Since I figured everyone else was doing posts with titles like, “Happy Thanksgiving” or “Day of Thanks,” I decided to be a rebel and say it in Spanish. Cuz I’m cool like that. (Not that I have anything against generic titles, of course. I just feel this inexplicable need to be different all the time. …
Fun with Argument Essays
Greetings from the middle school, where I am currently in the middle of a very LOOONG Teacher Prep Day. You know what’s sad? That I first rejoiced when I heard that we were having a Teacher Prep Day (because when I was a student, that always meant no school). Of course, the second it dawned on me …
Tuesday Tell-All
*After losing my “cool teacher” status within the first two weeks of school (mostly because students consider my class to be so stinkin’ hard), I think I earned back some of those cool points back today by showing A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. I debated whether to turn it into an assignment that tied into our …
90-Minute Italian Bread
Finally, a weekend when I finally felt I didn’t need to run around and around like a decapitated chicken. I actually had time to do some real pen-and-paper writing, sleep in until 9, AND go to the temple with Matt and our dear friends The Roses. Not to mention get a little fancy with my …
Chaos and Silence
Sometimes when I have twelve students all jabbering to me at once and I hear eight more talking loudly to their friends and the school loudspeaker goes off all at once, it’s difficult for me to enjoy the chaos that surrounds me. But something that I’ve been thinking about today is that without noise, there …
Book #20: Shanghai Girls
Title: Shanghai GirlsAuthor: Lisa See# of Pages: 336Genre: Historical Fiction I have long been a fan of Lisa’s See’s poetic prose. I first fell in love with her writing when I read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan while backpacking in Havasupai in 2008, and the love affair continued with her hauntingly beautiful Peony in …
Tuesday Tell-All
*I’ve never been a huge fan of cold weather, but there is one thing that I definitely don’t mind, and that’s the fact that I feel like I can get away with making soup almost every night. I try to get away with it in the summer, but it just doesn’t work as well, ya …
Spontaneous Date, Take II: The Piano Guys
After the success of last weekend’s spontaneous date night, I figured it would be pretty hard to top that (hence the reason I’d planned on staying in and baking all weekend). And I figured, “Hey, if I’m spontaneous all the time, it no longer becomes spontaneous: it becomes routine.” Right? I’ve got some sick reasoning …




