It's getting close

As many of you know, but don't care, I'm getting close to graduating.

This last semester, I've been student teaching.

It's been the single hardest thing I've done in my whole life.

It seems as if every single day I do more things wrong than the day before. I honestly don't know if I wasn't correctly trained to do this, or if it has to do with the fact that I'm a secondary major and middle school falls under both, or if I just suck.

I've heard all sorts of things, but what it boils down to is that I don't think I'll be a very good teacher. :(

I guess it's a good thing that I'm starting my masters.

"Yes, we can" to "We just did!"

We. Just. Did.

Wow. We did it. We rock. But I can't help but be a little puzzled.
I was on facebook this lovely evening and these are some of the stati that I'm seeing:
"Obama as President = end of "Freedom" as we know it......God help us all! McCain/Palin 4 life!" From a 16/17 year old that didn't vote, mind you.

"yay socialism and state-paid abortions!!" <-- From a guy, who clearly believes he can tell women what to do with their bodies.

"OBAMA WON?! Damn and i thought i was going to be able to keep the money i earn! STILL REPPIN REPUBLICANNNNN!" <--From a 16/17 year old that didn't vote, mind you.

"deeply scared for my country."

"how long till obama is assassinated?....any guesses?" <-- From a guy who was refered to a 'Nutz' all throughout high school until he was thrown out for sexually harassing a teacher. Winner.

" moving to canada." <-- 15 year old.

"why does everyone has to change their damn status for the election? who gives two shits about politics? grow up people its not the end of the world." <-- This is upsetting mainly because it's a boy I've known for a long time (in my sister's grade). He's 17 years old and he thinks that the election's not a big deal?

"It's going to be a looong 4 years, is it 2012 yet?" <-- 15 year old.

"fucking A im moving to canada." <---13 year old.

Okay, so my main issue is that A) most of these people can't vote, and B) Are clearly uneducated. I'm very sad to say that the girl I was most looking forward to quoting for saying "We elected a baby-killer!" unfortunatley deleted her status. Hopefully someone slapped some sense into her.

Back to my point. I'm not saying that I believe that if you're not old enough to vote your opinion doesn't matter, but I'm not sure it's worth getting THAT bent out of shape about. Especially the younger ones. I'm sorry, but until you're a bit older, you usually believe what your parents do, so who are you really supporting? The candidate you wanted, or the one your parents voted for, regardless of why?

My second point is that it's obvious to me that people who write stuff like the fact that Obama's a baby-killer or wonder how long before an assasination attempt are clearly misinformed. Okay, maybe there's a number of people who would like to see Obama taken out simply because he's not white. What is the deal? It's so rediculous that it's recockulous. Now on to the people who are concerned with the 'baby killer' side of Obama. Here's my message to you: "Change your tampon, take some midol and read some facts." What would be better, may I ask you? Some guy saying that he doesn't have the right to demand that women lose the rights to their own bodies or some crazed pit bull with lipstick who wouldn't let the pregnant victim of incest choose abortion? Why on earth is this even a political topic? *Grrr. Snorts* Okay, I'm done.

For my last message: To all of those who said that they're 'moving to Canada,' they better take all their stuff, cause I'll break in and steal what I like.

I didn't leave in the last 8 years (even though I tried for a few weeks), and I made it through just fine, so stop your whining and embrace the change.

What is his name: Shawn
What is her name: Mandi
How long have you been together: 3 months
How long did you date: date three months
How old is he: 22
Who eats more: Shawn
Who said I love you first: Shawn
Who is taller: Shawn
Who sings better: I don't know. I just know that we both sing loud in the car. :)
Who is smarter: We're both smart, just in different areas.
Who does the laundry: Me, about 99% of the time.
Who pays the bills: How is this even a question? I pay bills, he pays for dinner.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed: Me
Who mows the lawn: Mario, my awesome friend, but when the time comes it'll be Shawn.
Who cooks the dinner: Shawn.
Who drives: Shawn. I'm not to be trusted with backing up...
Who is more stubborn: I don't know. We're both pretty hard headed.
Who kissed who first: Shawn kissed me on the cheek. :)
Who proposed: He will.
Who has more friends: Why is this a competition? I don't know. We're both very social people.
Who is more sensitive: I'm pretty sure it's me. But after having a talk with him, Shawn usually sees where I come from.
Who has more siblings: Dang, we're tied. One each.

So busy!

Okay, so I'm writing on here because I'm really excited, but not many people check this about me, so I'm not too worried about people seeing it.

Are you ready?

I'm getting married.
Yeah, for real.
Shawn and I were talking about it, and we know it's going to happen.
So before he goes to Afghanistan, we're going to get married at the court house.
Then, while he's over there, we'll get a ton of money, and I'll be working.
We'll pay off my ring (http://www.helzberg.com/product/engagement+%26+wedding/engagement+rings/1ct+tw+diamond+engagement+ring+1680680.do) in case you wanted to see it. :)
When he gets back, we'll have saved enough money to have a ceremony.

If you asked me 3 months ago if I was going to get engaged, I'd tell you to go play in traffic.

Who knew?

So now I have to start looking for everything.
Come over and help me out. :)


My favorite picture of us together:
We didn't know Amanda was taking this^. I think it's why I love it.

I never thought that I'd get bit by, this love bug again

Well hell.

Just when I thought I was totally happy being single iwth a ton of friends to hang out with... Shawn came along.
He is everything that I said I'd never date:
Smokes like a chimney
Drinks incessantly
Army boy
Tattoos
Doesn't wear his seatbelt
Has a Harley
Doesn't wear a helmet

And yet. He's amazing. One of our first conversations dealt with me getting an alcoholic beverage...
Mandi: You're taking me home. I'm going to drink this. Please don't rape me.
Shawn: Well, I was going to rape the piss out of you, but since you asked nicely, I won't this time.

Most would be creeped out or disgusted. I found it hilarious.

Another fun situation. Out at Pillsbury, Shawn finished a beer and tossed the can into the woods. Anyone who knows me knows what happened next.
Mandi: Go get it.
Shawn: Why?
Mandi: You can't litter! You knew I was going to flip out about this! I can't date someone who trashes up the environment! Go get it!
Shawn: There are snakes in there. I'll get bitten.
Mandi: I'll drive you to the hospital after you get the can.
Shawn: *tramping through the woods* I can't believe I'm dating a fucking hippie!

Sadly, we work together hilariously.

He's even good with kids.

Anyway, I like him. He likes me. We're happy for now.

Boys

I knew I would eventually have to talk about this...

Boys.

I have a lot of them in my life right now.

Over spring break I started talking to Josh. He's great and fun, but he didn't want a relationship. That's fine, whatever, so I kept looking.

Scot my friend/should-have-been-boyfriend-since-I-was-in-9th-grade came into town. We always hold hands when we're together anyway, but this time we made out a few times.

Then I went to Arizona and didn't see a boy my age for like a week and a half, which was actually pretty okay, since I was sick and felt like shit.

I got back to Manhattan Sunday night pretty late. Monday night, Laura, John and I decided to go out to eat to celebrate us reuniting. :) So we called some of John's army friends to come out and hang with us. To protect the identities of the innocent, I'll refer to them in only letters. So M and TJ come out to Applebees to eat. It was fun, but I looked like crap (hair in pony tail and wearing my "I love Garbo, not Steve" shirt). Afterwards, we go back to my house and watch some Bill Cosby stand up and had a knock down drag out fight over me and Laura's phones. Apparently the boys thought we were texting about them. We were. Whoops. Luckily, they didn't find anything out.

So for the next week we hang with army boys. M and TJ nearly every time, but Laura and I started going to the boy's intermural softball games, so I met D, C (who's from Forks, WA!), T, and a bunch of other guys. I love all my army boys. For real.

Anyway, TJ and I start flirting. That was fun. Let me put it out there that TJ is a slut. I knew this going into it, so no big deal. I don't think that he realized that I knew this. He's not the brightest crayon in the box. So anyway, yeah. That happened.

Thursday night there was a tornado warning or something, so Amanda, Abby, TJ, M, D, John, Laura and Sony (their cat that wishes to eat my soul) showed up at my place. This lead to an interesting night, including playing Boxers or Briefs (best game ever), and watching Monsters Inc. and the Ring. I fought against watching the Ring, as my room flooded... that'll be another post... So we watch it and everyone goes to sleep, M and D upstairs on the futons, and TJ in my room. Bad call? Probably, but it was okay.

Friday... This is where the bad decisions come in. John, Laura, me, M, TJ, and a bunch more army boys go out to Buffalo Wild Wings for some food. We then headed over to O'Malleys. I downed two UV Blue and sprite's in about 5 minutes. Bad call Mandi. Then some guy in the group who I don't know made me drink something called a flaming Dr. Pepper. Big mistake. I was hardcore dizzy by the time I was half done with that drink. Dang. So M and I are drunk-ish and end up singing Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy loudly at Rustys. Eventually we go back to Laura and John's to watch Dane Cook. I fall asleep immediately on TJ. A few hours later I'm woken up by TJ telling me that we were going to sleep in the office. This is a bad idea. I know, I know. Anyway, shit happened and I got no sleep.

After that, TJ didn't talk to me anymore. Like at all. Which wasn't awkward or anything....

So after a week we talk. He's an idiot. Laura told me he had a new girl, and I'm happy for him (which he doesn't believe). So he told me about her. They met at a house party and ended up having sex on the front lawn of the house. Oh yeah, and I was upset about that one...

Wow. I dodged a bullet there. It's wonderful. I'm ecstatic. For real.

And now maybe there's a new guy. How exciting. :)

Family Roadtrip

Or should I say a semi-living hell?

Okay okay, I'll ease up. It's not really that bad. But it is. I know how dumb this sounds, but my family had to DRIVE down to Phoenix Arizona to spend two days at my grandparents house and then pack up their car and ours to drive back with them. No, I'm not kidding.

My grandparents have a lot of money. Mainly from years of not spending any money at all if necessary, but whatever. So they own a house in Arizona and a house in Wisconsin, and they spend the winter in Arizona and the summer in Wisconsin. That's all fine and dandy, but in the last couple years we've realized that they're too old to make that drive on their own. Not that they can't drive or anything, because they can and all that, but the problem is that they're old and we're afraid one of them will have a stroke or something and the other can't really do anything, or some young dumb criminal would knock them over at a rest stop and steal their money. So now we have to drive them. This is the result:

Monday: Dad gets us up at 5 am. How horrific is that? God. I was up on Jonas Secrets til like 2 am too... Anyway, we get in the car and take off. Callie and I manage to fall asleep again in the car until about 10. After that, there's really nothing to do, so I begin to read Twilight out loud to my family. Yep, we do stuff like that. And it rocks. We finally stop in Albuquerque over night at a La Quinta (pretty nice, definitely worth the $70).

Tuesday: Up and out the door by 9. Grossness again. I continue to read Twilight. My whole family is hooked, and it's certainly not my oral skills. It's just amazing. Everyone should go read it. Like now. Callie even starts reading it on her own, which hasn't happened since the Harry Potter series. We finally get to Sedona, Arizona, which is the prettiest place in the whole freaking world. Go there, ASAP. It's awesome. We shop around for awhile and I get some killer shades. *Pictures will come later* Also, I discovered the hotel provided a computer with Internet access so I facebooked for awhile. Yay me.

Wednesday: This is the day that I start my downhill slide into near death. Callie and I got up early and decided to go to the pool. We got out there at seriously 8:30 in the morning. Mom and Dad stopped into to see us and mom asked if I put on sunscreen. Well, I hadn't, but it was like 8:30 in the morning so I wasn't too worried. <--- This was a dumb ass assumption. Callie and I ended up laying out reading and texting by the pool until 10:30 or so. After returning to the hotel room, Mom said I looked red. Okay, whatever. So I put on a t-shirt instead of a tank top to cover my shoulders and back. No big deal. We went to see the Chapel on the hill, which is totally cute. Then mom gets the bright idea to make the whole family take a hike. Fine, whatever. We do it. I feel hella sick. Then we drive from Sedona down to Phoenix. Naturally, about an hour after we arrive my mom diagnoses me with sun poisoning. Balls, that sucks. She buys some Aloe Vera and slathers me up. I feel better, but not my much. Just as everyone's ready to go to bed, all that food that's sat in my stomach all damn day (not digesting as it should have) decides to make an appearance. So for the rest of the night I'm barfing my guts out because my body 's dehydrated, and the only way for it to let me know was to make me hurl for 10 hours. Yeah, I got, body. I'm sick... but of course I couldn't keep anything down, so I couldn't actually eat anything. My mom was pretty close to taking me to the ER, which would have sucked.

Thursday: I'm too weak to do just about anything. I'm so pale that my sunburn looks non-existent, and I can't do my favorite thing: Eat. Dang it. We go to the store and I get chicken broth to live off. Then I stay out of the sun for the rest of the day.

Friday: Today. Ugh. I feel a little better. I can eat food now. Yay. I still have a headache, from being dehydrated. Gross. I'm looking forward to being home.

I'll update when I can. :)

IDK... My BFF Jill?

I'm textually active. I text constantly. I love it! However, there are some things about texting that makes me want to find whoever programs the T9 system and stab them... These are those things:

T9 knows some distrubing words, and yet, it skips over some simple ones.

Weird words in T9's vocabulary:
Pedophile <-- do not ask why I know this. vernacular Words that should be in T9 but aren't:
Taco <-- Not kidding, it comes out to Tabo. Idiots.
Tambourine
Any swear word. I realize that it's not appropriate, but still.
Crap
Yay
Panda <-- If you know anything about me you know that I say panda A LOT...

And then T9 does that thing where it puts in the 'most used' word first. This leads to intersting things too... such as:
Anna. It spells Bomb first.
Jordan = Korean
Smirnoff = Poisoned <--- I find this hilarious
Cats = Acts <-- This confuses a lot of people since I just assume cat should come first
Movies = Mother
Mom = non <-- this isn't even a word. Jeez
Home = Good. I can see this one, but still.

I realize that this is very random. But it's been bothering me for awhile now.

Here's your daily dose of Jonas. Actually, it'll be a dose of Kevin Jonas. This photo shoot rocks.

The Bridges, Locksley and Rooney

Bitch Tits! I had like 3 pages typed out and my computer blinked out. Dang it.

So anyway, I'm off to re-type my once amazing story. Laura, Megan and I decided to trek to Omaha to see Rooney at the Sokol Underground.

Omaha is about 3.5 hours from Manhattan. We rolled into town about 4 and met up with Hannah at the BK Lounge. After parking a block away, we strolled down past Sokol. The bands were all moving in their equiptment. We were planning on stopping, but we were the only ones there and I was telling the stories of my sordid past with law enforcement, so we strolled on past and walked down about a block more before we realized where we were.

Here's the story about where Sokol is located... It's esentially the 'rapesville' of Omaha. Scary scary shit. About a block and a half from Sokol, we stumbled upon a tow truck service that resembled the auto shop from House of Wax entirely too much, so we booked back to Sokol. We agreed that sitting on the ground and having the backs of our legs looking like cottage cheese in front of the tasty bands was better than being raped and killed and turned into wax.

Okay, back on topic...
So we're sitting outside Sokol. On 13th street, which is apparently a very popular street for every unemployed, drunk, possible pedophiles to cruise down on a beautiful Thursday afternoon. Creepers! Ugh. I don't know if people thought we were weird or what, but people in the cars couldn't help but stare at us as they drove past. We even checked to make sure everyone was decent (no one forgot underwear and a skirt or anything... LiLoh we are NOT), which we were, so we didn't get it, but whatever. Eventually, Robert Schwartzman, front for Rooney came out and talked to us... It went something like this
Robert: Groupies!
Us: *stunned silence for a second* Robert!
For most of the time he was talking we were just shocked that he was even talking to us. It rocked. He was telling us about how much he hated eating at MickeyDee's and the BKLounge, so on and so forth and that he was going to Wal*Mart (check out Rooney's blog post for how that went down) He even took the picture that Hannah brought him (of Katie, Hannah, Robert and Taylor).

So eventually they let us in. Laura and I naturally had left to go back to the car, so we had to wait in the long-ass line. Dang. But Megan and Hannah saved us a spot... Right in the front. It was amazing. We were going to be RIGHT THERE if anything happened. We took some exciting shots waiting for the Bridges to start up...

Hannah and I trying to take a picture while saving two extra spots for Megan and Laura

First up was The Bridges. http://www.myspace.com/thebridgesmusic They were amazing. No ear buds and on key. If you aren't impressed you aren't paying attention. They all had amazing fashion and rocked several instruments. Brittany, lead singer has the most amazing bangs ever. Don't laugh, once you see 'em you'll want 'em too.Brittany. You want her bangs. Admit it. And you haven't even heard her sing.

Amazing. Go listen to Pieces. It's going to be their first single and I can't freaking wait to buy their album.

Okay, while The Bridges are performing, I can't help but look around. First I see Mr. Grumpy Gills, some guy in a Locksley t-shirt (Who the hell's Locksley, you ask? Just wait) who stood with his arms crossed and a sour expression the whole time. I think he's hilarious, so every time he gets close to me I call him Mr. Grumpy Gills. :D Then I notice a TASTY boy in light blue singing along to all the Bridges songs. He's adorable. I hoped he was going to be near me (I was wrong).

Once the Bridges are done, Mr. Grumpy Gills runs around setting up for the second band, called Locksley. Suddenly, a guy in a black shirt with white polka dots and white skinnies darts out from the back to bring out something to do with his guitar. Hannah and I had commented on the white pants earlier (I have a pair, Hannah wants a pair), and the fact that he was really cute. As he's plugging his stuff in, he happens to look up. So we're staring at each other, which is awkward enough, since I was clearly ogling his tastiness. Lucky for me, I don't think he noticed.
Cute boy: Hi! I'm Jesse. I guess we're going to be best friends for the next 45 minutes!
Me: *nervous laugh* Yeah I guess so.
Cute boy named Jesse: See you in a minute!

He sprints off. I force myself to breathe. Wow. I didn't have to wait long. As promised he, with the others come out a few minutes later, introducing themselves as Locksley. http://www.myspace.com/locksley They start playing and I realize that they sound like the young Beatles. Uh-MAZING. Seriously. I already accidently fell in love with Jesse and would have listened to feedback from a guitar as long as he was standing in front of me, but to think that he was cute, seemed nice and played good music? Holy cats. Sensory overload.You know you think he's cute.

So I'm doing what I do at shows: bounce around and clap. That's all I can really do. I'd never heard Locksley, so I didn't know the songs or anything, but it was all happy music, so I liked it. Jesse looked at a lot of us in the front row and it was pretty cool.

But then... Jesse did something that I will NEVER FORGIVE HIM FOR: He made me come up on stage.
Jesse the cruel cute boy: What's your name?
Me: oh crap Mandi
Jesse the cruel cute boy: Beesley?
Me: oh crap Close, but it's Mandi
Jesse the cruel cute boy: Mandi! Well I've been watching you all night (I faint inside a little) and you have been clapping along all night. Could you do me a favor and come one stage to help us out.
Me: NO! *smiles weakly* sure.
In a perfect world, this would be the part of the story where someone stops me or Jesse realizes that I was never meant to be on a stage, EVER. Sadly, as this is reality and not perfect, I have to get my terrified ass up there. Jesse hands me a tambourine and they start playing. I stayed on rhythm, thank GOD, but I was so scared! Hannah (that dirty wench) got a video of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm9EmovRHwY <--There it is if you'd like to enjoy my pain. The upside, if there was one, was that Jesse either sensed my terror, or he could clearly see the color drain from my face, so he came over a couple times and put his arm around me. Obviously, I immediately forgave him for whatever it was I was mad at him for... FINALLY, he let me go and I could go back down and cower in the front row, promising me a free CD and poster. The rest of their set was as fantastic as the first part. Jesse even gave me his pick which says "Jesse <3's style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRfZUE6RMQndPuSMlYLZw5VnsRODutTehQko8USs_nVMsc6zkrXeB0zMdRbLvneur150In2mzu8J6kucotGrY77ySX6diuFUfinFbaYFluVPEMLwC-Enf-cAiZpKXFdrAFhEGcOOvYzBE/s320/IMG_6382.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196801940319724498" border="0">We kick off to a good start with Don't Come Around Again, which I knew. Robert seemed to like that most of us in the front (at least my girls and I) knew the words. During I Should've Been After You, Laura and I began pointing at Robert when we sang "I should've been after you." He thought that was pretty funny and grabbed our hands for a moment. Fantastic. http://www.myspace.com/rooney

By this time, it's approximately 148.98 degrees in Sokol. I notice that there are two water bottles sitting on a speaker behind Robert. Robert tosses water on the front row and I question my sanity in wearing a white shirt. Me and some others start to joke about me crawling on stage, not to freak out and touch Robert inappropriately (I would probably at least seriously consider it) but to simply get to that water. Robert either hears us (doubtful) or sees us eyeing the water, so he hands it to me. I pass it around and I think it traveled back a few rows. Yay us getting what we wanted.

In one song Robert just went around grabbing people's hands. He got Laura and my hand, and then moved back, but didn't let go. Immediately my fear of being dragged back on stage kicked in and I got my hand back.

When it was done, Robert announced that they would do meet and greets afterwards. We're excited. We were in line being patient, when all of a sudden the party pooper police show up in the form of Rooney's manager. Let me just put it out there that he's a dick. Seriously. He lectures me about using the flash, of which I see his point and apologize for, but it's not like I wasn't the only one, even though I was clearly the target of his rage. I don't react well to people like that. Instead of telling him to kiss my ass, I just looked at the ceiling reminding myself that I wanted to get my new awesome Rooney bag signed. Then he turned on Hannah about recording the show. Whatever. Someone needs to put a "Kick me" sign on him. Ass. He tells us to only ask the band to sign one thing and NO PICTURES. Fine. Jeez.

Regardless, we finally get up to the band. They're pretty cool. Matt and Megan strike up conversation about being tall.
Matt: You're tall. That's awesome.
Megan *shaky* Thanks
Matt: How tall are you?
Megan: 6 foot 1.
Matt: I'm taller than you! I'm 6 foot 2. Tall is awesome
Megan: High five!
I was so proud.

I'm telling everyone how fun the show was. I really wanted a crazy reaction out of Taylor. He's always so quiet. No such luck. Robert did talk to me though, he told me about how he really appreciated us being all energetic and excited for the show and that he wished there were fans like us at every show they did. I considered throwing out the idea that they could take us with them... Then decided their ass-clown manager didn't really need another reason to hate me, so I kept my trap shut.

We wandered away for a few minutes, and when we came back out, the band had started taking pictures. Ass-clown manager was pissed. He stalked off and we high-fived then gathered round to take pictures. It was awesome.
Robert: Tall people in the back! That's you! (to Megan) Short people in the front. I'm short. What's up? (to me and Hannah)
Our picture's pretty awesome
Fantastic. Eventually the band broke off to talk to everyone else and I managed to get a shot with just me and Robert.
Oh yeah. As Robert was introducing Laura to Brittney from the Bridges, I noticed Jesse lurking around in the back. I all but fell over myself to get to him. He remembered my name. I was shocked. He signed my poster and apologized for making me go up on stage. He seemed really sincere. I managed to restrain myself from telling him that I wanted to be on him (Anchorman, anyone?). We chatted for a few minutes, waiting for Hannah and Laura to catch up. He told me that I was the best tambourine player that they'd ever had up there, despite the fact that I was scared shatless. I wonder if he was lying. Hannah wanted him to sign her shoes, so as she was using my leg as a prop Jesse let me play with his hair. It was fantastic. I refrained (barely) from turning into Bella and just jumping on him. (READ TWILIGHT and you'd understand)

You'd think our night was just ending, but we had that fabulous drive home to look forward to. We said our goodbyes to the boys, all of them telling us to be safe. Laura was pooped. I drove.

To make a long ass story pretty short, we ended up in Kearney. The red to the right is what we should have done... And that black line, that's what we did. We turned around in Kearney at 3:30 am...So that sucked. We rolled into Manhattan at 7:30. Basically, within 24 hours, we spent roughly 11 hours in that car. Gross.

But we survived. It was a blast.

Best night of my life 2-27-08

Here's how that night came about...

It was getting close to concert time. Laura and Adriane wanted to go to the concert too. Too bad we had Heerman's class. Then, God took pity on all of us, and Heerman canceled class. Laura and Adriane bought tickets. We were all going to Jonas! Sprint Center didn't want to say that Jonas had 'sold out' so they opened new sections on the side of the stage. Laura and Adriane got 2nd row on Kevin's side. I was mad. Really mad.

I went home to get Callie, dealing with Cathy's inappropriate text messages about what I should do to Nick Jonas if I met them. They're pretty funny. I kept them in case. I had to convince my mom to get Callie out of school early. It nearly killed my mom to lie to the office and tell them that Callie had a doctor's appointment. Callie was still slightly standoffish about the whole thing. She thought Laura, Adriane and I were ridiculous. Or at least that's what she let on...

Every time I talked to Callie's friends, they would tell me about how she told them the sob story about how she was being dragged to this lame show with her crazy sister. I knew she liked Nick, so I bought a teen magazine and gave her a Nick poster. When I heard all these stories, I thought she was annoyed, so I told her that I would take back the poster and sell the ticket if she really didn't want to go. She told me that if I did either thing she would personally run me over. So I guess she did kinda want to go. :) When we were almost to Adriane's parent's house, the baseball coach called Callie. I only heard her side of the conversation, but this is how it went:
"Hey coach E."
"No, I'm not going to be at practice today, remember?"
"I'm going to the Jonas Brothers."
"Remember? *singing* Oh, this is an SOS, don't wanna second guess, this is the bottom line... "
"No they aren't 12!"
I nearly drove off the road I was laughing so hard.

We got to the show and went to our separate seats. There was no way we'd ever see more than little specks of those boys. Laura called me and we saw that they were at the end of the side stage. Parallel with Kevin. Damn it! Then we had an epiphany, so we sneaked down there. No one was checking tickets unless it was on the floor. Lucky for us, there was an empty seat by the aisle. Callie and I squeezed in.

Then we saw my facebook friend Hannah! We met on the discussion boards on the Jonas Brothers page. She was wearing a yellow shirt that said "Save a drum, bang a Jonas" I thought it was genius. My shirt simply said "Mandi" on the front and "I love the cute romantic one" on the back. Callie's said "Hey Kevin, I can FLIP better than you!" and "I love the cute sensitive one" on the back. Laura and Adriane's shirts said "Hey Joe, I know where there's a swimming pool" She came over and sat by us. Eventually, she got kicked out by people with real tickets to the seats, so she and her friend Katie went over to the Nick side and got some good seats.

Rooney came out and performed. I didn't know a lot of Rooney, to be honest, but I knew the song "When did your heart go missing?" and that was enough for me. We danced and jumped and cheered through the whole thing. Half way through, we looked behind us and saw that EVERYONE else in our section was sitting down. Losers!


So then they started setting up for Jonas. It was the most nerve wracking time ever. Also, as a side note... some dumb middle/high school girls in mini skirts and heels they couldn't walk in sat next to us. They were so rude. And they commented loudly about there was no way home made t-shirts would get Jonas' attention.

So Jonas comes out. AMAZING! We were crazy close, and it certainly didn't hurt that we were on KJ's side. He's tasty. Then, the most amazing thing ever happened... He looked over and saw us... :D
I swear to God he laughed at our sorry excuse for dancing. Were we embarrassed? Yes. Did we stop dancing? Hell no. It was too much fun! I was taking pictures like crazy. I took ~400 photos. Not kidding. Given, a lot of them didn't turn out awesome, but the ones that did are amazing.

The best part? Kevin kept looking at us. Then he told Joe. I have proof.

Here's the first time Joe notices us.

So then Joe paid attention to us too.

Is he waving at us? I like to think he was.

Fantastic night. Seriously. When the song Burning Up came on Laura, Adriane and I freaked. We love the song and had watched it enough on YouTube that we knew the words and how the song was going to go. After Nick did the aerial, Callie looked at me and screamed "I love him!" Uh, duh....

Best night ever.

Oh, and if you want to see the rest of the pictures...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2174389&l=1b8b7&id=17015134
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2174393&l=9fcba&id=17015134
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2174396&l=39068&id=17015134
That should do it...

Oh yeah, and we didn't mean to, but we accidentally threw KJ off at the end of SOS... I think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBkyDLL45AU&feature=PlayList&p=0C14BCBF52CB2EDA&index=7
18 seconds in you see him look in our direction and drop the neck of the guitar. Whoops. We thought that everyone did the SOS dance with Kevin... We didn't realize that everyone took pictures/video and no one really did it. But we did. Like nobody's business. Anyway, Sorry Kevin.

Bonus Jonas Time

Once again I find my blog instead of doing homework. Dang.

If you haven't caught on by now, I like the Jonas Brothers. They're fantastic. You're probably asking how I even discovered this band, since I'm 22 and a senior in college. Well let me tell you about it.

Last summer was the first one in my college career that I spent away from home. I lived here in Manhattan and worked at the zoo as a camp counselor. Wow. Nothing will test you like having 10-13 year olds running around. Now add in some animals that can kill you. Stressful. But really really fun. I liked working with the kids in general, and thought that me and the other counselors did some good influencing. When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out, nearly all of us read it that weekend. A few were still reading it on Monday, and the kids noticed. Within the week they were all bringing in Harry Potter books and requesting that they be allowed reading time instead of recess. Now THAT's amazing. Anyway, I've gotten off topic. Sorry. Back to Jonas.

Since I was working with kids, and High School Musical 2 was coming out (I love HSM), I decided that I should watch the Disney channel. It was probably the best thing I ever did. I not only learned the lingo from shows like Hannah Montana and The Suite Life with Zack and Cody, but I got to watch previews for HSM2. The kids thought it was cool that I could share in their stories about HM and Suite Life, as well as Harry Potter, so all that was awesome. I'm sure I saw the Jonas Brothers on the channel every now and again, but I don't remember for some odd reason. Soon enough, summer was over and school was in full swing, but I still watched Disney. SOS was out by now, and that song (still to this day) got stuck in my head every single time I watched/heard it. I loved it! But I was too old to like boy bands...

I finally checked them out on myspace. They have a song called Mandy. That's freaking awesome. There are no good Mandy songs out there. And don't you DARE say that damned Barry Manilow song. It's about his dog. That definitely doesn't count. Dang. I just looked it up and it wasn't about a dog. Regardless, the song is annoying. But the Jonas brother's song wasn't. It freaking rocked. I loved it. So I decided that I liked them. Plus, they were kinda cute.

December came around and the radio had been playing SOS. I always turned it up and the kids at the zoo thought it was pretty cool. One day my mom called me and asked for ideas for Christmas presents. I had on Disney, and SOS was playing. I told her there was a Disney boy band called The Jonas Brothers and I thought they had a CD out. I got it for Christmas, plus a few other CD's - Carrie Underwood, Colbie Caillat, Backstreet Boys, Hanson, Taylor Swift, and Dane Cook. I put them on my iPod. The only way I can really learn songs is by putting them on repeat and shuffle so I get a fun mix of songs. I worked at the zoo for 4 days all by myself, so the iPod was my savior from boredom. I found myself skipping forward to listen to Jonas. I was hooked.

I still remember being shocked at how insightful some of the words were to their songs. While driving back to Manhattan a few days after Christmas, I remember hearing the line

Cause an empty room can be so loud
It’s too many tears to drown them out
So hold on

I've only felt that way once in my life, and I would have never expected it from a Disney boy band. Ever. I couldn't believe it. I also was surprised how many songs were about girls. I shouldn't have been I guess, but I was. Some of the songs made me melt, and I didn't know a thing about these boys or if they were even legal (see post below). I decided to check them out online.

Every time a girl gets a CD with boys on the cover, she automatically chooses the 'cute' one. I did. It's totally Kevin. I was really relieved to find out that he was 20, and actually 2 months older than the guy I was dating at the time.

In January, the Hannah Montana live in concert movie came out. I wanted to go see it, but $18 was pretty steep. I definitely didn't want to go see it by myself, but I couldn't convince anyone else to pay that much to go see it. I have education classes on Wed. and Thurs. until 5:30. I decided I'd go after that. I always give Laura a ride back to her car, which is parked over at the LDS institute across campus. We were driving, and she mentioned that her husband John was out of town and asked what I was doing that night. I mumbled something resembling "Hannah Montana." She had to ask me to repeat it 3 times before I told her that I was going to see Hannah Montana. Her reaction surprised me. "Really? I love Hannah Montana. I'll go with you, if you want." Of course I wanted her to go. I was afraid that moms everywhere would think I was a kid toucher or something.

Of course we went on the night that there was a tiny blizzard. As a result, we were the only ones in the theater... It was AMAZING
Since we were the only ones in there, I took time to explain to her my love of Jonas. She hadn't really heard of them, so I gave her the down low on the band, who seemed most popular, and how offended I was that every girl didn't see how freaking tasty Kevin was. She laughed at me... At first. Finally, Jonas was on. We immediately noticed (in 3-D) how tight their pants were. Joe's legs are impressive. I don't care who you are. That boy must do approximately 4,587,532,155,936 squats a day to get those legs. We also noticed what a freaking rock star Kevin is. Seriously, even though he might not get as much camera time, if you notice him in the background, he's constantly rocking out, smiling, and singing at the top of his lungs, even if it's not near a microphone. We had a great time.

One night I noticed that they were on tour... And coming to Kansas City. I called mom and asked if she would be interested in going with me and Callie (my baby sister, okay she's 17, but I call her my baby sister anyway). She didn't want to spend the money to go herself, but offered to by Callie and I tickets. Callie wasn't super excited. She wasn't really into boy bands. The closest she ever got was Good Charlotte. But she agreed and I knew she was really going so we could hang out. We got really crappy seats, but who cares?

February 9th I got the text message that changed all of our semesters: "No lie... I just got a Jonas Brothers ring tone. You're converting me." Laura was hooked too. She bought their CD about a week later. Then we discovered them on YouTube. Wow. That's probably the best thing that any band could do. Make goofy videos. Do goofy dances. We loved them. We slowly converted Adriane, another English major.

Next on my list was my freshman, Shauna. She laughed at me at first, then watched videos and thought Joe was pretty cute. Next was Cathy. We'd been friends for awhile and she liked supporting my love for 'underage' boys no matter how many times I told her that 2/3 of them were legal. Finally I talked her into watching some YouTube videos. First up was the Nick J show. Soon we had worked our way up to the Daily Dose of Jonas. Cathy fell off my bed laughing after it. Two days later she texted me: "I woke up with a strange mixture of Please Be Mine and That's Just The Way We Roll stuck in my head. And that would be your fault, lady." Cathy was in too.

Basically, I should be on a street team here... I'm converting people right and left.

<3 Jonas.

Legal age of consent

Wow. I'm going to be a teacher. Well, that's what the college thinks. I'm going to be a librarian. Anyway... I'm getting my teaching degree...

So tonight in my class, Dr. Goodson (or T.Good, as I call him in my head) stands up in front of us and says: "Don't have sex with your students." Even though I laughed a lot, I realize that this is a big deal. Two weeks ago here in Manhattan, a female teacher was caught out at the spillway in a car with a 17 year old student from the school. Bad call. Seriously. So we went on to talk about websites that are out there about bad teachers. This is the one we talked about the most.

http://badbadteacher.com/

Crazy stuff. I can't imagine why on earth women or men would throw away their careers and families and FREEDOM for some high schooler... Let us look at the pros and cons...

Pros of dating a high school student when you're a teacher:
1. You can control them.
2. They possibly idolize you.

Cons of dating a high school student when you're a teacher:
1. You lose your job.
2. You get pregnant/get her pregnant.
3. You get a divorce.
4. PRISON
5. No one will ever hold respect for you...EVER...

Okay, so as you can see, there are a lot more cons than pros in this situation. I have no idea why someone would go to school for 4+ years to get a degree and then flush it away. It doesn't make sense.

Do these women have low self esteem issues? I remember high school. No matter how tasty the guys were, every girl was looking forward to going to college and meeting new, more mature guys. Of course we all realize now that they don't actually mature... they simply aren't as loud about it. But regardless. I don't see any reason for a married woman with a baby to go after a boy in her class.

Also, in the state of Kansas, it's illegal to have sexual relations with someone under the age of 16, unless you're married to that person (I don't know who marries off their kids under the age of 16 either). If you do, it's an E class Felony. If the 16 year old is consenting, then it's okay. Unless you're a teacher. Then it's an A class Felony or something crazy, but only if they attend YOUR school. Basically, if you're a teacher, and you're dating a person who's 17 at a different school, that's okay.

WHAT?

I don't think that makes sense. But that's just me. I understand that if you're the teacher you could influence grades and all that, but still. I think if 30 of 'em are off limits then they all should be.

I realize that I'm just going on and on about this, but it really does boggle my mind.

Do teachers really think that students really like them? I know that the kids I teach will mess with me to see what they can get away with. It's not because I'm pretty or close to their age. It's because I'm new to this teaching thing and probably really insecure about it all, so they think they can throw me off.

This is why I'm student teaching at a middle school. I'm not even kidding. I look like I'm 16 anyway. There is no way I'm even chancing that crap.



Okay, usually I do the daily dose of Jonas, however, since I just ranted about under age boys and Nick is in the category of 'off limits' I've decided to introduce my readers to my new loves... Rooney. They're all legal.

NCAA champs!

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK
ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK
ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK
GO KU!


Freaking amazing night.





Daily Dose:

High school... Teen horror or best time of your life?

Now that you read about my family and my childhood a little...

High School! *bum bum bum*
I really liked high school. No, really. I had a good time. Parts of it sucked, it's true, but basically I had a good time.


I had my first real boyfriend. That ended badly, but it was a good learning experience... I managed to date a runner, a druggie, a college guy, a cellist, and a frat guy. Interesting, huh? I'm not sure how I managed that either.

I played basketball my freshman year, and it became shockingly clear that there are actually inanimate objects that have more athletic ability than I did. So instead, I became an official supporter... Also known as a manager. I managed cross country for two years, until my school started a soccer program, then me and half the cross country team ditched and traded running shoes in for cleats. I <3 soccer. I also went to all the football games (so did everyone in my town, it was kinda the thing to do), and all the basketball games. Spring was my favorite time of year. Spring meant baseball. I love baseball so much. It's actually a funny story about how I got to love it, but I did. I managed every year and was the head manager for three of them. Some of the best stories of my high school life happened on or in the vicinity of a baseball field.

Hmm... What else happened? Oh yeah. Prom was a big deal. Eudora didn't do any formal dances except for prom, so it was a blow out event and everyone got way dressed up and all that jazz. At Eudora, we were small enough that Juniors and Seniors were allowed to go. Sophomore year I went to prom twice. Once with Bill Amedei from St. Thomas Aquinas in Olathe, and once in Eudora with my friend Bart. Sad, I don't' have any pictures from it (Darn this new computer)... Junior year I went with the guy I was dating. My dress was awesome

(L to R) Shelby, Me, Erin, Brianne and Georgia

Senior year was the best, as it should have been. Stretch navigator limo, a huge group of people. It was so awesome! I went with Aaron, my best friend. We planned on going to prom together every year, and somehow it finally worked out my senior year.

We had such a good time.
Ian and I. <3 style="text-align: left;">
My senior year of high school I was single, and it was fabulous! I ended up making the best friends of my life, Erin, Donna and Kristin.

Erin, Donna, Kristin and me
Or better known as
Samwise, Merry, Frodo and Pippin

Kristin's going to get the spotlight for this post. She was a foreign exchange students from Norway. Erin, Donna and I were in Nerd bowl with her (scholars bowl for all you geeks). We discovered we all had nerd-love for Lord of the Rings. She went to the midnight premiere with us, and the rest was history. Even though she left after senior year, she returned to Eudora two years later for a short but awesome visit, and last year I went to London (where she happned to be studying) and we went to Norway together (My family's from Norway). I love her, because it was like we were never apart.

Kristin and Me

Me (with long hair), Donna and I

These people made my high school years rock.

More later.

Oh, and here's your daily does of Jonas...
Go watch the new sneak peek. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eZ8Rr-0sRc

Backtrackking...

Hi all.
I realized maybe I should tell you all a little bit more about myself...


My family's kick ass. Hands down. My dad's what I like to call 'a good 'ole boy.' He's been in our town for years, and he seems to know everyone. He's easy going for the most part and is amazing at telling stories. He's also very much like Forrest Gump. No, he's not slow, you tools. He has been all over the place and done a bunch of awesome things and I can never quite put it all on a time line. He and my mom are both from Wisconsin, but he was from a small town and she was city girl. My mom's a nurse. So's her mom. (Callie wants to be one too) Mom's really cute. She's like a tiny ball of energy. Standing strong at 5 foot nothing, she's really cute. Constantly happy, and always the first to offer hot chocolate. She makes the best cookies around. If you don't believe me, come over, I'll make you some. I love her more than life itself.

My sister is my favorite person in the entire world. I don't think she likes that. We're completely opposites, but we're cool. Callie is way quieter than me. She waits around to see what people are like before being outgoing. She did gymnastics forever... Power tumbling, really. She's also a cheerleader (I know I just said she's not outgoing... It's fun to watch). One of my favorite things is that when people meet us they don't realize we're related. We don't really look alike and we have completley different personalities but we have a lot of the same mannerisms. I'm her biggest fan. I love going to her games and cheering for her as loudly as possible. :)

Callie and I at the Jonas Brothers concert
2-27-08

Callie thought JB was overrated... Until she watched Nick J do an aerial. Then she was on board with the rest of us... :)

I'm from Kansas... Wait, let me be more specific. I'm from a small town outside of Lawrence. It's a big difference. When most people think of Kansas, they think of Fred Phelps. He's crazy. He's that guy that pickets everyone's funerals because 'God hates fags.' This is not Lawrence. Lawrence is the only liberal town in Kansas. I'm not kidding.

I'm from a small town 15 minutes from Lawrence. My parents are conservative, but my mom's best friend is the most liberal woman I know, so I had an interesting time growing up. Here's some things people think is weird about my childhood:
1. My house doesn't have a heater. At all. We have a wood burning stove. Seriously. The result of this is that our living room is really really warm all winter long and every other room is freezing. My dad finally broke down and bought a space heater for the bathroom (showering sucked).
2. We lived on a farm and had about 30 cats, between 2 and 5 dogs at any given point in time, and 3 horses.
3. My family doesn't have cable, or satellite. Just your basic channels with the antenne.
4. No video games. At all. To this day, I only know how to play Mario Kart, and I'm not good. :)
5. I could read at a 2nd grade level in Kindergarten. This is a result of the last two things.
6. I was never allowed to have barbies. My mom said they were a negative body image icon for girls. Instead, I had My Little Ponies.
7. No one in my family has ever been on a diet. Another 'negative body image' thing.
8. I had to be told by a friend's parents that homosexuality was 'wrong.' I just thought it was up to you to figure out what you were.
9. I went to church every single Sunday, regardless.
10. On weekends for fun, my mom, sister and I would walk along roads and pick up trash.

So that's the idea of my childhood. It rocked my face off. I was a tomboy. I loved being outside and hated being dressed up. I got poison ivy at least 5 times a summer and I was proud of it. I had no fear. I liked heights, jumping off stuff, and doing really dangerous things, which on a farm was pretty easy to find. I was pretty rough too. I'm the oldest. There's just me and Callie, my little sister. She's 6 years younger than me. We had a brother in between, but we lost him. So since I'm the oldest, I was the guinea pig on 'how to be a parent.' My mom thought it would be good for her to become friends with other women who had kids my age. She made three friends... Aaron's mom, Jesse's mom, and Jared's mom. All boys. I blame her for being such a rough girl.

I think that's going to be about it for now... More on my entertaining life later...

I'll leave you with a little Jonas...

Um... Hi

Hi. I did this for Laura. I hope you're happy. :)

Well I'm doing this instead of preparing my short report for Jacobean Drama...

I'm so over school right now. Seriously. I only have to finish this semester and then go student teach. It' so close to being over that I can taste it. Of course, I have to go get my masters after that so I can be a librarian (don't laugh or I'll punch you).

So last night I should have done homework... instead...
1. Perry, my car, decided that he was going to leak out all of his transmission fluid, so I had to fix him. This included me and Laura driving over to Wal*Mart and getting 'hit on' kinda by some car nut who was very nice and helpful, but slightly creepy. Then we had to go back and try to get 2 quarts of transmission fluid into my car without spilling it everywhere... It worked, sort of. Then I had to drive home, smelling the spilled transmission fluid burning up on my engine (not pleasant).

2. Next, was obviously dinner time, but before I could even get water to boil, Laura called me in a tizzy because she found the interview of Jonas with Ellen and had facebooked it to me. Naturally I had to watch it... I had to hear about Kevin's total 'aww' moment. (texts at 3 a.m.) And that fabulous pick up line... I've never heard a pick up line that had to do with a library, but it would totally work on me... And Kevin definitely did the nose tap thing. It was pretty blatant this time. Not that it's bad. I love how much controversy there is about it. So many girls just don't want to think about KJ (yeah, I call him KJ. No one else gets sort of abbreviation though... not sure why) having a girlfriend or a crush or whatever. Get over it girls! I am let down that they didn't show KJ's S.O.S. dance. It's the best part of that whole song (although, I think Joe's splits would win if there was a 'wardrobe malfunction').

3. Next up was Josh calling and us arguing about whether or not he ignored me in class that day (he totally did) and why you can't buy just one button at a time at Wal*Mart. Pointless, basically, but fun none-the-less.

4. Randi came down from upstairs to help me out with the homework I should be doing... We watched Jonas on YouTube. Not helpful. She does however agree with me about those hips. :)

5. Holly called freaking out because her fiancee is having seizures and the doctors here in Manhattan (KS, don't get too worked up people) screwed him up pretty bad with meds. As a result, they're in Kansas City at KU Med. She has an oral report due today, and obviously, if she's in KC (about two and a half hours from here) she can't give it. She's worried he'll fail her (they had a spat about it last week and he wasn't sympathetic... at all) if she doesn't do it. It's my job to calm her down and offer to orally do her part of the presentation.

6. I call Laura to talk about the Ellen show and Jonas. Johnny, Laura's husband, wants to meet Jonas too. How many 22 year old married soldiers do you really think want to seriously meet Jonas because they like the music? Not many, is my bet. Anyway, John has a plan that is completely ridiculous and will never happen, but it's fun to talk about. Then Laura and I discuss how annoying it is that John can't decide where to go to school next year. His family (who's never been here) wants him to go to one school, and all logic and reason points to another... Laura and I are frustrated pandas. That takes up about 45 minutes of conversation... Then we're back to talking about Jonas... of course. I'm excited about going to the Omaha show. It's going to be me, Callie, my 17 year old completely punk-emo sister who is in LOVE with Jonas since we went to the KC show in February and scored 2nd row seats, Laura, and Ashely, her friend who we sucked in around January. What's so great? In the off chance that we actually meet them, I'm the only single one. Laura and Ashely are married to soldiers and Callie's dating some guy who she's head over heels for. Yay being single. Laura is jealous. She should be. :)

7. Erin, my roommate and I iron out plans for Thursday evening's living room privilges (we have a small place... Only one group of people at a time) to finish out our lesson plan on To Kill A Mockingbird...

8. Josh calls back. We talk about nothing appropriate to put into a blog, except that he thinks that my teacher needs to give Holly a break.

By now it' s 11:30 and there's really nothing to do but talk to Hannah (my Frankie, if you will) about the Ellen + Jonas show, watch The Girls Next Door (I love that show, I don't care if you think it's trashy), and add some of my Jonas concert pictures to some new groups...

Finally I read a chapter of Twilight (I know I haven't read it yet... I've been busy!) and finally see why every girl ever is in love with Edward Cullen. I'm trying to come up with a good picture of him in my head...

Okay, that's it. I'm late for class. Dang it.