Yay Disney!

I love Disney.

When I'm home, I'm not into anything Disney, but once I'm there, I'm in heaven.

I had a wonderful trip. Really, I can't say one negative thing about it.

I ate lots of deliciuous food, went on almost all my favorite rides, saw a bunch of great shows, hugged lots of characters, and truly enjoyed all the company.


There were eight of us. We stayed together for most of the trip and everyone got along and our sole Disney newbie loved it enough that he wants to move there (and he's a tough twenty-something city dweller).

I arrived home at 4AM Monday morning after a flight delay. I had to work on Monday, but after making it through the day (barely), I went right to sleep. Since then I've been trying to catch up with work and school. I had one more assignment to do for my last class and two assignments to do for my current class. We just auditioned and cast for the school show so I've also been putting out fires for that and trying to get ready for the first rehersal on Friday.

I have lots of things I could blog about, but mostly I just want to rest and revel in the wonderful memories.

Going Away

The bad news is that I can't go to this year's NctM conference because it conflicts with our state testing. Yet another reason to hate testing.

The good news is that I'm going to Florida tomorrow, Make yourself at home while I'm gone.

Freedom Writers

I loved it. I want to see it again right now. I will buy it when it comes out.

Even with my heart of stone, I felt like crying during the entire movie.

Yes, I love all these movies (though I haven't seen many of the recent ones).

In response to thes critics:

• I agree about the pearls.
• I know it's been done before.
• As a teacher, I didn't find the marriage subplot unneccesary. In fact, I appreciated that the movie showed what it takes to really effect change as a teacher.
• Oh, and it's a true story. And from what I've read, it's pretty accurate. So be careful what you criticize.

Two reviews I especially enjoyed (caution:spoilers).

Productivity

I was feeling pretty blah last weekend. So I chatted with my sister about it because I know she knows. We talked about how we measure a good weekend by how much we got done. Having fun isn't enough. We have to accomplish something and have fun. That probably explains why most of my posts for the last six months have covered such topics as doing dishes vacuuming. Fascinating stuff.

I don't want to disappoint you, so I'm happy to report that I had a productive week and weekend.

I graded about 8 billion papers this week, spending many evenings catching up on TiVo and wading through random piles of school stuff.

I paid all my bills and in the process cleaned off my dining room table.

I never did kick the habit of making a big messy pile of clothes I've worn so I tackled that mess of clothes and shoes, sorted laundry, and cleaned up my walk-in closet so I would start using it again.

I (finally) put away all the Christmas stuff. I cleaned out the whole living room closet, emptied and organized every Christmas storage container, put everything away neatly, and dusted all the tables in the living room.

And of course I did dishes. They always come first. Part of my dish doing involved scrubbing the bottom shelf of my refrigerator. Maple syrup had spilled on it and before I realized it, a 12-pack of beer was put on top of the spilled syrup, so the shelf was really gross. It took quite a bit of scrubbing but now it looks like new. In fact, the whole refrigerator looks great (I cleaned it last weekend).

I also backed up all my pictures (hadn't done that since July!) and I backed up my other blog by copying and pasting every entry into a word document which I saved onto my hard drive and a jump drive.

For the rest of the day, my to-do list:

1. Clean my computer desk
2. Take my niece out for her birthday. She wants to see Freedom Writers. So do I, so I'm happy about that.
3. Do the laundry.
4. Grade more papers.
5. Do my homework for my last class because I'm leaving for Florida Thursday night and I need to mail it before I go.

What I've Been Doing

I had school last weekend. It was our final weekend for that class and it was full and busy and exhausting and good.

I know it was exhausting because I slept until 11 the last two mornings despite the fact that I went to bed early every night this week. This sleeping late has made me anxious. I'm pretty particular about my life so the thought of waking up when the day is half over really upsets me. I must have needed the sleep though.

Yesterday my toilet stopped working so my living room has been taken over by bathroom things. Somehow I got it working again, but I'm watching closely just in case.

I took my nephew on his birthday movie trip. He just turned thirteen, but he chose Happily N'ever After. It got 5% on Rotten Tomatoes. That means no one liked it. It was okay. I loved Rumplestiltskin and the baby.

I've been feeling relaxed. Now that the stress of the holidays is over, I'm just enjoying life.

The teacher I was mentoring left the school so I'm going to be mentoring someone new. After a few days of waiting, they picked someone in our school. She's new to our school this year and she's been working in my room part of the day. We have already developed a mentor-mentee relationship- to the point that she's done practice lessons in my class. I think I'm as excited as she is about her new position. I stayed for two hours after school Friday helping her clean and organize her new classroom and yesterday I got her some classroom things while I did my own shopping. I really want it to work out for her.

I've been feeling thinner even though the scale tells a different story. I've also changed a few of my food habits- healthier breakfasts, better bread. I feel good.

I've also trained my body to think that 58-62 is an acceptable temperature for inside my apartment. The furniture for my party and the unexpected car buying put me in the hole a bit so I'm trying to save on heating costs (among other things). I'm glad for the mild winter. Plus my new tolerance for cold made it possible for me to go out with bare legs last night.

Oh, and I read in my reading room for the first time yesterday. It was very nice.

Give It A Listen

Even though I gave Katherine a hard time during the American Idol finale, I am not so bitter that I can't admit how awesome this remake is:

Can't Help Falling In Love (with Andrea Bocelli- who is incredible)


I want it.

What Book Am I?

Moby Dick

You are 63% Great Book


Among the greatest adventure books ever penned, you charter the development of both deeply sophisticated characters and a genuinely artistic plot. Dynamic, thrilling and gripping, you are Moby Dick - the tale of the white whale..



This book, amongst other things, explores the ideas of hidden depths. Both the ways of Moby Dick, and the ocean he lives in, are secret. You are similar, in as far as you are both deep and secretive. Nobody could ever know every inch of you, you are too big a personality. You are also destructive, prone to terrible acts of disregard for the carefully constructed personas of others. Just as the ocean often sweeps indifferently across whole coastlines of urban sprawl, so you effortlessly crush the smaller people around you. You are, however, capable of great compassion. As the ocean harbours life, carrying more gentleness in its murky depths than anywhere else, so you have a deeply kind and caring nature bubbling beneath your surface.



As Ishmael tries, in the opening pages of Moby-Dick, to offer a simple collection of literary excerpts mentioning whales, he discovers that, throughout history, the whale has taken on an incredible multiplicity of meanings. Over the course of the novel, he makes use of nearly every discipline known to man in his attempts to understand the essential nature of the whale. Each of these systems of knowledge, however, including art, taxonomy, and phrenology, fails to give an adequate account. The multiplicity of approaches that Ishmael takes, coupled with his compulsive need to assert his authority as a narrator and the frequent references to the limits of observation (men cannot see the depths of the ocean, for example), suggest that human knowledge is always limited and insufficient.



When it comes to Moby Dick, the great white whale, himself, this limitation takes on allegorical significance. The ways of Moby Dick, like those of the Christian God, are unknowable to man, and thus trying to interpret them, as Ahab does, is inevitably futile and often fatal.






My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on Great Book

Link: The Which book are you? Test written by adam_the_nang on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

How I Spent New Year's Eve

For starters, it didn't feel like a celebrating day. It felt more like a stay-in-your-pajamas day, but I got dressed anyway.

I started the celebrating by kicking my beau's roomate's butt at Guitar Hero II. We're actually pretty evenly matched. He usually hit 1-2% more notes than I did, and I usually scored 15-20 thousand more points than he did. He was sad to see me go. I could have played all night.

My beau and I headed to my friend's house for the rest of the evening. She had an incredible amount of delicious food. I ate way more than any human should.

The time passed really quickly. We just sort of caught up with each other and watched pieces of the festivities on TV. My friend and I were both barely hanging on til the end.

It was just us two couples until about 8 minutes before midnight when two random guys showed up. I guess one is a family friend, but the other was a stranger and they were both in their 20s. I couldn't help but wonder why they didn't have anywhere else to be at midnight.

It sort of changed the whole mood of midnight that my beau was waiting for, but we did fine. Then we had a champagne toast with new glasses my friend gave to us and headed back to my house where we promptly fell asleep.

Exciting, huh?

New Year Wishes

Happy New Year!