End of the year sports stories and the Tigers

As I begin to take stock of 2006 and look ahead to 2007, the thing that probably most stands out from this year is sports. 2006 was, by far, the most important sports year for me in nearly two decades, as my Detroit Tigers - the team I've lived and died by (mostly died) since I was ten years old - made it to the World Series after twelve straight years of losing seasons and a 19-year drought from any post-season play. It was an amazing season from a team without any stars, with tons of young players that will be good for years. Even though the end of the season was disappointing and a bit heartbreaking, it did not undo the immense joy that following the team brought me this year.

Most of the end-of-year sports stories I've seen in the last few days haven't highlighted the story of the Tigers like I think they should. They're a medium market team from the midwest, so any hopes of them being recognized properly were probably moot. Still, it was disappointing, for example, to see SI.Com's Top 26 Games of 2006 name seven baseball games out of the 26 (including its #1 selection, when Barry Bonds hit home run #715), none of them were Tigers games. The playoff game victory over the Athletics - with Magglio Ordonez's home run in the bottom of the 9th inning clinching the Tigers' first World Series appearance in 22 years - was the most memorable baseball game I've ever seen, and the fact that it didn't even rank above, say, a game between the Yankees and the Rangers on May 16 is just plain ludicrous.

All of this is to say that it's nice that at least The Onion is giving the Tigers some love:

Cardinals apologize for winning World Series

Here's an excerpt:
Calling Friday night's victory on baseball's grandest stage "a terrible mistake," members of the St. Louis Cardinals issued a formal apology for making the playoffs, winning the World Series, and depriving baseball fans everywhere of a season featuring the kind of heartwarming, storybook ending to which they have grown accustomed in recent years.

"I'm still struggling to understand how this could have happened," said a sober Tony La Russa during a press conference following Game 5. "It seemed all but certain coming into this series that we were going to be a part of something truly special, that we would easily put the finishing touches on a magical season that inspired millions of fans around the country, but instead we somehow ended up winning."

"It's disappointing, to say the least," La Russa added. "We were rooting for the Detroit Tigers just like everyone else."

Celebrity Death Game

The Rules:

For each person on your list that dies, you get 100 points. No points will be awarded nor taken away for anyone that doesn't die.

Each person who dies gets an additional point for every year younger than 75 years old. Similarly, for every year older 75 years old, you will be docked one point. So if a 50-year old dies, you would add 25 points, and if a 90-year-old dies, you would take off 15 points.

If your pick has a terminal illness or is in otherwise grave health as reported by the trustworthy world media as of the time of your pick, you lose 50 points. Fidel Castro, for example, would count for 50 points, since it is widely reported (and accepted) that he has terminal cancer. Someone like Terry Schiavo would be another example of someone who would cost you 50 points. Cases such as known heart disease will not count against you (e.g.: Dick Cheney)

To keep people from all picking the same people, you will be penalized 5 points for someone on your list appearing on another list. For example, if you and 6 other people pick, say, Adam Sandler, you would get 25 points deducted from your would-have been score.

And here are my picks. I have until 12:01 on Jan.1 to change them, if anyone has any ideas. I've mixed it up with some young (Whitney Houston) and old (Brooke Astor). Also, while I know there is a bit of a sick aspect to this game, it really pains me to put some of them on the list. I think Aretha is the greatest singer of the 20th century and that Joni Mitchell has written some of the best songs of the last fifty years.

My Picks

1. Farrah Fawcett

2. Aretha Franklin

3. Estelle Getty

4. Ladybird Johnson

5. Whitney Houston

6. John Goodman

7. Joni Mitchell

8. Harold Pinter

9. Jack Kervorkian

10. Elizabeth Taylor

11. Billy Graham

12. Brooke Astor

13. Dick Clarke

14. John Forsythe

15. Zsa Zsa Gabor


My Explanation

Fawcett has cancer. Franklin and Mitchell are fairly young, but both smoke like chimneys and Franklin is fat. Goodman is obese. Houston is messed up and could screw up. Pinter has cancer. So does Kervorkian. Taylor needs no explanation. Both Getty and Graham have Parkinson's. Astor is 104. Clarke looks pretty bad. Forsythe and Gabor have been sick.

The breaking down of winter break

This vacation has gone far too quickly. Somehow, it's Thursday night. Somehow, I have to drive back in about 36 hours. Where did the week go?

I'm really hoping I get a ton of work done tomorrow because I'm not going to be getting much done when I return. I work 9am-3am (that is not a typo) on New Years Eve, the biggest day for waiting tables that we have, then again at 9am on New Years Day for New Years Brunch.

The relentless calendar of Baltimore City Public Schools has crept its way nearly to the top of my gripes with it, just after the lack of a 12-month contract. Most school districts have a couple weeks off for the Christmas holiday. Each year since I've been teaching, they've given just the least amount of time necessary - usually one week. That, on top of not getting off many national holidays, such as Veterans Day or Columbus Day. I have no idea how, for example, St. Joseph Public Schools can start after Labor Day, have two weeks off at Christmas, and still get out on May 31. I could really use a bit more time this year, which has been my hardest working year so far.

By the same token, I wonder what the chances are of us getting Tuesday, Jan. 2 - the Gerald Ford National Day of Mourning, during which all federal offices are closed - off from school? I've actually been googling relentlessly to see if school might be cancelled that day.

Gerald Ford dead at 93

The pride of Grand Rapids, MI, has died. Looks like I'll be in southwest Michigan for the first week of mourning. I've always wanted to go to the Gerald Ford Museaum, and honestly was thinking about doing it tomorrow, but now it will look like I'm a bandwagon jumper.

Ford lived 93 years and six months, the longest any former President has ever lived. I've always found him a dignified, witty man, and of course he's loved in these parts as the hometown hero. He's also from a completely different era in politics, where a pretty conservative Republican can appoint someone like liberal John Paul Stevens to the Supreme Court.

Betty Ford confirmed his death at 11:49 EST, and, now, at 12:02am, it's already on Wikipedia, those quick bastards.

My I'm-going-to-hell moment: Gerald Ford was first on my 2007 Celebrity Death Pool. Now I'll have to change my picks around.

By the way, since most of the news sites are running those April 2006 (taken during a visit with the current President) photos of Pres. Ford - looking pale, wan, and every single one of his 93 years - I thought I'd remind everyone that he was once a cover model, was a star football and basketball player for the University of Michigan, and this is his senior photo at Grand Rapids High School:

The drive back to Michigan on Christmas Eve proceeded without a hitch. I left at around 9:30am, and arrived in South Haven, MI, at around 8:30pm. Holden slept the whole way. I got my usual Sheetz egg sandwich in the morning, had a couple of BK Veggie Burgers in the afternoon, and had a whole box of hot tamales in the evening to stay alert. The whole time, I listened to Barack Obama's first book, Dreams of My Father, which was pretty amazing. I can't believe I still get choked up when I hear his DNC speech, which I still think is the best speech since "I Have a Dream." The second half of it is here. I'm about ready to donate to a "Draft Obama" campaign. The more I hear him, the more I know about him, the more I'm sure that not only is he the one that can win 2008, but he's the one who should win it. And I like Hillary, too. She's just no Obama.



Christmas Day was nice. I hope it never changes - the gifts that still say they're from Santa, the stuffing of the stockings after the other folks have gone to bed, the egg casserole for breakfast. I got a couple of gift cards, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope, and a clock that gives the temperature both inside and outside.

Today, I tooled around South Haven, for a bit, then headed to Thirsty Perch for a drink with an old friend. Later, I stopped a the South Beach and watched the waves hitting the pier and the lighthouse for a bit. Lake Michigan seems angry today, without any ice or snow to give it any respite this winter so far. It looked a lot like this:

Expecting?

Last night, I visited a friend I hadn't seen in several weeks, and, there, I discovered the happy news that she is expecting. The knowledge came when I walked in the door, and saw her slender figure turn to the side, revealing her large belly, a fact she accentuated it by motioning her hands around it like a crystal ball.

The thing is, it took me a split moment to realize what she was telling me, because for the first second or so, while I intellectually noticed her large stomach, I thought she was just intentionally protruding it to comment on my own expanding stomach. The night before, I had purchased my first pair of pants in my new, hopefully temporary, size. It's hard to believe that just three years ago, my waist was 32 inches.

It's all a good motivation to get to the gym this morning before some last minute shopping.

Dreamgirls

Many of my students are buzzing about Dreamgirls; I heard at least four times today that their Christmas Day plans were to go see it on its Opening Day. I haven't though too much of it. I don't generally like musicals, thought Chicago was alright but certainly didn't deserve the Best Picture Oscar.

But in doing my daily surfing of Slate, their front page article is called The Greatest Song Ever Filmed, and discusses the apparent show-stopping moment of the film, when Jennifer Hudson belts out a song called "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going." I listened to the song, and it's good, particularly at the end, but then I followed their link to the Tony Awards performance of the number by the creator of the role, Jennifer Holliday.

It made my hair stand on end. If Hudson does half the job that Holliday does with this scene, she'll have done well. And I liked the repartee at the beginning, too.

I've got to put that one on my list to see soon, that's for sure.

Here it is:

I'll have the energy to be happy about winter vacation tomorrow

I'm sure you don't want to read about a teacher complaining about only getting a week off the holidays, but it's a big bummer - I could use two full weeks. I've worked my butt off this year and this week really made me feel it. I was cheerful for most of the day - my kids and I had our Secret Snowflake gift exchange (one girl got me a couple of ties, another baked me a cake, another gave me a bottle of sparkling cider, and another a Barnes & Noble gift certificate) - but by the end of it, I'm sure you would have been able to smell the fumes if you came near my desk.

To top it off, I spent $702 on books yesterday for my students for their winter break reading. Most buy them from me, but most forgot their money today because they missed yesterday for the holiday assembly, and therefore I'm really broke. They had to fill out IOUs, which usually aren't a big deal, but of course they are when it's the holidays and I just paid my $1300 tuition bill to Towson.

Worse yet, I'm pretty sure several books got stolen at the end of the day from my classroom. I scoured the room for them with no luck at the end of the day, and a bunch of people were going in and out. I'm hoping someone accidentally picked them up and will return them to me on Monday. That's a lot of money that I would have lost, on top of a lot of money I'm just without for the holidays.

I've decided to drive home on Christmas Eve instead of tomorrow. There's just no reason to rush, and it will be nice to go to the gym and clean the house tomorrow, and not have to go insane getting everything together. I've got a twelve-hour drive in front of me, and that bad winter storm seems to be heading to Michigan, so the drive might be brutal. Better to put it off one more day when the roads might be clear.

I'm just exhausted. I think I'm going to go to bed right now and forego everything else tonight.

Hecticness

It's been a whirlwind of a couple of days. After the play on Tuesday night, I looked forward to a quiet night in on Wednesday night, cleaning the house and awaiting my journey back to Michigan on Saturday. However, a good friend came back from Costa Rica, where she's been teaching this year, and of course that meant a trip to her (and pretty much my) favorite haunt, The Brewer's Art. Some garlic and rosemary fries and a goat cheese, and three Resurrections later, it was 9pm and I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open.

Today at school was our holiday program, where our legendary choir performed. I don't know why they don't do it on the last day before holidays - oddly, I think it's actually because they're afraid too many kids will miss school that day because it's so close to break - because it really disrupts the school day and makes the day crazy. Tomorrow, the day before the break, will also be crazy, so this creates two days of chaos.

[I don't mean to complain about the choir too much. They were awe-inspiring.]

In addition, my smarty pants Juniors are spreading rumors that suggest that aforementioned colleague from Costa Rica and I are in a feud. I'm teaching her former students, and today one of them came to me and said, "Is it true that (she) read all the commentaries and said she couldn't believe that you were teaching us this way and that she's going to teach the class for a week?" It couldn't be farther from the truth, but it still stings, because (a) I wear my heart on the sleeve with the kidsabout this new course that I'm teaching, explaining all my thinkings and uncertainties and trainings with them, and I feel like it bit me in the rear end just then; (b) she is an awesome teacher, but totally different than me; and (c) I'm working probably harder than I ever have in my life right now.

I cleaned my classroom and did a lot of work after school today, and now I'm off to buy gifts for five students for our "Secret Snowflake" celebration in all my classes tomorrow. I also will spend several hundred dollars on books that I hope the kids remember to bring me $ for tomorrow.

With all this in my mind, I'm awfully excited about my week off. My goals include reading a book per day and watching at least two seasons of The Wire, because my friend just got all of season 4 on bootleg and is having a Wire party when we return in January, and I've got to be caught up. I know, I know, I'm a bad person.

After the hecticness of the last two days, though, it was great to come home to the following message in my inbox, with the subject "Best Hanukkah Ever.":

I just want to share with you the best Hanukkah present I have ever
received in my life. I just sit down to look through this 430-page
novel for the best quotation to properly demonstrate a sacrilegious
motif in the House of the Spirits. I must have spent five minutes (it
usually takes thirty), and frustrated, I threw the book at the wall.

It fell open on page 87. Do you know what's on page 87? Nothing really,
only a quotation in which Ferula says the rosary for members of the
tenements, who spit on her and throw bedpans in her face. That sounds
pretty sacrilegious to me.

It seems as if God has given me this great Hanukkah gift. They say
Hanukkah is the holiday where miracles come true. I just wanted to let
you know.


I'm probably going to that hell for teachers who post e-mails from students on their blog, but that's okay. It cheered me up, and it will probably cheer you up, too.

The Boys of Syracuse @ Center Stage / The Mediocre Russian Restaurant @ The Belvedere / The tired teacher @ the front of the classroom

So busy. Last night was the holiday party at the restaurant, where I gave away a really nice gift (Office Space deluxe edition plus White Chicks, two underrated comedies for very different reasons, though I'm not sure Office Space can really be called underrated anymore since everyone likes it) to someone I didn't know at all. A friend of a co-worker, just brought along for the ride. However, I was able to get myself $15 gift certificate to Soundgarden. Not that it's about getting stuff, of course; it was great to see all my co-workers and hang out, even though my old teacher ass had to go home before the clock struck midnight. Since the party started at 10pm, that didn't leave much time, but I sure was beat.

Tonight was a similarly long and commitment-filled day. I'm a grading fool lately, and graded during every spare moment today, then straight on from 3:10 dismissal all the way to 6:05pm, when I left to meet friends at Red Square, the new Russian restaurant in the basement of the Belvedere. Tonight was our montly Center Stage gathering, where we head to a restaurant beforehand then head off to the play.

I found the restaurant to be pretty mediocre. I was immediately struck by the smelliness of it when I walked in; there wasn't anyone smoking, but the place just reaked. Later, when almost everyone at the only other table in the place started smoking, I realized there was no "No Smoking" section, and that must have been why it stunk like stale cigarette smoke. The food was alright, although nothing really great for vegetarians, even fake ones. The smoked fish platter was pretty good, but the borsht seemed more like dull minestrone, and the cabbage salad was boring. To top it all off, the place was distractingly bright, with several children running around, and an obnoxiously loud big screen TV playing Russian music throughout all of dinner. At one point, the reception began to fail, and no one did anything about it.

Luckily, the play was much better. It was a musical, which I usually hate, but this one - The Boys of Syracuse - was hilarious and well-performed. I was consistently entertained for almost the entire 2:45 running time. Yup, it was long and probably could have used a couple of cuts, but also just really entertaining. Center Stage is really having a bang-up season, offering an incredible production of Chekov's Three Sisters and a solid rendition of Dorfman's Death and the Maiden, and now this. Awesome.

I can't believe that it's 11:37, though, and I don't have a solid lesson plan for my sophomores tomorrow yet, nor do I have a dish to pass for tomorrow's English teacher book exchange and potluck. I'm going to hit the sack now and worry about it in the morning. Just too tired to do much else.

The School CEO

I tottered into the school office this morning to sign in, my coffee not yet fighting off the Ny-Quill I took last night to fend off the remnants of the cold that won't quite go away. My Assistant Principal looked at me and smiled, then told me, "By the way, Mr. _________, I wanted to let you know that the School CEO (re: the superintendent) will be visiting your classroom this morning. Please spread the word that she's only going to visit English classrooms."

Well, isn't that just a joy?

Turns out that all that happened was a quick walk-through, during my planning period, so all I had to do was smile and wave out into the hallway at the unassuming woman who has the toughest education job in the nation.

Only four more days.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and River

In Aimee Mann's new Christmas music CD, she changes the lyrics of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" from "until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow" to "hang a star upon the highest bow." She wasn't the one to change it first, obviously, but it's disappointing that such a talented artist - especially one not known for being a shiny, happy person - decided to change it. That lyric change completely detracts from the power of that song, and frankly ruins what is my favorite Christmas song. I believe it was Frank Sinatra who originally wanted to make the song more "upbeat." (The song has an interesting history, and the original songwriter, Hugh Martin, is still alive at 92.)

I don't know Judy Garland except for The Wizard of Oz and her strange celebrity daughter, but she does a version of that song that just gives me goosebumps. Throughout the song, her voice sounds ragged at times, but soaring above it all at others. Her phrasing is beautiful. But it's at that lyric - "until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow" - that makes me want to drive to Michigan and give my mom a hug. This song is one of the saddest I've ever heard, but it's also brimming with hope. I love it. It's down below. I guess it was in a movie first?

The other song I'm obsessed with lately is "River." Every year, someone new covers it, and this Joni Mitchell masterpiece is becoming probably her most famous. It's an incredible song, full of English teacher things I like - an extended central metaphor, a central irony (or is it paradox? I always just let the kids argue) - and places where a singer can really go nuts with range. In recent years, I've heard versions of this song by the Indigo Girls (just Emily singing, it's simple and beautiful), Travis (the lead singer's ability to hit the notes is impressive, a very nice job), Sarah McLachlan (she's got a great voice, of course, but she doesn't do fragility well), Madeline Peyroux (in a duet with kd lang, she slows it down a little too much for me), Robert Downey, Jr. (oddly, probably my favorite cover of it, perhaps because his singing of it makes it sound like it's about drug addiction), Peter Mulvey (he sort of growls through it, it's pretty cool), Michelle Branch (this was pretty awful), and James Taylor (he's respectful, but boring - and I don't like his voice). On Youtube, I just found someone named Allison Crowe, who seems to do a pretty nice job with it. That's the youtube below.

Both of these songs are very similar in theme - they're about Christmas, and the dark times that come with the season, but also about how to get through them. Oddly, I'm almost always joyful during Christmas - I really do love the season - but these two songs resonate.

Other current favorites of this Christmas season: Otis Redding's incredible "White Christmas", Sarah McLachlan's cover of John Lennon's "Happy X-Mas (War is Over)", the Jackson 5's "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and Johnny Cash's "Blue Christmas."

Judy Garland singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas":



Allison Crowe singing "River" by Joni Mitchell:

I'm the Time Magazine Person of the Year

If you haven't heard, I'm the Time magazine person of the year. I've busted my ass for this, and it's long overdue.

You are Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for the explosive growth and influence of user-generated Internet sites such as YouTube, Facebook and MySpace. You were chosen over Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, North Korea's Kim Jong Il and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Congratulations.

I don't really feel honored to be chosen over that group.

However, any award I share with Jim Leyland, Paul Thomas Anderson, Harper Lee, and Barack Obama can't be all that bad.

The weekend

I did end up taking a sick day on Thursday. I have 15 for the year - I just found that out; I always thought it was 10 - and it was my first of the last two years. In six years of teaching, I think I've probably taken about eight days total, with half coming during the double emergency eye surgeries of November 2003. Yes, I'm bragging a bit. My sick day record is something I'm proud of.

Thursday I felt shitty for much of the day, but suddenly felt better in the afternoon. I guess it was one of those 24-hour bugs. I'm still feeling a bit iffy, but this little cold seems to have peaked Wednesday afternoon/Thursday morning. I rarely get sick, so I become sort of fascinated by the trajectory of a virus when I catch one.

Stupidly, I went out drinking on Friday afternoon, after being back to school for one day. However, it's the holidays, and everyone is feeling festive, and the prospect of the last happy hour of 2006 loomed, so I went. And it was fun, as we spent several hours at Thirsty Dog after starting out at No Way Jose Cafe.

During the day on Saturday, I had an MRI on my shoulder. Having an MRI was as bad as I thought it would be, but for a different reason. It wasn't the claustrophobia or the feeling that I was laying in a coffin that got to me. I could deal with that - just shut my eyes. I was prepared. But it was the noise, the jackhammer right next to my ear that I hated. And the fact that I had no idea when one cycle began or ended, so when the lady said, "Only two more to go!" I had no idea how much that was. Now, I have an envelope full of MRI film of my shoulder, and hopefully I can get an appointment with my doctor before the holidays.

One of my good friends, Zack, had a Christmas party on Saturday night. I put in the request to have the night off at the restaurant over two weeks ago, but, for the first time ever, I was not granted a request. See, Zack also worked at the restaurant, and a few other people requested to have the night off, and they needed me there. After all, I'm one of just three with the key. So I stopped off afterwards and had a nightcap before heading off to bed last night. It was a bummer that I missed some of my old friends from the restaurant who had come and gone already, but it was good to see the ones I got to see.

I just got back from a brunch shift. I made $76 last night, and about $30 today - a pretty shitty haul for two prime shifts. I guess people just aren't into going out to eat this time of year. Or maybe it's just the restaurant where I work, which isn't near major shopping or anything like that.

I don't work again there until New Year's Eve. That will feel good.

I need to take a nap.

Sick and Shoulder

I'm feeling so sick that I might actually take my first sick day in a couple of years tomorrow. I've even cleaned up my classroom and made emergency sub plans just in case, though I'm going to try to Ny-Quil Bomb this thing and see how I feel in the morning.

This is a bummer, because I'm pretty sure I'll have to have surgery this year on my shoulder and might have to miss a couple of days then. I have an MRI on Saturday, my first ever, and hopefully it will reveal a cause to all the pain I've felt there since baseball season. I'll actually feel pretty silly if it ends up that I have nothing structurally wrong with it, because I've tried everything physical I can think of or read about to make it feel better. Since nothing's worked, I'm pretty much hoping it's a torn labrum or something like that, so I can at least figure out what's wrong and get it fixed up before March 1 roles around and I have to start throwing BP again.

If I have to have surgery, the Hopkins doctor I go to also works for the Orioles. That would be cool. Having surgery by the same guy who operated on, say, Eric Bedardd be a thrill, other than the shots and the pain and the cutting into my body and all that.

Giving away stuff for free on Craig's List

I get myself into pretty strange situations sometimes. I was sitting with colleagues after school today, when my phone rang, and a man with a very thick middle-eastern accent told me that he was on the way to pick up my bed. As my friends overheard my one-sided conversation to this stranger I could barely understand and how I gave him instructions how to get to my house, what time, and how big the bed was, I could see that this would take some explaining.

You see, since I'm moving shortly - I think and hope, even though I have no place yet - I'm trying to simplify a little bit. Reading a lot of Thoreau with my sophomores helps. The first two pieces of furniture to go were the futon and the 2nd bed. I have a futon I've only used for house concerts, and since there are no more house concerts, at least for the forseeable future, I decided to get rid of it. I also have a bed that hasn't been used since the last set of roommates moved out, and it's just sort of sitting there. It's kind of a hunk of junk, but it's usable, so I decided to give it away.

Let me tell you, Craig's List is the best place to give away stuff. I wasn't interested in selling them, really, because I couldn't vouch much for the quality of either and I didn't pay for either anyway, and for someoneto just take them off my hands would be something I'd be thankful for. I posted the futon last night at around 7, and by 7:10, I had my first e-mail, and by 8:00, I had fifteen e-mails, and by 8:30, a kid living in Canton and I were loading it into the back of his hatchback. Easy as that.

The king-sized bed, in mediocre condition, wasn't much tougher to give away. The aforementioned middle-eastern man turned out to be a doctor assigned to a hospital in the area, who just moved to Baltimore on Monday. He came, and we crammed the bed into his packed-full U-Haul a couple of hours ago.

Class was great today. Getting to know Huck again after all this time is a lot of fun. Some kids even laughed today.

My built in bullshit detector doesn't work for my own writing

I have used a variation on this sentence for nearly every academic paper I've ever written:

However, the significance of curriculum evaluation cannot be underemphasized.

Sometimes, the verb is "underestimated."

Sometimes, the opening word is "Indeed," or "Fortunately," or "Consequently,".

Sometimes, the noun is "importance" or "prevalence."

But that damn sentence remains, in all its prosaic, mediocre glory.

Sunday update

1. The date went well. She's got potential. She's got two jobs like I do, though, and the next time we can see each other is next Sunday.

2. Peter's Inn is one of the coolest, funkiest little restaurants I've ever been to. And the meal I had was the best meal I've had in a long time - rockfish over red cabbage.

3. I've spent much of this weekend writing the boring paper on the face of this earth. I'm trying to hard to get into it, but just can't.

4. I went Christmas shopping this morning to Marshall's, where three of my former students apparently work. Marshall's is the only place I ever buy underwear, and I hadn't been there in a few months, but I decided to put away the underwear I had in my cart because I'm certainly not going to have Chantel ring up my underwear for me.

5. Here's an idea: it's December, how about some snow? Sheesh, I want a snow day.

vacation from my life

I'm trying to hold on to my favorite moment today: My sophomores' project was to design a high school based on the Transcendentalist philosophy of Emerson and Thoreau. Each group member had a different task (academics, discipline, extracurriculars, and physical structure). I didn't make up the project, but it worked wonderfully, really assessing whether the kids understood transcendentalists. Today was their presentation day.

It made me so happy to sit there and listen to them. One girl said, "And the teachers at our school will just make up everything off the top of their head, because, as Emerson said, you need to "Trust thyself," so they emphasized individualism and we want our teachers to do the same." It was cute. I smiled. I smiled when the kids talked about their discipline systems (send them in the woods and make them get otu together, that sort of thing), and their academic classes, and I was beaming for much of class. Finally, a girl stopped her presentation and said, "Stop laughing at me, Mr. ______!" and I just said, "I'm not laughing, I'm just really happy listening to you present," and they all thought I was lying ("Aww, look, now he's trying to get out of it!"), but I wasn't.

That was the highlight of my day, though. I've been working so hard lately that I jetted out of school as soon as the last kid left out my room at 4 o'clock and took a little vacation from my life. I went home, changed, and headed to Target, where I did some Christmas shopping. Then, I had a great 90-minute workout at the gym. It was, for all intents and purposes, my first workout of the week, and I needed it so badly. My energy levels have been depleted, and I've been in a bad mood for a couple of days now. I'm working very hard, so hard that I'm beginning to wonder what it is - why I haven't figured out this grading thing a little bit better (not all teachers work 12-14 hours a day) in my six years of teaching, about how direct the relationship is between student learning and my efforts. I love teaching because of the relationships I have with the kids, and seeing them learn, and also the practice of planning units and lessons. I need to figure out this grading thing a little better, though.

A solitary vacation away from school and away from people for a few hours from my normal routine is all I needed tonight, though. I'm ready to head back there tomorrow now.

Wednesday Night List of Six

1. Watched A Dirty Shame tonight, and can't believe how much I liked it. The reviews were decidedly mixed, and I wasn't that excited to see it. But I figured I should, especially since I live right off of Harford Road, where much of the film is set. And, wow, it had some hilarious lines and great scenes. I think John Waters is sometimes more silly than funny, and there were touches of that, but all was forgiven during that Hokey Pokey scene. Wow. Tracey Ullman was awesome.

2. I don't have any energy tonight at all. I had hoped for a triumphant return to the gym this week in the mornings, but haven't made it yet in the morning, and my afternoon workouts have been non-existent or poor. I still can't get into the YMCA. I go there and can't spend more than 20 minutes there. I usually can jump into a new gym - when I'm vacation or something - with no problem, but there's something about that one that is holding me back. I usually drive all the way up to the Towson Bally's just to go up there, but I've been really bored there lately, too. I need to zap my routine.

3. What happened to there being good things to watch on Thursday nights? I flipped on the TV somewhere in the 8 o'clock hour, and the networks were showing all game shows or reality TV. There are a bunch of shows on television right now that it seems like I'd really be into if I could devote the time to watch them - Lost, Heroes, Prison Break, the medical show everyone talks about - but every time I try to give the networks a shot, they let me down. Thank goodness for Netflix, which still exceeds my expectations. Sent in three movies I watched this weekend on Monday, received three crisp new ones tonight - Pecker (I'd seen this years ago but not since I moved to Baltimore), A Dirty Shame (discussed above), and Donnie Darko.

4. I had the confrontation with the plagiarism girl today. Called home first. The mother was astounded and disappointed. This was good, because sometimes we get students or parents who have this, "Oh, he just must be uptight about that," when the sort of plagiarism that this girl engaged in could probably have her expelled from a university. The girl acted like it wasn't a big deal when I took her to the office and wrote her up. I told her how disappointed I was in her and how it would take a lot to regain my trust. She shrugged her shoulders and looked the other way.

5. The Lighting of the Monument is tomorrow night. I'm just not that into it this year. It'd been my thing every year, and I'm just not feeling it. Too tired. Too crowded. Too busy. Too stressed. Too close to the weekend. Too many excuses, I know.

6. I have a first date Friday night with a woman I met from Match.com. If I was in a better mood, I'd be more excited. I guess I've got to get into a good mood about it. I'm just working way too hard right now and not taking care of myself. She seems cool, though. Her first name reminds me of a Margaret Cho skit where her nurse tells her, "Hello, my name is ______ and I'm here to wash your vagina." I'm lucky enough to work with someone who caught that reference. I'd YouTube it, but it's towards the middle of a 7-minute clip and just not worth it. Anyone who likes to laugh a lot should just rent The Notorious C.H.O..

Worth

As someone who is not a parent, I don't make the connection with the James Kim story that I think a lot of people make. However, I've been thinking a lot lately about life and death. I'm not sure why, but I spend a lot of time on Wikipedia looking at how people spend their last years, and read about somewhat famous people like Pat Dobson or Josh Clayton-Felt, guys who were diagnosed with cancer and died within a day (Dobson) or a couple of months (Clayton-Felt), or watch a film like United 93, and wonder if something like that could happen to me, which obviously it could. It could, obviously, happen anytime. And I spend a lot of time wondering if I've been living right, if my life has had enough meaning if something like that were to happen. James Kim spent 35 years on this planet. His early death robbed him of 40 or 50 years here, and that sucks. And it robs his wife and kids of a father for all that time. But it is impossible for me to think of a more noble way to die than the way he died. His life and his death had profound meaning. His grandkids and his great-grandkids who he'll unfortunately never meet will hear about their brave relative who gave his life to save his family. That's pretty amazing. In 40 years, it won't seem so sad; it will seem like the most noble thing possible.

13 hour day

I stayed at school until 8 o'clock for an Open House for prospective middle school students who are deciding where to go to high school. I had eight students there with me, and many were the same eight kids that I was tearing my hair out about yesterday - the whiners, the bitchers, the moaners. And there they were, tonight, holding court in my classroom, telling these prospective parents and students how much they had learned and were learning, about how the curriculum has broadened their mind, about how now dreams of going to college in Australia or Harvard may be realized, about how the literature allows them to see beyond the "narrow confines of Baltimore" (direct quote from student, by the way), about how much work they and the teachers put into their learning. It was simply amazing. I literally got goosebumps.

As soon as the parents left, they were back to being the grade-grubbing flakes they usually are, but it was still nice to see. And equally nice to leave the school afterwards, when three of them came up to me and said, "Would you like to be involved in our conversation that consists only of questions?" and once I got a feel for it, it actually was kind of fun. But I lost.

At Safeway, I found myself behind Kendall, a kid I coached four years ago before he transferred to another school (and apparently grew two feet and worked out every day). He beat us with a grand slam in extra innings last year - we were up 15-11 going into the last inning, and he beat us - and we laughed about that, then we went our separate ways.

What a good day. I like teaching.

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper (frost)

Sometime after grades are calculated and my MAT credit is safely stashed on my transcript, I'll share with you what a horrible graduate student I am. I'm not even sure if I'm going to get away with it. And I'm not talking about cheating or anything like that - just aggressive mediocrity combined with minimal effort.

You can also expect a searing indictment of the course, and perhaps about the Towson MAT program in general. But that's probably way too soon. I loved one of my courses this summer, and like the other one. This one, though, is really bad. Not only is the subject matter and readings a disappointment (and, frankly, a waste of money), but I don't like that there are only two high school teachers, and that the discussions all lean towards the primary grades. Ugh! Give me something I can use! It's unbelievable that I'm paying over $1000 to take this course so I can retain my certification. No wonder I can't buy a fucking house or pay off my summer credit cards.

To top it off, it was a terrible day in school today. Ninth period just whined, whined, whined, and effectively stole the mantle - at least temporarily - from 3rd period as my least favorite class. It doesn't help that there's (almost) 40 of them. They plan horribly and wonder why it's stressful all at once.

On the plus side, my sophomores are putting together a Transcendentalist High School as part of their final assessment for the Emerson/Thoreau Unit and it's shaping up to be one of the finest assignments/projects this year. One kid is on Academics, on on Extracurriculars, one on Discipline, and one on the Building. It's a lot of fun to walk around and hear their imaginative thoughts on it. My favorite of the day was a girl who made a Referral Slot with the following for the teacher to check-off: "Using Technology", "Complicating Matters", "Wearing what someone else is wearing" and I can't remember the fourth, but it was similarly clever.

Not a total loss. Back to Unit Planning. I'm working my ass off right now.

Damn Sparknotes

Damn Sparknotes, and damn them for being forward-thinking enough to include The House of the Spirits, and damn my students for thinking they can get away with sentences like, "The el Valle and Trueba families represent the land-owning, upper-class criollos." I mean, what in the hell is a "criollo"? And, you should see tha progression of my comments, starting off innocently with just underlining the word, putting a question mark, then reading on, and finally realizing that the reason this word has been used is because this student has just cheated. I wrote, "I found your source... Sparknotes.com... See me... Zero."

United 93

Because I'm a guy who knows how to have a good time, I just spent my Saturday night staying in, grading papers, and watching United 93, the acclaimed film about the doomed 9/11 flight.

The movie was very well made. Much like a good production of Romeo and Juliet, it had me believing that there could be a happy ending even with the inevitable tragedy at the end. It honored the victims, and captured the chaos of the day. I also watched the extras, complete with interviews with the victims' families, and how the filmmakers checked in with the families of the victims before making the film.

I'm still trying to figure out what human instinct in me decided that I really wanted to relive the darkest day of my lifetime. Some sort of healing?

The only distracting part of the movie was probably only distracting for me, whose eyes were glued to a television set for much of the first half of the 1990s. But, during the chaotic scenes on the airplane, I could have sworn I saw Fay from the airport sitcom Wings. I kept trying to catch a glimpse of her for the rest of the film, and saw her a few more times, and I thought it was strange, or maybe a little ironic, that someone who starred in an airport sitcom would now be in this devastating film about an airplane, but then I realized that the percentage of people who recognize Patricia Schull is probably very low. But, still... distracted.

A very sad movie.

Blood test results

When I was 22, my Cholesterol was a horrible 248. Since then, I lost 110 lbs, then gained 40 of it back, but haven't had any blood works done. Until last week.

My doctor called me with the results of my blood tests yesterday, telling me to call her back after 8pm. I wasn't planning on it, but I was several hours into a Happy Hour at Ale Mary's by that point, but still called her back.

My blood count is excellent. My urine is "wonderful". My blood nutrients are perfect, "despite" (her words) my vegetarianism. My cholesterol is 202, which is a bit high, but she's not concerned.

However, my Triglyceride tests are very high. 220. Over 150 is bad.

The prescription is exactly what I've known I should be doing for several months now. This 3-or-4 workouts a week doesn't cut it. Neither does all the crap I eat (such as my two pieces of Boston Cream Pie on Tuesday during someone's birthday). I've got to get smart again. I've got to work out every single day. If I don't, I'm heading to an early grave. Having a Triglyceride count of 220 at age 29 is pretty sucky, and will only get worse if my lifestyle doesn't change:

Triglyceride is fat in the blood which, if elevated, has been associated with heart disease, especially if over 500 mg. High triglycerides are also associated with pancreatitis. Triglyceride levels over 150 mg/dl may be associated with problems other than heart disease. Ways to lower triglycerides: 1) weight reduction, if overweight; 2) reduce animal fats in the diet: eat more fish; 3) take certain medications your physician can prescribe; 4) get regular aerobic exercise; 5) decrease alcohol and sugar consumption—alcohol and sugar are not fats, but the body can convert them into fats then dump those fats into your blood stream 6) restrict calories - carbohydrates are converted to triglycerides when eaten to excess.

This week, I ran four miles on Saturday, worked out for an our on Sunday, for an hour on Monday, then skipped Tuesday and Wednesday, had a marginal workout on Thursday, and skipped Friday. That's par for the course for the last few months. That's why. That's what I have to change.