Normal

Things seem to be getting back to normal after the holidays. After a few hours of lugging things up and down from my apartment to storage and back, all of the Christmas decorations have been put away.

Hating the beginning of anything new, it feels good to me to get back to old routines. It was nice to be back at my own church, clean my house, practice viola, and do the boring weekend routines like laundry. Even school is feeling comfortable again, like I know what to do there.

The kids made me laugh this week. The 8th grade is reading "The Call of the Wild." It's interesting to read together, because at points throughout the year, when we're talking about books, I've told the kids how much I hate animal stories. So, when we started this one, they wondered why I liked it, even though it was about dogs. I told them I liked it because most animal stories go like this: an animal endears itself to people, something happens, the animal saves the humans, the animal dies and everyone is sad. The Call of the Wild is definitely NOT a Lassie story.

I was watching the O.C. this week, a guilty pleasure, and the Kaitlin character has to do a speech on the Call of the Wild. It's funny because she ends up saying stuff like "Buck's hair is really pretty" and stuff about how the dogs fighting and killing each other is a lot like being a teenager.

So I asked one of my 8th grade classes if they watch the O.C., and one of the kids said "Oh, you mean that show with no plot?"

Gotta love 'em.