is this why i'm still awake?

so i just realized i didn't write on friday, but since i still haven't gone to bed yet, i think i should be allowed to count it. i have no idea why i am still up. i'm just not tired. at all. decided i should try to go to bed, but then realized i'll probably just lie there, unable to fall asleep. and i hate that.

the penultimate show went well tonight. only one more to go. hard to believe it's almost over. of course, when you put together a show in five weeks, i suppose it will seem to fly by. going to miss seeing everyone. the show was a lot more fun than i thought it might be. wish i had invited more people to see it. i know a couple of people came, but no one stayed around after it was over. hmmm. wonder if that should tell me something about the play...or my performance...

the sophomore research papers are graded. of course the seniors won't turn theirs in until monday with all the snow days - and i'm sure a few of them will think they're not due until tuesday because of the snow. i wish i had told them monday was the final deadline no matter what the weather held. ah well. will give them the option of comments or just a grade. worked remarkably well last trimester.

of course, i left all the persuasive essays at school, which means i have to drive all the way to mason to pick them up so i can get them into the gradebook on sunday. must have reminded myself over a dozen times to pick them up thursday. that sound you hear is me thwacking myself in the head. am thinking i might stop by the mason showcase to see there will be blood. seems only fair to see all the best picture nominees before making my choice.

still no idea why i'm still awake. and not feeling any closer to nodding off. maybe i'll go watch the house episode that taped tonight. better than lying in the dark praying for sleep.

ok, better go give this sleep thing a shot. night.
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the agony and ecstasy of living in cincy

two hours. it took me two hours to drive from mason to home. i left at 4:30 after i allowed film club to talk me into staying after school, even though every other activity had been canceled; even the media center closed early. things were fine until i hit just north of fields ertel, when everything came to a stop. literally. for the next hour and a half, we didn't break the 10 mph mark. miserable. the combination of weather with everyone letting their workers out early caused the slowest traffic i've been in for quite a while. i despise cincinnati drivers on good days. on days like today, i downright loathe them. i was so done by the time i pulled into wendy's for some supper. and then they were out of the beverage i wanted (i gave up carbonated beverages as part of my lenten fast). grrrrrrr. but i eventually made it home and got to relax a bit since our line rehearsal was canceled because of the weather.

and then, just before i was heading to prayers, i got the call - no school tomorrow. nothing better than knowing the night before that you don't have to get up early in the morning. completely screws my end of the trimester plans, but hey, i think i can live with it.

everyone see the eclipse last night? quite fun to walk the neighborhood and see groups of people staring at the sky. so strange to think about what it must have been like for people before we knew what it was. the moon slowly disappears, then turns red. no wonder they told tales of monsters.

had a great conversation tonight with my friend candice. she never fails to lift my spirits and help me be more aware of God. He truly is around us all the time, if only we would open our eyes to see.

deeper thoughts will have to wait until later. right now i need to take advantage of my ability to sleep past 7 tomorrow. nothing like a two day work week, though there will be plenty of school stuff to keep me busy tomorrow. but i'll be sure to sneak in here some time.
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God smiled on me

i was up late last night, finishing off the OGT literary term activity i wanted to do - it always takes me longer than i anticipate, mostly because i enjoy putting stuff like this together. it's a sickness, i know. anyway, when the alarm went off four hours after i went to bed, i could not find the energy to pull myself out of bed. so i let the snooze go off. and off. and off. then, three minutes before the last snooze would ring, my phone rang. snow day said the screen on my phone. two hour delay. sweet. so i reset my alarm for 6:45 and went to get more sleep (which unfortunately didn't come easily, but lying in bed was enough).

when the alarm rang again, i jumped up, grabbed my shower and waited for 7:20 to roll around so i could get in my car and drive to morning prayers. i pulled on my coat, grabbed my bookbags and headed to the car. as i opened the garage door, my phone rang. snow day calling. we were canceled. i laughed all the way up the stairs and out the door to walk to prayers. so much for the weather reports that said little accumulation. the second call actually said the roads were getting worse in mason. glad i don't have to go anywhere. of course, it will throw my lesson plans out of whack, but i already have ideas on how to adapt them to work. will make my seniors happy since their research papers will now be due on monday instead of friday.

i wish i didn't have to wait for snow days to start my day with communal morning prayer. really starts the day well.

of course, being home will make fasting a little trickier. as i found out this weekend, grading is not enough to keep my mind off my hunger. but perhaps it will give me impetus to finish. that's the hope, anyway.

more later, perhaps. need to go do my snow day dance of celebration.
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i think i've caught it

obamania
noun
The national obsession with presidential hopeful Barack Obama

caught the tail end of his speech tonight where he talked about his use of the word hope. and i know he's been attacked for being all rhetoric and no action and being full of ideas but not full of solutions, but after hearing him speak, i find myself wanting to believe what he says, that the time of politics as usual has passed and it is time to build a new future together.

and he's better than the other alternatives. mccain will give us the same old failed ideas and policies of the current administration. and clinton will give us, well, politics, politics, politics. i was wary of her before the primary season; i despise her now. she represents what i hate about politics. and i know obama is at heart a politician, but at least there's hope that things could be different. i still don't trust him to be able to implement all of his ideas. but at least he's willing to try.

i don't often talk about politics because, well, i despise them. and i can never adequately articulate my feelings or argue coherently. like stephen colbert, i go with my gut. and my gut says of the choices out there, obama is my man this time. maybe eventually i'll figure out why.
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better do this now

need to head back down for the final push on today's grading - nine more inp book reviews to grade. been a relatively productive day. at least i didn't sleep it away, though it was terribly tempting. was cold all day long and just couldn't seem to warm up. but i got a chunk of the grading done and all my laundry done, so i declare it a success.

talked to the 'rents today - turns out they know of my blog and have now shared the link with their sunday school class. seems my discussion of the great spaghetti monster raised some curiosity. now not only do i have to concern myself with my students, but with my mom and dad's sunday school. actually, i'll probably forget and type something terribly offensive. sorry in advance mom and dad. just tell them you did the best you could raising me. blame it on the rock and roll. and television. and the internet.

good to go to prayers this morning. wish i could do it every day. i'm somewhat surprised it wasn't better attended - just angela and me, much like it is for evening prayers. but then i suppose not everyone gets the day off.

i have so little to share. at least nothing of interest. kurt loaned me the first season of arrested development. i can see why people like it, but am not quite getting the passion for the show. kurt said it was the best tv sitcom ever. high praise, but not sure it's deserved yet. we'll see how i feel when (if?) i finish the first season. certainly is better than most of the "popular" shows out now. so of course it got canceled.

i enjoyed watching the snow drift down this afternoon. peaceful. comforting. then the winds came and forced it to swirl a little more violently. still beautiful, but with an edge. just enough of a dusting to cover the brown grass and make everything a little brighter. i've missed winter this year - too much rain, too many drastic temperature changes for my taste. but glad i could enjoy today's moment.

ok, time to grade again. this will be a common theme for a while. six days of classes left in the trimester plus two days of exams. and them boom!, we're in the last trimester. scary.
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just under the wire

spent the better part of the last two hours trying to get together stuff for tuesday's class. i had hoped it wouldn't take as long as it has, but alas, it's taken far longer than it should. didn't help that i've been trying to multitask and get some of my emusic downloads onto cd. got eleven done, but still have a lot of work to do to organize my itunes folder. bleah. not a fan of itunes. maybe it's better on a mac, but it's so annoying on my pc.

church this morning was excellent. my "sister" judy and her husband robin were there. surprised to see them, though i shouldn't have been, since they know the mcneely's who have been coming. steven hamilton spoke. he was here to talk about human trafficking. he started by saying how hard it was to work for justice, which echoed some of what i wrote about yesterday. he spoke about agape love being a reorienting of ourselves, which makes sense, though it's odd to think of God "changing" to reorient himself. it struck me how easy it is to let things like human trafficking to go unchallenged. reminds me of the "what i have left undone" part of our confession.

got to spend time with the havens tonight again. really need to do that more often. they're getting ready to transition from kenny staying at home and marisa working to marisa staying at home and kenny working. i pray the transition isn't too tricky for either of them.

ok, i should get some sleep if i hope to make any headway against the mountain of grading waiting for me. discipline - i must have discipline tomorrow. Father, help me in my weakness!
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