Molly Crowe

Today I recieved my first traffic violation. It was also the first time I have ever been pulled over. I was in Broken Arrow, at the light at 71st and 145th, and I went through a YELLOW light. I was talking to Toni so I didn’t see it turn yellow, but once I noticed it I would have had to slam on my breaks or go. I chose go. The light turned red just as I was going under it, past the intersection. A cop on a motorcycle pulled me over. I didn’t have an updated insurance card, so I got two tickets. 104 dollars for running through a red light, and the insurance one, which will be erased when I show them I have it. The cop was friendly enough, but he still gave me two tickets, and he called the Yellow light a Red light. Is that crap about getting tickets pushed into the end of the month true?

I think that 6 years is a reasonable amount of time to be driving without having an accident or being pulled over (I don’t count Saied’s music, do you think that’s ok Justin?). If anyone would like to share their craziest traffic violation story I would be happy to hear it. It actually really made me sad so a little cheering up would be nice.

Thanks friends.

I tried my first recipe from the 500 cupcakes book that I bought when my mom and I went to Chicago. Now that I think about it I don’t remember writing about either of those things on here, so you probably don’t know what I’m talking about. My mom and I went to Chicago a few weeks ago for my uncle Gary’s 60th birthday party. We only went for one night, but it was nice getting to see her family. On the way there we stopped at Borders to get some books about tea, and I bought a cookbook with 500 cupcake recipes in it. The recipes look amazing, and I am really excited about trying some of them out.

So, last weekend (I think) I was at my parent’s house and decided to try out one of the recipes. We chose “whole wheat peach muffins”. These aren’t cupcakes at all, but I was in the mood for something more muffiny, so we went with that. They turned out to be a big disappointment, but I can’t really blame the recipe because we only used half of the amount of peaches that it said to use because we didn’t have enough. Lesson #1 in baking: you can’t just change the recipe like you can when you are doing other types of cooking. This is a concept that is a little hard for me. I like to be able to change ingredients or measurements a little according to what I like, but in baking that just isn’t a good idea. It never really turns out right. Next time I’ll run to the store and get more peaches.

I got my hair cut, and if I had a camera I would post a picture of it, but my camera is still broken. I like my hair though, and I have seemed to get lots of compliments on it so it probably looks alright. My hair stylist told me that she is pregnant with twins and she will stop working in January, which is great for her but horrible for me! I don’t know how I am going to find someone as wonderful as her, but I guess the search will have to start. If anyone refers me to someone who I end up loving they win 3 trillion points.

Tomorrow Brian and I are going to the circus, and I’m really excited about it. I’m probably more excited than I should be. I have never been to the circus, and it just seems like one of those things that everyone does in life so I should experience it. Brian is great about taking me to experience new things. So far we’ve gone to the fair, camping (I’ve done that before, but not in a long time), a crazy scary night at Oktoberfest when the tent fell down, a 3-D movie, and soon we will go to the circus, Branson, and Shreveport Louisiana where we will go to the Independence Bowl. I’m excited.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.

Is there a point in everyone’s life when they decide candy will not spoil their dinner? I think I believed that this afternoon. I ate 4 little pieces of candy and now I don’t feel like eating. I didn’t think about the consequences of my actions; I simply ate the candy because it looked good. I’m generally not a candy or sweet-stuff person, so I’m not used to the way that candy makes me feel. Right now, I feel thirsty, full, and like I need to brush my teeth, but that Heath bar was really good.

I’m getting my hair cut one week from today, and I think I’m going to walk into Elon Salon, sit down in front of Heather, and tell her to do whatever she wants. I’m even tempted to bring a blind fold or to tell her to turn my chair around. I think in order to really feel alright about giving her full control I will have to establish a few ground rules. For example, none of this:

Other than that, I think I might be safe. I’ve been going to Heather, my hair stylist, for the past 5 years or so, and over that time I have developed a good amount of trust in her and her ability to make my hair look good. I’ve never walked away feeling sad about my haircut, and I’ve often walked away feeling great. Hopefully next week I’ll walk away happy.

I wanted to share something that I did today that was embarrassing.

Apparently everyone who goes to OU got a phone call today testing some emergency system. My phone started ringing around 2:00 or so this afternoon and since it was a 405 number I answered. I feel like I’m always waiting for someone from OU to call me about my degree or a class or something silly. Last week I emailed people in the distance learning place at OU because they haven’t sent me a book for my last class that I’m taking (Theory of Coaching and Athletic Management). I had asked them to call me and tell me if they had sent the books and materials. I also am waiting for the College of Arts and Sciences to tell me if the capstone that I took at the Health Sciences Center will count for the capstone for my degree. I’ve complained many times to them about being slow and not being helpful.. blah, blah, blah. So… that’s the back story.

When my phone rang at 2:00 this afternoon and I saw the 405 number I automatically figured it would be someone calling to answer one of my questions. I answered the phone and this is what I heard,
“Hello, this is OU President David Boren,” which was said very definitely and seemed to require a response. When the President of OU says hello to you, what do you do?

I quickly responded with, “Hi…” and was even more quickly interrupted with the rest of his statement having something to do with testing emergency systems.

The embarrassing part isn’t really that I responded to the recording. What is really embarrassing is that I actually believed that it was him calling to apologize to me for all of OU’s stupid delays. For a split second I thought he cared.

And that was embarrassing.

Yesterday was Mini Laps, and I must say the event was spectacular. The decorations were phenomenal, and the kids looked adorable in their Wizard of OZ costumes. It was a great day. My parents, Christy, Toni, and Brian came to cheer the kids on. Here is a cute picture of Andrew in his scarecrow costume.

The goal for Mini Laps is to raise money that the school runs on every year. I’m pretty sure it’s the biggest fundraiser we do. We normally raise like 20% of the Budget or something like that. There is an organization that gives us a matching grant up to 150,000 dollars of whatever the parents raise. Last year we raised well over the match, but this year donations were low and we were about 12,000 dollars short of the match. Donations can still be made for Mini Laps and as long as the money is marked for the event then the organization will match it. I know most people who read this are poor people in their 20’s like me, but just in case someone else reads this and wants to make a donation you can do it here.

Here are some more fun pictures that Brian took of the decorations. The poppy field in the center of the track was my domain. The Union Cheerleaders made us 4,000 red poppies. It was really incredible. Brian and I made the barn with a few parents on Thursday.

And here are some pictures Brian took during the event. I walked three kids around the track.

Here is a picture of Sullian in a tornado costume. He was so cute.

And here is a picture of my favorite kid.

I hope everyone enjoyed the fun pictures. Have a lovely Sunday.

Something horrible has happened…

My camera has stopped working. I don’t really know how it started, but a few weeks ago I noticed that when I turned my camera off the lens wouldn’t close all the way. It would recede into it’s little nook up to a certain point, but then it would stop before it was completely inside the camera, and the little piece of plastic that protects the lens would not come out to do its job. This was all fine as long as I was careful not to scratch the lens. The camera seemed to work fine. No big deal.

Today I turned on the camera and instead of zooming out and making a little dingy noise like it normally does it madly beeped at me. I looked at the screen and it said “zoom error”. Every time I tried to make the camera do something it just yelled at me with its beeps, and the words wouldn’t go away. It won’t take pictures at all. This makes me extremely sad. I wish I could take pictures of the camera to show you what it looks like, but unfortunately…

Even though this horrible misfortune has been sad, there are some really fun things that I have to report. The new Missy Higgins CD, On a Clear Night, has been charming my ears for the past week or two. I highly recommend it to anyone who liked her last album, although I have to admit it’s probably not as good as the first one. It’s still great, but it lacks that pull… maybe with time the songs will start to build personality and I’ll feel differently. For now though, it’s simply a great CD that I think everyone should have.

I’ve been wanting to have a party for a while. Can anyone think of a cool theme? If anyone thinks of a theme I’ll happily throw a party. I know my birthday is coming up but I don’t really want to throw a birthday party for myself. I also don’t really want to throw a Halloween party for the simple fact that no Halloween party will ever top the Mad Hatter Tea Party that we had last year, and I just know any party I throw will leave me sad and wishing I had flour all over my head and a bathtub full of home brew. That bath tub sure did host a lot of beverages during our year there. Anyway, party ideas are welcome.

Here is a picture that Brian took of me and Jessica the night before she left. I like it.

I’ve decided that being 24 is going to be extremely fun, and I am going to consciously make it the best year I’ve ever had. Most of you know that every year in November I write a list of goals for my new year and post them on this website. When it gets close to the end of the year I reevaluate the list and see what has been accomplished. I realized that this year I did a horrible job at accomplishing my goal list, so now that I have only 2 and a half months left I think I need to try and see what I might be able to pack in before November 15. Here is the list:

1. Go on a road trip to visit Kylie, Chap, and Maura
I don’t know so much about “road trip”, but I think I can probably squeeze these in if I really try. Chap and Maura are having a “yea we’re married” party in October, so I can try to make it to that. Kylie and I keep leaving messages to each other about me coming to visit too, so maybe I can try to do that one in November. We’ll see.

2. Work out in some form three times a week
I think it’s a little late for that, but I did do yoga three times a week for about 6 months. Lately I’ve been riding my bike, but not three times a week, and for most of the year I picked up kids about 30 times a day 5 days a week. That’s probably better than lifting weights!

3. Drink a cup of coffee before I leave every morning (this requires getting up early enough to not be rushed)
I actually did a really good job with this. I consider it accomplished.

4. Meet a celebrity
I can’t remember meeting a celebrity this year, but if I’m wrong could someone let me know?

5. Bowl a 200 (carried over from last year)
I think I only went bowling once this year. I am pretty sure this goal is not that important to me anymore, and won’t be carried over to year 24. If I accomplish it before I turn 24 anyone I’m with will win 3 trillion points.

6. Read the entire Bible
Haha, that was lofty. Didn’t happen.

7. Go to church every Sunday
This also didn’t happen. Hopefully this year I’ll find a church that I will go to on a regular basis.

8. Drink a cup of coffee in Seattle
Never went to Seattle. I probably won’t get there in the next two months, either. If anyone wants to take me they will win 8 trillion points, and a cup of coffee from me once we get there. Who could turn that down?

9. Sleep more at least 6 hours every night
Well this didn’t happen every night but I think I did an alright job of this.

10. Write 200 thousand words
I actually exploded this goal, and wrote well over 200 thousand words. I kept count for a long time, and then realized that if I kept up the rate I was going I would have written 200 thousand words by May… so I’m pretty sure I did an alright job there.

I’m excited about making the list for next year, but I’m going to go ahead and wait for November before I do that. I think the list will be very different and lots of fun to make.

Lately things have been going great for me. I’m really excited about work and starting my new job soon. Tonight was back-to-school-night, so the parents came and had a meeting with the class that their kids are in. Kate and I met with the parents in the Orange Class, and I got to tell them about my new job and the website that I’ve been working on. A few of the parents seems really excited and supportive, so I know I can write about their kids and that makes me happy. I can’t wait to get everything rolling. I also talked to the parent that runs the main website for the school and he told me that he wants to start training me to take over, so that’s exciting. I feel like a little kid because I’m getting all excited about having this fun toy to play with and learning all of this new stuff.

I got a new pair of reading glasses today because when I sit in front of my computer and type or read anything the words have really started to melt together. I need to go to the eye doctor soon, but until then I’m getting by with these:

I’ve decided that everyone who cares about me is required to attend Mini Laps on September 22. It’s the event where every kid in the school goes around the track one time for their moment of fame. I think it’s the best event that the Light House has. Most people that I talk to every day have never even met any of the kids I love, but at this event you get to see every kid in the school for at least a minute, and then afterwards maybe even meet some of them. So, if you’re interested make the morning of the 22nd open. I’ll be reminding people as the date approaches.

I would like everyone to know that Feist is probably my new favorite singer. She’s really enchanting me. It’s weird to say I like someone as much as I like the Counting Crows, and I don’t really know if I’m comfortable enough yet to say that, but I do know that she’s coming closer than anyone else has.

That all being said, I think it’s time for a new contest. Everyone is invited to send me an email this week about anything they want. The person who sends me the email that makes me smile or laugh the most wins 3 trillion points. That’s a lot of points, I think maybe the most points I’ve ever awarded anyone so far. Anything goes, and the happiest/funniest email wins. Email all entries to thinkingbrown at gmail dot com. Of course you won’t spell it out like that…

Have a great weekend everyone.

I love the stories in the Old Testament. I went to Sunday School when I was little, but for some reason I don’t remember hearing all the Bible stories. Maybe I was gone those weeks, or maybe I got into it too late to hear about those. I don’t know how old you are when you catch Jonah and the whale and Daniel in the Lion’s den. I missed them though, so reading them now is fun. I’m always surprised when I come across them, like I didn’t actually expect to find them. Kids now have it easy, because even if you don’t get to go to Sunday school you can watch Veggie Tales, which are extremely entertaining as well as informative. Toni has a Veggie Tales video. I watched one at work the other day with the kids, but that was the first full-length Veggie Tales I had ever seen. I enjoyed it very much.

Sometimes I wish that I had a website that no one knew about so I could post about all of you and you’d never know what I said. I would say wonderful things about you that I am too embarrassed for you to see, and I would post pieces of the truth that I know none of you want me to reveal. I have some of my best writing stored up that I’ve never let anyone read. I like to keep the good stuff to myself, I guess. But if I had that site I could reveal it there. Actually, on second thought, I’m fine with keeping it all to myself.