February 2007 Archives

So I am officially a slave to my television. Or rather, to the TV on DVD that I obsessively rent from Video Verite. I have crossed the line of seeing characters as characters, and I now see many of them as friends. As in, when Karen and Jim started dating I didn't think "wow, it was very clever of the Office creators to make the Karen character so likable." Instead I thought, "I'm sorry Pam! I want to hate her but I just can't!" I love the staff of Dunder Mifflin. As human beings. My head says they're not real, but my heart says "go to Scranton! Michael will hire you!" And The Office is not the only show that I am unreasonable attached to. There is also:
* LOST (duh)
* Heroes (don't judge me- I'm a comic book nerd)
* Entourage (it's so sexist and yet so dreamy!)
* ANTM (still!?!?)
* West WIng (they're so well spoken!)
* 30 Rock (though I finally gave up Studio 60- sorry Aaron!)
* Arrested Development (how can you not?)

And now. Like I need another show. I started renting Alias. Just innocently, you know? I wanted something action-y and mindless that I could pick up now and then. I don't even like Jennifer Garner. But goddamnit! I have watched something like 16 episodes in just over a week! I love Sydney! I LOVE Vaughn! I want them to get married and have little crime fighting babies! I love Sydney's poor, ashamed dad! I love Quentin Terintino's two-episode take over! I love that he backwashed into the champagne bottle and then told Sydney about it! I love Alias! I don't want to love it but I do! I had to force myself (physically!) to write this entry and not just watch another episode instead! And now it is my bedtime and I have conferences all evening after school tomorrow so I should really go to bed RIGHT NOW, but I am 90% sure that I will end up watching another episode! Somebody do an intervention! I can't stop clicking "next!"

SOUTH AFRICAN BOY IN MY CLASS: Ms Wonder, remember how on your birthday we had a dance party?
ME: Yes.
BOY: Well, that dance party was a kid idea right, not your idea?
ME: Right...
BOY: So sometime you do ideas that are from kids, not just ideas that are from you, right?
ME: That's true.
BOY: Well then, I was wondering if we could do a carnival during Choice Time, because there are a bunch of us who have been building carnival rides out of Connectz. We could each stand next to the ride we made and tell the other kids about it.
ME: I think that would be okay. What kind of time line are you thinking of?
BOY: About a week.
ME: Can I give you a suggestion? Posters.
BOY: Oh yeah, that's a good idea. Hmm. We'll probably actually need two weeks. And I think we should invite Ms M.'s class as well.
ME: Okay.
BOY: Okay.

Such amazing salesmanship! He had me at "Remember how on your birthday we had a dance party." I love thinking of him plotting his approach- he knew he had me nailed down. Anyway, I'll post carnival pictures in two weeks.

THIS IS MY JOB!!!!

I've been getting out a bit more this month. It started with the awesome Fresh Pot Five Year Anniversary Party held in the ballroom below my apartment. OMG. It was SO. FUN. Quasi played. QUASI!! aka probably my favorite Portland band. I mean, just look at Janet pound those drums:

She is a machine.

It was neat because a lot of my old college friends were there- all the dudes I worked with at the radio station, plus some homies from the dorms that I never see anymore. Someone made the great call that it was like Sunburn- the big campus concert we organized every year. I don't know if it was being surrounded by old friends, or the fact that Quasi (who probably peaked in the year 2000) played, or because I was solidly drunk, but for the first time since I started teaching I felt like I was my own age or younger. Usually I feel a good 15 to 25 years older than I am. Anyway, I kept telling my friend Matt that I was the happiest I had been in "over a year." And even now, two weeks later and sober, I think it's true.

A week later I celebrated my birthday- first at school and then at Vendeta, the bar down the street. I was totally exhausted because the Penguin Open House was the night before, which meant I stayed at school for 13 hours organizing life-sized painted penguins and setting up the ocean temperature expiriment.

A quick word about Penguin Open Houses, or any other classroom event: Don't come early. If it starts at 6:30 don't come at 6. The teacher won't be all the way set up and anyway, maybe she wants to eat a little snack and call her boyfriend right before the event is supposed to begin. If you come 30 minutes early she will secretly hate you for the next two weeks. You don't want that, and neither does she. So be on time, or a little late. Thank you.

Anyway, on the day of my birth I was beat. But my kids were PUMPED UP. They made me many many cards:

And two boys teamed up to make me a crown:

The whole class kept asking if I was "looking forward to the dance party" that they were throwing me. I was like, "Listen dudes. I don't know how you are going to swing this dance party, since I'm the one who makes the schedule around here." But they wore me down and for the last 20 minutes of the day we had a wicked cool dance zone.

Later I went to an super nice dinner with Steve and Mike, and then over to Vendetta for drinking with friends. Birthdays are fun!

The next week brought more parties- Jac's sweet B-Day bash plus a great show at Holocene. I feel like I'm thawing the fuck out. It's awesome.

Check me out! My tax refund was EXACTLY enough to pay for the new MacBook that I've been literally pinching pennies for. (Turns out not much happens when you pinch a penny. It heats up a little, but that's it.) I have had the same ibook G3 since 2001, and while it was a good little machine that served me very well, it couldn't play dvds. Or avi files, really. And it couldn't burn CDs or do stuff fast. And it was full of memories and didn't have any more memory to spare. I decided about two years ago to get new one, but it just wasn't financially possible until now. BUT NOW I HAVE A MACBOOK AND I LOVE IT AND IT IS CUTE AND IT IS FAST AND IT TAKES PICTURES OF ME IN THE STYLE OF ANDY WARHOL LIKE SO:

Mike is jealous that I have better technology than him. He likes to use the photobooth feature too, but prefers to make himself look more creepy than glamourous:

It is so fun!!

Also in "welcome to the future willow mcc" news, I will turn 27 on Friday. If you are in Portland and you know me and are not a creep you are welcome to join me in festivities at Vendetta on my birthday night. 27 is going to be fun!!!