why must the cutest things hurt so badly?

seriously though, WHY do the cutest things hurt so badly?  and no, i'm not thinking any deeper than surface level for this.  feel free to read into whatever you want, but i'm talking superficial things.

mainly ... shoes. like the shoes pictured below.

look closely.  you'll probs see blood near the toes.
also, the cute pink bear in the corner of the picture
does nothing to ease the foot pain.

the cutest shoes are like tiny torture chambers begging to suck the soul out of your toes by the end of the day.  but why?  why must the shoes be designed with less toe room than necessary to not end up with squished toes?   and why must the straps be made of something as uncomfortable as steel, cracking your heel with every step?  what happened to cute, stylish (emphasis on the last word) shoes?  i don't know if anything happened to them, because to be honest, i don't know that they have ever existed.

and yes, i do have a pair or two cute-ish shoes (if you stretch the definition of cute) that aren't terribly uncomfortable, but they aren't heels.  and no, i don't think you have to wear heels, but i like to.  after all, if i ever get pulled over and a cop asks me to step out of the car, they only way he'll believe the height on my driver's license is with some stellar platforms.  

sidenote: if i've complained about torture shoes before, i obviously don't learn from my mistakes.

there is so much i don't know about greek mythology.

today i taught my first lesson. that's right ... a megan original, planned-created-and-implemented.  i was working with a 5th grade teacher to enhance what she's doing in her classroom on mythology.  i had planned for us to do some brainstorming and talking about myths, some connecting myths to our current lives a little bit, and then a smidge of reading a greek myth together.  from there, in the weeks to come, we'll work on a fun extension project where we'll get to showcase a myth (or create our own) ... all good stuff.

anyways, i spent hours familiarizing myself with both mythology and the specifics of greek mythology in hopes not to appear completely incompetent in front of those 5th graders.  i knew i wouldn't be able to talk around them the way i might be able to talk around kindergarteners by convincing them i knew what i was doing.  so countless internet and book searches later, i was as prepared as i was going to be.

i was going to connect mythology to the 5th graders by showing them characters from harry potter that derived their names (and sometimes their personalities) from greek mythology, and then throw in a few real life examples influenced by greek myths.  you know, it's all about authentic learning, right?

so here i am, armed and ready with my hermione granger, sirius black, and minerva mcgonagall pictures.  i also had pictures of nike and pandora jewelry in my bag of tricks.  and blow-my-mind there was one kid each time that knew exactly why it connected with greek (or roman in the case of minerva) mythology.

which of course is awesome.  to know they are so excited about learning different things and they have the chance to be exposed to this is inspiring.  i sure as heck had never read any of these greek myths (although somewhere along the line in my k-12 education i did learn about hercules, probs thanks to mr. disney).

and to be honest, in my 55ish minutes with these 5th graders today, i learned more about mythology than i did the weeks i spent planning and researching.

it is amazing what i don't know about greek mythology.  but it is even more amazing to me what these kids do know.  i can't remember exactly what i was like in 5th grade (except i know i liked to pass notes and that i failed a daily edit quiz), but i sure don't think i was excited about greek mythology.

but i'm excited about what i will learn now and it's all thanks to those kids this morning.

face lift!

no, not a face lift for me (RUDE).  for the blog.  as you can most likely see.

which really just goes to show you that i will do anything to put off my thesis.  ANYTHING.  including updated my blog template.

but whatever.  it's starting to look like fall every now and then and i couldn't be more excited.  maybe the fall blog will help bring the lovely fall weather.  a girl can dream, right?

for now, enjoy whatever part of fall makes you happy whether that be the break from suffocating temperatures, the ridiculousness that is football, the festivals and hayrides, or the pumpkin spice scents.

and if none of that makes you happy, be happy that my birthday comes in the fall.  YES.

my favorite animal is venison.

let's start our reunion with my excuse for my lazy blogging ways as of late.  it's not that i don't have things i want to share because trust me, i'm learning a TON. but those things are all internship related since that's what i do all day (when i'm not writing my thesis) and i aim to share things that are less internship-y and more oh-megan-y.

i mean, if you really want to learn all about my internship and/or thesis, i'll gladly send you the log i keep or the drafts i'm writing.  no takers?  i didn't think so.

so moving on, yesterday while i was having a delightful mini catch-up session with two delightful ladies at the library, they were mentioning a few different animals and sometimes their food names as well.  (ex: baby cow, veal ... i think that was one).  anyways, i was more of a spectator to this conversation because i don't make a lot of interesting eating choices.  and that's for real ... it's an exciting day if i get plain (and i mean PLAIN ... like with minimal-to-zero spices/vegetables -- and i WILL pick the chunk-like-vegetables out because that's nasty) sauce on my spaghetti.

anyways, venison got mentioned as the conversation continued and i happened to mention something that showed that i really didn't have a clue what venison was.  i don't think i specifically said "do venison run around" or something like that, but whatever the comment was it was obvious that i was clueless regarding the fact that venison was the animal in food form ... and not the animal as it ran around in the field.  who knew?!

luckily this was not my first (nor my last) time saying ridiculous things in front of these two wonderful people, but as i venture out into the world i have to remember to filter my sometimes unintelligent thoughts.

if nothing else, now every time i tell someone my favorite animal i can say venison and laugh about my oopsie. it turns out venison is the meat of deer.  and while i'm no vegetarian, i'd just like to leave you with this picture to think about the next time you enjoy your venison:

photo credit: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Bambi