Blind Dates

So my seventeen year old friend Vince decided it would be nice to set me up with his Latin teacher. "Kate Kepler, it just rolls of your tongue." So he arranged it and I got the phone call tonight.

"Hello, Kate."
"Yes."
"My name is JK and I have a student who I think you know, Vincent. He gave me a list of things to ask you..."
Does it sound like a scavenger hunt yet?
"Vincent's clever isn't he."
"Well he's not doing too well in my class right now, I'm not sure if this is an attempt to endear himself to me or not."

That was a real winner of a line... but he can hold a conversation on the phone, which makes him better than the deaf guy someone set me up with. Not that I have anything against the deaf. We just don't have much to talk about.

As for Vince's grade, I think his parents give him money for anything over a C. I think I should get a cut.

The Kickball Team

Mz. Borden

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.

In other news for the first time in 25 years I've done something that Matt approved of. He didn't turn it around with some dry snide remark. He gave me a hug. It caught me off guard. Go me.

Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone and once again nine days of not working a) make me think that I need a vocational change and b) make me glad I have nine days of not working.

It was a good break and I'm headed into Monday with a monstrous project draft due, no good lesson plan for government class (I'm feeling so uninspired) this whole week... which is ok because someone seemed to think it was a good idea to take all the seniors out on field trips all week long. I did do a bunch of stuff though - I hung out with the surrogate family and the blood family and didn't go to the Renaissance Festival. I bought toilet paper, made cookie dough, played trivia games for 10 hours, tried to write up Christmas shopping lists, held a game night, and spent a lot of time in prayer.

I need a job that doesn't require me to spend my free time thinking about it, cause I've got other stuff I should be doing too... stuff that shouldn't have to wait until my next long vacation. Which, by the way, is in three weeks.

Trivia Towns

Cities Large and Small Battle It Out to Lay Claim for Having the Smartest People in the Country

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 7, 2006--Los Angeles, home to starlets, surfers and brainiacs? The team that tabulates the results of the new Trivial Pursuit(R) mobile game today revealed the ten highest scoring area codes in the U.S., with L.A. leading the pack. From Hollywood to the Big Apple, Capitol Hill and the Great Lakes, cities large and small from all over the country battle it out to lay claim for having the smartest people in the country.

Area codes graduating at the top of their Trivial Pursuit mobile game class are(a):

1. 323, Los Angeles, CA

2. 917, New York, NY

3. 703, Washington, DC

4. 281, Houston, TX

5. 617 Boston, MA

6. 510, Oakland, CA

7. 302, Wilmington, DE

8. 414, Milwaukee, WI

9. 949, Irvine, CA

10. 614, Columbus, OH

Waiting on the World to Change

me and all my friends
we're all misunderstood
they say we stand for nothing and
there's no way we ever could
now we see everything that's going wrong
with the world and those who lead it
we just feel like we don't have the means
to rise above and beat it

so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it's hard to beat the system
when we're standing at a distance
so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
now if we had the power
to bring our neighbors home from war
they would have never missed a Christmas
no more ribbons on their door
and when you trust your television
[ these lyrics found on completealbumlyrics.com ]
what you get is what you got
cause when they own the information, oh
they can bend it all they want

that's why we're waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it's not that we don't care,
we just know that the fight ain't fair
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

and we're still waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting waiting on the world to change
one day our generation
is gonna rule the population
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

Limited English Proficient

Every now and then one of my bilingual kids says something really funny. Today was perhaps the oddest.

"Miss, last night I dreamt with you."
"Dreamt with me, Angel?"
'Yeah I dreamt with you."
I smiled and nodded. "I don't think so, Angel."
"I did, I dreamt you killed someone."
"You dreamt of me, you didn't dream with me."
"No I... Oh yeah." Blushes.

So I figure I can be the County Clerk or something. Can't be that hard. Even Rhodes said he'd vote if I ran. Or at least say he voted to make me feel better.

I think I'm going to be $20 richer by the end of the night.
:-)

Guy Fawkes

Guy Fawkes Day is a funny celebration.

It is a funny celebration because, in reality, we are celebrating a foiled plot. Guy Fawkes was caught, Parliament wasn't bombed and then he and his co conspirators were executed. Noble cause or not in a day where we live in fear of terrorists overthrowing our government maybe we do need to celebrate the foiled plots.

Still, it seems sometimes Guy is a hero. Sometimes governments need to be challenged, okay maybe not murder the king but you know what I mean.

All this said, Sam's right, there isn't a lot of difference between our candidates. Same shit different pile. Maybe some shit needs to be burned. Maybe I'll run with the socialist party. Anyone want to sign my petition?