ANNOUNCEMENT (of great importance)

LOOKING FOR 23 VOLUNTEERS

TO WISH MELISSA A HAPPY 23RD BIRTHDAY

ON THE 23RD OF MARCH!

The Latest Post (hee hee hee)

I SHOULD have a picture of my beautiful new nephew Jamie,

but for now here's a picture to symbolize new life:) Welcome, dear Jamie!

This time I have a good excuse for not posting for so long...

I was officially sick enough to stay home from school! For TWO days! Real alive sick days. Another first in my teaching history. I must say, though, despite the nice break and all, I felt rather discombobulated being away from school, knowing someone else was teaching my angels. It all worked out quite well, however. I was able to e-mail my lesson plans in, and give them work they could do on their own. Then I was able to get right back in the groove when I returned. It was worth the sickness to hear the happy welcome-backs. Ahhhh, I love my students. They didn't even mind that I taught sitting down for the whole first day back.

It turns out that I don't have to do lesson plans at all anymore. One of my 7th grade girls has it all figured out. I walked in to Lit today, and she said, "Miss Murray, today we need to practice our Psalm memorization, work on our stories, practice our song for chapel, and then... whatever you have planned." Oh! Okay then! I had other plans, but if you think that's best then we'll go right ahead with your ideas. Hee hee hee. I was amused. Instead we did the Psalm and then... what I had planned. Kids these days.

Another of my students, the son of the principal, told me he had been going through the messages on the answering machine at home, and had heard my message saying I was sick. He repeated the beginning to me, "I'm afraid I'm sick, alas." And then he added, "'Alas!' Who says that?!" I laughed a lot:) I guess it's not exactly what you would call 21st century lingo.

My kids are really getting into Oedipus Rex, and I'm so happy about it. The last play was a bit slog-ish, and we were reading a difficult and dense translation. But this translator did an excellent job making the language accessible, and my kids are getting it. They even gasp at the appropriate places! Yay!

In other news, Ryan Gomes, my very own PC classmate (I saw him more than once!) is doing so well on the Celtics! Two starters are injured or something, so he's been starting, and he's all the rage! He scored 27 points two nights ago and 29 points last night. Sports radio loves him. I'm so proud! (Because, yes, I had a lot to do with it all.) Go Gomes!

Speaking of him, there was a popular t-shirt at our school while he was dominating the college scene which, sacrilegiously, said "In Gomes We Trust." Wouldn't it be weird to be Gomes and pass people wearing a shirt like that? Strange but true.

Okay! That's the latest from the teaching/PC alum front!

Snow Driving

1 hour and 50 minutes after leaving school, I pulled relievedly into my spot at home. And you know what I noticed today? New England drivers may have bad reputations, but they sure get polite in the snow. Nobody is tailgating, everyone uses blinkers, and everyone is going 15 or 20 under the speed limit. My, my. The southerners would fit right in!

Of course, the southerners might not care for the whole slippery roads, barely making it up that hill after the full stop at the bottom, ice on the windshield wipers thing. Even I, northerner that I am, don't like too much of that. But I have a fairly relaxed approach. I stop at Dunkin Donuts, get a hot chocolate, turn on some music or sports radio (I'm becoming such a fan!), and settle in for a long, slow ride. Any aggressive tendencies I may be accused of in fair weather flee, and I become a right lane driver. Until the right lane gets too slow, of course. But I'm perfectly content to take twice as long getting home.

Part of this relaxed attitude has to do with the close encounter between my car and the guard rails on both sides of the road a couple of winters ago. I don't take snow lightly - and ice I take even less lightly. At the same time, I'm not scared about driving in snow. I have to be an authentic New Englander, after all. It's just all about taking it slow and leaving room for the car ahead.

So there is your tutorial, and more, on snow driving. And now, let's hear it for the remote possibility of a snow day!