The Time is Now (In Quarantine)

I’m back! Post number two, post number two, post number two!

As you know, I have spent this thrilling week in quarantine. I don’t have much to say about quarantine, other than I only ever need excuses to stay in my house all the time, and I appreciate the world giving me that. Teaching in quarantine has been strange, but not altogether unpleasant. In many ways, it is infinitely easier because I do not have to spend my life force dealing with the issues of having a group of people forcibly together under a set of rules. Instead, I just tell them what to do and answer their questions. It’s less fun, for sure, but it is easier.

To celebrate teaching in quarantine, I bring you a photo montage of my daily teaching assistants!

The last few photos in the series depict a properly frizzed Hermes. I actually feel more behind on the back end of teaching things now that I spend all my spare time in a day making sure Hermes is tired enough to be good in class. So far, the plan has been very successful, even if my productivity is suffering a bit.

While maybe not terribly exciting, that has been the majority of my week. I spend more time on my stationary bike now that I’m not up and moving around so much of the day. This has enabled me to finish the Netflix season of Married at First Sight, so now I’m watching season one on Hulu. Deonna and Greg got married, so that’s really all the matters. (Apparently, they’re expecting a baby.)

This weekend, Sparhawk and I went back to an actually flat trail. We rode 5 miles out on the Frisco trail, so 10 miles total. I felt much better about this ride, and actually went for longer. I think it was much more reasonable for someone who hasn’t actually been on a legitimate bike ride in years. My goal is to keep coming back to this trail and extend my distance.

I think you know about how I spent the rest of my weekend. Sparhawk and I did quite a few wedding tasks, which was good. I had some teacher times. I did some make up experiments. Now, I am living my best life as a sock in my Jack Skellington hoodie.

I hope you are the Churr are being safe with all your smog. I’m so concerned. Sweet baby Churr can’t wear a mask on walks. Her free, independent spirit would never tolerate that.

I’ll have to check out this organizational show. If you ever need a house to organize with clear plastic containers, you know where to find mine!

Stay safe!

Super Koala

First Week of School!

From the chaise of Super Koala, where I am pausing Married at First Sight in order to better compose my thoughts to you:

Dearest Captain Spazzmataz,

(As an aside that is also a beginning, I made my title and, afterward, was both amused and delighted to find that your post was titled the same thing. Clearly, our creative juices are hard at work.)

I am writing to you on this Sunday eve of the first Monday in which I do not have to go to school. Last year, having regular Mondays off felt bizarrely stressful. I’m always so obsessed with my extra time and the certainty that I’m not using it well enough, and that just carried consistently throughout my year. With a pandemic, I feel little to no pressure to use my time more effectively exploring the world around me, and am quite content to be a guilt-free hermit in my home. Also, with not having so many Mondays off at my new school, they feel more gift-like, like a three day weekend did when I worked a traditional, students-all-five-days kind of week. All in all, it has been quite nice.

That being said, it does not make for incredible posting content. I will admit it. So, to provide you a run down of any notable events in my week:

Monday:
– I can’t remember much from Monday, so it clearly wasn’t terribly important. It was our last teacher work day before the students came, we got to leave early and I, for once, actually did, and I made some last minute adjustments to my classroom set up/environment. This included some of the fun new things Eric and I picked out last weekend! The bottle next to the sign says “Raven’s Brew.” It was fate.

Tuesday:
– Tuesday was the first day with students! It was a little strange; because of Covid, we couldn’t have an assembly or anything. The school essentially had a building-wide Zoom meeting from our classrooms.
– I discovered it is going to be very hard to learn everyone’s names with masks on. I find this to be a bummer since I’m normally really quick at learning their names. I also learned that, on the rare occasion I do glimpse them without their masks on, I have no idea who they are.
– The most important discovery of all was made: there are dispensers filled with lemonade, iced tea, and sweet tea in the teacher’s room every day. I can make an Arnold Palmer whenever I want, fo’ free.

Wednesday:
– As I already explained to you, Wednesday was the night of the baddest training. We don’t talk about Wednesday.

Thursday:
– Thursday was my first day of actually having the students do something academic, which means they needed my help. I forgot how much energy you have to force into the room for successful, engaging teaching. My spirit is out of shape.

Friday:
– Friday began my weekend of pumpkin coffee celebration. (This is a new, personal holiday I have decided to celebrate.)
– I kicked it off with whatever the ridiculously long name is for the pumpkin coffee frappuccino. It was nice enough, but it did not keep me awake. And I hate how ice crystal-y frappuccinos are, and how it’s hard to balance the goodness of the flavor with the level of freeze in your cup. In terms of preference, it came in third out of three. They also left the whipped cream on. Tragic.

Saturday:
– Saturday began with the most wonderful of all pumpkin beverages. You know who I’m talking about. She’s still number one.
– A monstrous morning storm rolled in and hung out for a good hour. It was magnificent. I tried to get a good photo to display the stormy-wonder and the sheets of rain and the very blustery wind and how a small stream was moving down our street. I thought you might miss those Midwestern weather phenomena. The picture I got shows very little of that.
– Sparhawk was gone the majority of Saturday being the wedding singer, but really the wedding trumpeter. They just haven’t made that movie yet.
– I finished two books.
– Herbert drove me CRAZY, so we played frisbee until we achieved exhaustion.
– Sparhawk brought me home rather delightful wedding favors and cake.

Sunday:
– I started out today with the one, the original, PSL. I got it iced. It’s fine. Cold foam cold brew is way better. Maybe I should get one hot tomorrow to have it as a contender in it’s true form.
– Today has been my teacher day. It’s interesting, having two whole new classes to teach. I find it’s always most difficult to begin a unit and harness direction; it gets much easier to plan as we move into a unit and have a clear end goal in mind. It has been a good kind of mental challenge. Hopefully it’ll go well this week, since we’ll be doing actual things and not just “getting to know you” and pre-assessments.
– Herbert has been feeling unwell today. It’s actually been quite gross. I think he might be one of the bad tums, like Nan. Because of that, it has been a relatively quiet evening with some sleepy puppers.

That is it for my week! I’m so happy for you and my sweet baby Churr out in the West. It looks like you both have been having an excellent time. I’m so impressed with you getting all fancy and being so productive. It looks like a lovely start to your new adventure.

Fondly,

Super Koala

A Long Overdue Sister Bag Adventure

Dearest Sister,

My sincerest apologies for having the sister bag for basically a thousand years.  It is a rather tragic event, especially when considering that I’ve done a lot of fun things, I’ve just failed to take the sister bag with me.  Luckily, I remedied this two weekends ago when I took the bag to Cider Days for some quality puppy volunteer time.

Now, as you may or may not know, Cider Days is a Springfield, MO fall festival.  It takes place on “Historic Walnut Street,” and I used to find it quite fancy and adorable.  However, Sparhawk and I have now attended fall festivals all over the Ozark area, and we have found many more impressive events.  Sorry, Cider Days.

Even if it is not nearly as fancy as the other festivals, Cider Days does have one significant benefit.  And that would be the Humane Society tent!  In past years, I have giddily ogled the puppies that come to these events.  This year, I got to hang out with them.

These were three of the puppies that came with us.  The fourth, Stormy, spent most of her time on another volunteer’s lap, so I didn’t spend much time with her.  The first puppy, Bella, is the one that Amanda ended up adopting.  The middle one, Oddie, was my little buddy most of the day.  And the last one posing with her paw on the sister bag, Brittany, is the one that almost came home with us.  No shame.

We had a fun day saying hello to people and going for miniature puppy walks.  After many hours outside, we were all sleepy.  Particularly little Oddie, who was also chilly.  We made them all beds.  It was incredibly precious.  Fortunately I had the bag with me to save my chair and house my snacks.

After we loaded the pups back in the van to go home, Sparhawk and I wandered around the street a little more to look at all the vendors.

I had spent most of my time in the tent with the puppies.  We found a lot of fantastic things, including the customary honey sticks, the most delicious apple cider candle of my life, and your present!  We also found this lady who does absolutely fantastic work.  Some of her paintings featured pets, so of course I asked her about them, and I discovered she does custom pet portraits!  So look out for that in my house soon.

All together, it was a very fun day.  I ran into lots of people I knew on the street, and several friends came by to visit and pet puppies.  As you can imagine, when I returned home, Annabelle and Nyxen were very jealous and had many opinions on how I spent my time.

– Super Koala, Out!

Sister Weekend: Second Annual Color Run

Dearest Readers,

This weekend marked another milestone in the history of our sister blog.  That is, of course, the semi-running of another 5k.  We tackled the Color Run, crazy to think it has been over a year since we started recording our adventures!

Spazzmataz came to visit me after leaving school early on Friday. (Shh, don’t tell.)  After her arrival, we embarked on leg one of our adventurous weekend.  First we went to gather our race packets, where we purchased the most adorable unicorn, Hue, who became our mascot for the weekend.  And for life.  Obviously.  Afterward, we saw the movie Home.  It was adorable, as was Hue during the spectation.

Saturday we arose painstakingly early for our run.  The race was in a different area than last year and took another route.  I found this slightly disappointing.  I think last year’s set up was much better.  Nonetheless, it was still a good time.  It’s nearly impossible to actually run at the Color Run; there are too many people walking.  But, I think we still put in a good running effort.

Customary before and after pictures.

This year, it was just the two of us running.  So we had to take solo jumping pictures.  Behold their excellence.

Afterwards, we shamelessly waited outside Pineapple Whip for at least fifteen minutes to retrieve our first Whips of the year.  They have new flavors!

We then spent a most glorious afternoon at the dog park, feasting on Hu Hot, and watching the live action version of Cinderella.  Surprisingly delightful.  Also, Hurts Donuts.

After so many activities, we were sleepy this morning.  We spent a nice deal of time cuddling with ze adorable puppies.

Once motivated, we went for a nice trail walk.  It is oddly chilly for almost May.

Bonus Color Run nails picture that I am too lazy to properly integrate into this post.

Now, we lay on Spazzmataz’s bed in mah hizzouse with puppies at our feet, preparing for her most tragic departure.  Thank goodness it is almost summer time.

– The Sisters Ravens

Long Overdue

Dearest Readers,

It is I, Super Koala.  It has been quite some time since the Spazz and I wrote a conventional post.  The past few weeks have been filled with lots of time together, and we’ve been busy actually doing things instead of writing about doing things.

That being said, we thought it’d be nice to reconvene and summarize what we’ve been up to lately.  For personal posterity.  I wasn’t sure how far back to start, and the Spazz is presently unreachable somewhere abouts Colorado.  So, this will likely be rather disjointed.

In late March, the Spazz spent a week at mah hizzouse and we had many lovely adventures.  This included dinners, fish fries, puppy expos, and trips to Silver Dollar City.

After Spazz went back to St. Louis, Sparhawk and I traveled to St. Louis for an extremely special occasion.  However, we began with a trip to the St. Louis Zoo.  If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it.  It’s pretty excellent, and it’s completely free.  I took a lot of pictures, particularly of monkeys and birds.  The highlights are posted below.

Somewhere in there, we had the below Starbucks “Happy Birthday” beverages.  THEY WERE DELICIOUS. They deserve a picture.

Onto the main event!  The reason we went to St. Louis was for a Bo Burnham show.  I shall perpetually measure time, we decided, as a pre- and post- Bo Burnham.  Kind of like B.C.E.  The show was most extraordinary.  We had front row center seats, and were promptly blinded by the very bright staging.  My favorite thing about a Bo Burnham show is that he makes me think.  Sure it’s comedy, sure it’s amusing, but above all, it’s intellectual.  I’m still ruminating on some of these sprung thoughts.  Life goal completed.  Spazz and I got shirts not pictured below.

The weekend after that, I traveled to St. Louis without Sparhawk and without puppies.  The occasion was for Easter, but as Spazz and I both have April birthdays, mine being the day after Easter, we did some pre-celebrating.  I was terribly excited to give Spazz her birthday present, which was a travel-sized record player along with Maroon 5’s new album.  This became extra perfect as the album is the same colors as the record player I picked out.  I had no idea.  The present went off very well, in my opinion.  Despite some incredibly vague hints I had dropped, Spazz had no idea, so the surprise was most successful.

After initial presenting, I discovered MamaBird had made me some most excellently awful Avengers cakes.  They tasted delicious, but weren’t incredibly pretty.  Nonetheless, chocolate cake is chocolate cake, and it’s the thought that counts.  I also received some delightful presents in the form of grey, polka-dot Vans from Spazzmataz and new Sperrys from my parents.  My feet are so well adorned.

While we were together, and before the Easter celebrations, we decided to accomplish a post card task.  As I had received multiple pairs of shoes, and was wearing my new Vans, this option seemed perfect.

Before we headed out for an evening of musical delight, we fastened our badges to our clothes.  Spazzmataz adjusted hers to reflect her birthday gift.  If you can’t read it, it says “Ask me about my record player.”  We each had three people ask us about our respective badges; fortunately, none of them were strangers.  I almost always hate talking to strangers.  And, we got to see our friend’s band play.  Their name is Koa, and they were really good.  Check ’em out.

That’s all for now!  Hopefully the Captain of Spazz will assemble some sort of Colorado post upon her return.

Aaaaand, terribly cute Annabelle picture below!  I missed my girl.

Valentine’s Weekend Fun

This weekend the Super Koala and I were once again united. Friday we both had the day off, so I made my first drive to Springfield. After three hours, we were finally together. We spent the day eating tasty food and hanging out with Pleasant Hopeians. For lunch we went to Bread Co. and I had my first ever bowl of broccoli cheddar soup. It was delicious, and I can see many more in my future. Then we went to Elle’s for tasty desserts.

Later that evening we went to the great town of Pleasant Hope to watch a basketball game. It was very intense and stressful, and sadly they lost. Afterwards there was a sort of hang out at the high school that Super Koala had to chaperone. They had movies, video games, board games, basketball, and ping-pong. We played trivial pursuit and, of course, Super Koala was the winner.

Yesterday was a beautiful morning, so we took the puppy girls to Rutledge-Wilson Farm for a nice long walk. They have a cute little pond where Nyx was able to be an adventure dog.

When we got home, it was too nice outside to continue to stay indoors, so we took the girls out to the dog park. It was the second best dog park day ever. Nyxie was was so nice to the other dogs, and she played, and she didn’t growl at anyone, and it was the best. There were even a couple of dogs bigger than her, and she didn’t get upset once. It was so cute because she didn’t want to leave when it was time to go home. Then we sat at home for a little until we traveled to Lebanon for dinner with Mamabird and our Nonna. We had Chinese food at Bamboo Gardens. It was pretty good, and I tried crab Rangoon for the first time.

When we got home, we decided to watch one of the movies off of our list, but sadly we fell asleep so we will re-watch the parts we missed tonight.

I am supposed to stay with the Koalas until Monday because we both have the day off again, but it is supposed to snow really hard, so I have to leave today. So, we made the most of our last day and got lots of things accomplished. We planned on going out for breakfast one day, so of course we had to go to Waffle House. Then we went to the mall, and I got a new pair of sweatpants, and we each got a sister related piece of jewelry.

Before we went to the mall, we had to make a pit stop at Barnes and Noble until the mall opened. We saw adorable kitten puzzles and lots of books that we stared at longingly.

They also had a pile of vinyls and one was of the new Maroon 5 album. Super Koala and I are very curious as to weather it is supposed to be the letter V or the roman numeral 5.

(Or maybe a less than sign)

Then we went to Hurts Donuts for a tasty snack. I also got a half-dozen to take home with me.

They were super busy, but luckily there were lots of donuts, so there were plenty for us to chose form. We had a great weekend even though it was cut short, and we will see each other soon enough. Also, tomorrow we will have a Skype reading date, so there will be another A Million Little Pieces post.

Grammy Wrecking

Dearest Captain Spazzmataz,

This post comes to you as Sparhawk and I sit on the couch, with the girls, watching the Grammies.  Fortunately, I was very prepared for my post.  Early today, Sparhawk and I went to the Aviary for delicious, delicious creperie noms.  Whilst there, I completed all of my necessary wreckage to assemble this post.

First, le post cards!

As we waited for our food, we noticed a pouch attached to the wall by us.  Other patrons had filled the pouch with interesting, random notes.  I decided we needed to contribute a post card to the pouch.  So, we spent various points in the dinner working on this random thoughts card.  Sparhawk was the major contributor, including a poem he wrote on the back.  Before we left, we tucked it into the pouch for someone else to enjoy.

   

My other post card was very simple.  It’s the one where you see how many times you can send the card back and forth between a friend.  I chose Philip, since we’re already supposed to be correspondents.

For my wreckage, I found the most perfect prompt inside the book.

Being titled the Aviary, the restaurant is filled with birds.  Though, they are redecorating, so there’s not as many birds as there used to be.  However, I still found a decent amount.

My other wrecking did not turn out so well.  On our drive home, I still had one last wrecking to complete, so I chose the one where you draw while in motion.  It was a rather tragic experience, especially when I recall how well yours turned out.

Sparhawk did not assist with this at all.  He kept forcefully lurching the car to make my poor drawing even worse.

I’m so excited to see you this weekend!  This week was fairly pleasant, though nothing particularly notable happened.  The weather has been so pretty this weekend, which severely cut down on my overall productivity yesterday.  I got back in the game today and did a fair amount of cleaning.  Now I only have to survive one four day week, and then I get a Spazz filled four day weekend!  I will continue to work on our list as well as keeping my teacher life in check, so I don’t have to do a bunch of grading while you’re in town.  Since parent teacher conferences are on Thursday, that shouldn’t be hard.  Grades need to be nicely caught up for that.

Well, I’m going to go read personal narratives and continue watching the awards.  Cuddling with the puppies through the process as been particularly delightful given their bath.

Love you,

Super Koala

Neighborly Wrecking

Dearest Captain Spazzmataz,

Aren’t you proud of me?  My post is very on time this week.  However, as you mentioned in your previous post, I also only have one wrecking and post card.  This weekend has been incredibly stressful, and I just didn’t have the time to create two of each.  Next week for sure.

What made this weekend so stressful also made this weekend good.  On Saturday I was out of the house for eleven hours for speech purposes.  The team, as you know, ended up doing really well.  We took home medals in all of our events except for one and took third overall; not too shabby for a team of three.  I was very proud of them so I took them for sub-par Chinese food afterward.  Upon their request.

After speech, I had a few hours before Sparhawk got home.  I used that time to start frantically grading my personal narratives, which I still have like 30 of.  Stress.  Once he arrived, we quickly left to go to Corbin and Lauren’s.  Along with the puppy girls, of course.  The four of us along with BBKF had a sleepover of sorts.  We decided we wanted to watch movies until real late, and Corbin wanted to make us breakfast in the morning.  It was super delightful, and I got to sleep cuddled with the puppies in their guest room.  During this event we discovered Sparhawk has never seen any of the Brat Pack movies.  Legitimately none.  This horrific realization came at a rather unfortunate time, given they just took the Breakfast Club off Netflix.  We semi remedied this by having him watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.  I was lame and fell asleep before the end, but I made it to the parade scene, so I was happy.

After scrumptious breakfast involving steak and eggs, we made it back home.  I’ve spent all day doing horrible things like grading papers, and I’m still not done.  So much to do!  Belle and Nyxen have been extra lazy today, though.  They’ve been nice stress buddies.

My wrecking adventures this week made me very uncomfortable, but I managed to complete them.

The post card was one I’ve dreaded since I first flipped through the book.

Today, I decided I’d conquer this beast.  And I had a brilliant idea.  I originally thought this one would be super weird because I’d have to put it in my immediate neighbors yards.  But that’s not true at all!  My neighborhood is huge, so I decorated it up a bit and decided to hide it in a yard on a different street.

I tried to write a cute message on the back, but I was rather distracted, so it came out a little iffy.  I waited for the cover of darkness to make my move.  Whilst walking the pups, I tucked it in between the fence slats of one of the backyards we regularly pass.  I happen to know nothing about them other than they have children.  It’s my hope that one of the little girls will find it, and maybe enjoy it.  I think an adult will probably just still find it creepy.

This evening’s walk also helped me complete my wrecking task!

Tragically, this did not go as well as I planned.  All of the natural surfaces had no effect on the paper, and there was no proof of scraping.  In desperation, I turned to unnatural surfaces.

This finally produced a result.  After scraping it on bushes, shrubs, trees, and grass, it took a brick wall, a fence, and the sidewalk to actually make marks on the paper.  This activity also made me rather uncomfortable as it’s the Super Bowl, which means Super Bowl parties, which means people congregating outside, which means witnesses to my odd scraping as I towed two puppies through a very windy neighborhood.  It was rough.

Anyway!  I’m going to continue my paper grading.  Wish me luck.  I love you, and I hope you had a nice weekend with not too much hating everyone!

Super Koala

Sickly Wrecking

Dearest Captain Spazzmataz,

I hope the remainder of your first week back went well.  Mine was only okay.  I have one class that forgot how to be functioning people, and they’re right in the middle of the day.  Because of this, they kind of put a damper on my general feelings about the school day as a whole.  It’s lame, but I’m hoping it’ll improve.  And if not, I’ll just have to keep in mind the fact that my other classes have been going really well.  Drama started up again, and it’s been a lot of fun.  Right now we’re just doing a lot of team building activities, but they show a lot of promise.  And the class is full, which means I can actually be selective about my actors this year.  Hooray!

Thanks to my illness, my weekend has been rather uneventful.  It started out good.  On Friday, I got tasty sushi with my little and then went around doing a kind act.  After sushi, Little and I went to Hurts, where on impulse I bought a half dozen glazed donuts just to deliver to other people.  Five of them went to Imo’s, where Sparhawk and company were working, and one went to BBKF, who was having a bad day.  I hung out with her at the family video until her shift ended, and then she came over to my house.  We were supposed to watch a movie, but the illness struck.  I ended up falling asleep, which is what I did for most of my weekend.  Yesterday, I slept at least fifteen hours.  And I still went to sleep in a timely fashion once Sparhawk got back from work.

When I was awake, good things happened.  I got a haircut, which I love.  The back is all nice and layered and not mulletish at all now.  Afterwards I went to Imo’s to nom on some delicious lunch items, and then hurried back to take the girlies to the dog park.  As you recall, they did pretty well.  Nyx still hates dogs that are notably larger than her.  Which is most dogs.  But oh well.  After that, I swung by the library to pick up some books and my new/old items.  I’ve currently read four books in 2015!  And then I abruptly went to sleep.  I know I haven’t been feeling well because I’ve eaten very little all weekend.  You know that’s not normally my life.

Despite illness, I still have my wrecking completed!  It was by goal to get them done in a timely fashion.  Tonight I’m going with BBKF to see the Hobbit and have dinner, whether I feel up to it or not.  I’ve already canceled once, so I promised myself the only way I wouldn’t be going was if I had a fever or was throwing up.  Fortunately neither have happened.

Anyhow, my tasks this week were pretty simple.

For my post card I had to collect fruit stickers.  I actually worked on this one all week, pealing a sticker off my daily fruit whenever possible.  Unfortunately, we only have apples and bananas right now, as not much else is in season and delicious.  But I still managed to cover the card fairly well.

For my wreckage, I completed one you have done before and made this nice little message for Sparhawk.

It will be really easy to put it in his pockets.  I’ve decided I’m going to put it in a pair of his fancy pants, and then he’ll end up seeing it when he’s substitute teaching.  I think it’ll make a good surprise.

That’s all from me today!  I hope your concert went really well and that it was a fun time!  I look forward to your post!

Love,

Super Koala

2014: A Haphazard Reflection

In the following post I, Super Koala, will attempt to reflect upon the year 2014.  I’ve never done a reflection type post like this, and I tend to forget relatively important details, so we’ll see how my portion of this works.  Captain Spazzmataz will be posting below me.

Super Koala’s 2014

January: I came to the very important and impacting realization that I was going to purchase a house.  January launched a month of house hunting, scouring areas of Springfield I didn’t even know existed, and important life conversations.  I also started my second semester teaching, a little smarter and wiser than I was at the beginning of the school year.

February: With the guidance of my rad parents, I closed on THE house, making me an almost official homeowner.  I road in a wheelbarrow at my job, and realized I needed to find more hobbies in the face of tremendous snow days.  Sparhawk bought me an infinity ring for Valentine’s Day, an adorable trinket I’d semi-secretly lusted after for easily a year.  It was a tremendous victory; I wear it nearly every day.

March: I experienced my first paid Spring Break, which we got to keep even with tremendous snow days.  Spazzmataz and I actually adventured outside during the break, and we officially began this excellent little blog.  I realized what it meant to put on a play, thus gaining tremendous respect for all who endeavor to do so professionally.  Seriously.  Go you.

April: During one very perfect weekend that included my sister and father in Springfield, my first 5k, and an AllTimeLow concert, I turned 23.  I fell in fascination with John and Hank Green, the most delightful siblings I can think of excluding the Spazz and myself.  Sparhawk performed his senior recital; I was so impressed.  I chopped off all my hair, received the keys to my house, ate a first meal of Sonic in the house with my Spirit Dog, and we officially completed the play.  It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.  Secretly the best.

May: After months of anticipation, Sparhawk and I moved into the house.  I did terrible and wonderful things like pick out furniture.  I finished my first year of teaching and attended my first graduation as a teacher.  I understood why my job is so fantastic, and settled in for my first teacher summer.  PapaBird came to town for a week and a half and made my house essentially perfect while we went on many Springfield adventures.

June: I did not go to Hawaii.  This was obviously an utter tragedy.  However, I did spend a week in St. Louis with just my mother and my dog.  I unpacked my entire life’s worth of belongings.  At the end of the month, we adopted a new furry child.  Insanity and hilarity have ensued ever since.

July: Turns out, owning a house means lots of random people ring your doorbell and want things from you that you don’t want to give them.  In response, I semi-stopped opening the door.  Whoops.  The Spazzmataz’s monthly visit to Springfield came to a sad ending.  Not that anything sad happened, other than her departure.  Annabelle saved us from a potentially sketchy guest, making her the best puppy ever.  Baby Nyx decided to love me but to continue hating Sparhawk.  I risked my life Ziplining, but rollercoasters made me feel better.

August: The new school year started, and Sparhawk began his student teaching.  BooBoo joined Spazz and I at the wonderful YMCA bookfair where many books were purchased.  An excessive amount of used books was not enough.  Spazzmataz and I had to go to Barnes and Noble to find the materials that would launch our postcard and wrecking project.  5 o’clock in the morning became my regular acquaintance, causing many theoretical tears.

September: Settling into the swing of the new school year took some adjustment.  But my group of Spawn Boys, as I shall always remember them, quickly formed.  The weather was beautiful, hours were spent at the dogpark, and the pumpkin items that delight my soul came out to play.  Sparhawk and I spent the most perfect morning I can think of, at the farmer’s market with the pups followed by breakfast at the Aviary.  I remembered that it’s important to socialize, even if I just want to introvert it up on a daily basis.

October: By complete random happenstance, I saw a simultaneous blood moon and a lunar eclipse.  5 AM seemed a little less scary afterwards.  For some unknown reason, I got really into high school softball.  The craze has faded.  Spazz and I ran our third 5k, and got fancy medals for our performance.  I discovered the most exquisite of events, the Pets and Pumpkins Parade, and many very missed friends came back into town for Homecoming.

November: Time began to fly at school.  Everything that seemed hard to manage got easier.  I got to be a speech coach again, and my students did a really excellent job.  I got all nostalgic and got to reunite with a college friend/fellow coach.  I got back into writing but quickly fell out of it again.  Sadness.  Nyxie frolicked in the snow for the first time, and I began to covertly feed Izzie treats.  This makes me feel like I’m interacting with my neighbors, which doesn’t make any sense.

December: The last days of the semester flew by at an alarming rate, and rapidly closed another period of time in my crazy career.  I feel like I learned a lot in the fall semester, and I want to remember to apply all that I’ve learned in the spring.  I set goals for myself that I want to meet, if not exceed.  I spent some very excellent Silver Dollar City time with a very excellent boy, reminding me why I appreciate him so much.  I purchased tickets to see the love of my life (Bo Burnham) live.  Finally, the puppy girls and I headed forth to St. Louis, where we had much needed family time, landing me right here on the bed in the basement where I now type.

What up, 2015?

Captain Spazzmataz’s 2014

January: January marked the beginning of a second semester that started almost an entire week late because of massive amounts of snow. It was also the time that I decided that I was going to run a marathon by the time I graduated College, and thus began the great race of a lifetime.

February: I cannot remember a thing from February, so I guess it was a waste of a month.

March: The thing that is The Adventures of Super Koala And Captain Spazzmataz came to life. Also a very snowy Spring Break.

April: I turned 16 and got my drivers license, attended my first ever concert, and completed my first ever 5K.

May: I finally finished school on the last day of the month and got a major hair cut.

June: I took an amazing trip to Hawaii with the great Oakville Marching Band. It will probably be the band trip to beat from here on out. I also spent the first half of time with Super Koala in Springfield, and I had to  choke down parts of The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

July: My time with Super Koala ended, but over the course of it, she got a new dog, and we went on many adventures including a second 5K. Band camp started and I got awesomely horrible tan lines that are still visible in some place.

August: The new school year started and so did my grueling practice for All Suburban auditions (even though they weren’t until November).

September: The competitions for marching season began, and we really sucked, but we kept keppin on. This month also started my great semester of procrastination.

October: I completed my third 5K and visited my first possible college. The marching season came to an end with a fantastic win.

November: I made All Suburban band! Also, the school year started to come to a close, and I could feel the pressure to get all A’s. I also got my braces off!

December: The last days of school flew by, and I wasn’t even stressed by the time finals week rolled around. I finished the semester with all A’s, and I finished the year with my sister. It was the first time that I have ever made resolutions and drank sparkling grape juice.

I am terribly sorry that I don’t have more to reflect on, but it seems as though my memory is worse than Super Koala’s. Hopefully next year I will be able to remember more.