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!