Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Jeremiah's bro's new Burger King commercial

Jeremiah's brother and Aartilla The Fun's husband Brendan (see blog links) stars in the latest Burger King commercial.
As a kid I thought that Brendan was the funniest person I had ever met.
Glad to see that America has now been formally introduced to Brendan and his great sense of humor.
By the way Bren is the one with the long hair, not the frat boy or the one with the metal detector.


Monday, June 16, 2008

Here is a link to an episode of CSPAN's Q & A. The interviewee Michelle Bernard is the CEO and President of The Independent Women's Forum (IWF) as well as a political analyst for MSNBC. Michelle Bernard and the IWF advocate personal responsibility, small government, and a free market.

I could say a great deal about what a strong, intelligent, articulate individual Michelle is, but I would prefer to let you see for yourself and comment.

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=205250-1&showVid=true




My idea of the perfect Saturday involves the following: yard sale and thrift shopping, driving around listening to music, a swift romp through Boston, painting and great pizza.

Well add good company, Unibroue, and some tango practice and you have my Saturday this week.

Wednesday was my last day of school and Thursday marked my first official day of summer.
I am planning on working this summer, but since school ended I have just been taking it easy and enjoying my free time.

So, on Saturday Jed and I decided to tackle some things on our to-do list, and by "to-do" list I mean, things we like "to-do" to have fun list.




Unfortunately I didn't snap any pics at the yard sale and or thrift stores, but I did get a great pic of the pizza we got. The Pizza is from Il Mundo, a fantastic pizza joint on Hungtington Avenue right near Mission Hill in Roxbury. Whenever we get it I end up eating most of the pizza before we even get home. In case you didn't know, I can eat my weight in pizza, and popcorn.



While waiting for our pizza we sat at the Squealing Pig and had a Fin du Monde, which is a delicious dark beer by Unibroue. The Squealing Pig is a great little bar that features these toasted sandwiches. We never get them though because we love the pizza around the corner so much. Nevertheless, as far as pizza waiting rooms go, this bar is the keenest.





Once back in Miltappan, we Jed and I practiced our tango moves (we've had one lesson thus far) and then painted. My painting hiatus has finally ended and I am pleased with the fact that I'm getting back into one of my favorite pastimes.


Ahh, what a taxing day.




Friday, June 6, 2008

Oh the joys of teaching


As I sit at a desk for and hour and a half proctoring students taking a Geometry final I can't help but remember what it was like to be in their non-regulation backless shoes.

As a teacher at my own high school there are many days when I experience bizarre mind trips in which I am instantly transported back to the being the scrawny awkward teenager who refused to tuck in her shirt and had 75 tardies in one quarter.

But the awkwardness of teaching alongside my old teachers is all worth it when my students look back at me with intrigue as I lecture on the complexities of oxidative phosphorylation.

Their intrigue of course extends beyond science to my personal life.
They speculate as to how I spend my weekends.

They ask me to come to their plays, sporting events, semi-formals.

When my dad starting working at the track meets they begged him to bring in pictures of me or to tell them embarrassing stories about me from high school.
Thankfully my Dad considered his pay for working the track meet enough to cover his silence on such matters.


Oh, and they get class pets and name them after Jeremiah and I.

Yup, you heard it. Jet-Man and Ms. O, the AP Biology class geckos.

Because my school schedule was so hectic this past year, Jeremiah would sometimes drive into Boston on a weeknight to sit in the stands with me for an hour or so while I coached/spectated my track team.
Well, needless to say the track kids got to know Ms. O'Connor's boyfriend.
I didn't realize the degree to which they were fans of Jeremiah until one day when I was giving a lecture on Signal Transduction Pathways and one of my students raised her hand and said, "Ms. O, I heard your boyfriend is smokin hot' ".

To be honest I was taken aback by the comment. I told them I had agree, and then took a good 5 minutes to get the students back on topic.

Soon they christened Jeremiah "Jet-man" a nickname that means nothing but sounds cool, and shortly thereafter we had geckos named after us.
Someday I will tell you about the tragic fate of those geckos, but that's a whole other blog post.

Some say that immitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I would argue that idolization in the form of class pets is one step better.

I have been fortunate to have the greatest students. Even on their worst of days they are smart, exuberant, fun to be with, and work to do well in my class.

Teaching is truly the job that I never knew I always wanted. Not because the students idolize me, because that comes and goes at best. It's because every day I come to school and have the opportunity to love these girls. And not with the dribbly, sappy, "everything you do is great" kind of love, but the kind of love that says, "Life is hard, but you're smart enough to take it one step at a time and grow into an intelligent individual."
Some of these kids need someone that is in their corner cheering for them, but also pushing them to work harder.
And they love me back. Some days work and life is just overwhelmingly stressful and I see that God uses these adolescents to encourage me and to re-orient me. I'm here to serve them, but they serve me too and frequently give me the laughter, encouragement, and motivation I need to make it through the day.
And the stories, man do I have stories.

Just like with adults, a little bit of encouragment, a great deal of accountability, and a belief in their abilities to excel goes a long way with high school girls.
Especially if you're wearing Chuck Taylors.
They love my sneakers.

Anywhere I lay my head.




Hello there, Today is my first post on my new blog. I decided to feature my new little cottage. As some of you may know I was looking for somewhere new to live and by the grace of God I found this adorable little carriage house. It's in the historic town of Hingham (where I teach) and is owned by a very nice mom and two kids.
A picture's worth a thousand words,
so here's 10 000 words.