To blatantly copy magickalmolly today: three good things about week and three bad things.

3 Annoying things about this Week:

1. Wishing a thousand messy deaths to the mosquitoes from hell that have invaded this week.
My daughter (who apparently inherited by bad reactions and by that I mean 5 inch diameter welts) and I didn't get a lot of sleep over the past week.

2. Bills. 'Nuff said, I think.

3. Being disappointed today that a couple of my former students, who had improved their behavior this year, blew it this week by stealing a remote control for some of the new tech and going around turning people's smartboards on and off during classes (during bathroom breaks, I assume). Sigh.

3 Better things about this week:

1. It's colder now, and I think it's killing the mosquitoes. *pumps fist in triumph* Finally got two nights of fairly decent sleep without being awakened by sharp pain and needing ice packs.

2. Glee last night. Rocky Horror.

3. New Zealand gets to keep "Hobbit". :)

I do NOT like this getting up in the dark thing that we do now that the clocks have been adjusted. It's just wrong, somehow.

Yesterday morning was very very cool, as I had arranged for some friends of mine who are in a Celtic band (they travel all over the world and the US doing gigs) came to do a little show for the 7th graders at my school. :) So for the first time in most cases, these kids heard live Celtic music - including from two people I count as my music teachers, and they let me sit in on a set of reels, so the kids thought that was pretty wild, too. The border bagpipes sure woke everybody up, though! It was funny watching the teenagers be "too cool" even to try clapping along and then getting coaxed into participating...

So let me get this straight - the state of CA has given "pink slips" to 22,000 employees of schools this week and then wants to complain that the kids don't show enough learning? Um, would the people who chose this plan care to come to the lesson I'm teaching on cause and effect this morning in language arts class?!?!?!?!?!?

Staff lunch was fun today, as we got to share goodies and find out who our "secret pixie pal" was for the last week. It's been nice at this stressful time of year for teachers to get little surprises in one's box each day. And tomorrow, I get to give away hundreds of books to students at my school who've worked hard on their reading - I got donations from four people (myself, the public library sale - free books for teachers, an anonymous person who kindly gave me three bags of books from Freecycle, and books that were being cleared from our school library). I'll be getting a little help from a few kids who want to set it up in exchange for first pick, of course... :)

My darling daughter does not, thank goodness, have strep throat, just an irritated throat from sinus stuff. I got her a berry shake at the juice bar that's at our favorite health food store on the way home from the doctor's office, and she and I had pancakes for dinner. Soft, gluten and dairy free pancakes with carrot and zuchini grated into them.

I was sort of freaking out there for a bit - between it being the last week of school and having three performances in 48 hours this weekend. Our director got back from Ireland several days ago and I was panicking in the back of my head - what if she didn't like the bodhran drum lines I'd come up with for the concert? What if I wasn't as good as the guy we had last year? But she loved what I did, so that made me feel WAY better. Now, everyone send health vibes my way at least until Sunday morning. In what is probably girly TMI, at least I have cramps now and not during the concerts!