Last night Owen and I sang "It's All Coming Back to me Now" by Celine Dion. I felt the presence of God as we did it.

Doing a really great song at karaoke makes me happy to be alive. I think I never feel quite so alive as when I do it. When I tell people that they always smile ironically and laugh, like they are saying to themselves, "Oh, you are so funny, M!"

But I am totally and completely serious. If I could karaoke power ballads every single night, there is no telling what I might give up for it.

However, a teacher needs more than four hours of sleep in a night to be nice. So, therefore, today I am not nice to my students. I am teaching them cause and effect and I considered using my hangover as an example. "I am yelling at you, Marcel, because I was really drunk last night and didn't get sleep! The cause? Your teachers drunkeness. The effect? Shut up and sit down."

That would be fun.  ¶ 12:03 PM

  Well, I just said "Good morning!" to one of my colleagues in the hallway and he responded by shouting "High praise is Mighty, Ms. R! High Praise is Mighty!"

What the hell does that mean? It is just fine to be so religious-- I'm even beginning to appreciate it somewhat (aside from the fact that it is unconstitutional in this school setting)-- but I think even God wants us to make sense. Even if you are filled with the spirit of the Lord, I don't think that releases you from the burden of saying things that make sense to other people.

I am so excited about Tres Chicas and karaoke tonight, I could just spit. I am not excited, however, by the fact that my car's temperature light is blinking suddenly. No rise in temperature as far as the gauge goes, but the light blinks ominously. Hmmmm...  ¶ 11:00 AM

  I think I maybe have the hang of the working two jobs thing. I really like the distraction that my part-time job gives me. I don't think about my kids at all when I am at the bookstore. And now, my boss there is willing to get me out of the cafe section of the store-- which is really good because it is much easier to say, "We actually don't have that book in stock. Can I order it for you?" and push some buttons than it is to scrub floors and make half-caf, skim, slightly tepid, flat lattes with half an equal and half a teaspoon of sugar shaken not stirred.

My students are doing fine. They are weirdly okay. They are a little loud and there is this fifteen minutes of hell at the end of my day to deal with. The bell to leave rings at 3:03pm, but then we have to stay in the classroom and wait for them to announce eighth graders can go. That would be okay, but that fifteen minutes is constantly interrupted by announcements, so we can't really do any sort of real activity. So they go nuts in the fifteen minutes, you know, like they do. I have to figure something out with that. And this fifty-five minute class time thing is killing me. Last year I had an hour an a half with each class. I have to figure out how to cram in more in less time. Yikes.

Thursday night karaoke! I have invited a bunch of the people I work at the bookstore with, so I am hoping for a converging of my worlds. I love that. Also, Tres Chicas is playing for free at Borders Books in Chapel HIll at 7pm on Thursday. They are awesome and you should go see the show. I am going to.

Peace out, yo.  ¶ 7:16 AM