some advice...

this morning when i was shaving in the shower, my razor slipped and left a perfectly vertical cut with a little slice of skin hanging off the red and puffy incision. . . inside the foldy skin of my armpit. ouch. so armpit shavers of the world, hold tight to that handle. i beg you.

update on the cruellest month....

i think t.s. eliot was on to something when he called april the cruellest month. i just want it to be may. . . or more specifically, june. is it too much to ask for a time warp? sheesh.

so, my life has been rather weird lately. not necessarily weird in a bad way-- just weird. i think this may have something to do with four weeks (ok, five including spring break but sort of excluding spring break) straight of presentations for my 3 grad classes. on top of that, i read and "evaluated" 47 unit projects, read an entire hawthorne romance, and a bunch of other miscellaneous items. as well, my hair is grossly long and i'm in desperate need of a haircut.

i've started going to the gym (today breaks my five day gym streak), and i realized what a wimp i am. my back has been hurting from muscle strain, but today when i was getting into the shower, i noticed a really yucky yellowish purple bruise on my shoulder blades, which is from a machine that works my lower back. as well, i have a weird bruise on my right forearm from hitting the doorknob in my room. i installed a coat rack on the wall behind my door (it's the only place where i can hang my coats), but then it fell, and then i hung it back up again. my door doesn't open all the way now, and i've become a creature of habit and still walk through the doorway as if the door was open all the way. . . hence the weird bruise on my forearm. go figure.

yesterday, i babysat for my favorite family in eagle, the brandecker's. i've been babysitting for their 3 great kids for about six years now, and i've had the joy of watching the children grow up into teenagers. (yes, the oldest is now a teenager!) so yesterday, the girls informed me of a father-daughter dance at their church, and the middle child who is the oldest girl decided to model her new dress that she got for the dance. she ran upstairs in great excitement to put it on and show me. she ran back downstairs, yelling, "andrea, will you tie this for me?" when she got downstairs, my eyes welled with tears at the sight of this beautiful girl in a pretty, flowy white halter sundress with blue dots and a sash around the waist. her white sandals with little rhinestones along the strap over her foot completed this very cute-- and very grown up-- look. i tied her sash. she asked me if i liked her dress, and i told her it was absolutely beautiful. and then i felt very sad inside. when did she grow up? when will it stop? (for the record, her younger sister playfully crinkled her face and said, "yuck. you look like gross." =)

tonight i went to the final moveable feast of the academic year. it was great-- great food, great book, great people. maybe i fit in with these literary folk. just maybe. this entire m.a. program has me seriously doubting whether i'm competitive enough, intellectual enough, motivated enough, and just enough of enough to get through it.

this has quickly become an emo post. i will stop now. before i end it, i bid you adieu and hope you're having a wonderful weekend.

new hairstyle?

dearest friends,

i'm thinking about perming my hair. thoughts?

i particularly like this picture. . . with the loose waves. i wonder if my hair could handle it. anyway, weigh in. s'il vous plait.
merci beaucoup.

tagged

i've been tagged by becca! (if that isn't passive voice, i don't know what is.) while i shudder to think how online tagging may negatively influence the up-coming generation of already nonathletic children, i will post this survey and pass on the tagging:

What were you doing ten years ago?
ten years ago, i was 12 and attended oakdale jr high. i was a good student, liked to read (although i have to admit that most of my recreational reading was limited to r.l. stine's "fear street" series and christopher pike's horror fiction), pine for dumb scrawny boys, and i was obsessed with hanson. i had just started listening to mainstream music a year or so prior to junior high, and i was intrigued with the song-writing process. about this time, i started writing song lyrics; a few months later in my 8th grade english class, i wrote my first poem. i would like to think that i was misunderstood and overlooked by my generation, but we all know that i was painfully dorky and had little to no fashion sense (although i had just gotten by braces off at this point!). my vision was terrible, but i refused to wear glasses on the account of physicalizing my nerdiness. oh, and i had basically the same hairstyle, as shown with the picture below:


What were you doing five years ago?on march 15, 2003, i was looking forward to graduating from high school. my nerdiness had only somewhat subsided (yes, i belonged to National Honor Society. . . back off), but i was no longer blind (i started wearing contacts when I was 15), was no longer a candidate for "what not to wear," and was no longer living in california. five years ago, my typical lunch menu was coffee, soda + candy, or nachos.
Five things on my to-do list today:1. shop for groceries. (my love affair with pushing a cart through winco ended weeks ago. i'm so ready for free grocery day.)
2. collect sources for my hawthorne paper that's due on tuesday.
3. watch "rendition" that was indirectly recommended to me by ENGL 588's class blog (creeeepy).
4. wash jeans.
5. repaint my fingernails. black nail polish looks pretty emo when chipped.
What snacks I enjoy:
well, since this isn't limited to a certain number of items, i could potentially go on for quite some time. i love snacks. however, i MOST enjoy sweets such as: gummi worms, twizzlers, skittles (the kind in the blue package), and good n plenty. i also really like apple slices with peanut butter, popcorn, and baby carrots with ranch dressing.
What would I do if I suddenly became a billionaire?
buy a house on the beach so i could wake up to this each morning:
oh, and buy a ferret. or ten.

Three bad habits:
1. procrastination.
2. picking my cuticles. (gross, i know.)
3. spending waaay too much time online.
Five places I've lived:
1. south korea (i hail from the orient)
2. ventura, california
3. roseville, california
4. oakdale, california
5. eagle, idaho
Five jobs I've had:
1. babysitter
2. guest service rep for hollywood video
3. shift leader at hollywood video
4. nanny
5. roving clerical asst at mrici
Five things you don't know about me:1. i saw the cutest zebra print coat at tj maxx and am contemplating if i have $39.99 (plus tax) to purchase it.
2. i am not a very good tipper at restaurants unless the service is awesome. yes, spit in my food now.
3. i take children's multivitamins. they are cheaper and taste a whole lot better. plus, they come in cool shapes like monkeys and lions.
4. i've cried over an "america's next top model" episode.
5. i'm seriously considering getting a perm.
I tag. . .anyone who reads this: alexandria, mango sugar, anna, and arijaan.

spring break plans.

i wanna go somewhere. . . and considering that i probably can't go to iraq to see zach, i'm guessing that something more domestic is on the drawing board. suggestions, anyone?

and people say dogs are easier than kids.

today was a rather odd day: i spent time thinking up a fun way to demonstrate effective opinion-building with my students (including finding support in both personal experiences and factual evidence), but the activity kinda flopped because i asked them to do it in silence. i guess that's what happens when you try to contain freshmen. . . failed activities. it's ok; i'm still learning.

anyway, so i got back to the house and talked to my roommate for a little bit about school. then i walked into my room so that i could change out of my black slacks and sweater and into something more comfortable (like cotton pants with small little riley-dogs on them). i unzipped my boots and threw them into my shoe box (i still haven't gotten a shoe rack yet); then i walked around the end of my bed and opened my closet.

i realized my sock was wet.

and that the bottom of my foot was warm.

yes, you probably guessed it: it stepped in kota barf. seriously. it was still all chunky and warm, which means it was very fresh.

and my reaction, you ask? i just started laughing and pulled off my sock. then i told heather and she cleaned it up. luckily the barf was on the wood floor and not on my new black shaggy rugs. but still. kota barf. at least she feels comfortable enough to just let it all out. literally.

room pics and other stuff.

Even though the room isn't finished, I still thought I'd post some pics. This first picture is the view when you walk into the room (that's the wood door on the left-hand side). You can't see them, but I have two black shaggy rugs on the floor to help cover some of the wood flooring. You also can't see the black iron curtain rod above the windows, but it's pretty cool. Obviously, the curtains aren't in yet-- but soon, hopefully.

Moving on. . . the picture above is of my desk (obviously) and a really cool spiral candle votive holder. I saved up some summer babysitting money to buy that from Pottery Barn a few years ago. The cool hanging thing in the corner is from a souvenir shop in Sonora, California. Then, the picture below is of my new bedspread and some random wall art. You can't see it, but I have a four-shelf bookshelf at the foot of my bed.

The only wall I didn't take a picture of is just my closet with sliding mirror doors; it's on the same wall as my door.

Here's Kota! (I thought her name was "Coda," but I was wrong. . . it's pronounced the same.) She's cute. I wasn't too sure about her at first, but she's definitely a great dog and keeps me company when the roommates are busy-- which is most of the time.

I thought I'd tell you this random story: I decided to stop on my way home from school to buy some salad, milk, sugar, baking soda, and frozen veggies for the Quick and Easy Chicken Pot Pie-- recipe courtesy of Arijaan and Bisquick-- at Albertsons on Beacon, which is pretty close to school. I walked through the store to collect all the food, stopping every once in a while to ponder if I need granola bars or tube biscuits (ultimately deciding to skip over those). Then, I get to the checkout lanes and opt for self-checkout. I punched in my preferred card number, and start scanning. After I finished, the nice lady in the machine tells me, "Proceed to checkout." I pushed the button on the screen with one hand and dug for my wallet with the other hand. I find my cell phone, a pen, some saltine crackers. . . no wallet. I opened my bag as beads of sweat start forming on my forehead. . . no wallet. I started freaking out.

And then it hit me: my wallet was in my sweatshirt pocket. And my sweatshirt pocket is next to my bed at home.

So, I did the forehead slap, deep sigh, and pushed the button to cancel all groceries. I looked around to tell someone about my blunder, but see no one in sight. I exit Albertsons.

The end of the story is that I retrieved my wallet and went back to a different Albertsons, cooked a yummy pot pie without the chicken, and now I need to work on some homework.

update on andrea's life as of late.

well, i am almost all moved in to my new location in boise! all my furniture is here, save for the occassional misplaced item (like getting a new shoe rack. . . the one i have is 2" too long for my closet) and getting some curtains and a bedskirt. my domestic mother has volunteered to make me both of those items out of the same fabric to tie the room together.

so, i painted the walls a really energetic, vibrant red: bougainvilla, named after a pretty flowering plant. the walls are about the color of the deepest red in this picture:the trim is white, and i've decorated primarily in white and black. both roommates have commented that this is the best this room has looked. . . quite a tribute to my interior decorating skills. don't worry; pictures to come later when i have curtains! =)

i officially moved in on thursday last week, and then i spent the next 33 hours grading papers, making a late night run to wendy's to grab a grilled chicken sandwich and some mountain dew (mostly, this was inspired by a massive panic attack after i couldn't find the coffee machine) doing homework, shopping for the medieval feast, going to class, loading my stomach up on red bull, holding office hours, teaching, and driving home-- only to collapse on my bed and awaken to my roommate babytalking to the house dog, coda. she's an akita. i'm a big fan.

this weekend was much better and restful. the one thing that i definitely have to start getting used to: eating dinner alone. this sounds kind of silly, but i am used to preparing dinner with my mother-- and occassionally, my father-- and then enjoying our meal together as a family. i never ate dinner alone prior to living here! however, i am determined to cook for myself and not let idaho pizza company do my cooking for me. perhaps i should create a "college student singles dinner club" or something similar, eh?

thoughts on a wednesday morning

bear with me: it's been a very long day/ morning, and i've decided to blog about it in a very montaigne-esque fashion. as of late, i have been struck with the overwhelming desire for change-- in so many areas of my life. i am incredibly annoyed with myself for becoming so complacent and comfortable with just about everything (from school to relationships to living arrangements); can i just pack up and flee to the woods for a week? pull a dave chappelle and roam around africa for a little while and clear my mind? transform into bruce almighty for a second so that he can use his godly powers to read and respond to the ever-growing mound of student papers on my desk? sprout some biceps like popeye on spinach to help me lift boxes of books, my tv, etc. that i've neatly packed for moving? (i'll let that image of me trying to commune with rhinos marinate for a sec.)

seriously, where are some gummi worms when i need them?

ok, so i'm being sort of whiny. (i told you this was inspired by montaigne, right?) perhaps i should follow becca's example and blog about things that i love-- being that it's february and all. well, right now i love blogger.com because it is awake and available to hear me out. thanks, blogger, i appreciate you.

moving out.

dearest faithful blog readers,

as most of you know, i am moving out of my cozy purple room on wind weaver and headed towards boise-- with some clothing in tow (unfortunately, it appears that 75% of my precious garments will remain in eagle, eagerly awaiting the day i pluck them from my closet and whisk them away in my arms to a newfound closet space). i am very excited about this new opportunity to live with two of the most free-spirited, laid-back basketball fans i've ever met.

despite my enthusiasm, there are several things about home sweet home that i will dearly miss. for example, fresh-baked homemade bread on the weekends. and my doggies (i've already tried to convince my parents to let me bring along elliot... unfortunately, no such luck). and having my entire 60-something pairs of shoes at my disposal. oh, and free rent-- i couldn't possibly forget that.

pray hard, dear friends, that this was indeed a wise decision and that i will embark on a favorable and fun journey into the land of roommates (including one very large and very hairy akita named coda).

onwards,
andrea