Williams Weekend.

What a weekend!  After having a great time with Man Boo's family in D.C., we had to motor over to Williamstown (well, Pittsfield) for a wedding.  It had been a very long time since I had been back to Williams, and I was really excited to see it again.  Not to mention spend time with the old Williams crew.

Man Boo and I tried to avoid going through New York...and somehow ended up at Princeton University.  On Reunion Day.  We were not happy.  But we did make it to Williamstown eventually.  Fortunately for us, we had some pretty fantastic weather.

Of course, the main event for the weekend was the wedding of our friends Lindsay and Noah.  

The ceremony took place in front of a lake and the sun was shining down on us -- with a great breeze!  Dinner and dancing followed and good times were had by all.

 This was our sad, sad attempt at spelling out Williams.  I enjoy Abby's backward "S".

As we posed, I could not get out of my head that You Tube video where the wedding party broke the dock.  So glad that dock remained intact.  

Yet another reason to celebrate was that it was also Abby and Samir's first anniversary...

This is them double-fisting drinks when they each oh-so-cutely got the other drinks at different bars.

All in all, a pretty great weekend!  Man Boo and I drove back today...this time, avoiding Princeton.  Being too cheap to invest in Books on Tape and not having time to go the library, we decided to pull a fun book from our shelves and just read aloud to each other.  We returned with a couple chapters of Murder on the Orient Express (courtesy of Man Boo's mother) to spare, but managed to finish on our trip up to Dulles airport when I dropped Man Boo off for this week's trip to Denver.

If you are fortunate enough to have a driving partner who has a pretty good collection of accents under his sleeve, I highly recommend the frugal book on tape option.  Poor Man Boo had to suffer through my inability to do any other accent that American and bad British.  I think the book probably had a different feel when Hercule Poirot was a British guy.

Fun in the Sun.

It's been a hectic week -- the good part of that is that it flew by!  After a few days without internet (made less devastating by the good ol' Palm Pre), we were visited by family!  Everyone was in town to see Scott graduate from SAIS.  For some strange reason, the Powers That Be at SAIS decided that during work hours on a Thursday would be the perfect time for a graduation ceremony.  While I may have considered taking time off to see the little brother-in-law ("Lamer" according to the last post comment), I could not because that day was also our schools Field Day.

And while, I generally don't put pictures of my students up on this blog...some of these are just too adorable to pass up.  Don't worry, they all have media releases...because my blog is read by so many people.

Yes.  Little man is giving himself bunny ears.

How can you look at these pictures and not want to be a teacher?  Of course, they look much more manageable when they are frozen in time...

Sunburnt and sweaty, I rushed home and showered to get ready for a delicious meal at Vidalia to celebrate Scott's graduation.  Incidentally, it was also Jamie's and my anniversary.  All in all, a pretty fun day.

Tomorrow, we leave bright and early to get to Williamstown!  For Lindsay and Noah's wedding!  Can't wait to see everyone and catch up.  (So much fun!)  I'll post from there...

Do a Good Turn Daily.

Life's been busy lately!  While I don't have the mental capacity to think about what has been keeping me so busy (it's mostly boring anyway), I do have enough to do some trivia!

What was Jamie’s Boy Scout nickname?

a)       Lamie

b)      J Lo

c)       Golden Boy

d)      Slick 

This was one of the ones that I thought no one would get.  Seeing how we only had a couple high school friends present -- none of which were boys -- I figured this was the one that people would have to just pick randomly.

The correct answer is "a".  It is also as creative as the average 11 year-old boy can get.  Lamie went on to be an Eagle Scout -- of which I am extremely proud.  When we first started dating, I listened to tales of his Boy Scout adventures.  I attended the aforementioned tree plantings (which were part of his Eagle Scout Leadership Project).  I proudly sat through his Eagle ceremony.  Fun fact!  Lamie asked Jon Tesh to be his "Voice of the Eagle"...which is just hilarious.  He made a pretty good Voice of the Eagle.  If anything, he is just a very nice guy.

I did not realize how proud I was that Lamie was an Eagle Scout until I got much older and realized that every Eagle Scout I met also happened to be an amazingly-accomplished and awesome guy.  If I'm paying attention, I can spot an Eagle Scout within 10 minutes of conversation.

I'm still bitter that girls don't have a camping/hiking/survival/tree-planting equivalent.  Selling girl scout cookies does not an Eagle Scout make.

Smoky.

My clothes absolutely reek of smoke right now because of this room.  I'm in New Jersey right now visiting excellent schools in the area -- it has been great so far.  The only catch has been the fact that now my clothes, my hair, my books all smell like cigarette smoke.  In order to save some dollars, we decided to book the cheapest rooms available...which turns out to be the smoking rooms.  Discrimination?

Anyway...I want to talk about the other time I was in New York last weekend!  See?

Incidentally, I got a new fish eye lens before the weekend.  Also, New York is photogenic.

So Man Boo and I went to New York to visit Jess and Chad, see Bridget and Anthony, spend some time with Anne Louise, and see an opera to boot!  Even though we weren't there for very long, we had a great time with friends.  Jess even Asian-posed for us.

Okay.  I've got work to do, but I wanted to make sure my friends and loved ones knew I was alive and well in New Jersey...

Thrilled.

As mentioned yesterday, Jamie and I went to see an opera last night -- The Marriage of Figaro to be exact. I know this last series of posts may make it seem that Jamie and I are these uber-cultured people who throw money at the arts, but the truth is that Jamie does all of the purchasing and I just get to go along with the ride. And we usually get those cheaper tickets for the "younger generation" folks who actually buy tickets to go to the opera.

This weekend we are going to see another opera: Tosca. This one, however, is actually a wedding gift -- fitting that we are going to go so close to our third anniversary. AND, it's in NYC! I'm really looking forward to visiting Jess and the NY crew. We'll be hopping on a bus on Friday after work, and catching one back on Sunday.

Then, I get to catch a train BACK to New York for work on Monday (staying until Wednesday evening). While it would have been nice to just stay in New York and not worry about going back and forth, we found out today that we are having a compliance review on Monday and Tuesday for which I must be present. Lame!

I am excited about taking a train, though.

I am also excited to share this video from our last dance party -- it was a celebration for our Prepped Up Preppies. It is so fun to see what happens to a room full of our students when you start playing Michael Jackson...

...and for the record, our students don't normally wear jeans to school. That was part of a fundraiser that we had that day.

Funny Guy.

Don't have time for a long post -- we just got home from the opera and it's time for bed.  But, my friend, Abby (hi Abby!) shared this video with me and I wanted to share with you all.

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Hooray for Jon being credited for his work on the President's speech at the Correspondent's Dinner!  Did I ever tell you all about the time when I had to write a toast opposite Jon for a wedding?  Let's just say that writing a speech for the same event as someone who writes funny (and serious) speeches for the POTUS for a living...that's just terrifying. 

PDA.

Did you vote for us?  Good!  Now on to trivia.


5. Which of the following was not something that high school teachers called Jamie and Melissa?

a)         A pair of dogs

b)        The young lovers

c)         The first high school couple they know to get married

d)        Jalissa 

Jamie and I started dating right after his 17th birthday.  This means that we spent our "honeymoon" period as hormonal, lovey-dovey teenagers.  I still cringe at the thought of how lovey-dovey we were in high school and would like to formally apologize to my former schoolmates.  Of course, I am not really in contact with any of those people these days -- with the exception of my beloved brother-in-law, Scott -- and I think he has to forgive us despite being subjected to the worst of it.

Anyway, I plead guilty to PDA in high school.  While the PDA made it abundantly clear that we were together, nobody called us "Jalissa", having not gone to school with Trent Vanegas or Perez Hilton.

We were, however, called a pair of dogs by Jamie's math teacher.  I very vividly remember being at my locker and Jamie giving me a quick hug in passing.  At which point, Mr. Metzger whirled around on us and called us dogs, citing that where he grew up they would throw water on dogs who were doing that (hugging?).  Jamie and I were both shocked into silence.  The next day Jamie gave me a Milk Bone.

U.S. History was the only class Jamie and I had together 1st semester Junior Year (it was a big deal when he changed his seat to move next to me...friendship bridges were burned.)  Every day before class, Jamie and I would wait outside catching up on our days.  When our teacher, Mr. Maddock, arrived he would say "Okay, young lovers, it's time for class!" and continue into the room.  Mr. Maddock was awesome by the way -- and clearly had a soft spot for Jamie and I.  I speculate he liked the interracial relationship.  Or maybe it was that I was obviously the reason why Jamie started doing so well in History all of the sudden.  (I'm kidding.  That was English.)

Finally, we have been called the "first high school couple [they/I/we] know to get married" by many, many people when it comes out that we were high school sweethearts.

Interestingly, as I was going back to fact-check teacher names, I saw that my high school was rating as one of the "America's Best Prep Schools" by Forbes.  To that I say, "thank you mom and dad, for the hard hours you put in to get my foot in the door.  And thank you, big brothers, without whom I would not have even been admitted into said school."

PSA.

Before I get to today's trivia, I want to do a quick public service announcement.  So, last week I put up a new project on Donorschoose.org in order to get more books for our school.  We got fully-funded within a week thanks the generosity of family and friends (some readers of this blog!) and even a few strangers!  I couldn't believe how fast it all happened!  So a big thank you to those of you who were willing to part with your hard-earned dollars for our students!  You can bet there will be a more complete celebration post once the materials get in and I can get some pictures of the kids with their new books!

Now for the next plea: my friend Ben (father of the adorable birthday boy in the last post) works for KaBoom! which is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful non-profit organization that builds playspaces in areas in need of said playspaces.  They do many other things -- including volunteer at my school every year.  Ben recommended us for a grant that would give our school $20,000 worth of new play equipment in the form of an "Imagination in a Box Playspace."  Seriously, how cool is this?

As a public charter school at the end of a cul-de-sac, our playspace (space in general) is seriously limited.  We have a small playground (that was "imagined" by our students and built in a community build) that is wonderful, but we can only take a couple classes out at a time.  During the winter and wet days our kids can't go out at all...This playspace would be an awesome alternative for our kids during those days.  Not to mention a wonderful way to help them exercise their imaginations. 

So, if you're feeling like supporting our school in our effort to win one, just click this link and vote for our school.  You don't have a pay a penny!  It just takes a minute or so to register and vote.  (You'll find a link to it on the right side of the page.)  Then tell all of your friends!

Spring Weekend.

It's been a busy weekend!  We said goodbye to our friends Dan and Angie who are moving to Tokyo!  They have been our neighbors all along, so it is hard to lose them.  Sad!  After a quick lunch with them, we headed over to one of Jamie's frisbee games.

(They won.)

Then we headed over to our friends' house -- their adorable son was turning two (and it was also a chance for us to meet his new little sister.)

(A little play-by-play of the big moment when he blew out his candle.)

The best was when he kept on running his toy train into the side of the cake so that he could eat the extra frosting.  Clever boy!

Little could top the children's birthday party, but then I had brunch with some work friends this morning and then walked over to the Dupont Farmer's Market to watch Jamie's singing group perform.  I tried to take a video of it to share, but since it was an outdoor venue, my camera couldn't pick up enough of the sound.  I'll just tell you that they were great!

We hung out for a little bit in Dupont Circle afterwards with friends.  We noticed that there was an unusual number of people hanging around on the circle.  We just figured that there was some kind of dance demonstration going on and parked ourselves on the grass to talk.  After 15 minutes or so, the crowd had gotten enormous and I realized that this had all the makings of an Improve Everywhere event.  As soon as I reported as much out loud, some music started and a bunch of people busted out dancing.

By the end there was a pretty big group...

Of course, this wasn't actually an Improv Everywhere event -- probably more of a Facebook coordinated event.  Still, it was a nice coincidence to be hanging out at the park at that moment.

Here's an actual Improv Everywhere event.  (I did not want to link to the video of the No Pants Subway Ride.)  Ted's Birthday video is pretty funny.

All in all, a pretty good weekend!  

Veni, Vidi, Vici

So I spent a few minutes scouring my old blog posts looking for some reference to my favorite guilty pleasure of yore:

I know I have mentioned it before...I'm sure there were online back-and-forths between myself and Drew, but I couldn't find them.  Maybe it's for the best...I wouldn't want to get into a Pacey vs. Dawson battle with the man who married my Man Boo and me.  I'll just say he stands on the absolute wrong side of that argument.

Anyway, Dawson's Creek was my weekly pick for my one hour of weekday viewing.  My father had a standing rule of no television during the school week...but as I got older, he began to be a little more lenient and all of the sudden, I was allowed to watch one hour of television!  (After homework was finished, of course.)  Don't tell my dad, but I would sometimes leave the t.v. on for the first part of Felicity too.

All this to bring us to number four.

1. What haircut was Jamie rocking when he and Melissa first started dating?

a)            The Crew Cut

b)           The Pacey/Caesar

c)            The Wave

d)           Spikes

Of course, the answer would be The Pacey.  Although he did sport quite the Wave in 7th grade.

If only we had digital cameras back in the 90s.  If I did, I could post a picture of Man Boo in 11th grade, and the top of his head would look like this:

Man Boo alleges that people frequently mistook him for Joshua Jackson.  Who knows, perhaps it was my adoration for Pacey that led me to Man Boo.  Not many people can rock the Caesar.  I think George Clooney is the only one that successfully pulled it off...

But it did look pretty adorable on my husband.