The Forever Roommate

So I am about to write a post which makes my last post about my new blog title seemingly outdated because I've finally come up with a title that I like. My Blog is now officially and forever (or until I change it again) called "So I Use Big Words." In case you didn't know, I enjoy using what my friend Lindsey refers to as "$10 words." You know big words that are confusing to people or my students. Words like stupendous, irrational, defenestration, typical every day words. By the way, I think that defenestration is both stupendous and in almost every case incredibly irrational. 

Regardless, this blog isn't about my love of large and amazingly awesome vocabulary words. I'm sure I'll come up with a post about my geekiness later. This post follows a fantastic phone call with one awesome chica so I now feel compelled to compile a short list as to why I love her. 

Therefore, I give to you a completely random list of the reasons I love Tiffany (aka my "roommate" for life) and why everyone else should love her too! 

1. Her love of fish. Specifically the ones that come from Gander Mountain. More specifically the pregnant ones that come from Gander Mountain. In case you didn't know, those are best if housed in an aquarium in a dorm room and fed goldfish flakes. -----also, she enjoys bass fishing! 

2. She knows how to "accidentally" make awesome fudge. No. Seriously. It's amazing. 

3. You mess with the Brewers. She'll mess with you.---I swear, she'll Zumba in circles all around you. You'll be intimidated. Especially if you put on Gasolina and I start turning the light switch on and off. You better watch your back because I know you'll be terrified. 

4. She loves loves loves Ron's Cheese. Just ask my mom. 

5. She's got an amazing fashion sense...visionary. She'll go camping on the bottom and clubbing on the top. She's like a boy scout: prepared for EVERYTHING! 

6. Taco Bell. You've never eaten Taco Bell if you haven't ordered it from a car driving in reverse through the drive-thru. Also, I feel as though Toppers Sticks should be added to this list. 

7. Even when it's "Quite Time" it'll be a little loud and rowdy. 

8. There is no better partner in crime for instances when you have a trombone player outside your window at 3am, someone burns a hot dog bun at midnight causing a fire drill, or you get yourself locked out of your apartment hosting a party. 

9. Nothing is safe from being an inside joke. Take carrier penguins and 15x11 for instance. 

10. If you've ever felt the need to change a license plate in 4" stilettos, she's the girl to call. 

11. She's mostly just awesome. (In case you didn't get that from all of the above.)

Anywho....aside from me mostly amusing myself with a slew of completely random inside jokes, I'm super excited to go hang out with one of my best friends at a hockey game tomorrow. Time spent together is rare and always treasured. (Yep, I got sappy on ya....) That's why she's my forever roommate. I'm pretty sure I'll be 80 and married and I'll still refer to her as my roommate. Love ya girl!! Hope you got a good laugh!  

A is For Alliteration

Holy cow...where has the time gone. I feel a little guilty for completely forgetting about my blog and my goal to write more. Oops! Apparently life got in the way of that goal. But I'm back at it. Probably because I can't sleep (you know you're getting old when it's a problem you can't sleep at 10:30), and evidently I feel the need to spill my guts to a silent audience.

My first order of business was to change the name of my blog. The Daily Dubs didn't seem to be a very accurate title of a blog I have forgotten about for months. Seemed like a complete misnomer. I tried many titles and none of them seemed fitting. I'm not really sure how long this one will stick, but since all of the titles I tried had some variety of alliteration and I'm a language nerd, I thought I'd go with it. I gave the whole thing about thirty seconds of thought, so if you hate it I won't be offended. If you have a better suggestion, I'm open.

I feel like I need to somehow update this with life's happenings, but that seems overwhelming and entirely not my style of random musings about things like how irritating it is that my j key types whenever it wants and how I ended up buying a strangers avocados. So, instead of a lengthy update on my life, I will leave you with a fun anecdote about my last attempt to do laundry and my inherit ability to be so scatterbrained that I almost incapacitate my ability to do so. Enjoy.

Last weekend, I wanted to do laundry before school started up again after winter break. It seemed that having clean clothes for work was the practical and adult thing to do. In true Sara fashion, I left this particular task for about 7pm the night before I went back to work. As I was gathering dirty clothes from around my hamper, I realized I needed to locate my laundry card, our buildings generally convenient alternative to quarters.

Upon this realization I headed to the kitchen. The location of the last conscience laundry card sighting. Not there. Into my room I went to check the piles of stuff on my desk. No luck. I checked through my purses and wallet, even though I knew it had never once been put in there. Back to the kitchen, the desk, bedroom, and purse. Several times I danced circles around my entire apartment in search of the card. I even attempted to test the other card which I knew had no money loaded onto it in hopes that it was indeed my card. Still no luck.

While I looked through my desk for what seemed like at least the sixth time, my hamper caught my eye. It seemed unlikely that the little bugger would be in there, but it didn't hurt to check. I turned the entire thing over. It didn't seem to be there. But just as I was about to start jamming clothes back into the thing, I caught the glimpse of plastic. Of course, why wouldn't I put my laundry card at the bottom of my hamper? That seems like the most logical of all places to keep it. After all, I can't wash clothes without my hamper.

Life update....

Hey folks! Life's been crazy lately so I have been VERY lax on the blog posting. Sorry. I have a rather unexciting but important life update for all of you, and I only want to explain this once, so this is my attempt...

I have to move. I know, not what you were expecting right? Me either.I found out yesterday from my landlord that pending some extenuating family circumstances on his end, I will not be able to continue my lease once it is up Sept. 30th. I'm really not too thrilled with this new development, as I've been happy living where I'm at and I really love my apartment. But there you have it. I am now knee deep in the un-fun process of apartment hunting. That will be followed by the even less fun process of packing and moving. If you want to be really nice and come an help me, I can pay you in beer and pizza.

That's all for now folks...I'm off to go rummage sale a bit for school.

-Peace.

What's in a Name?

I have to start this blog out with an apology. I have been neglecting my goal to write more because I have not felt as though I've had anything interesting to say. But, I am back and making a great effort to keep on blogging, even if there is no topic that strikes me. You never know what might come out of those days.

Today, however, a topic has struck me. I was inspired by a video I just watched on YouTube to do a little thinking about really bad names. Here is the video that provoked such random nonsense: 

I do strongly believe this man has had WAY too much caffeine, but he does hit on a topic I've always found interesting, BAD NAMES. 

While investigating this topic further I found a very interesting article about bad names from the New York times citing the worst name as Iona Knipl. I have to say that one is definitely a contender. 

When I think of horrible things to name people, celebrities always seem to pop into my head. It could be that some of my favorite bad baby names come from celebs, I suppose. There are the standard crazy names like Apple and Coco, but they do tend to get stranger than that. Jason Lee named his son, Pilot Inspektor. If you thought Michael was the only Jackson to misname his children (cite Prince Michael and Blanket here), you'd be wrong. Older brother Jermaine named his son Jermajesty. A personal favorite of mine are the names director Richard Rodriguez (Spy Kids and El Mariache) named his four boys, Rebel, Rocket, Racer, and Rouge. I'm quite certain I will not be answering that phone call for a babysitting job. A new favorite is Speck Wildhorse, John Mellencamp's son. Nothing like giving your child a serious self esteem problem. I can hear it now, "I know why no one loves me! I'm just a speck!!" 

Sometimes what I feel really takes the cake are the middle names. For example, Sage doesn't sound like a terribly horrible name, especially if you are wise or like herbs. However, pair it with the the middle name Moonblood and you've got a real winner. Apparently Stalone wasn't thinking that one through. Another, slightly different example of this is when the first and last name fit together to make a catchy saying, like Tu Morrow. Yikes...it's just asking for ridicule and it takes all the creativity in other kids figuring out how to change your name around to tease you. 

Outside of the world our Hollywood, some real life names I've encountered have stuck with me as unusal. I'm sure this list will continue to grow and grow and grow. Spider. There is a boy where I grew up with that name. I hope he's not afraid of them. Lemonjello and Orangejello (pronounced le-mon-ja-low and oar-an-ja-low respectively). Also, the fun phonetically spelled name Cardeair. Love those diamonds, but French is difficult to spell correctly. 

If you know of any other ridiculous names, I'm always curious. Please share them with me. 

In addition, here is the link to the 33 worst celebrity baby names for your reading pleasure: http://www.babble.com/celebrity/celebrity-style/33-worst-celebrity-baby-names/?page=1

Tales of a Babysitting Nightmare

Not so long ago, I was sharing a babysitting horror story with a friend. It reminded me of many of the babysitting stories I acquired in the decade or so I spent babysitting to earn extra income through middle school and high school. There are many people I know who have pretty awful babysitting stories, but this one was definitely awful for me. It wasn't really scary like my friend who had a kid stick his foot in the garbage disposal and threaten to turn it on, but it was pretty awful nonetheless.

I was babysitting for a two little boys this particular day. One was about five and his little brother was about two. The older boy was pretty hyper and was a definite handful. I'm not sure why anymore but when I arrived the kids were watching a movie in their parents bedroom, so that is where we were hanging out. We were watching the movie Ice Age, and everything was going really smoothly. This was a rare occurrence when I was watching these darlings. Then the older boy asked me if he could read in his parents closet.

My fourteen or so year old self thought, "Well, he wants to read. That can't be a bad thing. So what if he's doing it in a closet? At least he's reading!" And so I told him he could. On the surface this didn't seem like a bad idea. After some time, I began to realize I should probably check on him. He'd been in the closet for what seemed like a while, and in my experience when loud kids get quiet for too long it usually means they are doing something they're not supposed to.

That's when I peeked into the closet. I saw him sitting with a flashlight snuggled into the corner of the closet. I then began to shut the door...when...wait. what. was. that? It couldn't be what I thought it was because it looked like a part of the female anatomy a little boy wouldn't be reading about. That sneak peek caused me to open the door to that closet again. When I finally did get a look at what he was reading I was shocked.

Sitting there in the closet, flashlight in hand, one leg folded on top of the other, the little five year old boy who I was supposed to be watching was sitting in his parent's bedroom closet reading Playboy.

I was mortified. I made the boy put it down and leave the closet and we played games the rest of the night. When his parents came home I couldn't bring myself to tell them what happened. I was so embarrassed and at 14 didn't exactly know how to broach the subject of a small boy finding a stash of Playboys. All I wanted to do was go home and never come back. I happened to be "busy" every time they called after that. I felt badly for taking the wimpy way out, but I just couldn't go back to that house.

It makes me laugh now. The fact that I caught a five year old looking at Playboy is really laughable. I've got many other random babysitting adventures, but that one certainly takes the cake. I hope it entertained you as much as it did me.

No Flying Cars?

It's Saturday morning and I'm sitting on my couch in my pajamas watching a movie on TV. I always love weekend mornings because I can get up and laze about in my pajamas without having to get myself up and out the door for work.

This morning I woke up and Back to the Future was on. I ate my cereal and watched the last part of the movie. There are a hand full of movies that I just cannot turn off when they come on TV. Back to the Future happens to be one of them. I love that movie! I sat through the end of the movie where Marty McFly gets hit on by his own mother and then brings his father, George, to her and makes them fall in love. Great stuff!

As with any trilogy, when one movie is on TV, next comes the sequel. I'm not one to love the sequels to Back to the Future, so usually once the first is done I flip the channel. I wasn't fast enough this morning and then as I watched I began to wonder...WHERE ARE THE FLYING CARS??

It always amuses me about what people thought the future was going to be like. Back to the Future II takes place in the year 2015. Apparently in the next four years we will have the following things: flying cars, hoverboards, self lacing shoes, self fitting jackets, and computerized waiters. We also wear our pants inside out. Oh, and the Cubs win the World Series.

Maybe I missed something...my car still drives on the ground. The only thing that I know of that hovers is a hovercraft and it's powered by a giant fan system. Last time I put on shoes, I laced them myself. One size fits all still means that something will never fit me. And I have only ordered food from real life wait staff. Oh, and sorry all you optimistic Cubs fans, but I still don't think this is your year. (And I don't just say that because I'm a Brewers Fan).

The world definitely has changed a lot since the 1980s. Technology changed in ways we couldn't have imagined. Computers and internet have revolutionized the way we live. I think we overestimated the way technology would change though. But who knows, maybe someday my shoes will still lace themselves.

Stories from Rm. 001

I've been wanting to write for some time now, but every time I sat at my keyboard, I wasn't really moved to write anything. Today I got a great idea to share with you some random moments that have happened in my class that just make me smile.

Story #1 Johnny and the Glog

I have a student named, well, not Johnny, but let's call him that. He's a student who has a difficult time learning and receives a lot of support in school. Johnny has a very dry sense of humor, but when you listen carefully, you'll find the things that he says are absolutely hilarious. Last week, students had to present an online poster to which they had posted two videos. Johnny was the star of his groups two videos. When the videos were playing he high tailed it to the back of the room like it was nobody's business. He wanted nothing to do with being near the front of the room while the video was playing.

Another thing you need to know about Johnny is that he has a difficult time forming words, so he has a very distinct voice and speech pattern when he talks. He's also heard himself recorded a number of times. As soon as he started speaking in the video, his response was, "WHY DO I SOUND BRITISH? Why am I doing that accent? I do not have an accent. Seriously! I sound British, why?"

It was all I could do to keep from laughing. That is his voice and he does sound a little British, but he wasn't doing an accent.

Story #2 Nemo Touched the Butt

There is a student in my afternoon class, who often cannot help but blurt out things at random. There are times when I am certain that he has no ability to keep comments to himself or use his internal monologue. Today, I was teaching students how to write concession statements in persuasive essays. In order to get students to remember how to do them, I told them to write a "but statement." I then made sure to point out what kind of but I meant. As I turned toward the board to begin modeling what I wanted them to do, this student said, "Nemo touched the butt." I couldn't help but laugh. Little did he know that is one of my favorite parts of Finding Nemo.

Story #3 What is it? A full moon!

There was a day earlier this year where my students were all acting cuckoo for cocoa puffs. I had a feeling that a full moon was nearing and that's why they were just acting awful. By the time my last class rolled around and they were also really talkative, I couldn't take it anymore. They were the unlucky group that got the lecture from Ms. W. Somewhere in the midst of my stern lecture to my absolutely SILENT class about being respectful in class, I made the comment, "What is it? A full moon?"  In the midst now of the silence a student very quietly went, "Ahooooooo" like a wolf howling at the moon. Everyone had their eyes on the student and then me, questioning, what are you going to do to him??? I took one look at the student, and burst into laughter. He looked at me and smiled. Then the kids looked confused and started to laugh. I told them that even I couldn't keep a straight face through that and then continued teaching. The kids were great the rest of the hour. Evidently a little howl was all we needed.