in case you ever get the urge

feeling particularly hateful towards myself today, i decided to start my day with a run. ignoring the fact that i had just recently eaten two bowls of cereal, i put on my running clothes and shoes, did some very runnerly like stretches, put a new playlist on the ipod and took off down the street. i ran straight out of orono and into old town. impressive, yes? i thought so. so i allowed myself a little walk around the shoulder and then preceded to start running back home. small victories, i told myself. next time i will run farther, i told myself. then my body responded by telling just how much this run was not a victory. turns out i have asthma. always forget about that. so, as i'm w-a-l-king back up the road to orono, wondering why my beautiful run suddenly turned so painstakingly difficult, i was actually pleased to recall the asthma bit. ah! i said, i am not a total failure at physical fitness, i just have a condition that prevents my success at such a venture without the proper medication. i tell you this not so that you will worry, but so that i will remember to use my inhaler before the inane urge to run strikes me again. before the collapse (there was no literal collapse, of course) the run was wonderfully challenging and healthy for my mental state.
so this is what i have to say to that whole thing:

and, at some point today, i will stop coughing. i promise. :)

Someone's Famous Greek Salad

This has been a hit everywhere I was when it was served and last night I made it and...it's still a hit. So if I can make it, you can too.

1 lb bag of lettuce
1/2 of 12-ounce jar of sundried tomatoes (cut into smaller pieces)
1 can black or green olives (drained)
1 can of artichoke hearts (cut into smaller pieces)
6 ounces of feta cheese (crumbled)
1/2 of a 19-ounce bag of frozen tortillini (I used cheese filled) - cooked and cooled
1 8-ounce bottle of italian dressing (your choice)

Mix all together and serve.

i just might pull it off

Get this - I'm having a little dinner party tonight. I'm having over my traveling buddies minus one (Carolyn and Cheryl - Christine can't make it). I "hope" to serve a nice greek salad - one of which has artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, olives, feta cheese, ect. It will be accompanied by homemade spaghetti, toasted french bread with a grand finale of strawberries and angel food cake. (Okay, if y'all could just see me right now you would DIE laughing!! I am all into this so let me go back to the description.) The dining room table is set with china, stem glasses and a candle. And yes, in the background, is beautiful music playing. HAHAHAHAHa I make myself laugh but all the same - it just might be very very cool. Did you know that when you have IM you also have AIM music? Well that is what I have playing right now - Oldies, Sinatrastyle!! Stay tuned as I hope to have a fantastic update later. Who knows - if all goes well - you may be next to attend such a grand event at my home. Tada....

i found your blog!!!!

I found Anita's blog saved as a draft, so up it went! However...it posted it at the original date and time, so it's down below Jessica's picture post.

Yesterday was National Punctuation Day! I forgot to tell you earlier, but I hope you were all good to punctuation!!!

I tried

For the record, I wrote a very nice (I thought) blog post the other night. It took so much energy as it was a blur between a mockery of someone and my own complaining - all while telling a great story. HOWEVER, I needed to do a little editing and tada.....it disappeared! Whew..I did not have it in me to retype it again. Sorry. I will try to do better. It's great seeing all the posts so everyone keep it up. Lately I haven't been able to check it until late and it often gives me a great smile and chuckle before I go to bed. Like tonight....goodnight all!

you had to know it would happen eventually

i believe it was nathaniel hawthorne who said, "we should read only the books that wound and stab us." well, kids, i have found another of those books. it's kind of my job to read, and i do like much of what i'm given to read, but it is rare to find one of these painful, heartwrenchingly honest books in a syllabus.

so...since this passage stabbed me when i read it in the oaks room today (and when read it aloud to amy in the oaks room after i composed myself, and finally one last time when i reread it now that i have returned home), i have decided to post it here in order to determine if it is truly potent, or if my situation allows it more credit than necessary.

enjoy. the passage is taken from the waves by virginia woolf. and bear with it, i obviously think it's worth it.

"Why, look," said Neville, "at the clock ticking on the mantelpiece. Time passes, yes. And we grow old. But to sit with you, alone with you, here in London, in this firelit room, you there, I here, is all. The world ransacked to its uttermost ends, and all its heights stripped and gathered of their flowers holds no more. Look at the firelight running up and down the gold thread in the curtain. The fruit it circles droops heavy. It falls on the toe of your boot, it gives your face a red rim-I think it is the firelight and not your face; I think those are books against the wall, and that a curtain, and that perhaps an arm-chair. But when you come everything changes. The cups and saucers changed when you came in this morning. There can be no doubt, I thought, pushing aside the newspaper, that our mean lives, unslightly as they are, put on splendour and have meaning only under the eyes of love.
"You are you. That is what consoles me for the lack of many things-I am ugly, I am weak-and the depravity of the world, and the flight of youth and Percival's death, and bitterness and rancour and envies innumerable.
"But if one day you do not come after breakfast, if one day I see you in some looking-glass perhaps looking after another, if the telephone buzzes and buzzes in your empty room, I shall then, after unspeakable anguish, I shall then-for there is no end to the folly of the human heart-seek another, find another, you. Meanwhile, let us abolish the ticking of time's clock with one blow. Come closer."

anyone? anyone?

let's play catch-up (picture style)

*my jammy pants got a slight tear in them...
*this is my room looking from my bathroom door.
*this is my room, looking from the front door.
*this is the secret passageway to katie and steph's room... aka the bathroom.
*it was katie's birthday at the end of august, so we took her out in style :)

*fireworks at yardley day!


*renae and i at friendly's!


*i painted renae's nails- they looked amazing!!!


*renae and i took a trip to the park :)


*i actually didn't fit down this slide, but it was fun to try :)



so all of these pictures are out of order and all kinds of ker-bobbled.... but anyways, i hope they'll do for the curiosity in the rest of ya'll
<3 jess

look what i found...

i hope you don't mind, Anita! I found it in the blog drafts and it looks great to me :) Everyone else, this is Anita's original post from Sept. 20th. Enjoy!

Got Milk?

It seems like such a simple thing - a pleasure for some a nuisance for others. Well, tonight those two things collided. I had a lovely dinner at Teresa's house with joyous fellowship with the fam. It was a prelude to the big event of the season premier of Survivor. Teresa has a survivor cake - did y'all know that? The cake is delicious and can only be topped if served jointly with a nice - very nice - cup of milk. Hhhmmmm, good times. How did such a special event take such a wrong turn? Was it carelessness? Maybe. Was it distraction? Possibly. Did it reek havoc? Absolutely. Milk flew - it landed on the couch, the floor, the end table, the books under the end table, the quilt, my person, my plate (to which nearly ruined the perfect final bite of THE CAKE) and last but not least, my cell phone. The end result - I'm afraid there will eventually be a milk odor about the living room and/or quilt and my cell phone is now officially funky. Who knew. How often does the silliness of the moment try to steal our joy from the day? It seems to come up often, but this battle it did not win. For I had a fun night - with laughter and chats - and tomorrow I will simply get another phone - the battery was going dead all the time anyway:) Hey family out there - hang in there. Don't let the stupid stuff get to you. We have a lot to be thankful for so let's enjoy it.

early morning blog (from the office!)

i just wanted to let you know that i'm alright. just devilishly busy.

this morning my class is going to get out early. i love it. they will too. and it doesn't make me a slacker. it makes me their favorite. haha.

alright, now on to a task with which this office computer is more comfortable.

ciao.

We're Off

Dad and I are packing our respective vehicles as we speak. He's off to Kentucky and I'm off to a music festival and camping outside of Washington D.C. I just checked the weather for where I am going and it's a high of 71 and low of 48 - Hallelujah!! I'm "chaperoning" and hoping to do some crowd surfing and moshing. Good times. I'll update y'all when I'm back. May we all have a weekend that leaves us with stories - good ones that is....

SHE'S FAMOUS

I received an email from an old friend (becky coffin) and it went a little like this..."I was wondering if Amanda was going to college up here?? The other day I saw a picture in a newspaper looked just like her! Just curious - Becky". Oh my word she's even recognized on the streets!! So that answers my question - it was in a local paper. Very cool.

try not to be jealous

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Do you see what's so special about The Weekly today? That's right...yours truly is above the fold!
Hahaha...here is a closeup, but I think the original is actually a bit more clear.

Just so you know, that is not at all what I said. But, such is life when you are quoted in the papers. It happens all the time. Also, I wore my hair like that one day since I've been in Maine. ONE DAY I decide to try something new. Whatever, as my equally famous friend Kate says, when you live our lifestyle you have to know the photographers will show up when you let your guard down. Anyway, in the closeup picture, the goofball with the helmet and glasses is classic Maine, as is the guy diagonal from her. The girl diagonal from me is the one and only Amy Tremblay. She is a fellow English 101 TA and we are currently negotiating a codependent relationship that is working well for both of us. So there! I do have friends!

Finally, and totally unrelated, please enjoy this clip. Mom - if you don't click it, you will be so sorry. Let's just say your favorite redhead is at it again and it's amazing!!! (click the play button twice, it will say "loading...")

Was I wrong? Stunning. And, yes, you're right. I didn't find this on my own. Kate takes full credit for this gem, I just thought I'd pass it on. Congratulate Kate! She just made her 100th blogpost! May our humble blog be so lucky...

Just Call Me Grace (ful not manning)

Okay, so I'm in charge of games for youth group this year. I am working on them with Big John (bonesteel). I did tons of research talking to people, looking on the internet, ect. and we have the rest of 2007 planned out. Sounds good right? Well...after much deliberation we selected Human Foosball for tonight. We got the cones set up...lines measured out...we were ready. Some counselors played and others stayed along the outerbounds to throw the ball back in when it when out of bounds. It didn't take long before it was out somewhat close to where I was. It wasn't close enough that I could just bop it back in..I had to get over to it. Now is when your visual can come into play and of course put it in slow motion and imagine this...Anita's picking up pace ever so slightly so as to not have the bosoms flying about but definitely not at a leisure pace. As Anita approaches the kickball, the right leg is raised. I thought I was going to kick that ball. So the foot pulled back and towards that ball only to graze along the top instead of directly against it. The problem came in that the sole of the shoe gripped onto the kickball thus creating an attachment between the foot in the air and this medium size rubber ball.. very very round ball (aren't they all?). I tried to pull my foot back - the ball came with it. After several back and forths and back and forths the body could no longer stand the fluid unsteady movements and yes, the body went down. Not gracefully - not even quickly. As the body was going going going, one could hear the laughter as the entire gym is watching the one and one ball involved in the game, thus watching me. Mortification. Then humility. How's that for the first night of games for the year?????

Muffler Man Makeover

this morning......this evening......

the painters did a great job and the weather did too!

adventures

So last night Katie, Yoseph and myself set out on an "adventure". We went to South Street (Philadelphia) and it took us about 5 circles around the meter parking before we decided just to park in a lot and pay $10... a big sacrifice for poor college kids. Katie was convinced that she had enough quarters to pay for a meter... she also thought that a quarter bought you about half an hour... WRONG. Up here a quarter will get you about 8 minutes at a meter... Anyways, no biggie. So we start walking and keep walking past all kinds of cool shops but we don't go into any of them. We finally get to the end of mostly all the shops so we decide to go back down the other side of the road and see what was over there. Well... there wasn't much of anything that tickled our fancy... (we did go into a piercing/tattoo place...but nothing was pierced or tatted...)... so we kept walking and a man walked by us and said, "Weed?, Hash?, Shrooms?" I politely declined, "No, thanks." and kept walking. Then we decided to get Rita's Italian Ice and sit on a stoop and watch people. There we saw a group of three girls wearing extreme mini skirts and high heels. They came across a praying mantis (which they happen to have a lot of up here). The on girl was kinda nudging it toward the street and one of the other ones said, "Don't kill it, it's an endangered species!!!" Well that gave us all a little chuckle since it's a bug. Then the 'nudger' tried to pick it up and it started to fly at the other girls and the screaming and swatting ensued. Then it flew across the street and the scene was repeated... except with two healthy-looking black women. The one nudged and the other tried to protect and then jumped and ran (which was absolutely HILARIOUS) when it started to fly. After it flew off, she stopped someone walking on the sidewalk and said, "Did you see me?!" I guess she was quite tickled at her own self. Anyways, we didn't find an "adventure" according to some standards... but I think a drug offer and a praying mantis show was adventure enough for us.
<3

oh yea, i forgot... i have never really been to South Street before except for driving past it while riding with someone else. Soooo.... when it came time to go, I got Daniel out (my Garmin) and I typed in the only place that I knew the name of on that street. (Seen at left.) Don't ask me how I knew it, but I did and we got there without any trouble at all. Thanks, Daniel!! (His name needs to be said with a British accent... fyi <3)

one week down, fourteen to go!

hello all,

the first week of classes went really well. i think i have a great group of students. so far they are still terrified of the college experience for the most part, so they are quiet in class and only one person in the class doesn't have perfect attendance. i have 23 students in all and yesterday i actually bought a gradebook. it's gorgeous. matt tried to convince us all to put our gradebooks in as excel spreadsheets and have the spreadsheet do the math for us as we put each grade in. that's all fine and everything, but...i want a gradebook! so. i bought one and it's blue and it has all of their names in it. (which i now know, by the way. i can identify each and every one of them. impressed?)

so - i don't have much time b/c i need to do my own readings and then some lesson planning, but i wanted to update you kids on the good times in sunny maine. by the way, it was nice and cool this week for the most part but then recently the heat wave is coming back. it's supposed to storm tonight; hopefully they will be the end of it.

alright, enjoy the pictures.

the shortcut from my apartment complex through to talmar wood (another living complex) which connects to the rangeley road which i then follow to the massive parking lot. crossing the parking lot and following another few sidewalks brings me to my neville hall. i have both my office and my class in neville. if you get an early morning call or text, i probably sent it at this point of the walk.


my desk from the center of our office.


the view from my desk. i bought this salad in the student union. you build it yourself and then pay by the weight. it's quite nice. also, the house dressing of umaine is a sort of creamy greek. who knew?


finally, the french toast i made myself today. i just thought it was a cute picture.


have a good weekend everybody! and don't forget to read for monday! :)

Gifts

I just got home from youth group. Usually I am pretty hyped up Wednesday nights. Tonight was different. Youth group is different. It is such a different group of kids. They're still good kids. They just aren't that group that I felt close to and could make me smile or laugh the minute I saw them. That group is now scattered around at various colleges. So anyway, I didn't have a bad time but I would have to describe myself as melancholy (did I spell that right?). So I came in the house and did my usual - bathroom, wash hands (would do that even if didn't go to the bathroom - I touch some nasty things generally on Wednesdays:(), change clothes, check email and then......family blog. Jess and Manda - your comments from my little congrats post were perfect. Jess, your sweetness shined through and Manda, you cracked me up. I love ya'll and you were in fact my "gifts" tonight. Good, no more melancholiness :) and I can roll on with my nightime rituals. Thanks girls and love you tons!

Congrats and best of luck!!

Congratulations Manda and Jess - ya'll are both doing great. Manda, you are a professor already at your young self age:)! Jess, you have gotten every job you applied to in the past week! You both are awesome! You work hard and it is paying off. Now the best of luck to you both in your upcoming endeavors. Manda, rock on tomorrow!! I know you will look great, talk great and be great!! Jess, I have no doubt you are ready for security! My only question is that if you handle dispatch calls, can I call???:) Just kidding!! Love you girls!!! See ya!

yardley day

so tonight, katie, steph and i went with chris and laura to 'yardley day' to see the 'salsa explosion dance competition' (which was nowhere near an explosion) and the awesome 20 minute fireworks show (my personal favorite). so i have been a little tight in the money region lately because checks don't come out for another two weeks and i forgot to get money at home before i came to school... well anyways, it came time to buy dinner at the fair-type thing and i didn't have enough money. all i had was $4. so i thought that it wasn't gonna hurt me to skip 1 meal... seriously, plus i had packed a snack in anticipation that this might happen, so i was ok. well i really wanted to at least get a dessert from the fair because it was a special occasion and i just wanted one :) well me and the girls were walking around looking at all the food choices and i just happened to look down... and guess what i saw..... give up?....
i found a $5 bill!!! so i picked it up and i looked around... well there was like a few hundred people around... i didn't know what to do with it... i looked at steph and katie and katie reminded me that there really was no way to know who it belonged to... so i put it in my pocket and kept walking. this brings my pocket total to $9. now i'm not saying that i know this for sure... but.... God knew that i didn't have any money and i'm wondering if He put that $5 bill there just for me... kinda like saying, "Hey Jess, here's a 5 and I love you and you're doing a good job, just keep going." hahaha, kinda sounds funny now but that's exactly what i thought... it was like the biggest encouragement i could have ever gotten this (hectic, crazy, insane) week. just thought i'd share it with ya'll. <3

Clown Bike

Josh found his clown bike yesterday......he added sparklers.....
and a good time was had by all !

Happy Birthday Eve Christina!

We celebrated Christina's 23rd birthday today at Cheddars

Here's the rest of the gang

webster park

photopost!

today i was feeling outdoorsy, so i decided to walk to a local park and do some reading. it took me about twenty minutes to get there, i guess. lucky for you, it only took you a few clicks of the old keyboard!

welcome to webster park, orono, maine. the park is guarded by this awkward statue of a man with his head split open. odd. and, no, i have no idea what it means, but here he is. if you look really carefully, you can see the sun shining through his cranial divide.

after you pass the statue and the time capsule that is to be opened in 2076, you reach the real business of the park. i walked up to the river where i found this cute little bench.

sitting on the bench, i took this picture and then realized that there is a rock that is flattish and right down by the water. i think you can see it near the right of this picture. of course i had to go down there.

this is the view from down on the rock. just outside of the frame to the far left is the "portage" sign that mom liked so much.

since the rock was, indeed, flattish, i didn't have anywhere to set my bag where i wouldn't have to worry about it slowly sliding. so...i headed back up to my bench and read a bit.

is this bit of park getting popular with the critters? i could have sworn i just heard something scurrying...

at this point i moved to higher ground to a picnic table. less in the woods and less controlled by things that might scurry or make such noises.

i read at the picnic table for a while longer and then made the trek back home. it was a good few hours in the park, but my allergies are now all upset. ugh...i'm told that after the first frost i will have free reign to enjoy the outdoors without threat of allergic reactions. hmm...snowshoeing anyone?

let me tell you something...

i love this girl!!! my roommate is absolutely crazy. ya'll remember when granny grubbs said that she keeps her house at '55 if it'll go!' (correct my story if it's inaccurate)... well my roommate puts some truth to that story. Exhibit A: here's a picture of our a/c control. as you can see (it's a little blurry), it actually says 55 degrees down there , and it's on high cool. i feel like i'm at home in the frozen tundra. mom, you'd be proud of this girl, this one's for you. <3

of desks and things...

good day, all!

i'm posting today to tell you that i began to decorate my bit of the office yesterday. i took a few things on campus and spruced up my humble corner a bit. you literary eggheads will recognize the above as one of kafka's sketches. i include this because i lovingly describe my desk as kafka-esque. it is small, insurance company, drawer won't open without a fight, main door to office swings open and slams into it causing my books to slide across the top, kafka in every way desk. so...in order to keep myself from getting horribly depressed at the sight of it, i brought in bjork, a few pictures, some knick knacks and several books. it's getting better... most of you are actually represented somewhere on the wall. dad and anita, i think you are the only ones not there, strangely. not true...i have a picture of dad circa 1985, which, really, is quite flattering. so send me pictures! i also have a postcard or two up there, so really send me anything you think i'll like and it very well might make the wall. that is one good thing about my desk area: i have the corner all to myself.

anyway, i think i have the really odd artwork down. it's important to make the students at turns nervous and curious. that's really a must.