Coming Together

On December 23rd, the Hersteins, and Guptas got together to celebrate Matt's and my engagement. We went to Macaroni Grill and took some pictures of the festivities. Here are some pictures from the event:

User Pic

I changed my user pic to two butterfly angel things. I found the picture on one of my brother's friend's pages. I hope it doesn't mean anything bad, but I thought it was cute.

For lunch today, we went to Bangkok Bistro and ordered Pad Thai. I think this is my new favorite Thai dish. A close second is anything with peanut sauce. :-D

After Christmas

My parents and sister are in Toronto for a few days because Mona needs to get some things for her wedding. So my brother and I are the only ones home. I am helping my mom return a lot of gifts while she is out of town. (My mom will buy ten scarves for Christmas because she knows I want one, but isn't sure which color/kind I want, so after Christmas we return a lot of extras!) I'm going to JCPenny and Marshall Fields today and on Wednesday I'll do the Somerset stores like Banana, Puma, J.Crew, etc. I also want to pick up some gloves at American Eagle. They are gloves, but have an attached second layer that turns them into mittens, so they are gloves and mittens in one. I tried on Ashwin's pair and I loved them. I also need to buy a wall calendar, but I usually wait until after New Year's Day because they're all over 50% off.
Besides returning stuff, I have been catching up on movies. Have I said that I love OnDemand? Probably.
Later tonight, Heather and I are hanging out; what we'll be doing is to be determined. I hope Steph and Jenny can come over tomorrow. They're in Midland right now, and the drive down isn't too bad. We shall see...

As Tiny Tim says, "And God bless us, Everyone."

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday Matt

Today is Matt's birthday!!! We're going to get breakfast at Green Gateau. We were originally going to have dinner there, but Matt loves breakfast food so we switched that around.
Here are some pics of Matt that I know he'll love!

This is him "reading." He became studious at a young age...even though his book is upside down. :)


Here is a more recent picture of Matt and I at Misty's Steakhouse.


Hopefully we'll get some new pictures today.

Matt, I hope you have a great day!!

Lemony Snicket

Matt and I saw Lemony Snicket, and it wasn't what I expected. I thought it was going to be a cute film that was just okay, but it turned out to be a good dark comedy. There are cool special effects, which I imagine is why kids like it. But there are deep topics that I'm sure only the adults get. The three kids in the movie acted really well, and the ending was abrupt, but good. My EW gave it 4/4 stars and that's why we decided to see this movie over Spanglish. I think it was a good choice.

Verdict: Two thumbs up!

My exams are over!

Since my exams are over, Matt and I were able to do some fun stuff! We went to Starlight yesterday and for some reason this place does not have to ban smoking. Somehow they are above the law. That was a real pain because it is a small space and the non-smoking section still has smoke because, wonder of wonders, the smoke does not realize the invisible barrier between the sections! Apparently, the date to stop public smoking got pushed to January (The old date was Nov 29th). Anyway, it was still a good time and Matt and I told the cheesiest joke without even realizing it.
Matt: I think my blood type is A negative, but I'm not willing to stake my life on it.
Reena: Are you sure?
Matt: No, because I'm not positive.
I guess you had to be there! haha We were amused.
I got some Christmas shopping done today. I will probably do some more tomorrow since I'm not done shopping for everyone. This means I might have to check a bag when I fly home in a few days. I don't have room for two weeks of clothes, plus gifts in one suitcase.
Tomorrow I might go see Spanglish or Lemony Snicket's. I think Spanglish looks better, but more reviews are saying Lemony is really good. Hmmm, decisions, decisions!

Figuring out my schedule

I received my first few Christmas cards today! I think my friends usually send cards to my Troy house so I am always surprised to get mail here. I got cards from Heather and my local Saturn dealership. Thanks :) I feel bad since I didn't send one to Saturn! haha
I went to an advising appt today. Apparently two of my classes that I need to take next semester fall on the exact same day/time. Luckily, my advisor is letting me substitute another class for one of the required classes. Phew! I was worried about that since I intend to graduate in May. So as of now, next semester, I'm taking Ed Psych, Diff Equations, Advanced Modern Algebra, and my masters seminar. Hopefully it's not too full a load, but I guess I don't have much choice.
3 more days until my last exam!!

Oh and just in case you wanted to know my hippie name is Revelation:

Your Hippie Chick Name is: Revelation

Get your own Hippie Chick Name

Pimped out fridge

Here is the fridge I was talking about in my last entry:



And the price? $3499.99!!

Studying is going slowly, but steadily.

Love me tender, love me sweet, never let me go. You have made my life complete, and I love you so.

Last night, Ashley and I went to see Princess Diaries 2 since we had nothing to do and it was showing at the $2 theater. She has this card, which gives one person free admission, so we ended up paying $1 each, haha. The movie was really cheesy, but we expected this. Sometimes it's fun to go see a cheesy movie just because you know it's going to have a happy ending.
Matt is taking a night off from studying since he's had 3 exams in the last 3 days. I would be exhausted! So he's coming to Starlight with me tonight. We just came back from Best Buy, and we saw this refrigerator with a TV built into it. Matt thinks it would be really cool to have in our kitchen someday. I think the fridge looked nice enough but it just seemed so impractical. But practacality aside, it did look pretty neat. :)
I've had a relaxing week, but starting tomorrow I will be studying for my Friday exam. boooo We got a review sheet in class a few days ago and I didn't realize how much we had covered over the course of the semester! So I'm going to have to start from the beginning and remember how to do some older problems and relearn some theorems/proofs.

Closer but no cigar :P

Matt and I saw "Closer" this evening. I was really disappointed with the movie. I mean I guess the English have a different way of telling a story. I was expecting something great with the reviews and all. So I suggest waiting to rent it if you decide to see it.
Tomorrow I have no class! So this doesn't feel like a Sunday to me. I'm going to try to sleep at a reasonable hour so I don't wake up late. I feel so unproductive and like a bum when I do that!
This past weekend I didn't do any x-mas shopping so I'm going to try to fit that in tomorrow. Matt actually found a restaurant like Mongolian BBQ so we did that Sat. night. I'm getting better and figuring out what sauces and oils to put in my bowl so it tastes good!

Good day all around

The kids were actually sad when they found out it was our last day, Awwww. It was a really good experience, way better than sitting in class and talking about teaching. A lot of times during my lessons, kids would ask questions that weren't anticipated. One can never really prepare for the questions kids have, or what part of the lesson needs to be stressed more than others. Crazy kids. So Scott is over and for the next few weeks that means
Sleeping in!!

Today has been pretty good, after teaching I took a LONG NAP!! And I ate some Christmas cookies that I bought.

I only have one more week of classes, then exams, then it's Christmas Break! My family will be going to Toronto from Dec 26th-29th, but other than that I have no big plans. I'm sure I'll be taking multiple trips to AA, and the Guptas and Hersteins will probably meet up again for dinner. Here is the first time our families met:

Is Love

singing is love
brought to you by the isLove Generator

I don't understand this quiz because some people got weird answers like "H&M is love" (H&M is a store), and "the starting line is love." I like my answer "singing." Singing is a stress reliever for me, and I love doing it in the car. Matt is lucky enough to hear me all the time, haha. Singing was actually my second answer, my first one was "manga is love," and I have no idea what that means...

Tomorrow is my last day at Scott. I'm excited, and a little sad (like .01% sad). Next week I still have my regular classes, but during exam week, I only have to take one exam! Sweeet. (Well for my tech. class I kind of have an exam, but it's on my own time. I just have to turn in 4 java applet lessons by the 17th, which gives me a lot of time.)

This weekend, I need to fit in grocery shopping, x-mas shopping, going out to eat, and watching movies. I know, you feel bad for me!

Ken is Gone

Yes my friends, Ken Jennings, has been defeated on Jeopardy. He had 74 consecutive wins to his name, and won over $2.5 million dollars, the most of any game show contestant. During the show, Ken was doing really well until he missed both daily doubles in double jeopardy and only had a marginal lead going into the final round. After Ken incorrectly guessed at the final answer, the crowd gasped in unison as Nancy, a California realtor, became the new reigning champ. What was Ken's downfall? Here's the clue:
Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year.

It is H&R Block. And H&R Block is making sure Ken will always remember them since the company has offered him free tax preparation for life.

Lack of Sleep

I have been slacking off on going to bed at a decent time. I used to go to bed at 11pm with no problems and be somewhat refreshed waking up around 6:45am. Now it is impossible for me to feel tired at 11. I'm not sure if it was Thanksgiving break that did it, or if it started before that. I now go to bed no earlier than midnight, get up at 6:45, and then feel soooo tired the rest of the day. Luckily my last day of teaching is Friday because I wouldn't be able to keep this routine up for long. Although, because the end is near, I have no motivation to try to sleep early again. I think I might look like a zombie on Friday from lack of sleep and then hopefully sleep all weekend to catch up. Good plan eh?
Even though my last day to teach for the semester is Friday, my last lesson is tomorrow. My professor is coming in to watch. I wish he came in on Monday because Barb told me twice that my lesson was "very nicely done." Oh well, I'll just have to have another superb lesson tomorrow.

Great Break

I had a great break! It was short, but still good. Our kitchen was remodeled these past few months so when I first saw it, I felt like I wasn't in my house because it looked really different. A good kind of different. Instead of going out for Thanksgiving dinner, we stayed in and made all the traditional fixings. My brother even made a pumpkin pie cake that was really yummy. It was like pumpkin pie, but there was a layer of cake under the pie. Then the fam went to see National Treasure. We got there early because Thanksgiving tends to be a big movie night. And we were right since the theater was packed, but luckily we found 5 seats together.
I also saw the sequel to Bridget Jones with Heather a few days later. It was funny, but they pulled out the same jokes that were in the first one, so it wasn't that funny the second time around.
On Saturday, I went out to dinner with Matt and his family. It was a celebratory type of dinner for our engagement. We went to Argerio's and even ordered a bottle of wine to celebrate.
Later that evening, I went out with Stephanie, Courtney and Dawna. We decided to take a cab to the bar, so we called the Blue Cab company. They told us it would be a half hour wait, but they didn't come until an hour and fifteen minutes after the call! We complained to the driver and the company, and they could care less that we had to wait that long. After our night, Dawna called the company again to pick us up and the guy who answered said that they would not provide the service to us! We couldn't believe that this company decides to drop people when people complain; talk about shooting themselves in the foot. Luckily there are a number of other cab companies and it wasn't a problem to give someone else a call.
Today, Matt and I hung out with Sabrina and company. Back to the Future II was on TV, so we caught a few minutes of that, and it looked really funny. Maybe we'll have to watch those movies because neither Matt nor I have seen them.
So now we're back in Lincoln. The weather people are predicting a winter storm tonight, so hopefully we get the storm and the middle school has a snow day, or we don't get much so I don't have to shovel my car out of the lot!

Official Start

My break has officially started. Well I'm still on duty tomorrow, but I have no classes and I just finished a test. I really like abstract algebra. My professor teaches really well, which is a huge reason why it seems so easy. I got a 100% on the first test, and after taking this one, I'm pretty sure my next test grade will be similar.
Mona and I are flying home on Thanksgiving and our flights reach the airport about a half hour apart, so my parents will just pick both of us up after my flight gets in. My dad has a black Hummer for a few months so that'll be fun to drive in. Luckily GM pays for his gas, or the gas bill would be expensive! I'm hoping to drive it around a little bit too. Anyway, as soon as we get back, we're eating dinner. I am excited to be home after so long.
I'm also excited to see my Michigan friends. We're going to see the Bridget Jones sequel and then hang out in AA. Here's the most recent pic of Steph, Erin, and I taken over the summer (which is the last time I've seen them!).

Hopefully Heather and Courtney can join us, even for a little bit.

Wake-up Call from Target

If you are nuts about Target and Target sales, the store is giving out free wake-up calls so you can be up in time for their "biggest sale of the year." You can choose from 10 different voices to wake up to such as Darth Vader, Heidi Klum, or a crying baby. You can get woken up as early as 4am to hit the 6am sale. I'm personally not going to participate because I don't plan on being one of those crazy shoppers that wait in front of a store to open, but I think this is a creative idea that I've never seen done before!

Oompa Loompa

Matt and I went to Outback Steakhouse last night. We originally wanted to go to Grisanti's, which is supposed to be a good Italian place. Apparently all of Lincoln wanted to eat there as well and the wait was over an hour. So then we tried Red Lobster, but they also had an extensive wait. We were approaching Applebees but there were people standing outside waiting so we just turned around! We got to Outback and there was a 45 minute wait. We were tired and starving by this point so we just waited. I was so hungry that I ate more than I usually do of the appetizer and the complimentary bread. Usually if I end up eating more than a piece of bread and a bit of the appetizer I'll definitely end up with leftovers from my entree. Well this time, I had about one bite of my entree and was stuffed. I needed TWO boxes to take it home. I have never done that before...
After dinner, we rented some movies at Blockbuster. Matt and I somehow started talking about Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory during dinner (we didn't realize the movie wasn't called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory until the worker at Blockbuster told us) and so decided to rent that for old time's sake. We also got the first season of Chappelle's Show. I watched some of it at home since my brother has it, and it was hilarious. We'll probably watch that one on Wednesday when our break begins. Chappelle's Show has sold more copies than any other TV show according to EW (yep it beat each season of Friends, Sex/City, etc.)
Anyways, so I totally forgot how great Willy Wonka was. It's really appealing to kids with it's easy plot and weird characters, but now that I'm watching it again as an adult, it's really educational. The Oompa Loompas always sing a lesson after a kid behaves badly and there are other subplots going on. And it's still funny! I think Tim Burton is making a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie that will follow the book more closely. Johnny Depp is going to be Willy Wonka (as of now); I can see him playing the character pretty well, but he can't beat Gene Wilder.

Update

Luckily, Iowa beat Wisconsin, so Michigan will probably go to the Rose Bowl. Phew...

I smell Roses... Wait, no I don't

I have no idea what went wrong with Michigan football today. Ohio State looked good and I know they're not! I'm hoping Wisconsin loses again so that we can go to the Rose Bowl. Here's to hoping....

Detroit Quiz

I'm not sure what this quiz is all about, but if it's on sidenote53's blog, then I'm probably going to take it!


You are WOODWARD. You are at the heart of
everything the city does. You have the honor
of the title "M1" and you can rest
assured that no matter what, as the city
prospers so will your entertainment district
and fine dining.


What Detroit City Street Are You??
brought to you by Quizilla

Controversy what?

I used to read Judy Blume books when I was younger. Her books are really good and most of them deal with adolescent issues. The other day I read that her books were and still are controversial; I never knew they were since I had no problems having my parents buy me her books. I think we even read Superfudge in elementary school, but the controversy probably lies in her young adult books like Just as Long as we're Together, and Are you there God, it's me Margaret. Those books deal with puberty and such, which is still not a good reason to hide them from teenagers. Anyway, I found an interesting quote from Blume that I never thought of before. I always hear that we need to take a side on an issue, and changing your mind is looked at as weak, but Blume thinks differently: "Changing your mind is underrated. Lots of people are proud of the way they stand firm on an issue once they've made a decision. But what you should really take pride in is the ability to change the way you think when change is due. Never scorn a possible friend or a new experience without giving it a fair trial. If you keep examining your preconceptions and from time to time go out of your way to try something you always said you hated, your mind will stay young forever." That's a good quote.
In other news, I had a great lesson today. My students understood it and they even had time to finish most of their homework in class, woo hoo. I only have one week and two more days of teaching there. I will miss the kids, but not the waking up and driving in rush hour part!

DaVinci Code pushed back

Well it seems like I have a little while before I need to start reading the Da Vinci Code. Tom Hanks is set to star in the adaptation of this best seller (and it's still on the best seller list!) and Ron Howard and Grazer are going to produce and direct. This duo also gave us Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind, so I imagine it should be pretty good. Filming will start later, so I'm thinking the movie will hit theaters in a few years. I was going to read the book at some point, but now I know I have many many months to finish it in time for the movie. When I have time again, I'm going to start reading My Antonia instead, followed by 1984.

Oklahoma experience

Oklahoma was a fun experience, although driving 14 hours within 3 days was not so fun. Oklahoma City looked really nice at night when we drove in. The buildings were all lit up and it just looked like a fun city to spend a day or two in. Norman, where OU is located and where we stayed, was a little south of Oklahoma city and that was a pretty nice college town. You could tell we were close to Texas since people had southern accents. We went to Waffle House for breakfast since we don't get that in the north and Matt's a big fan. The game ended up as we expected...with a loss. We lost 30-3, but at least it wasn't a shutout! We could tell why Oklahoma is ranked #2 in the nation. Their quarterback barely threw an incomplete pass. Later that evening we went to see The Incredibles. Disney/Pixar did it again; the movie was very well done (computer-wise, as well as plot-wise) with a good message. Their next movie, and possibly last as a group effort, is called "Cars." I will definitely see it even though I have no idea what it's about.
This week I have the usual going on: classes, homework, and teaching. I can't wait for Thanksgiving break when I can get a few days off!

Your Power Color Is Gold You're dependable and hard working. You never miss a deadline - and you're never late. You have a clear sense of right and wrong. You're very detail oriented. You get frustrated when your friends are sloppy - or when they don't follow through. You're on top of things, and you wish that everyone else was! What's Your Power Color? Take This Quiz :-)

Code Red

At Scott, the kids had a Code Red drill. This is a newer drill that began a few years after the Columbine incidents and other ones like that. Instead of a fire drill or tornado drill where there are specific instructions to evacuate or stay in the classroom respectively, the Code Red can consist of having a lockdown to running to the nearest room/exit. I think it's hard to practice this drill because of the different directions associated with the situations that can arise in schools. These situations include, but are not confined to, flooding, sick individuals where the paramedics need to come in, shootings, and bomb threats. I have read many statistics that bomb threats and actual shootings in schools have gone down despite the rising fear the media has helped to fuel. And although inner city schools have had many incidences of shootings in the past, only when an upper middle-class suburban school is a target of media-frenzy do schools around the country have a plan of action. Riiight. I guess it's better late than never.
We also had an assembly as well as a substitute teacher in class, so with the Code Red and this other stuff, the kids were WILD. This was probably their favorite school day of the year! The assembly was not bad; it was a veteran's day tribute where the orchestra and choir played patriotic songs. I thought we had some really talented students singing and playing! I kept thinking about when I was in the middle school orchestra and choir, ahh memories. The other kids watching looked bored, but it's funny how now that I am a teacher, I am awed by the talent I see around me!
In a little while, I am going to start packing and Matt and I are heading to Oklahoma around 3. Hopefully we get there by 10pm...it's a long drive!

Girl Power

I got my Glamour magazine over a week ago, and finally started reading it yesterday. I actually subscribe to UsWeekly, but they were having some sale and so I got to pick two other magazine subscriptions to go along with UsWeekly (most of the other free magazine choices were really bad or unheard of). Anyways...so there was an interesting blurb about women and the holiday season. The Church of England reported that the three wise men who brought gifts to baby Jesus may have actually been women. There wasn't any explanation as to why this was so I found an article at Cnn.com about it. I don't believe everything the Church of England reports, but it makes more sense that women would buy the baby gifts, haha.
Also, according to Alaska's Department of Fish and Game, only female reindeer keep their antlers through the winter, meaning that Santa's team, from Dasher to Blitzen (we may as well put Rudolph in here too), are shes!

Engagement Party!

Mona and Sujith are having an engagment party in New Orleans this weekend. It'll be on the smaller side with a gathering of 25-30 people at a restaurant. My parents and brother are flying down for it. I can't go, but hopefully I'll be visiting Mona in late February/early March for her bachelorette party. I'm not sure if I want an engagement party, maybe a bridal shower. Too many parties leading up to the wedding may get tiring! Matt and I still have to set a date, we're probably going to figure that out during winter break so we can talk to both of our parents. Although, we do have time since we'll be getting married in 2006.

Oklahoma Weekend

This upcoming weekend, Matt and I are driving to Oklahoma to watch them beat our team. I'm not being pessimistic, I really believe there is no way our unranked team can beat one of the top ranked teams in the country. Our quarterback and basically everyone else, but Ross, are so bad that it's like watching my high school team play (ok maybe a smidgen better). The drive is over 6 hours so we're going to leave on Friday after classes for the Saturday game. We have all day on Saturday before the 6:00pm kickoff to explore the wonders of Norman. A friend of a friend I met in San Diego over the summer actually goes to the school and gave me her number so she could recommend some restaurants/bars. I called her a little over a week ago, and she hasn't gotten back to me. So much for that contact. I will try calling her again later this week, but I'm not banking on her showing us around. Oh well.
If we lose this week we will be 3-4 in the conference and then HAVE to beat Colorado to be bowl eligible. Coach Callahan is new this year, so he'll probably get a lot of heat if we don't go to a bowl. He practically came in on a float at the beginning of the year since our team was bad last year (although not as bad as this year, surprisingly) and we needed someone who could remedy it. He had open practices, started a charity run to benefit the school and our libraries, and basically was very welcome in Lincoln. Now, people are really frustrated with him. I'm sure he'll stay, though, since I think we have some good recruits coming in next year (after Matt and I leave) and he'll have some talent to work with.
Here's Matt and I at the 5k Charity Run that will hopefully have a second chance to run next year!

Watching TV

I watched Green Mile last night. It was very well done, but I was disturbed by the whole situation of a death row cell block. The inmates were crazy and some of the guards were corrupt, which I imagine is similar to real life. I'm not sure where I stand on capital punishment. I think under no circumstance is it right to kill, but then, I'm not sure how I would feel if I were personally involved and a guy had killed someone I love. Tricky... Hopefully I'll never have to worry about where I stand on this.
In other news, I was watching Oprah the other day. I think it comes on during Jeopardy so I rarely watch Oprah, even though when I do watch, I'm always entertained. Julia Roberts was on and she is great with audiences. Sometimes celebrities can be very good actors and are just a bore during interviews, such as Tom Cruise (who laughs like a hyena because he's always nervous) or especially Edward Norton (it's torture trying to stay awake during his interviews!). However, Julia Roberts was genuine and everyone was eager to hear what she would say next. She's in this movie coming out in December called "Closer." It is about two couples, Julia Roberts/Clive Owen and Natalie Portman(who was also a bore)/Jude Law, who are very happy together, but ex-lovers Julia Roberts and Jude Law carry on this affair that messes up everything. Normally I'm not into this kind of stuff, but hey it looks good.
I'm off to a student research conference for a few hours and take notes.

NOSMO KING

Although there were many bad outcomes of the election, one outcome was great for the city of Lincoln, the smoking ban!!! There will be no smoking in public places starting November 29th. The three exceptions are hotels and motels (which can set aside 20% of their rooms for smoking guests), laboratories that may still conduct research on smoking issues (kind of crazy that this falls under the smoking ban if it were not an exception), and outdoor seating areas.

There was a similar proposition that was brought up last year that would allow bars/restaurants to remain as smoking places despite the ban if more than a certain percentage of their profits came from anything other than food. I thought this was ridiculous since this defeats the whole purpose of reducing second-hand smoke and you know some bar owners, etc. paid some government worker to put that loophole in. However, that proposition didn't pass last year. At first I was upset because I wanted some restriction on smoking, but the ban that was passed on Tuesday is way better.

I like the ban on smoking in public places for many reasons. First of all, people won't be as likely to inhale second-hand smoke, which causes the same kind of damage as it does in smokers, yes even death. Secondly, asthmatics and allergy sufferers won't have asthma/allergy attacks, which again may cause death. Thirdly, it'll make getting a table faster at a restaurant since you won't have to wait for a non-smoking table. Finally, my clothes and hair won't reek of smoke ten minutes after I step into a bar/restaurant.

Whenever I think of NO SMOKING, I think of NOSMO KING. If you read Cleary's Ramona books, you know what I'm talking about, and hence the subject heading.

These past few days

It was nice having my sister visit me, we did a lot of fun stuff. Matt and I took her to some great restaurants, although not our fav Cajun place since my sister is from Louisiana and gets it all the time! I showed her around campus, which she said was really beautiful. Our campus is really nice, people that have visited us always say that. Here's Mona blending into the football sculpture in front our our stadium entrance.

We also went to Starlight Lounge:
Matt is drinking a banana split martini, Mona got a Snickers martini, and I have the classic cosmo. We saw Napolean Dynamite, which is really weird in an MTV way, but cute. One thing we did that was out of the ordinary was go to a pumpkin patch/apple orchard:

It was about 10-15 miles outside of Lincoln, near all of these beautiful farms. When we arrived, all we saw was a house with kids playing in the front. Strangely enough, we were at the right address. The orchard was out back and we walked around and saw several kinds of apples and pumpkins. It was perfect weather outside, the air was crisp, but it was sunny. The family owned two dogs that kept following us around. We bought some cider to go (they ran out of donuts!), and as we were ready to go, one of their dogs, a sheepdog, was blocking the driveway. I honked to scare it away and it just sat there with its tongue hanging out. The family didn't seem to be around so I veered around the dog and made it back on the road with the dog chasing us. haha I think dogs are great. I've never had one before, because my parents aren't crazy about having pets in the house. I wouldn't mind having a smaller short haired dog that doesn't shed too much like the Canaan. Matt doesn't want to have a dog, so that might be a tricky decision.
In other news, Matt was hired at the Attorney General's office in Lincoln. He is planning to work there at least for the rest of the semester for some experience. Congrats Matt :)
Right now, I'm watching the election coverage! I could be totally off about this, but as of now, it looks like Bush is going to win it. Matt and I are watching MSNBC and CNN and the country is all red (the color that is representative of Bush).

Saturday in a nutshell

I'm leaving in a little bit to pick Mona up from the airport. I hope UM and UNL kick MSU and Mizzou's butts, repectively. The latter is less likely to happen, but we can all hope!
Today the plan is to show my sister the school I work at, do some shopping, and then go to the Starlight Lounge.
Hmm I better eat something before I leave, have a good Saturday/Devil's Night!

Mona is coming to visit soon!

My sister is coming to visit me this weekend. She'll be coming in on Saturday and leaving Tuesday. I have our whole weekend planned so I can show her the sights of Lincoln. I'll show her campus, the school I teach at, and the haymarket. She wants to go to an apple orchard/pumpkin patch, so we're doing that on one day and I of course need to take her to the starlight lounge. Today was around 80 degrees! Hopefully, this weekend will be a little cooler, even though Mona is used to hot weather since she's coming from New Orleans (technically Lake Charles, LA).
We're having a Halloween party tomorrow night and since Matt and I are only going for a few hours, I didn't want to buy or come up with a creative costume. So I bought these silly ears and that's going to be my costume. Maybe I'll win the costume contest!
I'm wearing a new shirt I bought from Delia's catalog. It says "Everyone loves a midwestern girl." Here's a picture of it (the words and map are in light blue, this picture makes it look white):

Pools and Schools

On my brother's lj, there is a baby pic of me. Ash, you THOUGHT I'd be embarrassed, but I wasn't. :)


Here it is again. I actually put it up here because our ex-pool is in the background. We moved from Madison Heights to Troy when I was around 4-5 for a few reasons. One was because of the pool. My parents liked it, but it was too much work. I wish we had that pool after I learned how to swim. There are a ton of pictures of my sister swimming around in it and then someone's either carrying me or I'm in the kiddie pool. Oh well.
Another reason we moved is because of the school district. My mom started driving my sister and I to Troy schools while we were living in Madison Heights because of the better school system. And then when we did move to Troy, we obviously took the bus. When I have kids, I would definitely not let them go to a sub-par public school system and I would drive them to a better one if I had to, like my mom. Only the best.
I know that International Academy is ranked #1 public school in the country by USNews and that's in Bloomfield Hills. Troy High (sup), the other Bloomfield high schools (Andover, Lahser, possibly Cranbrook), and the B-ham schools (Seaholm, Groves) are all in the top 100, and not coincidentally in Oakland County. Matt has some interviews coming up in Southfield, Detroit, etc. And I will be looking for jobs in the suburb area, so we'll be around a lot of good school systems (and probably a lot of pools, haha).

Matt's blog

Matt started a blog! I'm sure his will sound pretty close to mine except for all the law stuff, but this is exciting news. If you want to see his blog, follow this link: contextualist_2.

Some time

No Scott Middle School this week. Instead of waking up early and spending every morning there, I now only have a Tuesday and Thursday afternoon class this week (well and I have office hours every day), but I have SO MUCH TIME, it's really wonderful. I feel like I've needed this vacation for a while. Teaching is hard work! I would not want all this free time every week, I need to keep busy, but right now, it's feeling pretty good.
On the agenda today, I dusted and vacuumed my room. Maybe I'll take a long shower, read some magazines, perhaps do my nails and use my Barnes and Noble gift certifcate. Ahhh after an exciting, yet hectic last few months, relaxing is bliss.

Type of Girl Quiz

I am a hybrid of: Progressive Girl Uptown Girl Click on the pictures below to read more: Take the 'What Kind of Girl Are You?' quiz

I took this quiz a while ago and got Progressive Girl, then I just took it a few minutes ago and got a hybrid. I guess I've changed :)

She Might Be a Progressive Girl if:
She drives: a small SUV but really wishes it got better mileage; once she can get a good hybrid, she will.
She can talk for more than ten minutes about: just about anything.
She begins her sentences with: "Susan Sarandon says..."
She'd never: pass up the chance for a new experience.
She owns any of the following: a water filter, a tabletop fountain, an acre of rain forest, a mutt from the pound.

Well this sounds like me except for the Susan Sarandon part, and the whole hippie vibe...

She Might be an Uptown Girl if:
She drives: a Jaguar, a Porsche, or a Rolls-Royce, or a limo with a driver and tinted, bulletproof windows.
She can talk for more than ten minutes about: being a debutante.
She begins her sentences with: "When we were on Martha's Vineyard..."
She'd never: fly coach.
She owns any of the following: an exotic toy breed dog, Waterford crystal, anything from Tiffany's, real pearls.

Hmm...I probably got this because I grew up in Troy, but I definitely drive a Saturn, and always fly coach :)

Today consists of watching the Michigan game, and then having dinner at Red Robin's to take advantage of my free birthday burger!

I've never seen this before

As I was driving home from the Saturn Dealership, a strange and scary thing happened. A man was jaywalking and ran between two cars and then into the lane that we were in. A minivan in front of me barely missed running the guy over, and instead side swiped the guy, knocking the wind out of him. He was hit really hard and fell to the floor. Although it was a green light, the cars around us stopped, rightly so, to make sure he was okay. Luckily he was, and he angrily stormed off on to the sidewalk and proceeded to call someone on his cell phone. This guy shouldn't have jaywalked in rush hour traffic, on the other hand, I felt really bad for him since he was hit by a car! People jaywalk all the time in Ann Arbor, and I've never seen this before! It was just an all around crazy thing to see.

Chinese Restaurants

Because I had Monday and Tuesday off for Fall Break, it is hard to believe that it's Wednesday. This whole day I kept thinking it was Tues or Thurs, crazy.
I tried a new Chinese place today. It's called A Taste of China, and it was yummy and cheap! For $7.99 you get the meal, fried or steamed rice, soup, an egg roll, crab rangoon, chicken in foil, fortune cookie, and hot tea. I have no idea why the chicken in foil was in the deal, but we didn't complain. :) I ordered Moo Goo Gai Pan and I thought it was really good. I like anything that involves a lot of vegetables! Matt always says I'm the least fussy about food, probably because he is really fussy, although he has told me he has gotten a lot better. I seriously will eat anything. We haven't found any Chinese restaurants that beat China Gate's service or food. Another Chinese restaurant that I like is Szechuan West because it has great lo mein and hot tea. Before college I only went to Kim's in Troy, but Ann Arbor definitely has better Chinese restaurants than anywhere I've tried. Sorry T-town.
Sidenote: I'm really starting to like this new show called Lost. That's entertaining drama right there.

I'm feeling drained right now because it was hard to get up at 6:45am again after a long break and I'm ready to go to bed!

My birthday...okay my birthday weekend really

This past weekend was super fun in Kansas City. I am so glad I checked my mail right before we went because I got a ton of cards! Thanks to those of you who sent me something. It made the drive to KC really enjoyable. I also got UsWeekly that day. Although it is a weekly magazine, I never know what day I'm going to get it, so that was also a good read in the car. Matt bought me speakers that hook up to my IPOD. He gave me this gift early so we could listen to music in the car/hotel. Good thinking Matt :)
We went to a fondue place for my b-day dinner called Melting Pot. It was really neat having the waitress set up the fondue at our table. We ordered cheese fondue for appetizers, then an entree course, and the best part was the dessert fondue. We ordered dark and white chocolate and had a tray of fruit to dip with, along with brownie pieces. Soo yummy. We also went to the Plaza, which reminds me of Somerset Mall, except it's a strip instead of all indoors. I don't realize how lucky I am in Troy until I go to all these shops and realize that they're all like 10 minutes from my house. People drive hours to see this stuff! Even so, I had to go into a few select stores just to browse around, such as J.Crew, Anthropologie, and Tiffany's. Matt liked this one tiki/hawaiian shop where there were three wooden monkeys about a foot high acting out the "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil." We also checked out a few museums and the Union Station. Lastly, we went to Cheesecake Factory today before leaving for Lincoln. It was a fun trip for sure.

Happy Birthday Ashwin

It's my brother's 17th birthday today! He recently got into Michigan State University too. Even though we're waiting for a more important school's acceptance letter, it is definitely a reason to celebrate!

I don't have any recent pictures of him with me, so I'm going to embarass him and put a much younger version of him up here. This picture was taken when I was around 8 1/2, so my brother was about 2 1/2. While I practiced playing my violin, my brother would sometimes sit next to me with his plastic guitar and a pencil and pretend he was playing too. Isn't he cute?

Happy Birthday Ashwin, have a good day!

Seinfeld

Jerry Seinfeld's stand up act was really good. I couldn't stop laughing. I feel like he can say anything and have it sound hilarious and if I or someone else said the same thing it wouldn't be as funny. He talks about things that almost anyone can relate to. After the act, he let the audience ask questions. One guy asked who he was voting for and Jerry said "I try to let you all get away from the campaign for a few hours and you bring it right back in." Another person asked him what his favorite Seinfeld episode was and he said he didn't have a favorite, but he did have favorite moments like when Kramer was golfing and the golf ball landed on the whale's blow hole, or when he stole a rye loaf from an old lady. The audience laughed at every moment he talked about. It made me realize how EVERYONE had seen those episodes. I didn't start watching Seinfeld until it was in syndication, and I even remember those episodes. Anyway, I recommend getting tickets if he is in your area.

Fall Break

I am so glad it's the weekend, but it's not just any weekend, it's FALL BREAK for us! Therefore, I don't have class until Wednesday. Scott Middle School has a week break after that, so in the next two weeks I'll only have to teach three times. I actually enjoy teaching, but I'm excited because I get to sleep in (although sleeping in now means getting up at 8)!
Tonight, Matt and I are going to see Seinfeld at the Lied Center of Performing Arts, which is near downtown/campus. I've never seen a celebrity comedian do stand-up so hopefully it will be a lot of fun.
Tomorrow we're leaving for Kansas City until Monday afternoon. We've more or less finalized what we want to see and do there. These activities include going to the Plaza, which is fourteen blocks of high-end shops and downtown touristy sites, going to the Nelson-Atkins Museum, eating at a French fondue place for my birthday, and going to the Isle of Capri Casino. The description of the casino reminds me of going to Caesar's Palace in Vegas, which is very impressive. I hope Isle of Capri is almost as nice as Caesar's Palace since we're only going to gamble with $20 each, and that'll leave us with plenty of time to walk around the casino. :) I heard from others that we should also check out Union Station and some jazz clubs, but we'll have to see how much time we have.

More on Lee

The other day Matt and I were heading home from East Campus and saw students attending class outside. Since it was a nice day, I didn't think much of it, until I saw camera crews around. So I made Matt circle around again so I could get a glimpse of Tommy Lee. Sure enough, he was there, tattoos and all, in a horticulture class. The students were observing trees, so it was kind of funny to see some rocker doing that.
In the school paper, there was a picture of Tommy Lee in this same class. I scanned the picture and you can see it below.

He looked really bored and out of place. And today in the paper, a law professor wrote an article that basically rips our president for allowing NBC to carry out their reality show here. Perlman, our president, said that he had NBC's word that it would show UNL in a good light. However the professor says that the verbal promise is basically not going to work and other faculty members are also upset about it. Crazy!
In other news, I got a haircut today. I usually just get a trim but I decided to take three inches off and add layers. Since I'm turning 23 this weekend, I thought I'd add a little change in my life and also try to look older. However, I'm thinking I still look younger than my age. :P

Quiz = Fake

The quiz below must not be based on scientific evidence! Matt took it and also got liberal.

Labelling myself

I don't like being labeled (democratic, republican) since I don't completely agree with everything that the parties stand for. It's more like I try to decide which person would make a better president, vice president, etc when I vote. However, according to this quiz I am liberal. I think being at UofM has influenced my answers for many of these questions since Troy is a heavily republican city!


Where do you fall on the liberal - conservative political spectrum? (United States)
brought to you by Quizilla

So despite my sore throat, I taught my first lesson today!! It was a little scary, and way different from doing warm-up problems. I think I did a good job. My professor is going to sit in on the class on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week to observe. Hopefully that'll calm me down a bit because I work better under pressure, either that or I'll be more nervous! Let's hope it's not the latter.

On the last mouse mood, I wasn't really throwing up that day! I just thought it would be appropriate to use "sick" as my mood and Matt thought it was funny-looking.

Feeling a little sick

I'm feeling a little better, but still under the weather. My throat is a bit scratchy so hopefully I can still tell the kids to settle down tomorrow! I know they're going to be a bit rowdy with the substitute teacher being there. Ah well. My weekend was pretty good, Matt and I got a bunch of things done. On a bad note, we had a horrible game against Texas Tech. We lost 70-10, which is the worst loss in our school's history. I bet Nebraska will have its best year next year after we graduate!

Tommy Lee, a college student?

There's a new reality show in the works that follows Tommy Lee for a month at college. He is going to pose as a student and attend classes to see if he is able to handle the rigorous coursework and ditch his rock star life. I was reading our campus newspaper and apparently he is at OUR SCHOOL. He started college this past week and camera crews have been following him around. I haven't seen him yet, but I hear he's taking courses like "History of Rock Music" and playing in our marching band (after all, he plays the drums). Some people are upset that our administration is allowing this fiasco to occur. I haven't decided if this is a good or bad thing. On the one hand they may make our school look bad on NBC and having Tommy Lee here isn't exactly an honor. On the other hand, I think it would be cool to see our campus on TV (in a good light). I guess I'll make up my mind after the reality show airs.
I am really glad fall is here. I love when the leaves change colors, it is really beautiful! I am not glad, however, that I am feeling under the weather. When hay fever season ends and the seasons change, I tend to get a sinus infection. It's not that bad, but it leaves me feeling tired and blah. Hopefully it goes away in a few days in time for my birthday!

My own lessons to teach

On Monday, I will be teaching by myself the whole hour! I usually do warm-up problems, or go over homework, etc. However, the teacher has a sub coming in Monday and so I am left in charge while the sub sits there (and gets paid). I made up an outline of the lesson plan, which Barb went over with me today. It's a pretty straightforward lesson about two-step equations with variables so hopefully the students won't give me a hard time. The last time we had a sub, the kids were very rowdy. Luckily, Jake and I were still at the observing phase, so we didn't have to control them too much.
Today, I am going to organize my room again. I have papers literally everywhere! I should probably fill out my absentee ballot too while watching some of the presidential debate.
As for this weekend, it should feel pretty relaxing especially after a very busy week. I have a few homework problems for abstract alg. and a quiz to study for, but besides that, not too much work. Matt has to study for the MPRE (a pre-bar exam) so we'll probably rent some movies and stay in this weekend.

IPOD mini

I got an IPOD mini as an early birthday present from my family!!! It is really cute and it's crazy that I can fit 1000 songs on it! I requested the green one since I have so many blue/pink things that I thought green would be a nice change. The software CD that comes with it has ITunes so that's what I use to download songs to it. I also get a free song each day! I have to register my IPOD online with Apple and ITunes so I get the free song. I figure I can get a lot of use out of the IPOD since Matt and I are going to be driving around a lot (Kansas City, Oklahoma, possibly back home although we may take a flight instead). I'm trying to find out if I can hook the IPOD up in my car instead of using CDs all the time. Mona said that they directly connect into BMWs. Unfortunately I have a Saturn. So I may just look for some car adapter, or mini speakers that can plug into an earphone jack. I know there are adapters where one side is a cassette tape, but I only have a CD player. We shall see what I can find.

The engagement story and ring pictures!

As I said earlier I am engaged! I didn't write much about it because I wanted to wait until my ring pictures developed. Unfortunately, they came out fuzzy so you'll have to wait to see me in person to see the real thing!
Here's how Matt proposed:
Last Tuesday, September 28th, Matt told me he didn't feel like eating on E. Campus for dinner, instead he thought we should go out. I told him that it's probably not a good night since I had my step class that evening. He suggested I skip it, and Matt never says that, so I knew something was up! I also thought it was a random day to go out to eat and we should just wait until the weekend. Matt then said, "It's not so random, do you know what today is?" Without thinking I asked if it was our anniversary and worried that I had forgotten! He then said, "No that's in January! Today was the day I first said I love you four years ago." I was very impressed he remembered that since we don't usually celebrate it. That evening Matt took me to the Cornhusker Hotel, the fanciest hotel in Lincoln. After dinner, Matt reached into his suit pocket (yes he dressed up for dinner!) and pulled out a gray ring box and had this little speech prepared. At the end of the speech, a now-emotional Matt said "I said I loved you four years ago and I love you more every day." Then he got down on one knee to propose while other people looked on. Of course I said yes!





Here's my engagement ring. I used bluenile.com to "build" my engagement ring for all of you to see!



And here is the happy couple after dinner!

Steph's visit

My weekend was really fun and I'm glad Stephanie came to visit! We did a ton of stuff including showing her around campus, watching the movie "Dodgeball," going to a game (and we won!), the Starlight Lounge, Downtown (the actual downtown as well as the club "downtown"), and one of my favorite restaurants Buzzards Billy's, which is a Creole Cajun type restaurant.
Some highlights of the weekend:
-At the restaurant we all (all meaning Matt, Steph, and I) tried alligator tails, which suprisingly tastes like chewy chicken. It's not bad, but probably not going to be a regular staple in my diet!
-Steph and I tried a "Jager Bomb." My friends have tried it before so I knew it wasn't that bad. It's Jagermeister with Red Bull and it's supposed to taste like a SweetTart. It kind of did, but it mostly just tasted like Red Bull and Jager, haha.
-Steph pointed out, from one of my UsWeekly magazines, that Ashley Oslen was in an NYU class for 45 minutes before realizing that it was the wrong class (not to mention the wrong subject!) Oh those Olsen Twins...
-Dodgeball was pretty funny, but I'm glad we watched it at the $2 theater because it's not worth any more than that.
-I actually knew someone at the bar, "Downtown"! Well, actually I didn't notice him and he had to remind me that he was in my summer class and had to retell me his name. I felt bad!
-Steph and I took pictures that could have been in any city, like in front of a fountain, in a booth seat, etc. Oh well!

It was an eventful weekend, but now I have a lot of homework to do! I better get to it!

Steph is coming

My best friend Stephanie is coming to visit tomorrow. I am super excited because I haven't had any visitors (besides family) here to see me. Steph and I met freshman year of college when we both lived in Couzens, and we were friends instantly. For the past five years, we have remained close, even if we're not living in the same city.
Here's a picture of Steph and I (don't we look young!) at the airport. We were waiting for our flight to New Orleans to visit Mona at Tulane. This was taken junior year or college.



And here's a picture of us in our usual outfits senior year. Just kidding haha, it's obviously Halloween!



In Lincoln, I'll probably show her around campus, show her the school I work at, and take her to a game on Saturday! YEAH we're going to have some fun!

Engagement and Birthday plans!

Matt and I decided to go to Kansas City during Fall Break. Conveniently, my birthday is during fall break so we'll have a few days off plus something to celebrate! Kansas City, MO is a few hours away and we thought it would be a good idea to go since it's so close. It's also near St. Louis so it has the jazz/blues influence. We plan on going to a casino (I've only been to one before and won $5! haha), a jazz club, and some sculpture garden that looked really cool in the brochure.

We tried priceline and got an amazing deal for the Doubletree hotel!

In more recent, exciting news, I am ENGAGED! I will have pictures up here of the ring in a few days (since I had to erase my hard drive, I lost the program to my digital camera hookup, and my software CD is at home) because I have to wait for film to develop! We went to a romantic, local restaurant and Matt got on one knee after dinner. He is the greatest boyfriend in the whole world, and I'm really lucky to have someone like him. My sister is getting married next summer, so we'll most likely have a 1 1/2 year engagement and wait until the year after.

Big Test Tomorrow

I'm studying all evening for my test tomorrow so I guess a more interesting entry will have to wait until tomorrow! I'm feeling pretty good about it, but it will still be a relief to have it done with.

Studying this weekend

Hmmm, livejournal changed the look of the update site. I don't know how I feel about it.
Anyway, I am studying all weekend for my modern algebra class. I hope it's not too bad. Our prof is actually in Austria at some conference so her office hours are canceled the week of the first test. And when we take our test, we're going to have some visiting professor in our class. I hope this doesn't change how I do on the test. In all likelihood, it won't, but who knows.
Matt and I went to "Four Suns" Thai Restaurant today. The ad on the radio says "Bring your wife or your girlfriend" in a heavy Asian accent, it's hilarious. And while we were waiting for our food, Matt said the chef sounded like the person in the ad. haha
My brother is winding down his cross country season, and apparently because of this, our house got majorly TPed by the cross country girls. I hope Ashwin took a picture of our house before my mom made him clean it up, so I can post our trashed house online. I remember when I TPed, and it was really fun to do that in high school. One time my friend Cora and I found cones from a nearby site and added it to the "creation." Ahh to be young again.
Well, I must get back to studying, what fun.

Routine

This week went by pretty fast. I'm really getting used to waking up early and teaching. I give the warm up lessons every other day and correct homework, quizzes, and tests almost daily. Since my partner and I wrote the quiz we gave today, we get to go over the answers in class tomorrow and explain what common mistakes we saw. For some reason no matter how often Barb (the teacher that I'm working with) drills the 8th graders about not forgetting negative signs, they still manage to leave them off! Crazy.
I have a an RA Staff Retreat tomorrow evening. Originally we were supposed to do something overnight, but because of everyone's busy schedules, we had to minimize it to mandatory dinner and games. I might duck out before the games though because I have a lot of studying to do with my modern algebra test coming up on Tuesday. Plus I want to get ahead on reading for all my classes since Stephanie is coming to visit the weekend after! YEAH!
To end, here's a funny joke from Leno's monologue yesterday:
"Iraq had it's first public baseball game the other day. Hopefully an incident like the one we had here, [with the angry player hitting the guy in the stands] doesn't happen there because they don't want the Shiite to hit the fan."
I thought that was clever.

Math Group

On Sunday, Matt and I went to "The Oven" for some Indian food. The restaurant is in the Haymarket area, which means it's pretty classy. Even though the restaurant is a nice one, I like how they had a folk-type band playing there. Nothing says classy cultural food like a folk band. One lady was singing while playing the keyboard and kept shutting her eyes, it was really annoying.
Another annoying thing is that my math group was supposed to meet, and two out of the four did not show up! So it was just me and one other guy working out all the problems. I don't want to be the tattle-tale, but you better believe I told my prof about it. Muhahaha. She felt really bad and said I could even hand-pick my group after the test. Now I just have to wait and see which students have the highest scores! haha
I didn't have to go to SMS (Scott Middle School) on Monday because I went to the conference on Saturday, so I got to sleep in for once. Very nice. I still managed to wake up before 9am!

Today I skipped out on step class; I really like spinning and butts&guts, but step is so boring. I think I'm going to switch it to "Pop Jam." I've taken tons of step classes and loved them, and this was not up to par. The music was horrible, the instructor was really bad, and I never look forward to it. Pop Jam is supposed to be similar, except it's working out to pop music and there is more dancing involved, which i LOVE. I hope this is the last switch, because I can't keep changing my schedule around. That'll start next week, so this situation is to be continued. Instead of step, I did some Dance Dance Revolution.

To end this entry, here's the TOP TEN list from Letterman when Kerry was a guest, haha:

Kerry's "Top 10 Bush Tax Proposals" are:
10. No estate tax for families with at least two U.S. presidents.
9. W-2 Form is now Dubya-2 Form.
8. Under the simplified tax code, your refund check goes directly to Halliburton.
7. The reduced earned income tax credit is so unfair, it just makes me want to tear out my lustrous, finely groomed hair.
6. Attorney General (John) Ashcroft gets to write off the entire U.S. Constitution.
5. Texas Rangers can take a business loss for trading Sammy Sosa.
4. Eliminate all income taxes; just ask Teresa (Heinz Kerry) to cover the whole damn thing.
3. Cheney can claim Bush as a dependent.
2. Hundred-dollar penalty if you pronounce it "nuclear" instead of "nucular."
1. George W. Bush gets a deduction for mortgaging our entire future.

NATM conference

This morning I went to the NATM (National Association for Teachers in Mathematics) conference. I had to join the organization for a class, so now I can put it on my resume. I'm sure it'll look good. The actual conference wasn't so bad. The speakers gave us tips on assessment and technology-based manipulatives. It was fairly interesting. However, they promised us lunch, and all we got were doughnuts, bagels, and orange juice. That does not a lunch make. So when I got back home around 1:30 I was starving! Good thing I had a leftover Runza.
Nebraska and Michigan won today, yeah! I expected Michigan to win by much more. I also didn't like how San Diego State totally plowed into Henne. How classless is that?
As for the State vs. Notre Dame game, I want Notre Dame to win. Although it would be great if there was a way for both of them to lose, I think State losing won't make our loss to Notre Dame look as bad.
I talked to Sabrina today on the phone. She and Walter were going out for an anniversary dinner. Awww. We also talked about visiting Mona in late February in New Orleans, woo hoo!
I'm hot, because it reached over 100 degrees today!

Golf and Shopping

The Ryder Cup is like five seconds from my house and if I were home, I wouldn't mind watching Tiger Woods or Vijay Singh play. Since I'm not home, that's not an option! And apparently people were renting their houses in Troy and Bloomfield for six figures to those wanting to stay in town. Why wouldn't they just go to a hotel?
I saw this dress online at gap.com for $39.99. This is it:

I was debating between two sizes since I'm an odd size and they were selling it in evens. I called the GAP in town to see if they had them in store, and the GAP worker said it wasn't but if I bought an online item through the store I didn't have to pay any shipping or handling. So after work (work meaning teaching for a couple hours at Scott Middle School) I went to the mall right next door. Not only did I not have to pay for s/h but the dress was marked down to $14.99! Every girl needs a black dress, or so I've heard, and this is mine. Perhaps I can wear it to Matt's law school ball.

I'm a Sapphire

! You are most Like A Sapphire !
Dark, mysterious - but unforgettable. You have a deep beauty. Delicate, and shy you try to stay away from the limelight but often your intelligence puts you in at the deep end. You're like a Sapphire, because, your beauty is priceless. You're intelligent, full of opinions, and not big-headed about it all. Sometimes you need to put yourself out there, as you can be a bit shy. Congratulations ... You're the mysterious gem everybody wants to have and learn more about.


?? Which Precious Gem Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla

Jealous??

Anyway, in abstract alg. today I got put in a group with people who DON'T UNDERSTAND THE MATERIAL. One of the guys didn't even have any notes from class! I always end up doing the work in groups...very annoying. So I complained to my prof about it (in a nice way) and she was really understanding. She basically said that I could switch groups after the first test, which is in a week and a half. She said she had an inkling that I was doing the work. I love when teachers know what's going on!

OH, and Matt and I won't be getting DVR. booo Apparently Time-Warner likes to "forget" to tell their customers about some other charges that apply so instead of paying $12.50 a month we'll really be paying about $20/month. That is too expensive especially when I have a VCR that can tape shows. We'll just have to wait until we're not on campus and in a real apartment before getting the luxuries of DVR or TiVo.

DVR

I ordered the DVR service and I can pick up the box and remote tomorrow!! For those of you unfamiliar with a DVR, it's basically TiVO since we'll be able to record shows and store them on the box. However, we obviously won't have TiVO, since Time-Warner Cable has a monopoly on campus, and to have any sort of service like this we need to go through them. Anyway, I'm assuming it'll come with an instruction manual. I have never used a DVR box/remote; hopefully it's an easy system to learn. Matt and I are going to split the cost so it's around $5-$6 each, not bad. I'll probably tape Jeopardy because it comes on at 4:30pm here, very inconvenient. My friend Maria has DVR and tapes so many movies that she and her boyfriend rarely go to Blockbuster any more to pay $5 a movie. If Matt and I do that, we'll be saving a lot of money!

Fantasy Football Weekend

My weekend has been pretty relaxing. Matt and I saw Shrek2 Friday night. I had already seen it, but it was showing at the $2 Theater and Matt hadn't seen it yet. It is such a cute movie, and a good date movie. :) Yesterday I saw Gladiator. I didn't like it the first time, but this time it was pretty good. I probably wasn't paying attention when my family rented the movie because it seemed like a completely different story when I watched it again! haha
I am also helping my brother with his college apps. He's going to turn them in soon so hopefully he gets some good news back!
Besides doing homework and the above, I have been learning the workings of Yahoo Fantasy Football. I am glued to my computer to see the stats of my players. It's ridiculous and addicting. I think Matt likes it because I actually don't mind when he watches football endlessly since I'm trying to find my players on TV! Hopefully I'll settle down and go back to myself soon, which is being a little removed from weekend football.
p.s.(Thanks for the smiley Janette!)

Reena and Heather Galore

It's Heather's birthday!! Heather and I have been best friends for several years. We met in elementary school playing soccer, but weren't really good friends until college. Anyway, here are some fun pictures of us. :)

We are making "T's" since we're both from T-town, aka Troy.


I feel like I'm always wearing red when we take pictures!

Happy 23rd! And I expect you to post pictures of us when it's my birthday. :P

Booo Notre Dame and So. Miss for beating my teams today.

Donating

Stephen M. Ross gave $100 million to the University of Michigan Business School. It's the largest donation given to any business school, and the largest donation to UM in general. I think that was very generous of him and it's always cool to see a fellow alum who is so successful. If I were to have a ton of money I would love to donate money to my alma mater, but I would give at least half of the money to an organization that needs it. I'm not knocking Ross' donation, a donation to a college is always a charitable thing to do. However, I would be more willing to give money to a youth organization such as Make A Wish Foundation or to inner city schools because the children have no control over their lives and the situation they are in. Since I don't have the means to give anything at the moment, I hope someday I can make a difference, whether it's being a good teacher or donating a ton of money!

yada yada yada

Student Teaching at Scott Middle School has been fun so far. Today was my second day there and I'm already starting to pick up the students' names in the two classes I'm there for. Third period is the teacher's prep so she goes over lesson plans and the logistics of school stuff with Jake and I at that time. The first day, we basically observed. The students are in eighth grade and are learning exponents and using variables. I can't remember someone teaching me this basic stuff, but it happened at one time! Today we actually helped students while they were doing classwork. I walked around the class and some of the students called me "teacher," it was so cute!
In other news, Matt and I got tickets to see Seinfeld. Seinfeld is coming in October around my birthday, so it'll be nice to see him do some live stand up. I hope he's as funny as those stand up jokes he used to do during his show!

Football and Golfing

If you read my subject, you might think I'm a sports nut, but this has been what's going on for the last few days. On Saturday Matt and I went to a sports bar to catch the last half of the Michigan game. We looked pretty good except for the fact that our kicker couldn't make two extra point shots. I always thought these shots were a shoe-in (pun intended). What was Rivas doing all this time at practice, trying to catch a ball? haha
The Nebraska vs. Western Illinois was boring. The team was too easy, so even with our sloppy special teams we managed to have a score in the 50s.
THEN in more football news, I finally decided to join Matt's fantasy football league. He's asked me every year and it didn't seem like much fun since I can seriously only name about 5 guys in the NFL. But I decided to do it this year and the draft wasn't so bad. Yahoo ranks the players so I based it off of that. I'm hoping to win at least a few games. Even if it's football I am still competitive!
In golf news, Vijay Singh is the #1 golfer in the world. Tiger Woods has had this title since August of 1999 so that sounded like news to me.
All in all, my Labor Day weekend was pretty relaxing. Tomorrow I start my practicum at Scott Middle School!! Tonight starts the nights of going to bed at 11pm.

State Fair

The State Fair last night was really fun. I hadn't been to a state fair in ages. I think the last time was in middle school at the Michigan State Fair. (The Troy Daze Fair doesn't count, although it is just as fun!).
When we got there the place was deserted and it was starting to look very boring, but we found an information booth and we had to go a few blocks to the "Main Street" of the fair. We saw goats and pigs, which were cute from a distance, but then we got close and they were not so cute. All the rides were there of course. We went on the swings, which is a personal favorite of mine. I wanted to go on the gravitron and Matt wanted to go on a ride that was like the tower of terror, but they were charging $4 per person per ride so the swings were all we went on. There was this ride I had never seen before where it's like the octopus in terms of movement but you're on your stomach like a hang glider. That looked cool.
In the produce/commerical tents we saw a 400lb pumpkin! We also went to a booth where they had a new kind of ice cream called "nitro". Apparently after the cream is made it takes 1 second to freeze it into ice cream. Therefore the ice cream never has the ice crystals that form through the freezing process. I thought it tasted like any other ice cream, but Matt thought it tasted creamier than usual. The best part was the food carnival-style food. I had a hot dog with sauerkraut, yummm. I'm surprised Matt doesn't like kraut since he's German and all, but I guess I don't like all Indian food. We also split a funnel cake and a fried twinkie! The twinkie was good, but it was probably the worst nutritional food I've ever had.
Later that night we watched 50 First Dates. It's a good Adam Sandler romantic comedy, despite what the critics say :)
Today we're going to a sports bar to watch the Michigan game. I'll probably be doing homework. And then we'll go to the stadium for the UNL game!

Labor Day Plans

I received my school assignment and it is indeed at Scott Middle School. I'm not sure whether I'll be teaching 7th or 8th grade. When I actually look for a job, I will be looking at high schools for the most part. The school is about five miles away, which is FAR compared to the 6 blocks I usually go to campus. The middle school is actually in a pretty nice area, away from downtown, and in a nice residential area. Actually, the area is very nice considering there's a country club down the road! My first day is Tuesday!!
As for the weekend, Matt and I are going to check out the state fair. I love carnival rides like the Gravitron, the flying swings, and the Tilt-a-whirl. I wonder if the carnies will smell like cabbage and/or have small hands, haha. Anyway, I heard the fair sucked last year, but this year everyone has been talking about how great it is since its opening last weekend.
Sidenote: I had spinning again yesterday and it was such an incredible workout. I never sweat, EVER, and I could've used a towel last night. Also, I'm not that sore, so I must be getting used to it. I also switched Upper Body Blast for a Step class since UBB made me yawn the other day. That's not a good sign :)

My mood sign is "sick" because my allergies are in full swing. I loooovve septembers and ragweed :P

Waking Up Early

I am now getting into the groove of classes once again. However, next week my schedule will completely change since I'll start teaching at Scott Middle School for my practicum, which could start at 7:30 every morning. I might not get to watch Jay Leno anymore!
The last time I've had to get up so early every day was probably senior year of high school. (Getting up at 8am or later isn't early, which is what I did in college.) Even though I am not a morning person senior year was SO FUN. I had already gotten into UM by October and was just enjoying the year. My brother is at that age now, but he still has to get into Michigan before he can breeze by :P
He's going on a cruise for spring break, chaperoned by Sabrina. I wish Sabrina chaperoned my spring break trip. We had friends' parents go with us to Marco Island, but I guess we were still free to do whatever we wanted. But Sabrina is really easy-going. If I were a parent I think I would be a little uptight; I should probably work on that. [Oh and sidenote, I totally forgot to say I hung out at Sab's house the day before driving back here. I always love going to her house since they have EVERYTHING you can imagine there and she was a little upset I didn't mention it. Sorry :( ] I've only been on a cruise once with my family to the Bahamas. It was so amazing, but I think I'll appreciate a cruise more now that I am older.
Here's a random picture of Matt and I from the Milas wedding. It's the only picture from the wedding where my shoes are showing (I told the picture taker to make sure he got them in since the dress didn't really work out, but the shoes made it look better). The wedding was fun since Steph and Courtney were there, which equals a really good time!

Bear escapes exhibit after eyeing bike

I thought this was funny...

BERLIN - An Andean spectacled bear escaped from its enclosure in Berlin zoo and roamed around a children’s playground -- the second breakout since June, when a gorilla leapt over its fence, the zoo’s deputy director said on Monday. Juan, the bear, hauled himself over a wall and made for the carousel and then was very interested in a bike. "Spectacled bears eat both vegetables and meat but children tend not to be on their menu," a zoo official said. "I’d have been a lot more worried if one of our polar bears had escaped."
(article from msnbc.com)

Lots of Medals

As the 2004 Olympics come to a close, the US will have 100 medals, unless we squeak out a few more tomorrow . Russia is second with 85 medals. This gives the world another reason not to like us! I, on the other hand, am very impressed with our great effort. Yeah America!

Spinning, math questions

Spinning was out of control yesterday. It is a really good workout so I will probably go back every Wednesday. The reason spinning is hard is because instead of riding the exercise bike while sitting, we STAND the whole time. We also simulate going up hills by increasing the resistance of the pedals by whatever number the instructor tells us to. At the end of the 45 minute class, we "sprint" on our bikes, meaning we pedal as fast as we can for a few minutes in intervals. It sounds easy, but it takes a lot of control. I am a bit sore, but not as bad as I thought I was going to be. The instructor says that biking is a good conditioning exercise without being hard on your joints (especially knees), like running does to you. I'm all for it :)
In one of my math classes today, my professor said that we will be getting a lot of questions from our high school/middle school students such as "where did the addition sign come from?" Instead of saying we don't know we all were assigned a mathematical symbol to find its origin. The signs ranged from simple signs (+,-) to more advanced ones such as the integral sign or "e." I got the equal sign so here's the interesting background on that:

The Equal sign, or =, which is used to indicate the result of some operation, was invented in 1557 by Robert Recorde. Recorde grew tired of writing out the words "is equal to" so he used the equal sign symbol in his work Whetstone of Witte. He chose this sign since the two lines used are equal in length, showing that the quantities joined together by "=" are also equal.
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_%28math%29


That's your math lesson of the day!

Let's get physical, physical

I'm really excited about starting to work out again. I've been slacking these past couple of years and decided to get on the ball by looking up aerobics centers. Luckily I didn't have to look too far because UNL's Rec Center is offering unlimited fitness classes for the semester for about $50. There are a variety of different classes that run from 6am to 10pm. I wanted to find a class right before dinner so I decided to take "Upper Body Blast", "Cycle Fit", and "Butts and Guts." The names are pretty self-explanatory. I've talked to a few people, including Mona and Ashley, and they both said spinning (a term for cycling) is really really hard. They were both in pain afterwards and sore for days. That class is tomorrow, so hopefully it won't be bad. If it's too challenging for me, I might have to substitute that for something else.

5K Walk/Run

I am so ready for classes to start on Monday. I've gotten my books, printed out my schedule, organized my desk, etc. Luckily my practicum starts at 10am this week. We'll be getting our school assignments and what time we need to be at the public school a little later. Since most schools start around 7:30am and we're most likely going to be teaching 1st or 2nd hour, I will have to train myself to get up ~6 everyday (gasp!). I'm used to a sleeping-in college lifestyle, so this is probably a good change for me. We'll start out teaching about one day a week while observing. By the end of the semester we're supposed to have full control of the class, including grading papers, making tests and most importantly the lesson plan, while the teacher observes. Very cool, and very scary!
Today Matt and I ran (ok we mostly walked it!) Coach Callahan's 5k in support of raising funds for juvenile diabetes and the UNL libraries. My fellow friends got me into it, and it was really nice to do something like this for a good cause. I think it's also a good way for our new football coach (obviously, Coach Callahan) to become more integrated with the city and the school. I'll put some pictures up later because I still have to finish the roll.

Stolen Art

Someone stole Edvard Munch's "Scream" from an Oslo Museum. There were a couple weird things associated with what happened. First of all, the thieves stole this painting, as well as others, in view of others, during the day. It seems that it would be smarter to steal at night when no one is around. Well then again it's not smart to steal anything at all, but moving on... Second of all, there was no security surrounding the pictures. I remember seeing movies where famous paintings are enclosed in glass or in a restricted section. And "Scream" has been stolen before, but no one thought to add any security precautions.

I took a quiz about my "flavor" or as this quiz spells it "flavour."

I am Vanilla Flavoured. I am one of the most popular flavours in the world. Subtle and smooth, I go reasonably with anyone, and rarely do anything to offend. I can be expected to be blending in in society. What Flavour Are You?

I don't know if I'm so subtle. For instance there have been many times when I talk about the waiter while he or she is coming up behind me. Subtle I am not.

Last Day of Training

I was excited to end training today. We had an end-of-training banquet and every complex staff was there, which is over 100 people. Dr. Z is the director and he was supposed to give a speech, but he called at the last minute saying he couldn't make it. Who does that? I was a little disappointed because he spoke at the end of training last year and he's a pretty entertaining speaker. So one of the RD's had to make an impromptu motivational speech. It wasn't bad for being put on the spot. I didn't realize that most of the staff was going to be dressed up. I did not get that "memo" so it is definitely not my fault. If I knew people were dressing up I would have gladly done so since I love doing that sort of thing. I picked today to wear overalls! I haven't worn overalls in over 3 years and so that was just not a good idea.
Matt was working on his moot court stuff at the law school and since the end of the year banquet was on east campus where he is I was going to call him afterwards to pick me up. Luckily I found a ride though since he was deep in thought and didn't hear the ringer when I called. He felt so bad but I thought it was just funny. His car starter works horribly anyway. I think he needs to get it fixed but he thinks the problem will just go away. haha
For dinner we went to Wasabi, which is a sushi place. We heard good things about it, but their service was terrible. There was one waitress for the whole restaurant (10-12 tables) so we could never get her to refill pop and our order took a half hour! On Iron Chef, sushi takes about two minutes. We won't be going back there.
I've been going to sleep early these days, which I guess is good training for when I start my practicum in a few weeks! I'll be refreshed when I have to teach kids about the joys of math!

Olympics, Voting, Dad's Birthday

I've been watching the Olympics sporatically and it seems like Australia is racking up medals faster than any other country. Since when has Australia been some huge sports threat?? China and Japan have also been doing well. I always thought Germany and Russia were really good, but maybe that's in the Winter Olympics. I like watching women's gymnastics. I noticed that the girls on our team are pretty old. Usually the girls are in their mid-teens because there bodies are at their optimum level; they are strong enough but not completely through puberty. However, we have women in their 20's. I just hope that doesn't have a great effect on our chances at winning! I kind of want to watch table tennis also because I'm always amazed at how much hand-eye coordination is involved when the balls are going back and forth so fast. Matt and I have a ping-pong table in the basement and we can barely go back and forth more than 5 times before we miss the line or go off the table!
I saved some comics a while back that I thought were really funny. I'm talking back to when Edwards was named the VP candidate for John Kerry.

I think it's really important for people to vote, especially my generation since that is the demographic least likely to vote. Whether you're republican, democratic, for or against the issues, it is important to exercise your right. Sometimes it seems as if one vote doesn't count, but if everyone thought that, we wouldn't have any voices out there! So that's my opinion on that situation.
In other news, it's my dad's birthday! Happy Birthday Dad!!

Back on Track

During this past week of stress, my family was relaxing in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. I'd definitely rather be there than here. I need a vacation from my summer vacation :)
Training has been hectic, but I have the weekend off so I got some chores/errands done today. I didn't like the set up of my room so Matt and I arranged a few things. Now that I like my room the way it is, I actually finished unpacking! My room is no longer a mess! Tomorrow I'll have to go through my desk, but then my room will feel like a normal room once again.
I turned my laptop in to the help desk yesterday and I should be getting it back tomorrow. The guy who's helping me came to the conclusion that I need to back up all of my files and reinstall windows. My computer isn't responding to the ethernet connection (it did a few weeks ago, funny how that works) and the reason might be due to corrupt files on the hard drive. When I do get my laptop back, I'll have to reinstall a ton of programs such as instant messenger, adobe acrobat, MS word, excel, powerpoint, etc. I probably left all of my CDs at home, so that'll be fun trying to get ahold of those.
On the brighter side, my friend Stephanie might come to visit me in October! (Any other friends are welcome to visit whenever as well!) She's probably coming the first weekend of the month and I think there's a home football game so we'll probably do that and of course go around town seeing all the sights.
Tonight, Matt and I went to Ruby Tuesday's. Matt's been busy with Moot Court stuff, so it was good for both of us to get away from all the stress for a little while.

No Time

Since I've been back I have had NO time. My room is full of boxes and I don't have time to set up my voicemail. I got the Internet to work in my room the second I had to leave for training. Then I get back and it stops working. So I'm in the stupid computer lab again. Can you tell I'm not a happy camper? I can't wait until this week goes by and I'm more organized. Being disorganized is very stressful for me.
Anyway on a lighter and more happier note, I saw a few movies before training. I saw Collateral, which is a really good action flick. I was a little shocked at how candid Tom Cruise is about shooting people, but hey it is a movie. And I also saw the Village. I always like M. Night Shymalan's (sp?) movies. I even liked Unbreakable, which I've heard many people say has been his worst. I always like seeing a fellow Indian in the media since there are so few of them representing. Also his movies really make me think. Matt and I had a 45 minutes discussion after the movie just talking about the different themes. Now that's a good movie.

One more year of school

On Friday I will be heading back to Lincoln for my last year of graduate school. I'm a little nervous about my practicum and student teaching after that, but I know I'll get the hang of it.
I'm excited for a lot of things in the coming year... graduation, my sister's wedding, my brother's high school graduation, Matt and I finding jobs and figuring out where we're going to end up, etc.
I guess the first hurdle is driving back on Friday. It's a 12 hour trip and it seems to take FOREVER. I have a bunch of crossword puzzles, CDs, and magazines to occupy my time. Matt can drive for hours without getting tired, my max driving time is probably 3 hours (4 if I'm really awake) and then I need a break for at least a few hours before I start up again.
Although Matt says his car is in okay shape, I hope it gets us there since it almost has 100,000 miles on it! My dad says that GM cars last about that long before starting to have many problems. Hopefully the Intrigue lasts until Matt can afford to buy a new one. We might fly back during winter break instead of drive to reduce the wear and tear on his car. We shall see.
Anyway, I'm packing and running errands today and then I'll be in AA tonight.
Goodbye Michigan!

Mona is coming home

Update on bees: The exterminator came today and took care of the bees. Luckily no other bees came into the house (that we are aware of) since my last entry. Merle, the exterminator, made some spray using powder and water and killed the queen bee, which then makes the other bees that haven't already died from the powder leave the nest and move on somewhere else. He said that most hives or nests contain about 2000 bees!
Enought about that...Today my sister is coming home. I haven't seen her since the beginning of January which is probably the longest time we've gone without seeing each other! I can only spend a few days with her because then I am off to Ann Arbor Thursday evening so Matt and I can go back to Lincoln on Friday morning. I'm not ready for summer to be over!

Bees are horrible!

Yesterday I noticed we had a lot of bees going in and out of a crevice between bricks on the front side of our house. My dad bought some bug spray and sprayed the hole. When we thought they had died my dad closed the hole up. Little did we know that this is the worst thing we could've done. This morning I woke up to my parents spraying INSIDE the house. The bees had not died and had found a way into our house, probably through cracks. My parents went to work and my brother and I were faced with killing the bees. Finally, we gave up and decided to go out for lunch, go shopping, anything to pass the time until our parents came back home. After dinner we called the exterminator and he will be in tomorrow at noon. He said that he was surprised that we only killed about 10 of them since there are usually hundreds of bees in a hive/hole and they'll find any way to break free such as going through light fixtures and heating ducts. Since I have a fear of virtually any bug (with the exception of ants and flies) I am staying at Heather's house tonight. I am counting down the hours until our house is bug-free!

Golfing and Stuff

I went golfing on Saturday with Matt, his Uncle Mike, and his sister Jenny. Matt's family has a condo in Gaylord that is literally right next to the golf course. I had only gone golfing twice before and they weren't great experiences, partly because I didn't know what I was doing and the second time there were swarms of mosquitos. This time it was really fun. Mike taught me how to swing the day before at the driving range. I was just trying to hit the ball as hard as I could, but apparently that is not how you go about doing it. I used Matt's mom's clubs, which are specifically designed for women. If I had clubs I would probably want something like that. They even looked prettier. On the course we played nine holes and used the best drive to start off each hole, which made it go faster and in my opinion made it more fun. We used my drive once, but we usually used Matt's or Mike's. I don't think I would be able to play golf for a really long time, but I've never tried 18 holes so we will see if that statement is really true. Matt really likes golf so I imagine I'll be playing golf for years to come. :)

Weekend Update

Matt came by yesterday and we went to Olive Garden with my family for dinner. It is one of my favorite restaurants. Today, I activated my old phone so now I have a cell phone once again. I didn't do much else today, I got a haircut and unpacked my suitcase. I also cleaned my room because it had gotten pretty messy. I'm planning on watching Jeopardy tonight after missing the last two weeks; I hope Ken is still dominating because I want to see the day when he loses, if he ever does!


He has beaten every record now (the last one was the one day total, which used to be $52,000). He doesn't usually win by a slim margin, it's usually in the bag by the time he gets to Final Jeopardy. I found these pictures from a friend's friend's friend's lj I think.
Tomorrow I'm heading to Ann Arbor with my brother. He wants to do one of those campus day tours since he'll be applying to UM in the fall. I feel like it might be very monotonous for me since I can practically give the tour myself! And then hopefully tomorrow night I can get together with Steph and Courtney.
On Friday I'll be going up north with Matt to see his family at their condo in Gaylord. It's pretty relaxing up there if I recall so that should be fun.