My mom should just shut up

You know, maybe I wouldn't be so damn worried about getting a job if my mom didn't constantly tell me to call the teaching places and ask when I'll know something. They don't hire yet. They don't know who they need to hire and me calling is going to be an exercise in futility. I just want her to shut the hell up and leave me the fuck alone about my fucking job search because I'm tired of her trying to nag me to do things. I am doing things. I have all my applications and things in, they've been done for a while. So she can just shut up and stop making me crazy. It's the fucking phi beta kappa thing all over again.

Weekend Update (Not the crappy thing from SNL)

Warning: I will admit that there will probably be plenty of typing mistakes that I don't catch while writing this since there were already three mistakes I fixed in the title of the blog and keep having to use the backspace as I type like it's going out of style.
This weekend was long and I did lots of productive things. On Friday I ran lots of errands. I deposited $1,159.38 in the bank from my last Baldwin paycheck and graduation money. I need to put it in a savings account to start saving for things like furniture, a wedding (which won't be for a damn long time), eventually a new car (since mine just hit 90,000 miles this weekend, I don't expect it to be around until I have kids and need a larger car), and, of course, the largest necessity of all when you live at home with your parents, many, many vacations away from them. I also returned my dead fish for a live fish who seems to be doing much better. They did a water reading on my tank and all the levels were normal. In fact, the pH was prime for the type of fish I have in my tank. My happy rainbow fish have the slightly acidic water they love. Then, I went to Ben's house on Friday after he got home from work. Will and Ian were there and we watched Girls Gone Wild: Dorm Room Fantasies 4(or 5). Well, Will, Ben, and I watched while Ian and Fuzzy talked about programming. Ben also got really mad at me because I asked Fuzzy a question about his astringent while Ben was trying to tell a story. But we don't need to go into that since Ben and I have had two big fights this weekend and are doing remarkably well in spite of it.
Saturday we got up at a decent time and started cleaning and packing. We had our second big fight on Saturday when I walked out of his house with all my stuff and almost drove home. I got to the end of the street and felt really childish, so I went back and we hugged and went to IHOP. Most of our fights center about picking which food place to go to and each of us (but especially me) get really bitchy when we don't eat. Ben gets angry when he has to move. He really hates moving.
Sunday we had left over pizza for breakfast. MMM..basil pizza. Then we finished packing up his stuff and moved the rest of it home in his seatless van. The van is so big that his twin mattress fit easily in the back. If we ever go camping in his car, it won't be an uncomfortable sleeping situation (well, less uncomfortable than two adults trying to sleep in a twin bed together). Then we moved all of his stuff into his parent's office in their house. The plan had been to removed the old crappy desk from the room and let Ben put his smaller and prettier table/desk in it's place. However, Ben's dad was not willing to part with this piece of crap that held all of his papers, so Ben's room is more cramped that it should be, and his desk is in the basement storage area. If we just send Ben's dad and my mom away, both of our lives would be quite pleasant. We went back to Ben's old house and cleaned his room. It's pretty clean, but one wall has peeling paint because of water damage from earlier this year.
When we got back to Ben's Stonegate estate, I put all of his clothes away while he labored to reattach his speakers and get them working correctly. Ben has more problems installing and setting things up than any person I know. I think computers just like to mess with him to frustrate him to no end. After his room was in order, we watched Taxi Driver (which I had never seen) and 40 Days and 40 Nights (which I had seen with him before but forgot and thought I had seen it with Kayla, whoops... but I think I watched it with both of them at different times).
Today I have meet the coaches from 1-3 and that's about it. I'm doing laundry now and am going to work on applying to Fairfax county for a teaching job. At some point I should eat breakfast. I think that point is now.

Things to do this weekend

So, this is what I'm going to do this weekend. And, well, also today. First, I need to write two more thank you notes for people who just sent me graduation money. It's funny cause people from outside the family gave me more money than some people in the family. Also, I have only received a card from two of my dad's four brothers, yet I've heard from all of my mom's siblings. Could it be that graduating college is more impressive to the Seckel's? Or could it be that there are so many children of the biological and step variety in the Schnebele side that I'm really not that noticeable. Besides, I have cousins who have children older than me. I'm in a weird place in that family.
Okay, so after I write some thank you notes, I'm off to the bank to deposit checks only to hopefully write a big check to open a savings account. I tried to do that this morning, but USAA.com was being stupid. I think they have the best checking account option. Maybe I'll also cut a check and send some more money to my IRA. I'll save for my retirement with my graduation money! I also got my last paycheck from Baldwin today. I think I'll keep that in my checking account to keep it nice and bloated so I'm more likely to put coaching pay checks in my IRA or savings account. Somehow I don't spend nearly as much money in the summer as I do when I'm in school. Maybe because I do get to buy things, but they're paid for by the swim team (like bulletin board border).
After the bank I'm off to the post office to mail my thank you note to my uncle and aunt in Canada. Mailing things to other countries is annoying. Then I'm going to the fish store to take back my dead fish and get my water checked. Then I should have a new fish and that'll be excellent.
Then, later this evening, I'm going to Ben's to help him pack, clean, and move out. Originally he was going to be watching Nick and Drew this weekend, but his parents are going to be here now. Speaking of parents, I need to talk to his mom to finalize plans for meet the coaches this weekend and other things.
On another note, the storm last night was damn scary. I had to grab Karel's cat (Toby) and hug her because it would loud and scary. I was worried that lightning was going to hit the house and set it on fire, like it did to that house in Potomac on Tuesday.

Lies

I think someone told me that the older children are the ones who try to keep up their relationship with their parents once they move out. I am pretty sure that I will not be one of those children.

Breakfast dishes

"You girls couldn't even do the breakfast dishes," she said with disdain as soon as she walks in the door.
"What? I did the dishes this morning."
"There's a bowl in the sink," says the woman who leaves her oatmeal bowl in the sink every freaking morning.

Crazy Dream

So, I couldn't sleep this morning because of a bizarre dream. First, I was back at school and in a graduate Shakespeare class that was held in my basement (I had a basement at school). It was full of stuff (as are most places where I live) and I had like dead week to clean it out. But, it was not totally my basement as it was also one of my teacher's offices... And then we all went on a really long train trip, except that the train was made up of beds that we had to push to keep going, so it was really a big line of people pushing beds. I was going somewhere with the swim team, but I was no where near the swim team. Then I was magically back at school and was in an auditorium (but not the MBC auditorium) and the mean and grumpy teacher who is really rude in the dining hall and was like the other faculty marshall was having a show type thing. But before he came out with all these different animals that he happened to have at the school (like a giant, cat sized mole, polar bear cub, red panda cub ((who I kept telling everyone that it had been my dream to pet one)), and other exotic animals for us to pet, there were these two women, one of whom worked at the school, standing on the backs of ponies. Then I was in the art classroom and I was like saying a spell to create a dragon out of thin air. Then, when that didn't work because people took too long getting paint ready to paint the egg, I was going to Erin C's room to help her move out. But, instead of the closet sized room she lived in last year, she had this enormous town house all the herself and she hadn't done any packing or anything and her mom was pretty peeved. So, I kinda helped out a bit and then my dream ended when I woke up.
So, that's a pretty weird dream, but it does have that recurring theme of having a very real and short deadline for me to have to move out of some place. I've had dreams where I had like an hour to move out of my house or my dorm room for as long as I can remember. I don't really know what it means; the dream made much more sense when I was going to move out of my dorm room and was afraid that I wouldn't have enough time or space to bring everything home.
I just think I need to stop dreaming.

Something of interest

So, I woke up pretty late this morning. The first time I woke up was when my dad was getting ready to go to work around 6:30. I went to the bathroom and then got back into bed because getting up at 6:30 in the A.M. is not something I want to do when I don't absolutely have to. The next time I woke up was at 10:30 when I heard Kayla slamming the front door to my house (or opening it since it's sticky and kinda awkward) when she was taking her things out to her car. This was bad because she was planning on leaving then. Uh oh. I wanted to spend more time with her, and I did, since she didn't leave until like 11 or so. So, I was sad and seriously considered eating M&M's and ice cream for breakfast. I don't really need a chocolate addiction again (because it's bad and I like compulsively eat a lot of chocolate). Oh well, the M&M's will soon run out and there won't be any more candy in my house and it's not as if I'd go and spend money on chocolate frequently enough to sustain an addiction.
On another note, Laurel is eating my mint chocolate chip ice cream, as has someone else in my family. Stop eating my ice cream! Also, my mom was a huge bitch today and told me that I shouldn't eat too much of the toffee that Andrew (Karel's ex) sent because she wanted to have some (there was a substantial amount of toffee in there). I am not the person who finishes off things in the fridge and she should shut the hell up and stop being such a bitch.
I hate living with my mother.

Grr.

So, now I'm a horrible and rude child because I didn't tell my mom in the five minutes that I saw her last night that Kayla was leaving the next morning (when I know I told her a while ago that she was leaving Wednesday morning). I cannot live here for more than absolutely necessary.

My pretty fish tank

So, I bought a whole bunch of new stuff for my fish tank. I've had this tank since I lived in the other house in Maryland, so like 10 or 11 years, so it was time for some changes. I got a new fake plant and new undergravel filter tubes thingies at petsmart. Then, yesterday, I went to the new Totally Fish (which is now called Tropical Fish and Pets), and bought lots of new and pretty things. I bought some new natural rocky gravel (since my old gravel was bright pink and the paint was chipping off), a new java fern, a neat piece of aquarium wood to tie to plant to, three new little rainbow fish that have a funny name, a algae eater (I wanted to get a gold pleco, but he was like an inch long and was like $13), and a new light bulb for the tank. The guy who helped me at the store told me it was my fish light that was causing my algae problems. Yeah, I think it was also the plants, but the light probably didn't help the situation.
Well, the fish tank looks fantastic. The gravel looks all pretty shades of natural brown, the giant fern that can grow for two months in a toilet bowl with the lid down looks excellent, my little fish are so cute, and my big dopey, scared old rainbow has lots of new places to hide. I keep looking at the tank and telling Karel how pretty my fish tank looks. I did a major overhaul on it, so I like to remind myself that it was worth it. And it does look really pretty. I think when I get my own classroom, this tank might go there and then I'll get a bigger salt water tank for where ever I live. I like having pets.

Cross some things off the list

So, I had my graduation party this weekend. It was very entertaining. Ben's family got me an electric fondue pot. I am excited, too bad I'm all chocolate and cheesed out from the mountains of left over Mexican food and candy. Mmmm...I did have a lot of good food this weekend. I also had some really creepy uncles who I didn't know were creepy like make comments about my friends. Yeah, that's totally gross.
Now I'm writing thank you notes. I've done about half (of course I've done the easy half...) and hope to get them all done this morning since I can't sleep in later than like 7:30. I guess it's good that I can't sleep in later since I'll soon have to get up early to go to work, but for now, I'd like to be able to sleep in. Eight hours of sleep is simply unsatisfactory.
Today I'm going shopping with Kayla. I plan to take about an eight of my graduation money and buy some fun things for my self and some new fish and fish accessories for my pathetic one fish tank. I am going to put a quarter of the money in my IRA and then another quarter in my checking account and then the other half in my savings account. Or maybe I'll open another savings account so I won't have my money commingle with my parent's and sister's money. While I do like my parents having access to my savings since I can just tell them to put my allowance in there or take money for my car insurance from there without me having to do anything, I think I'd like a smaller savings account to take care of on my own. But I guess this is really a moot point since I should be out of my house by the end of the summer (cross your fingers) and will probably need to take or spend all the money I have saved up. Housing is expensive in this area and I don't want to live in the ghettos of White Oak or Wheaton.
On Tuesday, Kayla, Ben, and his housemates (if they want to and are there) are going to go to Olive Garden for dinner. Maybe Karel will even join us. This will be a nice way to end Kayla's visit. It was really a nice way to transition from seeing her all the time at school to not seeing her practically at all for the next three years. I don't expect to see her that frequently since she'll be uber uber busy working and doing well in law school. But it's okay since I should be busy, too.
On a more disgusting note, my parents and friends of the family are looking out for my sex life this summer... One family said they wanted Ben and I to house sit for them after they heard that both of us will be living at home this summer. Ben's father mentioned that they won't be home all the time. And we got another offer from another family to watch their house. Too bad I won't do anything in someone else's house, it's just icky. It's not like we're going to have a lot of time, either. Ben's going to be working and looking for a job while I work bizarre hours as a swim coach and will be looking for a job, working on my portfolio, and hopefully looking for a place to live. It seems pointless to look for a place to live now since I don't know where either of us will be working. This area is huge and it would be an exercise in futility.
Also, I am jealous of Parker because she's getting a puppy. I really want a puppy. I think that's going to be the most exciting thing of moving out on my own, I can get whatever animal I want. Ben doesn't want a puppy, though. I said we could get it in the summer when I'll be around a lot to take care of it. He shot this idea down saying that he didn't want the puppy to love me more because I spent more time with the puppy. I think this is slightly selfish since we all know that animals love Ben more and I've got to have some advantage to make the puppy-person relationship a little more equal.
This is getting really long, so I'll just cut it off.

Notes for the next five years

So, I've decided on two possible wedding presents (or general presents) people can get me. I've decided that I totally want an electric fondue pot (I think I've mentioned this before) and a quesodilla maker. I know it seems stupid to have an appliance that does nothing more than heat tortillas and cheese together, but I think I'll use it a lot. Also, I just thought of this, but I totally want a waffle iron like my parents have. It makes normal (not Belgium) waffles and you can flip the waffly iron sides and have flat grilling sides to make things like grilled cheese. If this contraption cannot be found, then I guess a panini sandwich grill could work, too. I already see the amount of appliance that are going to take up room on my kitchen counter. Let's see, there's Ben's sandwich maker (which is not as good as a panini grill), my blender, tea/coffee pot, and I guess a forman grill, toaster, food processor, and probably a latte maker or something so that I can steam m-elk and make cool drinks.

Yeah, I'm so not smooth

So, it's been a while since I wrote and a lot of things have happened and a lot of sitting around my house watching TNT and cleaning things have also happened. So, here's the shortened version of things I've done...
Saturday: My family came down to visit me. We went to a champagne brunch (it was kinda lackluster for a nice dining hall event). Then we went to Phi Beta Kappa induction (okay, so I think I already mentioned that...but it's been a while). Then we went to dinner. I love Mill Street. I am sad that I won't be going there for a while since it is so damn tasty. And they give you peppermint ice cream for dessert to cleanse your pallet of the garlicy goodness. Ben was a punk and said he didn't want any and then ate his just to spite me. He's really spiteful and dogged. I'm not as stubborn, but I think I'm more spiteful. Way more spiteful. I think it's good that I have kinda a short memory because I'd be mad at pretty much everyone for the rest of their lives if I remembered every time I was mad at someone.
Sunday I graduated. It was hot and we were sitting in black robes with the sun beating down on us. One person threw up and one person almost passed out. That's not too bad in a class of like 240 people. MBC's graduation was less boring than most graduations I've been to. This year was special because it was the first time they gave out masters degrees for the Shakespeare and Renaissance Lit program. It was a neat surprise that my school gave out its first honorary degree for the MLitt program. They gave one to Dame Judy Dench. The whole thing would have been way cooler if I could have actually seen her instead of just hear them talk about her. I guess it's one of the sucky things about having a last name towards the end of the alphabet. During junior dad's I had to stand in line with uncomfortable shoes on for a good long time and I got to be like in the last four rows of people that graduated. But, on a funny note, they gave one of my classmate's seeing eye dog a honorary diploma and a bone for graduating. It's funny because that dog probably went to more classes than some people at my school...
On a totally bitchy note, I don't think that independent majors should be eligible for distinction. It was like everyone who did an independent major got distinction. When large disciplines like English only give out one distinction, maybe all independent majors should be judged together for distinction. Also, one person won all the undergrad traditional awards. Yeah, it was a little one sided. Not to say that she's not a fantastic person who deserves to be recognized, but when they only give out two awards at graduation, she probably shouldn't get both of them. But it's not her fault, it is the school's stupidity.
Yeah, so I'm tired of complaining about that. But, something funny happened. After we all graduate, the professors go up the stairs and then turn around and stop on the stairs to like shake hands with us. So, I walked up the stairs and hugged and shook hands with my professors. When I got to the speaker from the PBK induction, she started to do the secret handshake, and I was all confused...I am going to blame it on the sun and sitting outside in the hot. But, I started bawling when I came to one of my favorite English professors who said they had missed me when I was student teaching. And then I ran into Keli and the waterworks were uncontrollable. Then I ran into Anne, and then I cried more. And then Littlejohn told me to stop crying, and I couldn't, and it was bad. Thankfully for Ben, I stopped crying when I finally made it down to where my family was waiting for me. Yeah, graduation is damn terrifying and emotional.

Secret Society for Nerds

Today I was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. It's the best secret honor society for uber nerds. The speaker gave a presentation on research she is doing on hormones, sexual behavior, and musk shrews and then ratio between the lengths of the pointer finger and the ring finger as it reflects levels of testosterone during development. Everyone else was falling asleep in the audience, but I thought it was really fascinating. Also, PBK has a secret handshake and I got to practice a lot. So, if you're in PBK and we meet somewhere, let me know you're a member.

Say it ain't so

So, there are rumors that Brad Pitt had a thigh double for some scenes in Troy. This would be a horrible travesty because his thighs were so hot. But whoever's thighs they are, they did a good job with them.
Okay, but really, go see Troy for more than the hot guys. It was actually a really good movie and even though it was three hours, it felt too short.

Change of menu for my graduation party

Since I have had such a difficult time finding a decent Mexican food restaurant that could cater my graduation party, I think I am going to have to change the menu. My party is already going to be ruined by the freaking Brood X emerging from all the trees in my foresty neighborhood so why don't we just eat the cicadas . We have a giant wok to put on a Weber charcoal grill and a turkey fryer. Between these two outdoor cooking elements we can stir fry some cicadas and deep fry some, too. As they say in the article, we can have cicada fondue (and fondue is my favorite way to eat food). I think it'll be delicious for the rest of you since I don't eat anything with its own mobility. I think I'll just go to Taco Bell.

What happens when you try to use up the things in your freezer

I have created a new, delicious drink. I'm going to call it the Bacardi oMEGA. It's easy to make. Simply mix one bottle of Bacardi O, with a small can of frozen orange juice concentrate, a froze peach Jello Smoothie Snack, like four tablespoons of sweetened lime juice, and a little bit of water. Blend until frothy and enjoy. Now, all I have left in my freezer (well, the building's freezer) is a boca burger, cheddar cheese, frozen peas, a single serving of Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream, some tequila rose, and some vegetarian brown rice chili. I think next time I'll try a frozen pea and Mike's Cranberry Lemonade. I think I'll call it a Pea Berry Blast.

Brad Pitt's sexy lips and Greek Warrior homosexuality

So I went to see Troy today. It was excellent. Not only did it follow Homer's Iliad fairly faithfully (except that in movie time the war took like 14 days instead of like ten years....). The best thing about the movie is the hot men in skirts. Now, if someone would have asked me if I thought men in little skirts would be attractive, I might have looked at them and laughed. If you ask me this now, I will unwaveringly nod in agreement. Maybe it also helps that it was like Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom and the guy from The Hulk in skirts, but it was still damn sexy. Also, while men think that women in slitted skirts are hot, men in slitted skirts are just as hot.
Another interesting aspect of the movie is the color pallet. There are three main colors in the movie. One is fake me out too red blood. The other two are Brad-Pitt-brassy-blonde-washed-out-tan and the other is Brad-Pitt’s-dreamy-eyes-blue. The blues they used in the costumes are fantastic. I want to like paint my whole house in the rich jewel toned blues. I think that even Ben could find something to look at with all the blue in the movie.
I have decided that it would be okay for the men in my wedding to wear kilts. Except now I’d change it to Spartan warrior outfits. Except like really nice ones, and not crappy Halloween ones.
On another note on how great this movie is, Kayla, who really only likes Brad Pitt in like Club because he’s such a sexy bad boy, was won over by his uber sexy pouty pink lips. Even a virgin priestest of Troy could not withstand the overwhelming power of The Pitt. When Kayla and I get lots of money and can produce really class porn movies (not just porn, but movies with sex in them) we are so going to do like a remake or something. Fighting, hot Greek warriors, and the face that launched a thousand ships.


I don’t really understand the importance of this , but I found it and I thought maybe someone could explain it to me. I was looking for places for someone to buy my boyfriend a Greek warrior costume to wear at our wedding (who doesn’t want an ancient Greek themed wedding? People could come as Gods, Goddesses, and mythic heros.) Something about homosexuality and Greek society. I don’t know.

Snakeheads

I did it again...I wrote this long article with links about the snakeheads and how I think that someone is beginning to play a trick on us and "find" snakeheads for their 15 minutes of fame, but, I closed the window accidentally. But here's the real short summary of my rambling: people fucking with us about snakeheads and the DNR is smart in giving people hats if they find snakeheads and not money since it is very easy to purchase live specimens.

I hate being me

So, I wrote this long entry about what I did and how I rambled and how my class is giving apple trees to the school as our senior gift, and somehow I got rid of it. I am so damn inept. I need Ben to like overlook my stuff because I am bad. And apparently, really tired because I am not being the most descriptive writer in the world.

Products that rock

Dr. Scholl's Pedicure Essentials Nightly Renewal Foot Cream is fantastic. It made my feet all nice and smooth after using it, and that's no small accomplishment.
Rolo Bites can rule the world with their cute deliciousness. Think the tastiness of rolos, but in cuter, smaller packages. Also, there are no annoying metal rappers to tear through to get to the gooey caramel center.
Here is something that doesn't rock: continental breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Stupid days before graduation with its crappy cereal, sandwiches, and salads for three meals a day.

In the beginning

Okay, I know this is going to sound so incredibly trite, but I really wanted a blog because everyone else has one. But, in all fairness to me not being a total sheep to the masses, I did sorta have something like a big rambly obsessive blog when I had a web page in high school. I am going to use that to rationalize why it's okay for me to have one.
I also really like how this has a spell checker because sometimes I confuse using a's or e's in -ence and -ance words. I don't really hear a difference so I kinda spell them all willy-nilly like.
I guess I should explain the title of the blog since no one who is all currently up in my life would even know where the title came from, and the person who does know won't like this page because it's "dotty." In high school, at the end of ninth grade, for about a month, Cathy and I worked on this like email poem thingy that was called "Sam the Cat." I decided that it was a much better name than Kayla's suggestion of the name of the cat part of my old web page, which was something like "My Cute Kitties."