* tiny but powerful *

At last: the finish line!

I'm not sure if I can really call this a "win" since there were definitely a few posts during the month that were totally copout posts. But I guess the fact that I squeezed out at least a sentence and clicked "Publish Post" every day before I went to bed is saying something.

Of course, there were times when I wanted to give up, and I'm not sure if I would ever dare try this again, but it is nice to be able to say I completed it once. At the very least I hope it's gotten me out of the rut of only posting a few times a year.

I was sad to lose my blogging buddy partway through the month, but I'm mostly just amazed she had the gusto to attempt it at all! K. has blown me away with how well she has been handling her first year at our school (especially in comparison to me, but also just on her own merits). I was already very nearly in pieces by October of my first year. In contrast, K. has been teaching dance to our drama kids, attending every home football game, fulfilling extra duties for our accreditation task group, and bonding fabulously with all of her students both inside and outside of class. This is not to say that it has been a walk in the park for her (first year NEVER is), but I know I'm not alone in being extremely impressed by everything she's done so far. She is truly an inspiration to me, and I am so thankful that God brought her to our school!

With that, I'm signing off for the month of November. December is going to be crazy, so there's little to no hope of keeping up the same posting frequency. I won't completely disappear from the blogosphere, though, I promise.

K., on the other hand, is soon to begin her annual posting series known as LaBloShoeMo (Lara's Blogging Shoe Month). Head on over there for your daily dose of delightful shoes!

Tonight was the worst mahjong run in Tina history. Everyone else won big hands early on (including one by Brian that was HUGE -- 9 points plus a self-draw win -- 64 chips from everybody!), and I also gave out a lot of the winning tiles throughout the night (including when someone had nine tiles of one suit showing and I had let down my guard so I stupidly discarded the winning tile in that suit and therefore had to pay for everyone else's loss in addition to mine). At one point I had exactly zero chips, and very quickly after that I was in the NEGATIVES! It was definitely an EPIC fail in the truest sense of the word.

Brian had to "finance" me so I could keep playing and attempt to get back out of debt. From then on the wins were mostly small, but sadly none were won by me -- until the VERY LAST game, when I finally won one that was luckily big enough to pay off Brian and still leave me with a positive balance.

MAN. I have never even come close to losing that much in mahjong before. It was seriously not my night. Brian was the big winner, with Justin a clear second place.

Next time, Team Girl will do better! (It is, after all, nearly impossible to do worse.) REMATCH, we say!

...AND have guests over for a complete sit-down meal!

Tonight's dinner menu:
- tomato & basil bisque soup (which I didn't make; it's my newly discovered favorite soup from Safeway...SO YUMMY) served with fresh French bread
- spinach salad with sliced strawberries, toasted sugared almonds, and raspberry walnut vinaigrette
- chicken pasta casserole with cream of mushroom sauce (also known as "bop casserole" in a previous life)

And for dessert:
- sweet potato cheesecake (homemade and brought over by our guests) served with vanilla ice cream

Success!

Next: Time to venture on to a new entree...

Today I have been reflecting on the big picture, and how I am truly thankful for...
- my wonderful husband
- our loving families
- amazing friends
- a meaningful job
- a beautiful home to live in
- good health
- God's provision of everything we need and more
- God's daily grace
- Jesus and everything He made possible for us

I hope you too have had a blessed Thanksgiving!

Our new couches finally arrived last Saturday! We had our first guests over to try them out last night after Tim's birthday dinner. It was nice to have comfy sitting space for everyone, after so many months of relying on various chairs and stools to supplement the dinky foam couch I originally inherited from home to use in my dorm room. (It's a GREAT couch that is so lightweight I can easily carry it around on my own, but for that same reason it's also not meant for heavy use. We're going to keep it in one of our spare rooms upstairs.)

The new couches are, as you can probably guess, BLUE. :-D So I am definitely enjoying the increase in the blue factor of the room. I'm glad we didn't settle for the ambiguous "seafoam" set we were considering over the summer, which was neither decidedly blue nor green. Who knew blue couches would be so hard to find?!

We look forward to having more people over in the coming holiday season!

Hooray for the awesomest brother ever!

-----
*UPDATE: I found the absolute PERFECT card for my brother a few months ago and had been just dying to give it to him on his birthday. Now that he's seen it, I can show you, too:

On the front...


And on the inside...


To make it even MORE AWESOME, this was one of those "sound" cards (you know, the ones that play some kind of song when you open it) -- except this one makes a FARTING SOUND when you open it!!! HAHAHA. Seriously. SO PERFECT.

Anyone you know who fits this description?

nomorechatter (11:12:49 PM): i haVe yOur Palantir sweatshiRt. If YoU wanT It bAck, bring $100 In unmarKed biLls tO times square. Come AlonE.

I'm starting to feel the big push towards the end of the semester as winter break approaches. Isn't it still November, you say? Yes, but what with only two school days this week and December beginning right after that, finals are closer than they appear. We basically have to finish teaching all the new material before winter break because after break will be their last regular test and then review for finals. Which means that all the review packets have to be prepared, copied, and passed out before they leave for break. And it doesn't help that I'll be losing an instructional day when the juniors go on their annual SF field trip.

I think I'm just alarmed by all the things I've been adding to my calendar for December, both school-related and non-school-related. There is something significant scheduled for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of both the first two weeks of December, in addition to various smaller things here and there. Yipes! Much of it is fun stuff, at least, so there is a lot to look forward to. :) (Sorry, K. - I decided to go with the colloquial phrasing there...)

Two years ago, Winter Lumpy joined our (soon-to-be) family when Brian proposed to me with his help!

(Photo by my brother, Tim)

TGIF, seriously. It's been a long day and a long week. Early to bed tonight. Sorry for the lame post.

Yesterday, the drama teacher at school asked if I could help her with sightreading some piano accompaniment for her students' audition songs, which they are preparing for the spring musical auditions coming up in a few weeks. I warned her there were no guarantees but I would try.

Well, I tried -- and BOY was it a spectacular failure! I was never stellar at sightreading even in the prime of my youth (on the piano, anyway; violin is easier), but now that I don't have access to a piano at home and don't play regularly anymore, I am extremely rusty. I could keep the bass line running but anything that involved crazy chords in the right hand...whoo boy! It was not pretty, let me tell you. Especially since I was trying to sightread it at tempo.

The drama teacher is really desperate to get some kind of semi-functional accompaniment help in the next couple days, so I put out a public plea for help on my Facebook and Gmail statuses (stati?) and started racking my brain for any possible pianist friends I could ask. Luckily, I FOUND A WILLING AND BRAVE SOUL! Scott has graciously agreed to come by the school both Friday AND Monday, and he even offered to work on the music a little ahead of time if I could drop it off for him tonight.

Sooo...it will be interesting to see how it goes tomorrow! I'll be there with him too, so we may split hands on some of the more challenging pieces. With Scott's help hopefully I won't make as big a fool out of myself this time around.

Wish us luck!

I'm starting to feel better, though I'm still fairly congested and low-energy. Lots of tissue being used over here at the moment. But overall I can tell I'm on the upswing, so that's a relief.

To follow up on the question I posed on a previous post: I think my two favorite Thanksgiving foods are still mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie (hey, I narrowed it down to something savory and something sweet -- that's pretty good for me!). I absolutely looove potatoes. But I love me some pumpkin pie, too. It's gotta be COLD pumpkin pie -- none of this warmed up business!

One year for Christmas, my brother got me a big box of mashed potato MIX. Like, little packets where you add water, butter, and milk, and STIR. Isn't that hilarious??? He said he had been scouring my blog that year for hints about what I might want for Christmas, and all he could find was about how I really like pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes. So since pumpkin pie would've been perishable, he opted for the next best nonperishable thing: instant mashed potatoes. SO FUNNY.

He was also extra proud of himself because the box itself was -- guess what color? -- BLUE!

I think I still have most of that box somewhere, actually. Hey, nonperishable, remember?

----------
And with that, I will leave you with an old quote -- an oldie but goodie:
"For a second, I forgot what prawns were. I was thinking about scallops. When they came, I was like, 'Those don't look like potatoes!' " - Eric
"Eric, scallops are seafood, not potatoes." - K.

(stolen from one of K.'s posts during NaBloPoMo last year)

10 FAVORITES
Favorite Color: Blue! Duh.
Favorite Food: Dang it. I'm so bad at favorites. I don't know!
Favorite Month: July.
Favorite Song: Definitely don't have a favorite song either...
Favorite Movie: This section isn't going so well...
Favorite Sport: Oh! I can answer this! Soccer.
Favorite Season: Spring.
Favorite Day of the Week: Saturday.
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Coffee. *EDIT: GREEN TEA ICE CREAM! I almost forgot about that flavor because I get to have it so rarely. :( But I definitely like it the most! I just happen to have access to coffee ice cream more often. Mmm...now I really want some green tea ice cream!
Favorite Time of Day: Evening.

9 CURRENTS
Current Mood: Does "sick" count?
Current Taste: Nothing, actually.
Current Clothes: Brown slacks and dark red blouse on top of a black tank top.
Current Desktop: A closeup of orange orchids taken by Brian during one of our visits to the SF Conservatory of Flowers.
Current Toenail Color: Um...normal-colored?
Current Time: 10:04pm.
Current Surroundings: My living room (which will soon have couches -- this weekend!).
Current Thoughts: I am irked at one of K.'s students for making an insensitive comment. HRMPH.

8 FIRSTS
First Best Friend: The earliest one I can remember is a girl named Georgina. 4th grade, maybe?
First Kiss: Matt, my high school boyfriend.
First Screen Name: Azalea225.
First Pet: We had a turtle at one point. Little did we know one day he would disappear at the hands of our grandmother... after which there was turtle soup! :-O
First Piercing: Ears. 6th grade, maybe?
First Crush: I honestly don't remember... if there were any in elementary school, I have zero recollection. In 6th grade, I had a crush on Theo. Hahaha... a-w-k-w-a-r-d at the time. Yay, middle school! :-P
First CD: I also don't remember. I never had very many CD's. I do remember my first cassette tape album (received as a birthday present) was a Celine Dion album, I think in 9th grade.

7 LASTS
Last Cigarette: Um...never?
Last Drink: Also never. Unless you mean the Coke I had with dinner...
Last Car Ride: As opposed to driving the car myself? Brian drove us home from the DL performance at Waltz Weekend on Saturday.
Last Kiss: Also on Saturday, before I started getting sick. We've refrained since then in hopes of avoiding getting Brian sick as well. I've given him goodbye pecks on the cheek in the mornings, though.
Last Movie Seen: Casino Royale. Before that, Hairspray. And before that, Ratatouille (okay, it took me several tries to spell that correctly). We don't normally watch movies that much, but we happened to watch these three within the past two weeks! Strange.
Last Phone Call: Tonight, with my mom.
Last CD Played: In the car -- "When You Say Go" by Testimony!

6 HAVE YOU EVERS
Have You Ever Dated One Of Your Best Guy/Girl Friends? Yes.
Have You Ever Broken the Law: "Duh" is a good answer for this one.
Have You Ever Been Arrested: No.
Have You Ever Skinny Dipped: No.
Have You Ever Been on TV: I think for like 2 seconds in one of those top-high-school-seniors "get a shot of everyone throwing a cap in the air" things that a local news station did back then.
Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn’t Know: No.

5 THINGS
Thing You’re Wearing: My cross necklace.
Thing You’ve Done Today: Attended a Staff Meeting.
Thing You Can Hear Right Now: Brian typing.
Thing You Can’t Live Without: My watch. (MUST. KNOW. THE TIME!)
Thing You Do When You’re Bored: Browse blogs.

4 PLACES YOU’VE BEEN TODAY
My classroom.
K.'s classroom.
My car.
My couch.

3 PEOPLE YOU CAN TELL ANYTHING TO
Brian
(Hmmm...he's the only person I actually tell everything to, so I feel like it's misleading to try and arbitrarily name two more people for this list...)

2 CHOICES
Black or White: Wait, wait -- I need CONTEXT! Bah. Um...black, I guess?
Hot or Cold: Again, boo to lack of context. I guess I'll go with "hot."

1 THING YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE: Lead someone to Christ.

Okay... your turn!

What's your favorite Thanksgiving food?

Come to think of it, I'm not sure I could choose just one...
----------
Thanks for all the well wishes. I made it through the day at school, got my grades in, and even left a bit early to crash at home for awhile. I didn't make it to rehearsal, but that's probably for the best -- I wouldn't have lasted upright very long and would have risked getting all the guys sick as well.

Not much to say today. I started feeling a sore throat coming on last night, and I woke up feeling much worse. I've spent most of the day in bed, alternately sleeping, grading tests (which have been depressing), and eating a little. My throat is feeling slightly better now, and I've been taking Tylenol around the clock, so I'm really hoping I'll be okay enough to teach tomorrow. I also need to turn in progress report grades, so I'll have to go in at some point anyway.

Hope your Sunday has been better than mine!

Since no one has been attempting any more guesses on the song lyrics, I guess it's time to finally demystify the ones still left unidentified!

1) "A Sorta Fairytale" by Tori Amos
2) "Consuming Fire" by Tim Hughes
6) "Do You Dream of Me" by Michael W. Smith [I use the intro of this song as my cell phone ringtone]
7) "The Gift" by Collin Raye & Susan Ashton
12) "If I Am" by Nine Days [anyone remember my old away messages?]
16) "Finding Me" by Vertical Horizon [another source for old away messages]
17) "Broken" by Seether with Amy Lee
19) "Another Day" (from RENT, as several people recognized) - but the version I have is a recording by my high school friends Kristin and Joey!
20) "All I Really Want" by Lincoln Brewster
24) "Something So Beautiful" by Kyler England [a relatively obscure new artist whom I first heard as an opener for Vienna Teng a few years back]

Know any of these songs?

K. and I went to see the fall play again *twice* today -- in the afternoon for the second cast, and in the evening for the first cast again, just because we love the kids and had so much fun watching the production. There were definitely differences in the portrayal of characters between the two casts, but I really loved them both. The kids also did fabulously on the dancing! We were so proud of them!

What a great way to end the week. :)

Time for a thankful list! It's been awhile. I should try to do these more often again. (Main inspiration from JoEllen!)

From the past week or so...I am thankful for:
- dancing more this year
- having at least some physical activity built into my schedule again (a step up from *none*...I really need to work on that)
- slowly getting a little better at the warmups in rehearsal
- successful first DL performance of the season
- 3-day weekend
- having a washer and dryer to do laundry in our own home
- music from the lyrics game bringing back old memories
- being able to share so much of my daily life with K.
- sharing a classroom with Laura and being able to see how she teaches the kids I'll be getting next year
- working with Rick again this year on planning curriculum
- competent and efficient TA's
- finally being able to handle having a TA (which I hadn't been before)
- having family close by
- last but not least...BRIAN! He is so supportive and patient and takes such good care of me. I thank God for him every day.

----------
P.S. I wrote most of the above earlier today, but I just got home from the opening show of "Pride & Prejudice" and THEY WERE SO GOOD!!! I'm so proud of all the kids! I can't wait to see the other cast tomorrow!

I have total writer's block today. I was thinking all day about what "W" topic I could use for tonight's post, but I couldn't come up with anything good and I'm just about frustrated enough to give up. But I MUST POST! So...here we go anyway.

For lack of anything better to do, I guess I will just tell you about my day.

Today was a fairly typical school day as far as Wednesdays go. I taught one period, tutored another period, and had a break in the middle of the day during which I prepped homework assignments, graded homework assignments, and picked up lunch for me and K. from Subway (exciting, huh?). Then I had a Math Department meeting during lunch. One of my classes took a test today and the other class will take it tomorrow, so it's going to be a grading-heavy weekend ahead (progress report grades are due on Monday).

On the bright side, I am really looking forward to seeing the fall play our school is putting on this weekend! K. and I (but mostly K.) helped teach the kids a Regency dance that they will be performing during the intermission. I'm excited about the play itself as well, of course. There are two different casts (to maximize the number of students that can be involved) so I'll be going to see it twice.

If you're free in the evening on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday and are interested in seeing our school's production of "Pride & Prejudice," let me know and I'll give you the details! It's free (with suggested donation of $5 at the door) so no tickets are required. I promise you'll enjoy it - our kids are awesome!

Our Current Top Five TV Shows:
1) The West Wing (still my favorite; I can watch the seasons over and over and it never seems to get old - the writing is just so intelligent and witty! I also credit this show with teaching me probably 75% of what I know about the US government. Sad, huh?)
2) 24
3) Heroes
4) Prison Break (though we haven't caught up to the current season yet)
5) House

What are your favorite TV shows?

- I've said this before, but Mondays off are even more awesome because they're followed by 4-day weeks!
- Why do men's dress shirts have to take SO LONG to iron??? Seriously, who came up with the design anyway?
- Hopefully I will do okay dancing the Menagerie this weekend, despite never having formally learned it...
- Ordering window treatments should not be this complicated. Why does it require multiple appointments?
- I can't believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I'm doing SO much better personally than I was at this time last year. Praise God! :) And I'm so thankful that my wonderful husband has been so supportive of the changes I needed to make for this year.

And...that's all for now, folks!

I'm stealing a music meme from K. that she posted on her teacher-version Facebook page tonight, which she had also done a variation of previously on her own blog. I decided to post mine on my blog instead of my teacher-version Facebook page, since my "friends" audience over there currently numbers...four. I guess it's possible that my audience here is comparable to that as well, but I figure there's a higher probability of participation and/or success. Who knows, though, I could be wrong. ;)

THE RULES
1. Put your music player on random.
2. Post the first line of lyrics for the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
3. Let everyone guess what song and artist the lines come from. Strike out the songs when someone guesses correctly.
4. Don't cheat! (NO GOOGLE)

--------------------
1) "On my way up north / up on the ventura / I pulled back the hood / and I was talking to you."

2) "There must be more than this / Oh breath of God, come breathe within / There must be more than this / Spirit of God, we wait for you."

3) "Why, why, tell me do you wonder why / some can look so hard and miss the truth, yeah / Some will stumble over it a hundred times / and never ever see the living proof."
["Wonder Why" by Avalon -- guessed by Erin]

4) "We delight in the law of your Word / We delight in your Son who was perfect from birth / We delight in the day He's returning to earth / Hallelujah!"
["We Delight" by Caedmon's Call -- guessed by Eric]

5) "Here where the daylight begins / Fog on the streetlight slowly thins / Water on water's the way / The safety of shoreline fading away."
["Harbor" by Vienna Teng -- guessed by K.]

6) "Dreams / within the still of night / on wings of hope take flight / inside of me."

7) "When the snow is falling down / Children laughing all around / Lights are turning on / Like a fairy tale come true."

8) "She walks to school with the lunch she packed / Nobody knows what she's holding back / Wearing the same dress she wore yesterday / She hides the bruises with the linen and lace."
["Concrete Angel" by Martina McBride -- guessed by K.]

9) "Darlin' did you know that I, I dream about you / Waiting for the look in your eyes / when we meet for the first time?"
["Wait For Me" by Rebecca St. James -- guessed by Eric]

10) "I've been a traveler of far away lands / I've got love on my mind, but death on these hands / Come homeward angel, show me the way / or will fate leave me dead in the tracks where I lay?"
["Show Me the River" by EastMountainSouth -- guessed by Eric]

11) "Still, soft, quietly spoken / Voice that persistently calls my name / And quickens my heart to come / And I come..."
["Rest" by Skillet -- guessed partially by K. and fully by Justin]

12) "So you're standing on the ledge / It looks like you might fall / So far down / Or maybe you were thinkin' about jumping."

13) "It's crowded in worship today / As she slips in trying to fade into the faces / The girls' teasing laughter is carrying farther than they know / Farther than they know."
["If We Are the Body" by Casting Crowns -- guessed by Bryan]

14) "She can kill with a smile / She can wound with her eyes / She can ruin your faith with her casual lies."
["She's Always A Woman" by Billy Joel -- guessed by K.]

15) "Didn't hear a tone, are you, hello? / I never hear a tone, I guess you know / I can't remember what I called to say / I thought you might be home on Saturday."
["People Change" by Rockapella -- guessed by Justin]

16) "I don't think you notice / When you see my face / I guess you're waiting / To spin me around again."

17) "I wanted you to know / That I love the way you laugh / I wanna hold you high / And steal your pain away."

18) "I set out on a narrow way / Many years ago / Hoping I would find true love / Along the broken road."
["Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts -- guessed by K.]

19) "Who do you think you are? / Barging in on me and my guitar / Little girl, hey - the door is that way / You better go, you know the fire is out anyway." [Bonus point for knowing exactly which "version" I have for this one!]
[getting close on this one... K., Erin, and Tali all clearly know the song and where it's from but the title is eluding them!]

20) "Lord, I love the way You love me / And how you move me deep within / Lord, I love the way You hold me / And draw me into You."
["All I Really Want" by _____? -- guessed partially by K.]

21) "I've been searching for a reason / And I'm running out of time / I can feel that it's the season / It's time to make up my mind."
["Thinking Over" by Dana Glover -- guessed by Eric]

22) "You / Doin' that thing you do / Breaking my heart into a million pieces / Like you always do."
["That Thing You Do" by the One-ders/Wonders (fictional band from a movie) -- guessed by Anupa]

23) "The rain fell down in my life today / And I almost drowned / Sometimes the happiness just all fades away / And it can't be found."
["Matter of Time" by Church of Rhythm -- guessed by Bryan]

24) "All that you are / All that you've been / All that you've wanted to forget / You bury deep / Where no one can see / And hope you can live with the regret."

25) "Spend all your time waiting / For that second chance / For a break that would make it okay."
["Angel" by Sarah McLachlan -- guessed by K.]
--------------------

I just have to say, after having completed the exercise of typing up these first line lyrics, that I AM REALLY BAD AT UNDERSTANDING/PAYING ATTENTION TO WORDS! Wow. Even when I was trying to concentrate on the words specifically, half the time I either couldn't hear them or my mind WANDERED AWAY from what the words were saying, usually because I got distracted by something else in the music. It's like I have ADD when it comes to lyrics! I was appalled at myself.

I think I might actually fail this test if I try to name all the songs tomorrow. I don't even know my own music! SAD.

Okay, posting twice today didn't happen, but this is supposed to be "30 posts in 30 days" anyway. I suppose yesterday's short one was better than nothing.

This afternoon I went to our school's varsity football game against our biggest rival. It was really close game the whole time, and in the end we lost in overtime. :( BIG bummer. I know everyone is taking it really hard, but I especially feel for the senior boys on the team. Our rivalry with this school made a sharp spike two years ago when there was a big controversy over one of the ref's calls late in the game -- probably back when most of these boys had just joined or were about to join the varsity team. So I know they must have had high hopes to finish their last high school season strongly against this team. I hope God will use this loss to strengthen their character and teach them (along with the rest of us) something through all the disappointment. But man... so sad. :(

Fall Ball was fun. DL went reasonably well, as far as I can tell. It's late. More later. :-P Sorry! Copout post, I know. I'll try to post twice tomorrow to make up for it.

G'night!

Well...they finally popped The Question today. "They" being the administration at school, and The Question being whether or not I would be willing to switch to teaching Chemistry full-time for the last three months of this school year. Yeah...say what? Let me explain.

Our current Chemistry teacher is pregnant with her first child and will be due in March. Very exciting times! But it leaves us with the situation of needing to find someone to teach her Chemistry classes for the remainder of the year. Pretty much as soon as she announced her pregnancy, I knew I would be a prime target for being asked to help fill that need. I taught Chemistry two years ago (my first year at this school) and worked alongside this same teacher back then. Thinking about it at first, I didn't really want to do it but also wasn't ready to flat-out refuse, so I was just waiting and wondering when they would officially bring it up.

So, today, the Science Department Lead ran into me in the front office and it took me a few minutes to realize that he was hanging around because he wanted to talk to me about something. "Have a few minutes?" I chuckled nervously and replied, "Sure...," causing him to give me a sideways glance. "Is this about what I think it's about?"

Sure enough, it was (I am so astute) -- and I was surprised by how much less "ahhhh RUN AWAY!" I felt about the prospect this time around. He basically wanted to bring it up in as informal of a setting as he could (by the front office water cooler is about as informal as it gets, so good job, Doc) so that I wouldn't feel too pressured and he could gauge whether or not taking on Chemistry was even an option I'd be willing to consider. I reassured him that yes, I am willing to consider it, and that no, it doesn't make me feel like I'd "rather be boiled in a vat of oil." (Creative question, though, no?)

He pointed out that the only way it would make sense, if we do it at all, would be for me to take all 5 of the Chemistry classes and have someone else take over my math classes. This, obviously, gives me serious pause. It's not just a matter of my own workload; it would also affect the continuity of my current students' learning. I'm already attached to my kids, so it would be really sad to leave them mid-year. I told him I'd feel a lot more comfortable with the idea if I knew who it was who'd be taking over my math classes.

Of course, maintaining some semblance of continuity for the Chemistry kids is the primary reason we're even considering this whole switcheroo in the first place. There's no one in our regular substitute pool who is qualified to teach Chemistry, so we'd have to find someone else who'd be completely new to TKA. If I were to do it, at least I've been through the curriculum before, I know many of the kids by name (and even have some of them currently in math), I know where stuff is in the lab, etc. etc. Plus it'd probably be a lot easier to find someone to cover math part-time than to find someone for Chemistry full-time, especially given that it's only for those 3 months. The position wouldn't continue into next year because the other Chemistry teacher is planning on returning in the fall.

And this isn't even taking into account any personal considerations I may have!

Basically, there's a lot for me to think and pray about in the coming weeks. If you have any thoughts or reactions, I'd welcome hearing them.

What to do, what to do...?

This morning, I walked into K.'s classroom as usual, saying hi to the girls in our Home Group and heading over to K.'s desk to put down my things. This particular morning, I didn't have anything with me except my keys. I think that when I have my school bag and/or purse with me, I usually set my stuff down on one of the student desks, but this morning since I only had my keys I guess I didn't make a conscious decision about where to put down my stuff.

So, not paying very much attention to what I was doing, I set my keys down on K.'s desk and continued chatting with the girls.

... and then, behind me, I heard: *jingle* *clink* *jingle* *thunk*

I turned back around and ... my keys were gone!

You see, K.'s desk has this hole in it, in the corner. I had never really noticed this hole, but there it was. It's designed for threading cords through the top of the desk to keep everything neat and tidy. But K. has nothing on her desk that involves cords, so, naturally, this hole is unused. Apparently I had managed to set my keys down *right on top of this hole* and they FELL THROUGH into the dark abyss of her desk.

But wait... it gets better!

The construction of K.'s desk is such that it has a "wall" on the outside (opposite from where she sits) that goes all the way down the floor. The drawers on both sides of her desk also reach all the way down to the floor. So this cord-management hole happened to deposit my keys behind the wall but not far enough to land inside any of the drawers. My keys were TRAPPED! We could see them by peering through the hole but had no way of retrieving them without physically moving the desk. And that desk is HEAVY.

K. and I decided the best solution was to wait and see if the boys in her next class could help muscle the desk into submission. I actually don't know what exactly they ended up doing because I had to leave to teach a class the next period (maybe she'll pipe up in the comments and let us know how they did it). She graciously sent a student over to bring my keys to me during her study hall. Thanks, K.!

I was laughing so hard about the whole situation that my stomach seriously started to hurt. Yes, folks, I am just that talented -- I fed my keys to a desk. Nothing like an act of stupidity to make the morning exciting!

It has been, as many have said, an historic election.*

I was fortunate that election day fell on my easiest teaching day of the week, so I was able to have a leisurely morning, head over with Brian to our polling place after the pre-work rush (though I'm not sure how busy it would have been even if we had tried to go earlier), and complete my voting ballot in less than 10 minutes. I am definitely grateful that the process was so easy for me, after hearing all the stories about people across the nation waiting hours and hours in line to cast their vote.

I'm not going to write here about which way I voted on the various issues, presidential or otherwise. I am far from confident in my ability to express my thoughts coherently, even if they were well-constructed in my own head. I've also felt uncomfortable with the assumptions and arguments made on both sides of the aisle, from the various demographic groups into which I fall. Let's just say that I may or may not have voted the way you might expect, and it may or may not have been for the reasons you might assume.

Overall, I am just thankful that I was able to participate in this election, and I know it's not something I should take for granted. Next time around I hope to do a better job of being informed about the many different issues on the ballot, not just the major ones.

If you didn't see the concession and victory speeches on the news tonight, you should definitely find a way to watch them. I thought they were both excellent.

What a momentous day!

(* I still think that "an" sounds wrong in that phrase.)

... is already THIS Friday! It feels extremely early since Ragtime Ball used to be the 3rd Friday in November (at least the ones I can remember). It also feels really weird to call it the "Fall Ball." Whose idea was it to change the name anyway?

It's been pretty fast-paced to prepare for Danse Libre's first performance with only 3 official rehearsals (after auditions) under our belt. But it should be fun, and I'm looking forward to having my brother and his girlfriend there for the dancing too!

Anyone else going to be there? Actually, anyone else still read this thing? I'm not convinced anyone other than K. and M. still pay attention here. Which is fine, seeing as I'm probably going to fail miserably at this NaBloPoMo thing -- I already almost forgot tonight. It's going to be a long 30 days...

Help me by leaving some suggestions in the comments for possible blog topics!

After a long hiatus, Brian and I are trying to make some more progress on the home decorating front. We finally ordered couches last weekend! (Guess what color they are?) We also got a couple more items of dark wood furniture for the living room. We're hoping to be more functional for company before the holidays roll around.

Today we were rethinking our "office" setup and decided to change things around a bit. Those of you who have been to our place have seen how we had our desks side by side in the center, with a tall shelf next to each one. Now the shelves are side by side in the center, and the desks are on the outside except rotated 90 degrees so they're facing away from each other. This opens up more space in the middle of the room and hopefully will facilitate my using the desk more often, since it'll be easier for me to do work and see the TV at the same time. So far I'm liking the new setup! We'll see whether or not we decide to stick with it.

Now for all the boxes that still remain...

... I'm joining K. in her quest to participate in NaBloPoMo -- National Blog Posting Month. This will be my first time attempting such a feat, and it's a pretty ridiculous notion for someone who has been so far removed from anything remotely resembling regular blogging. I remember when I used to post something, even if short, every day! That seems like eons ago now.

And so, partly for the challenge, partly for the fun of keeping each other accountable, and partly because it's such a crazy idea, I'm going to hop on the NaBloPoMo bandwagon and see how far I can get. It's entirely possible I may fall right off again within a few days...but I won't know if I don't try, right?

Good news is that I have 25 hours to get a post in tomorrow! That's right -- don't forget to set your clocks back! (Not that anyone will see this in time for it to actually be a useful reminder.)

By the way, who can say "NaBloPoMo" five times fast? I can't.