For Charity, and anyone else who finds it funny

I was watching the TLC show "The Monastery" yesterday, and one of the participants made this comment:

The only person who would break in through a skylight and steal beer from monks is either an alcoholic...or a marine.

I need some help: Is it insulting to give the children's book The Ugly Duckling as a baby shower gift?

The Need for Hobbies

At some point last school year I decided I needed to get some hobbies. The nature of teaching is that you are never finished with anything, and I was finding that incredibly frustrating. I just wanted something to be able to hold up and say "I'm finished!"

So, I took up the viola and started knitting again. Both are going better than I expected them to. I'm about halfway through the first Suzuki book for viola, and here are some of my latest knitting projects:
This is a baby blanket I'm knitting for one of my nephews. I started it in August, when I was sick at my parents' lake house. Each square probably took about 4-5 hours worth of knitting, maybe more at the beginning when I wasn't as quick.

After this photograph I wove in all the ends you see hanging out at the edges of the squares.

The next step, which I've just started on is to sew the squares together with yarn and a plastic yarn needle--quite tedious in my opinion. But after that, it's finished!

My next project is a technicolor cell phone cozy. I know it doesn't look like a cell phone cozy quite yet, but it will be. It'll have some fancy shmancy finishing touches like velcro and a button to accent the green and fuschia.

So, friends and family, I hope you all like knitted goodies. I'm thinking that I may knit some or all of my Christmas presents this year. I saw a pattern tonight at a bookstore for a beer bottle cozy. What could be better than a knitted beer bottle cozy?

Strangest sign I've seen today: Bruce Lee Hair Salon

Hint: If you are going to have high school kids do Shakespeare, do not ask them to speak old English with a Scottish brogue. It doesn't work, as was proven by today's field trip.

The happenings

So one of the little munchkins gave me a present last week--cold germs. Getting sick on a Friday afternoon is just about as disappointing as getting an oatmeal raisin cookie when you're expecting peanut butter chocolate chip.

I was just pissed off enough about being sick to still go to Donna's Sat. night for dinner. Calling it "dinner" at Donna's house just somehow seems inadequate...it's really more of an event...an affair, perhaps. Yummy, whatever you call it.

So I went out, giving the sickness the middle finger, and then felt worse on Sunday. Silly me. So I decided to stay home from school today. One of the sucky things about being a teacher is that being sick is more work than being at school. So I spent time yesterday working on sub plans, and then decided at noon today that it was just better to go in and make sure things got done right.

Anyway, boring what's going on kind of stuff. And, the most exciting news of all--check out Angela's blog!

You're joking, right?

Today in class one of my eighth grade students had one of those dollar coins with Sacajawea on it. Appearantly, she's not big with eighth-graders. Here's how our conversation went:

Student 1: Hey, Ms. D, who is the woman with the baby?
Me: Uh, you mean Sacajawea?
S1: Yeah, the lady with the baby.
S2: Wait, isn't she the first woman to vote?
Me: NO! She was not the first woman to vote.
S3: (Laughing) Ha! The first woman to vote...duh, Sacajawea was the lady who wouldn't get out of the back of the bus.
Me: (while banging my head on the chalkboard) Okay. First, Sacajawea is not the lady on the back of the bus, and second, Rosa Parks did not sit in the BACK of the bus.

Then, after school one of the kids was asking about my Halloween costume. I said it's a character from the Scarlett Letter, and she asked "Oh, is that a Nancy Drew book?"

Sheesh.

Middle School Love: If Only It Stayed This Easy

Sappily sweet and funny, this is a note I confiscated this week, from a 7th grade boy to the love of his life:

Whatever N says 2 U is not true. I love U, and I care about U! I'm not using U 2 Kiss U and then dump U!! And I'm not going to dump U don't worry. N is just being a jerk, I don't Know why he would say that about U. So don't listen to anything he says. I really do love U and care about U. OH and here is a picture of me I might get my picture retaken so if I do I'll give U another. I still want 2 kiss U. How about tomorrow behind the tree in the corner, eather one. OH, and A said that N was saying that stuff because he likes U. But I don't know if that is true or not.

LOVE,
S

Some days, in the midst of psychotic family drama and kids thinking it's a good idea to lift one another on to the roof to get a football down, there is a student who gives you hope. Today an 8th grade girl came in and said that after studying Romeo and Juliet in school last week, she and her friend watched the movie 8 times over the weekend. I was so happy to hear that because the week before, when I mentioned how interesting it is to think of Shakespeare in modern times, she said she had started to watch the movie, but hadn't understood it. Hooray for kids who learn things.

The theme of today's parent meeting:

All Families Are Psychotic

school, school, school

My time is being consumed by school. We've had 2-3 parent meetings per week after school, both helpful and destructive. The one night I didn't have anything this week I went to a party with some colleagues and talked about school. This weekend there's a school event, and I'm babysitting kids from school.

What do people who have normal jobs do with their time?

I am craving snow.

Alas, there is no snow in the forecast for the Bay Area.