It has been a busy week! This week officially kicked off the start of our speech season, which saw me staying very late at school indeed. We had videos to record, practices to run, and rounds to judge. The virtual component is a strange one, but it has been fun to be involved with the kiddos again. I think I mentioned in my last post how nice it is to have students who actively want to practice.
Otherwise, this weekend has been fairly cozy. The weather has been overcast and chilly, turning all the puppies into the cutest of snuggets.
Herm in particular does not know how to handle the chill. And we’ve reached the time in which all the dogs sleep in the bed to steal our warmth.
Yesterday, as you know, I went to puppy sit the little smols at Amanda’s house. On top of being adorable, it was very productive. I got all my teacher things done whilst petting the tinsiest of puppies.
Afterward, I came home and buckled down on watching some Great British Bake Off. Saturday marked two weeks until the wedding, so Sparhawk and I have intensified our self-quarantine. Fortunately, there is a lot of Bake Off to watch.
Today, Sparhawk had parent-teacher conferences, so I had the house all to myself. I cleaned all the common rooms to prepare for when the house sitter arrives. That way not all the cleaning has to be last minute. I did some laundry, made some TikToks, baked some brownies, and finished a book. It was quite a nice, though dreary, day. I finally didn’t leave all my teacher duties until the last day of the weekend, and it was nice as I thought it would be.
A brief recap of my week, before I get to the important things:
Everything was so very busy, and I felt very frantic all the time. The week before grades are due is always a time of great need and bartering in the school system, which definitely contributes directly to my work load and frantic feelings. On top of that, speech is starting to pick up. On top of that, the Gremlin was sick. On top of that, there are always a few wedding things to be tended to.
This all culminated in the mega-weekend, which began on Friday, when I had kids in my room practicing until 5. (I try to remind myself that it is nice to have team members who actually want to practice.) I then had about thirty minutes to run out for food and eat said food before heading to our football stadium. It was my turn to supervise a football game, which was also homecoming. Once that ended at 9, (it thankfully started an hour earlier) I went back to my room to do some project grading, keeping those from being ferried around all weekend. When I got home, I discovered that Sparhawk had cleaned the majority of the house and bought Andy’s. Twas very nice.
Saturday I woke up at 6:00 so that I could hit the old dusty trail to St. Louis. I made it in enough time to order my cake and everything before going to my dress fitting. Laura met us there because she is so nice. After learning how to tame the many layers of by dress, we went to a little farmer’s market shop to find live ceremony decorations. Then we went to Tooie’s, picked up White Castle, and came back to the house. After eating, we all stood outside for a long time and puzzled out several wedding elements. Laura was very helpful like. Soon after she left, I also left to begin the drive home.
Sunday was grading day. I graded so many assignments, including the very tedious late work I had received. I watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone while doing said tedious late work, and Sparhawk and I quoted all the good lines. Once that was done in the late evening, I finished a book because my brain deserved something nice.
I would say Married at First Sight without the train wreck is less good, but it was an excellent reunion. Now! Onto the good stuff!
Hear ye! Hear ye!
After almost 8 years of mystery, Annabelle’s secrets have finally been revealed! I present to you, her DNA results!
I loved these so much. It was so fun to learn the truth. You’ll notice, there is shockingly not an ounce of Pittie in our girl.
I hope you have a good week! I’ll get to see you in person some time in the near future! How exciting!
Thank you for celebrating my release from quarantine with me. Fortunately, I have successfully made it out unscathed. A teacher in my school got sick while I was away, so I know that I am extra fortunate. Being back at school was quite nice, and many freshmen expressed happiness at my return. They like me more than the sophomores.
While I was set free on Friday, it was still a quiet week. Other than establishing myself as a TikTok star, I haven’t accomplished much. Sparhawk was busy all weekend, so I was particularly less motivated to go out in the world.
I didn’t even take many animal photos this week. Mostly just videos it would seem. I did many work outs on my stationary bike, but not in the real world. We finished the most recent season of Glow Up, which I would highly recommend, and I finished season 1 of Married at First Sight, which really felt like less of a train wreck than season 9.
Though I got much grading done Saturday and Sunday, Monday was our most productive day in the world. Sparhawk and I successfully applied for our marriage license, and then we got tasty Indian take out at a place I had never been before. We also stopped at a music store and shoe store because he needed some semi-essentials.
I suppose that is it for the week. Terribly lame, I know. I’m excited to see progress in your diamond painting! Keep me updated.
I hope you had a good first day out of quarantine. This week was my sort of first week out of quarantine. We actually got to have in person classes! Along with having classes in person means having to wear masks while playing instruments. It is quite the experience. I already showed you the double flap wonder that is my saxophone mask, but playing with it on is a whole other adventure.
Peep the sweatshirt.
It is very difficult to find the openings when I go to put the instrument in my mouth. I scrape my reed on it all the time, but have yet to break one. Sometimes the inner layer will get under my lip and it is a terrible feeling. Also, since there is fabric against my mouth all of the time, my lips dry out so often. But i guess it is nice to be in person, so it is a small price to pay.
It is definitely strange being in a school where I don’t know any of the students or teachers or where anything is. At Missouri State, I obviously knew all of the professors and was very good at navigating campus. Here, everything is new again and it is weird. Also, the building makes no sense. The floor plan is very poorly thought out and my locker is on the opposite side of the building from all of the rehearsal rooms. The top floor makes a full circle, but the bottom floor only makes a u shape, so it makes finding my way quite challenging.
Other being in class during the week, I haven’t done anything incredibly exciting. On Saturday, Corrie made donuts in the air fryer and I got to try one. It was pretty delicious, and I need an air fryer so we can make donuts all the time.
Also, Corrie bought a four pack of those diamond paintings and she was nice enough to give me one! I have started working on it, and it is so satisfying. And sparkly.
I’ve only done the black in the corner, but it is so pretty and textured and shiny. Moral of the story is that Corrie is the best and diamond painting is also the best. Highly recommend it.
That is all for now. I look forward to hearing how your non quarantine life is going.
I have finally moved from my ever persisting bed location! I promise I don’t spend as much time in by bed as it seems, but Corrie’s mom brought her new couch up, so now I have a secondary comfy place to sit!
This week has been more of the same routine, with Churro and I spending a lot of time on walks and at the dog park. I made sure to capture some epic action shots of her playing, and here are a few of my favorites.
She has found a few doggo friends that we see fairly often, and they play so well together. Last weekend, we went on an epic walk, and she wound up laying in the grass because she was tired. Since then, she has realized that she likes to lay in the grass and will do it just for funsies.
I have spent much time practicing this week, and I had my first lesson. I knew it wasn’t going to go great because I wasn’t really focused in my practicing last week. It is funny though because he has a way of telling you that you were not very prepared, but does it with a smile on his face so it doesn’t seem so bad. This week, I came up with a plan for each day of practice so I would be better at reaching my goals.
I was also much more motivated to get my schoolwork done before the weekend because Tyler is here! Last week I was bad and didn’t do the homework for one of my classes until Sunday night and it was due by midnight. I have turned it around this week, and I completed all of my assignments by Thursday evening!
Tyler arrived Thursday night, and we spent today looking around Laramie. We went on a walk where I showed him all of my favorite houses, to the dog park to let Churro burn off some energy, and around downtown so he could see the quaintness. We are going to spend the rest of the weekend exploring some of the outdoor activities Wyoming has to offer. Wish me luck, we may go hiking.
My new glasses arrived Thursday night as well! I really like them and they are super comfy! They came a lot sooner than I was expecting.
I am very jealous of your pumpkin spicecapades. I have not had any pumpkin anything yet, and seeing your post made me long for the warm spicy smells. I do think you need to give the classic pumpkin spice latte its fair chance and have it hot. I do believe that it is much better hot because it invokes more feelings of fall.
Speaking of fall, Laramie is deciding to skip the season all together and go straight to winter. This weekend is supposed to be quite warm with the high on Sunday being almost 90 degrees. However, something truly terrible must be coming because the hight on Tuesday as of now is only 30 degrees and is is supposed to snow. I don’t know what kind of mystical land I have moved to. It is supposed to be 78 degrees on Monday. What is going to happen? I am mildly stressed for Churro and I’s walk on Tuesday morning. Will it be blizzarding? Who knows? I will have to give you a weather update next week to let you know what actually happens.
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.
(I really should change up my posting location more often)
This week school has started! I have three classes that will consistently be only online this semester, and three that will hopefully get to go in person at some point. Because everything is currently online, I feel like I am sending an absurd amount of emails every day.
My daily routine starts with taking the sweet baby Churr on a walk so she can be relatively relaxed through the day. Then, after a shower and breakfast, I ride my bike to go practice.
Here is a lovely photo of me in the practice room on Monday.
My first few days biking were quite a struggle. On Monday and Tuesday, I had to bike with my backpack and my saxophone. This, coupled with the thin air, made for a challenge I was not expecting. I solved this situation by requesting a locker in the music building so I can store my things there. I was met with another problem on Tuesday. I have not ridden a bike in quite some time, and my bottom was SORE. When I went to get on it on Tuesday, it was difficult to sit down properly. This problem persisted until today. This morning was the first morning since Monday that I could comfortably sit on my bike.
I decided to do my makeup to commemorate the first day of school, however I forgot to take a picture of it in the morning. I did however remember to capture the moment before I took my makeup off in the evening, and I would say everything held up pretty well through biking and practicing.
Almost every day this week, I have taken Churro to the new found dog park when I get home from practicing. This allows her to let out some energy so she will hopefully be calm while I try to do work the rest of the afternoon/evening. It has been quite successful.
She mostly just lays like this while I work on homework and then gets one last spurt of energy before bed. The only downfall of her being so sleepy all day is that she has made my bed quite hairy. She is still shedding like crazy, and I can’t wait for that to stop because it is disgusting. It is worse than when Nyxie sleeps on my pillow all weekend.
I haven’t really done a whole lot this week. It has been mostly just figuring out a routine that works. I did remember to start the list journal that you gave me!
I have completed the first two. I decided that in order for me to remember to do them, I should do them before I post each week. They are going well so far. Currently, the book is having me reflect on different things that make me happy. It is a nice little reminder of all of the good things.
Hopefully I will have more exciting things to report next week.
Lots of Love,
Captain Spazzmataz
P.S. I will try to capture some photos of Churro being cute at the dog park, but usually she is much too fast for my camera shutter.
I am so prepared for my post today. You should be so proud. I did all of my wrecking outside of the house. I mean I did it at school, so it isn’t really as impressive, but I am still proud of myself for remembering to do it.
For my first journal page, I had a very wordy challenge.
I was in the gym, so I wrote down as many words as I could see without using names. They have all of those banners with names of people on specific teams that won things, but I didn’t want to use the names. I thought that was kind of weird, and those aren’t even really words, so I stuck to actual words. This is what I came up with.
I forgot to take a before picture of the next one, but it instructed me to gather names and autographs. I went around and asked people if they would sign my book, and one kid made me sign a document saying that he would get half the revenue from whatever money I made when I sold his signature if he became famous. I said that was a pretty fair trade off, especially since I doubt he will ever be super famous.
My first postcard was pretty fun. Once again I forgot to take a before picture, but I had to cut out the center of the card and take peoples’ pictures with the frame that was left. I had many willing models, and the pictures were really funny.
It was surprisingly difficult to get the frame lined up properly.
My second postcard is one that I am pretty sure you have already done. I had to make a mess while eating lunch, so two of my friends and I made a super mess during lunch.
We got some banana, hard-boiled egg yolk, grape juice, orange juice, ranch, cheeto dust, and chocolate pudding smeared across the card. I made the executive decision just to throw this one away.
On to the next order of business!
In regards to your spring break goals, I have a few ideas.
Make 50,000 simoleons.
Read 3 books
Write 3 chapters of a book
Plan meals for you and I to make when I visit
Run a total of 8 miles throughout the week
There, I think that is a pretty good start. Of course you can add personal things for like school and current goals you are working on, but these are my suggestions. I guess that is all I have for you, so I will end my post here. I can’t wait to visit in one week! Since I will be seeing you on Thursday next week, I think we should skip our posts next week, and we can make some adventure posts while we are together.
– Captain Spazzmataz
P.S. You still have to do yours for this coming Sunday otherwise we would be off from each other.
I almost got away with being late this time! You didn’t even notice until a few hours ago that I did not post yesterday. Oh well, I guess you would have found out sooner or later.
My week was very stressful. I have had four tests, a presentation, and a surprise timed writing. Not to mention more homework than normal. What is wrong with my teachers? Why do they want me to cry all of the time? I even had to do sort of work in jazz band! Yesterday Mr. Brakefield had us fold 700 programs! And, they had two pages each, so about 6 or 7 people were folding 1400 pieces of paper. It took the entire class to finish. I guess we did pretty good though because there was only one paper cut suffered out of all of us. Besides my stresses, there isn’t really all that much to talk about this week, so I will just move on to my wrecking.
I had what I was going to do this week all planned out by Monday, but then everything took a turn for the worse. I forgot to bring the materials to school on Tuesday, and I forgot about them on Wednesday. Then, on Thursday, I only did about an eighth of everything, so I am just going to save that stuff for next week, and hopefully I will remember it.
For my journal pages I did two create your owns.
This one sounded better in my head than it turned out. I guess the final product does look kind of cool, but I didn’t really think about the fact that bouncy balls don’t bounce that well off of a soft paper book, so I didn’t have as much fun as I thought I would.
I even make the swirls in the same color of the ball that make it! I thought that was pretty clever.
My second one was a little better.
You gave me the idea after our conversation today. Your extreme need for a quilt made me want to make one. Even if the one I made wouldn’t really function that well as a blanket, It looks pretty cool in the book.
As you can tell from the picture, I went for a patchwork quilt. I think it looks pretty cool. I know I probably could have done it a little neater, but I did this in a rush.
My first postcard is one that you did last week.
I made the planet of Ostara. It is a beautiful planet with a large, lush forest and the cleanest natural body of water in the galaxy. The northern housing district is where all the smarty pants live. They cross the river every day into the working district to go to school and work. They are in charge of making sure the planet survives and that everyone has everything they need. The southern (and smaller) housing district houses the party animals. They cross the river to their left every day into to land of party. There they are in charge of making sure everyone is having a good time.
My second postcard is one that would potentially relieve all of my school stress.
I decided that the only thing I really wanted to be gone at that moment was my homework. I have so much to do this weekend!
Now I can just go into school on Monday and tell all of my teachers that my portable black hole ate my homework! Do you think they will believe me?
That is all I have for you this week. Hopefully next week is less stressful and I will be more prepared for my post. Now I am going to watch a movie because we have so many to watch this weekend.
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.
The Adventures of Super Koala and Captain Spazzmataz 