Zip-a-dee-doo-dah

Somewhere in my 23 years on this earth, I developed the belief that non-tan is ugly. Actually, I don't care what your skin looks like (unless it's that really really really blindingly pale skin, because I don't think anyone should have to look at that), but I just don't like my skin color if it's not tan. This is unfortunate for me since I'm not tan for 75% of the year, and also because I'd like to live past 40 and with mildly unshriveled skin. Anyway, it's been three and a half weeks since I was at either the beach or pool, and I think a little piece of me dies every morning when I notice that my arms and legs are returning to their pale wintry color. I do realize this is a dumb thing to be whining about, but it's just another reason why when I become ruler of the world I'll be changing the seasons to be 87 degrees and higher for 9 months of the year, with one month of blizzard-like conditions, and two months of spring.

The upside of my fading tan is that it means my favorite holiday is just over a month away. Half a dozen pumpkins now adorn the apartment, as well as a big bowl of candy corn. I'm holding off on any further pumpkin and ghost decorations, for fear that my Halloween-hating roommates might kill me if they have to deal with a cackling witch everytime they walk through a doorway for an entire month. (Seriously though, when did it stop being fun to dress up and eat candy?)

Time to sit down to work on a lesson plan and watch the Sox. Perhaps some ironing and making lunch for tomorrow too. My night will be so exciting I can hardly contain myself. I think I need a new Depends.

My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard

That song's been stuck in my head for about 3 weeks now. I think it's starting to wear on those around me, mostly because I randomly feel the need to sing that nine-word phrase in a high voice.

You know when you were little, and you got to be at the front of the line when you went to lunch or gym or something? Or when the teacher let you call on someone to answer? I'm finding that's one of the coolest things about teaching. I always get to lead the line out to recess or to art. And even though I'm 17 years older than them, it's still lots of fun. And standing there with 15 pairs of eyes looking at me, and picking one to write their best lowercase "h" on the chalkboard...well, that's a lot of fun too.

I'm slowly starting not to mind this whole "working 5 days a week" thing as much, though I'm still annoyed on principle with the fact that I'm actually paying to work. That seems wrong. Yet so right. No wait, just wrong. I did some fun things this week...I learned a new math game, sang a new song about spreading sunshine and joy, and I taught a lesson on telling time to the hour, which was funny because I couldn't tell time on a clock with hands until around 6th grade. And it wasn't until sometime in high school when I could sort of smoothly.

I'm listening right now to Kate's side of the phone conversation with Losure, who is about to experience his first hurricane out in Texas. I was getting the idea from my hours in front of the weather channel that the storm was going more north and not that direction inland. But from what I can tell through Kate's conversation, I think Losure decided to self-evacuate himself, as he is currently getting his pillow and blanket set up to sleep in the computer lab. And isn't drinking tonight...opting instead to stock up on food.
Godspeed, Losure.

The most dramatic transformation ever

Last night I typed up an incredible post, easily the most intelligent and thoughtful piece I've ever written in my life. But when I clicked "post" and left my computer, my internet decided to be screwy and not load the new page. I lost all of my amazing words and pictures and whined for a little while. I didn't really want to rewrite it, but I'm home from school, and without any lessons to get ready for tomorrow, and class still 3 days away I decided I might as well write to kill the few hours I have before I have to go back tonight and be Miss Gross again for "Back to school" night.

So.

Last weekend at Chris and Beth's wedding, Zabe told me that she and Chris decided they didn't want their priest marrying them next month. Instead, they asked her uncle to do the ceremony. He agreed, and was ordained online through the Universal Life Church. I got home, thought it sounded cool, got on my computer, and a few forms later I became a reverand. I can do weddings, last rites, and a few other things that I can't remember. I just can't do circumcision, which is fine because I don't really want to. Let me know if you need me at your wedding. If you want, maybe I could do some interpretive signing for some of your hard of hearing guests?

Check it out:


I stayed up too late watching the Emmy's. They weren't too exciting though because I realized I don't watch too many quality shows that were nominated. Oddly, Laguna Beach and Real World weren't up for any Emmy's. I did however watch a little bit of the pre-show on E. I'm a sucker for the red carpet. Earlier in college I used to like to watch "The View" if I didn't have class in the morning. I haven't seen it in a while though, so I was ill-prepared for the dramatic shrinkage that took place with Star Jones. Her body is about 100 pounds thinner I'd guess, but her head appears to be about the same size. It's sort of freaky. The second picture wasn't actually from last night, it might have been a year ago, so imagine the body even smaller but still the Shrek-like head.

Before


And after.



And this one was just too good to pass up

Two weddings and a funeral (Minus the funeral and one wedding)

This weekend we packed up and headed out to central NY for Beth and Chris's wedding. And that means I've entered a new stage of my life...the stage where my friends start to get married. And it's weird.

To kick off the weekend, Kate and I got up before 6 on Saturday to drive out to Utica. I got coffee for the first time. It had the potential to be scary (read: rammy) but I think Kate would agree that it wasn't that horrible. Now, if you are a frequent reader of Kate's blog, you probably already know and are horrified by the fact that Kate likes to take pictures while she drives. During the four and a half hour trip on the highway, I was able to capture these sort of scary moments. Allow me to show you pictures from the other side of things.



Equally scary, is when she puts on makeup while driving. You'll notice in the second picture that her eyes are closed as she puts on eye shadow.





The wedding was lots of fun, though I still felt like I was way too young to be at the wedding of one of my friends. But that might've been because Kate was making me laugh at the church during the ceremony. Once I got drunk I think I told Beth at least 4 or 5 times how weird it was that I was at her wedding.






Molly couldn't come, so like any classy group of girls, we set up her name place and drew a picture of her, and took the picture up to the bar, the dance floor, and to eat.




She was a little messy with the strawberries


Zabe had to cut her off


More photos: http://ericg.net/stacy/gallery/album17


Congratulations, Beth and Chris!!!

School days

It's still a little too early to tell, but first grade might be killing me. In a good way though. My alarm clock goes off at quarter of 7 and my first thought is "oh goddddd I can't do this again," which sort of makes me nervous since this week we only had kids for 3 days. But once I'm at school, it's been good. The class is great....there's only 15 kids and it's probably the cutest class I've ever seen. Not an ugly or fat one to be found. We've got E., who announced on the first day that he can do square roots, and then clarified to say that he actually used to know three but he thinks he forgot one. M., who's the cutest kid but chatters away, and J. who, when he takes a break from getting off-task and drawing army pictures, wants to know why Molly talks so fast. There's S., who is a poster child for ADD and ADHD, but says at least twice during our meetings that he loves school. And today I saw him unable to find one of his markers in his marker box, and question the other three children in his group with, "C'mon, who touched my markers? Be cool, y'all." We've got another boy who, when asked to make a guess at the end of a story of what the character's mother was thinking, replied, "What the hell?"

So if I don't drop by the end of next week, I think I'll have a good few months there. If only they'd let me wear sweatpants.



This is where I spend my days

The end of summer.

Summer's over. Done. Finished. Dunzo, to quote Laguna.

I dread Labor Day usually, because it's the end of summer. Maybe if I didn't associate fall with the end of summertime activities and the start of being forced to look at books, I might like the change of seasons better. But the cold smell of fall, the way it gets dark earlier, and the cool nights are combined with the fact that I have to go to school tomorrow, and that makes it impossible to appreciate this stupid awful death-of-everything-alive season.

Labor Day weekend wasn't too bad this year though. Actually, it was sort of fun. After drinking way too much on Saturday night with a big group by Fenway, where we made friends with toothless hicks from maine and ran into my neighbor that I hadn't seen in 5 years, I then spent Sunday at my family's annual labor day pool party & bbq. Lots of swimming, eating, and playing.


This game entertained us for a good hour or so



So did this game








I spent my last full day of summer vacation at the sox game yesterday. They lost, but I got my fenway frank and some popcorn, as well as unlimited views of Varitek. I don't have pictures, so I drew you one.




Now I have to go make my peanut butter and jelly sandwich for my first day of first grade. I wonder if I should start wearing fun teacher-ish pins tomorrow, or if I should wait for the 2nd day...

This week I saw gas prices slowly climbing, so I decided to hold off on buying gas, figuring there was no way gas would actually get higher--it could only go lower from there. But with about an eigth of a tank left yesterday afternoon, and my parents' nagging voicemail to get gas because it was going to jump, I sat, unhappily, in line yesterday to pay $2.77.

Today I drove by the same station and it was $3.27. Fifty cents!

Not just the name of the brilliant line, "Hey Shorty, it's your birfday."




I'm not sure what the graph is trying to say, but doesn't it look smart?

I decided my bike is a better mode of transportation. For about 20 seconds, I thought about whether or not I could ride my bike to my house to go swimming this weekend. Then I decided it was kind of far.

I thought today that I should spend the day outside since it's one of the last hot days. I rode my bike down to the esplanade and read for an hour before I got bored. I always kind of half joke that I want someone to do the Freedom Trail with me. Mostly because I know Kate won't do it when I ask her. But I've never been to Bunker Hill monument in all the time I've lived here, and there's a ton of stuff that I've seen but was too young to care, like Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church. So I hopped back on my bike and did the Freedom Trail. Though I didn't walk through the cemetary where Sam Adams and other famous dead people reside (cemetaries are creepy by yourself).

But what I was wondering, are people supposed to walk that whole thing in a day? And why don't they have trolleys that shuttle you back and forth? And why don't we eat in the North End more often? I could go for a cannoli right now.