been a bridesmaid 8 times (the number doesn’t sound like much, but i thought about writing -have spent over 2,300 dollars on bridesmaids dresses, shoes, necklaces, plane tickets, and showers)
driven my car to 14 states
shared my life with 8 fantastic roommates (not even counting summer families)
started voting
taken my first trip to europe
lived in 4 states
take my second trip to europe
had 12 new jobs (don’t worry I have one that will stick now)
become a sister-in-law
take my first trip to africa
made 100s of new friends
lived in a trailer park
eaten fish eggs and eyes
it is weird to think about oneself 10 years ago, would a good friend from then still recognize you today? could you share a cup of coffee and make up for lost time or would there be awkward pauses?
I realize that we (the American public) have had access to other Nixon tapes for years, but somehow the sheer volume of the conversations released to the public today seem even more amazing. I’m sure lots of people will (as many news websites already have) focus on the comments like the one to George Bush about how he is “not for women” but the GOP should recruit some pretty ones.* And sure that is amazing, but really didn’t we always know he was a jerk? And maybe by that same token of jerkhood we shouldn’t be so surprised and the rest of the ridiculousness offered up here. There is no sense of humility, which is something I think all good leaders possess a healthy dose of, but in its place an overwhelming tone of self-assurance. These conversations seem to be a dictator who has no concept of rules applying to himself. Power can be a scary thing when limited to one person. If anything I think the tapes make a case for increased attention to the checks and balances, Congress – the branch most closely tied to the people – should have the most power, not one person in a round room.
*As a footnote, I find it fantastic and commendable that George Bush basically blew off the power driven President’s remarks degrading women, way to go 41!
So it is nowhere near football season, but man I can’t wait if it means team logos on the snuggies!! As one of my dear friends pointed out, clearly this has been the tension between UA and AU fans for all these years, we simply needed an efficient way to get our hands free while still being cozy. Also of note would be how fast the blond boy switches team allegiances.
Every morning my office-mate walks in and inspects my outfit to see if I am wearing a proper amount of green. The initial inspection is always followed by one of the following statements: “Oh Ann, you need to home and change, I don’t see any green,” or “Oh Ann, you have your green on!” For the first few months this bugged me, I mean green isn’t even my favorite color I just happened to have a green tote-bag (which I use everyday because I don’t change my school bag everyday) and a green overcoat (which also crazily enough I used everyday during WINTER when I started the job). But I’ve come to the realization that although red will forever be my favorite color, I am in fact in a green mood lately.
Several of my favorite outfits and bags are green, my camera case is green, my shampoo bottles are green, actually almost all of my toiletries are green, my new blog layout is green, and I bought a green sketchbook a few days ago. The decision process of choosing the sketchbook is what made me realize why I’ve been in such a green mood the past few months. It is because green is the color of fresh, living, growing, and creative things. That has been my mood since waving goodbye to my PhD program and tackling the world of public high school. I really am excited by my job every morning -> even on those days that I dread or am intimidated by some specific obstacle. So when I stood there choosing a sketchbook yesterday, I picked the green one. The brown one was more aesthetically pleasing; but the green one made me feel more creative, which seems like a good idea in a sketchbook and in an attitude.
I can’t really get my mind around the fact that spring break is almost over. This week has gone by soooo fast. I spent last weekend bumming around Chattanooga, celebrating birthdays with Bess and Shannon, baking cool cupcake pops (I’ll post pictures at some point), and packing for my big trip this week. Monday morning my fantastic sister took me to the airport at 5:40 (yeah she is amazing). I arrived in Denver midday, just in time for Katie and I to stop for a late lunch at our favorite mexican restaurant in South Denver. My visit was fantastic – but all the pictures are on her camera so once again I’ll post later. We spent one day experimenting in the kitchen (we tried homemade fondant!!!) and then yesterday Phil took off work and we spent the day in Ft. Collins touring New Belgium’s brewery (the place that brews Fat Tire Ale – one of my favorites). By last night we knew a blizzard was going to hit today so Katie and I left for the airport early hoping I could get a earlier flight out and she would be able to make it home safely. Well she made it back to Colorado Springs safely, but all the flights out of Denver were cancelled – so I’m spending the night in a hotel and hopefully flying out tomorrow morning. So far it has snowed about 5 inches in Denver, but it is still coming down, so I really have no clue what tomorow will hold. Oh the fun!
For those of you who don’t know, I am going to be starting a blog soon (hopefully leading to my eventual stardom as a Food Network Personality) titled Bitch-In-Kitchen. It will be amazing. I am currently jotting down notes that I think are good ideas, as well as bad ones. And let me tell you this Paula Deen mishap is going on the bad list, I mean if you are going to be dropping your drawers you should at least have on fun undies.
Choosing the most annoying question high schoolers ask is a tough call. Because honestly I think it would drive anyone insane to realize they have so much responsibility over other people’s bladders, I am asked up to 10 times an hour if someone can go to the bathroom. I mean I control when 76 people urinate, that is power.
Urination aside, the most frustrating question students ask is, “When will I ever use this?” (or some variation of that idea).
When will you use it? When will you use it? I don’t know, when do you think it might be important to know what the government can and can’t do? One of my favorite math teachers had a student ask her last week when would he ever need to use parallel lines. She answered him (with a straight face), “When you are painting the white lines in parking lots. ” He didn’t understand, in fact his buddy had to draw him a diagram before he could laugh at the joke.
However, questions relating to specific content aren’t actually the most irritating. The most irritating question came last week as my students were complaining about the fact that I required them to read the whole paragraph in order to figure out the context of the vocab terms. One student asked, “When, if I am not going to college and don’t get an office job, when will I EVER need to read a WHOLE paragraph?” I was flabbergasted. A whole paragraph? When won’t you need to read a whole paragraph? If nothing else you will need to read your eviction notice when you are kicked out for breaking parts of the lease that you didn’t read. I guess whole paragraphs are just one more causality from the whole 6,473 texts per month situation.
so as a high school teacher I am constantly coming face to face with how today’s teenagers view the world around them. I am repeatedly knocked off my feet. sometimes I’m overwhelmed with the potential and creativity in my students and sometimes I’m shocked at the stupidity and ignorance. and often I’m sad, even heart-broken, and then infuriated at the way they process things, at their view of the world. this article, which talks about teenagers viewing abuse as the victim’s fault, is one of those shocking things. how can we expect more from them if this is what they expect of the world?
I realize that I haven’t written a single word on here about my new job. So for those of you who missed it: I moved out of Mississippi and life-guarded in Birmingham for a few weeks before accepting a job offer in Cleveland, TN as a high school history and sociology teacher. There are many reasons for my lack of posting about the new job, the main one being that time for actual reflective thought seems to be a commodity lacking in my current life routine. I wake up every morning and normally do 30 minutes to 90 minutes of school work before leaving the house, then drive the 30 minutes to work, stay incredibly busy all day there, stay for 30 to 60 minutes after work trying to get ahead, drive 30 minutes home, then feel the need to pass out or be social. The truth is I love my new job. I could not imagine a smoother transition for a first time teacher, especially mid-year. My school is in soo many ways a dream environment when compared to other public schools. I have fantastic collegues, who I enjoy being around and look foward to building relationships with. The admistration seems to have a good balance between big ideas and practical demands. And no my kids are not all angels, but if that was the case where would the challenge be?
Actually the true challenge is not so much in figuring out how I’m going to handle the classroom as much as figuring out where I am going to be getting my advice from. All through school people warned me that you should never listen to gossip in the teacher’s lounge, and that each teacher really has to figure out their rhythm on their own. And while there is some definite truth to that, and I have already noted the teachers that I sure don’t want to take advice from, there are also some amazing teachers doing crazy amazing things in classrooms right beside me all day. It seems wasteful not to learn from them. So my on-going project is collecting these ideas and attitudes, then synthesising them into actual helpful concrete things for my classroom.
