BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

I'm pretty sure the account of this incident would make my dad, a fire marshal, cry in frustration, so I hope you all will be kind enough not to tell him. Near the end of the day, an alarm started going off. Having been ill on the day of our one and only fire drill, I wasn't exactly sure what was going on. I couldn't find one of those tables that decodes the bell system (you know, one ring for lock down, two for earthquake, three for aliens, etc. Speaking of a lock down, we can't lock our classroom doors from the inside, which I think is total bullshit. We also have no blinds, so anyone and their mother could just look inside to see a room full of kids hiding under their desks. Idiotic design, if you ask me), so I had to ask one of the students if this was actually the fire alarm. Once we determined that it was, in fact, the fire alarm, I then searched hopelessly for the emergency packet that I thought was usually located by the doors. As my students pointed out, it is actually located at the front of the room where anyone but the teacher can easily see it. After the students with a sense of self preservation left for the meeting spot out in the parking lot, I was finally able to drive my reluctant flock outside to wait out the last 15 minutes of the school day and mess up my lesson plan.

I am quite impressed with the alarm system at my school. Instead of the old school bells that leave you unable to hear a word anyone else says, we've got these flashing devices that emit tones on the same resonance frequency as the human skull yet still allow for conversation in the mean time. You wind up being driven outside by the sheer annoyance of it all, except if you are a high schooler, in which case it falls on deaf ears, much like a teacher telling them to shut their face. I had this one chatty group that just would not leave the building, and, though I like them well enough as people, I think I would laugh hysterically if they died from talking too much.

Next January fire alarm, I need to remember to bring my sweater instead of leaving it draped over a chair in the classroom. Even though it is San Diego, January can still be a bit nippy, so I was left cold and vaguely hungry from the burnt popcorn that had apparently started this whole incident in the first place. At least I got a little disaster practice in.

Perhaps I harbor secret fears about our upcoming trip to the museum

Last night I dreamed that I was in charge of a field trip gone horribly wrong. Whatever the kids were supposed to be doing wasn't happening, so while the other teachers scraped something together I was forced to entertain the restless masses. Unable to think of anything else, I was reduced to describing jelly beans and having the students guess the flavor.

Peering into the depths of my... pantry

I'm on a mission to clean out my pantry. I've got so much stuff--food stuff--that has just sat there, collecting dust, in the months and years since I've bought it.

This whole process began in December, when I wanted to avoid buying more perishable food since we were going on vacation. Since then, it has morphed into an all-out pantry searching bonanza. I'm not the only one who feels this way, but my situation has gotten particularly bad from years of neglect. I can't help but pick up the occasional sauce or treat that catches my eye, but then I have a tendency not to use said treats. However, with an eye to our upcoming move (I've already started stockpiling boxes for our immense library), I've decided to weed out all of that excess food that we've been carrying around. It should make for some interesting eating these next few months.

Snow on the cacti

Yesterday, R, B, and I went snowboarding. R and I had been planning on going for a while, since the storm that had passed through the area purportedly dumped 4' of snow on the mountains (in truth, more like 1.5'), but I was a little surprised when my sister clamored to go. She had only arrived back in the country at 4 am on Friday, having spent the last 16 days in Bali. I can only imagine that she slept well last night, seeing as she was severely jet lagged. Poor thing!

Still I know she had a good time. She's a trooper (or possibly just a little mad).

On our way home, we saw a tiny car with a ridiculous spoiler that looked like the head of a manta ray.

Maybe I'm a little mad myself.

The plight of the modern teacher

My school has a no-cell-phones-during-class policy. If the phone is out during class time, we're supposed to take them away. The kid whom I took one from today was texting with his mom (or, more precisely, she was texting him). What on earth did she think she was doing? She knows the policy. Does she think the rules don't apply to her kid?