Fair Season.

I am so excited. It is time for the Minnesota State Fair. Our State fair is quite large compared to some other state fairs and I have gone every year of my life except the first year. It is not just the fair itself that is so exciting to me, but what it represents for me. It has always been a part of my life as far as I can remember, something to look forward to as a family tradition. It means fun, family, togetherness, gooey tasty food, and a fun end of summer family event before school started. The fair is imprinted as a place where only good times, and happiness has occurred in my life, that is what the state fair represents to me.

It's that time again.

Tonight is my first day of school for the new fall semester. While I am not excited to be returning to class, homework, tests and studying. I am happy about my classes that I have signed up for this semester. Tonight I have Shakespeare and tomorrow night I have American Lit. After I finish this semester I will only have two more semesters...three more classes and I will be done. It doesn't seem real that I could be that close. I could possibly take all classes in one semester and kill myself:) But that is a thought for another time.


I have:
American Lit
Shakespeare
A Literary Criticism Course
My Capstone Course
and some sort of elective of choice
-then graduation.
I wish I was able to go full time I would just take them all and be done with it.

I have decided to take this semester off for personal and health reasons, I will return in the spring and most likely attend summer courses. Right now I have too many balls in the air that I am trying to juggle and one of them is going to drop and take me with it so I have opted to make the decision of taking something temporarily off the table until I can get some other pieces of the balancing act that has become my life under more permanent control.

How does a person go about getting a goat?

So when I went to the zoo we went in to pet the goats, and I made friends with this guy here.

He is SOOOOOOOOO cute!!! He followed me around and kept trying to eat my pants and bag. I want to go back and pet him again!

The Zoo.

Yesterday my friend Kris and I took the two oldest children of one of our mutual friends (Steve) to the Minnesota Zoo. We all had a great time. For me not only did I enjoy the Zoo, but I also enjoyed the kids, who are amazing, and the experience of hanging out for an entire day with people who don't expect anything of you other that to see "the big fish", or the shark, and the zebra. Children have no agenda the way that adults do. They don't look to emotionally drain you with the drama, blame, guilt, and manipulation, but in fact yesterday had the opposite effect filling me with energy while I was with them and hope. Spending the entire day with people (albeit short people) who just want to have fun, enjoy things, get what they can out of the experience and have a treat or two while they are doing it,was a gift.

September Wants!

So it always seems like whenever I go back to school all the books that I want to read come out, and I am too busy with homework and stuff to read them:(

I have been cruising websites and a bunch of stuff that I want to buy comes out in September!

An Echo in the Bone- by Diana Gabaldon
Jamie Fraser, erstwhile Jacobite and reluctant rebel, knows three things about the American rebellion: the Americans will win, unlikely as that seems in 1778; being on the winning side is no guarantee of survival; and he’d rather die than face his illegitimate son — a young lieutenant in the British Army — across the barrel of a gun. Fraser’s time-travelling wife, Claire, also knows a couple of things: that the Americans will win, but that the ultimate price of victory is a mystery. What she does believe is that the price won’t include Jamie’s life or happiness — not if she has anything to say.Claire’s grown daughter Brianna, and her husband, Roger, watch the unfolding of Brianna’s parents’ history — a past that may be sneaking up behind their own family.

The Big Bang Theory-Season 2


Temp Me at Twilight- by Lisa Kleypas

Catching Fire-By Suzanne Collins
Book Two of the Hunger Games Triliogy!!!
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.

Just to name a few, and if you have not read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins I highly recommend it.

Happy Belated Birthday Mom.

So during the whole moving thing was my mom's birthday...it kinda got lost in the shuffle. I wanted to do a birthday post but I didn't have my printer to scan any pictures, didn't have any pictures to scan...they were all at the new place. So I have decided to do a belated birthday post for my mom. She hates having her picture taken, so finding a picture of her with both my brother and me in it was hard. I had to go back to the good old days when Jase and I were both still cute:) So, Happy Birthday Mom! Lubs YOU!

Gettysburg

The next trip that I want to take is to Gettysburg. When I was younger my family took a trip out east and we stopped there for a day, but it was so hot and humid that we were not able to walk around or see much. I would love to be able to walk around the battlefields, the museums, and the town.
I have always been interested in The Civil War with an extra interest in the Battle of Gettysburg. The National Park located there is huge, and I would love to go and just wander and take in the experience of being there.

The Tripping Point

I am not the most graceful person you will ever meet, but i am also not the most clumsy. However, the other day I fell, on my face! I was basically standing there then I moved one foot and my ankle gave way and I fell to my knees, caught myself on my hands (and my camera, boo!), and finally stopped my fall with my face and my sunglasses (may they rest in peace, they did not make it through this ordeal). After a little screeching, some dusting off, and checking for injuries, I found i had totalled my sunglasses, scraped my camera, scraped my hands and knees, hurt my bad ankle, racked up my knee a little and my arms have been sore ever since...my face however came away without a scratch:)

This is what I "tripped" on... where the path is all jagged is where my ankle twisted.

This picture I actually took when I was falling! I have skills!!!! This is the ground and my shirt:)

New Neighbors

So, at the same time we were moving in, there was a cre...I mean a man moving into the same area of the building that we were moving into. No biggy. We can share the elevator, well we would have, had we moved at the same time of day, but this man decided that he wanted to move in, in the middle of the NIGHT! So, he was unloading his car in our parking lot courtyard, into a shopping cart, and running the cart back across the parking lot (insert sound effect of cart going back and forth across parking lot in the broken stillness of the night)until 3 am! Never mind the poor people who live right by the door that he must have repeatedly slammed. He did this from about 10pm to 3 am one night. The next night at around 1030 we heard to dulcet tones of the cart clanking across the concrete again and proceeded to yell at him out the window. (we just asked if he was planning to move again all night) He said that he was on his last load, it was totally his first for the day/night! From then on we started calling him the creep, as he creeps around doing strange things at night.
He looks like he is in his mid thirties, and fairly successful at whatever it is he does (besides creep), leaves in his expensive car for some sort of work everyday in a suit. Very fraternity stereotype kind of image here.
The next day we came upstairs to move things to the new apartment and the hallway was full of empty boxes outside of the creeps apartment!! WTF?! Now I live in an "adult" building which in my town translates to mostly seniors who have canes, walkers and wheelchairs. You cant go around blocking hallways in this building let alone creating such a mess! (creep). Then the next night the creep was sitting in the party room wrapped up in a blanket on the couch watching tv like he was in a dorm house(our party room lies between our apartments and you walk through it as if it is part of the hall when it is not being used).
And finally last night when I was coming home I walked past his apartment, most people have decorations such as wreaths, signs, etc outside of their doors to decorate their doorways. When I came past his door he had put a Vikings schedule poster on the outside of his door! Number one, like we all care??, number 2 this is not a dorm room, I mean come on A POSTER!!!, and number 3 wow the depth of this person...a vikings poster...that's what he wants people to know about him. Deep.

Yesterday was stressful, and so I needed a good laugh...

This makes me giggle just thinking about it. When I need a good laugh all I have to do is pop in a episode of the Big Bang Theory.

Thought Provoking and Eye Opening.

So we had finally moved and gotten the old apartment all cleaned, but we still had several pieces of furniture that we were not planning on moving as we are now in a smaller apartment. We had a recliner, a lamp, and two dining room chairs that we just didn't need anymore. We really didn't have any idea how we were going to get these out of the apartment before the first of the month. My mom had called 1-800-junk and they want anywhere from 100-200 dollars to pick up what we had! Um, no! So, she then decided she would ask around the building to see if anyone was in want of these few pieces of furniture. It turns out that there was a woman who had moved in just down the hall from our old apartment that had almost NO furniture. She had a bed, a desk, and an ironing board. That was all. So when my mom asked her if she wanted the pieces she was very happy to take them. It turns out she was in the process of getting divorced, and had left everything behind as she just needed to get out of her house. Her adult son still lives at home and is Bipolar and schizophrenic and wont take his medication continuously and has threatened to kill her and her husband several times, she had to leave in fear for her life. Her husband refuses to do anything about the situation with their son, and she refuses to live in fear any longer.
As we had an abundance of furniture, including some in our store room (an extra table) we were able to give her a head start on at least furnishing the beginning of her new start at life and she was able to help us clear out our apartment with very little effort. A good ending, or beginning.
However, it made me think about all of the things that I surround myself with, and all of the things that I think I NEED. This woman was living with a bed, desk, and an ironing board. So little is actually needed to sustain us, yet I think I NEED all of these things to make me happier. WHAT IS THAT ABOUT?! Don't get me wrong there is something to be said about comfort, do I want to sleep on the floor? No. But just watching her look around our apartment and then walking into hers... We are still trying to find places to fit stuff in our apartment and she couldn't decide which empty space to put the table and the recliner into...So how much of the stuff we surround ourselves with is actually stuff we need?