Showing posts with label middle school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label middle school. Show all posts

Thursday, September 24, 2009

I did it!

Today I found out that I made it through round 1 of Teach for America.  This means I've been invited to a phone interview which will happen early next week.  I'm so excited, but so nervous too.  I can't wait to tell them more about myself beyond what my resume says and I'm going to do everything I can to do my very best.  

In other news, school is going very well.  It's weird, but one of my favorite parts of my short week (classes only on Mondays and Wednesdays) is when I get to help the boy sitting infront of me with Statistics.  You gotta enjoy that group work and peer frustration over math.  And I absolutely LOVE watching the teacher's calculator demos via the overhead.  Yes.  I did say overhead.  You probably thought they stopped making those things when I stopped attending high school.  Thankfully, though, there are still a few of them in existence in colleges across the country that like to keep it old school.

Also, I'm having such a blast working on my thesis this semester.  I'm working on a ceramic garden of sorts right now, sculpting tree forms that have reached my personal high of 33 inches.  Mike and I will have to modify the kiln to get this plant life fired.  And since I finally got my camera battery charged the other day, I'll start posting pictures of stuff again.  And by stuff, I mean my art work!  

Now I've got to go back to my homework.  I'm working on a project for Fundamentals of Design.  The goal is to make a self-portrait that is larger than life using a small grid where each square expresses the image by way of a different pattern.  If that wording was confusing, then know that I am basically making a giant mosaic of my face.  I'll have that picture here too.

Love,
Monica

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Middle School, anyone?


I would just like to let any readers with whom I grew up know that I got to watch the Thriller music video in my family room with Mr. Lillard (yes, everyone's favorite 7th grade science teacher).  And, yes, his level of cool has officially been raised to an even higher level of cool on my cool-o-meter (if it could get any higher than it already is).

He came by to visit my brother, Nicholas, because they are good buddies and because tomorrow Nick goes off to the United States Naval Academy for good (I won't get to see him until Thanksgiving).  Here's a fierce picture below of him running, which he will be doing a lot of at the academy once the season starts:
 


Now it's off to the post office and coffee shop/bakery with my mom.  Maybe later she'll take me to feed those lovely LaMancha goats I have dreams about.  Until next time...

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Hello Kitty Thief


On Friday, Jean, Jordan, Elisabeth and I went to Carrboro to eat dinner.  We went to Elmo's Diner and had everything from salmon cakes to pecan pancakes.  It was very delicious, but something happened that will bother me forever...

Before we went to dinner, we browsed a comic shop.  I did more than just browse, however.  I bought a hello kitty cellphone charm.  It was one that Elisabeth had lost long ago, and since she didn't want it, I got it to remind me of her whenever I saw it.  I also bought some kiwi gummies.  Our friend, Andy, had tried to buy this variety of gummy candy in the kiwi flavor the night prior, and since he wasn't with us, we decided it was a good idea to surprise him with the kiwi gummies.  So, comic book shop purchase: hello kitty phone charm and kiwi gummies.  Remember that.

I distinctly remember going into the booth at Elmo's Diner with the comic book shop bag containing my purchases.  I also remember putting it on the right side of my body, resting it on the booth.  When I had finished my meal, I told everyone that I was going to the bathroom to wash up (then I used both of my hands to mimic the act of washing one's hands).  Telling them that I would meet up with them outside, I left (without my bag of stuff).

Then, as we were singing songs from camp on the streets of Carrboro (I was using both of my hands wildly to carry out the motions in "boddidly man" and "the moose from canada" song), I suddenly remembered that I left something at Elmo's!  We ran back (it was annoyingly close but far away) and I talked to the host.  I told him "Hi, I ate there and left a paper bag filled with a hello kitty phone charm and some japanese kiwi gummies that are just deee-vine.  Could you check your lost and found?"  The guy looked peeved, but I saw him go over to the booth and look under it and then talk to a few people.  While he was gone, a hostess came by and asked me if I needed help.  Since I figured it could only help things, I told her the entire story too.  She was sad for me and looked more thoroughly than the host had and at the end when she couldn't find it, offered to have me write down my name and phone number incase she found it later that night.  I gave her my email address too.

After all that, I felt good.  I had asked them to look for it, but I also ended up looking for it too (I went over to the booth myself and also checked the bathroom).  The case had gone seemingly cold until I remembered that I didn't have my cell phone with me.  We went back a third time to give Elmo's Diner Elisabeth's number.  However, we didn't get to talk to the nice hostess, we had to talk to the evil host man.  I knew something was fishy the moment he took down Elisabeth's number; he illegibly scribbled it down at the bottom of the reservations list (he might as well have drawn a hand puppet on himself).  When we got outside I theorized that due to his quiet demeanor and blatant unwillingness to be friendly and helpful like his hostess counterpart, that he was the hello kitty thief.  What was even more suspicious was that Elisabeth never got a call from them on her phone and that when I got back to the cabin, I had a message from the hostess on my phone.  It's elementary my dear Watson:  the host did not give the number to the hostess like we asked him to and for this he is the number one suspect in the Hello Kitty murder!

Now to end this entry with a happier, funnier story.  Saturday night, Andy, Elisabeth and I went to the movies (I will not tell you which movie we saw for fear of embarrassment).  The movie was at 9:45 pm and we decided to enter Subway at 9:43 pm.  Andy assured us that we would be able to bring the subs into the movies because he had done it all the time.  So, when we got into the movie theatre, approaching the ticket booth with our tickets and our subs, slightly hidden behind our thighs, a man shouted across the room "SORRY YOU CANNOT BRING FOREIGN FOODS INTO THE MOVIE!"  This teenage boy, rather, was acting very odd and Andy pointed out that it was because his manager was standing right there.  

Okay.  So that was fine.  I didn't really expect to get in with a footlong by my side.  I did, however, ask the manager if he could hold them for us, instead of confiscating them with no promise of return.  For a split second I felt like I was in middle school again.  But the manager was nice enough to save them for us and he even put my soda in the fridge.  

Now I have to go learn some more sign language.  My second camper comes today.  He is nonverbal and I need to brush up on my nonverbal skills.

Love,
Monica

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Okay, I lied.

I acknowledge the fact that it has been less than 24 hrs since my last post and here I am, again, posting.  But, in my defense, I am sitting in the lounge talking with my new friends!  Anyway, I just wanted to tell everyone that I am having an awesome Saturday.  We spent the majority of today at the lake on the beach.  I tore up the volleyball sand court with some pretty rusty moves I remembered from middle school gym classes and covered my feet in sand (I also cut my knee while diving for a ball).  Then I got a little sunburnt while I waited in line for tubing.  Other, more coordinated folk went wake-boarding (I was too scared to try it out).  

Tonight, the entire Camp Royall team is going out for a night in Chapel Hill.  We'll be dining someplace tasty after which we will be set loose to roam the city and do as we please.  Some people might go to a movie.  I haven't decided what I'll do yet, but I'm excited.

Love,
Monica

P.S.  Just incase you guys were wondering why my job sounds more like a vacation than an actual job...it's because we are plunging into hardcore training starting tomorrow.  Our campers will, then, come the week after.  Hopefully I'll be ready for them.