Moving Casualty #4

The air mattress.
It would seem the air mattress which I am using as a bed, couch, chair, and table has sprung a leak. After about 5 hours I end up directly on the floor.
Am pretty sure it is some retalitory measure from the cat for squirting her with water.

SO BORED!!

This is not good. It's only been a day alone and I'm already incredibly bored. What did I do today? Well, I'm so glad you asked.

6:30AM: Woke up to meowing cat pacing baren apartment.
6:31: Squirted cat with water. Went back to sleep.
7:30-7:31AM: See above.
8:30AM: Rolled my ass off the air matress and onto the floor. Layed there for a few minutes decideing if my back was really broken or just felt like it.
8:35: Fed cat.
8:40: Fed me.
9:00-10:30 AM: Officially cleaned bedroom out and moved everything to stark living room.
10:30 AM: Recieved panicked phone call from Zak. Needed cashiers check for DC security deposit and first months rent to be overnighted. (I told him to call and ask what was needed!)
10:35: Took rushed shower and ran out the door to save the day.
Did errends etc.
12:00 PM: Ate lunch.
12:30-2:30 PM: Checked and rechecked favorite blogs.
2:30-4:30 PM: Took major nap. I don't usually take naps but when I do...I don't mess around.
4:30-6:30 PM: Talked on phone to Sis, Mom, Dad, friends...
6:30-10:30 PM: Wrote lecture for tommorows class and exam review sheet.
10:30-present: sitting on ass typing about how I'm bored.

Hah! Now you're bored too.

Apartment Camping

Sorry I've been missing the past week. I've been packing and saying goodbyes and all that jazz.
Zak and I finished packing up the truck today so he and his dad are off to DC with the majority of our belongings. Thus I'm sitting on the floor typing in my bare living room. I have the computer, a small tv, the air mattress, and the cat. That's about it. It'll be two weeks of roughing it but I should be able to make it.
Moving was a lot less stressful this time so that was good. Perhaps this is because we actually gave ourselves a couple days to do it instead of the 12 hours like last time. Also because after major lack of sleep I got a little loopy and thus a lot funny. I get crazy without the sleep. So I ended up writing stupid things on the boxes like "Fragile: Ham for Tina" and "Handle with Care: Dang Quesidilles". Hmmmm...it was funnier in the back of a U-Haul at 11:30 at night but not so much now. Weird.

Hard-Hitting Interview from Stacey

These are some tough interview questions from Stacy. I'll do my best to make it both informative and entertaining.

#1-what is the most clear memory that comes to mind when thinking about your wedding day...Describe the day,and your favorite details of it...(plus...and this does not count as question #2 but how did the proposal go???
My most clear memory from my wedding day is getting my hair done. I was living in DC all during the wedding plans so I had to do everything from afar. I made appointments for me and my bridesmaids at a salon on a mere recomendation from a friend. It turned out to be a salon SCHOOL so our hair was being done by students and the girl doing mine was totally freaked out which made me even more nervous. My sister was so pissed about the way hers turned out that she flew off the handle and started up a swering storm in front of my mother in law (who is extremely religious) and had to redo it. Another bridesmaid had to be left behind and was almost late to the wedding because the girl doing her hair was extremly slow. She was in the chair for about 3 hours!
But other than that is was a good day; Zak's grandfather married us, everyone showed up that was supposed to. We got good pictures, hung out at the reception and actually got to visit with everyone and danced. It was really easy going and fun.
(#1b-the proposal: Zak took me to dinner and the opera and then he propsed on MSU campus near where we first met. He got down on one knee and everything. He was so nervous even though he already knew the answer.)

#2- Are there any subjects or topics that you have a violently strong opinion about?...What is the reason? Have you ever gotten into a heated discussion *fight* because of your views?
I'm extremely fiesty when it comes to certain political issues and I've been in lots of arguments about them. For example: Feminism. I'm an ardent Feminist and often get in arguments with friends who don't feel the same way or feel that Feminist are man-hating lesbians. Also, Zak and I both hyphenated our last names and I can't beleive how many people make rude comments about it even though it has nothing to do with them.
I'm also very for Gay rights and marriage and have lots of arguements about that. Hmmmm...what else... religion, gun control, animal rights, anti-war, anti-bush, the list really goes on and on. I'm a pretty opinonated person but I am not so conceited that I cannot hear and understand other people's views.

#3- Do you remember you and Zak's first fight? If not too personal what was it about?Who won?? Who is the more submissive person in your relationship?
We fight alot so I can't really remember our first big one. It was probebly either about sex or his mother. Those seem to be the big topics. And with both of those no one really wins. I think I have the worse temper of the relationship so I usually fly off the handle first and Zak usually is the one to try and calm me down. Which just pisses me off more. I also talk really fast and he is much slower and deliberate with what he says so that drives me nuts too.

#4- What is the luckiest thing that has ever happened to you ...zak and all of the sweet, nicey nice answers don't count.I am talking about winning a meat raffle or winning black out bingo or something...I feel I need to state that last bit about the meat raffle and black out bingo was me trying to throw a little humor into this post...I am self conscience about my sense of humor after my last imagine...
This is hilarious. I don't consider myslef an unlucky person but I'm really not lucky either. I won a bible once as a kid. It was a Precious Moments Bible-I think my mom still has it. I also won a huge tub of shampoo once-again as a kid. It ended up being a mixed blessing since it was nice salon shampoo but there was so much of it that I got sick of it but my mom wouldn't let me get any more until I'd used it all so I would use way too much and squirt some down the drain.
God, I wish I could win a meat raffle. Hmmmmm...meat.

#5- I know you don't particularity want kids but if hypothetically you did what would you want to name it?
Yeah, I really don't see kids in my future but if I did (or if someone dies and in their will they put me down as the gaurdian) I would name a boy Gabriel and a girl either Viola (after my grandma) or Lily ('cause I like it).
But I do already have names picked out for future pets if you're interested. If I ever have a Weiner dog I'm going to name him Colonel Musturd. He's going to wear a monacle and smoke cigars. And my next cats are going to be named Frohike, Detective Brisco, and Sunny.

So that's me...in a nutshell. "Help I'm in this nutshell!"

gift-giving adivce needed

So great teachers run in the family because my sister was recently awarded Kent County teacher of the year. It's really a big deal and I'm going to be going to the awards ceremony to cheer her on in her triumph.
But I need to get her a gift and I have no idea what a good "Teacher of the Year" gift would be.
Flowers?
Jewelry?
Food?
Electronics?
I have no idea.

Moving Casulties Numbers 1,2, and 3

After about a week of packing, of which I've barely been a participant, I've already created three moving casulties.


#1: My knuckle. All I did was move a friggin' box and I scraped it against a giant framed map that we have taken down and leaned again a wall. I've never seen such a tiny scrap bleed so much. I had to wear a band-aid for two days and it still hurts. What the hell?!

#2: The couch. We have this great hand-me-down couch given to us by Zak's parents that has held up great over the 20 years they had it. The ends turn into relciners and I totally love it. Well I sat my ass down after packing one box of dishes and pulled the handle to recline and it broke off in my injured hand. I'm devestated. Now Zak and I have to fight over the side that still reclines.

#3: Some library books. I borrowed some books from the library about a year ago and have been renewing them online every two weeks (I was planning to use them for the thesis I never work on...) I bundled them up and gave them to my sister in law to return for me since she lives closer to the library. I just got two letters in the mail saying they didn't get two of the books and now I have to pay $50 each to replace them. The sister-in-law swears she turned them in so now I'm worried they accidently got packed with the rest of the books. Oh well. They'll get them when they get them...if at all.

Stupid moving.

Captain, My Captain

Instead of turning my blog into a moving bitch session that would last for the next three weeks I've decided to sandwhich each moving post with other things that are going on. Hey, I do this for you, my peeps, 'cause I care.

I have decided I'm the best community college professor out there. Yesterday I actually held class outside since it was so beautiful. Too bad it wasn't my idea...nah, I succumbed to student peer presure. But they enjoyed it none the less. And I felt pretty impressed with myself since I teach an Art History class which has one necessity that usually holds you to the classroom-slides. Luckily they had all brought their books so they could look at those as I discussed-it would have been pretty boring without. "As you can see, the development of complicated vaulting systems allowed Gothic builders to create cathedrals with higger elevations and greater stability for these beautiful stained-glass windows...Oh, what, you can't see...well, you'll just have to take my word for it..."
Zak wasn't impressed however. I got a "What are you, Robin Williams from Dead Poets Society?" He's just jealous that he never had a great teacher like me.

It's Official...DC here we come

We're moving. Which sucks because I just went through this a year ago and I am really not looking forward to packing up all my stuff. Well, the packing is not so bad-it's really getting it out of and into the apartment.

But what I most dreading is another long car ride with my cat, who does not travel well. A year ago, on the trek from DC to MI we had a very traumatic experience...
A friend of mine told me that she also has a cat that is a bad traveler and that her vet had told her that children's Benedril could be used as a cat calmer. I was a little apprehensive so I decided I'd try the first couple hours sans any type of tranquilizer. (We were driving the first three hours to a hotel and finishing the trip the next morning.)
Well that smaller journey was so horrible that I decided we'd better try the Benedril trick. (Sprout had meowed and tried to claw her way out of her plasitc crate the entire way. And it wasn't just a normal meow-it was one of pure terror as if I were torturing her).
So I made Zak get up super early (the Benedril needed at least a half an hour to work...or so I was told) and he brought back the stuff. Apperently there are three different flavors of kid's Benedril (Cherry, Grape, and Bubblegum)-Zak went with the Cherry.
I carefully placed it into a dropper and lovingly squirted into little Sprout's mouth.
SHE WENT TOTALLY CRAZY!!!
She started tearring around the room at full cat speed clawing at anything her path as she simultaneously foamed at the mouth-spitting and hissing. I burst into tears since I was convinced I had killed her and that she was going to finally expire somewhere in Pennsylvania and I was going to have to burry her on the side of the turnpike and put up one of those depressing crosses with flowers on it.
I still blame it on the choice of the Cherry flavor that caused the rabies-esque symptoms.
We stuffed her into the crate anyway and she did survive the trip and the Benedril but I still had to put up with the meowing and frantic scratching the rest of the 10 hours to MI.
This time I actually got a real remedy from the vet so I'm hoping this will actually work this time and that it won't involve spit foam or tears.

Stupid Kids

Christine's hilarious post about weird things she believed as a kid reminded me of my own stupidity as a child. Even though Zak and I have turned into fairly intelligent adults, we were pretty dumb kids.

I used to think that the duo Hall and Oats was really "Haulin' Oats". I'm not even going to admit how long I believed this to be ture but I do remember I was old enough at some point to thinking it was really a stupid name for a band. I wondered for the longest time how they decided their name. Little did I know...

I also didn't understand how jobs worked. For some reason I thought you had to pay to have a job instead of the other way around. I think this was because everyone seemed to want a job but not have one. I guess this kind of rationalization comes from growing up in recession.

But at least I wasn't alone. Zak did stupid crap too. One time for Show and Tell he decided to highlight his ability to speak Ewoke.
Atleast I didn't do that.

Will I Ever Learn?

I still haven't faced the realization that I just cannot watch scary movies anymore. Nor can I even be in the vacinity in which they are being played.
The Grudge came out on video and Zak decided he had to see it. I decided I'd write my lectures while he watched it so I wouldn't be freaked out (hey, it worked for The Ring). It still scared the hell out of me even though it was stupid. I think it's because I only paid attention to the freaky parts and now those are the only things tatooed on my brain when the lights go out. It also didn't help that there was a crazy ghost cat in the movie and I have a crazy cat that likes to sit right on top of me as I sleep at stare at invisible things in the night.

I just have to face the fact that I can't watch horror movies like I used to. Like when me and Jessica, my best friend from high school, used to watch things like Rosemarry's Baby and Nightmare on Elm Street in my pitch black basement. When did I turn into such a wimp?

Updates

Whew. It's been a crazy week. Which, in addition to pure laziness, is partly the reason I haven't blogged in over a week.

Jobs: Well, I didn't get my art history position at the college which sucks because my community college salary isn't cutting it, even though I totally love it.
Zak is still waiting back to hear if he got his job here in Michigan but in the meantime he was offered another position in Washington, DC. Which means it might be another move to the east coast and away from family and friends. I've been in tears for about three days straight. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for the MI job but I'm also a realist...I've started eyeing boxes just in case.

Exerciese: I've finally broken in the new shoes so the blisters are healing. I've been running a couples miles about 4 days a week. I'm either going to have to increase the running or decrease the caramel apple epanadas to continue the healthy life style. I think I'll try the running first. Damn those rat bastards at Taco Bell and their caramel apple epanadas too!!!

Movies: I can't beleive I'm going to admit this but...I actually went to the theatre and paid money to see Sahara. I was in the mood for something brainless and boy, did it fit the bill. Everytime I heard Matthew McConaughey speak it reminded me of the time he did the voice for a King of the Hill character and his last name was Tribadeaux and he actually pronounced the "x" at the end of the name.
But I did enjoy Steve Zahn. I don't know why but his type of humor always cracks me up.

That's about it. It's been a really sucky week. Especially Sahara.

*drool*

Holy crap. I think David Duchovny has a blog! This is obviously a sign we are meant to be together.

Sick.

It's official. After trying to fight some sort of germ/bug off for about a week it has finally consumed me. I'm sick. Complete with stuffiness, sore throat, hacky cough, and fever. I think that gross cake (see below) finally put me over the edge.
I even went to bed early last night. It seemingly gave the germs more time to incubate.
Too bad I still have to drag myself to work-can't cancel class. Hopefully my students will keep their distance and won't mind raspy voice while I lecture for 3 hours. This should be fun.
Gross. I just sneezed. It felt like I blew a hole in my throat.
Oh well. Enough complaining, I guess...