You can’t come to Flagstaff and not be offered the honor of meeting my favorite lil munchkins. We dropped by their place today and kidnapped them for a quick trip to Dairy Queen. (It’s not too hard to win over their lil hearts.) M kept calling Victoria ‘Bictoria’ and whispered to me in the backseat, “Isn’t Zac’s girlfriend pretty like a princess?” Yet, amazingly enough she decided to act shy and timid around her even when ‘Touch My Body’ came on the radio. J on the other hand loved the attention and even had Victoria help her write a song that she later performed for us (in English this time). These pics don’t do the even justice especially M insisting that she wear her brand new purple plastic princess heels to get ice cream with her ‘matching’ orange Broncos hoodie.

This is girl is INTENSE about her ice cream.

Too cute!

Zac and his girlfriend, Victoria, are coming to town for Labor Day weekend, and after the past few weeks that I’ve had, I’m looking forward to spending some downtime with them. So in the mean time, posting here will be slim, but don’t fret… you know I’m not going away anytime soon. Hopefully, each and every one of you will find time to get outside and enjoy the last few days of summer.

After a long couple of weeks, there’s nothing like fresh flowers in your house (even if you have to buy them for yourself).

On more than one occasion I’ve professed my un-stalkeresque love for Miss Sara Bareilles here.  This love only continues to deepen as I listen to her more.  Always a sucker for boys playing the piano or guitar, I have to say this girl ticklin’ the ivories moves me musically in ways her male counterparts ever could.  More than just the ‘angry lesbian’ rock and ‘he left me, now he’ll pay’ pop lyrics of most of today’s radio, this girl writes the words that creep out from the secret caves of unexpressed emotion said with a voice that has never been heard.  I’m torn as I write this if I should burn every music lover I know this cd and force them to listen to it or beg each of you to go buy it and support the artist.  The point is simple… she’s great and worth the venture outside of your musical box to hear what she has to say.  Most of you have probably heard ‘Love Song’ on the radio, so instead, enjoy the other musical musings that speak in a language I’m still learning.

“City” – It’s clear this conversation ain’t doing a thing
Cause these boys only listen to me when I sing
And I don’t feel like singing tonight
All the same songs

“Between The Lines” -; Time to tell me the truth
To burden your mouth for what you say
No pieces of paper in the way
Cause i cant continue pretending to choose
The opposite sides on which we fall
The loving you laters if at all
No right minds could wrong be this many times

“With A Little Help From My Friends” cover

My new office is almost done!  Paint touch-ups, a good vacuuming, and locks on the doors and my work-sweet-home will be ready to go.  Since I came to campus eight years ago, this white board has remained unchanged  Those dry erase markers have kept their color even if they have lost their meaning after all that time.  Now that my new room has been built around it, it’s time for a therapeutic cleaning.

While working side-by-side with one of my new students…

New Student: Went and saw Death Race last night.

Laurel: Oh, really?  How was it?

NS: Horrible.  It was terrible.

L: Seriously?

NS: Yeah, I’ve heard better dialogue in adult films.

How do you respond to that?

Does this look like a diaper bag? Could I carry it to work with my laptop without looking silly? Because I’m kinda in love with it. Help!!!

Here’s a lil bit of tech-geekery for your Sunday afternoon.  Ever wanted to create an online icon of you for the masses?  An identifiable jpg for the world to see.  Well, here’s your chance with FaceYourManga.  Choose your skin color (sadly, ghostly pale wasn’t an option), eye shape, and at least twenty other facial features to create your own mini-me.

Here’s mine.  I’d love to see yours.  Good luck finding the right blend of you with the handful of options there were.  I’m still missing my dimple in my chin… long lashes… rounder face… smaller mouth.  But it’ll work for now.

I should be in bed.  I should be sleeping.  I should have waited til morning or sometime next week to watch the U.S. Men’s Basketball team in the Olympic Gold final game versus Spain, but living in a world full of shoulds is boring.  I’m sure as I stumbled in the house tonight at 11:35pm after a long day of move-in support it wasn’t a wise decision to call my parents and hear my dad already lit up about the officiating of the game.  I know I shouldn’t have settled into that big comfy chair, thrown my weary feet on that ottoman, and turned on the tv.  But the ‘Redeem Team’ was down by five in the first, and the Gasol boys were making a louder statement than most of the world thought possible.  Somewhere in the back of my mind I know if they would have been winning, I might have crawled into bed and waited til morning to find out their margin of victory, yet this was going to be a game to be remembered.  I couldn’t miss it.  The boys needed my support.  So I stayed up.  Tried not to yell and wake the neighbors.  Watched LBJ and Kobe pickup those first few ticky-tack fouls.  Got chills as DWade stepped up and took his place as ‘the man’.  Watched us build a lead, and watched Spain inch back.  Sat on the edge of my seat until deep in the morning, and finally watched the boys celebrate with their much coveted gold.  As they stepped arm in arm back onto the platform we had owned for so many years, I knew that the sleep I’d get tonight (even if it was two hours less than I had originally planned) would be that much sweeter because for one night… everything was right in the world, again.  (I dare you to watch the medal ceremony and not get chills.  Maybe, just maybe, I don’t hate Kobe so much.)

A few weeks ago in preparation for the fall semester my students workers and I roamed the halls of more than a few of our dorms mapping out the signal strength of wireless on campus.  Somewhere on the third day, I found this sign on the door of a RA.  These words are the reason that I’m writing two weeks worth of blog posts on this Saturday afternoon to post date for the days that I won’t have a second to put words to page.  They are why I plan on spending more hours at work than at home, and why my loved ones and friends knows that I’ll be ‘unavailable’.  It takes something like 1200 hours of work by thirty student workers and four full-time staff to do what we plan to do in the next four days, and when it’s midnight and I’m just walking in the door for the first time in 16 hours… this is the purpose and passion I’ll cling to.  Pretty cool, huh?

Since the purchase of my first iPod the role of music manager and player on my desktop computer has slowly shifted from WinAmp to iTunes (gasp).  Today while I was doing some routine maintenance on my computer, I happened to open WinAmp and found a handful of old playlists.  I’m not sure when or why most of them were created, but this ten song lineup might be my favorite of them all.  Always a fan of smooth voices and strong harmonies, this list should make you wanna throw on those old school headphones and slow jam with the music, and because their videos happen to also be some of my favorite, I’ve linked each song title to their youtube page. Check them out. You won’t be disappointed.

Brian McKnight – Anytime : I still remember the first time I saw this video.  To this day I still find myself fast-forwarding to the second verse to hear “Still have your picture in a frame. Hear your footsteps down the hall. I swear I hear your voice, driving me insane. How I wish that you would call.” That’s how you know a song is good.  It gets stuck in you and never lets go.

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D’Angelo – Untitled (How Does It Feel) : I’ve always loved that this song’s title was simply Untitled. I wonder if that’s because after the video nothing else matters. Thank goodness my mom can’t access youtube at her school because this video would shock her, and I have a small suspicion she would believe it was something her baby girl shouldn’t be watching. Too late.

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Tony Rich Project – Nobody Knows : Remember back when you could buy tape singles at Wal-Mart for a dollar before Napster? I’m pretty sure I have this tape and if I still had a tape desk would throw it in there for memory’s sake. “I carry a smile when I’m broken in two, and I’m nobody without someone like you.”

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Maxwell – This Woman’s Work : If you’ve seen Love & Basketball, you’ve already fallen in love with this song and that falsetto… WHOA.

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If you’ll be patient with me, I’ll soon explain the joys of what this week has in store for my life, and the controlled chaos that has become my close companion. Until that time, you’ll have to settle for a little geek humor in the form of a video I plan on using in my training workshop tomorrow morning if I can find a way to be up by 6am.

It’s been over a year since this song found itself in heavy rotation on every playlist of mine.  Dozens of other songs have come and gone since our introduction, yet I still can’t get rid of it.  When a friend dropped the link to this live performance in my inbox today, I fell in love all over again.

With the school starting next week and my neverending list of things that has to be done before the first day of classes, Lauren and I decided to spend a lil quality girl-time together on Saturday (while we had the time) and treat ourselves to manicures and pedicures.  As always the people watching was epic, and it was nice to just put away the stress of work, relationships, and life and enjoy each other’s company.  We realized we might be spending way too much time together when we chose each other’s favorite colors for our pedicures. (Lauren Blue for me.  Laurel Pink for her.)  I’m pretty much in love with my electric blue toes with their little pink flowers.  So in love, I had to share.  Even though the salon’s owner might have a minor anger issue, she’s an artist.  Now if only I could find a way to not cower in fear everytime she walks by shouting in Vietnamese…

The list of ways my old apartment was better than my new place is a very small list, and at the top of that list is the lack of laundry facilities in my new place.  Doing laundry now means going to the laundry room on the other side of the complex or going to a laundromat.  Not a huge deal.  I lived on campus for four years, and Zac and I frequented the small laundromat next to the old place when we didn’t have time to do laundry load by load.  Now laundry time has to be scheduled.  There are no more late night loads because I want to wear a particular shirt the next day.  With school quickly approaching, I knew if I didn’t do laundry this weekend, I’d have to wait two more weeks for clean clothes.

So after church this morning I packed up all the laundry in my house (4 weeks’ worth) and headed to the nearest laundromat.  From the moment I walked in the door, this was a different experience than my college days or the neighborhood laundromat where chances were good you’d run into someone you knew.  No, this was a room full of seasoned laundry professionals desperate to wash as many pounds of laundry as they could in record time.  Each family was a team where the offspring’s main job was to wander the room in search of recently emptied machines and stake their family claim on them before anyone else could.  Trust me, it was scary.

After roaming the room aimlessly hoping to stumble upon an empty machine, an older woman who must have sensed my lack of experience offered up the four machines she was about to empty.  Fearing someone might shove me out of the way and steal my recently acquired machines, I loaded those washers as fast as I possibly could and found a nearby chair where I could keep watch on my possessions.  I’m not quite sure how I would have survived the experience without my iPod, but luckily, that’s a fate I didn’t have to endure.  By dryer time, the crowd in the room had thinned, and I didn’t have to hulk-smash anyone for a machine.  Surprisingly enough, I had everything washed, dried, and folded within ninety minutes of my arrival and left feeling more than a bit victorious.  Next time, I just need to remember Sunday is the busiest time of the week for laundry, and losing an arm isn’t worth smelling nice.

(Had to take a picture after a girl no older than 5 whispered to her mom, “She must really like pink, huh?” )