Best Witches!

Happy Halloween, everyone. Hope your day was as great as mine.

Halloween: Cajun Style

I smell like costume make-up and mothballs and I don't even care!

Today is Halloween. Well, it's Halloween at elementary schools up and down the country anyway.

I've always loved Halloween. But now that I know what Halloween is going to be like every year for the rest of my life, I love it even more. The elementary school is the hip hop happenin' place to be for Halloween. I'm so glad the month I'm spending in an elementary school this semester includes Halloween.

At the school I'm at, the kids weren't allowed to dress up until after lunch. However, if their costume included face paint, they were permitted to wear it to school. So we had one kid show up to school with a white face, black eyes, and blood dripping from the corners of his mouth. Also, his hair was slicked back and sprayed black. It was amazing.

The kids in my class were dying to put their costumes on all day. They each asked the teacher about twenty times when they could go change. During lunch, while all the kids were at recess, my partner and I were standing in the hallway, outside our classroom while our mentor teacher changed into her costume. At the end of the hall, there was a door to the playground where about thirty kids were sitting on the steps, looking longingly inside. I bet recess never lasted longer.

And then, it was finally time for them to get dressed up. I helped out the kids who could just put on their costumes over their close. I also painted another kid's face white with black eyes. He went without the blood, though, because he wanted to save it for tomorrow.

In my class, there were 5 witches, 4 ninjas, 3 storm troopers, 2 vampires (the kids in the face paint), 2 Deaths, 1 Batman, 1 army guy, 1 vet, 1 tool girl, 1 devil, and 1 "sweetheart bat."

After everyone got their costumes on, we went out to join the parade. I went to seven different elementary schools as a child, and yet I have never experienced a Halloween costume parade. It was so great! We marched all over the school and into the gym where all the parents were waiting. I loved it so, so much. All the students looked amazing. My favorite part was the grumpy face on a 1st grade boy dressed as Spider-man next to the smiling face of a 1st grade girl also dressed as Spider-man, but a more muscular one.

Anyway, my point is, today was incredible. The whole day was a lot of fun, and I didn't want to leave when the time came. To be honest, though, that's what it's been like every day this week. When I first started at this school on Tuesday, I was really nervous. And then all the students showed up and I realized how much fun I am going to have as a teacher. Of course, I still haven't really taught anything yet... that's happening next week. We'll see how it goes.

In other news, I'm a winner! I went to an office supply fair last week and I entered a drawing for a kayak! I didn't win the kayak, but I did win a set of six super magnets! Of course, I haven't been able to pull them apart as of yet, but winning is still fun.

PS: I dressed up as Giselle from Enchanted today. I made the kids guess who I was and they were all really excited when they got it right because it was from a movie they've seen. I love how little kids get excited about little things. More people should be like that!

The Little Things In Life

Some good advice I've heard is, especially when times are tough, it's important to enjoy the little things. So here are some little things that I enjoy:

1. Crunching leaves (although I get mad when they are soggy)

2. Tackling Lewis and being astonished every time he is able to stand up with me dead weighting trying to hold him down

3. PB&J or just J sandwiches, pigs in a blanket, Kraft macaroni and cheese, tomato soup and grilled cheese - tastes like childhood! (PS: Lewis, I just thought of what we should have for dinner tonight)

4. Lewis said he likes me cause I'm just as big a dork as him - how true that is!

5. When we walk to school together, even though I am glarey cause it's cold (glarey does not equal grumpy)

6. ESPN Game Day will be in Provo, Utah, at LaVell Edwards Stadium: This. Saturday.

7. One of my classes finished today

8. Last Saturday, we shoot our nephew, Caiden, with Nerf gun darts over and over again while he ran around in circles over and over again

9. Sometimes Lewis starts singing the very song that is in my head - it's weird.

10. Waffles with two different kinds of homemade syrup for Sunday dinner (we have three recipes for syrup now - maple, buttermilk, and blueberry)

11. We tried out a new cookie recipe - straight from the introweb - and it was actually really good - in both dough and cookie form! Thanks, Kitchenaid and internet.

12. Yesterday I figured out why the division of fractions algorithm works (I'm turning into my dear aunt Holli)

13. Google Voice

14. Our insanely comfortable bed, especially when it's cold because I can snuggle up under all the covers (sheets, duvet, and quilt) and make Lewis complain that I hog the bed

15. The smell of Lewis' deodorant and/or cologne

I could go on, but there are probably at least a million little things I could think of that I have started to enjoy more since really taking that advice to heart. At least! It certainly makes life more fun. I like it, anyway.

I Think I'm a Mac... Trapped in a PC's Body

Know what's annoying? The fact that I am clearly and indisputably connected to the internet, yet my computer thinks I'm not. Yeah, thanks a lot, Vista, now I can't finish my technology homework. Effing technology.

I Don't Have Friends at NASA... Bunch of Nerds

Dear NASA,

Just so you know, I woke up at 5:26 this morning so I could watch you guys bombing the moon. I couldn't tell if it was lame because I was so tired or because it was actually lame. Would you please let me know?

And if it was lame, could you please put up a video of the event that is cool? I might even get up at 5:26 again to watch it. Just let me know.

Thanks,

Alyssa Young

Question...

Does it make me a total cheese-fest loser that I loved the Office tonight? It touched me. It touched me in my heart.

I Never Knew I Used My Middle Finger So Much...

... Until I couldn't use it anymore.

Okay, that's not entirely true. I can use it. It just hurts.

You see, I jammed it yesterday in PE (that's right, I'm taking a PE class). In truth, I should have seen it coming. We were playing basketball, and I always hurt at least one finger playing basketball (that's not an exaggeration). I hit the ball funny while I was stealing it from someone else in the course of a game, said "Frick" because it hurt, and wondered if my "Frick" sounded like another yet more vulgar expletive that starts with the letter F based on the look on the face of the girl from whom I stole the ball. Anyway, it swelled up all day yesterday until it was a great big fatty fat fat with some gross looking coloration.

I figured it was no big deal, it's just the middle finger, and on my left hand no less! The only real function my left hand has is for eating, and I can use my right hand for that no problem.

That's when I remembered the fact that I am an avid laptop in that I use it to take all my notes at school. And that's when I discovered how very much involved the middle finger on my left hand is in the typing process. Taping and/or splinting the finger was suddenly out of the question (tried it... didn't work and I had a paper to type).

So, yeah, it hurts when I type. I'm sure you are all now wondering why on earth I am bothering to blog at this time if I am in such pain. Well, why don't I tell you?

You.

It's all for you, my dear readers. Because I know you're out there. I do. I have Google Analytics.

To be honest, it's not actually that bad. Typing my paper yesterday sucked, it's true, but my finger is lots better today. It's still a great big fatty fat fat and it still doesn't bend all the way, but it doesn't hurt nearly as much. Just when I bend it or straighten it all the way. Plus, most of the gross coloration has cleared up. No biggie, yo.

I think it would have been funny if the ring finger on my left hand got hurt instead of the middle. Then maybe I would get my wedding ring stuck on it, and it would look all unattractive and weird. I don't know why that idea amuses me, but there you go. It would be a yin-yang of aesthetics with a pretty ring on a elephantine finger. El oh freaking el.

Here's what my finger looks like right now. I think the best part is that it's only the middle knuckle that's swollen, so the whole finger looks kind of like a large body with a really small head. You know the type.
The other side where only a small semblance of the gross coloration remains.