These Is My Words

“Sometimes I feel like a tree on a hill, at the place where all the wind blows and the hail hits the tree the hardest. All the people I love are down the side aways, sheltered under a great rock, and I am out of the fold, standing alone in the sun and the snow. I feel like I am not part of the rest somehow, although they welcome me and are kind. I see my family as they sit together and it is like they have a certain way between them that is beyond me. I wonder if other folks ever feel included yet alone.”
― Nancy E. Turner, These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901

The One-Week Countdown

The end of my craziest school month is in sight. I can almost taste it. Tuesday is History Day. The kids have been working hard, and I think the projects are pretty good. Hopefully, someone will get to go to State for their efforts.

The 7th grade language arts research papers are due (Have you ever thought about teaching 7th graders how to write research papers? Just ponder about that activity for awhile. Are you pondering? Are you scared yet? Aren't I a superhero?). Guess what I get to check over spring break! Actually, they've been working so hard on them, I'm excited to read them. It's fun to see them all come together.

Images of Greatness is Thursday. Today I saw the kids' costumes, and their display boards are really coming together. I think it's going to be a great night.

Then... if I can make it through Friday... SPRING BREAK!!! I will be having rehearsal, a house appraisal, and a doctor's appointment over spring break, but I will also be having a lot of sleeping and a lot of reading.

Speaking of reading, we had 39 kids at our Fairfield Middle School Rabid Readers Book Club meeting yesterday. 39! WOW, it was fun. The level of discussion always blows me away at these meetings. I so look forward to it every month. Our next book is called The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. It comes highly recommended for anyone who liked The Hunger Games. I can't wait to start reading it. My grown-up (?) book club is reading The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver, and my Professional Development group at school is reading a book in our assessment strand called Fair Isn't Always Equal by Rick Wormeli. I have a lot of reading to do to get these done in time for discussions, but that's what spring break is for, right? :)

Hope you all have a respite in sight as well!

Missing Winter...

I don't know what happened to my winter. 70's this week? 80's next week? I got robbed. Plain and simple. Today, I'm clinging to hope in a sweatshirt as the middle school kids are in shorts and t-shirts. I'm not ready for shorts and t-shirts yet. UGH!

What am I doing?

I'm rambling.

What it comes down to is that I have the weight of the world on my shoulders today. If you could throw an extra prayer or thought for me into the universe, I'd appreciate it. That's what I really wanted to say. Guess I had to work up to it.

Weekly Update

Can you really call it a weekly update if it's been months since you've actually had a post called "Weekly Update?" Enquiring/Inquiring minds want to know.

March is the month of the big 3 for me: middle school play, History Day, and Images of Greatness. I have the first one checked off, as of last weekend. The middle school play went very well. I was so proud of the kids, and really, the only hitch was a early dismissal on Friday, the second night of our show. We had a bizarre snow shower, and to be safe, they let the kids out of school at 1:30. When that happens, all evening activities are canceled too. After some frantic running around like a chicken with my head cut off, we got things rescheduled for Saturday night. Never mind that by 3:00, it had stopped snowing, and by showtime, the streets were dry and there was barely a dusting on the ground. Oh well. :P

We did a play adaptation of the book Number the Stars (Have I written about this before? I feel like I'm losing my mind...) and the kids really took the drama aspect seriously. I was so proud of their growth & work. They had fun at their cast party on Saturday night (so did I). I'm so lucky to have parents who volunteer space, time, and money to that adventure.

Now, we're in the middle of prepping for History Day & Images of Greatness. They will be the the week before spring break, which is also the last week of the quarter. Busy, busy.

Andrew and I got our plane tickets for the Sutherlin family reunion which will be at my California cousins' ranch in California, right in the heart of gold mine country. We're spending a couple of days in San Francisco before, because I've never been there. I'm also on a mission to hug a redwood tree. I can't explain this need in me, but I must see and hug a redwood tree during this trip. I want to feel tiny and young... maybe that's it. LOL

I'm also working on several upcoming shows. Tonight I'm singing in a benefit for Way Off Broadway. Robby Benson & his wife Karla DeVito will be there to sign things and lead our auction. Margaret Clair & I are singing a selection from Forbidden Broadway. It's a spoof of "Mamma Mia," and it's pretty funny. Forbidden Broadway is the show I'm getting ready for in April. In June, I'll be playing Mrs. Shinn, the Mayor's wife, in WOB's Music Man, and then I can focus on playing Goneril in Andrew's production of King Lear. Whew! I'm going to be ready for a break when school starts. Ha ha.

Off to practice my choreography for tonight... here I go!

11 Questions

I saw this blog tag questionnaire on a blog I follow called Maybe Matilda. I haven't done one of these in awhile. So, here are my answers to Maybe Matilda's 11 Questions.

1. Celebrity crushes past and present:

Past: There are 2: Rob Lowe and Ricky Schroeder. At our house on Frank Street, I had two window shades at the head of my bed. They were covered with pictures from Teen Beat (and all those similar publications that make me shake my head now) that I'd cut out. One shade had Rob Lowe pictures. The other had ones of Ricky Schroeder. Be still my preteen heart.

Present: Well, I have the freebie list posted on the left side of my blog for a reason. ;) Harrison Ford, Colin Firth, Michael Ball, Alec Baldwin, and Andy Garcia. In that order.

2. Favorite book: My all-time favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird. I read it to my 8th grade GOAL kids every year, and I have yet to do it without crying. Especially when Scout's innocence singlehandedly diffuses a lynch mob. Powerful stuff.

3. 5 favorite TV shows: I don't watch all that much TV anymore. But some shows I enjoy, both past and present, are:

Smash

Downton Abbey

The Amazing Race

Sex and the City

30 Rock

4. Guilty pleasure: Easy. Cadbury Mini Eggs. It's the danger season, folks. I cannot resist these babies for the life of me.

5. Goals I'm currently working on: Well, I'm very close to having my garage cleaned out. That's a big one. I'm able to park in it which is more than I've been able to say for 10 years. I still have some to do though. My current goal (that kind of goes along with the garage) is to get my house refinanced, and my dear Andrew has been helping me with several projects to make sure that happens.

6. Any trend of style that I've wanted to try, but been scared to: There is a big part of me that wants a tattoo. I think I'll always be too chicken though.

7. A skill that I'd love to learn: I'd love to learn basic carpentry. Watching the guys put in my laminate floor and fix my ceiling... well, I'd love to be able to do some of that myself. I just have no idea where to start. I'd like to be handier around my house, in general.

8. If I had a day with unlimited money to spend and no obligations: Easy. Broadway shows. As many as I could cram into a day. Then, I'd eat in a fancy restaurant and stay in a luxurious hotel.

9. A person (living or dead) I'd love to meet: I'd love to meet Maya Angelou. Her words have had a serious impact on my life, and I'd like to meet the woman behind the words.

10. If I weren't doing the career I'm doing now (teacher), what would I want to be doing instead: Egyptologist or Broadway Diva

11. Names I want/wanted to give my kids: My boy's name is Samuel. Girls' names change, but some names I currently like are: Phoebe, Hope, Elizabeth, Caroline, Joanna, and Harper.

I'm not going to actually tag anyone in this blog. Maybe that's missing the point, but, oh well. If you're so moved, answer these questions on your own blog. Leave me a comment with the link so I can read what you wrote!

And the moral of the story is...

Don't pick a zit. Actually the moral is don't pick at anything above your lip line. Ever. Especially when you still have some infection rolling around your bod from a case of pneumonia. If you pick that zit, and you still have some infection rolling around your bod from a case of pneumonia, guess what happens? Well, first, said zit gets infected. Red and angry and swollen infected. Second, by the time you go to bed that night, your glands & lymph nodes on the zit side of your head and neck will all be swollen. Third, by the time you wake up, you can't even lie on your pillow on that side of your head because the swollen glands by your jaw will be too sore to touch.

Better go to the doctor, right? Not so easy during Iowa standardized tests, but if you have a great principal like I do, you can make it work. Then the doctor will take one look at it and write a prescription of 4 horse pills a day for 10 days (it looks like I buy my antibiotic in bulk at Sam's Club). You then get a lecture about picking stuff on your face. Great. You also are told that if you are not noticeably better in 24 hours, you are to come back for an antibiotic injection, and if that doesn't work, you're getting put in the hospital.

All from picking a zit.

Luckily, I'm better, but take my advice. Don't do it.

Smash

I have a new show. It's called Smash. Have you seen it? It makes me ache and tap my toe and get goosebumps. It touches that musical theatre place inside me, that wild, gypsy place. I love this song from the end of this week's episode. Thank God even crazy dreams come true.