transitions...

When I think of transitions I think of the sexy glasses from the late 80s. I called them "shades of grey" and they seemed to always get to that point where they were a weird shade of brown. I am excited to say that my husband had a pair. He was one of the sexiest men of 5th grade, I am sure of it. If you were to put photos of the two of us in 5th grade side by side you might actually have the world's freakiest couple. I am scared for our offspring...

...but the transitions I am talking about are not the sexy shades/notshades from the 80s but the life transitions I am embarking on.

I have been working in the coffee house world for EIGHT YEARS. Panera, Java Vista, Patterson Perk and now the Bux. Tonight I have my last closing shift. The last time I have to count the tills, set the alarm and make sure that everyone gets to their cars and that they START. The last time I work with Rapko. It's all quite sad, really. It makes my heart hurt a lot more than I thought it would. This is Karli and I during our hey-day at the Bux.

I am transitioning into teacher mode slowly but more quickly back into Master's Candidate mode. I found my articles on New Historicism (the theory I am considering writing my thesis on) and put them in their own folder. I looked up all the books I am going to need for this semester. I think I am going to buy at least one for my trip to Indianapolis/Chase Lake. The class I am taking is "Romantic Literature" (the pastoral/gothic era not like chick lit!). I took "Shelley and His Circle" (that's percy bysshe shelley, my fave poet!) for my senior seminar at PSU. It looks like we're going to be more into the Wordsworth/Keats portion of the Romantics, however. I guess that's okay. I love the intensity of the latter years. It was all the opium. No joke. Apparently the circle used to sit around and smoke copious amounts and write their crazy words. Thomas Love Peacock, the forgotten satirist whom my college professor was trying to dredge back from the depths was insanely witty. Politics was his forte. Oh, I'm getting all worked up. And don't EVER forget Mary Wollstonecraft who wrote "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman." Oh I could go on and on...

instead I will leave you with a links to my most favorite poem of all time!

Percy Bysshe Shelley, Hymn to Intellectual Beauty

addendum: picture above was taken by Mickey "The Legend"... he would want me to tell you that ;)

Very Un-Necessary

I think that "Very Necessary" was the name of the Salt-n-Peppa tape I listened to about a thousand times in high school. The winning track on the album for me was "none of your business" -- or maybe you spelled in "Nonya Bidness." I don't actually know nor do I want waste precious time googling it. After all, I have some very important things to do today. Before that let's recap a little trip I took yesterday to the Big Bullseye in the Sky...that's right Target (pron. "tarjay").

I always go to Target with a list but there is a secret fairy in Target who sprinkles dust over your head as you walk in and leads you to the places you shant go. Such as: handbags, shoes, electronics, seasonal, beauty, kitchen...etc. Okay, I know I named nearly all the departments in Target and maybe its my fault but yesterday...yesterday THE SCHOOL SUPPLIES WERE OUT. *sigh* I love school supplies and there were just bins full of crayons, masking tape, staples, markers, protractors, erasers, pencils... things that I have plenty of! But truly never enough. Not that I will ever truly be in NEED of a protractor... but you never know and they WERE ONLY 99CENTS!

So here's what I bought:

Okay, here was my reasoning:

A) I need a lunch bag for school and I was LOOKING at one on landsend.com that just happened to be THIRTY FIVE DOLLARS. this one was TEN and came in RED. HELLO BARGAIN! (nick did point out that i already have a lunch bag but its blue and really small...)

B) The markers were only 87cents a box! PLEASE! When I bought the markers for my "Children and the Arts" class last year they were like $4 a box. I will not find a better bargain like that and, as a preschool teacher, I will need markers of all different colors.

C) The pencil case was cute.

So there you have it... all very REASONABLE purchases. If you aren't convinced take a look at the inside of that lunch bag:

GrassRoots #9

Lucky #9? Well, it was the 18th annual GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance. It was the ninth time I had attended. It was pretty relaxing this year. I spent a lot of time contemplating. But let's start at the beginning...

...which is Wednesday, July 16th. I took out my new drawing pad that I had purchased for myself a few weeks before. I sat down at the picnic table and I drew. It was the first time in about 4 years that I had gotten out my pencils, pastels and a big sketchbook and created something worthwhile. I've done some random sketches but this was a pseudo-still life and it felt SO GOOD. It felt soulrefreshing. Here's what it came out like:

Thursday came and I went to have coffee with my darling Professor CDW whom I think the world of and now, being an alumna, I can sit with her and have coffee and talk about not only the field of ECE but about our lives. So happy. Nick left at 11am but I didn't get to see him off because I was off to Windsor to see my family. I saw everyone who lives out there but my stepmother. That includes, Grandma, Grandpa (who turned 79 that Monday), Dad, Eric (3yo), Andrea (6), Nicholas (almost 11!), Uncle Jim (turned 40 on Tuesday0!) and my Aunt Barbara. This trip is the reason I moved home. No joke. I love these crazy people they bring so much joy to my heart just to see them and be part of their lives for 15 minutes. I love it. Later, I talked to my sister for 110 minutes (according to my phone) which was also AMAZING. It was like family day! :)

But I couldn't sleep... haven't slept without Nick in the house in 3 years... and even then Audrey and Bets both stayed over! So really I haven't slept home alone in about 8 years... and that was freaky!

So I got 2 1/2 hours of sleep and went to work...which was stupid adn I won't discuss... then I came home, napped and drove up to Trumansburg. I jammed out to Donna's new CD Silverlined. (click here)It was beautiful. The whole festival was pretty great. I'm not going to lie, I was nervous about it. I spent Friday night listening to Flying Clouds, John Browns Body and MC Lars. I did NOT freak out during JBB this year. It was rather nice. Elliot Martin Sings...sorry Karli, I couldn't get a good shot of the bassist with the weird eye...


Saturday was filled with ice, lots of it! Chilling with Roja while the boys went home to shower, sleeping in the field, sitting in my pink chair, Samite, The Meditations and Donna the Buffalo (during whom I fell asleep!!). Our camp was offsite but we were right next to the grandstand so we heard nonstop music from there. It was fabulous. I did a lot of sitting on my behind but that was also fabulous as it happens once a year, at GrassRoots. I didn't get to see Keith Frank, but Rose and I heard him from our tent site... while the weird next door neighbor wanted to come hang out with us drunk and I made a shiv to protect us out of a plastic knife. He left when we ignored him...but it was kind of creepy. We also got hit on by some dude named BC which stands for BC and is spelled BC not Bisi like I thought. It was a weird, wacky, wonderful GrassRoots and I couldn't have asked for anything more...

The Newlyweds...K. was excited to introduce P. to everyone as her HUSBAND. how cute...


The K-chuks love JBB!

The M-C Lites... I was not possessed, I swear... just really happy... really creepy eyed happy! :)

last weekend...wedding #2

Last weekend I was at another beautiful outdoor wedding with my beautiful friends.

The weather was perfect, the company was perfect and the dancing was divine. In between we hosted a little gathering to have some munchies and wine and a common place to chill while the happy couple got their photos taken.

...it was all very posh...haha...

Another celebration for my family of friends to get together and celebrate love. We were sad that the Gs couldn't be there, damn pancreas.

catching up...

Oh man. this summer is just getting started for me. I finally finished my 96 hours of student teaching. It was a lovely time. I, of course, miss the children that were in the classroom MADLY. Per usual, I just fell in love with all of them and their quirky little ways. We got to spend lots of time dancing and painting and playing in the sand...but now it is summer break...and here I sit catching up on the work that I got behind on for my class. It's the last one, though. For this degree...ever the eternal student I return in the fall to finish the last three classes of my master's degree. YIKES.

In other news...July 4th weekend was quite a time. We spent the evening of the fourth at my dad's house eating BBQ ribs that just fell off the bone and chicken and corn on the cob that my step mother made. Tasty and delicious. I brought sparklers because I knew that we probably wouldn't see any fireworks from their porch. It was a nice relaxing evening: Nick, Audrey, Spero, Dad, Sue and I. On the way home (about 1030p) we thought we'd stop by the parking garage to wait for the fireworks from the B-Mets game... except they were going into extra innings and I had to open... so away we went.

The next day was the 5th. Obviously. We went to lunch with my darlng Aunt Paula. We took her to the Lost Dog Cafe and then out to Vestal to look at the stadium that Nick had a hand in helping to design. Then we took her out joyriding to Chenango to look at a house we'd seen on the net (We're a year from buying but I like to look!)

We went home to watch the Yankees win their game v. Boston and then headed out to get staples for our Yankees bus trip to the Cathedral of Baseball, Yankee Stadium. You know things like: new t-shirts, magazines, squeeze cheese. No, wait, we got the squeeze cheese the next day.

Let me say Tom and Jerry's Bus Trips ROCK. It was like clockwork and I would highly reccommend them to anyone. (www.tjtripsonline.com) Before the game the four of us (team miller-corcoran-zervos) went to wegman's to get subs, squeeze cheese (there you go), crackers and soda. I made felt moustaches for everyone to wear for Giambi. Even though he's sweaty and full of roids rage the stache is IN and so are we.


It was a great game, the Yankees won in the 10th inning 5-4. The Red Sox fans that surrounded us were full of sadness...and probably shame...and they should be because their team is ugly and smells bad. ;) Let me tell you, I will never get over how cool it is when "enter sandman" comes on and Mo walks onto the field. Brett Gardner was the man of the hour. A-Rod surpassed Mickey Mantle in all time homeruns. And the Miller Sisters went to a Yanks game vs. the Sox and did not get arrested.

It was a hell of a day...






...more catching up from this past weekend will be posted at a later date...

love and marriage...

well, for four years now the United States government has recognized Nick and I as "married." For us, this means that we file our taxes together. We had a joint checking account in Baltimore. (when I say "in Baltimore" I mean before marriage, as we moved back to Binghamton 2 months before our wedding) For about a year we had married people benefits but right now we have domestic partner benefits. sometimes i feel like a real ass because i'm married. why is it that i get to be married and some people can't? we were discussing this at Mr. C's birthday last night: the "rite" of marriage vs. the government union. the fact that corky is an XY and i'm an XX allows us to get married but according to our government there will be no more and no less than one Y chromosome present to consummate a marriage. this makes no sense to me. it makes me angry to think about. it's so unfair.

our real "marriage" was the day we officially started moving in together (it took a few trips). it was a less than romantic evening during which i lost my shit a little bit and laid on the couch and cried. i don't do well with change. there was no flowers or giant white dresses. there was a lot of junk and baggage. i worry about people sometimes, people that have this fantastical idea about what marriage is. its not about a day or a year or our first our first our first. its about figuring out how not to be mad when the cute person you love makes you crazy because he keeps the water running while brushing his teeth. its about understanding that when you aren't going to be home on time you have to make that phone call because there is someone wondering where you are. its about knowing when to say, i can't this is my time now. its about learning boundaries. i'm not saying its a constant struggle, but its a learning experience, a journey. ...and ever evolving way of defining who you are in relation to a person who is also ever changing next to you.

*steps off soap box*

we spent our anniversary in ithaca. we went to the farmers market and bought home-made cookies, then wandered around ithacafest. There were these "pocket pets" which I guess they are trying to get to be the new rage. You've got to check out this site and look at them: http://www.loveablepocketpets.com/ i think they are like exotic flying rodents. it was quite interesting. not my bag, although, i'm pretty sure that Bug would get a kick out of hunting one. we ended our day at taughannock falls state park where i'm pretty sure kevin kinsella was performing at a private wedding reception, or at least it sounded a hellofalot like him. so that was nice. i think it was a sound check but it was beautiful sounding. we sat by the lake and skipped stones and chilled and then hiked up the falls.





highlights included: tadpoles, a watersnake, and a daisy. We saw some weird dogs, too. and people. i like weird people in nature, it makes me happy. all different shapes and sizes...it reminds me how special and unique we all are.

Weddings and Departures.

It's been a busy busy month. I'm halfway done with student teaching. I'm also allowed to announce where I am going to work, which I will do at a later date. Pat and Kristina are married...

It was a beautiful day with beautiful friends abounding...



it was perfectly Pat and Kristina.

Karli left yesterday for the land of Indiana. I guess it's really flat there. My heart is sad. It's not like I don't have friends who I love and adore here, its just that I don't have Karli. I'm going to miss her. a lot.

here's a nice shot of the night before she left defining exactly why I will miss her so much...