There are so many perks to teaching. Summers off, long weekends...hate mail.

Yeah, I am getting used to people telling me they hate me and other such things. I kind of even think that it is funny, at this point. My roomate was tired of her kids telling her awful things, so she put post-its on their desks and told them to just write down thier comments, instead.

Here is a sampling of what they wrote as she poured her heart out in teaching about freedom:


"I think we should have more fun activities and games to control our ourbursts."
"I don't like nobody with an attitude and I don't like yours at all."
"Todays music was even worse than before."
"If you would loosen up, it would be a lot more fun."
"I don't think it was fair to let Audrey go to the bathroom and not me and that really makes me dislike you alot."
"I don't know why this is even important and in all honesty this sux."

And my personal favorite:

"You are very irritating at times."

Ah, teaching. I love these little rats.  ¶ 6:41 AM

  It is before six in the morning. I am going to work. Again. This is one of those overwhelming moments when I can't believe that I have to go to school and do this whole teaching thing AGAIN. It is starting to feel like every day is exactly the same...the only differences being which kid in particular throws something or calls me a name under his/her breath. I feel like a recovering alcoholic. I just have to take it one day at a time. When I think about the monotony of this, I just want to board the first plane on outta here.

I think that I may not enjoy teaching. Not the part about the kids- that is hard, but seems important. I think that I may really hate the whole part about imparting knowledge. The actual teaching part. I do not find it fascinating to think of six different ways to explain a simple concept. I am not challenged and titillated by having to create games, word puzzles, essay questions, and reward systems around the comma. I thought maybe I would be. I'm not.

Off to school, I go. Ugh.  ¶ 6:11 AM

  I've had such a wonderful weekend. Friday night my friend Terri came all the way out to Rocky Mount to hang out with my roomate D and I. We tried not to talk about teaching, but we failed. In the end, we decided to try to let it go until Monday and we didn't do a terrible job of it. We went out to dinner (at The Outback: Rocky Mount's idea of a fancy restaurant) and then just all went to bed early. Fridays are so exhausting.

Then on Saturday, Terri and I went to Rocky Mount's only cool coffee shop...and cool here is relative. It is actually a Christian owned operation and there are bibles and god stuff everywhere. Somehow I had managed to block this out- I think I was so desperate to think that it was the coolest place ever I managed to ignore the corner filled with people listening to the Bible on tape. I am good at denial. Anyway, we got coffee and tromped around the teacher store for awhile (a new favorite passtime- who knew that bulletin board borders could be so fascinating?).

Then we got D and we drove to Wilmington: my new favorite place in North Carolina. Wilmington is a beach town and it has a really nice downtown with shops and everything. From our excitement you would have thought that the three of us had never been out of Nash County North Carolina in our whole lives. We got to shop and drink real coffee and have beers that were brewed right in the building! And we got to listen to the Haunted Pub Crawl that told about how this lady pirate was lovers with this other lady pirate and how they used to make people bleed until they were dead. It was just so nice to hear about such things. I am feeling little repressed, perhaps.

Then we stayed the night in a Marriot (can I just say God Bless Priceline) in a cozy soft bed. I have been sleeping on an air mattress, so I found this part very exciting. When we got up we went looking to get our nails done, but nothing opened until noon. But then we met Owen and Charles at the beach and had the most delightful day ever. The ocean out here is soooo warm! It was incredible. On the West Coast it is always too cold to really swim, but out here you could stay in the water all day. Except for that I kept being terrified that there were jelly fish just leaping towards my legs to sting me and the waves kept knocking me down and pushing my face into clam bits. I am maybe a bit of a baby. Then a bird really pooped a lot on my arm and I screamed. But we washed it off and everything was okay.

We got great tans and then had some lunch and walked around. And the drive back home with Terri and D was really fun, listening to music and talking about heartbreak, as girls are prone to do.

It was lovely. It is hard to think about planning tomorrow. But I just finished grading my kids tests and a lot of them did well, so I am proud of myself and them. I think every weekend should be a three day weekend. I wish I lived in Wilmington. But I feel really good and relaxed and we are going to go back soon. And Terri and I are going to Chapel Hill next weekend, maybe, to hang out with Owen and Charles, so that is something to perhaps look forward to.  ¶ 1:32 AM