So, it's been a while.... Last week was completely insane! I had a fabulous weekend (18-19th) in DC with my friend, Susan. I had a conference at the Turkish embassy that turned out to be really cool. I crashed with Susan and we had a great time catching up and shopping for scrapbooking supplies!

When I came back to start my week, however, it all exploded. I'm on the faculty council for the National Honor Society and we've got to punish a bunch of kids for a recent drinking incident. Lots of fun meetings about that... Also, one of my students confided in me that she got involved with this creepy old man (in his 50s), so I spent the better part of Tuesday with the police, the principal, guidance counselor and the girl's mom. Yikes! I found out I'm getting a student teacher, who started today and a whole bunch of other stuff I won't bore you with here. It was just insane.

Then, we went to Richmond on Friday to see Brad's aunt and cousins. He presented a paper at a conference and we girls hit the mall. It was fun and a welcome distraction from the week. Today was considerably quieter and I'm so grateful. I'm hoping the rest of the week continues this way. Two weeks until spring break!!!!

This has really been a pretty vanilla week. Certainly not black licorace bad (ewww) but not quite chocolate amaretto good either. Brad's out of town and there's been very little excitement. The good news is he met with his committee about his dissertation and they seem really positive about it. He turned in the final chapter and they set the date for his defense in May. So exciting!

I've been working on reading a bunch of essays for the Phi Alpha Theta (history honor society) conference, taking place at VMI next weekend. It's been interesting for me, but not the sort of thing other people get excited hearing about. :) I'll spare you all...

Happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow. Don't forget to wear green!

So this week has been a total blur... I can't believe it's Thursday night already. I'm thrilled tomorrow is Friday, though.

The American Red Cross came to the high school today for our annual blood drive. What an interesting day... They were not prepared and they ran behind all day. Plus, they had a lot of folks who were phlebotomists in training, which is just scary when you're in the chair. Most of the people there were 17 year olds donating for the first time and they were really freaked out. It didn't make it easier when the lady with the needle is asking for instructions... A lot of our folks overheard the Red Cross people lamenting about how much they hate coming to high schools and their attitudes definitely showed it. I've been donating blood regularly ever since the blood drive at my high school and this was the most ridiculous experience I've had.

After the woman took nearly 45 minutes getting through the initial interview (she couldn't work the computer database or find any of her equipment), I waited another 15 mintues in the chair for someone to come over to me. The girl next to me finished at the same time I did and the technician got flustered. She finished off the other girl and by the time she got to me, my blood had clotted and they couldn't get the final tubes done. So, they had to stick me in the other arm. I don't mind, it was just annoying. I think I earned brownie points with all the kids around me for my cavalier attitude about the whole thing. I've just done it so much it hardly fazes me anymore.

There. I feel better. :) Come on, Friday!!!

Hooray - it's Friday!!!! I'm so glad because I'm so tired.... This has been a really busy week without much sleep. My duet went well Wednesday night. It was really cool to do and it gave me a nice boost of confidence to take more chances. I'm movin' on up....

I just got home from the post office after dropping off my application for that Japan fellowship. I want this thing to happen SO badly that I've been obsessing about the application for weeks. I kept reformatting and changing everything - I was up past midnight working on it last night. I had to postmark it today and of course, I had a nightmare last night that I wouldn't make it to the post office in time after school so I didn't get it. Such a huge relief to see it postmarked and put in the mail. I also applied for this summer institute in Denver - that had to be mailed today, too. It's at the same time as the Japan thing, so it's my backup plan. I should hear back in about 6 weeks. Keep your fingers crossed! :)

Have a great weekend!