ISO VSWFM

Netflix has created a category of movies for me based on my preferences: Visually-striking Witty Foreign Movies.

I think this also describes my taste in men.

Hahahahahhaaaaa.

:)

Super excited about this

"I'm so cute and put together!" --the west wall of my bedroom.

To Seventh Graders

Dear Seventh Graders,

You can take away my dignity.

But you can't take away my ravioli al burro fuso or my new luxury item, a rotary Parmesan cheese grater that I've been wanting for years and finally spent the $12 on.

HA!

--Ms. N

Some people have it all...

I don't know if I ever told you how awesome Allie is (she's my roommate from last year). She was my closest friend in Miami. Our creative-type personalities went well together. We got along beautifully and laughed and bemoaned our situation every evening in our living room and on weekend trips to the mall or new restaurants. We had a similar experience last year, both teaching 7th grade science in schools with a similar climate. Well let me tell you about her sweet life.

Since our first year ended, she
-had a beautiful wedding
-married an awesome, smart, interesting, supportive guy
-lived in Rome for the summer
-moved to an awesome Chicago apartment
-transferred to TforA Chicago
-got a job COTEACHING sweet sweet FIRST graders, at a CHARTER school, teaching LITERACY.
-oh, and she just got chosen to be on Oprah. No, not as an audience member. Her classroom is going to be featured on Oprah. She's going to be famous, and you know they're going to buy her something good.

Yeah, her life's nice.

I hope my day for wonderful things is soon to come. It's been one day of the new school year and I am already SO TIRED and concerned for my physical, social, and emotional wellbeing. 179 school days left to go.

A poem by an underachieving perfectionist

In my folly
I hold on to the best of me
waiting for something better
[or maybe just something else]
forgetting
that in giving
you receive

sliced updates. sliced like cheese.

1. There are few things more disappointing than going to the grocery store with a craving for grilled cheese and tomato soup, buying your supplies, and the next day finding a fridge devoid of sliced Gouda. I definitely had it in my hand. What happened?

2. Advice: when walking up an incline during a tropical rainstorm, remove your flip flops. :)

3. I am moving in with my fellow TFAer/grad school classmate. I wanted a big change from living in that neighborhood, but I was reassured when she got excited about Law&Order:SVU. She is very talented and hardworking and I think she'll be a great mentor-roommate for me. She's from Brooklyn and is entering her fourth year of teaching middle school math. The building has a pool and a fitness center, so hopefully I can squeeze in some time to pay more attention to my health.  (Just today I found out about an LDS person who is looking for a roommate in the neighborhood where I wanted to live. I hope it wasn't meant to be rather than something I should maneuver.)

4. I REALLY like this week's grad school class on personal, organizational, and community well-being. A report on some of its content will follow soon. The professor is engaging, I'm enjoying my fellow corps members more than ever, and I made a friend who looks a lot like this guy. It's his first visit to the US and appreciates that I speak his native language of Italian. So much so that he told me I am going to be his best friend.

5. Why haven't they approved my "I'm a Mormon" profile yet?

6 I stare at this (if you're at all surprised by this, you don't know me. :) ) and this for about seven hours a day. I'm centering my decor around the orange atlas, but can't talk myself into spending that much for a duvet cover. I have decided it's time to act like a real grownup and actually decorate my apartment. Like with a color scheme. And maybe a nightstand.

I don't know where to live!!!

Finding somewhere to live shouldn't be this hard. I feel kind of disappointed with the two solid options I have right now.

Apartment options are boxed with blue.

• A TFA / grad school classmate I really respect has a room available in a nice building with a gym, a pool, and possibly a bay view. It is so far out of the way of my daily route but I wouldn't need to change wards. $700 + utilities so up to $800. (Mind you, last year I paid $525 + utilities.)
• The studio is in a nice building but on the first floor and, of course, kinda small. $675 + electric/internet so $750? I just don't know whether living alone is a good idea for me.
• I am in touch with two UM students I don't know who want to share a 3 bedroom for $1400. One is Chinese so she is probably well behaved and could help me learn the language. The price is awesome. I haven't seen the place though and I only heard from her once today.

My job I go to 5 times a week. I go to UM for grad school and dance lessons 3 times a week, and Chinese class will be on Saturdays. So it seems it would be better to live farther south, and the neighborhoods are more interesting down south.

The other YSA branch, which I would attend if I lived south of my job, is far but I don't go there as often. Changing wards is hard but I'm not inseparable with anyone there so it wouldn't be that bad. Right?

meet a Mormon

I just made a profile on the new mormon.org. If you want to see it (pending review), click the box just under my blog title that says "we know God loves us...." I have realized that it is a lot more serious than others. I don't know whether I will do something about that. Maybe that's my kind of sincerity. Maybe it will reach someone.