Listlessness

Is it wrong to want the school year to be over already but still feel like I'm already beginning to miss my students? Well, the good ones, anyways.

I'm just so listless. I don't have energy to do anything except read the Twilight saga (I'm already on Book 3, Eclipse, which I'd better finish rereading soon because I promised I'd lend it to one of my students) and write ficlets. I finally reached another milestone the other day and wrote my 400th ficlet. Freaking insane. My boyfriend gets on my case because I haven't done lickety squat on my thesis, but there's always the summer, I reply.

The scary thing is that I'm going to have to hold myself to that, if I want to graduate anytime before 2008 ends. Which I do! Not just because it will get rid of this heavy albatross strung around my neck, but because I will receive a $3,000.00 increase in my teaching salary.

But in the meantime, I write ficlets and read, read and write ficlets. When the guilt starts to set in, I grade. I've actually gotten a lot of grading done in the past few days. I'm even almost caught up with my AP English Language & Composition classes. Ironically, I'm behind on the grading for my remedial reading students, which is the easiest grading to do. I guess that's why I've put it aside for now.

So I will be glad when June 6th rolls around and the school year is over. It's not that far away. Amazing how fast this school year has flown. How fast the year itself has flown. We are almost in summer. Already I can feel the heat starting to creep in, those humidity-soaked scorching days that Miami does so well. But it will be worth it, because then I'll be able to sleep in and not have to worry about grading anymore, just writing my thesis.

But I am starting to miss my students. I've forged a lot of great connections with many of my students this year. I was blessed to receive a mostly good bunch of kids. I have to remember to take my camera with me to work tomorrow so I can take pictures of them. I know I'll regret it in the future if I don't take advantage of the time I have now.

OK, enough sentimentality for one blog post. I must be PMSing, I'm never this way. Not this bad.

Before I close, one more obligatory Twilight reference: I found a pretty cool website that seems to be the quickest at posting updates about the series and the film and anything relating to both: Twilight Lexicon. I'm still a fan of everglow because it's such a creative and well-run site, but I'm digging this new one, too. Will this Twilight addiction never end?!

Procrastination Nation

It's been a pretty uneventful weekend thus far. On Friday I stayed in, watching bad television (i.e., The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was on TV and I was too lazy to change the channel. OK, it's not that bad, but I know I could've spent those two hours doing something more constructive. Like grading!).

Speaking of grading, I have a literal mound of AP papers to grade. And what have I been doing this weekend? Procrastinating! There was the waste of time that was Friday night, and then yesterday I spent all day at Ricky's house vegging and doing absolutely nothing other than reread Stephenie Meyer's New Moon. It's my second time through the book. I'm rereading the entire Twilight series. Yes, I know I'm crazy. But seriously, it's interesting to read the series a second time, knowing what's happened in the plot. The first time through, I think I read it so fast, wanting to know what happened next, that I didn't really appreciate it. Now I can concentrate on the writing, on the characterization, on my favorite parts. I recognize that the books may not contain absolutely stellar writing, but there are some good parts, especially the scenes between Edward and Bella.

Here's one of my favorite parts:

"Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars -- points of light and reason. . . . And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn't see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for anything." (Meyer, New Moon pg. 514)

I can't wait to reread the third and latest book in the series, Eclipse. But first I should stop ignoring my responsibilities and actually get to work. Sigh....

Before I close, here's my new latest favorite song by Interpol. I think you can only hear a small sample of it if you click on play, but if you go to the website you can hear the whole song. I'm driving Ricky up the wall with my new obsession, Interpol. Heh heh! The website where I found the song has a good selection of songs and you don't have to download them to hear them -- it streams them for you on the website. Go here to learn more.






Later...

I just had to share this most awesome of videos I just saw on YouTube. It's the latest behind-the-scenes special from MTV on the Twilight film. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to everglow for posting it!


Obsess much?!

I am the kind of person who gets easily addicted to things, like chocolate, a particular song (thank GOD for repeat mode), a book, what-have-you. For example, I've recently been on an Interpol kick and for some reason, their song Leif Erikson has just been doing it for me lately. I think I've heard it like 500 times in the past three days. Eventually I'll get sick of it and move on to another song to put on repeat mode, but for right now it's my current favorite. Mind you, the song has nothing at all to do with Leif Erikson, I have no friggin' clue what it's about, actually, but it sounds pretty, all right? If you go to their website, interpolnyc.com, you can read the lyrics for that song and all their songs.

So where was I before I got sidetracked on that crazy Interpol tangent? Ah yes, addiction. So I am someone that gets fixed on something and won't let it go. Recently I began reading the "Twilight Saga" by Stephenie Meyer, which begins with the book Twilight. It's a young adult series that I first learned about from my students. You take notice when both your remedial reading and advanced placement students are reading the same book, so I finally got the first book and read it. At first, I wasn't impressed. A few pages into the book, I thought to myself, She's not such a great writer - I can do better than this! But then somewhere into the middle of the book I found I could not put it down. It was insane. I read that book in less than one day, and then I ran out the next day and bought the second and third books, New Moon and Eclipse. I swear those books must be lined with crack or something, because they're impossible to put down.

I became a "twi-hard" (the unofficial title for fans of the series that is currently being bandied about the internet) pretty late in the game, but a very cool bonus of my late timing is the fact that a movie based on the first book is currently in production. And there are new clips and videos being added daily. In fact, the MTV Blog has labeled Tuesdays "Twilight Tuesdays," and every Tuesday they promise to add new pictures, articles, etc.

There are a couple of websites that are indispensable if you are a fan of the series:
1. Stephenie Meyer's Official Website (Check daily for updates - they're pretty good with them.)
2. Internet Movie Database: Twilight (2008) (Learn more about the cast and production.)
3. Everglow (This "Official Edward and Bella Website" has the best pictures and videos. A must.)

The movie comes out on December 12th and the fourth and supposedly last book in the series, Breaking Dawn, comes out on August 2nd. Once you finish the series and are craving more, I recommend hunting up the outtakes on Stephenie Meyer's website, especially the first chapter of Midnight Sun, which is Twilight but from Edward's point of view instead of Bella's. I swear that I had chills reading it. :-)

OK, you've been warned. Go buy the book and prepare to become addicted!

This is a scene in the movie from the infamous meadow scene, hands down my favorite part of Twilight.

P.S.) I know, I know, I have to write a blog all about my seven magnificent days in Tokyo. This (and the pictures) are forthcoming, I promise!!