Weeeeell now it will just seem like I'm bragging...

Go here and here.

Back in December, I applied for a graduate student assistantship on campus through the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center and LearnNC (that would be those links up there, respectively). The NCDHC digitizes resources and documents about, surprise, NC history and whatnot. LearnNC is an organization that creates and opens access to things that help educators in NC do their jobs. Basically, the DHC wanted someone to create curriculum materials for their resources to let educators in on the awesomeness that is the DHC, and LearnNC would be the place for those materials to be accessed by educators.

Long story short, I got the job.

And now they're paying my tuition this semester.

Here's hoping I do a good enough job that they want to find another assistantship to put me in next year. :)

Mistakes Were Made

I made the call about this when I did my top 5 books of the year and said that I was fairly sure that The Help would have made top 5 movies list, had I seen it.

Very true story. I failed to include any honorable mentions, so I'm going to add them now because I've seen two movies in the last two weeks that should definitely have been on my list for 2011.

Top 5 Movies Honorable Mentions

The Help

If you read my top 5 books list, you know why I enjoyed this story. The movie was really well done because of the spot on casting, I think. I never would have thought that Bryce Dallas Howard could play such a horrid southern woman; likewise with Emma Stone playing such a lovely southern girl. I was wrong on both points. Also, Viola Davis deserves an Oscar nod, perhaps not a win though.

Crazy, Stupid, Love

You may have come to this realization, but I love Ryan Gosling. I'm really not sure he can do anything wrong in my book. I also very much enjoy Emma Stone, so this was a pretty good combination. It reminded me a lot of Playing by Heart, one of my favorite movies ever. It was a romantic comedy that kind of fell out of the normal realm of romantic comedies.

Top 5 Books

I didn't have that great of a reading year in 2011. Way too much other stuff to do. But I had some good ones for sure.

5. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Who knew that Jane Austen was really writing about zombies? Because there's a solid chance that she was, and she just didn't know it; that's how awesome this book was. See the next entry for specifics.

4. Pride and Prejudice

Remember a few years ago when Persuasion was one of my top books in this blog? And I said that I thought Persuasion only made it on because it was the first Austen I'd made it all the way through and that I don't think I like her? I may have lied. I understand now why women love Jane Austen; it is because of the female characters she creates. They are quietly rebellious, every last one of them. Elizabeth is, of course, recognized as rebellious, but the beauty lies in the minute differences in rebellion of all the women. None are quite the same, nor feel the same way about any two things. Women can't help but see themselves, or wish they could see themselves in one or more of the female characters. Austen was a genius in this manner; she wrote in the style of her time but broke free from the constraints of stock characterization and petty stories.

3. The Hunger Games

I read this book in about 6 hours, mostly because it is a young adult lit book and pretty easy to read, but also because I was really into it. The rest of the series was kind of a let down, but only because I'm probably a little too old to continue reading YA lit like I do. I always see through it now. But this first book didn't address much of the bigger story that's going (the dystopian future and Katniss's involvement in taking down the people oppressing everyone); it stuck with the Hunger Games themselves, the yearly fight to the death between 24 young "tributes," as an introduction to the bigger story. It's brutal and suspenseful, and you have no idea who to actually pull for. There's also a wide array of intriguing side characters to keep you on your toes.

2. The Help

This was one of my reads over the summer, and it was a pretty awesome choice. It's simply written and easy to read; in fact, as I was reading, I wanted to find a reason to work it into an 11th grade American Lit class. The characters are easy to love or hate as the author wants you to and, really, as you should morally. Also, having partially grown up in the south, I enjoyed the giggles I got out of the ridiculous southernness of some of the ladies. I haven't seen the movie, which is unfortunate because I'm sure it would be on my top list.

1. Storm of Swords

I started reading the Song of Ice and Fire (the name of this series), because HBO made a pretty nice TV series based on them, or at least the first book, called Game of Thrones. This is the third book in the series, and it was game changing. And. So. Awesome. I know I use the word awesome a lot, but this was. It was so emotionally satisfying. I cried circa page 700, cheered sometime after that, and then literally kicked my feet in excitement on the last page. If you enjoy fantasy novels at all, you should give this series a shot. I've enjoyed every book so far, including the 4th, which everyone else said was the worst, they just weren't enough for the top 5 of the year.

Honorable Mentions

The Great Gatsby

I've read this book twice before. I chose to re-read it this summer after finding out that they're making a new movie version with Leonardo Dicaprio. I read the whole thing with him in mind, and it was mind blowingly perfect. I'm excited about the film.

Top 5 Movies

I definitely have to preface this year's movie list by telling you that I did not watch movies much this year. At least, not the ones that were released in 2011. I caught up on a lot of old ones I hadn't seen. Last year's list didn't include anything from December 2010; this year's doesn't include anything from November or December of this year. Oh well.

5. Bridesmaids

I actually didn't like this movie as much as I thought I would based on what everyone else was saying. I mean, I laughed, but not as hysterically as I was expecting. What I did like about it, and what made it a top 5 movie for me, was the relationship between Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph's characters, and the problems that arise for both of them with the introduction of Rose Byrne's character. It felt very real. It's hard to be friends as adult women sometimes.

4. Black Swan

Natalie Portman is one of my favorite actresses and seeing her in this role was pretty awesome. It was fun to watch her lose it in that way. There's the question of what was really going on in the movie, i.e. sexual abuse by the mother? Mila Kunis's character: exists or imaginary? How much of the movie was actually happening or was hallucinated?, and by this time, you surely know I like movies that make you question things. Darren Aronofsky, who directed this movie, does that really well. I left the movie with no definitive idea of what had actually happened, and I like that. On second, later, viewing, I think I got a better idea of what was real and what wasn't.

3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Harry Potter has been a part of my life for about 15 years. Watching this movie was like a culmination of all the tears I had put into this story. There are many things I disliked about the other film versions; to be honest, there were a few things I disliked about this one. But the good outweigh the bad for this one. Over the course of the story, Neville became my favorite character. Finally getting to watch Neville become the hero - the one he could have been had Voldemort "chosen" him at birth - in the moment that he cut the snake's head off was AWESOME. Granted, I didn't like the way they changed that scene, but it was still great fun. This probably isn't a top movie for anyone who isn't a fan of the series. I get that.

2. The King's Speech

Colin Firth is incredible in this movie. I love him. Everything about this movie was awesome. See it now; I don't know what else to say about it.

1. Drive

Ryan Gosling is a god. Also, not to be confused with Drive Angry, starring the not-so-godlike Nic Cage. Drive is not a movie for everyone, but I was intensely moved by a lot of things about it. Gosling's acting was out of this world. I haven't seen The Ides of March yet, which is the one he's going to get nominated for an Oscar for, but I wish that it had come out in a different year than Drive, because he deserves a nod for this as well. The music was PERFECT. The scene in the elevator where Gosling makes out with his girl for the first time before brutally killing a guy sent to kill her was INCREDIBLE. This movie was not about driving cars; it's about what drives people, about what motivation there is behind our actions. It was interesting how much I was moved by this movie about the things that move people and then to see other people who were moved in such a different way than I was. Seriously, now I just want to go watch it.

Sort of Cool

When I was teaching, I was always trying to find really cool but still educational things for the students to do. One time, I had them try to write This I Believe essays. Go to thisibelieve.org for more information.

I had them do this while we were reading To Kill a Mockingbird, a book about morals and beliefs. I had each class choose two of their peers' essays to submit to the organization for publication. I've never heard that any of the kids had theirs published, but I think that's probably because they wouldn't think it was as awesome as I would. They did get really into it though, because of the competitive part, I'm sure.

Anyway, to help them through the process, as it is really difficult, I wrote an essay of my own with them and went through the submission process as well.

And here it is, on the This I Believe website: http://thisibelieve.org/essay/96171/

FOUND

I don't know why I couldn't find the Boston pictures before. Weird. They were right where they should have been. Anyway here's some fun pictures from when the family went up to Boston back in May for Renee's graduation.

In the Common.

Stapleton siblings have questionable graduation rituals. Admittedly, we were also playing twenty questions with our sister at the same time, and some Northeastern professors were definitely sitting at the bar next to us discussing the merits of skipping the actual ceremony.

We find Renee first.





At a bar with everyone, though obviously not everyone is pictured.


Zak redoes my "High five, Paul Revere!" photo op.

Other highlights: Holocaust memorial, which I took lots of pictures of but none of which have people in them; some blurry pictures of the actual graduation ceremony; Zak, Renee, and I visit Fenway during a baseball game and I drink Guinness for the first time since leaving Ireland...

I'm already planning how much fun being in Chapel Hill for my graduation/30th birthday party will be in 2013!

Grad School is Hard.

Dear Laina from 10 months ago,

You clearly wanted to get into Carolina. It's a good thing you like reading, writing, prezi.com, google docs, and typing. Here's hoping it stays that way, and you continue not minding working for 11 hours straight on a Sunday.

Love,

present Laina

First Day of School, First Day of School... (ala Nemo)

Okay. Let's be honest. I was NOT excited about my first day of school like Nemo was. In fact, I spent much of the time leading up to the first day wondering, seriously, whether I had made the right choice in leaving a pretty good job (read: I made money) and going back to school.

I had no idea. I rather doubted it actually.

But today, the third day of school, I remembered how much I love being a student. And I think it's going to be okay.

Okay, Daddy...

As my dad so kindly pointed out to me, my life is really not that average. So here's a quick couple of pictures from the cool stuff going on in the last 5 months or so.

Jim took his black belt test in Atlanta, so I drove down there to watch. We missed the test accidentally, but had fun hanging with Amanda nonetheless.

My friend Dan and I took students to Ireland, Wales, and England.

I kissed the Blarney Stone.

I supported my dear friends Anna and Kalyn by going to LEAF.

We had a masquerade party for my 28th birthday.

Also, Renee graduated, but for some reason I am not able to access those pictures from blogger... They're on my computer... I can see them... Alas, they remain the lost Boston pictures.

Oh yeah. I'm also moving to Chapel Hill, NC on Friday to attend UNC Chapel Hill this Fall for my master's in Library and Information Science. There's that. :)

My Life is Average

I haven't blogged recently because nothing interesting has happened to me. I suppose I could go back and talk about the things I meant to talk about way back when...

But that's just so boring.

2011 has been average to me so far.

I completed applications to some schools for a Master's Degree in Library Science.

I've read 2.5 books, with the half being Jane Eyre. When I finish it, it will be the first "classic" chick lit" book I've read since I picked up Persuasion, by Jane Austen, many moons ago. Classic chick lit and I have never been that great of friends, but I'm actually really enjoying Jane Eyre.

I managed to see almost all the movies up for major Oscars and can't wait to see how they hold up for the rest of the year and my annual year end list blogs. :)

I've been trying to keep up with working out. Seriously, though. As an average, middle class, working American, it's hard to do everything.

I've seen a couple of good concerts.

As opposed to this time last year, I have an awesome living situation and a great roommate.

I have a cool trip planned for Spring Break.

School is really rough, but it looks like we are through the snow days early this year.

That feels like it. Things may or may not start happening in my life. If they do, you'll hear more from me.

Top 5 Movies

This list includes December of 2009, since I didn't include those in last year's list because I hadn't had a chance to see them yet. Oscar voters have advantages I don't... :)

5. Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Oh man. I'm pretty sure people who don't really enjoy video games (I'm not talking Halo or Modern Warfare here. I mean old school platforming Mario games and Donkey Kong Country) will not really enjoy this movie. People like me, who hate the vast majority of these new video games (no, I cannot control them), will thoroughly enjoy this movie. It was fun to watch and funny to boot. Oh, and the music was really good.

4. The Princess and The Frog

Dear Disney, Renee and I have dearly missed movies like this one. Thank you for making it. Love, Us. Really though, we have missed the hand-drawn animation, the silly, over-the-top songs, and the predictable outcome (oh wait! This one actually surprised me! Sweet!). Any girl who grew up loving Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, and the like should love this movie. It also owes some debt to the lesser known Rescuers (not Down Under, mind you). It was like a mix of Aladdin and The Rescuers because it did such a good job of mixing the backwoods bayou Louisiana, the voodoo crazy side streets of N'Awlins, and the "modern" setting of New Orleans. Oh! And it surprised me! I didn't get the ending right!

3. Toy Story 3

I feel like I could probably copy my rant about Up from last year's post like this and have it still be accurate. When has Disney/Pixar ever let you down? When I heard they were doing this movie, I was really, really unsure what to think. When I heard that the premise was that Andy is going off to college and the toys get donated, I changed my tune. Genius. Zak said it best: "Andy was like 7 in the first movie and now he's going off to college. I feel like I've grown up with the guy!" Anyway, the characters in the Toy Story franchise are each other's family and this movie really touched on that. It was really good.

2. Crazy Heart

Jeff Bridges deserved an Oscar for this movie. The acting was great. The music was great. The story was...I don't know the right word. It was sad, but so happy all at once. I don't know how else to describe it.

1.Inception

Holy mother! I HATE Christopher Nolan. The man always makes me leave a movie theatre going "Well...was it like this or like that?" Aside from that, what a phenomenal film. I like that he took an idea that I can relate to, that sometimes we dream things and wake up a little confused (Wait. Did I just make out with Joseph Gordon Levitt?), and made it even crazier. Honestly, this happens to me all the time. Not 3 nights ago, I sat straight up in bed and had no idea where I was because I couldn't remember if I had married some random dude in the dream I was in love with or not. I also loved what he did with the concept of time. Dreams really do feel like you've been in them for days or years sometimes. Nolan did of course leave us with a question at the end, as is his wont, but the main concept of the film, the theory that if you can give someone an idea while they're sleeping, it will linger in waking life even if they don't know where it came from, is really flipping cool. Ignore the question part if that bothers you at all.

Honorable Mentions:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1

I have to give a shout out this one simply because it's the first movie version of the books that I've actually thought they did a really fantastic job with.

Hot Tub Time Machine

I have to throw a straight up comedy on here since the other ones are not. This movie looked stupid because it was. The premise was ridiculous; there's no arguing that. But it was freaking hilarious. There was one scene with John Cusack that had me laughing for days.

How to Train Your Dragon

This fell short of Toy Story 3, but it definitely still deserves a mention. This was a super cool movie.

I do feel like a bunch of good movies are coming out this December and that many of those would probably have topped some of these. I hope I can remember them next year.

Top 5 Books

As another year comes to a close, I think I'll again spend some time reviewing with some lists of things from 2010. This list is kind of crappy. I did not read that many great books this year. Sad. In fact, really only number one is a great book, a classic; the rest of them are good books.

5. Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert

I will happily admit to jumping on the bandwagon with Gilbert's first book, Eat, Pray, Love, which was one of the first "adult" books I read after graduating from college, along with She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb. In fact, I didn't really read anything for about 2 years after graduating because I was so tired of reading things. When I finally did, those two books ended up basically changing my life, so I got pretty excited when I heard about her new book. It ended up not being quite as life changing, which is to be expected, all things considered, but I really enjoyed the topic. Gilbert was basically being forced to marry the guy she met during the love part of her first book if they wanted to be able to live in the states, and she was second guessing this because of the unfortunate end of her first marriage. She travels around the world with her partner waiting for some things to happen with the government and does research into the institution of marriage while she does so, attempting to define for herself what she wants her marriage to be. As a 27 year old woman who questions that institution in our country on a somewhat regular basis, I found the topic interesting and appealing.

4. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

The second installment of Stieg Larson's trilogy is by far the best of the three. The first book was really good but doesn't really get into the story of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo despite the title. It focused more on the story of the other main character and presented us with a murder mystery for intrigue. The Girl Who Played With Fire does focus on her and I found it even more interesting than the first one. Also, the girl who played with fire is kind of a badass.

3. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

I found this book on my bed when I came home right before we went to New Mexico, open to the first chapter. I think Zak tried to read it. Anyway, I took it with me to New Mexico and read it there. I had not seen the movie, nor did I know the movie was based on a book. Actually, Dennis Lehane writes lots of books that turn into movies that I didn't know about. Anyway, the book actually reads very much like a screenplay, and the story was super good. It was a mystery with one of those twists at the end, like I like. But I much prefer to read them than watch them.

2. Atonement by Ian McEwan

This is yet another story that I always wanted to see the movie version of but put off doing until I had read the book. I tried to pick up the book once before and didn't make it, but was bound and determined this time. I ended up really liking it; it's probably the only really "literary" book I read this year. It is often easy to misconstrue things that you're only seeing a little bit of and definitely easy to let things get out of hand when you don't fully understand them. And then it is especially hard to go back and fix those things that you messed up. It's so real, such a "close to home" problem at times, that it really appealed to me.

1. The Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carlson

This was, by far, the best book that I read all year. It explores the relationships in a family of many women, something that falls rather close to my heart. It goes beyond the basic familial relationships to the very core of what it is that makes us human: our emotions and decisions. We love each other and we hurt each other and there are reasons for those things that make sense and reasons that absolutely, 100%, do not make any sense whatsoever. The book starts with a simply chapter introducing the characters, who count the number of flowers they get on the moonflower vine every year. It comes full circle, back to the moonflower vine, in such a way that it actually almost changes the entire story. I had to go back and reread the first chapter.

Honorable Mention: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max

Let me preface this one by saying that this book is not for everyone by any means. Tucker Max is a complete douche who writes about his shenanigans. I have no idea if they are real or not. I assume mostly not, all things considered. And many of them gross me out. However, this is the first book that I have ever read that literally made me laugh out loud. Hysterically. Tucker Max is a really phenomenal writer. I don't mean that he will go on to write the next Great American Novel. He absolutely will not do that, but his writing is absolutely hysterical. It's a combination of topic and his style.

This really wasn't a good year for good books, honestly. This list was hard to put together. Better luck next year.

Do I Really Want To Be A Student Again??

Sure enough!

Actually, that sure enough sounded a lot more positive than I actually feel. I definitely want to get my master's, but there a lot of pros and cons about the lot of different ways that I could go about doing this. First, I had to decide what I actually want to get a degree in, and I'm still really unsure. Literature is such a passion of mine, but getting my MA in Literature pretty much leaves me with a career in teaching. And recently, teaching has become a profession I don't think I want to be in.

It was a really good option at first, but over the course of the 5 years I have been teaching, my optimism for everything has been in a slow but steady decline. The system I work for is broken, and it is really hard to find the motivation to work for a system that is not working for itself. Also, the students are eating away at my belief in the ability of humanity to save itself. I went into this profession believing that I could change and affect things. I know that I do, but it's not enough.

So I've gone back to what I originally thought that I wanted to be when a grew up: a librarian. Or sort of a librarian, anyway. Librarians are slowly disappearing, so I'd be doing my MLIS (Masters in Library and Information Science) with a concentration in Archives and Preservation. Depending on where I end up going, I may be able to do a dual master's with other programs, like Art History, Children's Literature, Law, Library Science, or American Studies.

One way I could do this is to keep teaching and take night classes. This would be good because then I would still have a steady job, as long as they don't make cuts that apply to me, and a steady paycheck, but I would be taking classes again and on my way. However, I am fairly certain the stress of taking classes and teaching all at once would just about kill me, and I'm pretty impatient when it comes to things I want. Doing a couple classes at night would take me longer than two years and that's not really okay with me. The other problem with this is that, if I were to stay here in Asheville to do this, I would be pigeonholed into taking classes from Western Carolina University at UNCA and having it be either a MA in Literature or Education. I don't really think I want to do either of those things because they leave me in the teaching profession.

Another way would be to do summer programs. Many cool colleges offer programs, essentially for teachers, in the summer. This one actually really appeals to me because many of those programs are not around here, so it would be a lot like traveling during the summer, except I'd be somewhere else and taking classes. I would still have my job (again, given that they don't cut my position), but I wouldn't have to teach and take classes at the same time, so the stress levels would not sky rocket. This choice has the same problem as the last; it would take me something like 4 or 5 summers to do this. That would probably be even longer than the first choice. And unfortunately, it would also pigeonhole me into Literature, again.

The last way is to leave teaching and go back to school full time. Best choice, personally.

Then I had to decide on schools, because this particular degree is actually kind of hard to find. I am applying to UNC Chapel Hill, UT (in Austin), Simmons College (in Boston), San Jose State, and UH Manoa. I would also prefer them in that order. The first three are in the top 10 Library Science schools in the country; the last two are in the top 25 or so.

With the GRE scores I have right now, I will not get into Chapel Hill, UT will be questionable, but Simmons should be good. My grades from UNCA are pretty good, but I need the scores to go up. I'm a better student and a smarter person than I look on paper right now.

The other fear that I have is leaving the job that I have right now, being out of work for two years, and not being able to find a job when I get back. What I'm hoping is that I will be able to go to school for a few years, the issues in our country right now will have turned around, and it won't be that difficult for me to find a good job. Then again, I suppose I can always wait tables. Good waitresses at popular places make more money than teachers anyway.

So there's the story of grad school.

I will say this; my ambitions are high. Daddy said he likes the idea of "my daughter, the doctor" to Renee. I'm definitely thinking about a doctorate too.

A Gentleman's Sport Played By Hooligans...

You may not know this about me, but I used to be a really good soccer player.

I've never stopped playing. I don't actually know if that's true, but I'm pretty sure that it is. I've been playing in the women's adult league here in Asheville for around 5 years I think and finally got up the gumption to attempt the co-ed league.

I've always struggled with co-ed. I am so so happy I did both this year, though.

My women's team this year got new sponsorship at a bar right down the street from the fields and my apartment (bonus). We got this sponsorship because the owner of the bar, an old acquaintance from UNCA, is a soccer player herself and wanted to play. This was a step in a really right direction. Also, we picked up a bunch of really awesome girls this season who I hope stick around.

My captain, and one of the girls I have been playing with for several years, got me onto her co-ed team with three of the other girls from our team and then we added one of the new ones halfway through.

Anyway, this season has been phenomenal. I have a new group of friends who I love. I feel like I should have been friends with them forever. My good friend Brittnye likes to take pictures, so she's taken some at a couple games. This is probably the first picture of me in a soccer uniform since 2001, and the first of me playing soccer since 2004 or so.

Upcoming Things...

Since I have been terrible at blogging for like the last 1/2 a year, here is a list of things I will be blogging about shortly...

-new apartment

-grad school

-new camera and taking pictures

-this soccer season

I think that's it. Not particularly in that order.

New Mexico with The Fam Try #2

So I'm going to try embedding the New Mexico video from facebook since the other one is such crappy quality. Maybe it will just be better to embed it...? We shall see.

New Mexico Trip with the Family

This video quality is terrible. I'm working on it. Don't make it big; it just looks bad.

So way back at the end of June, some of the family and I went to see some heritage and other family in New Mexico. I decided to try a stop motion video of the trip. Here it is.

There are a few places where it doesn't quite work, and the credits roll a bit too quickly (only because I put so much stuff on them), but overall I'm rather proud of myself.

8/18 1985-2010

Top Reasons It Is Awesome My Sister is 25.

She’s still got a lot of time to live in fun places I can go visit.

Now she is the same age I “was” at a bar in Nice!

And are both finally closer to thirty than we are to twenty! Misery loves company!

If we ever have to rent a car, she can still do the driving and I can still do the drinking!

Catching a Laina-saurus is still just as funny as it was when she was 24.

In dog years, she’s still only 3 ½, and she sure was a cute 3 ½ year old.

25 won’t stop us from going to things like Finding Nemo and The Princess and The Frog in theatres!

She is still in school, which leads me to believe one day she’ll be able to repay me.

If she is 25, then Zak must be almost 21!

It’s unlikely that this will cause her to stop randomly translating what I say into French just for practice.

She’s still going to love the card and present I sent to Boston so it will be there waiting on her.

She’ll still be able to drink her weight in iced coffee.

We will all still hear the words “inappropriate” and “unfortunate” at the most opportune moments.

Ok, seriously. That list was fun and all, but there’s too much stuff on there that involves all of us, and really, it’s her birthday. My sister is the best. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be stuck between me and Zak, but Renée does it. And loves it. She does whatever she wants, or whatever other people want, and is happy. She can hang out with anyone, talk to anyone, and quickly become basic friends with anyone. A good example of this: she came up to Asheville a few weekends ago and was forced to hang out with me and a bunch of people I had just run through the water drainage system with for like 6 hours. She pulled it off just fine. She has so many friends. Beyond that, she has close friends everywhere. Renée has been in more weddings than anyone I know and probably will ever know. She handles horrid situations with grace and poise and is fantastic at making everyone else comfortable. She’s always got your back, even when you’re wrong, and even though she says I’m the smartest a lot, I’m pretty sure she is a lot smarter than I am.

My sister is one of the funniest people I know and I wish we weren’t both so damn busy so we could talk and text more often. Renée is also one of the most responsible and mature people I know. She is both respectful and respectable. She listens to great music, because she’ll take mine, Dad’s, and Zak’s advice on it, but also go off and find her own. She is open to any possibility.

It is shocking to me to know how much she has changed in the 25 years that I have known her. This is neither good nor bad, though I’m sure in some way, she’d say it’s only good. I simply mean that it is so interesting to see the progression that she has gone through to become the incredible woman that she is today. It’s hard to even remember sometimes that she’s had several unfortunate haircuts when now she is always gorgeous, or that she once punched a boy in the face for being a jerk when now…well I guess if he really deserved it, she’d probably still do that. It’s hard to recall what her voice used to sound like, which is why we call them Laina-sauruses and not Renée-osauruses, when now she is so well spoken and eloquent. I still giggle when I think of some of the nicknames she gave herself and the ones she grudgingly embraced, when now her beautiful name fits her so perfectly.

I am in so many ways jealous of my sister. She followed in a lot of my footsteps and then suddenly branched out. But it’s more a sense of pride than anything. I love knowing I have seen the entire life of this beautiful person.

I got back to myself there for a minute. Forgive me.

If you know my sister, count yourself among the lucky ones. I do.

Happy birthday, Renée Alaia. I love you.

I Got Crappy At This...

So lots of things have been happening and that's one of the reasons that I haven't updated. School ended, and normally that would have been something to excite me enough to blog about it, but around the same time, the rates for tv and internet went up by a whole bunch. I was not entirely prepared for this but could have handled it. My roommate could not. In hindsight, I just shouldn't have told her, let her continue paying what she had been, and eaten the extra just so that I wouldn't be so damn bored. I just didn't care that much since we would both be moving fairly soon anyway.

Thus, I've been getting my internet fixes by using the various wifi spots around town. Kind of fun and interesting actually...

Anyhow, lots of fun things have happened. My birthday was spent in Charleston. Friday was spent at the beach and Saturday was spent at a beer festival and baseball game. It was great.

Here's the whole group that went. And no, the beer festival was not a bud light festival. Tickets to the beer festival included a ticket to the baseball game immediately following, where their cheap beer was attractive to our drunken minds.

So you know, that is my friend Liz, the one who works for US Customs in Charleston and whom I had to do an interview for with the Department of Homeland Security. She got the job and is now way closer to me than Africa or Milwaukee, which is wear she was before.

The only major thing that I've done this summer so far is go to New Mexico with the family.

Here are some random pictures from that trip.

Mom and Lita and White Sands.

Mom eats a hot pepper; Dad laughs.

Dad finds a cowboy sombrero he likes; Mom refuses to let him buy it.

Other stuff that has happened:

I wrecked my beloved Honda Civic Hybrid. Again. I had to get a rental for a few days, then Mom, Dad, and Zak were kind enough to bring me the jeep. Since Renee is home for the summer, I couldn't keep the jeep indefinitely, and had to get another rental once we got back from NM. My car should be ready by the end of the week, just in time for some craziness to get started.

"Craziness" would be defined as moving. Again. I've lost count of how often I've moved in the last couple of years. They've all been for very good reasons, but it's getting old. On a positive, at this point, I think that I've consolidated my stuff pretty well and that it should be easy except for the big stuff that I accrued when I lived alone. Except for how hard it is to move stuff like that, I feel like I could move at the drop of a dime if I had to. The lease technically starts on Friday, and I will be taking a bunch of stuff on Friday, but will have to wait until next week to start getting the big stuff. Bonus on that: moving small stuff is easy for me because I have 4 of those huge tupperware/storage containers full of school shoes, blankets, etc., so I take them to the apartment, throw the stuff that's in there somewhere out of the way, take the empty storage bins back to the old place, fill them up with other stuff (movies, books, more blankets), and take them back.

On another positive, I have a pool again, and thank goodness! As it turns out, spending my summer reading and doing nothing isn't as much fun if I don't have a pool. At least the second half of my summer will be a little more enjoyable, and probably a little more tan.

Which brings me to an admission of seriously embarrassing proportions. At the end of each school year, or at least for the last 2-3, I have not had cable and have gotten by with my HD digital antenna, which actually works quite well despite only picking up about 6 channels. This of course forces me to watch some crap sometimes. One of those things has become a re-occurring end of year theme; I grade papers and watch the auditions for America's Got Talent. DON'T JUDGE ME. I've never made it through the entire season; I only like watching the auditions. Anyway, for some reason this season has really gotten to me and I think it's because they keep sending CRAP through. Seriously. I won't go into because then you probably will judge me, but the judges have sent through some ridiculous acts and left out some really good ones.

Alright, I think that's it.

It's Happening...

I am super excited about this weekend (Hey imagine that! I am excited about a weekend!). Why, you ask? Excellent question! Because there will be a lot of this:

Definitely some of this:

Probably a bit of this:

And more than likely a little of this:

HA! FUN!