countdown

only two more weeks of class and it's vacation time! w00t! [i learned more about this handy expression from a lovely mouse pad courtesy of grace and joe's wedding - thanks!]
but this also means that i only have a handful of days to complete all of my final papers/projects. plus, i have the last of my standardized test to get my preliminary credential this saturday - the RICA. it's all about literacy - how to assess and teach it. i really need to pass. it's too expensive to have to retake.

have i mentioned that i enjoy school? even though it can be overwhelming and intense, i love learning new things! i don't feel like my brain is atrophying! hurrah!

the thing i find really entertaining about sitemeter is when it lists the searches conducted by others that somehow, lead to the blog. someone searched for the words "spandex" and "humiliation" together and msn led them here. really, really weird.

hurrah!

my turkey turned out great! at least that's what everybody said and i have no reason to think that they would lie to me. :) it was a recipe that susan got from real simple. i think they called it molasses butter turkey. and the use of the oven bag kept the turkey from going overly dry. it was pretty tasty! there were a ton of leftovers, so we put them in tupperware for people to take home. we'll all be eating thanksgiving food for days. hurrah!


this was our pretty food table. everybody brought something. there was creamed corn, creamed spinach with artichoke, couscous with tofu (so good!), green beans, pillsbury cheddar biscuits, garlic mashed potatoes, and salad with sesame-style dressing. there was a lot of food. oh, and sam made some great strawberry lemonade, better than red robin's, i tell you.

and in between waiting, eating, and resting, we watched the end of dodgeball, 50 first dates, and episodes of ducktales. and played apples to apples and taboo. i got to introduce apples to apples to everybody and for the first time in a while, the girls did not beat the boys at taboo. it was 103 to 104. it seemed like a suspicious win for the boys.

and before everybody went home, i had to take a group photo. the photo is missing grace and joe, who came by for games...yay!

happy thanksgiving!

happy thanksgiving! i love celebrations and holidays - even in 72 degree weather. craziness.

cartoon nostalgia

on monday, i went to ups to pick up my package from amazon. i bought ducktales and chip and dale: rescue rangers (both sets are volume one of the series) on dvd. so exciting! ducktales is just as awesome as i remember. it's so much fun!!!

i also started defrosting the turkey for the "orphans" thanksgiving dinner. this will be my first attempt at cooking turkey and i'm hoping it turns out really well, otherwise, people won't have a lot to eat on thursday.

and woohoo to thanksgiving vacation! i will use it to finish off portions of class homework and study for a literacy exam (RICA), at least i will try and do those things during the break.

and i added a few more photos.

color me disappointed

ok, so continuing with my story about the t-shirt incident, i decided that i'm not as annoyed at the embarrassment portion of the situation as i am at the fact that not a single guy stepped up to move the conversation to a different topic. i can even admit at the stupidity/complicity in not recognizing the potential misinterpretation of the shirt. i suppose these days i can no longer expect people to not look for the double entendre in everything. regardless, after it's been highlighted, and laughed about, there's a moment when it's time to move on. i was getting uncomfortable by the attention that was being brought into it, and i while i could've left, personal pride kept me there, trying to weather through. and while i could've just called them on it, or even if another girl said something, it just wouldn't have been taken in the same way as if just one guy...ONE...had said something. i'm pretty disappointed.

just another example of the inheritance of a patriarchal, male-dominated society - a girl's opinions/thoughts just don't seem to carry the same weight as a guy's. not cool.

all your dirty minds are belong to boys

some people just absolutely love and crave attention. i don't really care for that much, especially if it's bad attention. it's probably a good thing i'm resilient from being friends with people who've mocked me enough to build up my protective exterior. to be fair, i've mocked them right back.

so anyway, i have this t-shirt, which wendy designed for a campus crusade epic ministries conference. i did not attend this conference, i just got the shirt because it's from american apparel (which means it's super comfortable and sweatshop-free) and because it looked cute and stemmed from a nifty concept. the concept being that 18 inches is the average distance from your head to your heart, meaning bridging the gap in regards to your faith from mind to heart. unfortunately, this is not how people interpret the shirt. case in point, i wore the shirt today, without any thought to wrongful interpretations, and someone, a dude, asked what my shirt meant. so i explain the conference theme, etc. and he's like, "cool." 15 minutes later, another dude asks about the shirt, and i repeat my explanation. but of course, he decides to share what he thought it might have referred to with the group.* and from there it became a complete scene.

by now, i've explained this conference theme way too many times. one guy said, "oh, it's a real conference?" as if i made it up just to justify an alternative explanation of the shirt that wasn't dirty. seriously people. if i had had a sweatshirt or something, i would've put it on, but of course, it was 90 degrees today and no such luck. i left the table several times to get more food - plus, i thought it might let the whole situation die. again, i was not so fortunate. the guys just thought it was really funny, and really felt the need to ask practically every single other person in the room. that's just awesome. (extreme sarcasm)

i tried to wait it out, but i gave up. i can never, ever, ever wear the shirt again. which is so sad because it is supremely comfortable (and sweatshop-free!).

i couldn't let the embarrassment just be embarrassment. to make the endurance of the whole thing worthwhile, it had to at least become a shared story. public humiliation builds character. yea...that's what i'll keep telling myself.

*no, i will not explain what he thought it meant to you.

high...and i don't mean on drugs

ok... i try pretty hard not to get addicted to any one thing, except tv/movies/books/music. :) but i'm starting to see why playing poker (texas hold 'em) is addicting for people. i'm pretty sure i've only played poker with real money about 5 times in my whole life and 3 of those times where during this last week (monday, friday, today/saturday). i'm still jittery from my win. i took home $55 today. but i did lose a total of $15 in buy-ins from the previous two games. i've decided that i can't play anymore. it's way too nervewracking. my palms were all sweaty and my heart was beating too fast. seriously...i'm still wide awake.

this last week of school was interesting. i'm ended my rotation in the 5th grade class and i'm not sure if i prefer lower-elementary or upper. they both have their own pros and cons. i am starting to see more of the difficult things i'll encounter in an urban school setting. in theory, i know that drive-bys and gangs exist in a variety of neighborhoods, but hearing the librarian talk to the 10 year-olds during library time about how they know that gangs and drive-bys exist/happen in their community still surprised me. it's hard because everything in so many ways is outside of my personal reality in terms of how i've grown up and lived my life over the last 25 years. over and over again, i wonder at my ability and capacity to be effective as a teacher in every aspect. it's like being teacher/social worker/parent/advocate/protector all at the same time and i'm feeling inept. i'm hoping this isn't actually true, otherwise my future students are going to suffer...big time, and i would absolutely hate that. they deserve so much better than an inept teacher. *sigh* but according to my team advisor, these feelings are hitting at about the expected time in the program. it's nice to know it's "normal."

the 80s strike back

last saturday, i took the big test. i used up all 5 hours, but i think there's good chance i passed all three subtests. i'll be keeping my fingers crosses until dec. 5th, when the scores are released. this whole last week has been all about relaxing since the two weeks before were full of cramming and studying. and since today was a holiday, i spent the afternoon kayaking with some fun people from my teaching cohort. the water was a little stinky, but it was still way fun.

on my list of things to do before i get extremely old, there is no listing for "go to a keggar." but if it was on my list, i can now cross it off. a friend from one my classes threw a theme party - the 80s high school keggar. since none of us were old enough to actually party during the 80s, she and her roommates wanted to create the experience. their setup and research about the theme came from 80s movies...you know...the breakfast club, pretty in pink, and of course, sixteen candles, which they had playing on repeat in the background. they actually had a keg, which i didn't know you could actually buy. and people dressed up in total 80s gear...cheerleaders, ugly prom dresses, lots of spandex, some leotards, denim on denim, and dudes in pants that were way too tight and shorts that were way too short - so not ok. the music was a mix of 80s and current pop/hip hop/rap. susan has this observation about anglo-dancing - she's not wrong. the thing that was a little weird to me was that most of the people were from my friend's church, bel air presbyterian. huh. while i've become more "liberal" in my beliefs (social justice, anyone?), i'm crazy conservative regarding behavior. ass-grabbing just doesn't say "presbyterian" to me.

and since i haven't done this in a while:

currently listening to:

kanye west - late registration

shakira - fijación oral

switchfoot - nothing is sound

currently watching:

he-man and the masters of the universe - vol. 1

the wb/fox + veronica mars

currently reading:

pedagogy of freedom - paulo freire

teaching community: a pedagogy of hope - bell hooks

pedagogy of the oppressed - paulo freire

these days, all of my reading is academic. sometimes it's incredibly boring (textbooks), but more often it's completely enlightening. as one of my classmates said, "it's completely overwhelming." if you can, read some of paulo freire's stuff - it's pretty amazing.

new rotation

i started a new rotation this week in a 5th grade class. this class is much more diverse with latino, asian, filipino, and black kids. there is a set of twin boys named elvis and ivan. they're chinese. i love the names. chinese people come up with the craziest names. i was thinking today, what are some weird things to name your kids, and i came up with feldspar. what can i say, i was studying a bunch of science today that included geology. i take another test this saturday morning and i have to pass all 3 subtests so that i can student teach starting in january. i think it's harder than the SATs...no joke.

saks

i went to saks fifth avenue today with my roommate. i do not normally shop at saks...ever. and this is why:

i saw a theory blazer with the price tag of $495.00. it's just a velvet blazer...made in china, like the ones that my mom used to try to get me to wear, except this one had a better cut. even so, no stylistic cut is worth paying $495.00. for that much money, it either needs to be made out of gold, come with a cure for some kind of infectious disease, or offer a solution to a relevant social problem. i think i actually channeled some "garrett" anger the longer i stayed in the store. i even saw this girl who didn't look any older than 13/14 shopping with her mom, picking out pieces of clothing that were upwards of $150.00. i was appalled, not only by the fact that her mom would even entertain the idea of buying her the crazy expensive clothing, but by the fact that she was in a short and fitted button-up t-shirt dress and knee/thigh boots. to use somebody else's words, "i was aghast." seriously.

don't get me wrong, i still love to go shopping and browse, but i'm satisfied even when i just get toilet paper, or even when i don't buy anything at all. i think i'm bothered by what i perceive as waste in throwing money towards clothing manufactured in countries like china and brazil where it's unlikely that they're seeing very much of that $495.00. eh, but somebody could argue the same about my spending habits i suppose.