It's time for Kevin's Quarterly Blog, or what I like to call, my annual goodbye blog. But this goodbye means a little something more, for am I bidding my farewell to BW. Just writing this is a little hard... how do you sum up four years? Make a top 10 best bw moments list? Nah, it would be special to only me. Say thank you's to the top 10 people? No because chances are you will be left out. I guess what I can do is ramble about some things that I've done here. Here goes... anything... I formed an a cappella group, I sang for one of the best choirs in the state, I sang in a concert under the worlds greatest living director, I taught kindergarten and second grade, I gained and lost weight, I learned to play euchre, I went to some parties, I got every grade across the spectrum, I learned to write lesson plans, I learned to surround myself with good people and be rid of everyone else, I lived with four people, I made a home away from home with friends as family, I ate a lot of chicken, I became very sad and then very happy, I had my heart broken but built again stronger, and though I haven't found what I wanted to do with my life; I most importantly found myself. Did I leave anything out? Absolutely, but not everything is meant to be re-lived.

I'm sorry for waiting almost 3 months to blog again, but I'll let you in on a little secret. When I blog a lot, that's my way of desperately searching for happy things to write about. If I go weeks or months, then that means times are good, skies are blue. It means that I don't need to think of anything happy because I am living well. Go to my archives, look at when I first started blogging, that was right around the time I got dumped hard core. And I spent about a year after that trying to find myself and getting lost many times. Those are the times I blogged the most. But then look at the previous two years, when I made real friends, when I found real love. Those are the times that I blogged very little. See the pattern?

Tonight Mary and I said goodbye to this campus in probably the best way possible. We walked to every single building and tried to think of the last time we set foot there and what our best memory was. It's just amazing how much living I've done all over this place.

Oh what in the world am I going to do this summer? Awesome question with a shitty answer. Looks like I'm doomed to go back to the Nurtury, hopefully under a different program. But for my own well being, I cannot work full time there, but I need full time money. Anyone got any bright ideas? Most importantly I think I will ride this summer for what it is... the last summer of "yay it's finally summer!" because I think adulthood officially starts with student teaching, and let's face it, that sucks.

Well I leave behind four years of collegiate glory, and I turn to the future with a set of bw shades, because it's so bright, I can't see where I'm going.

But I can see a stand up bit...
So I was talking with my friend the other day, and he said, "Oh remind me not to forget to sell back my books." Sure... and thanks for choosing me. Basically you've taken your responsibility, and totally made it all mine. Cripes, if you need me to help you move something, or need me to drive you somewhere, I can help. But you don't need anything like that, you need me to help you use your brain! If that's the case, you shouldn't be let out of your room. And when I forget, and oh yes I will forget, it is totally my fault. "Dude, ah man you were supposed to remind me! Oh why did I count on you in the first place? You knew how busy I was watching Dr. Phil!!!"
posted by Kevin at 2:38 AM

I know, it's been a while, shut your trap, I got a life. What have I been doing with my life? Nothin... That's not true. The new semester is upon me, actually it's half off me already, got some midterms this week. Classes suck for the most part, I really am not learning anything, in fact I'm gonna say it's been quite a waste of time thus far, not exactly the way I want to end my time here. Classes are long, and plentiful. But good news is I don't have choir, which just makes my life just bfbfbfreakin awesome. Let me see if I can make a list of some highlights of the semester.

1. Katie turned one years old
2. Regina and I won the Findley Hall euchre tournament (against Joe and Chris)
3. Mary and I had a wonderful evening at playhouse square seeing "Rent."
4. And come Friday, the ACF's will have another gig under their belt.

It's not that good stuff hasn't happened, it's just been too long for me to remember. Kinda sad huh? But dry your eyes, I have a fresh new bit for ya.

So I was watchin some tv when I saw a weather warning that says "Winter Weather Advisory"... I don't get it, why do we need to be warned that it's winter outside? I know that figuring out when the first day is of a new season is always tricky, but once we hit late September/early October... I think I had an idea winter was coming, and it was going to bring some cold weather and/or snow. I do not need to be warned of these weather conditions. When we're in mid February, I'm not expecting to go swimming. But that'd be nice during winter to get a "summer weather advisory." The weather man would say something like "this is nothing serious but we're about to hit a 90 degree day tomorrow, and we're not even to March, so consider yourself warned." That is a necessary warning. What they really need to warn us about is if there's going to be something to make a Monday worse, like a rainy/snowy day, it'll be titled "very Mondayish weather advisory."
posted by Kevin at 5:23 PM

Haha I'm blogging twice in a month, and twice in two weeks... this is funny. I really don't have much to say other than a few things.

I have a website now! Who knew!? Anywho, check it out http://geocities.com/vocalperc1/acappellaman.html, pleeeeaaaase for the love of God!

Anyways I love Christmas music. I can remember a memory along with every single Christmas song. Maybe not the first time I heard it, but maybe when I sang it in school in the gym in 3rd grade, or maybe I heard it in the car on the way to a Christmas party... anyways, I love it. Puts me in a good mood.

Wow, nice Kevin, way to sandwich that in between the real reasons why you blogged you self absorbed jerk!

Here's the other reason why I blogged. I got a nice stand up bit, that I gotta write down before I forget. And it'll probably be the last one of the year, so enjoy it now, for you won't see one until 2006.

Ah Christmas music, I like it a lot, just catchy feel good music is all it really is. I really like that song "The Christmas Song." It's really nice and all but wow, what an arrogant title for a song! Deck the halls, Frosty, Rudolf, O come all ye faithful, Silent night, Silver bells... just pee-ons, minute holiday tunes. Those are Christmas songs... but none of them are worthy of being THE Christmas song. I think the real Christmas Song should go something like "Deck the halls with jingle bell rock the snowman nosed reindeer, so have yourself a white Christmas Clause is coming to town when Christ was born Mr. Grinch and a happy new year." THAT my friends... is THE Christmas song.
posted by Kevin at 4:32 AM

Hey peeps, what's new? Well Thanksgiving has come and gone, I ate a lot, my cousins were pains in the ass, but isn't that like what John Smith said after the first feast or something? Maybe it was Squanto... anyways it was all very Thanksgivingesque.

Another thing that has come and gone were my kids from St. Angela. I'm not gonna lie, I really miss them. No tears or anything on the last day, but it was a day that I wasn't squirming in my seat for the clock to move faster or anything. It was such an amazingly positive experience, as in I learned and benefited from it. Notice how I didn't say it was amazing or fantastic or great, because it wasn't. One thing I Learned is that there are some unspoken truths about teaching, but lucky for you, I will speak of them now. First, as a teacher there are some kids you just won't like; they are loud, annoying, not too bright, and just really weird to the point where they aren't cute. Second, if you have least favorites, consequently you will have favorites... yes I said it, teachers play favorites. Now teachers will vary as to how they will play favorites, I wasn't nicer or meaner to any kids, I still treated them all the same, I just didn't think of them all the same. But yeah there are the kids who smile whenever they talk to you, or the kids that laugh at everything you say, not because they think it's funny, but because you said it. And lastly, a harsh truth is teaching is hard as hell, I'm not talkin about the lessons or activities, I'm talkin about the paperwork, the conferences, the procedures, the early mornings, and the parents... it all sucks. I fear so many of my classmates are naively looking over the things as if the cuteness of the kids will carry you through the day. But I will say that my experience at St. Angela was the most rewarding thing I have done in a very long time (to end on a positive note.)

Well it's Christmas time and hot dog... that means Christmas music... and hot dogs (no.) Now I have presented this thought provoking topic to many of you, but I will ask the world now. Christmas music has 3 categories as far as I'm concerned; Religion (something about the birth of Christ,) Traditional (something you'd sing as a 3rd grader in the gym,) and Contemporary (original Christmas music or a famous remake by a certain artist.) Here are my favs and least favs. What are yours?

Favs
Relgion - Mary Did You Know?
Traditional - The Christmas Song
Contemporary - Last Christmas (by Wham!)

Least Favs
Religion - Silent Night
Traditional - Deck the Halls
Contemporary - Have a Very Merry Christmas (by Lennon, Ono, and retarded British kids)

Today I sang for a performance of the Messiah. I did the recitative for bass numbers 10 and 11... got paid $100.... s'kindawsome.

Totally random, just found out a high school classmate died. RIP Michelle.

Alright, enough with the stand up sabbatical, here's a new one, enjoy.

Exams have come and gone and for some of my classes I had to do the last minute paper thing, and of course spell check is the reason why I don't fail these papers. But spell check is a little insulting. There needs to be some feature where after a few times, it gives you suggestions. Maybe that annoying little paperclip that pops up and says "hey you're an idiot, would you like some help?" should serve a purpose and jump up and say "ok that's the third time you've tried to spell that and it's still wrong, would you like me to just spell it for you?" I always love the red line that appears underneath the word like after you type only 3 letters, as if it's saying "ok you know what, I'm gonna stop you right there, I have every word known to man in my database and there's no damn word that has the letters tgz in succession... what in the hell are you trying to type?" Or my favorite is when you spell a word so wrong, that you hit backspace until the red line goes away, but it doesn't go away until you have like one letter left, that's when the paperclip should say "keep going... this word is so bad, you even hit the space bar wrong."

posted by Kevin at 12:53 AM

Time for my monthly blog. So what's new? Well I have began (and about to finish) my preservice teaching experience. It's been totally positive, I'm at a private catholic school in Fairview Park called St. Angela Merici. I am with kindergarten kids every single morning... pretty much teaching. I love the kids, all of them, I know that is a cliche thing that most girls would say but let that be a testament that a guy can say how cute these kids are. I love the teaching, I love the interaction, I love the school; and yet the idea of me being a teacher still does not work for me. I can't deal with the evaluations, assessments, conferences, meetings, forms and files... just the hell with it, I don't want any of it. Any suggestions of what to do?

Because of this teaching stuff, I have had a complete life style change. Many of you know me as the guy who would stay up till 6 am and then get up at 3:30 pm... no longer my friends. I can rarely stay up barely past 1:00 am, and that's on a weekend, and I never sleep till noon on weekends, for I am often up at 7 on weekdays. It's a lame life, and I miss what I used to be able to do. I will admit though it is nice to not wake up and say "did the sun even come up today?" But I have been working hard and sleeping like a baby, which are not Kevin Kelly traits.

But onto other news! I am 22 now! I'm not sure if that is good news but I always say birthdays are God's way of saying I have let you live this long so far, many have died younger than you but I've done what I can to keep you alive. There really wasn't one huge thing or gathering for my birthday, it really happened over the span of a week. Last Saturday my parents got me a book of Mr. Rogersisms and a new cell phone (it's hot!) Sunday we had an A Cappella Fellas gig, first one of the year, it was pretty cool, the audience loved us, I'd like to think we have a knack for entertaining. My brother got me some Dane Cook stuff and my sisters got me "Kevie bags." That would be stuff full of Kevie things (pringles, little debbies stuff, blank cd's, you get the idea.) Monday Mare took me out for banana bread and fruit, and gave me THE best watch ever. This thing is sexy, hell I'm more attracted to me now. It's all shiny and blue backgrounded and awesome. So we got that refitted yesterday, before we saw "Walk the Line" and had birthday dinner #2. Been a pretty good weekend.

Thanksgiving is coming up, I have the whole week off which is awesome. Don't call me because I will probably be sitting and doing all the nothing I can possibly chill out of myself. I really have not been my chillful self lately, too busy. What is my ideal Thanksgiving? Here's how it would go; I wake up and watch the parade with my brother. After that it's hard core cleaning time and everything, but to keep the atmosphere light, we keep some football on in the background. Maybe after that my sister and I would string some cranberries so we can put them around the turkey. Usually we lose track of time and we are still in our pj's before our incredibly early coming cousins walk in the door. So we rush upstairs and then a half hour later drag our butts down to start the "fun." I try to avoid playing checkers or some game with my cousins but eventually I gotta play, while we watch more football. Then around 4:00 we have that dinner that makes you feel good about being alive... until you are finished eating, and then you want to die. To work off the food, my brother and cousin and I toss the football around outside and run some cool plays. Just when we think it is getting late, the family leaves, and we get to enjoy cleaning the house while watching some prime time Thanksgiving stuff (usually the Grinch or Home Alone.) Then to top it off, I sleep easy knowing I have no school the next day. That is the ideal Thanksgiving for me!

This blog was way too long, but humor never get's the shaft.

So a man goes to the doctors office and he's sitting in the room with that paper gown. The doctor finally comes in and says "And how are we feeling today?" The man says "well I'm fine, I'm not sure about you though..."

get it?


posted by Kevin at 3:08 PM

People here's the deal, here are a few reasons why I don't often blog. First, it takes forever, I end up saying way too much and wanting to say it just right. Which then of course means I gotta proofread the thing, and do the half hour spell check. Next, dismissing that I could be doing other things like working, I am usually chatting with Mary during the free time that I could be blogging. So you may be asking me, would I rather have a casual convo with her over informing everybody else what's going on in my life? The answer is yes, absolutely yes I would. So all in all people, here is why I do not often blog anymore.... I DON'T FEEL LIKE IT! Of course there's really no one that bugs me to blog, so dismiss the angry tone.

So the big concert that the ACF's were supposed to do has been pulled. So basically we have nothing, we practice just because... anybody have a gig for us? But I shouldn't hang my head, no way you can top last year's 7353 gigs, an exponent article, and a tv appearance.

Onto happier news, I went to Mary's formal 2 weeks ago, and danced a hole into the ground. Let me tell you a funny story about the whole thing. The dance took place at a restaurant... the same restaurant that I went on a date from hell the year before, for a different sorority dance. Basically it was at that dance last year I realized how much I missed Mary and wished she was there instead of whatsherface. So fate would have it, that all I had to do was wait a year. But it was so cool that I didn't just have fun... fun had me!........... I actually don't know what that means, but let that tell you how great the night was.

My sister and her baby girl came to visit us for a week. It's amazing how I can make any child my best friend... except my niece, whom took one look at me and started to cry. But my mom was right, these are the golden years. When she isn't looking at me, she is smiling, laughing, or crawling over to you because she wants your attention.

So the World Series is about to begin. Now I understand that not everybody is a baseball fan, perhaps because they don't understand the sport. That used to offend me, now I totally understand why it's so hard to understand, as Chris and I were verbalizing the ludicrousy of such a cockamaime sport. If you never thought about how confusing it is, here are a few rules.
- Every batter get's 3 strikes to hit the ball. A strike is anything in the strike zone or anything the batter swings at and misses, or if he hits a foul ball. A foul ball hit with 2 strikes is not a strike out, unless the batter is trying to bunt.
- An RBI is when a batter hits the runner(s) on base to home, unless the fielder committed an error, or if the hitter hits the runner to home during a double play.
- An ERA is the number of runs divided by the number of innings pitched times 9. Only earned runs are counted as runs. If a hitter reaches base or scores on an error, then the run was not earned.
- A save is when a relief pitcher gets the final out of the game with less than a 4 run lead. Or if that relief pitcher pitches 3 or more innings to finish the game. In extra innings, the home team cannot get the save, but the visiting team can if they win.
- A balk is when the pitcher makes a motion on the mound that is not part of his pitching motion, his motion to check the runners, or when he stops his pitching motion towards home plate. In the case of a balk, every runner on base moves ahead one base.
That is just a taste of the game called baseball. I think if aliens land on earth and want to know about our planet... baseball should not be the first thing we explain to them. The first thing we explain should be something simple with almost no depth, like George Bush.

Well the stand up bits have been absent, but they are not dead...

I wanna talk about that game show called... The Price Is Right. Bob Barker could do that show blind, deaf, and in sign language, because it's the same thing every single time. Only six contestants make it up on stage, and here they are. 1. There's the military guy whom fights for America's freedom to spin a giant wheel. 2. There's the 94 year old lady that wears a shirt that says "Bob's old ass beauties" or something like that, this is usually the contestant that the the wheel stops on one dollar for... 3. There's the country bumkin that leaps on stage grabs the microphone and says "Bob i'd like to say hi to my wife Louella Mae, we've been watching the show for the last 48 years." 4. There's the guy that has no fuckin clue what he's doing, and just wants to get off the damn stage, as if he stumbled in there by mistake on the way to the bathroom... he is usually the one that challenges the 94 year old lady in the showcase showdown. 5. There's the really really hot chick who came with her group of 40 friends and thinks that buy giving Bob a kiss that she'll win. 6. We cannot forget... the frat boy from the Iye Phelta Thi or Iye Tappa Kegga frat or something whom wins the knife set, or the china cabinet, and rejoices like he just won a small country.

That my friends... Is the Price is Right.


posted by Kevin at 3:33 AM

Definitely has been a month since I last blogged. Blog reading is so funny, people never give up on it, they never lose hope. It's like hanging on to that bad boyfriend whom you are just hoping will come around. Well, consider this update the boyfriend who came around for his one blog stand.

Alright enough philosophy. How's school going? Kinda sucks sometimes but really is kinda nice... for now. I have to wake up ass early on Monday and Wednesday for my marathon days. Two back to back morning classes of 2 hours each, with an afternoon class an hour later, and sometimes choir. That's rough, I'm not gonna lie. I definitely wake up each M/W morning and say "man my life sucks." That is, until Wednesday afternoon, when the rest of the week only holds two more classes for me.

Same room, new roommate. We're having lots of fun so far, have been coining our own phrases and speaking in movie quotes. Movies like Dumb and Dumber, Office Space, and As Good as it Gets. "It's kinda awesome..." Chris is actually our new baritone in the ACF's.

Speaking of those boneheads, we actually have a concert coming up in about a month and a half or so. Should be pretty cool, just wanna end everything with a bang. Including my virginity... just kidding... that'll be two bangs... and then another.

What else is on my mind? Well there's Mary. She still smells nice and has such a pretty face. That smell just reminds me of so much. I think if I wrote a book about my second half of college, I'd spray it with that pink stuff that she uses. Is that gay?

Feel like laughin? Alright.

I think it's funny that we have caution labels on products like bleach and dish detergent. One would assume that tasting such products could potentially be fatal and it'd be smart not to do so, right? Wrong! Those labels are there to stop you before you do something stupid! As if having to read the labels to find out if they are harmful to swallow isn't stupid enough. People were eating these products so much... that they needed to be told to stop! I'm mean seriously, these conversations could actually have happen before those labels came out. "Hey man I'm hungry, what do we have to eat around here?" "Well we got these detergent tablets." "Aren't those toxic?" "Nah dude it'd say so if it was." "Alright toss me two." Or there could have been "Hey this window cleaner stuff looks like blueberry punch." "Cooool spray some in my mouth!" There were actually people eating these household products, and the American government had to swallow some pride and say "Alright... this has to stop, they just aren't getting it." Before you know it there'll be labels on grenades saying "caution, might blow up," or on rap cds saying, "caution, might be awful."

I will leave you with some words of wisdom. When in doubt... just think balls.

posted by Kevin at 6:52 AM