Tornado Drill

So, today was filled with bad weather and chaos!  The school's schedule was thrown off and we were under a tornado warning for most of the day.  While I was stuck with my students, I found that they had some very interesting things to say to one another.  Take a look . . .

1. Do you have a bag? No. Well where am I going to put my tooth?  Ooh, it has a piece of meat stuck in it. That's why your breathe smells like mildew.
2. Oh my gosh, we're all going to die!
3. Can lightning go through buildings? 
4. You need lotion on your shirt.  How can your shirt be ashy?
5. You know a smart way to get from building to building when it is lightning?  No, how?  You just wrap a bunch of tires around yourself and waddle to where you need to go.  Lightning can't strike rubber...duh!

16 and Pregnant

So, one of my students showed me a text message from his girlfriend today.  The text message stated that she wanted to have his baby . . .yep she wants to be pregnant.  How old is this girl?  Just 14 years old!!  He of course told her that it wasn't happening, then she proceeded to tell him that if he loved her he would give her a baby.  WTH?!   

I remember that my best friend was pregnant at our high school graduation.  It was a total embarrassment and she hid it for as long as she could.  Even though we were graduating, people still talked about her and made comments about her promiscuity.  She realized that her life was going to totally change before it really got started. 

Television has totally glamorized teen pregnancy.  With a show like "16 and Pregnant," teenagers no longer have a negative opinion of teen pregnancy.  America is really failing our youth.  I know that critics feel the show makes teenagers see that it is hard to be a teen mom, but the show is having an opposite effect.  It is causing teenage girls to want to become pregnant.  "If I become pregnant, then I may have a chance to be on TV!"  A Memphis, TN  high school reported earlier this year that 26 percent of the girls enrolled at that school have gotten pregnant this year.  With the lack of involved parents, the television is raising a lot of kids.  Television shows have a lot of sexual connotations and it is the parents' job to make sure that students are not prematurely exposed to sex and ensure that they know the true consequences of becoming sexually active at a young age.

It's time for the parents to step up and raise their children!!!

100 (Very) Random Facts About Me (Part 2)

And it continues . . .

Love of Music - those who know
me understand this pic

1. My favorite bible verse is Phillipians 4:13.
2. As a child, I always thought that I would die before I turned 18.  I don't know where this came from, but it was something that haunted me until my 19th birthday. 
3. I LOVE MUSIC!!!  Music speaks to my soul; it encourages me when I'm down; it soothes me when I'm stressed; it always knows the right thing to say.
4. I never carry cash (and I only carry one "maxed out" credit card) because I have a serious spending problem.  Shop-aholic is not even a good name for me - I will buy something just to buy it.  For some reason I find joy in spending money.
5. I want a child more than anything in this world!  I don't understand how people that don't want children are always the ones that wind up pregnant, and the ones who long to have a child have the most difficulty conceiving. 

100 (Very) Random Facts About Me (Part 1)

Everyone on Twitter has been posting about this topic, so I decided I would sporadically do the same.  Since you (the reader) are somewhere in cyber world, it may be a little easier for me to be more forthcoming about myself.  Don't worry, I am not going to just list 100 facts all at once (I honestly don't think I could do that), I am going to break them up into separate posts.

1. I love frogs!  Not so much the real ones, but the cute cartoon ones (like on The Princess and the Frog movie).
2. I have more regrets than I can count on my fingers.
3. During my childhood, I hated the Thanksgiving holiday season because it seemed like someone always died around the holidays. 
4. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up (mind you I'm 33 years old).
5. I'm not in total agreement with the following quote - "It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."  I think that this is a bunch of crap.  Although being in love is euphoric; losing the one you love hurts like hell and it's the type of pain that never goes away!  Who would want to subject themselves to that kind of hurt?

Thoughts of a Friend

Friends come and go, but best friends leave footprints.  Those unforgettable moments you spent - the seconds. . .minutes. . .hours. . .days with your best friend are priceless.  When you lose a best friend your life is never the same. Absent from your life, but not from your thoughts or memories.

Paraprosdokian

A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a  sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect, sometimes producing an anticlimax.

 If I agreed with you we'd both be wrong.  (and I'm always right!!)

War does not determine who is right - only who is left.  (hopefully it's you)

Dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity, they can train people to stand on the very edge of the pool and throw them fish.  (watch the training the next time you're at Sea World)

Do not argue with an idiot.  He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.  (this is why I feel a little dumber when the argument is over - although I knew what I was talking about when it began)

I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted pay checks.  (SO TRUE!!!)

Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says "In an emergency, notify:" I put "Doctor".  (Why would you tell my husband?  Tell someone that's going to be able to save my life and cut out the middle man.)

I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.  (I also blame it on the rain, the alcohol, and whatever else I can think of at the time.)

Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman. (Hmmmmm...)

The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!  (at least most of the time)

I always take life with a grain of salt, plus a slice of lemon, and a shot of tequila. (I take life this way as often as possible)

You're never too old to learn something stupid.  (just ask a 6th grader)

To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target. (only you know what you were aiming for)

The Social Network

So, I just finished watching the movie "The Social Network."  Yeah, I know that I am way behind (blame NetFlix - it takes them forever to release new movies).  Anyways, I was amazed by the intelligence of the co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg.  It's funny that people with such a high level of intelligence are such jerks (and that's putting it nicely)!  Yes, he ended up with great wealth and created probably the greatest social network of our time, but at what cost?  He lost his friends and the love of his life.  Is money and fame worth it?  Everyone has heard the old adage, "money cannot buy happiness," but I'm here to tell you that it sure as hell can make life a little less stressful.  This is of course coming from someone that is far from being a millionaire, and very close to living check to check. 

Would I have sold out my friend the way he sold out Eduardo Saverin?  Heck no!  Would I have taken the idea from the twins and ran with it?  Maybe!  It begs the question, what unethical actions will one take to be rich? 

Sense of Entitlement

Why do kids today have a sense of entitlement?  Most of them think that it is all about them and the world should revolve around their wants and desires.  They think that they are owed something when they don't have a job, let alone a pot to piss in (as my dad would say).  A couple of hours ago I received news that a child, whom I mentor, is being sent to live with his father because of the disrespect that he has recently shown his mom.  I'm not sure how I should feel about this.  I am angry that he is leaving and I don't agree with her decision; however, I don't condone his disrespectful behavior either.  He's turned 14 and now he thinks that since a couple of little, nappy-headed girls are checking him out, he's the shiznit!  This is not just his issue though; this is a problem that about 80% of today's teens have. I keep trying to remember...was I like this?  I know that I had a smart mouth, but were my parents ever contemplating kicking me out?  SMH!!

In Honor of the First Day of Spring

"Spring-time in Florida is not a matter of peeping violets or bursting buds merely. It is a riot of color in nature—glistening green leaves, pink, blue, purple, yellow blossoms that fairly stagger the visitor from the north. The miles of hyacinths lie like an undulating carpet on the surface of the river and divide reluctantly when the slow-moving alligators push their way log-like across. the nights are white nights for the moon shines with dazzling splendor, or in the absence of that goddess, the soft darkness creeps down laden with innumerable scents. The heavy fragrance of magnolias mingled with the delicate sweetness of jasmine and wild roses."

-- Zora Neale Hurston



This is a Test!

No, really it is a test.  All my life I've wanted to write a book and so now I am sort of trying out this blog thing as a test drive. I have no idea what I am going to write about, but I suppose it will be like writing poetry...I will just let my fingers slide across the keyboard and my mind run free.  I would love to write something monumental and life-changing right now, but I am mentally exhausted from spending so much time trying to make the blog look appealing.  Stand by, there's more to come...