Snow Day!

Last week was full of anticipation about the cancellation of school. We were set to have a snow storm Monday, but when we woke up Monday morning it had been delayed, so we had school at regular time. However, as it moved toward the area, they decided to let us leave 2 hours early. Then we had only a 2 hour delay Tuesday even though we had about 5 inches of snow, which is usually more than enough to cancel school.

This messed up our schedule completely because this past week was the county-wide midterm testing week. Also, when we modify the schedule, some classes are longer than others and some don't meet at all, so it's a complete headache. However, another storm moved into the area Thursday night that dropped enough snow and ice to cancel school Friday. This conveniently gave me a 3 day weekend!

Saturday night was our staff Christmas party. This was a much hyped ordeal because the lady who plans it decided to have it on a boat in the Chesapeake bay. The reason this was supposed to be extra special is because last night was the "Lights on the Bay" display where people from some yacht club decorate their boats with tons of Christmas lights. Given the price we paid, I had imagined a lavish meal on a nice big yacht... but that isn't what we got. The boat was pretty small, the drinks were expensive, and the food was good but options were limited. Also the boat was rocking pretty badly at times, but after a few drinks I didn't seem to notice as much. We were pretty far away from the lighted boats, but it was still cool to see that. All in all, I think everybody had a good time (mostly because to be a member of the staff at NHS you seem to have to be willing to consume large amounts of alcohol), so it doesn't really matter that it wasn't quite what I had expected. It was fun to do something different, but hopefully next year the party will be in a bigger room that isn't moving. Here are some pictures of me and my friends on the boat:

Happy Holidays

On December 1, I found something out. The chocolates inside a chocolate advent calendar aren't good. This is upsetting to me because for what seemed like my whole childhood, I wished I could have a chocolate advent calendar because it combined two of my favorite things: chocolate and advent calendars. I still have an advent calendar every year, I guess because I have a sense of nostalgia, and I can remember rushing downstairs after waking up to see what was behind that little window. I can even remember a few times when mom bought the cheap ones that allowed you to seperate the back panel from the front and peer down to see all of the pictures (that kind of ruined it). What happens to that insatiable curiousity as you get older? Mine is gone. Obviously I approach my advent calendar with less zeal, but that is to be expected. It seems that everyone is less excstatic I still get pretty excited about the holiday (until yesterday, Billy and I were the only ones to have Christmas lights on our balcony and windows, which led me to believe they were against the rules... they're not). However, that curiousity is gone.

Each time we get paid they put a paystub in our school mailboxes that breaks down the taxes and such. Yesterday was pay day, and as I was sitting in my classroom grading papers after the students had left, the teacher who is in charge of the Giving Tree got on the intercom and said "Teachers, please come select a card from the Giving Tree, you don't have an excuse, we just got paid today!" Then I realized that my pay stub was sitting in my mail box, but that wasn't enough to motivate me to go get it. A few minutes later I realized that I was going to be paid my extra stipend for sponsoring student council either in this paycheck or in the next one, so I might have about $1000 extra in this pay stub. I still just sat there and continued grading papers for about half an hour until I had to go to the bathroom, so I walked over to the office as well to see if I'd been paid extra (I hadn't). This leads me to believe, in retrospect, that my curiosity is ABSOLUTELY gone. If I needed the money, I'm sure I would have rushed down there, but that would have been out of necessity rather than curiosity. If opening a paper to see whether I was $1000 richer didn't make me curious, I would guess nothing will. It makes me pretty sad that the curiousity was outweighed by my desire to finish grading one class period's persuasive essays so I would only have the other class's to grade over the weekend.

In related news, there was a wrapped present behind the cardboard window today. I put the chocolate in my mouth because I decided the chocolate was gross on the 1st, I threw the chocolate away yesterday, and I thought I might have been a bit too harsh on it the first day. I wasn't. It tastes like feet. It shouldn't even be allowed to be called chocolate.