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2002-10-09 - 10:45 p.m. I wanted to post sooner, but I figured I would wait until I was feeling less whiny. So here I am! No whine for you tonight. Actually, things haven't been bad lately. I had to stay really late at work on Friday, but I had crazy hall-decorating kids around to entertain me. I also had a really good birthday weekend (thank you so much, WT, for your birthday wishes!) I was totally spoiled with presents. I got a lot more than I expected, including a really cool present from my father. I think I'm going to go up to visit him sometime soon. Monday and Tuesday I ended up working late. This has been Homecoming week, so it has been a bit crazy. Today was absolutely insane, because aside from the two assemblies, we also had some sort of water heater thing explode in the cafeteria. This resulted in a fire drill when I was with my freshmen class. Then we had to keep the kids inside until they cleared all the water out, so lunch was late. Needless to say, everyone was completely hyped up and crazed. Luckily, tomorrow and the next day are inservice days so it was like a Friday for the kids. I need the break from them. I also hope I will actually be able to get a lot of grading and planning done. We'll see how it goes. The best part of today was the breakthrough I had with my skater boys who hate reading. This weekend I finally managed to look for some skateboarding books. I found three at Borders that looked pretty cool. They have lots of pictures and some information on the history of skateboarding, and how to do various tricks. Well, I wasn't sure how these would go over with the skater boys. I thought they would be interested in them, but they are the kind of boys that are like, "I can't crack a smile because that would be uncool, and I can't act like I like anything because that would not fit with my image." So I just hoped that they would like them, even if they wouldn't act like it. Well, I went up to them after everyone started reading and said, "Oh, I got these books that I think you might like." Skater #2 grabbed the bottom one, and Skater #1 took one and passed the last one to Skater #3. Then they read, really read, all period! I saw them make a few comments to each other, so I took it as a good sign. At the end, they returned the books to me. I asked Skater #1 what he thought. He said it was such a cool book that he wanted it! I asked him if he wanted to borrow it, but he felt that he wouldn't have a chance to read it over the weekend, but he wanted me to save it for him for next week. Skater #2 pronounced his book as, "Pretty good." Later on in the hall, I saw Skater #3 and asked him about his book. He was so enthusiastic about it. He said it was SUCH a cool book! He, too, thought it would be cool to read it again next week. I know it's a small thing, but these are boys who lay their heads down (or pretend to read) during personal choice reading day. I just felt so good seeing them actually ENJOY reading books (and admitting to it!) I was also sort of afraid that I would pick out skateboarding books that were uncool or out of date since I know virtually nothing about the subject, but I guess I did okay. I do have a sidenote to add now that I am on the subject of skateboarding. I have the hugest crush on that guy, Bob Burnquist, who does skateboarding and other extreme sports. I have seen him on a couple of different things, and there is just something so appealing about him to me. I think he's married, which makes him even more aloof and unavailable than the typical skater, but he will be mine anyway. :) It's pretty amazing some of the tragedies that my students have gone through. I don't know how some of them even are functioning. Skater #3, and his sister, who I also have in another class have lost both their parents fairly recently. Their father committed suicide and I think their mother had cancer. Another girl's father in another class also committed suicide. I can't imagine anything more awful. How could you not feel awful about it and not blame yourself for not being important enough to your parents to stick around for? What a selfish and terrible thing to do to a kid. I got the save-the-date thing from Jasmine in the mail. For her wedding that's coming up. Not to feel jealousy and envy, but the girl has everything. Anyway, I had never heard of a save-the-date card before she sent this one. It says that a formal invitation is to follow. I am definitely saving this date, though, because I do not want to miss the extravaganza that this wedding will be. I've talked to her on the phone a few times and she wasn't really mad about Hawaii. She was just teasing I guess. Anyway, I'm starting to finally get over being so mad at her. I just want to forget about the drama of Las Vegas and move on. Speaking of which, she is having one of her bachelorette parties in Las Vegas. I'm seriously considering going, but only if Cassandra goes. I'm not sure that she will go, though. Am I crazy to consider going? I guess part of it is that it's an excuse to go back to Las Vegas. On the negative side, though, we hate Jasmine's snatchy-ass friends. I hate the B word, but these girls definitely qualify. It probably would be a bad idea to go. I can't wait for the wedding, though, and I have no idea what to wear. I'm not sure if I will bring Justin or not. I might just plan on hanging out with Cassandra the whole time. I've been reading Animal Farm, which we bought as a novel and hope to teach to the freshmen. It's an interesting story. I'm not sure how it will go over with the kids, but at least it's entertaining enough that I've been reading it for the last three nights without getting bored. I was doing that with Oliver Twist for awhile, but I finally got tired of it. I kept falling asleep. I actually really like Dickens, but the man just does not say anything succinctly. On a final note, this is why I love atatons so much: "I've never really understood the appeal of eternal marriage. For my version of heaven, which involves several shirtless Latin studs arguing over who gets to massage my feet, it is absolutely essential that I am single in the afterlife." I'm with you, homie. But I'd replace the shirtless Latin studs with this wishlist: Shaggy, Morris Chestnut, Larenz Tate, Justin Timberlake, Jude Law, Tyson, Ryan Philippe, that guy who played Tristan on Gilmore Girls and Mark Wahlberg.
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