gosh, looks like i'm done already!

so in keeping with the awesome little things that happen in my life here we go.

last night k-mac and i were at caribou doing some grading. now let me first say that this was one of my more interesting caribou experiences. this could have been because i haven't done work at a caribou in awhile (got a little burnt out during my first year of grad school) or because it was a thursday night but let me just share a little bit about the evening.

there seemed to be some sort of men's group that was meeting there -- i'm not gonna lie, a few were cute but some were pretty old. they were milling around like it was a bar and i was so intrigued as to what they were doing. k-mac decided they may have been former chain smokers and now were addicted to caribou and so that's where they stood around and talked. they all left as mysteriously as they arrived. i kept telling k-mac i'd give her money to just go up and talk to them -- she didn't take the bet. i probably wouldn't have done it either.

as is appropriate with the time of year, caribou was playing christmas songs. i, being in the christmas spirit, decided to sing quietly along. well, apparently one time i was not so quiet and this guy sitting near us looked up at me and gave me the stink eye. he proceeded to do this to k-mac and me numerous times throughout the night -- i mean he was just reading a newspaper, we were the ones actually trying to get something done. (sidenote: this man threw his paper away and left caribou only to return about 20 minutes later with a new paper -- the right paper i might add, the star tribune -- and to buy another drink -- does he have a life?)

so here is where the interesting part comes. another man comes in and i notice he has a computer with him and looks at k-mac and me as he sits at his table. at this time stink eye newspaper guy is back with his second paper and new cup of coffee and k-mac and i have finally gotten into a groove of grading. this did not last for long.
guy: "so did you hear that someone guessed the showcase exactly today on the price is right? no one has ever done that before."
us: "wow, no, we did not know that. that's pretty amazing. wow." (obviously we're being slightly sarcastic)
guy: "yeah, it was pretty cool."
us: "gosh, i bet."
k-mac: "you know, we were on the price is right once."
guy: "really?"
us: "yeah, our friend even won the showcase."
guy: "did you get up on stage?"
us: "well we were the people who ran up at the end of the show. you know, jumped on the couch, went over to the car. back in the good old bob barker days."
guy: "wow, that's pretty cool."
us: "yeah."
at this point the guy went back to his table and we figured we were home free. once again, i was proven wrong. it was at this time that the guy informed us he had found the clip on youtube for us to watch. and we proceeded to awkwardly watch the 6 minute 37 second video of this. of course towards the end of the clip i was just making the best of it. when one girl was offered a showcase of all trips i made the comment, "gosh, i sure hope sharon has some vacation time saved up, if she wins this one she'll be going everywhere!" or another good one, "gosh, the suspense is killing me -- who could be the winner? i just want to know. i don't know if i can even wait!" well, we saw the winner. extremely anti-climactic and then proceeded to go back to work. don't worry, the encounter was not over yet.
guy: "so are you two just grading your students' papers?"
us: "yup."
guy: "what do you teach?"
me: (after a long pause) "english"
guy: "where?"
me: "new life academy"
guy: "and you?"
k-mac: "2nd grade, same school."
guy: "yeah, that's on bailey right?"
us: "yeah"
guy: "yeah, i've driven by there a few times"
at this point i promptly "finished" all of my grading and announced my accomplishment to k-mac. she too was "done" and we packed up our things faster than we even knew we could. in fact this morning at school i had thought i had left something at caribou in my flurry of an exit last night. don't worry, i found it in my bag.

well, there it is, just another day. :)

a knock on the door

so as my sister caroline pointed out on thanksgiving "emily, you never update your blog." she's right, i almost never update this blog and it's mostly because i can never think of what to say. i almost handed the control over to my sister addie -- i figured she could put some good stuff on here. after all she helps dudesie out with his facebook...

but then something happened...something i decided i could write about -- a funny occurrence in the everyday life of me.

beginning on wednesday our neighbors have had a huge u-haul in their driveway and a large trailer in the street. it was pretty uncalled for. melissa and i decided they must be moving. here's what we know about these neighbors. two people live there: neil and his sister. we don't know sister's name because we've only spoken to neil once...until friday night.

we came home from something and neil was in the garage doing some packing. here is a rough script of our conversation:
us: neil, are you guys moving? (yup, stating the obvious)
neil: yeah, we are.
us: oh, that's too bad.
neil: i know, i love you guys to death. i didn't even get to cook for you (keep in mind this is conversation number 2 with neil. ever.)
us: oh yeah...so where are you moving?
neil: well my sister got a job in california and since the lease is in her name we have to move.
me: well stop on by and say hi anytime neil. the door is always open (said in a joking way, anyone should be able to catch onto this)
neil: oh, so an open door policy?
us: uhhhhh...yea.....
melissa: yeah neil, we even have an air mattress
neil: seriously? because i'm not sure yet where i'm going to live yet. i'd even pay you.
us: (standing silently not sure what to say)
neil: seriously, if you need some extra cash flow let me know. i'm not a creeper or anything. i'd stay out of your bedrooms, unless you wouldn't want me to.
us: (seriously freaked out now because neil has, in a way, tried to put the moves on us)
us: well, good luck packing...(run into the house)

saturday we then found a note in our door. from neil. it read: "neil (phone number) give me a call when you get a chance ladies." that's right, neil doesn't even know our names but thought we were seriously considering letting him live in our living room. last night while watching tv we thought we heard neil knock on the door. we both covered ourselves with blankets for fear he would see us.

so there's the story on neil. i'm pretty confident that we don't have to worry about him. but we did used to keep an extra key hidden outside our house. this has been removed in fear that neil would find it and move himself in.

the last of the mohicans

well i teach this early american literature class. it's tough to find novels to read because there aren't that many to choose from that can be at a reading level for high school students. as it is -- the one we have for this class it a tough one. the last of the mohicans.

now if you think, "hey, that would be a good book -- i loved the movie" you may be sorely mistaken. now don't get me wrong, i do enjoy the book -- i wouldn't teach it if i didn't -- but the kids have a tough time because the book and movie are NOTHING alike. why does hollywood do that me? take a quality piece of literature, movie it up so it looks nothing like it was, and then make kids miserable when they read the original book.

nevertheless, i enjoy teaching it and while the kids take awhile to get into it -- they eventually get there. plus, it has lead to some more than awesome class times as i have had read aloud some words that have since lost some of their original meaning -- who ever knew there was another way to say shout? or as i read a paragraph or two and summarize in two sentences what was said in twenty and face the question, "why didn't they just say that miss royce? why do they say in 400 words what can be said in 4?" how do you get kids these days to understand a classic?

well, after much anticipation here it is: the second post.

i'm not really sure what to even write here -- i mean my sister addie (www.addieroyce.blogspot.com) has her year of new things to document. other people write about their children, of which i have none. then again, i do teach 7th, 11th, and 12th graders all day -- quite the exciting experience. but i'm not sure i want to relive every teaching day via the internet...i guess this will just be what's on my mind.

after running a half marathon this fall (yes, that's 13.1 miles) i found that i started to become slightly apathetic towards running. now it wasn't that i didn't love running, because the process of training really made me fall in love with it, it was more that i had done a half marathon and so what was going to be the big deal if i missed a five mile run? that's so easy, right? well as i was running this week i found that i may have gotten a little too big for my britches. melissa and i ran on monday and it was tough -- but it was only five miles right? what happened? i had become complacent in the what was. and i realized that i had fallen into the same rut in other things in my life. let me explain more.

while we were out in california for the race we had a conversation with our trainer, melissa's brother, jer. he had us compare our running with our relationship with God. it made me think about how when i run just occasionally i don't see life changes result from it and i don't really stay motivated to keep doing it. i find the same thing with my relationship with God. if i spend time with God just occasionally and don't really put effort into it i don't see it change my life. but if i train, if i make it a discipline, then i see change, i see fruit, i want to keep doing it. when we ran the half marathon in october i was seeing fruit coming from my discipline of training for the race as well as my time with God. and then we came home...

i began thinking, "well i can run tomorrow, i ran a half marathon, i'll be fine" and then i would find myself thinking, "i can spend time with God tomorrow -- things are going fine these days." i found myself slowly going back to a life of complacency and then (praise the Lord) my pastor had a rockin sermon on sunday.

he talked about not living in the "what was" whether that be good or bad. don't dwell on the difficulties and therefore always be down because of what had happened. and in the same respects, don't dwell on how awesome things once were. i realized i was dwelling on how things were when i ran that half marathon. i was running well, i was spending time with God on a daily basis and things in life were going well. but i can't life off the fact that in october 2008 things went well, i have to make that decision every day. and so even though the run on monday was more difficult than i thought and my time with God has not seemed as fruitful as it was a month ago, i am determined to not live in the past but instead, each day and with every step, move forward, no, run forward, seeking God with every bound.

I guess it's time...

well since it feels like everyone and their sister (literally as both of my sisters have blogs) has a blog so i thought i'd join the ranks. pretty much this is just so i can comment on addie's blog documenting her quest to do 365 new things this year but maybe i'll get around to writing something on here too.