Sunglasses Always Fit

Highlights of the week: every once in a while I do something that makes me proud of me and shows growth. I like to then say “hashtag adult.” I have discovered you don’t actually want to put “adult” as a hashtag on anything you do, because then you will come up in some very interesting searches. Anyway. Yesterday on Facebook’s “On This Day” feature, this gem of a memory came up:

Yeah….nine years ago, I auditioned for “The Real World.” And I guess I won, because I’ve been living there ever since!

I don’t regret my party girl past . . . I had a blast, am still best friends with the people I was best friends with then, have endless material to shock my future children with, lived on the beach and had the most awesome social calendar ever when I worked at the newspaper.

But it was a personal highlight for me was to read this article and know that since then, I’ve traveled the world, moved across the country and back, become a teacher, learned a third language, kept writing, and could not even tell you the last time I was on a first name basis with bouncers and bartenders and doing crazy things. Or even was inside a bar. I’m living a much more fulfilling life these days.

These days it’s more like a Friday night family dinner at my house with karaoke and we’re all teachers so everyone has left by 11pm and I’m already cleaning up. Some days I might reverse and say this is a lowlight – you can take the girl off the dance floor but can’t take the dance out the girl – but I mostly lean towards seeing it as growth. Hashtag adult. Right up there with filing your own taxes and cooking a whole chicken for the first time.

Another highlight was leading Chapel for our K-6th grade students and trying to make the older ones squirm in their seats about bad cellphone/snapchat/ youtube habits. I may have squirmed myself. But I also got to have a cool powerpoint (I freaking love powerpoints) and made a room full of kids laugh, while bringing all the souls to Jesus (hopefully, maybe) which is my favorite thing.

I also told this story, because every good session of fire and brimstone has a humanizing story from the pulpit, which I will share with you now.

So my verse was John 8:12, Jesus saying his followers will walk in his light, being the light of the world, and not walk in darkness. You can take this verse a million ways, and I did, as evidenced by the slides I include here. But I told this story about me as a kid…

My mom used to get those Costco sized boxes of cookie mix, Krusteaz or something like that, where you add water and get sugar cookies. Well, I’ve always been a chubby kid (and my last name is Weight, so lets have a moment of sympathy for me because it was hard with even adults making fun, buttheads) and I always had a hankering for cookie dough. My mom said “no” because I kept trying to eat it out of the box.

“HA!” says I. So I wait until everyone goes to bed, and what do I do? Sneak out and quietly spoon some from the box to my mouth. Went back to bed. Woke up the next day like “omg is Mom going to use her mom-sense and know what I did?!” But she had no idea! It’s like I always thought! I’m smarter than adults!

So I continued sneaking out of bed to eat the forbidden cookie mix. A few days went by, and I noticed there was like, hair in it. Which I thought was weird, but not too weird, because I’ve always had long hair. A few more rounds of this though, and I realized this was not hair. So I reached over to turn on the light and look inside the box, and there was a FREAKING FUDGING SPIDER AND ITS WEB INSIDE THE BOX.

I HAD BEEN EATING A SPIDER. ahhhHHHHHHHHhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway. This is the first time I’ve told me mom that story.

Other highlights…May the Fourth be With You day was super fun. I wore my sweater, told a jillion star wars jokes all day. It was great. And it was Teacher Appreciation Week at school! I got super cute notes, flowers that are on death row in my apartment right now, chocolate, etc.

AND I’m almost done with yearbook!! It’s due May 24th, and after I submit the document, I will party my face off for a day. It’s been a labor of love . . . I’m super proud of what I’ve accomplished, but also frustrated about how much I had to do on my own. Looking forward to restructuring it next year. Live and learn, my chickens. Live and learn.

Lowlights of the week: during Teacher Appreciation Week, I was SUPER tested with my lactose intolerance. There was a pizza day, and an ice cream sundae day, and honestly if wine had lactose in it I would have cried for seven days straight. And then the rest of my life. Anyway, I doubled up on Lactaid, ate the pizza and ate the ice cream. Yolo or whatever. So not a lowlight…just a lot of regret because Lactaid has powers….but not enough.

Also, had a moment with the second graders, reviewing sight words. The word “work” came up and they all started singing Rihanna’s “work work work” song and twerking in their seats and and and I. I. Just. Died. My wee babes! Singing that song! That I can also not stop singing! Soap in all our mouths.

Fav song at the moment: SO MANY. “Once in a While” by Timeflies, “CANT STOP THE FEELING!” by JT, and “Dont Let me Down” by the Chainsmokers.

This week I watched: catching up on “Outlander” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and a million youtubes of other people’s weddings because im weird like that.

This week I read: started Miss Peregine’s Home for Peculiar Children, a gift from my friends the Pratts, and I CANT PUT IT DOWN AND HERE IS THE TRAILER SO GOOD.

All the feels are from: this article about a girl born with no arms who won a handwriting contest? As a teacher who sees handwriting get tossed to the side in favor of technology, ignoring all the benefits to the practice, and as one always rooting for underdogs, this story destroyed me and I was openly sobbing at my desk when my high schoolers came in. So. Good.

I’m looking forward to: International Faire on Friday – each grade takes a country and does reports, a presentation, all the families at our international school bring food (and you can BET I went to the Greek and Mexican families and made some specific requests) and we just have a really cool night. I’m stage managing and I love seeing kids perform and just be cool. It’s stressful as anything leading up, but when it’s over, it feels great. And then on Saturday, to reward ourselves, some of us are going on a tour up to the mountains to the palace, a brewery, and I’m fingers-crossed for the honey and chocolate factory!!!

If you haven’t heard it yet, and you need to today: 

my snapchat is racheldangerw and I’d love to snap with you.

Oh, and also – I’m never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around, or hurt you.