My family's Christmas curse is sickness. It never fails someone is always sick on or around christmas. Two years ago, it hit everybody. I however was the unfortunate soul who spent christmas day sleeping on the couch eating ice chips. I bowed to the porcelin god if I ingested anything else. This year my mother was the curse's victim. Strep Throat. Her throat swelled and she could barely talk. Yet we managed. With her on the couch most of the weekend, we ended up playing SceneIt, seriously, about 20 times. And my brother and I were rolling on the floor with laughter every time she tried to say "Robert Redford" or any of the lines of the priest in "The Princess Bride." She sounded just like him. Alas, I don't know what to do in order to break the curse. Maybe I should call up the Red Sox and get their opinion.

Here follows two funny moments from Wednesday: 1. A Woman in a fur length fur coat, high heels, and fancy makeup shopping at an Old Navy store. 2. A Citgo Gas Station sign claiming that it is "The Pride of Geneva." Sidenote: Trisha and I spend way too much time together. ;)

Is it weird that of Santa's reindeer I am Comet? That fits so well. Spooky.

You are Lichen, also known as Comet! You're a bit
of an oddball. You've got a beautiful
taupe-silver coat with a few black spots. You
are also the speediest of Santa's reindeer, and
you astronomical knowledge makes you a great
navigator.


Which of Santa's eight reindeer are you?
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How fun does this look? ;) I love movies. http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/bewitched/

Everyone must try out this website. http://www.guessthename.com/ You think of a TV show or movie and then answer yes or no questions about the it and it will guess your show or movie. I thought I had chosen an obscure show like Ed and eventhough I answered quite a few questions and maybe only answered yes to like five all of a sudden, it popped up "Your show is Ed, Am I right?" And I was like WHAT?!? Lots of fun.

Do you know the way to San Jose? Well, do you know a way I can get to San Jose on Dec. 30? Anyone, Anyone, just need a plane ticket. Come on, you want to fly me to Califonia for Christmas right, so I can see my Huskies, Please....

Here it is, the worst name for a bank, ever! Old 2nd Bank. First of all, the word OLD is a complete turn off. Do you want an old bank? Personally, I want a modern bank that keeps up with technology. Second, is.... 2nd! Come on, who wants to hop on board with the 2nd bank. I want a winning bank. I want a 1st bank, not some loser 2nd bank. So, really, why would anyone open an account with the geriatric, non-winning bank? Maybe a free walker with deposit.


Mr. Tom Skilling Posted by Hello

I ran into someone today from the past. My other Tom. Well, if you call two years the ago "the past." I ran into Mr. WGN weather man, Tom Skilling. He was at NIU for meteorology 431 presentations. It amazes me how genuinely happy he is to see you every time you meet. He was in the hall heading to interview the students that contributed to one of the research projects he sponsored and he was like "Hey there's a familiar face," and proceeded to have a conversation with me eventhough he was busy. What a nice guy. For those of you who don't know, I had a semester internship with him my senior year and also did a research project that he sponsored in my 431 class. I could tell you lots of stories about him, maybe at a later time. One thing about is that he really liked to sing while he was working. However, he had a tendency to forget the words and make up his own. Since it is the holiday season and Tom has such an affection for Christmas carols. I will leave you with one of his oldies but goodies which he sang constantly while I was there starting in August all the way to December. "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all those freaking bells."


The UPNess Posted by Hello


Pretty Snow Posted by Hello

Do you know the kind of snow that makes everything look really beautiful? Well, we have had two of those in the past week. One right before thanksgiving and one just yesterday. I love how the snow just sticks to the trees and is both powdery and sparkly. It makes me want to wrap up in a blanket and read a book and have hot chocolate and throw snowballs and do practically anything christmassy. Alas, I am stuck doing end of the semester projects and studying for finals. What a travesty.

Warning: Ranting Ahead. I HATE TOLEDO! Once again, they have successfully stolen the MAC West title from NIU. All we needed was for them to lose to Bowling Green, but no. Even with a 27 -7 lead at halftime, Bowling Green couldn't hold on. I think Toledo has now officially become my most hated team, it's surpassed my other hated team, the Minnesota Vikings. I hope Miami Ohio whomps them in the championship game. My only solace is that we might still receive a bowl bid. (Anybody want to take me to a bowl game for Christmas?) Oh and one more thing, Mr. Wayne Drehs, Mr. thinks he's big ESPN sportswriter, I was not forced to attend NIU because I was a reject from U of I nor any other student for that matter... I came for the wonderful DeKalb weather. ;)

As you probably can infer from the picture on my blog, two of my many obsessions are the Beatles and Lord of the Rings. Well, for myself and my supremely unfortunate generation, we will never see the Beatles. So I have to settle for the next best thing...tribute bands. There is this one band called American English that I have been trying to see for about 3 years. The first time I tried to see them they were at the House of Blues and I was not 21 yet... denied. The second time, I was 21. However, when my friend Sam and I got to the bar, it looked packed to the gills, very smoky, and the building appeared to be on its last legs... strike two. I also had the bad luck of finding out that they played a bar in the town I was residing in at the time a week too late...son of building block!! Finally, this past week I succeeded in seeing American English. It was one of those butterfly in the stomach, fun type moments. While it was not a very exciting, the crowd was really into it type concert, it was thoroughly enjoyable. Of course, who wouldn't have fun listening to middle aged men with bad liverpudlian accents.

I can now officially say that I have been stuck in an elevator. I always daydreamed about it. You know, having to use the little phone to call for help and having the fire department come and help you out. No such luck. The other unfortunate soul and I were only stuck for about five minutes. Still, it was very disconcerting to walk into the elevator, push the little button, have the doors close, and ..... absolutely nothing else. We tried pushing every button... nothing. We started knocking on the door cause we could hear people outside and then with a jerk it finally got going. Stupid parking garage elevators. There are only two and I swear only one will work at a time. On the ground floor, there is a little peep hole on the outer doors so you can see when the elevator is there or not. So even if there is an elevator on the ground floor already when you push the little button, it thinks that it is a better idea to have the elevator on the 5th floor take its merry old time to come down and pick you up. I swear there is a elf inside the elevator controls making college students frustrated through its inefficient elevator management skills. Probably a reject from the Keebler tree.

I love husbands! Well, mine more specifically. He randomly left me two roses yesterday. What a sweetie. However, subconsiously (I don't think he really did this on purpose), I think he did it to soften the blow when he told me that the dentist told him he had about 2,386 cavaties and that we're probably going to be paying off his dental bills until 2047. ..... I'm never going to have a house.

Once again my beloved Huskies have lost to Toledo. Not since 1989 have we beaten them. Once again for the third year in a row, they have put us in a situation where we could lose the MAC West and our bid for a bowl game. I froze for them and what did they do? Nothing. I don't think I ever seen a game where the offense played so little the second half. I think our total yardage for the half was 19. Nineteen yards people, how pathetic is that? Now its up to us winning against Eastern Michigan and them losing to Bowling Green. I didn't think I would ever become a Bowling Green fan.

Why do schools ban dodgeball? Yes you can get hurt, but really is it any worse than any other sport? I think it is an awesome game. I had not played since junior high. (It wasn't allowed at my high school.) But last Friday I was able to play again. It was a blast. However, it was just my luck that in my first game back, POW! I was hit right in the face when I wasn't looking. Let me tell you, that's just mean. It didn't' really hurt, but it knocked my contact out and made my eyes water for a while. Then after that injustice, my friend Jordan kicked one of the "official dodgeballs" were we using (fancy, huh) and hit me right in the chest. Again, I wasn't paying attention cause at the time we weren't even playing!!!! I must admit I am not the best player. I am not very aggressive until close to the end. However, I did make one awesome catch off another teammate who tipped the ball up and hence got out one of the best players on the other team. Hee hee. Happiness is a caught dodgeball.

I think as a graduate student all of my undergraduate nightmares are coming true. First homework that I was ready to turn it just magically disappears from my folder. Later I find out that I accidentally turned it in with other homework earlier in the week. Who would have thought getting things done early would cause pain. Geesh. Anyway, what happened today takes the cake. It was in Dr. Brown’s research procedure’s class and I had actually enjoyed the class today. I had made a connection with him because he was talking about being cross-brained and I raised my hand when he asked if anyone else was and we had a bit of fun with it. Then comes the end of class, it was one of those surreal moments. I am looking around at everyone else and notice, “Hm they are all pulling out something, oh, it looks like a paper. Hey it looks like their research proposals. Oh look they’re handing them in…. Son of A Monkey!!!!” My idiotic brain thought it was Monday not today. I think someone literally punched me in the stomach. I felt sick. I got up walked over to my professor and he thanked me for playing along today. To which I responded, “Well, can I blame my cross-brained affliction for me thinking the proposal was due Monday and not having it ready to turn in today?” He said it would be fine if I turned it in late just as long as he had it before Monday’s class in which we are presenting on it (by the way I thought the presentations were Wednesday). Praise GOD!!!!!! As a side note, he totally knew this was coming because he moved my Stats test from this Friday to next Friday and I was trying not to have it pushed back. Somebody please rescrew my head back on!!

Today in Emmet L. Brown's class (see below), my professor called himself both God and Dr. Seuss. Interesting, So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.....or perhaps... There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living, so basically he Hopped on Pop...Do you think Moses at the burning bush was actually Horton hearing a Who... And by the way will someone please tell Doc Brown, Dr. Seuss, God, whatever he wants to be called, that when a class ends at 4:15, that does not mean I will look at the clock at 4:15 but not actually end class till 4:30....thank you and good night

Today in my research procedures class, we discussed systems theory. Let me tell you, "it's real exciting." I actually fell asleep in class today sitting up. I don't know how that is physically possible. It was only for about a millisecond because as soon as my professor spoke I was wide awake. My heart was racing like you would not believe. My professor reminds me of Doctor Emmett L. Brown from the "Back to the Future" movies, a "crazy wild eyed scientist." I swear someday his eyes are going to pop out of his head and he has this deep voice that periodically crescendo. So of course one of these crescendo occurred when I was asleep and hence jerked me out of my stupor. Anyway, today in class, among other things, we talked about negentropy and equifinality. Riigghhtt. Don't these words look/sound made up? It's like something out of "The Jabberwoky." (This poem, by the way, gave us the word "chortle," a made up word that actually became a real word, hmmm). The equifinality of his negentropy blankenshiped and twosting he was able to narfle the garthoc. Man, I should make up words for a living. (Alright that last phrase is from "Coneheads") Anyway, in my sleepy state, I don't think I should be required to expand my vocabulary. And no, I am not going to tell you what the words mean either. You can expand your vocabulary as well by looking them up.

Today within two seconds of each other, I saw someone wearing sandals and another person wearing a stocking cap. I love fall!

There is one in every small town. Two in mine actually. A house that is decorated to the max on every single holiday. One of the houses in my town even has the gall to be located on the main road where it is impossible to avoid gawking at everytime you drive by. As you know it is the season of Halloween. Not only are their orange lights strung about everywhere, decals in the windows, and about fouty-three pumpkins, they seriously own every lit halloween lawn ornament that has ever been made. It is impossible to traverse their lawn. Every spare piece of grass is adorned with hideous halloween decorations. What are you thinking, people?!?!? Why did you waste your money on all that crap? Halloween threw up on your lawn! I pity your neighbors.

Fall is my absolute favorite season. As you know I love football, I love that the trees change color, that it gets cool enough that you have to wear a sweatshirt. I grew up on a farm and fall is harvest time. It's when all your hard work pays off. (Not that I ever contributed to that hard work.) Fall is also the time for the Spoon River Drive. The "Drive" as it is known by locals is actually a multi-town, multi-county craft/fleamarket/amazing food festival. A dozen or so little towns near where I grew up come alive with thousands of people browsing, shopping, and eating for the first two weekends of October every year. I think the "Drive" portion refers to all the fall colors you take in when you are driving from town to town, but seriously who cares about that "Gimme the FOOD." My mom and I have been attending the "Drive" for so long that we have our own little routine. We hit four stops between two towns and always take the back roads. (The traffic is insane.) We even go the same direction through the maze of stands every year. Pathetic isn't it. Personally, I go for the unbelievable. scrumptous, to-die-for food. However, I must admit that I do enjoy looking at some of the crafts in the "primitive" catagory much to my chagrin. (Mom it's all your fault I like that crap.) There are five food items that I must partake in every year. First I must have a butterfly pork chop sandwich for lunch. Not any pork chop sandwich mind you. It has to be from the London Mills Volunteer Firefigher food stand. After that it is Carmel Apple Slices with Pecans at this booth shaped like an apple on one of the side streets in London Mills. Before we leave London Mills, it is imperative to buy approximately 3 large bags of Kettle Korn. Of course from a specific Kettle Korn stand as well. Next it is on to Farmington and the Methodist Church Ladies apple dumplings, at least eight. Finally, a newer stop on the "Drive" is a pioneer shed at someone's farm where I split with my Mom a piece of Spoon River Mud Pie. .....Heaven. Alas, now it is a whole year before I can indulge again. Yet hope remains, it's time for my last apple dumpling,...Mmm.

Since my brother was in junior high or for about five or six years, he has collected banana stickers. Why, you may ask? Who knows. All I know is that when you open one of my mom's kitchen cabinets, you will find the banana sticker collection. It resides here mainly because the bananas are usually kept on the counter below. Once my brother realized that a new bunch of bananas had arrived the first thing he would do was take the sticker off and place it on the inside of the cabinet door. There are interesting things you can learn from banana stickers. For example, every banana sticker no matter what brand has the number 4011 on it. Don't believe me, check it out. It is also very interesting that sometimes banana stickers advertise for others. The movie "Garfield" advertised on a banana sticker. The collection has also been able to track our banana purchases. My brother decided to have a race up the side of the cabinet between Dole and Chaquita. Dole kicked Chaquita's butt. I have to say my mother perfers Dole bananas as their sticker completely dominates the entire collection. I have no idea how the collection started but I hope my brother never stops. Sorry Mom.

Is it sad that tonight I watched a replay of a football game that I attended only three days ago? I really don't know how I became so obsessed with Huskie football. I have always enjoyed football in high school and as an undergrad. But now as a grad student, it is absolutely necessary to attend every game. Since my husband is attending school full time and working part time, this usually means dragging my friend Trisha to the game with me or having my poor mom drive 2 and 1/2 hours to go (as happened this weekend). I also must say that it is imperitive to sit on the student side. This gives you the real game day experience. I mean you should stand for the entire game, jingle your keys every kickoff, wonder why the band sometimes randomly yells "Touch my squirrel", and generally annoy the opposing team. My beloved Huskies are 2-0 in the MAC conference currently and I so hope they are conference champs this year. Then, Trisha, you will not have to hear me utter again (as I did when they lost a bid to a bowl game two years ago against Toledo) "I am so mad, I could eat my thunderstix."

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Fangirl, Musician, Mom, Former Stuffed Armadillo Owner, Cat Person, Geographer, Bookworm, Christian, Bad Picture Taker, Nursery Worker, Trivia Buff, Laundry Folder, Stormchaser, Wife, Mary Kay Lady, Movie Freak, Facebook Addict, Coffee Hater, Procrastinator, Random List Maker. Enjoy the whatever.

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