You Might be a Teacher

Even though I'm not in the classroom anymore, this list hit pretty close to home..

HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TEACHER?

by Jeff Foxworthy

1. You can hear 25 voices behind you and know exactly which one belongs to the child out of line.

2. You get a secret thrill out of laminating something.

3. You walk into a store and hear the words "It's Ms. Mr. ________" and know you have been spotted. (or on Lake Powell or at the gas station in Scipio)

4. You have 25 people that accidentally call you Mom/Dad at one time or another.

5. You can eat a multi-course meal in under twenty-five minutes.

6. You've trained yourself to go to the bathroom at two distinct times of the day: lunch and recess.

7. You start saving other people's trash, because most likely, you can use that toilet paper tube or plastic butter tub for something in the classroom.

8. You believe the teachers' lounge should be equipped with a margarita machine.

9. You want to slap the next person who says "Must be nice to work 8 to 3 and have summers off."

10. You believe chocolate is a food group.

11. You can tell if it's a full moon without ever looking outside.

12. You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says "Boy, the kids sure are mellow today."

13. You feel the urge to talk to strange children and correct their behavior when you are out in public.

14. You believe in aerial spraying of Ritalin.

15. You think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.

16. You spend more money on school stuff than you do on your own children.

17. You can't pass the school supply aisle without getting at least five items!

18. You ask your friends if the left hand turn he just made was a "good choice or a bad choice."

19. You find true beauty in a can full of perfectly sharpened pencils

20. You are secretly addicted to hand sanitizer and finally,

21. You understand instantaneously why a child behaves a certain way after meeting his or her parents.

So Long NaBloPoMo

Having now completed my second NaBloPoMo I have to say that November has become my favorite month to blog. I love the challenge of coming up with topics that are fun to write about, while interesting for people to read. I think this year the readership of this blog increased dramatically for NaBloPoMo. For the past few months I would receive a comment every week or two, but I've read comments almost daily during November. I attribute this to two things: More of you are checking in daily to read what's going on and the posts have covered more topics on which you have an opinion. Think about it, this month we've discussed School Vouchers, 1977, 2008 Presidential Campaign, The Utah byu Game, 5 Things About Me, and Vacuums. Who couldn't get excited about topics like these?!

Another major thing happened this month, I realized that people outside my little world read my blog. If you noticed that a post was removed by me during the month you may have asked why. Here's the story. I wrote a post about trying to work for a minor league basketball team a couple of weeks ago. In the post I made comments about the fact that I probably wasn't going to get the chance to really do anything and I was upset because I felt like I had more experience than the people they would be using. I didn't think anything of the comments until the day after I posted.

That afternoon my friend called me to say that the minor league team had read my blog and they weren't happy. They said, "We'd rather hire people who aren't as good, then work with people who are critical." Two things crossed my mind when I heard about this: 1) Someone actually took the time to do a search on this stuff and came across my blog. 2) Someone actually took the time to do a search on this stuff, came across my blog, and took offense by what I had written. I didn't really know what to do about the whole situation, so I took the post down and sent an email to the minor league basketball team to apologize. So here's the question I've been asking myself - should I have removed the post or not?

iPod Surprises

They say that you can tell a lot about someone based upon what's in their iPod. While most of the contents of my iPod aren't that surprising, there are a few things that you probably wouldn't have guessed. Here are the biggest shockers:

ABBA - Gold. I really like listening to a few of their songs. Dancing Queen has a great intro and a very catchy chorus. Take A Chance on Me is another classic and what can you say about Knowing Me, Knowing You.

Norah Jones - Come Away with Me. This is an album that carries one particular memory. Tara and I were in California during May 2003 trying to get pregnant. We were there for ten days in a rental car and we picked up this CD while still at the airport. I can't hear any of the songs without thinking of that trip and our attempt to get pregnant.

10,000 Maniacs - Our Time in Eden. This is certainly another nostalgic album. I remember riding around in Jeff's car listening to Candy Everyone Wants for hours. He couldn't get enough of that song and it still makes m smile to this day. Give em what they want...

Vince Guaraldi Trio - A lot of you are saying WHO? All I need to say is the Peanuts music and you'll know. I love listening to jazz and the songs associatied with Charlie Brown and Peanuts gang are so great to listen to. These are songs that take you back to childhood and innocence. Whether it's the Great Pumpkin Waltz or Christmas Time is Here I love listening to this CD.

John Denver - To those who know me well, this is no surprise. But I know that some of you are snickering to yourselves out there. I can't stand country music, and I'll argue that Denver technically isn't country, but I love his songs about a simple life and country living. Rocky Mountain High, Calypso, Eagle and the Hawk, and Flying for Me are some of my favorite songs and I never get tired of this good ol' country boy.

So, there you have it. Maybe you know a little more about me by knowing some of the songs on my playlists. Were there are surprises?

Til Someone Gets Hurt

I saw this story the other day on the news and thought the officer was justified, after watching the entire video there's no doubt in my mind. If you watch the video you'll see that the officer is trying to resolve the situation, but the driver won't let him. When a cop tells you to get down you don't walk away from him. When you're pulled over for speeding you don't walk to the speed limit sign to argue your case. That's what you do when you go to court to fight the ticket. The driver took the situation to a higher level and didn't really give the officer any choice. Even after the guy was tased and cuffed he kept walking around behind the cop - get a clue!! I felt bad for the driver's wife, but these two have watched way too many police shows on TV to think that they have the right to argue with the police in the middle of an arrest.

I think this story is another example of people feeling entitled to do or say whatever they want. Whether it's drivers on the road, athletes on the court, students in the classroom, customers at the store - everyone seems to feel they have the right to act however they want. I see this mind set way too often and it gets old. I'm not saying that people don't have rights, but you don't have the right to be belligerent and not pay the consequences.

It's too bad that this situation happened, but if this guy thinks he can sue the highway patrol for the way he was treated - he better have a good attorney.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like...

For the past month we've had the warmest weather I can remember. Can you believe that about a week ago it almost reached 70 degrees for the daytime high. I mean, how many time can you go to work in November without taking a jacket? Still, I thought I had better get up on the roof to put up the Christmas lights, even though it didn't really feel like the holiday season was upon us. Tonight, I'm glad I put the lights up early this year....