March Madness ... Only, without the Basketballs

March has, so far, been a very good (and very productive) month.

At school, our State Math tests have come and gone. I think most of my kids did a pretty good job. Things, in general, are starting to look up. We've finally gotten to where we can walk in a straight (and mostly quiet) line in the hallway, and there hasn't been a real fight in my class in more than two weeks. Exciting! On two different occasions, different teachers have commented to me that they've noticed a change in my class. That feels really good.

In life, things have been looking up, as well. The weather has started getting warmer (meaning lows in the 30s instead of highs), and daylight has been lasting a little longer. It's about time.

Here's a review (in photographs) of the last couple of weeks, from most recent to ... least recent.


I had a very New York weekend, because on Friday I went to my first show on Broadway (I saw a very strange play starring Susan Sarandon, Geoffrey Rush, and the sherriff from "Roswell") and on Saturday I went to the New Museum on Bowery, just south of Houston. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the play (though that is a quite funny story). However, the museum did allow the chance for some cool photographs.

There were some pretty interesting exhibits, but the best part was the rooftop view. This was a much different view of Manhattan, because it's in the south part of the city. Most of the time, when you get "the view," it's of midtown, where all the tall buildings (Chrysler and Empire State, etc.) are. So the view from the top of the New Museum was unique in that sense.

The view of Bowery, looking toward Houston.

That's me, looking to the north. You can see both the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building in that shot. (They are the two tallest ones to the right of my head.)

My good friend, Dakota, with a view toward the south end of Manhattan (the Financial District and whatnot).

Saturday afternoon I got quite a different view of Manhattan once again. This time, from across the East River. After visiting a delicious cheese shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, we walked to this nice park right on the bank of the river.

Nice view.

Delicious picnic! The cheese shop even had my all-time FAVORITE Italian Ringo cookies. Yum!!

On Tuesday this week, I took time away from school preparation to celebrate St. Patrick's Day the best way I knew how: at the bar. I didn't feel too guilty about it, though, because it worked out just perfectly that we had a field trip to Randall's Island on Wednesday. Fate, or excellent planning? I have no clue, but I was quite glad.

Perhaps the best part of St. Patrick's Day was that Becca and I got to wear our matching green shoes. And we made a green shoe dance on the subway. Here is our green shoe-leaf clover.

We started with dinner at this great Japanese food place, where you get to make your own cotton candy for dessert. Here's Becca trying her hardest, to no avail.

Dakota eating my cotton candy, because I am the cotton candy-making queen.

The night ended at a Karaoke bar in the East Village. Here's Bryan, Courtney and Becca swaying along to Dakota's rendition of "Piano Man." If you ever want to see video of mine and Becca's duet of "Part of Your World" from the Little Mermaid, then you're out of luck! 'Cause that video is C-L-A-S-S-I-F-I-E-D.

Today is the best day of my life

SNOW DAY!!!

The first one that NYC has had in 5 years. AWESOME!

The rest of vacation and beyond

Mid-Winter break has come and gone, and I'm now back into the flow of school. Our State Math tests are coming up this week, so my school-themed dreams (nightmares?) are back in gear full time.

So, of course, rather than continue preparing for this week at school, I'm taking time out to reminisce. Here is a low-down of my last few days of vacation, which I never posted about.

I stayed in Massachusetts with my dear roommate Becca through Wednesday, when I headed back to the city to "get some work done." That morning, though, we went for a hike through the woods around the lodge. It was extremely beautiful, albeit a little chilly. But it was a very nice end to a short vacation of doing absolutely nothing.

A little water fall at the top of a creek.

My attempt at a snow angel. Something seems to have gone terribly wrong (especially with my hands!)

Along our walk, I spotted a fallen tree branch over a section of the extremely cold, partially frozen creek. So, of course, I say to Becca, "Hey, you should go sit in the middle of that tree." She surprised me by actually saying yes.

Lovely!

After returning to the city Wednesday and trying to do some work on Thursday, I was ready to leave again. So come Friday morning, I went on a last-minute trip to Montauk with my friend, Dakota. Montauk is a town at the very tip of Long Island. Why did we choose to go there? No idea. But it was a very nice trip for the day.

It all began at about 7 a.m. when we arrived at Penn Station to catch the Long Island Rail Road. About three and a half hours later we arrived in Montauk, welcomed by freezing temperatures, blustering winds, and a very interesting cab driver named Peter.

Montauk was very beautiful.

But VERY windy!

Here we are at the fourth oldest light house in the U.S. (the oldest one in New York state). It was commissioned by George Washington.

Here's me with Peter the crazy cab driver!

The lighthouse from a very unglamorous, yet (I think) still beautiful view.

So that was basically the end of my vacation, if you include lounging around the city and then (finally) getting some work done. There are now 28 more school days until the next break, when I'm going to Alabama to visit Robby for a bit. Until then, it's just school, school and more school. Fun!

Fame

There's nothing like teaching to make you feel like a rock star. No matter how angry your kids get with you at school, no matter how many times they shout "I hate you!" or "I ain't doing it!" in class ... if they see you walking down the street outside of school, you are Miley Cirus or (insert other appropriate "tween" star here).

Some vacation photographs

After my last post, my Monday continued with a 4.5-mile walk to the grocery store (turns out the buses here don't run as regularly as they do in NYC), a delicious home-made pizza dinner, lots of wine, a hot tub, a sauna, and, of course, Scrabble.

Here are some pictures:


As Becca and I were walking (for about 1.5 hours) to the grocery store, we came upon a small playground covered in snow. So we took some time to see saw and swing. Smart Becca injured her ankle jumping off the swing into the snow. Our activities since this moment have been a little limited.

This is the resort where we're staying.

Some lovely scenic Massachusetts photos along our long, long walk.

Becca and me trekking it along the mini-highway.

Our delicious pancetta and arugula pizza. Yes, folks, that's home made!

Happy Vacation!

It's only vacation day 3 and I've already seen many new places, eaten very new things and experienced something quite ... strange. Here's a recap:

Saturday:
I spent my Saturday hanging out with a new friend and traveling to new places in the city. First we went to the most magical place on earth: Economy Candy, a deliciously exciting candy store with many of my favorites (like a 5-lb bag of Sour Patch Kids) and several interesting new delights. (I tried these space ship-shaped wafers full of sour dust ... quite strange. I still can't decide if I like them or not, and I've already eaten most of the bag.)
After hopping up on sugar we traveled to the 5 Pointz in Queens, several giant walls of graffiti on the outside of seemingly abandoned buildings. Very cool. I unfortunately didn't have my camera on hand to take pictures, but here's the official web site's photo gallery: http://www.5ptz.com/5pointzgallery.html

Sunday:
My roommate Becca and I hopped a train to Massachusetts. Actually, several trains. We changed trains in New Haven, Conn., and Springfield, Mass.
We had about two hours before our next train in Springfield, so we decided to grab a bite to eat. However, it turns out that NOTHING is open in Springfield on Sunday. The one place we did find was called the Student Prince, and it turned out to be amazing German food. Yes! After a stein of beer, a bratwurst and an alligator tail cutlet (an extremely unique texture, by the way),
we stumbled back to the train, and I took the most glorious nap before arriving at our ULTIMATE destination: Pittsfield, Mass.
We came to Pittsfield because Becca's parents had an extra time share, and there is a lodge up here that is part of that. We walked into the lodge at about 4:30 p.m. and very quickly realized that we are the ONLY people here without children. How do I know this? We walked right into the recreation room in time to see dozens of families filling the tables in preparation of BINGO hour. Oh, and the recreation room is attached to an arcade. It took me nearly an hour of annoyance at the kids running around and screaming to realize that this is actually a GOOD thing. An on-site movie theater? A Dance Dance Revolution machine? Skee Ball?! Best vacation EVER.

Monday:
So far today all I've done is slept late, watched TV, ate an incredibly cheesey quesadilla, and checked the news online. But who knows what else is in store? The Skee Ball machine is just yards away, and my pocket is full of quarters.

One Week To Go!

Only one more school week until our mid-winter break. YES!

It's reaching that point at school where I'm tired, the kids are tired, the administration is tired, and so everyone is just cranky. This break coming up is just what we need.

On the upper side of things, this last week was full of some good stuff, too. I started an after-school math club to help students pass the state test that's coming up in a few weeks. It's by invitation only, and the students who weren't invited are so jealous. They ALL want to be in the math club. How cool is that?

The weather has also been warming up (to a low in the 30s rather than a high in the 30s), so I spent a good portion of my time yesterday walking around the south end of Central Park, somewhere I haven't really been before. It was fun! But now I have so much work to do since I ignored it yesterday.

When's that break again?