Day #9040 - RIP Eckert

A few weeks ago, I threw a funeral for my Halloween pumpkin, Eckert. Literally threw.

Day #8140 - Yule be Singing About What?

The sounds of the holiday season are in the air. Literally. If you're in Chicagoland, just tune into 93.9FM for all your Christmas, holiday, and snow-themed songs of the season. Now I love winter and I love Christmas carols, but you can't deny that some of them are a little brow raising. So let's start off with Monica's Top 3 Creepy Christmas Carols

3. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

Am I the only one bothered by this song? Especially in the version that sounds like a little kid is singing, almost proudly declaring that he's witnessed his mother cheating. I know some people might argue that in today's society with 50% of marriages ending in divorce, maybe Mommy is single and ready to mingle. But the lyrics clearly bring up the question that Daddy could walk right in at any moment. And what about Mrs. Claus, eh? Some sailors would brag about having a girl in every port, but poor Mrs. Claus could very well be married to a man with women all over the world.

2. Santa Baby

This song kind of reminds me of when Anna Nicole Smith was still alive and married to that millionaire who looked about 100 years old. While it's not uncommon for women to be attracted to older men, but I mean, this song just makes me go "ew." It's skeevy! I hear this and just think, "This girl must have some serious daddy issues" and that if Barney Stinson were real, he'd be taking advantage of her in a heartbeat.

1. Baby It's Cold Outside

Oh how I both love and get mildly creeped out by this song! I love the duet, it's incredibly catchy, and it just screams Rat Pack to me. But the lyrics do have a little bit of a "hey, wait a minute" feel to them. Girl needs to go, boy seems to be concerned for her safety and the fact that it's freezing, girl accepts another drink before she hits the road, girl realizes boy roofied her drink?! Okay maybe not that extreme, but I can easily see the girl coming home the next morning, makeup smudged and hair disheveled, asking her mother to stop yelling because she's got a hangover and is in desperate need of aspirin and some strong coffee. But unlike the other two songs, I'll happily sing along with this one because it's so dang catchy!

Honorable Mention: The Christmas Shoes

Now before you think I'm a horrible person for putting this on my list, let me explain. This song is actually very sweet, telling the story of a poor boy who wants to buy a Christmas present for his dying mother. However, me and some friends in high school believed this was just a cover story and made up an alternate. The little boy is only pretending to need money to buy his mom shoes - in actuality, Mom is a drug addict and has sent her son out to collect money from kind, unsuspecting strangers to help support her habit. What can I say? We were in high school and we thought it was hilarious. So now every time I hear this song, I think about my friends from yesteryear and our theories about what this song might really be about.

Day #7991 - The Long and not-so-Winding Stacks

Every year in the back of the iBook (the assignment book that U of I sells that's all school themed) there is a list of things students should do before they graduate. And let me tell you, when I was a freshman I thought this was the coolest list ever. Like an undergraduate Bucket List. Some of the things were more common ("Play frisbee on the Quad", "Attend a barndance") while others were a little more out there ("Attend a lecture that isn't one of your own").

(On a sad note, "Ring the bells at Altgeld" isn't on this year's list, which is a bummer because that was seriously one of the coolest things I have done on this campus. Also gone is "Get free condoms from McKinley." - what is this public school coming to??)

Another item that was cut from this year's list that I had always wanted to do in the past was "visit the main stacks in the library," but for whatever reason, I just never got around to it. But today, that changed. As further part of our orientation (and we didn't even really start the class part of our class until 3:30 this afternoon), we got to take a tour of the Main Library building including going into the stacks. Awesome? I think YES!

Day #7984 - Oh me-o, Oh my-oh, Why are we in Ohio?

Well readers, after many many hours in the car today, I am back to home sweet home in Schaumburg. Yesterday was tubing down a lazy river with the family in Tennessee followed by dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.( heck yes, Forrest Gump!! And the food was really good!) and walking around Gatlinburg. Mom and I hit the road bright and early today and I am very much looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight. The ride home was mostly uneventful except for the fact that we had pretty much no idea where we were going. The route that the GPS had us take going to Tennessee was not the same one it had us use to get home. We were driving along through Kentucky, crossed the state line into Indiana, and then ten minutes later crossed another state line into Ohio before we eventually got back to Indiana. A little unnerving, but we arrived back home safe and sound.

Almost done with Eat Pray Love - I seriously can't put it down!

The next few days will be filled with working out, laundry, going over articles, and finishing my paper before heading down to school on Wednesday. But more on all of that later - I am positively beat tonight. Keep it classy, readership =)

Day #7969 - For Curtis, A Eulogy

Originally Written on June 18, 2010

It pains me to write this for it is a day I had hoped would never come. However, for the last few weeks, I have been unable to continue ignoring the signs that our time together would soon be coming to an end. It is for a truly remarkable being that I write this eulogy: for Curtis, my Halloween Pumpkin.

It feels like only yesterday that Curtis became a part of my life. In the town of Savoy, IL, it was early in the month of October with the chill of autumn in the air. Out of all the others, there he was. An appropriate size, perfectly round, and Illini orange, I knew he was the one for me. He came back with me to Champaign and using my paint-pens, I gave him a face. We've been together ever since.

Curtis was an ideal roommate and companion. He never made a mess, was never needy or demanding, and always had a smile on his face to greet me after a long day at class. We were nearly separated in December - it was time for me to move back to Schaumburg. He sat by as I packed, keeping out of my way as I organized everything in my own way. Before long, my room was empty, the van was packed, and it was time to go. It was that a day when we almost had to say goodbye forever - Mom was about to throw him out in the hall garbage when I suddenly cried out, "You can't kill Curtis!" It wasn't until this moment almost two months after he became a part of my life that I finally gave him a name in honor of Curtis Orchard where he had come from. It was decided that he too could come north to Schaumburg and to continue to support me as good friends are supposed to do.

When I later learned that the name Curtis means "courteous," I thought it was a fitting choice for my vege-friend. He has become to me what Wilson the Volleyball was to Tom Hanks's character in the movie Cast Away. He has been so much more to me than just some inanimate object - he has been by my side through one of the most trying and exhausting challenges of my life - student teaching. Day after day, it was so nice that Curtis would be sitting quietly waiting for me.

It was only really in recent weeks that he started to take a turn for the worse - a seemingly minor spot on his otherwise flawless orange complexion began to develop into an unhealthy looking growth. What was once a blemish became a large and squishy orifice on his forehead. It is time for his suffering to end and for Curtis to be welcomed back by the Great Pumpkin to that giant pumpkin patch in the sky. You have been loved, Curtis, and you will be missed.

*EDIT - JUNE 20, 2010*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U51KSgeznnU
A video recorded by my brother of Curtis's send off, if you could really call it that...