inspi[red] by recent events

if you dont work in a kid-filled arena, you may not know what red ribbon week is.  if you do, it has been probably been the talk of your workplace for the last few months.  red ribbon week is the oldest and largest drug prevention campaign in america.  it targets america's youth in the hopes of informing kids on the dangers of and preventing the use of drugs at an earlier age.  over the years, rrw has become a campaign to prevent not only to drug use, but tobacco use and underage drinking as well. it is a huge event that is celebrated throughout the entire country during the last full week of october.  rrw was developed as a program targeted to reach elementary and middle school students in hopes of stopping drug and alcohol abuse before it starts.  currently, rrw has been working with many other campaigns to develop programs for high school and college students. they have already established co-campaigns with events like post-prom and fraternity/sorority pledging.  the rrw foundation believes that it is never to late to help a child with the struggles related to alcohol and drugs. children are faced with the temptation of drugs and alcohol at an earlier age now than ever before. many dont have the positive role models to help them out of these tricky situations. hopefully, with the help of rrw, some of these problems will cease.

the campaign was started by the family of enrique "kiki" camarena, an anti-drug activist who was killed while working undercover in mexico. he was suspected to be killed by government officials and political figures involved in a large drug cartel importing and exporting in the country. he spent his entire life giving back, through the marines, police enforcement, and eventually the usdea. after his death, friends and family began to pledge to be drug-free by wearing red ribbons and bracelets. its grown from there.

ill admit. when everyone at the first staff meeting started talking about red ribbon week, i just nodded my head and took notes. when i got back to my classroom, i googled it. i had no idea what rrw was. or why everyone was making such a big deal about it. im a new teacher. its not that long ago that i was in school myself. how did all of these veteran teachers know about rrw and i didnt have a clue? as i dug further into my research, i realized what a difference rrw actually makes in the lives of children.

at my school, the resistance is definitely there. unfortunately, many of my seventh grade students have already been exposed to alcohol, drugs, and tobacco.  some of they may have even used. they are not very open to being told what to do. in order to amp up student involvement, we turned rrw into a spirit week. students are being asked to "turn their back"on drugs and wear backwards clothes, "sock it" to drugs by wearing funky socks, and "keep their head in the game" by donning sports jerseys. the students show that they "can" say no to drugs by donating canned goods for the local soup kitchen. the week culminates with a guest speaker on friday. the kids will all be in red. i always think a large mass of people wearing one color is impressive and moving. im hoping it has the same effect on my students. 

because its just [too good] not to post.

so i cleaned out my childhood room for the first time since, well apparently high school. and i found something that i literally will never forgive myself for if anything happens to it. this post is for a very small group of girls in the whole entire world. h, i hope this makes your monday just a little bit better. its long as all hell. some names had to be changed. and it will make sense to no one but you girls. but it had to be done. long live the tokens. 

you know the world's coming to an end when. . .

atrov has heaven is a place on earth as her ringer. cd quits best buy. jimmy and sam rail. claribelle m runs for student council. dani's date wears a pink and maroon tux. kf lives. ap lost ten pounds. dooge eyes and lil lizzy are togeth. you invite tp to your grad party. "your mothers a whore". djB is bipolar. you to go pcv every weekend. et likes chris "coke/nikki/subs/wolfy". you sit at the party wawa for 45 mins. you go to seanb's house both nights of the weekend. you see joe dunf at harry potters house. ss/yanks is online. the hab twins were in newfield. ian beats beautiful kate for executive board. ns gets her tongue pierced with dlonzi and has braces at 40. people say cd has to ask you out by june 20. you know the words to loml song.  you have loml clothing from everyone.  li gets his nose broken. scarty and tlarson rail. fadi z says hi to you in the hall. otrain makes you a heart with your names in the middle. tols has "strike threeeee im out" on the away and youre home. you havent been to pcv in three weeks. you start listening to lfo again. tp has more friends than you. nb's lefty is roast beef. nb still gets shlopped. bruno calls your cell and asks for louie. mitlo mango didnt cry in lunch today. jloc didnt smell like bo. jproc shaves her hairline on her head. djB has one personality for a day. frankA "teeth/im the realest rapper" tells you you look like danalutz. votech gets to vote for student council like they even count as people. you can pack more people in the back of a white civic than boobie cook can fit in his van. deuce rolls deep.  you see chaz "i stole your pizza" at mattyg's. dooge eyes is OFF parole. dooge myes tries to spike his hair. el is out on medical leave for drug rehab. abeh and his small american head thinks youre beautiful like you really care what he thinks. li has a goatee. sr and mitlo railed. mb and sb's friends hang out. dooge leo slices his hand in half and almost ends up like j "fingers" van. susan max speaks spanish. someone puts a preg test in your mailbox. carlh is your only friend in gym class. toma stops stalking you (oh wait not possible). you have a dooge myes and son sweaty at your house. you rail him in the sweaty at your house. hector writes love letters to mwilx. liz "mom works at wawa" asks bubby for your screen name so she can verbally assault you for god knows what this time. tols goes to the gym because he thinks hes gona get big. wolfy and lazy e clue online. nfav sweats the living hell out of you. you steal every living schal thing. tbect was at your house. bcope's hair is longer than yours. you see brydel at a party. pj is having a party tonight and youre not going (tankkkk). you f'ing wana jump out the window. you yell at tcastro in the party wawa parking lot. lbi drew prob has more boyfriends than you. wayne and manny stop calling your cell phone. kgun has a beepbeep. cmot rails sw (all three of her) and the rest of schalick. your hair looks like tittybatts. heathernreed is on your buddylist. yahoodaisaiahroach is a real person. mo mo gun used to coach you in cheerleading and then her brother sweats you for yeaaaas. you get tipsy n roll deep wherever you go. the gosh's gets sold. the d's used cars sign gets thrown out. you havent slept over tomey's in months. ns, mc, and jo show up to troms beach house. dani hung out with khab last night. muzz spelled y-e-s. hh drove drunk. jimmy hit muzz up on her cell. samH im'ed booty brit. pg asked if he was "too black". muzz told her mom f'u. hh went to kguns twice in one night. we stole bubc's two dollars and sold it back to him for the mali. joshD lived outside of school. jt and kate talked on the phone for an hour. muzz tried to run away. dblock is in our yearbook. bubby schal imed kate. his sn is naviwit20s. we all slept in a double bed in hols scary basement. dani did her first ever cruci. we learned how to spell and use cluddy. we realized everyone in the nation is named bub. ming had cashmoney songs on his away message. hol said "holy canoli khab". khab stalks your pics and sees you in the ears hoodie and asks for it back.  cd told muzz "why dont you be justin timberlake and cry me a river" like it aint his song. fulg videoed herself railing. people got b'ed in db's kitchen. jsoup asked kf to go to kguns with him. gallo doesnt go psycho. son left the longest voicemail ever. dooge myes confessed the love of holly. cmot gets girls. triton kates outfit and teeth live. we have more than two friends. kgun dont care that you hang out with jimmy. jimmy dont care that you hang out with kgun. what happened in the cabin didnt stay in the cabin. anyone says "oh shit son 11". gallos the normal one of us all. ss/yanks asked jesst to tell muzz what up. all the tokens were at wcuholla. one of djB's personalities bought the alcy like wayne and manny. when mikes hard cran peaces out hollys purse and the nexty like whoa. when kgun tells koose hes "happy for her and boshizzle". when amy "soccer mom/ming minus the ming" is moving into pcv with booty brit and blond brit. you havent hooked up with a pcv boy in yeaaas. cd and br have matching beamers. mt buys j to the flo roses for vday. there is no fab5 anymore. the 152 isnt really the 152. bmac is on her death bed. gallo's white kid was at the club. deuce got arrested. hh is the biggest stalker ever. koose wore a parrot bay shirt to wcu. muzz and hh spent vday at the pcv. son leaves you drunk messages. cj "not 48" has a party. kf went there like she was cool. we tried to write a remix to welcome to atlanta (where the tokens play). gallos getting rid of emmanuel "manny" gallo. tp was on house arrest. everyone in buena has prob been arrested at least once. kgun hung out with d eyes. dspez and vo. toma rushes crow. jflo gets with some kid named russell. people name their kids russell these days. stort has your beepbeep and actually hits you up. hil gets with ry "only the strong survive but im fat" curc. muzz almost beats the shit out of sbred because god forbid anyone is friends with dooge myes. gallo gets two whole cups of beer thrown in her face. gator buys jimmy "hey i get with no one and didnt almost go to jails" jimmy. dani reunites it with ears. koose quotes lew on the away message. dmyes and deyes are going to daytona beach togeth. deyes is getting a nextelllll. seanites parents are in mexico. tp and gn chop the head off a goose. hh never hits up rr on the beepbeep. jsar answers rr's beepbeep. dmyes wants hols cell number. dooge eyes is stalking muzz. koose actually has a bf. momanns asks you if 1 is an odd number and 2 is an even number. when cm is doing a somersault in the news paper. when li's away message says "with the playaz club". lr's away says "lynne anne - now tuned into the mother f greatest". you know the world is coming to an end when there's nothing like [token love] .

[say] what you [mean] what you [say]

if god (or who/whatever you believe in) didnt want you to share your thoughts and feelings, you would not have been given a mouth. short of being the ventriloquist to your dummy, the rest is up to you. understandably, it is often difficult to tell someone how you really feel. it could lead to embarrassment, heartbreak or just plain awkwardness. but one would think that it would be more difficult to analyze how you feel, twist and turn that feeling into the exact opposite, and express that new and totally untrue feeling to someone else, giving them the impression that you actually feel the opposite of the way you do. only to come back to the topic in a record short amount of time and blow it all to pieces with the actual truth, the one you should have told in the first place.

wait. back it up. now im even confusing myself. my whole point is, why waste the time on all that jazz? why not just tell the truth and get it out of the way? i would say "you cant hate someone for telling the truth" but we all know thats a joke. bitterness happens, pretty often in life. but i will say this, i would hate someone a lot less for serving me a smaller helping of bullshit.

ive never been in the mind of a boy. maybe they deal with this feeling, too. i just dont know. but i do know this. i would put some serious cash down on the fact that i dont know a single girl who hasnt heard a variation of the following statement at least once in her young life:

"im just not ready for a commitment." 

well sir, if thats the case, then i should not have met your mother. i should not have drank beers with your guy friends while watching sports. i should not have accompanied you to a wedding, work function or family outing. i should never have been asked what "we" are doing tonight. i should not have been taken to a restaurant that requires heels and houses a wine sommelier.  i should not have shared a grocery cart, toothpaste tube, or set of pots and pans with you. i should not have been taken to a sold out concert or sporting event. i should not have heard any form of the line, "finally we get to meet you. weve heard so much about you". i should not have been spoonfed chicken soup when i had the flu. i should not have been the one to choose the satc movie over transformers. i should not have had my hand held in any public place. and most importantly, i should not have been told in any way that you, in fact, do want to be in a committed relationship. 

if everyone just meant what they said -- or better yet, said nothing, life would be good. but im not living in a dream world. i know that as long as men and women are built the way they have been for a bazillion years, nothing major will change. and even if change does happen, it most likely wont in my lifetime. or at least waaay too late into my love life for me to be remotely happy. aka when im in the midst of old maid status. so i guess what needs to change is me. you cant expect change from others unless you are willing to do some minor touch-ups on yourself. i already know what i expect from a potential relationship. but somewhere in between "hey there. im mr. wrong" and "this just isnt what im looking for" i lose the confidence to accept only that. its a harsh dating world out there. i need to utilize that thick skin im not scared to show off in other situations. i need to bring it into my love life. ill never get what im looking for if i settle for what i happen to stumble across.

ive got a [ph]eeling

im literallyyy counting down the minutes until wednesday at 8:07. so freaking excited for the game. last night was insaneee, lets hope they can do it again. hoping the night ends with something like this... 

also, those freaks who faked the boy in the bubble stunt, should really have their children taken away. i mean seriously, who does that? how can you possibly expect those kids to have a shot at growing up normal with parents like that? theyre seriously obsessed with being reality tv show stars. i guess that doesnt leave much time to worry about screwing up your kids for life. some people i swear. 

thank god for glee.

if it werent for will schuster's face  [enjoy below]  i would go to sleep right after school on wednesdays. 

in other news, recent events show that certain members of my wannabe future 'family in law' have decided to intervene in the love story that isnt. and im forced to ask myself, yet again, will it end? apparently not now at least. 

um excuse me, miss l? this IS living the dream.

art linkletter once said that 'kids say the darndest things'. i doubt that art knew anyone quite like my students. and i highly doubt he would call the things they say 'the darndest'. most of what they say shocks me. i couldnt make it up if i tried. but sometimes they surprise me. and apparently, sometimes they also listen to me. . .

im pretty ocd about alot of things. one of those is words. i dont know exactly why, but its always been that way. i think i attribute it to my love of reading. ive read a bazillion and one books in my life so far. and still going. so im pretty much obsessed with words. new words, overused words, out of the blue words, words ill never use in context and words i use everyday.  ive been trying to start my blog for weeks. and i couldnt find the right words to express my thoughts.  i needed to start with the right words. it sounds crazy, but its me. and i just knew i couldnt start until i had them. which brings me to today. 

ask anyone i speak to, living the dream is a favorite phrase of mine. i use it all the time. its probably annoying but i cant help it. my students have heard me use it quite a bit this year. today they were discussing problems in their school, putting them into perspective, deciding which was the largest problem affecting the most people, and choosing it for a problem-solution essay. this was how it went:

tf:  man, we did good. alls we got left is one problem.

me: (overhearing)  yes, you did. write this essay, get that out of the way, and youll be....? anybody?

bw: youre gona say living the dream.

tf: but um, excuse me, miss l? if thats our only problem, this IS living the dream. 

could you just kiss him?!?! he then explained to me that he sees why i use the phrase. because we really are living the dream. especially compared to other people who have much bigger problems than us. is it sad that i never thought of it that way? that i usually use it sarcastically, or to make a joke? that it took hearing it from a child to really understand the meaning? i dont think so. people often say that to be a good speaker, you have to listen. i think to be a good teacher, you have to continue to learn. dont get me wrong. this kid isnt ghandi incarnate. hes fresh from a three day suspension for fist fighting. hes often disrespectful and he neverrr does his homework. but somewhere in his heart, he found those words. and i borrowed them. because theyre the words i was looking for. theyre the right words.