My Life Flows On In Endless Song...

So I used to use this font all the time.

But I just read a report saying how people think this is the most annoying font, and the inventor regrets making it.

So I don't know what to think about this!

I saw the movie "Watchmen" last night.

Worst.

Movie.

Ever.

Maybe part of it was I wasn't clear on the plotline for the first 1.5 hours of the stupid movie, maybe it's because the thing was about an hour too long. Maybe it was the glowing blue naked man that was extremely anatomically correct, if you get my drift.

Plus, a ton of completely unnecessary scenes involving all kinds of exciting plot lines. By exciting plot lines I mean excuses for guys to get their guts and gore fix. Do we need to see bullets cutting through legs?

Probably the most "tasteful" part was when they showed Kennedy being assassinated. Sigh. But seriously, I kept checking my watch during the whole thing, which only made me more sad. I also enjoyed that the plot was taking place in 1985 and they had this super obtrusive egg shaped spaceship that they flew around the city. No one ever noticed that it was there.

So, bad movie. Really, don't waste your time.

We are watching a show on History right now. It says the world will end on December 21, 2012. Well if this happens, then it's a good thing we're getting married in 2010. So yeah, we can still have some fun!

Here's the place that my mom has her eye on for the reception. I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty sweet. We were there for a bridal expo last weekend.

http://www.bauerscatering.com/uploads/Xa/Q_/XaQ_TOycqXjLg8qlOVF32w/thumb-Lehmann_Mansion_web.jpg

They have a tent too, because only so many people can fit in the actual house. This is a little bit of a better picture because you can see more.

http://www.lehmannmansion.com/uploads/O2/aR/O2aRtzGaHZgBzexcG2uTMg/Leh_Front_Exterior-1.jpg

And it looks like this inside:

http://www.bauerscatering.com/sandbox/lehmann-mansion-gallery-of-photos/10_21_06_tent1#ip_-qpHQ8iOfgyn_PTlXLQ

Will we have it here? Ummmm probably not, but there is always a chance. We really haven't gotten too far with the planning. Although we do know the date, and that's a very good thing!

So here's to 7/24/10! Woo!

Ugh election time is over. Thank God. Congrats to Obama and McCain for being class acts. I know this probably isn't true, but they seem like they're friends. Both genuinely nice guys.

However:

There is one thing I cannot stand, and that is all these "fair weather" Americans. You know those people. The ones who have their facebook status set to something like "Joe Schmoe is proud to be an American for the first time in 8 years"? Yeah, those people. Cuz I bet those people were really ashamed to be Americans after 9/11. When EVERYONE was hyperpatriotic. I mean seriously. Everyone knows that you didn't start being "ashamed" of being an American until it became trendy to hate bush back in about 2003. For God's sake, most of you were 15 or 14 when he was elected. You weren't paying attention to politics. You were worried about whether or not you were going to the Homecoming dance or not. Stupid people trying to be trendy.

I am, have been, and will continue to be a proud American regardless of who is in office. Honestly.

I don't like roundabouts, so I don't know why I named this entry after it. I don't have much to say, other than I haven't written for a while so I thought I should.

We decided...huh. Just got sidetracked and now I can't remember what we decided, or who we even is. Whatever.

I was in Madison last night for State St. Halloween. Waste o' money. 10$ to just walk on the freaking street. Yikes. And then the cab down there, 50 minutes outside in the cold. Eek. The highlight of the evening was meeting a guy dressed like the minister of the Ministry of Silly Walks. And he did a silly walk for me. Pictures to come later. Also we dressed up Sam as a Peruvian Flute Player. AMAZING idea. Thank you random Peruvian guy selling flutes in the mall.

Today was a wedding show. Sweet! Best cake of my life today. And pretty flowers. AND nice house! One of the places we might be having a reception at. We pretty much decided to that we are going to have a photobooth at the reception. Yessssssss. Fun.

Sorry. I apologize for this entry's lack of cohesiveness. Sort of.

School tomorrow. Bleck.

This weekend has been movie mania. I don't know how it all started, but KC and I will have seen 3 movies in 3 days at the end of today.

Thursday was House Bunny. Kind of dumb. But kind of funny in a stupid sort of way. Was it worth 9 dollars? Not quite, but whatevs. It was worth it to be two of the four people in the theatre.

Friday almost didn't happen, cuz I thought I was going to be at a work party longer. But the party turned out to be kind of lame. So I left early. Instead, we saw Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Great movie. We had the most animated audience too. Everything that happened, people oohed, aahed, the whole deal. I would highly recommend seeing this movie.

Tonight we shall see How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. Probably also a stupid movie, but who knows. It came down to this and Burn After Reading, and since we have mixed reviews about that one, we just decided that we'd see one we have heard nothing about. I'll keep you posted, don't worry :)

Straight from the mouth of a third grader...

...in response to what is a comedian?

"Well, there's two things. First is a person that tells jokes and second is a person from Canada."

Hm...confusing Canadian with Comedian by any chance?

I have officially decided that I have too much stuff. I don't even know where I got all this stuff. Seriously. I have 2 closets full of clothes that I have just never thrown away. Yikes. Anyone know where I can go to just donate tons and tons of stuff??? Aside from Goodwill obviously, I don't know if they want all my stuff.

My life feels only slightly out of control, but in a good way! I think :) I mean, I am glad to be busy but it feels crazy. In the last two weeks, I've gotten engaged, started teaching choir 2 days a week, gone to Champaign, Wrigley Field, and found out that I'm moving to Kenosha! So it's been all over the place. Really.

And of course, Madison this weekend, moving/looking at apartments, Minnesota, De Pere, DeKalb, and then finally a break! Like I said, all this is good stuff. But it just adds up and can be really overwhelming. And we're still trying to set a date for a wedding which is easier now since we know that Bob and I can actually live in the same place now! We're looking at July 24, 2010, but don't quote me on that. It depends on grad school. And of course where we have it. And how many people come. And all that jazz!

Time just flies. I can't believe it's going to be October in a week. Yikes.

I am sick of hearing about banking crisises. Do you know why there is a crisis? Because people are flipping the heck out. Unless you personally work for one of the companies that went under, you probably shouldn't be too worried. Things will get better. Peaks and valleys are part of the economy. The higher you are, the harder you fall, and we're falling right now. But you can't fall forever. Once you freak out, you pull your money out, the stocks lose more money and that will only make you freak out more. Don't do this to yourselves. Remember that they called Y2K a crisis too.

Have you noticed how nobody but the media ever uses the word crisis? Discuss.

So I was very spontaneous yesterday. I was about to go to the mall and be bored there, when all of the sudden I get a phone from Pui Yan! Random! She told me that she was right near my house with Angela and Cassandra, and did I want to head down to Chicago with them to meet up with Kate and go see a free opera concert in Millennium Park?

Of course! I had nothing else going on. So I raced to the station in Libertyville, but it turns out we missed that train by about 5 minutes, so we had to turn around and drive to Waukegan to catch that train...otherwise we'd have been sitting at Libertyville for 2 hours. So not yay. But we did make it to Waukegan :)

We had dinner at the Italian Village, it was awesome. We also got to take a tour of the stage/backstage area of Wicked at the Ford Oriental cuz Kate has connections since she works for the theaters! It was awesome to see all that stuff, and it was only a few hours before show time, so we got to walk across stage and see all the props and costumes...amazing.

The concert was equally amazing. They were so good, and it was the perfect night. Absolutely gorgeous. On the way back to Waukegan, there were some drunks on our train. Well, I suppose they weren't when they got on the train, but after polishing off an entire bottle of gin they certainly were! They were the entertainment of the ride back, for sure. But I was really glad I came, I guess that was the main point to this story. And now, now I have to start getting ready so that I can meet Bob and his family for lunch in Milwaukee!

Just got back from a really long dinner. 3 hours. I was really glad though, because I've had not too much to do since I've been home. I didn't realize how bored I was at home until I moved away from Madison, where I saw someone every single day. And this week my mom hasn't even been home, so I've been stretching for some contact with somebody! I can't watch TV from 4:30-10 every day :P

Anyway, I made my first kid cry today. But you know what, if you're old enough to talk back to a teacher, you're old enough to get talked to in harsh tones. That's probably the hardest part about teaching...realizing that yes, you can and have to be rude to students sometimes. If they're interrupting/mocking/not paying attention to you, they're being way more rude than you could ever be to them. That's actually something I learned from other teachers once I got to Fremont. When I was student teaching, my cooperating teacher was always telling me I was being too hard on the kids cuz they were just "little kids". She wasn't giving some of those kids enough credit...they know exactly what they are doing when they screw around in class. Oh well. The same class that the kid cried in though, I had a kid hug me too, so I'm not too mean :P

I'm watching a show about drugs on VH1. This is drugs in the 80's...apparently cocaine was the drug of choice? It's actually kind of interesting. They said cocaine was glamorous and then they show all these people dancing in 80's clubs and looking the antithesis of glamorous in the hideous clothes. Alright, I won't dictate the show to you. I promise :)

My new principal just might be crazy. She is convincing me more every day. More on this later.

What a surprise! I'm bored. Last week I was not bored because Bob was on first shift. This weekend I went home to celebrate Kim's birthday. Friday was a good time of bumming around, Saturday was dinner and Friday's (with an amazing raspberry/cherry magarita!), and Sunday we went to the Renaissance Faire in Kenosha, where Bob tried to talk to people in a British accent and almost wound up buying a kilt. It was a good time. And we ran into some SNC people so that was cool.

Otherwise, my family just wants to know what to get me for my birthday. My response so far is that I want nothing. Except a dog. Which no one will get me! (If I had a place to live though, I'd already have one) That's okay though. I forgive them :P This week though is going to be super cool cuz:

State Fair on Thursday!!! Opening Day! Flavored Milk goodness!
Corn Roast on Saturday! Hanging out in Waupaca and canoeing!

That's pretty much it. It doesn't take a lot to get me excited about the week I guess!

I never write in this. Except to complain. Probably because I only do this when I'm bored. I'm still bored. Not working is boring. I still have about 4 hours before I go to the Y this afternoon, and normally I'd just be getting up about now, but since Bob is working first shift this week, he woke me up at 6:30 (which I totally wouldn't mind if I had something to do, but I don't)

So instead I watched a show about biblical disasters on the History channel. I can't decide if it was better than the show I watched about crucifixition on that same channel a few weeks ago. It's a toss up.

I just realized now looking at the date that I am back to school in exactly a month. This is exciting. I think :) I am also starting to think about places where I can live that are closer to school but not too expensive...that's my project for the fall. I'd like to move sometime in October, but I don't know how realistic that is. Hm...I am looking here, I pass it every day on my way to work. It would cut off about 15 min. of travel time. I'm not sure though.

http://www.iglrealestate.com/royaloak/royaloaksales.php

If anyone else happens to know of a place where I can go that is somewhere in between Gurnee and Mundelein, let me know!

We are in the final stretch folks. I will have one full year of teaching under my belt in just 21 short days. This week has been rough so far, mostly because I had no voice yesterday, and only part of one today. Mix that in with students that have 100% checked themselves out for the summer, and you have a disaster on your hands. Well, not a disaster, but definitely not anything you'd call orderly.

Today, I kid you not, I had a 3 grade boy yell out in the middle of class, "My water broke!" And I said, "Marco, do you know what that means??" Just totally bizarre. He said he knew what it meant, that it was something you weren't supposed to say. I cleared up what it was for the class...so we could establish how odd it was that Marco was saying this.

Apparently we are starting a fifth grade choir next year. Oh sorry, not we. Me. I am. Supposedly. No one told ME about this. We talked about the possibility during my summative meeting in March, but I heard through the grapevine that it's full steam ahead. So I guess I need to start planning!

Enough of school...this weekend I am going to Key Lime Cove! That's our new ridiculous waterpark hotel that they decided to build in Northern Illinois. I am excited though. It will be a lot of fun. And next weekend, I have 4 parties to go to all on the same day! I'll let you know how that pans out. My bet is, I don't make it to all the parties :)

Aaaaand one more thing. I started doing this running program (Kathleen inspired me), and I am on week 3 right now, actually been keeping up! I did not think I was going to be able to do this, but I have so far, and I feel good afterwards! Although at the end of the 5th week I am supposed to run 20 minutes straight. Ha. We'll see about that.

7 weeks would be how many more weeks of school we have. Not that I am counting :) Seriously though, school is going well. Everyone is starting to catch a little bit of spring fever though, so I've had to be a little more cranky than usual, which is not all that fun (but it can be!). For those who haven't heard, my job went full time for next year which is AWESOME! We got our rough schedule for next year and even though I have double the classes, I still have plenty of plan time. I'm excited!

Also, after spending most of the winter being blah and a bum, I have now looked out at my schedule and realized that I am more or less booked or double booked for every weekend up until mid July (excluding 2 I think?) It's all fun stuff, grad parties, bridal showers, baby showers, etc. but I am overwhelmed with being this busy! I am glad though.

Last week I emailed the head of the AZD alum chapter in Madison to see if they could help me find a job for the summer. They got back to me, I got 2 emails...some tips, but what's more exciting is they are going to invite me to any events they have this summer! Plus one of the younger girls said she'd be planning some happy hours, so it's gonna be nice to meet some other girls! Otherwise...T Weekend is Saturday. Woot. More updates later :)

I have noticed today that everyone loves Shamrock Shakes. I put it up as my status on facebook, and instantly I had 3 messages about how everyone loves them :) So this post is dedicated to them.

This week has been pretty interesting. We had a dress rehearsal at school this morning for the dedication ceremony. My 5th graders did a pretty good job of singing, considering we never had all 3 of them in one place at the same time to practice! Conferences are tomorrow night and Friday morning, that should be fun. It actually should be, because we won't see any parents, because we don't give grades, so yeah...that means all the Specials in the Media Center having social hour!

Hmmmmm....I guess I really don't have a lot more to say. Sometimes I wish I had a more exciting life! Or at least I wish that other people worked the same hours as me. Oh well...I guess I really can't complain :)

Um...nothing really too exciting to say today. I have started my search for a choir that I can join...I want to be in my church's choir too, but I can't until I'm done with work on the weekends. Speaking of that job, my OFFICIAL last day is Feb. 24! I am excited for that.

I am also excited for Alexis' wedding! We are having her bridal shower the first weekend of March, and its' going to be amazing. A lot of fun!

School is going well too! As strange as it sounds, I have more of less a rough idea of what I'm going to teach for the next two months! It's crazy to think that...and when I get done with those two months we're going to be in the final stretch of school! I can't believe it. I'm also looking at going into grad school next fall. We'll see. I don't wanna take on too much at one time :)

And apparently I have to go vote tomorrow? I didn't know this until today. I'm a good informed citizen! And tomorrow is Mardi Gras (not like it matters, I have to work tomorrow night), and then the next day is Ash Wednesday (and I'll turn 6 month closer to 23...yech) and then a band concert on Thursday! Crazy to think, but I might actually be busy the next couple of nights! Woah! But for now, nothing more to say!

This is extra hard cuz I'm at work and I don't have my phone on me...we'll see what I remember. Okay, I re-edited it this time now that I have my phone on me! But I included my original answers too so we can compare.

( Phone thingy )