5 things I've learned in the last week

1. I have to my 100 hours of observations done before I student teach in the fall. Ack! (Hellooooo, Summer school!)

2. Joe Cocker used to be normal in the absence of music. That and he's awesomer than I previously suspected. Kudos to Julie Taymor for choosing his rendition of "A Little Help from my Friends" for Across the Universe.

3. One should never, ever tighten the string's of one's hoodie while one is wearing glasses. The resulting trauma to the nose is so not worth the extra warmth.

4. School district boundary maps are difficult to follow. If we continue to live here, I have no idea what school Preston would go to. I hope it's Orenco--they're the Orcas, and he digs Orcas.

5. I am, apparently, a Democratic Party Neighborhood Leader. I have no idea what that means. I think I'll learn on Sunday, if I can drag myself to the orientation.

Bonus--always check which blog you're blogging in before beginning blogging to make sure your blogging in the blog you wish to be blogging in.

the thing about being pregnant

The thing about being pregnant is that the tears just come easy for good and for bad. saturday night i was more or less bawling at the funeral scene in Across the Universe. Today, i misted a bit at this idea. The simplicity makes for the beauty and the beauty makes me cry. Take an hour. Turn out the lights. Save the world.

I like it when people are good. It helps shake loose my crusty misanthropy.

won't there inevitably be a conflict someday between America's commitment to democracy and it's commitment to secularism and the separation of church and state?

I found this statistic in a poll from last summer: 58% of Americans would favor creationism being taught in school alongside scientific theories of evolution at public schools. (a whole range of evolution/creation polls can also be found here

58%!!

Do these people know that what they're favoring is tantamount to the complete undoing of the first amendment? Particularly if the 51% of the people who said this is an issue that should be decided on a national level get their way?

But, whether or not they know it, this view of education does challenge to the first amendment and it begs the question of what value Americans hold more dear: democracy or religious freedom. Does religious freedom need to bow the the will of the majority? Can it? Should it?

Rain!

Part of the joy of the new place is that you can't hear the weather with the same nerve-rattling intensity of our previous home/glorified shack. The winds that howled around town a couple of weeks ago were barely noticeable to me and most of the rain thus far has been but a distant tinkling.

I can only imagine that it sounds something like the Normandy invasion over there now because I feel like I'm on Noah's freakin' ark over here.

Truth be told, though, I kind of dig it. Weather noises are a lot less scary when you can be reasonably assured that the outside won't force its way in.

there has to be something

there has to be something worth blogging every day. clearly my standards must be lowered accordingly (and my initiative or drive or something uppered (upped, i know, but then you miss out on the groovy parallel thing that happened)).

nesting parentheticals! i'm already off to an auspicious start.

brandon is out procuring for us a football-themed dessert. nobody is coming over. we will not be watching the game.

why, out of the blue, do i so desperately want to see rush this summer?