all the leaves are brown and the sky is grey

[ mood | sick ]
[ music | California Dreamin' ]


For some strange reason "California Dreamin'" has been playing in my head nonstop for just about 2 hours. I don't even know how it got in there. I haven't actually heard that song in quite some time. Long live the Mamas and the Papas. When I was in 6th grade, our chorus did special music on the announcements each morning for a week. All I remember is singing "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and "California Dreamin'".

So pretty much just about every piece of clothing that I own, save ultra fancy dresses (i.e. Cinderella dress, Karen and Jenny's bridesmaid dresses, and the super beautiful dress I wore to my cousin's wedding 2 years ago), are in dire need of washing. I really hate when I let my laundry accumulate into an overwhelming pile. I guess I'm gonna have to knock this mess out one load at a time.

Future Problem Solvers united after school today in our first general after school meeting. I'm pretty dang excited about my super creative, smart, and hilarious crew who will be competing and kicking some major FPS butt come February. I pretty much LOVED FPS when I was in school...and the Math Team and OM (yeah, I was that dorky).

In pure magic news, I have something to add: 84 Charring Cross Road. I pretty much absolutely adore this movie and think booklovers everywhere should go and rent it (or just check it out of the local library as it is hard to find in Blockbuster, but easy to secure from the shelves of the good ol' library). I am super pleased to have met Kate, a kindred spirit, who shares my love for: Peter Pan, The Everlasting Story of Nory, and 84 Charring Cross Road. Anthony Hopkis stars in this movie, folks, so you'll love it (that's not to say that all of his movies are to die for, certainly they are not).

With a pretty sore throat, mild cough, and droopy eyes, I'm retiring for the night. Peace out.

feeling sick on a sunday

I regretfully inform you all that the novelty of having a beautiful Peter Pan & Wendy background on livejournal has worn off. It made it impossibly difficult to see. So, I have switched to a refreshing "Watermelon" palate. I'm fairly certain both cats are hungy since the mean one is at my feet and the mildly retarded one is half in my lap. One moment while I go give the beggars food.

And we're back. I've recently awakened from a 2.5 hour nap after church. I am afraid that I'm sick, something that doesn't happen very often. I've decided that God spares me from getting sick because when I am, I'm a whiny baby, and I bet He hates that (and so do those around me). But, I'm sick. The throat is sore, the head aches, and I could probably sleep all day. I'm awaiting the call from Ginnie (my fake grandmother) to tell me where to meet her for lunch as it is her birthday tomorrow and we're celebrating.

I fought falling asleep in church today by reading my library book of collected Tolkien's letters. This one amused me to no ends and I now share it with my livejournal audience:

'Dear Mr. Tolkien, I have just finished reading your book The Hobbit for the 11th time and I want to tell you what I think of it. I think it is the most wonderful book I have ever read. It is beyond description... Gee Whiz, I'm surprised that it's not more popular...If you have written any other books, would you please send me their names?'

John Barrow 12 yrs.

I thought these extracts from a letter I got yesterday would amuse you. I find these letters which I still occasionally get (apart from the smell of incense which fallen man can never quite fail to savour) make me rather sad. What thousands of grains of good human corn must fall on barren stony ground, if such a very small drop of water should be so intoxicating! But, I suppose one should be grateful for the grace and fortune that have allowed me to provide even the drop. God bless you beloved. Do you think 'The Ring' will come off, and reach the thistry?

Your own Father.

It's nice to find that little American boys do really still say 'Gee Whiz'.

So, what's the word? Did 'The Ring' come off and reach the thirsty? :-) I've mentioned this several times, but I love getting letters (and a surprise post card came from New Orleans just the other day that served to greatly lift my spirits and put a huge smile on my face, so thanks!) and reading others' letters is equally amusing! I particularly like the letters from children to Tolkien (and one day I happed upon a collection of letters that CS Lewis had written just to children, and I loved reading that. I think I might like to own that book some day). I wish children would still feel compelled to write letters to authors whose books quenched their thirst. I wonder who they'd choose to write now a days, beside Ms. Rowling (did I even spell her name correctly?).

Growing up, I used to love the days my mom would take my brother and I to the library. I always would settle on a little volume of Beatrix Potter because I loved the magical animals, the slick pages, and the length (something I found in later years my mother loathed; those books were always longer than most and thus put bedtime off by several minutes).

I have 60 A Tale of Two Cities folders I had wanted to grade over Thanksgiving break so they could be returned tomorrow. It hasn't happened yet, and since I'm not feeling well, I don't see it happeneing this afternoon either. If you're reading this and you're hoping for your folder back tomorrow, I'm sorry. In due time, due time.

something really fun

You are Linus. The thinker of all those around you.
You are the real problem solver but can't ever
solve your own. Compassion and understanding
are your best traits. Vote for this quiz.

Which Peanuts character are you?

A new address:

Hello to my blog world friends! Before I get started on my announcement, I'd like to take a minute to tell you a quick story from earlier today. Viera (about 20 miles north of me where the school board is situated) has just opened up a swanky, open-air mall called The Avenues. They have a Cold Stones, Books-A-Million, Panera Bread, MELTING POT (seriously, this is my all time favorite restaurant in the whole entire world and where I ate dinner on my greatest Valentine's Day ever, which also included roses and a horse-drawn carriage ride), and an Old Navy. Old Navy is a pretty fun store (and since there isn't one in this blasted town that refuses to show Finding Neverland, I haven't been to one since Miami) and it was refreshing to go in one today. However, I'm straying from the point of my story. IN THE STORE, I happened to run into a friend who I haven't seen probably since her wedding (June of '01, I'm pretty sure). Anyway, one of the first things she said to me was, "I read your blog everyday!" This greatly excited me! So, Jessica, if you're reading, HELLO, and thanks again for Chloe (yes, Jessica was Chloe's owner...but now I am!). It was nice to see Jessica, even if just for a moment, and it was nice to hear that someone goes to my blog everyday. And now on to my announcement:

I love my blog and will keep it for a few reasons, but I'm also moving on to livejournal. The move to livejournal was mainly prompted by a couple of friends who have livejournals...as it is far easier to keep up with their sites, and comment, when you're a member of livejournal because of the friends feature. But, since I have somewhat of an audience (I don't care how small...at least it's something!), I'm going to keep up the blog too (because there are certain features here that aren't present on livejournal). Pretty much I'm just going to post the same entry in both places, so you can choose which one you want to keep up with.

My home on livejournal can be found at: www.livejournal.com/users/alisa_beth

(and Kate, I think you'll love my background...I just had the thought of how I should have given myself the screen name of redhandedab. Oh well...)

Fiberoptic Angel & O Come All Ye Faithful

The angel is out, the Christmas tunes are on, the season is here. Funny how it sneaks up on me each year. This year, Christmas is simple. Three years ago it was the big California Christmas. Two years ago it was the huge Parisian Christmas. Last year was Christmas in Palm Bay with a few extras (my brother and his kids). This year, it's simple. Until a couple of days ago, I thought my brother & co. would be returning again this year. Looks like Alias and Alisa won't be rapping the Run DMC Christmas song again. And just for the record, I definitely can bust a move and a rap better than my older brother, thankyouverymuch!

So last night as the turkey was digesting, I got pulled together all my Christmas CDs and had a listen. When I was a junior in high school, I went over to a friend's house to make Christmas cookies. I remember I was asked to bring my Christmas music collection so that we could listen whilst baking. Well guess what? My music collection (all tapes at this point) was left at Heather's house...but when I asked for them back, they were nowhere to be found. The mystery of my disappearing awesome Christmas music collection still haunts me to this day. Not all of those tapes have been (or probably can be) replaced, so each year I'm left with the wish to hear a certain song on a tape from long ago. My Amy Grant tapes have long since been replaced with the CDs though, which is good news.

I used to listen to "Breath of Heaven" (off of Amy's Home for Christmas) on constant repeat. One year in college I even sang it for a Christmas program at the Wesley Foundation. It was the song I constantly sang in the shower around Christmas time. Last night it became clear that while it's still a beautiful song, I've moved on. I am a much bigger fan of her rendition of "O Come All Ye Faithful" (off of Home for Christmas). I also love the version of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", which I used to play all the time on the piano (Bach is good year round, not just at Christmas).

Naturally, my favorite Christmas CD is called Your King has Come. I "lost" this CD for over a year a few years back. It was discovered behind another CD in one of those CD wallet-cases. It was my happy day when I found it again because THE BEST CHRISTMAS SONG EVER is on there, "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus", a duet with Sandra and Derek. (Love that song) There is also a great version of "O Come All Ye Faithful" on Your King has Come.

The new Christmas CD purchase of this year is Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb. It's not anything tradition, but all original songs that tell the story of Christ's coming and birth. It's beautiful.

Enough about Christmas music for now...

In other news, I finished reading the biography of Martin Luther. I will be glad to return it to the library and pick out another nonfiction book (which is my favorite section). One of the greatest things EVER is the feeling I get when I read the last word of the last page of a book! Few things beat that.

I'm going to go eat a piece of pumpkin bread. Happy Friday, everyone.

This is pretty much the best hand turkey...EVER! Kristin has got some MAD SKILLZ. Something I find hilarious: check out that magnet, "Grandchildren spoiled here." 

simply unbelievable.

Finding Neverland is not here. It's not even in Vero (which is a 30 minute drive) at the 24 screen cineplex. I cannot even tell you how angry I am. You.just.have.no.idea. It's not even opening anywhere tomorrow. I hate life.

The rain in PALM BAY!

The title of this post will only mean something to those of my readers who, like me, enjoy the tunes of the Christian folk/rock band, Caedmon's Call (all 3 of you!). To fill the rest of you in, on their latest album Share the Well, Andy O. sings a song called "The Rain in Bombay."

Anyway...

It's raining. It's Thanksgiving. Perhaps my theory should be resurrected (in case you didn't read my post about my theory, I used to believe that every Thanksgiving and Good Friday, rain would come).

Here's a random Thanksgiving memory that just popped into my head: One Thanksgiving, when the turkey was being served, everyone kept saying, "White, please," with only maybe one or two requesting the dark (we're talking meat here). When it was my turn, I asked for dark because I was a greedy kid and thought that since not many people asked for dark, there'd be more for me. Well, this greediness started a trend: give Alisa Beth the dark meat on Thanksgiving and Christmas. When I got a bit older and tried the white meat, I finally figured out what I was missing. Now, I pretty much never eat dark meat.

on dorky books

As I was standing in the library awaiting my turn at the teacher copy machine a few days ago (was it just Monday?), I happed upon a book (much like when I discovered that book of Tolkien's letters). It was a biography of Martin Luther, someone who I'm rather fond of. I checked it out. As I was walking back to my classroom, I ran into my hero, Mrs. Graham (who is a MAJOR reason why I'm teaching today). She looked at my book (with a very ugly picture of Martin with a monk's garb on) and said, "Oh, Martin Luther King, huh? That's really great." I just held the book up to her so that she could get a better look and then she said, "Oh, that's not Martin Luther King, is it?" Anyway, I've enjoyed reading it during silent sustained reading this week. Martin Luther was a pretty cool dude.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, obviously.

My Uncle Lonnie (link to his site in my side bar) is working with an Austrailian model/LPGA star (strange combo, right?) next week: http://www.annarawson.net/ .

Here is something I stole from her -
THINGS I LOVE RIGHT NOW: my new post-its from Staples, my worn out black Reefs, the newest Relient K CD, Peter Pan and pumpkin pie (never goes out of style), my blog and livejournal, peppermint tea, my freshly bathed cats (they're so soft after their bath, I kid you not)

Happy Thanksgiving: A montage of memories

When I was teaching first grade, I wore a pilgrim dress that I scored from Good Will (I'm not kidding, I looked like a pilgrim), showed A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and served popcorn and toast (just like Snoopy) at our first grade feast. Karen Jane and her friend, Kari, came on by and played with the kids helping them put puzzles together. I liked wearing that pilgrim dress. I've found that in teaching high school, I can't wear some of the dorky things that I usually enjoy wearing. First graders didn't really care what I wore...high schoolers make fun of me enough as it is. Last year, I got harassed so much about wearing certain shoes that curled up at the toe (a few girls called them elf shoes) that I ended up donating them to Good Will. Students continuously make fun of my tendancy to wear socks with my shoes (no matter what kind of shoes they are...except for flip flops) and I have a few girls who are just itching to take me to American Eagle in order for me to get some new jeans (and of course, not the high waisted kind, right?). Sadly, I won't be wearing the pilgrim dress to school tomorrow.

I used to have a theory about Thanksgiving and Good Friday. I think I was quite young, maybe 8 or 9, when I formed this theory: It always rains on Thanksgiving and Good Friday. I used to think that each Good Friday around 3 pm (the time Christ died) it would begin raining...not a huge thunderstorm, just a light, drizzling rain. And, I was right for several years. Also, it ALWAYS rained on Thanksgiving. My theory hasn't held up in recent years though. But believe you me, when Thanksgiving and Good Friday roll around, I'm always waiting all day to see if it's going to rain.

My mom used to give me a new Christmas album on Thanksgiving. Maybe this didn't happen every year, but it happened enough for me to have a memory of it. One year, in particular, I remember getting this great compilation Christmas tape (before I had even heard of CDs) with Amy Grant and Sandi Patti singing "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear." I think that was the first time I had ever heard that song. I would play that song over and over and of course I would only pipe in with my vocals during Amy's parts.

Pretty much every year in junior and senior high school, my mom and I served dinner to homeless/less fortunate folks down at Salvation Army. We even did it my freshman year of college...which is where this story comes from. So, I was donning my spiffy homemade apron with ABM written on the top. One of the guys at my table asked what the ABM stood for. After telling him that my name was Alisa Beth Mix, he then said, "Whoa, I think your dad was my art teacher!" It was true, I was serving my dad's former student (of like 25 years ago). Serving dinner at the Salvation Army was definitely one of the best ideas my mom ever had. Of course I cried every year, but I loved it.

There's nothing I like more than tracing my hand and making a turkey out of it. Speaking of turkeys, Lauren and Sammi (two of my darling girls in 4th period) made me hand turkeys today and they're proudly being displayed on my magnetic chalkboard!

That's all for tonight, folks! Keep it real. Eat turkey. Watch for rain.

You know you're bad when you tape Oprah.

So Oprah loves teachers. Today was her FAVORITE THINGS show. If you've seen Oprah before, you might know about her highly coveted show, Favorite Things. However, she arranges it so that her audience has no idea that they're there for the Favorite Things show. (FYI: I am not an Oprah fan by any means, but I don't live under a rock and that is why I know some info about the Favorite Things show.) Anyway, her audience today was all teachers and it was the Favorite Things show! Naturally I had a vested interested in the program because 1. I am a teacher and 2. it's always fun to watch people act like morons when they're given free things (oh, by the way, Favorite Things is when Oprah gives away TONS of really expensive things to all her audience members). Well, I knew that I couldn't watch the whole thing as it aired, so I TAPED OPRAH. I'm a little ashamed. But...whatever. I cried my eyes out when Office Max donated $500 gift certificates to all the teachers. I love school supplies. Naturally, I love Staples the most and would have preferred the certificates to come from Staples.

Speaking of crying during stupid TV shows, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition made me shed quite a few tears. I went to bed stuffed up and red faced. Not only did they build the family a new home, they go and build them a barn and give them a soccer mom car and farm truck. This show makes me like Sears.

Scotland Calling...

The phone rang and it was Scotland! Really, it was Karen Jane, who has called for quite a few weeks and has missed me (not that I'm that hard to get a hold of, it's just that I forget to turn my phone off of silent when school ends). It was wonderful to talk to her! I even got to say a quick hello to Philip, who completely ruined an exciting joke. I will now crack all my readers up with two jokes:

Why does Snoop Dogg carry an umbrella?

Fo' drizzle! :-)

How come pilgrims have a hard time keeping their pants up?

Because they wear their belts on their hats!! :-)

For the record, I am loving this book of Tolkien's letters. I can't boast being a Lord of the Rings fan, but I am a fan of C.S. Lewis and letters, so there's plenty to keep my interest. I most like the letters Tolkien writes to his son, Christopher. He addresses them as My Dearest, Dearest Man, Dearest Chris. He addresses letters to C.S. Lewis as My dear Jack and My dear L. He signs the ones to Christopher as Your own Father or All the love of your own father. He writes his son and tells him how he lives for his son's letters (something I find remarkable...too bad that people just don't correspond any longer...email and cell phones have made life all together too convenient and less beautiful).

Finally, I got the world's greatest post-it's from Staples this weekend. I'm super excited to use them! Oh the simple things that greatly excite me!

The Gym & Relient K (and some other random things)

A funny story first: I was grading papers like crazy this week because grades were due for interim reports. One paper I came across was a few haikus that my 10th graders wrote. One kid, who I've had in 9th and now again in 10th, wrote the phrase "oh my gosh" in one of the haiku lines. He circled the word "gosh" and drew an arrow to the margin of his paper to write me a note. He wrote (and I quote), "I would have written "God", but that would be taking the Lord's name in vain and if He didn't strike me down with an iron fist, I know you would." That bit amused me!

On to other things...

This morning was fun: Part 2 of Pirate Ad Painting. The principal failed to mention that our gym was hosting a district wrestling match (which meant that the parking lot would be getting a lot of traffic, which ultimately means that painting anything would be difficult). But, we did it! Some of the NHS kids pretending to be ROTC people (they're the ones who always have parking detail for major events) and directed cars to stay away from our feshly painted messages such as: I heart the Wonder Twins or Some call it stalking, we call it love. (Funny story involving two sweet sophomore girls and soccer playing senior twins!) Anyway, Kristin and Briana came, so fun was had! :-) Reach for those stars, Kristin L. c/o 2007!

Well, around 3:00 I got the idea to go to the gym! I figure I should go ahead and get back into the gym since 1. my current jeans are getting a little snug and 2. I should stop wasting the monthly fee that's automatically deducted from my account. I loaded up my cd player with fresh batteries, carefully selected some suitable gym music and went on my way.

3:00 on a Saturday afternoon is apparently a brilliant time to go to the gym. It was nearly empty and the freaking annoying personal trainers who think they're God's gifts to women were off duty (I hate a few certain guys who work at the gym and hang around the machines and flirt with girls wearing sports bras and spandex). I am pretty proud of my time at the gym (especially in light of the fact that I haven't been since JULY -- that's right, August, September, October, and most of November went right down the drain). I ran two miles, walked one, and then did 5 arm machines...all to the brilliant tunes of RELIENT K.

I pretty much love this cd (their new one: MmmHmm). It makes me SO happy, and of course it's a great gym CD! I really love this CD more than their others because 1. there is a real piano presence (which sounds funny because usually you don't hear pianos too much in punk music, but it's there) and 2. many of the songs are about relationships (so, while there are still some silly songs, there isn't a huge presence of them). It might not be too interesting for me to post lyrics to songs (although I've done it before and am uncertain if anyone even bothers to read them), but I'm going to post some lyrics now (and will post more in future posts because I love their lyrics). The first song that's going up is one of the funniest/sweetest (in a strange way) songs on the CD. I just love this song.

"My Girl's Ex-Boyfriend"

When he was seeing her

You could see he had his doubts

And now he's missing her

Because he knows he's missing out

Now it's haunting him

The memories like a ghost

He's so terrified

Cause no one else even comes close

He's the guy that you should feel sorry for

He had the world but he thought that he wanted more

I owe it all to the mistake that he made back then

I owe it all to my girl's ex-boyfriend

So then, along comes me,

This undeserving mess (undeserving mess)

Who would believe my life would be so blessed (life would be so blessed)

Two years ago he left all that debris (left all that debris)

Who would have known

It would be everything I need

He's a guy that you should feel sorry for

He had the world but he thought that he wanted more

I owe it all to the mistake that he made back then

I owe it all to my girl's ex-boyfriend

If it wasn't for him

I would still be searching

If it wasn't for him

I wouldn't know my best friend

If it wasn't for him

He would be able to see

That if it wasn't for him

He'd be as happy as me

When she and I settle down you can bet

That he is going to have to settle for less

He's someone that I would hate to be

I got the girl and he's left with just the memory.

He's a guy that you should feel sorry for

He had the world but he thought that he wanted more

I owe it all to the mistake that he made back then

I owe it all to my girl's ex-boyfriend

If it wasn't for him

I would still be searching

If it wasn't for him

I wouldn't know my best friend

If it wasn't for him

He would be able to see

If it wasn't for him

He would be as happy as me

Letters from Tolkien

If you read my post from Monday about letters, you may recall that I have recently checked out a volume of J.R.R. Tolkien's letters. I am so pleased to have happened upon the book and have enjoyed reading through some of his letters. Here are a few bits that I've particularly enjoyed.

From a letter to Anne Barrett at Houghton Mifflin Co. dated August 30, 1964:
C.S.L. (C.S. Lewis) of course had some oddities and could sometimes be irritating. He was after all and remained an Irishman of Ulster. But he did nothing for effect; he was not a professional clown, but a natural one, when a clown at all. He was generous minded, on guard against all prejusices, though a few were too deep rooted in his native background to be observed by him.

From a letter to David Kolb, S.J. dated November 11, 1964:
I personally found Letters to Malcolm a distressing and in parts horrifying work. I began a commentary on it, but if finished it would not be publishable.

Now, I find the above amusing because I quite liked Letters to Malcolm. I'm always disappointed to read reviews of things (such as album, movie, or book reviews) that completely go against what I think. I don't want to think of myself as insular, but perhaps I am. I really would rather perfer someone to agree wholeheartedly with me about a particular piece of art. Sometimes, when someone (whose opinion I value) completely disagrees with me on something I happen to have loved, I get really sad and think to myself, "Am I stupid? How come I liked that so much when so and so clearly hated it?" I never, though, go back on liking something just because someone else didn't like it. I will say that I have gone back on disliking something because someone liked it. I can think of two examples right off the top of my head: when I first read Till We Have Faces by C.S.L., I wasn't too fond of it, but I picked it back up in February (years after the first read) because Jed had mentioned that he really enjoyed the book...so I tried to read it with different eyes and have come to appreciate it. Also, on Caedmon's Call's self titled album, track 3 was always the track I skipped over (even though Derek does employ his infamous scream that usually makes my heart skip a beat on this track). Upon learning that Jed actually considers it one of Caedmon's Call's best songs, I listened more carefully and discovered, that while I wouldn't put it on repeat, it definitely has some merit aside from the heart stopping scream. All of this to say that even though Tolkien hailed Letters to Malcolm as a distressing and horrifying work, I am still going to love it and recommend it to anyone.

I include this last snippet just because it amused me. It's taken from a letter to Micahel Tolkien (a grandson who was studying at St. Andrews in Scotland) dated January 9-10, 1965:
...I find it very bitter when my children stray away from the Church. Of course Canaan seems different to those who have come into it out of the desert; and the latter inhabitants of Jerusalem may often seem fools or knaves, or worse...I have met snuffy, stupid, undutiful, conceited, ignorant, hypocritical, lazy, tipsy, hardhearted, cynical, mean, grasping, vulgar, snobbish, and even (at a guess) immoral priests 'in the course of my peregrinations';but for me one Father Francis outweighs them all, and he was an upperclass Welsh-Spaniarh Tory, and seemed to some just a pottering old snob and gossip...

I'm not going to add anything else to that :-).

In other news: the week is half-way over. So far this week there has been: cooking dinner at the church on Tuesday, serving dinner at the church tonight, 10th grade registration for next semester (the joys of being an English teacher...since everyone has an English class, all important things take place though English...ugh), midterm grades were due today, National Honor Society general meeting. Still to happen this week: Bible study tomorrow, painting the parking lot (yep, it's a 2 week process) on Saturday...and maybe that's it. I have a pretty irritating ant bite on one of my toes. That's all.

Something to look forward to: Jack and Bobby comes on shortly and that means I'll be talking to Matthew on the commercial breaks.

I'm shocking.

Today, in 6th period, I pretty much caused a boy's life to come crashing down all around him (ok, so it's certainly not as dramatic as I'm making it sound). While my normal English students were spending the first 10 minutes reading All Quiet on the Western Front, one of my abnormal English students (enrolled in my independent creative writing class) was being nosy around my desk. He picked up a CD case and opened it up to discover the Garden State Soundtrack and just kind of stared at me and said, "Oh my gosh. You know the Shins? They are a cool band and you know the Shins? I didn't know you knew the Shins." Yes, it's shocking, but your OLD English teacher knows, and likes, the Shins. THEN...moments later, he picks up the clipping from the newspaper (as I clipped out the article because it was so hilarious) announcing Old Dirty Bastard's death (yes, the member of the Wutang Clan). He began to freak out saying, "I didn't know he died. How did you know he died and I didn't?" Yes, it's shocking, but your OLD English teacher knows all :-). I'm still amused.

Letters

I am a girl who loves letters. I love getting them; I love writing them. I have one particularly faithful correspondant, Karen Jane, who lives in Scotland (so her letters fly on foreign stamps). I think that I go through phases where I write a letter nearly every day and then I will start wondering if all my letters are bothersome to the individuals who receive them. I guess that is just silly insecurities getting the best of me. Karen, however, has assured me several times that she never tires of my letters...so it is a great comfort when writing her to picture her happily receiving a letter from me and taking great care to read each word. Today I received a letter from Karen. It was a happy day, for days when letters are received are always happy.

Email: it's certainly a wonderful thing, but it's awfully terrible as well. I realize that very few people are fond of writing letters so the only way I can keep in regular contact with certain friends is through email. But, in email, (at least this is true for me) I am often times rushed with my thoughts because the nature of email is quick convenience. Quite often I will have a thought during the day Oh, I need to remember to write so and so back or I haven't heard from so and so, so I really should email him/her. But, I'm not at a computer, so I don't remember when I sit down.

Anyway...

When I lived in England, I think I began to love letters. My daily routine included: class (each of my four classes only met once a week, so class time was very minimal), time in the library for reading/studying/computer, dinner, and then hours and hours at my desk in my room listening to my headset and reading and writing letters. Each morning, on my way to class, I would stop by the post office to post my letters. And of course mail delivery time was very happy. I think between my mom and Karen I received a letter a day (not to mention special boxes with Kraft Shells & Cheese). One of the first books I just so happened to pick up and check out of the library was The Collected Letters of Alice James (sister of Henry). One of my professors/mentors was a big Henry James fan, so when I saw the collected letters of Alice James, I decided to read up. I was simply fascinated by reading her letters to other people just about random things, the weather and such. And I thought how crazy it would be if the letters I was writing would one day get published. I can see it now...years after I'm rich and famous (why? I don't know. I guess I wrote a spectacular book.), all my letters would be compiled into a voulme of The Collected Letters of Alisa Beth Mix. Don't laugh. Save your letters (if I send you any) because they might be worth ... something.

All kidding aside...I found this amazing book in Barnes and Noble a couple of Sundays back called C.S. Lewis's Letters to Children. I sat on the floor in the Christian section of B&N and nearly cried as I read through the beautiful letters that Lewis wrote to classes of children writing to him about the Chronicles of Narnia or to his god-daughter. Today in the library, as I was awaing the copy machine, I stumbled upon a book of J.R.R. Tolkein's letters and I decided to check it out. There are quite a few to C.S. Lewis.

I'm in the mood to go and write a letter.

Bowling and Sushi

Nice combo, right? So, I finally got to see Matthew and eat sushi (the last time I saw him - which was also the last time I dined on sushi - was in July right before he moved to Gainesville and I went on my road trip) last night! His older sister & brother-in-law (Aimee and Jaron) joined us for the raw fish festivities! Man, is there anything better than raw fish!? I think not. Good times were had...Aimme and Jaron are funny. Afterwards, Matthew had to go and pick up "the kids" (which happen to be his little sister and brother...ages 19 and 14...not really kids, huh?). And then we went cosmic bowling! I now know where all my students go to hang out on the weekends because on every lane was at least one of my students (ok, I'm employing the use of hyperbole here for an amusing effect...but I did see 4 students). So I usually struggle to break 80 in a good ol' game of bowling. BUT GUESS WHAT?! In our first game, not only did I break 100, but I beat Matthew by 1 point :-). However, I wasn't looking too hot in the second game. Our 2 hr. time was up before we could finish the game, but I was definitely in last place (and I definitely was struggling to break 80). So, cosmic bowling had fun lights (had I known that I would glow from the black light, I would have worn all white!) and fun music and videos. Oasis came on with "Wonderwall" and we all pretty much had a big flashback to high school. Anyway, it was fun fun fun. Hopefully it won't be another 3 and a half months before I 1. see Matthew and 2. eat sushi.

Repeat

The year was 1993, I had just turned 14, and I got my first boom box with a CD player. I was finally making the cross over from cassettes to CDs. Up until that fateful summer, I was all about the cassette tape. I had them organized in a shoe box by artist. There was the Amy Grant columns, the Michael W. Smith column, and my 3 well-loved DC Talk tapes. My first DC Talk CD (as I never did go back and replace Heavenbound, Nu Thang, and Free At Last with CDS...I still have those on tape) was this special remix CD with a special version of "The Hard Way." I was thrilled because this meant instead of listening to "The Hard Way" on the Free At Last tape and rewinding it over and over and over again to listen in order to listen to it 20 times (it always worked out great if the song I liked was the first song on either side because it was easy to rewind, sadly though, "The Hard Way" was song #2 on side 2), I could now pop in the CD and program the song to play over and over and over again. One day, one of my best friends, Dana, was over hanging out and she was a fellow DC Takk nut (we had big plans: we were going to go to Liberty University, because that's where they had gone, and then during our summer breaks, we were going to move to Nashville and get jobs and stalk Toby, Mike, and Kevin...too bad some dreams don't come true). So, I was in the process of popping in the CD and programming "The Hard Way" to play 20 times in a row. Dana started laughing and asked what in the world I was doing. So, I began to explain to her the beauty of CD players and how you can program one song to play over and over again. She then said, "Of course, I know that! But you don't program the song over and over, you simply use the REPEAT button!" I had seen the REPEAT button there on my boom box, but I didn't know what it was for. And then my life changed for the good. I learned how to utilize the REPEAT button for one song!

Since that day, I have put the REPEAT button to good use. There's usually that one song on a CD that completely knocks you down, suspends your heart beat and transcends time. "The Hard Way" was definitely one of those songs. Sometimes I'm so overwhelmed by the amount of CDs that I have, especially when I think about how I end up listening to the same ones over and over. And yet, I still want more. It's not that I think I waste money on CDs because I really only buy the ones that I really want and greatly anticipate coming out. There are a few impulse buys every now and then, for instance the Garden State Soundtrack and Patty Griffin's Impossible Dream that have been awesome additions to my collection.

All this to say, of the 4 new CDs that I have gotten very recently, here's what my repeat button is repeating for me:

Caedmon's Call: "Mother India" from Share the Well
Andrew Peterson: "Labor of Love" from Behold the Lamb (which is kind of unusual since it's a Jill Phillips song on an Andrew Peterson cd, but there's something about it that I love)
Relient K: "The One I'm Waiting For" from MmmmHmmm
Derek Webb: "I Want a Broken Heart" or "Nothing is Ever Enough" from I See Things Upside Down

A-B decided to MIX things up tonight....

So, the black blog was beginning to bore me...hence the new blog. Sadly there aren't enough templates to choose from and if I was smart enough, I'd make my own blog. But, at least I'm smart enough to transfer my sidebar links and traffic tracker to my new template!

I changed up my profile too. 4 other people besides myself included palindromes on their list of interests on their blog profile. I checked that out and found it hilarious!

Good random thing that happened: I get a free chicken upon my next Boston Market visit. I completed this huge survey and got my special code. Free chicken, here I come!

It's Friday night. I've got 50 paint brushes, 4 gallons of paint, and 32 tupperware containers for the paint...I'm ready to paint the parking lot. In case anyone cares, the National Honor Society each year sells pirate ads. Our mascot is the pirate and in the parking lot we have painted about 200 pirate heads and on each head we paint messages which students, parents, teachers, and businesses can purchase. The best ad EVER last year was this (names have been changed because I can't remember the exact names):

Barbie and Ken -

Together till we break up.

Better than the youthful optimism of: Barbie and Ken - Together Forever! The best ad I've seen so far for this year is:

Reach for the stars!

Kristin L. - 2007

Just kidding...The best ad so far this year is: Uhh...naturally. (In honor of the chemistry legend at our school who ALWAYS says "Uhh, naturally."

I'm going to listen to some Derek Webb and Relient K.

L8R (that means later)

Meet Chi Le

For some reason, I thought of Chi today. So now here's a post in her honor.

I can't remember the first time that I met Chi, which saddens me because I pride myself upon my phenomenal memory (although lately, I've come to realize it's not at all as phenomonal as I have thought). I do remember her signature though, and can still copy it to this day! Here are some things about Chi:

• She's Vietnamese and came to the US when she was 3. She learned English by watching cartoons.
• We met in the 4th grade and she instantly filled the best friend void that was left when Selina Lugtu moved away (she was mentioned in a previous post).
• We got into LOTS of mischief in G.S.P. together.
• She never grasped the difference between saying pant or pants and overall or overalls. This drove me crazy as I would constantly tell her that she is not wearing a pant, but a pair of pants, likewise, she was not wearing an overall, but overalls! Big source of frustration for me.
• She was probably one of the funniest friends I've ever had and someone who I laughed a lot with.

Here are some adventures that we had...

In 4th grade, I had the biggest crush on Gerald Genna, a 6th grader who played the drums (even at 9 years old I was a sucker for a musician). One day Chi looked up Genna in the phone book and lo and behold, there was only one. She gave the number a call and sure enough, it was Gerald's number. He hadn't a CLUE as to who we were and come to think of it, I have NO idea how I even came to hav the biggest crush on him in the first place. Well after a few afternoon conversations (of course they were 3-way calls and I was completely silent on the other line), she arranged a meeting at the flag pole for one day after school. On the day of THE MEETING, Chi and I both slipped out of Mrs. Kreinbell's (I can't, for the life of me, remember how to spell her name) class and met in the bathroom where Chi French braided my hair and I put some purfume on. We made our way to the flag pole after school and guess what?! Yes, Gerald Genna SO stood me up. Chi was there for me every disappointed step of the way.

In 5th grade, we had to invent something for this G.S.P. project called Invent America. I remember fondly my invention: The Rabbit Catcher. I also remember some of my classmates' inventions too. Jenny Prentice invented the Bird Hand (a stuffed glove used to get her bird, Screech, out of the cage) and Jeff Johns invented the Sunvisor Exteder (he was rather short and so the sunvisor never really shielded his eyes from the sun, so his invention, when attached to the visor, worked to keep the sun out of his eyes). Well, Chi invented a Video Game Protector (and I have no idea why she chose to invent this because she was an only child and she didn't have a problem fighting with a sibling over Nintendo). Anyway, we each had to film a commercial and when it was her turn...she froze. So, being the best friend that I was, I instantly rushed to her rescue (which meant that I rushed on camera and helped her out with demonstrating her invention). In turn, she ended up being my life-size rabbit to test out my invention. I wish I had the video of our commercials. Good times.

So 6th grade was pretty awesome. It was the year of the card board chair, volunteering in the handicap room, the solar oven which successfully cooked a hot dog, our play with Jeff Johns about Cassiopea (played by ME), the math team, the future problem solving team, paper clip flipping, and the year of her crush on Frankie McGuire. One G.S.P. day, when Mrs. Flynn's class was at recess, Chi and I snuck into her class and began to look through Frankie's desk. I stood guard at the window making sure to stay out of sight as I spied on Mrs. Flynn watching her class on the field. Chi looked through his inclass journal hoping to see that he wrote something about her. He did not. Sad. We felt pretty cool though having pulled off our mission without getting caught. We weren't so lucky when it came to the paper clip flipping incident with The Killer Thorn (our G.S.P. teacher). We took the big paper clips, opened them up a smidge, and flicked them at the chalkboard when she wasn't looking. Eventually she caught on, called

In junior high we continued our adventurous best friendship, of course with some difficulties. You see, we both experienced some jealousy when we made some new friends, but we always ended up working through it. We had a blast in Mr. Lee's geography class and we suffered through Mrs. Bonsteel's classes for three years! We never thought the end would come. But, the most fun we had was in Odyssey of the Mind. Chi and I were Spontaneous Queens (Spontaneous is something only Omers will understand and I don't quite feel like going into detail about it now, sorry). We partnered together in English class to do a project on Children of the River which was great fun. We cooked some Vietnamese dish for our class...but actually, her mom cooked it while we just kind of goofed off at her house.

Sadly, we kind of broke up once we hit high school. 10th grade was the beginning of the fade out. We had our Algebra 2 and Chemistry block class together. Her last name is Le, mine is Mix, so we really didn't get a chance to be Chemistry lab partners (mostly I was stuck with Chris Manning who called me Jenny Jones because apparently I am the spitting image of her, YEAH RIGH!). However, we were math partners one 9 weeks, which was fun. We sat in the back of the class right behind this racist boy, James Fulks, who invited us to join him in the Klan...YEAH RIGHT! One time, our teacher was passing papers back to us and James didn't realize they were sitting on his desk so Chi yelled, "You are SO slow! Are your parents from West Virginia?!" (No offense to anyone reading this who might be from West Virginia.) We laughed pretty much all year about that one!

By 11th grade our frienship was pretty much a bunch of wild and crazy memories and I don't think we even saw each other at all during our senior year. College came and went. She went to UF, I went to UM, we probably wished each other well at graduation, but if we did, I can't remember. I don't have my picture taken with her on the big day, and my mom pretty much took a picture of me with EVERY SINGLE person who I talked to (including Officer Byrd, the resource officer). But then, about 3 years ago, I got back in touch (I think because Kevin, another friend from high school, was in touch with her and he told me she was pregnant). Yep, Chi had gotten married and now she has (I think) a 3 year old son, Alex. I still think of her every September 28 (her birthday).

Well, that's all for now. I WON'T be seeing Finding Neverland because apparently it only opens in LA and NYC today. Stupid.

Magic

Maybe you all should go and see this:

I saw it opening day, which was yesterday, and it was spectacular. There were definitely some scary bits, but mostly it was magical. Under ordinary circumstances, I would not categorize it as pure magic, but since this movie is wrapped up in Christmas, it gets the Alisa Beth Mix stamp of Pure Magic. Something about a Christmas movie (well, let me qualify that to include a children's Christmas movie) makes me cry. There were tears in my eyes during most of the ride. After you see it, you should swing by Barnes and Noble, buy the book, and drink a cup of hot chocolate (in a mug of course) topped with whipped cream.

Today is a holiday, of course. After sleeping in until 7:30 (oh yes, that is sleeping in for me), I enjoyed my taped episodes of Gilmore Girls and One Tree Hill from Tuesday night. This weekend I'm expecting greatness! More pure magic for me tomorrow (Finding Neverland -- at long last) and then there's the promise of sushi and another movie (hopefully The Incredibles) because Matt is finally coming back to "Palmtucky". National Honor Society is painting the parking lot on Saturday (what fun), but that's just a couple of hours. Perhaps ice cream from the Marble Slab will follow!

PS. In 7 more years, today will be 11.11.11 (won't that be super duper cool?!).

This is all mine. SUCH a great CD. I could not be happier...well, if Derek was in my living room with his guitar singing these new tunes to me then I probably would be a bit happier...but, it's SO good. I am SO happy. Well done, Derek. (And Jed, I'm so sad not to see you online right now...I certainly hope you picked it up today!) 

Briana and Kristin = two very smart Alias loving, Napoleon Dynamite loving, funny as heck, FPSers who look pretty smashing in this black and white photo with scarves (even though we live in freaking hot Florida) 

tidbits

Tidbit One:

Yesterday I had the day off (sort of) and went to Viera (home of the school board) for a meeting for Future Problem Solvers coaches (great fun!). When I was a wee lass, I was an FPSer and was QUITE thrilled to become a coach this year to some brilliant FPSers. Anyhow, this lady came up to me and the following is the conversation we had:

Lady: You look so familiar and I recognize your name.
Me: stares blankly at lady
Lady: What elementary school did you go to?
Me: Palm Bay.
Lady: Hmmm, I was only there for one year, so that can't be where I know you from.
Me: stares at lady, not blankly, and makes a connection MRS. RIETER?!
Lady: Yes.
Me: getting way more excited than any other person would have been OH MY GOODNESS! YOU WERE MY FIRST GRADE GSP TEACHER.
Lady: Of course! Your face hasn't changed at all!

So, I'm 25, I was 6 when I was in first grade...19 years have passed and my face hasn't changed. Crazy. Anyway, I aboslutely loved Mrs. Rieter. I was very sad when she left (to have a baby). The replacement teacher, Miss Waible, was there for 2 years but had to leave once she married the principal! (scandalous!) I loved her, too. So then, in comes GSP teacher number 3 for my 4th - 6th grade years: Mrs. Thornburgh. We called her The Killer Thorn (we were not very fond of her). It was great to see Mrs. Rieter again and it was great to be recognized by her!

Tidbit Two

Today Derek Webb's cd has hit stores and it looks like in about 30 minutes I will be the proud owner of said cd (which I've been waiting for forever).

Tidbit Three

Dr. Pepper is NOT a decent substitute for Root Beer and I wish waitresses would stop offering it when they don't have Root Beer. Just because they're both brown and not coke does not mean they're interchangeable like waitresses seem to suggest. It's like me suggesting that Mountain Dew and Sprite are nearly the same (and my brother would throw a fit if I tried to slip him a Sprite instead of a Mountain Dew). Now, if in a restuarant I ordered a Mr. Pibb and they didn't have Mr. Pibb, then a waitress could suggest a Dr. Pepper (because they are indeed similar). Spite is similar to Sierra Mist. Mountain Dew is similar to Mellow Yellow. THERE IS NO FREAKING SUBSTITUTE TO ROOT BEER!

Tidbit Four

Gatorade is available in can form. Did you all know that?

That's all I have for you this afternoon. I'm outta here to score me a Derek Webb album. Word.

A recap of Saturday

It's 7 am and I've been up, reading, for about 30 minutes! And it's not even a school day!! The time change has done wonders for me. I'm wide awake by 6:30 most days and I feel well-rested!

So, this morning I've been reading All Quiet on the Western Front. I'm nearly half-way through. Having finished reading A Tale of Two Cities in class a couple of weeks ago, I have selected All Quiet on the Western Front as our next novel in the 10th grade. I like the paragraph of introduction before chapter one begins:

This book is to be neither an accusation now a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they many have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war. (the war being WWI)

I think that wars fascinate me (but not a good fascination...I just like learning, reading, and watching movies about them). I remember shortly after watching We Were Soldiers this past summer I had an awful dream where I was married and my husband was going off to war. The dream felt so real, as did the emotions that were being felt in the dream. Speaking of We Were Soldiers, it was on television last night. It had been edited and in parts was pretty choppy, but I still watched more than half of it. Finally, with a stuffy nose and stinging eyes (for I had been crying quite a bit during the movie), I decided that I didn't need to finish watching it and putting myself through so much torture. (At least I knew the outcome and wasn't nervous whilst watching...just sad.) It's a great movie, by the way. I think I'm going to read the book on which the film is based: We Were Soldiers and Young Once.

I read another book yesterday (I love finishing a book in one day!). Next week my 9th graders will begin reading Homeless Bird. It's a great book about a young girl in India whose parents arrange her marriage with a sickly boy (the boy's family, of course, lied about their son's age and health). Shortly after the wedding, the boy dies...leaving Koly (the girl) as a widow in a household that despises her. The ending is very happy, so all her struggle was worth it! :-)

AND GUESS WHAT?! While in Barnes and Noble yesterday I found a new Relient K cd. I had completely forgotten that they dropped a new album on November 2. I snatched that up in a hurry and have, of course, enjoyed listening to the new tunes. I like this album a lot. I think Two Lefts... is my favorite of their three albums, but the new one, MmmHmm, might definitely dethrown Two Lefts once I come to know it better. Uncharacteristic of their other two albums, this one is loaded with relationship songs (a funny one being "My Girl's Exboyfriend"... maybe I'll post those lyrics soon, they're pretty clever).

Anyhow, it's pretty much time for me to get ready for church. Until next time...

and it's Friday!

Just for the sake of posting:

• Filled up my gas tank yesterday and the gas automatically cut off at $20.00. How awesome is that?
• Yesterday to a Bible study I wore the yellow foot warmers (I guess you could call them socks) that you get on an airplane (these ones were from Virgin Atlantic, from 2000!) with my old grey New Balance sneakers with paint all over them...and the combo. made me exceedingly happy.
• Today to school I wore new fall leave socks. They made me happy.
• Why does Cybill Shepherd have a CD? I don't understand.

Television shows that I really miss from my childhood:

• Growing Pains (oh man, I freaking LOVED Kirk Cameron)
• Parker Lewis Can't Lose
• Head of the Class
• Life Goes On
• Rags to Riches (I loved watching this show on Sunday evenings while eating cheese and roastbeef roll-ups)

Can't really think of any others right off the top of my head.

Happy Friday, everyone! :-) THE INCREDIBLES START TODAY!

Cinderlla loves Lucy

So here I am as Cinderella. It's not the greatest picture because:

• My left sleeve is not properly puffed out
• You can't really see the beauty of my Cinderella shoes
• The background we're stand against is the stupid, ugly chalkboard

Oh well...it's still an amazingly beautiful dress!

I haven't gotten my pictures developed yet. This one's from Kristin (aka Lucy). I'll post more when I get my pictures back. Maybe there will be a better one of my Cinderella shoes.

Heroes in a Half Shell...TURTLE POWER

(I'm singing)

Splinter taught them to be ninja teens (he's a radical rat!)

Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines (that's a fact, chap!)

Rapheal is cool, but crude (gimme' a break!)

Michaelangelo is a party dude!

(yes, I remember that theme song word for word from my childhood!)

Sooo...do you want to know my secret talent?! I don't mean to brag, but I pretty much have mad skillz when it comes to drawing a teenage mutant ninja turtle. It's a skill I honed in Mrs. Krienbell's class (4th grade). I was all about the ninja turtles in 4th and 5th grades. My mom was even cool enough to take me to see the first movie on opening day! So, how come I'm thinking about these 4 cool turtles? Well, this weekend I saw my 4 year old cousin, Samuel, and he was Leonardo for Halloween. I think he was amazed that I busted out with the entire theme song for him to dance around to :-).

Anyhow, I haven't lost my gift (the ability to draw these turtles). I used to draw these little guys during class and today, guess what? After our morning prayer meeting, I decided to see if I still had the talent. OH AND GUESS WHAT?! I still do. I think I pretty much amazed the heck out of the CIA members who were at the prayer meeting. I am that good. If only I had a scanner, I'd scan in my drawings and load them up to my blog. Just take my word for it.

La Dia de Election

The vote's been cast. I didn't put my sticker on, but gingerly held it in one hand as I drove with the other. Upon returning home from the polls, I ran inside, pulled out my scrapbook materials, and selected a nice blue piece of paper to stick my sticker to (of course the I VOTED sticker will be making an entry in my scrapbook).

In Palm Bay High's mock student election, Kerry won by a landslide. I love ignorant kids who 1. don't think for themselves, 2. mimic whatever their parents say, or 3. just listen to who their teachers are supporting (let me tell you, I'm definitely in the minority amongst the faculty of PBHS in my Bush support). Now, if the mock election was won by Kerry because the students really took the time to get to know the issues and had they paid attention to the debates, then yeah, I can respect their decisions. But come on! That didn't happen. Oh well. (The ballots were cast in history classes and I know for a fact that three influential history teachers have been pushing Kerry all year. Did that influence votes at all? I wonder.)

Something funny: a kid made me a checker board out of stamps. It's hilarious, but I can't help but look at the checker board and count up all the 37 cents stamps that were wasted. Another student walked by and said, "Man, that's a lot of stamps. Aren't stamps like 40 cents or something?" Hmmm, apparently this student didn't understand what the big 37 on each of the stamps meant. I said, "No, they're 37 cents each. Don't you ever write any letters?" The student responded, "Yeah right! That's what email is for." Oh the beautiful art of letter writing is so lost.

Something else funny: I was telling my future problem solvers that their Future Problem Solving Bowl is in February. One student got ultra excited and said, "Awesome! We're going bowling in February?" I just didn't know what to say.

Tales from Parent/Teacher Conferences...

Out of 147 students, only one student is going to be represented at tonight's parent/teacher conferences. Sad turn out, right? Part of the problem is that report cards went home on Friday (so long as the student was present on Friday) and parents only had today to call to make appointments. So, I am going to sit here until 8:30 pm. And, the air conditioning just cut off at 6:30 (it's on a timer...you would think that the school board would adjust said timer to accomodate mandatory school functions...hmmmm).

My computer is making this very strange gurgling noise that I thought could be attributed to the speakers. I went so far as to unplug the speakers...the noise persists. It's annoying the heck out of me.

[What do you say when a lovely parent, accompanied by his/her not so lovely son/daughter, asks, "How is ________ behaving in class?" I hate being brutally honest with people, and this spills over into parent/teacher conferences. I usually end up smiling and saying, "Oh yes, _______ is doing just fine in class," when in reality, _________ is simply the bane of my existence. In that moment when I'm looking at ________ and then back to his/her mom/dad and I see the plea in __________'s eyes not to sell him/her out, I always decide to cut __________ the break he/she doesn't deserve. Anyway, I just had a parent coupled with a semi-evil child drop in.]

Fun dates on my horizon (and if you put them on yours, they'll be fun dates for you, too):

• Tuesday, November 2 -- Election Day 2004. I'm excited to be voting in my second presidential election. My vote will be cast for the second time in a row for George W. Bush. Let's hope he'll be a two-termer.
• This coming up weekend...a long awaited sushi date with Matthew (you better be coming back to Palm Bay!)
• Tuesday, November 9 -- Derek Webb's long awaited second release, I See Things Upside Down, drops (and goodness me, I hope it's not as difficult to secure as his wife's latest project)
• Friday, November 12 -- Finding Neverland, starring Johnny Depp, hits theatres with its pure magic.
• Thursday, November 24 -- Thanksgiving! :-)
• Some random day in November -- db (Jed D. Brewer's) newest musical project will be available to his many adoring fans (check out: www.jedbrewer.com)

That's pretty much all of the great November days that I can think of.

I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute Matthew, a.k.a. Clark Kent, one of my only enduring friends from my high school days (in a class of nearly 600, I am still only in touch with 3...which is .005%). Matthew and I became friends via AP Language and student council. One of my first memories of Matt is from 11th grade homecoming. We, being on student council, were heading over to decorate the Raddison for that night's dance. Matthew was to follow me (since I have a superior sense of direction). I noticed that he was not in my rear-view mirror, so I pulled off the side of the road and waited until I saw him again. Later, when we reached our destination, Matthew commented, "That was the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me!" Well, our student council experiences from our senior year definitely afforded us some great memories. We were selected as the boy and girl representatives to attend the Emerging Leaders Conference at UF (which is when we both decided we never wanted to go to UF...how funny is it that Matthew is currently studying for his PhD at UF now??). Good times were had on the drives to and from UF :-). In my senior yearbook, Matthew wrote, "You are the defintion of a good person. For the sake of humanity, don't ever change." I thought that was the nicest thing EVER to write. Thanks again, Matt (strangely enough, my signature is missing from his yearbook...I've told him several times to bring me the book and I'll sign it now...it's never too late). OH MAN! How could I fail to mention our nicknames for one another. I, for some reason, always thought he looked like Clark Kent. I don't know why, but he has always reminded me of Clark. Matthew used to ask me, "Does this mean that I look like Dean Cain?" :-) And then HE always thought that I looked/acted like Clarissa from Clarissa Explains it All. I always thought she was way cool, so I took it as a compliment.

Well, 7 years out of high school and he's definitely one of my best friends now. We are sushi buddies and bad movie partners: A League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Abandon, The Girl Next Door, Troy, Secret Window, Underworld to name a few. We were supposed to see The First Daughter (and Matt really wanted to see it...not only because of Katie Holmes' starring role, but it was supposed to be Michael Keaton's come back role). Sadly though, Matthew never came back to visit before it left the theaters.

We've recently started a new tradition, which is definitely one of the highlights of my weeks. We call each other (usually it's me who dials first because I'm super fast) on every commercial break from Jack and Bobby. This used to work splendidly when the show aired on Sunday nights. But just last week it switched to Wednesdays at 9 pm, which complicates things because we both are also fans of The West Wing (which also airs at 9 pm). Both of us share a loathing for the phone...but we're now over the phone hump. Jack and Bobby definitely helped us get over that phone hump...the kind of hump where you never call the other person unless it's to set up plans. I am kind of afraid of the phone and really don't like to call others. However, that's not to say I don't enjoy when others call me. (I guess part of my problem is that I'm afraid that I'll be disturbing whoever it is I'm calling...but now with Matthew, I just don't care if I disturb him!)Anyway, it's now quite possible that we'll call each other on other days beside Jack and Bobby days. Yay! Just this last week we talked on: Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and then Sunday again. Crazy, huh?! (thanks to all those nights and weekends...(a line from a Relient K song about cell phones))

Gosh, it's only 7:30 and I still have one more hour until I get to go home. **sigh**

Tales from 5th Period Planning...

I was absent from school on Friday and today I have had lots of students welcome me back with open arms. Apparently, they weren't too fond of the sub: Miss Mix, he actually tried to TEACH us something! Nice complaint, huh? He also asked random questions and rewarded the students who answered correctly with cough drops. Crazy. It's good to go missing for a day or two because now I feel appreciated!

One of my students is going to try to get me the sweet hook-ups with the post office. If you've known me for an extended period of time, you probably are somewhat aware of my unique fascination with the postal service. I absolutely love and adore the post office. My adoration for getting and sending mail certainly has something to do with my love for the post office. I'm not quite sure when it all started, but it's been a huge fascination for as long as I can remember. Well, I have a former student whose mother is a mail carrier! WHOA! I'm super thrilled. He's going to try to get the inside scoop on some postal things and I can't wait for his future visits.

Back when I taught the first grade, I had the greatest field trip ever lined up: an inside tour of the post office (the grandest post office in Brevard County). However, the field trip was right in the midst of when we went to war with Iraq and security snapped down tightly, thus thrwarting my plans for a tour. I was very, very sad. The last time I went to Paris, my MAIN GOAL was to get to the Postal Museum. I had the greatest time. I took great care not to miss anything and my mom ended up going through the exhibits and then waiting for me at the end in the gift shop. And what do you think would be the coolest thing EVER to discover in the gift shop? A PACKAGE OF DIFFERENT CAMEL STAMPS (I'm not even kidding).

I know the postal employees at the 32905 branch very well. They know me by name. I once saw one of my favorite attendants in Walgreen's buying a galloon of milk and I just kind of stood back and stared in awe. I really used to love the movie with Christian Slater called Bed of Roses. He inherited his grandfather's florist shop and he was the one who delivered the arrangements because he liked to see the people's faces when they opened the door to beautiful flowers. I remember thinking, "Yeah, being a flower delivery person has got to rank up there with the best jobs in the world." However, being a mail carrier/postal employee totally beats delivering sweet smelling flowers! I would not mind AT ALL being employed in a post office. I would really LOVE to have a walking mail route. I would like to deliver the mail in a smallish town where the leaves change and the snow falls and the hottest days are about 80 degrees.

In other news:

This weekend was crazy good. On Friday, Sharon, my roommate from UM, came up for the day and we celebrated her birthday over lunch at a cute cafe in downtown Melbourne. We saw Ray, which I had no original interest in seeing, but it really was quite good. Jamie Foxx really plays the piano in the film, and as a pianist, I can totally appreciate his talent. On Saturday, my aunt and uncle, Alison and Lonnie, popped over for a visit. Sadly they didn't come bearing autographed pictures of President Palmer or Amy Grant...but I did happen to score from them a pretty tight Hello Kitty stationary set. We dined at Friday's and enjoyed a very crazy, but fun, movie called I heart Huckabees. On Sunday, I met back up with my aunt Alison at another aunt's house, Anne. Aside from seeing more family, I really enjoyed going to Anne's house because it afforded the opportunity to play the piano!! Can you guess what I played? I played my great-grandfather's song, "My Pleading Heart." (which I actually discovered was his marriage proposal to my great-grandmother...nice, huh?)

I'm very happy that the time change kicked in. It's so much easier getting up at 6:15 when it's light outside. I actually felt well rested and kind of like I had the chance to sleep in because it was light when my alarm went off. Yay for the new time change.

Happy November, everyone. I can't believe it's freaking 85 degrees down in this stupid state and it's supposed to be chilly fall. 15 minutes before 6th period starts and my planning period ends...peace out.