Goodbye, 2012

New Years Eve is upon us once again.  Only this time, unlike last year, I'm not missing the ball drop in order to sleep because I have a 7am flight to catch to Disney World.
For me, 2012 was the very real year of growing up.  It had it's way ups and it's way downs, but overall it was a year I'll never forget.

January: I started off 2012 with a flight right away to Disney World.  It was my second trip (the first being in 2009).  We were down there during Marathon Weekend and when I found this out during our booking, I decided to make the most of the weekends' festivities and sign up for the 5K.  I completed my first 5K within' the first week of the year, and had a blast in Disney.  Needless to say, the year started off amazingly.  The rest of January was back to school.  It was my second semester of Ashland classes and I was at a kindergarten placement.  I learned a lot about making SMARTboard lessons during this experience.

February: I don't remember much about February.  I remember Valentine's Day was horrible because Evan never said Happy Valentine's Day to me and that's all I want on the V-Day.  Honestly, I don't think it's that much to ask for of someone.

March: Saw "Spring Awakening" at the Beck Center.  It was a much smaller production than when I saw it in Detroit the first time but I loved seeing it again.  I never thought it would become one of my favorite musicals but it has.  Later in the month, my mom and I went to see Daughtry.  I loved Daughtry during my junior year of high school but haven't listened to him much since.  I mostly went to hear the songs I loved then, 2 new ones that I did like, and to make my mom happy.  My induction into Kappa Delta Pi was also this month.  I had accomplished one of my goals in college of getting initiated into an honors society.

April: Easter was spent a very untraditional way for my family of going to an Indians game.  Stephanie and I had went to the Tribe Tour at Great Northern Mall where we had signed up to play some games and win some prizes there.  Well a few weeks later I found out I was chosen for a large prize which ended up being a suite at a home game.  Since I could take 16 people, my whole family, Evan's family, Stephanie and Brenda were able to make it and we enjoyed free food and a wonderful view of the game.  And since it was quite cold that day, it was amazing to be able to go inside and not miss a thing!
Later in April, Michelle and I went to see Bowling for Soup at the Peabody downtown.  They had like 5 opening acts and by the time the band we actually wanted to see came on, it was pretty much midnight.  We were so tired and sweaty and this venue is disgusting.  There's like a creepy redroom section on the top floor.  Everything is painted black so you trip over shit.  I swear it's a fire trap.  Too many people, especially too many underagers being stupid.  Unfortunately, we only got to see them perform two songs and then we had to escape before we passed out.

May: May was where I finished one semester than instantly started a month of chaos.  I took my classes for the reading endorsement this summer and I also had to take a phonics class that for some reason I wasn't assigned to in the spring semester like everyone else.  So I had a teaching high school field experience, next to a class at the JVS then had to rush back to the college for another class.  This month was crazy but luckily there were a few awesome days I got to spend at the beach to clear my mind and make it through.

June: Plenty of beachy days.  My family vacation this year was just a weekend at Hocking Hills.  Unfortunately the evening we were there was when the earth thought it would be cool to create a land hurricane that blew through while we were trying to get to our cabin.  Branches and leaves flying everywhere, then there's a large downed tree blocking the road.  It was insanity.  We finally made it to the cabin where we discovered the storm made the water and electricity go out.  We were so sweaty from hiking earlier in the day and had to live with all the grime on us all night.  Then when we were sitting down for food finally, we find out there's a bat or a bird that's in the cabin flying around.  And since it was night and dark, we had no way to catching it or getting it out of there.  We eventually just had to leave the doors open.  We all left the next morning and luckily was able to get our money back from this experience.  I did get to see two of the caves down there and the pencil sharpener museum, so at least there was something.

July: I had my second half of the reading endorsement this month where Megan and I were tutoring 3rd going into 4th graders 5 days a week for two and half weeks.  This was an amazing experience.  I miss those kids! The day after finishing the classes, Stephanie and I set off on our roadtrip to Florida.  I ended July by finally getting to Universal Orlando and seeing the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Where I FINALLY had butterbeer, FINALLY attended Hogwarts, AND Steph and I were actually chosen in Olivander's for our wand choosing.  Was NOT expecting that.

August: Our roadtrip ended in the first week of August.  I finally saw the Gulf coast where we saw wild dolphins.  We had our journey home where we stayed with Kali for a night in Springfield.  I'm pretty sure it mostly involved drinky drinks, Papa John's pizza, and RENT.  A few days after arriving home we were off again to attend LeakyCon in Chicago.  LeakyCon was AMAZING.  It started off crazy but then it got better.  Our last day in the city was spent walking up Michigan Ave to the Magnificent Mile, seeing the Bean and Milleniuum Park, and Navy Pier.  We then rushed to grab a taxi as it started to rain to rush back to the hotel and grab our luggage to catch the next train out to Naperville.  It was crazy going from the middle of nowhere Inverness to the hustle and bustle of Chicago.  It was an amazing two and a half weeks of summer on the go.  Even though I spent way too much money. XD  Oh!  I also turned 22 this month.  On the exact day we left for Chicago. <3 p="p">
September: September sucked.  This was the month of all the issues my dad was going through.  He's MUCH better now luckily.  So yeah, that's about it for September.

October: I FINALLY saw Boys Like Girls in the flesh.  This made my life seeing my 2nd favorite band the year after my first favorite.  The All American Rejects was also with them and that was pretty epic as well.

November: Haha, wow.  This was just last month and I hardly remember it.  It must have just been focusing on my 18 credit hour, 120 hour field experience.  I survived!  Oh, there was also an educators conference at Bowling Green.

December: I made it to the end!  Finished all of my classes this year with a 4.0.  So far I've just been enjoying my winter break before student teaching by reading and cleaning my room.  Leaving for my third trip to Disney World (though I suppose it's technically my fourth because we did enter property during the roadtrip but didn't go to a park) in 10 days!  Now I'm off to hopefully snarf a Big Mac because I'm oddly in the mood for one.

Have a great New Year, everyone!

It's Right Outside Your Door

Well it's been a little over a week and I've made progress on many things.  Hooray for a productive break!

1. I finally got around to getting my ass out there and walking fast and long.  I've only done two so far but that's because I have to give myself two rest days between so I don't fuck anything up before I even get to the starting line.  My longest so far has been 8.6 miles in just over two hours (I walk, haven't tried adding jogging yet because I need to ease my flabby muscles into this).  Luckily, my time is following right along with Evan's dads who has been training since August (he's the smart one out of all of this).

I've discovered so far that I can push myself and follow through more than I ever thought I could.  I still have 4.3 more miles that I need to put on top of the 8.6 (I'm saving the complete 13.1 for when I actually finish).  I have a little over three weeks to complete this.  By doing it now I've learned that my bottoms need to keep my thighs separated (oh god, the chaffing from my 4.3 day), wear higher socks to prevent blisters on my ankles, properly tie your shoes before you start (blisters on the ball of your foot will totally ruin your groove), and that the majority of it is your mentality on the whole thing.  You must set your mind on your goal.  The deeper in thought you are, the further you will go.

2. I finally started to clean my room.  I can see the majority of the floor now with the exception of the TV corner of my room which I will be working on today as well as getting laundry done.  My room should be PERFECT at least two days before vacation since as soon as I come home I have class the next day.  Student teaching does not sound like a good semester to have a messy room.  And they need to tell me where I'm placed already.  I want to plan!!

3. I've finally spent time with Evan the past week.  It's really tough to see each other when my school schedule and his work schedule consistently conflict each other so it's been great spending some time with him the past week.  Even if sometimes it's a random lunch date at Applebee's. :)

4. I DID end the semester with a 4.0.  I've kept a 4.0 since my last LCCC semester.  Of course when I graduate all of my coursework is involved so I won't graduate with really high honors, but it should be high enough to graduate cum laude which I'm so excited about.  I was worried about college when I finished my first semester with a 2.75.

5. I was also accepted into Who's Who Among American University and College Students.  Ashland makes a big deal of this and is giving those accepted a medal at a leadership night in April to wear for graduation.  So far I've done everything I ever wanted to do when I went to college.  I was accepted into an honors society, will wear some form of adornment besides the cap and gown when I graduate, and have at least one 4.0 semester.  Pretty much, everything I didn't do in high school.

6. 22 days until the World!

I'm so excited about what is next to come.

And so it Begins

1. The semester is OVER! WOOOOOO.  Take your shirt off, twist it around your head, spin it like a helicopter!

2. *ahem* With that being said I now have my life back which is wonderful.  Unfortunately it's only back for a little over a month then I will probably lose it indefinitely.  But I'm cool with that.  Life goes on.

3. Now just waiting for the grades to roll in, which takes awhile.  One of my classes ended almost two weeks ago and the grade still isn't posted.  This was the first semester I wasn't obsessing over the grades I received so I don't really care what I get but if I kept the 4.0 that would be pretty cool.

4. Only six months and two days until graduation.  Not like I'm counting it down or anything.

5. Today I finished the first season of Boy Meets World.  I've decided to go back and rewatch the entire series because of the announcement of the sequel series Girl Meets World coming out next year.  Evan's pretty excited about this because BMW is his all time favorite tv show.

6. Disney is in exactly 1 month!  Here's hoping Florida decides to be a little warmer than it was for Disney the last time but not as warm as it was this summer.  This also means I only have one month left to train for the half.  Time to get my ass a movin'.

7. Evan and I get to chill tomorrow.  Which is awesome because we rarely have the chance to chill just us.  Evan made plans that we're gonna make some epic alfredo pasta with red peppers, spinach, broccoli, mushrooms, and chicken (and apparently topped with bacon) as well as watch some netflix specials on Disney world.  We also are going to the grocery store together to gather everything we need...like a couple or something.

8. My plan of attack the rest of the week is to thoroughly clean the majority of my room.  Just the cleaning part (ie. dusting, vacuuming, get junk off the floor) kind of thing.  Next week will be general organization, the following week will be typing up college notes and organizing my future teacher binders.  They desperately need some help.  Especially my 4 inch language arts binder which is FULL.

9. Over the next month I will also hopefully begin my Disney scrapbook from this year.  I'm aiming to run up to CVS Tuesday to get some pictures printed and hopefully *cross my fingers* be halfway finished with the scrapbook before the next trip.  This is major hopeful-ness going on here.

Life Happens Sometimes

Lessons will never go the way you expect them to.

I was so excited that it wasn't rainy or windy or anything today because my lesson was to be outside.

I bring the students outside...waiting are two stray dogs.

FUCKING SERIOUSLY??  And I had a game of marbles set up, fuckin' dog grabs a marble and runs around with it.

UGH.

Though it's kind of fucking hilarious.

Diary of an Agnostic: Part 1

So I attended church with my family on Sunday as part of my grandma’s 80th birthday celebration.  The whole time I’m sitting there listening to the pastor (reverend, or whatever they are called), I keep going through my own views.   This is the main view I have developed on Christianity:

Remember how we had to learn about literary elements since elementary school?  Same applies to the bible.  Mostly I focus on personification.  God is the personification of love.  It’s scary, it’s crazy awesome, it hurts you, etc.  Jesus is the personification of kindness, honesty, and doing what is right (even if it includes being a rebel, because Jesus sounds pretty kickass). Satan is the personification of hate.  Sin = guilt.

To clarify, you must believe in the power of love which is done through kindness, honesty, and doing the right thing.  If you let hate take over you, you will never find love or be happy.  You must also rid yourself of guilt, what has happened, happened. Confront your guilt and fix the problem so you can focus on all of the good things in life.  When you are not filled with guilt, then you can find love.

All of the stories are examples of showing kindness, honesty, and doing the right thing.  Think of it as a self help book.  It tells you what you should do and has testimonials of people who went through it.

The parts I’m stuck on are the whole “woman rules” and “race rules”.  Why the hell is that there?  Why is it wrong for a woman to not have a husband or to have many failed relationships?  I mean, seriously??  Dafuq.  This is what holds me back from Christianity.  As well as thinking that God is all spiteful, angry, and douchebaggy.  If there is an existence, God is probably pretty kickass like that Jesus fellow.

I’m still exploring.  I’m not out to find my own religion, just to learn about others.  I’m extremely fascinated by how big of a deal religion is to others.  It just blows my mind.

Unpopular religious beliefs.

As We Move On, We Remember

Oopsies.  Sorry for the neglect.
It's been a crazy semester but it's the crazy semesters that I always remember.  Despite the crazy, I've learned so much already this semester and have triumphed over my struggles both in field and in a few of my classes.  Every single day I'm completing stuff for school and teaching in my field experience I feel more and more like teaching is what I'm meant to do.  Throughout my life it never felt like I was supposed to do one particular thing.  I was never good at one particular thing, just average over many things.  Now, not only have I found something that I enjoy (even in challenges) but something that I'm actually good at (or so my mentors and professors have told me, as well as some comments from my students :D).  I cannot wait to see what life has to offer me as I further my development in the field of education.

In the meantime, I swear I will finish up the Florida roadtrip very soon.  As in hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow soon.

Dream a Little Dream of Me

I should be as bold in real life as I am in my dreams.
I was walking through an airport somewhere when I noticed an attractive man.  I went up to him, put my hands on his elbow and said "Hey, you're cute" and walked away.  He stopped me and we started talking.  BAM.  Nabbed dream boyfriend.
Now I don't have to be bold in the whole finding a boyfriend thing unless Evan and I ever break up (which hopefully will not happen because he is awesome and I love him to death).  But I can be more bold in other aspects of my life.

Fucknuggets

I love how the one semester that is complete and utter hell on earth, all of my friends are gone.
And Blizzard had to release a new Wow edition as well.
It's like the world just wants me to spontaneously combust.
Fuck you, world.  Suck my lady dick.

Let's Watch the Books Sleep

Yes, I have neglected to blog the past few weeks.  Life happens, get over it.  A lot of shit went down a little over a week ago and everyone who should have known about it, knows about it.  If you don't know what I'm talking about you clearly aren't one of those people.  Moving on...

1. I really should be doing homework as usual but I am so not motivated to write a lesson plan that copies a scripted lesson plan from a textbook.  Thank god this is my last Everyday Math lesson that I have to do for field because it makes me want to shoot myself.

2. I will catch up on Florida and Chicago, I promise.  Maybe I'll find some random time this week to finish up Florida because I really need to get that done already before I forget everything.

3. School has been schooly.  Luckily my classmates keep me sane.  I'm so glad to have epic people in my classes.  I loves them bunches.

4. Off to the 40th annual Woollybear Festival tomorrow!  The last time I was there they were celebrating the 22nd, it's been quite awhile.  In fact I had just started preschool, now I'm just finishing college.  Funny how that happens.

5. It is almost October.  This is very sad because it means my least favorite months in the world will be arriving.  Can we just skip November-February and call it a year?  My beef with these months:

• November- Thanksgiving.  I cannot stand Thanksgiving.  There is nothing for me to eat except mashed potatoes and bread.  My family also has a tendency to get into a political debate on this day.  I blame the dead bird carcass smoking in the kitchen.  So fuck November.
• December: Christmas.  I cannot stand Christmas.  This is not just because I am not a Christian but it's pretty much a repeat of Thanksgiving except this time I have plenty to eat.  But in return for having a lot to eat, I have to endure 3 hour present opening.  Every year I try and come up with some plot to get out of this but my grandma's cheesy potatoes just bring me right back.
• January: January wouldn't be listed here if I didn't live in Ohio.  Though recent Disney World trips seem to happen in January so it hasn't been as bad as it used to be.  As long as the snowfall stays below normal.
• February: Valentine's Day.  People don't understand "you're in a relationship, why the hell would you hate valentine's day?"  Why?  Because it's a load of shit.  It's always been a load of shit whether you're single or in a relationship.  There's also always a large snowstorm in February.  It's just a month of blah.  At least it's the shortest of the year.

Florida Roadtrip Days 3 and 4

Day 3: Lazy Ass Day Of Laziness (July 30, 2012)
  After finally having a full nights sleep and a shower, our first full day in Inverness was dubbed a lazy day from the very beginning.  In fact, I'm pretty sure we never left the house until about 6.  It rained for at least 12 hours straight (see?  Not-So Sunshine State).  My reliance on the internet became more than usual because I do not have ANY cell phone service at Ashy's house unless my phone is at a 30 degree angle rested on the first shelf leaning on a KISS collection box set on the second shelf of the coat rack.  Otherwise my phone also believes it is in a different country.  So we lazed around the house, I'm pretty sure this was the day Dillon busted out Animaniacs and Beetleborgs until we went to Outback for his birthday celebration.  I did receive a free steak!  They didn't cook my steak all the way and some of it was rare and because I didn't want another one they just gave me a free meal.  Score!  Following Outback we went to Ashy's mom's house where I met her little brothers and saw a rather large collection of plastic animals.  Nearing the end of our lazy day, Steph and I went to the Walmart of Inverness to grab breakfast noms for the rest of the week and any other items we needed, like matching Marvel shirts to wear to Universal the next day!

Day 4: With Great Power, Comes Great Shoes (July 31, 2012)

  IT'S UNIVERSAL DAY!!!  I was finally going to an Orlando theme park that wasn't Disney World.  So our day started off very early, I think it was about 6:30.  We eventually hit the road for Orlandosville to meet with Matt at his workplace.  In case you aren't aware, Matt is Evan's BFF LIKE OMG and when they are together shit gets amusing.  However, you're going to want to remember this for when him and Steph get married.  And make babies.  Because it's just one of those things that's gonna happen.  It's destiny, people.  ANYWAY!  I was able to witness and plot the meeting of these two star-crossed lovers for the first time.  Take that, Shakespeare.  So we journey on over to Universal Islands of Adventure (because I need to see it before LeakyCon- there will be more on that later!) and dart around until I can see Hogwarts.  Then the spazzing comes.  And the jumpy leapy hyperactivity that I felt like throughout the majority of the day.  Who's in Diagon Alley?  I'M IN DIAGON ALLEY.  ON HARRY POTTER AND J.K. ROWLINGS BIRTHDAY.  We did make signs for this, see?  Though I'm not sure why it uploaded funky on here...fuck you, Blogger.  So the first thing we do is get in line for Olivander's.  The wait was only a little less than an hour and I just had to see this.  We walk in the small little room with the rest of our party and see Olivander up on a small staircase.  He walks down and talks to us, eying the children for which one he is going to pick.  THEN he looks at us and starts walking over.  Who get's chosen at Olivander's?  STEPH AND I GET CHOSEN AT OLIVANDER'S.  Like holy fucking shit, Dumbledore.  Luckily, Matt caught almost the whole thing on video, even though it's dark, but who cares because we know what it is!  I bought my wand chosen for me, it saved me the trouble of having to find one in the gift shop, as well as a postcard and Ravenclaw pin to attach to my clothing for LeakyCon.  We continue over to Hogs Head to down some Butterbeers (which are completely phenominal) then head over to do the walk through of Hogwarts which then led to getting in line for the ride because there was more to see.  I, do not do rollercoasters or rides that are not geared toward children, so I cut out of the line before they tried to get me on it.  They did a wonderful job of designing the place and I'm glad my pictures came out so well for it being so dark.  Following this we explored the Diagon Alley shops and headed to CityWalk to find somewhere to eat.  This ended up being Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville.  I am sad I did not have a margarita in Margaritaville, nor did I step on a pop top.  But I did have some yummy chicken enchilada soup even though I'm in the middle of Florida in the summer.  After lunch we hit up Seussland where we just went all crazy and rode some killer rides.  We then went over to Lost World where there's an epic talking/spitting fountain and went through Posiedon's Fury.  Next came, Superhero Island where we met Spiderman, Green Goblin, and Captain America.  Unfortunately I didn't get to have a picture with Wolverine. :(  But I did take one with the huge ass cutout, as well as Doctor Octopus!! which made my day.  I'm pretty sure the Marvel and Hogwarts parts of the parks are tied at best for me.  I adored them both.

  Following Universal IOA, we headed over to Downtown Disney which is one part of the trip I do not like to reflect on.  I was not expecting to be so torn up to be walking around Downtown Disney without Evan there.  I seriously hated the place and couldn't stand to be there.  We ate at Earl of Sandwich, I got a shake at Ghiradelli and I was done.  Luckily we weren't there long, dropped Matt back off at his workplace and headed back to Inverness.  The day was a blast, minus the whole DTD bit.