so, grad school eh?

for those of you who don't know i'm currently in my first semester as an ASU graduate student. after a rough year off not knowing what to do with myself and a few different options not going as planned i finally decided to go back to school and get my masters in secondary education. a jr. high math teacher to be exact. and before anyone oohs and ahhs at this, keep in mind that i'm probably in the easiest program possible. (i didn't even need to take the GRE to apply which basically made it number one on my list). but it is a masters nonetheless.

when i was younger and a bit more naive i always said that i would be getting AT LEAST my masters and then decide if i wanted anything else after that. well, enter my freshman year at BYU and all of that naiveness was wiped away. college was hard and i was lucky to just make it through that first year. i somehow graduated with my bachelors in only 4 years (which included a semester abroad and only one summer of classes) but was pretty determined to never go back to school. well, when you major in "home and family living" (which by the way i'm not knocking, i absolutely loved it!) you kinda need a little more than a few sewing and family relations classes to support yourself. enter teaching.

so here i am at school again and will be graduated with my teacher's certificate come december 2010. that means i graduated high school in '04, bachelors in '08, and a masters in '10. the numbers work out nicely and if you haven't noticed form my horrible grammar and written word, numbers happen to be my thing, especially when they work out so beautifully.

i've thought a lot about this lately though because when i see some of my friends they always say "wow! i can't believe you're graduated already, it's going to take me forever!" and i always follow up with "yeah, but you're married with a two year old." it's as if we focus on the others' accomplishments without taking credit for our very own. we both think the other is amazing because they have something we don't have ourselves yet. the truth is though that we can both take pride in what we have accomplished thus far. an education and motherhood. who's to say one is better than the other?

by the way, i just turned twenty four last week. i may not be where i thought i would be at this age but i've done a lot and have a lot to show for my meager 24 years, so i feel good about the way things turned out.

i'm not good at many things...

...but saving 32 seats for the midnight showing of new moon just happens to be one of them. i have it down to an art form and tonight it went off without a hitch {even though i was a little nervous for a second there - and shout out to jackie for co-captaining it with me!}

and the movie? don't worry. it. was. awesome!

{for future notice: this blog fully endorses team jacob}

it's 1 am. how did your night end?

so guess where i was at 11:45 p.m. tonight. the gym. weird, i know. but my dear friend jackie and i have decided to train for a 10k that will be taking place in january and i am determined to get my 3 runs in for the week. we just started last week so i'm still at the beginning stages of the program where it says things like "run for 20 minutes" and "now run for 25 minutes" which i thought was going to kill me but i've been able to do it {surprisingly} every time. i was running back in august and september so it hasn't been too crazy long since but still i dread it every time. i stopped running once school started and the busy schedule didn't leave much room for exercise. (and yet left PLENTY of room for facebook and blogs {reading, not writing. obviously} funny how that happens) but lately i decided that it should probably be back on the priority list so now it looks like this:

1. running {at least 3 times a week. heaven forbid i push myself}
2. facebook/blogs {i'm still trying to get this one lower on the list}
3. school {and other important life enhancing activities i.e. work}

what's rough though is that i still haven't found the most convenient time to work out. (is there such a thing?) i like to think of myself as a morning person but seeing as i sleep through an hour's worth of snooze buttons every morning i just don't think i make the cut. but i'm not necessarily a night person either because yeah i'm capable of staying up late but something productive is rarely getting done. usually if i don't get up in the morning there is no way i'm working out at night after being busy and gone all day. so the simple fact that i was even at the gym at such an hour was pretty amazing. regardless i'm pretty slow either way so i guess it doesn't matter. slow and steady right?

this evening the sweet sounds of the temper trap's sweet disposition got me through the evening. yes, the song from {500} days of summer but i'm pretty sure i love it more because i was able to witness this live at the roxy in downtown hollywood just one month ago:

oh dougy, can we just please be bff's!

and now it is almost 3 {pretty sure uploading that video took way longer than it was worth} and for some reason my body thinks it needs at least 8 hours of sleep these days and yet i have to be at work by 7:30 in the a.m. so the odds really aren't in my favor.

i left the house at 7:30 this morning.

and didn't get home until 12:30 am. that makes for one LONG 17 hour day.

two jobs, an internship, full time classes, and a semi-full social calendar are keeping life busy. but i'll take it over what last year at this time was filled with. nothing. absolutely nothing.

{side note: my right arm totally hurts from playing wii boxing. can you say out of shape?
i barely could raise it to brush my teeth. wow.}

dumb.

you know when you have those days when you're babysitting 4 new kids {not family members' kids} and on the morning of your very first day on the job you have to drive the family's suburban {which of course is much nicer and larger than the 96' ford escort you're use to driving} and you're late to take the little girl to kindergarten so maybe you were going a little fast on only one section of the road but when you see the sign that says 35 mph and the orange construction cones ahead you instantly slow down to an appropriate 30 mph to be safe and yet a motorcycle cop still sees you and pulls you over but you have no idea why because clearly you were under the speed limit and yet he is still convinced you were going 54 so he gives you a ticket and therefore the little girl is late to school? ya know how that feels? oh you don't? maybe it's just me. suck.

(i am so not good at talking my way out of tickets. even when i don't think i deserve it. i just sit there and listen and then say thank you when they hand over the citation. dumb.)

"Let's Have A Parade"

for me it's not truly the holiday season until i've watched every minute of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. and this year was no different. i haven't had much holiday cheer early this season (maybe that's because i'm still forced to use the ac in my car) but last thursday morning when i sat down to view the prerecorded (thank you tivo) parade i felt every ounce of holiday happiness in the world. (my last few posts {this one included} make me sound materialistic and worldly, huh? oh well.) and let me tell you this parade had a few perks that i think everyone must see. as well as the ever stereotypical crappiness that comes along with this kind of an event.

so i give you the top 4 best and worst things seen at the 2008 Macy's Parade!

best.
4. Heartbeats Jump Rope Team.
"america's premier amateur jump rope team." i looked all over {you tube} for a clip of them performing at the blessed event and found nothing. but take my word for it they are rad. like doing push ups over people while still jumping rope rad.

3. In the Heights.
i really, really want to see this on broadway. mostly because the guy who wrote it (and stars in it) gave this speech at the tony awards. {the entire acceptance speech is in the same sing-song rap as the musical. awesome}

2. Idina Menzel.

i'm not even that into the song but she was hands down the best performer there. lip syncing? i don't know, cause she fakes it real well if she is. it was like a breath of fresh air watching her perform. {and i'm sure it didn't hurt that i already love her voice as elphaba in wicked}

and the number one best thing to happen...

1. Rick Astley.
please tell me somebody else saw this

uh, random right? and yet totally awesome. i kept rewinding it and i'm pretty sure i watched it like 5 times at least. a website called it "Simultaneously The Coolest And Lamest Thing To Ever Happen." i couldn't agree more. {and is it wrong of me to say that rick is looking quite studly these days? who would have thought}

worst.
4. the overall performance choices.
shontelle? clique girlz? charice? push play? who are these people and why are they on national television? {i was going to find links for each one but i really don't care that much to look. google it}

3. Miranda Cosgrove.

{believe me guys. the whole thing was worse seen in beautiful HD quality}

um, really? those are the best dance moves you've got? you really can't lip sync to your own song any better than that? wow.

2. every single flag girl's outfit.
why, why, oh why must every flag girl of a marching band not only have horrible routines but atrocious outfits to go with it? i mean really. cheerleaders have good outfits. dancers in general have good outfits. you're telling me that the best thing you could find to spin a giant flag is a one piece spandex body suit?

this next one really did wonders for the whole parade. the number one worst thing seen...

1. Varsity Fanclub.

really? dancing boy bands are back? i had no idea. (although the one in the white and black hat reminds me of blayne {tan man} from project runway and that makes me laugh.)


also, on a neither best nor worst note, did you know that the lead singer of hootie and the blowfish {Darius Rucker} is now a country singer? try to name one other country singer who is also a black man. you can't? yeah me neither. weird.

i went shopping on black friday and all i got was this bloody lip

...

okay, so maybe i didn't end up with a bloody lip but that could have been a much better story then the one i have to tell. i definitely expected a little more excitement then what i got. it was my first venture out on the blessed day and i had nothing to compare it to but stories of wretched wives and mothers bullying their way to the last tickle me elmo. i wanted a hundred people in line, a race to the products, a few elbows to the face. you know, a typical american frenzy for materialistic products!

{the people in line were totally making fun of me for taking this pic}

i didn't even need the beautiful Nikon Coolpix S550 with 10 megapixels and a 5x optical zoom (ashton {kutcher, that is} would be so proud), or the SD 4 GB memory card (that i got for ten bucks! that's $30 off people!), or the 4 GB flash drive (which was $40 off!), or the set of 50 writable DVD's (for a whopping $8!). but i'm all about a good experience. the event. the crowds and excitement. and so when all of my sisters and friends said they would not be venturing out into the wee hours of the morning to stand in line with only america's finest i decided to make that camera a need. do i have money for it? no. but of course i need a new camera! and of course i need to start standing in line at 5 am to save a whole $50! so i did. but apparently i chose the wrong stores to go to because my experience was calm, productive, and even pleasant. i saw people i knew. i talked and visited while in line. i even got some reading in while waiting in my second line of the day at store number two. radio shack and office max totally came through for me product wise but apparently all the real action was going down at all of the walmarts across the country. (which, let's be honest, is crazy on a normal day). so maybe next year i'll have to make an appearance at one and i just might walk out with a bloody lip and a good story to tell.