The Joys of Grading

Of all the assignments I get to grade, essays are the ones I put off for as long as possible.  When I actually get around to grading them, I find it to be quite enjoyable (just like practicing the piano). Here are just a few gems from the essays I graded this evening (the night before progress reports are to be sent home):

"I went over to my friend's house and we jumped on his trampaling." 

"I ate a handburger. It was delicious."

"We went to ride the rollercoaster but I wasn't tall in of."

"I woch Sbooby Doo with dad."

Mix Tape

Mr. Sandman was my bff last night.  He brought me some crazy vivid dreams.  It really is quite unfortunate for the rest of you that you weren't there and also that I was unable to write them down before spelling rules and the Judicial Branch and the order of operations and my fly being down for 1.5 hours started to fog up my memory.

So, here's what's left:

I walked up to my bedroom door to discover that someone had decorated the whole thing with red butcher paper and coded messages.  I followed a series of clues that lead me to my collection of cassette tapes.  I had to find a specific tape called "Mix Tape" and a certain song.  The song that was originally there had been dubbed over my whoever sent me on this chase.  Through the song, I learned that this person wanted to take me to a Valentine's dance.

Later on in my dreaming, I went over to my parents' house.   I was there for about an hour and when I left, I couldn't find my car anywhere.  I concluded that someone had stolen it.  I decided that the best way to get my car back was to walk around the neighborhood until I saw my car (because when people steal cars, they stay within walking distance).  There was not a single car parked in the entire neighborhood.  Why not? Well, it's because all the youth from my parents' church were having a sleepover in the neighborhood streets.  There were teenagers lined up for several blocks in sleeping bags on the asphalt.  I never found my car.



The first part makes more sense if you know these 2 things about my life:

1) I have this super cool sister who knows how to throw a shindig.  It was her birthday a few weeks ago and she had a super sweet 90s party.  Among all the radness, one of my favorite things was the super fly invitation I received that was patterned after a Walkman with a cassette tape inside.

2) I drove back from a quick trip to Vegas last night.  I was there with my amazing coworkers for a literacy conference.  I learned a lot and I had such a great time with them.  During the car ride home, we talked about almost everything-including how we had asked boys out to dances in high school.

I've got nothing to explain the 2nd part of my dream.

Sunday Morning Dreams

My church time changed to 2:00 pm today.  As feared, I slept in way longer than I should have.  Fortunately though, I got some good dreams out of that extra sleep time.

Dream 1:

It was my birthday, so I invited all of the third graders to my party (who would do that?).  One of their parents agreed to host it at her house.  I had a lot to do that day and was way behind schedule.  I stopped at the mall to fulfill another obligation first.  I soon realized that I had no idea where the party was located.  The mother hosting my party called and asked how much longer she should hold the kids there.  I never made it to the party.

Dream 2:

I went to New York City with my fam.  The hotel lobby TVs warned us that another big storm was coming.  I thought to myself, "Why did we think it would be okay to come here right after Hurricane Sandy?"  A hotel employee gave us a copy of their emergency evacuation plan. The atmosphere was starting to get a little tense.  I continued to check the TV monitors and then a credit card commercial came on.  At the bottom of their credit card, there was a quote.  It read, "This storm will not be as bad as Sandy. -Dieter F. Uchtdorf" 

That's when I knew we'd be okay.  I had been walking around with a toothbrush in my mouth.  I went to return it to the medicine cabinet and discovered that my toothbrush was already in it's place. I was using someone else's toothbrush. Hope they don't find out! 

Dream 3:

I lived in a very nice home and had invited my students over (perhaps I felt bad for missing my own birthday party earlier).  Everything went well and then their parents came to pick them up.  I went in the backyard to get them and discovered that they had all jumped in our lake. How was I going to explain this to their parents? How did they even get in there? I tried asking my husband (yes, I had a husband) what had happened, but everything was a bit chaotic and I never got an answer.  

Past Halloween Awards

The award for most frustrating costume goes to...

The Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz

Even though I went trick or treating with my sister 

and everyone could easily tell that she was Dorothy,

nobody could figure out who I was.

(Don't blame yourself mom, you did a great job at sewing all that hay into my overalls)

Least disguising disguise...

Witch

I was so sure that nobody would recognize me with my green face paint,

pointed nose, and frizzy hair.

I was wrong.

Most repeated costume...

Hippy

One of the best decisions my mom ever could have made was

to save her bell bottoms from the 70s.

Best Costume...

Siamese Twin from the 80s

I will always hold dear in my heart the year that 

Irene and I scrambled around Provo to sew two eighties outfits together.

Nothing could top the ghetto blaster we took turns carrying on our shoulders.

Also, I loved that my "twin" was almost a foot shorter than me.

So bummed that I don't have photographic evidence of this one.

This will have to suffice:

Best Choice Made On Halloween Night...

Foregoing trick-or-treating

so that I wouldn't miss

this film on TV:

(Yes, we owned a VCR)

Worst Halloween Choice

If you get invited to a party the weekend before Halloween and it says: "Costumes optional,"
what that really means is: "Don't wear a costume and you'll be tagged in an embarrassing picture on facebook, so all your 'friends' can give you grief for not dressing up." Next year, I better plan ahead better.