the end is near.

Only a couple more weeks left in the semester! Yay!! Last week was horrible. I stayed up ALL NIGHT on Tuesday working on that damn paper. As a matter of fact, I printed the final copy (all 27 pages) about 15 minutes before I left for class to turn it in. Staying up all night wasn't always a big deal. When I was in undergrad it was a pretty common thing. Cut to 11 YEARS LATER and I am waaaaaaay too old to stay up all night. It wasn't just that I was sleepy, my body hurt. All day on Wednesday my knees were killing me. By the time I got home from class I could hardly stand up because they hurt so bad. WTF, Todd Jones? I didn't write the paper standing up!

I'm finally caught up on sleep and now I have another big ass paper due on Wednesday. This one isn't as scary and I think I will be able to finish it at a reasonable hour. It helps that I will have most of the day tomorrow to work on it. There are lots of "interesting" (read: bad) things about my field placement but one of the "good" (read: good) things is that my supervisor is super flexible with my hours and if I say I have a big assignment due, she practically shoves me out the door and tells me to go home. According to her, school work comes first. I have learned to not argue with her.

The ipod songs crack me up so I am going to post another list. I doubt it will stop making me laugh so be prepared for many more. Just get used to it. If you don't like it, too bad.

1. Darling Nikki - Prince & the Revolution (not quite as good as Joel's rendition at the Comet Bar)
2. One Last Kiss - J. Geils Band
3. Walking Away A Winner - Kathy Mattea (when this song came on I was all, WTF, Todd Jones? It's a good reminder that I need to stop buying compilation CDs!!)
4. No. 2 in G Minor L'estate - Vivaldi
5. Sha La La La La - The Beatles
6. In A Lonely Place - New Order
7. Alison's Starting to Happen - The Lemonheads (oh sweet 1992!)
8. Till the Next Goodbye - The Rolling Stones
9. When the Whale Gets Strike - Alan Lomax (this is what happens when you share a music server with your husband and he insists on putting anything and everything anyone and everyone gives him on said shared server)
10. Pleasing Interlude No. 1 - Electric Six (the man behind the counter was the IMPOSTER!)

Back to work!

i *heart* cousin aaron!!

Read this and then shop for holiday gifts on their website. Their site is in my links section.

working on my procrastination skills.

I have a huge assignment due tomorrow. Crazy huge. I've been working on it since Friday and still am not done. As a matter of fact, I'll probably be up all night tonight.

The other day Jesse told me about driving to Royal Oak for a party and listening to his ipod on shuffle. He got to hear a pretty good (funny) mix of tunes.

So because I have a huge paper due tomorrow, I thought I'd tell you the first ten songs that played on my ipod today.

1. Remember Tomorrow - Iron Maiden
2. Dose of Thunder - The Replacements
3. You'll Have Time - William Shatner
4. Do You Hear the People Sing - Les Miserables
5. Shotgun Blues - Guns N Roses
6. That's It That's All - Beastie Boys
7. You and Me and the Bottle Makes 3 - Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
8. Shopping Trolley - Beth Orton
9. Santa's Beard - They Might Be Giants
10.If You Never Say Goodbye - PM Dawn

I'm not sure what this says about me. Or my ipod.

Wait.

I think it says, GET BACK TO WORK.

And right now a lovely Beethoven piano sonata is playing. Perfect.

i know you know i hate school.

But I just have to tell you that tonight I hate school because it is 11:40 p.m. and I've been working very hard on a paper and a presentation and I just realized I haven't eaten dinner yet.

Since I know I won't make be making tons of money as a social worker, perhaps I will publish a book all about my "Grad School Diet" and get rich. It will be awesome because it will include recipes! The recipes will be simple. Here is the recipe for tonight's dinner:

Ingredients:
1 5-page paper due the next day
1 PowerPoint presentation also due the next day
1 Ritalin (generic version is okay)
1 Husband/girl or boy friend/really nice roommate/pool boy or girl
1 Really good local Indian restaurant
Return home from evening class and have husband/girl or boy friend/really nice roommate/pool boy or girl order food from yummy Indian restaurant. Have them (I'm too tired to write out all the options) pick up food from yummy Indian restaurant. Place food in the refrigerator because you aren't quite ready to take a break yet. Leave food in the refrigerator for 6 hours. Finish your assignments, realize it is too late to eat dinner, and go to bed hungry.

Genius, no?

No. Never mind.

i hate writing papers.

My procrastination skills have just hit a new level. I just spent 10 minutes looking up classmates on the Michigan Offender Tracking Information System.

Very interesting...

"i'm okay. it'll get better."

When my friend was little he used to say that when he got hurt. Usually tears would be streaming down his face and you really couldn't tell what he was saying because he was crying so hard. But eventually, he was right. He was okay. It got better. Did I already tell that story? It seems like I did. Oh well.

Suddenly we're at that time of year when I realize that hey! I get really depressed when there isn't very much daylight!! Last year at this time I only had two classes and an internship where I didn't really do anything. It wasn't so bad. This year I have five classes and an internship that wears me out. I've been really tired the past couple weeks and this morning I think I kind of got pushed over the edge.

Wha' happened?

My car was broken into AGAIN last night. Almost exactly one month after the last time. This time they broke out the little window in the back. And this time it was even more senseless because there wasn't a roll of quarters or an outdated ipod FM transmitter thingy to take. Jesse took it to the same dude that fixed the window last time and he was kind enough to give us a frequent broken window discount. I suppose it's important to be grateful for the little things. And now I have a car alarm to protect the nothing of value that I keep in there. I can't believe I had to get a car alarm to protect my windows. What the fuck, Todd Jones?

Jesse was kind enough to drive my car to work and take care of everything. But I was mean to him when he suggested I get a car alarm. I don't want a car alarm. I hate car alarms. Of course it makes sense to get a car alarm. Replacing windows is expensive. After I hung up the phone with him, I knew I was an asshole for being mean to him. I was walking down the street on my way to class and started crying. Crying because I was mean to him. Crying because I have to get a car alarm. Crying because I have a million things to do for school and have no motivation to do any of them. Crying because I don't want to flunk out of school so will have to find some way to get shit done. Crying because I don't have a job and have no income and am completely dependent on another human being.

My own personal winter season is here. It feels like it's way too early but it's here. I have a feeling it's going to be a long one.

I know I'm okay. It'll get better.

dreams and procrastination.

The past couple nights I've had some really funny dreams. At least I think they are funny. And because I am writing a paper that is due this afternoon, I'm going to tell you about my dreams that I think are funny. You might not be amused at all.

Dream #1: I got my paper that I turned in last week back. The paper is worth 125 points. The professor had taken 44 points off of my paper and had written a book's worth of comments. I was bummed, but not too upset. I asked a classmate if she did okay on her paper and she said, "Yeah. She gave me three extra points so I got 128."

When I see this classmate today I might just have to punch her. I hope we get our papers back today so I can stop thinking about those damn 44 points.

Dream #2: One of my professors made us go to a comedy club for our class and Jesse was going to be doing stand-up. I didn't want anyone to know he was my husband because I was afraid they would think the professor and I had some sort of deal worked out. I had no idea what kind of deal that would be but I was sure it would be bad. But then I was excited because I wanted Jesse to meet one of my friends. So my friend and I were sitting at the bar and Jesse came over to say hi and I decided to not introduce Jesse to my friend. And then I decided I didn't need a good grade in the class and left before Jesse went on stage.

Okay. Now I can go write this stupid paper. I don't even know how many points this paper is worth. Hopefully more than 44.

this week sucks. just like all the rest.

I have three papers due this week and I have been having a hard time working on them. Yesterday I got some stuff done before I had to leave and go to see Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan in concert. Hey if you get a chance to see the show, you should definitely go. Elvis was solo and amazing. I've seen him several times and am still in love with his live shows. This was the first time I had seen Bob and I really enjoyed that too. I couldn't believe all the people that left during the last song, All Along the Watchtower. What were they thinking??

This morning I had to go to a function for my internship. I had to be there at 8AM so was super sleepy since I didn't get home until 12:30 or something last night. I got home from the thing this morning around noon and laid down for a minute. Just to rest my eyes (my parents used to say that and now I am saying it and I sound so old). And then I woke up at 3. SHIT!

And now I'm trying to wake up so I can write a coherent sentence, or 15 pages worth of coherent sentences, about systems theory and organizations.

it's getting better all the time...

This week has been really strange. Bad things. Good things. I realize how lucky I am to have such a wonderful husband/best friend.

Sometime last week we realized the Xbox 360 wasn't working. At all. Bummer.

Friday night we took my car to the Tigers game. Kristin ended up coming with us and we had tons of fun, even though Joel and Amanda weren't there. Anyway, on the way to the game I remembered that my car had been making funny noises when I applied the brakes. Jesse took my car in on Saturday and they said the front brakes needed some work. Over $400 worth of work. Yikes. I hate unplanned expenses like that! Especially when they aren't in the form of super cute purses! Jesse took care of my car so I could work on papers. I had two due on Wednesday!

Monday and Tuesday were internship. I ended up staying until about 6:30 on Tuesday night and had to hurry home, eat scrumptious leftovers for dinner and then get to work on my two papers. And then the leftovers staged a coup. One poop attack (at least it wasn't at school! Right, Jan-Jan??*) and three puke attacks later, I finished my papers. I felt awful and at that point, didn't really care if the papers were any good. They were done!

Wednesday morning I went out to my car so I could go to school. My first paper was due at 10:40AM. As I was opening the car door, I realized that a bunch of cd's and maps were on the driver's seat. That was odd because they are usually in the little pocket in the car door. Then when I opened the door I saw the glove compartment hanging open and that was when I realized there was also glass everywhere. DOH!! Someone broke into my car!!! So frustrating. I called Jesse at work and he said he would come home right away. I called the police and they referred me to the wrong non-emergency report number so I called them back and another dude gave me the right non-emergency report number. Jesse got home while I was waiting for someone to answer the phone. I was super frustrated that someone broke into my car and super frustrated that nobody would answer the phone so I hung up and asked Jesse to give me a ride to school. I was only 5 minutes late to class! Yay!! While I was in school, Jesse found a dude to fix my window for a reasonable price so when he picked me up from school, everything was taken care of. The window fixing dude even vacuumed most of the glass out of my car. Once again, Jesse comes to my rescue so I don't flunk out of school.

So here's the thing with the whole break-in thing. I don't want to be too dramatic about it because nobody got hurt (at least I don't think anyone got hurt. I'm assuming the thief was careful when breaking out my window) and they didn't get much of anything. The first thing a few people said to me when they heard my car was broken into was, "Oh I am so careful to not leave anything visible in my car." And I guess that is the first thing I would say to someone else that got broken into. But here's the thing. I DIDN'T leave anything visible in my car! And I DIDN'T really leave anything valuable in my car! Whoever took the time to break the window and rifle through every nook and cranny of my shit-car must have been really disappointed. All they got was an ashtray full of change (mostly nickels, dimes and pennies), a roll of quarters (Jesse had just given me a roll of quarters for parking meters), and the one item worth anything was the fm transmitter thingy for my ipod (I paid $80 for it a couple years ago. It's going for about $35 on Amazon now). But damnit. We just paid $400 for brakes and now another $110 to get the window replaced. If only I knew how to ride a bike, we could save so much money. Just kidding. I know how to ride a bike. I'm lazy. And I'm sure it would get stolen so it wouldn't really save any money. I did think it was funny that they left Jesse's cd's. We're not sure how anyone could pass up Hendrix. And they left my old Polaroid camera that has been in my trunk for a while now because I keep forgetting to give it to my nephew. They were kind enough to leave my maps. And my first-aid kit. And most importantly, my Matchbox car Brady Bunch station wagon and Sister Penelope (squeaky nun toy. She used to be "Penelope the Nun" until my Catholic friends tuned me in to the whole "sister" thing. She watches over me as I drive. She apparently does not watch over my car when I am inside the house sleeping.).

That's the break-in story.

Then last night after dinner Jesse returned the broken Xbox360 and brought home a new one. The best part is that they were able to switch the hard drives so we didn't lose progress on saved games. Jesse is awesome!!

Yup. Weird week. I'm glad it's over. I have a bunch of reading to do this weekend to catch up on the reading I didn't do last week because I was writing papers. Word on the street is that we're getting a new tv really soon so I should probably start reading now. Things are looking up! Jesse is my hero. I don't know what I would have done without him this week. I pretty much don't know what I would do without him ever.




*this is not to imply that Jan-Jan has had a poop attack at school. This is to say that we do not like it when people do have poop attacks at school.

life in the D.

How I found my car yesterday morning:





It was a bad day. I'll write more later.
I love this city.

moments of silence.

The Xbox 360 isn't working. Apparently it can't take Jesse's mad Guitar Hero II skills. Luckily there is a replacement plan.

My car isn't working. Apparently it can't take being 8 years old. There is not a replacement plan so hopefully someone can fix it.

The Tigers aren't working. Apparently they don't care that we already paid for every single post season home game. No replacement plan but we'll eventually get refunded. Thanks for nothing.

September has been really busy. I'm thinking that it would have been a good idea to do some stuff that required thinking over the summer. All of a sudden I have to read books and think about them and then write about what I think about them and it is hard. Really hard. In my defense, I did read all of War & Peace this summer. But I didn't really have to think much until the last part of the book and even then, I didn't think that hard because nobody was going to make me write a paper about it. So, yeah...while the relaxing and having fun this summer was great, perhaps it was too relaxing and fun.

My internship has been pretty good so far. Much of the time I'm not sure what I'm doing but at least I'm doing something. And I've already seen myself on tv a couple times. That's a little creepy but now I always remember to pay attention during meetings and try to not do anything embarrassing. We'll see how that goes.

Today we are getting our bathtub re-glazed. You might not be excited about this but I can't wait! I have spent countless hours (minutes. whatever.) scrubbing the damn thing and it still doesn't look clean. Some dudes are coming over this afternoon to work their magic and then we'll have a sparkling like-new bathtub. The only problem is we can't use it for 48 hours. It's our only shower. Don't plan on stopping by this weekend, especially on Sunday, because we'll be smelly.

Let's see...what else...

OH! Transformers is being released on IMAX for a short time. I thought the makers of the movie were dumbasses for not making an IMAX version. Now I know that they are geniuses because everyone who already watched it at the regular theater will now pay again to see it at IMAX. Damn them! See you at the theater!!

Autobots...Roll out!!

oh! one more thing...

This isn't mean. Just messed up.

A woman in a couple of my classes works at my former place of employment! I haven't talked to her yet but I am looking forward to talking to her about her experience at the agency. Hopefully, for her sake, it is better than the experience I had!

1 week down. a million to go.

I don't really know how many more weeks of school there are. It just feels like a million.

I survived the first week. Of course, it wasn't really a week since there was no internship. But the point is, I survived.

Classes this year are interesting because I have pretty much the same people in every single class. Because of all the time we will spend together, I decided to try to be nice to everyone. It's really hard to do and I'm pretty sure I'll start smoking again because did I mention how hard it is to be nice to everyone? And I decided that I can't write about the people in my class because someone might read it and that wouldn't be nice.

If you need to contact me this semester, don't. I'll be busy reading and writing and being nice.

oh, summer. where did you go?

Today is my last day of summer. Tomorrow I start my third semester of grad school. What have I accomplished this summer? Not much! But it has been fun and relaxing and full of new experiences. Jesse and I went to my 15-year high school reunion and I didn't die. It was actually fun and I got to catch up with a bunch of people that I forgot were super cool. We celebrated our 1-year anniversary! Tradition says first anniversary is the paper anniversary. We decided the first anniversary is the Magglio Ordonez anniversary. Who knows what the second anniversary will bring! Perhaps the Todd Jones anniversary? No. I don't think so. That's just wrong and not only because he will most likely never ever hit a walk-off home run to get the Tigers to the World Series.

Blogging this summer has been scarce because I'm bored with blogging. Blah blah blah. That's how I feel. Maybe school will inspire me to write more. Maybe not.

Tomorrow I will wake up to an alarm clock. The fun is over.

Ugh.

vacation chapter 3: Maine-iacs!

After a few days in Canada, we were ready to head back to the U.S. It's not that we don't like the Canadians and their beautiful country but we were running out of money. I'm just being dramatic about that damn exchange rate.

After we got searched at customs coming into Maine, we headed to
Caribou to spend time with Jesse's dad. We were also happy to stay with family (Jesse's aunt's and uncle's house!) instead of a hotel. Especially since the family happened to have every video game known to humans, including Guitar Hero.

This is a tree Jesse climbed when he was a kid.


This is one of his dad's cats. They named him Dice-K, which is awesome. I love a cat named after a baseball player! And Dice-K the cat is awesome too.



After a few days in northern Maine with Jesse's dad, we headed to the southern part of the state to spend a few days with Jesse's mom and her husband. We went to the beach and swam in the ocean.


We tried to buy muff for 99 cents but then realized it was an egg bacon muffin and wanted nothing to do with it.


Hey! Fancy meeting you here!!


Jesse's sister and her family came to visit. We bought this sweet Transformers voice changing helmet for his nephew. It was awesome.


Jesse's mom has a cute kitten. His name is Jake.


We went to York's Wild Kingdom and saw lots of cool animals behind chain link fences. I don't think I had ever seen such a young zebra before. It was all wobbly on its feet.


And then we saw the Alamo.


And then we rode a carnival-like (read: scary) ferris wheel. And then it start to lightning and thunder in the distance and I was pretty sure we were going to die.


But I was wrong and we lived. After we left the zoo we started the drive toward Niagara Falls. We didn't book a hotel room ahead of time because we thought we'd drive until we got tired and then find a room. We got to Syracuse around 10PM and weren't able to find a room. Well, the Budget Inn had a suite for $120 but we opted to sit in the parking lot of the Clarion where we could get the strongest wireless signal and booked a room on hotwire.com in Rochester.

We arrived at the Hyatt around 11PM. We asked the kind man at the front desk if there were any restaurants nearby. He got out a little map and showed us where we would find several bars and restaurants. When Jesse asked if we could walk to the bars and restaurants, the kind man said we should walk to them and that it would only take 5 or 6 minutes. Sweet! He forgot to mention that they would be the scariest 5 or 6 minutes of our lives. I don't know much about Rochester, NY but now I know to NOT walk to anywhere from the Hyatt at night. Scary people everywhere. After we ate and drank at a bar, we asked the bartender to call us a cab. He was having a hard time reaching a cab company so I said, "Hey we just walked from the Hyatt but it seemed a little shady. Do you think it's safe for us to walk back?" and he said, "Uh. You need to take a cab." So we took a cab and arrived safely at the hotel. Who knew Rochester would be scarier than Detroit??

Your next installment, vacation chapter 4: happy anniversary!, will show up sometime in the next year. I'm tired of writing about vacation. Are you tired of reading? It's okay to admit it. Really!

vacation chapter 2: Quebec, Je ne parle toujours pas français

I had never been to Quebec so we decided to stop by the old part of the city while we were on our way to Maine. After we parked the car we walked down some stairs and this was the first sign I saw. I immediately fell in love with the city.


We parked under the building at the top of the hill and then rode down on the little elevator thingy. And then we walked back up the hill. Since I had twisted my ankle the day before, it probably made more sense to walk down the hill and take the elevator thingy back up. We don't make any sense though.




Quebec is a classy city. That's what I say.


Quebec really was nice, even though we were only there for an hour. We ate maple ice cream and walked around and sweated and I bought a magnet with a beaver on it. Sweet!

It was a long drive to Caribou, Maine. I got bored and ended up taking a bunch of photos. These fields of yellow were really pretty and I meant to ask someone what it was but I forgot.


Coming up next: vacation chapter 3: Maine-iacs!

vacation chapter 1: Montreal, Je ne parle pas français

Saturday morning (July 21) we drove from Detroit to Montreal. The drive actually went really well even though it was long. Canada sucks because the exchange rate is pretty much 1-to-1 right now. The Canadians blame it on the U.S. dollar being weak but whatever. We know the truth.

Sunday morning we walked down to the old part of the city.

And we happened upon some locks! Yay!! I love boat locks.

And I wanted to get on this guy's boat.

Where did Jesse go?


We ended up going to see the Bodyworlds 2 exhibit at the science center. I hadn't seen it before and found it very interesting. And creepy. And when we went to a deli afterward to get lunch, I looked at the shaved meats and decided to eat a bag of chips instead. Yuck and yuck.

The Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal wasn't far from where we were walking around so we decided to check it out. It was pretty cool. Sorry about the link that is in French. I couldn't get the English one to work.


I like cemeterys so we went to Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges because it is huge and really old. When we pulled in we saw a lot of signs like this one.

I don't speak or read French and Jesse was driving so couldn't stop to try to read the sign. When we drove into the cemetery we noticed nobody had mowed in a long ass time. I'm terrified of snakes and I know that snakes like to live in cemeterys that haven't been mowed in a long ass time so we didn't walk much off the road.

Right next to that cemetery is the Le Cimetière Mont-Royal that had been mowed recently. It was really pretty until I stepped in a small hole and twisted my ankle.

Back in the Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges I stopped to take a photo of this.

Right when I was done taking the picture I turned and a fox ran out from the tall grass. I was afraid of snakes when I should have been afraid of foxes. It was much cuter than a snake and I tried to find it again. The grass was much too tall.

And we found out that the signs at the entrance of the cemetery were in regards to the work stoppage at the cemetery. Apparently the workers were locked out when they demanded higher wages, better benefits, all that good stuff. I hope they get to go back to work soon.

We went to a fancy dinner at a restaurant where apparently, Ben Affleck has been sighted. I ordered some kind of fancy squash ravioli and was mortified when my entree showed up and there were 5 raviolis on my plate. 5. And they were skinny little things. So I ate dinner again later.

After fancy dinner, we were walking around and found a parade beginning to form. There were brides in underwear and grooms with the asses cut out of their pants (and they were commando!). And I didn't have my camera!! We ran back to the hotel room and grabbed the camera and went back. I didn't see the brides and brooms but I took some photos of goofy Canadiens anyway.


We were tired from a long day of walking around the city. Monday morning we got up and found a little place to get crepes and then headed toward Quebec, and eventually Maine.

Coming soon!
Chapter 2: Quebec, Je ne parle toujours pas français.

i'm back.,

This afternoon we got home from our long ass vacation! It feels so good to be here. The trip was really nice. I'll write more when I have more energy. Here's a photo or three.

Me and a rack in Montreal.


Canada. Very strange.


Sometimes you should just go ahead and pay a little extra for a hotel room with this view.

bite me.

This afternoon I was at Macy's when I heard a mom screaming at her children to stop fighting. Apparently the small girl child bit the small boy child she was sharing a stroller with. The nice cashier lady had a horrified look on her face but was kind and asked, "Are they twins? They look the same age! They're so cute!" They weren't cute. They were both crying and their faces were soaked with snot and tears. Not cute at all. The mom replied, "They are two weeks apart. We adopted them from Guatamala. LOOK WHAT YOU DID! YOU CANNOT BITE YOUR BROTHER! OH MY GOD!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!?!" I ran away because I couldn't stand the way she was screaming at the kids who looked like they couldn't have been more than 2-years-old. A few minutes later she walked by me still yelling at the small girl child. "I CAN'T BELIEVE THE WAY YOU ARE ACTING. BITING YOUR BROTHER. MY GOD. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?? WE'RE GOING HOME AND YOU'RE GOING IN TIME OUT. I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!" I'm pretty sure by that point the small girl child was trying to figure out how she could bite and permanently scar the mean woman that calls herself "mom" before running away. At least that's what I was doing.

brandon!!

curtis!

more than meets the eye.

I can't believe I am writing this but... you should really see the Transformers movie. I never even liked the Transformers - not the cartoons, not the comic book series, and definitely not the action figures. We saw it last night and it was spectacular.

I'm telling you.

Go see it.

Now.

You will thank me. And if you don't, you quite possibly suck.

we're home again!

We spent time last week with my family at Gun Lake. While hanging out with the fam is a little overwhelming, it's always fun. Where else do you see a Pooh chair with a Barbie purse and a bottle of Michelob Ultra? The Michelob Ultra wasn't mine. I swear.


The view from the door of one of the cottages...


The swimming dock!


And then we went to Hicks Lake to my uncle's surprise 70th birthday party. This is the "pop" and water cooler. Look closely and you'll see where the real fun begins.


More lake fun...


A nice vacation but it's nice to be home with Willie Horton and Barbaro Garbey again.

goodbye mike.

Mike Maroth has been traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. I am anxious to see who we get in his place. I will miss him because he was definitely one of the most handsome Tigers. I decided to work on a handsome baseball team. I'll let you know what the lineup is as soon as I come up with it. I promise it will be good.

not even a euphemism.

A rotisserie chicken stunk up my trunk today.

back to reality.

I got home from the little Tigers road trip on Wednesday evening. We actually got to my sister's, where I left my car, just before 4pm. It was nice because my parents were there so I got to see lots of awesome family and then drove home to see my awesome husband. I missed him so much! And then I fell asleep for 12-hours.

I do plan on posting more stuff about the trip but I spent yesterday recovering from the craziness of it all. It was a really great trip and I think my uncle summed it up when he said, "We'll have to do this again sometime once we've forgotten about all the negative stuff!" And he was so right. For some reason I find it incredibly cool that I asked my 69-year-old uncle to go on a 5-day road trip with me and we actually did it and survived and overall had a wonderful time.

vacation + robbery = exciting!!

This is the view from my cousin's bathroom this morning.

As my cousin's boyfriend left this morning he heard someone running down the steps. It was the robber who had just used a crowbar to break in to the 1st floor apartment and the door that leads to the 2nd and 3rd floor apartments. Five cop cars showed up and then a big ol' SUV pulled in and four cops with giant guns jumped out and went through the alley. I wasn't going to take a photo but my aunt insisted and I have to say I'm glad I did (but don't tell her I said that). Unfortunately, by the time I got there the other three cops with big ass guns had already gone inside. Luckily Brent (cousin's boyfriend) had left when he did because the robber didn't get much. He had piled a bunch of stuff up by the door and was apparently going to hit the other apartments before loading up his getaway vehicle. As of tonight, I'm pretty sure he's still out there but at least he isn't here.

go tigs!!

Today was a really great day. The Tigers beat the Phillies in a really loooong and exciting game. I'm pretty tired right now so I'll just post some photos.

Here's some broken bell. I figured it must be important because I had to go through security in order to see it.

It is actually very cool. You should definitely see it if you are in Philadelphia!

Uncle Larry found this diner. We met up with my cousins before the game. Very fun diner and it will be interesting to see what rating it gets!


Oh sweet baseball.


Verlander at bat!

city of brotherly love.

I met my aunt and uncle at our rendezvous point yesterday morning. Our agreed upon time was 9AM but they did not arrive until 9:15, which in my opinion was no big deal. It was, however, a big deal to my uncle and by the time we had moved about 100 feet, my aunt and uncle had their first spat. My first thought was that it was cute and I was glad they were feeling comfortable enough to spat in front of me. Not all couples are cute like that and engage in more uncomfortable behavior such as smiling through gritted teeth and pretending like all is well even though you can cut the tension with a dull butter knife. No, not in this car. By the 4th spat, about 1000 feet down the street, it wasn't cute anymore. And I was hoping for gritted teeth and pretending. I'm good at pretending. I'm not so good at dealing with snippy old people. Luckily I have not been the target of any snippiness... yet. We still have a few days together.

Anyhoo...

Other than that, the trip was fairly noneventful. Lots and lots of talking. Luckily my aunt and uncle are very smart people and have interesting things to say. I didn't have to say much at all.

We arrived in Philly last night around 7 but since we had missed an exit at some point, it took us a long time to find our hotel. My uncle printed out the local map of the hotel but did not, for some reason, print out google, Mapquest, or Yahoo driving directions. I have a feeling he knows how to do that, but prefers the excitement of navigating mapless. I didn't mind because I had no plans and just sat in the backseat in my Dramamine induced coma and watched north Philly pass by my window.

Last night before I fell asleep I decided to open the curtains a bit hoping the morning sunshine would keep me from sleeping all day. I hate being the one in the group that sleeps super late and holds everyone else up. I forgot that we are on the other side of the time zone and this morning when I woke, saw the bright sun, stretched and prepared to get my lazy ass out of bed, I looked at the clock and it was 5:30. Damn. Closed the curtains and went back to sleep until a respectable 7:30.

Here are some photos from our hotel window. We are downtown on the 11th floor of a Hampton Inn. My uncle is very good at booking nice hotel rooms!




This morning we go in search of a diner (yay Julie! I'll try to take photos and notes!) and then to the game this afternoon. And then after we're all hot and sweaty and nasty from sitting in 90+ degree weather all afternoon, we'll get in the car and drive to Washington, DC. Good times.

on the road again...

After spending Monday - Wednesday this week in Dexter with my sister's family, I'm heading to Philadelphia and Washington, DC today with my uncle Larry and aunt Nancy. We'll be at Tigers games on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday so watch for me! Sometimes they show Tigers fans. I tried to get chef hats but should have started that quest last week. Oh well. Hopefully I'll have enough fun to want to post while I'm there. I have a million things to post about from last week... Justin's no no. The lady with the box, the large box, at the restaurant. But you'll just have to wait.

uh. thanks? i'm sorry??

I took my 11-year-old niece, her friend, and my nephew to Stucchi's tonight for ice cream. As we were sitting there enjoying our delightful and messy waffle cones, my niece's friend said to me, "You are a nice aunt. I mean, Paige said you were nice but you really are a nice one. I have mean ones. All they ever say is, 'I'm gonna smack your face.' They never laugh or take me out for ice cream."

Oh.

i love the weekend.

Since I don't have any real plans or schedule during the week, the weekends are a blast because I get to hang out with Jesse and now have plans or schedule with him! We did do some fun stuff this weekend though. Stuff besides Guitar Hero.

Yesterday we went to the Detroit Festival of the Arts. It was sunny and warm and breezy and just perfect for walking around watching people and art. We saw a fabulous hat.

Oh! And we went to the library and I got a library card. It was such an odd feeling to actually want to be at a library. Must be because I wasn't meeting people for a group project or research. Although I have to admit that I haven't been to the library for research yet. But I'm sure it wouldn't be fun.

There were these crazy Dutch people on stilts. Someone described them as dragons, but I thought they looked more like anorexic raptors. And they made really loud raptor noises too. And then there was a scary dude on stilts too. It was actually pretty cool.




Today we ran errands in Novi. I bought a fabulous pair of sandals. Oh I am so in love with them. I had never even heard of Born shoes but now I will wear them forever. So comfortable!

This evening we are heading to Toledo to catch a Mudhens game because Kenny Rogers is pitching in his first rehab start. Sweet! Yes. I know I'm a dork.