an exercise in hyperbole

'Twas the week before Winter Break and my Tuesday gave to meeeeee:

12 bazillion sick kiiiiids (thanks to the weather going from 70 to 40 degrees in a day!)
11 million "What are we doing today?"s
10 million "Do we HAVE to do something to day?"s
9 thousand students whining about having to read Macbeth or Into Thin Aiiiiir
8 hundred more essays to graaaaade
7 thousand questions about Macbeth Act II. (Honestly. Did they not listen at ALL?)
6 hundred more whining students asking "Do we HAVE to do this? Do we HAVE to do anything today?"
5 mooooore days until we leave for Michigan!
4 faiiiiiiiliiiiing Poetry test grades in 7th period (you have NO IDEA how amazing this is!)
3 times Bryan called Stephanie a bitch.
2 cars I almost hit trying to parallel park
1 New Haircut!:



Tuesday was okay for it being the Tuesday-before-winter-break. My eyes hurt, but we think we've figured out that it's the contact solution I switched to causing it and not an infection or the contacts. If it's not the solution, then I will have to go back to the doctor. My eyes hurting so bad has really put a stop on reading essays. I got 6 of them done today, but I have about 20-30 more to go. That's not too bad, but I'd like to get them done before Friday. I'm going to work my butt off tomorrow to get as many as possible done. My throat also hurt today because apparently, Virginia's weather gods want everyone to be sick for winter break. It was not a pleasant day for me or most of my students and our sinuses. But. The day ended up okay, I'm making some mini cupcakes now. Who doesn't cheer up while making cupcakes? Seriously.

I'm looking forward to going back to Michigan, but worried that we're going to miss everybody. We barely know anyone that lives there anymore and the dates that we have to travel back and then switch between east Michigan and west Michigan seem to be different from everyone else's. I'd like to see some friends while we're there! It's bumming me out thinking that I'm not going to see anyone.
Also, Megan and I (and now David and Mike) have been enjoying playing together on iminlikewithyou.com. If you're on there too, or you decide to join, let me know! I'll challenge you to a game or two.

Oops.

I keep meaning to update this, but then I get distracted by something else.
Recently, I've been trying to hit my 50 books in 2008 goal. After the 2 books I have left to read from the library, I have 2 more to read to reach my goal. I think I can actually do it this year!
I've finally caught up and gotten on top of things school-wise. That feels amazing. My to do lists are shorter and get done quicker.
We went to Michigan for Thanksgiving. It was kind of a crazy idea, but this year we could actually afford to do both Thanksgiving and Christmas and we had no plans in Richmond, so why not, right? It was nice to get a few extra hours with both families.
Speaking of Christmas/winter break, we will be in Warren from December 20-24th and Kalamazoo from the night of the 25th-29th. I hope to see some of you then.

two more weeks.

Yes, only two more weeks of school, then I get my break. It's only a week and a day, but I'm looking forward to it and will try to enjoy every second of it.
I'm trying very hard to not let it get in the way of my teaching, though. That's easy to do. The kids are thinking of it, we're thinking of it... it's easy to get lazy. I'm not going to get lazy, though. Mostly because I don't want to clean up the mess after lazy teaching and I don't want to be left with a lot to do during vacation and after. I think we have to submit grades before the break anyway, which will help motivate me.
This past Friday after school, Tye and I went out browsing in one of the Norfolk malls, contributed to Toys for Tots "Stuff the Bus" (upped our good karma!), went out to dinner and went to see Granby's production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown". It was so good! The kids did great, of course. The set was fantastic, it was hilarious and I didn't have one negative thing to say (besides something they couldn't control: how incredibly tired I was). I had a great time with Tye and I think we agreed we should do it again. Now I understand why so many teachers go out on Fridays--it's definitely better than going home and thinking about how tired you are and everything that could've gone better during the week!
I think getting closer to going back to Michigan has brought up a lot of things I don't want to think about. We're still transitioning between these two worlds of our past and our present, and going back brings up all this... stuff (yes, I know- very articulate, but there's really no other way of categorizing it). I find myself slightly nervous and anxious about going back, and that bleeds over when I think of everything here compared to there. Ugh. It's hard to explain. I think maybe it's a feeling that my nostalgia will always leave me feeling disappointed when I go back. Things will never be the same when I'm there and part of me won't accept that, which leads to a small spot of sadness and disappointment. Most of it is way too silly, over-dramatic and personal to bring up on this blog. It'll pass once the holiday season is over.
One thing I do like about this holiday season is that we're driving and not flying. Driving is cheaper, more environmentally friendly (surprisingly), and a whole lot less stressful! Plus, I've already gotten a lot of holiday shopping done. I have to just wait for it to show up on my doorstep, wrap it and/or put everything together. I keep thinking I have to do all that now, now, now! because I'm so used to doing everything closer to Christmas. This year, there's really no rush! Amazing. Why didn't I do this before?

last night's ladies night

We had a "spa night" where we made different face masks and

We made oatmeal and banana masks to open up the pores. We smelled like breakfast.

Megan did the best job of getting it on her face. We were dripping the concoction all over Shannon's kitchen.
After the banana and oat mask, we did a cornmeal and warm water to exfoliate. We didn't take any pictures of that because we were too busy to eat the super delicious dessert Megan made.

We then made a cucumber and plain yogurt cooling/soothing mask. Shannon and Abigail decided they really wanted to dunk their whole faces into the bowl with the mask goo.

Shannon before.

Abigail before.

Shannon getting a face full.

Abigail in the bowl.

Shannon after. She had it in her eyelashes and everything!

Abigail after.

I don't think I've laughed that long and hard in a while. It was really fun! But things are always fun with these ladies. Living in Williamsburg has definitely improved since I've gotten to know them better. I thought I would be really sad about not being able to afford to go home for Thanksgiving and Dan & Emily's wedding, but it's not so bad. I know I'll enjoy being here as much as if I were there. I mean, of course I'm disappointed I don't get to see my family, but we'll see each other in December. I'm not half as homesick as I was last year, for many different reasons (one of the biggest being that no one close to us died around this time this year, that makes it a lot easier). I am definitely looking forward to being home for Christmas, though. I'm hoping to see a lot of people before they move from Michigan, seeing both of our families, and enjoying a little of Michigan's winter weather (I reallllllly hope it snows while we're there). On the way home last night, David and I talked about how I feel like we're no longer strangers here. I like it here. I like the people, the attitude, the weather, etc. I love Michigan, I'll always love Michigan, but I don't hate it here. I like this area and I like Virginia.

whirlwind

(on the way to South Haven. Too bad it was only in the 70s that day.)
I am lazy, so I'm going to direct you to my flickr site. Link in the sidebar, look for the square with the pictures in it. There are pictures of mostly Chris, Cherie and their time in Kzoo, but there are also pictures of the surprise guest (!!) Joey, my new favorite drink (amaretto sour, which at first sounded disgusting), Mr. Ryan Dinkgrave, who was kind enough to visit and go out to dinner (and patient enough while we drove around kzoo trying to find somewhere open!) with Chris, Cherie, Joey and I, stuff we saw in D.C., etc. etc.
I had a blast in Kzoo. I was so happy to see Chris and Cherie there, I've missed being around them a lot. It was really awesome to get to see Ryan and Joey and for them to travel across the state to hang out for a few hours. Ryan gave me a CD with a few different albums on it, all of which are amazing (and the MP3 CD works in my car's CD player--wooo).
I got to hang out and catch with some of my favorite Kzoo (although some not for long) and Michigan people: Katy, Erin M, Kim, Bill, Emily, Dan, Petro, Brian, Jen, Kate, DJ, Clay, Josh F, Mike, Scotty and Traci! Amazing! I think that's everyone. I was lucky enough to get to see just about everyone I wanted to and luckily ran into a few people. I finally got to see the new Harvey's, revisited the Green Top, eat at Shawarma King, Saffron, and Crow's Nest, laugh a lot, and hug everyone I've missed so much. Erin, Chris, Cherie and I got to relive (sort of) horror movie night with Slumber Party Massacre and Tom Collinses! I hung out at Rocket Star a lot. Katy and I got Culver's, went to the cottage and wondered if the pontoon was moving. I got the best voicemail ever from Chris and Cherie (Doritos! A whole bag of Doritos!). Chris and Cherie helped my family have the best grilled meal ever. We went to South Haven and walked around, unfortunately on the only day that was in the 70s! I finally got to try Summer Thyme Cafe (delicous!!) and catch up with Jen and Kate. I also got to see the midnight showing of Harry Potter OotP with Megan, Mike, Scott, Chris, Cherie and Katy (the tradition lived on!). It was pretty awesome.
This is such a mess of thoughts! BUT I loved seeing everyone's faces and no longer just hearing your voices or reading your letters/emails. I hope that I convinced a few people to move down to Virginia or at least visit. haha.

Okay, so, our trip back deserves a story. We hop on a train from Kzoo to Chicago. Eat in Chicago. Get on a train leaving at 7:05 PM, supposed to get into D.C. at 1:05 PM. We sleep really bad because the lights are kinda bright in the train and there is a baby in front of us that will. not. stop. crying. (mostly because the mother and grandmother with the baby weren't choosing very effective methods to quiet a baby down. "Stop that" and "quiet now" are probably not going to fix whatever that child needs) We end up being SIX HOURS LATE. Yes, SIX! Frieght traffic, signal problems, brake problems, you name it-- we had it. We ran out of food on the train. People missed trains. We were certain that we'd miss our 5:50 train to Williamsburg because we were schedule to come into D.C. at 6:10 (this was changed about 5 times while David was waiting at the D.C. train station for our train to Williamsburg. It went from 5:15 to 5:35 and so on... ugh) We talk to the attendant as we're all waiting to pull into the station and I ask him if there's another train to the southeast part of VA. He tells us that that train to Williamsburg/Newport News can't leave until the conductor on our train gets on there. WHAT?!! Holy crap! How lucky! So, we ended up on the same train that David was on and we all headed to Williamsburg. Meg and I were exhausted. What an adventure.

David tagged me to do this thing:

Five (5) things about me you may not know:
1. I get really nervous and anxious going out to a public place, party, get together, etc. unless I'm with people I know really well. Like I'm talking jumpy, sweaty, etc. (I know this happens to most of you, too)
2. When I was little, I thought that I was safe from ghosts and goblins if I had a cat with me or if I made some sort of music (singing, whistling, humming, etc.)
3. Alternate dream careers: Radio show on NPR, singing in a band, photographer, owner of a coffeeshop (who didn't see that one coming?! but seriously, since I was a teenager, I always wanted to own a cafe)
4. I am really paranoid and scared of losing memories.
5. I get really annoyed when people hold back because they are absolutely petrified of what someone else will think of them. I hate seeing people hold themselves back from something that could be an amazing memory, moment, adventure, or fun! One life to live, people! (this is probably because I was like this all through middle and most of high school and I still get a little like this.)

Tag, you're it:
1. Miss Fancy Pants
2. Natalie
3. Emily H
4. Jen