Camrys, Cowboys, and Campaigns

Life has been good. Crazy, but good.

What can I say? It's been a past few months of car buying, teaching, crazy blind dating, and just loving life.

HANGING WITH THE USED CAR SALESMEN

Buying a car was an adventure, to say the least. Especially since I had to try to make the entire start to finish process happen in a week. In my mind, it's like trying to find a spouse. It's a pretty serious commitment--getting that first "real" car. You know that you could get something extraordinary if you had an unlimited budget, but you're very aware that you don't, so you start playing the "How much bang for my buck?" game. You want something with low miles and that's in good shape, something new and reliable. Anti-lock brakes and power windows and locks. And somehow you find a lot of okay options that have some of what you're looking for and they could work and be fine but that's about it. People start saying things like, "So the only reason you don't want this one is because it doesn't have power locks? That's it?" And maybe that's a bad reason but you still think to yourself, "If I'm spending this much money, should I really be annoyed every single time I get in it?" Not that it REALLY matters, but still...

Soon you've decided maybe you'll just ride a bike for the rest of your life when it occurs to you that there is another place to look, a place you originally didn't even consider, and before long...there you are, signing papers for something so wonderful and perfect that you can't even believe it's yours and every day when you go to drive to work you think, "I'm the luckiest person ever! How did I ever get this car?!"

So, after my traumatizing wreck, that is my car story. I found a car. I love my car. And if anyone wants to find a Mr. Toyota Camry 2006 for me to marry, I'll take that too. :)

RANDOM BLIND DATES

Hmm...I guess if you want to know, you should probably just ask in person. Let's just say some included building marshmallow shooters and making peach cobbler (Cowboy Night), building a model ship, and searching for a cave amid cow pies and jack rabbits. Enough said.

TEACHING

Hahahahaha! I love it. Most of the time. Like on the days that parents DON'T call me to ask me "personal questions" or on any holiday that involves mass amounts of sugar. We've been having fun. We're all used to each other now and having a great time.

Recent highlights:

Teaching a unit on electricity to the whole grade. Check that out! -->Static electricity at its best.

ELECTIONS!

We are teaching how government works by doing it. We took election day pretty seriously--ballot boxes, voting booths, signing it, "I voted" stickers...I just want you to know the new president is from my class. It was all about the campaign buttons. And the dance in his speech.