Things I Love*

I love...

• Popcorn with extra butter and salt
• I am talking about popcorn you make in the air popper, then pour real melted butter over. Right now, I really enjoy putting the salt on the popcorn, because my salt shaker is a little yellow bear, and that makes me smile. Popcorn is so ridiculously delicious. Sometimes I have a large mixing bowl full of popcorn for dinner. While I prefer the air-popped popcorn smothered in butter, I occasionally enjoy the microwave variety, and it is practically impossible to see a movie sans-popcorn!
• Tea
• Earl Grey, Lady Grey, Mint, Orange Pekoe, Green, White, Darjeeling, Chamomile, they are all wonderful. This year, I have really been experimenting will loose teas, and I believe there are about five varieties of loose tea on my shelf right now. Tea is good in the morning, afternoon, or nighttime. Tea is just amazing. If  you don't drink tea, you should start immediately! I think I drink about 3-6 cups of tea per day.
• Playing with Squeaky
• My cat is awesome. She is 16 years old and still loves to play and run around. She also has the most attitude I have ever seen in a cat, and she things she is a person. Squeaky will try to hold a conversation with anyone who comes into our home, and I think she can understand what we're saying, because if someone makes fun of her, she glares at them for a while. Tonight I got her a new tunnel to play in and a new feathery toy on a stick. She enjoys them both.
• My Friends
• I am pretty sure I have some of the best, most amazing, talented, hilarious,unique, intelligent, kind, generous, down-right fantastic friends in all of the world. I love them all.
• Ice Cream for Breakfast
• I prefer to eat it with a spoon right out of the container while checking my email and sitting on the couch. There is nothing like a little chocolate chip cookie dough or mint chocolate chip ice cream to start your day off right.
• My Family
• My family, while absolutely crazy, is a great bunch of people. Good job, guys!
• Singing Aloud Really Loudly in the Car
• Especially now that I am listening to my ipod in the car, this has become a once again frequent activity. Songs that are super-fun to sing along with include, but are certainly not limited to: "I Can't Get No Satisfaction", "The Little Things You Do", "Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side",  "Jessie's Girl", "Resistensen", and "Someday" (Leo Laleo).
• Dancing Like a Maniac
• I'm a maniac! MANIAC on the floor! And I'm dancing like I've never danced before! This can be done in the car, in the kitchen while cooking, in the living room, while cleaning, before bed, or in the classroom. Usually I try to refrain in more public places - such as the grocery store - where such activities are generally frowned upon and may cause security to come have a chat with you.
• Mittens
• If you don't agree that mittens are amazing, then I don't know that I can trust your opinion on anything. They are so fun! And they come in so many colors and designs and fabrics! Plus they keep your hands, fingers, and wrists toasty warm through the 132,004 days of Minnesota Winter!
• When the Leaves Change Colors in the Fall
• Autumn foliage can be breathtakingly beautiful, especially if admired while on the water. Plus I just enjoy the smell, feeling, and temperature of fall.
• Playing the Piano
• This is one of my favorite de-stressing activities at the end of the day.
• My Job
• While incredibly stressful, and I am overworked, under-payed,  unappreciated, and quite often thrown under the bus or verbally abused by children, I love my job. I love working with my students, even if they are hooligans! They are my hooligans! We sing songs, read books, dance, discuss, practice our pronunciation, and talk about our cultures. They make me life and teach me so much! I can't imagine doing anything else with my life!
• When Squeaky Curls up and Snuggles Me
• She always prefers to curl up and sleep near my knees. I appreciate this, and I like knowing she is there. In her older age, she stay longer with me, and doesn't get so upset when I move around in the night.
• Crossword Puzzles
• I like to think that this will help me prevent or delay Alzheimer's or make me smarter or something.  While not particularly good at the New York Times Crossword Puzzles, I have a book of them in every room in the house, almost, and one in my car. It is a good way to spend the time with a cup of tea and a cat.
• Going to See Any Kind of Live Performance
• It can be a play, opera, orchestra concert, musical, a magic show, Rick Springfield concert, a couple of banjos - it doesn't matter. I will probably enjoy it.
• Playing Board Games - Especially ones that have to do with words or words play
• Maybe I am super lame, but I love playing board games! My favorites are of course games like Bananagrams, Boggle, or anything that allows me to manipulate words and letters, however I enjoy strategy games such as Othello as well or games that encourage social interaction, such as Curses, Imaginiff, Pictophone, or Fact or Crap.
• Going to the Cabin
• The cabin is a wonderful place. Ideally I would like to have a home in the woods on the water someday. 
• Reading Signs Out Loud
• This is just really fun. When I am in the car alone, I love reading signs aloud. "WANA - mingoooooo!" "Super Soup This Way!" "Demolition Landfill" "We Do Cows!" "Karaoke every Tuesday at 7pm". The sign doesn't always have to be particularly interesting or shocking, but I really enjoy reading them out loud. Sometimes I even do it when I am in the car or walking with someone else. Occasionally I will even stop mid-sentence or interrupt a friend to read a sign out loud. This odd - but I hope charmingly quirky - habit might be contagious, because I have caught some of my friends doing it more recently as well.

*A small sampling of the list in no particular order

Now quick! Take the grocery store survey!

Teachers: 1; Origami: 0

It may not seem that way to an outsider, but I lead a pretty awesome life.

After school today, I met two colleagues and friends of mine (Ashley and the other Ivy) at Dunn Brothers to do some prep work for a lesson I want to do with my fourth graders tomorrow. This lesson includes making an origami box, and with no origami experience at all, I naturally turned to the internet for guidance. I printed two different kinds of boxes, grabbed some construction paper, two rulers, some pencil nubs off my desk, and some kiddie scissors and headed off for some coffee.

Those of you that know me know that I shouldn't be allowed to do art projects. Between my lack of fine motor skills and just my general clumsiness, I usually end up with more paper glued to myself than the project or more needle holes in my finger than in the fabric. Nonetheless, I insist of persisting. It took all three of us, Ashley, Other Ivy, and myself, but we managed to make a basic box AND the star box. There was a lot of "smack talk" and grumbling, but we won!

All day long, the three of us preach and nag about positive attitudes, respectful interactions, doing your best, and working together. I'm sure we attracted a lot of attention during the first chunk of our time, where our boxes refused to be boxes. "This is dumb!" "This doesn't make any sense!" "This is stupid!" "No! You're stupid!" "My box at least looks more like a box than your box!", and other such un-positive attitude comments escaped from all three of us. There was cursing, muttering, banging the crumpled paper on the table, throwing things aside, and general disrespect for ourselves, others, and our place. (If you work where I work, you will understand the last part of that comment.) But in the end, with our combined stubborness and some effective teamwork, as well as using our words, we conquered the origami directions!

Three cheers for us!

Then I went home and had popcorn and did laundry. I also worked for quite some time on the prototype for my mitten project. It is my intent to turn regular mittens into dragon mittens for two of my friends for Christmas. This is proving to be more difficult than it should be, but not more difficult than I anticipated. And after the origami star box, I have faith in myself!

When I'm not too lazy to go dig out the camera and download pictures, I will take some pictures of my boxes (I am very proud) and of the dragon mitten prototype. Or maybe you'll see me walking around wearing them.