Two Things, Quickly

1) I got new glasses. For those of you with 20/20 vision, first of all, go away. Second, getting new glasses is very important and slightly stressful because they GO ON YOUR FACE. So you have to take great care in choosing the frames that will GO ON YOUR FACE, where people look the most. I tried going alone--fool! Foolish fool! Fortunately Mom came with me the second time to help me choose. The sisters tried to make me wait until they came home for the holidays, but once I got the ball rolling, I couldn't wait. See, I've needed a new pair for, oh, about two years or longer. I think my previous pair had a fourth birthday. At the very least, I found out that my left eye had gotten all wonky and astigmatic, if such a word exists.

In looking, I wanted a pair NOT like my old ones. What did I keep picking out? Pairs like ones I'd previously had. Do you have any idea how many styles they have out there? And how many will make me look like a bug or that I'm wearing goggles? You'll all be thrilled and relieved to know I found a pair that looked just different enough, flattered my face, and had just a wee bit of edge to them. I got compliments from students--now, that's saying something. That they even noticed says a lot.

OK, so you just read about me buying glasses. Clearly I need to find something else to do. But seriously! It's a big decision! Like buying a house! Erm....

2) They caught the kid who posted the bomb threat. I won't tell you the kid's name, but everyone, EVERYONE knows him as Sketchy ______. As in, if the kid's name was Ed, everyone knows him as Sketchy Ed. Even the teachers call him this (not to his face, of course). Due to bad decision making on his part, this kid had carved out a path to juvie and our correctional system quite some time ago. I don't like to think that, but he really didn't leave me any other choice. (Aside--when I write "correctional facility", I think of the euphemism of "correcting" people the one evil character used in the novel/movie The Shining. Hmmm.) He'd been busted for drug deals, robbing houses in the area, and a couple other things. It was a progression.

I don't think I should divulge the details of what happened, suffice to say that he, himself, made the call and someone recognized his voice on the tape. They confronted him yesterday, he tried to run, the policeman chased him and threatened to shoot him in the posterior (not kidding!) and the boy dropped to the pavement like a stone. So he's in jail for a while.

I realize there's no congruity at all between those two stories, but that's just how my mind worked today. What can I say? Have a great weekend!

Newspaper History

My dad told me of the site www.newseum.com. If you click on this link, you can look at hundreds of newspaper headlines from the election. It's rather awe-inspiring. I chose a few at random for you to see (I'm sorry they're so narrow; I had to make them fit.). Well, I chose San Francisco's because all it has is a picture and a name. Pretty amazing:

Not your typical day

Yesterday we had someone call up the school and issue a bomb threat, saying there was a bomb in a locker. I can write this because we had to do a press release, so I think it's public knowledge. Pretty scary--we went on shutdown and kept all the kids in their classrooms until the bomb-sniffing dogs went through and ascertained that no bombs indeed existed. Nobody had any idea what was going on. Fortunately it was during my lunch, so I didn't have to attempt to keep 27 kids calm and off their cell phones.

Why did we keep the kids inside, you ask? Several reasons:

1) Making that sort of announcement would have incited panic in our 1700 students. Keeping everyone calm is easier when it's in smaller groups.

2) It's part of our shutdown plan.

3) It kept the kids out of the dogs' way so they could do an efficient search.

4) (and this scared the bejeebers out of me) In Paducah, KY, within the past year or so, someone issued a bomb threat. When they evacuated the kids, snipers in the woods began taking shots at the kids. I'm not kidding. What sick people. So, we felt it best to keep the kids inside, as we knew of no imminent threat. The police showed up immediately; I feel they would have told us to evacuate had they thought it necessary.

Needless to say, today felt a little weird. I let the kids talk about it; they felt fairly rattled too, though they tried not to show it. You know, I experienced fights in the Buffalo city schools; we went on lockdown for that often enough that it wasn't a huge deal, but this felt a lot different because it was so much bigger. I think kids knew about it--I wonder if they'll find who did it.

Anyway, it gave us an extra day to input 1st quarter grades. That's my weak attempt at humor, heh heh. I smile like a lunatic when I'm extremely nervous (it's totally a muscle thing, not deliberate or even voluntary), so I had a Joker-like rictus grin on for about an hour yesterday. Ech.

I'm glad nothing happened. Really, really glad. I'm off to pet my dog and hug my husband.

Pictures from last weekend Halloween

Well, my brother T and his wife W had a very fun Halloween party last weekend. I promised you pictures, so here are a few. I won't post all of them (like my friends who dressed as Hugh Hefner and a bunny, but reversed--he was the bunny; she was Hef), but I think you'll like them:

Madonna and her security, circa 1985

Gilligan's Island and...my brother as a woman coming out of a cake

Halloween card my brother's mom sent

Of course someone dressed as Sarah Palin

Our friend M (T's fake twin--don't they look alike?) as Canadian hockey broadcaster Don Cherry. "Ginger" got tired of her wig, so T put it on for fun

Good times, lots of dress-up!

Change is Here

I'll post very, very quickly and write that, while I fell asleep (at 9:30--It's been a long week, so far) before seeing the results live, before seeing Barack Obama's amazing acceptance speech, I awoke at 3am, turned on the news, and fell asleep excited by our future and awed by our voting process.

I felt such pride voting yesterday, such hope. I still feel that today. I'm so glad our country chose a leader who has an open mind and, more importantly, who got so many different groups of people involved in the political process, including me. I could go on and on, but I have to read for next period because I got so caught up in watching election stuff that I didn't do it last night.... I do have fears that hatred will rear its ugly head in ways which stop our hearts, but even more so I have that hope that Americans will see what we're capable of as a country through the leader so many of us chose to elect.

At any rate, yes we did. For the next four years: Yes, we can.

M and C's Wedding

What a glorious weekend! Despite the torrential rain, everything went wonderfully. M looked stunning, C made everyone cry during his wedding toast as he talked about how much he loved M (and a special toast to my parents--he choked up; we all got teary), the wedding pies ROCKED and so did the band....

They had a dual ceremony because C is Jewish, so they stood under a chuppah (canopy spread over four poles that symbolizes the home they'll build together), signed a ketubah (Jewish prenuptial agreement, but it's a lot more--it's about pledging your love and faith, etc.), and had this pre-wedding meeting, the name of which escapes me. That part I loved because it came from ancient times when Jacob was married to older sister Leah (who wore a veil so he didn't know) instead of the younger Rachel, whom he'd been promised. Basically, the bride and groom have this meeting to ensure they're marrying the right person! Then they sign the ketubah and the parents all give advice to the B&G. Both of them got to break the glass because they had a feminist rabbi. Yeah!

On the Christian end of things, they had a minister at the ceremony (along with the rabbi) and some beautiful Bible readings. As M pointed out, they wanted to give equal time, but the Jewish faith happens to have more overt customs than the Presbyterians do. As they left, we bridesmaids and groomsmen all lit candles of the guests and the newlyweds left the ceremony in candlelight. Gorgeous.

I've never seen my sister look so entirely happy. Here are just a few of the pictures so you can see what I mean:

flowers--so beautiful!

Getting ready

Mmm...pie...(so delicious!!!)

C's father, M, R

Another good-looking couple (ahem)

First dance (Bonnie Raitt--"Not the Only One")

Crazy on the dance floor

The happy couple!

Sigh...what a happy weekend.

Happy Halloween, folks! I dressed as mid-80s Madonna today and will do so again tomorrow night with T as my roadie. Of course we'll post pics.

p.s.

Hellooooo, international readers! Glad to have you along! Hope all is well in your respective countries and lives. I appreciate your reading. :-)