penn state slippers

I keep throwing my fluffy penn state slipper at the debates. Thank the HP its so soft.

Just remember my friend, who within an hour of returning from his second tour in Afghanistan, remarked "Afghanistan is the forgotten war."


Thank the HP I can't reach through the TV and strangle presidential candidates. I'd currently totally be in jail.

a quickie before work...

...a metaphorical one, that is. One full of words like you are reading.

Yesterday I left work and immediately drove to Cortland to roam around the library and do some preliminary research for my oral presentation (i guess) and my paper. As I was telling Karli, it's not easy to come up with a topic for a research paper when you've merely read 15 poems (from 2 poets) and you're writing a 20 pager.

So I did my favorite thing: i just roamed the shelves that contained the Romantic writers.

Two big finds:

A) A book of Percy Bysshe Shelley's notes. IN HIS WRITING! It was like I opened a treasure. Why am I research Shelley, you ask? Because I'm speaking on To a Skylark a piece by both Wordsworth and Shelley and comparing the two. ROCK!! :)

B) The words: Near Escapism with the conclusion of Tragic Reality.

Seriously, the beauty of those words. Really I just found the last two and came up with the rest on my drive home. The drive which I took in complete silence contemplating the fact that I was back in the library, doing research. Which is like eating a juicy peach for me. Perfect beautiful delicious TANTALIZING.

I chose all my books, a stack of about 8, took them to a large table by a window overlooking the gorgeous rolling mountains of Upstate NY that had the waning autumn daylight shining upon them and ruffled through them.

Please, if there is an HP, please help me find a way to do this and get paid!


happy friday, y'all!

Occupational Hazards

I am a drippy little girl today. By that I mean I have gone through almost two boxes of tissues and over a hundred gallons of OJ in the past two days and I'm still sitting here coughing and yucky. It happens when you have 14 adorable little spouts of mucus that you teach everyday, that you are in close proximation to for 8 hours, five days a week. Pair that with running around like a mad woman for the past 2 weeks and you get... kate home sick the fifth week of school. I hate calling in sick.

I think I called in 3 times in the 3+ years I was at the BUX...

But that's neither here nor there... you're probably wondering about that last post. I'll keep it as short as possible. That Saturday my grandpa had a stroke. He's doing alright but he's my grandpa and he had a stroke and that is not okay with me. I spent Sunday at the Angel of Hope dedication. You can follow the link for more information on the statue but it is meant to be a place of mourning for parents who have lost their "angels." Needless to say, it was a VERY emotional ceremony. My family was there because a brick was being dedicated to our Uncle Johnny who passed when he was 3 from cancer. It was heart breaking to see friends there who have also lost siblings and their children.



It was a crazy busy week last week. I was at the hospital most evenings.

Our butterfly emerged last Wednesday and we released it Thursday. Here's a snap of my little loves waiting for the butterfly to fly away.




The picture of it flying away wasn't as good as the last one I took: HAHAHA!


Audrey and Spero were up this weekend to see Gpa and so we chilled with them on Friday night. Saturday we went to the last day game at Yankee Stadium.



It was a beautiful day with great friends and a game which the Yanks won. I was, of course, teary at the game. I turned around at the top of our section and looked down at the field one last time. I had waited so long to see that field and finally, after college, was able to see it. Close up. Like, 6 rows from the field. (This is me walking in for the first time in 2005)



The coolest part of the day was that, as I was walking down down down the ramps to leave Yankee Stadium for the last time I feel someone bump my left arm. WTF, I thought, I'm gonna have to hurt someone. I look over and it's my friend, JD from HIGH SCHOOL. We've kept in touch over the years but he lives in Annapolis now. seriously? I couldn't believe in a sea of 50,000+ people he found me. Just goes to show you... there are some people in this world that you are just meant to always know.

one last look at, what I am referring to as, Yankee Stadium I.

this has been the most emotionally draining 36 hours I've had in a really long time.

full moons can sometimes really suck.

this is you.

I wish I could show you a picture of the little boy who drew this rendition of me. I cannot tell you how precious this child is with his big eyes and eyelashes and his little boy voice. I wish I could describe him to you properly, as only an almost-master of English would...but confidentiality prevents me from doing so. But let me say this, when this little boy, who I adore, who my heart breaks for, turns to the first page in his notebook scribbles with his fat purple marker then looks up at me and says "this is you"... suddenly, in a moment i realize, he's right. this is me. this child, this classroom, this life that years ago i would have "poo-poo"ed. this is me. and it's a me i never thought would be. i never thought i could have wanted to be.

who knew?

...sometimes i even surprise myself.

Poopy on the Potty and other amazing feats...

Right, so...my last post was a lame attempt to keep this thing updated. It turns out after 8 hours with 14 three year olds, blogging is not on the top of my list of things to do.

But anyway...

Teaching is fabulous. In some "spots of time" (that's a Wordsworthian reference, folks) its rather challenging and I must take deep breaths and focus on the fact that the people I am dealing with are not adults but tinies who can't even be trusted to put their own toothpaste on their toothbrush. We have had two chrysalises (chrysali?) in our classroom. One butterfly emerged on Friday and the I delighted the children with my random knowledge. This time that butterflies do not have noses but smell with their feet. I have no idea how I knew that but it is true. I'm like a sponge for useless knowledge. This seriously comes in handy as a preschool teacher.

We are awaiting butterfly #2's emersion. Maybe I'll try to grab some photos with my personal camera. The pics from #1 were pretty incredible.

Other than the butterflies we are really just trying to teach the children our classroom routine and learn about them. Not just "facts" but... oh! It's 11am, hopefully we can get little Billy to the pot before he poops himself as he has the past two days. Pooping on the potty is seriously a big deal in our classrooms. We have celebrations complete with stickers, jazz hands and telling any grown person that enters a 10 foot radius of us.

I love these kids, though. For. serious. If I didn't would I KNOW that Billy needs to crap at 11am? would I care?

Alright, so on other fronts...

I got to see APMZ and SZ Labor Day weekend. My loves. I miss them!! We did our usual ritual of some food at the Appalachin Brewing Company followed by chillaxing at their apt with beverages in hand. Always such an amazing time but this time it was coupled with the new addition to the family!

This is Chloe Kate Miller-Zervos...that's right, our family gives animals middle names.



I also got to spend some time with Miss G and her parents which was a sunny, fabulous, tasty, relaxing time...


So, on and on to Thursday afternoon when I met Karli at Applebee's on Front Street and proceeded to spend the weekend celebrating her arrival, finally going to see The Dark Knight (excellent movie), watching Penn State football, losing my first fantasy football game (to Nick! damn!), and reading Romantic Literature.

Have I mentioned that I love my Romantic Lit class? I'll save that gushing for my next blog... Until then enjoy these photos:


You know it's gonna be a fun night when that's our smallest wine glass available...

I wanted to rename this the small gathering of Italian-American women...but then I wouldn't have been allowed...



I'm always out of place... then I put on a cowboy hat and big brass buckle...


Nick's reaction to that INCREDIBLE photo...


hmm...compare that to the photo below... ;)