highlights of my week:

1. Moe visited! And the highlight of this highlight was probably our pregaming Apples to Apples. That game. So dumb and yet so fun at the same time.

2. I went to see the school play and chatted during the intermission with an older man behind me who has as his goal to attend five plays a week. Holy shnikees, right? He strongly suggested that I see a play, the title of which escapes me, in which a man dies and then comes back to tell his wife how much he loves her. He also suggested that I think seriously about the impending danger of "that satellite" colliding with "something up there," thereby knocking out every computer in the country including cars. It would set our society back eighty years he guessed. According to his estimation, the cause of this doom is the terrible direction our country is taking what with the removal of religion from so many things.

3. So many of my students are now using textual proof to support their theses and are using correct MLA style when they do it. And they're doing it quite well.

4. Jess made red pesto ravioli for dinner last night.

I love my job.

Walking through Target yesterday, the thought actually popped into my head that I a-little-bit envied that girl stocking the shoe department; because when she leaves work, she leaves work. Yeah, I was bitter all weekend because I had hella essays to grade, but still. What a depressing thought. "You love your job. You love your job. You love your job," I kept reminding myself.

Just now, though, one of my students busted into my classroom on a pass from his study-support time in a classroom down the hall. He's all, "Ms. Dahlke, I finished my project!" (They're writing family narratives, and he was having a really difficult time starting it last week.) He was so excited: "It's longer than two pages; I just wanted to add so much detail!" I got all excited for him, and then he's like, "You can read it right now if you want? I mean, I can wait until class later to show you, but I've got it in Ms. B's room. I can bring it here if you want to read it right now?"

How cute. And rewarding. I needed that.

If you're wondering why I'm posting so much, it's because I'm supposed to be grading essays.

But this just in:
Barack. Obama. says. "fuck."

I knew I liked him.

The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for the Democratic primary debates, Obama was recorded saying, "I don't consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, 'You know, this is a stupid question, but let me ... answer it.' So when Brian Williams is asking me about what's a personal thing that you've done [that's green], and I say, you know, 'Well, I planted a bunch of trees.' And he says, 'I'm talking about personal.' What I'm thinking in my head is, 'Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I f---ing changed light bulbs in my house. It's because of something collective'."

curtains!

I'm pretty excited about these. Obviously, since they are so awesome. In an Urban Outfitters, yuppie kind of way, admittedly.



By the way, I'm sorry about the lazy blogging lately, all these videos with very little commentary. I'm stressed as hell, y'all!