arizona trip: sunday and monday

sunday morning we went to church with sharon and ron. that was only about the 6th time i have been in a church building since we moved (including two weddings!) and it never fails to strike me how different having a church building shapes the church compared to meeting in rented space...

we went out to eat with ron and sharon and their friends bill and brenda. they have kids who live in la and are the youth ministers at bel aire pres. small small world...

more baseball... (i.e. nap time) then ron and sharon had to go back to sing in the choir for the evening service so jeremy and i went to cabelas, saw the arizona cardinals stadium, and found a good cactus.

cabelas had the usual stuffed animals and fish tanks which i love. jeremy found some shoes (ugly things) that he has been wanting for ages for half price! yay! i am turning him into such a good shopper!!!!

the stadium is indoor, just like the d-backs stadium. the cardinals stadium reminds me of a space ship landing craft or ufo or something. but that bird is fierce looking, man!

the saguaro cactus is a cool cactus. they are the typical cactus most people think of when they hear the word but do not have arms until they are 70 or 80 years old. so the ones like in snoopy are really old!

arizona trip:saturday

saturday morning we went shopping and toured around some of the resorts in phoenix and glendale. (ps glendale is where this years american idol winner, jordin sparks, is from. we saw several billboards cheering for her. well the billboards themselves were not cheering but encouraging real live people with voices to cheer. right. i was not a huge fan.) we went out to lunch then headed back to the house. cassie called an hour or so later and we met up with her and went to coldstone and got ice cream. it was so awesome to see her. it was the first time i think since our wedding but definitely since we moved.

it was super fun. she left to go and visit her cousins and our cousins came over to watch the kstate - auburn game (among others). it was great to see matt and noelle. we had GUACAMOLE and chips and cheese and pizza and watched 3 1/2 quarters of pretty good football. that last four minutes killed me. i mean seriously, we were ahead the entire game and then just said oh you know what i am tired of playing - here you guys take the ball. why dont you run with it over there. i bet everyone would cheer for you guys if you did that. well that was fun lets do that again - and then lose by 10. sheesh. but it was fun to watch the game with them and to hang out. they left shortly after the game was over and we all headed to bed...

arizona trip: d-backs game

friday night we went to an arizona diamondbacks game. they were playing the colorado rockies (max's favorite team). even though they choked in the tenth quarter... i mean inning... it was fun to watch. the final score was 7-4. the stadium was pretty empty because of the holiday so we got to move closer and we had great seats. we didnt get to catch a fly ball - none even came near us. but we did see this cool sign.

we watched them play on saturday and sunday too. actually it would be more accurate to say that sharon and jeremy watched and ron and i caught up on our beauty sleep. they have one comfy couch for nappping! :)

arizona trip: desert scenery

friday morning we slept in a little bit then began our journey to the magical land of phoenix, az.

we saw a wind farm, which was really cool to me. i have never seen so many windmills in one place. i kept thinking of catherine and my debate case freshamn year when we argued that the best renewable resource to replace fossil fuel dependence was wind energy. i still think it is a good idea even though i am not getting a grade on it. we made it to ron and sharons in about 6 hours or so, after making a couple of quick pit stops. one was in desert center - if you are ever making the drive on the 10... do NOT i repeat do NOT stop in desert center, i do not care how bad you have to pee. you will regret it. the gas station was on eof the old kind with no way to use a credit card and the numbers spin instead of are digital. the guy running the station was sitting in the sun drinking a beer when we pulled up. i felt like we were in a horror movie. the bathroom was scary - the main door didnt shut (thankfully the stall door did) and there was no soap and the sink was broken. it was yucky.

we also stopped in quartzsite which was actually civilization. we got a quick dinner and headed back on the road...

WICKED

last night i rode the subway down to hollywood and vine and met lottie and arianna for dinner and a show. the place we wanted to eat at was closed down so we schlepped ourselves in our party dresses and heels down hollywoood boulevard, narrowly avoided a few propositions, and made it to musso and franks safe and sound. after three delicious grilled cheeses (thats one for each of us NOT three for me) we made the hike back and settled in to watch wicked, the new it broadway tour.

lottie's friend and my acquaintnce tera is good friends with the girl who played elphaba, the wicked witch of the west. basically the storyline was told from the perspectives of elphaba and glinda and how they grew up together and how elphaba is really just misunderstood. the performances were stellar, and the script was hilarious. the only negative thing was the people sitting directly behind us, but we were able to change seats at half time.

i am sure some of you guys have seen the musical and prolly liked it. but if you havent and you get the chance definitely go! especially for all you kansans - youve been hating the wrong person this whole time! and youll never guess who the real bad guy is! the big bad wolf! just kidding.

it is always good to get a reminder that other people have the other side to the story and youll never get the whole story unless you were a part of it. all of the ozzians had no idea why elphaba was the way she was, and they hated her, but once they understood the circumstances, things were different. anyways, not to get tooo depp, but the moral if you will was a great one to keep in mind. look at life through other people's green lensed eye glasses. :)

!m!

big bang theory

edward pickup 2 take 1. cameras a, b, c, x on my mark

we went to warner brothers studio last night to watch the filming of a new cbs show called big bang theory. it was soooo much fun. we watched the pilot first on tvs scattered strategically through the studio audience and then they began filming the show. they went in order chronologically so we got to actually see the whole show. sometimes they would film a scene multiples times with a few different lines to see which go tthe most laughs. it will be fun to watch the show when it airs (september 24th on cbs) and see which lines they chose. they gave us free pizza and the emcee (who was possibly the most annoying person i have EVER had the privelege of being locked in a room with for three hours) told jokes and did magic and handed out candy during the resetting of the scenes/transitions.

the sound stage the show was shot in was where they made cultural classics like casablanca, batman and robin and gremlins 2. veronicas closet was the longest running tv show previously shot there. it was stage 25 which is directly across from 24 which was the friends sound stage. instead of the usual plaques on all the other buildings that one has a special plaque that just says "the friends stage." i would have liked a tour but that was on the program for the evening.

it was so interesting to watch the guy up in the scaffolding manuevering the boom and all the cameras... you could watch the action live or see it on the aforementioned tv sets with the different camera angles like it would be on tv.

it was cool to see these relatively unknown actors (they are the types who have been in a lot of stuff and seem vaguely familiar but arent superstars by any means) and how excited they were to be the leads of this new show. they were all super professional and knew all their lines - they only had to reshoot because of a missed line once or twice. the concept of the show is good and the script is actually really funny. it would be cool if the show really takes off and we can say we were there for the first episode. it is about these two nerdy genius guys and their across the hall neighbor who is beautiful and blonde. the jokes that they make are super intellectual and funny because i only have half an idea what they are really talking about.

i think we might add this show to our regular weekly rotation. you should all watch it and see. maybe you will even hear me laugh! :)

google talk

so most days i talk to anna and lottie all day long on google talk. i sometimes get to talk to my mom, and nikki and christina are on sometimes too. it makes my day when emay is able to talk for a few minutes in between hanging out with rachie poo and being a homemaker (heres me jealous!)

but the best is this conversation i am having with anna. (we are playing scrabble on facebook)

anna.ostrander: you took my spot!!
meaghan: :)
anna.ostrander: i have all vowels and only 3 different ones
meaghan: yuck
anna.ostrander: gotta go get a lung brb
meaghan: ok cool

she has to leave the conversation and get a lung. thats sweet.

!m!

beverly hills cop

on sunday sarah got a bunch of people from the westside service, which meets at beverly hills high school, to go to cpk for lunch. joel, the bhhs representaive that does lights for us, agreed to join us. we all got there first and we were ordering our food and jeremy saw joel through the window walking toward cpk. we thought oh good he is almost here. then he saw him walking away. we saw a big commotion in the street and police cars with their lights flashing but there was a big pillar blocking our view of what was actually happening. by the time joel actually arrived, we had all started eating already. but boy did he have a story.

so he was walking by starbucks and these two men were yelling at each other about one guys (a french tourist) little dog sniffing another guys (regular old american) big dog and the big dog growling at the little dog. joel steps in and says why dont we just calm down no harm no foul etc and the frenchman starts yelling at him and then follows joel down the street cursing at him loudly and in a very cliched manner (someone should tell him that "f***" is not the only curse word in the english language... cmon get creative...) and in a strong french accent and then he spit on joel. joel very calmly told him that was assault and he was calling the police... pulls out his cell phone and dials 911. the frenchmans girlfriend also spits at joel but misses. they take off and cut through chipotle to the back alley. the police come take his statement and start looking for the dude.

meanwhile joel comes, orders, starts to eat and relay the story. the beverly hills cop comes into cpk and tells joel that they have a guy in custody and want him to come identify him. so he leaves and does that. apparently when the guy went into the alley he took his shirt off (to avoid drawing attention - which completely backfired/as a disguise) and people dont do that in beverly hills and thats how they found him. so they took him and booked him and he has a court date in a couple of weeks. if he doesnt show up (which he prolly wont since i imagine he will be safely back in france) his priveleges of coming into the united states will be revoked and if he ever goes through customs trying to enter the country he will be immediately arrested.

becasue a big dog growled at his little dog. talk about needing to just relax.

i had no idea the french were soooo uptight.

total eclipse of the heart

last night was a totaly lunar eclipse. i was safely in my bed soundly sleeping like all good little boys and girls are at 4 in the morning and the tears are pouring and i want to make it worth the fight... sorry i am aparently channelling gwen stefani today. anywasy like i was saying before i so rudely burst into song (cant a girl finish a song around here?!?!?) jeremy got up at 4 this morning to watch the eclipse. he said it was pretty cool.

im getting a hair cut today! yay! mostly just a trim but i am contemplating bangs. i think i have hair add. im not one of those people who will look back at pictures from high school and realize that my hair looks exactly the same. i know girls like that and it stresses me out. its like cmon take a chance... its just hair. you can dye it back and it will grow... so go crazy!

fran leaves on thursday and we leave on friday to go to phoenix for the long weekend. we get to see uncle ron and aunt sharon and matt and noelle and if i am really lucky fatou and cassie. we will just see. when we get back carolyn? caroline? carolynn? carolyne? some other girl is coming to stay with us. she is also a protege. i think she will be living with us for about a month but im not sure.

!m!

rock it out...

after the vh1 countdown was over i ran some errands then jeremy and i went to sarahs open house in her new house that she is renting with a bunch of cool girls. she gave us the grand tour and we even got to open the trap door in the floor of the dining room... she and jeremy played fooseball but the game was a draw... too many people arriving and she had to play hostess... they are living in a house of a mosaic family that moved overseas. the house is totally pimp and in a great area. there is a huge yard and they have it decorated super cute...

after we got home i made some cucumber sandwiches (because they are like my favorite thing ever!) and took my rock star self over the kriss to finish makeup and help set up. we made the living/dinig room look like the green room backstage at a concert... lots of black and red and candles. you would never know we were at a baby shower! here is the night in pictures:

the first picture is me with the momma to be aka christina dronen aka gwen stefani in preggo mode. then we have the poster that kris customized for the party. the babys name is gonna be ashley claire dronen (acd) so we just went to the next natural progression of acdc and rocked it out! the four of us were the hostesses (me - 80s groupie, lottie aka baby spice, kim aka 1983 madonna and kriss look is inspired by sanjaya recently of american idol infamy).

we also had an air guitar contest. which was freakin hilarious/awesome. this was the best baby shower ever!!!!! for those of you facebookers all the pictures from that are posted there. if you arent you should be.

!m!

ps a rockers life is never dull... except after the after party...

i love fridays

fridays during the breaks (when teachers and students arent at school) are the best. no one really does anything. karla and i went to target and i bought party favors and prizes for the baby shower tonight. the best game we are going to have is an air guitar contest. yep. at a baby shower. we will have some other more traditional games too. i got some cool stuff. yay!

i finished thinning the files from 2002. i got seven boxes down to 3. that means there is four boxes worth of room for the files from this year. this is a seriously vicious cycle!

i met jeremy at the mall after work. i got my toes and fingers done. i asked the lady to put lightning bolts on my toes and she had to ask someone what those were. and finally another dude came over and actually did them. all of the other nail people gathered around and were watcing him do them. i was like a training video. it was cracking me up. little bit of a language barrier there. kinda looks more like a n but its cool. then we went shopping. he bought me this really cute dress at ae (that he picked out) and some staples at old navy. there is no gap at the mall in burbank which is sad.

after we got home i finished a book called friday night knitting club. very good. and we watched psych which is rapidly becoming one of my all time favorite shows. early to bed early to rise... right now is vh1 video countdown... i love saturday mornings!!!!!!!!!!!

!m!

thinning files

so the process of thinning old student files is arduous and boring. and dirty. i worked on it for about 2 of my 8 hours of work today and that was soooo more than enough. my pod was running out of juice and there is no radio in the conference room so i decided to stop long before i was actually finished. and thats just with the files from 2001 and 2002. down in the garage the files go back to the 80s. and thats my job to thin them out and keep only what we need. hurrah!

sprouted spaghetti is not as good as those bleached enriched sticks most of yall prolly eat. healthier, but just not quite the same. it gets mushy even when it is stil al dente. we used our last 2 lb block of koci beef when i made spaghetti sauce last week - there was enough to have again tonight. sadness. i dont know when we will get more. anyone in the topeka want to fly some out? i would really apreciate it thanks.

i did get in-n-out for lunch... protein style burger and animal style fries. does life get better?

lately anna and i have been obsessed with playing scrabble through facebook. it is scrabulous! (i didnt make that up. its actually the name of the application.) we play one or two games a day. i also like playing with random people... so far i am a big scrabble loser. i have only won 4 games but im having fun so it doesnt matter. it is fun to play with someone who lives across the country. so everyone get a facebook page and add scrabulous. i will play scrabble with anyone. and apparently i am easy to beat. so there.

!m!

comings and goings

every time someone at work leaves or starts the hr manager sends out an email with that title. we have been getting a lot of goings and not as many comings. my boss, theresa, who was the principal, left to go work as a teacher at a school closer to home. so the vice principal is the interim principal (she calls it on probation). so karla is my new boss. we spent the better part of yesterday cleaning out theresas office and throwing away multiple trash bags worth of stuff. karla has been moving her stuff out of her office downstairs and is almost settled in. i am happy with the transistion. karla is younger and a lot more easy going and we have worked really well together in the past. since we are not hiring a new vice principal any time soon, ceci and i are getting a lot more responsibilities. i get to go to my first work conference at the end of september. cant say i am too thrilled. i will have to be at karlas at 6 in the mornign so we can get down to anaheim by 8. waking up at 4:30 am doesnt make me happy. but i have over a month to prepare mentally.

i have also been working on cleaning out the student files from over five years ago so there is room in the storage garage for the recently terminated student files. it is a stupid boring dirty job, but thats why they pay me the big bucks. oh wait...

!m!

that good old air mattress

having got our air con problems mostly worked out (as long as we dont run any small appliances in the kitchen or watch tv, it doesnt blow the breaker) the living space of our apartment feels great. cooling the bedrooms has always been hard because of the layout of the apartment as well as the fact that the little window unit can only do so much against the unstoppable forces of heat in the valley. usually the temperature drops enough at night that it is comfortable to have the windows open and fans going in the bedrooms. the past couple nights have been hot. our roomie fran is in vegas with the other proteges yesterday today and tomorrow.

yesterday after work i took the subway down to hollywood and highland (only a little scary by myself) and went shopping. i went to the costume stores and wig stores looking for the perfect outfit for this weekends rock n roll baby shower. i found some good stuff, but nothing in my price range (as awesome as a michael jackson wig would be... $40??? its not like im going to get multiple uses out of this thing). i decided that instead of dressing as my favorite rock star, it is going to be easier (a little bit more fun) to dress as a groupie. so i got a little tank top and some cheesy jewelry and im good to go. the tank top is actually something i would wear again, although not with my short jean skirt and leggings with glitter on them. intrigued? the party is saturday so check on sunday for pictures... :)

when i got home i cooked dinner (tuna steaks... yum!) and we went to two of my favorite stores. bevmo and vallarta. yay. then, since fran i gone, we blew up the air mattress and slept in the living room. i actually got cold last night. it was a wonderful feeling - waking up at 4:30 am shivering. i think we are sleeping out there again tonight. it brought back good memories of camping out on the floor of kevin and nikkis apartment when we first moved out here. gt gt.

!m!

more than meets the eye

so on saturday afternoon we went to a movie. it has been forever since we went on a date to the movies just the two of us. we saw bourne ultimatum a couple of weeks ago with al and lottie, but before that it had been months prolly since we were at the theater. but i digress.

we saw transformers. it is seriously one of the best movies i have ever seen. i know that sounds totally dorky but have you seen it? it is totally sci-fi, but you dont feel like you are watching a sci-fi movie. all of the technology being used by the humans seems totally legit. the only thing that seems out of the ordinary is the alien that take the shape of vehicles. the action was intense... shia leboef rocks my face off... tyrese and josh duhamel are yummy... the plot was decent (as in there actually was one, which is becoming rarer in movies these days).

anyways. go see it. youll like it.

!m!