Popcorn and Coke-- Ambrosia? I think so.

Friday, I had some free time in the afternoon, and since Matt Elliot had demoted my blog to "wild hair" status in his blog links, I thought, "I will of my own free will, not because of guilt or a want to please others, write a blog." So freely and without shame, I sat in my cushy teacher's chair and composed a beautifully touching blog about my mother as a belated mother's day present to her. Brad came in and we talked a bit. He ranted about how cruel Matt Elliot is, how unfair he is, how he does not understand our plight, how he (Brad) was not going to update, how that would show him (Matt), etc. By the way, have you guys read his new entry, http://www.bsdenton.blogspot.com/? It also was so totally not motivated by Matt. So, anyway, I wrote this touchingly beautiful blog, probably the best piece of writing I have ever composed, and it has gone away. It is somewhere out there in cyberspace, circling the globe, seeking an audience. But, alas, you will never read it.

Sunday afternoon, I again sat down to blog, but I had absolutely nothing to say. I wrote a paragraph or two of absolute drivel, and then I decided that I should spend the rest of the day reading Real Simple (despite the fact that it should be called Really Simple in order to be grammatically correct) from cover to cover, and then I took a really, really, really long nap.

And now, I feel compelled to write before I clean out the closets in my classroom (yes, I am moving classrooms again this year), grade I-search papers (yes, I assigned a paper at the end of the year), revise both of the exams I will give this year, clean off my desk, and then return home to collapse blissfully on the couch for five minutes before I have to "make" supper. Yet, the muses are not being kind to me. So here are my three paragraphs, springing forth from within my soul. Not because of my "wild hair" status, but because I had something to write about and something to sustain me: popcorn and a Coke.

By the way, I quit Weight Watchers. I now subsist on just popcorn, Cokes, coffee, hot dogs, Campbell's Soup at Hand tomato soup, rice crispy treats, mint chocolate chip ice cream, and chocolate chip cookies. I call it the "End of the Year Teacher's Diet." Bring on the carbs!!

Read below if you need a serious blog; this is something I wrote a few years ago while my students were writing in creative writing.

The Picture I See

Perched upon a stool, I view my oasis--A picture more ambiguous than the Mona Lisa and more

miraculous than the Grand Canyon. I see fourteen puffy-eyed adolescents adorned in private school uniforms feverously scratching ideas on paper with whatever writing utensil they can pull from their pouches, steal from their neighbor, or scavenge from the floor. Their heads are bowed, their posture is imperfect, as they squint and lean in to their desks trying to force images from their minds to the crumpled, blue-lined notebook paper in front of them. Occasionally there is a hushed whisper, a paper passed down a row, as ideas are shared or short breaks are taken. Slowly one or two students begin to yawn and stretch, lay their heads tentatively on their desks, indicating that the ideas have stopped flowing or that they are at the hard part of their story. Occasionally, a student can not contain himself and he whisper yelps, "I got it" or "yes." Thesauri are pulled from the bookshelf as stumped students try to pull words from resources other than their brains. Chill bumps form on my arms and a tear crests my lower eye lashes. Nothing is more beautiful.