tool move of the week

i got back to LA last night (thursday). sadly, my actual flight was scheduled for wednesday. when i bought my tickets, i really thought that i picked thursday for my return flight and then didn't bother to look closely enough to confirm the date. so yesterday afternoon, at like 2pm, i'm sitting in my brother's room trying to do online check-in and it wasn't working - not with my mileage number, not with my reservation number, and not with my credit card. i was getting a little annoyed, so i referred back to my e-mail confirmation and was looking through it for more info, and i came across the following "Mar. 29" and i looked at my watch, which read "3-30." i missed my flight. i freaked out for about a minute, then i called united and got the same flight for thursday, but it cost me $100. i am so lame. i swore my brothers to secrecy. i'll tell my parents later...like...a few years from now where it will be too late to lecture and nag. it didn't help that andy kept chanting "stephie's stupid" over and over again...inviting my parents to ask why. i've already threatened them with telling my parents their secrets if they tell on me. sibling bonds - gotta love it.

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and if you're in the seattle area, check out invisible children

April 5th - HUB @ University of Washington (Seattle) @ 6:30/8:00pm

April 9th - Seattle Asian Art Museum @ 2:00pm

April 11th - Dematay Hall 150 @ Seattle Pacific University @ 7:00pm

April 11th - Overland Christian Church (Redmond) @ 7:30pm

hold the crazy, please.

so my mom is out of the hospital and back home. she was there for about a week with pneumonia, but all is good now. what does she do when she gets back home? does she rest like a normal person? no. she decides to change the water in a flower vase and then proceeds to call andy and me to buy green onions from bales thriftway on the way home from costco's pharmacy. she's supposed to be taking it easy, but apparently, she is where i get my OCD tendencies.

my dad, also exhibiting crazy tendencies, has like, one favorite phrase. seriously. i've heard him say it like a gazillion times since i've been home. "wipe your own ass." these are not the words of wisdom that you expect to hear from your dad. i really wish he would stop saying it, more so in public, it's kind of embarrassing. and, while visiting my mom, the first thing my dad does is make himself comfortable, taking off his socks and shoes and lounging about. uh...ok.

as crazy as they can be, they are pretty amusing.

on saturday, wendy recruited me to help her and josh paint their condo before it goes on the market. why is it that i always get roped into helping her paint? while we waited for the primer to dry in the kitchen, we headed out to vincente's on hawthorne for pizza and drinks. it was nice to see a lot of old faces that i haven't seen in awhile. later, it was back to painting the kitchen, a nice roasted red pepper. i'm getting pretty good at painting wall surfaces...ceilings too.

my grandma (dad's mom), uncle, and aunt were in town from SF for a jewelry expo so we all had dinner in chinatown. i think it's been like 3 years since i've seen them. they look pretty much the same, as do we. there was the inevitable question from grandma, "do you have a boyfriend?" at least she didn't ask follow-up questions, those are the worst. and, this time she didn't attempt any matchmaking, not like last time i saw her in SF. these are the moments were i am thanksful that i live just far enough out of their reach.

home

i've been lucky enough to be one of those people that can feel at "home" wherever i am. when i lived in seattle, it was home. now, LA is home. and when i'm back in portland, which is where i am right now, it's home. everytime i'm back, it's like i never left. it's a nice feeling to come back to.

spring break

i'm unofficially on spring break! the great thing about grad school is all of our work is due during the last week of classes, so no finals for us! hooray! i'm all recovered from being sickly. the last few weeks have seemed really busy, though i have a difficult time remembering what i actually did.

i finished up my student teaching assignment on the 10th. it was tough. i was so blessed to be placed in that 5th grade classroom. my guiding teacher was fabulous and she was so encouraging to me. she told me i had good instincts...i almost teared. that's right, i'm cheesy like that. and the kids were so sweet on my last day. they "surprised" me with a pizza party and letters. it was doubly cute because the day before, one of the boys, erik, asked me if friday was my last day. i said yes and he told me that that meant they'd be bringing in food. i was confused, since they're heritage unit potluck was the following week. but then i caught the looks that the other students were giving erik, trying to signal to him to stop talking and backtrack. and because they're 10 years old, they're trying so hard to be subtle, but obviously they are not. i like to think i played it off enough to help them keep their "secret surprise." anywho, after recess, they brought out the food and other goodies and each came up to hand me their letter. seriously, i almost cried. and, one of the students was moving and he didn't tell anyone. another boy told us, and as we were saying some nice things about jaime, he kept looking down, trying not to cry, and seeing him struggling to hold it together just about made me cry. i enjoyed being in this classroom so much!!!

so, since i was done, i got to sleep in all last week. it was fantastic. i haven't felt that well rested in so long. i turned in all of the remaining assignments and we did our course evaluations. i've actually never given a super bad/harsh evaluation and i've had some bad classes. for the first time, i wrote in the comments section "this class really was a waste of my time. the lectures did not connect with the readings and discussion sessions were wasted on logistics. i actually want to ask for my tuition back. this class was not worth the money that i'm paying to UCLA." and lest you think i'm the only one, my fellow teammates all wrote things along the same line. this class really was that bad. utter waste of time. time that i can never have back! at least it's over. that's my silver lining.

on friday morning, i stopped by the school to drop off booklets that i had made with the poems that the kid wrote with pictures of them. they absolutely loved it. and they told me that they missed me! after only a week! it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. after that, some girls from my team decided to go shopping since the robinson's-may at fox hills mall was closing down. we thought we'd go and scavenge for some good stuff, but it was already pillaged before we even got there. instead, we walked around, ate, and just talked. it has been super enjoyable getting to know my cohort friends. and then there was afternoon/evening knitting and dinner at this mexican restaurant with no menu. that should have been the first clue that it would not be a cheap dinner. but it was delicous and the ambience was pretty cool.

i watched v for vendetta on saturday night and it was awesome. i super enjoyed it. i left the movie wanting to start a revolution. the UCLA program + the movie = total revolution in schools. i'm all over it. :)

on sunday, i played flag football...sort of. i got a little dizzy in the beginning and then it was ok. helpful tip: do not eat mcdonald's before playing sports. i shared at church about how i spend time with God. i actually haven't spoken in front of a group of people in awhile and i could feel my face getting red and feeling abnormally warm. so not great at public speaking. but it was really nice to share. post church and dinner, i visited jonathan (exodus pastor) and emily's condo. they have a great condo. and their little girls kay and bekah are too cute. when kay found out we were going to her house after dinner, she said, "i'm so happy." seriously, is that not cute?

oh! and tomorrow, i'm going to a dress rehearsal for american idol. my friend from school, alexandra, got tickets to the rehearsal and invited me to go. we're going to try and wait to get into the live taping too. i'm soooooooo excited!!! i'm finally doing something "LA" after having been here since the fall.

and along the same lines of entertainment and music, check out this concert going on at the house of blues this coming sunday, march 26, here in LA benny mao in concert. buy your tickets during the presale to support the artist!

this thursday i'm flying back to portland. a week back up north...a week without LA traffic and crazy drivers...and a week family and friends. hooray!

feverish

yesterday, i discovered that my throat felt slightly swollen. i took an airborne tablet. i like to think it helped, but the sick feeling only seemed to progress. sarah son drove up from san diego to play in LA and we, along with other oregon and LA folk went to jane's house to hang out. while everyone else was playing poker, i was trying to work out my lesson plans for the week. i sort of outlined the general plan for the week, but i still need to hammer out the details of the lessons. while i was working my head hurt and i was freezing. my solution was to curl up on the couch and go to sleep. i woke up at the same time they finished playing poker; sarah was the big winner. yay! i felt better after the nap, but it was too late. so when i got home, i took some theraflu before going to sleep.

this morning, i definitely had a fever. i took more airborne, tylenol cold/flu, and throat drops, and i think something may have worked. my fever went away by the early afternoon and i started to feel human again. i'm hoping that i'll feel even better tomorrow since i have to teach the whole morning. bad timing on getting sick, but hooray for it possibly being short-lived.

march madness

i've got two weeks left in the quarter and it seems like there's all this stuff to do. our program has us plan a unit of 3-5 lessons and videotape one of our lessons to submit for scoring, which i call judgment, because essentially, that's what it is. we've spent so much time talking it to death. if we never talk about this teaching event again, i'd be so happy.

and now, they want us to start thinking about our job search. i have never been a fan of the job search/interview process. i just think i'm super bad at it because it never feels authentic. it always ends up feeling like i'm trying to sell myself to whatever job i'm trying to get. this is probably why i disliked business school so much; it often felt artificial.

this weekend, i'm going to help grace set up her classroom as her class gets ready to get back on track. my plan is to be more productive than i've been over the last few weekends in terms of working out my school stuff. and today marks the beginning of lent. i'm giving up caffeinated products + salty snack foods/junk food.