^ 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.

the break-up

since i didn't have a boyfriend to break-up with on valentine's day this year (or any other year, really) i decided to instead break-up with my brown hair.

my brunette hair and i have had a good two and a half years together- going dark rescued me from having to spend $80 at my hair salon every 6 weeks to touch-up my roots (brown hair can be done at home for $10). even though i know low maintenance is generally a good thing, it can get boring and repetitive at times. "rich caramel brown" and "dark chocolate brown" always end up looking the same. always.

i could have gone back to being Blondie McBlonderson like i was in high school, but i instead chose to go back to (almost) my natural golden blonde color that i haven't seen since i was 14.



voila! mom is sure glad to see blonde back. she's missed it since the day i came home brunette.

other tidbits:

- jessy and i are writing a book compiled of funny stories...kinda like david sedaris and better than chelsea handler. it's going to be amazing because we're hilarious. and we're seriously writing it so stay tuned.

-the gerber commercial always played on TLC with the woman giving birth while she feeds the camera her line really creeps me out. not just that part- the entire commercial is just awkward.

-my grandmother along with all of my extended family members over the age of 60 have created facebook accounts while on some sort of enlightening family reunion in atlanta. i was already weirded out that i had to deny my mom's friend request several times..then when i saw all of my other relatives getting on facebook i gave up and let the inevitable happen. looking at their pages as they discover this technology is actually pretty funny.

- i'm going to boston for spring break to hang out with the team i went to india with. we're all excited to see what each other look like when we aren't ugly and sweaty.

-my roomates and i are currently watching the girls next door. i don't know whether to laugh at this show or be disgusted, so i laugh.

me in a box.

oh, the lovely first days of the semester. these are the days when i arrive to class on-time with my neatly organized binders (they're fun to organize when there's nothing in them but paper and maybe some of those subject separators), brand new writing utensils, hilighters that i FULLY intend to use for underlining the key study points in my textbooks, and an eager attitude that maybe this semester will be the one that i won't have to participate in any type of "getting to know you" games with my other classmates.
...and each semester, along with my poor hilighters (they didn't stand a chance) and attempts at organization, my idealistic hopes and dreams get shot to hell by at least one professor who feels the need to "break the ice". because at southern nazarene university, with an undergrad population of like 1500, none of us know each other.
at least i've got the name game down; my name starts with a "k" which leaves me with very few options. if i have to say my favorite food, i always say "kit-kat". favorite animal= koala. one word self-description limited to the first letter of my name? kooky.

tonight as i was walking to my first elementary music and art class ( i missed last tuesday night's class because i enrolled in it late) i was informed by kaylee that everyone was expected to bring five items in a box that represented who we are and we were to then explain/show the items in front of the class.
i remember having to do this exercise multiple times in middle school and hating it. the only good "me in a box" experience i had was in my 6th grade math class when a fellow classmate named pryncess hughes (seriously) stood in the front of the room with a brown paper sack that contained a stapler and some paper because she "liked to staple paper". either pryncess forgot to bring her "me in a box" items and scrambled those together last minute, or she had an extremely advanced sense of humor for a twelve year old and was sarcastically making fun of the whole stupid activity. either way it was hilarious and memorable for me.

otherwise, i see "me in a box" as a cruel way for middle school teachers to torture his/her students. since the average 11-15 year old is highly egotistical (except for pryncess hughes), this activity provokes stress and anxiety. what to bring? a picture of the family is out- could be seen as childish. POGS? are those still cool? maybe i could bring the eminem CD that i secretly bought with the "parental advisory" sticker on the insert. would it look like i was trying too hard? let me tell you...these were some tough times.

each student shows up to class the next day with five things in a bag (no one ever uses a box). and don't forget- the bag is another chance to nonchalantly strut your coolness. don't even think about toting around your items in a wal-mart bag, it's social suicide. you have to make sure you use an abercrombie, american eagle, or hollister bag. it makes people think that those stores are the only ones you shop at so therefore you had plenty of those bags just lying around.

in my experience most kids showed up with things like a copy of tiger beat magazine containing a JTT centerfold, misc. photos of them and their friends awkwardly making goofy faces (smiling isn't cool at this age), the hideous bracelet and/or necklace from claire's that they received from a friend their last birthday, a PG-13 or R movie stub that was probably found in their mom's purse, and other stuff that in no way represents who they are as a person at all. and to top it all off, they all spend so much time freaking out over how their peers perceive them and their belongings in a bag that they don't realize that everyone else in class is just as worried about their own presentation . so worried, in fact, that they are staring at the student in the front of the classroom with glazed eyes anxiously awaiting their fate without even listening to anyone else's "me in a box".
not that i know from experience or anything ;)

so basically what you have is a bunch of insecure pre-teen students sharing a false sense of themselves...to themselves; and due to lack of maturity and development they normally do not realize this-- which is why i think "me in a box" is worthless and just plain mean.

fast forward to college students doing this activity. like most did today, i will probably grab five things right before class and bore everyone to tears explaining what they mean to me.

...or maybe i'll bring a stapler and some paper. it'd surely be more interesting than the crosses and bibles everyone else brought.