field trip friday

i took the kids to the la convention center for the WIRED nextfest education day to see the exhibits. the kids LOVED it (as did the parents)! i am super fortunate to have parents who are really on top of things, as well as friends who were willing to come out and help (thanks to my new roommate susan and gilbert too). the kids were pretty worn out by the time we got back to school. i'm thinking the walk from the metrorail station back to school after the convention center may have put them over the edge of exhaustion. but lucky us, we got a sheriff's escort all the way from the convention center back to the station closest to school. awesome - especially considering how crowded it was on the way back. i left with 28 kids and i returned with 28 (2 kids were absent...sad, because they missed out) and i call that a good trip.

i stayed at school a bit to grade some stuff, and just organize. eh...things are all over the place. i left to attend a fun-filled evening of a justin timberlake taped concert viewing. hahaha...so hilarious making non-fans to endure it. then, it was game time with scene it - boys vs. girls. us girls were super behind in the first game, but we came back and won the whole thing. second time, we just kept the lead and won on a question where we had to guess the movie based on a scene where the actors had been removed (an invisible - if you've seen them) and thank you "bill and ted's excellent adventure" - we totally won. the whole evening was basically like hanging out with kristie, shiv, and the seattle games/teenybopper gang, except with random la/la transplant folks. it was so fun! i *heart* games.

celebrity sighting!!!

i just realized that i finally saw a celebrity! friday after school, some teachers, the principal, and i went to pinkberry in larchmont. while we were sitting there eating, this couple walked in and got in line. i kept thinking, "hmm...that girl looks so familiar, like the girl from ugly betty..." but i wasn't sure. i'm watching old episodes of ugly betty right now as i cut apart my laminated materials and it is her! i just imdb-ed her and she was with her husband at pinkberry! she plays amanda on ugly betty.

now i feel like i really live in LA.

faux postage

susan and i were addressing an envelope with checks for jermaine's birthday gift. we still have the superhero stamps (worth $0.39). so of course, since postage has gone up, i bought a bunch of $0.01 stamps to bring up the postage to the required $0.41. just now, i walk into susan's room, only to here her say, "these stamps don't stick very well" immediately followed by seeing her lick the back of the stamp. i've just watched her lick the paper sticker backing. i start laughing and fall onto the floor, which causes her to come to the realization that she's just licked the paper backing to self-adhesive stamps. so awesome.

end of summer

labor day weekend always seems to mark the end of summer...at least the end of summer vacation for teachers. i spent the last few days of break helping grace and joe move to the valley (it is insanely hot up there, even at 11pm), attempting to get my check engine light to go away (it came back on again...), "studying" meaning that i spent hours cutting up laminated objects as amy actually studied for med school classes, dumpling b-day party, boogie boarding at the beach, watched "dedication" (a funny and unconventionally cute movie), went swimming, and hung out in torrance doing buddy laminating (to make it more fun) and dinner/movie. brian, alexandra and i both agree that we must be aging since we're all tired before 10pm.

i forgot... while we were at the lakeshore in carson, i ran into a teacher that i'd met during my student teaching time with 2nd graders in east LA. he's an alum of the same program alexandra and i just finished. he told me that his teaching buddy and his 4th grade class was just on the sci-fi program "who wants to be a superhero?" how crazy/cool is that? i just watched the first chapter of the episode and sure enough, i recognized the 4th grade teacher from my student teaching time.

one more day and then the kids come back! it's equal parts exciting and scary.