Bed in the P.M.

You guys: this is a huge day for me. Today, I am going to bed before midnight: my first step towards regulating my sleep schedule to be more like a normal person's. Actually, my first step was actually probably the waking up at 5:30am every morning. Normal people don't go to 10 hours of work in a row after four hours of sleep.

Teach For America is slowly eating away at my soul. These are long-ass days. However, I know that the moment I see my kids for the first time, they will regenerate said soul. They will also probably drain me.

I can't wait.

Today, I completed my Student Acheivement Plan for the whole summer. What that means in non-TFA terms is that I completed a detailed plan for all of my lessons for the next five weeks -- the duration of summer institute. This plan includes all the objectives and goals that we have for my 4th graders in Math, Writing, and Reading. I feel like such the teacher right now...it'll pass.

Teach Well. Be More.

Today was the first official day of institute. I will be teaching fourth grade at P.S. 53 in the Bronx for the next five weeks. The school itself is pretty nice, except for the fact that it doesn't have air conditioning...in New York...during the summer. It's a huge elementary school -- with a school size that rivals Williams' at 1600+. While I haven't actually met my students yet (that doesn't come until next week), I think I will have about twenty under my care.

We just got out of the Teach For America Welcoming Ceremonies which was pretty great at pumping me up for my future in education. We got to hear from Wendy Kopp, the founder and president of TFA, and also a bunch of TFA alum. The alum were reading excerpts from their diaries, and one of them was actually someone that I had seen in the CNN documentary on TFA. It was great to see her because I was especially interested in how her experience would turn out -- she was the one who struggled the most in the documentary and definitely seemed as though she wouldn't make it.

Turns out she did. And she achieved some pretty incredible gains. It gave me hope to know that regardless of how hard things may seem...one can always recover and then excel.

One of the alum from Baltimore had a pretty great experience. He spoke specifically about one of his students who made it through his class, who won a prestigious award for academic excellence in Baltimore and got a free ride to U of Maryland (and a pretty hefty scholarship at Johns Hopkins). What was especially great was that she spoke to us afterwards as a TFA Operations Coordinator...Needless to say there were a lot of standing ovations tonight.

Tonight, I am so proud and excited to be a part of this incredible movement as part of the B-more 2004 corps.

Reality.

I'm not sure about the protocol for these kinds of things, but I figured since this is supposed to be like a journal I should be able to write about whatever is on my mind.

A Williams classmate of mine passed away after getting into a bike accident last Friday and I just found out about it. While Bob and I were not very close, we had the type of relationship where we would catch up with one another whenever we passed by each other or where we could drunkenly hug and laugh at how drunk the other (usually him) was. He was a fellow "Japanese Mutt" and despite the fact that he looked totally white (with the blond hair and blue eyes), he would still get the asian flush.

At Mt. Hope last month we were dancing together and assured each other that we would see each other at Homecoming. It hurts when reality decides to smash you in the face. And it gets harder when you realize that there are others for whom the pain is infinitely greater -- his family, his childhood friends, all those who's lives he had touched...and then you think of all those lives he will never get to touch now that he is gone.

While I may not have known Bob as well as most, I do know that he was a great guy who managed to get his frosh back safely to Williams after having the school van stolen in Montreal and qualified as one of the most laidback and easy-going guys I knew. As cliched as it sounds, my thoughts are with his family tonight.

And I have to admit -- I'm also thinking about my family and friends tonight...

Some Things Are Better Left Unexplored.

Despite the fact that I started my travels after graduation with two nearly full tubes of toothpaste, I now have zero. I am one of those people who usually forgets to check the bathroom for strays when leaving a hotel or pit stop.

This is important because I just brushed my teeth with borrowed toothpaste. Unfortunately, I asked the wrong person because she was using citrus-flavored toothpaste. The idea of citrus flavored toothpaste is FOUL. Actually using citrus flavored toothpaste is UNBEARABLE. Is it rude to turn down someone's toothpaste after you asked for it?

Now I feel like I have to brush my teeth again to get this disgusting citrus taste out of my mouth.

Urban Chic.

After many false starts, I finally made it out to Manhattan to see Jess. I managed to navigate my way through the Bronx and to the metro station and my first trip on the subway (or at least the one that I can recall) was a success. True, I managed to convince five big men to accompany me through the streets of the Bronx as we tried to find the subway station. True, I wielded a giant map and looked especially touristy while trying to figure out the metro system. And true, Jess was waiting for me on the other side, but I'm still proud.

Anyway, I got to see Manhattan. Jess and I ate some yummy food at an Indian restaurant on the Upper West Side. Then we went walking towards the Lincoln Center where they were having an outdoor, latin music concert.


Latin Music at Lincoln Center.

I also learned that even Manhattan has its own form of the Williams Beer Pen:

Jess at the concert. Everyone else is in the beer pen.

Last, I finally got to see where Jess lived. Not only was I allowed to observe the creative goodness that is taped to the kitchen wall (a collection of comic strips done by the sisters Au), but I was also able to see Jess' room.


As you can see: Jess is a sooper star.

All in all, I'm glad I finally made it out to Manhattan, although I now realize that the smarter thing to have done would have been to packed a bag and sleep over. Oh well...maybe sometime soon we can have a slumber partay.

Finally.

Finally have a free moment before heading out to Manhattan so that I may actually attempt to catch my blog up. I can now promise that I will update more regularly...I didn't have internet at the hotel in Baltimore. I am so dependent on the internet that it's sick. Seriously.

Induction.
I got to Baltimore on Monday after leaving Williamstown bright and early. Okay, maybe not so bright and early...closer to 9 than to 6 like I had planned. I also got lost (again) and after spending so much time tweaking MapQuest directions to make sure that they didn't take me through New York city (AGAIN), I found myself in New York City. During rush hour. Suffice to say, I got to Baltimore a wee bit later than I had intended.

Like I mentioned before, I listened to Life of Pi on CD this time. It was interesting, although not quite as good mindless driving material as Dave Sedaris. I didn't get to finish the book, and now I won't really have the opportunity until after July. The book was 11.5 hours long...I'm only on disc 4.

The actual induction was pretty good. At times, it seemed pretty disorganized, but the staff has a really hard job to do and we ended up getting through it all relatively painlessly. I love the other members of the corps. Everyone's great and happy to be here. Induction gave us some time to get to know each other and to basically bond as a corps before heading off to institute and joining up with New York, Miami, New Jersey, and D.C. corps. Baltimore is actually the smallest of the corps -- they accepted next to nobody at the second deadline -- with only 57 people. Compare this with New York that has over 350. I think this is a positive because now I know everyone in my corps, while people in the New York corps come up to me thinking that I'm in their region.

I'm loving Baltimore. Everything about it seems to be right up my alley -- rent is cheap, living is cheap, there's green stuff, but there are also some things to do at night. It's also so close to D.C. that I really can't complain. Did I mention that I'm officially on the Baltimore City School System's official payroll? Meaning, that regardless of what I teach (or if I teach at all at the beginning of the year), I will be getting a paycheck?? I officially am employed! By the time I finish my commitment in under two years, I'll be making closer to $43,000. Not too shabby.

Institute.
We got to New York yesterday evening. Not much exciting has happened since my last post...I'm all registered and ready to go. I'm meeting up with Jess later today -- which will provide some eye candy in a later post. Also, I got to see my wonderful Anne Louise who is working at institute this summer. I felt all special when she came over and gave me some lovin'. Be warned that there will be much more to report on Institute in the near future.

Adventure.
So I have an adventure to report. On Tuesday evening, I attempted to go drop some stuff off at a storage place. After dropping off my friends at the hotel, I ventured off to east Baltimore to get it done before our dinner meeting. I got kind of lost, but eventually found it. As I turned a corner, I hit a massive pothole and not one, but TWO of my tires blew out. I should tell you that my storage place is in a notoriously bad area of Baltimore. I was more than a little frightened.

The first thing I did was call AAA -- but found that I was no longer a member. Shit. I then called the parents, who assured me that I was still a member. Called back AAA and they assured me that I wasn't. It was eventually determined that I actually wasn't insured. It was at this point that the guy sleeping on the street by my dead car woke up came over and assessed that I had two flat tires and should call AAA. I then called Jamie and freaked out at him.

It was at this point that I realized that I should stop calling people since I was quickly using up my battery (AAA had put me on hold for a good long time in order to determine that I wasn't covered. I ventured into the storage place to ask for some yellow pages and call a towing company. Several phone calls later it was determined that everyone was either too far away, to busy, or very closed. I needed to have my car towed since I had TWO flat tires and only had one spare tire and could therefore NOT simply just change the tire. Not only that, but I needed to have it flat-bed towed.

Eventually I just renewed my AAA membership and they agreed to send over a tow truck and promised to take me to the nearest tire center. All good, except I realized that at this point it was past six and most tire centers would be closed. This proved to be true and eventually was able to find one place that would stay open until 8:30pm. Unfortunately it was over 20 miles away. That's expensive. Never mind, it was getting dark and I was still in a bad bad neighborhood -- I would take anything. Except that the tow truck showed up an hour late and eventually too late for the 8:30 place. Things were sucking.

I have to say that things could have sucked even more, except for the fact that everyone in Baltimore is incredibly nice. Random people walking by would stop to offer help or advice. Strangely enough, while all sorts of people were stopping by to offer their services, the police which went by frequently (I was across the street from the county jail) never once stopped to see what was wrong. I owe my life to the guy who ran the storage place (who incidentally, remembered my name on first seeing me despite the fact that I had seen him for about two minutes when I rented out the unit a month earlier). He let me move my car into his gated parking lot after hours and gave me the code to the gate so that I could exit later. He stayed after hours, and gave me his cell phone number if I needed anything. He checked up on me all the time from his apartment (across the street) and would wave at me from the window to make sure that I was okay. He called towing places for me and when the towing guy eventually did come, he spoke to the towing guy to make sure that he was legit. He told him to take good care of me and offered to drive me home after I had towed my car, and he wouldn't even take my money when I tried to give it to him.

The towing guy was great too. When he realized that we wouldn't make it to the tire place in time, he made a few phone calls and found a place that was open 24 hours and much closer. He also offered me some tips about good places to go dancing. The tire guy was really nice and we found out that his children are enrolled at one of the schools that I might be teaching at this fall.

So, while this could have been an awful experience, it actually gave me a chance to see what life is like and to talk to people in the parts of Baltimore that I might not have gone to otherwise...but I'm going to say for the record that blowing out TWO tires at once, blows.

Apartments.
Still don't know what's going on on that front. Jamie and I were about to sign the lease on our place in Greenbelt, but some recent complications arose on that same day so now it's on hold. But, I did find a great place in Baltimore (if the Jamie thing doesn't work out) that would cost $350 a month, is located in Charles Village (right by Johns Hopkins Homewood campus) with a parking space, and hardwood floors, and all sorts of other goodness. Man, I really like Baltimore.

Miscellany.
A friend of mine is taking on an interesting endeavor. I don't know how I feel about it -- I think it may be a little too thinly-veiled. But, funny and interesting nonetheless.

It's a Helluva Town.

Finally made it to my pseudo-final destination for the summer: the Bronx. Yes, I'm at TFA's Summer Institute. No, we haven't actually started training...but last week I did have the Baltimore corps induction. It was pretty good to get to know my fellow corps members and its definitely a really great group of people. Everyone is really enthusiastic and pumped to be in TFA and we all can feed off of each other.

Many adventures to share of the past week when I was incognito. But also, more adventures in the Bronx -- I get to see Jess tomorrow!

Stay tuned.

F Minus.

I thought it was a little strange when I stopped getting emails from TFA all of the sudden. Especially when they had been promising weekly emails with vital information. So I wrote them a week ago...nothing. Wrote them again last night...and it turns out that they had sent out four emails since then, that I had not been getting because of the great email overhaul at Williams.

Normally this would just be an inconvenience, but it turns out that I had to fill out and turn in an application, send vital information, my test scores, an itinerary, and various other time-sensitive things. So in a mad rush, I wrote a really bad application essay and filled out an application for a teaching position. Boo. ALSO, I didn't receive the detailed institute packet -- this was supposed to come via regular mail -- because they didn't send it until AFTER I graduated (when they had previously assured us that it was coming in May) and for some reason it hasn't gotten to my permanent address. Not that I would be able to get it since I haven't gone home and my parents are following their trip out to my graduation with back-to-back trips to Las Vegas and Peru. Bad planning.

I'm a little miffed at TFA for not changing my email address after I had emailed and phoned them about it...THREE times. [Fumes].

Dean's List Drop-Out.

View of the doomed Baxter from atop Thompson Chapel (courtesy of Drew Newman who took the picture during the watch drop part of Ivy Exercises).

I wish I could report that my life is exciting right now...but it isn't. I've been sitting in Hardy House all day and the most exciting part of it was this morning when I got coffee. Seriously.

Actually that's not true. It was when I stuffed lots and lots of completed spreads into big FedEx envelopes to ship to the plant. Yes my friends...the time has come for me to actually turn stuff in. The entire senior section is complete. As is the opening. This book may actually get done. Never has putting little checkmarks in boxes been so satisfying.

I also completed my application for Johns Hopkins' MAT program...except for one minor detail: my resume. Now, I have a resume that I have been using for pretty much everything so I didn't put much thought into preparing my application. Then I realized that my GPA info wasn't up-to-date. No problem, I'll just log into telnet and check my final grades. But NO. I can't get into telnet anymore because I graduated.

This brings up an important issue. The last time I checked my grades, all of my professors had not yet turned in their evaluations...by graduation day, I still did not have my grades for two classes. Then they cut us off the day after graduation. I ask you, friends, how does this make sense??

So I have a dilemma. Should I guess what my final grades were and then calculate my GPA? Should I leave it off my resume? Or, should I leave my old GPA (which isn't very good) on the resume?

I opt for the second one since guessing might get me into trouble. Also, I requested that the school send them my current transcript via mail so they'll have that information there. But it is conspicuous for me not to include my GPA??

They're not going to take me and I'm going to blame stupid Williams.

A Pseudo Post-Grad Crisis.

As you know I'm back at Williams for the weekend. I've been walking around campus and sort of taking in the Purple Mountains for the last time in a long while. Even though I graduated under a month ago I can't help but feel out of place here now. Whenever I bump into someone I know, the first question they usually ask is: "What are YOU doing here?" I don't belong anymore.

All I see are the young whippersnapper summer camp kids, the sophomores and juniors that were suckered into staying on campus over the summer to do research or conference office work, and the trendy film buff walking around on their cell phone. While Baxter is still here -- I had seriously been expecting to find it razed by now -- the campus feels different.

Then, I was checking my emails from a common room in Morgan MW -- my freshman dorm and where a former frosh was gracious enough to let me crash for the night -- and heard the bell toll. It was sort of like a time machine to all those nights freshman year when I had to listen to those freaking loud bells (which happened to be situated across the street from Morgan) toll every fifteen minutes. EVERY fifteen minutes...even 4:15am. And these bells are loud.

But tonight? I don't mind it so much.

Week in Review.

While I said I wouldn't do it, I'm going to do it: here's what I've been up to.

Grad Shots.
I can't believe it took me so long to get these up. Sorry, yo.


Michelle and Marina at Ivy Exercises.


Abby thinks I'm a dork.


My view of the stage and sadly...Jess was obstructed by the microphone stand. Stupid stand. I should also mention that Jess received an award for her contribution to the musical community of Williams. So proud.


The watch drop. Supposedly, a watch that breaks upon impact is good luck -- but one that survives is bad luck for the class of 2004. This year's watch hit a tree on it's way down...it may have survived. That would explain the missed plane. If you look closely, you can actually see Adam (or maybe Drew) at the top of the tower.


The one picture actually taken on Commencement Day. Here's Samir, Ari, and Abby right before the ceremonies began.

The Promised Baltimore Shots.
I like this city. I'm giving it a thumbs up.


Baltimore has ships.


Fuzzy Harbor and Baltimore City Lights.


Jamie's Graduation.
I'm such the proud friend. While I was completely embarrassed by my father scrambling to the front of the crowd to take my picture as I walked across the stage, I found myself doing the same exact thing as Jamie cross his in Minnesota. I may have pushed down a little old lady or two. But I did manage to get these shots:

Well worth it, if I do say so myself.


Jamie spots me in the crowd.


President Oden cracks a funny while Jamie receives his diploma.


Jamie in all of his Magna Cum Laude glory. Either everyone else who's name begins with "L" is incredibly short, or Jamie is on stilts.

I also got to see Jamie perform big time. While I had actually never seen Jamie sing a solo (despite 5 years of loyalty), I got to see/hear him perform three times in one day. First at a short senior recital where he sang two songs, then at a friend's recital in which he sang in a quartet, and finally at his Knights concert.


Jamie says: doo doo dooo doo dooooooooo.


Jamie and the Knights. Just so you know, they are singing a sad song...they are not usually so depressed-looking.

He was so good I cried. Seriously. A capella made me cry -- and not because it was bad!

We also got to fool around in the city a little bit (this was before he graduated and we had to roll up our sleeves to pack his room -- notice that I'm happy.)


Upon my arrival to Minnsota, Jamie and I shared a frozen yogurt. I preferred to eat the napkin.


Fro-yo joy.


Apparently, Jamie is unable to hold the camera steady while he presses the shutter button.


Me messing with shutter speed in Minneapolis. I would also like to note that immediately after I took this picture, one of the horses took a GIGANTIC leak on the sidewalk. It was incredible.

And of course, we got to spend a lot of time with his Carleton friends. While it may seem weird that I'm posting pictures of people I hardly know, I figure that about 50% (or two) of my blog readers are actually from Carleton and would enjoy seeing pictures of their friends.


Carleton grads...tuckered out. Jamie has a beet for a head.

Apartment Hunting in DC.
As previously mentioned, we did our fair share of apartment hunting. I actually just spoke to the top candidate on the phone and it turns out that there will be one apartment available for our time frame. AND, we get a teacher/student discount! Jamie and I have the bases covered. Now it's up to us taking the plunge and actually sending in our application. Eep.

But, D.C. wasn't entirely about apartment hunting and law school touring. We got to spend some quality time with Jamie's friends. Jason was gracious enough to lend us his basement and we got to touch base with some people that I hadn't seen in a long, long while. Even managed to make it to a D.C. happy hour.

We also watched the final Finals game in a bar on Capitol Hill, which is quite the experience on the East Coast. Jamie and I were two of five Laker's fans in the entire bar...trust me...we counted. Jason likened this year's finals to the presidential race: everyone was rooting for the Pistons just because they just didn't want the Lakers to win. That would make my Lakers, Dubya. I would also have to agree.

I'm really looking forward to living in D.C./Baltimore for the next two years. The apartment hunting has made me feel all grown up and Jamie and I stumbled upon an IKEA in our potential neighborhood. Seriously...I love IKEA with a passion. With. A. Passion. I think the reason I love it so much is because they make everything so simple. Plus, I am a big fan of assembling my own furniture. It makes me feel all smart and handy -- even though they make it so easy that a four-year old could do it. I still feel cool.

Knitting in Public.
I noticed that if I'm knitting at the airport people will always start a conversation with me. It's as if holding yarn and knitting needles makes me a kind and friendly person who loves to talk to strangers. While I like meeting new people, I try to stay away from striking up conversation with random people when we're in an enclosed space -- like an airplane. You have no escape if the person turns out to be a jerk or if they are annoying on a plane. So, I pretend that knitting takes up so much of my concentration that I can't possibly hold a conversation at the same time. Really, I'm not a mean person...per se.

Comments.
People should comment. I just glanced over at my counter and noticed that it was in the 2000s! I had no idea that people other than myself and Drew actually came here. Before, I chalked the hits up to my own edits and visits to the page...but I haven't been able to check the site regularly for weeks and Drewie is on his honeymoon. Who are you?? If I knew I had friends who were reading this, I would make it a point to post more often and actually try to keep it entertaining (rather than the drivel I serve now). Don't be shy!

Catch Up.

So close to having regular access to internet. Or at least I hope so. I have been on the move since graduation (mine and Jamie’s), but it’s been pretty great. After doing some serious apartment-hunting I feel all grown up. While I still don’t know exactly what we’re doing for next year as far as living situation goes, I have a pretty good idea: Jamie and I are going to live together halfway between Baltimore and DC. We found a promising apartment community…I just have to call tomorrow to make sure that they will actually have an apartment available when we need it (in August). Cross your fingers…

But rather than go on about my past week when I was MIA, I’d rather just tell you about the day that nothing went right – meaning yesterday.

Jamie and I had a lot planned for the day – complete with lots of apartment-hunting and some test commuting. In one sense, we did pretty well: we checked out some apartments, ran some errands, had lunch at and toured Georgetown Law, and met up with friends. Sadly, we forgot some key things:

(1) In our speed packing, I bypassed the room check as we left Jason’s house (Jamie had kindly stuffed all my things into a bag for me while I did some errands) and left all my jewelry, watch, glasses, and contact lens stuff. Crap.

(2) We failed to make reservations for a hotel for the night. This was crucial since Jamie was leaving for Minnesota at 6am and we wouldn’t want to wake anyone at the ungodly hour of 4am.

(3) We failed to get a travel alarm and decided to rely solely on my cell phone as an alarm for said 4am wake-up. Suffice to say, we did not wake up until 30 minutes before Jamie’s flight. CRAP.

(4) I failed to get GOOD directions back to Williamstown and didn’t notice that the directions I did have led me into New York City.

Anyway, I can report that Jamie made it safely to Minnesota and I made it safely back to Williams. I ended up turning around and winging it once I realized that I was in the middle of the Bronx. I was a little frightened at first, but then I realized (as I passed the Fordham campus) that I was going to be there all summer so I should get used to it. I’m really curious to see if I’m actually going to come out of this summer liking New York. Should be fun.

While the drive back was long (starting right after I dropped Jamie off at the airport), it didn’t feel that way since I bought Dave Sedaris’ new book, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, on CD for the trip. While, audio books are incredibly expensive, I figured it would be the only way I would be able to survive a 7-hour road trip by myself after a night of 4 hours of sleep. It was perfect. I had heard that the book wasn’t as good as his others – and that’d probably be true since Me Talk Pretty One Day and Naked were pretty amazing – but I think that the book on tape venue is especially good for Mr. Sedaris. It lends a whole stand-up comic feel to his stories and he’s a pretty funny guy. It was as if he were sitting in the car with me.

It was a good purchase…especially since it was 30% off at Barnes and Nobles. On-deck for the trip back I have The Life of Pi.

Good times.

Seatriscuit.

Sorry for my lameness in posting. It's not that I haven't wanted to, but rather that I haven't really had easy access to the internet in a while. I just keep moving around. So, while I was in Baltimore a couple days ago, I'm now in Minnesota. Again. And probably for the last time in a really long time if ever.

While I'm not going to bore you with every minute detail about Minnesota (again), I'm going to tell you an uplifting tale about the triumph of the human spirit. So, my first night here (the day before yesterday), Jamie and I went to Gameworks which is basically a HUGE arcade and bar. It's senior week at Carleton, and it was one of the activities planned by the deans: everything was free 'cept for drinks.

While there, Jamie and I played some crazy horse derby game which actually consisted of 12 different consoles and one giant one in the front of all of them. So, on all the separate consoles, all the players are controlling their horse, and on the giant one the horses are all racing each other. Each player has to breed horses to come out with the ultimate colt -- ours was sub-par ("naughty and hard to control") and pretty freaking slow, but we loved little Zorro anyway. Then you had to train your horse and develop a good relationship with it, feed it, etc. When it's ready for a race you can race it and win money. The whole process takes a long long while...we were probably there for forty minutes or something.

Frankly, Zorro sucked. He finished last or near last in every race -- slightly improving with each race, but still a far cry from glory. In our final race of the night, little Zorro was the 11th favorite (out of 12...it should be noted that #12 was in her first race). Of course, we won. Zorro overcame adversity and all the taunts of the other horses and jockeys and made them all eat his trail of dust. It was glorious. I wanted to take a picture of our horse in the Winner's Circle on the GIANT screen, but was too busy gloating.

And then we ran out of credits and they turned Zorro into glue. (Not really).

It Was a Very Good Blog...

So, yeah...I've been gone for a while. But I'm planning to make up for it in installments. Consider this, the first installment.

First of all: congratulations again to Drew and Meredith. Their union is a force to be reckoned with…

Life has been busy as of late. Yesterday, my classmates and I graduated from and said goodbye to Williams College (and each other). It was sad. It also made me realize how nice it is to have this venue with which to look back at my senior year. While geeky and lame, it did fill its purpose of giving me a place to vent about the asinine and mundane things that happened each day. Like, remember the time a pickle saved my day? How about the time I froze in Minnesota? Ooo! Ooo! And how about the time when the compost was stinking up my room? And who could forget that time that I graduated? I appreciate this blog for the opportunity to document (e.g. the inane) and the monumental.

I also realize that Umezakisauce is about to change for good as it will become a place for my friends to keep an eye on me as I try to control my classroom. And, hopefully, they will actually start to COMMENT. *cough*.

Now, I will share some lovely pictures of the past week. Starting with...


...the pure joy associated with the bus ride to Mount Hope for our senior formal.


And the girls looking lovely as we left the house…


…as did the boys.


A toast to the graduates.


Sam’s Dimples!


Samir and Abby...not drunk. Snerk.

Also, I have some pictures of the Champagne Brunch…





The camera loves Jess.


The boys of Mo East ==> Susie H.

Sigh. So much love and such good times.

Anyway, I am now in Baltimore. Managed to drive down from Old Chatham (near Williamstown) and make it to the storage place in the nick of time. We’re staying at some fancy pants hotel with high-speed internet access (score!). We took a nice walk around the harbor and had the most delicious crab cakes – my first in Baltimore. Momentous. I took pictures and will post those later…the cord is somewhere in the car right now. Just trust me when I say that the harbor is beautiful.

Tomorrow will be devoted to house/apartment-hopping. I’m sure that will be interesting.....not really.

Da Da Da Da Daaaaaa Daa.

(It's the graduation song).

So little time 'til graduation. See you on the flipside.

Promises.

For serious, a real post is coming soon. With pictures!

But for now: I pack.

P.S. Congrats to Drew and Meredith on their marriage!

Meh.

Have you ever woken up and felt really really ill simply because you're awake? Yeah.....

I think the lack of sleep is starting to catch up to me.

Whatever Happened to Peace, Love, and Understanding?

Today I got lost. I was trying to drive to the Crossgates Mall today to purchase a semi-formal dress to wear to the Senior Class Gala Dinner tomorrow. Instead I ended up on the NY Thruway which was scary. I also learned that tollbooth guys are mean and don't like to give directions to stupid college girls.

Melissa : [pulling up to the tollbooth and handing over ticket] Ummm...I'm afraid I'm horribly lost. Can you tell me how to get to the Crossgates Mall?
Toll Booth Guy: [taking ticket] thirty cents please...
Melissa: oh yeah...here you go. [waits for directions]
Toll Booth Guy: [stares] You can go now [points towards the green light]
Melissa: You're not going to tell me how to get to the mall??
Toll Booth Guy: [shakes his head] Not my job.
Melissa: Oh! Okay...sorry. [meekly rolls up window and drives away]...asshole.

No worries, I made it to the mall anyway. I'm just going to assume that the toll booth guy was having a bad day. Or just hates his job. Or had gas. Or anything but the fact that he must be a horrible human being with no compassion for a lost and frightened girl...asshole.

I did not succeed in finding a dress. Boo. However, I did get a business suit for my interviews (score!). It was on sale! (sweet!) 35% off! (yay!). Don't know what i'm going to do about the dress though. Maybe I'll show up in jeans.