It wasn't until Grace poked me the other week that I realized that it's been, like, a gazillion years since I've updated this thing, and really, I haven't meant to desert you! But since I can't very well tell you EVERYTHING that's happened since my last real post, I'll try to give you some of the highlights. Hold on tight!

-- Student Teaching/ Graduate School
Done and done! Overall, my student teaching experience wasn't so bad. It made me realize that I certainly don't want to teach in the Philly school system, but there were still a whole heck of a lot of good and great and wonderful things that came out of my time at Washington. My cooperating teacher was really nice and helpful, which is more than I know a lot of my fellow student teachers could say about theirs, and there were any number of super swell kids. Still, I was glad when I finished back in May, and even more so when I finished up my Grad work which was largely a huge waste of money and time. I came out of the ordeal with my teaching certification, though, so it served its purpose.

-- The Wedding
Wonderful! For all the stress and trouble that the wedding planning caused me, I was very relieved and happy when everything turned out all right in the end. There was a rather major issue that occurred the night before the big day, which I am not at liberty to nor do I feel the inclination to discuss, but it's all water under the bridge now and I'm moving on. For the day itself, people kept telling me for months ahead of time, "Some things are bound to go wrong, but you just can't let them get you down and you should have a good time anyway." I am happy to report that, at least in my case, the people were wrong. There were no catastrophes or mishaps on the wedding day, everything ran smoothly, and I feel/hope that everyone involved had a great time. It was a really nice ceremony-- the minister was on the ball and was funny to boot. The reception was beautiful and there was eating and dancing and drinking, and who can ask for anything more? The honeymoon went really well, also. We had gorgeous weather in Orlando with very little rain, our hotel (Port Orleans French Quarter) was lovely and peaceful and very well put-together. Besides the amusement parks we also spent some time in Downtown Disney, drinking and going to the Adventurer's Club (fun place... hoopla!), at one point we rented a boat and terrorized the local water life, and generally had an awesome time.
So now I'm an ol' married woman! I ended up taking Jake's last name after all, though there was plenty o' discussion about it. It was a tad pain-in-the-ass-y to change my name the way I wanted (first name, maiden name as middle name, Jake's last name), but in the end I persevered. While it hasn't even been a month yet, I'm so far a big fan of married life. Jake and I are getting along better than ever, especially since.....

-- I Got A Job!
No, you did not mishear me, you do not need the turn the volume up... I got a job! Finally! After a whole summer of looking and fretting! Nothing was turning up, none of my job inquiries were shaping up, none of my interviews were turning into offers-- I had resigned myself to per-diem substitute teaching until the time when something came through. Then suddenly over the last few days there was a flurry of activity two consecutive interviews, and now I have a job teaching 9th grade English in Quakertown School District. The negatives-- it's a long term sub position, not a contracted position, I just got the job yesterday so I am ill-prepared to start on Sept. 2, and the job is, as previously stated, in Quakertown, which is way up in Po-dunk-ville, about an hour and 10 minute drive from my apartment. The positives-- I'll be getting paid at least double what I would be paid as a per-diem sub, it gives me some much-needed teaching experience that will help me to get a contracted position, and Quakertown is an excellent school district with a good reputation. Plus, I'm going in tomorrow to sign some papers and see my classroom, and I should be getting the materials I need and meeting with some of the other English teachers, who have already emailed me some stuff ti help me out. Overall, I am very pleased with the way things turned out, and I'm really glad that something popped up in the nick of time.

-- I Almost Died!
Okay, so maybe that's an overstatement. But I did have a very scary experience. I was in my first-ever car accident, and it wasn't even my fault! I had been doing laundry over my parents' house, and I was in the process of driving back to my apartment Saturday night, when suddenly I felt this big !bump! and my car started spinning. I ended up partially up a hill on the opposite side of the street, facing completely the other direction, and in a state of shock and confusion. Turns out some frickin' frackin' S.O.B. hit me! Left some bigass dents and scratches on my left rear and a busted taillight. AND he had the audacity to try to blame it on me, saying the I must have been pulling out of a driveway or something. The police came and said the he must have either a.) not stopped at the stop sign or watched where he was going when he was merging onto my road, or b.) he was trying to pass me on a one-lane road and hit me. Either way, I'm not at fault, but my insurance doesn't cover collision on my car and his insurance people (State Farm) are twiddling their thumbs and scratching their butts. Really, please don't go with State Farm insurance. It's Thursday, and they're saying that the accident is still "under investigation" and that they don't have the police report yet, even though I faxed it to them yesterday. My car still isn't even in the shop! I finally caved and got a rental car and hopefully they'll have to reimburse me, bc I need to drive up to Po-dunk tomorrow!

All right, that's about it with me. Ideally I'll get on a more regular schedule with updating this thing, but don't hold your breath. Unless you have a thing for asphyxiation. Then... by all means.

 The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well, let's see.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien--  I tried, and maybe I'll get back to it one day (seeing as I stole/mutilatd Joe's copy)
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare – Well, a good chunk of it, anyway...
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky -
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy--  I've read just a little bit on-line, and I've decided I need the actual book if I'm to read this.  I can't read so much on a pc screen.
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert-  I got about 20 pages in and stopped.  Probably for good.
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck-  I always cry wihen George kills Lenny.  Oops!  sorry if I ruined the ending for you...
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath-  I think I read half of this.  Not too shabby, from what I remember.
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro-  didn't like it.  The narrator pissed me off.
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare - Sophie! Read Hamlet! It's great!
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo-  I own it, so I should probaby read it.

Yes, people, I'm still around, though who knows for how much longer... Seriously, April was/is/will continue to be the the bitch of the year. This month I need to:

A.) Continue with my student-teaching work--- Friday night I worked non-stop from 4 PM to I AM, only pausing for dinner, on school work. On the up-side, I now have all my students' papers graded (1 class' Canterbury Tales tests, 3 classes' research paper outlines and essays on "The War Prayer" by Mark Twain and "On Resistance to Civil Government" by Thoreau. Next week I have my fourth and last observation. While my supervising teacher has been impressed by all my work so-far, I feel the need to do something different, and therefore better, this time around. Oh, and I need to finally get my teaching certification application sent in. I'm sure I'm late, but I need to go see a friggin doctor, apparently, so I have an appointment this Wednesday.

B.) Finish my flipping teaching portfolio--- For my S.O.B. teaching seminar class I need to make this behemoth of a teaching portfolio, complete with eight 8-page lesson plans, reflections, and examples of student work that reflect the "6 Temple Standards." Never mind that I didn't even know Temple had standards until this seminar class. I need to defend my portfolio in front of a panel on April 30--- Luckily, I got to go last bc I bitched at my prof. about my lack of "acceptable" lessons to supplement my portfolio (the entire month of March was PSSA review for my 3 Junior classes, and apparently PSSA review doesn't reflect Temple's standards).

C.) Work on getting a job for the Fall--- I have a screening interview tomorrow evening at North Penn School District (I went to the Delaware Valley Teaching Consortium in March and they followed up). I'm trying not to get my hopes up bc it's a really good district, but I can't help crossing my fingers. I've been working gradually on filling out the PA Reap teaching application, but Thursday night I got a call from the North Penn lady and they said they wanted to be able to upload all my info. from PA Reap by Monday. So Thursday night I worked 4 hours on completing that, including the 7 mini-essays that blew my mind because they were limited to 300 characters apiece. I rocked, though-- never fear-- and each essay comes out around the 297-399 character mark. Go me. I also updated my cover letters and resume for the umpteenth time.

D.) Wedding--- After I realized that an October wedding was out of the question, I remember wanting to get married in June. Now I thank my lucky stars that the wedding was pushed back till August, bc I don't know how I would have been able to complete all the endless tasks by June. I've had no time to get anything done. Last week I did manage to go out with the girls to pick out bridesmaids' dresses, but it's ben tight. Jake and I just ordered the wedding invitations yesterday. We still need to find some ceremony musicians (we're hoping some college music majors or something-- if you know anyone who'd do, please drop me a line), and officially book a florist. Not to mention finalize the details with Yardley CC, the caterer, the photographer, the DJ, the officiant dude, and who knows who all else. Why oh why didn't we elope when we had the chance?



Whew, okay, I'm finished with all the bitching now, for the time being, at least. Once May hits things will become much simpler. My student teaching is up May 2, and my portfolio panelist thing is on April 30, so once April is over a lot of the pressure will be off my shoulders. THEN I can focus my efforts on the wedding planning and finding a teaching position. So, anyways, some people should hit me up to catch up and hang out starting in May. I need to let loose and do something embarrassing.

I think my soul just died.

Who would've ever thought that I, of all people, would set so much store by a football game? But after almost five years of dating an ueber-football fan, the worst has happened. I've finally turned. And MY team-- the awesomest team, the supposedly-unbeatable team-- just lost... to the GIANTS, of all people! While my abiding love for Tom Brady will never fail, it has faltered. My love now knows what it is to doubt. I hope Tom Brady will forgive me. (BTW, what about that Wes Welker fellow? I think Mr. Brady may have some competition...)

Seeing how upset I was, Jake thought to console me with this: "Now you know how I feel week after week." He is, sadly enough, a 49ers fan, and after feeling my own heart shrink as the final seconds of the game ticked down and the opposing team left victorious, I don't know how he does it. As for me, I think I'll go drown myself in the kitchen sink.

Goodbye, cruel world!

http://www.selectsmart.com/president/2008.html


According to this, my closest matches are Dennis Kucinich (77%), Barack Obama (76%), and Joseph Biden (74%)

Fluffy the goldfish was discovered dead at 9:32 this morning, floating face-down in his fishbowl. To expedite the grieving process, services were held almost immediately upon discovery of the body. Fluffy is mourned by his owners, Nicole and Jake, and their cats, Smokey, Snowball,and Pity.

These are the facts of Fluffy’s death; but Fluffy should not be remembered for the way he died, but for the way HE LIVED.

I remember when I first saw him. It was at a carnival on a cool evening in May two years ago. Fluffy was my prize… or so I thought. As I was to learn, I had not chosen Fluffy at all. He had chosen me.

Fluffy’s life was not easy. Shortly after his arrival, he survived an attempted homicide by Cuddles the cannibalistic fish. He triumphed over Cuddles and survived him by over a year and a half, though he bore the scars from the attack for the rest f his life. And his troubles did not end there. A few months later, Fluffy came down with a mysterious scale-eating disease that almost cost him his life. As we waited for him to respond to treatment, he would look at me through his bowl as if to say, “Why God? Why me?” But through the pain, Fluffy never gave up. He persevered over his illness, though perhaps he never recovered his full strength.

Even after surviving all these things, life was still not smooth swimming for Fluffy. Perhaps you have forgotten… the cats. Fluffy lived on the top of the refrigerator in an attempt to protect him, but still they came. They would come in the nighttime, stealthily, slinkily, and find their way to the refrigerator top by means of unknown hooks and crooks. When I would wander into the kitchen in the morning, the fishbowl water would be noticeably depleted… but where was Fluffy? In the crevice of some cat’s stomach? Cowering at the bottom of his bowl? NO! He would glare at me, defiantly. He had looked death in the face and he was not afraid.

Fluffy lived with a tenacity unsurpassed by any other man or beast. He swam with a purpose. What that purpose was I’ll never know; he did not see fit to tell me. And why he finally died will always be a mystery. Perhaps he had accomplished what he was put here on earth to do. What I do know is this: Fluffy has left us, but he will not be forgotten. His message WILL live on! Live life ferociously! Never give up! Even when all you do all day is swim in circles and eat your own poo, you, too, have meaning! So buck up, hold on to what’s left of your scales, and soldier on!

Rest in Peace, Fluffy. Rest in Peace.

Hey, can anyone suggest a good (and reasonably priced!) wedding photographer???

Wow, there is so much crap going on in my life that it's difficult to write. I'm not at liberty to talk about most of it, but let's just say that I have soe severe doubts popping up in my mind. I'm not sure if I can handle all this.

Well, I guess since I can't talk about the stuff I really would like to talk about, I'll talk about the matters-not-so-much stuff. After workign at Kohl's for about two months, I couldn't take it anymore and quit. I could go on and on ad nauseum about all the reasons why it just didn't work out, but I've decided not to bore ya'll. Lucky for me, I quit on a Friday and started a new job on Monday, so my cash-flow is staying pretty steady (not that there is much of a flow... more like a cash-trickle). Anyways, I started work at this small company owned by the Indian couple up on County Line Rd.-- they own the Tijuana Flat restaurant on Street and Mechanicsville and a few Dunkin' Donuts franchises to boot. But what I'm primarily working with is their online hot sauce company, FireGirl.com, doing the regular administrative crap, helping with shipping, and, what's a little more interesting, doing a lot of their writing. I'm mostly just writing catchy promotional emails, product information, and web text, but that little bit of creativity makes me feel a lot better about this job. If you check out the website, just know that none of my writing is up there yet, so I take no responsibility for the stuff that might be on there. Another thing I like about this job (beside the pay increase) is the hours. Kohl's had been dicking around with my hours and it seemed like I was getting all the 11:30-8 shifts, which suck balls, and I was working most weekends. Here, I'll be working between 20 and 30 hours a week, and for the most part I work from 9-1, with only one 8-hour day a week, and no weekends. Much sweeter. Now I have time for slee-- I mean, schoolwork.

Wedding Planning can eat my ass. (Yeah, I've become really vulgar, apparently) We actually went and checked out a florist on Friday, but other than that the wedding has been taking the waaaaaay back seat to all the other crap that's been going on. And since when did I become old enough to get married, anyway? It seems like just yesterday I was puttering around in high school. Sometimes I wonder if this is really all going to come off.

School has been fun, actually. I've been taking this great Ed Psch course, and I have to say it's my favorite graduate course that I've taken. Not that I want to becoem a psychologist, but this crap is awesome.

All right, I'm tired of writing now and I have a paper due tomorrow. Just pleae, wish me luck with all this stuff. You have no idea of the level of awful I'm swimming in, here.

It's been a while since I've written a real, honest-to-goodness entry, and since there are a million other things I really should eb doing right now, right now seems the perfect time to write one.

Where to start... I suppose with the engagement thing. Very excited. But at the same time, it's not everything I thought it would be. Most likely because the timing isn't exactly right on. You see Jake's grandmom's been shuffled to 3 different hospitals over the past two weeks. She was finally sent home today after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that is too far-along to do anything about. It's been an emotional time for Jake and his family and not exactly conducive to the happiness that an engagement is supposed to bring. But I think our engagement is some comfort to Jake, and that's a good thing.

We haven't even been engaged for two weeks and already I am SICK and TIRED of wedding planning. Of course, Jake and I have ben together for over four years and we've been gradually gathering wedding ideas and plans for some months now. We're basically paying for everything on my own, though my parents say they'll chip in some money for the people I don't know who they want to invite. Luckily it's not going to be a big wedding-- 75 people at the most, I think. I think when we finally settle on a wedding ceremony/reception site things will feel a little less stressful. But that's the most important decision!

One thing that worries me is the whole officiant thing. For those who know me, you know I went to Catholic school for 12 years but lost my faith somewhere in high school. Not really sure where I am on the whole religion conundrum right now. My parents and family still think I'm a good Catholic, and I see no reason as of yet to deprive them of this belief... but it's recently become an issue with the whole wedding thing. You see, my dad informed me several days ago that "it would mean a lot to the family" if we were married by a priest. Since I'm of the opinion that "eh, a few prayers and blessings can't hurt," it didn't bother me... I even thought that the whole Pre-Caana practice may be beneficial. But then the roadblock happened-- I called St. Chris' parish, and don't you know, they won't marry us outside? Well, screw that. If any of you know St. Christopher's parish in the Somerton section of Philly, you know that it's a post-Vatican II, stark, pavilion-like building with little character and no warmth. No way I'm getting married there. Now, perhaps if I was still back at All Saint's or I knew any of the priests that now preside there I would get married back in my old neighborhood, but that's not the case. This is the same reason my parents didn't get married in the Church, and in my opinion, the Church is screwing themselves by being so rigid. I'll just find a friggin' minister or something. That'll show them!

And here's another gripe I have about this whole wedding business: What's with all the strapless dresses? I've been looking at gown sites online, and that seems to be all I can find-- strapless, or halter-neck dresses. I'm sorry, but you can NOT tell me that all women out there want to show their arms. I don't care that I'm getting married in August, I am NOT showing my upper arms. And I have waaay too much chest to pull off a strapless. Wouldn't THAT would make for a memorable wedding! "HERE comes the bride! Daaaaamn!" Anyway, Joey D has already promised to be my wedding-day streaker :-) I think that'll be enough excitement for the day.

What else... Oh. I got a job at Kohl's. Definitely NOT what I want to be doing, but I needed something really flexible to get us just a little extra cash while I'm in school. I start orientation on July 2. Can you believe they're putting me in the Beauty dept? (Don't laugh) Yeah, I'm going to be one of those chicks hawking through the store with my lotion, "Excuse me miss, would you like to try this wonderful new product?" Barf. But eh, it's something. I can't wait for school to be over. This week coming up is the end of summer session 1... then I get a one-week break before summer session 2. Oh, the joy. Most of my classes suck and I want to beat half the students with a shoe. I've managed to contain myself so far, but I'm not sure how much longer I can hold on.

It's after nine and I need to work on a lesson plan, write up 2 articles, and start studying for my final on Tuesday. I'll write again the next time I have something to bitch about (which may well be soon). Bis bald!

So people... Jake and I are finally engaged! I am way so happy. I'd insert a picture here, but I can't figure out how... but if you know my facebook or MySpace account, you'll be able to see it. It's even prettier in person, though!

I have a favor to ask of all you out there who are married, or are getting married, or know anyone who has gotten married in he not-too-distant past in the Philadelphia region. Jake and I are starting to plan this shindig, and it's a big pain in my big arse. If you have ANY suggestions at all for ceremony/reception places, caterers, photographers, DJs, florists, or any other wedding-related thing, PLEASE throw me a bone here and tell me! Keep in mind that I'd like to keep this whole thing out of the catastrophic-monetary-range... as much as possible, at least. I appreciate any help you can give me!

Guess what everyone?? Jake and I got engaged tonight! I am ohhhh so happy! My ring is soooo beautiful. We're tentatively scheduling the wedding, so hopefully, if all goes rigt, by August 2008 I'll be Mrs.... Longenecker?!?!?!?! Yes, yes, in fact... I'm still trying to get used to the last name.
Otherwise ecstatic.

Love you all!

It's my anniversary, and I'm not happy.

Dude, you should all watch the "Planet Earth" series on the Discovery channel... Jake and I just watched the first three episodes today, and we both agree it's pretty damn amazing. I expect it would be even better if you have HD or a big screen, but even on our 32-incher it's awesome. So go check it out! Sundays at 8.

Wow, so it's been a long time since I've posted... strange, because I check my friends' entries pretty regularly. And it's not as if there's nothing going on in my life. Actually, a lot, has happened, but I'll try to focus on the major stuff that I can imagine.

Of course this is my first semester in Graduate school, and it didn't take me as long to get back into the swing of things as I had thought. Lots and lots of work though... I'm taking three classes, and I have assignments due for each of them just about every week... definitely from now until the end of the semester. For the most part I'm enjoying my classes... they can be really thought-provoking, especially with the awful No Child Left Behind act in effect-- worst law EVER, btw. And of course I'm kicking ass and doing awesomely... even if one professor in particular is pissing me off tremendously, but I won't get into that. I've signed up for my summer and fall classes, and luckily everything has worked out in my favor and I didn't have a problem getting all the classes I needed... SO glad I didn't go to Holy Family! If I had, I'd have to be in school for at least 2 and a half years. Talk about a waste! As it is, once I can sign up for my student teaching next Spring, I'll be set, and then I can graduate and start WORKING in Fall '08. I ROCK!!

Mine and Jake's 4 year anniversary is coming up on April 3, and I'm so excited. This year we're going to Salem, MA! At first we were going to go to Boston and I wanted to check out the freedom trail, which sounds awesome, but apparently Jake really isn;t a "revolutionary war kind of guy," so we're doing the whole Salem-witch stuff instead. I'm so excited to go see the House of the Seven Gables, I read the book when I was like 12, and it's the only Nathanial Hawthorne book I actually like. As a rule I don't like Hawthorne-- he was a total misogynist and wrote horrid things about how women should be banned from writing. Ugh, that awful man. But still, I shall enjoy the house. We're also thinking about taking one of the "paranormal ghost tours" offered; THAT should prove "interesting" to say the least! I suppose I'm an awful skeptic, but hey, you never know, maybe I'll actually see a ghost after all, and I'll bring home some awesome pictures of flashes of light or wisps of smoke or spots or something... Anyways, there are a lot of cool things to do up there, and I'm really looking forward to it. We're staying in a honeymoon suite at the Salem inn, with a fireplace and a jacuzzi and all, so that'll be wonderful! We're actually waiting till the end of April to go because we ought to have better weather then and maybe some blooming trees, if it doesn't rain.

I'd like to write more, but I'm suddenly amazingly tired, so I'll try to write more later. See y'all!

Oh, one last thing-- we got a Wii! And I actually enjoy playing it, strangely enough!

So I reallllly need to start updating more. Life is going pretty well at the moment, for the most part. Lots to tell and not much time to write, so I'll try to make this as succinct (awesome word) as possible.
In most important news, I finally received news on 2 Thursdays ago, I've been accepted to Temple! AND they're not making me take any extra courses, which makes me happy. Still, my work is never done; I need to contact my advising dude for an appointment to register for classes (I called and emailed him, but I don't think he's in today), and apparently I have more paperwork to fill out for loans. Seriously though, that ticks me off. I must have called the financial aid dept. at least 10 times since I've started the Grad school experience, and they never told me that I had to fill out this particular form. But when I called today to find out why I still haven't received a financial aid package, they're like, "Oh yeah, go online and download this form, we need it." Fucking A. I'm still thinking that something's not going to go right and that I won't be able to start school in January. I hope it's just nerves and not a premonition. Luckily, I have enough money saved so that, worst comes to worst, I can pay for one semester out-of-pocket. But I realllllly don't want to do this; I like having this buffer-money, it makes me feel just a bit safer.
Next in news, my birth-week extravaganza! Sunday, I went over my parents' for dinner and cake. They made a whole Thanksgiving feast 4 days early (they wanted turkey leftovers), and my sister, her bf, and my cousin Shawna all came as well. And Jake, of course. I got a pretty new duvet cover from my sister, which I'm glad for bc my current one is fading in spots, and money from my parents, always appreciated! Tuesday was my actual birthday, and the people at work were awesome. I got flowers and Nan made this awesome chocolate chip cake, and I got earrings and a nifty pewter bookmark and a Borders gift card. Once I got home Jake took me out to dinner, and gave me spiffy presents. You know, I never liked the Red Hot Chili Peppers before, but I realllllly like their new album (that was one of my gifts). Go figure. My big birthday gift, however, was on Saturday, when Jake took me to NYC to see the Producers. It was so great! We ate at this cute restaurant next to the St. James' theater, Angus McIndoe --Sardi's would have been more appropriate, but they were booked for days-- and they had really awesome food, especially their potato-onion soup and lamb. We had awesome seats for the show, first roq balcony, center. It was a great experience. Jake says for Valentine's day he's thinking of taking me to see Les Miserables-- it's playing for 6 months.
Thanksgiving was pretty uneventful, but nice. It was at my grandmom's house as usual, but there was only about 15 of us this year, usually there's between 20 and 30 of us. I'm a bit anxious for my grandmom, though. She just had an angioplasty and she's going in for a heart valve replacement probably at the beginning of December. I hope she'll be all right; she's my last living grandparent and a really great lady, and I'm really afraid she'll die on Christmas, like my other grandmom did in 2003 (why do people always die around the holidays?). So everyone keep her in your thoughts please, and send good feelings her way!
In work news, Dawn quit on my birthday; it was so sudden, and quite the drama. And it reallly sucks. Instead of hiring someone new, they're splitting her responsibilities between Val and myself. Worst thing, though, everyone here kind of has their own bit, and no one else knows exactly everything that everyone else is working on, and so when someone leaves suddenly it send everything into a lurch. We're piecing some of it together, and hopefully we'll be able to find everything that needs to be looked after. Only good thing: it gives me a little more job security. I've talked to my boss and they'll need me into at least the first quarter of next year, and I can shorten my hours. Once January starts, I'll be working every day from about 8 till 2, and then heading to Temple for class three days a week from 5-7:30. I only hope I can manage it!
Well, that's basically it for me. Time to put my nose back to ye ol' grindstone!

It's been a while since I've updated... I don't know why it's been so long, I check this site pretty regularly to look at other people's entries. But ah well.

So what's going on, how shall I start... I like my new apartment. Things turned out quite well in the end, and the place looks snazzy. I even got my coffee table, finally, after 7 weeks of waiting, but it's so very nice that I can't complain too much, they did a nice job finishing it for me. The place is all put together and it's starting to feel like home. Jake even got his recliner, lucky boy. All he needs now is a big screen tv and then he can die a happy man.

The grad school thing is still developing. After putting it off for weeks and weeks, I finally got both my applications completed. Holy Family, damn them, put me through quite a scare when some imbecilic lady told me that they didn't have ANY of my application materials... I called up the next day, got someone competent on the line, and cleared things up. One thing I have to say, between dealing with the problems with the apartment and all the pains of applying to school, I'm learning to stick up for myself and be more assertive. Anyway, I got accepted into Holy Family, no surprise there, but the monsters totally screwed up my plans. Though I applied to both Holy Family and Temple, I was really banking on Holy Family, because it's seriously 5 minutes away and oh so convenient. BUT can you believe they're going to make me take 2 undergraduate courses??? Apparently they're not accepting one of my undergraduate math courses, and they're making me take a Psych course. Give me a break! On top of that, they're course scheduling is really screwed up, so that, get this, it'll take me at least 2 and a half years to finish the program! What kind of bull is that? I KNOW I can do this in a year and a half, including student teaching; it's not a matter of my ability, because I'm awesome like that, it's a matter of the way they arrange their program! Altogether it would take me 41 credits to graduate from Holy Family; it'll only take me 33 to get through Temple's program. So even though HF costs less per credit hour, it'll actually cost me about three thousand dollars more overall. So, as long as Temple accepts me, I'm going back to good ol' TU. I don't see how Temple would turn me down, but they're not going to be making a decision till the end of the month at the earliest, and I'm nervous. I just want to get this whole thing over with, get through school, start a career, and start my life!

Work is good. I was told that I have a job (most likely) until at least the end of the year. I told them that I was going back to school starting January and that I wouldn't be able to work, at least not full time, and there was some preliminary talk about possibly some part time work. That would be so great, because lately I've been seen stressing about money, and how I'm going to make any while I'm in school. All my classes will be at night, but I expect that Temple will make me spend some time in the classroom prior to student teaching, bc I know Holy Family was requiring that, so my possible work schedule would be all over the place. I've been trying to save some money, build up a little safety net, and so far I have just under 5000 dollars saved. Not bad, and it'll maybe insure me a bit considering Murphy's law. Speaking of Murphy's law, read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adages_named_after_people. I found it interesting.

So, Guess what? I'm going to Las Vegas!!! You heard right: I, along with Jake, will be going to Las Vegas. We've been planning it for almsot a month now, and last night we bought the plane tickets and booked the hotel. We're going from January 2nd to the 6th, right before I start school, and we're staying at the Luxor. We all know my affinity for pyramids. :) Though neither of us are really into gambling (I might gamble, perhaps, like 50 bucks in all), I'm looking forward to all the shows, the hotels, and general atmosphere... and one whole day we're devoting to seeing the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam and all. My sister went last year and took this amazing Hummer tour, so we're going to book that, because no way I'm getting stuck on a crowded bus with little brats and old people. I'm realllly looking forward to it, and it'll be me and Jake's first long-distance trip together. I can hardly wait.

Last but not least, I drowned my cell phone. Luckily my parents just got our phones upgraded (I'm still on my parents' cell plan-- hey, it's cheaper!), so I have a shiny new phone. However, unless my old cell miraculously heals itself, I've lost everyone's number, so email me, call me, or send smoke signals my way, and givce me your number!

Hey all, long time no post. Just wanted to share a few random thoughts, and a little bit 'bout me...

First off, what's with all the people who snap as they walk? They're not listening to music, they're not talking, they're just walking... and snapping!!! It really ticks me off. If you are one of those unfortunate people who snap when they walk, stop it immediately, or I will hurt you.

Snakes on a Plane = awesomeness. If you like the hilarity of B movies, this one tops the pile.

Speaking of B movies, if you have never seen Tremors, watch it. I caught it again on TV last night, and I looooooove it! The only movie I like Kevin Bacon in. Seriously.

Another surprisingly cool/interesting/funny movie out is Crank. Along the B-movie lines, it includes spectacular scenes of public sex in Chinatown, chopping off limbs with a meat axe, and Pedro (from Napolean Dynamite) in drag. If you want to go to the movies but don't know what to see, go see this.

I caught a documentary on Boudica last night. If you don't know who Boudica was, look her up! My favorite historical female figure, ever-- even rocks out over Cleopatra and Catherine the Great. Do yourself a favor and learn about her.

If you ever rent an apartment, PLEASE make sure you look at the actual apartment you're renting before you sign the lease. Jake and I were in a rush the other week and signed the lease before looking at the apartment, and we've certainly regretted it since. The place was uggo. Luckily when I went to go kick some ass, the rental ladies were nice and apologetic and really seemed like they had been unaware of the state of the apartment. Needless to say, we got out of that lease and we're getting a different, better apartment on September 20. Still, we could have been royally screwed, so please learn from our mistake and inspect the apartment thoroughly before signing anything.

I need some motivation to finish my friggin goals statements for my grad school apps. If you have a suggestion on how I can get my ass in gear, please feel free to share it.

Lastly, Jake is going away this coming weekend-- he's off to San Francisco for some football game-- so if you miss me and was to see more of me, drop me a line and maybe I'll squeeze you in this weekend ;)

peace out.