A student sent me the following email last night:
"I was reading through the 100 most influential people on the Time Magazine website and I thought of you when I read this:
'Glenn [Beck]'s like the high school government teacher so many wish they'd had.' [from Time]
I laughed out loud at this one, I think you are a much better government teacher than Glenn."
And my day was made. Normally I don't read my work emails after I leave work - I'm not very good at letting things go, and if I get an email that is in any way negative (and I almost always get one of these per day, if not more) I will think about it and worry about it and be mad about it all night. But I was checking my work email last night and decided that this looked safe enough to open, and boy am I glad that I did. My kids email me, guys. Every once in a while they send me funny government-related youtube clips and articles and emails like this out of the blue. This is why I love my job. This is why I do my job.
Life is pretty darn good.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
four chords
anderson is pretty awesome at forwarding interesting links. things i like in an interesting link:
1. length. it should be relatively short or i will get bored. however, i do like to procrastinate sometimes, so this rule is not written in stone.
2. animals doing something cute. not required, but greatly appreciated.
3. a great song and/or medley
4. pretty photos
5. an inside joke that only a small group will get, based on some shared experience
6. a delicious recipe
this link satisfies #1 and #3 above.
everyone: please feel free to forward interesting things to me, keeping in mind my requirements above. now, don't try to find a recipe that is also an inside joke, with pretty photos, a musical interlude, and an animal doing something cute all at once. if it satisfies merely one of these requirements, i will be content.
1. length. it should be relatively short or i will get bored. however, i do like to procrastinate sometimes, so this rule is not written in stone.
2. animals doing something cute. not required, but greatly appreciated.
3. a great song and/or medley
4. pretty photos
5. an inside joke that only a small group will get, based on some shared experience
6. a delicious recipe
this link satisfies #1 and #3 above.
everyone: please feel free to forward interesting things to me, keeping in mind my requirements above. now, don't try to find a recipe that is also an inside joke, with pretty photos, a musical interlude, and an animal doing something cute all at once. if it satisfies merely one of these requirements, i will be content.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
clear sky
at a couple minute before 10 tonight i exited 285 and turned left at the end of the exit ramp and there in front of me was the full moon. i gasped out loud at how gorgeous it was. there, out of the middle of no where, had appeared this gorgeous moon.
i know that every 28 days we get one of these. and i see many of them. but really, the beauty of the world hits me hard sometimes, when i stop to consider it.
i'm happy that i'm an earthling and get to see these things.
i know that every 28 days we get one of these. and i see many of them. but really, the beauty of the world hits me hard sometimes, when i stop to consider it.
i'm happy that i'm an earthling and get to see these things.
hartsfield-jackson atlanta international airport
scene: sunday evening, 9pm, atlanta airport.
the atlanta airport is structured such that there are six terminals plus a baggage claim/ticketing area that all run parallel to one another. to get from terminal to terminal you can walk or take a little train. the train has probably six cars and comes every 2 minutes or so.
(if you are ever in the atlanta airport and have some free time, i recommend checking out terminal E - the best food is there, plus a legit mini museum with MLK and civil rights artifacts in it. i will go to terminal E even if my flight is leaving from a different terminal. they have a qdoba. i can't stop myself.)
when flying into atlanta from newark on sunday night, my plane disembarks in terminal A, so i walk to the train and proceed to take it two stops to baggage claim. of all of the trains running on sunday evening, each two minutes apart, and of all the cars on the train i got on, i step into one car on one train and standing six feet away from me are katie and dylan, two friends from work.
um, excuse me?
what a happy small world moment.
(i would also like to give a shout out to the atlanta airport for how efficient their security screening process is. IT IS THE BEST ONE EVER. there are so many people going through atlanta (it is the busiest airport in the world), that they have the process down pat. there are a gillion different x-ray machines, so each line is pretty short, and the security screeners are pros. it is efficient. it is awesome. and it feels FAIR - i never feel like i've picked the long line and am wasting my time. all the lines move very fast. and this makes me happy. come - enjoy our security screening. we are pros down here.)
bonus points for you if you know who hartsfield and jackson were...
the atlanta airport is structured such that there are six terminals plus a baggage claim/ticketing area that all run parallel to one another. to get from terminal to terminal you can walk or take a little train. the train has probably six cars and comes every 2 minutes or so.
(if you are ever in the atlanta airport and have some free time, i recommend checking out terminal E - the best food is there, plus a legit mini museum with MLK and civil rights artifacts in it. i will go to terminal E even if my flight is leaving from a different terminal. they have a qdoba. i can't stop myself.)
when flying into atlanta from newark on sunday night, my plane disembarks in terminal A, so i walk to the train and proceed to take it two stops to baggage claim. of all of the trains running on sunday evening, each two minutes apart, and of all the cars on the train i got on, i step into one car on one train and standing six feet away from me are katie and dylan, two friends from work.
um, excuse me?
what a happy small world moment.
(i would also like to give a shout out to the atlanta airport for how efficient their security screening process is. IT IS THE BEST ONE EVER. there are so many people going through atlanta (it is the busiest airport in the world), that they have the process down pat. there are a gillion different x-ray machines, so each line is pretty short, and the security screeners are pros. it is efficient. it is awesome. and it feels FAIR - i never feel like i've picked the long line and am wasting my time. all the lines move very fast. and this makes me happy. come - enjoy our security screening. we are pros down here.)
bonus points for you if you know who hartsfield and jackson were...
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
paul simon + lee dewyze = happy claire
perhaps i should be embarrassed to admit this, but i just spent 5 minutes continuously calling in to vote for lee dewyze. on american idol. because i love him. i mean, he sang a version of simon & garfunkel's "the boxer" last week. and it was gorgeous. how can i not love him?
this week the contestants sang shania twain songs, and i love me some country music. happiness. i was quite pleased with lee's performance again, but all the contestants were good this week. so i had to (wo)man up and get out my cell phone and call in for lee. because i need to keep hearing him. i need him to win this thing.
this will give you a good two hours of procrastination
this is a great website that anderson found a couple months ago (thanks, anderson!) - it searches all of the public photo website flikr's photos based on the colors in the photos, and then pulls up the best fit for the colors you request. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW IT DOES THIS, but i know that i love the results. i change my laptop's background every month and i will definitely be going to this website to find a photo to be my next background (right click the image and then click "set as desktop background" or something similar).
ducks on the loose
urban ducklings update! they tried to cross a road! ahhhhhhhh!
(try not to laugh out loud when you see the first picture.)
(and thanks to morgan, DC resident, for keeping us updated on my new favorite duckies!)
(try not to laugh out loud when you see the first picture.)
(and thanks to morgan, DC resident, for keeping us updated on my new favorite duckies!)
Monday, April 26, 2010
i heart new york
hooray for having a sister. i would like to recommend it to everyone.
i went to new york this weekend to visit becky, and as usual the time went by much faster than i wanted it to. but we ate good food and slept in late and got manicures (in a moment of craziness, my fingernails and toenails are purple - this grey-violet color - and i love them), i bought this dress in a very light lavender color (not listed online, interestingly...) - i tried it on, it fit perfectly, and that was that. it was a great weekend, and of course i'm tired today, but it was worth it. more than anything, i realized how really special it is that becky and i went to college together for two years and thus we know many of each others' friends. well, and that is all predicated on the fact that we both made friends in college that we are still close with six or eight years later. that in itself is rare, i know.
and while new york in the rain (sunday) is yucky, new york in the sun and spring weather (saturday) is really wonderful. hooray for that, too.
i went to new york this weekend to visit becky, and as usual the time went by much faster than i wanted it to. but we ate good food and slept in late and got manicures (in a moment of craziness, my fingernails and toenails are purple - this grey-violet color - and i love them), i bought this dress in a very light lavender color (not listed online, interestingly...) - i tried it on, it fit perfectly, and that was that. it was a great weekend, and of course i'm tired today, but it was worth it. more than anything, i realized how really special it is that becky and i went to college together for two years and thus we know many of each others' friends. well, and that is all predicated on the fact that we both made friends in college that we are still close with six or eight years later. that in itself is rare, i know.
and while new york in the rain (sunday) is yucky, new york in the sun and spring weather (saturday) is really wonderful. hooray for that, too.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
i heart nc
welcome to asheville, barack and michelle!! you are staying at the grove park inn? so fancy. i've never stayed there, but i have been there, and it's gorgeous. in fact, all of asheville is gorgeous. but you know that, because you're hiking off of the blue ridge parkway. hope you have a relaxing weekend in our beautiful, beautiful north carolina. (the fact that it's a swing state doesn't hurt, either.)
side note: i love asheville. i don't want to live in atlanta forever, and asheville is the kind of place where i do want to live when i'm a grown up. yay north carolina.
side note: i love asheville. i don't want to live in atlanta forever, and asheville is the kind of place where i do want to live when i'm a grown up. yay north carolina.
Friday, April 23, 2010
puppet show
this entertains me. rachel maddow is feisty and i love her for it! i spent some time with my classes a couple months ago talking about this very case, ontario v. quon, so it's cool now to read about the reaction of the justices when they heard the case.
i'm headed to new york this weekend to see the lovely becky, eat great food, hang out with her friends, get pedicures, go shopping, enjoy the city, and just in general get away from normal life. I'M SO EXCITED. not that normal life is bad right now, because it isn't, but i'm looking forward to a break from the norm.
and thus begins The Busy Season (also known as The Wedding Season) - i'm out of town five of the next nine weekends (three times for weddings of close friends/family), and then i go to europe for seven weeks. hooray for all sorts of happy things and all sorts of great adventures, but i know i will miss my couch by the end of it all.
i'm headed to new york this weekend to see the lovely becky, eat great food, hang out with her friends, get pedicures, go shopping, enjoy the city, and just in general get away from normal life. I'M SO EXCITED. not that normal life is bad right now, because it isn't, but i'm looking forward to a break from the norm.
and thus begins The Busy Season (also known as The Wedding Season) - i'm out of town five of the next nine weekends (three times for weddings of close friends/family), and then i go to europe for seven weeks. hooray for all sorts of happy things and all sorts of great adventures, but i know i will miss my couch by the end of it all.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
one of these ducklings is an athlete. the others are not.
as if i needed another thing to worry about: i will worry about these ducklings and what happens to them. SO CUTE. and so little!
(thanks, morgan!)
(thanks, morgan!)
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
alex, i'll take "life goals" for $400.
i have a couple life goals:
1. be happy/fall in love/get married/have kids/love my job/all that jazz. i mean, this is really the primary goal.
2. be an elector in the electoral college.
3. appear on jeopardy.
willis is about to beat me to the punch on #3.
in january willis and i both took the online test in an attempt to qualify to be on jeopardy. willis and i then immediately called each other and talked through every question on the test, and out of the 50 questions, willis appeared to have gotten about 5 correct more than i did.
time passes. (in the movie of my life, this portion will be shown by snow falling and then melting and spring arriving and pollen falling and then staying forever.)
a couple weeks ago, willis receives The Email. The Email informs willis that he has qualified for the next round of testing in order to be on jeopardy. willis will go to philadelphia in june, take another test, and sit through a fake interview to see if he is interesting enough to appear on the show. assuming he does well on the next level of testing, willis absolutely will be found interesting enough to appear on the show. i mean, have you guys met willis? jeopardy needs a multiracial, gay, volleyball playing, fashionable dressing, educator like willis from small town missouri through duke and michigan to atlanta. I AM SO EXCITED FOR HIM.
1. be happy/fall in love/get married/have kids/love my job/all that jazz. i mean, this is really the primary goal.
2. be an elector in the electoral college.
3. appear on jeopardy.
willis is about to beat me to the punch on #3.
in january willis and i both took the online test in an attempt to qualify to be on jeopardy. willis and i then immediately called each other and talked through every question on the test, and out of the 50 questions, willis appeared to have gotten about 5 correct more than i did.
time passes. (in the movie of my life, this portion will be shown by snow falling and then melting and spring arriving and pollen falling and then staying forever.)
a couple weeks ago, willis receives The Email. The Email informs willis that he has qualified for the next round of testing in order to be on jeopardy. willis will go to philadelphia in june, take another test, and sit through a fake interview to see if he is interesting enough to appear on the show. assuming he does well on the next level of testing, willis absolutely will be found interesting enough to appear on the show. i mean, have you guys met willis? jeopardy needs a multiracial, gay, volleyball playing, fashionable dressing, educator like willis from small town missouri through duke and michigan to atlanta. I AM SO EXCITED FOR HIM.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
a zoo morning
this is a 4 year old gorilla. i am still calling him a baby gorilla, even though he is probably a teenager gorilla. he was hanging out and eating some leaves when we took the entire 12th grade to the zoo yesterday. i liked him a lot.
i was reminded yesterday of how human gorillas are. not just physically, which they are, but behaviorally. the baby/teenager gorillas like to play A LOT. at one point, one of the baby gorillas clutched his arms to her chest and rolled sideways down a hill in her enclosure JUST LIKE HUMAN KIDS DO. at another point, the littlest gorilla (the posted information told me that he is a year younger than the other three gorilla kids in the group) stood up on two legs and ran after the cool older kids and jumped on them when he got there. i was like, "am i at my school?" human boys like to jump on each other and rough house, too. and littler humans sometimes get left behind when the older kids are playing.
gorillas = my favorite zoo animals.
i was reminded yesterday of how human gorillas are. not just physically, which they are, but behaviorally. the baby/teenager gorillas like to play A LOT. at one point, one of the baby gorillas clutched his arms to her chest and rolled sideways down a hill in her enclosure JUST LIKE HUMAN KIDS DO. at another point, the littlest gorilla (the posted information told me that he is a year younger than the other three gorilla kids in the group) stood up on two legs and ran after the cool older kids and jumped on them when he got there. i was like, "am i at my school?" human boys like to jump on each other and rough house, too. and littler humans sometimes get left behind when the older kids are playing.
gorillas = my favorite zoo animals.
Monday, April 19, 2010
how not to pick a girl up
random guy at a bar this weekend, trying to pick up my friend lily*: "you're kind of hot. how old are you?"
note: this guy did not get very far.
*name changed to protect the innocent. even if the innocent wasn't doing anything embarrassing.
note: this guy did not get very far.
*name changed to protect the innocent. even if the innocent wasn't doing anything embarrassing.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
hello, sweden.
i have discovered google analytics and it is rocking my world. in a nutshell: you can set it up for your blog or another website you administer, and then it will keep statistics about who visits your blog, where they live, and whether they have ever been to your blog before. and lots of other things that are more important, i would imagine, to people whose website is associated with their business. and i set up google analytics ALL BY MYSELF. it involved copying and pasting code into my blog's HTML blah-de-blah. and i knew how to do that. because i am amazing.
i set this up last saturday, and since then i have been stalking you, dear readers. google analytics can tell me the exact city that each visit comes from. or, sort of. my friend mike was around when i was setting up the program, and i made him go to the blog so i could see if it was working. he works in houston during the week and his work computer's internet is routed through a server there regardless of where in the world he is, and sure enough - when he went to the blog it showed up as a visit from houston, not atlanta (where he was physically sitting). so the information i am about to present is only sort of accurate.
this is what i have learned. in the first seven days that i had this set up:
85 unique visitors went to my blog. hi, 85 people!
1 person has visited from each of these countries: mali, hong kong, sweden, canada, malaysia, the philippines. 2 have visited from russia, 2 from pakistan, and 3 from the uk.
in the us, there have been visits from connecticut, massachusetts, new york, north carolina, DC, virginia, maryland, tennessee, iowa, wisconsin, texas, utah, california. and of course georgia.
i have clearly been spending all my free time stalking you on google analytics. i know who many of these readers are - it's clear who is visiting from north wilkesboro, nc or west hartford, ct or nashville, tn, for example, and it's really bizarre to me that google knows the exact city these visits come from. like, google - you know where my friends live!
but who is coming from wales, wisconsin? or mcneil, texas? or moscow? or mali? or karachi, pakistan and lahore, pakistan? (yes, dear readers, two visits from pakistan. omg.) the only one of these mysteries i believe i've solved is the mali one: my guess is that my friend anna in lusaka, zambia has her internet routed through mali. i have made this decision because anna is the only person i know living in the whole continent of africa. nevermind that mali and zambia are 3,100 miles apart. now, i know noone in the entire continent of asia, so these must be new friends. hi, new friends!
this makes me very curious who is reading this blog. (in addition, i know that some people read this blog through google reader or some rss software [is that the right word?], and i don't think google analytics is picking up on that - it only records people who go to the website.) so - blog readers one and all, far and near: out yourselves! it would mean a lot to me if everyone (even those people whose location i know) would post a little comment and tell me who you are and where you're reading from. inquiring minds want to know. as a bonus: the person who is reading from the farthest location from atlanta gets a real life postcard in the mail from me (anna: you might be a shoe-in to win this one, but i'll send you a postcard even if you aren't) AND the person who can tell me the most interesting fact about their location gets a postcard in the mail. i get to determine what is interesting and what isn't.
ready, set, COMMENT. google analytics will let me know if you don't, and i will be very disappointed.
i set this up last saturday, and since then i have been stalking you, dear readers. google analytics can tell me the exact city that each visit comes from. or, sort of. my friend mike was around when i was setting up the program, and i made him go to the blog so i could see if it was working. he works in houston during the week and his work computer's internet is routed through a server there regardless of where in the world he is, and sure enough - when he went to the blog it showed up as a visit from houston, not atlanta (where he was physically sitting). so the information i am about to present is only sort of accurate.
this is what i have learned. in the first seven days that i had this set up:
85 unique visitors went to my blog. hi, 85 people!
1 person has visited from each of these countries: mali, hong kong, sweden, canada, malaysia, the philippines. 2 have visited from russia, 2 from pakistan, and 3 from the uk.
in the us, there have been visits from connecticut, massachusetts, new york, north carolina, DC, virginia, maryland, tennessee, iowa, wisconsin, texas, utah, california. and of course georgia.
i have clearly been spending all my free time stalking you on google analytics. i know who many of these readers are - it's clear who is visiting from north wilkesboro, nc or west hartford, ct or nashville, tn, for example, and it's really bizarre to me that google knows the exact city these visits come from. like, google - you know where my friends live!
but who is coming from wales, wisconsin? or mcneil, texas? or moscow? or mali? or karachi, pakistan and lahore, pakistan? (yes, dear readers, two visits from pakistan. omg.) the only one of these mysteries i believe i've solved is the mali one: my guess is that my friend anna in lusaka, zambia has her internet routed through mali. i have made this decision because anna is the only person i know living in the whole continent of africa. nevermind that mali and zambia are 3,100 miles apart. now, i know noone in the entire continent of asia, so these must be new friends. hi, new friends!
this makes me very curious who is reading this blog. (in addition, i know that some people read this blog through google reader or some rss software [is that the right word?], and i don't think google analytics is picking up on that - it only records people who go to the website.) so - blog readers one and all, far and near: out yourselves! it would mean a lot to me if everyone (even those people whose location i know) would post a little comment and tell me who you are and where you're reading from. inquiring minds want to know. as a bonus: the person who is reading from the farthest location from atlanta gets a real life postcard in the mail from me (anna: you might be a shoe-in to win this one, but i'll send you a postcard even if you aren't) AND the person who can tell me the most interesting fact about their location gets a postcard in the mail. i get to determine what is interesting and what isn't.
ready, set, COMMENT. google analytics will let me know if you don't, and i will be very disappointed.
i know how to embed things in my blog. i am fancy.
okay, my world is complete. i have learned how to embed NPR stories in my blog. so you can just listen to it here! no need for a link! i hope you are appropriately impressed. it was really easy to do (control-c, control-v), but i am embarrassingly proud of this:
do you guys listen to npr's sunday puzzle? in atlanta, this airs on sunday mornings much earlier than i wake up. so early that i don't even know what time it airs. well, early being relative...today i got out of bed at 1:30pm. so i get the sunday puzzle podcast and i can listen to it whenever i want. I HEART TECHNOLOGY.
you all know at this point about my love of words and grammar and such, and that crosses over into my love of this podcast.
happy sunday!
do you guys listen to npr's sunday puzzle? in atlanta, this airs on sunday mornings much earlier than i wake up. so early that i don't even know what time it airs. well, early being relative...today i got out of bed at 1:30pm. so i get the sunday puzzle podcast and i can listen to it whenever i want. I HEART TECHNOLOGY.
you all know at this point about my love of words and grammar and such, and that crosses over into my love of this podcast.
happy sunday!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
claire the baker
for the past two fridays in a row, i have come home, watched a little tv, and then done some baking. this is in contrast to my normal friday routine of coming home and watching a lot of tv and then going to bed. i'm EXHAUSTED on fridays. i am good for nothing. i need a lot of claire time and i take that time in front of the tv, in my pajamas. but last friday there were a whole bunch of pears in the fruit basket at school. (yes, we have free fruit for our students and faculty to try to con them into eating better. and it works shockingly well.) and i knew those pears would go bad if they sat around school all weekend, so i took as many as i could carry (7) and came home and baked a pear cake that wasn't particularly pretty (that's the "old-fashioned" part of the recipe, i think, and i like that), and with whipped cream it was heavenly. kelly and i ate a third of the cake by ourselves, standing up in the kitchen, before we even ate dinner.
this friday when i got home i made zucchini sweet potato bread, except the zucchini i bought two weeks ago when i first intended to make this bread had gone bad. imagine that. so it was just sweet potato bread, with walnuts and cranberries like the recipe suggests. and it is equally heavenly. i cooked it about 5 minutes too long, so the outside is tough, but inside it is the perfect consistency. i ate about a third of the loaf before dinner. joey helped this time. (thanks to morgan for this recipe! she introduced me to this blog and i LOVE it.)
on fridays i am good for nothing EXCEPT BAKING. this is something i'm discovering. there is something really relaxing about grating and cutting and combining ingredients and making a big mess and cleaning up and running the dishwasher and eating whatever i've concocted. i've always known this, but been too lazy on a friday night to make it happen. i still watched a lot of tv yesterday, but the baking calmed me down and put me in weekend mood than the tv did. and i felt productive - not like the waste of space i normally am. not that there's anything WRONG with being a waste of space. it's pretty fabulous, actually. but now i'm a waste of space with a full and happy belly.
this friday when i got home i made zucchini sweet potato bread, except the zucchini i bought two weeks ago when i first intended to make this bread had gone bad. imagine that. so it was just sweet potato bread, with walnuts and cranberries like the recipe suggests. and it is equally heavenly. i cooked it about 5 minutes too long, so the outside is tough, but inside it is the perfect consistency. i ate about a third of the loaf before dinner. joey helped this time. (thanks to morgan for this recipe! she introduced me to this blog and i LOVE it.)
on fridays i am good for nothing EXCEPT BAKING. this is something i'm discovering. there is something really relaxing about grating and cutting and combining ingredients and making a big mess and cleaning up and running the dishwasher and eating whatever i've concocted. i've always known this, but been too lazy on a friday night to make it happen. i still watched a lot of tv yesterday, but the baking calmed me down and put me in weekend mood than the tv did. and i felt productive - not like the waste of space i normally am. not that there's anything WRONG with being a waste of space. it's pretty fabulous, actually. but now i'm a waste of space with a full and happy belly.
Friday, April 16, 2010
some insight into me as a child
when i was little i didn't understand the phrase, "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." i was around pigs occasionally. i can't remember if we ever had a pig, but we certainly had friends who did. i thought their ears were kind of soft. i thought, "why can't you make a purse out of their ears?"
as you're growing up, you reach a point in life where you realize you aren't normal or your experiences haven't been normal. when you're very little, of course they're normal - they are all you know. and then you meet the real world and you find out that other people don't do things the way you and your family do them. i'm sure this happens to everyone, not just to people who grow up on a farm in a country with not very many farms. [there were 3 times as many farms in the united states in 1935 than there are now, and there are 2.5 times as many people in the us today. (from here.)] everybody is weird, right? just weird in different ways.
my moment came - and i have a vivid memory of this - when i was in preschool and i was playing over at a friend's house. maybe i was even spending the night? it came time to change clothes (to go swimming? go to bed?), and we went into the bathroom to change clothes, me and this little girl who was my friend. i was like, "people change their clothes in the bathroom?" in my house becky and i got dressed in the kitchen in front of the heater. that was the first moment i can remember where i thought, "oh. not everyone gets dressed in the kitchen. we do things differently at my house."
different AWESOME, obviously. but different.
in kindergarden i also once made a girl cry at lunch because she had a white bread sandwich and i told her that my mom said that white bread is bad for you. but that is a story for another day.
as you're growing up, you reach a point in life where you realize you aren't normal or your experiences haven't been normal. when you're very little, of course they're normal - they are all you know. and then you meet the real world and you find out that other people don't do things the way you and your family do them. i'm sure this happens to everyone, not just to people who grow up on a farm in a country with not very many farms. [there were 3 times as many farms in the united states in 1935 than there are now, and there are 2.5 times as many people in the us today. (from here.)] everybody is weird, right? just weird in different ways.
my moment came - and i have a vivid memory of this - when i was in preschool and i was playing over at a friend's house. maybe i was even spending the night? it came time to change clothes (to go swimming? go to bed?), and we went into the bathroom to change clothes, me and this little girl who was my friend. i was like, "people change their clothes in the bathroom?" in my house becky and i got dressed in the kitchen in front of the heater. that was the first moment i can remember where i thought, "oh. not everyone gets dressed in the kitchen. we do things differently at my house."
different AWESOME, obviously. but different.
in kindergarden i also once made a girl cry at lunch because she had a white bread sandwich and i told her that my mom said that white bread is bad for you. but that is a story for another day.
a passing thought
i was just grading some supreme court case projects for my AP government class, and in one a student mentioned a previous court case - united states v. cruikshank. is it bad that the first thing i thought was, "why did the united states sue hermoine's cat?"
i think perhaps i am delirious from grading.
i think perhaps i am delirious from grading.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)