Noodles

A lot has happened since I last wrote in June!  (Technically I wrote in July, but that was just an FAQ for my Edge Series trilogy, WHICH I FINISHED.)  So let’s just dive right in, shall we?

In mid-July, Theo and I went down to spend the weekend in Atlanta for our second year of Atlanta Comic Con!  His highlight was meeting Steve Downes, who voices Master Chief from the Halo series, Theo’s favorite video game.  It was adorable.  We attended the Q&A panel for Bonnie Wright, who played Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter series, and I got to meet her afterward, get an autograph on my copy of Chamber of Secrets, and get a selfie with her!  I talked to her about the short film she directed, Medusa’s Ankles, which stars my favorite actor, Jason Isaacs, and it was wonderful.  We also got to have dinner with my sister and brother, Sarah and Jesse, and then we spent the rest of the evening with my mom, brother Jackson, and sister Mary.  It was lovely.

Later that month, Theo and I spent the day down in Huntsville, Alabama at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.  It was super nifty and fun, and before that, we had breakfast with my wonderful, amazing, glorious ex-coworker, Becky!  She and I were cashiers together at Honda, and I was devastated when she moved down to live in Alabama, though I was pleased she would be happier living closer to her family.  Still.  She’s the best coworker I ever had.  She brought me orange juice one morning when she knew I was sick.  She’s quite literally the sweetest person I have ever had the luck of knowing.

In early August, the guys who mow our lawn accidentally sent a rock from our gravel driveway into the back passenger window of my car, shattering it.  That was fun.  But luckily they’re insured, so it was paid for in full, and it was totally fixed by the following Monday.  But still.  That was a fun time.

A little later, I received acceptance to attend Middle Tennessee State University this Spring to study to be a graphic designer!  (A little more on that later.)

Late August was something I had been looking forward to for a while: the Titanic Conference!  I had been trying to go for two years, but I was never able to manage it.  I drove out on Thursday morning to Pigeon Forge, spent some time at the museum, and then headed over to the meet-and-greet that evening.  I talked to a few people that night, but my anxiety got the best of me, and I struggled to really do much other than sit there like a lump.  The next day, after the first couple of sessions, I had lunch at Shoney’s with three dudes, and we talked about the ship, and it was glorious.  That night, we had a fancy dinner at the museum, and I met Rachel, who is a positively glorious human.  We spent the dinner talking about everything from Titanic to Dungeons and Dragons, and later we drove back to the hotel together, and we hung out until the wee hours of the morning with the Titanic: Honor and Glory team.  It was awesome.  Sad part is, she and her husband live in Arizona.  Which is far and gives me the sads.

At the end of the month, I turned twenty-eight.  Ugh.  But then right after, Theo and I went back down to Atlanta for this year’s iteration of Dragon Con!  We only attended on Saturday last year, but this year we were there for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.  Saturday was pretty much spent just waiting to get into David Tennant’s Q&A panel, which was hilarious and lots of fun.  We then got to meet him briefly and take our photo with him later that day!

The next day, Lauren flew down from Wisconsin!  It was her first con ever, so we started it off with a bang by meeting Dan Fogler, who plays Jacob in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  She got an autograph and spoke to him for a little bit, and then we went over to meet Rodger Bumpass, who voices Squidward in SpongeBob SquarePants.  (I met him last year at Atlanta Comic Con, so I didn’t really say anything and just watched.)  We also went to a really cool panel with four YA authors about the “fandom genre,” which is basically novels that center around some sort of fandom, like comic cons, TV shows, book series, etc.  (The most popular one is Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.)  The best part was that a friend of mine, Lindsay Ribar, was one of the panelists.  We met via Facebook a while back after I discovered a super old website she had made on Angelfire dedicated to Bruno Pelletier.  Amazed that there was an American fan whose favorite song was also my favorite song, and who was also a writer, I messaged her on Facebook and we became friends.  (Her books are awesome, and you should go read them.)

The next day we spent most of the day in the Vendors area, where Lauren got a super adorable hat, and I got a stuffed bear named Lumi.  (Because what else do you get at a comic con?)

After the con, Lauren drove back up to Tennessee with us to spend a week just hanging out!  We perused Murfreesboro, spending lots and lots of time at Starbucks, reading and writing; we did some shopping, drank even more coffee; and went up to Nashville at one point for a dinner.  A good time was had by all!

The best part of Lauren’s visit was on Tuesday, the day after we got back from Atlanta, when we drove the five-and-a-half hours to St. Louis to surprise Kat!  I had been coordinating with Kat’s fiancé for months about surprising her, and we pulled it off!  Kat was stunned, to say the least.  We got lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, as per our tradition, and hung out at the Galleria for several hours, just like old times, before Lauren and I headed back to Tennessee, arriving at about eleven or midnight.  It was magical and 110% worth it.

About a week or so ago, Theo and I changed our plans for next spring/summer.  We’re not going to Disney World in April . . . we’re going to London in May!  We’re both so unbelievably excited.  We got tickets on Virgin Atlantic for an amazing price – about 33% cheaper than going to Disney World.  Granted, the Disney tickets included the hotel and dining plan, but still.  WEE!  So far, we’ve decided that we want to see as much as the UK as we can in a week, so we’re not just gonna stay in London the whole time.  My main priorities are going down to Southampton and hopefully up to Scotland, while Theo really wants to go to Derbyshire, where his family is from.  I would also really like to take the Eurostar over to Paris for a day!  EEEEE!!!

Now.  Back to the thing about me going back to school.  So I’ve always known I wanted to go back to school.  I know I can’t spend the rest of my life in data entry.  I just can’t.  After gaining some experience with Adobe InDesign and falling in love with it, Lauren suggested that I actively pursue graphic design.  And I loved this idea, so I applied and was accepted.  I even toured the art department and met one of the graphic design professors.

However, there was always this voice in the back of my mind asking if this was really what I wanted.  Did I want to spend another three or so years in school to have a completely different career track?  Yeah, I’m good at InDesign, but I’m not great at drawing, and who knows if I would be good at the rest?  In the end, the decision not to study graphic design wasn’t out of a fear of failure, but of a realization that there’s something I want to do more: teach!

Teaching has been in the back of my mind since I got my degree in French four years ago.  Sometimes I thought I didn’t want to teach, other times I did.  Now I’ve decided that I really think I do.  I know it’ll be incredibly difficult, draining—emotionally, mentally, and physically—and that there’ll be days when all I want to do is quit.  But I really, really want to give this a go.  I want to make something out of myself, and I want to make a difference in the lives of others.  I don’t have delusions of being that one teacher for every student, the one who changed their lives, and who made them love school.  But I want to do my best to help.  (I also want to spread my love of French and/or English.)

So that’s what I’ve been doing as of late: figuring out what the heck I’m going to do in the spring!  I’m not 100% sure what I want to teach.  Obviously, French would be the easiest option, in that I would just need to do MTSU’s post baccalaureate program to get my teaching licensure, but I’m not sure I want to teach high school.  I really want to teach middle school, since I love that age, but that would mean finishing my English degree in addition to the teaching preparation.  I’ve also begun considering elementary age, so who the heck knows!  I’m trying to take things one step at a time!  Wish me luck!

In the last bit of news, my mom and I saw LeAnn Rimes tonight!  LeAnn was the first favorite singer I ever had, and I remember playing the crap out of her cassette for her first album, Blue.  In addition, my grandma and I have oodles of fun singing Blue whenever we're together!  The concert was AMAZING!