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2002-01-12 - 11:15 p.m. It's Saturday night and I'm home alone, but I'm not sad about it. I went to Justin's last night and he made me dinner and this morning he made me breakfast. He had some sort of "making up" to do for me because of something that happened before, so he has been super nice lately. He discovered this gravy mix that is exactly like the gravy you get when you go out to breakfast and get biscuits and gravy. Only better. If that's possible. So he and his brother are always making biscuits and gravy and it's the best thing in the world. For dinner he made me this Korean curry type dish that his mom makes. His mom is Korean, if I never mentioned that. Anyway, I like being cooked for! It is very sweet and romantic. Last night I also had a good night because I got my present from Cassandra in the mail. Unlike my selfish and mean reaction to Jasmine's present, I loved it! (Sidenote: Jasmine sent the same present to Cassandra except instead of the Christmas napkins, Cassandra got one solitary Eskimo dish towel. So I guess that I was the winner out of that whole deal. I think perhaps Jasmine was trying to save money on presents this year, that is the only explanation I can come up with for this randomness.) Cassandra sent me the Ja Rule CD I have been wanting, a copy of her Elliott Smith CD, Figure 8 and crazy/beautiful. I had a feeling she might give me that movie because of our shared love of it, and we saw it together. My mom gave it to me, too, but I didn't tell Cassandra that. I figured I could try to take it back, and it was the perfect, most thoughtful gift. I looooooove the Elliott Smith CD. He is from Portland, if you didn't know, and I think he may be my latest obsession. It is a really great CD. So anyway, I took the crazy/beautiful DVD with me along with a VHS of Almost Famous my mom had picked up for me at Hollywood Video (I already had that too). I called Borders, the best bookstore in the world, and they said even if I didn't get it there they will take it back as long as it is wrapped! That just made my day. I love good customer service like that. It was a credit of $25.00 and they had a really good DVD selection there. I ended up getting TWO DVDs for only $9.99 and $11.99. I got Dirty Dancing and Man in the Moon. Man in the Moon is Reese Witherspoon's first movie, if you haven't seen it it is a must-see. You will really like it. Do not confuse it with that Jim Carey movie by the same or similar title. You will not really like that one (or maybe you will, if you like Jim Carey and have any idea who Andy Kaufman is, I didn't). I gave Justin the three dollar credit because he found some Michael Jordan DVD that he had to have, despite having no money or job. He is obsessed with DVDs now that he has the DVD player. Oh, I also got some movie with Kirsten Dunst at Hollywood Video called Get Over It. I have a feeling it will be bad (the fact that Sisquo is on the cover gives me that clue), but I enjoy teen movies and I love Kirsten Dunst so we'll see. There wasn't a very good pre-viewed selection at Hollywood Video. All the good ones I already bought because they had some 4 for $20 deal before. So Justin and I watched Man on the Moon and he liked it. I always forget about the fact that Justin is one of those people who talks throughout the entire movie. I don't know how I forget it, but then we start watching and I realize once again how annoying of a movie-watcher he is!!!! I am a person who wants absolute silence during the movie so I can get involved. This is especially true if I have seen the movie and want him to pay attention during crucial parts, and I want to be able to savor them since I know what is going to happen. He seems to talk even more if I have seen it because he likes to guess what will happen and then look at my face and see if he was right. It drives me crazy but it is somewhat endearing when you think about it afterwards. During the movie is is completely annoying. I have to yell repeatedly, "DO NOT PREDICT!" Somehow his brother, Jason, has become completely immune to it, and seems to not hear at all. I really hate when someone predicts during the movie and then you think that they are going to be right so you anticipate that happening. I hate that. Anyway, rent Man in the Moon, you will not regret it. Reese Witherspoon is probably my favorite actress. Well the other good news is that I came home today and went straight to school (unheard of on a Saturday). I did all of the senior grading on Thursday to give them grade printouts Friday, so all I had left to do was two classes of sophomores (I gave one class their printouts on Wednesday, easy to do because it is first period and they never turn in any work!). I finished all my plans for Monday, plus graded all the sophomore work! I was there about four hours but I got done, and I realized I had the rest of my weekend free. No waking up tomorrow to the dreaded Sunday, hoping I can fall back asleep to avoid the inevitable trip to school to grade. I feel a big weight off of my shoulders right now. So I spent my time after that doing whatever I wanted without feeling guilty. I went to Wal-Mart and got some picture frames and a new photo album and put some in there. I also got a pizza from Papa Murphy's and ate some of it (bad, I know). I then played around on the computer. It is so nice being able to do that without feeling guilty about work. Hopefully I can keep up better now with my new plan of grading and now that I'm finally caught up. We'll see. Oh, and the final stroke of good luck is I checked back on the website and they finally have the cheap version back in stock of the exercise thing I want, so I ordered it. I have some money saved up from my retro-active raise (all I spent of it was for Justin's present) so I am going to use that to pay for it. I still have a lot left after that, too, that I am saving for Florida this summer. I am so excited, it is supposed to come on January 24th. I am going to get in shape! I hope it really works. Speaking of which, does anyone remember a long time ago some exercise toys that came out for girls called "Get in shape girl"? That just popped into my head. I think they had various things you could use to get into shape but I was probably seven or something at the time. I just think that is a very strange idea for a toy. Oh, another person was mentioned some wacky teaching dreams, so I thought I would share mine. I have had two weird ones the past few days about my kids, both focusing on seventh period. The first one was that we had a new kid in seventh period. His name was Hector Alesandro. He was sort of nerdy looking with glasses. Anyway, I turned my back to the class for a minute, then the next thing I knew I turned around and saw one of my students (he is the one who reminds me of one of the eighth grade kids I had, one of the little bad ones that I love) fighting with him! I yelled at him to stop and the rest of the class thought it was extremely funny and was cracking up. I got so upset that I started crying. What an awful dream since, of course, a teacher's worst nightmare would be to cry in front of the class. I told seventh period about it the next day and they thought it was hilarious that I dreamed about them. The second dream I didn't share. This one kid in there is this skater kid that's angry at the world. He was one that got kicked out last year. I have wanted to win him over all year, but it hasn't happened yet. In my dream he told me that Rachel was tutoring him but wasn't as smart as me and so he was hoping I could tutor him. Sad that it wasn't true. It's not that I haven't won him over, exactly, but I haven't gotten him really into anything this year. I have shared a few moments where we both laugh together at something, so that is always a plus. My other young angry skater (the one that is actually writing good poems and I have been trying to get involved in that more) and I shared a private joke on Friday too, so I was happy about that. Of course, I did have to kick him out of class again the other day...oh well. My mom said she heard the kids get better and settle down after they get back from Christmas break but all my kids have been wired. I was thankful to realize that this was true for other teachers (even veteran teachers) at my school as well, because the Spanish teacher brought it up in one of our meetings--he said that he was having the hardest time getting the kids to pay attention. Others agreed. Phew, not just me. The seniors finished Macbeth on Friday, finally. I told them about the project (and showed them a wide variety of samples from last year's kids). I heard not one complaint and they actually seemed excited about it (I even heard comments like, "This is going to be fun"!!!!!) The kids enjoyed it last year, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but it was nice seeing them get excited about it. Basically they are making a children's book version of the story. They can use collage, or drawing, or their computers. So we'll see how it goes. I'm just so glad to be done with the stupid play. Now that I've taught it twice I have a better idea of how to do it next year to really make it good, but it still wasn't great this year. We are two weeks from the semester being over. I will be glad to get a new start. I'm not sure that I'll be making any major changes (I will still have the same kids), but knowing that you are halfway there makes things feel good. Oh, one of my seniors is engaged! She has this older boyfriend (23) who fishes, and before he left he asked her. I can't believe one of my STUDENTS is now engaged before me. She does seem very mature for her age, but still. I am not too down with getting married young, but I guess it might work for some. I get to hear all about how he proposed when I collect journals next week. The whole class wanted her to tell us but she got embarrassed and said that she would write it in her journal and that it was personal (so ha ha, I get to read it). I'd better get off my legs are starting to feel all cramped up.
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