Happy Halloween!!!

so i am not going to any costume parties, i dont think i have dressed up for halloween since mags and i dressed up and sat on my driveway in kalamazoo years ago, i have a hideous picture somewhere but luckily it is not on the computer. i was a witch and mags was a very bloody doctor, i think we scared a few neighborhood kids, but i was all about handing out the good candy so that compensated for the utter hideousness that was my costume…

this year, kevin and i are going to a friends house to listen/play music and just enjoy the company, there are no costumes but i have been fighting the urge to bust out the wedding dress and be a princess or a bride or glenda the good witch, whatever!  i just want to put it on again! the other day at work, a co-worker and i were talking about how we both just want to wear them again, she mentioned that she wanted to have a girls night where we all wear our dresses, i think that idea is BRILLIANT and i dont think she realized how serious i was when i said that would be the coolest thing EVER!

so before we head out i plan on doing some grocery shopping and mundane things like that but if you see someone at target in a full wedding dress, it may or may not be me!!

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where did ocotober go?

seriously? how did almost 31 days just completely pass me by? i have three papers due in the next three weeks, one of which includes an interview of the fabulous mandy. she has been kind enough to talk to me about her collection and has even offered to dust if off for pictures…i am eternally grateful! i am actually really curious to see how my professor reacts to a paper/interview done with someone whom i have never met in real life. for a millisecond i thought it was a bit off, but then realized that no, its not, there is an amazing community of people out there, that i would have never met had it not been for this little blog. that in itself is at least two pages! chinsey? i think not! brink of brilliance? definitely!

the other two projects will be rather easy its just a matter of sitting down and writing things out. this semester it seems the academic gods have smiled on me. gracing me with two fabulous classes, approving my final project (which i was nervous about, my advisor is a thesis stickler-gave me an entire speech about the thesis versus the final project and how the final project is only applicable to people who develope something that is practical in their area of work…well guess what?!? MINE IS!) which means this time next year, i will be a month away from finishing my grad degree…crazy…for something that i said i wanted before i was 35. whoa!

so here is to an event free class this evening, thank you for all the comments and in the weird twisted way the universe works, that poor kid was from where my parents used to live, is the cousin of a friends bridesmaid, and apparently felt so hopeless that there was no way out for him. i can relate, we have all felt that way before, some more extreme than others, but still i have to admit that i never want anyone close to me to fell that desperate and that lost. i will do everything in my power to make that NOT happen…

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friday five…

or the five things graduate students do when the campus is under lockdown because some nut job robbed a mcdonalds, drove his truck to the woody patch on/near campus, shot at cops, and then shot himself…

1. respond to the school calling/emailing/texting about the lock down with a yes, meaning you are in fact okay.

2. become very aware of all the windows that are in the classroom paying particular attention to the large size and where they are facing, close the blinds on said windows and try to forget about it…snipers…NOT COOL…

3. shove all thoughts of virginia tech out of ones mind and instead be grateful the professor brought good food to class and there are numerous bathrooms, all of which work.

4. try to get through a lecture on disney and everything that it encompasses while receiving updates about the swat team now on campus and hearing the state helicopter overhead-which is equipped with infrared cameras…

5. halfway through class, while still getting updates, get creative with your google searches pulling up pictures of the hamburgerler, making posts on facebook, and catching up the yankees game. eventually move on clips on youtube (hitler wanting to go to disney, monty python) and episodes of modern family on hulu.

needless to say it was an interesting night at class. i am thankful that we live in a world with instant communication and immense amounts of entertainment right at our fingertips…otherwise i could have been a panicky mess!

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friday five…

or the five reasons jen should have stayed in bed this morning…

1. our neighbors car was stolen. reason 999,999 to move. when i took hobbes out this morning, they guy who lives across the way came out and asked if i had known about his neighbor’s car being stolen. he said the cops had woken him up this morning to ask him about it. i replied with a few choice swear words and continued on saying ‘well that doesn’t really surprise me considering someone was murdered here last year’ to which he was understandably shocked and seemed to think the car theft was a little less harsh…
2. something is really wrong with my coffee maker. i set the time to go off in the morning and it will either a) make coffee but have the totally wrong time. b) make coffee, but only half a pot. or c) make a quarter pot of coffee, have a huge puddle of coffee sludge underneath the coffee pot and have the wrong time. c is what i woke up to this morning, after finding out about the car being stolen, right out of our parking lot, the same parking lot someone was stabbed in last year…
3. its snowing…enough said…
4. no heat at work, while its snowing outside, with my quarter pot of cold coffee because my coffee maker is wonky and i live in the hood…
5. it was dark this morning, and my bed was cozy and warm and i got to cuddle with my husband-which was perfect. i should have never gotten up!

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thursday thoughts…

• there are spiders in the bathroom at work. they have built a lovely little web, encased an unfortunate victim and seem to be hunkering down for the winter. i think perhaps we should name them…
• the white trash family that lives below us has decided to spread their crap not only in the stairwell but also outside our front door. currently there are four bikes, two car seats and a half inflated wadding pool PILED outside our front door. i think its safe to say this is a violation of not only the lease but also fire codes…i am sick of looking at it and even sicker of walking around this pile o crap. i have written and called the landlord to no avail, i may come home one night from school and get super energized by throwing the crap away…would that be wrong?
• i am not sure, but i think, just maybe, i saw snow today…it shouldnt come as a surprise but this year i am finding myself very reluctant to deal with winter. february break cannot come soon enough!
• i have to interview a collector for class. for a fleeting moment i thought perhaps i would interview my sister who currently collects cows, but started her hoarding collecting with bazooka joe wrappers, page a day calendars and  rocks. but then i realized that would probably be more appropriate for a psych class rather than an american studies class. anyone collect anything???
• i cannot wait for the weekend for no other fact then i get to sleep in until at least eight o clock. that little tidbit and the fact that every time i crouch down i have to make a noise leads me to believe that i am in fact, getting old. that and the absolute disgust/annoyance i get when i see undergrad students all dressed up in their name brand latest styles talking on their iphones using phrases i have no idea what they mean, really makes me think i should go home early, drink some fiber and read the newspaper…GAH

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for everyone…

who thinks that seeing christmas decorations this time of the year is a bit early, or even seeing them in August…my dear friend maggie shared this with me…

i may have to be creative next time i come across said displays…

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just something to think about…

this is an amazing commercial shot for dove…

i certainly hope that messages like this will also get to young women!

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around my world in sixty seconds…

or a bit longer but not much because that is about all the time i have. holy crow you would think that once you got married, life would settle down? NOT! kevin and i went away to maine and came back to grad classes, loads of work, football practices and games, homework, audits and sickness. its a wonder the apartment is not full of dirty laundry or dishes making a break for it out the back door. but i guess you can say that is how we roll.

here is maine…which was amazing and i can never order salmon again lest it comes from the fore street restaurant;

                                    
                                                   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and football has started. i have to admit i was a bit terrified  concerned about nick playing quarterback and being the target for boys much larger to mangle, but he has been holding his own quite well and i no longer have a sick feeling in my stomach that someone wants to murder him butterflies in my stomach days before the games.

i love my classes this semester-all about museum exhibits! and one last thought, while driving to said class the other night i saw a truck with balls attached to it. i have only heard about these, but it is something that is now ingrained in my head and part of me is rather offended. the other part of me has no respect for new england being any more less white trash than the rest of the country, because that truck…CT plates all the way!

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