will someone please perfect teleportation?

today, i've decided to blog about my commute to work. after stubbornly attempting to convince myself it's "not that bad", i am now admitting, yes, it is that bad. ugh! my commute! it is the worst part about my new mexican experience thus far. don't get me wrong, weekend-anticipating-readers, it's not terrible. there's no traffic, no aggressive drivers, no juiceheads in hummers. no annoyed drivers, voicing their displeasure that you're not going fast enough through their poor vehicles overused voicebox. no "very-important-businessmen" giving you their favorite finger, as they adjust their tie and check their watch (which of course gives the time in eight different time zones, to the millisecond, which is obviously whats needed if you do business in nyc, la and tokyo, scoff, scoff). can you tell andiepants holds a bit of contempt for the traffic of long island? just a bit. anyway, friends, there's none of that here in nueva mexico.  it's just longgggggg. soooo lonnggggg. 50 miles each way. fifty! 5-0! crikey. so you can see now, dear readers, why andiepants required a new vehicle.

lets also discuss the nature of my commute. i am on ONE road, friends, for about 47 miles. yep, just one. i turn left. and then about 45 minutes later, i turn left again, and then, just for novelties sake, i hang a right. then bam! at school!so i can't even be consoled that it's an interesting drive that requires careful attention to its many twists and turns. oh the agony! also, the good people of the new mexico department of transportation have decided that now is an excellent time to do construction on a 10 mile stretch right smack in the middle of my commute. the sign says that they anticipate this project to be completed in the spring of 2011. i proudly recited this information to my coworker after telling her that my commute "wasn't that bad". She chortled at me and reminded my little-easterner-soul that this, my friends, is the land of manana (that means tomorrow, english-only, friends). She looked at me with just a touch of pity and stated that she would be shocked (shocked!) if it was completed by 2015. crap!

onward with the complaining. i share my glorious stretch of road with all vehicle types. unfortunately, this includes tractor trailers. if vehicles were people, tractor trailers would be that huge, overweight, diabetes-riddled, chocolatey-fingered, horrible attitude, wedgie giving bully, lumbering around the playground just trying to mess up everyone else's day. i hate you, and your 18 wheels! all of them!


lastly (on the negative side), i have experienced two distinct extremes of drivers here in the southwest. the first, my friends, is the native southwesterner. this person has been driving in the desert for their entire lives. they know how to handle themselves and their vehicles, maneuvering their 1986 dodge lancer with no hubcaps and more rust than paint faster than a roadrunner on amphetamines. and then we have the tourists. and i don't mean to bash tourists, seeing as how i was one, not more than a month ago. but friends! they should not drive here! i see any plates other than texas or new mexico (especially if they denote a midwestern state, sorry midwest friends), oy! and i know that i will be late for work. no matter what the speed limit is, they will travel a significant amount under it, as if the evils of the desert might not get them if they go 35 in a 50. a word to those tourists who consistently make me late for work: if you go faster than 65mph rattlesnakes cannot bite you, however, once you drop down to about 40, its gets dangerous.... just sayin.


phew. i feel better. i apologize for your scalded ears, dear readers, but the rage had to go somewhere. now, in the interest of balance, i'd like to share the positives of my daily journey. since newly adopting howie (thats our new suv by the way, welcome, howie!), the commute is much nicer. andiepants gets blasted with the ac, sets howie on cruise control (i cannot WAIT for the car that drives itself while i sleep in the backseat) and listens to the ipod, while sipping (more like gulping) my liquid fuel (that'd be coffee). and the light in the morning is just amazing. i leave our apartment by about 6:45am and you can just see the rays of the sun, as it plays behind the mountain, stretching its little sun-arms, and rumbling around in its little sun-bedroom for its facewash and hair tie. you can see that its up, but it doesn't want to play yet. the mountains to the west are tinged with pink and blue and the air is crisp and cool. remember friends, that in the desert, the temperature regularly swings from low fifties in the morning to low nineties in the afternoon and then descends back toward the fifties as the sun sets, so the mornings require a nice little jacket and warm cup of coffee.

around 7:03am, the sun begins to creep over the crests of the mountains, showing its face to andiepants for the first time that day. hola, sunshine. the sun is shy at first, just barely peaking above the majestic tips, but then within five minutes or so, it gathers its confidence and shines, in all its intense, majestic glory upon the expanse of desert. this is when andiepants is thankful for visors. around 7:15am, i enter the construction zone and.... we can skip that part. its just annoying and will drag me back into negative-land. at 7:25am, i pop out of the other side of construction-ville, into the farm country directly north of a small town called tulie (not its actual name). this five mile stretch is insanely gorgeous, with gently rolling hills and fertile green carpets, blanketing extensive farms. and here, we have ralph. ralph is the elderly farmer that owns a gigantic well maintained ranch and whom i wave to every morning.

and sometimes, i am able to catch amazing rainbows such as the one above. score!

post-ralph, i reach tulie, where everyone obeys the speed limit. imagine! when the blinking school sign sternly cautions its drivers to go "20mph and ONLY 20mph", they do. and andiepants crawls through tulie with them. after tulie is the final push! only twelve more minutes through the northern section of the town i work in and into the neighborhoods where the elementary schools reside. success!


 and i do have to admit, friends, that my commute give me ample opportunity to think, which may or may not be a good thing for our favorite freckly author. sometimes when i have too much time to delve into the deep end of my brain, i get so wrapped up in metacognition (literally thinking about thinking) that i can't see the forest for the trees. however, i have been enjoying my quiet thinking time. i choose an album at the start of my journey and let it play out in its entirety as my brain sorts through its agenda for that day.

so there you have it. the first negative words i have to say (publicly) about new mexico. eventually, i might be able to reframe my thoughts and enjoy and even look forward to my commute. in the meantime, howie and i will keep on keepin on, hating tractor trailers and tourists. somebody has to counsel those children, and friends, its gonna be me.


be thankful,
andie.

to suv or not to suv? that was the question.

so. we bought an suv today. and i can hear all of my hippie friends (love you, by the way) voicing their immense dismay. selling out and purchasing a gas guzzling miniature apartment on wheels, ready to tear down the road and crush environmentally conscious drivers who choose to trot along in the honda prius, saving the world one mpg at a time. and i was that person! pulling up to someone in the bright yellow hummer h3, which gets approximately 3 mpg, and chortling snarkily to myself, hoping in that dark, murky, evil place in my soul that this person, in their quest to drive the biggest machine ever created, is unable to pay their rent because they are paying several hundred dollars in gas per week. thinking this way made me feel so much better about driving a car that has a smaller engine than most chainsaws. yes, oh readers of saturday, a-pants very regularly smirked when pulling up along side an suv and told herself that she would never get one.

until i moved to new mexico. it would have been nearly impossible for m and i to live a happy and peaceful existence in nm without having a higher clearance, bigger car that could take on these mountainous roads. firstly, for all of you who are not privy to the land of enchantment, new mexico apparently does not find it necessary to fully pave all of its roads. kind of a major oversight, dont you think? i'll work on writing a letter, i can see it now... "dear new mexico, have you considered paving your roads? that could make things better. just sayin, love andie". secondly, m (affectionately known in some circles as "mountain cagg", and he has attained that nickname for a reason), loves hiking mountains almost as much as i love cheese (and don't even get me started how much i am in love with cheese... this blog will morph into a novel in no time), and most of the roads that we need to use to get to the trailheads are unpaved "roads", with small boulders and giant gaping holes that could swallow most compact cars in a single gulp. so m and i would bump down these roads in the maxima, scraping the undercarriage against the dusty road while moderately sized rock formations gleefully punched holes in all the most vital parts of the car. oy! it was painful. add to that the fact that both of our cars are ten years old plus, and wayyyy up in there in miles, and there we were, purchasing an suv.

that being said, it's awesome! i am totally in love with my new suv, and henceforth promise to make up for my little environment-bashing road warrior. maybe i'll plant more trees, i could clean up some lakes, slash the tires of every hummer in a fifty mile radius, who knows... i'll think of something.

i also had no idea that i was engaged to one of the most skillful negotiators i have ever met. m wheeled and dealed like the true new yorker that he is. we had this great conversation in the car where he was coaching me what to say during the negotiation time. my head was spinning, my anxiety was peaking and i just kept thinking that i might mess it up. so i said nothing. the entire time. not a word. i mean, i spoke to the salesman and answered his questions, but when it came to negotiations about money, it was all m's game. and he did fabulously. very very proud. and like the true trouper that he is, he stoically said a goodbye to his trusty maxima.

we took our new friend (who remains nameless, i'll have to come up with a good name for him) up to the mountains this afternoon, did a lovely hike and then had dinner on our salesman (no, i'm serious, he told us that if we bought a car from him, he would buy us dinner.. and he did).fantastic day for a-pants and mountain cagg. just fantastic.

oh by the way! happy one month anniversary to "adventures of andie pants". yes, i have kept this literary masterpiece (ha!) up for an entire month. in honor of its one month of existence, i have decided to switch up the graphics a bit. so enjoy the new scenery. i am discovering great joy and pleasure in writing and feel a sense of peace after each entry is made. i would also like to thank those of you who take the time out of your day to read my expressive and sometimes rambling words. i truly appreciate it. and if the universe moves you, comments are always welcome.

be thankful,
andie.

apparently five year olds love bunnies.

happy friday everyone! i'm pretty pumped that its friday. its not that this week was especially hard or trying, there is just so much stuff that i want to be doing, and its hard to fit it in when i have to go to pesky work five days a week. speaking of pesky work, it's actually going really well. kiddos and andiepants seem to get along fabulously. 


i had my first individual session on tuesday. i was supposed to see this child in the afternoon, but found him screaming outside of my office in the morning instead. good morning, a-pants! you see, he had thrown his shoe into the trash. an earth shattering predicament for anyone who isnt tall enough to see the top of the trash can. to be fair, when the inside of a container isnt visitble, the trauma of losing something in said container is pretty intense. i mean, the child didn't know how deep it was, what it was filled with, or if it was even really a trash can. it could have landed in china, for all he knew. poor tiny human. and when his teacher assisted him in retrieving lonely shoe, he promptly threw it back in once again. so she left it there. i would too. and the child commenced to scream, cry, and rock the garbage back and forth in his futile attempts to tip it over. 


so here i am, planning my lesson for wednesday, when i hear "my shoe!!!!!!!!! my shoe!!!!! why!!!!" and look out my door to see a five year child throwing himself at the trash can and having a complete and utter meltdown regarding his ill placed footwear. i knew that if i just walked over and fished out the shoe for him, i would be reinforcing his antics. so we took time to calm down, step away from the abused trash can, and breathe. then the shoe was able to take its rightful place on tiny little foot. following the dramatic reunion, we went into my office and colored. and i say we, because yes, i colored as well. it was a good day. 


on wednesday, i went into the kinder through second grade classrooms to do an introductory lesson. i amended the lesson that i had prepared a week before, and included a segment where i read a book to the little dudes. however, i knew that i had to reinforce good listening behaviors before i attempted to read a book to five to seven year olds. so i scoured my counseling books, and found this adorable bunny face that had good listening skills listed on it. oh, happy day! i set about coloring him, gluing him on cardboard, attaching him to a stick, and behold, mr. bunny was born. 

i elected not to use mr. bunny with my second graders, i had a feeling they might be too cool for that. my first graders took mr. bunny in stride. it was comparable to how you might act if an attractive person of the opposite sex (or same, depending on how you roll) asks for your number. you're excited, but you don't want to seem too excited. "ok, yeah, sure, mr. bunny, pretty cool, i dig it." very cool customers, my first graders are. however, the best thing that i have experienced thus far in my school counseling career was the response i got from my kinders to mr. bunny. they lost it. they went absolutely bananas over mr. bunny. one little munchkin cried when i had to inform her that i was not able to let her bring mr. bunny home so that he could keep her other bunny company. i mean, i'm sure they'd have some nice conversation, and mr. bunny is an excellent listener, as is displayed on his little bunny face. but alas, i could not. i tried to explain to her, the best way i was able, that mr. bunny had to come with me to the other classrooms to help the other children, but this child had no sympathy for them. let them have poor listening skills! she wanted mr. bunny! another little one wanted to know why mr. bunny was on a stick, and if this was painful for him. at least we know this child has empathy. i don't think i answered that question and am wondering now as i write this to you, oh-excited-about-weekend-readers, if that was damaging to the child. hopefully the question of mr. bunny's comfort is not haunting the poor little being as he tries to enjoy his weekend. and hey, if it is, i know a pretty good counselor.... 


the last activity that i did with my miniature people was to have them color in an outline of a person and to construct it as a picture of themselves displaying a feeling (we had just read an entire book on feelings, so they had some material). i told them that this would be a good way for me to get to know them, and that they could feel free to draw themselves however they would like. the babies seemed to have a really difficult time with this. consider the following exchange as an example: 
child: "you mean, i can give myself green pants if i want to?" 
me: "yes, you can give yourself whatever kind of outfit you would like" 
child: "but what if i don't actually have green pants? can i still make them green?"
me: "if you want them to be green, go for it" 
child: "but... they're green. who has green pants?" 
and so forth.. 


suffice to say i am loving my job and am thankful i took this leap of faith into unknown territory. oh, and of course, thank you, mr. bunny. 

be thankful, 
andie. 

you can just call me "aunt andiepants"

as you may have guessed from the title, fearless-tuesday-readers, andiepants has become an aunt for the very first time. how exciting! many congratulations to my big brother danny and lovely sister in law courtney. little brendan was born at 9:02am central time, weighing in at 8lbs, 11oz.

and i have to tell you, friends, that i am freaking out a bit over here in my newly internet supplied (yes!) desert-y paradise. i'm handling the fact that i became an aunt pretty well, that's not really what is causing my somewhat bubbling hysteria. i accept and honor this new role in my life. the difficulty for me is recognizing that my danny is now, as of several hours ago.... someone's father. in the words of the profound joey lawrence, whoa!

i call him my danny because he was so influential in my life and in my upbringing. if doc brown were to pull up in the de lauriat, rewind to 1985 and omit him from my life i would be a completely different person. he and i are six years apart, and i really do believe that in his eyes, i'm still twelve. always twelve. my family has so many funny "danny and andie" stories and if you've been around my family for more than 10 minutes i'm sure you've heard some of them.
some favorites include:
-falling out of the carseat at age 1 and rolling around on the floor of the car while danny screamed "baby on the floor! baby on the floor!"
-calling my brother an a*hole at age 18 months and, after he began crying because of my unprovoked verbal rage, i began running after him, screaming "danny-yell, i'm sorry i call you a*hole!"
-waking him up in our shared bedroom at about 18 months, by standing in my crib, flicking the lights on and off, and yelling "danny-yell, uppy uppy!" 
-really and truly believing him when he told me the plop monster existed, though i later came to find out it was just him throwing rocks into the lake when i had my back turned.
-oh! and convincing me that i was adopted. thanks, dan.

danny is the reason i began listening to metallica at age 11, that i have this warped sense of humor that sometimes gets me into trouble. he is the reason i have seen the movie the goonies, and why i became addicted to the world wrestling federation at age three (if you must know, bret hart was my favorite). he is the reason that i will make back to the future references in my blog post. he is the reason i know what ska music is, why i have seen reel big fish live in concert, and why i have seen several monty python movies when most ladies in my age group think that monty python is someones pet snake.

he is also the reason for my sometimes abounding sense of confidence, because with him at my back, i felt like i could say anything i wanted. although, as you may have guessed, he was somewhat overprotective. and though there was a significant period of time where he was stationed overseas, he managed to be overprotective by proxy. for example, when i was about seventeen, and my parents went away for the weekend, i had my mind set that i was going to go out and see a boy. no parents around, no brother around, the coast was clear. unfortunately, adolescent andiepants did not account for danny's three best friends to swipe up the reigns and put miss thing on lockdown. 

but i digress. the reason for this posts existence is the arrival of a gorgeous little boy who was just introduced to the universe this morning. this beautiful little bundle of love is also lucky enough to have one of the most incredible men i have ever met for a father, and a beautiful, intelligent and caring mother. baby brendan, my wish for you, in your earliest hours of life, is to open those tiny little eyes, and see those who love you. to breathe in through that precious little nose and smell security and comfort. to open those minuscule baby hands and receive love, wafting toward you from all over the country and especially from the enormous hearts of your parents.

oh, probably-busy-and-stressed-out-readers, i invite you to take a minute of pure relaxation, and send thanks to the universe for the sweet and beautiful creation of life.

  

brendan thomas, welcome to the world.


being infinitely thankful today,
andie.

my car hates me.

Written on monday, september 20th, 2010

Andiepants had a brand new adventure today, into unchartered territory. Slightly scary, but mostly enjoyable, and aren’t those the best kind? Allow me to explain. my job requires that i travel up the mountain a half day per week, and visit a tiny mountain school, consisting of 24 children, grades kinder through five. It is a two room school house, one room for k through two and the other three to five. they have three teachers, a secretary, a principal a visiting speech path and myself, who will be there for about three hours a week. i went there for the first time this afternoon, and, forget the school, I was just stunned by the incredible drive. one has never really experienced beauty until you drive through the mountains of new mexico. good god. they don’t call this place the land of enchantment for nothing. what a beautiful example of the duality of nature. what an unexpected display of opposing forces of nature occurring simultaneously. in a matter of fifteen minutes, i went from the desert, at approximately 4300 feet, where it was about eight thousand degrees, laden with dust, sand, rocks, palms, cacti, and a sun that turns your favorite freckly author from irish lily-white, to irish flaming-red, to the majestic mountains, at almost 7000 feet, a considerable fifteen degrees cooler, and grass, trees (grass and trees!!! how i’ve missed you!!!), small woodland creatures (not the Christmas kinds, don’t worry), and a cool breeze that could make the devil want to move upstairs. the mountains here are an amazing display of the sheer variety of environment. some mountains are very oddly shaped, have very little vegetarian, they glow red from the dust and sun and prominently display their many layers. other mountains are more rounded in nature and are sprinkled with bushes, grass, small trees, etc. still others are nearly completely covered in lush green vegetation and when the light hits the slopes of the great mountains at just the right angle, you would swear that you’re looking at the largest plush green carpet, draped over the world’s biggest and lumpiest living room floor.
the road cuts right through the mountains in a gently steeped, winding fashion that requires you to pay careful attention to the road, however, recognizes that most drivers are in complete and total awe of the astounding beauty around them and provide ample places to turn out, gape at your surroundings and reconsider everything that you have ever previously called “beautiful”.
so those are the positives. however, being a fan of equality, I would feel remiss if I didn’t touch on the slight negatives of my experiences today. for all of you who are even remotely acquainted with my car, insert your laughter here, as you picture me trying to wind my way up a mountain, quickly gaining just under 3000 feet in elevation in my trusty lady, miss scarlet. those of you who are friends with miss scarlet will clearly understand how painful that must have been. for everyone who has not made miss scarlet’s acquaintance, please allow me to explain. I’ll start by saying that she really is a great gal. she is. sometimes I give her a bad rap, but she’s a good one. miss scarlet and I met in 2006, right before my big move to long island for the summer, and for what I have needed her to do in the past, she has risen to every challenge. Scarlet and I learned long island together, conquering the northern state and lie, honking at rude drivers and giving some our favorite finger. we even made one spiky haired, tight tshirt wearing, napoleon-complex-having, body waxing enthusiast, juice head so upset that he felt the need to pull over and yell at us. Fun, indeed. Scarlet has faithfully plodded along her red haired master for four and a half years, through several states including new york, new hampshire, maine, vermont, jersey, ohio, illinois, new mexico, etc.
however, as miss scarlet scores exceptional points in the reliability column, she is severely deficient in her raw power. You see, miss scarlet is a dainty girl, only being equipped with a single cam v4 engine, which is approximately the size of a typical texan’s riding lawnmower. I exaggerate, but not by much. Miss scarlet will go from zero to sixty in about twenty five minutes, and she’ll be angry about it. For a week. so again, insert your giggles here, as you visualize the extremely testy miss scarlet begrudgingly trudging her way up this godforsaken mountain. Oh she was so mad. The noises that were coming out of her made me very very nervous. I just kept apologizing to her the entire way. “I’m so sorry, I know I’m pushing you past your limits, but it’s almost over, and I promise as soon as we get home, I’ll take you out for some motor oil, any flavor you want, with sprinkles too.” She was not convinced. Suffice to say, down was much better. and I just kept reminding myself that m and I have plans to invest in a new car (with at least a v6 engine, 4 wheel drive, cruise control and snow tires, woo woo, not that I’m excited… ) within a month or so. but have no fear, oh-readers-of-monday! Miss scarlet will stay right with her favorite owner, only she will not be required to scale mountains any longer. Its true, she will be demoted to the secondary car, however, I like to think of it more as her going to a nice retirement community of sorts for elderly vehicles, in which they are only expected to drive to and from market, friends houses, and other local venues, in addition to the auto shuffleboard games and the arts and crafts, of course. I think she’ll be much happier.
the other slightly negative component of my experience this afternoon were the insidious effects of altitude sickness. oh, us easterners. we really have no idea. we live at sea level, which is beautiful, especially on li with its plentiful beaches, and in western ny with its many lakes and canals. however, after living in such an environment for nearly a quarter century, what a trial it is to adjust to now living several thousand feet up in the air. Things are completely different up here. For those of you who are familiar with the north eastern hiking scene, let me please remind you that mt Washington, the highest peak in new hampshire and I believe in that whole area, is approximately 6000 feet. I was nearly 1000 feet above that today, and was expected to counsel children. Once you ascend past about 5000 feet, it is a rough transition. It is difficult to breathe, nausea sets in, and dizziness is your constant companion. The best cure for altitude sickness? water and going back down the everloving mountain. Since I was limited in my options, I had to rely solely on the former and guzzle bottle after bottle of water. My new friends tell me that I’ll adjust soon, approximately three months for the side effects to dissipate and after six months, the chemistry in my blood will change, so that oxygen, thin as it is up here, can be stored and used more effectively. I guess this is why no one wants to play the denver bronco on their home turf. All in all, it was an eye opening afternoon, filled with new experiences and challenges. And isn’t that all we can hope for in this life? As they say, with stagnation comes decay and ultimately death. I hope to complete my transition from sea-level siren to mountain mistress with only a few spells of altitude sickness. and on the bright side, once I come back east, my ability to store and use oxygen so efficiently will enable me to feel super awesome and probably climb every peak in sight. It’s a good thing I just bought those new hiking boots…. Mountain andie is a’comin.
Until next time,
be thankful,
andie.

rlk, rlk, r-l-k!

to all of you who are of the red and blue persuasion, happy first knight! to those who have no idea what i;m talking about, allow me to explain. first knight is the introductory evening for new members of rlk, geneseo’s finest social service organization. disclaimer coming up: all remarks made henceforth concerning rlk are the opinions and experiences of the author and not  meant to be an official description or categorization of rlk in anyway.

now that that’s out of the way, yes, in technical terms, rlk is a social service organization, and not a sorority. and of course, to separate ourselves from the sororities of geneseo, we would quickly and emphatically agree. “we do hours and hours of service every semester, we give back to the community, we help people!” and yes, all of that is very true. but friends, rlk is a pretty much a sorority, albeit one that is very focused on service. whatever you want to call it, rlk was one of the best things that ever happened to me. and in honor of the day, this newly desert sun-burned author is going to take you lucky readers on a nice little journey down memory lane.

andiepants joined rlk in the fall of 2004, so tonight marks the sixth anniversary of my involvement with rlk. six years! oy. stay tuned for a lengthy diatribe in which I bemoan how old i seem to be getting. anyway, fall 04 was a great semester for our little protagonist and i have the lovely ladies of rlk to thank for a large majority of that. rlk stands apart from many other similar organizations because of the lack of hazing, which i totally dug. we did not pledge, we went to “orientation”, which consisted of sleepovers, parties, bake-offs, etc etc etc. sign me up! and we got to wear these cute little tshirts, that said our class semester and year (fall 04, if you haven’t figured that out yet) on them, i mean i thought they were cute, but most of my class hated them.

fall 04 became known as the drop out class. we were one of the only classes in rlk history to have three members leave the class. still we were a tight bunch and had a great time. its crazy to me that six years after we were welcomed into the organization, fall 04’s are sprinkled across the country. we now reside in new york, colorado, new mexico (that would be me), virgina, massachutses, etc. i could not have wanted to begin my rlk experience with any other group of girls, so hey, fall 04 fockers, wherever you all are, i miss and love you guys.

the fun had with rlk does not end with your orientation class. oh no, friends. rlk was and continues to be one of the largest organizations on campus. we took a new class every semester, which usually consisted of between 16-20 ladies, so we were pretty big. speaking of bigs, that is another thing rlk has in common with sororities, we assign “bigs” to each new member. they are supposed to help guide you through the orientation process and welcome you into the organization. so a big shout out to my big, jj, who recently got married (congrats again!).

i had a great time during fall 04 and consequently spring 05 largely because of a group of about 8 seniors and juniors who took me under their wing in a serious way. my first (and only) fake id was supplied to me by one of these women, and they taught me all kinds of things, such as how to pound a beer, which frats were cool, which bars i could successfully get into with my not-so-awesome fake id, etc etc. a huge and infinite thank you to one of these fine ladies, miss molly, who decided to sneak me into the bar one night in april 2005 and introduced me to her phikap friend, mike. i’ll be marrying him soon. so, molls, who just got a teaching job in the south (congrats!) thank you again, and we’ll see you at the wedding.

right around the same time i was introduced to my future husband ,i was also introduced to two women who would end up becoming two of my closest friends and who i continue to be very close with to this day (i was not lying when i said rlk was one of the best things that ever happened to me). b and a, you guys are amazing and i miss you every day.

no description of my years of rlk would be complete without a mention of my little. was i lucky in that department! to all who don’t know her, my little kicks ass. like serious ass. and suffice to say that we had a damn good time together in genny. drunken funtimes aside, she is one of the sweetest, caring, compassionate, intelligent and lovely ladies that i have ever met. little k,  good luck in vermont at your new job!

another cool thing about rlk is that depending on who becomes your big, you are then involved in a “family line”, which keeps growning and growing. at last count, i now have five littles in my family line, so if any of you are reading this, hola!

so i mentioned earlier in my post that rlk was very heavily focused on the service aspect of our organization… yeah…. except for me.. and a moderately sized group of my cohorts (b, i’m lookin right at you). here’s the thing, everybody, i did not look at rlk and think “finally! a group that does service! a group that wakes up at 7am on saturdays to help the elderly! where can I sign up?” um no. i looked at this organization and saw new friendships, a way to make the campus smaller, parties four to five nights a week, a way to meet cute frat boys and sports players, a fun house to live in and get really awesome at beer pong and things of that nature. so even though service was “required”, i just didn’t do it. and, if you’re wondering,  i don’t feel guilty about it. at all. nope. not a bit. and yes, I got judged and talked about for it, and man, can ladies be venomous sometimes, but I continue to be at peace with it. And though I honestly admire and respect those members who religiously did their service requirements with a smile on their faces and not a trace of complaint on their breath, friends, that just wasn’t happenin for me.

and I’ll tell you why. because when andiepants was in rlk, she was 18-21 years old. holy crap, everyone, that is quite possibly the most fun time in your life that you will ever have. at least it was for me. living in a little bubble called geneseo that was filled with books and bars, absolutely no responsibility (none!) except to rouse yourself around 11am and go to class, having someone to go to a bar or party with nearly every night. it was the best! and I’ll be damned if I left a party early so I could make sure I got enough sleep to go help out at the save the dolphins rally the next morning. No way. I mean, don’t misunderstand. I did the big things. The stuff where everyone in the organization was expected to go, but apart from that, nada.

These days, i look back at my college years and know that I had the best time I possibly could of, took advantage of every opportunity to have fun I saw, and still got grades good enough to get me into grad school. rock on, a-pants. . and I also find it a bit ironic that I shunned all types of service because I could not fit it into my truly packed party schedule, and now, I am a full time social worker. So you see, it all works out in the end.

To close, some advice to the newest little ones of rlk, the fall 2010 class:  go have fun! You will never get this time back in your life. Embrace it, take chances, stay out late, make memories. And trust that you’ll have a lifetime to do the “responsible” things, like become a social worker and spend your Friday night doing laundry (yep, that just happened to me last night, kiddos, no joke).  Enjoy your life, little dudes of fall ’10 and make sure that when you’re 24 and living in the new mexico (hah, kidding), you can look back at your time in rlk and say, that was f*cking awesome and I wouldn’t change a thing.

as always,

be thankful,

andie.

if children are our future, we are totally screwed.

Wednesday, September 15th

*since m and i stilllllll don’t have the internet (dying…. dying…..), i wrote this on a word doc at home and then loaded them onto the website at m’s office. so sorry for the confusion, but i’m having a hard time going more than a few days without writing*

today was my big day, oh-actual-saturday-but-kind-of-wednesday-readers. i went into six classrooms, grades three to five, and introduced myself and the concept of counseling to my new kiddos. i was nervous, of course. my hands were shaking and my heart was racing as i entered my first class, a third grade classroom. i set up my oversize drawing pad, on which i intended to record their profound child brain ideas, shuffled my notes (ok, side note: for all of you who know me well, you know how, well, neurotic and a bit ocd i can be, so this may not surprise you, but i made a powerpoint print out for my notes, with each topic having its own pages and my thought points following, ok, i accept and recognize that i am a bit too neurotic for comfort sometimes)

anyway, i turned and looked out onto the sea of little tiny people, took a deep breath and realized that… they were all eight years old. how in the world can i be nervous in a room full of eight year olds? these miniature people still believe in santa, the tooth fairy, still think its ok to pick their nose, still think that the opposite sex has cooties , still have a hard time forming complex sentences, etc etc  etc. so what if i mess up? i doubt most of them would even notice. at this point, i relaxed considerably and my presentation, and all five presentations thereafter, went off without a hitch. i was actually very proud of myself. i felt very comfortable presenting to the mini people. and they are hilarious! those of you who regularly work with children (hey teacher-friends!) will be well aware, but kids are super funny. some of the things that come out of their mouths are priceless.

apparently it had gotten out around school that i was the one from new york. i mean, everybody from the custodian to the principal seemed to be in awe of this fact. so it didn’t really come as a surprise when all of the small people wanted to ask me questions about new york. it got to the point where i would ask them if they had any questions and all of them would raise their hands, and then i would clarify “any questions about counseling?” and at least seventy five percent of them would put their hands down. so to be fair, i did answer some questions about new york. my favorites included:

-did you own a pet buffalo because you lived in buffalo?

-can you drown in snow?

-how tall is the statue of liberty?

-did you have friends in new york?

-does everyone have grass?

there were countless others, but those are the highlights. oh! and the butchering of my name was amazing! i was under the impression that my current last name is pretty straight forward and very pronounceable. not for the smallest residents of new mexico. i encountered every possible variation of my name. again, favorites included: ms. bright , ms. light, ms. white, and my personal favorite ms. might (will i or won’t i? i might). the world might explode when i  get married and take mike’s last name. at that point, i should probably just go by mrs. c.

for the last activity during my presentation, i asked the kiddos to fill out some information sheets so i could get to know them a bit. firstly, spelling is definitely not the tiny human’s strong point. the spelling was so funny that i took pictures of it with my cell phone and as soon as we get the all powerful internet i will post some (anonymous, of course) photos of the best misspellings i encountered. and even when the miniature beings spelled things correctly, some of their answers were fantastic. a few that made me chuckle:

question: some strengths i have….. answer: the bones in my legs (this child is very literal)

question: some strengths I have…. answer: muskles

question: my favorite song is….. answer: la bamba (this child actually came up to me and asked me, in a whisper, how to spell la bamba)

question: my favorite song is…. answer: poker face (this came from an eight year old boy)

question: my favorite food is….. answer: kanilop (at least kanilop is healthy)

and the one that takes the cake……

question: something that i am proud of is…. answer: last weekend, i caught a stripper (ok, so i am hoping that this particular child meant a striper, which is a fish, for those of you who aren’t familiar with our friends-with-gills, but hey, this is new mexico, and you never really know. maybe this child actually did catch an exotic dancer, and if so, good for him! i hear they are hard to come by in new mexico. it’s a red state after all. and, on the off chance that this child captured a lady of the night, i have a feeling i will definitely be seeing that child in my office for individual counseling)

until next time,

be thankful,

andie.

we made friends!

i never realized how integral the allmighty internet was to my existence. until i have tried to live without it for approximately 6 days. oh, what a painful blow to my self sufficient existence! i was actually looking forward to being a bit removed right at first from all types of external stimuli, a bit "unplugged" if you will, and definitely did not consider myself to be one of those people who anxiously stalks Wi-fi like the lion stalks the antelope. but i have been shown differently. i did not anticipate this, but i am now craving the internet like nothing i have ever experienced. and i thought coffee withdrawal was bad!

as you may have guessed, fiance and i are still without the internet, and i am again writing to you from his office. i mean, which is cool. but i dislike blogging in an environment where i am not entirely comfortable. i keep looking around the corner, waiting for some employee to pop out and yell at me. i cant wait to curl up in front of our computer with a glass of wine and some music and write to my little hearts content.

but until then, here we are. i hope everyone had a delightful weekend. surprisingly, i did. and yes, i was surprised that i enjoyed myself this weekend. mom and dadcagg arrived in new mexico with miss scarlett around 8am on friday and i met them and miguel up in the mountains for dinner. lovely! the altitude is screwing with my body just a bit, but i'll adjust. after that, the four of us retired to our incredible apartment and plotted where all of our belongings would live.

on saturday morning we made the trek to abq to drop them at the airport and then explored the big city and did some shopping. i am now the proud owner of very intense hiking boots. mike is so proud. another thing that i have discovered since i have been out here is that i may have to get over my intense hatred of walmart, because that is literally all that is out here. crap! and i hate walmart. like i really hate it. for a person with anxiety disorder, such as your favorite andiepants, walmart is wayyyyyyy too much stimulation. rows and racks of crap that no one actually needs, children screaming and running away from their teenage mothers, someone always paging someone else over the damn intercom. it is terrible. but again, i'll adjust.

saturday night we were invited to a bbq in the capitan mountains. so so so pretty. and there i got to bond with a girl and her mother and ask all sorts of the questions that you don't really think about at first. such as, where the hell do i go to get my hair cut? the doctor? yoga? etc etc etc. lots of thanks to them for showing us a lovely time.

that brings us to sunday. oh my least favorite day. sunday is more depressing than a flower with no petals. the gloom and doom of the work week overshadows any fun that one could attempt to have on sunday. but! we took sunday by its unruly horns and decided to have fun anyway. we set about the task of breaking in my brand new super duper boots by doing a "small, short, flat hike." what mike ended up leading me on was a trail going down a steep rock face. thank you, hunny. after i recovered from my near death experience, we went into the most beautiful mountain town and strolled, running into one of his own friends and getting invited over their house. friends! woo hoo!

now the preparation for the work week begins. ew. but i'm looking forward to taking this week and setting up our little southwestern home.

until next time,

be thankful,
andie.

bienvenidos a nueva mexico

hola! greetings, thursday-readers, from the land of enchantment. i am all moved down to new mexico and am absolutely loving it. our apartment is fantastic and there is more than enough room for all you potential visitors! so form an orderly line and reserve your date now.

i just had my second day at my brand new job and i already love it. working with children will be a very welcome change to what i have been doing for the last year and a half. i forgot how adorable elementary school is. the tiny chairs, the tiny toilets, the tiny people. adorable everywhere you look. i spent the day decorating and setting up my office and i actually have a blister from using scissors, which i can tell you has not happened to me since the second grade. the previous worker left a wealth of books, decorations, stuffed animals, etc, so i definitely had material to set up with. the hardest decision i had to make all day was where to place stuffed tiger. i was worried about putting him next to bunny. just makes me nervous. what if he gets hungry? it'd be too tempting. so he is currently residing on my new filing cabinet next to giant gorilla. i figure they could give each other a run for their money if it ever came to blows.

i'll be travelling between three elementary schools in the district and tomorrow is my first day at the second school. i am very much looking forward to setting up another new space, but the difficulty with having two offices is the question of where do i put my credentials, diploma, favorite stuff, etc? it seems silly to get duplicates printed. food for thought.

let it be known that we do not yet have internet in the apartment so i am writing at the speed of light from fiances office. so, dear readers, unfortuantely, i will not be able to make daily entries but will try and be as consistent as possible until the internet god blesses our apartment.

until then,

be thankful,
andie.

happy september

this is a bit delayed, but happy september, everyone. i absolutely love the month of september. our jewish friends were totally on the right track when they decided that september should be the start of the new year. back to school time was my favorite time in the world. and it wasn't really about the clothes. shopping for new binders, folders, pens, pencils, etc, made me so happy. the most important purchase of the new school year? the planner of course. i would spent foreverrrrr looking for the perfect planner. and once i found it, i couldnt wait to put all my favorite important dates in it, most notably my birthday.

and the change in weather in western new york during the month of september is quite possibly my favorite transition of all time. i made mention briefly in my last post about those who dread september because they view it as summers kiss of death. but i see it as a much needed and welcome break from the oppressive heat of august. that first crisp breeze renews my overheated soul in a way that i cant describe.

i had a very hard time last september, because it was the first time in twenty two years that i was not preparing to begin school. this is my second not-returning-to-school september and i am feeling much more confident and excited about it. however, i must say that there is a strong possibility that my love for september is especially strong this year because, oh the irony, i am beginning a whole new chapter of my life in this month of change.

and i am in the final leg of my journey, oh-post-labor-day-readers. i am writing to you from my cousins house in buffalo, making final preparations before i board a plane that will take me to the southwest. but before i look forward, i must take a glance backward and say a few words about the fantastic holiday weekend i just had.

my family owns two lakeside home in southern canada, which has been in the family for fifty one years, and is affectionately known as "the cottage". it has been an integral part of my upbringing and has made me the woman i am today. i spent most of the summers of my childhood running around the beach and chasing after my brother and cousins, who were quick to remind me that i was too little to play with them. i tried anyway, and often was coerced into ideas that seemed great at the time, such as kissing a live worm for twenty five cents. i learned everything i know about fishing from my amazing father, who was so patient with me, even as a threw not one, but two, entire fishing poles in the lake during my first attempts at casting, and once i had mastered the art of holding onto the pole while casting, i often aimed the pole the wrong way and accidently hooked my father in various parts of his body, including hand, leg and the funniest, hat. he and i spent countless hours on the lake in our little boat, while he taught me what types of jigs attact certain types of fish, where fish like to hang out, and that if you sing "here fishy fishy" to them before you cast, your chances of hooking one are greatly improved.

i am noticing the time, and unfortunately, i must steer this post back on track, or i will be late for my flight, but trust, dear readers, that i will write more about my amazing childhood experiences at the cottage in later posts.

anyway, every labor day we have a reunion at the cottage, where family and friends gather to catch up and spend time together before the year begins anew. the weather wreaked havoc on us all weekend, raining and windy, but we persevered and gave it our favorite finger, by setting up a little pop up, donning our winters finest, and drinking our beer on the beach anyway. take that, fifty-two-degree afternoons! though the weather was miserable, i had an amazing time and am continually reminded how incredible my family and friends really are. i am "the baby sister" to everyone, which used to annoy me, but now i recognize how lucky i am to be loved and taken care of by so many people.

i definitely do not have enough time to give an accurate representation of everything that happened over the weekend, but here are some of my favorite highlights:
-fuggles falls off the dock! and swims! and then cries like a baby for about an hour
-cousin spooning in the baby bed
-my eighty two year old grandfather asking me if i had surgery because "about half of me was missing", i'm pretty sure that was a nod to my recent weight loss, thank you papa...
-cut throat contract rummy games
-planning mike and my wedding with dave. ohhhh dear.
-reading by the fire
-four dogs and three puppies getting along
-fires on the beach at night
-canadien light before 12pm
-dinner in shifts
-twenty two people travelling by car and plane, some upwards of 19 hours, to gather together in this amazingly beautiful place, to love and connect with one another.

my plane awaits. the next post that i bring to you will be coming from the beautiful southwest. until next time,

be thankful,
andie.

goodbye andie, hello earl.

i cannot even tell you how long i have been waiting to experience a hurricane. since i made the decision to move to li i have been patiently awaiting the chance to weather some sort of hurricane. i mean, that just comes with the territory of residing on an island! to just spend a day or two lighting candles all over the house, parking myself on the couch with a good book and a glass (bottle) of wine and watching the storm. and every time a tropical storm came lumbering up the east coast i would get so excited! and mike would say "you know that its just going to rain, and its not going to be anything special, right?" and i would hope anyway, and he would aways be right.

and now, a real hurricane! wouldn't you know, thursday-readers, here comes hurricane earl, barrelling toward li. and where is andie? in buffalo/canada. oh the irony. on a more serious note, it is my sincerest hope and wish that everyone i know and love on li weathers this storm in good health and that not too much havoc is wrought during earl's rampage (and by the way, worst name ever for a hurricane. if you really need an "e" name that badly, how about edward, or eamon? earl just makes me think about lawn chairs and six packs of milwaukee beast). but that being said, dammit! i wanted a hurricane!

complaining aside, things are in full swing for our freckley little protagonist.  i arrived in buffalo this afternoon and had a great dinner with my parents and am now furiously writing before my cousin picks me up to continue our journey to the great white north. excited! but it still hasn't hit me that i have just left li for good. a big thank you to some incredible ladies who love me so much that they threw me a wine and chocolate get together before i left. i will miss you guys more than you know. and a little woot woot to work for a party as well. and of course, infinite thanks to the family-in-law. you guys are amazing.

i know compared to my previous posts, this one will seem quite abbreviated, but i wanted to make sure i got a chance to write before i lose internet and cell phone service for the next four days (gasp!). i'll find some way to pass the time, in the absence of modern technology, churning my own butter, weaving baskets, making clothes, (kidding, people).

i've heard so many people bemoan the arrival of labor day, as the "ending of summer." i urge you all to reconsider and choose to embrace your labor day weekend as a gateway into what i consider to be the most beautiful and refreshing season of them all, autumn.

enjoy.

be thankful,
andie.