PART TWO

My post from earlier was not-so-rudely interrupted by a little movie date to see The Time Traveler's Wife. I probably would have/will like the book more (because that's how I am) but overall it was pretty good, if not a little too sad. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE Rachel McAdams though. LOVE. It may be a borderline obesession, actually.

Anyway, after going to see that, my roommate and I went to the teacher store and spent a good hour wandering around wishing that we could take everything we saw home. It had everything- books, bulletin board cut-outs, classroom storage, PEOPLE crayons (yes, people crayons)- you name it. Then there was a little TFA gathering for a corps member's birthday, and we got to eat lots of delicious barbecue food and have some beers and pretend we were all ready for the first day of school.

Now I'll detour back to the one thing I did want to talk about in my earlier post, which was my teacher-ific Friday night. After leaving school (nearly 12 hours after I got there), I stopped by the TFA office because Charlotte teen organized a book drive for our classrooms. When I heard that, I figured it would be akin to the garage sale selections at Classroom Central and thrift stores, a lot of options but mostly unknown titles with disintegrating pages and torn covers.

I was way off. What this kid did was AMAZING. There were thousand of books, many of them brand new, and many of them library essentials. I completed my Dr. Suess collection (my absolute favorite children's author) and ended up with a huge box full of all kinds of books. I had quite a good time going through them when I got home, all while watching Grease and sharpening pencils until the motor to my electric pencil sharpener overheated and stopped working. I fell asleep on the floor promptly after that at about... oh, 10 pm. Overall, it was clearly a good Friday.

Tomorrow is a big day with lots of planning to do... which reminds me that the book I ordered came in today- Big Plans, by Bob Shea, a nice mixture of "Oh The Places You'll Go" and "The Stinky Cheese Man." When I first read it, I was laughing so hard about the idea of turning a skunk into a hat that I practically couldn't finish it. But, it reminds me of my own Big Plans (big plans, I say) and has become one of my new children's favorites (behind Dr. Suess, of couse).

Time to get to bed, although not before making another long to-do list for tomorrow. Hopefully, if I'm productive enough, I'll get enough done tomorrow that I'll have Monday night to breathe and sleep a little before *gasp* my first day. More than likely, though, I'll have to rely on the people that keep me sane to talk me down from escaping to Mexico (a serious possibility) and get me to realize that teaching IS for me, but no one is perfect at it, even 30 years down the road. Looks like ya'll (yes, ya'll... I live in the south now) have a big job in front of you.