Apologizes.

Well, I am officially horrible at this.

Life is C-R-A-Z-Y right now. School is back in full swing. Baby showers and wedding showers are everywhere. I am, of course, still surrounded by these wonderful ladies and gentleman I get to call my friends and family. Football season is here (hence the pretty pic from our pressbox). Fall weather is in the air, and I am one happy girl. Details to follow.

The Intimidation Factor

Thank you LeBron for ending the agony of wait. Stupid..........

Summer is coming to a screeching halt for the DC area. Students and teachers alike are preparing for the big comeback on August 2nd. Some people in other professions have strong opinions about teachers and our complaints about salaries and time off. My thoughts on these opinions (put nicely) are #1. Give it a try it and see how much recovery time you need. #2. Even though it seems like we work from 8-3 during school, trust me, that is NOT the case. Some days I will come home and grade papers until midnight. That's not including Homecoming week where I only get close to 7 hours of sleep in 5 days. (Why do I do this again? Oh yeah. That's right. B/c I pretty much love it.) Most people work hard regardless of their profession, but I feel like I have to defend mine sometimes due to the negative connotation surrounding the large amount of vacation time. Teachers will be returning a full week earlier for in-service. I had no clue what in-service actually was as a student. I've come to realize I really don't know now, as a teacher what it is. J/k. Sort of. Truth be told, I actually enjoy working with students way more than adults. (Sidenote: I LOVE my teaching family. Kids are just easier for me to deal with. Hence why I'm a teacher.) Because I have been a Peggy Procrastinator ALL summer I will be working round the clock next week getting my classroom and curriculum ready. I am usually really on top of things as far as my curriculum is concerned. I have been trying to figure out why that has NOT been the case with English 3. I have come to the conclusion that it is because I am SO intimidated by these standards and curriculum. I'm teaching Gatsby and persuasive writing for goodness sake! 11th grade is my dream job. I just didn't think I would have it year 3 of teaching. Fear of failure is a huge issue for me, and this class is highlighting that fact. Whine much? Apparently. Looking forward to the challenges to come though.

Just do it.

Dear LeBron James,

Just pick a damn team already! You're pretty and all, but I'm sick and tired of hearing about you. I really did like and appreciate your talent up until the past month. When I watch Sportscenter I naturally expect to see 3 seconds about World Cup action and then the other 59 minutes and 57 seconds is devoted to you and your every waking move and the tough decision of which team you're going to accept a bajillion dollars from, but seriously?! I don't care what you had for lunch or that you played a pick-up softball game last night. And national news coverage? I'm really more interested in the nationwide disaster of spreading oil in the Gulf instead of whether or not you're staying in Cleveland. Call me lame b/c I'm not a huge NBA fan, but I'm really kind of over it. No disrespect man, and I would be honored if you randomly for no good reason or good money came to Memphis. Way to go with that whole straight out of high school thing too.

Sincerely,

Ashlee Jennings

Picture found here

The business of people pleasing

4th of July weekend was a nice time with good people. I spent today working around the house. Mainly figuring out how to make my yard look a little less white trash. Mirrors, picture frames, and other wall decor items were hung with not that many holes this time. I did all of the hard work today with the help of the fam and some pretty sweet ladies.

Side note: I'm having another one of those good, good talks. Main topic: people pleasing. I have this BFF, E., who quite possibly could be a poster child for people pleasers. Once upon a time, I think I also could have fallen into this category. Not to get too deep b/c I don't consider my blog to be a forum for life lessons but here it goes: Over the past 6 months I have made a conscious effort to NOT be this way. Before this dramatic change I did anything to make sure people were happy with me (including make myself unhappy.) Friends, family, co-workers, pretty much anyone (excluding students) is included in what was my strong desire to make people happy. When I say "make people happy" I mean mostly emotional things. And nothing serious just small things that eventually add up. In most cases, this is completely okay, but this is also an excellent way to allow yourself to be taken advantage of. When it's close, best friends/people who sincerely care about you, it's totally okay to want to please them in normal, non-creepy ways. But then there are people who are not those things and it becomes just a cluster mess of a friendship/ relationship. No longer a fan of those. Not one bit. I now find myself in a place where I realize that those people who genuinely care, love, and appreciate me for the person I am. Those people don't need me to actually do anything to please them. They're friends or whatever with me because of who I am and that's just dandy. It's enough. Nothing expected and full understanding. I'm definitely a work in progress going on 25 years now, but you learn something new everyday I guess.

The good. The bad. The ugly.

It's been forever since I blogged, so here's a quick synopsis. I'll try to do better. Promise.

The good:

PURCHASING AN AMAZON KINDLE. vacation. being home from vacation. seeing my grandmother and my mom. the iPhone 4 even though I don't own one. new home decor from Hobby Lobby. having Mazatlan after having none for 2 weeks. making up for lost time with understanding, loving, true blue friends. Victoria's Secret AND Bath and Body Works Semi-Annual Sales. The Rescue Me AND the Entourage season premieres: genius.

The bad:

a dear friend's loss. recovering from cellulitis. Pugh's recovery from her emergency surgery. family reunions (I mean that in the nicest way possible.) not doing lesson plans while on vacation which was the plan. the 1st 2 episodes of the new True Blood season.

The ugly:

no more World Cup for Team USA. a sneaky, quick mouse in my living room. my bank account due to vacation and other irresponsible decisions (see Kindle.) painting 2 bathrooms. trying to hang pictures but really only leaving holes in the wall. the awful dish water blonde color the sun has turned my hair.

Competitiveness

Ok so clearly I am a sports fan. However, if I'm being completely honest, I am just a competitive person. I am "that girl" that just wants to win. That means win a soccer game OR beat my bro's time driving to FL. I just like to win, even when I'm the only one competing. Because of this trait of mine, I can watch pretty much any sporting event. I.E. I most definitely did not follow the entire NBA season, but when it was crunch time in the Finals, I was most certainly watching. I also watch Sportscenter every night pre-sleep for 2 reasons. 1) Just to stay informed about the sports world even when I don't have time to watch all the happenings as they're happening. 2) It's my secret dream job to be a Sportscenter anchor. In the past, I would actually pretend to complain to D about watching Sportscenter EVERY single night over and over when really I liked it just as much as he did. Speaking of sports, Boston lost last night. Boo. It was an awesome series though, so I won't complain. I will however complain about the fact that it's re-donkulous to compare Kobe Bryant to Michael Jordan. No sir. He hasn't even began to leave that sort of legacy. Stop the madness. I also have been watching The US Open because I am a Phil Mickelson fan. My main point to my unnecessary babbling brings me to World Cup action. The US did in fact tie Slovenia this morning. We played wretched the first half, but made up for it, for the most part, in the second half. It was probably a bad idea to watch this match with my nieces and nephew because slurs were flying from my mouth due to the absolutely ridiculous officiating that took place throughout the game. As my mother would say: " I have never in my life!" But really. It was awful. We do have a tendency to choke in World Cup play, but hopefully this year is our year to turn it around and we will pull out a win on Wednesday against Algeria.

Attending a US World Cup match is definitely on my list of things to do before I die. Being surrounded by that patriotism and sense of pride for your team and country would be stellar. I love american sports, but international sporting events just bring something new to the table entirely. All of this being said, male professional athletes are also serious eye candy (hence the picture above taken for a Vanity Fair shoot.)

Mostly Sports Thursday

I am still on vacation here at the lovely Rosemary Beach. However, the sports world is up and kicking at the moment. It would be a great time to be sitting at home bored cause there would be lots to keep me busy. Game 7 of the NBA Finals is tonight. I have always considered the Lakers a bit on the overrated side, and to say the least, my bro and I are in disagreement of this fact. I'm hoping that KG and the Celtics can pull it out. Following a night of basketball, our household will be rising early to watch the USA World Cup game. I have successfully transformed them all into soccer fans. Well, maybe not soccer fans, but World Cup fans at the very least. Yesterday I went downstairs to my room to watch the Spain/ Switzerland game because I didn't want the fam to have to watch it. There was an intense moment in the game, and I hear them upstairs yelling along with me. Just like that, they were hooked :) Jackson is even contemplating a career as a Team USA goalie. We will be dressed in our red, white, and blue and ready to go at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow. I must say though it would be nice to watch the game with my BFF Mr. Brashear.

Last night we also paid a visit to one of my favorite places, Seaside. Kids, teenagers, and adults all love this place. There is something for everyone. We had dinner at The Shrimp Shack, ice cream at Heavenly, and chillaxed with some live music from a band in Nashville on the grassy knoll.

I am absolutely NOT hoping to prepare for Toy Story 3 today by watching Toy Story 1 and 2 with the nieces and nephew. And of course, by absolutely not, I mean I absolutely am.

I am obviously enjoying being an aunt and sister all week, but I do miss being a best friend. I have felt a bit lost without my other halves, and I do miss them greatly.