i was in a pretty bad mood when i came home from school yesterday. i was ordered off the bus at 3.22 p. because this crazy bus driver decided he wasn't going to go the full route this particular occasion. so, i had to wait at the stop on mill, in the heat, til after four when the next bus came. i try so hard to advocate for public transportation in this town, but they do such a horrible job that it is very hard. i got home about 4.25 and was very thankful that i only had to work at gammage at six and hadn't relied on the bus to get me home in a timely fashion to get to jcrew or something. needless to say, i wasn't the happiest climbing the stairs to 214.

Then!

I saw a box at the doorway with an AIRMAIL sticker on it. i got a package from yuka in tokyo. she sent me a congrats card for the wedding and made me a little pink bear. isn't that the greatest thing? nothing like a homemade teddy bear to get you out of a slump.

today was better yet. i got a 96 on my greek art test and getting fingerprinted for service learning only took fifteen minutes. then, i took a new bus route (still haven't given up total hope) to visit errol at barnes and noble. there, i was able to get a lot of work done that i would have just continued to avoid if i had stayed at home.

today's a big day. i have my art history test in about an hour and a half, and i teach my first science club this afternoon. i'm more nervous about teaching than testing. we're doing a "voice" activity where i'm having the kids pick an object from the rio salado and write a paragraph in the voice of the chosen object. i hope they do ok, and they don't go too out of control.

i burned the tip of my middle finger taking banana bread out of the oven last night. i like to say, "i've got a hurt finger," in my gretel voice. ah, maria and the gang, how i miss them.

what a fabulous year it's been. last night errol and i celebrated our one year anniversary. he gave me a gorgous tiffany's necklace, and i feel so lucky to have him. i feel like the appropriate sentece to follow should be, "i wonder where we'll be september 24, 2006." however, i don't wonder. i think this week we figured out that we're going to stay just where we are. i feel really good about this decision. i'm excited to make buttless's room an office. :)

yesterady we went to flagstaff, and it was fabulous. I love it there so much. we should move. we went there because my dear friend from high school, miss audrey jensen, was playing volleyball with her fellow grizzlies against northern arizona university. i've gone to the montana v. nau game every year since i moved here. it's been nice everytime. we had supper with marc too, and that was fun. we went to the brewery in flag, and it was much better this time than before. last time we were there, i needed a root canal very badly and had to leave because i was in so much pain. not neat.

tomorrow's our one-year anniversary. pretty amazing. two months from today we're getting hitched. even better.

i didn't have to work at j.crew today. that was nice. it's hard to even convince myself that school is my real job when it has taken second priority to all my other jobs everyday this week. no, i had a good sunday: grocery shopping, football, and homework. i also did my home workout pilates video tonight because i didn't want to drive to the gym. it reminded me of last fall and how i used to do it in cholla. ah, i love my apartment so much better than cholla.

i had another blast from the past yesterday. after errol and i had a dinner out with the palmers and good time at broken flowers, we went to anjali's and shon's birthday party. i had to force errol to go because he was afraid he'd run into someone he really didn't want to see. luckily, she wasn't there, and we got a good dose of what we don't miss. it's hard to believe that only a year ago i would have looked forward to a party like that, and last night i felt so out of place. it wasn't like it wasn't a good party. i'm just at a different place in my life than most of the people there.

movin' out closed tonight. i like working at gammage, but i'm glad i'll have some nights at home this week. the water and cable are finally fixed. for now...

we just got back from a lovely evening with my aunt joyce from missouri. out of nowhere she left me a voicemail saying she was in phoenix for a conference and wanted to get together tonight. bazaarly, i was able to get my shift at gammage covered and hung out will aunt joyce for a long time. she wanted to see where we were getting married, and we took her out to oreganos and showed her the beauty of pizzacookie. i realized this was the first time i had a real conversation with one of my aunts or uncles. by real, i mean longer than five minutes. i see my other family a lot on holidays and such, but i felt like i really got to know aunt joyce tonight. this realization lead me to conclude that i don't really know my other aunts and uncles at all.

does everyone know that oprah is on at 11.30 at night? strange. anyway, i just saw a few minutes of it, and the subject of the day was teenagers' irresponsibility with money. the video they showed was disgusting. the parents had given their 16 and 18 year olds credit cards, and the kids just bought whatever they wanted. the expert oprah had on said that parents have two responsibilities to pass down to their kids before they leave the house: know where babies come from and know where a dollar comes from. this got me thinking of my own upbringing as far as money is concerned. i definitely learned where a dollar came from, but i don't think that lesson came from my parents. my parents never encouraged me to detassel or work at subway. i worked when i was young because it gave me my own money, and money brought independence--something i couldn't get enough of. everyone has their own definition of how much money is enough for them. i can't stomach the wealthy and upper-middle classers complaining about how poor they feel. at gammage, we've been holding baskets for donations for katrina victims at the end of the show. tonight, a man saw the basket and said, "enough already!" i really wanted to punch him. he was leaving a $75 ticketed broadway show to probably drive home to suburbia in his bmw, and he's so annoyed with people asking for donations for people who have lost everything. i really wanted to punch him.

i had a rough night yesterday so i'm trying to concentrate on the positives today. one, errol. i love how he loves the cookies and brownies i make for him. two, my service learning project. we had 50 children show up for science club on thursday. it was a little out of control, but i was looking forward to getting to know some of the kids. i already have a favorite. her name is nataly, and she's amazing. however, i got an email today from my facilitator and her boss informed her that 50 kids is way too many and we have to have a drawing to see who gets to stay. so sad. i hope nataly gets her name drawn. three, and very surprising, was how exercising made me feel better yesterday. after my feelings of awfulness, i went to the src and actually felt better after i worked out. i never thought this would happen to me. i like playing sports but have pretty much consistently dreaded the idea of exercising for really no point but burning calories. yet, yesterday it really helped. yay.

off to mopac.

i'm sitting in bed watching love actually and feeling so lucky that i have actually found love. i could only feel better if he were here instead of barnes and noble. errol's so adorable. last night he was singing the wrong words to a certain little song most people know. this is how it went down:

"beans, beans, the wonderful fruit, the more you eat the more you toot. the more you toot, the happier you are...how does it go?"

he's so cute. almost as cute as colin firth learning portuguese.

i woke up to rain this morning. i really need to get an umbrella. the good news is that the water is back on. the bad news is that movin' out is a very loud show, and it's difficult to read eighteenth-century literature with billy joel blaring in the background. that reminds me, i've a new attitude on work. keep in mind, i am currently reading moll flanders.

a long time ago, the only way women could become financially secure was to marry someone with money. if that someone dies, they are left with a sum that has no opportunity to grow besides a little interest. i've realized that i just take the opportunity to work for granted. when i need money, i just pick up some more hours. i don't have to toss and turn about finding a husband or a benfactor fast. that's a nice feeling. yay for free women in the workplace! j.crew really isn't that bad. i just got a $98 skirt half off.

we have no water. apparently, our water heater was leaking into our neighbor's unit downstairs, and she shut off our water last night. after a call to the landlord this morning and a visit from the plumber this afternoon, i thought we were golden. hello shower!

i head to j.crew looking forward to having the water on when i come home, but there's a glitch. i checked my voicemail during my break. the landlord has left a message and says the water will be off again until tomorrow morning. sadness! this takes me back to prairie days when we lived in the dugout before dad built the house. having no water definitely suxin'.

although today's been long, it's been good. i had my first meeting with the students at valley view school today. we had 35 kids show up for science club! they had been expecting 20 max. most of the kids were great. i made a lot of new friends. i'm excited to get to know them better throughout the semester.

errol and i were little celebrities today. i didn't get any comments about it til i went to work at gammage. i'm not surprised my fellow floor managers are state press readers. i was very disappointed that i and when harry met sally was misquoted. the shame of it all. you may read the article below but keep in mind what should have been written, "When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, youwant the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."

http://asuwebdevil.com/issues/2005/09/06/news/693683

errol and i concluded that yesterday was a strange day.

it started by missing the bus or not really missing it but getting sick of waiting for a very late bus and driving to school. errol finds out that his french class from rio salado was canceled and now he'll have to take summer classes to be able to start grad school in the fall. advice: get your langauge requirement done asap. we pulled a cher horowitz and went to the mall to feel better. we bought some fabulously cheap j.crew sandals and updated our wedding registeries. i can't wait til pottery barn and crate and barrel get their holiday merchandise in! there were more things in the day that made it strange... i can't really remember them now. oh, we went to sarah hayden and lisa's party. errol thinks honors kids look out of their element when they drink. i tend to agree. we saw the aristocrats too. i think chris would like it a lot.