Random hint to people on Craigslist personals: If you are going to label yourself a "dork" in your ad, please try to spell the name of the suburb you live in correctly. Otherwise, I'll think you're a freak, not a dorky-smart kind of person. LAME. (I mean, please--if you really live in Manassas, do you put on your return address "Manases"?)

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WindSparrow, I'm sorry, I totally thought you were talking about an essay. For a fill-in-the-blank form, handwritten is totally fine.

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Maybe you could find another book from that era and contrast the treacly moral tone and two-dimensional characters?

Nope, I have two book plus Romeo and Juliet to teach in twelve weeks. I’m happy about R&J...except the mentor teacher wants me to teach it one day a week, for all 12 weeks. A whole two/three weeks of Shakespeare would be just too, TOO much for the little darlings.

Needless to say, I am NOT thrilled with this. In fact, I think it’s wildly counterproductive.

Erin, is there some nifty non-class-discussion thing you could do? When I was a senior in H.S. and we read Hamlet, our teacher had us each pick a quote from it, and put it on a t-shirt, with some sort of illustration, and then got permission for us to wear the t-shirts all day (it was a Catholic school, and we wore uniforms). We loved it. Granted, we were the honors class and therefore HUGE geeks, but still. Ooh, that’s a good idea. I don’t think I could swing the $$ for tee’s...but maybe stickers? Bumper stickers?

Damn, I knew there was a reason I missed y’all.

I like "White Fang" because it has a happy ending, and I love the whole part of White Fang in California. Especially the part where his master gives him permission to take off after the dogs that have been tormenting him.

I already looked up the Jack London site at Berkely, and it’s got lots of great stuff. I only wished I had a laptop – I think a VCR is about as sophisticated as this school’s equipment gets.

In both Tom Sawyer and White Fang, you're talking about the tension between license and civilization that was a common theme as Americans saw the end of the frontier.

Good point. And one I think I’ll use. The school is mostly Irish and Hispanic students, so talking about the American dream, frontier and pioneer ideas is something I think we can get into.

I'm also developing my first ever webpage for this class as an independent study I'm taking. I have a book on HTML. I figure I'll moon around the net and copy a lot of code from sites I like and adapt it.

Tell me I can do this, right?

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Jen, no problem. I got it done. Envelope? No where in sight. hee.

Erin - you can so do this. There are tons of sites that do html tutorials. The ones I know of are geared toward webtv users, so probably more infantile and sub-basement than you need. But if I can figure that crap out, you know you can.

ETA: Romeo and Juliet in one shot, that's the way to go. Shakespeare ain't rocket science, and the story was meant to be experienced in the space of one evening. FWIW, the urban public high school I went to, foisted R&J off on the 9th graders even in the regular classes.

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Crap.

Lost another old, old rock and roll friend today - someone important to me, back in the day.

No hugs, please - it doesn't help. He's dead, dead and gone, and the fact that I knew he was sick but didn't know it was this bad doesn't change shit.

Off to go stare morosely at things, and bring Nic down. After all, it's his job.

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Denzel and the Militant Vegans of Heber

Who doesn't like Denzel? Connie, that story was hysterical. You could write a book of short stories on the man.

deb, I am sorry for your loss.

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deb, I'm so sorry for your loss.

Timelies!

I'm not feeling any better...actually much worse. Damn. I've got a lot to do today. I hope I have the energy for it all.

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vw, make sure you drink a lot, eat when you can, and take Tylenol or Motrin or something, according the label schedule. It will help you feel the symptoms less. Keep up the Vitamin C. Can you sneak in a nap, today, somewhere?

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Yup. I'm doing all that stuff. Drank echinacea tea last night. I've been taking Tylenol cold. And I've been sucking on lots of vitamin c tablets. Plus, I've got a C Monster in the fridge to drink this morning.

I'm hoping that my shopping this morning doesn't take too long, so I can get a nap in this afternoon before starting all my baking. We'll see how timing goes. Speaking of timing? This cold couldn't have worse.

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Poptarts:

Cindy, I thought of something else you could try. It's something I've just started. Treat yourself to some wonderfully sented shower gel. While you're showering, take an extra minute while you lather and just breathe, completely taking in the scent of the shower gel. Don't think about everything you have to do during the day. Just be in the moment and focus on the breath and the scent.

For me this has been great, because it has gotten me to slow down a process that is usually very rushed. It really starts your day off on a different foot.

Oh, and just because I love it, I'm going to pimp the shower gel I've been using. Emily gave me a gift certificate to Filene's that was to be spent on Origins goodies. I love Origins, but just can't justify spending that much money on bath and body stuff. So, I got their "calm to your senses" lavendar and vanilla body cleanser [link] Then I also got the same scented body souffle [link] They smell so wonderful. And I'm not quite used to them, so I can smell them throughout the day. It's a nice way to stop and remind myself to be in the moment.

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