Thursday, September 25, 2008

I love a light house!

There's just something about a light house... I love them. They're old school Americana, and they remind me of home. I've always wondered what that life must've been like and sort of thought I'd be pretty good at it. Just chillin' out in a light house, guiding boats to the shore. It seems like a great life. So anyway, com to find out there's a light house out on Key Biscayne in Bill Baggs (or as I call it, Bilbo Baggins) State Park. There's a drawing of it in the office at school, and I was just mentioning how I would like to see it, and then this past weekend, T and I went on a quest to the beach and dreams came true. We tried a new beach instead of the usual one, and we hit Bilbo Baggins instead. It was a nice morning. Here's proof:


The thing about Florida in the summer is that it rains all the time and you really just have to carpe diem on every nice day there is.

In other news, I went to see The Family That Preys with friends from church (Michigan girls!). I wasn't dying to see it or anything, but I DID want to see a movie last weekend so mission accomplished. It was pretty good--I mean, in general, Tyler Perry's movies are generally well constructed and have a good balance of seriousness, message, and humor. I just like Tyler Perry, what can I say? Plus, it's pretty fun to see a movie with a bunch of black folks, because they ain't above talkin' to the movie, and anyone who knows me knows I ain't above it either!

I also went to see the final performance of RENT last night with Fredy. The show closed and the final performance was filmed and released this weekend only for four shows in theaters. I wanted to go with Annie, but she lives about an hour away and I just don't want to make that drive at 9:30 at night. Boo. But the show was, as always, amazing. The girl who played Maureen was AMAZING and the original "Seasons of Love" soloist came back. I'm really glad I got to go. RENT means so much to so many people, and has for so long, the closing of the show is monumental. Of course there will be revivals and stuff years down the road, but it will never be like it is at this time. So yeah... Goodbye RENT.

Finally, I'm going back to Michigan for the first VanCooter wedding this weekend. I'm semi-packed (which is good for me, let's be real) and SO EXCITED!! I get to see some of my favorite people, meet my sister's future in-laws (Are they, technically my in-laws as well? No?), AND get Lancelot back! Yay!

Much love.

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Thursday, September 18, 2008

SeaQuarium Pics

Here's a link to the Facebook album of my SeaQuarium pics. Some of them are pretty nice if I do say so myself.

In other news, on Tuesday I went on the SALTT fieldtrip back up to Boynton Beach to see the little kids from camp again. They were, as I expected, cute as heck. One kid asked me if I was a model, and another told me I was a rockstar. It made me happy. I forgot how cute those kids were until I saw them again. And seeing my students see them again was also great--my students' lives are being changed and they don't even know it. Or maybe they do. Either way, a great thing is happening and I'm excited to have been a small part of it.

Other than that, I haven't been up to much. Had a bit of a cold but it seems to be getting better. My car was possessed by Satan for almost a week, some electrical short, but I managed to truck it out to a dealership today and the dude replaced a faulty switch that was apparently causing the problem. It was so bad I had notes from the security guards on my car two days in a row. The first day I had two notes--one in English and one in Spanish. The second day, this morning, it was only one note. Apparently the alarm was going off every 2-3 minutes all night. It was going off at school on Tuesday too. But, now it's fixed, and it was under warrenty, so the world is right again.

I'm currently watching Chapter 27 and am slightly terrified and enthralled all at once. In it, Jared Leto ( who gained a TON of weight for the role) playes Mark David Chapman and it goes through his journey the three days he spent in NY waiting to kill John Lennon. It's creepy because he was obsessed with The Catcher in the Rye, and some of the dialogue it just spot on from the book. It's freaking me out, but it's a pretty amazingly written movie, and the performance is just spot on. Wow.

Looking forward to the weekend!

Much Love.

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Sunday, September 14, 2008

Sharks and Manatees and Seals, Oh My!

I've been spending most of my time at school and church lately, as the renovations still aren't done. It's exciting, though, so I'm happy to do it. Plus, not having anyone to come home to makes me not really want to be at home as much as possible. So I've been kind of MIA lately, too busy doing nothing exciting to really update.

Thursday, though, I did something amazing. During an amazing meeting of the minds about a week back, six of us at school decided to make "Sister Fanny for President" t-shirts and wear them to school. Sister Fanny is the wonderful nun who makes our copies at school. And we love her. So, on Thursday, we made t-shirts dedicated to her candidacy. We are now the envy of everyone at school and will make a killing on black market t-shirts. We can use the money to support the Educators' Fund for Social Enhancement, aka a fund for Happy Hour on Fridays. A. Mazing.

Friday night I promised my kids (I teach basically every junior on the football team) I'd go see thier game, so I did. There's nothing I love more than highschool football in Miami... except nearly everything. Still, I think it's important they see me there, and the Royal Lions won so it all worked out. Go Lions!

Yesterday, The Weave came down for a late birthday celebration (she was back in MI when I celebrated) and we had a lovely outing to the Miami SeaQuarium. Two co-workers of mine share a house with two other guys, one of whom works at the SeaQuarium. Long story short, they hooked Annie and I up with 50% off passes and we got in for half price. This was a key decision because it really wasn't worth full price. Half price, however, was rockin'.

It's sort of smaller than I expected, and most of the place seems to be based on shows--seals, manatees, dolphins, an orca whale, stuff like that. It's a pretty cool place as far as being able to learn a lot, but it's not a huge aquarium or anything.

Anyway, I took a few pics to document the day. This is the view of Miami from inside the park. The park's on Key Biscayne, so this is looking at down town Miami, across the water.

Seals are always just about the cutest things you could ever want to see, so this guy was no exception. I like them because something about thier eyes reminds me of Lancelot--maybe it's the deep, dark, roundness of them or something. Anyway, this guy (or gal) was super cute and smiling.
The sea turtles were SO CUTE. They were just like the ones in Finding Nemo! And they were HUGE. They were hangin' out with the alligators in their own little area in the park. There were at least five of them.


I learned quite a bit about manatees while I was there, due mainly to the fact that The Weave is slightly obsessed and we spent a bit of time there. Turns out, thier closest living relative is the elephant. I never knew that! Thier skin, life spans, gestation periods, and body sizes are all similar. Also, a manatees front flippers are very similar to an elephants feet. Crazy, I know. All the manatees in the park were rescues, and they work to release them if possible.

In the reef exhibit, I saw these cool guys--sea horses! I can't believe I actually got a decent picture of one.

It was a great day with perfect weather. After the park, The Weave and I ate lunch at Panera and she went on back to Boca.

Tiffany and I then took a study break (for her, not me) to the bookstore where these two freshmen LOVED us. They were precious and adorable. And the whole situation was hilarious!

Last night, I went over to Fredy's for a delayed birthday party. He cooked and it was amazing (of course) and we just hung out and eventually played Apples to Apples, everyone's new favorite game, discovered on Thursday while making t-shirts.

A five day week lies ahead... I'm not used to it!

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