"Boys and girls of every age, wouldn't you like to see something strange? Come with us and you will see, this, our town of Halloween. This is Halloween, this is Halloween. Pumpkins scream in the dead of night. This is Halloween, everybody make a scene. Trick or treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright. It's our town, everybody scream. In this town of Halloween." ~the nightmare before christmas

At school the kids were wired; they seemed to be anticipating the sugar high that they're going to get tonight. Fortunately, Wednesday is one of my easier days so I didn't have to put up with them for too many periods. And luckily I managed to escape at the end of the day without being egged. I was warned by my students, the dean, and some other teachers that there was a strong possibility of eggs being thrown at teachers as they left the building. I walked out with another teacher who's very cool; most kids like him a lot. I was hoping his presence would offer me protection (and maybe it did). The police officers outside were also doing a good job of closely monitoring the kids hanging around the building.

Participation time: what's the scariest movie you've ever seen? Mine has to be Alien. I was absolutely terrified when I saw it for the first time (and I think I was in ninth grade, so it's not like I was really young).

"Oh, it's time to let go of everything we used to know, ideas that strengthen who we've been. It's time to cut ties that won't ever free our minds from the chains and shackles that they're in." ~patrick park

I just got back from a free advance screening of Juno, the best movie I've seen all year. Seriously. This has Oscar for Best Original Screenplay written all over it. It is fantastic. The writing is superb; the dialogue is sharp and funny and realistic (btw, why is spell check saying I spelled dialogue wrong??). Ellen Page is going to be a star; her performance is wonderful and definitely deserving of an Oscar nom. She reminds me of Linda Cardellini circa Freaks and Geeks (aw, I miss that show). The movie also has a strong supporting cast (including Michael Sera, Jennifer Garner, Alison Janney, Jason Bateman, and J.K. Simmons) as well as a killer soundtrack. I've run out of synonyms for "amazing," so I'll just tell you to go see the movie when it opens. Unfortunately it doesn't open until December 5th, so you'll have to wait awhile. There's another screening next week and I might go to that one as well because I loved it so much. They gave out free Juno t-shirts at the screening, and it's actually a t-shirt that I would wear, which is cool. Here's the trailer:

"So cover this warm night in a blanket of starlight, and I'll follow this freeway out into the air. In case you should wander and wanted to find me, I'm traveling homeward to Washington Square." ~counting crows

There was a great article in the New York Times this morning celebrating the release of My So-Called Life on DVD this Tuesday. Some good excerpts from the review:

"To claim that My So-Called Life is great, watershed television is to say something so firmly ingrained in the conventional wisdom that it hardly bears repeating. The series brought us the experience of adolescence outside the bounds of artifice, peril and pathology that had provided the context for nearly every other depiction of teenagers on television....

Television gives us teenage lust exercised or teenage lust repressed but rarely does it evoke the way young people translate their carnal urges into something they understand as a deeper abiding affection. My So-Called Life is essentially a study of a young mind processing desire into something less terrifying and more easily justified — substantiating it with false hopes — and in that regard it is more than a good TV show, it is a good TV show that attains the dimension and complexity of literature. The great postwar novels of adolescence deal with innocence lost; My So-Called Life deals with innocence sustained, but it offers a no-less-illuminating view of what it is to be young because of it....

My So-Called Life appeared only 13 years ago but leaves one feeling nostalgic for a time when teenagers still communicated with pauses and half-thoughts, and were not perceived solely as an amalgam of their accomplishments....

As the touchstone examination of adolescence in the ’90s, My So-Called Life rejected the Clintonian ethos of ambition: striving, perhaps, wasn’t better. And at the same time it linked itself closely to the feminism of the period, one that prized interiority, self-help and revolutions from within. It was a diluted notion of female advancement, but at least it was a modestly dressed one. Angela wore late-grunge-era flannels and baggy shapes. So there is another way, finally, that My So-Called Life looks like no other teenage series that succeeded it: We never saw our heroine’s bellybutton."

The article offers very high praise, but that praise is wholeheartedly deserved. Kudos to Claire Danes, Winnie Holzman, Ed Zwick, Marshall Hershkovitz, and the entire creative team behind the show for putting together such a superb example of how wonderful a television program can be.

I had a good weekend at home, despite the bad weather. Joy, Kelly, and I had a roommate reunion in Princeton; we missed Michelle, but we got to catch up with each other and I loved getting to see them. Kim dragged me and Betsy shopping for her Halloween costume. I haven't been feeling great lately, so I did some relaxing. I didn't get enough work done. The marking period ends on Wednesday, and it really snuck up on me. I have work to grade and grades to organize and calculate, and there's just not enough time. I'm not excited about going back to school tomorrow.

"Tell me again what constitutes good hair, and tell me how the guns and bums unbraided your deep dread of reason in Comikbuchland." ~the negro problem

Adam Duritz, my hero/future husband (I wish), got me hooked on Stew and The Negro Problem. Here's what he says about the above lyrics:

"'Unbraided your deep dread of reason'? C’mon. I would kill to have written that. Now that is some seriously funky metaphorical double-meaning shit right there. THAT…is not for beginners."

I couldn't have said it better myself. Stew is freakin' brilliant. Almost as brilliant as Mr. Duritz himself.

Last night Nic and I went to see Things We Want, a new play from The New Group. Ethan Hawke (who attended my high school) directed it, and he was at the performance. He looked goood. I refrained from bothering him, but I enjoyed observing him. Paul Dano (probably best known as Dwayne in Little Miss Sunshine, until There Will Be Blood is released, that is) is in the play, and I absolutely love him. He gave a great performance. Peter Dinklage and Josh Hamilton were also wonderful (Peter Dinklage was particularly hilarious). I was not impressed with the performance of the fourth cast member, Zoe Kazan. She brought down the scenes that she was in. I preferred the first act to the second act. Overall, though, thanks to the male cast members, I thought it wasn't bad. It just started previews this week, so we only saw the third performance ever, and hopefully they'll make some changes to improve upon it before it officially opens in a couple of weeks.

I'm going home this weekend to collect some warm clothes, because I really have nothing with me right now and I'm going to freeze because it's starting to get cold. It'll be nice to see my family.

"I was out on the radio starting to change, somewhere out in America it's starting to rain. Could you tell me one thing you remember about me, and have you seen me lately? I guess I thought that someone would notice. I guess I thought somebody would say something if I was missing. Can't you see me? Come on, color me in. Come on, color me in." ~counting crows

I'm still on a Counting Crows high. I think I'll be on a Counting Crows high for months. And hopefully by then they'll have another concert to pick me right back up again. I seriously can't put into words how much that concert meant to me.

I'm wary of writing this because I'm afraid I'll jinx myself, but I'll write it anyway. I think school is getting better (knock on wood). The kids seem to have gotten used to me. The girl who called me an ugly fucking bitch last week is slightly more tolerant (she'll actually let me come within ten feet of her now). The other two girls who were causing the most trouble and were very offensive and defiant have also seemed to settle down a little bit. Now the boys are causing the most problems (they cause different kinds of problems than the girls cause). Things are far from perfect, but I feel like I've made progress with a few students. And I still have some great kids who do their work and try hard and seem to like me. I'm more aware of the fact that middle school is a really, really hard time for kids, so I guess my expectations have changed slightly, which causes me to become frustrated less easily.

Tonight Kristen Bell joins the cast of Heroes. Hooray!

"And I dream of Michelangelo when I'm lying in my bed. I see God up on the ceiling, I see angels overhead. And he seems so close as he reaches out his hand, but we are never quite as close as we are led to understand." ~counting crows

Friday night was one of the best nights of my life. Counting Crows played at the Blender Theatre, a really small concert venue. They announced the show on Tuesday and tickets went on sale on Thursday (the day before the concert). I was hoping that because of the short notice it wouldn't be that difficult to get tickets, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Nicole and I couldn't get tickets when they went on sale. They sold out in seconds; it was impossible. The venue only holds 600 people, which is insanely small. Tickets were selling on ebay for $1000, which is absolutely crazy. I'm not going to pay more than a month's rent for 90 minutes of music, even if it is Counting Crows, the best live band in the world (in my opinion). On the night of the concert I went down to the venue to see if anyone was selling (they laughed at me), and I checked craigslist and the CCMB nonstop for affordable last-minute sales. Finally, at 8:00pm (the doors to the concert had opened at 6:00pm but Counting Crows weren't scheduled to go on until 10:00pm), I got a ticket from a really, really nice guy on the CCMB who was willing to sell it to me at face value. I met him and his friends at 9:00pm and we went into the concert, just in time to see the last opening act (there were 3 opening acts), Wild Sweet Orange. (They were really great, by the way. The fire alarm went off towards the end of their set, forcing them to leave the stage for awhile, and some people were speculating that someone from Counting Crows set it off because they were worried about being upstaged by the opening act.) As Wild Sweet Orange was playing I stood directly next to Adam Duritz, who was in the crowd watching. I nearly died. I cannot even tell you how crazy I am about him. I resisted the urge to bother him because he was enjoying the music, but I couldn't keep my eyes off of him. He didn't stay in the audience too long, I guess because he had to get ready to go onstage.
Counting Crows were absolutely amazing. It was honestly one of the best experiences of my life and definitely the best concert I've been to (yes, even better than seeing U2 live and being inches away from Bono). We made our way up to about the third row; I just couldn't believe I was that close. It's such a small, intimate venue, which is perfect for them. They played four songs from their new album that's being released next year, and they did lots of old favorites. The crowd was very enthusiastic, which made it fun. We all knew all the words to all the songs, even the new ones. It was the kind of show where it seemed like only die-hards made it in because it was so hard to get tickets; only the people who really, really wanted to be there managed to find a way in. It's cool to be surrounded by people who care as much as you do. They played my favorite version of "A Murder of One," the version that makes me cry. It was 14 minutes long on Friday. That perfect version of that song is my absolute favorite piece of music ever, and to hear it live was unbelievable. Being so close to the stage made it even more special. I swear Adam looked directly at me during part of it (during the line "There are girls in North Dakota..."). A couple of other highlights for me were the acoustic version of "Miami" and "Perfect Blue Buildings" with "Sometimes it Snows in April" alts. I recorded the show but I had some mic problems and it's not the best recording. Luckily there was another taper, and his recording is great. For the random bootleg collector who may happen to stumble across this blog, here's where you can download his torrent. And here are some pictures I took. These are two of my favorites of AD:




And the setlist:
I Dream of Michelangelo
Have You Seen Me Lately?
Mr. Jones
Pefect Blue Buildings (Sometimes it Snows in April)
Anna Begins
Cowboys
Miami (acoustic)
Hard Candy
Hanging Tree >
A Murder of One (Doris Day> I'm Sorry> Feathered> Been to Paris)
Washington Square
Meet on the Ledge (Fairport Convention cover)
Come Around
A Long December (new piano intro, slow first verse)

"This is how it works, you're young until you're not. You love until you don't, you try until you can't. You laugh until you cry, you cry until you laugh. And everyone must breathe, until their dying breath." ~regina spektor

So. Young Frankenstein? Sucked. And I was so excited about it, too. The funny thing is that most audience members paid such exorbitant amounts of money for tickets that they seemed to be trying to convince themselves that it was worth all of that money by laughing and clapping as much as possible. I only paid $25 (for the best seat in the house; dead center, front row orchestra) and would have been very pissed if I had wasted more money than that. It just wasn't that funny. Most of the "jokes" were vulgar and pointless. Roger Bart, the star, seemed to be phoning in his performance; he seemed completely disinterested. Sutton Foster, Megan Mullally, Christopher Fitzgerald, and Andrea Martin seemed to be at least doing their best with the material (although poor Megan Mullally had to suffer through wearing the most awful costume in Act 1). The music was uninspired and unoriginal. Nic and I spent the whole subway ride home mocking the lyrics by singing bits of the songs, most of which seemed to be mostly made up of one line repeating over and over. The show wasn't the worst Broadway show I've seen (cough*LittleWomen*cough), but it definitely wasn't the best.

Tonight I went to an advance screening of the movie Dan in Real Life, which was fabulous. It was sweet and simple and moving and funny. Steve Carell proves that he's a very talented dramatic actor as well as a comedic one. Alison Pill, an awesome stage actor (currently starring in Mauritius on Broadway; go see it if you can), is great as his oldest daughter, but the middle daughter steals the show. She's hilarious. Dane Cook is freakin' hot. Norbert Leo Butz, another Broadway star, gets the chance to show off his vocal chops by singing a side-splitting duet with Dane Cook. I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time. Another great, hilarious moment: Steve Carell dancing with Emily Blunt. So go see the movie when it opens.

"I'm driving a stolen car, on a pitch black night. And I'm telling myself, it's gonna be all right. I drive by night, and I travel in fear that in this darkness I will disappear." ~patty griffin

I started this entry days ago and never finished it. So I'll add to it/revise it. It'll mostly be theater-related.
Christina Applegate was on Leno last week; she was funny. She made me love her even more when she said that she's really interested in Edith Bouvier Beale. It seemed like no one in the audience knew who she was talking about. But of course I did. I agree with her; I think Edith Bouvier Beale and her mother are fascinating. I love that Christina Applegate is a Grey Gardens fan. Her stint on Broadway obviously just wasn't a whim; she really loves the medium. Her new show, Samantha Who?, debuted this week to good ratings. It's on Mondays at 9:30pm; watch it. Or tape it while you're watching Heroes (Kristen Bell joins the cast of Heroes next week!!!).

On Sunday Nic and I went to see Speech and Debate. I loved it. It has a small cast of four actors and all of them are very talented, although Sarah Steele definitely stood out to me. I like her. She made the movie Spanglish bearable (she played Adam Sandler and Tea Leoni's daughter). The play is about three high school students whose secrets bring them together as they form a Speech and Debate team at their school. It's very interesting and relevant, dealing with the issues of journalistic freedom, sexual relations between adults in power and minors, teen pregnancy, and sexual identity. It's in the Roundabout Underground theatre, which is incredibly small. We sat in chairs set up right in front of the stage (which wasn't actually separated from the audience), and Nic and I were in the front row so it felt like we were part of the play, sitting in the classroom with the characters.

Tonight we're going to see Young Frankenstein, the hottest and most expensive ticket on Broadway. Nic is awesome and won coveted $25 front row seats through the lottery. I am SO excited. A Mel Brooks show starring Sutton Foster, Megan Mullally, Roger Bart...pretty cool to say the least. I'll report back about it.

"We're out looking for astronauts, looking for astronauts. We're out looking for astronauts, looking for astronauts. It's a little too late, too late, too late for this. Isn't it a little too late for this, little too late, too late for this? Isn't it a little too late for this? You know you have a permanent piece of my medium-sized American heart." ~the national

Claire Danes is frakkin' awesome. And I am a bumbling idiot (but what else is new?). That is all for today.

"I think this place is full of spies. I think I'm ruined. Didn't anybody, didn't anybody tell you, didn't anybody tell you, this river's full of lost sharks? I know you put in the hours to keep me in sunglasses, I know. And so, and now I'm sorry I missed you, I had a secret meeting in the basement of my brain. It went the dull and wicked ordinary way. It went the dull and wicked ordinary way." ~the national

Earlier this week we had our first teacher quit this year. She didn't last very long. I feel bad for her. This was her first year of teaching, and she was really sweet. I think she was Teach for America. Apparently there was a secret pool on who would be the first to quit. Mr. C said I wasn't anybody's pick, which made me feel relieved. Today was a bad day, though. It wasn't bad enough to make me quit, but it was bad enough to make me break down in tears multiple times (never in front of the kids, though). After teaching my last class of the day I walked into the teacher's lounge, and another teacher took one look at me and asked me what was wrong. I promptly burst into tears and let her wrap her arms around me. I got two hugs from the dean, a large, sturdy man who looks tough but is incredibly sweet and supportive. He told me if I think about quitting he's going to show up at my apartment and drag me to school. I had calmed myself down by the time I talked to him, but he made me start crying again by being so nice. He said I can break down and cry on his shoulder any time. I had three periods to compose myself before end-of-the-day homeroom, which I managed to do. I'm very lucky to have a strong support system at school. The other teachers are always willing to give advice or to listen or to just give me a hug. Today I didn't know who to go to first because I had so many potential people to talk to (I chose Mr. C, who is pretty much always the first person I turn to).
Today and tomorrow, we have "big shots from downtown" visiting and reviewing our school. It's very important, and we've been focused on getting ready for them for a long time. A negative review would cause very significant changes in the school. So everyone is stressed out. They didn't visit my room today, so they'll visit tomorrow. I have to be prepared to answer questions and to show them my lesson plans and the data that I've collected and I'm not at all excited about it.

On the bright side, Grey's is on tonight. Let's hope it doesn't suck.

"It barks at no one else but me, like it's seen a ghost. I guess it's seen the sparks a-flowin, no one else would know." ~radiohead

Today is Universal Radiohead Day. Celebrate by going to http://www.inrainbows.com and buying In Rainbows, their new album that was released today. You get to name the price that you want to pay, which is a pretty original idea.

I'm watching Pushing Daisies right now and it's not so bad. It's not my favorite show or anything, but it's funny. Best moment so far: Kristin Chenoweth singing "Hopelessly Devoted" while closing down the pie shop. Absolutely hilarious and sad at the same time (and I'm glad to see that they're taking advantage of her vocal talents). I have a soft spot for Cheno because I won an essay contest that she judged. I never get anything done on Wednesdays; it's my new TV day. Next is Gossip Girl and then Dirty Sexy Money.
Picture time: me and Cheno

"Standing at the punch table swallowing punch, can’t pay attention to the sound of anyone. A little more stupid, a little more scared, every minute more unprepared. I made a mistake in my life today, everything I love gets lost in drawers. I want to start over, I want to be winning, way out of sync from the beginning." ~the national

Gah! They played The National during Chuck tonight! And I was waaay too excited about it. It was "Slow Show," a really good song from their album Boxer (one of my favorite albums ever), and they played a good, long chunk of it (during a really cute moment). That made my night. Chuck was good tonight. One of my favorite moments (besides hearing The National): Chuck dancing the tango with Captain Awesome. Priceless.

It is way too frakkin' hot for October. Today it reached record temperatures for NYC in October and I don't like it. I want fall to be here. It's supposed to cool down on Wednesday, though.

I went movie-crazy over the long weekend. Yesterday I saw The Darjeeling Limited and The Jane Austen Book Club, and today I saw Michael Clayton.
The Darjeeling Limited was good. Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman played well off of each other, and they're all hilarious. I don't think it's Wes Anderson's best film, but it's still worth seeing.
The Jane Austen Book Club was very enjoyable. It was one of those rare movies that didn't piss me off by destroying the book on which it was based. The strong cast held it up. Emily Blunt, Maria Bello, Hugh Dancy, Kathy Baker, Amy Brenneman, Jimmy Smits...how can you go wrong with them?
Michael Clayton was the best film of the weekend. George Clooney is frakkin' brilliant. His acting is superb; he's at the top of his game. And even though he looks old and tired, he still manages to look gorgeous. Right now I think he's the one to beat in the Oscar race. The writing and directing were also very well done. It was suspenseful and well-plotted and clever and I wanted it to keep going once it ended.

Back to school tomorrow. Ugh.

"And we'll all float on. Alright already, we'll all float on. Alright, don't worry, even if things end up a bit too heavy we'll all float on." ~modest mouse

I saw the Broadway production of Mauritius this afternoon. It's a suspenseful play about two half-sisters who inherit a stamp collection and fight over it. Three shady men get involved in the fight. I'm sorry, that's an awful summary, but that's basically what it's about. It's filled with power struggles and physical fights and excitement and yelling and cursing and anger and tears and drama. I loved it. The New York Times wasn't crazy about it, but this is not the first time I've disagreed with Ben Brantley and I'm sure it won't be the last. I agree with him that the acting is one of the play's strongest suits. Alison Pill is fantastic. I'm a big fan of hers. She was great in my favorite play ever, The Lieutenant of Inishmore (she was nominated for a Tony for that), and her performance in Mauritius is just as strong in my opinion. Bobby Cannavale also does a great job with his character (a role that's perfect for him). And he's definitely easy on the eyes. Overall I thought it was a very good production and I'm glad I got to see it.
After the show I walked to a store on 9th Ave. to pick up Nic's birthday present and then walked back towards 8th Ave., and I passed Alison Pill, Bobby Cannavale, and Katie Finneran walking down the street away from the theater. I love it when I pass famous people. I didn't say anything, I just smiled at Ms. Pill as our eyes met and I kept walking.
I'm now in an Alison Pill mood so I'm going to watch my Pieces of April DVD tonight. She looks so young in that movie. I guess she was. She still is, actually (she's only 21 now). She's changed a lot, though. After the show Nic commented that she was afraid the girl was going to topple over because she looked so tiny. She has gotten really skinny.

" Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd. His skin was pale and his eye was odd. He shaved the faces of gentlemen who never thereafter were heard of again. He trod a path that few have trod did Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of fleet street." ~sweeney todd

I've written about my anxieties regarding the movie version of Sweeney Todd before. I absolutely love Sweeney Todd. It's one of my favorite musicals ever (easily in my top 5). I cried (during "Johanna") when I saw the most recent revival. So I really don't want Tim Burton to screw up the movie version. I recently became even more concerned when Sondheim said that the movie is only an hour and 45 minutes long (that means they cut out waaay too much) and that they cut out a good deal of the score. The trailer was released yesterday and I'm still not sure what to think. There wasn't enough singing in the trailer to appease my greatest fears, which have to do with the music and the singing abilities of the cast. But visually it's very impressive. I frakkin' love Alan Rickman (Prof. Snape to you HP fans), who plays Judge Turpin in a brilliant bit of casting. Johnny Depp's acting is strong; I'm not so sure about the singing. Helena Bonham Carter certainly looks perfect for the part of Mrs. Lovett. So I'm keeping my hopes up. Here's the trailer.


Today at school was one of the worst days so far. It was fine in the morning, but in the afternoon the kids went crazy. In the middle of class they shoved one boy in a locker (we have lockers in the classroom), wouldn't stop running around the room chasing and pushing each other, and basically acted insane. On the Friday afternoon before a long weekend I suppose I should have expected chaos, but it still wasn't fun. After I wore my voice out from yelling at them to pay attention to me as I tried to teach them about latitude and longitude, I finally just passed out the worksheet they had to do and told them I was grading it as a test. Of course none of them knew how to do it because they didn't listen to me when I was trying to show them. I hoped it would teach them a lesson. We'll see how they react when they get their scores back. The sad thing is I'm afraid most of them won't care.
On the way home from school, though, one kid made it all better. We left the building at the same time (he had stayed for detention with the dean), and we walked about 6 blocks together. This kid, C, is one of my favorites, but he's also one of the most difficult students. First of all, he's absolutely adorable. He's tiny and still just a kid and most of the time I want to scoop him up and hug him (don't worry, I restrain myself). He has so much energy, though, and I usually spend most of the day yelling at him because he's always chasing someone around the room or being chased around the room for annoying someone. He's the class clown. He's loud and cannot sit still. He has two phrases that he constantly says. Whenever I'm trying to teach, he'll keep saying, "Yo, Ms. B., are you serious?? Are you serious??" after everything I say. Sometimes I ignore him and sometimes I'll tell him yes, I'm serious. He also likes saying, "Yo, you're funny, Ms. B" whenever I ask him to do something that he refuses to do (like do his work). But I can't stay mad at him for too long because he's really a sweetheart, even though he makes my day impossible most of the time. Anyway, we were walking down the street together and we talked. He said he felt bad for me today when the class was going crazy and that he's going to try to be better. He asked me if another student, D, made me cry when she cursed me off. I told him no, but then admitted that sometimes I cry once I get home. He said it must be really hard when I'm trying to teach and they won't let me. I wanted to hug him. So that conversation made my day all better.

I'm so glad I have a long weekend (we have Columbus Day off). Tomorrow Nic and I are going to see Mauritius, a Broadway play that looks really good has an amazing cast. Last night we say A Feminine Ending, which I enjoyed for the most part. We were in the front row and it felt like we were sitting on stage because it's such a small theater and the stage is almost at ground level and very close to the seats. Right now I need to go collapse.

"Saw the world turning in my sheets, and once again I cannot sleep. Walk out the door and up the street, look at the stars beneath my feet. Remember rights that I did wrong, so here I go. Hello, hello. There is no place I cannot go, my mind is muddy but my heart is heavy, does it show? I lose the track that loses me, so here I go. And so I sent some men to fight, and one came back at dead of night. Said he'd seen my enemy, said he looked just like me. So I set out to cut myself, and here I go..." ~james blunt

That's from "Same Mistake," one of the stronger tracks on All the Lost Souls.

The fact that I don't speak Spanish just keeps posing more difficulties. I had to deal with my super today, but he doesn't speak a word of English. Not a word. He's very nice and we managed to communicate through hand signals, but it wasn't easy. I asked him to drill a hole in the wall between my room and the living room so I could hook up my TV to the cable. I kept trying to signal 'drill,' but he didn't understand. We worked it out eventually. And we bonded as we fixed the toilet and cleaned up the water that flooded the floor. He taught me a few Spanish words and I taught him a few English ones.

I'm very upset that Andruw Jones won't be returning to the Braves next year. When I found out I cried. I'm seriously pretty distraught about it. I love Andruw. The Jones boys are my favorite players. Chipper Jones is my absolute favorite, and he's still on the team so that's something, but it won't be the same without Andruw. I don't deal with losing good, loyal players very well. There was an article in the New York Post today arguing that the fans care more about the game and the outcome of the season than the players do. I'd like to believe that's not true, at least for the Braves. A lot of fans are pretty intense, though. Right now tons of New Yorkers are devastated because of the Mets' unbelievable collapse. I mean devastated. On the cover of the New York Post the day after they lost was a picture of a little kid at Shea Stadium with tears flooding down his face. A lot of fans who attended the game just stayed in their seats at the stadium, processing the whole thing, until they had to be asked to leave. I understand how they feel. If it had been the Braves I would feel the exact same way. I would cry and scream and just feel awful. But the more invested you are, the greater the payoff is when your team does well. It can be such an amazing feeling that's worth all the frustration that you sometimes have to suffer.

The third episode of Gossip Girls and the second episode of Dirty Sexy Money air tonight, so I need to finish my lesson planning before they start. Wednesday has replaced Tuesday as my big TV night.

" Simona, you're getting older. Your journey's been etched on your skin. Simona, wish I had known that what seemed so strong has been and gone. I would call you up every Saturday night, and we'd both stay out 'til the morning light. And we sang, 'Here we go again.' And though time goes by, I will always be in a club with you in 1973 singing 'Here we go again.'" ~james blunt

I've been listening to James Blunt's new album, All the Lost Souls. It's okay. Not great, but not terrible. The first song on the CD, "1973," is definitely the best track. I'm predicting it will be the new "You're Beautiful." I listened through the whole album a couple of times and now I just keep listening to "1973" over and over. "Same Mistake" is also a good song. And "I Really Want You." If you click on the album link above, it'll send you to Amazon where there's a video of an acoustic performance of "I Really Want You." But none of the other songs hooked me. Here's a quote from Rolling Stone's review of the album (they hated it):

"What's more, too much of 'All the Lost Souls' is just pleasant ether, with Blunt showing a gift for drabness on forgettable ballads that make Coldplay seem like the Arctic Monkeys."

I think that's hilarious. Not necessarily true (I don't think anything can make Coldplay sound like the Arctic Monkeys), but a funny comparison. I guess it's interesting that I like both Coldplay (sometimes) and the Arctic Monkeys, despite the fact that they're such different bands. And it is true that James Blunt is even more different from the Arctic Monkeys than Coldplay is.

I'm settled into my new apartment and I love it. My roommates, Sandra and Katya, are incredibly nice. Our kitchen is nice and new and huge. My room is huge and bright. It's wonderful.

Today was a rough day at school. Well, every day is a rough day, but Tuesday is one of the days I have my kids for four periods, and they always hate that. I had a parent come in to talk to me today and that went fine. Her daughter cursed me off yesterday and is always rude, disrespectful, and disruptive. While I was talking with her and her mom today, she cried. It made me feel bad, even though this girl has been making my life miserable. The mom only speaks Spanish so an aide translated for me, which made it slightly difficult, but the mom was very nice and supportive of me.

I need to go plan lessons. Ugh.