Surgeon General's Warning on Big Brother

There should be a Surgeon General's Warning for Big Brother.

As you know, I just picked up on Big Brother about a month ago on my friend Katie's advice. Since I missed so much of the drama in the episodes I missed I decided to catch up and watch them online. Today, as I waited to play tennis with "The Crew" I watched the first 10 episodes. I am more addicted to this show than ever and to think I can watch it any time I want and not wait is even worse. While I'm just starting another episode my cell phone rings and Katie tells me they're at my apt. complex and to come outside. I go outside, lock-up the house, and we're off to enjoy a serious round of tennis. Or so I think. We get to the court, notice a few guys talking in the court. Talking as opposed to playing tennis, so we kick 'em out. J/K I kindly asked them if they were done playing, they said yes, packed up, and left. Okay, so we set to play. I notice right off that "The Crew" is particularly giggly today and totally not taking tennis seriously. Well, I get a little moody and it definitely shows. Katie tells me to calm down, we're just playing for fun. So we play our game and after an hour Katie and Wendy stop playing because apparently they've fulfilled their tennis quota for the week. Jesse and I continue to play. As we're playing I notice that Katie and Wendy are sitting on the bench whispering very quietly to each other. Immediately I see a relation to their quiet whispering to the many secret conversations going on in the Big Brother house. I signal Jesse over to the net and point them out. What are they quietly whispering about. I'm in Big Brother mode. I sense mutiny on the court. I yell out and ask them what they're talking about. They say nothing and I continue to play, continually suspicious. WHAT AM I THINKING?! Of course, they are not talking shit about me, but I tell you watching all that Big Brother is messing with my mind. Anyway, after a fun game of "keep Jackie's keys away from Jackie" we finish up and my friends go home after Katie almost runs me down with her car.

In short I think there should be a surgeon general's warning posted for Big Brother. Such as the one down below:

SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: The viewing of this show may cause anxiety, mood swings, unexplained lashing out towards friends and relations, and severe paranoia. If watched in great concentrations the risk of developing any or all of these symptoms may increase and may be potentially fatal to otherwise perfectly healthy relationships.

You're such a boob!

Our school had a Spring Festival to raise money for the school. One of the biggest events of the festival was an auction. Two types of items were auctioned off: baskets filled with items following a theme (like Hannah Montana, High School Musical, Family Fun Games, etc.) and teacher time. Katie, Kari (another fourth grade teacher) and I offered up our time. We would take the student with the winning bid to see Horton Hears a Who. In the end Katie and I each had a student (from our classrooms) bid and win our teacher time. So yesterday our students cashed in. We met them at Tinseltown, bought them snacks and proceeded to the movie. As we opened the doors to the screen room both students said they needed to go to the restroom. Katie volunteered take them and I continued in to snag some seats. The theater wasn't filled, but there was a decent crowd. They returned shortly and the movie began. During the movie the Mayor of Whoville stated that everyone thought he was "a boob". I've never heard this expression before and never expected it in a children's movie. I immediately turned to Katie and was shocked. What? A BooB!? This expression was used often. I'm not sure how that expression found its way in a Dr. Seuss movie. Oh well. There was a moment in the middle of the movie where I turned to Katie and noticed she was napping. The movie did slow down in the middle, but picked up again towards the end. The girls, however, thoroughly enjoyed the movie with occasional spouts of laughter. At the end of the movie Katie took the meaningful line "A person's a person no matter how small" and I took "you're such a boob". I can't wait to see which expression is adopted by kids more. I have an idea, but we'll see.

Hodgepodge of Happenings

Alright, I stopped blogging because since my recent separation from my parents I can't seem to think of anything to write about. I realized that so much of what I had to say centered around my family drama. I can't promise humorous or really interesting entries, but hey life isn't always a roller coaster.

School life has been pretty normal. Either my kids are finally seeing my side of things or I'm just getting used to their quirks. I love the analogy Tim Gunn, from Project Runway, used about the monkey house at the zoo. When you first walk in the smell is appalling, but after while the smell starts to fade. You walk around see the exhibits and before you know it the odor is completely gone, or so you think. Of course, it's still there, but you don't notice it. I've entered the monkey house and the smell has started to fade and life is pretty damn good. All joking aside, I have a pretty good class and I'm happy to have them. They all have different personalities and it's interesting to see how they change throughout the year and think about what they will be like when they grow up or even just up to high school.

Behind the scenes is a different matter. With the end of the year approaching there entails change. In my school's case, a lot of change. Teachers are getting moved around through grade levels, others are putting in transfer requests to different schools, and some are getting them. With all this change comes talk and worry. Where's she going, is she staying, oh no, am I going to get moved? DRAAAMAAA. Luckily, the much of the worry is over except that we are now interviewing applicants for one of our fourth grade positions. Unfortunately, the first interview doesn't look promising. The interviewee sounds okay as a teacher, but her personality and energy is kinda blah. That being our first interview we're eager to do some more searching to find the perfect fit for the Fourth Grade niche.

I recently started watching Big Brother and I'm completely hooked. I started watching when Matt was voted off. Almost immediately I remember having negative feelings towards Natalie and ever since then the feelings have escalated to intense dislike. So much so that I rallied for Sheila's cause and cheered when Natalie was voted off. I hope Adam's next. I predict Sharon and Ryan to be the final two. Both, from what I've seen, have been fairly decent players, but in the end I'm rooting for Sharon.

That's my hodgepodge of happenings. A little bit of this and a little bit of that.