Kids Say the Darndest Things

If you can’t impress them with your lesson plans, or your wit & wisdom; if you can’t even impress them with your good looks, impress them with your pants!

I had a former 10th grade student visit my classroom a few days ago and tell me he remembers coming into my class for the first time last year and thinking, WOW, Ms. E has the coolest pants ever! And I quote: “You had these pants that were like fitting on the top and then got really huge on the bottom kind of like bell-bottoms and they were like the coolest pants ever…and all year me and XXXXXX (another male student) talked about how you have the coolest pants!”

Uhhhh…if this wasn’t a little skinny, black-dyed haired, skater boy, I might have been a bit concerned. It wasn’t a sexual comment at all, (we all know I’m not blessed with the best looking posterior-region), it wasn’t a comment about that, it was just a compliment, in the typically- awkward way of a teenager - letting me know that in his opinion, I’m one of the coolest teachers at the high school.
The pants, you ask?

A pair of brown velvety-corduroy-bell-bottom-ish pants from Banana Republic.

I'm Moving Out!

I'm finally getting out of Provo...I won't tell you where I'm going on my blog for obvious reasons, but this is the first time I will have moved cities since I came to college. No, curious minds, I'm not moving out of state, yet: baby steps.

A friend of mine bought a house and I'm moving in with her. Change is good, right?

Moving is a pain. You realize that you could probably do just fine with 1/2 of the contents of your closet, and you shouldn't go shopping again for a very long time.

Am I worried I will cut myself off socially by leaving Provo?

No, I'm not worried. I have had fabulous friends in the neighborhood I've been living in these last few years, and when you find forever-friends you find a way to keep in contact. Boys? If there are any that like me in Provo, they too will find a way to show me by keeping in contact with me.

Change is good. Change might be just what I need. Maybe one little change will be a catalyst for a lot of change, but I'm not that excited or worried; it's just a new place to live, and a longer commute to work.

What will I miss? My friends, the spaciousness of the house I live in right now, (my friend is buying a town home with no basement), and this view of the mountains out of my bedroom window!

Rastafari

So I just got back from Jamaica (yeah, I didn't know I was going either - free plane ticket, long story). It was amazing; I'm so going back someday! Anyway, it was gorgeous and colorful and so much fun! One of the most interesting things about the trip was seeing "real" Rastas. Remember the dude on Cool Runnings with the long hair? Yeah, he was a Rasta.

So Rastafari is a religion - a Christian one actually. They worship Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, former Emperor of Ethiopia, as the second embodiment of God on Earth, the first being Jesus Christ. They grow their dreadlocks as a symbol of their "baptism" and smoke marajuana as their "sacrament" of sorts. They live off the land, basically, rejecting materialism and western culture. They usually live in communities where the money they make is pooled together for shared living. They try to be helpful and friendly, and although I'm told they do wash their hair, it doesn't always smell like that!

Bob Marley was a famous Rasta and about 5 - 10% of Jamaicans are Rastas. I'm sad I didn't get a good picture of any of them with their hair all tied up in one of those big-bulbous hats.