Because I burn water.

Break n' Bake!

There's nothing better than munching cookies, gulping milk, and making fun of The Bachelor with my CBF* Libby.  All in all it was a great way to start the week.  I even got leftover cookies all week long!  Life is good.

RTD: Eat unhealthy food.  It's yummy.

*college best friend!

Michael Jordan can't swim.

Super Nintendo + Michael Jordan + flaming basketballs + zombies + robot spiders =

the best video game ever

I got to test out this fantastic new game I'm borrowing with some friends after church today.  And that's about all I can say about that.  Fantastic.

RTD: Kill zombies.  With basketballs.

Jimmy's boa + Miss Peachtree's poodle = ??

While some of you are writing papers and solving page-long calculus problems for homework, I get to make a book box.  Basically, it's elements from a story that you put in a box so you have concrete visuals when you tell the story:

Jimmy's Boa ate Miss Ivy's rare Yellow-Spotted Bongo plant
so Miss Ivy fainted
and hit Miss Peachtree
who dropped her poodle into the punch bowl
cauing the poodle to sneeze punch on Miss Greenleaf
whose alligator purse caught Mrs. Rosebud's wig.

Elementary education = the best major ever.

RTD: Put down your Stephen King and Nichloas Sparks and pick up a kid's book.  You'd be surprised how much good children's literature is out there.

The calm before the storm

After getting paid to color with kids, I came back to school to enjoy the campus ministries block party!

AKA Tie dye, baby.

I have the best life ever.

Anyway, it was nice to finally be able to hang out with some friends after a busy week at school.  :)

Hypothetical Situations

This is what your leg might look like if you were to hypothetically fall off your bike on your way home from work at an after-school program.


Sure, it doesn't look too bad... it's just a little cut under the right knee and some scrapes.  But hypothetically, let's say the fall was right in front of two of the kids you work with at the program.  This would probablly and hypothetically result in a pretty hurt ego.


Not that any of this actually happened or anything.  Just a hypothetical situation.


Hypothetically, what would you do in a situation like that?


Disclaimer: All characters appearing in this picture are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.


Reckless Tip of the Day: Make a fool out of yourself.


"Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century."

—Dame Edna Everage

This is what love is.

To Write Love on Her Arms is not some name for a Dashboard Confessional song.
It's not a passing fad.
It's not a catchy phrase for T-shirts.


To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide.


Today, I got to meet the man who started it the program, Jamie Tworkowski.  He and some friends met a girl who was struggling with addiction.  She tried to get help, but the rehab center wouldn't accept her unless she could stay sober for five days.  So Jamie and his friends took her in for those five days.  Later, Jamie wrote down her story and titled it "To Write Love on Her Arms."


If you don't know much about it, I encourage you to check it out.


Reckless Tip of the Day: Go out of your way to help someone.  Anyone.

10 points for the over-planner

Well, readers, you will be happy to know that I was a lot more reckless today than I was yesterday during my 10-hour coma.  Here's what happened:

I walk into the classroom where I'm interning and find out that the classroom teacher will be out for the rest of the semester.  Awesome.  I'm going to be learning how to teach from a sub.

Well, this sub, poor thing, just started today and was a little bit frazzled, as you could guess.  So I offered to teach the reading lesson for her.  That afternoon, I asked her what they were going to learn in math.  She showed me the pages and asked me if I wanted to teach again.

Thus, this SMART Board minilesson was born!  (See above.)  Basically, I made a quick math lesson up in five minutes, and taught it to the class--complete with line segment song and motions.

It was really fun.  I could get used to this whole teaching thing...

Reckless Tip of the Day: If you're an over-planner, like myself, don't be afriad to be spontaneous every once and while.

I love sleep, but this is redikalus!

8:30.

8:30?

Eight-thirty!?

What college kid goes to bed at 8:30?

This one does.

Nothing too reckless to report today... sick + tired = going to bed at a time only 8 and 80-year-olds would.

You can't rush art.

An Estimated Timeline of Procrastination and Excuses

December 8: I need to get Friend a Christmas present!
December 15: Hey, look at this cool newspaper frame I found at the Hippy Store at the mall!  Friend likes newspapers and photography.  I bet I could make her one!
December 16: Huh... we don't get the newspaper at our house...
December 17: Really?  There's not a newspaper in this entire house?
December 28: Okay, I give.  Maybe I can wait until school gets back in and use a school paper!
January 3: Alright.  I've got a frame and some glue... now for a newspaper.
January 22: Ack!  A newspaper!  The Holy Grail!  The Fountain of Youth!  The Light at the End of the Tunnel!
January 23: Yay!  I'm finished.  Better late than never!

Merry Belated Christmas, Friend.

Reckless Tip of the Day: Make someone a gift.  Even if you're not artsy.  Even if it ends up looking like crap.  It will be crap from the heart.  <3

Call me irresponsible

Jazz music,
dancing,
and the guy I love.

Being reckless is pretty dang great.


"But it's undeniably true... that I'm irresponsibly mad for you."


Reckless Tip of the Day: Don't dance like nobody's watching.
                                      Dance like everybody's watching, but you don't care.

You're tacky, and I hate you.

             Dear Tylenol Extra Strength Adult Rapid Blast Liquid,

             You are supposed to make me feel better, not replace my headache with a tummy ache so bad I go to bed at 8:30.

                                                                                     Love always,
                                                                                     amoutoujou

PS You don't even taste like cherry.

Reckless Top of the Day: Sacrifice sleep for someone you love.

Changing the world one cup of coffee at a time...

Picture this:
Couches around the room, tables covered in white paper and crayons, people mingling and chatting holding their coffee cups, live acoustic music playing, and...

pictures of human trafficking victims scrolling across the TV.

Strange atmosphere for a coffee house?

The social justice club at my school did our first Fair Trade Cafe last semester to raise awareness about slavery in the coffee industry.  We sold fair trade coffee and rose $200 for a coffee bike to send to coffee farmers in Rwanda.

It was such a hit that we decided to make it a monthly event!  Tonight we rose money for an organization called Not For Sale.  It's goal is to re-abolish slavery all over the world.

Check out their website... it's sobering.
http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/

Reckless Tip of Day: See a problem in the world?  Do something about it.

Happy Birthday, Toastmasters!

There are two things about me that make this post seem very out-of-character:
1) I hate dressing up.  With a passion.
2) I never joined a single club in high school.  Hated them.

That being said, this post is about a club I joined for which I must dress up every meeting.

But Toastmasters helped me check an item off my List-Of-Things-To-Do-Before-I-Die List:
"Give a speech."

Anyway, it was nice to be back for the first meeting of the year:
friends
laughs
speeches
and a birthday cookie cake

Reckless Tip of the Day: speak in front of a group of people about something you're passionate about.

A Love Story: Part 1

"Love patiently accepts all things.  It always trusts, always hopes, and always remains strong."
1 Corinthians 13:7

A Love Story
by amoutoujou

Once upon a time, a young woman fell in love.  No, not with a boy.  With a little country named Haiti.  She didn't really know why.  She had never been there.  She didn't know anyone from there.  It just kind of happened.

Sometimes, people just fall in love.

After about a year, she finally got the opportunity to visit Haiti.  She stayed for a week learning about their culture, their language, their people.  From the moment she returned home, she wished to go back.  So she applied for a summer internship at the mission site she had stayed at.  If she was accepted, she would be in the country she loved for three months.

The young woman waited for months and months to find out if she would be able to go that summer.  She checked her email twenty times a day.  Until finally the day she was supposed to find out came and went.  Still no email.

So she waited.

To be continued...

Reckless Tip of the Day: Love someone you don't know.

The day Disney stole my heart again.

Sometimes, when you have a really boring Saturday, it takes two whole days of social interaction for you to survivie.

This was the second day.

A group of new and old friends spent our night off to go to the theaters and see a kid's movie!  (Best movie genre, if I do say so myself... And I do.)

PS Tangled = highly recommended.

Reckless Tip of the Day: Go on a play date with a mixture of people you know and don't know.  It's a fun way to get to know new people!

My social saviors

Sometimes, after having a really boring day, you need social interaction to survivie.

This was one of those days.

Special thanks to these special friends for stealing me and taking me out for Italian and Cold Stone.

Reckless Tip of the Day: Try a weird ice cream flavor you've never had before!  If you want to be really reckless, don't try a sample first.  Just order a scoop!

Ketchup Lobster

Sometimes, no matter how reckless you are trying to live, you will have boring days.

Days that are so boring, the most exciting part of the day is finding a ketchup packet with a picture of a ketchup bottle with lobster legs on it.  (Not to be confused with crab legs...)

This was one of those days.


Reckless Tip of the Day: Boring days can be good!  Embrace a boring day every once and awhile.

Ooga Booga!

"All right, guys.  It's Fun Friday.  We're doing a special game that we only play once a year tonight.  All you have to do is do whatever Corey does.  It's like Simon Says.  He'll make you do funny things, and the kids love it."

*All new staff members are sent outside left to wonder what the heck is actually going on here.  Staff members are brought in one at a time.  I'm last.  When I walk in, all the lights are off, other new staff members are sitting cross-legged in the back with green face paint and a plastic spoon hangin from their noses.  My boss--dressed in bright floral pants, a Christmas wreath around his neck, and a yellow tie--greets me.*

"Welcome to Ooga Booga Land.  You have been chosen to be initiated into the land.  Do you accept this invitation?"

"I accept."

*I pick up a broom and proceed to copy Corey as he moves around the broom in different ways each time saying "Ooga booga!"  He has me sit down, stand up, twirl the broom, etc.  During this time, I stay very serious.  Until the final time I sit down--a wet sponge was placed on my seat.  I am offically initiated.  I recieve my ceremonial face paint and spoon and join the others.*


I love my job...

Calendar Superiority

The semester has officially begun!

How do I know?

Because Melissa's-Official-Overly-Obsessive-Compulsive Calendar with all her due dates on it is finally finished and up.

But that is not the important part of this post.

Here are the important parts:
1) My calendar is Dr. Seuss.
2) My calendar comes with stickers.

My calendar is better than yours.
The end.

Oxymoron

Today's new discovery: running in cold weather sucks.

I hate it.  Hate it.  I was freezing and sweating at the same time.  What the heck is that?

Anyway, this is a picture of my running track.  Around the lake is about 2.89 miles, and I usually can jog it in about 30 minutes.  Which isn't terrible for a rookie runner.  Today, however, I don't know if it was partly the cold weather or if I was just out of shape, but I only ran two miles and it took me 23 minutes AND I came back huffing and puffing like the Big Bad Wolf.  Lord!

My goal: 27 minute 5K

Band-aid excuses

First day back in field studies, and we all know what that means!

Horribly uncomfortable dress-up clothes.

Field studies is like an internship, but it's only once a week.  This semester I have 3rd grade!  Yay!  Except it's during FCAT season.  AKA Let's teach to a test for the entire second half of the school year.

Someday I will start my own school and we won't have textbooks or uniforms and we ABSOLUTELY won't teach to the test.  Ugh.  Someday.

Until then, I must suffer through Florida public schools and wear uncomfortable shoes.

PS Upside? I get to break out my Spiderman band-aids.  Did I really need a band-aid?  Nah... Did I take advantage of the excuse to wear one?  You better believe it.

ClassWorkChill

classclasslclassclassclassclasslclassclass

FIRST DAY OF MY NEW JOB!

Chill time.

Not a bad first day overall.

Goal for tomorrow: do something exciting, so I stop boring you all to death.

Dorm sweet dorm

New semester.
New door decks.
New adventures.

Besides the fact that I felt sick all day and still don't have a bike (long story)... the move-back-in process was not too shabby.  Thanks to a certain someone who read to me while I was feeling crappy.  :)

Geek in the Pink

Day before I go back home, and everyone knows what that means!

It's Laundry Day!  {enter Jason Mraz song here}

Nothing much to say today... I was pretty boring.

I would, however like to briefly turn your attention to my impeccable taste in footwear.

That is all.

MASH to Minatour

Today I remembered why I never play board games with my brother.

He's mean.

In other news, I got to see a friend today that I hadn't seen in quite awhile.  We caught up for awhile--you know, talked about our guys, school, life, etc.  We also watched The Brothers Grimm, which by the way is the weirdest movie ever.  Check it out.  (It's got Heath Ledger in it, so you can't really go wrong...)

That's when we brought out this game (pictured above).  Basically it's a maze that you have to move doors to get through.  My brother, whom I love ever so much, decided that he didn't care if he won or not--he just wanted to make it impossible for anyone else to win.  He spent the entire game blocking us in.

So eventually, we sent the Minatour to eat him.

When did I get to the age where slumber parties went from notes and giggling and MASH to this?

Purrfect 10 (Haha! Get it? It's a pun.)

Meet M.J.
He is a cat.
I don't like cats.
But he's growing on me...

I'm still not sure how I feel about this.

Anyway, today my dad and I finally put away all the Christmas stuff and rearranged the living room a little bit. In doing so, I found one of M. J.'s toys hiding behind the couch--AKA fuzzy yellow thing on a stick.  So tonight we were playing with him with it.

And he did a backflip.

M. J. earned a little respect from the Resident Dog Person tonight.  Congrats, cat.

I hate money.

checking accounts
loans
credit history
debit cards
cash
checks
deposit slips
tuition
Sallie Mae
budgets
paycheck
savings

Blah.

I'm bringing bartering back.  Who's with me?

Child of God

Well, here's Day 2 notes of curriculum writing for camp.

I'd like to give a big shout-out to the two people I called who gave me ideas and  let me blab on and on about my ideas. It really helped being able to talk about the process aloud.

"That is, in Christ, He chose us before the world was made so that we would be His holy people—people without blame before Him.  Because of His love, God had already decided to make us His own children through Jesus Christ."

Ephesians 1:4-5

Who are you?

"One for each happy thought." Peter Pan

So there's this book by Jerry Spinelli called Stargirl.  It's in my top three favorite books (with the Harry Potter series and Holes).  Anyway... the girl in the book is named Stargirl, and she is... well, different.  But she's fantastic.  She would be my rolemodel on how to live a truly reckless life.

Stargirl had a toy wagon in her room that she filled with pebbles when she was happy and took out pebbles when she was sad.  Seeing as I idolize this fictional character (don't judge me), I made my own Happy Wagon.  Mine is a glass cup that I decorated myself and filled it with those glass beads you put in fishtanks.

There are twenty beads in all.

Tonight, there are nineteen in the cup.  :)

Three discoveries

1) There are jeans in this world that fit me.  !!  Who knew?  They hug my waist AND aren't a foot too long.  God bless you, J. C. Penny's.

2) Jeggings.  Laugh all you want.  Jean leggings are the best invention since sliced bread (and let's face it, that was a good one).  Don't get me wrong... I'm not a leggings kind of gal.  I am ESPECIALLY against wearing leggings for pants.  That's a no-no.  But these... these are... wonderful.  Most comfortable pants I have ever worn.  And in my defense, they have real pockets and belt loops!  Come on... are they really leggings?

3) Quest For Camelot is fantastic.  Last time my boyfriend was over, we really wanted to watch it because I hadn't seen it in so long I had forgotten what it was about.  Unfortunately, we only had it on VHS and no VCR to watch it on.  So I got it on DVD for Christmas!  Score!  We got to watch it today, and let me tell you: better than I remembered.  :)

12 grapes, a toast, and a bucket of water

First: A toast to 2011!
Next: Throw a bucket of water outside to symbolize tossing out the troubles of a year past.
Last: Eat twelve grapes, one for luck in each month of the new year.

My resolution?
Be reckless, of course.