One HECK of a Week

Sigh...so glad it's "Fall Back" time so that I get an extra hour. This last week our grades were due, so honestly, I ran this grading marathon to wrap things up on Wednesday. In fact, I went right home and climbed into bed at 6:30 pm. Ah! :) You would think that would have gotten me by, but no such thing. Keeping up with all the students I've had who have been out with mono, surgeries, and other illnesses kept me busy even after grades were due. So, Thursday night I repeated Wednesday night! Friday, I didn't get a chance to go to bed that early, as Doc, Cool Breeze, and I met at Melting Pot to discuss Dracula, which none of us had technically finished. Doc had read it before though, and so we moved on to discussing what we'll be reading this month. I'll post another "small" post to let you know what it is!

Now off to what I've either picked away at over the last week, or tore through today out of a desperate need to do what I wanted. Well, first off I have to say how completely enamored I am again with Friends!


They saved my sanity these past couple of weeks, as I have kept them running in the background as I've graded papers, and as an escape from stress at night. I love them!


Last week I finally got my hands on a new BBC set of mini-stories based on four of Shakespeare's famous plays, Shakespeare Retold. I watched the Much Ado About Nothing modernization last weekend, but didn't get a chance to watch the three others until Saturday morning (because I had to take it back to the library). Admittedly, I'm not a huge Shakespeare fan (before you freak out...I DO know he's a genius of language), and since I was in a hurry to return this to the library, I sort of fast forwarded through the remaining tales on the discs. My favorite one though was Taming of the Shrew, which starred that one girl ghost in the Harry Potter films as the Shrew. It was actually pretty good!

I also woke early (6am!) this morning, so I grabbed a nice bowl of Fiber One Cereal (YUCK), and watched BBC's adaptation of Elizabeth Glaskell's novel Wives and Daughters.


Okay, so it was good...but...I HATED THE ENDING!!! Sigh. Why watch four hours of a movie if the ending can't match the tension created in the first 99% of the film!?! Yes, it made me a bit crazy. I won't say I didn't like it, but would it kill these uptight characters to lock lips for even the minutest, most congenial kiss!!!

So, the last thing on my list then is a quick review of a book I've been TRYING to pull myself through for over six weeks (I've renewed it three times, and it's due tomorrow!), The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen.
A student had recommended it to me last school year, and I had meant to read it over the summer, but selfishly read mass amounts of my favorite MEG CABOT. :) Well, as several people can tell you, when pushed repeatedly to read a book, I sometimes get stubborn as a mule and decide I don't want to read it. Now it's all subconscious...I promise, but I just balk and feel like I'm somehow not choosing the book. This book happened to fall into the category of, "I'm forcing you to read this and will pull my student-who-wants-your-feedback card if I have to!" I've seen a million girls (yes, I exaggerate) packing around Sarah Dessen novels, and maybe it's the pastel colors and sweet titles that made me vomit slightly into my mouth, but I'd made a promise, and I was bound by my oath as an English teacher that makes too many promises to read the thing. Guess what? It was pretty good. I'm not big on the "my dad died and now I have to get over it" plots (as too close to home and make me roll my eyes at the emotional manipulation), but once I sat down today (sorry...lounged in a nice bubble bath) to finish the last half of the book that I'd been picking at for weeks, it wasn't half bad. The story is engaging, and while not surprising, it still made me care about her. She packs her nerdy, genius boyfriend off to "Brain Camp" for the summer, to work his boring job at the library. He basically dumps her, and she picks up the pieces by kind of finding herself. Yes, there are other love interests who pop up, but that's all I'll say.

While a little sweetsy at times, I had to smile and think about how much I would have loved this story if it were the 16 year old version of myself. I would have probably started packing around every pastel-colored copy of a Sarah Dessen book on the planet. They are relatively clean, have characters who value their insides over their outsides, and have connections to their families. Overall, I'm happy to say I can go back to my student and tell her I read it, and actually kind of liked it.

Well, back to grading essays! From one book-sex-love-entertainment-free time-time off starved single gal to another...Mahalo, and I'll be back baby. :)