Are years getting shorter?

Sometimes I wonder if I missed the memo:

Dear all,

Please note that effective immediately, days will feel shorter, time will fly, and school years will seem to end quickly. This change in policy will be known as your life passing you by; however some departments may call it the creeping in of old age. 

Sincerely,
The Keeper of Time


I absolutely cannot believe that today was the last day of school. Although all of my paperwork is done...report cards done and printed, student files filled in and submitted to the office, book inventories emailed...I spent no time cleaning my classroom during the lead up to today. So, for the next few days when the weather is scheduled to be gorgeous, I will be in my classroom.  You can laugh now.

Head over to Lauren's blog to participate!

 1. The last movie I saw was Letters to Juliet.  It just came on Sho a few weeks ago and I DVRed it right away...and watched it on a school night (gasp!).  I think I liked it even more than I should have because I was high on the exhilaration of having a normal evening not filled with school work! I'm a sucker for any romantic comedy.

2. I want to not have to make a decision.  I feel like Mr. Fine and I are constantly making major decisions, negotiating our time together, and figuring something out.  I want to be able to enjoy the present.

3. Surprises are something I'm not usually good at.  Case in point: I sent Mr. Fine a card last week.  According to my calculations the card should have arrived on Wednesday.  So on Monday, I asked what he was doing on Wednesday, what time he'd be going home, and what time the mail arrived.  Pretty sure he'd figured it out by my third question.  Yep.  Surprise!

4. The best accessory is a necklace.  Long.  Short.  Doesn't matter, but homemade is my latest craze.

5. My favorite warm drink is a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks.  But a cappuccino from my Tassimo and flavored with caramel syrup will do just fine in non-pumpkin latte season, thank you!

6. My favorite cold drink is lemon crystal light.  Water is disgusting.  Throw in some cute yellow crystals and I could drink a jug!

7. Currently I'm loving Criminal Minds marathons on A&E, that Covert Affairs is back on, chocolate chips straight from the bag, my Clarks Unstructured Pumps, and my lily pad flowers.

Happy Weekend!

Lessons of the Day

So we had a lock down at school today.  For real.  For 5 hours. Have you ever experienced one?  No?  Here's what I learned:

1.  Even after sleeping for 11 hours, one is not prepared for a 5 hour lock down at school.

2.  Students do not enjoy being entertained for 5 hours without learning (this is what I tell myself).  Had I been in our own classroom, I could have continued teaching with minimal disruptions...perhaps with only the occasional whine that bathroom breaks were necessary (and unavailable, I might add).  I Students were getting very agitated after a few hours.

3.  Carpeted classroom floors are much quieter -- I was cringing within minutes in the other room with no carpet.

4.  It seems lock downs don't apply to administrators who need to have their afternoon smoke break.  Classic.

My students happened to be out of our classroom when the lock down began...which meant that they couldn't leave that space until lock down ended (at dismissal 5 hours later).  Two hours into the lock down I was 'escorted' to my students and was told to entertain them in another classroom (without the materials and carpet in my room) -- tough, let me tell you!

Safety was of course, my number one priority, but seriously, at the end of 5 hours?

Photo Credit

The up side?  The teachers got to leave right at dismissal and I took a swing by the stores because I had extra time and found pumpkin spice coffee for home!  Looks like a weekend treat for the Fines! :-)

And, let's not forget that The Vampire Diaries are on tonight and I may just *have* to watch them. ;)