Western Weekend

This past weekend Dave, Potter, and I headed to Bowling Green to spend some quality time with our Kentucky friends. Though we came back exhausted (and way behind in school work/grading in my case), it was well worth it.

When we got the BG on Friday, we just hung out with the Kickerts (who we were staying with) and went out to eat for some yummy Hibachi cuisine. Saturday was our big day, which we mostly spent at Western’s homecoming. I practically spent the whole tailgating time running all over campus, trying to see as many friends as I could. It was great! I saw more fabulous people than I could have possibly hoped for. I did, however, chicken out of the second half of the football game. It was too darn cold! And we lost, which is no fun.

On Sunday we went to Ben and Beth’s church, and then Amy Cate (yay!) drove up from Nashville to hang out with us.  We attempted a trip to Jackson’s Orchard, but some nasty rain thwarted our efforts.  We did get to buy some yummy Apple Pies and cider, though, so it wasn’t a wasted trip.  After Amy left, I got to visit with Jen (yay!) and my sister, followed by some really enjoyable Is Special at Puerto’s (yum!).

And that was the gist of the weekend, interspersed with some doggy playtime, Settlers of Catan, girl talk, and plain ol’ hanging out.  It was a really wonderful (and much needed) weekend.  Here’s some highlights:

Shiloh and Potter played A LOT of tug over the weekend.

We got hang out with Leslie at tailgating!

I got to pick on my little sister:)

The Martins (with baby #2 on the way), the Altmaiers, and the Kickerts.  These are definitely two families I wish I got to see more of!

All in all, it was a REALLY great weekend.  It started off what promises to be a great holiday season.  Next week I get to see my family and then just a month later we get to spend a whole week with our Altmaier family.  I can’t wait for all of it!

Sucky Saturday

You may or may not know this about me, but I have a tendency to smack talk. Usually I don’t know what I’m talking about and it comes back to bite me in the rear, but it’s fun when I’m doing it. Well, with the unexpected talent of UK’s football team this year, my familial blue blood has begun to rear its ugly head. Since I teach at FSU, which doesn’t play against/isn’t in the same conference as UK, my students don’t mind me cheering for UK since I also cheer for FSU (and don’t worry, Ohio State rounds out “my teams” Altmaiers!). However, I have one student in the more vocal of my two classes who is a UF fan (it’s not as rare as you might think). Now of all teams that I’d like to see fail, UF tops the list. Not only are they FSU’s rivals, they undeservedly beat OSU in two championships last year (see? I’m even smack talking while talking about smack talking). So I give him a hard time when thy do badly. He, of course, gives it right back to me, but I have a feeling that seeing him in class on Tuesday is going to be brutal. Why, UK? Of all the teams to lose to, why did you have to lose to UF? Not only that, but FSU lost ugly, too. Thank God Ohio State won or it would have been a VERY sucky Saturday!

However, not all suckiness is bad. You see, yesterday my vacuum died. Plum quit. It wouldn’t suck. It probably could have been fixed, but in all honestly it was never a very good vacuum. And with two animals that shed like there’s no tomorrow, I need a good vacuum. As luck would have it, Dave had unexpectedly received a bonus at work on Friday. We decided to save half of it and use half of it to buy something we needed. So, Dave being the clean freak he is (ha! I can barely type that with a straight face;)), we decided to buy a new vacuum. And not just any vacuum. Oh no, a fancy vacuum. That’s right people; I bought a Dyson! And you cannot imagine the difference in my floor and furniture. And it’s so light and relatively quiet. And, to top that off, $40 of my purchase was donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Yay! Clean floors and a good cause! And that, my friends, is the kind of suckiness that ain’t so bad:)

A Cold Day in Hell

I know this is two blogs in one day, but I had to show you all this. It’s shocking, disturbing, and really makes me question how well I know my husband.

The video’s pretty grainy, but it was shot on our digital camera so give it a break;) This will also probably be the last video I ever post because I sound like such a hick. Really. It’s awful. Surely I don’t sound like that. Do I? (Wait. Maybe I don’t want you to answer that!) But really, the most alarming feature is Dave. Though I do think my dad would be proud. Dave’s dad, not so much.

Okay, I couldn’t get Blogger Video to work. I’ll keep working on it, but for now you can check it out on Google Video here.

Are You Ready for Some Football?

Well Dave and I were. So today we headed to Doak Campbell Stadium for our second dose of FSU football. We started with some light tailgating with Dave’s “work people” and then headed to the game where we thoroughly enjoyed the second half of the game;) Okay, the first half was fun, but fun in a “It’s a million degrees in this sun-drenched stadium and our team is losing to a team they should be beating badly” kind of way. But the second half turned around nicely. The sun hid behind the scoreboard so we could see properly and the Noles took their heads out of their rear ends (excuse me but it’s true) and started playing like a decent time, finally beating UAB 34-24 with some really nice series. It was a very good time and I can’t wait until our next game. And so you can sort of understand the mania that is attenging a football game at FSU, some pictures:

The FSU band: the Marching Chiefs. I have two students in there: a past student plays trombone and a current student is on the drum line. I was kind of surprised at how proud I was to know them today.

Our Seminole chief, except I think he’s an Osceola. Anyway I think you can just barely see the flaming spear he’s holding. He throws it into center field to start the game. It’s pretty cool actually.

Our cheerleaders. Not original but fun none-the-less. I have a past student that’s one of them, too. But not one of the ones on the field. She broke her ankle and so, understandably, cheers from the stands for now.

And last but not least, me and Dave, very hot and sweaty (which is why I look so darn attractive). I think by this point we could have wrung out our clothes! Appealing, huh? Totally worth it though.

And as a final note I’d like to send a congratulatory shout out to WKU, who beat West Virginia Tech 87-0. Haven’t you guys heard of a mercy rule?

Last Moments of Freedom

Well, all, I’m 2 hours from being back in teacher mode. And I hate it. I thoroughly enjoyed having my week off. But at the same time, I’m glad. I’m not a person that can handle not having a to-do list for very long. And I’m always more productive when I’m trying to do a lot of things at once. So, it’s not so bad. And everyone says that summer kids are the best (because, for you non-FSUers, if a student is taking enc1101 (the first Freshman English course), there’s a 99& chance that they just graduated in May and are, therefore, still in shell shock at being in college and, therefore, are more likely to listen!). Here’s hopin’…

As for this weekend, it was a good one. Potter (who, as you can see from the picture, is very ready for football season this fall!) didn’t have any post-neutering problems (other than missing going to the dog park!). He’s taken all of his pain medicine and loves the yogurt I mix it in:) And we can start going back to the dog park on Wednesday, so I know he’ll be rarin’ to go! Tonight’s puppy class may be interesting, though, because we haven’t worked with him very much, not wanting to get him too excited (he’s supposed to take it easy for a week). So, if he flunks tonight’s class, we’ll just blame it on the meds:)

As for Dave and I, we made the most of the fact that this was my last stress-free weekend for a while. On Saturday, Dave got up bright and early to play golf, so I slept in:) Then we did a little shopping and went to the movies. We saw Knocked Up, which was exactly what every single person told us it was: absolutely hilarious but a bit too crude. And there was a scene at the end which Dave claims has scarred him for life:) But we both that it was great, and we almost never agree on movies! So it was a good choice. Then we came home, grilled hamburgers, and played some Settlers of Catan. Oh! And Dave surprised me on Friday. When he got home he told me that he had just been to the store that we found in town that carries Settlers of Catan and he ordered one of the expansion sets, Seafarers of Catan. I had said that I thought it looked pretty cool, so he ordered it! It’s not in yet, but I’m sure I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Sunday was church, a little more shopping, and generally just hanging out. It was a fun and restful weekend, and hopefully it’ll last me through this week!

This weekend our friend Stephen, who is in Alabama for some more training, is coming to stay with us! His family is in Versailles, KY while he’s down here, so we’re quite happy to get the chance to take care of him for a couple of days:) And I think Dave is very excited to have a running buddy come to visit. It should be fun.

Well, I’m going to finish getting prepared for class. I can’t believe June is almost over. The year is just flying by!

Now It’s Real

Today is my first day at Florida State. Though I don’t take any classes until tonight, I’ve already taught both of my sections of First Year Writing. Let me tell ya’, freshmen are the same everywhere. Generally, I like the looks of my classes. People laughed when they were supposed to and most actually brought paper to class on the same day. Strangely enough, my 8am class was far more lively than my 11am. Maybe I’m funnier early in the morning.

Florida State as a whole. Though it has its upsides and downsides, the positives are winning out so far.

Downsides:
My office. I didn’t think it could be worse than my cubicle in the basement of Cherry, but it is. And guess what? I’m in a basement again. Basically, my office is one of about 60 three-sided cubicles in Dodd basement. If any of you watch West Wing, my office is a larger version of the Steampipe Trunk Distribution Venue that they stick Ainsley Hayes in. Except mine is labeled “Pepper Storage.” No kidding. Exposed pipes and all.

Classroom locations: Alright, check this. Williams is the English Building (where I must go to copy and check my mail). My office is in Dodd Hall. I teach one class in Diffenbaugh and the other in Rovenna B (a ten-minute walk from my office). That means that every Tuesday and Thursday I must be in no fewer than four different buildings. Being confined to Cherry all day spoiled me. This walking all over campus is for the birds.

Parking: This is a universal complaint. Parking sucks everywhere, without exception. But here it requires me to get to campus at 7am so I can teach my 8am class. That sucks.

Upsides:
My office. I know; it seems that I’m being finicky. But there are some good things about my office. One is that all first year PhDs have their office down here for their first year (we’ll all get real offices in the English building next year). So, we bond. And I like that. Plus, Dodd Hall is home to the Philosophy and Religion Departments, and I get goosebumps every time I walk in. I need to find out the history of this building, but in some ways, it looks like a church, stained-glass and all. And above the outer door it reads (in great, old-timey writing that’s hard to decipher): Half of knowledge is the pursuit of knowledge. I like it.

Football: People here are seriously devoted to Florida State. I love it. Even people that hate sports in general say that you absolutely must go to a few football games. I got so frustrated by the lack of school pride at Western; it’s so refreshing to see that it’s rampant here.

The campus: I really need to get a history of FSU because I want to learn about the buildings here, but in general, they’re beautiful. Most of them look like castles complete with turrets with crosses carved into them. And though I hate having to get here so early, walking up the hill towards Westcott Hall this morning was breathtaking. It was still dark enough that all of the lights were on, and the fountain was flowing, and it just looked like a picture. I know I’m a huge dork for being so in love with college campuses in general, but it just seems so rich with possibility and potential. I’m so glad to be back in school.

There’s more, of course there’s more, but I have to save some for later. Let’s just say that I am overwhelmingly happy to be back in the thick of academia.