a whirlwind weekend

I awoke Friday morning with a feeling of excitement comparable to the giddiness one feels on Christmas morning. Things at school are going better, I was facing a three day weekend, AND caitlin hodges was arriving that evening from washington. This is the tale of the chaotic, rambunctious, hilarious 36 hours I spent with hodges and a girl called shumway.

7:08 p.m. Caitlin alerts us via text her plane is delayed due to bad weather in Houston

7:09 p.m. Caitlin alerts me that the honorable Sheila Jackson Lee is on her same flight

11:24 p.m. Jennifer Shumway (fellow Kappa from Texas A&M, also BFFs with Caitlin) picks me up in her fancy jetta and we jet off to the airport to retrieve jet-setter Hodges.

11:48 p.m. arrive airport. attempt to avoid airport traffic directors as they force us to move our vehicle.

12:04 p.m. no news from caitlin. we head for the nearest gas station for a bathroom break, caffiene, and sugar.

12:08 p.m. Gas station attendant complains to us about bossy grumpy men that she feels "need to go get laid already." We awkwardly exit gas station avoiding eye contact with said gas station attendant.

12:24 p.m. Caitlin has arrived! Jennifer and I stand outside car to give her a hug as soon as she exits baggage claim.

12:26 p.m. We can't wait any longer. Leave car, enter terminal, hug Caitlin excitedly, return within 60 seconds.

12:27 p.m. Return to car to find police officer sitting in Shumway's car with his hand on the gear shift. "no no no!" shumway starts yelling. he starts yelling, looking back and forth between the two of us, caitlin standing off to the side as if she has no part in this. "You can NOT leave your car unattended! I've been watching the two of you and I watched you just walk away from your car. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING??" We both quickly stammered something about we were just going inside to find our friend and it took all of about 60 seconds. "WHAT?? it took BOTH of you IDIOTS to go get the other idiot?? How stupid! You can NOT leave your car here!!" At the end of his rant he slowly got out of shumway's car, we shoved the bags in and drove off in about 3.5 seconds. What a jerk! We couldn't believe how rude he was. You, sir, are a police officer and you are supposed to protect us, not berate us, regardless of if we are (or are not) idiots.

When I told my mom this story, I told her that after it happened shumway and i were so confused, "like what was he going to do, drive off in the car? Why did he have the right to SIT IN HER CAR???"

And my mom asked: "Well, he couldn't have driven off. Who had the keys?"

Um, the car had the keys. The car? Yea, we left the car running. Yea, we might be idiots. But we were just SO excited to see our friend, and we already very sleepy, that we weren't thinking clearly. Which is why we missed our exit and ended up in the Woodlands as well as had to go the restroom in a Ford dealership parking lot at 2:15 in the morning.

Finally we made it to the Hodge's house in Bryan. After four hours of sleep I woke up, went for a jog around the country club in Bryan, purchased scratch-off lottery tickets (caitlin's idea, who else?) and diet cokes, went to a tent sale to get much-needed aggie gear for caitlin's boyfrrrrrriend, and tailgated for hours in the freezing cold weather with mud on our boots. It was a perfect weekend and I'm leaving out some great details. like the fact that i saw mary alice warner AND lauren johnson. some of my absolute favorites.

But I have this to say in closing: thank goodness for sororities. I know they have their reputations and their pitfalls, but really, I have met some of my most wonderful, loving, generous, kind-hearted friends through a sorority. (And certainly through other things, too.)College sometimes feels like yesterday, and it sometimes feels like years and years ago. But the friendships? They still make you laugh til your face hurts, they still bring you warmth and fuzzy feelings, and they still forgive you for spilling margaritas on the floorboards of their car. Oops.

What a wonderful weekend. Gig em, Aggies!

don't miss modern family

Are you tired of hearing me ramble about the struggles of my life and details of education reform? Well... good news. I'm here to tell you about Modern Family, my new favorite TV show.

I started watching it late Saturday night because I don't have a TV in my room and i needed a distraction while attempting to organize my closet/desk. i'd already watched each new episode of the office three times this season so i needed something new...

enter Modern Family. I don't care what your age or gender is, you'll love this show. Hilarious. I definitely recommend it. Find it on abc.com.

In other news, I have dinner with Mike Feinburg tomorrow night and a small group of first-year TFA KIPP teachers. I sort of feel like a young struggling actor going to have dinner with Julia Roberts or Robert Duvall. I mean, I read a book about this man this summer. I've heard him speak to large crowded ballrooms from a table in the back on mulitiple occasions. And now- there's 10 of us going to dinner. Ah! Please excuse me while I go figure out what I'm going to wear tomorrow. Oops...I mean while I go read some education news articles to help me sound intelligent.

magnolia-fy

i know this girl, she's pretty sweet, we'll call her caitlin hodges. (no need to protect her identity here.)

my inbox frequently appreciates her quirkiness, humor, and overall fabulousness. a few months back she emails me about magnolias - she was setting up her new blog, reminiscing about the days we used the word "magnolia" to describe an attractive person of the opposite sex, etc.

i pondered for a while and later replied with a new favorite word of mine - magnolia-fy: the art of introducing southern charm to a world desperately in need of it.

yea, i made that up. if beyonce can get the word bootlicious in the dictionary, i think webster should definitely introduce my word in his next edition.

anyways...the separation anxiety has been getting to me. finally, finally, finally, one of my favorites is returning to the state of texas. on top of that, we'll be tailgating and enjoying life in aggieland next weekend. the countdown to college station has begun.

in the meantime, check out her blog. you won't regret it. http://magnoliaaffair.blogspot.com/

news we should all read

i read a book by a guy named dana milbank this spring. he's a sketch report with the washington post and is as non-partisan as they come. he attacks both sides, constantly, and continually leaves people in the White House and Capitol Hill steaming regardless of your party affiliation.

here's a pretty brief article about Helen Thomas, 89-year-old reporter who still covers the daily press briefing of the president and has been doing so since the days of JFK. she's a tough cookie and gave robert gibbs (press secretary) a run for his money on Oct. 1st.

milbank says that the white house has not taken a decisive, firm stand on any issue other than Chicago for the host city of 2016 olympics. he makes a good point... don't miss it. see below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/01/AR2009100104303_2.html?hpid=artslot

you can't play. you're an adult now.

our class gained a new student six weeks into school. he is very inquisitive, asks a lot of questions, still seems to be soaking up his surroundings at KIPP even though he's been here nearly two weeks.

i'm used to the daily barrage of questions. i try to just answer them as quickly and honestly as possible and move on.

well, today was glorious. nice weather, nice classroom environment, etc. we're on the playground, i'm running around chasing students pretending to be a dragon. (they love it, i promise, you should see the delight on their faces as they run shrieking and giggling from me.)

so, i grabbed the new-ish student and said: "i got you!"

he looks at me, seeming perturbed. "miss roberson...long pause...WHAT are you doing?"

"well, ___ ," I asked him..."what do you mean, what am i doing?"

"WHAT are you doing?"

"I'm playing!!!" Duh.

"Miss Roberson, how can you DO that?? You're an ADULT now."

Hahaha. "Adults can play, too you know!" I told him as I grabbed and hissed at another student who was running past us.

"What? No they can't."

Obviously I sat him down and explained you can have fun at any age and that having fun is really important and yada yada yada. He seemed unconvinced, so I just scuttled off yelling and shrieking "I'm going to get youuuuuuuuuu!" at the other children, children who either don't think I'm an adult (highly likely) or they don't have a problem with adults having fun.