Natter is our coffee shop. Bitches is our slumber party. Or maybe not. Okay. It is an atmosphere thing. Natter is like a big party, and Bitches is more like an after-party. Or maybe not. Okay. Natter is where Buffistas get together to talk about anything. Bitches is where Buffistas get together to talk about everything. Or maybe not. Natter is Natter, and Bitches is Bitches. Definitely. Yes. That.

Oh! Also (I'd forgotten) got in a bit of an argument with someone who insisted that the intelligent boys who end up disrupting the high school class I assist with (that is to say, they're intelligent enough that they get even more bored than usual with the teacher covering stuff at length and thus end up talking a lot) need to learn to "sit quietly so that other students can learn." Which, yes, they do. But more than just sitting quietly, she said they need to learn to "cope with boredom" by sitting and doing nothing. I maintained that there ain't no way that's going to work, at least with my class. What really bothered me was that she has no particular experience working with teenagers and she was insisting despite argument from me and another woman who works in pediatrics. Like, if she had something to back it up, okay -- but the idea that maybe we had more experience with this had no bearing at all on how firmly she knew she was right. Nothing on earth could sway her stance on How to Handle Teenage Boys.

Nothing on earth could sway her stance on How to Handle Teenage Boys.

Teaching them boredom seems like the opposite of what teachers would ideally do. Also, she's arrogant and wrong which is also a Least Ideal combination.

Natter is our coffee shop. Bitches is our slumber party. Or maybe not. Okay. It is an atmosphere thing. Natter is like a big party, and Bitches is more like an after-party. Or maybe not. Okay. Natter is where Buffistas get together to talk about anything. Bitches is where Buffistas get together to talk about everything. Or maybe not. Natter is Natter, and Bitches is Bitches. Definitely. Yes. That.

Cindy, have I told you lately how much I like you? It's a lot.

Happy Birthday, Eddie.

If Nilly were here, she's say something like: you should add it to the Birthday Calendar. Nilly "Sunnydale Press" Sep 18, 2002 2:52:07 am PDT

Oh, P-C, thank you. Today was a kind of low day. I needed that. Now I'm off to the birthday party of the most attitudenous four year old I know. Since I do not have to parent her, she's my hero.

Au contraire, Narrataire. It is I who honored the sacred timeslot. J'accuse.

(This would be so much better if I'd had even a semester of French, in high school.)

We had the same amount of French in high school. I'd respond in Spanish, which I did take, iffn I could remember any of it.

Natter is our coffee shop. Bitches is our slumber party. Or maybe not. Okay. It is an atmosphere thing. Natter is like a big party, and Bitches is more like an after-party. Or maybe not. Okay. Natter is where Buffistas get together to talk about anything. Bitches is where Buffistas get together to talk about everything. Or maybe not. Natter is Natter, and Bitches is Bitches. Definitely. Yes. That.

Well, that clarifies it nicely. Thanks.

Thank you, Hec. It was just... I find it hard to have arguments like this, where one person is leaving no possibility for another person's opinion. Like, why are we bothering talking about it, if you're so goddamn certain you're right? Now that I think about it, I wish we could have corralled one of the men at the party into the conversation. Mind you, some kids do just fine sitting still and being quiet, because they can entertain themselves in their own heads. But a lot of these kids are inherently social and highly active -- we need to come up with a good way to occupy their time and stimulate their intellect, not get them to mark time like little worker drones. But she was giving me the most recent installment of "school isn't supposed to be fun!"

Also, she wasn't getting the connection I was trying to make about trust and responsibility. She seems to go with the old-school "treat them like children and punish them like adults" policy, which to me seems disastrous and deeply unfair.

Fortunately, I'm the one going to be a teacher. Mwahahaha.

Oh, P-C, thank you. Today was a kind of low day. I needed that.

Oh, {{Cindy}} then. I'm glad it came at just the right time. Hope your day gets better.

I'd respond in Spanish, which I did take, iffn I could remember any of it.

­ÆÅÅÂÁÀ¿ÁÃ┬ÅÄ«µ¸º»·¹y™‡˜├

I'll just leave those up as my quest to remember the ASCII code for the upside-down exclamation point so I could do Ay caramba! properly.

Happy birthday Eddie!