Cleveland

We are back from Cleveland. I will post pictures tomorrow when I am back in Dallas. The trip was great! Better than either of us expected, I think. We arrived late Saturday afternoon and got a cab to our hotel which was right downtown. Our room had a great view of the city, and the hotel was within walking distance of a ton of restaurants and also the football stadium.

On top of everything, the hotel was hosting a convention for the movie "A Christmas Story." They had a walk-through model of the house and a prop museum, and they were showing the movie in a continuous loop on the big screen all day long as well as airing some documentaries about the making of the movie. Apparently some of the actors were there, too, but we didn't see any of them in person. Then, that night there was a Christmas parade down the main street, and our room had such a good view we ordered a bottle of champagne and watched it from our window. Fun, fun, fun! We had no idea there would be so much going on!

Sunday we slept in and ate our hotel breakfast, then moseyed on over to the stadium. There were a ton of people walking over at the same time, and they were all wearing Browns logos all over their clothes. Jonathan turned to me and said, "I don't know what to do with myself!" He's so used to being the only Browns fan, and there we were surrounded by an entire city of Browns fans. It was fun!

Our seats were awesome. We sat on the Colts' sideline, and right after we sat down I was like, "Hey, that's Peyton Manning right there drinking Gatorade." And it totally was. I am proud of myself for recognizing a football player. If I had yelled something at him he totally would have heard me. We were that close. He's skinny. I wasn't expecting that.

After the game (the Browns lost 10-6), we strolled over to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was going to close in an hour and a half, and the staff was all, "You guys had better hurry!" But, really, an hour or so of looking at rock and roll paraphernalia is all I can take, and I felt like I saw plenty of stuff in that time. My favorite thing was a T-shirt that the drummer of U2 made in high school art class. He silkscreened "U2" onto a white T-shirt with a green circle on it when he was like 17. It's the first U2 T-shirt ever. They also had a collection of their rejection letters from record companies. I thought it was the best part of the exhibit, and I'm not even a huge U2 fan. I just thought their exhibit actually told a story about the band instead of just displaying a bunch of their crap.

I also actually liked the Jimi Hendrix exhibit even though I can't honestly say I've ever sat down and listened to a Jimi Hendrix song. That's not to say I haven't heard one in passing - I've just never made a deliberate effort. They had a bunch of his drawings on display. Two of them were of medieval knights fighting. The rest were mostly football team drawings and motor boats. One was of a good shepherd and his flock. Looking at teenage Jimi Hendrix's drawings made me want to listen to grown-up Jimi Hendrix's music. Jonathan said he has a Hendrix album. I will have to listen to it.

We got up at 4 am this morning to catch our plane to Dallas. All went well, we got our Toad from my mom's house, and came home. I took a nap and drove to my class. Now I'm in Waco procrastinating with this blog. Whew!

LoveErinDesigns

So, my friend Erin has a new online store for the jewelry that she makes. I just bought this necklace which I am completely in love with:




If you are in the market for some interesting and lovely jewelry, check out her store at LoveErinDesigns.etsy.com!

Arm Bruises

I got these Saturday night holding down the Toad while Jon pulled a burr out of his back paw. He's quite a little spitfire!

Weekly Blog

I've realized that I really only update this once a week now. That makes me kind of sad, but I really don't have anything to talk about unless you want me to talk about school, school, school which I do not want to do.

I have another long week this week. I have to go to a conference in San Antonio this weekend for my stupid Bibliography and Research class. Although things are looking up about the conference because my idol Norris Lacy will be there. You may recall as I was applying for grad school last year, I had a short e-mail conversation with him, and he was soooooo nice to me. I'm a little bit in love with him. And I get to meet him this weekend if I'm brave enough to introduce myself. Eeek!

I'm having lunch with my mom today so I can retrieve some pants she hemmed for me. And I'm writing a paper that has ended up being way too mired in theology to keep my interest. Blech. On the other hand, my class tonight was cancelled so I get to stay in Dallas until this evening which means I get to have dinner with Jonathan tonight. Yay!

More Cheaters!

So, a few weeks ago I caught a kid cheating in my afternoon class. I gave her and the boy she copied off of a zero. This incident really pissed me off, and I was just starting to like my afternoon class again when I caught another kid plagiarizing. Or, rather, the nifty plagiarism software program caught the kid. I set up a conference with him today, and he 'fessed up without much struggle. Then his eyes teared up. He quietly said "Thank you" when I offered him the chance to rewrite the paper with a grade penalty, and then we moved on to another subject. He left in a pretty dejected mood. When it was over, I went to my TA meeting and got a nosebleed from the stress. Stupid f#$&ing cheaters!

Bitchy Comment

Can everyone please stop talking about the weather? You'd think they'd never seen autumn before. Just put on your hoodie and shut up.

Funny Picture

Lara took these pictures of us on Saturday. I like them. They're kind of funny. I wish I were clever enough to add witty captions.

We went to a Halloween party. I was "Someone Who Has an Actual Social Life." Lara and Shannon were Juno MacGuff and Paulie Bleaker, and their costumes were awesome.