Vay-cay-shun

When I invent my own planet with my own customized weather (90 degrees and up for 2 months, 84 degrees for 6 months, 70-75 degrees for 2 months, and blizzard-like conditions for 2 months), I'm also going to redo how banks work. There's going to be an express line, just like there is in the supermarket. In the supermarket, you get to go in a special line if you only have a few things. It should be the same at the bank...if you have something that you know takes 2 minutes or less, then you should be able to stand in a separate line. I had to stand in the line at the bank for 35 minutes, to do something that only took a little over a minute. It made me mad while I watched people hog 5 minutes with the teller.

My new planet will be so cool though. Besides better banking, frosting will be a good source of calcium and contain all the necessary vitamins to keep you strong and healthy.

And in other things that are cool, check out the blow up santa that my neighbors had on their porch:




I realize it's tough to see past the conglomerate of wires that cannot possibly pass any safety codes, but if you look closely you can find santa. The sad part is that during the month of December, the neighbors only had him inflated a handful of times. I checked most nights out my window before I went to bed.

Tomorrow I leave for a mini-road trip. I'm headed to Philly to visit Molly for a couple of days before I make my way to visit Kerrin in Connecticut! Who knew Philadelphia was 6 hours from Boston? Certainly not me. Turns out I was forgetting about NY and NJ. Who needs those states anyway.

V-A-C-A-tion! (Is almost here)

I'm not in teaching for the presents, I swear. But this time of year, right before vacation, it is nice to get some acknowledgement from the parents (and the kids who are old enough to put on their shoes themselves) that they appreciate all the effort you're putting in. And many have been bringing in gifts over the past week. However, the gifts are mostly coming from some of the really sweet, cooperative kids and parents, and not from the ones that make me lose sleep and want to put my head through a wall. But, of the ones who have already brought things in, I've been extremely surprised by the generosity of some of the parents. Some parents spent a combined $100 on the two teachers I work with and me, which was way over the top, and this sounds pretty cheesy, but the nicest gifts I've gotten between this year and my student teaching were cards with anecdotes about how the child liked or appreciated me.

Don't get me wrong though, I polished off the box of chocolates in a day and a half, and I can't wait to spend my visa gift card on a 30 pack of beer.

I got a shiny new camera from my parents for Hanukkah, so you get to see some updated pictures...like random pictures I took during the 3rd consecutive hour of sitting on my couch at home, the festive appearance of our apartment, and our new jumbo TV which has aired "Mean Girls" at least 3 times in the last two weeks.









Tomorrow is the last day of school before VACATION!!! I'm pretty excited. After tomorrow, it's a whole lot of sleeping past 6:11, sitting in PJs until noon if I want to, and visiting Molly and Kerrin! Hooray.

Mr. Brady

I can't sleep, so I thought I'd share the happy announcement that I saw on the news an hour ago...



That picture is no more!

Tom Brady is back on the market!

I think Al Gore was right about global warming.

Why is it like 60 degrees in the middle of December?

So, I head out to my car this morning and realize:

1)I have a $40 ticket for apparently parking on my street without a permit.It's not a huge deal, since my sticker is on my car, but it's annoying that now I have to go appeal it, just because some traffic guy (badge number 322) didn't look closely enough.

And 2) My car key broke and fell off somewhere. I found the biggest piece of it in the hallway of the apartment a few minutes later, and was off to work.

...Where I found out that the assistant director had not forgot (as I assumed she had) that I still needed to have a physical to work. And that my paychecks would be withheld if I don't get one in 3 weeks. Have I mentioned how much I hate the doctor? Hence why I haven't gone in 6 years. I had a bad history of getting nervous and throwing up on the table every year until I was 13. True story.

And then we had Abby's birthday in school. And her mom had hyped up her birthday so much since September, that Abby became the three year old version of a Bridezilla. No one was allowed to touch the balloon on her chair, and for awhile, no one was even allowed to look at it. No one was allowed to decorate her birthday sign. And no one was allowed to play "birthday" in the dramatic play area. And she asked us every 2 and a half minutes if it was time to eat her yellow cupcakes yet.

The only saving grace to the day was when the Biter's mom told me that that their dear sweet biting and spitting son told his dad he has a crush on me. I don't know how, or why, since besides the fact that he's bit and spit at me, all day long all he hears from me is "You cannot hit your friends," and "You cannot wear dress-up high heels during circle time."

"Irregardless"

So, we got a Christmas tree for our apartment yesterday, and despite the fact that the upcoming holiday makes me mildly miserable for about a month and a half each year, I have to admit that it's a pretty good looking tree. Of course, this is also in comparison to our sickly, scruffy, Charlie Brown tree from last year:


Last year's tree had trouble standing up on its own

This year's edition is about 8 feet tall, and has so many branches and needles, that Kate didn't need to wrap lights around bare sticks like last year. I'll try for some pictures soon.

In other news, I'm thinking that I'm going to start knitting again. I desperately need a project, because I think I'm starting to drive my roommates crazy. I developed this knitting complex though. The idea of figuring it out again and learning how to fix my screw-ups again is making me all nervous. Plus, I'm going to need to go back to the knitting lady to get another lesson when I'm ready to end the scarf that I plan to make, but she scares me because I know that she knows I'm only knitting because I'm bored, and I have no intention of knitting myself a practical hat, and sweaters for my grandchildren.

And finally, if you haven't seen the movie Mean Girls, you're going to need to watch it. I watched it yesterday in its entirety, and I'm going strong in my second viewing tonight.