Heat

I came back from class today, took a walk, and then sat down to eat popcorn popped in our new popcorn popper and watch the remainder of the Heat-Bulls game. After watching that game, I have a few frustrations to get off my chest. The NBA sucks. In what league is it a good decision to have a player that has gone 4 for 4 in a quarter, hitting two 3s, and elect to not give him the ball at all in the last 2 minutes of said quarter and instead have LeBron James dribble the ball for 20 seconds before forcing an awful shot in the final 4 seconds of the shot clock? In what league is it wise to have Carlos Boozer on a fairly good shooting night and elect to not give him the ball on your potential game winning 8 second possession at the end of regulation? Instead, you elect to have Derrick Rose attempt to dribble on the much taller and stronger LeBron James and then, after the drive attempt fails, attempt a fade away jumper from 20 ft away? This is only done in a league of superstars...regardless of who is hot and who is open...the game is always decided by whether the superstar makes his last second shot. 47 minutes of hard work are thrown away by having the other team know exactly what is coming and go completely away from the game plan that worked for 47 minutes. No one else has been Michael Jordan...LeBron isn't, Derrick Rose isn't...it's time to play the team sport, basketball.

ON a brighter note, the class that I had returned home from went by extremely quickly for being a 2hr and 40 minute class. In two short class periods, we've learned all the pronunciation rules and how to say hi, how are you, some responses, what's up, delighted to meet you, good morning/afternoon/evening, what's your name, my name is..., see you later, until tomorrow, and ask about work, school, and where someone lives. We've also learned to tell time, and I have to study the numbers from 1 to 999 and try to be somewhat comfortable with them before 6 tomorrow so I'd best head toward bed. 7-3 tomorrow at McD's and then a few hours to study before my 6 o'clock class.

Elementary Spanish

I have decided this Spanish course is going to be fun. It's definitely going to be more of a challenge than I was anticipating from a community college class, but the professor is an effective teacher and really wants his students to leave his classes with the ability to speak the language as well as reading, writing, and listening. This is a big difference from my high school German experience where I got A's but didn't speak the language very well. Spanish is such a practical language to know here in the states that I look forward to forming the foundation for hopefully continuing to learn it.

On an unrelated subject, the Big Bang Theory is the most hilarious show on TV now and perhaps is the most hilarious one that I've seen in general. The season finale was no exception. I've watched it 3 times with 2 different people and by myself. The tv show has a direct line to my humor much like the movie Zombieland.

Despite not being a smoker, I have a desire to own a Zippo lighter as a friend bought one a few days ago and they are fun to play with. Not an important detail, but hey, I post what I want and you have the option to read or not, right? These lighters are fun to flip open and closed and are wind resistant, which would have been handy for my purposes a few nights ago at the breakwall.

Sun?

I wasn't sure that I still remembered what it looked like after what was the rainiest April/May I can remember in this area. That's saying a lot for the Cleveland Metropolitan area. The sun finally came through the last few days and I spent hours and hours outside enjoying a weekend before bearing down to work on finishing my degree and eventually certification to become a Music Teacher. I sat on a breakwall at Headlands Beach State Park and had a frightening experience regarding Rangers, the Coast Guard, and some random other citizens in the park after dark. It was a great experience. I also sat at the playground of the school right by my home and on my front porch, feeling exhausted after lots of outdoor air and little sleep the prior couple nights and tonight I ventured up to Mentor Beach Park to watch a sunset that was blocked by some evening clouds rolling in, but who can argue with warm temperatures, a beautiful lake, sunflower seeds and Arnold Palmer Arizona?

Now it's off to bed because I open McDonald's tomorrow at 4:30am and then have several hours between getting off at 1 and my Spanish class' first meeting at 6 tomorrow evening. Some sun and a nap will fill the gap, I'm sure.

Direction

As I've informed most of my readers already, I still have schooling to finish. I've lied to everyone, including myself about this...and now I've quite possibly ruined the most important relationship I had and have certainly damaged the rest of them. On top of that, I am left holding the bag of not being ready to hold a "real" job yet and needing to finish my education.

A big leap was made today. I am officially readmitted to Valpo where I'll finish up my remaining credits with 12 credits this summer at a local community college (already registered), and 13 at VU in the fall online...and now that I'm readmitted, I can find the classes to register for.

A big decision looms after this...I must decide whether to finish my schooling completely by getting my certification work done, or to apply for jobs to become a teacher without a license in the state of Ohio and work for Alternative Licensing (4 years teaching in Ohio while working on the coursework to get my real license).

Just wanted to catch everyone up and blanketly apologize for lying to all of you.

Lightning

Tonight would have been the perfect opportunity for me to capture some great lightning photos, if I had a fancy camera. Instead, I have what I believe to be lightning in an unclear cell phone picture. Yeah, I don't have a Droid, no 5 megapixels here. I made an attempt at a trip to Sims Park's Disc Golf course with Jeremiah this evening and we played two holes before giving up and watching a thunderstorm roll in across Lake Erie for the next half hour. The lightning wasn't particularly frequent, but each bolt was more impressive than the last as the storm got closer and closer. Once the storm finally hit land, we were safely in my car as the hail came pouring down onto my poor Buick. Two lightning bolts struck relatively close by and actually shook the car as the air rushed by fleeing the extreme heat.

I know you've all read it before on my blog, but hopefully this time I find enough to post more frequently than once every 6 months, haha.