Moving Day...

As a test, I have just finished transferring this entire blog over to wordpress Check there for updates in the near future. Thank you for your comments and I'll see you on the other side. -Juliet

Water, Water Everywhere

What have I read? These are the 25 most popular classic books at What Should I Read Next?

I liked it!

I didn't like it!

I want to read it!

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

Emma - Jane Austen

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

Persuasion - Jane Austen

Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

Dracula - Bram Stoker

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare

Hamlet - William Shakespeare

The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer

Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen

The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Jungle - Upton Sinclair

Candide - Voltaire, Norman Cameron

Complete Tales and Poems - Edgar Allan Poe

King Lear - William Shakespeare

Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson

365

Oh, and by the way... Happy Anniversary, my darling husband. I am blessed to be your wife. We can truly say that we are more in love today, in a fuller sense of the word, than we were exactly a year ago when we wed. Thank you for choosing me and loving me. One year past, Lord willing, many more to come :).

"Yo ho, yo ho..."

"...a teacher's life for me!" Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...That's what I SHOULD be doing! My classroom is packed up (99% at least-I just have to double-check :) ) and I just finished entering and bubbling in my final grades for this year; even better, I actually have about 4 hours to devote to sleep :D. Thus, with a feeling of accomplishment, I am going to introduce my head to my favorite soft pillow-they've missed each other :). Song: I gave you a hint with the title of this post :). Mood: exhausted but accomplished. The picture, by the way, represents me in about 10 minutes :) :) :) SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!

Sirens

Song: "They Can't Take That Away From Me" Mood: Elated Admittedly, when an ambulance pulls up in front of your apartment complex, it usually signifies trouble. When said ambulance, however, is being driven by your amazingly handsome, charming, and altogether capable EMT (nearly Paramedic!!!!) husband, looking majorly fine in his uniform, the event leads to nothing but smiles. Yup! Charles stopped by just because he missed me, even though his shift ends in an hour :) :) :). Who says romance is gone after nearly a year of marriage ;). Hmmm...for some reason my pulse is still racing :D.

Down The Second Circle of Inferno Without a Virgil

Mood: disturbed Song: Jaws theme It has long been my contention that Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is THE single most terrifying ride in all of Disneyland. After all, what sort of demented cerebrum thought up a "childhood amusement" that takes you right to the center of Dante's Inferno. However, running a close second is "It's a Small World" with the possessed dolls and the song that sticks in a person's head like Rosie adheres to her food dish. Tonight I discovered that Disney was more right than he knew. Let's go back to my trust issues. Give me one moment to stretch out on the therapist's couch. Be sure to start the timer. There was a junior high school student who took friendship for granted. She was in the throes of youthful passion and the world had assumed a distinctly rose-colored hue. That girl was about to discover how fragile faith could be. I was that girl, and I only wish I could regain innocence lost. Names will be changed to protect the guilty. I was in my very first relationship with an individual we'll call "Niles." Niles, of course, had a best friend named "Emmett." Because of a horrendous middle school experience, I had to retake Algebra I and it turned out that Emmett was in my summer school class. Day in and day out we'd ride the bus together, and I felt safe to have a protector. Gradually, Emmett and I would spend time together studying and even talking about Niles on the phone, and I was naieve enough to believe that he valued friendship and was content with the status quo. Words are inadequate to describe my convoluted emotions and he was not entirely culpable for taking advantage. Suffice it to say that years passed before I was healthy enough to embark on another long term relationship. When trust shatters, the shards pierce a normally healthy heart. To be entirely fair, what actually passed between us physically WAS within the boundaries of innocence (basically not much at all); emotionally, I was bruised for years. Epiphanic moments are few and far between, and in my case I could no longer see people for what they claimed to be. I still struggle. The reason I'm dredging through the sludge of a murky past? Emmett found me on myspace tonight; even though I'm ecstatically married and he's in a relationship, emotions came rushing back with tsunami force when I realized who the message was from. Even stranger: Emmett is currently dating a girl named "Joannie" who could be my doppelganger. She is almost my equal in physical appearance, interests, skills, and personality. She's petite (but much heavier than I currently am), in the process of becoming a teacher, a flute player, a voracious reader, and a curvy brunette with wavy hair. My skin crawls to think about it, especially since his mother mentioned how happy she was that he finally found someone "like me" after looking for so long. Somehow the urge to grade has swiftly departed. Thank you father, that you are merciful and protect us from ourselves. Thank you, darling love, that you chose me as your wife, scars and all.

Does Alex Trebek Make House Calls?

Mood: Horrified Song: "Battle of New Orleans" (50 years early, I know, but my students wouldn't :( *sigh*) ***Also titled: Why We Ought to Be On Our Knees or Composing Songs of Praise in Honor of the [Lindsay] Marshall Plan*** Today's Assignment: Write "I am a dedicated professional" 100 times Poston's lowest scores on last year's AIMS (Arizona Institute to Measure Standards-read, the ridiculous standardized test that determines our school's earnings but does nothing to keep students accountable) test were generated in the area of "Historical and Cultural Aspects of Literature." Not to nitpick, but the total number of questions classified in this area on the AIMS test: 2! However, my entire English department is racing around attempting to insert lessons focused on this miniscule portion of AIMS. I am a team player (plus I genuinely believe that literature wasn't written in a vacuum, making history essential to the understanding of text) leading to this discussion as I was giving background notes on O. Henry's "Twenty Years After": ME: 1862-1910. Those are the dates of William Sydney Porter's (O. Henry's) life. Please write them in your notebooks, since you most likely (ahem...will) be asked to recall them. Now, what important event in American history was going on when O. Henry was born? STUDENT #1: The Great Depression! ME (secretly pleased that a student is actually familiar with Black Tuesday): Well, interesting idea, but you'll have to think earlier. The depression started in 1929. STUDENT #2: Ummmm...The Revolutionary War? ME (thinking that at least they're getting warmer): You're right about a war, but we're looking for something later than the late 1700's. STUDENT #3: Oh! I know-World War II. ME (inwardly sighing): Almost, but that happened after the Great Depression. STUDENT #6 (students 4 and 5 listed Vietnam and WWI, respectively): Is it the Civil War? ME (thrilled but concerned at the same time): Excellent! The Civil War. Who can tell me the name of the President of the United States during the Civil War? ***Side Note: the quote of the day, written on the board, happened to be by Abraham Lincoln*** SHOW OF HANDS-I RANDOMLY CALL ON A STUDENT IN THE BACK OF THE ROOM STUDENT #7: Franklin Roosevelt, right? ME (counting down the minutes until I can sprint to the school nurse for aspirin): *sigh* Close. The worst part? I watched Ken Burns's ENTIRE Civil War documentary in my 5th grade class and have been a diligent student with the War Between the States ever since. I am proud to say that I resisted the temptation to list all the major battles of 1862, including the generals. Fredericksburg, anyone? My students constantly amaze me by what they know and are able to recall (I don't even remember what I wore last week), but there are days when I just have to recall the quote, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Go home tonight and call your history teacher to say thanks.

*I'm Not Really a Waitress*

But that IS the nailpolish color I'm considering painting my fingernails right about now. It's a Sunday evening, I've got all of my grading finished, and I even have lesson plans complete for this next week! Being home this past week HAS had it's advantages. In other news, I've been spending entirely too much time on myspace. If you're on myspace, look me up :). I love finding old friends and new. If you're not, then by all means back away from this page and open a myspace account :). Then you can look me up, etc. Since so many of my students are on myspace, I'm not mentioning this blog there. Some parts of a teacher's private life should clearly be kept private. By the way, do you think anyone would notice if I drove this to school tomorrow? Mood: Quixotic Song: "We Didn't Start the Fire"-Pun very much intended, thank you :)