To The Windy City

I'm moving! To the windy city! In 7 months! ohmygosh

How do I feel about this?

Excited. Nervous. Sad that my husband is moving there in two weeks without me. Annoyed that I finally have an interesting social life (sorta), just in time to leave it behind. And sad that my husband is moving there in two weeks without me.

Things that are holding me back from going with him in December? My job. First, I like it, things are good. Second, I feel like I have an obligation to finish off the school year. Last year many of my students had a horrible year. They went through 5 teachers, had no consistency, and are basically behind a whole year academically. The parents were so upset. This leaves me feeling like I shouldn't/can't leave. Would they survive without me? Most definitely. So, what can I say, I'm confused. If this opportunity would have arisen last year at this time, I would have left in a heartbeat.

For now I am focusing on the exciting parts of moving! A new life adventure. A new city to explore. OPRAH!! Target! Experiencing life as an "American". Figuring out whose health care system really is better :) Being a tour guide for all of the friends and family who are going to visit us, right???

Changes are a happening!

Nada

This blogging everyday thing is challenging! I have nothing interesting to say tonight. I don't feel like writing because I spent all day writing report cards. Basically, I am boring.

So, give me some ideas people!

For now I will leave you with this... while reading one of my favourite blogs, The Pioneer Woman, I found this CUTE necklace! It might make a nice Christmas gift for someone you know, or hmm, if I remember correctly, someone special's birthday is coming up soon :)

It's like it's meant just for me! You can find it and other neat stuff here.

How Do You Like Your Coffee? Crisp.

I do not drink coffee. Well, I do not drink coffee unless the oh so delicious french vanilla coffee-mate is available, which it almost always is at my parents' house. It's gooood. I associate coffee drinking with holidays and something as simple as coffee becomes a treat that I look forward to.
I was scanning through my google reader the other day, and stumbled upon this blog which mentioned the new holiday coffee-mate flavours are now available: caramel apple, gingerbread, peppermint mocha, eggnog, and pumpkin spice. Oh my. How scrumptious do those sound?

On my wishlist this year is a bodum french press, mainly so I can serve coffee to visitors. I'm just afraid that if I actually get a coffee press I'll want to use it so I can taste all of these holiday flavours! With my luck they'll only be available in the USA. Maybe that's a good thing.

I Love Books

Since November 5th last year, I have read (or listened to) approximately 73 books. Not bad, not bad! I read A LOT during the summer, and I also read a lot last year because my job sucked and I had the extra time.

A few of those 73 books have been amazing, can't put them down, love them so much I want to read all day books. I like using goodreads.com because I rate each book and when people ask what I'd recommend I can look at my list and suggest the books that I've given 5 stars.

My favourite book this year has been The Opposite of Love by Julie Buxbaum, which is one of the few books I now own. Thanks to M's family I received it as a gift last Christmas! I've also really enjoyed books by Ruth Reichl, who was a food critic for the New York Times, and an incredible writer, in my humble opinion.

One thing I've noticed through keeping a goodreads list is that I read a ton more nonfiction than I ever realized! My 36 in 365 goal of reading 5 nonfiction books this year was way too easy.

Thinking about all this lead me to search for the BBC's top 100 books. I found about 10 different lists and don't know which one is proper, so I closed my eyes and just chose one. How many of these have you read? I've put a star beside the ones I can remember reading.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling *
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell *
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger *
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott *
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling *
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling *
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling *
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl * (Currently reading to my class!)
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery *
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell *
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett *
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding *
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl *
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding *
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl *
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley *
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

My total is 16. That's it! Some of these I've never heard of and some I'd like to read eventually in my lifetime!

Books, my second true love. I think I'll go read.

Marking The Night Away

Tonight I spent at least five hours marking. Ahhh, what a relief to have most of it done. Now I can start writing report cards, yippee! For the last two weeks I've had a bin of work sitting beside my desk to take home and I've forgotten it every day (on purpose some days I'm sure).

Here's what my floor looks like and it's almost midnight. I must get to bed!

Usually I do all my work at school because I like to have that division between work and home life. Sometimes it's just impossible though! Do you have the type of job where you have to take work home?

Pierced

Do you have any unusual piercings?

Many people who knew me were surprised when I got my eyebrow pierced during my first year of university. I remember when I told my BFF she was shocked. I suppose it was sorta out of character? I liked it and only took it out four years later when I started my first teaching placement. Thankfully, that piercing did not hurt in the least. It has left a pretty apparent scar.

The only other "different" sort of piercing was in my tragus, the middle part of the ear. Really, not so different at all. It hurt like a mo fo, basically like my ear was being pulled off. It never healed properly and was always getting infected. You can slightly see it in the picture below.

Also in this picture, you can make out M's labret piercing below his lip. He says it's didn't hurt too much, mostly a big pinch. I really liked it on him. In the picture he's wearing a clear ball, to make it less noticeable at work, but I liked the silver ball best. M also used to have his nipple pierced. Hahaha, stud.

I'd say this is all pretty tame, considering the types of piercings you could potentially get. Oh to be young again :)

Filtration

This weekend the skittle rum and bacon vodka were filtered. It was quite the process, let me tell you. It was compelling to watch.

First, the bacon vodka was cooled in the freezer so that the fat could congeal. Then, the bacon was pulled out of the bottle with chopsticks so the boys could re-fry it. A lot of cheesecloth was used as the method of filtration and finally after 3 years my turkey baster was taken out of its packaging and used!

The bacon vodka needs one more good filtering before it can be taste-tested.

The skittle rum on the other hand is ready to go, and all of the excess sugar has been filtered out. Mmm, frothy. So, not only can you get drunk from drinking this, you can get some diabetes too!