"THIS ONE GOES OUT TO THE ONE I LOVE"

Once upon a time, there was a girl who was out with her friends, and they drank far too much Sangria in one sitting than anyone should be allowed. The night led from one festive bar to the next, some with club atmospheres, some with natures of a dive. Some pictures were taken, some cabs were flagged, some streets were crossed. Of the three of us, none were all too sure as to how our evening led us to a bar where bras lined the ceiling, where an angry bartender was yelling into a megaphone, where the sole bathroom was disgusting, where the ATM was broken, where there was a lady on the counter of the bar, where we just didn't entirely belong. Either way, there we were, and we were thirsty.

Meanwhile, there was a boy in the city, too, and he was out with his friends. As the tale goes,T they were only supposed to go out for a few, then go back to a much-stereotyped state and relax. However, on their way to the train home, they too became thirsty, and tried to find some delicious ounces of beer (let's say 40... how classy). In their search, they became engaged in a Spanish conversation with a Mexican man, all leading towards the treasure they were supposed to find. Sadly, this conversation caused them to miss that last train home. Stranded, the boys went to a bar to meet a friend of a friend that could take them to an acquaintance's apartment, where they could spend the night. At this point, the boys had found their drinks, and when they reached the bar with the friend of a friend inside, the bouncer did not allow them in, due to their beverages, and the friend of a friend, with his ten friends, and the boy with his friends, travelled to the classy bar with the bras on the ceiling, the bartender with the megaphone, the disgusting bathroom, the broken ATM, and the lady on the bar. The boys soon realized their desired ride was not to be that night, so instead, being stranded in the city, they gravitated to the one place that might be able to comfort their worried minds - the bar.

At this point, the girl elbowed her way into the crowd surrounding the bar, managing to jab some tall guy in some sort of shirt that, as her memory failed her, was not the shirt she was sure he was wearing the next day. In turning to her, she most likely gave some sort of look, leaned near the tall boy, and stated with authority, "Move over, you're taking up too much room at the bar." This led to some sort of conversation or other, but later, the boy had to leave to help a friend. He slyly managed to get the girl's number, despite her being with all of his other friends, whose numbers were securely stored in his phone already...

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This was the beginning, and while it was quite the sketchy start, and while I would have never though it would become anything more than an epic evening (due to many events not mentioned here), I can safely say I am beyond happy, two years down the line. For all of the people I love in my life, I hope you can all find something like this at some point; it is better than anything I could have ever imagined.

Happy anniversary, and I can't wait to give you your present :)

"I'M NOT SLEEPING ANYMORE"

this will be disjointed.

my life is consumed with becoming a master of technology, which basically means i have let personal needs, including sleep and a regular eating pattern, has totally gone by the wayside. anyone who knows me knows how much i love to eat, and how much i love to talk about food, and how much i really savor the experience of tasting something delicious. apparently, when i work for hours on end, i apparently forget this love affair.

get this - was so busy last night that at 8 45 i realized i hadn't eaten anything since my half a sandwich and apple from the early afternoon. i took a break to make a quick box of mac and cheese (yes, i am totally re-immersing myself in the college experience, but alas, it was NOT easy mac). well, i forgot about it and overcooked the elbow macaroni (which is actually kind of good because i hate to chew - i know, you'd think it would be part of the full experience of eating, but i'm not a fan. except for gum. i liiiike chewing gum), so by the time i remembered all the noodles were stuck to the bottom of the pot. no big deal, just added hte cheese, put it in a bowl, ate a few bites, and kept working.

i've had some real weird sleep issues for some time now, in that i just can't get myself to do it sometimes. but this week has been ridiculous. i am averaging about 4 hrs a night despite trying to go to bed early. do you have any idea how frustrating it is lying in bed thinking "i can do this! all i need to do is shut my eyes and drift off..." when suddenly, my mind totally wanders to what book i read that was about that girl from africa with the family that... what the heck? it doesn't help that the super-drunk couple decided to blast "i'm the one who wants to be with you" and then sing it as loud as they could right outside my window at 1 am on a wednesday night. it's kind of like romeo and juliet, but without the balcony, love or mutual feelings. so maybe it's not like that example at all. jeeez.

i have never outputted this much work in five days ever. and i am so tired. eventually, i am bound to crash from this deprivation of basic needs.

despite this, the program's pretty amazing and the people are interesting. so that kind of makes it worth it... kind of.

BACK TO SCHOOL, RING THE BELL

As of next week, I am officially going back to school. It's kind of funny though; I remember my second semester of my senior year at Bucknell, school suddenly didn't feel like school anymore, in that it was surprisingly easy. Maybe it was because after student teaching, anything was easy in comparison, but it felt like I just knew how to "do" school. I also wonder if, now that I teach, going to school is actually a lot more exciting than it might have been had I chosen another career path. I know it's dorky, but I am really looking forward to learning. Plus, I've been doing a TON of workshops and read some really cool articles about the focus of my program, which is educational technology.

One of the main focuses of the sophomore research workshop is the necessity of teaching online reading, and how different it is from offline reading. One of the aspects the articles discussed was the need to teach how to use keywords to search for something, rather than just tell about the need to use key words. I still have trouble with that sometimes, but my kids immediately give up after about one try. It's definitely a teacher's blind spot, in that I never even thought to review this, and just kind of expected them to know, because that's what was expected of me.

Perhaps most importantly, they all discussed the need to communicate their findings with others through collaboration. Let's be honest - I know my kids all IM about the papers I assign them, and that they all have Facebook accounts; I do, too, and communication is a vital part of our everyday lives. So why don't we TEACH them how to communicate in a way that fosters their understanding using all of these technological tools that they are already using? I am super pumped to learn more about how to apply them in my classroom, which, hopefully, this program is going to help me figure out.

Speaking of Facebook, I opened up the Fort Knox-like security I had on my Facebook account to allow my friends who have always complained they can't friend me to give them access. It's reconnected me with a lot of old friends, but the other issue has become the recently-graduated seniors who are trying to friend me now. So far, I've kind of just ignored their requests, because I sure don't want them to see my page, but in some ways, I figure I could just do the limited profile thing and not worry about it. I mean, they're going to college now... I don't know, I guess I will keep ignoring them until I figure it out. Any suggestions as to what you'd do are welcome...

WHAT SIDE IS THIS ANYWAY?

Here are some things I REALLY like right now:

-Passion Pit - listen to them now. Start with "Moth's Wings"

-Summer BBQs (especially shrimp, which is unusual, because I dislike shrimp... or so I thought)

-Going to bed at a normal hour for someone my age (as in, no more 10 o'clock bedtime)

-Pineapple. Fresh.

-ICE CREAM. it's so good

-beach, but not the sand that gets all over my apt. afterwards. I tend to get covered in sand every time I go. I am still not sure how that happens. maybe i should label this sand&sun

-Hawaiian Tropic sunscreen. It's my summer smell (I can't get rid of it. and I kind of like that)

-impromptu car dance parties. even when it's just me and i'm sitting in traffic. you know you wanna join in.

-The Working Title - "Wolf." Not enough people know about this band. Get to know them.

-tennis. man, i've missed this sport. let's not break up again, okay?

-reading for pleasure. entirely different than my job. but i'm in between books, and that's sort of uncomfortable. so for now, i'm catching up on my Rolling Stone.

-BEER - Sam Summer Ale and Blue Moon, you are so delicious.

note to self - I CANNOT HANG ON TO THE LAST SUMMER ALE OF THE SEASON LIKE I DID THIS YEAR. keep in mind how nasty it was when I opened it in March.

-Wine. I think I am on the verge of becoming a wino. and that's when i grab a beer to avoid the classification.

-nights spent with friends. seriously, i've missed you guys.

-laid back romance (tennis, park, beach, baseball and beer)

-cotton summer dresses. i hate wearing pants when it's warm, and shorts are just not all that cool. and i'm too short for capris to look like capris; instead, they look like awkward pants. also known as capris?

"UPON US ALL A LITTLE RAIN MUST FALL"

...but this is getting ridiculous. When will all this rain stop to finally reveal some sunshine? I am a sun worshipper, in that if the sun is out in summer, I am never out of my bathing suit or inside my apartment, but this weather is really interfering with my main summer plan - going to the beach.

One of the many other summer initiatives is to get back in shape. Every year I feel like I get so caught up doing other things that the first activity to go by the wayside is working out. Part of the reason is that my couch seems so much more inviting than some machine designed to make me feel like I can't breathe. The other reason is that the effect of exercise isn't immediate. I go through week spurts of being pro-fitness, but I get bored easily, so my current goal is to ignore the boredom and just force myself to do something other than lounge. Man, I'm making this image of myself as a total sloth - that is not entirely true.

Lately, I've been going on runs and long walks, and today, I even went to the little gym. Luckily, the barking man wasn't there... more on that some other time, but it's another reason I decidedly stopped going to the gym. Just when I was ready to give up today, tired of staring at the only thing that gym allows me to stare back at due to its clown-like mirrors, suddenly the song of inspiration appeared from the shuffle setting on my i-pod: "Boogie on, Reggae Woman." I don't know why that song provided what I needed to finish out those last fifteen minutes (although it is a GREAT song), but somehow it did, and I left smiling. VERY unusual for me. If it isn't for the scenery or for some random song that inspires me to keep going, I think I would have stopped after the first day. This is a picture I took yesterday from my walk - I liked the contradiction of steel and natural beauty here.

Well, it's the second week, and I am still seemingly going strong. Let's hope this keeps up. For now, it's time to get back to the couch :)

"SUMMER BREEZE"

As a teacher, I really think I look forward to summer vacation more than most of the kids. Think about this: there are four quarters in the year, where I gave at least two papers that went through the revision process in each of my four classes. Add about 1-3 portfolios per year, plus the shorter writing assignments. Don’t forget about the number of students in each class - 17, 26, 27, 25. I think you can imagine why I’ve been counting down to summer break since April.

It is day one of my summer vacation, which is always a little bit intimidating for me. I have so much I want to do, but at the same time, I want to enjoy doing nothing for this brief moment in time as well. It’s a very weird paradox, and I am never quite sure how to balance it. I’m still trying to figure out how to plan the perfect day one after its un-perfect start...

I had a grand plan of sleeping in this morning after quite a fun afternoon and evening the day before, with my waking up to something other than my blaringly obnoxious alarm clock for the first time in as long as I can remember. Instead, the clamor of construction, mixed with the ridiculously loud mariachas of Spanish music filtered through the air shaft at 7 a.m. There has been construction directly underneath my apartment for the past three months, and they’ve been breaking all the rules of normal decency (don’t even get me started about how they were here banging around until 11 last night, keeping in time with my pounding headache). My entire apartment complex continually complains to our leasing agent, but to no avail. I had no idea it took this long to make a tiny bank in a strip that already houses five banks...

Either way, after a few hours of lounging, it’s time to start my day with something active. Hope your day is pleasant, even if you may not have a summer break!