I forgot to add that I think my accountant is taunting me. She emailed to let me know that she sent my tax stuff overnight express so I could sign it and send it off, but she didn't tell me if I am getting a refund or owe money! Now I'm fretting.

Oh, and my back is achy and owey and is making me want to bite things.

ChiKat, I am madly jealous of you.

I have class tomorrow after teaching, so I have to have my homework done. I just had a ton to do for this week. And, for grading, our quarter ends on Friday and I have to plug in grades on Thursday. So, I needed to be caught up on grading. It feels really good, though.

Oh! And, I have lesson plans for 1 prep for the next 2 weeks which will finish me out of that class and lesson plans for 1 week for the other prep. I'm teaching that one up to the day I leave, though. Student teaching is done in 3 weeks. Wooty goodness!

Now, I need a job. Crap.

Off of YouTube: Dick Cheney ruins Easter Egg roll.

That's not real, right? They aren't *that* tone deaf, are they?

Ok. I am completely and utterly disturbed now.

Being only 4 when Jonestown happened, I have no recollection of ever having heard of Jonestown. In fact, when I read Further Tales of the City , I had to ask Joe what Jonestown was. I thought it more akin to Heaven's Gate; A couple dozen people, wacky cult, choice.

I watch The American Experience every Monday and last Monday I was like, "Ooh! Neat! Cult!" when they previewed Jonestown for today.

I had no earthly idea about any of it. None. And now, after pulling Em out of her sleep and hugging her so tight, I am sitting here crying for those people.

I had no idea.

I had no idea.

Huh. I worked with a guy who was on one of the jury trials related to the case. Obviously it's a big deal here, as it was San Francisco based and the mass suicide happened the same week as the Moscone/Milk assasinations. Dark times for San Francisco.

But the freaky part is how fully entrenched Jones was into the SF power structure, and how idealistic the group was in its inception.

And see? I had no idea about that, either. When I read FTotC, I thought to myself, "Why would he go to San Francisco?"

For Joe, the freakiest part of the show was one of the survivors saying, "We tried. Yeah it ended tragically, but dammit, we tried."

There's an amazing play called The People's Temple. It's kind of similar in style to The Laramie Project, written after and about extensive research.

I knew about it at the time, but I was a kid, and didn't know nearly the level of detail. It just breaks the heart. At the time, I was living with my mom. My dad didn't know where we were, but did know that my mom sometimes got involved with groups that seemed radical to him, a Swede from Minnesota. He once admitted that the Jonestown thing scared him pretty close to shitless, thinking that we might be with a group like that. In fact, I think we were staying with a group of Methodists in England at the time, but he didn't know that.

I just can't imagine. Reading about it now and the manipulations that they used to get the adults to drink the Kool-aid just makes me physically sick. Your poor dad fretting that you guys were in Guyana.

Some pictures to maybe help me be able to sleep:

Like father, like daughter. [link]

For the Minion roster: [link]

I knew about Jonestown when it happened - and I knew how massive it was. I didn't actually connect it to anything - it was an event. a bard, horrid event, but not connected to anything. Moving out here , then reading the Tales of the City books made it much more real. I think I was fairly young when it happened- but honestly , most of what happened in the world before I got out of college wasn't very real.