Best Day

In my family, we are all pretty attuned to the closing of summer and the advent of fall--that lovely time of year when we all start having anxiety nightmares about bulletin boards, nagging parents, lesson plans, schedules, cleaning classrooms/offices, etc. Yes, we're all teachers. Our body clocks sense the ending of August and rebel against it violently, but alas, it comes every year. To cope with our inherent grief over the end of summer, we instigated our "best day" tradition, wherein each of use takes a turn around the dinner table and reminisces about what each of us remembers as our best day of the summer.
Lucky for me, this was the kind of summer where I can't pin down just one day, so I thought I'd share some of the highlights (in no particular order)...

1. Finishing my half-marathon, my 30th birthday, and my scooter, all rolled into one fun week.
2. Home improvement fun with the parents (Utah & Kansas).
3. Garage sale-ing with Taunya, Dan's mom :)
4. Having my mom down as a guest lecturer at Westminster
5. Coffee with Jones at Alchemy
6. Body surfing with Dan on 42nd Street
7. Beehive Tea Room for Sassy & E-bomb's 31st Birthday (God, we're old!)
8. Riding roller coasters until we were sick on 4th of July with Dad
9. BBQ's with new friends
10. Hiking Timp & Albion Basin
11. Hearing Tom Petty & Jon Mayer cover "Panama"
12. Afternoon movie matinees in 100-degree heat
13. Concert at the Gallivan with my new hip LDS posse (actually, it's Naomi's posse; I just tag along)
14. Dinner with James & Theresa at Mazza
15. Watching Zuz & following along with the Olympics. Go world!

Summer of the Scootie

My darling husband Dan teamed up with my parents for the big 30th birthday and bought me a scooter! My mom got one for her birthday a few years ago, and just last weekend, my mother-in-law Taunya got one as well. If my sister-in-law Karina gets one, we can be a family scooter gang. I am visualizing pink satin jackets or similar. Ahhh, yeah.

Top 5 Reasons I Love my Scooter

5. It has retro white-wall tires.

4. All the construction workers replacing the concrete on our street wave at me when I go by. Amongst other things.

3. I get all the good parking spots everywhere.

2. I filled up the gas tank yesterday. I had gone almost 90 miles without getting gas. Filling the tank this time around cost me $3.68. That's right.

and ....

1. If I really squint while I'm driving up Laird & Harvard Aves., I can pretend I am in Italy. La vita e bella!

Bejing Olympics

My friend Zuzana is competing in this year's Olympics. She is a marathoner and will be representing her home country, Slovakia. She is only the 2nd woman in Slovakia to have run the marathon in less than 2:40. Yes, that's 26.2 miles in 2 hours and 40 minutes. What that boils down to is that Zuz runs marathons in the same time I run a half marathon.
Run, Zuzana, Run!
Her blog is runzuzanarun.blogspot.com and is also on my link list if you want to check it out...

Home Improvement Photos

Home Improvement

We've been putting in tons of work at good old 1438 Logan Avenue, with lots of invaluable help from our wonderful, generous, and now exhausted parents.  We (i.e., Dad) painted the whole exterior, took out the old fence and built a new one, yanked the back garden, and put in a new sprinkler system.  Now we have the rest of the summer to enjoy our sweet pad (and recover)!

So Cal Summer

Just hit "send"

Oh, that magical "send" button.  It represents the last final I will ever have to turn in.  Ever.  That's fairly significant considering I have been in school for just about 25 years now.  But I am henceforth finished with coursework.  Anything I write from here on out will be written because I want to write about it.  And from here on out, I'll be the one GIVING the final exams, not taking them, thank you very much.  Suckers! 

That's amore...

I don't know if mere words can describe this one...

I'll Bite

Does your last ex have a job?
If you count my U of U man as an "ex," then he definitely does not.

What were you doing before filling out this survey?
Procrastinating and not studying for my Italian final.  A perfect time to fill out a survey!

Last awkward moment:
My cell phone went off in class today during a presentation.  Embarrassing!!!!!

How long have you been with your current bf/gf?
Dan & I will be together 2 yrs. on June 9th.

What do you do when a telemarketer calls?
Pretend I'm a kid and tell them that my mom is not home.

Name someone you know whose name begins with an A:
Anna Brower.

Would you cry if you found out you got pregnant or got a girl pregnant?
I think at this point I would cry with happiness or just sheer emotion.  I am excited to be a mom sooner than later.

Have you been pressured to do anything recently?
Dan is making me train for the half-marathon.  He is a good influence b/c sometimes I am lazy.

Do you think the concept of phone sex is stupid?
Heck no, I love phone sex. I make a lot of money doing it.--Ditto to Natalie.  Owww.

How many kids do you want?
I want 1; Dan wants 3.  We'll see.

Name something you wouldn't want to buy used:
Toothbrush.

What makes you happy at this moment?
Dan the Man, my crazy dogs, my new extended family, running, and the fact that I am almost done with my PhD course work.  Especially happy to be done with syntax.

What color are your eyes?
Green.

What side of the bed do you sleep on?
Right side always

Would you rather go camping or to a five star hotel?
Used to be camping, but I am learning to appreciate the finer things.

When did you last cry?
Hmm.  Maybe a couple of weeks ago when I was in New York.  I had a good time, but it was still a tough week.

how many people have you kissed romantically?
how many stars are there in the sky?

What's your worst habit?
A toss up between procrastination and sugar addiction!  Ironic, since here I am eating a brownie and doing an internet survey.

If you could own a non-traditional pet what would it be?
I think I will inherit an African gray parrot from my parents.  He has a larger vocabulary than many college freshmen that I know.

Are you okay with your ex being friends with your good friends?
He is dead to us.  Ditto.

Do you find the "emo" trend annoying?
It's just plain weird.

Have you ever taken anyone/anything for granted?
Yes. Ouch.  I'll never do that again, I hope.

Do you hate being alone?
Nope, not at all.  This only child is content with the only. 

Has anyone ever broken your heart?
Yes.

How late did you stay up last night?
11:30...Putting together syntax presentation.

What was the first thing you thought this morning?
Does a determiner phrase really pass through the ARGo position without any effects?

What did you do last night?
Syntax, syntax, syntax

What are you going to do this weekend?
Well, since Erika didn't invite us to her BBQ, I am going to help my mom with a garage sale in Heber and study and write and study.  And also study.

Has someone of the opposite sex ever told you they loved you, and meant it?
Yes, dear things.

How's your heart lately?
Better than it's been in YEARS.

What were you doing this morning at 7AM?
Typing my syntax handout.

What were you doing this afternoon at 12PM?
Presenting on L2 teacher ed issues.  Actually, I was eating lunch with Naomi, then we presented.

What does the last text in your inbox say?
from Naomi; gossiping about work

How many red lights have you ran?
Many, many.  Also, it's how many red lights have you RUN

Have you ever cried while taking a shower?
Yes.  Shampoo in my eyes hurts.  Just kidding.  Yes, I've cried in the shower. 

What was your favorite grade?
Probably my junior year.  Had a lot of fun.  Don't tell my parents.  Sophomore year in college was pretty darn tough to beat.

Have you ever, in any way, been betrayed by someone you trusted?
Yes. No fun.

Are you happy with life at this moment?
Yes.  If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life!

What was the last thing you ordered from McDonalds?
$1 Spicy McChicken.  I think they put crack in those things.

How did your day start off?
Syntax at 6:30 am--ugh.  Let's not do that again.

Slave to the Man

It's that time of year again--the time when everything I have put off for nine months suddenly needs to be finished in the next ten days.  One would think that since I have been in school fairly consistently for the last oh, 25 years, that I could have devised a way to divert this procrastinatory crisis.  But no, no, no.  Now I am posting blogs and inventing words like procrastinatory instead of waxing poetic about L2 teacher education and the wondrous antisymmetry of syntax.  Only a few things will help me at this point, two of which are Diet Coke and phdcomics.com.  Both are brilliant.  The only other thing I need to get through to May 1st:  a miracle!

Shopping for Jesus

So, Dan & I have been on the local neighborhood church circuit, shopping around for a church that both of us can live with--well, not just live with, but enjoy and leave feeling fulfilled.  This is a little easier said than done, it turns out.  While as adults we may not think we are very attached to the ways in which we were brought up, it turns out that the human desire for routine and familiarity remains a strong power.  I am starting to understand the Crusades a whole lot better. 

It seems that the new trend in churches of many denominations is to reach the congregation via PowerPoint.  This is quite ironic to me.  If I wanted to read about God on a computer, I would just type "New Testament" in to Wikipedia and see what I got.   These days in church, you can bring in your coffee, your donut, your Palm Pilot--we even had people eating popcorn behind us at one service!  The popcorn was just a bit much.  Is it church or a baseball game?  (For my dad, those are one and the same).  

Anyway, for this Catholic girl, this has been quite a change.  I mean, if as kids we weren't guilty, sleepy, starving, and cramping from kneeling for so long, it just wasn't a real mass.  But seriously, one thing I do like about the Catholic church is the solitude and the introspection.  I like the study and the work.  Maybe that's why I am still in grad school.  But, I come to church to get away from PowerPoint.  I don't need a rock band to feel grateful or blessed.  Dan & I can feel connected to people without being forced to.  In fact, we made some new Presbyterian friends today and had them over for lunch.  

Praise the lord!

Getting Down to Business

Dan the Business Man is ranked #3 in sales out of all of the Levolor-Kirsch National Account Specialists nation wide.  I am really proud of him.  He works hard for our little family.  Way to go, sweetie.  

PS This painting is called, "The Son of Man" by Rene Magritte.  We saw a bunch of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  Phenomenal!

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

For those of you in my non-linguistics posse, the above nonsense is known as a syntax "tree."  During the last three months, I have been sweating out every Wednesday night cursing the heavens in futility as I struggled to complete diabolical problem sets involving constructions such as the above.  Actually, they were more complicated because our professor wanted us to actually be able to explain things like this.  How dare she hold us accountable for learning!  Duh!  Anyway, I am saying farewell to syntax because this Wednesday marks my last evening of stressing about abstract language that I appreciate greatly but will never truly comprehend.  Fare thee well, Syntax!  It will be a while before you hear from me.

Highlights from NYC:

--Seeing "Wicked" & staying at the Mayfair

--Presenting rubric study and winning "Best Poster Presentation" at the Doctoral Forum

--Eating the best thai food EVER with some great friends

--Finding a Duane Reade

--Seeing lots of thought-provoking sessions with a veritable list of "who's who" in TESOL

--Van Gogh, Matisse, Cezanne, Miro, Picasso, & others for free on Friday night at the MOMA

--Schmoozing with publishers over Cosmo martinis

--Having a pretzel cart & a halal food cart right outside of the hotel

--Seeing my name in print!!

--Shopping on 5th Ave and in Herald Square

--Realizing, once again, that there's no place like home...

Scenes from the Big Apple

Wicked Fun

So here I am in New York, loving every minute of it.  I am presenting in a poster session tomorrow morning, so it was sort of a problem that I left my poster back at the SLC security line.  Oopsie!  Not to be foiled by the forces that had conspired against me, I got on my flight and proceeded directly to the nearest Manhattan FedEx-Kinko's.  A very nice man named Sayed from India saved my life tonight and re-printed my poster in about 3 minutes.  After that, I hit my favorite Times Square McDonald's (food just tastes better in New York when all you had was a stale bagel on the flight), did a little shopping, and took in the Broadway show, "Wicked."  If you ever get a chance to see this, it is a must see.  Read the book, too, while you're at it.

Now I am tucked into my miniature hotel room, practicing my presentation out loud to the mirror.  Tomorrow's mission:  get presentation out of the way and try to find the Cash Cab.

Tahoe, Baby!

Dan and I spent this last weekend in Lake Tahoe, California, skiing it up with some of my best and oldest friends, Mandy & Tav! The sun was shining, the snow was perfect corn, and as you can tell from this photo, the beer was twice as strong as it is in Utah. Point 'em down!

Signs of Spring

This is a photo of my goddaughter, Isa, and her new kitty.  I thought it was sort of spring-like to think of kids with little animals like kitties, chicks, puppies, etc.  I also thought the weather was going to be somewhat spring-like, so I did some shopping yesterday for things like capri pants and sundresses.  Then it snowed 5 inches last night.  The universe is hysterical!

Why 'Pura Vida?'

For any of you who have been around me and/or my family long enough, you probably know that "pura vida" is part of the Schaub (now Lindahl) family vernacular.  As you can tell by the Wikipedia definition below (yes, a credible source, I know), it represents a lifestyle; it is to Costa Rica what "Aloha" is to Hawaiians.  I like to think of it in terms of more than just a relaxed lifestyle; it has more of an existential meaning to it.  It's the enjoyment of the actual experience.  Since I created this blog so that family & friends can see what Dan & I are up to, I guess it is aptly named--just a snapshot of life as we live it.  Pura vida!

Pura vida:  used by Costa Ricans since 1956; literally translated means "Pure Life."  Contextually, it means "full of life," "purified life," "this is living," "going great," etc.  It is used as a greeting, a farewell, & to express satisfaction.  Costa Ricans use the phrase to express a philosophy of strong community, perseverance, good sprits, enjoying life slowly, and celebrating good fortune, small or large.

Cutting the Cake!

Ever since I fed Dan this first piece of cake, I've been responsible for feeding him ever since!  Just kidding, sweetie.