I Carried a Watermelon!

I'm feeling very "blah" today. A lot of ennui. Maybe it's the quickly approaching birthday with which I am grappling and the constant questions that plague me around this time of year about what I'm doing with my life and whether I've done what I think I should have done by now. Maybe it's just my growing disillusionment with the direction this campaign has taken. The negativity in both the McCain camp and its supporters is just downright scary. When people in the audience are screaming "Kill him" about the opponent (particularly when it's in the face of lies and false allegations), it makes me more than just a little sick. Maybe it's that fall weariness that tends to set in right about now at work -- overwhelmed with the teaching and the lack of enthusiasm my students bring to the classroom. This week, I faced a group of incredibly apathetic seniors who see no value in reading the short stories we're reading in class, caught two plagiarists in my freshmen English class as I graded book reports, and dealt with a lead in the play who has skipped two rehearsals this week with no notification (and shaky cause). No doubt about it -- I'm in a bit of a funk.

I'm headed to Chicago this weekend to celebrate my 37th birthday in much the same way I celebrated my 16th birthday -- by seeing Dirty Dancing. However, while my high school best friend Caity and I merely walked to the downtown movie theatre to see Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze strut their stuff, I'm joining my dear friend Deb from college to see Dirty Dancing LIVE AND ONSTAGE! Yes, I'm seeing the musical inspired by the classic film that shaped my remaining two years of high school so clearly. I'm excited for the chance to shake off this funk and rejoice in the simple story of a brainy Jew who discovers love, sex, and back alley abortions while vacationing in the Catskills. If anything will make me forget aging, Sarah Palin, and apathetic teens for a few hours, it's Baby Houseman and the gang at Kellerman's.

Woo hoo!!