My kids had to describe one of their teachers, not me, today in class.  So I described one of them.

His eyes sparkled mischievously, as his giggles burst out of a hand-covered mouth like vomit.  Hair sprayed in dark spikes, spires of a castle a top mocha colored skin that creased with his smile as the laughter escaped a wide drawn mouth.  Axe Body Spray wafted around him in a heavy chemical cloud killing small animals and insects.  His voice cracked as he said the word again, “Mukluk.”

"Mukluk" is my favorite word.

Ali

So I have happy little sophmores for World History, and they are sophmores so they tend not to care about their grades because, "Hey, we've got 2 more years to do this over if we want to!" But I can't believe that I have 24 "F"s in my 6th period! How can 24 kids not do the work?

I told them a month ago that they had "f" and 2 kids did enough work to bring their grades up to a "D." I don't assign that much work! We spent 2 days mapping World War 2 together. They had 20 minutes in class to color in Europe (It's small!) and Japanese expansion in Asia. They only had to answer 3 Questions.

Do you know how many I got back? 10! That's right, 10 out of 36.

There is something mentally deficient in the way these kids process instructions. Do they think that an "F" is passing? They have 4 weeks left to get their grades up, and have any of them asked if they could come in and do make-up work? NO! And I can just hear the phone calls now. Why is my sweetheart failing? Well, he's been failing since Feburary and every time I send home A grade check it has said F, possibly the reason he/she is failing is cause "you" haven't paid attention, and by the way, no since school ended today and I have to have grades turned in tomorrow, he can't do anything to bring up his grade.

Sheesh.

These are the conversations that I'm going to be having over the next 4 weeks. Please, Lord! Save me!

I was thinking about a Vespa in order to keep costs down, but I think I'll move out instead!

It's 6 o'clock on a Thursday, and I'm trying to figure out why I'm still at school! I know why, but it doesn't make me feel any better. I should be grading, I should be making parent phone calls; instead, I'm on the internet. This is bad. I need to go home. I need to get sleep. I need to stop thinking about how depressed Longfellow (the poet) makes me. We read in my afterschool class, "Psalm of Life." I was talking about doing something more than slacker things, being inspirational and stuff. And I realize, that I live an uninspirational life. Longfellow advocates stepping away from the stable and the secure to find what makes us happy, but I'm doing stable and secure and I still can't afford to move out of my parents' house. Longfellow obviously didn't live in Southern California during a housing shortage. :-)

Happiness kinda abounds. I went the the William S. Paley Festival and saw both the Battlestar Galactica and the House seminars, which was interesting and fun, kinda like a podcast with the whole cast. The Battlestar people were very upfront. When asked how they came to be on the show (by the dorky moderator), most of the stories started out with the phrase, "Well I sat down to read the script with a big bottle of wine..." Jamie Bamber responded, (paraphrased) "Well, I had just gotten my then girlfriend--now wife-- pregnant and decided I needed something to pay the medical bills." Okay, not really, but close. :-) But I think that I agree with my friend mckennitt that the only thing I was uncomfortable about being at the festival... was being a fan. For Battlestar it wasn't so bad, most of the audience questions were about creation and production and really just...intelligent questions that you wish you could ask, but don't.

Cool Factor: Kevin Smith (from Dogma, Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Chasing Amy) sat two seats in front of us, which is cool, 'cause, hey, someone who does write such sophisicated and brillant dialogue likes BSG! (I mean all dialog besides "Jay's" lines)

The House cast was hilarious. They were amusing and energetic, and incrediably tired. They had just come from shooting the show, which means they were late and they didn't pause for the pictures out front like BSG people did, and I felt kinda guilty that I had paid to make them come talk about the show. Especially when the "Trekkie" type fans got the microphone handed to them. Like the cast is suppose to know what to say to a person with Vasculitis that wants to thank them for bring awareness to the disease. (I watch the show pretty religiously and I couldn't tell you what Vasulitous is.) So anyway, I enjoyed myself immensely, as long as I didn't have to hear the fans speak. (Way too much stuff like seen on bad internet chat groups.) Things like "I'd love to see more of Hugh Laurie's biceps please." Things that make me cringe when reading Livejournals. :-P

In this case, Sci-fi fans ruled in behavior and intelligence. I should have known....afterall, House is on Fox.

Ali- headed home now from RHS.