T-shirt Attempt...Part 2

Yesterday I begin to share my attempt at decorating a shirt for THE HUNGER GAMES viewing. Here's the rest of the story:

I had to sub on Friday, but I spent my lunch break cutting my image transfers. I don’t know why this is, but dark image transfer paper isn’t dark. It’s white. And when you iron it on to your dark garment (which is presumably black) the white doesn’t go away. It just stays. I didn’t want a solid white block on my shirt so I cut as close to the letters as possible. It surprisingly didn’t take too long and I was finished before the bell rang. I started thinking that maybe the worst was behind me and that was going to be smooth sailing from here on out.

In which I decide it would be a good idea to make my own t-shirt

How are there people in this world who do this? All the time? For fun???

I have never met a more nerve-wracking and stressful activity that I wanted to flee from.

A month ago my book club decided it would be super awesome to all see THE HUNGER GAMES together. Obviously this was the good decision.

Then we thought (and alcohol may have influenced this decision), “wouldn’t it be even MORE awesome if we had HUNGER GAMES themed t-shirts?”

Then once I was sober I actually promoted and encouraged this idea. WHAT?!

We could have just bought shirts, but no, we had to be cool and customize them.

Here’s the part where I must have lost my mind. I thought this would “easy” and “fun” and that I could pull it off no problem. I figured, why not? People do this all the time. It can’t be that hard. It’s probably easy. The packaging always shows pre-teens looking snazzy and hey I want to look snazzy so let’s do it!

So with about 0 pieces of information I set out on a dangerous mission. Let's just say the odds were definitely NOT in my favor.

Poetry...will you help me get a job?

I had an interview this week followed up by a call-back! Holler I made it to round 2 and THEN they asked me to come back and demo a lesson.


Talk about walking on cloud 9! I know that I'm passionate about teaching and that I'm weird because I like working with junior high students. Actually I enjoy working with junior highers. It's nice to know that somebody else recognizes that and is interested in knowing more about me :)


For the demo lesson I am required to teach an 8th grade poetry lesson based on the state standards. I've received conflicting information on the times. The AP secretary told me 30 minutes and the district sent me an email asking for 15 "to allow for questions afterward." Eh I'll shoot for about 20-25. Honestly if they read my lesson plan I have a hard time imagining that they will even need to ask questions!


Kidding.


But on a serious note, this is the most detailed lesson plan I have ever written. Granted I've had two days to work on it and I'm not presenting till Monday for a total of four days on ONE lesson plan.


When I was student teaching I had to turn in a WEEKS worth of lesson plans for both my preps. That accounted to 10 lesson plans every week. Most of which I wrote in one evening with a glass of wine in my hand. I'm not saying I didn't give it a lot of thought but I certainly didn't write 2 page lesson plans. I did my best to stretch it to one page. There wasn't time for me to explain all the nuances of my teaching style. I put together a basic outline and that was it. I still had essays to grade! 


Anyway, I'm really excited about the lesson I've put together and I'm looking forward to presenting it although I'm a bit nervous. I've never really "demoed" a lesson before-- I think teaching it would be easier!

Prufrock is my mantra

I finally watched Midnight in Paris tonight. My parents couldn't get through it (they claimed it was "boring.") I found it gleefully wonderful. Sometimes I love being home alone so that I can dork out and watch movies like this.

A very wise professor once told me that this was a viewing requirement for all English majors and I concur. Now I'm not a huge fan of Owen Wilson. I think he's a bit obnoxious and his nose bothers me, plus I doubt he would truly appreciate being in the presence of Hemingway & Fitzgerald. But I digress. 

I sure it comes as no surprise that when I play the game "what famous person, dead or alive, would you want to have dinner with?" that I always select an author (not always a dead one, but those ones are a bit more fascinating ;) I think it would be amazing to sit down with ANY of the brilliant minds portrayed in the film (+ a bazillion* other guys)

*yes I know bazillion is not a word.

This film also made me want to go to Paris, France. Or anywhere in Europe for that matter. I did NOT understand Rachel McAdams character. How do you not like Paris? And rain in Paris? If my imaginary fiance told me he wanted to move to France and LIVE there, I would not for a second be practical. Who cares that I can't speak French and I know 0 people there...it's Paris. France. Case closed. I'm more like Meg Ryan's character in French Kiss.

And let's not forget that there are beautiful vineyards and French wine there. Okay I'm completely basing my entire perception of a country off of cinematic interpretations. But look at this:

Anyway, what was my point? 

Dead authors yes. Didn't you hate it when your English teacher told, "this is what the author meant when he/she wrote this..." and you wanted to argue back, "how do you know what they meant? they're dead."

First of all, we we went to college forever + day so we DO know everything these authors could have been thinking so stop arguing with us. Second of all, that is exactly why we need the time space continuum exploited in Midnight in Paris!

It's the little things

It doesn't take much to make me happy. I don't need big, extravagant things to put a huge smile on my face. Here's what's made me happy this week:


-first paycheck as a sub (yep it's little but it's money!)
-subbing at the junior high where I student taught (it's like going home :)
-coconut coffee creamer
-snuggles with my kitty
-talking with my sister
-spending an evening with friends
-finding my crochet hooks (they went missing for a bit)
-listening to a good audiobook
-working in my art journal
-knitting a scarf
-buying my tickets for "The Hunger Games" (!!!!)


I don't always take time to appreciate the things that make me happy but it's fun to stop and think about all the good things instead of being consumed by the stuff that brings me down