Purchases

I bought my first candle this week. It was $20 on sale. I don't know why, but I feel as if my life is different now. I had similar feeling when I bought my first 3-hole punch. It seems like a rite of passage - I'm one more step into adulthood. Christie, stop reading now. I accidentally left it burning while I was out this weekend - for 5 hours.

I also bought a vest. It looks good, but it does not look like something I would wear. Christie supported the purchase, but only because she's a good friend. She thinks wearing a vest is weird. Could this be some strange quarter-life crisis? When/if I buy a camera (my 4th for the year) I'll post a picture of my new vest, with a candle burning in the background.

Dan Goldin Day

We had 14 people at the brewery to celebrate Dan Goldin Day this year. And some of them didn't even know they were out for the holiday until they arrived and I told them. I had not wanted them to feel any pressure to buy gifts or get dressed up special. A good time was had by all - or so I was told. The highlight of my evening was certainly dancing to Billy Ocean's "Get out of my Dreams". My new friends were mega-impressed when I called a Journey song seconds before it played. "Just another Dan Goldin Day miracle," I explained to them. Mario told me later this weekend that Hall & Oates and Billy Ocean had not had such large roles in his life until he started hanging out with me and Jon. This was before he heard Christie and me sing "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" at the pizza place on Saturday afternoon.

On-the-job Training

Blogger is in Japanese! So is google! What is wrong with my computer? I had to guess at what links would bring me to this page. At least when my computer is in Spanish I can make reasonable guesses as to what words mean.

Anyway, I wanted to write about a student today, who showed me a little bit of the ashes of his dead mother. She died earlier this year. The ashes were in a little gold cross that he wore around his neck. It was sad and I didn't know what to say. I asked him where his family keeps the urn. They don't teach you things like this in education classes.

Class

The textbook mentions Macbeth because they assume that all high school students would be familiar with Shakespeare's greatest plays.

Me: Does anyone know what Macbeth is?
12th grade student: Yeah, I do. He's a crime-fighting dog.
Me: Ummm...You're thinking of McGruff.

Also, this was one of my best students. He's at least making associations with the words I use in class.

Sprecken the Deutsch?

Great, now everything is in Dutch on my computer. The extent of my Dutch is houseboatmuseum, which, believe it or not, translates to "houseboat museum."