NAP CITY!

omg, omg, I slept & slepted yesterday! maria & I were sprawled out all over each other, drooling and snoring in turn... not 1, not 2, no: 3 times yesterday!!!

but ppls, we deserved it! we moved last week and the unpack is... over! I've also been starting on that looooong list of to-dos that must be doed when you move from state to state. but never fear, because my roommate is helping me to get settled in and find the DMV, etc (and etc)....

so, someday, I'll catch up entirely on sleep and you ppls will get a real post from me on how awesome NY is! until then....

well, you can pick your friends... etc. discuss amongst yourselves.

BYE

three more days!!!

the things I will miss about Detroit:

-all of my friends
-some of my family
-Tigers games
-Detroit Zoo
-DIA & Cranbrook Art Museum
-Bastone & Fiddleheads
-Holiday Market


......that's about it!! ;)

BYE

cinema-therapy

counting down the days to saturday's big drive..... I'm almost completely ready to move; I'm just packing up my classroom materials and then I'll be all set!

I'm still managing to catch up with so many people and I've gotten photos of most (oops, sorry susan!) that I'm going to post on my bloggie photo album in a couple of weeks. I'm going to have lunch today with my first yoga teacher, with whom I studied for 8 years! can't wait. I had lunch a couple of days ago with a lady with whom I've studied yoga and martial arts since that time - 14 years! I didn't realize she's 72!!! she just retired last year and is travelling all over doing mountain bike trips and strolling up macchu picchu and other sick shit like that (shout-out to donna!) it's been so awesome to see so many people at once!

otherwise, I kind of hit the wall last week with all this organizing and packing, so I went on an absolute cinema bender! I decided to see a bunch of summer blockbusters the way they should be seen: in an ice-cold theater, with lots o' nachos and contraband candy! I saw hancock, get smart (funny), wanted (awesome!) and journey to the center of the earth. now I can't wait for the mummy to come out!

DAMN! I'm staying at Better Homes & Gardens!!

yeah, my good friend (and agent) Vee has taken me in for two nights while my uncle has family in town. what a pad!! it's really lovely and all decorated with the furniture from her store beautiful home (african wood furniture, all handmade: gorgeous!).

so apparently if you buy all your furniture from her store, your home really will be beautiful! oh yeah, and if you're also one of those ppl who say things like "cleaning helps me to relax"... WTF!?! cleaning never helped me to damn relax!!!! what the hell is wrong with this girl!?!

but anyway, thanks for taking me in Vee!!

hey, white ppl!! this is for you!!!

stuffwhitepeoplelike.com

fun 4th!!!

hi ppls, how was your holiday? cuz mine's was awesome!!

we had a very small bbq at my aunt & uncle's on fri, I went to the fireworks 2x, the movies 1x, got some light furniture at IKEA for the new place (3 pieces for $60!!!) and had a cousin's night till early in the am.

I am seriously going to miss cousin's night when I move!!!

I have two cousins who are 2 and 3 years older than me and a step-sister who is 1 year younger than me (we're all ladies). when we get together, watch out!!! seriously.

some highlights of the convo:

1) my oldest cousin plans to have her wedding reception at a cabaret. and it will be BYOB.

WHAT? lolslolslolslolslolslols!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she is hi-larious!! we had a good time imagining her mother's reaction! apparently though, all of our family is going to be severly disappointed in this area. we're all looking to get hitched in the next 5 years, and no one is going to have a large/fancy wedding:

1- 50 ppl wedding
2-elope
1-cabaret/BYOB lolslolslols!!!!!!!!

2) it seems that there are men (whom my relations have been dating) that will just strip down at the slightest provocation... for example, walking through the door to begin a date!!! ( nb: WHERE CAN I FIND A GUY LIKE THAT!?) one guy stripped off as he came into my cousin's apartment, and went directly to her bedroom where he draped himself across the bed.....

cuz: um.... are you planning to eat dinner like that?

naked guy: sure!.... (sexy voice) I'll eat it off you !

cuz: okay... but.... we're having chinese food.... but, if that's what you want...um... I guess I can work with it!

rofl. literally.
BYE

my computer is dead, long live my computer

yeah *crycrycry*

my baby is so over!! I took it to le apple shoppe and they gave me the post-mortem. but they were cool about it. (I think. if any of you are IT nerds, pls let me know if I got a good deal.....)

first off, it broke abt 2 months ago and when they fixed it, they were all "yeah, your logic board crashed so we replaced it...., but you're lucky b'cause it's about to have its 6th b-day, so then we can't even touch it, not even with tongs...."

so I'm like: "WHAT THE FUCK!!!!! YOU ASSHOLES!!!! that's the 3RD FUCKING LOGIC BOARD to crash on this machine!!! I'm never buying an apple again, etc."*

so they said: "wait a minute! we'll refund 2/3 of your money for the repair, okay?"

so I took the money. (cash!!!)

fast-forward to two weeks later, when all of a sudden, it really died. worse than before - I couldn't even charge the battery. so I called the service center and told them the problem, asked them to type it up for me because I couldn't get in there for many weeks due to circumstances, but I wanted the new problem to be covered on the repair warranty (remember this).

so after finishing up the school-year and packing up my apartment, I finally got my ass over to le Somerset and asked for the verdict.

which is, in the 5 weeks since I made the call, my computer has turned 6 and now they won't touch it!!!!!! not even with tongs!!!!!! not even with my REPAIR WARRANTY!!! WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTF!!!!!!!!!!! why didn't that mental deficient at the 800# tell me that I should hurry my little ass in????????????

SO, now this guy was all "this sucks, this isn't right, I'm going to hook you up!" so he offered to give me the last 1/3 of the money back, tear down my machine to recover my memory from the hard drive("a $150 value") and put it on an external hard drive which they would give me as a gift - with a receipt (a "$119" value~for only 120MB lors!).

I must say, they warned me after the first repair that the computer's days were numbered, so I was kinda prepared for it and just relieved to get my memory, because (as usual) in the 2 weeks the machine did work, I hadn't managed to get around to backing it up.

blah.

BYE

*cursing and hostility may have been added later by my memory

another "bad teacher" post

boy, I have really been "working" so very "hard" today!!! I am getting really "tired!" my students are "benefitting" from my "assistance" in a truly "special" way!

or, in other words, I had my students do some independent math work while I ordered some shoes (look at them in wheat/yellow!!), some perfume, and some more perfume..... now they're watching a movie.........

what?! it's the last day before vacation! they have to learn how to "work hard, play hard".... and who's here to teach them that?????? "me!"

BYE

wild wild west, part 2

.......so the universe opened up and smiled on me: about 3.5 minutes after leaving the storage place, my awesome artist friend susan called me (shout out to susan!) and said did I want to hang out at little tree. man, talk about putting it out there!!!! my plan was to finish moving and then see all my friends - well, I have caught up with five friends in just three days!!!!! (shout out to m and vee and ximena and fernando!!!) and I plan to go on with this!!!!

I'm going to the fireworks on friday at willow metropark, and then next week to the wednesday and sunday tigers games, and then I want to go to a bar to watch the all-star game the following week. also I'm going to squeeze in some visits to the CAID and MOCAD! let me know if you're in, ppls!

meanwhile, I'm getting settled in at my auntie and uncle's house in rosedale park. it's a bungalow, which means that the second story is basically one cramped room under the eaves from one side of the house to the other. in this case, they have one end separated off into a bedroom, and a small bathroom put in as well. it's absolutely perfect for me and maria.

but being a cat, maria's a little spooky about being in a new place - right now she follows me everywhere I go, and I mean everywhere. when I go to the bathroom she uses her litter!!! (sorry, maybe that's gross to share, but I felt it was illustrative.)

but now to the part where I explain why the post is called the wild wild west... because rosedale park is on the west side of detroit, and in the 11 years since I last lived in detroit, I had kind of forgotten about how crazy it is here! tremendous car accidents, screeching brakes on racing cars, and regular gunfire (about 1x/hour): this is all night, every night!!! and now, thanks to the upcoming holiday, we have plenty of (illegally powerful) fireworks to round it all out. believe me, maria sits in the window and just enjoys the show!

BYE

wild wild west (part 1)

this is the story of my move this past weekend (yes, post #3 in 1 day! I'm back, ppl!!):

I have a space of 3 weeks between the end of my apartment's lease and the end of my summer school job. so I decided to move in with my auntie and uncle (not in bel air, in rosedale park haha as you'll soon see) and put all my stuff in storage in the meanwhile. then I will go out to my beautiful new home in new york (see below).

so first I rented the storage. the website said "$!1 for the first month!" and I called the 800# and said "with a longer contract, right?"

guy on phone: "no, it's $1 for one month or for the first of many months, your choicecanIsignyouup?"

me: "what else do I have to pay?"

guy on phone: "that's itcanIsignyouup? oh, yes and a $15 activation fee."

me: "so $16 only?"

guy on phone: "yes,canIsignyouuprightnow?canI?canI?canI?"

me: "are you sure?"

guy: (continues in an annoying way, so I say I will go to my local location to inquire and I say goodbye, but not before he threatens that going to my local location may be difficult/dangerous/impossible and may result directly in my death, but he could sign me up right away.....)

so I go to the place and GUESS WHAT????? I HAVE TO PAY INSURANCE, TOO!!! surprise, surprise! but it's only another $7, so I was fine with that.

that settled, I needed to get help to move. for a mysterious reason (*cough*my mother*cough*) my little bros were not available to help me though I was promised the exact opposite: c'est la vie. so I made my own arrangements. I called the father of one of my students and asked him if he could bring a friend and a truck on that day and I would pay all three.

cut to sunday: the nice father shows up, with his mini-van and his son: yes!!! my-11-year-old student!!!!! then I go to shake his hand and thank him for coming and he says "excuse me" and shakes with his left, "I hurt that hand yesterday"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMFG!!!!!!!!! I was shitting bricks!

because I thought that I wouldn't have to lift anything! (I have arthritis, ppls! packing was enough....) but I did lift, and lift and lift... but only the light ones. the dad lifted everything with his left hand (!), even my clothes bureau made from solid wood! and the son worked like a little man, so sweet, he has always been my favorite anyway *<3*<3*

he even lifted my weighty three-person sofa with his dad, and carried it down the stairs and down from the porch and into the minivan!!!!!!!! I was away gassing my car, and they sneaked it by me!!!! because of course I would not make a kid lift a sofa!!!! but I have to admit I was more impressed than chagrined when he did! he told me proudly "I have moved 12 sofas!!"

I love this kid!!!!!!! his name is Edgar, and I told him I will remember his help forever, and I will!!!! (plus he did a lot of hard work with me this year, even tho he has a learning disablility and it is difficult for him.) (plus his smile reminds me of my youngest "baby" bro, so he is aces with me no matter what.......)

so that took about 3.5 hours and then the universe opened up and smiled on me.......


sorry, but I'm tired of typing. I'll continue this tommorow and then you'll find out why this is entitled wild wild west.

BYE

excuse me for blogging

okay: keep up ppl. because I know you think you know me: ie that I only blog 1x/month (if we're both lucky) and that you can take your time coming back to my site because mostly you'll only find cobwebs and mouse corpses on it....

but that is the past, ppls! as I segue out of blechy michigan to fabulous new york, I feel a flow of creative energy coming on that will rival the power of the mighty mississippi! I have many, many posts to write, thoughts to share, and adventures to be made and then exaggerated about! maybe I will even begin to mo-blog, as I threatened so long ago!

so stay tuned! I will even update my links list (if you can believe it) and my bloggie photo album in about 1 month!!!!

here is a funny picture I came across yesterday, from blogger Ken: enjoyz!

BYE

holy shizz!!!!!!!

yeah, I just got my test scores from ny state teacher certification!!!!! I did so well!!!!!

perfect grade is 300, passing is 220. I got:
300
276
288
288
260
291
282
287
300

I's so smart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!