the amazing thing is...

someone, somewhere in history, had the idea to pour milk over pieces of grain or whatever and call it cereal. brilliant. those of you who know me at all know that i could not live without cereal. i honestly can't imagine my life without it. there's just nothing like it.

so i went home for three weeks. hijinks ensued.

my friend lindsay got married (hooray mrs. lovell!) how was jamaica by the way? and a trip to cedar point was planned as sort of a pre-bachelorette party. we all drove up friday night, stayed the night in a hotel, went to the park the next day, left at closing and drove home. now, close your eyes and imagine with me: we're getting ready to leave on friday night, around 6:30 or so, and as we're heading out to the car, i ask which way we're going. someone mentions that we were going to take I65 south to indianapolis, I-465 across to I-69 and then up to ohio. if you live in the central indiana area, you know that that's a little out of the way, so i suggested that we take state road 32 across to I-69, which was a little more straightforward. i knew that 32 was a two-lane highway, and i knew it might be a little slower, but i figured that it would be better that dealing with friday night rush hour traffic on the interstate. before i continue, i would like to point out that no one argued with me, or offereed any other suggestions. they all just agreed with me. my "shortcut" added at least two hours to our trip. i felt really bad. and then, to add insult to a very hungry and cranky injury, traffic was still backed up on I-69 because of construction. we got to our hotel super late. then heidi tried to give me a seizure by putting a flashing light ring in my face just as i was falling asleep.

the next morning, after a refreshing six hours of sleep, we all got up and went to breakfast, which might have been the worst hotel continental breakfast of my life. i'm pretty much an authority on hotel breakfasts, too. my family doesn't stay at a hotel unless there's a continental breakfast. they had cereal, so i was okay, but the rest of it was pretty slim pickings. lauren was wearing a tee-shirt that said "dry campus" on the front, and then "my ass (#1 party school in the country)" on the back. it was in regards to IU a few years ago when they got that particular award. of course, this prompted us to make the decision to call lauren "my ass" for the rest of the day. this lead to many memorable statements, including (but not limited to):

• my ass wants a funnel cake.
• my ass is in for the ride of her life
• my ass likes it fast and in the dark (in reference to riding roller coasters at night)
• my ass wants some hot nuts (in reference to roasted nuts being sold at a concession cart)
• my ass will not shut her mouth

you get the idea. it's probably not funny to anyone but us, but we thought it was hysterical. around lunchtime, we were standing in line to get the most overpriced yet disgusting pizza of my life when this old guy with approximately 2.78 teeth started telling lauren that he liked her shirt, and that he agreed with it (meaning that she had a nice ass). when she ignored him, he moved on to christa, going so far as to tell her that he liked her nail polish. he was pretty drunk, and really really really gross. i'm also an authority on gross. i worked at a truck stop.

it was a fun day. near the end we decided to ride the magnum and pose for the cameras, so we spent at least 30 minutes deciding what pose we were all going to do, and then we asked the ride operator where the cameras were. he said they were in the third tunnel. as we raced through the first two tunnels, lindsay was up frong yelling "first tunnel! practice positions!!" and then "second tunnel! practice positions!" as we were approaching the third tunnel and were all moving into position, the cameras went off, because they are placed BEFORE the third tunnel, not IN the third tunnel (this is why prepositions are important boys and girls) so we got a bunch of pictures of us looking extremely stupid in mid pose. we decided we had no other choice but to ride it again, this time posing before the third tunnel. the pictures are pretty sweet. we were going down a hill, so my boobs look ENORMOUS. if you're ever at my house, ask to see them. i'd put them on here, but i don't have digital copies.

well, this is short but i want to go to bed, so i'll continue the story of the hijinks during my stay at home at another time.

by the way, saw pirates of the caribbean 2 tonight, and have decided that i will marry the man who uses the following pickup line on me: "You know, these clothes do not flatter you at all. It should be a dress or nothing. I happen to have no dress in my cabin." (joking mom, don't get worried). is anyone besides me glad that they live in a world where johnny depp is alive and
acting??

the obnoxious thing is when you have an underwire poking you in the boob....

...which, thankfully, is not happening to me at this moment. i just thought i'd share.

sorry sorry sorry sorry. i haven't posted in a while. here are my lame excuses:

1. i have been very tired, because i work very hard.

2. i got a new "big ass tv," and moved my computer into my bedroom, at the opposite end of the house from said "big ass tv," and it's hard to tear myself away.

3. this week has been stupid

4. spring break. i didn't have time when my parents were here, and was just too damn lazy after they left

5. i didn't have anything to write about???

6. i suck at life.

now that i have a big ass tv, i realize how small my 13' was. incredible!! i did, in fact, get a kitten. he's currently attacking my feet. not fun. but he's super cute, if really hyper, but he'll grow out of that (hopefully)

today was my day to take lunch for my department, and i was nervous, becuause i'm like my mother. will they like the food? i was especially worried beause last time, i took turkey vegetable soup, and this time, i took hot turkey sandwhiches, and i didn't want to be the "turkey girl." but everyone liked it ( or at least they acted like it). and i made the ever-popular natalie nolan payday bars, and they were a hit in NV also.

one of the (many) reasons why i'm a loser: What a Girl Wants is on nickelodeon, starring Amanda Bynes and Colin Firth, and i'm watching it. this is a movie aimed at 13 year old girls, and i've got a decade on them. i'm so cool. new casino opened this week about a mile from my school. so my attendance will plummet, because there's somewhere really cool to go. oh well. if they want to fail my class, that's their decision.

now guy (the kitten) is perched on my shoulder, digging his claws into my upper chest. lovely. and now he's licking my ear. and biting my hair. he's darling. and a tad annoying. and he's about to attack my hands because, well, they're moving. and he assumes that anything which moves MUST BE KILLED.

fyi: RV, the new movie with robin williams, might be the most horrible idea for a movie, ever. how many jokes can they get out of "suburban guy rents an RV for his family vacation. hijinks ensue." i mean, seriously. this is the man who did "mork and mindy" and good morning vietnam, and now he's doing cheesy high-concept family comedy? how the mighty have fallen.

i love colin firth. if he wasn't old enough to be my father, i'd stalk him. i might stalk him anyway.

i have exsema (i don't konw how to spell it), which means that i have an excuse to buy aveeno lotion, finally. hooray. but not about the exsema part.

*****Just so you know, i started this friday evening, and didnt' finish it, so i'm finishing it tonight, sunday. sorry if the timing is wierd.

i hate paying bills. i always feel very very poor.

last night, i went out with some friends. actually, it was a giant group of people, and my friends sean and gwen knew about four of them, but we went out with them for the evening. we went to tao, which is one of the new "it clubs" on the strip. it's at the venetian. anyway, we went in, and it was pretty cool--it's a buddhist theme but the music was good and it was really big. i was looking around and there was a video screen and it said "happy birthday stavros" on it. i didn't think much of it, because i figured someone rich was having a party in the vip section. so a little while later, they bring out a cake for this stavros person and we pretty much ignored it until i heard a voice and it sounded familiar and it was paris hilton. stavros is her boyfriend. she was at the same club as me last night. a cople of the girls who were in our group got their picture taken with her. i never got really close becuase she was on the other side of the dance floor and it was waaay too crowded to get over there, but i was able to see her. it was strange.

i got home at four this morning and got up at noon, then spent all day on the couch grading research papers. they're not finished yet. they won't ever be finihsed. i will be grading these papers until the end of time, i think.

i clipped guy's front claws today, and they're much less painful, which is nice.

i think that's about all i got. i'm going to try and go to bed early tonight. we'll see how well it works. i'll try to update more often.

oh! real quick--alias is back on--final five episodes and VAUGHN IS ALIVE!!! i knew he was alive. no one that hot is allowed to die on network tv. i'm pretty sure it's in the "secret handbook for network tv presidents" that' i'm not supposed to know about. crap. now they're going to kill me for telling their secret. it's been nice knowing you all.

love, sarah

i really miss (some aspects) of college.

jerry bruckheimer needs a new haircut.

i'm getting a kitten tomorrow. (his name will be guillame le conquerant)

i'm going to central europe next summer (for free)

i may have a crush on a guy who works at my gym.

official prediction: america's next top model will be nnenna or sara!!!!

so, i'm am completely stoked because the movie flight of the navigator is on abc family tonight, and i LOVED that movie as a child. we had taped it off tv, a sunday night disney special to be exact, and i watched it all the time as a child. i don't remember much except a spaceship, a robot, and a scene with a song by the beach boys (can't remember which one). and at the end, the kid came home, but like, 20 years had passed and his family didn't know where he was, or they'd forgotten about him or somethind. i don't know really, but i'm going to watch it, because it is awesome.

so tonight i was messing around on facebook and looking at all the pictures my friends had on there, and i realized that i'm kind of homesick. which made me wonder if moving 1800 miles away from home was a good idea... oh well. too late now. super exciting news: my friend amber is coming out to visit me next weekend!! she has to go to san diego for work, and they're going to fly her here and then home, so she can spend the weekend with me. HIGHLIGHT. i haven't seen her since christmas. and my brother comes out this week too. i won't see him as much, because he won't be staying with me, like amber, and we won't be hanging out as much, because he's a gambler, he is. but that's cool too. and my parents are coming in less than a month!!! which is super exciting for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that they're going to buy me a new vacuum. and i like seeing them.

wow. i reallly dont' remember much of this movie.

it snowed today. here. in las vegas. it didn't stick because the air and ground temperatures were way too high, but it was cool nonetheless. i heard yelling in the hall during sixth period, and i was going to go outside and ask them to be quiet, because my kids couldn't hear the people reading, and i heard someone say that it was snowing. so i asked my kids if they wanted to go see it, and they said yes, and we did. we stayed out about five minutes and they were really excited about it. it was cute. needless to say, it's a little chilly tonight (42 degress to be exact), so i'm sitting in my apartment wearing my pink fleece raindeer pajama pants and the sweater i wore to work today. a cardigan to be exact. grandma? is that you? yes my dear, it is. I LOOK SILLY. but it's okay

i wore my pink space boots to school today and got many comments, mostly positive. one was from the principal--i think he was impressed by them. i'll throw a picture of them on there for those of you who've never seen them. they're hot. it'll probably have to happen tomorrow, because i can't get the color right with the light in here.

the other day my students had to go and talk to the counselors about scheduling for next year, so i went around and took silly pictures of myself on all their cellphones. some have appeared on myspaces. i think it's funny.

i plan to clean my apartment this weekend and take pictures to put on here. by tuesday at the latest, because it has to be clean by wednesday when jonathan comes.

i'm going to go watch my movie and crochet. i love fridays. and i'm going to go see the hills have eyes this weekend, which is strange because i hate scary movies, but i really want to see this one.

my love for these is ridiculous...

1. First name?
Sarah

2. Who were you named after?
A great-great grandmother. There might be another great in there somewhere...

3. Do you wish on stars?
I live in Vegas. Who can see stars?

4. When did you last cry?
Ummm...wow, when did I last cry? OH! Chrismas Eve eve, late late phone call to John, convulsive sobs, snot running down my face... Ugh, not the best night of my life.

5. Do you like your handwriting?
It's usually okay on the board in my classroom but on paper and whatnot, it's a mess. I tend to like it better when I write in pencil. Rollerball pens--forget it.

6. What is your favorite sandwich meat?
Roast beef.

7. What is your birth date?
October 6, 1981. What else happened that day? The president of Egypt was assassinated.

8. What is your most embarrassing moment?
So many to choose from...there was the time I accidentally drew a penis on the board in class...the time I passed out during lunch in 10th grade and the whole school (including Ben Biggerstaff) saw it...the time I fell asleep during Dead Man Walking in college and started moaning--loudly...pretty much all of junior high...I could go on forever.

9. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you?
not likely

10. Do you have a journal?
Yes. I write in it approximately 2 times a year.

11. Do you use sarcasm a lot?
No. never. I've never ever in my life been sarcastic. Especially not in my classroom. Never.

12. What are your nicknames?
In college, Amber decided it would be funny to call me SARS. I wasn't as amused by it as she was.

13. Would you bungee jump?
Am I strapped to an extremely handsome man? Actually, it would be yes either way. About a year ago I just woke up one morning and REALLY wanted to go bungee jumping.

14. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
hahahahahahahahahahahaha. No.


15. Do you think that you are strong?
Emotionally--yes. Physically--yes. Mentally--frequently. Psychologically--sometimes.


16. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Founder's Favorite from Cold Stone.

17. Shoe Size?
11. Amber decided that "Bigfoot" was also a good nickname for me in college. Why am I friends with her again?

18. Red or pink?
PINK

19. What are your least favorite things about yourself?
Once in a while, I procrastinate. And sometimes, but rarely, I am the slightest bit untidy.

20. What do you miss most?
Saved by the Bell. Or my family. It's really a toss up.

21. Do you want everyone you send this to send it back?
I'm pretty ambivalent. I just really like filling them out.

23. What are you listening to right now?
A commercial for DentalVille. Which reminds me that I need to go to the dentist.

24. Last thing you ate?
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup ice cream.

25. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
plaid

26. What is the weather like right now?
Mid 50's and dark. But clear and slightly breezy.

27. Last person you talked to on the phone?
Amber. for over an hour.


28. The first thing you notice about "someone"?
IS IT ORLANDO BLOOM???

29. Do you like the person who sent this to you?
Yes. And I miss talking to her. ANGIE--CALL ME SOMETIME!

30. Favorite Drink?
Diet Pepsi

31. Favorite Sport?
To play? Does tonsil hockey count? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Anyone who knows me knows I've never played that game. I like to watch...I can't lie. I don't like sports really. I'll go to games and watch stuff live, but on tv? Once in while I'll watch a cheerleading competition, or gymnastics, or ice skating. I'm such a girl.


32. Hair Color?
Red

33. Eye Color?
Hazel?

34. Do you wear contacts?
Yes.

35. Favorite Food?
Cereal.



36. Last Movie You Watched?
I'm currently watching Cruel Intentions on ABC family. Last one I watched on a DVD? PRIDE AND PREDJUICE!!!!

37 Favorite day of the Year?
So far in my life, it's been the last day of school, but from here on out, it'll probably be the last day of school...

38. Scary Movies Or Happy Endings?
Happy Endings

39. Summer Or Winter?
Winter. Good thing I moved to the desert...

40. Hugs OR Kisses?
Either. I'm desperate.

41. Dessert?
Yes please.

42. Who Is Most Likely To Respond?
Since it's a blog...no one. My mom will post a comment, and maybe Heidi, and perhaps Adriane, but other than that...few people.

43. Who Is Least Likely To Respond?
Everyone

44. Living Arrangements?
I live by myself, but I'm going to be getting a cat soon.

45. What Books Are You Reading?
Inherit the Wind, The Stranger, Monster, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Wives of Henry VIII, Jude the Obscure, The Bible Jesus Read...I think that's it. The first three are books I'm reading with my classes at school.

46. What's the farthest you've been from home?
Prague?

47. What Did You Watch Last Night?
The Italian Job. Jason Statham...yum.

48. Favorite Smells?
Apple cinnamon. Or coffee.

49. Favorite Sounds?
Little kids laughing. Specifically (that can't be spelled correctly) my nephews.

50. Favorite TV show?
Alias, Gilmore Girls, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, House, CSI, I LOVE TV!!!!

51. Favorite adult drink?
(Mom and dad, don't read this) Vodka Tonic

52. Do you have a special talent?
I can touch my nose with my tongue. And I'm a decent singer. And I can make a mean salad.

53. Who is one person from your past that you would love to see or speak to
again?
Probably any of my grandparents. I wish I had asked them more questions.

54. Rolling Stones or Beatles?
Neither. Unless one of them has become emo recently. I hate myself for loving emo.

Wow! Wasn't that fun? Well, I enjoyed it at least. Just think of all the fun and useful things you just learned about me.

Oooh! Discovered a new pizza place. Amazing.

I finally unpacked my kitchen, and moved the boxes that are full of my pantry stuff into the pantry closet and closed the door. So now that I can't see them, I can pretend that they're unpacked. HOORAY!

so i found out the other day that one of my key club girls is bi. shock. not sure how i feel about it.

so as a part of my constant debilitating fear that my students will discover this, i spent aobut an hour the other day searching for my blog on here, and it's difficult to find, for one main reason: in the movie must love dogs, the main character's name is sarah nolan, which means that when you type in my name, you get a whole bunch of hits for that movie. i only found one of my posts on there when i referred to myself in the third person one time, and i only saw it because i knew what i was looking for. sigh of relief.

nbc, in their infinite wisdom, moved the show las vegas to friday nights at 9pm, which means i get to go to bed at 9pm on mondays, instead of 10pm because i'm an 80 year old woman. WHERE'S MY KNITTING BASKET!

i really hate it when people type in all caps. it makes me feel like they're yelling at me. and really, it's just laziness. they're too lazy to capitalize correctly (because that shift key is really far away) but they're still to caught up in the conventions of grammer to just buck the system and eliminate all capitalization (like me--i am above the petty teachings of the mrs. beck, elkin, dingman, and whatever the evil hell bitch in 8th grade was called). so, they just type in all caps and hope that it will all wash out, meanwhile leaving me curled up in the fetal position in the corner because i feel like i've done something bad.

i got bored earlier and was checking my friend heidi's myspace, when i started travelling through her friends to other people's friends and seeing people i went to high school with and WOW. there are a lot of losers i never wanted to see or hear from ever again. people i had successfully repressed just came back full force. some people it was cool to think of again. others...not so much.

i love my apartment.

it rained today and was windy and overcast. so pretty.

so on my match.com account (don't judge--vegas is a difficult place to meet people) there is a place where you can click on whether or not things are turn-ons. there are about 15 or so, and they're predetermined, so you can't make up your own, but one of them is thunderstorms. they're cool and all, but a turn on? seriously.

so this week was battle of the sexes at my school. girls wore pink every day and boys wore blue. they counted how many of each were wearing the right color each day and there were contests at lunch (including one that involved touching as many people as possible on the head with a pickle in 30 seconds...i don't get it either). they also sold t-shirts that were blue and said "boy" and shirts that were pink and said "girl" and said "battle of the sexes on the back." they were actually pretty cute. anyway, one of my students said he was going to get black shirts with white writing with the word "man" on them. i told him it would be false advertising. i'm witty.

i found out today, that my modern lit kids thought i was going to be really mean the first day. i was all "laying down the law" and stuff and they all thought it was going to suck. some were thinking about transferring. i've lightened up significantly. today i gave them 20 minutes at the end of class because i didn't have anything planned. oops. i don't think they minded.

i was going to go to school tomorrow and get a ton of work done, because i like working at school, and i get more done there, but i remembered that the drama department is having some huge contest/conference there and they're using my room all day , so i can't. stupid drama.

remember when we were in high school and the word "thespians" was funny? high school students still think so.

i really want to get teacher of the month. i'm not sure what i have to do to get it, but i'm sure it involves lots of extra credit for no reason and maybe free candy. or clothes. or high school diplomas. grrrr

i'm spent. going to bed. yeah, it's 10:15 and i can barely stay awake. WHERE'S MY KNITTING BASKET!! i'm 80.

i suck at life.

so here's a fun story:

last week was a four day week, because monday there was no school because it was president's day. so on tuesday when i got back to school, one of the students from my first period was absent. this kid hasn't been absent yet this year. so when he got back on thursday, i was like, "hey! you're alive!" and his response? "yeah, we got snowed in in aspen and couldn't get back here."

FREAKING ASPEN! seriously.

one of my students told me today that he was messing around on his computer last night and i guess there's this program on apple computers where you can search for people, and he said he put my name in and it came up with my address and phone number. CREEPY. first he just said he found me on the internet, and i was afraid he'd found my blog. i don't think any of THEM have found it yet, or if they have, they've done a surprisingly good job of keeping it a secret. i hope it's the former.

so i'm in my new apartment, and it's AMAZING. i mean, it's not amazing in the sense that it's an upper floor recently renovated rent controlled loft-turned-apartment in new york with an amazing view and a great location, but it's better than the previous place. here's a shocker: i've been putting off unpacking my kitchen for three days now. i suck at life. i'm actually going to do some tonight. even just a couple boxes would be good. and i know that once i start, i'll get a lot done and it won't really take that long, but my couch is so comfy...

i put a scarf over my fancy schmancy entertainment center (actually an old stereo case from which my dad removed the stereo--complete with lift up glass top for a turntable) to hide the extreme ghetto-ness of it until i can buy a nice armoire that i actually like and is in my budget and matches my living room, but now i can't see the clock on my VCR (yep, i'm modern with my VCR) so i have no visible clock in my living room, which is frustrating, because i take my watch off first thing when i come home. i went to target today to buy a new clock, because they have cute home stuff there and it's not arm and leg price range, but all the clocks they had were really modern, which is not my living room (dark wood, beige couch, pear green accents). there was one clock that would have worked, but it was the size of my dining room table (no, really) and it cost $50. i was thinking $20 price range. so i didn't get a clock. but, they have two ottomans that i like, and i really want an ottoman.

did i mention that i love my new apartment? it has FOUR closets! i could live in the closets alone! well, if i didn't want a bed, kitchen, bathroom or laundry facilities. kind of like college. i also have quite a large patio. and it's ungated. gated communities are really just more hassle than they're worth.

I BOUGHT PRIDE AND PREJUDICE YESTERDAY!!!! yes mom, i can afford it. brilliant! i watched it last night and it was amazing. i was smiling like a schoolgirl with a new ice cream cone while i watched it. i keep telling myself that i really am eliza bennett and there is a mr. darcy out there for me. i'm pretty sure he, coincidentally, looks like orlando bloom. or michael vartan. one of the two. i really didn't know how they would fit the story into a feature-length screenplay without cutting out some really important parts, but they did. it's amazing. and kiera knightly! i've loved her since bent it like beckham, but she's perfect as eliza. and the guy that plays mr. bingley!!! such a dork! just like in the BBC version. i just can't say enough good things.

i had a meeting with the learning strategist today (she observed me last week) and she told me that she didn't have anything negative really to say to me. which was a nice compliment.

my students actually like the play we're reading in american lit. strange.

my modern lit students want to read brave new world because one student who is reading it for his research project told them it's about drugs and sex. this is accurate. the rest of the class was intrigued.

i have to hang things on my walls. i'm not good at it. that is typically dad's job. he's got the hammer, and the the level, and the fancy non-rolling pencil. i'm sure i can do it, but it scares me. i have a series of fruit prints (13 framed pictures total) and i have to hang them and make them all look nice and stuff. scary.

i got a new green raincoat. so cute.

i have to teach tomorrow. have i planned yet? no, i have not.

so i'm going to go do that. or watch the daily show. we'll see.

hooray for updates!!!!!

so i've discovered that whenever i get lazy and can't think of anything to write in my blog, i can just steal something that is supposed to be in an email and put it here... i'm a genius.

Four jobs you've had in your life:
1. Waitress
2. Teacher
3. Flying J customer service representative
4. desk clerk at the Canterbury Hotel

Four movies you could watch over and over:
1. Love Actually
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. The Italian Job
4. 10 Things I Hate About You

Four places you have lived:
1. Nancy, France
2. Cheltenham, England
3. Chicago
4. Las Vegas

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Alias
2. Gilmore Girls
3. The Simpsons
4. CSI

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Park Rapids, MN
2. Pigeon Forge, TN
3. St. Louis, MO
4. um...not to brag, but all over Europe


Four websites I visit daily:
1. gmail.google.com
2. match.com
3. craigslist.org
4. sparknotes.com

Four of my favorite foods:
1. cereal
2. ice cream
3. yogurt
4. taco bell

Four places I would rather be right now
1. Tuscany
2. Jamestown, IN
3. My new apartment
4. the biggest suite at the Wynn downtown

Huzzah! Now I don't feel guilty for not updating. this is kind of like a real update, but required very little originality or independent thought on my part, which is always nice. now i need to go do some work. gross.

wow. i know. i suck at life. i wish i could say i've been super busy and i've just not had time... but we all know that would be a filthy lie.

i'm moving next weekend. i started packing today. why oh why do i have so much crap? because i'm a nolan.

i'm going to ward in advance, this might be really disjointed because i have a lot of random thoughts in my head, and no real cohesive stories or anything.

oh! spider man is on. that might be fun to watch...

i don't have school tomorrow, but i'm going to go there and get some work done. i really don't work well at home, because there are too many distractions (tv, computer, tv.) kirsten dunst has a very strange walk. she leans forward with her torso so it makes her breasts bounce a lot. it really annoys me most of the time. and i really don't like her with red hair. it looks bad, and very obviously fake. people shouldn't try and fake being redhead--it's reserved for us certain few. i missed the part where he wakes up all muscle-y with his shirt off, which is really one of the better moments in film history. darn.

i hate moving. i hate it i hate it i hate it. and usually i have my parents here to make it better (ie, do all the hard work and motivate me) but that's not true this time. gwen is helping me with a lot of the packing because she is a magnificent human being, but it's still my show. i'm looking forward to my new place--it's going to be really cool. it's a lot nicer than my current shithole, and i found out today it's getting new carpet! huzzah!

i found a binder full of my emails from europe (france mostly) and a lot of them were really funny. i wall all political and stuff. i even made a joke about what the US would do if they stopped dropping bombs on the middle east. i even remembered a story that I had repressed, which was unfortunate.

i got couch pillows today!!!!! highlight of my week.

so i have a profile on match.com, and i've had a couple people email me, which is exciting. i told gwen today that this is like in eighth grade when you found out for the first time that a boy liked you, but it's happening to me at the age of 24. it's just strange to me that a boy would think that i'm cute. i mean, i think so, and i'm glad someone finally figured out what always seemed obvious, but it's still exciting.

when packing, i found my old box of checks, which i bought about two years ago, and had used two books from. i never write checks. i pay all my bills online. i get my first key club bonus this week. i also eneed to get my taxes done, so i can get that refund.

james franco creeps me out. a few of my students asked me if i saw tristan and isolde, and i said i would wait and rent it for a few reasons: james franco is creepy, the modern music over a historical film bothered me and the trailers. they were so overblown! BEFORE ROMEO AND JULIET; THERE WAS ... TRISTAN AND ISOLDE. seriously?

i spend most of a class period the other day telling my kids about living in a small town, and they had no clue. one f them asked if we had tv and cell phones. they couldnt' understand that we had all the modern conveniences, but just on a smaller scale. they asked a question about the busses, and were amazed that jamestown had no public transportaton. i told them it wasn't necessary: you could walk from one end of the town to the other in 30 minutes, 20 if you were hurrying. they asked what we did for fun and i had to explain that it was the same stuff they did, we just had to drive farther to get there.

yesterday i bought a shirt that says "everyone loves an irish girl" to wear on st. patrick's day. i know it's kind of cliche, but i think it will be fun. man i hate moving. i really really really really hate moving. i'll be glad when it's done, but i hate moving. it's the packing and transporting and unpacking part that sucks. the having a new place to live thing is fun. unless the new place is a shithole like my current place, then it's less fun. did i mention that i get new carpet?

i saw proof tonight. pretty good. i recommend it.

i'm spent. it's really late for me on a sunday and i'm going to bed soon. i have this partial week, and then six weeks straight until spring break. and then even more weeks straight after that until summer. why did i choose this job again? oh yeah, i get summers off, and everyone else gets two weeks of paid vacation with an extra week added after three years of perfect attendance... suckers. of course, they get paid much more than i do in a city (indy) with much lower housing costs.

i get new carpet.

and i'm getting a kitten. if it's a boy, his name will be guillame le conquerant (william the conquerer), guy for short. if it's a girl.... maybe beatrice? maybe tess. although tess got raped and died at the end of the story... perhaps minou, which means kitten in french. or maybe mitzie.

i have french student in my 5th period and we spoke french to each other for about 10 minutes and all my students were very impressed with my skillz.

bedtime. sorry i'm a dork who can't update regularly.

remind me to tell you about the match.com creeper who asked for semi-naked pictures of me. it's a good one.

did you know that angora is goat hair? gross!! i thought it was rabbit or something...

i'm not joking about the quiz. expect a new one every day for a while...

i could waste so much time...

...with free internet quizzes. i got this one from john's xanga. i'm not sure how i feel about it.

You Are 21 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

i didn't realize that law and order would cause such a stir. let me clarify: i have nothing agianst people who like law and order, and i don't mind it once in a while, but it's not really my favorite and i don't want to watch it all the time. i didn't mean to choose such a hot-button issue...

it's finals week. so it's the best week of the year for me, because i get to sit at my desk and watch my students squirm in pain. then they leave at 10:45 and i get to go out to lunch and have the rest of the afternoon free. it's the life. the downside is that i have to grade all the final exams.

today one of my students was wearing a shirt that said "attention ladies: underneath this shirt is the man of your dreams." it was pretty funny. plus, the kid is really nice so it wasn't pervy or obnoxious. if one of the assholes had worn it i wouldn't have found it amusing.

there are two kinds of high school students. those who do something they're not supposed to with one eye on the teacher at all times because they're waiting to get in trouble and those who either don't realize they shouldn't be doing what they're doing or--more likely--don't care. those who don't keep an eye on the teacher are more fun. partly, i have to respect them for not being pansies, and partly because i get to stare at them for 5 minutes until they realize that i'm doing so and then they feel stupid because the entire class is following my line of sight.

so i'm reading a book about the wives of henry VIII and i just found out that one of the gifts he gave to anny boleyn before he divorced catherine of aragon was venison. nothing says "i love you" like dead deer. nothing. that henry, he was a romantic, i tell ya...

so i'm obsessed with gilmore girls and rory has bangs and i really want to ge bangs because hers are so cute and winter is really the best time to get bangs because your forehead is less likely to sweat and make your bangs all gross, and then (ideally) they'll be grown out enough to go behind my ears by this summer, when it is hot and they will get all gross against my forehead. but i've gotten bangs before and i like them for approximatley 14 minutes and then they get on my nerves. and i have to keep in mind that she has someone whose job it is to do her hair each morning and make it look perfect, and it's probably got enough hairspray to last motley crue a week in 1987 so that the bangs stay perfect all day long, and i don't. but i still want bangs...

i hate the word bangs. i really think that as a society we should be able to come up with a better word for it/them. why are they called bangs? because they bang against your forehead? because they make you want to bang your head into a wall when they won't stay out of your eyes? because they were popular with head-banging hair bands? (the last one was a bit of a stretch). and it just sounds dumb. and the more you say it, the dumber it sounds.

the other day i was watching gilmore girls (shock of all shocks) and rory was reading the book a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, and i was proud because that's a book i read a few years ago. it made me smart.

so the american idol tryout shows are one this week, and i don't like watching them. i know for many people those 4-8 hours of television are the highlight of the year, but i just dont' enjoy it. how many times can you watch someone suck at singing before it gets boring? not many if you're me.

i think i was paid a compliment at lunch today. somehow we got to talking about how well our department gets along and someone said something about brandon, one of the other new teachers. he's the same age as me. rob, my department chair said something about how young he is, and i started to say that he's the same age as me. rob then said that he's much younger than me, even though we're the same age. i think he was calling me mature. he's really really wrong, but it was nice nonetheless.

i also got a compliment from my insurance guy. there have been multiple problems with my insurance (another sarah nolan in indianapolis wrecked a mazda in 2004 and they keep wanting it to be me to make my insurance cost more, and then today i checked out my bank statement online and found that my insurance had taken $400.00 out of my account even though we'd agreed not to make any payments until the mess was taken care of) and i called my insurance guy to try and get the problems solved and at the end of it he said i'd been great through all this, even though there had been multiple opportunities for me to yell and scream and i hadn't once and he appreciated it and i was a great customer. now he could have been just kissing my ass, but i choose to belive that it was sincere. too bad he's short.

did anyone else see peter jackson at the golden globes? holy 150 pound weight loss batman! and he's lost the glasses. still needs to comb his hair.

last night i decided it would be a good idea to drink a soda at 8:30 pm. needless to say i didn't sleep well. stupid caffeine...

i need a new message for my voicemail and i want something funny, but not something that says "i'm 16" but still shows my personality (which, coincidently, is fairly close to that of a 16-year-old). since it's my only phone number i sometimes get "real" phone calls on that phone and i don't want a ridiculous message. any ideas?

i don't really have anything else...

oooh! i just turned on USA network and Casino is on, not law and order. one of the best movies ever. and set in las vegas--back when it was run by the mob. ah, the good old days...

they should rename the USA channel the law and order channel...

because everytime i turn on channel 34 (USA network) there is an episode of law and order on. other channels at least make an effort to show other stuff sometimes. not usa. once in a while they'll show an episode of monk or something, but the rest of the time it's law and order. and i don't really like law and order, so it doesn't work very well for me...

i went to linens-n-things last night to try and spend a gift card on some towels that actually match my bathroom (because mine are yellow, pink, and maroon in a bathroom that's silver, black, and white). i had to leave without buying anything because the selection was overwhelming. i called my mom today and we figured out what i'm going to buy and how i'm going to arrange the towels. i feel better. i'm going back tomorrow.

i went apartment hunting today and found a couple that i like. there are a few more that weren't open that i'll have to revisit this week. i'm hopeful. the last time i went i was mostly on the south side of time, and this time i stayed north, and they are A LOT cheaper up here. and a lot of them don't charge any extra for pets per month which is cool.

so i was watching gilmore girls this week and it was the episode where rory goes off to college and it got me thinking (which is either pathetic or impressive. impressive that i can use anything, even gilmore girls to stimulate profound thoughts; or pathetic that i was watching that instead of reading the new yorker or something). there are a lot of big moments in life. some you don't remember: birth, first steps, first words, potty training, etc. and some you think will be a big deal, but they're too quick: college graduation (3.7 seconds walking across stage), high school graduation, getting your first job, first paycheck, first kiss etc. some actually have the weight you expect, but the circumstances make it so that they don't feel like you think they should. for example, when mom and dad left me here in las vegas, i should have felt strange or cried or something, but i had to immediately deal with las vegas airport traffic and so my focus was directed elsewhere.

anyway, in that episode there's the moment when rory hugs her mom goodbye and her mom leaves and she walks into her dorm room alone. i remembered that moment. it's really a busy day. you get there and you have to move all your stuff up three flights of stairs and you meet your roommate and you have to rearrange the room four different ways to get it all to fit and then you have to figure out how to fit all your clothes in the absurdly small dresser they give you and you have to make your bed and get some lunch and then you go to a meeting and your parents go to a meeting and you have to do all these things all day and then, all of a sudden, you go out to your parents car and they drive away and you don't and you walk back to your dorm room and sit down and that's it. and i don't care how far away your college is, it's a weird moment. because, for the first time, you're not living at home. and it's sad. before i went to college, i had traveled, i had gone to camp for one or two weeks at a time, i had been apart from them and i had never been homesick. and that day i was so homesick. the first time i called home a couple days later i cried a little. it was just really bizarre to go back to my room and not have it be upstairs from my parents in the kitchen. and i don't really know how to explain it, and it's something that anyone who has moved away to college like that will understand. you just have this huge feeling of "i'm older now. nothing will every be exactly like it was."

i saw the cutest dog today. chow and akita mix. 9 lbs. tan. so sweet. i want one.

i'm excited because it's almost tax season and i think i'm getting rebate this year. at least i hope i am. we'll see.

so there is a website called postsecret.com (it's in the new all american rejects video "dirty little secret") and the whole point is that people put secrets on anonymous postcards and mail them to an address and then this guy has a website out of them. it's amazing. i suggest checking it out. there is also a book and i bought it last night. it's amazing. in the 10 minutes i looked through it in the store, i found at least 4 secrets that i share. some are funny, some are serious, but they're just so amazing. they're these little pieces of someone's life that they share with the world. best $20 i ever spent.

i'm thinking about dropping cable, because it causes me to waste so much time, but i know i'll mist abc family and hgtv. and vh1. and tbs. the thing is, the tv is my friend; the person who talks to me in the evening when i'm here alone and without it my apartment would be very quiet and sad. and i would have no friends. but i would get a lot more done. i would read more, i would play the piano more, etc.

i don't watch the OC. i never have. i saw it the first time when it was called 90210. but i do watch fox sometimes and i've noticed that they've introed a new character who is marissa's sister and is "the bad girl." which is something they also did on 90210. remember tiffany amber theissen as valerie? bad girl. and just a question: i seem to remember brenda and brandon's parents dying in a horrific car wreck or something? please let me know if that's correct.

i think that's all i got for now. i'm going to watch extreme makeover: home edition and go to bed. another 4-day school week this week. man, my life is tough... (that was for you mom)

don't you hate it when your nose tickles like you have to sneeze, but then the sneeze never comes...

i just spent the last hour reading my old posts. i'm quite funny!

mother of pearl! i love the daily show!

and i just swallowed a gallon of snot.

the daily show is on at 11pm, and thent he colbert report after that, so i can't watch it because it's way past my bedtime. and comedy central reruns it at 10am, but i'm at work that time of day, so i can't watch it then. but fear not my friends: now they re-run it again at 8pm. BRILLIANT!! but i will say that there are a ton of commercials during those two shows.

so i was telling my modern lit class the other day (before winter break) about christopher walken being the scariest man alive (i can't remember why) and that jack nicholson was a close second, and i went on to tell them about the top four creepers:
1. wayne newton
2. tom jones
3. barry manilow
4. niel diamond (mostly because his hair never moves)
and one of my students mentioned that they're all las vegas performers, to which i just smiled cryptically and said "I know."

i swear--my students are all a bunch of delinquints. i asked yesterday and today if anyone had any exciting and school appropriate stories from break and there weren't many. so i asked if the break was boring or if all their stories weren't appropriate and the latter was their response and it just made me sad. i've told them that i dont' want to know about any illegal activities in which they engage, and they respect that for the most part. but i look at them and the things they do, and i wonder what will they have to look forward to? i fear for their adult lives, because so many of the exciting things have already happened.

yesterday was the 36th birthday of one of my colleagues, and several of the teachers were teasing him for being so young. i stayed silent. because i'm not quite there yet.

i have a whole bunch of change in the bottom of my purse that i need to put in my change glass.

see, this is why i don't post everyday: there aren't that many exciting things going on in my life and so the posts become these random, disjointed pieces of nonsense.

i really want an ergonomic keyboard...

i heard on e! news today that orlando and kate were seen shopping for engagement rings in london. i know this may come as a shock to many of you, but there's a slim chance i won't be marrying orlando bloom. is michael vartan still single?

whatever happened to mo rocca?

yesterday one of my key club girls was hanging out in my room after school and all of a sudden she says "ms. nolan! did you notice that i'm wearing hollister??" i hadn't noticed, because honestly i don't pay that much attention. i guess it was a big deal because she never wears hollister and she had gotten a shirt and jeans from there. i just think it's funny that she thought i paid that muc attention to her clothing. i barely pay that much attention to my own clothing.

it's very warm here this week, which sucks because i got several new sweaters and i can't wear them because it's too hot. i mean it's going to be near 70 degrees by friday. we got a new principal. we met him yesterday and he was very loud. our last principal was pretty quiet.

i have my first parent/teacher conferene after school tomorrow. the parent has asked for it with all her students teachers because she has low grades and wants to know what she can do to bring her grades up. she has a 26% in my class. TWENTY SIX PERCENT!! she doesnt' do anything. she's absent half the time and when she's there, she sleeps. and so her parents call a conference the last week of the quarter to bring her grades up. SHE HAS FOUR DAYS OF MY CLASS LEFT. THE GRADE IS NOT GOING TO MAGICALLY IMPROVE TO A B. OR ANYTHING BUT AN F. morons

and i think the colbert report might be funnier than the daily show. sorry john stewart.

today we read "the raven" in my american lit classes and watched the episode of the simpsons that has the raven in it and one of my students said taht was cool and can we do it another time. of course, my sarcastic comment was that from then on out, i would build the curriculum around the simpsons. that might have been a little harsh.

remember the days when i would get worried about the fact that i wasn't prepared for the next day and felt bad for not grading when i got home. good thing i got rid of that guilt. now slacking is guilt free. and as a result, boring. kind of like when i used to play snood in college. it was only fun when i was procrastinating.

anyway, i think this is good. PLEASE COMMENT!! otherwise i think no one is reading them, or no one is enjoying them and i lose my motivation. i like comments. the make me feel loved. they don't have to be witty or long or even nice. :)

i'm stole this. it's what teachers do.

my friend heidi sent this to me in an email and she stole it from another friend's blog, so i'm just perpetuating the cycle... here goes!!

my uncle once: scared me. a lot. and by "once" i mean "every time i saw him." he was just very loud and boisterous and always called me "sweetie" (his petname for every female he ever encountered) or maybe it was "baby." or "honey." or all three. but anyway, he's a super nice guy, but when i was little i was shy (shock!!) and he always came in yelling happily and kissing me on the cheek and it was a little bit scary. i'm not scared of him anymore.

the one person who drives me nuts, but then can always manage to make me smile is: probably my mom. i love her and she's my best friend, but she likes to mother me. a lot. i guess she earned it around the time she squeezed me out of her vagina, but it drives me nuts sometimes. but then she does something really awesome and it's all good.

high school was: fun. excruciating. boring. hard. too long. too short. the worst four years of my live. the average four years of my life. not the best four years of my life. not like saved by the bell. absurd. dramatic. lonely. busy. this could go on forever, but high school was what it was. nothing more, nothing less. i have very mixed emotions about it and i've not sorted them all out yet. it's still too fresh of a wound.

my first real love was: jonathan brandis?

if i were to get married right now, my bridesmaids would be: how can i possibly answer this without offending someone? i refuse. and what's the point of thinking about an event 50 years in the future?

i talk to my ex: haha. very funny.

last Christmas I: " gave you my heart. the very next day, you gave it away." no, seriously, i thought i would never make it through student teaching and the concept of having a job as a teacher was almost unfathomable. actually, that last part is still true...

when i turn my head left i see: my filing cabinet, my wall, and a magnet for an insurance agent that i never called, which reminds me that i need to buy magnets for my classroom. and a pile of paid bills. stupid bills.

when i turn my head right i see: my tv, couch, movies, piano, front door, two pairs of shoes, a wall thing for my kitchen that i bought in november and have yet to put up, two empty soda cans... is that enough? because i can keep going...

the craziest family event was: if you've met my family, you understand the futility of this question. they're all crazy.

if i was a charater on friends, i'd be: i hate to admit it, but probably ross. boring, neurotic, loser-ish, nerdy...

by this time next year: well let's go with the old standby for shits and giggles: BOYFRIEND!!

you know i "like" you if: i pick on you. i've never quite left that realm of 2nd grade. but if i'm mean to you, i like you.

if i won an award, the first person/people i'd thank would be: my parents. or my boyfriend, orlando bloom.

take my advice: don't go to the las vegas strip for new year's eve. it's not worth the brushes with death.

my ideal breakfast is: have you seen pretty woman? that, except substitute orlando bloom for richard gere. and i'm not a hooker. and he's not more into his work than me. and i have better hair. and i don't eat a plain pancake with my fingers. you know, exactly the same thing.

if you visit my hometown: don't go to the park after sundown. it's a rough place.

if you spent the night at my house: you'd get the couch, because that's just how fancy i am. with the sheets from my bed in college.

i'd stop my wedding if: orlando bloom called me and expressed his undying love...

the world could do without: the lifetime network. no one has that much estrogen. wait, correction: no one should have that much estrogen.

my favorite blonde is: there are two: tyler and trevor-- THE CUTEST KIDS EVER!!

paper clips are more useful than: the security tape they put on cd's and dvd's. i'm pretty sure they only purpose it serves is to drive m crazy and make it so i have to wait 15 minutes to listen to a new cd. bastards.

if i could do anything well, i would: dance. or write. or figure skate. or diet. whatever.

and by the way: who decided that chocolate needed to have 12 billion calories per serving? i mean, it's a necessary food group (i would argue it's more important than the starches) but i have to feel guilty every time i eat it. bollocks!!

once, at a bar: i kissed i guy i'd never talked to because it was my 23rd birthday and i was still a kissing virgin and my friends convinced me that it was a good idea and he slobbered all over me and put his number in my cell phone. i called him a couple weeks later and he never called back then dated my friend. AWKWARD.

las night: i watched arrested development and went to bed. mi vida loca.

there's a girl i know who: failed organic chemistry once and barely passed it the second time, got c's and d's in all her science classes and still thought she would get into medical school.

if you actually read this, you: need to get a life. face it people: i'm not that interesting.

if i ever go back to school, i'll: when i go back i'll get my masters in either: education, linguistics, literature, or british history. or maybe all four.

next time i go to church: i'll again be shocked and awed at how big it is.

my birthday is: october 6th. and generally a letdown.

have you ever showered with someone of the opposite sex: i think i took baths with my brothers when i was a baby... as if you all didn't know that answer already.

have you ever brused your teeth in the shower? i dont' think so. it just feels wrong to brush my teeth with hot water.

how old do you look? younger than most of my students, so 15. no, seriously, probably a bout 21 or so.

What's the last song you sang? i think it was "breathe" in the car today.

do you kiss with your eyes open or closed? i don't kiss. because i'm pathetic.

are you in love with anyone right now? myself.

does anything on your body itch right now? my arm, but it only started itching when i typed this.

have you ever had a member of the opposite sex in your room? yes. i'm a virgin, not a puritan.

are you more creative alone or with other people? a little of both. but i think best out loud.

do you end up making a fool of yourself when you try to flirt with someone? usually.

do you exercise before you eat in the morning? i get up at five as it is. i refuse to get up at 4 so that i can exercise.

is it better to be single or in a relationship? like i know.

where/when will the next vacation be? there was talk of going to south korea this summer with my parents to visit my brother, but i don't think i'll be able to afford it. so probably to indiana in the summer to see the fam and be in lindsay's wedding.

do you talk in your sleep? i dont' think so. sometimes when i take naps and i'm not sleeping very deeply i moan. anyone remember the episode from college when we were watching dead man walking??? good times.

name one random fact about yourself: i have a blue freckle on my leg. and when i was in the first grade, i played a bunny in the chrismast musical and i got to stand on stage during one song and i peed my pants right before it started. i had to stand on stage and pose so that people couldn't see the big pee spot on my pink bunny costume (which was a pink sweatsuit). not my best moment.

if you could "take back" your virginity from your first partner, would you? blah.

would you prefer the lights on or off during sex? by the time i get to that particular activity, i won't care. i just can't wait to have sex.

would you ever start a relationship with someone who was still living with an ex for financial reasons? no.

is the male or female body closer to perfection? female. have you seen the male body? i really think the penis was an afterthought. god looked at man, and realized that something was missing and just threw it on there where there was a free spot. not attractive.

would you date someone significantly (9 years or over) older than you? it would depend on whether or not he was michael vartan.

generally, in life, what makes you happy? family, friends, coziness, teaching, learning, so many things. the fact that my key club kids ran toward me and gave me hugs this morning. when my nephews laugh at my jokes (of course, they also laugh at the word booger, so it's not such a big deal). looking out the window as my plane lands in indy. looking out the window as my plane lands in las vegas. the fact that elizabeth and darcy always get together.

How well do you handle criticism? i'd say fairly well. but i tend to agonize over it. i'm one of those crazy overachievers.

would you like to date someone a lot poorer than you? interesting wording there. would i like to? well it's not something i hope and dream about, but i would, depending on the situation.

when fooling around with someone, do you sometimes have fantasies of other people? oh yeah. all the time.

is it possible for a fuller-figured woman to be as attractive as a thinner woman? i'd like to think so. other wise i'll die a virgin.

you've just met someone incredible while out with friends, and s/he has been kind enough to cough up a number. how long do you wait to call? at least a week. probably 6 days, so it's not right away, but it's not obvious that i've waited a week. it just seems like i casually decided to call.

would you have a "happy button" installed on your body, connected to your brain, which would instantly make you very happy whenever you pressed it? they did that with rats, and they died. so no. it's the tir na nog thing: without sorrow you can't ever know great joy.

what's sexiest on a woman/man? any attraction to me. and good hair. and a nice big... brain. DON'T BE DIRTY!!

would you rather marry a virgin or someone experienced? i would like to marry a virgin, but i realize that's fairly unlikely considering my age and the current sexual climate.

have you ever had a one-night stand? ha.

is it better to have loved and lost or never to have loved at all? loved and lost. i think. i'm not speaking from experience here or anything, but i think a life without love seems really sad.


wow! that was a lot longer than i anticipated. anyway, i think that will suffice for a post today.

near death experiences and other new year's eve adventures...

okay. so among my many goals for this year is to update my blog at least once a week. in the last few weeks before i went home for winter break all motivation to do anything at all except sit on my couch and watch "the fabulous life of..." on vh1. so now i'm back in las vegas and i've had two weeks of extrovert bliss (read: not living alone) and i've got some of my motivation back to not be worthless. so we'll see. i know most of you are cynical because i've made this promise before and have then failed to make good on it, but i'm going to make it again. it's like smokers: most smokers try to quit an average of 6 to 12 times before they're successful. hopefully my number will be less.

anyway, let me tell you about my new year's eve. my plane landed in las vegas at about 12:45 p.m. that day, and i finally left the airport with all my luggage (all three suitcases and a carry on--i suck at life) about an hour later. i waited for my bags for 30 minutes!! my friends who were picking me up eventually just decided to park instead of circling the airport to pick me up. so i got home about 2:30. i thought this was plenty of time to unpack, take a nap, clean my apartment, and just generally get ready for the evening (i was planning on curling my hair, generally a drastic, time-consuming procedure). on the car ride home, gwen told me that everyone had just decided to go down to the strip and wander around and hang out because it was free and it was $120 to get into some of the cheaper clubs. the really cool clubs (i.e. Tao, where paris hilton was hosting a party) were $300 and up. i was cool with that idea because i'm poor and i didn't have any clothes that were cute enough for the cool places. i figured we'd get there around nine or so, maybe earlier to get some dinner, no sweat. no. certain people in our group wanted to get there earlyso we'd get parking, it wouldn't be too crowded, etc, so they wanted to get there at 4. FOUR PM!!! seriously? do they know what time midnight is? and how far away that is from 4?? well, gwen had talked them down to 5:30 or 6:00, which was a little more doable for me. we had decided to meet at sean and gwen's to preparty, so i said i'd try to get there around 4:30. when i got home, i grabbed some food and money from the atm and wanted to relax a little before i had to leave. it was also really windy, so i decided to just leave my hair like it was (straight) for the evening.

i ended up running a little late and got to their apartment around 5:30 but hadn't finished getting dressed or putting my makeup on, so i'm finishing up at the apartment and amanda (the one who wanted to get there at four and was mad because i hadn't gotten there before them) says to me, "are you still getting ready?" which pissed me off so i responded with, "well i just flew in today and we're leaving a lot earlier than i had planned." she didn't really say anything because someone else changed the subject and we left for the strip.

we get there and park at the mgm grand and met the other car inside (they'd parked at new york, new york) and began our night of wandering.

first, we wandered into a bar inside the mgm and got kicked out 20 minutes later because we weren't buying anyting.

next, we wandered across the street to the new york new york and went out to the other car because they had a cooler of beer in it.

then, we wandered back over to mgm and went ouside an up the street. amanda started complaining that we were walking too fast for her in her four-inch heels (don't ask my why she thought those were a good idea considering we'd be walking all night). we ended up at the aladdin and went in because it was windy and we wanted to not be outside anymore.

we wandered back into the mall there and gwen and i decided that we wanted to eat something. so we found a mexican restaurant and told everyone that we were going to eat, but they could go on if they wanted and we'd meet them later, once we were finished. they all decided to go in. so we get a table, sit and look at the menus and amanda, chris, and sean immediately start talking about how expensive it is, and how there was cheap pizza somewhere back in the mall, and so we told them again, they could leave and we'd meet up with them later. so they finally left and we sat and talked to tracy and dave, and had a really nice time.

we left the aladdin and found a spot in the street (it was closed to car traffic) where we would be able to see a lot of the fireworks. it was about 11:00, so we had about an hour to wait. i had been yawning since about 8pm, and had seriously considered leaving (i had driven down there) about 10:30, but i figured i'd wait it out--i could sleep on sunday and monday, so it wasn't a big deal. well, amanda started whining about heading back to the mgm so we could be closer to the cars when the fireworks went off, but most of us were cool in our spot, so we decided not to move. all of a sudden, she freaks out and decides that she's going to walk back by herself. there are a lot of people down there. the street was full from the stratosphere to mandalay bay, and she decides to walk from the bellagio/alladin to the mgm. so tracy takes off after her and brings her back, and she's yelling at her husband, chris, which was a continuation of an earlier fight from inside the aladdin, and we all started walking south just to shut her up. we got half way down and stopped in front of some port-o-potties for a reason which i can't remember right now and she started whining again about walking because someone made a joke about celebrating the new year in front of the port-o-potties. someone commented that they liked our spot before so she explodes again and tells everyone to go back there and she'll meet them at the car afterwards, blah blah blah.

eventually, we watched the fireworks from in front of the monte carlo. just about every casino on the strip sets off fireworks and they're all coordinated, so it was really cool. i'll try to post my pictures sometime.

several of the casino signs had a count down to midnight, and the two we were watching, new york, new york, and mgm grand were both doing it, but their countdowns were three seconds apart, which was funny. tracy was pretty sure the world would implode if the new year happened twice, but luckily, it didn't.

so we watched the fireworks and cheered and blew our little horn thingies and decided to go to the car. it was crowded, because a lot of other people had the same idea, but it was manageable and we weren't concerned about it. we got down to the ny, ny and were had to walk into a pretty big crowd in front of the brooklyn bridge, so we made sure to stick together so we wouldn't lose anyone. what happened next was seriously the scariest 30 minutes of my life. you know how you hear those stories about people being crushed to death at soccer matches? i was caught in something like that. at first it was crowded and kinda fun, but no big deal. then we started making jokes about not falling because you'd get trampled, and then it was seriouly an exercise in not being pushed over. and it stayed like that for 15 minutes. the fact that the drunk morons kept pushing didn't help. we realized that there were two barriers, one separating the street from the sidewalk and one that made a T into the other one, and we were stuck in the corner of them. we had to climb over the barrier to get out of it. amanda and gwen were both crying and scared to death and i was getting really worried. the crowd was helping to get all the women out first and it was sort of a titanic/berlin wall kind of thing. it was really scary.

we all said our goodbyes and went to our cars to go home.

it took us two hours to get out of the parking garage.

we moved about 20 feet in the first hour and a half.

i wanted to die. and sleep. but mostly sleep.

and that was my first new year's eve in las vegas. not a high. earlier i had told gwen that i wanted to stay home and sleep but thought i would regret it if i didn't go out. i ended up regretting going out. here's the moral of this story: staying home and watching movies with your parents on new year's eve is much more fun than going out partying in las vegas. i am such a loser.

here's some sad news: this is the last season of arrested: development, which is the funniest show on tv and will be no more come may. *sigh*

not looking forward to getting up at 5am tomorrow. not really looking forward to going back to school. blah. hooray for updating!!!

i suck at life

i was going to do a pathetic non-update update where i just write about how sorry i am that i haven't updated and i decided to look at my blog first and i realized that i haven't really updated since my mom visited!! and that was forever ago! so i'm going to update. it won't be as long as other have been, but i will share some things. and i just finished writing a lesson about effective sentences for my modern lit class and i'm cringing at my writing. oh well.

it's gotten out that i have a blog, and i'm really worried some of my students will find it and know WAY too much about me as a result, but i'm willing to take that chance. i'm banking on the fact that they'll either be too lazy to read all of it, or too stupid to keep it a secret that they've found it. someone will let it slip and then i'll have to go into the blog witness protection program and change my url and write all my entries in some kind of code. actually, any word over about six letters whould be code to them, so i'll just become very close with my thesarus.

here's how cool i am. it's about 9:30 on a sunday, and am i watching desperate housewives like the rest of america? no (i've never watched it. i didn't watch it the first time it was called peyton place either). i'm watching masterpiece theatre on pbs. it's the story of elizabeth I, one of my heroes. i would love to name my first daughter elizabeth, but it's such an overused name, and i want to avoid those as much as possible. i might try to figure out a way to name her elizabeth and call her "iza," but we'll see what my future husband (orlando bloom, michael vartan) has to say about that. i was just flipping channels when i saw that it was on and i was going to tape it, but i dont' know how to record anything with my vcr. we've had dvr at home for so long, and i use my vcr so rarely anyway that i just don't know how it works. sad.

oooh! tomorrow is oprah's 20th aniversary show, and i'm sad to say that i plan to make sure that i'm home in time to watch it. i think oprah infuses some sort of hypnosis into her shows to make you want to watch more, and to make you want to do as she says. why else would everyone in america go buy three books by william faulkner this past summer? it saddens me to know that oprah is the moral compass of at least 56% of the US, and if she ran for president, would win by a landslide. it saddens me even more to know that i would probably vote for her.

every so often, i read other people's blogs and i realize that i'm not quite doing it correctly. everyone else uses them as a place to write their thoughts and feelings, and i just tell dumb stories about my students. so then i start to think, "should i talk about my feelings more?" but then i realize that you all don't care about that, and i like the idea of my feelings being private (no offense to any of you), and you all have feelings of your own to worry about; you don't need mine heaped up on you too. and then i feel okay.

mary just died. God save the queen. (i'm talking about the movie right now, in case i lost anyone) "This is the worlk of the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes." i think my favorite thing about the whole bloody mary/elizabeth I thing is that mary thought she was preggers, but it turned out to be a tumor!! haha! take that mary. serves you right for burning protestants. i would mention something about karma here, but anyone who's ever taken a south asian history class with manu bagavan knows that we use karma incorrectly most of the time, and while i can't remember what it really is (it's in my notes somewhere, but i'm not about to pull them out for you all), i now that it's not how most american's use it.

i saw the new pride and prejudice friday night. i'm not going to write much about it because i don't want to preform any opinions for those who haven't seen it (i hate it when people do that to me), but suffice it to say that i was smilng and giggling like a schoolgirl with pigtails 95% of the time.

so yesterday i spent the whole day at six flags in california with my key club. it went well. i enjoyed the rides. both of them. that's right. i rode two rides all day. *sigh* the woes of a chaperone/advisor. they have this new roller coaster called "extreme" where the seats spin end-over-end as well as the coaster being all over the place (i realize that was a terrible explanation, but i can't describe it without the use of my hands), and we waited in line FOR FOUR HOURS! it was a good ride, but no three minutes can be worth four hours of waiting. (insert some comment about sex here. i don't have any, for reasons we're all well aware of) after that i had just enough time to spend $10 on some fast food chinese (10 dollars!!) and meet my kids at the exit. there was a minor catastrophe about some wristbands that we didn't get but were supposed to, but i wasn't there for that and the other chaperone got up in someone's face about it and it was taken care of. (i was off buying a corndog at the time. i don't think she knows that...) i'm glad she was there, because i wouldn't have had the fortitude to get as angry as she did.

i don't like the way they portray elizabeth here. she seems very bitter and snotty. i like to think that the real one was not quite so bitchy. she was more like kate blanchett's portrayal in Elizabeth. she had her moments, but over all she was quite a peach. i used to think that i liked queen victoria a lot, but after reading a bio of her this summer, i realize that she didn't do much for feminism. she really played up the "i'm a helpless woman. i need a man to do it for me." she let her husband run everything until he died, and only then did she start to take control.

so here's my latest tv greivance. (yep. my life's so empty that i'm concerned about this) so, alias used to be on tnt (channel 18) at 6pm, which filled quite nicely the slot between gilmore girls on abc family at 5 and csi on spike tv at 7. well now, tnt changed their line up and alias is on at 4pm, which is fine, but that's the same time as oprah on channel 14, which isn't big deal, because i dont' watch oprah every day, and i've seen every episode of the first three seasons of alias (i own them). usually i opt for alias anyway, because michael vartan is HOTTTTT. but now i don't have anything to watch at 6pm. i could watch friends at 6 and that 70's show at 6:30, but they're not as good. and we all know i'm not going to turn the tv off. it's my best friend.

i was supposed to grade this weekend. i didn't.

i'm gong apartment shopping with gwen next weekend. she's told me that if she has anything to say about it, i'll be moving to the southwest side close to she and sean. we'll see. i'm looking into finding a condo that the owner wants to rent, because sometimes their cheaper, and the furnishings (kitchen and bathroom stuf) are usually nicer. keep your fingers crossed for granite contertops!!

i got nothing else. i will try to update again later this week, but my modern lit students are turning in essays tomorrow, so i can't guarantee that i'll have time. plus, tomorrow i have book club and tuesday afternoon/evening i have new teacher training (aka new teacher torture) and i'm giving a test on wednesday (probably with no essay--they've already written one over the book. mrs. elkin and mrs. beck would appaled if they knew) so who knows. luckily the test is already written. i've used another teacher's quizzes and study guides throughout the book--why not use her test as well!? so, i'm going to watch the last hour of masterpiece theatre (no worries--the rest on next sunday night) and go to bed. or i might just go to bed. we'll see.

ps. no boyfriend yet. no prospects. the guy in my book group / small group from church who seemed like an option doesn't seem highly compatible so far. gwen agrees with me (she's in the same book club). also, he seems to be interested in another girl in the group. my single status is still intact!!!

i took the pictures of sophie down because i had to put her to sleep a week ago. she had parvo and it was going to require hospitalization (which was going to cost $1000) and even at that she only had a 50% chance of survival. i have a friend whose parents dog had that and they did the hospitalization thing and he died anyway. so that's that. i had her for a week.

and i'm pathetic for not upating for about two weeks and i'm going to, but not tonight, because i've been falling asleep since about 7:00 and was staying up in case a couple of phone calls came in. but now, it's to bed, and then i have friday off (huzzah!) and i can sleep in. and then i got to six flags with 30 high school students... i'm really afraid that we'll leave someone there. to bed. good night.