Top 5 Movies

This list includes December of 2009, since I didn't include those in last year's list because I hadn't had a chance to see them yet. Oscar voters have advantages I don't... :)

5. Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Oh man. I'm pretty sure people who don't really enjoy video games (I'm not talking Halo or Modern Warfare here. I mean old school platforming Mario games and Donkey Kong Country) will not really enjoy this movie. People like me, who hate the vast majority of these new video games (no, I cannot control them), will thoroughly enjoy this movie. It was fun to watch and funny to boot. Oh, and the music was really good.

4. The Princess and The Frog

Dear Disney, Renee and I have dearly missed movies like this one. Thank you for making it. Love, Us. Really though, we have missed the hand-drawn animation, the silly, over-the-top songs, and the predictable outcome (oh wait! This one actually surprised me! Sweet!). Any girl who grew up loving Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, and the like should love this movie. It also owes some debt to the lesser known Rescuers (not Down Under, mind you). It was like a mix of Aladdin and The Rescuers because it did such a good job of mixing the backwoods bayou Louisiana, the voodoo crazy side streets of N'Awlins, and the "modern" setting of New Orleans. Oh! And it surprised me! I didn't get the ending right!

3. Toy Story 3

I feel like I could probably copy my rant about Up from last year's post like this and have it still be accurate. When has Disney/Pixar ever let you down? When I heard they were doing this movie, I was really, really unsure what to think. When I heard that the premise was that Andy is going off to college and the toys get donated, I changed my tune. Genius. Zak said it best: "Andy was like 7 in the first movie and now he's going off to college. I feel like I've grown up with the guy!" Anyway, the characters in the Toy Story franchise are each other's family and this movie really touched on that. It was really good.

2. Crazy Heart

Jeff Bridges deserved an Oscar for this movie. The acting was great. The music was great. The story was...I don't know the right word. It was sad, but so happy all at once. I don't know how else to describe it.

1.Inception

Holy mother! I HATE Christopher Nolan. The man always makes me leave a movie theatre going "Well...was it like this or like that?" Aside from that, what a phenomenal film. I like that he took an idea that I can relate to, that sometimes we dream things and wake up a little confused (Wait. Did I just make out with Joseph Gordon Levitt?), and made it even crazier. Honestly, this happens to me all the time. Not 3 nights ago, I sat straight up in bed and had no idea where I was because I couldn't remember if I had married some random dude in the dream I was in love with or not. I also loved what he did with the concept of time. Dreams really do feel like you've been in them for days or years sometimes. Nolan did of course leave us with a question at the end, as is his wont, but the main concept of the film, the theory that if you can give someone an idea while they're sleeping, it will linger in waking life even if they don't know where it came from, is really flipping cool. Ignore the question part if that bothers you at all.

Honorable Mentions:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1

I have to give a shout out this one simply because it's the first movie version of the books that I've actually thought they did a really fantastic job with.

Hot Tub Time Machine

I have to throw a straight up comedy on here since the other ones are not. This movie looked stupid because it was. The premise was ridiculous; there's no arguing that. But it was freaking hilarious. There was one scene with John Cusack that had me laughing for days.

How to Train Your Dragon

This fell short of Toy Story 3, but it definitely still deserves a mention. This was a super cool movie.

I do feel like a bunch of good movies are coming out this December and that many of those would probably have topped some of these. I hope I can remember them next year.

Top 5 Books

As another year comes to a close, I think I'll again spend some time reviewing with some lists of things from 2010. This list is kind of crappy. I did not read that many great books this year. Sad. In fact, really only number one is a great book, a classic; the rest of them are good books.

5. Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert

I will happily admit to jumping on the bandwagon with Gilbert's first book, Eat, Pray, Love, which was one of the first "adult" books I read after graduating from college, along with She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb. In fact, I didn't really read anything for about 2 years after graduating because I was so tired of reading things. When I finally did, those two books ended up basically changing my life, so I got pretty excited when I heard about her new book. It ended up not being quite as life changing, which is to be expected, all things considered, but I really enjoyed the topic. Gilbert was basically being forced to marry the guy she met during the love part of her first book if they wanted to be able to live in the states, and she was second guessing this because of the unfortunate end of her first marriage. She travels around the world with her partner waiting for some things to happen with the government and does research into the institution of marriage while she does so, attempting to define for herself what she wants her marriage to be. As a 27 year old woman who questions that institution in our country on a somewhat regular basis, I found the topic interesting and appealing.

4. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

The second installment of Stieg Larson's trilogy is by far the best of the three. The first book was really good but doesn't really get into the story of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo despite the title. It focused more on the story of the other main character and presented us with a murder mystery for intrigue. The Girl Who Played With Fire does focus on her and I found it even more interesting than the first one. Also, the girl who played with fire is kind of a badass.

3. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

I found this book on my bed when I came home right before we went to New Mexico, open to the first chapter. I think Zak tried to read it. Anyway, I took it with me to New Mexico and read it there. I had not seen the movie, nor did I know the movie was based on a book. Actually, Dennis Lehane writes lots of books that turn into movies that I didn't know about. Anyway, the book actually reads very much like a screenplay, and the story was super good. It was a mystery with one of those twists at the end, like I like. But I much prefer to read them than watch them.

2. Atonement by Ian McEwan

This is yet another story that I always wanted to see the movie version of but put off doing until I had read the book. I tried to pick up the book once before and didn't make it, but was bound and determined this time. I ended up really liking it; it's probably the only really "literary" book I read this year. It is often easy to misconstrue things that you're only seeing a little bit of and definitely easy to let things get out of hand when you don't fully understand them. And then it is especially hard to go back and fix those things that you messed up. It's so real, such a "close to home" problem at times, that it really appealed to me.

1. The Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carlson

This was, by far, the best book that I read all year. It explores the relationships in a family of many women, something that falls rather close to my heart. It goes beyond the basic familial relationships to the very core of what it is that makes us human: our emotions and decisions. We love each other and we hurt each other and there are reasons for those things that make sense and reasons that absolutely, 100%, do not make any sense whatsoever. The book starts with a simply chapter introducing the characters, who count the number of flowers they get on the moonflower vine every year. It comes full circle, back to the moonflower vine, in such a way that it actually almost changes the entire story. I had to go back and reread the first chapter.

Honorable Mention: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max

Let me preface this one by saying that this book is not for everyone by any means. Tucker Max is a complete douche who writes about his shenanigans. I have no idea if they are real or not. I assume mostly not, all things considered. And many of them gross me out. However, this is the first book that I have ever read that literally made me laugh out loud. Hysterically. Tucker Max is a really phenomenal writer. I don't mean that he will go on to write the next Great American Novel. He absolutely will not do that, but his writing is absolutely hysterical. It's a combination of topic and his style.

This really wasn't a good year for good books, honestly. This list was hard to put together. Better luck next year.

Do I Really Want To Be A Student Again??

Sure enough!

Actually, that sure enough sounded a lot more positive than I actually feel. I definitely want to get my master's, but there a lot of pros and cons about the lot of different ways that I could go about doing this. First, I had to decide what I actually want to get a degree in, and I'm still really unsure. Literature is such a passion of mine, but getting my MA in Literature pretty much leaves me with a career in teaching. And recently, teaching has become a profession I don't think I want to be in.

It was a really good option at first, but over the course of the 5 years I have been teaching, my optimism for everything has been in a slow but steady decline. The system I work for is broken, and it is really hard to find the motivation to work for a system that is not working for itself. Also, the students are eating away at my belief in the ability of humanity to save itself. I went into this profession believing that I could change and affect things. I know that I do, but it's not enough.

So I've gone back to what I originally thought that I wanted to be when a grew up: a librarian. Or sort of a librarian, anyway. Librarians are slowly disappearing, so I'd be doing my MLIS (Masters in Library and Information Science) with a concentration in Archives and Preservation. Depending on where I end up going, I may be able to do a dual master's with other programs, like Art History, Children's Literature, Law, Library Science, or American Studies.

One way I could do this is to keep teaching and take night classes. This would be good because then I would still have a steady job, as long as they don't make cuts that apply to me, and a steady paycheck, but I would be taking classes again and on my way. However, I am fairly certain the stress of taking classes and teaching all at once would just about kill me, and I'm pretty impatient when it comes to things I want. Doing a couple classes at night would take me longer than two years and that's not really okay with me. The other problem with this is that, if I were to stay here in Asheville to do this, I would be pigeonholed into taking classes from Western Carolina University at UNCA and having it be either a MA in Literature or Education. I don't really think I want to do either of those things because they leave me in the teaching profession.

Another way would be to do summer programs. Many cool colleges offer programs, essentially for teachers, in the summer. This one actually really appeals to me because many of those programs are not around here, so it would be a lot like traveling during the summer, except I'd be somewhere else and taking classes. I would still have my job (again, given that they don't cut my position), but I wouldn't have to teach and take classes at the same time, so the stress levels would not sky rocket. This choice has the same problem as the last; it would take me something like 4 or 5 summers to do this. That would probably be even longer than the first choice. And unfortunately, it would also pigeonhole me into Literature, again.

The last way is to leave teaching and go back to school full time. Best choice, personally.

Then I had to decide on schools, because this particular degree is actually kind of hard to find. I am applying to UNC Chapel Hill, UT (in Austin), Simmons College (in Boston), San Jose State, and UH Manoa. I would also prefer them in that order. The first three are in the top 10 Library Science schools in the country; the last two are in the top 25 or so.

With the GRE scores I have right now, I will not get into Chapel Hill, UT will be questionable, but Simmons should be good. My grades from UNCA are pretty good, but I need the scores to go up. I'm a better student and a smarter person than I look on paper right now.

The other fear that I have is leaving the job that I have right now, being out of work for two years, and not being able to find a job when I get back. What I'm hoping is that I will be able to go to school for a few years, the issues in our country right now will have turned around, and it won't be that difficult for me to find a good job. Then again, I suppose I can always wait tables. Good waitresses at popular places make more money than teachers anyway.

So there's the story of grad school.

I will say this; my ambitions are high. Daddy said he likes the idea of "my daughter, the doctor" to Renee. I'm definitely thinking about a doctorate too.

A Gentleman's Sport Played By Hooligans...

You may not know this about me, but I used to be a really good soccer player.

I've never stopped playing. I don't actually know if that's true, but I'm pretty sure that it is. I've been playing in the women's adult league here in Asheville for around 5 years I think and finally got up the gumption to attempt the co-ed league.

I've always struggled with co-ed. I am so so happy I did both this year, though.

My women's team this year got new sponsorship at a bar right down the street from the fields and my apartment (bonus). We got this sponsorship because the owner of the bar, an old acquaintance from UNCA, is a soccer player herself and wanted to play. This was a step in a really right direction. Also, we picked up a bunch of really awesome girls this season who I hope stick around.

My captain, and one of the girls I have been playing with for several years, got me onto her co-ed team with three of the other girls from our team and then we added one of the new ones halfway through.

Anyway, this season has been phenomenal. I have a new group of friends who I love. I feel like I should have been friends with them forever. My good friend Brittnye likes to take pictures, so she's taken some at a couple games. This is probably the first picture of me in a soccer uniform since 2001, and the first of me playing soccer since 2004 or so.

Upcoming Things...

Since I have been terrible at blogging for like the last 1/2 a year, here is a list of things I will be blogging about shortly...

-new apartment

-grad school

-new camera and taking pictures

-this soccer season

I think that's it. Not particularly in that order.

New Mexico with The Fam Try #2

So I'm going to try embedding the New Mexico video from facebook since the other one is such crappy quality. Maybe it will just be better to embed it...? We shall see.

New Mexico Trip with the Family

This video quality is terrible. I'm working on it. Don't make it big; it just looks bad.

So way back at the end of June, some of the family and I went to see some heritage and other family in New Mexico. I decided to try a stop motion video of the trip. Here it is.

There are a few places where it doesn't quite work, and the credits roll a bit too quickly (only because I put so much stuff on them), but overall I'm rather proud of myself.

8/18 1985-2010

Top Reasons It Is Awesome My Sister is 25.

She’s still got a lot of time to live in fun places I can go visit.

Now she is the same age I “was” at a bar in Nice!

And are both finally closer to thirty than we are to twenty! Misery loves company!

If we ever have to rent a car, she can still do the driving and I can still do the drinking!

Catching a Laina-saurus is still just as funny as it was when she was 24.

In dog years, she’s still only 3 ½, and she sure was a cute 3 ½ year old.

25 won’t stop us from going to things like Finding Nemo and The Princess and The Frog in theatres!

She is still in school, which leads me to believe one day she’ll be able to repay me.

If she is 25, then Zak must be almost 21!

It’s unlikely that this will cause her to stop randomly translating what I say into French just for practice.

She’s still going to love the card and present I sent to Boston so it will be there waiting on her.

She’ll still be able to drink her weight in iced coffee.

We will all still hear the words “inappropriate” and “unfortunate” at the most opportune moments.

Ok, seriously. That list was fun and all, but there’s too much stuff on there that involves all of us, and really, it’s her birthday. My sister is the best. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be stuck between me and Zak, but Renée does it. And loves it. She does whatever she wants, or whatever other people want, and is happy. She can hang out with anyone, talk to anyone, and quickly become basic friends with anyone. A good example of this: she came up to Asheville a few weekends ago and was forced to hang out with me and a bunch of people I had just run through the water drainage system with for like 6 hours. She pulled it off just fine. She has so many friends. Beyond that, she has close friends everywhere. Renée has been in more weddings than anyone I know and probably will ever know. She handles horrid situations with grace and poise and is fantastic at making everyone else comfortable. She’s always got your back, even when you’re wrong, and even though she says I’m the smartest a lot, I’m pretty sure she is a lot smarter than I am.

My sister is one of the funniest people I know and I wish we weren’t both so damn busy so we could talk and text more often. Renée is also one of the most responsible and mature people I know. She is both respectful and respectable. She listens to great music, because she’ll take mine, Dad’s, and Zak’s advice on it, but also go off and find her own. She is open to any possibility.

It is shocking to me to know how much she has changed in the 25 years that I have known her. This is neither good nor bad, though I’m sure in some way, she’d say it’s only good. I simply mean that it is so interesting to see the progression that she has gone through to become the incredible woman that she is today. It’s hard to even remember sometimes that she’s had several unfortunate haircuts when now she is always gorgeous, or that she once punched a boy in the face for being a jerk when now…well I guess if he really deserved it, she’d probably still do that. It’s hard to recall what her voice used to sound like, which is why we call them Laina-sauruses and not Renée-osauruses, when now she is so well spoken and eloquent. I still giggle when I think of some of the nicknames she gave herself and the ones she grudgingly embraced, when now her beautiful name fits her so perfectly.

I am in so many ways jealous of my sister. She followed in a lot of my footsteps and then suddenly branched out. But it’s more a sense of pride than anything. I love knowing I have seen the entire life of this beautiful person.

I got back to myself there for a minute. Forgive me.

If you know my sister, count yourself among the lucky ones. I do.

Happy birthday, Renée Alaia. I love you.

I Got Crappy At This...

So lots of things have been happening and that's one of the reasons that I haven't updated. School ended, and normally that would have been something to excite me enough to blog about it, but around the same time, the rates for tv and internet went up by a whole bunch. I was not entirely prepared for this but could have handled it. My roommate could not. In hindsight, I just shouldn't have told her, let her continue paying what she had been, and eaten the extra just so that I wouldn't be so damn bored. I just didn't care that much since we would both be moving fairly soon anyway.

Thus, I've been getting my internet fixes by using the various wifi spots around town. Kind of fun and interesting actually...

Anyhow, lots of fun things have happened. My birthday was spent in Charleston. Friday was spent at the beach and Saturday was spent at a beer festival and baseball game. It was great.

Here's the whole group that went. And no, the beer festival was not a bud light festival. Tickets to the beer festival included a ticket to the baseball game immediately following, where their cheap beer was attractive to our drunken minds.

So you know, that is my friend Liz, the one who works for US Customs in Charleston and whom I had to do an interview for with the Department of Homeland Security. She got the job and is now way closer to me than Africa or Milwaukee, which is wear she was before.

The only major thing that I've done this summer so far is go to New Mexico with the family.

Here are some random pictures from that trip.

Mom and Lita and White Sands.

Mom eats a hot pepper; Dad laughs.

Dad finds a cowboy sombrero he likes; Mom refuses to let him buy it.

Other stuff that has happened:

I wrecked my beloved Honda Civic Hybrid. Again. I had to get a rental for a few days, then Mom, Dad, and Zak were kind enough to bring me the jeep. Since Renee is home for the summer, I couldn't keep the jeep indefinitely, and had to get another rental once we got back from NM. My car should be ready by the end of the week, just in time for some craziness to get started.

"Craziness" would be defined as moving. Again. I've lost count of how often I've moved in the last couple of years. They've all been for very good reasons, but it's getting old. On a positive, at this point, I think that I've consolidated my stuff pretty well and that it should be easy except for the big stuff that I accrued when I lived alone. Except for how hard it is to move stuff like that, I feel like I could move at the drop of a dime if I had to. The lease technically starts on Friday, and I will be taking a bunch of stuff on Friday, but will have to wait until next week to start getting the big stuff. Bonus on that: moving small stuff is easy for me because I have 4 of those huge tupperware/storage containers full of school shoes, blankets, etc., so I take them to the apartment, throw the stuff that's in there somewhere out of the way, take the empty storage bins back to the old place, fill them up with other stuff (movies, books, more blankets), and take them back.

On another positive, I have a pool again, and thank goodness! As it turns out, spending my summer reading and doing nothing isn't as much fun if I don't have a pool. At least the second half of my summer will be a little more enjoyable, and probably a little more tan.

Which brings me to an admission of seriously embarrassing proportions. At the end of each school year, or at least for the last 2-3, I have not had cable and have gotten by with my HD digital antenna, which actually works quite well despite only picking up about 6 channels. This of course forces me to watch some crap sometimes. One of those things has become a re-occurring end of year theme; I grade papers and watch the auditions for America's Got Talent. DON'T JUDGE ME. I've never made it through the entire season; I only like watching the auditions. Anyway, for some reason this season has really gotten to me and I think it's because they keep sending CRAP through. Seriously. I won't go into because then you probably will judge me, but the judges have sent through some ridiculous acts and left out some really good ones.

Alright, I think that's it.

It's Happening...

I am super excited about this weekend (Hey imagine that! I am excited about a weekend!). Why, you ask? Excellent question! Because there will be a lot of this:

Definitely some of this:

Probably a bit of this:

And more than likely a little of this:

HA! FUN!

May is 100% my Favorite Month

May really is my favorite month. There are lots of reasons for this, some of which are still applicable and some of which are not.

One of the major reasons that I like it so much has to do with school, obviously. This started in college when, for the first time, my birthday was in the summer. I loved that college was done at the beginning of May, and because it became a summer month, it was automatically added to my list of awesome things.

Now that I'm back in high school (haha kind of), May is back to being a spring month. I'm okay with this. In a way, it actually makes it better because the summer flies by so quickly and I like May to feel forever long, which it does when it's the last full month of the school year. I love the thought that summer is on its way, but there's always the fact that it is not here yet and that's just fantastic.

I also love May because of birthdays that occur in this month, particularly mine. I mean, obviously my birthday is important to me. My ex-boyfriend's birthday is in May as well, which was really only important when he was my boyfriend, but as we dated for 5 years or so and didn't break up forever ago, it's still kind of a lingering feeling.

Aside from the birthdays, for whatever reason, some awesome movies came out in May over the course of several years, which also has something to do with my ex-boyfriend and is still lingering.

I also love the weather. And baseball. And laying out and swimsuits. :)

Anyway, May 1st turned in to kind of a great way to start off the month. A couple of days ago I found out that an old friend of mine was getting married on Saturday. I had to change some prior plans around in order to make it work out, but it ended up being worth it. I went to the wedding where I was forced to hang out with that same ex-boyfriend, Jason. So I was forced to hang out with Jas, which could have gotten ugly (and actually kind of did later on, but that's neither here nor there), but I thought went surprisingly well. We drank plenty of beer and watched a really cute wedding which involved a maypole and had some really good food.

Then I went downtown to the baseball game to meet up with the people who were in town who I had originally planned to spend the weekend with. They were here because one of their old college roommates was the umpire at the game. Fun, right? So we hit the game, hung out downtown at Jack o' the Wood and The Yacht Club, and made general merriment.

I woke up entirely hungover and we ate at Sunny Point for breakfast. Sunny Point is one of the best breakfasts I have ever had ever. Then I had to play soccer, which I must admit was not a good idea as I thought I might puke the entire time, but we beat a really good team and I scored a super sweet goal. It was really satisfying.

All in all, another good weekend, and a great start to my favorite month.

Happy Spring!

I wish that I had some better pictures to show you as far as my spring goes thus far. I have one fun one, but mostly they're just me playing around outside with Jack.

This is a picture of me and some friends at the Vampire Weekend show at The Orange Peel over Spring Long Weekend. It was the last night of the break right after I got back from the beach and it was a super fun night. We went for drinks and to sit on the sweet patio at Hannah Flannagan's beforehand (and a shot at Mo Daddy's on the way) and just had a blast hanging out. The show itself was GREAT. If you ever get the chance to see them, do it.

One thing I do love about The Orange Peel (among the many things I really hate) is that they get all kinds of bands somewhat early on in their career, right before you'd expect to see them play in Charlotte rather than in Asheville. The issue is that people from Asheville will travel to Charlotte to see a show usually, but people from Charlotte suck too much to drive to Asheville. For example, I saw Wolfmother at the Peel a couple years ago, right before they blew up and they are now playing at the Fillmore in Charlotte. Same thing with O.A.R., though that was more than 4 or 5 years ago probably, and I also had the opportunity to see Queens of the Stone Age there, but I chose not to go.

They also get really fantastic, kind of huge bands every now and then, like the time the Smashing Pumpkins played 9 shows there. And the time the Beastie Boys sold out in like 45 seconds or something.

Here's Jack playing in the sun one of these really hot days. Actually, I guess he's technically not playing so much as panting, but you get the picture.

Where's Jack? This is one of those times that I was doing laundry and the washing machine was scaring the crap out of Jack. Instead of hiding under something this time, he went outside and refused to come in for like 2 hours. In fact, he hardly moved from that spot. This one also is a good picture of how long the grass in the backyard is...

Happy Spring!

BEACH

I LOVE THE BEACH.

We had a Spring Long Weekend and I went to the beach for four days and it was great. Unfortunately, I spent the vast majority of my time in the sand drinking and therefore did not trust myself with my new camera.

I literally did next to nothing except sit in the sun and drink. It was amazing.

I did, however, take a really silly video last week sometime when it was nice outside. This is my backyard and you can also kind of see the deck. Please excuse the quality of the video; I shot it with my cell phone. Also please excuse my extraordinarily loud talking, giggling, whistling, and the vibrating at the end of the video when someone sent me a text or something.

Other than that, my dog loves sticks. And running. :)

Just a Couple Things...

Nothing really major has happened in the last...two weeks I think it's been...? So here's a bunch of small things that have happened...

1. I tricked Jack into thinking he was on his leash and tied up when he wasn't. My friend Adam has a sweet house a few hours from Asheville where he goes to school, but the backyard isn't fenced. There are two dogs that live at the house currently and one that hangs around a lot. None of them run off when they are off leash. Jack, on the other hand, runs off any time he's off the leash. It's ridiculous really because he is so needy and follows me around in the house; it's like he momentarily forgets that he likes me as much as he does. Anyway, last weekend I put Jack's leash on him and let him drag it around. He didn't even attempt to run off; in fact he didn't get more than about 20 feet away from me. We'll call that a win for me.

2. I helped Adam bottle some IPA while I was there. It was fun (and yummy!).

3. We had Saturday school this weekend. School six days a week is not fun.

4. I tried Thai food and liked it, though I stayed away from the spicy. :)

5. I did nothing for St. Patrick's day.

6. It was warm enough to play cornhole last weekend and warm enough one day this week to put on a swim suit and lay out.

That's about it. Things have been pretty uneventful. That is about to change. "Spring Break" (really just a four day weekend) starts Friday and I am hitting the beach.

I'm Either Teaching or Thinking About Teaching

It's so true.  It takes up so much of my time.

I have a student teacher this semester.  I was very excited about this at first, but as time has gone on, I have started struggling with this pretty massively.

It's really hard to watch someone else teach students that I have been working with for about seven months.  Different teachers have different ways of going about things.  Trust me, I completely get that.  It's the same as students having different needs.  I try to be understanding and find the good in everything.

But my student teacher's way of going about things gives me a headache.

He's very much about teaching Literature (yes, capital "L").  He is really smart and philosophical and enjoys the content he is teaching (read: he was a legit Lit major, unlike myself, which means that he has read every thing ever written and enjoys the really hard things most, whereas I got away with reading mostly just the things I enjoyed).

The unfortunate part of this is that it doesn't really work for 9th graders.  I don't teach Literature; I teach reading.  I would love for my students to see the relationship between what happens to Jem Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird and Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience (poems).  In reality, I don't understand Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience...because they are seriously god awful boring.  And if I, who love reading most of the time, think they are boring, then please take a moment and think about how a 9th grade boy might feel about them.

I also think that he had no idea how much outside-of-the-classroom work goes into teaching.  Here's my schedule this week: I had a meeting today that took up 1/2 of my planning period and then another from 3 pm til 4:30; tomorrow I am giving the 10th grade writing test during my entire planning period; Wednesday I have two parent teacher conferences that will take up all of my planning period again; and on Friday, I have another parent teacher conference during 1/2 of my planning period.  That means that Thursday is the only day this week that I will have a full planning period.  There's also things like taking attendance and sending weekly numbers in, making copies and transparencies, faculty meetings, remembering which students get modifications, and grading papers, not to mention the very babysitter and mother like things that teachers have to step in and do.

His level of professionalism leaves something to be desired as well.  He wore the same outfit for the first three weeks or so, and it didn't seem to have been put together with the idea of a career in mind.  We had a conversation about dressing professionally, and what I'm getting from him now is the same outfit every day, but it's at least a button up shirt.

Also, my student teacher lacks classroom management skills.  This is the part that really gives me a headache.  He is constantly yelling over students instead of having them be quiet.  He lets them be all over the room and yell at each other and talk while he is talking.  I'm not saying they always have to be in seats and not talking; far be it from me to say my classes are perfectly managed.  I'm a big believer in balance, and I always try to have a good balance of quiet sitting time and talkative moving time.  Honestly, I'm afraid of taking the classes back because they're going to be ridiculous, and it's likely that I will be writing a lot of referrals and driving myself crazy trying to reteach them how to sit down and be quiet when they need to do so.

He is doing some good things.  I think that new teachers have such an "innocent" view of what students can and cannot do and also will or will not do and are therefore more willing to try things that may end up crashing and burning.  They're often the kind of things that I just mentioned, like some of William Blake's most intensely boring poems.  Those kinds of things work occasionally and make the students have to think and work harder than normal.  My student teacher is really willing to try things that I would normally say are WAY over the students heads.  And yes, they fail miserably sometimes, but he has had some good successes, especially in the Honors class.

He is also good at connecting with the students.  They really like him, though I'm unsure the reason for that and am not entirely convinced that it's a good reason.

I am kind of wondering if my headache is coming because I rather miss teaching my own classes...

The Department of Homeland Security Came to My House

My phone rang on Monday morning, and, as it was a number I did not recognize, I let it go to voicemail. I checked the voicemail later that afternoon when my student teacher was teaching. Here's a transcript of that voicemail with my own thoughts included in italics:

"Hi (he mispronounced my name horribly, but in a recognizable manner), this is so and so. I work for the Department of Homeland Security. WHAT? OHMYGOD What did I do? OH MY GOD HOLY CRAP I'm in trouble. We need to come in to interview you. We are doing a background check on someone you probably know. WHAT? No I don't know anyone Homeland Security would be checking up on! No. Big mistake. Oh my god. It says here you've known this person since 1997. WHAT? No! No one I have known that long needs to be dealing with Homeland Security. Oh my god. Her name is ** and I don't know how to pronounce this last name but it looks like Lacks uh goo. (At this point I did actually laugh out loud, because I know how much Liz loves her last name being butchered.) Oh Bartholomew was applying for that government position a couple of months ago and told me she would need verification of living situations. Duh. Wow, Lou. Nice freakout. If you could just give me a call back at your earliest convenience, my number is...


Anyway, I hang up and call the guy back; we talk briefly about how I know Bartholomew and set up an interview for the next morning. Cue snow. In fact, we haven't had school since Monday. He called me back this morning and just came by the house to conduct his interview.

I was asked to verify a bunch of things I didn't quite remember, like Bartholomew working in the Asheville Mall and living in a house on Edgewood. I didn't remember her working in the mall at all until the guy said it was at The Children's Place and I vaguely recalled that. When he said "Edgewood," I said "The apartments near campus?" He said no and described it as a house that had been split into apartments and that triggered a memory and I said this, appropriateness apparently no matter to me:

"Oh I remember that, but not because I ever visited her there. She told me once she was living in a house with a professor from UNCA" Yes, he says and starts flipping through his notes to find his name. "His name was Seamus McNerney. Seamus Patrick McNerney, born on St. Patrick's Day actually." Sounds like a good Irishman. Was he a good professor? I pause because McNerney was one of my favorite professors, but not for very good reasons. Like any good Irishman, he drank whiskey out of his coffee mug during every class. He also gave me an A when I did not deserve it. I go with "Yeah I really liked him." Is he still at UNCA? I pause again because I'm not sure if looking up McNerney to ask about Bartholomew is a good idea. I went with complete honesty: "Actually, I have no idea (I don't.) But I heard he was really sick a few years ago (I did, from Liz. Apparently, the alcohol was slowly killing him)." I guess this was good enough information since someone else, possibly Liz, had mentioned McNerney and me remembering that he was there in that house without him prompting probably verifies that she did in fact live there, which I think was the whole point.

He never asked me about when we actually lived together except to ask if there were any drug, alcohol, or financial problems. I laughed. Probably also not appropriate. Liz did not enjoy my drinking habits at all when we lived together. She got over it eventually, but I was definitely the "bad" roommate.

Everything else was stuff basically along the lines of "Do you think that this person will betray her country?" It actually felt a little contrived, but that's probably because I don't really think about things like betraying your country. I guess I've never dealt with the government or anyone from the government that closely so it was kind of intimidating. He even showed me his badge when he came in.

One thing that did bother me a little is that he asked about foreign travel, and how much she had done and where. It seemed to be a matter of interest in "foreign governments." Scary. If I ever apply for a government position, they will probably not accept me solely based on the fact that I've been to France on four separate occasions, that my sister lived there, that I studied in England, have taken students to Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, backpacked in Costa Rica, that I have an uncle in Holland, that I'm taking more students to England, Wales, and Ireland, that I have plans to go to as many places as possible in my lifetime, especially on summers when there is a World Cup, and that my family is from California, because, let's admit it, California is kind of like a foreign country (all those damned hippies and Mexicans.) My sole saving grace would be that my grandfather was in the Air Force (Go America!) and that he instilled in me a love of seeing foreign places and cultures at a young age, I just never had the desire to fight for my country to do it.

The worst part was him actually coming to the house. I had to run around the house hiding all my questionable literary material and marijuana.

KIDDING!

Luckily, I Can't Kill a Student Today

Not that I would, really.  But I will take ridiculous pleasure in meeting with a certain student's parents or guardians, a guidance counselor, and an assistant principal as soon as possible to discuss the fact that this student...well, I shouldn't say bad things about students.

So we have yet another snow filled day on our hands here, and we are, unfortunately, going to make up this day by going to school on Saturday.  I've decided the only way to deal with this is to have a good attitude.  The silver lining WAS that my student teacher had already told me that if we did have to have school this weekend, he wouldn't be able to make it, meaning I would get to teach all of my classes again.

I am oddly excited about this.

Anyway, this is no longer the silver lining.  These kids are so lucky we aren't in school today because I am super angry.  And they're definitely unlucky that we will still have four days of school this week.

About a month ago, I had the students do essays on Romeo and Juliet (yes I know, a month ago.  Don't  judge me).  When we are learning to write essays, we start off with me giving them just about everything and them just filling in the examples and their own analysis.  I call them Fill in the Blank Essay Assignments.  It usually makes their grades on them better than if I just gave them the topic.  Over the course of the year, we work our way all the way down to them writing their own whole essay!  Amazing!

So I'm reading essays and they're pretty bad, so in my head as I am doing this, I am brainstorming ways to fix it this year and different things I can try next year.  I get to an essay from a child who came in for help on his essay the week before he turned it in.  What he brought to me was clearly copied directly off the internet.  I read one paragraph of his six page monstrosity (I don't give the kids page limits, but this essay should be about 2 pages) and didn't even bother with the rest.  I told him it was clear this was not his own work as it was not on topic at all and obviously not his own writing.  I refused to give him the extra credit he was looking for, went over the assignment with him again, and sent him packing with what I assumed was his tail between his legs.

As it turns out, he was not at all phased and on top of that, he thinks I am an idiot.  He turned in the exact same "essay."  I took a few minutes to look at it because anytime this happens (plagiarism, not their own work), I actually take the time to find the essay on the internet so that I can call the student's parents or guardians and have the proof that I have good reason to be giving them a zero on the assignment.

A zero on the assignment is not a good enough punishment.  I think they deserve to fail the grading period, if not the class.  In college, they kick you out.  I digress.

As I'm looking at this essay and googling sentences from it to find the source, I start realizing that he didn't use one essay, he used FOUR.  He used a whole essay for each different paragraph except for his conclusion.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  What's most ridiculous about this is that when you put them all together, they make nothing but NONSENSE.

The topic was to explain how Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy by writing one paragraph about how Juliet is heroic, one paragraph about how Romeo is heroic, and one about how fate takes control of their destinies and they can't avoid their deaths at all.  THIS IS SO NOT A HARD ASSIGNMENT.  He could have written straight crap and gotten a D.  In fact, I put a D on a straight crap paper a few minutes before reading this one.  Instead, this student's first "paragraph" is an essay from the internet about what strategies Shakespeare uses while writing his tragedy.  It's actually a good essay structurally.  It's got an intro with a thesis that states the three examples of strategies he uses that are then going to become the three body paragraphs.  And now he's got a zero.

Earlier today, I was commiserating about how being excited to have all my classes back for just one day would suggest that going to grad school for library science would really hinder my ability to teach.  Now, I am struggling with the thought that I am going to have to teach students like this for one more year before being able to go back to school to do something else.  I know I will forget all about this eventually, but things like this are a really good, quick way of hurting my feelings.  Ugh.

By the by, it's ridiculously easy to find these essays online; all you have to do is google a sort of unique sentence.  Try it.  Google "Friar John was quarantined so the letter could not reach Romeo."  The essay this student used for his first paragraph is the third hit.

It's Possible that I Live for Weekends

This past weekend I went down to Charlotte, mostly because I had tickets to two different concerts, but also to see my family of course. I think I may have mentioned this already, but it turned out to be another really great weekend so I'm just going to keep on keeping on.

Friday night, I had tickets to Flogging Molly (sorry sister!) at the Fillmore. They opened a new music place in downtown Charlotte last year. I got to see The Offspring at the outdoor amphitheater part of it last summer, but this was my chance to see the indoor venue, the Fillmore. I really can't complain about either venue in and of itself. The outdoor amphitheater is actually kind of perfect for any band you really want to see outside, but that wouldn't fill up a huge pavilion like place. The Fillmore was pretty well thought out and put together. There are plenty of bars and you can see from pretty much anywhere. All of that said, my biggest complaint about the place as a whole is the price of alcohol. A small fill-in-the-blank-here-with-some-crappy-beer is $9! WHAAAAAAAT?!?!?!

When we went to see The Offspring, we just tailgated in the parking lot beforehand. This actually did not go over that well as it just made me want more beer when we got in to the show and I ended up spending more money than I should have. This was not the result of drinking in the parking lot I had anticipated.

This time we had no such plan, but that turned out well because sober me cannot justify paying that much for beer while drunk me just wants more, apparently, and cost has no meaning. I had a solid one beer.

But Flogging Molly was fantastic and I'm fairly certain it's the best FM show I've seen. Zak, his girlfriend, and his friend Sean also really enjoyed themselves. I met up with Jim and some other friends afterwards for a little while.

The weather for the weekend was also fantastic, so on Saturday, I did a hike up Crowders Mountain and picnicked at the top. It was a seriously beautiful day. I took Jack as well and discovered that he's not much of a fun of rock jumping or heights. I had to lift him over some stuff. Someone actually asked if I needed help at one point. It was kind of funny. It's a pretty hard hike, but it was well worth it.

Here's Jack on top of the mountain. Please notice that's it the only mountain around for miles. I didn't even know it existed, honestly.

Sunday was also a really beautiful day, so I thoroughly enjoyed my drive back to Asheville, especially since I was well aware that this was just one of those random times when the weather is pretty for no reason other than to make me think spring has sprung and then dash all of my hopes and excitement by snowing again several days later.

And because it's hilarious, here's Jack looking out the back window of the jeep. It's not quite warm enough to take the top off, but Saturday was warm enough to put the back window up, but not have all the front windows down. Jack was okay with that.

The Sun Will Come Out...

TOMORROW!

Tomorrow is going to be a really good day. I took a personal day so I could take the GRE!! Hurray! And then I will be driving to Charlotte to see one of my favorite bands, Flogging Molly, with Zak, his girlfriend, and a bunch of my friends who I either know will be there or I am quite sure will be there. Jim unfortunately has no ticket as of right now and I have been unable to acquire one for him. I am sad about this but am assuming the combination of having successfully completed the GRE, FM, Zak, and the friends who will be there will keep me happy until we can meet up afterwards. My other friends Will and Brandy have already agreed to meet up after the show.

In fact, it's going to be a good weekend, but I won't ruin a future blog by blogging it before it happens.

Anyhow, I am taking the GRE, obviously, so that I can go to grad school. I won't be going until next fall, Fall 2011, because of a very important decision involving health care, but I'm looking into how I could start taking classes here in Asheville and have them transfer. I have no idea if that will work out at all.

I have not really started looking at specific schools, but I'm considering looking in Boston to be near Renee and I kind of love Boston, Atlanta to be near Amanda and because it would be fun, and California just to go back to CA and be near family and duh, it's California. I am, of course, also considering some "fall back" schools here in NC. I could totally go to a school at the beach. I also have friends at Appalachian State right now and I suppose it would be kind of nice to go where friends are already.

To summarize: It's all pretty much up in the air.

On unrelated notes, my dog will not stop whining at me to let him out because he has spotted a squirrel. And I need a good book to read. Suggestions?

I Love My Sister

Renee surprises me constantly. She always surprises me in a good way, but every now and then, it's not only good, it's also hilarious. This just happened:

7:28 - I see that Renee is calling and get excited. We're both so busy that we rarely have time to talk.

7:28 1/2 - Hello? Hello? Reneeeeeeeeee? She beeps when I am supposedly already connected to her.

7:28 3/4 - I say "Hey. That was funny. You beeped in on a call I was having with you."

7:29 - Jane: "Stoptalkingineedyourhelpohmygodthetoiletisfloodinghowdoistopthetoiletfromflooding?!?!"

This continues. Basically, her bathroom is flooded and there is still water coming out of the toilet.

7:30 - I tell Renee to open the top of the toilet and make sure the hole the water goes down through is covered up to stop the toilet from running.

7:30 - "OHMYGOD is the top of the toilet supposed to be filling up with water?"

7:31 - "Why would I know how toilets work?"

7:32 - The toilet has stopped running and therefore stopped leaking water onto the floor.

7:32 1/2 - "This is so not what I wanted to have happen tonight. I have wine and junk food and I probably don't have to go to school in the morning."

7:33 - Renee informs me that she called everyone she could think of, including her ex-boyfriend, and no one answered. I am offended that she did not call me before her ex-boyfriend. She says she didn't think I would know any more about toilets than she does. Then she says "Do you think paper towels are okay to clean this up with?" Then, "We don't even own a mop."

7:34 - She settles on using her yoga towels to mop up the water after I convince her that toilet water is not the same as sewage water.

7:40 - We have been chatting and catching up when I have her go back to the toilet to try flushing it to see if it's just a problem with the handle or something.

7:41 - "Oh my god it's flooding the bathroom again!"

7:42 - I instruct her to again make sure the rubber stopper is covering the hole and then ask if the toilet bowl is full of water. Response? "I can't see it; I left the top covering the bowl." It was, of course, and I end up explaining how a toilet actually works, where the water comes from, etc.

7:43 - "This is why I need a boyfriend! Seriously."

7:45 - "Maybe you should try plunging the toilet. I think that's the only way at this point to get the toilet to flush without filling it back up with water and flooding again. You need to get that water out of the bowl." This fails to work.

7:45 - Renee's solution? "I'm just going to clean up the water and wait for someone else to come home and take care of this."

I can't believe my sister had no idea what to even look at when the toilet flooded. Seriously.

Throughout all of this, I was attempting to make dinner (veggie chili) and do laundry. Let me explain why this is kind of a big deal; the washing machine that our landlord provides in the house is the oldest washing machine I have ever seen. I'm not exaggerating. You know those stores you see sometimes that house old electronic stuff and often have a bunch of old stoves, refrigerators, washers and the like just piled up all willy nilly? Those stores kind of intimidate me. Our washing machine is very much like what you see in those stores.

Anyway, our washing machine also doesn't work quite right. It works, but you have to shut it off, turn the knob to the next thing, and turn it back on. It doesn't go through all the motions on its own. It also makes a TON of noise, especially anytime it is spinning. It kind of shakes the whole house. This freaks my dog out.

Normally, Jack is out, running around, playing, or looking out the window for a cat or squirrel to bark at, but he responds very much to my emotions. If I'm on the phone with Renee and my voice is somewhat frantic, he will lose it a little bit and hide under the bed. The combination of me being somewhat frantic and the washing machine shaking the whole house reduced him to this:

He is as far under the futon as he could possibly be, back against the wall, on a blanket that he must have pulled under there with him. Do please observe that he also took his favorite toy with him on his retreat. It's like his own personal survival kit: a blanket and a toy. It's been about an hour and a half now and I still can't make him get up and come out, which is crazy because he never goes under the futon except for a second if a toy got tossed under it inadvertently. He also very rarely goes this long without being next to me or following me around as any of my friends can tell you. He is a little attached.

I guess he is really upset about Renee's toilet.

Dear Whoever Did This To Me,

Whoever you are, you suck.

The powers that be cancelled school today and have already called it off for tomorrow as well. Don't get me wrong; I appreciate the unexpected days off. The problem is that someone messed up somewhere and even though we have only had 4 days off because of snow, they are already taking away our Spring Break.

Last year, we probably ended up having at least 7 or 8 days off and they never even touched Spring Break.

What happened is that for whatever reason, our school system didn't receive some "waiver" from the state that allowed us to start before August 25 or go past June 10. So we started later than normal and have to end on June 10. Our calendar for this school year already goes to June 10, so we cannot add school days to the end of the school year. Thus, good bye Spring Break, as you are the only thing they have left to use to make up days. Tomorrow will take one day from it, and any other days we miss because of weather will continue to take days until there are no more to take.

Oh wait. Spring Break isn't the only thing they have left to use to make up days. There's always all the Saturdays left in the school year!

Bite me, powers that be! Bite me!

The World Decided to Celebrate the End of No-Drinking January With Me

On New Year's Day this year, I decided not to have anything alcoholic to drink in the month of January. I have some a skin condition/immune disorder called psoriasis. Normal skin cells produce new skin at a rate of every 28-30 days. In some places on my body, my skin cells produce new skin every 3-4 days. This does not give the skin in those areas enough time to mature, so it is all flaky and thin when it gets to the surface, giving areas of my skin a red, dry look to them. It looks like a problem that lotion could solve, but the problem is actually deeper than that, hence immune disorder. My skin cells think that there is something wrong on that area of my skin and are therefore producing new skin in order to fix it. It's really pretty disgusting, but it's been mostly under control for the last 5 years or so.

And on a positive, I'm kind of like a superhero! If I get cut on a psoriasis spot, it's usually gone in the next day or so.

Anyway, I decided to try to eradicate the psoriasis by trying a few new things on my own. I did some research and decided on a bunch of things at once. Some of them I stopped right away and some of them seemed too hard, so here is what I ended up with.

I take 6 vitamins a day: zinc, B-complex, fish oil, flaxseed oil, echinacea, and a standard women's one a day.

And I stopped drinking for the month of January.

And it's working! Both of the large psoriasis spots (on my calf and elbow) have diminished to about 10% of what they were and there are areas on them which are nearly completely gone.

Now I honestly can't just stop drinking, but my plan is to cut that to about a quarter of what I was doing, meaning I'm not going to have that one beer with dinner anymore, or those two beers when I go see a movie. It will be cut down to just weekends, for the most part. I think I'll probably have to make exceptions for special occasions. I do plan on continuing with the vitamins though because I think that's what is making the biggest difference.

My mom is going to be so happy when she reads this.

Anyhow, I decided to cut myself a break and end No Drinking January this weekend, even though it was still technically January. This turned out to be great because we had our second snowpocalypse of the winter. The world decided to celebrate with me!

There I go!

Lost

This is how I feel right now.

Hahah okay that's a big lie. I feel fantastic right now. The beginning of the year has actually been pretty good.

The reason I titled this blog "Lost" is that I've been spending every spare moment re-watching the greatest show ever on television. The final season of Lost begins on February 2, and I am smack in the middle of my quest to watch seasons 1-5 before that happens.

Don't judge me. I've spent a vast portion of my life reading books and exercising my brain in other ways.

The bottom line is that Lost is pure genius and that it does in fact exercise my brain just fine. There's no real easy way to explain Lost. Essentially, a plane crashes on an island in what should be the South Pacific and the island turns out to be really weird and have all sorts of strange phenomenon. The people are interested only in getting off the island, but over the course of the 108 days they spend on it (more in some cases, less in others), they become real people to each other and the story evolves into what is surely one of the writers' or the creator's philosophy on what it is to be human. The mystery of the science, phenomena, and technology of the island drives the story, as we as watchers can't help but wonder what the heck is going to happen. While the "what" is interesting, in the end what we really want to know is "why" these things have happened, and that's where the meaning of humanity comes in. What have these characters, these people, done to cause this insanity? And more importantly, what can they do to fix it?

So anyhow, I'm about 1/3 of the way through season 3. I think I can do it. Luckily, I haven't had a lot to do this month. That will be explained in what will probably be my next blog, sometime after January is over.

P.S. I got a sweet new camera. Here's the first picture with it. This is my friend Brandi's little boy Collin. He's 16 months old and he loves me. :)



Also, I apologize, but I cannot figure out how to make pictures that you can click on to get full size. Daddy, will you please help me with this the next time I'm home?

2009 Wasn't That Awesome

I knew I wouldn't get this one done until after 2009 was done. Here are my Top 5 Moments of 2009. This took so long because it was kind of hard to think of 5.

5. Going to 3 beerfests in about a month.
Damn you liver! Okay, not really; I must honestly say I do love having a liver and I hope it continues to work properly. I'm not actually sure when all these beerfests were. The first was High Country in Boone, NC. This was the smallest and shortest, but I had the best beer I've ever had in my life there. It was a homebrew from an App State professor and I can't remember what it was called, but it was mint chocolate and it was amazing. Then there was Brewgrass in Asheville, which is a HUGE deal, but the planners keep it small. It's also a family affair. :) The last was Octoberfest in Charlotte, which was actually really big and ended with me falling asleep on a friend's couch at like 8, then waking up periodically and falling back asleep again. Yes, there were definitely people there seeing this. Embarassing, but it was my third beerfest.

4. Seeing Smitty
Smitty was my soccer coach in high school and I hadn't seen him in a long time. I got an email from him letting me know that his boy's team would be playing against Reynolds, a school in Asheville, and asking if I had any scouting info and telling me to come out and say hi. It worked out perfectly because my friend Adam was in Asheville that weekend too. He had also played soccer for Smitty and we both got to go out and see him. Awesome.

3. Find out Social Distortion was going to be playing in Charlotte
I'm pretty sure I wish I had a video of my freak out when I discovered this on the internet. Granted, the show ended up not being that great. But the moment I found out I was finally going to get to see one of my favorite bands was totally priceless.

2. Having 98% of my students pass their state test
Standardized tests are kind of BS. But I have to get my kids to pass them. This last school year was really, really iffy. I had a TON of special ed kids and a group of really unmotivated "normal" kids. I usually get really good numbers of students passing, but I was really worried about last year's group. They ended up doing a great job, however, so either they're smarter than they let on, or I'm a better teacher than I think I am. For my sanity's sake, I think it's probably the latter.

1. The general success of my first student trip overseas
In April, over Spring Break, I took a student group to Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. Trips like these are not school sponsored, so it's completely up to parents as to whether they want to send their children. I was REALLY nervous about it, but it turned out fine. Better than fine, really. There are definitely some things I will do differently next time, but in general, it was a lot of fun. I was also really scared that I would be bored out of my mind. I usually travel on my own schedule and plans. These was with a tour group... on a bus... But it actually turned out great. See, I go for free as a group leader, so I got to see cool places, spend a lot of solo time wandering these cool places (which is really, really fun), and watch some teenagers grow just a little bit into adults in just a week. And I did it all for under $400. Sweet!

So there it is. Three cheers for 2010; it will probably be better!