I've been told...

...that I look like a lot of people in my lifetime. Very few of which I actually resemble at all. I'd say the closest anyone has come would be Haley Mills (Parent Trap).

Until today.

One of my brilliant 8th grade students--we'll call him Alonzo--enlightened me on my TRUE identical twin. Because, apparently, our appearances are one and the same. "Miss H, you REALLY look like..." Are you ready for this? Are you really ready? Scroll down.

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No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. Here is a picture of Johnny Depp, with whom I evidently share a striking resemblance. But don't worry, he didn't stop there. (And believe me, Alonzo is NOT kidding about this. He really actually thinks I look like this guy. GUY)

Then he took it a step further....Me: "What do you mean, I look like Johnny Depp???!!!"
Alonzo: "You know, that guy who played Edward Scissorhands."
Me: "Let's make sure I'm not missing anything. Not only are you telling me I look like a man, but Edward Scissorhands??"
Alonzo: "Yep. Don't worry though Miss H, you just look like his sister. Who probably wears a whole lot of black like you."

There you have it, folks. Haley Mills, move over. We have a new winner in the ACH look-alike competition. Edward Scissorhands. With a close runner-up...

Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird. I don't think they were complimenting my writing abilities on this one. At least here, A) I can peg where they got this (they're studying the novel right now) and B) she's a WOMAN.

Say it isn't so...

Please tell me I'm dreaming when I say I got home around 5 after running a couple of errands after school, sat down on the couch to enter grades into the computer, took 5 minutes to empty the dishwasher, returned to the couch and began grading papers, cooked and ate dinner (20 minutes) went back to couch, and continued grading/putting in grades until I just now logged into blogger. It is 9:21 p.m. right now, and almost my bedtime. Are you kidding me? I feel like I've just about been on the clock from 7:45-9:15. Is there something wrong with that?

At this rate, I'll look like this by my 27th birthday...

a day off=increased blogging activity

What a glorious Monday to not be at school. It's beautiful outside; however, I am inside due to sinus-wrenching nasal issues. I'm watching Marie Antoinette with Kirsten Dunst, and it's really, really good. Also good--the late afternoon cup of coffee I'm drinking.

It seems a few days off has resulted in a little increased blogging activity. Love it. I've been wanting to play with this Look-Alike meter to see whether I look more like my mom or dad, since opinions have always been inconsistent. Most either say I look like my mom or neither one. Here's the meter.

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Genealogy message boards

Well, it looks like I'm 20% more my dad! Unleash the monster.
(*this is the expression written on a t-shirt I once found my dad mowing the lawn in, for those of you who are confused)

Also, I have taken up painting. Kind of--I went last week with some friends to a place called Sips & Strokes, where you bring your favorite beverage and an artist walks you through a painting. So much fun, and fool-proof even for the artistically challenged. You'd think, anyway--my "funky tree" turned out looking like a bad dream. It was so much fun, though, and I can't wait to do it again.

hair advice and other musings

Okay, I'm about to write what is probably the most vain blog post in blogger, or at least my, history. But this is a serious quandary, and if you saw the picture of me taken when I was about 9 in my softball jersey, bat in hand, you'd understand why I find it necessary to poll my readership. Well, assuming my readership is made up of people who care--and if you keep coming back to this little piece of the worldwide web, you must care at least a little about things as mundane as this.

Anyway, here's the quandary: I've a sudden urge to get bangs.

Now, those of you who knew me in the years of late childhood/early adolescence and have actually seen me with bangs are probably gasping with horror and disbelief right now...particularly my mother. Most would attest that I had the worst, frizziest, most ill-cut (not to mention butt cut) bangs in the history of all follicular atrocities.

However, since we now have advanced technology such as the miraculous CHI iron (and I actually know how to fix my hair) I'm wondering if it's a little more safe now. I saw this picture of Sara Groves and immediately fell in love with her hair. I want mine to look just like it--whether it actually would with this cut is a bit of a toss up.

Maybe I just want to BE Sara Groves, and her hair is as close as I'll get since I can't sing.

Regardless, I want this haircut, but I'm a wee bit hesitant--I am not the one to take risks with hair. Usually it's completely not worth it when you have hair that can look as bad as mine can.

Penny for your thoughts, readership.

On another note, I was cleaning out the drafts folder of my email account a minute ago and found this old life to-do list that I made right out of college. Life's funny, isn't it?

My life list:
1. do some freelance writing

2. live abroad for at least one year

3. teach kids

4. write a book

5. work as an event planner in a big city

6. learn to play the guitar

7. visit (or live in) New York during Christmas

8. work in music or book publishing

9. run the Boston Marathon

10. star in a hit movie

11. be a guest on meredith's cooking show (The Sparkling Chef)

*Mere, I suppose this was crafted while sitting at a corner table at LJ's...but I have to be honest, I have no recollection of you having a cooking show called The Sparkling Chef...might we revisit that one?

Let it snow!

IT'S SNOWING TODAY! Well, actually it's not snowing anymore, but we got a good few hours of snowy weather this morning, and now the ground and trees are dusted white. It's melting as I type. But at least it fell. I've been staring at it all morning--I love, love, love winter. Jimmy came over before going to play football in it and we took some pictures of the street and my house. The view from our living room window is AMAZING. I'n pretending I'm in New England.

Where was this weather during Christmas??!!

3 things

I've been tagged by Krystal to list a few little known facts about myself. Since it's apparently ok to change the number of facts to one's favorite number, I only have to list three. Three has been my favorite number since the ninth grade. I don't remember why-I think it had something to do with running track. Here you have them.

1. My life memories are organized in my brain according to what literary character (or entertainment icon, in some cases) I was obssessed with at the time. Some of them overlap a bit, and involved smaller simultaneous obssessions, but there are five major phases. They are:

Age 3 to 4: Annie (I certainly had the songs down, and the hair--without even trying)

Age 4 to 7: Alice in Wonderland

Age 7 to 11: Pippi Longstocking (ask me about the braids, Elmer's glue and the attempt at climbing the dining room wall)

Age 11 to 24: Clifford (NOT the big red dog. Rather, a 40-something Martin Short dressed as a dinosaur obssessed and blazer, shorts, and loafer clad 10 year old--brilliant comedy, if you ask me.)

Age 24 to present: Dwight K. Schrute. Do I need to add anything to that?

Other noteworthy, more minor obssessions: Chris O'Donnell and Prefontaine, both circa adolescence.

2. Like Kendy, I'm a maniacal ebay enthusiast, for one reason: books. It is an amazing and economical source of used books, and I happen to love really old books. Also, it's a great classroom resource, so...tax deductible.

3. I've not much of a history when it comes to weird OCD behaviors, but lately (and by lately I mean the past three years) I've found myself routinely counting people's toes when they have on open toed shoes. I have absolutely no idea why. Maybe I'm just making sure everyone's ok and has all the toes they need--maybe I'm expecting someone to eventually turn up with an even number of toes. Regardless, it's weird. I do it almost unconsciously.

Alrighty...I tag...hmmm...mere, lt, msk(s), and stik.

"Though the fig tree should not blossom
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
He makes my feet like the deer's
He makes me tread on my high places."
-- Habakkuk 3:17-19


I write this here more for me to read than any of you because if I'm going to make it through the rest of the week physically, mentally, emotionally...then I must grab the hope in these words.


I certainly don't see it around me. I love the imagery of the bible. Is it ok that I think some of it is hilarious? Fig blossoms and herds in the stalls? Well, my fig tree is wilted and the herds have long left the stalls. In fact, I think they're trampling me in the form of vicious 8th graders.


So, if you think about it today, say a prayer that the ones I spend my days with will know and hold to the hope that is there for them, though they do not see it.