What I did last night.

Last night I met up with Muca, Brian, and a group of their friends out at Pretty Lake- a summer camp in Mattawan. They had a campfire going and stuff for s'mores and I made about 5 s'mores in 5 minutes. I love s'mores. Mostly, I really love getting the marshmallows just a little brown. It irritates me beyond belief when they catch on fire. Marshmallows are SO good. Anyway, we sat around and got all smokey smelling from the fire and it made me really excited to get to go camping soon. I didn't get to go at all last summer, mostly because camping in Central Park would suck. Because you'd probably get robbed. And I'm pretty sure it's illegal anyway.

So at about maybe 2am or so, Brian decided it was a really good idea to go out in a rowboat. It was totally a good idea, too. Four of us went which made the boat really low in the water, but we were stellar rowers. Plus, I sat on the bottom and didn't even get my butt wet, which is what usually happens when you have to sit on the bottom of the boat. Stellar.

Sometime after that, Muca, Brian, and I went back to the house where I was housesitting for the last week because it was just down the road and it was late. The not so good thing was that Brian immediately found dog pee on the floor and so I had to clean up that nastiness at something like 3am. After that, I somehow managed to keep Brian up to talk to me and tell me stories (which is also right up there by camping as one of my favorite things in life) until something like 5am. So that entertainment factor pretty much made up for having to clean up the dog piss.

On a side note, I can no longer steal internet from my neighbors. Apparently, the people who I got the signal from moved out this weekend because now there is no signal. I have to pick up a different one that works about 5 minutes out of the day. So I had to call to have the cable people come out and hook me up to cable later this week. Not having internet is so obnoxious. I feel like that was really rude for those people to move out without even offering to help me pay the set up fee.

Here's a picture of Ryno and I on Friday night at Burdick's. Pictures always make things more interesting. I think, anyway. I guess if you don't think so... don't look.

Dead things are disgusting.

My little sister shot a turkey this weekend. While this picture was not as entertaining or bloody as the one when she shot a deer (see November post, 'My Rant'), it is still exciting for her. It's her first one.


I, on the other hand, would not be a good hunter. At all. Namely, dead things disgust me. I'll hold a frog or toad all day. The second it's dead (particularly the ones that used to float in my parents' pool after reaching a chlorinated drowning)- you can't offer me enough money to touch it. Sick. Dead things are totally sick.

So tonight, I went to the pet store to buy 12 snails so that I can put them in my students' ecosystems at school. This lady is trying to fish them out for me and is small talking with me about if I'm paying for this myself because she used to work for retired teachers and teachers have to pay for everything themselves, etc, etc. (Which is true, but not the point of this story.) She was really nice, but I lied to her and said I WAS paying for it myself (which I sort of was... but then I was getting reimbursed) because I thought maybe she'd give me a discount. She didn't. That's ok though. I lied.

ANYWAY, she's scooping these snails out and holding them up to her nose and smelling them. And then, as she's setting them into the water filled baggie, one of them FALLS OUT OF ITS SHELL. Puke is coming up just thinking about it. It looks like a revolting, huge, wad of snot. And it starts floating in the bag. So I go, "Um... I think that one is dead." And she says, "Oh you're right. Man. Something about our water keeps killing these snails. City water, you know. And snails smell God-awful when they die!" Then she reaches her hand into the bag and I think, "Seriously, if she picks out that nauseating snail carcass I'm going to puke all over the place." Thankfully, she just gets the other live one out of the bag and then throws the water and dead thing out in the sink.

From here, she scoops up like, 10 other snails and they are ALL DEAD. They fall out on the table. They fall out in the net. One falls out IN THE WATER and gets caught in the mini jet stream of the air filter thing and starts chasing the fish, who swim away from it lightening fast which is exactly what I would do if I were a fish and a huge, slimy, shapeless form was rushing towards me. At this point, I'm just thinking "Need to leave. Need to leave. Need to leave." But she manages to scoop two live ones out of- no exaggeration- about 15 snails who are all DEAD. I didn't want these two snails, but after lying to her and then making her touch all those dead things, I felt kind of like I owed it to her. Right now, they are sitting in a baggie next to my school briefcase. I'm not looking at them. I'm taking them to school tomorrow and giving them to another teacher who is doing the ecosystems. I don't care if they are alive. I'm done with snails for a while. Nasty.

This is a bit heavy... So don't read it if you don't feel like it. I promise I'll post another funny one really soon.

I am reading a book called Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality, by Donald Miller. It is an intriguing book. I'm into it. You should read it. (And while you're at it, definately read Velvet Elvis, by Rob Bell.) I went and heard Donald Miller speak on Sunday at Mars Hill. Anyway, in Blue Like Jazz, there is this one part that made me think:

"If you believe something, passionately, people will follow you. People hardly care what you believe, as long as you believe something. If you are passionate about something, people will follow you because they think you know something they don't, some clue to the meaning of the universe. Passion is tricky, though, because it can point to nothing as easily as it points to something."

So, it got me to thinking- what exactly am I passionate about? And it prompted another list.

1. I'm passionate about music. If it was possible to go through my day to day life with non-stop music, I would do it. I surround myself with it. It is my out. I hate the radio- I can't stand that I am not able to control what I'm listening to. My music must go with my moods and I need to be able to choose those songs which are most applicable. For the record, here are the cds which are applicable to any mood, good or bad or in between: anything by K's Choice, The Postal Service, the Garden State soundtrack, or Billie Holiday.

2. I am passionate about the underdog. This is why I crave inner city, special education. It makes me physically sick to think about how unfair it is that rich, upper class districts get so many more opportunities in schools than the less fortunate, inner city schools. I realize that there is so much that goes into that distrobution, but bottom line- it's unfair. It gets me very heated. If you disagree, or have some crap to say about people choosing a certain lifestyle, please, go tell that to my kids in the South Bronx. Let's not go there. I will get very rude with you. I might even punch you in your face.

3. I am passionate about my family. I have an incredible family, intimate and extensive. They are intensely loving, compassionate, and wise and I realize more and more as I get older how fortunate I have been and continue to be to have such strong presences in my life.

4. I am passionate about relationships in general. I hate losing touch with people. I told my mom this week that I will be one of those people who has dinner parties and goes to dinner parties and such all of my life. I love being around others, and I love getting to know others. I love everything about learning about someone, listening to their stories, and being there for them and them being there for me. Frank used to tell me that I don't distinguish between aquaintances and friends. Whatever. I don't care.

5. I'm passionate about traveling. I get really antsy if I don't have some type of trip in the works at any point in time. After having been so fortunate to have done much of it, I can't imagine my life without it. So much of who I am and what I think has been formed from travels I've had. So much confidence and knowledge has come from traveling by myself and with others and it is an experience that you cannot get in any other way. I've gone topless on the beach in Cannes and gone to Easter service at Notre Dame and everything in between. I have numerous journals packed with fabulous traveling stories... :)

6. Finally.... and this is a tricky one... I'm passionate about my faith. I could write so much on this topic, but no one would read it because this has already been a long post and it hasn't been a very funny one so I'm kind of surprised that you're still reading this part frankly. :) First, let me state that I think that I often say that my faith is important to me when really I should say that my relationship with God is important to me because it seems awkward to say even if it is true. And I think it sort of weirds some people out. I'm not really decided on that point yet. But anyway... Suffice it to say that it is the core of who I am and shapes basically all of the decisions I make. There are a couple of things that I'm REALLY passionate about in this area:
a) I really, really, really can't stand it when so called Christians judge people. Obviously, everyone does this because it's human nature, but I mean more along the lines of people who are gay, people who are not Christians, people who make choices that they wouldn't, etc. For starters, you are to love everyone and it is not your JOB to decide who deserves love or not. Secondly, you miss out on amazing friendships when you discount people simply because of choices they make. It is so shallow.
b) I really, really, really can't stand it when people mix politics with religion. I didn't vote for Bush. I didn't like his educational platform. And it made me kind of sick how I felt like he was using his Christianity as a voting point. Donald Miller also wrote: "Anybody who wants to get their way says that Jesus supports their view." A lot of my Christian friends got really mad at me for not voting for him. I think it is just naieve to vote for someone simply because you share the same religion. Also, I don't think that it is anyone's right to tell others what to do in regards to abortion or sex ed. in schools. I am opposed to abortion and I definately believe in the benefits of abstinence, but I don't see how it could possibly be my right to tell you what to believe...


Um... that ended up being kind of a heavy blog. Maybe it balances some of the shallowness out where I talk a lot about clothes and drinking.... :)

I'm crabby and no fun right now.

I am tired and sort of crabby, but haven't put anything up for over a week now so I felt obligated to do SOMETHING... And I actually do have something to write about, but I'm too tired and crabby to do it now. Maybe tomorrow.

BUT...

I did get hired into the Kalamazoo Public School system last week which is fabulous! I bought a new video ipod immediately after signing. I'm almost as excited to go to the dentist's now that I have benefits too.

Now go to this site. It is endlessly amusing.

Two lists of two things that are completely unrelated. And one is disgusting.

Two things that my friend Jared who works in a hospital told me today:
1. Once a woman came in who was so sick with some kind of... um... toxic something or other that feces was coming out of her bellybutton.
2. Once a guy came in who had tried to kill himself, but failed, and ended up blowing the bottom of his face off. So his jaw was gone, but his tongue was still there. Jared described it as looking like an exotic plant that was all open. Apparently, they somehow sewed his face all up so that it was just like a little hole where his mouth should be.

I do not want to work in a hospital, but those are disgustingly fascinating stories.

Two things my grandma said this weekend when I was visiting:
1. After taking our heart rates at one of those free things at the grocery store, it turned out that my heart rate was nearly half of hers. My grandma's flatline response: "Well no wonder you're hungry all the time. You're barely here. You're practically dead, Sara."
2. During the Easter service sermon, I whispered to my grandma that I liked the ring she had on. My grandma's response: "It's my bling."

Cadbury Cake.

I stole this from Lola. It's pretty much hysterical. Happy Easter!

Experiment: Make a Cake With Cadbury Eggs Instead of Real Eggs

Two things that happened today.

1. Two of my students were arguing with each other.
Kevin: "Your head looks like a toilet. A PUBLIC toilet."
Natallie. "Shut up. Your HAIR looks like a public toilet."

It was the most ridiculous argument I've ever heard in my life. Ever.

2. While at my friend Jen's tonight, we got on the subject of the marathon because these were the hooligans whom I was with when I registered a couple of weeks ago. Brian, whose registration the COMPUTER messed up, has still not registered. I have informed him in no uncertain terms that I will punch him in his face if he does not register. After all that work I went through for him to get him out of the mess I got him into. Rude. He said that he could see me coming around the corner at school (we work together) and hitting him in the face with a frying pan, or maybe a beaker since beakers are easier to get in a school. I would never hit someone in the face with a beaker though. It would break and cut someone's face up and be disgusting. Upon realizing this, I am also reconsidering any previously entertained thoughts about becoming a bar brawler. I could never break a bottle over someone's head.

Squirrel.

Michael's friend took this picture. I pretty much think that squirrels are demon spawn. Once, hiking out west, some crazy mountain squirrels kept running around my feet and gnashing their teeth, as if to bite my ankles. I do feel a little sad for this one. But not too much. Mostly, it's pretty funny.

Side thought.

If I resist the urge to eat all that crap on a constant basis and work out all the time, I had better meet a guy soon. Because otherwise I'm just going to get old and get spider veins and lose my flat stomach and get wrinkles and no one would have been able to enjoy the fact that I looked good in my 20's. As the deep thinker, Mr. John Mayer, has been known to sing, "After all the crushes have faded, all my wishful thinking is gone. I'm jaded. I hate it."

Ahhh, John. You are so wise. And someone better come appreciate my flat stomach.

Things that I would eat constantly if I did not care at all about my health or appearance.

1. virtually any kind of ice cream, except kinds with nuts because I really don't like nuts. Also, despite the fact that I enjoyed it when I was little, I no longer want to eat the kind of ice cream that has bubble gum in it because it is like eating colored rocks.
2. cookie dough- i don't really care what kind but, again, no nuts
3. bologna
4. Cadbury eggs
5. fresh cream to dip strawberries in
6. Milky Ways
7. Caramellos
8. caramel in general
9. Twinkies
10. Oreos
11. Velveeta macaroni & cheese- I eat a lot of this anyway, but I'd definately eat it daily if I could
12. cheddar cheese blocks
13. cheesecake- with the thick graham cracker crusts
14. martinis with cream in them- this is not really edible, but I try not to drink them that much because of all the stinking cream that has to go in those things to make them taste so fabulous
15. Nutella... mmm... in a crepe with sugar- I once ate only crepes with nutella and peanut butter for an entire two week's worth of breakfasts and lunches while travelling in Europe- I carried all three ingredients in my backpack
16. Reece's peanut butter cups and/or Reece's Pieces
17. those Strawberry Shortcake icecream popsicle things
18. chicken pot pies
19. Ranch Doritoes
20. Pop Tarts- I eat a lot more of those now that Cindy keeps my cupboards stacked :)
21. Peeps
22. icing- just straight icing- like the homemade kind that Melissa makes with tons of sugar- not the storebought kind in the cans- although I probably could eat that if I was in a pinch, no problem
23. Pillsbury crescent rolls
24. hamburgers- lots and lots of hamburgers
25. and Cheeseburger Hamburger Helper for that matter

Cute.

I just got back from visiting Kristin, Shawn, and my new 'nephew' Kaden. They should move here. Because I miss Kristin in ridiculous amounts.

Some random songs that I like and you should check out.

1. Arto Lindsay - Illuminated
2. Athlete - West Side
3. Imogen Heap - Goodnight and Go
4. Frou Frou - Let Go
5. Zero 7 - In the Waiting Line
6. K's Choice - Quiet Little Place
7. K's Choice - Home
8. Tristan Prettyman - Breathe
9. Ani DiFranco - Overlap
10. Basement Jaxx - Do Your Thing
11. Patty Griffin - Time Will Do the Talking
12. K's Choice - Favorite Adventure
13. Stina Nordenstam - Little Star
14. The Dandy Warhols - Sleep
15. Zero 7 - Destiny