22.

it's already july. in less than 12 days, i'll be 22. that is old. i don't feel old, but my age sounds old. i think i'll just celebrate being 21 for 11 more days instead.

life updates:
i still love it here. i go to the beach every. single. day. i've never been outside more in my life. i think i only go inside to sleep, really. i walk on the beach like no other.

my roomates are the most encouraging and wonderful friends. we have so much fun together. last night we drove around in regis' convertable blasting rap music in case the neighbors were starting to think we lived in a safe neighborhood.

we also bought some fish for our house. they swim about freely in their tank that sits on the table. mine is a big black fish named tanysha letashion booth bhudda bug.

bryn, fiona, and regis picking out the fish:


bryn and fiona found a cat. over my dead body.


their home!!


aaaand some more pictures:


my beach:


apartment.


my roomate, fiona.

Right now, I am sitting in a quaint coffee shop on the corner of Cleveland and pier view by the beach...blogging on my iPhone (I know...I'm even annoying myself right now) that mom so graciously bought me for my upcoming birthday. I am one or two more layouts away from being considered "tan" and I haven't been bored since I got here, despite being dead broke with no job (interview on Monday morning though !). I don't think I'll want to leave this place.

Some hilights:

All of my roomates are here! The first couple of days it was just Bryn and I since regis was out of town and fiona hadn't moved yet. Fiona is the girl I share a room with and she just up and moved without planning just like me. She and regis are from philidalphia and immidietly fiona and I were kindred spirits when within literally minutes of meeting her, she was showing me photos he had taken on her phone of her most interesting hospital patients. example: "here's a 700 pound man!" and "oh this is a pic of a wound filled with maggots!" extremely gross and most likely unethical but I love it.

Regis, my other roomate, has this uncle who is an independent film director (he directed the gymnast and is making a new movie called "a marine story"), so we went on wednesday to a party in west Hollywood celebrating his new film. She also has had the swine flu. Literally, she was diagnosed and everything..so that's pretty cool. Ha.

And of course I have gotten hang out time with my other half freshman year of college and funniest person I know, Brooklynn. She is really the best. I had a mini ( okay, big) breakdown the other night because I did something stupid. The first day I moved in, Bryn told me that they had put down an $1800 security deposit and wouldn't get it back at all if anything happened to the carpet so I needed to be very cautious. So, naturally, I leave my straightened on all night ON THE CARPET and burned it. Awesome. I seriously about died. So I went to brooklynns and just bawled. You know when you're crying so hard and you're explaining why you're crying and it just sounds so stupid that you are also simutaniously cracking up laughing? That was me. Inbetween wails of "I burned their carpet with the straightener!!" I couldn't stop laughing. It was a great releasebof emotions and we were up til 4am talking. I love friends like that.
And my roomates are so sweet about it and I feel like it's made us closer because we have been constanty joking about it...something I didn't think would happen for a year at least. Ha.

Okay, enough blabbing. I have photos for you. Feast your eyes:

^ this is oceanside. in two weeks, i am going to be living in an apartment with 3 other girls that is walking distance from this very spot. for the whole summer.

first order of business:

purchase a bicycle, with a basket, that will be my bff. when i was a kid, i used to ride my bicycle everyday for hours. i cannot wait to do the same in california.


other than that, i am going to work, hang out with brooklynn (my other half freshman year of college), and do my own thing.

it's going to be awesome.

don't you think you oughta know by now...

for almost 22 years now, i have been alive and kicking; i've been through 22 years of experiences, and whether they be good or bad, i've learned/am learning from them all.
but...as a human being of normal cognitive functioning, there are some experiences that should never need to re-occur because the outcome of said experiences were just crappy and made me feel stupid. so why do these types of events happen over and over again?

by now, i should've known:

-you can't open a bottle of diet coke straight from the vending machine without waiting a couple of minutes. swiftly twisting off the cap will result in an overflow of carbonation onto your hands, possibly down your shirt, and onto the floor (or worse: your shoes). if you are in public, which you probably are because i don't know anyone with a vending machine in their home, you will probably feel stupid as you stand there with your arms out in that frozen and shocked "oh-crap-i-just-opened-my-diet-coke-too-quickly-and-it's-spilling-everywhere" stance. and if you're doing that stance, you're probably making the corresponding face. you know what i'm talking about. the one where you look like a scared child and make that "thhhhhhhhhh!" hissy noise through your clenched teeth.
stupid stupid stupid.


- if you are trying to teach 2nd graders about erosion and need to purchase a piece of sod from home depot, don't try to purchase the sod in a nice white cardigan and no truck or piece of plastic to sit the sod on in your backseat. the home depot employee that is helping you out will probably think you are an idiot. you will pick up on this as soon as he laughs and talks to you like you've never stepped foot in the rugged outdoors before. and if you're like me, you will try to pretend that you knew the sod would get your nice cardigan and your backseat dirty and that you didn't care. end result= a car that smells like a garden and a dirty sweater.


- don't procrastinate on paying your phone bill that is due on the same day every month. with that comes the hassle of your phone service getting turned off only to, minutes later, go online (can't call), pay bill and $35 late fee, and get your phone back on. on top of that comes the added anxiety over what calls or texts you could have missed, then the discontent with yourself being so concerned that you may have missed important calls and texts over a period of probably 20 minutes.

-when the parking lot at school is full except for the empty space by the tree, don't park there. especially in the cold months when massive amounts of birds travel to oklahoma. trees are a popular hangout for birds. birds poop. if your car is parked near a tree, birds will probably poop all over it.


don't be stupid. happy summer :)

makes me smile...

i am overloaded with work this week. let me just give you a rundown of my homework that is all due by wednesday:

-consonant thematic unit- my consonant is "p" so i am doing my unit over pilgrims. a thematic unit entails a lesson plan for math, science, social studies, a language arts reading and writing connection activity and comprehension, an alliteration, poem and song, a word wall, bulletin board, game, activities, and ten trade books/book reviews. examples and artifacts required for each lesson plan/activity/game.

-for primary science: a science lesson plan and practicum at the school for children. so i will be teaching the science class my lesson.

music/art- another practicum at bethany elementary. music and art lesson. shoot me.
also, 25 music and art lesson plans are also due.

characteristics of early adolescence: an hour and a half presentation over gender...entails problems/stereotypes/characteristics, etc.
also, i have to read a "teen" book and present that as well.

there are some writing assignments thrown in there, too.


being an education major is lots of work. teachers do not get enough credit.

aaaanyways, what DOES make me smile is my job and the kids at my job. it makes all the work worth it. please look at the hilarity of these videos. the first one is tanysha. she has asperger's (we think) and is the highlight of my day (Even when she tells me she hates me).

and please note that it is not my voice talking in the beginning. that would be ms sherry. i just don't want anyone thinking i have developed a hick accent or something ;)



and here is brendan showing his best moves.




:)

stereotypes of the modern homosexual male

oh, my elementary music and art class . it's from 6-8 pm on tuesdays. i don't plan on teaching music or art. the professor hates kaylee and i. i can't stand her either because she talks about herself the whole time. and she loves gifted children. who loves gifted children?! they're super annoying.

but that's not the point.

over spring break we had an assignment called a "blackout poem". we were handed a piece of paper with a random article written on it. mine was some article about masquerades in the 1500's or something. with said paper, we are to "black out" with sharpie the words we don't want and keep the words we do want on the paper to create a poem.

since she assigned this over spring break, my plan of action was to create my poem quickly in class and turn it in. you can't really give anyone's poetry an "F" so i was not willing to waste any time on this knowing i would get the same exact grade had i worked an hour on it .
luckily i was chosen to present my poem last so i had time to conjure something up as my classmates presented. their poems were either very cutesy and elementary school-like (not in a bad way- that is the class, after all) or really dark and awkwardly depressing. not to mention some were elaborate and artsy.
i was gazing over my paper and i saw the word "gay". my ten-year-old boy brain went on autopilot as i quickly spotted some other words that would fit the "gayness" of the poem quite nicely. even more fitting, i did not have a black sharpie handy- only a purple marker.

here was the result that i presented to the class (keep in mind EACH of these words were separated by paragraphs)

i titled it "stereotypes of the modern gay man"

gay.

folly,

fine eye for colors and fashion,

embellishments of glitter.

he steps to and fro merrily

stiff they venture to indulge in their gaieties (it was just too good to leave out. sorry)

night life buzz

expressive appearance.



i don't think prof anonymous liked this too much by the look on her face. but the class did.

for old time's sake.

over spring break (well, over allie and phil's spring break) team india (minus 1...) met up in the lovely city of boston to bask in one another's company once again. we hadn't seen each other since the summer so it was really nice to reminisce on our times in india with those who truly understand those memories. we decided that our meeting place was exactly the opposite of india- cold, clean, and full of convenience.
we re-lived stories such as phil's voice cracking during a song, the night by body broke out in hives literally from head to toe, auntie watching television and saying "britney spears wants to die...very funny", and the night our electricity went out (for longer than normal) and we sat around telling scary stories.
but, in true nostalgic fashion, we seemed to forget all the annoyances we had with india during our two month visit. annoyances such as nothing being efficient, no control over our schedule or lives, dirty feet, humidity, and bad attitudes in general.
that said, we fully intend to go back. together. mark my words.