So today instead of a blog I am creating a poll to allow my readers an opportunity to help me with my 26 before 26 goal #14: to learn three key phrases in three languages.
I am actually planning on creating two polls because I cannot decide which languages or which phrases!
So vote away, vote away, vote away please!
And stay tuned for my progress!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
#3- take a weekend trip by myself
As I write this I am working on planning one of my 26 before 26: #3- take a weekend trip by myself.
I have never been anywhere by myself completely and I think that everyone should have that opportunity! Now it is not just the going somewhere as an adult but by MYSELF that is important.
So I want to explain why the by myself part is very important to the task and while it may be extremely selfish I am ok with it, I mean there are plenty of other tasks on my list that benefit others!
So the reason I want to make this trip alone is so that I have the opportunity to do EXACTLY what I want!
If I want to spend three and a half hours in front of one painting at a museum I want to be able to without feeling bad for the well meaning friend who I know would stand patiently next to me silently hating me after the first hour!
And I want to be able to go eat at any random place I want to without worrying about whether there will be mac and cheese on the menu for a five year old.
And I want to be able to wander through stores with ridiculous price tags, having no intention of buying anything, without giving my dear hubby a heart attack!
Now I am very aware of the selfish nature of these desires but I am OK with that! I am a mother, wife, teacher and friend. I devote a lot of time making sure that I am doing the right thing for other people because I love them and sometimes I get a little left behind in the wake. I am not complaining about this but I am taking this trip as an opportunity to put myself 100%first for just a few days and have a neat experience to regal everyone with upon my return!
Enough of the rationalizing and blah blah blah! On to the fun stuff! The stuff that will let me fly free for a few days! (I know corny but I am excited)
I am planning on going to a city for my trip, possibly NYC!
The reason I decided on a city is because of a few things:
-access to in-expensive accomodations such as hostels (I have already researched a few and could stay in one for three nights for only $76 total)
-access to cheap transportation- buses or subways
-access to museums- esp. art ones
-access to landmarks
-access to amazingly different food!
I am really excited about this trip and will do my best to keep everyone informed about my planning. My goal for the planning this month is to decide on a location for sure, make a budget, find accomodations and purchase a guide book for said location.
I will try to keep everyone up to date and would love recommendations!
I have never been anywhere by myself completely and I think that everyone should have that opportunity! Now it is not just the going somewhere as an adult but by MYSELF that is important.
So I want to explain why the by myself part is very important to the task and while it may be extremely selfish I am ok with it, I mean there are plenty of other tasks on my list that benefit others!
So the reason I want to make this trip alone is so that I have the opportunity to do EXACTLY what I want!
If I want to spend three and a half hours in front of one painting at a museum I want to be able to without feeling bad for the well meaning friend who I know would stand patiently next to me silently hating me after the first hour!
And I want to be able to go eat at any random place I want to without worrying about whether there will be mac and cheese on the menu for a five year old.
And I want to be able to wander through stores with ridiculous price tags, having no intention of buying anything, without giving my dear hubby a heart attack!
Now I am very aware of the selfish nature of these desires but I am OK with that! I am a mother, wife, teacher and friend. I devote a lot of time making sure that I am doing the right thing for other people because I love them and sometimes I get a little left behind in the wake. I am not complaining about this but I am taking this trip as an opportunity to put myself 100%first for just a few days and have a neat experience to regal everyone with upon my return!
Enough of the rationalizing and blah blah blah! On to the fun stuff! The stuff that will let me fly free for a few days! (I know corny but I am excited)
I am planning on going to a city for my trip, possibly NYC!
The reason I decided on a city is because of a few things:
-access to in-expensive accomodations such as hostels (I have already researched a few and could stay in one for three nights for only $76 total)
-access to cheap transportation- buses or subways
-access to museums- esp. art ones
-access to landmarks
-access to amazingly different food!
I am really excited about this trip and will do my best to keep everyone informed about my planning. My goal for the planning this month is to decide on a location for sure, make a budget, find accomodations and purchase a guide book for said location.
I will try to keep everyone up to date and would love recommendations!
retirement....
As I sit here at work, pretty much ready to teach sonnets and vocab and tips on reading out loud, I am excited for the day! I know that it is silly to some people probably but I really look forward to teaching. Even something as small as a new word or something as cool as a rhyme scheme! it is just a cool job and if you don't get it that is okay, just take my word for it!
That all being said I listened to a conversation to some vetran teachers this morning about how some are excited to retire, others are no where near ready and some just aren't sure. This made me think about how eventually I will retire or stop working and the thought of that seems so sad. I can't really imagine an extended amount of time that I didn't work in some fashion. I would hate my house, I would hate my hubby, I would probably hate wearing the same comfy pants and velcro shoes every day!
So when I do retire what do I want to do? Some of the ladies are thinking about working at a vet, or a dept store or a thrift shop or daycare and I even recommended to one becoming a nail tech. All of those sound kind of appealing in certain ways but for the most part none seem really something I could do for too long. But maybe that is the point you won't be doing them for too long and you don't have to do them everyday. Hmmmmm
Well I guess I have 35 or so years left before I need to worry about it!
Hope everyone has a wonderful and warm day!
--Tessica
That all being said I listened to a conversation to some vetran teachers this morning about how some are excited to retire, others are no where near ready and some just aren't sure. This made me think about how eventually I will retire or stop working and the thought of that seems so sad. I can't really imagine an extended amount of time that I didn't work in some fashion. I would hate my house, I would hate my hubby, I would probably hate wearing the same comfy pants and velcro shoes every day!
So when I do retire what do I want to do? Some of the ladies are thinking about working at a vet, or a dept store or a thrift shop or daycare and I even recommended to one becoming a nail tech. All of those sound kind of appealing in certain ways but for the most part none seem really something I could do for too long. But maybe that is the point you won't be doing them for too long and you don't have to do them everyday. Hmmmmm
Well I guess I have 35 or so years left before I need to worry about it!
Hope everyone has a wonderful and warm day!
--Tessica
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
i love lists
With only twenty five days until I turn 25 I have decided to think ahead about what I want to happen in the next year of my life. I mean, it is a big year! Twenty five is a whole quarter of the century-big stuff!
So what I decided to do is create a list of twenty six things I want to do before I turn twenty six!
Below is my list and I will create a sidebar to link blogs that chronicle my completion of each task (or most tasks anyways)!
So here is the list:
I currently have a year and twenty five days to complete all of these tasks and look forward very much to completing each and blogging about my experiences!
So what I decided to do is create a list of twenty six things I want to do before I turn twenty six!
Below is my list and I will create a sidebar to link blogs that chronicle my completion of each task (or most tasks anyways)!
So here is the list:
- go on a date with the hubs at least once a month
- get a tattoo
- take a weekend trip by myself
- read and watch Gone with the Wind
- get a follower who I have never met
- learn how to drive stick
- host a fancy brunch
- sew kitchen curtains
- join and attend an exercise class
- submit a poem to be published
- buy an antique and refinish it
- make a photo album for each year Aubs has been alive
- volunteer
- learn at least three key phrases in three different languages
- get a 60 minute massage
- reorganize Aubs room
- write more correspondence to my family in Iowa
- explore Roanoke
- get a mommy/daughter mani/pedi
- figure out how I like my martini
- throw Sean an Anniversary party
- reconnect with a few friends
- do a free makeover at a clinque counter and buy at least one thing from it
- buy our first major appliance- a washer
- decorate my life
- try blond or at least partially blond
I currently have a year and twenty five days to complete all of these tasks and look forward very much to completing each and blogging about my experiences!
Monday, January 4, 2010
When did I get lame?
Today was the first day back to work and I just for a moment have to pause and say: how awesome is it to have a job were EVERY year you get a vacation for the holidays AND a two and a half months during the summer to do whatever the hell you want! And on cold as crappola days like today and tomorrow I get an opportunity to sleep in even though I don't have to wait outside for a bus! I mean really, what a sweet job! Plus, I get to do cool stuff like have my students write sonnets using there vocab words (not in iambic pentameter, don't worry I am not that mean) or make a sound recording of a book and have the students make track lists and album art for the book. BTW the last project is so that I don't always have to read out loud while we read the book as a class, smart huh! Anyways, I love my job...blah blah blah!
So today was our first day from the winter break and it was a really good day! My students were definitely a little squirrely and took a bit more prodding on my part to stay on task but they were pretty well behaved and did what they needed to do for the day! Well throughou
t the course of the day the students tried to get me off task by asking how my break was and asking what I received for Christmas. Well for the most part I let them because, well, we just didn't have that much that couldn't get finished in class without a bit of time left over. So I told them about the jewlery tree the hubs got me (pictured to the right), Glee vol 1 and 2, a movie, a sweater, and some earrings. And, rightfully, I was exuberant (vocab word) when explaining all of this because I was really excited about all of my gifts! When I finished my lists my students just looked at me...waiting for me to tell them what else I got! When I then explained that those were all my gifts and that I was actually pleased with all of those gifts they looked dumbstruck and then all chorused how sad/lame/sorry a Christmas I had.
Now my students for the most part do not come from affluent homes, like maybe 5 percent come from well-to-do-homes and maybe forty percent come from middle class homes. So, really most of my students probably did not get new cars or i-touches or whatever fancy expensive gadget was coolest this year but what the heck did they get that made my swell gifts so lame?
Oh well, I feel very blessed and thankful for my wonderful presents and the thought my hubs, Aubs, and friends for the thought and consideration that it took to choose my gifts!
So today was our first day from the winter break and it was a really good day! My students were definitely a little squirrely and took a bit more prodding on my part to stay on task but they were pretty well behaved and did what they needed to do for the day! Well throughou
t the course of the day the students tried to get me off task by asking how my break was and asking what I received for Christmas. Well for the most part I let them because, well, we just didn't have that much that couldn't get finished in class without a bit of time left over. So I told them about the jewlery tree the hubs got me (pictured to the right), Glee vol 1 and 2, a movie, a sweater, and some earrings. And, rightfully, I was exuberant (vocab word) when explaining all of this because I was really excited about all of my gifts! When I finished my lists my students just looked at me...waiting for me to tell them what else I got! When I then explained that those were all my gifts and that I was actually pleased with all of those gifts they looked dumbstruck and then all chorused how sad/lame/sorry a Christmas I had.Now my students for the most part do not come from affluent homes, like maybe 5 percent come from well-to-do-homes and maybe forty percent come from middle class homes. So, really most of my students probably did not get new cars or i-touches or whatever fancy expensive gadget was coolest this year but what the heck did they get that made my swell gifts so lame?
Oh well, I feel very blessed and thankful for my wonderful presents and the thought my hubs, Aubs, and friends for the thought and consideration that it took to choose my gifts!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
born to be wild...well kind of...no really
I have never been the most outgoing person in the room. I have never been the one to come up with the amazing idea of what would be cool or crazy or awesome. I have never been a trendsetter in anything other than maybe with my five year old daughter. And I most definitely have not been that wild in my days!
BUT, BUT, BUT that is not to say that I have not let loose before, really let my hair down, you know howl at the moon and all! I mean I actually did that once!
I had a sleepover, I know look at me getting wild at a sleepover! Anyways, back to the story, I was at a sleepover at my friend Laurel's and we were imbibing some delicious Riesling,yummo, and I had an urge to just be a little silly! Now, I guess I should point out that this was not my own idea at all but rather something I had seen happen on a t.v. show. But believe you me it was AWESOME no matter the inspiration! So, what I proposed and Laurel so willingly obliged was a good howl! With Laurel's willingness and the windows down, Laurel and I howled and howled and howled! We even got a few wolf calls back! Now this may not seem that, well, wild but for me...that was some serious wildness! I mean really I was howling in the middle of the night and creating what could have been considered a disturbance!
And another proof of my wild side: Thursday night at the Radford Macado's. Thursday night is Karoake night and well I did my share of singing (and believe you me I should not have been) and carovating!
But really reliving my past exploits was not the point of this blog.
The point was something that happened to me last Saturday night.
Last Saturday, the day after Christmas the hubs, little girl, and I all drove up to NOVA to take care of some family obligations. Upon arriving at my brother in laws at Fairfax we opened presents and my b.i.l opened a bottle of wine for me. Oh goodness, that wine just led me to being a little louder than usual and me for whatever reason mentioning that a few more would mean my wild side might come out. After hearing this my b.i.l. laughed at me. Seriously, he laughed at me and said that he totally doubted I had even a little bit of a wild side!
I thought about this...someone who had known me for 5+ years didn't believe I had a wild side and then my hubs agreed with him, and pretty emphatically.
And well the rest of the night I spent thinking about it...the next day, and the day following, and the day afterwards...and so forth.
And now I realize...I don't think I have a wild side. And that kind of makes me sad. I mean, I will be 25 in 27 days and my claim to fame is howling out the windows at a sleepover.
I suppose I will resign myself to it eventually but well my few readers if you will do me a favor... remind me maybe of a time that I might have been a teeny tiny bit wild...
thanks!
WAHOOOOOO!!!!! see I can be wild!
BUT, BUT, BUT that is not to say that I have not let loose before, really let my hair down, you know howl at the moon and all! I mean I actually did that once!
I had a sleepover, I know look at me getting wild at a sleepover! Anyways, back to the story, I was at a sleepover at my friend Laurel's and we were imbibing some delicious Riesling,yummo, and I had an urge to just be a little silly! Now, I guess I should point out that this was not my own idea at all but rather something I had seen happen on a t.v. show. But believe you me it was AWESOME no matter the inspiration! So, what I proposed and Laurel so willingly obliged was a good howl! With Laurel's willingness and the windows down, Laurel and I howled and howled and howled! We even got a few wolf calls back! Now this may not seem that, well, wild but for me...that was some serious wildness! I mean really I was howling in the middle of the night and creating what could have been considered a disturbance!
And another proof of my wild side: Thursday night at the Radford Macado's. Thursday night is Karoake night and well I did my share of singing (and believe you me I should not have been) and carovating!
But really reliving my past exploits was not the point of this blog.
The point was something that happened to me last Saturday night.
Last Saturday, the day after Christmas the hubs, little girl, and I all drove up to NOVA to take care of some family obligations. Upon arriving at my brother in laws at Fairfax we opened presents and my b.i.l opened a bottle of wine for me. Oh goodness, that wine just led me to being a little louder than usual and me for whatever reason mentioning that a few more would mean my wild side might come out. After hearing this my b.i.l. laughed at me. Seriously, he laughed at me and said that he totally doubted I had even a little bit of a wild side!
I thought about this...someone who had known me for 5+ years didn't believe I had a wild side and then my hubs agreed with him, and pretty emphatically.
And well the rest of the night I spent thinking about it...the next day, and the day following, and the day afterwards...and so forth.
And now I realize...I don't think I have a wild side. And that kind of makes me sad. I mean, I will be 25 in 27 days and my claim to fame is howling out the windows at a sleepover.
I suppose I will resign myself to it eventually but well my few readers if you will do me a favor... remind me maybe of a time that I might have been a teeny tiny bit wild...
thanks!
WAHOOOOOO!!!!! see I can be wild!
back to the blog-o-sphere
Well, as is obvious, I have neglected my blog but in my defense it has been for purely noble reasons. But, alas, I am back and ready to go!
I actually plan on posting two blogs tonight; one containing a list of things that have been buzzing around my brain the last three or four days that I have been absent from Internet land that I really want to blog about. The second blog will be an expansion on the most dominant "buzzer"!
So here goes my list:
1. My wild side or lack there of
2. Things I want to do in the next few years and in my life (these are not resolutions! think of it like a bucket list)
3. The sheer scariness of being a teacher and I am not talking about the kids but rather the potential to fail and the repercussions of that failure.
4. Reflecting on myself as a Mom
5. My friends
6. How much I love grocery shopping and running errands
7. I want to post more pictures
8. A wish list (not for readers to buy but more as a reminder for myself...)
9. How me and the hubs have grown in the past year or so
10. The feeling you get when you drive down old roads
11. Share recipes I love
12. Make a list of projects and crafts I want to do this year
13. Decorating the house
14. Writing poetry
Okay! That list has more or less been buzzing around in my noggin since I stopped being able to post! I am not going to guarantee I get to all of them soon or at all but I will give it a try!
I actually plan on posting two blogs tonight; one containing a list of things that have been buzzing around my brain the last three or four days that I have been absent from Internet land that I really want to blog about. The second blog will be an expansion on the most dominant "buzzer"!
So here goes my list:
1. My wild side or lack there of
2. Things I want to do in the next few years and in my life (these are not resolutions! think of it like a bucket list)
3. The sheer scariness of being a teacher and I am not talking about the kids but rather the potential to fail and the repercussions of that failure.
4. Reflecting on myself as a Mom
5. My friends
6. How much I love grocery shopping and running errands
7. I want to post more pictures
8. A wish list (not for readers to buy but more as a reminder for myself...)
9. How me and the hubs have grown in the past year or so
10. The feeling you get when you drive down old roads
11. Share recipes I love
12. Make a list of projects and crafts I want to do this year
13. Decorating the house
14. Writing poetry
Okay! That list has more or less been buzzing around in my noggin since I stopped being able to post! I am not going to guarantee I get to all of them soon or at all but I will give it a try!
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