Ice Skating In the Parking Lot In My UGGS

I had a fun experience sometime last week that I am reminded of on a daily basis (at least until my scar goes away). I think it is the universe that is telling me that maybe I am not suppose to be a teacher. Accidents seem to happen to me whenever I walk to, or from the Education Building (EB) at UVSC.

I use to live in the LA Building (Liberal Arts) while I was taking all my English classes, and I still do (thanks to my favorite job!), but now I have to walk outside in the ice and snow to get to the EB. A serious hazard to my health!

On that fateful day after class I walked back to the LA to start work, and I slipped in ice (I thought I could make it through in my UGGS, I had on my way to the EB). A girl in army fatigues walked by and asked if I was alright, but kept walking. I told her I was fine, and the fact that I was laughing about it she probably thought I would be fine, and I thought so too . . . I didn't realize how hard it is to get up in the middle of an ice puddle without falling down again. Remember I have my bookbag full of books (I bet I looked really funny falling, if only I had the ability to have an outer body experience to see it happening!), and it was really awkward trying to get up. I rolled around for a little bit, and eventually got up, and stepped away from the ice. I continued to walk, and I looked down and saw that I was bleeding, and my skin was peeled back. I walked faster to get to the building.

Thank goodness that the restroom was close to the entrance! My hand stung until I got inside (and after). When I got to the office I tried to play nurse and put gauze and tape on it, but that didn't work, mainly because I am not a very good nurse, and the wound is in an awkward place. Finally we found a huge band-aid that fit over it nicely, but it didn't stay on very well either (just a little better than the gauze). So I just never wore band-aids or gauze again because it is futile. I felt a little self-conscious of my wound, so I try not to wave my left hand around--thank goodness for the right hand.

Another time somebody dropped me off by the LA Building, and I got my thumb stuck in the

door. I still can't figure out which is worse, not having a hand or a thumb. You never know how important a thumb is until you lose one! (Opposable thumbs are great!) And, even though my UGGS failed me that day I still love my UGGS! They keep my feet so warm!

Harry Potter vs. Twilight

Have you ever felt like you were betraying your favorite artist by actually enjoying their competition, for example M.C. Hammer v. Vanilla Ice, or N*SYNC v. Backstreet Boys. It feels like you're helping the other team win (more money), or gain more popularity. You can't like both. Well that's how I felt after I read the Twilight series in a weekend. (Yeah, I actually read Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse during President's Day weekend, and stayed up until 5:30 am Monday morning reading Eclipse, and slept for 2 hours, and only ate a pickle and a slice of Grandma Sycamore's Bread.) I felt like I was betraying Harry Potter by enjoying Twilight (only the parts with Edward), but that wasn't the case.

So, I've come to the conclusion that you can like both, and I do for different reasons. It's not a case of being torn between "two masters," but supporting the starving artists. All I have to say is that Breaking Dawn better have Edward in it.

A conflict of interest: Cedric Diggory plays Edward the Vampire

So, I just heard that Cedric Diggory is going to play the vampire in the Twilight series movie. I think this is a conflict of interest. You can't go from being a wizard to being a vampire, especially with the competition between Harry Potter and Twilight (I know there really isn't competition Twilight can't hold a candle to the unprecedented phenomenon of Harry Potter). If you go to Stephanie Meyer's homepage the picture of Cedric Diggory A.K.A Robert Pattinson is on the first page (just scroll down a bit), doesn't he look Vampirish?!

I guess I am going to have to go buy the books and read them now!

Answers to the test

I don't think I posted the answers to my quiz. For those of you who are dying to know your grades (you eager beavers) the answers are all C's. That's right! So give yourself a pat on the back if you got a 100%, and for those of who didn't . . . . well it looks like you are going to have to put on a dunce cap and go sit in the corner. (I like the "old school" way of punishing, embarassing, and humiliating students to do better.) Better luck next time, and just a little hint if you guess pink, or Emma, or anything about Harry Potter you're most likely going to get it right! Until next time kids!

Chionophobia

This week the weather has been very unpleasant. For those of you who don't know I am deathly afraid of snow. Not the fun stuff on the mountains that you ski/snowboard in, but the stuff that sticks to the roads and eventually turns into ice that causes my car to slide on the road, and me to overcorrect because I don't know what I am doing.

Being a Californian we tend to not know what to do in the snow. It has only snowed once in my 20 plus year existence in Bakersfield, California, and it was supercool! That year we had an Italian foreign exchange student, and I told her that it would never snow, but it did, and we didn't have to go to school, but . . . . there's more to the story. The day that it snowed was a teacher inservice day, and there was already no school! What a waste of a perfectly snow day. The storm was kinda freakish in that it snowed in other places in the Central Valley. The state only had one snow plow, and it started from Fresno and worked its way south. It never made it to Bakersfield.

People still felt obligated to go to work (why?), and so there attempts were futile. Big SUVs were slipping and sliding when they turned. I have a friend that says "there is no such thing as 4 wheel drive breaks," or something like that. The Bakersfieldians did not know how to act in the snow, that wasn't on the mountains.

Another reason I am afraid of the snow has to do with avalanches, and the dangerous speeds at which one goes down a hill, or mountain, doing an intentionally fun activity. At church activities where we went to the snow to go sledding/tubing people have been seriously injured and died. I will never go down a hill on a sled by myself. I always have to ride in the back with my eyes closed the whole way down.

I was once told that when you get stuck in an avalanche to just start digging up, but how do you know which way is up after being rolled over so many times. Are you s'pose to count how many turns you did, or try to look for the light?

Yep snow is dangerous--ly tempting. The fun stuff you can do like build snowmen, and throw snowballs, and make snowcaves. Those are all fun and safe activities to do in the snow. Why don't people like to do them as much anymore?!