Just a few things...

Not sure why I love Mondays, but I do. Just a couple of things today to share with my worldwide readership:

1. Happy birthday Travis! T-Wolfe, aka Travioli, and his wife Laurette are two good friends from State and quite possibly two of my favorite people in the world. Today is Trav's 25th, so a birthday salute is definitely in order. To my fellow Kenny Chesney hater--may your skies be as blue as your coffee is black, your cigars as mellow as a Jimmy Buffett tune, and your troubles as miniscule as your delicate china tea cup. Love ya, Trav! Happy 25th.

2. I just ordered an exorbitant number of books from ebay and amazon for my classroom library. Now, those of you who know me well will know that I've always had a thing for libraries. (Hailey, keep your mouth shut.) It is one of my truest desires that one day I might have a room in my house reserved only for books. The walls of this room shall be lined with wooden shelves, and there will be a fireplace, big soft chairs, books, a reading lamp, and nothing else. Except maybe a fog machine.

In light of this aspiration, I've been building a personal library over the years. Since starting to teach in August, I have found myself on an unending quest to make my students love to read. Hence, my library building has switched from childhood favorites (Pippi Longstocking, Alice in Wonderland, Anne of Green Gables) and other classics and good reads (in my opinion) to hyper adolescent literature, which I suppose are also good reads, except that now I'm too broke to build two libraries at once. See list below to peruse the newest additions to my new (and urban) library.

Forged by Fire by Sharon Draper, The Pact by Dr. Rameck Hunt, Bang by Sharon Flake, and The Piano Lesson by August Wilson. Just a sampling of the new additions to the library. Not quite Alice in Wonderland, but it takes all kinds to make a world.

3. My little sister, Hailey, is living in Birmingham this summer for an internship. I'm pumped. She's a photographer...a really good one. She's also way cuter than me, to my (massive, I'm sure) male readership. Also, she's a walking quirk if ever there was one. What can I say, she learned from the best.

Here's to Monday!

Pomp and feast and revelry!

Four weeks and one day, and I'm a free woman. I am getting a part time job, though, for the sake of my savings account, which doesn't exist anymore.

Anyway, I'm either going to lifeguard and teach swimming lessons or work at the Trak Shak in Homewood. Well, only if I can first get past the spelling of the name. Krazy, kool spellings are, to me, equivalent to soaking in a tub of warm mayonnaise. There's a group of hard core runners that gather on Wednesdays at 5 in the front and run (mostly old men), which would be good for motivation.

Also, I might help with data collection for the state of Alabama's birdflu preparedness project out of the UAB School of Public Health. Doesn't sound too exciting, but the money's good.

Anyway, I'm thinking out loud. Oh what ever should I do?


Four trifling thoughts from the weekend:
1. I hate Nickelback
2. Stranger Than Fiction is a work of masterful genius
3. Never eat a whole handful of chocolate covered espresso beans in one sitting
4. Why does our golden retriever urinate every time I talk to him?

Could you repeat that please??!!

Okay, Laura won't post this on her blog because it's too risky, so I will post it on mine. Below you will find a comment one of her students made to her yesterday, and quite frankly, it's made my week. Thought you all should read this. Also, I'm including some top conversations/comments from my year thus far (only four weeks and one day left!) Yes, all dialogs below are true stories. After hearing most of these comments, I had to ask to hear them again. They are that good.

Enjoy.

1. Student to Laura: "Mi T, I didn't know BREAFAS HAS A SILENT K!!!"

2. Male student to me: "Can I go use it?"
Me: "No."
Male student: "But I'm in a tiiiight!"
Me: "I'm sorry about that. You can't leave the room. Sit down."
Male student: "I GOTTA UUUUUUSSSSSSSSEEEEEE IT!!!!!!!"
Me: "You are not leaving this classroom. Conversation over."
Male student: "BUT MY WATER GONE BREAK!!!!"

3. Student: "You know how you capitalize Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.....?"
Me: "Yes?"
Student: "Well, do you capitalize the weekends?"

4. Student, referring to the sunglasses I had on when I got out of my car one morning: "I saw you this morning wearin yo hater blockers!!"

5. Student outburst in the middle of class: "Do you have a boyfriend or did you put him in a box to the left?"

6. Me: "Do any of you know what started WWI?"
Student: "When they knocked down the twin towers."

7. Student, after I refused to do the "walk it out" in class: "Yo daddy ELVIS and you won't dance for us?! He would be ASHAMED of you."
*Note: several of them really do think Elvis is my father.

And last but MOST CERTAINLY not least...

8. "You make me feel like the breeze, easy and lovely." -note intercepted in class

Visual DNA: I'm a wildcat

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Well, here's my visual DNA. Thanks, Heather. Interesting little process.

WILDCAT
They live life to the full, take any opportunity that's given to them. Always first to take the plunge, they are bold and sometimes a little wild.
Really?

ESCAPE ARTIST
They are forever slipping off, getting away from the rat race, and recharging those batteries. Independent and thoughtful, they know themselves well.
You and me both, Feath. I always knew we were the introspective types.

BACK TO BASICS
They are striving for a simpler life, they do without disposable trends - they are inspired by nature and longevity.
True enough.

LOVEBUG
They are the type to fall in love a thousand times a day. Their feelings snowball quickly, and they are full of passion. They're a bit of a softie. Love is unconditional and loyal.
Yes.

A tribute to the Emerald Monster...

...Otherwise known as Emmy, my dear vehicle of seven years that has carried me through college and beyond, taken many a wrong turn and endured many a prank, pothole and entirely too many flat tires. She's been a loyal one.

As sad as I am to lose her, I must admit I am comforted by the fact that I've returned to my first love, the Volvo. Even so, Emmy's durability and dependability will be hard to match.

And so I must pay tribute.


The Emerald Monster's top moments/traits:

1. The freshman year double pothole/double flat episode en route to Old Venice from Rice Hall via Blackjack Road. Kate, you remember. Thanks again, Kell, for the extra spare tire. I still owe you for that one.

2. Road trip to Charleston...harrassing truckers and getting flipped off by every driver between Mississippi and South Carolina for doing 50 in the fast late. And lest we forget clutch. Again, Kate, you were there for that one. I don't think elaboration is appropriate here.

3. Walking out of my apartment my senior year to find poor Emmy covered in red dirt. Thanks Kate and Hossy.

4. Getting pulled over by the Starkville police for "suspicious behavior"--driving whilst dangling a dead rat out the driver window--noosed with orange caution tape.

5. Cruising the bypass with a cup of joe, Meredith Murphy, the Kentucky dream, and Rascal Flatts' "Feels Like Today." No questions, please.

6. Innocently following runners and bikers through town, driving at their pace, blaring "Eye of the Tiger" with the windows down. I had no idea they were running right next to me. Really, I didn't.

7. The slower-than-molasses driver's side window with which I've held up many a bank drive-through line.

8. The joyful chirp of the passenger automatic door lock--often mistaken for a chorus of mockingbirds.

9. Painted windows. Mainly for campaigns and confessions of love for Adam Telle.

10. The elusive "moderate" setting on the windshield wiper intervals. Two speeds: Tortoise and lightning. No inbetween. Such is life.

Thanks for the good times, Emmy. I'll miss you.

Leave a good thing alone

Alright, I'm blogging on Friday night. Normally my excuse would be the fact that it's Friday, and we all know what teachers are like on Friday, don't we? Well, LT understands anyway. I have no such excuse...this week is spring break.

I heard something today on the radio that demands immediate attention. I think I've heard it before, but I'd forgotten about it. Blocked it from my memory, which I will do again right after I alert you all to this tragic case of musical detonation.

On my way to Starkville today, I turn on the radio in my car and am flabbergasted to hear Vince Gill singing not one of his classic tunes, but Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You." I almost pulled over for a moment of silence.

Now, I am of the belief that if you can't sing a song as good or better than its original artist, you should leave it alone. It's bad enough when Rascal Flatts redoes "Life is a Highway" and Lonestar (of all groups) tries their hand at "Walking in Memphis," but come on, Whitney Houston? Vince Gill? Seriously? It was a shameless travesty...blasphemous...a mockery.

Now the memories of my first 7th grade slow dance are dashed. Thanks, Vince.

Death destroyed

I just came across this passage in an article I was reading this morning and wanted to post it. My mind has been reeling over Monday's massacre in Blacksburg, as I'm sure ya'lls have too, and I've found it nearly impossible not to dwell on the darkness and horror of it all.

I love this mini-sermon by John Chrysostom because I think it beautifully articulates the fact that just as there exists such unimaginable monstrosity, there also exists the other extreme--life and beauty incomprehensible--because of an infinitely good and faithful God. Though it is completely horrifying, it has already been conquered. In such sadness, may this be where we dwell.

"Let no one grieve at his poverty,

for the universal kingdom has been revealed.

Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;

for forgiveness has risen from the grave.

Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.

He has destroyed it by enduring it."