No Mythology course...

I've just received advance word about next year's teaching schedule. My Mythology course will not be running due to a low enrollment. Honestly, I'm not surprised. The course title sounds somewhat frivolous, especially for competitive students working hard to get into top colleges. At any rate, I'm somewhat relieved. I've also taken on a rather serious student for independent study which I know will be an intense time commitment. The student is interested in pursuing an interdisciplinary project which will encompass translation, literature, history and art. It will be a lot of work and I was questioning whether I would be able to take on two such demanding courses in addition to my regular load. Now, the question has been answered for me.

The day I get the BF to do this...

I'll be a very happy camper!

Can You Believe It?

It seems that the former first lady and mother of our current president, Barbara Bush, has donated a certain amount of money for the Katrina relief effort. Only, she has stipulated that the money she gives must go to her own son's software company. In Latin there's a saying: mala gallina, malum ovum, or "bad hen, bad egg." I believe we have a perfect example here. How is it that just about everyone involved in this administration is so thoroughly lacking in shame?

Finally!

Yes, it's true! The BF and I finally got to Trader Joe's at a time when the line was bearable and we could do a little shopping. Okay, so it was 9pm on Thursday evening and only losers (present!) were shopping. And, there was almost no stock left on the shelves. It felt like pre-Glasnost Russia.

Good things come...?

Today I went by Trader Joe's once again, a bit later in the evening, and damn! the line was longer than before. It's like word is spreading and things are getting worse (from my perspective) than they were before. Clearly, my quest for cheap, organic milk and chocolate-covered, frozen bananas will require patience and cunning...

BitchyCrocker

American Idol is ridiculous. Of the judges, Randy only makes comments like "Check it, dog! Dude, props to you! You in the doghouse, for real! Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!" Paula only says shit like "You are just amazing and I love you and everyone is in love with you!" Simon then gives an honest assessment of the competitors' talent, which everyone then boos. Concerning the competition, I struggle to understand why some of them are at the "top" of the list. Most are less remarkable than what you might hear at a karaoke bar. One, Kelly Pickler, stands out only for being inordinately stupid... I mean it, she may actually suck IQ points from those who stray too close to her.

Learned a new word today...

"Hooptie" as in a not so swank car, like a Yugo POS. Thanks, BebeMoche.

Still nothing from Trader Joe's

Dropped by late this afternoon... a line out the door. Okay, I want them to do well but I also want to be able to get inside and buy stuff without waiting for thirty minutes in the check out line. Is that really too much to ask?

Three things...

I had two simultaneous workouts today. One was the lifting to help develop my chest somewhat better. The other was sort of general, all-over exercise that occurred when I got frustrated with the fact that all the free weights were completely unorganized and I rearranged them... I'll call it my OCD workout. (Don't bother telling me to get over it.)

I realized today that it's been a while since there's been a clear trend in pop music. There's no TakeNBacksyncDegrees explosion, there's no Aguilimpsonspearsmoore cluster... I think the music-labels-that-be have dropped the ball.

How convenient would it be for the United States if the bullshit in Iraq were actually to be recognized as a civil war? I mean, it would be the perfect excuse to cut and run. I can just hear it now: "It's an internal dispute, we really have no business there and shouldn't be involved."

The Weekend that Trader Joe's came to Manhattan...

So this weekend has been:

a) Chaperoning the juniors' Semi-Formal (aka: Prom), a shocking reminder that many of these kids have parents who are high up the corporate ladder and Day-um! they know how to dress for an occasion! (So much more stylish than my Duckey-esque homecoming when I was in high school!)

b) Avoiding going out of doors during the celebration of pasty-white, heterosexual, alcoholic excess (aka: St. Patrick's day)... at least until a late movie, on the walk home from which we counted the beer-binge blossoms (aka: piles of puke)

c) Trying several times to get into Proof-that-God-Loves-Me (aka: Trader Joe's) which has been PACKED since the moment it opened. Seriously, I've been looking forward to this opening since I found out about it a couple of weeks ago. My family live all over the country and I'm the only one without a conveniently located Trader Joe's. I've felt kind of left out. Anyhow, all that has changed... sort of. The BF and I went Friday morning and it was already slammed with a huge crowd. The line for the check-out went around the entire store. A woman walking in behind me was so excited she let her New Yorker face drop and started talking about how if you're from the West Coast then the opening is really a big thing. We bonded before going our own ways. Unfortunately, as of Saturday evening, I still haven't bought anything there because crowds drive me fuckin' nuts. I'll have to wait until things calm down some, like Monday afternoon.

The rest of the weekend will be brunch and correcting quizzes. Yeah, I know you're jealous.

Not quite politically correct but...

I try to avoid jokes based on stereotypical images of marginalized demographics, but this is seriously the funniest blonde joke I have ever seen.

Que Lastima....

My mother has been invited to a wedding this fall in Tuscany. It's for the daughter of one of Mom's best friends and they have rented out a villa for a week, everything included for the invitees, day trips to Florence, etc. My mom has also asked the BF and me if we would like to accompany her. Her health's not as good as it used to be and she would like to have someone go with her. Also, we could travel through Rome and spend a couple of days touring the city. Unfortunately, there is little to no chance that I can go since I'll be working at that time and taking that much time off only happens in cases of emergency. After all, I certainly get enough time off during the rest of the year. Alas...

Almost as funny as a BebeMoche quip...

For BebeMoche...

In honor of her recent post, "The Pleasures of Dating."

Brand New BF!

Of course, I have no plans to break up with my significant other. I mean, we've got the blissful union and the eternal devotion, blah, blah, blah. But if SOMETHING might happen... and I'm not planning on it... but if something might, by chance, happen to upset our mutual joy, there's always Javy Lopez! Yummilicious!

Google does it again...

Finally! I have the appropriate tools to figure out where I'll buy that plot of land for retirement!

Birthday Bash Means Meeting Real Readers!

Last night was a gathering in honor of BebeMoche's day of birth. We took over a significant percentage of available space at Turks and Frogs (really not difficult since any space there is significant). I had the pleasure of meeting some of BebeMoche's friends, which also meant meeting people who have gotten to know my blog before knowing me. I gotta say, it was an odd thing to realize that it's not just BebeMoche and Alfredo who read this. But I feel okay about it now, knowing that I have now met my ENTIRE audience.

Are we building Borg?

In the Star Trek universe, the Borg, a community of humanoids enhanced by bionic body parts and all guided by a single hive mind, have been some of the most fearsome enemies of the humans and their intergalactic allies. They have been called the "ultimate evil" on the show. A couple of weeks ago our government announced that they plan to use neural implants to turn sharks into surveillance creatures, completely undetectable and able to monitor the movement (and who knows what else) of sea vessels. Okay, so we're creating a cyborg-shark. What I want to know is when are we going to create some of the "good" sci-fi stuff like food replicators or tractor beams or transporters? And don't any of the animal rights people feel that this is a bad precedent? What's next? The bionic bunny? The six million dollar snake?

Happy Birthday BebeMoche! (in two days)

We got our own Taliban a-brewin' right here in the good ol' US of A!

I better post something quick before Alfredo gets on me about it.

The week has been rather uneventful so I have little to share. The BF is back from a visit with the family and everything's settled again. I saw a woman on the subway who looked like a high-priced call girl and really bugged me with her obvious "I'm so hot!" attitude. One of my fellow teachers is having a rough week back from our trip, losing an extended family member and getting chicken pox in the space of three days. (She's the one I really started to like a lot more during the trip, too.) I guess that the biggest thing this week was that today I really went deep with some of my students. I had a period-long discussion with one class stemming from their bad experience with a new teacher from another department. They missed out on the lesson, but I felt like the discussion was more important. I listened to them, I shared with them details about my high school experience... it was a bit intense. In another class I had to discuss an infringement of the honor code with some students who have real potential but aren't realizing it. One in particular is clearly quite gifted but doesn't fit the "geek" mold at all, rather he's got a lot of rebel in him. I only hope that he can realize that being cool doesn't conflict with being brilliant. Lastly, I had a discussion with my favorite gay-boy student, (I have a number of students who are obviously gay, but I only really empathize with one of the boys and one of the girls, surprisingly). He felt like I was coming down on him more than others in the class when they all exhibit similar behavior and was upset with me. I felt awful because I recognize that I expect more of him than some of his classmates and that I am harder on him because of it. I tried to explain this to him but also apologized. I wanted him to know that I really think that he's exceptional and that I didn't mean to be unfair. Personally, I suppose that I also realize that I do have favorites and that he's one of mine. I try to treat them all equally, but the truth is that I really appreciate this student more than others and when he doesn't measure up to my expectations I can be harder on him than I would be on someone else. I really care about all of them, but I realize that when this one isn't being his best, it bothers me more than if it were someone else. ... I guess that the whole point of all this is that I clearly am emotionally invested in my students and some more than others. I'm concerned that I lose perspective when dealing with them because of this and that some are getting an unfair amount of attention and others are getting less. There are so many quiet girls that I really have to make an effort to connect with simply because they are so withdrawn. And it's hard to get Linda or Cheryl or Junte to talk when Eric and Guy and Zach are SO vocal and asking for attention. I just want to do right by all of them.

So that's the stuff that's floating in my stream of consciousness.