This makes me so happy I could wet my pants.

In other news, it's Miley Cyrus' birthday. Her real name is Destiny Hope, which qualifies her for the "Pregnant By Fourteen" club. Still, though, it might just be better than Bronx Mowgli Wentz, who was born on Thursday.

So I think my favorite thing about being a teacher is the constant element of surprise. On Thursday, which is our poetry day, I laid out about twenty of my favorite books of poetry and every student had take one, find a poem they liked and share it with the class. There was a wide range, from Rumi to the Brownings to the Harlem Renaissance Poets. My favorite poet is Lucille Clifton, and every time we do this exercise her book gets passed around and giggled at because she writes about menstruation and breasts and penises and all manner of stuff. But everything she says is so true and undeniable. So I see Colin, who is only thirteen and quite twerpish, sit down with Lucille and I almost take it away from him because I can't stand the idea of a thirteen year old white male putting down a seventy year old African American woman. But I just walk away and let him do his thing.

Half an hour later we all gather to share our poems and when it gets to be Colin's turn he simple says "I really like Lucille Clifton" without a hint of his usual snark and proceeds to read Why Some People Be Mad At Me Sometimes. The room gets really silent and then all the students, those little jerks who give Colin such a (deservedly) hard time, say "Wow. I really really like that. Will you read it again?"

It's moments like that when I realize that my small salary is aptly supplemented.

Karma

So this article makes me slightly giddy. The kind of giddy that then gets me "convicted".

We're finishing The Grapes of Wrath this morning. I wonder how they're going to pull off the last scene on film. I think I'll be disappointed.

It's so cold outside.

Deb played with my butt this morning.

My college roommate, Dee Ann, is on her NICU rotation right now. She has encountered these two baby names:

• Posh Muffin
• Andromycus Come Here

I've managed to inhale at least 1/3 of a cubic ton of chalk today. Wednesdays are when I teach almost every period. I try not to wear dark clothes to reduce the embarrassment of being covered in chalk, but on days when I oversleep by an hour I find I'm not thinking clearly enough to color coordinate with the day's activities. So more than once today I've heard "Miss Allison, you're covered in chalk." 

"Your arm, Miss Allison. It's your entire arm."

"Your butt, Miss Allison."

"Wipe your nose right here, Miss Allison. There's chalk all over your nose."

I overslept. I had to leave my house without my pants on this morning. They're on now.

So apparently we do this Scrip thing at school where people can buy giftcards to places and if they do it in our name we get back 2%. Something like that. So I'm sitting at lunch and Ginny is explaining this to me and telling me that today is the day we hand out all the information for it to the parents. 

You have to see where I'm going with this, right?

So I tried to explain to her that this wouldn't be a money-making idea this year because NO ONE is buying giftcards because WHO KNOWS if they'll be honored. She had no idea what I was talking about. I went on to tell her about all the companies that are no longer honoring cards and she just looked at me and said, "Well, people wouldn't do that because that wouldn't be nice!"

And what I'm trying to say is, Why is it that I get frustrated when people don't understand greed and desperation? Would the world be a better place if none of us understood this? Hmmm.

Breakfast

So I had this delicious piece of Cranberry Walnut bread for breakfast. It was delectable. And now I'm watching The Grapes of Wrath with the Juniors and Seniors. And we're ahead in the Canned Food Drive because of your generous donation. I bragged about you today. So there. Here's a picture of me eating your bread. Notice the Light of God streaming in  behind me.

First Blog for Laurie

Here you go, Laurie. A blog. I'm sitting here, watching How I Met Your Mother, which I thoroughly enjoy. I used to make fun of people who liked this show, but now I love it. 

Kim came over tonight and we had chili and sweet potatoes. She said y'all emailed today. I like it when my friends are friends with one another. It's like the Rainbow Connection. It's like Kermit the Frog is sitting on my shoulder. Okay. That's it for tonight.