Why does it feel like it’s been a year since I blogged?

Hm. Anyway…

My mom and her friend visited on Friday night. They wanted to spend a weekend exploring Niagara-on-the-lake and the Falls, so I offered them a place to crash. Saturday night, they stayed in Canada. We had a nice dinner, and watched Shall We Dance, which had the most dreadful song I’ve ever heard, sung by Peter Gabriel. Pete, Pete, Pete…please find your dignity.

Oh, also, Sunday was my dad’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad! 🙂

Ahem.

I’ve been getting some rather annoying prank calls from an unavailable number. They are girls, they are definitely students at this school. I’m almost certain they are 7th graders. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any way to stop or catch them. Any suggestions?

I have an interview coming up on Thursday for a 7th grade ELA/5th grade reading position in a Catholic elementary school. It’s a very nice school, and a job I’m sure I would enjoy. Well-wishes and advice gladly accepted. 😉

Rand and I watched Dogma (which I’d seen once before) over the weekend. I love that movie. I wanted to quote Chris Rock’s bit about beliefs and ideas, but I forgot to look it up. Maybe later…

Had a fun time yesterday…it was 8th grade class day, so we spent almost the entire day at Lasertron. We got pizza for lunch, and I spent some time talking with the kids’ regular teacher and a couple of parents. Also got a tip on possible job opps at a new charter school. It was good to see the kids in a non-school setting.

Unfortunately, I’ve got my most dreaded period of the week about to begin. 8th grade Lit, last class of the day, after they’ve been at gym and art. Sigh. Last week, I had to make them write apology essays during this class. Ack!

Hey folks…a new-ish blog has been brought to my attention:

Buffalo Rising Journal

In their own words:

We don�t want to waste too much time telling you about it. You should
know that the blog was born of our impatience. We�re working on a really rich, awfully interactive online Buffalo Rising experience�but, unfortunately, that takes time. We wanted to have an online voice before then, so we started this. And we think it�s pretty cool.

It�s not the magazine. It�s more like what the people who make the magazine talk about between issues. And it�s a daily reminder of the richness and vibrancy of our city and the people who live in it.

Please check it out, tell your friends, make comments, and visit often. We promise to make it worth your while.

It’s pretty cool. Do check it out. 🙂

Another new one:

FishbowlWNY.com

This may fall under “TMI “, but here I go anyway…

The way I see it, women fall into two categories: thong wearing and non thong wearing. I’ve pretty much fallen into the latter category for most of my life. Friends who were in the former would swear by the virtues of the thong.

“They’re so comfortable.”

“Once you get used to it, you won’t want to wear anything else.”

“You just have to give it a chance.”

And so give it a chance, I did. I bought a few at Victoria’s Secret, tried them a couple of times. I usually ended up changing into something more comfortable the first chance I got. I can’t escape that feeling of fabric wedged into the crack of my butt. I don’t understand how other women ignore this. I don’t understand how they can actually say it’s comfortable. So the thongs wait in my dresser drawer, largely unworn.

Enter my new khaki pants.

I have this pair of dark khaki pants, sort of a stretchy material, that sit low on the waist and somewhat snug around the butt and hips. I wore them to school several weeks ago, and noticed that they tended to pull my undies into an uncomfortable position. I kept going behind my desk to ease them out.

I thought that would be the worst of it. I was wrong.

I was teaching an English lesson, and turned to write on the board. The entire 8th grade class burst into laughter. I turned around, and they muffled their giggles and turned their eyes down. I turned back to the board, and the same thing happened. This repeated for several minutes.

Did I have something on my back? Did I sit in something and have a gigantic spot on my ass?

With no way of knowing, I finished writing on the board and spent the rest of the day hiding my backside from the students.

When I got home, I checked my reflection in the mirror. The sight was not pretty.

The elastic from my panties was creating a well-defined line through the middle of my butt cheek. I’m not talking about a panty line…we’re talking ass line here. Excess cellulite bulging from beneath the elastic.

Talk about embarrassing.

The pants sat in my closet unworn ever since.

Until today. Today, I had to wear the pants. So I went to my underwear drawer and pulled out a thong.

I’m dealing with it, I guess. But I can’t wait to get home and change. I guess I’ll never be a true thong-wearin’ gal.

Not to be confused with Timbits. 😉

Friday afternoon, I had a call from the Y. They wanted to know if I could do them a favor and just do one more class for them.

Seems my replacement flaked and forgot some play or something she had to attend. I said no. This is exactly why I couldn’t handle doing it anymore. Well, that and the fact that it messed up my weekends anytime I wanted to go somewhere.

Blah.

Er…what else…

I’m almost done with the grades for my college classes. Then I get to catch up on my grading for the little darling 6-8 graders. Woohoo!

Speaking of the little darlings, I only had the 8th graders for one class period today, and they drove me batty in that amount of time. I ended up assigning them ALL an apology letter for their disrespectfulness at the end of the day. It was like I was talking to myself. Utterly ridiculous. I know that their minds are elsewhere, but such is life.

I had a lovely dinner with my mommy in Ellicottville on Sunday. (It’s about the halfway point for us.) We went to the Ellicottville Brewing Company, which was nice. Our young, perky waitress was from the soon-to-open Fredonia store. We then poked around the shops a bit. It was a really nice day, so that was a plus…

I also heard from little brother…he and his fiance have asked me to be in their wedding, which will be next May in Meadville. Looks like it’s my year for being a bridesmaid. 😉

I also talked briefly with my good friend Caren, who I haven’t talked to in far too long. She and her husband are expecting. Yay for them! We promised to get together soon…it also turns out that she and Rand have an interesting connection…

I have individual conferences tonight at the college. That should be loads of fun…hahaha.

Okay, ta ta for now…

Friday night, Rand and I ran into one of my 8th graders outside of school. She tapped me on the back, and I turned around. That was a surprise! She’s normally quite talkative and outgoing, but she got all quiet and shy. I introduced her to Rand, she stood there looking awkward for a few minutes, and I said goodbye.

This morning, she asked who the “big scary man” was. Heehee. One of the other girls asked how tall he was, and she said “Like seven feet!” I assured her that he was not, in fact, seven feet tall, and that he’s not at all scary.

I don’t think she believed me, though. 😉

Especially my mom and grandmas-

My aunts, my cousin Amanda-

My dear friends, Dayna, Stephanie, Eden, Deo, Jam, Brenda, Stacey, Sonya, Ginger, Kim, Holly, Jen, Karen, and AnnMarie-

My blogfriends Katie, Jen, and Patti–

(If I’ve missed anyone, I truly apologize…)

Have a very, very

happy Mother’s Day!

*my apologies to those I forgot yesterday!

Where hoopla=grading.

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo, I am not.

My kitchen table is literally covered in papers, folders and writing implements.

Surprisingly, my last class with the Wednesday nighters went very well. I gave a quiz and then did a wrap-up activity, which they really got into. It was cool to see them excited about something. I’m sure the fact that they don’t’t have to come back helped. 😉

I haven’t even *really* started reading the papers yet. I’ve been doing housekeeping stuff. Reading journals. Reading late and rewritten papers. And my brain already hurts. I don’t know how much reading I’ll get done tonight, but I figured any jump I could get on the stuff would help.

Last night, I met Jen at Barnes & Noble after class and signed up for my educator discount card. Woohoo! Suddenly, I’m feeling much more appreciated. Everything I bought last night was 25% off. I got a copy of Fahrenheit 451, decided to pick up a copy of 20 Master Plots after reading Jam’s article at TC,got a cute new writing journal (inspiration!) and a book of writing prompts for the classroom. Excellent.

When I got home from Barnes and Noble, I realized I’d left my wallet there. Ugh. I called, and it was safe, but that meant I had to drive back out there after work today. I then spent way too much time piddling around at the mall. Came home and watched Lost, ate some cereal, and then got down to work.

Can I stop now?

When I was in sixth grade, I was in a class full of bright, creative, highly imaginative kids. I still remember a story one of the boys wrote that involved being stranded somewhere with nothing to eat but “dirt, bugs and two-year-old Cheez Whiz.” Someone bought a container of Cheez Whiz and had our teacher store it until we were in 8th grade, and we had a little party.

None of this is my point.

My point is, sometimes the intelligence and creativity were used to evil ends. For example, one day, some of the boys decided to make a “most wanted” list of girls in our class. Name. Alias. Crimes. Weapon of choice. I only remember a couple of these. Suzanne, for example, for her abuse of “the lead purse.” I don’t remember what my crimes were, but I remember that my weapon was “tears.”

I’ve always been highly emotional, and I am not good at hiding my emotions. My face always gives me away. I do cry at the drop of a hat…and not just when I’m sad. I cry when I’m upset or angry. I’ve been known to cry for joy. I cry when experiencing powerful art. I remember when I went to see Rent here in Buffalo at Shea’s a few years ago, I was practically weeping at the end of the opening number. Ditto for The Lion King.

Back when I got my wisdom teeth removed, I laid around for a day in a painkiller-induced stupor. I watched Armageddon (hey–written by JJ Abrams…sort of. two credits on “story,” two on “adaptation,” and JJ is one of two more on “screenplay”). I was reduced to a weeping puddle of goo at the end. I cry at the end of Lady and the Tramp, even though I know Tramp isn’t really dead. I cry during The Little Mermaid, when Ariel turns back into a mermaid and watches the wedding ship sail away. I cried at the end of about half the episodes of the first season of The West Wing.

I used to apologize for my tearyness…be embarrassed of it…but now it is just one of the many things that I have learned to accept and even embrace.

I caught myself starting to apologize once, while watching a movie with Rand, and he said “Don’t be silly. Your emotions are beautiful.”

My emotions are beautiful.

Take that, boys of 6-A. 😉

Eden put up a fantastic post (and a link to the blog it came from) about gay marriage over at Your Agenda Here.

Seen here, there and everywhere, but first at All Things Jennifer:

Pholph’s Scrabble Generator My Scrabble� Score is: 13. What is your score? Get it here.