New York

Chris and I are officially going north for spring break. It's going to be way colder than I would like, but Chris has off school and I have off teaching at the same time this spring break, so we're taking advantage of that to head up and do the things we've been wanting to do for so long. So we're gonna spend about a day and a half in Washington DC on the way up to see some art museums, then to NYC for 5 days. I've never been to NYC and Chris has only been for a few hours once, so we're really excited about it, and are just starting to try and figure out what all we're going to do while we're there. I know we're really excited to go to lots of art museums, and of course things like Central Park and Times Square and stuff. But I'm not really sure how to plan or what to think about doing. So if you have any suggestions or money-saving tips or anything, let me know. We're staying in what is most likely a crappy hotel but it's only $100 a night instead of $300 a night so we're dealing with it, but we really wanted to stay in NYC near subways so we can get up and go, not try to drive anywhere or anything. So. Will be an adventure. Then we're wrapping up our trip with a couple of days in Philly, staying with the Clarks who moved there about a year ago. So I'm excited about that. Not excited about the cold, but, I will deal.

Providence

So, as always, I work in Vidalia (80 minutes from home) on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. And I stay the night in town since I work until about 10pm Tuesday, and start at about 8:30am on Wednesday. But the house I usually stay at had guests so I couldn't stay there. And for some strange reason, all the hotels in this tiny town were booked for Tuesday night. So one of my students had offered previously to let me stay with her if I ever needed to, so I took her up on the offer (and felt like a real jerk, calling her on Tuesday at work to see if I could stay with her Tuesday night). Anyways, she was super-gracious about it and so I followed her the 20 minutes to her house in a super-tiny nearby town. She and her husband are about my parents' age, and they have 3 grown sons, so they have lots of spare bedrooms. So I stayed there that night, got up in the morning and got ready to drive to work... and my car wouldn't go. It would start, and would run as long as I gave it gas, but as soon as I tried to do anything else, like break to put it in reverse, or turn on the lights, or ANYTHING, it would die.

So after trying to start it for about 10 or 15 minutes, I started to panic. Here I am in a place I know nothing about with a car that won't start and I have to be at work and I'm 90 minutes from home. Well, the woman I was staying with is the city Clerk for her town, so she just called up the chief of police to come by and help us out. He tried to start it up, no luck, then offered this suggestion, which we followed -- he called someone else to tow it to a repair shop for me, and then he called the repair shop to let them know to expect the car, while my student drove me to work. In the meantime, her husband called up the repair shop, talked to someone he knows that works there, and let him know that I had to have the car running that day if at all possible. Then when it was all fixed at 4:30pm, he called me at work, picked me up, and took me to get my car. I have a very strong hunch that if it was just little ol' me taking my car in to this (very busy) shop, my car would NOT have been ready. As it was, I made it to work on time, left work on time, and got home at about the normal time for a Wednesday. Pretty freakin' amazing, if you ask me.

When I realized I was going to have to ask this woman if I could stay with her because I didn't have anyplace else to stay, I really felt horrible because I really felt like I was intruding, and I just kept saying "God, you know what you're doing...." After today, I know exactly why He had me stay with them... because any other scenario would have been ridiculously impossible, and would most likely result in my still in Vidalia without a change of clothes or any clue of what to do until my car was fixed. It was just a real blessing, and an amazing example of how God is in control of EVERYTHING, even these relatively little things in our lives, and how He looks out for His children. I need things like this every now and then to remind who is really in control.

And that's the story of my day.

Oh yeah, the car had some grounding rod in the BACK that had corroded and was losing the connection to everything else, so the repair people had to spend half the day locating this bizarre problem, and then removing this rod, sandblasting the junk off it, and putting everything back together again. I have such bad luck with my car.

Evangelical Politics?

I found this article to be interesting, and a little promising. The article seems very similar to conversations I've had with of Christians my age, because none of us feel that either political party is close to operating biblically. So voting for one candidate is always voting against things we feel we're called to support as followers of Christ. So it's encouraging to see that this is a conversation that's really cropping up everywhere, and not just in the twenty-something age bracket. I mean heck, the LA Times is taking about it.

SCAD disappointment rant

So this weekend Chris has been busting his butt to get a proposal put together for a grant he was nominated for. It's a pretty big deal, if his proposal is selected, he will get funding to do a pretty big photo project. And he had to be nominated to even submit the proposal. So of course he's taking this opportunity really seriously, and trying to do his best to get it right. But he's never written a proposal before, and doesn't really know how to put it together in a way that it will be taken seriously by the the judges.

So he's been trying since the beginning of the month to get some faculty from SCAD (where he goes to school) to help him out. However, everyone he's asked has just told him to ask someone else. Specifically, a couple of his professors just aren't interested in taking a little bit of time to help him out. One of them just says "Well, chances are you won't get it, so don't get your hopes up" and acts like because it's not a sure thing he shouldn't even try. Another professor told him to ask a woman who works at the campus library. Her job is to help faculty write proposals, so he figured she was the best person to ask for advice. So Chris emailed her, and she never wrote back. A couple weeks later he tried again, and the woman actually forwarded his email to the professor and to the head of the photo department saying "Why is this guy bugging me? Get him out of my hair." Then she just told Chris to ask someone from the photo department (where he started, and everyone told him to ask someone else). So basically, he's completely on his own for this. We've been trying our best to get this written the best way we can figure it out, but it's really frustrating that we're going way into debt for this school because it's supposed to be so great, and NO ONE can be bothered to DO THEIR JOB and help a student who has a good opportunity. I mean, if he gets this, it's good news for SCAD as a whole, because one of their students won the grant. So why won't anyone take a little bit of time to help him out?

So today is the day the proposal is due. He was up til 4 in the morning working on it, I got up this morning to proofread and add some suggestions. He printed out a few copies, and took it down to the photo building try to hunt down anyone he can to get some last minute input. I'm hoping if he's in their faces with a proposal, SOMEONE will feel obligated to give him 10 minutes of their life. Here's hoping.

Less Than Jake

Well, after a few months of trying to get an interview with Vinnie from Less Than Jake, we were finally able to sit down with him in their studio in Gainesville, FL yesterday evening. It went really well, and was definitely worth the drive, because he had lots to say about his hobby of collecting PEZ. This was the last big thing on our To Do list for the movie, so we had a great sense of accomplishment, especially since it was the FIRST thing on our To Do list when we decided to make the movie.

Considering I have a vivid memory of my friend Travis running around in French class when I was 16 or 17 with a Taz PEZ dispenser, all because LTJ liked PEZ so it was all cool and "old-skool" ... and that probably has something to do with why I had my first PEZ dispenser in the first place, which is somehow connected to why we have over 800 of the darned things now... it was pretty neat to be able to meet one of the guys. That, and, a LTJ concert was my first ever real concert right after my 18th birthday in Fort Myers. So there's all kinds of nostalgia connected to it. Kinda cool.

So anyways. Check out some photos from the interview.

apologies for the lack of posts

you know... life's busy, just haven't really had time to ramble. But here it goes... just the highlights.

We just got back from visiting family all over Florida for Christmas. We had a great time... it was good to get to see everyone, and considering we went to 5 different cities visiting family and friends, I do believe we got to see everyone. Good times, good times.

We randomly met the host of Street Smarts (a silly game show I used to watch way too much) in a New York style deli in the middle of Orlando with Amy. We were in line to order, and the guy in front of us looked really familiar, so I told Chris "that guy looks a little like the guy from Street Smarts." Chris said "hmm, if you say so." But the longer we waited in line, the more Chris started to agree. So before the guy left, Chris stopped him and asked if he was "that guy from..." and he said "Yeah, my name's Frank." He was at the Orlando Improv for the week. And he even offered to get us tickets for the show that night, but we had to be at my brother's place in Jacksonville that night, so had to turn it down. Very random encounter.

And... classes start for Chris on Thursday, and I start teaching again next Tuesday. So it's been a restful past few weeks, but the real world is about to start again. Looking forward to seeing what's next.

Chris is home!

My hubby finally returned last night, with a HUGE stash of new PEZ stuff that he acquired during his trip, and 4 shotglasses for my collection (New York, Canada, Niagra Falls, Pennsylvania). And tonight he finally posted a recap of what he did, along with a lot of photos.

Of course, he doesn't have any of the photos I would expect, like pictures of him with Robby from the Goo Goo Dolls or with the president of PEZ North America. He mainly took pictures of PEZ dispensers and PEZ machinery. If I had been there, I would have been in charge of the camera, and there would be photos that were actually interesting to people that aren't obsessive PEZ collectors, but alas, this is what you get when you let the boys handle things on their own. Basically, anything I told Chris "Whatever you do, make sure you get lots of pictures of this and this, and make sure that you do this" never happened. None of it. Not ONE thing I reminded him to do was done. And here I thought I was being silly thinking they needed me along. No, not being silly, they really did need me along. Apparently they also got lost alot because neither of them knows how to read a map. ::sigh:: Men.

Non-post

This morning I went out to my car and it had all 4 wheels intact. It was a very good morning indeed.

The Case of the Missing Wheel

While Chris is galavanting all over New England for the PEZ movie, I had my own adventure Tuesday morning in Savannah, when I left my apartment to drive 90 minutes to work only to discover that my car only had 3 wheels. The other one was stolen and replaced with an old car battery which propped the car up. (yes, the whole wheel. Rim & tire. This seems to be a common question). The last thing I had stolen from me in Savannah was a bike tire off my bike, so obviously the criminals that prowl my street like rubber. And of course this would happen the first time ever that Chris has gone out of town without me since before we were married. And while everyone else I know in this town is out of the state for vacation. (This all sounds oddly familiar, because the last time I was left all alone without Chris or anyone else I knew in town, my water tank exploded on the road and I came down with an terrible stomach flu and could hardly get out of bed, let alone take care of myself).

At any rate, I spent Tuesday morning talking to police, buying lugnuts to fasten the spare doughnut to the car (thanks to some friendly officers who took me to the car supply place and put the wheel on for me), hunting down a rim that fit my car (two junkyards later), and finally waiting at Sam's for an hour to have the rim and a new tire put on the car (I was the first person TO Sam's but somehow at least 3 cars were serviced before mine... I even overheard someone telling the girl working the counter that I should have been in front of these other people). So I was massively late to work, but luckily made it in time to teach my classes. And I didn't even break down in tears. Being the big sissy I am, that's saying something. I did, however, wake Chris up to whine to him and call both my parents more than once during this whole mess.

Unfortunately, at the moment I can't say I learned anything from this ordeal, other than I should never let my husband leave the state without me.

As for Chris, he's in New Jersey today, and will be in Connecticut, New York City, and Washington DC tomorrow, and hopefully will be on his way home to me Friday. He's got all kinds of exciting stuff happening, which he'll be talking about at Making of PEZheads - The Movie when he gets a breather.

Goo & PEZ

Well, let me tell you what Chris is doing right now while I'm sitting in Savannah. Chris is in Buffalo, NY with the guitarist from the Goo Goo Dolls. No kidding. The guitarist, Robby, is working on a PEZ cartoon, and today a band he produces is filming the music video for the theme song for said PEZ cartoon. And Chris is there to film them making the music video, as well as to interview Robby, and The Juliette Dagger, which is the band doing the music video. All for the PEZ documentary. He drove 9 hours Saturday to Washington DC to pick up the other Chris, then the two of them drove 10 more hours to Buffalo last night, and they've been at this music video shoot since morning. He's having a good time. I'm jealous because I have to be responsible and work for a living. But, truth be told, I would probably be bored and freezing up there, so I guess it's not too bad.

Anyways, that is our news. We're really excited to get this kind of footage for the documentary. Good stuff. Goo stuff. Ha.

Buttons!

We have buttons! They're pretty awesome. Everyone needs a button of the Chris PEZhead on his/her backpack. You should go get one. Or twelve.

Oh, and the exciting news I've alluded to? It's close. I'll probably wait and let Chris post about it after it happens, since it's his thing, but I may not be that patient. So... Monday I should be able to let the cat out of the bag.

Kids' Thanksgiving

Today we had "The Kids' Thanksgiving" down in Jax. My brother and his fiancee hosted thanksgiving for me, Chris, and Chris's brother Sam. Our friend Paul came and had thanksgiving with us, too. Matt & Sara made the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, broccoli casserole, stuffing, and candied yams. I made the corn casserole, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, and Chris made "pink stuff." We also brought pumpkin pie. So we had a LOT of food. It was yummy. There were leftovers to bring home. That made me happy. I really love thanksgiving. I think it's my favorite holiday. The whole point of the holiday is to eat lots of yummy food and hang out. And sleep, although I didn't get my traditional nap this year. Really, you can't beat it.

And we were pretty happy with our ability to hold our own with a full thanksgiving dinner cooked without the help of our parents, who until now were always in charge of thanksgiving preparations. I think we did a pretty good job of handling things. Our only mishaps were turkey that had to be put back in the oven to cook longer, and hard-boiled eggs that I had to nuke a bit longer because I didn't cook them all the way through. We live and learn.

the suspense is killing me

Ooh! oooh oooh! I am jumping out of my skin with exciting news about our PEZ movie, but I'm afraid to post it anywhere because I'm afraid I'll jinx* it. It seems like every time good stuff potentially will happen, it doesn't work out if we tell people. Bleh. So I'm holding it in until we have confirmation. Let's just say Chris has an exciting adventure ahead of him, and I don't because I have to be at work. Poor me. Lucky Chris. More later. In, like, a week.

* Yes, I know all my Calvinist friends are rolling their eyes at my use of the word jinx, but really, that's what it feels like. even if it's not true. that doesn't change what it feels like. so shush up and get over yourselves. ::wink::

PEZ Interview

Chris did an interview with House of PEZ website about the documentary we're making. You should check it out.

Fame and Fortune await!

...or maybe not.

Since the program I'm teaching for at Southeastern Technical College is so new, they decided to feature it in the Winter newsletter. Complete with a picture of me sitting in the Mac lab, and a quote, too. It's really strange that everyone at this school is walking around with a copy of my face staring at them.

In other news, we're selling fun new stickers for the PEZ movie... if you buy them, you're helping us to make this movie a reality. Plus I'll be your best friend. I mean, you can never have too many best friends.

Shameless PEZ plug

This past weekend we went to Myrtle Beach to film another PEZ convention. This one was a lot more laid back than the others... we got to hang out on the beach and stuff. We got some great interviews, and met the woman behind the voice of the Snapple commercials (who is an avid PEZ collector). It was a lot of fun. So our movie website has been updated with posts and photos, as well as a new trailer that went up about a week ago. Check it out - www.pezheadsthemovie.com.

Really. Check it out. Why haven't you clicked on the link yet?

Ghost Whisperer Randomness

So I was flipping channels tonight and happened across the intro for "The Ghost Whisperer" ... it's actually a pretty interesting intro, very similar to the intro for Desperate Housewives, but then I noticed that the style seemed very similar to that of Jerry Uelsmann's wife, Maggie Miller. So I googled it, and sure enough, "Each one of the frames in the opening titles of GHOST WHISPERER is based on an original creation of artist Maggie Taylor."

I'm kinda proud of myself for recognizing it. It's also kinda neat because she came and spoke to one of my digital art classes in undergrad and talked about putting live goldfish on her flatbed scanner and stuff (and then wondering why they died so quickly). Randomness. I wonder if Tiffany remembers... she was sitting next to me in class. Man, that was a long time ago.

Google Search revisited

So I discovered something kind of strange today. Chris was googling the name "skeene" yesterday, to see what pops up, and I noticed in my website hits that a couple of them came from people searching for "kendra coppage" ... which is me 2 1/2 years ago. So I was curious what pops up when I search for kendra coppage... and I discovered that there is actually another Kendra Coppage... she's a runner. Yep... all the pages that came up either referred to me, or to Kendra Coppage the runner. Funny. So I searched for kendra skeene, and I'm still the only one (hooray), but there were some pages that came up where there was a kendra and someone else with the last name skeene in the same document... and all of those were for marathons and other running-related things. That amuses me because I couldn't run anywhere if my life depended on it.

That's all I have to share today. I know. I'm boring. Sorry.

Teaching at STC

So I had my first day of actual teaching at Southeastern Technical College yesterday. How should I describe it? Well, exciting, exhausting, and excellent are probably the best descriptors.

I was actually there in the building from 9:30am - 10:00pm, and was on the road for 90 minutes before and 90 minutes afterwards. Plus, of the 12 hours I was there, I taught for 6 1/2 of those hours. So it was a pretty exhausting day. But everyone I work with is so nice, and helpful. And my students are all super-nice and really eager to learn... so it was really great, and a lot of fun for me. Plus I may already have a couple of extra responsibilities / extra hours to do some other stuff that sounds like fun. And a woman in one of my classes offered to see if anyone from her church would let me stay with them Tuesday nights so I don't have to stay in a hotel every week. Even if that doesn't work out, it was so nice of her to offer, and hopefully that will work out.

I've got my own office, and I've finally got a computer set up in there, so it's starting to feel like home. Over this next week they should get the projector set up in the Mac lab so I can do more teaching in there, with the beautiful G5s that are just for this program. And I'll be getting business cards printed, too. I'm, like, official or something.

So I'm just really excited about everything that's going on. I really feel like I'm right where God wants me right now, and I'm excited to see what He has in store next. It should be an interested couple of months coming up.

Broken Email Form

If you've ever tried to contact me via the actual "Contact" page on this site (instead of comments on this blog) then I did not get your message.

Although the contact form itself was written just fine (and any messages sent to Chris were, in fact, received), it appears that past web hosting issues were preventing me from getting my mail, unbeknownst to me. So, just so that everyone knows, I was not blowing you off if you did send me a message.

Now, rather than try to get the problem fixed (which I've tried to do before, only to encounter helpless hosting services who refuse to acknowledge there is a problem and pretend like I just don't know how to check email), I just have that page sending to a different email address, which has fixed the problem. So. Now you can contact me.