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Sunday, February 11, 2007
oh, whatever.
You know those memes people do, where they ask their readers to interview them and then they post the results in their blogs? I've been kind of wanting to do one of those, except that I'm kind of short on readers these days, what with the fact that my last ten posts include one from Christmas. I think. Anyway. So I am going to pretend that someone has interviewed me. Yes, I know, I am so totally clever. At least I'm honest.
So, Rachel, why haven't you been blogging lately?
Because every creative atom has apparently been sucked from my body.
Could you tell me why it is that it is the 42nd day of 2007, and yet your 365-day photo project is stuck on day 34?
See above. Also, it is winter, and stuff is ugly, and it gets dark before dinner, and my kids hate going for walks. But mostly... see above.
How is your knitting project coming?
Hey, I knitted an inch of it during history class last week! That makes, wow, a whole... inch. In the past week.
And how's history class?
Fun. I like going to class. I am beginning to hate writing five-paragraph essays, but hey, I only have to write eleven more of them in the next eleven weeks, so that's not too bad. I'm not (twitch) freaking out (twitch) about the research paper one bit (twitch). (Seriously, I am reading this awesome set of books in my research called The Debate on the Constitution which should be in Every. American's. Library. Unfortunately they cost $50 even on Amazon. Ouch. Thank you, library.)
Finances kind of tight?
Oh, not since we found out we get to pay almost SIX HUNDRED MORE DOLLARS to the freaking IRS this year. Not at all. Especially since we were already on a strict budget for the next two months for reasons too complicated to discuss in this space (and also, there's that whole--whatsitcalled--privacy thing). Good thing we can get by with cheap foods like spaghetti and beans. Good thing I'm never going to want to cook those foods again after April of 2007.
OK, for the last question, let's lighten up a bit. What's the funniest thing you've seen this week?
OK. I was at my mom's yesterday, right? And I remembered that I needed to find my high-school diploma and transcripts because I would eventually need those when I went to do my educational plan thingamabob down at the college, maybe this Friday, or I would at least need them sometime in, oh, four years or so, when I apply to nursing school. Plus, looking through my parents' thick file folder of Rachel's Things was more fun than working on my reaction paper, which is what I had told myself I would do in my spare time at Mom's, and hey, I had written the title. So I was looking through this stack of stuff, and in addition to the diploma, my SAT scores, and my letter of acceptance to the Conservatory of Music at the University of the Pacific (sob), none of which I had seen in many years, I found this:
In case you can't read it (I did, after all, write it in cursive and in pencil on the dark green cover), that says: Ireland: The Emerald Isle. I have a way with titles, no? Also, observe the carefully-rendered outline map.
Title page. I got an A-. At the time I probably thought this was a rip-off, but in re-reading it, I can see how topic sentences like "Ireland has quite a few resources" and "Irish people must be happy to be who they are" or "Ireland has a great deal of history" (my personal favorite) could wear on a person.
CHECK OUT the illustrative decorations. Every single page of text had a crayon shamrock on it. I bet you wonder why I didn't go into graphic design.
The report came complete with pictures cut out of travel magazines. Boys and girls, did you know that before Priceline.com, there were things called "travel agencies"? Some people thought travel agencies were there to arrange trips for you; we were too poor to use them for that, and plus we had AAA, so we just glommed their free magazines for school reports.
My masterpiece. Notice that it is done in the colors of the Irish flag. Notice that even after writing a multi-page report on Ireland I had not caught on to the fact that Northern Ireland is part of a whole separate country. I have not always been the politically astute historian you see before you. (ha ha! oh, just let me collect myself here.)
So. I think I'll just go ahead and turn that in instead of the paper (twitch) I'm planning to write on the topic of the origin of the Bill of Rights. Saved myself a lot of work, no?
Comments
Hey, I'm still reading ;-)
That report on Ireland had me LOL! Thanks for sharing :-D
Posted by: Maria at February 11, 2007 11:02 PM
I sure did enjoy reading your report. I dont remember doing anything like that in the 6th grade. I do remember having to do an oral report in front of the entire school!! Of course that was about 20 people all together. Maybe a couple more, but it was on bees. I was so nervous that I did not even read the last page. hee hee
Posted by: debi at February 12, 2007 08:01 AM
Love seeing your report. I have my own Ireland report spectacle from 7th grade. Mine does not have any cool clippings or drawings. I think I copied the text from the encyclopedia. I really had no clue about literary ethics. I don't think I had a map either. I was really upset I didn't get to do my report on Scotland. I didn't like Ireland because of all the freckled-people. And I'm Irish. With freckles. Who knows what logic lurks in the mind of a 12 year old.
Posted by: Mrs. Happy Housewife at February 13, 2007 04:04 AM
Hey Stranger...your report had me chuckling too, as did your commentary on it. Very cute. I'm sorry you're lacking creativity-ness. :) Miss you!
Posted by: Susan at February 13, 2007 06:06 AM
Hahahaha! Ahem, tee-hee! Glorious. I love you. By the way, what kind of teacher lets his/her students knit in class?
Posted by: jenn at February 13, 2007 06:38 PM
testing the anti-spam feature...
Posted by: Rachel at February 14, 2007 10:57 AM
