A glimpse of insanity

Well, I haven't done anything too crazy since my last post. No more jumping out of planes. I did go hiking with some friends, and it was great being outdoors and just having fun exploring. I could do something like that nearly every day this summer, and it would be great!

Tomorrow I'm taking my mom and sister to get manicures and pedicures as a belated Mother's day gift. We wanted to wait until right before the trip. So tomorrow will be a girls' day with lunch, then nails.

I will be getting on another plane in a couple days, very very early in the morning. My family and I are going to Colorado to visit some of our extended family. I'm really excited about seeing everyone again, but my grampa in particular. I haven't seen him in several years, and he's the only grandfather I have any memories of. Besides, he's so much like my dad, so how could he not be one of my favorite people? It will be great to be out there again. Something about Colorado, the Rockies all chilly and large in the distance, the wide open prairies, the sun and the heat... it all feels so free to me. Like anything and everything wonderful is possible. It's probably mostly the memories I have associated with it, just like so many other places in the world that I love. But either way, I'm excited about going and having fun with my family.

i jumped out of a plane yesterday.


My brother, his girlfriend, and I spent all day at the hangar waiting our turn. My brother got to go first because he was doing an assisted solo flight, meaning they would hold on to him as he jumped out and until he pulled the chute, but then he was on his own and they would talk on the radio to help him land. He got video of it, and he did an amazing job. The instructors with him said it was one of the best solo flights for a first-timer they've seen in a long time. All through the video he had this huge grin on his face.

Then after another hour wait, it was my turn! Brooke and I were on the same flight, which was great. I met my instructor, Joey, and then got all flight suited up and harnessed into the rig. We ran through the "exit" (the part where you fall out the plane) and the "flight" (the part where you're free-falling toward the earth at about a thousand feet per second. Then it was time to load up the plane. It was a little plane with no seats, just rubber floor. Everyone piles in with their instructor at their back, all seating like a train between eachother's knees. Brooke was to my right, so we kept making faces at each other after take off, but I kept watching out the clear plastic "door" that was covering the doorway and Brooke says my face got a little "oh holy crap" at one point and it freaked her out. lol. The instructors were all joking and laughing, and mine kept pulling things off my rig and joking that we didn't need that, and oh wait, is this important guys, do i need this part? He kept claiming they only hired him last week after seeing him repeatedly fall off a stool in a bar, cause he landed well so they had a job for him.

At about 10,000 feet they opened the door and we started getting all hooked in to each other. This was the hard part because we all had to get up on our knees and then there was a lot of buckles hooking and straps being tightened. Then it was up on your feet, crouched low, and somehow walk towards the door. When I saw the first guy jump out I about freaked, but it was too much work getting to the door to have time to freak. Cross my arms on my chest, toes out of the door, rock back, rock forward, rock back.... and out. I completely screamed like a girl for about a nanosecond before the force of the wind cut my voice off. The first maybe second of falling was just like that feeling you get when you go over the first hill of a huge roller coaster, but then he pulled my arms out to the side and we stabilized and i remembered to arch my back... and it was so relaxing! That sounds weird, I know, but it really was. All I kept thinking was "I just jumped out of a plane!" It didn't feel like falling. It felt like... floating, with a lot of wind going by. I glanced at the altimeter I was wearing on my left wrist, and that thing was going very quickly towards 0. So then Joey yelled something in my ear (I think he said "here we go" but the wind was too loud to hear it), and pulled the chute. After about 2 seconds, that thing pulled so hard on us, I now have a huge bruise on the inside of my left thigh from the harness jerking us to a near stop. He got us stable in the chute, adjusted the harness a little so we could breathe easier, and said "Well, Anna, welcome to my office! What do you think?" :)

We cruised for a little while, and he talked, pointing out places where he's had to land before when the wind is wrong (like someone's front yard a couple miles from the hangar). Then he turned us a little to get in a better position for approach, and we went nearly horizontal! I asked him to do it again! He laughed at me but said "yes ma'am" and did a couple more turns where i could see my feet pointing at the sun. Joey said most girls don't like flip turns like that so it was fun that I did. We came in for landing right over the hangar, so we did some whooping and hollering at the little ant-sized people on the ground. Then we came in to land on the grass, and slid home on our butts.

I can't believe I actually did it! But I'm so glad I did and I would definitely go again sometime.

One more day of exams to give and then no more students for several weeks. My room is already clean, my desk cleared out, and the bulk of my classroom materials moved onto the shelves in my new room. Once I get the finals graded and entered for report cards, I'm all done. So I've been spending my spare time helping other people on the hall get some things graded and cleaned. Today after the kids were dismissed most of my department headed out for an "interdisciplinary meeting" at a local pizza joint. It was a fun time, I got to ride in a convertible VW Bug, and it has been a beautiful May day here.

After helping pack up a co-worker's room, I headed out to do the first grocery shopping trip I've been on in over a month. Took my sister and nephew along, and let me tell you just how much extra stuff ended up in my cart because Thomas kept informing me that I "needed" this or that. :) We came back to my house where we played then cooked a spaghetti dinner (Ben came over to join us).

And now I'm enjoying the idea of only one more day with kids. I mean, I love them, but it will be nice to have a break that lasts longer than a week. And I'm getting excited about the trip in June to visit family in Colorado. It will be the first time I've seen them in a few years and I'm looking forward to lots of relaxing, card-playing, and walks with the gorgeous Rockies in the background.

Hopefully one of these days I'll have a more interesting post than just "here's what I did today". But for now that's all I've got.

So LJ has made its way to the bottom of my freakin' long to-do list. Sorry about the span between posts but ya know.. there are other things a girl's gotta do. :)

Let's see, where to catch up from? Hmm.....

April included an overnight trip to Savannah with much beach-lounging and a little sunburn. Ate some good seafood on a deck whose roof was made of only trees. It was a nice break from the regular and (no offense) boring G-town activities. I'm just not the kind of girl to hang out at the Wal-mart all night. Although that reminds me, I need to do some shopping.


May began with big brother birthday bash in the ATL. We went to one of his favorite places to eat/hang out (Six Feet Under) and stayed on the deck despite the pouring rain. I met a lot of his friends who, although they're all between 5-12 years older than me, were incredibly nice and a couple of them and I had some great talking. Birthday bash was at two locations and lasted from about 7 until 4 in the morning! But it was fun, and the bro enjoyed it, so that's all that matters. It was nice to spend time with him, even though he did wake me up early to go for a long walk after only about 3-4 hours sleep the next morning. The rest of the family came up and we did lunch and then played in the park. It was great - just picture one 4 year old boy and then 5 adults over 25 playing on the swings and then playing frisbee, even when it started raining again. We learned that my sister and I can't throw a frisbee until we're good and warmed up, and that the rubber flooring they use in playgrounds these days can still lead to skinned knees (or chins in my nephew's case). And that swings still rock, no matter how old you are.

State testing is over at work, and my students are very squirrelly now, all looking forward to the end of the year. But I'm still making them read and do projects until this Friday. Next week is exams and then post-planning for us teachers the week after that. I've been staying busy with that and with helping with some Senior class celebration things (even though I don't teach any seniors). There was a dessert reception night, big-screen movie on the soccer field night (my hands were covered in snow-cone juice from working for hours) and then the school-wide field day. Field day wasn't like your typical "this class competes against this class" kind of organized field day. It was more like "you kids have 7 choices of what you can do, including sitting and doing nothing, and the adults will either watch, hide in their classrooms, or play with you". I did some of all three adult options. And got more sunburn in the process.

There's also been a school-wide talent show and an honors day. Somehow though I was chosen to stay behind with the kids who couldn't go to honors day (too many office referrals), but that was fun in and of itself so I didn't mind too much hanging out with some kids for a couple hours. I got a lot of grading done. :) You can tell the year is winding down because the teacher's to-do checklist has gotten rather crammed full. We have all the fun paperwork, grading, and cleaning things to do in addition to what we're already doing. But I'm so glad I can say that I've made it through my first year of teaching public school, which is something I always swore I would never do.

Oh, and did I mention I'll be going skydiving with my brother in a week and a half? Yep. :)

That's probably enough details from my life for now. Hopefully the next post will be a little more coherent or something.

Hey Anna... update your freaking LJ already!

I know it's been a while since i last posted, but honestly, I'm just trying to hang in there until spring break. Yes, most schools are currently on spring break in GA. But is my school? No, of course not. Because what could be more fun than screwing with me?

I've been trying to teach a grammar unit to my 9th graders; yes, grammar. You know, all about adjectives and predicates and diagramming, all that fun stuff? Imagine a room full of 30 to 32 disinterested 13-17 year-olds, who have respect-for-authority issues, home-life issues, reading issues, behavioral issues, mental issues, and just plain old "hi, I'm a teenager.. i love you! GO AWAY!" issues. Then me... who we all know has her own issues. Mix that up in a blender, serve every 55 minutes. Sounds delightful, yes?


No.


Every day is like banging my head against a brick wall... or it actually is that, considering that i did bang my head on the wall today during 5th period after my 5th!! write-up of the day. For stupid things, like hitting, throwing books, skipping class, and eating during class AFTER I warned them that I would write them up (and then they screamed in my face).

I have a few suggestions for Mr. Obama in regards to his education policies:
1) don't even dare presume to tell us you know what schools need until you have tried to teach my (or someone's like mine) classes for at least 3 months.
2) if you introduce merit pay, teachers will start throwing each other under the bus, and it won't be pretty. some of the best teachers are in the classrooms where their kids will never do well on one of those stupid standardized tests. AND IT'S NOT THE TEACHER'S FAULT! So the good teachers will abandon ship so they can teach the classes where they'll get paid because their kids will do well, and the crappy teachers will be teaching the underachieving classes, making the quality of education decrease. which sounds to me like it's just exacerbating the problems, not helping them.
3) Would you like to be called a "standard President"? No. You are unique. So don't assume that all children in America are standard and able to perform well on those stupid standardized tests. The future of a school or teacher should never rest on their test scores or attendance. Find other measures for the effectiveness of a school.
4) If I could have the authority over my classroom placed back in my hands, that would help so much, k thanx? Because allowing students or administration to chop my legs out from under me doesn't make me a better teacher; it makes me an apathetic one when I know that any discipline I try to enforce in my classroom will be ignored, repealed, or mocked.

And yes, I realize that some of this should be aimed at my particular administration, and not the President. But I would like to see this "great agent of change" start helping teachers like he promised he would.

Had an awesome time over the weekend going out to celebrate Nicole's birthday. We did dinner in the city, all girlified and dressed up stylishly. I managed to sit next to and embarrass a guy at the bar we were seated at for dinner. :) He was listening in on our very scattered conversation that covered everything from Madame Bovary to Star Wars to teaching. At one point I was explaining the plot of "Rebecca" to Michele and he was totally listening, so when the girls got distracted by food coming, I asked him what he thought of the book. *evil grin* he was flustered...it was cute.

we then walked down the street to a place called "The Chocolate Bar" and yes, that's what they serve... lots of chocolate. It was delicious and sugar coma-inducing. We then managed to get lots of funny looks and laugh a ton while trying to take pictures outside the Chocolate Bar. We've also now decided that we have to do something like that once a month. Complete with pictures, I'm thinking. :) So April... look out, cause the girls are hitting the town again!


Here's a couple pix of the night.

With the job that I have, I'm seeing a trend of how my "spare" time gets spent. It's usually divided between just a few things: cleaning/house stuff, family, and internet.

I could make the argument that I don't really have any "down" time, per se. But on the way home from work tonight, I calculated my average daily hours that are outside of work. Mornings, I supposed I could get up an hour earlier, drag my lazy butt to the track and do a lap or two. But get real... early morning? I'd rather cuddle with my covers, not my sports bra, thanks. :) So, if we just take the afternoon/evening hours into consideration, I have an average of 5 hours in which to do things after work. And how do I normally spend those? Like I said, cleaning, family, and internet.

The cleaning/house stuff - now, that's a good thing. And honestly, I should be doing more of it... haven't vacuumed in forever and probably should scrub my bathroom and bathe the dog, those sorts of things. But my kitchen is almost always scrubbed down by bedtime and my guest bath is guest ready. And I've been really good about sitting down to organize/pay bills regularly. I actually spent about an hour working on my taxes tonight.

Family - good thing too. Weekly "family dinners" with the local members of family tree, divided between our three houses. Spend at least one weekend a month hanging out with the brother in the city. Call dad (who's out of town working) often. Could be doing more, like having a regular "date night" with the awesome nephew. But overall, not bad.

Teh Internetz - now, that's a horse of a different color. I purposefully do not have a TV in my house so that I won't waste time just sitting and watching unimportant tripe. But darn that HULU!! I've discovered some favorites, and some new faves on there, and I have to admit I usually watch one show a day. Not a bad average when you consider that before leaving for Cameroon I was averaging about 6 hours of TV a day (not even taking weekends into consideration!). But still... grr. Facebook and Lolcatz suck me in as well.

Those are my usual weeknight activities, not counting reading for my book club and grading or doing lesson plans.

But I just feel like there should be more. More what, I'm not exactly sure. And that's what I need to figure out. Definitely would like more social time, like hanging out with friends, talking and playing games and such. More time outdoors, especially now that spring has arrived and it's my favorite season (besides fall). I'd like more time doing things with Christians my age, who are open to talking and sharing and having fellowship.

So now I guess I need to have some sort of action plan. And I need to be praying about and looking for ways to make all these things happen. I won't be in my 20's much longer, and I want to make the most of them, and live them to their fullest.

Maybe I will go skydiving with my brother like he wants to for his birthday. :)

In an effort to keep my house "company ready" I usually spend time picking up every day. It's usually after I've gotten home, changed out of work clothes, and turned the music on. I pick up dishes, trash, and just generally straighten up. This way if a friend (or my mother) ever drops by without warning, I won't be mortified by the piles o'junk and the dishes with bits of cereal or salad in them. It's also a good way to remind myself that I'm the only one who will do those things because this is my house and my responsibility. (Well, paying bills is a good reminder too, but ya get the point)

But today... ah, today. The weather was just too gorgeous to spend time cleaning before the sun went down. So I forced open a window in my bedroom, not caring just how many bugs I might be inviting in through the screenless old thing, and lay on my bed reading and enjoying the sunshine and fresh air. I managed to fall asleep and didn't wake up until about an hour later when my brother called to chat. It was so refreshing to finally have some sun and fresh air. Having family members who have depression and emotional issues, I'm familiar with the whole "seasonal slump" idea, and I wouldn't mind admitting that when it's spring and I can enjoy the green-ness and freshness of the weather, I do feel better and more cheerful after a cold, gray winter.

So here's to more napping in the sunshine and playing in the park. Bring on the Spring, I say!!

For the past couple of weeks, I've been struggling and working hard to be a positive voice in my department. Lunches and after-school meetings have become gripe-fests, and it gets really discouraging to constantly hear complaints (although I completely understand the need to complain). But the truth is, no matter how frustrated I am by some aspects of my job, I'm actually very excited about the material I'm teaching, the lesson ideas I come up with (or steal!) and being in the classroom teaching my kids every day. But being subjected to constant griping has been dragging me down. So I've been making a point to share a positive, funny, or good story from one of my classes when I get to lunch. Usually it's about my 10th graders, because honestly, they're my best class and we have such amazing discussions and lessons in there. But I'm at least trying to be positive about my job around my coworkers. I know there are a couple other department-mates out there who feel the same way about the griping as I do, and I know they're doing what they can to keep themselves positive, so I hope we can really encourage each other.

Friday was pay day. And I was so excited because I've literally been living off peanut butter and leftovers from dinner with my family for the last 3 weeks due to lack of funds. Also, Friday was a pretty good day with my students. My 9th graders are reading "The Ultimate Gift" and some of them are really getting into the idea of the main character learning 12 "lessons" like work, money, and friendship in order to inherit the "ultimate gift" from his dead, filthy-rich great-uncle. The lesson went well on Friday. And my 10th graders were amazing, really getting into Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None". A few of them were even trying to read in fake British accents! :)

So the day is going well, I pick up my paycheck and get all excited about the bills I can pay and the groceries I can finally buy, go out to my car.... and it dies. It starts, then dies when I put it in reverse. Starts again, then dies when I take my foot of the brake. Starts again and dies for no reason. Now won't start at all... just whirs at me a little. It's raining, I'm sitting in the parking lot with my head in my hands and nearing hysterics because there goes my paycheck again to fix this stupid thing. Two very nice coworkers knock on the window to see how they can help, but I've already called my sister to come get me. Nicole, being the lovely friend she is, comes by and sits in the car with me while I wait for my sister and have an emotional breakdown because I just cannot afford to fix my car or get another one. (she said after I had calmed down that for some reason she knew she needed to park next to me that day... isn't God cool?) Oh, and my sister bought me milk and eggs so I wouldn't have to starve anymore. :)

Well, long story short... car gets towed up to the parents' home town today, back to the place that supposedly fixed it last month. It's still under warranty... car gets new distributor to replace faulty one they had installed, no charge to me since it was their fault. And they wouldn't charge for the $200 tow-truck bill either since it was their fault. So brand new distributor, completely free!

And to top it all off... the bank through which I have my mortgage informs me today that the checking account set up for all my renovation and construction costs still has money in it... they just forgot to give it to me at closing. So there are several hundred dollars just sitting there ready to be used elsewhere!!!

I am just so thankful right now. God is so wonderful to know when we just can't handle something, and to give us what we did not expect.

I'm trying to figure out a way that will work for me to be able to go to graduation in Cameroon this year. You see, all of my former 11th graders will be graduating, and not only would I love to be there, but they want me to be there as well! But there are so many factors that would have to work out somehow:

1. My resident card is sitting in the branch office in Cameroon, waiting for me to claim it.. but that can be fixed by someone taking my temporary one and picking up the other one for me. Just have to arrange that. If for some reason I can't get it now, I'd have to get a visa (around $90)

2. The graduation itself is on June 11th. So I'd have to be there a couple days early if I wanted to see anyone (especially since most students clear out of the city soon after). This could be in conflict, however, with some possible family plans to visit my grandfather in Colorado. We haven't set dates yet, but we were talking about June. If we did late June, then it would work.

3. The cost of the round-trip flight is about $2500. Which is more than I make in a month. And I sure don't have that kind of savings sitting around. Nor a credit card with that limit. So I have no way to pay for a ticket up front (which is cheaper) at the moment. I could save for the next few months and make it, but then the price would be increased anywhere from an additional $500 to $1000.


Oy... I would really like for this to all work out. But the money is the thing that's really tripping me up right now. A part of me is tempted to write to a good friend from Cameroon and ask if she would be willing to speak to certain people she knows about helping me pay for a ticket. Is that rude? There's a different friend I could ask, but I'd have to ask her daughter along. That's not really a problem cause i love her daughter and she would be fun to travel with. But that means twice the cost for plane tickets. Gosh..i just don't know what to do. I can't force myself to give up hope that i might be able to go. But it just doesn't even look possible at this point.

Vacation.... ah, yes. The sweet life of no schedule, lesson plans, annoying (loud) students, or inane staff meetings. This break has been pretty good so far. I spent Saturday doing pretty much nothing until a couple girl friends came over for dinner and a movie (and some ice cream). Sunday was a repeat of the nothingness until the late afternoon, when i got to spend some quality time with the nephew. we took books outside to read on the big wooden swing. :) it was lovely.

yesterday, i spent most of the day with my mom, doing girly shopping things. we each got a new pair of walking/running shoes and had fun cooking and eating dinner together before watching two gratuitous hours of America's Next Top Model. Very girl-centric day.

Today I've done a lot of house things. About 5 loads of laundry, two clean bathrooms, a clean kitchen, a (mostly) clean bedroom, and now i'm cooking. Can't get much more domestic than that, unless i was darning a sock while rocking the baby's crib with my foot.

there's supposed to be a dollar movie, book club meeting, and free garden picnic day in my future. we'll see how that all pans out.

for now, i'm back to my silly girly book i borrowed from my sister (i love stephanie plum!) and the lovely rice and fish that is making my home smell heavenly!

Currently:
- just finished baking whole-grain blueberry muffins
- sitting on the couch with blanket
- need to gather trash and take barrel to the street for trash day tomorrow
- need to clean my rather untidy house
- wanting to read myself to sleep... yes, at 6:30 p.m.


It's only Tuesday, and already I just feel ready for the weekend. I keep losing track of what day it is (today was Thursday, right?) and i'm kind of glad about that because then i don't have to worry about letting myself count the days until mid-winter break. Between the full moon and break looming on the horizon, most of my students are insane. But i'm so thankful for my collaborative teacher during 6th period. She and I have been working together on some new ideas for managing our class, and it's beginning to pay off. There's hardly any wandering around, much less talking, and more of the students are passing their tests and quizzes. We laid down some rules for the kids and have been sticking to them (like "plant your rear in a chair and don't get up" and no more working in the hall or talking when we talk). I'm praying we can stay strong and stick with what we've started so that the rest of the semester goes well.

I inherited a couch and loveseat from my brother's co-worker. They're in pretty good condition actually, just need a little cleaning and maybe some slipcovers since they're a strange beige/yellow color with purple binding on the edges (weird combo). But I'm thankful for them. The problem with that is that for now, they are just sitting in my living room, taking up space until they get cleaned (i'm still using the blue couch my parents loaned me). But to clean them, i'll need to get a belt for my vacuum, and that requires figuring out which one, going to wal-mart, and then putting it in and getting the job done. Which, i know, really isn't that much. But couple that with not getting home until 5 or later each day... by the time i get home, check my mail, feed the dog, get something on the stove for supper, change clothes, and try to clean something and grade papers before i fall into a coma every night... well, taking care of things like vacuum belts and trash barrels gets to be a little more than i want to handle. so right now, i'm just trying to make it to the weekend so that break can begin. then i can focus on the large to-do list i've got for the week.

Luc de Clapier - "Patience is the art of hoping."


i don't know why, but i really like that quote today. it was on my google feed, and it just stuck with me. it probably reflects the state of many of my thoughts right now. hoping.... for what? many things. things that have to do with my professional life, my personal life, and my spiritual life. but i think what it really means is that patience is being able to hope when what you desire seems so out of reach. you can still cling to the hope of things without constantly wishing for the "someday" or living in the future.

i've been thinking a lot about what it means to live "right now" and how i can do that in my life. especially with a view towards how i want my life to be. i believe God is leading me in many ways, and although it's overwhelming to try and do all of it, i can only take one step at a time.


and if this makes absolutely no sense to the people outside of my head, oh well. :) you'll get over it.

I learned at about 10 last night that there was a huge fight in my room during first period yesterday. It ended with a boy having his nose broken in two places, and he and another boy (the aggressor) getting suspended for 10 days. this morning, there was a lovely blood pool stain on my carpet, and the kids wanted to talk about it for a good 20 minutes before we could even think about getting any work done. But after hearing from a trustworthy kid (who by all accounts tried to stop the fight and protect the pregnant girl in the class at the same time), it was all the one kid's fault and the boy with the broken noise didn't deserve it.

The thing that really gets to me is that this is my good class, the one with the more mature students out of the other 90 freshman that i teach. And the class that, although there are boys who run their mouths, I can shut down easily with a word or by simply redirecting them. Apparently the sub told someone to run for the assistant principals and asked a boy to break them up because he was "too old to get involved". Seriously???? I may not be scrawny, but I'm an out-of-shape, weak girl and i've waded into the melee twice this year without caring that i got knocked around (although when i got elbowed in the head, the room went dead quiet..lol). And the boys who were fighting are ones that are usually so easily discouraged from misbehaving. So it's all just so utterly ridiculous that it even happened. Many thanks go out to two of my co-workers (next door and across the hall) who jumped in and took control of things.

Overall though, I'm pretty proud of the kids in the room because they realize who was being the stupid one in the situation and many of them were doing what they could to keep things calm and try to separate the fighters. And today went well for the most part, despite the fact that I'm an evil, mean-hearted person for expected my students to remember a project they have due tomorrow that we've been talking about/working on since wednesday of last week. It's a poster and a 2 PARAGRAPH REPORT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!! No wonder the nation is going to pot intellectually. Seriously!! How about we start letting kids fail so they learn how to be responsible instead of giving them a pat on the back for "trying their best" and passing them along anyway? How about that, Obama???? Teachers haven't failed students, the government has failed teachers.


I'm going to bed. :p

I took today off from work. It was time for a mental health day. You know how I know it was time? Because the children I love that never get on my nerves were beginning to seriously piss me off, my head was pounding constantly, and despite trying as hard as possible to be patient, I kept finding myself yelling at the kids. So I stayed home today. And I think it's exactly what I needed, because after waking up at 7 panicked that I was going to be late for work, I slept again until 11. And I've spent the day cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, grading essays, and trying to find Othello videos for my 10th graders. I've even been able to read more than just a couple of quick verses in my Bible before I have to run out the door like usual. It's been lovely.

For the rest of the evening, I fully intend to do nothing but grade essays while watching many episodes of Torchwood. Because I'm a nerd like that. :)


Oh, and my lovely friend Michele gave me a blender/food processor for my birthday!! So on Sunday, I invited a few friends over for burgers and milkshakes. We had an awesome time eating and watching a girly movie.

So I may just have to have myself a smoothie or milkshake or something. :)

-- talked with Amy (great friend from time in Cameroon) for over an hour wednesday night. so wonderful to reconnect with her and be encouraged by her honest, simple friendship.

-- made it through the last two days from hades. students were conspiring to give me a nervous breakdown.

-- stopped two fights (one in room, one in hall)

-- witnessed a girl stabbing a boy in the back of the head with a pencil

-- got told in my face today that i was a b**** ho who needed a man to show her who's boss (this was said by a girl!).

-- oh.. and i got asked FOUR TIMES this week when my baby's due!! FOUR!! and one kid even patted my stomach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!1 great for the self-esteem.

-- tried to find book for book club. nicole may have picked the winner. gotta get that going.

-- tried to find book for bible study. still clueless... anyone know some good ones that don't require much (if any) homework? teachers don't do homework. gotta get that going too.

-- trying to decide if i want to hang out with brother and friends at a bar/lounge this weekend in atlanta.... his friend DJs there, and they say it's all cool.. but i don't feel cool enough or (let's be honest) pretty or skinny enough to go to a place like that. even though he says it's laid back.

-- dog somehow got her collar off and chewed it to bits. there's a rabies tag floating around in my backyard somewhere. must get that replaced.

-- have monday off. MLK jr. - you're a cool guy. :)

-- must find present for mom's birthday next week. hmm.....

now i'm going to bed. :)

My students are currently taking part in a statewide essay writing competition. They're supposed to take a maxim (like "cheaters never prosper" or "honesty is the best policy" type thing) and then write about a time in their life where they've learned this lesson or how they live this out in their lives. We spent most of last week trying to just interpret and understand maxims, because, let's face it, most of them were written by Plutarch or Confucius and do the whole Yoda-like sentence structure. Confuses my students this does. So once I convinced the majority of my students that they actually have the mental capacity to code-break the enigma of maxims, they started getting excited about them and creating their own. Some of the student-created ones I wouldn't repeat in front of my mother, although "Bros before hoes" was a favorite, along with "wrap it before you tap it". But some of them have actually been impressive enough to elicit high fives from me during class discussions. One such moment of brilliancy was when a student said "You'll always pick the wrong friends if you always look in the wrong places." Later the same student came up with "You'll never know where you're going if you keep your head down".

Anyways... today they were told to pick their favorite maxim and start writing the draft of their 500 word essay. Last week saw the advent of the new "silent writing time" rule, which starts with me yelling that we're starting silent writing and once I say go, if you talk, you get detention - period. So I count down from 5 or 10, and then say "Go for silent writing!" Last week saw 8 detentions written as a direct result of disturbing silent writing (twice for purposefully loud gas.. don't you just love 9th graders?). But today they showed that they're really getting the hang of how to control their mouths and not disturb their neighbors. To take care of themselves and I'll worry about everyone else. It's also helped that I've been sticking to what I say this semester, especially when it comes to detentions and such. My "this is your last warning" actually means it this semester, and I've been doing a lot of just listening to them rant their excuses at me, then saying "I'm sorry.. here's your detention form" without cracking. A few of them hate me right now, but I really don't mind anymore. It makes life so much better in my classroom to have them begin to understand that this is how you behave and if you can't, then there are consequences. Even my hellish 6th period has been manageable for the 6 days we've had class, and my co-teacher doesn't look like she wants to run away as much anymore. :)

Basically, all of this is to say that I'm enjoying this semester much more simply because I'm trying to be better at my job. I'm hoping I can keep this up through the next few months and that the students will benefit from it.

today was total craziness! i was up early, my poor mind trying to trick my body into believing that it was a work day so that i could be ready and in the car headed to meet my family in the ATL for a little museum action at the right time. so i pick up my sister, bro-in-law, and nephew at about 8:15ish, and off we go down the highway. we're supposed to meet my mom and dad at my brother's place in Atlanta then carpool to the museum. we're about 15 minutes away and i call my dad to see where my parents are.... it's just my dad in the car. my mom was sick and decided to stay home. well, at this point my car-full is like "seriously?" because we were going to this museum thing mostly for my mom cause it's her type of thing and we wanted to have a family day. so it feels silly to be going without her. plus, i had already been to this exhibit with some friends for a teachers' night and so it didn't really matter to me one way or the other. we ended up deciding not to go to the museum, but to just hang out together, which turned out to be pretty fun. we drove to one place for brunch, but oddly.. it was closed, and during hours when it's normally been open. so we had to pick a new place. ended up at Fellini's, which is just the awesomeness and enjoyed chatting and stuffing our faces with pizza. somehow, we arrived at my brother's at about 9:30 a.m. and didn't get home until about 3:30p.m. i really don't know why it took that long to drive around and have lunch.. but it did! lol... oh well.

then i had just enough time to nearly fall asleep on my couch before heading to my friend rachel's house. we were going to go see Twilight again and try to catch a trivia game at a pizza joint (all in a belated "hey anna had a birthday" type thing) but we got so lost on the way to trivia that we missed it and had to find another one (which kind of sucked! the guy played stupid songs and the questions were either lame or waaaay too hard). by the time that was done we knew we had about an hour drive back home and so no Twilight viewing. :(

so now i'm home and kind of wanting to go to church tomorrow, but really just wanting to sleep in. and my house is getting dirty again, with the laundry piling up. so i may do the whole sermon on iTunes while folding laundry. :) and then monday it's back to my little darlings, who i'm currently forcing to write essays. this mostly requires lots of threats of zeros on grades and some detentions. plus, i'm being way more strict on them.. i made a seating chart their first day back, have already given out 8 detentions and 3 office write-ups, and taken 3 phones and an iPod. one kid finally said on monday "ms. b, you got mean over the break!" and i just looked at him (this is in my class from hades, by the way). his neighbor (and fellow rabble-rouser) replies with "no man... she just actually means business this semester!"

the idea that they think i mean business makes me smile!


and now i've rambled enough (i would give this a C if i was grading it) and should go to bed.

I ran across this video on the blog of a Canadian missionary friend who I got to spend time with in Cameroon. It so perfectly describes one of the greatest lessons the people of Cameroon shared with me. The ending of this video could be interpreted to mean that you shouldn't help Africa or spend your time doing anything for the people of Africa, but I think you'll understand the message that this video is really trying to convey.

The people of Cameroon suffer many hardships throughout their lives, just like the rest of Africa. Food, shelter, medicine, water, and other basic needs are nearly impossible to obtain, and death at the hands of treatable or easily-fixed means is common. And yet, somehow, they smile, laugh, and love with abandon. I've shaken hands with and hugged these people, held the children, danced and sang with the women, eaten food in their homes, and played soccer in the dusty, red fields with the teenagers. I have never known a kinder, more generous, or more proud people. So my little attempts to minister to them out of what I viewed as my abundance were met with an even greater abundance of "possessions" that have no limitations - love and joy.