Selling my eggs on ebay

For all of my life, I have been set on not having children. I've joked to friends and family about how I want to sell my eggs on ebay and make some cash. In retrospect, I can see how this is not the most funny thing to say. I still think it is amusing.

The fact of the matter is that even though I haven't had fertility tests or anything, I bet I am the most fertile person and would have no trouble getting pregnant. Unfortunately, I think that's how it tends to be. The people that desire children to no end have difficulty getting pregnant and/or carrying the baby to full term. The people like me who say, "Children? Nope, not ever me" are the ones who probably can easily get pregnant.

I've recently had a change of heart. I don't know exactly one factor that brought the change about. I used to joke that working at a middle school was like instant cause for birth control or sterilization. I mean, there are some "good kids," but there are some brats too..makes you think: what if my kid ended up like one of the brats?

But I am rethinking my whole I-don't-want-kids view. What scares me though is I have never even held a baby in my life. My family is so small; there were not constant occasions where there were babies being born and little kids running around. But I know if I got pregnant, I'd be the type to be reading any book out there on pregnancy or child-rearing. What to Expect When You're Expecting would constantly be in my hand.

Thinking about babies also brings up the fun topic of naming. John and I have talked about baby names. For girls, there aren't too many names that I like. Summer, Autumn, Desiree, and Veronica are favorites. I can't imagine a baby being called Veronica though--an older woman/seductress as Veronica, yes. But not a little baby.

For boy names, I like what John calls "gay names." I guess they are a little feminine for boys; the names I like aren't names you'd necessarily associate with future strong, brawny men: Evan, Ethan, Aidan, Jeremy, Joshua, Tobias, Justin, etc.

Out of curiosity, I looked at a website: www.babynamesworld.com. Some of the names they have on the site are awesome [a.k.a. "weird"]: Raechel [cool spelling of Rachel], Radley, Reese [I know...the name of a celeb, not a good idea].

Something that struck me as odd and completely dumb was this tidbit that the website had under the category of "Baby Naming Advice." First off, why would someone need advice on picking a name?!

Here it is: In an experiment done by Harari and McDavid, it was found that teachers grade a paper higher if written by a child with an ordinary name as opposed to an unusual or unpopular name as opposed to when they were led to believe that the child had an unusual or unpopular name (see: Harari, H. & McDavid, J.W. (1973).

So stupid! Enough about that.

What's funny is that years ago the most popular names were names like Michael, Heather, Jennifer, etc. Nowadays, its hip to name your baby something "unique." And it gets to a point that once everyone has the same unique names, that they just become usual names. I took a look at the top 50 baby names [boys' and girls' names for 2005]. A lot of my effeminate boys' names are included in the top 50...

Of the top names, here are my picks: Tyler, Olivia, Dylan, Ava [sooooo popular now], Gabriel, Benjamin, Zachary, and Alyssa.

Out of a separate conversation that John and I had, we decided we like Victor the best... but with a "k." We have to be a little unique. In John's words, "Victor means the winner, the victor. How could that not be a good name?" My thoughts too.

Mall Madness

Remember Mall Madness? I don't recall it too well. I never owned the board game. I was a word nerd... had board games like Scrabble, Boggle, Scattegories, and ASAP when I was growing up. I also had the game of Life. I liked Life's spinner...it was very durable. And I liked that the act of creating a family and having babies was as simple as landing on a particular space on the game board.

Anyway, Mall Madness... kind of like a Supermarket Sweep board game, but in relation to the mall instead of the food store. I went to Target.com and am relieved to say that Hasbro is still making Mall Madness. In case I ever feel like experiencing it, I can...

After class last night, I "felt like" going to the mall. I like to say that I am anti-consumerism and not materialistic. I'm nowhere near buying countless Coach bags or obsessing over the latest fashion/accessory trends. However, I do engage in retail therapy from time to time. Buying stuff does feel good, temporarily.

As soon as I got to the mall last night, I felt saddened. It is a depressing place. All of these products for sale in all of these varied stores... but essentially, all of the stores are the same and all of the products are the same low quality/ripoff price.

I know that none of my above comments are original or especially thought-provoking.

I ended buying a few things...2 shirts on sale and moisturizer. I did actually need the moisturizer and the clothing was work clothing.

I definitely didn't feel good when I left the mall though. I thought to myself, "I don't want to see a mall for awhile." Granted, I will probably be back to the mall within the next 2 weeks.

I've read several books on consumer culture, including mall culture: Call of the Mall, Affluenza, Culture Jam,...next on my to-read list is Why We Buy:The Science of Shopping. These books generally change my viewpoints and actions for a temporary amount of time. Again, I never reach the total consumer/materialistic mindset, but I usually do not hesitate too much if I really want to purchase something.

I've said for a long time that I have to make time for more meaningful things in life.... hiking has been a long time aspiration... I never "feel" like going to a nature area and hiking though...despite the fact that I drive to the gym in order to jog indoors on a treadmill... makes no sense.

I'm making time for the Ren-Faire on Saturday.... granted, the whole day will revolve around going to stores and buying gimmicky turkey legs and yards of ale but...it's outside... one step closer to hiking...

Nostalgia

I feel like I've posted an entry called "Nostalgia" before...

Nostalgia is something I've been thinking about for the past few months. I guess part of it is that all of this 1980s stuff is coming back into style, so I am constantly surrounded by styles and fads that I grew up with. I was only 10 years old at the end of the 80s decade, so I never got the chance to dress goofily with outfits like polka dotted leggings and off-the-shoulder shirts. I definitely had the crazy flourescent Wigwam socks though...classic!

It's nice to see stuff from my childhood...again. Like snap on bracelets....I saw those advertised in a catalog recently. I recall when the snap on bracelets were a trend/safety hazard. Some idiotic kid managed to harm himself with the dumb bracelets, thus leading to a snap-on bracelet ban at schools across the country.

It's just weird to be at this point in my life...seeing fashions and trends in stores and thinking, "Wow, I remember that." I know that every generation probably says this but I think that the stuff from my childhood [music, clothes, TV shows, all facets of pop culture] rocked. This was the decade of: hair bands and sensitive ballads, Mr. Belvedere, Alf, Small Wonder [for years, rumors circulated that Billy Corgan from the Smasking Pumpkins played the lead character on Small Wonder....um....??], Uncle Jesse's mullet on Full House, the Tiffany and Debbie Gibson battle, Who's the Boss?, the Coreys, flourescent colored clothing, cassette tapes:), Mario Brothers, Skinnydippers [awesome cookie/chocolate combo!...Dunkaroos is a lame Skinnydippers imitation], Darryl Strawberry [before the drug problems, Jose Canseuco [before the steroids], that cool starry-night montage/HBO themesong, Dirty Dancing [I watched that movie every day after school for at least 2 years...it took until I was 15 or so before I fully understood the movie---"Penny got knocked up by Robby the kid," abortions, and such], and on and on....

I feel bad for the kids of 2000-2010...what a lame decade...

"Ah ah ah ah ah, I know this much is true"

My neighbors are spazzes. They BLASTED Spandau Ballet's "True" at least 3x this morning. Then, they proceeded to begin hammering things in their apartment. I never knew that Spandau Ballet could inspire home repair/maintenance activities.

I don't know what is more odd: the fact that my neighbors are psyched about Spandau Ballet's "True" [I think I heard loud, enthusiastic singing too] or the fact that I know the actual name of an 80s one-hit wonder band.

Maybe their triple threat of "True" was provoked by John and I singing the Mr. Belvedere themesong last night. I went to Youtube, THE visual popculture bible, and found a video of the themesong. We also decided to be a little more contemporary, so we listened to Panic at the Disco's "I Write the Sins, Not the Tragedies" several times.

Yep, we're hipsters... haha.

I always tell John that the photos of him as a kid bear a striking resemblance to the kid that played Wesley on Mr. Belvedere. Wesley is such an odd name-- never in my life have I known someone with that name.

Off to attempt a productive Sunday... is that an oxymoron?

Someone listened to me...and remembered!

Ok, first off...I swear to myself to myself that this will not turn into a blog about teaching reflections. I try to treat my job like most other "normal" jobs; I go to work, I work, and then I come home and work issues stay at work. When I bring stuff home to grade, the situation is obviously different but I have learned over the years that I need to make time for myself. I have my job and then I have my outside-job life. The two will inevitably mingle sometimes, but I try to avoid that.

But...this post is teaching-related.

Today, before the last period, a student ran into my room and said, "Remember last year when you said that you read somewhere that basketball was the sport where there were the most injuries?" I quizzically replied, "Um, I suppose?" The student went on to tell me that he thought about it and figured out why basketball was the most injurious sport...He actually remembered something I said... I don't even remember reading an article/blurb on sports injuries... I just found it bizarre, and it did make my day! Students always seem to vividly remember the non-class related things that we say. I remember my 8th grade teacher was obsessed with the word undulate. That's about all I remember of her....oh, and she said it was okay for us to call her "Mugs," the shortened version of her last name... I don't think I ever called her Mugs; I thought it was weird. Plus, I was one of those super serious students... calling a teacher "Mugs"? Not in my world. My 9th grade teacher was a spaz who had a mythology mobile in the corner of her classroom and would pretend to converse with Greek gods and goddesses. A history teacher during my junior year slammed the door and left the room after shouting at us for not participating enough.

Today was a good day...

but damn, why did this beautiful weather have to arrive just as school got back into session?

first day of school

Days upon days of rain. It rained so hard on Saturday that I cancelled my lazy-enough plans of going to the movies and simply went to sleep.

Today was my first official day back at wor..."back to school"... and the sun was shining brightly. The sky was a perfect blue and clouds were scattered across the sky. I was stuck in a classroom with a bunch of 13 year olds. Either they've already gotten the puberty-is-hitting-and-you-need-deodorant discussion OR the humidity was low... no rancid body odor smell in the room, even at the end of the day. This was one of the day's highlights!

I wonder how many official first days of school I have had... kindergarten through 12th grade [13], college [4, 8 if you are counting in terms of semesters vs years]... I recall a first day in middle school. I got this pajama ensemble at Macey's. It "looked like" a normal outfit though, or so I thought at the time. I remember blue stripes... horizontal? I must've looked a mess.

The first day went pretty well... I am so comfortable with speaking in front of classes now but I remember when I started teaching, how reserved I was. I can only imagine what I looked like from a student's perspective... my voice was probably soft...I remember I used to convert my sentences into questions, ending with "Okay?," as if I was seeking the class's approval of what I was saying. I probably had my hands curled under, or held behind my back, or in some other weak position. My hair was probably covering my face... some idiotic theory that a curtain of hair covering the face will protect me from the wrath of badly behaved students.

Screw that now. I'm nowhere near being a "master teacher," but I definitely feel comfortable.
I even feel comfortable with acting like a crazy person in front of the students. If I am reading aloud, I can yell, show fear, maniacally laugh, weep, and so on. Because when it comes down to it, it's just a room full of 13 year olds. I can survive:)

Speaking of surviving, it would be hilarious if they had a Survivor-esque show where they pull people out of their regular jobs and have them teach for a day...

Scatterbrained

I don't know if this scatterbrained state is coming from nervousness/annoyance over going back to school or from the crazy state of our apartment...either way, within the past week I have lost:

1] the cordless phone--- I tried paging the phone and could hear it beeping in the living room... but I couldn't find the phone. The battery finally died and the finding-by-beep method was no longer available. The phone has been lost for a week- how something could be lost for one week within a 2 bedroom apartment, I don't know.

2] my FAVORITE earring... They were hook earrings. I should have put the stupid plastic fastener on the back, but ...just didn't. I lost one of the earrings on Monday. Later in the day, I even drove back to the last shopping plaza I had been to and searched the parking lot like a crazy person. The earring was still not found.

3] My car keys-- this happened today. I went out to my car to get something and then later on, when I went to the gym, the keys were nowhere to be found...thank goodness for the spares.

GOOD NEWS...and my new mantra...
"When something is lost, seek it within the depth of the couch."

Not under the couch...not even under the couch cushions...but deep within the far right hand side of the couch...I dug and dug...found the phone and my car keys! Within this deep side pocket of the couch, I also found a lime green Crayola marker and a ruler...SCORE! As if I need any stationary supplies. If the world was ending and we all were seeking shelter somewhere else and people were designated to bring certain things with them, I would be Stationary Girl.

Anyway, the point of my endless blabbering is this: I've heard that if you have a cluttered apartment or room, that it creates clutter in your life. This is definitely true with me. My cluttered apartment has created cluttered intervals of time... walking around the apartment in circles, looking in the craziest spots for missing things. Example: I looked in the fridge for my car keys-- who knows? Maybe the keys were in my hand and I went into the fridge to get a piece of fruit and left the keys in the fridge.

Ok, I detest inspirational/motivational quotes mumbe-jumbo. However, since I am amidst the realization of my clutter-problem, I figured looking at some cheesy quotations might help me de-clutter...

"Clutter drains your energy - and you don't realize it till it's gone. Every item in your home has an energy to it. When items go a long time unused, unloved and uncared for, they become stuck, stagnant energy that actually physically drains you of your energy." ---- Ariane Benefit