Miscellaneous Musings

So it's Monday night and I'm sitting in my living room, surrounded by the coziness that our half-lit Christmas lights, a glass of red wine and the lull of the tumbling dryer provide.

It's 10:47 and there is nowhere else I'd rather be. With a neglected textbook by my side, I sip my wine only to be interrupted by random spurts of side-splitting laughter.

Allow me to give you a glimpse into my simplistically humorous day.

Twenty minutes before I had to leave for class, the fire alarm went off in my building and I impressively threw my makeup in my back pack and rushed out the door almost completely ready to begin my day.  I'm happy I haphazardly gathered my belongings in a rush out the door because we were assured by half-asleep young man in flannel pajamas that this was "Not a drill. I repeat, not.A.Drill." (Everything was fine.)

Then I got in the car and spilled an eighth of the contents of my water bottle on my lap, leaving me with an uncomfortably cold sensation on an already brisk morning, and an unfortunate shading on the inseam of my pants suggesting I didn't make it to the restroom.

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My day got better at the CYC thanks to entertaining conversations with my babies.

The Blonde Brigade: "Ms. Alensis come look at the bridge we built!"

Me: Wow boys, that must have taken you a long time! I love your sand structure!

Blondie 1: Yeah we worked really a lot.

Blondie 2: Too bad it's going to be destroyed by hot lava any minute now.

Me: Oh no, hot lava? Where does it come from?

Blondie 3: Volcanoes.

Blondie 1: My mom told me where volcanoes come from. They come from amusement parks. You know the kind with dinosaurs. WATCH OUT THE HOT LAVA IS GOING TO EXPLODE RUN RUN RUN

... end of conversation.

Words of advice: hide-and-seek is less fun when you are always the counter, and when those who you are seeking only hide in one of two chosen hiding spots, for twenty-five minutes straight. There are only so many times I can count to 10 and pretend to search the playground before Ms. Alensis loses her mind, kids.

Then I played the politically-correct version of the game formally known as Hangman, Build-a-Man, four times in a row with a four year old who only knows how to spell "Horse."  

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I baked spaghetti squash for an hour and it wasn't completely worth the wait.  Good thing I ate one slice of savory pumpkin bread and one slice of delicious banana bread in the mean time.

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My roommates are fabulous.

On Google and their work site amenities: 

"Don't they have goats that cut their grass?" - Anonymous Roomie 

On doing tax homework:

"I don't understand why I have to do this.  There are minions that can crunch numbers while I'm sleeping so I can do the things that really matter when I wake up." - Anonymous Roomie 2

Good idea... write that in your application to Grad school.

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Happy work-week!

Fall Back

Ah, the first Sunday of November. 

Reverting back to standard time, giving us an extra hour of sleep.

I woke up at 8:30 because it felt like 9:30, which is fine, because now I have an extra hour to cross things off my endless to-do list.

The down side? Even less daylight.

Daylight Savings Time is officially over. 

I'm not exactly sure what the opposite of Daylight Saving is, are we Daylight Spending? Daylight Depleting?Moonlight Saving? 

Either way I can say good-bye to the distant hint of an emerging sun on my drive to school. Goodbye to sunlight on my walk home from work. 

At least today I am rested.

Another Boring Post

All creativity that once occupied my mind has been replaced with stress and academic exhaustion.  For this my first semester of senior year is to blame, with notable contributions from my natural habit to stretch myself too thin. 

So, I'm sorry I haven't had anything terribly clever or sentimental or even remotely important to say for the past, I don't know, three months?  

Thursday night at 7:00pm when my last fitness class ended, my weekend began.  Fridays are typically dedicated to working all day at the CYC when I don't have a) student teaching b) randomly scheduled classes or c) a road trip to NJ. 

With no reason to drive the 3.5 hours home (C's game was away in East Jabib this week), no classes, and a closed CYC, I had a Friday off.  Before you let yourself get too excited, however, let me remind you how incredibly busy I have been since the moment I moved back to College Park. Instead of "laying around eating and watching TV in my underwear" like my boyfriend so supportively suggested I do, I spent all day trying to be productive in the realm of academics. 

First of all, I woke up early (which was fine considering I went to bed before 11 the night before) to do the Body Pump challenge with some group-fit cronies. For those of you unfamiliar with the Les Mills Challenge - just know it's an hour of non-stop heavy weight lifting that leaves your pores dripping with sweat and accomplishment.  

After two hours of being at the gym it was time go home, make lunch, do a load of laundry and begin my endless amount of school work. I sat down at the edge of my bed to take my sneakers off one minute, and, much to my dismay, woke up 50 minutes later, drooling, confused, and still donning sneakers.    

Damn you, Body Pump and your unwillingness to cooperate with plans of academic productivity.  

Six hours, one grande skinny mocha, endless Facebook interruptions and a dinner medley of squash, zucchini and sweet potato later, I completed one long assignment.  

I decided that one assignment was enough for today, because hey, I still have Saturday and Sunday to procrastinate further, right? Right. 

So now I lay in bed enjoying the ambiance of burning cinnamon scented candles and the sweet sounds of Ray LaMontagne Pandora Radio. My homework may not yet be done, but my nails are freshly manicured for the second time in two days, my body is well-rested and I for once am in absolutely no rush.  

Recently my friends have been calling me "grandma" (hi Jess and Diana) and I guess tonight I can't really blame them. Maybe I'm the worst college student in the world tonight, but tomorrow I will be bright eyed for an early tailgate and I have one less assignment to worry about when I go out on Saturday night. And who knows, maybe my creativity will come back to me in sweet dreams tonight. Hallelujah. 

xx GrandMaggie 

Halloween hit a little bit too close to home this year. 

PS- I was supposed to share this wildly uneventful night with my dear friend Kelly - she apparently fell asleep in her towel after showering at 8:30. Needless to say, she never made it down, and I no longer feel like the lamest student in CP. Looks like we're tied, Kell ;) xoxo 

It's OK ...

It's OK...

... to use Halloween as an excuse to wear giant false eyelashes, no matter what your costume is.


... that your busy schedule only allows for reading 140 characters or less at a time; Twitter is a perfectly acceptable primary news source.


... to not have blogged legitimately all week, sometimes school must come first. ugh. 


... to work out for 3 hours and come home to devour unhealthy amounts of peanut butter.


... to be that girl who takes the last piece out of the candy dish. Hey, someone's gonna do it, might as well be you.


... to spend a very rare Thursday night that precedes a Friday without class nor work in bed, blogging and painting your nails.




Happy Thursday.
Link up! 

Ten on 11/1/11

Being that this Tuesday is one of the most fun dates to write down all year (any one else thoroughly amused everytime they write 11/1/11 today??) i think it should only be a requisite that I link up for Ten on (this remarkable) Tuesday.

1. What is your favorite month?
This is tough. I think June because it marks the beginning of the best season of all time: Summer. And also I was born on the first day of that month, which is also pretty spectacular.  And don't forget school ends in June which is always exciting. 

2. What is the best candy to get while trick or treating?
Almond Joys! Don't hate. Growing up, I was the only kid in the neighborhood who liked the sweet coconutty goodness of Almond Joys, so when it came time to dump out our pillow cases trick or treat bags and make wagers for fair candy trades, I felt like I hit the jackpot with the amount of blue and white wrappers that would end up in my pile by the end of the night. ;) 

3. What kind of pen do you use?
I prefer black ink, and the most fluid, clear, and professional my writing ever looks is when composed with a Sharpie Black Pen. For day to day use, however, I'll always grab my Bic Ballpoint Atlantis - classic - High quality, maximum comfort, with a retractable ball point.  Yes, I do believe that makes me nerd.  

4. You go to a new Italian restaurant, what is your go-to order?
You mean aside from my favorite food in the whole world, Pizza?  Ha. Probably any sort of chicken with a balsamic or wine sauce.  If it's not on pizza, I try to stay away from anything too cheesy.  

5. If you could choose to have any celebrity’s hair, who’s would you choose?
Jessica Simpson's. Of course. 

PS- How WONDERFUL is it that her and her luscious locks are FINALLY reproducing?!! <33333 

6. What’s your favorite board game?
Scattergories! A phenomenal game of categories and word play. Despite the fierce competition, including, but not limited to, mild verbal abuse and pen flinging, my family and I play every year on Thanksgiving. One of the many reasons I look forward to Thanksgiving as one of my top favorite holidays of the year! 

7. Do you know how to play poker?
Well when I was about 8 my grandfather taught me how to play 5 card poker.  I've since forgotten but I was quite the card shark back in grammar school.  Thanks for the life lessons, Pop. 

8. What do you think about Old Navy commercials?
I think they are colorful, creepy and quite unnecessary.  And that's that. 

9. What hurts worse- a stubbed toe or a paper cut?
Paper cuts tend to hurt worse for me considering I am a compulsive cuticle picker. Especially when I am nervous.  At C's last football game I picked my cuticles to the point of blood dripping down my thumbs.  Imagine having a paper cut on top of that?! No me gusta.  

10. What’s your favorite kind of pie?
My favorite is probably classic Apple Pie. As with most sweets, I'm not picky; although, cold fruit is always more preferable.  

I Need A Weekend from My Weekend

The past four days have been a whirlwind of Halloween costumes and homework, and I have totally been slacking on my blogging game. I apologize, dear friends. I hope you all had a wonderfully busy weekend as I did, maybe with a little extra time to breath, and I hope you all stayed warm!


Also, can you believe November is already here? Seriously, where has time gone? 

There really are no words to describe my weekend beyond exhausting and unpredictable, so allow my pictures to do more explaining:

Halloween Night One: Toddler in Tiara

Saturday: Our Annual Parent Tailgate for the football game was endured through snow and sleet. Thanks for driving all the way from the blizzardy state of NJ, Momma! xoxo I get my tough side from her ;) 

Too cold to take pictures outside, we were the smart ones hangin' in the heated bathroom! 

More of my favorite chicas xxoo

Unlike most students, we actually made it to the miserable game. Hey, at least we checked one thing off our bucket list: front row seats baby!! 

Mom was bundled to say the least! Ha! 

After we warmed up on Saturday we ventured to DC for "Nightmare on M Street." A really fun costume bar hop - I dressed up as a toddler again because how could I not? 

And finally, on Monday we had huge plans to go out for the reaaal day of Halloween, and I decided to dress as a Grandma. Too bad I got SO in character that I opted to stay in to watch Hocus Pocus and write lesson plans. What can I say? The old lady really came out in me, but I'm ok with it.

Happy November, everyone!

One of Those Days

I actually woke up three minutes before my alarm. Which is rare considering my alarm goes off at 5:42 AM and it always comes entirely too early.  Surprisingly bright-eyed and well-rested, I got out of bed immediately and began to dress in one of my most professional and teacher outfits - more time means a more put-together Ms. Y.

My coffee was brewed early enough to enjoy an entire cup instead of the third of a cup I typically have time for, and I was out the door nearly fifteen minutes before usual. I was really looking forward to extra planning time before the students arrived.

With umbrella in hand, I high-heeled my way through the ten minutes of rain it takes me to walk to the parking garage at which my car is parked. Once I made it to the dry shelter of the parking garage, I hiked up 5 flights of stairs to my extremely inconvenient parking spot. (Have you ever walked up 5 flights of steps in heels and a heavy school bag before the sunrise? It is miserable. Don't do it.)

Eventually, my car was in sight and I could not wait to finally have a place to relieve my shoulder from my 200lb bag.  

And almost instantly my smooth morning transformed into an unbelievable series of bumps. 

I forgot my car keys.

Not only did that mean I had to walk down 5 flights of stairs, walk uphill to my distant apartment, but it also meant that with my car keys were my apartment key and my building swipe, locked hopelessly in my bedroom.

With no other options, I shouted profanities at myself, swearing I would forget my head if it weren't attached, and jogged as best I could in my Nine West heels back to the building.  I banged furiously on the first set of locked doors for someone to buzz me in, and when I was let in, I requested to check out a spare key for my apartment.  Soaking wet and breathless, I succeeded.  With keys in hand I jogged back, got in my car, and hit infinitely more traffic than I would have thirty minutes earlier.  About three days later (exaggeration, but still) I arrived at Hollywood ES not 15 minutes early like I hoped to be, but actually 10 minutes late.

And then because there was no point in pouting, I carried on with my day like a big girl.  Except for the fact that I think all the early morning running left me unusually swollen, so the pencil skirt I thought was a good idea in the morning was terribly uncomfortable and border-line suffocating for the remainder of the day. No bueno. 

I made it through 7 hours of pencil-skirt discomfort but could not wait to get home and unzip myself to freedom. I parked my car in the metered lot immediately behind my apartment (Lord knows I wasn't making that 10 minute trek in high heels for the 4th time) and got out to pay the electronic meter only 50 yards away from my spot.  By the time I paid my fifty cents and returned to my car, a rent-a-cop was printing my ticket for $15.

Me: "Excuse me, I just got out of that car to PAY the meter. Literally two minutes ago."

Cranky Meter B*&^h :"Oh I'm so sorry, you'll have to write an appeal to the company telling them that."

I couldn't tell if she was genuinely sorry for so terribly screwing up, or if she just genuinely was too dumb to realize her mistake. Either way I stormed off, angrier than I was 9 hours earlier. 

Thankfully my day never got any worse, my preschoolers were adorable as usual, and although I had to teach 3 hours straight of fitness classes after the CYC, I was more so therapeutically tired than exasperatingly enervated.  

This morning I decided to wake myself up only after a full 9 hours of sleep, cut up a little banana to go with my heaping spoonful of peanut butter, and enjoy a peaceful jog around the lake wif ma bff Kate. After a refreshing shower, I picked up some last minute things for Halloweekend and worked my shift with my favorite kids in the world, the Yellow Room.  Let's just say I'm looking forward to a weekend that should be much better than the day my week ended.