oh, sweet peace

al & greg came this weekend and we all attended a wailin' jennies concert. it was exactly everything i hoped for and dreamed of. i love concerts where you can sit back, relax, listen, and sing along. it was delightful. and now my wailin' jennies pandora station is going full bore!

yay, jennies. and al & greg, too.

philip and i went for a bike ride yesterday afternoon. it was a beautiful, sunny day in bellingham. we pedaled slowly, enjoying the blossoming trees, green grass, and bright sunshine. twice we stopped, parked and locked our bikes, took our shoes off, and walked through houses on the market. one was a gorgeous old-school house with 5 bedrooms and three stories. the top story was one big bedroom with a deck, a fireplace, and 2 window nooks. it was also 449,000 big ones. the other house we checked out was one story with 2 bedrooms. beautifully painted walls (greens, yellows, and reds), but too small. it's fun to look at the great houses near our neighborhood and simply talking about what we'd like in a house someday. i always feel like a kid in a jewelry store when i do stuff like this: it's fun to look at the pretty stuff, but i sense that people know i can't afford it. however, the realtors were really laid-back, nice people who probably knew that most people were coming in out of sheer curiosity.

i have entered my final week of cramming before taking my standardized math and science tests for my teaching certificate. on the whole, i've felt discouraged, but today (at last!) i studied the portion focusing on changing percents into decimals, solving for 'x', and commutative properties of addition. see, this is the type of math i actually teach. not all that stuff about parabolas and antiderivatives and cosecants and other trigonometric functions. those phrases and concepts have triggered something in my brain...a memory of being in high school and almost but not quite understanding the concepts.

philip and i went for a walk to the library to check out a science desk reference book, since my study manual hasn't come yet. now i'm reading up on covalent bonds and the endocrine system. science fascinates me, but i don't get it. i hope to learn a few things while i desperately cram information into my mind in these next few days.

last but not least, i encountered a first this morning in subbing. i got a middle school job (starting at 7:30), which was awesomely surprising since today was the first day back from spring break. i got to school and headed up to the classroom, and the teacher i was subbing for was there. it turns out she had cancelled her previously planned personal day but there had been a mix-up with the sub coordinator. i talked to the sub coordinator and thankfully, she had another job for me today. great! except it started at 8:30 and i had an hour to kill. i went to woods' for some tea and to study math. it was actually a nice little break. i'm thankful i had work today. i feel that this particular school district takes great care of me, which i totally appreciate.

well, the periodic table is calling me. if only this test were only about memorizing the names and symbols of the elements. i'd be golden (Au) and would lead (Pb) the way in my class, breathing life and oxygen (O) into the teaching world, earning my nickel (Ni) and contributing more to our budget. however, i fear it may be easier to just swallow some arsenic (As).

if only i were clever enough to work in ununnilium (Uun) or berkelium (Bk).

perhaps another day. for now, my brain cells shall be dedicated to excessive memorization.