Tag Archives: st. paul island

Five Things Friday Plus One

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Oh Friday, you stroll back into my life like a smooth operator.

As is my life lately, this post encompasses absolutely no sense of order or reason, so I shall just begin.

1.  With the grace of God, a lot of praying, and a very welcomed offer, Dear Hubby and I have sold our car.  Our little Ford Focus has served us well both on St. Paul Island and in Michigan.  In the land of full-sized, diesel fueled 4X4s, our little car may have developed a slight Napoleon Complex.

The off-roading ability of a compact car certainly did give us a few fits when the harsh winds blew road-blocking snow drifts, but it was a mobile roof over our heads.

2.  Last night I went for a four-mile run.  I was planning on counting Thursday as my Rest Day of the week, but when my legs were itchin’ to be let loose, you gotta give the ladies what they want.

3.  I updated my Netflix DVD catalog, and changed over our mailing address from Alaska to Michigan.  I didn’t realize until after I was done and preparing this blog entry that I might be slightly preoccupied with handsome leading men.

 4.  Speaking of making cinematheque choices based exclusively on eye candy, I also added the first season of “the Vampire Diaries” to our Netflix list.

I have no idea what this show is about: reflective vampires?!?!

Since so much hype has been surrounding the potential actors who would play Christian Grey in a movie version of The Fifty Shades of Grey, and Ian Somerhalder’s name keeps popping up, I found it to be my responsibility and civic duty to be as knowledgeable of the candidates as possible.

Hair worthy of running an exasperated hand through? CHECK!

Piercing eyes? CHECK!

Twitchy palm? CHECK!

5.  May Reading Challenge Update!

I have set a goal for myself to read at least five novels in the month of May, and like my running mileage goal, I don’t think I’ll have any problem reaching it.  So far I have read the final two installments in the Fifty Shades series, Insurgent, and as of yesterday, The Fault in Our Stars.  I have two titles left to read, The Hate List and I,Iago, and because I was so moved by the writing style of John Green in The Fault in Our Stars, I decided to break out of my challenge boundaries and begin another Green title, Looking for Alaska.

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up – Sixteen-year-old Miles Halter’s adolescence has been one long nonevent – no challenge, no girls, no mischief, and no real friends. Seeking what Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps,” he leaves Florida for a boarding school in Birmingham, AL. His roommate, Chip, is a dirt-poor genius scholarship student with a Napoleon complex who lives to one-up the school’s rich preppies. Chip’s best friend is Alaska Young, with whom Miles and every other male in her orbit falls instantly in love. She is literate, articulate, and beautiful, and she exhibits a reckless combination of adventurous and self-destructive behavior. She and Chip teach Miles to drink, smoke, and plot elaborate pranks. Alaska’s story unfolds in all-night bull sessions, and the depth of her unhappiness becomes obvious. Green’s dialogue is crisp, especially between Miles and Chip. His descriptions and Miles’s inner monologues can be philosophically dense, but are well within the comprehension of sensitive teen readers. The chapters of the novel are headed by a number of days “before” and “after” what readers surmise is Alaska’s suicide. These placeholders sustain the mood of possibility and foreboding, and the story moves methodically to its ambiguous climax. The language and sexual situations are aptly and realistically drawn, but sophisticated in nature. Miles’s narration is alive with sweet, self-deprecating humor, and his obvious struggle to tell the story truthfully adds to his believability. Like Phineas in John Knowles’s A Separate Peace(S & S, 1960), Green draws Alaska so lovingly, in self-loathing darkness as well as energetic light, that readers mourn her loss along with her friends. - Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library

While I was looking for a photo of the cover of the novel, I came across a link that indicated that there is a film version of Miles Halter’s story.  It won’t be out until 2013, but I’m always excited when I’m on the bandwagon for a book-turned-movie LONG before the film is released.  One of the few times I feel part of the popular crowd.

Whatever.

6.  A bonus for us all!

Without going into any detail whatsoever, I just wanted to let you all know that I have my first in-person job interview in over four years scheduled.  Based upon on my present People Skills, I need to practice making appropriate, at-work small talk.

Let the Waterworks Begin

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Happy Tuesday, Everyone!

I decided to take this morning off from running because I chose to run a few extra miles last night after work.  It was just one of those days where I knew that if I didn’t blow off some steam, I would probably end up saying something I would regret or eating enough carbs to fuel my runs for the next month.

What got me so worked up?  Well, after class yesterday, I was asked to sit in on two interviews for potential replacements for my job.  At first, and after a fistful of snotty tissues were thrown away, I thought this was a great idea since I had a good idea as to what my students would need in their next English teacher.  Ummm yea.  Nobody told me that it would also feel like my heart was being ripped out of my chest.

Yes, Dear Hubby and I were the ones who made the decision that we would no longer be teaching here, but still I was feeling rather territorial.  While I consider both candidates to be good in their own ways, I still found myself mentally giving them the finger and other such mature behavior.

But in all seriousness, and heartache, I am glad to have been there for the interview.

And it could have something to do with the Tale of the Missing Rope.

Picture it: my bookshelf for the past two years.

It’s a makeshift unit, held together by a series of knots.  Being an island in the Bering Sea, St. Paul is home to many commercial fishermen and my classroom full of future anglers.  I have one such young man in my middle school English class who has appointed himself Master and Keeper of the Knots.

He’s also a professional at using the different effects on my PhotoBooth program.

Almost everyday he inspects the knots that hold my bookshelves together, and reworks them to meet his standard.

 

Yesterday morning, I realized that one of the three ties were missing.  Noticing this, my knotsman responded:

Knotsman: I think it’s stable enough with two ties, Mrs. Ferrari.

Me:  If you say so.  I trust your judgement.

Knotsman: Yo, Ferrari?  Are you going to be taking this backpack to Michigan with you?

I use this daily to haul my laptop and other materials back and forth to school.

Me: Yea, I will.

Knotsman: Oh ok.

And that was the end of the conversation.  I thought perhaps he wanted me to leave it to him in my St. Paul School Former Teacher’s Will or something.  It wasn’t until the end of  class that I noticed what he had done.

Knotsman: You gotta make sure that you don’t’ take this off your backpack, Ferrari.

And then I was all:

 

The best Teachers Appreciation gift, ever.

Field Trips and Busy Saturdays

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It’s the freakin’ weekend, Readers of Oatmeal who are dually Fancy!  (I’m reaching on that one, I know)

Anyways, I have been overachieving in two areas lately: productivity and impromptu field trip planning.  Let’s start things off with Friday.

You know we all have those days where if we have to do the same, mundane process one more time you might scream?  Yea, well I was far from yelping, but I definitely was in the market for a change of scenery, and if I was you know damn well my students were too.  We have three weeks of school let, so it was time to bring out the big guns: a field trip.  With the words, “enjoy your last days on the island to their fullest,” that’s just what we did.

How does one plan a field trip on the fly when you live on an island without any attractions for the people who have lived in the area their entire lives?  You go for a walk.  You let THEM be the tour guide.  So that’s just what we did.

I have gone on the walk a dozen or more times since moving to St. Paul Island, but never with this particular group of students.  I have five 8th graders, and one visiting fro our sister island, St. George: the perfect size group for an outing.  We walked to the seal blinds AKA “Reef.”  And because of the gorgeous weather and strong desire to scare the shit out of their teacher adventurous student body, we were able to experience the landscape in all new ways.

I can’t tell you how much this walk meant to me; the time with my students meant to me.

Friday night, there was a fundraiser for the St. Paul Fire Department.  It was our first big, meal-based event in quite some time. Can you say, “Date Night”?!?!?!

A lot of the town showed up, and the firehouse was blessed in a touching ceremony conducted by Fr. Isaac.  Afterwards awards were presented to several people for their bravery and dedication for all the efforts the night of the big fire back in the beginning of the year.

Again, the weather made life more awesome (high 30s and NO snow), so let the BBQing begin!  I had a hamburger and homemade brownie; Dear Hubby had everything else.  If I didn’t know that he would have chosen a french bread pizza, I would have confused this for his Last Meal order.

This morning, I knew that I had two big tasks to complete: a long run and packing more boxes to be shipped home.  I am VERY pleased with the outcome of both.

Around 11, I began my 9 mile run, and only had to stop once for the phone.  We’re selling some of our appliances and a little extra scratch is more important that distance running.

I decided to read instead of watch old episodes of Survivor.  I am in the middle of the sequel to the YA novel Delirium, entitled Pandemonium.  It has an interesting premise of love being a disease that can be cured, and the plot development continues to intrigue me.  I am enjoying how the chapters are broken down into flashbacks and present-tense scenes.  It made the 1:09:48 seconds FLY by.  I checked in with my iPod nano, assuming I was around mile 4.5, but in reality it was 6.75.  Told you I was FLYING!

TIME TO EAT!!!!!

After devouring two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and carrots with hummus, I went with Dear Hubby to the post office to say “bye bye” to our belongings.  We packed seven boxes of STUFF to be shipped home.

I came home, vacuumed, sold a little more stuff, and sat down to blog.  I’m so damn multitalented, I don’t know how I’m capable of such things.