Yesterday we celebrated my birthday, which is technically today.

It turns out that birthdays are perfect for convincing your friends to all go out and see a movie that you might otherwise have to see alone. Case in point, The Family Stone, with my imaginary best friend, Sarah Jessica Parker.
Yes, there were one or two groan-y moments, but overall, funny and cute.

Then we all came back and lit a fire and had chocolate soup with mascarpone brioche sandwiches that Nathan made by request.

This morning, I have repeated last night's activities, including the chocolate soup, sandwich, and fire, only now I am watching movies and cuddling with the dog, who will probably hate me in two day's time when we make her fly on an airplane.

Christmas, christmas time is here.

And things are really wonderful.

Tonight we are watching "A Christmas Story" and having a lovely dinner.

There are only four days of school until vacation.

My little brother is getting married on Saturday.

And almost, yes almost, all my Christmas shopping is done.

using the magic 8-ball on my dashboard....

Is Abigail the cutest dog in the world?
"You may rely on it."
Should I eat a salad for dinner?
"As I see it, yes."
What about chicken salad?
"Yes."
Yes, what?
"Ask again later."
Have I reached a new level of boredom?
"Yes."
Wow. Do you really work?
"You may rely on it."
Didn't you just say that?
"It is decidedly so."
Am I a nerd?
"Most likely."
Are you a nerd?
"Concentrate and ask again."
Arrreee yooooouuuu a nerrrrrdd?
"It is certain."

Since I apparently don't have time to blog,

here are some updates with me...

1. I was recently made Lead Mentor at Dobie, and I have to now keep tabs on the teachers who are mentoring newbies. This is quite a big responsibility, and this week, I successfully hurdled my first problem. In the words of Kip, "Yessss."

2. Perhaps a larger shock than going back to meat-eating, I'm off coffee and on tea. It's true. It happened about a month ago when I was on the verge of a cold, and green tea was the only thing that sounded good to me. Other than the rare weekend cup, I haven't switched back, and in the meantime, have lost 5 pounds (see below).

3. I have left the Abs Diet in the dust and am three weeks into the best diet of my life, which incredibly, isn't a diet at all. I just read the book--don't laugh--"French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure." I feel wonderful and thin and not guilty or deprived. Why didn't someone tell me about this book before? The tenets are incredibly easy: drink lots of water, control portions, compensate after you splurge, walk whenever you can, and the most ironic: eat what you really love in smaller amounts, more slowly, and suddenly, you're enjoying it more than if you gorge! Ta da! I'm not counting calories, crossing-off food groups, or obsessed with weighing myself twelve times a day. Beautiful freedom.

4. I've begun adventures in sewing, something I've wanted to do for years. I basically have one really simple, yet fabulous, circle skirt pattern down, but I plan to branch out soon. As soon as Jenny can give me another lesson, that is.

Should I be worried

that I welled up with tears last night when Ryan was voted off "So You Think You Can Dance"?
For anyone who doesn't know or hasn't yet been hooked on the show, he was this super-cute, spikey-haired breakdancer. He wowed everyone with his Mambo and Salsa, but just couldn't bring it with his hip-hop, fox-trot or lyrical routine. Sniffle. Good-bye little Ryan. America loved you. And I loved you.
The question is, do I love you more than I love Artem? Or Jamille?

And for all you high-and-mighty, I'm-too-good-to-watch-reality-television people (or, for that matter, any of the three people who read my blog) do not judge me lest you be judged by any of the crappy judges on the show itself.

Can I just say

how fabulous all three Lord of the Rings films are? (Or, you may consider them one very looooong film, which is also fine.)
This weekend I didn't grade a single paper.
I didn't go up to my classroom to organize, clean or file.
I slept in late.
And I watched all three extended cuts of the LOTR trilogy.
I hope I'm not turning into some kind of a nerd?

Second week of school

and things are going swimmingly. My classes are finally down to one desk for every kid, (up until now I've had students sitting at the computer tables and around the perimeter of my room). And even though I issued my first discipline referral, I feel like the year is off to a fantastic start.

I'm taking on a few new things this year: mentoring two teachers who are new to Dobie, and teaching a jewelry-making class after school, and a knitting club (called Knit Wits) for our club days on Fridays. My students from last year and the year before are all a foot taller, cuter than ever, and love me more than they ever did when I was in charge of them. Which I guess, is the way it works, right?

the power of believing

Just watched Finding Neverland last night with Nathan, my second time seeing it. It really is such a beautiful story (based on true events) about all different people making their own family, and needing each other, recovering from pain and loss. It also is about believing and the power of the imagination.

In a world of pain and lost hope, I found it beautiful and moving.

J.M. Barie, from the film:
"Just. What a horrible, candle-snuffing word. That's like saying, 'He can't climb that mountain. He's just a man. Or, that's not a diamond. It's just a rock.'"

Go to www.one.org

to see what you can do to help influence the decisions to be made at the G8 Summit July 6-8.

"Poverty is not natural. It is man-made, and it can be overcome by the action of human beings."
-Nelson Mandela

I sat down this afternoon to work on my book.

Then I spent about 20 minutes writing, an hour finding songs that would go on the soundtrack if my book were to ever become a movie (not so much egotistical as a fun distraction) and then another 45 minutes downloading cool widgets for my dashboard.

Diet is such a four-letter word.

At least the "diet" we're regulating ourselves to right now is not really a set of restrictions so much as guidelines for what kinds of food burn fat efficiently so that you basically lose weight without much effort. Then, if you exercise on top of that, you can lose up to 15 to 20 pounds in 6 weeks. (I'd be overjoyed if I lost 10.) For men, you can burn off even more, because men carry less fat around than women. (Discrimination, if you ask me.) After the initial 6 weeks, you transition to a maintenance plan.

This diet, which isn't really a diet in the American tradition, is called the Abs Diet, and it's by the editor of Mens Health magazine, and you may have heard of it.

We're so dedicated to this new diet that we have decided to go back to meat-eating, after 8 years of vegetarianism! In the last two days of healthful eating and adding just a little bit of white meat (chicken Friday, turkey yesterday) I feel fantastic. I don't feel hungry, but I don't feel sluggish from overeating, either. I acutally have energy, and feel great. The days of saying no to meat but yes to cream pasta are now behind us.

Six weeks to go...

Today was the second and last day

for a 6th Grade Transition Camp that I helped out with. Helped out with. My college English professors would each experience a mild stroke at that sentence. I don't care about grammar because it's SUMMER!

Things to do this summer:
1. Finish my book. OK, OK--at least a rough draft.
2. Sleep in any time I feel like it.
3. Watch the BBC's version of Pride and Prejudice via Netflix.
4. Take care of my modest patio garden.
5. Get myself to the gym so that we don't just keep donating every month.

Page 60

Up until now I've been working on my little book without really trusting in my own ability to finish a large piece of writing. And yes, I'm probably only one-third through. But still, I feel like the pieces are coming together. Every time I add new material, or tighten up the previous chapters, it just feels like something I might be really proud of one day.

I'm going to start meeting with a good friend of mine from school who is also writing with the intent to publish in the same genre (young adult fiction/juvenile fiction). We're going to read each other's work and give feedback, etc. This is the first colleague that I've showed my writing to, since being in a small writing group in college five or six years ago. I'm excited and a little nervous.

I hope that at the end of summer I will also be at the end of my book. Here's hoping!

Tonight I got to thinking about the end of the world

and I was momentarily paralyzed with fear at the thought that when Jesus comes back, there's a good chance I'll be watching American Idol.

Jack Bauer vs. Jack Bristow

Who would win? From a covert op to arm wrestling...it's really a tough call.
MY vote right now is for Bristow.

I was just lollygagging around on the IMDB

and ran across a cartoon series from the '80s that I used to love.... The Wuzzles, animals that were half one animal, and half another, such as Eleroo and Bumblelion.

This, of course, made me remember tons of other fantastically crappy, low-budget, ridiculously-plotted, fabulous cartoons from the '80s. Remember any of these?
Just a few of the ones I used to love:
The Get-along Gang
The Snorks
The Bisketts
The Shirtales
Pound Puppies
Muppet Babies
Jem
Poochie
The Littles
The Popples
My Little Pony

I also watched these shows, thanks to my brother:
MASK
Transformers

I'm sure there were more. Just thinking of these really takes me back.

I know I usually blog about

silly little things like Thin Mint cookies and crappy '80s dance musicals, but I have something SERIOUS I want to say.

I'm sick and tired of the media using fear tactics to make a quick buck or reel in a potential viewer. I especially hate the way the media targets the fears in women!

In the last few years, I can't open a magazine without seeing an article about how to avoid being a target for rape, abuse, or inadequate daycare for your children. And honestly, I am the first person to support the education of women, but all of this is getting out of hand. I'll never forget an article I read about three years ago that cautioned women against ever wearing overalls because one convicted rapist confessed that he would specifically target women wearing overalls. Another article urged women to be especially cautious when leaving the gym, because rapists lurk in gym parking lots waiting for exhausted women to come out of spinning classes. I'm not trying to be funny. This stuff may be useful information to tuck away in your mind, but why should women be terrified as they go about day-to-day activities? Yes, women should be smart when making decisions, but fearfulness should not be a way of life.

Now it seems like the big issue is infidelity. Just a few nights ago, a news segment featured a private investigator as he tailed a cheating husband. The segment posed the question, "What are tell-tale signs that your significant other is cheating?" but the underlying message felt like, "When will your husband cheat on you, you naive female?" Add this to the countless articles and books on the subject, and they all seem to say, "Look, face it. Men cheat. They're just made that way. You might as well be ready so you won't be the fool."
I'm sorry, but I just DON'T accept that. While yes, many men, and WOMEN I might add, are unfaithful, I don't believe that all men are designed that way!

So why should the media program women to distrust and doubt based on fear?
It's sick and wrong. And I'm tired of it.

Reasons I'm feeling very happy right now...

1. Spring Break is only one week away.
2. Even though we have temporarily lost our blog pics (see left) I have not, I repeat HAVE NOT lost my book that I was storing on the idisk. Which I am no longer storing on the idisk.
3. Just picked up a sound machine from the Sharper Image to play nice noise to fall asleep to.... Ahhh. Our favorite right now is fireside, which makes a wonderfully crackly sound.
4. I'm watching a bunch of the behind-the-scenes footage of the Lord of the Rings. Fantastic.
5. I just found a half-full box of Thin Mints in the back of the pantry.
6. I am right now eating the Thin Mints with a glass of cold milk.

This morning, I woke up thinking,

"Today is the day. Today I WILL go back to the gym and get back on the diet/excercise/self-loathing horse. It's time."

My motivation felt so strong, I could have talked Anna Nicole Smith onto a stairmaster.

Now, at 4:30, after a long day full of sugar-coated, chocolate-saturated, endorphine-spiked good feelings from a knee-high pile of kid Valentines and candy, I am happily sedated from that early morning ambition. I don't feel motivated to step out of the house, much less enter a gym that would ask me to sacrifice physically. I think, just a nice afternoon nap....

I am sure that tomorrow WILL be the day.

If not, most definitely the following.

Do you think this started as just two guys in a garage somewhere in Cleveland?

I'm taking a rare, quiet moment

at work to blog. I hardly ever do this because I always have so many things on my mental "TO DO" list. But for some strange reason, everything is done. Crazy.

This morning I stopped to get a quick cup of coffee at the Tigermarket (or is it Tigermart?) one minute away from school. I usually stop in there when I haven't made my coffee at home, or when the line at Starbucks is out to the parking lot.

As I walked in, the man at the counter said to another cashier, "And here is our little schoolteacher who comes in every morning for coffee." I couldn't help but smile, even though technically, I only get coffee there about once a week. And since we've never discussed my profession, he must think that I LOOK like a teacher. Why do I like that?

I decided that I want to stop there and get coffee more often. They do have different blends of coffee, one cup costs one-fourth that of a Starbucks latte, and the cashier not only remembers me, he knows something about me. Next time I go in there, I'll have to find out his name.

Being friendly feels nice. Wouldn't our country be such a different place if people were just friendly with each other?

If I told you

that I chose to stay home from Nathan's coworkers' game night so that I could watch terrible dance-musicals (i.e. Girls Just Want to Have Fun, From Justin to Kelly, etc.), give myself a facial, and drink a rum and Coke, would you classify it as funny or a cry for help?

To help aid you in your decision, you may need to know that I'm actually watching the director's commentary on From Justin to Kelly, and it's not real Coke, it's C2.

I feel like I should blog,

if for no other reason than that my last entry was one month ago.
Jeez. I'm sorry to anyone who still reads this.

Updates with me:
1. School is more than half over for the year.

2. I've been watching a lot of prime time television.

3. I've been to two (required) workshops in the last three days, and substitute teachers, God love them, can't seem to manage my students. My students, God love them, can't seem to behave for a sub. I wish they both would, and make my life easier.

4. Abigail escaped from under the patio fence the other night, forcing us to board up the space and to wonder if she really is unhappy at home.

5. I have misplaced the book I'm halfway through reading, but I refuse to buy it again and I refuse to pay my library fines.

6. Why is Proactive Solution so expensive?

7. Our Christmas tree is still up.

8. I really should pay my library fines.

9. One of my goals is to blog more than once a month. Here's hoping.