Strange Things . . .

1. Tomorrow is the last day of school. The. Last.  DAY!!!
This means that tomorrow is my last day as a teacher.
Pros: no more papers, no more books, no more me giving dirty looks!
And no more staying up until 2:00 AM grading papers, creating quizzes, or creating lesson plans. I can go back to taking care of the house, cooking, writing, going out . . . having a life . . .  WHOO-HOO!!!
Cons: I will miss those crazy kids like mad. They are the best :]

It's bizarre to think of it really being over. You develop this rhythm, and you can't imagine it breaking. I'm used to this rush, this "OMG what else is missing from my to-do list?!" lifestyle . . . and now it will be different. I mean, I still imagine my life will be chaos . . . just not THIS chaos, this "78 students and their relations and my coworkers and my superiors are all counting on me to do this and do it NOW AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" chaos.
Next, it will be new job chaos, house-seeking chaos . . . who knows? The baby bug may bite and then it will be the "OMG we've procreated!!!" chaos . .. then will turn into "OMG it's a kid!! A real life kid!!! AAAAAH!!" chaos.
Don't get me wrong . . . I so look forward to that chaos :]



2. Speaking of school  . . . as I've been grading, I've had these gents playing in the background . . .

 Didn't expect to enjoy it . . . but, golly, wouldn't you know that the Winchester boys have grown on me?
What to know what's really strange?
They've grown on the hubs, too . . .

There may really be an apocalypse coming when Chris begins enjoying pretty boys slaughtering monsters . . .
It starts small:
"Sarah, whatcha watchin,?"
"Supernatural. It's kinda like male Buffys."
"Sounds lame."
"Pffft."

Then he walks through the room. Stops, glances. Pauses. Crosses his arms. And laughs. Like a sincere "this is funny" chuckle.
Then he SITS DOWN.
And watches episode after episode with me. 

"Thanks for sitting with me, kiddo."
He smiles.
"But, you know, you don't have to torment yourself by watching this with me . . . "
Shrugs.
"Wait . . . you're ENJOYING this?!"
"What? It's funny."

My gosh . . . My husband just might become a Supernatural fan.
Now if I can just get him hooked on Firefly . . . then Buffy . . . this could work . . . maybe . . . .


3. I found this little guy in my yard . . .

 

When I was a kid, a friend of mine and I used to find these little guys all over the orange groves we played in.  Tiny spots of bright color and spikes on near-invisible webs tucked between trees.  To this day, they are one of three kinds of spiders I actually like having around. They're maybe the size of my pinky fingernail, don't get in the way, don't get in the house, and don't look AT ALL like spiders . . . plus, they bring back lots of happy childhood memories of playing war in orange groves (word of advice: if you can find grapefruit, it is the ultimate weapon . . . hurling a large yellow orb like that at your enemy? You're a bloody god on the playground)

We called them "crab spiders" growing up . . . turns out they're really "spiny-backed orb-weavers." Cue National Geographic segment . . . in researching them, I discovered that not only do they not look like spiders . .. they don't mate like them. Most female arachnids eat their mates after they've . . . you know . . . consummated their "marriage ". Not these guys. They go at it multiple times for about 40 minutes at a time, and, then, the dude chills out at her place until he dies a very happy man six days later.

I laughed a lot harder than I should have.
Funny things, crab spiders . . .

P.S. Am I the only one who thinks they look like the spiky guys from Mario?


4. Felines and Papers.
I need to get back to grading those . . . except that Pipkin has claimed them as her new favorite bed . . . This cat is crazy about paper--wrapping paper, printed paper, sketch paper. Basically, if it was once a tree, she wants it to be her nap spot. At least I'm never without a grading buddy :]