Beginning Again

Welp, my last post was in MAY.  Whoops.  So much has happened, though.

So. Much.

Patrick and I decided that Wilmington, while awesome, didn't have any career opportunities for either of us, so, rather than continue to spin our wheels, we packed up and moved back up to the DC area.  We've been here since July, and the move was definitely the right one for us.  I wasn't able to get a teaching job, so I've been in the restaurant business - still - but I actually just got a great new opportunity that I start January 5th!  I'll be working from home much of the time, and traveling the remainder of the time, but I'm hoping that this kind of schedule will free me up to blog more.

To be fair, blogging even once a month would be "more," so maybe I should set my sights a bit higher! :)  At any rate, my sister has been telling me to get the blog going, so hopefully after the new year, I will do just that!

Myrtle Beach Bike Week 2014

Anyone that's ever visited or lived in Myrtle Beach knows that May means one thing - BIKE WEEK.  The second week of May, thousands of bikers (as in motorcycles, not bicycles) crowd into Myrtle Beach to... well... I never really knew what.  I lived in Myrtle for five years, but all I really ever knew of Bike Week is that the traffic is horrific.

Funnily enough, now that I've moved out of Myrtle Beach, I got the chance to actually experience it.  Patrick had friends come down from Maine to stay with us for the week, and I rode down to Myrtle with everyone for one day to see what Bike Week is actually all about.  Turns out, Bike Week is some of the best people watching ever... I loved it!  I didn't take a whole lot of pictures (and, most annoyingly, I never got a picture of me on a bike for the first time, ugh!), but I had a blast.  We started with The Beaver Bar in Murrell's Inlet,  and then moved on to spend most of our time at Suck Bank Blow (where these many many pictures were taken).

Helmet hair, anyone?  Should've taken a cue from Patrick and brought a hat!

 The bar has a dirty name, I admit, but we just posted up on the balcony and watched everyone below.  My impression of Bike Week was always along the lines of "So you ride your bike from bar to bar... where you get drunk... and then ride again?  Real smart." and while I'm sure there were (unfortunately) some bikers doing that, there's really plenty else to see and do.

We got to SBB at maybe four o'clock?  but we stayed until the sun went down for one thing - a burnout contest.  Don't know what a burnout is?  Never fear, neither did I, so allow me to educate you: a burnout is when you lock the front tire of your bike while letting the back wheel spin as you take the bike through gears.  Eventually, the back tire will blow. Suck Bang Blow's big claim to fame is a "burnout pit" for exactly this purpose. 

The big clear box at the bottom of the screen is the burnout pit, with an exhaust fan at the top to try to help clear the inevitable smoke.

This last photo is right before the contest started.  Once again, I forgot to take a picture of the contest itself (in my defense, my phone was dead, so I had to ask Patrick to take the few photos we do have).  The exhaust fan didn't really do its job very well, anyway, so you really wouldn't have been able to see anything besides the smoke anyway.  We went on Monday, which is really the first official day of Bike Week, and you can see how crowded it is even as the sun isn't quite down.  I can't imagine how packed it gets by Friday.

I didn't know what to expect from Bike Week, and, I admit, most of my expectations were negative, but I truly had a great time.  Riding motorcycles has always been a huge part of Patrick's life, and while I've a long way to go before I love it the way he does, it was nice to be able to share in his favorite hobby even in a little way.  Next time?  More pictures of me on the bike!

Anyone else ever been in the thick of Bike Week, in Myrtle or elsewhere?  Were you as pleasantly surprised as I was?

Patrick's Birthday Card

I love a good greeting card, and every holiday, I try to outdo myself making Patrick a homemade card.  This year, Patrick's birthday fell on Easter Sunday, and, since I worked late Saturday night, I decided to put his "cards" up on the bathroom mirror for him to see when he woke up.  Here's what the final product looked like:

A bit mean for birthday cards, eh?  Look a bit closer...

I know some of those are still a bit hard to read, so here's the full text:

without YOU life would SUCK.

YOU'RE the only thing that can brighten my UGLY day.

I HATE that YOU have to work today.

I WILL END anyone who tries to eff with YOU on your birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I LOVE YOU!

(The red "I WILL END YOU" card is a reference to this Aziz Ansari joke, which is from his stand-up special Buried Alive, which you should totally watch.)

It was all I could do to not crack up as I watched Patrick squinting at the mirror in the morning.  Not your conventional greeting cards, but I love it! And in case you're interested in recreating a similar lovefest, I made some digital versions, too!

Anyone else love to make homemade greeting cards?

Mise en Place

If you are a fan of Top Chef or any other cooking show, you've probably heard the French phrase "mise en place."  Essentially, I believe it means "everything in its place," but, just for you, I will Google it to see if that's right.

... ... ... Hm, I'm pretty close!  It means "putting in place."

Anyway, from what I can gather, this means that when you cook, instead of having to scramble to chop garlic when you reach "Step 4: Add garlic to skillet," you have all your food prepped and ready to go.  I don't know anyone who is organized enough to actually cook this way all of the time, unless you count the Pioneer Woman.  But you know what, she looks pretty B.A. as she just adds all of her ingredients out of cute little bowls, so I decided to give it a go tonight while I made Potato Skins Mac & Cheese for dinner.

Not pictured: macaroni noodles, crumbled bacon, and ground beef (all still in their pots).

The verdict?  It certainly made it a bit easier to cook in the moment, but, honestly, I'm not so sure that the extra dirty dishes are worth it most of the time.  I already feel that I dirty 80% of the dishes we own when I cook, and doing this just adds to the problem.  Definitely prepping some stuff is helpful (like veg that need chopping, cheese that needs grating), but doing so for everything (especially for stuff that just needs opening and measuring directly) seems like a waste of time/dishes.

How about you - when you cook, do you prep all your mise en place in advance, wing it as you go, or are you somewhere in the middle, like me?

What I've Been Cooking Lately

For Christmas, Patrick got me this chalkboard menu from Hobby Lobby.  I love to cook, and now I have a pretty place I can list our meals for the week!  Since there's just two of us, and I work three nights a week, menu planning like this will usually last me two weeks or so, as I won't cook every night.  Here's some of what I've been cooking lately!

Balsamic-Glazed Chicken Sandwich with Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese

recipe from Closet Cooking

Patrick is crazy about goat cheese, and this is an easy favorite for us.  I don't usually bother with the basil called for in the recipe, but it's still great.  Also, if you've never roasted your own red pepper before you seriously don't know what you're missing.

Chicken Croissants

recipe from Mom

We ate these all the time growing up, and I still love them.  Basically, you fill crescent rolls with chicken and cream cheese and bake them with breadcrumbs on top.  We usually eat them with a side of asparagus and rice.

Butternut Squash & Spinach Lasagna Rolls

recipe from Skinnytaste

This isn't the quickest recipe, but it's well worth the time and effort it takes.  A bit on the dangerous side when it comes to trying to cut the butternut squash, though... why is it so hard to do?!  At any rate, I've made these a few times and they've always turned out great.

Sesame Chicken and Coconut Jasmine Rice

recipes from Budget Bytes

There's a reason Budget Bytes is my favorite recipe website, and these two are on constant rotation.  I've never bothered to add the sesame seeds, but it's still delicious without it.  The best part about the chicken recipe is that I pretty much always have the ingredients on hand, so I can make this whenever the mood strikes.  Plain old jasmine rice will go just fine with the chicken, but the coconut version just takes it to a whole new level!

Yep, you can still see the recipes from the last time.  I think I need to re-chalkboard paint the background so it doesn't keep absorbing the wet chalk pen paint.

Coconut Chicken Curry

recipe from the Budget Bytes cookbook

When I was in college, I lived downstairs from an Indian couple, and I always hated the food smells that came from their apartment.  Flash forward six years, and now I'm cooking curry and filling my house with that smell voluntarily.  Go figure.

Teriyaki Meatball Bowls

recipe from Budget Bytes

If I had to pick one favorite from Budget Bytes, this would be it.  I hate making meatballs, because touching raw meat with my hands grosses me out, but this recipe is so worth it.  Just like the sesame chicken above, I don't bother with the sesame seeds, and I make it both with regular rice and with coconut jasmine rice.  You really can't go wrong with this recipe, I promise!

Jambalaya

recipe from my cousin Brittney

I wanted to make some genuine jambalaya this month in honor of Mardi Gras, so I texted my cousin from Baton Rouge for a good recipe.  She didn't disappoint!

Beef and Mushroom Stroganoff

recipe from the Budget Bytes cookbook

Mmm, I might have lied about the Terikyaki Meatball Bowls being my favorite Budget Bytes recipe.  I don't know what it is about this one that is so phenomenal, but man oh man it is.  Think of a Hamburger Helper recipe but 10000000% better, and only 1% more work.  So good.

Chicken Enchiladas

a hybrid of this recipe from Skinnytaste and this one from Budget Bytes

I've made each of these recipes on their own before, and I decided to take the best of both and combine them.  I used the sauce from the Budget Bytes recipe (although I added chipotles like in the Skinnytaste sauce) and the filling form the Skinnytaste recipe, and the combination was even better!

What have you been cooking lately?  Am I the only one that posts a menu in the house?

Household Bills Tracker

I, for one, have always (well, since college) been one to track every dime that I make.  I wouldn't say that I'm a penny pincher, in fact, I spend more than I should, but I do know where I overspend, if that makes sense.  My dad taught me to balance a checkbook when I was young, and I still carry a checking register in my wallet and log every. single. transaction. I have for both my debit and credit cards.

In the same vein, I tend to always be on top of my bills, making sure that I know when they're due, what they are, and - most importantly - that I pay them on time, every time.  Some of my best friends, well, they pretty much suck at it.  So the other rainy day I was playing around in Photoshop, and I ended up making this Household Bills Tracker to make it easier!

This is just an image - if you'd like a PDF, click here for the Google Doc!
Also, I'm not sure why the entire image looks grey here... the Doc is a white paper, I promise.

Here's a sample of how it might look when you use it, for all those visual people (me included):

As you can see, I planned it for a couple that's living together but has separate bank accounts, although it would work for a two-person roommate situation as well.  My boyfriend and I try to split rent, and then most of our bills are on auto-pay from one of our accounts.  We typically try to keep the remaining bills about even between the two of us, and this allows me to see which one of us is "ahead" from the last month, so we can try to even it out the following month.  I also use the last column to keep track of things like confirmation numbers, late charges, or if a credit is going to be applied to the bill for the following month.

If the "calendar-on-the-fridge" method of keeping track of your bills isn't cutting it for you, hopefully this will help you change that around!

* Template design inspired by the free printables from iHeartOrganizing.  Love that blog!

Mini- Binder Dividers

As in, mini-dividers for your binder, not dividers for your mini-binder.  Confusing, I know.

Anyway! Last week I finally bit the bullet and started printing hard copies of my favorite recipes. I love to cook, and it was getting a bit ridiculous trying to look up the same recipes over and over. I knew I wanted to organize the recipes by type, but I also knew that I had no dividers on hand and didn't feel like buying any.

The good news is, with a little cardstock and some labels, I created some mini-dividers that get the job done and look pretty doing it! Here's how to do the same yourself:

1. Grab some pretty labels and cardstock. I have a book of 5x7 multicolor cardstock that I used, but the name of the game is Use Whatever You Have On Hand, so any size will really do. My labels are from the dollar spot at Target, and the cardstock, ummm, who knows where I bought it. It's lasted me ages.

2. Use a ruler to divide your cardstock in two, vertically.  If you use 5x7 cardstock like I did, you'll end up with two 2.5x7 pieces.

3. Using the ruler (again), put the left edge of your label approximately half an inch from the left edge, which will make your label appear centered.  As you can see, I wasn't very precise measuring this.  As for how far from the top I placed the label, I just eyeballed it with a slight border from the top.  (If you are using a different size cardstock, you will need to play around to figure out where to place the label in order for it to still appear centered after you punch your holes.)

4. Use the ruler on your 3-hole-punch to punch holes in the same place in each piece of cardstock.  This is the hardest part, but, honestly, it's not too hard.  I held my cardstock up to paper in the binder already to determine about where I wanted the holes, and then I used the ruler on the 3-hole-punch to approximate that measurement.  In retrospect, I wish I had made the holes a little lower so that the dividers poked out a bit more at the top, but to me it was more important to have the dividers consistent. (I tried to show you the ruler on my 3-hole-punch here, but I wasn't as successful as I'd hoped.)

So there you have it!  They don't really have the same functionality of regular binder dividers, but I already know the order of my categories in my recipe binder, so this does the job, cost me nothing, and adds a little bit of pretty! :)

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

My Word for 2014

If you read blogs regularly, you've probably noticed the trend of, rather than composing New Year's resolutions, to choose a "word" for the year.  Myself, I love writing resolutions.  It's a list - what's not to love?! The problem is, year after year, my list looks like this:

1. Eat healthier
2. Work out more
3. Floss more often
4. Keep better in touch with old friends
5. Join a small group at church
6. Eat out less often
7. Go vegetarian five days a week
8. Wear real outfits when I leave the house instead of yoga pants
9. etc.
10. etc.

By the time I'm done, I typically have - no exaggeration - about 30 resolutions every year.  Let's take a guess how many of them I adhere to for more than a week.

So this year, I've decided to do a bloggy thing and pick a word for the year.  For me, 2014 will be the year of:

living purposefully.

Okay, it's a two-word phrase, not just one word, but whatever.  I love it, because it really encompasses what I truly want to accomplish most.  When I quit my teaching job (ugh, maybe I'll write about that one day), I returned to the restaurant.  While not exciting in and of itself, I was excited that it would give me more free time to figure out what I actually enjoy.  I'm 27 years old, but I don't have any hobbies, really.  Not many interests, either.  So I want to be more purposeful with my free time, using it to enjoy my life.

I want to be more purposeful with my time with Patrick.  Sitting together in bed watching TV as we fall asleep does not count as spending time together.

I want to be more purposeful with my time with my dogs.  Just because I'm tired when I get home from work does not mean that they are.  They have slept all day and want to play!

I want to be more purposeful with my time with the Lord.  Namely, I want to make time with the Lord.

I want to be more purposeful with things that I say.  I don't think enough before I speak, so I want to say what I mean.

I want to be more purposeful with my relationships with friends.  We've only been in Wilmington for 6 months, and I'm not as social as I wish I were.  I miss female companionship.

Really, I could go on and on...kind of a repeat problem of resolutions, no?  But really, it's not the same, because I just want to be purposeful with everything that I do, as much as I can.  Of course not all the time with everything, but I just know that life is short, and I want to actually enjoy mine and have mine mean something.

Do you ever focus on living purposefully?  What do you think of the blogging trend for a "word of the year" instead of resolutions?

Bureaucracy Blues

{source}

I am so very, very sad to report that while teachers go back to school tomorrow, I am not allowed to join them.  And when the students go back a week from today, I will not be allowed to join them, either.  In fact, I will be lucky if I get to go to school the day after Labor Day.  Why, you ask?

Bureaucracy.

This high school wants to hire me, and has no other candidates at this point, and they have recommended me to the School Board.  I have already gone to the county office and completed all of my new hire paperwork and gotten an ID card made.  BUT.  The School Board hasn't officially approved hiring me.  What they are waiting for, I have no idea.  They aren't going to interview me or anything, so whatever information they need they must already have.  Yet here I sit, waiting for a formality.

Then even when the School Board does approve me, I still don't technically have a North Carolina teaching certificate.  Yes, I have completed all of the requirements, and yes, the school district accepts a letter of certification of completion of an approved teacher education program (what a mouthful) from my University, but no, I cannot start teaching in this state under those conditions.  I never thought I'd wish for the South Carolina education system, but down there, this would never have been a problem.  Also, apparently in North Carolina, to be a sub, you must not only have an active teaching certificate, but you must also interview with a principal at an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school before you can get hired on. So this means that to hire me as a sub and have me start out the school year as my own sub would actually take longer than hiring me as a full-time teacher!

So for now, I wait.  Who knows how long it will take for these mountains of paperwork to be processed?

Ah, bureaucracy.  Gotta love it.

{source}

Guess Who's Back... Back Again...

Ahoy!! (Hopefully, you watch The Big Bang Theory and get that joke.  And if you don't, hopefully you think I am awesome and own a yacht.)

I would love to report that this summer has been full of lazy days on the beach, watermelon, outdoor concerts, and cookouts with friends.  Unfortunately, it has been full of my last two graduate classes (in one of which I received a B, which ruined my beautiful 4.0 *tear*), moving, commuting an hour to wait tables open to close, and a fruitless job search.

Okay actually the moving was good.  I love Wilmington... or at least I think I do.  Because there are basically no Social Studies teaching jobs to speak of, I have been driving to and from North Myrtle four days a week, so I really haven't gotten to spend much time up here at all.  BUT!  There is a light at the end of the tunnel...

I FINALLY GOT A JOB!!!!!!

Well, not officially, I suppose.  They do have to complete a background check before they can actually make the offer, and of course there is paperwork involved, but as teachers go back to school Tuesday, I'm rather optimistic that this process is going to be rushed.  Words cannot explain the immense feeling of relief that rushed over me yesterday.

I will explain more once I sign on the dotted line, but I am so soo excited.  And not only to have a job, but to have This Job.  I think this school is going to be a wonderful fit, and I absolutely cannot wait to get started.  Having never really found a true niche for this blog, I think it's going to fashion itself as a chronicle of my first year of teaching.  While the Interwebs seems to have a plethora of blogs and resources for elementary teachers, I find there isn't as much community for high school teachers, which is too bad.

I've also realized that, having fallen deeply in love with reading blogs, I really changed why I wanted to start one in the first place.  When I first logged into Blogger (two awful, ugly blogs ago) (and yes I realize this one probably isn't much better), it was because I missed writing.  I wanted to start a blog for me. Then, as I began reading blogs more and more, I wanted to be a Blogger.  Obviously I failed miserably at this, and I know it's because I shifted my goals from blogging for me to blogging to blog.  Regardless of the goal, the few paltry posts this blog has are mostly me musing about blogging, without actually doing it.

The upside?  No one reads this anyway!  I feel confident that I could really delete the less than twenty posts I have and just start from square one (since I'm only at like square one and a half, anyway), but why bother?  It will give me something to look back on, and, if anyone ever ends up reading my blog if I ever get it going, it will give them a chuckle to see How It All Began.

Or maybe not.  But who cares?  This blog is for me, and I HAVE A JOB!!! :)

Recap: Monday Must-Dos

I know I'm not the only one that starts off my week with a giant to-do list... so here's to holding ourselves accountable and actually getting stuff DONE! (And no fair adding stuff to the list just to cross it off, even though I may be guilty of that myself!)

Moving
- Pay application fees (done!)
- Email copy of my ID, proof of income, and photos of the dogs (done!)
- Email copy of Patrick's ID and proof of income (done!)

Cleaning
- Finish laundry (done! I don't really mind doing laundry, to be honest.  It's just pairing socks that I hate.)
- Guest room - sheets, towels, dust (done! dusting the guestroom is so easy since there's no dog hair in there!)
- Sweep & mop
- Vaccuum
- Fill up the 6000 empty water bottles on the counter and put them in the fridge (until we get a Brita, this will probably never happen.)

Jobs
- High school #1 (apply in person)
- High school #2 (reapply as a JV cheer coach (and hide your enthusiasm while doing so.))
- Send resume & cover letter to private school placement agency
- Check for any new job postings in North Carolina

- cancel Planet Fitness membership (two trips in 6 months is hardly worth the money!)
- try on bridesmaid shoes and tell Heather my size  (had to size up from an 8.5 to a 10, eesh)
- wish Lauren a happy birthday! (done!)
- put the top back on the Wrangler because it is pouring rain! (done! pretty impressed I figured it out by myself, even if it took way too long and I broke half my fingernails.)
- PAY SUMMER TUITION for my last two classes!

-------

Ughhh now that it's all written out, it looks like sooo much... and that's all stuff that I really need to do TODAY! (Normally the cleaning wouldn't be so very urgent, but I have company coming into town around dinnertime.) But you know what, it's a rainy day, so the beach isn't calling my name, and I have no excuses.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

Who's with me? Any must-dos you're trying to cross off your list today? Let me know, because misery productivity loves company!

-------

Well, it is now Thursday morning, and I got a lot of my list done, but arguably none of the important stuff - the job hunt tasks!  Also, paying my tuition is pretty important, and since class starts Monday, I'm pretty sure today is the last day to do so.  Off I go to do that, and I'll make sure to swing by the gym on the way home to cancel that membership.  As for the job hunt, let's be honest, that will always be on-going.

How about you?  Does your Monday must-do list look about the same as it did Monday, or did you make some progress? 

High Five for... Saturday?

1. Last Saturday I did the Dirty Myrtle Mud Run. (I'm third from the right, in case you can't tell!)  It was the first time I've run since I did a 5k in February, and even though it was about the same length, the twenty-seven obstacles meant you never had to run for very long, which is always a plus!
2. The Boathouse is a locals' staple in Myrtle Beach on Sundays: they're directly on the Intracoastal Waterway, so you can bring your boat right up to the stage and listen to their free concerts.  I'm not lucky enough to have a boat, but watching Parmalee from the grass was still fun.
3. I've had this bikini top since high school and wear it exactly twice a year - Memorial Day and July 4th (duh).  This is me and the bf at a Memorial Day cookout with friends (not pictured, but I promise they exist).
4. Two o'clock beer while house hunting.  Hey, it's stressful!  I think we finally found a place in Wilmington though, so that is worth celebrating!
5. My youngest sibling David turned nineteen this week - insane! (This is a pic from his high school graduation last year, but I love it, so outdated or not, I'm using it.)

Linking up with Lauren for High Five for Friday... even if I am a day late!

The Fastest Way to Make Sure You Never Blog...

Stop me if this seems too obvious (spoiler: it will.), but I've recently found that the fastest way to make sure I never blog is to not have Internet access.

I'll pause to let this profound statement sink in for ya.

I cancelled my Internet at the beginning of the year because, well, it was just a waste of money.  Between classes up on campus and my internship at the high school, I was never home anyway, and everywhere I went had Internet.  Plus, it's 2013 - I have a smartphone, which takes care of my Internet needs nearly all of the time.  But only nearly!  I'm sure it's entirely possible to post from my phone, but, truthfully, I've no interest in doing so.  Call me crazy, but I hate typing on virtual keyboards for anything longer than a sentence or two.  Plus, I can't upload any pictures from my computer via my phone (another life-changing revelation, I know).

So that, in short, is why I've not been posting.  Internship is over, and my summer (and final!) classes don't start for another three or four weeks, so I am high-speed-Internet-free for the time being.  From what it seems, many bloggers begin getting writers' block and aren't sure what to write about, but that's not my problem.  I have tons of ideas for posts (or, okay, at least several), but I lack a decent way to get my ideas out there.  Posts with just text (...like this one.) are bor-ing.  I see no reason to start paying for Internet at home now when I'm moving in a month or two, so for now, my resolution to get this blog a-goin' remains on hold.

But then again, after I move, I will hopefully have myself a j-o-b and will be working on teaching the kiddos, so who knows!  Sigh. Guess I will just wait and see how this plays out! :)

High Five for Friday!

 

1. I flew up to State College to watch my sister Tracy graduate from Penn State last weekend!  Unfortunately, this was the only salvageable family photo, all the rest are blurry. :(

2. Before I came back to Myrtle Beach, I went to DC (where I grew up) and got to spend some Cinco de Mayo time with my bff from high school, Jenni.  Fun fact: we have been friends for what, ten years now, and this is probably only the third photo of us to exist.

3. Bath time with these three babies, since someone felt the need to smash poop with his feet and bring it all through the house.  (Big guy, I'm looking at you!)

4. Tuesday kind of evolved into take-your-girlfriend-to-work-day, so this is how I spent most of my time.

5. Breakfast, I love you any time of day.

Linking up with Lauren for H54F!

Airport Friends

http://www.flymyrtlebeach.com

This evening, I'm off to Penn State to see my sister graduate, and I completely forgot that Myrtle Beach created an entirely new terminal!  I know this does not sound very exciting to most of you, but the old Myrtle airport was pathetic.  It felt more like a tiny, crappy mall than an airport, and you could walk from one end to the other in about, oh, two minutes.  NOW, however, it looks like a real airport, and it takes, like, six minutes to walk from end to end!

Contain your excitement.

Okay, so it's still no Dulles Airport (my favorite in the world, by the way), but it is such a huge upgrade from what we had before!  It does look a bit awkward being so empty since the season hasn't started yet, though...

Anyway, my flight this evening got delayed and then canceled, so I got pushed to a later flight.  I got to talking to the girl sitting next to me at the terminal, and it turns out she is a long-term middle school sub in Chattanooga, starting her first full-time teaching job in the fall.  We went to Nacho Hippo (a local restaurant that I was very psyched to see has a chain in the new terminal) and had a beer, then on our long twenty minute flight to Charlotte, we were seated in the back row of the plane together, and then we trekked the Charlotte airport to the end of terminal E for our next flights.

I absolutely LOVE to travel, even though I don't do it very much, and one of the best things about traveling is meeting people along the way.  It was great to meet Jessica, and it was also really nice to have her around to kill two or three hours with me.  BUT, at the same time, I kind of enjoyed that her departure gate in Charlotte was a solid eighteen down from mine.  I like that when we parted ways it was just an "Okay, have a great flight back! Nice to meet ya!"  No "What's your Facebook/Twitter/ name?" (Sidenote: I don't have either.)  I enjoy taking the airport friendship for what it is - a pleasant distraction for a bit, but it's fleeting. I kind of relish the time I get to sit alone at the airport.  Nothing beats people watching while drinking a $10 Jamba Juice. :)

PS - Even though I'm flying domestically, I'm using my passport as my ID, and it kind of disturbs me that I made it to another airport before I realized that it expired in January.  Shouldn't the TSA agents have caught that??

Lies I Told Myself at the Beginning of My Student-Teaching

source

1. Stephanie, you and the other M.A.T. candidates will definitely meet every Wednesday to play trivia, have some beverages, and discuss the internship.

2. Stephanie, you will complete your 54-page Teacher Work Sample as you actually teach the unit, rather than in a mad dash after the fact.

3. Stephanie, your Teacher Work Sample will be a 100% reflection of things that actually happened in your classroom.

4. Stephanie, your planning periods should easily be sufficient to grade and plan ev.ery.thing.

5. Stephanie, you will still be able to get to bed at a normal time, and you'll never have to get up at the crack of dawn to finish stuff, either.

6. Stephanie, you're teaching honors classes, so these kids will totally be functioning at an honors level.

7. Stephanie, your new year's resolution was to be more social, and you can certainly keep that up during internship.

8. Stephanie, these kids will absolutely love your teaching style.  They won't mind at all adjusting to you instead of the teacher to whom they've grown accustomed for six months!

9. Stephanie, these kids will be really excited to use Edmodo - it's like Facebook for school!

10. Stephanie, you can totally start a blog the same week you start your internship.

 

source

 

I just finished up my summative conference for my student teaching internship (did you know it's not called "student-teaching" anymore?  Apparently that is somehow insulting to us), and -

I PASSED!

Not that I ever thought I wouldn't, but it's still just such a relief to hear those words out loud! :)

Linking up with E, Myself, & I for Midweek Confessions!

Midweek Confessions

One of the first blogs I ever started reading is E, Myself, & I.  E is the older sister of one of my friends, and I've been reading her blog for I think three years now?  Anyway, I'm excited to finally have my own blog going so I can participate in her Wednesday series of Midweek Confessions!  Here we go!

- It's finals week, and even though I have two take-home finals due Friday, and a rather involved teacher work sample due.. wait, when is it due?  Next week sometime, I think.  Anyway, despite all of these things I have to do, I stayed in bed until three today.  Sometimes you just need to catch up on your sleep, and that sometimes is usually always when I have the most to do.  (Also, I'm sure it goes without saying that I'm writing this blog post instead of studying.  Double-confession.)

- Christmas is my favorite time of year, but this year, I'm just not feeling it.  This will be the first holiday season without my mom (she passed away in June due to breast cancer), and it's made me just want to avoid the holidays all together.  I didn't go home for Thanksgiving for that exact reason, but I will be back in Virginia in a few weeks for Christmas.  I'm hoping to be able to focus on the reason for the season and try to stay positive, but it's going to be tough.

- I have next to zero dollars in my bank account (grad school hollaaaaa), which means that my family is helping me with my expenses until I graduate in July, so I feel extremely guilty when my they ask what I want for Christmas.  But I also know that I cannot afford this Erin Condren planner on my own, so I'm considering asking for it anyway.  It's so ridiculously expensive, but it's just So. Very. Awesome.  I don't care how great technology is, I feel lost without my planner.  This is a worthwhile expense, right?

- I ate an entire lasagna and half a pint of Ben & Jerry's Monday because a girl at the study hall I run made me cry and it made me worry that high schoolers will eat me alive.  Not my most encouraging moment for teaching.

I'm very very sad because E didn't do Midweek Confessions last week, and doesn't have a linky party for it this week.  Oh well, next Wednesday is only seven days away, right? ;)

What are your Midweek Confessions?




xo.

Probably the Best Cake You Have Ever Had!

 {source}

I can't wait to make it, sounds wonderful! ;)



xo.

Grad School Dichotomies

Funny how grad school has brought out both my extreme overachiever-ness, as well as my extreme underachiever-ness.  Since December 2009, when I quit the retail management job I got after graduating college, I made varying levels of commitment to being healthy.  Sometimes I'd be really good about cooking my own healthy food, and sometimes I'd be really good about working out five days a week, and occasionally, I'd be really good about both.

Now, however...not so much.  Between classes, student teaching, and working at night, my diet mostly consists of Chick-fil-A, cereal, and froyo.  Here's my dinner tonight at work:

Unless sodium and MSG have been added to the food pyramid recently, this is a bundle of unhealthy.  Welcome to grad school, fellow health underachievers.

I guess the good news is that on the other side of the coin, I'm such a major overachiever when it comes to school.  I consistently make assignments into a much bigger deal than necessary, taking fifteen times longer than my peers.  I can only assume this will be a good thing for me in the long run, but for now, it sure is a pain.  It's just not in me to turn in something that isn't my very. best. (How type A am I?)

Basically, last night we had to create a one-page handout of pertinent info about our special education research topic.  At a little after midnight, when I left the library, I had a solid handout typed up in Word, like any normal student.  I don't know exactly what went through my brain after that, but it must have gone something like this:

"Stephanie, when did you last waste hours playing around in Photoshop?  When you were teaching the other week, weren't you jealous watching all the Digital Communications majors at the high school?  Wouldn't this be a perfect opportunity to make something fun again?  And you have plenty of time to kill now, at 12:30 am!"

Fast forward to 4:30 am, when I finally finished my handout... for my 8:30 am class.

So maybe I do need to learn to leave well enough alone, but tell me this doesn't look way cooler than something typed up in Word!

Anyone else out there an overachiever?



xo.