unsubdued elations

jamie07lee @ 2007-11-22T22:33:00

2007-11-23T04:34:01Z

it is really good to come home now and then.

and i love the holidays.

:)

ANDY EYES OFF

2007-08-21T19:08:33Z

http://morilee.com/DressDetail.aspx?C=1&D=2133&P=1

this is long overdue. but here is my gorgeous wedding dress :)
and that model does it no justice because she has zero curves.

jamie07lee @ 2007-07-02T20:00:00

2007-07-03T01:28:26Z

a brief summary of the summer thus far:

+ jenna came a few weekends ago and stayed with me. i wined and dined her, and by that i mean that we went to the movies, the drive-in, the pool, the zoo, and mass at the church where andy and i will get married. :) we had a good time together.
+ i still love my job.
+ i love andy. :)
+ almost every weekend is busy, but i can't say i mind any of it.
+ i have re-discovered fairview pool and i love it. it makes me feel like a kid again.
+ last week i took two days off work and went on a trip with my family sunday-tuesday. we went to the anthony acres resort on lake sara in effingham. it's a really pretty lake with cabins and such. i got a sunburn and spent lots of quality time with the fam.
+ saturday i went to shannon's bridal shower in joliet and had a good time with andy's family.
+ ben and shannon are getting married on august fourth and i am excited about this for many reasons. 1) i like them, 2) i get to wear my graduation dress again, 3) i (hopefully) get to see andy trashed, something that has never happened since i met him (not that i am complaining), 4) this will be the first wedding i've attended that i'll really be conscious of the details, so i can adjust my own planning if need be.
+ last week (when i got home from lake sara) i started eating really healthy again. just one week has made a drastic difference in my self-esteem. i havent been exercising as religiously as i did during the school year, but i also have a much less sedentary lifestyle, thanks to work. i'm feeling good.
+ last night i drove home for a cookout to see my aunt/cousin who live in mississippi.
+ this saturday is my 21st birthday. i am going to spend the day with my mom, dad, and jen going to potential reception facilities and bakeries, and perhaps try on a wedding gown or two!! :) then andy will get back in town from the wedding he has to attend that day and we'll go out for a late dinner followed by a few (legal) drinks.
+ this sunday we are going to drive (back) up to joliet, catch the metra, and spend the day at the taste of chicago. i haven't been to the city since august so that will be pretty fun. :)
+ i have somehow managed a sweet tan despite working all day five days a week.

and...thats life right now :)

recent life

2007-06-12T01:48:09Z

i realize my updates are sporadic at best, but surely no one is heartbroken over this.

summer so far is grand. last weekend andy and i got engagement pictures taken and went to the zoo. we also had a double date with his parents; his mom and i went to see "knocked up" and it was really hilarious!! i would suggest it, but probably not a great movie to see with your future mother in law since it's totally saturated with sex.

this weekend i spent a lot of time with andy and emily. saturday the three of us went to the pool, it was beautiful and REALLY fun! i felt like a kid going down the water slides. we had so much fun that em and i went back yesterday, even though it wasnt as warm. then we went out to eat for emily's bday, and i got to see her mom and her sister's family. it was a very good time :)

this weekend my sister is coming up, that should also be a really good time. i hope to go back to the zoo and / or the pool and to gibson city's drive in.

on my 21st bday (7 7 07), i am going wedding dress shopping with my mom!!!!! :)

wedding things :)

2007-06-06T00:52:27Z

if anyone is interested, i have made some progress on the wedding plans!!

most importantly, we have picked a church, which means that we have also picked a day and a time! well we be married at holy trinity catholic church on august 2nd 2008 at 2 pm. i am very excited about this decision because it means the man conducting the ceremony will be the priest from my childhood. he knows my whole danville family and all my catholic friends, including my maid of honor and both bridesmaids. :) it will mean a lot to me to have him there that day. i also contacted mark lindvahl, my band director from high school, and he'll be playing the trumpet during the ceremony. :) also, the wedding colors will be red black and white.

my main goal for the summer is to have the reception hall reserved by this coming august 2nd - the one year away mark. i also hope to at least go dress shopping this summer, weather or not i buy one. i have been spending way too much time on theknot.com :)

other non-wedding-related summer goals: get some exercise, relax, have some fun weekends, turn 21, go to springfield for a day to see the lincoln library, have jenna come spend a weekend, keep my apartment clean, order and watch as many seasons of scrubs as possible with our new netflix subscription, and generally be happy. :)

a new place

2007-05-15T12:59:51Z

well, i moved into my new apartment! i love love love it. i have a big bed and my bedroom is so much bigger than at my old place. we have a nice big kitchen. i think my favorite part is that there's a vanity with a sink, huge mirror, and big cabinet in each bedroom so sarah and i don't have to do the beautifying process in the bathroom we share. i like it here, it's in a residential neighborhood so that hopefully when the kids all move back in it still will be pretty quiet. my parents and i spent a lot of time yesterday getting everything set up :)

today i start the full-time work day!

endings -> beginnings

2007-05-13T03:46:00Z

i graduated!

everything went really well. my parents, sister, and both sets of grandparents came into town. andy's parents, sister, niece and nephew came, and both of our families met. i was a little nervous but i think everything went really well.

the ceremony was very long and tedious, and the place they had us all corralled up for the processional was SO HOT! it ruined my hair so i was really glad we took pictures before hand. this link should work: http://ilstu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2126141&l=84688&id=22901133

today we moved me out of my locust apartment and monday i move into college park.

next weekend: engagement pictures! and a graduation party with andy's family.

life is so good right now. i can't even tell you.

jamie07lee @ 2007-05-08T07:38:00

2007-05-08T12:41:57Z

i graduate friday at 7 pm.

im very excited about this, but its also a little bittersweet. i have only just begun to realize how much i have learned in my three years here. i have really been through a lot, and i'm pretty satisfied with the end product. :)

eventually i hope to go back and get my masters in....something...but i have other priorities first, like getting married to the love of my life. :)

so thanks to everyone who played a part in this six-semester production we call my undergraduate degree.

oh ps, not to brag, but i'm pretty sure i'm graduating magna cum laude. there's a small chance it could be summa cum laude, but i'm not placing any bets on that one. but i'm pretty proud of myself :)

jamie07lee @ 2007-04-22T16:44:00

2007-04-22T21:45:45Z

guess who's engaged?!?!!?!

me!

i'm sure everyone knows from facebook already, but i wanted to have a chance to write an update that would do the night justice ;)

monday night was jenna's 16th birthday, so andy and i met my parents in champaign to have dinner. jenna and i strategically left the three of them alone for a while so andy could talk to my parents and get their official approval to ask me to marry him. he said it went well, so i was expecting a proposal sometime before graduation (which, by the way, is in 19 days...!).

wednesday night i was supposed to help andy proofread the content for the webpage he needs to make for his technical writing class. he told me we had to do it on the computers in his tech writing class because they're the only ones that have dreamweaver or something. so i was originally going to meet him at stevenson after i got off work at 5:30, but he called me and said there was a class in the room till 8:30 so we'd have to wait.

so i do my usual thing: get some homework done, go to the rec, then go meet him at 8:30. of course im not at ALL expecting a proposal so i'm wearing pajama pants and i came almost straight from the rec. it was dark so i didnt notice that he was wearing a button down shirt, but i noticed he smelled like cologne! yum. i couldnt understand why he told me not to put more than 15 minutes on the meter....hahaha.

so we get in stevenson and i say, "its on the fourth floor right?" and he says no its on the third floor, which i thought was weird because i was positive his tech writing class was on the fourth. so we climb up to the third floor, me still not suspecting a thing and me still not noticing he was dressed up. (duh)

so he turns to go into the class room we had our semantics class in, where we first met. i didnt know why we were going in there, i thought he just wanted to make a joke about that class or something. then i noticed that he was dressed up and his face was really serious and i put my hand on his chest and his heart was beating really fast and i said "what is wrong?!" and then he proposed and gave me a BEAUTIFUL rign and i said yes and i spent all night calling my friends and family :)

it's wonderful!

i'll update you more when i have more info about the wedding :)

hectic

2007-04-16T00:53:38Z

i am starting my job at the childrens foundation tomorrow! this is the only week that it will overlap with brigham, and that is causing some craziness. once i graduate i want to look at this schedule and feel relieved that i never have to deal with this running around again.

monday:
work 7:30-10:30
work 11-1
class 2-3:15
work 3:30-5:30
hop in the car and drive to champaign to meet the fam for a birthday dinner for jenna!

tuesday:
work 7:30-10:30
class 11-3:15
library 5:30-6:30

wednesday
work 7:30-10:30
work 11-1
class 2-3:15
work 3:30-5:30

thursday
work 7:30-10:30
class 11-3:15
work 3:30-5:30
library 6:30-7:30

friday
work 9-11
work 11-1
work 1-5:30

that amounts to 30.5 hours of working this week!
in addition to that, i have the following left to do school-wise in the next four weeks:
take a children's lit exam, read the time warp trio, read winnie the pooh, read ramona the brave, write a philosophy paper, take a philosophy final, write a prose paper, write a prose final, write a final paper for senior seminar, put together portfolio for senior seminar, take two online quizzes, and take two online exams.

but despite it all, i'm excited :)

jamie07lee @ 2007-04-04T09:06:00

2007-04-04T14:09:07Z

today a fifth grader quizzed me in plant science and human science, and i truly am not smarter than a fifth grader. i still remember the fifty nifty united states in alphabetical order and i remember the tune, but i dont know nearly as many capitols as i should. i only know about half.

seriously, the stuff kids learn in fourth and fifth grade is no joke. i was looking at a fifth grade history book one day and it had almost everything that was on the US history AP exam.

also, this happened:
"another word for mucus is filgum"
"you mean phlegm? p-h-l-e-g-m?"
"yeah whatever something like that i dont know"

hahahahaha

wrapping up

2007-04-03T21:04:29Z

money is flying out of my bank account faster than i can give it the proper goodbyes. i've spent so much on various things: graduation dress, graduation announcement, cap and gown, clothes that i probably didnt really need but will were on sale make me feel happy when summer finally comes and stays, but my mom has been helping me with the grad stuff so that's really nice and generous of her. plus i'll probably double what i spent when my family gives me money for graduation :)

life is so good right now! i have a job lined up after school's over. i'm starting there part-time on the 16th of april (also my sister's 16th and golden birthday - scary) and then going full-time. i'm really excited about it and also happy because i feel like i beat the system by getting a job in childcare without getting the early childhood ed degree. i'm going to be in charge of 4-6 infants at the Children's Foundation a not for profit childcare/family resource center here in town through some statewide organization whose name i dont remember at the moment. i'm definitely not going to be rich. but i can probably supplement it with babysitting, etc and as long as i dont spend too much on crap. i'm super happy about this job :)

everything with andy is really really wonderful. this relationship is the best thing to ever happen to me. i cant even tell you how happy he makes me. :) :)

i'm so anxious for graduation and everything that comes with it: no more writing papers, no more running around between three jobs and classes, reading for pleasure again, moving into a new and improved apartment with one roommate instead of three, and other things that will probably happen around the same time and be very exciting.

this weekend i'm going home for a baby shower/a family party/easter and next weekend is relay for life, so thats even more stuff to look forward to.

classes are going okay. i think i'll get Bs in my two gen eds, and really i'm okay with that because as long as i get 2 As and 3 Bs i'll graduate magna cum laude, which has been my goal all along. no need to push myself too hard this semester, is there? ;)

anyway, hope everyone is doing well, i have to call traffic school and sign up for an EIGHT HOUR CLASS to get my latest speeding ticket removed from my record. : \

jamie07lee @ 2007-03-06T21:42:00

2007-03-07T03:51:32Z

i interviewed today for a job at chesterbrook academy. it's a private (read: expensive) daycare/preschool in bloomington. i'd start part time the rest of the year until graduation when i would start full time. it has the benefits i need and i know i could do the job. i have mixed feelings cause i dont know how much it pays, but i think i would really like it. if i get it i will have to quit my job at brigham in order to start part time, which would really break my heart because i have grown so attached to those kids. but i am sure i would grow attached to these kids, too. i'd either be working in a toddler or an infant room, which would be a welcome change of pace from the rowdy fourth and fifth graders i'm dealing with now! i also would love to get this job because it would be like killing two birds with one stone: still being able to work with kids without going to school for two more years.

i also have the option of working full time for the Y summer program and hoping a full time position opens up in the fall for me to take. i just know that i need the health insurance and no matter how much i sub or how many part time jobs i have, i wont get that. i'm actually really starting to look forward to being able to focus on ONE job and putting an end to this running around to a million different jobs/classes every day of my life. my tone sounds frustrated, i dont feel frustrated, but maybe i am. i think i am more overwhelmed than anything. the future is suddenly very immediate. the other night i spent almost three hours searching jobs online. all i have to say is that it's true what they say about english majors.

BUT all i have left school wise this week is one test which shouldn't be too bad. i have two other classes on thursday besides that which i might just neglect in the interest of starting my spring break a little early. :) im getting first aid certified on thursday night which will take all my time so i could use the extra time off during the day...we'll see :)

get ready for this...

2007-03-02T00:04:31Z

in the past few weeks (months) i have been doing a lot of soul searching. i have come to some conclusions, and i have also come up with more questions...i guess that's life :)

what i have decided, though, is not to go for the early childhood education degree, after all.

the other day i added up my current student loan debt and a rough estimate of what i would have to borrow for a second degree (which is much more than i had at first estimated). i would emerge two years from now with almost $50,000 to pay back, entering a field where i can expect to make approximately $30,000 a year.

this, by itself, is not enough to defer me from a dream. people pay back student loan debt all the time. however, after serious consideration, i decided that a bigger dream of mine is to get married and have a family.

when i made my decision in september to go back to school when i graduate, i had a secret hope that i would end up marrying andy...but i thought it was perhaps too good to be true. i also live in a society where people who get married young have a greater chance of divorce -- marriage this young is generally discouraged.

after eight months of this relationship, i feel 100% confident in saying that andy is the one i want to build a life with. maybe this scares some people, but it does not scare me, or him. in fact, it is the most exciting thing in my life right now. everyone close to me (my parents, my best friends, my sister) know how serious i am about this.

put simply: marrying andy + starting a family > staying in school after i graduate in may.

people are probably going to think i'm crazy -- first i'm staying in school, then i'm not, whatever. but the plan now is to graduate in may and get a full-time job, try to save at least a little while i start paying back loans. then get married :)

i am so happy that i have a mom whom i can talk with about these things. my family is so supportive. thanks mom, for not freaking out when your 20 year-old daughter tells her all she really wants to do in life is have a baby! :)

as my grandma said in an email today:

"Jamie life is too short! Follow your heart. You can always go back to school. Being in love is wonderful and you know Andy is right for you. Some people never find that kind of happiness. Grandpa was older 4yrs. and he always had his head on straight alot like Andy. He had already been in the service too! I love you so much and I am so happy for you! I knew you would figure it out! Hugs and kisses ,Grandma Betty"

this is it kids. i'm growing up. i'm ready. and i haven't ever been happier. :)

recent life

2007-02-21T02:33:40Z

i have become obsessed with eric carle, the writer and illustrator of the very hungry caterpillar, etc. i hope you can see the caterpillar in the image up there. i am completely engrossed in the book "the art of eric carle", so much so that im considering buying it off of amazon cause i dont want to return it to the tmc section in two weeks. i have never seen an illustrator put so much effort into his work. plus the fact that his life is fascinating.

amy sent me a hilarious email today with stuff from tests collected by teachers. here are some. the elephant is my favorite.

anyway, life is good. work is a challenge because some of the kids at the new school i work at are really bad, but i'm dealing with it and learning a lot. waking up at 5:45 am isn't as bad as i thought it would be. it doesnt actually get rough until about 2 pm. everything with andy is really great. the weather is getting much warmer which i LOVE. thanks to some snow days last week and to my great boyfriend, valentines day was really nice. i took the afternoon off (skipped one class) in order to go grocery shopping with andy. he made dinner and i made dessert and it all tasted delicious! :) in the recent past i also got a speeding ticket. my second one. fabulous. im also obsessed with imogen heap, thanks to amy o. she is wonderful. i'm looking forward to spring break!! :)

today in childrens lit my professor showed us some modern-day revisions of nursery rhymes. one was a christian version of humpty dumpty:

humpty dumpty sat on a wall
humpty dumpty had a great fall
humpty dumpty shouted "amen!
god can put me together again!"

and here's a non-sexist version of little miss muffet:

little miss muffet sat on a tuffet
eating her curds and whey
along came a spider that sat down beside her
and she put it in the garden to eat insects.

? call me conservative, but i think i prefer the original versions.

jamie07lee @ 2007-02-19T13:37:00

2007-02-19T19:38:33Z

i feel like it really shouldn't cost 230+ dollars a month to heat this tiny little apartment and make sure everyone can use their computers. damn power bill.

trouble ahead, trouble behind, and you know that notion just crossed my mind

2007-01-31T19:32:54Z

just a quick update before class...

i got another job, working at a before school program through the YWCA. i'll be working 6:30-9 am three days a week, which will take some getting used to, but it won't be impossible. with my brigham job and my church babysitting job that puts me at about 14 hours a week, plus five classes, plus story hour, plus partners in reading = very busy but getting lots of good experience/money. i need the extra money for many things, including the new apt im moving into in may which will require new bed sheets, a computer desk/chair, and anything else to make it feel like home. as we know, these things dont grow on trees. a cool thing about this new job (besides the money) is that i get a free membership at the YWCA fitness center. the rec is so ungodly crowded in the afternoon/evening that maybe i can go there a couple times a week if i can't work out in the morning. fabulous.

i have discovered the bagels at panera. how do things this scrumptious go undetected for 20 years? i am addicted.

life is good. everything with andy is really, really good! :) he is so supportive of me and so caring. i love him. this weekend im going home...i have a doctors appt im not really looking forward to, and then im gonna go see contemps/delegations perform on saturday. im coming back saturday night and sunday im gonna go over to chris's for a superbowl party :)

ta ta for now.

decisions

2007-01-21T19:10:40Z

can anyone point me to a good source to read about the election in 08? i cant find any websites that seem reliable, they're mostly blogs. ?

hellllllllllllllllllo

2007-01-21T07:59:08Z

alright, so classes have started. i think this semester will be good. i'm taking senior seminar (eng 300) with andy, it shouldnt be too bad, lots of reading and some writing but i think we got off pretty easy for a capstone course. im taking a lame online class about environmental health that should be a breeze. i'm also taking philosophy 101 which will be as good and interesting as i think a 101 class can be when i've already been at this college thing for a while. i'm taking prose, and i really like my professor, she's very pregnant and very cute. i'm also taking children's lit, which i think will be very informative and fun. i need to dream up an honors project for that class.........

monday morning i have an interview to work at the YWCA day care. i got the new indigo girls cd (!). i haven't bought a cd in forever but this was worth it. it's good to have amy back this semester :) i'm going to nashville for the tail end of spring break because my lil sis's show choir is going. my mom and dad and em and i are tagging along. fabulous!! i had a pretty scary week over break but i think everything will be okay. very, very, very exciting things going on with my love life. i can't believe i will have a degree in may. i mean, i'll still be in school, but it's cool to know i will be "college educated". life is changing. :)

christmas break thus far

2006-12-29T05:06:39Z

i've not posted recently, so i'll give everyone a rundown.

the first week of break i stayed with emily at her apartment, which was a good time because it was somewhat of a week-long sleepover. that week i kept busy with working every day, trying to find time to exercise, hanging out with andy, cooking actual nice dinners with emily, and other various activities. the most eventful part of the week was work on friday -- it was the kids' last day before break so of course they were wired, and i had to deal with a couple of pretty stressful things. first of all, a girl got hit on the nose with the teeter totter, which was a much more serious injury than it sounds like. the girl had a gash on her nose that bled so badly we couldnt tell where the injury was. there was blood all over her coat, dripping off her chin, and spilling out of her mouth. and of course she was screaming hysterically the whole time. it really shook me up -- now i understand why it seems like moms cry about everything. they got her cleaned up and she went to the ER for stitches. right after i got done dealing with that, this kid started throwing a gigantic fit on the playground -- screaming and punching the ground and such -- turns out he is autistic but i didn't know that. so those are some stories from work.

tonight it struck me that the more i feel like i'm growing up, the more i surround myself with kids.

i drove home last friday and went to a crappy drs appt -- i'll spare you the details of that. i just relaxed for a couple of days and really enjoyed christmas with my family. somewhere in there i got to see laura and ben for a quick moment at steak n shake. for christmas i got some really nice clothes that i picked out with my mom and lotsa moolah that i'm going to go spend some of tomorrow. if you remember a few weeks ago i posted a huge rant about not being able to find an original copy of "trivial pursuit" anywhere, well my mom is amazing and bought me a real old-school one on ebay or somewhere. its from 1981 and you can definitely tell -- one question said "what Black ran for president blahblahblah", which isnt exactly PC, and one question asked "what country consumes the most beer per year?" and the answer was "west germany". hahaha. christmas went smoothly and happily. tuesday i went to scotts dads visitation.

have spent so much time watching tv lately, its starting to become pathetic (okay, it was pathetic a long time ago). yesterday i was sick in bed allll day long (crappy!) and got wrapped up in one of those god-awful realworld/roadrules challenge marathons. then i went to emilys and we watched the dog whisperer for almost three hours, and came home and watched almost two hours of "next". i usually cant stand those shows but i guess my brain deserves a break now and then. i watched another couple hours of the dog whisperer tonight...cesar is amazing.

tomorrow i'm going shopping in indy with my family and tomorrow night i'm going back to bloomington. i miss my man like crazy, so it will be good to see him.

right now im reading anna karenina, which ive wanted to read for years. its really good, but i dont know that i can commit to reading all 750+ pages of it. im 200 pages in right now. with some of my christmas money i ordered books off of amazon, so when those get in i'll probably just read the sparknotes for the whatever of AK i havent read and start in on "unbearable lightness of being" which i REALLY want to read. has anyone read that? along with that i also ordered "the yellow wallpaper" and other short stories by charlotte perkins gilman, "condensed knowledge: a deliciously irreverant guide to feeling smart again" (or something like that), and "persuasion" by jane austen. im excited to read them all.

for new years andy and i are doubling with em and ryan. im not sure what all we'll do, but my incredibly thoughtful boyfriend made us reservations at biaggis :) yummmm...

okay you probably wont get anything outta me till next year. lovelovelove.

jamie07lee @ 2006-12-25T10:56:00

2006-12-25T16:57:46Z

merry merry merry christmas!!! :)

o<| :) (thats supposed to be a santa hat.)

grades

2006-12-20T23:34:27Z

yesssssssssssssssssssssssssss grades = awesome! :)

nine more days

2006-12-06T04:37:26Z

i'm happy with the way this semester is wrapping up. in order to graduate with the GPA that has been my goal all along, i can only get three Bs this year. obviously i would prefer to get all As this semester and then be able to slack off a little next semester, but for a while it looked like i was going to get two Bs this semester. however, things are looking up.

i just printed off two final papers, one due tomorrow and one due thursday, and i'm pretty happy with them, so that always feels good. :) i have an exam tomorrow, and i think if i get an A it's at least conceivable that i could get an A in the class. i have an exam on thursday that i only have to get a 70% on to get an A. i have a paper due tuesday that i havent started writing, but i have all my research done so it shouldn't be a big deal. i have a final next wednesday that's open book open note, so its just 40 easy points that will help me. i have an essay final on thursday but if its anything like the midterm its just a review of class discussion. so as soon as i get this lit paper done i'm in good shape. i think i'll get a B in poetry, but who knows, she might like this last paper and that could only help. and if i do well on the exam tomorrow i can probably get an A in my marriage class. enough boring stuff.

madrigals tomorrow! im excited. im also going home for a few hours for christmas parties this saturday and next saturday...so lots of driving, but all for fun things. i have my christmas shopping done for andy, and im very thrilled about the present i have for my mom and dad. jenna will like her present, too. i still have to think of something for emily, but i'll do that some other time.

i hope everyone is having a fabulous christmas season, even though finals are stressful. im just glad that this semester isnt anything like last semester. that was the most stress i've ever been under, thanks to a 300-level modernist poetry class and the most difficult gen ed i've ever taken (coughtompowerscough).

snowed in!

2006-12-02T02:47:34Z

so. yesterday i woke up with enough time to drive home from andys and take a shower, eat breakfast and get ready for class...or so i thought. so i get out to my car and my doors are frozen shut. it was so warm the night before that im in a tshirt and jeans and flip flops, so i wheel around to get assistance from my boyfriend, but the door to his apartment building has shut behind me. i try to buzz his apartment, but the buzzer is frozen in place. as you all know, i am not a very patient person, so i pound the buzzer with my fist, which jams it, so my sick-in-bed boyfriend is now awoken by a loud, screeching buzzing sound that wont stop. he gets pliers and unsticks it (about ten minutes later, after thoroughly pissing off the neighbors). at this point i no longer have time for a shower, which means i go to my three classes unclean, which never makes me happy. i forgot to mention that once i got back into andys apartment building i said I HATE WINTER and, out of anger, attempted to kick the wall (still in flip flops). with one of my feet now in mid-kick, my other foot flies out from under me , landing me flat on my ass in a melted-snow puddle. also, when i got to my apartment, still in flip flops, i fell on my ass again right outside of my door. and this was before the ice storm hit.

so i went to classes yesterday, afterwards i head back to andys apartment with him, thinking i'll grab some lunch and go work out. and then the ice storm starts. its not sleet or rain or snow its just like raining ice. really weird. so i definitely did not go work out because we all know i'm a wimp when it comes to driving on ice. andy convinced me to go to meijer with him at 11:30 last night to get some food for his bare cupboards in case the weather got worse overnight, and i'm mighty glad we did.

so i had a hunch that the elementary school i work at on fridays would close. my dyslexia flared up and instead of setting my alarm for 8:45 i set it for 5:48, but it worked out because i got online and saw that the school was closed so i didnt have to go to work. so i had class at two, at about 10 am i decided to go out and try to begin defrosting my car -- that was not going to happen. my entire car was encased with almost half an inch of ice, not to mention the snow piled on top of that. i come in and to my surprise, the television says illinois state university is CLOSED -- something that has not happened in the two and a half years i've attended this school. SCORE!

so i had a total snow day all to myself with my man, and it was really nice. i got some work done on my poetry paper and i'm not nearly as stressed anymore, plus i got to relax all day. we did go out once to rent some movies, and i got some coffee. other than that, i've actually really enjoyed being snowed in.

in other news...classes are winding up. next tuesday i have my poetry paper due, wednesday i have one of my american lit papers due and a marriage test. i'm also going to madrigals on wednesday. thursday i have a social psych test. finals week i have a paper due for my other american lit class, a piece-o-cake final for my marriage class, and a pretty decently simple final for one of the american lit classes. so basically its just a matter of getting through next week and then i'm DONE.

plans for christmas break include:
reading for pleasure(!), sleeping in, working at brigham every day, going home on the 9th, the 16th, and for a few days over christmas, staying with emily for a week, possibly renting the sims because i saw it at family video today and i kinda want to play it, calling over 100 daycares to try to get a job starting in either january or may, exercising every day since i didnt at all last week and ive missed three days this week (frown), ummmmm yeah and thats probably about it.

alright there are some serious tense issues in this entry, but i'm sure you'll all get over it.

i dont update much anymore, but when i do, these are the gems you get, arent you thrilled?

there are no intelligent americans left

2006-11-19T03:26:38Z

so, last night andy and i went to buffalo wild wings with a couple of his friends, and we became very engrossed in their trivia game system. this knowledge-based competition reminded me of how addicted i was to ps2 jeopardy last spring, and i decided to buy it for andys xbox. alas, they dont make it for xbox. as a compromise, i decided to go out and buy a trivial pursuit board game.

apparently, they no longer make trivial pursuit. i went to meijer, then walmart, then today i went to the special seasonal store in the mall that sells ONLY calendars and games, and none of these usually reliable sources have it. i found multiple versions of trivial pursuit pop culture on DVD, trivial pursuit for kids, SNL trivial pursuit, lord of the rings trivial pursuit, star wars trivial pursuit, trivial pursuit totally 80s, and a new line of trivia games based on popular tv shows: family guy, sex and the city, CSI, desperate housewives, friends, etc etc etc. but no traditional, CHALLENGING trivial pursuit.

i hate that our country encourages us to be stupid. i dont want to be quizzed on the ins and outs of stewie and peter griffin. i want difficult questions that really force me to utilize my recall/strategic guessing talents that have gotten me so far in america's education system. but that type of play isnt readily available. all i can find anywhere is a 30 dollar game to quiz me about sex and the f-ing city.

as a FURTHER compromise, i decided to buy a set of "mind trap" cards, you know, those brain-bending questions that come in a long narrow box. yeah, those arent on the market anymore either.

i think everyone in america is getting dumber every day.