also on Friday I fell on my butt in front of my whole class. I just simply missed the chair. I cracked up and laaaafffed. They were somewhat horrified.

just received this email:

"SEX! Glorious, amazing, breath-taking, heart-stopping sex -- how i miss you! My vajayjay is going to dry up and hibernate."

travel bug

Next year, I will be teaching Ancient History to sixth graders, and I am supremely excited. It's been hard not to drop everything and start project planning on Ancient China. So instead, I've been researching the Wonders of the World. The new ones, that is. I've been to two of the chosen sites: Machu Picchu and Petra.

I've been to eight out of the top seventy seven nominations for best natural wonder of the world. Not bad? It seems paltry to me.

(12) Ein Gedi Oasis, Israel
(15) Colca Canyon, Peru
(17) Big Sur Beach, California
(22) Lake Titicaca, Peru
(24) Machu Picchu Ecological Reserve, Peru
(29) Dead Sea, Israel
(50) Ko Phi Phi, Thailand
(66) Phang Nga Bay, Thailand

new music on the cheap

Kottke.org is a wonderful website, one that I would be all over if I sat at a desk and had internet access at work. This not being the case, I read Kottke mostly on the weekends and always end up forwarding dozens of links to friends. (Like this recipe for "wiener soup.")

Today I found this fantastic elecronic mashup of Alice in Wonderland sound effects. It's basically a song made entirely from samples from the movie. It's quite lovely and will put you in a cozy trance. The artist's name is Pogo, aka Nick Berke, and he's a nineteen year old kid from Australia. I can't find a website for him, but I did find a page with his music and immediately downloaded everything I could find.

Thunderstorms in May? Say it aint so. The weather here is being truly bizarre.

member of the tribe

I was just daydreaming about this boy in my choir, how he's German and his name is Christian, so he's kind of off limits. But what if we were talking and he claimed he was Jewish anyways, and I got to thinking, what is the best way to prove you are Jewish? And I decided that the absolute ultimate is if he suddenly broke out in Adom Olam, the marching band version, complete with hand movements and sound effects.

dark is calming

I bet you're totally jealous that you're not in my class. Today after lunch, I turned off all the lights. Then we read a book about a knight taking revenge on his brother by faking his death and usurping control of his castle. After that, we practiced cursive capital letters K, L, M, and N. Finally, we all did centers activities with the lights still off and Argentinian techno tango music playing.

I won't lie; it was a little like a nightclub.