Continual State of Becoming

Ahh... the holidays are over, for the most part anyway. Things here have been kinda crazy. The end of the semester did not (as I had hoped) mean that my life slowed down at all. In fact, I've managed to be even busier lately. But it's been a good kind of busy for the most part. I love my new job. Other than switching the subject to music (other than art) it's pretty much perfect for me. Although, if I can't work at a music library yet, art is the second best fit. I get to stay on top of all the current exhibits and artists going on all over the world. My boss is super nice (and I think she likes me more now that she knows that I actually know a little something about art... a very little something, but still, every little bit helps). And she's really interested in helping me learn as much as possible about the WHOLE library and art museum world as possible while I'm there (as opposed to confining me to my assigned tasks). So it's been a lot of fun. ...

Today was my official first day at the National Gallery (I went through processing on Monday). It was great. I think I'm really gonna like working there. And I have to say, I'm SO glad I took LBSC670 (Information Structure) this semester because I'm gonna have to use pretty much everything I learned there for this job. 670 (as it is referred to by us library students) most deals with the "back-end" of information. As in how to make it accessible rather than how to access it. Mostly we learned about ways to organize information, including various principles and standards used in the library world (AACR2, MARC, LC Authority Files, Dewey and Library of Congress classification schemes). The class was very difficult (the teacher was an EXTREMELY hard grader... but that just forced me to really learn everything) I really enjoyed it. I learned all kinds of new ways to organize things, which I think will end up making me OCD. Anyway, I'm excited about my new jo...

Days until New Job: 2 Days until Finals: 3 Days until Opera: 8 Days until Christmas: 16 Days until trip to New York City: 17 Am I ready for any of this? Not really. awesome. I have, however, managed to finally finish my portion of a take home final. For one of my classes we have to work on a take home final in groups, so the group I'm in divied up the questions amongst ourselves (there are 9 people, and 4 questions). Then I met with my partner yesterday to work on overall concepts and principles for our question, and we divied up the work we had to do, then today I typed it all up. Number of hours spent answering one-half of a question... hmm let's see... background research: 2-3 hours, discussions with partner: about 1 1/2 hours on Tuesday and 5 hours (nonstop) yesterday, writing/typing/editing/proofing/formatting: 4 1/2 hours today. Total length of one-half of 1 question out of 4 total questions... 10 pages. I am SO glad we didn't have to do the whole thing by...

My new least favorite word: kitschy The last time I heard this was the other day while watching a decorating show on TV. The designer created a "kitschy" piece of wall art for the room she was working on. Today I looked up the word kitschy, partly because I wasn't 100% confident in its meaning, and partly because I wasn't even sure if it was a real word. Here's the definition (according to dictionary.com): "Something of tawdry design, appearance, or content created to appeal to popular or undiscriminating taste" "Kitschy" is an awesome word for a decorator to use; and an even more awesome design aesthetic to be shooting for. (wow in one sentence I managed to use a word I hate (kitschy), a word I love (aesthetic), and end with a preposition... wahoo)

So in addition to changing my blog's layouts, I have a few other things that are going to be changing soon. The biggest change is that I got a new job! I'm going to be working as a student aide at the National Gallery of Art 's library. I applied for the job a little while ago, and didn't really hear anything right away. I actually applied for all 3 positions they advertised. But then one day I got a call for an interview and they said that they were "very anxious" to meet me as soon as possible, which I took as a good sign. My interview went really well, and I left with pretty high hopes (though I tried not to get them too high), and a short while later I got a call with the offer. I'm SO excited. And here's why: -first of all, my schedule is fairly flexible, I can work 20 hours a week (or less depending on my class schedule) during school, and full time during breaks (and it's paid... which is far better than the intern option I was considering i...

Okay, this is why You Tube is awesome. I found this clip of The Raconteurs performing Bang Bang. It's definitely worth checking out though it doesn't compare to seeing it live. But just thought I'd throw it on here in case anyone is interested. This is pretty similar to how they performed it when they opened for Dylan. The one difference I remember is that Jack White's guitar strap came undone about 3/4 of the way into the song so he just held the guitar up by the neck with one hand and strummed where ever with the other one. Appropriate for the song I thought. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhGnuHuD5Fc&mode=related&search=

Wahoo new layout. It was time for a change

These past few days (over Thanksgiving) have kept me busy... in a good way, so I haven't minded much. But I have definitely enjoyed taking it easy this afternoon, despite the fact that I should be working on my final assignments (not to mention studying for finals). I know, I haven't been posting much lately, but in all honesty I'm starting to hate computers. Well, not really hate computers, I'm just tired of them. Most of my work at school requires electronic research and e-journal readings, which means I spend A LOT of time on the computer. And in all honesty, lately I just haven't wanted to spend any more time than was absolutely necessary on the computer. Between email and search engines, I can't take anymore. So that's my excuse for not posting. But there are a few things I've wanted to mention, so I'm gonna go over some of them now. For a while, there just wasn't much music that I was really interested in listening to. But fortunatel...

Okay, in general I don't expect that people will be as excited about this as I am, but I found the coolest thing ever. George Mason just released an extension (I think that's what you call them) for the new Firefox browser called Zotero. I found out about it through the listserv at school and downloaded it immediately. Basically it's a way of managing resources... kind of like an online works cited thing. Anyway, I totally love it because one of my classes consists of pretty much nothing but citing resources and this allows me to keep track of what websites I visited, what my search strategies (and results) were, when I visited, and the citation information. So if you've been struggling to keep track of sources for papers or projects, or you're looking for something a little more sophisticated than bookmarks, I'd definitely recommend checking out Zotero (did I mention it was free?) www.zotero.org

1st Moment: Yesterday I was teaching a Beethoven tune to one of my piano students. Even though the lesson books I use have mostly original music (written by the publishers for pedagogical purposes) occasionally they will stick in classical themes that have been arranged to a level more appropriate for younger piano students. So to show which pieces weren't written by the publishers they will put the original composer's name under the title, along with the composer's birth and death years, country or nationality, and the word "arranged." So last night I was working on this piece with my youngest student (who also, by the way, is my hardest working student) and when he found out that Beethoven wrote this song he got really excited (which is true of nearly all my students... they all love Beethoven). And when he saw the dates underneath he asked "oh is that Beethoven's phone number?" and then I told him "no, those are the years he was alive....

Here's why i love Saturns. I mean, I realize they arent high performance or high luxury, but I really dont need that in a car. What I do need is something to get me from point A to point B with as few problems as possible (along with a few basic luxuries like heat and AC, and a CD player). And with all the experiences I've had with the cars, I've been pretty satisfied with the reliability and low maintenance. In fact my very first car didnt even need to be washed because it has some sort of special coating on it, so that when it rained the dirt would run of with the rain water. I got so used to that, that I havent quite adjusted to my non-special coating saturn (which means I dont wash it as often as I probably should). At some point in time everyone in my family has owned a Saturn, both my parents, 2 of my sisters (the 3rd one is only 12), my brother, me, and even my husband. At one point my dad lined up all our Saturns in the driveway and took a picture with all of us sta...

this is fun... go to this site and wiggle your mouse around a little. Jackson Pollack

Yay, midterms are over!! Yay, October is over!! I can finally go back to normal Jessica, as opposed to psycho-studying Jessica. I've had a crazy amount of work due in the past couple weeks at school, but now things are going to a more manageable pace (at least I dont have another day in which I have a major project/assignment/test/presentation due for each class... well not until finals anyway). I've been pretty much neglecting all other aspects of my life the past few weeks as I scrambled to get my school work done. So now that I'm over the hump, I can finally turn my attention back to other things... like doing laundry (apparently it doesnt do itself, no matter how long you let it sit on the floor), getting my dog groomed, vaccuuming, running errands, going to my yoga class (which I had to skip last week), talking to people, paying attention to my dog, posting an occasional blog... and so on. I still have to do school work this week, but that's fine, at least it w...

I'll never have a chance to go to CBGBs

Yay!!!! As it turns out, after digging a little deeper (okay, A LOT deeper) I dont have to go to school tomorrow to hunt through print versions of periodicals all day. Wahoo!!! Yay for me and my awesome researching skills. Yay for journals that have full text available online. Yay for not having to wake up at 5:30 in the morning so I can get to school pre-rush hour. ps- add another 5 hours to time spent researching online... just a little more left, hopefully i can get it done before i pass out for the night.

I think that grad school is going to make me ocd... or at least overly organized. the further and further into I get, the more and more obsessed i'm becoming with organizing everything I can. For example: My simple Daily To Do lists have gone from handwritten notes jotted down onto scrap pieces of paper as I think of them to catergorized and prioritized lists on the computer (with due dates and automatic email reminders so I dont forget important things.) # of hours I have spent doing research in a library in the past week: 7 (not including time spent researching online at home which probably adds a good 10-12 hours to that number), # of hours I spent driving to and from the library: 4 (and I have to go back tomorrow) I've started drinking caffinated drinks primarily for the caffiene (rather than thirst or flavor) again. While down in Atlanta I made the comment that I was going to enjoy being able to sleep in while I still could because I knew that it would be ending soon ...

This week I started a yoga class. I had a few reasons for deciding to take the class. First of all, I haven't really been exercising much lately. Partly because I've gotten busier (though that's really just a lame cop-out), partly because I no longer belong to a gym, partly because I can't stay committed to working out. So I figured that if I signed myself up for a class (that I have to pay for), I'd be more likely to stick with something. So I started looking around for classes I could take. I narrowed down my options to either yoga or pilates because I thought it would be good for me to do something that would increase my flexibility (which is and always has been pretty much non exsistent) and strengthen my core area (especially my back which has been bothering me a lot lately), and I also wanted something that would be somewhat relaxing and give me an opportunity to release the stress of my week. I looked for classes in the area (via google searches... whic...

Okay one of the small discussions I had in the past couple days was about guitar capos. This came up because I saw someone playing a semi-hollow electric and he changed the capo in between EVERY song (seriously). And I'm not talking about putting it up at the 12th fret, it was like 3rd fret, 2nd, fret, off, 5th fret, all relatively low for capo purposes. Being the snotty musician I know that I can be (and being married to a very capable guitarist), it bothered me. I was explaining why this bothered me to some of the people I went to the conference with. Basically capoing the guitar is a "only do if you have to or if it serves a musical purpose" kinda tool... and even then it's really only an ACOUSTIC guitar kinda tool. But people also know that you can easily change keys simply by sticking a capo on a different fret. And granted, if you need to change keys (usually to accomidate a singer's vocal range) at the last minute, and aren't very good at transpos...

I spent the past few days down in the Atlanta Georgia area for a church conference. The conference was okay, not great, but still had some good parts. But I'm not going to write too much about the content because there are plenty of other websites and blogs that will do that much better than I would, so I'll let them handle it (catalyst conference). I will make a few comments about the trip itself and one thing about the conference in particular. 1- The area we were in looked pretty much exactly like the northern virginia area. A little hillier perhaps, but other than that, I kept forgetting that I was in a different state. There was a lot of new building going on, the trees looked the same, the roads and everything else looked the same. There were only 2 occasions in which I really felt like I was down south. 1- I saw a sign the said "Old Wood Georgia (or something-something Georgia)" which made me think "huh what an odd sign for a shopping center" ...

So the other day was my birthday. I'm now officially a quarter of a century old. For the most part my day was a typical Thursday. I cleaned all morning, taught in the afternoon, then had rehearsal in the evening. My mom had a dinner for me on Sunday (since she knew I'd be busy), so we pretty much celebrated my birthday then. My parents got me a crock pot, which is something I've wanted so that Matt and I can actually have real dinners again. This way I can just throw a bunch of ingredients together in the morning and by evening we'll have something to eat. Which is good for us since I am either working or at school nearly every night of the week (it makes for a lot of "cereal" dinners). I havent used the crock pot yet, but I think I might test it out tomorrow. Hopefully it's as easy to use as everyone's been telling me. Since most of the festivities occured Sunday, my actual birthday was pretty low key. Matt and I went to Macaroni Grill for di...

Yeah, this is probably going to be at the front of my mind and topics of my blog for a long time. So far, it has been a LOT of work, and it's only gonna get worse from here. In fact once October gets here, I probably wont have any life outside of homework and work, so don't expect to see me blogging much at that point. Or maybe i'll be blogging a lot because i'll be on my computer nonstop. For the most part my fall classes are far better than my summer classes. But also TONS more work. In comparison, it hardly seems like I was in school at all this summer. I read non stop now. Which is something I've said that I wanted to get back into, but if I have to read nonstop, I really wish the content could be slightly more interesting (I'm sorry, but "The History of Documented Information Management in Western Civilization" will put me to sleep, there's just no way around that). But i do find the subject itself fairly interesting, if for no other ...

This is kind of a spin off from my last entry. There are three things that affect my decision when it comes to what music I'm going to listen to. Those things are: 1- mood, 2- activity, and 3- weather. For some reason weather has a bigger impact on my decision than I would have expected. For instance, I have winter and summer music. Winter tends to be more mellow, laid back, while summer music tends to be more upbeat, poppy, and singable. I also have rainy day, sunny day, and snow music.

Good rainy day music: Radiohead Beth Orton A Life Less Ordinary soundtrack Tori Amos Fiona Apple Good rainy day food: Soup Oatmeal Grilled Cheese Sandwhiches Good rainy day activities: Read Organize photos Watch favorite movie Bad rainy day activity: Yesterday Matt and I finished painting the garage floor. So we left all our stuff that's usually in the garage in the driveway. I checked the weather report like 4 times and it didnt say anything about rain, so I figured the stuff would be fine. Then this morning I wake up to the sound of static... oh wait, that's not static... it's rain! So we both quickly run downstairs and start moving stuff into the now perfectly clean and painted garage. This is what one of my professors would describe as "what happens when recall is not 100%" (which is actually what one of my homework assignments I just finished was all about). Thanks weather.

It's lines like this that make me love watching General Hospital. "I heard you were facing lions baby, I thought you could use a whip and a chair." --Luke Spencer on returning to find out that his daughter is pregnant with his step-son's baby and being bullied into giving up custody to the crazy and overly wealthy Quartermane family. You just dont get drama like that on normal TV shows. haha

Ahh the holiday weekend... where did you go? Here's a quick recap of what I've been up to: Friday I had lunch with an old friend of mine. A girl I was good friends with in 8th grade when I lived over in Germany. We've managed to stay semi-connected over the years through occasional IMs, and Christmas cards from our parents (her father and my father worked together). Another form of connection came from my aunt... she was my friend's chemistry teacher in high school at one point (they both lived in Belgium at the time). That was a great lunch. Then I got home and found out that my professors (classes start tomorrow) had finally posted their syllabi (i hate that word, syllabus is okay though) and I had a ton of reading to get through by Tuesday. Yay for WebCT. Saturday started out by heading up to UMD to buy the books I needed to read. Of course even though I reserved the books ahead of time, the main book I needed was no longer there. Hopefully I'm not the on...

So I'm no stranger to YouTube. Recently I've been watching everything from clips of the Emmys (Check out John Stewart and Steven Colbert) to card tricks (which I'm happy to say, Matt and I figured out after a few viewings). So naturally one day I did a little browsing to check out some piano videos. The results definitely had an impact on me. On the first search all I typed in was "piano" which ended up with a lot of piano renditions of video game themes. Some of them pretty interesting. But not really what I was looking for. So I decided to limit my search a little more and typed in "clair de lune" which is a piece I played in college, but never really mastered. These results interested me for 2 reasons. 1- There was one guy who played amazingly well, although the video camera was positioned in such a way that you couldnt see his face or hands at all. 2- There were lots of videos of people in the "still learning" phase. Which really s...

So I listened to Pablo Honey earlier today. I never knew that Creep was edited for the radio. the original lyrics fit the tone of the song way better. Stupid FCC (they're the ones in charge of that kind of stuff right?--- well if not, Stupid Censor-Organization). Other stupid censoring things: The Green Day song... American Idiot. The radio cuts out a word. They dont bleep it, they cut it out... totally throws the counting off, which drives me crazy. Bleeping in general. Especially anytime they bleep out the middle letters of a swear word... hmm... wonder what f**k means? maybe fqxk? Seriously, are the "u" and "c" that offensive? And if so, then should we bleep them out all the time? How ridi**lo*s is that? Changing phrases when a movie is on TV. "that stupid dumb head" in an awkward high pitched voice just doesnt flow as seemlessly as I think the censors think it does. Though my husband likes to watch movies he knows really well on TV to s...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060825/ts_nm/economy_height_dc Maybe I should get my back straightened... it might add a few points to my IQ.

I've been tagged by Tom . Orignally this started out as a Book Meme, but since I dont read a whole lot I had a tough time answering these questions. So I decided that since music has had such a big effect on my life, I'd change it up a little... and who's going to stop me? So here's the Book Meme with a twist. 1. One album that changed your life: hmm... just one... that's hard... Well one song in particular that changed me was Bob Dylan's The Hurricane. This was my "gateway" song into Bob Dylan. The anger, energy, and conviction in the song opened my eyes to the amount of power a good songwriter should have. It doesnt even matter that Dylan's voice is barely tolerable, I couldnt stop listening to this song. Now I'm a full fledged Dylan junkie. (maybe not as much as other people, but more than I ever thought I'd be). But this has shown me that good music is about more than fast notes, difficult passages, and how pretty it is. 2. On...

"Sounds like two skeletons copulating on a tin roof" — Sir Thomas Beecham, famous British conductor, when asked about his opinion of the harpsichord. It totally does. I hate harpsicords.

Have you ever noticed the gutters and drains when you are going through the drive thru of a fast food place? They always have liquid pouring out of them... even if it hasnt rained in days. I have always imagined that this liquid is actually leftover french fry frying oil that they dump down the drain. I imagine that this oil also contains old, gross scraps of food. The thought totally grosses me out. I also think that it smells bad so I usually dont breathe through my nose when I place my order.

I'm in the mood to watch Xanadu . That movie is awesome! But not as awesome as saying the word Xanadu when you are around me and my sisters. Whenever someone says Xanadu (which you wouldn't think happened too often, but I think people catch on to this reaction, so they find a way to bring it up) we immediately break into the main song of the movie. Xandadu, Xanadu-u-u, now we are here, in Xanadu... Xanadu your neon lights will shine... for you Xanadu Olivia Newton John rocks I love watching musicals with my sisters

Lately Thursdays have turned into my busy days. Today, for instance, I left my house at 8:15am and got home at 9:45 pm. I realize that a lot of people have days like that. And it really doesn't bother me normally... but today was one of those days when the little things started to get to me. My two big tasks for the day were: get the pianos at church tuned and give 2 presentations in my class. Somehow that took well over 12 hours. But even that didnt really bother me. I worked on my presentations at church while waiting for the pianos to be tuned. I also managed to clean up a little of the paper mess that seems to accumulate with all the music material. My first presentation for my class went well (I presented a website called Classical Music Library which offers free access to LOTS of classical recordings... unfortunatley it's a subscription database, so I can only access it through UMD's catalog and as soon as I'm no longer a student, I'll have no access)....

The following entry made me think about photography in a different way. http://dc.metblogs.com/archives/2006/08/some_things_loo.phtml#more

Aesthetics is a word I love to use and see used.

Hmm... what to write about... hmm... Well I guess I could write something interesting about school. I started my new class a few weeks ago. It's okay (I say that with VERY little enthusiasm). Still not as interesting as I would hope, but it's a step I need to take in order to get my degree. So I do it. Last week we had a pop quiz on Singularity and two different Information Theories (don't even ask what those to have to do with each other... the randomness of this class is one thing I haven't learned to cope with yet). Anyway, seeing as how my teacher loves to talk about every little detail he can about every single topic we discuss (the entire history, who was involved, what their parents did for a living, etc) I wrote A LOT, 4 pages of essays. And it all paid off because I got an A+!!! Wahoo! I didn't even know they gave A+s in grad school (I was shocked to find that they gave them in regular college). So I guess I'm off to a good start. I have to s...

A few things I've learned in the 7-8 weeks I've been in library school: I'm no longer afraid to drive on the Beltway. Before I avoided it at all possibly costs. Now I don't mind it too much (so long as it's not rush hour, and it's not raining) I consider information more carefully. Where did it come from? What is a person's intention/motivation for giving it to you? Are you getting the whole story? The history of the computer Things left to learn: How a library works, especially cataloging since everyone talks about it nonstop Apparently everything else the world has to offer Not to feel claustrophobic while spending time in a library

Here are 2 other videos (matt found both of these): http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/mario.php http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/mariosuperguy

I want to try this myself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw-eEWtPm8Y&search=mento

So I think I've finally figured out why I like punk rock music so much. A lot of people dont understand how I can like it, especially considering the fact that I'm a classical music (or at least a classically trained musician). And it's very true that I love classical music. But it's also very true that I can't just listen to it anymore. I can't put it on in the background while doing other things because i've been trained to analyze and think about what makes it tick, how it's being expressed, what could be better, etc. etc. etc. Which can make it very difficult to just enjoy it. I used to listen to opera a lot, especially when writing papers. I'd just put it on in the background and type away. Unfortunately I only owned a very few opera CDs and it wasn't long before I could sing along with every note (nevermind the fact that I couldn't speak the language I was singing in, as long as you get the right vowel that's really all tha...

At the moment I am sitting on a bench right outside my IT class. Tonight I am taking my final for the class. I can't believe how quickly it went by! One down, 9 or 10 to go. I usually get here about an hour and a half early and catch up on emails or other computer related things (since I can't very well bring housework with me), and usually things are pretty quiet. But today there is an Insect Science Camp going on about 2 doors down from my classroom, so there are tons of kids screaming and running down the hall (I'm not sure what screaming and running has to do with bugs, but I know it has a lot to do with kids.) And since I had a crazy amount of caffiene yesterday I managed to some how take care of all my usually Monday emails yesterday afternoon. So I guess that makes this a good time to blog. ********** I still have yet to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Matt and I actually drove down to Sterling on Saturday morning to try and see it, but as soon a...

Today I hung out with my friend Bianca. While we were at Reston Town Center, we stopped off at Starbucks for some ice tea and sat outside to enjoy the nice weather. While we were sitting and talking, this guy came by with a remote controlled toy car. And on the back of the car was a parrot... a real one... wearing a Starbucks apron. As he approached the store, the parrot hopped onto his hand and then the guy let it go on a tree branch near the Starbucks door. Then the guy left. As soon as he was out of sight, the parrot took off the apron and dropped it to the ground. A little while later, another guy came by and picked up the apron. The parrot stayed in the tree the whole time Bianca and I were there. Most people walked by without even noticing it, but a few stopped and pointed. As Bianca and I left, we walked by the parrot to get a close up look and it said "hello" to us. Being the polite people we are, we said "hello" back and then a few seconds later ...

Okay so I've been pretty busy. A lot of that has to do equally with school and church. Between the two responsibilities I've been running around like crazy lately. But I have to admit that I much rather have this kind of life over the sit-around-and-wait-for-piano-students kind of life I've been living for the past 2 years. Something about it gives me a greater sense of purpose and motivation. I actually feel like I'm doing something again. It's great! We'll just see how long I can keep it up before I burn out. :)

Eve

Things that have happened since my last post: 1- Celebrated my 2 year wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's been 2 years. Some days it seems like it's been so much longer, some days it seems like it was just yesterday. In any case, I look forward to many many more anniversaries. 2- Saw Collective Soul live at the Fairfax Fair. They are a good "have fun and feel good" kinda band. Their live show was pretty good. Though I was kinda bummed that they used pre-recorded tracks along with their live instruments. Boo to that. There was a woman next to matt and I who felt compelled to dance through the entire show. Only she didnt really dance dance. It was more like a work out dance. She would do these punching motions, and stretching motions, oh and I think she did the funky chicken in there somewhere too. I told matt that it looked like she owned "Sweatin to Collective Soul." Also, I always feel better about myself when I go see a professiona...

Matt and I are currently watching the Red Sox game. Ooh, they just showed that if you go online and sign up for Red Sox Nation, you can get an ID card to show that you are an official member. I wonder if that requires some kind of payment. I dont mind watching baseball. It's one of the few sports I can really sit and watch (though I'm usually doing other things while it's on). I think it's mostly because it's one of the few sports I really understand in terms of rules, strategies, etc. But it is slow enough that I dont have to devote my full attention to it. Basketball is tough to watch. My theory is that it's too easy to score. Seriously when people can score into the 100s, it kind of takes away from the suspense. If I do watch basketball, I'll usually only watch the last 3 or 4 minutes. If it's any kind of a good game, that's all you need to watch anyway. Football is somewhere in the middle. I dont really understand all the rules and fou...

I was just on hold with Smart Tag. Their hold music was skipping the entire time I was waiting. It was the most obnoxious thing ever.

Yay! http://news.yahoo.com/s/eo/20060609/en_tv_eo/19227

I've seen so many episodes of the show "Sell This House" that I feel like I personally know Tanya Memme.

This morning I had to bring in my husband's car to get the AC fixed. It was leaking all over the back of the car (we had a nice puddle on the passenger side). Unfortunately we didnt realize how bad the problem was until I removed a bag containing ALL my church materials (planning papers, all the music for Youth Sunday, instruction manuals, song lists, sheet music, etc) and found that it was completely water logged and all the stuff in it was mushy and smelled awful (especially with all the heat we had last week.) So now that's all in the trash. Yay. Anyway, this morning I hopped on the toll road on my way to the dealer in Tysons (luckily it's covered under our warranty) and ended up being behind a van with a System of A Down bumper sticker as well as a sticker that said "this machine is powered by the infinite imporbability drive." Awesome. Just had to share that. Yesterday I had my first graduate class. I got there early for two reasons: the most importa...

okay so i've switched most of my computer stuff over to my laptop, which happens to be a mac. I wouldnt go as far as to say that Windows is evil. I just think that Windows is stupid. I love my Mac! Unfortunately, as I've just found out, Blogger doesn't have quite as many features for macs as they do for PCs. Hmm... perhaps I need to actually start using Firefox, maybe that will make a difference. Oh well.

Well Matt and I didnt quite make it out to wine tasting today... too many other things to do. I did manage to drag him down to the Leesburg Vintner shop down the street though. We go there every once and a while to buy a random bottle of wine. Typically we pick wines based on bottle design (honestly I think matt is more into design than the taste) and then we ask the woman working there if she can recommend a bottle based on what tastes we like. Today it was "sweet white wine." We just got home and started drinking the wine, it's definitely a taste I'm sure matt likes. I think it's pretty good too. Definitely sweet, but not super sweet so it's easily drinkable. Personally I love really dry white wines. We also picked up an ice wine (again, very sweet) and a bottle from italy that says "castiglia di Jesi" which I decided translates into Castle of Jessica. How could I not get it? So there's our wine tasting. If I could, I'd put a li...

So while preparing the gourmet meal of bagels and cream cheese for dinner tonight, I realized another one of my weirdnesses. While making sandwhiches, I always have to put the bread back together so the sides match. This is one of those things I never realized I did until Matt made sandwhiches one day. We were both in the kitchen and I think he had just put the peanut butter and jelly on and was getting ready to put the two pieces back together. But he was going to put them together the wrong way. As soon as I realized this I screamed out "what are you doing, that's not how it goes" or something to that effect. And this was the moment I realized my weirdness. (or it could have been a moment later when i saw the puzzled look on matt's face) Bagels present a particular challenge in this since they are very round. It's hard to tell which way they go back together so that all the sides match up perfectly again. But I'll sit there and rotate the slice aroun...

I only have a little more than one day of freedom left. Then I enter the world of constant studying, paper writing, and long commutes. When I think about the big picture, I'm excited! Actually thinking about the first day of class... and I'm sooooo nervous. I've tried finding out some information ahead of time so I at least know what to expect, exactly how much work I'm going to be doing. Most teachers post their syllabus online or through webct or blackboard or something like that. I've searched all those things and come up with nothing, which I think is especially weird because the class is Information Technology... seems to me like the teacher isnt really utilizing it all that much. Not only that, but according to the bookstore, the teacher hasnt requested any books for the class. So I really have no idea what to expect. I hate feeling so unprepared. So how am I spending my last few days of freedom? Thursday I took my dog to the vet for a yearly check-up...

# of times I've locked myself out of the house and my car in the past week: 2 Way to go me.

Here are some of the pictures of the work I did in my parent's room. I'm still trying to get my dad to send me a picture of the completed projects. This is what it looked like before we did anything. Love the country blue-with-hearts wallpaper... gag. Here's me with my best friend the wallpaper steamer on Day 2 of the project. See those brown patches... that's the drywall. This wall actually didnt turn out too bad, the other walls were much much worse.

I'm back. Ready to rejoin the blogging world after my little break. You know, sometimes blogging just seems more like a chore than it should be. So at that point, I take a break until it's something I want to do again. I realized this morning that I have less than a week before classes start. Less than a week until I'm officially a graduate student. I'm excited and kinda nervous at the same time. Luckily at orientation I met a girl who will be in both of my summer classes, so at least I dont have to worry about not knowing people the first day of class. That's always the worst. Although it was much worse in elementary and high school. At least now I dont have to worry about finding someone to eat lunch with on the first day of school. Ugh. That was always the single worst moment of moving. Unfortunately since I moved nearly every school year that sensation, through the transitive property, is now the sensation I associate with any first day of anything.....

I hate it when people uninentionally rhyme. But even more than that, i hate when that happens in my thoughts. If it does, I'll interrupt myself and say "stop rhyming" just so it doesnt continue.

Well i've been spending a lot of time at my parent's house lately. You see a few weeks ago I came up with this brilliant idea for my Mom's birthday (which was May 7th, exactly one week before mother's day.) I knew that she was going to Las Vegas to visit her brother's for a couple days and I thought that would leave us (us being my father and other siblings) with the perfect opportunity to take down this nasty wallpaper that's been in their bedroom since they moved into the house (getting close to 10 years). I shared this idea with the rest of the family, and they all agreed that it sounded good. I showed them ideas for new paint colors and they all thought those were good too. So it seemed like a great way to surprise my mom for her birthday. So the day my mom left we moved all their furniture out of the room, well at least my dad and my uncle moved it out. I kinda stood there and commented on how much clutter my parents have kept over the years and how m...