rollercoaster

This class rules

2011-02-23T17:59:00.003-05:00

This is another video I made for my Web 2.0 Class. The assignment was to take photos of students collaborating on a project and put them in a video using this program. I hope you enjoy this as much as my snowman.

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

2011-02-09T17:40:00.001-05:00

2010-04-07T21:54:00.001-04:00

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I don't even know where to begin with this book. I feel that what I read was truly a piece of poetry. When this book was recommended to me I was most interested because much of the setting is in places I know, Boston, Cambridge, NYC, and because I like reading immigration narratives. But what I most took with me from this novel is a story about how people grow both closer and further away from their parents and how their parents affect and permeate every facet of our lives without ever realizing it. I also very closely identified with the main character Gogol's struggles with identity and relationships. I particularly enjoyed the way the author changed perspectives so the reader could see inside the minds of most of the characters at their most private moments, especially when we see inside of the mind of Gogol's bride. I understood and sympathized with her own struggle for autonomy. The author's style and word choice is very deliberate, much like her characters. Highly recommended.

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2010-03-14T19:04:00.001-04:00

The Fart Party by Julia Wertz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Uri and Sheila let me borrow this book one day during the blizzard and I just read it yesterday. It chronicles a year in the life of the artist as she navigates graduating college, growing up, and her relationship with a pretty ok boyfriend and how that fits in with her growing up. I have to say that I do wish I had read this book when I was 23 because the main character might as well have been me at 23. I enjoyed reading this because it was like a look into a piece of me that I am not anymore. It was nice.

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2010-03-10T22:27:00.001-05:00

Thirsty by M.T. Anderson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This story takes place in a time when vampires and other supernatural beasts are real and everybody knows it, however they are still hated and hunted and killed. The main character is a teenage boy who is slowly turning into a vampire and he doesn't understand why or how, all he knows is that it's bad and he wants it to stop. So when a stranger offers him a cure if he does a simple job for him he takes the opportunity without ever asking any questions or verifying the truth.

The best parts about this book were the vivid descriptions of his ever growing thirst for blood. The author does a tremendous job at making the thirst feel progressively worse, and when the main character does some damage to himself as a result I was right there feeling the pain with him and I was a little disturbed. I also loved the main character's description of all his side thoughts and little teenage witticisms and fantasies about the girl he likes. Also, the author drives a pretty quick pace through the story and I was driven right him to the point that I read the last 100 pages in one sitting because I didn't feel like there was a stopping point. I had to finish. Part of that urgency came from the uncertainty in the choices the main character was making. He wasn't sure who to trust with his secret and as a result some seriously perilous things happen. Great book. Highly recommended.

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2010-02-28T11:33:00.001-05:00

What I Was by Meg Rosoff

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I started reading this book before Christmas and I just can't seem to finish it. I fell in love with Rosoff's writing with How I Live Now - what an amazing book that was - but this novel is missing something.

*EDIT* I don't know what happened, but yesterday I just felt like I couldn't abandon this book and I finished it. I'm glad I did. The second half of the book picks up and slides back into Rosoff's comfortable prose. She just has a way of creating a magic bubble around her characters so for moments in their lives they exist in their idea of a perfect world. Of course that bubble can't be permanent and something has to ruin it or soil it. In the end nobody gets what they set out to want, and though things are different the character's aren't unhappy. Thee characters accept that things are what they are now, and sometimes that is the price of stealing momentary happiness.

I felt like this novel was missing something, a certain amount of heart perhaps. We weren't left with any kind of closure with the main character, known as H, who admits he is entirely unreliable as a narrator. For a minute I thought perhaps his best friend might just be some sort of invented phantom he was projecting to interact with the person he wanted to be (I'm explaining that poorly - sort of like Fight Club). H seems squishy, soft, doesn't take any personal accountability for his life, and he needs this external character to model on to make a change in his life, but then he doesn't make any change for about 2/3 of the novel so we're stuck listening to his internal monologue idolizing his best friend/hinted love interest. He is borderline obsessive and stops investing in his real life so he can sink further into his idealized life with his friend.

What really annoyed me was the twist, which I won't reveal, but I felt it took something away from H's personal struggle with his identity and reality. All in all I was disappointed with this book and I wouldn't recommend it for fans of Rosoff's writing. She doesn't really come into her voice until it's too late.

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and the first photos are in

2010-02-27T16:47:00.001-05:00

0227001308.jpg
Originally uploaded by sans-santina

Today was the second saturday spent at tech, and while we did leave earlier than I expected, let me tell you we were definitely productive. This is the first of three Who-houses, unfinished in the photo. I'm very excited to see how it all turns out!

2010-02-20T19:35:00.001-05:00

Madapple by Christina Meldrum

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I can't explain this book properly. It's part immigration story, part murder mystery, part botany lesson, and part religious text. The main character is a teenage girl who lives with her mother in isolation in rural Maine feeding on whatever they find in the forest. One of the first things we learn about these two is her mother's claim that the girl was conceived of a virgin birth. The first real contact this girl has with society is when her mother dies of a disease that's crippling her with indescribable pain and the young girl is taken into custody. She ends up locating an Aunt who is a pastor at a church in a nearby town with two children of her own. They take in their cousin refugee, but each for their own reasons: the aunt feels she must reconcile with the dead mother, the girl cousin believes the virgin birth mystery and wishes to exploit her, and the boy cousin is in love with her. Calling their relationship unhealthy would be an understatement. Three threads tie the story together. The first is the plants, the botany the characters seem to know so well. The second is the mythology that is discussed throughout. Everyone appears to be a scholar of Nordic myth and obscure aspects of Christianity that may or may not be true. The third is a murder trial that is released to the reader one cross examination at a time. The prosecutor thinks the young girl is a murderer who does not have a grip on reality and uses her extensive plant knowledge to kill the people around her. These small court interludes presented in between each chapter effectively cause the reader to question the main character's story. It becomes difficult to find the truth. I was relieved that all was revealed in the end.

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SOUP!

2010-01-11T19:19:00.001-05:00

0111001855.jpg
Originally uploaded by sans-santina

This is a bowl of my first homemade soup. Ever since I noticed the grocery store sells "soup vegetables" in a little fresh package I wanted to eat them up. To that little package I added some of my own foods, things I like about soup, and made a powerhouse of a tasty treat.

1 small turnip
1 small parsnip
2 carrots
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
2 red potatoes
1 leek
1 celery stalk
1 can of "bean salad" (mixed beans)
1/2 box Ditalini
1 carton Chicken Broth
olive oil
parsley
dill
salt/pepper

Pour a little olive oil in a soup pot and stir up the garlic and onion. Add all vegetables and heat them for about five minutes, then add beans celery, leeks, dill, parsley, salt, and pepper and let that simmer together for a bit. When ready add broth and bring to a boil. Add Ditalini and wait for broth to boil up again, then bring it down to a simmer and let it roll for about 20 minutes or so. Allow for a little cooling and chow down.

This turned out to be way more food than broth, and in the future I may use another carton, but frankly it was super incredible tasty just how it was and I can't wait to eat it all week.

2009-12-19T20:27:00.001-05:00

1219091855.jpg
Originally uploaded by sans-santina

This mail truck got stuck on my street earlier this afternoon. It's still there now. I'll have to let you know if it ever manages to escape.

This is a draft for a petition for more hours in the day.

2009-12-13T14:57:00.002-05:00

I don't know about you guys, but there aren't enough hours in the day to do the things I want to do. I came to this realization just now as I was waiting for my water to boil for tea. I was staring at my bookshelf at the place where I put all of my new books I want to read. It has expanded faster than I have time. That's not fair. I remember being able to sit and read a book a day, but I can't do that anymore, there's no time. After this water boils and my tea steeps, I have to go grade 100 essays, and while I could be like some other teachers and never assign essays, I know it's worth while to their skills level to organize a composition even though it takes all my energy to grade them and then I have no time to read books.

I did, however, set aside most of the afternoon to watch a documentary and knit, but that's because christmas is coming and knitting has to happen, and although I do relish the opportunity to sit and create, doing it under a deadline with essays hanging over my head makes it feel more like work than a release.

Hey people in charge of the hours of the day, I genuinely feel that I would be happier with my life if there were more. I would get to do more things I want to do instead of the things I have to do, which sometimes overlap, but many times they do not. Also, if I never have time to clear out my head because it is bogged down with things I have to do, how am I supposed to have time to think amazing thoughts? I have so many thing I want to do that require solitude and brain space, and I can't do any of them because my head is full.

So, people in charge of the hours, instead of governing those hours so fervently, I plead with to create another position and put more hours in the day for those of us who really need them. Thank you for your attention to this detail of human existence.

Santina

I have a head cold

2009-11-27T22:35:00.002-05:00

This is why I have a blog, so I can whine about being all sicky. WAAHHHHH!!!!! Time to go watch movies and knit.

look what I made!

2009-11-26T00:46:00.004-05:00

Last night was parent teacher conferences. None of my parents ever actually sign up ahead of time like you're supposed to because my kids always pretend like they never got he conference form. Like the whole district hasn't been having parent teacher conference night for the last nine years of their lives. I swear they're like ostriches. Anyway, because of this I usually just hang around my classroom and do either big grading or big arts and crafts procrastination from big grading while I wait for parents to come in and ask if it is ok to meet. Last night I did big procrastination arts and crafts. Check this out:
click to make it bigger.
Isn't that awesome! It is a map of all of Odysseus' adventures in the Odyssey. The white pieces of paper are (the good) plot diagrams that my kids made for each island pasted directly on that island (green paper) and then above each is the name of the island (orange paper). One of my techies showed up and helped me cut out the islands. I like how all the islands are same, but to show the difference I drew tiny pictures on them, and the underworld is black, and Helios' island has the sun. Maybe next year I'll switch it up a bit. Oh yeah, and that is definitely craft yarn that is illustrating the whole journey between Troy and Ithaca. I think this is the coolest thing I made all year.

The fall play is coming...

2009-10-31T19:06:00.003-04:00

The fall play is almost here, and let me tell you I am excited about it. I mean yeah I'm completely stressed out about it, but I'm WAY LESS STRESSED than I was at this time last year. My crew is so dedicated, creative, and talented that everything is running smooth and, I think, on schedule. I don't want to take too many pictures because I don't want to spoil the surprise, but I wanted to show you the caliber of talent we have on set crew this year. Check this out. My kids turned this:

into this -

Do you know how big that is? That gate is over teen feet tall and ten feet wide. And it works. It's on hinges and everything. People can walk through it. The best part is that I never touched it at all. That whole thing is my kids. I asked questions and helped them out with their creativity and guided them a bit, but I never touched it, not once. Isn't it awesome! I can't wait to show you the whole finished set when the play is over.

2009-10-06T21:05:00.001-04:00

Wait... is today Tuesday?

Happy Yom Kippur

2009-09-28T20:25:00.002-04:00

For today's holiday I rearranged the furniture. Then Andy came home and we put some of it back. The biggest decision was that we decided to give up on the roommate front and I've moved my craft and sewing stuff into the empty room!!! I now have a room in my house dedicated solely to creative pursuits. I miss having all my stuff in the "dining room" where it was easily visible and accessible, but Virginia Wolfe would agree it was time to move it into a room of my own. It was all really taking over downstairs and the various pieces that didn't fit in the dining room were cluttering up other rooms too. This is a much better use of space. I'll take a picture when it's all set up. It's going to be amazing.

Now I request some help. Use your imagination a little bit. We moved the giant shelving unit downstairs with the stereo and put it next to my desk. Unfortunately we now have a big empty wall in the dining room where the table used to be. Because we have the stereo in there we feel like a place to sit in there is now necessary... any ideas of what we can stick there? What would you do?

long day

2009-09-10T21:51:00.001-04:00

Today was a fourteen hour day. I spent fourteen hours in the school building. Sometimes I really think I had more time to myself my first year teaching.

Parent night has really harshed my mellow.

this weekend's triumph

2009-09-06T22:38:00.002-04:00

This is what I did today instead of grading last week's papers:
A friend of mine spotted this bowl I knit up a million years ago and felted up the other day with another project (you'll see that one when it's done). The only problem was she couldn't identify it as a bowl, so I thought I ought to do something to pretty it up a bit. I pulled out all the fiber I picked up at the sheep and wool fest in May and began needle felting this flower. I have to say I really impressed myself with my first attempt. Needle felting is exactly like I imagine painting with paint would be. I layered on small tufts of color so as to blend it all easily and make it look as real as possible. Plus the whole thing only took me an hour or so. I can't wait to try this on my bigger project!

ok this killed me today

2009-08-30T17:14:00.002-04:00

school started

2009-08-28T19:00:00.002-04:00

Considering our assigned duty time is supposed to be from 7:20 to 2:30, I should have had lots of time to get ready for the first day some time in the last five days, but we have had so many meetings that the only time I actually had by myself to work was from 2-7pm on Monday, 2-3 on Tuesday, and 3-6 on Wednesday, 4-6 on Thursday, and 8-11:30 and 2-6 today. Add that up, and then let me tell you I've been at school every day this week for around 12 hours, with the exception of Tuesday because I had to get my front tooth fixed. This is because I've spent an equal amount of time sitting in the auditorium light-booth, time I did not know I had to give up until I was approached in the morning. The copier is broken. There was a computer update and most of the computers won't connect to the printer. We got a new grade recording system that is not as efficient as the old one because it splits all of my classes into separate pieces which gives me 12 different rosters for 5 classes. I'm tired. I feel like somebody beat me up.

My one small victory this week came this morning. I sent out an email to the entire faculty concerning the way they approach their auditorium events, and specifically addressed their willy-nilly way of thinking everything is going to be there even if they don't talk to me ahead of time. In a lovely, well crafted, professional email I explained that when they don't give me notice they affect my life, my assessments, my planning. Students do this for a grade, and if you spoke to them ahead of time they could do a better job. I said if they don't give me five days notice I'm not doing it anymore because it makes us look like we're the ones who don't know what we're doing when whatever technical difficulties are occurring are the result of their poor planning. Well, I said it way nicer than that, nicer than a few people deserved after this week's complete mess. What surprised me most, though, was the faculty response. I got a whole bunch of emails that said "good for you" and "it's about time" and "that was awesome" and I realized that people really do see all my hard work. They do see everything I put into my job and how little respect I get out of it. It felt really good to read all those responses and feel for once that I was seen. It was a good reward to come out of all this exhaustion.

summer goals recap

2009-08-23T12:53:00.002-04:00

I START WORK ON MONDAY.

I'm sad, but also very excited to be going back to work. All this hanging around the house is both nice and terrible all at the same time. It's fun, but also depressing, to be living in a constant state of Saturdays. Either way, it's time to take a look at what I set out to accomplish this summer. Here are the goals, with commentary!

1. Make a salad with vegetables from my garden. - I sort of did this, but it was a tuna salad with tomatoes. The tomatoes killed the spinach plants, so leafy salad was out of the question. Just thinking of my poor, poor spinach brings a tear to my eye.

2. go to the ocean three times + go swimming at least three times elsewhere - Two years running I only halfway did it. This year I went to the ocean three times, but did no other swimming due to pool remodeling.

3. read three non-school books - I actually read ten books this summer, which is pretty good. I'll finish the last Harry Potter up this week sometime and I'll count that as eleven. I should list them, but for the sake of brevity I won't.

4. design set for fall plays - I did this, but then the play got switched on me, so then I did it again. Do I get double credit for that?

5. sew one of every bag in my sewing book - The only bags I didn't make were the canvas messenger bags, mainly because I want to get some interfacing and do a really good job. So, even though I did a ridiculous amount of sewing this summer, this one is as yet uncompleted.

6. complete knitted blanket - I did this and delivered it to Kathy. I have since resumed work on the felted bag I've been working on for ages!!! I really want to finish it so I can start a new project I have an idea for.

7. go to AVAM once and BMA once - AVAM yes, BMA no. Last year it was backwards. I guess because BMA is right around the corner I have a tendency to take it for granted. Maybe I'll go this week just to go.

8. visit newburgh, plattsburgh, and ohio once each - I added plattsburgh and ohio because I thought Kathy or Naomi might want to go to either of those places at some point, but for various reasons neither of those panned out. I did, however, have an awesome time in Newburgh twice!

9. visit rosie (wherever she is) at least two times - Twice visited, and I'm glad I did because ROSIE LEAVES ON MONDAY UGH. Now I understand how Rosie must have felt when I left Boston. I know she's going to be really happy and I am looking forward to visiting her in her new home!

10. make three new prints - I made one. I had ideas for more, but by the time the end of the summer came my brains started to get mushy. Next year I need to make this priority number one.

11. complete my wet felting kit. - I did not do this because it's just to hot to be playing with that outside. I'll try it out in the fall.

12. design new TKAM unit - I also did not do this because I am revamping everything one unit at a time. TKAM will be last. I've done three other units already. I am excited.

Well that's it for the big goal countdown. I think I'm going to spend the rest of the day knitting up a storm and trying not to think about school until tomorrow. I have to wake up so early! I'm so glad we go back a whole week before the kids so I can get used to the schedule again! Happy end of summer everyone!

beaches and museums

2009-08-10T23:04:00.003-04:00

First thing's first - Rosie and I went to the beach! We had a sweet beach weekend where we ate swanky food, relaxed in the sun, took in some boutique shopping (including an amazing quilt shop and a yarn shop), and enjoyed our evenings drinking wine and watching such classics as Elf, Lady in the Water, and Anchorman. Rosie made a better entry about our adventures at her blog, and of course she took way awesome pictures to go with it. I just can't do our awesome trip similar justice in writing. I was WAY HAPPY we went. I'm going to miss Rosie like crazy when she moves. Prolly gonna cry a bunch. Just sayin.

Ok before you move on...

look at this because it's awesome:

Exactly.

In other news... I finally finished one of my goals from last summer's and this summer's lists - I went to The American Visionary Art Museum with my friend Laura. What is visionary art? Well in their mission statement they say.... "Visionary art as defined for the purposes of the American Visionary Art Museum refers to art produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training, whose works arise from an innate personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself." As impressed as I was of their collection, my interest was really piqued by the bios of all the artists, which were an odd assortment. I suppose that some truly creative personalities are born from a little madness. Many of the artists were extremely introverted or obsessive or autistic, and all of them had some underlying mental or environmental issue that fueled their creativity. One man was 113 years old and discovered his gift while locked in an institution where he still lives. Another creates incredibly intricate ball point illustrations about a possible future Pakistan where horses are made of metal and fly. Another man became a born again Christian and created gigantic colorful monuments in a desert, including a hot air balloon, to spread the Word. It was like walking through rooms and rooms of people's obsessive need to create. It was pretty intense.

The museum staff was also a little crazy about not taking pictures, so I only got one, but it's a good one. Featured here is the hot air balloon juxtaposed with a giant pink poodle head. There were two of those poodles, part of the museum's Kinetic Sculpture Race which I'll have to catch someday. I was standing under the smaller of two poodles when I took this picture. The balloon has sewn on to it God Is Love and Repent along with several bible selections.

new case!

2009-07-30T18:45:00.002-04:00

I forgot to tell you this came in the mail the other day!That's right - it's my sweet new sewing machine case so I can put my machine away! I am very happy to have this, not that the machine has really had any time to collect dust, but it's good to be able to get it off the table without putting it on the floor next to the cat bed.

stuffed tomatoes

2009-07-27T22:48:00.002-04:00

Ingredients:
4 ripe tomatoes
1 box of pasta
1 bag of frozen peas
2 cans of tuna
(usually half an onion but I forgot to buy one)
a handful of ripe grape tomatoes
mayo to make everything stick together
optional creamy salad dressing
salt, pepper, and celery seed to taste

Instructions:
1. Cook the box of pasta and the peas as per the directions on the package.
2. One at a time throw them in the strainer and run cold water over them to cool them off. I usually do the peas first and then set them aside in a bowl because they're smaller and easier to set aside. The pasta can sit in the strainer while you finisher prepping everything else.

3. Drain the tuna.
4. Chop up the grape tomatoes.
5. Cut off the tops of the tomatoes and scoop out the guts. Do this gently, obviously, or you'll break your tomato.

6. In a big bowl, pour in most of the pasta. Add both cans of tuna and some mayo and stir until well blended. if you're using onion, throw that in now too. Oh, and add a lot of your spices now and blend that too. I don't like to wait for the end to spice it up because it's just too much crap in the bowl to mix up.
7. Add remaining ingredients and fold until well mixed. You will probably need to add more mayo. I add in a little bit of creamy cesar dressing here, not really sure why, probably that cheesy flavor in which case I could probably just add a handful of cheese and it would do the same thing, but salad dressing cuts down on the amount of mayo you have to use to make it all stick together and that's what you want. In fact, if you hate mayo you could just sub the creamy salad dressing of your choice and get the same effect and probably some really great flavor. Are you done mixing yet? You should be. I talked too much.

8. Take delicious tuna mixture and gently stuff it inside the tomatoes.
9. Put tomatoes and remaining mixture in the fridge for about half an hour.
10. Eat tomatoes like they were apples full of awesome. Serve with a bowl of stuffing on the side.

Usually by the time I'm done making this I'm just hungry and I just eat it, but it really does taste better if you let it chill for a bit. Also, don't make more than four tomatoes full because I could only eat one at a sitting. They were really tasty, but also very sweet. Yes, that's a Mobile salad bowl.

long - with pictures!

2009-07-03T11:51:00.003-04:00

It is my goal to make this quick and picture heavy, but you know once I get typing it's hard to stop. Also, the E key popped off my keyboard and I haven't reattached it yet, so if I'm missing any E's, sorry, but I'm poking the little nub under the key to get E's here. Anyway.

I've been paint my kitchen a little bit when Andy has band practice and it's too loud to do anything else in the house. It's not full blown wall painting, but for some reason on the wall above my cabinets there are these plant print tiles that have been painted over with the same yellowing white paint that's in the whole house. I decided to get a small can of green paint and a crayola paint brush and fill in the pattern. I'm only about halfway now and I haven't worked on it in like two weeks. Andy says nobody will ever even see it, but now you all will!

They're kind of a mess up close, but from the floor they look pretty awesome.

Next up: my garden. As you know I've attempted a real garden this year. Andy and I built the box of dirt in the backyard for not too much money. Frankly I think the dirt was the most expensive part even though we got a good deal on it. However, since my first post about it, the tomatoes have taken over. They cannot be contained by the box, or anything for that matter. They are growing right out onto the ground and into the neighbors yard. They killed the Spinach in an effort to get more water (RIP Spinach, my friend!) and two bean plants too. I blame myself for the bean plants. A friend told me they were ready to go in the ground, and I thought they need at least a week and a half more, but because of my naivete I believed him and now two are dead. Oh sad days when the tomatoes are free to do as they wish. It's like tomato anarchy out there.

So yeah, I've been sewing. Nothing too grand mind you, but it's something I've always wanted to learn how to do and so now I'm learning it. I'm making bags because it doesn't really matter if you mess up the sizes of them. Nothing needs to be fitted. I figure I'll do this for a while and then move on to skirts of something once I feel like I can do bags with my eyes closed. Sewing has all of the things I like about crafting in it. It's quick, exact, solo, plays with color and fiber and texture, and the end result is something intensely personal. Plus I get gratification quickly, and I'm way into that. This is my sewing table.You may recognize it as the old kitchen table, but we don't eat there anyway and I needed a place to set up shop. I put the sewing machine on the floor when I do my cutting and piecing and then when I'm ready to sew I move the cutting mat and put the sewing machine on the table. Yes, I know, very exciting. As you can see Millie pretty much sits on my chair the whole time I'm working. She clears off a little space for me when I need to sit.

Here are some of my projects.
This is the organizer I made for my sewing stuff. It hangs on the basement doorknob, which is more or lass convenient to my table. It's made out of this satin type material I got in the remnants bin. I thought, "Ooo shiny," but I won't make that mistake twice. What a pain that stuff is to work with!
Next up is a reversible tote bag I made for my friend Kate. It came out so awesome that I almost didn't give it to her. The corduroy came already embroidered with that horse pattern. It's so cool!!! Unfortunately the corduroy leaves lint all over the inside of the machine and I had to take it apart and clean it out when this project was through.

This little wrist purse is destined for Kathy when I see her. It was my first time making something with zippers ever and it was way easier than I thought it would be. So much so that I went out and bought a whole bunch of zippers in different colors to play with.

I'll be in NY on Tuesday everyone! I'm so incredibly excited to see you all!

the blood puncher

2009-06-25T11:09:00.002-04:00

A few of my kids make movies. They were my seniors from my first year which means I've had two years now to watch their development as film makers. I have to admit at first I just thought it was cute and funny and their movies didn't make much sense or look that great. But after two years of practice (and I like to think a little guidance from me and their film teacher) they're really starting to shape themselves into comedic geniuses.

Last night Andy and I attended the 48 hour film festival - the premise of the festival is you are assigned a genre to work with and you have to make a movie in under 48 hours. You also have to have three required elements: a character name, a prop, and a line of dialog. This year the required elements were name: tim flagler, prop: a tire, and the line of dialog was "I need to leave in a minute". I have to say this seems to me to be a very challenging thing to do, but my kids did a really amazing job. So go watch The Blood Puncher: a Superhero Movie.

THE BLOOD PUNCHER

we did it!

2009-06-15T15:14:00.001-04:00

Rosie and I did it! We booked an awesome vacation spot here!!!!!
We'll be heading there at the end of July!!! Can't wait!!!

THIS IS THE END

2009-06-14T10:33:00.003-04:00

Well, Friday was it. The last day of school. This momentous occasion marks the ten week period where I do whatever I want, as long as whatever I want is within reason. I, of course, have a lot of grandiose plans, and I'm forming the summer list of mandatory fun as I type this. So here it is, the summer list in progress:

1. Make a salad with vegetables from my garden
2. go to the ocean three times + go swimming at least three times elsewhere
3. read three non-school books - city of ember, eclipse, harry potter
4. design set for fall plays - steel magnolias
5. sew one of every bag in my sewing book (10)
6. complete crochet blanket
7. go to AVAM once and BMA once
8. visit newburgh at least once
9. visit rosie (wherever she is) at least two times
10. make three new prints with screen printing equipment I bought but don't know how to use.
11. complete my wet felting kit.
12. design new To Kill a Mockingbird unit using new framework

And that's it so far. I know there's some other things that need to end up on this list, but of course I can't think of them while I'm actually making the list. It's like at christmas time when everybody asks what you want for christmas and you know there's thing you want but you just can't remember what they are at that exact moment. I'm off to staples to purchase a calendar so I can organize everything!

artist

2009-05-26T20:07:00.004-04:00

Tom Phillips

home stretch

2009-05-24T14:06:00.003-04:00

School is almost over. I am both happy and sad, as is to be expected. I'm tired of the grading but I like reading the books with the kids, so what can one do? This week we start prepping for the final - can you believe it?

Here's a little bit of what I've been up to:

Andy helped me build a little garden in the backyard! I'm very excited to see how all my little plants grow. The orange cat ate all my plants that I had started back in March, so what you're seeing here are plants I bought at the nursery. I restarted some bean plants and they'll go in the ground sometime in the next two weeks. It's already been stupid hot outside so my little tomato plants are a bit hurt, but my peppers are holding it together. Bring on the jalapenos!
Rosie came to visit for the Sheep and Wool Fest on my birthday! We didn't take a thousand pictures of sheep like we did last year but we both found some amazing stuff, some of which I can't post pics of. I even got this awesome wet felting kit that I can't wait to try out. When I do I'll take pictures. On a related note, Rosie gave me her old sewing machine for my birthday! I picked up a book on how to make various bags (I'll talk about that at some length another day) and I've been hard at work sewing bags. It's very exciting being about to actually finish a project in one night, and they're all projects I can immediately use or give away. I really like sewing, and I'll probably set some sewing goals for the summer.
Here they are in the order I made them:
A glasses case for Andy -
A tube for holding plastic bags -
A small tote bag and tissue holding/wallet like apparatus -
Of all my students I am going to miss my senior techies the most. What a total whirlwind they are. I have never had so much trouble or so much love out of one group of kids. Below are two examples of their true nature, and I know it's their true nature because it's what happens when I turn my back.
This one is my classroom. They pranked my room three times this year by rearranging the furniture. The first time they just moved everything to one side of the room. The second time they completely reversed my room, tables, filing cabinets and all. The third time (below) they got all arty and stacked everything up high. I made them put it all back to normal, but it turned out they did it to a whole bunch of classrooms and barely evaded trouble. I'm glad nobody asked me who did it.
This picture is the aftermath of a paint fight. I was not present for this or it wouldn't have happened. Before they left that night they had to repaint several set pieces black to hide the splattery damage. Look at those painted faces. I'm certainly going to miss this crew.

new favorite picture

2009-04-30T22:28:00.003-04:00

I stumbled upon the white house photo stream. Some of the pictures are really boring, but others are surprisingly well done, and they really capture our president doing his presidential things as well as his family doing the family things. Then you also get to see things like this:

how awesome is that?

this is the cutest

2009-04-25T16:04:00.005-04:00

I haven't felt very inspired to write lately. Lots has happened, I just haven't had the time or energy to devote to blogging it. However, I found this on the internet today and I totally had to show you all. Tell me this isn't the cutest thing you've ever seen.

**EDIT** For some reason the link and images aren't working right now, so copy and paste this:
http://http://laurenalane.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurenalane/

and more suns...

2009-03-01T22:39:00.003-05:00

I did this crochet block for the play today while we focused lights on the stage. Think we have enough suns now?

Also, can I have a snow day tomorrow please???

you can see pictures

2009-02-28T14:10:00.002-05:00

Quick post and then I have to go back to work.

- I have been working on the play almost non-stop all week. I've had minimal contact with andy and I miss him bad. I've been at work every night this week until around 11-11:30. Two nights ago I had to wake him up so I could talk to him for a little bit! Last night I walked in the door at 4AM. I am tired.

- We're actually right on schedule, even though I'm sure I'm jinxing everything by saying so. The kids are excited, not upset, and this is a way better experience than the last musical when I really thought they were all going to abandon the set, the production, and me! We're running smoothly, maybe for the first time ever.

- Lights are not done, which is a full day project. I have not typed up a set and strike plot, which is really bad.

- Hell week is this coming week, not the week we are in right now, which means I have another week of staying till all hours before this is all over and I don't have to do this again until next year. I'm really looking forward to this all being over and I get to go back to my calm life where I watch movies and knit all the time.

I'm running late right now because I have to go back out there and I ahven't taken a shower yet. I love you all very much. If you are my friend on flickr you can see what I've been working on over there, otherwise you will have to come see the production on either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday!

window?

2009-02-23T19:52:00.004-05:00

This just in:

One of my kids emailed me this picture he took of our newest creation. This is the cut-out window from before, but this time it is all filled in with tissue. It won't be that bright when we fix it to the light box, but with the stage lighting coming from behind it there is no way it couldn't be beautiful. The kid who has been working on the light box just refuses to get it done, so I have no idea if we can still really pull it off. We'll see! Also, I've been eating nothing but fast food for weeks and it's really starting to show!!! UGH!!!

shin splints

2009-02-23T10:31:00.003-05:00

My shins are killing me! I have no idea what strenuous exercise I could have been doing, but now they definitely hurt. I put some icy hot gel on them this morning, and the cats freaked right out! They ran over, stuck their noses to my legs, and just started attacking each other! Must be the menthol.

I worked 20 hours this weekend on the play, plus an all night rehearsal on Friday night till about 1:30AM. I've eaten nothing but dunkin doughnuts and macdonalds and coffee the whole time. I'm pooped, and interim grades are due on Wednesday and my shins hurt so I stayed home today. HAPPY SNEAKY PETE DAY.

TACOS

2009-02-17T21:28:00.000-05:00

TACO BELL ATE MY INSIDES!!!! ARGH!!!! AHHHH!!!

twilight zone

2009-02-16T19:28:00.002-05:00

I have entered into the time void where weeks pass without my noticing. I realized this yesterday as I lay still in my chair crocheting with the heating pad on my back nursing my achy self. Production weekend is coming faster than I even know what to do about it and barely anything is done. My senior builder has been out with bronchitis and all of the big projects have been delegated to my youngest but most capable kid, plus the arty girl couldn't come until this weekend. So when suddenly work started happening on Saturday I just went with it. I spent sixteen hours total in the auditorium of my high school working on sets for the play. Here is what we accomplished:

1) First I should mention that two kids build six 6" risers that people will stand on and dance on. We used one of them for painting practice. The main builder is the guy in front in the red sweatpants.2) While they sat down and practiced painting, I sat down and cut out the stained glass window. We might make two of these, but it really depends on what we manage to do with the first one.3) The painting practice was for two set pieces, the first being this four foot tall circular thing on wheels that people can stand on and that we managed to build two weeks ago. I need you to know that two girls and I painted this thing after everybody else left and we did it with our bare hands. That's right, WE FINGER PAINTED IT.4) When we finished that and realized we still had energy (this was around 7:30 maybe) we ordered Chinese food and decided to begin painting the final backdrop for the production: a giant sun on the back wall of the theatre. We painted a lot more than is shown here, and this is probably the last picture I will post of this piece until it is complete and the show is over because we're trying to keep it as secret as possible.That scaffold is the reason my legs, back, butt, and arms are sore as hell. I had to climb up and down that thing like a million times trying to make the sun as round as possible. The girls I was working with were going for this whole impressionist kind of thing where their artistic vision changes depending on how the paint looks on the wall. It's kind of making me nuts, but I also like the spirit with which they are attacking this thing so I'm trying to go with it. I just follow my own rules where necessary and try to paint around them. For example, they want to paint the whole wall with their hands to give it a certain texture that they believe hands will give it. This is wrong, and no matter how many times I tried to prove it to them they wholly ignored my speaking. My compromise with them was to say, "ok, you do what you want," and when they weren't looking I sneaked my paint brush up on to the scaffold and used it. It was way easier than calling them ridiculous arty teenagers and arguing with them about it.

I think that story right there sums up almost my whole experience working with these kids, except for during the last production I used to argue with them to get them to do what I want them to which caused a lot of bad blood. Now I've learned that I can't force them to see it my way, so I let them attack the project their way until it's done (poorly) and they come up with my way on their own with a little prodding. Is that how parenting works?

The sad ending to this awesome story is that Andy neglected to tell me he actually wanted to hang out with me on Saturday, what with it being Valentines Day and all, and I worked all the way until 1AM, putting me at home around 1:30. We were both pretty disappointed, but hopefully the next time we're just over two weeks away from tech rehearsal he'll give me a little notice. Not that I hate surprises (I REALLY LIKE BEING SURPRISED) but this weekend marked the beginning of the super stressful time of year that I hate and every minute is marked by paint. However, Andy picked up my favorite beer and these amazing flowers. He put them both in the fridge and when I walked in the door (at 1:30AM) and opened the fridge I totally started crying.

I'm ahead?

2009-02-12T20:10:00.003-05:00

I thought I was way behind with my seniors, so behind that I actually took out a mini-unit on Queen Elizabeth. However, I had to look at some photos I took of student work from last year for a lesson tomorrow so I can remember what I did and said, and the date on the board from that day was in April. Apparently I'm actually two months ahead! How did I do that!!! What happened?!?! It's funny because one of the women I work with is already way past where I am and she keeps rechecking her because she feels like she missed something somewhere.

Because of this new found time, I may get into a whole novel I didn't get to teach last year, Lord of the Flies. I loved it when I taught it in MA, and I don't feel like I did an incredibly good job because I really pushed my ninth graders through it. Well, I have really amazing seniors this year, so maybe I can turn it into a giant research based project. I'll have to think about it.

The play is coming up faster than I know what to do. I have eighteen working days left, which is SO NOT A LOT AT ALL. Yesterday after practice, the director decided to completely change his design concept. This action pretty much canceled out all the work we had done, and of course by "we" I mean "I". When he did this I looked at him and said, "but we just painted all those stones..." (again I just mean I) and he looked back at me with the face of "hey, what can you do?" and kept telling me about his new plan. I thought about asking him why I'm in charge of this class and telling those kids we'll use their ideas and designs but then I have to tell them that their (minimal) work was for nothing. It can be a little frustrating. Also, his plan is going to require a lot more work than mine would have, work that I have to do, and there is only eighteen more work days. Let the time of the super stress begin.

So anyway, here is a picture of a cool flat that we're no longer using. It would have been the inside of a castle, and that white spot would have been a torch, but now we're not finishing it. Sad faces all around. However, I have to say that it really looks like a torch is lit. That's not some glare from the light. I'm pretty proud.

don't laugh

2009-02-07T19:57:00.002-05:00

I sold the sewing machine dad gave me (like four years ago, and I hadn't taken it out of the box until two weeks ago) because the feed dog did not actually feed the cloth under the foot of the machine. The dog just moved up and down. How stupid is that? So now I'm on the hunt for a new machine that doesn't cost a million dollars. With the economy being what it is, I really can't make a giant purchase.

I looked a bunch of stuff up on the Singer website so I would have a clue what was out there when I went into the store. However, the ladies in the little sewing machine corral at Jo-anns informed me that another brand (Viking?) was king of machines now, not Singer. My argument back to them was simply that, while those machines might wir and not make the clinky sounds that Singers made, Singers were much more affordable and could still fasten one piece of cloth to another, that those two things were my priority. They were not happy with this assessment of a sewing machine's worth and promptly commenced scoffing at me.

"Scoff scoff," the ladies said as I asked them to show me a machine that was not $400. I said, "I need to keep this under $150. I only need a machine to hem stuff and maybe make some crafts. Nothing fancy." They told me that while any machine could do what I needed it to do, "this machine (some expensive silly named thing) can do it better that the other ones in your price range. You can tell by the sound it makes as it fastens the cloth together. Its pieces are put together better and are made of better materials."

"This may be, but ladies, the key phrase in that sentence is 'my price range.' I'm not paying twice the money for a machine just because 'it sounds better.' Why does it sound better?"

"Well, it's made of better parts than the Singer."

"Well, what kind of parts is it made of that aren't in the other machines?"

"It just sounds better. Can't you tell the difference?"

"Can you tell me what the difference is?"

(nose in the air and looks of disbelief) "Scoff scoff, well if it were my money, I would want to put it into a decent investment and not just something that works well enough scoff scoff"

"Well then it's a good thing it's my money then."

I told the ladies I would consider their sage advice and think it over for a week before I made any decisions. I was all set to purchase a machine that day, but because they couldn't explain to me why one machine was better than the others it made me not want to buy anything at all. There was a decent machine on sale right within my price range, but those women kept trying to push me towards the expensive machines and they made me feel like that machine wasn't any good. It was not a good shopping experience.

In the meantime though, I have curtains that need to be hemmed and, don't laugh, I kind of want to learn how to make quilt blocks. I bet I would totally love it. Truthfully I just want to be able to make everything I can, but unfortunately this means I need a SEWING MACHINE. Eh, it's not like their going out of style. I'll get one eventually.

hey it's really snowing

2009-01-19T15:34:00.001-05:00

That's all I wanted to say. It's snowing. It's snowing with like actual accumulation. It's packable snow. We could make snow balls. Hopefully this will mean a snow day tomorrow and I can stay home and watch the inauguration on TV instead of in my classroom with my unruly tech kids.

Let me know if those pictures still aren't working.

Happy MLK Day!

read owl post first

2009-01-19T01:25:00.003-05:00

After I posted the last entry I realized I could alleviate some of my troubles by adding in a cardboard backing on the inside to make the pin side flat and the picture side fluffy. Of course I immediately had to try it out and sat down to make my next design type idea thing: the onion.My other idea is embroidered vegetables. You like? I think it came out even better than the owl did and I'm looking forward to more of these. I'm pretty impressed with my own embroidery skills considering I NEVER USE THEM. This picture does not nearly do it justice. Listen to me tooting my own horn.

owl prototype

2009-01-18T22:46:00.003-05:00

Seasons greetings, everyone. I've just finished my first work in progress for the new year, and here it is: the owl pin prototype.I know, it's cute, right? I finally got this guy put together a few minutes ago and I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. It is just felt pieces stacked together, a piece of fabric sewn onto the back on which I sewed the pin fastener, then I filled it with a little fiberfill and bobs your uncle!There are three issues I can see bothering me about this prototype, so chime in with comments if you can see a way around them.
1) I used felt glue to bind the felt pieces together, but when it bonds, the felt glue makes the felt a little stiff. This means that the edges pop up a bit when I stuff it. I can just see those getting caught on something and popping up even worse, but I can't see a better way to bond felt.
2) I need to find smaller pin backs. I do not want to make a larger design to fit the backs. The ones I have are the only ones the craft store had, so I might have to order them and that really cuts into my need for instant gratification.
3) I like the design of my backing material, but I don't think that fabric will stand the test of time by any means. Is there a better way to sew the two pieces of material together that won't let the edges fray like they are now? I bet mom knows the answer to this one, and it will probably require a bigger design and me breaking out my sewing machine. I'm really hoping somebody is going to say something like, "hey just spray some of this stuff on there and it will stop the fraying!" Other than those three things, which are really more nit-picky than anything else, I think my first shot at making my own little design start to finish was a real success and if all works out you will see many more of these little guys.

almost there

2008-12-21T13:11:00.002-05:00

Two more days of school until break. The forecast is calling for 20-30 mph winds tonight, so I'm hoping this will somehow make ice and give us a delay tomorrow. OH PLEASE A DELAY PLEASE.

Through some intervention of God, I finished all of my Christmas wrapping. This is the first time ever that I will not be wrapping something on Christmas morning. All of the presents are all packed into their bags by household. I would feel so organized right now if it wasn't for the giant pile of laundry that got put off for the last two weeks, the giant pile of grading that I'm trying to finish this weekend so I don't have any grading over the break, and the hat that I'm in the middle of making, oh yeah, and the video game that I would much rather be playing. Dear priorities, F U.

I'll be heading to NY on Wednesday morning now because the traffic is going to be stupid on Tuesday night. We think we'd be better off getting up super early and leaving when no one is awake. We'll see about this waking up early stuff, but both of us decided that driving in the middle of the night is a bad idea all around. I'M REALLY EXCITED TO SEE EVERYONE FOR CHRISTMAS and I think you guys are going to like your presents, which is even better.

Naomi - we have to go to the yarn store really bad because the one here stinks.

My radiators make these crazy clanging noises. Does anybody know if that is normal?

Also, everybody should listen to rosie's podcast because it's really, really awesome. Next time I go visit her she said we can do one together. How awesome is that?

LOOK!

2008-12-14T21:53:00.002-05:00

Look at these sweet stockings Kate made for us!!!

They have owls on them!!! I love them so much - look at these exclamation points!!!

In other news, there are seven school days left until winter break. Hell yes. Bring on some snow here please, I am dying to stay home. Oh my dear weather, please release me from the pain of waking early to false weather reports. There is ice in the air, and I'm waiting for it to come my way.

I'm almost finished with my christmas shopping. I didn't order Mike's present in time so I'm going to have to brave the Barnes and Noble tomorrow directly after school before the moms get in there to see what there is to see. Oh yeah, and for the first christmas ever I actually purchased my own wrapping paper instead of waiting till I get to mom's house on christmas day and wrapping everything there. How exciting, first my very own tree and now I have my first christmas accessories. SNOW WE NEED MORE SNOW PLEASE K THANX.

Happy Sith-mas!

2008-11-28T22:10:00.002-05:00

That's right, it's a Star Wars Christmas Tree.
One of my friends traded in her old tree for a skinnier tree this year, and I was ever so pleased when she passed it along to me. I never think to buy a tree ever, so this is my first Christmas tree. Of course it was going to be nerdy. Andy helped me with the lights, which are red and blue, then we hung red ornaments and various Darth Vaders. I have to say, it rules.

It's done!

2008-11-23T22:33:00.002-05:00

Oh the play is over. Oh JOY!!! I do love those kids and hate them all the same, but either way the play was a great success. The actors were amazing and my techies were fantastic. All can be right with the world again. I'm going to grab the disc of professional photographs out of the yearbook room tomorrow, but for now you can see my cell-o-photos.

I have to say that, no matter how stressful teaching technical theater has been, it has certainly forced me to use my brain creatively in ways I wouldn't have been able to otherwise. I had to actually start keeping a sketchbook again, I had to remember how to paint, I had to learn how to build stuff. It's funny how this experience has both inspired and exhausted me, so that I want to make my own work again but i no longer have the energy. Hopefully I'll start conjuring the time now before our next production. Amen for the break, no matter how small. Bring on Thanksgiving!

oh literature

2008-11-12T19:29:00.001-05:00

oh literature, how great are thee?

two weeks

2008-11-09T23:52:00.002-05:00

Our Tech Rehearsal is on Friday and Saturday and then the actual production nights begin next Friday. This cannot be over soon enough. It is WAY TOO STRESSFUL and really interfering with my personal time. By interfering I mean I have none left anymore at all. I had a few hours today to sleep and read, and that's it for the next two weeks. The play will now officially own me until it's over. I may as well pack a bag and move into the couch in the lighting booth because otherwise I don't know when I'm going to get a chance to sleep. UGH.

On the bright side of all of this, I've really had the opportunity to express myself creatively in ways I've never been able to before. I've been painting some really cool things, which I'll get some pictures of up here when everything is actually finished. I've also had to design things to be built with very little knowledge of how things actually go together, and I have to say I've definitely risen to the occasion there too. I've learned that the fear of doing something wrong is the thing that paralyzes me into not doing anything at all, and that because I had all of these people depending on me to produce things I didn't know how to do, it forced me to learn how to do them and produce them. THIS WAS THE VERY STRESSFUL PART, both because it was time consuming and incredibly nerve wracking to be doing things I didn't know how to do EVERY FREAKIN DAY for the last month or so.

There's nothing I can do about this production, but for the next one I know that I just have to push ahead much faster in the beginning and not be so timid about throwing together my ideas. I'm faced with two weeks of hell because I didn't yell and push hard in those first few weeks, and now I know better. Also, I have to not take so much on my own shoulders. It is my habit to be the good example for my students, and that has always included good work habits. I can't expect anyone to take something seriously if I'm not taking it seriously and contributing to the fullest. However, this ethic really backfired on me in this case, and I've ended up doing five times as much work as the kids. When you look at our set, yeah it's all their ideas, but the bulk of the leg work was me. I'm not very happy about that, and while I'm getting satisfaction out of the things I've learned, it is supposed to be a student production. The problem is that if the kids don't DO THE WORK, then it doesn't get done and people get mad and frustrated and point fingers and part of me is sort of frightened at the idea that those fingers might get pointed at me. I now know that for the next production I can't lift one finger to help. It has to fall all on them. I can't sustain this level of involvement for another production and continue to keep my mental health.

But again, on the bright side, being this busy with the play has really made me focus my planning in a way I haven't ever had to do. I mean when I plan lessons I plan out about a month and in my plan I have places where I know I need a hand out to accomplish a particular goal, but at four weeks away I put off making that handout until a few days before. Not anymore. Not only do I take a day to plan out both subjects in their entirety for weeks at a time, but I make every single handout right then. Then the next day I go into school and copy everything I need for several weeks. Thank heavens I do this otherwise I would be a complete mess, more so than I am right now.

I can't wait for this to be over. My reprieve is coming.

DARNIT

2008-10-29T23:04:00.002-04:00

I went $6.22 over my budget as of today because I went to get my hair cut. I was doing so well!!!

Also, I was well through my giant stack of essays until I got up to check the internet for a suspected plagiarized paper. I couldn't find the paper, but I did get distracted by the shininess of the internet. That was over an hour ago. I almost made it... Oh well, better luck finishing it up tomorrow.

Three things quickly

2008-10-28T20:14:00.002-04:00

One - I'm called out of work tomorrow. It takes more time to set up for a substitute than to just go into work. Tonight it took a whole hour before I left work, making copies, writing out meticulous instructions, printing off rosters, seating charts, etc... but I know when I go in there on Thursday all of my efforts will have been for naught and nothing will have been done the way I instructed them to do it as per my lengthy, well written message. But I really need the day off because I'm sick and I really want to grade essays in my pajamas on the couch with nobody home. Oh god give me my couch.

Two - How on Earth have we been living without a crock-pot? I'm not joking. Food from that magical carafe is so much more savory and delicious than I can really put words to. I don't like playing with anything I don't know how to use, so I have to give kudos to Andy for this one. Cheap meat, old potatoes, and carrots never tasted so damn good!

Three - Andy's second kudos goes to his cleaning of the bathroom. Our roommate is a dirty, dirty boy, so when work stress kicked up I went on cleaning strike a bit, and by cleaning strike I really just mean the bathroom. I just can't bring myself to scrub the thing after forcing children to put commas in the right place all day followed by a rousing round of set building and power tool usage. So today when I came home, Andy had dinner ready and the bathtub scrubbed so my sick self could sit in a tub tomorrow. How awesome is that?

New Moon - Stefenie Meyer

2008-10-22T18:54:00.001-04:00

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

My review

rating: 1 of 5 stars
I was largely unimpressed with this book. The only reason I continued to read passed page thirty was that I felt I had to give the character's a chance after putting so much time and heart into the first book. What a disappointment. The main character spends the entire book bemoaning the loss of Edward even though he dumps her hard in the first section of the book. Then the author attaches the reader to Jacob Black, who is a far better boyfriend candidate than Edward due to the fact that he actually displays affection in other ways than just physical attraction, but then Edward (of course) reenters the picture and Bella drops Jacob like nothing ever happened and Edward goes back to being (as if he ever wasn't) the center of her universe. Their relationship is unhealthy (to say the least) not just because he is a vampire, but because he is cold, manic depressive, has suicidal tendencies, and he knows absolutely nothing about Bella other than the fact that she smells good. She also knows very little about his sketchy vampire history, but yet she is completely willing to leave her human family and life behind and become a vampire. It's ludicrous.

I was willing to go along with this author for the first book as an interesting teen romance novel, but the fact that the author has taken these characters to this extreme is just irresponsible. Teenagers adore this trilogy, so now this is their model of true love and romance. The author makes several parallels to Romeo and Juliet during the course of the story, linking the teenage reader's thoughts of love with suicide. I teach Romeo and Juliet, and every time I do I concentrate on the hasty nature of the whole affair and the fact that real love couldn't end in such violence because loving someone means you would never wish for a violent ending to your partner's life. This romanticism of star crossed lovers fated to death is atrocious.

View all my reviews.

Just one more quick thing

2008-09-27T19:09:00.005-04:00

I just almost purchased this sweet chair for reading until I remembered I own a perfectly good chair I use all the time, but still, it's awesome...

Also:

Why doesn't royal farms carry midol? seriously.

2008-09-27T18:22:00.002-04:00

Entry title will clue you into my mood. Poor Andy, you can only imagine. Today we went to the Baltimore Book Fair, which is a thing I wanted to do and Andy didn't, but he came anyway because 1)what else did he have going on today? and 2)I didn't really want to go alone even though I repeatedly said I did (thank you period brain for this difficult conundrum). On the fifteen minute drive there I thanked Andy like four times for coming along (how annoying is that?), but he only replied that I should stop thanking him because he wasn't going to have a good time (also a very annoying response). So I yelled at him and then we agreed not to speak for a little bit so I could stop being crazy. So far successful, and we're speaking again. LOL.

Why do we do things like this? And I'm not just talking about menstruating women here, but everybody. It's like I'm feeling crumby so I needle other people in annoying ways. I have a headache and I'm achy all over so I will force you to feel the same way! HA-HA! It doesn't make any sense, and it's not like people mean to do it, but everyone does. Are we genetically engineered to cause headaches in others when we have headaches? I wonder.

It was kind of rainy all day today (which is working wonders for my above mentioned mood) and of course when we got to the book fair the sky opened up and it poured. Did I mention the fair was out doors? Brilliant. We stayed for about half an hour, until I understood that Andy was soaked from the knees down. I didn't get anything cool, so the whole trip altogether was a bust. If this rain ever lets up I'll try again tomorrow, by myself. Hopefully I'll have better luck and I won't drag poor Andy through that mess again.

In other news, I used the excel budget spreadsheet to make a budget for myself this year. According to the first one I did for the month of September, I ended up about seventy two bucks in the hole (gulp) which I wasn't surprised by because my credit card bill was so high last month due to all that business with my car (what a mess). The good news is that my car was really expensive, so that means I must be really good with money on the whole and my October budget will go really well. I want to save for a car and a vacation this year. That's my goal. I think I can do it. I may have to work this summer though, which is fine because I was sort of bored this past summer. I like working, believe it or not. I like being forced to be somewhere doing something for certain times of the day.

My bad mood lifted (and I was forced to blog immediately) when I saw this picture in my sister's pics:
How awesome is that! Me and Rosie and Marion Zimmer-Bradley. What more could you ask for?

photographs

2008-09-11T21:43:00.002-04:00

I am constantly asking my kids what something really means. The author has chosen to write the following words, so how could they be a metaphor for something else? Along this line of thought, it occurred to me today that I live in a generation of handheld photographs. An entire generation of human beings who hold the camera away from themselves and take their own pictures. It's as if nobody else were there to take the picture for them. I can remember being young and my mother asking someone to take our picture in front of some event or landmark - does this not happen anymore?

If there is an entire generation taking their own photographs, what does that say for that generation?

cane swords

2008-08-24T21:58:00.002-04:00

One of my teacher friends came down to my house yesterday and we went to the Baltimore Book Thing, which is really close to where I live, within ten blocks even. What is this book thing you ask? FREE BOOKS, NO STRINGS ATTACHED. It was like smelly book heaven. It was awesome. Not just awesome because I love books, but also because I got two new book shelves for my room. I went out and bought one shelf, and when I got back to school I found one next to the dumpster (SCORE!). So from the book thing I got 40 books for my shelves!!! I even found one for andy called The Time of the Kraken. I hope it's as awesome as its name.

When we were done at the Book Thing (three hours later) we went down to the avenue and walked around, poking our heads in the kitchy antique shops. That's where I took this awesome picture:That's right, a glass container with caneswords! And apparently they had enough of them that it warranted a sign. I considered trying one out, but the shop was closing and I didn't want to subject the owner to such a high level of nerdiness so close to dinnertime.

Today I spent planning out my lesson for tomorrow, because school is back in session. I am excited and nervous about my second year, and also a little disappointed that the summer is at an end. I met most of my goals, which is good because I think I had too many anyway. I only didn't do the school related ones :) But I do wish I had just a little more time to get used to the idea before the kids come back.

On a note of distraction, I found this today while I looking for images on the internet. Paleo-Future: a look at the future that never was. It's a blog about all the predictions people made about the future and how they never quite came to fruition. Some of the entries about the classrooms of the future are awesome. You should randomly look through it, it's pretty excellent.

I was on a roll!

2008-08-19T21:07:00.003-04:00

Man, I should've never went on vacation. It's so hard to maintain the kind of momentum that you get with daily posting. I was like, "hey look I did something!" and the next day it's, "oh look I did something else." Then I got away from the computer for a couple of weeks and I thought, "oh yeah this is what real life is like!" JOKES.

You can check my flickr for pictures of my various vacations, including my trip to see Rosie (blogged wonderfully by her), my trip to NY and NY Jersey to see MY AWESOME FAMILY AND ROSIE, and my trips with andy to Richmond, DC, and MEDIEVAL TIMES. All of my trips were awesome, but it was a very busy way to round out the summer. I think next year I might have to do all that a little earlier so I have some time to recoup before school starts. Speaking of which, my first (stressful) day was yesterday. Don't even get me started. Needless to say, whoever I blogged about peeing on the seat in the faculty restroom last year is totally doing it again. What, do you need to be re-potty-trained after having the summer off???

I did so much in the last month that I can't even post about it, but I definitely had a great time with everybody. I didn't have my camera when I saw Rosie, so I don't have as many pictures, just the ones I took with my phone, but seriously dude - you rule.

Posting will resume in a somewhat timely fashion. I now leave you with a commentary on gas prices, which people seem to think are normal again after coming down 30 or 40 cents.

Non-School Book #1 - Pride and Prejudice

2008-07-08T21:14:00.002-04:00

Before I even launch into this book I need to acknowledge that this does fall into British Literature for Grade 12, and I could teach it if I wanted to, but there is no way I would subject my kids to all of my nerdiness in loving this book.

Pride and Prejudice follows the Bennet family, which consists of five daughters, through the various troubles of trying to be married while being in the bottom rung of your social class in early nineteenth century Britain. The narrative generally follows the second eldest daughter, Elizabeth, and through her reflection we hear about the trials of her other sisters, mostly the eldest, Jane. We also hear about Mr. Darcy, the person Elizabeth hates most in the world at first, but when he comes to propose to her in a most uncordial way and she rebukes him roughly, he does a complete turn around and becomes everything she could ever want in a husband... but does he still want her after she was so nasty to him? Read the book and discover for yourself.

What I found so interesting about this book is that the women are only educated to such a degree as their class status will afford, and because the women discussed are of the leisure class (either of high or low rank) all they do is visit their neighbors and relations, have lots of fancy dinners, and talk about everyone who is not present. On top of that, their principle concern is marriage. In order to fulfill the role of your sex you have to find a match, and not just any match, but one appropriate to your status, economic and otherwise. Jane Austen paints such an amazing picture of the social life afforded to women at this time in history. Frankly, if that were my life, I might have gone crazy. Seriously, I would have just punched people in the face. But having this window into this entirely idle life is incredible, and it makes me truly thankful that my life has so much more in it than dinners, visiting, and walks to town to flirt with officers. In some of the characters you can feel that need for something more than this circle they keep recreating. There is an underlying dissatisfaction that is present, but hidden just below the surface. Really a well crafted book.

I just want to mention a few side noted things here. One is that when I finished the book up today, I was staring at the cover for a second and I noticed that Keira Knightly, who plays Elizabeth in the newest version of the film, has the same messed up front teeth as me. You may be able to notice in the above picture. This pleases me very much because she is reputed to be very hot. I have now upped my hotness points for this summer. Also, on a personal note, I definitely need to mention that I am in love with Mr. Darcy. Just throwin that in there.

In conclusion, this was the best crafted female voice I have read in a long, long time. However, only read this book if you are prepared to listen to a girl talk about not only her love interest, but the love interests of everyone around her and her speculation on what a dinner invitation might mean and why a match between one or the other might be imprudent, for the duration of over 370 pages. I'm not even kidding.

Go Swimming at Least Three Times - Round One!

2008-07-07T22:46:00.004-04:00

I did indeed finally go swimming. After trying to get my working friends to go swimming with me and getting universally blown off (maybe I'm just not asking the right people?), I finally decided to go to the pool by myself. That's right, the pool. It turns out there's a public, community pool right around the corner in a very well hidden spot on the edge of a park. I didn't even know it was there because there's a community kiddie pool in the same park on the other, more visible side. But lo! There in yonder park, there is water!And so I passed two hours today swimming some laps in the deep end, sunning myself, and reading a book beside the pool. It was quite lovely. There was not a screaming baby in sight due to the nearby kiddie pool that hosts all the mommy and me crowd. I only had to tangle with a few insecure teenage girls there with their mom and an early twenties male pair who may or may not have been giving me the eye. I hate to toot my horn, but even with my blindingly pale appendages I was probably the best example of femininity present. Oh, and I almost forgot the best part. They played the oldies station the whole time!!! I got to hear awesome songs like "Leader of the Pack" and "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Breakin Up is Hard To Do." Not only is this the soundtrack of my adolescence, but who knew it was so suitable a soundtrack for public swimming! And at the low, low price of $1.50, I may have to do this like three times a week.

sry

2008-07-03T17:47:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the sudden lack of updates, but I've been pretty universally unhappy for the last two weeks for various reasons. Nothing too serious, so don't be alarmed. Just your run of the mill feeling crappy, and this too shall pass. Needless to say I am very much looking forward to heading to the shore at the end of the month.

My minor depression was interrupted for about 24 hours with the arrival of my friend Craig who had a speaking engagement at one of the local bookstores. He was presenting an excellent online journal, In the Middle of a Whirlwind, he and a group of people put together. It was a very articulate, well received presentation, and although I didn't take any pictures, he was very impressive with a power point and everything. It was absolutely wonderful to see my old friend and catching up was the highlight of this week.

Only six weeks of vacation left...

Sweet Culinary Finds

2008-06-28T12:51:00.005-04:00

Now, don't be fooled by the title of this post, as we all well know of my limited prowess in the kitchen. But I have found two food items that have literally made all of eating better.

1. Morton Salt Company has a "Nature's Seasons" salt mix that makes everything taste so much better than if you just used salt. It is a blend of garlic, onion, celery, salt, pepper, and parsley all in one bottle.

This is great for me because those are the top spices I use the most anyway, and to have them conveniently in one place opens up flavor opportunities I had not thought possible! That's a huge overstatement! Whatever, it's just really extra tasty salt. I always see blended stuff like that and I never buy it because there's always the possibility that it's a waste of money, but now I've tried it, and it's good, so I'm recommending it to you. Seriously, I just ate an avocado sprinkled with it and it even made my avocado taste better. NO MSG!

2. My next culinary find is brought to us via a company called Just Tomatoes, Etc. They make all sorts of dried fruits and veggies.

Right now you are thinking, well so what I can get dried fruits and veggies from any company. Well let me tell you, this is the top of all dried veggies I've ever eaten, and I've eaten a lot of them. When they say "Just Veggies," they mean it. There are no extra spices, preservatives or anything else in that tub, it is really just the dried whatever it is you bought. I purchased the "Just Veggies" tub on a lark because it said on the label you can eat it like popcorn, and that's exactly what I've been doing. Every time I've been hungry and I don't really know what I want and I get the feeling I'm about to start foraging, I reach for the tub of "Just Veggies" with its tomatoes, corn, and peas, and I'm all set. It's so wonderfully tasty and healthy, and I'm finally getting my servings of vegetables without working too hard for it. In this weather, summertime hot weather, the last thing I want to do is cook vegetables. Even the idea of turning on the stove is painful. This tub of dried veggies is the summer weather way of eating your veggies. Best snack food ever. You can also throw it into some Veggie stock and, wahla, you have vegetable soup. You can order stuff directly from their website, or you can find them at the local hippie food store.

developments and goals completed

2008-06-27T12:19:00.002-04:00

As the title tells you, there have been some developments and some goals completed. Lets start with the completed stuff, yes?

12. empty the rest of my boxes
We went to Ikea Wednesday, which was a pretty uneventful trip in itself except for getting taco bell afterwards, but I did get another small shelf unit to place VHS tapes on (yes, we still have VHS tapes). That was the last of the boxes that I can unpack. To be honest, now that it's all unpacked, I'm taking a look at how much it really going back to school with me in the fall and I'm thinking I should put all of that stuff back in a box. But that's a project for another day.

11. set up the tiny room in our house so it is usable
This goal is essentially reached. The primary goal of our Ikea trip was to get jesse a big boy bed so he can stop sleeping on his twin bed. Dude is like six feet tall and his feet hang over the end. It was really sad. So we took his twin bed and put it in the tiny room to use as a couch. Then he took the mattress that was in there for his own, I set up a lamp and a power strip and a fan, and wahla! Room is set up to be "usable." Granted, I still need to get some sheets or something to put over the bed, but whatever, I can can sit in there and hang out, and that's all I really wanted. I also want to hang a plant in there. The end.

Speaking of plant hanging, guess what I got in the mail today...
I don't really know why I asked you to guess when you can see the picture plain as day right under the question. I got my macrame stuff in the mail!!! Now I can make a plant hanger! I'm very excited about this. Soon I'll be all tying knots and stuff. Yeah!

yes, I left the house

2008-06-25T13:49:00.004-04:00

Last night I went to my first knitting group meeting. I did not take any pictures because I was pretty sure they'd just think I was nuts, but I will next time sneakily on my cell phone. I didn't talk very much and just tried to get to know everyone. They seemed like a really nice bunch of people, although possibly cliquey, but I will totally go back next week especially since it's right down the street from my house. I got a lot of work done on my new project (which is a cool hat, pics when finished).

There have been some developments concerning the goal of plant keeping. I may be a total failure already. SAD FACES. A strong wind blew the tomato plant over the other day and snapped the top off of it. I gave it some water and stuck it back in the sun, but it's not recovering well. Also, I read up on the proper care of aloe plants and my new theory is that the babies that are spouting off the plant are sucking its life force away. I think if I cut them off and plant them elsewhere the parent plants will come back to life. But the dumb boys next door keep sticking the plants in direct sun which is killing them. It's funny, I know things about plants, so why can't I keep them alive? I'll go get potting soil and pots tomorrow to take care of the babies. Hopefully there's still time for them.

I spent today cleaning the house, which needed it. It's kind of amazing how much dirt can build up over a couple of weeks. You should have seen the small pile of cay hair. Andy said he saw a ball of it that meowed at him. Well, this is just a quick update because I am off to get my haircut. Wish me luck.

**edit** new haircut is visible at my flckr along with the before shot so you can see how huge my hair was.****

knit tomato

2008-06-23T14:29:00.003-04:00

So ladies and gentlemen, here she is. Plant number two.

This young lovely will supposedly bring forth cherry tomatoes when it's good and ready, unless somebody mixed up the labels. I decided to purchase a full grown tomato plant instead of growing one from seed because we are currently way after when I was supposed to get the seeds, besides I figured I would have a better shot at keeping it alive if it had had more time alive to begin with. Like maybe it would like life and actually want to hang onto it.

Next up, we have some knitting (finally). This is the apple hat I started over spring break and finished up a few weeks ago. It was originally intended for one of my friends who had a baby this year, but by the time it was done it was, well, warm outside. So now I have a sweet baby hat ready for somebody else's kid. Oh you're pregnant? Well look what I made for you! Yes, just for you! I'm not posting the patter directions I used because they didn't make proper sense in the decreasing, so I had to make a few alterations.

This is my patch scarf I referred to in one of my goals for summer. I am making it using Oyster Stitch, which makes all my stitches come out looking like little oysters. I decided I needed something to do with all of my unused yarns ends, so I decided to make a patchwork scrap scarf with them. I have to say, the stitch I'm using looks really impressive with the variegated wool scraps, but I just added some yellow cotton scraps last night that don't look as good. I think I just don't like that particular cotton yarn very much. I was going to rip it out, but I decided to leave it because that's part of having something patchwork, that not all of it is going to be perfect and wonderful. Some of it is going to be messy. The goal isn't to finish it, but just to work on it with any remaining scraps from other projects.

MEOW!

2008-06-23T11:29:00.001-04:00

Watch out! She's a vicious attack cat!

zombie sheep

2008-06-22T19:52:00.002-04:00

Hi there. So, two things are up for me to tell today. The first is that I was foiled in my quest to locate macrame supplies. Andy and I drove to three different craft stores and nobody carries these supplies anymore. The people in Joanns didn't even know what I was talking about. At least the people in AC Moore had the decency to look at me funny and tell me they stopped carrying the stuff years ago. I will now have to take my search to the inter-weebs, which I'm sure will be successful, but ultimately not instantly gratifying. I hate waiting.

The second thing on today's agenda is that Andy and I just got done watching this wonderful horror movie/black comedy, Black Sheep. This was the wonderful hit from New Zealand featuring Zombie Sheep. In case you are confused by this premise, I can sum the plot up for you. Basically, a maniacal farmer who felt neglected in his youth due to some sort of foot deformity begins doing genetic experiments on his flock in order to increase quality and productivity. When a pair of witless hippies come along to covertly survey the laboratory, one of them gets full of the stuff glory is made of and decides to steal a genetic sample to bring back to his hippie people as evidence of evil doing. Of course everything goes awry and though the hippie's intentions were good, he inadvertently lets loose this genetic plague upon the entire farm turning the once peaceful sheep into blood-crazed, flesh-eating, demonic....well...sheep. I have to say this was a very watchable film and I highly recommend it. Please, go watch yourself some zombie sheep.

6. read Into the Woods (for school)

2008-06-19T10:41:00.002-04:00

So yesterday I took a nice long walk and found myself on a bench on the Hopkins campus reading Into the Woods, and because it's a play I finished it fairly quickly. It's a story about several fairy tale characters whose wishes all intertwine somehow which causes mayhem and cacophony to happen (of course, or it wouldn't be a musical). The story actually focuses on a baker and his wife who are childless because of a curse brought on them by their witch next door neighbor. They of course desperately want a child and the witch gives them a list of familiar fairy tale items to acquire within a short time span to lift the curse.

The moral implication of the play is how far is too far to get what you want, and also how do you know what you really want when the grass is generally greener on the other side of the fence. For example, the baker has to wonder whether to break his morals to steal Little Red Ridinghood's cape (how far is too far?). Another example is when the Princes featured in the play have their respective brides (Rapunzel and Cinderella) they find the women boring and still long for the unatainable possibility behind other Princesses, even mentioning Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, women so wonderfully unattainable they are asleep! The grass is always greener, and once you have what you want you find out that you just want something else, something more than you have already.

Perhaps I would be more entertained by this play if I heard the songs sung, because reading them was INCREDIBLY BORING, but it's a play so it really is all in the staging. I need to read it again with a pen in my hand to I can start my other goal of preliminary set design. There's a lot of really interesting lighting and setting that can happen with this play, so set-wise I'm really happy that we're doing this for the fall production. However, I found the story to be fairly trivial and tedious, so I hope our director really has a good handle on how he wants to do this, because only good timing and good staging are going to make this a good play. All I know is our sets are going to be REALLY AWESOME and I'm looking forward to designing and building this stuff this year.

three days in

2008-06-18T08:55:00.004-04:00

Ok, I'm three days in on my summer break and I have to say I think it's going to be ok. I was a little nervous on Monday when everything seemed to be going wrong. I totally got a parking ticket and had to go to the parking office on Monday, and due to certain hormonal craziness I definitely blew that out of proportion a bit. That along with some personal travesty made Monday pretty unbearable. However, I am back on track and accomplishing the stuff I want to do.

I cleaned up the living room, acquired a new arm chair, emptied a bunch of boxes (jesse took the empties to work to the garbage), got parking permits for the whole house, cleaned the bathtub and the toilet (ugh), made corn salsa and iced tea, and watched Doctor Zhivago (WHICH WAS SO GOOD). I like how Rosie's gigantic set of goals has inspired many people to make goals, and now I am on that list of the inspired. Since a year and a half is too much for me to think about at one time, I present to you my twenty completely doable goals for this summer, which is approximately ten weeks long.

1. sew one skirt from a pattern
2. keep three plants alive (1)
3. knit one shawl
4. complete needle felting projects
5. work on patch scarf
6. read 3 non-school books + Into the Woods (for school)
7. go to the ocean three times + go swimming at least three times elsewhere
8. get a gym membership and attend at least one class regularly
9. go to AVAM once and BMA once
10. locate a lemon drop, drink it.
11. set up the tiny room in our house so it is usable
12. empty the rest of our boxes
13. clean out project basket so it is usable again
14. macrame one plant hanger
15. visit NY at least once
16. write lessons for tech theatre
17. begin preliminary set design for Into the Woods
18. Work on new grade 12 curriculum
19. adapt my 9H lessons for 9S
20. write five songs and record them

I made this list over the weekend, and it's good to see that I'm already working towards a few of those goals. I emptied a bunch of boxes yesterday and Monday, and I've already been thinking about how to go about my tech theatre class. It's hard to think about school stuff when school seems so far away, so I think I'll concentrate on my other goals first. Also, I rescued two aloe plants from the neighbor boy's house on Monday and I'm in the process of bringing them back from the dead. I think I'll count them as one plant though in my goals and then I will have to actually go buy two more plants to care for.

I'M DONE

2008-06-13T18:19:00.002-04:00

Well, sort of. If they can find any more money in the budget, I may come in and do more work on the auditorium. But for now, I'M DONE. Let the summer begin with a proper christening, I will call you all on Sunday when I wake up.

complaining featured prominantly below

2008-06-10T19:42:00.005-04:00

I received several terrible end of school headaches today, one of which was my tentative schedule for next year. Somehow I am teaching four preps next year. They have me on a prep technicality in that I am teaching one section of 12H, three sections of 9S, one section of 9H, and one section of theatre tech. They're trying to say that the separate 9 sections count as one prep, but standard 9 reads completely different books, books I didn't even teach this year. On top of that they just rewrote the grade 12 curriculum, so I'll have to rework all my grade 12 stuff and teach it for honors instead of standard. Oh, and let's throw in this is my first year teaching theatre tech. So that's technically three new preps for next year and the one prep I did this year is only one of my six classes. I'm a little upset about this, especially since I said I would take the tech class as long as my preps didn't change. My department head will hopefully remedy all this, citing that I am volunteering to teach a sixth class and therefore why screw with me? I am only one human being, and on top of that I am one human being who is going to have to be at all the play rehearsals next year, you know, until 8pm just doing that let alone prepping for my four separate preps. It's like they want me to have nothing outside of school, including sleep, so I'm being the squeaky wheel on this one. Hopefully I'll get reduced to something a little more human.

In order to properly relay one of the other bad things that happened to me today I am going to just copy and paste below an email I sent to my administrator and department head. Ugh, what a day.

Subject: My Tall Cabinet Door

Hello and Good Morning to you both.

Mr. [Administrator] asked me to send him a reminder about my closet door. It unfortunately ripped from its hinges yesterday after school with no prompting. It's sudden nose-dive into the floor forces me to suspect either the suicidal tendencies inherent in particle board or foul play from ghosts. Either way, Dawn is never coming into my room again due to haunting.

I don't think it can be safely repaired, but please come and inspect it so we can make appropriate preparations for the summer.

Thanks!
Santina

It's currently 97 degrees

2008-06-07T14:51:00.002-04:00

I'm not kidding. Oddly enough, I'm also not going outside.

Instead I will clean up the rest of my living space, and MAYBE go to Ikea and buy one of these futon things so we have a spare bed/couch for the upstairs. Also, while perusing the Ikea website I saw this bed. How awesome would that bed be?!? It's a shame it's a twin frame.

Our unpacking reached a kind of standstill, so it would probably be a good plan today to really finish that up and put things where they belong. I almost finished putting my desk area together, not that it matters seeing as school is ending in a few days and I've actually finished all of my grading. All I have left is a bunch of tabulating and filling in the end of year bubble sheets, all which will be finished on Monday. This will give me two solid days to just clean my classroom, a lot of which I have already started. I went from feeling way behind to feeling way ahead. Last year I remember being a total headcase at this time, but I guess I certainly learned how to manage that by not over assigning crap to do. Yay for good planning for once.

So on that note, I leave you with the first picture on this blog in a very long time. The only reason you have this is because Andy took it. This is our living room and our sweet couch and me actually knitting on it. Enjoy.

a little in the middle

2008-06-02T17:44:00.002-04:00

As the school year comes to a close my mind moves more and more toward my coming summer months WHEN I WILL DO WHATEVER I WANT TO DO.

Essentially that's how I feel right now. I'm still in the middle of finishing up my grading for my ninth graders (their final exam is on Friday!) but my brain is absolutely not on my work. Instead I've been enjoying conversations with people that have nothing to do with school. This is both good and bad, as I should be concentrating on finishing everything up, not distracting myself from it.

I learned something new the other day. I'm always talking to my kids about the stuff they do outside of my room, both because I'm interested and because if I appear interested even if I'm not I get credit for paying attention in the form of kids knowing I care and doing my assigned work. So one of my kids now does Parkour, which is essentially traveling over a distance in as straight a line as possible using every obstacle in your path to your advantage. In the same way that martial arts prepares you for the fight part of an altercation, Parkour prepares you for the flight aspect, so in a way it's also the art of chasing or being chased efficiently. Basically my kid is like a little ninja in training doing crazy ninja moves over everything he comes across and it's really kick-ass.

I did a bunch of reading about this because my interest was piqued. A guy named David Belle founded this in France, and here is a video of him running about. I highly recommend watching it and using the links in the side to watch more. I spent some of last night watching videos on youtube with andy and jesse of people doing this. Andy is a skateboarder, so he was immediately saying he could do this stuff. Of course we were super inspired at the time to start learning this, but we are a bunch of slackers who are really too old for this kind of jumping and running. I can't speak for everybody, but I know I have no strength or stamina. I get annoyed if I forget to put in a dryer sheet and I have to go back downstairs to open the dryer. But my kid tells me that he is the most physically fit guy he knows where he trains, as well as the youngest, so it gives me hope.

Either way, I should really stop using my laziness as an excuse not to be active. There is really no reason why a perfectly healthy young person such as myself can't get up off of my butt and do something productive with my time. I attempted this not that long ago, but you may remember the putrid stink of menthol that was the outcome of Blood and Guts April. I don't know, I need a new goal, and even if learning Parkour is a little out of my league I should at least set a new bar for myself somehow. I may have a Blood and Guts June, but perhaps a little less intense. Suggestions?

we have contact

2008-05-29T18:57:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the sudden radio silence, but we moved (again). We didn't have internet for a while either, both a blessing and a curse. Our new house is awesome and I'm already really happy here. School is almost done. Brain = fried. Expect a full scale update soon.

it's also time for state assessments

2008-05-20T19:01:00.003-04:00

It's the week of the year where our school has to take all the state exams, but our school system doesn't want the test to interfere with actual learning and classes so everybody still has to go to school. This means that teachers get pulled out of their classes to proctor while subs or other teachers have to cover their class. There are not enough subs (or rooms) to do all of this, so many classes just end up in the auditorium, you know, the place where lots of learning happens. Today whoever was supposed to cover my class didn't even show up while I was proctoring and now one kid is suspended for smoking on school property. LETS GO TEAM.

In other news, I just ate succotash and a choco taco, so life is good. Andy got me the cool taco a while ago, but I think the occasion calls for it this evening. Also, I watched the first half of "A Beautiful Mind" last night and it was incredibly good. His delusions are immense. I can't wait to watch part two this evening instead of grading papers.

it's may

2008-05-19T20:47:00.003-04:00

It's May. That means June is almost here. Just so everybody knows, May is also National Everybody Cry At Work Month, or at least it must be because one teacher cried in my room, plus I've totally done that three times this month over some really stupid stuff I'm not going to complain about on the internet. It's bad enough andy had to hear about it at home. Today I started to tell him about it and half way through I realized I was about to cry about the dumb thing again and I just went outside and sat there for a while till the urge to discuss it went away. Life has now entered normality again, or at least as close as it's going to get anyway.

Today I packed up all of my books. I grabbed eight empty wine boxes from the local liquor store and I filled them all with books. Tomorrow I will grab eight more and fill them with everything else I own. At least that's the plan.

NOBODY MAIL ME ANYTHING AS OF RIGHT NOW. We get the keys to the new house some time this week and I'll be in there hopefully on Friday. Andy thinks he can convince his band guys to help us move in after work on Friday, but I think it'll be more like Saturday morning. Either way I am so not ready to move AGAIN. I don't have my new address handy, but when I have it, you will be the first to know. So you know, in the last sentence "you" meant my family and not you other weird people who stop by and read my blog. Just sayin.

to my surprise

2008-05-13T18:00:00.002-04:00

So I realized today that grades are due for seniors on Monday. I'm sorry, but what??? I am so not ready to be turning in grades. Usually I'm way ahead, but because the seniors leave early I'm suddenly way behind. I still have all their memory books to look through and I haven't even looked at their final exams.

On top of this is the fact that the final exam grades are curved in the most ridiculous manner I have ever experienced, where there's like a twenty point spread for each letter grade on the multiple choice. Then the written portion is graded on a 6 point scale like this: A, B, C, C, D, E. That's right, two C's. Do I feel like this paper is a high C or a low C. Hmmmm. But there's no high or low B or A option. It's weird. Then when you figure out the two letter grades, you have to combine them into a single final exam grade. For example, if you received a B on the multiple choice and a C on the written you have to find the place on the chart that shows what B+C=. I don't have it in front of me or else I would tell you, but I'm really not sure if that equals a B or a C as a final grade. What do you think B+E equals? The answer may surprise you.

Andy has a show tonight at a pretty decent venue, so I'll be packing up the final essays and hopefully getting some done there during the openers. Off to dinner!

today +/-

2008-05-12T19:11:00.003-04:00

Today we had memory book presentations where the seniors present their dumb scrap books. THEY WERE REALLY GOOD. This is good in the sense that they were well behaved during each other's presentations, everybody politely listened, they shushed other kids who were talking out of turn, and they seemed into talking about their lives, although slightly embarrassed.

I have to say I felt like this was somewhat my doing, like all my work making them a class was finally paying off. They don't realize it, but I made them like each other and get along. I mean they even listened to the weird chubby girl while she talked about her dogs and her obsession with WWE wrestler ladies. Also, the fact that she was willing to reveal all of this personal information to the class showed that she had huge faith that they would not alienate and humiliate her. A lot of them revealed things about themselves that we definitely wouldn't have known otherwise. One girl talked about her epilepsy, another about her estrangement from her mother. One boy talked about how the assignment made him work through some issues about his grandmother's death, and another girl talked about how her parents always compare her to her sister who had a baby right out of high school. I mean, when we got to the girl who only wanted to talk about her vacation to florida and all the malls she's seen it felt so out of place because she wasn't getting down in it like everyone else.

The other senior teachers are just showing movies. They don't even collect the books until the very end and then hand them back just before graduation. I made them hand them in early and created a space to present them. I did that. They put the books together with the things that they felt were valid and true in their lives, but I made them able to trust and listen to each other. I did that. Today I was a little proud. Today I felt like I did better for them than just British Literature.

Also, when I came home today our other roommate was gone with all of her things. This made me very relieved.

I am sick today because the weather went from hot and moist to cold and moist and it is raining. I have a cold coming on prefaced by a wicked cough and a headache. I am going to eat dinner and go to bed happy.

a love letter

2008-05-11T21:38:00.002-04:00

I was thinking about this at school on Friday.

Teaching is...

- going to see a band play on the weekend and bringing To Kill a Mockingbird with you so you can read between bands.

- staring at your knitting and your grading and trying to figure out how behind you're really going to be if you decide to, I don't know, do something for yourself.

- having a kid hand you a card that says he's taken a vow of silence, and when you say come on seriously dude give it up, he writes, "whatever you can't make me talk anyway so you may as well accept this as it is."

- hanging on the bulletin board the quiz you collected from the kid who didn't read the night before because his answers are hilarious.

- saying things like, "listen, I realize grand theft auto four just came out, but that's really no reason not to do your research paper."

- coming out of the department office and into what appears to be three large football playing gentlemen kicking the crap out of another fellow who is similarly large, having your life flash before your eyes as you realize you are the only authority figure in the hallway, and then running headlong into the foray with your hands waving around you like awkward sticks to push back children yelling, "NO,NO,NO,STOP,NO," only to have them separate at the last moment and laugh at your silliness because they were giving birthday punches while you shake and stand there and say, "JESUS CHRIST NEVER DO THAT AGAIN AUGH!!!"

- the only 40 hour a week job that is really more like 85 hours.

- the only job where if somebody below you yells at you you can't fire them. Instead you have to write a written report of the event and call their mom.

- the only job where you can't pee whenever you want, and in a similar vein, it is the only job where pooping on the job is a huge waste of time and you want to avoid it.

Seniors have ten days left.
June is almost here.
Viva la Summer.

I just got home

2008-05-01T20:48:00.002-04:00

I hate research papers. I hate plagiarized papers even more now because they waste my time. Also, a girl said that "Perry Shelly was a righter" A MILLION TIMES in her paper. The guys name was PERCY and "writing" is that thing you do with a pen.

GOODNIGHT NOW.

late nights and no rewards

2008-04-30T17:40:00.002-04:00

I just want to say that I was at school last night until 9:00 grading research papers. That's 14 hours in the school building without leaving for food, water, or entertainment of any kind, except for that one time I chased a few hooligans out of the hallway around 7:00. I am exhausted! I was going to do the same thing today and finish them all up, but andy called me and made me come home so I could keep my sanity. Man, was he doing me a favor. What was I thinking?!? We're going to go play in IKEA now.

good news, bad news.

2008-04-28T19:15:00.002-04:00

Good News: My Seniors are taking the first part of their final exam on Thursday, and the second part of their exam next Thursday.

Bad News: I have to grade their Research Projects, Memory Books, and Final Exams faster than anything I have ever done before.

Good News: We found a new place to move into that is directly around the corner from where we live now! It's really nice two bedroom and our friend Jesse is going to move into the other bedroom. There is a second bathroom in the basement that has a claw foot tub with no shower attached so it is just for taking baths. It also has a real backyard, hippie neighbors with a hammock and a grill, and is right down the street from our favorite bar. We're moving in June 1st!

Bad News: We're actually moving in at the end of May. So you know, right when I'll be correcting all those above mentioned things I will also be packing my belongings up into boxes again FOR THE THIRD TIME IN A YEAR UGH.

Good News: Andy got me a sweet guitar for our anniversary. There's no bad news for that one, it rules.

Good News: All Tomorrows Parties is going to be in the Catskills this year!!! A lot of my favorite bands are going to be playing and I was really excited about it...

Bad News: It's also like $900 to get tickets for two people with hotel accommodation and we can't just stay with mom because it like an hour away. :(

Good News: It's my birthday this weekend! I'm 27!

Bad News: It's my birthday this weekend. I'm 27.

Good News: Rosie is coming down here this weekend for The MD Sheep and Wool Festival! I'm so excited to see Rosie and Justin and SHEEP AND WOOL. I am going to have lots of fun. I was telling the teachers at work about it but they just thought I was weird and funny. What else is new?

Bad News: It's going to be really rainy all week long. Have you ever smelled wet sheep? Also, Andy's playing a show and I'll be missing it. Sad faces all around.

Also, Mom, I'm going to call you soon, I promise :)

I'm falling apart a little bit

2008-04-17T20:37:00.002-04:00

Before I begin a glorious post about something awesome I did last night I'll just get the general whining and complaining out of the way. I think I'm allergic to something in Maryland. I've never had allergies before in my life, and I know I haven't because it just took me three tries to spell the word correctly. Man, you people who have allergies every year, I don't know how you do this. My eyes feel like they are covered in weird fuzzy grass. Actually, the inside of my brain feels the same way. I told my kids they need to speak up permanently until further notice and any side conversation will result in immediate detention because I can't concentrate on anything. I went to the grocery store after school yesterday and bought three different allergy medicines. Clearly I am not messing around. I'm going to start trying them out tomorrow.

So on to the cool thing I did last night. After I got home and felt like my allergies were causing some sort of brain damage, I got a call from one of my friends who invited me out dancing. At first I misheard her and I thought she said "country dancing," which I was fine with, I mean hey why not? But it turns out she said "contra dancing." Big difference, and way cooler. Contra dancing is essentially Appalachian Folk Dancing, where you have all the dancers in two lines facing each other and they have to work through a series of movements to get up or down the hall with their partner. Also, there is a caller who walks you through the moves the first go round and then calls them out until she feels she the dancers have it and she doesn't call them out anymore.

OH MAN IT WAS SO MUCH FUN. Most of the guys there were older, so you can imagine that Laura and I were somewhat of a hot ticket in the house. That's right folks, I went to a dance hall and nerds and old guys asked me to dance in a long line with other nerds and old guys, and it was fun. It was cool to wear a skirt and be spun around a whole bunch by the old guys who appreciated that I am not as brittle as the ladies they are used to so they really whipped us around. There was only one guy who smelled like garlic, but I just said no when he asked me to dance.

I caught on really fast because the dancing is really just learning to move through a pattern and once you figure out what the pattern is it gets very simple and you can spin around in fancy ways. It was a lot of work! I was definitely tired and sweaty by the time we reached the end, so I've decided this is the most fun workout I've ever done and I'm going to go every week. It's such a great thing to have plopped down in the middle of my week, and honestly this is the first thing I've really gotten excited over doing in a while, so I'm going to keep it up for a while, even if my feet are sort of objecting today. :)

uppercase letters

2008-04-12T18:17:00.003-04:00

So my Neck has recovered, but it's not yet healed enough to do much with it. My poor neck! So in an effort to keep up a little bit with my blood and guts improvement I have been doing leg lifts instead of sit ups. At least this way I am still exercising a little bit, just in a different way.

Third quarter has ended as of Friday, which means I am one step closer TO THE END OF THE YEAR. However, I realized I only have three and a half more weeks until the senior final exam. WHAT?!?! I can't believe that's it. I am going to miss my Seniors so much when they go, even though they make me COMPLETELY INSANE. They still have to write a research paper before they go, and we're starting it on Monday. They are going to hate me.

yesterday I was mentholated

2008-04-06T15:51:00.002-04:00

So let's talk about Blood and Guts April. I have to say the concept was awesome and I was really feeling like I had a reason to enact some change in my life.

Also, it was a great success until Friday night when on sit-up number 32 my neck felt like it was trying to run away. So I aborted my sitting up and went to sleep hoping that the new pain I was experiencing would just go away.

Well, Saturday I woke up with about 20% range of motion and I walked around pretending there was a stick going through my back up into my neck to keep it steady. While we were at breakfast the waitress, in an attempt to be friendly, patted me on the back and I almost started crying. IT HURT SO MUCH. So when we got home, andy gave me one of the Bengay patches left over from his backache at christmas time and I laid VERY STILL for the remainder of the afternoon. I was very minty smelling, and so is the pillow I was laying on and the clothes I was wearing. I took a shower around 4:30, went grocery shopping, and lay back down again while andy cooked me dinner.

I also want to acknowledge that andy has been feeling really crappy and put his own pain aside to help me out - total nice guy that he is.

The good news is that I read two whole books yesterday, the bad news it that I did no school work, and my neck still hurts today so I have no motivation to do any work today either. The other bad news is that Blood and Guts April is temporarily on hold until I am fully healed. I am feeling very wimpy right now.

Blood and Guts April

2008-03-31T22:02:00.002-04:00

I'm not even kidding. One of my freshmen called April that to me today. The idea behind it is not original: summer is coming, so improve yourself. What I did like about it though was it's more positive spin. You're not supposed to just do a million sit ups and get yourself all hot for bikinis, you also need to improve yourself mentally, spiritually, or improve your influence on the world. That's why it's called Blood and Guts April, because you are supposed to improve all pieces of you.

I just started thinking about this today, so I'm not really sure yet what this is going to mean for me, but I like the concept so much that I may have to improve something. I always get so daunted by the idea of making changes in my life style. They get so overwhelming that within a few weeks I am back to my old ways anyway. However, it's a lot easier to make big changes if you're working in a limited time frame. I think I could take April to do something really good, and I'll let you know when I figure out what that something is going to be.

STRESSSSSS

2008-03-05T23:08:00.002-05:00

So I just go home from work now at 11:00. That's at night mind you, not the morning kind of 11:00. My schedule this week has me working on the dress rehearsals for the play yesterday and today, parent teacher conferences tomorrow night, then I leave for Boston Friday morning. Due to all of the play business, I haven't planned well or corrected a thing this week so far, which is really bad. My plans consist of reading aloud and answering questions - BORING, but at least I don't have to add it to the pile of things I haven't graded yet. I don't know how the theatre teacher does it. I want a nap so badly during the day that I almost want to cry. I'M EXHAUSTED AND STRESSED OUT. I'm going to bed right now.

OMG

2008-03-03T19:31:00.002-05:00

I saw a flower!

The weather was so nice this evening when I got home that, Andy and I walked up to the pizza place to get calzones. On the way there I saw a bed of crocuses. I think spring might actually be in balti-town after all.

Hello, March.

2008-03-02T21:48:00.003-05:00

Busy, busy, busy, but quietly so. I haven't been leaving school until way late because I've had so much to do. At night, I try to be in bed by ten. This is what February is all about. I'm waiting... for Boston on Friday! That's right, I'm visiting my old home. Andy is playing a show so I get to go out there with the band and hang out and be cool. Most importantly, I GET TO SEE ROSIE AND I AM EXCITED. We caught up on the phone the other day and it was so nice. I miss Rosie. I'm actually taking my very first personal day of my professional career. I felt so weird telling my department head I wasn't coming in because i was taking a weekend in Boston. HA!

The only thing I'm really sad about is that I'll be missing all performances of the musical due to this trip. I have quite a few students who will be performing, and because I've been around helping with the costumes, I've been watching all of the practices and it'll be so hard not to see the fruit of all their labor. However, I have been looking forward to this little trip for over a month, and nothing can kill my enthusiasm.

Also, look at this link. Hopefully you won't hit anything too raunchy.

Lastly, I spotted this picture tonight on the internet. It was taken by a friend of Rosie's. I liked it so much that I am right now considering adapting it for a tattoo. More on this if it actually occurs.

Hey, it's March! The dreaded February has ended! Long Live March!

election day

2008-02-12T18:02:00.000-05:00

I had off of school today for the MD primary. YAY!!! It was so nice to sit in my pajamas and watch terrible television for like two hours today after I got up. I haven't really gotten to have nice alone time like that in a while. After lunch and andy went back to work, I got myself together and cleaned up our room, looked at post graduate programs (UGH), and washed so much laundry. I realized (actually andy realized) that we hadn't washed our bed stuff since we moved. EW. Situation is now fixed, pillow cases are now clean. I also handwashed a couple of sweaters that really needed it.

I also got a haircut today (AMEN) but I haven't charged my camera in a long time because I'm so used to not being able to use it. I'm going to go plug it in right now so I can post some pictures some time within the next ten years.

MOST BORING BLOG ENTRY EVER.

pet donkey

2008-02-09T13:54:00.000-05:00

I don't think we can have one of these, but apparently there are mini ones as well, so maybe one day we can have a donkey. In the meantime, you may gaze upon this picture and call it awesome.
Photos of my life will be coming as soon as the weather warms up enough to make me motivated. I am currently doing a TON of school work and watching andy play super nintendo. My Saturday is going to be boring and comfy. Hooray for sweatshirts.

here is an odd find

2008-02-01T17:54:00.000-05:00

I was just searching my old emails for a recipe and I came across an email I had sent to Elizabeth in April 2005. At the bottom of the email was a funny story I would like to remind you all of. Keep in mind this is almost three years ago.

Funny Frank story: As we all know the pope died and my sister was
> asking frank if he knew who the pope was. So he said, "oh yeah I
> know who the pope is. The pope is this super awesome guy that
> flies and if people were shooting missiles at the earth the pope
> would fly into the sky and stop the missiles so the people of
> earth could live."

no flakes like snow flakes

2008-01-13T15:55:00.000-05:00

HEY MARYLAND, WHERE'S THE SNOW?
IT'S JANUARY. WHY IS IT 45 OUTSIDE RIGHT NOW.
I WANT TO SEE THESE SNOW DAYS I KEEP HEARING ABOUT.

VIVA LA PRECIPITATION!

I am sick again... :(

2008-01-09T21:11:00.001-05:00

I wish Maryland weather would make up its mind. This constant change between 30 and 70 degrees is annoying. Is it cold out? Is it warm? Who knows? At least once a week I wear my winter coat in the morning to work, and when I step outside I have to turn around and come back in the house to take it off because its warm. Hi, it's January. Stop it already.

So, I have a huge head cold and when I came home from work today at 5:15 I hopped right into bed and passed out. The next thing I know, Andy comes and wakes me up carrying a bowl of soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. What an awesome guy. I like when I get to post about cool things like that.

I have two media outlets now

2008-01-08T22:49:00.000-05:00

DID I MENTION ROSIE VISITED ME. OMG IT WAS SO GREAT. I would type all about it, but she already did in her blog so go check it out. All I'm going to say is that having rosie around was just like old times and I miss her and I hope my best friend moves here so we can hang. Oh, and her boyfriend was a pretty cool guy too.

So Rosie gave it away in the comments, but she gave me my camera cable back for christmas!!! I am very excited about this, but I am also busy/lazy, so I'm working on it. I'll get pictures up and running again soon. No really. I swear. :)

However, I took my christmas moneyz and bought myself a video camera!!! WAH!!!! It's pretty excellent, but I've only taken about 20 seconds of video so far, and that was of andy coming down the stairs and looking silly. Don't get too excited, I'm erasing it for his sake. I actually bought it for use in my classroom. I have this idea about teaching and learning and we'll see how it goes. I want the kids to have a visual record of their learning (I put that on the please-let-me-film-your-kid permission slip). I want us to watch a video and eat popcorn and be happy! I want to learn how to use imovie! No matter what I am excited.

So I did no correcting at all over the holiday, so now I am SWAMPED. In order to catch up I am trying to do as little with the seniors as possible. I gave them a test on Monday, and an essay to revise today so I could sit and grade papers while they worked (and created more stuff to correct). I got through a lot of it after school today and yesterday, but it just has this feeling of neverending suck. I'll get out from under it, but until then I am a crabby-patty.

Time for bed!

and now, a letter...

2008-01-06T19:56:00.001-05:00

dear lentil soup,

I ate you on Thursday night.
Thank you for giving me something to do during my prep 2nd period on Friday.

lots of love,
sans

ps - don't worry everyone, I'll be posting like normal again soon. :)

I've been too busy and tired to post

2007-12-10T18:25:00.000-05:00

Life here is (mostly) good. The new house is awesome, and my roommates are cool. My radiator in my room should start working soon, and the crazy ex-roommate is almost out of our hair. Some nice people down the street were getting rid of a desk, so now I have this awesome writing desk that is made of wood with laminate covering it, 60's style. I love it! It matches the sweet couch we have from the same decade. My boxes are mostly unpacked, except for my room which has been too cold to really work on. I'll probably fix that this weekend. I need a curtain rod. I'm WAY behind on my correcting and planning, but I'm catching up. I'll update again soon when I have more time to really sit, just know everything is cool, and my updating will return to normal shortly. Standby...

in a few minutes

2007-12-01T09:02:00.000-05:00

in few minutes I will get out of bed and get ready for the day. We need to go get the uhaul van to carry our life over to a new house. We're keeping the orange cat, and the bike fixing roomate, plus a friend from boston is moving in tomorrow (not rosie). I am ready to move again, but not quite. I will be more ready in a few minutes.

I have a cold, so now I'm going to cry about it on the internet.

2007-11-28T15:49:00.000-05:00

My nose has been running for a day and half! I don't know where it's trying to go! LOL! Yesterday I actually took a nap for three hours because I was so run down. I'm actually going to go do this again in a few minutes. NAP TIME.

happy turkey day

2007-11-22T18:46:00.000-05:00

I made thanksgiving dinner all by myself! I made two hens, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, biscuits, and celery with the cream cheese in the middle. The hens were cooked so perfectly that the meat was falling off the bone. I was super impressed with myself, and andy did the dishes and put stuff away.

Hello, adulthood, how are you?

the orange cat is in my lap

2007-11-17T12:35:00.001-05:00

I will miss this orange cat when I move, and I wish we could take him with us, but sadly it is not to be :( I don't think millie would be psyched about a second cat, and it's bad enough that all of my things are going to smell like I've been cheating on her with other cats. I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE MY CAT AGAIN.

In other news, I have a big correcting weekend ahead of me because I've been lazy with the green correcting pen this week. I was punishing one unruly class with work in packets, but now I've realized I was really punishing myself, too. Oh well. Maybe this week will be better, especially since we only have three days of school. YAY! But then I will be spending the days off packing up my stuff and the closest thing I'm going to get to turkey is if I make it to the grocery store to make turkey sandwiches.

The crazy roommate moved out, but we still have a whole bunch of her stuff cluttering up the house. Her room is almost vacant, which is good because one of our friends is in an emergency living situation and we decided she should take the room for the month for free. Her situation is a "I-moved-in-with-my-boyfriend-too-soon-and-so-we-fight-all-the-time-and-now-we broke-up-and-I'm-sad-but-I-need-to -move-out" situation. We were talking to her about it today after eating breakfast in our usual spot, and I couldn't help but think that I am glad that did not happen to me and that andy and I live together really well, even with the nutty roommate trying to be crazy all the time.

New information about the nutty roommate and her motivations and stupidity surface every day. The newest, and by far the most interesting, is her motivation behind her sudden need to move out. Apparently, she was unhappy that everybody was asking her to clean up after her dirty self and she decided on the fly to tell everyone she was breaking the lease and moving out in an effort to get the people in the house to ask her to stay. She thought if she said she was leaving, everyone would rally to her side and say, "no we love you don't leave! please stay and be dirty in our house!" Clearly this backfired. Apparently she hadn't spoken to the landlord yet, she really didn't have a new place yet, and she didn't have enough money even to carry out her stupid plan. And when we all called her bluff she was forced to go through with her bluff. It's really very tragic, but unfortunately for her I have no pity because she's a crazy person and I'm glad I don't have to live with her anymore.

My breakfast was delicious, and I will now go read a book in the relative quiet that comes when a crazy person doesn't live with you anymore. :)