Things I did today instead of the work I needed to do

1. Got a mani/pedi
2. Went grocery shopping
3. Went shopping for a baby shower. That's in March.
4. Made a Chicken Apricot Tangine for dinner (it'll be done in an hour, yum!)
5. Spent at least three hours surfing teh internets
6. Reorganized the linen closet
7. Rearranged the living room. Um, surprise, hon! I rearranged the living room!

Reasons my school needs to stop calling a snow day

1. It's crazy easy to drive right now. I mean, seriously, people.

2. Andrew has a cold that he keeps telling me about. Or maybe he's just "getting" sick. But he keeps telling me about it. And clearing his throat loudly and mucously. And by the way, he's getting sick?

3. I'm running out of free-day crap to do, and soon I'm going to start doing things like clean the basement.

4. Have I mentioned that Andrew's got cold? Because he has. Once or twice.

I love taking pictures

And I love what I'm taking pictures of.

This is what a lazy snow day is all about.

Remember when I said...

that Portlanders don't know how to drive on snow?

Here's proof.

PS: make sure your volume's on when you watch that!

To Portland, my school, and various and sundry others

Dear Portland,

This is how you do a snow day. Gorgeous.


Now freaking plow the roads, you jackholes. We live on the Major Cross Street, the one that divides North Portland from South Portland, and in six hours of pretty constant snow, it hasn't been plowed once. NOT ONCE. We also live near the major north-south boundary street and it hasn't been plowed. You, as a city, sometimes suck.

With love, but also without patience,
Me




Dear School,


See above about "This is how you do a snow day." Thursday's snow day was weeeeeak. Not a lick of snow, barely any wind. It was above 40, for chrissakes!


And yet I got a call at 5:00 a.m. telling me school was cancelled.

Today, though. Snow, freezing rain expected, won't get above 35 all day (in fact, that's perfect for melt-refreeze! awesome!). And yet--you waited until I pulled into the school parking lot to cancel school.


Well done!


Thanks a ton, and thankfully I didn't die on my way home, although if I did it would have totally been your fault,
me.


PS: also, considering finals are next week and the make-up days for snow days aren't till June, please don't be surprised when my geometry students all fail, 'kay? thanksbyeeeee!





Dear Portland drivers,

Snow does not bite, it does not sting, and it will not burn you. In fact, please just don't drive. You frighten me. Turn into the skid, don't flail wildly, dammit! You can't get your car moving by accelerating faster, assholes, you'll just melt the snow you're on and it turns to ice! Braking harder doesn't help! Aaaauuuggggh!


In for the duration,
me



Dear fireplace, hot cocoa, netflix, and couch,

I heart you all.

Love and snuggles,
me

Made me laugh

It's infertilitopoly!

It's true, I'm cursed.

"Hey hon?"

"Yeah?"

"We really need to fix the toilet."

"What this we? It's your curse."*

"Fuck. It is."

*He's right. Going back to my apartment in Chicago with two roommates, I've always had a toilet that breaks. This toilet, a relic from the fifties in a fantastic shade of powder blue, has been among the worst.

This is not what I meant

So, we totally moved out here because we were tired of the super cold winters and the super hot summers. We were tired of high-rises and hour commutes where you didn't leave the city. We wanted to buy a house without having to have a million in T-bills stashed somewhere.

I'm still down with the last two, but the first one? Totally hasn't panned out. Aside from a couple freak snowstorms, the midwest and East Coast has been much warmer than Portland this winter. Tonight and tomorrow it's supposed to get down to the teens. Seriously, what's all that about?

Anyway. Not much updating right now, mostly I'm just tired what with the getting-all-back-to-classes stuff. School continues apace, although in one of my classes, only three people finished their homework.

Three.

Remind me again, how awesome teaching is?

Super proud

I'm so proud of my students.

We just had a project finish where they had to inject bias into a survey and see if it affected results. For instance--does adding extra information to a question make people answer differently than they would have? How do characteristics of the interviewer affect results? Can you ask a question two different ways that are logically equivalent but would inspire different answers? Do people answer questions differently when it isn't anonymous?

The kids, for the most part, did some great work. I am way impressed with how controversial they were willing to be, with what they did for their posters, with the displays that they did... they really set the bar high for next year's kids.

Heh.

Next year's kids.

Why I...

...will always have a job.

2007: Hello, you great-lookin' year, you!

I woke up last night and had a full blown panic attack. My heart was racing, I thought I might vomit, and I had no idea why. A was as good as he could possibly be, considering I woke him up out of a sound (and mostly sober) slumber. The worst part? I have no concrete reason why. But that's how panic attacks are.

Today's been devoted to most of the work I meant to leisurely do all vacation. Grading, more grading, with a side of grading and some grading on top. Whee. That might have been part of why I freaked right the fuck out last night. Gar. I'm so tired of grading. Plus whenever I think of stats, I get mildly panicky because I am totally making this up as I go along, which for a type A like me causes no small amount of anxiety.

But I've made good progress, I have a nice crockpot of some turkey-bean chili going, and the Rose Bowl is on TV, so I'm taking a quick break to write some resolutions.

1. Don't be so hard on myself.

Hah.

2. Drink more water.

I would make a huge resolution about losing weight and getting fit, but I want this to be acheivable. If, in fact, I can do those things, great, but mostly I want to focus on healthier, so my resolution for now is to make sure I get the appropriate amount of water each day. I'll work on the others.

3. Finish the album of A.

This I started as a Christmas present for A. In August. Um. Maybe it'll be a birthday present?

4. Debt-free heaven in 2007

Our credit cards never got paid off after our move out here. They've inched up steadily since then--buying a house does that. It's stupid, because we don't really USE them all that much. So suck it up, girl. Don't buy shit. Use that money and get out from under that debt as soon as possible because that? Is just a better life, and you deserve it.

I think those are four acheivable resolutions that'll make me happier in the long run.

Alright, back to grading.