nesting, ap english, and wanderlust

all the beauty and warmth of old world europe in a west suburban cafe. how can you go wrong?

today we finalized our summer reading list for senior ap. i would be lying if i said i wasn't slightly nervous about teaching this class (then again, i probably wouldn't be much of a teacher if it didn't concern me, either). was it really less than six years ago i was enrolled in it? here's some other fu(nn)(zz)y math (speaking of which, congrats on your oscar, mr. gore):

- next year, the majority of my students will only be (approximately) six years younger than i am

- when i graduated college, they had already been in high school for a year and a half.

- the day school starts, some of them will likely be less than one year away from being enrolled in a college degree program from which i will have graduated less than two years prior.

- my teaching experience (barring any mishaps or mental/emotional breakdowns) in years at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year: 1. teaching experience in years of the junior ap english (the class in which my not-so-distant future students are currently enrolled) teacher at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year: 31.

all the same, i'm not sure i've been more ready to take on any task. ever.

so.

in a secret compartment hidden in a secret vault in those dark and secret places below the earth, i have hidden a total of $100 in gift cards to bp and shell gas stations i received for christmas this past december. in the past, i don't believe i've ever kept a gasoline card for more than three days without using it; however, the promise of an early-summer road trip to who-knows-where has finally helped me heed the oath i make every time i'm given such a gift: i do solemnly swear not to use this (insert gas station name) card for driving to and from work. i suppose i've never been given so large an amount of money in this form before, so my travel-for-free possibilities weren't quite as vast and therefore not quite compelling enough to keep me from just filling up.

figure this: fluctuations in the cost of gas considered, i can usually drive 300 miles on $25. now, as long as most of the driving i do is on the highway/open road, $100 will take me roughly 1200 miles from my first fill-up. the following is a list of destinations to which i can travel round-trip on $100:

- gatlinburg, tn
- omaha, ne
- sioux falls, sd
- marquette, mi
- buffalo, ny

change that to a one-way, and the possibilities are endless, but include:

- gales ferry, ct
- boston, ma
- estes park, co
- red cloud, ne
- austin, tx

and many regions in canada. très intéressant.