Martinis, Mashed Potatoes, and Matrimony

Saturday night, Darryl and I went to Russell and Tiffiny's wedding. Darryl and Russell used to work together, and one of their favorite things to do was to go to good (and fattening) places for lunch. Darryl has told me more than once about Russell's LOVE for The Varsity. It seemed only appropriate, then, that this would be his groom's cake:

Well, back to the wedding itself...

The wedding was extremely elegant (I loved the black strapless bridesmaids' dresses!) and was held at the beautiful Christ the King Catholic Church. Afterwards, we all went to Wimbish Mansion downtown, which apparently belongs to the Woman's Club of Atlanta. You know that when a server greets you at the door with a peach martini that you are in for a good time.

Anyway, we had a good time mixing and mingling with Darryl's friends from his old job, and the food was fantastic. (Some of the fare for the evening included mini meatloaves with dollops of mashed potatoes, fried green tomatoes, a mashed potato bar, pecan-crusted chicken fingers, some kind of delicious flank-type steak, salad, and more.) It was one of the few weddings I've been to where the dance floor was absolutely packed. Darryl managed to snag a picture of his friend Chris working his dance floor magic to, of all things, "Play that Funky Music":

It really was a fun and sweet wedding, and we wish Russell and Tiffiny a very happy future together.

Still not at the finish line

Well, between the Braves game, the wedding we attended Saturday night, and chores around the house, I was able to make it only through part of my grading stack. I finished the five sets of in-class essays from my seniors, and I feel pretty good about that. I was insane to think I would have gotten all those graded, anyway.

Grading Marathon 2006

Darryl and I have already gone to a Braves game (see post below), and tonight we are going to a wedding, but the rest of my time needs to be spent grading this stack of papers. It isn't that tall, but this stack contains the following, ranked by priority:

1--4 sets of in-class essays from my seniors (this would explain why the stack isn't that tall--most of my seniors think that "multi-paragraph essay" means two paragraphs). While I have many of these--about 100--they shouldn't take long to grade. They aren't a major grade, so I'm spending just a few minutes on each one.

2--1 set of in-class essays from my Pre-AP students. I have 14 of these, but they will probably take a while to grade as I adjust to the AP grading rubric I borrowed/adapted from TimShady.

3--5 sets of short essay responses from the seniors' Canterbury Tales test. I can do these quickly.

4--1 set of vocabulary quizzes from my Pre-AP students. These should be easy to grade.

If I can get ALL of this done (I know--dream on, right?), I will be in GREAT shape at the beginning of the week and will not get anything new to grade until Wednesday, when Canterbury Tales projects are due. :)

I just heard the shot of the pistol, so I better get on my way...

The Braves

Last night, Darryl and I had some great seats--the top part of the lower level, behind home plate--for the Braves game. Darryl's friend Chad got the tickets from one of his clients (or something like that), so the tickets were free. That's a good thing, I guess, because Darryl and I paid plenty of money eating hot dogs (is it just me, or is there nothing a like ball park hot dog?), nachos, and snow cones.

When the Braves blew their 3-run lead, we turned our attention to this guy, who had become much more fun to watch than the game:
Not only did this guy like to holler incomprehensible things all through the game, but we noticed that whenever the Braves played defense, he put on his fielder's glove, and whenever the Braves were at bat, he took off the fielder's glove and put on his batting gloves. Occasionally, he would take a pitcher's stance right before a pitch, and sometimes he swung an imaginary bat. He was hardcore.

All in a weekend

Okay, so it's Tuesday, and I'm just now reporting on the weekend. That's pretty much how my life has felt lately--a bit behind schedule. Anyway, here goes.

The Chocolate Fountain
Saturday, Darryl and I went to a surprise party for our friend Blake, who turned 40 years old. The party was fun, with lots of good food, 80s music, and good friends. (Okay, technically, these were Blake and Jessica's good friends, but we did know a few people there and enjoyed talking with them.) I also enjoyed spending lots of time--too much time--at the chocolate fountain, and I also realized that my favorite thing to dip in the fountain was pretzels. Yum.

The Perfect Coffee and End Tables
Darryl and I had been keeping our eyes open for a new coffee table and new end tables. Our old coffee table had a bottom shelf on it that was a couple of inches from the floor, and unfortunately, that bottom shelf had endured seven years of two dogs sliding across it over and over again. (And on a selfish note, Darryl and I were tired of having to retrieve the dog's ball when it got stuck under that shelf.)

A few weeks ago, Darryl and I found a coffee table we really liked at Costco, of all places, but they didn't have the matching end tables, so we didn't buy it. (We liked these tables because they reminded us of some tables we liked at Crate and Barrel, but at about a third of the price.) Sunday, on a whim, we went into a different Costco that had one end table. We asked one of the clerks if another end table and the coffee table were available at any other Costco, and apparently the quickly selling tables were available at the Costco in Morrow. Soooo, we ended up going to Morrow, and we easily spotted the coffee table. The one end table they had in stock (the "display" table) was a bit harder to find. The clerk looked in the back. He looked in the returns. He looked again in the back. Finally, Darryl , who was just browsing the aisles while waiting for the clerk to return, spotted it on a random shelf above something like canned tomatoes. Only in Costco. :) Anyway, we have our tables. If I had more energy, I would take a photo. I'll try to do that soon. They really are cool tables.

A Good Movie
The movie Ladder 49 had been sitting around on my fake TiVo for about a month, and I finally decided to watch it. I highly recommend it. While the movie does have several "big fire scenes" and the obligatory "close call" scenes, it is primarily about the type of person it takes--as one of the characters says, and I'm paraphrasing here--to run into a fiery building when everyone else is running out. It didn't seem over the top or grandiose; I suspect that the emotions, struggles, and glories were quite accurately portrayed. I made the mistake of watching it before I went to bed, and I had trouble sleeping that night because the movie just affected me that much.

The movie also made me realize how much I like Joaquin Phoenix as an actor. I haven't seen that many movies of his, but I loved Walk the Line (probably my favorite movie last year), and he was just as impressive in this movie. I'm not an acting pro, so I'm not sure if I'm using the right terminology, but he just has a certain intensity about him that gives his characters some intrigue and depth. John Travolta is good in this movie, too. I'm kind of hot and cold on Travolta; sometimes I like him and sometimes I think he's a goofball. His role as a fire chief suits him well, though.

And one more thing...
I went to the gym last night...for the first time since school started. Go me.

I'm still here

I haven't given up the whole blogging thing. The beginning of school always reduces me to this distressed state of thinking that I have too much to do with too little time to do it, so the blogging has fallen a little bit in the priority list. I do plan to post again VERY soon (maybe tonight?), and I can tell you all about my one night affair with a chocolate fountain, Darryl's and my quest for a coffee table and end tables, the moving movie I saw over the weekend, and other random things.

And, just to let you know, I am surviving without power naps.

Jinx

I'm probably jinxing myself, but so far, school is going very well. I haven't graded any significant work from these seniors yet, so I can't really judge their academic abilities, but as far as class behavior goes, they are fairly low maintenance. (I did just jinx myself, didn't I?) I have only one class that presents a real challenge, and their problem is just that the class is big and they really, really, really like to talk. The class is mostly made up of some rowdy (but basically good) boys...and they all have chosen to sit on the front row!

Today, we read "The Wife of Bath's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales. For those of you not familiar with the story, I'll spare you most of the details, but at the end of the story, the knight is presented with a choice: the old, ugly woman he is obligated to marry can remain old and ugly, but faithful, or she can be young and pretty, but unfaithful. The knight tells the old woman that she can make the decision, and as a "reward" for letting her make the decision, he gets the best of both worlds: she is young, pretty, and faithful. At that point, one of my rowdy boys piped up and said, "He won BOTH showcases on The Price is Right!" Hey, at least he was paying attention...

My Pre-AP sophomores are doing well. They are a bit silly, but I like them. The down side is that the class is killing me as far as prep time goes; most of my evenings are spent researching and thinking up different class activities.

Speaking of that, I better get back to it...

The Daily Grind

I'm having a difficult time getting back in the swing of things, and this would explain my lack of posting over the past few days. I had to take 30-minute power naps both Thursday and Friday afternoons--the first two days of school--and I went to bed by 10 Friday evening.

Anyway, here is the nutshell version of the past few days:

• Saturday was a productive day for me. I spent about four hours grading summer reading assignments, split into a morning shift at Atlanta Bread Company and an afternoon shift at Starbucks. Somewhere between the two shifts I enjoyed a power nap and lunch. Oh, that evening, I watched Shall We Dance?, which had been sitting around on my fake TiVo for about a month. I wasn't sure I would like the movie--I'm not a J.Lo fan--but I really found myself enjoying it. I think many people can relate to the need to find a passion for something, and I also felt that the movie gave a poignant--and dare I say almost realistic--portrayal of marriage. And on a trivial note, Richard Gere was especially hot in this movie. (There was one scene beween him and Lopez that made me gag because it was so cheesy, but what "dance" movie isn't complete without the token "sexy" dance scene?)
• Sunday was a day of errands, for the most part, but we did end the day by going to a great "Honey-Do" wedding shower for a friend that Darryl worked with at his old job. The house was beautiful (I want a front porch like that one day), and the food was delicious--chicken skewers, mac n' cheese, squash casserole, deviled eggs, and salad.

Other notes:

• Today was an "off" teaching day for me. I kept getting tongue-tied, and I just felt off my game. I've gotta mix it up tomorrow. Even my Pre-AP class, which has been a delight so far, seemed disorganized and flailing. Geez.
• I'm excited about the return of Celebrity Fit Club on VH1. This is one of my guilty pleasure shows. I like the group this season, pehaps because they include some nostalgic favorites: Tina Yothers from Family Ties, Carnie Wilson from Wilson Phillips (yes, back in the day, I loved me some Wilson Phillips--I had the cassette), and Ted Lange from Love Boat. Awesome.
• My computer has died again. I think the "fix" last time was just a band-aid to get my stuff backed up. While I do feel a bit lost typing this on Darryl's Dell, I'm not as distressed this time around because I learned my lesson from the last crash and saved my stuff on either CDs or a jump drive. I miss my Mac, though.

Time to fix dinner. My goal is to make it through the day with no power nap.

First Day of School

The first thing I did to commemorate the first day of school is I pulled out my "Have coffee, will grade papers" mug out of the back of the cabinet where it has been on "vacation" for the summer. Today it was time for us both to get back to work.

The first day was good, but long. We're trying this thing now where we have advisement every day for ten minutes; today, tomorrow, and on special days like "progress report day," we meet with our advisees for thirty minutes. It seriously felt like another class added to the day, and we already have seven periods! Maybe the ten-minute segment won't seem too bad.

All of my classes were pretty good; one (4th period) has me a little concerned because they were a bit...loud, but at least they weren't "bad"--just loud.

So it was a typical first day--new names, new faces. And I already have a stack of summer reading assignments and summer reading tests to grade for my Pre-AP class.

'Twas the Night Before the First Day of School...

...and I'm hot and tired.

I don't have much to report. Last night we had Open House, so I was able to meet some students and parents. I've been informed by my soon-to-be students that my fourth period will be loud but entertaining, and my seventh period has been described by several people as "interesting." I've had "interesting" seventh periods for two years now--one "interesting" in a good way, one in a not-so-good way. We'll see what this one will be.

I'm also teaching one sophomore Pre-AP class. This is the youngest group I've ever taught, and they just seem so little compared to the seniors. I'm excited about this class and am eager to see what they can do.

Well, I better go...I have clothes to iron and a lunch to pack. Let the fun begin!

Of Pageants and Planning

Saturday I went to the Miss Cobb County Pageant with Max and Tim. While Tim tended to his duties at the judges' table, Max and I got into the pageant spirit by making our predictions and enjoying the festivities. Max has good post about the evening at his site, so I'll just direct you there. I do think our cheesy pic is worth posting again, though.


Yesterday and today have been busy with school planning. Over the weekend, I spent my $100 gift card for teachers, and now I am well stocked with an electric pencil sharpener, my favorite grading pens, a storage bin, post-its, Sharpies, file folders, and dry erase markers. (I didn't get the white board stuff, Jen C, because I thought it might look "suspect" during the audit of teacher purchases that is to take place later this year. I might get that with my own money, though.) Today, our second day back at school, was basically one meeting after another, so I didn't get much work done for my classes. Sigh.

First Day Back

The requests have been pouring in for me to talk about the first day back at school. Well, okay, Jen requested that I talk about the first day back, and who am I to disappoint a reader?

The Highlights:

--I enjoyed seeing everyone--well, almost everyone--again.
--At our annual system-wide meeting, we watched a video about the Code of Ethics by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, complete with over-the-top "reenactments" of situations like teachers making out in the supply room, teachers making sexual advances towards students, teachers climbing out the window during class, and teachers drinking alcohol during class. Certainly we would all agree that these situations are WRONG, but seriously, the whole presentation was like a spoof of a very bad PSA. The whole room was rolling!
--Tim's won the big door prize at the annual Kiwanis teachers' luncheon, which you can read about here.

The Downers:

--I'm not sure who may come across this blog in the future, so I'm not going to say all that I'm feeling about this, but none of the English textbooks or novels were ordered, and who knows if or when we'll get them? (I'll just say that everyone in the English Department did their part as far as this is concerned, so the blame falls elsewhere.) We have textbooks now; we just needed extras. The novel dilemma, though, is making me have to come up with a Plan B for my seniors, as one of the novels, Grendel is scheduled just a few weeks into the semester.
--I discovered that the "work days" before Thursday are really just days packed with meetings.

Not a bad first day. I do have a good bit of work to do still, so I better get back to it.

Happy 40th Anniversary!

Happy 40th Anniversary to my parents! Darryl and I enjoyed getting to spend the evening with them, eating delicious Italian food at Ippolito's followed by wedding cake at the house.

I think being married forty years is extremely impressive; it really requires a depth of commitment that we don't see very much these days. I can definitely say as someone who has been around for 32 of those years that my parents have always demonstrated tremendous respect and love for each other, and I wish them many more happy years together. Happy Anniversary!

The Good Ol' Days of Summer

My summer vacation has officially come to an end. Tomorrow is the first day back for teachers, and next Thursday, the students come.

Here's how I spent my last day of summer: I drove through the Atlanta traffic for a doctor's appointment (fun!); I tidied up around the house; I had lunch with my parents, who are staying a couple of days on their way back home from the mountains; I took a power nap; and my mom and I met my cousin Vicky for a "girls' night" dinner at Outback. Oh, and I topped of the day with a slice of the key lime pie, which is delicious.

So let me reflect on the summer. I originally had set some goals. Let's review:

1. Lose 12 pounds. This didn't happen. In fact, I put on a couple. I'm not thrilled about this, but oh well.
2. Go to the gym/exercise at least 4 times a week. Oddly enough, I did do this most weeks unless we were out of town. I guess I could look at it like this: imagine how much weight I would have gained if I HADN'T gone to the gym at all.
3. Read the books I needed to for school. I mostly accomplished that goal. I left Jen C hanging on Tale of Two Cities, but I did finish all the summer reading books and 1984, and I'm currently reading Grendel and should have it finished over the weekend. I also read several books for fun.
4. Spend time/have good times with friends and family. Check. I did this. From trips to Florida (including Disney World) and having lunches with friends here and there, I do feel I had some great times with everyone this summer.
5. Clean my closet and the garage. Well, I cleaned my closet and the guest room closet, but Darryl and I both agreed that it is just too hot to tackle the garage. We're making that a fall project.

Not too bad. The only one I completely crashed and burned on was the losing twelve pounds thing, but overall, I think I did well.

It's not really the start of school that I'm dreading, but that feeling you get about two weeks in when you are counting down to Labor Day. I guess you can say I'm dreading how I'm going to feel in a few weeks. Maybe I shouldn't think that way, and I should be more positive...maybe I'll have students who love learning and look forward to my class and read with enthusiasm and write well and always have paper and pen and...

We'll see.

Key Lime Pie

Tonight I made Ina Garten's Frozen Key Lime Pie. Max and Tim swear this pie is incredible, so I can't wait to taste it tomorrow. I've been wanting to make it for some time now, but I try to save the desserts for whenever company comes so that Darryl and I don't consume all of it ourselves--neither of us is very good when it comes to moderation and desserts. Let's see...in a week's time, I've made lemon bars, brownies, and now the pie. I have issues.

Movie Endings and Six-Toed Cats

I came across two interesting articles in USA Today.

One is about the Top 50 movie endings of all time, and the other, for you English teacher out there, is about Hemingway's six-toed cats and their fight for freedom. :)

Shopping Progress and Closet Cleaning

With the exception of buying a needing a pair of black shoes, I am pretty much finished with my back-to-school shopping. Ladies, I had some luck yesterday at Stein Mart, where I bought some basic black pants and a really cute/trendy shirt. I also had some luck at Ann Taylor Loft, where there was a MAJOR sale going on. (Thanks for the tip, Kristy!) There, I was able to get a pair of nice khaki pants, a skirt, and a t-shirt to go with it...all on sale. (I know I mentioned in my last post that I've been in a black pants/khaki pants rut for the last several years, but I do consider them to be staples in a wardrobe.) In the middle of all my shopping frenzy, I was able to have lunch with Darryl at Pepperoni's Tavern, a cool place Darryl has discovered since he started his new job. They have delicious pizza.

I was so inspired by my new purchases that I cleaned my closet, and now I have three garbage bags to take to Goodwill. My basic rule of thumb is if I haven't worn it in the past year or so, it goes, with the exception of a couple of things like basic dress suits and dresses. Anyway, my closet looks much better. I could have done before and after pics, but I was too embarrassed over the state of the "before" situation to do that.

Today I need to get a lot of work done for school. I also have to go to the school because I was assigned as a mentor to one of the new teachers, and I have to go to a meeting for that. Fortunately, my mentee was a long-term sub last year while a fellow English teacher was out on maternity leave, so he should be fine. TimShady was my mentor my first year (two years ago), and not only was that my first year of teaching at our school, but it also was my first year of teaching high school, period. I would argue that Tim is still my (unofficial) mentor, as I bombard him with questions all the time. What patience!

And on a random note...what's up with Mel Gibson????

Separate Peace and Far From Heaven

Yesterday, after my couple of hours of shopping, I did some hardcore class prep for the 10th Grade Pre-AP class. I went back and reviewed A Separate Peace, and man, do I wish we were reading that book during the year instead of just reviewing it as summer reading. That is such a great book, and I can't believe I hadn't read it until the beginning of this summer. I'm very curious to see how the students liked it. If they hated it (and how could they?), I'll be crushed. I found some cool things online to share with the students, such as an essay by John Knowles in which he talks about his own experiences at prep school and how they contributed to the novel. Cool stuff.

I also rented a few movies from Blockbuster. (Listen, if you go to Blockbuster frequently and you aren't a rewards member, you need to become one. I rented three movies for the cost of one.) My choices should show you that I wasn't really "sold" on any movie when I went there: Zoolander (I've never seen it--gasp!--and I was kind of in the mood for a goofy Ben Stiller/Owen Wilson flick), High Fidelity (another one I haven't seen--double gasp--and I love me some John Cusack), and Far From Heaven, mainly because I either read or saw an interview with Julianne Moore recently where she said that it was perhaps the movie she is most proud of, and I'd never seen it before. I ended up watching Far From Heaven, and I thought it was really good. I remember that Julianne Moore was nominated for an Academy Award for this movie, and that, in my opinion, was a well-deserved nomination. I also thought that Dennis Quaid was wonderful in the movie as well. I recommend it.

The Way of the Skirt

I did some back-to-school shopping yesterday and managed to find a skirt, and I also bought a few v-neck t-shirts that can go with everything (including the skirt).

I think I'm going to wear more skirts because this is what I've discovered: they are much cooler than pants, especially in 90+-degree weather. A couple of weeks ago, I found two other skirts, and I really like those. This will also get me out of my khaki pants/black pants rut that I've been in for oh, like six years. I'm assuming that these skirts are "in," considering that I see them at about every store I go to.

I still need a couple more things, so I think I'll tackle the shopping again today.

Judging from the comments on my last post, I'm not the only one suffering from fashion woes. Ladies, maybe we should open a shop for the late 20's/early 30's crowd.