My Checked Baggage

I Think I'm Making The Move

2010-02-21T13:48:00.001-05:00

To wordpress that is. Or at least I'm going to give it a try... So my blog is now found here...http://mycheckedbaggage.wordpress.com/

Hard Work DOES Pay Off...

2010-02-18T12:04:00.003-05:00

This has been the hardest year of my life to date. School is becoming increasingly more difficult with the pressures it brings and work is always a complicated finessing of different personalities. BUT there is a glimpse of sunight! I knew that a paper I wrote had been accepted competitively at The Eastern Communication Association's annual conference. Today it feels official since I now have a date and time. I'll be trecking down to Baltimore in April to present my paper entitled "An Exploration of Why People Participate in Second Life Social Support Groups". (You can download the program...I'm on page 17)!

Truthfully I'm overwhelmed and overtired which results in a deadly combination of inappropriate emotions... but it feels like all the hours and all the sacrifices I've made to get here are all worth it. It still doesn't seem perfect and I will always feel like I should be spending more time on school work and with friends and family. But I've decided to take the advice my rhetoric professor gave our class in regards to feeling like we should be online discussing and commenting on our ning site all the time ... I have to make decisions on what time each thing in my life deserves and realize that I will probably feel like I'm not giving enough time to anything. Unfortunately I think she's right. I'd like to think that someday I'll feel as though things are in balance but it just isn't looking like that will happen in the near future. Maybe never.

But today I'm going to let that all go and revel in the fact that I have a date and time! And that I got an email from my Mom telling me that she and my father are proud of me :) A girl can't hear that enough....

Thank You World For Your Concern

2010-02-09T20:08:00.003-05:00

I have to admit that I think I can do it all and do it well. My founding principal is that anything is possible as long as you try hard enough. So, that being said it is upsetting that it appears that people question my ability to do it! I'll admit, full time work and grad school is hard. I miss doing things with friends and spend not nearly enough time watching tv and relaxing, but the hard work is worth it. I love school and I like doing the reading and writing that it requires. I think I'm good at it. But as is the case with most things in my life, I tend to go overboard. I'm not content with just getting my degree...I need to have an A average. I need to publish, go to conferences and graduate in the shortest time possible, at least in my mind.

Clearly this would put stress in anyone's life, especially for someone with a hard core type A personality. And it appears that others are noticing that I may be under a little bit of pressure right now. I've gotten the are you okay? You're quiet and not acting like yourself. To which I answer, I'm fine...just got a lot going on that's all. Unfortunately that wasn't sufficient for some people. They decided that my weight is now a problem. Apparently in their eyes I don't weigh enough. Now, I'll admit I'm not a stress eater. If I were then I'd be the girl reading journal articles while the forklift came to get me out of my house. Instead, I tend to not want to eat if I've got a lot on my mind. This inevitably leads to weight loss. I probably went down 2 sizes over the summer and quite frankly I didn't think it was even noticeable to the outside world. But apparently it is. As of now I've had not one, but two coworkers comment on my weight. No one would bother me if I put on a few pounds....but loose some and your fair game.

Perhaps others wouldn't be bothered by this. I'm within my BMI range, albeit on the low side. I'm a healthy person. What is most upsetting is not that they think my body isn't right...it's that it implies that I'm unable to handle what I'm doing. People suggest that I cut back on classes saying "what's one more semester". Well, one more semester is significant in my eyes and will not be happening. Perhaps for someone not as type A as myself, this would just roll off their back. Perhaps I need to be more that way, but if I were then the motivation to get me through school could perhaps fade as well. Maybe lack of sleep is making this all the more upsetting. Maybe a good night sleep would make the world seem so much more in line and everything would be perfect. But I'll never know because until August, a good night sleep is simply unobtainable.

In the meantime, maybe all concerned individuals will join togather and invite Jeff VanVonderen over so they can tell me how my problems have influenced their lives in the following ways.....

Now that I would take an afternoon off from studying for!

And So It Begins Again...

2010-01-30T15:12:00.009-05:00

The week began with my first rhetorical theory class. Since I'm taking the class online through another school there is the obligatory difficulties that go along with it. Case in point I signed up late because of a clerical error on my part. Signing up late then means that there is a hold on your account since you didn't pay for the class until you are officially a non degree student there. Then once you pay the hold still stays. So by the time I officially was signed up it was the friday before the class started. Being slightly type A I then worry that I'm going to be behind because I haven't done any reading (since I just joined the class and although classes hadn't officially started there typically there is "pre"reading to do). I email the professor who luckily informs me that the syllabus will be emailed on the first day of class. I sit on monday morning waiting for my email and nothing comes....I then get an email on Tuesday from said professor alerting me to the fact that I have an email account through the school and that is the one she is using. Sadly when you sign up for classes or as a nondegree student, noone ever tells you these things. Now I'm a day behind. That night I proceed to set up all the accounts I need for the class (Ning, blog, twitter, wiki etc.) and start reading. Little did I know just how much work this one class was going to be. Journal articles to be read and written about in blog posts (2-3 blog posts a week) a wiki with terms to be updated and tweets to be sent out. Then add in I believe 3 projects for the semester? I'm still lost on that one. But the class will complete my rhetorical theory requirement and is in my domain of interest (computer mediated communication) and will actually coexist nicely with the other CMC course that I'm taking this semester (which can I say also seems like a whole lot of work).

Perhaps this would have all seemed more doable had I not had a looming manuscript deadline. Suggested rewrites had been made however there is always something to be done which means extensive time spent thinking about and writing about social support groups in Second Life. Don't get me wrong, I love my manuscript and I think the rewrites made it considerably better, however the amount of work that has been done on it is daunting. Luckily the manuscript went out the door Wednesday and is officially off my desk until I have to most likely rewrite portions again when it comes back from review.

Sure the manuscipt is off my desk but that opens up my time for thesis writing (although a more appropriate term may be sucks up my time). In less than a month I need to have a thesis perspectus written in a finalized form. This will be approximately 50 pages. At this point 50 pages isn't a big kicker for me. I've written 30 for classes before and in some classes probably close to 60, so its not the lenght that is worrysome, its the fact that although I have done some research in the area of my thesis, what I have done is slightly different enough that it isn't useable. This means more research and more article reading for me at a time when I really have no time. I'm not sure how it is going to get done, all I can say is that I've managed to do everything I set out to do in the past so fingers crossed that the trend will keep.

Last semester I worried that I wouldn't be able to do it all. My classes were difficult and required a lot and I had hoped this semester would be easier. Unfortunately that isn't the case. School is hard and its stressful and I don't think it is imaginable until you actually go through it. The stress is compounded with a full time job with a 3 hour a day total commute. Sometimes it all just doesn't seem feasible. And it seems that when stress hits people find ways to add to it. But I'm learning that you can't control what other people do or say. All I can do is not let them derail me from my goal. I will graduate in May (well I'll walk in May and complete my thesis in August).

Should it Stay or Should it Go Now?

2010-01-26T19:42:00.002-05:00

This blog has been around for quite some time now as with most things in life, a change may be due. Yes it's seen some good times, but it may be time to move it to wordpress where it can live with ABIEM and my school blog....

Tough decision...

A Romantic Night With an Axe Murderer

2009-10-11T17:10:00.000-04:00

Canyoning, Whales, Fish and Tubes!

2009-08-29T08:52:00.003-04:00

The last four days have been quite productive....here is a rundown of our adventures....

Canyoning=AWESOME! There are only good things to say about it...except for maybe the blister I got, which is actually quite painful. The two guides we had were very patient and definitely inspired confidence. We repelled down waterfalls and jumped in pools of water and the views were gorgeous!!

Whale Watch = tons of fun! I really wanted to go on a whale watch. At one time we went every year in Bar Harbor, but we haven't done that in years, even though we always say we want to. We only went 3 miles of the coast and saw a pod of 7 sperm whales and tons of dolphins...It was amazing and so worth the trip!

Thursday I had my shining moment, scuba diving. I freaked out when we initially went down, in fact I just got my head underwater before I came up, so we went to a more shallow area and I went in just fine and spent the whole 45 minutes underwater. Matt had a more difficult time adjusting to the change in pressure and spent a good portion of the time at the surface. Underwater was amazing though. The deepest we could go was 30 feet and it was incredible. There was so much to see!

Yesterday we went river tubing which was quite frankly my least favorite thing to do. The river was too low and the tubes had no padding on the bottom of them so my tailbone hit every rock there was...and let me tell you there are plenty of LARGE rocks in the river. It was actually pretty scary since they just put you in a tube and let you go. I ended up holding on to Matt's tube and we went down together. I wouldn't do it again, but I can say I did it right?!

Abort! ABORT!!

2009-08-24T21:27:00.004-04:00

Today we left from Antigua for Dominica. Let me start by saying that I am a really good flyer. I've been to Africa twice, Thailand and various short flights here and there. I am a good flyer. This flight however gave me a bad feeling. I was fine going through customs and getting on the plane. Then as we were getting ready to leave as the flight attendant was reading the emergency instructions the lights on the plane started flickering. One side would go off and then come back on and the other side would go off. This happened a number of times and quite frankly screamed electrical problem to me. But I blew it off, even though I was nervous. Then we are going faster and ready to get into the air and I could feel the brakes come on. Apparently one of the check engine lights came on. At this point I'm seeing it as a sign and thinking that I need to get off this plane. When we came to a hault I asked the flight attendent about it and she didn't seem concerned and Matt saw no problem and the problem seemed to be fixed by the mechanics, who were there for less than 5 minutes, so I stayed. Thankfully our plane did not crash and it was an uneventful 30 minutes.

I did not realize that once we landed there would be another hour and a half of driving to get to the city on one lane roads. Crazy! It was well worth it however because our hotel is beautiful!! We rested for a while and then rented some snorkeling equipment and went to a beach about 15 minutes away. SO much fun!! I expected the fish to be deeper in the water but they were actually very shallow. This freaked me out and I have video of me yelling underwater trying to get the fish away from me. I got over it though and stayed a little deeper than they were.

We got back and made a trip to the pool for some reading and then to a BBQ dinner at the hotel with a live steel drum band. So much fun! Tomorrow we'll go canyoning (repelling down waterfalls). I don't like heights...this will be interesting!

The Dirty Truth About Travel...Sometimes It Sucks

2009-08-23T20:43:00.003-04:00

Traveling requires one to be flexible, a virtue I tend not to embrace. I try to be go with the flow, but as Matt can attest, that is difficult for me under the best circumstances and realistically my flexibility is proportional to the amount of sleep I have under my belt.

This vacation, although it only officially started today, is trying my patience and pushing my flexibility to the brink. Last night we stayed at the Sheraton in Revere Ma, so we could leave our car for the week and catch our 5am flight to Dominica. Well, lucky for us, the management of the hotel decided to put the honeymooners in the room next door. So, all night we heard yelling from multiple people (they were playing drinking games) and the lights on the wall actually moved around. That is how loud they were. This does not bode well for me when I need to be up at 2am to make my flight. The people did get kicked out of the room, unfortunately they were kicked out at the same time we were leaving. Awesome for us. Then there is a shuttle that takes you to the airport every half hour. So, we haul ass to get down there for the 2:30 shuttle. The driver was kicking out the honeymooners so he was late and then we realized that we forgot our battery charger in our room. So, Matt goes up to get it and they tell him that they can't bring us to the airport until 3 now because the driver wouldn't have enough time to get back. Great. So, we wait another half hour, finally leave and the driver gets a call on his radio that there are people there that want a ride. So, he tells the front desk girl he is turning around. I have a problem with this and proceed to tell the driver that no he can not turn around because I am not going to miss my flight. They were late, they can wait until the next shuttle.

We arrive at the airport and the ticket counter isn't open yet. So we wait...and wait...finally it opens up and then we wait for security to open up. My bag apparently has problems because they keep it under the xray machine for a good 5 minutes trying to figure out the contents (it doesn't zip so I'm not sure why they didn't just empty it out and be done with it) and then put it through the machine once again. We get through that and go and sit at our gate and its 4:45 and they still aren't boarding. Finally someone from the airline comes down and tells us that they changed gates and are now boarding. Wonderful...good to know.

We make it onto the plane and endure the frigid temperatures for 2 hours. Seriously, it was sub zero in there. I had on a tank top, heavy sweater and jeans and I still had goose bumps. Thankfully even though our flight was late we made our connecting flight from Charlotte to Puerto Rico. That flight would have been perfect. We had an extra seat in our row so I tried to catch some sleep, but just as I was nodding off, Matt spills a can of coke in his lap with some of it landing in my hair...so it looked like he peed himself and that pretty much woke me up.

We were supposed to have a 2 hour layover there so we got some lunch (I spent $10 on lettuce...seriously, the salad was ONLY lettuce and was literally $10). We finally found our gate and it turns out that our flight is delayed an hour. So we sit and wait. And then they say our flight is delayed another hour...so we wait. Finally we get on the plane and it stops in Antigua before going to Dominica. We are told that we will need to go to the transit area so we go and find out that our flight left without us because the plane that was supposed to originally take us from Puerto Rico to Antigua had mechanical trouble. So, trying to be flexible I try to let it roll off my back. They are going to give us a hotel and feed us and get us to and from the hotel and there are worse places to be stuck than Antigua right? Well, maybe Iraq but really after being here, Antigua isn't at the top of my list of places to visit again. We fill out paperwork, go through customs and then we pick up our luggage. Now everywhere else I've flown, that is it. You can just take off at that point. Not in Antigua. They go through ALL of your luggage. We stood there and watched customs people open everyone's luggage and go through everything in it. They were going through the pockets of all the pants in the luggage. Yeah. I really have nothing to hide, but I'd prefer some stranger didn't go through my underwear in front of a room full of fellow travelers. After about 45 minutes of standing and watching other people have their stuff gone though, we get the go ahead to leave, without having our stuff checked. I don't know why...but I'm not complaining.

We then go over to the cab station where the LIAT (the airline we were on) agent got us a cab. I was taking pictures because the grounds were nice, but then I got yelled at and told to put my camera away because I was taking pictures of the airport...yeah. Welcome to Antigua....I did a vlog in Laguardia! Seriously. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that our cab driver may have been drunk. Fantastic!

We get to our hotel and get to our room, after the chaos of getting rooms straightened out for half a dozen stranded people, and see that there are little ants crawling all over our bed. So, we get another room. We then go to dinner which takes an hour and a half...which of course bothers me. I'm an American. I want my food fast. Once I sit down, I want to be out of there in 30-45 minutes. I'm impatient. I can't help it...I blame my culture.

I'm reserving the right to be grumpy tonight and tomorrow after I get to Dominica I will fix my attitude...

Pushing Through

2009-08-22T18:50:00.005-04:00

My directed research over the summer is finally ending...or should I say slowing down. Monday marks the date I need to have a final paper written for my class. Granted I've been working on writing this for the past month or so, but it is still in less than ideal condition. I have the data, I know what I want to say, however it just isn't coming out on paper. My adviser is fantastic and incredibly helpful and when I meet with him I'm always energized and excited to talk about and work on my project. But the next day when it's time to actually sit down and write all the ideas and everything we talked about the day before all information is lost!

It's not perfect, but this morning I finished up the paper and sent it off for the final grade in the class. I'm not worried about the grade, he knows I've been spending incredible hours on this project and I'm certain to get an A, however I'm more worried that I'm not going to have the paper close enough to its final stage to get it into a conference. While my adviser is sure we'll get it in, I'm concerned about the time it will take to get it to the point where it is ready. Come Tuesday I start school back up again and will have two difficult classes. So, my time will be limited and I'm not sure how much I'll have to give to this project. Add in work and I'll be moving back to the point of overwhelming stress I was at last year. I want to be able to go out with friends and not spend every minute reading/writing, but I don't see anyway around it once school starts. Granted I tend to be type A and very hard on myself when it comes to school, but no matter what it is going to be a hard road.

So, in order to get ready for the stress that is lined up to hit September 1st...I am getting ready to have a relaxing week in Dominica. Okay, so I have my laptop and told my adviser that if he has changes I'll make them while I'm gone...and yes I'll check my work email while I'm away because I'm anal and afraid that I left something undone when I left. BUT, I only brought four journal articles with me (which I consider to be progress since I brought them all to Savannah a couple of weeks ago). Instead of all school articles, I added in a touch of good old fashioned girl smut...aka Cosmo and two romance novels. Because what's better for relaxation than sitting on the beach reading about sex! Granted I'm not a beach person and typically need to be doing something at all times, but they'll be good to read in airports and at night. Wish me luck on the stress relief and let's hope I can relax on vacation and NOT worry about the things I'm not doing for work/school etc!

How I Spent My Birthday

2009-08-04T20:11:00.002-04:00

My birthday weekend was wonderful, my actual birthday however pretty much sucked once I left Savannah. We arrived 2 hours early for our flight and score...found out that we had free wifi in the airport, but then it all went down hill. Our flight was delayed by two hours or so. I entertained myself by playing bejeweled, my new obsession. Then we arrived at Laguardia only to find that our flight that was supposed to be delayed by 45 minutes was actually canceled. We had also been booked on the 8:30 flight however that flight had been delayed to 10:30. This was problematic since we also had a 2 hour drive home once we got to the airport. So, we ended up with a fair amount of time at the airport, during which time I played bejeweled.

I tried to score some free stuff at the airport by telling them it was my birthday...which was totally true, but it didn't work. I was turned down. I did however receive a happy birthday song...

We ended up getting home at 3:20am and being the good worker I am, I was up at 4:30 to get to work at 6:30am!

Overall FABULOUS weekend...FANTASTIC trip!!

Savannah, Day Two

2009-08-02T12:42:00.004-04:00

Our Savannah trip was very short by nature, so that meant we would need to take full advantage of our one complete day there. We woke up and were out of our hotel around 8:30am and headed down to see some of the squares we had missed. We ended up getting as far as Forsythe park, which is absolutely beautiful! And then over to the Mercer Williams house, which really is the reason I wanted to go to Savannah to begin with! After seeing Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil I was sold! So, as you can imagine one of the highlights of my Savannah trip would be seeing the house where the movie was filmed.

The tour of the house was fun although we couldn't go upstairs because of the safety issue of there only being one staircase. And there was no picture taking which sucks, however the tour was worth it. The house was amazing!

We ran over to the Moon River Brewing Company for lunch, which is supposedly haunted. Ghost Hunters actually did an episode there. We saw nothing. We hurried through our lunch to catch our dolphin tour on the Savannah River. We almost went on the river boat tour and I'm so glad we did this one instead. The weather was fantastic, high 80's to low 90's and extremely humid. Great day to be on the water! We saw a ton of dolphins and my body saw a ton of sun! Unfortunately as we were heading back we hit some rain, or the rain hit us. It actually pelted us! Those of us on the front deck were soaked and while the rain hitting actually did hurt, it was well worth it!

We walked around the riverfront and had some fried green tomato's, which actually just taste like fried anything really. I don't eat a lot of fried foods, but this wasn't bad. And now I can say that I had some real southern food.

And then the highlight of the night....Ghost tour at the Sorrel-Weed house. We did a quick walk through the squares that were close by and then also went back into the house for some more information about the house. It was a lot of fun and we took a ton of pictures (to be uploaded later!). Perhaps we caught a ghost (there was one picture that had a squiggly in it). Definitely worth going.

Savannah, Day One

2009-08-01T17:10:00.003-04:00

Our first day started out with a 3:30 am wake up call. We left our hotel 4:30am for the airport. Surprisingly enough our flight from Portland to Dulles left on time and actually got in early! This was especially important since we only had an hour layover in Dulles before our flight for Savannah left, and anyone who travels knows that so much can happen to make you miss a flight! We actually had to go to another concourse so we had to take a bus to another part of the airport. But all the flights went shockingly well and in total we probably spent 3 hours in the air. This is so refreshing for people who are used to spending 24 hours in the air. These were probably the shortest flights ever for us!! We even did a vlog in the air :)

We ended up getting into Savannah around 11:30 am or so and hit the visitors area of the airport and got some brochures of things to do, caught a cab and made it to our hotel. That afternoon we decided to walk around town and get ourselves acquainted with the area. We walked around and saw a ton of the squares in the area, which was amazing! I envisioned Savannah with old Greek Gothic type houses and spanish moss and I wasn't disappointed!

Late afternoon it was looking like hte weather wasn't going to cooperate so we headed back to our hotel room. Good thing we did since it started raining heavily and thundering and lightning out. We stuck around the hotel until we had our ghost tour at 9:30 that night. The tour was fun, we walked around to a number of squares and heard the ghost stories of Savannah, which is apparently quite haunted. Sadly, I didn't see any ghosts, and I think the heat, humidity and being overtired got to me since I felt like passing out most of the time we were out walking. We got home around midnight and were completely exhausted by all of the excitement of the day! I fell asleep for a little bit in the afternoon and promptly fell asleep again when my head hit the pillow.

Surprise!

2009-07-31T11:56:00.004-04:00

Sadly, or maybe not so sadly, this is a big birthday for me and I was hoping to do something special and that is exactly what I got! I had known for maybe a week and a half that Matt was planning a vacation for us for my birthday, but that's all I was initially told. I was told a week out that I needed to take off Friday. Other hints given included: prepare to be spooked, you may want to bring your bathing suit, the weather will be similar to what we have at home, bring a rain jacket and walking shoes. I went back and forth on where we could be going. I thought I had it figured out yesterday, in fact I was almost positive I had it figured out. I thought I was going to Niagra Falls. Here was my logic...Prepare to be spooked=I'm deathly afraid of heights, Bathing suite = Yeah, there is water there, Rain jacket = again the falls, walking shoes = walking around the falls. But I was wrong!

Where did he bring me and how did I react?

And the Research Goes On...

2009-07-21T09:12:00.003-04:00

Blogging has taken a back seat to the infinite amount of time that I've spent in Second Life conducting interviews and sitting in on support group meetings! My nights have revolved around when a group was meeting and how many people I could conceivably talk to after the meeting to answer questions about their thoughts on what they get out of support group meetings in SL. Thankfully I can now see a glimps of the light at the end of the tunnel!

I have essentially finished my interviews and although I still need to go to group meetings every now and then, I don't have to spend my Sunday's going to 3 or 4 meetings, which as you can imagine takes up a full day leaving me with little spare time after work, writing, etc.

Currently off the check list:

Interviews (although it would be nice to get a couple more done and that may continue to happen on a sporatic basis as I sit in on random groups to continue my work for my thesis)

Theming my results

Interpretation (can you say hyper personal relationships!) Realistically this will probably continue but the majority of the work I believe is done

Still to do:

Continue with group meetings to stay "in" with the groups and not have to try to regain access

WRITING....oodles and oodles of writing, initially to get into the ECA conference and then hopefully get published later on this year!

Now I just need to get through presenting my research findings to my advisor and two faculty members that he works with from two different colleges. My advisor is a Computer Mediated Communication person who does work with Second Life, one of the other faculty members is a SL person as well and the final person deals with Computer Mediated Communication and social support. So, I will be presenting to people who actually know what they are talking about, which adds much more pressure than talking to people who have no clue what I'm talking about!

Wish me luck tonight!

The Worst Nacho's EVER as told in a vlog

2009-07-11T08:20:00.002-04:00

This week in our culinary adventures Andy and I visit The Whig and Courier and test out the Nacho's...

And So It Goes...

2009-05-31T18:13:00.005-04:00

I am currently well into my summer research and it is proving to be much more work than I had initially imagined. As many know, I am looking at why people use Second Life as a means of social support, so I am sitting in on support group meetings in Second Life. While by nature SL is hyper anonymous, getting accepted by a group has proven to be difficult in some respects. For example, before I started actually doing my research on a regular basis, I had sat in on some AA meetings. I asked the group leaders if it was okay for me to be there (which they said yes) and then asked the group. During this particular meeting I had one individual who IM'd me very upset that I was there. In another group I asked to be able to sit in and there was another individual who was uncomfortable with me there as well. I have sucessfully sat in on several groups recently and I may have found the formula to being accepted by the group...but only time will tell on that!

This doesn't mean that I haven't been able to get interviews however, I'm at around 15 people in, which is actually behind where I think really should be. Unfortunately the best time to get people is immediately after a group meeting and there are only so many meetings a week. So, I'm going to be content getting maybe 2 people a meeting. That seems to be a controllable number in terms of managing IM's and should keep me somewhat close to the final number of interviews I need (about 60-80). Of the people I have asked to interview, only one has declined saying they were busy. In fact most people seem to be very willing to answer my questions and tell me about their experiences.

Not only is the interviewing (and sitting in on groups which typically go for about an hour) time consuming, but there is also reading and writing to be done as well. While I had an idea that the project would take lots of time and energy, I didn't think it was going to take THIS much time and energy. My work schedule has changed and the number of hours I'm putting in at the day job has increased significantly (one day last week I left my house before 6am and didn't get back until after 7), and while that isn't a forever change, it is definitely making the whole research thing seem to go a little more slowly. While I know I will be able to get the project done by the end of the summer, the pressure lies in that I have two professors counting on me to write a decent paper that will be accepted to the Eastern Communication Association Conference as well as be published.

That is where the stress lies! How does one work a full time plus job, spend 12 hours a week driving, spend another 8 hours or so simply sitting in on support groups and then another who knows how many hours writing...And expect to have a decent result? And how do you explain to others the amount of stress that you are under without sounding whiny? I'm really the only person I know of in my boat!

Progress

2009-05-17T14:46:00.002-04:00

A long and busy semester has ended and my nights and weekends that were once filled with Health Communication and The Future of News will now be dominated by research in Second Life.

Initially my project on Second Life and social support groups was just going to be a literature review for my Health Communication Class. It evolved from there into a thesis topic and an independent summer research project.

Over the summer I will be working with my adviser to collect all of my data (by sitting in on support groups in Second Life and doing 1x1 interviews people who go to support groups in SL) and then writing the paper with the hopes of getting it into the Eastern Communication Association this fall and ultimately into a journal.

The big news, while at ECA my adviser spoke with another professor about work she had previously published and told her that we were using it in our research. They discussed the research I was going to be doing this summer and she was interested in it and ultimately wants to work on the project with us. It is very exciting for me!! We had a conference call a couple of weeks ago that went very well and I think that she will be able to bring more of the social support side of things into the equation that my adviser and I don't as much about.

Overall, VERY exciting!!

Who Ever Said Grad Students Aren't Any Fun??

2009-04-26T20:31:00.005-04:00

So, tomorrow marks the beginning of the last day of the semester and what does that mean for me? EVERYTHING is due. Let's recap the excitement that was my life this weekend...

Friday night - Yeah, I have no recollection of what happened and not in the good, I was so trashed I don't remember my name kind of way...

Saturday - Spent the morning at McDonald's writing part of a health campaign. There are several McDonalds in my town so I actually have my pick of them. I decided to go to the one closest to my house. Now typically I would have had a coffee milkshake, because really that's my favorite, but since it was 9am I had a hot chocolate...which burned the top of my mouth. Even after that tramatic event I still wrote probably five or so pages...which I consider a success. Then after feeling strange for hanging out at McDonald's for so long, and since the weather was actually nice for a change, I decided to go to the waterfront and actually get some fresh air for a chance. So, I hung out there for a while and then my friend Michelle came by and gave me a much needed distraction from work.

That night I went out to dinner with a friend I hadn't talked to in years which was so fun. I happen to LOVE hot spicy food, so we went and had Pakistani, which we had together a million years ago and ate and talked for 2.5 hours. My clothes still smell like Pakistani food even a day after.

Sunday - Today I experimented with a new writing location, the food court of the mall. Here is the beauty of the mall food court...people leave you alone and they have free wifi. Seriously, I have the ability to get food somewhere if I want it, but I don't have to buy something if I don't want to. There are people walking around all over the place and yelling and chaos...which is the only way I can get anything done...if there is chaos around me. I tried the library and yeah I could plug my computer in, but it is just too quiet. I can't concentrate. But my time at the mall was highly productive and I finally got my health campaign paper written, all 28 pages of it. So, I'm feeling highly accomplished. Unfortunately I still need to create my portfolio and make up a power point, but that will have to wait for another day. Sadly it will have to be done the day before it is all due.

Yup, how exciting is my life?

And There Now Is A Plan

2009-03-28T16:00:00.005-04:00

I've been pretty vocal of my love of Grad School. It makes me happy to spend time doing the readings and to write the papers. Things had been a bit up in the air since I was officially accepted into the program starting the fall of 2009. But now I have a plan.

I have been meeting with a professor about a paper that I was writing for another class about social support groups in second life. He had been giving me advice on how to do the research and some of the things I should be looking at. So, at my second meeting with him, and after I got my official acceptance letter, I asked him to be my thesis adviser. To which he said yes. So YEAH for me!! I'm incredibly excited. He specialized in Computer Mediated Communication, which is what I'm into as well. And he is into my research project. I sat down with him last week and set up my schedule and determined that I will actually go the communication route instead of mass communication, which is actually really good. I'd been going back and forth not sure which I should do and really just needed someone to tell me what to do.

With that said, the communication route is apparently more difficult and will be especially hard for me since I have no background in interpersonal communication. I went the pure journalism route for my BA. So, it's going to be a rough road, but I'm sure I can handle it....somehow. The best news...He wants me to do directed research over the summer and present at a conference in the fall, and then publish in the spring. Pretty sweet!! Oh, and he told me I should get my PhD....which I am actually considering doing. Who would have thought that someone who barely made it through their BA would be looking at getting a PhD....oh how life changes!!

Once In A Lifetime...

2009-03-08T08:51:00.002-04:00

One of the reasons we chose to go to Iceland, at least for me anyway, was to see the northern lights. I've always wanted to see them and had it on my list of things to do before I die, and I finally got to do it!! We went out at around 9pm on Thursday night on a tour that took us outside of the city (away from the street lights etc.) As you can imagine it was freezing cold and the wind was blowing so much that it made it impossible to take a picture outside. We chose to stay in the bus and snap some photos from there and they came out fabulous!! The weather there changes amazingly fast and went from snow blowing so hard it hurt your face to virtually no wind at all. So our bus stopped again and we got some more shots...
And just to prove we were there....

I Have Thighs of Steel...

2009-03-05T06:41:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we went horseback riding. It was terrifying. And today my body is incredibly sore. I can barely walk. I don't know how the girls who ride the horses there everyday do it!

We rode our horses for around an hour or so through lava fields and man was it hard. I had a good horse, he was little and didn't run away with me on him or anything, but it was still scary for me. I'm sure I gave my poor horse mixed messages, I know I must have told him one thing and did the exact opposite with my body, but it worked out.

Unfortunately I don't have any video of us riding our horses, but I did get some video of the farm....and other parts of the country (oh and the waterfall in the video is one of the smaller ones, we're seeing Gulfoss tomorrow when we go superjeeping and caving).

Swimming Between Eurasia and The Americas...

2009-03-03T15:00:00.002-05:00

That's where we went snorkeling today. In between the two tectonic plates. Ya ya...I know, Iceland and snorkeling doesn't so much mix, but it was actually pretty cool (in both senses). Apparently the lake they do the snorkeling in is a constant 32 degrees or so year round (it's so cold that fish don't even go there!). So, even if we went there in the summer it would be cold. But, they are prepared. We got down snowsuits to wear under the water suits. The water was amazingly clear and it didn't feel cold at all with all our layers! Pretty cool that we could see where the fissures were and snorkeled between tectonic plates! Apparently this is the only place on earth you can see them (or so they say). Sadly we couldn't get pictures of ourselves snorkeling because there wasn't anyone there to take the pictures (except for some other tourists who took our picture with their camera, I asked them to email the pictures to us but I'm unsure if they really understood, so I'm not crossing my fingers! You can however, see what we see from the tour company should you choose to (and I would suggest it because it's pretty cool!)

The hardest part of the whole thing? Getting the GD head thing on! This is actually my favorite photo of the trip and believe it or not it wasn't staged. I'm pretty sure this is the point where I lost one of my diamond earrings. Sadly I got the earrings in South Africa and it has sentimental value :( But life goes on right?!! Tomorrow, I hope to conquer my fear of horses...more to come...

Glacier Hiking and Ice Climbing

2009-03-02T19:09:00.004-05:00

Way too tired to type after 9 hours of hiking/climbing, but we made a video...

The One Where Everything Goes Well!!

2009-03-01T03:10:00.002-05:00

Ever have one of those days where things just go perfectly?? I had one of those days today (and yesterday as well...). Today we slept in, we had no plans other than lunch with friends so there was no need for an early morning.

We met up with Barry (who we both worked with for a while) and his girlfriend Heather in Boston where they both live. We got a tour of the station he currently works for and pizza which can I tell you is FANTASTIC! They dropped us off at the airport where we hung out for several hours (5 to be exact). But this was actually a good thing because I got probably 1/3 of my second life paper done. So, less stress on this vacation for me!

So, the best news of all, we ended up in first class for our flight. Accidentally, but first class none the less. I was in charge of getting us to the right seats and quite frankly I failed. I didn't see the 1 in front of the 5, so I had us sitting in seat 5d and 5e instead of 15d and 15e. We were all moved in and the flight attendant came over and asked to see our boarding passes and told us we were in the wrong seats. So we started to gather our stuff to go to our correct seats and he told us just to stay where we were. SCORE! In first class I had smoked salmon, fish and potato's. Then two chocolate deserts. It was really good. We also got some presents which included hand cream, socks and lip chap, oh and a really nice bag to hold it all. I'll be keeping the bag with me all the time.

Yup...we got to meet the band...

2009-02-28T08:31:00.005-05:00

How many modes of transportation can one use in a day? Yesterday I capped off at five. Here is the breakdown...

1. Drove our car to Portland (2 hours)
2. Picked up the Concord Trailways bus there and took that to Logan Airport (2 hours)
3. Grabbed a commuter bus there to get to South Station (1 hour)
4. Took the red line (10 minutes)
5. Got a cab to the hotel (10minutes)

Add in waiting for busses and figuring out how to get where we needed it took about 6 hours to get here...a trip that would normally take around 4 or so in a car. But a easy price to pay for not having to pay $25 a day to park in the city for a week...oh yeah, and avoiding driving in Boston!

We came down a day early to see The Yellowjackets, a jazz group my husband is a fan of. And...can I just say that I am now in the running for the best wife EVER! Not only did I find the concert that coincidentally was the night before we were supposed to leave for our trip (and taking place in the same city we were to leave from) but I also took pictures of him with the band. Yup, I did. The venue was very small, probably around 200 people or so and everyone sat at small round tables. They played from around 8 to 9:30 or so and after sold cd's in the lobby and autographed them and posed for photos. So, we now own the latest Yellowjackets cd, autographed.

Oh It's Coming Fast!!

2009-02-20T21:13:00.007-05:00

In T-minus 7 days I will be in Iceland and can I just say it doesn't seem like it's that close! Maybe it's because life is so incredibly busy with school and work, or maybe it's because we planned everything so long ago...I don't know...The planning isn't going oh so fast, but here's what we know so far....

Friday - Drive to Boston to see the yellowjackets because Matt is a fan. Me not so much, but I hear I'll be able to get dressed up in my hot little black dress and drink a couple toasted almonds...and that makes me happy.

Saturday - Hang out in Boston and maybe have lunch with a friend who we haven't seen in a long time. Then catch our flight at 8:30pm.

Sunday - Arrive in Iceland and hit the hot springs. This is where I pray that I have kept my low carb diet the week before because sadly the only bathing suit I have is a bikini and nobody wants to see a chunky carbed out me at the springs! After a day at the hot springs we'll head into Reykjavik and find our hotel.

Monday - So from here on we have no set plans. We're pretty much thinking that we're going to pick up a few tours. Matt REALLY wants to go in one of the jeep/hummer things and drive fast through rivers and snowbanks. I found a tour that will let him drive. Plus the same tour also lets us hike on a glacier which includes wearing crampons and safety lines and I'm actually pretty psyched about that.
Hopefully on the way home from that tour we'll be able to see the northern lights as that's one of the reasons I wanted to go to Iceland. I've also found another tour that will let us go caving in a lava cave and snorkel. Yet another day of wearing a bathing suit for me. Who would have thought my bikini would get this much use? Seriously, I don't think I broke it out once in South Africa!!

We've also decided that we're going to try some of the fermented shark and whatever the liquor is that people shoot after. There will be video of that. Don't you worry! I'm not sure what else we'll do...We'll probably visit the geyser but I'm not sure what else. We got international drivers licenses so we can rent a car should we want to. Oh and the macbook will be coming with us, partly so we can upload stuff while we're there (because we're cool like that) and partially so I can do homework because sadly the work of a grad student is never done.

Wish me luck...and if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!!

I'm Living Proof That One Can Screw Up Royally and STILL Recover!

2009-02-13T19:45:00.003-05:00

My undergraduate college experience was pretty much a first class party scene. I stayed up late and ignored the whole learning thing. In fact, there were classes I may have only hit once and then there were the classes I liked, the ones I hit once a month. Somehow I ended up graduating and at the time never expected to want to go back to college. But, somehow things change and I found myself wanting to go back to school and figuring that it would be a long hard road to get in.

So, my plan was to take some classes as a non degree student and see how it went. So I took 2 classes last semester and I'm taking another 2 this semester. I took the GRE's and bombed the first time after a horrible experience with a global meltdown, then took them again the beginning of this month.

Then Wednesday came. It was a great day, work went well and I met with another professor about my second life project. It was a great meeting and I got a ton of information. I was really happy. Then I called home.

Me: I'm leaving right now (45 minutes later than expected)
Matt: Ok...there is a message on the machine from Nate (the graduate coordinator at the school)
Me: really?
Matt: Yeah, do you want to know what he said
Me: Ya
Matt: You got in!!

And that is how I found out that I was accepted into Graduate School!

When It's Good...It's Good!

2009-02-07T13:20:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was one of those days that come a long once in a while where everything seems to go right.

I started my day with the GRE's and I am happy to say that after my first failed attempt, I have actually moved up to average! I'm not proud of my scores, but at least now I can say that I may have a chance at Grad School. I'm not sure how I could do better than last time, I didn't study for them because quite frankly where do I have time to do that? I just basically got a good night sleep and that was it. It was so much less stressful taking them the second time! Seriously, what was the worst that could happen?!

I spent the afternoon on the couch doing some reading and hanging out with the puppy, oh and figuring out the new DVR. It's nice to not feel like you have to be doing something school related when you are home, just to have a minute to yourself to relax and hang out. There is a good deal of stress related to balancing full time work and full time school and having any type of a life outside the two. Any time that I can just sit and not worry about what I need to be doing is huge deal!

Then for dinner we went and had italian and the lady (who normally isn't so pleasant) was really nice to us! We ordered pizza and got some peanut butter pie to go which was SOOOO good!

Oh and the day before I came up with an idea for a paper which may turn into a thesis. VERY exciting!! YEAH FOR ME!

Watch Out Iceland...I'm Legal!

2009-01-25T10:46:00.003-05:00

We're about 5 weeks away from spring break which means...I'm going on vacation! I'm excited to go, I desperately need a vacation since I haven't been on one in 7 months or so. Yeah, I know that doesn't seem like a long time at all...I get that! But I'm telling you, once you get the chance to visit foreign countries, you want that excitement all the time. In fact, I'm usually trying to plan two vacations at a time. At the very least I'm always thinking about where I'm going to go next...In fact I'm already thinking about where I can go after Iceland.

But, back to Iceland...

In preparation for our trip, we went and got our international drivers permits. I must say though, I was a little disappointed because I really thought I'd get a license that looked like a US license. Unfortunately it was really just a booklet like the yellow booklet you get when you get your international travel vaccines. It does have a picture of me in it so that's fun. And I'll be able to drive in any country for a year. Granted I won't be doing much of the driving, that will be Matt's job, but I'll have my license just in case something happens, I'll be available to drive to the nearest emergency room (which wouldn't be unprecedented for us on our travels).

Sports...Why Do They Exist?

2009-01-18T20:58:00.003-05:00

I first have to say that I'm blessed to have NOT married a sports fan. Yeah he'll go to the occasional hockey game (partially because he works some of them) but for the most part that's it. If you come to my house on a Saturday afternoon, we won't have "the game" on. We probably don't even know what game is playing.

That said, we went to a college hockey game this afternoon and I have to say there are some hard core fans there, and I just don't understand. Now, I do come from a family of sports people, my mother especially. I remember the family Thanksgiving with my mother and her mother and sisters screaming at the TV if the Patriots were playing. This caused me a great deal of embarrassment, even though this was happening in the privacy of my own home and it truthfully may have scarred me for life.

Now, I don't fully understand all the intricacy's of hockey. I pretty much stopped at put the puck in the net, anything beyond that is lost on me. To me how the game is played doesn't matter, I want to know why people get so involved with their sports teams. I could never imagine yelling at the TV or even yelling at players while at the game. You're not on the team, so what's the purpose in getting all wound up about a game? By the way, I enjoy my reality tv, but you'll never catch me yelling at the rock of love girls, and if I was ever going to yell at the tv it would be because of that skanktacular group!

Who Can Make Urgent Care Fun?? I Can!

2009-01-06T21:13:00.000-05:00

Tonight I had my first experience at our local Urgent Care. The husband had a hurt back and we thought he might have kidney stones, so off to the Urgent Care we went. Now, not everyone would have a good time there, but I like to think we're a fun couple who make the best out of every situation.

So, here is a list of the good and the disappointing ....

First, for the things that will get Urgent Care an A+ in my book....

Warm towels and juice. That's right. I wasn't even a patient and I was offered a warm blanket and some ginger ale. I couldn't even get some juice on a recent flight. I may hang out there just for the free drinks...oh and the casino because as a member of the players club I get free soda there too...

Quiet time. You wouldn't think you'd get that in a public place, but it really did happen. Sure people came in and out, but sick people don't make much noise. Maybe its their weakened state. I don't know, but it was nice to go somewhere and have it be peaceful. I may end up going there to do homework next semester.

The pee cup package. Now, I didn't get to experience the pee cup myself, so I'm taking the husbands word on that one. His exact words...."it was like a boxed lunch, except with a cup to pee in". Apparently it had a funnel to move your pee into the cup. Seriously, how much fun is that!

Things that disappointed me...

THE LACK OF WIFI! I brought the touch so I could check my email and tweet...but alas...no signal. Sad, sad, sad. So, I ended up playing some majong, learning some sign language from an app I had downloaded and never used, and watching some It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I admit I did laugh out loud when watching the show...it just amuses me.

No turn your head and cough for the husband. I can't help it, every time he goes to the doctor I swear they're poking around down there. I get a fair amount of amusement knowing that's happening, so I was disappointed he came out unscathed.

Let's hear it...what's the strangest place you've had a good time?

So That's What That Means...

2009-01-04T19:05:00.002-05:00

I'm not much of a resolutions kinda girl. If I really want to do something, I just do it regardless of the time of year. But, this year I'm feeling a little left out after reading everyone's resolutions blogs. So, I'm joining the masses.

Finding a resolution that I could actually stick with required a lot more effort than I had initially thought. I went through the typical hit the gym more often and be nicer to my enemies...blah blah blah...

Then I thought, why would I want to be nicer to people I don't like. That's just stupid!

And as for the exercising...Yeah, I could stand to loose a few and I do hope to go down a size this year...but then I think...I'm a size 4! How much more do I really need to loose? I'm just not down with being the next Donatella.

So, after ruling out the obvious I decided to look at things my husband has complained that I don't do well. Two things immediately came to mind here, my poor ass spelling and my failure to use slang phrases appropriately.

Now, I have no intention on cleaning up my spelling. Now-a-days I rarely ever use a pen for anything meaningful so that leaves me with spell check, and if spell check doesn't pick up my mistake, well then, really its the fault of technology and it's out of my hands.

This then leaves me with my only flaw being my lack of slang knowledge, which I attribute to a failing memory and a recent lack of quality television time.

I had heard the term "bust a nut" used in conversation off and on and for the life of me thought it was appropriate to use the term when there was an injury to the groin area of a man. Apparently this is incorrect and the fact that I use the term wrongly in front of our dog daughter upsets the husband. I'm not sure if its the whole using the term at all...or the fact that I don't use it right that bothers him. I don't ask.

I also tried to use "snap" unsuccessfully on facebook as well. I think I used it correctly, however the husband looked at me with a blank stare and walked away.

Based on that reaction, I think it is very clear that the husband is not in the mood to mentor me ... so, are there any takers out there?? And exactly what slang should I be implementing in 2009?

It'sJust Like I Imagine Prison...Minus the Prison Sex

2008-12-29T17:34:00.004-05:00

I am very familiar with standardized testing...I think I've taken nearly every possible test in my life minus the GRE's, which I took Saturday...well, sort of. But, GRE's aside for a minute, I want to talk about the testing facility.

I know they want to keep people honest, but really how much cheating can you do on these things...seriously?? I walk into the testing facility and handed over my ID and sign in. This I understand. But after that I have to go to another woman not three feet away who takes my picture (really? this is necessary?) and makes me not only sign a confidentiality statment but makes me write the statement out...IN CURSIVE no less. This is completely insane to me since anyone over the age of ten writes in a printing/cursive hybrid anyway. Then, I get escorted into another room (more like a hallway) that is no more than a foot away from the woman who just made me write a paragraph of useless information. This hallway is not just a room. I swear I had more security watching me than OJ. The back of the room is all glass and the paragraph lady has her desk on the other side of the glass. On the side of her desk is a TV with the picture cut into four with different angles of the hallway room. And then there was a microphone in there so every time someone coughed you could hear it via the microphone in the waiting room.

I ask you..is all that necessary? If I lie on my GRE's or cheat off of someone, won't I just fail out of school anyway? And what are you going to do with the picture of me? Will I show up on the internet somewhere on Jennifer Aniston's body (I give my full permission for this to happen by the way so if someone could make that happen it would be fabulous).

Oh...and after having everything short of a strip search, I don't even get to actually take all of the test...something about a "GRE Global Meltdown"....

***ahem ... Prison Riot?? ahem***

On the bright side, I came out with some pretty sweet new GRE tats....a bunch of vocab that I have no idea the definition of....

I'm Stumped...Seriously Stumped

2008-12-12T14:58:00.004-05:00

It's true. I am. I'm overwhelmed almost to a crippling degree. I am in the mist of finals, which for me really just amounts to finishing up a paper I've written on organizational communication and socialization, which actually turned out alright. I'm happy enough with the topic I chose and think I could go farther with it if I decided to use it as a portion of my thesis if I decide to go that way. But just because its one paper doesn't mean that I'm lacking for things to do. I still have about four pages left to write on it and then I need to clean up the rest of what I previously wrote.

I am also in the mist of studying for my GRE's which is probably one of the more stressful things I've done. I've started studying for them but quite frankly it still stresses me out enormously. There is just SO much riding on this.

In addition, I need to decide which classes I want to take next semester. Now, here is my problem. I need to take a Mass Comm Theory class, but, it is only offered once every two years, and it was just offered this semester. So, it won't be offered again until the fall of 2010, which would mean that I would have a December graduation. This to me is unacceptable. I want to graduate in May!! So, I've found a class that is offered online through the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. I'm hoping that I can take that next fall and it will fit into my requirements and let me graduate on time (assuming of course that I'm accepted). But, this also creates another dilemma. Since I am a non degree student, I can only bring so many classes into the degree. I'm scheduled to take two classes next semester that I really want to take (future of news and health communication). If I take those two classes than I can't bring any more into the program when I swap to be a regular old grad student instead of a non degree one. So, either one of those classes won't count towards my degree of the Mass Comm Theory class won't. I'm trying to get it all figured out, but I don't want to take less than the two classes next semester because it will cause me to have to take too many classes next year while also doing thesis work and working full time. So many decisions!!

Work has been insane these last couple of weeks and is not looking at getting any less busy before Christmas, so I don't even have time to think there! I should be happy that I'm busy, and really I am, but everything all at once is just slightly overwhelming. It's hard coming home to homework and still having to think about what needs to be done at work as well.

Add in Christmas and I seriously want to scream. I still have to mail some presents and buy some other ones, and we're trying to cut down our Christmas list this year as well, so it is all very stressful. I have decided though that the Christmas cards just aren't going to happen this year. There is just too much to do and not enough time to do it.

The good thing?? Next weekend we're going to Quebec City. We'll probably only spend a night there, but it will give us both a little bit of a break, and quite frankly, I've been itching to go on a vacation for a while now. I usually can only make it 3 months or so before I'm ready to go and hit another country. I just get restless. So, this mini vaca will hold me over until the first of March when we'll go to Iceland.

Alright...I'm done whining...any advice??

Bad Decision? Maybe

2008-12-05T08:34:00.000-05:00

I've made the decision that I will be applying to grad school for full time enrollment for September, which means I need to get everything together in December with my application needing to be in by January, which really doesn't feel that stressful to me, I don't think the application is that bad. But, it does mean that I need to take the GRE's, which kinda freaks me out. I'm certainly not the best test taker in the world, and there is a lot riding on my scores.

Regardless of how things turn out, I'm taking two classes this spring which will be difficult for me. I'm not a TA, I don't work 20 hours a week. I work 40 hours a week with a 10 hour a week commute. Add in homework and class time, and I'll be booked solid. I did the math, and unless I can find a summer class or two, and I'm not sure how likely that will be, I'll need to take two classes each semester and three classes another one (this includes doing a thesis class over the summer which I think will be possible because I'm guessing that is pretty much on your own).

Super stressed out about it...I've been told by my interim adviser that it isn't possible for me to graduate in two years since I'm working full time, which is actually pretty upsetting. But I'm determined and REALLY want to get it done in that amount of time. My biggest concern? Where in the hell am I going to find the time to write a thesis? I'm picturing myself in some foreign country (maybe I'd go back to my favorite place in the world, Bangkok), sitting on a beach or on a park bench, computer in hand writing an endless amount of pages! That could work right?

You Know It's Bad When...

2008-12-02T19:10:00.003-05:00

It's a Tuesday, 7:10pm and I'm sitting on my couch, reading blogs and watching the true Hollywood story of Valerie Bertinelli.

It's not that I have anything against Valerie. I'm sure she's a fun girl, but has she done much since One Day At A Time? The show was well before my time, but I have to admit to seeing a show or two when my mother watched the reruns. (This was actually one of the better shows that my mother forced me to watch...anyone seen press your luck? Seriously, it's a miracle I have any social skills at all). So, I thought I'd give you all some little known facts about Valerie Bertinelli...

1. People really liked her bangs. No really, they made a point of saying this in her THS. I've rocked the bangs from time to time in my life. I had the claw bangs in the 80's and I even had bangs as recently as June (not claw bangs, more like Katie Holmes bangs) but decided because of the upkeep it was easier to grow them out, so I give props to Valerie for hanging in there with them so long.

2. She thought that Eddie Van Halen was cute. This is something that Valerie and I disagree about because I actually find him to be an ugly bastard.

3. Valerie tried to be the Yoko Ono of Van Halen. To this I say "you go Valerie". I don't like Van Halen so much.

4. Valerie Bertinelli wants to be like me!! She didn't go to college and wishes she did. I'm going to help you out with this one Val, I went to college and your doing a whole lot better than me, so I think you made the correct decision. But you know what, it's never too late, you jump up and enroll in your local college and get your degree, or perhaps an honorary degree from NYU??

While I'm on the subject, I'm feeling really good now because I just saw that Nick Verreos from Project Runway season 2 is in a Sears Commerical?! Good to know I'm doing better than someone....

And finally...

5. One of her series Cafe American (Valerie played an American working at a Paris coffee shop) was up against Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman in the same time slot. Dr. Quinn won. I didn't watch Valerie's show. I watched Dr. Quinn. I really liked Sully.

What's scarier than the sad state of my life? This website I found while searching for my fabulous picture of Valerie. Whoever created that site is seriously deranged...really.

This Is The End...For Now Anyway...

2008-11-28T16:33:00.004-05:00

Everyone has had a couple of fun filled days of getting to know me...now its all ending. Don't be sad, you've learned a lot about me and you'll continue to learn about me, but this is my last official get to know me post. I'm doing the ever popular, 100 things list!

1. My name is Sara Elizabeth
2. My Grandmother's Grandmother was also a Sara Elizabeth
3. My parents didn't know that when they named me
4. My Grandmother name was Elizabeth but they say I wasn't named after her either
5. She died almost three years ago
6. A year before I was married
7. I wish she could have been at our wedding
8. She visited all the continents but Antarctica
9. She said she never cared about going there
10. I get my traveling from her
11. She brought be to Kenya and Egypt as a present my senior year in high school
12. We were gone almost a month
13. She told me (and apparently a lot of others as I learned at her funeral) that it was her favorite trip
14. It was mine too
15. My next favorite was Thailand
16. I went there on my honeymoon
17. We were gone for 2 1/2 weeks
18. Three days of that I spent in the hospital
19. Actually I spent one night in one emergency room and then moved over to spend a couple of days in Bumrungrad International Hospital
20. The nurses there wore hats
22. I wish I had pictures of it
23. but my husband didn't think he'd want to remember the event
24. They thought I had an ulcer
25. But when I got home they found gallstones
26. I had my gallbladder out 2 months later
27. I have scars from it
28. I wish they would go away
29. That's the only surgery I've ever had
30. But I've broken plenty of bones
31. I did gymnastics when I was younger
32. and once dislocated my finger doing back handsprings
33. It hurt a lot
34. It was my ring finger
35. and had to be splinted to my middle finger
36. I had a teacher who used to make me put all my fingers down except for the one in the splint so it looked like I was giving people the finger
37. He thought it was really funny
38. I didn't go to the high school in my town
39. My parents made me go to a semi private high school in the next town over
40. Someone told my mother that the town hs didn't make the student do term papers
41. My mother thought that was wrong
42. so she sent me to the other school
43. They didn't have term papers either
44. Had the catholic school still been open in my town she would have sent me there
45. I lucked out
46. I had to go to sunday school until I was in high school
47. Towards the end I was the only girl in the class
48. The boys in my class used to try to make me laugh during the class
49. I would get in trouble
50. My mother let me drop out of sunday school if I would join a club/sports team at school
51. I joined one but then dropped out
52. She didn't like that so much
53. So I never got confirmed
54. We thought that might be an issue when we got married
55. but it wasn't
56. We thought about going to Prague to get married
57. but we didn't think that my nana would get on a plane to go
58. so we got married in town
59. I still want to see Prague
60. And all of the continents
61. I've been to them all except for Australia and Antarctica
62. I wanted to go to India
63. I'm not sure about that with recent events
64. but it was going to be my grad school graduating present
65. so I've got another year and a half
66. I'm going to school for Mass Communications
67. I'm going to look at technology and the media
68. That's as far as I've gotten on my thesis idea
69. I need to get working on that
70. I haven't been officially accepted though
71. So there is a chance that it might not even matter
72. I might go on to get my PhD
73. I'm not sure though
74. It all depends on what my husband does with school
75. He's getting his B.A.
76. to supplement his associates degree
77. He has three and a half years left in his program
78. He just started
79. I hope he finishes early
80. If not, I might look at the PhD program at UMaine
81. It's interdisiplinary so I would do work bridging two departments
82. I'd look at political science and communication
83. Look at terrorist groups and how they use technology to communicate
84. I took an undergrad class in middle eastern relations
85. I really liked it
86. I could always do something like that for my masters too
87. I can still change my thesis
88. sometimes I wonder if I'll have enough to say to write a thesis
89. I wrote for TV news
90. so I tend to write in short all encompassing sentences
91. I don't have an academic writing style
92. I can usually say what I think I need to in a paragraph
93. My thesis will probably be around 100 pages
94. I'm probably screwed
95. I'm worried that my maiden name will be put on my diploma
96. The school still hasn't made that change in their records
97. I hyphenated my name when I got married
98. So did my husband
99. Some people think its a good idea, most think its just odd

Thanksgiving? Ehhh...

2008-11-27T10:17:00.000-05:00

Nothing makes me more uncomfortable than sharing what I'm thankful for with strangers, or pretty much anyone for that matter...So, in keeping with the spirit of my last post and really my personality, I decided to do an anti Thanksgiving post....

So here it is....the five things that annoy me and really just make me angry...

1. In appropriate questions. I come from a family that appreciates privacy and respects mine. Not everyone does that. For example, my husband and I moved in together about a month into our relationship and then waited five years to get married. In that time my parents didn't once ask when we were going to get married. In fact, the question never came up. They were the minority. Now that we are married and have been for two years, the new question turns to babies. It's never appropriate to ask me when/if I'm going to have any. If I wanted you to know, I'd tell you. In addition, just because I'm tired, sick to my stomach etc, that does not mean that I'm pregnant. In fact, just assume at all times that I'm not. Look, I'm in grad school full time and working 50 hours a week with the commute. The husband is working full time and going to school full time as well. For the next year and a half I'll be taking between two and three classes a semester along with work and writing/researching a thesis. My legs will be permanently sewn shut for foreseeable future. And while I'm on the school subject....

2. Why do people tell me I can't do something? I know that working full time and going to school full time is going to be difficult. Really, I do. In fact, I'm the only one in my program doing it. Yeah, the program isn't geared towards working adults, do I wish it was? NO! I like the fact that when I have my degree I'd be able to apply for a PhD program, if I so choose. I like that I'm pushed to publish papers. Things will be more difficult for me, but that doesn't mean its not doable. Instead of telling me I can' do it, maybe you should spend that time doing something more productive.

3. Women's pants. Every girl out there knows exactly what I'm talking about. You can go into five stores and the sizes all run differently. Plus, when you try them on in the store they always fit you differently from when you wear them once and have to wash them. I just want a size 4 to be the same at NY and Company and the Gap...is that so much to ask?

4. Slow walkers and people who walk side by side on sidewalks and won't move when they see you coming. This is just rude. I've already outlined how I am a busy girl and really don't have the luxury of poking around behind you while you're window shopping. Honestly...speed it up or move out of the way. Don't you hear me almost walking up your back?

5. Clutter. I like my house to be clean and clutter free. That rarely happens. They say on Paranormal State that clutter encourages the devil to stop by and make himself at home. I don't know if I believe in the devil, or if there is a devil he'd just stop by because my place was a little messy, but I do know that I get angry when things are everywhere and a giant mess. Maybe that means the devil is stopping by and checking me out. I don't know.

Yeah I know its Thanksgiving and most people are all feeling grateful and everything, but I'm sure there is SOMETHING that annoys you! Come on...lay it on me!

Ask and You Shall Receive

2008-11-24T16:59:00.003-05:00

Alright, so maybe you didn't ask, but Andy over at Wild ARS Chase did, so how could I say no? I'm pretty sure you all wanted to know just a little bit more about me. So here it is...

1. My husband and I have an open relationship. Oh yeah, you know what I mean. Let me clarify. We have, lets call it an understanding. We are both able to have a person on the side, however, we must designate the person in advance, and they must be a celebrity....an A, B, C, D celebrity whatever, it doesn't matter...oh and we can each only have that one person, so I've put a lot of thought into who my celebrity would be. I've had a number of people run through my head, I've thought about Prince because he is fabulous in concert and has a ton of energy, on the other hand, I think that he'd be pretty intense (how many people would change their name to a symbol to spite a record company) and I'm not sure I could deal with his intensity. I tend to run a little on the high strung side and quite frankly I think he might just scare me. Then there was David Bowie, but he's with Iman and she just looks like an amazon woman to me and I'm pretty sure she could and would take me. So he's out. So, that left me with Dr. Drew Pinsky and Anderson Cooper. A battle of the silver hair fox (foxes? hmm..). Since Dr. Drew is spending a large portion of his time babysitting drug induced celebrities, I'm choosing AC. He's at the top of his journalism game so he has people to do everything for him, therefore he would have plenty of time for me. I'm happy with this decision, if any of you know him, have his people call me. On a related note, I'm sure you are all wondering who my husband would choose. I'm thinking that he'd go with Yanni. No, I'm being serious here. he really does enjoy Yanni and even dragged me to one of his concerts. Matt really likes his long flowing hair...and his Greekness. He even dragged me to see him in concert two hours away. Normally I would say don't judge, but I think its perfectly acceptable in a situation like this, in fact its almost mandatory. Judge him, he needs to learn this is wrong.

2. I have my own language, and apparently my own unique accent. I know I don't talk like the other Mainers out there, but there is not a one native Mainer in my family. We hail from Lynn, MA...Lynn Lynn the city of Sin...etc. I think I have a Maine/Lynn combo but ehh...who knows. And, I don't' think that I really have my own language, sometimes I just forget what something is called and either describe it or name is something close to its actual name. For example, anything I drink I call juice.... soda, beer or apple "juice", whatever. I might not use the same words as you, but you know what I'm talking about...seriously, people respond to me so they must know right?

3. My use of language has caused others to think I may be part sailor... I use some foul language. In fact Jesus Christ is my favorite foul word of the moment (sometimes I try to class it up and use JC, it's less harsh and you could get away with saying it at church). I think I like it because I think its so trashy, which is something I definitely am not. (I did try unsuccessfully to be trashy for a day in high school but people just laughed) In fact if you looked at me, and talked with me without getting to know me, you would never think that such language would be in my head, let alone come out my mouth. But it does. My second favorite word...Fuck. I know, you would never think I would say that...but I do....wash my mouth out with soap!

4. I fear having children. Not so much the actual act, although I think the experience of giving birth could be unpleasant...mainly the pooh and stuff (seriously, they should give some of this information to high school kids and watch the teenage birth rate fall exponentially), I'm really in fear of what my child will end up like. Who really knows how two peoples DNA will interact. I could end up being the proud mother of a serial killer, or worse yet, a sports fan. I would rather have the serial killer, at least there are specialists who can lend a hand with that one. Plus there are established societal rules on how to deal with serial killers, sports fans not so much. I don't enjoy sports, in fact I think they are ridiculous...grown men slapping each others asses and grabbing themselves? People all pissed off because their team didn't win? What? If my child wants to participate in a sport I'll steer him to ballet, maybe he could be the next Baryshnikov, or the next drag queen. I don't know, but either would be better than (name famous sports person here...no really, name a person for me, I know none so I need your help).

5. I like to pretend that my life is a musical. I don't get to have all of the drama associated with one, but I do occasionally like to break into song. For example, husband "do you know where the flour is" me "do you know...do you know...do you know what it feels like...etc etc."

I apologize for not using the video that had more of Mike "Boogie" whoever in it, but sadly youtube decided that particular clip was unavailable to be embedded. That saddens me too because I really wanted to talk about his rise to fame in big brother and his subsequent fall...last I saw him he was on Dr. 90210 with the other guy from big brother who was checking out his junk and cutting off genital warts...alright, maybe not warts but it had something to do with some STD...I look at that and think that even on my darkest days I would never be so desperate to go on national tv and expose my wart ridden genitalia to the world. Let's everyone say a quick prayer for Boogie...he needs it. But yeah...back to the original subject, although far less exciting than man junk...we do break into song sometimes in my house, which I believe makes us some of the most exciting people around...

For the one person who read all the way to the end....thank you! I know the majority of you skipped numbers 3 and 4 and skimmed your way to the end...I know that happens. It's okay, I had a teacher this semester who told me that in time I'll learn how to do that too...so I say good for you! But, now that you are here, I want to know what it is that makes you bizarre or shall we say quirky? I know there's something...let's hear it!

And Today it Snowed

2008-11-22T08:37:00.011-05:00

Yes, today is a snow day. Not the kind that closes school (because lets face it, its a saturday) but the kind that puts a dusting on the ground. This is the first one of the season for us and it sems really early. I don't remember having snow this early the last couple of years.

So, in honor of the first snow fall of the year, I thought I'd share so

me pictures with you...

Charlotte wasn't to

into the snow this morning. It may have been too cold for her this early in the morning! It was 7:30a

m. Plus it is currently 23 degrees (F) out. Which I've got to tell you is pretty chilly, although it isn't the coldest it

will get here! January and February will be WAY worse!!

I'm hoping that this isn't a sign of wha

t we are in for this winter. I myself am pretty sure that I am destined to live in a warm climate, and can't take too much cold weather!

I also uploaded a video of Charlotte in the snow on vimeo but can't get it to show up here...something with the code...hmmm...guess I'll have to upload it directly!

5 things I learned during my year abroad in Israel

2008-11-21T08:26:00.007-05:00

No, I didn't spend a year in Israel, but my blog swap buddy Alana did! Today we swapped blogs, so today you can find me on her blog http://goodgirlgoneblog.typepad.com/. Make sure you check her out and give her some love!! :)

So, here they are, Alana's top five from Israel!

1. Just because it looks like a tomato, doesn’t mean it is one- it could in fact be a persimmon(…which looks like an orange tomato with funny leaves. I tried to put it in a vegetable soup, but luckily I tasted it first)

2. Never buy hair dye from a lady with Ariel the little mermaid colored hair- I made that mistake and ended up looking like a punk rocker, when all I wanted was a hint of chestnut.

3. You can pick up guys on public transportation- I met a (very attractive) soldier on a bus once. I pulled a slick move of “accidentally” dropping my sandal on his foot. He returned it and sat next to me. We got to talking and he asked me out. Sadly, it didn’t go anywhere, but it makes a great story. His mother was British, so when he spoke English, he had a very delicious accent. I never remember his name, so my friends and I refer to him as “Manchester,” his mother’s place of birth.

4. The best hot chocolate is made with mekupelet- which means pieces, and is a delicious Israeli candy bar. Think about it this way: hot milk + real chocolate (not the powder). It’s creamier and absolutely amazing. It costs a few sheqel more than the powder kind at a coffee shop, but it’s definitely worth it.

5. Sometimes, it’s ok to pee outside- when you’re on a 3-day desert “survival” hike, there’s nothing else you can do, and it’s totally acceptable. Apparently, it’s also ok to pee outside at the bus station, although that’s not something I would ever do. Eww…

That’s my friend Mari and me on a clearly very strenuous hike.

I’m the really tough looking one in the front…

The Laws of Air Travel = Horrible Travel Experiences

2008-11-18T17:04:00.004-05:00

We've been hitting the friendly skies lately, and for better or worse, all of the places we've gone have required upwards of 24 hours inside a plane (forget about the layovers!!). But, strangely enough, our flights have pretty much gone as planned.

My worst travel experience was actually flying from Maine to Memphis, probably 5 years ago. I can't remember which airline we were on, however, I do remember that we have 3 layovers and at each new airport our flight was either delayed or canceled. I'm sure, everyone agrees, hours in an airport is not a fun time!

I take back my earlier statement about my worst travel experiences. Our flight from Johannesburg to Paris was pretty awful. It's a long flight (maybe 8 hours or so??) and we were in the middle two seats of the four seater in the middle. Not only were the seats really close togather, the flight was a night one so you were crammed next to your fellow passenger who was inevitably sleeping when you needed to go to the bathroom. Horrendus!! Then to top it all off the flight attendant wouldn't give me soda with breakfast (and I know they had some in their little galley because they gave us some earlier). But, get this, they served sandwiches for breakfast. Not like egg mcmuffin types of things...these were like ham sandwiches!! That made me really angry...it happened four months ago and I'm still fuming!!

I started thinking about all of this after reading Murphy's 13 Immutable Laws of Air Travel. Luckily none of these rules have happened to me, although I will say that the loud child is ALWAYS next to me at a restaurant, hanging over the back of a seat or talking to me!

So let's hear it. I know you all have some awful experiences to share!! Or maybe some really good ones?? I want to know who to avoid and who I should book with!

Quebec City Isn't Just For Drinking...Or So They Tell Me

2008-11-15T08:17:00.004-05:00

I've been to Quebec City a couple of times, mainly just a quick trip with the purpose of hitting the bars (for all you non-mainers the drinking age is lower in Canada). But now that I can legally drink in my own country, I'm looking to QC for more than a late night of intoxication and a really unpleasant ride home the next morning.

This year, I really want to see the city. I'm very much into Christmas, especially this year and I've always wanted to go to Europe during the Christmas season, but it just is never really possible with all of our other commitments. So, I've decided that QC is as close as I'll get. I haven't decided the dates, but we'll spend a weekend and visit the shops and see the lights, which will hopefully be up! I'm thinking this will be a quick little get away that will hold me over until our trip to Iceland comes around.

Seriously...Look at how pretty it is...

Anyone been there this time of year? Any thoughts/suggestions?

Wake Up Call To Me...Sara You ARE NOT Adventurous!

2008-11-12T18:24:00.001-05:00

I've said before on this very blog that I consider myself adventurous, I'll do a lot of things and the older I get the more game I am. How very wrong I was.

I came across this post about "How to travel the world for free" and realized that a lot of the options presented were SO out of my league. Okay, so I agree with some of the ideas presented here. For example, the author says that world travel is cheap and easy. Well, I don't know that I'd go that far, but I would say that my trip to Thailand probably cost as much as it would had I gone to Disney for the same length of time. Granted though, at Disney I wouldn't have had to deal with 24 hours on a plane and countless hours sitting in an airport. I would however, have to wait in long lines for all things Disney, so I'm calling that one a draw.

Trust people and you will receive free food and lodging? I'm going to have to say are you fucking kidding me? on this one..I don't open the door to my house if I don't know the person so there is no way that I'd be staying with a stranger in a foreign country. Certainly wouldn't do it in my own and I live in a pretty safe area. I know that there are people who do this and love it, I'm just thinking that I couldn't be one of them.

What do you think? Am I WAY too conservative and need to let loose some? Could/would you do it?

There is a Protest in Your Country? Sweet, I'll be Over!

2008-11-10T17:07:00.004-05:00

So, the title pretty much says it all...Should these protests continue into the beginning of March, this will be the second country that we've visited that is experiencing some political turmoil!

Last time it was Thailand, who you may remember had a coup in October of 2006. This happened literally just days before we were to go there on our honeymoon and quite frankly had us a bit worried. I found this all out from a coworker, who I actually didn't believe until she showed me the video. I remember seeing the tanks and wondering if it would impact my honeymoon...little did I know that my gallbladder would have more of an impact on our trip than any political unrest. We saw a protest our last day in Thailand and that was about it.

There were protests in Soweto when we went to South Africa (at least I think it was Soweto but I can't be certain). People were burning their neighbors homes so we didn't get to see a school that we had hoped to see for fear of our presence making the problem worse...

Now there is Iceland, which we chose because of its uncertain economic future, hoping that we'd be able to get a deal and have an inexpensive vacation since South Africa pretty much wiped out the check book!!

So, am I surprised that there are protests? Yeah. Should I be? I guess not. I went to Egypt shortly after a bus full of Nuns were killed and drove by millitary men on the corners with machine guns in hand... At this point a little shouting in Iceland isn't going to keep me away!! Will I be part of the protest? No, but I'll sure get some good pictures!!

Am I crazy? Would you go to a country where people are protesting and the economic future is uncertain?

Check out more pictures and video of iceland...

Don't Be Thinking Your Getting Anything From Me This Year!

2008-11-08T14:50:00.004-05:00

I LOVE Christmas. I really love everything about it. Today though, things changed for me...at least for today anyway!

My family all lives too far away to see for birthdays, holidays, etc. So, obviously I have to mail everything out. One of the worst things in life however, is the whole mailing something out process. Typically I'm pretty good about getting the present in time, getting it to the person it needs to get to is another story!!

So, Halloween was my aunt's birthday and guess what, I forgot. There is just so much going on here right now, it is so hard to remember every birthday etc. I'm just not good at it. I actually bought her a present shortly after her birthday and have had it at my house until today. I also bought a cat blanket for my Nana (which I kept on my dining room table and found that my cats had bitten a hole through the plastic to try to get to the cat nip in the blanket...lovely).

The weekends are pretty much the only time that we have to do anything errand related, so Matt decided that this was going to be the weekend that everything gets mailed out. Of course my dining room table is filled with clothes to be put away and other junk that's congregated there during the week. So I have no way to wrap presents. My solution...we'll just stop at the dollar store, buy some gift bags, stuff them in a shirt box and be done with it. Good plan.

So we go to the dollar store and I have to say, this was the most awful store I've been in for a long time. The place had shredded paper stuff all over the floors and it was just disgusting!! But they did have the stuff we needed cheap so it worked...oh and a related note, we saw a guy with a full on mullet...not a "I just haven't got a good haircut for a while"...this was a full on curly haired below the shoulders mullet. Classic. The worst part about this...no wifi ANYWHERE so no documenting the moment on twitter! And the camera that I bought so I could have it with me should I want to take a picture...at home. If I didn't think a pocketbook aged me by 10 years I'd have a place to put that stuff!... I digress...

It turns out that boxes we bought are pretty small so it is a major deal just to stuff the gift bags into the boxes and takes two of us to do ... I'm sure we were a site, the two of us sitting in Matt's truck trying to smoosh gift bags into boxes. Then I get a lecture from Matt on where to write the addresses on the boxes because apparently one time I wrote the return address on the wrong side of a box (for some reason I have a hard time remembering which side the stamp goes on...I pay my bills online...why do I need to know these things). Anyway, apparently when Matt went to the post office to have the thing mailed the mail lady felt the need to tell him that boxes are made out the same way that a letter would be. She wanted to "educate" him and he felt like an idiot, although honestly it amuses me!!

We get everything in the boxes and go to the post office which is packed, had to park out back. I swear we were probably there 1/2 an hour and again, no wifi so I could go online and do something...ended up playing some monkey in space game on the touch and listening to the kids in front of us shake their toys that kept saying the same thing over and over....

FINALLY leave the post office (where can I say there was a guy there that apparently did the same wrong thing that I did and put the return address on the wrong side. I would say that it made me look better in my husbands eyes, but no, he thought I should just hang out with the other guy. I said that maybe the other guy was my soul mate... a guy like that doesn't come around all the time!! He didn't seem so bothered by my comment...hmmm...

By this time I'm starving and though I'm small, I'm a strong eater! I needed something and I needed it immediately. So we go to Wendys, which also has no seating, so we end up doing drive through which isn't always so easy when you are ordering cheese burgers without meat. Sometimes they just don't get it. But, thankfully they got it right and we ate in the parking lot of wendy's and still no WIFI even though we are right next to starbucks. Irritating.

We make our way over to old navy where I get the most fabulous coat. All for $35!! Some girls are into their shoes, but me, I'm a coat whore. So my day is redeemed.

The picture up top is the new jacket along with Charlotte who always seems to find her way into a picture...

I've Made it to the Top!! I Have THE BLOG OF THE DAY!!

2008-11-07T08:26:00.003-05:00

So, I've been blogging for around 4 months and I have my first award...I'm the blog of the day on Fuelmyblog.com... Now, I don't know how prestigious this is, maybe they just pull someone out of a hat, I don't know. BUT, I have to figure that they wouldn't put something up that completely sucks right??

I started blogging on myspace while we were in Africa as a way of telling everyone at home what we were doing, and I'm so glad we did it, and quite frankly wish I had done the same thing in Thailand and Costa Rica. I never really thought that anyone outside of maybe a couple of friends would ever check the thing out. But at Matt's (He who doesn't read my blog) suggestion, I moved over to blogger and am pretty happy I did so.

So, I don't know, maybe I'm flattering myself...I don't know. If you haven't checked out my blog in the past, maybe you'll check it out now that I'm an award winner? Oh yeah, I'm also doing an interview with them that will be up on their page somewhere...more details to come..!

If your interested in joining go to www.fuelmyblog.com !!

You Can Use Duct Tape For That??

2008-11-05T21:05:00.002-05:00

You know they say that you can use duct tape for anything, especially here in Maine...and apparently they were right!

Apparently a woman on a United Airlines flight had a few too many and slapped the ass of a flight attendant, then fell on the head of a blind person and started pulling that person's hair. So, the flight crew along with some passengers had to duct tape her to her seat and redirect the flight so she could be removed.

This leads me to the following questions...Could I ever be so drunk that I think it's okay to slap one person in the ass and then start pulling another person's hair. I've had my fair share of drunken escapades, but I am proud to say that I've never come close. But then again, part of me thinks that after the initial embarrassment, and criminal charges, it would be a great story to tell. Imagine sitting around with your grand kids at 80 telling them what Nana did...what a priceless family moment that would be!!

I'm probably alone on this one....feel free to chime in....or check out the original story

Oh Yes...a Post About Voting...But Not Politics???

2008-11-04T18:04:00.004-05:00

So yes, I voted today. And...I was actually into voting this year. I've been following the polls and I listen to talk radio on my way to and from work pretty consistently. So, I was driving home from work today and I believe it was on FOX News they were talking to some Gen Y'ers. Which actually struck me because (and correct me if I'm wrong) you hear about the youth vote, but you don't have major networks with almost a youth commentator. Like an actually Gen Y'er talking about the election from the perspective OF a Gen Y'er.

So, this got me thinking...I think that it has been pretty clear that Obama has had the youth vote. That has been pretty well documented throughout the long election period. But, my question is why?

So, what does a card carying Gen Y'er do?? Obviously I hit the internet. And I come across this article and I think that it makes some good points.

Obviously Barak Obama did a great job of relating to the generation. You can't go on facebook without someone "donating" their status to him. And it's not just facebook...he is everywhere online. Somewhere along the line his campaign really figured out how to make our generation want to be a part of his campaign...it almost has the feeling of a club.

Obama really understood how to reach our generation and used technology very effectively, something that McCain doesn't seem to have figured out. Do you think that so many people our age are drawn to Obama because we got his message through means that we use ourselves? Do you think that if McCain had used the same methods as Obama he would have had a higher percentage of the youth vote?

Keep in mind I'm not asking who you voted for or why you do or do not like Obama, I'm stricktly talking about message deliverace.

The Husband Formerly Known as Matthew

2008-11-03T18:00:00.002-05:00

So, I'm sitting on the couch minding my own business when my husband randomly announces that he thinks it would be cool if he had a nickname on my blog. The first thing out of my mouth...I really don't talk about you very much in my blog...seriously...I've got other stuff on my mind.

But...a happy marriage requires compromises, so, from now on when I do mention Matt, which I remind you is on very limited occasions, he will now be called "He Who Doesn't Read My Blog".

Because really, he doesn't. I'm not sure why. When I ask he says that its because he thinks that I should have my own place to say what I want without having to worry about what he read. I know some of the readers of my blog. In fact, I know his sister reads it (Hi Katie!) and he knows that too. So, why he thinks I'm trashing him is beyond me. But I do admit, is does amuse me that he thinks his life is more blog worthy than my own..come on, is anything more exciting than my life!!

So, I'm asking you, my favorite blog readers...is it his husbandly duty to read my blog??

Everybody Else is Doing It!!

2008-11-02T19:22:00.003-05:00

So, I'm going through my reader and at least three of the blogs I keep up with had a post this weekend...I'm joining NaBloPoMo. So, I figured, if all the blogs that I read are doing this, then I need to do it too!

Call me a follower, but I can't let this one go by me! So, I've done it, I've joined. I have no idea what I'll write about every day for a month...oh, and I'm already behind.

Hopefully I can find something interesting to write about every day. We'll see. I'm currently taking suggestions!

Join me on NaBloPoMo!!

They'll Let ME Drive There...Seriously??

2008-10-29T17:57:00.004-04:00

I'm ready for an adventure. A trip that isn't all planned, that's a fly by the seat of your pants kind of trip. We've been on a couple of trips in the last two years or so and all of them have been with a tour group of sorts, or at least pretty planned out. I always knew when someone was picking me up and taking me to the next place. (Except of course for the first week we spent in Thailand..Who REALLY plans for a 3 night hospital stay on their honeymoon?)

I'm ready to change. I want to go it alone. So, where better to try that out than Iceland. I've bought the plane tickets, I reserved the hotel (which, I must say I'm pretty proud of the deal I got...but the Ritz it certainly is not), and next comes the transportation.

Now, we do plan on using some local transportation. Apparently there is a bus of some sort that you can get a pass to and you can basically just jump on and off where you want and you also get free entrance into some of museums and so forth. However, we are going to push ourselves and get international drivers licenses and can I say that I am pretty psyched about it.

I don't like driving in places in this country that I'm not familiar with, let alone a foreign country. The only international driving I've done is in Canada. Now picture me in a foreign country where you get into remote territory relatively fast. We may get lost, who knows, BUT I can guarantee that we'll get to see parts of the country we wouldn't have experienced on a tour, and that's what it's all about right??

He Wears Skinny Jeans...and That's Hot...

2008-10-26T16:25:00.004-04:00

Everyone knows that I'm a travel gal...I'm getting to the point where I'll pretty much go anywhere and do almost anything, unless of course it involves bugs or heights. Looking for someone to hang with in a third world country in some roach motel?? I'm down. But, I'm not quite the traveler I want to be.

And this Matthew, is where you want to turn your computer off...

Don't get me wrong, this post certainly shouldn't be rated X or even R for that matter. I'm not the kind of girl who can realistically pull that off without people laughing. I'm going to rate this a hard PG...

But here is where I will officially and publicly pronounce my love for Anthony Bourdain. I want to be him, or at least be close to him. I want to be the type of traveler he is, uninhibited and is always willing to try something new. But I also love the way he talks...I love the way he writes...I love his program all together. Seriously, there is nothing about him that I don't like.

If you haven't read his blog, it is a must read for all travelers and foodies a like... He inspires me to want to see the world in a different way, far from the normal tourist traps and tours. He makes me want to go it alone and see things like the locals do.

So, the journey to Iceland will be Bourdain style. Sure we'll see the hits, but there will also be time away from the everyday tourist spots, into the world of the locals. Matt will try the whale and the rotten shark, and I will document the occasion through photographs and video since I have a stronger gag reflex when it comes to that sort of thing.

Thank you Anthony Bourdain for your hard drinking, cigarette smoking, foul mouthed way. And thank you for helping me to become a more ambitious traveler.

And yes, he does wear skinny jeans...and yes, it is incredibly hot...

I'm Not Scared!!

2008-10-17T17:05:00.014-04:00

I'm in the minority. Definitely. I LOVE to travel. I couldn't see my life as being complete without seeing new countries and experiencing people and cultures that are the exact opposite of myself. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, pretty much since I met my husband. We both come from very different worlds. I had a grandmother who loved to travel and spent a great deal of her time seeing the world. She instilled in me the love of all things travel related and when I was younger I loved to hear her stories of the places she'd been.

My husband on the other hand, came from a very different family. They did not travel. In fact, he didn't leave the country until our honeymoon. This was and really still is, absolutely incredible to me. After experiencing the world outside of America, he has been bit by the travel bug, but up until we went to Thailand, he never really cared so much.

This all brings me to my point. I read this article on Gadling. The article talks about why American's don't travel. This is a question I ask as well. Ask around, most American's don't leave the country and I'm not sure why. Any ideas??

Going to the Land of Bjork...Maybe

2008-10-13T15:29:00.003-04:00

My roommate in college was obsessed with Bjork, I on the other hand never really saw the excitement around her. I'm still not into her, but I do hope to visit her country.

Last week I had found a tour to China on sale, and I thought that we would be going on it, but after actually looking at the length of the tour, and the fact that we'd have to fly out of NYC, we moved on from that idea.

We are now looking at taking advantage of the declining financial climate in Iceland. We had planned on going to Iceland last year, but when my father bailed out of the trip, Matt and I decided to take advantage of the time and go to South Africa. The trip to South Africa pretty much emptied our wallets, and realistically we weren't even sure we'd be able to take a trip at all this year, but with prices the way we are, how can I say no!

My father is looking at coming with us this time (and even if he doesn't we'll still go on our own). I plan to hopefully book the flights and hotel this week!

Yeah...I need a new new topic...

2008-10-09T18:59:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I had my last "welcome to grad school" class (at least my last one until December). Our homework for the class was to do some research for our topic and then come to the class and talk about whether or not we'd be able to do it for a thesis project.

So, I had decided that I'd do something related to work. We had been talking about having a welcoming committee (which sounds REALLY stupid, but trust me, I think that it will be good). My thought was that I could use that and do the whole kill two birds thing and use it for my thesis, or at least a research project. I was going to look at how organizational culture is formed and how to get people more engaged in an organizational culture and how that relates to the length of time people are with a company. But, I started doing some reading on organizational communication and found that it is SO incredibly boring! I really don't like it at all.

Now I am back to the drawing board. I have a lit review due in two weeks and I'm hoping that I can change my topic to a new one and use it for my research project as well. Now I'm thinking that I want to do something with online media and the legitimacy of polls. I'm still not sure though...My original idea was self disclosure in social networking, specifically look at if there were differences in people's level of self disclosure online based on culture, age and sex.

Any suggestions on other possible topics in the same realm?? Please bring them on!!!

Is It Supposed to be THIS good??

2008-10-07T08:03:00.005-04:00

Today is our second second anniversary, so I feel the need to reflect on how life has been for us in the last two years. Quite frankly its been great!

Matt always knew that he wanted to get married, I on the other hand wasn't sure. To me, it just seemed like everyone got married early, had kids, and then that was it. I knew I wanted more than that. I had actually not even considered getting married until I was 30. Obviously I forgot that idea and I'm very glad I did!!

At this point in our lives I can safely say that we are both the happiest we've ever been and have grown so much.

Matt FINALLY went on a vacation outside of the country. (As a girl who had been to several countries by 16 it just always seemed past due for me!) Not only did he leave the country, but he also picked Thailand for our honeymoon which was his first trip outside the US , Talk about culture shock!! Add into that sitting with me in a Thai hospital for 3 days and you'd think that he'd never want to leave the country again. But Thailand gave him the travel bug and since our honeymoon we've been to Costa Rica and most recently South Africa and we're hoping to plan a trip to China the beginning of next year.

We're in the final stages of finishing up our house after 5 years of working on it and have put in our own touches to make it OUR home.

We both also took the plunge and did something that we've wanted to do for a LONG LONG time, go back to school. And, while it is a lot of work, I know that I can say it makes me incredibly happy to be doing it....

So, tonight we'll go our and have our traditional anniversary meal....Thai food and then home for chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting (that was what our wedding cake was).

So, hooray for us for two years down and may the next two years be even better!

Ideas Needed...PLEASE!!

2008-10-03T10:17:00.006-04:00

Okay all you creative people, I need your help! As some of you may know, we will soon have a new bride here in HR and I am planning the bridal shower. So, my question to everyone, How do you have a bridal shower for a girl that has no feminine bone in her body??

Here are my thoughts:

Harley Davidson themed shower. I don't know what I can get for decorations...we'll see

It will be a pot luck

I'm collecting money for a group gift and/or gift cards

Yeah, that is pretty much all I've got right now. I am in desperate need of some suggestions and thoughts about the whole thing!! Keeping in mind that this will be a work party and I have less than a week to plan it!

A Decision Has Been Made...WOOT..WOOT!

2008-10-02T11:21:00.003-04:00

Thanks to everyone who offered up an opinion, I will be taking your advice...After much though I have decided that I am going to go the Mass Communication route. I'm a media junkie...it's true. It's better that I accept this now than spend 2 (or 3) years studying regular old communication when I could be writing about the impact of television violence on children, or the impact of left and right wing blogs on the main stream media. It just sounds so much more fun than talking about Plato right??

So, as of next semester, I will be taking Mass Comm theory, law and other related classes. Oh yea, and someone in my research methods class wrote a paper analyzing Gossip Girl...Ummm...Plato or Gossip Girl?? Yeah, it'll be Gossip Girl.

SCORE!!

Thinking of Making Some Changes

2008-09-30T13:16:00.004-04:00

Okay, I had a minor breakdown, but now I'm back on track. I still have the same issues that I had previously, and they probably aren't going to go away, but I think that my Rhetorical Theory class may have had something to do with my anxiousness. Lets face it, I'm someone who likes structure. I like having things clearly written and directions and plans in place. Rhetorical Theory was the exact opposite of that. Our syllabus was off, directions weren't clear...overall it is a major disaster for me personally and I'm not sad that I dropped the class.

But...

I am back on my kick of getting school done in 2 years. I know, this will take a SUBSTANTIAL amount of work on my part. It won't be easy. It will involve working on my thesis over the summer and also taking 2 classes a semester, and most likely defending my thesis in August as opposed to May. But I think that I'm okay with that.

Also thinking that I'm going to change from a Communication major to a Mass Communication major. I liked my mass comm classes from my undergrad and I think that I'll be able to mold it to whatever I want it to be. At this point I actually am in an okay place to make that change, so I won't loose anything because of it.

My only fear of a mass comm degree will lock me more into the media jobs which don't always pay wonderfully, but if I stay with communication then I may be stuck as well because the first thing to get dropped is the education/organizational communication employees.

So, is it better to go with something you know that you will like (Mass Comm) even though there are no guarantees??

Are Relationships Doomed?

2008-09-24T17:37:00.002-04:00

Today I'm coming back from my Intro to Grad School class. It is actually a class that I love because I'm with other first years students, so you get to meet people who are in a similar situation as yourself. At the end of class we always are asked what is going on this week and how we are feeling about things this week and how/if it differs from last week. One of the girls raises her hand and starts talking about the pressures of school and how it takes a WHOLE lot more time than she had imagined and how she is having far less time to do the outside things in life that she really loved, something that I very much can relate to.

So...our teacher gives the following answer...

Grad school takes a lot of time to do and there are a lot of sacrifices. Many people have relationship trouble during this time and it is very normal for people to have strains on friendships and partnerships during this period.

Then he says...

You will come out a different person than you went in.

My question...are all relationships doomed if you are spending a significant portion of your life in school or doing school related things? And if so, is it because you are spending so much time away from each other or is it because you change in a way that is incompatible with your partner?

Signs of a Nervous Breakdown??

2008-09-19T07:21:00.005-04:00

Merriam Webster's Medical Dictionary defines a nervous breakdown as the following:

Main Entry: nervous breakdown
Function: noun
: an attack of mental or emotional disorder especially when of sufficient severity to require hospitalization

There is nothing in the definition about dreams. I've never been a big dreamer, but the last two days (when my stress has peaked) my dreaming has become vivid.

Wednesday night dream....

Frankie (who I work with) was living at my house too...and she was upstairs in the bathroom. I knew that there had been a serial killer out looking for me. I was upstairs as well and I walk down stairs and look at the front door (when you are at the front door in my house you can see all the way up the stairs). I'm standing at the front door and it is slightly ajar. I yell up to Frankie to see if she left the door open. She comes to the top of the steps and says no. As she's saying no, I feel a pinch on my arm as I'm being stuck with a needle. Then I wake up. Wonder if its significant that Frankie works in the health office...

Thursday night dreams....

First dream. I'm back working in TV news again and I'm somewhere away from the station. For some reason I have to do the sports segment of the news. Someone there gives me a sheet of paper with things to read off of it, it isn't a script though. The same person also gives me a jar (one of the big tall plastic ones) and tells me that I need to read the story off of that as well. I am then immediately live on air. I read the first story and then am supposed to read off of the jar but I don't know what part of it to read, so I whisper to the person who gave me the jar asking what I need to read and there is dead air and some whispering. I then try to read everything and it leads to a bunch of ahh...umm's and then It's over.

Second dream. I'm at a beach somewhere out of the country (which should really be a plus!) and I'm in some sort of beach house. The beach house is just like a cement box with some small windows up high and a big sliding door on the front of the house looking at the beach. I'm there with a local kid. On the way in I'm told that this is a dangerous area and that there are gangs there. I still go and am in the house with the kid and a bunch of local gang members come by and are walking all around the house. They go away and I end up walking down to the beach. I see a local woman and her child and she tells me not to stay there because it is dangerous and they will kill me. I leave and walk back up to the beach house and am putting my things next to the door of the house. The gang members come back up and are knocking on the door of the house and looking in the glass sliding door. They start trying to break the glass and one of them opens the other door to the house. I grab the phone and dial 911 and tell them to take anything they want. They grab my laptop and I'm yelling at the police on the phone to come and help me. I tell them the area where I am and they say that it is a dangerous area and I should never have gone there...they say they are sending someone and then a gang member takes the phone out of my hand and I wake up.

Scary dreams.

While the dreams might not signal a nervous breakdown, they are definately indicative of stress and the lack of control I have over my situation.

I spoke with my advisor on wednesday who told me that it will be impossible for me to graduate in 2 years while going to school. In fact, he steared me away from taking 2 classes. Good news, bad news, I'm not sure. I had really wanted to graduate in 2 years. He told me that I'd be lucky to do it in 3 years while working full time. On the bright side, that takes some of the pressure off. He also told me that I was currently signed up for the 2 hardest classes in the program (why he would sign me up for those my first semester while he knew I was working full time I don't know.) This information, along with my lack of any time to do anything other than study, sleep and work, has lead me to the decision to drop one of my classes. I barely have the time to get the reading done, let alone a 20 page paper in that class, along with all the other papers I have in other classes. So, this will leave me with 1 three credit class and 1 one credit class. I'm now in the process of dropping the class.

Feeling kinda like a failure for having to drop though...

Oh and apologies to my teachers for not citing my source in APA format...

It's been a while...like 5 years!!

2008-09-12T12:13:00.004-04:00

This is me in a former life. Yes, things do change very quickly!

Today marks the end of my first full week of school...a VERY exciting week for me. Even though I have only been in school one full week, it feels like I've been taking these classes for ages!

I know, its still very early, but so far I love everything about grad school. It is everything that my undergrad degree wasn't. The classes are small, try 15 people in a class tops! My classes are discussion and not just sitting and taking notes during a lecture. The people in my class do the homework and reading! Shocking!

Even more shocking is the fact that I am doing the reading and the homework, and going to class. For anyone who knows my undergraduate academic career, it is in stark contrast to my new graduate student mentality. I look forward to going to class. Really, I do. Rhetorical theory, I'm psyched to be there...seriously. Who thought that Plato would get me excited. I actually had a conversation with someone in my Research Meathods class about whether I considered myself a positivist...which I do. Instead of questions like, is Isis getting nixed on ANTM (America's Next Top Model), I see myself thinking things like, If Plato is so opposed to the body and wants to separate it from communication and the soul, how does he justify non verbal communication. Thinking these things is NOT normal. At least for me. But I guess it is just an example of how things are changing.

That's not to say that things are always Hunkey Dorey...I have a tremendous amount of homework to do...I'm looking at 500 pages of reading a week along with papers and postings and etc, etc. In addition, I am one of maybe 2 people in my classes that isn't a TA. Which I believe actually makes it easier for them. They aren't working full time jobs, let alone full time jobs an hour away. Add in the upwards of 20 or more hours of school work per week, and I've definately got my hands full. But my hands are full in a good way and I'm extremely thankful to have the oportunity to take the classes I'm taking. My next hurddle will be the GRE's and actually seeing if I will be accepted into the program as a matriculating student. Fingers crossed for me.

Thinking of Myself as a Writer

2008-09-04T17:01:00.003-04:00

I was all prepared today to talk about my day yesterday and how my classes went. They went well. But there was so much more than just sitting in a chair and listening to a lecture. The thing that really struck me the most was when our professor (and my interim adviser) told us that we need to change our perception of why we are in Grad School. We have to think of this as our time to work on our writing, because he said, we are all writers and just improving our craft. I have never considered myself a writer. I've always been defined by what I did for a living, and certainly writing in Grad School isn't paying my bills. Have I got it all wrong? Should we be defined by our passions and interests? Or should we be solely defined by what pays our bills?

Is it REALLY fair to give our homework BEFORE school starts??

2008-08-29T18:58:00.002-04:00

I thought I had it all figured out. School on Monday and Wednesday nights and then the rest of the week study and do all of that stuff right? I've been thinking about it more lately since I start grad school in less than a week. I've been thinking about how things will change with both me and Matt in school full time and how I'm going to manage full time work and school for a while now. I thought that I was good with everything, until I got an email from my teacher.

I have a homework assignment and I don't even start school until Wednesday! It isn't a huge assignment, only maybe 15 or 20 pages of reading. The part that scares me is that the first class is considered a "working" class. I know what "working" means....it means participation.

I'm not a joiner.

I went to the University of Maine for my undergrad degree. My smallest class probably had around 25 to 30 people. Some of my intro classes had a couple of hundred people in it. A class where you have to show ID to pass in your test lends it self to anonymity. That I can do.

Not only am I going into a class that requires participation, but it is a class with 11 people in it. With only 11 people you can't sit in the back row and expect people to leave you alone. You are forced to participate. Plus, this class is Rhetorical Rhetoric. My reading homework is Aristotle. Not the easiest read.

Can I really handle full time Grad School and full time work? Not only am I working, but I'm working an hour away. Add in the fact that I worked full time and went to school full time for my undergrad degree and I had a less than stellar performance there. With that said, I am going to need to have nearly perfect grades to even get accepted into the program...right now I'm only accepted as a non-degree student.

I am certainly not the most low key person on the planet...am I just over reacting??

Reverting back to a College Freshman

2008-08-27T17:53:00.002-04:00

Grad school starts in less than a week, but does that mean I need to revert back to my college freshman days? Other people my age have kids and are doing adult activities, I on the other hand am reverting back to my 19 year old self...

Case in point. Last weekend we go to the Folk Festival. Am I excited about seeing the performers and hearing new music. Yeah, not so much. My first stop, the beer tent. I have a very low tolerance for alcohol. I really don't drink that often and I'm not a huge person, so any minor amount of alcohol will have an effect on me, especially if it is hard liquor. So, what does any normal girl do while she's drinking? That's right, smoke the cloves.

This very similar to my college freshman year. Every weekend was a beer fest and along with the beer fest came the cloves. Granted I'm not drinking nearly as much as I did in college, but what are other people my age doing? They are having kids. We are one of the few couples I know that don't have children.

So, the question that begs to be answered...am I reverting back to a 19 year old? Should I be growing up and doing the "grown up things?" And more importantly, can you still live my current drinking/smoking/traveling lifestyle and have kids. And if you can't, does having a baby somehow trump all of the other things that I so look forward to doing now? Answers....please!

Can we make it in time?

2008-08-23T11:04:00.003-04:00

The pressure was on before, but it is REALLY on now. Today the drywall is going up in the bathroom. I was hoping that it would have gone up during the week, but it is always so hard to get things done when your working all day. Matt worked on getting the electrical done during the week, but the drywall just didn't happen. So, this weekend I was desperately hoping to tile, but it just isn't looking like it is going to come to play.

If we can get the drywall done as well as the backerboard for the tiles this weekend, then we'll be able to tile over the long weekend next weekend. The problem is that Monday Matt will go back to school next week and will have a class on Monday and Wednesday.

I really wanted to have the whole bathroom done by the time we both went back to school full time (which will be the Wednesday after labor day). I just think that there will be too much going on with full time school and work to be able to work on the house as well.

Cross your fingers for me that it will all work out!!

The Pressure is On...

2008-08-19T17:58:00.002-04:00

So, we are actively working on our bathroom remodel. The goal last weekend was to get the walls up and the electrical wired in and also to get the insulation up and the backer board up on the walls along with the drywall. A very aggressive goal...It clearly wasn't met, not because a lack of trying on anyone's part, there just wasn't enough time to complete it...especially when you add in 2 hours spent at Lowe's trying to fix a problem that they caused by not holding the tiles that we had paid for and had sent here from the Ellsworth store, somehow our order got deleted so we had to go through tiles to get ours and then they also didn't hold the grout for us either, so, I have some waiting for me in the Ellsworth store. As you can imagine, I was fairly irritated with this since we had our time pretty much scheduled out. So, I expressed my frustration with the tile woman who had ordered our tiles and she gave us a 10% discount. Helpful, but I still would have preferred to have the 2 hours instead and paid full price. But, what can you do.

Currently we have all of the walls up and the insulation in the walls, ceiling to come sometime this week) and the electrical is mostly done. We just need to get it wired into the basement. The goal is to have the drywall up and have it ready to tile for this weekend. I REALLY want to have it all done by labor day. I'd prefer to have it done prior to that so we can just put on the final touches that weekend and have some time to relax seeing as how school starts up for both of us that next week and since its been a while since either of us was in school we're not really sure what to expect.

Bathing is now possible

2008-08-14T17:54:00.003-04:00

It is official. We now have a tub and a fully functioning bathroom. The plumber came and did the rough plumbing. When they took off for lunch, my Father and Matt pulled out the floors and put down the subfloor. The plumbers ended up being here for nearly 10 hours, but they stayed until they finished...Thank God because if they didn't we wouldn't have had a working bathroom at all! This weekends plan...electrical and walls with drywall. Hopefully it will all get done!

WTF MTV...Don't Destroy Frank N Furter!!

2008-07-31T19:48:00.003-04:00

MTV has made me angry. VERY Angry.

I read today that there will be a remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show...MTV style.

Why?

Was the original not good enough? Why would someone choose to remake a cult classic. They have to know that there will be a backlash and that it could not possibly be as good as the original.

How could they be allowed to do this? This is a cult classic...a national treasure if you will.

Perhaps I'm over reacting. I do have "special feelings" for Tim Curry. He IS in my safe zone (My group of five men where if I meet them I am allowed to have sex with them no repercussions...my list includes: Bob Dylan, Tim Curry, Prince, Robert Downey Jr. and John Cusak).

Regardless, this may cause me to become a cutter...

Thank you Lowes!!

2008-07-30T18:16:00.003-04:00

So, it turns out that we bought the wrong side mount for our tub, so yesterday we went back to Lowe's to swap it out. I called ahead of time to see if they would just change it over for us since we hadn't picked it up yet. Well, come to find out, you can't do that...it has to be a return and she couldn't look in the computer because they were doing inventory. Fine. So, we go over there after work. The plumbing department was VERY busy so we ended up waiting a while to talk with the guy there, Mike, who was a plumber. It wouldn't have taken so much time, but he was busy helping a woman who was making him measure the height of every toilet there, and then she was testing out the heights on the ones that were on display. She actually asked him what the difference between a wooden and a plastic toilet seat was. No, I'm not kidding.

So, she finally ends her laundry list of toilet seat questions and we have him all to ourselves. It turns out that they do have a left mount sink outback. So, he says he'll just switch out our tub for the left mount one, but we'll have to pay again since we had to return our original one. We head over to the cashier and it turns out that he hadn't put down that we were going to pick up later so for them to be able to do that they'll have to void our new purchase and rerun it. The problem is that it can take a while for the credit to come, so, with the other return of the old tub we did, we'd have a total of 2500 being put on the credit card for an $800 tub. So we told them that we'd just take it home instead of going that route. Good news for us though because the head cashier guy gave us 20% off our next purchase there. YEAH for us!! and THANK YOU LOWE'S!! We'll probably save at least $100 if we put all of the stuff we need to buy togather and get it all at once, which we plan on doing...

It's like peeing in a field!

2008-07-28T15:48:00.005-04:00

This weekend was the weekend of demolition! Matt and my father built the floor that is going to extend into our hallway/staircase on Saturday. Then, Matt and I ripped out the bathroom and the wall between the bathroom and the old master bedroom.
The hole to the right was once a built in bookshelf/towel holder and the wall you see to the left is the one to the master bedroom.This is what our bathroom looks like now...minus the 2x4 in the middle...that is now gone! There is still more work to be done. The ceiling isn't completely out yet, Matt will be working on that tonight. Plus, the floors have to come out before the plumber gets here as well...and the new wall between the bedroom and the bathroom has to be built. The plumber will be here a week from tomorrow to get it all done. So, until then...or actually, until a couple of days after that...we'll have limited privacy in the bathroom!!

It's a MESSY job...but will be well worth it in the end!

What could I have possibly done in a former life??

2008-07-25T15:24:00.006-04:00

The question of the day...How does one deal with an in your face, constantly in your shit mother-in-law??

Is the answer a conversation where you calmly and logically explain to her where your business begins and hers ends? Do you take it a step farther and say exactly what is on your mind and make her just deal with it? Or do you just ignore her completely and thank god that you live 2 hours away??

This was the very dilemma I faced this morning. After sending her a nice email explaining what is goign on in our lives and how busy we have and will be for the next couple of months, my (what should I call her...oh yes...Spawn of Satan who happened to birth my husband ... SOSBH for short....) decided that she wanted to respond to my cheery, albeit bland email by telling me that we need to make an effort to stop by and see his Memere while we are on our way to Massachusetts. She goes on to say that we shouldn't be mad at her for not attending our wedding and its only a couple of minutes off of the interstate and blah blah blah...

Now, several months ago she was told explicitly that she needs to stay out of our relationships with members of his family. In fact, they didn't see each other for nearly a year because of her meddling...

So, even putting the facts aside which would proclude us from even thinking about stopping to see his Memere on the way home (She is about an hour off of the interstate and because of the hours of the kenel where we have to board Charlotte, we have to leave Massachusetts around 12pm and we won't be able to leave for there until around 8am which will give us only 24 hours in the great state) it's just not something we want to do. It has nothing to do with the fact that she didn't come to our wedding...although it would have been nice if she could have been bothered to tell us she wasn't coming! And quite frankly...I'm tired of the SOSBH constantly bringing up the people who didn't attend our wedding. We had a fabulous day! I wouldn't change it. But it is hard to have happy memories when you ha someone constantly telling you that you shouldn't.

Getting back to my original question...what is the best thing to do??

My original instinct was to send her an email back telling her that her meddling was the exact reason she has a strained relationship with her son, and it can very easily head back that way if she continues with constantly getting in our business....(The original email I had drafted to her was much more forceful and quick witted)

I also could have calmly and logically explained to her that it would be impossible to see his Memere with the time we have available and maybe another day...I suspect however that this would lead to more talking about how she is sick...blah blah blah...

Or I could simply ignore her. This is the route I chose. I will not be responding to her email. I will not be initiating contact. I will be avoiding the woman at all costs.

Did I make the right decision?? Or by doing nothing am I just giving her the message that he actions are okay??

Is this an American thing? Are mother-in-laws in other countries much more respectful of their grown children?? Or is it universal??

Making A Go of It - Grover Cleveland Style

2008-07-23T17:14:00.005-04:00

I have recently had my Max Fischer moment and decided that just like Max (from the movie Rushmore) it is to my time to decide to be happy where I am, or just be miserable. I've decided the former.

My dilemma has been do I:

1. Stay in a well paying job with fabulous benefits but is an hour away and not overly challenging
2. Take a lesser paying job, by around 10,000, that is closer to home and more challenging

Could we survive on 10k less a year...yeah probably. It would, however, certainly cramp my style. No multiple vacations a year...certainly not to Africa! Traveling is one of the things I truly love...is it worth giving up??

So, I've decided. I'm going to suck it up where I am, soak up all of the information I can while I'm there and take advantage of the extra money and vacation time and see the world.

Good Decision??

Swift Progress!

2008-07-22T17:39:00.003-04:00

More progress on the home front...We are now minus one ceiling in our hallway. This is in preparation for the framing that is going to happen this weekend. Still more work to be done, the floors will be coming out this week as well, but things are going quickly...which is very good news to me.

On another front...Matt signed up for two new media classes today. Very excited about that. He is now on his way to a BA in new media. SWEET!! I found out the books that I need to buy today as well and learned, which I already kinda knew before, that the University likes to gouge its students with book prices. I can buy my books on amazon for like $50 bucks or something like that. Guess we know where I'll be buying our books!!

The Renovation Has BEGUN!!

2008-07-21T17:59:00.009-04:00

Nothing is more satisfying than seeing a part of your house that you hate slowly go away! This weekend we started the process of destroying the bathroom. My father came over and helped with the deconstruction. The wall abutting the bathroom has lost all of its plaster and we've figured out how the fixtures are going to sit in the room. Plus we now have a good idea of how we are going to have to attached the new floor. We were hoping that the beams went a different way than they did and we were going to extend the floors that way, but it never works as you had planned once you get things torn apart, so, we had to come up with an alternate plan, and I think that its going to work just fine...

I was a little unsure of how it would look in the hallway, and one of my favorite things about our house is the open staircase, but I know that I'll have to sacrifice something to have a decent bathroom. So, I guess I'm willing to give up the openness of the hallway. Plus, it looks like we may be able to make a closet out of some of the extra space, which would actually be really nice seeing as how I have NO storage in this house. But, we'll see. A closet would obscure the window in the hallway even more, and I want to keep it nice and light in there, so we'll see. That will probably be something that we'll tackle more when the bathroom is completely done.

The picture to the right shows what the hallway is going to look like after it is all finished. This weekend we hope to have the door all framed up and hopefully the plumber will be able to come over before my birthday on August 2nd. That would be a wonderful birthday present!!

Once the plumber gets here we'll be able to start with the tiling and everything. VERY exciting. I've been waiting five years for a decent bathroom. Until you've lived with a bathroom with a sink that has a seperate spout for hot and cold water (so you can never really get luke warm water) you couldn't understand. Not to mention the fact that the faucets drip. Our shower is new, however, it was never fully level so when I use my scrubbies to clean my face, they build up in the corner of the shower. And the aweful wallpaper with some warped paisley pattern...and the dust and general grossness of it all!! I can't even describe it!!

To your left is an actual representation of the bathroom. The door to the right of the room wil have to stay because it leads up to the attic, but we're thinking that we'll do another hidden door like we did in the kitchen (a built in book case that opens like a door). We have to keep that door there unless we wanted to use a bedroom to convert to the bath, but I don't want to loose a bedroom for resale value. We don't use the attic that much, so I'm good with having to go through the bathroom to get to it...kinda weird, I know. But you do what you've gotta do!! It will be well worth the wierdness price to have something useable.

On an unrealted note, Matt is still trying to get into one of his classes. His advisor is on vacation, but he talked to a woman in the New Media department who said that one of the classes that he was going to take in Belfast because it was at night, won't count. Which doesn'tmake sense to me because it comes up in the University of Maine's listings as a place he can take it. Sometimes I think that UMaine is just so warped and are just trying to make it difficult for people. We'll see what happen tomorrow though, he's supposed to talk to his advisor then. I suspect that this woman isn't quite sure what she's talking about....I signed up for my classes though and will be entering the world of graduate school. Now all I've got to do is pay for it. Thank you TJL for tuition reimbursement!! Now I just have to submit my tuition reimbursement paperwork!!

The Fun Part of Renovation!

2008-07-19T07:08:00.009-04:00

Yesterday was the day!!

We went out after work and pick out the tiles to match our vanity and countertop. We had picked out the vanity last weekend but needed to talk to the plumber to make sure that it was going to fit and everything. So, with the approval of the plumber, Matt went and ordered it yesterday. It is still small, but I think that it will give us some extra storage since we are going to be loosing our linen shelves when we make the bathroom larger. I'm still not sure where everything is going to go (all of our bathroom stuff), we may have to do some weeding out of the junk (which would actually be a good thing)!

We bought the countertop at Hammond Lumber as well. I think that it is going to look really nice on the dark vanity. I absolutely love the color and I knew that I wanted that granite when I saw it! We also bought a faucet very similar to that except it is in brushed nickel. I think its going to look REALLY nice! I'm very excited. My only concern is that the vanity being dark, will be the ony dark piece in the bathroom and may look out of place. Granted, we will have a dark brown/black mirror/medicine cabinet but that will be right over the vanity so I'm not sure it will balance it out. We are going to do another built in bookcase door going up to the attic so we may paint the inside of it black instead of the while like the mouldings, but I'm not sure that would look right either. There may be an opportunity to have some dark shelves over the toilet or something like that as well. We'll see.

We went and looked at a bunch of tiles yesterday and although I really wanted marble on the floors, I'm no longer sure it is practical. My parents have marble in their bathroom, but I guess it scratches and I certainly don't want that. Plus given the fact that we have animals, it is pretty likely that may happen. Plus, when we went to the store, I couldn't find any marble I liked anyway. BUT, I did find some regular tiles that I really liked. So, I think that we've got the floor and shower surround tiles picked out.

The tiles in the back are going to be in the shower and the ones at the top are going to be an accent row in the shower. The middle one is the vanity top. The picture makes the shower tiles look a little bit washed out. They are actually a little bit darker than they look. I think that it will look nice all togather. I wanted something that would be neutral and in 5 to 10 years won't need to be redone because it looks dated. I don't want to have to do this again anytime soon!! I'm very, VERY excited to get this all in and done. We are hoping to have it all finished and usable by September 1. Cross your fingers...it's going to be a lot of work!! Today begins the actual distruction of the floors in the hallway downstairs to add in some posts to hold the tub up. Pictures to come....

Happy Days Are Here Again!!

2008-07-16T18:17:00.003-04:00

Matt has talked with his advisor at the University and it looks like it will still take him 4 years, however, he will be able to take some classes at UMaine Augusta or Eastern Maine Community College. It looks like he's going to take a majority of his gen ed classes at one of those two places and they will transfer over. So, it looks like we could potentially save a good chunk of money by doing that, which makes me much more comfortable than spending all that money at UMaine, especially for the same class. Things are looking up at the Green-Hamann's, that's for sure!! Hip Hip...Hip Hip!!

Plus, we are only around 3 weeks away from going down to Massachusetts to see my aunt who is coming up from Florida. I haven't seen her since my wedding last October, and I haven't seen Mickey since I don't know, maybe since my grandfather died and that was maybe 7 years ago. So, it is going to be so great to see him again, especially since he's had a rough time of it with the cancer (hense the reason he wasn't at our wedding).

Additionally, we had another plumbing guy come over today and he gave us a quote of $1,000 to do the plumbing in the bathroom!!! This is fabulous news, considering the other guy wanted to charge us $4,500. Granted this new guy isn't going to take out the cast iron pipe (unless needed). Plus he also said that he only needs like a week's notice and he'd be able to come in and do the plumbing, which means that it is very possible that we might have the bathroom complete before we start school back up, which would take a load off of both of our shoulders! He also did some heating work at my parents house so he is a known quantity. Very, VERY exciting!!

PBR - Hold back your jelousy!!

2008-07-13T20:23:00.004-04:00

So, in an effort to move past our issues, we decided to go to the slots with Pete and Michelle and see what all the buzz was about. So, they met us here at the house where we initiated them into the South African liquor club. Matt, Michelle and Pete all had a shot of the 50% alcohol with hot peppers in it. I on the other hand refrained from it. This is the liquor that we bought at a store on the side of the road. Side story, we get to this place and I'm looking around and they sell a lot of aloe there and other stuff. The store itself was quite odd, when you walk in it was like a convenience store, then you go back into the back of the building and to your right there was a place to sit down and have a snack or something to drink and to the left was a little cubby type place with some aloe products and some other gift shop type of stuff. In between the two was a shelf with some liquor on it. So, I'm looking around at the aloe (and I did end up getting some) and our tour guide Jonathan comes and tells me to come try something. I walk over and there are a bunch of people from our tour group there and they are doing shots. He tried to talk me into doing it but I know my limits. I'm not a shot girl, especially if I'm getting on a bus and driving god knows how much longer. So, I try it and decide that it is too hot for me. Matt however, comes back from the bathroom and does a shot. So, we decided that we needed to buy some.

Back to today. So, they all do a shot. Michelle first. She quickly found out how hot is was....

Matt and Pete fared much better....

So, after that we walk down to the slots....I swear I have never been carded so many times in my life! We end up going to the "Epic" buffet. Which if you ask me was a lot of money for something not so great. The food was alright but I thought it was cold and overpriced. But, we eat dinner there and then go and sign up for the players club...essentially the rewards club for the casino. There I learned that my license expired nearly a year ago (it will be a year August 2nd). I really had no idea! Who looks at their license to see when it expires!! I also got a teeshirt for signing up, who can argue with a free teeshirt! Plus, whenever we go in, we get free drinks, all except the booze.

So, we sign up and then hit the bar, where I get my PBR!! I'm not a beer snob by a long shot, so I really can't tell the difference, and lets face it, I've got a little bit of WT in me so it comes naturally! Oh yeah, and they also had live music which was fun, but they were singing country which I don't listen too, so I don't know the words which makes it less fun for me when I can't sing along. But we played the 5 cent slots, and the penny slots and the 10 cent slots. Pete and Michelle won I believe, a total of around 60 dollars or so. Matt and I on the other hand, lost it all!! I was however, up 15 at one point but I kept playing and I lost it. But it was a lot of fun and I had a good time. After a couple of PBR's though, I was a bit tipsy and ready to go home. So, we all made our way back to our house and watched some youtube. This probably sounds pretty sad, but it seems like this is usually the way things end up with us and it actually is fun.

Good News Turns Ugly

2008-07-11T19:30:00.005-04:00

So, all of the good news that we got yesterday, IE Matt being accepted to the University of Maine has gone bad...

We find out today that NONE of his classes from his associates degree will transfer over to UMaine because the University says that it isn't a Regionally Accredited School. So, the two years that we had anticipated him being in school has now turned into four and will cost a total of $40,000!! Insaneness!! How people afford to go to college I don't know. It's so frustrating, he finally gets accepted and now I don't know how to pay for it.

Now we are faced with a dilema, do we spend the money and hope that it will lead to him getting a better job...or do we say screw it and not do the college thing at all.

On top of all this goodness, we get a sorta quote from a plumber who says that he wouldn't feel comfortable redoing our bathroom because he thinks that it would probably not make code. Lovely. Now that leads to another question, do we spend a lot of money and make the bathroom larger and add a tub, or, do we leave the layout of the bathroom as it is, a 3/4 bath and just update the fixtures. This would leave us with only the one bathroom and no tub in our house at all. Later we could always convert our porch into a bathroom, but that is going to require the big bucks...!! I'm not sure what the decision is going to be, but the whole school thing is definately going to come into play.

I want both...

Is it selfish of me to want it all and be angry that I can't? I don't have a horrible life. We both have decent paying jobs and have had the ability to travel. We lead decent lives, but yet I'm still not satisfied. I want a new bathroom with an actual bath tub, I want Matt to go back to school full time, and I want to be able to go on atleast one vacation where I leave the country a year. Is that too much to ask?? Really??

Homesick

2008-07-10T07:44:00.003-04:00

Is it possible to be homesick for a country you spent only 2 1/2 weeks in??

I miss Thailand, specifically Bangkok. I miss the smells. I miss the people. I miss the food.

It feels crazy to feel this way after only spending a short period of time there....but there was a certain feeling you got from being there, and I haven't had that feeling since. Costa Rica was nice and I'd go back in a couple of years after I feel like I've seen the world, but I wouldn't want to live there. Not enough happening....my life would be sitting on a beach and hanging out, doing outdoorsy things. A week was enough of that! South Africa was beautiful, and I loved every minute of being there. I could probably live in Cape Town, but it was so much like this country. There wasn't enough flair...there wasn't enough of a feeling of excitement there. We would fit in there instantly....

Bangkok was different. We were different there. It was like our lives started fresh and we could just do whatever we wanted. The possibilities were endless. Maybe I'm sentimental because we were just married, or maybe it was because I got sick and ended up in the hospital. I'm not sure. But there was something about that city that makes me want to go back....and soon.

South Africa - The Good and the Bad of our Final Days

2008-07-09T19:31:00.000-04:00

Our last day with the tour we went wine tasting. It was actually really fun, even though I happen to absolutley HATE wine. But I was a trooper and tried anyway. The countryside was beautiful and we went to two vineyards. We had the afternoon free and then we went to the diamond store to see how diamonds are cut and all of that fun stuff. They had beautiful jewelry but there was a bit of sticker shock. One woman in our group looked at a pair of diamond earings (I think that they were a carat each) and they cost $23,000 ... that's U.S. A little out of my price range! But I've always wanted diamond earings and had been asking for them for my birthday and Christmas for years, so Matt bought me some genuine South African diamonds (NOT blood diamonds...they are certified as such) over at the waterfront. So they are an early birthday present. I try to get a piece of nice jewelry whenever I travel somewhere...something that is special to the area ( I have my gold cartuche (SP?) from Egypt and my saphire, get well soon, necklace from Thailand (and I don't think that Costa Rica had anything special there)...so this is my special South African diamonds.

So, after all of this, we went to our going away dinner. It was actually at The Gold Museum which was pretty cool. So, we had our tour of the museum...which was actually pretty stupid really...and we went outside and they had huge heaters set up for us and we had a great dinner. It was a hodge podge of different types of foods, lots of veggies and it was actually fairly spicy. By far the best food that we had while we were there. It was probably one of the best nights of the trip. The servers were dressed in the native African clothes and there were traditional dances in between the courses. At the very end, the servers all sang and danced for us as well...they also invited some of us to join the dancing and Foster (you may remember him from the first post where he had his "accident") joined in the dancing. He actually had a couple (3 or 4) shots before he did this...I'm sure he was a joy the next day at his 4 am flight to Zimbabwe!! It was a perfect night and so sad to leave some of the people in the group, especially Dave, our tour guide from Collette and Jonathan, our native South African tour guide. I will actually really miss them both! Then we were on our own!

South Africa had been so good to us weather wise for our WHOLE trip...even on the days when it didn't matter...but then, when we really needed the weather to pull through for us...it all went to hell!

Tuesday, the day we had added on to specifically go shark diving turned out to rain. We were actually standing in the lobby waiting for the pick up and the company called and canceled because of the weather. Apparently if it is nasty on the mainland, then it is even worse out on the sea...So, we didn't get to go diving, which was a big disappointment, but there are worse things in life! It gives us a reason to go back!! So, we spent the day at the ocean front going through the shops and then we went to the aquarium to see the sharks sort of up close. But it was good to have a quiet day since we had marathon flights the next day.

We went to the airport at 11am yesterday so we could collect our VAT refund and got the tour of the Cape Town airport, which is undergoing major construction for the 2010 world cup which will be held in South Africa. So, as you can imagine, with construction comes chaos! We checked in domestic b/c we had to go to Jo'burg and then we had to go back outside and walk through a bunch of parking lots to find the international terminal to get the VAT refund. Then we had to find someone who could tell us where the refund terminal was...another issue! So, we get that done and our flight runs only a couple of minutes late and we board and get to Jo'burg in about 2 hours or so....Then all hell breaks loose in Jo'burg. It is complete chaos!! People everywhere going in every which direction...plus the signs aren't so great, so we're trying to figure out where to go...we find the elevator to get us where we need to go, but for some reason it will just shut the door and act like its moving up a floor, but then it just opens up on the ground level again...it did this 3 times before it actually worked. Then, when we did get to the correct level there were terminals as far as the eye could see ( did I mention that for some reason the girl in Cape Town wouldn't give us our boarding passes to go all the way through?? Don't ask why, I don't know..she did tag our luggage all the way through though...) So, we get in our line and stand there for a while and finally get up to the counter and get our boarding passes for all the way through...while we are in line though, a fight breaks out between these two girls...I think that one said the other cut in line or something like that, but I was pretty sure that some fists were going to fly!! Luckily security came by and quieted them down but they continued to exchange some choice words with each other!! So, we go through that line and have to stand in yet another line to go through security (quite a very long line I might add). So, we finally get through security and our 3 hour layover in Jo'burg actually ends up leaving us with only 30 minutes to wait for our flight. CRAZY!! We were hoping that we'd have good seats on this flight because it was a 9 hour flight to Paris, but as it turns out we were seated in the middle aisle in between two other people, so we were sandwiched in. Fine if your flying for 2 hours, but 9 hours is a bit long. It was actually an abolutley miserable flight. I couldn't even get sprite with my breakfast! We were pretty much given a sandwich for breakfast (and I know that it was breakfast because they called it that) but they wouldn't give me a damn sprite!! Damn AirFrance and french people everywhere. So, in Paris, we had to leave the secure area once again and ride the tram to our next terminal. So, yet again we had to stand in line to go through security. And this was quite a long line as well. But again we got throught it and had a chance to have some french pastry before we got on the plane. Everything was pretty uneventful except for the fact that the girl didn't like the boarding pass I was given in Jo'burg and wasn't sure she was going to let me on the plane...she talked with the girl who was letting Matt through and then decided to let me through. This flight I might add was much better...first of all, American food (and ice cream as a snack). Plus, the seats were much more comfortable and we had the only two seats on the left hand side (window!!). There was no video on demand like the flight to Paris, but it was worth it to have the extra space since this was yet again another 8 hour flight. Then, we get to JFK and we have to go through security once again. I think I got radiation poinsoning from all of the times I walked through the metal detector! Our flight was late, but it was only a little over an hour flight home, so it all worked out. I am so happy to be off of planes and out of airports!! We spent over 20 hours up in the air, and then figure in all of the layovers, and we spent well over a day and a half traveling, and if you saw us, you would have known!! Thankfully we both took tomorrow off, so no work for either of us until Monday.

So, we are home now and begining the process of uploading pictures!! I missed the house and the puppy, but I could easily pick up everything and move to Cape Town. No doubts!!

South Africa - Knysna on

2008-07-09T19:30:00.002-04:00

We found out that we couldn't go to the township in Knysna because of the fighting going on there. Apparently people were setting fires and arond 600 people were homeless because of it. The company that would have brought us around offered to still do it, however we would have had to have a police escort. Our tour guide decided that we weren't going to go because of that. They also thought that bringing a tour bus in would have created more problems...so, we didn't get to do that, but that gave us some extra time to roam around the town.

The next day we drove to the Ostrich farm and we both got to ride an ostrich (video to come). We saw a bunch of ostriches including babies...!! We also were able to stand on one of their eggs which was pretty cool. We have some pictures of it.

Next we drove to Cape Town (quite a drive!!). We took the garden route which was very pretty with lots of cliffs and you could see the ocean. We got to Cape Town which is absolutely GINORMOUS!! Our hotel is beautiful and a short walk to the ocean front.

The weather wasn't that great, but we still got to table mountain. We took up a gondola (the scariest thing in the world!!). You couldn't even see teh bottom because of the clouds, so you just went up into nowhere!! Because of the clouds, we couldn't see all of Cape Town, but we still got a fabulous view!!

Yesterday we drove to cape point and were able to see the Southwestern most point in Africa which was pretty cool. We got our pictures taken with the sign and had lunch at a restaurant over looking the ocean. We also took a quick walk and a ride up the funicular to the top of a mountain where there was a light house. Of course we have pictures of that as well!! We also had a chance to visit Boulder Beach and see the penguins. We got some great video of it, which we'll put up on youtube.

Today we went to the winelands and did some wine tasting. Very fun. I'm not a fan of wine but the area was beautiful!! Tonight is our farewell dinner. We'll be going to a gold museum tonight and having dinner there. We'll be saying goodbye to our tour group tonight and we added on an additional day, so tomorrow we'll be getting up bright and early and going on a shark cage dive begining at 5:30 am!! Very exciting. We'll be taking pictures and will have video as well!!

South Africa - Days 3-6

2008-07-09T19:29:00.000-04:00

We left Johannesburg and made the long drive to Kruger Park. It was nearly a 6 hour drive with stops. We stoped at God's Window and some a gourge and the "pot holes". Pictures to come, but they were incredible. Words can't describe any of it, so updates when the pictures are uploaded!

We arrived at the Kruger Gate Lodge in the early evening and had some dinner. The property was very nice and abuted Kruger National Park. It even had a viewing area where we saw an impala. The next morning we were up at 5:30 for an early morning game drive....think Jurassic Park but with South African Animals. We were in open air jeeps and to get out of our hotel area, you have to have a guard move the security fence that keeps the animals out of our hotel! One couple had a money get into their room and rough the place up (I think he spilled a glass of milk and moved stuff around).

At the first excursion we started off by seeing a rhino. Then we saw a male lion (mane and all) laying in the sun. We also saw elephants, more impala than you could ever imagine and a GIRAFFE!! We also saw Kudu's and Springbok's and some Waterbucks, Capebuffalo, Baboons, Warthogs, Hyenas and even a snake attacking a cameleon! Unfortunately it began to rain and the animals decided to hide for a while. It worked out alright because we were headed to lunch anyway. So, we had some hot chocolate and warmed up and then went back to our lodge. We walked around the property in the daylight, and then went on another game drive in the afternoon. We didn't see as many animals then as we did in the morning, but we did see a herd of elephants crossing the road and more giraffe's and a zebra (although from a far!). We went back to the hotel for dinner and then called it an early night since we were going to have a long day the next day!

The next day was a travel day for us. We were up around 6am to take the bus ride back to Johannesburg and then boarded the plane to Port Elizabeth and we ended up getting into Port Elizabeth around 7pm or so. We ordered room service for dinner and then went to sleep!

We woke up in Beautiful Port Elizabeth and had a nice breakfast and then ran across the street to step in the Indian Ocean. Then on to a city tour and back on the road again headed for Knysna. The drive was beautiful since we took the garden route to get there. On the way we stopped in Plattenberg Bay and had lunch at a BEAUTIFUL hotel there. We were eating on the deck which over looks the Indian Ocean and as we were sitting there we saw whales out in the distance (maybe 1/2 a mile away!). We walked on some of the rocks and took some pictures of the whales and then boarded the bus for the 10 minute drive to Knysna. So, here we are now, In Knysna. We walked through the town (very touristy) and now we're getting ready to head over to have dinner at a local restaurant with our group. Tomorrow we're heading to the featherbed reserve where we will go on a 4x4 safari and then do a nature walk. We'll also have a tour of a lagoon there as well. It should be a lot of fun!! Then we hit the road to Cape Town and hit the Ostrich farm where we will ride the Ostriche's!!!

Tales from the Road - South Africa Days 1 and 2

2008-07-09T19:27:00.000-04:00

We have finally made it to South Africa after about 24 hours in the air. We got in yesterday at 6pm South African time (noon eastern). That gave us just enough time to take a quick shower (mind you neither of us was ablet to have one for over 24 hours!!) and then go down to the welcome meeting. We get down there and there are 30 of us or so, we are by far the youngest on the trip. The next youngest people would be in their 50's or so. So, our tour guide has everyone say their name and where they are from and then he starts talking about what we're going to be doing...While he is talking, one of our group members comes in and the first thing he says is how sorry he is for being late. He then goes on to say that he is embarassed to say this, but he had an "accident" and had to clean himself up, and that this could happen to anyone. (Which I actually really disagree with). He then goes on to tell us everything about himself, ranging from his age, occupation as an EEO person for the army (We do EEO reporting but it doens't take a full time person to do it!! ) and his email address. So, that was a fun way to start the trip!!

So, we have our dinner, which was very good, and then we go back to our room and go to sleep. Today we went to Soweto and saw the township and went to a museum (Hector Peterson) and had lunch at a local restaurant and Foster, our favorite oops I crapped my pants tourist decides that anyone who is a native South African needs to have their picture taken by him. In fact at the first museum there were school kids who were walking around. He actually asked them to all get togather in front of the fountain so he could take their picture...like they were wild animals. They obliged and let him take their picture...he tried to talk to them about his age and what he does for a living and possibly how he crapped his pants the night before, but they started talking to each other in another language and walked off (they clearly spoke english!!). We also went to the Apartheid museum which was fun, but nothing has been as exciting as Foster!! Can't wait to see what happens with him at Kruger!! To wrap up the night we ate dinner at the Nelson Mandela square and had some really good desert!!