Since my life is more than shoes...

I thought I'd share it with you

Thursday, October 28, 2004

Squirrels

On my way home from work yesterday, I saw a squirrel on the highway. I was exiting as it was running across. I thought it was going to make it, but then it stopped, and the car that had been in front of me (and was now in the right lane) ran it over. I am still haunted by the little squirrel writhing in pain, so I thought you should be too. If only it hadn't stopped. Why do they always do that?

They did it!!

I honestly didn't believe they were going to do it. Even though it seems like the Cardinals were cursed by some questionable calls, I thought that they would lose in the 9th, go on to play 7 games, and fail miserably. I should have known better, but it's hard to have faith when you've watched them lose for your entire life. Go Red Sox! I bet all those home run balls are going to be worth a fortune.

Monday, October 25, 2004

The Cat

The cat likes baseball. She'll either sit on my lap and sleep while the game is going on, or she sits on the floor and stares at the TV. Granted, she might do this for other shows, but I've never really paid that much attention. In any case, she'd better be rooting for the Red Sox. Of course, she also really likes to sit on paper (which she's doing right now), so I'm not sure what she's actually thinking.

Our friend Robin thinks we should get another kitty to keep her company. She doesn't seem all that lonely to me, although Robin is the one who takes care of her when we're gone, so maybe she's much more lonely than she lets on. Of course her "meow" or whatever that sound that she makes is, can be kind of pitiful and make you think she is dying if you're not used to it. But really, she's just saying hi. We looked at the kitties at PetSmart. Can you believe that someone returned one because it was too affectionate? Obviously this person just wants a cat to look at. PJ was described to us as kitty velcro, and she pretty much is, when she's not sitting on paper and eating as much food as she can. While we were gone, she ate 2 days worth of food in about 12 hours. Good thing we usually monitor that sort of thing. By the way, we've decided to stick with one cat for now. I'm afraid to make my princess think she isn't a princess anymore, and I'm afraid I wouldn't love the new cat nearly as much as PJ. James might think she looks like a cat you'd find in the alley, but she's probably the best behaved cat you've ever seen. How many cats don't get on kitchen tables after being lifted off 3x on the first day you got them? She just does what she's supposed to (or not supposed to). You can't ask for a better kitty.

Thursday, October 21, 2004

Wow

Baseball Jesus threw out some Baseball Miracles and the Red Sox are going to the World Series. I have to admit that I didn't think they could do it. I honestly thought that with Derek Lowe on the mound it'd be 2-0 Yankees after the first inning, not the other way around. Thank you Kevin Brown, Javier Vazquez and all the other Yankees pitchers. Thank you Derek Jeter for not living up to all the hype those announcers like to give you. Finally, thank you announcers for pausing in your Yankee worship to admit that Bellhorn's homerun off Mia 2 nights ago was actually a home run. Now please don't talk about the Yankees during the World Series.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Krispy Kreme

Andy and I were trying to think of things we would miss if we ever moved out of the South, the way I seriously miss Friendly's and Isaac's. Krispy Kreme Hot Now doughnuts. That's all I have to say.

I forgot

to talk about going back to NCF and seeing Pastor Bruce. He was the one who did our premarriage counseling, since we weren't able to commute back and forth to VT :) Anyway, it was great to be back there and see what things were different and what were the same. Andy and I both gave each other a little look when they started talking about Purpose Driven Life Bible studies, but we decided that it was probably better to do that sort of thing in a group Bible study kind of way than to go to any old Purpose Driven group. Maybe you could then talk to people about Purpose Driven Life - what's good, what's bad. I don't know... Anyway, I've always loved that church - good music, good teaching, good people. Sometimes I really miss it. After the service, we had a chance to talk to Pastor Bruce for a little while. He wasn't surprised that we were still married, so that's definitely a good thing. He asked us what our biggest adjustment was once we got married. It took a little while to come up with just one (although that's not a bad thing - we also moved to what I consider a different country, here in the South). I finally said that just living with someone is a big deal. It's not the same as having a roommate - you have to live with this person all the time and sleep in the same bed. Good thing we don't snore :) Well, I just thought I'd share my excitement...

Fall in PA

So it was a little bit colder in PA than I'm used to. Last time, I remember being very happy to come back to NC where it was warm. This time, I got out of the car and I almost choked from the humidity. It was 75 degrees at 5pm and felt like you could wring water out of the air. Welcome to the South.

On a good note, I got to see Janeal, my supervisor from my internship at CCHS. I want to be her when I grow up. She has the best job, and if I could hold half as many facts in my head, I'd be happy. I already head straight for the children's section at any museum - doesn't that say what I should become? This doesn't mean that I like kids enough to be ready for my own - just that kids are excited to learn about what you're telling them. They might have crazy questions, but they're not going to get upset because the tires are on the tractor backwards and take 30 mins to tell you the best way to turn them around.

I have the day off today because the car is being fixed. We'll pick it up today and find out what the damages are. I'm not looking forward to that so much, but I will be excited to feel safe driving my car again. Things were about to fall off, apparently. Who knew? Of course, we still have to get the flat tire repaired, so I don't feel 100% safe. I thought that they could repair it, but unfortunately not. So until we can take it to Colony Tire or some such place, I'll be spare tire-less. Thank goodness that my dad squeezed a full sized spare into the trunk. Otherwise we'd be in trouble!

I worked a lot last week, including Thursday evening, so there weren't any posts. This week, I haven't got as much homework, and I'll have the whole weekend to do it, so I'll try to be on top of things. I'm going to start working 1 day per week at the library in November. That will feel good. I've also got to get going on my paper and my application for grad school. Janeal assured me that I would get in. I needed that. Now all I have to do is write my statement of purpose & ask for recommendations. The statement of purpose is probably going to be pretty hard... ick!

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Relief

I took a big risk by quitting my job before I was actually accepted to graduate school. Basically, I'm assuming that I will get in. I really don't know what I'll do if I don't. However, one little piece of relief has come my way. We had to write a proposal for our big Intro to Public History papers and turn it in last week. We got them back last night, and let me just tell you that when I read the first sentence and it included the word "excellent" I just about passed out on the floor. Last week, one of the other students at Oak View brought in a syllabus for a class being offered next semester. It has a 2-4 page paper due every day. I still can't believe it, but apparently that's the norm for grad school. Ever since then, I've been doubting my abilities to do this whole grad school thing. It's a lot of work, and it's hard to go back to doing all that homework when you've been able to watch unlimited (well, relative to Andy's tolerance) hours of TLC every night. Well, now I feel a little better about my ability to continue with this. Of course, it helps that I won't have a full load until next fall :)

Thursday, October 07, 2004

Rally Monkey

No, the Rally Monkey is not dead, at least if you are actually watching the game. I have to admit, though, it was hard for me to decide who to root for during this series. I wanted to root for the Angels because I wanted to wear my shirt again. But then, it's the Red Sox, and I've been rooting for them since I was 5 years old. It's like having to choose between peanut butter cup and fudge brownie ice cream when you're not allowed to have both. Sadly, I did have to choose, and when it came right down to it, I had to choose the Red Sox. Although, if they lose to the Yankees again in the ALCS, I think I might spiral into a deep depression. Either that or go and get the peanut butter cup AND fudge brownie ice cream. I feel like the Rally Monkey might be able to take the Angels all the way, while the Red Sox need Baseball Jesus (Johnny Damon) to perform some serious Baseball Miracles. I don't know why, but even in my heart of hearts I somehow feel like the Red Sox will never win. Yet I keep rooting for them and yelling at the TV like some sort of crazed baseball maniac. I was home on Tuesday afternoon watching the game when our neighbor rang the doorbell - I was mid scream about something. I think she was a little surprised, but she can't figure out how to get her mail forwarded from our address to hers, so I don't feel like it's such a big deal.

Anyway, back to baseball. All I really want is for the Yankees to go down. I don't care who does it, but they need to go down, preferably before the World Series so that we don't have to listen to anymore "Derek Jeter is the best hitter in the entire world" comments. I think that my desire for the Yankees to lose outweighs my desire for the Red Sox to win. Maybe that's how I can have both flavors of ice cream (please forgive my return to that strange analogy)

Sunday, October 03, 2004

It's college all over again

So here I am trying to write a paper proposal for tomorrow. I was discussing this kind of thing with one of the girls I work with recently because we are both very bad procrastinators. I said that I had been trying to get my work done ahead of time, instead of the night before, because it made me feel responsible and less rushed. Unfortunately, it seems to backfire on me, because I always think that I've gotten farther on something than I really have. So when I come to the night before or the day of class, I feel like I have plenty of time to goof around, and my assignment will just take me a few more minutes. Wrong. I'm just rushed anyway. We both decided that it is easier just to save things to the last minute - otherwise you waste all that time during the week. Of course, I'm still trying to be responsible. Well, actually Andy is making me - he said I had to finish my proposal tonight and not save it for tomorrow. So far, I'm really not doing so well. We'll see what happens as the night progresses.