Fuzzy Olympics.

On Saturday Jamie and I invested in rabbit ears for our cable-less television with the faint hope that we may be able to catch some of the Olympics without having to shell out 50+ (!) dollars a month. After having watched the women's beach volleyball semifinal and individual gymnastics everything is fuzzy with purple dots. This can't be good for my new eyes...but the Olympics is good for the soul.

Still haven't started teaching. It's soon though -- next week -- and my room is a total mess. It's HUGE -- seriously, I think it may be larger in square footage than my two bedroom apartment. AND, I only have 18 students! I feel as though everything is working out for me, but that sort of makes anything short of success completely and totally my fault: I have a small class, a supportive principal, so many support systems, a lovely school, and plenty of space. It's all about the teaching now.

Today we started our Baltimore City new teacher orientation. It wasn't anything new, really, but we did get another tote bag and several more packets of reading that I will never get around to reading. I also joined the Baltimore Teacher's Union. Heh...I'm part of AFL-CIO now. First perk? Yet another tote bag, bring today's total up to two bags in two minutes. I will never need another plastic grocery bag again.

Aside from the totes, we did get spoken to by the mayor of Baltimore. There were all these news casters there, like, talking over his speech! I felt as though that should be considered bad form...although maybe it just seemed loud to me since I was sitting right under their cameras. If you catch the story -- which you won't unless you happen to be watching local news in Baltimore during the 10-second segment -- you may just see me since the camera guy was all up in my face. It's strange to pretend like you don't notice the huge 30-pound camera pointing directly at you when it's less than a foot away.

In other news (no pun intended), apartment is now fully settled. Today Jamie bought the final piece to our living room -- the coffee table. Now I am content. Pictures as soon as I clean this place up a little -- I promise.