Dreamin.

Dear World,
So the official moving countdown is underway. I move on June 7th. One day after my last day of work. I have a house full of stuff to get rid of, I am throwing away/giving away over half of my clothes, and I am frantically visiting family members to squeeze in a little more time before I go.
So I went to visit my siblings, the Lawsons, this weekend down in Georgia. We had a blast, as usual, which involved copious amounts of white zinfandel. Early Saturday morning, we went to Keegan's karate thing, where he moved up to an orange belt.

It's kinda blurry, but you get the picture. Kowabunga, d00ds.

Kowen and I got bored after watching Keegan do his thing, so we went outside and picked 180 dandelions. (Yes, we counted.)

Also, during my grand tour of the neighborhood, we found some fish bones. 

So on to the main highlight of this post-- I'm thinking my generous amount of libations, along with moving anxiety, led to some INTERESTING dreams!

Crazy Dream 1:

Friday night I had a dream that I was walking down College Street on USC's campus, where I saw Darius Rucker dressed in a chef uniform (complete with crazy print pants). I was stuck on the phone with someone and tried getting them off the phone so I could get my picture taken with Darius Rucker! Meanwhile, all these people kept passing by and yelling out "HOOTIE! WHASSUP HOOTIE!" and all the while I was thinking I know his real name! I need to just get off the phone so I can impress him with the fact that I know his real name.

After getting off the phone, I went to pull up the camera on my phone, which was painfully slow. By the time my camera was ready, he was gone. My heart was broken. I want to get a picture with Darius Rucker.

Crazy Dream 2:

In this dream, I was on the islands and I was desperately trying to find a job (not much of a stretch, really). I was sitting in a school library with the principal and some other lady, who were interviewing me. Everything seemed to be going fine so far, until I asked about the curriculum. 

"Do your teachers have the freedom to design their own curriculum?"

As an older and wiser teacher, this is something I always ask, so I don't get stuck with some stupid scripted program.

They exchanged glances and looked uneasy as the woman blurts out "Our Language teachers administer mandatory spelling tests every week." 

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP.

My face must have crumpled because the principal firmly stated, "This isn't negotiable. It is mandatory. It is required." 

I start sputtering. "Spelling tests are quite pointless if you are not teaching students the meaning of the words and emphasizing that over mechanics. Knowing how to spell something is not essential to student success-- it is how to use the words in their writing and to figure out their meanings in their reading that is important."

The principal stopped me by putting up his hand, talk-to-the-hand-style. 

I'm never going to find a teaching job in this backwards island.

...And that concludes my crazy dream segment. More to come!

Love,

Steph