Recipe for the best Pandora station

Start with Sara Bareilles

add variety:  Ingrid Michaelson
(who I'm going to see on April 19, FYI. Jealous? Good)

add variety:  Joshua Radin
(who I saw a year ago, FYI. Still jealous? Good)

I'm in love with this station!

Bad timing

Hey, remember me?  The girl who only blogs when she has something really "exciting" to talk about (like dental floss)?

Well today I'd like to talk about something equally exciting as dental floss:  tendonitis.

Every now and then, I get this pain in my foot.  It's a rather unpleasant, sharp pain every time I put pressure on my foot (which, in case you didn't know, is during every single step I take).  That pain came back again yesterday while I was working.  Turns out I have tendonitis.

Tendonitis?  Shouldn't stuff like that not come until I'm in my 50s?

I don't know if you know this, but I'm supposed to be running a half marathon in 72 hours!

It's rather helpful when your best friend works at a physical therapy office/clinic/gym.  Carie had me come in last night to work a little magic on my foot.  We'll do that again tonight.  If anything, it's fun to hang out with her for an hour while she does this!

Hopefully I'll be cured by Saturday morning.  Tendonitis or not, I want to run this thing. :)

Life lesson for the day...

Don't buy the cheapest dental floss.  

It's not worth it.

You'll end up needing to use it to floss out the broken floss fibers that shred off between your teeth.

Destination Running

Someone once told me that running is a relatively inexpensive hobby.  

Not the way I do it!  

In the past week, I've agreed to run two races.  My sister Cherilyn asked if I wanted to come down to Phoenix in March and run the Phoenix Half Marathon with her.  Sure!  Why not?!  I'll just pay the slightly expensive registration fee.  No big deal.  Oh wait, I need to buy a plane ticket down there.  I guess I can handle that.  

Then I got an email last night from my brother-in-law, Steve, asking if I'd want to be on his Ragnar team for the Northwest Passage race in July.  Sure!  Why not?!  I'll just pay the really expensive price for registration, gas, etc.  No big deal.  Oh wait, I need to buy a plane ticket up there.  I guess I can handle that, too.

Plus the running shoes I bought in June have already worn down pretty far.  So I bought new shoes on Saturday.  They aren't cheap! But they were on sale!

So is this true?

Well, not when I'm a destination runner and go to other states to do it.

But this is true, so it's all worth it...

One of those "Why I teach" moments

I just made a student's day.  Well, in reality, he made his own day, but he gave me credit...and I'll take it. :)  He's had an F in my class for most of the semester.  He's perfectly capable, but he just gets "distracted" easily (his word usage).  Today he took a test and did really well.  I was pleasantly surprised, actually.  Then he turned in his final project (a hoodie).  It looked REALLY good.  It was nearly perfect and one of the best I've seen.  I entered his scores on my computer and told him that his grade went from an F to an A!  He was literally dancing around the room with the biggest smile on his face.  He told me how his parents wouldn't believe it because they don't think he's good at anything and not capable of doing something like this.  He tends to be tagged as one of those jock, goof-off students that doesn't get great grades, so he was so proud of his A.

It's moments like this when I remember why I teach.  I love seeing students who don't do well in other classes succeed in mine.  I'm so glad he's learned a skill that he loves.  And the fact that he danced around my room made it that much more entertaining. :)

Tanning Lotion Stinks

I can't stand the smell of tanning lotion.

This all started last year when I had two students who caked it on every day.  After spending a winter cooped up in a classroom with them, it started to wear on me.  I couldn't stand too close to them because of the smell.  It also started to take a toll on them.  Their skin was orange enough that other students easily noticed.  I heard them being referred to as 

Oompa Loompas

The Orange Ones

Fake 'n Bakes

Now that winter is upon us (well, not really...it's been in the 50s all week), the use of sunless tanning products is back.  I hope I can handle it.  The smell is sickening.  Just another reason to look forward to summer! :)

Happy New Year!

What a wild and crazy ride 2011 was.  Looking back, I can see that I was able to have some pretty incredible experiences in the past year!

What does 2012 have in store for me?

Well for starters, see my sweet Ireland countdown?  That's going to be pretty awesome!

Other than that, who knows.  

Anyone have any suggestions for me?