winter wonderwhat?

it started snowing at 3:30am yesterday morning. school has been cancelled the last two days, and there is a delay called for tomorrow. at times like this, i love my job...i love the midwest...i love dekalb county!

_2 day house arrest

_snow has risen to the 3rd floor window

_glad i don't live down here

_annabelle amid the drift

_snow snow snow

_piled high

_to the sky

_so high you can't even see menard's behind it

_if it stops, life will have to resume

_monday oddities

last night was strange, unique, odd. *i used to spell odd 'ood'. it made sense to us. by 'us' i mean the two of us who understood it. anyway....* here is somewhat of a rundown of yesterday's experiences.

_i was at my regular tea shop (can't call it a coffee shop...i don't drink the coffee there....i don't like it....shhh) grading papers. two students from the same class wrote two extreme journals. i'd asked which of five qualities were most important in a musician: talent, desire, practice, environment, encouragement. the first student chose practice. he went through the expected jargon of why practice makes perfect (like i hadn't read that 30 times already...) but then said this, "Miss Longbrake never needs to practice. She never messes up. She's perfect." sweet yes, but delusional! the journal i read immediately after had a different flavor (not flavorful-calm down joel). this student had been disrespectful to me early on in the class period, and i had to confront him. his journal stated that encouragement was the most important quality in a musician. he went on to say that no student will ever feel encouraged if YOU keep treating him like this. this was a journal of hostility! apparently this kid thought that the consequence to his behavior was discouraging, as if i should have thanked him for treating me like crap and asked him to do it again! oh the glories of elementary teaching!

_to top off the 'lousy teacher' feeling, the guy next to me at the tea shop told me i wasn't a real teacher. OH NO NO NO! i might have hit him, but i know him; he could snap me like a chicken!

_my life is a musical. i sing from the time i get up until i reach unconsciousness. if i'm not singing out loud, i'm singing in my head. i'm a music nerd- and proud to be! because i live in an apartment, i'm not too comfortable singing at home; i don't want to bother anyone. i sing at school all day, but not in my genre of choice (except when practicing la boheme with mrs. shirey...that's fun). this leaves me with driving. i sing every time i'm in the car-full voice. there's no other way. i often forget that my windows aren't tinted to the outside world, or that my car is not soundproof (more of an issue in summer). so last night while driving down maplecrest, i was singing a duet (all by myself-yes, i'm that talented) and forgetting that i was at a stoplight. i glance to the left and two people are laughing at me. i can deal with that-strangers laughing? not a problem...until i looked over at them again. they are two pseudo friends from church, waving and laughing. eh it's ok-they're moving to uganda soon anyway.

_the reason i was driving down maplecrest was to go to my beloved target. i had bought a skirt last week, brought it home, and realized that they hadn't charged me for it. why didn't the super tall female cop stop me? or what about the giant plastic sensor stuff? just for show? in my mind (in a musical version, of course) i had plotted how the encounter would play out: i'd walk up to the returns counter and explain that i hadn't been charged for this skirt. the employee would thank me profusely and praise my integrity, let me keep the skirt for free, give me target credit for life, ask me to be her best friend, throw a party in my honor (song & dance included), and make me the queen of targetland. instead: she scanned the tag, told me the cost, gave me change, and told me to have a good evening, as if this kind of honesty happens every day!

_i stayed up to watch the snow start to fall, mostly because i wanted to rest easy knowing there was a strong possibility for school cancellation. it didn't start until 3:30am; good thing we cancelled school. i wouldn't have been teacher of the year, for sure. BUT I AM A REAL TEACHER! (capitalization directed at YOU-you know who you are. i won't trivialize this with names...)

_God's Juice

beverage is a battlefield. pat benatar said 'love is a battlefield'; she may be correct. i confidently say that beverage is also a battlefield. every morning i rush around the house like the squirrel from that 'shrub' movie just so that i can get drive thru coffee on my way to auburn (which i refer to as au-where is it? it's small...very small). my efficiency in the morning determines which coffee establishment has the pleasure of my business. HG is a shorter drive, but i crave starbucks. i'd even go as far to say that my palate yearns for a tall nonfat mocha....ahhhhhhh.

i confess sheepishly that
1-neither coffee shop is on my way to school. really, what is 'my way'? can't 'my way' be the route down dupont to the corner of lima (and back again-it's like a giant roundabout. let's pretend we're in the UK!)
2-i have all the makings for my 'holy water' in my kitchen, so i really could save the trip (and yes, the money as well) yet, i can't control my need to feel like a kid at christmas as i pull up to the drive thru window!

this is all to preface the fact that i love coffee AND that i prefer one coffee house flavor to another.
now things get tricky. auburn has now reached the status of 'legitimate city' (i'm still playing it fast and loose with that word). auburn now comes with a starbucks. it's all the rage; i'm confident that pretty soon all of manhattan will be abuzz! normally the need to choose between two starbucks would keep me in utter turmoil all night (i'm not too good with 'the options')......enter brew daily.

i started going to brew daily when i realized that no one really knew me there. i had total anonymity; i could read, pick my nose, wherever the wind blew....freedom! it was also beneficial that friends of mine own it. one slight problem though-i don't really care for the coffee. i never thought i'd become a coffee snob-what the junk is that about? look again at the above photo: the cup on the left has a tea bag laced down the side. i have now become a tea drinker; that is so 'old lady' or 'anyone british'. as for the anonymity...over. i realize that once your appearances become more frequent, the strangers that were there yesterday are not strangers today. the kid behind the counter starts boiling the water before i get up to the register. today i did throw him for a loop-i switched tea flavors. watch out BD-no more boring predictable me (only when it comes to tea)

as for the auburn starbucks, i haven't made an appearance. i don't think i want to. i am devoted to the establishment where they boil the best water, open my teabag, and where 'everybody knows my name'