Idoloonie

It's hard to imagine loving any American Idol contestant more than I love Kris Allen.

And now he has a new cover of "Let it Be" on iTunes. Buy it in the next 24 hours and the proceeds go to Haiti. My new goal is to convince the music world that he should do an entire album of Beatles covers. His version of "Come Together" is one of my favorite songs. Join me in my quest, and watch this season of American Idol on mute. Blech.

New homes

Eisenhower hall is my new work home. (Betsy, call me if you get lost. You don't have to follow the kids with long hair.) Slowly but surely, I am working my way through campus to the holy grail of Hale Library. I have now worked in Fairchild, Anderson and Eisenhower. Just one more building between me and sweet freedom. Here's to hoping I can skip over Holton.

So... long story short - the job I applied for back in November called me two weeks ago and offered me the position. Apparently the lady that they hired has to move back to Oklahoma so they came calling. Opportunity never knocks when it's supposed to. So far my career keeps twisting and turning in the strangest ways. I'm 75% done with a masters in Library Science and still wondering if I should have gone the College Student Personnel route. Though I seem to be getting work without it, so who knows. It is clearly taking on a life of it's own.

This is my last week at the ELP. It's so bittersweet. I've left jobs before, but this was my first big kid, full-time, benefits and responsibility position. Because of everything that was going on when I was hired and when I started, I feel like my ELP family really brought me back to life. Sweet, crazy, baffling ELP. I will miss you even more as the memory fades of all the ridiculous and tedious things that I did everyday. Hindsight is beautiful.

***

Since all this change is coming, I decided it was finally time to figure out my living situation. Steven and I have been looking and falling in and out of love with houses for a month, and then Friday afternoon it all came together. It's a little red house with a yard, garage, washer/dryer, dishwasher, big living room, study and wood floors. Perfection. We're even within walking distance to campus and Dara's. All that walking will be negated by a huge spike in slushie consumption. It can't be helped. Our landlord is a real estate agent, and I'm hoping that if we continue to love the house we can buy it in a year. Of course, that sounds an awful lot like a life plan, and we all know how well that works these days. But I'll keep optimistically moving forward. The only downside is that we move in April 1st, which means that for the second Easter in a row I'll be in Manhattan instead of Garden City. There's always a catch.

Next morning perspective

My love for the Carriage House has faded.

Which leaves my heart open for this adorable bungalow. Redirect your vibes, please.

House hunting

I'm in love with this house.

The odds are stacked against us, but it feels meant to be. Send out good vibes if you agree.

Football and family: Glass, Modern, and Mormon

I know I know. It's still basketball season, and Frank Martin is awesome, and we have the big ESPN Gameday tomorrow against KU and everyone is excited. Including me. But football owns my heart. My soul. My toenails. Everything. So it was monumental that an email from John Currie appeared in my inbox this morning, talking about the new and improved 2010 football schedule.

Here it is, in all its glory:

September 4 UCLA
September 11 Missouri State
September 18 Iowa State (Arrowhead Stadium)
September 25 Central Florida
October 2 BYE
October 7 Nebraska (ESPN)
October 16 at Kansas
October 23 at Baylor
October 30 Oklahoma State
November 6 Texas
November 13 at Missouri
November 20 at Colorado
November 27 at North Texas

I'm pretty pumped. Not only do we get a rematch in Kansas City vs. Iowa State, but we have a big Thursday ESPN showdown with Nebraska. And it's at home! What a great week that will be. It is particularly helpful because cousin Ben is getting married on the 9th, and I would have had to sulkily attend while pining for a day of pajamas, hot wings and Lee Corso. Now I can attend both happily. God is good.

***

“What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by. I mean I've left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don't care if it's a sad good-by, or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse.” - Salinger; January 1, 1919 - January 27, 2010

JD Salinger died this week. I, like the rest of the world, am impatiently waiting to see if a treasure trove of work exists in that mysterious house in New Hampshire, but I'm anxious about it. Is it disrespectful to want to see it? Is it greedy of me to want more? I've always been mystified by his work, particularly the Glass family. Franny and Zooey eluded and annoyed me. Nine Stories made me hurt more than anything I've ever read/seen/heard. This, plus the restructuring of Miramax makes me feel as if the world has outgrown my interests. Melodramatic? Most definitely. Though the New York Times provides some hope for a change.

***

Family Programming

You should all be watching Modern Family. Eric Stonestreet (Cameron) is a K-State alum and was absolutely adorable in his Ellen interview. Ed O'Neill is hilarious and crotchety and so real to me. Ty Burrell is ridiculous. And I am so so happy that Sofia Vergara does interviews. I haven't met anyone who doesn't love it, so I defy you to find fault.


My other favorite "modern" TV family are the Henricksons. Steven and I just finished season 3 of Big Love and boy howdy, do they know how to spin a web of conflict. It is a serious inspiration to all those novel writers in search of plot. Big Love is masterful at creating roadblocks.

***

My Best Friend's Wedding

I'm going to Omaha this weekend to be a good maid of honor. Hailey and I are pre-wedding dress shopping for the destination wedding of a lifetime. (Hers, not mine). I'm posting this now because I am trying to make an effort to take more pictures and post them on this blog. I know how you all have been waiting patiently for more examples of my photographic prowess, not to mention creative and witty anecdotes about life in steak city. This will be my first trip to Omaha with no class obligations and I am looking forward to kicking back with a good conscience. If I do not follow through with the pictures and post of our adventures, please send me a mean comment. Just not too mean. I bruise easily.

Deep Clean

I took advantage of my three day weekend (thanks MLK Jr.!) by getting the apartment clean clean clean before the Spring semester starts. I got all the Christmas presents put away, took down the tree, and got all of my important files organized instead of sitting in stacks on the floor. I'm hoping that this extra effort now will help with the inevitable stress that comes later when assignment deadlines start piling up. Currently I have all of my old music slowly moving it's way to my brand new 1TB external hard drive, and Keith Urban is entertaining all on today's episode of Ellen. A perfect afternoon.

However, there was one casualty one of the deep clean. In the past month, the DVD player has declared war on all of the silly TV on DVD marathons that I force it to supply for us. First it started screaming in this high pitched technical shriek. Then it refused to communicate with the TV screen. And then, as it's last stand - it refused to open. This would've been fine, as it was a $25 machine that was purchased when I was 19, but it refused to open with the second disc of Gilmore Girls season 3 held inside. Not cool. Not cool at all. Some of you know that I have the entire Gilmore Girls series on DVD, except for the last disc of season 5. Season 5 was the first season I received as a Christmas gift, and due to packaging error (or another person's faulty DVD player) the last disc never made it to the store. So I was not about to lose another disc if I could help it.

This is what Steven spent the second half of the K-State game doing.

You can see that the Gilmore Girls were rescued, and placed securely back in their package. I've had quite a lengthy discussion with our new Memorex about the importance of Lorelai and Rory in our home, and I think we're on the same page. We christened the new machine this weekend with a showing of 500 Days of Summer. Such a cute movie. Oh, and Betsy - there's choreographed singing and dancing. Check it out. Does anyone else think Joseph Gordon-Leavitt looks a little like Heath Ledger? (Or even, maybe, a teensy bit like Steven?) And the hipster outfits were perfection.



In other sad casualty news, two more businesses closed in Manhattan. Doe's Eat Place, the giant steakhouse right by our apartment will serve giant expensive beef no more. And the Candlewood location of Digital Shelf is gone after 5 years. If the other Digital Shelf closes I don't know what we'll do. Probably finally take advantage of our Netlix account. Which, by the way, is anyone else stoked about being able to stream your Netflix movies through the Wii? I have been whining for months about the lack of features on the Wii, and now this. It's perfect. We're watching Tootsie every night. But the Digital Shelf holds so many memories from the beginning of my relationship with Steven. During the semester that I was living back home in Garden, I took a trip to Manhattan and surprised Steven at work in Candlewood. We ordered chinese food and watched Joe vs. the Volcano and bantered with customers and had a great night. Whenever we wanted to rent cartoons or multiple seasons of ER, or embarrassing chick flicks, we would always go to the Candlewood location so that Steven's friends wouldn't mock him. Now, all our rental decisions will be subject to judgment. And if the Aggieville location doesn't have it, that means no one will. Stupid redbox, taking over the world.

How I Met Your Mother - Suits the Musical