Idiosycratic Life

This website is pretty cool. It's a kind of "What's Wrong With this Picture Thing." It tooks me a couple of tries to see it. It helps if you get closer to the screen and look closely at the windows. Also, they whisper clues, so turn your volume WAY up.

(And, since I'm NOT a bitch, DO NOT do this at work. Unless you're Gwen, whose co-workers will probably think this is cool.:)

OH, and congratulations to Becky who got accepted to grad school at Rutgers! I am so proud of you! However, we need to talk more, woman, because our Now Mutual Hairdresser Genius Vanessa was the one who told me!!! :)Today I taught my dog to sit, say, come, lay down, sit up, bring me a ball and shake hands in Spanish. She is a smart cookie. I think her ability to do these things mostly has to do with the fact that I also origingally trained her using hand gestures for most of those things, and so she recognizes the hand gestures and the tone of voice, but it's still pretty fcool to have her obey when I say "sientate" or "ven aqui."

I am brushing up on my Spanish in an effort to become more proficient with it when I am living in Miami this summer and (I hope, I hope, I hope) beyond that.... No Kinna Hurra Faerie.

Just a little hello to Kelly who is checking our blogs on a semi-regular basis these days. :) Mwah!

So I am enjoying a nice Saturday. My mom and I were going to go to the beach today, but then it was cold and rainy here and then the Weather Channel said it was rainy in Rehoboth Beach (I love this place!) so we spent a quiet day at home. I ate an ice cream sundae for dinner. Healthy, I know, but it was fun. I felt like a little kid again.

And- since everyone is weighing in on it- as for the New York Times article about relational aggression among girls (My mom copied it for me to read because she is doing a lot of work with this in her school social work job as part of an effort to crack down on bullying of all kinds), I definitely, definitely see it happening on the days I am in the classroom. The thing about two girls having a fight in which one girl becomes "Popular" and ditches "A Best-Friend-Forever-Elementary-School-Friend" in favor of some other "Popular Girls" who, in general, are not as nice as the aforementioned "BFFES Friend" scenario is something I see played out ALL. THE. TIME.

For those of you who haven't read the article, the woman who does the research bascially notes that when the Old-BFFES Friend tries to approach the Newly-Popular-Girl, say at recess or whatever, her new Popular Friends will immediately become extremely affectionate with Newly-Popular-Girl and throw their arms around her and talk about things that the "Best-Friend-Forever-Elementary-School Friend" knows nothing about in an effort to alienate BFFES Friend and basically make her feel like shit because the new "Popular Friends" are the only ones who REALLY know "Newly Popular Girl" etc. It's fascinating, really, how accurate the researcher's assessment is. It's sort of painful for me to watch when I am teaching or whatever because it's bascially the situation I was in when I went to Junior High and my two "Best-Friend-Forever-Elem-School Friends" ditched me to a.) have sex with 18-year-old guys or b.) play field hockey and do the whole elitist Hempfield thing. Hey, whatever. I survived. :)

Speaking of teaching, I agreed to teach every day next week. Why? Because I am stupid, really. I am exhausted just thinking about it.

I had so much fun on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. All the photographers and the photo editor at the newspaper where I freelance went to a conference and basically said, "Have fun. You're on your own." It was great. I worked so hard. Loved it, loved it, loved it. I am not a big fan of the handguns, though. Yeah, not so much. Two people got shot in the three days I was the sole photographer. Heh. My liberal heart is bleeding. Fortunately, one of the people, a 7-year-old girl, survived. She was just walking home from school. She was wearing this button- you know, like a "I Love East Pete"/ALF button (remember those?) that kids get for getting good grades, right? It said "Lincoln Edison Elem. School All-Stars." She had it on over her heart. The bullet hit the button and ricocheted into her arm. By the grace of God(dess) go each of us, I guess....