"You never knew why you felt so good in the strangest of places"

I haven't posted anything in awhile so I don't even know where to start...so this is going to be disorganized and disjointed and you're going to like it, ok? :)

A few weekends ago I had to get a medical exam for my alien registration card. They herd you like cattle through vision tests, hearing tests, chest x-rays, etc. I bombed the vision test. Surprise, surprise. They have you look at the eye chart with your left eye covered, then your right eye covered. How about letting me use both eyes to read the chart just one time? That would be helpful, jerks. So then I was trying to explain that I was born with cataracts and do just fine with contacts in, but it was like I was speaking a foreign language--because I was speaking a foreign language. It all worked out in the end. I had to talk to a doctor before I left and she wrote down the most recent vision results I got at my Minneapolis eye doctor and I was on my way. Anyway, my test results came in a huge envelope and this is why:



Um, weird and random. I opened the envelope at school and felt very exposed and vulnerable.

On a whole different note: I was wandering around a couple weeks ago and stumbled upon this journal and had to buy it. Duh.



In John Irving's book, Until I Find You, one of the characters has tattoos all over his body with lyrics and bars of music from his favorite songs. I was considering doing that but decided to just get the journal instead. I fully intend to fill it with entries about what songs move me at what time and for what reason.

Will (from Chicago) and Pete (from London) had their last day at SLP on Monday. Maria (from California) and Meredith (from Ohio) got here a little less than two weeks ago to replace Will and Pete. They're both incredibly nice and I feel like I can be myself around them. I DON'T feel like that when I spend time with Darcie and Meredith (the other Meredith--we have two Merediths now).

Note: Ha! The Right Moves by Josh Ritter is playing right now at the coffee shop!

A couple weeks ago we had a birthday party for Will on the rooftop of our apartment. All of us have tried taking pictures at night from there but they never turn out, so I took some good ones during the day.





Here is the birthday boy in his Hugh Hefner robe that he wore all night.



And apparently the red plastic drinking cup is universal. Someone politely handed me one filled with water and I thought to myself, "I could have fun with this." This is my "relapse on the rooftop" picture.



Things at school are going much better. I finally feel like I hit my stride this past week. I think my confidence was boosted now that I'm the "veteran" afternoon foreign teacher since Maria and Meredith just started teaching on Tuesday. The first week of the month was really busy since I had to make homework sheets, lesson plans, and spelling test lists for all of my classes. I have a class of six boys who are trying my patience but other than that my classes are going smoothly. I have Sam in Hi, Kids 1 who is a riot and I WILL get a picture of him this Tuesday. He is incredibly bright yet his actions rarely have logic behind them...like walking to the corner of the classroom and miming all the different swimming strokes. The butterly stroke was by far the most entertaining. And he tries to smuggle random classroom posters out of the school on a weekly basis.

I bought a bicycle last weekend but have only had time to go on one bike ride so far. I plan on going on one this afternoon so I'll take pictures of the river for you!

I'm going to go start researching where I'm going to travel to during Christmas vacation! I'm so excited!

PS: Mary, how on earth do I resize my pictures so they're not larger than life when you click on them?

♥