Blogging News!

So I've been thinking for a while that I'm going to find a theme for my blog. Finally I've come up with an idea and I think I'm going to stick with it. My plan is to officially start the new blog theme at the beginning of the new year. My new blog theme is going to be Bargain Baking.

What I'm going to do is compare baking from scratch with baking from a box. I'll be doing cost, time, and taste analysis. Which means, if you live close by (IE, live with me, date me, work with me, or somehow within a 200 mile radius) you will be on the eating end of my blogging experiment. Now here's the fun part, dear readers... I'd like you to help me with the Bargain Baking challenge by submitting any recipes you'd like me to bake (I'll even give you part of the end results unless I burn them). Also, please feel free to submit any new titles for the blog. I'm kinda leaning towards "Bargain Baking" or "Food Fight", but I'm not terribly keen on either of those.

So look out for the bake off of 2010!

-A

A Thanksgiving Moment

I went to Justin's mom's house for Thanksgiving this year. It was my first ever visit to Walterboro, SC and I was pretty excited. I was looking forward to all the spectacular "redneck" stuff Justin promised me Walterboro would bring. He showed me around the great little area of Hendersonville, SC and pointed out all his haunts from when he was a kid. I looked forward to his mom dragging out the baby books so I could ooh and aww over Justin's baby photo's. I even expected there to be some exercising of our 2nd amendment rights (and BTW, did you buy a gun on friday or saturday? B/C in SC guns were tax free).

I DID NOT expect to share my Thanksgiving dinner with the stinkbugs however!!!

There I was sitting at the dinner table enjoying my turkey dinner and headed down the road to a food coma, when out of the corner of my eye I see this gray insect crawling along the table cloth below my mounds of food on my plate!!! I freaked out only a little bit... ok, I really screamed and shoved my chair back (into the china cabinet) trying to get away from the little freak. Once I realized the stink bug had me cornered (because I could push my chair that far), I got out of there and ran into the living room. and proceeded to giggle furiously at my hysterical overreaction to this little bug. Eventually everyone (myself, mainly) calmed back down after the stink bug was removed from the premises, and we proceeded to finish dinner. Later Justin's brother's fiance thanked me for the bit of excitement and distraction from talking about her wedding details. All in all, totally a Turkey Day worth remembering! Let's hope next year it's just guns on Thanksgiving, not bugs!

Thankful Wednesday

Today has shown me:

1) I'm thankful for indoor plumbing. The water got turned off at work. I definitly take indoor plumbing for granted.

2) The internet. It is also going to be turned off at work (at least to some degree) today.

3) My education. You can't take it away from me, hah!

Have a great, and thankful, thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving

During the past week, I feel like I've hit a brick wall emotionally and financially while going 60 mph.  I'm not one to be a pessimist, and even in times of negativity or challange, I try to find the positive and bright side to things.  So I think these challanges occurred the week before thanksgiving, and right before the kickoff to the holiday season to remind me of how lucky I am and how able I am to be in control of the situation, instead of the situation controlling me. So here's my thankful list:

1. I'm thankful for my job. It enables me to maintain the feeling of being able to control my situation.

2. I'm thankful I have a roof over my head. It's more than a lot of people have this year.

3. I'm thankful for my optimism, intelligence, and education. I'm glad life presents interesting challanges to me to maintain those qualities.

4. Above all, I'm thankful for my life, and the lives of those around me.

What irks me... every now and then

Ok, so for many people who know me, I generally let a lot of stuff people say slide.  I'll admit it, we're all culpable of saying things when we really haven't thought out the implications. One of those things that repeatably gets said around me involves that fact that I look young for my age. I'll admit it, I don't try hard to look older, but I also don't try to look younger than I really am. What are those remarks? They are the unintentional ageist remarks young adults (22+) quite often hear.

I know I'm not alone in hearing "oh, I thought you were a student" or "you really don't look old enough to ___" or the best "really, you're 25?!! Gosh, I thought you were ____ (usually an age in the teens)". I mean, if I were to reverse those comments to be a comment on how old the person looked, it would A) be insulting, and B) imply that I thought that person wasn't equipped to be doing the job or activity they're doing due to their age.

For awhile (like most of my life), I've let these kinds of comments slide. Most women in my family do look younger than they really are and I will consider myself very lucky one day when I'm 45 and feeling like an old hag and someone says I look like I'm in my 20s. But what really set me off onto a path of thinking about ageist comments was an experience someone I knew had at a professional conference.  There's this friend of mine that I encouraged to get presentation experience and she submitted a proposal, which got accepted. She worked long and hard on it, and did a fabulous job. What really irked me was when we were reviewing her presentation feedback forms and some of the comments read "what a great job she did, considering how young she is".  I was flabbergasted!  Age shouldn't have anything to do with how qualified someone is.

Grr it really makes me mad.

Update

Today I was taken away and locked up! Thank you all for helping raise bail for me. Today I raised $80, 10% of my personal goal for Jerry's Kids. That is enough to pay for 1 minute of research, or 3 flu shots (with come change left over). Thank you everyone! If you forgot and still want to donate, my website is still open to securely take money.

Roll Tide!

Ok, I'll admit it. I LOVE FOOTBALL. College football to be precise. Which leads to faux debates with J about college vs. professional. I like the screwups and the bad seasons. I think the skill and unseasoned-ness of college students is awesome. It probably comes from having this thing for wanting to work with college students and see them be successful. Anywho, I know I'm right that college football "rawks!", so to speak.

That's not excatly the point of this post. The point is, I'm going to 'Bama this weekend to watch the USC beat Alabama (I know, in my dreams, cuz 'Bama is having a great season so far). So I'm going to watch the game in Alabama... on TV. Yup, I'll be watching from Birmingham, but I'll be cheering for the Gamecocks. Go Gamecocks!

So weeks ago, I signed up to help raise money for Jerry's Kids, a part of the MDA, or the Muscular Dystrophy Association. I have a week and a half before I'm thrown in Jail. Here's what you can do: go to https://www.joinmda.org/aiken2009/annev and donate. It's that easy. Please consider giving a little (or a lot). So you know how much of a difference just a little bit of money makes, I've included a chart of what donations go towards:
* $30 - Flu Shot
* $82 -1 Minute of Research
* $100 - Support Group Session
* $800 - Child to MDA Summer Camp
* $2,000 - Assist with Wheelchair or Leg Braces
* $4,000 - Cabin of 5 friends at MDA Summer Camp

If just 3 people donate $10, together they can help pay for a flu shot and help these kids stay healthy. My Goal is to send a child to the MDA Summer Camp, so I'm trying to get to $800 dollars.

Fall Break Thursday

I love students. But sometimes, a small break from them like fall break can be rejuvinating and refreshing. I'm already off to a good start this morning and I'm excited to get more stuff done, like grading final exams. (If you're one of my students, the good news if I'm half way through grading your finals. The bad news is I'm not posting grades until Monday).

Fall is starting to be kinda nice here in South Carolina, but unfortunatly it's just not that good of a season here. The leaves kinda change, but they also do that when we have drought conditions. No, the season I really, really like in the South is Spring. There's so many beautiful things blooming at that time, that it catches your breath with the beauty surrounding you. Sorry Southern Fall, you lose to Southen Spring.

USCA's Small Obsession

So I came back to campus today and found this gem in my email from a faculty member on campus:

Yes, that is an Albino Squirrel. Like anything albino, apparently these are pretty rare. I guess something must be in the water because this is the second Albino Squirrel to take up residence on the campus. Our last Albino Squirrel died last spring. and the death was verified, as someone found the dead animal on the ground.

Why I can't do dinner and a movie

So I had dinner tonight with a friend I haven't seen in a couple of months because we've both been so busy. Now is when I realize, yet again, how talkative I am. We met for dinner at 7:30 (YAY IHOP), and hung out till about 9:30 just talking and catching up. It was a good catch up and I hope we don't wait so long before hanging out again. I think if I go another couple of months before we have a big catch up event, we'll end up needing to have a semi-slumber party for all the talking we'll do. Ah, new friends are wonderful and it's great to find like minded people in a small town.

In the last week...

Oh, shoot, I skipped a week! Why, because I'm lazy and prime time TV shows have started up. Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Bones, Fringe, House, Project Runway, HIMYM, and Big Bang Theory all require a serious amount of time and dedication to watch. I mean, it's not just enough to watch them during the show time (which I miss half the time due to silly things like performances of the Best Little W****House in Texas), but these shows require serious, I mean SERIOUS commitment. I must find an appropriate blog and analysis of every show after I watch them to find the hidden, more deeper meaning behind them. Oh yeah, I also moved... :) I love moving and I have a cute little place with my sister and we have a bit of a yard, so let the cookouts begin. Anyhow... now I'm back to blogging.

Now that my big adventure is done for the season, I'm going to take a small break from acting and give writing a chance. I've been given the chance to write a couple of short chapters in a tutor training handbook and I'm really excited to get started. Hopefully, this will turn out better than some of my grad school and undergrad papers because I actually want to write these chapters. I'm going to start thinking of a timeline for this project and hopefully have an idea by the end of the weekend of when I'm going to get what done.

Also, the book I can't put down (but just happens to be kind of lost cause I haven't unpacked it from the move):

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver- I have no clue why I like this book so much other than the ideas speak to me, it's plainly written so it's a quick read while talking about new concepts, and it's an interesting concept. The book is about the Kingsolver's family moving from the desert to Virginia so they can be localvores who don't tax the land. I like the fact that there's a lot of practical deep wisdom there and it's presented in many different formats and viewpoints. I hope this might be a top contender in our reading selection.

Two for Friday

I found this on my learning professionals listserv and thought it'd be really great for students out there to see to understand the gist of learning styles. Also, I'm attaching a link to the Learning Styles 60-second podcast I did this past spring.



Podcast: Learning Styles Info and Activities

Book Reviews

I'm on this reading committee and we're in charge of selecting a book for our yearly first year reading experience. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, in the world of Higher Ed, the answer is always "it depends". Why, do you ask? Because we've been meeting since LAST September to select a book for 2010-2011, and still haven't found one and we were supposed to be done last spring. We do have a good excuse... the theme we choose is a really hard one, and we're a bunch of hard-headed stubborn folk who won't change our theme. So we're still reading. Here is my year in review recap of the book's we've read:

Theme: Environmental Responsibility

Book: The World Without Us
Awesome book and it really helps you think about what you're actions right now, or the actions of your grandfather, mean and how long it would take for those actions to reverse. Why we didn't choose this book even though a lot of us liked it: The language was a bit difficult and we felt it would be over the heads of most (not all) of our school's freshmen. It would, however, be a good companion to whatever we choose. Definitely a must read if you're interested in your personal environmental impact. I'd highly recommend the chapter on cities, buildings, and houses, and the chapter on plastics.

Book: In Defense of Food
Stretching our theme quite a bit to include human health and nature, we all read this book and really liked it. I personally, did not like it. I felt it was a bit too much whack science, but others in the group disagreed. While we really like the book, it was a bit too much outside of the environmental responsibility theme and would require too much stretching to connect the dots for the freshmen. Our student member of the committee also felt it was too boring.

Book: Unbowed
This book is also great and discusses one woman's effort to try and re-plant vegetation in her native country that's been over developed by humans. It's really good and demonstrates what someone can do even if they come from the lowest of poverty levels. However, we didn't choose the book because it catered a bit more to the female point of view, the narrative takes place in Africa and wouldn't be as relevant to our incoming students. Also, it didn't fit just right with our theme because it focused more on the vegetation aspect of environmental responsibility and on the aspect of social injustice.

More book reviews to come (maybe next week?).

Whoops, It's Thursday!

I didn't mean to go so long without posting, and I'm sorry. So here goes what I've been doing this week instead of posting...

Tuesday Night-
I went to a very cool event that was called Let Your Children Tell. It was a documentary play about 4 children's lives during the Holocaust. I really enjoyed it, though I felt the acting could have been more sincere. I would say the best (or really, in this case, the worst) part of the play, the part that really got across the message that the holocaust was a really crummy and awful part of human history was when the actors were telling the story of arriving at a concentration camp and the families being separated. The crying and screaming of the children being ripped from their mothers' arms was just terrible. I really have no words to discribe how it gave such a horrifying and sad voice to those who were oppressed and murdered during the holocaust. Overall, it really was a good play, it was based on survivors of the holocaust stories, and it did achieve the feelings it was supposed to achieve. I left wanting to cry my eyes out for all the people who were senselessly, brutally murdered during the holocaust. And I was glad I wanted to cry because I know there's still humanity left in us if we all want to cry over our tragedies and failings as a human race.

Wednesday Night-
I had a really nasty headache all day long that was mostly just a dull ache and worsened after I got off of work. and really, I had nothing to write about that wouldn't be whining, and I feel stupid whining online.

Tonight-
I'm back on for rehearsal at the playhouse! woot! 6 more shows and we will be done. I'm sad I'm missing the season premeires of some really good shows and hope that they will still be online for veiwing or that someone is kind and they DVR it for me.  

Have a great rest of your week.

Project Runway

Ok, I only have a tinny tiny itsy bitsy obsession with Project Runway... NOT! It's back on, I've missed it during the year long (feels like 10 years, which in the model world, is like dog years! -thanks heidi!) hiatus. I'm so glad lifetime has picked it up because now when I've missed an episode because of BLWIT rehearsal or performances, I can still catch it online a few days or weeks later. YAY Lifetime! (I never thought I'd say that). and with that, I leave you with the link to the latest episode. Cheers!

Project Runway, Episode 4, Season 6

Too much time...

Whenever I think I may have too much time on my hands (which is hardly ever), I just have to go to YouTube and I can quickly find videos similar to this:

Appreciation

Hey Katie,
I'm sure it's eleven o'clock at night or something wicked late like that and you've just gotten off of work. But guess what? You're an awesome sister and I know you needed to hear that. I know I don't say it often enough, and I'm pretty sure I fight with you more than I tell you that you're super cool. Thank for being a great sister. This week you've made sure I had food (I'm too much like a stereotypical bachelorette), that we have someplace to live at the end of the month, started the ball rolling on the little move things, and reminded me of the stupid mundane things I have to do between 10am and 4pm like calling the apartment management and asking them to come unclog my toilet. You've even let me use your toilet (not that there's a choice there) and locked the cat in your bathroom so he doesn't wake me in the middle of the night with his howling and pawing. Without you this week, I'm pretty sure I would have had a few crying fits over being tired from crazy long days of work and rehearsal. I'm sure I would have screamed a few times to just get my frustration out and weirded out our neighbors. So, thank you, for saving me from myself. YOU ROCK!
Love,
Me

The power of education

Today I took a minute. I paused. I read Barack Obama's speech. You know, the one that he wouldn't release ahead of time. The one that has caused all sorts of controvesy. The one meant to inspire today's youth to become successful Americans. Yeah, that one. That speech is awesome. Even though I didn't get a chance to veiw it on television, I still read it online. From my perspective, as an educator, I feel it isn't a political message, it's a motivational message. And I think even college students, young adults, retirees, etc. should all read it and reflect on the inspiration it tries to convey. Move past the politicking for a minute and realize, education is a great thing, and it's the one thing that CANNOT be taken from you. So please, today, take a minute and read the President's speech. This is why I do what I do. I want to help student's become successful. This speech gave me inspiration to go back into the classroom on Thursday and continue to motivate my students to work hard and be successful in college so they can be the next great generation.

'Click to veiw the President's speech'

Watching Movies in Class

Ok, so Thursday I had one of my classes watch a movie called paperclips (find it at: Paper Clips) about a middle school which started a program to help themselves raise intercultural awareness. So I found out in August that I was taking on another class that would be linked (have some kind of common course content or assignment or something) with an english class. The person who had been playing the class before me had already worked with their english class partner and come up with their common course content. So when I inherited the class, I kept the content the same.

And then I started watching the movie on Thursday with the class... now, don't go thinking it's some kind of racy movie, it's not. Anyhow, so here I am, watching this movie and it's boring the stuffing out of my students. I can tell. I think the idea is pretty neat and a great way to really learn, had you been taking part of the project with the middle school. But parts of the movie were kinda dull and repetitive and water down the message the documentary was trying to convey. Maybe the end of the movie will bring more information and enlightenment on intercultural issues. Here's to hoping on Tuesday!

2 things 2 find on the internet

1. There's a lot of people with my name. I mean, it's kinda unique. Try googling yourself sometime, to find yourself or facebook yourself. The results could be interesting. (hint, you might want to try "insert name" to narrow your search)

2. There's a lot of internet articles out there that are interesting with what seems to be useful advice, but is it?
Example: http://howlifeworks.com/Finance/debt_relief_now/?cid=8088jx_finance_rm

Anti Climatic Endings.

Ok, so I’m not promising a great end to this story, but here goes…

So today was the deadline for students to turn in writing portfolios as a graduation requirement. Talk about making lots and lots of students crazy and frantic. Thankfully it seems every year more and more students get it turned in the day before or earlier than the deadline day. Here’s how it went today for some students:

Student: Oh, I should turn that portfolio thing in today. Ok, let’s see what I need for that… 3 papers, and an essay reflecting on those three papers. Ok, when’s it due… 5pm and the time right now is… 3:00pm… hmm, can I get an appointment in the Writing Room.

Phone call from student to me asking for an appointment: Can I get an appointment for 3:30:

ME: Nope. We’re booked until 4:30.

Student: aw man, no way to get in sooner?

ME: Nope, Absolutely not. Unless you want to come here now and work on it and see if someone doesn’t show for an appointment or someone has a very short appointment. I can’t promise anything.

Student shows up to the writing room and sets themselves up at a computer and starts frantically typing away. Student does end up getting some consultation time in, by the grace of god another student didn’t use their entire 30 minutes. 4:30 rolls around and I announce there’s 30 minutes left. Student frantically prints their papers, and brings them to me

ME: you need the grey writing portfolio they sell in the bookstore.

Student goes running off and comes back 10 minutes later. I look over their contents to make sure they have everything together, make sure they’ve filled out all the necessary information on the folder, ask the student a few questions to make sure they pulled the folder together right, annnnnd THWACK! Down the receiving stamp, smile at them and tell them they’re done. They look at me like… that kinda sucks all that worrying and the ending just kinda falls off there.

One student did ask me for a hug, it was so anticlimactic to him. :)  life’s great. There’s a lot of build up for things and then it just fizzles off with no pops or anything. Welcome

Annoyances (sorry for yet another rant)

The older I get, the easier I get irritated! Sometimes I just want to mouth off to someone, but instead I just bite my tongue since it’s the more pleasant thing to do. Quite often I find people to be quite ridiculous and not very thoughtful in their actions which affect others. It seems to be more and more often that it happens. So the big philosophical question I have is, have people become more and more thoughtless, or is my world view changing as I get older?


I think about this quote my professor from youth and society read to us the first day of class in college. It was something like “the youth are running amuck in the streets, have less respect for their elders, and they will be the downfall of our society in the next generation”. She had the class think about who said it and when they said it. It was an awesome exercise that opened my eyes to some of the issues of age (youth vs. elder). It turned out the person who said it was Plato, Aristotle, or Socrates (I always get the three mixed up, thus I was not a philosophy major. Clearly, youth have been seen as a scourge of society and likely to be the cause of it collapsing, which is obviously not the case.

So back to my conundrum- I’d like to think it’s my world view changing, not people being more thoughtless. And I’m pretty sure I can be accused of the same thoughtlessness.

Please don't get sick

There's nothing like working at a school to kind of make you a germaphobe. So with the new season of germs, once again shoring up my theory of students bringing germs back to school with them, here are some guidelines to help you keep healthy (and me too!):

1. Wash your hands and use hand sanitizer with 60% or more alcohol in it. Don't just wash your hands once a day and think that's going to work... no, wash it after you pee (you've just touched the same door everyone else did... and who knows what else!), a lot when you're sick, after you've been shaking hands with tons of people, after you've gone to and fro classes (once again, you're touching the same door everyone else has), etc, etc, etc.

2. Avoid sick people and encourage them to go to the doctor. If you live with them, make them take care of themselves. I know it’s not nice, but if you want to get sick, sure take care of your roommate who brought strep home with them from thanksgiving. It'll totally help you pass your finals that first week in December. (This totally happened to me junior year of college, thanks Amy!)

3. Eat lots of veggies, fruits, drink lots of water, and take your vitamins. You'll be happy that you had that salad instead of that cookie when your roommate comes down sick with a cold/flu.

4. If you do get sick, stay home, take care of yourself, yada yada yada. Don't bring your germs to class, if you can help it. On the other hand, if you're deathly ill from partying the night before, you still need to come to class. Hangovers are NOT contagious... just gross.

Shoes

Ok, I'll admit, I started this post about something less shallow, but changed my mind to blog about shoes. Why, do you ask? Because shoes are amazing, they can make your day. Yes, they are the last thing you see when you check out a woman's outfit, but they can totally make or break an outfit.
You see a woman on the street and think "nice navy suit, matching shirt, matching purse...etc, shoes, wait, they're black/brown. Ok, but definitely not a home run outfit."

Why am I preoccupied with this topic? Because my cute little niece discovered shoes this weekend. She's totally going to be in her mom's shoes before too long. My sister bought her a pair of pink fuzzy slippers this weekend. My niece put them on, and wham! - she was obsessed. It was just so cute, I had to share. She would put them on, pull them off, and then bring me one and stick out her foot for me to put back on. It was just adorable.

I love shoes. Everything about them just makes my day. :)

Is it Sci Fi or SyFy?

Ok, so this is going to be a bit of a rant. Why the heck has the Sci Fi Channel changed its name to Syfy? Sci Fi was cool to start with, but rebranding for the sake of rebranding? What the heck man? What, are they worried that people won't get how to say sci fi and so they feel the need to spell it phonetically? Are they worried Canadians will be confused by sci fi and pronounce it "sky fee"... if that was the case, they should have changed it a long time ago when they first came out with the sci fi channel. Any who, I'm home sick today and there's a Dr. Who Marathon on so I'm watching lots of Dr. Who episodes... YAY!

My recently favorite TV(ish) show:

DORM LIFE

Catch it on Hulu, its awesome. I'm not sure if there is a script or if it's a "reality" show, but the episodes are short (5-10 minutes in length) and thus easier to watch. I'm hoping they come back for a 3rd season, as its an internet tv series. But its a good series, especially for the higher ed. setting, because it captures so much of what happens in a school year. The good, the bad, and the ugly... it's great!

10 Reasons why I'm in love with Aiken Community Playhouse:

10. Acting is a great natural thrill. You stay up late, get so freaking tired, then deliver that performance you didn't even know you had in you and it feels great!
9. I've learned to build so many things with just wood and screws.
8. Paint really doesn't come out of clothes.
7. The people are awesome!
6. Acting takes up the time when I'm unproductive and hating on Aiken. Now I like it a little more.
5. "Ding!" 'nuff said.
4. Seeing the awards show was awesome, even better was:
3. Performing at an awards show... kinda a big deal, I get it.
2. I'm doing something I was passionate about as a kid and it feels great.
1. Insta-Friends! The people are truly warm and welcoming and want to help everyone grow (in a developmental sense. I think growing up is over for me).

If you haven't already think about getting tickets to the next upcoming play, opening on Sept. 11.
http://www.aikencommunityplayhouse.com/

My friends, family, and boyfriend have been very supportive and patient with me while I've indulged my creative side. I promise you'll get me back soon. I feel really blessed to have such understanding people in my life... I know I've got it good. :)

Freshman year...

School started last week and it got me thinking about when I started college in the Fall of 2002. I was living away from home and pretty darn excited about it. I was having fun making friends with other students I had met at orientation, my roommate, and other students in my classes. I was excited to be away from home and living on my own the first time... the midnight visits to Denny’s, walks around the campus, watching movies until the wee hours of the morning were all frequent occurrences in my life. I called my mom at the end of the 2nd week of classes and told her "I don't know who said that you should live up life in high school, because clearly, they didn't go to college. I swear this is the best time of my life!"

Every August, sleepy campuses wake up from their summer siesta and prepare to welcome a new group of freshmen and the returning students from years past. It's a great time of year. It rejuvenates the scholars, educators, and administrators on the campus. Students come in refreshened, excited, and joyous to be in an atmosphere of learning. It was great to be a student while I was in college, there was so much to do, to see, to experience, but now I'm an administrator it's wondrous to watch young adults learn and grow... not just in the classroom. I think it's incredible to see what they learn living with new people, living on their own, joining clubs and organizations, taking up the mantle of leadership. It's just mind boggling to know I've been there, I've done that. It's a lot to accomplish in 4 years, but man, it was amazing. I hope everyone starting school this year can have a wondrous, joyful, and adventurous experience going to college.

Blog a Day Challenge

So last May I had a few friends engage in a battle of the wills and wits. They challenged each other to blog every day during the month of May with the exceptions of weekends. I like this idea so much I have done what every self respecting higher education professional does when they like something someone else has done... I'm going to take it, tweek it very little, and use it with my first year seminar students. So here goes, and the credit goes to my friend Kelly and her collegues at FSU. (Thank you Kelly, et al)

Whew, what a week! I've been through so many events and experiences the past few days that I'm just going to relax tonight and do very little. Battery Re-charge, here I come! I hope my First Year Seminar students get into this challenge and blog every day because I hope it will help them grow in their minds and improve their writing skills, not to mention their common sense abillities. -AV

Oh Whooops!

So I haven't blogged in a while, and there's good reason why. This summer has been super crazy busy (and I like it) and I just haven't found time to prioritize blogging sooner. And I just got internet at home.

So- here's my super duper, if you've been following me on twitter, or my friend on facebook, you already know all about. So you, lucky friend, can skip to the end where I'll begin my several blog fictional story.

This year I promised myself I'd get back to my roots and do something outside of work which fulfilled me in some way. So I looked back on my life and the times I had really strong goals and dreams. Guess what? My dream hasn't always been to be a Tutoring Coordinator at small public liberal arts institution. Far from it. I used to have dreams of making it big, being a known name, yes, I wanted to go to Hollywood and be an actor/director. Maybe the occasional violin playing member of a rock band (if only violins were so cool). So I looked around at my opportunities here in small town, SC. Community orchestra where if you haven't played much in years and you're welcome... Nope. Community theater where no experience is necessary... BINGO! Next thing I know I'm volunteering my Saturdays to build and paint sets, I'm auditioning for Doubt, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and Mere Mortals. I ended up getting two out of three parts, which I figure is not too shabby. (For those wondering, I didn't get the part of the nun in Doubt... go figure. Instead I'm a very innocent looking whore.)

So my summer days have included Monday thru Thursday, working 7:30-5:30 for the university, going home for about 15-30 minutes, running off to rehearsal and dancing, singing, or memorizing lines, coming home, crawling like the living dead into bed, and falling asleep. I'll have to say, I've had some of the best rest over the past couple months.

I am loving it. I've made some new friends, which is what I needed. I'm starting to like Aiken a whole hell of a lot better. Every day I find out just how small a town Aiken is. I'm feeling motivated to do interesting things outside of work, and I'm remaining fairly modest about my accomplishments. I'm definitely going to keep auditioning for plays at the Aiken Community Playhouse. I'm thinking of giving more time to practicing violin and starting to give free lessons to middle and high school students who can't afford them. It feels great. I'm feeling much more upbeat about living in the south and getting great exposure to everything that makes it a unique and interesting place to live.

Finally, the story.

Again, she sighed. Marie stood up tall, reached toward the ceiling and stretched her aching muscles. It was so tiring to stand there all day long in a practically empty store. Marie silently thanked her lucky stars she didn't work on commission, and the wished for a book to read to pass the time.

Ding, ding. Marie looked up at the door as a little old couple walked in the store. Mentally, Marie rolled her eyes, knowing they were only in there because the skies had just opened up and dumped down water from the heavens. It was like a deluge out there.

"Sandy- I'ma gonna go outside and get me some fresh air," Marie said. "Why don't you watch the register while I'm gone?"

Marie walked around the counter, opened the door, and walked out on the porch. There stood a young man, about 20-ish, dishwater blond hair, brown eyes, and a decent tan.

"Hi, can I help you with anything, sir?" Marie asked of him.

"No, ma'am, I'm just standing here so I don't get wet," He replied.

"Well, feel comfortable to take a load off and relax in the hammock," She told him. "Where you from?"

"Maine," he replied. "Where are you from?"

"I've lived here in Pawleys all my life," she replied. "Are you here for vacation?"

"Yeah, my family got a beach house over on the island. We come here every year for the 4th of July," He answered.

"Well then, you already know all about the parade on the 4th that you just can't miss. Well, would you look at that. Five minutes and the rain's all done. You have a nice afternoon," Marie told him.

As she headed back inside he asked her, "What's your name?"

"Marie," she told him. She opened the door. She didn't hear it shut back. As she walked around the counter she noticed he had followed her in. He was looking at the chimes by the front door.

"what kind of stuff does your store sell?" he asked.

"we're a gift store. If you want anything that has Pawleys on it, we've got it on the other side of the shop. In this room we've got garden type of stuff, " She babbled. Damn it, I need to stop running my mouth or he's just goin' to think I'm just another one of the hicks from around here.

"Hey, Marie," He started. "When do you get off of work?"

"I'll be done when the store closes at 6," she told him.

"Wanna come over to our beach house? My parents are having a lot of people over tonight, mostly their age or their small kids. I don't have anyone to hang out with, and I thought it might be fun to have someone my age to talk to," He asked. "What do you say? Are you game?"

To be continued...

Dear Abby Advice

I'm starting a series of posts where I give the advice Dear Abby would never give. I'm doing this because I'm such an avid reader of Dear Abby and sometimes people send in letters where I wonder "what would Dear Abby really want to say to this writer?".

"DEAR ABBY: A few months ago, my sister's husband of 20 years suddenly left her for a 23-year-old girl. He is living openly with her, even though he is still married to my sister. What is most disturbing is some members of his family are openly supporting this affair.
The shock of my brother-in-law's infidelity is painful enough, but the insensitivity of these family members is unbelievable. Are those people ignorant or just plain evil? -- HURTING FOR MY SISTER"

Dear SISTER: They're jerks. I would bet good money the family knew this was coming and chose to stay mum about it. (A Vermont in the South)

click here to see the real response: http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/?uc_full_date=20090208

Donation!

So for a while now, I have been working on growing my hair out so I can donate it. Finally, the day has come. I had 8 inches of lovely long hair to chop off.


To the right is a "before" picture taken in the car because my sister and I were running late to our 9am hair appointment.
Whooops!









My hair will be donated to Pantene Pro-V to make wigs for cancer patients. They get pretty pretty hair and I get a very nice cute bob just in time for spring! :)




My sister also got her hair done too, so she and I look great together! Did you know it takes 6 donations to make one wig? If you're considering cutting your long, uncolored, not grey yet hair, you should look into donating it to Pantene (at least 8 inches) or Locks of Love (10-12 inches). It is truly worth the long wait!

I'm not sure of everyone else, but I know for me finances are something I was raised not to talk about. Well, I'm going to break that taboo now, but it's not to complain about my situation, it's to help others understand what they can do if they find themselves in a similar situation.

So finances are tight. December brought the dreaded deadline of student loan repayments beginning. Personally, I thought I'd have a fairly easy time making payments, but to my dismay I have found that making those payments is tighter than things were since I started college. But I've learned some interesting things along the way.

1) When you find yourself having a hard time making payments, contact your lender. When I found myself unable to make the minimum payment on my credit card a few months ago, I talked to my credit card. Maybe because of the economic downturn, or maybe they really are nice people, whatever the reason they were happy to talk to me and give me a couple of options so they didn't have to file a report with credit agencies. I ended up setting up a payment plan with them which they automatically deduct a regular amount from my checking account every month. They also froze my credit card so I can't spend anymore (a very good thing for me!). While I'm locked into this payment plan for a year, they have lowered my interest rate by half. And more good news... a month after I started making payments they called me and offered to give me a new card after the year is over at an even lower interest rate.

2) Check out what your options are. I researched one of my student loans websites on what options they had for making payments that might be more friendly to my budget and found out a lot of information. Also, you can find out a lot of information by calling them.

3) Make a budget. It might be very hard to stick to a budget at first and you have to be committed, but the rewards are good in the long run. and you learn a lot about what you can do without.

4) When you feel overwhelmed, stressed, or blue about your finances, count your blessings. It can be very easy to think you're spiralling down into a deep dark pit of no return financially, but take a step back when you find yourself heading that way. I feel this way quite often and at the percipice of feeling bad and anxious I take a moment and breathe. I put things in perspective and remember... I have a roof over my head, a paying job, water, electricity, usually enough food to last me a while (even if I don't want to eat it), a running car, and the list goes on. Remembering Maslow's basic needs (in the heirarchy of being happy) are fulfilled goes a long way in easing the anxiety. Also, it helps me to remember that there are many people suffering in the country with the way the economy is, and I'm a very very fortunate person for the ability to fulfill my needs on my own and not be asking for assistance that others need much more than I do.

5) Call a friend or relative. Tell them your situation and ask them to help you with solving it. This doesn't mean you need to ask them for money, but it does mean they might have advice for you. Maybe they'll feed you once a week and send you home with leftovers. Who knows. I know almost everyone in my life and myself included would help someone were we in the position to help them out.

I hope this helps you. Right now, its the best way I can help others. Yeah, the economy is pitiful and the consequences of it are worse. But we can all pitch in and help each other out, even if its just a kind word or advice, and we'll all make it through this to the other side and have a long fruitful future in front of us. peace, and take care!