the day after i wrote that post about my stereo not working, i gave it a few more hits in all the right places and the speakers started working again. thank you for your prayers.

the night after i wrote that last post i went to see garden state. it was a beautifully done movie, especially for being braff's first. well-written script, good acting, beautiful cinematography. it didn't really resonate with me though...i didnt get very excited about it or anything. but dont get me wrong it was great. just not great. for me. just great. you know what i mean?

then after garden state we went to steak-and-shake in indy. 2 people at our table ordered cottage cheese. when the african-american waitress came out with the food she said, "2 cottage cheeses?....2 cottage cheeses?!? am i sayin' that right?!?!? am i speakin' ebonics or sumpin'?!?!?!?" this may not translate well over the internet, but trust me, it was HILARIOUS.

sometimes i wish my apartment had internet access because there is always a lot i want to say on here and i never have time to say it and even if i did i wouldnt remember what i wanted to say.

week one of student teaching is done and so far it's pretty swell.

i am slowly realizing what makes christopher guest movies funny. each little subculture bubble of people has their own language, mannerisms, and humor. and when you step back and watch, it's hilarious. elementary teachers are no exception. i see a mockumentary unfolding each day. on day one of student teaching i was standing in the hallway with the 3 fourth grade teachers as they were discussing a number of things with a considerable amount of animation. at one point, one teacher said... "well....i looked at the language arts supplement and thought, SUPPLEMENT TO WHAT?!?!?!" with this, all 3 teachers started laughing hysterically, grabbing each other's arms and slapping each other and laughing and laughing and laughing. i stood there, chuckling, shaking my head, wondering what exactly was SO hilariously funny about that one comment.

i hooked up my stereo last night. the speakers work for the radio, and the display tells me the cd is playing, but nothing comes out of the speakers when the cd is playing. so, i think it's dead. and i am now cdless. and this is not a good thing.

just when i think i'm not addicted to caffeine i decide to skip a day of morning coffee and end up with heavy eyelids, groggy brain, and splitting headache, and i realize i am, in fact, an addict.

ummmm i think that's all for now. going to see garden state tonight. goodbye!

it's always hard to settle down and go to bed the night before leaving town.

it has been a good summer. it is often difficult to look back on a summer and label it "good" or "bad" or "ok." the summer flies by, yet the vacation to vermont in early june seems so long ago. i have a poor memory, but from what i can recollect, it was indeed a good summer.

leaving is hard this year. very hard. the early start time is no help. saying goodbye to a dear-friend-now-fiance for the fifth year in a row is wearisome. (but there is hope in knowing this is the last goodbye.) knowing i am saying goodbye to this house as a more-than-2-week-residence for good. leaving my last summer as an untamed stallion. upcoming transitions and unknowns. etc etc etc.

and there is still so much i wanted to do...right?

i leave tomorrow.

i'm trying to pack but i dont know where to start and i end up just walking from room to room, staring at the messes i have to clean up and pack into boxes. i'm getting nothing done except for walking in circles and staring at what i have to do. and writing blog entries.

someone spray-painted the word "WAR" on a nearby stop sign, so that it cleverly says, "STOP WAR." i want to take a polaroid of it but there is no good place to pull over and even if there was i feel incredibly stupid getting out of my car and taking a picture of a stop sign. this reveals the fact that i am nowhere close to being a real artist. so i'm hoping to get a picture of it before i leave but it may prove challenging. i like the fact that this punk kid thought he was gonna change the world by spraypainting a 3 letter word on a stop sign. in one sense, it was noble. it another sense, it was foolish. not to mention vandalism.

i may go buy a digital camera before the end of the day. this makes me nervous because i know nothing about digital cameras, i have no money, and i have no idea if my crappy computer will even be able to handle it. if you know anything about any of this call my cell phone ASAP and tell me what to do.

i'll be in briarwood 2D tomorrow night. come visit if you want.

im not ready to leave pennsylvania yet.

i ended work yesterday. this morning i was reminded of what it feels like to sleep in in the summer with no responsibilities to complete and it made me wish i was in middle school again.

yesterday was a great day to be working at fellowship community. i left the house in the morning and it was almost frigid outside, which made for a great day. big puffy clouds, cool breeze, it told us autumn was coming soon and it made for great mowing weather and put everyone in great moods (along with the fact that it was friday).

randy and i were trimming bushes at the entrance and as mr. golden was leaving he stopped his minivan, rolled down the window, and exclaimed, "gentlemen, it's a great morning to be alive!" with that he rolled his window back up and went on his way.

(mr. golden is funny. he's tall and lanky and old. one time randy called him mr. goldman by mistake and he said in the drawn out voice that old people seem to perfect quite naturally, "noo...it's gooolden. like the goolden ruuule, doc." anyone who addresses others as 'doc' is a-o-k in my book.)

i met mr. maurey for the first time. he needed a lightbulb changed, but he is completed blind so i'm still not sure how he knew it needed to be changed. he is a very gentle and softspoken man and he was very interested in my life and it was a pleasure to talk to him.

as i was mowing, everyone wanted to wave to me. i mowed past a big picture window and looked in as i did, and the old ladies in their wheelchairs excitedly waved to me, as if they had been staring and waiting and waiting for me to look their way so that they could wave. this happened with a few other people walking around outside. i caught them looking at me and as soon as i looked up they started waving frantically.

then mike (the mid-thirty-year-old-punk-rocker who was in an extra good mood cuz it was his last day working at fellowship community after all these years), just as i spun the mower around, jumped out of the building right in front of me and gave me a big grin and a double thumbs up.

it was bizarre but it made me happy to be working there which i'm pretty sure was a first for the summer.

the aforementioned mr. weinstein has macular degeneration and he is no longer allowed to drive. his spirits have improved though; he was back to heckling me today.

i got stung by a yellow jacket on the elbow. i thought i could make it through the season without getting stung, and with 3 days left, sure enough. i'll be sure to get revenge first thing in the morning on the whole nest with a nice big can of raid.

last night we played trivial pursuit pop culture edition. i think the 4 of us knew about 18% of the answers. i won the neck-and-neck game by knowing that snoop-dog was the co-host during the first week of the jimmy kimmel show. the week of watching that rubbish paid off after all. we also watched two episodes of saved by the bell. "the prom" (kelly so graciously gives up going to the prom to help out the family after her dad gets laid off, and zack ends up giving her the night of her life after all) and "rent-a-pop" (zack is failing and cant go on the ski trip so he has the waiter from the max first act as his dad and then act as mr. belding). i laughed quite hard during both.

tonight mr. kyle mangum was in town and we kept our summer-pre-school-shymalan tradition and saw the village. i was more disappointed than he was. i thought it was his worst yet. i was laughing out loud at all the parts that shouldnt have been laughed at. he's a great film maker...i love what he does...but i think he should leave the scripts to someone else. perhaps he should consider making the seventh sense?

then i had chinese and good conversation with rata.

now it's bedtime in clean sheets under a cool breeze pouring through the window.

tomorrow is work and dinner with the rents and a date night with erica.

it's down to a week before i leave. i am so excited to end my summer job but petrified about returning to school and starting student teaching.

later.