just another day in class...

during my anatomy and physiology class this week, we were discussing different organelles of the cell and arrived at the lysosome. as i'm discussing the function of the lysosome (destroying things that a cell doesn't want around, like bacteria and stuff), a student in the front row says "oh.. is that why it's called the suicide sack?" i looked at him and asked him to repeat what he just said. "suicide sack... the book says that it can explode and kill the cell... is that why it's called the suicide sack?" i responded with "please stop saying the word sack" and then tried answering the question as best i could before my response fell apart... and it ended with "i'm sorry, all i can think about right now is sacks. and by sacks i mean testicles. and specifically yours." and there's the advantage of teaching adults.

boo hiss carbon

who thought those three little words could mean so much?

i am jumping headfirst into eco funness up here. last night i met with a group in rutland that coordinates and sponsors a ton of events bringing awareness to sustainability and the environment. there's going to be a big event on october 24 = the international day of climate action (check out www.350.org). the day is about making people aware of the impact they are having on the climate due to their carbon contributions... and a lot of business are sponsoring events around the number "350" (for 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere). the yoga studio is doing 350 minutes of yoga, a church is doing 350 minutes of prayer.. and no, you do not need to be there the whole time for either of those. my students and i are going to make big CO2 molecules out of junk/trash and put them on display downtown. very exciting.....

so we're talking about all the different events we're doing and how we're going to coordinate/organize them.. and can i say how awesome it is to sit next to a 90-year-old church-going lady who keeps mumbling about how much she hates walmart. talk eventually turns to getting a big banner put up downtown that says something like "sustainable rutland: ways to reduce your carbon footprint." and then i pipe in with "OR..... boo hiss carbon." mind you, i have only met one of these people at the table one time before. an older woman looks at me and says "what did you say?" i mumble "boo hiss carbon," and she looks at the head lady and says "oh, that's good. write that down." i start laughing so hard that i have to pull my scarf over my face to hide my blushing and quickly reddening face. the older woman than comments on how creative i am, and i tell her that if "boo hiss carbon" makes it onto a banner i will have to remove myself from the group. cus that's outrageous. a huge banner with BOO HISS CARBON may be hanging in downtown rutland. and she kept saying it and pointing at me and smiling this big "oh that's good" smile for the remaining 45 minutes of the meeting. boo hiss indeed.

so much eco in your face

i am on an eco mission. you would think that a high school in vermont, a private one at that, would be all up on recycling and conservation and sustainability and such. but no. my high school is into sports and sports... and then sports. it's fairly odd and most of the times rather disconcerting. nevermind the fact that the football team got schmucked 66-8 last weekend... my previous attempts at starting conversation about a recycling club were met with "well, that club will take kids away from sports." IDIOTS. luckily, there are several faculty that are on the same wavelength i am and aren't huge dingbats. this week i met with folks from sustainable rutland, a group that promotes eco awareness and all that fun stuff, and we had a two hour brainstorming session about ways to get my high school involved in the movement. and what ideas we had! community gardens, recycling, composting in the lunch room... i am officially insanely excited. so i mention this to the science faculty at our monthly faculty meeting... and let me preface this by saying that most of the meeting was spend listening to an ancient faculty guy moaning about how much work the science fair is. so much work. SO MUCH WORK. really? are you serious? a lot of work if you are lazy and uninterested in your students. anyway, when i mentioned the community gardens and the whole eco club thing, it was met with "well.. you need to remember that the sports team sometimes use that field when their other field has water in it." OUTRAGEOUS. a huge green space with ZERO going on in it that could be utilized in such an amazing way. heaven forbid the squash team can't toss their little ball around. and may i say the first person to sign up for my club was a burly, big football player. :)

frosting by day, mega dance machine by night

apparently i needed to dance. and dance i did. and a little more than that. my cousin melissa's wedding last weekend in wisconsin was amazing. and fantastic. and she asked the DJ to play "the humpty dance" because she knows i love it and would bust out some crazy white girl dance moves on the dance floor. and then vomited profusely. my sister also told me i looked like i was made of frosting, which may be the best compliment i have ever received. i told more than one relative that melissa paid me $50 to stand on the wedding cake at the reception. i could have. and by the end of the night would have. other highlights from the weekend: building a mouse maze for my sister's awesome pet mouse Red. i only participated in the initial building stages, but i did get to make some sweet ropes for him to climb from the first to the third level on... climb up in the shadow of a great american flag and posters of other successful mice, i.e. Gus Gus, Mickey, the Great Mouse Detective. and proton didn't like me gone and slept in my suitcase the night i got back.

in other news, two kids from the high school i teach at were suspended because they yelled "heil hitler" and gave a nazi salute to a german exchange student during his spanish presentation. that's right. this kid is fluent in at least two languages, probably pretty ok in another, and these two yokels think it's super funny and awesome to scream third reich nonsense at him. and did i mention it's the football quarterback and another football douchebag? yep. lucky for all of us, their suspension won't affect their playing in the football game on saturday. did i mention i won't be teaching at this school next year?