Drumroll please...it's a List.

I made a long, arduous hike to my car a while ago to retrieve my bag containing items to prevent boredom in various situations- especially useful during non-elementary school subbing. However, the teacher left her computer logged on for me so I have instead been reading up on blogs, looking at wedding stuff, etc. This has caused me to want to update my blog, but I really don't know what to say. Therefore, here is "Kelli's First Blogging List" (try to contain your excitement). I have decided to curb the randomness and restrict this list to the joys of substitute teaching...in no particular order.

• Every day is a new situation. No cubical farm monotony here.
• It's fun to be directionally impaired and try to remember directions to and the layouts of about ten different places (so far).
• Flexible schedule.
• Sometimes not knowing, when you go to bed, if you'll work in the morning or not.
• Occasionally getting to feel like you're making a difference... or at least making someone's day a little better.
• Lots of movies.
• Re-learning all the things that were crammed down your throat in school, but never stuck... and actually enjoying it this time.
• School lunch is only $2.65! (and worth every penny)
• Getting paid to read... or do newspaper puzzles... or update blogs!
• Getting out at 2:30 or 3-ish.
• Seeing "the other side" of school... like where the teachers go that nobody else can.
• Reading fun stories to children.
• Ah! the smell of hand sanitizer.
• Watching other people struggle with Chemistry and secretly laughing at them.
• Freaking people out when you actually know the subject matter.
• Spring Break!! (break: good; paycheck: bad)
• Not having to make lesson plans, grade papers, or do homework.
• Kids are funny... all ages, different amusements.

I'm sure I could think of more if I really tried, but maybe I'll post an addendum later. I hope you enjoyed it.

Correction

Just in case there are any fans out there of Kathie Lee Gifford, Carnival Cruiseline, or 80s commercials, I thought I would throw in a correction from two entries ago. After much reflection I realized that the song on the commercial was not "Who Could Ask for Anything More" but was in fact, "If They Could See Me Now" or whatever the song with those words is actually titled. I still think there was a commercial using the former song, but I can't remember what it was. I'm sure no one else was losing sleep over this, but I just couldn't allow myself to knowingly be wrong.

A Wedding Story - Episode 1

I don't know if I will continue with the above title, but I needed something for now and I couldn't think of anything better. The wedding is 7 months from today which sounds a whole lot shorter than the original "a little less than 10 months." I mean, ten months is almost a year; seven months is approaching half a year. Maybe you don't agree, but it feels like a big difference.
As it is the seven month mark, Steven and my mom conspired against me and decided that today is my deadline for ordering a wedding dress (this being the biggest priority for this time frame as the dress can take a while to come in and be altered, etc.). Mind you, I ignored them almost completely in an act of defiance. However, I did go shopping again this weekend and have come to three favorites. So, I am getting closer.
I have already started having wedding nightmares. Ok, so maybe "nightmare" is too strong a word. I don't wake up in a cold sweat or anything. But there is a definite sense of panic. It's usually about major things being left undone. The funny thing is, they don't take place at the wedding, but at or around the time of the rehearsal. I would have to consult my fiance, the dream interpreter, but I suppose that means I am stressed about the preparation, but not the actual event. If I am right, then I suppose that's good. However, seven months is long when you think of it as seven months of stress. So, I resolve to try not think of it that way (is something really a resolve if you're just "trying" to do it? Oh well). I will think of it as seven more months of pre-wedding excitement. Yeah, that's better.

A Little of Life Right Now

So, here's the thing... the thing is, my posts are mostly serious. Now, there's nothing wrong with being serious or insightful. And I did warn my readers that a major quirk, if you will, of mine is that I am over-analytical. However, after reading the blogs of several friends, I realize that mine is missing a lighthearted side. (There were some non-deep things around Christmas, but I'm sort of overlooking those for the time being). I'm a lighthearted gal (did I just say "gal"?) so I think I need more posts about the lighter side of life. For one thing, because I rarely post, I think I've come to feel that anything worthy of writing about should be significant. The flip side of this being that if I wrote more often, I could write "lighter," and vice versa. Here's the other thing: when I'm not writing about something serious, I tend to ramble in randomness. Thus, the title of this blog.

Today I am an english/drama teacher. No, I am a person sitting in an english/drama classroom for the purpose of keeping order. Despite that, I thought to myself today, "I like subbing." And since that is my present "career" (I use that word lightly), I think it is good that I like it. The part I don't like is having to be mean. Don't get me wrong- I'm good at it. I just need to find a balance between meanness and love- discipline and compassion. I suppose parents know what I'm talking about.

I have lately been floating between two musicals. Neither seems like it will be ready for performance in time. In one, I dance. In the other, I teach others to dance. I enjoy both, but it can be stressful. Nonetheless, I am doing what I love and, in one case, getting paid for it. As Kathie Lee Gifford once sang in a commercial from my childhood, "Who could ask for anything more?" (Sorry Gershwin)

Well, speaking of the previous two paragraphs, I should use this planning period to work on choreography stuff. I hope you enjoyed the randomness. Maybe there will be more to follow. One of these days I'm going to get totally wild and do a LIST!

Civil Rights

Alas, I am a day late. Readers of my blog (do those exist?) would say that I am several weeks late. Given what I am about to discuss, the negative thinkers among us would call it a month late. I am choosing to say that one day into March and out of February (among other things, Black History Month for those of you who don't spend regular amounts of time in the public school system) I am a day late. Call it positivity, call it an attempt to lessen the stigma of procrastination, or just call it exasperating and tell me to get on with it.

I could write about many things in regard to black history and black culture. Some topics would be controversial; some would hopefully be insightful; some would probably just show my ignorance. But today, what caught my attention was a series of pictures and descriptions encircling a social studies classroom. The posters depicted the progression of the civil rights movement from the late 1800s
until the "assassination" of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. I would argue that there was probably more to say about the movement even after the death of Mr. King, but that's another issue.

The event that held my attention was the integration of the University of Mississippi in 1962. In September of 1962, the Supreme Court ordered the university to admit its first black student, James Meredith. The color of this man's skin prompted 14 hours of rioting leaving two dead and nearly 200 injured as well as the deployment of 20,000 federal troops to restore order by Mr. Meredith's mere setting foot on campus. You can say what you will about the decline of society, but I am astounded that this barbaric event, among other similarly horrific ones, took place in this country only 43 years ago. I am amazed at the ludicrousy of such discrimination. In the early forties, America fought a war across the ocean in part to stop the outrageous persecution of the Jewish people. Twenty years later, a large portion of our population regarded one of our own citizens with the same Nazi-like disgust on our own soil. Twenty thousand troops and two dead. The president had to call for 20,000 troops to stop childish fighting over the presence of a man with darker skin pigment. What is equally amazing is how easy it is for us to find reasons to hate another person.

We learn about history not so that we can feel smart when we watch Jeopardy or play Trivial Pursuit, but so that we can learn from the mistakes of our predecessors. I confess that I don't know nearly enough about history. But I know that my generation, and today's children need to learn about the atrocities of the past. Prejudice still exists today, and in much more complicated terms than the color of one's skin. You might say we've become more "sophisticated" in our dislike and disdain of each other. We have to learn how to love each other, and to do that we have to move beyond ourselves and really see each other. Think about it.