The Adventures of Kinky Reggae: A Vagabond for Beauty

Has anyone else noticed the Porta-Potty on Lake Shore Drive? (I actually had to look up that word to make sure I spelled it right.) It's on the median on Lake Shore just north of Chicago Avenue. I'm completely baffled... there's no crosswalk or anything there, and even if there was, who would stop and use the bathroom in the middle of a busy street? There is usually traffic in that spot; wouldn't that be weird to come out of the bathroom and have all these random people looking at you? It has to be a prank. I know they put up a bunch of porta-potties for Venetian Night; someone must have stolen one and put it on the median. Pretty funny. And it's been there at least a week. I wonder if anyone else has noticed...

It was the first weekend of the school year, and it was everything I wanted it to be. One of my favorite friends was in town Friday night, so I went out with her and some other friends from high school. It was so great to see these girls! We just went out for dinner downtown and had great conversation. I really enjoyed myself. Nina and I went whitewater rafting on Saturday. I think I have found a new hobby. At first I was kind of nervous, because it was just the two of us in the boat, and we are definitely city girls. We'd never done anything like it before. I was afraid we'd miss the spot where we get off and end up in the Illinois river. We kind of sucked at first. Okay, we really sucked at first. We hit every tree and rock we could possible hit. And there were these two guys in a canoe we kept seeing who must have thought we were crazy- they actually pulled over at one point to shout instructions at us when we went through rapids. But there was only one time when

Today was the first full day of school. It felt so good to be teaching again. It's just like with singing. I didn't do it for a while, but the singing I did this summer just felt so right. How do I describe it? It's like you're doing what you were made to do- there's nothing that feels better. You hit a certain note a certain way, and it's like you just want to sigh with contentment; you know, like when you finally get in bed after a really long day and you think there's nothing better than your Egyptian Cotton sheets and soft mattress. I realized today that teaching gives me the same feeling. I had a great summer. I loved sleeping in and doing whatever I wanted. I actually was not looking forward to school starting. But then, I stood there looking at my class, and they looked at me, and it just felt right. And I know I'm not the only one who feels this way about the things we love doing. I met the owner of the art gallery across the street,

Instead of watching boring Powerpoints about test scores, we had a Challenge Day . I'm too tired to write much about it, but it was pretty awesome. I guess it was even on Oprah last year. She was skeptical at first, but then after participating, she said, "This is how you change the world." At first I thought it was going to be all stupid and touchy feely, and it reminded me of something from The Office. Well, it did end up being touchy feely (lots of hugging and crying), but not lame at all. We did a lot of great activities that helped us get to know each other better. I really wish these presenters could come in and do this for my class. It was just so much better than I thought today could be.

Definitely one of my new favorite movies. At first I was disappointed, because Colin Firth wasn't as hot as he usually is, but then you get to know Mr. Darcy, and you can't help falling for him. I *love* movies like this. How did it take me so long to watch this one? I felt like the 5 hours wasn't enough. I actually just went on the Blockbuster website and added Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and another version of Pride and Prejudice to my queue. I know I read the book back in 5th or 6th grade, but I had obviously forgotten it's awesomeness. It reminded me of Anne of Green Gables. I kind of wish things were still simple like they were in those movies. That men still treated you like a lady; the biggest drama was Josie Pye daring you to walk on the roof; for fun, you and your friends acted out The Lady of Shalott; and the thing that would make you happiest in the world would be a dress with puffed sleeves. Although, in Pride and Prejudice, some people were such

Today I finally found out why the gangster tour always stops across the street from my apartment. The big building on the corner is a old brewery that Al Capone and his gang used to use to make liquor that would supply the speakeasies. How cool is that? Now I've just got to scout out a way to get inside, and figure out how to get in there without being arrested for trespassing. Also, I was very disappointed by High School Musical 2 tonight. The story was kind of cute, but the music was completely awful. I really liked that Ryan had a bigger role, but I felt like Ashley Tisdale was really overacting. Although maybe that wasn't her fault; the role was pretty ridiculous. Anyway, I'm still a huge fan of the first one, but I was not impressed with the second one.

So I've basically been in front of my computer all day, doing homework, working on lesson plans, and getting ready for the first day of school. Experts say that you're supposed to do lots of ice breakers and team-building activities with your students so everyone is comfortable with each other and respects each other. And I thought of the perfect game to achieve this in my classroom: Assassins. We played Assassins senior year at Concordia in my dorm. Everyone was given the name of a person they had to kill. You killed the person by sticking a post-it note on them. When you killed them, they gave you the name of the person they were after, and you were then responsible for killing that person. This goes on and on till there's only one person left. This game was awesome and hilarious. The only place that was off-limits was the bathroom, I think. I remember hearing about someone getting killed during Dr. Eschelbach's Greek class. It got all crazy with secret allia

Sarah , I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who is indecisive. In a few weeks, our dear friend Rachel will be back in town for her birthday. Me, Nina, Rachel, Sarah, (aka Tripod and Tabletop) and Stephanie will be getting tattoos together. Nina, Rachel, and Steph already know exactly what they want. Sarah wants several tattoos and just can't decide which one she wants the most. I, on the other hand, have no clue what to get. I already have one on the small of my back. It says "Measure your life in love" in a circle. I got it a year ago and I still love it. But I don't know what else I want now. One idea is the Lutheran symbol. Each part of it represents a part of the Lutheran faith. The meaning of the black cross in the middle is obvious, I hope. Luther says: "The first should be a black cross in a heart, which retains its natural color, so that I myself would be reminded that faith in the Crucified saves us. For one who believes from the h

Ok, so this is really difficult. I never really had an enemy until last year, when Marilyn, the mentor coordinator, decided she was out to get me. Most of my friends know the story, and I don’t feel like typing the whole thing. But basically, she decided she didn’t like me, and she is not a good enemy to have. She is the former Union President, and is tight with the administration and the school board. No one actually likes her (because she is seriously evil), but we think she must have blackmail on someone because she does whatever she wants. So last year she did her best to get me in trouble with my principal and the superintendent, and lied about me to the school board. She also claimed that she was too busy to have my last required meeting, so now I will have to be in the mentoring program for another two years because I didn’t complete the requirements. On top of all this, I heard that she said all kinds of mean things behind my back about like, my weight. It was a diffic

Today on Eric and Kathy, they listed the top 5 names of girls who are most likely to put out on the first date: 1. Nikki/Nicole 2. ERIN 3. Kristy 4. Jenny 5. Lindsay And then 2 girls named Erin called in and agreed with the results... Not cool, not cool. Also, not true, not true. :)

Yesterday started out just like every other Friday this summer. I babysit for adorable 4-year-old twins. I got to their house early, then drove them downtown for Chinese school from 9-12 in their parents' minivan. (They are adopted from China.) After I dropped them off, I headed back to my apartment for a nap. As I was driving down Halsted, this white minivan just drove right in front of me. She was on Hubbard, trying to cross Halsted. I didn't have a stop light or stop sign or anything; she just thought she had enough time to make it across. She didn't. I hit the side of her van. We pulled over, and her van wasn't damaged at all, but the front of my van was all scratched and the license plate was messed up. So we called the police and were told that they wouldn't come unless someone was injured; if we wanted to file a police report, we had to go to the station. The women gave me directions, and I said I would follow them. Looking back, I was soooooo s

She is 87 years old and reading Harry Potter. Last week I was visiting her and I told her how much I loved the last book. She said that after watching all the news reports about it, she couldn't help but wonder what made the books so great. I immediately went home and ordered her a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It came today, and she was so pleased! She was already 20-something pages into it when she called me. I told her I would reread it so we could discuss it together. I also told her that reading Harry Potter officially makes her the coolest grandma in the whole world. I really hope she gets involved with the books. She lives alone, and she can't get out much because she is too stubborn to be seen in public in her wheelchair. This will give her something to do and something to think about. Oh, and my grandma is also awesome because she loves the Cubs so much. I watched a game with her last week, and she knew so much about it. One of her fav

I just found out that my favorite teacher, Mr. Bowman, died of a heart attack in June. I had the privilege of having Mr. Bowman for three years in high school- Freshman and Senior Honor’s English, and Sophomore Yearbook. Class with Mr. Bowman was always exciting and somewhat unpredictable. I know that some of my friends did not like him, but I don’t want to discuss Mr. Bowman’s faults here. No teacher is perfect, and now that I am a teacher, I hope that my students can be forgiving of my sometimes irritable moods. Mr. Bowman was the kind of teacher who wanted to teach you about life as well as literature. He was so wise. When I found out I was pregnant towards the end of senior year, I was so scared. I knew I needed to talk to a “grown-up” about all the decisions I need to make: Should I get married? How am I going to go to college? How am I going to tell my parents, who raised me in a Christian home and thought I was the perfect daughter? Mr. Bowman was the grown-up I chose