I am illiterate!

When I was in elementary school I was an excellent speller. I made it to the final round of the 5th grade spelling bee only to lose on the word vengeance. (Those teachers are going to PAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!) But then Al Gore invented the internet and things have gone downhill from there. I spend so much time quickly typing emails and having things automatically spell-checked for me that I no longer know how to spell basic words.

I once lived in a very scary far away land known as Wisconsin. I was surrounded by crazy illiterates attacking me from all sides!!! They threatened to make me say things like "I seen your friend" and "I ain't got none money!" At work I once saw a woman spell checking her emails before she sent them and I ridiculed her in my head.

And then earlier this week I did a bad thing. I caught myself spell checking an email and I knew something had to change.

So I will play a spelling game with all of you. Here is a list of words that I can not spell on my own. Maybe if I write them all down, I will purge myself of the bad spelling and become clean again.

1. Committee vs. Commitment (what's up with the double t's? Which one needs them and which one doesn't???)
2. Piece (I frequently want a peice of pie. Thank you, Heather, your mocking has already helped me get over this one... most of the time.)
3. Input (I was stupid enough to spell this imput. I hate myself)
4. Restaurant (OMG my Mom tried so hard to get me to learn this one...)
5. Definitely (Definately was my spelling of choice. Again, thank you Heather.)


So now we have all agreed that I am an idiot speller. But as I prepare my case for "when bad spelling happens to good people" to bring to my annual review next week, ponder this. Am I truly lazy, stupid and semi-illiterate? Or am I product of a generation that lets computers think for them? Not that this is preferable; I actually would rather just be stupid than admit to letting a computer think for me. But maybe as a college graduate I should be able to have more to show for myself than an ability to hit spellcheck. Either that, or I should have a killer 5-bedroom and a six-pack of Miller Light up in Wisconsin.

Babies Galore

I had a whole week off for Thanksgiving and of course I didn't blog until Sunday night. Why is it that the more time you have, the less you do? Anyhoo- Thanksgiving was very fun this year! We went to Sycamore to spend the holiday with Russ's family. And then on Saturday my 1/4 sister McKenzie and her new husband, Jamie, and baby, Felix, came to spend the night with us!

Josie, yours truly, and baby Felix! Felix is only 9 weeks old and look how big he is!!!

Josie loves cousin Felix!!!

Felix has a staring contest with the flower pot.

Bonding time for Josie, McKenzie and baby Felix.

Trick-Or-Treat!

Josie the Ladybug hits the streets and she's looking for treats!

After a few stops at the doors of Josie fans in our building, we headed outside to conquer the neighborhood. Josie takes off running- she can't wait to show off her sweet costume and red shoes to all the neighbors!

What a cute ladybug! And thanks to Auntie Kimmy for the pumpkin-basket!

Josie soon becomes a pro at walking up all the steps, knocking and grabbing treats! Too bad she got so comfortable she soon started grabbing handfuls and instead of saying "Boo" like we'd taught her, she said "More!" ... uh, awkward.

The best part of the night- assessing the spoils! Josie scored a new book, a toy spider, some weird Russian candy from our Russian neighbors (um, thank you?) and some excellent mini-candybars for Mommy and Daddy! Hooray for Halloween!

Pumpkins!

To get the Halloween celebrations off to a good start, Josie carved her first pumpkin!

Here is Josie getting her first feel of the inside...

She makes Mom do the hard stuff while she stirs up seeds in the bowl....

Then she takes a break to read to us from the papers
that are supposed to be keeping the floor clean...



Hey, where did all the insides go?

Whoa! I carved a pumpkin!

Is that an astronaut in your car, or are you just happy to see me?

We had a very exciting event at my museum the other day. Former astronaut Dr. Harrison Schmitt, the last man to have walked on the moon, came to our museum and my co-worker, Elizabeth, and I got to hang out with him before the event and chat about space. It was very cool! I asked him millions of questions like "were you scared to be on the moon?" (he said no) and "what did you think when they told you you were going to the moon?" (he said he thought it was about time.) Dr. Schmitt was a senator for many years, so he was clearly used to these kinds of inane questions. But I was still loving it! I felt we were really bonding. Gena Johnson, Astronaut's New Best Friend!

Soon the event started and 1200 members showed up to meet my new best friend. The line to have their books signed by him was 2 hours long. Soon it was 10 pm and I was gazing longingly at the door. I was planning my sneak exit when Elizabeth approached me.

"Uh, Gena, you're the only one in our department with a car."
Oh crap. She's going to make me drive her home.
"Um, thank you?"
"Can you drive Dr. Schmitt to his hotel?"

What! I know the astronaut and I are close now, but he was kind of important- driving him in my ridiculous Nissan would be embarrassing. He should be in a limo or something. Couldn't she at least call him a cab?
Reading my mind, Elizabeth said "everyone else has gone home, and if I send him out the front door it will be a mob scene. You need to drive him."

Before I could think of an answer, the astronaut was standing beside me with his brief case ready to go. Getting the embarrassment off to a good start, he started to say things like "Hey, so where's Elizabeth? I thought she was coming with us?" He was clearly as weirded out as I was. Anxiety mounting, I realized I couldn't find my car. Finally, I found it, crammed in a tiny space between two vans. I cringed as he jammed himself between the cars to get in the passenger seat. When I started the car, "Glamorous" by Fergie (thanks a lot Jill!!!) blared for an instant before I could turn it off. I died. This is certainly not the type of VIP treatment he was used to.

Now lets get really honest here. Everyone that knows me knows that I am not a good driver. I accidentally drive over curbs, I stop too fast, and I tend to roll through stop signs. And now I had an astronaut in my car whose knees were crunched into the dashboard. I drove in a blur as I chatted nervously and envisioned the astronaut surviving space, only for me to accidentally drive into the lake and kill him. Gena Johnson Kills Astronaut and National Hero. Hell no!

Before long, I was at the hotel dropping him off. He had just finished telling me about a time when he was the guest of honor in Chicago's St. Patrick's Day Parade (further humiliation for me and my Nissan), when he tried to make out with me. KIDDING! This story would be much better (and so much more Clinton) with that ending, wouldn't it? But sadly I just let him out of my car, unhurt and only slightly stiff from the uncomfortable ride.


Co-workers and me with new best friend, moon man Harrison Schmitt.

Iceland Iceland Baby

Believe it or not, the trip to Iceland actually happened and I’m back to tell the story! It was very hard to leave the family for so long, it was COLD (duh) and outrageously expensive, but I had a great time!

Tuesday, October 2
I flew first to Minneapolis for about 24 hours to hang with my best friend who just had the cutest little boy ever. Andrew and I bonded, pictures to come. Then I headed for the icy land known as Iceland!

Wednesday October 3/Thursday October 4
After a 5 hour flight (not that bad) we landed and it was cold and rainy--- kind of like you would expect. I met my fellow travelers- mostly the over 65 crowd, but since we have established that now includes me, I fit right in!
Iceland is known for its spas, so the first place we went was the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal pool that is supposedly great for your health. It is a sort of milky aqua water that pops right out of the center of the earth (or something like that.) The water comes out so hot in some places that Iceland uses its energy to power the entire island.

After that we headed to our hotel for a nap and then did a bus tour of the city that day. The island has practically no building materials so everything is made of corrugated steel and concrete. Even their main Church, see below!

Dinner that night was room service in my hotel- AWESOME! For your entertainment I will keep a running total of some of the bills. Dinner in my room that night: Slice of Pizza, French fries and Pepsi: $45.

Friday, October 5
The next morning we got up and did a full day bus tour of the northern part of Iceland. We saw some amazing scenery. The whole island is a combination of active and inactive volcanoes. Its kind of like Canada and Hawaii had a baby. A fellow traveler took this picture- see the glacier in the background to the right!
The beautiful Iceland landscape. Note that what appears to be grass is really just moss growing on old volcanic rock. It is very difficult to grow anything in Iceland.

Also in the north, we went to see the Golden Waterfall. It got its name because on days when its not pouring (like today) the mist appears gold. Adventurous ones like myself (oxymoron?) could walk right down to the lip and snap pictures! Water in Iceland is 100% pure and drinkable right out of the river. It is all rain water or run off from glaciers!

The last crazy landscape destination was the mouth of an extinct volcano. Everyone hold on to their virgins! Camera challenged… you will have to see this in two photos.

That night a group of us had dinner at a restaurant in Reykjavík. Pizza (yes, again), pepsi and chocolate cake: $42.

Saturday, October 6:
On Saturday morning we all met for a lecture from the Adler astronomer, Mark, that came with us on the trip. He explained how Aurora Borealis happen (some mumbo jumbo about sun spots) and our chances of seeing them on the trip. That afternoon we went on a bus tour of the southern part of Iceland.

There is a little bit of grass and actual dirt in this part of Iceland, so some people have attempted to farm. Mostly they just raise sheep and Icelandic horses (more on that later.) But in the south there are active volcanoes that blow everything to smithereens every few decades. Apparently in the 1970’s they had an eruption that wrecked everything- first with the eruption, but then they had a tsunami and to add insult to injury the heat melted some of the glaciers and caused a catastrophic flood. WTF! All the southern people have basically just finished rebuilding and now geologists are saying another eruption will come again soon. Yikes! But the landscape was BEAUTIFUL and I managed to get some decent pictures.

Waterfalls were everywhere- they pretty much just poke themselves out of the inside of the mountains and volcanoes.

Waterfall #1

There are rainbows everywhere because of steam and waterfall mist. And you wonder why 85% of Icelanders still believe in the existence of elves.

Waterfall #102:



I also have to show this one- a working Icelandic farm. Now they can build houses the “regular way” but in the past they would build things out of rock and drift wood, then insulate it by piling sod onto the roof and walls. On this farm they are using the old house for storage and barns. (Yes, people LIVED in these! The person in the background will help you put the size into perspective.)


Later that night was a dinner of Icelandic lobster, tiny little things compared to what we are used to here. After dinner we went hunting for the northern lights! We had planned to do this 3 nights in a row. We saw an awesome display the first night. The second night was pretty dim and the third night was pouring rain- bummer! My camera could not capture anything--I will make some of my friends with real cameras send me copies of their pictures and post them later. (Don’t be haters.) By the way, dinner was included this night, so I don’t have a total for you. But I did buy some rolos at a rest stop for $5. A snack bag of Cool American Doritos (their version of cool ranch, hilarious!) was $3.50.
Sunday, October 7:
This was a free day, so I spent the day alone exploring Reykjavik. I did a lot of shopping and ate some interesting food. I also got lost (boo) so cheered myself up by eating ice cream (yeah!). Dinner that night was as a group in our hotel.

Monday, October 8:
This day was by far my favorite! We went horse back riding on their crazy Icelandic horses! Icelanders are very particular about their horses, so have done NO interbreeding in almost 900 years. These horses are exactly as the Vikings rode them when they first came to Iceland. They are small and strong with heavy coats. They also have 5 gaits, instead of the traditional 3 gaited horses. (You know, walk, trot, gallop.) Riding them was a blast! And again, I surprised myself by not only not falling off, but I even rode the suckers fast! It was great.

My horse, Fivid (or something like that) meaning Flower. This is him basquing in the aftermath of the “please don’t hurt me, kick me, or throw me off” speech I just gave him.
(If you’re looking for a picture of me on the horse, its not happening.)

After the ride, the horses were so excited to have their saddles off that they all dropped and rolled around in the dirt like dogs! Are they calling me fat?

We were back from riding at mid-day, and I was FREEZING so I immediately got into bed to warm up… then fell asleep. Whoops! But I was up in time for dinner at a cool restaurant downtown with the group that night. Dinner was included, but the lunch I had that day was not: sandwich and French fries (yes, again): $19.

Tuesday, October 9:

This morning everyone woke up feeling depressed because it was time to go. But we had a few hours to ourselves in the morning. One of my younger traveling companions, Suzen, and I spent the morning at one of the geothermal pools near our hotel. Then we came home and spent a good couple of hours trying to cram all the stuff we bought into our tiny suit cases (or actually, not tiny. That's what's embarassing.) After more hours of traveling and no sleep for an even 22 hours, I finally made it home by 1 am on Wednesday morning! Home sweet home!

Josie the 8th dwarf? Or fashion forward?

Josie's takin it to the streets! Her new obsession-

pulling the Pete-the-Monkee look ala constant ski cap!

Holla!