and then it was tuesday

yesterday i determined that finally my laptop had died. it has been toying with the idea for over a year, making moaning beeps, clicks and sighs. in december, its operating system woes began, but were tricky b/c after a brief repast would figure themselves out and the thing would turn back on no problem. last weekend the machine had another hiccup with "no operating system found," so i let it rest for an entire week. yesterday, time of death was called around 11AM. it was sad, but i've been preparing for over a year so i wasn't shocked though i did lose SO much music. that i am pissed about. and i have no extra funds b/c there's this whole matrimonial bliss thing is happening in july. so my favorite computer geek has been assigned the task of installing a new hard drive in an attempt to revive from the dead, my battered old gateway. i should spring for a brand new sony. it's good to have dreams.


over the weekend, i picked out wedding cake. it might be the best part of the entire process. you simply sit there with this huge plate of cakes in different flavors and another plate of icing in different flavors and you just mix and match. who would have thought eating cake would be so fun.

in other news, there's a flu bug running rampant at my glorious middle school. i think the bug is creeping my way. so i'm eating "flu busting chicken soup," recipe found in the latest issue of Women's Health. it's yummy but i still feel like crap. i'm too busy with my job and have no time for illness. yesterday amidst computer funerals i tried to pretend that my own health was rock solid b/c my future better half likes to tell me that often illness is all in your head. in other words, toughen up, quit being a baby. so i tried! for a day. and now i'm giving up and going to the doctor. so much for being tough; apparently i'm just not and at this rate i'm going to have trouble making it through a super important meeting tomorrow, 2 days of classes with 120 of south carolina's finest 8th graders :), a weekend of working for the class i'm taking that is going to last 4 years so that i can have a new job next year, a job which is the most indefinable or undefinable job in the field of education, and i'm not going to make it over the cooper river bridge b/c my lousy butt hasn't even made it repeatedly around my 2 mile loop 3 times yet.

by the way, i'm still upset with oprah. it's too far after the fact to really get into it. originally it was because she clearly does not know the definition of a memoir and tried to ruin james frey. but that's old news. last week she urged americans to go on a debt diet. considering she's the wealthiest woman in america, it really irked me that she spent an entire show on this topic. daisy and i threw our paws and hands into the air and quickly changed the channel. last year if i happened to be in Chicago i might've tried to land a spot in her audience. this year, however, i'm just not sure.

hanging at the four way

i spend some time each morning at a four way stop. it's a pleasant idea, you don't have to wait on a red light to say stop, or the green to say go. you just all go at the right time. until someone creates a blip in the flow of the four way. it works out just fine if the people facing one another go at the same time. the whole system is thrown off when one nice lady in a mini van waves through someone else, whose turn it is not. so when this happens, the cycle is slightly jarred and not until someone else waves through someone to get it back on track. it's like a broken record or a cd skipping, it's important that the four way stays on track. it really throws a loop into my day; that's all i'm saying.

i have so much more to say about james frey and oprah winfrey. i've been mulling for days, since last thursday to be exact. i'm so befuddled over the whole thing, but oprah definitely has changed in my mind. more on that later.

mmmhmmm

i got new running shoes! yahooo! and the funny part is they're asics. i never thought my feet would find solace in asics, but if they were food and my feet were mouths, it would be like eating chocolate pudding, maybe even with a banana tossed in. yum! oh, and they're pink, actually raspberry is what the box says, but they're pink. so i guess it's really like chocolate pudding with a banana AND a raspberry.

so that's the most exciting news i have.

school is on a roll. it is not that exhilirating. it's just school. last thursday, however, i behaved like an 8th grader for the entire day just to try and throw them all off. it did work a bit, but on friday, i was exhausted, and decided that it is just too hard to be 14 when you're 24. mmhmmm.

Happy New Year!

It's been a while, but this is a start. Woof Woof!

Girls Cross Country '98, All the way to state!

That's what we chanted when I was in high school. Unfortunately there's not anything quite so catchy for 2005.

Yesterday, my cross country team qualified for the state meet, our big goal of the season! We came in second in our region, beating out our big rival for the second time. Last year the team was in 5th place of 6; this year 2nd! It was a great day!

Next Saturday--Sandhills Park at the Clemson Extension, Columbia, SC will be our big day!

To Do List

Today's version:

1. Email lesson plan and post to Lex Connect
2. Turn in homebound assignments
3. Turn in book order form
4. Turn in colorguard reccomendations
5. Turn in field trip $
6. Make copies of reading logs
7. Email student update


My life is so boring. That was my to do list of extras...that's all. Seriously. But I taught some Nikki Giovanni poems and had the kiddos model "the drum"

"the drum" goes like this:

daddy says the world is
a drum tight and hard
and i'm going to
beat out
my own rhythm

or something like that. Kids are funny they wrote:

daddy says the world is
a box of crayons
and i'm going to
be the brightest
one in the box

Oh I have more, a kid just walked in to do a "mind puzzle" with me. Hmmm...should be neato

Pumpkin Moon

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you are trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must--but don't you quit.

My grandmother wrote that on an index card. It's one of those things that you have, but don't usually think about when you are actually trudging and end up sighing, even though you probably should look at the index card your grandmother wrote so that you can keep going. It's nice. I like that my grandmother wrote it down from somewhere that she read it.

This morning on the drive to school the moon was so huge and low. I was listening to Patty Griffin and it was cold out. I was driving down this winding road that goes by the back of the airport and this great big cemetery and the moon was hanging down in the trees and I pictured a cartoon Linus with his dirty blue blanket sitting in the pumpkin patch awaiting the Great pumpkins and felt sad for my childhood.