Malloryisms

Here are a few of my favorite Mallory sayings. Some of them are from a few years back, while a couple of them are from today.

"It's a sunny day, and you should go to church with my family."

"Have you found anyone to marry you yet?"

a typical phone message: "Hi Jackie, this is Mallory, your little sister. Just wondering how you're doing. When you get this message, please call back. Sincerely, Mallory Zwiefel."

"We just got home from school, and we're in a bad mood."

"G'day mate. Will you be my Valentine?"
followed by...
"I saw a card in the store that said that, and I wanted to mail it to you, but it wouldn't get to you until tomorrow, so I called instead."

"You're older than a teenager, but younger than an adult."
"Actually, I am an adult."
"Well then, you're an adult but you're younger than married."

Cabin Fever

This may turn into a long post, but I have lots to say...

Thursday - Snow Day! Thank goodness. Wednesday was not a great day at work. In fact it basically sucked. One of those "Did I really choose to do this!?!" days. I hear it's part of the "first-year teacher" thing. I was PRAYING for a snow day so I would have time to recover. Sadly though, I'll probably be teaching until July. Thursday night I went to see Juno with a friend. I enjoyed it. Afterwards I had an irresistible urge to call my sister. :)

Friday - We get out early! YAY! It was the first day of the 3rd quarter. I started teaching 7th grade theory. It went well! We left school at 1:30, no high school or elementary for me that day! I decided to drive for an hour to see an old friend of mine. I ended up on some pretty drifted over back roads. It was such an adventure. We went shopping and out to eat. It was nice to get away from Waterloo even if only for a few hours.

Saturday - Another day of laziness. In the evening I went to a hockey game with some friends. It was very fun! It was my third time cheering for the Waterloo Black Hawks. They pulled out a win with a score of 2-0 over the Sioux City Musketeers. Someday I'd like to take a spin on a Zamboni.

Sunday - Operation Wonderwoman... I felt a little guilty/bored about so many lazy days in a row that I woke up at 8:00 that morning and made a list of things that I needed to accomplish. I finished most of them. Unfortunately, I also watched the two teams I wanted to make it to the Super Bowl lose in their conference title games. Oh well, maybe next year. I watched the game with my friends Zach and Kristin Johnson, Zach's dad and brother, and Kristin's brother. The chip bag to people ratio was almost 1:1. The Johnsons have an adorable kitten. I want a pet so badly. I don't want a cat. When I got home, I spent about an hour researching house rabbits. It probably won't happen though. I'm holding out for a dog.

Monday - Snow, Snow, Snow... We had school on time. While I was there the road I travel on to get between here and Waterloo was labeled as "travel not advised." I was afraid I would get stuck at school! Finally, they announced we would dismiss at 10:30. They announced this during my junior high class. The one that went so well last Friday did NOT go well today! The prospect of driving home to sit by myself for the rest of the afternoon was NOT appealing, so I drove to Cedar Falls instead. It's about a 20 minute drive in good weather. I saw nine cars in the ditch. I probably should have gone home. Instead I had lunch with a friend at Panchero's (Yes, Debra, I had the guac and chips!), wandered around Kohl's for awhile, rented some chick fliks, and got my hair chopped. In other news, the principal called and it is a late start for tomorrow. Good grief. Let's space these days out a little bit eh?

In summary, I LOVE a good snow day. I'm just craving a little routine. Thank goodness I have friends or I'd be a lonely old cat lady who watches t.v. all day and thinks potato chips are vegetables.

I was perusing the cancellations this morning and found one of them particularly amusing. 7th Day Adventist Church: Smoking Class Canceled Tonight.

B.Y.O.B.

It's not easy being green...

I have wanted to blog about this for a long time, but I would have been a hypocrite. Ever since I returned from Australia I have thought that the U.S. should be using reusable shopping bags too. It's disgusting how many times I've gone to Target and come home with more bags than necessary. I once brought home three bags, two mostly full and one that had a box of toothpaste in it. Grr! I have hated myself for not doing the right thing. Still, there is a part of me that is uncomfortable as the tree-hugging bag lady. Target is now selling reusable bags like the ones that are available in EVERY grocery store in Australia. I have also found through a little research that the same Target bags were available in California last June. There are a few grocery stores in Des Moines that sell this style as well, minus the bull's eye motif. I hope the trend catches on! Keep your eyes peeled for more stores to stock the bags. You can buy really nice ones for $5-?, but I prefer the ones that cost $.99 or at most $1.50! I bought one a week ago and have used it twice since. They hold a lot more than a traditional grocery bag too! If you feel inspired, you are not alone. I'll be using mine as much as possible. The hardest part is remembering to take it with you. Now that I've blogged about it I will feel a strong sense of guilt if I don't take my own advice. I have no intentions of pressuring any of this blog's faithful readers. Just think though... With our powers combined we could keep thousands of plastic bags out of landfills. Captain Planet would be so proud!

Captain Planet, he's our hero.
Gonna take pollution down to zero.

The power is yours!

[Nice mullet, huh?]

(After posting this, I found an amazing link.) Click Here

Grassroots Politics

I forgot to mention that my favorite part of the rally yesterday was as Obama left the stage singing along to "Signed, sealed, delivered. I'm yours."

My caucus location was a a small middle school that goes by the name of Bunger. The parking was insane! There were so many people there. I'm not really sure how many precincts caucused in this building, but there were at least three. Mine went by the name of Poyner 2 and had 107 people turn up to vote. My parents met in a neighbor's house with a turnout of 30-some people.

My precinct had seven delegates. Three went to Edwards, two to Hillary, and two to Obama. One of the Obama supporters had two parents in the Biden camp. They tried to drag her to their side to make Biden viable. One rather enthusiastic supporter joked that she'd run them over in with her walker! It didn't work though, they still needed one more. So we ended up with the family of three, and the rest of the former-Bidens went Edwards. Speaking of walkers... it seemed to me as though a lot of the Hillary support was from women over 50.

Apparently there were some rather unhappy Hillary supporters in the room next door, because the non-Clinton dems realigned themselves so that she only got one delegate and not two. :) Oh the treachery!

I was there until 8:30. As soon as I got in my car they were calling it a win for Obama with 70% of the precincts reporting.

I called my parents on my way out of the school. I was interested to know how things went in Fenton. Mallory answered the phone, and when I asked where Mom and Dad were she said, "They're at a funeral." Hmm... not exactly.

I am an alternate Obama delegate for the county convention. I'm still figuring out what exactly that means, but it is a chance to get involved in politics. We'll see if I get a phone call about that or not. When I talked to my mom she told me that my Dad was chosen as the delegate for Obama from Fenton. She wants to go too, so she signed up as a volunteer. My parents haven't been this involved in politics for... well, ever?

I hope this made some sort of sense. I typed bits of it as soon as I got home. I usually proofread my posts, but I'm too tired. Democracy is hard work!

P.S. This blog will now return to it's regularly scheduled programming.

Let's Rally!

I didn't have any idea that I would spend my evening with hundreds of other Iowans at a political rally. When I got home from break there was caucus information on my doorstep from the Obama campaign, and a flyer saying he would be speaking in Waterloo tonight at 7:00. I was surprised since the caucus is tomorrow. It was fun! There was a band, cheering, media, tons of people. It was fun! His wife Michelle spoke too. I am looking forward to the caucus tomorrow night. It will be fun to meet some of the neighbors. My parents are going to caucus for the first time tomorrow as well. They went to an Obama rally in Algona. Alissa, the teenage fashionista, explained to me that Dad got an Obama hat at the rally, "AND he WEARS it!" Mallory really enjoyed the cheers. Just about every day I was home there was some sort of reference to "Fired up!" and "Ready to go!" I'm in the second picture. "Where's Waldo?" Just kidding! I'm the face directly to the left of the blue Obama sign. Do you think there will be fewer political ads on TV?

My favorite quote - Barack's response to the idea that he is too nice.

"Yes ma'am, no sir, but get out of my way. I'm bringing change to the American people!"