Squirrel Montage!

It was about time for some more squirrel footage.

My life in Hell.....mmm I Mean Law School!

Well, the reason we moved to Springfield was for me to attend law school. Sure we have had a few adventures out here but for the last month my brain has been repeatedly slammed into the ground  and I haven't even reached the worse part yet. When school first started, I read more in the first week than I  had collectively from kindergarten through college. This was certainly overwhelming in the beginning but at the same time seemed like it could be done. Now, as of about a month ago, I  started doing by outlines for my final exams. Doesn't sound like it would be too hard, but you would be dead wrong. I have five classes that have a final exam with each class having roughly 50-30 cases to study and outline. This means that we are still doing our regular work in each class and it keeps adding more cases to the lot. Oh, I forget to tell you that in my sixth class I had a 10 page memo due today. This proved to be very difficult and took up much of my sleep last night as my memo was 13 pages when I had put in all of the information but would be penalized if it was one letter over 10 pages. Every day I go to class and then I get home and study until I go to bed. I have less than a month to go but it looking like the odds are that I will keel over and die way before that day comes. The best part is that I get to do this five more times in the three years, that is if I survive. Below is a little something that nails my experience on the head.

Another day at the office.

        Law School Musical

Squirrels Gone Wild!

Well, it has been awhile since I have talked about our squirrels. I was thinking the other day that people were probably wondering when an update post would be coming. There is still unbelievable amounts of squirrels in our court yard and they are quite possibly the nuttiest squirrels you have ever seen. Yesterday I was looking out the window when I saw two squirrels that looked like they were up to know good. I had finally charged up my video camera and so I grabbed it and started filming. Vieve looks at me, seeing film the squirrels and says, "Oh great, we're going to get kicked out of the apartment because they're going to think a perv lives here." I assured her that I would be discreet enough that that wouldn't occur. I continued to film and this is what I got. I now pronounce, by popular demand, the world premier of Squirrels Gone Wild! All I ask is that you watch the whole video (let the anticipation build up until the end) and turn the volume as loud as it goes. Thank you and good day to you.


            Squirrels Gone Wild!

KC and the Great Pumpkin

Over the last month or so Vieve an I have been going to amazing places every weekend. This last weekend we decided to take it easy and be lazy bums. On friday we rented Zohan and I ate one of my favorite new sandwiches, the chicken bacon ranch from Dominos. Vieve decided that she would make her french onion soup for the second time that week. We both ended up very satisfied.

On Saturday, I watched a good amount of college football. At one point I was listening to the BYU game through online KSL radio and watching another game that was muted on the tv but I usually do that every saturday. We decided that we weren't going to be totally lazy and went and got some pumpkins to carve. When we got to the store we found that all of the good ones had been taken (or were gay ). We were left with the dirty runts to express our creativity and I think we did well with what we were given. When we got home Vieve decided what she was going to do fairly quickly and was almost done with part one of her pumpkin before I had even decided what I was going to do. She decided that she was not satisfied with the final result and turned the pumpkin around and started a new carving- Part two. Personally, I think that both turned out well, but she needs to learn some patience and not hurry through the process. After struggling with coming up with a good idea, I resulted back to what I am known for. A carving of a nice huge very detailed.................................. Utah drum and feather logo. I decided that I was going to eyeball it and do my best to make it look normal. After about 5 hours of slow meticulous detail carving I had finished at around 1 in the morning. I must say that I did a pretty good job and it is by far my best pumpkin ever. I did however, sacrifice my back after hunching over for such a long time. Anyway, even though we didn't go anywhere it still was an awesome weekend.

I have begun.

The finished product.

Mine and Vieve's Pumpkins together.

Nice pretty display.

The Big E!

Well, I am finally getting around to posting about stuff that occurred awhile ago. My next few posts will be about events that happened when we first arrived up until the present. 

In late September we visited the Big E, which is one of the biggest fairs in the country and features all of the New England states. It was, however, not much different from the Salt Lake County fair in that it had pretty much the same attractions and rides. It was still nice to finally get out and experience something besides our apartment and the law school. We went with our friends Rich and Megan. I go to school with Rich and they live in our building. They are from the Albany area. 

We had to park a outside the fair grounds and walk a little ways. On the way we passed a little pond that was full of turtles. There were a ton of them sitting on logs taking in some rays. I took a picture but the iphone doesn't have a zoom so it is hard to really appreciate them in the photo. You might have to squint.

 There were also snapping turtles but we didn't see any.

When we got inside, Rich let us know he was hungry and lets just say he could eat with the best of them. He moved from one vendor to the next. I didn't know it was possible to fit that much food into a human being. It really inspired me. The first thing he got was a Super Dog: The Original Long Dog on a Stick. It didn't take long before I was looking to get me a delicious Long Dog on a Stick. 

This is the first bite. It was too hot to keep my mouth on it for very long.  

After eating we went into one of the buildings that had all of the vendors and what not. The only thing that was worth any time in there was a ginormus beast dog that I got to pet. After taking a picture with him the humane society people or mafia chased us down and said that they were "encouraging" a $1 donation for pictures. She wasn't going to leave until we paid up. Luckily, Rich spotted us the dollar and we avoided their goons.

He was wondering what he would look like with a doggie face lift.

We decided to hit the petting zoo next. When we walked in there was this warning sign posted.

This is what it looks like when you get hooked on children and you are looking for your next fix.

 

There were lots of goats, llamas and other similar animals but the pride of the show happened to be a saucy zebra. He was too cool to mingle with the other animals and us humans. He had a sweet crib that was all to himself and all the hay he could eat. Lets just say I left there disappointed and without touching that sweet zebra mane.

The fair also had the Budweiser Clydesdales as a special exhibit. I don't think I have seen a group of horses that big let alone one horse that big. The lead horse looked like he was good friends with Jose Canseco.

We finally decided to leave and get back home. On the way out I was spotted by a Carny and he kept begging me to be apart of their exhibit. I told them no over and over, but he kept hassling me. So, I told him the reason why I couldn't. I told him that I would scare all of the little kids and make the other snakes jealous. He finally understood and uttered, "El rey del culebras". I had no idea what he said but figured it was something nice.

This was the Carny's exhibit.

This was our first Springfield Mass outing and it was pretty cool! Hopefully we can find more experiences like this in the future.

25 Items or Less

Sometimes when you are away from home, you can really start to miss it. Fortunately for us, there are still some things that aren't different or remind us of home. All we have to do is drive to our neighborhood Walmart. Everybody knows that no matter where you are in the world, a Walmart is a Walmart. 

A few weeks ago, Vieve and I decided to see what the closest Walmart was like. When we got inside, it felt like we were back in SLC. There was still cheap clothes, cheap food, and white trash people or the equivalent to them. Home, sweet, home.

On this occasion we only needed a few leftover staples for the apartment. We looked around for a just a short time and decided to check out and get back to the east coast. When we got to the front we hadn't anticipated lines with over 15 people in each, but decided to wait in line for our two items anyway. We headed for what seemed like the shortest of the lines in one of the 25 items or less aisles. The line moved faster then expected and we were very close to the checkout when, the magic that is Walmart, hit us and everyone around us in full scale. I was just glancing at the covers of the tabloids when I heard someone in the next aisle say, " What did you say? B%#ch, you best be learnin' how to count. I got me less than 25 items." I immediately looked up and saw a huge black women with her hand up in front of another huge women's face, who appeared to be hispanic. The black women was with her three daughters, which could have easily been the offspring of Shaquille O'Neal. The hispanic woman had a daughter who was about 10 or 11 and  was scared to death. There was continued squawking/obscenities  from each party while the black woman finished checking out. As the family was walking away, the hispanic must have whispered something under her tongue. What it was we will never know. All I know is that one of the daughters heard it and stopped with an  "Oh, no you di-nt" kind of look on her face. I don't think I have ever seen something so big move so swiftly, but she had pounced on this woman,  and from a good distance no less, before my appreciation for this moment could graduate to the next level. Although the woman had moved like a cheetah, it all seemed to be going in slow motion. Even her voice slowed and deepened as she screamed "Thaaaaat's  Myyyyyy Motthhherrrr youuur taaaaalkinn bouutt!" This girl wasn't just up in her face. It was like a giant amoeba trying to absorb another amoeba. It... was... AWESOME! From this point on, all she could do was point her finger to the ceiling, keep absorbing, and yelling "Now what, B!%ch? Now what?" This went on for a few more "Now whats?" before her sisters dragged her off toward the exit. 

While this is occurring the checker in our aisle had borrowed a customer's cellphone and was calling 911. "Hello, there is an incident in Walmart and we need backup. No, in Walmart. No, IN Walmart. Yeah, inside the store. We don't have any security. Okay bye." She then started to ring us up.

Now that they were separated and the black family was now exiting the store blurting obscentities, the checker in their line (who happens to also be African-American) starts threatening that he will call the police on the hispanic women. Wrong move buddy. Another hispanic lady in our line wasn't going to have any of that and started freaking out, screaming, "Because your black and they're black, you think you can call the police." 

At this point our item had been rung up and we parted through the continued mess and headed for the exit. We wanted to stay but hey, that would have been awkward so we kept going. On the way to the car I said to Vieve, "That right there made this whole trip worth it. I don't need to go to law school anymore." After experiencing that, I knew I was now a part of the community. God Bless America!

Springfield and Its Awesomeness!

Hello everyone. I have been feeling like I should share some of mine and Vieve's experiences (more mine) in our new hometown of Springfield, Mass. This way you can get to know more about a town that people aren't very familiar with. 

If you were to ask Vieve what she thinks of Springfield she would probably tell you it's a hole, where you could get shot or mugged at any moment. This seems to be a bit deceiving, considering she doesn't get out of the apartment as much as she would like and her vivid imagination is let loose.  She locks the car door when a guy in a three piece suit gets too close to the car. She just hasn't had the chance yet to see the awesomeness that is Springfield, but with time she will come along.

Sure people are getting stabbed or shot every other day, but I'm not too worried. The way the news anchors announce these incidents so nonchalantly, it makes you feel much more comfortable. I figure it is a culture thing. I mean if you were visiting back home and saw a big family, you would say, "Hmm. Must be in Utah." In Springfield, when you see a homeless man attack a guy in a car with a meat cleaver, you say, "Hmm. The weather sure is nice today." Anyway, this wasn't supposed to be about the few negatives of Springfield, Mass., but the many positives of our town. I think that there are just too many great things that I could talk about, so will limit it to just a few for the time being.

I think that pretty much everyone knows how awesome Boxster is, especially the wife and sister-in-laws. Sadly, I wasn't able to bring him with me. Well, what could fill the void of Boxster? The answer is nothing. However, in a time of  need you have to go with what you got and I got squirrels. Lots and lots and lots of squirrels. The squirrels in Springfield are more plentiful than you could ever wish for. Normally, you would see a squirrel and not think anything of it. Here, you have to watch where you step or else squashed squirrel. Seriously, it's not unusual to see 5-7 of them at a given time and all over the city. For some reason, I find them so fascinating. I will sit at the window and watch a pack of them outside our window for 15+ minutes. One morning I opened the shades and two squirrels were in the middle of an aggressive fight, at least thats what I think they were doing. It looked as though one had a nut in his grasp and the other was wanting it real bad. They would chase each other all around and up the trees. Finally, after some sweet attempts at the nut, the loser decided it was a lost cause and started pursuing elsewhere. The winner took his prize and began to eat it with his back to the other squirrel.

This is a blurry close up of the two squirrels going at it on the tree. 

One is on the lower left side and the other is slightly higher to the right.

He must have still been paranoid because all of a sudden he leapt high into the air, like someone had snuck up and tapped his shoulder. It didn't scare him too bad because after he landed it was back to his nut. Then boom, two feet in the air. This process repeated itself a few more times. I found it difficult to take my eyes off of them. It was like watching a nature show, "When Squirrels Go Berserk!" The best is when you are walking in the direction of a squirrel in the open and he freezes. He thinks, "if I don't move, they won't see me." Well, that's enough about the squirrels for now, but you certainly haven't heard the last of them. I mean, I didn't even get to the dead squirrels.

Many people probably read the first part of the blog about the stabbings and what not, and were scared for us. I must say that it is okay and that we are taken care of. We have superheroes roaming the streets, during business hours, for our protection. I figure the politicians felt the need to reallocate all or most of the street repair money (needed for absurdly deep sinkholes in the roads), in order to continue Springfield's high standard of safety. 

As of the time being, I am only aware of two superheroes in our area. The first one is Fairy Man. First time I saw him he was protecting a local Burger King when I was coming home from school. I haven't seen any of his super powers yet, but I figure the purple and gold fairy wings on his back have something to do with the process. He occasionally has a a wand with a star at the tip, which must be for those difficult days. He also has giant earphones. Maybe this is for a bug like appearance, but not entirely sure. All I know, is when I see the purple and gold I can crack the car windows a little further.

The next superhero is the one and only Superman. I saw him early in the morning on my way to school, strolling down the sidewalk. I don't know how we got him but we sure are lucky. Either Springfield has more money than I expected or Superman is short on dough. Anyway, he seems to be sporting a slightly new outfit. Instead of tights he has switched to red sweat pants which are still tighter than normal.  I think they help him glide better when he is tired of flying. Of course he still has the original cape with the "S" logo on it. Come on, this Superman we're talking about. Although he might be contractually obligated to wear the original cape. Another change was, instead of having a full body suit made of tights, it was split up between the sweat pants and a regular Superman t-shirt.  This is obviously a practicality issue. He he needs to go to the bathroom sometime with full accessibility. Also, I think it is to promote slumping t-shirt sales. 

You may ask, "But KC, how do you know it isn't just a crazy bum in a Superman suit, walking down the street?". Good question and at first I thought this too. I failed to mention one thing though. He was carrying a briefcase and bums do not carry briefcases. Only can carrying devices. He was on his way to the office and hadn't clocked in yet. Probably had his lunch and spare suit in there. Thank goodness for these men. We can finally feel safe again .

Thanks for listening in and I hope I have convinced you to visit in the near future. If not, I will continue to try, with posts about Springfield and its Awesomeness.