devinisagirlsname

We've got crabs.

2009-01-22T08:48:00.001-08:00

About a month or so into the school year, I had a student ask if she could bring in 2 hermit crabs to be our class pets. I told her that she could, and soon Kitty and Batman the hermit crabs (appropriately named for the painting on their shell) joined Sandy the Leopard Gecko in our class zoo. The boys in the class were excited about having a Batman hermit cram. Batman- mind you- has migrated into a new shell with a kitty cat painted on it, so he is now quite girly. The boys were not amused.

So yesterday afternoon I noticed that Batman hadn't moved in like 2 days. I picked him up, He didnt move. Poked him, he didn't respond. He just did nothing and I SWEAR to you he was staring at me. So I talked to another teacher who has a crab and she thought he might just be molting. Apparently Hermit crabs do that? So she came in to check him out. Picked him up, he didn't move. Poked him, he didn't respond. So at around 4pm on January 21, 2009, Batman was pronounced dead. I put him back in the tank, mostly because I wasn't sure what to do with him, and left for the day.

So last night, I decided that the kids might take the loss of the crab more easily if I bought a replacement. I even though about just telling them he had moved into a new shell, but then I decided that they're old enough to hear the truth, and I shouldn't lie to the kids in my class at a CHRISTIAN school. I bought 2 new ones to replace it to cushion the blow to the kids. One has a cool bump on its shell that the shell artist decided to turn into a nose, and it is painted like a pirate with an eye patch, bandana and the whole shebang. The other is in a Spiderman shell (I thought it appropriate to replace one comic book crab with another) and he is a BEAST. I'm talking SCARY big.

I get them here today and put them in the tank with Kitty and Batman's corpse. I changed the water, put in some fresh food, shifted some sand around, and all of a sudden I look over and Batman is VERY MUCH alive. He's out of his shell, not walking around or anything, but his antenna are going every which way, and he's just as perky as can be. APPARENTLY HE'S NOT DEAD?!?! So we now have FOUR class hermit crabs. F-O-U-R. Its a crab party in there. I think they could be having more fun, but they're hermits, so they kind of keep to themselves....

Dropping the ball...

2008-10-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

oops. Just realized I haven't been blogging in quite a while. Having a real job and being a grown up takes a lot of time out of your day... AND- i'm blogging for my class now- check it out! http://mskelley08.blogspot.com.

AAAHHH!!!

2008-07-09T11:06:00.000-07:00

I am SO excited. I got a call on Wednesday from the school where I subbed all last year and interviewed to teach and they offered me a position, so yay! Its a small private school at my church that I love. I can't wait! I'm not sure what grade yet, but I'm very very excited (and relieved- Job hunting was not something I was looking forward to!) So I'll be sure to keep you posted!

Now What?

2008-06-30T16:29:00.001-07:00

I have nothing to do. I have no classes to attend, no job to go to, my sister went back to school and the boyfriend is gone for a week. All of the "me" time has me thinking. There are so many things that need changing in me and all this time I've been concentrating on how bored I am, how frustrated I am. Now I wish there were more time in the day, and have realized that my frustration is keeping me from being who I need to be. I need to be more productive. I need to break myself down and build myself back up. I want to get back to the girl who was busy all the time. Back to spending all of my spare time helping whoever I can. I need to squash my bad attitude that I had tucked away for so long and not let it get in the way of growth. I need to turn EVERY negative though I have into something positive. I am so blessed and I need to start living the life of someone who recognizes that they are blessed with gratitude and thanks, instead of just being glad I am blessed. Is it going to be easy? Heck no. And I could not be more excited.

buy one get one free?

2008-05-30T23:04:00.000-07:00

I realized on Wednesday that I hadn't yet turned in my application for graduation (and the due date was Friday). I had already filled out the application and there was a copy in my file, but I never took the original to my adviser (the final step in the process). So I picked up a copy and took it to the advising office. I have about 150 credits which is not surprising after almost six years and 3 different majors. The lady asked me "is this the only degree you're applying for?" and sarcastically I answered "yes, unless you can dig through my transcript and find a minor in something." So she starts digging.... and a couple minutes later she tells me I didn't earn any minors, but I did actually complete TWO DEGREES- Communications AND Arts and Humanities. All this time I was double majoring and didn't even know it!! So now I will be graduating at the end of June with TWO degrees!! WOO HOO!!! I called my parents to tell them- My dad's response "Thats funny, because it felt like I was paying for two degrees...." oh goodness.

Anyone seen Peter Pan?

2008-04-20T21:59:00.000-07:00

Tuesday is my last REAL day of college. I have to take Spanish 2 over the summer but for some reason I don't count that. Probably because at this point its like the last 10 minutes of a yoga class where you just lay there and become one with the floor or whatever. I really am having a hard time figuring out if I'm excited or sad. I SOOOOO don't want to be a grown up, but I've had about enough of higher education for the time being....

After 6 years of college, Two schools, 3 majors, good friends, sucky roomates, suckeir roomates, about 90 trips back and forth to Tallahassee, countless pointless classes, some that have been awesome, weird professors, rude professors, and a few that I would LOVE to keep learning from forever, I will be done with College.

WHAT NOW?!?! I will have a degree in Public Communication. I know, sounds like a cop out. Totally wasn't. My brain was feeling a little dead for a while when I was majoring in "Recreation and Leisure Services Administration" (aka event coordination and planning) and Elementary Ed, but I've actually felt it growing over the last 2 years-ish. I've take classes that have required everything from research papers and essays to weekend 23 mile kayaking trips around Cumberland Island, GA and Political rallies. If you were to look at my transcript you would probably have a good laugh. As a matter of fact, I think i'll give you some of the highlights:

Race and Ethnicity in US History- Prof looked EXACTLY like Rob Thomas
Survey of Special Events- seriously? how did I get a B in this?
Outdoor Adventure Education- How to pitch a tent, cook on a campfire, etc. not kidding.
Intro to New Testament- One of my favorites by far, bc of the awesome teacher, not just the fact that i loves me some Jesus.
World Religions- see blog "My Teacher Ate His Dad"
Astronomy- NOTE: NOT ASTROLOGY LIKE I ANTICIPATED.
Rock & Roll in American Society- Crazy Russian Teacher "You like Beatles? ya?"
Environmental Issues in the Atmosphere- Can we say TREE HUGGING 101?
Education in a Multicultural Soceity- Prof had a son who was a Greek Rastafarian- her stories were awesome. "STAVROS, you're Greek. If a real rasta saw your pathetic excuse for dread locks they would smoke YOU instead of their ganga."
Music for Elementary Educators- Kid you not- most of our grade depended on our ability to play the recorder

So yea. No idea what to do with my life starting June. Will probably get a Florida Teaching Certificate and try that route if all else fails. I would LOVE to do event planning for fund raising for a non-profit or get into ad/marketing. Any ideas? Suggestions? Job Leads? Anyone wanna pay me to just hang out and watch FRIENDS dvd's all day?

Oh- and ALSO!

2008-04-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

Me and a couple of friends are starting a business that you will DEFINITELY want to check out! More on that later... :)

It's Been a While!

2008-04-04T13:40:00.001-07:00

Wow. I literally have been so busy over the last 6 months that I haven't blogged since NOVEMBER?! Hard to believe I used to be bored all the time. Lots has changed since last time I wrote, so i'll fill you in. I am WEEKS away from being done with my last full semester of college. I have to take Spanish 2 over the summer for 6 weeks and then I am D-O-N-E DONE!!

Heres where it gets incredibly ironic. I am in a class called Communication, Democracy, and Civic Engagement and am actually becoming what some might call- dare I say it...- a Political Activist. Yep. Me. Ms. I hate politics. I am one of the main organizers of the "SOS Project" at FAU. We found out there might not be summer classes offered to FAU students because of the cuts that are facing the state in all areas of the budget, including funding to the State University system. We did something about it and were wildly successful. We hosted the largest student Initiated rally in our schools history, and helped save our summer classes. More than anything else, we stirred up conversation, got students informed and interested, and offered a platform for administration, legislators, faculty, students, and the Board of Trustees to communicate openly to avoid confusion.

I am on a first name basis with Staff members from Legislators offices, some of the Legislators themselves, and members of the media. Twice a week I am organizing (with the help of my classmates....some more than others!) "Town Hall Meetings." Our first rally made the front page of the local newspaper, had hundreds of attendees, and was reported in newspapers and on news stations in the area.

We have a Blog- too (Written mostly by Yours Truly and a couple members of the class). If you want to check it out, the address is http://sosproject.blogspot.com. Pass it on to anyone you know who is a University Student in the state of Florida!

learning has made me lame.

2007-11-04T07:39:00.000-08:00

I was on my way to a concert on Thursday and I came to a disturbing realization. School has offically made my brain less fun. This past week was filled with midterms, papers, takehome tests, essays, etc. Five classes, all of them with ridiculous amounts of work, all decided to have everything due at once. I studied, wrote, crammed, and just plain guessed my booty off.

We were in the car listening to John Mayer (does his music make anyone else as calm/happy as it does me?) and there's a line in the song that says "cause when they own the information they can bend it all they want." No lie, I bust out with "what he's talking about actually happens, its a phenomenon called asymmetric information and its very serious when it comes to the media portrayal of political and news issues." HOW LAME AM I?!?! A song that I usually sing along and smile to, now i'm lecturing people about media influence on politics (and we all know how I feel about politics....)

I think i'm going to quit school. Sike! I'm so close to finishing I can TASTE IT! I guess i'll just have to have more fun to balance out the scales....

I might be in need of therapy...

2007-10-28T23:06:00.000-07:00

I recently quit playing games at bridal/baby showers. Its not because I don't like games, or because I've been to LITERALLY 932 of them. I've realized that I am entirely too competitive. Its actually quite scary. People started fearing me during gametime because I always won, and was very serious about achieving this goal. I think I might need to quit cometitive times all together after this past weekend....

I planned a party for a group of high school students from our student ministry at church who won "Game night" (a huge fun game-show type night that I also planned that took about 2 weeks and plenty of time to put together for about 200 kids). The party was a photo scavenger hunt. If you're not familiar, its where your team runs all over town taking pictures of one or all of the member completing a specific task. For example: Your whole team on a fire engine, Someone from your team riding a horse, your entire team in a fountain, in a shopping cart, in costume...you get the gist. I decided that it would be unfair for me to take out a team since I wrote the list, so I rode along with my friend David's team. WE LOST. No, I'm not kidding. We L-O-S-T lost.

Now i'm a phenomenal actress, so I was able to put on a front like I was ok with losing, but I TOTALLY wasn't. It also took A LOT of effort and persuasion to be lenient on giving credit to "creative photo submissions" (aka- cheap cheaters).

So last night we had another scavenger hunt, this one for adults. It was one of the ones where you have a list and have to bring back certian items (a live crawling spider, map from a mall that was 3o minutes away, someone in my team wearing one of my old ballet costumes, video of your team reenacting a scene from Texas Chainsaw Massacre with a real chainsaw, etc.). When I tell you that I take competition seriously, its a severe understatement. Within minutes of recieveing the list, we marked out our plan of action based on where we would find certian things that we needed. We did a fantastic job, and got so many things done, but we still came in SECOND. I know, out of like 8 teams thats pretty good, but in the words of Ricky Bobby- "IF YOU AIN'T FIRST, YOU'RE LAST." I actually threw my keys across the room when the results were announced. I KNOW! WHO DOES THAT! (SIDENOTE- it was partially joking and no one was injured) Granted the winning team totally cheated, they had one of their brothers meet up at the meeting place wearing a costume and with maps printed off the internet in hand. Still, I realize that It might be time for therapy....

An Aquatic Adventure

2007-10-16T22:15:00.000-07:00

This is the first time since I was 15 that I don't have a job because my school schedule does not allow it. I occasionally skip classes to Substitute at the school at my church (shameless plug: www.churchbytheglades.com) and spend about five days a week volunteering there with the Student Ministry and the 20-somethings ministry. I am taking five classes that are very intense. I tutor my cousin twice a week, and clean house from top to bottom every Thursday. In conclusion- even though I don't have a real job, I am not a bum.

My friend Nick and I recently realized that neither of us has anything we are obligated to do on Monday. after my classes are over at 10:50, i'm free till about 4:30. We decided that on Mondays we'll have fun dates. This past Monday, we made plans to go out to lunch and then to the new IKEA store that was opening about 15 minutes away. Long story short, IKEA doesn't actually open until Tomorrow, so we had to find an alternative plan. We decided on Petsmart, because Nick decided he wanted a pet. We spend about 15 minutes walking around looking at the various animals....everything from gerbils and hamsters (too creepy) to turtles (smell too much like turtles), and finally to the fish. We pick out a fantastic bowl, some awesome rocks for the bottom, and a really fun treasure chest decoration. Then we mosey on over to the fish wall where we find THE coolest fish ever. We decided that the species should be called fish balls because they basically looked like a bouncy ball with fins and a tail. Comfortable with the decision, we call over the fish girl who worked in that department. She wouldn't sell him a fish! She said she could not sell him that goldfish unless he purchased a 20 gallon tank. SERIOUSLY?!?!?! Thats like the size of my backseat in my car. She had a bit of a bad attitude, so we decided that it would be best to thank her for her help and find a different fish girl. We did, and this fish girl said the same thing! HOW RIDICULOUS IS THAT! Now i'm not exactly Jacques Cousteau, but I know enough about fish to know that if my sister could keep a carnival fish for NINE YEARS and I could keep fish for three years who lived in this decorative setting:

then I THINK it would be OK for a tiny little fish ball to live in a bowl that holds easily 1 1/2- 2 gallons of water. We settled on picking out a killer Beta fish that he appropriately named Killer. It was a fun day, good times had by all. Next Monday we're ACTUALLY going to IKEA. I'm excited!!!! And I'm totally going to buy Nick a fish ball and pretend that I have an imaginary 20 gallon tank at home.....

My Professor Ate His Dad...

2007-10-16T21:56:00.001-07:00

In the Spring of 2006, I took intro to world religions because FSU makes you take a cross cultural course so you are more tolerant of the cultures of others. My professor for this course, was bizzare. I'm talking this guy came from planet Crazypants of which he is most certainly the Emperor.

Example: On the 2nd day of class, he holds up a banner that is made up of different flags which represent the different major religions of the world, and then this other weird flag that has the Star of David (Jewish star) with a Yin-Yang in the middle of it. He offers extra credit to whoever can identify all of the religions represented. People call out the obvious ones like Judiasm, Muslim, Christianity, and so on. Of course no one recognizes the final symbol, because it represents "Professor-ism" (where "Professor" was really his last name, I took it out for privacy reasons) which is his own religion that he made up. he also has it tattooed on his arm, I'm talking huge. Oh- it gets weirder.

So one morning I get to my class. This guy decided today that instead of teaching us what hes supposed to be teaching us, he'd read his essays he wrote on people and why they believe what they do. They made no sense. I was totally lost, as was the rest of my class. People started to walk out. They missed ALL the fun!

He talks about how he hasn't turned on or watched a TV in 35 years- which is weird in itself. No movies, news, nothing. I mean come on, even people in jail watch TV.

Then he starts talking about this book stranger in a strange land (its evidently a well known science fiction book). For those of you (like me) who have never read this book, I'll give you the background. its the story of this guy who was born to human parents on mars and lived there till he was 21 and then moved to earth, not understanding whats going on.

So hes going on and on about how on Mars the Martians ate their loved ones when they died so they would be a part of their body forever. So then he starts talking about how that makes sense (WHAT?!), and how its the circle of life and blah blah blah.....

Then the guy goes (and here's the kicker)
"This is a very rational custom. It makes sense. That's why when my Father died and he was cremated, I ate some of his ashes so he would be a part of me forever"

I swear to you everyones jaw dropped for about 10 minutes. From that point on I don't remember anything that this guy said....I pretty much just sat there making a mental list of all of the drugs this guy must have done in his hippie days. I left class that day knowing i could never take anything he said seriously ever again- I mean come on, the dude ate his dad....

Politics, Schmolotics

2007-10-16T21:09:00.001-07:00

I'm what some would call a "professional student." I graduated high school in 2002, and have been trying to find my way out of college ever since. By the time I graduate- God willing- this coming Summer, I will have been in school for 6 years. I will have attended both FSU and FAU. I will have spent two years undeclared, and four bouncing around between majors. I will not be a doctor, CPA, layer, etc. I will have a degree in Public Communication, and will be halfway done with degrees in Education and Recreation and Leisure Services Administration.

Point of the story is, I am trying my darnedest to get the heck out of school. This leaves me taking 5 or 6 classes a semester, and adding classes i would otherwise NEVER think about taking. The class that is the inspiration behind this blog would be POS4235, AKA Media In Politics.

Now if you know me, you know that I hate politics. If you don't know me, then I feel its only fair that I fill you in. Straight up, no filler, I HATE politics. So you can imagine the amount of joy I experience when I drive to Davie every Tuesday to sit in a room for three hours and listen to debates about the declining value of the US Dollar in comparison to the Euro or Yen, and how Structured Investment Vehicles are a form of derivatives that are collaterialized debt obligations and they are successful because they spread their financial investment risk by diversifying it. Kill. Me. Now. For me, this class is an "Interdisciplinary Elective." (I love how they use the term "elective" like its something you choose to take, instead of something you're forced to take in order to graduate on time.)

Recently, my professor (who is a dead ringer for Jeff Daniels in both resemblance and voice) was talking about how sad it is that so much of the world is ignorant to the real issues due to the approach media vehicles take to covering issues such as war, politics, finance, etc.. He said that he thinks its sad that you can't turn on CSPAN or CNN or the news anymore without hearing at least a tidbit or update on Britney or Paris Hilton or who's having whose baby. Because i'm one to speak my mind, I raised my hand to defend and voice my love for channels like E! and magazines like US Weekly, and how I'd much rather stay on top of those events because they don't depress me so badly. I'd MUCH rather read about the type of flowers Eva Longoria chose for her wedding to her Baskeball hunk, or how Halle Barry's baby daddy feels about being a baby daddy. He told me to hold that thought because it comes into play with a topic he was going to discuss later. He said don't forget what you're train of thought is, and raise your hand again when I start talking about rational ignorance.

Before I go any further, let me set the stage by describing my surroundings in this class. Its all Political Science majors who looooooove to debate and talk about all the subjects that make me want to pull out my hair strand by strand just so i'll have something to do. There are two freshmen guys in my class who are what some would call brown-nosers. To be more clear, i'm not sure where they end and the professor begins. They've taken classes with him before, and think its AWESOME to reminisce on the old times when they learned crap that is completely irrelevant to our class. If anyone asks a question or makes a statement, they look at each other, shake their heads in disgust at that person's stupidity, and laugh. I'll also disclose that my professor thinks I'm hilarious because I speak my mind and don't pretend I want to be in class, but still think its important to understand what we're learning.

So an hour or so goes by and we get back to talking about "rational ignorance." He asks me to explain why I don't like politics. I told him I don't like politics because I think its depressing. Any news coverage about political issues is nothing but negative. You never hear anything positive about anything Political. Its pissed off people being pissed off at each other, and ultimately pissing each other off more and more as time goes by. I don't like to read about it, I don't like to watch it, I don't like to talk about it. Any time i've ever had a political question or a topic that I don't understand and ask someone to explain it to me, they laugh like THOSE two over there, and I think its rude. (directed to the two:) I don't know you personally. I'm not saying you're mean, and maybe you don't realize you do it, but you laugh at EVERYONE when they speak up and its just not nice. (they since have stopped- yay!) Unless I were to spend every waking hour investigating foreign policy, campaign trail techniques, currency exchange, interest rates, stocks, bonds, hedge funds, etc, there's no way that I would have enough information to discuss anything political with anyone who knows anything about politics. I don't have a passion for it, so I choose to stay away from it all together. If its something that affects me or those around me directly, then i'm all for learning about it, but if its a situation that I can do NOTHING about, such as the National Debt, or the rise of oil prices based on the decline of the value of the US Dollar, NO THANKS! Does this make me ignorant, ABSOLUTELY, but its an ignorance that I find blissful. WONDERFULLY Blissfull. I'm all for staying up on current events in People Magazine, US Weekly, AOL.com, and so on. Wall Street Journal? Not so much. Could this opinion change in the future? Who knows. For now, I'm not a fan.

His response? (with a wow-ed look on his face and a bit of a giggle) "You really thought about that for the whole hour, didn't you?" He said it was a perfect example of rational ignorance which basically indicates that if the cost of knowing certain things is not outweighed by the benefits of knowing said information, then we choose to remain ignorant. I'm a rational person, and I'm totally politically ignorant. I love it. If you don't agree, that's fine! I will love you no less. Agree to disagree. In the meantime, we've come to an agreement in my Media In Politics class. When the professor looks over and sees me making a "what the heck are you talking about" face (which I evidently do involuntarily), he breaks it down into terms that the rationally ignorant can understand. I've been thanked by a few other girls in my class. My professor gets a funny smile on his face when I raise my hand now. Its sort of like his face is saying "oh goodness, here we go." I fully intend to learn in this class. Maybe it will teach me something awesome, maybe it will teach me to look at things more objectively, or from a different perspective. In the meantime, I'll continue to spend 1-4pm on Tuesdays texting friends, daydreaming, and doodling in the margins of my notebook as I fill it with terms that make my brain hurt (and that I'm undoubtedly misspelling while taking notes!)

here goes!

2007-10-14T16:46:00.001-07:00

Recently a wonderful friend and I have become quite the blog connoisseurs. We read them, we judge them, we talk about them. More often than not I find our conversations containing the phrase "OOH! you should totally blog about that!" So, here I am. I have random, goofy stuff happen to me all the time. I'm blessed to have hilarious moments occur pretty much every single day. Why not share the joy? Why not write (type?) them down! Blog through the frustrating times! If for no other reason than to document them for myself. Friends are always asking me to tell them stories that I've told them before, and half the time its things I have completely forgotten about. Even if no one ever reads this thing, at least it will be here for ME to laugh at! Maybe I'll have some deep thoughts. Maybe something will inspire me to act like I'm some brilliant philosopher, theologian, or scholar. One thing's for sure- as long as I'm supplied with random/funny/touching/moving/frustrating/loving/deep/thoughtful moments, I'll have something to share! Here we go!