grumpy day, part 2

i have this exact interaction approximately 100 times a day:

me: hi!
coworker who i'm passing in the hall: hello! how are you?
me: fine. you?
coworker: fine!

(sometimes i play the role of the second person.  i am equally at fault.)

this has become a huge pet peeve of mine.  can't we just say hello and not pretend to care how the other person is?  because that's what it is: pretending.  we don't answer this question honestly, and if we did the other person would secretly roll their eyes and think, "i was just being polite - i don't really want to hear all this."  OR: can we ask this question only with purpose and really listen to the answer?  "how are you?" has the potential to be a really important question, but it has been totally devalued.

[sidenote: in england they don't say, "how are you?" - they say "you alright?" but it comes out as "y'lright?" and it took me forever to figure out that they actually DO CARE how you are doing and i was being rude by giving my standard "fine" response.  i once had a ten minute conversation with a person i'd never met before because he "y'lright?"-ed me and i took it seriously.  i appreciate this.  DO IT, ENGLAND.]

end rant.

grump-a-saurus

i'm having one of those days where i woke up grumpy and i don't think anything is going to change that.  everything that everyone does annoys me.  i can't brush things off as easily as a normal day.  i have one of these days every once in a while for no good reason (there is, legitimately, NO GOOD REASON for my grumpiness today), and it's a good thing i don't teach today because i might bite a child's head off (all classes meet on either wednesday or thursday for a 90 minute period, and my schedule works out so that all of my classes are on wednesday).  i have discovered one place in my office where i can sit and (a) no one can see me through the window that looks out on the entryway of the building, and (b) no one can see me through the window in the door to my office (the door that is OBVIOUSLY closed right now to keep out the riff raff).  i will hide and be productive and nobody better bother me because i might not be able to be polite.

in other news, i think you should watch this video.  this is reason #221 to marry a science nerd: so your kids can DO SHIT instead of playing video games.  this video might even cure me of my grumpiness.

november 7th

i have just realized that my birthday this year is on the day that daylight savings time ends...which means that this year my birthday will be 25 hours long instead of 24 hours long.  BOOYAH.  get ready to celebrate for that extra hour.  my birthday is better than your birthday.

(note: since i am one of the majillions of people who don't ever remember how daylight savings time works, even though we go through this every year, i had a brief moment of panic that in fact my birthday would be SHORTER than every other day of the year, and i got momentarily grumpy.  online research now shows that it is the opposite.  thank you, internet.)

one of the best parts of my job: reading funny things that kids write.  i bet this is even funnier if you teach elementary school, but i have to work with what i've got and 12th graders still say funny things on occasion.  last week a kid wrote this on his test for my class: "it was nigh-impossible to pass laws or change the articles [of confederation]."  NIGH-impossible!  we are in ye olde times!  (now, the statement is true - it was almost impossible to do these things, but oh how this kid has entertained me by phrasing it like this...)

counting down the days

these are the states in the US that i've visited:

(customizable map from here)

i'm counting only the states i've spent time in...driving through a state or having a plane layover there doesn't count in my book.

(you feel like you've done a lot of traveling and then you fill in this map and all of a sudden you realize there's a whole time zone, basically, that you've never been to.  i'd like to remedy that - i'd like to go to montana/wyoming/the dakotas.  in the summer, obviously.  kansas, on the other hand...i feel no need at the moment to visit kansas...)

in less than two weeks i'll get to color in idaho, a state that one could have presumed would be the LAST one colored in by me until one of my really good friends moved there in july.  four of us are flying out to visit her for a three day weekend and i can just predict right now that hilarity will ensue.  and i pretty much can't wait.

september 25th: last 90 degree day of the year. (fingers crossed.)

it is finally not 90 degrees today.

yes: today would be the first day in a long time that this is the case.  apparently atlanta had 93 straight days this summer where it got above 90 degrees every day.  that is more than 25% of the year.  THAT IS NOT OKAY.  (this is why i escape to england.  well, it's one reason.)  i am tired of the heat, tired of the air conditioning, tired of it being too hot to sit outside during the day without sweating profusely.

today?  today it is raining.  high of 75, low of 62.  i am so happy - there is nothing better than rain on a sunday when you can spend the day on the couch.  if the weather gods could throw in some thunder i'd be even more appreciative.  and the 10 day forecast?  no days above 85 degrees.

it might really be fall in atlanta, people.  YAY HOORAY!

one year

today is the one year anniversary of my first post on this blog, and in honor of that anniversary, i've changed the whole look of this-here-blog-thingy.  i liked the old template, but had been thinking for a while that i wanted a bit of a change.  do you like the new look?  what should i do differently?  is it readable even though there's a picture in the background?  this is definitely a work in progress and i'd love any suggestions you guys have!  so: suggest away.

i am still loving the things i told you i loved one year ago: cooking, eating, tv, movies, music, podcasts, books, the new york times online, history, politics, photography, trivia.

as we say goodbye to summer and get closer to fall, i'm reminded that i love driving with the windows down, beers on patios with friends, night swimming, braves baseball, duke basketball, my macbook pro, starry nights.  writing.  life.

it means a lot to me that you guys are following me on this little blog.  thanks for sticking around.

legroom

the fact that this is not a joke has just made me laugh out loud A LOT.  look at the picture on the left hand side, halfway down and try not to giggle.  and by "giggle," i mean "be horrified."

oh, i am so entertained...

people on my enemies list include:

john mccain.

don't say publicly that when the military leadership supports a repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," that you will vote for the repeal AND THEN when military leadership does exactly that, speak out and vote against the repeal.  i know that you say that you are waiting for the official report from the pentagon, due at the end of the year.  but i think you've changed what you stand for because you're trying to get reelected and that stinks.  YOU MAKE ME GRUMPY, JOHN MCCAIN, and as the new york times said earlier today: i hope history shames those who support this (in)action by the senate.

(end rant.)

sniffle.

i have a cold developing.  eek.

every fall*, once all our students come back to school with all their germs, i get sick.  stuffy nose, sore throat, grossness.  yesterday began my annual slog through a cold.  it is not fun.  i am doing a lot of mouth breathing, which is actually relatively tiring.  don't worry, mom: i am staying hydrated.

i am also doing a lot of braves-baseball-watching.  and finger-crossing.  and yelling-at-the-tv.  all at the same time.


*and no, IT IS NOT FALL, but thanks for asking.  today it got up to 93 degrees.  willis says that he is wearing sweaters next week no matter how hot it is, in protest because it's supposed to be fall.  willis's number one reason for doing this: "i look better in sweaters than i do in summer clothing."  of course your reason has to do with fashion.

just call me mrs. edmund randolph

one of my students forwarded this quiz to me.  life is so good:

who wants to marry a founding father?

reminded

“My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions, but in the fewness of my wants.”
—Joseph Brotherton
(1783-1837); pastor, writer

if traveling for the past two summers has taught me anything, it is this: i can live very comfortably with the possessions that fit into a carry-on suitcase and a backpack.

(on my way out the door to fly to london, june 2010)

i had forgotten this...and most people are shocked when i tell them that i lived for seven or eight weeks out of this suitcase.  but i've done it twice and i wouldn't do it any differently in the future.  when you travel light you realize that you don't need much to be happy.  good food, good people, an ipod, a book, a laptop, and something to cover your body.  a closet full of clothes, a hairdryer, a tv, a big comfy bed, a car - these aren't necessary.  do i want these things?  yes.  but i don't need them.  to be reminded of that has been an important lesson for me as i discover what is meaningful in life.

lazy saturday

a couple weeks ago i joined a CSA (community supported agriculture, not confederate states of america) - the farm is in alabama, just across the georgia-alabama border, and every week they deliver vegetables to 20 or so locations in atlanta.  you pick which location you want to pick up from, order online by tuesday morning, and the food magically appears at that location on wednesday afternoon.  you can pick exactly what you want from what they have available, and this makes me SO HAPPY.  this week i ordered peaches, sweet potatoes, lots of cherry tomatoes, basil, and lettuce.  it's all gorgeous in that imperfectly, straight from a real farm, way, and tastes so good.  lunch today?  basil and tomatoes from my CSA box, fresh mozzarella from kroger (classy, i know), with lots of salt and pepper and a little olive oil.  heaven.

(i am a huge tomato snob, created from eating fresh-from-the-vine tomatoes that my parents grew when i was growing up.  i need a non-mealy texture plus actual taste, and these pretty little cherry tomatoes have both.  YAY HOORAY.)

harumph.

if i didn't see another 90 degree day until 2011, you wouldn't hear me complaining.

what is this world coming to?

at the gym this evening i saw two women lifting weights while wearing shorts and bikini tops.

i'm not talking about skimpy tank tops (acceptable).  i'm talking about string bikini tops with ties in the back.  THIS IS NOT THE POOL DECK, LADIES.  get a clue and put some clothes on.  if you are attempting to pick up men at the gym you can be a little smoother than this.

the end.

snow

THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL I CAN'T STAND IT.

okay, i can stand it.

some landmasses are beautiful (the shape of the continent of africa is more pleasing to my eye than the shape of north america, for example.  i have known this since i was in preschool and i made a map of the world), and great britain is a pretty shape.  and this makes me miss england.  hi oxford!


(thanks to miss nora for posting this originally!)

hooray!

there comes a certain point in a girl's life in which her friends start to get engaged.  you find out about these engagements in different ways.  i offer an analysis:

if it is a person you are related to, typically a cousin: you find out via an email from her parents, often only to your parents, so then your parent forwards you the email.

if it is a person you are friends with, but not a close enough friend to be invited to the wedding: you find out about her engagement via facebook, send a little "yay!" message, and move on.

if it is a person you were once very good friends with and see every once in a while, but would never just pick up the phone and call: you find out about her engagement via an email sent to the friend group and you get your save-the-date card in the mail a couple months thereafter.  seeing her at her wedding reminds you of how sad you are that you don't communicate more frequently, and you resolve to do so because, damn it, she's awesome.

if it is a person you are good friends with and see/talk to regularly: you get a phone call.  i don't have to tell you that this is the best of all scenarios, because one of your close friends just got engaged.  last night i got one of these calls (!!).  if it goes to voicemail you get a very cryptic message.  i have received two such cryptic messages in my life, and both went exactly like this (actual transcription from the message last night):

"hey - it's colin.  ummm...it's about 8 o'clock your time on sunday.  give me a call!  [giggle.]  um, okay.  bye!"

you think to yourself, "huh...wonder what colin wants to talk about.  why didn't she say more in the message?  hmm."  5 minutes later you sit bolt upright and think, "ohmygod!"  you call your friend back, hear her exciting news, do some screaming, and then she has to hang up to call more people.  you already can't wait to celebrate her special day with her.  because, hoo boy, can miss colin celebrate.

and your life is just a little bit sunnier, knowing that hers has just changed dramatically.

(colin plus me.  we are very good at singing on dance floors with our eyes shut.)


(note: if you are friends with boys, this whole scenario is altered.  with a close friend who got married this summer, i knew about this whole engagement plan in advance, so the phone call from him telling me he was engaged was one i had been waiting for and knew was coming soon.  perhaps the above analysis is only fair for your friends who are girls and who will be marrying a boy.)

roomie

reasons i love my roomie:

1. he doesn't talk to me in the morning.  he used to, and i had to be like "ohmygodstoptalkingtomeitistooearlyforthis" (if you have ever lived with me, you know that i am a bit of a grump-a-saurus in the mornings.  just a bit.) and now he just says "good morning!" and "have a good day at work!" (with those exclamation marks, but i will excuse him for that.)  he is pretty awesome.
2. he makes a MEAN eggplant parmesan and lets me help him eat it.
3. he introduced me to hand and foot, the best card game ever.
4. if i want to go to bed early on a friday night, he does not call me lame.  that is because he is probably already asleep.  it is awesome.
5. he loves me.  i love him.  he's the best roommate i've ever had.  that's all you really need, right?

happy birthday (observed), joey!

like a flask filled with hope

you know that you need a little break in your workday!  i'm here to help: brett dennen, "darling do not fear"

hope you enjoy - i love his voice and the happy happy beat of this song.

12th grade

ohmygoodness everyone: you are in for a surprise.  today's post was written by a guest blogger - becky!  last year, i wrote about visiting her school, so i asked her if she would write about visiting mine.  here you go!  note all the capitalization and, like, actually well constructed sentences.  do it, beck.


There are many differences between a 12th grader at a private Atlanta high school and a 4th grader at a public school in East Harlem. The former do not walk in lines to or from class, do not need permission to use the restroom, and take notes on their laptops instead of their Hannah Montana composition notebooks. But beyond those obvious differences, I’ve found a few more worth sharing (and some similarities, too).

1. If you are in 12th grade and class has just barely started, it is acceptable (or perhaps just accepted) to prance across the classroom to take a cookie from your friend. If you are in 4th grade, you are subject to a strict “no getting up without permission” policy. Should you choose to disobey this policy, your Velcro name tag will move down the behavior stoplight from green (I’m doing great!) to yellow (warning!).

2. If you teach 12th grade government, a random sampling of your office bookshelf yields the following: The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement; Government in America; Simple Justice: A History of Brown v. Board of Education; The Studs Terkel Reader. If you teach 4th grade, favorite texts include: Good-Bye Round Robin: 25 Effective Oral Reading Strategies; Gooney Bird Greene; Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement; and Because of Winn-Dixie.

3. Both 12th graders and 4th graders love to tell stories. The problem is, those stories are often not very interesting to the listener. Furthermore, both groups often begin stories they have no intention (or perhaps ability) to finish.
12th grade example: “Oh, I want to say something about that [the Florida church that plans to burn the Quran]! Um, I forget. Well, it was something about a mosque on September 11. Does anyone know about that?” Well, since you gave us so much to go on…
Or this recent 4th grade example: “My partner Brian said he likes different colors. Either colors that are dark or ones that are light.” Thank you for sharing that. It was certainly enlightening.

kindergarten

today i went up to the preschool division of our school with becky and other claire to visit other claire's mom's kindergarten class.  other claire talks all the time about how energizing it is to go visit them when you're having a bad day, because kindergarten will cure you of a bad day.  we weren't having a bad day, but our little field trip was the cutest thing EVER and i giggled a lot and wasn't very smooth about containing it.  best moment:

other claire's mom: okay, boys and girls, we're going to go around and introduce ourselves to our guests.  tell them your name and one thing you like to do.

[time elapses.  a lot of kids introduce themselves.]

other claire's mom: alright, charlie, it's your turn.

[charlie stands up.]

charlie: my name is charlie and i'm a train biff.

other claire's mom: a train biff?  what's a train biff?

charlie: it's when you like trains a LOT [holding his hands out wide to indicate a lot] and you like to learn about them.

other claire's mom: oh - a train buff!

charlie: yes.

[charlie then spouted out so many facts about trains that i couldn't contain my giggles and i hope he didn't think i was laughing at him.  i mean, i WAS, but not in a mean way.  this kid has clearly read some train books.]

becky: charlie, you and my dad would get along really well.

convocation

our school's convocation was yesterday, and if asked to sum it up in three words, those would be CUTE, GODISAWESOME, and AMERICAISAWESOME.

our convocation is for the kindergarteners through the 12th graders, and there is no shortage of cuteness.  kindergarteners lead us in the pledge of allegiance.  the lower school chorus sings this adorable version of the national anthem.  and right there we are getting our daily dose of americaisawesome, too, but we're not done yet.  america continues to be awesome with our closing hymn, "america the beautiful."  i really like patriotic songs and as an adult the only time you hear them are at sporting events.  and if you are a teacher.

there was no absence of religion in our convocation.  opening hymn, opening prayer, middle-of-the-ceremony hymn ("draw the circle wide," which is a popular chapel song in our lower school, so a lot of the high school kids have fond memories of it - here's the chorus: draw the circle wide.  draw it wider still.  let this be our song, no one stands alone, standing side by side.  draw the circle wide.  i am pretty much in love with this song because ISN'T THIS WHAT ALL KIDS SHOULD BE TAUGHT?), closing prayer, blessing, closing hymn.  whoa.  god is everywhere in this ceremony.

and in the middle of it all, brian baumgartner, an alum of our school, spoke.  and he had an actual message that was perfect for our audience, he was funny, the school had clearly made an impression on him (he had surgery when he was in 5th grade, which left him in a wheelchair and then on crutches for several years, which is when he starting acting in school plays - so his first acting experiences were at our school), and he did the kevin from the office voice at the end.  victory on all counts!

he shook my hand and everything

i just met brian baumgartner.  and he did his kevin from the office voice and it was amazing.

(this photo of him is from the internet, not real life.  i'm not trying to be a stalker, so i didn't ask for a real life picture.)

labor day

today i got up before noon (but not much before), had lunch, watched a little tv, and then put on my workout clothes and intended to go out for a walk.  and then decided i'd rather hang out by the pool with mike and kelly, so i took off my yoga pants, put on a sarong and some flip flops, and went over to their house.  i realized while i was there how rarely we do this - just do NOTHING together.  when i plan events with friends, it's usually "let's get together and have dinner" or "let's get together and watch a duke game."  rarely do we say, "let's hang out," unless the hanging out involves drinking beer.  and even then we usually go hear live music or play a board game.  it was so wonderful today to just BE with mike and kelly, in the shade by their pool, talking about our weekends.  i forget that we don't need activities to do together all the time.  that's the perk of having such good friends, and i tend to overplan our time together.  this is me telling myself to cut it out.

"the best thing about having a sister was that i always had a friend" --cali rae turner

26 years ago today, i got a sister.

this is us with our grandma in what has to be 1985.  by my estimates, i'm 2 and a half.  becky is some (small) number of months old.  grandma is 66.  every farm kid needs overalls, and mine are purple.  life is good.

time has passed.  who knows how old we are here.  i mean, really - i have no clue.  i do know that i started to grow out my bangs in second grade, so this is before that.  i like that my turtleneck is tucked into my skirt - an excellent fashion statement.  and we have somehow convinced dad to include the cat in the photo.  now, we were farm girls, but boy did we like to wear dresses.  here is photographic evidence of that.

i know i've posted this photo before, but this is my blog, damn it, and i'll post it again if i want to.  here we are in 2010, ages 25 and 27.  loch ness, scotland.

now, there aren't a lot of things in life that i know for certain, but here is one of them: if and when i have children, i'll have more than one.  for every childhood adventure, becky was alongside me.  every less-than-pleasant time, she was there, too.  if i need to talk to her, she always answers the phone.  she tells me when i'm being ridiculous and when i'm not.  what do people without siblings DO?

26 years ago today, i got a sister.  i have no memory of that day, but i have a lot of memories of the days spent with her since then.  happy birthday, beck - i love you more than i can put into words.

september

beers with erin on the patio of taco mac - 75 degrees, breezy, watching the braves win their game?  best way to spend a saturday night EVER.

life

“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. ”
—Alfred D. Souza

they'll call me freedom

when the lovely nora was visiting last weekend, she introduced me to k'naan's song "wavin' flag" and i am now hopelessly obsessed.  apparently three months later than the rest of the world (this was the official world cup 2010 song), but obsessed nonetheless.

it is thanks to this song + lady gaga's "telephone" (featuring beyonce, of course) that i ran for seven whole minutes in a row on monday.  i ran!  seven minutes!  in a row!  this is not a big deal for most of the world, but i hate running (i'd rather walk for an hour than run for five minutes), so this is a big deal for me.

ben does life

so...i am a blog reader.  i have always been really interested in how other people live - what makes them tick, how they see the world.  once you start reading blogs you link to other ones and start following some of those.  i'm at the point now where i check about 10 blogs regularly (every other day), and have i ever met these people?  no.  but that doesn't stop me from following their lives.  this isn't called stalking.  i promise.

i found zoe stagg's blog, which linked recently to "ben does life," a blog that i have only been reading for three days, but already made me cry at my desk this morning.  it was embarrassing.  i had to blow my nose and then pull myself together and explain to my friend whose office is next door to mine that i'm okay.  here's the story on "ben does life," according to zoe.  once you've read some of that (assuming you care to), you can read the post that made me cry.  do i know these people?  no.  but this, THIS is what good writing can do.

"we have far more critical issues to face"

one of the blogs i read linked to this speech from 1960, and i found it really interesting.  it really felt dated in a lot of ways - the religious groups that kennedy mentions as "suspicious" aren't as suspicious today - but a lot of the themes are so relevant to 2010.  if you're interested, this is your history dork moment of the day.