Friday Favorites

Think of this has a substitute for Things I Love Thursday. I would never be late or slack on my blogging duties, so this is definitely not a LATE Things I Love Thursday.

Okay, maybe it is.  But ANYWAY...

♥ Sleeping in.  To me, this means waking up anytime after 7a.m.  It's the little things.

♥ Vanilla Coke Zero.  I know, I know.. but soda is my vice!  Since I have coffee in the morning, I usually only drink caffeine free soda.. but sometimes I need a little oomph at lunch time!

♥ Amazon Prime. Seriously, what did I do before Prime? PAY for shipping? Wait around for my precious parcels to show up?  So 2008, y'all.

♥ Signs of spring. Higher lows and higher highs.  Ruffles and eyelets.  Brave flowers.

♥ Words with Friends. I'm probably the last one to realize that this game is finally available for Droid but hoolordy, am I obsessed! (And for an English B.A., embarrassingly bad!)

♥ February Break. I have gotten absolutely nothing done this week and I don't much care. It's been such a wonderful treat to relax with Boyfriend and Neko and not worry about my long-term objectives or ELA standards. (I will, of course, be eating my words when I'm scrambling to keep up with lessons next week. But oh well!)

What are you loving on today?

P.S. My teacher shoes arrived in New York on Tuesday, so expect a full report on Monday! ;)

Status Report

Vacaaaaaaation! This week is midwinter recess and hoolordy, it couldn't have come sooner.  I was feeling like I was JUST making it day to day at school and we had a drama explosion last week, so it's a necessary break for everyone.  I'm in St. Louis for the week, hanging out with Boyfriend and Neko, pretending to do homework (and hopefully meeting up with Stacy!).

In addition to playing the Sims for hours on end, I've been embarking on many baking adventures and doing a lot of vegan research.  Without getting into the reasons that I'm currently vegetarian, I'm the kind of person who worries about feral and stray animals when the weather gets bad, so it's a pretty natural decision.

I've been talking with Jessica a lot lately about her own transition to veganism, and I've decided to make the move slowly; I don't have a dairy allergy like Jess does, so I can afford to take my time.  I've already begun replacing my health and beauty products with cruelty-free, vegan versions (goodbye, $2 shampoo!) and I'm also working on cutting back on dairy.  Last night I made vegan mac & cheese and was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it (I think Boyfriend even liked it too!); the vegan cheese I've had in the past has been pretty terrible, but this was rich and creamy and melty.

Besides the obvious benefits for animals and the Earth, I'm also hoping that a shift to veganism will help me eat more vegetables.  I'm a regular ol' vegetable hater, so I'm gonna do this the old fashioned way - exposure therapy.  I'm taking on one vegetable at a time, starting with my most hated: broccoli.  (Onions are actually my #1 Most Hated, but I'm just not ready for that yet!)  Does anyone have any foolproof broccoli recipes to convince me of their deliciousness?

In other news - J.Biebs got a hairscut and he still looks like a lesbian.

Aaaand moving on, I'm officially halfway through my first student teaching placement.  After vacation, I'll only have 3 weeks left!  It feels like I just started, in so many different ways - I feel like I haven't gotten the chance to actually teach anything yet, but I hope that's a result of all the learning that I've been doing.  Student teaching is a huge reality check; I've spent three semesters writing lesson plans for the perfect students that I teach in my imagination and it's been a hard adjustment to "real" students.  I really hope that I'm not messing up too terribly in my first placement; I know the second will be better. :]

What've you been up to, Internet?  What's the weather like where you are?

My #1 Most Famous and Popular Post Ever

Yep.  My Kourtney & Khloe post.  It was linked to in an article on ShelterPop over the summer and I am STILL getting hits from it.  Variations on "Kourtney and Khloe bedding" is also still my #1 search.  And for the record, Serena & Lily doesn't sell that bedding anymore.  Just FYI.

Summer 2010 were my blogging glory days.  Maybe I can convince Boyfriend to sponsor my blogging career this summer... ;)

Quarter Life Crisis

I'd be lying if I said that, at less-than-a-month-shy-of-26, this was my first quarter life crisis.  I'm probably on about three or four.  At least.

The Problem: I'm 3 months away from my Master's in education and I don't want to be a teacher.  Or maybe I do, but not today.  Today I just want to do something fun and pretty.  Something that won't leave me feeling totally defeated and drained at the end of the week.  Something that, at the very least, I don't dread.

The Cause: I had my first observation today.  And my supervisor talked down to me and told me I had it All Wrong and that I need to spend the weekend Making It Right.  I'm not saying that I felt awesome about student teaching before this, because I didn't.  But I was making it.  Now I just want to throw in the towel, 2009-style.

The Solution: To be honest, I'm not really sure.  My short-term solution is to eat Doritos and watch last night's Vampire Diaries in bed.  Hopefully I'll wake up tomorrow with my game face on and just do the damn thing.  Or maybe I'll need to eat croutons and watch Easy A in bed.  idk, idk.

Tell me about your impending, current, or past quarter life crisis.  Any advice for those of us in the thick of it?

Stream of Consciousness

I've been a baaaad blogger.  Not sure that I've been a much better teacher.  This has been one of those weeks when everyone is grumpy and out of sorts.  I yelled on Wednesday.  No.  Not yelled.  I YELLED.  Ugh. :(

I got my loan refund check and have been furiously buying more ~teaching~ clothes.  My Crocs arrived on Tuesday but they were way too big.  I ordered a full size smaller, as per the reviews, but it turns out I should have ordered TWO sizes smaller.  They felt pretty comfy, though.  I also bought some fly jewels at F21, boots at Old Navy, cute shirts from Loft, and finally finally finally found good khakis at Target.  I'm easy to please.

Here I am showing off my jewels (and looking skeptical of the second pair of earrings):

Leaf hinged bracelet.

I guess I like leaves..?

I'd return these if F21's return policy weren't so awful. Any takers?

Oh yeah, and I had straight hair for a minute.

Not sure when/why my tshirt became a turtleneck.

Student teaching has turned me into even more of a grandma than I was before: it's my bedtime.  Will finally post my What I Ate tomorrow.  In the meantime, I've gotta get my beauty sleep.

Food Quirks

I've been trying to write up a list of "What I Ate" for a few days now and in the process I've begun thinking about food quirks - foods that you LOVE that other people might not.  Or, in my case, foods that most people eat limitedly.

I can eat croutons by the bag.  They satisfy the crunchy/salty craving that chips or pretzels might; I never crave croutons so I try not to buy them, and though I have not lost a single pound on the Crouton Diet, I'm still pretty sure they're better than eating chips. ;)

What are some weird foods that you like?

21 Days

Tomorrow is a new day. It takes just 21 days to start a new habit or break an old one. Tomorrow is Day 1.