my Halloween gripe

I know, two blogs in one day. Technically the first one was last night, but since it was after midnight, it counted as today.

Anywho.

Here is my Halloween gripe. Let me preface this by saying, I'm not a Grinch. I love most holidays, just not the commercialism of the holidays. I love Easter and Christmas and Thanksgiving. I enjoy St. Pat's Day, for the most part (i.e. Irish potatoes and drinking, though I don't own much green and I hate corned beef and cabbage). New Year's Eve used to be fun, but now it's just an expensive hassle. And Valentine's Day is just plain stupid. (See me in February for a longer dissertation on this topic.)

But Halloween... that's a whole 'nother story. I used to love it: planning a costume, going trick-or-treating with friends, trading the good candy (anything Reeses) with the crappy candy (Mary Janes and anything with coconut). But lately I've noticed a disturbing trend. Halloween, for adults (or at least, adult women), is no longer about dressing in a goofy costume. It's about looking sexy. I've been checking the ads for Halloween costumes... sexy nurse, sexy witch, sexy vampire, sexy pirate, sexy maid, sexy superhero, sexy rock star... and the list goes on.

In years past, I've donned such homemade costumes as a hippie, a mime, a cat (with store-bought ears and tail), and a vampire. None of these costumes were "sexy." No fishnets, no cleavage, no heels.

Now, let me clarify. I don't feel like I need to dress sexy for Halloween. It just makes it harder to go to a party in a "silly" costume. And I have not one, but two Halloween parties to attend this year. To further complicate things, I don't have anything even remotely resembling a Halloween costume in my posession. So now what? Do I go out and spend money on a costume that I'll wear exactly twice? Or do I dig through my closet in the hopes that I can find something to pass off as a costume? Or do I just bag the whole thing and go in jeans and my Old Navy pumpkin t-shirt?

Damnit. With age comes not only wisdom, but a whole new set of problems.

the book club meeting that wasn't

Today Heather and I had lunch at a Chinese restaurant and then got our hair done (by Nat!). Fun times filled with lots of gossip, as is typical of a beauty salon.

Tonight was supposed to be a book club meeting, but three members of book club couldn't come. That left only four of us. And I didn't read the book (no time, what with work and grad school, etc). So me, Sam and MK just decided to chill at Heather's place and watch "Rocky Horror Picture Show" whilst munching on treats like veggies, spinach dip, fruit, pumpkin dip, cookies and finger sandiwches. Later, we even pulled out the Mad Libs for some grammar-infused goodness.

I drank a lot of wine at Heather's, so I should be exhausted, but I had way too much caffeine today. A diet Coke, a diet Pepsi, and a large Dunkin Donuts chocolate-hazelnut coffee. I think the caffeine and the alcohol are both trying to work at the same time. Caffeine is currently winning, as I'm wide awake and have no intentions of sleeping. However, my eyes are starting to hurt from the computer screen, so I think I'll lay in bed and watch my "Friends" DVD until I fall asleep.

This post was long and mostly pointless, but it kept me busy. That's all I care about.

sigh

Oh, Flyers... I weep for the team I knew and loved.

party time... excellent!

Wow. What a weekend... It was just party, party, party all weekend. Well, make that party, party. Today was Relaxation Day.

The festivities began on Friday night with dinner at Bennigan's to celebrate Rich's birthday. A yummy dinner was had by all (I got the steak & chicken fajitas) and Rich got to sing along to the Bennigan's Birthday Song. Hey, it makes him happy.

After dinner, we met up with a bunch of other people at Out of Wack Jack's (aka: Kenny's, which is the only name I knew it by until recently). Despite a "No Smoking" sign posted on the door, the place was FILLED with cigarette smoke. *cough, cough* I managed to ignore the haze of smoke long enough to drink and dance and chat with everyone. When I woke up yesterday morning, however, I felt like complete shit. My head was pounding, my throat was scratchy, I was hoarse and nauseous. Ugh. I was congested for hours. Luckily, it wore off in time for my party.

Yes, that's right - party number two! Saturday night I had a bunch of people over to celebrate my birthday. Nothing fancy, just some low-key hanging out with some booze and snacks thrown in for good measure. I had a blast. And people brought alcohol! I got 4 bottles of vodka (apple, grape, and 2 vanilla), a bottle of pineapple rum, 3 bottles of wine, a jug of wine, and a bottle of apple schnapps. Rock on.

The party went to a whole new level when the games started. There's just something about combining alcohol with board games. Hoo, boy! We started with Taboo, where Team Nuge made quite a victorious comeback. Then a few of us played Scene It, the Friends edition. Later, after some of the other guests cleared out, a group of us played Adult Mad Libs (a very kickass present from Melissa). As with any edition of Mad Libs, our objective is to think of as many raunchy words as possible. And with three teachers in the game, quite a few grammar lessons were provided as well, free of charge!

And this was followed by a rousing game of I Never. I'm not naming names (ahem), but some people drank a hell of a lot more than others. You know who you are. The last guest left somewhere around 4:30 in the AM. And I went to bed and promptly passed out. Sleep, glorious sleep. I woke up at 9:30, somehow wide awake and I've been up ever since. It'll catch up with me soon.

Anyway, it was a great weekend. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday. Thanks to everyone who came over to celebrate with me last night... you guys rock my socks!!!

my goals

Over at Karen's blog, she posted some goals she has. She requested that others do the same, so I thought I'd oblige over here at my blog.

Some goals I have (in no particular order) (and with no time frame, cuz I don't want to limit myself):

1. Make it through my reading clinic with an A
2. Graduate and get Master's degree
3. Get certified as Reading Specialist
4. Get certified to teach in NJ
5. Find better paying job with same "family" atmosphere as current job
6. Move out / Buy a house
7. Pay off student loans and get out of debt
8. Travel more (back to Europe and perhaps to an island... and definitely to Australia)
9. Take a cross-country road trip
10. Get married
11. Have children (no less than 2, no more than 4)
12. Work as a classroom teacher for at least 3 more years
13. Work as a Reading Specialist
14. Teach a college course in elementary education (as an adjunct, most likely)
15. Get and maintain decent haircut (sounds petty, but I never like my hair)
16. Write a book about a year in the life of a first grade teacher
17. Learn how to speak Spanish fairly fluently
18. Possibly go back to school to get certified as an ESL teacher
19. Possibly go back to school for my doctorate

And I think that's it. I wanted to make it an even 20, but I can't think of any more.
They're not entirely unrealistic goals, so I should be able to work it out. And if I don't hit them all? No biggie. As long as I'm happy, it's all good.

Now go write your own life goals, damnit!

Como estan, bitches?

Okay, before I delve into my blog, I gotta start with this... because it bothers me. I watched "Anchorman" earlier today (hence the blog title), and I had the subtitles on (I don't know why), and during the news team fight scene, Ben Stiller says, "¿Cómo están, bitches?" But the subtitles read, "¿Cómo están, pinches?" So now I'm not sure if pinches is Spanish for something (probably something insulting), or if the subtitles are wrong. Either way, I went with "bitches."

And now... back to our regularly scheduled blog.

I realized it's been about a month since I've blogged. For shame. I've been very busy. School and work. Work and school. Doing work-work at school, and doing school-work at work. And then I go home and do more work, for school and work. So, yeah. Busy.

But today... today was glorious. I don't have any projects due this week, so I got to spend my day doing nothing. I wound up doing some boring stuff. Going through junk mail, checking email, walking and feeding dog, painting my toenails, updating my classroom website, and watching movies. I watched "Anchorman," the end of "The Cutting Edge," the beginning of "Dirty Dancing," and now I'm watching "Swingers." And drinking wine. God bless the Ren Faire.

I didn't realize it was October already (well, tomorrow is, anyway). In about 2 weeks, it'll be my birthday. I'm supposed to be figuring out what I want to do for my birthday, but that hasn't happened yet. Last year, I went to a piano bar (which I had been to a few times before, when it was under different management), and the whole night sucked. I don't know exactly what it was that made the night so bad, but at the diner after the bar, I had decided that I didn't want to go out for my birthday anymore. Bars are too expensive, too crowded and too noisy to socialize with my friends. They're good for a random night out, but it's not what I want to deal with on my birthday. So last year, after the piano bar, my friend and I planned a dinner party for this year's birthday. I had planned on keeping the guest list small (like 7 or 8 people), but now that's not gonna happen. My new plan is a low-key evening at my house... some booze, some food, some games, some music. I'm not gonna force the fun. I'm just gonna let it ride.

Okay... the wine is making me drowsy, and I can't think of anything else to write about. Gonna go watch "Clueless" now.

some stuff that i felt like writing about

I've got nothing to say, but it's okay.

(Name that tune for extra points!)

Back to school! It's the most wonderful time of the year!!! (Apparently, I'm all about song lyrics today.) Today was the first day for my first grade students. I only had half of the kids (the other half come tomorrow), and then Friday I have a "full" class. I put "full" in quotes because I only have 18 kids... which is one less than last year's total. I'm okay with a smaller class. It means less behavior problems (usually), and more time for one-on-one attention. But less kids also means less money for our school, which will eventually put us in danger of closing. Hopefully that's a long way down the road, but you never know. That's part of the reason that I'm working my ass off to get my masters. The sooner the better, just in case I need it for a new job.

But anyway. My kids are cutie pies. So far. Talk to me in about five weeks and I'm sure I'll have a different opinion of some of them. :-)

And I started my fall class for grad school, which is two nights a week. So basically, I'm gonna be dragging my ass through September. I guarantee I'll be fast asleep before 10:30 PM every night this month. The first few weeks are always the worst.
This weekend is the Ren Faire! Yay! I hope the weather is good. Now... as for what to wear... probably ye olde jeans and some comfy walking shoes. No costumes for me. I don't have a damn thing that could even masquerade as renaissance attire. No long skirts, no long dresses (unless you count some old bridesmaid gowns), no leftover Halloween costumes from years past (not that I would have worn anything renaissance-y for Halloween, either). So jeans it is. Huzzah!

Okay, I'm tired and I still don't know what I'm wearing to work tomorrow. God, I hope I don't have to iron.