I heart Presidents

Thank you, dead Presidents, for giving us a four-day weekend. It was/is sorely needed, especially since it's the only break we have until Easter. Oh yeah, and thanks for leading the country through its times of crisis, etc., etc.

I've filled in three of the four days so far by driving around and doing errands: planning with my co-teacher, making a half-assed attempt to reorganize my classroom, teaching Irish dance, going to dance rehearsal, putting gas in the car, going to Target, and going to the Mall. All I really needed was a black shawl-/scarf-type-thing to wear with a borrowed dress to the 'Maskenball' (that's right, the formal affair that serves as a fundraiser for the school to which the teachers were invited and/or forced to attend). However, I ended up coming home with a dress. And you all well know that I am perhaps the cheapest person on the face of the planet and rarely buy new stuff, let alone frivolous stuff that I will possibly never wear again. But this dress (apart from being on sale -- ha, some things never change) is totally worth it; I actually look good in it. And I never think that about myself, so clearly, I couldn't pass this one up. The only downside here is that I feel rather dumb and irrational having already had a decent dress, but then going and spending money on a new one. Rationalizations, anyone?

Anyway. Other things I bought at the Mall were jewelry to wear with the dress (at Claire's! I was totally surrounded by 12-year-olds and felt way too old) and shoes for no real reason other than they are very cute. And they have cherries on them. And thus ends my last shopping spree for the foreseeable future.

About the Maskenball: It was actually not that bad. A bit weird, perhaps, to be chatting with the parents of your students while sipping champagne and wearing formal attire, but rather nice. I made no huge social faux pas, so that was good. Unfortunately, it was basically single me in a sea of married people; that was a bit annoying, but I didn't really care too much. At least there was no one I really had to impress.

In other news... got some mail from Cambridge today. The more I think about it, the more I really want to go for it. Despite all reasonable thought that says, I have a job with decent security (because there is a limited pool of qualified applicants), I'm earning money and paying off loans, I've spent a lot of time and effort trying to feel at home here, I don't necessarily have good plans for the future following an MA degree... then I think, it's the University of Cambridge! Seriously, how cool is that! I checked out the website for the umpteenth time today and found a list of MPhil candidates in my department... there are ten of them. TEN. Being accepted to a program that only takes ten people a year is pretty amazing. And turning that down because I don't have a spare 18,000 pounds seems pretty stupid.

Then again, it's 18,000 pounds. Let's hope I win the lottery or strike oil or something.