ahora vamos a contar

in bozeman, montana, a white supremacist is running for the school board. i have nothing else to say other than people are fucking crazy.

i was just looking up the spanish word for "addendum" when i discovered that my crazy ass former roommate's last name means "sewer". sweet! she was totally insane, this is gonna entertain me for several days.

Updates!

the ladrona has been put in her place. she promptly met with the asst. principal on thursday morning and 'fessed up. she was then instructed to write a letter of admittance and apology to the owner of the purse, which had to be signed by her parents and turned in to me friday morning. she was also assigned community service! i was feeling good about the resolution until she brought me the letter yesterday morning. ¡la pinche niña echó la culpa a otro niño! i was irate, gave her about five minutes to attempt to explain it to me, told her i KNEW that she was lying, then sent her ass back to the asst. principal. he trotted her back to me fifteen minutes later puffy-eyed and pouty and reprimanded her in front of the purse's owner as well as the kid she tried to pin it on. later that afternoon as she performed community service, i took my behavior problem students outside to watch her sweating in the texas afternoon heat as she picked up trash and raked the schoolyard. learning through example, you know. hey, the other first grade teachers did it, too! i have no problem with lying and stealing students doing a little manual labor and getting reprimanded in front of the rest of the class. this is at least the fourth or fifth time she's stolen something of value and this shit can't continue, it's just can't.

back to this e-dating thing, i guess the reason that i am even giving it a shot (besides the obvious desperation motive =P) is because two good friends of mine met these amazing guys online... one them is actually getting married this summer! the other one is probably the best thing that ever happened to my friend, so i can't knock it 'til i try it. eHarmony has a free one-month trial, but i have to admit that i've been a member since february. although i've met some guys that seem mildly interesting, this was the first time that i felt it was actually worth meeting the guy in person. just as in any potential dating forum, there are a lot of people i'm not the least bit interested in. supposedly the system goes to great lengths (the initial personality test takes 40-60 minutes to complete) to match you with compatible people, but i haven't been super impressed. In fact, i'm gonna be a little mean and post something from the profile of a guy that seemed completely incompatible with me. he's a little too humble for my taste:

The first thing you'll probably notice about David when you meet him:
The first thing that people notice about is my reserved style. I would like to gather information and make profound statements about situations than to talk without actually saying anything.
The last book David read and enjoyed:
The last book that I read and enjoyed is "The Broker" by John Grisham. The book is about a lawyer released from Federal Prison following a midnight pardon and his adventure to return his life to normal with different nations trying to kill him. I liked the suspense nature trying to figure out what he knows and who will get the information first.
Some additional information David wanted you to know is:
I am a dog person. I could have joined MENSA, but decided against it because I did not want the added pressure.

i know, i know, he had you at "profound"! after the grisham and MENSA thing, you must be wondering how i could let a winner like that go. and i'll be honest, he was ugly. =P yeah yeah yeah, i can be a bitch sometimes!

i had my summative evaluation thursday. thumbs up all around.

anyone have fun ideas for cinco de mayo? i found a couple word finds but other than that, i've got nothing. i figure this is a good opportunity for me to have my kids' parents bring me some homemade mexican food. notice the emphasis on me. my daily gifts have slowed down quite a bit, although yesterday i got one of those fun little wooden fruits with a bug inside who has jiggly legs with an "i love you" sticker on top. funny how i already had one.

i've got a couple new links over there on the left side. my girls at siempre a las carreras and la nueva maestra have finally updated! (insert jaw drop here). i added megan awhile back, but check out her post on farts, it's the funniest thing i've seen all week. yeah, i may act 33 but bear in mind i still think monty python is hilarious.

my "nap" lasted six hours and now i'm wide awake with nothing to do. breakfast taco run? esta noche echaremos un desmadre en el centro. amor, ¿vas a venir o no? ¡qué tengan un buen fin de semana!

how i miscounted this i'll never know...

THERE ARE SEVENTEEN DAYS LEFT OF SCHOOL!

excitement, sadness, and an overwhelming sense of relief are rushing through my veins right now. damn, how time flies!

so i went on my first date with my online match man, courtesy of eHarmony. the process through which we met went as follows:

1) eHarmony introductions (read profile, see pictures, see if you're superficially compatible)
2) close-ended questions (what is your ideal date? a. the movies, b. quiet dinner, c. popular dance club, d. opera)
3) must-haves, can't stands (such as "fidelity", "open-mindedness" and "couch potato")
4) open-ended questions (what are the 3 best traits you have to offer a partner? why did you decide to join eHarmony?)
5) open communication (emails through eHarmony)

the open communication led to a few phone calls, which in turn led to tonight's date. we met up for dinner at 8... i saw him standing outside a few minutes beforehand, promptness is always a good thing in this teacher's eyes. he wasn't as cute as he looked in his photos online, but oh well... dinner went fine, conversation was interesting and fun and we actually cracked the same dorky design joke about ten minutes into dinner. afterwards, he offered a few different options if i was feeling up to it, so i decided on a margarita at a bar/restaurant down the street. we ended up staying there for another couple hours... he's a really nice guy, seems very sweet and genuine and funny and had lots of interesting stories to tell. i didn't sense any immediate sparks, but since i'm pretty new to this dating thing i'll definitely stick it out. at the very least, i'll have made a new friend. he said he'd call this weekend and i believe him, so it seems like another date will be in the works for next week. have no fear, i'll keep y'all updated... this is actually MUCH easier than mass emailing =)

hipteacher's blog led me to this. in case you forgot, i'm a linguistics dork with a BA to prove it, so i really enjoyed this quiz. here's how my english is rated:

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

25% Yankee

10% Dixie

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

on a more interesting note, this is the breakdown of the age that i act:

You Are 33 Years Old

33 Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

what a dumb day.

for the first time, i made my kids a stupid coloring packet so that i could get reading tests done. it was all about busy work today, save for the stupid lesson i had to teach on patriotism. i refuse to teach the anglo version of what went down at the alamo as well as the pledge of allegiance, so suffice it to say i'm not too keen on other "let's thump our chests and talk about the stars and stripes!" type exercises. mostly for personal reasons but also because most of my kids arrived from méxico or guatemala or cuba sometime in the last five years and, along with their families, still have allegiance with their native land. so whatever, i've tried to avoid it for as long as possible, but coloring the liberty bell and all that bullshit was the only quick thing i could come up with today. yes, i'm a hater. i'm surprised i still live here after the last election, but moving on...

don't blame me for not giving your child his homework when you walk into the classroom and it's sitting on his table, right where he left it at the end of the school day. and don't think your not-so-charming smile will make up for your bitchy accusation. they're seven years old, they can remember to put the notebook in their stupid backpack when it's been a daily routine for the last four months. and if they don't, too bad so sad, get out of my fucking face.

the next stupid thing: my favorite and smartest female student withdrew today. going back to mx with mom. gets my numbers down, which is great, but leaves me with a 3:1 ratio of boys to girls and gets rid of one of the few female students that i trust and enjoy. which leads me to:

MORE STOLEN SHIT. the same kid that i thought stole stuff in jan/feb has a stoneface, but i know it's her. another little girl brought a purse today and it was stolen at day's end. she's my official drama queen and was sobbing about it as we packed up and met on the carpet to say goodbye to our compañera, so i laid down the law and instructed the students to pick a partner and look in their backpack. apparently i personally cannot conduct a search on student property but other students can. laws are stupid. you should fix those in a few years, texican (ha, i used your blog handle, how dumb is that?). anyways, i told my most honest student to look in the shifty little girl's bag. she put up quite a fight, but of course it was because she had the fucking purse in her backpack. i talked to her for about 15 minutes but she kept swearing that she didn't put the purse in her bag and wouldn't cop to anything else. fucking stupid stealing children ruin my already stupid day. tomorrow she's the asst. principal's problem, i'm sick of this shit. i'd like to teach now, please.

i'm assuming that since you guys get a kick out of --and sometimes even relate to-- my trials and tribulations as a teacher, you will allow me a bit of self-indulgence in regard to my personal life as it relates to being a teacher:

it is HARD being single in a field that is 95% women. for example, there are five male teachers and/or TAs at my school. FIVE. TOTAL. one is my friend, two are married, and the other two are absolutely out of the question.

i ended a 5-yr long relationship in july then did a long distance thing for a few months before i decided it wasn't worth the time or effort. the last few months have been spent in limbo as i've tried to decide whether i'm even emotionally ready to pursue another serious relationship right now. yadda yadda yadda. now i do go out quite often, but usually to the same shows & places with the same people, and as i've lost track of my crazy college friends (and gotten used to my early to bed, early to rise teacher schedule) it's gotten harder to meet new people that have the same interests as me... particularly, as you may have ascertained by now, new MEN.

so after a happy hour with some high school teachers, i was convinced to check out eHarmony. yes, online dating is cheesy and no, i've never done it before, but my new friend's logic was that it was no shadier than randomly meeting guys at bars, and at least i would know that these online dudes were interested in pursuing meaningful relationships. so after an interesting free one-month trial, i decided to blow a small wad of cash on a 3-month membership. for awhile nothing panned out, but VOILA, lo and behold, la maestra has HER FIRST ONLINE DATING SERVICE DATE!

rest assured, friends and loyal readers, i will keep you updated. it goes down on thursday. wish me luck.

it's about damned time that school districts pulled together to stir up an official fuss about NCLB. i love that margaret spellings (a lady who is way classier than former sec. of education rod paige who called the NEA a "terrorist organization") is the sole defendant. rip 'er a new one, guys!

quedan cinco semanas más de escuela. the things that keep me smiling and singing these days:

1. The new Cafe Tacvba 3 CD + DVD set Un Viaje. FANTASTIC.
2. The Andrea Echeverri solo album. Who knows what an amortiguador is?
3. Painting. I'm absolutely obsessed, and my goal for the week is to spend every available minute working on the most difficult piece I've ever done... it's a "commissioned" piece for a friend (read: i'm getting PIZZAID!) based on José Guadalupe Posada's "El jarabe en la ultratumba". I've got all my paintings scanned on Flickr, but for privacy reasons I won't post the site publicly since I use my name to credit my work. Leave your email in a comment and I'll get you linked up if you're interested... most of my stuff is very woodcut-esque and leans heavily on traditional mexican imagery (son jarocho and calaveras to be specific).
4. I'm socializing more these days! Friends and family have been in and out of town and I've started reconnecting with old friends. Now I just need to get on the ball with meeting more new people, and shady guys at shady bars and clubs don't count.
5. The sweet anticipation of the fact that I HAVE TWO MONTHS OF SUMMER OFF!!!

one day off.
two bands playing that i haven't seen in awhile and two pink roses i was given!
three beers a night, minimum.
four 19-year-olds hitting on me in the course of the last 60 hours. (i am quite a ways away from 19)
five-day arts festival.

it is now 4:27 a.m. i actually went to an after-party of sorts. then spent an hour talking to random young boys on the way back to the car. pray for me monday, morning duty and all.

and fyi, telling me you want to be a teacher does not improve your chances of getting me to like you. or to sleep with you. write it down. good night.

some stuff i've read recently:

M's been having some sexual dreams about her students. before you gag, realize that she teaches adult ESL. i was having a conversation with a teacher friend the other day about being attracted to our students parents. that's particularly sad when you realize, as i did today, that some of your students' parents ARE IN FACT younger than you.

we all know i love madhatter. but when one of my students, her sister and her mother told me that her father was incarcerated last night, this post hit closer to home.

abigail's teaching tip about using drills is pretty commonly used in secondary grades, but i'm trying to institute it with my little ones. any suggestions from the 1-3 folks that teach elementary?

i've had a surprisingly good day. i was on my feet for 13 hours and will be going to bed much later than anticipated, but it was well worth it. we had a field trip, but not really, because the only reason we left campus was because of all the TAKS testing this week. we can't take the kids out to the playground because it's by the secondary wing, so it's accepted practice to just take the kids out for the day. that said, we had nothing planned other than eating lunch outside nearby and letting the kids play. normally this would be stress-free, but three parents from my class volunteered to come. from the other two first grade classes: zero volunteers. and the moms that volunteered included the one that babies her little screamer and the high-maintenance mom that used to have a knack for driving me crazy (now she just brings me food, praise the LORD). surprisingly, they were actually relatively helpful and didn't get in my way too much (although two moms brought their infant or toddler children).

speaking of toddlers and things that get in my way, my steadfast friends will need to skip this part because they heard about it earlier this morning when i sent them this email in utter disbelief (appropriately entitled "no mames"):

this morning i say good morning to julia and notice her 3 yr old brother ramón standing next to her. apparently mom and dad have to work today so THEY LEFT HIM HERE SO HE COULD GO ON THE FIELD TRIP.

of course i freaked out and made julia go running to look for her dad. but SHE LEFT HER BROTHER HERE.

i think this is the stupidest example of parenting i have seen so far.

luckily, the kiddo ran after his big sister and they caught up with dad. but seriously, what the HELL are you thinking? at least propose your dumbass idea to the teacher beforehand.

what else... oh yes, today i met the almost-illustrious author dagoberto gilb. super cool. i like charismatic artist types.

a few other anecdotes that i haven't blogged about:

the other day mr. trouble (aka the pisser) was spending a little too much time by the fish tank near the sink with a "guest student" from next door (another crazy six-year-old who dropped his pants in class the previous week). knowing that trouble was brewing, i marched up to them and asked what they were doing. mr. trouble wiped something off counter and stuck his hand behind his back. i demanded to see what he had. trash. i told him and our guest student to sit down and do their work. "ok," they agreed. "and i'll put the fish back," added our guest student. WHAT FISH?!? the little fuckers were conducting some sort of search-and-destroy mission in the aquarium.

monday i thought i was looking cute. nice little sweater, pinstriped capris. i even blow-dried my hair. i was walking another class to specials when a straggler announced that i wasn't wearing lipstick. "yeah, you're right, i guess i forgot," i admitted. "and your hair looks poofy today." "uh, okay. go get in line." "where are you going?" "to my classroom." "go put on some lipstick... and brush your hair!" i laughed in disbelief. then told on her. =)

when i told my boys that girls can play soccer too, they insisted that it wasn't possible because "sometimes the balls hit you in the weiiiiiner." what that has to do with being able to play soccer i just don't understand.

¿...o bingo?

la cubana came up to me yesterday during math and said another student was being mean and called her a gringo (she's a güera). when i told the student in question to come talk to me, she started bawling immediately. i gave her some time to calm down then asked what happened. long sob story short, her claim is that she said "Bingo!" since they were playing addition bingo and the whole world is out to get her. not sure what to believe, but now I have to add "gringo" to my list of maldiciones.

i got another student today. i'm at TWENTY-TWO. i think that's the cap, but god knows that if another bilingual kid arrives there's no where else for them to go. this kid is a cubana and her mom's accent totally threw me for a loop, but --shallow as it sounds-- i LOVE the aspiration, love the nasalness, and have been slightly obsessed with Cuban accents ever since i saw Scarface. so it's all good save for the fact that her presence threw off my entire organizational system. i got a new kid two weeks ago and another one back in february. ya basta.

ooh, one more perk to being a bilingual teacher (i really ought to make a complete list soon): moms bring tres leches cake. last week i got fruit and chile (for those of you who have somehow missed this combination, you dip the fruit IN the chile, because plain fruit is freakin' bland, dontcha know?). the week before i got cubic zirconia earrings. i can hardly remember the days when the parents hated me. how quickly good lovin' erases bad memories!

this morning i passed by some monolingual first graders on my way to the office. one of them said, "Is that the Spanish lady? That is the Spanish lady!" i talk to these kids in English all the time and they know my name, so i find it quite interesting that despite all that i'm still The Spanish Lady.

i can feel the end of the year swiftly approaching. kids are getting progressively crazier, i am getting increasingly short-tempered, and there's a ton of testing coming up. but alas, it's friday, and i intend to forget about it all until monday.

i'm pretty proud of my bilingualism. i've helped out foreigners at the airport, guided lost souls at schools and stores, traveled méxico, and know all kinds of chisme that i wasn't intended to hear. and i do that teaching thing de vez en cuando, too. but for all my spanish learning and the handful of other languages that i've been exposed to (read: learned and pretty much forgotten), there are still situations in which my bilingualism no sirve de nada.

i was hanging out with a friend when the cable guy came to her new place to get things set up. he was deaf, but luckily my friend knows the ASL alphabet and a few basic signs. i was really impressed. i would have had to resort to exaggerated gesticulations since i don't know a single sign. one time in during a school assembly, the team leader wanted me to discipline one of her students sitting on my side of the cafeteria. i was brand spanking new at the time and didn't know the kid's name, so from across the room the teacher started signing letters. i was flabbergasted. it was like her trying to communicate with me in russian. why assume that i would know sign language? i don't assume she knows spanish. i didn't get it.

but here's the funny part. so my friend couldn't help but respond orally to him (he had some grasp of speech)... the silly thing was, she kept responding in SPANISH.. "sí, sí..." HYSTERICAL. apparently her natural response to situations where there are communication difficulties is to use spanish because that's the norm in her daily life, and while i understand and appreciate that, it still made me laugh from my cozy spot on the couch.

in school-related news, i discussed my "challenging student" (a.k.a. the pisser and the big motherfucking pain in my ass) with my vice principal today and his sorry ass will not be attending our next field trip thanks to his recent hijinx. thank the LORD because if anything else happens in public i'm literally going to lose my fucking mind. i have to say though, you wouldn't be able to tell from the way i interact with him... yes, at times i'm a little short and firm with him, but i never yell and usually try to talk things out with him quietly in private. funny how much he responds to me and respects me, cause he's a little maniac in special areas. i think his problem his finding boundaries outside the walls of our classroom. gotta figure out how to get through this for the next month and a half.

for the spanish-speakers in the house:
what word do you use for bead (as in the plastic things used to make a necklace)?
a) cuenta
b) perla
c) bolita
d) other (please list!)

(to speak a language other than english)

West Virginia is getting paranoid. Even shadier, they had to sneak this English-only legislation into a bill about the number of members that cities can appoint to boards of parks and recreation. NICE.

Unsurprisingly, this legislation was backed by the organization U.S. English, a group that should be familiar to any well-informed advocate of bilingual education. If anyone would like more info about these English-only groups and their rationales, lemme know and I'll post more info and quotes... I've got tons of stuff stashed away from college. Being a bilingual educator is definitely more than just a career for me, it's a full-blown political stance and attitude toward the value of other languages and cultures.

1) Desert Blood by Alicia Gaspar de Alba, a new novel that takes place amidst the murders in Ciudad Juárez

2) The Trouble With Religion by Salman Rushdie, definitely food for thought

3) The companion book to the fantastic documentary Born Into Brothels. Proceeds go to Kids With Cameras.

4) No reading involved, but fun to look at: Kathleen Trenchard's Cut-it-out. I checked out a small exhibit of her work today... can't find the two pieces that absolutely blew my mind ("Tango" and "El West Side") but these are cool.

***NOTE TO BLOGGING SLACKERS: Update already! You know who you are!!!***

sometimes moving is good for the soul. we spent all day helping an old friend move 8 carloads of stuff into her third-story apartment... her first time living sola. as we sat amidst the mess of boxes and scattered furniture, our conversation drifted to manual labor. encapsulating a lot of what our college graduate crowd lives and does is this quote from a friend: "i'm just not good at manual labor, i prefer to sit and think." amen to that, and a santana-like bow to those who sweat under the sun, breaking their backs day after day. i know i sure couldn't do it.

i've had some interesting conversations about relationships the last few days, but none more unexpected than an exchange with my students that went like so (names changed to protect those students who will soon be given unsatisfactory on their next report card):

adrian: maestra, ¿cuándo te casas?
josue: (before i can respond) ¡NUNCA!

thanks for the vote of confidence you little jerk. after school, adrian and several other kids expressed their concern. "¿no tienes novio? ¿por qué? ¿no buscas novio?" it's complicated, dammit! i shouldn't have to explain this to six year olds in the first place.

i think since i started mid-year, next year i'll still be considered a first-year teacher. i wonder if i'll get the perks (mentor, low expectations and the constant "oh! i didn't know!" excuse) along with the downsides (first year salary, stupid new teacher meetings/trainings/orientations).

have a good weekend maestros y los demás. i'll be chillaxin' on monday while you fools are workin' it. AND i get to skip morning duty... i don't think i could start my week off on a better note!

ayúdenme, porfas! three and a half weeks ago i got french tips for my cousin's wedding. after said weeks of neglect, i'm now trying to get the damned things off. i just spent an hour rubbing with acetone, filing furiously, cursing periodically, and picking at edges with both nails and files. i'm trying to avoid damaging my real nails too much so the latter was done with as much care as i could muster, but now my nails look HORRENDOUS.

what do i do?!?

and fyi, i refuse to pay for a professional to do this, although i'm willing to spend up to $5 on products to remove them. merci en avance!

do you know what today is?

i SAID, do you know what today is?

FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY!!!

you-know-who is at the alternative school all day today to give him a good scare. i have monday off (or rather, i'm taking a personal day, same difference minus sub plans). the asst. principal reportedly said i'm awesome. hooty hoooooo...

remember the pisser? today he put my sweetest little student's hoodie in a urinal. motherfucker's trying to give me my first gray hair.

on the upside: observation went fine, i didn't even try to fake anything other than being unusually organized. i'll be sure to share all the constructive criticism i receive. tomorrow morning, i submit my list of students that i'm considering for retention and placement*. i've got one and eight, respectively. tomorrow evening, pta meeting. another fun-filled day. but then it's almost friday, almost friday, almost friday... sigh.

*placement: when a student does not meet the grade-level requirements needed in order to be promoted to the next grade, but has achieved enough success to be moved on despite their test scores/academic performance.

"¡te pareces flaca como un palo, maestra!"

later that comparison turned from a stick to pineapple then pizza, but as long as it's preceded by skinny, i'm okay with it. wish me luck tomorrow! as my mentor stated simply today, they aren't gonna fire me, so what do i have to lose? =)

oooh, had to come back and mention this before bedtime: this CNN article on grading ink color is nothing new if you're a reader of my personal blog (nod in four directions) but the rest of y'all might be entertained. i grade spelling tests and homework with whatever's handy... sometimes red ink, sometimes green marker, sometimes black pen if that's all i've got. but for the revision stage of the writing process i'm all about the red pencils... they're easy to see and they are erasable. if the district would like to supply me with purple pencils, that would be just fine, but i don't think the color red is particularly intimidating, at least not to my six and seven year olds. as i stated in my original post, my thesis advisor always used green and seeing my drafts look like they had been slimed did not make me feel any better about myself. goodnight!

a long, hard day. work weasels its way home. yadda yadda yadda.

morning duty is the bane of my existence. it's one thing to have it monday mornings, but it's quite another for it to be on waffle/pancake days. the smell of syrup and children makes me nauseous, and there's nothing sicker than sticky fingers and open-mouth chewing than today's winner who ate his waffles and syrup with a tin of beefaroni. i wanted to retch right then and there.

on the upside, monday mornings go by pretty quickly. we review our ten new spelling words (amazing how that literally takes half an hour, but since it's also some serious word study i'm fine with it) and go to the library, so we've only got like 45 minutes to do everything else for lg. arts. this afternoon i prepped the shit out of my kids for the lesson i'm doing for my observation, only to find out after school that there was a scheduling mistake and it's actually on wednesday. oh well, one more day to practice... and to kick things up a notch, my mentor next door is gonna watch me teach tomorrow's science lesson and give me feedback about how to improve for the observation. hopefully everything will turn up roses.

i stayed after school for 3.5 hours. my mentor and i discussed stuff for about an hour and then i finally got my writing centers together. they aren't anywhere near complete yet, but at least they're usable now. while i was going lamination and paper cutting crazy, one of my favorite co-workers came into the lounge. after a bit of chatting she asked if she could observe me sometime after TAKS madness is over. i checked to see if she knew spanish; she said no, so i gave her an emphatic thumbs-up to the observation... i get pretty self-conscious about my spanish in front of native speakers... i learned everything i know in college and when i spent the summer in méxico, so i make plenty of silly mistakes (my kids were particularly amused when i confused "ojo" and "oso", "dedo" and "dado"), translate very literally at times, and occasionally assume cognates and use obviously unacademic tex-mex (i use the verb "checar" and sometimes say "debes de" but have never and will never use "parquear", "carpeta" for anything other than a folder, and add the "s" to the end of 2nd person singular preterite verbs... like "dijistes"). anyway, point being i'm fine with non-spanish speakers watching me do my thing. this co-worker tried to impress me by saying the few spanish phrases she knew, and i was appropriately (and playfully) impressed. when i proclaimed that one such phrase made her sound like a native speaker, she pounded her fist on her chest and proclaimed she has a brown soul. this is a fifty-something white lady from the east coast talking. i love how i bring out the brown in people =)

it is sad that the sharply increasing price of gas has decided that i will not be going anywhere today. it has jumped ten cents overnight, and 15 cents in the last three days. so instead of enjoying bbq and beer with friends in the glorious outdoors, i am sitting at home reading/on the computer/waiting for someone to call who is willing to come to me.

i am reading dave egger's a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. i LOVE it. there's tons of stuff i'd like to quote, but here's a short excerpt:

In this world, in our new world, there will be rocking. We will pay tribute to musicmakers like Journey, particularly if this is Two-for-Tuesday, which means inevitably that one of the songs will be:
Just a small town girl...
There are times when I am concerned about Toph's expression when I'm really singing, with vibrato and all, singing the guitar parts and everything--an expression that to the untrained eye might look like abject terror, or revulsion--but I know well enough that it is awe. I understand his awe. I deserve his awe. I am an extraordinary singer.

there's a similar part that i like even better but it's half a page and i'm feeling lazy. anyway, great book so far, i had heard nothing but praise for it so i'm chugging along happily.

i went to a fancy schmancy wedding yesterday. open bar, quail empanada appetizers, filet mignon and shrimp for the entrée, classical quartet, latin band, and mariachis. not to mention an absurd number of little trinkets and toys that were passed out on the dance floor. if you're part of my friends/family on flickr you can see photos. it was very lifestyles of the rich and famous.

i have my semesterly observation on tuesday. i lesson planned for a little bit but now i'm very obviously procrastinating. no one reads this blog to hear about my weekend. so fyi, i got another student (putting me at 21, 5 students more than the other 1st grade classes) and i'm VERY nervous about tuesday.

upon editing this post i realized that i use the word "but" excessively. forgive me. and then come bring me dinner, because someone got all the goodies to make mexican-style hot dogs EXCEPT for stupid hot dog buns!

They should make a movie out of this, especially since no one remembers Stand and Deliver anymore. Maybe they can get Lou Diamond Philips to play one of the teachers!