Man oh Man

What a day for our country.

I woke up 30 minutes before my alarm clock--at 4:30--and couldn't fall back asleep. I've never been so excited for a political event. I felt proud at what I did, in coloring the little circle on my ballot and helping make today happen, but even more so, I felt really proud of our country today.

Normally at school I try to downplay special events, like Halloween, or report card day. It's not fun try to teach 23 eight- and nine-year-olds when they're all riled up. But today I did my best to get them all pumped up. I wanted them to realize what an amazing thing today was. I wanted to be able to recognize the importance of today, and be able to tell their children how they got to watch it all happen.

We watched Obama get sworn in and listened to his address. I tried my best to sum up his big points in 3rd grade language as he spoke.
A lot of them got it. Many are already sensitive to inequality, and racism, and prejudice. We've read a lot about civil rights this year. And many, perhaps because we live in a hugely blue state, have a weird obsession with Obama and think he's just about the coolest guy. The fact that he has kids around their age is just the icing on the cake. Most of my students wrote letters to Obama last week, and had a solid understanding of what would happen today. I was really impressed when we talked about the inauguration afterward, especially when one of my students described how Obama spoke about all of us being "keepers of the nation."

And now I'm watching them walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, with thousands and thousands and thousands of people screaming more that probably any celebrity. It's a far cry from when I saw him way back when at a rally last winter. That night, it had been taking too long to get everyone through security and into the convention center where he would speak, so they eventually decided to let us all just run in.

This is so cool.


I've enjoyed watching Bush's time tick down on this website. It was fun to see just mere hours left this morning when I was getting ready for work.



We kicked off the excitement first thing this morning with my morning greeting.

2009 IS A HIT

Welcome to my first post of the new year!

So far, it's been a good year. I've been running into it full speed ahead. I was super-productive last week in work, and came up with a few organizational ideas that I think will help me keep my head from feeling like it's about to fall off each afternoon. Due to a conference, professional development day, MLK Jr. Day, and jury duty, I'll have 4 day weeks almost all the way up until February vacation, and from there we've got the lovely state testing due to No Child Left Behind, and then it's practically the end of the year. I can smell the salty air at the beach already.

On the New Year's Resolutions front, I've been--for once--meeting my goals. I've learned to cook three new things so far this year. My favorite has been these chicken meatball things and a tomato sauce from my new Greek cookbook. I wear my apron everytime I cook, which makes it even more fun.

And my annual resolution to be healthier? I definitely haven't cut down on candy (it's just that there are so many Lindt balls in the apartment...), but just now I got home from...

SIGNING UP AT A GYM!!!!

I have always been so anti-gym because inside is a place where I like to be lazy, and I would so much rather get outside and play and run. But it's been so cold, and the sidewalks have been so icy and snowy and slippery, so I've had excuse after excuse after excuse. I've run maybe three times since my 10K in October. Then I found out that there's a gym really close to me that I didn't know about, and it has a pool! I'm going to start going tomorrow I think, but I'm really nervous. I've never really known much about gym etiquette. Are there rules I should know about? What if I can't figure out how to use those fancy schmancy machines? Is it weird if I don't like to strip down to nothing in the locker room? Do they really mean it when they say you have to shower before going in the pool???