Screaming meme

Thanks for the tag, Ms. Friz. Okay, think think think ....

1. It's my birthday tomorrow!! I will be spending it in the airport.
2. I have read Harry Potter books 1-5 in Spanish. The first one I read was Book 2, the British version, which I bought when I was in Israel.
3. I live with two males. One of them is a box turtle. We know he is a male because he has red eyes.
4. Teaching is something I've wanted to do all my life, but never thought I'd actually do.
5. My uncle is the National Hydrographer.
6. I can do the hustle, the moonwalk, the hora, the audition number from 42nd Street, the merengue, the pas de chat, the cotton eye joe, and the last-day-of-school-before-winter-break dance.
7. I took a year off between high school and college, and take every opportunity I get to advise high schoolers to do the same.

Pass it on, Assorted Stuff, Frum Teacher, History is Elementary, Midwest Teacher, NYC Educator, Ms. Whatsit, and a first year teacher over at EdWize! Here are the rules:

- Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
- Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.
- Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
- Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Dementors Mating ...

... is the only explanation for the weather we're having.

Ice Fog

Woke up this morning to the woman on the radio saying there was "ice fog" going on. I've never heard of such a scary-sounding weather condition.

I feel like I'm in some sort of Super Mario ice world, and ever day is some new strange challenge level. Maybe tomorrow it will be bouncing fireballs.

Joel

Let's say you have a student whose name is Joel. He's the kind of student who doesn't make it easy for you to love him. But you try and you try, and eventually you do love him. He tries back, and finally it's December, and he still may not be turning in all of his assignments, but some of the ones he does turn in are pure gold.

Now, suddenly, his mom gets a new job in another part of town, and he has to switch schools. On his last day of school he is:

a) proud and all smiles, reflecting on how far he's come and saying goodbye to his friends.
b) a total demon from hell, reminiscent of the beginning of the school year.

In my case it's answer b). What happened?? Why, Joel, why?

Cold.

It's alive. Or, Am I really going to eat this?

A coworker gave me a "starter" baggie for "Amish Friendship Bread." There's some kind of yeast or something living in there that froths, and you feed it sugar, flour and milk for ten days, and then you can make it into a babka-like treat.

I'm familiar with the concept of a sourdough starter, and I can basically get the science behind it. But that doesn't really explain how I'm going to leave milky dough sitting out on my counter for ten days and avoid a) a major stink, and b) a foul-tasting end product. Any insights?

Teen depression

I feel awful for the victims of today's mall shooting and also awful for the teen who's suspected of committing it. I feel awful for my students who are so full of scary feelings they don't know what to do, and for the ones who deal with it with drugs and alcohol. I feel awful for the ones who don't have parents around to notice when they're not doing okay. I feel awful for the student who it turns out was suddenly taken off his Zoloft.

There are some things you can't put a positive spin on

Here in the Twin Cities we've gotten around 8-9 inches of snow in the past five days, with more coming tomorrow. Needless to say it has impacted commuters. During the hour I spent in the car on my way home today (a trip that usually takes me 25 minutes), I heard my buddy on Classical Minnesota Public Radio say something like this:

You know, this morning I was out shoveling snow, digging out my car before dawn. It was this really beautiful scene: a sliver of moon in the sky, a few stars, my shovel, and me, on a fine brisk morning. Well, there is going to be more shoveling in store for everyone out there tomorrow.

Call me crazy, but when the temperature is in the single digits, that no longer counts as "brisk."