a bit of perspective

i read this really interesting article today by michael medved suggesting that the idea of the 'close-minded complaining christian' may becoming outdated. the comparisions between the christian culture in america and the muslim unrest about the danish cartoons is a very interesting one. i would certainly encourage you to read through it. you can find it here.

proof that im a nerd

this morning i was talking to one of my co-workers. she has a son who came home from college for a visit. she was telling me her sons name is kurt. after a second i put the first and last name together and realized his name is kurt wagenaar. this made me laugh quite a bit. (for those that arent putting it together, good for you. for those that did, then you are just as big a nerd as i am.)

mario would be proud!

right now i am in the middle of total chaos! and actually loving it!!! today at school we are having our third nintendo ds party. heres how it works: i have a nintendo ds, and i like to play it with other people. some of my students also have a ds, so i figured it would be fun to stay after school and play. that first time there were about eight of us. the second time i brought my gamecube for people who didnt have a ds. that time we had about twenty people hang out. today everyone wanted to play- there are 45 middle school students in my classroom hopped up on caffeine! we have about 20 people playing ds, and three gamecubes set up around the room- it is totally crazy! i better go and watch the kids before anything gets broken!

cold outside, colder inside

maybe this is payback for all the times i talk about how much i like the cold...
this weekend was a rough one for me to stay warm. it was one of the coldest weekends of the year around here- at one point it got down to about 5 degrees (at least thats what it said on the bank sign, and i dont know if that includes wind chill or not). i headed home to michigan on saturday and that morning the fan for the floor heat in my car stopped working. it was a very cold two hour drive. my hands and head were totally warm, but my feet were fridged.
the ride back here was super cold too. i was excited to get home and back into some warmth, but it didnt seem to work out quite that way. i walk into my place and it is freezing in there! i look at the temp and its 51 degrees inside my house! i was beside myself with anger. ive written before about how i have had many issues with my heater over the years, but this was just rediculous! i was surprised to find that my water pipes hadnt froze over while i was gone. i preceeded to fight my heater for the rest of the night (which consists of me turning up the heat, it turning on for about three minutes then shuting off, at which point i walk over and turn the heat back on again. repeat this process about 50 times). eventually it kicked in after about 3 hours, then it let the heat go all the way up to 65! it was a christmas miracle!!! but then of course when i woke up this morning it was back to about 54 degrees. i figured 'screw it!' so i packed up and left. its midday now, and i have been enjoying the heat in different stores all day just wandering around. i really should call somebody about this, huh?

ugh

im not a huge fan of valentines day. and no, its not just because im single. i dont like it because it raises undue expectations. there is an expectation that everything today will be romantic. and it never is.
although, i remember a valentines day my senior year of college that involved a cute girl and a late night... ive said too much already...

a strange dream

ive been having some pretty crazy dreams lately. last week i had a really wierd one. i dont really remember much of it, but i remember walking up to a booth with a sign over it. i couldnt make out what the sign said (ive never been able to read in my dreams- is that normal?) but it looked like it said 'fish turtle'. when i read this in my dream i started laughing hystarically for no good reason. when i woke up i thought about it again, 'fish turtle', and for some reason in made me laugh for real. i know its not even remotely funny, but i still get a kick out of it. i think i need to start using 'fish turtle' as a punchline for jokes...

kinda like bill and ted

i had a lot of fun this weekend. my best buddy aaron came down on friday. its been a long while since he came down by himself. we actually tried to remember the last time he came alone and neither one of us could remember.
we had a really great time. i think what i like so much about when he comes down together is just how comfortable it is to be around him. weve known each other since 3rd or 4th grade and have spent so much time hanging out over the years that its really easy to just chill and enjoy the time together. at one point this weekend we realized just how many places weve been together. (heres the short list: florida, tennessee, iowa, new york, utah, california, spain, netherlands, germany, italy... i could go on.)
friday night we went out to eat then we headed back to my place and just hung out and watched tv ('the office' rules!) and a movie (wedding crashers). saturday we headed downtown to chicago. i havent been there in a while- ive got to remember to go there more often! we spent about 4 hours at the virgin megastore, then we went to eat the world famous gino's east chicago style deep dish pizza. its always awesome to go there! we headed back in the evening and made it in time to catch the next showing of king kong at the theater (i know, im delinquent for taking so long to see it) after that we stopped off at bennigens and talked till closing time. sunday he headed off early back to michigan. all in all, a great weekend- i even got in a little sunday nap!
ive got to make sure it doesnt take so long for him to come down next time...

the greatest day of my life!

oh, i am so pumped for this weekend!!! finally, its the super bowl!!! i am so excited about the big game i am finding hard to control my excitement!!! all year i wait for this day in eager anticipation for the glory that is the super bowl!!!
... wow, trying to sound excited about it was alot harder than i thought it would be. so, who's playing in it this year? actually, dont anwer that. id prefer to remain clueless...

finally!

sorry for the dearth of posts lately, ive actually been having some problems signing on, and issues with my profile. ive got it taken care of, and now im ready to blog away again!