Merry Christmas!

More Cashie/Wetlands Documentation

This is the first time I've been on my favorite little walk since Ida hit a month ago. Winter is here and its finally getting cold. I'm hoping this will help me not die when I go to the Pac NW in a few days, I've gotten way to acclimatized to the mild NC weather.

Now I think someone is messing with me

This was my Secret Santa gift today. I'm trying to decide if they're trying to be intentionally funny, or if they really thought I would like this. What will it be tomorrow, gerbils? Parakeets?

Secret Santa- terrible idea

We're doing Secret Santa at work. I'm not opposed to the idea of it in theory, but it really shouldn't be done among a group of people who don't know each other that well. I was bitching about it this weekend when I was shopping for it, like who is going to really care next week what kind of crappy $5 gift I got for them? I know I'm not. I was pleased with my person, as they're the one I know the best and are snarky like me, so I knew I could get them funny ridiculous things. I, however, was not so luck a recipient.

As if to prove my point that Secret Santa is a ridiculous idea, yesterday my gift was a little book called "Huggable Hounds." It has pictures of dogs and cutesy quotes next to them. Really? I don't even really like dogs, or things like this, which is just evidence that you shouldn't buy gifts for people you don't know. Now it is going to serve as a back up gift for my friends' white elephant gift Christmas party on Saturday.

3rd block's 5 minute poem

If I had a wish I would wish school away
and then I would never stay in it another day.
But then Ms. Pennell would cry
And she might just die
So I will just stay in school and let the time fly by.

Christmas Magic!

Check out the sweet Christmas lights in Windsor. Micela took us out for a ride to show us the magic, what fun times! We sound crazy, but that's how we roll here in Bertie county.

Thanksgiving Celebrations

I spent Thanksgiving with my Grandma and fam, saw some cousins, spent a night in Chapel Hill (civilization!) and am currently procrastinating from doing some teacher work by uploading pics. Story of my life.
Went out on the town (staying out till 11:30! craziness!) in Chapel Hill, with Ludmila, one of my teacher friends.

Holly and Rizo (he was trying to watch a soccer game- sorry Rizo!)

Jed, Jade, Pat, Luke, Denise, and Grandma

With Holly at a lovely Malaysian restaurant on Franklin St in Chapel Hill. Weird how we didn't really look alike as kids, but here you can tell we're related.

With Grandaddy

I missed dressing up with the fam in the 'couve, so I did it solo this year. I'm a hippie protesting the celebration of a false holiday.

Yep, I'd totally spilled water on my shirt, but was too lazy to crop the photo.

Wetlands Post-Ida

Tropical storm Ida came through, and it was strong enough to get school canceled 1 day and delayed the next. I drove through it on Thursday to go see a friend in the hospital on the day school was canceled, and it was insane. The fields looked like rice paddies, and the rivers were very high. Going over the bridge across the Chowan river, I actually drove in the middle of the two lanes just to be on the safe side. (My little car is pretty light). Anyway, this afternoon I walked through my favorite little boardwalk to see how it fared in the storm. It was clear that the boardwalk had been underwater a few days ago, and some of the sidewalk still is.

More student work

Today we had a 2 hour delay, which annoyingly meant that we just skipped our 1st block class. The day before there was no school because of tropical storm Ida, and the day before was veteran's day holiday. So this week has pretty much been a wash, and now my roommies and I are stressing over lost instructional time. Since it would be a planning nightmare to have 2 classes ahead of another, I needed to make up something very quickly for my kids to do today, without making copies of anything, cause I couldn't print from any of the computers today. Lovely. Anyway, I had my students write letters to a romance columnist, imagining they were Romeo, in the beginning of the play when he's obsessed with Rosaline. Here is one of my favorite results:

Dear Lil Wayne (they were allowed to choose who they were writing to),

I am sunk deep below the ocean waves of heartache and sadness. My heart burns to know that I can't lust unless I marry her. Why must she be so vile that she won't give me the time to show her my compassionate side? How do I cope with her beauty knowing that I can't have nor touch. How can I make my feelings blatant to her so she might think about coping with me. Lil Wayne please tell me how must I live knowing that she might be cping with another man. Please help me.

Yours truly,
Romeo

I love this for so many reasons. 1, they used "blatant," one of our SAT words. 2, they clearly had fun trying to make it dramatic. 3, they clearly don't have a firm grasp on the definitions of "lust" and "cope." I asked when they read it aloud if they meant coupling, and they assured me it was cope. Since these types of informal assignments are to get the students thinking creatively and not about grammar and such things, I let it go. I <3 my students.

The Twilight Debate Continues

My students keep a reading journal (or kind of do, most of them forget) and one student showed me her copy of the latest Twilight book- Eclipse I think?- and said haha, now you'll have to read about it in my journal! I sighed and prayed for her soul. (And yep, this is the same student who's corrections to my Twilight worksheet I posted previously)

As part of her journal entry, she had this quote, followed by her commentary:

"If I had my way, I would spend the majority of my time kissing Edward. There wasn't anything I'd experienced in my life that compared to the feeling of his cool lips, marble hard but always so gentle, moving with mine. [...] So it surprised me a little when his fingers braided themselves into my hair, securing my face to his." (p. 73)

Hehehe, and you wonder why I love the Twilight saga so much! The romance is just as great as Romeo & Juliet <3

To which I very professionally replied in the margins "Ew, how are cool, marble lips appealing? I don't see the draw."

I was too horrified by that to even notice the "securing my face to his" bit. Really? Securing it? Is that the best you could do Meyer? Good grief.

Ms. Pennell's English Classes' Guide to being a Player

We started reading "Romeo and Juliet" today, and as a warm up activity we read 17th century pick-up lines from "The Mysteries of Love and Eloquence," published in 1568. (A tip o' the chalk to Steve Williams of Utah for uploading this idea on the Folger Shakespeare Library).

The students read the pick-up lines with a partner, and then had to choose 3 to rewrite in contemporary English. It was great fun to see their reactions, some of them loved it, some were embarrassed, but no one was having more fun than me.

There were many lines to choose from, but some of them proved more popular than others. Here are some of my favorites, first with the original version, then how the kids changed them.

I suggested that maybe we could take a field trip and they could try them out, and they looked at me in horror. Oh, freshmen, so entertaining.

1. From “sweet and delicious as the feast of love” to “you are sweet and delicious *rawr*” (yes, they really wrote rawr and put stars around it)

2. From “You have a face where good seems to dwell” to “you are so purrdy” and “your face is beautiful and truly unique” (again, yes they wrote 'purrdy.' I'm also not sure I'd want anyone calling my face "unique.")

3. From “you, like a comet attract all eyes” to “Like a star you shine so bright you guide the way to my heart.” When the class groaned in disbelief at this one, she said "What? It's a pick-up line, you can say whatever you want and they'll just follow you." Clearly self-esteem is not an issue for her. This student also refers to herself as America's Next Top Model.

4. This was one of the most popular- “you are a flame of beauty.” It had many new versions: “you are so sexy,” “you’re hot,” “you are very beautiful and sexy,” “you are the hottest I had ever seen” and my favorite, “you are the sexiest girl I’ve seen all day.” I don't think he got why I laughed at the "all day" part.

5. This one- “you have the power to sway me as you please” could have gone many directions that would have been uncomfortable for all of us. Two versions were the PG-rated “your beauty makes me give my all to you and for you” and the slightly more implied-risque “you can do anything you want.”

6. From “you are the star I reach at” to “you are my everything”

7. From “your wit hath too much edge” to “your cleverness turns me on”

8. From “your words like musick please me” to “your words are as heavenly as an angels song” (can you tell that a girl wrote this one?)

9. This could have gone to a very bad place- thank goodness they kept it clean. From “I’m proud to please you” to “I like this relationship”

10. And saving the best for last- Dwayne came through with this one, which he read in a loud, dramatic voice to everyone- From “let me but touch the white pillows of your naked breasts” to “your breasts are white pillows I wish to sleep upon.”

I laughed so hard I literally doubled over and needed a moment to collect myself, it was amazing. Not shockingly, Dwayne was having a great time with this assignment. He claimed most of them he wouldn't change, but would leave as-written. I hope I hear some of these in the hallway this week.

Congratulations Carol & Neil

Fun times at the wedding. The reception was at the Museum of Life and Science, it was awesome!

Gay Marriage takes Another Hit in Maine

Living in the boonies without any visible queer culture, I have to live vicariously through the news. So it was devastating to hear the news that Maine voters took away marriage rights for gay couples, a right which was previously granted by the state legislature.

I will never understand why conservative heterosexual Americans see gay marriage as a personal affront. Heaven forbid all American citizens get their equal rights. In an article I read, Scott Fish, a member of the homophobic group Stand for Marriage Maine was quoted as asking "What's the hurry [for gay marriage]?" I can give you many reasons, Mr. Fish, but instead of trying to put them into words, I'll let someone more eloquent than me, a Mr. Martin Luther King Jr. (maybe you've heard of him?) do the talking-

"For years now I have heard the word 'Wait!' [...] This 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.' We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied." (Letter from Birmingham Jail)

Even some my sheltered 9th graders, many of whom I will assume do not know any gay couples, have been able to see the connection between African Americans' fight for civil rights and the fight for gay marriage. Why can't the rest of the country? It makes me sick.

MLK said it best when he asked, Wait for what? This is a change I'd like to see happen in my lifetime. I'm tired of being a second-class citizen. Lets make it happen, America.

Halloween Activities

The Friday before Halloween the plantation house had a party. And by party, I mean by 11 we were all sitting around talking about our students, and were in bed by 12:30. The next evening, I went to civilization to hang out with Carol and Neil and their friends. We gave out candy, ate food, drank wine, and watched Mystery Science Theater, followed by some seated aerobics, shown here. Good times.

Chris Pureka with Lyndell Montgomery at Local 506, Chapel Hill

I saw Chris Pureka Thursday night, and as always she was fantastic. Lyndell was playing with her again, and it's so fun to watch them feed off of each other. Here's one of the videos I took of one of Chris' new songs. I don't know the name of it, but it's fab of course. She played other new songs too, all great, coming out on her new CD in April. So long to wait!

Happy Halloween

I found the perfect accessory for my 'Merikan costume at the ABC store. (That's the liquor store for you non-North Carolinians out there)

Another entry on my professional lesbian resume

The much-truncated version of my thesis paper has been published online, check it out-

http://aad.uoregon.edu/culturework/culturework46a.html

A counter to the oyster bar

So, I've found out where the African-American population hangs out- at these ECU alum parties. My roommate (my black male roommate, naturally) found out about them through a coworker and helped out at a mas "que" rade ball for an ECU fraternity. I thought, frat party? No way. But, it was actually a ton of fun, way more fun than anything else I've been to around here. (Granted, that isn't saying a whole lot, but I'll take what I can get.) There were some people in their 20s and 30s, but the majority of the crowd appeared to be in their 40s, 50s, and 60s though with all the masks it could be hard to tell. Groups of women came in with elaborate masks with feathers and sparkles, and we assume they are sorority alum groups (and will be crashing their parties too).

My roommate I'm pictured with, and myself, were the only white people there. We were wondering how that would be given the tendency of people to stay with their groups, but everyone was very welcoming and friendly. We picked a table with three other people to sit at, and quickly became friends. Our new pals told us that different groups have these parties every few months, and that people come from all over our county and some of the neighboring ones. As one woman said, there are things to do here you just have to know where to look. Well, now we know and we'll be attending these shindigs from now on. It's funny, because though the back porch crowd is very welcoming and friendly too, I always find myself exhausted from the social strain after half an hour. The roomie and I had anticipated this in the new crowd as well and only planned on staying an hour at the party, but we were having so much fun and felt so relaxed we stayed a lot longer. There was dancing, which I was excited about, but perhaps since it was a bit of an older generation, it was just in couples unless they played some type of line dance number (Cupid Shuffle anyone? Is this just popular in the south? A few of my NW friends I've mentioned it to have had no idea what I'm talking about). But even though it was more couples dancing, it was in a chill, everyone having fun kind of way, and I loved it.

Rachel does it again

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Beautiful Fall pics of the Cashie river and wetlands

I just can't stop documenting this area- it's gorgeous. I'd forgotten what a real fall looks like. Sigh. You're getting to me, North Carolina.

Carol and Neil's bachelor-lorette party

Carol & Neil had a joint party at Frankie's Fun Park (or something like that) in Raleigh. It was good fun: mini-golf, laser tag (which kind of scared me a little), go-carts, skee-ball and air hockey. The picture of Elizabeth losing to me in air hockey made me laugh so hard I cried and went hysterical. Stay tuned in a few weeks for pictures from the wedding, where yours truly will be ushering. I have requested a special sash and/or headdress designating me as head usher, so we'll see if Carol can follow through.

State Fair trip with the kiddos

Ready to head back to school. Almost all of our students came- so cool being part of a new school.

A-mazing

mmm, roast corn

goat race!

pig race!

Yep, definitely a Southern-specific food booth. Total foodways!

I rode the ferris wheel with a few kiddos

ew

ew again

making some kids pose with us teachers