We shouldn't teach great books, we should teach a love of reading

Oh, how I wish I could be in paradise... sitting on a long-chair in front of the beach under the palm trees catchin' some rays with a frozen margarita and some good tunes (since I'm on a smooth jazz kick right now, preferably tunes of this genre), a good book (that does not have to do with school), and good friends.

One of these days it will happen.

But until then, I'll manage with secluding myself with homework in the "G-area" of the sac, on Gallaudet campus, in Washington DC... well, for the next week and half or so then it's time to fly the 1,700 miles back home and be re-united with family! So excited! And especially excited for CHRISTMAS! I kind of wish that I could be going back home sooner so that I could join in on all of the fun festivities such as Carol of Lights, the play that Trinity puts on every year, driving around looking at Christmas lights... or I wish that I had time to actually get off-campus this next week and half and do some fun Christmas stuff.. but until then I guess I can wait until I can go home, prop up my singing Elmo stocking on the fireplace mantle, and annoy Barbara, David, and Phillip 24/7 with how many days, hours, and minutes until Santa comes! Christmas is obviously my favorite holiday.

Starting yesterday, I've taken up a new love for the smooth jazz genre on Pandora. So relaxing but yet keeps me focused on my work. This genre does not have songs where there are singers so I am not distracted by the words/singing and it is just merely background noise, beautiful background noise if I may add, that doesn't annoy me even after listening it hour after hour after hour. And yes, I am listening to it now as I type this.

I've finally decided to stay with English- I just can't help it, it is like a gorgeous guy with hint of mystery that I'm drawn to, only it can satisfy my passion. On two opposite sides is how I want it to apply to my life and future: the teaching of literature, the analyzation of literature in the most radical forms, and how language/reading is acquired in children, to spread the love and passion of reading. I had formerly decided to major in FCS (Family and Child Studies), after seeing that with the major I had in mind before that one, Secondary Education with a specialization in English, would take me another two-three years until I would be finished and with FCS, I would be done May 2012 and then would be able to focus on deaf education in graduate school. So, started the application, was in between step two and three out of the three steps. Tomorrow, was supposed to meet with the department of FCS for an "interview" but ever since I decided to give up education/english, and go for FCS I felt disappointed in myself, it was my intuition telling me all of it did not feel right but ignored it for a bit and then slowly realized more and more that my passion is English. Talked with one of my roommates who is an English major and she said, "Are you here for you or just to get a degree you are not happy with?" So, from there realized why people do major in areas such as English, or History, or Art even though it may not promise as bright of a future such as Education, or Engineering, or Architecture, because it is a passion inside. Mind you, this is all part of a 2:00 in the morning conversation. So the next day, in one of my English classes, the teacher passed around an envelope with cards and had us randomly pick one and turns out they were cards, papers, whatever, with random quotes and mine said:

"We shouldn't teach great books, we should teach a love of reading" - B.F. Skinner

A sign much? So from there said "That's it, that's what I'm doing, that's what I'm going for" Have already talked with the English department so I know what I need to do. I'm excited to get this show on the road!

no inhibitions, make no conditions, get a little outta line

In regards to the title, let me just throw out that I absolutely love Shania Twain and I have been waiting, very patiently, for quite some years now for her to go back on tour. I was sure (and hopeful!) that when news broke out that her and her hubby were splitting up she, like every other artist that goes through a break up, would throw herself back into music and announce a new tour. Time shall tell.

It's Sunday. I have a love/hate relationship with Sundays... Most of the time, I hate them. As to why this is, I'm not sure but it could be the fact that it's the day designated for all the homework that's been put off during the week/weekend, or that it's the last day of the weekend, or the day that you should be with your family and mine's nowhere close :( This girl wants to go home and see her family!

Speaking of going home, the topic of what the heck I'm gna do this summer has been on my mind all day -- I wanted to stay here in DC just bc I thought it would be easier considering I didn't have a car back home and getting around here is so much easier but now that I think about it, if I stay, obviously I'd get a job but the money I'd make would go straight to rent/bills/whatever so I wouldn't be able to pocket anything but if I go home, I don't have to pay rent and can pocket money if I work but transportation is an issue. So regardless, there's gna be an issue with whatever decision I make. But I'm leaning more towards going home for sure.

Barbara and David are flying up here to my neck of the woods in two weeks, during my Spring Break :) I'll meet them in Baltimore and then we'll go up to NYC! Spend about a day & half there and then back to Baltimore and stay there one night and then I'll see them off [ :( ] & then as to what I'll do the rest of the week, I'm not sure. I just looked up flights to go home, hehe, but I'd only be there for 3 days and to spend that much money for only 3 days makes me a little nervous (I'm cheap!!) so I'll just wait until I can go home for the summer & it'll be even more special :)

I've gotta get back in the groove of running or doing some sort of working out at least more than zero times a week, ha. I've been slaaackin and there's more junk being added to the trunk and more air being added to the spare tire. Not pretty at all.

So with all of the crazy weather stuff going on; the earthquakes, tsunamis, snow storms and all that "fun" stuff; I was wondering the other day if any of this could be associated with the rapture and how other people perceive it and blah blah. About a year or two ago I read a few books about it (the series about it, I can't remember what they're called) - didn't finish them even though they were interesting but as far as the whole concept of what the rapture is and blah blah, I've got that down. But anywayssss it just got me thinking about how many people are associating all of this craziness with it and just how many churches all across the US (and world, for that matter) would be talking/preaching about it on Sunday and starting to freak people out about it. Not saying anything bad but just bringing up a point that this is one of those things where people just freak out and that kind of thing makes it worse. There is nothing that we can do to prevent any of this stuff going on, it's still going to happen and all we can do is just hope that it won't be as bad as thought (ex: Hawaii) and that everyone will be okay and lend a hand or two when needed.

So I've been "working" on this post for a few hours, dabbling here and there, clicked the wrong button and a new page came up and I thought I lost it all! :( But behold! I found it! Yippee! :)

But I think it's a sign to go ahead and say g'night! So, g'night! Till we meet again :)

Daaaang gina!

It's been quite some time since I've updated! SO much is new!

I just recently went back and re-read all my old entries. Some of them I sound like such a little brat - probably because I know last year was my biggest bratty phase ever ha. But it's cool to see where I was at that point and where I'm at now.

Where in the world am I at now? 1,646 miles north-east of Lubbock, TX all the way in Washington, DC attending Gallaudet University! :) I packed up my stuff, put what I was leaving there out in the barn at Grandmother's farm and shipped the rest of it here and hopped on a plane and moved here August 26, 2009! Needless to say, it's the best decision I've ever made. Getting out of Lubbock and away from everyone was exactly what I needed at that point in my life. Buuuutttttt, I do miss home, I do get homesick. I remember last semester I was talking to Jen about it (knowing that she's moved away from home as well and has been through the same) and she was giving me advice as how to "cope" with being homesick by just keeping myself busy mainly so I put a lot of my focus on my schoolwork (after all that's what I'm here for eh?) and just keeping myself busy really helps. So I got to go home for Thanksgiving and that was cool. It was really good to see everyone after being gone from home for the first time for that long. But leaving wasn't so bittersweet because I knew I was gna get to go back in 3 weeks for Christmas break for a whole month. So Christmas rolled around and I didn't get to go home on the exact day as scheduled due to a BLIZZZZZAARRRD! My first blizzard ever, SO cool! Finally got to fly home, spent the next 4 weeks there.. Kind of.. Went to Dallas, TX one weekend to see Willie Nelson and then went back to Lubbock for a few days and then flew to San Francisco with Barbara and David (well, met them there but same concept) and spent a few days there playing tourist and then flew back to Lubbock the night before I left to come back to DC so basically spent two days in an airport or airplane. Needless to say, I'm STILL a little sick of airports/airplanes. But, I've been back here for 3 weeks I guess and I'm already homesick! But I think it's really because we had the whole week off last week because TWO snowstorms passed through so it was (& still is) a little crazy around here. So that whole week off resulted in ultimate boredom for this girl which led me to think about home more which led to the homesickness but now that school has kicked back in this week, I'm not as bored so that helps :)

I had/have a lot to say but I just got tired all of a sudden so instead I'm gna close this for now.

Toodle-loo!