Swamp Girl Run Amok

Posting frequency will be most likely less for the next couple of weeks since I am in HOTlanta, staffing the TFA summer institute.  I arrived today, already had sessions and am super enamored with my school team and the SOM team and just am super pleased to be back.  I have already seen a ton of people from my school last year and am super thrilled about that too.

I am also glad to have an official bedtime every night that I am literally forbidden by my contract to work over.  And to work with ECE babies.  It is going to be a great six weeks.

And education tumblr people— if there is anything you wish someone had told YOU in your first few weeks of teaching/before heading into your first classroom, shoot me a message or reblog or whatever and I will pass it along.  :)

That is all.  Just really bizarre.

I can always count on my NOLA friends to declass up a place.

We just filled an entire basket with PBR cans at a decently nice restaurant.

WHY AM I LEAVING FOR NOW?

C.S to M.F. (12:30 PM CST 5/25/2011)

Colorful shorts for boys at jcrew.  <3

M.F. to C.S. (12:45 PM CST 5/25/2011)

OK I think I am missing an inside joke here but you have to forgive me because I have been working on the most dreadfully boring teacher portfolio for DAYS and I want to kill myself god its so so so boring.

Those are nice shorts though.

C.S. to M.F. (12:50 PM CST 5/25/2011)

No inside joke. Just that I love preppy boys in colored shorts.

M.F. to C.S. (12:55 PM CST 5/25/2011)

Oh well yes, those are fantastic.  I miss spring days on the Plaza looking at preppy boys in colored shorts.

THOSE WERE TRULY THE DAYS.  AND NOW THEY ARE GONE.

(RUINED.  We are RUINED by the four years of ubiquitous JCrew on boys and now have completely unrealistic expectations and standards.)

(Also CS and I have like an infinite number of random inside jokes that are usually explained in long stories that begin with “Hey, remember that time…” and are followed by things like “…That we stole Anthony’s car?” or “…That we went to the Brick party and totally cockblocked Kenny?” or “…That we saw the no-pants party in Philly?” and then we end with, “Hey, remember that time WE WENT TO COLLEGE?”  And it’s awesome.)

(I think at this point this blog post will make sense to like three people.  Possibly only two.  I DO NOT CARE.)

(Also, clearly the portfolio mentioned above is going very painfully slowly because rewatching the last four episodes of Parks and Rec on the DVR was way more interesting than writing about lesson planning.  I like DOING lesson planning, I like TALKING about lesson planning, I do not like WRITING about lesson planning.  Agh.)

I need to be working on my certification binder but all I want to do is look at Ben/Leslie picspams on the internet and watch movie trailers.

This is bad.  Fangrlism always rears its ugly head AT THE WORST MOMENTS.

Don’t judge me tumblr/real life friends.  PARKS AND REC HAS VERY AMUSING FANS.  AND THE MUPPETS TRAILER IS SUPER CUTE!

And now something massively self-indulgent.

Some of my favorite posts from three years of bloggerating.

Retroblogging what would turn out to be the first of many drives to New Orleans.

Thoughts on education from my first go-round in New Orleans, which would turn out to be interesting later.

A post from the beginning of junior year.  WAS I EVER SO YOUNG?

Fall break thoughts from junior fall.

Hey, remember that time we went to the Inauguration AND IT WAS AWESOME?

Being home is nice but weird.

I was NOT THE DSG ELECTION BLOGGER.  But I was quoted in Newsweek.

Some selections from the best summer ever, including when I realized I was the whitest person alive.  Also I waxed philosophical about peaches.  Yeah.

Post-action review of my week as co-head FAC.  Awesomeness.

Mary turned six.

Finals Week is a special time. 

My last Board retreat.  Sigh.  I MISS FAC BOARD.

Three of the coolest things about senior year, all in one blog post.

They made me graduate.  God, that was mean of them.

Institute happened.  There was very little sleeping.

First Day of School.  Teachertime.  And then things got a bit rowdier.  Of course chilluns are funny.

Homecoming and deep thoughts about where home was exactly.

A summary of what life is like in New Orleans.  At least on the weekends.

TFA20.  Was awesomeness.

One year out.  Mixed feelings.

And many more to come.

It’s late, but I wanted to quickly throw it out there that this blog is now three years old!

I started this blog to chronicle my experiences with Duke Engage in New Orleans as a student intern.  Three years later, it has witnessed the height of my college obsession, the end of college, the beginning of TFA and now my first year in the classroom.

 I want to thank all of you who read this and tell me you enjoy it— whether that’s by text, in person, over the gchat, in emails, in the comments, or whatever.  I don’t really write for specific numbers of people to read but it is nice to hear feedback.

I also love that so many of my Duke people are apparently stalking my life via this blog.  Slash also my mom.  But be sure to tell me what’s up with you too!  I miss you all, so give me a ring, a text, and email, whatever.

And keep reading.  There are many things left to be blogged.

Approach door, stare out at the unknown man on the porch though the door.

He sees you and asks if your mom and dad are home.

Say no.  Because that’s true, in the sense that they are not in your home here with you.  They are in Florida.  BECAUSE YOU ARE 23 NOT THIRTEEN LIKE THIS MAN SEEMED TO THINK YOU WERE.

He says he can come by later.  You go back to bed.

I am tutoring a 10th grader in Free Enterprise via text message.

Funnier Fact: I don’t know which 10th grader it is.

I layered my new sequin-y tank over a white crewneck t-shirt and wore my favorite black pants and blank heels with it.  Yes, the catalog would have added a random bow-tie, a neon belt, bangles and somehow added some ruffles somewhere, but then my kids would have made fun of me.

Nicole and I agreed that Danielle would have been very proud of my dressing-myself-skills today.

And then my family came to my house and packed my things and my friends came to say goodbye, in pairs and trios, as my things, four years of mementos and memories, trickled into the minivan as it drizzled and poured.

I managed to only cry the first hour and a half of the drive.  Somewhere around the North Carolina state line I reverted to staring.  I spent a week moping and sleeping around my house and then drove to New Orleans to begin my new life.

The year since has been (and look for the cleverness in this next sentence) as unpredictable as expected.  It has been mostly good and mostly happy and there is no where else I would rather be.

As I wrote, even with my college friends, the adventure is only beginning, and when I am lucky enough to see them, we fall back into our familiar habits like we saw each other just yesterday rather than months ago.  I got to see Manda two weekends in a row, her hood and then mine, and it was so stunningly fantastic.  And I’ve seen Caryn and Gab and Mel and Allie and Kaitlin (and talked to Danielle more than I can even estimate).

But it would be a lie to say I am exactly as happy as I was in school.  As a grownup, even a single one with remarkably few obligations and especially as a teacher, you can’t be as selfish as you were in college and therefore you end up compromising.  I’m not as perfectly happy as I was because I have to think about rent and PTP homework and children, more obligations than before with significantly less unencumbered time.

We are happy I think, most of us, mostly.  Seeing people in their new natural habitats has showed me that we made mostly right choices and are mostly content. 

But what wouldn’t we give for another sun drenched afternoon on the Plaza, another random hall party on GA3, another dance on the bar at Shooters, another stroll from the Blue Zone to the quad right when the autumn leaves were at their brightest, another hour to remember all over again how striking the Chapel is at night, its turrets jutting brightly into the dark Carolina night sky.

And moreover to have them as normal things, not nostalgia for the bygone time. 

Perhaps we wouldn’t give up the things we’ve done this year, the things we learned this year, the things we’ve accomplished this year.  But I think if we had a chance to live them again for a moment, we would realize infinitely more than we did then how dear and precious those moments were.

I love my new life and new city and new friends, in a different way for how challenging and real this time in my life has been.  But you can still miss the fairy lands that live in your memory and that’s why my love for my friends and my class and my school remain and will remain infinite and limitless.

Third Eye Blind at French Quarter Karaoke bar= memories of LDOC.

I love New Orleans but I still miss you all so much.