My "Me Box"

Hello from New York! I got up here this afternoon to visit B for the weekend. We hung out for a bit and went on a dinner date earlier, but he had to go back to school and now I am here in our hotel room by myself. B can't stay with me tonight because he has to clean his room.

I wish I was joking.

But it's okay, because tomorrow I get him all to myself! We have quite the exciting day planned and I can't wait for it to get here. Until then, I'm just hanging out, catching up on blogs, and attempting to do some homework.

One thing I wasn't expecting when I started grad school was how 'touchy feely' some of my classes were going to be. I mean, I know I'm going to school to be a teacher, but I didn't expect to actually be doing a lot of the activities that I'll be assigning to my students in the future. Surprisingly, I have really enjoyed the couple of weeks of classes I've had so far; I do all my readings in advance, am on top of all of my work, and generally am just excited about school. In college, this would have been a bit out of character...procrastination was pretty much my middle name back then! I'm hoping I can keep up this momentum for the rest of the semester, and the next two years, too!

Anyway, since I knew I would have a bit of free time tonight between hangout times with B, I decided to share an activity we did in my Children's Literature class to introduce ourselves to one another. We had to construct a "Me Box" containing items that represent us in some way, and then present it to the class. I thought it totally sounded like a 'bloggy' thing to do. :)

So, without any further ado, here is my "Me Box"!

I guess technically it should be called a "Me Bag," because I put all of the items in this Towson tote that I got for free at grad school orientation. Who doesn't love free stuff?! I used this bag to represent this new chapter of my life, going to grad school and working towards becoming a teacher. I am so excited about it!

I included this oven mitt (and it is a super cute oven mitt, if I do say so myself...I love polka dots and this is my current favorite color combination!) to represent my love of cooking and baking. As I explained to my class, I'm not always awesome in the kitchen (I recently baked some muffins that were supposed to taste like donuts...total failure), but I sure do love trying new recipes and whipping up the classics!

I have lived in Maryland for my entire life, so to show my hometown pride, I included a Ravens hat and a crab mallet. I've already talked about my new found love of football, so I'll just say...Go Ravens! The crab mallet is from a crab house where I worked as a waitress one summer in college. I actually hated almost every minute of that job, except at close when I left with around $100 in tips nightly. That part was pretty cool. But anyway, living in Maryland means CRABS! Which I love.

This is my graduation cap from college. I graduated from UMBC (which stands for the University of Maryland, Baltimore County) in May of 2008. This, obviously, also represents my sorority, Phi Mu!, which was a huge part of my college experience.  I met so many amazing women through Phi Mu, and also learned a lot of important lessons about leadership, friendship, working together, and standing up for myself. One of my sorority sisters, who was also graduating, decorated all of our caps so that our other sisters, friends, and families could easily pick us out in the crowd! They turned out really cute.

If you've looked around my blog at all lately, you might notice that I am just a little bit obsessed with  airplanes. Obviously, I had to include something to represent this love! I may have mentioned this once or twice, but I even took my first flight lesson a couple of weeks ago. This little wooden biplane was actually painted and given to me by one of my newer Phi Mu sisters. I think it's totally adorable.

Gerbera daisies are my favorite flower, and pink is my favorite color (although it is closely followed by purple lately), so these (fake) beauties covered two bases nicely!

Of course, I had to include something about B. Even though he is usually far away, he is a huge part of my life. I decided to bring Picadilly, the teddy bear we made while we were on vacation in London together, and a London tube map, to explain his silly name. B and I have had some really fun adventures together, and I love spending time with him and making more memories. He really is my other half, and one of the few people I can really be 'me' with. He is, without question, my best friend first, and I think that's why we work so well together (Okay, end cheesiness).

Lastly, because this activity was for my Children's Literature class, I decided to include a very memorable book from my childhood, Whoever Heard of a Fird? Rarely do I ever find anyone who has heard of this book, let alone read it, but it was definitely the favorite in my house growing up. It is creative and quirky, and has a really good message. It also came with a cassette tape; the book has songs throughout, and the lyrics are included so you can sing along! Such a great book.

So, there you have it: my "Me Box"! It was a fun 'getting to know you' activity, and it was interesting to see the things that different people included in theirs. So what about you guys? What would you put in your 'Me Box'?