ONE WEEK!

ONE WEEK! ONE WEEK ONE WEEK ONE WEEK!!!
I'm so excited to see Kelly!


That is all.

Teach For America!

Hey everybody who reads this! I made it into Teach For America! I've been assigned to Baltimore! I'll be teaching elementary school there, and I'll be able to get my teaching certification and a Masters of Arts in teaching through John Hopkins University! I am almost completely positive I'm accepting, but I'm waiting to hear back from Kelly before I do anything irreversible.

It's close enough to Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City to make weekend trips out of it. There are a couple universities that Kelly could go to, and both I've looked into so far sound like they have amazing History and Literature programs, which are the two things Kel wants to double major in. I've been looking into some apartments and cost of living and it looks like everything is going to work out great!

So, when Kelly gets back we'll figure out exactly when we're getting married--probably either June or August. I have a five week training in Philadelphia from June 28-August 1, so we'll tie the knot before or after that, most likely. If not, perhaps we'll wait for Christmas. Then we'll move to Baltimore and begin our adventure!!! Wish us luck!

Spokane, Washington

Last Thursday I met with Becky, Monica, McKenzie, Brenna, Shannon, Qrystal, and our fearless leader "Captain" Nickerson in the Library parking lot at 9AM. From here we piled into a suburban and headed down the freeway for Las Vegas. This was the start of our all-expenses-paid trip to Washington to present at the Western Regional Honors Conference.Kenzie, me and Becky in the suburban headed for Sin City

We went straight to the Las Vegas Airport where we waited and waited for our flight to Portland, Oregon.

Waiting...

When we were boarding Professor Nickerson said something about our plane being tiny, but unbeknownst to him the pilot was right behind him, and he got VERY defensive of his plane telling us how much it weighed and how fast it could go and stating, "your car couldn't do that!" and ending up with "it doesn't matter how big it is, it's how you fly it," (hahaha!) and on the plane he got on the intercom and told everyone about the wingspan and how it was classified by the something-or-other-association as a large plane. I still think it's kinda small.

The plane did stop first in Santa Rosa, located in northern California. It was so beautiful flying over the vast green expanse covered in the straight lines of the vineyards, and ending only with a thin strip of the ocean visible from our plane. We didn't even have to get off, though. We just waited for awhile there before taking off again and heading to Portland.


Chillin' on the plane in Santa Rosa and Santa Rosa from the air

In the Portland airport, while we were waiting and eating very overpriced sandwiches, we were greeted with a very welcome sight for 7 girls supervised only by El Capitano...you see, sometimes it feels a little more like we're supervising him. But anyway, there, pouring from the gate was the entire Oregon Ducks baseball team. Okay, quite honestly, I wasn't that impressed, (you know, I have Kelly!) but the rest of the girls were oogling and oohing and ahhing, and it was just a little fun to join in. And I couldn't help but notice when small groups of them in their matching maroon athletic suits would nod toward me in their conversations. Anyway, from Portland, we flew to Spokane, were picked up by the Davenport Hotel Shuttle driven by a nice guy in a suit who took our bags for us, and then on our merry way to our hotel.

Qrystal and Monica on the shuttle

And the hotel!!! Holy cow! Not exactly what I said upon driving up, but I'll edit. It was positively...swanky! We were awestruck through the lobby, crammed in the elevator, tired in the hallway, and positively jubilant upon opening our door. I can honestly say I've never ever stayed in a nicer place. The beds were gigantic--they had steps to get into them! And the bathroom was all marble and there was a shower so big it didn't need a door because the water still couldn't get out of it. And the shower head was literally about a foot in diameter. (Best two showers I've ever taken.) There were bathrobes and turn down service and it was awesome.

Our beds, the bathroom, and feeling fancy in our bathrobes

The Davenport Hotel lobby and mezzanine and Captain by the fireplace

Oh! And when we were still waiting at the front desk, who should appear but Jason Loveless! From North Ogden, Utah. He's the brother of my freshmen year roommate, Amy Loveless. Apparently he's in the Weber State University Honors Program.
Jason Loveless, Monica Stamm, McKenzie Romero, Me, Becky Nielsen, and Michael-from-WSU

The next we day registered. You'd think they could spell better at an Honors Conference--especially the shortest state name in the country. It's four freaking letters! How hard is that?

We had breakfast in a ballroom. With a Beauty-and-the-Beast-like chandelier. Then we started going to classes. I went to some really fascinating ones (and a few not-so-good ones). One girl had recorded hundreds of girls' conversations and transcribed them and studied the "rules" of female conversation. It was so cool. A group did a study on "Caring Because It's Cool" and how wearing clothes and having accessories that fund charities is now a fashion statement, like the (Red) campaign for AIDS, livestrong bracelets, or Save Darfur T-shirts. It was pretty interesting. Another presentation was on 42E and the rise of Viral Marketing. She showed us a lot of cool marketing campaigns, but never really gave us an answer to "so what?".
Where breakfast was served and where we ate it. Don't crush Becky!!!

Nickerson presented on Parners in the Parks, a national Honors program that SUU is partnered with, that has classes in national parks--a classroom without walls. Brenna presented on "Through the Looking Glass: From Homeschool to College", Qrystal and Shannon did a presentation on the comparative study they did on restaurant water in Cedar City, Utah and Guaymas, Mexico, and Monica, Kenzie, Becky, and I did an hour-long panel presentation called "Remixing Interdisciplinary Education Through Cooperative Learning" on an innovative class we took last year, speaking on the merits of Interdisciplinary courses, library economy, learning through seminar, and of course our PAM talks, focusing on Passion Academics and Media. It went very well, but not a whole lot of people showed up to it.

PAM!

After our presentation--Kenzie, Monica, Me, and Becky

In the middle of the conference we had a break for lunch, so we walked a couple of blocks to the mall. It was so cool looking! And we ate delicious hamburgers and deep-fried onions from a place called D. Licious. Mmmm.

The Isabella room where Nickerson presented and escalators at the Spokane mall

That evening Captain treated us all to dinner at PF Changs. It was really good, but he gave the waitress a hard time about one of our dishes that was really hot (I didn't mind, I liked it) and wouldn't leave until someone who worked at the restaurant tried it. He wasn't even being mean, just...I don't know, Nickerson. It could be considered flirting more than it could be considered mean, the way he did it. It was actually kind of funny. I told you he takes supervision. Then we walked through the park to find the IMAX theatre, not to watch a movie, but to find the one souvenir penny stretching machine located in Spokane. (You guessed it, Nickerson needed a smashed penny.) But it was fun. Kenzie and I found the Batmobile, but when we went outside to find the rest after taking our pictures, Becky and Monica were just standing there, and Nickerson was nowhere to be seen. It was like losing a 5-year-old. We both said, "You let him out of your sight!?!?" But he was just behind an empty ice rink looking into the river. It was a such a lovely walk. Then we stopped into a cute little gift shop before we went back to the hotel.

Becky and me at PF Changs; me in the Batmobile; and Captain and his souvenir penny

McKenzie leads a VERY busy life working for the SUU Journal, a part-time job a Quiznos, and of course as a full-time student, so she was the very last one to get her part of the presentation together (as in, she finished it in one of the presentations before ours.) We knew she could pull it off, because she's Kenzie, but she still treated us to room service that night in return for our patience and confidence in her. Food will taste like that in Heaven.

Chocolate Raspberry Cake with a syrupy center and Apple Crumble

We had to wake up Monica to eat it. She told us she was a light sleeper, and that morning Kenzie barely jostled her and she woke up so we believed it. We called "Monica," but no reply. So we shook her leg and then started shoving her back trying to wake her up and she wasn't! I started wondering if she was even alive, when suddenly she rolled over and went "rawr!" I jumped. So we all dug into our desserts, and Monica grabbed one of the two piroutte cookies and bit off half of it in one bite, so we all protested and said that we had to share, and then sweet little quiet Monica roughly shoved the rest of it into her mouth like she hadn't eaten in days! We laughed so hard! Well, the next morning Monica asked if we actually got room service or if she had dreamt it, and she was nearly positive it had all been a dream! She hadn't been awake the night before! We were wondering where all the aggression came from in our sweet little Monica!

The next day we had breakfast in yet, another ballroom, and then went to a few more classes, (some of which I've already mentioned above, including Qrystal and Shannon's.) After that we packed up, checked out, and stashed our bags in an empty presentation room and went to the final luncheon with a keynote speaker. Delicious delicious delicious. I'll be like my Aunt Nanae and post pictures of beautiful food on my blog! (Of course, her's always looks better, but oh well.)


The Marie Antoinette Hall where the luncheon was held and our salad, salmon, and dessert

We had to cut out of the keynote speaker's presentation a little early, which I was a little sad about, first because his presentation was on sustainable energy and I was very interested, and second because his British accent was awesome to listen to. But we caught our shuttle back to the Spokane airport, were delayed by a random snowstorm, but were assigned a different flight into Seattle.

Waiting at the airport in Spokane--Nickerson's sleeping, Kenzie's got a paper,
Becky's on the phone, and I'm reading The Kite Runner

Our plane was touching down in Seattle as we were supposed to be boarding our flight to Las Vegas, so we ran from one side of the airport to the other and barely made it! Poor Becky had to limp really fast because she busted her toe last week and it's been bothering her a lot. (I kind of gave her a hard time about being a gimp all weekend, which wasn't very nice of me.) But we made our flight and the view from the plane over Seattle was amazing! It was so green, and we could see the harbor and oh, it was perfect. The sunset from the plane was equally stunning. I'm glad Becky was smart enough to get a picture of it. Becky, Kenzie, and Monica were all a lot better at taking pictures than I was. I'm glad we have Facebook to swap them!

When we flew into Las Vegas it was dark and it was another one of the most amazing sights I've ever seen. Becky put it as "it looks like we're about to land on a giant circut board!" When we got off the plane we managed to find our vehicle again and after a couple of wrong turns got to the right street to head home, but first we grabbed some Wendy's because we were "hungrier than a gromit dog" as Nickerson so eloquently put it.

And now we're back in Cedar City! Mission accomplished!

All of us from SUU: Qrystal, Shannon, Captain, Brenna, Becky, Monica, me, and Kenzie

Patchwork Bath

Sleeping well's a gift
I normally possess
Public transportation--
Ah, but I digress.

Sleeping well is nice
But when the night is strange
I find the art of sleep
The thing just out of range.

So I gather every pillow,
Afghan, blanket, quilt
And sling them in the bathtub
My remedy now built.

I burrow myself in,
My tension lost its wrath,
And curl up for some dreaming
In my cozy patchwork bath.

Random Thoughts...Something I Haven't Done For Awhile

Recently I've just posting random crap I find amusing on here like it's facebook or something. I haven't really felt like writing lately, which is weird, because I generally enjoy writing. But today I'm just going to write. It won't be anything fantastic or ground-breaking, and very possibly not even thought-provoking or entertaining, but at least it's from the heart, not from somewhere else on the Internet.

I think I haven't really felt like writing because I'm stressed. I may not have classes right now, but this whole jobless state is very wearing on my soul. Fortunately I have substitute taught a little bit to get some money in my pocket and to take a break from job searching and the unending and fruitless applications process I find myself completing over and over and over again. At least Teach For America is looking hopeful! And that is what I really want to do, but I wish I had something now. I do like being at the schools when I'm subbing, though. I like being with the students, and don't even mind the jokes I get about how young I look. Last week one kid joked "are you lost? This is the high school. The middle school is across the street." I'm told all the time that I look 17, though, so slightly older than middle school. I just blend in with the high schoolers. Except I don't dress like them when I'm there. I wear teacher clothes, and it sounds weird, but one of my eyebrows is suffering from baldness or something, so the mornings I sub, as I fill my eyebrow in I joke to myself that I'm drawing on my "grown up eyebrows." But really I don't do them any different than usual. But I don't exactly enjoy the subbing itself, because it's like babysitting. I just pass out a worksheet and then sit at the teacher's desk and do nothing. I did break up a fight last week! I think when I got after them I surprised them that I could actually be stern because I look so little and nice.

I'm excited for someday when I'm actually the teacher. Then I can do more than keep students quiet in their seats. In fact, I think sometimes I'll do exactly the opposite! In my classroom I want my students excited about what we're learning and participating and discussing. To really learn, you can't just be spoon fed facts and then know them for good. You have to discover for yourself. It's like when I was a kid and I wanted my parents to buy me something (what comes to mind is that Jasmine Barbie I wanted so bad when I was around 9) but my parents said, "If you want it, then save your money and buy it yourself." I remember my mom saying many times that when you work and buy something with your own hard-earned money then it mean more to you and you'll take better care of it. So I put my Barbie on layaway at Shopko and saved my meager chore money and had a lemonade stand for days until I had enough money to take her home, and she meant more to me than the Barbies I got for my birthday from some neighborhood girl. I think knowledge is the same way. When you have to work to get it, it's more valuable to you, and therefore more memorable.

Enough about teaching and comparing knowledge to Barbie dolls. I've been thinking about Kelly a lot lately. Of course, this isn't very unusual, but lately I've found my thoughts flickering in his direction even more often then usual. He's coming home in less than six weeks, now. It is strange how these weeks feel stretched before me looking as long as the two years I've already waited through. Six weeks is nothing to two years! Why does it feel longer than any six weeks I've ever experienced before? I keep thinking it will be here before I know it, but...six weeks might as well be eternity for me right now. I think part of it is I've never really worried about when he gets home before. I suppose I just subconsciously thought we'd spend a day adjusting and then jump right back in where we left off. But I don't know that. I kind of suspect it, because the 4 times we've spoken on the phone while he's been gone, after a few minutes it was like we just talked earlier that day. He is so familiar to me, no matter how long we are apart. I miss our perfect spring break before he left. I think that week holds some of my favorite memories of all time. It's just filled with sunshine and riding in his old tan Mercedes over the pass with the windows down, and stargazing in the valley and coming home late at night when we don't need to talk anymore; we were just content with sitting in the car holding hands. The feeling of being together enough for the moment. I heard a song by Death Cab for Cutie that is exactly like those nights.

Passenger Seat

I roll the window down
And then begin to breathe in
The darkest country road
And the strong scent of evergreen
From the passenger seat as you are driving me home

Then looking upwards
I strain my eyes and try
To tell the difference between
Shooting stars and satellites
From the passenger seat as you are driving me home

"Do they collide?"
I ask and you smile.
With my feet on the dash
The world doesn't matter.

When you feel embarrassed then I'll be your pride
When you need directions then I'll be the guide
For all time
For all time

Six more weeks...I just want to know what it feels like, what it looks and sounds like, to finally be able to look for his face in the crowd and know it will actually be there.

I'm on top of the world
Excited and nervous
To finally be there.
Focused past the uniforms
And metal detectors.
The onslaught of passengers
Pour down the escalator.
I'm searching for the one face meant for me.
Standing on my toes
On top of the world
On the floor of the airport.

Start a Band; Make an Album!

I was stumbling on firefox and found this. It is raining outside, I'm bored, and I think I am getting sick. Having nothing better to do at the moment I tried it.

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”
or click here
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click here
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click here
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together. (I just used the basic paint program.)

If you make one, send it to me and I'll post it on here!

Here's mine:


And here's my second album...with my other band...seriously, this took me like 30 seconds.

Advice for America

This is it. Seriously, it's what people need to know.




The following is also very useful, but start with the first one.