September 2009
28 posts
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Dear Journal, 9-28-92
“Today I have gymnastics. I would of had it on Wednesday except last week I skipped three classes the first day! Now instead of beggining I’m in Advance intermedete. Next I’ll be in Jounior team! Tommorrow I’ll write how it was”
Interesting use of vowels and double consonants, 3rd grade self. You’re an inventive speller.
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Wernicke's Area Concern!
While reading silly headlines at CNN.com, I saw the following announcement:
Hudson pilot ‘Sully’ set to fly again
Is it a horrible sign of my character that I initially pondered why anyone would create a Jennifer Hudson television show called ‘Sully’ that they were pimping on CNN, in order to score forgettable Nielsen ratings during back-to-school sweeps, especially in...
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WatchAutumn Marie is the eldest of my older sister’s two children, as well as my goddaughter and favorite 2nd grader on this planet. She has more life zeal than I’m sure I had at her age, and an impressive array of newly erupted permanent teeth. This weekend I got to spend some quality time recording her mastery of physics. Be amazed at this kinesthetic genius.
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Swapping Cars at Airports
I think that would be a decent album title, though it also functions as a description of my upcoming afternoon. In a very Ocean’s 12 kind of way, I’ll drive to the airport, park my car, meet a dear friend for lunch IN the airport who JUST came in from Chicago, and then she will drive away with the car and I will fly to Detroit (where I’ll rent another car, hence the pluralization...
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Tasty + Frugal + Adorable + Michigan = JIFFY!
The company that produces Jiffy baking mixes, out of Chelsea, MI, has just won my heart all over again. They first hooked me when we got to tour their facilities in elementary school, and I was fascinated to learn that they do NOT advertise, and yet people still heartily consume their product. It was quite possibly the most authentic economics lesson I’ve ever been taught: great product...
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Not your standard Tax Evasion
A couple months ago, I got busted for not paying taxes on a 2007 Americorps stipend, which was used to directly paid down some old-fashioned tuition debt. It was never cash in my hands, yet I was still responsible at the time for paying taxes on all 4,725 dollars of it. The trouble is that I am very Ned-Flanders-ish about my taxes, and finalized that ‘07 return well before receiving that...
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The Monthly Midwesterner
This coming Friday I’ll be escaping to Michigan for a lovely sister’s-bridal-shower weekend. It will be nearly exactly 1-year since my last sister’s-bridal-shower weekend trip. WE LOVE GETTING MARRIED - especially all at the SAME TIME. It’s exhausting, really, but we just can’t seem to fight off these charming husband-suitors. Hee hee.
It will be the fourth...
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Four Movies I'm Excited to See Very Soon
No, none of these are really thinking outside-the-box or particularly paradigm-shifting, but they all seem thoroughly entertaining and completely wonderfully escapist. I used to fixate on new films via reading Entertainment Weekly cover-to-cover, but now must rely on even more mainstream television and public spaces advertising to learn about moderately promising feature films.
Regardless of the...
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“X-rays are like a high-velocity game of body-tissue-PLINKO.”
– being-up-past-midnight. rare, and generally not worth it.
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Dear Journal, 9-20-92
Today I finally perfected a cartwheel on the balance beem. Well not really a balance beem. Actually it’s the wood surrounding a part of the play ground. But it was still as wide as a balance beem.
Actual handwritten entry from my 3rd grade experiences.
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Dear Journal, 9-9-93
“Last night was my first night of gymnastics in 2 months. I wanted July and August off. I get to sell candy bars for things like chalk and tape.”
Actual hand-written journal entry (among dozens) from my 4th grade experiences.
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“I cannot believe that DAIRY QUEEN is running a commercial about a STUDENT going...”
– late-night-television and early-middle-age-anxiety
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So you think you can debts
This week, school may have focused on physical pain, but the rest of the storyline was anchored by the fiscal sorts of pain that (one-day)graduate(ing) students across the country are reeling from this time of year. F%(#!ng tuition. Please excuse my shiftbar-veiled exasperation, but this $h!t’s truly bananas. Each day of the week brought a unique debt-centered event, and not all bad. It...
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Dear Journal, 9-8-93
“Last night I lost a tooth. I put it under my pillow. In the morning I didn’t get any money but actually I did. While I was getting into the car there was a note on the car wind shield with it was a 5 dollar bill. Do you think I look like a hippy?”
Actual hand-written journal entry (among hundreds) from my 4th grade experiences. Many more to come…
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www.phantomlimb.com is available for purchase
Sometimes I check whether an interesting topic or phrase already has its own namesake website. This is partly how I found greenerie.com. It’s surprising how much prime web territory is still unclaimed! For example, there might be some angsty emo-punk band out there called “Phantom Limb” and they are seriously missing out on cyber-staking their claim to that virtual-real-estate....
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A Final on the First Day of School
Today is a special occasion for academic “firsts”:
the first final exam of our school year at HMS/HSDM (I’m not counting the 14-question online quiz for nutrition; this one had a rock-solid 30)
the first medental assessment I’ve ever taken on a scantron (oh the flashbacks!)
the first real day of K-12 schooling for MANY American children and teachers!
It’s a bit...
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“Here we suggest that these emotions [envy or gloating] are mediated by the...”
– Assigned class reading from the scientific journal Brain, 2007. SO WEIRD!
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The Empowered Cyclist
If I can hold out until tomorrow afternoon, then I will have gone one ENTIRE week without any motor-propelled-transportation. ALL biking and walking, all week long. This could seriously be the first week of my entire life when ZERO motor/gasoline/electricity went into carrying my butt around town, aside from my little battery-powered blinking nightlights. BAD ASS.
This streak of greenness,...
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New and Improved Monthly Budget
From January 1 until May 31, 2009, Jon and I recorded our daily spending in a handy-dandy low-tech budget book. We’ve never set spending limits in any particular category, and we even stopped using it June-August because it’s super tough to collect receipts (and give a crap) while traveling. It was a great break from the structure, but as of September 1, I vowed to restart these...
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“[It was a] good week for one-stop shopping, after a Hummer dealership in St....”
– The Week magazine, and corroborated on this site.
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The Sophomore Decade
This week ended in a particularly thick nostalgic fog, thinking of my days as Ms.CollinsRoom204. Vivid memories of NorthtownLife are with me all the time, but this week was different. Despite some specifically teacher-ish experiences, I felt distantly removed from that former identity, and without resolution as I biked home from school this afternoon.
Realize that I have spent SIX YEARS of this...
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Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind
This is a true story about a recent vivid, bizarre dream, and how it served as forewarning for an interesting evening last night.
MONDAY NIGHT’S DREAM: Jon and I were living in some type of adorable bungalow neighborhood, where everyone’s homes are old yet well-kept, and there is pitifully little front yard or spacing between windows of adjacent houses. In a surprising political...