Brushes With Adulthood

Tonight, I got sucked in by Gossip Girl.  Not my usual fare, but I sat through all of it–even becoming engaged towards the end.

And now, I am going to watch “The War,” because my interests are nothing if not varied.

So far, only one student has gotten it right. I think some students don’t even realize I am wearing a costume. I don’t know if you knew this, but 17 year olds are a *little* self-absorbed! So, here is my costume in all its glory–you kind of have to be able to read backwards to get it.

FYI: Scrabble is not the right answer.

I buy candy that, during the year, I don’t buy because there are one or more offered flavors that I don’t like.  Once I have bought these for Halloween, I then pick out all the flavors I like and keep it for myself, and then hand out those yucky flavors I find odious.   It is the PERFECT system.

I guess the season is over (sigh), but that does not mean we can’t start preparing for next year.

1. Mini-skirts. I am really opposed to all skirt wearing at a baseball game, but I guess I could see the function in a modest jean skirt on a really hot day. So, I’ll just say mini skirts, because it is a baseball game not a look-at-your-underwear game.

2. Heavy makeup. Personally, I rarely wear makeup–ever, but mainly because I don’t know how to look good in makeup. Still, a baseball game is not the place for your liquid black eyeliner, glittery eye shadow, and foundation so thick you can’t even sweat it off in 3 hours. Try to use a little control–you’re oustide for heaven’s sake.

3. High heels. No, just no. You have to walk from the car to the stadium, there are ramps and stairs and LOTS OF WALKING. Heels are UNACCEPTABLE.

4. Cologne/Perfume. I know that a lot of people like a good scent, but for me the smell of either smelly spray gives me a headache. We’re sitting in close quarters here, no one wants to smell your P-Diddy crap.

5. PINK JERSEYS. Or ANYTHING with the team logo on it in pink. I do not know any major league teams that have pink as a team or uniform color, THEREFORE THERE SHOULD BE NO PINK JERSEYS. If you want to wear pink, fine, but do not sully the team you are pretending to root for with that baby pink barf. Be a real fan, wear the red! (Unless of course it is breast cancer awareness, then I temporarily lift my ban on team-themed pink).

6. A jersey for a team that is not playing at the game you are attending. Hey, we’re at Busch Stadium and the Cardinals are playing the Cubs and you’ve got a Diamondbacks shirt on, WHAT? Save your D-back fan-age for some other day, dude.

And those are Nicole’s rules for proper attire at a baseball game. You have been warned.

I am thinking I will be Pam Beasley for Halloween.  I am thinking my students will not get the reference.  Or, I could find some totally wacky “English Teacher” costume — somehow dress up like a “dangling modifier!”

Speaking of Halloween and the Office, this is why The Office is awesome–things that happen in The Office happen in real life.  For example, my Dad got an email from the “Celebration Team” at his office telling everyone to dress up for Halloween office trick-or-treating.  And can I say, it wasn’t just someone sending an email from the “Celebration Team” there was an actual email address specifically MADE for the Celebration Team.  CelebrationTeam@Dad’sbusiness.com.

One word:  AWESOME

Album Cover

Originally uploaded by Nic24

We went to Kansas City this weekend. We did a lot, but relaxed at the same time. Today, I am feeling a bit under the weather–damn hotels–and since NaBloPoMo starts on Thursday, I feel okay in light posting the next few days.

This is a picture taken at Missouri Town 1855 in Lees Summit. I’ll blog all about my love for history –especially living history–some other time. For now, I will just say, R. has decided to make this picture his album cover should he ever decide to go musical.

For whatever wonderful reason, I have tomorrow off.  Which means R. and me are off on a “mini” vacation.  We aren’t going far, but it will be fun to get away nonetheless.  It’ll also be a nice break before the insanity of November–what with certification portfolio due, NaBloPoMo, and I’ve decided I’m going to go ahead and throw my hat in the ring with NaNoWriMo too.  It’s crazy, and likely I’ll fail at one–let’s just hope that one is not the one with which I need to finish in order to continue with my job!

(It really, really irritates me that 95% of the commercials during the World Series are for trucks or ED.  Go Rockies, by the way.  Gotta stick with the NL!)

Or just one.

And, it’s not really “good.”

Basically, I was tooling about the internet this afternoon and saw a few posts on random blogs about people having certain “themes” associated with certain days. I thought, “hm, interesting idea. I should do that! But what would my theme be?” And so it went and so I thought, “nah, I’ll never stick to it.”

3:30 come rollin’ around and I’m watching Jeopardy, and it comes to the horrendous part where the contestants tell their little “story.” When I was in college I labeled these the “I walked down the street and died” stories. They are always hideously boring and mind numbingly idiotic. Wow, you have a cockatiel that say’s pretty monkey!  Congratu-fucking-lations.

Wow, I guess I had a lot of pent-up anger about these Jeopardy stories!

Back to the point, I think in November I am going to theme one day, “Jeopardy Walk Down the Street and Die” stories, or “Hideously Boring Adventures in Nothingness” or maybe even just “Lame Jeopardy Story” Day! Nothing is better than telliing a really bad story when you’ve run out of interesting things to blog about!

So, who wants to join me?

When you live with a cop, as I do, you tend to have to get used to their paranoia.  Maybe not every cop is like this, but it makes sense to me as they see a lot of the shit this world has to offer.  Why wouldn’t they be paranoid?  I have my own things I am paranoid about (leaving the blinds open EVER–thanks for that one, Mom!), but locking the door is not one of them.  While I do lock my door, and it has become a habit, it is not something that I need to check more than once, unlike someone.  I have better things to think about, like making chocolate chip muffins or plugging in my computer.

You are probably thinking this has to do with locking the door–not so!  I did, in fact, lock my door last night.  I even checked on it before going to bed.  But, as I was pulling the covers up–I heard a knock at the door.  At first, I wasn’t even going to go out there because R. was out of town and I wasn’t going to deal with someone at 10pm.  But, something compelled me to go forth and see.  Such bravery!
A non-threatening woman was on the other side, and I thought maybe she was a neighbor ready to yell at me for… something?  Instead, she merely pointed to my lock and said, “your keys are in the door.”

“Oh, thanks.”

I pull the ice cold keys from their roost in the lock and close the door, realizing they have been in there for approximately SEVEN hours–because I get home at 3 and it is now 10.  That’s SEVEN hours in which someone could have a) taken my car (b) entered the apartment or (c) taken my keys just to fuck with me.

I am SO SO SO glad R. was not home–and that he will never know, because I believe I would be put under house arrest.

If you found this little anecdote boring, I just want to add– and then I found five dollars!  Cool, huh?

I have just cleaned my kitchen.  (And I didn’t even have to put clean in quotation marks because I REALLY cleaned–including cabinets, fridge, microwave, and floors!

One room down, five to go.

Baby steps, friends.