This has not been my week.  I feel like complaining a little bit, but I also know that it's going to get better.

Exhibit one: My car was broken into on Friday night while I was at a tournament.  It was parked in the school lot, and I got back from the first day of the tourney to find my driver's side window shattered and all the stuff in my car rummaged through.  There wasn't anything missing, but of course I filed a police report anyway.  The police couldn't get any fingerprints because everything was too smudged, and my deductible on my insurance was too high to pay for the window replacement.  It wasn't too much, but still, I had to pay for the window and I'm also paying for a detailing on my car to get the fingerprint dust out and the glass and all that crap.

Exhibit two: I woke up this morning with a migraine and took some of the new meds that my doctor gave me.  Twenty minutes after I took the pill, my head and scalp started to feel weirdly hot and my shoulders and neck started to hurt.  The heat escalated to a burning sensation and the pain spread to my arms and chest.  I started to get weak and lose motor control in my hands and I was really dizzy and disoriented.  Michael called his mom, who is fortunately a nurse working in a pharmacy, and she told me not to take any more of the meds (duh) and talk to my doctor to get the prescription changed.  I had to stay home from work, and I'm still feeling really weird and weak.

Exhibit three: The city came to pick up limbs on my street (a month after the ice storm) a few minutes ago, and two big burly city workers killed a snake near my house.  Michael saw it and came in to tell me.  Now, I'm not upset that there was a snake in my neighborhood, near my house.  I'm actually glad there used to be one.  I'm angry that they killed my buddy.  It was just a little garter snake.  If it had been a copperhead or a water moccasin, I would have been ok with them killing it.  But it was a teeny tiny little snake that was so small and harmless--they eat all sorts of awful things that I don't want in or around my house or yard or garden, things like slugs, insects, and rodents.  Why two great big burly city worker guys would waste the city's time killing an innocent little snake like that baffles me.  What is it with huge men and tiny, defenseless, helpful creatures?  Why are those guys so afraid of one little snake?  To kill a natural predator like that just means that there are that many more slugs, bugs, and mice running around in my neighborhood--those little snakes are so important to the food chain.  How about I go to those guys' houses and kill all their snakes and see how they like the resulting boom in the pest population?

Taking a deep breath now...  I'm going to go buy some snakes and set them free in my back yard.  If any of you have snakes near your house, please don't kill them.  Or at least don't tell me if you do.

I have a bunch of junk bouncing around in my head right now and wanted to just put it out for people to read or ignore or whatever, so there's no real theme to this post.

First of all, Michael asked me to marry him and I said yes (duh!).  He proposed at Union Station in St. Louis at the famous Whispering Arch, which is a big arch (again, duh) that's about forty feet wide.  If someone stands at one side of it and faces the wall, someone on the other side of the arch can hear anything they say because it somehow travels up the wall (science is not my strong suit).  His parents met at Union Station, so I thought it was very sweet and thoughtful of him to take me somewhere that's so special to ask me.  My ring is gorgeous--kind of vintage/art deco and very, very sparkly.  I love it.  And I love my fiance.  We've decided on quite a few things so far for the wedding, but I'll be getting info out about that soon enough.

Next, I'm headed back to school tomorrow and will be teaching my first ever honors public speaking class (yay!) and I'm really excited about that.  I have a lot of awesome plans for it that will hopefully be really fun and challenging for the kids.  I may also have a student teacher who was one of my former students, so I'm excited to reconnect with him and help him as he works on finishing his college years and starting his career.

And now, something not really newsy at all: Michael has been gone on a work trip this weekend, so I've watched a lot more TV than I normally do.  I spent this afternoon watching songs 27-1 on the VH1 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs countdown thingy, and I have to say I disagree.  Number three was Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love," and number two was AC/DC's "Back in Black."  I like AC/DC, looooove Zeppelin, and was totally poised to rock out to song number one.  I honestly couldn't think of anything that would top either of those two songs, so I ran through every hard rock or metal song that I knew and loved during the commercial break.  I was stumped, stymied, bewildered, and secretly hoping for another Zeppelin song to take spot number one.  Bret Michaels reappeared to introduce the number one song, and imagine my shock, surprise, and horror when it was announced that the number one greatest hard rock song of all time was "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns'n'Roses.  WTF?  Axl and Slash over Robert Plant and Jimmy Page?  Over Angus Young and Brian Johnson?  Then I remembered that this is VH1.  The show is hosted by former Poison lead singer Bret Michaels.  These people are stupid.  Then I realized that in the 27 songs I saw, all of the bands represented were 100% male.  Where are the rockin' ladies?  So I decided I could make a better list, but 100 seemed a bit daunting and I'm too lazy for that.  Then I realized that no matter what I put, something would be missing or the songs wouldn't be the very best, so I'm just listing some really good songs that I like a lot that are sung by women or Led Zeppelin.  If you want a CD or playlist of these (and possibly a few other songs) shoot me an email or leave a comment and I'll figure out how to do get one to you.  And now, the ladies only list:

15. Led Zeppelin--Going to California (I know Zeppelin is an all-male band, but I just love them)
14. Tori Amos--Smells Like Teen Spirit (it's a cover, and Tori has so many amazing songs, but she's not exactly "rock;" still, her cover of Nirvana's song is amazing)
13. Kittie--Suck
12. Jefferson Airplane--Pretty As You Feel
11. L7--S***list
10. Garbage--As Heaven Is Wide
9.   Otep--Warhead
8.   Hole--Plump
7.   PJ Harvey--My Beautiful Leah
6.   Regina Spektor--Your Honor
5.   Rasputina--Watch TV
4.   Sleater-Kinney--All Hands on the Bad One
3.   Veruca Salt--Volcano Girls
2.   Liz Phair--Got My Own Thing
1.   Janis Joplin--Piece of My Heart

Fair warning: some of these songs are really hard, especially the L7, Kittie, and Otep ones.  I keep wanting to share music with everyone, but I know what I listen to is a little different than what most of my friends enjoy...but if you ever want a mix CD, I like making them... :)

Michael's parents came to visit and we had an awesome time.  We shared some good meals, both at home and out, we enjoyed church together, and we went here.  If you live in Northwest Arkansas and you've never been there, you should go.  We got to watch camels drink each others' pee and Michael's parents' car got a thorough tongue-washing from some cows.  We also got to see full grown tigers jumping and acting like little kitties at feeding time.  Totally awesome experience and it's in my home town.  It's not expensive at all--$8 per person and it's so worth it.  You get to be so close to the animals like you can't do in a zoo.

Also, if you're in Northwest Arkansas, you should come to mine and Michael's Halloween party this Saturday.  It's sure to be fun!  Contact me for details, though most of you who regularly read this blog have (or should have) gotten an invitation.