"Because I Said So!"

Growing up, instead of hearing, "Because I said so!" We would hear, "Because you are a member of this family, and that is what we do!" If we thought we should get paid for our chores or be reimburshed somehow for anything, we were told what we were doing was our responsibility because we were a member of the family, and that is what we do in our family! This morning I woke up grateful for this philosophy.

My brother needed to move out of his apartment,but his car got hit. I have been carrying around his house in my car for over a week. He helped me move my classroom at school a couple of days ago, and all that loaded down weight + extreme heat = car problems. My car has been overheating, and probably my water pump is broken, not because of helping my brother, but just because my car is fastly becoming an old junker :D. My brother helped me fix my car twice as it broke down, and watched patiently as I bumped my head twice, swore, and then proceeded to cry over my life. What a good brother! And then he decided to delay his trip home a while to drive me home, so I don't die in my car somewhere in Oregon.

Last night we took his car to Les Mis down at the Tuachan Theatre in St. George, and had a super, super good time, the play is amazing! We did the trip in one night so we had to keep each other awake until 3:35 a.m. when we rolled back into Provo, laughing at old family stories, singing to the radio, and chomping on beef jerky. While we were doing this I was reminded that my family has a funny sense of humor, but we always find what anyone in the family says extremely halarious, which I love about my family because I dearly love to laugh.

The point of all this rambling? I love my family. Familes are there when you cry and when you laugh, when your car breaks down, and when you do crazy things together like drive back from St. George at midnight instead of camping out like normal people. I'm glad Heavenly Father put us into families because it is much better to go through the bumps and bruises as well as the good times, together. So I am grateful we stick together becuase "That's what we do in this family!"

The Dreaded Question

I hate being asked, "So what do you like to do?" Seems so canned, and is usually a pre-cursor to being asked out. But somehow when people ask you, "So what do you like to do?" You suddenly feel amazingly uninteresting and cannot think of a single thing you "do." It is like being asked the almost equally lame question, "What's new in your life?" And although your life seems amazingly interesting to you, you cannot think of an interesting thing to share that sounds interesting when you are about to say it. I think it's a mental thing.

Last night at a combined ward party a guy talked to me for about 45 minutes to an hour about life I guess. I had never met him before and he was acting engaged in the conversation, and then we got to point, that point we all know about, when it's time to ask, "So what do you like to do?" And I went blank. You see, I like to do everything! The only thing that I really said no to that was presented to me was rock climbing on a first and blind date, not in a practice quarry type place, but on the side of a mountain. My main, lame reason for not trying it, (not that I told him this) was harnesses make your backside look big, and I obviously didn't know him very well! :) But what do I actually do on a regular basis? I read, and scrapbook and go to the gym, and um yeah, that's what I spend my free time doing. Of course I socialize with friends at dinners and movies and concerts and hiking and those types of things, but yeah. Well, when I said I like to run and read he was like, "No, what do you like to do?" And I smiled lamely and said, I like to do those things, yes by choice, on my spare time. I think it must be time I come up with a new hobby like mountain biking or playing tennis. That's what I will try to work on this summer, something interesting to say to that dreaded question: What do you like to do?

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.