Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Do you know what this class is about?

Summer classes started on Monday. A year ago this week I walked into a classroom and sat behind Kyle and we checked each other out but wouldn't speak until the last day of class. Anywho--I'm taking Spanish at BCC and an online class through UCF. The online hell--oh, gosh I meant to say class-- is called Theory and Tech of Literary Criticism. What does that mean to you? I asked mom and she said, "Learning the theory of literary critics? Am I right?" To which I replied, "How should I know? I was asking you!" So I must go off of the assignments we are given. So far I have read 20 pages by Plato on why art is just imitation. What I took away from it was a horse knows all about a bit, because it's in his mouth. The maker of the bit only knows how to make it, and the artists who paint horses with bits in their mouths are the furthest from the real knowledge--which is embodied in the horse. Get it? Here's another way Plato said it. A flute player knows how the flute is supposed to feel on his lips, and if it's all wrong, he'll tell the flute maker to do this or that to make it better. The artist painting a picture of the flute player is an IMIATATOR of true knowledge, because he doesn't know how to make a flute and he definately doesn't know how to play one. Today from Artistotle I learned that the best way to make a tragedy is to have pitiable situation happen to people who are half way between good and bad and have terrible things happen to them that are in no way their fault. Wow, Stot--that sounds truly tragic. So what I'm saying is I have no idea what this class is really about. My favorite part of the class so far is the guy who sent a mass email to everyone in the class. "Can anyone help me? Tell me where to get the text book? What are the subjects of our assignments? What is this class about? Help." I feel you, man. I almost wrote back to him but I thought, odds are this whole class is like the blind leading the blind. I cannot believe I have written 9 pages on Aristotle and still had the energy to blab incessently in my lame attempt to let you know how I feel. Moment of reflection over--to bed to think myself to sleep.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

My Husband is Funny

My husband. He has always been pretty funny and cute. But lately, I am pretty surprised by the funny things he says and does. One day I asked what had gotten into him. "Why are you doing this goofy voice? I have never heard you be so silly before!" I was surprised by his reply. "I guess now that we're married I just know you're not going to judge me anymore so I can be myself." Well if this is yourself then that's okay with me. So yesterday morning, Kyle, my earlybird hubby, woke up at 5:30 for work and I peered out from under the covers to see what he was doing. He was using his cell phone as a flashlight (a poor one at that) to find his work clothes in the closet. So I sat up and told him he could turn the light on, I wasn't sleeping anymore. But he just kept looking with the tiny little cell phone light. So I turned on our bedside lamp and the room lit up, letting me see little Stoney helping Kyle look for his clothes, and I saw Kyle freeze up and grab Stoney. "Quick, we've been discovered! Take cover!" He yelled and ran into the bathroom. I laughed so hard! Kyle is also known for being a little clumsy sometimes, like any of us. But the other night we were walking out of our movie theater and the long dark channel leading to the hallway, you know, movie theaters always have carpeted walls once you get into the screening room. So Kyle was walking very fast and nerdy to make me laugh and hit his shoulder really hard against the carpet wall. Instead of just laughing at himself, he bustted his chest up against the wall and pushed against it like it was a person and he yelled, "You got beef? You wanna go?" I ran up to him and grabbed his arm laughing but he was still in character. He shook me off and said "Jerk, did you see that guy back there? I should've knocked him out." I think I laughed more in the parking lot than in the whole movie. I love my funny husband.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Shallow thoughts

A blog is a great place to get out your deepest thoughts and get feedback. It's also a good place to share those surface-floating thoughts that you can't help but get out because you want to know if anyone else has ever thought the same thing.

Have you ever wondered what your cashier is typing away on her keyboard for when all you bought was a little something not worth much? You never wanted to lean over the counter and crane your neck to see why the heck it takes so much finger action to ring something up?


I went to Things Remembered yesterday to order an engraving on a necklace to thank Dominique, my made of honor for everything. She bought us dinner gift cards, zoo passes with special treats like Giraffe encounters and kayak adventures included (which we're using tomorrow) and she even bought us gift cards to Disney World! So I wrote down what I want the engraving to say, then I went to cash out at the register.

And have you ever seen that episode of the Simpsons where Bart calls Australia or somewhere and he is dialing the same number for about 3 minutes and eventually you can't help but laugh, like, "Are you kidding?" I wish someone had been with me to laugh.

The cashier just kept hitting the down arrow then enter. Down, enter enter enter, down down down down down, enter enter, backspace, down down down down. For like 5 minutes.

So then today I went to CVS and was astounded after all I bought were some digital prints and I was handed this reciept.



Okay, I admit. I also bought some silly bands. If you don't know what silly bands are, they seem to be a craze sweeping tweens and restuarant workers. Everyone at my work shares them and I had none! So I found these knock-off brands called Shaped Rubber Bands, but they're cowboy shaped so how could I resist?





Didn't mean to start by posing a question and end with silly bands but, I admitted this was a not-so-thought-provoking post.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Not Quite

Yesterday was like any other special Sunday. We sat in the same row in the same order as always. Dad, Mom, Kyle, Me, Mom's friend. Then we went to mom and dad's to get all the food to take to Grandma's for the Father's Day celebration. Ah, but first Dad and I started work on a project we have been planning for years. It's called The Many Do's of Sue and will pretty much be a walk through the years of Mom's hair. We made a file appropriatey called Sue's Do's and put every hair do available on mom and dad's computer in it. Then we all watched it as a slide show. It was most fun to hear Kyle's reaction to some, especially the one I call the Jim Carey.





He would say things under his breath like, "oh.no." But it was fun and dad said that the real work will begin with scanning pictures from old albums. Then we went to grandma's where uncle Jeff was an hour late and uncle Don came a half hour after that. But we enjoyed talking and all the dad's thanked their families and Kyle thanked me for not letting him be a dad yet. So I slowly rose from my chair and said, "On that note, we have an announcement." To which everyone laughed (and then I realized what a mistake that had been because all night I dreamt that I was going into labor.) So when we finally ate it was time to leave for dad's gift from Kyle and I. We took him and mom to see Toy Story 3! It was hilarious and so much fun! Dad loved it, as we knew he would. Then Kyle and I went grocery shopping and I wasn't sure how he would do because he was tired but it was so much fun. He always reads the small price labels to see how much they are charging per ounce depending on the packaging. For instance it was much smarter to buy raisins by the jar than by the little boxes. He's so cute about groceries. What a nice father's day.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Stoney

Stoney is our 8 week old kitten and he is learning so much about the things he likes and dislikes.



He likes underwear








He likes to get into strange places








This is after he hopped on the counter as I was scooping myself some delicious brownie trifle and I plopped some on his forhead by accident.



He hasn't quite got the bathing thing down yet. He pretty much cleaned his face for 10 minutes until I helped him out.



He likes silk flowers






Other than that, he likes cheerios in milk, the sound of food in his tin bowl and me--so far.

It's a Tenant Thing

I have been many things in life. Daughter, sister, friend, dog--yeah. Being a tenant is a new and excrutiating experience. To get something repaired, such as our air conditioning unit which blows out air that is 59 degrees yet only cools our studio apartment to a toasty 85, I have to make a phone call to my landlord whom I have never met. He lives in Miami. He tells me he will call a repairman. The repairman doesn't call him back so my landlord calls me to tell me this. Then finally I get a repairman who tells me 3 things.

1. I have never seen a hotel air conditioning unit stuffed 7 feet up a wall before and used to cool an apartment.
2. I can't do this alone. I'll come back tomorrow,
3. I've never seen anything like this before.

"Yeah, I heard you mention something about that."

I heard a joke recently.

"I live in a studio apartment. It kind of puts me in a weird situation because on any given day I'm only one room away from being homeless."

After Repairman Steve made his exit, I called Miami Landlord to tell him the not-so-newsy news. He told me three things.

1. It's hot out, so the air conditioning is just working hard.
2. That air conditioner is brand new out of the box and has never had any problems.
3. Cold air falls. So...eventually...that cold air up there will fall down.

So I told him 3 things. I quickly got off the phone and told myself I needed to pray from him.

1. It's hot out, so if the ac is working so hard, why is it 85 degrees in here?
2. If the unit is "brand new out of the box" and this apartment has "never been lived in" like you told me, then how could you POSSIBLY know if there had every been any problems with it. (This one I did not say, because I don't like confrontation).
3. "Right, so I just have to sit here and wait for the air to fall. It will fall eventually right? It's just sitting at the ceiliing so I'll just wait a few more days, right?"

I don't like being sarcastic to strangers, so I stopped the nonsense and made chicken salad for dinner.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Sunday

Yesterday was Sunday--the morning after our first night in our apartment, mom and dad's first day back from Guatemala, and the first time that we would have family over to visit our new home. Mom, Dad and the grandparents brought lunch over after church and Kyle and I presented a honeymoon slide show. Our new kitten, Stoney was dressed to the nines in his new neck




tie and showed off his hunting skills for 4 hours straight while we ate and caught up on the happenings of Guatemala, Grandma's health and the Thorntons being Thorntons. After they left I had one and one-half hour to prepare a meal for Kyle's Dad and step-mom who were coming over for dinner. Stoney crashed on the bed the ENTIRE time they were here, laying on his back, feet in the air while I made Holly's oven-fried chicken, Aunt Karen's mashed potato bake, asparagus and her brownie trifle for dessert. I just love the cookbook she got me. Let's just start with the fact that kitchen was a wreck. Their arrival was posted for 6 pm. At 430 I read directions to my planned meal. The chicken said, marinate in buttermilk for SEVERAL HOURS. HMMM, and hour should do. The trifle said: refridgerate for 8 hours, then serve. HMMMM, I could try to lengthen dinner conversation. But everything went great. I used all of my new serving dishes from B, B and B, the chicken was crispy and delicious and everyone had thirds of the mashed potato bake. Then we played a fun game that his parents brought, I served the trifle, which is huge because I served it in my new punch bowl--but Mary calmed my worries by saying "Don't worry, you've got two fat people here to help you eat it." Plus I packed a bunch in Kyle's lunch for today. Now now today I am off to work out then hit the Social Secutiy office for a little name changing action. I am afraid to make any other plans after that because mom said it will take all day. So I am grabbing a book and debating on taking Stoney with me. He loves car rides, and the bank drive thru. 6t5----And that is what happens when kittens crawl on laptops while I'm on the phone. I also see that he labled this post "qq0oooooooooo."