I'd go to the hardware store and look for a microplane

ahh cool! I can walk over to Home Depot after work.

t pokes head into thread, waves

Hello, all. I have finished calling all 15 families for the introductory conversation about the CTY course. Yay! Of course, I only reached five of them so far, so I'm expecting ten more calls today and tomorrow. Bummer.

The calls always end up being fine, but I feel like such an idiot every single time. What is up with irrational phone fear? I mean, seriously. I am a trained professional calling 4th and 5th graders and their parents. This should not be intimidating. @@ at myself.

Anyway. I have now finished reading all three books and can now start re-reading each one along with the students. This week is the first half of Matilda. The virtual classroom opens its doors tomorrow. I really hope it ends up being fun. I think it will be.

Yay for overcoming phone fear, Kristin. I leave the worst answering-machine messages. I often say something odd and then try to make up for it and end up rambling on when all I really needed to say was, "call me back."

I'm finding Inkheart quite compelling but I'm less than 100 pages in so far.

I am avoiding cleaning by doing job-search stuff. I figure I will be so irritated at answering all 8 professional teaching statementes (in 300 characters or less!) by the time I get done with my coffee that I will WANT to go do the dishes.

I leave the worst answering-machine messages. I often say something odd and then try to make up for it and end up rambling on when all I really needed to say was, "call me back."

Oh, my god. I do this, too!!! I fancy myself someone who has at least 2 brain cells to rub together, but whenever I get someone's voice mail, I turn into a drooling, babbling idiot whose brain cells have just gone walkabout.

I leave great voice mails. I should have a service or something.

I fancy myself someone who has at least 2 brain cells to rub together, but whenever I get someone's voice mail, I turn into a drooling, babbling idiot whose brain cells have just gone walkabout

See, and this is the problem. I had to leave TEN voicemails to families paying good money to have me teach their kids. I wrote a little bullet-point list to try to keep myself on track, but I am sure I sounded like an idiot at least part of the time. Ah, first impressions.

The Boy has overheard me leaving messages -- for people I've known a long time, like my best friend, etc. -- and asked me when I was finished, "Why don't you just write down ahead of time what you want to say?"

The problem is when I get voicemail and wasn't expecting it. When confronted with voicemail, I can't think on my feet.

I wrote a little bullet-point list

I try to remember to do this when it's important but

The problem is when I get voicemail and wasn't expecting it

then

I turn into a drooling, babbling idiot

Brunch people just left. It was lots of fun, everyone seemed to like the food, and now I'm going to go collapse on the couch.