29.

(me, 1979)

I've been 29 for over 24 hours now. It's a pretty big deal. heehee. I had a wonderful birthday! I got to share it with one of the students in my class who will be 3 on Sunday. I love having birthday buddies. :) The sunshine group at work made the MOST DELICIOUS blondie brownies for me. Applebee's maple walnut blondie. I can't do it justice when I describe it but just know I probably ate 20 points in one sitting. (did i mention i'm doing weight watchers? well, i wasn't yesterday).

Corky took me to the #5 last night. It was both the first and last time I will ever dine there. If I'm going to have steak, I'll go to Russell's. It was fabulous company, though. I do love my adorable husband and told him I would have eaten at a rest stop vending machine for dinner as long as it was with him.

My head is only slightly pounding this morning due to the copious amounts of sodium and wine I ingested last night. I still woke up at 7am though. Isn't that amazing. Well, it's because I'm getting old and set in my ways. haha.

Okay, let's see what have I learned this year? I hate baking. After two failed attempts at blueberry muffins from scratch I've realized I suck at it. And I'm okay with that, I have no desire to be good at it. That's why God created Betty Crocker. obviously.

I love my family. Which I knew before I just know it even more now. A lot more. And I realize that I have the greatest family in the universe because it extends out REALLY far and there's always room for everyone! (I imagine big loving arms hugging encompassing each little sector of my family and friends that I call family. It makes me so happy)

I learned that I am a pretty smart cookie. I actually didn't know this before. My level of selfconfidence leaped a bit this year. It was when I was given that scholarship. I never thought I would be smart enough to be given a scholarship I didn't even apply for. Now, does anyone else want to give me money to learn??

I think in this upcoming year there are goign to be a lot of changes and choices to make in my life. The big one being... Now that I've got this Master's Degree, what am I going to do with it? When I started the answer was very clear. Attempt to get a job at BCC and apply to PhD programs. But I didn't know how much I loved teaching 3 year olds then. I have some possibilities stewing in my brain... guess you'll have to stay tuned to find out what they are.

dog-gone it, joe!

Dear Sarah Palin,

Your accent and "downhome" quips made me want to ram my head through my windshield as I drove down I-81 on my way home from class. Your voice is like nails on a freaking chalkboard.

Love,

Kate

P.S. Ronald Reagan? Really?

Celtic Thunder

The local PBS, WSKG is running another funding campaign and they are TOUTING Celtic Thunder to the MAX. I have seen not one but TWO nights of this musical group. It sucks me in. The music could only be appreciated by someone who giggled through the likes of the movie The Notebook.

One of my favorite lines is during a song which a man is singing to his wife. The chorus goes:

Life is an ocean, love is a boat
In troubled waters it keeps us afloat
When we started our voyage
There was just me and you
Now gathered 'round us we have our own crew

I mean, really. That is freaking poetry. By that I mean poetry written by a middle schooler in love. Ha. I spent the half hour I first spent watching this giggling and saying "Nick, did you HEAR THAT?" and repeating the lines. And they sing so seriously and also have some hand motions to go with it. I mean, I love these guys, for the mere fact that they are SO CORNY!!!

And you should SEE THE AUDIENCE! These people are IN TO IT. During one song they sing they show an audience member, about 13 with tears STREAMING down her face.

But I couldn't turn my head away. This is because the men singing this song are my favorite kind, Irish. Seriously. I told Nick, THESE ARE YOUR PEOPLE AND THEY LOOK LIKE YOU! He disagrees but I beg to differ.

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.