"Tired and wired we ruin too easy, sleep in our clothes and wait for winter to leave." ~the national

Random Thoughts on Kids/Teaching
*Kids are crazy. Especially mine. You honestly would not believe some of them. Sometimes there are stories about teachers doing crazy things and people can't believe it, but normal people cannot imagine what being in a classroom surrounded by hormonal, needy, angry, self-conscious thirteen-year-olds is like. Seriously. You cannot judge, because you do not know. I read an article last week about a teacher who cut off a girl's braid. My teacher friend read the same article and mentioned it to me. She said, "You know the first thing I thought? I bet the kid had it coming." And I was so relieved, because that had been my first thought as well.

*I had a conversation with a boy today. He kept going on about how I don't like him, and I finally snapped. I said, "You constantly throw paper balls at other people. You play marbles during my class. You regularly curse at me and at the other kids. You start fights. You tell me what an awful teacher I am nearly every day. You are always incredibly rude and disrespectful to me. You don't listen to me, even when I try to be nice and when I try to have serious conversations with you. You take absolutely no responsibility for your actions, you just blame everything on your anger management problem or on other people. So why exactly should I like you?" I just can't get through to some of them, and it's incredibly frustrating. I try to be nice and it does absolutely nothing. Luckily I have some great kids whom I love. One boy sent me an email today telling me I'm a good teacher. Those things make me happy.

*Kids are incredibly honest. They have no filter; they just say whatever comes to mind. Here are some questions I've been asked recently:
"Do you live alone?"
"Don't you get lonely?"
"Don't you even have a pet or something?"
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"Your forehead is shiny."
"Why don't you have kids?"
"Don't you want kids?"
"I liked your hair better last year when it was long. Why did you cut it?"

Okay, enough about kids. It's the weekend, which means I can think about something else for a very short while.

My Weekend
Tonight Nic and I are going to see Crazy Heart, with Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal. I can't wait, mostly because of the amazing things I've heard about Jeff Bridges' performance. I love him. I think he's fabulous. He's one of those older guys on whom I have a bit of a crush. He needs an Oscar already (he's been nominated four times). Maybe this year (fingers crossed).

Tomorrow Kim and Jeff are coming into the city so I can see her before Christmas and we can exchange gifts. We'll go out to lunch and maybe go see the tree in Rock Center, although it'll be snowing so I'm not sure how much we want to wander. Then tomorrow night I'm going to my friend's choir concert, and we're going out to dinner afterwards.

On Sunday I have church and then I'm going to my aunt and uncle's to decorate cookies. I've been loving the Advent services at my church. The music is always a highlight for me at this church; they have a great band. There are always a bunch of musicians onstage, including multiple guitarists, a drummer, a trumpet player, a saxophone player, a cellist, and singers. The Christmas hymns sound particularly amazing when they're backed by that fabulous band. Last week we sang "Joy to the World" like I've never heard it before; it was incredibly funky with a great sax solo in the middle, and the whole congregation was completely into it. It's wonderful to be moved by these songs and to be surrounded by others who feel the same way.

There's a Christmas tree business directly across the street from my apartment. I like looking at it whenever I leave my building. The lights are always on in the morning when I leave for school. Here's the view from my front step: