Scientific Method

You know how they say you can affect something just by observing it? I like how life is going right now, and I think that's maybe why I'm afraid to blog. Or...maybe that's just an excuse. It is now March - seven days before the Ides, as we learned in Latin class today. It is four days before spring break and New York, eight days before Tennessee and home.

Last weekend, a fellow teacher and I implemented the first step in a great experiment. Our goal is simple: to be more sociable. We have rules. Rule Number 1: Go out every Friday night, no excuses, to a different bar in Annapolis. Rule Number 2: For the sake of finances, it must be during happy hour. Rule Number 3: For the sake of finances and time, drinks are limited to one, two at most. By following these rules, we can happily go out every week on our schoolmarm salaries and schedules, and meet and talk to people whom we don't see at school all day long. We had an enjoyable evening last Friday - spent a little over an hour and felt like human beings. Our companion for the evening was a guy from her Bible study, and more friends are being recruited. Follow-up activites (concerts, etc.) are being planned. The experiment seems promising.

If I go to bed now, it will be the first normal bedtime in forever. We'll see how it turns out.

Must Break the Writer's Block

Been listening to ABBA music on YouTube and now really want to watch Mamma Mia! Anybody seen it?

Just finished the second trimester and got all grades and student comments in on time! It feels weird to be finished...on time.

Read the first two books of the Aeneid and enjoyed them much more than I did freshman year of undergrad.

Looked up airfare to Athens and Rome. Also looked up rent on apartments in the Annapolis area. Will be saving for a while.

Will be going to bed soon.

Alle wollen in den Himmel, aber niemand will sterben.

I saw that quote today on the Facebook profile of one of my old ballet teachers. It means (roughly, with the help of Google Translate) "Everyone wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die." I think that German is a beautiful language. I'm jealous that one of my friends is becoming downright bilingual while I am perfecting my knowlege of a language I cannot speak - although there is a spoken Latin program at the University of Kentucky this summer that I could go to. I think German is the language I want to learn next. If I ever were to go back to school for classical studies I would need to know German. If I ever were to travel to Germany it would be nice to know German.

Anyway, I won't be able to do anything about this desire to learn another language for about four more months. Then it will be summer, and I will have a nice long time to do whatever I want. I'm not really sure everything that will involve. I need to figure it out soon.

I guess the theme of this post, if there is one, is that there are things I wish I could do; problem is, they take doing.

Which Boots Do You Like?

Made Me Laugh

This just needed to be shared. Found on the blog of a fellow Hillsdale alumn, I present...

Star Wars as told by someone who hasn't seen it!


Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

There's A Place For Us...

Ha!

While visiting Heather a couple weeks ago, I noticed a peculiar thing. Each time the subway trains approached and left a station, the screeching of the wheels seemed to play the first three notes of "Somewhere" from West Side Story. You know, "There's...a...place...(for us....somewhere a place for us...etc.)" Heather just thought I was imagining things because I was just excited to be in New York. But I kept hearing it. So I went home and looked up the song on YouTube and the similarities in pitch were undeniable. Then I turned to my other favorite website, Google, to do a little research. Turns out that I am not the only one to have been hearing things.

The Gothamist answers an inquiry on the subject.
The aptly-named blog "Lulled by the Train" discusses it.
Even the New York Times had an article on it.

I'm not insane! And just so you can experience it for yourself, here are Maria and Tony to sing for you. Unfortunately, the opening note is kind of inaudible...you have to wait until Maria starts singing to hear all thee notes together.



I feel like I need to apologize to Emily for the theme of this post. But what do you think, all you NYC travellers? Have you heard this before?

I'm Baaaaack!

I am now back in Maryland. Unfortunately, however, both of my winter coats are in Tennessee. 7 and 1/2 hours away. I am kind of looking forward to experimenting with my wardrobe to compensate.

Speaking of warmth, I'm planning on buying a space heater soon, since the house where I live is primarily heated with a wood stove, the heat from which is quite pleasant but does not circulate to my bedroom. Any suggestions on brand or type or size? (You shoudn't even need a Blogger profile to comment, dear non-blogging friends!)

The last few days I have been feeling kind of gloomy about leaving my family and heading back for two more trimesters worth of planning and grading and report cards (but not the teaching - still love the teaching), but as I got ready to leave this morning, I started feeling motivated again. Praise God! It was really quite pleasant to come back to my little room and hang up the gorgeous 2009 calendar that Laura got me for Christmas (see below) and light my little tea candles and unpack my wonderful shoes. It's enough to make up for a cold room and missing coats. (Boy, did that sound dismal. I promise I'm really quite content!)