox practically stops in Reading.

3. The turf maze at Saffron Walden- there is absolutely nothing historical about this but it is the largest man-made maze in England. Weird England told me to do it. And Weird England may be tied with History of Britain as my guide of England. Don't judge.

2. Nottingham- both for the forest and for the incredibly cool looking prison where the supposed "Robin Hood" was once held. And this is checked off too because Katie lives here- can just go visit her. Although I think her wedding is in Gloucestershire.... have to work on this :)


1. Orkney- I want to see Skara Brae and the Stones of Steness and all other stone structures described described in Language of Bees. It'll be a pain to get too but I know that once there, it will be totally worth it.






Who's with me!?

Midterms

My kids had three pretty simple essays to write for their midterms. They had over two weeks to write these essays, which is plenty of time to go through the entire necessary writing process. Nearly all of them failed to do so. Let's just say that it was a pretty interesting fall break grading some of these essays. Now the kids are complaining about how much work they have this week since they are editing, rewriting, analyzing, etc. their essays. My one response is "well, maybe if you had spent more time on your essays, we wouldn't have to do all this catch-up work". They are not happy. But I was even unhappier as I was grading these. Danielle and Ricky can concur.

I compiled for the kids a list of at least one quote from each essay that had some clear issues. I have tried several times to post all of these for you to see but the formatting was all wonky (someone you may have gotten an email with this poor format- ignore). So I picked my favorites and put them in here for you. I promise that I did not make any of these up, nor did I add or take away anything from these. Please enjoy. And think of me sitting on a plane, reading these, and trying not to cry.

-For example, your hart is sprinting during the day- it's going 100%. In some people, though, their hart never gets a rest and their blood pressure never goes down. This is caws damage to their hart and kidney, do to the non-stop pressure.

-Some people may think that sleep is not very important and that it can be replaced by certain products that can keep us awake however some studies have been performed to show how sleep is important in our lives and what effects may happen when we don't get a good night's rest.

-For example, you might want to use something like this: Orange=World History, Green=Math, Red=Biology... etc. T His is just an example; you might have different colors in mind to use to help you remember.

-The challenges that Sampson would have to face in college were challenging to say the least.

- His parents are dentist and psychologist.

-You spend about one third of our lives sleeping.

- I really like the part about how many people may feel that they only need six hours of sleep but in reality they are just trying to be cool.

-All the political defeats women, African-Americans, homosexuals and all the others accomplished is amazing.

-First and foremost this method was created (or more likely re-written and fine tuned) by Dr. Bob Kizlik in 1997, funny name I know, and the site I found it on is adprima.com, I don't know if you have ever heard of Dr. Kizlik or the website but it seems to be legit to me.

-A person needs a minimum of at least eight hours. Yes, eight hours!

-This is not to say that some interruptions don't need to be dealt with immediately, some do and that's OK.

Also, an additional reward of grading midterms: Megan and Youval both helped me investigate a student who had plagiarized his paper. And not just failed to cite sources but blatant copy and paste from a website. So that's fun.

Cheers and Jeers

Cheers: NOT getting a job I applied for. I know this sounds weird so let me explain. I originally thought when I moved that it would be a good idea to get a part-time job at a coffee house or something. A few weeks ago, a position opened up at Jolts and Juice, the coffee house where I hang out after church on Sundays because of the atmosphere and also because it’s got free Internet. I applied and last week went in for an interview. It went really well but at the same time, once I left the interview, I started to get apprehensive. They were looking for someone to work 35 hours a week which is a lot for someone who is just looking for a part-time job. They also were pretty serious about having someone work during the summer. That would mean that I wouldn’t get to come home to possibly do Sonrise Island, Arts X-press, go to England for Katie’s wedding, etc. I wasn’t too keen on that either. I eventually I called them back and told them about the summer issue as well as the fact that I was looking for less hours. The manager said she’s talk to the owner and call me back. The next two days I was definitely nervous- I honestly didn’t want the job anymore because it would keep me from getting sub jobs and staying in the education field. I finally got the call on Sunday night saying that they were really looking for someone who could be more committed and they'd be looking for something else. I was incredibly relieved.

Cheers: Not only does it look like I’ll be back as the study skills teacher next year but because one of the Education professors is going on sabbatical, it looks like I will be teaching the Introduction to Teaching class in both the fall and the spring! I may have up to 15 credits in the fall semester and maybe another study skills class in the spring as well (I’m already talking to Mark right now about a study skills class this spring). So that’s a major, major cheer!

Jeer: I go swimming in the school pool three days a week and I love it. Usually I listen to the Reduced Shakespeare Company but recently I’ve been reliving the World Cup by listening to Baddiel and Skinner’s 2010 World Cup podcast. This morning, I worked out first and then headed over to the pool. After my swim, I went to go take a shower. Clearly, my razor was way too old because as I was shaving, I took a chunk off of both of my ankles (both, you say? Yes, because I am the example of stupidity and thought that it wouldn’t happen the second time). When I say chunks, by the way, I mean chunks. There was skin in the razor blade. It was disgusting. If you’re squeamish, you probably should have already stopped reading. I’m literally bleeding all over the locker room shower. Thanks goodness I was the only one in there and I could wash all the blood down the drain. However, I had no first aid kit with me. How did I end up staunching the bleeding? I used toilet paper on my left ankle and ended up taking a pad that was in my swim bag and using that to wrap about my right ankle. Pads are supposed to soak up blood, right? This was just a different type of blood. I hobbled back to the office wearing my boots- clearly I picked the wrong footwear for the day- and got the nurse to patch me up. I now have two huge bandages/bandaids on each of my ankles. The whole situation would be kind of funny if my ankles didn’t hurt so much! I don’t know what to jeer right now but the overall situation is definitely a jeer.

Cheer: I was eating carrots and I found a yellow one. Weird :)
Jeer: I did something to my wrist- so the nurse saw me a second time (well, actually it was the first time- the ankle situation as the second time) in a week and wrapped me up nice. Add to that some ibuprofen and I was better in a few days. I told my students that I punched somebody out. A few believed me. Dear sweet morons.

A glimpse of a life

I was looking back over my facebook quotes page a few days ago, not for any reason, just before. I don't think I've updated the quotes since 2007 and I realized that this gives me a pretty good snippet of my life, the people I talked to, those who I thought were funny, etc. at that moment in my life and the years preceding it. These probably will not make any sense to most people but some select few may enjoy scanning through and seeing if their quote made the cut. I know that they still personally make me grin, years later.

	----------------------------------------------------------- Just another cello-playing Mossad agent... ...with a passion for Liverpool Football Club, Newcastle United and the England National Team JFT96 RIP YNWA We won it five times..... I want a pet Stegasoraus- don't laugh, it's true. I MET MICHAEL OWEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
	Jon Stewart: The show that leads into mine is puppets making crank-calls! Love LFC with all your Heart, Mind, Soul and Body; that makes you a true fan. Mariah: I am starting to believe that the History professors have you locked up somewhere and are forcing you to do nothing but grade papers, except for occasional outings to the Goose. ... Me: let's just say i've gone through some dramatic changes since you left Shiri: oh...really Me: oh yes, very dramatic Shiri: care to elaborate? Me: well, i have cornrows, i'm black and my name is laquisha Shiri: I KNEW IT! Chelsea is the most despicable, ungracious, arrogant, cheating, dirty, disdainful, horrible horrible team there has ever been. Danielle: I would love it if my teacher were not a sexist, alcoholic, insenstive, extremely politically incorrect to no end atheist who cheated on his wife with women in Egypt while doing his fieldwork. Gary Lineker: Football is simple. For 90 minutes 22 men go running after the ball and at the end the Germans win. Baddiel & Skinner: Even though she's gotten fat and really trailer trash, I still hold a candle to Britney Spears over Cristina Aguilera. Those caught making comments such as "Isn't it ironic that someone that tall is named Crouch?" should be shot. Mindy: I want go to on a ROAD trip, not a GUILT trip! Sonya: Who needs friends when you have a fetal pig? Megan: I was afraid your boobs would overtake you, but they didn't, which is good. Shiri: I'm a this nerdy science awards dinner thing and there's a Mexican buffet for dinner. The dessert is FLAN!! I laughed. And didn't eat it. Mark Z. Danielewski: Because without him, I was only revolutions of ruins. Simon Schama: Queen Sugar is a real bitch. Megan: Well, the 'rents are home and I should go dislodge the headphones from my child's throat. Sonya: I got bored hanging out in my tv-less apartment so I flew to Irvine. Mom: It's not reality dating games or shows about fashion or cooking or modeling or surviving or choosing suitcases. Me: Suitcases? Mom: Deal or No Deal. Me: Oh. Tim: Don't ever say you miss the cold. What is wrong with you? Megan: Sorry, I was just waiting for the part of the story where he said he loves you... Yosh: I don't know how you teachers do it...getting to know 50+ different kids at a time...maybe you'll inspire like 5 of them to go on and do great things...and then they'll make a tnt movie about you... Shiri: Tomorrow night. Dean dies. Stoked. Hadasi: Love-kisses-hugs-drugs- rock n' roll. Megan: Seriously Michal, I'm beginning to think you have masochistic tendancies... ;-) Your country needs you. Help your economy and spend your government stimulus by buying soccer gear at foxsoccershop.com. -tag at the bottom of the screen on FSC Goddammit....if we cant get internet right how the hell are we gonna conquer the universe Michal....HOW? -James I can’t remember the freaking details of the goddamn story. –Ali I'll keep my fingers crossed because I don't pray. -Mark

Last few days of Vacay :)

My last day in Chicago was pretty chill- in the morning/afternoon I spent time at the warehouse next to Soul City helping Kurt and Katie set up for Fallapalooza. There was a lot of lifting, moving, pumpkins, tables, corn stalkers and decorating. They definitely did the brutn of the work though- when I came back from the architecture tour, the place had been transformed! They did such an amazing job! The event was a blast- I was monitoring the Troll Toss- kids threw beanbags and tried to knock down troll dolls. They were super creepy. There were some really fun kids there and some adorable ones in their costumes. Such a late night though :) In between I went on the Chicago Rover Architecture tour- the tour guide was a chatty lady and my one complaint was that it went by too fast- I wish the boat had gone a little slower and we could have had more time to hear about each building.

Early on Saturday morning, Kurt and Katie took me to the train station and I hopped on my bus up to Milwaukee. I got to see some of the sunrise and catch up on TV- how far we've gone that there is now wireless on buses. Crazy! Milwaukee was much nicer than I thought it would be. I didn't do too much, just wandered around. I crossed the river, pass through the Milwaukee Public Market and then headed down to the Michigan Lakefront.

The Art Museum has this cool architectural design where these "Angel" wings open up at 10:00 am. I was down at the Abraham Lincoln sculpture at the War Veterans Memorial to watch them over up. There was also some sort of race going on- people were running down to the Lake Front, some in costume.


The rest of the day was just wandering around- there were a ton of churches that I walked by, all of different denominations. My favorite was the one with the red doors.





I stopped back off at the Public Market in the afternoon to get some mozarella sticks (yummmmm) and some lunch/dinner for later since I wasn't planning on eating in the airport or buying something from off the plane. I loved the little stores in the market and the fact that it's inside means that it is year-round.
I finished off my afternoon on the campus of Marquette University. There was a small chapel called the St. Joan of Arc Chapel that had been moved from France to Long Island to Marquette. Then I headed over to the Haggerty Musuem where there were some incredible stained glass windows, a cool photographic history of the Black Panthers and of course, some Hogarth's! I can never resist taking a picture of Hogarth's work. I just love him!



The Milwaukee airport had a little flight exhibit and so I popped in to take a look. Some cool stuff there, including a ton of model airplanes and information about some famous local pilots like Billy Mitchell, Lance Sijan and James Lovell.


I got back to Boise around midnight, was at Brooke's picking up my car at 12:20 and was home by 1:00 am. However, because I can't leave anything, I put in my laundry and unpacked and showered so I got to bed around 2:15 am. Needless to say, Sunday was spent mostly napping. Thank goodness for that one day of turnaround because I'm now back to the grind at work!