because clearly doing surveys is more important than my end of semester grading

Shamlessly stolen from Becky through Rachel. :)

1. Close your eyes. Turn your head slightly to the right. Open them. What do you see?
The empty shelf on my new desk, with a few papers in it. I really need to get organized. My desk at school is so much worse.

2. Are you reading a good book now? What is it?
Not at the moment-I haven't had time. But there's a whole box of books in the closet I can dive into if I want.

3. It's 2008. Do you believe this?
No! I'm amazed I remember to write it on the board.

4. Do you want to do a paper about Christian tattoos as icons?
Sure, why not? There was a giant statue of the Virgin Mary in the window of the tattoo parlor next to the Boyd theater when I was there the other day; it seems like such a contradiction in terms.

5. Is it abnormally warm today where you live?
No, it got chilly again. Though since it was supposed to be the big winter storm that hit Boston, and it only rained here, I guess it is abnormally warm.

6. Have you ever been in a serious physical fight? Tell me about it. Why did it happen? What did it feel like? If you've been in many, pick one.
No, not really. I mean, I've had wrestling sessions with my siblings, but never a real fight. And as Rachel has established, tickle fights don't count.

7. Can you see out a window right now? If so, describe the first person you see out the window. If there's no person, or no window, tell me who is not there.
Well, the blinds are closed at the moment, but even if they were open, I probably wouldn't see anyone; for an apartment complex, there's usually not much activity.

8. What is right in front of you that you love?
Internet access at home!

9. What is right in front of you that you find perplexing?
Big baskets full of grading. Why doesn't it ever end? Why do students have to question my grades?

10. Are you tired?
Yes, even though it's finals week and I don't really have too much to do, I'm just feeling really drained and like I want more time away. The other teachers they said the same way, at least, so I know it's not first-year burnout, but I just don't want to go back. I want a day in bed with a good book. Maybe the symptoms of Jeff leaving are starting to sink in.

11. When is the last time you made a conscious decision to lie? Why did you do so?
I don't know...probably to one of my students in recent days.

12. What worries you right now?
How to get all my grading done, what to do to start next semester, if my observation today went well, if the bratty student who gets on my nerves will keep challenging me.....

13. What pleases you right now?
Being able to update this, being able to talk to Jeff and Becky and Rachel online, being done with the semester.

14. What can you hear right now?
The hum of the computer, the noise of the Project Runway rerun in the background.

15. What (approximately) was happening in your life 5 years ago?
Touring around Europe, if I'm to believe Rachel and Becky. Stressing out about things I can't control.

16. Has anything fundamentally changed about your emotional life since then?
To some extent. I'm not as freaked out about intimacy, I'm no longer pining for romance, I'm a little less focused on how I'm perceived; unfortunately, I still am a perfectionist and take things way too personally.

17. Do you have any secret that you have never told anyone, at all, ever, even anonymously?
I don't know...at this point, I might not.

18. Have you ever hugged a book?
Definitely.

19. Thrown one across the room?
Possibly? Like Rachel, I was really tempted to do so with The Night Listener, but I managed to restrain myself. I don't know why I took that book so personally.

20. Hit one?
Probably pounded on one for emphasis.... I don't know, how else would you really hit a book?

21. Kissed one?
Probably at some point.

22. Destroyed one on purpose?
During the book recycling sprees for National Honor Society in high school, I'm pretty sure I ripped up an old German textbook. It was somewhat satisfying.

23. Yelled at one?
Yes! Can't remember which at the moment.

24. Refused to continue reading at one point due to a moral objection to certain events, but then just had to get back to it?
A House Like a Lotus for sure, because the sex was so startling to little innocent me, but I picked it up and finished it a few years later. The one I really debated over not finishing was Before Night Falls, Reynaldo Arenas' autobiography, which we read for Latino lit at Bryn Mawr, after the descriptions of bestiality in the first few pages. But I guess I wasn't quite gutsy enough to stick up for my instinctive reaction, and I finished the book anyway.

23. Have you done all those things to other people?
Hugged, yes; kissed, yes; hit, definitely, but never really punched or slugged; thrown across the room, no, though I have pushed people off the bed; yelled at, yes; destroyed on purpose, not so much.

24. What is the strangest thing you have ever hugged?
Not sure. Who was my strangest friend? ;)

25. Kissed?
My own elbow?

26. The very first time you were enamoured of someone, what did you do in immediate reaction?
Me being me, I had no idea I was enamoured until someone pointed out that I was being far too defensive to not be enamoured of the person.

27. Name something unusual that had some influence in your sexual development.
Imaginary AIM characters.

28. And something cliched?
Poorly-written (usually fantasy or sci-fi) erotic scenes.

29. How about a minor guilty secret? Doesn't have to be about sex, just something not-huge that bugged you.
I've heard a lot from Jeff's mother about concerns she has about him, and I haven't said anything to him, even though I feel like he should know.

30. What about a small act of heroism?
Today I helped a student get exempt from the exam who was off by half a point.

Boo, no more survey...back to grading...

Where is the time going?

Why do I have so much to do?

And why do I not feel any urgency to do it?




Just finished reading: When We Were Saints, by Han Nolan. Archie's grandfather is the local prophet of doom and destruction. But when he dies proclaiming that Archie is a saint, Archie feels bound to figure out what he was talking about--their family isn't even Catholic! Enter Claire, a strange new girl who calls Archie Brother Francis and claims to be his spiritual partner. Together, she says, they can become saints; if he does everything she says. They embark on a spiritual and then a physical journey to the Cloisters in New York City; but is it God's will they are following, or is it Claire's?

I read this book as part of my research for YA books featuring the quest motif, and while it definitely fits the pattern, it's still rather strange. I mean, I am Catholic and a fairly observant one, and this book was just a little overwhelming with the constant religion. If I felt a bit suffocated, I can't imagine many teenagers getting through this one...unless they're of that ultra-Catholic sect like Mel Gibson. The other ironic thing I thought of was that you could never teach a book like this in school...and yet you can teach books about the spiritual vision quests of Native Americans. Apparently the separation of church and state refers not so much to religion but to those religions that have actual physical buildings? Or are in the majority?