Ode to the bubbly and bright

After that fun and light hearted post, I have to write about something completely horrible. This weekend, one of the associate professors at USC was murdered in her home.

http://www.wistv.com/story/15347947/police-woman-found-dead-inside-home

Dr. Jennifer Wilson was one of the professors in the Language and Literacy program in the College of Education. I was a graduate assistant for that program while I was in grad school completing it. I had the privilege of taking one of my first graduate classes from Dr. Wilson. Mostly what I remember about her is how she was SO energetic. She was so talkative and friendly, frequently smiling.

I was impressed with her as I got to know her through working as a GA. I can't remember exactly all the places she'd been, but she was well traveled, having been to, studied, and taught in many other countries and all over the United States. She was so wordly!

It saddens me to know that, not only did someone else take her life, but that she was so young. I think of all her coworkers in the L&L program as they come to grips with this situation. I think of her current students, as they mourn their teacher, while trying to adjust to a new one. I think of her former students, whose lives and teaching she touched. I think of the students who will never be able to learn from her brilliant teaching. And finally, I think of her parents and family. Dr. Wilson, we will miss you!

MTV Video Music Awards- probably my last

Last night, for the first time in five years, I watched the MTV Video Music Awards in their entirety. And I must say, I don't think I've been missing much. I used to be obsessed with MTV, but have watched less and less as I got older. At this point, I rarely watch it at all, except for "special events" like this.

I think I would have been fine missing it. The state of popular music is quite sad. Or maybe I'm just "old." Lady Gaga opened the show as a man, and continue to stay in character the whole night. That's fine, but when she was presenting Britney Spears with a Vanguard Award, she wouldn't move out of the way, taking away from the Britney's moment. I thought that was kind of rude really. Not to mention the song she sang was AWFUL, and, although the camera cut away, I'm quite sure she fell when she jumped off the top of her piano. Can't say I'm sorry about that.

Everybody was talking about Beyonce and her baby bump. Whoo-de-do. I didn't like the song she performed, and her backing track was so loud, it looked like she was lip syncing. Also, Chris Brown is still a woman beater in my eyes and I don't really care to see him do anything, even if he's flying (he also was lip syncing). Oh, and Katy Perry won Best Video; I can't stand her.

The lone high spots of the evening were Adele's performance of "Something Like You," Bruno Mars' Amy Winehouse tribute of "Valerie" and the dance video tribute to Britney. All of those I can probably find on YouTube in the next few days.

Therefore, MTV Video Music Awards, after all our years together, I bid you adieu. I will probably never watch you again (unless Hanson performs!).

Did anyone else watch? What did you think?

Family Ties, Pt. 1

Well, this week was almost like a family reunion of sorts. The little bro came down to visit, and together we went to see all our grandparents. Troy is about to move alllll the way across the country to Oregon. Yes, you read that correctly. He seems to be on a quest to "find himself," so more power to him! He's moving with four other guys, so I'm not quite so worried about him as I would be if he was going alone. I honestly think it's brave for him to just pick up and move. I would definitely have troubles with that myself!

Anyway, first we went to go see my mom's parents. About a month ago, they moved into an assisted living home, and it was Troy's first time being there. Grandma is in the midway stages of Alzheimer's Disease and my grandpa just can't take do all the things needed to take care of her by himself anymore, even though he tried! He only just stopped driving about three months ago at the age of NINETY-TWO. It's so amazing to watch these two, and also hard. Grandpa sang their wedding song while we were there, called "Some Sunday Morning," and at one point was looking straight at Grandma as he sang it. I was fighting back tears. The State newspaper even wrote an article about them for Valentine's Day. Their love is so awe-inspiring. Here's a link to a slideshow they did of them:
http://www.thestate.com/static/media/galleries/Singing_Couple/index.html

Then we headed off to Camden to visit our Granny (and aunt, uncle, and cousins). It was a surprise, which is always fun! If I'm being honest though, it's really hard for me going back to Camden now. My aunt and uncle live in the house where my dad grew up, so obviously it makes me think of him. And Granny always wants to talk about him, which I try to humor as much as possible, because I know she misses him like crazy. It's just still sad for me to think about him, so when she wants to tell stories about him constantly, it makes it that much harder. I'm hoping that over time, it will be easier for me to listen, and also easier for her to not miss him so achingly.

But all in all, it was a great day, and I'm SO glad I got to see everyone! (you too morg!) I made Troy take a pic with me, but it was on my IPhone and it won't rotate properly to post (let me know if you can help me). So go to Facebook if you want to see it :-)

We're off to see the wizard!

On a rare date night Saturday, Jamie and I went to see a production of "The Wizard of Oz." It was put on by New Heights Church, where a friend from FedEx attends and recommended we go see. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, especially since this was a church I had never heard of, but I was pleasantly surprised! It was on par with any good community theater troupe and lived up to the hype. There were even flying harnesses!

The musical was well casted; I especially enjoyed the characters of Scarecrow, TinMan, and Cowardly Lion. Not only were they good actors, but they were great singers too! I have tried to find pictures of the cast, but none so far. If I do though, I will post them. The only thing that left a little to be desired was the set. They did what they could with a small space though, so kudos for that.

It's been a long time since I'd seen a live production, so thank you Jamie for a fun night out!

Rental Redo

Back in February, Jamie and I embarked on a new financial adventure. We bought a pair of duplexes, side by side, that were in foreclosure. We thought it was a great deal: all four units were occupied, and we were fortunate enough to pay for it straight out (thanks to life insurance money and our own savings) so that we would have no mortgage. Even though it was definitely on the "lower income" spectrum, we decided to buy it and would renovate each unit as tenants moved out.

Unfortunately for us, we have had two tenants leave in our first six months of owning the property. One was evicted, and one just moved out with five months left in her lease. Needless to say, we were not expecting to have to begin renovations so soon! ** I'd just like to make a comment about the laws of eviction. Did you know they have to serve the papers THREE times before they can put all their stuff on the lawn?! I want to know how how someone has so many rights that is basically stealing. If anyone can explain this to me, please let me know.

Our first remodel was on the evicted tenant's unit. He apparently was a heavy pothead, which we discovered from the 10 year layer of smoke and dirt on everything in the house, especially the walls... yuck! We ended up having to bleach the walls to get them light enough to paint. I'm pretty sure that's the most physical labor I've ever done in one period of time. Of course, that's not saying much :-)  We managed to do the complete renovation for about $3,000. Here's a pic to see the contrast of what we did. The rest can be found on Facebook.

This is a picture while we were cleaning. The left wall has been bleached.

After a month on the market, we finally have a tenant for this unit that will be moving in next week. The second empty unit we will start renovations on in two weeks, when Jamie is off work. There seems to be much more work to do on this second one (including an additional bedroom), a good bit of which we can't do ourselves, so it's likely to be much more expensive. YAY! Anyway, once we start renovating that one, I will be sure to post some pics!

Sometimes I wonder if we should have bought the apartments, but, if nothing else, this is definitely a learning experience!

The Newlywed Chronicles?

I had every intention of starting a blog when Jamie and I got married. Unfortunately, unexpected events forced my time to be focused elsewhere. Life is finally starting to settle down (just a little!) and so I thought it would be a good time to restart the blog. As many of you know, I used to have a blog back in college, but I wanted to start anew. The old blog will remain for posterity's sake, but there is way too much teenage angst, drama and naivete for me to want to continue using that one.

Anyway, welcome to the new blog, where I hope to keep you up to date on our adventures, and of course bring you fun pop culture bits as you have come to expect from me!