Yikes! Stripes! Fruit-striped bubble gum! (Name where that's from...)

Hooray! I've got just under two weeks of teaching at summer school left. That's just 18 more lesson plans to write (not counting the 2 that I already taught today but never got around to writing up the plan), 16 more sessions with my reading groups from hell, and just 9 more opportunities for Trevon to tell me it's "straight up cheap" when I ask him to stop singing songs about Jamaica in the reading room because it's making it hard for the other students to be good learners and for me to be a good teacher.

Losure and his fellow Texans arrived in the city this weekend. So things should get interesting...and by interesting, I mean drunk and broken. I was feeling under the weather this weekend and not up for painting the town red, but I plan on making up for it next weekend (which is also Caitlin's big birthday weekend). And, I hope to celebrate big-time the following weekend, which is Losure's last weekend, and also the official end of grad school for me. It'll be even cooler if I have a job by then. I'm not sure what to say when people ask what I do...right now I say I'm in grad school, but if I can't say "I'm a __ grade teacher" after school's done, should I just go into my explanation about how I'm comfortable with my afternoon tv lineup but still unsettled for the morning since Katie Couric's departure?

Well, I guess there are still a few weeks left to work on that response. In the mean time, I'm living in a dump of a room. Off to take care of that.

Been talking to my priest today

Well. It's been awhile. I figured I'd have lots and lots of stuff to write once I was "working," but I never want to be sitting at my computer once I get home from "work."

I do actually have some good work stories...like my little buddy Trevon who is 6 but probably weighs close to my weight, and has more attitude than I'll ever have. He was convinced I wasn't giving him as many opportunities to do some minor activity as the other kids in my reading group, and remarked to me, "That's straight up cheap!" Later I heard him say that an activity in the classroom "sucks." Luckily, the lesson was planned by a student teacher, and not me.

I went to Cape Elizabeth last weekend, and I was hoping I'd have some pictures to share, but for some reason I can't get them to work on here. I'd draw a picture, but I'm kind of lazy right now, and sort of in a food coma.

So instead, I'll post some special pictures, because....

Losure arrives this weekend! With real live Texans! Get your bids in now for what he'll knock over or otherwise destroy!





And of course, what is soon to come from a visit from Losure:

Worth a visit, worth a lifetime

Oh man. Killer of a week. It was too hot even for me. I'm surprised more people with normal body temperatures didn't die. I don't know, maybe they did. I didn't watch a lot of the news. Is this going anywhere? No, probably not.


I had my first observation as a reading specialist yesterday. It wasn't all that bad, but it's nice to have it over & done with because I wasn't really looking forward to having two professors sit and watch me and take notes. So the good news is that my second one is already coming up in a week from today. I like getting feedback about what I'm doing right or wrong, but I just don't like adults watching me do my stupid "teacher" act. It's sort of embarrassing. Luckily, there's no singing involved in any of my reading lessons.



I'm headed off tomorrow for my yearly mini-vacay with my fam & our Londonderry counterparts. Did you know that in Maine beer is like $1.00? Sure, you have to look at people with 4 teeth, and watching siblings make out, but it's all part of the experience.


I just know that if they'd open their mouths they'd be missing some teeth.

mmm sweatbath

I'm in my own personal Survivor contest as we speak. It's me versus the heat, day 1. I live by the philosohpy that it's so cold most of the year so you're supposed to be hot in the summer, and so I've decided that this summer I'm going to leave my AC in its box. Or, I was kind of lazy and it hasn't been too uncomfrtable up until now, so I thought there's no point in it since I've already made it through June and half of July. I figured there's really only maybe 5 or 6 nights out of the whole summer that I actually need the AC on to sleep, and so I'd rather have all of my windows open and unblocked for all of those other times. But tonight is sort of hot. I hung out in the freezer section of the supermarket in between writing lesson plans tonight. And I'm about to take an ice cold shower before settling into bed (no down comforter tonight!), as I drift off to dreamland, listening to the cruel hum of the air conditioner above my window in the upstairs apartment. Tonight's one of those nights when I have to sadly shake my head and admit that I wouldn't be able to live year round in southern Texas, like I undoubtedly think would be heaven every year around January. Oh well, it's only one night. Tomorrow night my roommates and I are having a sleepover in Kate's room. She doesn't know it yet, but it's going to be great! I'm bringing the popcorn and trashy magazines.



Oh, and a shiny quarter if you can guess what I'm wearing on my shoulder. Thanks Molly. And Kate for documenting it.

Shouldn't it be Friday by now?

This Zidane headbutt game is pretty fun. You're Zidane, and you get to headbutt the Italian guys until the ref gives you a red card.



In other news, I've decided to quit grad school. AND, I've picked out a new career. I'm going to be a professional baby smiler. I'll spend my days walking around malls and parks and just smiling and waving at babies. I'm really excited for this new endeavor in my life.


I like babies. They generally like me.

Pugs comes to visit tomorrow!

Infectious diseases and whoopie pie

I wish someone would remind me everytime I re-enter the "working world" how much it sucks to have to do something 5 days a week that requires at least 90% of your brain to be functioning. This is no fun at all! Well, it's a tiny bit fun, but I'd still rather be able to go to the beach when I want and watch what all of our neighbors do during the daytime...

Anyway it's been a rough transition from looking out my window to teaching today's youth to read. Add in a case of measles at the school last week, and it's been one incredible week. Let me know if you get a rash that starts on your face & spreads to all over by the way. I could be incubating. Who gets the measles anyway? When they first told us a teacher had it, I immediately thought of Charlotte...because who gets TB??


I don't know about you, but I had no idea how gross measles are


I can't get myself into a running routine because it's been too hot most days when I get home from work, but I'm pretty horrified that starting tomorrow I might be getting up around 5:20 to run, at least a few days a week. I'm pretty sure it won't actually happen more than once or twice...but I can't think of any better idea than just going in the morning. I'm guessing though that this great idea will be over & done soon, and before I know it, I'll get to be on Maury because they'll be cutting my obese body out of the apartment!! That's a whole hour of fame! (They'll dedicate a whole show to my removal, right?)

I tried a google image search of someone getting cut out of their house, but nothing came up.

Beam me up

I had the coolest dream last night. NASA sent me up to space on the shuttle. Unfortunately, my alarm clock went off before my shuttle actually took off, but I had awhile to explore the shuttle, which was by far the coolest thing I've ever been in...there were bedrooms, stairs leading up to different levels, a huge pantry which for some reason was stocked with about 20 different kinds of beer, and really thick white carpet that felt great under my feet.


If you look closely, you can see me waving out that window, with a corona in my hand

I'm not really sure why I was being sent up to space. I only remember that I was nervous about feeling sick when we got high enough to where there was no gravity. Oh, and I was a little nervous about the seating arrangements on the way up to space. Apparently, the fellow astronauts and myself were allowed to walk freely around the shuttle, up and down the stairs and through the pantry and the game room and all of the other fun stuff, but only once the shuttle had gone high enough up...until then, you had to stay strapped in your seat without moving for 20 hours. For some reason, kate was also on my shuttle, and we found out we had to sit next to each other...we tried explaining that we wouldn't get along if we were sitting together for so long, but the other astronauts just didn't care. Then I walked around the really cool shuttle for awhile longer, and then my alarm clock went off.

And then I spent the morning thinking maybe I should be learning to be an astronaut, instead of a teacher. It was a really fun, short-lived career.

Summer school started today though, which was ok too. I'm still not doing so much since it's too early to start all of my fun reading specialist duties, so it was a lot of collaborating with the other reading specialists in my program and getting to know the kids in my class. Who are, for the most part, really cute. We had a pair of identical twins that I can't tell apart, one girl who covered her face when I tried to get a conversation going with her, and then later cried, and two boys that I think will drive me bonkers, and make me thankful that I'm just the reading specialist and don't have to be in the room all day long. All in all, it should be a decent summer though...especially because in 5 weeks from Friday I am DONE with my master's!