Welcome 2008!

Today I read random facts with Danny. The number of combinations a rubik's cube has (somewhere in the quatrillions). The longest word in the English language you can write with only your left hand on the keyboard, "stewardesses." That Bert and Ernie were modeled after the Cop and the Taxi Driver in It's A Wonderful Life. Other things.

I can imagine him in slippers. I can imagine me sipping hot chocolate on a cold, cold morning. I can imagine sprinklers and light switches and lawn-mowers humming outside the window. I love this kind of thinking about my CAPITAL "F" FUTURE! 

I first called it that in a letter to Danny, one day when I was feeling anxious. It's like...I feel a million miles away from that girl now. 

Dot and I watched an incredibly stupid movie last night called A Wedding for Bella. It was very lame. We skipped the sex scene, and ended up skipping the movie. As Joe would say, "Beekh." (He should say "bayeekh" or "baykha" but whatever). 

I tried to take pictures of me with my dog, but honestly, I wasn't too invested in it. I think it was an afterthought of looking through Sarah's three incredible scrapbooks, one devoted entirely to Marshy. 

If I have more than one daughter (the first one will be named 'Jane'), which is pretty likely, there's no way that I would ever name her, "Margie". It sounds too much like a dog.

HAPPPPPPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2000000000008!!!!!!!!!

I am from Western Massachusetts.

Because the internet told me so.

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far) Northern You have a Northern accent. That could either be the Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland/Buffalo accent (easily recognizable) or the Western New England accent that news networks go for.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Out of Step

I saw a "Mormon Movie" tonight that was absolutely adorable, called Out of Step. In a lot of ways, it paralleled my own life. So what if it was a chick flick. Danny should be thanking me for watching it. One less cheesy movie  to watch with him! "But I only like watching chick flicks because I get to cuddle with you!" "Oh! Well, you can do that any time!" Still, the thought of cuddling while watching Terminator or Metal Gear Solid is kind of...not appealing. Probably those movies are rated 'R' anyway, but that's not the point.

The point is I saw a cheesy chick flick that I really related to. Here's why:

- struggles through dating decisions, specifically choosing (in my case, luckily, the choice was not very hard!)

- dating a non-member and the feelings that brings

- dealing with consequences of dating a nonmember

- living far away from your family

- growing up and trying to stay close with your parents but it being really hard because you're so far away

- At one point during the movie, she describes her life as, "Dating Dave." Sometimes I can relate to that, although I did get an A in at least one of my classes this semester!

- not a strong desire to date the typical mormon guys available

- schoooooooooooooooooooool blues

I miss Danny. He said something hilarious today. "You know, I thought of the upside of being away from you today."

"What?" I was very curious.

"Well, it makes this vacation a LOT longer."

Possibly I'll post comics tomorrow.

Shanghai

That was a crazy game of shanghai.




This is Sarah shuffling. She is an expert in shuffling. I often think about how if I were an inmate in a prison, and all I had was a piano, I could become a Chopin or a Beethoven. I think Sarah was born with shuffling talent, though. She's been better than me since we were five feet tall. So this whole discussion about cells and prisons is sort of stupid.

If you don't count the last two rounds, I won. Hehe.

Very Funny Dreams

Recently, I've been having the most ridiculous dreams. They include screaming at my Arabic students, my Arabic students saving the world from terrorists, and my boyfriend, Danny. The last one is not restricted to night dreams. "Leaping through a field!"

We (my mom and sister) were in the mall, and I suddenly realized that I don't like shopping when it involves spending other peoples' money. But I don't really have any to spare. These next few months will be about me saving money for the future. Compared to people I know in Jordan, I don't need jeans. Or anything, really.

They built a Borders where Lord and Taylor used to be in the mall. It's competition for Barnes and Noble, our family hang-out place. I went there instead of JCPenney, to get a little reading done in a book Danny got me for Christmas. It's called Fairest, by Gail Carson Levine. She also wrote Ella Enchanted. I couldn't find it in the Young Adult Fiction section, so I asked some teenager working there where I  could find it. He showed me to the Independent Reader section.

While he lead me there, he mumbled about the difference between the two. Danny had told me that he had spend about three hours trying to figure out what to buy me, and most of that time had been spent in the Independent Reader section. "It's about nine to twelve year old readers...you know...basically the same as young adult except less sex. It's ridiculous how explicit you get once you move over to Young Adult!" he mumbled. I responded, "Yeah, I saw the warning sign: 'Titles May Contain Explicit Material!' "

That surprises/disgusts me. Thirteen year olds shouldn't be marketed to with sexually explicit material. Holy cow. I teach thirteen year olds. They don't deserve that stuff. "I didn't venture off into the 'Fiction' section, because it was scary," Danny had said. Sure, I can understand perverted never-married old women (Havishamesque), but young adults???? Middle Schoolers? Bleaugh.

About 30 pages until I finish Fairest. How does it end???

Do you like my haircut?

I look like an anime character. You can call me Kyo. What the heck was I thinking?

Lamb-chop's play-along!

I got a costco card! Danny, his roommate, me, and Liel all went shopping together. They were selling a dozen lambchops for $6.99. I had never cooked lamb before, so Danny and I experimented. It was so delicious - doesn't it look good????

I love cooking, and I love costco.

Thoughts about skiing