Seeing the other coast

This is a little overdue, but I kept doing other things and then going "Ohh, yeah, the blog..." around midnight.

So. This summer continued to be busy after Michigan. I had a week of rest, then headed out to the other side of the country.

All of this flying this summer made me realize something: I've developed an uneasiness about flying. Not quite a fear, but definitely not the easiness I remember having flying up to Canada and back multiple times. This was not helped by having to fly on a propellor plane once during my trip. It was terrifying.

I started in San Francisco, where I saw Emily, who is the MOST ADORABLE pregnant woman ever (seriously, look at her newest blog post with the pictures of her & her fantastic husband, Dan, and try and disagree with me). Emily & I met in an undergrad class we had together and then she ended up dating & marrying my boss/friend, Dan! I haven't seen them in two years and I saw I had to fly through SF to get to Oregon, so I asked Emily if it was cool to stop in for two days, even though she was ready to pop. Thankfully, she said yes (and also didn't give birth while I was there! As exciting as that would be, I didn't want to add any sort of complication to that time [or cut the cord, haha]). She was kind enough to walk around with me, even though she was mere days from her due date. It was awesome to just see Emily & Dan again and catch up, but I also got to see things in SF I didn't get to see the first time I was there, talk with Emily about all the TV shows we watch AND it was Dan's birthday the second day I was there. It was awesome to be a part of that and try out something new: Indian pizza! Seriously delicious. I wish there was a place in RVA that offered it.

After that small time in SF, I flew into Portland to meet Katy. Katy & I lived together in Kalamazoo for two years. Katy & Mike came to visit us in VA last year and we had a blast. This year there was a new addition to Katy & Mike's life: Alexandria! She is absolutely adorable! Seriously! I felt in love with her the moment I saw her. Katy & I went to an AMAZING bookstore in Powell's, then walked a little around Portland, swearing that next time, we would have ideas of other things to see, and headed to Eugene, where Katy lives. In Eugene, I introduced Katy to the IT Crowd and True Blood, and she introduced me to life in Eugene! We went to see Harry Potter (a tradition), talked about hippies and Eugene/Oregon culture, ate at delicious places (I now want a Cafe Yumm! in RVA), went to Saturday Market (all handmade things & a multi-cultural food area), went out on a girls' night, went to the Oregon Coast, went to an art museum, and tried to dodge the heat wave that hit Oregon.

When I first started this, I was going to include pictures & video of my trip, but they're ALL on my facebook and flickr & I don't feel like putting them here as well, since it took some time to get them on those two sites. If you don't know how to get to those, ask me.

This summer has been a summer of firsts, which is what it was meant to be. I want to stop letting excuses and anxiety get in my way of doing the fun things I talk about, and I think I've been pretty successful.

Firsts:

-Flew to Michigan alone

-Delayed luggage

-Flew to the west coast alone

-Ate alone in a restaurant

-went to a movie alone

-said "y'all" like I was born saying it. It just kinda popped out of my mouth before I knew it!

-sang karaoke (not quite alone, with two other girls, but STILL! way more than I would've ever done a year or more ago!)

-met the first additions to friends' families: Alex, Harrison (I didn't mention this in my Michigan post I now realize. I went to visit my friend Kate and meet her son, who is adorable, funny & smart!) and (sort of) Jackson. I'm just gonna put him on the list cause I got to feel him moving around :) All of my friends have such beautiful children! (Again, putting Jackson in that cause I bet you he will be just adorable!)

-many more I've forgotten!

I still have some plans for the rest of the summer. I need to start working on school plans more than I have, but I have some time...

Say Yes to Michigan!

This summer has been a busy one so far.

My last day of school with students involved giving 17 kids an exam, grading them and putting in all grades in a span of 2.5 hours. I then drove about 1.5 hours to Norfolk to see my first class graduate. It was AMAZING. I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy being bombarded by about 100 kids. It was crazy with hugs, screams, some tears, laughter and smiles. One of them spun me around screaming YOU'RE HERE! YOU'RE HERE!!! Another ran across a group of people screaming my name and almost knocked me over when he slammed into me to give me a hug while he told me I made his graduation day and senior year perfect by showing up. I didn't have time to talk to a lot of them, so our conversations were brief. Most of them said they missed me, and I told them the same. A lot of them said that they still had my notes and awards (some of them were reading them in the days leading up to graduation). I heard a lot of great news about their future plans. They reminded me why I teach and made me feel like I've been pretty successful so far as a teacher. They're all such great kids, I was really lucky to have the group that I did for my first two years.

Since I left early from school, I had to go back in the day after to check out. It was basically almost three hours of cleaning up my room, packing up stuff, and then running around the big school to find everyone that needed to sign off on my check out list. Ugh.

After that, I had a day and a half to myself before David's parents came to visit for a week. We took them all around Richmond, they went to see Monticello and I went with them to Va Beach. It was a beautiful week, we were given perfect weather for each activity we chose that day. It was great to see them!

The day they left, Charna, Jordan and Dave rolled into town for the moped rally in Richmond. It was TONS of fun! It was great to be on a moped again and see Richmond from that POV. They took us on some great rides and I met some great people. My moped ran like a champ with the only problem being that it didn't want to idle sometimes (that's fixed now, though!). Everyone left Sunday morning, which was fine with me because I was exhausted, bruised, sore and blistered!

Plus, I only had one more day until I left to spend a week in Michigan. My checked luggage didn't come with me, but it ended up okay. I spent one night in Detroit so I could see Joey's bike shop and hang out with him. Megan came to pick me up and we headed to East Lansing. I finally got to see her apartment (cute!) and meet her pet rat (CUTE!), Eve. Of course, we had Tim Horton's, went shopping, had ice cream made on MSU's campus (delicious!), and relaxed. The next day, we headed to Kalamazoo, tried to find my luggage, and then had a get together so Megan could tell us all about her Uganda trip. I am AMAZED by what she got to do--truly the experience of a lifetime! The next morning, we got confirmation that my bag was flown back to Richmond and was now safe and sound in my apartment, so Megan, mom and I went shopping, got Root Beer Stand (I cannot tell you how much I miss this place!) and headed out to the cottage. We spend Friday to Monday at the cottage, it was amazing to be out there again! It was barely warm enough to swim the whole weekend, but we got some time on the lake. We also went to the Hayloft, which has amazing sundaes, and a flea market, which is fantastic for people watching. I found a few books to add to my classroom library there, too. Most of the time at the cottage was spent relaxing, playing games, and reading. It was nice having some cooler weather because I knew that when I got back to Richmond, it was going to be hot and humid for another few weeks! When we got back to Kalamazoo, I HAD to go to Kazoo Books, mostly to find books for my classroom. Thankfully, they ship books all over, so they had no problem sending the books I paid for down to VA. I also got to see Krista before I left! I'm so glad we got together! I hadn't seen her in years, and it was wonderful to catch up a little bit. I hope we get to see her when we go up for the holidays, too. :) All in all, it was an amazing trip to Michigan. I got to enjoy some of my favorite Kalamzoo or Michigan-only foods, go to Meijer (oh man, I miss that place so much), see a movie with my sister, see my parents and have an amazing time with them. I'm really lucky to have seen them so much in the past year.

Now I'm enjoying some time without plans or travel before I head off on my next trip: SF and Eugene! I'm so excited!

end of the seniors

I love days where my students are loving and kind, they get along with each other and I get along with them and things just... go. Days like this make me happy I teach, they make me not wish for 3:00 or for summer vacation every moment. Even better is when the week goes by at a nice pace, things get accomplished, to do lists get finished, and everything works.

I hope it lasts until the end of next week!

I only have 2 more class days with each senior class. Their exam (both classes I have) is set for June 1st, but some are going to take it next Thursday or Friday since grades are due June 2nd. Thankfully, most of my seniors are exempt, which means I only have a few to worry about. I'm slowly getting research papers and quickly grading them and returning them. I'm giving them my usual end-of-the-year thing on Thursday and Friday.

It's nice to have seniors. Once they're gone I'll have two open blocks to get my room all situated for next year. It will be nice to have all that extra time after a whole school year of craziness.

I only have 7 more odd and even days left with my sophomores. I really love teaching 10th grade. I don't know why. I've really come to like this crazy group of kids. It'll be nice to see them next year again and possibly in 12th grade.

My last day with students is my birthday. This is the first time I've ever been in school as student or teacher on my birthday. When I was in elementary school, I was always bummed that I never got to celebrate my bday at school and bring in treats. That day is also the exam day for my 5th period, which is the class I see every day. That's exciting because they are the group of kids I get along with the best. That day is also graduation for Granby, so I'll be going down to Norfolk to see all my old students graduate! I'm so excited to see them again and see them on such an important day!

Even though things are going great now, I'm still looking forward to summer vacation! My birthday, a trip to Michigan, a trip to SF/Eugene, possible other trips are all exciting additions to the general joy of summer vacation. Nothing beats not having a schedule, being able to read whatever I want, not having to grade and not having to deal with 100+ demanding teenagers Monday-Friday. :)

too much drama

This weekend I swear I'll write something in here. Something interesting like how some of my students are magnets for drama. I'll also include how some of that drama has leaked into my classroom and involved me way too much in a few different ways. Exciting, new adventures in teaching! 

I keep promising myself I'll get better at this, but I never really know what to put. I'm not sure if I should put stories, updates on what I'm doing, more teaching or more personal, etc. etc.

I haven't had that much time to figure that out, either. Spring break was last week and my parents were here. I dragged them all around Richmond and then took them to D.C. Doing all of that meant I didn't get a lot of school work done, so this week's planning time has been mostly dedicated to grading persuasive essays. I haven't stayed after school much this week because of meetings, appointments, tornado watches or beautiful spring weather. Coming back from spring break is always difficult, but this first week flew by. I'm not really stressed about the papers because I only have about 10-14 left (out of ~80!). After those papers, I have to catch up on the little bit of grading I've accumulated from this week already. I can handle it though. Beyond family visits and grading, my GRE test date is coming up in 2 weeks, so I've been preparing for that. 

It's the time of year where I'm looking forward to summer and next year. I've got a notebook that I've started writing ideas down in, and I hope to get some work done over the summer in terms of a sketch of the year's pacing. I say that every year and it barely happens, but I'm hoping to actually do it this year to prevent more work for myself next year! 

This summer will hopefully be filled with travel and new places. There's no moving and no internships, we both have jobs, so why not? So far, we have a birthday trip (for me), my trip out west, my possible trip to Michigan (still figuring that out) and a possible camping trip out to the western border of VA. I'm not making a list (even a mental one) of things I want to do this summer because I always end up only doing a few things. This summer, I'm just going where it takes me. Hopefully, it'll be fun, interesting, relaxing, adventurous and amazing! ha!

in which I refer you to my flickr photostream...

Pictures of our apartment with stuff in it are up on my flickr.
You'll also find a few (no, really, like less than 5) pictures from Tye's visit. We went to a really cute place called Comfort, but my camera's battery was dying, so I didn't take a lot of pictures.
(picture taken by Leanne's wonderful camera. I am trying not to laugh at the guy taking the picture, who said "You look like ducks!" or something along those lines, because we were in a V formation. Also, a prize to the first person that notices what's different about this picture. Here's a hint: I learned a valuable lesson this week about keeping track of how long I use one pair of contacts.)
You'll also find really blurry, hard to understand pictures from the night I went out with Leanne, Diana, Shannon and Rebecca and had a ridiculous amount of fun. My camera was on its last little bit of energy, but I tried to take a few good pictures (uhh, they're "artsy"??).

There is a hilarious story behind this picture. I wish I could tell you, but 1) it's really Diana's story and 2) it's probably one of those "you had to be there (especially after a few cucumber mojitos)" stories.
There are also pictures (and videos) of when David and I went to the Gone to the Birds festival to see the Purple Martins. It was crazy to see! The picture above is a shot of the huge flock we saw first.
This hawk snatched a Purple Martin out of the air, plucked it, tenderized it with its claws and then ate it whole. Someone in the crowd called it a Republican, which got a lot of laughs. It then flew into a tree full of Martins to try and get another. What a jerk.

completely & totally not dead

It's weird being in a city again. I keep remembering there's lots of stuff to do!

What we've done so far:

• Unpacked, cleaned, and went to Ikea to get some important things (like a sofa, chair and wardrobe)
• Figured out how to function in a smaller apartment
• Remembered what it was like to live in an apartment with no central air and no dishwasher again (that wasn't too difficult, it was only 2 years that we lived with those luxuries)
• Celebrated our 2 year anniversary by walking over to a wonderful restaurant called Kuba Kuba
• Many walks. One of those walks was to Plan 9, which I knew was a bad idea to begin with because I saw their vinyl collection when I was there with the family, and ended up finding a few good things.
• Got my moped running!!
  
• Got David a Schwinn Varsity for $50. Considering we spent about $200 on my female Varsity, his was a steal. It's a pretty green one that
  
• Went to see The Dark Knight with two lovely ladies. It was awesome, even though I was hungry and had to pee really bad by the end of it (TMI? I'm sorry).
• Met most of the people in the building.

Not much, but I've been trying to not spend too much since I still don't have a job. I know I'll probably have one by the time school starts, but I really don't want to chance our finally-somewhat-stable financial situation just in case I don't hear from anybody or get an offer.
But that's enough of that. Thinking about that just makes me anxious.
Plus, it's my summer vacation. I'm not going to worry about finding a back up job (positive thinking: because I won't need one) until school starts, so I've been enjoying that thing called sleeping in. I've also been trying to read The Pillars of the Earth--that thing is a beast! Since I don't teach during the summer, and my day to day activities of sleep in-read a little-check email-slide on the wood floors to Bikini Kill because I just moved to this lovely city and lack friends, places to go, a job, etc. isn't really interesting to anyone but me, I've been thinking about all the things I've been meaning to sit down and write all year. Being a second year teacher actually gave me a second or two to remember: oh yeah, I actually had other stuff that I did before I was swamped with planning, grading, giving a crap, etc. So, I'll try and get some of that down and hopefully some of it will be interesting.

then why am i their mascot?

Yesterday was my first day with no school, no visitors, no David--just me at home with just the cats. I woke up late, lounged around, finished my small to do list, watched some movies on Netflix's Watch Instantly... not much. When David came home, we talked about how the cats were probably enjoying having one of us home all the time, which somehow brought us to the idea that we needed a cat nanny. I tried to remember the conversation to share it, but I can't even figure out how it came up. I do remember doing an impersonation of how us having cat nanny would be like... but it was that kind of "you had to be there" funny...

It's been weird being on summer vacation again. I have to remember what I learned last summer: how to do little during the day and not become restless. It's difficult because summer nights always makes me want to go out with friends, but the few friends I have here in Virginia are not in Williamsburg--not exactly easy to call them up and say, "hey, let's do something!".
Last night, I got sucked into watching a Jon and Kate Plus 8 mini marathon. I didn't like that show at first, but both Megan and Natalie mentioned it recently, and nothing else was on (it was... uhh... after midnight. Hey! I'm on vacation!), so I gave it another chance. OMG. So addicting.
Today, I've read out on the porch while the cats napped, watched the fluffy clouds go by, gone grocery shopping, ate a salad and drank coffee (bloom has really good coffee! Something I learned while Katy, Mike and AJ were here), made oatmeal toffee bars (LOTS OF THEM!), listening to two episodes of This American Life (I'm so behind with the podcasts!) and StoryCorps and now I'm waiting for David to come home so we can go sign our lease in front of a notary, do our laundry, and finish The Tudors.

I realized that I did forget to mention one thing that Megan and I did while she was here: made TONS of references to one of our favorite YouTube-er, mittymoo. Between the "Come see the treeeee!", "my son is gay. my son is gay?", "he's here! he's gay! get used to it!", and "where you takin meeee? no, don't tell me! i want to be surprised!..... where are you takin meeee?", my parents probably thought we'd both gone batty.
I think I still love this one the most:

already august?

It's almost that time of year again. I've already had a few nightmares that are my version of showing up to school in your undies: showing up to face a huge, overcrowded classroom of new students and not remembering that it was the first day of school. Nothing is ready! oh noes! Tragedy! I don't enjoy these dreams, but they are definitely motivating me more. I've already finished one presentation, have notes/outlines (very rough) for 4-5 units, a list of things I need to buy and things I've already bought (thank you, Target, for having folders for 10 cents and packaged in groups of 10. So much easier.)
The first of August came and brought humidity. July is over, but it was fun. Megan and I recently got over a bag buying addiction, but ended up with some cute, pretty cheap stuff. We also now have a list of things to do before she leaves the "colonial triangle" and goes back to the land of Vernors, Meijer and the mothereffing Root Beer Stand (and you best believe I enjoyed some of that while I was in Michigan!)
So, I made the transition to Virginian: I have a license with a decent picture, a registered car in VA (after many issues and mail and faxes and $77 spent on installing the front plate. Who knew a small piece of plastic could cost $50!?), a taste/constant craving for sweet tea, and I made my first mint juleps! Also, I finally bought some pear vodka, but I have no idea what to do with it, I mostly just like to smell it because it smells delicious. I did look on Absolut's site and they had a few good suggestions. Next time, I want to buy some of the other crazy flavors they have at the VABC store.
There's been lots of talk of improvement in finances, attitude, eating habits and activity. Hopefully it's not all talk and ends up being action, as well. David saw the light on budgeting, planning meals, etc., so that will lead to more financial responsibility on both our parts. We are buying in on the trend (haha) and starting a debt blog. It's only going to be one we can see and, at least for me, mostly a wake up call as to how much we owe right now. It's not a lot, it could be worse. My student loan debt makes up slight more than half of it. Another part of the debt blog we're going to make is keeping track of how much we consume, which is something I don't think a lot of people think about. How much money do you spend in a week? How much was necessary and how much was a "want"?
Now that a lot of new people are moving in, I realized it's been almost a year since we've been here. I do love it down here because of the weather, the seasons, the people, the landscape, etc. etc. It's getting better on the whole "woe is me! I have no friends!" part. Someone told me before we moved that the first year is the worst/loneliest, after that it gets better. Let's hope that's true.

pictures galore!

We went to a Harry Potter party at B&N

Meg got a tattoo. It has Harry's face in it.

We both got sorted into Ravenclaw. Helllllzzzz yeaaaah!

When David showed up, we convinced him to be sorted, too. He was Hufflepuff, poor boy. Haha.

There were sooo many people.
The 7th book was good, except the epilogue was... um, strange. Too perfect? I don't know. Let's pretend it never happened.

Then we went to Busch Gardens.

This is the Griffon's first drop. 205 ft up. 90 degree drop straight down. Freaking. Crazy.

They dangle the people at the top, leaning over the edge for almost 10 seconds (I think, I didn't count it. It has to be between 5 and 10 seconds that they're stuck in this position, though). Uhh.. yeah.

Megan went on her first rollercoaster. It was incredibly fast, but very fun. We got soaked on a ride calld Roman Rapids. I jinxed us by saying "I really don't want to get caught under the waterfalls". We hit all three of them! haha. I had fun watching people come around the corner for the first drop on the Griffon and be waving their hands, all excited and then they clutch on for dear life once it releases. Next time, I'm going to ride the Alpengeist. I couldn't quite convince Meg to get on that ride. It's a really nice park, though, I was really impressed.

I went to College Park/D.C. area with Kristie yesterday, to pack up Maurice's stuff and see David. We walked around Georgetown between rain drops. I dropped into an Urban Outfitters for the first time since we moved down here and found these cute little things:

We'd been looking for a coat rack or something similar for a while, these were perfect.
David surprised me with this:

He picked it out allllll by himself. Well done, boy! (it's a fake/imitation, btw. haha. I love it.)

Here's a cute cat to cheer up your day:


And, finally, something for you to read.

was that thunder?

We found a wonderful, less crowded, less boardwalk-y/flashy/downtown beach with more families and beautiful beach homes lining the beach today. Oh, and parking was only $4 ($5 on the weekends), rather than $10+. The ocean wasn't as wavy, the wind was calmer, and the sun took breaks behind small clouds. I'm now almost done with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, since I got a lot of reading done. I used this mat I bought from H&M and our new beach chairs--both are perfect for the beach. Next we need an umbrella or something to create shade.
Unfortunately, during our second swim into some crazy huge waves, we decided two things: first, that we should bring some floatation stuff next time cause it looks so fun to go over those huge waves on one, and, second, to get the hell out of the water cause there were some huge, dark clouds that sounded like they were producing thunder. The ocean pretty much vacated once the third roll of thunder was heard, many people having already left the beach. Most people were packing up when we were heading to the car. It rained through most of Va Beach and Norfolk, making finding our way back totally exciting since my wipers need to be replaced. It looked incredibly dry once we got to the HRBT and Hampton. Either it didn't storm like crazy there, or it had already dried (which was possible, it was incredibly hot and humid today, thus the trip to the beach).
The best part? The chance of thunderstorms today was 20% for the southside. 20%!! We heard it on NPR on the way down! Ah well. I do love random summer storms and we really needed it.

Later on today or tomorrow I'll post about my parents and cousin's visit. I've got a lot of updating to do, but I've been busy enjoying my slow days and avoiding the stuffiness of the computer room. It's much better now that we turned the A/C on low, today and yesterday were way too humid to let it stay off.

C'mon, gang members are totally feminine!

I've survived research papers and kids begging to play Mad Gab and now Apples to Apples (I've infected them!). My students have been introduced to my twisted sense of humor with that game and, fortunately, a few of my more surly boys appreciate it, which is the only way I win cards. It's hilarious watching kids be totally skeptical of a teacher's game and then get really into it. I totally play it up too, I'm a complete fool for these kids. I like making an ass out of myself to make them laugh/loosen up/make mistakes/laugh at themselves.
Funniest moment of my week so far:
Fard: I'm dropping out. School is gay.
Me: Yes. School is totally gay. So gay that, in fact, the homosexual mafia does actually run this place.
Fard: See what I mean? Gay, man, gay.
Me: I actually heard the other day that legislation is going through to ban all straight kids from coming to school.
Fard: See what I mean? George Bush, man. He is so gay.
Me: Yeah, I know. His constant push of the "homosexual agenda" is just messing everything up.
This whole conversation happened during their silent reading time, so it was even more awesome. It went something like that, but there were other things in there I can't remember them because the whole class burst into laughter. These are the moment we cherish, right? Haha. Fard is always good for a laugh, he's always got something crazy to say. For example, the day he found out that breastmilk is not injected into the breast, but, instead, forms naturally. He didn't know that. He will never live it down in 5th bell, though. This moment was almost as good as the time I made Cleo chug a cup of peaches while getting his friends to chant "Dooooo itttttt!" (completely inappropriate, but the things we do for entertainment during my caf duty) or the time this ninth grader turned to me during a debate with his friend and asked, "C'mon, haven't you ever gotten kicked in the nuts?" I need to make a list of all the wonderful moments like that I've had this year, but I'm going to have trouble remembering all of them.

Anyway, I'm finishing up my version of the 10th grade English final exam and counting down the days like every other teacher. This past weekend got me so excited for summer.
What do I have planned?
-Riding my mothereffin' gold and blue bike, man! We went on our first trip into the wild and crazy (ha!) streets of Williamsburg and man oh man, do I love this bike.
-Maybe possibly pulling out the moped. I'd be the only moped rider in Wbg and I'd have to wear my helmet (uggggh), but goddamn, do I miss that thing. I even seriously debated going to BBQ13 in Kzoo this year, but plans conflicted. Maybe next year and maybe I'll go to the Hell's Satans rally next April. I miss mopeds.
-Our parents and Liz coming down June 18th-June 22nd. It comes nicely right after my birthday.
-Trip to Kalamazoo! July 6th-11th/12th (depends on if we go to Chicago on the 11th). Yesssss. I hope to have lots of fun. Please don't let me down, Kalamazoo.
-One year anniversary of gettin' hitched on July 15th. We get to eat the top tier of the cake- hell yeah!
-Possible other trips, one will definitely be to see Miss Fancy Pants in Philly.
-Bands. Possibility of going to see the Horrors and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in D.C. on the 8th. I think we've all (that is, myself, David, and Megan) decided to go see Interpol on July 21st in Norfolk.
-Other people visiting? Who knows? People always talk, rarely come through, but hopefully they will. It'd be fun to have some visitors down here. I need some help making fun of the tourists.
-And, lastly, getting prepped for next year. I want to have a good idea of what I'm getting myself into before diving into the year (like this year). I already know next year's going to be better since I've already done the English 10 thing once.

I love the idea that my summer is wide open. I have a stack of books. I have ideas and determination.

make a list.

There's no good way to get in this and driving in the heat has completed fried my brains today.

Run down of the last week of school:
-Students are progressing through novels. Most are enjoying. Some are dragging/not really doing it (as usual. it's the "usual suspects", as well. doesn't make it less disappointing though).
-SOL tests are done! WHEW! Wednesday there was a huuuuge problem with the server being down, which meant that all tests scheduled that day were cancelled. I guess that's the downside of computerized testing (the upside being less paper and waste!).
-3 day weekend. 4 day week. But, alas! 3 of the four days are "A" days, due to the 31st and the 1st being back to back. Hurray? I will miss my "B" day crazy monkeys.
-I'm starting to put together the things I'm giving my students and the items/planning needed for our last day together. Most have picked the picnic outside, only 2 classes chose the movie option.
-I think I may have mentioned this before, but if not: I am teaching 2 classes of 11th grade (American Lit. yessss!) and 3 of 10th next year. I am still floating, but between 3 classrooms right next to each other! Thank you, Ms. Stein! I have so many ideas and ways to make 10th grade better next year and I already have ideas for a theme for my 11th grade year. We will (hopefully) have a "graffiti" wall that we fill out throughout the year to answer the question "What is an American/America?" as well as the constant idea of 2 Americas. We'll read the "classics" and then we'll read something from those that were outside of the mainstream. Hopefully, it all works out. I'm looking forward to having two preps, doing the same thing five times gets my head all sorts of confused. A nice thing is that quite a few of my students said they're going to request me for 11th grade-- that is such a huge compliment!

Non-school related:
-David is now in College Park/D.C. area for his internship. That's why my body and brains feel like mush, having to drive up there and back in 90 degree weather. It was surprisingly warm and thankfully not humid. Tomorrow, the high for wbg is 94. Oh. my.
-Last night my buddy Carly (formerly worked at GHS) gave me a call and asked if we wanted to go out. She was in wbg with some friends that she has been telling me since the day we met that I would enjoy. I almost turned her down because I was exhausted and felt kinda crappy due to allergies. I'm glad we went though because we had a grrrreat! time (Yes, that was a Tony the Tiger reference). It was nice to meet people that also live in wbg that have similar interests (like zombie movies). They were super laid back, friendly, chatty and genuine. They said that Carly will definitely have to call us for their house warming party (this apparently was a moving out party) in their apartment near ours.
-I still haven't decided if I want a part-time job for the summer.
-I am looking into visiting Kalamazoo in early or mid July. I'm thinking after July 4th, but before July 15th. I have been missing the dickens outta that place.