Movie Tastes

I know some of you out there cringe when you walk into my apartment and see my overwhelming collection of chick-flick films. I own everything from Jane Austen-esque period films, high school dramedies, musicals and of course Nicolas Sparks' tearjerkers. (If you've never seen my collection first hand, let me add that I own 'John Tucker Must Die.' If you weren't already cringing, you surely are now.)

The thing is, lately I, too, have been cringing. Every time I go through my collection I find myself vetoing movie after movie and, more often than not, just doing something else.

In an effort to expand my movie horizons, I'm now taking suggestions for films to see. To give you some direction, I'm trying to steer clear of teeny-bopper films or films that are overly cheesy and romantic. I'm more into very funny/witty films, too-good-to-miss films, or something thought provoking or interesting (documentaries, even).

... or rather, I'm not into those types of films, but with your suggestions I soon hope to be. ;-)

(An aside - thanks for all the song suggestions, I have compiled an excellent play list!)

$60 of Sushi, Fake Free Concerts

Welcome, friends, to Meghan's Vacation Recap.

Last week Brittany and I finally gathered all the stuff we needed to make sushi. After a few painful days waiting for the avocados to ripen, we were finally ready to attempt to make some avocado rolls. Long story short, we did and it was excellent! I'm not going to brag (rather I am) but we are really good at it. We are masters of the nori. Anyhow, we made approximately $60 worth of avocado rolls for just $8. This results in general awesomeness, and we went around with a sushi glow for the next three days.

My family came to visit me over the weekend which was a lot of fun. I ended up eating some cheese that only comes into the US once every 4 months (which, incidentally, was really good), walking about 15 miles in 2 days, eating a sandwich that was bigger than my head, finishing my federal income taxes (which actually are surprisingly not that hard) and procured some amazing Rosie Earl Grey tea. It was fun.

Also somehow in the mix I managed to score some free concert tickets to a Queen tribute band. Random, I know, but free tickets are free tickets, so I was excited.

On a side note, I've been calling doctos to try and set up an annual physical and it's been crazy difficult, harder than I would have thought. I went the route of asking people I know for suggestions, but that just led to answering machines and no returned calls (highly frustrating). I also called several doctors that never picked up the phone. Then, of course, there were those who were not taking patients or those with wait times of 6 months. I was starting to become seriously frustrated, so today I sat down in front of my computer with a list of doctors (188 to be exact) and decided to call every single one if need be. I only had to call 4 before I found a nice receptionist who made me an appointment for 2 days later. Isn't it funny how you can spend weeks trying to do something and nothing works, then one day everything randomly decides to sort itself out? Hmm.

Food Themed Activity, Nonsense Song Lyrics

On Saturday morning, I was talking with Brittany about food (I know, what else is new) and I realized somehow during our conversation that I craved a hamburger. Not just any hamburger, I might add, but what I really wanted was an angus beef burger cooked medium well with blue cheese stuffed in the center, bacon and cheddar on top with some tomato, potato chips and possible some of that orange salad dressing. YUM! Anyhow, the chances of me finding that were slim, but a good cheeseburger was definitely attainable so we set off for Manhattan.

On our way to the subway we passed the farmer's market, so we had to stop and get a cider donut (duh). After that brief interruption we were on track again. Upon arriving in Manhattan, we went to our favorite burger place/general dining facility where we saw a semi-celebrity/person only I would have recognized which made my day.

Next we needed to stop at the bookstore because when a bookstore is right there, you just have to go in. After the bookstore, we wandered towards a Japanese food store so we could get stuff to make sushi, but on our way there we got distracted and bought s'more making supplies and a shower curtain.

Long story short, our day yesterday consisted of 3 bookshops, a hamburger joint, 2 farmer's markets, a Japanese market, 2 groceries, one deli, and the discovery of a "pizza by the pound" restaurant. If that's not the perfect day, I don't know what is.

• On a different note, I am collecting songs with nonsense lyrics in them. For example: Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison (Do you remember when, we use to sing... sha la la lalala etc.) or Hey Jude by the Beatles (Naaa, na, na, na-na-na, naaa! Na-na-na naaa! Het Jude...). Please suggest some songs if you know any good ones. Songs from any era are acceptable, so long as the lyrics are fitting. •

Indian Food, Scrubbing Bubbles and Roommates

Let's talk Chicken Tikka Masala. First, it's mmmdelicious! This weekend I took a 30 minute detour in my walk just so I could get some. If you're ever in New York and can't be bothered to find one of the many amazing Indian restaurants the city has to offer, you can always count on Whole Foods to serve you up some delicious dishes. Second, I'm thinking I might learn to make it if I can find a good yet easy recipe, especially if my crock pot can finally be put to use in the process. Let me know if you have any promising recipes.

After school I thought I would go to the Rite Aid (my favorite neighborhood pharmacy) and see what sort of household cleaning item I could purchase. Sometimes I find myself in the mood to go shopping and so I will go out and purchase a cleaning product which 1) will quench my need to shop; 2) encourages me to clean my bathroom, kitchen or many even my room; 3) is actually useful and therefore a better purchase than a random DVD that I will watch once or a box of chocolates which I surely want but really don't need. Today's purchase was scrubbing bubbles for the grout in our bathroom. I hope they work, because I'm tired of scrubbing down the walls with Brittany's toothbrush.

Which brings me to my final point: roommates! In particular, Brittany is coming home today (hopefully within the next 8 minutes, but who is counting). I'm glad she is such the traveler and all, and I suppose she did leave for a semi-decent reason (being a bridesmaid in a wedding is apparently a big deal), but that doesn't mean I am not going to bemoan her absence the whole week while she is gone and squeal with delight upon her return. I've had pretty amazing roommates throughout the years, and would now like to thank them, in order, for being so amazing: Sarah, Sarah, Rachel, Courtney, Sarah, Hannah and Amanda, and finally Brittany. (Wow, it seems like I've had a lot more roommates when their names are just floating around in my head. On paper the list seems significantly depleted. Ho hum.)

Play My Game

Here you can download the game I made. It should work if you have Flash player installed.

There is a tiny problem regarding the bullet and the wind with this version, but it's still a pretty fun game I think, considering it was a first attempt with Flash.

Also note, I'm no graphics guru. THis was meant to be a simple demo for one of my classes. Still, I'm pleased with it.

Short Attention Span

Some of my fifth graders have excellent focus. There are a few students who constantly amaze me with the consistency of their determination and tenacity to get the job done.

Apart from the handful of focused fifth graders (oh, and my one exceptional 8th grader), it's safe to say that my students generally lack good attention spans. The other day I was explaining something to Jimmy (name changed, of course). I said, "First, click here," which he did. I said, "Type '=sum('... Jimmy... Jimmy... Jimmy... so are you going to type that or not?" In less than 10 seconds, he had completely zoned out.

Even students who ask me questions outside of class of their own accord can be incredibly distracted. One kid in the after school program asked me what I was working on, so I said I was working on a Flash game, and was almost done... did he want to see? But when I turned around, he had left because the snack being offered in the hallway had distracted him in about 3 seconds flat.

It's not just boys that get distracted, girls do too. In one of my classes I have three girls who gossip endlessly about this boy likes so and so, that girl's ugly new haircut, and what they are going to wear to the school party which is, like, the social event of the year, OMG. One girl told me today that she did not know what to do next so I referred her to the instructions. She scrolled through them so fast I couldn't even read them, then proceeded to turn to me and say, "Ok, I looked but I don't get it." I love my job (and I'm not being facetious).

Lately I've noticed that my attention span (which used to be pretty good, I think) has wained considerably. Watching movies is something I hardly do anymore, and even TV shows I find difficult to sit through. Hell, a movie on YouTube that's longer than 2 minutes better be *damn* interesting if I am going to make it to the end. I hardly write emails that are longer than 3 sentences anymore, and that's if I even write emails at all. I run around my apartment when I am on the phone because I can't seem to sit and chat. I can barely concentrate enough to write in this blog (which I've been doing less and less of... must get on that).

I know people always say that you can learn a lot from your students, but I never expected to pick up their habits! Yikes.