The school year is over, and every end is the start of many new beginnings. There is no way to express in words the gratitude I feel for the students and staff of Maureen Joy Charter. But this video can go a long way in showing you the many things I love about the work they’re doing.
Here’s to making the new ones as wonderful as the past couple chapters.
Being vegan you’d think I’d monitor my balance of nutrients pretty carefully. You know, making sure I’m getting enough protein and iron, that kinda thing.
But actually, not even a little bit. I’ve been vegan for over two years now, and have never had any serious issues, so I just assume I’m doing a pretty good job. Except every once in a while I’ll start craving burgers. The last time this happened my good friend Jay told me that used to happen to him when he wasn’t getting enough protein. So now when I crave burgers, I make a point of loading up on protein.
However, this week it hasn’t been burgers I’ve been craving. How about one of these?
Or THESE??!?
I have officially become obsessed with Pinterest, and I’m pretty sure it’s exclusively to live vicariously through all the non-vegans out there. I would kill for one of these right about now.
MY NUTRITIONAL BALANCE: 4
Overall I’m still alright, but I need to find what’s missing!!!
So seriously, what is causing my desperate cravings for anything warm and sweet??? (With sprinkles, obviously)
I can’t do it. I just can’t stay away. Take away my cable, and I’ll watch it online. Take away my time to blog, and I’ll just stop doing the other things on my to-do list. There’s just something SO irresistible about The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. It’s almost like these shows were MADE for Rate Your World.
So on to the ratings!
This season we have another leftover, this time Emily from Brad’s season. I’m pretty sure I expressed the same thing about Brad, but if you mess up your first chance I’m not sure you should get a second one. There’s already enough skepticism about whether this works, why would we bother putting someone on who’s already proved it didn’t work for them?
Guaranteed ratings, that’s why. They know people will recognize her and watch because of it, so back she is.
EMILY’S ‘LOOK’: 6.5
Her normal clothes are cute (a bit on the dressy side for ‘normal’ clothes, but cute). Her formal clothes are 80% pretty. Her heels are too high and her hair is too perfect. That said, she’s gorgeous. If she laid off the makeup a little bit and swapped her giant heels for flats, this would go up about 2 points. I’m curious to see what she pulls off the rest of the season.
DATE 1 WITH RYAN: 3
I totally get that these guys need a glimpse into her everyday life with Ricky. But on Date 1? I’m not convinced that was very played with Ryan. Then again, she doesn’t have to worry about playing anything well- she’s THE BACHELORETTE! She can do what she wants.
And she will.
KALON: 5
Do I want to date him? Nope. He clearly puts more time into getting ready than I do, which is an obvious deal breaker. Do I even want to be his friend? Not really. HOwever, I do think he’s been a bit misunderstood in this week’s episode. If the other guys would get past his look (and the stupid helicopter), and actually listen to him, he’s not always wrong. And he’s got a lot calmer temper than some of them (aka STEVIE). I don’t think he’s going to win, but I do hope he sticks around long enough for the guys to actually listen and think, rather than follow the pack mentality that runs rampant on this show.
ALEJANDRO: 8
Ultimately, do I think that a 24 year-old mushroom farmer with pierced ears from California is the one Emily’s going to pick to father her children? Probably not. Do I want to get to see his pretty face for another couple of weeks? YOU. BET. Put aside the fact that I clearly have a thing for Colombians, I think this guys got a good story behind that handsome face. A story I’d like for him to have a chance to tell. I’m rooting for you Alejandro!
And since I didn’t take notes this week, that’s all I have 😦 But you better believe I’m tackling next week with a notepad and pen and rating the heck out of The Bachelorette!
Until then, just living for the tens 🙂
Okay, that last video got me addicted. I am now sitting at the Subaru dealer watching music video after music video. Why is this so addicting???
This one is my favorite song of all time, even after waking up to it every single morning for the last year. In fact, I love it so much it makes me want to take voice lessons to teach my tone-deaf self how to sing it. I feel sorry for whichever vocal instructor gets stuck with me…
Some of you may remember my obsession with Susan Boyle from a couple years back (if not, check it out here). There’s something about underdog stories that do me in, and she was the best I’d seen in a while. Today while I was stuck waiting for my car to get repaired I stumbled upon this one.
Similar to Susan, it’s a total underdog in ‘Korea’s Got Talent’ competition. Unlike Susan Boyle, he’s 15 and homeless. And somehow taught himself to sing like this while working on the street selling gum and candy. I don’t know what else to say except watch it.
The biggest 10 of the day 🙂
SALAD PRESENTATION: 10
It’s hard to complain at all when someone else is cooking dinner. Especially when it’s an incredible salad, considering how bad I am at keeping a large amount of produce fresh all at the same time so I can actually make one of my own.
And then when it’s presented to me looking like this? Seriously. One spoiled girl.
TULIP BLOOMING: 8
I love tulips. I find them to have a lot more personality than other flowers. And when they open up to say hello? Even better.
Only downside is that when they start blooming they also start drooping. Which means they’re not going to last a whole lot longer 😦
THIS DUDE’S COMMITMENT TO HIS JOB: 7
Could I have been laughing any harder when I saw this on the way home from the Tobacco Trail the other day? On the way to start our bike ride we passed him standing up and commented that he looked about 12 years old. On the way home, he had clearly had enough of walking around holding the Great Clips sign. So he decided to just lay down on the sidewalk and prop it up.
Hesitate to give him above a 5, because I’m pretty sure his boss would not be pleased with this, but I hesitate to give him below a 5 since cars can still see the sign. So normally this would be a 5, but the laugh it gave me and my parents is worth at least 2.
7!
MURPH’S HELP WITH MY EDITING: 8
Who doesn’t love a cuddle buddy when knocking out a little work? This girl definitely does. Especially if it’s a juggle whose name rhymes with Smurph.
That said, the actual ‘help’ he provided was minimal. For such a smart dog, he doesn’t often put it to work outside of sneaking into cabinets and trash cans to overdose on food…
Plus the more deeply he fell asleep, the more weight he put onto my arm making it trickier to edit. I also had to stop every 5 minutes to gush at how cute he was as he snored…
So in terms of productivity, it was no good. In terms of a smiling heart, it was great 🙂
Coming up next is a full review of Full Steam, an awesome brewery in downtown Durham I’ve recently fallen in love with 🙂 Until then, just living for the tens!
BRINGING THINGS IN FROM THE CAR: 9
So I finally decided to clean out my car. Months of practically living in it left it beyond a mess. I’d try to describe it, but I’d probably make you throw up in your mouth a little bit. Let’s just start with dog hair everywhere, two dog crates, a large dog bed, trash, receipts, about 8 plates leftover from breakfast that I eat on my way to work, banana peels- you get the idea. It had gotten out of control. WAY out of control.
So I drove it over to the dumpster and just started throwing things away. I unloaded the dog beds, washed the clothes, and cleaned the dishes. While I have yet to do the deep cleaning (scrubbing, vacuuming, sanitizing), it still looks and feels INFINITELY better.
So today, for the first time in a couple of months, I took my trash with me when I got out at the end of the day. While I find it somewhat annoying (don’t ask me why, I just really hate carrying more from the car to apt. than I absolutely have to), I felt so much better that I’m attempting to keep on top of the problem before it spirals out of control again.
At least for now 🙂
UNEXPECTED SURPRISES: 10
For everyone who works outside of a school, this week is Teacher Appreciation Week. I remember seeing on Facebook last year one of my friends’ boyfriends sent her flowers to school to appreciate her. I thought at the time “Wow- I’ve only heard of students giving gifts to teachers, but how sweet that he thought of her.” Haven’t thought about it since, but I definitely did then.
Well yesterday I got a surprise visitor who brought me over a bouquet of tulips and a nice card in celebration of Teacher Appreciation.
Seriously. What beats that? Nothing. Feeling lucky 🙂
CATCHING BUGS IN YOUR EYEBALLS: 0
Hit the Tobacco Trail for a beautiful afternoon run today. Until a bug flew straight into my eyeball. This is a 0 for many reasons.
1) I don’t like killing animals. I like it even less when they are dying on top of my eye. If I rub to get him out, I squish his entire body. If I leave him there, he probably drowns in my eye gunk. And without a mirror, it’s nearly impossible to rescue him. So then, I know he’s dead, and I have to continue running knowing that I’ve just buried an animal in my eye.
2) Sometimes it hurts. Today it was just irritating.
3) It is incredibly distracting for the rest of the run.
Beautiful weather, bad finish.
MY ATTEMPT AT PHOTOGRAPHING THE BUG FOR HIS MEMORIAL: 4
You can’t actually see the little guy, so it’s definitely below a 5. But it does make me laugh, giving it some value 🙂
Until next time, just living for the tens 🙂
Look who I discovered wandering around my apartment complex this weekend…
BABY GOOSE: 9
ADORABLE. Find me someone who doesn’t love a baby version of anything and I’ll call them crazy.
This little guy made my morning drive infinitely better on Friday.
-1 for my new nervousness that he’ll stumble into the road and get hit by one of the crazy drivers around here.
MAC GENIUS BAR: 8
Saturday was a day put aside for mad editing. So of course, my hard drive decides to fail. Before you get too upset for me, I should tell you they were able to recover all data, so all that was lost was about 3 hours of my day at the Mac store and a whole lot of editing time. BUT, I purged my old hard drive of now unwanted things, and got a faster computer out of the deal 🙂
Had two pretty good experiences at the Genius Bar today, with some smart dudes who were able to save all my stuff, and get it covered under AppleCare (despite me admitting to 1) spilling beer on my computer a couple months ago and 2) pointing out the dents from the time I dropped it on my foot in February). So the cost was ZERO dollars.
MAC FAREWELL: 10
Highlight of my Apple store visit? One of the guys working there walked out of the back and every Apple employee in the entire store started clapping and cheering. All the customers looked confused out of their minds, but the employees across the store (all 63 of them) were celebrating.
I looked at the guy helping me with a confused face, and he explained that it was this guy’s last day of work.
Seriously??? What an amazing company culture that this is what happens on someone’s last day. As of recently I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to build a strong team culture, and think things like this are such great examples in the business world. But, it leaves me wondering all the small things they do to build the culture where this kind of thing happens.
I’ll sleep on that one, but in the meantime this moment made my heart smile.
CINQO de MEATO 2012: 8
It’s hard to believe a vegan would rate a Meatfest as high as this, but give me a second and I can explain why.
+1 for Curtis (the host), who was kind enough to make a DELICIOUS vegan chili. Luckily all the carnivores in the house left it pretty much alone, so I could devour 4 bowls. Okay, I exaggerate. Wait… not really. It was THAT GOOD. I’m almost tempted to take a point off for how much I ate, but I actually think I was just doing my part to save more animals. That makes sense, right?
+1 for a house FULL of good people. Seriously, there were like 80. While I can’t vouch for every last one of them being good people all the ones I talked to were 🙂 Entertaining, smart, and downright attractive (see below if you don’t believe me).
+1 for good beer. I can take partial credit for this one since I brought Big Boss Hell’s Belle (a new favorite) and exclusively drank that. But after the day I had, I deserved it. DE.LISH.
-1 for the amount of animals killed in ‘celebration’, and -1 for the rain 😦 There were so many people stuck inside, when any BBQ (or meatfest) is made better with a little corn hole and outdoor activity. It only motivated me to host a get-together at my place SOON!
All in all, a pretty great weekend 🙂 Until next time, just living for the tens!
DAKOTA’S BATHROOM ETIQUETTE: 2
You’d think it would take more than two days back to begin blogging about the pup’s bowel movements. No sir. Not here on Rate Your World. Just keepin’ it real friends.
In his old age, Dakota is definitely having trouble controlling his poop. Some days he won’t poop for over 24 hours, others he can’t help but poop inside (at least I choose to believe he can’t help it, since he’s usually the best behaved dog ever).
On this morning’s walk we hit a new low. As we walked outside this morning, I spotted a neighbor dog heading our way. Considering how much Dakota still hates other dogs, we immediately turned the other direction. We then walked down the long hall outside my apartment, and apparently he just couldn’t hold it. He started pooping as I dragged him down the hallway to escape the other dog. As soon as we made it to the other side I waited for the other dog to go inside, returned to pick up his poop, just to find him peeing all over the walkway. Couldn’t wait 30 seconds until we hit the grass. That or he wanted to make it very clear to all the other dogs in the apartment complex that this hallway is HIS.
Geez oh pete. It was quite the morning walk. The good news? He didn’t poop on anyone’s porch, their belongings, or inside my apartment. He definitely earns +2 for that.
CONEHEAD MURPH: 1
I have no idea what instigates it, but every once in a while something happens to one of Murph’s paws, and he just can’t leave it alone. He licks and licks and licks until the pad on his foot has come off, he bleeds all over my apartment, and is forced to limp around on 3 legs. The only solution? Bringing out the trusty conehead.
Boy does it make my heart hurt and laugh at the same time. And sadly it often lasts for 1-2 weeks before he finally gives up on trying to tear it off long enough to let the paw heal. It’s gonna be a looooong 2 weeks if he keeps this up.
Below 5 because of how much I pity the little guy, but definitely +1 for entertainment value. Especially when it snows out and it becomes his own little shovel.
FINDING THE PERFECT SONG FOR A WEDDING VIDEO: 8
I really believe the musical soundtrack of any video, but especially a wedding video, makes it or breaks it. Just try watching any of these videos without sound and you’ll see exactly what I mean. And because of my love of music, I actually LOVE this part of the editing process. However, the more videos I edit, the more I realize I need to widen my collection of both artists and songs that can be used. Eventually I’m going to run out, AND the more I have the easier it will be to find the perfect song for each couple/video. Feel free to pass along any suggestions of artists OR songs in the comments.
In the meantime, one of my most recent videos which I think has the perfect song match 🙂
Let’s be honest. It’s hard not to let our personal lives affect our professional lives. These past couple weeks have been a great reminder of that, and have done a lot for my sympathy in understanding what both colleagues and students bring in to school with them every day. Even harder is not being able to acknowledge the reality of a personal life while at work.
So you can imagine my surprise and appreciation when a colleague left a nice note on my desk this morning and a container of vegan ice cream in the staff room freezer waiting for me.
SURPRISE ICE CREAM TREAT: 10
Seriously. I always see it at Food Lion and Trader Joes, but always resist the urge to buy it. Today, the choice wasn’t mine. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! I made the smart move of leaving it at school, having enough self awareness to know what would happen to it if I brought it home. A couple spoonfuls here and there might be the best solution ever to a long week 🙂
MURPH’S LOVE OF THE NC HEAT: 2
I always forget how much the Smurph dog hates the NC summers until the warm weather really starts to hit. While in the Spring, Winter or Fall he’s dying for a longer walk, as soon as the heat kicks in he’s begging to head back home. Literally. He puts on the brakes and refuses to go any further. After I explain to him rationally that he’ll be just fine, and that he needs the extra exercise to burn off the trash he devoured that day, I can often coerce him. But it is never easy. Tonight was no exception.
After a walk with Murph, I headed to the CHCC for a Tuesday evening climb. Arrived a bit late, but still got some nice climbs in with Paul. Until we hit this route, however.
JOHN’S URGENCY ON THE ROPES AT THE CHCC: 3
I suppose you have the right to take your time. But I’m also pretty sure there’s a sign on the wall encouraging urgency for the sake of cutting down on lines. After waiting for over 10 minutes, we decided this was definitely ratable. While not a rating of John, or his climbing (as he is still very much loved by us), it is a rating of the seemingly endless wait to finally get on the wall. But if I’m being honest with myself here, maybe the real rating should be:
PAUL & MY CHOICE OF ROUTE: 3
I suppose at the end of the day it wasn’t really John’s fault, but instead ours for choosing to wait in line behind the SLOWEST CLIMBING PAIR EVER. Okay, I exaggerate. But when the lines are long, your partner is hungry and trying to peace out early, every second counts.
Following another climb or two we headed out to Tyler’s for dinner and then the Orange County Social Club for some celebratory beers, as a friend’s new album was just released.
DRIVING DOWN FRANKLIN STREET ON A WARM NIGHT WITH THE WINDOWS DOWN LISTENING TO JOE PURDY: 10
Seriously. Heart smiling and loving life, there’s something about Joe Purdy that goes BEAUTIFULLY with a nice drive down Franklin Street. Especially when it’s 80 degrees out and smells like summer.
Making it even more exciting? Realizing that in a matter of two weeks all the undergrads will be gone and it will officially be CAROLINA SUMMER TIME! I can’t wait 🙂
Overall, a great evening. Stay tuned for the rating of Tripp’s newest album!
Until then, just living for the tens!
Rate Your World 