"Hey, are you awake? Yeah, I'm right here. Well, can I ask you about today?" ~the national

That's from "About Today," my favorite song of the moment. It's so sad it makes me want to cry every time I hear it; it absolutely breaks my heart. I love it. The violin and the steady drum beat and the understated yet devastating lyrics combine to create an indescribable effect on me.

On Sunday I celebrated my birthday at home with my parents, my friend Kim, and my friend/apartmentmate Joy and her parents. We had a great dinner and my favorite cake (a really yummy homemade ice cream cake), and they sang multiple versions of Happy Birthday to me (they all sang the traditional version, Joy sang a different version, and her dad sang a third version). It was wonderful. I had such a good weekend spending time with my family and friends. For my birthday my parents gave me a ticket to the Broadway production of Pygmalion, starring Claire Danes (one of my favorite actresses). It's orchestra row A, dead center; it's the perfect seat. I'm so excited. I also got a really nice watch, and the book In the Name of Salome by Julia Alvarez. It's a novel based on the life of Salome Urena, and my school is named after her, so I'm excited to read it. Those were all great but fairly normal presents. Today is my actual birthday, and I received some much more untraditional gifts. Seventeen of them, to be exact. In the morning I stood outside on my school's basketball court with the other teachers, holding up a sign with my name on it. My kids lined up in front of me, waiting for me to lead them into our classroom. I don't know who was more nervous, me or them. I met most of their parents, who brought them to school. Most of the parents don't speak much English, so that made it difficult for me to converse with them beyond introductions. My kids look so young. They're still babies. They're Dominican and have names that I'm trying hard to pronounce correctly. I only have one class, and I teach them for most of the day. It was difficult to find enough things to do with them today, especially because for the first few days they don't leave the room for classes like art and science; I really do have them all day. We managed, though. At first they were so quiet. They were making signs displaying their names and I kept telling them that they were allowed to talk to their neighbors and start getting to know each other because the classroom was filled with an eerie silence. By the end of the day, though, I was wishing that they would go back to that quiet stage. They wouldn't stop talking. I guess it's good that they now feel more comfortable with each other, but they're a chatty bunch and I know it'll be difficult for me to control the noise level. At any rate, I love them. I know that at times I'll be incredibly frustrated with them and they will make me cry and want to give up, but, for better or for worse, they're mine. That's a pretty cool feeling. It's not a bad birthday present.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes, I really appreciate it. :)