And 2008 Begins!

So everyone else is on Blogspot. I guess I'll keep one here, too...

Christmas was fun, but way too short. Our school district kind of played a dirty trick with our scheduling this year. In exchange for the longer summer break, we got a 10 day Winter Break and a 3-day weekend for Spring Break. Yahoo. Thank goodness we got those extra summer days.

It was awesome to get to go to my mom's house early on Christmas morning and see the neices and nephews run upstairs to see what Santa brought them. Al wasn't terribly excited to get up at 5:30am, but he loves me and knew it was important. I think he actually enjoyed himself a little!

Christmas Break was dampened by the sad news that one of my students had died. She was heavily medicated for bipolar disorder and very thin. Those two things combined to cause her to pass away in her sleep on December 22. I didn't find out until December 29, after the funeral. I didn't know exactly what happened until I returned to school. The logical conclusion was that she had killed herself, but that didn't make sense. She was such a great student who tried so hard, and she was just a genuinely nice person--one of the nicest, most compassionate, and most giving people you will ever meet. I was very relieved to find out that her death was not a suicide. That knowledge helped me to find some closure, but I still miss her a lot. She used to come into my room and talk about the Wheel of Time series with me. I've now lost two students in two years, and it really sucks.

But back to happier things. The break was great! I got to spend a lot of time with my neices and nephews...and their parents, too. I think I saw more of my brother-in-law, Dave, than I have since he and my sister got married. Al was excited to be able to get to know him a bit better. We ate, played video games, visited, ate some more...it was good times. I also managed to find a free morning to unpack and rearrange my living room/library. Two days later, my dad delivered my boxes of stuff from his basement. I'm still unpacking.

Al got me one of the best Christmas gifts ever. I'm a huge fan of the author Jasper Fforde. Al got me a UK edition of The Eyre Affair, the first book in the Thursday Next series. It was autographed and personalized to me. I was holding it and thinking, "Jasper Fforde held this book! Jasper touched this!" Yes, I'm a big nerd. Total surprise, huh? Another fabulous gift was the leg lamp nightlight, courtesy of my dad. I was also super-stoked to receive a Sims2 figure from Dave! I received so many thoughtful and cool gifts this Christmas, that I can't even begin to list them here. Thanks, everybody!

I love the holidays, but I guess it's back to the real world...jobs and students and stuff. But just for the sake of nostalgia, I offer Jer's dulcet tones as a parting gift: