Woah!

I'm sitting in my office chair, contemplating the effort that a post will take and wondering if it will drain the last of my reserves for the day. If so, Todd will find me in a half an hour (once he gets done fixing the ice-maker in our refrigerator) passed out at my computer. You, my lovely readers, will also know that this has happened because this is what the remainder of the post will look like:


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Yes, I'm pretty talented - my face can italicize the font. So until my post looks like that, you'll at least know that I have a minimal bit of energy left.

Work has begun. I suppose that's where my "Woah!" comes from. I can't believe that the year has started already. As many of you know, I got a sad and foundation-shaking shock when I saw the facebook update of my CDA this past week. She got a promotion (Yay for her! Boo for me!). So, all my momentum for this upcoming year kind of came to a standstill. I started worrying about who my new CDA would be, if we would get along, if she would be on the same page, etc. Fari and I had such a good classroom vibe going on and I didn't want to lose that.

Well, I met my new CDA on Monday. Her name is Araceli and I can only think to myself "Wow, Ashlee, you got lucky." I got another amazing CDA! We've been working on setting up the classroom, planning home-visits, and putting together student information. I'm once again really excited for the great things we will be doing with our students this year! I can't wait to see the progress they're going to make!

The downside of work is that I'm tired. Maybe I'm not used to getting up in the morning and moving around all day. For those of you who haven't been informed of my summer...let's see...one word to describe it.....

Relaxing.

I would have said "chill," but in the extreme-heat-warning summer we've been having that word would have been absurd.

Also, as a side note, I'm about to finish the book "Would You Convict?" It's an examination of 17 cases that challenge how one thinks about the law, it's purpose, practice, implementation, vision, and consequences. I find it fascinating. I love books that challenge me to think about concepts in a new way. It's definitely a branch out from my sci-fi/fantasy genre, but I'm enjoying it.

Okay, I feel some sort of magnetism between the keyboard and my head. I better go before my post degenerates into nothing but a meaningless sequence of letters.....

Or maybe it will turn into some secret code. I guess we'll never know...

Meow...meow...meeoooow

6:30am on a Sunday morning. Lovely. You might be thinking "Wow, Ashlee, that's great! You're up early and now you can get so much done around the house!" Okay, maybe you weren't thinking that but I'm trying desperately to think positively about this situation. Unfortunately, it's not working very well. Instead, I'm sitting here at my computer, yawning and closing my eyes for long periods of time, wishing I were back in bed.

Did I mean to get up this early? No, not really. I mean, sure, it would be nice to vacuum the pool now because it's still pretty cool. Cool being 87 degrees, that is. Yeah...looking at the temperature outside didn't really make me any more optimistic. Such is life in the middle of the desert. Outside work must be done in the "cool" morning hours.

Still, this is not the only morning I've been up this early. It seems that Titus, our not-so-little cat, has a new habit....of pawing at the door and meowing at some awful time in the morning. This time usually falls between 5:00am and 6:30. Not so early, you think? Well, it's early for us, especially on the weekend. The cat seems to be able to sense when we set our alarm and he inevitably starts making noise an hour or so beforehand. An hour is a lot of precious sleep time to miss out on.

So, last night Todd and I (a little frustrated at our morning wake up calls all week) decided to keep Titus in his cage overnight. He no longer freely roams the house and it's all his fault. I have to put a bit of blame on him otherwise I feel guilty keeping him locked up all night. In the past, putting his cage outside of our bedroom and locking him in there has been sufficient to stop the annoying little sounds in the morning.

Not this morning.

I'm not a very heavy sleeper. The little meows come at unexpected intervals and that makes them extremely difficult to ignore. Meow. Meow. Meeeoooow.

I don't really know what to do about it. Maybe I'll lock him in the laundry room tonight. It's for his own good, really. Because waking me up when it's perfectly allowable for me to sleep in could be hazardous to his health. I hope he knows what he's getting himself into.

This was my little venting session, my time to expel the "GRRR TITUS" emotions I'm feeling. The pool is calling to me. To clean it. Yay?

Now I'm just going to wake up Todd. Meow. Meow. Meeeoow.

Added Humor

So I added a link to Hyperbole and a Half to my "Some other blogs..." tab. Feel free to check it out. I have been sitting here since the time I last posted reading it.

Yes, I know, I've had an amazingly productive day. At least laughing is good for your health, right?

Haha!

So, I was linked this blog the other day and I started reading it. I have to admit, this is one of those blogs that makes me examine my own blog and just shake my head sadly. This blogger has an amazing sense of humor and I think she would be a hilarious friend in real life. Her writing is entertaining, humorous, with just enough generalized truth that her reader can relate to her life.

At the same time, the awesomeness of her blog (and her drawings) makes me a tad jealous. After all, her outlook on life and her ability to laugh at her mistakes (and the mistakes of others) is admirable. But don't worry, I can handle my jealousy and place admiration in its place. After all, my blog was not created with the sole purpose of being entertaining. It's meant to be....well...me. And I'm not funny all of the time (or really, even most of the time). I'm a little random, sentimental, idealistic (with a touch of realism) and sometimes moody...No comments please on the "sometimes" of that statement - especially not from you, Todd.

So it's all good.

Also, reading this blog has wasted a lovely amount of my time. I tend to read it a) right before homework is due b) when I get online determined to do something productive (like catch up on news/politics/etc.) or c) when I want to feel like I have something to do since I'm really avoiding doing anything work-related.

Have fun!

Awwwww...Yeah, this is one of those posts.

Last night, the fan above our heads whirling at full speed (which, given the height of our bed, can be a little scary), Todd and I chatted. I've said this a couple of times, but it reminds me of slumber parties with my best friends when I was younger - you know, the staying up later than you should talking about anything and everything. Surprisingly, Todd and I have a crush on each other! Oh slumber parties, what would we do without you?

Back on topic...We stayed up later than we should have, just talking. Here's how part of our conversation went.

Ashlee: There is so much to do in life and there are so many things that I want to do. I don't think that I can fit it all in one life. I want to travel the world, work in the FBI and CIA (because seriously, how awesome would that be?), learn yoga, be all  spiritual, eat all sorts of delicious food, fix the education system, be President of the world, fix the world (and here Todd inserts: "Run the world." I nod, "Sure, run the world."), be a vigilante, read at least half of all books in the world, learn about the past, live in the past (swords and knights, anyone?), live in the future ( "Can you imagine all of the things we're going to miss out on in the future? I want to be there!"), be a scientist working on an amazing project, write a book (or a series),  teach children, have children, be in the military, go to law school, be a lawyer, have a career....How can I do it all?

Todd: If you had to choose just one thing, what would it be?

Ashlee: I don't know, how could I decide? It really depends on my mood - sometimes I feel like I really want to pursue one path and other times I could see myself doing something completely different.I just don't know...What would you want to do?

Todd: You mean if I could pick one thing, what would I want to do with my life?

Ashlee: Yeah.

Todd: I'm doing it right now.

Ashlee: ....*breaks down into tears*

Todd: Those are happy tears, right?

Ashlee, still crying: Yeah.

And that is why I am so lucky. I have found someone who is my foundation, who keeps me grounded in reality, who supports me in everything I decide to do (no matter what mood I'm in), who deals with my moods (and let me tell you, I have some truly spectacular moods and amazing mood swings), who is willing to compromise in order to deal with me and who loves me no matter what. Thank you, Todd.

P.S. I foresee a new post on everything I want to do in life, the flightiness of a Gemini, and other randomness that I think as I fall asleep.

The Last Airbender: My Thoughts

SPOILER WARNING. Maybe. I'm actually not certain that I'm going to give a lot of the plot details away in this post. It's mostly an overview, which many of you probably know anyway if you've seen the previews. But if you're really paranoid about spoilers, then I would suggest not reading this post until after you've seen the movie. I don't want anyone to be upset with me.

You've been warned. Dun dun dun.

Now, as for the actual movie experience: Todd and I went to the 11:00pm showing of this movie on July 4th. We saw it in 3-D. I'm not sure if balancing the 3-D movie glasses on my own glasses for 2 hours was worth the 3-D experience of this movie. Doing it for Avatar? Yes, probably. But the 3-D effects in this movie almost seemed like an afterthought. There weren't many impressive 3-D effects and for much of the time, if my head hadn't been tilted and my glasses holding up the weight of the 3-D glasses, I wouldn't have even realized it was a 3-D movie. So that was a little disappointing.

The other disappointing thing about this movie...The acting. By the time the first 4 lines of the film were said, I was cringing. It's wasn't overtly terrible (or maybe that is just me trying to be nice). It just wasn't believable in the context of the film. That was the case throughout the movie. The timing, expressions, and tone of the actors just seemed...off. It really detracted from my movie-going experience.

And the acting wasn't the only thing that felt off throughout the film. The whole pacing of the movie seemed off. It was easy to tell that they were trying to speed things along to fit the movie timeline. I understand that it's difficult to encompass the multitude of nuances inherent in a story into a film. But the movie seemed so quickly paced that it was almost nauseating in its predictability.

Example (HERE'S THE SPOILER/PLOT): Find boy. Boy is Avatar. Boy is taken and escapes from confused Fire Lord's son. Boy travels with Girl and Brother and creates multiple rebellion in Earth Realm. Group goes to Water City, Battle, Boy Finds Power, End. Oh, and in the process of that the random Brother from the small villages falls in love with the Princess of the Water City (who, of course, must be sacrificed in order to revive the Moon Spirit).

It honestly has all the trappings of a classic fantasy voyage and I think that they could have made it work well with the correct pacing. As it was...the movie crushed it all together so that it seemed as ridiculous as my previous paragraph.

I think that maybe all of these combined to make a kind of disappointing experience precisely because I was looking forward to this film. I like the idea for the story (classic fantasy genre stuff). I really feel that, if properly done, the movie could have been epic. As it stands, I doubt we'll see any sequels in the theater. It's probably worth a Redbox $1 to me to see them, but not a lot more than that.

I'm sorry if my review upsets anyone. Like I said, I honestly wanted to really like this movie. But it just wasn't meant to be.

4th of July - The Grand Finale

So, this year after fixing a quick dinner of steak, potatoes, and corn, Todd mentioned that he wanted to watch fireworks. It was 8:30pm. The fireworks started at 9:00pm. We finished dinner quickly and rushed to find a place where we could see some fireworks. We arrived just in time to stand about a mile away from where they were launching the fireworks. It wasn't the best seat in the house but it was good enough for us this year (although we both mentioned that when we have children we would have to go to the festivities all day so that we had a really good spot for firework watching at night).

We ended up standing next to an....interesting family. It was the kind of family that talks pretty loud about all the problems that other families don't talk about in public. And then there was the child. I will call him "The Child" because "The Annoyingly Loud Child That Spoke Constantly and Had a Slight Lisp" is a bit long for a name. This is what I heard, the entire night:

"Ith it the grand finale yet? Ith's the grand finale! Ith's the grand finale! Ith it the grand finale yet? Ith that it? Ith's the grand finale! Ith's the grand finale! Ith it the grand finale yet? I think tha'th the grand finale! Ith it? Ith it the grand finale yet? Ith's the grand finale! Ith's the grand finale! Ith it the grand finale yet? Ith that it? Ith's the grand finale! Ith's the grand finale! Ith it the grand finale yet? I think tha'th the grand finale! Ith it?"

And repeat. Again. And again. The fireworks show lasted an hour.

On another note, it was an absolutely beautiful show! Afterwards, in order to avoid traffic, Todd and I stopped off by Coldstone Creamery for some delicious ice cream. And then we went to see "The Last Airbender" in 3-D. I might become a movie critic in my next post and discuss the movie, but we'll have to see how it works out.