Not nice

The weather man on the radio is really annoying me lately. He has been giving reports like this: “We’re in for a nasty night, with lows in the 30’s, and tomorrow will be cold again, but we should be back into nice weather by the weekend with highs in the low 70’s.”

Whatever! In December, temperatures in the 70’s are not nice weather. I would like to wear my hoodies and drink cider and listen to my Christmas music without pouring sweat. 70 degrees is nice in March, but it’s supposed to be cold in the winter!

 

Desperate times…

We are two days away from a week-long holiday. We have a class party on Friday. Two students had birthdays today and brought cupcakes to share with the class. I need Dr. Pepper on an IV drip from now until Friday afternoon so that I am energized enough to keep up with these crazy hyenas.

 

No change of scenery for you!

So, do you feel like you’ve been looking at my dang classroom for too many weeks without any variety?  Yeah, well, welcome to my world. 

Seriously- sorry about the blogging hiatus.  Here are my excuses so far:

-busy at work

-no internet at home

-school laptop is blinky so all my work is done in the very public computer lab (including this post!  I hope no one walks in on me!)

-presidential debates make me so frustrated I can’t speak coherently for hours

-was reading Confessions of a Shopaholic in one sitting

-sister and bro were in town last weekend

-Leslie bought The Office season 4 on DVD and I’ve been watching it

-house keeps getting dirty–how it does this when we’re never home, I haven’t figured out

-it’s the end of the quarter at school and I’m catching up on grading

 

If I think of any more good ones, I’ll let you know.

 

Adios

I’ve got three days’ worth of clothing in a tiny duffel bag.  All of my liquid toiletries are in 3 oz. containers or smaller.  I’ve got a sub lined up for tomorrow…so I’m ready to go!

It’s not much of a vacation, but it’s what we’re getting this year.  We’re flying out to Phoenix in the morning for the wedding of our friends Steele and Megan.  Stephen is in it…for those of you who haven’t heard, he’ll be wearing a tux just like the one James Bond wore in some movie from a long time ago.  It’s called “English daytime formal”- which means tails, a top hat, and gloves.  Yes, I’ll post pictures.

As of next Tuesday or so, all of my work for the school year will be over except for a few more days of babysitting in the classroom, so I’ll finally be able to blog without feeling guilty about the paragraphs I should be grading or the student assessments I should be writing.  See you again then.

 

Say it isn’t so!

All I have to say is, if Robin turns out to be “your mother” after all, there will no longer be a tie for my affections in the genre of humorous situation comedy.  The Office wins, especially if they keep up the excitement with Jim and Pam.

 

Bad Birds

I work very hard to maintain my image as a nice, wholesome person on this blog. But this post is about one of my more ogre-like tendencies: bird hating.

The weather is nice, and our air conditioner coolant is not working. Therefore, we’ve been keeping the windows open as often as we’re home (don’t tell any predators in my neighborhood). It’s also spring, which means that the birds are out in all of their chirpiness.

Sleeping in on Saturday is the highlight of my week; it’s the thought that gets me out of bed with the alarm clock on the other six days. It’s especially precious when I stay up past midnight on Friday watching old episodes of The Office.

Can you see where this is going? I was awakened early this morning by birds chirping outside my window. This sounds very idyllic and Cinderella-esque, and if I was a blonde, cartoon woman who liked to get up with a song of my own, this could be a melodic start to the weekend. However, it was 7:30 on a Saturday, and thoughts of harmonizing with my little birdie friends was the farthest thing from my mind. For the next couple of hours as I tried to keep sleeping, I kept awaking to think that the birds outside were lucky that I didn’t have a BB gun within reach.

Disclaimers: For all of you parents out there, I am already aware that considering 7:30 to be early is a luxury enjoyed only by non-parents. You don’t have to tell me.

Also, now that I am awake and well into my productive day, the chirping doesn’t bother me. So the bird-hating is not quite as grinchy as it sounds.

 

Unavailable

I’ll be out of pocket for the next few days…I’m bailing out on school three days early to go to Fredricksburg for a teachers’ conference. Yes, we have to attend sessions for most of the day on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, but we’ll get out with plenty of time left to window-shop for overpriced antiques and feast on German food.  Plus, I’ll be hanging out with three fun co-workers. Preparing for my absence is creating a ton of work for me today and tomorrow as I try to leave plenty of work for my little rugrats, but I’m looking forward to the change of pace.

All this to say…I will not be providing you with any new reading material for at least four days. But I will make up for lost time when I am home next week on spring break!

 

Fun Tag

10 years ago:

• I was in tenth grade. This means that I wore my hair a little frizzy, buttoned my polo shirts all the way up, carried an “I Love Lucy” daily planner, and had a crush on the boy who sat next to me in Spanish class. He was a very popular athletic type…I’m sure he secretly liked me, too.

 

Things on my to do list today:

• Make a dent in my hug pile of papers to grade. (Hence, the fun blog posted during school hours.)
• Finalize lesson plans for Friday. Start thinking about next week.
• Watch at least one more episode of LOST.
• Go out to eat with teacher friends.

 

What would I do if I was suddenly became a Billionaire?

• Bribe Steele to change the date of his wedding so that I could attend it AND my sister’s graduation.
• Buy a house.
• Put away tons of money for kids’ education and for my retirement.
• Leave big tips.
• Buy new clothes.
• Plan European vacation.
• Set up a huge endowment at my school, and other charitable contributions to church, literacy projects, and the March of Dimes.

 

Three of my bad habits:

1. Wasting time at work.
2. Imagining conspiracies against myself.
3. Being lazy.

 

Five jobs I have had:

1. teacher
2. camp counselor
3. cashier/hostess at steakhouse
4. cashier/stock girl at college bookstore
5. test proctor at a fire school (this one was by far the least work for the most money)

Five things people don’t know about me:

(I have tried this before and none of them were surprises after all, so I’m trying again…)

1. I once considered going to film school and becoming a screenwriter.
2. I try to read The Chosen once a year.
3. I hate birds.
4. George W. Bush said hello to me one time when I was visiting the Texas capitol building. (he addressed my whole group, to be fair)
5. I generally do not worry about germs, except when I am doing laundry.

I tag KarenD, Jill, and anyone else who thinks this is fun.

 

Miracles Do Happen

I witnessed an inspiring scenario last night at church. There was a little boy there, maybe 4 or 5 years old, who came to the adult class with his dad. For the entire hour lecture, he was the best behaved little boy I have ever seen! He alternated between playing on top of, in front of, and underneath his own chair, but never intruded into anyone else’s space. He only left the room once to go to the bathroom. He never spoke a word, even to his dad, but entertained himself the whole time with–get this–two plastic drinking straws.

As a future parent, I am a little bit troubled at the growing acceptance among parents of the idea that Gameboys and TV are the only ways to get kids to be still and quiet. I was inspired by this child who could be completely occupied with such primitive instruments of amusement.

 

Backsliding

I had a good week of keeping resolutions. However, I impulse-bought some Oreos at the grocery store today in a moment of weakness. It’s totally against all of my resolutions, but it’s hard to care when this is so good…
Promise to blog for real soon. As you can see, I have been very busy today.