Small world

Check out this article:

21-year-old man accused of beating grandmother to death

The details are nothing too special, but note the address: 462 Kaymar Drive.

I grew up on 463 Kaymar Drive.

Also crazy: I remember this kid coming over to our house when I was little. My brother and I and our friends never really liked playing with him, because he was bossy and rather obnoxious and wanted to ride bikes off the front porch.

I guess we had good intuition.

Format inspired by Dwight

Fact: I have got to stop eating dinner at 7. It wrecks my blood sugar, I can't get anything done in the evening, not to mention that by 7, I am ravenous.

Fact: Today was the WORST DAY ever. I reamed out my class, and I love my class! They seriously need to pull it together. And I seriously need a few more hours of sleep.

Wait, upon further consideration, it was not the worst day ever: No one was injured or threw up in the classroom. Either of those would make for a pretty bad day.

Fact: I was invited to a formal event ('ball' might be an appropriate word) which is a fundraiser for the school. Sounds kind of cool...except when you consider that it's on a Saturday, in fact on the Saturday of our only long weekend from now until spring break. Plus the fact that there will be mostly parents from school there, which means there'd be little or no alcohol for me, since I'd have to watch what I say. Plus: Who wants to think/converse about school stuff on a Saturday?? Because we know that that's going to be the only topic of conversation. However... turning this thing down looks bad; a fundraiser to which teachers were given free tickets but they don't show is tacky. Please help me find a way to get out of this. Can I visit someone on the weekend?

Okay, the 'Fact' thing is getting old. Besides, it loses the effect when your fact is eight sentences long. One more anecdote about today: I was chatting with the kindergarten teacher after school, and we were talking about life outside (!) of school. She asked me how I fill my time outside of work, and I honestly couldn't think of an answer. I play my violin about once every other week, do the Irish dance thing but haven't done any shows yet, watch 'The Office' like a fiend, but that's about it. Really, the most accurate answer to this question would be 'sleep'. I didn't realize until this afternoon how big a loser I actually am. Scratch that, we'll go with the explanation that I am worked to death and don't have energy to pursue anything outside of school. And that is sad.

Oh yeah, let's add 'underpaid' to that last sentence.

Self-explanatory

HOLY CRAP! I got into Cambridge!!!!

No amount of exclamation points do that sentence justice...but let's add some more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Donations to the Send Bridget to England Fund are now being accepted.

In which I am an obsessive fan

I recently bought the DVDs of seasons one and two of 'The Office'. This could be considered a very poor choice, in the sense that it's become my new obsession and keeps me from getting anything done. In the past two days, I have probably watched 7 episodes, some with commentaries, as well as the deleted scenes and outtakes. The great thing is that the show doesn't get less funny the more you watch it; it even gets funnier. The characters are so well-done, the writing is fantastic, and John Krasinski is now the man I want to meet before I die. I just need to get him to fly up here; I think we'd hit it off.

In more realistic news, the first-graders and their teachers had a big sleepover at the school on Friday...nothing like spending 26 consecutive hours at work! (My housemate said, 'Think of the overtime!' and then I broke into hysterical laughter.) To be honest, though, it wasn't that bad, apart from being exhausting and my having to corral 6-year-olds because their parents wouldn't/couldn't. There were lots of games, lots of food, movies, and zero crying. It actually would have been an okay Friday night, if the people I was hanging out with weren't 20 years younger than me.

So tomorrow is a teacher work day, which means no kids but hours dedicated to checking off standards and writing report cards. Yippee. Until then, I will procrastinate by watching further episodes of 'The Office'.

Gratuitous self-flattery

Our current unit in the first grade is something like 'All About Me', so an assignment for the kids was to bring in pictures, especially baby pictures, so that we can do fun projects and make collages. Of course, it's extra fun if the teacher does it too, so I had my mom send me some photos...

Very small me. I think that is one hand holding me up.

Me at 18 months. Apparently I am fond of snow globes.

(Aside to Müs: Shout out to the avocado shag carpet and the plaid couch!)

My hair is still that messy.

Dude, I was a cute kid! :) Whatever happened?

Video killed the radio star

This one's for Müs: Endless Caruso One-Liners! Or, How to Don Your Sunglasses While Sounding Pretentious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sarYH0z948

Also, how to fold a t-shirt:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5739257457512694439

I have not a clue how that works, but it looks pretty cool. I am inspired to try folding some of my shirts like this.

Back to reality

Aaaaaand we're back. Vacation = love (=bacon?), but you can overdose on too much of it. Much like bacon. Then again, being nearly ready to claw out one's eyes from boredom helps one appreciate coming back to work. Hypothetically speaking.

In a more coherent sense: My first day back was actually not too bad. The kids seemed to appreciate having a normal school day after three weeks of chaos, and they were surprisingly quiet. Also, not to sound conceited or anything, but they were really happy to see me... they all were like, '!!!' when they came in, and many proceeded to tell me all about their vacations. To be honest, it was nice to see them again; I wasn't kidding when I said I'd missed them. I didn't miss some other aspects of school, but I missed my class. I am still amazed when I give them directions, they get it, and then they do exactly what I just told them to do. We'll see if that feeling holds up tomorrow.

Cambridge update: I did not get the scholarship I was hoping for. This means that even if I do get in, I may not (most likely won't) be able to go. Really bitter/mad/upset about this. If you have any leads on free money for hardworking but poor master's students, let me know.

In other randomness, I found a book at the post office the other day. It was a traveling book, and there's a label on the inside that instructed me to go to BookCrossing.com and write in that I'd found it. Apparently the gist of this idea is that you register a book and give it an ID number, then you let it go into 'the wild' for someone else to pick up and read, and they leave it somewhere else for someone new to read, etc. Sort of like a 'Pay It Forward' with books. But when you visit this website, not only can you register a book that you have found, you can also go book-hunting; there's a section on the site where you can search in your city for books that have been left places. How great is this idea?! I am totally going book-hunting in the future. All I need now is one of those safari hats and a tranquilizer gun. And a bad British accent.

*Edit: I forgot the best story of the day! We were talking about the best part (or best Christmas gift) of vacation, and one girl said, 'Mein bestes Geschenk war ein Augen-Hund.' Er...what? Is someone in your family suddenly blind, so that they need a seeing eye dog? I'm not sure that should be on the list of 'my favorite gifts'. Upon being asked what this 'Augen-Hund' is, the girl proceeded to explain what it does, and I figured out what she meant...

An iDog. Of course!