On Our Way.

We're heading out to the Bahamas bright and early tomorrow morning. Not sure that I will have access to the internet while there -- in fact, I'm 95% sure that I will not -- so I wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays and a safe and fun New Year.

As I have done in years past, I will still write posts while I am away and then post them one-by-one when I get back. Can't wait to visit paradise!

A Whole Lotta Nothing...Plus Some Mushiness.

I think it's slightly funny that Jamie was the one who got a Snow Day after the storm rather than me...In the end, I got to spend my first day of break with Jamie at home. And actually Scott who came over to our place for a quiet place to study. While I adore my husband and brother-in-law, they were seriously cramping my vegging plans.

No matter, I would vegetate properly on my second day of break by sleeping in, etc. Unfortunately, I woke up at 7am and figured it'd be best not to waste my day. Also, I needed to get myself to Urgent Care and no time like the present. Given my previous experience with Urgent Care, I was not looking forward to it.

This time I went to Minute Clinic. Hooray for Minute Clinic! I was seriously seeing a nurse practitioner within a minute. Minute Clinic saved my second day of break because afterwards I was able to get back home and do my jog and then catch up on my vegging.

Today is Jamie and my dating anniversary. After spending eleven years with the guy I can safely say that he is still the best, most wonderful, human being.

Christamas-ish in The Capitol.

Yesterday morning, Jamie and I ventured out in the snow with our snow boots to enjoy the Capitol under a blanket of snow. It was an absolutely beautiful day -- with bright sunshine and few clouds -- so we walked to the Capitol and check out the National Christmas Tree.

View of The National Tree and Mall from the Capitol.

That's Jamie waving his arm.

It was great to get out there. Everyone was in such a good mood because of the snow. Kids were sledding down the hill adjacent to the Capitol steps, people were making snowmen and throwing snowballs. The city itself was so quiet except for people enjoying the snow.

I've known for a while now that I wanted to live somewhere that had snow. While I thought the more snow the better for me, I'm starting to realize it may be that I'd rather be somewhere where snow is a huge deal when it actually happens because then it's something that people are happy about. I don't know that people in Buffalo or Ann Arbor are as excited to see snow as we are in DC.

I still vividly remember the day when I was in Kindergarten and it started to snow in Los Angeles. It was an awesome day.

This is outside of The Supreme Court.

Don't know how much longer we can expect the snow to stick around. Looks like they are predicting freezing rain on Christmas...boo! Fortunately, I'll be in the Bahamas! If I can't have a white Christmas, I think the place I'd most like to be is the Bahamas...

Blizzard 2009

Okay, so maybe not a technical blizzard, but they had a Blizzard Watch for a while. Yesterday it snowed ALL day. Not just flurries, but really snowed.

...And snowed...

...And SNOWED.

D.C. got hit by about 20" of snow yesterday which is a new record for December. It doesn't snow that much here in D.C. -- especially in the city itself. Needless to say, I was a very excited camper yesterday as were many other D.C. residents. Apparently, there were cross country skiers on the sidewalks and snowmobiles going down East Capitol. While 20" is not much snow by Massachusetts standards, it's enough for mass hysteria over here. I didn't even mind that it happened after school let out for the Winter Holidays and robbed me of the elusive snow day.

Still, Blizzard 2009 was not the most exciting thing about yesterday: the most exciting thing about yesterday was that it was Jamie's Birthday!!! Jamie and I have a strange relationship with the weather. Basically, any time we plan some kind of event that would benefit from good weather (i.e. BBQs, birthday parties, WEDDINGS) it decides to go wacky on us. The last sunny BBQ we had was in 2000 (and we throw at least one every year), the last time I attempted a birthday party of some sort there was an ice storm, and of course there was the thunderstorm at our wedding (where it actually only stormed for the outdoor part).

Still, we had a bunch of people brave it out in the snow and celebrate Jamie's birthday for us. It was great to have good food, music, and friends in in our home while it was snowy outside. It all felt very holiday-ish.

Since I didn't get to go outside and enjoy the snow yesterday (due to the massive cleaning and baking effort), I plan on venturing outside today and taking full advantage! Hopefully, pictures soon...

Pasta Masters.

Last Tuesday, Jamie and I finally cashed in on a birthday gift I gave him last year: a cooking class at our friend Leah's store. In my defense, we couldn't go on or around his birthday last year because Hill's Kitchen didn't have classes available yet. Since then, we have had a really hard time finding times when our schedules aligned during the week.

But we finally made it in to the Homemade Pasta class and it was so much

fun! We have tried making homemade pasta before but with little success. The most successful pasta that had ever been made in my kitchen was actually made by my friend Angie when she made some awesome agnolotti for Jamie's Top Chef party a few years back.

But look!

And look!

(Sorry for the low picture quality -- all I had was my cell phone and low light.)

Those are some ragu noodles at the top and my linguini at the bottom of the picture. We took it right home and ate it up...so yummy...and so easy too.

In other news, it's snowing outside! Wahoo! Fortunately it's snuggly time in the house for us all to stay warm...

Love Tap.

What's the etiquette when it comes to parking love taps? You know, when a car gently taps another car when it's parallel parking.

This morning, when I was leaving for work, a car pulled up and began to parallel park into the spot directly in front of mine. Since I didn't want to pass behind his car while he was parking, I waited for him to park. Despite the good 3 feet on either side of his car he kept reversing far beyond what was necessary...I watched with growing alarm as he kept inching ever so much closer. Closer. CLOSER. Until TAP -- my car lurches and he finishes parking his car.

I'm guessing that he understood that it was not cool -- I gathered that based on the fact that he leaned over to the passenger seat to "get something" and continued to "get something" (and hide his face) until I had driven by.

When I was relaying this to a friend today, she told me that love taps were not at all taboo. In fact, she proudly stated that she always gives love taps and will usually tap both cars on either side of her every time she parallel parked. WHAT???? Excuse me, WHAT???? Please tell me that my friend is just wrong.

I feel so violated on behalf of my car just thinking that it may have been getting tapped without my knowledge...

Encore.

Some more a capella goodness. This is from the same concert as before (obviously), but it's a different song.

For Dad. Love, Me.

In honor of my dad's birthday today, I would like to share this:

I think he'd appreciate it.

The International Language of the Morning After.

Every morning I pass Gallaudet University on my way to work. Today, as I passed in front of Gallaudet I saw two students having an argument. Not all that out of the ordinary -- especially on a college campus at a very early hour. What made this particularly interesting to me as I waited for the light at the intersection was that they were signing their argument at each other.

Even though we do provide some ASL to our students (it was a class we offered during Summer school!) I know very little beyond "good morning" and "thank you". These two people were not saying "good morning" or "thank you". Mind you, they weren't making any obscene gestures -- they were simply signing. The man continued to sign angrily as he walked across the street until they were signing at each other across the street. So heated was their argument that even after the light changed, the cars didn't want to cross in front of them and interrupt their exchange.

As I drove away, I couldn't help but wish I knew what they were arguing about. I'm so nosy.

Day 30; Post 30: Reflection.

So I actually met my goal of 30 posts in 30 days. Surprisingly, I can also say that I really enjoyed doing it. Sure there were times when I had to stay up a little later to post, or when I was really strapped for something to post about (my life is not that interesting), but in the end it was an enriching experience.

I had been thinking about how to end this series of posts...I figured I would need some grand finale not unlike the rush of fireworks that always end the 4th of July shows. Well...life hasn't really served up many fireworks lately. More like a laser pen light show that is interesting to me, but not so much to the people who read my blog. Sorry guys, this post will be more of a fizzle.

I think this practice has once again made the value of this blog evident to me. I started it to allow me to keep in touch with friends (this was before Facebook). But since then, it has definitely evolved into a way to allow me to reflect on the past six years. I am really appreciative of that.

All this to say that while I may not really have to say "30 posts in 30 days", I do want to post more frequently. Stay tuned?

Day 30; Post 29: O Tannenbaum.

So, I didn't mention this before, but the day we got back from Los Angeles, we put our tree up. I love the holidays and one of my favorite parts of the holiday is the Christmas Tree.

Yes, it's a fake tree. We figured as long as we didn't have a yard in which to plant our trees, we should just forego the yummy, piney scent of a real tree. Also, I think that real pine needles that fall off pretty easily would be worse for kitty tummies than are the occasional plastic ones that the cats manage to yank off. Because, let's be honest, the cats are obsessed with the tree.

Day 29; Post 28: Let It Snow!

After two years of sweet anticipation followed by utter disappointment, our school has finally changed it's Snow Policy so that we no longer follow DCPS. In the past, we would only close for inclement weather if DCPS closed. So, despite the fact that our school's street doesn't get plowed and is at the bottom of a little hill, we would never get the sweet benefit of a snow day. And as you know, I love a snow day.

Unfortunately for me, it is common knowledge that DCPS never closes -- not to be confused with the private schools in DC which close for scary clouds. Chancellor Rhee even came out and said that DCPS would not close for inclement weather. When President Obama falsely accused and ridiculed DC schools for closing for a half inch of snow (just because his daughters' school closed), I figured it was the final nail in the Snow Day coffin.

Well...last week The Powers That Be decided to finally separate us from our Snow Day shackles. Our public charter school decided to separate itself from DCPS when it comes to inclement weather closings -- hooray for children not falling on our perilous hill! Hooray for staff members not coming to school with harrowing tales about their near accidents! Hooray for Snow Days!

Day 28; Post 27: Filler.

Still not having any luck with uploading the video to the blog. I think the file is too big...Boo. Not to worry, though, anticipation only makes it that much sweeter. All I know is, I had that thing uploading on my computer all night and it still wasn't done this morning. Stay tuned, and hopefully it'll be up soon.

In the meantime, enjoy emo superheroes:

This will probably be funny to two of my readers. So this one is for you guys. (If you can zoom in on your computer, you can check it out in all of its legible glory here.)

Day 27; Post 26: Carls.

Day 30 is coming up and there is some pressure to actually find a way to make up the extra post somewhere within the next couple of days. I don't want it to be a throwaway post, but it may have to be.

This will not be that post, though.

Today, I went to the Carleton Alumni Holiday Party. I have been a honorary Carl for a while now...but I would not have felt obligated to go to the holiday party had it not been for the fact that Jamie was going to performing there with his acapella group.

Pretty impressive considering they were down two of their 9 members. Also, impressive is that my bass-baritone husband was able to rock that tenor part. (He was filling in for his absent brother who normally sings that part.) Yes, I know that Java Jive is not a holiday song, but they did sing a couple carols afterwards.

Edited to add: So, I eventually was able to upload the video. Unfortunately, the only way I could get it to work was to make it a really low-quality video. Although you can't really make out faces anymore, let me assure you it's Jamie and his singing group.

Day 26; Post 25: Unbirthday.

Today being my first full day with Jamie since my birthday, we decided to celebrate it with some good food and a movie. I'm such a nerd and can't think of a better way to spend my birthday than a low-key one.

Aside from being my non-birthday celebration day, it was also the first day of snow for D.C. Most exciting! While it was pretty light in the city, we drove out to the suburby areas to go shopping where it was actually snowing big, fat snowflakes. So beautiful. It also reinforced that I love living somewhere with seasons.

Jamie took me to dinner at BLT Steak. You know it's love when your vegetarian spouse takes you to a really good steak place for your non-birthday. I'm talking a place with $26/oz steak on the menu. (I did not order the $26/oz. steak -- which must have gold-plated and able to clean your house for you.) Incidentally, the guy sitting at the table next to us was clearly some kind of important restaurant guy because they comped him all of the desserts and the chef came out to greet him. I saw a little piece of Jamie die tonight when they bussed away the untouched desserts after he left.

Afterwards, we went to see Up In the Air which was a nice movie.

Definitely worth a watch! And I always like to support a Harvard-Westlake alum when I can.

Day 25; Post 24: The Little Things.

I'm back at the airport and am still enjoying FREE internet as I wait for my plane. My conference ended up being pretty great. The speaker was a very prominent educator who I tend to geek out over. She also happens to be a Williams alum.

The conference was about Writing Workshop and throughout the session, she would have us go through some of the strategies for generating ideas that teachers could present to their students. The overwhelming effect of these role plays was that I am no very inclined to write. Not just write in a blog -- where apparently grammar doesn't matter to me -- but an actual, thought-out personal narrative. It was all pretty inspiring and I wish I had a way to implement it with our students as soon as I get back.

At one point, when Lucy Calkins was demonstrating one method of generating ideas for personal narrative, she was making up a story about dropping her son off at college. She described opening the heavy fire door to the hallway, staring down the long, cinder block corridor of her son's new dorm, and questioning the amount of the tuition. I started to get excited because it was clear she was describing our alma mater. Eventually, she mentioned that she was describing Mission at Williams and I felt very triumphant.

I have a connection with Lucy Calkins and it excites me. I am a nerd.

Another thing that excites me is the prospect of 1 - 3 inches of snow tomorrow in D.C.! Never mind that it was in the 60s yesterday...I'll take the snow! Cross your fingers...

Day 24; Post 23: Birthday.

Currently sitting in the airport on my way to Hartford, Connecticut for my conference. I'm enjoying the FREE wireless internet in the airport being provided by Google for the holidays. Most awesome -- just another way that Google is taking over my life.

Anyway, this morning I was woken up bright and early by my dear husband who woke up even earlier than that to make me breakfast in bed. Despite the fact that I could barely keep my eyes open, I did not spill on the sheets and I enjoyed being pampered.

When I opened my email, I got another pretty awesome birthday gift. A video of my nieces! Which I will now share with all two of you who read this blog! Celebrate!

Day 23; Post 22: With Every Fiber of My Being...

...I think Jayma Mays and I should be friends.

Jayma, call me!

Day 22; Post 21: The Fish Bowl.

On Tuesdays I work at our second elementary campus. Since I'm only there once a week (and usually only for a half-day at that), I don't have an office there. Instead I have a fish bowl.

The building we are in went through renovations to make it more kid-friendly. Although it had been a school before we moved in, it was an "open school" with no walls. Not exactly the learning environment that best suited our students.

My "office" used to be an observation room -- a place where children would be put in with toys and whatnot and observed by teachers or psychologists or whatever. Thus, three of the walls of my "office" are actually one-way mirrors. This would allow me ultimate privacy in my office, and an ability to observe the children and their teachers as they transition through the halls.

Unfortunately for me, the one-way mirror is working the other way...meaning I cannot see out, but everyone can see in. It is UNCOMFORTABLE in there. I get kids knocking on the windows, but have no idea which direction to cast my teacher glare since I have no way of knowing where the child is knocking from. Also, I don't like seeing three different mirror images of myself all the time.

The only way I am able to see out is when the lights are off. Under those circumstances the one-way mirror flips and I am able to see out, but no one can see in. However, this poses a new dilemma in that when 5 year-olds are given a mirror, they cannot help but make faces into it. Therefore, instead of the faceless banging on my window, I get kids making faces at me not realizing they are being watched. Even worse, I get adults checking themselves out. I feel sort of guilty looking at people when I know they can't see me...it feels too voyeuristic for my taste. In the end, I opt for the lights on, knocking on window scenario.

I could get used to that...but the lights are on a not-so-sensitive motion sensor. So every once in a while, the lights go out and that is when I get the worst of both worlds; I get kids staring into the mirror making faces (or adults primping themselves) only to be startled when the lights come on and they catch me waving my limbs frantically in the middle of the room trying to get the lights back on.

Needess to say, I like being in my real office the other four days of the week.