Oh. Em. Gee.

You guys, if this blog was a baby, I'd be charged with a serious case of neglect right now. So it's been 17 days since I posted here? 2 weeks and 3 days? 408 hours? 28,800 minutes. How do you measure a life of neglect?

I digress. Rent songs really get me every time. Ok, so this is a seriously ADD post right now, so lemme round up what has been up since June stinking 2nd.

Ok, so I have been taking some online classes which are consuming a lot of my time. I am really enjoying them, but they are a lot of reading and a lot of writing. The classes I am taking are Science Fiction, surprisingly entertaining and I am enjoying it. The other class I am taking is Intro to Journalism. I also like this class, but I have to say, and this is going to sound awful: my classmates are dumb. I try to remind myself over and over again that they are about 10 years younger than me, but that's not really it...they don't read, they don't capitalize the letter "i" and when we need to post thing in the discussion area, like analyzing a news article, they end their posts with things like, "Right on, Star. Right on." -- This is a reference to a Star Jones quote in their article.

ANYWAYS. The real reason I bring this up is because it seems these students don't read anything thoroughly. I say this because of these two examples:

1. We had to analyze news sources and their credibility. While I am and avid New York Post reader and love the gossip it provides, I know it lacks real credibility, so when I read things on there, I explained that I often follow up with other sources if I am really interested in it. Well, before I could blink, about four students had responded to my post with, "WOW! I had no idea the New York Times was not a credible source!" I became irritable and responded to all of them with a simple, I said the POST, not the TIMES. Argh!
2. My real moment of insanity with them came today though. We're now on our third news article and we were instructed to do a "profile" about someone that we think is interesting or could have an interesting story. I chose my dad, the veterinarian. Here is what I posted to the class: 

I have several veterinarians in my family, mostly in lab animal practice. I'd like to reach out to one of them to discuss how they got into veterinary sciences, why they chose lab animal research over opening their own practice and about what their experience has been like. Lab animal science can also be controversial, especially with groups like PETA and I'd like to get some first hand experiences with what they've dealt with, backlash they may have faced and thoughts on PETA from the perspective of someone who uses animals to save human lives.

And here, are the two responses I got to my brainstorming session:

Interesting idea! I am a big meat eater just curious how are you going to bring the community into your story?

- Christopher

and

Lindsay!

I think that's a wonderful idea. I'm a vegetarian so it's always interesting to hear about other vegetarians reasons for going meatless!

Yup. They both thought I said VEGETARIAN, not VETERINARIAN. However, HOW HOW HOW did they get to that? I mean, I go into detail! I talk about veterinary sciences, PETA, lab animal research! So, HOW??? I just am baffled and I was so annoyed and did not want to flip my lid, so I simply responded to both of them: I actually said veterinarian, not vegetarian. That's it. One of my friends informed me that this is in fact why teachers drink -- situations like this. I can only wonder what my professor is thinking right now.

So, that is that. That is what I'm working with. Yup, enough to make you go brain dead in the middle of the day.

On that note, I'll wrap this up and keep it to this for tonight. We're attending a wedding tomorrow night and Mom and Nana are visiting on Saturday while Brandon is at a day long bachelor party in the city. So, toodles for now and hopefully for not as long as the last time I said that!

L

Sunday Round-Up

We got the car!!! I never thought that I would be so excited to trade in two cars and go down to a one car family, but I have also never owned BRAND new car. It really is a nice car, the ride is awesome. it is roomy in the front and back seat. I don't think the trunk is quite as big as we thought it was, but its not the end of the world. I think that eventually we will get a vinyl, waterproof luggage carrier for the roof since we have roof bars, so that is an added bonus.

Here it is!

There Brandon is inspecting the vehicle. We managed to also pick it up on a rainy day, which as usual was just lovely.

Here it is parked on our street. I definitely went out to see it and take a whiff of "new car smell."

And my keys! I finally have a key fob again to open my doors while I walk up to my car. My Acura one ended up in the bottom of a storm drain quite some time ago...

Hmm, what else went on this week? A heat wave hit our city and it was about 97 degrees at 2:00p in the afternoon on Thursday. That was lovely and made me really look forward to my 7:00p soccer game with no subs AND short on players. Fortunately, the other team only had one girl so we actually ended up playing evenly at 6v6 on the field. We won and it was brutally hot, I got a huge blister on the bottom of my foot and 2 days later my body is still sore. I've realized this is what happens the older you get -- you're not so sore 1 day post work out, but 2 days post work out, thats what you feel the burn!!

In other news, I went to CVS one day this week for a Redbull before work and ended up with a 2 liter bottle of soda and some straws also. My total came to $5.27 and I remembered that I had a $5.00 coupon. I wasn't sure the store's policy, so I swiped and WHAT DO YOU KNOW! I felt like an extreme couponer.

I spent my Friday lunch galavanting around Union Square just doing some browsing. I found this gem at Burlington Coat Factory and I'm almost kicking myself for not picking one of them up because I think the style is very flattering...

In sort of Debbie Downer news, we had to jet up to Scranton on Saturday to bury my Grandfather. He passed away in January, but the ground was too hard at that time, so the burial was done this weekend. I have mixed emotions about the way that this all played out -- to some extent, I know that it dragged the grieving process out must longer than most people have to, but to some extent, it perhaps made things easier, or as easier as it can get to lose someone so near and dear to you. I almost always have had the mentality that all things happen for a reason and part of me believes that we couldn't bury him in January because we were all meant to be together again. I love getting to see everyone, even if the occasion is a somber one, we are a close family and we all know just how to support each other.

Perhaps one of the highlights of these little reunions is getting to see our youngest cousin Lizzie. While seeing all of our cousins is a great time, there is just something about a toddler that everyone gravitates toward. She is a little spitfire ball of energy and just before the luncheon ended, she snuck out of it, ran out to the wedding going on on the patio and was found by Brandon and Nicole (her mom) under a cocktail table. That little devil! Here are the best pics that I could get of her!

It basically took me tickling her to get her to take her hands out of her mouth for the picture and also to smile! She was being shy to start.

While Brandon and I will have kids in our own time, it is totally fun to watch him interact with her. She is such a funny little kid and he has such a good time goofing off with her and doing funny things that kids love. It makes me smile and warms my heart to know that he will -- when the time is right!! -- be an awesome father some day.

And on that note, it is almost time to start Real Housewives of NJ! Yippee for another new season of Housewives!

xo

- from a normal Jersey Housewife...sort of?