"I fly a starship across the Universe divide

And when I reach the other side
I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can
Perhaps I may become a highwayman again
Or I may simply be a single drop of rain
But I will remain
And I'll be back again, and again and again and again and again...."
-The Highwayman

I went ahead and posted my Superman Returns post - because I composed it in my head on the way home from the movie theater. I had two voicemails from my Dad when I got home... The first one saying - "Hope you're having fun, love you... talk to you later." The second one saying - "Please call me when you get this message" - I didn't listen to the rest of it - I knew something was wrong after the caller ID gave me his number as the second caller. I called him and he did the "What's going on?" - I don't know you tell me... - "Where are you?" - I'm at home now tell me what's wrong... - "Grandmommy Jerry (tears welling up) passed away this evening."

Sobbing.
Tears.
Mind-numbing pain - but not exactly the physical kind.
The usual.

Grandmommy Doris - July 1986 or 87? (I was 8)
Grandaddy JB - March 2004
Grandaddy Lou - December 2004
Grandmommy Jerry - June 2006

I still have Mary K - Grandaddy JB's second wife.

/sigh

Flying home in 5.5 hours.

Superman Returns

Indeed.

Bryan Singer called Superman Returns a love story and a "chick flick". He was absolutely right on it being a love story. But I don't think it's just "chick flick."
After I got over Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane (and a brunette) I must say it was incredibly well done. Strong characters. Good plot. A lot of special effects, but awesomely done. An instant favourite for me.

Good job Brian Synger & crew. You did not disappoint me.

Now... For Pirates of the Caribbean...

Where will you be May 2007?

I will be at the first showing of:SPIDERMAN 3

*tee hee*

They are so teasing me.... a year in advance. That's just cruel.

2.75 Days to go

I'm looking forward to this weekend! I'll have Friday - Tuesday off!
If only I had the money to go somewhere, but no :( I want to go to The Cities or to Winnipeg or somewhere fun. BAH.

Superman is out tonight... 10pm showing *DROOL* I'm so there.

World Cup Game: England vs Portugal on Saturday... Go England!

Have a class starting Monday - but it's online only - woot.

That is all for now....

World Cup

On Satuday I watched my first (ever) soccer - "Football" - game. I decided to vote for Mexico - I thought it only fair seeing as they were my neigbors for 22 years. And though they did not win, it was an enjoyable experience.

On Sunday I watched my second World Cup Soccer/Football game. I was rooting for England - of course! And they won. Good on ya England!

Weekend is over and I'm back in the confines of the Ed Lab. Catching up on my emails, blogs, comics, etc. We had a fun group this weekend. 5 younger girls on Saturday and 10 older kids on Sunday. Went to the park/playground, watched a couple of movies, frisbee, talked... etc... Hauled around suitcases - most of which weigh more than the kids they belong to - mind boggling really. Wilted away this morning in the dorm - though the rest of the weekend wasn't too bad. (I'm not looking forward to July & August).

Listening to: Summer Sun by TEXAS... on Scotish Radio...

Go figure...

Ok I lied...

I don't think I was ever technically (or any other way) cool or hip.
hehehe
A girl can dream, eh?

Back to where it all began...

It occurred to me - while sitting in the lovely-green-rocking-desk chairs of Linden Hall - that THIS is where my blogging days began. In this building.
And this is one of the last times I will be blogging from here.

Odd.

Weekend watch (as I have dubbed it) is turning out to be quite interesting. The majority of the kids we have had so far have been from quite affluent families and from major metropolitan areas. Listening to them talk about their lives is an entirely new form of education. Like the 11 year old girl who is going to Canada... it's the 12th country she will have visited.... *boggle*

The group this weekend has been kind enough to educate me in some new terms:
*Like the difference between Emo, Punk and Goth.
*"Sketch" = dodgy, creepy, suspicious - also A "Sketch"
etc....
Apparently I'm way behind in the hip lingo.... I only thought I was cool and hip still ;)

...oD dluoC I sgnihT

Thanks to the Gothy Girl for the fun vids.
Especially David Lehre's MySpace spoof.
(It's possible I'm the last person on MySpace to know about that video)

Listening to The Cure: Close To Me
Playing on: Scotish Radio

After completing my Master's Degree my Choices are:
1. Find a job teaching in an elementary school (if I find one that will have me)
2. Find a job teaching in a community college (if I find one that will have me)
3. Start working on my PhD (if I can find a school that will have me) in either the US or the UK (or maybe NZ)
4. Find a job (of some sort) overseas - UK, NZ, Australia... (if I can get in the country and if I can find a job)
5. Go home and hide under my bed... no wait... that's not really a valid option.
6. Pursue a TOEFL or TESOL certification in hopes of finding a job overseas teaching English (again, if I can)
8. Get a job at a high-risk school district that pays insanely well so that I can pay off my student loans - so that I can go somewhere overseas and start fresh (financially).
7. All of the above and HOPE and PRAY I actually get something...

At the moment my preference is anything that will take me to the UK or Australasia.
Scotland.
/dreamy sigh

Number 5 is A L I V E !

So my ASL 1 & 2 teacher was just in the lab - saying hi to me - and I asked her if it would be possible for me to be an unofficial Teaching Assistant for her ASL 1 class this fall. She said absolutely! This is just what I need to keep from forgetting everything (again). It was SO hard taking ASL last semester after having been absent from all things ASL for 2.5 years. She said I can pretty much help as much (or as little) as I want. I can help guide groups when she splits the class up, etc. Exciting!

And yes. I brought along Johnny 5 for my viewing pleasure today.

I SO WANNA GO!

Minnesota Renaissance Festival
August 19th through October 1st, 2006
Weekends, Labor Day and Friday, September 29th
Open 9:00 am to 7:00 pm • Rain or Shine

I've never been to this one - though I've been to the one back in home, Scarborough Fair, multiple times.

I missed out on the big trip (of friends) last year, but I will be going this year. Though I don't want to go alone... We shall see.

Things I do to keep from falling asleep at work...

I HEART Get Fuzzy.

Checking email.

Take silly little quizzes...

Your Ideal Pet is a Cat

You're both aloof, introverted, and moody. And your friends secretly wish that you were declawed!

What's Your Ideal Pet?

Looking forward to helping the people at Seeing Hands. (thanks to Sharon for the idea!)

Watch people.

Look into Upcoming Movies.

Finding funny things, like a Spike Music Video.

Etc... etc... etc...

Books - Books - BOOOOKS!

I've found a couple of books on Amazon that look very promising (for my Research Paper):

Classroom Blogging: A Teacher's Guide to the Blogosphere

AND

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms

I'm also thinking about this one:

We've Got Blog: How Weblogs Are Changing Our Culture

From T.H.E. Journal

Why Blog?

Giddy Goodness

Focus on the happy.
That's my motto.
Sometimes it's hard to do, but not lately.

Happy #1 - Sitting at a stop light, singing to a song - bobbing my head around (with Aya and D in the car) when I see someone I know (in another car) grinning at me. I smile and wave and continue to sing. People in at least two other cars think I'm smiling and waving at them. They smile back and wave. I made perfect strangers happy = Sharing the Happy.

Happy #2 - Going to the post office to pay a bill and check mail box - expecting to find more bills - not finding a single bill - BUT finding a box. A box from a lovely British Boy. One of THE British Boys = Instant Giddy.

Happy #3 - Going striaght back to one's home to open said box - only to find that the British Boy has apparently made the box himself and glued it shut most effectively *grin* Model makers....

Happy #4 - Prying box open to discover two boxes of nummy British tea and a lovely, tiny, adorable, Matchbox version of your car = Tidy!!!

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love my British Boys!
Especially this one.

/smile

University of Oregon?

Mebbe.

The University of Oregon - Portland offers: Educational Leadership (D.Ed., Ph.D.)

That's the best one I've found so far. They're sending me catalog information :)
Eugene, OR is 8.5 hours from Reno, NV.... I could go visit my cousin from time to time.

Or maybe the University of Washington: Doctor of Philosophy program in the College of Education.

Possibles:
University of Montana - Butte
University of Colorado - Boulder

Negatives:
University of Colorado - Colorado Springs
Montana State University
Concordia University - Oregon

The University of Minnesota wants to charge me $4.95 for their catalog.
*snort*

Okapi

Oka-what?
The Okapi - neat critters. First saw one at the zoo back home. Stumbled accross them again today while cruising the net. Their pretty awesome and rather deceptive. They have zebra-striped-bums (I love zebras too), but are actually closely related to giraffes. Mother nature likes to keep us guessing ;)

Warning: I'll be working in the lab full time for the next two weeks = lots of free time with computers = random postings. (Rather like this one).

Maybe I'll bring movies to watch? /ponder
So far this summer I have read The Old Kingdom trilogy & the Keys to the Kingdom (1-4) by Garth Nix and The Da Vinci Code.
I could re-read the Harry Potter Series, or Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
I could bring my spinning wheel and sit and spin all day long.
I have options.
I have a feeling mostly I will be looking into possible schools for my Doctorate. *shudder*
Dr. E That could be me. Heh. We shall see.
/grin

It's just the thought of being stuck in this room for that long. I get a little stir-crazy.

Oh well.

Just bought my tickets to go home in August (12-22)! I'll be in Texas during the hottest time of the year... but I'll get to see my family! Including baby cousins - one that's 2 years old and one that will be about a month old - and I won't have met either one of them!

US $9,600.00

The winning bid for the Alien Duck X-Ray on Ebay.

Winning bidder: goldenpalacecasino

On the plus side: "Funds from this NO RESERVE/SEVEN DAY auction will go to the International Bird Rescue and Research Center of California to support it's wildlife rehabilitation programs."

*grin*

I signed up yesterday to take the final portion of the Praxis 2 test. Assuming I pass it I will FINALLY be able to apply for my Minnesota Teaching License. I'm hoping to begin substitute teaching in the fall = experience & money without having to get another second job (Concordia is only for the summer).
Keeping my toes crossed. Of course the test was like $120.00 and I have to pay for the license... *mutter* But! I will make it back!

Had dinner with Aya and D yesterday. First time I'd seen or heard from her in a week. Yeesh.

2 hours of work to go - but who's counting ;)

Advisor = Awesomeness

So I've been stressing (as I'm prone to do) about not having all of my paperwork in for my Masters program, about not knowing exactly what my thesis/research was going to be on, etc. Today I met with my advisor for half an hour and I have now completed some important paperwork, have a good idea of what my thesis/research paper will be on and fell much better overall.

My advisor has this way of making me feel like I'm totally capable of doing everything I need to. Her confidence in me is unbelievably helpful. After half an hour with her I went from being unsure and nervous to being much more focussed and confident in myself and I've got my topic for my thesis. Half an hour. Seriously. She's really freaking good at her job. What can I say?!

Time to hit the books and start pulling together information. I am also looking into adding a Certificate in Online Teaching to my credentials. This certificate requires 9 credits - 3 are required for my Masters anyway and another 3 can be used towards my cognate area. It ties in directly with my cognate area. The only hitch is if the University will still be offering the classes, since the professor who was going to teach them has left. If they do offer the classes I will definitely be adding that to my repertoire. (yes I had to look up the spelling on that one ;)

So what is this newly discovered topic for my Research Paper?
Well it's going to go a little something like this:

What are effective strategies for using Blogs and Wikis in (Upper) Elementary Education?
I'll have to cover things like:
*Defining blogs and wikis
*Strengths and limitations
*Safety issues (confidentiality)
*Possibly interviewing teachers who may have used these tools...

I've got some books on this and I've been compiling a list of books related to this topic on my Amazon.com wishlist. I think I've kind of known what I wanted to do, but when my advisor suggested it for an option that cinched the deal. This is something I am interested in and that'll make it way more fun to do.

Rock on.

Where I've been...

Welp...
I made another trip to Moorhead this last Wednesday for work. I volunteered to drive everyone over there - everyone else was sitting at the table, staring at our boss in that - "I haven't had any caffeine yet and you want me to do what?" - Face.... you know the one.
After an hour on the road we met a rock-hauler coming the opposite direction and I flinched and the girl in the passenger seat squaked a bit as a ginormous rock came flying at her face. Yup. Huge chip in the windshielf of the camp van. I felt bad, but what could I do? (I was just really glad that it was their van and not my car - how bad is that?)

Thursday I spent the day in a CPR class and a First Aid class. *cringe* "This is what you do when someone has something large and pointy in their eyeball/protruding from their eyeball..." *twitch* How to make a sling... Wrap a gushing wound... You get the picture.
Oh well. Passed both tests (without a single missed question!) and I'll be getting my paperwork in the mail soon.

Friday morning was van training (a little late considering I've driven quite a bit already - but not with kids in the van). When it's raining and dark and you have 7-8 kids in the van do not speed. Watch for critters. Use common sense. Got it. I've been driving vans forever. I learned to parallel park in mom's ginormous van. (Yes! I just used ginormous twice in one post!)

Friday afternoon I drove up north for Libby & Spike's (Mike's) wedding. Chris and Ash were in his truck, hauling the pop-up camper and Dougster rode with me. He slept most of the time - through his cell phone - through the bumpy and wind-y roads - through his voicemail alert.... but the three or so times that Chris chimed in on the walkie-talkie Doug's head would pop up and he'd look around all paranoid. They've known each other for years (since Kindergarten) and they're always doing things to each other = paranoia. As soon as Doug saw that nobody was doing anything to him he passed back out. I also found it rather amusing that out of the four pillows I had in the back seat he chose the one with the Care Bear pilow case.


After setting up the pop-up camper (which was neat to see - I'd always wondered how they worked) we started a fire, huddled up and made smores.

It was a pretty campsite - next to a small pond - they had a playground (which Ash and I took full advantage of). Slept ok-ish that night in the camper. We kept ourselves entertained the next day and then went to the wedding - which was loverly.

Amazing. In the middle of nowhere - literally - way out in the country - there is this gorgeous little Catholic church.

Beautiful bride...


And the inside of the church was very ornate..




This was my first Catholic... anything (wedding-mass-church-event).

Reception afterwards and then the "Social Hour" - during which time a few people decided to take it upon themselves to partake in the customary decoration of the Groom's vehicle.


I snapped a shot of the sunset - since the Bride and Groom were trapped indoors.


Then dancing until midnight.
And I actually danced.
Some.
Seriously.
Or at least I attempted to. I'm not really sure if the flailing about that I was doing really can be considered dancing. I did the dollar dance with the Bride and one with the Groom - who twirled me like four times - which was fun cuz my skirt swooshed out all neat-like :) Then I flailed about some more until Renee took it upon herself to teach me how to dance properly. Then she tested me out with Doug. And then we all collapsed back at the table until a little before midnight. Everyone was tiring down and so we headed back to our little pop-up camper for a good nights sleep. I got up early and headed back home since I had to work yesterday afternoon.

Last night was my first time with kids for CLV - doing the weekend/overnight thing. There were only two girls yesterday. I entertained them (along with my new co-worker) and went to bed a bit early - luckily the girls were tired and passed out early as well. Hilarious to be sleeping in the dorms again - but I'm still used to it since I passed right out and slept straight through the night. Our floor is the one right below where I spent 2 years being an RA - I felt like I was right back at home - and it was good to see some familiar RA/resident/friends.

Up this morning (not too early thankfully) and then sent them off on the bus at 12:30. Ran home for lunch - then to work at the lab at 1pm and here I am. Until 4pm. Of course it's now 2:40 and it's taken me that long to catch up on emails, blogs, comics, and select pictures, cut them down, and add them into this post. Sweet. I only have a little over an hour of work left and then I'm going home and passing out! Oh. But I should watch Dr. Who first! (Thank goodness for VCRs!)

90 minutes

I've only been here (work) for 90 minutes.
I could have sworn it's been at least 3 or 4 hours.

Ugh.

Cruise Control

No... I'm not saying anything about Tom.

I'm referring to the most glorious automotive invention since the car itself - Cruise Control.

Aya and I piled into my orange box and followed her mom and grandparents down south. Aya's mom doesn't use cruise control and between that and all the potty stops and a brief meal break it took us over 5 hours to get there. ISH.

So... on the way back I just started without them, used the cruise control - stopped for 2 minutes (literally) to clean my windshield - and made it back in 3 hours and 45 mins. Woot Woot.

I heart Cruise Control.

Oh yeah the windshield... ISH... seriously... we went through a few miles there where it was raining bugs - it sounded and looked like rain, but it was bugs. ISH ISH ISH. Little bugs... BIG mess. I couldn't see where we were going because my windshield was SO freaking dirty. Now I have to go and wash my car again - I had it washed on Thursday of last week but you'd never know it now.

It was good to see some of Aya's extended family again at the graduation. I don't see her family as much as I used to.

Was good to be back HOME last night. Walking back into my apartment it really felt like coming home.
Oh and got an email from one of my funny british boys. That always brings a smile to my face.

btw: totally jealous of the brown eyed girl and her backwards boy - living my dream of backpacking through Europe - thoroughly enjoying reading about their adventures - living vicariously through them!

Congrats to my bowling buddy - Amy - on her wedding this past weekend. Very sad I missed it - but I'd already committed to the graduation.

Now Reading: Garth Nix - The Keys to the Kingdom - Grim Tuesday
(having already finished the Old Kingdom Trilogy and TKttK - Mister Monday)
I love summer reading!

First Day...

So yesterday was my first day at my new job. We all piled into a 15 passenger van and drove to Moorhead - where we each got into our own van - and drove them back here. All-in-all it was an 8 hour day - and I got paid for sitting/driving. Can you dig it?!
:)
Met some nice people.
Work there again next Wednesday & then next Thursday I get certified for CPR & First Aid.... well re-certified I should say :)

Aya's cousin is graduating from high school this weekend - so I'll be heading down south (just a bit).

Aya's mom sent me an email about a job search in Florida..... Do you think she's trying to tell me something? Maybe.... get the hell-out-of-town?
/ponder

Listening to: Sandi Thom - I Wish I was a Punk Rocker with Flowers in My Hair