Memoirs of a Geisha

I got a tag and I guess I will do it! Here are the instructions I followed:

1. Grab the nearest book. If you are currently reading something, that'll be fine too.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 4 sentences on your Blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet I know that is what you were thinking!
6. Tag 5 people.

'But within your okiya...Don't you find it odd that Mrs. Nitta has never adopted Hatsumomo as a daughter? The Nitta okiya must be the wealthiest in Gion without an heir. By adopting Hatsumomo, not only would Mrs. Nitta solve that problem, but all of Hatsumomo's earnings wold then be kept by the okiya, without a single sen of it paid out to Hatsumomo herself. And Hatsumomo is a very successful geisha!' (123)

This is from Memoirs of a Geisha which I just finished yesterday. It is a really good book! It has some adult content, obviously it is about a Japanese courtisan, but it moves you along so beautifully, 1-because you learn all about the Geisha culture, 2-it curiously does not sound like it is written by a man, 3-it curiously does not seem too much like it is written by a Westerner vs. someone imersed in the Asian cultures. 4-I've been picking up some good guy-getting tips; some good seductive eye-contact techniques! LOL. jk. Okay, it moves you along similarly to The Mercy of Thin Air, which it is not at all like, but similarly is able to talk about hard topics and still move you along as if you are floating along on a river or a cloud from the fist page to the last. This being said, I don't think I would like it if I was a man, nor would I recommend men read it. Somethings are just for the women, of course this being said as well, I probably shouldn't read it either? :D

There are some good jems though, this is what I would have posted if I could have chosen my passage. Good advice:

"I understood the danger of focusing only on what isn't there. What if I came to the end of my life and realized that I'd spent every day watching for a man who would never come to me? What an unbearable sorrow it would be, to realize I'd never really tasted the things I'd eaten, or seen the places I'd been, because I'd thought nothing but the Chairman even while my life was drifting away from me." (349

Good advice for me I guess! ;)

The Universe Has a Sense of Humor

Life requires a sense of humor, becuase the universe has one too. Most of you probably know without me having to say who it is, that there is a guy that I met several years ago at a party that I had the most embarassing experience of my life with, compounded by the fact he is very handsome, and how we have had random embarassing moments everytime I have run into him of the years. Well, yesterday again I ran into him for the first time in a very long time actually, and I am not obsessing over how handsome he is or anything, don't ever even think about him, so that is not the context of this story. But, luck would have it that I would run into him again yesterday just after stepping out of the dentist's office, having two cavities filled and my cheeks as puffy as they can get, with no ability to smile. My lips were so numb that putting on lipstick, which I think I can do in my sleep, became nearly impossible; I had to wipe it off the outer-reaches of my cheeks where it wanted to land instead of my numb, puffy lips. Anway, rambling! So I am walking down a street laden actually which a huge bag of groceries that I am carrying in my arms, when low and behold, who should I run into? And of course I said 'Hi, how are you,' as did he, and he gave me a huge smile, which I tried--attempted--willed--but could not quite get my puffy face, and numb cheeks and lips to return! Alas, I just had to laugh at the thought of how my face probably looked attempting to smile at him, I probably looked like some strange, grimacing, I-need-to-go-to-the-bathroom-really-bad, looking person! Again, no significance to this story other than life can just be funny sometimes, and I am determined to laugh with it!

"I'm just Sitting Right Here Having Another *Rootbeer* in Mexico" Cruise 2008

4-day cruise, 7-day Girls Night Out!

The first day we went to Las Vegas and walked around the strip and became alternately grossed out/fascinated at the body exhibit, if you haven't seen it you need to; they replace body fluids with polymer and so you see the "live" tissues coated in plastic, it is amazing.


Las Vegas.


My Mexican boyfriend; one of my favorite vacations photos! La Bufadora, Ensenada, Mexico.


Mexican markets are so fun and colorful! I bought a couple of vases and some silver jewlery~.


Wearing our life jackets, just in case we sink!


Mexico, obviously.


Sitting at an outdoor cantina on Catalina Island, post snorkeling experience.


"Give me two pina colatas, I gotta have one for each hand." Laying out by the pool was amazing, but yeah, I didn't wear quite enough sunscreen!


On our last day of the trip we got all dressed up and went to Wicked at the Pantages in LA! Such a fun show! It was fun to have occasion to wear a little black dress and heels, both for Wicked and the dress up night on the cruise!

We had a really great time, went to Las Vegas, then the cruise from Long Beach to Catalina to Ensenada and back to LA. In LA we went to the Getty art museum and to Wicked. I burned pretty bad, I should have had higher SPF than 30, but my face didn't burn which is good! I hate looking like a cherry-tomatoe! We did run into some Provo boys on the cruise and ate a lot, the food is amazing. Had a blast! Love governement money! ;) I'll be posting a whole photo album on facebook if anyone is interested in seeing more photos!

Desperate Times Call for Kissing Booths?

I promise to blog my trip to Mexico, but first, look what was left in my classroom for the summer! If anyone needs to borrow this to send a message to someone in particular that they want to kiss, just let me know! I'll try it out and see what good use I can put it to! JK.

I had a student do a research paper on displays of affection; whatever, he didn't write the paper, just did the presentation! But it was a pretty good one, I might add. Very creative, and apparently, he thought I could use the kissing booth over the summer!

I Feel Like A Dog

So, good thing my hair turned out looking alright, otherwise I think I would have literally killed the girl cutting my hair! But she thinned my hair without asking, and I know, it looks okay, as witnessed by these pictures, but wow. This was not the normally thinning with the little tooth-like sheering scissors, she grabbed chunks of my hair up along the crown of my head and just chopped! I have about 10 or so little globs of hair that are only 1/8th of an inch long! You can feel them through the top of my head, and the only comparison I can come up with is that my head feels like a recently clipped dog head! It is so bizarre I can't stop touching it! I am going to develope a really weird idiosyncrasy if my hair doesn't grow soon. People will think I am scratching for fleas! Great, now on my list of things to look for in a man I need to add, *doesn't like to touch female hair*, because my head feels like a dog on top! The worst thing is, I will have what my family affectionately calls a "Utah-Bomp" in a few months when the top of my head grows out and I will have a lot more volumne on top than on bottom! AHHHGHHGHGH!

I thought about trying to photograph one of the little bits of hair becuase you can see them! But that would have been going too far! Feel free to come feel my hair if you want to. *sigh*

Sibling Rivalry

It's a good thing I decided a long time ago it was futile to compete with my older sister! It is fairly common for siblings close in age to feel competitive with one another, and my sister is only about 16 months or so older than me. However, she left me behind almost 9 years ago when she got a husband, now she has four of the most adorable children I have ever seen, has lived in Europe for the last three years, and now she gets one of these! *sigh*



So, a little jealous, yeah, but not really. I feel so far behind her now that I have just stopped worrying about it! I am happy right where I am, doing exactly what I am doing. Although, it would sure be nice! Congrats to my sister and her family who are making the trek back to the United States. In the mean time, I will just keep living my single life and be spontaneous and go with some friends of mine in the ward to California on Saturday and spend a week doing nothing but soaking up the sun and forgetting about all of the papers I have graded this year!

My Announcement

So, I never tell my kids about dates I go on, or who I think is cute because it is none of their business. I think it is just because I am a young teacher that they are fascinated with my love life. They are constantly wanting to set me up with brothers, cousins, nephews, uncles, and the one single male teacher at the high school. So this "wedding announcement" I found on my white board this morning when I came to work, is not anything new per say, but just cute and funny. Apparently I need to be looking for a man who wears black short shorts and and carries an umbrella! I left it on the board to be funny and all morning my kids are asking about who my man is! :) Apparently his name is Herman? jk.

My Poor, Poor Students

So complicated being a woman! Hormones affect women is so many different ways! I was laughing with my sister yesterday becuase she says when she is hormonal she is annoyed by every man in sight, and I react just the opposite. All I want right now is to be held in somebody's arms instead of grading research papers on my prep-period. I get vulnerable feeling and just want to be taken care of and cuddled with.

But that is not the only thing that is wrong right now. My poor students! When I'm hormonal they seem to score a lot lower on tests and papers...My honor's class just received an average score of 78% on their To Kill A Mockingbird test I just graded. At moments like this I wonder if I should just give them all a little extra credit to make up the difference because I full well know why they all scored abnormally low on this test! Question is, how would I label that in the grade book? LOL.

My Layers are Sticking

To my body. It is living heck in my classroom. 87 degrees with the swamp cooler on. (They never put *water* in the swamp cooler) So sitting under the cooler is like sitting under a blow-dryer. We keep it on because it creates air flow. Who wants to learn about The Great Gatsby in this environment? NO ONE.

Suddenly I am onery too, reminiscent of the days in grade school when NO school I went to had an airconditioner, and all you could do is day-dream, talk out of turn, and stare out the windows. Only in my room there are only three litle windows, so the heat and the noise and the inevitable accompanying smell of 1 1/2 hour long classes of 36, 17 year olds, reverberate off of the faux-wood paneling and orange carpet. Misery.

Suddenly my classroom is the jungle. Choose your battles. I am just as miserable as the kids.

Thank you President Bush

All I can think about is summer vacation. It is always on my mind and only 2 1/2 weeks away now! How can I stand waiting until then! How can I keep my mind from running over all the possible summer schemes that I have and I don't have?! How can I keep my head in the game for 2 1/2 more weeks until delicious freedom? And now, thanks to President Bush I have a compounded problem. Now I want to think about the $600 from the government that I forgot I was getting--and now can think of 150 million ways to spend it. It will probably end up in my savings account, but for now, I am dreaming and schemeing of the wonder of unexpected money spending ability. Should I go somewhere? Buy something? Who knows! But it sure does give me one more thing to think about other than work! Oh, my. How are you going to spend yours?

Is David Archuleta for real?

Okay you American Idol fans, David Archuleta says he is not serving a mission. “Music” can be his mission. And I want to know what you think. We were discussing this last night with some friends and the situation was compared to the Osmonds, who apparently were told music could be their mission. My question is, is David Archuleta as “big” as the Osmonds? I don’t think so, at least not yet. Is 15 minutes of possible fame worth breaking a commandment? A million things jump into my mind like, well, think of all the “Mormons” who went into the media and lost their Mormonism, can David Archuleta stand it? What about Amy Adams from Enchanted, and Aaron Elkhart, and the very attractive Paul Walker, and other LDS people who are big-ish but not BIG; hardly anyone seems to be able to hold onto their LDS standards and pursue Hollywood.

People can justify and argue until the sun goes down on people like Steve Young who didn’t serve a mission, and Larry King’s millionth wife who is LDS and does not have a temple marriage, and on and on and on. I’m not trying to judge them per say, as much as wonder if David Archuleta is that good? I don’t think so. He is good, and gets a lot of fan base here in Utah because he is from Murray, but really? Does he have what it takes to make it big? I know that people can still be wonderful people even though they have never served a mission, like everyone else I have people in my extended family who are good Mormons and have never served a mission, I’m just afraid he is going to have to lose his good-boy appeal to make it big, but maybe I’m totally off the mark. And all of my high school girls who have crushes on him and are “so proud” of him for being in the media and a “good Mormon,” and a “great role model” are going to be sorely disappointed. I'm I too much of a skeptic?

Floaties

Apparently, the reason people all got sick in the swimming pools of Utah last summer was because moms didn’t buy the right size of swim diapers for their babies. Yeah. Do you think buying the right size is really going to keep little poopies from floating out of the diapers in public swimming pools? Lets be honest—any sort of paper-ish swim diaper is going to deteriorate and not hold waste-water after an hour in the swimming pool. Band-Aid sized solution I say.

KSL did a gross feature on the news last night where they actually filmed, FILMED pieces of poopies and filmy-brown water floating out of swim diapers and swimsuits of little kids. I was disturbed by the filming of it, and the “test-group” who were filmed in fish tanks, almost as much as by the fecal matter itself. Sadly, it’s always happened, it always will, and if you say you have never gone to the bathroom in a swimming pool in your life, face up to it, you are a liar. But should this stop fun summer memories of being a kid in the pool? No. So keep taking your kids to the public pools in the summer, but just don’t film the poopies. Ignorance is bliss right?

Teaching Has Changed Me

You have bad days, and yesterday was one, you have good days; thankfully today was one, and so-so days, but good days remind me why I l-o-v-e being a teacher. After school today I talked to one of my honors students about her writing potential. I explained to her how I tear her papers apart because she is so talented, and has the potential to get better and better. She appreciates it and it is fun to work with her on her writing and really work on fine-tuning it. This is one of the reasons I like teaching honors classes because they care about their work and the work you put into critiquing their work. I love helping students get better.

I equally love working with my low-acheivers because when you get through to them it is even that much more rewarding. Today was an all-around good day, my regular kids gave some of their best performances today as well. Days like today often make me think of the ways being a teacher has changed me, and here are a few:

1- I am infinetly more patient (and yet I am not nearly patient enough)

2- I have infinetly more empathy and compassion for other's weaknesses than I had before.

3- I have had my eyes opened to the amazing amount of hardship and struggle these kids have to deal with in their lives.

4- I have become a pencil-pincher. No matter where I am I pick up stray pencils and pens off of the ground to put in my pencil jar (vase actually) :D I am scaring myself actually--I cannot stop picking up pens and pencils off the ground and taking them to my classroom!

5- I don't get out as much as I used to. More nights including weekends nights than I should admit are taken up by grading papers, just a reality of teaching.

6- I am becoming a worse speller by the hour! Reading all of the misspellings I read everyday has made me start to memorize the mis-combinations of letters in words!

7- I accidentally pick up, and discard, every now and then a few colloquialisms, for example, I caught myself saying the other day, "Start shuttin' down your computers, packin' up your things and headin' back to the classroom." Atrocious!!!

8- I am picking up a bit of a high school sense of humor--I can anticipate what they will think is funny and then I will laugh first. Oh well, laughing is good, right?

9- I get a lot less sleep.

10- I am happier. I love working with the kids and my life has infinetly more joy in it than it did before.


(No--my student did not have permission to take this picture)

I don't think so.

Someone offered me $12 to kiss them yesterday.

On Imperfect Love and Dancing

Returning from a ward "So-you-think-you-can-Cha-Cha" activity last night I drove past this little old couple of the side of the road. Now we all like to valorize cute little old couples walking down the road hand-in-hand after all those years, but really, is that what love is? I was justed warmed over to the brim at the sight of this adorable couple--a true old, in love looking married couple. What did they look like? Well, he was probably 20 paces in front of her, body bent half over with a cane, leaving his wife who was moving very slowly with a walker, in the dust, but atleast he was carrying her purse! :) You would just have to have seen it. She was struggling up the on-ramp of the sidewalk and probably could have used his help with that awkward walker, but he was far ahead of her no doubt anxious to get home and thinking his wife was a little slow. Why is this cute to me? Probably because I can kind of imagine my parents being like that in another 35 years. They just had their 35th wedding anniversary a couple of days ago and they are just funny. I think real-in love married couples are a little impatient with each other at times, but they still go everywhere together and love eachother and the husband carries the wife's purse.

Okay, I am officially rambling now. But it brought to mind the new church radio commerical of a super old couple who are arguing about how neither of them really liked to dance anyway, so why were they doing it after all these years, and he admits he likes to hold her hand, and she admits she danced anyway because she liked to be in his arms. *Sigh* so cute. But I guess that is what love is when you see couples successfully married for years, (I know I have never been married and am therefore no authority), but I think real love is imperfect, but you do things with and for each other because you would rather do things with and for them, imperfect as they are, than anyone else on the entire earth.

So here's to being a bent over old married couple a few decades down the road!

Pond Excursion, Anyone?

So, spring has sprung (again) and apparently I'm (still) a late-bloomer. Everyone seems to be calling and telling me they are engaged, almost-engaged, engaged-in deep like, engaged-in-good dating and blind dates, and having babies and love-love-love. I am excited for you all! I truly am! I'm just wondering what I need to do getting-blooming-in-love myself!

Is it time to do what Michael Scott did on last week's Office and force-conscript people to get me dates? Or do I need to follow the adivce from a student's research paper. Apparently I can find my husband, or at least see what he looks like by either looking backwards in a mirror at midnight (I think this is how it goes) or else go and look at my reflection in a pond at midnight, and apparently the image of my true love will appear next to mine. Hmmm, that would save the trouble of wondering whether or not we would look good together--. Might be a good idea, huh? Heck, while I am there I might as well collect a few frog-samples and start kissing a few of those too.

My students said today, "We need to find you a husband." Yes we do.

Anyone want to come?

Things Fall Apart

Despite the fact that things fall apart when I am not around, I do not regret leaving my kids and going to Italy! I know I am not their mom, but sometimes I feel like one--a mom of 150 kids who say Ms. E, Ms. E, Ms. E, ALL DAY LONG. I think that anyone who takes care of kids, or anyone for that matter needs to get away sometimes from their life, take a vacation and remind themselves that they have an identity that is separate ,or in addition to, their work identity!

I was greeted this morning at 7:30 a.m. with "The week you were gone was the worst week of my life!" from one of my favorite male students. Well, I got a pretty good idea from the substitute that it was one of the worst weeks of her life too! :) Of course the honors class was perfect, and the others were---not.

I slipped into my classroom a few days ago to view the destruction. I was at first mad, and then was like who cares! Don't cry over over spilled milk! The kids will recover--because although teaching is a large part of my life--my particular class is only a small part of their life. And you know, today wasn't too bad.

It sadly, actually kind of stokes up your ego a bit to hear kids soooo glad you are back, and they just can't work without you! So even though they were bad, lazy, and unproductive while I was gone, what can you do? Their grades will go down a little because of it, but I am going to be nice and give them some time in class to get a few things done in the name of "damage control."

GO on vacation. It's worth it. Your life can wait.

A Mini-Tour of Italy!

I will post a folder on my facebook account with more pics if anyone wants to see more pics, but here is a highlight or two. Enjoy!




A beautiful man, I'm not going to lie.


Venice; view from Rialto Bridge




Me somewhere in Vatican City.


A view of Assissi.


Venice, obviously.


Cheese and Wine Tasting, Minus the Wine Tasting. :)



Everyone rides bikes in Ferraro.

So there is a small sample! I took 8 rolls of film and 450 digital pictures, not counting what my mom and sister took on their digital camera. LOL.

Tell Me I'm Beautiful and I just Might Fall into your Arms.

It's true--what they say about Italian men. They are forward, and it's refreshing. I had heard it would happen, and it did: I have been starred at all day long, and told I am beautiful on an almost more than twice daily basis for the last 10 days in Italy.

I only felt sexually harrassed on two occasions. All of the rest of the time I just felt admired. I'm not saying I wish American men were like that, and if I lived in Italy, I would be ticked if my husband were checking out every woman on the street! But it made me feel like a woman--. It made me feel beautiful. One of the women I was travelling with was one of my former young women's leaders and she said it was fun to watch me walk down the streets, there was just something about me those men liked! Probably the red hair because I was the only natural red head I saw in my entire stay. I'm not saying it to proclaim that I think I am beautfiul, because I really don't think there is anything particualrly special about me, I am just saying it because it made me think.

One of the people I was travelling with has been to Italy on several occasions and on one occassion she met a man who told her that he didn't like American women. He said Italian women (who I might add are ridiculsouly beautiful) even if they are 50 lbs. overweight walk around like they own the place, confident. He said he doesn't like American women because they beleive if they are not the most beautiful woman in teh room they have nothing to offer. He doesn't understand that about Americans, he said every woman has something beautiful to offer, and Italian women believe that--and that is partially what makes them attractive.

And to the men-folk , I would just like to say--try it. Not every woman would admit it, but we all like to be told we are beautiful. There is some truth in the saying that "women love with their ears," because in a sense we do. There are lots of languages of love, but we are inclined to buckle when a man lets us know in no uncertain terms that he finds us attractive. And American women are trained to beleive is she doesn't currently have a significant other, it just might mean no man finds her attracitve--which I beleive has to be grossly untrue. So women, let's act beautiful, because we are, and men, tell us we are beautiful, and we just might wind up in your arms! :)

And I'm Off!

I write you all in a couple of weeks! I'm off to Italy!!!!!

In Defense of You Video-Gamers Out There (Just Read IT)

We are running this article in our next newspaper, we are doing a video games for-or-against. I'm personally not down with the whole time wasting element, but this is a freaking awesome article in defense of gaming, I have to admit. Enjoy!

The Happiest Place on Earth

By An 18 Year Old Boy

You’re walking down the hall and you see someone talking about World of Warcraft or Portal: What do you do? Make fun of them? Think they are lame? You MONSTER! Little do you know that they spend their time WAY better than you ever have.

Video Games teach you a lot of skills that are valuable in the workplace today, and are quite possibly the most powerful form of education which makes learning many of life’s needed skills enjoyable. There is also a large social element to games which give kids the advantage of learning about tolerance and other cultures. Many games are online and/or on the computer. Many have increased their ability to type drastically, before I started to play, I was typing (on a good day) 25 gross words per minute and now, thanks to these games, I type (on a normal day) around 85 per minutes with no mistakes. There are a whole lot of people who have inadvertently gained this skill simply by enjoying their hobby.

People might say that video games are causing obesity nowadays and is a really bad thing, that is totally ridiculous I demand that everyone take a look around the school, think about all the video-gamers you know, now how many of those people are fat? Maybe one, maybe. Video games and the culture around them do not create obesity; rather they encourage exercise and other such activities.

Video games can be a comforting friend. Like a puppy, they can give you worth when you feel you have none. What is more comforting than knowing that you alone have saved a lost civilization from a grim fate?! How can you feel any better? If you ask me, there is no better way to improve your mood than by accomplishing heroic tasks!

Much like you would find in a high school, video games give expertise on certain useful career options and teach you skills that you can use to your advantage in the professional world. First, there is the physical dexterity needed to be competent in video games, many studies have shown that surgeons who play video games have a much lower rate of accidents and inaccurate cuts due to the physical dexterity that they gained from their hobby. Accounting and even balancing your own checkbook is a big issue today, with many required to be able to competently plan and save their in-game cash to be able to purchase the more expensive items. For example, in the popular game World of Warcraft, there are auction houses were you can sell your items to other real players in the world. You have to know a lot about supply and demand, and also about saving and making money to be able to earn what you need. And, to make sure that this economy is as close to the real thing as possible, the developers have hired consultants to help with the creation of this economy. Don’t try to tell me this is not a useful real life skill.

Now, how many of you cannot wait for that next episode of The Office, or to find out who wins American Idol? How many of you spend a lot of time on MySpace or another similar site? What are you doing? Mindlessly sitting there WATCHING others have fun. Why not has some fun yourself? Why not interact with the environment that you are a part of? Watching TV and reading about others lives on MySpace is pathetic, not like playing video games, where you are accomplishing a goal and outsmarting an opponent.

So next time you are walking down the hall and you see me or some other person engaged in a rather excited conversation about a video game instead of thinking, “Wow, those guys are lame!” Think: “Wow, those dudes (or ladies) spend their time most wisely.”

Life is Short: Scrapbook your Leg Hairs

I confiscated the strangest item from a student yesterday. A duck-taped, maroon binder filled with page protectors displaying peices of duck tape with names written on them in sharpies on one side, and on the other, ripped off, male leg hair. A whole catalog of the "coolest kids" in school's leg hair. GROSS. There were pages and pages and pages filled with leg hair.

I have almost never been more disgusted in my life. When I asked why in the world he would ever do a disturbing thing like that? "Life is short Ms. E!"

WOW.

The prom queen who is also in that class, has been growing a strip of her leg hair for 4 months to be able to say she was the first girl in the leg-hair-scrapbook. She was just pressing on a peice of duck tape to her legs when I snatched the binder away to dissipate the students.

Where I Work According to Disney!

Okay, so these photos are not as interesting as I thought they would be, but they are filming a Disney Channel Origional Movie on Main Street about a 1/2 mile from where I work! We do have a lovely, quaint Main Street area with narrow, one-way streets, but I promise it doesn't look like this everyday! Apparently this is what small-town America looks like!

The movie is going to be called Hatching Pete and stars several of my students as extras! And the high school drill team and marching band will be in the movie as well. The movie premise is a small town high school mascot does not want his identity to be discovered--it would be the end of his social life!!!!--and eventually his secret rooster-costume-wearing-identity is hatched! Oh, no!

p.s. Now that I look at these photos again, they didn't actually have to doctor up the town too much.... :)

People Outside of Utah

Are not freaky, devilish, and strange--at least not all of them. LOL. A student teacher at my school was talking about how "scared" SCARED she is of the thought of EVER living outside of the state of Utah. SCARED of the people out there. I held my tongue, but wanted to say hey, I grew up outside of Utah, and I am a little scared that you have that opinion of people outisde of this state, and think it is a little close-minded of you to never even desire to live outside of the state. I am not trying to be critical of those of you who want to live in Utah forever, I am just saying--from the point of view of someone who grew up outside of Utah, we are not strange, and I did not feel endangered or weird living in Washington. There are good people everywhere, there are scary people everywhere, and as a high school teacher in the state of Utah, there is sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll here just like everywhere else--.

Utah was an adjustment for me, as it is for a lot of people who move into the state, but I like it, I really do. But it is healthy and wonderful to have the mix of cultures and peoples that you find in other states. I think it is probably likewise very healthy to live in another state at one point in your life, or atleast travel around and see that life outside of Utah is intersting, and wonderful, and there are good, conservative people of other faiths out there, who are not scary, and make nice neighbors.

I am sorry if I offended anyone!

The Hope of America

I have a good friend who every time he talks to me asks me, "How is the hope of American doing today?" meaning my teaching experience and my kids. And today if I responded to that I would have to say, the hope of America is all worn out! If you want to know what teaching is like click on Katie's blog link and read about all of her worries! I share them! :D

I do what I can for my kids, some I help, some I don't, and that is a trick to teaching. Who do you help? I had a kid come to me yesterday with a 69.50% in my class and he is in super-trouble with the law and has to go to court today and bring a transcript of his grades. He needs to have at least a C- or is is in BIG trouble. Now, he comes to class, is not super-smart, but he does come and tries, so I let him make an extra credit project (see above) for 25 points that will roll him up to a 70.15% in my class, and thus a C-. Saved a kid from jail.

Student #2 came to talk to me the other day, and said he has to go to jail if he skips one more class. He skipped one more class--mine. "Please Ms.E, please just don't mark me gone, or I'll be going to jail!" I refused to help him. Not only because that would make me a liar, but because he has only shown up to my class: TWICE. I told him I would never lie to him, but would have been more inclined to be sympathetic, if he had had his bum in one of my seats at least "most" of the time. Jail for him, and has he reformed now that he is out? Well, he has come ONE more time to my class.

I will have to say though, I do have some hope for America when I recieve responses like the following for novels I teach:

"The most important lesson I learned from Huckleberry Finn was it doesn't matter what time you were born in. Or what kind of environment you were raised in. You can still have a good heart and do what's right. Huck had a good heart in a warped society. He treated Jim kindly and helped him escpae to help his family. Huck could have turned him in any time but didn't."

AND one of my students left one of our journalism cameras in another teacher's classroom for two days and it was still there this morning when I retrieved it! Still sitting on the SAME desk, NOT stolen, but YES, full of pictures of people's nostrils. LOL.

Nice. Hope for America.

MY 10 ADDICTIONS

1. Scrapbook Paper

I was buying some scrapbook paper yesterday and realized I am addicted! I then thought about all the things I am legally addicted to. I weaned myself off of shoes and purses, only to focus my attention elsewhere! So, I thought I would let you all know a little more about me by telling you 10 things I am absoultely addicted to!



2. Cafe Rio



3. The Radio




4. The Internet

5. Lipstick


6. Chocholate

7. Novels

8.Cliff Bars

9. The Color Black




10. Work

The L-I-S-T

1. Scrapbook Paper
2. Cafe Rio
3. The Radio
4. The Internet
5. Lipstick
6. Chocholate
7. Novels
8. Cliff Bars
9. The Color Black
10. Work

(going to the gym would be a close-11)

National Good Grammar Day

So it has been brought to my attention that today is National Good Grammar Day, and according to MSN one of the top reasons good grammar is important is because "Good Grammar is Sexy," women will overlook men who have grammatical errors in their personal ads and dating profiles! :D Take or it or leave it; it is National Good Grammar Day.

And in honor of what probably should be every good English teacher's favorite holiday, (even though I have bad grammar in my blogs because it tends to be stream of conciousness), I will tell you all that I solved a long standing family argument a few days ago. One of my students said she constantly argues with her mom as to whether "nuther" is a word. She said her mom will say, "There is nuther basket of laundry for you to fold," and she will tell her mom nuther is not a word, it is another. And her mom will say, "No it's not, you don't say, 'here is "a" another basket of laundry for you to fold!'" And so they argue..... She came to me to settle the arugment: "Ms. Baker, is "nuther" a word?" :D My 11th grader really wasn't sure...esp. since we are reading Huckleberry Finn, and he says "nuther" all the time, which shook her faith in the belief that "nuther" is not a word.

Too funny.

Where I will be in 30 days!!!

In 30 days I am going to be an irresponsible teacher and take a week off before spring break and go to Italy! We will be going to Rome, Florence, Venice, Asisi, and Pisa! I'm sooo excited!

And I give it 4 STARS!

You absolutely have to see this movie! This is seriously the best movie I have seen in a while. It has the perfect blend of fairy tale/reality, modern/Victorian Mod, fun and love/coming of age and hard times. Without being didactic it has a good message about sense of self, and is also very, very romantic!

And this guy is growing on me, the male lead, he is in Narnia and Becoming Jane, but he is definitely cutest in this movie. He does the hesiate-before-kiss moment so well! :D