aagghh!!

i've just spent the past 50 minutes laying in bed, watching each minute pass by. i got up out of bed twice to add things to my to-do list. and now, i'm hoping my eyes get somewhat heavy, but i fear that's impossible with my mind racing as it is!

i'm starting to get those beginning of school year jitters.

every year i wake up with nightmares of classes taking over the room, leaving me completely helpless and unable to control the situation. i have students who, no matter what i try to do, i cannot get them to understand any concept. these horrible dreams start happening with the approaching school year.

every year i'm worried that my classroom will not be ready for the first day of school. i spend many days leading up to our return preparing my room to be in perfect order. my lists of things to-do grow each day and slowly, i check off those boxes!

my room is now done and it's time to focus on that 'teaching' thing. going from 3rd graders ready to move onto 4th to 1st graders just coming from kindergarten, i'm slightly anxious and nervous. i've taught 1st grade before, but that was a completely different environment and type of student. it was also two years ago.

what am i going to do that first day of school? how am i going to successfully complete the first week of school and accomplish the goals i have set in my mind? will the kids start off the school year with excitement and look forward to the year to come?

i'm greatly looking forward to the upcoming school year and am truly excited to work with first grade students. to see their accomplishments and growth through the school year is rewarding and exciting as a teacher. they come in as babies and leave as little people, ready to concur the world....or perhaps just the playground!

wish me luck...and dear lord, someone have that 'first day of school' glass o' wine ready for me!!

i've realized tonight...

attending tracy's amazing luau party tonight, i've come to a few realizations...

i knew that i would be entering a zone with many individuals younger than my age. while not out of college that long ago, it's amazing what a few years does to you. as soon as we entered the party, i immediately joined my friends in judging people. it was apparently obvious that my eyes were scanning and placing judgment on party-goers as tracy called me out across the room. but c'mon, the obvious homo should not have been wearing his south beach 'white party' outfit to the luau (unless, of course, he bought it specifically for tonight's event). and, as his boyfriend shook my boyfriends hand for a much longer-than-necessary period of time, i thought i was going to have to pull my knife out.

and to my previous post about straight boys.....

they seriously do so many stupid things. i'm not saying that gays are any better, but the things they say and do are utterly ridiculous. take for instance the boy sitting on top of the other boy who stole his chair. their engagement was ten times more homoerotic than me and my boyfriend would ever do at a party! their words and actions all to get the attention of a girl who is probably NOT interested in them.

bless my poor friend tracy's little heart......i had a great time, but the company of the guests definitely stole the show!

straight boys....

they're stupid.

beantown to ptown

on our final summer vacation, gary and i went to boston and then to provincetown.

- i miss my pooks. it was so fun sitting around, telling stories and laughing at some of our college memories together. someday, jeremy and gary will understand what's so great about iu! and if we lived in boston, i would steal jeremy and erin's house out from underneath them! it's gorgeous! oh, and i want a deck. gary and i were so content relaxing on the deck. there's just something about sitting outside, with a drink in hand.

- after walking around beacon street to do some shopping, we stopped at cheers for lunch. while the outside looks inviting for norm to walk in for a beer, the inside would leave him lost and surprised. eating lunch in the oak room, i became obsessed with clam chowder! and it doesn't matter where you are, you will run into someone you know. i'm still wondering if i know this individual from the dorms, the ed school, or the bars.


- boston is a pretty city.


- enjoying history, i wanted to see something historical. erin and gary were troopers, walking the freemdom trail with me!


- plymouth rock is overrated.


- it's pretty safe to assume that we will get the gayest car at the rental place.


- provincetown was great. there were so many friendly people everywhere! after we switched hotels, these were the two views from our place:

our hotel was located right on commercial avenue

our balcony overlooked the harbor

- it's not as easy as you would think to drive around hyannis, looking for the kennedy compound. but we were not giving up. we're pretty sure that we saw it, with a large american flag on the edge of the beach.


- i've enjoyed all the vacations we've taken this summer, but i was ready to come home. it seems like we've been away more this summer than home. if only i could take a vacation from all the vacations!! it's back to work monday, though....

some anticipation

today i went into my school to work in my classroom. sure, i have about three weeks until the kids come back, but my vacation days are running short. after a trip to boston and a 2-day workshop, teacher institute days are coming up quickly.

this year, i had to move classrooms. i'm very excited about going back to first grade, but the thought of moving rooms did not excite me. with no choice, i moved everything across the hall and down two doors. while the view of the school garden is nice, the sun beats into the room the entire morning (curtains may be necessary). and my sink is no longer. regardless, i will make do - - nothing can be as bad as my tiny, windowless room in north carolina.

hanging up my colors, shapes, and numbers, i got a jolt of excitement and anticipation for the upcoming school year. with three first grades, our class numbers will be smaller. it will be nice to have only 22 students versus the 30 i've had the past two years. looking my class roster over and putting the finishing touches on student folders, i'm eager to get back into a routine.

of course i enjoy my vacation, but each year, i'm like the little kid laying in bed, unable to sleep, excited about the first day of school.

but first, i will enjoy my vacation to boston and provincetown, maybe relax a couple of days, but then it's back to the grind!

(ask me about my excitement in a month....)

back home again in indiana!

this weekend was a whirlwind trip across indiana. traveling from chicago to ft. wayne to wabash to bloomington and back to chicago, not staying any place for more than 24 hours.

thursday night, we made our way to ft. wayne to get the timing belt on my car changed and, more importantly, to see our adorable niece, lilly. during the three-hour drive to ft. wayne, we hit a torrential down-pour. heavy rain and snow scares me when i drive; therefore, i was driving like a grandma down the 2-lane highway. some nasty person tailgated me through the storm and increased my level of road rage! we finally made it to ft. wayne at 11:30 est. our adorable lilly was asleep, but uncle adam quickly woke her up! she has grown so much since i saw her last! perhaps i'm a little biased, but she's the cutest damn thing i've ever seen!


on friday, we dropped my car off at the honda dealership, picked up our adorable lilly and headed to the mall (oh, after a quick trip to chic-fil-a for a chicken biscuit sandwich!). the two homos were set to do some shopping, while pushing lillers in her stroller. she was being so good, until we made our way into a store and stopped to look at some clothes. she started getting fussy. we realized that she wanted to be constantly moving. anytime we stopped pushing her in the stroller, she would start whining and begin to cry (it seemed to happen more when uncle adam was pushing than when uncle gary was in control!). my patience seemed to run a bit thin! thankfully, gretchen met us for lunch at the mall. of course, lilly was all smiles and laughs now!

later in the afternoon, we made our 45-minute trek to wabash (first electrically lighted city in the world, you know). later in the evening, lilly and gretchen joined us. we had a great night, where gary and i beat mom and gretchen at trivial pursuit!

saturday afternoon we had a cookout with my grandparents before leaving for bloomington. i was so excited to go to bloomington! i always love going back to my college home to visit! the reason for our trip was selina and jamie's 'luau party'.

the kids were CRAZY saturday night!

annie, not amused by the music of the evening!


rachie, just being rachie


dre, with two drinks in hand (as usual!)


gary, amused

and rica, striking a quick pose

sunday morning, we left bloomington after a quick lunch with a great friend of mine, anna, and her husband brandon. a quick stop a oliver winery for some goods to take home, and we were on our way. i knew that bonita (my '01 civic) was going to finally hit 100,000 miles on our way back to chicago. on our way into bloomington on saturday, and on sunday's drive, we heard bonita running a little louder than normal. perhaps it was because she was getting old, we thought. we kept driving, until somewhere between mile marker 209 and 210 on northbound i65 where a loud sound came from underneath the car. i quickly got control of the car to realize that bonita just blew a tire. the tread from the rear passenger tire came off and took half of the rear bumper with it. we quickly got to the shoulder of the road to see the amount of damage that had been done. a frantic mess, i wasn't quite sure where to start. gary got the spare tire out of the trunk. i was looking for insurance papers to call someone. about that time, we get a call from andrea who had just passed us on the interstate. the girls pull over and come to lend us a hand. i was able to call 911 and get transferred to a nearby garage that would come replace the tire. we sat for an hour, waiting for help!

poor bonita...


with a new tire and duct tape holding up the bumper (we're classy people like that!), bonita hit a pivotal point in her life somewhere in what we hoosiers refer to as 'the region':


i was never so happy to sit amidst the sea of taillights on lake shore and search for parking in lakeview as i was sunday evening.

the world in which we live in

i wake up this morning to see that the terror level has been raised to "red" for all airliners from the u.k. to the u.s. the domestic level has been raised to "orange" for all flights, additionally. british authorities arrested the 21 individuals believed to be involved.

the result - fear. let's scare people. that's what the u.s. government has been so good at lately. if people are scared, republicans in our fine government can have a firm grip on american citizens.

gary, working today, has gone through hell within the first 30 minutes at the airport this morning. flight crews, while going through security, were told - like everyone else - that they would not be able to take any liquid with them. that means no shampoo, no deodorant, no beverages, or anything else thought to include an explosive device. gary had to check his luggage to chicago. though not traveling with his luggage (a big faa no-no), had to go through more loop holes to make sure that his belongings make it home. only later did the tsa change their memo to allow flight crews to take their luggage with them.

what bothers me is that this is a scare tactic. it's been nearly 5 years since 9/11 and it's time to raise the level of terrorist threat in order to worry americans. it's also a great chance to raise gas prices or anything else that can be done to screw the american public.

for a long time now, i wish that i would have been born in another country. i wish i had the ability to leave this country and go some place that day-to-day living is not so fucked up. i pray that our country becomes a little less fucked up after this administration is out of office. george w. bush and his people have done nothing except fucking up this country and the world in which we live in.

i'm not scared. i'm pissed.

tirade tuesday!

now that i'm officially on vacation for the next month, i have the ability to run errands during the day, hoping to avoid the swarms of people everywhere. not driving so much lately, i made my way to evanston to do some household shopping. i tend to get a bit of road rage as i drive and by the time i got to target, i wasn't in the best of moods. but, the kicker comes when i made my way to the wal-mart in niles.

as i'm driving through the parking lot, two ladies walking through the parking lot see that i'm coming. apparently, they were in NO rush whatsoever. when they saw me, i'm pretty sure that they slowed down just a bit more. unbeknownst to me, this great world of ours revolved around these two fine ladies.

but my biggest complaint/question of the day:

WHY IS IT THAT NO MATTER WHAT TIME OF DAY, WALMART ONLY HAS ONE CHECKOUT LANE OPEN WITH A LINE OF 75,231 PEOPLE WAITING IN IT?!??! suck it up people! you make millions a year! you can afford to pay someone a minimum wage salary! don't worry, you can still hold their hours back to 31.99/week so you don't have to offer benefits.

i swear, if i hadn't needed fabric so badly, i wouldn't have stepped into that third-world country we know as walmart!!

our next tirade comes from ms. a. davis:

my latest focus of pure hatred is on those grocery carts that have the big plastic cars attached to the front, thus making them approximately as long as the ford focus i actually drive on the street. is there a need for these things in grocery stores that are already too busy, have aisles that are too narrow, and contain way too many screaming children?! no. i think not.

whoever invented thess monstrosities should try to get through the frozen food section while being pinned from each direction by mothers pushing their brats in these oversized strollers. the mothers can't get them pointed in the right direction (anywhere away from me, please god) without a three-point turn around, during which the little shitbags strapped into the car seats scream and cry at the top of their lungs for ice cream and popsicles. inevitably, ignoring mother's fake apologetic look, the snot-nosed kid trying to grab me as i squeeze past, and the fact that i just wasted 20 minutes trapped in what may very well be my idea of hell, i am forced to seek comfort from my two favorite therapists: ben & jerry. seriously, there should be a grocery store where only single people or married people without kids are allowed to shop. wouldn't that be great?!!

folks, i would like to make 'tirade tuesday' an interactive weekly blog. if there's something you want to bitch about, send it my way and i'd be happy to post it in the following week's tirade!

when the background is so beautiful, it's not too hard to take great pictures

while in paris, we took over 300 pictures. granted, i had a few issues with the camera - some were too dark, some were blurry, and others just didn't make a great picture - but many of the pictures turned out very well. i am happy with many of the pictures from paris and want to share a few of my favorites.

paris

sorry for the delay in this post. i was more concerned with getting all the pictures uploaded on the computer!!

paris was great! we had such a great time enjoying the sights of the 'city of lights'. our hotel was nice, with an amazing location. we were a 2-minute walk to the nearest metro stop and a 5-minute walk to the louvre, with the beautiful jardin de tuilleries nestled between the two places. during the 4 days in paris, we successfully visited all the places on our list! many days were incredibly exhausting. there were times that i was sure it would feel better to cut off my feet and walk on the bloody stubs.

instead of posting a 'paris, day-by-day' blog as i had originally promised, i decided to rather include a few highlights, with pictures. i decided that 1) i dont' want to write 4 novels detailing my trip in paris and 2) my readers don't honestly care that much about the miniscule details of my french vacation.

day 1:
21 hours of travel, chicago to paris.
louvre
la tour eiffel at night (we climbed the stairs to the first level)

musee de louvre

an amazing art museum, especially for those that appreciate fine art. i, however, am not one of them. of course it was great to see such classics housed in the louvre, including the architecture of the castle, itself. and while the french are not fond of it, i happen to enjoy the interesting glass pyramid that sits at the entrance to the louvre. (perhaps part of it is my bias to designer i.m. pei because he also designed the beautiful iu art museum!)

la tour eiffel

sure, it may be cliche, but we made our way to the eiffel tower the first night in paris. we were both eager to see la tour eiffel at night. i had heard about the light show (it wasn't a part of the eiffel tower last time i was in paris) and was eager to see it for myself. we decided to take the stairs to the second level. we made it to the first and stopped. it was almost 10pm and as soon as the lights on the exterior started to flash, i ran down the stairs to get pictures and video during the light show. perhaps we would have enjoyed ourselves at the first level if we had been told that there was another show at 11pm. UGH! how exhausted do we look in this picture?!

day 2:
opera garnier
montmartre walking tour
notre-dame
bateaux mouche ride along the river seine

opera garnier

the paris opera house is amazing to me. seeing the phantom of the opera numerous times, the grand staircase and infamous chandelier appeal to me greatly. i was excited to have the opportunity to view the inside of the auditorium during this trip to the opera garnier! seeing the library which holds numerous famous operas was also impressive.

montmartre

sacre-coeur

using our fodor's paris guide, we followed the 2-hour walking tour laid out for us of montmartre, the bohemian area of paris. located on a large hill, we walked up and down very steep streets. we saw where van gogh, renoir, and berlioz once lived. additionally we saw picasso's former studio. at the top of the hill is sacre-coeur, a large church that overlooks all of paris. on our way down the hill, we noticed the filming of a movie. we were "lucky" enough to watch the short takes at the small cafe. montmartre is a beautiful area with alot going on!

notre-dame

notre dame a beautiful, must-see cathedral located on the ile de la cite. the rose stained-glass windows are amazing. it's said that the blue colors in the window have never been matched, even historians do not know where the builders found this particular color of glass! even more amazing is the architecture of notre-dame. the flying buttresses make notre-dame so recognizable. the views from the church look towards the right and left banks of paris. lunch in the park behind notre-dame is a great spot to watch people and take in the beautiful scenes!

bateaux mouche

i was looking forward to the ride down the seine in the bateaux mouche. one word describes my experience - disappointed. aside from the 578 asian tourists and the 27 college students on board, i was fighting with the camera. because it was dark and we were moving 10 mph, the pictures didn't turn out well at all. we attempted to take our picture in front of the illuminated eiffel tower 281 times and got ONE, with small, blurry spots. if you're looking for romance along the seine, i recommend a dinner cruise, or perhaps a private, individual cruise along paris' river.

day 3:
chateau de versailles

palace de versailles

fortunately the tour of the palace includes an audioguide. walking through the castle with large headphones and an awkward box hanging from my neck, i learned the purpose of each room inside the castle. the intricate detail of the walls, ceilings, and furniture are unlike anything we see today. king louis (the something), versailles former resident, was obsessed with the sun. his bed had to face the east to look towards the day's sunrise. the famous 'hall of mirrors' was bright and took in every last ray of light. ooonnn...the.....flipside, there were many tour guides leading groups from room to room. in one instance, a tour guide stepped over the rope holding people back from the historical furniture to tell her group about what they were seeing. as she made her way to the next room, she literally pushed me out of her way. as a paying tourist myself, i pushed her right back and moved to the front of the room to take a picture. get me to the gardens, now.dear.god!

gardens at versailles

"oh! you have to see the gardens!" i had heard from so many people that the gardens of versailles are just BEAUTIFUL. they were enormous. each way you looked there were trees, brightly colored flowers, and fountains....which lay still. i would have LOVED to see the fountains - which were everywhere - flowing, but they were off today, as they are most days at versailles (which i do not understand since the chateau has its own reservoir!). a slight disappointment, but i still enjoyed wondering through the large pathways, finding a secluded spot to each lunch, and taking as many pictures as possible.

marie-antoinette's estate

amazing. walking around marie-antoinette's estate was the highlight of versailles. not enjoying royal life, marie-antoinette had her own estate where, as you can see, the buildings were much simpler. there were ponds, waterfalls, grottos, and nature all around. the backdrop made for some of my favorite pictures!

day 4:
saint sulpice
la tour eiffel (to the top)
arc de triomphe

saint sulpice

some might say, ABC (another bloody church), but not true. i was excited to see saint sulpice after recently finishing the da vinci code. in this book, this was home to the 'rose line' and the obelisk where the supposed holy grail was located. upon entering this church, it was beautiful. perhaps i enjoyed it more because there were probably only 10 other people inside the church. like most cathedrals, the architecture was amazing, with huge ceilings and the entire church shaped like the christian cross. due to dan brown's book, there were signs inside that defended the church and assured that there was no priory of sion and the gold meridian line that ran through the church was actually the work of astronomy researchers in paris.

view of the parc du champs de mars from the top of the eiffel tower

we ventured the long lines to take the lift to the top of the eiffel tower. in line, we met a very nice british couple with their two grandkids. surprisingly, the line moved relatively quick to get in the elevator to the second level. from there, you wait in another line to take the elevator to the top. by the time we took some pictures on the second level and then made our way to the top, i was O-V-E-R people. snapped a few pictures at the top, looked around, and then made a dash to come down. for future knowledge, the top of the eiffel tower is not large and does not hold the hundreds of tourists that want to look around. advice from myself: stop at the second level.

arc de triomphe

we ended our trip with a shopping day along the champs-elysees. at the end of the large street sits the arc de triomphe. to avoid the 5 lanes of crazy french drivers, there is a tunnel to reach the center of the arc de triomphe. the picture here, though, was taken from the middle of the street. how many people are "fortunate" to get stuck in the middle of the street to take such a picture?!


in conclusion, paris was GREAT. i was so glad to enjoy a vacation with gary in europe. yes, it was a whirlwind tour, but we got to see everything that we wanted to see. paris is a great city, but i don't think i would want to return anytime soon. there are many more countries yet to be stamped in my passport!