*I’m coining a new phrase: vacation hangover. Basically, it just means that head-pounding, groggy sense of reality that smacks you right in the face when you realize that your vacation is officially over and you are getting served a steaming dish of reality. I think that perfectly sums up how it felt to wake up at 5:30 yesterday morning and go into work.
*The one saving grace of the whole business is that I have my “real” spring break coming up in just two weeks.
*Thank. Goodness.
*To welcome me back to reality, the school decided to have a dance yesterday (we only have a total of three all year long) AND a magician. Now, to a 12- and 13-year-old, that might sound like a dandy of a day, but I’ve decided that being a teacher sucks all the fun out of such things since you’ve officially become The Monitor and The Enforcer and the Don’t-Have-Too-Much-Fun-er. And the Harlem Shake has to be the longest song EVER. Just had to throw that out there.
*Okay, I’ll put the complaining aside. I mean, I actually got to GO on vacation, so I’ve got a leg up on all the other teachers at the school.
*Random Fact #344 about me: I hug trees. Literally. I mean, I’m a bit of a tree-hugger in other senses as well (I recycle, I try not to waste energy, I pick up litter), but I also mean that I have scads of proof (read = pictures) that I go around and embrace growing things pretty much all the time. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I will tell you this: I’ve been this way for a long, long time. Just call me Tree-Huggin’ Torrie.
*Actually, don’t. That would be weird.
*In my creative writing class, I have the students do a writing prompt first thing upon entering the room. Today, the “prompt” was this awesome picture I took in Alaska of an enchanted forest, and then I turned off the lights and had nature sounds playing as the students came into the room. When it had quieted down enough that the nature sounds could actually be heard, I had two boys in the front who kept turning their heads from side to side and saying, “What IS that? Where are those sounds coming from? Do you think it’s the plumbing?”
*Is it mean that I just laughed to myself at my desk instead of setting them straight?
*Today, the students were rocking out to the Macarena and thinking they were the coolest of the cool. I wanted to say that the Macarena was like, so totally 1996. Honestly, I’m shocked that the kids even knew what it was, considering that only about a third of them are familiar with the story of Harry Potter.
*One thing I’m a little sad about was that we didn’t go swimming even once at our hotel down in Bryce.
*Of course, that had NOTHING to do with the fact that we maybe sorta got really, really sunburned. Shhh! Don’t tell my mom.
*Last night, I was cooking a curry chicken dish, and MAN, I forgot how strongly that stuff smells. I believe that was my very first time personally cooking with curry, and I think my eyeballs were about to explode.
*P.S. It was delicious, though!
*I was just barely thinking about how gosh-darn tired I am and how much I need a nap, when I looked behind me and saw my husband with his book in his lap, his head thrown back, and his mouth wide open. Lucky!
*Prepare yourself for some major Bryce Canyon overload over the course of this week (and maybe even into next). I don’t get out much, okay?
*On a closing note, last night for family night, I decided to do a little blast from the past and make no-bake cookies. Ohmyheck—now I remember why I used to make those suckers about every single weekend with my friends. They’re positively scrumptious!
*What favorite treats or dishes are a “blast from the past” for you?
