A Good Rain

Many soggy New England-ers might hate me for admitting to this, given our recent endowment of raindrops, but I love rain. I find it soothing in a way that I may not ever be able to explain in a way that makes sense. Rain is bittersweet, cleansing, peaceful. It is the promise of renewal and the perfume of nostalgia, all rolled into one.

It turns out that I am not alone. So, if you are feeling rainy today, you should open a browser and type in http://www.rainymood.com/ . . .

Then find out what mellow feels like as a verb.

Yes, I’d like a little cheese with this . . .

Dear Immune System,

We’ve had this conversation before, so I don’t really understand the issue. Do you have to leave town exactly when stress is visiting? Just because you had one negative encounter does NOT mean you are allowed to jump ship as soon as the workload increases. You’re supposed to be better than this.

Also, I was unaware that you weren’t working well with Dayquil/Nyquil these days. WTHeck? How hard can it be?

Well, Immune System, I would write more, but my sinuses are throbbing so much that my teeth hurt, so I think I’m going to bed.

Thanks for nothing.

Sincerely,

Cakey

p.s. I would also much appreciate it if you might collaborate with Hulu before you ditch out, Immune System, because now I’m all bleary, stuffy and achey with a severe lack of visual distraction. Just for future reference.

Puddle. . .

Today, in reaction to my statement that I would “be so sad I would melt”, one of my students gave me this drawing:

Have I mentioned that I love my job lately?

Bizz-ness: My Niece!

Joyful Noise(y)?

I am a loud singer.

If you know me at all, you probably already knew this. Growing up, my parents encouraged singing, throwing us kids wholeheartedly into choirs, musicales, and pre-meal choruses of the doxology. You could definitely say that I grew up singing.

On the flip side, I also heard a lot of “Abby, shut up!” from my parents and siblings alike throughout my childhood, and was probably the reason for the creation of the no-singing-at-the-dinner-table rule when I was five. When I was 16, I remember getting into a spat with my brother after standing next to him in church one sunday. He told me I was distracting the people around me by singing so loud and accused me of caring more about singing to draw attention to myself than for singing songs as a way of glorifying God. At the time, I was really hurt; his comments felt like an attack on how I praise God, which is very personal.

But, with time comes a little perspective to be able to re-evaluate criticisms, right? It is very important for me to clearly look through a critique and see if there is a foundation of truth to the critique that I should be listening to. I admire people who can take criticism in the moment and apply it. I am not usually one of those people. I get hurt feelings and, if forced to react in the moment, usually respond badly. Anyhow, you might be asking yourself why I am going into all of this right now. Well, I have recently begun going to an awesome church, where the worship elements of the service have been a big blessing to me. One thing that keeps happening, though, is that I keep being approached at the end of the service by people who comment on loving my singing or telling me that me I have a “beautiful voice”. I am very flattered, but also left wondering if (A) my singing took away from their worship, and (B) if I should try to tone down my worship so that people would not be focusing on me in any way during the worship time.

A blogger named Heidi wrote about a loud worshiper experience in a blogpost I stumbled on the other day. She wrote:

“The so-not-my-type gentleman who ended up sitting next to me rose to sing, and SING he did! People from three rows away turned to see who was free-styling the words to Amazing Grace. I was waiting to see if he was going to bust out the jazz hands to complete his show. I couldn’t make eye contact with him as I was embarrassed and afraid I would get a terrible case of the giggles. He wasn’t completely pitchy, other than the few times he tried to hit the Christina Aguilera range. He was just LOUD. I compensated by whispering, then just mouthing the words he was belting out, and eventually I stopped singing all together.

After the initial shock, I was somewhat amused and then a bit disappointed in myself. If he felt moved to belt out worship music like it was a Glee show tune, then who was I to discourage him? People have different levels of how they connect with God and this was clearly his thing. It is so not mine, but maybe when I “mmmm” and nod along to the message, he is thinking, “What is wrong with that girl? Why is she making cow noises in the middle of a sermon?” To each his own.”

Well, Heidi’s post made me think even more. I mean, I love to sing, and I love to praise God with abandon using my voice. I hope that, if anything, people might react to an enthusiastic worshipper by being spurred on to a deeper level of worship themselves. Instead, although she came to a very kind conclusion in retrospect, the Glee-tastic worshiper caused Heidi to stop singing. I never want my singing, however well-motivated, to stop someone else from worshipping God.

So, I started looking into scripture. . .

Psalm 98

Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things!

His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.

The Lord has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.

He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!

Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody!

With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!

Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it!

Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.

He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

Psalm 33:1-5

Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright.
Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

For the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.
He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.

Luke 19:37-40

As he [Jesus] was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives— the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen,saying,“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the LORD, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

Isaiah 49: 13

Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the LORD has comforted his people
and will have compassion on his afflicted.

Nehemiah 12: 43

And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.

Colossians 3:16-17

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

I guess the Bible doesn’t explicitly speak to my circumstance. . . the biggest command is simply to WORSHIP, rather than specifying a manner of worship. God wants sincere worship, whatever its quality may be. The point is not how we worship, but why. So maybe I need to be more aware of my loud singing as a way of loving those around me and being a help to them. Ultimately, though, as long as my singing is for the glory of God and for God alone, it is a right act of worship.

What do you think? I would love some other perspectives. . .

Prom(enade)

The very word PROM evokes a pretty broad variety of responses. Whether you flash-back with rosy nostalgia or a hefty dose of post-traumatic stress, most of you probably remember paying some ungodly amount for tickets, spending more for whatever get-up you chose, and spending the evening feeling a little surprised that this once-in-a-lifetime pinnacle moment, however much fun you had (or didn’t have, as the case may be) was still just a high school dance.

I have the (perhaps dubious) privilege of corralling my students into the details of prom planning. Needless to say, even with the most wonderful of students, the process is EXACTLY like herding kittens; adorable, fun, chaotic, exciting, and exhausting.

Planning a high school prom is so very different from attending it. . . but takes a much greater level of forethought. It’s a little like planning a wedding actually (I know, I’m not married, but after having 4 consecutive roommates get engaged and married while living with me, I think I have an idea of the process!). You have to think about venue, menu, music, lighting, decor, favors, seating, emotional turmoil . . . and a whole host of things I’ve probably forgotten about already. Now, this isn’t my first rodeo, thankfully, but I am hoping toup the ante a little this time around. To set the best possible tone, our prom committee has selected the more-than-classic stereotypical theme as featured by Marty McFly himself.

ENCHANTMENT UNDER THE SEA 2012

Key Elements I am coordinating?

1.) Music – Dinner and Dancing:

Check out this (largely student-made) playlist for the DJ, folks!

Prom Playlist 2012

2.) Marketing:

Plaster the School With Posters!

3.) “Bathroom Baskets” :

Prom Disaster Relief 101

This year we started the trend of putting together a basket of much-needed items for those moments when life should have an Oh-sh*t handle! This dance’s model is a cheery colored basket, primed to fill with everything from safety pins to duct tape.

4.) Foot Protection and Sanitation :

Sock-it-to-’em!

Heels are fun. Heels are beautiful. Heels are CUTE! Heels are NOT comfortable for dancing. THUS, the perennial kicking-off-of-shoes-for-dancing tradition. . .

A handy remedy for promoting clean and comfy feet is to provide a bin of cute socks . . . this prom’s model might just involve whales!

5.) Table Settings:

Flowers Are So Last Season.

via

That’s right. This year, we’re going for FISH as centerpieces!

Beside or our lively (literally) little centerpieces, there will be candles nestled amid floating in “bubbles” (hydrated water beads) . . . and a lovely assortment of shells and starfish!

Our Centerpieces!

6.) Favors:

Band-it. Steal the Show.

Nobody needs another wine glass that says “Prom 2012”. . . but these little bands seem to be relatively popular for an alternative!

7.) Mad-Libs:

Socially Helpful – like one of Santa’s Elves in your handbag

Lets face it, sometimes conversation needs a little starter. . . enter the madlibs.

Well, there is more, but those are the biggies. (Yes, Venue and Food are taken care of!)

Did I miss anything?

What is your favorite prom memory/idea? If you feel like sharing, I could use all the creative energy I can get!

Moments

My life is a kaleidoscope of shifting and fragmented shapes and colors. . . very interesting and transitory and wildly confusing, but all part of the pattern, I guess. Now, I usually avoid posting without clear purpose. Yes, a diatribe makes its way in here or there, but they are typically rather pointed (which is kind of like a purpose!). Otherwise I try not to meander conversationally through a random array of topics, but at this point, that is my sole option, mostly because my life is full of lots of random things right now.

Allow me to share a few quotable moments with you from the last two days. . .

1.) Lingerie shopping for my current roommate’s bachelorette party, I took the rare opportunity of mentally unoccupied time to call my mom back since she was reverting to curt e-mails and passively annoyed facebook messages.

Exhibit A: Facebook

Exhibit B: Email

Since the e-mails were flirting with the edge of frustrated (pirouetting across), I decided it was really time to call back. And, hey, how hard could it be to look at filmy little night-gowns and sustain a coherent conversation at the same time? I’ve done this before (this isn’t my first rodeo), I can handle a little multi-tasker shopping. SO, I called, we chatted, it was highly lovely (in all seriousness). There’s no better time for a long involved conversation than when hunting through mountains of lace boy-shorts…

via

HOWEVER, as I rifled through racks of enough red lace and black satin to do the cast of Moulin Rouge proud, my mother shared an interesting opinion on lingerie; not her own. Right after I said something about the astronomical price of a nightie, she said, “It’s like your Dad says, lingerie is the biggest waste of money. . . you only wear it for like two minutes before it comes right off!“. . . Welcome to quotable moment #1.

2.) Giving birth has been on my mind quite a bit, mostly because EVERYONE is having babies right now, but ESPECIALLY since one of my dearest friends just gave birth to a new baby boy yesterday!!! It’s insane. After weekly visits with him as an every expanding bump in my friend’s life, little Phedda (my in utero nickname for him) is flying solo.

I just got home from meeting him for the first time. Let me tell you, he is PERFECT. And I am in flat-out awe of his mom. Honestly, the whole birthing process has to be the most wretched experience in existence. If you weren’t already planning on sending a Mother’s Day card (May 13th, everyone), you should now plan on it.

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Jen and I are close enough friends for her to tell me some of the painful details. Her 23-or-so hours of labor were definitely not without cringe-inducing complications. . . so I asked, “So, did you end up having the epidural?” and, she, being the incredible person that she is, smiled and just said: “No.” I think my jaw must have dropped. Then her husband chimed in that my dear friend, my dear INSANE friend, had actually WALKED across the street from the Birthing Center to the Hospital while fully dilated and having hard-core contractions, in order to deliver little P. Now, its been a long day, so I’m not exactly eloquent at this point, so I asked my all-consuming question: WHY?! It was then that her wonderful husband smiled, took her hand and said proudly, “Because she’s an Amazon warrior princess.” Welcome to quotable moment #2.

3/4.) As you know, I have an affinity for petticoats, and dresses which require them. . .

via

Well, yesterday, I happened to be wearing a dress-petticoat combo and a friend of mine walked up to me and said, “You know what you look like? In the nicest way possible you look like one of those cupcake dolls. . . you know the ones I mean?”

via

Laughing, I turned around to one of my seniors, who asked me why I was laughing. . . so I explained the situation, and, without missing a beat, my student responded, “That is how I always figured you entered this world.” Welcome to quotable moment number 3 (a two-fer).

5.) I have always resisted classroom pets. Not because I hate pets, but because there is usually enough work to be done in the classroom without adding in pet-care routines. Last Friday, however, I caved. Enter my two new little goldfish, Josephine and Napoleon. Aren’t they cute?

Once they were safely installed in my classroom (after a precarious car ride with a very large open tank), my students welcomed them excitedly. One student asked me their names, and when I responded “Napoleon and Josephine”, he started laughing and said, “Oh man, about halfway through the year you should get a little fishbowl and exile Napoleon!” There you have my last quotable moment of the day, folks.

My life is one wonderfully fun kaleidoscope, don’t you think?

Sowa’s the big deal?

Sowa?

No longer just a slurred belligerent comeback; after the day I spent at the Sowa Market in Southie, this word took on new life.

What is The Sowa Market, might you ask???

Well.

WELL.

Start by picturing your favorite book, ok? Once you have everything you love about that book in mind, mentally add the most perfect outfit you can find, that exciting feeling of getting REAL mail (not a credit card add), everything that is fun about a scavenger hunt, and a healthy dose of all your favorite foods. Now I want you to mentally wrap them all up in the feeling you used to get when you were six and it was the night before Christmas. That, my friends, is Sowa.

Sowa is like finding the lost treasures of King Tut. Only better, because none of these (to my knowledge) involved the extraction or preservation of internal organs.

Walking through Sowa is like LIVING OUT the Portabello Row Scene from Bed-knobs and Broomsticks, only without Angela Lansbury.

If you love French things (ahem: French teacher here), OR just pretty things, you will find scads of them.

The opportunity to interact with the merchandise is priceless…

Sometimes, you can buy a BONNET!

If you’re into weird sewing projects, you should go to Sowa. (Haha, sewing: Sowa . . . SOWA-ING!!)

If you look carefully, you might find a mug that is actually a little old lady’s head, and be subsequently weirded out by it.

Sowa taught me that Dr. Scholl WAS ONCE A REAL PERSON!

I may or may not have impulsively purchased more than just one bonnet.

You can find educational French wall art from the 50s. Yup. All about those potatoes.

There are beautiful pieces of art waiting for you at Sowa.

. . . and REALLY BIG SHOES.

Honestly, the glamour potential at this place was just unreal!

And by glamour, I mostly just mean HATS. . . although there were lots of other things, I just got easily distracted by the hats in particular this day!

But don’t worry. I didn’t go for any furry hats.

Sowa-t are you waiting for?

Historical Remakes: Not An Oxymoron

As a teacher, and thus, a certifiable (or, actually, licensed) nerd, I do a lot of educational video-searches on youtube. After about 5 years of evaluating the available clips, I have decided that I need to convert to teaching history, based on the two following videos.

Enjoy!

Life’s Lemons

You know, sometimes a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

Take this princess for example:

“Hey, Princess! It’s me, Prince Philip. I could slay that Dragon for you . . . with my HANDSOMENESS.”

“Hey Philip, does this sound like a phone hanging up?”

Here is a prime example of a little lady rolling with the punches and doing things her way, right? I mean, sure, it’s a little heavy on the side of chivalry-goes-out-the-window (which is NOT my stance) . . . but Philip sounded like a (forgive the word) douche. I’m glad she went all hard-core and started that band at the end instead of being swept away by a douche-in-shining-armor. Go princess, right? Way to take a rough situation and come out on top because you don’t do what’s anticipated and just try to fix everything via prince.

This innovative musical tale reminded me of an expression. You know the one. . .

And if Wicked Witches can be Drummers . . . well, don’t settle for lemonade to help your problems. Lemonade is the douche-bag option in this scenario. Since there are many wonderful concepts out there which go above and beyond lemonade, I have decided to share just a few, for inspirational reasons.