73 questions

Over the weekend, I discovered Vogue‘s “73 questions” interview series. It’s pretty self-explanatory: whatever celebrity they’re interviewing (to name a few: Reese Witherspoon, Daniel Radcliffe, Amy Adams, Lupita Nyong’o) is asked 73 random, rapidfire questions. Fun, silly, questions that I, for whatever reason, can’t get enough of. It’s a glorified version of the MySpace surveys of yesteryear, and yet I spent a good chunk of my planning period completely enraptured. So I decided to fill one out for myself because my kids are testing this week and I’m bored.

1. What are you most excited about these days? 
   Summer!
2. Favorite holiday?
   Christmas for sure
3. Favorite season?
   Either summer or fall
4. Recent hobby
   Blogging 🙂
5. If you could switch lives with someone for a day, who would it be?
   Anyone who’s a student at JMU
6. If you could have coffee with someone from the past, who would it be?
   Jane Austen
7. What’s the best thing that happened this year?
   I started my second year of teaching!
8. What’s the best way to decompress?
   Singing in the shower
9. What’s the weirdest word in the English language?
   Weenus
10. If you had one superpower, what would it be?
    Apparating!
11. Who do you miss most?
    Rachel or Abby
12. Who was the last person to text you?
    Molly
13. Who are three people, alive or dead, that you would have dinner with?
    Mindy Kaling, Julie Andrews, and either Aaron Sorkin or John Hughes
14. Last book you read?
    Friday Night Lights by H. G. Bissinger
15. Book you plan on reading?
    Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
16. Book you read bc everyon else in the world was reading it?
    The Girl on the Train. Meh.
17. A book from your childhood that positively shaped you?
    Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
18. Favorite tv show that’s currently on tv?
    Jane the Virgin
19. Favorite ice cream
    It varies, but usually Ben & Jerry’s Red Velvet
20. What makes you smile the most?
    Adam
21. First pet?
    Buffett, the fattest cat in the world
22. Worst subject in school?
    Physics
23. Favorite game?
    I like puzzles because I am a grandma
24. Coolest thing in the world?
    Cars that can parallel park themselves
25. Cutest thing in the world?
    Interspecies animal friendships
26. Favorite thing in the world?
    Well one of my kids is watching Gilmore Girls for the first time and one of my kids is reading the Percy Jackson series for the first time and every time they come in to class, they are SO EXCITED to update me on their progress and it’s adorable
27. One talent you wish you had?
    The ability to do cartwheels
28. One thing you still have from your childhood?
    My total lack of self-control when it comes to desserts
29. What’s your patronus?
    A friend told me that my patronus would be a dolphin, but I think I’m more of a shark because I love eating and I’m trying to cultivate a reputation (at least at school) of being a lot scarier than I actually am
30. Last song you listened to on your phone?
    “Sunrise” from In the Heights
31. Favorite song lyrics?
    “I swear when I grow up, I won’t just buy you a rose; I will buy the flower shop and you will never be lonely” by Nate Ruess, OR “Thunder Road” in its entirety
32. What song would you probably be caught dancing alone to?
    “96,000” from In the Heights
33. If you could work the runway, what song would it be?
    “Pour Some Sugar On Me”
34. Best gift you’ve ever given?
    Tie between setting up photography lessons for Adam with a local photographer that he really likes OR when I went over to a friend’s house on the morning of her birthday and re-enacted the Andrew Lincoln “to me you are perfect” scene from Love Actually
35. Fashion icon?
    Gina Rodriguez
36. What did you wear to your prom?
    an awful peach-colored dress that I recycled for Halloween the next year
37. Who was your date to your prom?
    My middle-school boyfriend
38. Favorite movie of all time?
    Parent Trap or Pride and Prejudice
39. Favorite movie of the last five years?
    The Way Way Back
40. Movie that made you cry?
    Toy Story 3
41. Movie that made you laugh the hardest?
    Bridesmaids
42. If you could make a documentary, what would it be about?
    Probably something education related
43. Favorite TV show?
    Gilmore Girls
44. If you could make a cameo in any TV show what would it be?
    On the air? Jane the Virgin. Off the air? The West Wing, so I could put my walk-and-talk skills to good use
45. Best plot twist of all time?
    Snape killing Dumbledore
46. Twitter or Instagram?
    Both, but I’m on Twitter more
47. Who should everyone be following right now?
    Lin-Manuel Miranda or Emily Nussbaum
48. Favorite food?
    Cheese
49. Favorite dessert?
    Cheesecake
50. Favorite band?
    Hanson or HAIM
51. Favorite solo artist?
    Sara Bareilles
52. If you could sing a duet with anyone, who would it be?
    “When You’re Home” with Christopher Jackson
53. What would be the title of your autobiography?
    Provided I get Mr. Springsteen’s blessing, it’d be “It’s a Town Full of Losers, and I’m Pulling Outta Here to Win”
54. Favorite sound?
    Honestly the first thing that came into my head was The Office theme song
55. Least favorite sound?
    Whiny kids and empty drinks
56. Favorite animal?
    SHARKS! And bears.
57. First celebrity crush? 
    Christian Bale in Newsies
58. Current celebrity crush?
    John Krasinski or Gina Rodriguez or Lee Pace
59. What is your kryptonite?
    Big Gulps
60. Guilty pleasure?
    Big Gulps
61. Most proud moment?
    Getting a teaching job
62. Biggest weakness?
    Cheese
63. Skill still unmastered?
    At work? Giving good, concise directions the first time around. In life? Valuing my own opinion
64. What is the definition of misery?
    Knowing what you need/want and being unable to attain it for reasons outside of your control
65. Biggest learning experience? 
    Realizing that the field I’d studied for four years in college wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life, and subsequently having to figure out what I DID want to do with my life
66. What is your idea of a perfect date?
    Dinner, movie, drinks, sleep
67. An experience when you felt the most nervous?
    First day of school
68. At what age were you the happiest?
    Probably the summer that I turned 20, but I’m also pretty freakin’ happy right now
69. What’s one vice you wish you could give up?
    Biting my nails!
70. If you could teach a college course, what would it be called?
    How Not To Be A Jackass 101
71. If you could star in any movie remake, what would it be?
    Either an all-female version of Ocean’s Eleven, or I’d wanna be Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny
72. If you were an Olympic athlete, what would your event be?
    Harry Potter trivia
73. If you could offer your 13-year-old self one piece of advice, what would it be?
    Well it’s something that Lance told us in high school, but I wish I had heard it sooner: Life gets harder and harder, but better and better

I’m really good at liking things

I remember very clearly the moment when, early in our dating relationship, Adam told me his mom had started asking him about me. I immediately started panicking. When I think about how someone might describe me to a stranger, I get a little antsy. My match.com profile might read like this:

25, raging caffeine addict, middle school teacher, cripplingly lazy, currently obsessed with [insert name of a TV show that went off the air between 3-10 years ago].

The last part is probably one of the more noteworthy parts of my personality. I don’t know how to “casually” like something. This is especially true when it comes to books, movies, and especially television. Starting around my sophomore year of high school, I can track my life based on what show I was watching at the time. Here are some highlights:

in defense of YA

I’m just gonna come right out and say it. I don’t understand people who are dismissive of young adult fiction. I never have.

I was reading a blog post and the writer was reviewing several books at a time and she said one of the books she read, which was written for teenagers, wasn’t appealing because it wasn’t “serious literature.” Give me a break.

Artistic rendering of me walking out of the Tuckahoe Library with my Princess Diaries books

Last summer, I found out that author Meg Cabot had published like six or seven books in her Princess Diaries series (one of my favorites in middle school) that I never knew about and therefore hadn’t read yet. So what did I do? I hauled ass to my local library. Twenty minutes later, I walked out holding a towering stack of books, all with hot pink covers and titles like Party Princess and Princess on the Brink. And then I sat on my couch for two days straight and read.

Did it require a lot of brain power? No. Did I finish each book in approximately three hours? Yes. Did that detract from the enjoyment I got out of each book? Hell no. But I loved it anyway.

And that’s the point. I don’t necessarily read YA to be “challenged” (though that happens often—I will slap-fight ANYONE who says that Harry Potter doesn’t deal with heavy issues). I read YA because, more often than not, young adult fiction deals with characters that are caught in this crucible of figuring out who they are and what they want. Teenagers go through hell; there’s a reason that, when I tell people I teach middle school, the reactions are usually something along the lines of “Oh, God, I’m SO sorry.” They’re tough kids to deal with sometimes, and many of them have a reason to be.

There’s a reason that so many “classic” novels are written about (and sometimes by) teenagers. It’s an intense time, and intense times, for better or worse, make for great stories. To discount an entire genre of literature simply because the target audience can’t see R-rated movies yet is to deprive yourself of stories that are rich with complicated emotions that I think a lot of adults are quick to sweep under the rug. Young adults deal with a lot of “firsts” and good young adult fiction approaches with those “firsts” with grace, sensitivity, and power.

Anne Frank. Scout Finch. Huck Finn. The March girls. Romeo and Juliet. Holden Caulfield. Ponyboy. Matilda. Harry Potter. Percy Jackson. We’re still talking about these characters years (even decades) later, because their stories resonate with us. We remember what it was like to wade into the waters of how to deal with crappy home lives, or first loves, or our own personal demons. Powerful stuff.

And that, to me, makes YA infinitely worth reading.

March favorites

1. This quote from a comment stream on a New York Times article, which I think speaks for itself:
   
2. House of Cards season 4 – I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in saying that last year’s season 3 just was not up to par. So I was apprehensive going into season 4, but I’ve never been so happy to be wrong (though I will say that going from my current West Wing rewatch to HoC was like a kick in the teeth). Visually stunning, sharply written, and full of surprises, this new season was everything that I was hoping for. Both Robin Wright and Kevin Spacey are powerhouses, and their performances bubbled with the brooding, barbed-wire control that their characters are known for.
3. Hamilton performing at the White House – YES THIS IS STILL A THING. A couple weeks ago, Adam said to me, “I’m ready for you to finally see Hamilton because maybe then you’ll finally get it out of your system.” Well Adam, I’m ready for me to finally see Hamilton too, but there are 153 days between now and then, and science has yet to invent a time machine, so we’re both stuck. Luckily for me, the cast traveled to the White House last week to perform and the livestreaming gods smiled down on me and gave me these glorious performances of two of the opening numbers.
4. Watching my kids watch Hercules – All of the mythology references went way over their heads, but Hades looking at his sidekick’s shoes and asking “What are those?” has them all in stitches. That, and one kid’s dramatic lip-syncing along to “I Will Go the Distance.”
5. The Percy Jackson series – Right before spring break, we did a lesson on the Hero’s Journey, and we talked as a class about all the usual examples: Harry Potter, Star Wars, Hunger Games, etc., and one of my kids mentioned Percy Jackson. Without thinking, I said, “Oh, I haven’t read that series.” This statement was met with near-unanimous outrage from my 6th block and I tried to placate them by promising I would read it soon. The next day, one of my quietest kids came to see me before homeroom and handed me his copy of the first book. Within 36 hours, I had finished it, and was at B&N looking for the sequel.

Alright, friends: what are you loving this month? Is there another YA series that I’ve totally missed and need to read ASAP? Let me know!!