It's Possible that I Live for Weekends

This past weekend I went down to Charlotte, mostly because I had tickets to two different concerts, but also to see my family of course. I think I may have mentioned this already, but it turned out to be another really great weekend so I'm just going to keep on keeping on.

Friday night, I had tickets to Flogging Molly (sorry sister!) at the Fillmore. They opened a new music place in downtown Charlotte last year. I got to see The Offspring at the outdoor amphitheater part of it last summer, but this was my chance to see the indoor venue, the Fillmore. I really can't complain about either venue in and of itself. The outdoor amphitheater is actually kind of perfect for any band you really want to see outside, but that wouldn't fill up a huge pavilion like place. The Fillmore was pretty well thought out and put together. There are plenty of bars and you can see from pretty much anywhere. All of that said, my biggest complaint about the place as a whole is the price of alcohol. A small fill-in-the-blank-here-with-some-crappy-beer is $9! WHAAAAAAAT?!?!?!

When we went to see The Offspring, we just tailgated in the parking lot beforehand. This actually did not go over that well as it just made me want more beer when we got in to the show and I ended up spending more money than I should have. This was not the result of drinking in the parking lot I had anticipated.

This time we had no such plan, but that turned out well because sober me cannot justify paying that much for beer while drunk me just wants more, apparently, and cost has no meaning. I had a solid one beer.

But Flogging Molly was fantastic and I'm fairly certain it's the best FM show I've seen. Zak, his girlfriend, and his friend Sean also really enjoyed themselves. I met up with Jim and some other friends afterwards for a little while.

The weather for the weekend was also fantastic, so on Saturday, I did a hike up Crowders Mountain and picnicked at the top. It was a seriously beautiful day. I took Jack as well and discovered that he's not much of a fun of rock jumping or heights. I had to lift him over some stuff. Someone actually asked if I needed help at one point. It was kind of funny. It's a pretty hard hike, but it was well worth it.

Here's Jack on top of the mountain. Please notice that's it the only mountain around for miles. I didn't even know it existed, honestly.

Sunday was also a really beautiful day, so I thoroughly enjoyed my drive back to Asheville, especially since I was well aware that this was just one of those random times when the weather is pretty for no reason other than to make me think spring has sprung and then dash all of my hopes and excitement by snowing again several days later.

And because it's hilarious, here's Jack looking out the back window of the jeep. It's not quite warm enough to take the top off, but Saturday was warm enough to put the back window up, but not have all the front windows down. Jack was okay with that.

The Sun Will Come Out...

TOMORROW!

Tomorrow is going to be a really good day. I took a personal day so I could take the GRE!! Hurray! And then I will be driving to Charlotte to see one of my favorite bands, Flogging Molly, with Zak, his girlfriend, and a bunch of my friends who I either know will be there or I am quite sure will be there. Jim unfortunately has no ticket as of right now and I have been unable to acquire one for him. I am sad about this but am assuming the combination of having successfully completed the GRE, FM, Zak, and the friends who will be there will keep me happy until we can meet up afterwards. My other friends Will and Brandy have already agreed to meet up after the show.

In fact, it's going to be a good weekend, but I won't ruin a future blog by blogging it before it happens.

Anyhow, I am taking the GRE, obviously, so that I can go to grad school. I won't be going until next fall, Fall 2011, because of a very important decision involving health care, but I'm looking into how I could start taking classes here in Asheville and have them transfer. I have no idea if that will work out at all.

I have not really started looking at specific schools, but I'm considering looking in Boston to be near Renee and I kind of love Boston, Atlanta to be near Amanda and because it would be fun, and California just to go back to CA and be near family and duh, it's California. I am, of course, also considering some "fall back" schools here in NC. I could totally go to a school at the beach. I also have friends at Appalachian State right now and I suppose it would be kind of nice to go where friends are already.

To summarize: It's all pretty much up in the air.

On unrelated notes, my dog will not stop whining at me to let him out because he has spotted a squirrel. And I need a good book to read. Suggestions?

I Love My Sister

Renee surprises me constantly. She always surprises me in a good way, but every now and then, it's not only good, it's also hilarious. This just happened:

7:28 - I see that Renee is calling and get excited. We're both so busy that we rarely have time to talk.

7:28 1/2 - Hello? Hello? Reneeeeeeeeee? She beeps when I am supposedly already connected to her.

7:28 3/4 - I say "Hey. That was funny. You beeped in on a call I was having with you."

7:29 - Jane: "Stoptalkingineedyourhelpohmygodthetoiletisfloodinghowdoistopthetoiletfromflooding?!?!"

This continues. Basically, her bathroom is flooded and there is still water coming out of the toilet.

7:30 - I tell Renee to open the top of the toilet and make sure the hole the water goes down through is covered up to stop the toilet from running.

7:30 - "OHMYGOD is the top of the toilet supposed to be filling up with water?"

7:31 - "Why would I know how toilets work?"

7:32 - The toilet has stopped running and therefore stopped leaking water onto the floor.

7:32 1/2 - "This is so not what I wanted to have happen tonight. I have wine and junk food and I probably don't have to go to school in the morning."

7:33 - Renee informs me that she called everyone she could think of, including her ex-boyfriend, and no one answered. I am offended that she did not call me before her ex-boyfriend. She says she didn't think I would know any more about toilets than she does. Then she says "Do you think paper towels are okay to clean this up with?" Then, "We don't even own a mop."

7:34 - She settles on using her yoga towels to mop up the water after I convince her that toilet water is not the same as sewage water.

7:40 - We have been chatting and catching up when I have her go back to the toilet to try flushing it to see if it's just a problem with the handle or something.

7:41 - "Oh my god it's flooding the bathroom again!"

7:42 - I instruct her to again make sure the rubber stopper is covering the hole and then ask if the toilet bowl is full of water. Response? "I can't see it; I left the top covering the bowl." It was, of course, and I end up explaining how a toilet actually works, where the water comes from, etc.

7:43 - "This is why I need a boyfriend! Seriously."

7:45 - "Maybe you should try plunging the toilet. I think that's the only way at this point to get the toilet to flush without filling it back up with water and flooding again. You need to get that water out of the bowl." This fails to work.

7:45 - Renee's solution? "I'm just going to clean up the water and wait for someone else to come home and take care of this."

I can't believe my sister had no idea what to even look at when the toilet flooded. Seriously.

Throughout all of this, I was attempting to make dinner (veggie chili) and do laundry. Let me explain why this is kind of a big deal; the washing machine that our landlord provides in the house is the oldest washing machine I have ever seen. I'm not exaggerating. You know those stores you see sometimes that house old electronic stuff and often have a bunch of old stoves, refrigerators, washers and the like just piled up all willy nilly? Those stores kind of intimidate me. Our washing machine is very much like what you see in those stores.

Anyway, our washing machine also doesn't work quite right. It works, but you have to shut it off, turn the knob to the next thing, and turn it back on. It doesn't go through all the motions on its own. It also makes a TON of noise, especially anytime it is spinning. It kind of shakes the whole house. This freaks my dog out.

Normally, Jack is out, running around, playing, or looking out the window for a cat or squirrel to bark at, but he responds very much to my emotions. If I'm on the phone with Renee and my voice is somewhat frantic, he will lose it a little bit and hide under the bed. The combination of me being somewhat frantic and the washing machine shaking the whole house reduced him to this:

He is as far under the futon as he could possibly be, back against the wall, on a blanket that he must have pulled under there with him. Do please observe that he also took his favorite toy with him on his retreat. It's like his own personal survival kit: a blanket and a toy. It's been about an hour and a half now and I still can't make him get up and come out, which is crazy because he never goes under the futon except for a second if a toy got tossed under it inadvertently. He also very rarely goes this long without being next to me or following me around as any of my friends can tell you. He is a little attached.

I guess he is really upset about Renee's toilet.

Dear Whoever Did This To Me,

Whoever you are, you suck.

The powers that be cancelled school today and have already called it off for tomorrow as well. Don't get me wrong; I appreciate the unexpected days off. The problem is that someone messed up somewhere and even though we have only had 4 days off because of snow, they are already taking away our Spring Break.

Last year, we probably ended up having at least 7 or 8 days off and they never even touched Spring Break.

What happened is that for whatever reason, our school system didn't receive some "waiver" from the state that allowed us to start before August 25 or go past June 10. So we started later than normal and have to end on June 10. Our calendar for this school year already goes to June 10, so we cannot add school days to the end of the school year. Thus, good bye Spring Break, as you are the only thing they have left to use to make up days. Tomorrow will take one day from it, and any other days we miss because of weather will continue to take days until there are no more to take.

Oh wait. Spring Break isn't the only thing they have left to use to make up days. There's always all the Saturdays left in the school year!

Bite me, powers that be! Bite me!

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!

Lost

This is how I feel right now.

Hahah okay that's a big lie. I feel fantastic right now. The beginning of the year has actually been pretty good.

The reason I titled this blog "Lost" is that I've been spending every spare moment re-watching the greatest show ever on television. The final season of Lost begins on February 2, and I am smack in the middle of my quest to watch seasons 1-5 before that happens.

Don't judge me. I've spent a vast portion of my life reading books and exercising my brain in other ways.

The bottom line is that Lost is pure genius and that it does in fact exercise my brain just fine. There's no real easy way to explain Lost. Essentially, a plane crashes on an island in what should be the South Pacific and the island turns out to be really weird and have all sorts of strange phenomenon. The people are interested only in getting off the island, but over the course of the 108 days they spend on it (more in some cases, less in others), they become real people to each other and the story evolves into what is surely one of the writers' or the creator's philosophy on what it is to be human. The mystery of the science, phenomena, and technology of the island drives the story, as we as watchers can't help but wonder what the heck is going to happen. While the "what" is interesting, in the end what we really want to know is "why" these things have happened, and that's where the meaning of humanity comes in. What have these characters, these people, done to cause this insanity? And more importantly, what can they do to fix it?

So anyhow, I'm about 1/3 of the way through season 3. I think I can do it. Luckily, I haven't had a lot to do this month. That will be explained in what will probably be my next blog, sometime after January is over.

P.S. I got a sweet new camera. Here's the first picture with it. This is my friend Brandi's little boy Collin. He's 16 months old and he loves me. :)



Also, I apologize, but I cannot figure out how to make pictures that you can click on to get full size. Daddy, will you please help me with this the next time I'm home?

2009 Wasn't That Awesome

I knew I wouldn't get this one done until after 2009 was done. Here are my Top 5 Moments of 2009. This took so long because it was kind of hard to think of 5.

5. Going to 3 beerfests in about a month.
Damn you liver! Okay, not really; I must honestly say I do love having a liver and I hope it continues to work properly. I'm not actually sure when all these beerfests were. The first was High Country in Boone, NC. This was the smallest and shortest, but I had the best beer I've ever had in my life there. It was a homebrew from an App State professor and I can't remember what it was called, but it was mint chocolate and it was amazing. Then there was Brewgrass in Asheville, which is a HUGE deal, but the planners keep it small. It's also a family affair. :) The last was Octoberfest in Charlotte, which was actually really big and ended with me falling asleep on a friend's couch at like 8, then waking up periodically and falling back asleep again. Yes, there were definitely people there seeing this. Embarassing, but it was my third beerfest.

4. Seeing Smitty
Smitty was my soccer coach in high school and I hadn't seen him in a long time. I got an email from him letting me know that his boy's team would be playing against Reynolds, a school in Asheville, and asking if I had any scouting info and telling me to come out and say hi. It worked out perfectly because my friend Adam was in Asheville that weekend too. He had also played soccer for Smitty and we both got to go out and see him. Awesome.

3. Find out Social Distortion was going to be playing in Charlotte
I'm pretty sure I wish I had a video of my freak out when I discovered this on the internet. Granted, the show ended up not being that great. But the moment I found out I was finally going to get to see one of my favorite bands was totally priceless.

2. Having 98% of my students pass their state test
Standardized tests are kind of BS. But I have to get my kids to pass them. This last school year was really, really iffy. I had a TON of special ed kids and a group of really unmotivated "normal" kids. I usually get really good numbers of students passing, but I was really worried about last year's group. They ended up doing a great job, however, so either they're smarter than they let on, or I'm a better teacher than I think I am. For my sanity's sake, I think it's probably the latter.

1. The general success of my first student trip overseas
In April, over Spring Break, I took a student group to Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. Trips like these are not school sponsored, so it's completely up to parents as to whether they want to send their children. I was REALLY nervous about it, but it turned out fine. Better than fine, really. There are definitely some things I will do differently next time, but in general, it was a lot of fun. I was also really scared that I would be bored out of my mind. I usually travel on my own schedule and plans. These was with a tour group... on a bus... But it actually turned out great. See, I go for free as a group leader, so I got to see cool places, spend a lot of solo time wandering these cool places (which is really, really fun), and watch some teenagers grow just a little bit into adults in just a week. And I did it all for under $400. Sweet!

So there it is. Three cheers for 2010; it will probably be better!