Coffee shops and plastic drops

One way that I have changed during college is coffee shops. I really like coffee shops and coffee shop coffee. Lattes, chai, white chocolate mochas. I went to a coffee shop in Charleston today to grade tests. I had the back room completely to myself, and the booth/bench that I chose was next to a bamboo wall hanging with a print of the Mona Lisa on it. It assaulted my sensibilities. I hope that by now I can somewhat comprehend the good, the true, and the beautiful, and that fell in the category of the tacky, the false, and the ugly. It was the best spot, though. I really liked the back room. The noises from the front, the music and talking and clanking of dishes and steaming of drinks added a nice background to the bubbling of the fish tank and quiet of the room. Yellow lights of ambiance from the table lamps. Burlap bags draped across the ceiling. The dripping of water into plastic buckets. It was raining, and the sound of the rain on the roof. And then it started leaking. In new places. When I had about three tests left in the batch, a new leak started at the end of my bench. It was all very cozy and quite funny. The leaks added character.

Also, a lady asked if my dress (the green one with white flowers on it) was vintage. I told her it was. She asked if I had been to her store. I said that I had not, and she said that I would like it because it has a lot of vintage. She also said that the dress looked good on me. Everyone in my family hates the dress though. John most of all. He forbade me to wear it to his game because all his friends were going to be there. Mom and Dad both agreed that there are worse things I could wear, but that the dress is ugly. I like it. It is comfortable. And it makes a statement. It is hard to wear a dress that color of green and not stand out.

I did not think that I would need my camera cord over break, but of course, I have pics that I would like to post. Coffee shop pics. There is a new Starbucks in Charleston, but I do not think that I will go there. Less character, higher prices, too comercial.

Spring Break!

I am on spring break! Yay! I am so excited. And very tired. This week went well, I think. I have soooo much grading to do over break. I'm heading home on Saturday. We had a snowstorm yesterday, but it has melted a lot today.

Not much. I love sleep. Especially in a comfy bed with layers of covers.

Bend in the Road

On the road of life, I am taking a couple hairpin turns and a detour.

Uff da

I'm glad that the school week is over. I have Good Friday off. I really do need the three day weekend. I have some overhauling to do in regards to organization and lesson plans.

I called U of I, and my letter is here at the college. And I can't get to it. I'll see if anything can be done tomorrow. I sincerely hope so. I do want to know. And I don't necessarily want to wait until Tuesday. If one of my students turned in a paper with sentences like this, I don't think I'd be very pleased. :-) I will have roughly 150 papers to grade over my spring break. Woo hoo. I'm sure it will be quite interesting. :-)

I attended Tennebrae service at Free Methodist this evening. I'm not sure I'd ever been to a Tennebrae service before. I might have at my grandparents' church, but I don't remember it. It was very interesting. It was a dark service and they extinguished candles to mark the different steps of Jesus' suffering and trial. After the service I talked a bit, and two older ladies invited me to Easter dinner, for which I am very grateful. It sounds like they will have a lot of family over, so that should be fun and interesting. I like families. It is good to be around people of different ages and stages in life from the babies to grandparents. That's one of the reasons that attending a community church is so important, especially at the college level: fellowship.

Man of sorrows, what a name, for the Son of God who came. Ruined sinners to reclaim, Hallelujah, what a Savior.

Hello

Salutations. I am here in a coffeeshop using the Internet, as I do not have it at the place I am staying. Because of spring break and my need to stay in the area due to student teaching, I am temporarily relocated. More people than I thought are staying around for spring break, but none of them are my close friends. And, since I work and have tons to do during the week, I will probably not have time to do fun things. I do have Good Friday off, however, so I plan on going to Maundy Thursday service at church. I probably will not go to the community Good Friday service, though I may change my mind. This is such a time of remembrance, and it is so easy to be caught up in myself. Especially when one is alone.

I still have not heard from U of I. I am trying not to be anxious, but when I know at least one other person who has heard from the same program I applied to and was accepted a week ago, it is difficult not to be anxious. They said that my letter is in the mail. I hope it comes on Monday. I hope it comes to my house, though, because I do not have access to my school mail, as the union is closed.

My spring break is the first week in April. I will be gone when everyone is back. It is getting difficult trying to live in two different worlds. Sleep is winning over social life. Academics cannot falter because my students are depending upon me, so that leaves sleep and social life to duke it out, and when you sleep through the normal dinner hour, sleep beats social life. Naps are wonderful.

Teaching is such a weird experience. It is such an odd mix of happy and frustrating and stressful and exciting.

"I'm being followed by a moon shadow, moon shadow, moon shadow. A leapin' and hoppin' on a moon shadow."

"Man of sorrows what a name, for the Son of God who came. Ruined sinners to reclaim, hallelujah, what a savior."

This is a week

I have had a rough week. Things have either been really good or really bad. Not a whole lot of middle ground, especially since Wednesday. Stress and lack of sleep is not a good combination. My parents are here, which is really good. I definitely needed to see them again. Also, we've gone to some good restaurants. The restaurant last night was a local place and we ended up sitting to a very nice family and a hilarious grandpa who tried to set me up with all his grandsons. :-) It was a great stress relief. School is full of good and bad. I also had a new experience coming home from parent teacher conferences on Wednesday. I hit a deer. I am now a member of the deer-hitters club. I am OK and the damage is very, very minimal. The Lord definitely protected me.

I don't know why, but my creativity in posting leaves me when I get on here. Other sites seem more conducive to creativity. Blogspot seems more prosy boring.

I am enjoying teaching Thoreau and Emerson. Ideas have consequences and even though I generally disagree with the two authors, it has been so much fun talking about their ideas and the implications of those ideas. I want my students to think and evaluate. The students generally don't like the two authors, but it is good to get their reactions. The best responses are those who can sift through and find the good amongst the bad. People are rarely completely wrong, and you need to be able to separate the good from the bad. Separate what you do believe from what you don't believe.

OK

I think this pic from the back is very beautiful.

I love John's "smile" in this one. :-)

OK, I finally have pictures of the wedding. I had a wonderful time with my grandparents and at Kyle and Gretchen's wedding. It was so good to relax and be with my grandparents for a couple days. It was just me and them, and it was great. My grandma is doing well, and grandpa and I would stay up late watching TV and talking. They only have 4 channels, so we watched some interesting stuff. :-) Little things like watching a possum scrounge among the birdseed and eat the cat food grandpa tossed out. His little nose was just a twitchin' when he smelled the cat food. The wedding was beautiful. I didn't get a whole lot of pics, but I got some.