I’ll be keeping the domain name, and I’ll probably start up a new blog in the very near future detailing my plans, preparations and activities in regards to my year of teaching in China.  I’m currently looking for a good wordpress theme for that specifically.

I guess I feel like there’s no real need for me to keep old blog posts about this or that boyfriend or this or that crappy job that I hate.  My honeymoon with “public diary writing” is long over.  I’ll probably have a professional blog when I’m a teacher, and maybe a knitting blog when I feel a little more proficient.  But there’s no reason to keep record of the blathering nonsense of my late teens and early twenties.

This is a common theme in my life; I just found some old diaries, and instead of making me feel nostalgic or “treasuring” a time when I was naive and innocent, it just made me feel like a moron who still has a long way to go.  Erika said, “Well, at least you can see how far you’ve come,” but it didn’t feel like that.  I didn’t even keep regular diary entries; I only wrote things when I was particularly insecure or angry.  There’s no real value in that, I think.  I think the real value is the woman I’ve grown into; I’m braver now (at least, I think I am…let’s see if I actually get on that plane to Hong Kong next August…).  I’m more “together” and organized…I’m more dedicated to the things I want to do (look at my GPA, for goodness’ sake…who would have imagined that I’d get grades like this?).  I’m getting a worldview and I’m starting to like it.

I didn’t burn my diaries or anything; I’m not that detached from my teenage self.  But I’m not necessarily sure they’ll be worth keeping in storage when I get back from China and find a place to move and settle into.  I’ve got my photo albums and keepsakes from high school and college; I don’t necessarily need random babbles to fill in the happy pictures with glum shadows.  And I think that finally graduating in May will really put me in a different place.  I feel it coming.  And I have hope for who I’m going to be.  I think I’m going to forgo the New Years’ resolutions this year for some post-graduation resolutions.  Things like taking more pictures, going more places, learning more languages.

Ultimately, I’m feeling some insecurities starting to shed away, and I no longer feel the need to jot down my bad days or my social inadequacies.  At this point, graduation is inevitable.  With the grades I am certain to get this semester, I will be graduating in May with at least a Theatre Design/Production degree, come hell or high water.  Student teaching, therefore, is just part of the grand experiment.  I may get in front of a classroom and love it.  I may hate it.  But I’m going to do it and learn from it and go from there.  And suddenly, the knowledge that I’m going to graduate and actually finally pass this milestone in my life means that I’m an okay person.  I am someone who is more than capable of accomplishing things; I’m capable of excelling at things.  I didn’t just go back to college and graduate.  I’ve gone back to college and I’m kicking its ass.

That being said, it has become extremely unimportant to me to live a conventional life.  All my life, up until about a year and a half ago, whatever career I chose, whatever major I chose, whatever classes I took, all were secondary to the endgame: marriage, kids, family.  It was more tangible sometimes than others; mostly depending on whether or not I was in a relationship.  I would think, “Well, I’ll move to California…and then I’ll find someone.”  Or, “We’ll move to California and settle down.”  Or, “Okay, I can’t teach in California, so I’ll go to Atlanta…I’m sure I’ll find someone there.”  It didn’t even have to be a conscious thought; it was always just an assumption.

But suddenly, I find myself single for a year and a half, which is the longest I’ve been single since 2000.  And I’m going to move back to the suburbs in January, then to China in August (with a possible trip to Greece for several weeks next summer), then I’ll be moving to Atlanta.  I used to think that this was an acceptable plan with the flexibility to be cancelled “in case” I found someone.  I used to tell myself, “Well, I’m not going to look for a boyfriend because of all this traveling,” as a way to convince myself that it was okay to be single because I have all these plans.  Now the possibility of “finding someone” is no longer a necessity, because I’ve found me.

I’ve learned that the Katie I really want to be is not a wife and mother who other people depend on so she can feel validated and useful.  Instead, the Katie I really want to be is someone who sees as much of the world as she possibly can, spreads the joy and humanity of theatre, and gets in touch with her global community and history.  None of that stuff requires a significant other or children.  But it does validate me and make me feel useful, without being dependent on another person.

Besides, I’ve got a niece to spoil to pieces, and if I become a teacher, I’ll have plenty of people who depend on me.

Interesting how I came here to write a post about shutting down the blog and then I write one of the longest blog posts I’ve ever come up with.

Look for contact information as I start to whittle down the ways I can be found on the internet to be the most useful and beneficial to me.  I’ll keep updating this blog as I work through this process, and probably deleting very old, inane posts.  I’ll probably at least blog a little through student teaching and graduation.  We’ll see.

Please, feel free to comment.  I do, in fact, miss hearing from everyone.

What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as “unread” by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you’ve read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish.

Here’s the twist: add (*) beside the ones you liked and would (or did) read again or recommend. Even if you read ‘em for school in the first place.

I’m also putting a pound sign (#) next to the ones I want to read. Someday. Eventually.

• Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell #
• Anna Karenina #
• Crime and Punishment
• Catch-22
• One Hundred Years of Solitude
• Wuthering Heights
• The Silmarillion #
• Life of Pi : a novel
• The Name of the Rose
• Don Quixote #
• Moby Dick
• Ulysses #
• Madame Bovary
• The Odyssey #
• Pride and Prejudice #
• Jane Eyre #
• The Tale of Two Cities
• The Brothers Karamazov
• Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
• War and Peace #
• Vanity Fair #
• The Time Traveler’s Wife
• The Iliad #
• Emma #
• The Blind Assassin
• The Kite Runner
• Mrs. Dalloway
• Great Expectations
• American Gods
• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
• Atlas Shrugged
• Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books #
• Memoirs of a Geisha #
• Middlesex *
  
• Quicksilver
• Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West *
• The Canterbury Tales #
• The Historian : a novel # – A/N: I JUST bought this today…
• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
• Love in the Time of Cholera
• Brave New World #
• The Fountainhead *
  
• Foucault’s Pendulum
• Middlemarch
• Frankenstein #
• The Count of Monte Cristo
• Dracula *
  
• A Clockwork Orange
• Anansi Boys
• The Once and Future King
• The Grapes of Wrath
• The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
• 1984
• Angels & Demons #
• The Inferno
• The Satanic Verses
• Sense and Sensibility
• The Picture of Dorian Gray #
• Mansfield Park
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
• To the Lighthouse
• Tess of the D’Urbervilles
• Oliver Twist #
• Gulliver’s Travels
• Les Misérables #
• The Corrections
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
• Dune
• The Prince
• The Sound and the Fury
• Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
• The God of Small Things
• A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present #
• Cryptonomicon
• Neverwhere
• A Confederacy of Dunces
• A Short History of Nearly Everything
• Dubliners
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being
• Beloved
• Slaughterhouse-five #
• The Scarlet Letter
• Eats, Shoots & Leaves
• The Mists of Avalon
• Oryx and Crake : a novel
• Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
• Cloud Atlas
• The Confusion
• Lolita #
• Persuasion
• Northanger Abbey
• The Catcher in the Rye *
  
• On the Road #
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame #
• Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values #
• The Aeneid #
• Watership Down
• Gravity’s Rainbow
• The Hobbit *
  
• In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences #
• White Teeth
• Treasure Island
• David Copperfield
• The Three Musketeers

My brother Steve sent me this link:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3159534

In summary: 20 FSU football players might be suspended from the Music City Bowl due to cheating on online courses. The article goes on to say that the players had been given answers before taking a test, that a tutor had given them answers, and that he’d been doing so since Fall of 2006. And at the end it talks about how this is the fourth consecutive bad season for the Seminoles (I mean, they’re in the frackin’ Music City Bowl…not exactly big time). I guess the new president of the school is a former Seminoles football player, as is the soon-to-be interim athletics director.

*sigh* I miss my school. But I’m just ashamed of this. And it just perpetuates the image of the criminal football players of FSU.

It’s a beautiful campus, and I’m sort of jealous…I wish I’d gone to a big school when I decided to return to college. Though, I guess with the grades I had from FSU and Harper, I probably wouldn’t have been accepted into a place like UW-Madison. Either way, though, I miss the big campus feeling. And I’d grown so accustomed to Normal that I forgot what a big college is like. I mean, hell, they actually have restaurants within walking distance. More restaurants than I could count on one hand, for that matter.

Ah, well, too late now. Also, a lot of these pictures are fuzzy; for that, I apologize. Incidentally, I also have much higher-res pictures of these, so if you’d like to get any of them, just comment or email me or something. Click on “More” below to see the photos.

VIA Signature Strengths

Here are your scores on the VIA Signature Strengths Survey. For how to interpret and use your scores, see the book Authentic Happiness. The ranking of the strengths reflects your overall ratings of yourself on the 24 strengths in the survey, how much of each strength you possess. Your top five, especially those marked as Signature Strengths, are the ones to pay attention to and find ways to use more often.

Your Top Strength
Love of learning
You love learning new things, whether in a class or on your own. You have always loved school, reading, and museums-anywhere and everywhere there is an opportunity to learn.

Your Second Strength
Curiosity and interest in the world
You are curious about everything. You are always asking questions, and you find all subjects and topics fascinating. You like exploration and discovery.

Your Third Strength
Fairness, equity, and justice
Treating all people fairly is one of your abiding principles. You do not let your personal feelings bias your decisions about other people. You give everyone a chance.

Your Fourth Strength
Industry, diligence, and perseverance
You work hard to finish what you start. No matter the project, you “get it out the door” in timely fashion. You do not get distracted when you work, and you take satisfaction in completing tasks.

Your Fifth Strength
Perspective (wisdom)
Although you may not think of yourself as wise, your friends hold this view of you. They value your perspective on matters and turn to you for advice. You have a way of looking at the world that makes sense to others and to yourself.

Strength#6
Leadership
You excel at the tasks of leadership: encouraging a group to get things done and preserving harmony within the group by making everyone feel included. You do a good job organizing activities and seeing that they happen.

Strength#7
Hope, optimism, and future-mindedness
You expect the best in the future, and you work to achieve it. You believe that the future is something that you can control.

Strength#8
Appreciation of beauty and excellence
You notice and appreciate beauty, excellence, and/or skilled performance in all domains of life, from nature to art to mathematics to science to everyday experience.

Strength#9
Forgiveness and mercy
You forgive those who have done you wrong. You always give people a second chance. Your guiding principle is mercy and not revenge.

Strength#10
Humor and playfulness
You like to laugh and tease. Bringing smiles to other people is important to you. You try to see the light side of all situations.

Strength#11
Zest, enthusiasm, and energy
Regardless of what you do, you approach it with excitement and energy. You never do anything halfway or halfheartedly. For you, life is an adventure.

Strength#12
Bravery and valor
You are a courageous person who does not shrink from threat, challenge, difficulty, or pain. You speak up for what is right even if there is opposition. You act on your convictions.

Strength#13
Creativity, ingenuity, and originality
Thinking of new ways to do things is a crucial part of who you are. You are never content with doing something the conventional way if a better way is possible.

Strength#14
Honesty, authenticity, and genuineness
You are an honest person, not only by speaking the truth but by living your life in a genuine and authentic way. You are down to earth and without pretense; you are a “real” person.

Strength#15
Caution, prudence, and discretion
You are a careful person, and your choices are consistently prudent ones. You do not say or do things that you might later regret.

Strength#16
Citizenship, teamwork, and loyalty
You excel as a member of a group. You are a loyal and dedicated teammate, you always do your share, and you work hard for the success of your group.

Strength#17
Social intelligence
You are aware of the motives and feelings of other people. You know what to do to fit in to different social situations, and you know what to do to put others at ease.

Strength#18
Gratitude
You are aware of the good things that happen to you, and you never take them for granted. Your friends and family members know that you are a grateful person because you always take the time to express your thanks.

Strength#19
Kindness and generosity
You are kind and generous to others, and you are never too busy to do a favor. You enjoy doing good deeds for others, even if you do not know them well.

Strength#20
Self-control and self-regulation
You self-consciously regulate what you feel and what you do. You are a disciplined person. You are in control of your appetites and your emotions, not vice versa.

Strength#21
Judgment, critical thinking, and open-mindedness
Thinking things through and examining them from all sides are important aspects of who you are. You do not jump to conclusions, and you rely only on solid evidence to make your decisions. You are able to change your mind.

Strength#22
Capacity to love and be loved
You value close relations with others, in particular those in which sharing and caring are reciprocated. The people to whom you feel most close are the same people who feel most close to you.

Strength#23
Modesty and humility
You do not seek the spotlight, preferring to let your accomplishments speak for themselves. You do not regard yourself as special, and others recognize and value your modesty.

Strength#24
Spirituality, sense of purpose, and faith
You have strong and coherent beliefs about the higher purpose and meaning of the universe. You know where you fit in the larger scheme. Your beliefs shape your actions and are a source of comfort to you.

Let me preface my story with this:

I work at school, as a student worker for the IT department of the College of Arts and Sciences. Essentially, when I’m not in class, I’m at work. I live and breathe my campus (while having nothing to do with the school spirit/homecoming attitude). I am 25 years old. This is my 7th year of college. It is also my third college and my fourth and fifth majors. When I graduate in 2009 at the ripe old age of 27, I will have a double major, a double minor, a bachelor of science degree, a teaching certification, and a hell of a strong desire to move out of the Midwest forever.

On with the story.

I was walking from my office down the hall to my boss’s office with my empty coffee mug, about to fill it up with hot water for my raspberry cocoa. I went towards the door, past some guys who were standing around waiting for a class to start. It seemed they were having a discussion about women, and it seemed that the discussion was funny, because they were laughing as I approached. As I passed, one of them said, “If you meet a woman who’s 25 and she DOESN’T have a kid, she’s got a whole different set of issues. You don’t even know what you’re getting, there.” And all three of them laughed again.

If I had punched him in the face with my right hand (which is my dominant hand), he would not have gotten a faceful of fist, but a healthy dose of coffee mug to the eyeball. I breathed in, deeply, breathed out, and kept walking. I entered my boss’s office, got the hot water, and stirred my cocoa. I left his office and walked past the three guys, who were laughing at something else. I heard no other conversation at this point.

I cannot believe that someone can honestly consider a woman who is 25 and childless to be defective somehow. Men talk about the baggage of single mothers (which is a shame, as well), but apparently, if we wait too long (25?!?!) to have children, there’s something wrong with us as well. And hearing that comment in passing, I felt inadequate and judged. What must that guy’s girlfriend or wife feel like, if he has one or has ever had one?

We are so judgmental as people. Others are always wrong, and we are always right. The way we are is normal, and the way we are not is weird. Being someone who was considered an outsider in school because I was smart and didn’t follow trends, I know what “weird” feels like. “Weird” feels like Hans just told you the class was going to elect you president, and you fall for it because you are that desperate for someone to like you. “Weird” feels like not raising your hand in class, even though you know the answer, because the kid behind you makes fun of you when you do. “Weird” feels like taking a guy from another school to your Turnabout only to watch him spend the whole night hitting on all the prettier girls in the entire school. “Weird,” up until today, has never felt like having both breasts and a brain was wrong.

I’ve been a feminist for a little while now. I’m new to the movement and still working out what I agree with and what I don’t agree with. One of my teachers is a hardcore feminist from the start of the movement and she has made her opinions known many times. Our department did a car smash to raise money, and this teacher told our student organization that a car smash was “such a male thing to do,” and that women would “get into it because all women want to be like men!” I was aghast. Now the feminist is telling me how I should or should not be a woman. She also seems to think that I’m a mindless zombie doing whatever society tells me is right without thinking about it first. Nevermind the fact that I wrote a non-traditional theatre piece about women’s self-hatred at the beginning of the year and staged it in a bathroom, and got 70 people (half men) to come to the show and be exposed to women’s issues. The hypocrisy was like a knife in the back.

I mentioned my piece about women’s self-hatred, and I do have an understanding of women’s issues and how we very frequently feel as though we are required to be one way or another. But until I heard that comment today, I have never been slapped in the face with my gender. I have been exceedingly lucky to have male friends who are sensitive and respectful. I have only dated men who have been respectful to women. Maybe that comes with the territory of being nerds. We’ve been on the abuse end of the stick, so we don’t abuse others. One of my exes used to say that Star Trek was the great equalizer. To paraphrase him, “Have you ever seen a truly hardcore Star Trek fan who’s a racist? Not likely, because the show is all about the prime directive…no interference with other civilizations.” And according to Wikipedia, “the Prime Directive forbids any involvement with a civilization without the expressed consent or invitation of the lawful leaders of that society, and absolutely forbids any involvement whatsoever in the internal politics of a civilization.” [1]

Point is, we nerds get it. We know what oppression means on certain levels. But being made to feel defective because I am not someone’s definition of the perfect woman is shameful. No, I don’t have to take it personally (and I didn’t punch the guy, so I couldn’t have taken it that personally), but someone eventually will. And making a woman feel as though she’s inferior because she hasn’t fulfilled her “duties” as a woman in our society may be the final straw that breaks that woman’s spirit.

I’ve got to say, for a liberal, I can be quite conservative sometimes.

Here I am, minding my own business, reading my Educational Psychology textbook. The class, despite all the protestations of the teacher, is essentially just another methods class. We talked about most of this stuff in my first Curriculum & Instruction class.

Anyway, I’m reading a chapter entitled “Learner Differences and Learning Needs.” Herein, I shall quote directly (my citation to the textbook is the last part of the blockquote below):

Examples of Accommodations Under Section 504
The types of accommodations that can be written into a Section 504 plan are almost without limit. Some accommodation may relate to physical changes in the learning environment (for example, air filters are installed to remove allergens). However, many students who have Section 504 plans have functional impairments related to their learning or behavior, and their needs are somewhat similar to those of students with disabilities. The following is a sample of instructional accommodations that could be incorporated into a Section 504 plan:

• Seat the student nearest to where the teacher does most of his/her instruction.
• Have the student sit next to a peer who can help as needed.
• Seat the student away from the distractions of doorways or windows.
• Fold assignments in half so that the student is less overwhelmed by the quantity of work.
• Make directions telegraphic, that is, concise and clear.
• Allow use of a calculator or tape recorder.
• Use voice recognition software on the computer for written assignments.
• Mark right answers instead of wrong ones.
• Send a set of textbooks to be left at home so that the student does not have to remember to bring books from school.
• Provide books on tape so that the student can listen to assignments instead of reading them.

If you review these items, you can see that many of them just make good instructional sense. They are effective instructional practices that help learners with special needs succeed in your classroom.

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Source: From Including Students with Special Needs: A Practical Guide for Classroom Teachers, 3/e by Marilyn Friend & William D. Bursuck. Published by Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA. Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education. Adapted by permission of the publisher.

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Woolfolk, Anita. Educational Psychology. 10th ed. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 2007.

The book goes on to state that, “Two major groups are considered for Section 504 accommodations: students with medical or health needs such as diabetes, drug addiction, severe allergies, communicable diseases, temporary disabilities resulting from accidents, or alcoholism, and students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, if they are not already covered by IDEIA.”

I’m not even going to talk about folding the paper in half and giving students an extra set of textbooks so they won’t have to worry about forgetting theirs at home. That’s too easy.

Listen, two of my brothers have been diagnosed with ADHD. I still don’t know how I feel about the overdiagnosis of the disease, and frankly, I still think it’s a convenient excuse for bad parenting, bad teaching, lazy students, under-challenged students, and other various problems that could be solved with hard work on somebody’s part, rather than a pill. But giving a student an audiobook alternative to his/her reading assignments is simply doing a disservice to the student, even those students who may legitimately have chemical imbalances that make it very difficult for them to succeed at school despite their best efforts. Giving children easy ways out of education can in no way benefit them. And most of these kids are probably receiving other forms of treatment for ADHD, so Ritalin (or any other of a variety of treatments) in addition to no reading assignments cannot possibly be a helpful situation. What about preparing them for the world? Will a student with ADHD be able to go to a state university and get their textbooks on audiobook? Or get into the “real world” and get company memos and manuals in audiobook form?

The conservative right is pushing for literacy and “proficiency” in every subject for every single child ever put through the public school, no matter their Socio-Economic Status, their learning abilities, their previous knowledge and schooling, or their school district. They want to standardize everything and turn everyone into barely competent (but literate!) robots who can read and do math to grade level but not much else.

The liberal left is attempting to make every child’s course through school as easy as is possible, reducing all amounts of stress and making sure nobody feels left out or picked on or any different from anyone else in any way. They want every child individually educated; one student hates to read, so instead they get audiobooks. Another student feels bad at getting an F, despite having put no effort into the assigment; therefore, we grade only in positives, marking on the paper only when something good has been done. According to this philosophy, no value judgment should be passed on anyone ever.

Ideally, I believe we shouldn’t pass judgment on people based on their ability to do geometry or read Chaucer, especially if they are happy in their life. Mechanics are far more brilliant and meticulous than I am, though some of them have never seen the inside of a high school, having gone straight into the work force, and may not even be able to read; but they keep our society moving. There is value inherent in everyone, as long as they work to their potential. And forcing children through a system that is only concerned with the Almighty Standardized Test Score will accomplish nothing but the “mediocritizing” of America. But pampering children to make their lives easy teaches them that they don’t have to work to their potential; they can skim by and get help at every step of the way. This accomplishes the same mediocrity by continuing to allow students to do the least required of them.

So where is the middle ground?

Obviously, there are children with disabilities who legitimitely need extra education and special considerations made to make sure that they learn, and to help them work to their potential. And there are gifted students who currently coast through school without the appropriate challenges to their intelligence, leaving them underachieving and unmotivated (I would know…I was one of them). And yes, students should be dealt with as individually as is possible to ensure that they receive a good, solid education.

But I believe the middle ground lies in the word, “expectations.” I believe that we, as educators, parents and members of society, should EXPECT our students to do their best. We should not coddle them, or overwork them, but we should give them enough assistance to be able to do things on their own. First of all, self-efficacy is a large factor in how much students learn (from what I have been taught). The belief that we can do something, in large part, determines whether or not we can. As ridiculous as it may seem, the saying plastered on motivational merchandise ad nauseum, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right,” is true. Therefore, students should be taught to think they can. They should not be taught that if it’s too hard, you can get it in audiobook. Nor should they be taught that if you feel bad because your spelling is not great, you can use voice recognition software and never have to write again.

They should be taught that the red marks on the page show you where there’s room for improvement, and that’s okay. If we don’t grow and improve, we’re stagnant, and that is most definitely not good for society. We should be challenged to improve ourselves at all times, and if that means a few red marks or the occasional well-deserved “F,” then so be it.

Post-Script:
My fourth-grade teacher, I’m sure, would be horrified to see how many sentences I began with “and” or “but” in this article. The retribution will likely be swift.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? No, although I have an aunt named Kathy and an aunt named Sue, my parents swear it’s coincidental.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? I got sniffly today when my dad was commenting in the talk-back after my play. He was talking about watching your daughter mature and how he liked to see the maturing of the characters and I got a bit weepy-faced.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Actually, no. I think it’s sloppy and juvenile. I wish it was classier or really zany. Not boring like it currently is.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE LUNCH MEAT? Turkey.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? No.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? No.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? Sometimes.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? No.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CEREAL? Special K or Life.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? No.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? That remains to be seen.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ICE CREAM? Mississippi Mudd.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Their shoes. I typically look at the ground when I walk. I need to stop doing that.

15. RED OR PINK? Pink.

What happened to question 16?

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Jordan and my grandmother.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Not really applicable, though people are free to respond with the survey in the comments.

19. WHAT COLOUR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Red FSU shorts. I don’t have shoes on, but when I go out to the car in a minute, it’ll be black flip-flops with rainbow straps.

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? Spaghetti at Avanti’s.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? The sound of Erika watching TV downstairs.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOUR WOULD YOU BE? Inch Worm. It’s the awesomest shade of green ever.

23. FAVOURITE SMELLS? Hocus Pocus, Scarlet Oaks, Ginger Pumpkin (PartyLite candles). My grandma.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My aunt Debby.

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? I live with her, I’d better like her after all this time. :P

26. FAVOURITE SPORTS TO WATCH? Baseball, football, golf, tennis, figure skating.

28. EYE COLOUR? Blue.

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No, glasses are just easier.

30. FAVOURITE FOOD? Spaghetti.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy endings. I hate scary movies. Though, to be honest, happy endings have been making me a little nauseous lately.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? “A Mighty Wind,” I believe. “WHA HAPPEN?!”

33. WHAT COLOUR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Black t-shirt that says “Frack Me” on it (thank you Dragon*Con!).

34. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer summer summer.

35. HUGS OR KISSES? Kisses.

36. FAVOURITE DESSERT? Ice cream or certain kinds of cheesecake. Only because they stopped making the Chocolate Rush at Friday’s.

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Tim.

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Kim.

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Nothing for pleasure. When I get ten seconds to myself, “Devil in the White City,” which Dan from work loaned me and I’d like to get back to him before I’m 130.

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? I don’t have one; I use a laptop. <– what she said.

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT? I don’t watch TV. Instead, I fall asleep with my face in my textbooks more often than I’d like to admit. Waking up at 2am asleep in “Major Problems in American History,” is not fun. FYI.

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles.

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Halkidiki, Greece.

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Not really. Sewing, I guess, but it’s not like I’m incredible at that. I can do it, but I’m not amazing just yet.

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Arlington Heights, IL.

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK? Nobody, since I don’t know who will read this and/or respond to it.

We teach in teams once or twice a semester, and while we are teaching, our fellow classmates are playing at being high school students. They do everything they can to be an unruly, crazy, disrespectful classroom. During Steven’s lesson a few weeks ago, Liisa “went into labor” in the middle of class, with her “water breaking” and everything. “The father,” David, almost got in a fight with Peter when Peter told him he should go and tend to Liisa. Crazy.

Anyway, the dirty looks we got from the class…unparalleled. They don’t understand. We’re the weirdos. And hilariously enough, we might be the ones most prepared to teach because we’ve had to go through the worst crap…just a thought.