Regaining Sanity One Laugh at a Time

I have a fellow teacher, named Bev, who is an absolute treasure. She's southern, with a fantastic sense of humor, an easy-going personality, and a non-intimidating conversational style. We totally clicked, very early in the year. I love her! She's the science/math teacher, so, as you will know if you read my last entry, she is the one who was out last Monday.

The catch is, she asked her husband to call the school to let the headmaster know, and her husband forgot to do so. Consequently, no one knew where she was. Calling her cell phone wasn't working, and we didn't know her home phone number. Despite my generally optimistic outlook, I couldn't help wondering if something awful had happened and she was dead or something. I was relieved to see her the next morning.

Today was parent/teacher conference day (yes, these two things will tie together eventually). I only had ONE conference scheduled, so the day was practically a day off for me (I lead a charmed life). I popped in to talk to Bev after my conference, and we ended up having the best chat ever!

And in the midst of said chat, I had a very "Tuesdays with Maurie" moment, because I remembered that during that past Monday, when I thought she was dead or something, I was really horrified at the thought that I'd never let her know how much she meant to me. So I told her the story of how I thought she was dead (with a lot of laughter on both sides), and then I told her how much she has helped me this year.

Being a first year teacher, I'm still getting used to my co-workers as well as the way things work at the school. In recent months my patience has been short when it comes to some personality quirks and people's blunt ways of approaching things. I grit my teeth in the teacher's lounge much more often than I do in the classroom. But what has helped me immensely is Bev's approach. Over and over my blood pressure would be rising, and I would hear her laugh. I would suddenly realize that I don't have to be irritated by this! I could laugh it off! The personality clashes were becoming a big deal in my mind, and she saved my life repeatedly. She is like oil on troubled waters: a peacemaker without even knowing it.

As I told this to Bev, she seemed quite surprised, as well as happy to hear it. She told me that her first year at the school she'd also had a hard time dealing with the other teachers. But it got better once she adjusted. And then she blessed me so much by telling me that she had noticed I was bothered a couple of times when things were said to me (this kind of scared me, actually, because I thought I hid it pretty well. She and I are pretty similar in some ways, though, so maybe that has something to do with it.), and she had prayed for me those days! Can you believe it?! It was my turn to be surprised and happy. I had no idea she'd prayed for me! I had a secret ally!

I came out of the room loving her even more than when I'd walked in. I passed on a compliment to her, and got back a whole new understanding of God's goodness in providing us with people like that.

Just wanted to share my happy tale:)

Speaking of Choosing a New Identity...

WHO AM I?!?! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OLD ME!?

What brought on this identity crisis, you may ask. Well. I will tell you. Monday I got back from Spring Break to the news that the math teacher was out, and I was the lucky one who was subbing for her. I walked into class expecting to monitor a study hall, and found lesson plans instead. And then... (gasp) I TAUGHT MATH. And what's more, I really enjoyed it.

Really!

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

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Here I was, I who had disparaged math for so many years, enjoying the fact that parallel lines intersected by a transversal always create equal angles at points 2, 4, 6, and 8. Always! I think what got me was the absolute-ness of it all. There's no saying, "Welllll, you could have phrased that better" on a math problem. It's either right or wrong. But even better was the whole mystery solving part of it all. You get this weird picture of lines all crisscrossing each other, with only a few angles filled in, and by breaking it down into smaller parts you can fill in the missing angles bit by oh-so-sure bit. Wow! What a treat!

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My school is looking for a new math teacher next year (since our present one's husband is being restationed. Waaaaah!). Maybe I should apply! Of course, I can't promise any ability past about the seventh grade level, but still...

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Hurrah for the discovery of new delights!

Craig's Recital!!!

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(words won't do it justice)
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But it might be close to say: PRAISE THE LORD!
And: Yay Craig!

FRIEND!

I found this picture on another blog, and it might be totally weird to post a stranger's personal picture on my blog (if any of you blog etiquette people are screeching in horror, let me know and I can take it off). But the reason I snagged it is this: this is a picture of a game of Catch Phrase, and LOOK at the GIRL! BOTH hands over her mouth. She had ANDREA SYNDROME (n. the irresistable urge to help out the other team if you figure out the answer before they do). Obviously the guy is guessing, and the girl is trying with all her might to refrain from Andrea Syndrome. Hee hee hee. I AM NOT ALONE!!!

Choose your own Identity

????



I was just going to comment on Penny's blog when I spotted something that made me forsake it to come over and post on my own (sorry Penny! I did love those Easter eggs a lot!). What I spotted, or rather what finally registered on my brain, was the little phrase "choose an identity." (Side note: speaking of registering on brains, during our shopping day I said to Katie, seemingly out of the blue, "Yes! You should go to a Red Sox game!" This was because the night before she had said how she needed to get to one some day. And it took about 18 hours to finally sink in! Oy vay.) Anyway, finally the phrase "choose an identity" caught my attention, and amused me. Cool! I can comment as anyone I want to!

I could choose someone else's identity if I wanted to. I might decide to comment as Shakespeare and be wicked eloquent. Or maybe Gerard Manly Hopkins and sound really, really complex yet beautiful. Or I could comment as Ann Coulter and sound incredibly biting but smart. Perhaps I should choose a generic athlete and say the same exact trite phrases again and again no matter what the post is about.

Or, I could choose an identity with a totally different personality. No longer would I be easy going and people pleasing. I could come out with rude and blunt statements. Or I could be totally shallow, and treat everything as a huge joke, no matter how meaningful the post was. Perhaps I should be an ultra-blond and miss every point.

Speaking of ultra-blonds, perhaps I could choose an identity that is based on stereotypes! I could comment as a southerner, a liberal, a hick, a "person of ethnicity."

And speaking of "persons of ethnicity," I could post as someone who embraces every aspect of political correctness! Now that would be a fascinating experiment. I could take offense at so many things that weren't in the least offensive.

The possibilities are endless! Blogs are so much fun!

The Shopping Extravaganza!

I am taking a little break from my preparation for teaching Greek Philosophy next week (and the week after) to proclaim to the world that I (the one who gets incredibly frustrated after 1 hour of shopping) spent MOST of the day yesterday in the most productive pursuit of clothes I've had in ages! Maybe ever!

Katie and I, weeks ago, decided to do a shopping day together, in hopes of finding something suitable to wear to Fritha's wedding (a.k.a Jeff's wedding, in case you were confused). Both of us also needed warm weather clothes.

I was driving Mrs. L home from church Sunday, and told her that we were hoping to find lots of beautiful, cheap, modest clothes. She laughed.

And indeed, as I awoke on the morning of the BIG DAY I barely dared to hope that we would come away with anything. Many's the time I spent hunting, hunting, hunting to come away with 1 item or less. But we piled into the car in good spirits nonetheless. Katie, I should add, is not a big shopper either. Somehow both of us missed out on that part of the feminine stereotype.

We arrived in Wrentham, MA, where there are a bazillion outlet stores, an hour later. We began the dance: into the store, circle around, shrug your shoulders or raise your eyebrows, out of the store. BUT the bookstore proved the first great hit. I found copies of the Aeneid, 3 for $10! I snatched 6, because we'll be doing that book at the end of the year.

Shortly after that, the FLOODGATES OF HEAVEN OPENED! Well, actually, we each found a few things at another place, and THEN the floodgates of Heaven opened! And in this instance, the floodgates were pouring out J. JILL items! For those of you who haven't heard me rant and rave about J. Jill, both how beautiful and how expensive the clothing there is, I will just mention briefly that it is a clothing company that specializes in beautiful, feminine, linen-type, classic clothes. I love it! But I've never really been able to justify spending that much money there. But lo, here was an outlet store with reduced prices!

Katie and I giggled and squealed our way around the store, as if we had hit the jackpot. We both came away with many beautiful purchases! I couldn't believe it. After the giggling and squealing, came the looks of disbelief as we realized what we had just done. We'd shopped at J. Jill, and found beautiful, semi-cheap, and modest clothing! Unbelievable!

And that wasn't the last of the purchases, either. What an incredible day. And wonder of wonders, neither of us got grumpy, tired, or discouraged, despite the fact that we were in and out of stores for hours on end! That is pretty miraculous right there.

Bring on the Wedding! Bring on the Summer! Kate and I are ready.

On Break!!!

Ahhhhh, life is good. For one thing, the weather is incredible. For another, this is the first day of my Spring Break! (Well, technically I have it off for Good Friday and next week is spring break.) And just in case that isn't enough to convince you that life is indeed good, I just finished filing my tax returns! Amy P tipped me off to turbotax, and I must say that was incredibly easy. So now I'm breathing easier. I'm not usually one of those push-it-to-April-15 kinds of people, but this year, well, I was.

Spring break should be fun: I have to read the Aeneid, Greek philosophy, My Antonia (not the whole thing), and a lot of poetry. Then I should be able to cruise for the rest of the year! I only have 5 or 6 weeks left. Incredible.

My last day before break was great: I read "Epic" out loud to my high school, and showed the movie of "A Tale of Two Cities" to my junior high. Not too shabby. I also got all of my grades recorded on report cards, which was a huge relief (especially since I kept waiting and waiting for one kid to get his act together and turn in the two papers he owed...).

And the last event of the day was one of the fathers at school getting home from Iraq. That made me feel kind of weepy and sentimental all the way to Fairwood.

Which is where I am now! I love Fairwood. I think I breath more deeply here than anywhere on earth, if you know what I mean. And, as I said at the beginning, the weather is incredible.

And again I say, life is good.

Happy Opening Day!

Ya, ya, I know - opening day was yesterday. But I didn't post last night because of extenuating circumstances (like, ummm, sleep), so I'm doing it one day late.

Happy Opening Day!!!

It was a fabulous day for me - kind of like Christmas only different. I was so excited all day: decorating the chalk board, making sure the teachers knew (the one drawback of the school: no huge Red Sox fans amongst the staff), and (for the crowning moment) turning on the radio during literature so that we could all hear the first pitch. It was a ball. To Crisp.

Then I got to listen to the game all the way home, and watch it once I actually arrived home. I got to enjoy a fabulous victory (the first on opening day in 5 or 6 years I might add), and then enjoy an hour or so of interviews afterwards. I am definitely in the Crisp camp, after hearing him say he'd done alright, but made a couple of "blunders." Hee hee hee. Not among those blunders was the FABULOUS centerfield catch he made. Damon couldn't have done that (cough cough).

Then the game was being re-broadcast, so I watched the pre-game show! I might have started watching the game all over again, but it was getting later and later...

This morning, as I was getting off Rt 24, I practically burst into tears of joy when I remembered, "HEY! They're going to be playing AGAIN! TONIGHT!" Ahhhhh, baseball season. It's like the missing piece has been found or something. Part of me that was dormant and languishing is vital once more. Hurrah for baseball season!!!

The One and Only Uncle Paul

Now that the comment record on my blog has been blown out of the proverbial water, I would like to let you all know that the last post was Uncle Paul's idea. He woke up mighty early in the morning to ask me if I would post it before I went to school, thus securing the highest possible number of readers in the day. Isn't he a good Dad?!

And I would like to add, at this juncture, that he is a might good uncle, too, and a mighty good every other role he plays. I feel so blooming lucky to be his niece, living in his house, under his pastorship. He is an amazing man - funny, kind, sensitive to the needs of those around him, generous to the extreme, fun, and tenderhearted to the things of God. I've sat in his meetings and practically felt like crying for the poor rest of the world because they missed out on the sermon. He has ministered to me in so many ways - from the spiritual to the car-ful:) He has come out in the morning, just as I was about to drive away, to pray for me. He has instigated many a fun outing. He has jumped my battery many a time. He has sat Melissa and me down for long and interesting discussions. He has made me feel secure. He has made me laugh innumerable times. He has cooked me dinner. He has checked up on me, to make sure I'm doing okay in hard times. He has demonstrated what it is to lay down his life for others. He has been the most incredible uncle anyone could ask for.

So let's have three cheers for Uncle Paul!!!

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!

"I WELD! I'M A WELDER!!"

No, cool as they were, the sea dragons did not offer welding lessons. This is Melissa, back in the frigid north while Andrea basks in the glorious warm fuzzies of a GA vacation. But Monday's high is supposed to be 20 degrees, so she should be consoled that she won't have missed much :). Thankfully I've been too busy this week at school to have to spend too many hours in the deathly silence of her non-presence.

What did I do at school, you may ask (having no idea since you skipped over the above title)? Well, I'll tell you! I WELDED things! WOOOOOOO!!! I feel like I'm in that movie that was mentioned in some random midweek meeting video series in Bible School, which ended up being an answer that Claire got in a trivial pursuit game -- something about a woman welder who was also a ballerina or something (the more I write, the more this sounds like some very strange dream...or a very bad speech. Help me, Claire!). Anyway. yes. We've been making a bunch of quick models in my 3-Dimensional Synthesis class, but now we're moving on to a four-foot sculpture. Apparently the direction I chose in the models will translate best into steel rods and thick wire mesh. Joy. I was quite skeptical at first, but I picked up some short rods from Home Depot (haha... Despot... B&C, you're awesome) and pretended I knew what I was doing in the huge and intimidating Sculpture Room. I rolled them into curves on some steel-roller-machine, and then I got my welding lesson. It was hard... but I persevered. I was comforted by the story my prof. told about a girl who caught on fire and didn't realize it (and was thus confused when her professor started hitting her). hmmm... And it was a little freaky having to stand behind a curtain and wear a pitch-black helmet to avoid blindness. And I kept messing up, and the machine kept jamming, and my professor kept having to fix it (most of the time it wasn't my fault, I was relieved to find). But once it finally started working again it was so comparitively easy that I picked it up pretty fast. I got some sweet beads going, let me tell you (that's a little insider welder language there...). Then I got to actually start welding my sculpture, and now I'm excited. It really works! I can make things out of steel! Now that I'm fully empowered, there's no going back. I have six or so twelve-foot rods just waiting to be bent and welded into submission. I will be holding a drawing for potential buyers of my finished product (No, it won't look like anything except steel rods and wire... but oh, what tremendous forms and activation of space! :).

Okay, that's all I want to write about that.

The Aquarium!

Okay, so back to the aquarium. Folks, if you ever have a chance to go, I highly recommend it. I had so much fun! But, as you probably gathered from Claire's blog, I recommend going on a slightly less crowded day. Oy vay.

Probably the coolest part of all was the fact that you get to touch various and sundry creatures. So here, for your viewing pleasure, are the creatures I, personally, myself, touched with my own fingers!


This, awed readers, is the shark that I touched. Well, not this one specifically, but this kind. This was my favorite moment of the day. I stroked its side as it swam by, and was pretty awestruck that I'd touched a shark. It felt sand-papery. I think I'm going into marine biology in my next life.






Next I touched a ray. That was pretty cool, but it was kind of gross because it was squishy. I'm not a big fan of squishy things. Unless they are things like marshmallows or jello. But those are squishy in a good way. Rays are squishy in a gross way. But still, I'm glad I had the experience. I mean, how many people get to touch rays? Hm, I guess a lot now. But I'm one of them!







Next on the agenda were the shrimp. I'm not a huge fan of shrimp. They are weird looking, bordering on scary looking. But of course I still wanted to touch one. I discovered that they are very dart-y. As in, they dart away when you touch them. This resulted in a sort of very high pitched "eeep!" from me when it happened. The scientific discoveries go on...










I think the last creature to be greeted by my finger-tip was the star fish. As you can imagine, it felt kind of poke-y. That was pretty cool, but I was kind of distracted at this point by Claire's sudden realization that her watch was not waterproof, but had been quite underwater while she touched the starfish. No worries though, the watch was soon off, dried, and as good as new. Phew.




And then of course there were the other fascinating creatures there, many and many a creature, that were off limits for fingers. Like the pirahnas, for instance, which are deceptively beautiful. I enjoyed the mammal population: the otters, seals, penguins, etc. But the most intriguing find of the day (as Claire mentioned on her blog, and continues to mention on a regular basis off her blog) had to be the leafy sea dragon. Incredible. I had no idea such a thing existed! I thought the tank was just full of vegetation, until one began to move about, and then another and another. WOW! Talk about great camouflage. Here are some pictures, so you can see for yourself:

























Amazing, are they not? More evidence for the incredible creative power of God! So, once again, I urge you all to add the GA Aquarium to your lists of things to do someday!

Gasp!

Wonderful, wonderful day today: GA Aquarium and all. Everyone should go. What incredible fun!

But the real reason for this post is immediate inspiration from the paper I'm grading right now. (Yes, I'm actually being productive.) Penny just came downstairs as I was finishing up a paper, and I was commenting to her that this girl was the queen of run-on sentences. I joked that she averaged one period a paragraph. I thought I was joking until I looked at her closing paragraph and found exactly 2 periods!

So here, my friends, is the prime example of a run-on sentence (the assignment, by the way, was a short historical fiction piece. This story was about working in the mills).

"So with my mother dead I got so mad that without thinking I asked the person in charge to give me better pay or I would quit and before he could answer a few more people came to ask the same question and before I knew it there was a mob around him and me and he yelled, afraid he'd have no workers, "you get a raise of a dollar," and after that I was more happy than ever before because I could support my sister and myself and still have a little more money and with the money I bought a better house that wasn't as polluted."

Whew! And there you have it!

The Travel Log of Andrea and Diane's Roadtrip to GA

(some fanciful, some accurate, I'm not bothering to distinguish which is which)

February 18, 2006

5:00pm Mama sees us off, calling out things about coats, and making sure we have them. I tell her I have one in my suitcase. I don't tell her it is a little, dinky, spring jacket.

7:00pm We are booking it from the rental place inside the airport to the car pick-up spot. I am wishing I had more than a little, dinky, spring jacket since the 13 degree winds are causing me to think bitter thoughts about New England - something I rarely do.

8:00pm We have said good bye to Melissa, and are on the road! I squeal about how excited I am.

8:01pm I say again how exciting this is.

8:02pm I once more exclaim about my excitement over taking a road trip to GA.

(Let's cut to the chase here, and just admit that I talked about how excited I was a lot, throughout the whole trip. Diane is a very patient soul.)

8:03 pm I confirm directions with Aunt Laura, and it was a jolly good thing, since I was about to take the wrong road.

9:00pm We've found Rt 95 which we'll take for hours and hours. We're home free!

9:01 pm We break into a rendition of "On the Road Again" - this was repeated often over the course of the trip.

9:02pm Diane begins reading "True Courage," the suspense story we've decided upon to wile away the hours.

9:12pm I am hooked on the story.

10:00pm Lindsay calls! She laments the fact that we'd forgotten to pray for Craig during our birthday party for him that afternoon. Diane calls him, we both put them on speakerphone, and we all pray for him!

11:00pm Diane tries to get a little sleep so she can spell me in a couple of hours.

12:00am I am getting a little bit sleepy, but I sing along to the CD I have in and that keeps me going.

12:04am I see the moon at its waning gibbous stage! I am wide awake now, thinking about how happy I am to be a science teacher and how I know so much more about the moon and its phases than I ever thought I'd know.

12:30am The excitement of the waning gibbous (as incredibly exciting as that is) has worn off and I'm feeling really sleepy.

12:45am I pull off for gas, and Diane takes the wheel.

5:45am Andrea wakes up from a remarkably good sleep, ready to spell Diane, who has just driven the entire "graveyard" shift single-handedly. WOW! Let's have a round of applause for that heroic effort.

6:14am Beautiful sunrise! I am starting to feel alive again, and really happy to be behind the wheel. I enjoy driving our little Chevy Cobalt!

9:00am We start looking for breakfast places. We are in the breakfast buffet mode, and call Mrs. Randall to see if she can look on-line for places along our route. Who needs on-star when you've got Mrs. Randall?! (What good is on-star anyway, if it doesn't provide eatery information?)

9:30 Mrs. Randall informed us that we have just passed the last Shoney's for hours. Sigh. We decide on the Cracker Barrel.

10:00am Diane and I "go to church" by listening to Diane's Statler Brothers CD:)

10:00am We enjoy a FABULOUS breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. I hear many southern accents, feel a bit like a foreigner, and am comforted by the glimpse I catch of a Red Sox hat!

11:00am We are back on the road again (breaking into song once more), with only a few more hours to go.

11:01am At the VERY next exit we see a breakfast buffet! We bellow at the irony of it all, but confess that we are really quite full.

1:00 pm We enter Atlanta. I am driving, Diane is reading our very exciting book. I am getting a little nervous at the sight of about 14 solid lanes of traffic!!!

1:10 pm Still a bit nervous, but realizing that the laws about being in your own lane and stuff apply on this super-highway just as much as they did on the mere shmere 6 lane highways of 95.

1:30 pm We're all through Atlanta! Safely!

2:00pm We arrive at Brad and Claire's!

2:01 pm No one answers the door - we decide Claire must still be at church. We call her. No answer. We wonder how long these Southerners spend in church anyway!

2:02 pm Claire calls us back, and apologizes for not answering the phone. She'd been upstairs and the phone had been downstairs. "So you're still at the parsonage?" Diane asks. "No, I'm at my house," Claire replies. "Well SO ARE WE!" Claire is dumbfounded. She comes rushing down and opens the door to see us standing on her doorstep!

2:03 pm We are happy she's so surprised, because surprises are nice, but we're a little mystified as to the reason she's quite this surprised. Then we find out she wasn't expecting us until tomorrow! The source of this confusion is unclear.

2:04 pm We get a tour of her BEAUTIFUL home! I am full of praise. It really is lovely! I am very happy for them.

2:15 pm We zip two minutes down the road to Penny's house to surprise her!

2:17 pm Sure enough, she is dumbfounded to see us:)

2:18 pm The truth comes out! I had called Penny last night to say we'd started at about 8. She didn't get the message until this morning, and thought we'd left at 8am instead of 8 pm! That would be quite the record-setting trip indeed!

2:20 pm We get a tour of Nate and Penny's BEAUTIFUL house!

2:25 pm I'm nearly overcome with euphoria! Ahhhhhhh vacation and GREAT friends. Who could ask for anything more?

Results of a New Valentine's Day Pen

This morning a dear student came in with a Valentine's Day pen for me. I was so enamored of it (it was one long plastic tube that became two hearts at the top) that I decided to take notes in Chapel just so I could use it. But instead of the topic of the day, the following list came out of the pen:


Things I love about Teaching:

*the chalk dust that seems to permeate my existence (colored chalk dust, that is!)
*the 15 minutes in the morning in which the students have to be in the room, but classes haven't begun yet - we have such fun chatting about sports, movies, strange experiences, etc
*lesson plans that work out just right, schedule wise (i.e. I really need this to take two days instead of one, and it does)
*students using something from Literature as an inside joke! (this really happens, much to my delight!)
*those opportunities that sometimes arise in which I get to pass along to the student some truth that I treasure
*my grade book
*walking in in the morning and tossing my keys onto my desk
*teaching new vocabulary - even when it is met with skepticism (they didn't believe that "spartan" is used as an adjective all these many years after the Spartan warrior civilization!)
*when students hear something in assembly that reminds them of something I said in class, so they look over and catch my eye
*when students ask me if I like teaching, thus opening the way for much effusive speech-making!

Oh ya, and I also happen to be partial to teaching itself.

Halcyon Carrots and Pavarotti

Hi folks -- it's Melissa, letting you all know I still exist. I don't really know what to write about, but whatever it is needs to be written NOW. I find more and more that my sabbaths can really only last from sundown to sundown -- gone are the halcyon days of fully carefree weekends. (I just finished reading an Elizabeth Goudge book that used the word "halcyon" several times, and I was reminded that it is a good word. Only it was in the context of weather, which I hadn't really seen before, so I had to ask Andrea what it actually meant. She thought it meant happy, as in "the halcyon days of youth," and while "happy weather" is kind of cool, we thought that maybe it just has a general meaning of being kind of favorable. And now I don't feel like actually looking it up.)

Anyway... back to halcyonless weekends... The Sabbath is extra good now that it means so much more. The rest of the week this semester has been pretty crazily packed, since I'm taking five classes instead of the usual four (I don't know what kinds of insane schools some of the rest of you go to, but at mine four or five is normal). Hours and hours of art continue... only now I'm covered with oil paint most of the time instead of charcoal. Cool. So far I've decided that I really like painting, which is good because I have to decide what my concentration is going to be before too long. It's kind of awkward when people ask and I have to say, "um... well, I haven't actually DONE anything to know if I like it or not, but I assume I'll be a painter." I haven't tried printmaking yet, but I could see myself liking that too. It's the closest thing to drawing in some ways (although painting is too somewhat, but that's more like "drawing with mayonnaise," as one prof. put it). I've discovered that I'm drawn to textures, and especially (oddly enough), things that are falling apart: peeling paint, rotting wood, old crumbling brick buildings... I found myself staring longingly at the ceiling at my dad's shop the other day, wanting to draw it. Hm.

In other news, I was able to stun my coworkers at the W.C. (yep, still there, triplenine) by showing them the flaming carrot trick I learned in Bible School from I-forget-who. You know-- the one where you place two pieces of carrot so that they're barely touching and then nuke 'em in the microwave for a few seconds and watch the fireworks! Do try this at home. Rumor has it it works with potatoes too.

Last night we were crashing at the end of long, stressful weeks, and Andrea declared, "I just want to watch TV until I pass out." I thought this highly amusing. Of course we knew it was a joke, until we started watching the Opening Ceremonies later in the evening and it almost came true. Oy... so long, so weird, so boring. But there was always that one more surprise promised us by the freakily un-aging face of Bob Costas, and that one country that nobody's ever heard of that could prove to be the most inspirational of Olympic tales, and that mystery surrounding the figure shrouded in darkness who would eventually light the cauldron of justice. And were we ever rewarded: Liechtenstein and San Marino out in full force, people walzing around a stage dressed as cows, and then....... STEFANIA BALMONDO as the final torchbearer! YES! I KNEW it! Oh well... I suppose the Italians have every right to give the honor to a random Italian cross-country skiier I've never heard of. But Pavarotti singing "Nessun Dorma" was a good surprise, I must say. [I admit I had to ask Andrea what he sang and how to spell it... "Nessun as in 'Nissan'?"] In the words of one American athlete I heard in the background, "You da MAN, Pavarotti!"

Strange Moments of the Day

I was teaching typing today, and one of my students started talking about how he'd recently decided what he believes, theologically. Oh! I said. He expanded upon the subject by explaining that he is a four-point Calivinist. He believes in four of the five tenets. The one he doesn't believe in is limited atonement (which, I think, is the idea that Jesus died only for the elect - not for everyone). Now this wouldn't have been that awkward, except that the other student in typing is definitely a five-point Calivinist. I, not being much of a Calvinist, but hiding that fact very carefully while at school, was rather tongue-tied. I just said that we must be sure to base our beliefs on the Bible, and both seemed satisfied with that. Oh the tightropes I attempt!

Another weird moment came after I e-mailed Craig about seeing Dan Jansen in the opening ceremonies. Jansen was a mutual hero of giant proportions back in the day. Oh the depths and heights we traveled with him! Anyway, he e-mailed back, and said he'd told Kayla the saga, since she didn't know who he was. What?! Was it really that long ago?

That weird moment reminded me of one earlier today, when I asked my 7th and 8th grade class which two countries were separated by the Berlin Wall, and realized they weren't even alive when it came down. In fact, they also asked me what the Cold War was! You mean not everyone in this country shared the childhood fear of being bombed by the Russians? I explained it to them, and we practiced hiding under the desks in case of bombs.