An update. And stuff.

So last Saturday we celebrated the boyf's birthday with some friends. His birthday was actually the previous weekend, but since he shares the same b-day as his mom, plus some of his friends were out of town that weekend, we chose to celebrate again on the following weekend. Because we like celebrating, clearly.

We didn't do anything out of this world, just went to this restaurant in Pembroke Pines called The Pub. It's done in the style of a traditional English pub, everything from the decorations to the menu. We were a group of maybe 8 or 10, so they sat us at their largest table. This table doesn't have chairs at the head, it has thrones. I kid you not. Here's the boyf sitting kingly on his throne:

It's good to be king. (I ♥ my boyf!)

Isn't the decor cute? I love the checker-board print on the back of the chairs. So yeah, I like that place. We had fun. It was nice to get together with some of our friends who live all the way up in West Palm Beach and whom we rarely see. Here's a picture that (I think) the boyf took of all of us. My friend Tony and I just randomly decided to pose like that, but I think it came out pretty cool:


And in this next picture, it's Tony's lovely wife Sheri and me. Please ignore the horrible shine on my face. It was very humid!


There are a few more pictures on my Facebook, if you've added me there. Look for the most recent album.

So that was Saturday. Sunday, I hung out with the boyf and spent a lot of the day reading. My department head lent me this book by Ian McEwan called The Comfort of Strangers. It's about this British couple who travel to Italy and meet a enigmatic (read: creepy) Italian man who insists on shepherding them around Venice. I won't say much else because I don't want to ruin it, but it is one of the most disturbing books I've ever read. McEwan is no doubt a brilliant writer -- I loved Atonement. But so much of his writing hinges on one pivotal moment that changes EVERYTHING in the narrative, and it just so happens that that moment in The Comfort of Strangers is so haunting that it takes a truly unique mind to come up with something like that. I wound up reading it in one day because I simply had to know what happened next. And the story has stayed with me all week, dogging my thoughts.

In case I haven't turned you off the book completely, and if you're still curious to read it, you can preview the first few pages of the book here. My department head lent me another McEwan book today, Black Dogs. I'll let you know how that is.

But I'm not going to read it just yet. First things first -- to the movies! I want to see "Up" tonight, and I know tomorrow the boyf is going to want to drag me to see "Drag Me to Hell." Blech. I don't like scary movies. I may have to employ the use of a blindfold. You know, to ward off the intensely scary parts.

On Sunday I'm going to a co-worker's baby shower at Macaroni Grill. Yum. So yeah, it's a busy weekend. But I'll live. And the best thing is that there are only four days left of school! And the worst thing is there are only four days left with my students ... some of whom probably won't even show all next week. I will miss this year's batch of kidlets. (Sniff, sniff.)

But I won't miss Mount Everest. It has been demolished! I have absolutely no grading to do this weekend, which has me feeling a bit out of sorts. I keep looking out of the corner of my eye to see if the pile of unchecked papers is still there, and I can't help but feel shocked every time I see that it's gone.

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Lolcat of the Week

funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Yay, so happy this is a long weekend. Only one more Monday left of waking up at an ungodly hour. Only two more weeks left with this year's students. I am both happy and sad. Happy for the time off I will be enjoying and sad that I will be missing my kids.

Every time my students ask me if I have kids and marvel that I don't, I respond: "1.) I'm not married, so no kids yet. And 2.) You guys are my kids." :-D

Thank goodness my end-of-year evaluation with my supervising assistant principal went well last Tuesday. He gave me high marks in teacher-student rapport and communication. So yay! I am guaranteed employment next year, thanks to both my good evaluation plus my finally receiving certification from Florida. After much trials and tribulations, I am now a professionally certified teacher.

Have a great Monday everyone!

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"See Me After Class" -- A Must Buy for Teachers!

One of my friends and co-workers, Roxanna Elden, recently wrote her first book, See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers. Roxanna is a Creative Writing teacher who has taught everywhere from Chicago to Miami and everyone from elementary school kiddies to adults. In addition to teaching and writing creatively, Roxanna is also a talented stand-up comedian, drawing upon much of her experiences in the classroom for her material.

She currently teaches at Happy High School (the name has been changed to protect both the innocent and the guilty) with me and is quite popular among the rugrats. I'm happy to see her gain recognition outside of the classroom as well!

This book is a must buy for teachers, new and veteran alike, because it has advice from actual teachers. No one knows our job better than us, so why are you going to trust the advice of someone other than a person who's actually stood behind the podium on the first day of school and felt what that kind of pressure is like?

I'm excited that Roxy is going to be having a Book Signing event at the Books & Books in Coral Gables in a couple weeks, and I can't wait to read her book. Yay, I have a friend who's famous. :-D

Roxy's book hits bookstores on June 2nd. In the meantime, you can check out her website to learn more about the book and about upcoming events in your area. I wrote a news article about her book here.



Do you have any teachers you still remember to this day? Share your memories in the comments!

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Under Pressure

Song for the week: "Under Pressure" by Queen & David Bowie


I was a ball of nervous tension last weekend. For one, it was both the boyf's AND his mom's birthday on Sunday. Yes, on the same day. So I had to worry about buying gifts and pleasing two VIPs on the very same day. Can you say, tension? Yeah, I think you can.

Then one of the boyf's friends-who-shall-not-be-named up and forgot about the boyf's birthday. Didn't even call. Now, this is a friend who has known the boyf for years. Longer than me, even. I had to bite my tongue while my boyf moped around the house all week, longing to ream out the friend-who-shall-not-be-named for forgetting. Of course, my noble, goodhearted boyf wouldn't hear of it. I was tempted to ream the guy out anyways, but I restrained myself.

Grr.

On top of all that tension, I was scheduled to meet with my supervising assistant principal this past Tuesday for my end-of-year evaluation. Since some teachers have been getting what schools nowadays like to call "surplussed" (read: sacked), and since I know my department, English, is over-staffed, I was quite worried. Especially since I hadn't yet heard from Florida whether they approved my certification or not.

My meeting was set for Tuesday. Monday afternoon, I came home from work to a very welcome surprise in the mail: my professional educator's certificate! :D

There is a God and He is good. Now if only He could speak with our superintendent about giving us hard-working teachers a raise...

The rest of the week has been good, too. I wrote my first "hit" article for Examiner.com, after publishing many pieces that didn't get so much as one comment. Naturally, it was on Twilight. "New Moon," to be precise. I wrote an article discussing the release of a new poster for the sequel, which comes out in November. Before I posted the article, my earnings from Examiner were almost $10.00. This for about 12-15 articles (!). Sad.

After I posted the article on "New Moon," my hits multiplied like randy rabbits. I'm now at almost $50.00. Will I be writing more Twilight-related articles in the future? Oh, I think so.

In other vampire-related news, I read the latest installment in the Sookie Stackhouse series, Dead and Gone. This is the series that the show "True Blood" is based upon, and it is like Twilight -- except it has real bite. And a sense of humor. Oh, let's not forget the (cover your eyes, kids!) sex.

Here I was reading under the assumption that this was the last book in the series. No, I don't know where I got that assumption. I just did. And then the ending of course had to be one of those cliff-hanger endings that leaves you flipping the last page back and forth all confused, hoping against hope there's still another page left, an epilogue, something, anything to fill the aching void of plot-strings left hanging.

Damn you, Charlaine Harris. But I forgive you for creating the scrumptious character Eric.

So what are all you wonderful folks doing this long weekend? I'm going to be staying at the boyf's beach apartment with some friends of ours. Hope your weekend is fun and safe wherever you go! :D

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Everything in the right place. [short story]

Stories sometimes fly into my mind like stray birds, their wings leaving random feathers behind. This is one of those feathers:


"Everything in the right place."

Lydia walked up the stairs with a weary tread, a sheaf of dark hair covering her face like a raven’s wing. She littered raindrops as she moved, her heels leaving dark prints on the carpeted steps. “Brian?” she called out as she reached the second landing. "Are you here?" Her voice echoed back in the cavernous silence, the sound of it mocking to her ears.

She stepped out of her shoes and left them by the stairs. This was uncharacteristic of her; she was usually the one to straighten frames, to pick up Brian’s dirty socks and make sure everything was in the right place. But lately Lydia had been feeling decidedly un-Lydia-like.

A bolt of lightning lit up the room before it plunged her back into the half-light. Lydia went flipping on lights methodically from room to room. She had the habit of turning on every light when she was home alone. She was aware that it gave her a false sense of comfort, but it was comfort all the same.

Lydia shrugged out of her raincoat as she walked into the kitchen, thinking some coffee would ease the cold ache in her bones, and then she noticed the answering machine was blinking. She rushed towards it, the coffee forgotten, leaving the raincoat draped over a chair and pooling water on its seat. She didn't notice, she only had eyes for the flashing red semaphore of her answering machine. She pressed play and stood breathless by the machine, her wide eyes unblinking.

First there was a crackle of static and then a voice. “Lydia? It’s your mother…”

Disappointment crashed over her like a wave. She sank into a chair. There was another brilliant blaze of lightning followed by the afterthought of thunder. And then the electricity went out.

Lydia sat there in the dark for maybe an hour, maybe more. Finally understanding for the first time, seeing what she’d been too blind to see before.

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Lolcat of the Week

We are nearing summer, that wonderful time of vacation and ice cream. I remember being a kid, chasing the ice cream van down the street ... oh wait, that was last week. ;)


Have a great week! :D

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I protagonize, therefore I am.

One of my most favorite sites, Protagonize.com, is currently up for an award at the LPV7. The category? Startup Most Likely to Succeed.

Personally, I feel this site already has succeeded -- in the six or so months I have been a member of this creative/collaborative writing site, many (and I mean many) new members have joined, plus the founder and one-man-band for the site, Nick Bouton, has recently added a slew of new features that make the site easier to manage plus more aesthetically pleasing, too.

One of the new features is a team of moderators to help Nick manage the 6,000+ authors. I applied, hoping I'd get picked but not really expecting much because I hadn't even been a member of the site for a year. Well, I was picked! :)

I'm excited to do my part to help the site grow because it truly is a wonderful community. It started out as a sort of life raft for me, a source of relief after the creative writing site Ficlets.com went defunct. It surprised me how well I took to the new site, despite the fact that its features were quite different from Ficlets. And that's a testament to how user-friendly Protagonize.com is and how much Nick deserves this award.

If you're a writer who is looking to receive some outside critique, or if you just want to flex your creative muscle, I recommend signing up on Protagonize.com. Please check out Nick's video below and vote his site as the Startup Most Likely to Succeed!



Want to become a member of Protagonize? Go here!
Check out my posts on Protagonize.

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These are a few of my (current) favorite things...

St. Vincent
I first heard about this singer on Pitchfork, this most awesome website for music aficionados. The first song I heard was "Save Me From What I Want." And that was the song that made me want to buy the whole CD. I was not disappointed. She is a mix between P.J. Harvey and Bjork. Her lyrics are amaaaazing: "I'm a wife in water colors/ I can wash away." That's from the same song. And here is the audio so you can fall in love, too:


If you like what you heard and you want to hear more, you can do so here.



Dungeons & Dragons
(on Facebook)
Confession: I never understood what the D & D rage was all about, and I never got to play it in high school. Then Facebook added the game app and my bloggy friend April sang its praises. So I decided to give it a try ... and cannot stop playing it. I am currently a Level 3 Half-Elf Cleric named "Anawen" (snicker, snicker) and having a ball. Come play with me!



The Joys of Love
I first heard about this book on QPB (Quality Paperback Books). I've never actually read Madeleine L'Engle's books, not even A Wrinkle in Time, but something about the book's description drew me in:
During the summer of 1946, twenty-year-old Elizabeth is doing what she has dreamed of since she was a little girl: working in the theatre. Elizabeth is passionate about her work and determined to learn all she can at the summer theatre company on the sea where she is an apprentice actress. She’s never felt so alive. And soon she finds another passion: Kurt Canitz, the dashing young director of the company, and the first man Elizabeth’s ever kissed who has really meant something to her. Then Elizabeth’s perfect summer is profoundly shaken when Kurt turns out not to be the kind of man she thought he was.

Moving and romantic, this coming-of-age story was written during the 1940s. As revealed in an introduction by the author’s granddaughter Léna Roy, the protagonist Elizabeth is close to an autobiographical portrait of L’Engle herself as a young woman—“vibrant, vulnerable, and yearning for love and all that life has to offer.”

I began reading it on Sunday night, finishing it at around 2 AM. I literally could not put the book down, despite the fact that I had to get up at 6 AM the next (same?!) day. It is vibrant and poignant and thrums with the immediacy of first love. Add this to your "To Read" list!

For more information, visit Madeleine L'Engle's website.



Star Trek
So I went to see "Star Trek" with le boyf on Saturday night. He's a bit of a trekkie and I have watched an episode or two from the 1960's show with him and enjoyed it, albeit in passing. But I wasn't expecting much out of the film. I was also worried I might not understand it too well, not having the background and all. But about twenty minutes into the film, I knew I was going to love it. And I wasn't wrong. Not only do the actors look like their counterparts, but they did a bang-up job acting out the roles, too. Chris Pine was great as Kirk, with just enough hamminess to underscore the performance (he wasn't hard on the eyes, either!). But IMHO, the stand-out performance belongs to Zachary Quinto, who played the young Spock.

It wasn't so much that he was able to do the quintessentially Spock eyebrow-lift (which he was), or that his voice matched the perfectly monotone delivery of Leonard Nimoy (which it did). What made Quinto's performance amazing was his ability to portray the all-too human feelings brimming under the surface of a seemingly imperturbable Vulcan exterior. A truly great performance! Go see it -- it doesn't matter if you've never seen an episode from the old shows. If anything, it will make you want to see the old shows, like I want to do now!

Here's a trailer to tempt you:




Wow, Dungeons and Dragons and Star Trek?! If I don't watch out, I'm going to start wearing a pocket protector ... ;-D What are some of your favorite things this month? Let me know in the comments!

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Lolcat of the Week (The Myth Busters Edition)

So this week's lolcat is um ... not a cat, per se. But he is lolarious!


Recognize him from anywhere? Like, from maybe this show?


I confess I love that show and will happily watch marathons of it, before the boyf has to pry the remote control from my clenched fist. And I'd got to admit. That walrus kinda does look like Jamie Hyneman.


Pretty much uncanny, actually...


Have a great week, everyone! :-D


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Do you remember your first love?

[Names have been changed to protect the innocent! As well as the guilty...]

Do you remember your first love?

I do.

I don't remember the exact age I was when I started having feelings for him in "that way," but I must have been about eleven. His name was Rafael Perez. He lived on the block behind mine, in the neighborhood I moved into when I was eight. He went to the same Catholic private school I went to, Immaculate Conception Elementary. He was in a grade above mine. He had brown hair, crinkly brown eyes. I remember his voice sounded like sandpaper would, if sandpaper had a voice. It was that rough and scratchy on the ears.

I used to love his voice. I remember I would call just to hear his barely baritone "Hello?" then I would hang up, stifling my breathless giggles. (Ah, those halcyon days before Caller ID...)

Raphael, or Ralphy, as he liked to be called, was rough around the edges himself, too. A rebel without a cause with braces and a light spattering of freckles across his nose that mesmerized me. He was on the baseball team and always had at least a dozen girls chasing him. He used to change girlfriends like he changed shirts. One for another, without a thought for anything except his own convenience.

Despite this, I still dreamed I had a chance with him. I remember the pattern to my sleepless nights. I used to switch on my Walkman and play "World in My Eyes" by Depeche Mode with my eyes closed, imagining the perfect scenario: me confessing my feelings to Ralphy, he of course reciprocating.

I invented different versions of our first kiss before it even happened. How he would duck his head carefully, tenderly. How he would cup my face in his hands. I wondered if he would close his eyes. If I would close my eyes.

I prayed and prayed for it to happen. Most of the time though he acted as though I was his annoying little sister. He'd ruffle my hair and I'd secretly thrill at the touch, then bristle when he'd playfully insult me or challenge me to an arm wrestling match. The only time he gave me hope that he might reciprocate my feelings was one summer, the summer that the song "Unchained Melody" had its great resurgence. I don't remember the year -- it must have been the early to mid-1990's.

One sultry summer afternoon, perhaps in July, perhaps in August, I heard a sandpapery voice outside my bedroom window. I looked outside and saw Ralphy riding his bicycle in the middle of the street in front of my house. He was alone, and he was singing "Unchained Melody" at the top of his lungs.

Oh, my love
my darling
I've hungered for your touch
a long lonely time
and time goes by so slowly
and time can do so much
are you still mine ... ?


I still get butterflies, remembering that afternoon. How his voice resembled more a cat being skinned alive than the Righteous Brothers. How fast my pulse raced, threatening to jump clean out of my veins.

"It doesn't mean anything," I told my mom, voice shaky, when she came into my room to laugh with me at his antics. "Oh, it means something," she replied, smiling.

Unfortunately for my eleven-year-old self, nothing ever happened. Ralphy was not fated to be my first kiss. Despite the fact that we wound up going to the same Catholic private high school, too, we moved in different social circles. I joined the Drama Club and the Debate Club. I got good grades. He didn't. He hung out with the bad kids and got a girl pregnant right after he graduated, marrying young.

My family moved out of that neighborhood my senior year of high school. By that time, I had developed other crushes, and even had my first kiss. I graduated from high school and went to college and there I met my first serious boyfriend, the only serious boyfriend I've ever had. Yes, the boyf.

Nine years of happily committed bliss later, and I realize now that the feelings I had for Ralphy all those sticky-sweet summers ago were as evanescent as the morning dew. Fleeting as rain in August and sugar-sweet as cotton candy, but ultimately insubstantial. What I knew about love back then could have fit inside of the eye of a needle.

But the memory of that sultry summer afternoon is still clear today as a newly developed photograph even after all these years.

Oh, my love
my darling ...

I still remember my first love.


~


[Here is the poem I wrote today that inspired this post.]




Of a boy and a girl
How do I tell the story
Of a boy and a girl falling in love
Without describing the scent of rain:
Its pungent, dog-heavy smell
Making her nose crinkle,
Making him laugh at her.
Their steps both impulsive and hesitant
On this long walk home from school.


Unraveling the mysteries of You and Me:
The separate selves
The secret selves.
Hiding behind a smile transparent as clouds
Her eyes watch his watching hers
And she notices for the first time glints of gold
Stark against the black of his irises
Before she ducks her head,
Overpowered by a sudden shyness
That paralyzes as much as it thrills.


What is it about first love that makes one feel
God-like
Omnipotent
As if you have not only discovered Love for the first time
But have, in fact, created it.
Molding his firm chin out of the suppliant clay
Her hands whisper-light on his face
Shaping the cupid's bow of her mouth
His mouth heavy as a painter's brush.

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This made me laugh. Hard. (Warning: NSFW!)

So the boyf and I were hanging out with some of our friends in West Palm Beach a couple of months ago when one of my fellow teacher buddies decides to show me this video on YouTube called "Shoes." All she said was that it was funny and that she couldn't get the song out of her head. I said, OK, fire it up. So she did.

And I'm still laughing almost two months later. :-D

"Shoes" is a skit created by this comedian, Liam Kyle Sullivan, who is a one-man show all to himself pretty much. He's friggin' hilarious. Fair warning: these videos are not safe for work (or small children!), so watch at your own peril. I've posted my two favorites of his skits below, with links to more of his stuff after the cut. Enjoy and let me know how you like them.

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Lolcat of the Week

Oh my stars, that is one funny Lolcat. And whatever happened to Riverdance? I remember when I couldn't turn on the TV without seeing at least five commercials for the DVD. I guess it came and went, like all fads... but not for this kitty, apparently . ;)

Have a great week!

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Where do Sundays go?


Well, there are just 5 weeks left of school now. I am both happy and sad about this. Happy, because, well, duh -- I need the time off! ;-D Sad, because I really like my students this year. I mean, I lucked out on the Student Lottery *big-time* this school year. Normally I have at least one student I (almost) want to strangulate. This year, I love every single one of them. No lie.

But I still want these 5 weeks to be over and done with!

I am planned as far as lessons go until June 4th, the last day of class, but I still have Mount Everest to grade. I really want to finish grading my AP students' practice tests so they can know their projected score. Their AP English Language test is on May 13th (eep!). I hope they're ready. I think they are, and I've done everything in my power to get them ready, but I still worry for them. We shall see...

Well, Sunday came and went pretty much. Where does the time go on Sundays? Seriously. At least I had a fun weekend. On Friday I went with a friend to this all girls' event, Shecky's. It's a sort of shopping event that equals heaven. Normally I go hog-wild buying jewelry and purses and stuff, but I was good this year and left with only a leather bracelet. Pictures are forthcoming.

Saturday I started watching a new anime with Ricky, "Gurren Lagann." It's awesome! I also played PixelJunk Monsters in between grading and napping. :p

Today I will finish grading and maybe play another round of PixelJunk. Maybe.

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Happiness is...


What is happiness? What does happiness mean to you? I was perusing Lolcats this morning, choosing my "Lolcat of the Week" for next week (little secret -- I always choose the Lolcats early and just change the post-date to the upcoming Monday :p), when I came across the kitty above. It got me thinking. (And mind you, that's not common of most Lolcats; they tend to get me laughing!).

I thought about what happiness is.

I thought about what happiness means to me, personally.

I realized something -- I am happiest not in a crowd of people (in fact, most crowds freak me out = claustrophobia!); I am happiest with a few friends or with my dearest one.

I am happy when I am calm, when I can breathe easy and deep.

I am happy when I am reading because it is like a temporary escape.

I am happy when I am writing because it, too, is a form of escape, as well as a wonderful release.

I am happy when I am teaching because I like speaking about reading and writing, and teaching these skills to future generations.

I am happiest when I am myself, when I can let my hair down and just be.

Now I want to know what happiness means toYOU, my lovely readers. So drop me a line or two in the comments and tell me what happiness means to you!


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