Vampires

I try to stay up on what the kids are watching, reading, and listening to these days. I don't watch horror movies and only like music whose lyrics are decipherable, but I try to know the names of things, what slang means, and read the books that seem interesting.

This year, I noticed that a wide variety of kids were reading Twilight. It's the first book of a f0ur-book series by Stephenie Meyer. It's about a teenage girl who moves to Washington and meets an interesting boy at school. He happens to be a vampire and she happens to smell delectable to him. Hmmmm.... It's a four-book series, so I'm guessing she doesn't bite it any time soon. (He doesn't bite her any time soon??? Tee hee.)

If you like vampires and chaste reading, check it out.

Movie of the Day: Wall-E. No vamires, just robots.

Summer

I've been thinking about my favorite Summertime activities. There are a lot of things I still need to do to feel like I've experienced "Summer."

Star-gazing
Eating lots of watermelon
A picnic on the shore
Gooseberry Falls
Walking the Boardwalk (I haven't done this yet this summer. What is wrong with me?)
Visiting Portland Malt Shoppe
Playing with sidewalk chalk and bubbles


There are other things that I'd like to try this Summer or try again this Summer.

Rock climbing (indoor for starters)
Kayaking
Biking (It's been so long, but I hear it's "like riding a bike")

I'm forgetting stuff. Help me out? What am I missing?

Movie of the Day: Touch the Sound. A woman goes deaf as a kid, but can still feel the vibrations of different percussion instruments and be able to tell the difference between the notes. The music is beautiful and haunting. It's maybe not something you would play at a dinner party, but definitely wonderful.

Bugs, Tar, and a Pale World

One of my friends has been talking about red food lately. Not a lot of food is bright red, at least not naturally. So, to make it so, people add dyes. The problem is you either go synthetic or natural. Synthetic is stuff like Red 40 and Red 3, which I guess involves tar. Natural really means bug parts.

I'm a vegetarian. Does that include bugs? I thought so, but it might be harder than I thought to avoid tar AND bugs.

I thought the best solution was to Boycott RED! But on further inspection, that is going to take a lot of work. It's in ice cream, popsicles, lipstick (I'll have to investigate further), and other random things that I hadn't thought of before devising a boycott. Oy.

Bugs or tar? Bugs or tar? I'm leaning towards bugs, I guess.

You?

Movie of the Day: Penelope. Sooooo cute. Lots of vibrant colors. Even red.

Podlet Podlet

When I was in college, I lived with 9 other girls with a total of 6 rooms around a common room. These living quarters were called "pods" and we called ourselves Podlets. (Go figure.) Any way, the 12 years since graduation has produced at least 14 kids (I've lost touch with a few podlets and I'm not sure just how many kids they have, sad but true.)

Our newest Podlet podlet is R., the son of J. Here are the cutest shoes ever that R. will get in the mail shortly.

10 Cards

Last Thursday, I bought a box of 10 beautiful notecards. My goal is to send all 10 of the cards within the following week. It's now Tuesday evening and I haven't written even one. I have two days, eh?

Now, please don't feel bad if you do not receive one of the cards in the mail. I'm trying to send them to people that I don't hear from very often. If you DO get one, it means you have been radio-silent too long!!!

Anyone else up for The Notecard Challenge?

Movie of the Day: Postcards From the Edge. Tee hee.

Garden

Each year, right about this time (I checked), I blog about wanting to buy flowers for my yard. This year, I have tried and tried to drive past the greenhouses and just look, just peek in and not stop. My yard is about to be torn up to within an inch of its life and the last thing I should be doing is buying more plants to make refugees to the "Becca Bayou" as my friends call it (the swamp behind my house).

The past two days have seen weakness. I bought: two basil plants, one tomoato plant, one hanging purple plant, and a huge, sprawling purple plant. This is added to the three petunias that my folks bought me (purple. See a theme?) and a mini azalea that I couldn't resist last week. They are all sitting outside my door, in the driveway. Yes, I need psychiatric help. Oh well.

Movie of the Day: Je Crois Que Je L'Aime. I saw the poster for this movie in Paris and my friends wouldn't go see it. (Just because half of us wouldn't understand a word of it...). Any way, I bought it online and can't wait to watch it (with subtitles, of course).

Grandma's Running By

Grandma's Marathon was yesterday and I've been prepping for it all week. No, not running, Goof. My family and I have been making gift baskets since Tuesday (approx. 160) and then helped with a waterstation yesterday morning. Ironically, I didn't hand out a single cup of Ultima (energy drink). I took care of the cups after they served their purpose. Yes, I put myself on road clean up. It's probably the worst possible job, but the compulsive in me can't handle the road getting all littered and "trip-able." So, I raked and shoveled up cups. Before this started, though, I did nab a couple of fun "location" pictures of the lake, which I will share.

Two Movies

I saw two movies yesterday: The Bucket List and Jesus Camp.

The Bucket List was all about living life to its fullest and dreaming beyond your ordinary routine. It was funny, sad, and sweet.

Jesus Camp was scary. I don't watch horror movies because I don't need those images in my head, so this was as scary as I get. Watching children writhe and speak in tongues and sob over their sins was really tough. It was an interesting glimpse into an Evangelical culture I don't really understand.

De-Decked

I used to have a deck on my house, this morning. Now, I have a muddy, mucky open space, ready for the contractor to arrive and fix my house's foundation. Ah, the joys of summer. Lots of wonderful people came over to help with the destruction. My job was to either remove or bend over the nails from the boards after removal. If you see me with a burly right arm, you'll know my exercise secret: hammer, hammer, hammer, haul to another pile. Yep, if I were ambidextrous, I wouldn't look so lopsided or fall over nearly so much.

Movie of the Day: Ed Wood.

That's a Wrap

It's over. No more school for three months. I can wander the globe and seek adventure. Ah....

If you were given an all-expense paid trip to anywhere of your choosing, where would you go?

Movie of the Day: The Jane Austen Book Club. A good book and a good movie.

Finals Week/Final Week

The seniors are done. We will be at 75% capacity this week and for some reason, it makes the school so much quieter. It's a bit like the building sighs, just a little.

Tomorrow, the final exams begin and it's a race to Thursday at 12:35. Wow!

Movie of the Day: Summer School (where some of my students will be spending their "free" time).

Games

I've been thinking about games a lot lately and now I'm wondering how the games we play as kids shape who we are as adults.

Games I Liked to Play as a Kid:
Chutes and Ladders
Aggravation
Hungry, Hungry Hippos
Kings in the Corner
Life
Rummikub
(I'm sure there were others that I'm spacing out.)

Games I Like to Play Now:
Apples to Apples
Taboo
Scattergories
Mind Trap
Mad Gab

Games I'm Learning:
Carcassonne
Ticket To Ride
Rummy

What about you? What games did you like to play and which ones do you still play?

Movie of the Day: The Game Plan. :)

Not So Fun

People should really avoid me right now, if they can. Seriously. My family considers this a time to tread lightly and watch for signs that I might be losing it. "We'll talk about it later" is a common mid-sentence phrase that they use.

The weird thing is to watch myself while it's happening. I know that I'm running on the fumes of what used to be a bucket of patience. I know this. Telling people to avoid me is just really a public service announcement. I'll be better in two weeks. Honest.

The hard part is that I can't avoid myself. Being able to step back enough and tell myself to chill about things is tough. I try to tell myself that I'm just stressed about the end of the year and I should just ride it out. It's that feeling of wanting to cry but knowing that you're being irrational in wanting to cry.

It's a pain in the butt. Avoid Becca if you can. "Summer Becca" (the one who is relaxed (or as relaxed as Becca can get)) will be here shortly. Until then, talk amongst yourselves.

Movie of the Day: Leviathan. I'm not quite THAT bad. Yet.

A Weird Time

There are 13 days left of school for the year and we are in a crazy/emotional/long-stretching yet flying-by kind of state. The crazy comes from trying to cram in as many "year end" activities as any school can: prom, music department concerts, awards ceremonies, banquets, class trips, senior assemblies, etc. Add in distributing yearbooks, meetings with seniors who may or may not graduate, and delivering grad party announcements. Then, because Duluth Spring is so fickle, our sports teams have had horrible luck with postponements and are trying to make up games/meets. There are kids missing 4 days of class a week for their sports (don't get me started).

Finally, after all of this, we get to the main point of going to school: learning. Yes, socialization is important, but so is knowledge. Tomorrow, I start to teach logarithms. Happily, it is the last chapter we will do for the year and I will try my best to teach it as efficiently and quickly for the kids who are 1) in attendance and 2) able to focus for just a bit long- just a little bit longer.

Movie of the Day: Golden Compass. Watched it this weekend while "enjoying" the flu.

Card From The Past

In the middle of class yesterday, a student said "Look what I just found in my book!"

It was a sealed card, with a boy's name on it. The whole class looked and suddenly we're watching her open someone else's card. Inside, a birthday wish and 10 dollar bills!

I have a hunch about who the card belongs to and I had that student two years ago! So, now I need to find him and see if it is possibly his card. Then, I'll need to try to get the $10 back, unless he doesn't mind it being gone.

Weird things happen, even in math class.

Movie of the Day: Millions. I haven't seen it yet, but these kids find some serious cash.

Jewelry

I like making jewelry and for some reason, I've been getting more compliments lately on my necklaces. For the first time, I've had people ask me to make the exact one that I'm wearing for them. Now, this poses a problem. If I start mass producing jewelry and giving them to friends/coworkers, then they lose their uniqueness.

How do you tactfully say, "I can make something like it, but this is mine." Is that tactful enough?

Movie of the Day: Jewel of the Nile

Dear Deer

Dear Deer,
Welcome to the neighborhood. Yes, we see you. Sometimes. Yes, the neighbor's dogs see you all the time, and make it quite clear to the rest of us that they are unhappy with the fence confining them. So, if you would kindly nibble a little bit on the neighbor's grass, and then take your cute little white tails back to the forest where I am sure not to crash my car into you, that would be much appreciated.

Sincerely,
Becca Who Doesn't Wanna Hit You

Movie of the Day: Bambi, which I don't know if I've ever seen

Mothers' Day

Mothers' Day is a week away and I'm trying to think of something unique and amazing to get my mom. It's not an easy task.

So, I ask all you readers out there who are moms or have moms, what do you suggest?

Movie of the Day: Mother. :)

Nerd Fest

This weekend is the Minnesota State High School Math Teachers' Conference and I'm goin'! I've decided to dub it "Nerd Fest." There will be math games, math books, math jewelry, and math clothing for sale. There will be people calculating things, discussing things way over other people's heads, and pretty much a bunch of teachers walking around thinking "Whew, this is a nice little break from the daily routine." There will be first grade teachers, special ed teachers, middle school teachers, high school teachers, college professors, college students who want to be math teachers, state math administrators and book vendors attending.

Try not to be envious. We can't all be math nerds.

(tee hee).

Movie of the Day: Juno. Jocks like nerds. You should too.

Gooseberry Falls (Two Weeks Ago)

There's a lotta water goin' on...