Yikes.

It's been a little longer than I thought...track season and end of the year shenanigan really HAVE consumed my life...

Today: A few tidbits from the 8th grade, and a cleaned up top 10 list.

student 1: want some Pringles?
student 2: I'm allergic to Pringles.
student 1: I'm allergic to milk.
Flava Flav: I'm allergic to black people. That's why I fart all the time.


Former Thumb Sucker: What's an antelope?
Me: An animal...sort of like a deer.
FTS: Oh, I thought it was a food...
Girl Who Wants to be my Best Friend: Nooooo...that's cantaloupe!

(geezlouise, if I had to spell cantaloupe for a spelling bee I would totally be out. Even if they had given me a couple of chances... thank goodness for little red underlines and Google! Speaking of which...little known fact: when I was in the spelling bee in elementary school, I misspelled "chimneys"...I over applied the "change y to i and add es" rule...not that you actually care or anything...:) )

Okay, and a top ten list for you, cleaned up for public display. The top 10 ways you know you work at our wonderful school:

10. your clothes smell like tater-tots

9. you find yourself putting ranch dressing and hot sauce on everything

8. you've ever had the urge to tell random teenagers you don't know to pull up their pants and tuck in their shirts

7. you've ever had the urge to put duct tape over FS's (or Mr. Gas Ex's) mouth....

6. you know that Flaming Hot Cheetos are the real "Breakfast of Champions."

5. you've ever asked someone next door a question just by calling through the wall.

4. you can spot bad weave in 10 seconds flat

3. The phrase "My life... I'm so swole" makes sense to you.

2. you know that the translation for "I'm lactose intolerant" means "buy air freshener for your classroom (and implement a classroom procedure for what to do when you have to fart)".

1. large groups of white high school students make you uncomfortable.

oh wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere is my hairbrush?

I bought a brush today. I know, not too exciting, but I forgot my brush at my parents' house over spring break (or maybe I left it in Kentucky? I can't remember if the brush made it to Kentucky with me or not...). Thus, yes, it's true: I have not owned a brush since mid-March. Meaning I have not brushed my hair save for the few occasions (weekly?) when I walked into the bathroom to get ready to leave for the evening and saw my roommate's brush and thought, "Hmmm...maybe I should brush my hair before I leave..." Rest assured the brush would have been bought much earlier if I still had long hair...

I just thought you should know that I'm a disgusting person :)

I also once ate a cupcake that had been sitting in the street next to my car overnight. I was late for work and I was hungry; sue me.
;)

It's probably a good thing I've never taken an epidemiology course...I have very little regard or respect for dirt and germs. What? The two year old I'm babysitting just took a few bites of a cookie and handed it to me with his slobbery dirty hands? You can't waste cookies!

That is all. I hope you didn't throw up too much.



OH MY GOSH. Speaking of throwing up. I was walking behind this guy the other day on my way to the grocery store. Let me first assure you that I understand how it can be hard for tall guys to find pants that are long enough. So sometimes I'll be lenient on the high waters, but these ones were a little extreme. Plus...his pants had obviously shrunk in the wash, because when he put his hands in his pockets I could totally see his underwear lines! Ahhhh! I had to bleach my eyeballs when I got home.... That falls somewhere near the top of the list of things you should never have to see.

deficits and percents...

It's time for everyone's favorite unit in the eighth grade: electricity! When lighting up light bulbs prompts excited screams and spontaneous bursts of song (from Flava Flav...)...you know it's been a good day :)

After I had JUST answered the same question from another student...
Flava Flav: What does "deficit" mean?
me: Well, what's attention deficit disorder mean?
Flava Flav: You can't see?
me: No, ATTENTION deficit disorder.
Flava Flav: You can't hear?
By this point the rest of the class was listening to our conversation (which wasn't hard since I was sitting at my desk and talking across the room to him) and they helped correct him...



In other interesting events, the math teacher related this story to me yesterday. They are finishing up percents in the eighth grade math class, and he felt that he had a pretty good grip on the concept, so he asked them to estimate what percent of the US population is African American. Once they had all guessed, they clamoured to know who was the closest. He told them that one of them was...but they were still pretty far off. The closest kid guessed 45%; the rest guessed higher! When he told them that the actual number is more like 10-12%, they didn't believe him! They couldn't understand how the number could be that low when almost everyone in their neighborhoods is black...as is everyone they go to school with...

The math teacher didn't even want to tell them the other statistics: that only 7% of teachers are African American and that only 1% of teachers are African American males. How are they supposed to believe that when he's standing right there in front of them (he's African American), and when they have black teachers for 4/6 of their classes?

I just thought it was interesting. How experience can affect your view of the world...and your assumptions about how your world is similar/different from the rest of the world...