You gotta love city livin'

This past weekend I went to Pike Place Market and then to a little park by the waterfront. Everyone was just hanging out, lounging around on the park benches and grassy hills, when, out of nowhere, this totally random black guy saunters by, a boom box hoisted on his shoulder and the "Ghostbusters" theme song blaring from the speakers. It was great.

I guess I don't really have anything interesting to say...

so I'll just leave it at that.

My elective

Today was the first day of one of my elective classes, which is a seminar in writing instruction. In order to be able to teach kids how to write, we ourselves have to go through the process-- or so claimed my professor. Naturally, I was very excited when she told us this, because that means some fun creative writing assignments for us. Anyway, we read a prose poem in class and then began to write our own. We went around the room and shared our poems, and then talked about what lines/parts stood out to us. Someone in the class said they really liked my descriptions and couldn't understand some of the words that I used. Then my professor said, "That's we call an 'elevated level of diction.'" So that made me happy...I guess. Although at this point, I feel like the majority of grad students probably have an "elevated level of diction." But I'll just pretend for a moment that I'm extra-special.

Griffey returns!

Last night I went to the Mariners/Reds game, and it was the first time that Ken Griffey, Jr. had been back in Seattle since he left the team eight years ago. Pretty hard to believe he's been gone for so long. The M's got totally blown out 16-1, but the fact that Griffey was there made it all worthwhile. They even sold retro Mariners T-shirts with "Griffey" on the back. It's just so bizarre to compare the two most dramatically different homecomings for two former Mariner superstars: Griffey was welcomed with open arms like a true hero, and A-Rod was booed and had money thrown at him. My eyes teared up when Griffey referred to Seattle as "home." I only wish that A-Rod could have felt the same way...

Boo.

Not like "boo-hoo, I'm crying," not like "boo, you're scared," not like "boo, you suck," just boo. Plain and simple.

School again

So I have four weeks of class, starting tomorrow, and then I'm completely done. It's so weird to think about being back in the classroom as a student...I've still got about 10 more short stories to grade for my seventh-graders, so technically I'm still not totally done with my student-teaching experience yet. But at least I'll be able to drop by the school and visit my students this week, so that will be nice. I miss them. On my last day of teaching, they gave me a yearbook that they had all pooled together and bought for me and then passed it around and signed it. It was really sweet.

My week off

It's been so nice having this week off...no school, no work, no nothing. It's been a productive week, though, regardless of the fact that I haven't been working or teaching. I went to the dentist, took Hector to the vet (he got a clean bill of health and lots of compliments), got my hair done, and still have had time to run, grade papers, and read. It makes you realize that there really are enough hours in the day to do everything-- if you don't have a job or anything tying you down.

Graduation!

Yesterday was my graduation for my MIT (Master in Teaching, not Massachusetts Institute of Technology) program. Even though my program doesn't technically end until mid-July, my cohort got to participate in the ceremony anyway. Graduation was pretty nice, and the weather held out for me despite the forecast, which called for cloudy skies and showers.

To celebrate being officially "unofficially" done with my program, I had a big BBQ with family and friends and then sang karaoke at a gay bar last night. It was awesome.

Losing weight=running faster

I just read in my latest edition of Runner's World that for every pound of weight you lose, you shave two seconds off a mile. So that means that the reason I haven't been able to PR in two years is the extra pounds I've packed on. That kind of makes me angry, but kind of encourages me to know that I'm technically probably still as fast as I was when I raced my best times, only there's a little extra thigh and belly holding me back. Unfortunately, I've been eating complete crap lately, so I'm only getting slower. Theoretically, if I lost 20 pounds I'd be able to shave 4 minutes off my 5K time! That's pretty crazy. But I don't want to lose 20 pounds, because then I would actually look like a runner (no offense to people with traditional "runner's bodies," I'm just not really into the super-lean build. I don't think it would suit me). I kind of like being a "thicker" runner-- I think it throws off my competition and gives me a leg up (haha, no pun intended).

My last week of student-teaching

I can't believe that this is my last week of student-teaching! It's so weird. I'm really going to miss my students. I had them do online evaluations of me today, and some of their responses are hilarious. I'll have to post them later this week. Right now I'm totally swamped with grading. My students' final drafts of their short stories were due on Friday, so I'm rushing to get everything graded by the end of this week. I found a story that I wrote in seventh grade and I'm posting it on our class blog so my students can see it. While they're busy writing about real life situations like rape and war and friendship drama, they can read a story that I wrote about a selfish warlock. We're worlds apart, these kids and me, but I can't help loving them all the same.

I saw the saddest thing today...

...an overturned jar of Skippy creamy peanut butter, spilling out onto the sidewalk and melting in the 85-degree heat. Poor PB! :(

"Houston, we have a weekend."

God bless Memorial Day! I actually have two full days off-- no work, no teaching, no nothing! It's my first two consecutive days off in six weeks. I planned on just kicking back and relaxing, but now I realize there's a ton of other crap that needs to get done, like cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, laundry, grocery shopping, washing my car... all that stuff that no one ever has time for during the week. Not to mention a few papers to grade and some lesson planning for next week. But I still plan on watching an inordinate amount of TV, running a few miles, and reading The Time Traveler's Wife, which I'm completely enthralled with right now.

I'm too tired to go grocery shopping...

I've eaten cereal for dinner every night this week. I hate grocery shopping. I'm running out of food but I can't bear the thought of going to Safeway.

I just ate...

...two giant bowls of cereal and 1/3 jar of peanut butter. This is how starving I am when I get home from teaching. Now I have to wait till it digests so I can go run it off this evening...

Things that make me happy right now...

1) Peanut butter
2) Running
3) Kids
4) Melrose Place season two
5) Extended daylight hours
6) My laptop

Sigh (again).

I did a crappy job teaching today and my pants keep falling down. What more could go wrong in the world?

I can't remember...

I'm pretty sure a student asked me something really funny today, but for the life of me I can't remember... It's driving me nuts...

Anyway, when I think of it I'll post it-- if I ever remember it, and if it was actually funny. Maybe I'm just delusional.

Sigh.

The weekend goes by too fast. I'm not ready for Monday.

I'm pretty sure I'm manic...

The thing that sucks about being manic-depressive (which I have not actually been formally diagnosed to have, but I'm pretty sure I'm at least mildly bipolar) is that when you're depressed you're really down in the dumps. The thing that's great about being manic-depressive is when you're happy, nothing can bring you down.

Right now I'm in a state of pure mania. I don't know why. I just had a lot of fun teaching today and I decided that I'm creative and awesome and all my lesson plans kick butt. It's a good feeling. And the fact that tomorrow is Friday helps. I don't even care that I have to work this weekend. The one drawback to being in a completely manic state is that I start to get in a really social, planning mood, and then I plan things and don't stick to them because when the time actually rolls around for me to do them, I'm in a foul mood again.

OK, maybe I'm not actually bipolar. But I'm definitely the moodiest person.

Nah, I'm bipolar.

My first couple days as an official full-time student teacher

I started my creative writing unit today with my students. I showed them The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode with "The Raven," and then we read Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." I think it went over pretty well. Teaching is really fun, and so far it hasn't been too stressful, but I know things will get crazier once the kids start turning in homework and I have to actually grade stuff. But for now I'm liking it...I just had a realization this weekend that I'm around kids every single day-- during the week at school and on the weekends at work. And then I come home to Hector, who is basically a kid anyway (or at least he needs as much attention as a child). People think because I love kids so much that I should have kids of my own-- but this is precisely why I don't want kids-- being around them 6 1/2 hours a day is one thing, but being around them 24/7 is a whole other deal. Plus I have anger management issues.