Chirp

I live in an apartment. Five units, three floors. I'm on the second floor, rear apartment. I love this home. When people visit they always tell me, "It's so cozy here." Yup.  This is part of the reason I'm cool being home by myself.

But there is a chirp happening. It's the smoke detector in the hallway to the units, somewhere. Throughout the day when I'm home, I hear it, but intermittently. So I hear it, think I should fix it, remind myself I don't have a ladder, and then continue with what I was doing in the first place.

But then it chirps again.

Totally reminded me of that modern family episode when Phil Dunphy (one of my fave characters of all time on TV) tries to fix his, check it out:

There mine goes again. I think I'll text my landlord and let him take care of it. After all, he's making the big bucks.

Sunday Skinny

It's summer, friends! I'm so excited! Tomorrow is Monday and I will be sleeping in till about 8 and then sipping coffee and writing even longer. I'm so happy!

Here's the skinny on my weekend!

Piqniq
Summer officially began for me yesterday when Hektor and I went to the Piqniq concert in Tinley. Here's the lineup:

I don't really listen to this music much when I'm by myself, but with Hektor I do! The Mowgli's are my fave for sure, but the others, Offspring included, were all fun.

But even better? Ry randomly spotted Hektor and I (who originally were planning to go alone) so we had a bunch of friends to hang out with!

 Love the Panozzo's, so glad we had a whole day together in the sun!

Random side note...now I see why one of my students, Ayden, drew me like this with the sunglasses:

 Anyways, a few more pics:

Ryan apparently had too much fun - luckily Marissa was there to take care of him:

(When I say take care... I mean, hold his beer?) :-)

Super fun day! Glad I've got this guy to show me new music!

Pinterest Project
Three summers ago I made a summer Shutterfly book and I loved it. Then last summer, I went to Europe, and then came home with hundreds of pics, and so it was overwhelming to think of making the book. This year, I'm going to make it as I go. It's called "Summer Love" and it's going to feature all my faves in these sunglasses:

Here's the front cover - will have pics all with friends and family in these glasses:

My niece is the first one to come for a visit (her first visit to Chicago!!!) and get the glasses. I told my sister to ask her what color she wants. I guess this was the exchange:

Stacey: Caitlyn, Auntie's buying you these sunglasses, what color?
Caitlyn: Really, Auntie?

and when I told Katie, she said, "You're dumb, but you're cute."

Why does no one like my styles? Important note: If I tell you I'm buying these for you, just pick a color and go along with it!

Book Review

This book really pissed me off. Main character, cheating on her fiancé. (Spoiler if you're reading it!) Then come to find out at the end that the fiancé was doing the same to her. Then, he is telling her, "We're perfect for each other, we're both the same, having meaningless sex with others on the side and it's okay!"

I was just so mad that they thought this would be okay, that it underminded (is that the past tense of undermind?) monogamy. I mean, maybe we're not meant to be monogomous (research on that, anyone?) but still.... Not cool. This book was just okay, I'm actually surprised that I actually finished it, but I committed to summer reading and am also hoping to read all these before we go back to work:

I'm holding a book study on Daring Greatly over at BigTIme Literacy if you blog. It will be every Thursday in July!

What are you reading this summer?

How was your weekend? Hope it was fab!

april currently

I know I'm late to this par-tay, but I have had no time to even think about doing a Currently until this moment! Work is so crazy busy right now...well was, because I'm on Spring Break! I totally need this, too. Not going anywhere, and I'm happy today to just do whatever I want to do!

So let's get to it - what am I up to Currently? Check it out!

Listening to....Ed Sheeran's whole album
The whole thing is great. I love all the songs on that album.... Thanks Holls for the recommendation! Currently I love Afire Love. I don't know, just love it. Check it out -->

Loving that I'm not at work!
I am sitting here, listening to Ed Sheeran, watching Live with Kelly and Michael, and writing a blog. Cup of coffee right next to me and no where to be and no where to go. A cruise would be nice, but I'm also fine just staying home, relaxing, catching up, and cleaning my apartment. I do have lots to do for work - it will only put me ahead going forward, but I want to work on a product for Book Clubs for my TpT store and I need to get ready for our Family Writing Project which begins the week I get back. Be sure to check out BigTime Literacy for deets about that school stuff!

Thinking...Scientology is nuts
I didn't really know much about scientology until last night, but I watched this HBO special on it and it's crazy. I mean, it isn't even a religion but they pressed the IRS and basically filed all these lawsuits against them - inundated the IRS with lawsuits so the government would declare them a religious group and exempt them from the $1million + that they owed the government. And the Scientology "church" won! Again, I have about an hour and a half worth of knowledge about this, but it's crazy!

Wanting a new mayor in Chicago
I don't think Chuy is going to be able to pull it off, but it would be awesome if he became mayor. He wants an elected school board, he wants to collaborate with the people of this city, and it doesn't seem like he has quite the agenda that Rahm does. It's a crazy time to be a teacher right now - Pearson is ruling our profession and the state departments are bullying us into taking standardized tests (by telling us they will withhold our funding if we don't administer them). It's even gotten to the point where it's being proposed that Colleges of Education will be judged on the test scores of the children who are sitting in the classrooms of their alumni. Read that again. Colleges of Education will be judged on the test scores of the children who are sitting in the classrooms of their alumni. Ridiculous. I know I'm getting slightly off topic here, but it's just insane that our profession is being run over by money (Pearson and whomever else is profitting on our students and their data) and and as a collective whole, teachers aren't speaking up. Having Chuy as a mayor in Chicago would at least be one step in the right direction to do what is right by teachers and students.

Needing to fix my car
Last saturday I smashed my car into the posts of the El Tracks. My car is a hot mess - cracked windshield, smashed back bumper, and my front bumper also has some issues. Plus it's a mess inside. So embarrassing....this is one thing I have to get attended to over this break. 

EGGS-plain your name
This was actually my first blog - before BigTime Literacy. I named it after that song Good, Good Life by One Republic. I do have such a good life and wanted to keep a record of all the awesome things that this life has to offer me. Some personal stuff goes on my literacy blog, it's most of that stuff will be here. Now that the March Slice of Life Story Challenge is over, I'm hoping to write on this blog at least once a week, in addition to the writing I do over on my other one!

Alright well that's all for today. If you like what you've read here, be sure to follow me! and Happy Easter! I hope you have a great weekend (and that it's a long weekend!) and thank you to Farley for hosting us once again!