hiLARious.  laughing out loud at the truths contained within.

let's hope i don't need this tomorrow, but just in case i do...

"a step-by-step cure to your new year's day hangover"

december: 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, & 38

holy end-of-december, batman!

here's what i read this month.  6 books?  um, i kind of went crazy.  don't get too excited, though - 3 are definitely young adult books...


lord of the flies, by william golding (a re-read, but the first time i read it i was, you know, in high school or something and i read it because i was required to.  super creepy to read as an adult, when i wasn't stumbling over big words or being asked to analyze themes.  i'm glad i re-read it - definitely an interesting book.)

a christmas carol, by charles dickens (the first book i read on my new kindle!  i've read this book before - i actually own it (it lives in north carolina) and i read it about every other year at christmas time.  if you haven't read the book, you should - it's even more wonderful than any movie you've seen based on the book.  and i read it for free - books that are out of copyright are free on the kindle.  victory!)

the tipping point, by malcolm gladwell (another good malcolm gladwell book!  i like books that teach me fun facts that i can then spout out and my friends can call me nerds behind my back (or to my face).  my fun facts this time will include things like that fact that telephone numbers have 7 digits because that's the maximum amount humans can easily memorize.  and that paul revere did such a good job on his midnight ride because he had so many connections in all the towns he visited that people opened their doors to him in the middle of the night.  the paul reveres of the world today don't seem as glamorous because they're using twitter and facebook and the TELEPHONE...)

if everyone hanging out without me? (and other concerns), by mindy kaling (mindy kaling plays kelly kapoor on the office, but more importantly she's also a writer on the show and wrote some of the awesome-est episodes there are.  this book is really good - a memoir of growing up and getting into writing and acting.  she is hilarious and said a lot of things that are just so TRUE.  i read it in three days because it's that kind of book.  (she actually says at one point that if you're reading this book for more than a weekend there is something wrong with you.)  i learned from this book that mindy kaling loves paul simon and joni mitchell.  we're basically best friends forever.)

the secret garden, by frances hodgson burnett (another re-read; another free kindle book.  a little slow at times, and honestly not as good as i remembered it.  and the characters are a little childish.  i mean, they ARE children, but i still can't excuse it.  oh well - you win some, you lose some.)

slaughterhouse-five, by kurt vonnegut (i had been wanting to read a vonnegut book for a long time and had never gotten around to it.  then a conversation with aaron at trivia one night was the urging i needed to download it to my kindle.  i really liked this book.  a very easy ready and i stayed awake reading longer than just a couple pages a night.  i loved the narrator's voice - vonnegut's voice, i guess.  thanks, aaron, for the recommendation!)

and with that my 2011 reading challenge comes to a close...stay tuned for a wrap up of 2011 and a preview of 2012!

last day in north carolina!

tomorrow i'm headed to connecticut with my dad to visit my grandma.  she lives in a retirement community, and was on the list to move from her apartment into the assisted living unit...and we found out on monday that she can move on thursday.  so - a pretty big project while we're up there!

hope your holidays have been as relaxing as mine have been.  i'll be back in atlanta on saturday just in time for new years...and then two glorious days of vacation before school starts back again.  2011, where did you go?

(anyone else excited that our blue devils are FINALLY playing another game on friday?  it feels like forever since they've played...)

pioneer woman's brussel sprouts with balsamic and cranberries are to. die. for.  and i didn't even think i liked brussel sprouts.  becky made these as part of christmas dinner last night and there were no leftovers.  so i forced her to make them for dinner tonight, too.

(apparently it's brussels, with an "s," sprouts, but i don't care.)

merry christmas, all!  we* woke up at 9 for presents and cinnamon rolls (a christmas breakfast tradition), then lots of lying around, reading, tv, eating, napping.  we just went on a walk with the dogs, so now i won't feel guilty about lying on the couch for the rest of the day...

hope everyone is happy and healthy and warm!


*well, everyone else was already awake when i was summoned downstairs...

what i'm listening to right now

"oh my sweet carolina," by ryan adams (with emmylou harris):



i'm off to north carolina for a week, then up to connecticut for two days to visit my grandma.  hooray for holidays!

some EXCELLENT radio - radiolab's episode entitled "patient zero."  typhoid mary, the true patient zero in the AIDS epidemic, and how high fives got started.  listen to all or part of it for freeeee.

LOVE IT.

oh, google, you entertain me.

last night i watched the first two episodes of HBO's game of thrones with andy and a bitter willis (willis did not want to watch this show and was forced to by me and andy.  willis hates fantasy.  willis needs to get over it).  yes, this show aired LAST spring, but andy just finished the book and i haven't had access to HBO until recently, when a little (awesome) birdie made it possible.

people, this show is amazing.  i may or may not have been on the edge of my seat (literally) when watching the crazy-beautiful opening credits.  also, i definitely had to clutch willis's arm with my germ-y paws* during the opening scene of scariness.  he is a good friend for letting me do this.  also, he had no choice.

the books are so addictive and now this show is even more so.  I LOVE IT.  and...since i'm watching with andy whenever we can get together, i can't just plow through the whole season in one 24 hour span, which is absolutely what i would be doing otherwise.  ugh!  it's like waiting for christmas morning.  which is very fun.


*i'm a little sick.  boo.

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.”
     --Dame Edith Sitwell (1887-1964); British poet

what i'm listening to right now

"golly" is a word we don't use nearly enough these days.



i didn't get the appeal of frank sinatra until i bought the CD (well, mp3 download) of "christmas with the rat pack" from amazon.com.  my kindle has ads on it, and there was an ad to buy any one of 100 christmas albums for only $3...i picked this one.  the songs - including the cheese-fest above - are awesome.  i mean, seriously.  you can't tell me they're not.



how can you not love this?

for all of you out there who love love actually, i present you with this.  again, props to nora. :)

http://thehairpin.com/2011/12/hate-actually

now i must go home and watch this movie.  oh wait!  i can go home!  half dayyyyyyyyyy!

december 16th.

63 degrees outside when i drove to work this morning.

wtf.

what i'm listening to right now

patty griffin, "christina."  beautiful.  LOVE patty griffin.



(the song is about the life of christina onassis.  in order for me to enjoy songs, things like this are important for me to know.  anybody else the same way?)

happiness is drinking hot cocoa with marshmallows out of my new charlie brown christmas mug, courtesy of wendy!!

to quote nora, who sent me this link, "this is actually kind of adorable."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/senates-secret-santas-make-their-rounds/2011/12/13/gIQAQ0udsO_story.html

oh boy.  just read this line in an essay that one of my students wrote:

First of all, Smith lacked the needed experience in government to be a liable candidate from the gecko.


viable candidate from the get-go, liable candidate from the gecko - you know, being a teacher is all about translating.

and giggling.

um, hilarious.  gawker's gifts for people you hate.

what i'm listening to right now

is it embarrassing that i like country christmas music?  i hope not.

i've done some pretty cool things, but one of the most amazing weeks of my life was going to hawai'i for a conference that brought together japanese and american teachers to learn about and talk about the bombing of pearl harbor.  (what made it extra special?  it was almost free - my school paid for the flight and the national endowment for the humanities made the conference itself free for teachers.)  sitting in a room with japanese teachers and talking openly about sensitive topics was VERY cool.

i learned that the post-world war 2 japanese constitution forbids war.

i ate lunch with pearl harbor survivors.

i stood on the uss arizona memorial and saw the wreckage below gurgle up oil, as it has done since the ship sank in 1941.

it was an incredible week.

i'm not a proponent of war, but i do think it's incredibly important to understand why wars happen, and to honor the people who fought and died.

so, on this 70th anniversary of the attack on pearl harbor: i hope you're remembering.

FYI...

my day to write for edu180atl* was yesterday, and my 250 words are up on their site!


*a blog that takes submissions from atlantans who answer the question "what did you learn today?"

the adviser to our school newspaper asked me to write an article for the december issue from the point of view of rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.  i agreed...and this is what i came up with.  thought i'd share it with you all...


Dear Santa,

I won’t be able to come to work on Christmas Eve this year. I know that you’ve been relying on my nose to guide your sleigh for the past 72 years, but I hope the night vision goggles I’ve enclosed will be a good substitute. You’ll also find enclosed a bill for $139.98; the goggles didn’t come cheap. I’d appreciate reimbursement by the end of business on Friday.

The reason I can’t come to work on Christmas is because I’ve become involved in the #OccupyNorthPole protests, and we aren’t taking a break for Christmas. I hope you are able to make the trip to deliver toys to children even if I’m not there. It’s not the kids I’m trying to hurt. It’s you, Santa.

Let me take a moment to speak for the 99%. The 99% is made up of all of us reindeer, plus all the elves who work tirelessly to make toys for you to distribute to kids all around the world. We, the 99%, would like to inform you of the complaints that have caused us to stop working and to join the protest that Prancer started.

1. For a long time you have been violating American law by asking the reindeer to work more than 8 hours on Christmas Eve without paying us time and a half for overtime. Actually, Santa, without paying us AT ALL. Paying us in kind (through food and shelter) is not a valid form of payment under United States law. (You may recall that I was born at the North Pole but my parents were born in Alaska, thus making me a United States citizen.) Minimum wage in the United States is now $7.25/hour, and we reindeer and elves expect to receive at least as much for our invaluable work at the North Pole.

2. Santa, you have always taken the credit for the work we do on Christmas Eve. This credit is built on the backs of countless generations of reindeer and elves. We ask that you make a speech to be broadcast on television and radio of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, plus the Vatican City, Kosovo, and Taiwan which do not have member nation status. In this speech you will acknowledge that the reindeer and elves deserve the credit for the success of Christmas around the world, and that you are merely the face of the organization.

3. How long, Santa, will you continue to discriminate against people who are not Christians and thus do not celebrate Christmas? Our Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu brethren deserve presents, too. Include them in your yearly trip around the globe or risk history remembering you as a man who discriminated against the majority of the world’s peoples.

I have my drum and my protest signs. The other reindeer and elves have joined me. There are only a few weeks until Christmas, and what will Christmas be without Rudolph?

Sincerely,
Rudolph

i'm in DC for the national social studies conference.  so far this weekend i have...

...happened upon occupy DC, where i forced jenny to walk slowly so i could gawk as much as possible.  actual, non-ironic, non-middle school "anarchy" flag!  hundreds of tents!  very few visible people, though.

...toured the supreme court building (very cool) and the library of congress (also very cool).

...this mug came into my possession (thanks, jenny!!) and we shared a history nerd moment with the library of congress bookstore worker.

...gone to some pretty interesting sessions, but managed not to wear my nametag outside of the convention center (success).

...eaten at nando's!!!  (this is a favorite restaurant of mine from oxford that has a couple locations in DC.  yesssssss.)

...seen rachel and morgan, and will see nora tonight.  i have more friends in DC than in any other city (other than atlanta).  why am i not applying to any grad schools here?  oh right...because there are none with programs that match up with what i want to study.  SIGH.

...eaten amazing food at every meal, courtesy of my per diem from school.  yesssss.

...discovered an outdoor holiday market where i'll be spending some time tomorrow before my flight leaves.

...panicked a little bit about the party i'm hosting on monday night that i haven't prepared for at all.  oops.

november: 30, 31, & 32

november!  this month i read:


the professor and the madman, by simon winchester (this is a story of the creation of the oxford english dictionary.  having spent time in oxford, this appealed to me, and it's got a great title and a great premise: one of the biggest contributors to the oxford english dictionary was locked in an insane asylum.  i like a good non-fiction book every now and then, and this book did the trick.  it's not a book you're going to be rushing home to continue reading, but i enjoyed it nonetheless.)

cutting for stone, by abraham verghese (i had this book for more than a year before i picked it up to read - the 670 page length was daunting, but this book was SO readable, with lots of twists and turns that kept me really interested.  i read the whole second half lying on the couch at home in north carolina over thanksgiving break, with the tv on or other conversations going on around me; i usually can't do this - i can't concentrate well enough.  somehow it was easy to do with this book.  this is a story of twins in ethiopia who grow up in a hospital (their parents are doctors), but (of course) it's so much more than that.  there is some medical mumbo jumbo, but not so much that i was confused.  i would definitely recommend book to others!)

the giver, by lois lowry (this is a re-read; i first read this book in 5th grade.  i remember that because a woman my mom worked with questioned if a 5th grader should be reading this book.  yo, i was an advanced reader.  back off, other person.  though i will say: i enjoyed it more now than i did as a 10 year old.  it was sadder, more poignant somehow.  i really GOT it.  though some things stuck with me from the first time i read it - i could vividly remember the final scene where jonas is sledding down the hill in the snow, for example.  if you haven't read this book you absolutely should.  someone brought this book up at my book club last month when we were talking about the hunger games, so that's the reason i re-read it now.)

love = love.

gender doesn't matter, silly.

(scroll down for the video.)

http://news.advocate.com/post/13324191023/possibly-the-most-beautiful-ad-for-marriage-equality

attention!  there has been a change to your itinerary!  if you do not find this acceptable, please contact delta.

wait...it was more intense than that.

attention!  there has been a change to your itinerary!  if you do not find this acceptable, please contact delta.


minor panic attack.  access itinerary.  the change?  i'm getting into DC tonight 15 minutes earlier than originally scheduled.

also, they have changed the plane variety (make? model?  variety.) and now i am seated in an exit row.  poor me.

simmer down, delta.  i'm okay with this change.