My 25 Random Things

The big thing on Facebook seems to be the "25 Random Things About Me" survey, and since I didn't really know what to write, I decided to write it in my blog and then paste it into Facebook. Then I thought maybe I should just leave it here, too...

My 25 Random Things:
1) I'm married to my best friend and favorite person; I hate being away from him.
2) I'm a HUGE environmentalist and believe that it is our duty to take care of the planet by not being wasteful. (Don't forget the other two Rs--Reduce and Reuse.)
3) I'm terrified to drive in cities.
4) We've had 10 different cars in the last 10 years, and 6 of them have been stick. Eight of them have had names. I still miss Fletcher (the Mini).
5) I've been to Europe three times--twice to Italy and Greece (first time had a little Germany and Switzerland thrown in) and once to England and Scotland. I'd love to go back to the UK, but I hate flying.
6) I love animals and don't think they should be eaten or worn. But I hate snakes so much that even pictures of them startle me. I taped pieces of paper over all of the pictures of snakes in my college biology books.
7) I love theatre and concerts. My favorite musicals are RENT and Wicked.
8) I'm afraid to have children because I can't even imagine loving another child as much as I love my three nephews: Nate, Trey, and Caleb.
9) My belly button is pierced.
10) I had ACL reconstruction 9 years ago but my knee still hurts every day.
11) I'm a guidance counselor for grades 7-12 and most of the time I love my job.
12) I'm also an Independent Consultant for The Body Shop, and I love it! (BONUS: The company is against animal testing!)
13) I had a pet rat named Vailey who loved spaghetti and Cheese Nips, and I cried when she died.
14) I love chocolate, spaghetti, dill pickles, Nutella, tofu, and lots of weird vegetarian foods.
15) I can feel my blood pressure rise when I hear people chewing with their mouths open.
16) If someone tells me something in confidence, I never, ever talk about it.
17) I have been hurt badly a few times in my life and while I have moved on and am very happy with my life, I will never forget what happened. (Not because I don't want to, but because I can't.)
18) The only sport I like is hockey, and the only team I like is the Sabres.
19) I've never been drunk and never tried drugs or smoking, and I don't intend to.
20) My musical tastes are varied, but I wouldn't say I like "everything." I'm very picky.
21) Love Actually is my favorite movie EVER. I'm not a sappy person, but I cry during the opening scene and several times throughout.
22) I often have to keep myself from saying what I think.
23) I can tickle my own feet.
24) I love watching TV. The show Top Gear, which we "discovered" in England, makes me laugh until I hurt.
25) It has taken me several days to write this because I couldn't think of enough interesting stuff to put in it.

Lazy Blogger

I think the last time I wrote on my blog (besides what I posted about the contest) was over two weeks ago after our first ski trip. Since then I've done a lot, including going to see RENT, going to a wedding of one of my best friends ever, going on another ski trip, and of course spending time with Chris. But life kind of gets in the way of blogging, and I have to change that. Not right now, though, because I should go to bed. Not because I'm tired, just because I know that 5:30 is going to come very quickly. At least maybe I can add a list to this blog of the things I need to write about...then I'll remember all of the things I need to say :)

1) RENT
2) Brad and Tara's wedding
3) 2nd ski trip of the year
4)

Contest to win a cool bag

Visit this blog: http://www.keeperofthecheerios.com/ and you could win a very cool bag made out of capri sun pouches! I love that people are finding a way to reuse things that would normally end up in landfills!!!!

Ski club has begun

A couple years ago we started skiing with the ski club at Maple Grove. We weren't official advisers or chaperones, but they had what they call roving chaperone passes. We would drive to the Peak ourselves, ski for a little while, then drive to Erie if we needed to shop. (Normally we'd probably eat in Erie, too, but Peek 'n Peak has the most delicious and reasonably priced restaurant called Pizzaiolos, so if we have the opportunity to eat there, we do!!!) Last year one of the chaperones hurt his back, so Chris and I filled in for him, which meant we started riding the bus to the mountain. Not much fun, I'll admit, but we did a lot of free skiing as a result. This year, we're official chaperones, which means we have the passes printed up with our names on them, but that also means that we're obligated to ride the bus every week (except next week, when we'll be at a wedding).

Since it was the first trip of the year, we spent a lot of the time helping students, which wasn't the most fun way to spend 5 hours at a ski resort, but I felt good about it because we were helping someone, and in the process making a very nervous mom feel a lot more comfortable about sending her little girl skiing.

And now I must iron.................

Sabres beat Rangers!

For the first time in my life, the Sabres WON the game I attended! Chris and I attended lots of games in college (when tickets were cheap) and several over the past few years (when we could get affordable tickets). Chris' friend at work has season tickets, and season ticket holders had the option to buy extra tickets at season ticket holder prices, so we got tickets for a couple games in the cheap seats. (And when I say "cheap seats," I mean very last row.) Here's our view from our seats:
It was a blast. I think that the people in the cheap seats are the most fun. They're a little rowdy, cheering and yelling funny things, and when we score, they high five everyone around them. It was the best! One of the guys next to us offered to take our picture. Unfortunately, you can't tell where we are. At least you can sort of see that we're wearing our jerseys....
The Sabres have changed logos over the years, but the original (seen below) is still my favorite! They have alternate jerseys with the retro logo, and that's what they wore last night. They're beautiful!

Snowy day!

We had a very snowy day today. Last night it was really windy and a little bit snowy. This morning looking out the window we could tell that we had gotten some snow overnight, but weren't quite prepared for how bad it really was. It took me over an hour to get to work, and it normally takes me 35 minutes. It snowed and the wind blew all day, and when I went out to my car, this is what it looked like:The ride home wasn't nearly as bad as the ride to work.

Getting back into the swing of things

Well, the first Monday back to work after a 12-day holiday (which was preceded by a four-day weekend because of two snowdays just before break) was a little rough, but I got through it. The next couple of days have gotten progressively better, though. Work has been very busy, but I like it that way (although that means that my desk just keeps getting messier and messier). Tuesday night we had Financial Aid Night, which meant that I had to go back to work at 6 for a 2-hour presentation that ran from 7 to 9. After the presentation, the guy I rode with lost his keys, so we spent 20 minutes looking for them, then when we got out to the van it was coated in ice, which took 10 minutes to scrape. I'll spare you the details of our drive back to Fredonia, but I'll just say that I ended up getting home well after 10:00, so it was a long day! Not bad, just long.

Today I spent four hours in meetings--2.5 hours in a scheduling meeting and 1.5 hours in a faculty meeting. I hope to actually get some WORK done over the next couple of days--phone calls and paperwork in particular. Then this Friday night we're going to another Sabres game (YEAH!!!) and on Saturday we're going on the first ski trip with the ski club. I have to be honest...the ski club trip I'm not looking forward to as much. The skiing is fun, but I'm a fair weather skier--I only really LOVE it if the conditions are just right. But the worst part is the 4 hours I have to spend on the road and waiting around.

I know this was probably one of the most boring journal posts ever, but I guess it's better than really speaking my mind. I'm a little frustrated with people lately. I'll admit, I have as many faults as the people I'm criticizing, but I guess the difference with me is that I'm working to make myself a better person and to overcome the difficulties I'm having, and the people I'm frustrated with are either not doing anything to improve themselves or they've made bad decisions and are now expecting other people to bail them out. But that's a discussion for another time. (And when that time comes, I hope people don't think I'm trying to be catty--I'll just be stating my observations.)

Recyclable Styrofoam?

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I will be honest...I used a styrofoam cup when we were away for Christmas. Chris and I stopped at McDonalds for breakie. Not my top choice for food, but he was hungry and that's what was available. I ordered a hot chocolate after I peeked at their cups and determined that they were not styrofoam. (I avoid styrofoam at all costs, even if it means I have to stay hungry for a while). I got my cup of cocoa and sat down at our table. When I took the lid off the cup, it made that telltale squeak, and I realized that the cup was, in fact, styrofoam, but it really, really didn't look like styrofoam (I realize that I'm using the word styrofoam WAY TOO MUCH in this post, but we use WAY TOO MUCH styrofoam anyway, so let my overuse of the word represent the world's overuse of the product). Most of the styrofoam cups I've seen have a lip at the top about an inch wide and are, white. This cup had a very small rim, like most of the paper cups we see, and it was brown, with a seam down the side. It was REALLY HARD to tell that it was styrofoam. I bit the rim a little bit to see if I could tell, and sure enough, it became aparent that I was NOT drinking from a paper cup. They cleverly disguise the cup with a sticker around the entire thing!!!

Now, after I made this gruesome discovery, we saw that the bottom of the cup has a recycle symbol on it with a #6 (polystyrene). Which lead to a healthy discussion about recycling, recyclable materials, etc... Yes, styrofoam is recyclable, but it is very difficult to find a place that actually accepts it. There is so much of it in the world that no one wants it for recycling. Also, a lot of people, like me, probably think that the cups are paper, so they get tossed, not recycled. And if they knew that the cups were styrofoam, they'd probably not recycle them anyway because, again, it's very hard to find a place that recycles them.

I'm BEGGING you to spread the word if you read this post (and if I have made any false assumptions or stated anything that is not a fact, please let me know!), and to drive right by McDonald's. They're going to keep using styrofoam until we take a stand.

Also, Dunkin' Donuts uses styrofoam, so please consider choosing another place like Tim Horton's or Starbucks. As far as I know, they use paper cups. Thank you!

Do I have to go back to work?

Yes, yes I do have to go back to work. But I really don't want to. Since Christmas fell on a Thursday, we ended up with 12 days off. We traveled for the first six, and then we have six glorious days to spend at home. We're on day four, and I'm starting to feel a little sad. I love my job...I enjoy the kids and the challenge of the work that I do, but it drains me. When I'm home I feel alive and creative and it's awesome. I also dread the drive to work. It's 35 minutes when the weather is good...and a lot longer when the weather is bad. I drive right through the snow belt on back roads, so I have a lot of scary moments during my commute.

I know that if I didn't have work to go to, I'd be sad, but at this point the thought of not being able to continue to tackle some of my home projects also makes me a little sad. I just have to try to enjoy the heck out of these last three days. And to avoid the Sunday Slump.

Remembering New Year's Day 2008

All my life my parents loved sports of all kinds...baseball, football, soccer, etc... I myself played Softball and Tennis, but I never really LOVED it. I played because I figured that's what I should do. But as far as watching sports...I hated it all (with the exception of Buffalo Bisons games--minor league baseball).

Then in college I found the Sabres. Bonas would run bus trips up to HSBC, and they were affordable, so we went. Since we got married, we've fallen even more in love with the sport and the team, and have been to see several games in the last few years. Our most memorable hockey game was the Winter Classic (aka the Ice Bowl) on New Year's Day in 2008. We FROZE as we sat in Rich Stadium and watched this historic event unfurl beneath us, and I have to say it was one of the best days of my life. I still get a little choked up when I think about it (corny, I know), but just reflecting on how we were there to witness something that had never been done in the US, and it happened right here in Western NY...it was magical. Today they're playing the second Winter Classic in Chicago. I've seen the coverage of the event and I smile to myself as I think back to that awesome day last year. I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to attend that event and to have shared it with my very best friend.

Happy New Year!

Last night we did what we have done every year on New Year's Eve--we stayed in and went to bed before midnight :) I loved it! We're not big party people, nor are we the type to stay up really late, but that's not to say we didn't have a good time! We watched Get Smart (stupid and funny--my kind of movie!) and Chris made my favorite dinner--strombolis! We watched a little bit of the coverage of the party in Times Square, but were content to be cuddled up in our nice warm bed. Another bonus--I feel great today because I don't have a hangover! Starting the year off right :)

Happy New Year to everyone!