things that make me happy

• hot tea with honey that came from a bear shaped container (I have a cold)

• the fact that I can justify eating 6 cans of pringles in the next two weeks (or maybe a little longer) because I can use the empty cans to make rainsticks for my class.

• the video from this article.

President's day off (sort of)

Yay! I didn't have to go to school today in the morning (but I did have to go to class in the evening so it wasn't technically a day off, but I accept it for what it is).
This morning Michael (with lots of coaxing over an extended period of time starting sometime last week and reaching a peak last night) convinced me to go to the gym with him. This was my first trip to the gym. (possibly my last) I hate the elliptical machine, it hurts my knees, I am also not a fan of the stationary bike but I knew that before I went. I just don't get it. In Michael's gym there is a cardio-theater where they play movies while you work out. This is still not enough to keep my mind active, I wanted a magazine too, or a book or something. I can't just do these aerobically challenging activities without something else because my brain just does not turn off and it drives me crazy. This is why I like dance, because I am so bad (and so not a kinesthetic learner) that it takes all of my energy (physical and mental) to try to make my limbs behave in a non-spastic manner. Anyway, after the cardio-theater (theatre?) I used weight lifting machines for the first time. These are less offensive than the elliptical machine everyone seems so fond of, but still sort of strange. The only one I really like is the one where you get to use your feet to push weight out, because it really stretched my hips and knees out and I needed that. Also I think my minimal amount of crunches totally put me back down a pant size that I have been slowly shrinking out of, now I need to really buy new pants. (or eat)
So to cancel out all that crazy exercising I convinced Michael to go with me to Chipotle for lunch. (we walked there, but Michael said we need to run there to even work off a bite of guacamole) My burrito has 59g of fat, and 1240 calories. That info comes from here. Now I must get back to various school writing projects that I pushed off completing on Sunday afternoon in favor of afternoon drinks a game of Scrabble (the first time I ever won against Michael) and a movie. For some reason I thought, Hey, I have off on Monday I can get that work done later, or not.

p.s. to NBC -Enough with the ice dancing already!

it was like it was you...but it wasn't you

I know how insufferable it is to listen to other people tell you about their dreams, "it was like I was walking, but I was floating, and I was in math class but my math teacher was really my grandma..." and so I am apologizing in advance but...
I had this dream last night that I can't shake. Lots of weird annoying dream things happened most of which I can no longer remember. Here is the obviously connected to what is bothering me not entirely subconsciously, I dreamt that the neediest kid in my class, who I agonize over daily because I feel so helpless about the situation. The mostly deaf, mostly blind boy with no language abilities etc etc. In my dream he became a woman supervisor of the program, and the explanation was something like he was there to see how we (as interns) would handle a situation like this. This being me at a complete loss for what to do with this student in a new environment where I have no control or input. In the dream it was no big deal and then we all sat down for dinner, like at a banquet. Here is where the dream becomes less of a pathetic and sad window to my soul and more shallow and pathetic window to my television addiction. Patrick Dempsey was seated at the head of the table, and a slightly younger Patrick Dempsey look-alike guy sat next to me. And Patrick Dempsey told me how good we (me and the look alike) look together. (convoluted enough for you) Thank you Grey's Anatomy.

Moving on...I did one of these Johari windows I have been reading about. Check it out here and tell me what you think of me (if you feel like it). It makes me think of one of the professors I hate, who on the first day of class always has us fill out a form wherein we must list 6 adjectives to describe ourselves. dude, I know this is for class my first three adjectives are about how smart, articulate and personable I am, what I am going to say (angry, vindictive, impatient). Whatever, check out my Johari and start one of your own so I can look at it too.

not really myspace

I am not really into Myspace. I have a profile. I started it because I wanted to comment on my friend's pictures. Then I added to it because a college friend/former roommate was asking me to, and I hadn't talked to him in years so I caved (a little). I don't really want to meet online friends. All my friends are my real life friends. As many nights as I sit at home and play on the internet I have not really made an effort to find "internet friends". I feel pathetic enough about my lack of a Saturday night (BY CHOICE*--I have homework to procrastinate and its not going to get done with me out on the town, or else its going to be pushed to even later on Sunday night with a hangover to boot) to involve online "networking". whatever. However, in the last couple of days myspace has been a hoppin'. With the ghosts of d-town past, that is my sister's d-town past. (I think I am really too old for myspace.) My sister's friends from highschool found me online, now I am procrastinating by reading their blogs and their friends blogs. --this is horrible-- (hello, Kate's high school friends! how's it going?). Now I am getting back to school work (fer real).

*this is the bouncing souls BY CHOICE from These are the quotes.

February blah

I am not enjoying my new student teaching placement. I am drowning in guilt every minute I am at home that I am not researching or writing a paper (this is many, many minutes for a procrastinator like me). I am feeling like an incredible poor communicator to my professors and anyone else I approach even with the most banal chit chat. I feel waves of confusion or annoyance floating off of people as I plough my way through a book recommendation or input to class discussion. They look at me with puzzled expressions as if I am speaking in a strange dialect (am I? this is the midwest). I am making bumbling mistakes in communication over email that makes me think I need to go back to bed and start fresh next week. PMS? possibly. The good thing?
Without any prompting (prompting, what an annoying special ed teacher word--in this case it means long whiny complaints and requests for stupid things), Michael left me a message today while I was at work just to say he was thinking about me and how much he loved me. (do you hear irritating strains of Stevie Wonder? so sorry) When I got home from school around 1pm I was in such a foul mood I decided the best thing for it was to nap until work at 4pm. Michael came home at 3:30pm (thank goodness seeing as how I had set my alarm but failed to turn it on). He brought a package of mini Hershey bars, cheesy crackers, peanut butter crackers, a 12 pack of Coca-Cola and cranberry juice. What nice presents for me. Now I am home after work, I am going to make veggie fried rice. I have poured myself a glass of red. I am cooking the rice (yay rice cooker) I am heading to take a bath while the rice cooks and chills (a recipe recommendation for fried rice that I cannot find an explanation for), then I can relax, do stupid homework, eat chocolate which goes oh so well with my pinot noir (thank you Amy for introducing me to the yummy and cheap Pepperwood Grove), and tomorrow I can roll out of bed, put on any old clothes for school (jeans, sweats, I think anything goes at this place), grab a coke and some packages of crackers (yay, that will be breakfast) and start over again. Its all about the little things in life.

ew cute

this kind of hurts me, but I thought some of you might find it amusing.
cute overload
I got this from loobylu.