Full o' Spirit!

Yesterday our school had our first ever pep rally in honor of our first ever basketball team! And boy, was there ever some school pride shown! I was so happy to see my seniors truly excited, and saying that they've never felt this kind of school spirit. It's good for them to have something to rally around like that. They were so happy! And they expressed it with face paint and the loudest cheers ever! (Girl 1: "I had no idea I could yell like that!" Girl 2, thinking of her battered ear: "I had no idea you could either.")

The main inspirant (I'm bent upon getting this word into common usage) for the cheers and screams and yells was the Staff v. Student basketball game! It was the basketball team vs. the headmaster and his wife, the 65 year old Kindergarten teacher, the basketball coach, and me. SUPER FUN! Thankfully I was about one foot taller than most of the team, so I was able to do a lot as the center (!) in terms of rebounding and shooting from a one-foot radius.

And boy oh boy did my kids scream when I touched the ball! It was SO exhilerating. Paul Pierce, I understand now... :) I had actually picked up a Paul Pierce shirt at a yardsale last summer, so I was allllll set. [I bought it for Michael to grow into... until I realized it fit ME.]

The staff ended up losing, but only by two baskets (I think). Yay for us! (We would have been SMOKED if the coach weren't playing... Those little boys sure can run!)

So YAY for School Spirit! I'm all for it.

The Eight Word Testimony

A recurring inspirant used in the testimony section of the Fairwood church service is the statement that people can get as much from the testimonies as they can from the actual sermon. (I just made up the word inspirant, and I think it’s pretty cool.) Today’s church service was a perfect example of that for me.

Uncle Paul was talking about the ups and downs of the Christian life – the emotional/spiritual rollercoaster. He turned to Mr. and Mrs. Noss and asked if, at their point in life (they’re in their 80s-90s) they could testify to that being the way life works: sometimes you’re up and feeling good about your walk, sometimes you’re down and discouraged.

Mrs. Noss: Oh yes.
Mr. Noss: I’ve never given it a thought.

:)

How I interpreted their testimonies:

Mrs. Noss: Oh yes, life has it’s ups and downs. That’s just a part of the Christian walk. Sometimes you’ll feel alive and inspired and sometimes you won’t. That’s okay. Accept that as all a part of God’s plan. He uses both the alive times and the dead times for His glory, and for His ultimate plan for you. The growth and the sanctifying process include both of those realities. That’s okay. And here I am, a saint (she wouldn’t say that of course, but that’s how I look at her!), and yet I experience the same ups and downs that you young pups experience. If I can be saintly despite those rollercoaster experiences, you can be, too!

Mr. Noss: I don’t pay attention to those ups and downs. I just keep on going – keep on doing the right thing. I live my life with a focus on God that doesn’t stop to analyze every up and down. I know what I need to do and I do it. God’s commands and promises in the Bible are true no matter what. So I just go right on.

What a fascinating juxtaposition! I was so edified to hear it. There is a place for accepting the ups and downs and seeing them as part of God’s plan, and there’s also a place for ignoring the feelings and the psychoanalysis, and just going right on doing what God has given you to do.

Pretty good, eh? At the end of the service I gave a testimony expressing these things, and after the service Mr. Noss thanked me for my analysis, with a little twinkle in his eye:) I love the Nosses! They add so much to the RI church. I’m so glad I know them!

Under the evil regime of New Blogger...

Another perfectly good post bites the dust.

Yup. Lost another one. Sorry folks, but, like Ahab (was it Ahab I'm thinking of? Is it even the Bible I'm thinking of?), all the spirit has gone out of me, and I can't bring myself to start over from scratch.

Fernando Renaissance!

First of all, I just have to tell you all that I spelled Renaissance right the first time! In college, as we were studying the Renaissance, I finally got disgusted with my 29 various spellings in my notes, and looked it up once and for all:) I did the same thing with Medieval. Those time periods sure are tricky... But since that time I was getting a little shaky, hence my delight at getting it right on the title!

Okay, now for the point: Fernando Ortega just came out with a new CD called "The Shadow of Your Wings." It is SO beautiful! But what impressed me most of all was the spirit of the CD as a whole.

The first CD I ever heard of his was a collection of hymns. It was beautiful. Then, as each subsequent CD came out, he seemed to move further and further from that (as artists are wont to do). When I first heard the CD right before this most recent one, my reaction, after hearing some pretty bizarre strains coming from my speakers, was "What is happening to Fernando?!"

Now don't get me wrong, he still had some incredible gems. It wasn't like I was afraid he was back-sliding or anything. But still, he had, um, modernized, shall we say.

And then I got this CD and heard the most beautiful hymns and Bible verses! And on the back he had written, "There's too little time for reflection in my life these days - too little meditation and quiet. As everything about our culture gets louder and more 'in-your-face,' my ability to concentrate on spiritual things feels thin and compromised. These songs were written in response to that dilemma."

Pretty impressive, eh?! It reminded me of those times in life where we're rushing this way and that, noticing this and that attraction of the world, and then suddenly are pulled up short to remember the "really real." We remember that the point of life is the pursuit of God, and not the pursuit of anything else.

So, all, if you're in need of new music, I recommend Fernando's latest. It dwells on what really matters, and cuts through all that other surface stuff. Yay Fernando!

Grumpy

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THE FREEDOMS OF OUR LAND?! I logged into blogger this morning, ready to dazzle the world with a stunning new post, when I was greeted with two little messages.

"Switch to New Blogger"
and
"Skip this step and go to Dashboard (you may only do this once)"

WHAT?! I decided to call their bluff and go into my old account twice. Nothing doing. They weren't bluffing. I was being forced to switch. AHHHHH!

So, dragging my feet and muttering under my breath, I went through the process of change. And then I started in on this post. Oh boy is the grumpiness mounting! Do you know how many times I had to enter my name and password just to get to this point?! Every time I wanted to move to a new page: fill in name, password, submit. I must have typed my crazy password 20 times already!

And now the worst part of all. Well, maybe second worst. I hate the new buttons for "save as draft" and "publish" and "comment" and "preview." They're so ugly! They're thin and uninviting, like someone's dissaproving, pursed lips. Ewww. I liked the old, fatter, welcoming buttons, that made you want to be a part of the whole blogging adventure!

But the worst part of all is all the security measures, where you have to override privacy settings every other second. It used to take me 2 clicks to publish a comment on someone's blog. Now it takes me SIX! That is just excessive. I'd rather have hackers galore! I thought modernization and change and progress were supposed to be for increased efficiency and ease!

Oy vay. I knew I was conservative for a reason. Maybe I was brought into the blogging world for such a time as this: to whine and complain about the inevitable. Wait. Somehow that doesn't sound right.

Sigh. I got used to the new kitchen, church, parlour, and front lawn. I suppose I'll get used to this.

(The upside of all of this is that when I first logged into blogger I didn't know what I was going to write about. At least this fiasco gave me fodder!)

[Okay, so I wrote my complaining, tongue-in-cheek post, then hit publish, and then (after being asked to enter my name and password, of course) ran into all kinds of blogger errors and LOST the post! So this is all a re-write, and, alas, I think I lost a little of my tonge-in-cheekness on round two.]

Differences Between Being a Student and Being a Teacher

At first it seemed to me that the difference between being a student and being a teacher was one short summer. May 2005 I was a student, Sept 2005 I was a teacher. No big deal - a few months. But since that time I've realized that that transition was actually a huge chasm, not a mere summer.

*As a student I would clear my throat, and my throat would be clear. As a teacher I feel congested, clear my throat, and instantly, guilty heads from all over the classroom whip around to see if they are the one being corrected.

*As a student I would stay up reallllly late the night before a paper and crank it out in a matter of hours. As a teacher I read papers and think "good grief! how dreadful! It looks like they stayed up realllllly late the night before this paper and cranked it out in a matter of hours!"

*As a student, missing a day meant getting make-up work. As a teacher, missing a day means scrambling about (in the midst of illness) to e-mail in modified lesson plans full of things that students can do with minimal direction, and then picking up the pieces after I return. Way easier just to go to school.

*As a student I could kind of fudge a bit if I was too overloaded, or too whatever, to get real work done. As a teacher, oh wait, as a teacher I still do that. I'm all about self-preservation:)

*As a student my motivation was A's on my report card. As a teacher my motivation is this terror that my kids will graduate without having received a quality education because of some huge hole I forgot about (like, you know, Shakespeare or something - although I know I've got that one covered!). [Okay, so that's not really my motivation. My real motivation is much more positive. This is just the dark side of my motivation...]

*As a student, my happiness came from a good grade earned through hard work. As a teacher, my happiness comes when my students have those "aha!" moments of learning. It is an unbelievable experience.

*As a student, when I screamed my teacher would tell me to be quiet. As a teacher, when I scream my headmaster tells me to be quiet... and that classroom order depends largely on the teacher, and good order is necessary for real learning, and we want our kids to have the best learning environment possible, etc. etc. (Fortunately I only get this talk about twice a year... and I know I need it... and he's always really nice about it. Sigh.)

*As a student I was surrounded with people who were also born around 1979. As a teacher I'm surrounded with people who were born in the 1990s! Good grief! And as a result I get comments like this.

So ya, the two are pretty distinct. But the most important thing in all of this is that I still get the same vacations as I did when I was a student:) I love teaching!

WHAT a MOMENT in the Life of ME!

Tonight I had a most exciting break-through moment. For a long time I have noticed a similarity between a noise my computer makes, and a song. I have mentally noted it, and even audibly. But TONIGHT is the NIGHT when I put it all TOGETHER!

The following is my feeble attempts to share this momentous occasion with you, via my cell phone video capabilities (which are slim at best). I apologize for the extremely poor quality, but I think the message is conveyed nonetheless... Of course, my cell phone will only record for 15 seconds, hence the extreme choppiness of this, my first "videoblog." (I put it in quotes because it is so far inferior to what a real videoblog should be, but hey, I had a jolly time.)

Dial-up users, see below for instructions on making this amazing discovery for yourselves. I don't think it will be worth waiting for if you don't have high-speed...

Okay, peeps with high speed: I couldn't actually get the video from phone to computer without downloading some $30 thing from apple QuickTime (I mean, I couldn't figure it out anyway), so you have to do it through links (ohhhhh, so sneaky!).

Okay, here are the links (in chronlogical order):

http://www.vzwpix.com/shareMessage.do?invite=CEUr442xPmzNSaooa0nU

http://www.vzwpix.com/shareMessage.do?invite=ZEEr4e2qPmzU2a6oohaQ

http://www.vzwpix.com/shareMessage.do?invite=SEUr4u2YPmze3LW7LQih

http://www.vzwpix.com/shareMessage.do?invite=eEKr4I2KPmz1NL57zkKL

http://www.vzwpix.com/shareMessage.do?invite=MESr4o2TPmz6HL9YhURx

And in case you want to know how the song continues (it's track 5 of the first CD), you can click here (it's just music, so you can skip it if you're sick of links - I'm just including it because when my computer makes that error noise and I start singing this song, I often sing into this cheery part...):

http://www.vzwpix.com/shareMessage.do?invite=KEhr4X2rPm7Iz5Fo8UEL


Dial Up Users (HIGH SPEEDERS, DON'T READ THIS UNLESS YOU WANT TO SPOIL THE SURPRISE!):

1. Go to Start Menu
2. Click on Control Panel
3. Click on "Sounds and Audio Devices"
4. Under "Program Events:" and "Windows", click on "Critical Stop"
5. Now click on the cute little arrow below (next to the "browse" button)
6. Take careful note of the noise that the computer emits. It is the little warning sound that you have committed some heinous sin in computer-world.
7. NOW pull out your Lord of the Rings soundtrack. The first one - "The Fellowship of the Ring."
8. Insert it into your computer, or a near-by CD player.
9. Play track 5, "The Black Rider."
10. AHHHH!!! It starts exactly the same way!!!!!!!
11. Be very awed.
12. Now, whenever you hear that heinous-sin-in-computer-world sound, you, like me, can break into song from the LOTR soundtrack!

ISN'T THAT AWESOME?!?!!?

Happy Sabbath everyone:)

PS. I couldn't possibly end this most exciting evening without giving a shout out to my dear cousin Liane, whom I love more than a diamond-studded hairbrush. Even more than a diamond-studded, gold-plaited hairbrush. With diamonds. And other things that are valuable.

OKAY!!!

I HAVE THE SCOOP!!!

And, I might add, the scoop is just too delicious for words.

Any guesses before I spill the beans?!

(heh heh - got to generate a bit more suspense here...)

Non-Icy Marauders

Several weeks ago there was a school shooting somewhere in the country. Our headmaster addressed the issue, and told us that if a stranger every tried to approach our doors from the outside (we all have outdoor access doors in our classrooms - locked, of course), we were to tell our kids to get down on the floor and, um, I forget what else...

Since then, of course, I've had these horrible episodes of imagining such scenarios. Stupid imagination. I can scare myself almost to death in ten seconds flat. But I console myself that no such thing would happen at MY little, innocent school.

I was teaching British Literature today. We were going over the kings of England or something (I'm teaching them this great poem: "Willi, Willi, Harry, Steve; Harry, Dick, John, Harry Three; etc."). They all had their backs to the window, so I was the only one to see a stranger walk by. This is a very unusual occurrence, since our windows face out onto our playground, and not a public street or anything. Being the mature, self-controlled teacher that I am I quickly sabotaged my lesson by saying "AHH! STRANGE MAN!" They all wheeled around and began speculating.

He had on an out-of-the-ordinary hat ("looks like it could fit a gun, huh Miss Murray?") and a black trench coat ("Come on girls, why are you nervous?" "He was wearing a BLACK TRENCH COAT!"). It was a very strange occurrence. The girls kept making scared noises (you know how two girls can work each other up... or if you don't, take my word for it), so I went to the door and peered about, but the man had vanished around the corner. "He's going to take on the Kindergarten class" I joked, untastefully (if that's a word).

I was about to resume my class when two things happened nearly simultaneously. First, one of my girls let out a Matt's-grandmother-esque gasp of horror, and second, I saw a black shape in my doorway. I leaped, and half-screamed (too scared for a real scream), and found myself about four feet away from the place I'd been a split second before. He was INSIDE the school, walking down the main hallway! And he had NOT entered through the front door, because he was walking the opposite direction. OH MY WORD! I went to the door and cautiously looked out, to discover him legitimately talking at the front desk. False alarm.

The school was so very a-buzz however. Apparently he had knocked at the 7/8 classroom door! The teacher (brave soul! I would have fallen over in a dead faint) waved him toward the front of the building. The next teacher (way-too-trusting soul! Or maybe, less-paranoid-than-I-soul) let him IN to her CLASSROOM and took him to the front desk.

And now for the ultimate anti-climax: I have no idea who he was or what he was doing. (Loud groans here, I know.) He was talking to the secretary (in a foreign accent, my students joyfully, and with relish, reported) about some philosophy or other, last I heard. Probably just some door-to-door philosopher. But WOW what an adrenaline rush I got!

My kids wouldn't stop commenting on how high I jumped - "Miss Murray can fly!" - and they gleefully reported it to the incoming class. I guess I was taking the classroom joking a little more seriously than I'd thought.

Thanks, Linds, for bringing this all back (because it happened SO long ago) with your fabulous Icy Marauders tale!

Another This and That Post

*WHAT a great GAME yesterday! Oh boy! The valiancy of the battling, battling, battling, hanging on by their fingernails, and finally pulling out a VICTORY! That was exciting. I love games that are tense the whole way through... as long as we win in the end!

*I finished The Count of Monte Cristo (the last of the three of us sisters to do so, slacker that I am) and it was WONDERFUL! I echo KJ's sentiments. And I am so excited about reading it with my 9th grade boys! They are going to love it.

*I did blogging by candlelight on Friday night. How Sabbatic of me:)

*I am steadfastly (or stubbornly) avoiding this switch to the new blogger thing. Why? Well, partially it's fear of the unknown, but also because when I comment on new blogs I have to hit all kinds of annoying buttons overruling security stops that ask me if I want non-secure items displayed. It is so trying! I'm sure there is a way to change my security settings to avoid that, but I have no idea how. Grrrr.

*Uncle Paul is one of the most incredible people I know. The other night he did one of those "say just the right thing at just the right time" things, leaving me all weepy (in a good way) in his wake.

*There was actually a winter advisory warning last night! What?! Winter?! Shocking. It's all gone now, though, have no fear. And not a flake to show for it.

*Go Patriots!!!

Happy Birthday Bing!

I would like to celebrate the birthday of Rudolph Bing, born in 1902, and opera manager of the NY Metropolitan Opera. His was a rich life - or at least a loud one. He had strong ear drums. And he liked music. Have a wonderful day in Heaven, Rudolph! (I assume he must be in Heaven since he's an opera lover. I kind of assume all those who wrote something beautiful ended up there, and since he saw to it that beautiful music was performed, he probably slipped in too. How's that for sound doctrine?!)

Also I would like to bring to everyone's attention that on this day in 1954 the coldest temperature in the history of Greenland was reported: -87 degrees F (hey! how do you make a degrees sign with a keyboard?!). So no complaints that today wasn't in the SIXTIES like Saturday was. (OY VAY!)

Way to go Steve D'Innocenzo for scoring 3 hockey goals in 12 seconds in a Massachusetts high school game in 1982. The opposing goalie must have been deep in contemplation of something like metaphysical poetry (kind of like my Brit Lit class today) to have been so out of it.

Today is also the 51st anniversary of the first appearance of "Dear Abby" in the newspaper. In honor of that day, I leave you all with this advice: if your friend gives you plants to take care of try to remember to water them at least once. If you forget, pull off all of the brown leaves before they return.

And, lastly, happy Feast of St. Adrian to all you Roman Catholics out there.

And God said unto her: You need to be more like Hamlet

So I had this revelation over Christmas break (two weeks off school has the amazing effect of allowing revelations, since your brain can wander over more than lesson plans and classroom management - ooo, funny story about that - I'll put it at the end of the post...): I realized that I need to be more like Hamlet. I'm not suggesting that I need to become a melancholic who analyzes everything thoroughly, is very depressed, and speaks in incredibly eloquent, meaningful, and iambic pentameter-filled soliloquies. But I am suggesting that I need to arrive at the place in which Hamlet arrived by the end of the play (Oh, wait, not the end of the play... Let us say the last act of the play!).

After extraordinary personal struggles, and questions of life and death and God, and then after a soul-searching experience in which he deals with man's mortality, Hamlet finally arrives at this truth: "There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all..." In other words, I cannot control my life or death, that is God's province. And He has it perfectly planned out. It is just my job to be ready for, and to accept, whatever He brings to me.

Over Christmas I realized that sometimes I am thrown for a complete loop if something doesn't work out the way I'd been planning. I ran into a big hitch with one of my Christmas presents, and was practically non-functional for hours because I was so distressed by it. And later I thought of Hamlet and realized that I can accept those annoying things as something that God allowed to happen for a reason. And He is good! Therefore, I don't need to go into tailspins at some little set-back. I can accept things at His hand. Where is the trust being worked out in my life if I think good things are from God but bad things are some mistake? Trust is believing that He is good in every situation, that He has a plan and reason in every situation, that His love is in every situation.

And I need to learn that lesson on the little things (like a glitch in a Christmas present), so that I'm ready for the bigger set-backs. God is good... ALL the time.

Okay, now about that funny story. I'm afraid it might have been a "had-to-be-there" (and not only that, but maybe also a "had-to-be-me-while-you-were-there" moment) but I'm just going to tell it anyway. We were in staff devotions, in which we've been talking about worldviews, and philosophies of education. My headmaster was making an important point about classical education, and about how it doesn't agree with modern philosophies about teaching methods. He expostulated on how, for us, modern methods classes are a waste of time, and he asked, "I mean, really, how many methods courses have you guys taken?!" While I saw eye-rolls and hand-gestures that indicated an infinite number of education courses, I wanted to burst out "NONE! Hee hee hee - the joke's on you guys for hiring someone who has NO CLUE!" I don't know that the joke would have gone over, though. I kept it to myself, in any case. So much of my amusement at the devotions-table is private. Sigh. It's almost a waste. But it makes me laugh on the inside, so I guess that's not a waste. Hurrah for laughing, whether inside or out!

Happy New Year!

I'm pretty excited about 2007. That seems like a cool year. Besides, it's close to 2008, which is exciting because of the Presidential election which (if it weren't so scary) should be quite the drama to behold!

Too bad politics are so serious, because otherwise they would be really fun! I still think they are kind of fun, but I have to take a deep breath when people start talking about culture wars, and realize that there is a lot at stake. Kind of like the Red Sox in the playoffs or something.

Speaking of which, Go Patriots! I'm so looking forward to playoffs. My high school boys were gloating today over all of the football they got to watch over Christmas break.

My Y key has developed the weirdest habit of flipping up sometimes! It just did it while I was typing "they." It's very strange - like Toshiba provides secret compartments for their patrons... built right into their laptops! Awesome. I wonder what wicked tiny valuable I can store in there. Of course, now that I've blabbed about it on my blog it's not so secret anymore. But at least all the people who don't read blogs (Amy, Bethany, and ummmmm, let's see, there must be more than that) won't be able to steal my super secret tiny valuable! (And you know they would try if they could.)

Well, that was fun stream-of-consciousness writing (step aside Virginia Woolf), but now my consciousness seems to have dried up (not a lot up there, apparently), so I guess that's it for now.

Oh, and (in accordance with my title) Happy New Year everyone!

PS. I hate it when you click on a link and you have another window open and the link takes over that window instead of appearing in a new one. ARGH! But somehow, life goes on...

PPS. First day back today - I can't believe I get to be a teacher!

Teaching High School

Every once in awhile one of the other teachers at my school will say something about the high school in an ever-so-slightly negative tone of voice. You know, like they're being tolerated as a necessary evil, since that's what happens to their adorable students after the passage of years.

Well, blah. I happen to prefer them that way!

They will make little comments about not wanting to ever deal with them, and about how younger kids are so much better to teach, and how you can keep your high school students.

WELL THANK YOU, I WILL!

I am tempted to retort that I don't want to be caught babysitting all blooming day long - cutting out paper dolls and reading "The Dog Who Liked Lollipops." I want to actually travel the golden realms of ideas - discussing the human condition and the possibilities of transcendence, reading the masters, teaching students how to THINK. That is where satisfaction in the teaching world lies!

Of course, I never tell my fellow teachers this. I just think "good! I'm glad you like teaching pipsqueaks so that I can have the real students!" And then I come and vent in blog-land.

Now this is not to belittle all of you with young children that need educating, of course. That is where it all begins, and has moments of great excitement as well! I'm just reacting against countless barbed comments and therefore (as is my wont) jumping rapidly into the opposite ditch:)

I Know I'm Kind of Tooting my own Horn Here, but...

I'm SO excited to be

27!

It just seems like such an established age, you know? Like I've arrived! And what's more, 27 is three cubed, the trinity of trinities. That's got to be significant! :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! May the amazing love of our Savior be real to you as you celebrate. This Christmas season I have repeatedly noticed the line from “O Holy Night” that says: “He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.” Jesus loved us enough that the salvation of our souls was worth all of the suffering of the human life. He was willing to take on mortality so that we could take part in His immortality. We were worth it to Him! That is love, indeed. And I am thankful for it, and return it with all of my heart!

Happy celebration of His Love to all of you!

I'm on Christmas Break!!!

Hurrah for Christmas!!!

My last day of school was great fun - I got to put on a Christmas party for 7-12 grade. I taught them the game Mafia! Definitely very Christmas-y. They enjoyed it, although the dead people kept on talking and voting. Silly kids. But still fun!

Linds, we played your bow-on-the-head game, too! They thought it was fabulous, and begged me to play a round during chapel. I opted out of that one, even though they said they'd all defend me if the headmaster tried to fire me over it. Thanks, guys.

I was overwhelmed with gifts: some of them even gave me birthday presents! Good grief, I was never that nice to MY teachers!

And they liked their gifts too - one of my high schoolers (11th grade) said he'd keep his Hamlet bookmark forever! He was really pleased with it. Hurrah!

And now I'm on break, and basically my only responsibilites are to read books to see if they'd be good to teach, and finish Christmas shopping. I can handle that! Last night Gretchen started reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" to KJ and me. I needed to read it for school, but the thought of turning to page 1 of a 650 page book was daunting. So she turned to page one for me! And now I'm totally hooked, and am not at all daunted at the prospect of turning to page 30. Thanks, sis!

Merry almost Christmas everyone!

Christmas Presents!

Last year I made gift bags for my students for Christmas. Ahhhh! Excessive! And totally non-repeatable. I knew that I needed to find something small and cheap that I could do this year and every year in the future. But what? And then Aunt Laura and/or Melissa suggested bookmarks. PERFECT! I am, after all, a teacher of BOOKS.

So last night and today I've been working on them. They are individualized by class, and each have a picture and quotes relevant (for the most part) to the book we've been reading. I'm so happy with them! I'm going to print them off, and take them to Staples for laminating tomorrow.

Hurrah for cheap, repeatable, and yet meaningful! I'm especially happy with the Hamlet ones. Ooooh - and the Hobbit ones. Oh, and the Jane Eyre ones. Right. I like them all.

I'm especially pleased with the twist I put on the Hobbit ones, though, so I'll elaborate. There's a picture of Bilbo and Gandalf at the top (thanks, google images) and then there is part of one of Bilbo's traveling songs about wandering and coming home. And then there is the verse from Isaiah that talks about God leading the blind on paths they know not of, and making the darkness light before them. Yay!

Grading... (Sigh)

I just graded SO many papers (well, according to my standards - not Chad's). Grading papers is the only part of teaching that I don't love. In fact, to be perfectly honest, I don't even especially like it. To tell the truth, there is little that is more discouraging than a stack of papers to grade. But I had to get them done this evening because I have to submit my midterm grades tomorrow. Sigh. So of course, to console myself in the drudgery, I turned on the Bruins game as a sort of self-deception (ha ha I can't be miserable because there is a game on somewhere in the outskirts of my consciousness!). Okay, okay, miserable is a mighty strong word. And as long as I have a game or something it's quite endurable.

I had a college professor who said that the only way he survived paper grading was by setting a strict quota for every day. Otherwise they would pile up and completely overwhelm him.

And in honor of professors and the dread of paper grading, I bring to your attention this fascinating bit of trivia I ran across recently, concerning our dear friend J. R. R. Tolkien and the creation of The Hobbit.

"One day when he was engaged in the soul-destroying task of marking examination papers, he discovered that one candidate had left one page of an answer-book blank. On this page, moved by who knows what anarchic daemon, he wrote "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."
In typical Tolkien fashion, he then decided he needed to find out what a Hobbit was, what sort of a hole it lived in, why it lived in a hole, etc." (From tolkiensociety.org)

Pretty good, eh? So who knows what good may come of paper grading! Take heart my old professor! Take heart, Chad! Take heart all you other teachers out there! Some great epic work may yet come of this business...

Happy Christmas Season!

I LOVE the Christmas season, and I love it more and more as I more and more comprehend the incredible significance of what it stands for. Emmanuel: God with us. What an amazing – staggering – life-changing reality!

Yesterday I read in Colossians: “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Jesus’ birth means Christ in us, salvation, and a Savior who understands the human condition, who has made the way of escape from that “condition” to eternal rightness and perfection. Amazing truth!

I still remember and am blessed by Amy’s 9:00 hour message during our third year: Jesus was willing to come to live on “this mortal coil” (quoted from Hamlet! Amy is incredible…) with all of its “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” for our sakes. He lived through it. He understands it. He died in it. And He won the victory over it.

He “counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in likeness of men.”

Almighty God, Love Himself, would not allow mankind to suffer and perish. And Christmas is our yearly reminder that because of this we have a Savior: God with us.

Teaching is a Serious Business

There are some scary things about teaching. These kids think you know what you're talking about, and expect you to be right. And they have amazing memories (except for where quizzes and tests are concerned, of course). Students will remind me of things I said last year - things I'd totally forgotten I even told them. And if I'm wrong... phew!

Last year I taught my science class the phases of the moon. We spent all of class on it. It took them awhile to catch on. Then I went to assign their homework, and discovered that I had taught them everything exactly backward. I spent the whole next class trying to fix the errors of the class before ("okay kids, remember everything I told you, except in the opposite way"). Oy vay.

One must really be careful in the teaching profession. What if I hadn't caught that mistake, and they'd gone on to college and told their teacher that a waning gibbous was a waxing gibbous? Oh the horror. As a teacher, I cannot o'erlook these possibilities. (Sorry - Shakespeare is on my mind. We finished Hamlet today. SO good. The kids really liked it.)

All of this is just to give you the context (which, as we all know, is vital) for my leaping up in the night, grabbing my laptop, flipping it open, and googling "hanged." You see, ever since last year with The Tale of Two Cities I've been telling my students that you haven't hung the person, you've hanged him. Weird, but true. But in the dark watches of the night I wondered: Was it really true? What if I just picked that up some weird place and it's really not the case at all?!

Google, however, came to the assuring rescue. The past tense of hang (when talking of people) is indeed hanged. Phew. That's one thing that won't come back to haunt my students in later years!

Schooling Ups and Downs

Yesterday was SO much fun.

Okay, you know how Hamlet is described as the "melancholy Dane?" Well. Danny, when he taught Hamlet, spent a day doing personality testing for the four personality types! He suggested this to me and I tried it and we had such fun doing it. My class has a Choleric, a Sanguine, a Melancholic/Sanguine, a Phlegmatic/Melancholic, and a Sanguine/Phlegmatic. They had such a great time going through the questions and laughing and comparing and discussing.

One of the classic moments came when one student looked up from the incredibly meticulous drawing he was working on to ask "What do they mean by detailed?" Ya. That would be you, pal.

I pointed out how their diverse personality types were probably part of the reason the class gets along so well...

Then came today. Whew. The kids came to class and within ten minutes trouble broke out. It was a small thing, really - one of the boys took one of the girls' water bottles. But that was just the straw that broke the camel's back, as it were. [Side note: on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire someone got out at the $100 question for saying it was the stick that broke the camel's back. It pays to know your cliches!] Up to the surface bubbled the wrongs of three months. People were mad in no time! So much for the class getting along so well...

The lesson plan was chucked. Well, I attempted it, but looked out upon sullen and flushed faces, and decided other things were more important. [Happy thing! In the mornings I pray for the Holy Spirit to help me to be the teacher I need to be, and to remind me of Him throughout the day. During this class I actually remembered to PRAY for help in dealing with the situation! That was a big deal for me, and I'm thankful.] Instead of reading of Hamlet and Polonius, we talked about give and take, personality differences (how handy that we'd just done the personality tests!), kindness, and going on a journey from where we were now as a class, to a place of harmony:) I encouraged them that they have a special class - uniquely close. They're lucky!

Then I resumed Hamlet. But I could tell some of them were still pretty upset. My poor choleric had been ganged up on, and was not recovering quickly. SOOOO, the lesson plan was scrapped again and we played the telephone/pictionary game! Fortunately they loved it. Laughter once more filled the classroom.

They were ten minutes late to their next class - I ran ahead of them to tell the teacher it was my fault. But I thought it was important.

I love that class so much. They are so much fun, and so fabulous. But they need to work on the whole "walk in love" idea. And we will work on that, boy howdy! They have incredible potential, and there's no sense wasting that in squabbling and needless barbs. So there are my recent adventures in school-world.

Man. I love teaching.

Let it Snow!

Okay people. Here's the deal: I want snow!!! What's the point in living in New England if you don't even have snow by NOVEMBER 28?!?!

I know, I know, all you fellow New Englanders are screaming at me now (inwardly, if you happen to be in a more public place): "What are you thinking?! We're going to have plenty of snow, loads of snow, TOO MUCH snow before you know it! Stop tempting fate!"

But I'm starting to get anxious. What if it didn't snow this winter? Can you imagine? What if I was forced to move to (gasp) Canada or something to get my snow fix?

Sometimes you don't know you're an addict until the addiction is removed. If we don't get snow I'm going to have serious withdrawal symptoms. I mean, the fact that moving to Canada even crossed my fingertips is a tell-tale sign.

Anyway, the point is, I keep seeing snow globes, and snow flake cut-outs, and snow stickers, and snow storms on tv, and I look outside and see fall, fall, fall. Let's have a little winter!

Now, I'm not being an extremist here. You'll notice I said a "LITTLE" winter. But whatever it is, I'm feeling a little desperate.

Let it snow let it snow let it snow!

(Ya, ya, first big blizzard you'll all be inwardly - or outwardly - berating me. You superstitious readers, you.)

Happy Thanksgiving... and Merry Christmas Season!!!

I am thankful for a wonderful year! God has blessed me immeasurably, most noticeably in the deepening of my relationship with Him and in my teaching. But also in an awesome summer. And of course the amazing people in my life! Thank you, friends and family, for enriching my life, for encouraging me on, for being the world's best people!

And NOW, since it's the day after Thanksgiving, it's time to start in on CHRISTMAS celebration!!! YIPPEEEE! The day after Thanksgiving is one of my favorites - especially at that moment when Dad puts on our family's favorite Christmas CD (An Old World Christmas). And Dad was out putting up our Christmas lights, so when sundown hits the Christmas season will be here big time!

(Back to the Thanksgiving theme - I'm thankful for Danny, who just came jogging by here and stopped to chat for a bit. "Here" being my car, which is parked outside Gerry's where I'm pirating his high-speed connection. My brother is so awesome, and he makes me laugh so very much. He and Andrew and Brandon - they are the three kings of laugh-provoking - at least as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, just wanted to add that little spontaneous 'thankful-for.')

So ya, opening day of Christmas season: HURRAH!!! May it be a blessed one for each of you - and full of the reality of what it all means: Emmanuel - God with us! Amazing truth.

:)

I almost never turn my laptop off. I just flip the cover down and it goes into hibernate, or standby or whatever it is when the screen goes black and then you have to hit the power button to get it to come back to the screen you left it on. Anyway. Last Friday night I decided to turn it off. And as I was clicking on the buttons to do so, into my mind flashed the paraphrased verse, "There shall be a Sabbath of rest for the computer of Andrea." Hee hee hee. It still makes me laugh! My subconscious is hilarious. I guess that wouldn't be my subconscious, actually, since it dawned on my consciousness. Well, whatever it is that puts funny ideas into my mind out of the blue is hilarious!

Then, driving home from school yesterday I was listening to NPR (I don't have a CD player right now, and was sick of sports radio; i.e. I was desperate, okay?). Apparently there is an NPR program called "Open Source." Instantly the whatever-it-is-that-puts-funny-ideas-into-my-mind suggested Open Sores as a possible alternate title. Quite appropriate, if you think about it.

I am going to kick myself. I had a third hilarious thing to relate and now I can't remember it for the life of me! Grrrrr. It's probably just as well, since I'm sure these things are much funnier to me than they are to anyon

I REMEMBERED IT!!!

Okay, so you know how I'm just finishing teaching Macbeth and am in the midst of teaching Hamlet? Well this morning I was driving to work and thought, "Ay, this likes not me." This likes not me?!?! Um, I think you mean "I don't like this," Andrea. Snap out of the Shakespeare talk!

It reminds me of the Calvin and Hobbes in which Calvin and his mom are going back and forth in Elizabethan language for awhile, and then in the last frame you see they're watching some such movie together, which is totally captivating the mom and totally revolting poor Calvin:)

Ahhhh, I love Shakespeare.

Speaking of which, the teacher with whom I share my room thinks Shakespeare's plays were written by Sir Francis Bacon (HA!). The students got us into a minor confrontation on the subject (which I totally won, by the way... I think), and this fellow-teacher told me he had been reluctant to broach the subject with me because he knew how much I loved Shakespeare and "it would be like telling you I saw your boyfriend at the mall with another girl."

Well actually, sir, this wouldn't bother me because it obviously wouldn't be true, just like it's not true that Shakespeare's plays were written by Bacon!

Case closed.

Post over.

(That was fun!)

Some Sabbath Thoughts

It has been impressed on me over and over in the past several months how intensely personal the Christian life must be.

Last February, when I was in GA with Diane, Uncle Dave had a wonderful mid-week meeting along these lines. He talked about "the secret place" - that hidden place in which our souls commune with God. And he talked about the white stone given to the overcomer, on which a name is written that only God and the overcomer know. He connected the two ideas, hypothesizing that the relationship we form in secret with God is the basis for that secret name, as if the name captures the essence of the relationship between that soul and God. I love that.

It made me think of C.S.Lewis' "The Four Loves" in which he talks about friendships, and how, when two people are friends there are three identities: friend one, friend two, and the relationship between friend one and friend two. Fascinating thought. So with God. The relationship I have with God is an entity totally unique from any other entity.

And as I prayed, a few months ago, for revival and vision in the church, I realized so clearly that in praying that way I wasn't praying for a church that had incredible Sunday services in which everyone was crying and shouting hallelujahs and never disagreeing about anything. I was praying for individuals to catch a fresh glimpse of Jesus, and follow after Him with their whole hearts - totally in love with Him and desirous of His will. A church of individuals whose eyes are fixed on Jesus. And it was very real to me that in praying for revival in the church, I needed to start with praying for my own relationship with God to take on new and vibrant life.

And since those thoughts started percolating in my mind I've run across SO many Oswald Chambers quotes along the same lines. (And I will now take this opportunity to HIGHLY recommend the Oswald Chambers one-year Bible: "My Utmost Devotional Bible." So good.) I know it's hard to read quoted work sometimes, but believe me, this is well worth it!

"It is not sufficient to know that God has redeemed the world, and to know that the Holy Spirit can make all that Jesus did effectual in me; I must have the basis of a personal relationship to Him. Paul was not given a message or a doctrine to proclaim, he was brought into a vivid, personal, overmastering relationship to Jesus Christ... Paul was devoted to a Person not a cause. He was absolutely Jesus Christ's, he saw nothing else, he lived for nothing else."

"Abandon in the profound sense if of infinitely more value than personal holiness. Personal holiness brings the attention to bear on my own whiteness... The holiness produced through the indwelling of the His Son in me is a holiness which is never conscious of itself. There are some people in who you cannot find a speck and yet they are not abundantly blessed of God, while others make grave indiscretions and get marvelously blessed; the reason being that the former have become devotees of personal holiness, conscientious to a degree; the latter are marked by abandonment to God. The only way to be kept cleansed is by walking in the light as God is in the light."

"The battle is lost or won in the secret places of the will before God, never first in the external world... That is the way abandonment begins. Every now and again, not often, but sometimes, God brings us to a point of climax. That is the Great Divide in the life; from that point we either go toward a more and more dilatory and useless type of Christian life, or we become more and more ablaze for the glory of God - My Utmost for His Highest."

I started writing this post without knowing where it would go... But I probably should have guessed

It is not Kimberly's birthday anymore. It is, however, parent-teacher conference day! And consequently, since I had only three conferences, I am home from school waaaaay early. I love conference day!

There are some incredible parents at my school. I haven't had to deal with any of the "oh my child is an angel - the bad grade must be your fault" types. They are supportive parents, and great to work with. Hurrah for Christian schools!

I came home with three video versions of Macbeth. I will be watching them for a large part of the afternoon, deciding which version will be best for my kids to watch. My life is so hard.

I had my students write out what they thought of Macbeth, and 3 out of 4 of them hated it. Hm. The class is four 9th grade boys, so it's not like it was my upper level or anything. But I was still surprised. (Boy #4, by the way, got an insane amount of brownie points for liking it!) Who hates Macbeth?!?! Part of me was sad, because if I had taught it better they might have liked it better. And part of me was annoyed because of my suspicion that one of the boys' very negative attitude influenced the other two. Grrrr. I sense an attitude peptalk/lecture coming up!

So I'll just add my little exhortation here (warning: preaching to the choir coming up!). Be one of those people who makes things go. Go into whatever you do, especially if it involves a group, with a positive attitude. It makes such a difference for everyone else! And it's scary how much one bad attitude can poison a group.

In other news, I'm reading Hamlet with my older group, and they're loving it! And, what's more (perhaps) they're understanding it! I was so overjoyed yesterday when the whole class was laughing - really laughing - at Polonius and his way of talking. Yay! Way to understand Shakespeare's sense of humor! That class is so awesome.

And while I'm in the midst of Lit updates, since I guess that's what this post has turned into, my 7/8 girls told me yesterday that Jane Eyre is the best book they'd ever read in a literature class. HURRAH!!!

Man, I love teaching lit.

Happy Birthday KJ!

Today is Kimberly's birthday!

I, for one, am so glad she was born. She is a wonderful sister and friend - a wonderful girl. And here she is, away from home for her birthday. And she's having a great day! I talked to her on the phone and she was so chipper and happy... she is amazing.

In fact, she's been amazing throughout this FL business. Who would have thought the youngest would go so far away? But she has been thriving! I can't even express how proud of her I am. She is forging her own way - being so responsible and grown-up - and she's having fun doing it! She is taking college maturely - even going to a professor's office to chat about how WRONG he had been in class. The two had tea together and talked for an hour or more. She's doing good work, she's learning, and she's enjoying it. And I'm SO IMPRESSED!

That's not all that impresses me about KJ - add to the above her response to God, her courage, her poise, her beauty, her sense of humor, her ability to make whatever she's doing a party:), her friendships, her intellect, her just plain old awesomeness!

So happy birthday, Kimberly! I love you!

EXTRAVAGANZA!!!

Melissa here...back from semi-retirement, once again glad that I glommed onto Andrea's blog instead of creating my own. But this week was rather momentous for several reasons, so here I am.

Numero Uno: I got into my very first real car accident yesterday. Yay! How blogworthy! Ugh. I was on my way to class and got stuck in traffic -- the kind where the car in front of you moves up 10 feet, then you move, then they move, then you move, then they stop moving, and then you keep moving. Just took my eyes off the road for a second, and WHAM! Suddenly the rather large pickup in front of me looked a whole lot larger, and my brain slowly registered the fact that this was no slight tap of the bumpers. Thankfully the guy in the truck was fine -- in fact, he was incredibly nice ("don't worry about it... these things happen."). There was just a slight dent in his bumper and some cracked undercarriage parts. I was also fine, besides my crumpling nerves. Unfortunately, my nerves were not all that was crumpled. Waaaaah! The truck's bumper was high enough to pretty much take out my lights, grill, and the front of my hood. It looks like my car was punched in the face -- a very sorry sight. A situation like this creates such a helpless (and utterly stupid) feeling! One second before, the hood was shiny and intact; then suddenly it wasn't. Surely there must be a way to go back that tiny amount of time and make it go away. But sadly, life sure doesn't work that way. So I was left to feel foolish and shaken up, and then get rescued by so many heroes: my mom (only a few minutes away at the time), the nice truck guy, the cop (um, actually he was a little annoying), Uncle Dave, who got me over to the shop and hooked me up with new wheels in no time (sure is nice to have connections), and my dad, who got home that night and flooded me with love and immediate forgiveness (and a few exaggerated [I hope] estimates of how much it would cost to repair the thing). Such undeserved grace! I really am very thankful that it wasn't worse. It reminded me of how easy it is for such things to happen, and how much protection God really provides on a daily basis. And boy howdy, I was so careful on the way home it felt like it was my first day with a driver's permit.

Okay, so that's not the main reason I'm posting. You probably all skipped that first part anyway if you saw there were pictures below. I'M ONTO YOUR GAME! Man alive, people have no attention spans these days. Anyway, on Monday I officially signed the next 3 semesters of my life away to the art department. BFA FOR ME!!! (Bachelor of Fine Arts, to those who see only in IM-ese and thought I was saying Best Friends Always or something). I had to apply to get accepted into the program, which will theoretically lead to a studio art degree rather than the more generalized B.A. I had to gather my best pieces from current and past classes and present a portfolio for the faculty to review. Lil scary. But, hallelujah, I got in! And I got some positive feedback from my professors and even from a couple of the awe-inspiring senior painters... that always feels good. I really can't believe I've gotten to this point. Basically God has opened door after door over the past couple of years and gently shoved me through them. Suddenly here I am in my junior year, hardly knowing what happened, with a goal and the means to reach it (or at least head in that direction). I'm amazed at what God has done. I still don't know what the final result will be, but right now I'm grateful.

I know several of you more far-flung friends (FFF)have been wanting to see some of my work, so I figured I'd post a few pictures. They came out a little dark and oddly sepia-toned, but you'll get the idea.

First, here's my studio, in all its cluttered splendor. I thought about cleaning it before I revealed it to the world, but that wouldn't really be a true picture, now would it? Notice the spectacular lighting, thanks to the magic of the traveling A's (all these pictures actually came out quite dark, so illuminate times 10 in your imagination).

Here are a couple of drawings from last year. They're done with ripped paper textured with ink and charcoal and such kind of thing. Anyone recognize the above image? (hint: place)

And here are some of my paintings. The first one is, um, a still life with bottles (thanks to Uncle J, who happens to dig up some really cool ones).

This is Uncle L.'s skull (uncles sure are popping up a lot in this post). Not literally his, of course, but he happened to have an extra one kicking around that he let me borrow. At first it was a little freaky being locked up in the cellar with this thing (especially since that was before the days of spectacular lighting).

And here's one from this semester. We've been working on quicker, more gestural stuff a lot.

And that's all for now. Thanks for listening.

A Good Revelation for a New Englander to Have

Guess what I just realized this year: I really love autumn! (I was going to say I love the fall, but I was afraid that could be misunderstood...)

I've always been a spring/summer girl, myself. How could I help it? Weather getting warmer, flowers blooming... no school. But this year I have been struck over and over again by how beautiful the fall is.

There is the foliage, of course. I've noticed the beauty of the leaves repeatedly. But it's not just that. There's something bracing and invigorating about the briskness of the air, for instance. Maybe intense is the word I want. Everything feels sharp and alive. It's a very different kind of alive from that alive feeling of spring... but it is an alive feeling none the less. And this quality of the air makes the nights so clear. Like the night has come into focus.

Also, there is an amazing blueness of the sky that autumn has more than any other season. The contrast between leaves and sky can be breathtaking.

And now, even after the leaves have all fallen, I still love the season. The air is getting that Christmas tenor to it. I take a deep breath and think of the warmth of the Christmas season. No doubt about it, I am a new convert to this fall business.

And it probably helps, too, that fall is no longer "I have to go back to high school" time, but rather "I get to start teaching again!" time:)

Portland Head at Sunrise

I found this picture on line and thought it was astonishing. I love the breaking dawn - the way the darkness is giving way before the light.

It's coming, friends...

hgjlk

Climax Reached!

NOTE: Those who have not read Jane Eyre should NOT read this post!!! Instead you should go directly to the library, check the book out, read it cover to cover, and then return and read this post.

I have been holding my breath since September 12 or so (which is a very long time to be holding one's breath - that's got to be some kind of record), when I started reading Jane Eyre with my class. I was paranoid lest someone spoil the surprise for my students!

I distinctly remember the how surprised and horrified I was the first time I read that book: the feeling as if all the wind had been knocked right out of me, the total shock and dismay, the sense of going through that darkness with Jane, thinking nothing can possibly work out right now.

And I really wanted my students to be able to remember a similar feeling! With the accompanying feelings that come at the end of the book, of course. But my wishes for my kids were in constant peril, as chronicled below:

September 14: Headmaster walks through the classroom, sees the book the kids are reading, and asks "Oh! Have you reached the part with the locked up woman yet?"

September 30: I realize that the high school students have read this book several years ago, and that they love to give away endings to each other...

October 15: Headmaster's son (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, Marilla!) asks one of my students if the ex-wife has showed up yet. (Fortunately I'm able to later assure said student that headmaster's son had it all wrong - thank goodness for monosyllabic prefixes!)

October 23: Fellow-teacher says, "Oh the person who laughs wasn't Grace Poole!" (And then, much to his credit, he realizes the students haven't read that far yet and adds:) "It was the butler!"

October 24: I mention to my high school students that we're about to get to the climax in my Jane Eyre class. They cannot stop joking about giving the story away. I impress, very deeply, the fact that I do not wish them to do this. I think they understand. But I can't be totally sure.

October 25: I read aloud the chapter about the wedding at last! The students are shocked, and questions fly so think and fast that I can't even finish the chapter. Incredulity and understanding hit all at once. SUCCESS!!!!!!

I begin to breath again.

October 26: The students are still incredulous, and keep giving Jane not-quite-morally-sound advice about what she should do (here's a new one - "They should just put Bertha out of her misery! And then they should get married!" A short but interesting - and slightly disturbing - discussion about euthanasia follows). We get to the end of the period and the wails of anguish when I say we have to stop are enough to persuade me to get permission to read more to them during their lunch period! Five of seven (the five girls, surprisingly enough) opted to stay.

What a fabulous success! I can't wait to finish the book now...

This Just In...

Salad is more palatable if eaten with one's hands!

Perhaps part of my deep loathing of salad springs from my inability to get the stuff onto my fork.

Sadly, conventions of acceptable societal behavior may put a damper on my latest discovery.

The Two Happiest Teaching Moments of my Life

The first of the happiest moments of my teaching life came last year, sometime around the first day of school, right after my first class, when I realized, "I LOVE this! I was MADE for this!"

The second of the two happiest moments of my teaching life came today. I was talking with the headmaster, whose son is in my senior class. They had just gone down to PA for a college visit. The headmaster said, "Andrea, have you heard what my son's been telling people? You're not going to believe this. This is going to floor you. We got down there to PA, and the people asked what he was thinking about going into. And he said Literature."

!!!

Let me try to tell you what this meant to me. I was awake in the night, two and a half years ago, wondering what in the world I was going to do with my life. I realized that teaching was all I could see myself doing career-wise. I had discovered how much I loved literature that semester. And I couldn't imagine anything better than being able to stay immersed in it all my life, and passing on that love to other people. That was what I wanted to do with a teaching career: inspire others to want to find the beauty I had found - show people the possibilities and the richness there.

When my headmaster told me that news, my cup was full! THAT is why I had become a teacher. And I realized in that moment, very concretely, that that vision I'd had was being realized. What an amazing moment!

The Jane Eyre Mystery

I'm teaching Jane Eyre to my 7th and 8th graders, and I'm having a ball with it! The following tale is based on a real class... We just read the chapter in which someone sets fire to Mr. Rochester's bed. We got to the end of the chapter, where Mr. Rochester tenderly thanks Jane with her hand in both of his, and then I started asking the questions. "What is up with this Grace Poole character?!"

You should have HEARD the hypotheses that flew about thick and fast. We started with the more expected:

"Maybe she's crazy!"

"Maybe she's evil!"

"Maybe she knows something about Mr. Rochester, and if he fires her she'll tell everyone, so he can't get rid of her."

I write blackmail on the board.

And THEN...

"I know! She didn't really do it - the other servant, Leah, paid her to go by Jane's room and laugh and then leave, and then Leah did it!" (Motive? Um, no.)

"It was probably MRS. FAIRFAX (the very docile, ordinary old housekeeper), because she was distantly related and maybe she would inherit Thornfield!"

"Maybe Mrs. Pool has someone locked up in the attic!" (Miss Murray laughs in what she hopes will be perceived as a how-cute-of-you-to-be-so-far-wrong way, and not a nervous how-in-the-world-did-you-hit-upon-that way.)

"Or MAYBE Mrs. Pool is really Celine, the French dancer, Adele's mom, that Mr. Rochester used to love. And she's pretending to be crazy and she's so good at it Mr. R doesn't even know it is she!" (Actually, none of my kids would say "it is she." sigh.)

"It was probably Pilot (the dog)."

"It was the wife of the guy Mr. Rochester shot in the arm long ago, and she's come back to get revenge!"

"No, guys, it's always the person you don't suspect. It was probably Mr. Rochester himself!"

And then came the crowning moment of the class:

"I know. Guys, I know. Mr. Rochester just did it so he could have an excuse to hold Jane's hand." (Gales of laughter. Order never restored. Teacher laughing too hard to try. Class over.)

The Really Real

This week I've run into a few negative interpretations of religion.

In a tv show two people were discussing prayer. One said we thank God for things not because it does anything for Him (the speaker didn't even believe there was a God), but because it was good for us to express that feeling of thankfulness. Hm. The other said we thank God for things because we don't want to be squished like bugs. Nice.

Then, in bloggerdom, I saw a comment about religion being something man has created because of his own ego - he wants to think his ego can connect on with something that will last forever. Cheery.

And I just want to scream "PEOPLE! You're MISSING SO MUCH!!!"

All week long, since last weekend's awesome experience with the Holy Spirit, I've been thinking about how wonderful it is to dwell on the things that really matter - the things that are really REAL. It is so good to focus on the things that are high and lasting and right, instead of being absorbed with the trivial and temporary.

And I was thinking about other people who don't even know of this whole realm - the realm that is so much more real and lasting than what they see around them. My prayers for the removal of the covering (aided in inspiration by Craig's comments about being a prayer warrior even in the little prayers) have taken on new life. How dreadful to go through life without experiencing reality! It's as if a bunch of people are walking around with only half of their lungs, so that they can never breath deeply. It's like unsaved humanity can only see in black and white, or have no taste buds, or something... only so much more so. There is SO much MORE!

I breath in, deeply, the air of reality. I rejoice that God has allowed me to see Him and His truth - and I pray it out to the rest of humanity. I want them to break through the thin veneer on which they live their lives, and fall into the rich depths of what life is really about: the REALLY real!

God is huge - He is everything good - He is the meaning - He is the purpose - He is the most real reality. He has set up the world to be enjoyed in this context: that He is GOD! So let's live our lives in that context - experiencing all the good He has given us in this life - and looking forward to the time when what is really real is all we see, and the trivial, superficial, and transient are gone forever. And let's believe for others to get the reality too!

Praise the Lord for TRUTH!

Sept 30, 2006

By now you’ve probably read, on Craig’s or Derrick’s blog, about last Saturday night’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Here I am at last, with teacher training tomorrow and thus no lesson plans tonight (!), to weigh in on the matter.

It seemed to me a time of great import. It was a unified surrender of self to all that God has for us. It was a joint outpouring of our desire for God, for vision, for His highest. It was a time unlike any I’ve experienced before, in terms of being with a group of peers seeking God in that way. I found myself real and open, uninhibited, as I talked to God, despite the fact that so many others were listening. That was the Holy Spirit.

And I believe God heard us and is answering. Actually, I think we were the ones who were answering His call. But when we called to Him in response, He answered us and worked and is continuing to work, continuing to call us higher.

And I want to go. What else is there? What else would we possibly want to waste our time with except the highest and best – that for which we were created.

And I’m anticipating great things. God doesn’t work at random – everything He does is moving us toward that final goal of history. What happened that night happened for a reason. God prepared us for that, and what happened was preparation for something else… I keep thinking about the impact a group of people totally committed to God and to His will could have. Who knows what God has planned?! It is as if He is building a force for something. And I’m in.

I don’t know what it is, exactly. All I know is that I want to be totally His – totally surrendered – totally taken up with Him. And He'll do the rest.

Of course, emotions don’t last and the high fades. But the truth of the matter continues on – the vision is still there – the desire to deal only with what’s real remains. Whatever I do, I want to be close to Him, and furthering His Kingdom.

And that’s where it starts. As we give ourselves to Him, He can use us. So, readers, I encourage you to think about what really matters, and give yourselves again to His cause. It doesn’t have to be an emotional thing, even – just a conscious assent to His will is incredibly powerful. I am praying for new life all over the Kingdom – for an entire church with the passion to be His and only His, to see Him and only Him, to pursue Him and Him alone.

I believe this is possible, and that, if and when it happens, the power of such a movement will be immeasurable. So let’s turn to God and see what He will do! This is what really matters.

Across the Sea

I am sailing, I am sailing,
Home again 'cross the sea.
I am sailing, stormy waters,
To be near you, to be free.

-Gavin Sutherland










And, doubtless, unto thee is given
A life that bears immortal fruit
In those great offices that suit
The full-grown energies of heaven...

But thou and I have shaken hands,
Till growing winters lay me low;
My paths are in the fields I know,
And thine in undisover'd lands.

Tennyson, In Memoriam, XL

My Latest Games...

After having two people from school comment on my driving (specifically my tactic of weaving about through various lanes of traffic on the highway), I decided it was time to do something about it. One never knows when one will be spotted by someone from one's work world. Sigh. So recently I've been playing this game called "patience." It's actually quite entrancing! Finally I begin to understand children's attraction to The Quiet Game. I always assumed they were just a little too, um, immature to realize that the game was merely to keep them from driving adults crazy. But they may be on to something. It really is entertaining to spend time doing something contrary to nature! I calmly drive down the road, sticking with one lane, and shaking my head and sighing condescendingly about that young hot-head who is weaving about through lanes of traffic trying to save himself one extra minute. These silly impatient drivers. Someday maybe they will be as mature and peaceful as I am, serenely gliding down the highway.

The other game I've been playing is the "be more like Danny" game. It's great fun. You pretend that you have the work ethic of your older brother, so you work like a slave all week on lesson plans and essay grading. The reason this is a game is because you're pretending that you're doing the work in order to be as good a teacher as your brother, but really you're doing it because you have absolutely no choice - the amount of work is the bare minimum for survival now that you are teaching this many classes.

In other news (lest we forget) I LOVE TEACHING!!!

Okay, who told the Chinese?

It's so nice having TJ home - it means we eat Chinese food more:) And last weekend, I got a fortune cookie that made me reflect on deep life truths. Or deep life questions, rather. Like, who told the Chinese about me? Which of my friends and relations is the mole?!

My fortune was "You will find yourself in a position of dignity in the end." HA! You keep trying to be grown up and dignified, but we fortune cookie writers know that you are fighting a losing battle. You?! Dignified?! (giggle giggle) But hey, don't worry. You might be dignified by the time you DIE! (If you're lucky.) (more giggles)

Today one of my students told me that her mother said I bring sunshine to the school... you can hear me all through the halls. Oh. Great!

Well, here's hoping for that dignity in the end...

Confrontation? Not Today!

This morning I got a text message from one of my student's moms (the one who really befriended me last year - I love her!), saying she was sorry to bother me, but she needed to ask me a question.

Uh oh, I thought, here it comes. Her daughter had not completed her summer assignments, and I had told her that she could either tell her mom she was starting the semester with three zeros, or I would have to call her myself. From the text message I surmised that the daughter had told the mother, the mother was upset, and the mother wanted to talk me into some kind of excessive grace or something.

But I texted her back and told her she wasn't bothering me and to go ahead and ask. She texted me back: "[re: the logic puzzle I'd given her daughter in class the day before] Who really did steal the art picture, Charlie or Bill?!"

Hee hee hee. I was vastly relieved and told her it was Charlie. How cute!

And now, with that lovely segue into the subject of school (HA! What else do I ever blog about during the year?!), I am happy to report that things are going fabulously. Last night I was reflecting on the difference between this Friday and last Friday. Last Friday I was a mess, worried about the work load, hating the prospect of Rhetoric class, sure I would never survive. (Incidentally, when I start feeling like that I love quoting "The Princess Bride" at the part where Westley and Buttercup are about to enter the Fireswamp and Buttercup says "We'll never survive," in that beautiful English accent. Hm. Obviously I can't be too despairing if I am still quoting TPB... Oh well. It was pretty despairing for the likes of me.)

This Friday I came home wicked tired, but also happy with how the classes had gone, how I'd handled them (I felt so good-teacher-y because I went the extra mile, in trying to explain truth, validity, and soundness in my logic class, by bringing in a diagram and a visual aid made with legos!), and how the future looked. That talk with my headmaster made such a difference, as did getting further into the groove. I'm going to have to work hard, harder than last year, but not nearly as hard as I envisioned (burning the midnight oil - not a moment's free time - all that jazz). It's going to be okay, thank the Lord!

And this week, I had many of those moments where I thought to myself, or even said aloud: "I LOVE TEACHING!!!"

My Style of Conflict Resolution: Everyone Agree with Me!

This morning I was grumpy as all get-out, bewailing my overworked state. But by afternoon I was blissfully saying I had the best job in the world. What made the difference? The world's BEST headmaster!

Friday afternoon I suddenly realized that Rhetoric class was going to be totally boring and a waste of time and energy. This is not a realization one wants to reach at the beginning of a school year. So I generally panicked, and then started casting about for alternate curriculum.

This afternoon, with fear and trepidation, I sat down with my headmaster and told him I wanted to scrap the curriculum and replace it with a new one. And he listened! And (gasp) agreed! He was totally on my side. Isn't that amazing?! As an employee, I felt like my boss was really behind me, and wanted me to succeed. Now that was a good thing to realize at the beginning of a school year. He is really a good man. Bless his heart! He just saved my santity. It's amazing what the losing of a horrible class and the gaining of a fascinating one will do for my morale!

An Exciting Win, says you...

A Change in the Wind, Says I!

"It's Only a Game"

That has to be one of my most-despised phrases of all time. And for some reason, I always tend to hear it when it is the least true! It is NOT just a game! Well, okay, technically, definition-wise, it is just a game. Not a llama. Or a compound sentence. It is not a game AND a pistachio. It is just a game. That much I can accept.

But we all know that when somebody says, complacently or conciliatorily, "it's only a game," the implication is, "it doesn't matter." "Only" means "merely." "Only" means "I can't believe you care about something this insignificant." "Only" means "why don't you get an interest like world peace or something that really matters?" "Only" means "you are an inferior human being for even thinking about caring." Humph. Only, forsooth!

The phrase is invariably used by someone who is not a fan, or not an athlete, and is directed toward someone who is very much one or the other or both, and almost always when the team that the latter is supporting is losing in the playoffs or something. At the point where the fan is at his most tense - the team is at the do-or-die point - history is in the balance.

It is not "merely" a game. It is a CONTEST. It is a CHAMPIONSHIP. It is VICTORY at stake. There is a lot more to a game than it's definition - than the fact that what is being achieved isn't affecting the economy or the state of the Middle East. In a game there is the striving after perfection, the pitting of the best in the world against the best in the world, the attaining of things no one else has ever attained. It is a team - a group of men who have been seeking the same goal, together. It is a fan-base: people who have watched history unfolding with bated breath, and with passionate interest. There is a LOT to a game! It's not just a couple of hoops and a ball that bounces. That's almost like simplifying the Mid East conflict into a couple of guns and a line in the sand. There's a lot more to it than that! Similarly, there is a lot more at stake in a championship game than "only a game."

So, folks, let's not trivialize the role of the game in America. Let's not forget the lessons games teach, the character they build, the inspiration they give, the perfection they demand. "Games" is a word with which the word "ONLY" should never be coupled!

(And no, nobody said this to me recently - something innocuous just reminded me of it, and I thought it would be of utmost blog-worthiness.)

First Day of Teacher Training

The first day back was great! I was practically giddy: as sociable as I come. Well, nearly. Anyway, I guess I was happy to be back.

I met the new teacher, and he seems really nice. But, since we didn't get that third teacher, he might be the homeroom teacher for the 7th and 8th grade, which means I might not even share a room! Weird! But fun! If it means I don't have to oversee the 7th and 8th grade clean-up in their room at the end of the day I will click my heels for joy (or something). That was the worst part of last year. Well, that and having to confess that it was me, and not one of my 7th grade girls, who had just screamed like that.

Today we learned Logic. It was great fun. As a Classical school, we teach Logic, and our headmaster decided it would probably be good if all the teachers (even those for the younger grades) knew some logic, so we could all be heading our students in the same direction. Hear hear! I really enjoyed the day - it was so much better than hearing about what the ideal teacher is like, and feeling like I was up to about 1% of that ideal. Bring on the logic! Plus, I'll be teaching it this year, so it's great review for what I learned this summer in preparation (as well as some new stuff!).

Most of all I had fun setting up my posters. I have decorated this post with copies of two of the poster I have hanging in my room now! Beautious, eh?

Overworked and Underpaid (but still loving it!)

Okay, here is my sob story (which I'm not sobbing about):

My school was going to hire another jr high / high school teacher. Good. We needed one. HOWEVER, somehow that fell through. SO, the other teacher and I are totally picking up the slack. Oy vay. I am going to be teaching SO many classes!

I was all set to do British Literature for the 11th and 12th grades, as well as general Lit for the 9th grade. I was also planning on Logic (hee hee hee), possibly for two levels, as well as Rhetoric (for two levels, but during one class time - one-room school house syle). Okay, good. I was feeling like that was quite manageable. Oh, typing too, but that really doesn't require a lot from me since it's just Mavis Beacon.

THEN I got this e-mail from the headmaster asking me to call him asap. Call him I did, with an elevated pulse. The conversation did nothing to lower my blood pressure. "How do you feel about math?" He asked me. "Umm, I think that it is evil in number form." No, actually I said "I can handle low-level math, but I never went beyond Algebra II..." "Okay, do you think you can teach Algebra I?" "Sure!" (That last statement was made in a fit of insanity. No, I think I can really do it, as long as the real math teacher can help me out a little...")

We discussed some other possibilities, and then he popped in a little, "By the way, I think you're getting your 7th and 8th grade Lit class back." Here there is a pause, as I reflect back on the fact that I have just spent the whole summer preparing two Lit classes, and have one week to work on this third one. "Ummm, I don't really have any books or anything." "Oh, just teach something you've read before." "Well, okay!" It wasn't like he meant to spring this on my last-minute - it wasn't his fault the teacher decided not to work at our school after all. Sigh. And I'm taking him up on the books you've read before thing: The Hobbit, Tom Sawyer, Jane Eyre, and maybe The Chosen. Fun!

So now I'm teaching EIGHT courses:

*Lit (11th and 12th)
*Lit (9th)
*Lit (7th and 8th)
*Logic (7th)
*Logic (8th and 9th) - this one might be in with the 7th grade logic, or might be scrapped all together, so I might only have 7 courses
*Rhetoric (11th as well as 12th, but in the same period)
*Algebra I
*Typing

QUITE THE LINE-UP, EH? Good grief. But now I have to say that it's really not that bad:) It looks like a lot of fun, and I think it's do-able. For one thing (and this is a big thing) Logic, Rhetoric, and Typing are all just three days a week. So really only four courses are every day. And also, some will take very little preparation ahead of time (like typing and Algebra). So it's not as bad as it initially looks. But I just wanted to make it look as bad as possible for effect:)

Should be quite a year!

Girls Singing Boys' Songs

So here's this dilemma. Some of the most beautiful songs in the world are written from the male perspective. But when I'm rich and famous and cutting 276 CDs a year, I'll be realllly tempted to use the most beautiful songs in the world! Because really, why would you want to cut CDs that didn't have the most beautiful music in the world? I mean, that would be like if you were an incredible writer but chose to write stories about red ponies who die and stuff.

"Danny Boy" for instance is an incredibly beautiful piece. I love singing it at the top of my lungs when the occasion warrants (occasions in which I'm cleaning the house and no one else is home, for example). But really it was written from the father's perspective. Lots of girls sing it, and thus change it to a love song, and it's very pretty. But for me it loses some of its meaning that way. Sigh.

"My Love to My Bride" is one I actually sang at a recital in college. It is another incredibly beautiful one, but really there is no way to make that work. So that one gets the old scratch.

Fortunately for me, and all other females who like to sing, there are also beautiful songs that are written from a female perspective. So all's well there. I don't really have to settle for ugly songs for all of my days...

Anyway, this all came because I was listening to just such a song being sung by a girl on Pandora Internet Radio. PEOPLE! You should check it out! Melissa introduced me to it, and then Penny reminded me of it (Pandora, that is). You type in someone you like, and then you can listen to tons of music in that same style! Right now I'm listening to "Lisa Kelly Radio" and it's beautiful. (Lisa Kelly is one of the "Celtic Woman" singers.) COOL, HUH? I highly recommend it. It can introduce you to all kinds of great new music!

Also, I'm still having a fabu time in GA! I love it down here. We've done some great shopping, some great fellowshipping, some great dining, etc. Oh! And swimming! For like an hour and a half or so last night we had the pool to ourselves and it was such fun. I won the "swim underwater the farthest" contest. Yippee! My calling in life! Today we joined the Adams girls for shopping on the square and had a delightful time. We had fried green tomatoes at the sweet little restaurant there. Success all around. Hurrah for GA!

Happy Birthday to Gretchen!

Today is my big sister's birthday! I love her.

When I was little she was one of my standards of cool-ness.

Now she is one of my standards of Godly-woman-ness.

I admire her devotion to God - her vision for what her life is about - her unselfishness for the sake of her family.

I love being friends with her.

Happy Birthday, Gretchen!

Penny = Superer Woman than Superwoman!

Okay folks. So you see THIS. But I saw the process! Well, not the painting, which was already done, but the hanging of the accessories. And was I ever impressed! I wish you could have been here to see Penny, surrounded by tools, working away with levels and tape measures, hammers and weird tools whose names I didn't even know. She's amazing! I was wicked impressed. She even has her own power drill! You can get much more super-woman-ish than that. This living room is BEAUTIFUL! If I even get a house, I think I'll ask Penny to be the interior decorator. I love her style. Oh, she also makes her own iced coffee! Folks, this girl is goooood. I'm such a fan.

In other (but pretty related) news, I'M IN GA!!! Man, I love this place. Katie and I had a lovely time getting here, except for about 2 hours in NY City and 1 hour in Virginia where we weren't doing very much in the "getting here" department. But actually, even that wasn't too bad, because hey, we were hanging out, and taking a road trip! Okay, I'm lying. NY City stank. But VA was okay:) Anyway, the rest of the trip was fantastic. Katie read "The Ball and the Cross" by G. K. Chesterton out loud to me, and it was fantastic. I HIGHLY recommend it. Funny, great story, great characters, and great point!

Yesterday I joined the youth group for some basketball. After two days of sitting in the car I was ready to move around, and it wasn't too hot (amazingly). So I jumped onto the court and went at it. I was having a fabulous time. I even got some baskets (I was on Zohrab's team which meant that everyone on the team got the ball - yay!). But after awhile my feet were really starting to hurt. I was playing barefoot on the pavement - and this was no ordinary pavement. Very rough. Soon my feet hurt so badly that I had to take a time out to go beg some sneakers off someone.

Lo and behold, after more basketball and some volleyball too, I returned to the Browns to discover that there were large blisters on the bottoms of my feet! Like I say, no ordinary pavement. Both big toes were really scuffed up. Interestingly enough, they scuffed along the toe-print lines. Weird. But the balls of my feet were the worst. They had large, paisly-shaped blisters just below the big toes. Woooo! They are things of beauty. I guess it's from all the rapid changes of direction and such. I don't know. But there they are. Large, red, and squishy.

So since then I've been walking around on my heels and the outside edges of my feet. I feel like a grandmother. A really old one. But it's kind of fun. You should try it! It makes my walking really slow though, so sometimes I kind of run that way in order to catch up with the person I'm walking with. It makes for quite the hobble.

Last night Nate, Penny and I went swimming at the near-by pool (which was empty!). We were walking back to the car, when I commented that I hoped no bad guys came to chase us, because I'd have to just run regularly, and the blisters would have to fend for themselves. Then Nate said cheerfully that he and Penny would be fine - they'd just have to make sure to run a little faster than I could. I told him I didn't like his attitude.

I'm having a wonderful time!

"It could happen!"

Last night Katie and I went bowling. Actually, Katie went bowling and I went to watch her. We only had one pair of socks between us. And the Red Sox game was on, so I wasn't in great need of other entertainment.

I took some sweet video of the occasion on my phone, but alas, I can't get it to transmit. Something is definitely wrong there. I'll have to look into it.

Anyway. I sat there, happily keeping one eye on the tv and one eye on Katie. The result was strange to behold, but fortunately Katie had requested a lane far away from other people, so nobody noticed.

As I watched, I began to notice a strange phenomenon. When the Red Sox did something right, Katie did well, and when they did something bad, she did... um, not so well. Odd, I thought. I pointed it out to Katie. And then it got a little uncanny. Katie got the ball, er, semi-far-from-the-middle, and the pitcher (Hansen) got a ball. Katie got one more middling and Hansen got a strike.

There was definitely some kind of connection there!

But then there was a commercial and I kind of forgot about it. I got absorbed in the games (Katie's and the Red Sox). But THEN it happened. Ortiz was up to bat, and Katie was up to bowl. She strode forward, released, and lo! it was RIGHT down the middle. A PERFECT STRIKE!!!

And I looked up at the screen and Ortiz was trotting around the bases. Trotting? Why YES. He'd just hit a HOMERUN!!!

Oh my word. Stop the presses. Folks, it has become abundantly clear that Katie is the key to success for the Sox. Obviously there is some mystic bond between the two. One cannot succeed without the other. I predict that this year's World Series will occur with Katie in the bowling alley. We need to foster her love of bowling. Take her often. Get her in excellent form. She must bowl the Red Sox to VICTORY!

Hm. On the other hand, she'll probably want to watch the World Series. This could be a problem. Okay, solution: have her bowl many and many a 300 before the WS, in order to get some victory in the bank that the Sox can pull out and use at the opportune moments.

Now if I ONLY had that video to post...

My Confession (which is quite different from Josh Groban's)

I HATE SALAD! There. I've said it. After years of just eating it because it was there, it finally hit me, clearly and undeniably: I simply loath the stuff. I wouldn't mind if I never saw another leaf of it again. I like the veggies fine: tomatoes, green pepper, cucumber... yummmm. But as for the leafy stuff, absolutely no redeeming value. Except for nutritionally, of course, which doesn't count.

Many of my more meritous friends enjoy it, which makes me wonder if perhaps I am missing out. Sometimes, even where there is the option of a hamburger or a quesadilla, they choose it at a restaurant! To me, that is a waste of stomach space that could have been used more efficiently, and pleasurably.

I don't see any way out of this vicious salad-loathing cycle. Every time I convince myself that it's good for me, and try some, I am reminded all the more vigorously of why I do not like it, and I am all the more hardened in my anti-salad stance. It is not for me to munch upon the green and leafy.

Now if they would come up with CHOCOLATE lettuce, that would be a different story!