Lord of the Dance

Anyone else see the similarities?





Speaking of, these guys do a pretty darn good job too.

Book Reviews

Teaching really squelches your blogging life. I used to write witty (at least in my humble opinion) posts quite frequently. But now my life revolves around my students and for obvious reasons I can't go mentioning specific details about them on the internet. Therefore, almost any funny, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy story I could share...well, I can't.

But I do want to honor the four of you who remain faithful readers (or at least faithful checkers for updates). And since I've talked about this book with at least 3 of you, I figured I might as well post something.

A Prayer for Owen Meany. Or "How John Irving thinks you should view New Hampshire Protestants." Or "How to tie in constant symbols of sexuality, religion, and armlessness/amputation. The first half of the book was awful. It started to be less hodge-podge and a more coherent narrative and ended up with some pretty good redeeming qualities. Enough to justify the constant and explicit reoccurrence of the above mentioned intertwined themes? Doubtful.

The icing on the cake was reading A Brave New World directly after Owen Meany. I get the whole "sex sells" idea. But why does it need to be the driving force of books when it's clearly a forced focus? I don't think I'll ever understand it as long as I teach English.

Okay, enough book ranting; I've gotta get up for new teacher training tomorrow morning. Thanks faithful readers!

I <3 Mass

I have spent all of my life bashing Massachusetts. It has been an amusing and easy game, but now that I am a resident of the state, I find it to be a bit dangerous. Plus, I think my fiancé is becoming pretty offended.

So I decided to set out on a quest of sorts. What is it about Massachusetts that, despite its many flaws (and I will never deny that it has them), makes this state desirable to live in? It is, after all, the most populated of the six New England states. Here is what I’ve found:

MA is the site of the first European colonists. I’ll look over the fact that that subsequently means it’s also the first place we killed and/or mistreated Indians and instead commend the Puritans, however naïve their work ethic ideas were, for their bravery in battling New England winters without heating.

I’m all for a good old fashion overthrow of the establishment, and MA seems to have mastered that during the Revolutionary War. A couple more tea bag throwing parties and we may just see our dream of a Dunkin Donuts on every street corner, guys!

We are one of four states that remains officially a “Commonwealth.” It doesn’t really mean anything, but more or less allows us to brag at state conventions. Or just pretend that we’re really special.

It is the home of both Boston (the coolest large city in the country) and Cape Cod. Therefore, I can truly embrace my love of Red Sox, the Charles, fresh haddock, my now privy information about the location of the Cape Cod tunnel and anything else cool about either the city or the Cape.

I live in probably the only state where half of it is commuting suburbs to just one of the cities. Rhode Island might fall under that category, but I think it’s too small to count.

We’re the only state ambitious enough (crazy enough) to spend $14.6 billion and 21 years to dig tunnels. (That’s the Big Dig to those of you not from around here).

It is quite the literary Mecca, and the following authors have called it home: Anne Hutchinson, Louisa May Alcott, Emily Dickinson, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Elizabeth Bishop, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, John Greenleaf Whittier, Edith Wharton, Nathanial Hawthorne Jack Kerouac, Sylvia Plath, E.E. Cummings, Dr. Seuss and many more.

MA has a noble history in education. We were the first state to require schooling and boast the first public school system, college, and public library. Currently there are over 100 colleges and universities in the state. Worcester has 10 and there are over 40 in Boston.

Okay, so I won’t be able to help myself from making jabs at my new home. I mean, who can resist with a state whose unofficial motto is “Our taxes are lower than Sweden’s and our Senators are more corrupt.”? I’ll always be a Live Free or Die New Hampshirite, but I suppose the home of the Red Sox is a pretty good place for me to call home as well. For now, at least…

If you give a moose a muffin...

I saw a moose yesterday! After 25 years of living in an area of the country known for its abundance of moose, I have finally seen one. I can die happy now. Actually, it wasn't even that interesting a creature. Jay and I were walking in a state park and it was just sitting there in the woods. It didn't look at us or get up and run away, even after a dog started barking at it. I guess they're mostly like cool looking cows. In any case, it was still wicked awesome.

Moose = best birthday present ever

Cool Runnings

Monday is Patriot's Day in Massachusetts. That's right, my soon-to-be new home has its own special holiday to remind you that yes, they are way more patriotic than you will ever be.

Along with general pompousness, it is also the official day for the Boston Marathon. The forecast is calling for a nor'easter* to hit from Sunday night until Tuesday. This should make for a dangerously comical competition.


*For my non-New England readers, a nor'easter is basically a New England snow version of a hurricane.

What is this world coming to?!

Argh! Is it a wonder our country is picked on? How can we argue when this is what our TVs show as entertainment masterpieces?! Yes, it's #12 in the series, in case you were wondering. Shameful, just shameful...

Life Update

Sorry I haven't updated much lately. I really would love to invest in interesting commentaries and witty posts. Here's what I've been up to instead...

Teaching consumes on average 60 hours of my time per week.

My latest Penn State class is really interesting, but you guessed it, also time consuming. We're supposed to be spending a minimum of 15 hours/week logged on to the class.

I'm studying like mad for the MTELs, which I take March 3. They are, by far, the stupidest tests ever. I could take the GRE 5 times over and it still wouldn't be as hard as the English MTEL. MA is pure evil.

I'm still selling jewelry for Premier, which is fun, and pays for grad school (a nice bonus).

Putting in extra time at the gym trying to get my butt into shape for both Renee' s wedding and my own. Still a long way to go on that one...

Jay and I are trying to coordinate our schedules to check out wedding reception sites. Apparently, 16 months is not enough advanced notice to have your pick of whatever date you want at most places. Despite this setback, it's still fun to finally start planning.

Somewhere in there I mangage to have a small social life. And sorry blogger friends, but that has taken priority to my website's vibrant life.

PC has gone too far...

I'm all for wishing people other season's greetings in addition to Merry Christmas, but there comes a point when we have taken things too far, all in the name of political correctness.

Today I heard such an example. I was enjoying the Christmas music on one of the local radio stations when it went to commercials. A commercial came on, using a Santa theme for their message. But what was Santa saying? Certainly not "Merry Christmas!" Oh no, that wouldn't be right! Santa was saying "Ho, ho, ho! Happy Holidays!" Now correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Santa only come into the Christmas story?! Does Santa really need to be all-inclusive in his festive greetings? That's like expecting the Easter bunny to recognize Mother's Day in all of its cards, etc. Is common sense really that rare a commodity these days?!

My teacher friends will understand

The month of December is a very long month in the teaching profession. The combination of possible first snow, lots of candy, unusual schedules for concert practices, and the anticipation of days off and many presents makes kids go crazy. Throw in a full moon, and you've got teachers running around mad (case in point, as I was just typing, I spelled the word "and" "amdny" before noticing my loss of typing skills).

In any case, I'm using my free period to try to finish my final reading assignment for my curriculum course, since I know I won't be able to productively plan excellent lessons at this mental state. I have been reading the following sentence for five minutes now, and I'm still not sure what they're talking about. Why must educators use such popus language when they know how delicate a state our minds are in most of the time?!

In discussing the issue of dialogue between religious and secular persons to find a middle ground to discuss the ethical viewpoint of our school systems: "It seems to me you are reifying the state into a monolithic Orwellian dictator. That's a terribly undialectical view."

Who says Concord isn't ghetto?

They decided to "beautify" Bicentennial Square (the area on the other side of Margaritas). This is the result...

Yes folks, we have increased the ghetto factor of our school and added four more dumpsters in the back alley!

Yes, that's our playground on the left and the dumpsters right up against them on the right. Yipee kids, let's play with bees and go dumpster diving for our balls!


This sign is actually on the side of the dumpsters facing the playground. About a month after they installed the dumpsters, they put up this "large fence" (read "flimsy, half see-through fence-like thing) to "protect" our kids from the trash. Ahh, the intelligence of city officials!

Extreme Sports

I think we found a new sport for the X Games

And they say liberals aren't relative...

My curriculum class is studying trends in sex/sexuality education this week and I just had to read an article on the arguments of conservatives for "abstinence only" sex ed programs versus arguments of liberals for "safer sex" sex ed programs. This was the first footnote of the chapter:

"A "ne0-conservative" is said to be defined as a liberal whose daughter is approaching puberty."

Blogs of Note (or, How I Add Another Post without Actually Creating New Material)

Back in the days when this blog first started, it had its share of (at least in my estimation) profound and humorous posts. But that was long ago, back in the days when I had time to think and college homework assignments to procrastinate. But then teaching came, and alack, I barely have enough time to keep up on other people's profound and humorous blogs, much less find time to write my own. So again, my sincerest apologies for the Reader's Digest life update posts as of late. Unfortunately, I don't see the situation changing anytime soon.

Interesting side note: I was watching part of a special on TV on how Google got started and what makes it such a successful search engine. Apparently they have a top-secret formula that looks for, among other things, the number of other sites that link to your site. Apparently, the more outside sites that link to your site, the more popular you are in Google's estimation.

So, due to my lack of ability to produce quality posts and my desire to help my friends become more popular google results, I present to you, my readers and stalkers (and I know I have both) Blogs of Note. They are websites I frequent in my precious few minutes of free time and are worth checking out.

In Passing... This is another website that has fallen by the wayside after its author graduated college. But she does a better job of updating than I do. "Eve S. Dropper" lives in Berkeley and records down any unusual, funny, or otherwise noteworthy conversations she hears, you guessed it, in passing. There is some great stuff in here and well worth searching through the archives. She also categorizes the quotes, so you can search through particular types of conversations.

Pick of Pix This isn't really a blog to read, just a chance for me to brag about my lil sis's photography skills and hopefully encourage her to get back to posting pictures on this site.

10-Four Good Buddy This is the blog of an old friend of mine. He has some humorous posts, good film reviews & theories, and links to his college films, which are worth checking out as well.

Assistant Village Idiot This is the above friend's father. A Christian psychologist, his blogs usually comment on religious, politics, and literature. Always good when you're looking for some intellectual stimulation.

Fair Trade Certified My newest blog find, written by someone I went to high school with. For those of you who can't handle sarcasm, cynicism, the occasional profanity, or opting for wit over seriousness, sorry. Otherwise, enjoy! I find it quite enjoyable.

That's about all the sites I have time for these days. But if you know of any other good ones, please feel free to pass them on!

Yay for friends who give great back rubs!

Katie's coming to visit this weekend!!!

Spelling and Sparkles

I have been writing the word "catalog" more than usual lately (see my second topic) and I couldn't figure out for the life of me why the word looked funny. As an English teacher with a tendency toward spelling errors, I'm usually paranoid about these sorts of things. (Side note: being a poor speller makes you a walking thesaurus--when you don't know how to spell a word, often times you just search your brain for a synonym you do know how to spell). In any case, I sat pondering the word "catalog" today until I finally figured out my problem. I had spelled it in the English form, "catalogue." I already spell theater "theatre" out of habit from seeing my Shakespeare professor do so countless times. I'm sure there are other words I mess up. I am becoming my worst nightmare...those snotty English majors who think they're too good for even American English! Pretty soon I'm going to be throwing in obscure Faulkner references into everyday conversations (God help us all then)! These are the kinds of people we made fun of as English Ed. majors...those English "purists" who were too good to consider teaching the masses their vast quantities of literary knowledge and vocabulary prowess. Hopefully this is not me; hopefully I'm just a transatlantically poor speller instead of just a poor speller. (And yes, I just made up the word "transatlantically." When you're a teacher you can do those kinds of things. Jealous now English majors, aren't you?!)

In other news, I just made my crazy-busy life even more insane. What can I say, I'm a glutten for punishment (and semi-desperate for money). I'm still teaching middle school at Concord Christian (Academy now, not School). I'll also be starting my second of ten classes needed to complete my Master's Degree online at Penn State. And I am now selling jewelry made by Premier Designs! It's a Christian company that sells affordable, quality jewelry through home shows (much like Mary Kay, Tupperware, etc.). It's a flexible form of income (as I can book as few shows as my schedule allows or as many as I can get) and the benefits for both me as a jeweler and other women who want to hosting the parties are amazing! Life is certainly busy, but I'm excited for all of it.

Shameless plug: ladies, let me know if you're interested in seeing a catalogue or hosting a party in your house!