Another's First Week

I thought I'd mention that Jon is doing increasingly better with his first days of teaching. The first day was chaos (not just his classes - the entire school, because of various administrative mess-ups). The second day had several students still stuck in summer mode. Yesterday was infinitely better and he came home with an actual smile - the first I'd seen since Sunday. He has students that actually want to learn and that seem to understand what he has started to teach to them. I'm particularly proud of him for helping out a student of his that came to the US 2 weeks ago and doesn't know English - the ESL teacher didn't even know she existed until Jon brought it to her attention and now the girl is going to get help learning the language.

But he did inform me of the latest fad to hit high school fashion (as much as "fashion" can be applied to such a place) - leaving the tags on your clothes so that people will know how much you've spent on them. (Also for the sake of possibly returning them after wearing - something that greatly offends the former retail sales worker in me.)

I think this might beat out clear heels for tackiest fad ever.

(They light up! Even better!)

First Day of PC - Thoughts

During PC I:

"Okay, keep calm. He's just talking about grades. No, stop freaking out. Stop it! Oh, I'm so going to be one of the people that gets a zero on their first quiz..."

"Wha-what? I read this! What is happening? 3 days? From when? Oh geez."

"No, no, no, NO. Do not be looking at me. Don't call on me! NO! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" *mental breath* "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Please don't ask me anything that has to do with numbers. No, really. There's a reason I want to use words for a living, other than taking 40% of anything. Ah! Dang it. I have NO clue where I read that. Was I conscious yesterday? I'm starting to think not."

"Okay, that wasn't SO bad... And I'm delusional already. Great."

During PC II:

"I wish I hadn't sat this far back."

"I hope I don't look tired. I probably do - two or three hours of sleep total does that to you. I don't think I've been kept awake by fear since the night before my first law school exam almost two years ago. Must. Not. Yawn. Or slouch."

"I'm so happy I wasn't called on again... SO HAPPY. Even happier that I'm pretty sure I know the answer. This is an improvement."

"He does not sound pleased with us. Cower! Cower! Cower more!"

"Yay! Starbucks is calling me - time to go. Wait... what do you mean the afternoon session will last 2 hours? AHHhh... No, I just can't muster the strength for that. I surrender."

Lights in the Sky

Excuse me while I go a bit fangirl here, but the NIN concert last night was the Best. Concert. Ever. And I've seen Tori Amos playing 3 instruments at once. But that doesn't hold a candle to the awesomeness of last night. Completely and utterly worth the hearing loss that I've probably suffered.

(The fantastic Robin Finck on lead last night.)

I do kind of worry about the couple (er, actually three people - I don't want to know) that found "Hurt" a romantic, make-out worthy song. You know, whatever floats their boat (of crazy).

Anyway, the music was fabulous (except for the opening act, which needed a sound check - but I was not there for them). Someone promised that the lighting would blow my mind and it DID. They use those clear LCD screens (THREE levels of them) to their utmost. It was fantastic. Anyone who has the chance should go. Go, go, go, before I pity you.

Nerdy Book Post

So I've been reading quite a bit this week, in an attempt to enjoy the printed word again. It hasn't been working quite as well as I'd hoped.

I would love for someone to tell me what the big deal is about Gregory Maguire (author of "Wicked" and "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister"). I've read both of those said books now, and I kinda want to go find Mr. Maguire and give him a lesson in proper sentence structure. This is not a sentence - "A market." No one should write sentences like that unless it's in a screenplay. Although I detested "Wicked" for being completely ludicrous and a terrible assault on a cherished story, I came close to that level with "Confessions" just because of the horrific writing. It got better as it went along, but it really shouldn't be obvious that the author spent most of his time telling himself, "This prose of mine makes this book real literature! Gosh, I'm so brilliant." I half expected his bio at the back to simply say, "I'm the king of the world!"

Anyway, I got the book for a $1 at Half-Price, so I suppose that's not such a bad cost to pay for the stupidity of giving him a second chance. I suppose I'm annoyed because it's a concept that appeals to me - retelling fairy tales so that not every character is what they have seemed to be for centuries - but my theory is that's why everyone else reads these books too. I'm just more honest about how its execution fails to live up to that concept. Or I'm just being overly-critical.

Then I read a book by Margaret Atwood called "The Penelopaid". Atwood, unlike Maguire, is one of my favorite authors, although not many live up to "The Handmaid's Tale". ("Oryx and Crake" is close.) But this one was so far from THT that I was almost depressed. It wasn't *bad*... it just wasn't the involving, mysterious book that I wanted it to be.

But that's okay. I'm going home tomorrow for a couple days, mostly to see NIN in concert (*squee*). I'll pick up a couple of my tried and true favorites, like "Jane Eyre" or "Emma"... which will promptly be left on my bedside table to get dusty, because I have PC this fall.

Sorry, it just always comes back to that.

I Still Need To Have Some Good Mexican Food

It's been a week since returning to the States, and I've been all kinds of thankful to get back to what I've missed - hamburgers that taste like real beef, milkshakes with real ice cream, pedicures... and sure, my family. Of course, it also means I've gotten back to all the things I haven't missed, like political mud-slinging and car troubles.

After a week of indulging in all that I missed though, all I have left is this horrific death march towards PC. I feel like someone should be briefing me on my mission and giving me a cyanide tablet, "just in case". Lacour gave me the next best thing - a little bag of school supplies, complete with a packet of Kleenex. Cue the dread.

Okay, okay. It's not going to be two weeks of me huddled in a corner, rocking back and forth, hugging my knees and muttering to myself. I have gotten out - I finally saw "The Dark Knight". I can legitimately saw Heath Ledger is owed a posthumous Oscar. And Maggie Gyllenhaal didn't annoy me as much as I thought she would. And yesterday, I saw "Wall-E", which I'm pretty sure is going to nab Best Animated Feature because geez, I'm still melting from the cuteness there. Hello, they took essentially mute robots and made it both endearing and interesting. Although I have to say that the huge drawback of kids' movies are... you know, the kids in the theater. What does it take, parents? How many glares can you sit through before you tell your 8 and 10 year old children to shut up? Apparently, a lot. *pulls out hair*

Anyway, the point is that we're gearing up for a difficult year here and trying to enjoy the last few days of freedom. Jon just returned from his first day of workshops with WISD and has informed me of the pathetic state of Waco High in its TAKS performance - worse than we thought, although not as bad as it could be, I *guess*. He'll be teaching 11th grade math - i.e. exit level TAKS.

He'll be fine. I'll be fine. We'll be fine. Right?

... We're thinking about starting a pool on who cracks first.