Sunshine Meets Rain Half Way to Hearing Aids

Josué and I moved a month ago (which will be a different post) and because of this move, Connie no longer has a warm, covered, safe place to sleep. She now sleeps outside exposed to all the elements which has been quite an adjustment for me. I’m not used to dew on my window in the morning and am definitely not a fan. However, it’s something that I can and will get used to.

What I will not get used to is random acts of tagging.

Saturday morning Josué and I were leaving our apartment when I noticed something weird on the back on friend Danielle’s car. At first I thought she wrote something on her car with that window paint and wondered why she wrote on her car and not the window. I tried to rub it off and realized it wasn’t budging. I smelled my hand and realized it was spray paint and experienced this train of thought: someone spray painted Danielle’s car! What? Why? Oh my God, what if they spray painted my car? I looked over and sure enough FATS had marked his/her territory right on the shiny silver paint of my beloved car.

With the help of Goo Gone we luckily got all the spray paint off both cars and Connie looks beautiful again. I’m just seriously wondering why people would tag a car and why someone would voluntarily choose the nickname Fats.

The 2nd year of my masters program started this week. And even though I’ve been doing this grad school thing a year, I was still nervous as ever to start the quarter. The beginning of the 2nd year marks a shift in the program. The first year we just talked about teaching, we didn’t really do anything practical. This year we’re all practical all the time. We’re making lesson plans, practicing strategies, teaching our classmates and in March we enter the classroom.

I cannot even begin to describe how horrified I am of this. March? The month that is 5 months away from now? That March?

I learned in class Monday that teachers, as a profession, have the highest rate of UTIs because they can’t go to the bathroom during the day. We were asked in class on Monday what we were most afraid of about teaching. I could have rambled on for hours about my fears of becoming a teacher, but now, on top of my learning gaps, crazy policies, my insecurities about myself as a teacher, and being mistaken for a middle schooler, I have to worry about UTIs? Does God not know that I get grumpy when I have to pee and can’t go?

And here’s the kicker: I can’t drink cranberry juice as a preventative measure because then I’ll just have to pee

And we’re back!

I am not a very good blogger, obviously. My last entry way July 6th and while I think I have some great excuses for not blogging (taking four classes, going on a long vacation, having dear friends move across the country, moving myself to a new apartment), they aren’t really excuses at all. And I know this. I want to be a blogger though.

I read a survey by someone that said people blog because they are narcissists. And while I don’t really care what this person thinks of me as we have no real contact outside of FB (and really not even there), after I read that I was afraid or adverse to blogging. Myself, I still loved other people’s and was mad when they didn’t update three times a day. But I don’t care if blogging makes me narcissist (which I don’t wholly agree with in the first place) because it’s also a medium where friends and family can read about my life.

So about two weeks ago Josué told me my domain was going to run out and asked if I wanted to renew it. After being convinced by Josué, I conflictedly (is that a word?) agreed to just like the domain run out. After all, I hadn’t blogged or even attempted a post in over 2 months and that $.75 a month my blog cost could buy me something pretty.

It took a whole three days for me to look Josué in the eyes, put on my cutest “I want something” face and ask for him to get my domain back. This was followed by much laughter on his part and defensiveness on mine. But in the end, my face won him over and I’m back online.

Note: this post should not be confused with the “So, I haven’t blogged in awhile, but I’m going to be better at it, I promise” posts that people post and then break their promises. If you’ve read carefully, you’ll see that no such promise has been made. I could very well go another 2 months without posting anything. But isn’t the suspense worth it?

I had big plans to be school productive this weekend while also celebrating the birth of a nation.My plans were to work hard on Friday, work a little but mostly play on Saturday, and get down to business on Sunday. Things didn’t turn out quite like my plan spelled out.

Friday was minimally productive. I read two chapters for Classroom Management, but then quit for the day because those two chapters somehow really wiped me out. Saturday was the opposite of productive. My plan was to wake up early and do some work so I could play the rest of the day. Well I did wake up early-ish, but instead of school work, I read book 4 of Percy Jackson. Around 12 Josue and I went berry picking as planned with the Sandoz’ and on the car ride out to the farm is when I knew my Saturday and probably my Sunday would not be productive. Not at all, not in the slightest.

For those of you who don’t know, Josue and I are huge West Wing fans. In fact, I’d say we’re pushers of the show and have just recently succeeded in our push to get our friends to watch it (Josh and Amanda included). Well, J+A finished season 1 Friday night and were itching to start season 2. Obviously, Josue and I volunteered to watch it with them. We made a plan: after berry picking they would come back to our apartment, watch West Wing until the wee hours of the morning, spend the night, wake up and start watching again.

I’m proud to report the plan worked. From 5pm Saturday night until 11pm Sunday night (with a break for fireworks and a child’s birthday party), life was consumed with Toby, Josh, Sam and CJ. It was excellent. I would call this weekend a produtive win. Not school productive, but productive nonetheless.

Two years ago today I married my best friend. Which means two years from yesterday I heard “We’ve Only Just Begun” as played behind a video/picture montage about 400 times. Today we turn two. We’ve decided that year two was harder than year one, but by no means “hard.” We’re still waiting for that storm to come.

To commemorate this day, here are two (of an endless list) of reasons why I love my husband so very much.

1. The way he makes me laugh. He is by far the funniest human I have ever met and I’m thankful that our marriage is filled with laughter and jokes.

2. The way he patiently puts up with all of my shit. For those of you who don’t know me, I get grumpy (grump-sters as it is referred to in the Blanco household) when I’m tired or have to pee. I’m like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Josue is great at calling me out, calming me, putting up with me, and (of course) making me laugh so that the grump-sters momentarily go away.

Texting is a phenomenon that I used to be adamantly opposed to. My old phone didn’t have T9 or whatever it is that makes texting so fast, so a message as simple as “My house at 10″ would take 5 minutes to send. In that 5 minutes I could have called the person made the plan and talked about something trivial like what happened last night on Gossip Girl. Details get lost in texting. For me, it’s easier to pick up the phone and get all the details and clarification I need, rather than sending ten text messages back and forth. For example,  “We’re making BBQ pizzas. Bring toppings” sent via text sounds like we’re making pizzas with BBQ toppings. Surpise to the Blanco’s when we show up with corn, BBQ sauce, and black beans and find out that BBQ pizza means regular toppings just cooked on the grill. This would have been an non-issue if the converstation would have happened via the phone.

But then I got my iPhone. And while I still think texting is sort of silly and  still prefer the phone for some things, I am not opposed to it anymore. My iPhone has made it so easy to send a text now that I can’t help but use it. So for the past 7 months I’ve been a semi-regular texter. However, I refuse text  incorrect English (which could explain the five minute texts). I type out the whole word and use commas, apostrophes and periods.

Most of my friends don’t follow my same texting rules, which is fine… my friends shouldn’t have the same OCD tendencies as I do. My friend Welles is my texting opposite. If there is something that she can abbreviate, she’ll do it. You’d think that I’d hate it. That I would want to throw my phone at her the next time I saw her, but I don’t. I actually enjoy her texts very much. They make me laugh and, because I have to decode each one, will keep me from getting Alzheimers when I’m 70.  I’ve posted a few of her texts below, but unfortunately her most brilliant text was on my old phone and I don’t have it. I do know that it was pretty long and contained no vowels or punctuation at all. I didn’t understand it the first six times I read it and had to piece together the meaning over a day.

January 23rd at 5:39pm
Still dnt know what im brngn tomm but somethn.

March 26th at 12:50pm
U do n gnite 2nite?

April 18th at 11:15am
Tatoo at 2 n capital hill meet up? Lunch?

May 10th at 11:09am
I just gnt this but i got it ne way! Das right im awesome!

I am now the proud wife of a master. This past weekend, Josh graduated from MHGS with his Masters of Divinity. It was quite a celebration as it is the first Masters degree in his family (#2 coming up next June). Josh’s family (including  Abuela) and our wonderful friend Matt came to Seattle for the celebration.

Graduation itself was a splendid affair. MHGS graduations are always pretty emotional ordeals this year included. During Dan’s speech I became so thankful for our family and friend that traveled to be here with him. It was a clear and real reminder that these past four years of academic and emotional hardships were not faced alone. The rest of the visit was equally splendid. The nine of us squished into our rented minivan and cruised around Seattle talking way too much about inappropriate things and stopping too frequently to eat.

I might have mentioned this already in previous post, but our apartment’s internet is the absolute worst. I have given up trying to do anything on my computer while at home. However, for all of you adoring fans, I will attempt to post pictures soon. I make no promises though because after five minutes I may throw my computer across the room.

Two Tuesday’s ago, Dooce was in Seattle on her book tour. Seeing that my dream in life is to have her babies, I went. In fact, I might have rearranged my work schedule so that I could take a Monday night class so that I wouldn’t have to take the Tuesday night section so that I could see her. Just maybe though. That friends, is planning ahead and not obsessive at all.

Dooce started off by reading excerpts from her book and blog and then had a brief Q&A session. This was followed by the book signing. Somehow I exited the stage area wrong and ended up being about 15 people away from the end of the book signing line. But no worries, because this gave me 45 whole minutes to think about what I would say to her when it was my turn that would make her say, “you’re super cool. Let’s go get dinner.”

Forty-five minutes obviously wasn’t enough time or I was too distracted by all the pretty books because it was almost my turn and I had absolutely nothing. NOTHING. So when I walked up to get my booked signed I just said the first thing that came to mind. “Hi. Does your hand hurt from all the signing?” WTF? Like that’s going to get a dinner date with Dooce. Shouting “hot vinegar!” would have been better than that. She was very kind and didn’t laugh in my face, which means she’s proably a better person than I am or Josue (who did laugh in my face) is. Then, to cap off such a great interaction, I said, “good luck with all of that.” and made a pregnant belly motion on my stomach as I walked away.

fml.

I’m allowed to post again. For a while there Josue was switching servers and I wasn’t allowed to touch my blog. Though things with Hocole (our celebrity joint name), so I’m not sure when in the past few weeks I would have had time to post anything.

Since the week before Vegas it seems like things have been non-stop for us. I was finishing up winter quarter before our trip and then started spring right after. March Madness came at the most inopportune time as well. Josue had his thesis and other major school work to finish up along with some graphic design projects. Tuesday night, after eating either chips & salsa or pita & hummus for the past 5 lunches and dinners I couldn’t take it any longer and demanded that we cook real food. It tasted so good in my mouth I’ve packed it for lunch since.

Looking ahead at my planner, life doesn’t seem to let up until the beginning of June and perhaps that is just because normal people don’t plan things that far ahead. But rather than be anxious about all that is coming up, I find myself more excited – an emotion that will probably change to anxiety as the dates approach and I feel more overwhelmed. At the end of the month Josue’s family and our friend Matt are coming to Seattle to celebrate Josue’s graduation, in May we will celebrate the upcoming wedding of two friends and amidst all of that I will (hopefully) be learning important things about how to become an effective teacher, which according to my handwriting assessment done by Jeremy is what I am most excited about in life.