2 pieces of history....All in one week!!

Okay. NutriSystem update. It's gross. G.R.O.S.S. It is slimy and full of fish gelatin. Do I need to say more?

The coolest song in a really long time has emerged. What is it, you ask? Well. Some of you may know that a remake of "Thriller" has/is being done. For the fourth straight time in a row I am listening to my Johnny (John Mayer for those of you living under a rock) rock it out to "Beat It" with Fall Out Boy. How freakin' cool is that? You can listen here. You know you want to!! (I am on to time five)

The other cool little piece of history is that I got to meet LuLu Westbrooks Griffin. You can check out a little about her here, but for those of you who are little too tired to click the link, she is one of the students who were involved with the Civil Rights Movement in 1963. She has a documentary out called "LuLu and the Girls." She will be coming to our after school program in South Seneca to teach a module about civil rights, tolerance, and her experience of being locked up for 45 days for doing what she thought was right.

Okay. Back to work. Go listen to Beat It again. I'm sure gonna.

It's always something, isn't it?

So I know it has been a really long time since I've blogged...I guess just before I went on the Mayercraft Carrier? I can't remember exactly. In any case, I am really going to try to start blogging again because it was so helpful the last time I really tried to lose weight. You guessed it. I am back at it. This time I am trying Nutrisystem. I seem to not have enough time in my day to really prepare good food or find the right balance of nutrition, so I am giving it a whirl. PLus, since it is considered "health and wellness" my benefits through work pay for it. Currently, I am sitting at my desk trying to gag down split pea soup. It looks disgusting, it doesn't taste quite so bad, but I am trying to get the ingredient of "fish gelatin" out of my head. I didn't mean to look. Really, I didn't. It just sprung up in front of my eyes as I was turning the carton. At this point I am literally just taking a big spoonful and swallowing it as quickly as possible, followed by a water chaser. Yuck. The good news is that I don't have to eat it again because I can tell them not to include it in my order. Thank God. If I could just open my throat and dump it down, I totally would. So enough of that for now...

How about some pictures from the cruise and my boy Johnny Mayer?
This is John and David Ryan Harris on the Lido Deck. We got an acoustic set Sunday afternoon that was amazing. David Ryan Harris is an awesome artist himself, but regularly plays guitar for John. I also met him (DRH) in the elevator on the cruise!















Again on the Lido Deck.










This is during his Friday night show. I am thinking this was during "Gravity"?

















Someone screwed up and gave me a ticket to the Q&A session for his Local-83 members (fan club). I wasn't a member then, but you can bet your ass I am now!

I don't feel like being introspective!

I can't find the inspiration to write about 2007, so I am just going to skip it and launch straight into 2008!

What's going on? Well....a lot!

First, we have been saddened by the passing of Martine's grandmother in Norway. Martine flew out on Tuesday for the funeral and will return on Monday. It is quiet around the house and the animals are confused.

Belle was spayed this week. She was pretty stoned when she came home Tuesday night, but she is bouncing back quickly. We had a cat chase attempt yesterday, but I put a halt to that fairly quickly. She is such a pretty girl.

Classes started last night and I am so jazzed about my first class. Qualitative Research Methods. I get to go observe someplace public for at least an hour four times throughout the semester. We can pretty much choose any place we want, but it can't be observing kids and we can't observe our own employees. I went round and round about where I wanted to go. This morning I decided. I will do my observations at the Dinosaur BBQ in Rochester during their blues performances. Specifically, I will be studying the behaviors of those in the blues culture. How jealous are you, Dad? :)

And finally....I am on countdown to the big departure day for the Mayercraft Carrier. That's right. The Mayercraft Carrier. I will be going on a cruise with John Mayer and 12 other musicians at the beginning of January to the Bahamas! John is playing two headlining shows and one on the Lido deck. The other artists are interspersed throughout the cruise in the nightclubs on board. How rockin' is that going to be?

I have also started running again. Doing pretty good but class last night threw off my entire schedule. Argh.

Okay. Back to work. Yuck.

Please check back soon

I am working on a "Remembering 2007" post. Please keep checking back because I will be posting again. Be patient! It was another rough year.

Especially for you, Katie...

Katie has asked that I please update my blog. She says that while the picture of John Mayer is nice, it is time for him to go. Personally, this hurts me a little, but I think I am going to be okay.

So, anyway....back to the award. Here is the short story. The presenter forgot me. That's it. She just forgot me. She was reading through all of the honorees. My name came up on the screen and she either skipped me or just missed me. So there it was. The ceremony is over. Someone comes up and whispers in her ear that there was one more. That would be me. She comes to mic, says that she has another one and then all she can say is "Doesn't she look lovely?" Are you kidding me?!?!? That's it? Did she read what my peer nomination even said? In any case, here I am looking lovely with my oh-so-special award.
I have also moved into high gear with my school work. I have two papers due next week, which is not terrible, but with working full-time, having a puppy, and an exchange student I am a little overloaded. I guess this is what I signed up for, though.

Back to the lit review... Can you believe I am having trouble finding information on theories behind school violence?

The Big Apple.....kind of...

I was away this week for the 21st Century Community Learning Center statewide conference in Tarrytown. Essentially, I was about 45 minutes by train to New York City and we took advantage of being so close. Tuesday was a travel day so we made our way from Waterloo to Tarrytown and attended the conference during the day. We were done at 4:45 so we traveled into the city and wandered around Times Square (I got a new Swatch!), Chinatown, Little Italy, and just Manhattan in general. Dinner was a bowl of soup from the famed Soup Nazi place followed by a street pretzel and finsihed by a fruit tart in Little Italy. We did check out a few knock off bags, but the quality of knock offs seem to be getting worse. Yuck.

Wednesday morning we sat through a couple of speakers and then hit the train to the city. Behind the library in Bryant Park is a bunch of outdoor shops they call the Winter Festival. There was jewelry, dog boutique (for little yappers), lamps, hats and mittons...just an assortment of handmade things in general. Good stuff. I did have some success finding Christmas elves here and finished up some shopping. That was good!

We had to be back to the hotel by 4:30 to get ready for the "formal" dinner that was happening. I was being given an award for excellence in after school programming and was an "honoree."

More to come...

It is a happy day, indeed....

John Mayer is a beautiful man. I am happy to say that today he released a new single called "Say" along with live recordings of some of his songs from Continuum. You can listen to Say on his blog. Scroll down until you see the big black box that says "Say", sit back, relax, and let your ears go on a beautiful acoustic journey. I didn't think I would ever say that an artist debunked the Indigo Girls as my all time favorite, but I think Johnny has done it. Love his stuff. Listen. Buy. Enjoy.

In other news, I would like to report that I have been running consistently every other day. I was under 11 minute miles yesterday, so I am counting that as a success. I am actually looking forward to it again, which is a good sign.

Belle had her last set of puppy shots last Friday. She is now a hefty 35 pounds of boundless, happy to be alive energy. She is beautiful and the vet says she is nice and healthy. The night before we went to the vet I pulled a tick off her. I am guessing she picked it up in Gettysburg, but I can't imagine that I would not have found it before last Thursday? Not sure. In any case, the tick took a trip to the state health department and hopefully tests will come back negative for Lyme's Disease.

Speaking of disease... Martine had her first trip to the docter's office today. They expected her to know what to do, how to behave, etc. She didn't know what was happening when they put the blood pressure cuff on her...had no idea what it was. She made a great face when they were looking in her ears and throat, too. She got two prescriptions and took no time saying "I am not taking these things." Whatever works. if she hasn't been to a doctor in her seventeen years for an antibiotic, why start now. We Americans sure are good at overmedicating!