Just a quick rant…

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I normally try to keep my posts light, humorous, entertaining, and sometimes educational. But this is something I just need to vent about…

Today while talking to someone from one of my classes, she asked me what year I was in school. I told her I was a junior, and she replied, “But this is a class for freshmen!” So I explained to her how I was in Crane, but have since discovered that I want to change majors, and had just started my Early Childhood/Childhood Ed major during the second week of school. I went on to say that my real dream was to study Special Education and work in the field, and that I’d be transferring next year to chase that dream. And her reply was:

“Awhh, that’s so cute! And it’s a great idea, considering you’ll never get cut. It’s job security. The government will never take money away from those kids!”

THOSE KIDS?

THOSE KIDS are the ones who made my summer job feel like the complete opposite of work.

THOSE KIDS made me realize how much independence is taken for granted.

THOSE KIDS taught me what it means to be a teacher.

THOSE KIDS made me want to be a more understanding person, as well as more compassionate to those around me.

THOSE KIDS showed me that I DO have a calling, and that I DO now know how I want to spend the rest of my life.

THOSE KIDS helped me to understand why teachers say that they “learn much more from their students than they teach the students.”

JOB SECURITY is NOT why I am changing majors. 

I spent my summer learning how to deal with a broad spectrum of learning, behavioral and physical needs. I spent the summer forming bonds with my students. The special needs students in my room were no different to me than the “mainstream” students in my integrated preschool classroom.

THOSE KIDS, as young as 18 months, played together like there were no differences between any of them.

Girl from my “Principles of Education” class, I think YOU have something to learn from those kids, because my students changed my life, and it had nothing to do with their disabilities.

Lucy’s Baby Book

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Someday, you’re going to reach a point in your life when you realize that you want a puppy. They’re so cute and cuddly and small, and they even smell like babies. Everything they do is absolutely adorable, even when they poop on your carpet.

IT IS ALL A LIE. I mean, Lucy is cute. Don’t get me wrong. But having a puppy really is like having a baby. Except babies don’t have razor-sharp puppy teeth, or claws. And babies wear diapers, which means you won’t have (well, shouldn’t have) poop on your carpet.

The day we got Lucy, she was so terrified of us. She had never been around other people, and she had never walked on a leash. 

 
The first time we tried to take her out on a leash. She wasn’t having it.

Basically all she did all day was sleep. When she did wake up, I would try to pet her and she would run away and hide behind the tools that were still in our house from the construction. (for example, the chop saw, the giant ladders, etc.) I tried to coax her onto the blanket that I had spread out onto the floor for her, but she wanted nothing to do with it. She went over and fell asleep on a hammer, so finally I just left her alone. About 20 minutes later, I was in the bathroom washing dishes (because we didn’t have a kitchen sink yet at the time), and suddenly she walks in the bathroom. I stood perfectly still because I didn’t want to scare her, but then she saw me and took off running again. 

in her playpen 🙂

As of the day we got Lucy, we also still didn’t have carpet in the bedroom, so we set our bed up in the living room on the floor. We had purchased a puppy play pen for Lucy to sleep in and stay in while we were gone. I thought it was such a good idea because instead of locking her up in a cage while we were gone, she’d have a big area to sleep and play and run around in. One day, Justin and I went grocery shopping, and we were gone for about an hour. When we got home I unlocked the door, and opened the inside door, and instantly looked to Lucy’s play pen so I could see my cute little baby. And she WAS NOT IN HER CAGE. I had a moment of panic. Who broke in and stole our dog?? I turned to Justin and we shared a look of horror. I walked into the house…..and she was laying on our bed. -____- SHE PUSHED THE CAGE OVER TO THE BED AND CLIMBED OUT. I guess it was a fluke thing, though, because she hasn’t done it since.

Now that I say that, I’ll come home one day and she’ll have torn down the whole play pen and eaten my house.

Another day, I was cleaning up around the house, and then realized I hadn’t seen Lucy in a few minutes. I ran around the house, looked to make sure the doors were closed, all the while yelling her name (which she didn’t even know, but I tried anyways). THIS IS WHERE I FOUND HER. See that tiny speck of a dog head in the picture? Yes, she was sleeping BEHIND the pillows.

Watching her daddy play softball

Riding in the car

First time on the beach!

Ice cream beard at DQ

Nice face, Lucy.

Sleeping with Sam

I think my favorite Lucy story, though, is from the night of Justin’s softball party. He was on a slow-pitch team this year, and they were celebrating the end of the season with a clambake. I didn’t want to go at all. I was so exhausted. So Justin went, and I stayed home with Lucy. I was having such a great time at home. Sitting around in my PJs, I made dinner for myself and crashed on the couch watching Family Guy on Netflix (because we don’t have cable. Are you sensing a theme here?). Justin kept texting me that he wanted me to come to the party, so finally I changed into real clothes and got ready to leave. My car was parked across the road, so I had to put Lucy’s harness and leash on. I put her legs through the holes and bring it up to buckle it. It was way too tight, and I couldn’t get it to buckle. I was really confused, because two days earlier, her harness had fit just fine. I pulled and pulled, and finally got it buckled. And that’s when I realized why her harness didn’t fit. SHE BIT THE HARNESS WHILE I WAS PUTTING IT ON, AND NOW HER WHOLE LOWER JAW IS STUCK. BUCKLED RIGHT UP IN THE HARNESS. Now I have my dog running around the house, jumping around and rolling on the floor trying to get her mouth out of her harness. I finally wrestle her to the ground and get her unbuckled, and seeing that she wasn’t hurt, I buckled her back up (mouth in its proper spot), locked up the house, and crossed the road to my car. When I ride alone with Lucy, I buckle her harness to the passenger seatbelt so that when I step on the brakes, she doesn’t fly through the windshield. I opened the driver’s door and Lucy jumped in the car, so I went around to the passenger side to buckle her up. The seatbelt wouldn’t lock for some reason, so as I sat there wrestling with it, Lucy decides that it seems a good time to jump out of the car and run down the road.

I am SCREAMING at her to come back, but she just keeps running down the road. I finally catch up with her, throw her in the car, and go to the party. Which was rather uneventful, and made me wonder why I ever left the comfort of my couch to go to it. 

Lucy at 9 weeks. 14.5 pounds.

Lucy at 12 weeks. 26.5 pounds.

Even though she may be missing some brain cells (as I write this, she is whipping the clip of her leash into her own back -____-), we love her. I can’t believe she’s growing so fast. As of right now she’s 14 weeks and 35 pounds. I guess this is how parents feel when their kids grow up. Except I wish every day that Lucy would grow up and lose her baby teeth so she stops biting my skin off with her puppy teeth. 😛

 

 

Once upon a time, I forgot I had a blog…..

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8/22/12

I forgot I had a blog. :O

Yesterday, my hairdresser asked me about my sulfate-free routine, and then I remembered.

So here I am, to tell you about my recent life.

I got a new job that I absolutely love. Honestly, I found what I want to do for the rest of my life. I’m a teacher’s aide for students with developmental disabilities and it doesn’t even feel like work. I also had to get CPR certified, which required a lot of hooking up with this handsome fella.

Hey big boy.

I spent the summer with Justin. He bought a gutted house, and we made it a home. Basically, it was a shell of a house with no rooms inside, except for a deesgusting kitchen. He made a floor plan, and built all the walls. My dad came and did all the electrical work for us. I was in charge of picking the colors and appliances, and painting all the walls (the most important stuff). I also helped with drywall, tile, and installing the hardwood floor.

Kitchen/dining area before…

…aaaand after. Windows still need trim but you get the idea.

It’s almost done now, we just have to do the trim around the window and doors. You can see pictures here! We’ve been moved in for about a month and a half, though, because of our new…

The day we got her. 9 weeks old, 14.5 pounds.

PUPPY!! Her name is Lucy, and she’s a Rottweiler/Boxer mix. She’s 13 weeks old, and since we got her at 8 weeks, she has doubled in size and weighs 32.5 pounds.

She loves the beach 🙂

Lucy also loves to chew on my entire body, and she eats EVERYTHING. Honestly. She eats corn off the cob. With her teeth. And then will lick an ice cream cone. And she doesn’t chew anything. She simply turns on the vacuum that is her mouth, and the food is on the express route to her stomach. No chewing required.

She always pees when someone comes in the house. I guess it’s because she gets excited, but all I see are the 69 empty paper towel tubes in the garbage. She’ll also take full advantage of anyone that sits on the floor at her level.

EXHIBIT A:

Oh. Okay.

So that’s Lucy, in a very small nutshell.
I spent 4th of July with Justin on the beach 🙂
The 4th of July tradition at the beach is that each house on the beach makes their own giant campfire, so the whole beach is lit by a string of fires. Normally very pretty, but THIS WAS THE WINDIEST DAY OF THE WHOLE SUMMER. All night we had burning bits of fire shrapnel flying into our group, and several times everyone scattered when we were being bombarded by flames. Nobody suffered any serious burns though, so I’d call it a successful night.
After this, me and Justin went up to Oneida Lake with my family to camp for the weekend. Justin spent his time chasing turtles in the water, and we actually caught three tiny ones and a big one.
Unfortunately, we had to let them go because we had nowhere to put them during our three hour ride home. We didn’t really think it through very well.
Hmmm, what else did I do this summer…
OH YEAH. I SAW MY BESTIES.

Me, Lauren, Nicole

They came to Buffalo to see me (and Ingrid Michaelson).

They also both had Mighty Taco for the first time EVER. (How did they live, I don’t know.)

And then basically, I worked. All summer. Worked at work, worked at home on the house. I decided to change majors because music school was not how I ever imagined it. Believe me, the work was easy, but I just don’t wanna do that anymore haha. I cut all my hair off. I moved in with Justin. And most importantly, I discovered that I am actually quite a good cook. Who knew?

Stay tuned for my next post, where I tell you more stories about my slightly moronic but adorable dog.

NO POO: Day 90

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So today I’m blogging from my new iPhone 🙂 there seriously IS an app for everything haha. I just wanted to tell you all about my recent experiences with sulfate free shampoos. I love the Nature’s Gate shampoo tht I borrowed from Nicole while we were still at school. I went to Target to get some for myself, but I couldn’t find any, so instead I bought a new sulfate-free shampoo by Aveeno. And I hated it. -___- It made my hair lifeless and greasy-looking. Although my hair felt fine, it definitely wasn’t scoring too high in the beauty department 😛 However, it would be an awesome shampoo to use while transitioning from normal shampoos to a no poo lifestyle.

NO POO: Day 80

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5/10/12

SO, my dear followers, it’s day 80 for me, which translates to about two and a half months. Lately, I haven’t been completely satisfied with my NOO POO regimen, and wanted to share this with you all.

A habit of mine is to “shampoo” my hair with baking soda only before I plan on straightening it. I’ll wash, blow dry, and straighten it, and be able to leave it just as it is for about 4 days. But around the fourth day, it starts to develop a funky smell. Not a dirty smell, but almost like the smell of the baking soda. This happens even if I use essential oils. I think a quick fix for this is to spray my hair with body spray. Hair holds scents very well, so the body spray makes it smell fruity instead of salty, like baking soda.

Also I have noticed that if I leave it straight for too long, I start to get dandruff. It’s gross, and then I have to wash my head all over again. HOWEVER, it’s probably because I haven’t used tea tree oil in….over a month. Maybe I should start doing that again, haha.

I think these are two of the biggest complaints of NO POO. But just in case there’s something better out there, I’ve started doing some research. Nicole found a line of shampoos called Nature’s Gate (http://www.shopnatures-gate.com/category/hair_care) that are sulfate and PABA-free. Which, when you think about it, avoiding sulfates was the whole reason we started this endeavor. Her hair looks much better than it did with the baking soda. Also, these shampoos are good for daily use, for those of you who are still grossed out by not washing your hair everyday 😛

The shampoos and conditioners are sold at Target, and range from $7-8 a bottle. But if you’ve been doing NO POO already, you still won’t have to wash your hair every day. This shampoo has helped Nicole keep her hair cleaner longer than with just baking soda, and they also have awesome scents to choose from 🙂 

I’m stuck between the Aloe Vera moisturizing shampoo (http://www.shopnatures-gate.com/detail/TCL+41100078) and the Chamomile and Lemon Verbena shampoo (http://www.shopnatures-gate.com/detail/TCL+41200020). Both can be found under the “Dry & Damaged hair” section of the website.

I’m hesitant to try these new shampoos because I feel like I’m cheating on my usual NO POO regimen, but I think I’m going to give them a try and see if I like it better than the baking soda. 

ALSO, while I was perusing the internet for other sulfate-free shampoos, I found an interesting article called “Do You Really Need SLS-Free Shampoo?” (http://skeptoid.com/blog/2012/01/30/do-you-really-need-sls-free-shampoo/) If you don’t feel like reading it, here’s a quick summary:

Sulfates aren’t seriously harmful to humans, otherwise they wouldn’t be used so widely. They are effective at removing dirt and oil, even if they take too much oil from your scalp and hair. There are people in the world that don’t use shampoo (hey, that’s me!). 

The article was written by a bald man.

-_______________-

That’s all for today! Watch for a new post soon about my favorite beauty products and a list of 10 manicures that me and Nicole LOVE 🙂

 

NO POO: Day 73 and The Big Apple :)

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5/3/12

First off, I want to wish a very happy Birthday to two of my good friends, Ben and Dan 🙂

Second, putting in a little shout-out to my friend Danielle, because she’s an attention whore and wanted me to write about her. Love you Deekay ❤

Lastly, I just want to point out that this is a picture-filled blog post and mostly has nothing to do with hair. Since I’m pretty much settled into my NO POO routine, my blog posts are just going to start becoming normal blog posts, unless I have some astonishing new development with my hair, do an interview with someone, etc. SORRY EVERYONE! But I have nothing else to say about my hair anyways, and I’m sure some of you are wishing I’d stop talking about myself. 😛 So, on that note, here’s today’s post!

During this semester, Crane Chorus and the Crane Symphony Orchestra have been preparing for our big trip…and we just got home yesterday, so I want to tell you all about it. 🙂 We performed the Verdi Requiem, and thanks to a bunch of alumni donors, we had a visiting conductor (Dr. Ann Howard Jones, Boston University), and also got to go to NYC for 3 days AND perform in Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center…..FOR FREE. It was incredible.

We had our first performance here at Crane on Friday, April 28th. Full. House. As in, sold out. They had to put signs on the doors so people didn’t try to come in and buy tickets anyways. 

Crane Chorus and CSO at our Crane performance

After the performance, we had the weekend off (which was the first time in 5 days that we hadn’t had a rehearsal), and on Monday we boarded 5 coach buses and headed for NYC. 🙂 On Monday night and Tuesday morning, we got to go into the city, so I’ll run down our activities while we were there…WITH PICTURES!! 

First thing we did was check into our hotel, get dressed all fancy, and then get back on a bus to go into the city (we were staying in Jersey). THe bus took over an hour to drive the 17 miles -_________-

me and Nicole on the bus

But, we finally made it. Our first stop was to a store called LUSH (http://www.lushusa.com/), which is a beauty supplies store that makes all of their own products, and get this: most are organic, vegan, or a combination of both. It’s kinda pricy, but for $20 I got 3 things:

chapstick that smells like a candy bar….yes please

BOHEMIAN soap…smells like a fruity wonderland.

Seaweed face mask. Looks like shit, smells weird, makes my face feel AMAZING.

We had to walk about 15 blocks to get there, but it was so worth it. (Also found out that I have a LUSH store about 10 minutes from me and Justin’s house…SCORE.) So then, me, Nicole, and Lauren were all going to see a musical called “Avenue Q”, which is pretty much like Sesame Street for adults. HILARIOUS. We then proceeded to take picture in Times Square like tourists. In this picture, I had washed my hair the day before and blow dried it, but I didn’t straighten it until we got off the bus. I’d stay it still looks pretty fab.

Nicole, Lauren, me

We also saw someone proposing to his girl in the middle of Times Square :O Worst picture ever, but yeah. Nicole kept hitting me and screaming “TAKE A PICTURE!!!”

She said yes!

After all that excitement was over, we went to Forever 21 and bought cute clothes. Duh. Tuesday morning, we didn’t have much time to spend in the city (thanks a lot to all those #occupywallstreet assholes -_____- ) so we got up bright and early and went to Hoboken to Carlo’s Bake Shop, which yes indeed is the place where the show “Cake Boss” happens. Now I know where it is, so I can someday order my wedding cake there ;D 

Greg, me, Nicole, Lauren, Caitlyn

We then sped back to the hotel and caught a bus into the city, where we had planned a reunion with me and Greg’s good friend Brittany. After hugging in the middle of an intersection and almost getting run down by two taxis, we moved safely to the sidewalk to take a picture together.

Hey there, Greg….

We only got to spend until about 1 pm in the city, so we said our goodbyes to Brittany and got back on a bus for the hotel. We got dressed and headed to Lincoln Center to walk around a bit before dress rehearsal.

Just me posing by our poster on the streets of NYC, nbd.

The hall where we performed 🙂

In Lincoln Center 🙂

Laurennnnn….

Lauren was really excited for this ballet for some reason. Nicole wasn’t. Hahaha 😛

Here’s a quick snapshot of us performing on the stage of Avery Fisher Hall:

It was only a little bit huge in there…

Everyone says that the arts are dying, but we sold out both shows. The arts aren’t dying where I come from 😛 haha.

Anyways, it was such a fantastic experience. And now I’m back in the thrilling town of Potsdam, where nothing ever happens. But at least I have fantastic hair 😉

Be sure to keep reading Nicole’s blog, she’s making fantastic discoveries over in the world of thin, blond hair 🙂

NO POO: Day 62 and The Adventures of SpringFest

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4/22/12

Today is day 62, and since day 60 my hair has been straightened and it still feels fabulous 🙂

It’s Spring Fest here in Potsdam! There was some sort of carnival-esque thing going on in the Union yesterday, so me, Nicole, Caitlyn and Taylor all went to check it out. They had free popcorn, cotton candy, subs, smoothies, TIE DYE <33, caricatures, dog tags, and some other sht that I didn’t care about. Since Caitlyn works for the WAIH, our on-campus radio station, we got first pick on shirts for tye die and also got the best colors. We also stood in line for nearly two hours to get a henna tattoo. #nolife It was totally worth it though, because it looked awesome when I woke up this morning.

the words are from a jack's mannequin song, IF you were wondering.

Me, Nicole and Taylor's tie dye shirts 🙂 (mine's the one on the bottom that looks BITCHIN)

After all that excitement was over, we went back to the dorms, and me and Caitlyn cooked dinner for everyone. We had chicken fiesta, and tuna noodle casserole. DELISH. We also took it upon ourselves to blow up a bunch of condoms and tape them to our neighbors’ door. It was hilarious.

LOL

Overall, yesterday was just a great day.

Then, today, we encountered a common type of person at college that I like to call “Laundry Room Bitch.”

Laundry Room Bitches are people that just LOVE to mess with everyone’s laundry.

Today, me and Nicole needed to wash our tie dye shirts, so we went into the laundry room and saw that the two washers had clothes in them. So while the washers were running, we used that time to rinse our tie dye under the sink (you have to do this to get the extra dye out). When we were done, no one had come to claim the clothes in the washers, but the cycles were over, so we just took the clothes out and set them on top of their respective washers. Now, one of the washers had a load in it that was on the small side, but that happens a lot. But the other washer only had maybe 3 pieces of clothing in it!

So me and Nicole put our clothes in the two now-open washers, and then left the laundry room. When we came back to switch our laundry to the dryer, THE GIRL HAD USED BOTH DRYERS. One for her very small load of clothes, and another for her other “three pieces of clothing” load. So, annoyed, me and Nicole opened both dryers, combined her clothes, and turned the dryer back on. Then we used the empty dryer for our clothes. We also wrote the girl a note telling her that we had combined her laundry because a) she had unnecessarily small loads of clothes, and b) WE NEED A DRYER TOO.

THE NOTE

The note read…

“To Whom it may Concern,

We understand your need to wash clothes in separate loads, but drying them together does NOT make the colors run. So we took it upon ourselves to combine your loads into one, since there are a lot of other people on this floor with laundry to do. Thanks for your cooperation.

<3, Everyone on the first floor”

After we placed the note, we left the laundry room, but went back a little while later to check the laundry.

The bitch. Had opened. Our dryer. And. The. Clothes. Were still. Wet. -___________-

SO, we started the dryer again, and then went back to our room to get our computers (since apparently we were going to have to monitor the washers and dryers we were using), and when we got there, there was a guy camped out at the table with his laptop too! So we joined him, and after a little while, some girl came in and told him, “Come back to the room now.” SHE SENT HIM TO WATCH US. LOL.

Needless to say, we won the laundry battle.

SO, now that this weekend is over, we are getting into Spring Festival week at Crane! Unfortunately, this week is filled with HOURS of rehearsals, but since Nicole, Caitlyn, Lauren and I are all in Crane Chorus, the hours of rehearsals lead to a paid trip to NYC! 🙂 Crane Chorus and Crane Symphony Orchestra are performing Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, and it’s going to be phenomenal.

ANYWAYS, make sure to keep following Nicole’s blog! She’s got some new NO POO developments to share with everyone.

NO POO: Day 60

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4/20/12

Yes, I realize today is 4/20.

But I couldn’t care less, because today is the two-month anniversary of me starting no poo!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, HAIR ❤

I LOVE YOU, NO POO

clean roots, but so staticky!

So since I haven’t written in awhile, I’m going to update you on a few things I’ve tried:

  • So, Nicole’s cousin sent her a bunch of essential oils that one time, and it was really cool. And then Nicole realized they made her hair feel really greasy so she gave them to me. At first, I used 3 drops in with my baking soda. EW. No. Not ever using three drops again. So then I tried something else. After I got out of the shower, I would towel dry my hair and then take ONE drop and rub it between my hands, and then rub it in my hair. It definitely made my hair smell great, but didn’t really change the texture of my hair. Today though, I put ONE drop in with my baking soda. Then, I blow-dried and straightened my hair and WOW OMG YES. My hair looks, feels, and smells GREAT.
  • Also, as previously discussed, I am up to almost 10 days between baking soda washes. 🙂 On the odd days, I just rinse with water while scrubbing my scalp, and then rinse with lemon juice. Usually on those days I scrunch my hair with mousse, and it feels great. If I want to straighten my hair for any reason, I usually scrub with baking soda first, because then I can leave my hair straight for almost 6 days.

Well that’s all for today 🙂 Check out Nicole’s blog for her new take on NO POO.