The Adventures of Kinky Reggae: A Vagabond for Beauty

Here are my favorite moments of 2010. Singing/screaming "Goodbye Earl" with thousands of other girls at the Dixie Chicks concert. Our Thanksgiving Game of Apples to Apples. When the lady from my district told me I was losing my job... It was hard not to laugh in her face, because the first thing that popped into my head was, "Now Ryan has to read Twilight." When I found out I may be losing my job, Ryan said he'd make it better, and he did. The first Sunday I went to Trinity and heard everyone singing in beautiful 4-part harmony. Listening to "American Honey" driving through Kentucky late at night, on my way to Florida. Watching Juno with Kathy the night before Mother's Day. (Unfortunately, the best part of that night can't be blogged about.) Doing the Watermelon Crawl my last night at DC's with Rachel. We "rocked back on our heels, dropped down to our knees, crawled across the floor, then jumped back on our feet." Rachel is my fav

Amanda got me the one thing I truly wanted for Christmas. Last night I watched the audio commentary of Eclipse and ate orange slices till I felt sick. It doesn't get any better than that.

I made a few of these ornaments: And a few of these: And one of these for Rachel and Mico, who are obsessed with bacon.

1. One of my students read a book. It is the first book he's ever read. It's called Eddie and the Jets, and his name is Eddie. I wanted to jump up and down and hug him, but I played it cool and just let him know how proud I was. Then we went on Amazon and looked for some other books he might like to read. I love this kid. 2. One of my quietest students gave me a bracelet for Christmas. His special ed. teacher told me he made it for me, and I never would've guessed; it's really cute! So sweet. 3. My friend Meeghan gave me the movie Once for Christmas. Can't wait to watch it! 4. My friend Jenn, the other 8th grade reading teacher, made me this creation from marshmallows and jelly beans. 5. I gave Pie in a Jar to my team, and it was hilarious. When I handed out the jars, my explanation was met with blank stares. (Keep in mind there are three boys on my team.) When I explained again, this time more slowly, the confusion turned to awe. "You mean you just put it in t

I am making most of my Christmas gifts this year. This is not an attempt to be pretentious; this is me being broke. Also, I really like to make things. It was difficult to think of something to make for Ryan. The gift I'm making for my girl friends is, well, girly, and it's obviously not feasible to ship pie in a jar to Chicago. So here's what I came up with: a jar filled with his favorite snack (Reese's peanut butter cups) that he could keep on his desk at work. I got the idea for a lady's blog who did this for her husband. She made three jars (sweet, salty, sour), and put a picture of their kids on each one. I thought it would be kind of creepy if I collaged my face all over the jar, so I went with a Steelers theme instead. I used Mod Podge and began with a layer of black tissue. Then I did splotches of yellow. Then I went through magazines and printed out pictures from the internet and collaged each side, including the bottom. I'm actually really happy with

I'm awkward in social situations. Seriously. I do okay one-on-one, but put me in a bigger group, and I'm a mess. Thankfully, there's usually alcohol in group situations, which saves me. But it would be nice to have a coping mechanism for situations where it is not appropriate to be drunk. Like baby showers. Baby showers are my worst nightmare. I had two parties to go to Saturday night, which for most people, would just be fun. I was excited until Saturday morning, when I started thinking about the fact that I'd be going alone and that I wouldn't know most of the people at the parties. It sucks when you only know the host because she's going to be busy taking care of things and talking to everyone. I felt somewhat reassured after Amanda told me it would be a very small group at her house, and Mico reminded me that the advantage to going alone is that you can leave whenever you want. However, I was still nervous. Luckily, it was not as bad as I though

I got a message on Facebook from an acquaintance who is considering a move to Phoenix. She asked what it's like to live here. Here's what I came up with: 1. Winter weather is beautiful. Perfect. I seriously couldn't ask for anything better. Low 70's during the day, sweatshirt weather at night. If I want cold and snow, I can drive 2 hours north. It's the ideal situation. Of course, this is just part of the year. Summer is hell. So really, you're not much better off than in the midwest, because there's still an entire half of the year where you really don't want to go outside. I guess the advantage to Phoenix is all the sunshine. 2. There are really crazy drivers here. This is not just my imagination; when you listen to traffic on the radio, it is just a huge list of accidents. I've heard several people philosophize that it's because everybody here is from somewhere else, so you've got a million different driving styles in one ci

This Saturday, my friend Amanda and I spent 9 hours making pies in jars as Christmas gifts. I know, I know. We are amazing individuals and people are lucky to know us. It was an arduous day, a day that required endurance and strength of character. But, with a little help from Mico, Brett (Amanda's husband), my mom, and Miley Cyrus, we persevered. And we are super excited to actually give the pies to people. We still can't figure out how it took us so long to complete this task. It's not like we were just sitting around; we worked that whole time! It's really not a complicated process. You just press the pie crust into the jar, make the pie filling, and fill the jar. Then you put a little bit of crust on top. You can decorate the jars and freeze them for up to two months. We were originally going to make apple and cherry, thinking that apple would be really time consuming (since you have to peel all the apples). Unfortunately, the cherry recipe was not so good and turn

This is the quote from Sex and the City that popped into my mind Saturday night. Here's how it went down with Pete. He was supposed to pick me up from the airport last Tuesday. All this time I've been gone it's been all this talk about how much he missed me and couldn't wait to see me. Then, a week before, he canceled because he had to help his best friend move. If this were an isolated incident, I'd be disappointed, but it wouldn't be a big deal. It's a good reason. The problem is, it's typical Pete, never following through with plans. He called me in the middle of the night Wednesday. I was stupid and answered, and he tried to convince me to come over. Right. That wasn't going to happen. He called me Thursday and Friday nights, too, and I ignored him. I wasn't going to talk to him unless he called me at normal hours. Finally he called me Saturday afternoon, and I told him it would really help me if I could spend the night at his plac

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my small group out here? Somehow I managed to stumble upon a group of liberal Christian women. The cool thing is that our leader, Amanda, is my age, but the other 4 women are all in their 40's and 50's, which means they are wise and there's so much to learn from them. Three weeks ago, we challenged ourselves to set aside time each day for God. At least 15 minutes. And I'll admit, I really suck at praying. It sounds terrible, I know, and maybe I'll write more about it another time, but for now, it is what it is. But I've really enjoyed my time each day. I have a journal where I write down three things I am thankful for each night. They range from trivial (Bears win over the Eagles, Ryan's drunk texts) to significant (meaningful conversations, connecting with students). In addition to the journal, I've gotten back to reading my Bible every night. I'm currently struggling through Isaiah. I'm sorry, I

Tonight I'm ruminating on what it's like to go home after having been away. It is awesome, but difficult. I spent so much time with my family, and (for the most part) it was a big lovefest because we miss each other. I was so happy to see them, but so sad to get back on the plane and leave. But at the same time, I'm happy here in Phoenix. It's very weird and complicated for me since I've never been away from home like this before, even for college. My trip started out with Ryan picking me up from the airport Tuesday night. I got in late and he had to leave early in the morning for Pittsburgh, but we wanted to see each other since he'll be in Pittsburgh when I'm home for Christmas. I told him I love dramatic reunions, so we would need to run towards each other, and then he'd have to pick me up and spin me around. I said this fully expecting him to tease me and call me gay, but he just said, "I don't know, I might just tackle you instead. I really

(as Peter Griffin would say). 1. I was watching the local news tonight. There was a story about a man who needs a liver transplant. Another family member's dying wish was that her liver be donated to this man. He is married with four little girls. But there was some kind of insurance mix up, and the hospital said, unless you come up with $200,000 right now, the liver goes to someone else. And it did. People are upset, and the governor says we should blame Obama and his Obamacare. Then the news showed a viewer comment from Facebook, saying that since the man had a translator, he was most likely here illegally and didn't deserve the liver. Seriously? I was livid. Of course, if he was here illegally, that's not right. But here's my solution to that- give him the liver. Let him live. Then worry about all that stuff. Of course he should have to pay the bill, and if he's here illegally, he should have to go back to where he came from. But a father's li

Seventh hour has gone horribly wrong. My top honors class has found it necessary to adopt Vegas's motto. Last week I did a mini-lesson on determining importance and showed "Seasons of Love" from Rent. The kids begged to see another song, and since we had a little extra time, and it was the end of the day, I attempted to show them one of my other favorites, "Another Day." The song that precedes this is "Out Tonight," in which Mimi is working at the strip club. Of course, that was the song that was at the beginning of the chapter, so the kids saw a good 10 seconds of Mimi working the pole before I was able to turn it off. Now, the movie is PG-13, so it's not like there was full nudity. It was like she was wearing a bikini. But still, she was working the pole and making some really inappropriate gestures. The boys kept saying, "This is the best day ever." At the very least, I have piqued their interest in musical theater. Yesterday

1. I want every bow on the Darlybird website. In fact, I want every piece of jewelry on the site, too. Actually, let's just say everything on the site. 2. Kurt Knudsen stars . 3. Orange slices. I'm not kidding. I ask for these every year. I have yet to get them. 4. Low hiking boots. I'm not picky. 5. The Message//REMIX Solo: An Uncommon Devotional 6. Tinkerbell Pajamas (Having trouble copying the pics) http://mgsmart.com/thermal-tinker-bell-pajamas.html OR http://www.kmart.com/shc/s/p_10151_10104_027B020901200001P?prdNo=13&blockNo=13&blockType=G13 7. Maybe some Eeyore pajamas , too. 8. Hungry girl book 9. Star earrings from Anthropologie 10. Dress from Anthropologie 11. The Lost World of Genesis . Because it's a really messed up book of the Bible, and I want to know more. 12. Season 1 of Glee 13. A trip to Disneyland. I can dream, right?

Fantasy Football has changed my life. It sounds ridiculous, I know. But it's true. I've learned so much about the game and players; I can hold my own in a conversation with the guys. At work, I always know what they're talking about on Mondays. When I meet guys, they think it's so hot that I can talk football. Last week I was watching over at my friend's house with her husband and his friends. They loved the fact that I kept checking my points on my phone. At one point, one of the guys started singing the Dayman song from Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and I jumped in with the little "Ah ah" high part, and they looked at me in awe. They were like, "You're the perfect girl." Today I was supposed to meet a guy at Dave and Busters in Tempe to watch football. I went straight from church, so I was early. When he texted and cancelled, I decided to stay and at least watch the rest of the Bears game. I pulled out my phone to check my points, and reali

The problem with Phoenix is that there are too many boys. I've been wanting to go to Whiskey River (the country bar), so my friend Jenny made it a Meetup. Honestly, I was not too excited about this because I just wanted it to be a girls' night out where we could dance and meet guys. So, there were these two guys there, Derek and Tony. I've hung out with Derek before, and things have been flirty, but I'm not interested. Honestly, I just enjoy flirting. I'm terrible, I know. But I didn't think he was actually into me; I just thought he was a flirt, too. Well, Derek brought his A game last night. He got me out on the dance floor (and he is actually fun to dance with because he knows what he's doing and is a good leader), and was very touchy feely. Meanwhile, when Derek was away from the table, Tony asked if I was into Derek. I told him no, so then Tony was dancing with me and being flirty. I was less than excited about all this attention. There was, however, o

I haven't thought too much about getting married and stuff lately. There are too many other things going on. But last Sunday, Haley and her husband invited me over to watch football. They wanted to introduce me to a friend of theirs (who was actually really cool, so we'll see where that goes). But hanging out at Haley's, I looked around and realized she has exactly what I want. They live in a cute house. They go to church on Sunday mornings, then all his buddies come over for football for the rest of the day. There is lots of drinking and yelling as they run back and forth between tv's, trying not to miss anything. Their adorable 3 year-old son was running around pretending to kill people with his sword, which, of course, the guys were more than happy to play along with. They were also teaching him about football in between the killings. Haley was watching the game from the kitchen where she was baking pumpkin bread, which made the house smell delicious. It wa

Can I just take a minute to whine and complain? Things That Are Pissing Me Off Today 1. Got to school this morning and was greeted with the news that a coworker was saying rude things about me and another teacher in front of students. It's a long story and it's something really stupid, but my friend (the other teacher) was really pissed and sent her this email that basically says "say it to my face." It was a somewhat confrontational email and my name was mentioned, so now I'm unwillingly being drawn into this drama. What makes it worse is that this teacher I don't like is (inappropriately) close to the principal, so I'm sure he's hearing all about. Maybe being texted about it at 2 a.m. Cuz you know, apparently that happens regularly between those two. 2. We have a new student with the ED label who shouldn't even be at our school because none of us are legally trained to take him down when he gets out of control. He called the Special Ed t

I pretty much skipped Halloween for the past few years, so this year, I did it right. Last week, Rachel and I went to a pumpkin patch up in Prescott. It was cold and rainy and not as cool as we thought it would be, but it was still a nice trip. (Rachel has Carmen all bundled up in the Baby Bjorn.) On Friday night, I went to the Zombie Walk in downtown Phoenix with my friends Kristin and Jenny. And yes, it was just as cool as it sounds. Hundreds of zombies in a parade through Heritage Square- old people, young people, zombie brides, zombies in bathrobes and hair curlers, zombie Abe Lincoln, zombie Waldo... The best part was when the Ghostbusters showed up in Ecto 1. I was like, "What is going on???" And Kristin said, "Oh, the Ghostbusters are like local celebrities. They show up at all kinds of events." After seeing the zombies, we hung out at the Rose and Crown, a really cool old house that was made into a bar. It had the feel of being at a really fun house party wi