Joseph Conrad Quote

So I'm sort of copying Pete by posting one of my favorite passages.

"The artist appeals to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives; to our sense of pity, and beauty and pain...and to the subtle but invincible conviction of solidarity that knits together the lonliness of innumberable hearts, to the solidarity in dreams, in joy, in sorrow, in aspirations, in illusions, in hope, in fear which binds men to each other, which binds together all humanity--the dead to the living and the living to the unborn."

-Conrad

Interesting sidenote--Joseph Conrad was Polish, and although he was perfectly fluent in English when writing, he had a hard time speaking it--His accent was so bad that most native English speakers couldn't understand a word he said. I learned that in my phonetics class--she used him as an example of how some people have a "knack" for assimilating language in the spoken form, while others (like Conrad) are unable when speaking to shed the phological rules that govern their own language. Here I am a former British Literature teacher and I never knew that.

I friggin' LOVE fall

Of all the seasons, I have to say fall/autumn wins in my book hands down. I was just outside walking to get my laundry (I should have been out hiking on a beautiful day like today, but alas, to and from the laundry room was about the extent of it), and it feels like fall, it smells like fall, which in turn has the power to put me in a good mood. <--esp relevant to Jeff who has to put up with my moody tendencies. Anyhow, here is a non-comprehensive list of things I like:

NATURAL ASPECTS
-the light--i know that sounds wierd, but we're at a different spot relative to the sun in fall, and it makes the light in the sky sort of more white-colored or golden. Kind of like morning light but you get it during the day.
-the relatively dry, cool air
-the colors -even though So. Cal. is no Maine in terms of leaves, I still have to put this on the list
-sometimes it gets windy in the fall-i enjoy wind.
-associated Holidays:
HALLOWEEN-which has its own subcategories
-my all-time favorite Holiday, stemming largely from the fact that I used to have awesome Halloween-themed birthday parties as a kid, featuring haunted houses in the garage(Melanie used to play the vampire bride that would come to life when you walked past) and bean-bag tosses through a giant wooden Jack-o-lantern. Also, there was always this kick-ass carnival at my school.
-little kids dressed up are really cute
-it's healthy to celebrate scary stuff sometimes
-candy-although I don't generally do this part of it anymore
-eating roasted pumpkin seeds
-Halloween movies
-Halloween parties
-pumpkin patches and festivals
-all related items of home-decor
-p.s.-Jeff and I are planning to throw our first annual Halloween extravaganza NEXT year after we have our new place and you're all officially invited.

OKTOBERFEST-no explanation necessary, although this only reminds me that there won't be one at the Crown this year. Boo-Hiss.

THANKSGIVING
-I'd really like to say that this holiday is all about being thankful, but it really just boils down to the food, especially the pumpkin pie.
-all related items of home decor. I'm turning into a nerdy homemaker. I guess that's better than a homewrecker.

CLOTHES
-I finally get to start breaking out my long sleeve clothes and sweaters, which I find much more comfortable than my summer wardrobe, and provides me with much more versatility.

Okay, well I think that's about it. dammit, now i'm craving pumpkin pie.

Go eat a bag of royal F!

You have to read to the end of the post to understand the title....

So Northridge campus has these trees that give off a STINK. My friend Erin who used to go there warned me about them and I experienced the stink for the first time today. I think it was pronounced because of the rain. It also has some very aggressive squirrels. There was one charging towards me today when it saw that I had almonds. If I hadn't opened my umbrella in its general direction I'm sure it would have mauled me. okay, maybe that's a bit strong, but I DID hear of someone being attacked by a squirrel on campus last year. no joke. my FOUNETIKS class is pretty cool...too bad this computer doesn't have the phonetic alhpabet on it or I would write out some stuff. But then that would make me an even bigger nerd. I feel like I don't blog that much because I have nothing going on right now except school, no great stories to tell about drunken episodes or swashbuckling adventures. Although it sounds like my job might be more of an adventure than I anticipated. I think I am going to be put on this case out in Woodland Hills (five days a week for about 3 hours) with a THREE year old that has some kind of "challenging behavior" that I'm a little unclear on. Driving 35 miles ot work every day isn't THAT bad, is it? I would be freaking out about gas but it seems they reimburse for mileage. I have to say though that I'm not crazy about putting so much mileage on my car so quickly. I guess I shouldn't really complain, after my five mile commute to South Pas for two years. As long as my car doesn't punk out on me in the "dead zone"--the hilly region on the 210 just before the 118 freeway.

So to pass my time on the way to school in the mornings I frequently listen to Kevin and Bean, (is that how you spell bean?), and they had Loqueesha(<--I decided to go with phonetics) on, and it was so funny. They were talking about some dumb reality show, I don't even know what it was. But they kept playing this clip of one of the characters saying "Amarosa, go eat a bag of Royal F." I thought that was the funniest insult..and so did Loqueesah/Ralph. I'm not really sure what it means but I think I'll start using it. Go eat a bag of Royal F, sucka bitch!!!

Cheers....

i got a job!

so i was pretty excited yesterday because i finally found a job. well, the paperwork still has to go through so maybe i shouldn't count the chickens before they're hatched, but i'm not anticipating any problems. originally i had resigned myself to working lots of evenings and weekends at a tutoring center, but i was able to find a job through this place called total education solutions.

They basically place me as an aide to a special ed student who needs someone to help him/her with communication skills and behavior modification, and i am like their "shadow" throughout the school day, helping them in either special ed or mainstream classrooms. I guess a lot of their clients are autistic or developmentally delayed and need a certain number of hours of one-one one attention according to their individualized education plan. It's probably going to be pretty challenging since I don't have much experience in this area, but they provide me with training and initial supervision. The cool part is they work around my school schedule and and it pays pretty good, and they reimburse me for mileage, and since it's schools it means no evenings or weekends. The other cool part is that they also have a separate speech and language program that they said they could transition me into once I have more speech pathology units under my belt, where I would get to work with other speech language pathologists and work with kids on speech and language development. It almost sounds too good to be true, and I'm starting to get nervous. But I'm mostly excited.

I had celebratory fish and chips with beer last night, and a disgusting drink at starbucks called the pumpkin spice latte. avoid it like the plague. hmmm, what else. nothin. hang tough....

sign language is kind of cool

so i am in this aural rehab class right now, and part of the class (about 14 people) is hearing and the rest of the class is deaf(about 45 people). it's a huge class and at first i thought i wasn't going to like it because the professor is big on collaborative group projects and such, but it's actually turning out to be pretty cool. On Monday there was a panel of parents, some deaf, some hearing, who had all raised deaf children. And they all had different approaches-some used signing with no amplification devices, some ASL with hearing aids, and some had used cochelar implants. It was this really cool candid discussion talking about the issues. And I always thought all deaf peeople were totally anti-cochlear implant, but one set of congenitally deaf parents said that "we're not anti-cochelar implant; we're pro-personal choice." A lot of them had stories about how audiologists would treat them like they were dumb, and even tried to make decisions without their permission, or wouldn't discuss test results with them. It was really interesting and eye-opening. Anyways, we learned how to say hi, how are you, fine, thank you, you're welcome, and nice to meet you in American Sign Language, with the deaf students in the class showing us how. It kind of broke down a silent barrier that was there before.

On Monday I was outside one of the classrooms studying when one of the deaf guys from my class recognized me and came up and said "hi, how are you" in sign. I was able to recognize the signs so I responded with the "fine," sign. But then I guess he thought I could speak it because he started signing to me all this stuff, and i managed to stammer "uh, i don't, up i don't know," and probably seemed like a total dolt. So he switched to verbal and was able to read my lips. I thought it was really cool he came up to talk to me but I was incredibly nervous the whole time, because I felt like I should be enunciating my words or something, and didn't know how well he could really hear me, and he was kind of hard to understand, and then I kept sort of looking in different directions when i talked and that makes it harder to lip read. So I kind of wish I knew sign language. It's really cool to watch. we have two professors-one who speaks and one who signs. when the signing one teaches, we have to read a translation on a screen behind her, and when the speaking one teaches, the deaf students read the screen. I guess it's actually pretty hard to sign and speak what you're signing because the grammar and syntax between english and ASL is so different. It's wierd though, because the room is SO quiet, and then whenever anybody accidently drop a book or make a loud noise, only about half the class turns their head.

the worst best man speech ever

So we went to a wedding for one of my old college roomates on Sunday night (robyn and robert). It was at Middle Ranch Lodge in Tujunga--over 200 people, pretty expensive looking wedding, and overall a very nice place. There was the usualy father daughter dance, the first dance, all that stuff. Then came the best man speech. And man what a terrible speech it was. I felt like I was in a movie or something. It went something like this:

"So when I moved from Texas and met robert(the groom) I was looking for a drinking buddy. and seeing has how robert is irish and i'm texan, that worked out pretty well."

(so far so good right? just you wait. keep in mind he is speaking to a pretty classy crowd)

"So when robert and i hang out we usually like to drive around town and look for the biggest pack of miller lite we can find for under $10. Then we drink all of it, and then we usually drive to vegas. Speaking of vegas, i didn't know it was possible to get cut off in vegas, but apparently it happens, because one time the bartender said to robert, 'Sir, you've had enough.'"

(If you can believe it, it gets worse.)

"So one day Robert met Robyn. We were at a pretty big party and you know, everybody had had a lot to drink. So I look over and there's Robert cuddling up with Robyn on the couch. Now, in the six years I'd known Robert, I'd NEVER known him to have a girlfriend or date. So I was pretty surprised. But here we are, and now they're getting married."


So that was basically the jist of it. It was like that scene in Wedding Singer where the angry drunk brother gets up on stage to give the toast. Everybody was just sort of sitting there quietly and glancing at eachother in shock. I'm not exaggerating--that speech is pretty much verbatim. Maybe Jeff can remember some other details. Luckily, the maid of honor gave a very nice speech that made up for the atrocious one, and the bride and groom didn't seem upset or anything. but COME ON....

i may have had some wine

so i have had a few glasses of wine and i'm waiting for jeff to arrive right now so i decided to kill time by writing on my blog. i probably should avoid writing anything publishible while i am slighlty intoxicate d but too bad. i ahve decided to share with you a recipe for a delicious drink that i recently saw on the food network. it is actually called "emeril's feel good tea."

three slices of a lemon
one cubic inch of roughly cut ginger root
a generous heaping of honey
a generous heaping of brandy or cognac
two teabags
boiling water

combine all ingredients and let steep for 3-5 minutes. it will have you feeling better in no time. i had some after a long day at school on monday...

did i tell you i am taking a class that is half in sign language? and that i learned the sign for "sorry" after colliding with a deaf guy in class, and he had to sign it to me like 5 times before i figured out what he was saying, and i felt stupid. it involves making a fist on your chest and rubbing it in a circle. anyways, i'm starting to ramble. time for some more vino...dammit, i really shouldn't be drinking since im taking the gre tomorrow. have i mentioned that i freakin suck at math? if jeremiah's company produces lampshades at 4/7 the rate of bertha's company, and bertha's company produces 489 lampshades every 36 minutes, what percent faster is jeremiah's company's production if he produces 6000 lampshades in 2.7 hours? those are some of the questions they ask. how the hell should i know? and moreover, i don't care. i took a practice test today and did okay on verbal, and then basically bombed the math...but there's not much i can do at this point, is there? sometimes i think going to the test slightly buzzed would significanly up my scores--like with bowling! alright, now it's really time to go...

hang tough