May is 100% my Favorite Month

May really is my favorite month. There are lots of reasons for this, some of which are still applicable and some of which are not.

One of the major reasons that I like it so much has to do with school, obviously. This started in college when, for the first time, my birthday was in the summer. I loved that college was done at the beginning of May, and because it became a summer month, it was automatically added to my list of awesome things.

Now that I'm back in high school (haha kind of), May is back to being a spring month. I'm okay with this. In a way, it actually makes it better because the summer flies by so quickly and I like May to feel forever long, which it does when it's the last full month of the school year. I love the thought that summer is on its way, but there's always the fact that it is not here yet and that's just fantastic.

I also love May because of birthdays that occur in this month, particularly mine. I mean, obviously my birthday is important to me. My ex-boyfriend's birthday is in May as well, which was really only important when he was my boyfriend, but as we dated for 5 years or so and didn't break up forever ago, it's still kind of a lingering feeling.

Aside from the birthdays, for whatever reason, some awesome movies came out in May over the course of several years, which also has something to do with my ex-boyfriend and is still lingering.

I also love the weather. And baseball. And laying out and swimsuits. :)

Anyway, May 1st turned in to kind of a great way to start off the month. A couple of days ago I found out that an old friend of mine was getting married on Saturday. I had to change some prior plans around in order to make it work out, but it ended up being worth it. I went to the wedding where I was forced to hang out with that same ex-boyfriend, Jason. So I was forced to hang out with Jas, which could have gotten ugly (and actually kind of did later on, but that's neither here nor there), but I thought went surprisingly well. We drank plenty of beer and watched a really cute wedding which involved a maypole and had some really good food.

Then I went downtown to the baseball game to meet up with the people who were in town who I had originally planned to spend the weekend with. They were here because one of their old college roommates was the umpire at the game. Fun, right? So we hit the game, hung out downtown at Jack o' the Wood and The Yacht Club, and made general merriment.

I woke up entirely hungover and we ate at Sunny Point for breakfast. Sunny Point is one of the best breakfasts I have ever had ever. Then I had to play soccer, which I must admit was not a good idea as I thought I might puke the entire time, but we beat a really good team and I scored a super sweet goal. It was really satisfying.

All in all, another good weekend, and a great start to my favorite month.

Happy Spring!

I wish that I had some better pictures to show you as far as my spring goes thus far. I have one fun one, but mostly they're just me playing around outside with Jack.

This is a picture of me and some friends at the Vampire Weekend show at The Orange Peel over Spring Long Weekend. It was the last night of the break right after I got back from the beach and it was a super fun night. We went for drinks and to sit on the sweet patio at Hannah Flannagan's beforehand (and a shot at Mo Daddy's on the way) and just had a blast hanging out. The show itself was GREAT. If you ever get the chance to see them, do it.

One thing I do love about The Orange Peel (among the many things I really hate) is that they get all kinds of bands somewhat early on in their career, right before you'd expect to see them play in Charlotte rather than in Asheville. The issue is that people from Asheville will travel to Charlotte to see a show usually, but people from Charlotte suck too much to drive to Asheville. For example, I saw Wolfmother at the Peel a couple years ago, right before they blew up and they are now playing at the Fillmore in Charlotte. Same thing with O.A.R., though that was more than 4 or 5 years ago probably, and I also had the opportunity to see Queens of the Stone Age there, but I chose not to go.

They also get really fantastic, kind of huge bands every now and then, like the time the Smashing Pumpkins played 9 shows there. And the time the Beastie Boys sold out in like 45 seconds or something.

Here's Jack playing in the sun one of these really hot days. Actually, I guess he's technically not playing so much as panting, but you get the picture.

Where's Jack? This is one of those times that I was doing laundry and the washing machine was scaring the crap out of Jack. Instead of hiding under something this time, he went outside and refused to come in for like 2 hours. In fact, he hardly moved from that spot. This one also is a good picture of how long the grass in the backyard is...

Happy Spring!

The Department of Homeland Security Came to My House

My phone rang on Monday morning, and, as it was a number I did not recognize, I let it go to voicemail. I checked the voicemail later that afternoon when my student teacher was teaching. Here's a transcript of that voicemail with my own thoughts included in italics:

"Hi (he mispronounced my name horribly, but in a recognizable manner), this is so and so. I work for the Department of Homeland Security. WHAT? OHMYGOD What did I do? OH MY GOD HOLY CRAP I'm in trouble. We need to come in to interview you. We are doing a background check on someone you probably know. WHAT? No I don't know anyone Homeland Security would be checking up on! No. Big mistake. Oh my god. It says here you've known this person since 1997. WHAT? No! No one I have known that long needs to be dealing with Homeland Security. Oh my god. Her name is ** and I don't know how to pronounce this last name but it looks like Lacks uh goo. (At this point I did actually laugh out loud, because I know how much Liz loves her last name being butchered.) Oh Bartholomew was applying for that government position a couple of months ago and told me she would need verification of living situations. Duh. Wow, Lou. Nice freakout. If you could just give me a call back at your earliest convenience, my number is...


Anyway, I hang up and call the guy back; we talk briefly about how I know Bartholomew and set up an interview for the next morning. Cue snow. In fact, we haven't had school since Monday. He called me back this morning and just came by the house to conduct his interview.

I was asked to verify a bunch of things I didn't quite remember, like Bartholomew working in the Asheville Mall and living in a house on Edgewood. I didn't remember her working in the mall at all until the guy said it was at The Children's Place and I vaguely recalled that. When he said "Edgewood," I said "The apartments near campus?" He said no and described it as a house that had been split into apartments and that triggered a memory and I said this, appropriateness apparently no matter to me:

"Oh I remember that, but not because I ever visited her there. She told me once she was living in a house with a professor from UNCA" Yes, he says and starts flipping through his notes to find his name. "His name was Seamus McNerney. Seamus Patrick McNerney, born on St. Patrick's Day actually." Sounds like a good Irishman. Was he a good professor? I pause because McNerney was one of my favorite professors, but not for very good reasons. Like any good Irishman, he drank whiskey out of his coffee mug during every class. He also gave me an A when I did not deserve it. I go with "Yeah I really liked him." Is he still at UNCA? I pause again because I'm not sure if looking up McNerney to ask about Bartholomew is a good idea. I went with complete honesty: "Actually, I have no idea (I don't.) But I heard he was really sick a few years ago (I did, from Liz. Apparently, the alcohol was slowly killing him)." I guess this was good enough information since someone else, possibly Liz, had mentioned McNerney and me remembering that he was there in that house without him prompting probably verifies that she did in fact live there, which I think was the whole point.

He never asked me about when we actually lived together except to ask if there were any drug, alcohol, or financial problems. I laughed. Probably also not appropriate. Liz did not enjoy my drinking habits at all when we lived together. She got over it eventually, but I was definitely the "bad" roommate.

Everything else was stuff basically along the lines of "Do you think that this person will betray her country?" It actually felt a little contrived, but that's probably because I don't really think about things like betraying your country. I guess I've never dealt with the government or anyone from the government that closely so it was kind of intimidating. He even showed me his badge when he came in.

One thing that did bother me a little is that he asked about foreign travel, and how much she had done and where. It seemed to be a matter of interest in "foreign governments." Scary. If I ever apply for a government position, they will probably not accept me solely based on the fact that I've been to France on four separate occasions, that my sister lived there, that I studied in England, have taken students to Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, backpacked in Costa Rica, that I have an uncle in Holland, that I'm taking more students to England, Wales, and Ireland, that I have plans to go to as many places as possible in my lifetime, especially on summers when there is a World Cup, and that my family is from California, because, let's admit it, California is kind of like a foreign country (all those damned hippies and Mexicans.) My sole saving grace would be that my grandfather was in the Air Force (Go America!) and that he instilled in me a love of seeing foreign places and cultures at a young age, I just never had the desire to fight for my country to do it.

The worst part was him actually coming to the house. I had to run around the house hiding all my questionable literary material and marijuana.

KIDDING!

The World Decided to Celebrate the End of No-Drinking January With Me

On New Year's Day this year, I decided not to have anything alcoholic to drink in the month of January. I have some a skin condition/immune disorder called psoriasis. Normal skin cells produce new skin at a rate of every 28-30 days. In some places on my body, my skin cells produce new skin every 3-4 days. This does not give the skin in those areas enough time to mature, so it is all flaky and thin when it gets to the surface, giving areas of my skin a red, dry look to them. It looks like a problem that lotion could solve, but the problem is actually deeper than that, hence immune disorder. My skin cells think that there is something wrong on that area of my skin and are therefore producing new skin in order to fix it. It's really pretty disgusting, but it's been mostly under control for the last 5 years or so.

And on a positive, I'm kind of like a superhero! If I get cut on a psoriasis spot, it's usually gone in the next day or so.

Anyway, I decided to try to eradicate the psoriasis by trying a few new things on my own. I did some research and decided on a bunch of things at once. Some of them I stopped right away and some of them seemed too hard, so here is what I ended up with.

I take 6 vitamins a day: zinc, B-complex, fish oil, flaxseed oil, echinacea, and a standard women's one a day.

And I stopped drinking for the month of January.

And it's working! Both of the large psoriasis spots (on my calf and elbow) have diminished to about 10% of what they were and there are areas on them which are nearly completely gone.

Now I honestly can't just stop drinking, but my plan is to cut that to about a quarter of what I was doing, meaning I'm not going to have that one beer with dinner anymore, or those two beers when I go see a movie. It will be cut down to just weekends, for the most part. I think I'll probably have to make exceptions for special occasions. I do plan on continuing with the vitamins though because I think that's what is making the biggest difference.

My mom is going to be so happy when she reads this.

Anyhow, I decided to cut myself a break and end No Drinking January this weekend, even though it was still technically January. This turned out to be great because we had our second snowpocalypse of the winter. The world decided to celebrate with me!

There I go!

A Fresh Start

Recent events required me to detach myself from any previous records of my comings, goings, and doings. Here's to a new beginning.

I've moved into a house in West Asheville with Sarah So far it's going great. I of course brought Jack with me. :)

We had our first party a couple of weeks ago. It was an Ugly Sweater Party and it went quite well.

Sarah and me.

And my good friend Sam and Me. Sammy had a whole outfit. My horrible teacher sweater was quite fitting.

Other than that, nothing has been up. School is in and everything that entails is back of course. The difference this year so far has been that I FINALLY have far less planning to do and actually have time to read stuff FOR FUN! Incredible! I will try to keep this up to date with that as you all know how I love to share good books. Most recently I enjoyed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and I am currently reading The Road.

I went to my first college football game a couple of weekends ago at App State in Boone. It was totally fun. There is an unfortunate lack of pictures, however...

Thanksgiving with La Familia was fantastic, though my sister, Renee was super missed. Actually, the funniest thing happened. We hit pretty late on Thursday night and we're all sitting around watching a movie and I realize I want a rum ball. Duh. It's November. Of course I want a rum ball, but Mom hides them. Renee is always the one who finds them. My brother, Zak and I hadn't even thought to look. Mom had to tell me where they were. It was totally disappointing.

And that's where I will stop for now. I think that about covers it anyway. :)