I am so excited about my new secret shopper job!

First of all, it is a food place, so I get to eat for free. Awesome. But even more exciting is that after I do my shop, if the shop was successful at meeting their standards, I get to go inside and ask for the manager. Then I present the manager with tee-shirts for all of his employees and give a certificate of achievement to the person who helped me in the drive thru! How cool is that?

It is cool, of course, because it is so ridiculous. I am going to present a certificate to my drive thru person. This time I hope that they do a good job. Because if they don't meet their standards I have to go in and present the manager with an "oops" card and that won't be nearly as much fun as tee-shirts. I'll have to feel bad about that. Unless the drive thru person is mean...then I will just feel vidicated...

Today, the team thing was awesome. I always give game day on Fridays, where the kids get to go outside. But today we almost forgot. And then, when they remembered, they asked to stay in and finish our chapter because they were having fun.

But I cussed in front of an entire class today. They asked me what I wanted to do on my birthday (8 days!) and I said I wanted to go to the beach...except I was just playing and said it slang-like and it came out "bee-yach". The class exploded, of course. So then, all day when they would see me they would say, "Where are you going for your birthday again? Bee-yach!" Boof. Bound to happen, sometimes.

Tomorrow I am going to D.C. to the "March for Women's Lives". I haven't done anything even vaguely political in so long, I wonder if I'll even remember how. I have strayed far from last year at this time when I was trying to have my arrest for political activity overturned....sounds so much more intense than it was. But I did spend a day in jail. I would rather not do that on Sunday. I figure that one day was enough.  ¶ 3:38 PM

  I've started a new concept in my room. All of my students are now in teams. It is really fun. Yesterday was team spirit day, where they made flags, logos, mottos, and cheers for their team. Then we had a big ol' competition. The competition was technically boring...it was just going over a reading comprehension packet they had done the day before. But because it was a competition (and because I was letting them write their answers on peices of transparancy with a marker and they love that) they all that it was fun! I love when I do stuff they don't hate.

Today is Friday. Weekends are a very good thing. Last week, before spring break, one of my classes pretended to be having a gang war when I let them go outside for free time they had earned. I looked over on the field and they were pretending to jump one of my students and they all thought it was really funny. That is, until I told them that they had just lost game day on Fridays for the rest of the year. I am not normally so harsh, but they know how much I hate it when they act violent, so it was deserved in this case. As soon as they came into the class they knew I was going to do something to them. The down-side, for me though, is that now I have to keep them in class for the last half hour of class. I really liked letting them go outside. I'll have to think of something to do with them, now. Ugh  ¶ 6:31 AM

  I have asked many straight women how long you are supposed to wait for a boy to call-- being somewhat uncertain of these things, myself. They all said three days. Without fail. I don't know where they all learned this, but it seems to be quite universal because I asked women from all kinds of places.

Three days from my date was yesterday. And no word. So I think that I get to be very dramatic and swear off men forever. Many of the straight women I know have done that, but I think that I am much luckier because swearing off men doesn't mean that I don't get to date. It is a pretty easy thing for me to do. So, consider it done. Marguerite, I know you are pleased.

In teaching news, I am very upset with my team teacher. I had a situation where a few of my students didn't come to class on time yesterday. I asked her if they had permission to be out of class and she said they didn't. I doubled checked with her and she said she was certain. So I wrote my students a pink slip for ditching class. When the students and administration challenged her, however, she said that she wasn't sure if she had given permission or not. Ugh. So she basically made me look really stupid and the students felt like they got one over on me. Never a good situation. I lost almost a whole class period from the kids fussing and stuff. So annoying.  ¶ 8:49 PM

  My giant loan has finally gone into deferment. Shwoo.  ¶ 3:36 PM

  Well, cheerleading wasn't as bad as I thought.

It was pretty fun, actually, to just be silly and cheer for everyone. And, for the record, the teachers totally won the game! I was reminded how much I really love to watch my kids do stuff out of school. It is really wonderful to see my students a little more relaxed and having fun with each other. It is also very cool to see them doing things that they are proud of and good at.

My step-team girls were amazing. Step is such a southern thing, I think. I had never heard of it before here. But it is really powerful and dynamic. My girls have so much spirit and rhythm...I like it so much more than cheerleading. And I have to admit to being kind of proud that my two steppers were the most popular and got the most hooting from the crowd. It clearly has nothing to do with me, but still.

I am also happy that me and a student were selected to go to the PGA tournament in Charlotte in a couple of weeks. My student is a huge sports fan and has really improved from the beginning of the year. He was very proud that I chose him, out of all of my students, to take to Charlotte. It should be lots of fun.

In other news: I hurt myself playing frisbee on Sunday. When did I get so old and frail that I couldn't play frisbee for twenty minutes?  ¶ 5:54 PM

  I'm horrified at what I will agree to sometimes.

I have agreed to be a cheerleader for the student/faculty basketball game tomorrow. Oy. I went to the practice today and was really bad at cheerleading. I thought it would just be plain funny that I was bad at cheerleading, but the other women (most of whom had really been cheerleaders in school) seemed to feel really sorry for me. There is nothing worse than being pitied for not being able to do something that you don't even want to do.

So, tomorrow I have to stand in front of the whole school and suck at cheerleading. Oy. But I am going to do funny things with my hair so that it looks like I am trying to look dumb.

I hate feeling like I am waiting for a boy to call. But I am. Oy.  ¶ 7:22 PM

  In non-teacher related news: the blind date was really awesome. He is nice. I like him.

In teacher related news, spring break is over. I have to admit that it wasn't a very exciting break but this weekend was a lot of fun. I had a good date, went to a flea-market, got an apartment in Chapel Hill for the summer, went out last night, and then checked out the "Apple Chill" in Chapel Hill (which ridiculously enough has nothing to do with cool apples at all). So all of that was good.

I am happy, in one way, that school is back in session tomorrow. Now I feel like I am truely on the home stretch. I am really almost done now. I have two weeks of instruction before the End of Grade tests that will determine whether or not my little angels move on to high school. No pressure, right? Then one week of testing followed by two more weeks of school. It really has gone by pretty quickly. I am excited for summer to come. I think I will have fun living in Chapel Hill and it will be really nice to not have to work with children...unless I end up working with children. Which I tend to do.

I haven't done a single bit of planning for tomorrow or this week. But I suppose we will manage.  ¶ 7:10 PM