Okay, sometimes you just have to do it! You have to go back and relive something that you loved in your childhood and see if it still holds up as an adult. Now, there are some childhood treats that absolutely do NOT hold up as an adult ... at least not for me. For example, cotton candy. I tried some a few years back at a Yankee game. Wow, that's some overly sweet, nasty stuff ... and insanely expensive to boot, considering it's just sugar! Oh, wait, no that's because it was at Yankee Stadium.
Today, while in the grocery store, I happened to walk down the aisle where the Marshmallow Fluff was shelved and I thought, "Hmmm, how long has it been since I had myself a Fluffernutter sandwich? 30, 35 years?" Being the impulse shopper that I am, I picked up a small jar of Marshmallow Fluff. I just couldn't seem to resist the urge. And I wonder why I can't lose the last 30 pounds I'd like to lose. :-)
I got home, grabbed a tortilla (I hate white bread), scooped out some peanut butter, spread a little Fluff on it and bam! A tasty snack. Now for me, because Fluff is rather sweet, a little goes a long way. Therefore, I only used about 1 tablespoon, but let me tell you, this is one childhood snacks that is still pretty delicious to wolf down as an adult. Yum, yum, yum. Of course, now I have a jar of Fluff which is probably not the healthiest of options to have in my larder. Oh well, such is life! What's your favorite childhood food that you still eat as an adult??
Ever take a close look at a service provider's bill. It's shocking the little costs that providers put on these bills which quickly add up to an overpriced bill!! In an attempt to reduce some of my monthly expenditures (now that I'm making a redonkulously low first year teacher's salary), I've been going over all my service providers' bills with a fine-toothed comb to see where I can cut some costs. Cell phone? Nope, no cutting there. Electricity or gas? Nope, no cutting there either. Cable bill? Tah dah! Oh yes! There's some cutting to be done there! I realized that my cable/internet bill, which is at a whopping $130 per month, was just too much money for something that I use so rarely. It was time to slice up that bill. But how?
Well, first and foremost, because I watch such a miniscule amount of television, it's inane for me to pay for 300 channels. Of course, I still want to have at least the basic channels in my house. After all, I need my daily Judge Judy fix! Therefore, I dropped my service to a basic cable package - 20 channels; $10 per month. That's what I call affordable. Let's continue to look at my itemized bill. Hmmm, excuse me, but what's this $7 per month fee? Oh, the cable modem for my internet access! Ummmm, you mean the same modem which I can purchase for $50 on Amazon? You mean the modem that I've now spent more than double that amount in rental fees over the past 16 months? Oh, THAT modem? Yyyyyyeah! I'm an idiot! Time to return that piece of junk to Comcast and buy my own. How much for the HD DVR? $20 a month? Ummmmm, time to return that. Although I do still have the HD converter box because I can afford $2 a month for that! After all, I'm not a barbarian!
My cable/internet bill has gone from $130 per month down to $70 per month and almost nothing has changed in my television viewing! Although I will say the infuriating thing about Comcast is that they actually were going to charge me $2 for making these changes that is until I lodged a complaint over their nickel and diming and they decided to waive the $2 change fee. Of course, it wasn't about the $2 but the principle of the fact that they were actually going to charge me $2 for something that took them 30 seconds to change. What?!?!?! I loathe service providers, even though I used to work for one! Then again I loathe that service provider, too. I do wish there might be a way to reduce the $60 per month for internet, but I do want the high speed internet, which does make my life easier so I suppose I'm stuck.
Due to my cost cutting, I am now happily covered on my television viewing for a reasonable amount of money. Although I will say that I'm fairly lucky that the few shows that I watch are either on the basic cable channels or available to stream online for free, like The Daily Show. I don't know what I'd do with my daily Jon Stewart fix, but fortunately, I don't have to worry about that! I think it might be time for everyone to check out their service providers' bills. It's shocking when you discover how much we are being nickel and dimed to death by these vipers!
Yes, I quoted Mr. Spock. No, I'm not a Trekkie. I have seen the occasional episode and most of the movies, but would not say that I was a true fan of the Star Trek franchise. But what I want to share is a video that someone turned me onto.
In May 2012, Leonard Nimoy, a Boston native, received an honorary degree (Doctor of Humane Letters) from Boston University and was invited to deliver the convocation address at the College of Fine Arts, which he eagerly agreed to give. As with most things these days, the entire address was posted on YouTube and it is brilliant! Mr. Nimoy, at a spritely 81 years of age, was witty, eloquent, and sincere. The entire speech is just under 20 minutes and it is well worth the time to watch. Yes, he adorably flashes the Vulcan salute and does tell the students to "live long and prosper", but he says so much more than that. One of his more meaningful pieces of advice to the graduates is: "You are the creators and curators of your own lives. You create your own life and your work. Give us your best. Give us the best of your art. We crave it - we hunger for it." But he also advises the graduates "Please, please, for the sake of our culture - for the sake of mankind - don't create any more reality tv shows." Hear, hear!
Watch the entire speech when you have time. I intend to show this video to my students and I hope they will be as inspired as I was. Mr. Spock, I salute you! You are, indeed, a gentleman and a scholar!
Today, I took my Freshman honors class to the library for a library orientation. Shockingly, some of them had never been to a library before because their elementary and middle schools did not have libraries. <sigh> Such a sad statement. After going through the orientation, they went on a library scavenger hunt where they did things like "find a book in the biography section which is about a person who has the same initial as your last name". It was a fun way to end my day.
While we were there, one student came across a collection of 100 love poems written by teenagers, called Falling Hard (edited by Betsy Franco). She shared one of the poems with me, which I would now like to share with you:
I Love You
Looking into your eyes, my heart skips a beat
And it makes me want to vomit.
You mean the world to me and I hate that
I love you with all my heart
So I think I'll kill myself.
You make me feel like no on else can
So I know I can't trust you.
You are my one, my only
Piece of shit that I can't stand.
I love you.
- Alana Gracia Sopko, Age 14
Who says kids don't know what's going on these days? I'd say this poem is pretty much right on the money. Age 14, and already so wise! And fits in so nicely with my previous posting. Heh heh!
[Updated on 9/27/2012] We've all been there. You fall for someone, they tell you all the sweet things you've always wanted someone to say to you, then they rip your heart out, and just walk away, but even after they do that, you still miss them and want them back. That is, until you reach the "I Hate You and Hope You Suffer" stage! For me, this stage took a lot longer to happen then I thought it would. After missing and dealing with this loss for eons and still wanting this person in my life, I finally hit this phase in the grieving process. Whew!
What finally made it all click was remembering more and more the never ending litany of lies that this person told me the entire time that we were communicating. Lies such as: how he hadn't "been able to forget [me] since meeting" me, how we were "kindred spirits" and "would always be in each other's life forever," how he liked to take his time working out so he could spend time with his "two favorite girls" (me and Judge Judy), and, my personal favorite, how he "would always be there" for me no matter what. These are just a few examples of a huge amount of things he said to me. Bah. Lies, I tell you.... LIES! But I fell for it. Hook, line and sinker! But as I mentioned in my Karma for Users post, this person just used me for his own nefarious purposes and left behind a bitter, broken person who suffers with feelings of anger, disappointment and mistrust. It finally hit me today that all that anger and disappointment over those untruths overrides any affectionate feelings that I, unfortunately, still have for this person. Being a genuinely kind person and a pacifist, I would never actually wish anyone harm - even someone who hurt me as much as this person did. My hope is that he feels perhaps a small modicum of guilt over his perfidy and is suffering because of it. Bbbbuttttttt... I highly doubt it because one only feels guilty when they hurt the people they care for. As he never actually cared about me, I'm certain he sleeps very well at night. Oh well, I'll just have to hope that karma plays its hand. In the meantime, how's that saying go: "Living well is the best revenge" (George Herbert, English poet and orator (1593-1633)).
Of course, envisioning this man staked out naked over a fire ant hill covered in honey in the middle of a desert with a pool of water just out of reach does make me smile.
While I know that all of you are chomping at the bit for Season 3 of Downton Abbey to commence, I have been fortunate enough to be able to watch the first episode of the new season. As some of you may know, the series returned in the UK last week. Now, I would never be cruel enough to give away what happened in the opening episode, but I did want to mention that it will be well worth watching when the series returns with Masterpiece (PBS) on January 6, 2013.
The only thing I will mention about the first episode is this: If you are a hopeless romantic (as I am), you will not be disappointed. The entire episode revolved around the upcoming nuptials of my favorite couple, Matthew and Mary. There is even a "will they or won't they marry" moment the night before the wedding. Oooohhhhhhh!!!!!!! Did they marry? I'll never tell!
We meet Cora's (Lady Grantham's) mother, played by the inimitable Shirley MacLaine, who arrives from America for the wedding. The best part is the on-screen pairing of Shirley McLaine and Maggie Smith, which is well-worth the price of admission! Those two powerhouses just eat up the scenery. I would be hard pressed to say which is my favorite moment between them. Sheer brilliance!!
I know it's still a few months away and everyone is dying for the new series to start. I suppose you can look at it this way: it'll give you something to look forward to during the grey cold winter months! Meanwhile, I will be watching episode 2 tomorrow. Heh, heh, heh!!!
Subtitle: Illness, Cheating, Fighting, and BS paperwork
I have reached the one month mark of being a full time permanent teacher and it's been a crazy month - particularly the past week (hence the subtitle). I don't remember ever being this tired and that includes the 5 straight years of being an insomniac. Here's what the past week brought me:
First and foremost, it seems like everyone in school is sick. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration but it really feels that way. According to the ELA content coach, Rich, that's typical for the start of the year. Around the 3-4 week mark, all the teacher start getting colds. I picked up mine at 3½ weeks. Ever try to stand in front of a group of rambunctious students when you are under the weather. Oh goodness gracious, it is not easy! Fortunately, my students took pity on me and behaved themselves pretty well. Of course it helped that I was doing a "homophone challenge" with all my classes in which a prize was on the line. The class who could create the most homophone pairs receives baked goods from my kitchen. Consequently, I now have to spend a good portion of today baking - cookies, cupcakes, and brownies. Baking is something that I love to do but really don't have the time or energy for today. But I will not be yet another person who breaks a promise to these kids, so if I have to stay up all night baking, then I will.
Friday was probably the worse day I've had in my short career and even that wasn't too bad. Aside from being sick, I caught one student cheating on a ridiculous standardized test (personally I hate standardized tests). He was giving one of his classmates hand signals with the answers. I was so disappointed in this student because he's in my Freshman honors class and I thought they were a little better disciplined. <SMH> Saddens me. Of course, the student denied it, but I know what I saw. You know what Judge Judy says, right? "How can you tell if a teenager is lying? Their lips are moving." :-)
The other thing that happened on Friday was a big fight in the hallway of my floor. Now, I was dealing with a new student who just joined one of my classes, so I didn't actually see it, but I heard it. I do know that one of my students was attacked by another student and according to reports, it appeared to be a random thing. Wow, you got to love teenage testosterone. It also ended with two others students of mine being in-house detention. I didn't put them there, but I got a call from security that they were there. It was a crazy day on Friday, which included a trail of blood on the 1st floor. We think someone had a nose bleed and bled all the way to the bathroom, but no one knows for sure. See - CRAY-ZEE!
I think the most annoying thing about the past month is the sheer amount of BS paperwork that goes into being a teacher. I feel like I'm drowning in paperwork. Some of it is because BMF is a level 4 turnaround school therefore much of the paperwork is for the Department of Education to make sure that we stay compliant and I think that's where most of the BS part of it goes. I do recognize that there is a element of paperwork in every job, but it's just a ridiculous amount when it comes to teaching. I pretty much have to give up a good portion of my weekends to schoolwork because there's no time to do it during the week.
But all that being said, the actual teaching part is still a joy. It might sound like I was doing a bit of complaining in this post, but I seriously LOVE what I do. I do have a few challenges to overcome - discipline being one of them. I know I'm not disciplined enough with my students. I had one student say to me that I was pretty lenient when it came to students chatting in class. I told him that I grew up in an Italian household in which talking over other people and having multiple conversations at once became an art form. I can handle a handful of students chatting. :-)
Here is the best part of crazy Friday: As you can see from the email that I got from a guidance counselor (see photo below), I have already made a small change to one student's life and that is rewarding enough. This was the new student that I referred to above. She stayed after class a few minutes on Friday to say that she had had some difficulties in her last English class. She thought the teacher didn't like her and treated her meanly. What kind of teacher does that? She now knows that she has at least one teacher who is there to support her and welcome her. Some people should not be teachers! Just saying...
Okay, this scenario really, really bugs me. Ever have this situation: you post something on Facebook - asking for assistance on something and friends post responses back along the lines of "Gee, I don't know. Why don't you Google it?" or "You should search the internet." Seriously?!?!? Do you think that I haven't already tried searching the internet? It's not like the internet is some new fangled gadget that no one knows about. Honestly people, before I post anything or ask anyone for assistance, I ALWAYS check the internet first. Trust me on this. You don't have to give me that advice. If you cannot help with my query, then just move along with your day. I don't really need advice to "search the internet." <sigh>
Wow, I feel so much better having gotten that off my chest!
I know everyone is thinking "how could one of the best modern novelists (IMHO) possibly ruin Sandi's life?" Well, let me tell you how. Ms. Rowling created the most fantastical magical world in which so many things are possible. Flying broomsticks, magic wands, Quidditch, etc. Therefore, it makes the real world so boring and limited. For instance, what I really could use right now is Hermione's Time-Turner.
This is a Time-Turner
What's a Time-Turner? For those of you who are unfamiliar with the series - first of all, come out from under a rock and open a book once in awhile (or if you aren't a reader, at least watch the movies). But I digress. In Year 4 (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), Hermione receives a Time-Turner from Professor McGonagall. "The Time-Turner was a device capable of time travel. The Time-Turner resembled an hourglass on a necklace. The number of times one turns the hourglass corresponds to the number of hours one travels back in time. It is extremely important that the user of a Time-Turner not be seen by past or future versions of themselves unless, of course, said versions are aware of their usage of a Time-Turner. A possible scenario is a wizard or witch killing their past or future selves by mistake." (Source: Harry Potter wiki) Due to my extremely hectic schedule right now, I could use a few extra hours in a day... like an additional 24, but I'd settle for 3 or 4 extra. But alas, the Time-Turner is merely a figment of a brilliant imagination and I am forced to either lose lots and lots of sleep or not complete everything that needs to be done. Pooh! Thanks alot, JK!
On another note: I believe that I have really bonded with my students. Today, I happened to mention that I was suffering from a broken heart and my students suggested that we take a field trip so that they could all have a "chat" with the heart breaker! Now that's bonding!! I will say it was probably the funniest quote of the week (so far). I believe that I'll just start calling that class - "The Enforcers." Of course, one student during this discussion told me to take myself to a restaurant and my sheer beauty will have scores of men dropping at my feet. Okay, that student should go into politics. Talk about BS and lies! :-)
After years of taking for granted the fact that I was surrounded by some of the smartest computer nerds you could ever meet, I am sorely missing having these nerds around. My old company had a bevy of techies running around. Truly brilliant people for whom technology was a walk in the park and I could easily pick their brains on various technological queries!! And now...???
I'm surrounded by educators who can barely turn on a computer. Love the educators but I miss being able to walk a few feet to talk to a techno-geek and get their assistance on my technological needs. Now, you should understand something. On a techno-savvy scale of 1-5, I score probably around a 3.5 or 4, but there are always those things that are just beyond my abilities and that's when I need a nerd! Sad to say, I have no nerds in my life right now... Well, let me amend that statement - no technology nerds. I've got lots of book nerds around me, which is fantastic, but they can't really help when I have technology issues.
I think Bill Gates needs to clone himself in miniature so everyone can have a little pocket computer geek. What say you, Bill? I'm sure this technology is well within your realm. Get on it, please!
What lesson did I learn today? Never underestimate the necessity of techno-geeks.
[Updated 9/16; 8:20pm] So what's the big deal about self serve froyo? Up until yesterday, I would have said "Nothing." While I was in Philadelphia this past summer, I had tried a self serve froyo place, Sweet Ending, and I thought, "eh, what's all the hype about?" I didn't care for the Sweet Ending froyo at all and thought it had a really weird aftertaste. Ergo, when I got home from Philadelphia and saw that there was a new self serve froyo place in downtown Newburyport (Orange Leaf), I wasn't all that excited. I figured it's just another overpriced fad.
After weeks of hearing how great this place is and how it's worth the long lines, I finally decided to go see what the hoopla was all about. I must say that Orange Leaf lived up to the hype! The frozen yogurt at Orange Leaf is really delicious. It almost makes you wonder how I can be low fat. (Yes, I know - a Seineld moment.)
How does a self serve froyo place work? If you've never been to one, it's quite easy. You get your container (small or large), pick the flavor(s) of froyo you want, add your toppings, have it weighed at the register, and pay for your luscious dessert. Mostly, if you're careful, this snack can be a fairly low calorie option... unless you lose your mind and take a huge portion and put a ton of toppings on it. Then it goes from a low calorie snack to a hearty meal.
Here's the concoction I came up with last night: three small dollops of froyo (brownie batter, wedding cake and peanut butter), a light sprinkling of crumbled oreo cookies, a couple of strawberries and a light drizzle of peanut butter sauce - topped with a little whipped topping. Oh my! So delicious! At $.49/ounce, if you're not careful, it can add up quickly. The total cost of my creation was $4.35.
If you're in Newburyport and are looking for a yummy, relatively healthy
dessert/snack, head to Market Square and try the frozen yogurt at Orange
Leaf. I swear you will love it! Of course, Orange Leaf does have locations other than here in Newburyport, but why anyone would want to be anywhere else is beyond my comprehension. My only complaint about Orange Leaf is that I wish they had smaller sized containers. The "small" container is still pretty big so you end up filling it far more than you should. Therefore, you should remember to be very careful with your serving size -- or bring a friend with you and share.
[Updated on 9/17] Going into this career change, I knew the one huge drawback was going to be monetary! I mean who willingly takes a nearly 40% pay cut? An insane person that's who! Or someone with a calling! For me, my happiness and contentment about my career was worth the drastic cut in salary ... or so I thought. Then the reality hit me this week when I received my first teacher paycheck! OH MY STARS! I haven't seen such a low pay in decades!
So let me vituperate here for a bit. It's INSANE that one of the most important careers in our society (educating our children) is also one of the worse paying jobs - particularly if you factor in the amount time really good teachers spend preparing for their classes. Despite what people think, teaching is NOT an 8-3 job. Let's look at my day:
I am up at 5am in order to workout (I refuse to give up on my working out). My workday starts between 7:15 and 7:30 when I arrive at school. Before classes start at 8:30, I need to have: all my copies made, learning objectives and homework assignments written on the board, classroom neat and tidy, students' classwork returned to their folders, have reviewed of all my lesson plans for the day, and attending to those students who are looking for help and/or advice. Then depending on the day's schedule, I teach either 3 or 4 70-minute classes of wonderful, but highly rambunctious students (with a whopping 30 minute lunch). I get either 1 or 2 planning periods (one personal and one departmental) per day, but usually those periods are never used for planning. During my personal planning time, I generally end up grading papers, reading journals, reading essays, checking homework, inputting attendance and making more copies - plus the teachers are mandated to patrol the hallways to make sure students are getting to their classes and wearing the correct uniform. (Yes, we are now the fashion police.) The school day ends at 3:17 pm, but I am rarely out of school much before 4:00 or 4:30. I get home between 4:30 and 5:00, feed the cat, sit for 30 minutes catching my breath while dinner cooks, eat dinner and then it's more paperwork, grading, planning, inputting grades/homework scores, reading texts that I assign my students, and other school-related administrative duties in the evening for another 3-4 hours. I'm generally in bed by 10:00 or 10:30 and my day starts all over again at 5am the next morning. Weekends are spent doing more lesson planning, reading more books/short stories, and grading papers. In case you're curious, I have around 75 students. Whew! I figure I am working approximately 75 or more hours a week as a teacher. I don't even want to do the math on what that breaks down as an hourly rate! It is more than minimum wage, but not by much!
The only thing I've been able to focus on for the past few days is how the heck am I going to survive on my itty bitty salary. The solution is a simple one: I need a part time job. Which means that out of the paltry hours that I have left over in the week, I need to work a second job. (BTW, I'm not even including the fact that I have to travel to Boston once a week for graduate school and the homework that is involved with that!!) OH MY STARS!!!!!!!!! Can we say that I'm a little stressed right now? (That's probably an understatement!!) But of course, finding a part time job that fits in with my crazy schedule and is worth the time away from home is another issue. Sure, I could possibly get a job at Starbucks, but is that really worth my time? I'm going to try to get some tutoring jobs which would be the best idea because I can do that in the early evening and on the weekends and make a decent amount of money. Of course, I am sure I'll be in competition with a few other broke teachers so it's not going to be easy. I've also applied for an after-school program but there's kind of a big time commitment with that position. <sigh> It's a good thing that I had already sworn off having a social life because there's no time for one anyway.
Don't get me wrong, I still love my job, but it's just insane that teachers are supposed to work for a ridiculously meager salary. I find it a bit infuriating, especially when I see the obscene amount of money that brokers, CEOs, celebrities, pro athletes, and other rich and shameless people make. (I was going to add "attorneys" but I'd hate to insult some of my friends!) Here's an interesting article I came across about the Most Overpaid Jobs in the US.
Running through my head all day has been the Abba song, Money, Money, Money (see the video below). Perhaps it's time for me to find a Sugar Daddy! :-) Also, a couple of new photos have been added to my 1st Year of Teaching photo album. Check them out!
My students are really, really funny kids! Generally speaking, I spend most of my days in my classroom, laughing my head off! So I decided to start logging some of my munchkins' best lines! I'm hoping that the hilarity of their comments will translate to this rather sterile forum. Here are a few of their best comments I heard just this week:
1. While doing an exercise on 'fate, free will, chaos and the supernatural,' I asked if they agreed with the following statement: "I was born because God wanted me to be born." One student drolly remarked: "I don't know if God really wanted me to be born."
2. When one male student decided to repeatedly try to give a female student a pat on the back, female student asked for him to stop touching her. The male student responded that he was "just trying to give her some love." To which the female student laughingly responded: "I have enough love at home I don't need it from you." What makes this really funny is that the female student is pregnant. So yeah, she definitely has enough love to last her awhile.
3. While going through a vocabulary exercise, I had asked if anyone in the room was "obstinate" and one students threw another under the bus, saying that Juan was. Funny, yes. Hilarious was when I asked who in the room was "indolent" and Maria threw herself under the bus and raised her hand high! She was actually really proud of being "indolent"!! So now anytime I use the word "indolent", everyone points to Maria. Well at least they understand the meaning! [Names have been changed.]
4. When I was handing out candy to my juniors (as a reward), one student asked why I didn't eat a piece and I said much as I love candy, my butt doesn't like me eating it. She said that I should "hang out in the Spanish neighborhoods because Spanish men love big butts." I'm choosing to believe that she meant that as a compliment. :-D
Facebook is the weirdest social media site ever! I think we can all agree on that, but what's stranger yet is how many "friends" people have on Facebook. I was checking out something on a friend's Facebook page and noticed that they had 3,287 friends and I thought to myself, "Seriously? Are they all really your 'friends'?" I have 122 friends and I think that's too many! So how many Facebook friends are you actually friends with in real life (i.e., outside of the social media universe)? How many are casual acquaintances that you haven't seen or spoken to eons? Or how many are people you met randomly one time and decided to friend each other thinking you'd be life long pals but haven't spoken to them since? Uh huh. I thought so.
Now I like Facebook as much as the next person, but also I believe in keeping a little perspective on it. After making quite a number of mistakes with Facebook, I have some very specific rules and regulations that I follow, which are: (i) keeping my profile private from searches; (ii) I no longer friend people that I work with (students, teachers, principals, TFA staff or corps members, etc.); (iii) I don't friend people that I know for a half a second; (iv) I don't keep being friends with people who are cruel or creepy; (v) I do stay friends with people that I am actually friends with; and finally, I keep my postings to a minimum.
How about you? Do you have any specific social media rules that you follow? I'd be interested in hearing other opinions on this subject.
Today, I was wandering through the Newburyport Farmers' Market (as I do every Sunday) - checking out the local produce - and came across one of my favorite stalls, Applecrest Farm out of Hampton Falls, NH. I love this stall because they sell some of the most amazing fruits (raspberries, peaches, blueberries, apples, etc.). Plus their apple cider donuts are unbelievably delicious! I know I shouldn't buy the donuts but...
Anyway, as I was shopping in their stall and deciding on which type of apples to purchase, I saw that they had Honeycrisps for sale. I mentioned to one of the employees that I had never tried Honeycrisps. In fact, I had never even heard of Honeycrisps before a couple of years ago. He looked completely taken aback by my ignorance of these little beauties and proceeded to grab a knife from the truck and slice up an apple for me to taste. Let me just say, my taste buds went wild! I've always been a bit of an apple fanatic - even though I'm mildly allergic to apples. Up until today, my favorites were the Royal Galas. But no more! These apples have the most amazing flavor and the perfect crispness of the skin as you bite into them is exactly how an apple should feel. It was just heavenly. I had to buy some!
Interesting tidbit about the Honeycrisp apple: "The Honeycrisp apple was produced from a 1960 cross of Macoun and
Honeygold, as part of the University of Minnesota apple breeding
program." If you have never tried these little gems, next time you're in your local grocery store, pick up a few. They are a little more expensive, but I think they are well worth the extra money. I only bought four apples today and I'm kicking myself that I didn't get more. I will not make that same mistake next week!
There's been something stuck in my craw for awhile now and I'm hoping if I blog about it, maybe I'll be able to get rid of this annoyance. My complaint: People who use others for their own selfish purposes and then leave behind the bitter, broken carcasses of their victims to suffer with feelings of anger, disappointment and mistrust.
I suppose everyone uses someone at one time or another. I personally am using TFA to career change even though I hate them, but I'm not hurting anyone. In fact, I'm helping. No, what I'm talking about is someone who goes out of their way to use someone and build up their hopes and feelings and then just walk away once their mission is complete - the purposeful cruelty that people perpetrate on others.
The type of people to whom I refer are those who seem to be able root out another person's vulnerability
and then they take that vulnerability and twist it for their own narcissistic objectives. These people leave a wave of
destruction behind them and without even a second glance move on with
their lives. Additionally, I'm pretty certain that they don't feel any guilt or remorse over their perfidy. And while that doesn't rank them in the levels of evil to Hitler or Pol
Pot, they will fit in quite nicely into Dante's 9th circle of hell. I'd like to think that these type of people get their comeuppance karmically but I somehow suspect that they don't. Of course, I'm never there to find out, so I can only hope that one day karma catches up with them. As for me, I hope that I will never again come across another one of these types of people in my life, but I don't have high hopes. There are far too many selfish and self-centered people in this world.
Yay for grad school!!! I know it's crazy to be cheering for additional work to be added to my already overly burdened schedule but let explain why I'm so psyched. Seriously though...
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My first grad school class began last night at Boston University's School of Education. As I've mentioned before, I will be attending classes over the next two years in order to get my Masters Degree in Education (with a concentration in English). I'm extraordinarily excited to be getting some real life, actual useful training that I can utilize in my classroom immediately. My professor is amazing. He is a career teacher who still is in the classroom, who has been teaching for about 6 years and who will be giving us some actual tools and training on lesson planning and classroom management. This is exactly the kind of training that TFA should have been giving us, but didn't. I wish I could have taken this class six months ago to be better prepared for teaching, but that being said, I at least can apply all this knowledge immediately. My classmates are fellow TFA corps members (15 of us altogether) who are equally thrilled to be finally get some actual useful training from an amazing dedicated, non-TFA educator.
There are a couple of downsides to this program. One, I won't be taking classes with my three besties from City College (Raina, Franka and Yolanda) - the wonderful friends who got me through my undergrad with so much love, laughter, and the perfect amount of snarkiness. People in TFA tend not to be snarky - probably because they're 22 and are still ridiculously wide-eyed optimists. I'm the only realist in the room - other than the professor. The second problem is that traveling to Boston one night per week is a big and expensive pain in the derriere. Last night, it took me an hour and twenty minutes to get home from Boston - a full half hour longer than it should. In addition to getting lost in Boston for 10 minutes because I took a wrong turn, the Towbin Bridge which leads out of Boston is having major construction and three lanes had to squeeze down to 1. Ugh! But other than those two minor negatives, I am looking forward to this semester.
While I am being slammed with work at the moment and am exhausted beyond belief, it's a good exhaustion. An exhaustion that is brought on my trying to hardest to do my best for my students. But seriously, I need a good stress relieving massage! Okay, gotta go do some grading.
[Updated: 9/5/2012] It's time for me to yell at Jane Austen, and Charlotte Bronte, and E.M. Forster, and Alexander Dumas, and Victor Hugo, and Charles Dickens, and Dean Koontz, and Charlaine Harris, and... Well, the list goes on and on. But mostly I'm annoyed with Jane Austen. Why am I annoyed with my favorite authors? Because they all wrote these amazing and nearly perfect leading men and thereby ruining any chance of literature lovers finding a decent mate. I mean who doesn't want a Mr. Darcy or a Mr. Rochester in their lives? :-) Here's a fun, albeit short, list of the most desirable leading men in literature. Only 7, Mental Floss. Really? Anyway, I completely concur with this list and have about another dozen or hundred characters to add to it!
Actually, the reason I bring this up is that I've been having some fairly spirited discussions recently with one of my dear friends over my dating... or rather, my lack of dating... situation. See, she's recently started a new relationship and people who are in new relationships think that everyone should be as happy as they are. But it's kind of annoying for those of us who have made the conscious decision to never get involved with anyone ever again... EVER! I love that she's so happy and am unbelievably thrilled for her - especially since he's a really nice guy and I truly loathed her ex-boyfriend who was a jerk. She definitely deserves to have someone great in her life. But I just wish that she and everyone else would stop bugging me about my singlehood. I'm fine with it...well, fine is probably too strong... I'm okay with it. Not everyone in this world is supposed to have a grand romance, or love, or a great relationship and it's abundantly clear that I fall into that category.
Besides, I'm...
Also movies and tv shows!
And real life just can't compare. So I'll just have to live vicariously through Jane Austen, and Charlotte Bronte, and E.M. Forster, and Alexander Dumas, and Victor Hugo, and Charles Dickens, and Dean Koontz, and Charlaine Harris, and... Well, you get the idea! Boys in books are amazing! And I don't have to worry about someone leaving the lid up. :-)
In general, I'm talking about any and all special interest groups who take themselves too seriously - equally on the right and the left. Everyone has gotten so focused on being politically correct and supporting their personal causes these days, that we've gone to the other extreme and have become a nation of humorless gits.
Yesterday, I was watching television and saw a rather amusing commercial for Newcastle Brown Ale. At least, I found it amusing. (BTW, you have to check out Newcastle's website - it's pretty impressive.) Anyway, I googled the commercial to watch it again and instead came across a Ms. Magazine blog post about how this commercial was degrading to women and sexist! Umm...What?! Before I give you my opinion, take a look:
When you watch the commercial, it's obvious that the "female brewmaster" is a man and therefore can be considered an unattractive woman. What is all the brouhaha over this dumb 30 second commercial? The Ms. Magazine post was not the only complaint. There were a few other blogs which registered some woman's fury about this commercial. Now, I'm an intelligent, well-read, modern woman who believes in feminist causes but I'm not going to go to such an extreme with my beliefs that I lose my sense of humor over things. This commercial is not offensive. It is funny! Maybe these women just don't get British humor, but I personally save my ire for things that actually matter. Oh, like the fact the women's reproductive rights are being whittled away by right-wing extremists (see my Vagina Warriors post). That's something to get angry over, but a beer commercial?? No! I've got way too many other things in my life that are far more worrisome.
Should men get upset every time a commercial shows them as being witless buffoons? If so, they'll be picketing pretty much every ad agency and corporation on a daily basis. You have to give men credit for that! Or maybe it's just that men recognize that they are witless buffoons, so they just laugh at themselves and move on. (See what I did there?)
I saw another posting about whether saying "that's so gay" is derogatory. <sigh> Really? Has it come to this? As with everything, it's the context in which these statements are being used that is offensive. In general, most people who use that phrase aren't using it as a homophobic slur. I know I've used this statement myself and I'm not homophobic. This statement has been around for so many years that it has become completely innocuous, except when some homophobic jerk uses it. Then you have reason to get upset.
Maybe we should all take a word of advice from George Carlin - there are no bad words, just bad context. [Warning: explicit language - unsurprisingly]
Thank you, George, for once again being the voice of reason and sanity. RIP!
