thisbouquet

yeah

2007-09-18T21:23:30Z

i need a haircut.

oh, hey, daynapanda, how do you make aguas frescas? I had some delicious agua fresca de sandia, YUM, and some pretty good horchata, and my absolute favorite is agua de melon, but i don't exactly know which melon it is.

i've been pretty busy lately. there may be light at the end of the tunnel. perhaps.

i'm alive. and i'm reading your journals, even if i don't always comment!

ta for now!

i am a mosquito buffet

2007-07-05T18:30:28Z

i have been bitten more than 20 times by mosquitoes. At least 23 times that I can count without completely disrobing. 14 of those bites were on my feet, two in the inside part of the foot where the arch forms--one on each foot--and these bites in particular have swollen to a painful size for walking. And they're hot. I practically bathed in Off! but it didn't seem to faze them. I am going to start taking B12 every day--it's supposed to make you unappetizing. Charlie just got bitten a couple of times. But me? I was devoured.

We drove down to Montgomery (Alabama) Tuesday night after we got off work. Charlie and Carla went to see Daniela (Carla's biological mother), and I hung around Wal-Mart (because it was about 8:15, and the mall closes at 9:00). After I got done there, I wandered down the little strip mall to our friend Juan's restaurant. It's called Jose's Cantina (?) or something like that (for those in Montgomery, it's in the same little shopping center as the Walmart on Atlanta highway). I think they're going to change the name to "Los Compadres" or "Dos Compadres" or something like that, though. But I know Juan, and even though I didn't get to eat there, I know the food is wonderful. He's a good cook, and a smart businessman--he's not like some owners who just work the front and the register--he also works the kitchen and cleans up and is a waiter--just about everything. Anyway. I sat around there waiting for Charlie and Carla, drank a Smirnoff Ice (yum--i'm not too big on alcohol, but i do like these, more than the flavored ones usually because they taste like cough syrup). Juan's wife Adriana was helping him out as a waitress (they're waiting on someone who went back to Mexico for a week or two). They have two kids, Adrianita (her name's Adriana too) who is 4, and Andrea who is 10 months. That baby is sooo cute. She's got this kind of sly smile, kind of a half grin, and it's sooo cute. She let me hold her and carry her around, and she would even crawl after me. I want a baby!

Anyway, finally Charlie and Carla got there, and Carla smelled AWFUL, like someone had dumped baby powder all over her. She smelled like either an old woman or a little baby. Come to find out her idiot of a mother (in birth only) bought her Baby Cologne. WHY would you A) buy cologne for a 5 year old, B) Buy a 5 year old BABY cologne, and C) use cologne on a baby??? (just the purpose of the product baffles me.) And WHY would you make baby cologne that smelled like baby powder WHEN BABIES ALREADY SMELL LIKE BABY POWDER?? She also bought her a lot of useless junk that will get lost by next Monday, I guarantee it. Now, I am not against Daniela buying Carla things. I just wish she would use her head. A few months ago she bought Carla a Dora Knows Your Name play phone, which is a nice gift, but Carla doesn't play with Dora anymore, and it's really a toy for smaller kids. Once she bought her one of those toys you give a baby that winds up and plays music and a little picture rolls around a screen (you know what i'm talking about?)--only Carla was 4 and it was for at most a 24 month old. Well, Tuesday she bought her a Bratz doll (which i'm not thrilled about, but whatever) and a bratz horse (?) and a couple of scooters (for the uninitiated, it's a skirt on the outside with shorts underneath--not to be confused with a skort, which is a skirt in the front and shorts in the back. The skort is the mullet of clothing.)

Charlie kept saying that we would eat when we got to Montgomery, so we just had a small snack before we left. Well, it was 9:30 by the time they got to the restaurant, and they had already closed the kitchen (and by the way, that kitchen is soooo clean) and they'd started to clean up. I figured we'd just have to get something at Whattaburger or whatever it's called. But no. I was informed just before we left to go to Juan and Adriana's house that we were going to grill out. I knew there were plans for a grill out, but i figured, call me crazy, that they would grill out ON THE FOURTH. you know, during the day. But no, at 10:00 pm they started the grill, put out the little torches to keep away the mosquitos and off they went.

There were a lot of people there that I didn't know; a couple, his name was Miguel, but I don't remember hers; Juan's two brothers, Carlos and Carches (it's a nickname, but I don't know why they call him that)--carlos left before the food was ready; a guy they called Perro, but whose actual name is Martin; a guy they called Araña, who is the identical twin brother of a guy I know who they also call Araña (I guess so they don't have to remember or figure out which one is which). It's weird because I know the other brother, and he's always nice to me and talks to me. But this guy doesn't know me at all, so even though I knew that he wasn't the same guy, it still felt weird, like I had done something to him and he was mad at me. weird! There was another guy but I never figured out his name, and even though everyone else was Mexican ('cept me), they kept joking with him about being from El Salvador or Guatemala. So, I still don't know if he was Mexican, Salvadoran, or Guatamalan.

Well, the mosquitos were out in force, and they just kept biting and biting. Finally, I picked up the oil they were using in the torches and realized that they were using regular torch oil, not citronella oil. So they were pretty much useless as a mosquito defense. And Off! can only help so much.

They ate, but I didn't eat anything. It was about 1:30 or 2:00 by the time it was ready, and i really wasn't hungry anymore. Plus, they had cooked everything on a gas grill, but they'd used it like it was a charcoal grill. Now...i can't exactly say why the hell they did that, but my best guess is that they didn't know any better. So the food tasted BAD, at least to me. In a charcoal grill, the charcoal is well beneath the cooking grate, while in a gas grill it's closer. A gas grill also only uses a little bit of charcoal to add flavor to the meat--but they loaded it up like it was a charcoal grill, and as a consequence, they cooked everything with flames. Those among you who frequently grill out know that there shouldn't actually be any flame when you're cooking--you cook using the heat of the briquets. So I didn't eat.

It was okay being there--Charlie had fun. Carla played with Adrianita, and she stayed up until about 2:00 when she fell asleep watching a movie. Adrianita stayed awake until about 3:00. No-name was kind of weird. He kept staring at me, the way Hispanic guys stare at you to let you know that they wouldn't be opposed to sleeping with you. Kind of a half-closed eye stare. Not a "you are an incoherent freak" stare or anything. i'm used to it by now, but it was weird. That sounds really modest, doesn't it! But what I mean is that a lot of Hispanic guys think that an American girl who dates/marries a Hispanic guy is easy. It's not uncommon for people who don't really know me or Charlie to assume that I am one of those types (because there are those types of girl--they aren't just imagining things. There are a lot of girls, usually trashy, trashy girls, who just like Hispanic guys, and they will do any Hispanic guy that comes their way. I am not this type of girl.) It kind of got annoying though.

At one point in the night I called Bellee to have someone to talk to. I couldn't really understand what they hell they were talking about, because it was usually people they knew or futból or something else. And they use a lot of slang that I don't know, and they joke using a lot of double entendres that I don't understand.

Eventually everyone left except Juan Adriana Me and Charlie. We stayed up and talked for hours--the sun was coming up when I finally went to bed (around 5:30 or 6). Charlie went to bed around 7:00. We slept until 11:00; then the three of us got up and Charlie had a little job to do in Montgomery, so while he was working we walked around EastChase. I went to World Market to see if fireriven was at work, then i went to Ross and Target, where I bought Aleve, Benadryl and Benadryl Cream, and some Cutter insect repellent. Then back to get Charlie and we went back to their house, and everyone else was there and they were starting to cook again. This time they made tacos de tripa, and i ate two. They cooked the tripa in a pan on the grill, and it was bien doradita like I like it. But no cilantro, no cebolla! So it wasn't very satisfying.

The little ones put on their bathing suits and played with a water hose, while the grownups just sat around. Finally, i told Charlie that we had to go, and he finally got it into his head, so we left their house about 8 and got onto the highway to go home at about 8:30. So that put us home at 10:00 pm. Quite a long day!

Juan and Adriana and the kids are going to Mexico next week, so he's taking a package of stuff for Charlie's family--it's a lot cheaper than FedEx, UPS, or paquetería. So that's good. But now i'm exhausted--a combo of no sleep and benadryl. My feet hurt so bad from those bites! Especially since I have to wear nice shoes to work.

In the end, it was kind of weird spending July 4th as the only American. I kind of missed doing normal July 4th things--fireworkds, grilling hot dogs and hamburgers, or ribs, and drinking lemonade etc. No one brought a banana pudding or a strawberry shortcake, and there wasn't any red, white and blue. It was interesting, but kind of lonely, because as long as Charlie and I've been together, and as much I know about the culture, I still can't get really used to it. So much of it is based on superstition, and there so many things that I can and can't do, or i'm not sure if I should do, because I don't know how it would be interpreted. Looking into someone's eyes when they speak, for us, is normal--people don't trust you if you don't do it. But doing that with Hispanic guys has gotten me into so much trouble, because apparently they interpret it as being flirtatious. Among Americans, I can speak to a single guy about whatever, and that won't be seen as weird, but it was almost like I could only really speak to Juan and Adriana, because a casual conversation with another guy could be seen as flirting. Now, even though most of these guys are from the DF (city boys), people from the more rural parts of mexico are more likely to have women talk to women and men to men, and never the twain shall meet. And i'm not like that.

And the part that really bothered me is how they would talk about gabachos, like I'm not sitting right there! And how they (the people at the party) just don't understand simple scientific and economic principles that most of us take for granted (which probably has more to do with education than culture). And it irritates me to hear people talking about things that aren't correct; I absolutely want to correct them, but i controlled myself.

One of the things that really bugged me was the hipocrisy of them at times. They were going on and on about American food, many of talking about how they didn't understand how we could eat some of the things that we eat. You know what they were talking about? Pickles. It's a cucumber, in vinegar. That's all a pickle is. Vinegar and salt and cucumber. They eat pigs feet and intestines and stomach, and they're practically wretching talking about pickles. Come on! It's all relative anyway.

I just keep quiet and smile. And if they say anything to me about it, I just tell them that it all depends on where you're standing. If you're born here, you eat the food here. If you're born somewhere else, you eat the food there...and other foods may seem gross or disgusting, but not to the people who are accustomed to them.

anyway, despite all these things, I had a pretty good time. Next time i'm wearing pants and knee socks though and bathing in Deet. Even though it will probably give me some sort of disease one day.

This weekend we are probably going to Alabama Adventure and maybe bowling. Carla really wants us to take her bowling because she goes with her daycare sometimes and she doesn't know how to bowl. So she wants us to go so that we can help her and she can practice. How cute is that?

i need a vacation

2007-06-05T19:53:48Z

I want to go to the beach. I would really really like to take Carla to DisneyWorld, but that's not going to happen anytime soon.

Or maybe it will. I don't know.

But I would like to take her to the beach--she's never been!

Where do you stay when you go? I was thinking Orange Beach, Gulf Shores area. I've looked all over and it's all a lot more than I really want to pay. We'd probably stay 3 days or so. I just need time to recharge mah batteries.

What do you think?

some links for you.

2007-05-11T14:50:41Z

The one person here who would be most interested in these? lunarknightz. then followed perhaps by fireriven.

Mary Jane? Uh...that's just wrong.

Rules for Dating a SuperHero

OOOOH. I LIKE! X-Men 4 spoiler??

This is kind of scary.

The really didn't study. This is for Deborah.

a conversation

2007-05-08T21:26:30Z

Carla [coming in to the office/computer room]: You have to say 'ohmygosh that kitty is so cute!'
Me: Oh my gosh that kitty is so cute!
Carla: I just got her from the pet store, somethings fell on her that's why i'm taking her to the doctor.
Me: Oh...
Carla: yeah, she's allergic to unicorns. And CDs.
Me: Well you better take her out of her before she gets sick because there's a lot of CDs in here.
Carla: Well, she just gets sick, she doesn't throw up.
Me: Still, we don't want her to get sick do we?
Carla: Well, I've got a bop bag [read: barf bag] in case she throws up
Me: Oh--
Carla: [rapid fire something about wolves and dragons, and something trying to kill the cat]
Me: Uh HUH.

--She leaves--

--Comes back a few minutes later carrying a purple and white dog--
Carla: I know she's allergic to dogs, but not white and purple [ones]
Carla: You're supposed to go like this [makes astonished face] your doggy is so cute, you have the cutest doggies in the whole wide world did you get it from the pet store. [holds up cat] What's her name?
Me: I don't know.
Carla: Yes you do [whispers] her name is Lucinda Fairy-Tale Whale. And this doggy's name is Muffin, no Ginger.
[pauses and makes animal noises as if the animals are making them]
Carla: Well, what have you been doing?
Me: Not much, you?
Carla: My dog keeps eating. He keeps wanting to go to Walmart and take pictures--do all sorts of stuff. Isn't she a cute doggy? I actually don't know what I'm going to do with this cat. The dentist said i can't keep anymore cats around my house.
Me: You can't buy any more cats?
Carla: I can, but he just means i can't take anymore to the pet store.
Me: You mean, from the pet store?
Carla: NO TO THE PET STORE. I mean, to the dentist.

Carla: My dog can't actually walk. Somebody throwed a frisbee at her and it got sharp stuff, and i told her to duck--this is duck [showed me what it means to duck], but she couldn't and it hit her on her leg, and she bleeded.

[something about a cat and frisbee that turns into a cat, and some animal trying to duck, and it's mommy helping her ending with "and it really happened"]

this could go on and on. I'll stop there.

i've got your letter, you've got my song

2007-05-04T17:14:29Z

24*/50

~~1. Tom Perotta Little Children~~
~~2. Diane Setterfield The 13th Tale~~
~~3. Sue Monk Kidd The Secret Life of Bees~~
4. Marisa Pessljuee Special Topics in Calamity Physics
5. Jared Diamond Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
6. Curtis Sittenfeld Prep
7. Louise Erdrich The Painted Drum
8. John M. Barry The Great Influenza
9. Brian Greene The Elegant Universe
~~10. Gregory Maguire Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister~~
11. Erik Larson Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
12. Anthony Bourdain Kitchen Confidential
13. Barbara Ehrenreich Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America
14. Leah Stewart The Myth of You and Me
~~15. Nicole Krauss The History of Love~~
16. Steven Johnson The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World
17. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
18. Molly Caldwell Crosby The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic that Shaped Our History
~~19. Christopher Maguire Mirror, Mirror~~
~~20. Lee Smith The Last Girls~~
21. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
22. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks
23. Born on a Blue Day Daniel Tammet
~~24. Wizard of EarthSea (EarthSea Cycle #1) Ursula LeGuin~~
25. The Time Traveler’s Wife Audrey Niffenegger
26. The Great Fire Shirley Hazzard
27. In her Shoes
~~28. The Devil Wears Prada Lauren Weisenberger~~
29. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon
30. Veronica: A Novel Mary Gaitskill
31. Stardust Neil Gaiman
~~32. The Partly Cloudy Patriot Sarah Vowell~~
33. Assassination Vacation Sarah Vowell
34. Susan Power The Grass Dancer
35. Diane Ackerman A Natural History of the Senses
36. Naomi Shihab Nye Words Under the Words
37. Geoff Dyer Out of Sheer Rage
38. Nick Hornby High Fidelity
39. Nick Hornby About a Boy
40. Arundhati Roy The God of Small Things
~~41. Agatha Christie The Mysterious Affair at Styles~~
~~42. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Julia Alvarez~~
43. A Great and Terrible Beauty Libba Bray
44. Family Baggage Monica McInerney
45. The Doctor’s Wife Elizabeth Brundage
46. Uglies Scott Westerfeld
47. When Light Breaks Patti Callahan Henry
48. The Book of Bright Ideas Sandra Kring
49. How to Be Lost Amanda Eyre Ward
50. Snow White, Blood Red Ellen Datlow
51. The Memory of Running Ron McLarty
52. A Short History of Tractors Marina Lewycka
53. The Tombs of Atuan (EarthSea Cycle #2) Ursula LeGuin
54. The Farthest Shore (EarthSea Cycle #3) Ursula LeGuin
55. Tehanu (EarthSea Cycle #4) Ursula LeGuin
56. In the Time of Butterflies Julia Alvarez
57. The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood IN PROGRESS
58. Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood
59. Dragonflight Anne McCaffrey
60. Dragonquest Anne McCaffrey
61. The Outstretched Shadow (1) Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
62. To Light a Candle (2) Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
63. When Darkness Falls (3) Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
64. Kushiel's Scion Jacqueline Carey
65. To Save a World Marion Zimmer Bradley
66. The Other Wind Ursula LeGuin
67. A Game of Thrones George R.R. Martin
68. The White Dragon Anne McCaffrey
69. Mapping Harry Potter Ed. Mercedes Lackey
70. Kushiel’s Justice Jacqueline Carey
~~71. The Golden Compass Philip Pullman~~
72. Howl’s Moving Castle Diana Wynne Jones
73. The Last Unicorn Peter S. Beagle
74. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel Lisa See
75. The Hundred Secret Senses Amy Tan
76. March Geraldine Brooks
77. The Sea John Banville
78. Falling Leaves Adeline Yen Mah
79. Dune Frank Herbert
80. Astrid and Veronika Linda Olsson
81. A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies Ellen Cooney
82. The Way the Crow Flies Ann-Marie MacDonald
83. Smoke and Mirrors Neil Gaiman
84. The Lake of Dead Languages Carol Goodman
85. Sold Patricia McCormick
86. The Tree Is Older than You Are Naomi Shihab Nye
87. What Have You Lost? Naomi Shihab Nye
88. Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It Geoff Dyer
89. The Alphabet Sisters Monica McInerny

*not including the stuff that don't feel like including, like LKH or JR Ward. With those, it would make 29.

"don't be confused by my apparent lack of ceremony, my mind is clear..."

2007-05-02T20:56:57Z

Can I just say that this is going to be an expensive month?

This weekend we're going to see Spiderman 3 on Saturday. Next weekend we're driving down to my parents' house for the weekend for mother's day. The next weekend we're going to see Shrek 3. Then the weekend after we're going to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3.

I would also like to see 28 Weeks Later, but I don't know if that's going to happen. We'd have to get a babysitter. Which would make it more expensive. It might be one of those movies that I just wait until it's out on video. Besides, the last few movies i've been to have been too loud. Sometimes I want earplugs. We take earplugs for the munchkin anyway.

Anyway. Last night we watched Flags of Our Fathers and i liked it. I am a sucker for anything WWII. I will admit, without too much embarassment, that I liked Pearl Harbor and I don't quite understand what all the fuss was about when it came out. No one complained when Titanic came out. As i was saying though, I do have a soft spot for WWII movies (but not really the old ones from the 50s and 60s--i would prefer something a little less, oh, propagandist, or downright jingoistic. I do own Tora! Tora! Tora! though. I don't really know why.

I read Herman Wouk's War and Remembrance last year, and even though it's sort of dated and is a work of fiction, it's remarkably well-researched and gave me a good view of the strengths and weaknesses of all the major players in the war. Reading that book, I came to realize how incredibly close we came to losing the war, and how basically we only won because of a series of accidents, bad judgments, and foolish mistakes. I love that book.

Anyway. Flags of Our Fathers. I already knew the story of Iwo Jima (at least the story of the flag raising), but it was interesting to see it, and I thought the narrative structure of the movie was interesting.

i'm not sure how spoilery it could be, considering it is an actual historical event. Oh, by the way, the Allied Forces won. Spoiled you! Now you can't watch the movie! HAHA.

It made me really sad. I think it was because it was a framed narrative, and the frame was of the surviving soldiers as old men, retelling the story. That's something that always makes me sad; that time in the history of this world was/is so important, but all the people who were there are now dying. And they were such vibrant times! When you might die, you cling to life's good experiences when they're presented to you. Seeing all those young boys, so alive, vibrantly so, so intent on having fun while they could, it just breaks my heart to see them die so young, many of them not really ever expecting that particular outcome.

It all goes back to my profound dislike of (for the lack of the proper term I'll have to explain it) moving outside the timeline. For example, I do not like the idea of going on to read Pern fiction that takes place hundreds of years after Lessa and F'lar. Why? Because Lessa and Ramoth, and F'lar and Mnemoth (or however it is spelled), and all the other characters, won't be alive. I can't bear to think of them cold in the ground, or in the cold between. It's like imagining someone great and powerful gone. It's the same feeling I got when I watched The Last Samurai. I can't stand to contemplate the world without them in it, i can't stand to think of what the world has lost. In the case of Pern, that Weyr will always be Lessa's and F'lar's, and anyone else is just an intruder.

So, in that respect, movies that show a young character framed by that character in his or her old age (think: A League of Their Own), really makes me sad. Even Titanic made me sad in that respect. I think the root of it is that the vibrancy of life has past, and now they seem to be waiting to die, letting their children and grandchildren take their places in the world. It just seems so unjust (that word looks funny). Another part of it could be that they achieved such greatness in youth, did such wonderful things, crazy, wild things, and no one knows about it now. They're just old people, they become just grandma or grandpa, not the dashing young war hero.

It makes me sad even to write about it.

But Adam Beech does make me happy as Ira Hayes.

por que el diablo es malisima onda

2007-05-02T12:27:43Z

HAHAHAHAHA.

palomita buena onda. ha. hahaha.

so bad they're painful.

2006-03-22T20:17:27Z

i am grading the worst papers i've ever graded before. of course, they're from my lazy class, so i'm not entirely surprised. out of about 8 papers that i've graded so far, 1 of those 8 knew how to quote and cite quoted material. also, she is the only one who knew how to format and integrate quotes.

one of my students made up whole paragraphs from different quotes. and i don't know how, since they're from Beowulf, and not exactly in order. so the paragraph doesn't make any sense.

oh well. that's why i saved the other class for the end. maybe they're better (i suspect they are). oh the difference an hour makes.

i have to go to get my tires aligned now. i have to stop by the gasolinera before i go so that i will have a drink and a snack for the 1.5 hours it will take them to align all four wheels on my car. pray for me, no?

go yellow?

2006-02-21T18:38:52Z

mkay, so what's the deal with this "Live Green, Go Yellow" ad campaign?

it's too good to be completely true, so i know there's a catch...anybody know what it is?

a poem for today

2006-02-17T15:38:46Z

"In Response to Executive Order 9066"

All Americans of Japanese Descent Must Report to Relocation Centers

Dear Sirs:
Of course I'll come. I've packed my galoshes
and three packets of tomato seeds. Janet calls them
"love apples." My father says where we're going
they won't grow.

I am a fourteen-year-old girl with bad spelling
and a messy room. If it helps any, I will tell you
I have always felt funny using chopsticks
and my favorite food is hot dogs.
My best friend is a white girl named Denise--
we look at boys together. She sat in front of me
all through grade school because of our names:
O'Connor, Ozawa. I know the back of Denise's head very well.
I tell her she's going bald. She tells me I copy on tests.
We're best friends.

I saw Denise today in Geography class.
She was sitting on the other side of the room.
"You're trying to start a war," she said, "giving secrets away
to the Enemy, Why can't you keep your big mouth shut?"
I didn't know what to say.
I gave her a packet of tomato seeds
and asked her to plant them for me, told her
when the first tomato ripens
to miss me

for tomorrow...

2006-02-09T04:15:28Z

ummm. Stephen Greenblatt?

Jews for Jesus.

Highfalutin reading

crisis in the classroom, but not quite.

user pics

2005-12-16T15:57:12Z

so LJ upgraded the free accounts to 6 icons.

so i've been looking around, but i've discovered that i don't know the etiquette for icons.

i don't really understand the terminology? Noms? Bases? Credit? Comment?

i get the hotlinking stuff.

so where do i credit?

also, where are some good places to look for cool icons?

hrmmm. mkay.

2005-12-01T21:43:43Z

go here:

http://www.eathufu.com/home.asp

but not while eating.

but this is interesting, i think:

http://food.oregonstate.edu/ref/culture/taboo_allen.html

loren2582 @ 2005-10-02T16:15:00

2005-10-02T20:16:55Z

i'm married. doesn't feel much different. i cried (rawr! i didn't want to be THAT girl). we ate barbecue, we went on a short honeymoon. we're leaving for Tuscaloosa in a few minutes.

i'll talk about it all later.

but, yep. I'm a married woman now.

it's raining

2005-09-26T14:18:44Z

and my grandmother is dying.

my mom says she won't go before the wedding (they're doing all they can to prevent that), but they don't expect she'll see November.

i knew this was coming. she broke her hip about a month ago, and you know what they say about that. now the doctors are saying she has some kind of anemia in which her blood destroys itself? it will cause a heart attack, or kidney problems or something. my mom has decided not to go to extreme measures to keep her alive.

she had given me a necklace a few years ago. it was the last piece of jewelry her husband had given her. i lost it about five-six months ago. or maybe a year. i felt really guilty about it, but i couldn't find it anywhere, not even when we moved.

charlie found it yesterday, the day we found out just how bad it is, in a box with some of his mother's jewelry.

my family members like to die around important days. my other grandmother died on christmas morning, my grandfather died three days before my prom, and my aunt died few days before an honors banquet at my school.

i'm not really processing much right now. i'm getting married in 6 days. i still can't comprehend that. nothing will change, yet EVERYTHING will change. how weird is that?

bah. i'm going to write a midterm.

T Minus 10 days

2005-09-20T15:55:21Z

or maybe it's eleven.

i don't know. anyway. i'm getting married the first of October, and i'm not excited yet. i'm also not completely freaked out yet. so that's good.

we got our first wedding present yesterday (from Brenda K.). It made it all seem real, i guess.

I also reserved our honeymoon room yesterday. I called this B&B in Columbus, GA, and they didn't have either of their honeymoon suites ($195/night) open (at first, they told me they did), so she gave us the Golden suite which is $265 a night for $195 a night. YAY. here's how their website describes it: This suite takes up the entire front of the second floor of the main house. It has beautiful heart pine floors, 12 ft. ceilings, and a working fireplace in the bedroom. The bedroom also has a four poster heart pine bed. And the bedroom is lined with windows on two sides. The separate sitting room has a sofa and chairs, television and fax. There is also a balcony off of the sitting room, complete with rocking chairs. The Bathroom has a jacuzzi bathtub and separate shower. There is a separate room for the double sinks and a private water closet.

we're also getting champagne, chocolates, strawberries, rose petals and candles in the room, all there for our arrival. As it is a B&B (but not the gilmore-ridiculed kind), breakfast in bed comes with the room, as do cocktails and horsdoerves or howeverthehellitsspelled. i'm excited.

Here are some pictures:

Here's the bedroom

And the Jacuzzi!

i'm going to lunch now.

Photobucket

2005-08-21T01:41:20Z

This is a test post from Photobucket.com

loren2582 @ 2005-08-17T13:15:00

2005-08-17T18:16:04Z

so, i'm working on my course policy for the fall. I realize that I need to check the academic calendar so that i can make out my syllabus. so i go on over to the website and lo! there's a day that i've never seen before: Constitution Day. Now, I've been around a while. Like 24 years. And i've Never. heard. of. this. day. And it's like, two days. September 16th, National Celebration of Constitution Day and September 17th Constitution Day. So i'm thinking, what, do we get it off or something (which would be Sweet)?

So, i look it up on google and find a really crappy official page www.constitutionday.com or www.constitutionday.org.

the whole idea is to, all across the united states, recite the PREAMBLE of the constitution simultaneously--and they've developed a VIDEO (eg. "for the common defense" is illustrated by tanks and stuff). it's to be celebrated at 1 pm CST. Um. No? I'll be in the middle of teaching BRITISH literature (irony of ironies), and i'm supposed to stop and say the preamble? No.

at first i thought, no, you're probably overreacting. But the university doesn't have Arbor day on the academic calendar. Or flag day. the only holidays, hitherto, worth mentioning on the academic calendar were those we had off. memorial day--no school. same with labor day, christmas etc. halloween is not on the academic calendar. so the mere presence of this on the calendar is tacit agreement and involvement. Bells are supposed to chime for three minutes or something. Denny chimes anyone? Right outside my building. and if i don't do it, i know i'll have some patriotic asshole demanding to participate. I hate. this idea.

and gen tommy franks is reading it with president bush. Good god y'all.

Now, I don't hate the military. But i believe: Support the military by BRINGING THEM HOME.

but as for bush...well, let's just say he's not on my christmas card list.

I know it's supposed to be non-partisan and not about the war at all, but about the constitution (which irritates me in that certain members of congress have NO PROBLEM AT ALL forgetting the constitution when it suits them). but it just reeks of propagandist attempts to make us all FEEL good and i hate that kind of manipulation.

i'll love the constitution on my own, thanks!

i'm alive

2005-08-16T18:36:18Z

just a short entry...i'm alive.

i have so much to say, but carla's going stircrazy, so we're going to walmart.

more later.

loren2582 @ 2005-07-09T19:33:00

2005-07-09T23:46:32Z

i'm at my mom's house right now.

my thoughts go out to all of you who are being evacuated or who are evacuating the coast.

i passed a great many evacuees on my way here--they've even closed I65 S towards mobile starting in Montgomery, and i've heard they're going to turn it into 6/4 northbound lanes.

i went to see "Fantastic Four" last night.

my thoughts under the cut--watch out for spoilers.

as far as entertainment goes--it was good. not a lot of dull moments, and pretty funny too. but i did have some basic problems with the plot.

or rather, the absence of it. you know the plot synopses they write during reviews and such? well, the plot of that movie can more than adequately be represented by one sentence: scientists/astronauts go into space, are affected by a radioactive cloud, suffer mutations and fight against fellow scientist/astronaut Victor von Doom. The end.

my biggest problem is that it feels like they just had to get this movie out of the way in order to get to the sequels. in most hero movies, the good guy(s) interact with the bad guy(s) several times throughout the movie; this interaction is good vs. bad. however, this movie i would say 3/4 of the movie was exposition, and 1/4 (if that) was an actual battle. in fact, while we know doom is bad, he doesn't quite come out all the way until the movie is almost over, and they don't recognize him as being bad until then. so we don't really get any points of conflict (between the two sides) until the movie is almost over, i.e. the climax. in a normal good guy/bad guy movie, the first conflict between the good side and the bad side marks the rising action not the climax. otherwise, the audience feels like they haven't seen very much. so that's my biggest complaint-->while it was a good movie, the exposition, or development of the characters and explanation of their situations, was too long (but i hardly see how it could have been shortened) and the climax came too late and was not sufficient. when you see the movie, you'll understand, but it almost feels like they ended the movie in the middle of it.

but, on the whole, it was worth my $20.25 entrance and $9.75 concessions.

letter time!

2005-07-04T00:52:39Z

who wants a neat letter? Besides Bellee, of course!

leave your name and i'll send you something...first 3 win the best thing!

loren2582 @ 2005-06-30T11:51:00

2005-07-01T04:01:13Z

70 MOVIES OR MORE QUALIFIES YOU AS A MOVIE WHORE.

1. ()Napoleon Dynamite
2. (x)Saw
3. (x)White Noise
4. (x)White Oleander
5. (x)Anger Management
6. (x) 50 First Dates
7. (x)Jason X
8. (x)Scream
9. (x)Scream 2
10.(x)Scream 3
11.(x)Scary Movie
12.(x)Scary Movie 2
13.(x)Scary Movie 3
14.(X)American Pie
15.(X)American Pie 2
16.(x)American Wedding
17.(x)Harry Potter
18.(x)Harry Potter 2
19.(x)Harry Potter 3
20.(x)Resident Evil I
21.(x)Resident Evil 2
22.(x)The Wedding Singer
23.()Little Black Book
24.(x)The Village
25.(x)Donnie Darko
26.(x)Lilo & Stitch
27.(x) Finding Nemo
28.() Finding Neverland
29.(x) 13 Ghosts
30.(x)Signs
31.(x)The Grinch
32.(x)Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the new one)
33.(x)White Chicks
34.(x)Butterfly Effect
35.(x)Thirteen going on 30
36.(x)I, Robot
37.()Dodge ball
38.(x)Universal Soldier
39.(x)A Series Of Unfortunate Events
40.()Along Came A Spider
41.()Deep impact
42.()KingPin
43.(x)Never Been Kissed
44.(x)Meet The Parents
45.(x)Meet The Fockers
46.()Eight Crazy Nights
47.(x)A Cinderella Story
48.(x)The Terminal
49.()The Lizzie McGuire Movie
50.()Passport to Paris
51.(x)Dumb & Dumber
52.()Dumb & Dumberer
53.(X)Final Destination
54.(x)Final Destination 2
55.(X)Halloween
56.(x)The Ring
57.()The Ring 2
58.()Harold & Kumar
59.(x)Practical Magic
60.(x)Chicago
61.(x)Ghost Ship
62.()From Hell
63.(x)Hellboy
64.(x)Secret Window
65.()I Am Sam
66.()The Whole Nine Yards
67.()The Whole Ten Yards
68.(x)The Day After Tomorrow
69.(x)Child's Play
70.(x)Bride of Chucky
71.(X)Ten Things I Hate About You
72.()Just Married
73.(x)Gothika
74.(X)A Nightmare on Elm Street
75.() Sixteen Candles
76.(x)Bad Boys
77.()Bad Boys 2
78.(x)Joy Ride
79.(x)Seven (SE7EN)
80.()Oceans Eleven
81.()Oceans Twelve
82.()Identity
83.()Lone Star
84.(x)Bedazzled
85.(x)Predator I
86.()Predator II
87.(x)Alien vs. Predator
88.(x)Cujo
89.(X)Independence Day
90.(x)Darkness Falls
91.(x)Christine
92.(x)ET
93.(X)Children of the corn
94.()My boss' daughter
95.(x)Maid in Manhattan
96.(x)Frailty
97.()Best bet
98.(x)How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
99.(x)She's All That
100.(x)Calendar Girls
101 ()Sideways
102 (X)Mars Attacks
103 (x)Event Horizon
104 (x)Ever after
105 (X)Forrest Gump
106 ()Big Trouble in Little China
107 (x)X-men1
108 (x)X-men2
109 (x)Jeepers Creepers
110 (x)Jeepers Creepers 2
111 (x)Catch Me If You Can
112 (x)The Others
113 (x)Freaky Friday
114 (x)Reign of Fire
115 (X)Cruel Intentions
116 ()PI
117 (x)Swimfan
118 ()Miracle
119 ()Old School
120 ()Ray
121 ()The Notebook
122 (x)K-Pax
123.(x)Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
124.(x)Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
125.(x)Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
126.()A Walk to Remember
127.(x)Boogeyman
128.()Hitch
129.()Super troopers
130.()South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
131.(x)the Fifth Element
132.(x)Star wars episode I
133.(x)Star wars episode II
134.(x)Star wars episode IV
135.(x)Star wars episode V
136.(x)Star wars episode VI
137.(x)Starwars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
138.(x)Swimming with Sharks
139.()Trainspotting
140.(x)People under the stairs
141.()Blue Velvet
142.(x)Sound of music
143.(X)Parent Trap
144.(x)The Burbs
145.()SLC Punk
146.(x)Meet Joe Black
147.()Wild girls
148.()A Clockwork Orange
149.()The Order
150.(x)Spiderman
151.(x)Spiderman 2
152.()Amelie
153.(x)Mean Girls
154.(X)Shrek
155.(x)Shrek 2
156.(x)The Incredibles
157.(x)Collateral
158.(x)the Fast & The Furious
159.(x)2 Fast 2 Furious
160.(x)Sky Captain & The World of Tomorrow
161.()Closer
162.(x)The Sixth Sense
163.(x)Artificial Intelligence (AI)
164.()Love, Actually
165.()Shutter
166.(x)Ella Enchanted
167.(x)Princess diaries 1
168.(x) Princess diaries 2
169.()Constantine
170.()Million Dollar Baby
171.()Life of David Gale
172.()25th hour
173.()Vanilla Sky
174.()Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind
175.()Boogie Nights
176.(x)Braveheart
177.()The Anarchist Cook Book
178.()My House In Umbria
179.(x)Double Jeopardy
180.(x)Monsters, Inc
181.(x)Moulin Rouge
183.(x)Pirates of the Carribbean
184.()The Lords of Dogtown
185.(x)The Grudge
186.()The Parent Trap *with Lindsey Lohan
187.(x)Hide and Seek
188.(x)Are we there yet?
189.()Coach Carter
199.()Grind
200.()The Perfect Score
201.()The New guy
202.() Remember the Titans
203.(x) requiem for a dream
204.(x) dazed and confused
205.() spun
206.() the girl next door
207.(x) i heart huckabees

i lost count of how many i haven't seen...and a good many of the bad movies are charlie's fault.

i love you bellee!

2005-06-30T16:59:44Z

Spain has legalized gay marriages, also giving them the rights to adopt children and inherit their spouses property and stuff.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8413036/
^^--i tried to make it work as a link, but i don't know what happened.

in personal news, a lot of stuff has happened, none of it major i guess.

my radiator bit the dust, had new one installed--375.00
made my registry at Target--yay!
have yet to get in touch with the minister--we played phone tag for three days and then i gave up--i'll see him this weekend anyway.
i have yet to begin plans for my classes in the fall. i think i'll leave it to the day before classes start--just to make it interesting.

my dad had his apendix removed tuesday, he left the hospital yesterday, and we're leaving for home friday morning--with a short stop in sylacauga.

my family is going to celebrate my birthday, (June 24th) and my sister's birthday (June 28th) this weekend.

i can't think of anything else. there's more, but it'll have to wait.

i can't choose just one!

2005-06-27T00:55:11Z