Halloween 2009

Before I talk about Halloween, let's mention these creatures that showed up to our faculty meeting the other day. It seems as if they got the memo and had their own faculty meeting because there were, at one point, four of them. Oh, the joys of a school by the bay!

Okay, so now on to the good stuff, Halloween 2009. As most of you know, Halloween and I are, generally speaking, not on the best of terms. First, there's my diabetes issue--the idea of free candy just doesn't thrill like it used to. Then there's my mask phobia--not helpful on Halloween. And the final nail in the casket is that here, Halloween isn't about being something magical or whimsical that you can never be in real life, it's about wearing the least amount of clothing possible without being arrested and claiming it's some sort of costume. Um... No thank you. I don't want to see people's business hanging out everywhere; I'm not comfortable around that and I choose not to be around it, but on Halloween in Miami, you're kind of forced to if you want to do anything remotely interesting.

So... Halloween and I are not friends and I went back and forth as to what I was going to do. Finally I decided on a party at the house of some co-workers, and I decided to dress up as... a skunk! Well, technically I was a "self-conscious skunk" who had flowers on. And I made my own tail, which was epic but came out awesome! I am seriously proud of it. Yay for home made costumes!

I mohawked my hair and wore slipper socks all night. The costume was basically an epic win. :) Here's another picture of me in costume with my good friend Elphaba.


Although the day itself and I are not friends, I am a huge fan of carving pumpkins. Last year, if you all recall, I carved Shakespeare. This year, I changed it up a little and did an American author; since I teach American Lit and all, I feel it was more appropriate. So, meet Edgar Allan Poe-mpkin.
Cool, huh? And yes, I did bring him to school with me and we turned out the lights and lit him up and read "The Raven." Yeah, I know, I'm awesome.

Much love.

Turns Out, I REALLY Missed Autum

My trip to OLR was amazing. I can't begin to tell you all...

First of all, the kids we took were outstanding. Just outstanding. The coolest thing was that these were eleven kids (nine participants and two leaders) who are all from different social groups within the school, yet they all became close and bonded over an amazing experience. They came back new kids, REnewed kids, and I love to see them smiling at school.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was getting to see fall colors for the first time in about three years. There weren't many, granted, but even one red tree made me happy. And there was more than one red tree. This was one of my favorites:

The kids enjoyed the fall colors as well, and I forgot that most of them have never experienced fall. We were at a convent, with acres and acres of land and trees, and some of the kids spent about half an hour just trying to catch leaves as they fell from the sky. They thought it was the greatest game they'd ever played--simply leaves falling from the sky. There were so many leaves that I told them I'd rake them a pile to jump in, if only I had a rake. Lo and behold, a rake appeared and I raked. The next day my body ached like mad but I raked. It was totally worth it, though, because the kids had a great time enjoying the pile. One girl even told me it was on her "Bucket List" to jump in a pile of leaves. A seventeen year old with a Bucket List... Go figure.

Anyway, this is one of my favorite photos from the week, and it's just a reminder to me of what those moments REALLY felt like--they were perfect.

We also made it into the city that Sunday. One of the kids had never been there, and another was basically an expert. He was our tour guide.

I haven't been to NYC since my 21st birthday (unless you count meeting Aussies in the airport there this summer) so it was fun to be back. I fulfilled a life-long (okay, a since-I-was-about-16-long) dream and took my RENT picture. This photo is inspired by the line "They say that I have the best @$$ below fourteenth street." And so it is...

I also tried to improve our nation's economy by kissing the bull on Wall Street... We'll see how it worked.

And of course when you're in NYC, you have to see a show. When you're in NYC with nine Catholic school kids, you have to see a Catholic school appropriate show. We chose Mary Poppins and it was "practically perfect in every way."

The show is magical and fun and the best thing EVER was when *spoiler alert* BERT TAP DANCES ON THE CEILING!! I couldn't even take it... It was amazing. Soooo good--except for the scary part where the toys came to life. Everything else was good. I'm practicing my Mary Poppins-style stair walk, so I can be awesome like her.

The retreat itself was an amazing experience for the kids, and an intensely Catholic one for me. It was strange but nice at the same time. I met some amazing folks--I'm now friends with three nuns on Facebook--and really had a peaceful and introspective four days.

The coolest things were that there were a couple of guys from Michigan there (WOOT!), one of which played bagpipes and woke up the retreatants with them the second morning. The grounds of the retreat center were absolutely gorgeous, which I discovered as we walked around during an activity. An activity where, unexpectedly, the group I was with and I got PELTED with black walnut "apples" falling from the trees. Awesome. And painful. I also learned how to juggle a diabolo and managed to actually throw it up and catch it in three tries. I might have missed my calling in life. Finally, one day I was on "duty"--which basically meant I was guarding the door while the kids had recreation time--and a deer came and stood about 5 feet from the woman I was on duty with and I, almost like it wanted to join in our conversation. I see deer all the time in Michigan, but I don't think I've ever been that close to a wild one.

What a great week.

I came back, as expected, to chaos. It's was Homecoming week, which meant that I basically lived at school. I don't have many pictures because the days were all a blur, but this one is great--a bunch of us teachers dressed up like students on Twin Day.

Some of us could actually pass, I think! The best part? Loofas on the headbands. If you went to LaSalle, you'd understand.

Okay friends! If you're interested in more of my trip or my fall adventures, you can check out the rest of the pictures here, on the Facebook album.

Much love.

Sometimes All You Can Say is "Wow."

My life of late has been, in a word, chaos. Serious chaos. I miss the days when I would come home, sit in my underwear, drink a glass of wine, and grade papers. Those days are over.

A couple of weeks ago, I had social plans literally every night of the week. It was a little bit ridiculous. Monday night, I went to a friend from church's house because he was cooking (Pad Thai, YUM), Tuesday I went to UM to see Blake MyCoskie speak (more on that in a sec), Wednesday we had the first SALTT trip of the year, Thursday I invited a friend over and I cooked, and Friday was Flavour at church. I never understood the meaning of longing until that week, when I truly longed to just be at home. Don't get me wrong--I like having a social life, and Lord knows it took me long enough to establish one, but change is always tough going for me. Anyway...

So Blake Mycoskie. Most people know him from the AT & T commercial (hot guy walking on a beach, giving shoes to kids, "chief shoe-giver) but he is the owner and creator of TOMS shoes, a shoe company that donates a pair of shoes to a child in need every time a pair of shoes is purchased. It's pretty amazing, and the story is pretty great too. Plus, he's hot. And a do-gooder. So yeah, we're pretty much in love. lol He spoke for about 45 minutes and then took questions, which I couldn't stand because everyone was all, "I'm so awesome I started this charity but I don't know how to make it work, blah, blah, blah." Lame. I'm a friggin' teacher--I save the world EVERY DAY. Whatever. So yeah, here's me and my TOMS, Blake, and the rest of the crew.

And here's just the two of us because Tiffany is a good friend.

In other adventures in my life, The Aussie had a friend in town (pretty remarkable, considering) and she wanted to show him a good time, so we went to my favorite place in Miami, Crazy Pianos. It was a pretty big group, and we had a great time. Tiffany and I looked cute, so, of course, there was a photo op!

It was a fun night. And to continue the adventure, I finally took advantage of the fact that I work at a school, on the bay, that owns sea kayaks. One of the science teachers, The Aussie, her friend, and I went to school on a lovely (read: hazy) Sunday afternoon and hit the water. Here we are, ready to go!

Here's Becky and I, looking like pros. She IS a pro... me not so much!

We kayaked out into the bay, and then headed back toward the channel and actually went through this tunnel onto the grounds of Viscaya. It was really beautiful, and awesome to see the bay with someone who knew what they were talking about (read: Becky The Science Teacher). It was like our own personal guided tour.

I'm hoping to post a bunch of pictures to Facebook soon, but for now these few will have to do. Not being home really has put a kink in my Facebook (and blogging, and grading, and sleeping) time, but I wanted to update now because I'm heading out of town to New York/New Jersey for a week with school. I'm really excited to go--we leave tomorrow--because I really could use some perspective on my life, and some time away to really just... be. So, I'll be off the radar for a bit, but that's okay. I need it.

Much love.

Optimistic about 28

So far, 28's been treating me right.

I celebrated my birthday the Saturday before with a potluck at our place and then a trip to Crazy Pianos. I reserved one of the beer tables and had a great night. The best part was that one of the piano players (from Grand Rapids, naturally) played a song for me--and I don't mean by request. The weekend before, we'd spoken about this song called "27 Jennifers" by Mike Doughty. It was awesome because Mike Doughty is one of his favorite artists and I totally busted out the song before he even mentioned anything about him, and basically we're bonded for life. So flash forward to my birthday celebration, and he's playing the Tommy Tutone classic "8675309 (Jenny)" and all of a sudden busts into "27 Jennifers" FOR ME! He had already hugged me for my birthday, so he knew I was there. After he got off, I went over to him and I was like, "Don't even lie, you played that song for me." And he goes, "Yeah, I thought you'd like it." OMG, LOVE!!! lol. It was basically the best thing ever and I'm pretty sure I told everyone like 50 times, "He PLAYED a song for ME!" My friend Drew is convinced that this means we're dating. I wish!

That night I met two guys, and ended up going out with both of them. Whatever, I've never dated in my life, and suddenly there are two. I couldn't really deal. There's The Brazilian, a super cute Brazilian (duh) with glasses, and The Lawyer, a dude from Texas. I always figure nothing's gonna happen with people that I meet, so I didn't think much of giving them my number. Well, of course, they both texted me.

I ended up going out with The Brazilian a few times, and the poor guy was tossed pretty harshly into my world because he came to the football game with me last Friday. It was the first home game of the year, and the night of the Kick Off Dance. I was at work from 7 am until 1:30 am and was SO nice to have a break from school and have dinner at Scotty's in a total downpour. Like ya do.

Anyway, long story short things fizzled out with The Brazilian; we decided to just be friends, which is fine. I got some free meals out of the deal, so it all worked out in the end. Plus, he lives under the piano players and that is basically awesome.

The Lawyer I had coffee with (well, green tea, really) on Saturday and haven't heard from him since. Clearly his loss, as I am totally hot and he was totally not. I'm over it. But all of last week was a new experience for me--I've never really "dated" before. Like, guys just don't want to date me, I guess. Or maybe I just didn't have any mojo until 28, which makes total sense 'cause I'm the quintessential late bloomer. I have decided, however, that dating is fun and I should do more of it so I'm going to be working on that this year. I'm feeling positive about 28, and me feeling optimistic is a rare thing.

In other news, one of my favorite kids got kicked out of school and I'm kind of upset about it. Sure, the kid made a bad choice, and of course I support the school's decision, but I still miss the kid. School's been a bit stressful in other aspects as well; I already have essays to grade that didn't get graded last week (too much dating, I guess) and they're the same awful garbage as they always are.

The day of my actual birthday, Alishea at school, of course, got word and make a little magic happen. I went to lunch, as per usual, to find a note on the table that I should get food and go to one of the Campus Ministry office, a large office on campus. When I got there, it was decorated and there were balloons, and everyone (well, everyone I like, anyway) came to have lunch and cake and happiness.

The best part of lunch, besides the fact that there were no children anywhere, was when the party decided to serenade me with "Happy Birthday" but had no candles. As luck would have it, it was corn dog day, which meant someone one (Tanya) had the brilliant idea to light the stick on fire as a ghetto candle.

Not only did it not work, it stunk up the whole room!

It was pretty funny. :)

It was a great birthday and I'm excited to be 28. I think this year will bring me amazing things!

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. It was supposed to be Friday, but with construction and general chaos, Sr. Pat, the greatest principal ever, postponed the first day. We didn't even get the okay to move into our room until Thursday at about 1:00, so it was clearly the best option. We spent most of the day Friday moving and organizing--it only too about three hours to move our entire department's things into the classrooms--but I still don't feel at home in m y room. I can't put anything on the walls because we cant' use tape and sticky tack won't hold anything, and half of my stuff is still lost in oblivion. My desk is now a behemoth chunk of wood with two very tiny drawers, my computer that was awesome has been replaced with a giant white ogre that's probably older than me, and I have a missing cabinet that was total crap but had a bunch of projects inside. So that's awesome. It's been a weird start to the year, but I think it'll be a good one. My kids seem pretty good--I have two honors classes, several kids I've had before, and a class of seniors that I've already taught. I'm optimistic, which, basically, never happens.

The past week or so has been devoted to school--meetings all week, move in on Friday, preparations. Even though we started today, I still don't feel settled. I hope that changes as the year progresses.

I have been enjoying my last days of freedom, though, don't get me wrong. I went to see The Time Traveler's Wife the day it came out, and spent almost the entire movie crying. It was beautiful and sad, but I wanted Eric Bana to be hotter. Either way, I enjoyed the movie, but I my favorite part of the book wasn't in the movie--it showed up in a different way, but still, it was gone and I missed it. A little.

I've also spent the last two Friday nights doing the Monty's/Crazy Pianos thing, which, surprisingly, doesn't get old. Two Fridays ago I was with my neighbors, Adam and Mupi, and I saw a Nathan Followil (the drummer from Kings of Leon) look alike (soooo hot) and I kind of had to go back this Friday to see if her was there. He wasn't. Sadness. But my friend Anya WAS there because she returned from her summer in fabulous NYC! It was great to see her and catch up. I really missed having her around.

Her brother was in town last week, which is a big deal because he lives in Moscow (yes, the Moscow in Russia) and hadn't been to Miami to visit in, like, 9 years or something. So he was in town, and I got a chance to meet him, and hang out with Anya, at RA, this amazing sushi restaurant that I've been craving for about a month now. The food was, as always, delicious and the night ended up being a little birthday celebration for both Anya (who spent her b-day in NYC) and Shell, whose actual birthday it was.

I'm really gonna miss summer.

Beaches and Castles

Since last we met I've been enjoying my last few days of freedom. Trouble is, I can't really recall with clarity what it is I've been up to! I should have done this blog thing earlier, so I could actually remember what I've been up to. I can barely remember what I ate for breakfast this morning (nectarine and toast?), let alone what I've been doing for the past two weeks. Give or take.

I can say that I've been to South Beach more times this summer than I have probably in the whole of my time down here. I went with the Aussies and Liz (*sigh*) and then I went last Friday AND Saturday as well.

Friday night, Tiffany had a family reunion of sorts with a relative (distant, I believe) who just moved down here. She lives on South Beach for the time being, and I had nothing else to do, so I accompanied Tiffany down there to meet up with this cousin. We got dinner at Sushi Samba, where I'd been once before and had THE most amazing sea bass ON THE PLANET. Like, seriously? Just typing about it right now is making my mouth water. I was in the mood for sushi but once we got to the restaurant, I couldn't NOT have the sea bass entree. Which I did. And I thought I'd died and gone to heaven it was so perfect. That damn fish was expensive, but worth it. The only complaint I had was that it didn't come with, like, a roll or something. Homegirl needs some carbs to wash down that protein! It was so good, though, and it's only made my hankering for the sea bass worse, not better! Boo!

After we ate, we drove down Ocean just to, I dunno, people watch and stuff. You can see some crazy stuff driving down Ocean Boulevard on a Friday night! So we did our "loser lap" (what high school kids call driving down the strip because they can't, legally, go in anywhere) and headed home to hang out with the neighbors for a bit.

Saturday I headed back out to SoBe for lunch with my friend Drew and his brother, who was visiting him, and his brother's fratty friends. We ate at Mango's, this completely touristy restaurant where the waiters and waitresses (scantily clad ones, of course) dance salsa on the bar. It's such a weird caricature of Miami tourism... it was a trip. I had a Cuban sandwhich, which was basically what everyone else had, and it was delicious. After that, we went to the Weam, the World Erotic Art Museum, which was a trip and a half. It was full of this gaudy, hilarious stuff, some of it quite old, relatively speaking. It was hilarious to see, and the fratties seemed to have a good time.

When I got home, Tiffany and I had our "rib date" and she made the last rack of ribs we had in the freezer. They were a bit spicier than the last batch, but very good anyway.

On Monday, I went up to school for a seminar on Salesian education given by Sr. Mary Greenan, a.k.a Sister Mary Guinness, an Irish nun raised in England and living in California. The seminar was basically on what Salesian education is, means, and looks like. She was a great speaker, and the seminar was pretty helpful. Turns out, even though I'm not Catholic, I'm a Salesian teacher. :) And Sister Mary was super cool, a totally chill nun who didn't even wear a habit, and after the second session on Tuesday we went out John Martins, the Irish pub we went to on St. Patrick's Day, and Sr. Mary got a pint of the Guinness she likes so much. Yeah, I drank beer with a nun. Awesome.

Today I wanted to see something touristy, so I went to the Coral Castle down in the Redlands. It's this crazy mix of the Taj Mahal and, like, Stonehenge--a mysterious tribute to love. See, this guy Ed Leedskalnin from Latvia fell in love with this girl, Agnes, 10 years his junior, who called off the wedding the day before it was to take place. So Ed moved to the states, eventually settling in Florida due to TB, and built a castle made of coral for himself, Agnes, and the family he envisioned having with her. She never saw his tribute, which he built at night. The amazing thing about the castle is that Ed, who was only five feet tall and 100 pounds, moved the coral, which weights 125 pounds per square foot, all by himself, never revealing his methods.

The castle, which has been moved from its original site in Florida City, has other mysteries as well. For example, these numbers are found on both of the door frames of the little room where Ed lived as he was constructing the castle.

No one knows what they're for, or what they mean.

This is the view from Ed's lair, the whole castle grounds.

This is the throne room, complete with thrones for Ed, Agnes, and a child. There's also an uncomfortable throne, less well made, for the mother-in-law.

This is the obelisk. It is the tallest structure on the property standing at 28 feet. It also contains a carved stone in the middle that is completely hollow, carved with the made and moved dates of the castle, and Ed's birth year and city. No one knows what, if anything, is inside this hollow stone. It remains another mystery of the Coral Castle.

This is one of Ed's inventions--the first crock pot! It's two car parts fit together, and the food goes inside and cooks over the fire.

This is the Feast of Love table--presumably where Ed dreamed he and his Agnes would enjoy meals. It is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the World's Largest Valentine, weighing in at 2, 500 pounds.

The Coral Castle was cool to see, and I'm glad I went.

Finally, I have a new obsession. It's a singer named Diane Birch, who is like a Carly Simon cupcake with Carol King filling, Janis Joplin frosting, and Joni Mitchell sprinkles on top. Her album, Bible Belt, has been the soundtrack of my life for the past couple of weeks. You can watch her video for "Nothing But A Miracle" here. This song is SO AMAZING!

My last week of freedom... *sigh* Monday it's back to the grind. Kids' first day is Friday!

Much love.

Ribs and Tacos

Last Saturday we had a Tex-Mex potluck at our house where ribs and tacos were on the menu. We're still eating tacos (I've had them in some form every day but one since then...) and Tiffany and I have a "rib date" on Saturday. 'Cause they were GOOOOD.

In other news, nothing too exciting is going on. I've been working out every morning (yay me!) but unable to properly sun myself due to the fact that the pool is closed for repairs. It's been sunny and beautiful ALL WEEK (rare during the summer) and I can't even enjoy it by sitting by the pool. Um... Why don't they do repairs in February when it's "cold"? Why didn't they fix the pool in the year and a half it was just sitting there, finished, with water in it, but residents weren't able to swim? Why didn't they just BUILD IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME? I'm so sick of construction I could just barf--school's under construction, our condo complex is constantly under construction... Good thing I'm spending my days in Florida rather than Michigan, because that would just be worse--at least there's very little road construction.

Okay... rant over. Um, what else have I been up to? Last Friday there was a women's event at church that I went to. We were supposed to do dinner and a movie (just the women from church were invited) but it actually turned out to be only dinner because the movie, The Proposal, was sold out. What?! It's been out for a while! Anyway, dinner was at Dan Marino's and I had the French onion soup (gross) and a salad (decent), but the best part of the night was the company. I met some very cool ladies and had lovely dinner conversation about Ryan Reynolds. :)

Sunday I went to church, as per usual, but it was special for two reasons: one, Yesi, who was in Tallahasee for the past six weeks, was back! It was SO GREAT to see her! I missed her a ton. The second reason it was special was because Karla, who I'd met on Friday, and I had discussed Sunday kareoke and my homegirl came through! We went to Titanic after church and sang kareoke for a couple of hours. Yesi and I did a moving--dare I say mindblowing?--rendition of "Summer Nights" from Grease complete with blocking. I was Danny, and Yesi was Sandy. It must've been hilarious.

The problem was, one of the guys with us was a worship leader at another church, so he sang and actually SANG. I kind of feel like that's cheating. And THEN, one of the worship leaders from OUR church wouldn't even sing. Still, it was fun and I discovered another diabetic girl (woot!) and hung out with cool peeps. Yay.

I took myself to the movies Tuesday. I went to see 500 Days of Summer with Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. It was pretty cute--Summer, the girl in the movie, is from Michigan so that's pretty cool. The movie was pretty dark for a "love story", which I totally dig, and Joseph Gordon Levitt was all broken and sad and skinny and *love*! Oh, and side note: matinee prices=KEY to life!

I also spent the rest of my day cooking and baking. I made these avocado muffins, because yeah, they sounded just weird enough to be good. And they are. Except they have too many almonds in them, and next time I'll use almond extract as well. But I'm quite happy with the way they turned out. I also made a bunch of food to freeze, which, in retrospect, was a bad decision because it's hurricane season and two weeks without power mean a lot of food goes to waste. So... fingers crossed I get to eat all the delicious lasagna, green bean, and broccoli casserole I made before a hurricane blows Florida off the map. In fact, just cross your fingers that there's no hurricane at all. I'd be cool with that, too.

Yesterday evening turned into a surprise epic adventure when Yesi called me. See, she's moving to Ft. Lauderdale (sad) because she got a job teaching theater there (yay!). She and I took a road trip to scope out places for her to live. We headed up there two check out two places she'd spoken to people about, but we ended up stumbling into this cute little "historic neighborhood" with a studio for rent. She called on the place but had to leave a message.

We ate dinner at this amazing hot dog place called Dogma, that had all these crazy toppings for the dogs. Fresh toppings. Mmm. I had a "California Dog" (a chili cheese dog) but added jalapenos. And they were HOT and glorious. I can't wait to visit Yesi and eat there again!

Yesi and I left after driving around for a bit, but we decided we needed, yes NEEDED, Krispy Kreme donuts. There aren't any in Miami really, so we went on a quest for on and found one on the way home. SCORE! While we were getting them, Carol from the studio apartment called, and we headed back to Ft. Lauderdale to look at the place. It turned out to be tiny but nice and Carol's house was immaculate. So immaculate in fact that it was on the cover of Home magazine a while back. How cool is that?

Yesi and I had a fruitful and fun evening, and Tiffany was happy because I brought her donuts, too. And let me just say that Krispy Kreme donuts are A. MAZING when they're fresh and hot. Oh Lord in Heaven hallelujah!

Tomorrow's Friday and I'm hoping some fun activities take place... perhaps some sushi consumption or some happy hour beverages? And then Saturday I'm heading to SoBe to play for a bit before my "rib date." Woot!

Too bad summer's almost over... I'm just hitting my stride!

Much love.