Yes, I Can

My motivational-thoughts calendar strikes again.  You see, I have this little desk calendar that I got as a free gift from some company, and I really like it. I love the ritual each morning of tearing off a sheet and getting that much closer to the end of time . . . or the year . . . whatever.  Plus, it has some pretty good quotes on it once in a while.  One of my favorites recently was from Albert Einstein: "We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them."  Good stuff, right? 

Well, this morning I tore off the previous day's page and saw this:

Yes, I know it's not exceptionally profound or anything.  But the thing is, this is the theme I would use to start off my school year with my students to get them excited about what they could do {focus on the positive, right?}.  I had all these pieces of paper that looked like soup cans, and I would make the kids think of a goal they wanted to complete during that school year, write it on the can, and then we would put up all the cans around a bulletin board that had that quote.  Throughout the year we would all be reminded of the goals we had set and what we wanted to accomplish.

It was always fun to see the variety of goals they would set.  Some would be silly {I can eat a whole package of Flamin' Hot Cheetos without drinking anything}; some would be a bit more ambitious {I can get straight A's all year}.  Reading that quote made me miss the feeling of helping those kids try to do something good, something that would make them better people.  It actually made me a little sad that I wasn't doing the goal-setting thing with a group of students anymore but was instead working in an office.

Hmm.

But then I remembered how smelly and obnoxious middle school kids can be.  So I nibbled on a delightful eclair my sister/co-worker brought me, and I felt better.

It's That Time of Year

Even though I have not had my schedule revolve around the school year for 5 years now, I still get a bit anxious when it comes time for school to start.  I guess it's just been ingrained in my system.  While I was still teaching middle school, I had lots of dreams where I had forgotten to prepare a lesson or didn't realize the school year had begun or that my school had been moved many miles down the road.  They were all awful and made me feel horrible, even after I woke up and realized it had just been a dream.

Well, last night I had another one of those "I'm teaching but not at all ready for the year to begin" kind of dreams.  At first it was dreadful.  I had no idea what was going on, who was in my classes or even where I was.  But then I realized that I had an assistant there to help me out.  And he was fantastic.  He had all the seating charts put together, had lessons ready to go and was even kind of funny.  It wasn't until right before I woke up that I finally recognized him.

Yep, if you're going to get some help teaching middle schoolers, who better than the SNL head writer, Seth Meyers?  I think it's going to be a great fake school year for me.

And I'm a Mormon

My brother-in-law told me about some very cool, very well-made videos, and I think everyone should know about them. You can find them on YouTube by searching by "I'm a Mormon."

The one below is one of my favorites {those who know me well will be able to figure out why}, but I really encourage you to check out the rest of them.

Hi, my name is Marie, and I'm a Mormon.

One Step Forward or Two Steps Back?

Like millions of others, I saw "Inception" over the weekend and, yes, it was good and mind-blowing and all that.  Not what I want to talk about {right now}.  After the movie, I was talking with some friends about how good the acting in the movie was, especially Leonardo DiCaprio.  One of my friends said that she considers Mr. DiCaprio to be one of the best actors working today.  I haven't seen all of his most recent work, but of what I have seen, I reluctantly agreed.  Because, I added, I don't want to like him.

My friend laughed at me and then asked why.  I don't know that I have ever explored my feelings about Mr. DiCaprio, so I wasn't sure at first.  Then, the more I thought about it, I realized that I was fighting against my teenage self.  The younger version of myself who adored him in "Romeo + Juliet" and "Titanic" and plastered her freshman year dormroom with pictures like this:

I like to believe that I have matured in many ways, including my tastes.  I think I like better foods now, better art, better books and, of course, better actors.  I like to view myself as more cultured, more experienced and more refined.  To admit that I could still have an interest in something I liked 15 years ago feels like I'm slipping in my personality progession.

So, is it bad to still like Leo?  My answer is no.  Because as I thought about it further, I realized that I don't like him because of his awesome hair or stunning blue eyes or his recitation of Shakespeare's lines to Claire Danes {another one of my favorites}.  Now I can say I like him because he offers amazing, Oscar-nominated performances; he doesn't clamor for the limelight; and he's trying to do some good in the world.  I guess it also doesn't hurt that he looks like this now either:

And I know that there are many of you who will disagree with my assessment of Mr. DiCaprio.  That's fine.  It's just how I feel.  And I needed to admit it publicly.

So, now it's your turn.  Admit it.  Who do you still enjoy that your teenage self would approve of?  Because I can also admit that I still like Keanu Reeves, remember?

P.S.  Doing a Google search for these photos revealed that Leonardo DiCaprio is more popular than Leonardo Da Vinci, and that made me a little sad.

To the Lake

And that's what I was up to last week.  You?