Let Rest 5 minutes
Yesterday I worked one four hour shift, got a one hour break, and then worked another four hour shift. For my break I went to the grocery store/library, checked the email, and wandered the grocery store for something to eat. The smart thing would have been to get the Lunchable. I really enjoy lunchables. Even though they are pricy for some crackers and processed meat and cheese, they are yummy. Like I said, that would have been the smart choice. But I was not being smart last night. I chose the Stouffer's lasagna. It is a small brick of frozen food that needs to be cooked for a substantial period of time. By the time I got back to work and put it in the microwave, I didn't have a substantial period of time. I put it in the microwave and waited for it to cook. The directions said let rest 5 minutes before eating after getting it out of the microwave. But I had about 7 minutes left of my break.

So I cut up the lasagna and took a bite. It was a big bite. Bigger than I had any business taking. I had the peice in my mouth but couldn't take the fork out because that would involve pressing the food against the side of my mouth. I couldn't remove the fork and the food for the same reason. The hottest food ever was in my mouth and I couldn't do anything about it. The girl at work was watching me. My eyes were watering. She asked me if I wanted my pepsi. I sort of laugh/groaned and nodded no. I just wanted her to go away incase I had to spit out my lasanga back into my microwave safe dish. She walked away, telling me if I spit it everywhere I would have to clean it up. When she turned away I ran to the kitchen (I was sitting on a broken down box in Bakeware) for my pepsi. I cooled the fire in my mouth with pepsi. By now, however, my face was completely red and tears were running down my face. NO. JOKE. Another woman walked through and asked if I was ok. By this time, my mouth was empty and I actually answered her.

The rest of my meal was eaten in small bites and washed down with sips of Cherry Pepsi. The roof of my mouth is still stolen and sore.


- posted by Alicia @ 11:37 AM |

 
Little Bits
3. My family is here is Wichita all together. My brother and sister arrived last night from Texas. We have a couple days here together before going down to Mexico for Christmas.

4. Today is my last day of freedom before beginning 6 days of work. The Christmas season makes things busy though and I do love the people that I work with. The next six days will be hard because I know after that I will not see these people again. :(

5. I called to put electricity in my new apartment yesterday so now I truly feel like a grown up. I also packed two boxes. Just books and stuff, but at least it is a start.

6. It is Christmas card season! I have not mailed all of mine yet. I have mailed most though, and I have started receiving. If getting the mail was my favorite thing to do before, well it is even better now.

7. I am starting to think about the practical things that I will need for my new apartment. Things that I have never wanted because I just had access to them. But now I need them. Oh I feel too grown up!

8. I announced last night at youth group that I would be moving in January. I cried while reading The Prayer of Thomas Merton.


- posted by Alicia @ 4:34 PM |

 
Black socks they never get dirty...
The more that you wear them the blacker the get.
Some day I think I should wash them
But something keeps telling me don't do it yet.
Not yet, not yet, not yet.

This morning: 7:45 am: While getting dressed I discover I have no more clean black socks.
Result: Go to the high school with white socks. (head bowed in shame, or the coldness and wind. Definately one of the two.)

11:40 a.m. While picking up room, I find not one but two pairs of black socks and one pair of pink socks. While the black might work today I wear the pink because of my pink shirt and the conclusion that pink socks will not work other days.

Socks crisis averted.

- posted by Alicia @ 1:06 PM |

 

This is the picture I got when I substituted for the third grade class. I am the girl on the left. Notice the birds and pencil-eraser-angel in the upper right hand corner, secured by a piece of masking tape.  
- posted by Alicia @ 6:02 PM |

 

I could just not resist a picture of Melody on her blanket. The same blanket she was tripping over while trying to run to me and shake her head in that primal instinct to shake the object so violently that is breaks or dies.  
- posted by Alicia @ 5:52 PM |

 
Ode to Yahoo! Mail
Not to be (totally) outdone, Yahoo! has now Double and halved my mailbox storage. First it was 6 MB (I got in while it was still 6, then it went down to 4) then 25 then 100 and now 250. It still cannot search or archive or put lables or collect conversations, but for what its worth, Yahoo! Mail, I still love you. You were my first web-based email, and I will never forget you. Even though Gmail is cooler, you, Yahoo! Mail will always hold a special place in my heart.

After searching, apparently the switch from 100 to 250 happened in November. So I guess I am a little late. But better late than never.

Speaking of Yahoo! I remember the first time I heard about Yahoo! In Biology class for some reason we went down to the computer lab. This was in 10th grade. Before this I hadn't had a whole lot of experience with the internet in general. In 8th and 9th grade we had Compuserve, where my email address was just random letters and numbers. Wow, Internet, you have come a long way. So anyway, we were in the computer lab researching something I suppose, when Mr. Rosser said that he liked to use Yahoo! to search. I remember that he even wrote it up on the board so that we could copy it.

- posted by Alicia @ 5:35 PM |

 
Google
Aparently according to an article in Quill and Scroll I am a Google-holic. Although the logic for the simple questions used to determine if you are indeed a google-holic doesn't seem quite sound to me (If you answer yes to using other sources to find information wouldn't that make you LESS of a google-holik?), I thought the article was very enlightening. But I still LOVE my gmail. How could I not?

I also used google today to find the binary joke that Father Mike reminded of me of in the jokes section of the homily this sunday. And google came through: "There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't." It makes me giggle everytime I hear that joke. Which is kind of weird because it is not really supposed to be a giggle kind of joke.

- posted by Alicia @ 8:39 PM |

 
woo hoo!
Round Rock ISD is once again hiring substitute teachers! Yippee!

- posted by Alicia @ 11:14 AM |

 
So long, Farewell...
I said my first goodbyes yesterday. I went to the DG Officer transition. I met the new girls taking over the offices I was advising. And told them basically good luck! See ya! Really, we went around and introduced all of the advisors and in my little piece I said that unfortunately, I would be moving in January. I had my little one on one conferences with the girls, then when it was time for me to leave (early, because I had to get to work) I went around and said goodbye to all of the other advisors. Some I have known for just this last semester, while I have known two of them since the first summer I was here, a year and a half ago when I volunteered to help out with recruitment. It was sad saying goodbye. I am such a talented person, however, that I had THEM convincing ME that I was going to be fine, that everything was going to be great. I am going to miss them.

There are also so many people at work that I am going to miss. One, who, told me to be nice because I was one of her favorites and then said that I was "too cute to not have a guy". And another, who is a seasonal person who is still learning to put checks through the register and told me that if I changed my mind and wanted to stay, she could help me find a place to live.

My mantra these days (besides the "I can do it. I can do it. It's ok. It's ok." that I perfected while learning to drive, hands at 10 and 2 and eyes straight forward.) is that darned Kelly Clarkson song. I finally got my hands on the CD. Did I mention that? Not thirty minutes after I had signed the lease, I found myself wandering down HEB, through the CD section (Yes, a grocery store with CD section). Anyway, I could listen to Breakaway over and over and over again these days. The line that speaks the most to me is "Though it’s not easy To tell you goodbye, I gotta take a risk, take a chance make a change, And break away." That is just what I feel like I am doing. I know for the rest of my life, whenever I hear that song, I will think of this period in my life.

- posted by Alicia @ 10:17 AM |

 

Melody's favorite place to sleep is under the kitchen table where it is all nice and cozy.  
- posted by Alicia @ 11:08 AM |

 
Ick
Oh dear. I just looked at the keyboard and saw all the little bits of dust (and crumbs?) in there. Perhaps eating while typing is not such a good idea.

- posted by Alicia @ 11:04 AM |

 
Oh. Holiest. Cow.
So I log into webct this morning. I see that I have a grade entered in SLIS 5340. I cringe, mostly sure that it will give me the grade I need to get an A, but just not sure. Afterall, I procrastinated and didn't turn in the extra credit assignment because frankly, I didn't feel like it. Well the grade was 100%. I even got credit for the extra credit. Things that make you go hmmm.

And yes, I am an honest person who promptly emailed the teacher and said that I got the extra credit without deserving it. But it would have no effect on my final grade, so it was pretty easy to do.

- posted by Alicia @ 8:11 AM |

 
Another semester: Completed.
I. Am. Done.

Woo hoo!


- posted by Alicia @ 5:56 PM |

 
To Texas and back again
On Thursday I drove down to Austin. By Saturday morning at 11:20 I was wandering around HEB (there are two within 5 miles of my new apartment) wondering what I was doing in Austin, why I had just signed a lease, and why I thought I could start making big decisions all of the sudden.

I do not make decisions.

To choose a major, I chose a different one at each college I applied to.

To choose a college, I waited until I finally got a Hail Mary scholarship on the day I had to make a decision.

To choose a confirmation name, I put several saints in a box (their names, not the actual saints) closed my eyes, and picked one.

To choose what to do after college graduation I sat there. Then my parents told me I had to leave and I did.

To choose what to really do after college graduation I happened hear from my mom about a library school at UNT. I happened to apply. I happend to get in and I am now almost done. But it was all pretty much on a lark.

I do not make decisions and the fact that I decided on my own to move to Austin scares me. I am so excited. I have an apartment and an HEB (TWO!!!) and church and DG and friends and school and work and more school and substituting. I am so excited. But I also know, if I fail, I only have myself to blame. I put myself in this position. I chose it and I have to deal with the consequences.

- posted by Alicia @ 11:09 AM |

 
the best day
Today would normally be an average day. I got up, went to the high school to gather data for my case study. Then I worked on it and I am about ready to turn it in. (After calculating my grade and discovering I need a 78.46% to get an A in the class, I decided against working more on it).

But today is a fantastic day for two reasons.
1) The Kelly Clarkson song is available to purchase. Call me a dork but I think I might buy the whole CD. That way I can listen to that and the Sesame Street Christmas CD on my drive to Austin. (And if that isn't a true, blue miracle, I don't know what one is.)

2) Merriam-Webster announced the top 10 online word lookups of 2004. Everyone is woo-hooing over blog being nubmber one. But settle down people! Defenestration is number 10! Super woo hoo! I have loved the word defenestration since eleventh grade AP European history, when it came up in class one day. So what is defenestration? The throwing a person or a thing out of the window, of course!

- posted by Alicia @ 1:48 PM |