The Adventures of Kinky Reggae: A Vagabond for Beauty

I just booked my flight for Phoenix. I'm flying out Friday night, October 10, and I'll be home Tuesday afternoon, October 14. 3 full days with Rachel, my female soulmate. It's going to be amazing. We are going 4-wheeling in the mountains, and I'm getting my tattoo. Today was not completely awful. My kids were not that bad in my classroom. It's just when we leave that there are problems. When I came to pick them up from lunch, the principal told me my class has been banned from the lunch room for the next two weeks. I've never heard of her doing this before. They must have been really bad.

I haven't blogged much for the past few weeks because things have pretty much been monotonous and miserable, at least, during the week. In my principal's words, my class is on "lockdown" and I am the "warden." There is a student who is new to my school who is making things particularly difficult. I don't want to go into too much detail, but this week he tipped over a lunch table and broke another student's arm and got into an all out fistfight with a girl on the stairs. His minor misbehaviors are continuous throughout the day and make me absolutely crazy. And his aunt (who is his guardian) is very present. She came in to observe on Tuesday and had the nerve to give me a lecture on my lack of classroom management skills. The math lesson she observed had gone well in my opinion. Her criticisms? A girl took too long to sharpen her pencil, and a few kids occasionally whispered about topics unrelated to math. Anyway, I've come home with massi

Jen was actually serious when she said yes to doing the Disney Princess Half Marathon with me. Today she mentioned that she has been working with her trainer. This means that I also need to start training. And saving money. Oh crap. Any ideas on how to train? This weekend was perfection, and, as usual, went by too quickly. Friday night I read a book and went to bed early. Saturday I went apple-picking with Nancy and my mom. It is so funny to me that Nancy comes apple-picking with us when she is actually allergic to apples. She pretty much misses out on all the good stuff- the caramel apples, the apple donuts, the cider, the actual apples... But the place we went to this year had really good fudge, so hopefully that made up for all the apple stuff. On the way to the orchard we stopped at Sonic in Aurora. It's very exciting to know that I won't have to drive 2 hours to get a cherry limeade now! I foresee lots of expeditions to Aurora in the future. The Sonic is also

was not good. I began the day with a positive attitude. I did yoga and centered myself (and I'm still deliciously sore- I love the yoga!). I prayed. And I actually did stay calm, no matter how unhappy I was. But the fact remains that I am unhappy with 29 students in my class. It is noisy. I rarely demand silence in my classroom and opt for quiet voices instead. But 29 quiet voices are loud. So one person talks louder in order to be heard, and then everyone is loud. Writing Workshop was a disaster today. I don't know how it's going to work with so many students. It is crowded. I can barely walk around in my classroom. When we walk through the hall, my line is so long I usually can't see the whole thing. That means that the kids I can't see are misbehaving. I know I'll get through this. I mean, it's only two more kids than last year. It shouldn't be a big deal, right? But it is. My friend Michelle is just as upset as I am, which actually m

I've decided that I need to start getting up a little earlier every morning to do yoga before work. Not only is it a good workout, but it calms me down and keeps me centered as well. And I need all the centering I can get with all the new students I'm getting tomorrow. I'm hoping the yoga will get me through it. That and my bottle of Xanax. This morning was Day 1 of yoga. It was wonderful. I was feeling completely peaceful when my phone rang, scaring the crap out of me. Michelle was calling to let me know that 94 was closed and advised that I just take Halsted all the way to work. I live at 18th St. I work at 158th St. That's a long way to go on Halsted. It took me an hour and 25 minutes to get to work. On the way there, I stopped at McDonald's for a Diet Coke. They informed me that they had no ice. Then they gave me a regular Coke instead of Diet. Good thing I had done the yoga and was listening to Gospel music. Serenity Now! I wrote my first referr

I woke up this morning still feeling maudlin, which I hate. It's got to be this neverending rain. I finally decided to stop fighting it and just embrace the illogical sadness. I made a playlist of depressing music for my iPod and went out walking in the rain for over an hour. It felt wonderful. There was hardly anyone out, so it was really peaceful. And the people who were out just grinned at me and my craziness. I stopped at a playground and played on the swings for a while. Towards the end of the walk, I started jumping in puddles. By the time I got home, I was completely soaked. But I felt better. Who would have thought that the same thing that has me in such a bad mood could also be the cure?

So I had a perfectly nice day. I woke up at a reasonable hour and finished reading a new book (that was actually really good). Then my little sister came over to watch a movie that I think every young girl should watch: Anne of Green Gables. She loved it. We made chocolate chip cookies too, after I found out she's never baked cookies or eaten cookie dough before. I found out she has also never carved a pumpkin, which will be remedied in the next month or so. She has, however, kissed a boy. A boy down the street, Lil Rock (she doesn't know his real name), walked her home from the store in the rain yesterday. He carried her bags for her and kissed her on the cheek when they got to her house. So sweet, but it better not go beyond kisses on the cheek and holding hands. At least not until she knows his real name. And is like, 21. Anyway, I came home and watched What Happens in Vegas, which I actually really liked. Then I started thinking about how I really want to go pla

I've been making summer lists of things to do since I was sixteen, but I've never done it for any other season. I thought that maybe I'd be more excited for changing seasons if I had lists of things to accomplish. My friend Nancy and I decided to start working on fall to-do lists. Hers is a bit more focused on self-improvement than mine is, which is admirable. Here's what I have so far: 1. Go apple picking and drink apple cider and eat apple donuts. 2. Go to a corn maze. During the day, not at night. And not a haunted one. And one that's not too big. I learned my lesson last year. 3. Carve a pumpkin for Halloween. 4. Watch the Scariest Places marathon on ABC Family. 5. Go somewhere out in the country to see pretty leaves. 6. Go to Homecoming at Concordia (but only if Jen and Ray come with me). 7. Go to a football game. 8. Go to a haunted house (but only if I have a date to hold my hand). 9. Go to Dan's Candies in Joliet for the best caramel app

The students in my district hate our uniform policy (navy blue bottoms, light blue tops), so they are always trying to find ways around it. Today was the most hilarious outfit I've seen yet. A. was wearing a light blue, collared top and navy blue skirt. But under the skirt she wore thermal pajama bottoms. They were cream colored with pastel stars all over them, and she had them scrunched up around her knees. She wore a cream colored hoodie with a very busy print all over it over her shirt. But since that is against the rules, she put a navy blue sweater over the hoodie so all you could really see was the hood. Remember that episode of friends where Joey gets mad at Chandler and puts on all the clothes in his closet? That's what she looked like. She was also sporting the newest 6th grade trend: 2 different earrings. The girls must be buying colored earrings in sets. They wear a hoop in one ear, and just a little ball (or would you call that a stud?) in the other ear. I

There are 3 sixth grade classes and teachers: me, Michelle, and Lachae. It's Lachae's first year here; her first year teaching was at the middle school last year. Michelle and Lachae have 20 kids in their classes, and I have 19. I'm a firm believer in the saying, "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is." Is that cynical? In my experience, whenever you're completely content with a situation, something goes terribly wrong. Which is what happened today. I knew our class sizes were ridiculously small. But after four weeks of school, I began to be cautiously optimistic it would stay that way. No such luck. They're getting rid of Lachae's section and splitting up her class between me and Michelle. So on Tuesday, we will each be getting 10 new kids. Lachae is being moved to fourth grade, and the new fourth grade teacher (the girl I'm not crazy about) is being moved to another school. I do feel bad for her. She spent so much time on he

Last night I had to do a presentation for my grad class. My partner and I brought in books and had the class level them and come up with ways to introduce them as if they were reading them to their own class. One girl chose a book for primary students called Jobs At All Hours. The title didn't strike me as funny at first. The book seemed innocent enough, showing pictures of firefighters and that kind of thing. But then when she got up to present, it occurred to me what other jobs you might work at all hours. And I started cracking up in front of the class as she introduced the book. Then she mentioned that a lot of our students have parents who work jobs at all hours. I don't know if she was trying to be funny, but I actually had tears streaming down my face I was laughing so hard. Not exactly professional. But that book was hilarious.

Today I bought flowers at the Farmer's Market, and they are making me SO HAPPY. Seriously. It's a little embarrassing how excited I am over a bouquet of flowers. But look how pretty they look on my table: Anne, I don't know if you can see it, but your Save the Date is there on my fridge. Amber, there's a picture of us from New Year's. Jen and Ray, there are pictures of Parker the day she was born. And Nina, there's a picture right in the middle of the guacamole we made in Florida. Just wanted you all to see how you're represented on my fridge. The purple flowers smell sooo good. The Cubs game is on in the background of this picture. I watched the Cubs win while cleaning earlier. Tonight I'm hoping to watch the Bears win while I work on lesson plans. I can't imagine a better day. Well, yes I can. Like being at Disney World- that might be a better day. But because of the flowers, today exceeded my expectations.

My 88 year-old Grandma still lives alone. She has very frail bones, which scares all of us because we're afraid of her falling. Friday night, she got up to use the washroom in the middle of the night. Her knee gave out and she fell into the bathtub, breaking 6 ribs. She did not press the button she wears around her neck in case of situations like this. Instead, she got up, got dressed, and waited till 7 a.m. to call my aunt and ask for a ride to the hospital. She truly is a stubborn old German. I don't think I'd be that strong in that situation. But then, my Grandma's whole life consists of times when she's had to be strong in ways I can't imagine. Please pray for her. She's in a lot of pain, and this raises questions about her ability to live alone in her house. She really does not want to move into an assisted living place, but this may force her to do so. It would be awful to have your options taken away from you, especially when you're as i

Everyone knows that I heart Rob Bell, the pastor at Mars Hill Church in Michigan. I subscribe to their podcast and listen to all of his sermons. Recently I was listening to this great one called "I do not know." It was talking about how spiritual maturity, and maturity in general, is when your beliefs/convictions trump your wants/feelings. When you have to make a decision, it's not based on what you want, but you do it because it's the right thing to do. Because the right thing to do is definitely not always what we want to do. For example, in all this drama I've had with C, what I wanted to do was make her miserable. But, I believe that Love Wins, so I had to let my beliefs overrule what I wanted. Rob Bell talks about how this kind of maturity doesn't just apply to our spiritual lives, but to daily life as well. For example, what I want is to sleep in in the morning, but my responsibility to my job doesn't allow me to do that. I feel like I'm

This weekend was so nice, yet so different from the fabulous, fun-filled weekends I had all summer. Friday night I was perfectly content to come home, order a pizza, and read a book I'd been waiting to read all week. Saturday was spent running errands and doing homework. I went over to Jen and Ray's Saturday night, and we just hung out and talked about politics and all the other things I love talking about with Jen and Ray. Oh, and of course the highlight was seeing my adorable Goddaughter. I did homework all day Sunday and got almost everything done. Then I met my fabulous friends Sarah and Nancy at the Ale House in Oak Park for some great conversation (and good food as well). It was just nice to see them again; I hate how school makes it hard to see people. This morning I went to Kristoffer's Cafe and worked on lesson plans. I got so much done. I'm going into this week feeling really calm because I spent all this time getting ahead. I hate turning down plans