Wow. It has been over a month. I am so sorry. I never meant for it to take me this long to get a new post up, it just sort of worked out this way. I promise to try to do better. (But you've heard that before, haven't you?) Anyway, where to start? This week has been long. Not that there's been a lot going on, but it has just felt like longer than a week. I guess it might have something to do with the fact that this is the first full five day week we've had at school since early January. We came back to school after break and muddled through a five day week and then faced exam week. The Friday of exam week was a snow day, so that pushed the last exams back to the following week which was a short week anyway because of MLK Day. That meant the last of the exams were on Tuesday, and that made for a very short week. Last week we were off two days (Wednesday and Thursday) for the "Winter Storm of 2009" as the local TV stations are calling it. I'm not complaining. Snow days are always a welcome occurrence. But, they just made this week that much longer. Whatever. I'm tired, but it's worth it, I guess. I currently have a lot of grading to do. I collected literary analysis papers from my seniors last Friday, and I have a second essay from my juniors that I collected today (I graded their first essay of the semester this week). So much for keeping up with my grading... I'm actually looking forward to stepping down from TEAM and the peer mentoring and tutoring program at the end of the year. It has been 11 years since I joined up with the ragtag group of misfits (thank you, Roberta, for one of the most enjoyable, meaningful components of my teaching career), and I am burnt out. It's time for a change and time for some of the younger members of the staff to step up. I never really thought I'd say this, but I now understand why some members of the staff have shrugged off the outside-of-school responsibilities. The new admin. has a vision (I assume - our contact with the admin. has been "spotty" at best) about where things are going, and I am content to step aside and let someone else take up that banner. The new admin. has been disappointing most times, but there isn't the doom and gloom of last year. I hope they have been simply biding their time, observing, and are ready to implement change at the beginning of next year. It will be welcome, for the most part. Student Council started meeting again this week and they have an ambitious schedule for second semester. They want to maintain all of the activities of last year, including MORP. I am in favor of scraping MORP altogether for a couple of years and then trying to bring it back, but they want try again this year. Sigh. I am skeptical, but I will abide by their wishes. I'll keep you informed. My iPhone has been great. Dan showed me how to make ringtones without buying them from iTunes, but I quickly forgot everything he taught me. Sigh. I must be getting old. I have a few complaints about the iPhone - it can't receive picture messages, but you can look up those pictures in the web browser on the phone...uh, what? And the volume for phone conversations is a little too low for my tastes, but that's about it. Overall I am extremely pleased with my purchase. And I've played way too many games of solitaire on the stupid thing. Is it possible to be addicted to solitaire? I also opened an iTunes account, but I really haven't even begun to get my music into iTunes like I should. Unfortunately, I foresee this as being a long, tedious process. (You'd really understand if you knew how many CDs I own.) In more important news... Battlestar Galactica returned a few weeks ago. These are the final episodes of series. So far, so good. I'm enjoying them more than the first part of Season 4, which dragged a bit. They've revealed the final Cylon (maybe), and they have really turned everything upside down. A scorched Earth, suicide, loss of faith, mutiny. I can't wait to see how it all ends! Lost returned in January. They have taken a more hardcore sci-fi approach to the season (time travel in every episode), but I haven't minded. It's been cool to try to guess what era the characters will end up in each week. With one more season after this, I find it interesting to see how they will make all the plot points come together. Heroes also returned this week. The new plotline is encouraging and has some cool potential. Worst Week is as funny as ever. You need to get on board with this hilarious series if you haven't already tried it. And in the most exciting/weird category, Hell's Kitchen started a new season last week. What had been a summer staple for me and many others has returned much, much earlier. Same drama, same vulgarity, same highly entertaining chaos. The only difference is that this season the head chef wannabes are much more experienced than in years past. And I have to say that I have actually cringed at Gordon Ramsey's treatment of Colleen, a self-described cooking teacher from Nebraska (?) who earns big bucks for every lesson to teach the culinary arts. He has been especially cruel to her. Mmmmm.....delicious. Perhaps the biggest news is the new Morrissey album. Yeah, I know most of you don't care, but I do. I already have the new album (thanks Alex!) and tickets to his Columbus show on April 1. I actually pre-ordered the album through iTunes so I could get the tickets a day earlier than regular folks, so I don't feel a bit guilty about having a pirated copy - I've technically already paid for it! It's not bad. There are some good tracks and some "meh" tracks. Typical Morrissey.  I guess that's about it. I have the ACT administration in the morning and I bought Zack and Miri (Make a Porno) - they changed the title for the DVD release - earlier this week. It's Kevin Smith's latest movie. I think I'll go pop that in, relax, and get some much needed sleep tonight before getting up at the ungodly hour of 6:00 AM. Take care of yourselves and one another. Until next time... "In the absence of your love,
And in the absence of human touch,
I have decided I'm throwing my arms around all of Paris because only stone and steel accept my love.
In the absence of your smiling face,
I traveled all over the place.
And I have decided I'm throwing my arms around all of Paris because only stone and steel accept my love.
I'm throwing my arms around all of Paris because only stone and steel accept my love." -I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris, Morrissey | 
