Back with only a little vengeance

Here I am! I'm here! Over here! I didn't forget about you guys!

But here's the thing. I was getting proverbially dicked by my place of employment, the University of Montana, and the Greyhound bus line all at the same time and didn't have time or energy set aside for anything fun or great like the GSS.

If I were a Pokemon, my name would be Juliachomp and my abilities would be anger and tiredness and crying.

But now that winter break is almost over, and I've kind of almost finished everything I have to do to prepare for the coming semester, I'll throw you a little "shout-out," whatever that is.

Major good/cool/sexy items:

1. The last thing I have to do for my undergraduate degree is a semester of student teaching, which begins on January 24. Suddenly I'm capable of caring for and educating 30 11-year-old mouse-like children who care a lot more about the wash of their jeans than I do. Luckily I was invited to student teach for the classes I observed last semester, so I already have a good relationship with the kids and cooperating teachers, and double luckily, these classes are made up of incredibly bright, charming and funny kids.

Snapshots of my days this fall:
Child 1: Okay so I made this poster on dark matter and black holes... Scientists still don't really know what either of them are but... blah blah blah explains dark matter.... it's my first day here, and you're like four feet tall.... reel it in a little bit.

Child 2: Ms. Fisher, I'm a man now.
Cooperating Teacher: Why is that, Child 2?
Child 2: Child 3 put a picture of Selena Gomez in my locker.
(Who is this Selena Gomez? Does she get her hair did? Where? And now it's okay to think people born in the '90s are attractive?)

And in one hour I answered the following questions, thanks to this delightful magazine (Oh, my God, a dog-sized horse?!):
Why would anybody bury a bomb underground?
What's a chromosome?
Don't windmills kill bats?
How many people die when sudden sinkholes happen?

After fielding these types of remarks, individuals usually lose the flesh on their neck, arms and legs, style their hair in "alternative" ways, and think it's Valentine's Day every day.

It's gonna be good.

2. I got a new guitar for Christmas! It is a beautiful acoustic electric [Martin DCX1E "Tawny Satinwood" (read: "Gay Deer Color") if you're interested] that doesn't make my fingers cry when I play and also, here's the thing, sounds like a real guitar. Not plastic, or other kind of plastic, but guitar.

This is kind of it, except mine is a bit darker, doesn't as frequently lounge about on fake brickwork, and is generally less German.

An extra surprise came from ol' Clarky, who got me an amp. We've been playing together, and that's kind of adorable, but more importantly perhaps is that Ryan and I are writing and learning a billion new songs all of the times. We're on the lookout for shows that would suit us as well as possibly prepping for another recording session in the spring. (Our MySpace page has what we did last fall... we are still looking for a new band name, too, if you have any stellar ideas).

3. Road trip plans are going.... as planned..... Want to hear the route so far? Okay here it is:
Ellensburg, WA - Longview, WA - Portland, OR - Down the PCH to the Klamath National Forest, CA - roughly Sacramento, CA - Santa Barbara, CA - The Grand Canyon - Tulsa, OK - Mountain Home, AR - other places, AR - New Orleans, LA - roughly Asheville, NC - New York, NY - barreling back to Missoula, MT.
If you have a couch for us let me know. Also, If you or someone you know has an inexpensive, road-worthy RV for sale ALERT US! Right now our ideal is a Toyota Dolphin, but people pretty much know that's a cool thing and seldom give them up.
TRIPLE ALSO: If you are reasonable and want to hitch for a state or two, we'd love to have an extra person to split gas with, assuming we have room.

4. Clark is giving me French lessons. We have a study/work abroad dream on the horizon, and I thought it'd be fun to pick up another language, and I thought it'd be convenient to have a personal tutor I only have to pay in "love." So far I know basic greetings, and vaguely how to conjugate -er verbs. I haven't gotten very far, but it's fun to learn anyway.

4. Sam is momentarily Montana-laden and is coming to visit me today! I have so much preparing to do! A meringue to concoct! (P.S. His girlfriend is pretty hot but not as hot as me.)