I'm in love.

Today is my first day substitute teaching. I got a last minute call from my favorite teacher, at my favorite school, for my favorite class. Naturally I threw caution to the wind, skipped all my classes, and showed up to teach less than 24 hours later. I'm teaching my second period right now. We're in the writing lab. They're working on their blogs, so I figured I would work on mine.

Guys, I was so nervous for my first class! They were all half asleep, so really I don't think any of us were on our game. But it was a good class period. One kid asked me everything about my life! I swear he knows me now.... maybe I should just make up life details, it's probably not good to just jump into all my biz with my students. But oh well! It was a fun class period. I swear 17 and 18 year olds are getting smarter -- who knew.

Second period, so far, is going quite well. The students are all engaged (or at least slacking off quietly) and I have some time to write in my blog. And to think, I'm getting paid for this. I let the students ask me questions at the beginning of class to get to know me. They now know my favorite shade of green in chartreuse, and not only that but we had a long discussion on how to spell chartreuse, and it's word origin. And they know that I love pumpkin pie, with cool whip NOT whip cream. They're good kids. I'm loving this.


And so I state: I don't wanna go back to school! I wanna teach already!! Gimme these kids permanently! I can handle it I SWEAR! Ugh. Oh well. Gotta work for what we want. Plus I have two more sub jobs this week alone, so I'll get my teaching fix all the same.

Have a great week, campers.

Contentment.

(This week's song is Help, I'm Alive by Metric. ----> )

As my family all sits in the other room hollering over the current World Series ball game, I snuck away to make a quick addition to this here blog of mine. I have had an epiphany tonight, and it's really sappy, but even more heart felt than just sap. I thought about not posting it, because one man's heart felt is another man's yawn. But, I figure if I post about all of the bad, then you better buckle up and be prepared for me to post about all of the good too. And trust me, this one is good. But first ---- a bathroom break ----------

......

OK. Ready. So, to start this off, I think it's fairly common knowledge that I had a pretty terrible childhood. Nothing horrendous, I have some great childhood memories, but I probably have a lot more terrible childhood memories than most of you. My parents loved me. I had a home, clothes, and food. I had the best two friends that anyone could ever ask for. I had an amazing dog who stuck by my side no matter what. And most importantly I had the best sister the world has ever known. (I say all this in past tense, but I still have most of these things today. Although Carmel has moved onto Heaven -- now I get Samwise.) So, it wasn't the worst childhood in the world. But all my life I've been so mad about what I had to go through. I was just a kid, ya know? None of it was my fault. Definitely not fair. We all go through things that aren't fair. My uncle was in an accident and lost a finger, and will never have full use of his left hand again. My aunt had a brain tumor that took her from us way too soon. One of my good friends has been battling cancer most of his (very young) life, and will continue to battle it for years to come. My aunt, Beth, also had to undergo surgery for breast cancer. We all have these stupid things that make us scream to the heavens at some point, "This is NOT fair!"

So where's the happiness in all this? Where's the turn around? I know I'm tearing up over here, so maybe you are on your end too. So, let's cheer this up. And then you can tear up in a good way.

Tonight, while home with most of my family (I say my family, which might make you think of parents, but these are not technically my parents. My family consists of Dave and Grace, my aunt and uncle, and my amazing cousins. Then put my sister into the mix. And for good measure throw my real parents back in... well there ya have it, that's my entire family. But in terms of tonight I'm talking Dave and Grace, Maddie and Julianne. We miss Rachel.)...anyways -- while sitting home with most of my family, Dave exclaimed, "Why can't life just be fair?!" To be fair to Dave, he was mostly joking with a little bit of serious on the side. I was reading a newspaper next to him, and stopped to ponder a moment when he said those words, "Why can't life just be fair". And it hits me! No joke! Just like that - snap - crack - pop - hits me. "If life were fair, you wouldn't have me." That's what I said. I just looked up from my paper and said it. And no joke. Just like that. I'm not mad about my childhood any more. Sure I wish my parents loved me like all of my other aunts and uncles loves their kids. (I know my parents love me deeply, don't get me wrong. Just in our own weird parent/child kinda way.) I'm going to wish that my whole life. But, I wouldn't give up being a part of the Taylor's family for that. No. Way. I love my family. I love having my parents, and having Dave and Grace as parents. I love my sister. But I love having three more sisters too. If life were fair, I wouldn't have this many people to love me and support me. I'm glad life's not fair. I still wish that Dave had all his fingers, and I miss Lynnanne every single day, and I continually curse the heavens for my friend who has cancer. I continually thank the heavens that my aunt, Beth, is now cancer free. But I don't wish to go back and change my life. Not anymore. Because I got a family out of all that mess. I got an even bigger family than I ever could have imagined. And I love them all more than you could ever imagine.


And that's my sappy, feel good post of the week. So weep your tears if you will. But I'm gonna go eat some birthday cake!! Gotta jet! They're callin me in.

Happy 25th Birthday to my amazing Julianne!!!!

Another Video?! Yup, folks, we did it again.

And when I say we, I mean Julie. She's a video making genius!! I am so excited for this video. I think that this song was the perfect choice. It just felt so right! Anyways, I've already told you about our trip, so I guess now all that's left to do iiiiisssssss

WATCH THIS HURR VIDEO!!!!

Here are some side notes for your consideration:

-Shout out to Baby Mama right there at the beginning.

-That's Cortney, Julie, and myself heading up to Montana for the weekend.

-Julie is obsessed with the band 311, so the exits she taped are exits numbered 311.

-Safe driving was not effected by my stellar dance moves.

-When we were out dancing at the Montana sign, Julie's wallet fell out of the car. Someone drove by the next morning, saw it one the ground, backed up on the highway to grab it, called the UVU police to get Julie's phone number, and then left it for us to pick up at one of the booths into the park. That person has the best karma in the ENTIRE WORLD.

-We roasted GIANT marshmallows.

-Julie is saying, "huuuuug meeeeee." Because she was rejected by Cortney, due to a static problem Julie was experiencing.

-Rachel!!! She went with us to the park, and became a stellar photographer right off the bat.

-I am writing a list of things we want to see in the park.

-Cortney's head out the car with her hair billowing is my favorite part. Hands down.

-They slept. I drove. End of story.

-A porcupine!!! (He wasn't actually in the park......)

-Cortney, no joke, almost biffed it off the edge of the boardwalk. So glad it was on tape.

-Ummm...that is Rachel "skipping". Julie calls it a frankenstein limp....I think that's a more accurate name for whatever it is Rach is doing.

-So, Cortney says, "I don't know how to tell you this, but I hid a Spree in your hair about 15 minutes ago." I say, "Shut up, you did not." Then I find the Spree. Then I laugh so hard there are tears everywhere.

-I climbed to the top of the old fire lookout tower. They danced on the ground, safe n sound.

-Yes, Julie and I did hold hands. It's good for the soul to hold hands with people. You can quote me on that.

Also, if you wish to relive our Seattle memories (I know it's been a few months since you last saw this little gem) I went ahead and made this word riiiiight HERE a link so you can go watch that one again. You can thank me later. I accept cash, check, and any healthy vegetarian food.

Procrastinating, I ain't gonna lie!

Hello there readers. I am supposed to be doing some reading for class today. I'm going to go ahead and just make this super definitive statement: THIS IS THE MOST BORING BOOK KNOWN TO MAN. And I swear to you it makes no sense. And we ask our teacher questions about it, and she gets all mad and says we just have to read slower or read harder.... I'm not entirely certain how I can read "harder" but I'm working on it.

Yellowstone!!

I went to Hebgen this weekend with two of my adorable lady friends. Cortney and Julie. We road trip together. No big. So, here's a quick summary, a couple quotes, and some photos. Enjoy!

On our way up to our first stop, went went down Firehole. We got out and took what seems to be our best photo yet. Thanks to Rach for being such a great photographer.

Then we hit up some paint pots. It was really cold, so there was a lot of steam coming off of the warm water. That meant we couldn't really see the beauty inside the paint pots themselves. But it was still really cool, in my opinion...and let's be honest, that's all that matters anyways.

Then we drove up to Old Faithful. I swear EVERY TIME I go up there I miss it by 10-15 minutes, which means a good hour or so of waiting for the next eruption. So we looked around the new visitor's center (very shnazzy) and then went to sleep in the car. While in the car we threw a Spree at Rachel to see if it would wake her up -- I thought that girl slept through anything, turns out she doesn't sleep through Spree...and she wasn't too happy. But don't worry, she fell back asleep quickly. Cortney then hid a Spree in my hair without my knowledge. Fortunately she told me shortly thereafter: "I don't know how to tell you this......but I hid a Spree in your hair about 15 minutes ago." And sho nuf. There is was. Tucked down in. Gotta love my hair.

Then Old Faithful went off, and it was glorious, and freezing, and brief, and we piled back in the car and went back to the Lodge.

That night we drove up to Horse Butte so Cortney and Julie could see all of the beauty Hebgen Lake holds. Man, I really do love this place. I think I was even more impressed than they were, and I've been up there a gillion times. I climbed to the top of the abandoned fire tower. They stayed at the bottom to film me if I fell to my death. I lived. Hurrah!

Well, it was a short trip. We packed up Sunday afternoon and came on home. We closed the Lodge, which means I said goodbye to West for the season. But ya know what? I think I might work up there next summer, because I LOVE IT SO STINKING MUCH. Let's all mull that over for now.

Back to homework!!

Nothing to say:

(Scroll through my playlist and find Responsibility. Listen to that while you read this. Then when you're done reading this you can either close the window or finish the song. I will leave that up to you. -----> )

I have nothing to say.

Except this:

I am still grateful for the little things (like a friend sending me the app I really want for my phone)

Sometimes writing letters doesn't suffice, and I miss my friends terribly

Anxiety is such a downer

I have peed at least ten times today

Sometimes the decisions that we think are best turn out to be worst

I really like cherry tomatoes and hate celery

Paper sales at Archiver's lead to bad things for my bank account

I finished my homework and worked out today all before 5 pm

I am a gum addict to the fullest

MXPX sings the song you are listening to

MXPX band members are from Bremerton (A shout out just for you, Taylor!)

I listened to this song a million times in high school

I was punk rock in high school

I wore wedding dresses to school in high school

I wore bright orange lip stick in high school

I did not have what we like to call "style" in high school

Thankfully, I found my sense of style

Ok, so maybe I had something to say.

Have a superb week!

Now I'm done.