365: Celebration

Decided to celebrate my first funded proposal at Chico State with my favorite adult beverage! I love Woodchuck so much. So many good memories associated with it, JC girls you know what I'm talking about!

365: Awful

This is how I feel tonight as expressed through crappy food I'm eating for dinner (tortilla roll-up). 

Why so x's over my eyes you ask? Well like a dick, when I was leaving class I decided I NEEDED to check my email. And also like a dick, I missed the third stair from the bottom of the staircase and tumbled down the stairs nearly breaking both of my legs...possibly breaking one of my legs. Of course broken pride hurts more than broken legs so I catapulted myself into an upright position to make it look like EVERYTHING WAS FINE. Luckily, there was no one around to see my tragic fall and I was able to hobble over to a bench to gulp back my tears of agony until I had enough energy to hobble back to my office. My leg has throbbed continuously since then. 

If I wake up tomorrow and can't walk I won't be surprised.

365: Amassing our Arsenal

Now that we have a gypsy camper, we need supplies and rations for her makeover. I've been stalking Craigslist since Sunday and was lucky to get this hideous futon mattress for FREE. Since it's not a full-time bed I was ok with used. Besides the fugly cover it's really nice actually! We are going to douse it with Lysol & Febreeze Anti-Microbal spray before recovering it ...with some cool new fabric just to be on the safe side. Score for free!!! 

And as with everything new to come in our house, but particularly things that have been in other people's houses, it needed to be inspected. An re-inspected. And probably inspected again 678654 times before it's taken on our smell and they forget about it.

365: Olive You

Every day we drive by this street on our way to work and/or school. And every day I tell Ange "Olive you babe." It makes me smile every time.

365: The Mythical Dust Dog

So apparently I drive fast. Who knew? Anyway, the speed limit on our road is 15 MPH and apparently that is not the actual speed our neighbors would like us to go, but would instead prefer 5-10 MPH. About 2 weeks after we moved in they posted some signs along the road. Maybe it wasn't because of us (really, mostly me) but since there are only 4 houses past ours and we're the only newbies around, I'm thinking they were directed at us (and mostly me). The best part of this whole public shaming of my driving skills is that Ange recently revealed that for several weeks she was perplexed at what a "dust dog" might be and it wasn't until several weeks of pondering went by that she realized they were two separate reasons to slow down. I laughed so hard at her. She told me I couldn't tell anyone about her blonde moment (moment that lasted weeks, ahem), but she is the one who took this picture today using my phone so unless she was having another blonde moment she had to know it was going to be my pic o'the day. Love you dust dog!

365: Butching It Up

God, in addition to being Burning Man Camp Awesome style weekend, it was also apparently "be a big butch lesbian" weekend around here. Our stupid piece of crap bed that we bought at a furniture outlet store kept falling apart and making our mattresses collapse on the ground in the middle of the night giving all of us heart attacks. Sidenote: careful with those discount furniture stores. So we decided to strap on our power tools (pun totally intended) and make this bed our bitch. In less than an hour it was all fixed up and stable and now we can sleep in peace. And no one dies or lost an eye! Add this to our new Camp Awesome Annex (Lucy the trailer) and we've pretty much transformed into wild mountain lesbians.

365: Burning Man Weekend Camp Awesome Style

Ange and I decided to throw our own Burning Man type Weekend here at Camp Awesome. I'm not gonna lie...it's been pretty awesome. Tonight we're eating disgustingly delicious food and drinking lots of beer.

When I was little my mom used to make us nachos for lunch or a snack. Being that I come from the plainest plain family in all of Plainsville this meant tortilla chips, shredded cheese and a can of Hormel chili. Now that I'm all grown up and fancy Hormel has been replaced with Amy's Vegetarian Chili, spicy queso cheese, sour cream and guacamole have been added. Oh yeah, livin' the dream people. You know you wish you were here.

365: Recycling

In California we recycle damn near everything. Big difference from Indianapolis where recycling is damn near impossible. Unfortunately we live at the bottom of a canyon so we have to drag our recyclables to Chico to the recycling center. It's a pain, but it saves the Earth and we get money for returning our CRV stuff (anything you can drink out of mostly). Since I have a relaxed Friday schedule and the recycling center is only open M-F it's my job to recycle. So about every 3 weeks I haul all of our recyclables to the car, drive to the center, separate them by type and get some monies. Since I work hard at it I then take the money we earn and buy a treat for myself! Hehe Today I was walking by the brown glass container (yep, we even separate all the recyclables by type AND color) and I noticed it was mainly filled with Sierra Nevada bottles. It was funny since anywhere else in the country you would probably see Miller, Coors & Bud and maybe a smattering of other brands. That's what happens when you live in a town with a brewery!

365: Bicycles!

Chico is one of the most bike friendly towns I've ever been to. People ride bikes EVERYWHERE here. There are many of these bicycle parking lots around campus and they're almost always packed full. If Ange and I ever decide to leave the canyon we're totally moving somewhere we can ride our bikes.

365: Intimacy Timeline

We did a group activity today in my Human Sexuality class. I asked them to decide when intimate behaviors were acceptable to begin across the lifespan. These were their answers. Hopefully you can read them. It's always an entertaining and enlightening discussion.

365: FroYo

My BFF Heather introduced Ange and I to a "make your own frozen yogurt creation" place in Indiana right before we left. I was happy to see a plethora of "FroYo" places in Chico. Unfortunately none of them so far has measured up to the one that Heather introduced us to. However, there is one little shop near campus that offers $1 creations on Tuesdays. That is a Super Steal people. They usually charge by the ounce and it isn't cheap. Now granted they make you use a small cup for that $1 but even still it is a substantial savings. Plus it forces me to not be a complete FroYo pig so double win. It may not be as good, but for a buck I can hardly complain! (Bonus: check out the cool mosaic bench I found to sit on while I ate my $1 FroYo and waited for Ange to be done with her haircut!)

365: Three Little Birds

I had drinks with a new friend this weekend and she asked me about my tattoo. I got to share the story of my sisters and how much they mean to me. After I was done she said she was an only child and it made me even more thankful that I've got to share my life with my two sisters. I forgot about this until today when I heard Bob Marley on my way home. I knew I had to make this my picture for the day.

365: Little Cup

Ange loves little cups. I have no idea how she gets any satisfaction out of drinking out of this cup. I'd inhale all that was in it in one sip and have to refill it about 78342 times before I was quenched. She takes the littlest sips ever so it doesn't seem to bother her. I love this crazbo.

365: Derby Date Night

Ange and I got invited to check out Chico's Roller Derby action so we decided to make a date night out of it!

365: It's a Funfetti Night

 

Ange loves me so much she decided to make me Funfetti cupcakes tonight. AND I got to lick the bowl. Heaven :)

365: One of my Favorite Things about Camp Awesome

As if having FIVE dogs wasn't enough work already, we have 4 perpetually needy dogs that take extra special care to thrive. One dog only eats wet food, one dog has epilepsy and has to take phenobarbital twice a day, one dog is a grouchy arthritic who takes 5 pain pills and Prozac daily, and one has a genetically terrible mouth and is on antibiotics ever other month. The one "well" one is just a jerk, but requires no particular medical care. This house came with an AWESOME basement-y type area that we've totally made into the Dog Dude Ranch. The very best part of it is the "wet bar" area where we can set up the arsenal. It's a one stop shop that I visit several times a day for various reasons. It saves me from having to make eleventy million trips up and down the stairs. I need all the energy I can get living in this zoo!

365: No Time for Dinner!

Survivor starts tonight. We did not have time to fix a proper dinner. I had to make due with a bowl of oatmeal...and I didn't even do a good job with that! Priorities people!

365: Bad Ass Dog

"What have you been up to today Daisy?"

"Oh you know, the usual...tearing shit up, being crazed, tryin to punk anything that gets in my way."

"You know you are the worst dog ever right?"

"But look at how CUTE my face is!!!"

Always forgiven.

365: The Girl with the Flower in Her Hair

One of our new favorite bands this year is called Coyote Grace. The lead singer's name is Ingrid and she makes these lovely flower clips and wears them during their shows. They played Chico Pride this year and Ange bought me two pretty flower clips. I gotta be the new faculty member with the most style. It's pretty easy. Trust me.

365: Taste of Chico

We went to the Taste of Chico today. Ange didn't reveal to me until yesterday that the event draws 15,000 people each year. I almost died. However, I have to admit, it didn't feel like that many people were there and I really enjoyed it! They closed down 6 city blocks and the booths were appropriately spaced so it didn't feel too claustrophobic and overwhelming. We had some great tastes and are ready to attack some of the places for full course meals!

365: Library Books!

After many years of NOT having a library card I finally got a new card at the Butte County Library! I've been taking advantage of this privilege and have already finished 3 books. I have 3 more I picked up this week and several more on my request list. It's a small library system but have found it sufficient for my needs so far!

365: Friday Afternoon on Campus

 

Some kids having an impromptu jam session in the plaza whilst two boys rock out with a hacky sack. Typical California day. 

365: Oof!

I finally made it through the week thereby showing this cold who's BOSS. I wrapped up my last class for the week feeling accomplished and when I arrived at Butte Hall I discovered the elevators were not working. Suck. Now I can admit that I'm never going to be excited about climbing up five flights of stairs to get to my office high above the ground floor, but having a cold that is already making me feel like I can't breathe in addition to the fact that our staircases are actually outside of the building and it was in the mid 90's today was the topping on the cake for this. I slowly and surely made my way up to my office thankful that I was DONE teaching and not on my way to doing so. At least I got to go home shortly after so I didn't have to look like a tired sweaty mess on top of it all!

365: Officially Official

We went to our PO Box today and lookie what arrived! I'm officially an official Ph.D.! Wahoo! Of course I believe in balance in life so wouldn't you know that the same day I got my fancy diploma would be the same day I stood on the elevator for 30 seconds repeatedly pressing 6 and wondering why the doors kept popping open and I wasn't going anywhere. Turns out I was already on the 6th floor and I should have been hitting G (for Ground Floor). Just call me Dr. Ditzy.

365: My new bffs

I caught a nasty cold over the weekend. It sucks. That's all.

365: Labor Day Geocaching

It was the last day of Labor Day weekend and my mom and Dale's last day in Chico. Unfortunately my mom fell (three times!) while hiking and twisted her ankle pretty bad and I woke up with a crappy cold. So while our bodies tried to put a damper on the day, we all pressed forward and did a little easy geocaching around Lower Park and then had lunch at the Brewery. I caught Ange off guard while she was poking around some leaves with a stick. She is pointing the stick at me and saying "You don't take secret squirrel pictures of me!" But WRONG. I totally take secret squirrel pictures.

365: Labor Day Weekend Part 2

My mom & stepdad came to visit for the weekend and we had a BLAST. We went swimming in Bear Hole & spent the day at Lassen Park. Here's my mom and me on our way to Bumpass Hell. Yes, that's really what it is called. They have to leave tomorrow and that makes me so sad :(

365: Labor Day Weekend

Had a fun day at Bidwell with Ange, Mom and Dale. Until Ange broke her finger. Womp, womp.

365: One of the things I love about teaching

Whenever I do a class activity I tell myself students if they finish before everyone else does they can feel free to decorate the rest of the page as they see fit. I tell them I love jokes and pictures. This student wrote a joke and even folded the bottom of her paper to cover the answer! I love it. Usually the "extras" are better than what they were supposed to be doing in the first place! In fact I love student doodles so much, I think I'm going to start a whole photo album dedicated to them :)

365: Too early

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my way too early days. Ange has to be in class by 8 (earlier if she wants a good seat) which means we both have to get up at the butt crack to get dogs & moms going and get to campus on time. Today it was still WAY dark out! I had to turn on all the outside lights so we didn't get attacked by mountain lions!