Kindle Fever.

Okay, I admit it, I have caught Kindle fever. I know, I know, I am about two years too late. I did not want one for the longest time. I was one of those “I will never have a kindle I always need to hold a book” girl. My boyfriend was going to get me one for Christmas, but I told him not to because I would never use it. Boy was I wrong. We booked a trip to Jamaica in Feburary, and naturally I began thinking of what books I would read. Now if any of you are like me, you prefer those trashy beach novels when you go on vacation, not anything too heavy (God forbid we think too hard on vacation). So, I started thinking, maybe  this Kindle/Nook/E-Reader thing isn’t a bad idea. After all, I read all the time, and there is only so much room left on my bookshelves. 

With that, I started doing my research. My sister has a Nook and loves it. I don’t think there is a big difference between the Nook and Kindle, but I tend to be a pretty loyal Amazon customer. I did not want the Kindle Fire, because let’s face it, I already have an iPhone and a MacBook, do I really need another way to surf the web all day? I think not. All I wanted was a plain E-Reader, just for my books. So, with a few subtle (okay, maybe a little obvious) hints to my darling boyfriend, he got me a Kindle for my birthday, which just happened to be two days before we went to Jamaica. I went with the Kindle Touch, and absolutely love it. I immediately started frantically downloading books (my bank account is still feeling the pain from it!) and had plenty of vacation reads for the week ahead. While in Jamaica, I read 5 books. All girly beachy trashy reads, but I loved them. The Kindle was great to have on the beach, and it certainly saved me some room in my suitcase instead of me bringing 10 different books! I’m so glad I finally gave in to the E-Reader trend. But don’t worry too much, I still have plenty of real books to read, I could never go full Kindle!

And did I mention the awesome case I bought?! I wanted a cute little case, but was in kind of a time crunch to get one before I left for vacation. I headed to Staples and got a basic purple leather case, which certainly got the job done for the week, but I wanted something a little more “me”. So, with the help of google magic, I found the website medgestore.com which has customizable cases for Kindles! After a bit too much time spent surfing through cases, I found my Kindle case soulmate. Look, enjoy, make fun, I don’t care. I love it. And the best part is, it came with a free light for the Kindle, and had free shipping! It’s the little things in life isn’t it?!

Back At It!

After a couple of months of a blog hiatus, I’m back! Life kind of got in the way, as it usually does, and I got off track. Anyways, I am officially halfway done with grad school, and one step closer to getting my master’s degree! I cannot believe how fast the past year has gone, it’s crazy to believe a year ago I was graduating from UConn. 

A lot has changed in a year. I moved home (for better or worse), started & completed a year of grad school, and maintained a long distance relationship with my boyfriend who lives two hours away (also for better or worse!) If you had told me a year ago that I would have done all of that I probably would have laughed. But, life takes different twists and turns, that’s the beauty of it. I always thought when I graduated it would be the worst thing ever and I would hate my life post-graduation. Granted, leaving UConn was one of the saddest days ever, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t cry on my way home (it’s pathetic, I know), but life isn’t so bad. Life is about change, sometimes you just have to roll with it!

Grad School 101

Well let me just say, grad school is very different than I thought. Not in a bad way, I think I was just expecting something else. With that said though, I am really enjoying it. Of course there are those stupid BS classes that I feel are unnecessary, but no matter what you are studying you are always going to have to take those classes. For most of my classes I have to field work in schools, which I think is better than any class I will ever take. Yesterday I had my first observation in a school and I absolutely loved it. I observed an eighth grade english class, as well as a third grade class. Let me tell you, I can now officially confirm that I cannot teach elementary kids. Holy crap it is insane in those classes! I honestly do not know how those teachers do it, they all deserve some sort of raise or something. It was just chaos the entire time. Then I went down to the eighth grade class which was so much more calm and relaxed and kids weren’t picking their noses and pushing each other down. It felt like home. I’m actually really glad I got to see both grade levels because it really does help especially if you are unsure about what level you want to teach. I knew going into it that I didn’t want to teach elementary but it is always nice to just confirm it! I have to go observe a high school class as well, so I think that will be my true test; but I’m sure I will love it.

Besides school, I’ve been crazy busy. When I’m not at school, I’m at work. Which I’m definitely not complaining about it’s just a lot going on! But I guess this is what I signed up for, right?

10 years later.

I was 12 years old in my seventh grade language arts class when our principal came on the intercom and explained the horrific events of the morning of September 11, 2001. I remember exactly where I was sitting. I remember the set up of the room. I remember being so confused as to what was actually happening. It’s hard to grasp something that serious as a pubescent, awkward 12 year old. I felt like I immediately had to grow up and capture what was going on. I remembered my Dad was in New York City at the time. Was he okay? I had no idea where he was in relation to the towers. None of us were allowed to leave school unless our parents came to pick us up. I ended up staying in school for the whole day, and came home on the bus. I walked into my house to see my brother, sister, and mom just glued to the television, which we all watched as much as possible over the next coming weeks just trying to understand why this happened.

One of the best things that came out of that day was what my language arts teacher decided to do the next day. After it had all sunk in as to what had happened, the next morning my teacher made us write down on a piece of paper where we were when we found out about the events of 9/11. To this day, I still have that piece of paper in my room. I don’t look at it often, but I know exactly where it is.

It’s hard to believe that 10 years have gone by since the tragic events occurred. When I woke up this morning, the first thing I could think of was what a beautiful morning it was, much like it was 10 years ago. To think that I have graduated high school and college in the time that has passed since then is crazy. Every year on this day I get more and more grateful for the people I have in my life, and remember all of those we have lost. I hope everyone takes a minute today to realize that life is a gift, and that no day should be taken for granted. Before today is over, take a moment to remember those who risked their lives for others on this day ten years ago. Say a prayer for the families who lost a loved one ten years ago. And always remember, life is a gift.

 

We will never forget September 11, 2001. God Bless America!

Catching My Breath

Woah. That is all I can say after these past two weeks. It has been a weird time.

Let’s begin with Hurricane Irene. Man, she was a real bitch to the east coast, huh? We lost power at about 5am and were out until Wednesday night. Let’s just say, it was not a good time. Luckily, my brother never lost power, so we were able to shower at his house, which if we couldn’t do, god only knows if I would have showered. It would not have been pretty. There were trees down everywhere, roads blocked, detours on every road, an all around miserable couple of days.

And then there was my dog. We had to put down our 16 year old dog, Griz, also known as ChiChi, originally Griswold (yes, we named him after the Griswold family from the National Lampoon vacation movies). We adopted him from a shelter 11 years ago, and he was the greatest dog ever.  He was the top dog (literally and figuratively) in our house, and took good care of all of his doggie brothers and sisters we have had over the years. He will always be the happiest dog we have ever had, and not a day will go by without me thinking about him. We’ll miss you ChiChi, Rest in Peace buddy.

Oh, and did I mention I started grad school?! Yep, it finally happened last night. But of course, I get to class, and my first professor never showed up. Apparently she is in the middle east filming a documentary and failed to inform us of that. So, that was cancelled, and many of us were stuck on campus for 2 and a half hours until my later class began. My second class, educational psychology, was really interesting. There are only 7 people in the class, which I kind of enjoy more because it is much more personal. My professor is an adorable old lady, and I think I am really going to enjoy it. I have my other class on Monday, and after that the semester will be in full swing. It’s crazy, I can’t believe it’s finally happening!

So, needless to say, it’s been a weird past week or two. Slowly but surely everything is getting back to normal, and with any luck normalcy will resume in our house over the next couple of days.  Until then, I am enjoying the weather getting cooler, and finally being able to wear jeans without sweating all day! Hooray for fall in New England!

No Good, Very Bad Day

Today was just one of those bad days that you see in movies. Here’s why:

•  I woke up 2 and a half hours early and couldn’t fall back to sleep. Normally I can sleep through anything, but for some reason my body felt that today that was  not going to happen. I am also a terrible person in the morning…it was not a pretty sight.
• I laid in bed tossing and turning for an hour, when I got a phone call from my neighbor who I was supposed to dog-sit for this weekend, who told me that they were no longer going away because of the hurricane.
• Hurricane  Irene. No explanation needed.
• Speaking of hurricanes, thanks for canceling my Kenny Chesney concert for Sunday. For three years my sister and I have tried to go see him, and there’s always a problem. Here’s hoping year #4  (2012) will be the year.
• I had to work. Which normally I don’t mind, but I was just in a mood when I got there and never got out of it.
• After work, I had to go return my neighbors money that she had already paid me to watch her dogs. This included me having to go to the ATM and get money out, at which point the ATM I was at decided not to work.
• I finally got home to my adorable 3-year old niece waiting for me at home. I was finally in a better mood, until my brothers ridiculously strong pit bull broke the leash I had her on, and the metal ring proceeded to fly back and hit me in the eye. At which point the dog ran down the road and I chased her down for a solid 10 minutes. Barefoot.
• On top of all of this, there is still the looming nostalgia of me not going back to UConn. Today was move in day, and all I kept seeing on facebook, twitter, and text messages was how crazy UConn was, and how everyone is so excited to go back (minus me and all of my graduated friends).  I think that was honestly one of the biggest reasons why I was in such a mood today. I was really sad.
• Then my Dad got home and came down with some kind of flu (feel better, Dad!) and my poor little niece had to go home with her mommy so that she didn’t get sick/stuck here for three days in a hurricane.
• Anyways, I know these are the dumbest problems in the world, and that really I shouldn’t be ranting about all of this when people have actual real problems in the world, but hey, everyone has a crappy day once in a while and today was definitely mine. As my sister says, I had some serious first world, white girl problems going on.
• Now it’s 10:25 on a Friday night, and I am getting ready for bed. I have officially reached old-lady status.

Well, tomorrow is a new day, and I am positive that it will be better than today. The hurricane is supposed to hit little old Connecticut tomorrow afternoon and continue through Sunday. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it is not that bad, and maybe we won’t lose power. If we do, we have plenty of board games and god knows I have enough books for an army to read.

I hope everyone on the east coast is staying safe indoors, and that Irene doesn’t ruin THAT much!

Stay safe everybody, happy hurricane-ing!

Things Just Got Real…..

I officially got my first grad school email from a professor this morning. This whole grad school thing is happening for real! I guess it hasn’t really hit me, but now that I start class in two weeks it’s starting to kick in. It will definitely be different than undergrad. Mostly because I’ll be living at home, working, and going to class only 2 days a week compared to Monday-Friday. The one thing I am looking forward to is that finally all of my classes are actually important, and all relate to what I want to do in my life. No more stupid math requirements, or biology 101 that every student has to take.

My biggest challenge I see coming around is time management. I really knew how to manage my time well in college. I had a routine and followed it pretty diligently every week. Now that I’m at home, I’ll have two jobs to balance, on top of school work and classes. I’m not quite sure what my work load will be like for school, but it will definitely be an adjustment.  I guess only time will tell what it will be like, but I feel like a little kid nervous for her first day of school! Maybe I should get a cool new lunchbox or backpack to bring snacks in…..