Things I love

I thought it would be nice to think about the small things I love in my life. Obviously I love God, my husband, my family and friends, etc., so I'm not including that kind of stuff on this list. Just the little things. I think if you can find happiness in little things, it goes a long way toward a happy life.

1. Living in our own house, which has a dishwasher, central air and heat, and a garbage disposal.

2. Queen. I got their greatest hits for Christmas, and Freddie Mercury is so amazing.

3. The ability to watch my favorite TV shows online.

4. Being literate. I love to read.

5. Being blessed with enough money to give some away.

6. Singing in my car.

7. Thinking about what is really going on on Lost.

8. The Office.

9. Living in a college town.

10. Living near family.

11. Having Atticus curl up with me to nap, and getting a break from how he spends his waking hours, which is attacking my feet.

12. Revisiting books I love. It's like seeing old friends again.

13. The ability to keep up with real live old friends via Facebook.

14. Florida football.

15. Old family pictures.

16. Fresh flowers.

17. The smell of our Christmas tree.

18. The smell of rain.

19. Living in a subtropical climate.

20. Daydreaming.

25 things

I saw this on a friend's blog, and since it's Christmas break and I'm just hanging out, I thought I'd put it on mine. Just 25 random things about myself. I'm supposed to tag 25 people, but I can't think of anyone who deserves to be annoyed that much, so I'm skipping that part.

1. I read all four Twilight books, plus the unfinished draft of Midnight Sun, and still can't figure out why I liked them. I mean, I did, I just don't know why.

2. I named my cat after Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, because he is the most awesome literary character ever.

3. Kitty Atticus is not much like Book Atticus, though.

4. One of the things I love about my husband is that when I say, "It's possible," he adds, "Pig," and we both know that he's not insulting me, but rather paying homage to one of the greatest movies of all time.

5. My niece and nephew call me Aunt Emily, and I'm just waiting for the day when they watch The Wizard of Oz and start calling me Auntie Em. And by waiting, I mean not looking forward to.

6. The first movie I ever just totally lost it in was Titanic. Full-out hysterics for the entire last hour of the movie.

7. That was definitely not the last movie I ever lost it in, though. Steel Magnolias gave Titanic a run for its money.

8. When my friend Debra and I worked at summer camp together, we told our campers that we were twin sisters. And they bought it, even though we look nothing alike.

9. Sometimes when I grade essays, it's all I can do to not write "WTF?" next to some of their grammar/punctuation/spelling mistakes. Like the paper that claimed that John McCain supported "tickle-down" economics.

10. I take it a little personally when my students skip class. I wonder if my professors ever felt the same way.

11. I could eat at Leonardo's Pizza three times a week and never get tired of it. My body might rebel, though.

12. Sometimes I do eat at Leonardo's Pizza three times a week, and more often than not, I run into my sister there, because she also eats there three times a week. Usually these meetings aren't planned at all - we just have a serious addiction to Leonardo's.

13. I wore a tiara on my wedding day, because seriously, what other day could I get away with that?

14. I also kept my veil on through the whole reception, because when else would I get to wear a veil? That's right, never.

15. My favorite TV show is The Office. I have a mini-crush on Jim. Not John Krasinski. Jim.

16. When I went back to England this summer, six years after my first trip there, one of my top priorities was to eat a scone with clotted cream. That stuff is freaking amazing.

17. I got a huge kick out of English place names while I was there. You know, names like Lower Piddle. And I'm pretty sure I actually saw a town called Lower Piddle.

18. One of my aunts gave another aunt a book called "The Shoes of Salvation" for Christmas. I think I might believe in the Shoes of Salvation.

19. My mom also got a book called "Feng Shoe." I think my family might have an addiction.

20. I do not like Wal-Mart. Not just because of corporate greed run amok, but really because I can't stand the way the aisles feel like they're closing in on me, and the way people bring their two-year-olds there at 11:00 at night so the rest of us have to listen to them screaming.

21. I really can't handle scary movies. I have a hard time with The Others on Lost. Suspense is not really for me.

22. I love Florida football, and I always feel a little star-struck when I see Tim Tebow on campus.

23. Red polish on my toenails always makes me feel good.

24. My freshman year in college, I took a salsa-dancing class.

25. I love the beach.

I love Christmas

I love all Christmases, but I'd say this one has been pretty high on my list of all-time awesome Christmases. We left Gainesville on the 20th to go to my parents' house in Palm Bay, cats in tow, and got to spend time with Suzanne and Mike, plus my aunt Margaret and uncle Bill from Nebraska, and my aunt Melissa and cousin Wil from Alabama, and both of my grandmothers, and my traveling buddy Debra. I know so many people dread spending extended amounts of time with their families during the holidays, but I seriously think my family is fantastic. I love spending time with them. Everyone gets along, and we all have a good time. I think even my dad, who is a hardcore introvert, has fun, because he can retreat to his music studio when he needs to recharge. On the 23rd, we went with Suzanne, Mike, Debra, Melissa and Wil to the Magic Kingdom, which was part of Wil's Christmas present (he's 13, so spending two days at Disney is still cool for him - hell, I think it would still be cool for me. I love Disney). On Christmas Eve we all ate barbecue, and on Christmas morning we opened presents together, and my amazing husband got me a MacBook! Yay! It is so pretty and user-friendly and I love it. I got him a hiking GPS, so we can go geocaching. He was really excited about it, so I think this is one of our more successful gift-giving Christmases. Now that I have a job, we can actually afford to buy each other something nice.

We came up to Live Oak, FL (about 45 minutes south of the Georgia border) the day after Christmas to see Cary's family, who are also great. We overlapped one night with Cary's brother Jamey and his family, which was just enough time to enjoy each other's company, but not so much time that we all felt cramped together in the house. Yesterday we mostly watched back episodes of Lost - all the seasons are online, and people keep telling us we need to watch them, so we watched one and got totally hooked. Now we're trying to watch all four seasons before season 5 starts at the end of next month. We love it - we watch and watch and watch, and then discuss where we think they really are. At the end of season 1, which is how far we've watched, I think they're in purgatory. But please, no one leave me any comments telling me if I'm right or not. I'd rather watch and learn.

So all in all, great Christmas. We're heading back to Gainesville later this week, and back to real life, but for now, I am going to stay in my pajamas for another hour or so, play with my MacBook, and watch 18 billion episodes of Lost. Then we might geocache. Or just watch more Lost. Or geocache while discussing Lost. I'm really up for anything.

Trips to the vet

When Cary brought Atticus home two weeks ago, he was too little to get his first round of vaccines - only five weeks old. Since that time, he has been living rather unhappily in our guest bathroom. This wasn't really an ideal situation for anyone - not for Atticus, because he hates being alone, not for George, who couldn't figure out what smelled so much like another cat behind the bathroom door, not for me, who had to clean the bathroom three times a week and listen to Atticus's pitiful mewing when he was locked in there, and not for Cary, who was having visions of himself crawling on his hands and knees into our crying firstborn baby's bedroom to check on him/her, while I wrung my hands in despair in the hallway (this is more or less my reaction to Atticus's crying). He had to live in the bathroom, though, because without vaccines or AIDS/leukemia tests, he and George could have gotten each other sick. So it was a happy day yesterday when I finally took Atticus to the vet to get his first shots.

This cat knows no fear. If he weren't so small, he'd probably be terrifying. He had no problem with being put in the carrier, and spent the whole of the car ride hanging on to the wire grid door, trying to stick his head out to see as much as possible. It didn't bother him that there were dogs in the waiting room at the vet. He was fine with being handed off to the vet techs who gave him his shots, and seemed to be more or less unruffled when they were finished. He did not enjoy his fecal exam, and was sure to let everyone know, but not for a minute did he cower or hide. While we were waiting for the test results, he happily explored the waiting room, charming everyone who came near him. The techs all commented on his feisty personality. When it was time to leave, he cheerfully went back in the carrier, and fell asleep purring on the way home.

Today, I took George, our nine-year-old cat, to get his shots updated. George is a lion of a cat. According to the vet, he weighs 18 pounds, but not because we overfeed him. He's just really, really big. My friend Betty's two-year-old daughter probably weighs about the same as this cat. Maybe less. So there is really nothing that George should be afraid of - he's bigger than any other cat he'll ever meet, barring a tiger or something, and most dogs we know are scared to come near him. Unfortunately, no one has told George this.

To get George into the cat carrier at all, we have to roll him up in a towel like a burrito. This is usually a two-person job - Cary rolls, and I hold the carrier vertically so he can drop George in. Today, I had to do this myself, because Cary was at work. It actually went pretty well - I propped the carrier up against the bedframe, and George was so caught off-guard that he went right in. Then I had to lug him to the car, which was kind of difficult considering the fact that he weighs 18 pounds and was huddled in the back of the carrier, which threw off the balance of the whole thing. When I got him to the vet, it took me and a vet tech to get him out - I pulled his front legs, and she tipped the carrier upside down. Once we got him on the examining table, I had to lean on him and wrap both of my arms around him to keep him from running away. We had to get extra help for the fecal exam. While we were waiting for the doctor, he went back in the carrier, so the doctor had to literally turn the carrier at a 90-degree angle to the floor to get him back out. I leaned on him again while she examined him again, which earned me a waist-to-neck coating of white cat hair on my black shirt. When I brought him home, he deigned to let me pet him for a minute, and then retreated to our bedroom, where he hid under the bed.

Before I introduced these two cats, I was worried that George would be hostile to Atticus - he is, after all, an intruder in George's house. It concerned me that George is so much bigger than Atticus; he could really hurt him if he wanted to. These fears have proven unfounded, as George is more or less indifferent to Atticus, and Atticus spends most of his time trying to show George what a tough guy he is. George will just sit around, looking apathetic, watching Atticus make a fool of himself chasing his tail or something, and will lay perfectly still when Atticus approaches him - doesn't hiss or swat at him, the hair on his back doesn't even stand up. Atticus, on the other hand, approaches George with the look of a guerrilla fighter - slow and stealthy, bristling all over. Then when he gets close enough for George to sniff him - as he inevitably will sniff anything that gets within three inches of his face - Atticus attacks, swatting and spitting for approximately .46 seconds, and then runs off as though none of this was his fault. I saw him actually chase George down the hall yesterday, which was pretty funny, since George probably weighs 10 times as much as Atticus and could easily sit on him and crush him. Poor George doesn't really seem to know what has happened to his life - one minute, he was the king of our new house, and the next, he was being chased by a hissing dust bunny. Right now, Atticus is next to me on the couch, sleeping off the exhaustion of a creature who spends 90% of his waking hours running in circles and attacking feet, and George is in the bedroom, probably reassessing his life. Poor thing. When Cary comes home, he's going to spend some time with him, to reassure him that he hasn't been replaced. All the while, Atticus will be biting his ankles.

Atticus

Two weeks ago, Cary called me from work to say that he had found a kitten wandering the PK Yonge campus alone. The kitten was obviously way too young to be away from his mama, and there was a freeze warning that night. I could tell that Cary was already pretty set on bringing him home, and we'd been talking about getting another cat to keep George company now that we have a house, so I said to bring him on home. I met them at the vet after work that day, and fell instantly in love. He was so tiny and helpless. I called him Atticus, after my favorite character in one of my favorite books, To Kill a Mockingbird. He was shy and precious. I fed him out of a syringe and off of my finger until he was comfortable enough with canned food to eat by himself.

Two weeks later, the tiny precious kitten has been replaced by a tiny tiger. I am in the unfortunate position of unconditionally loving a little bitty baby who wants to constantly stalk my feet, gnaw on my hands, and claw my face. Atticus is 100% comfortable with Cary and me now, and shows how much he loves us by playing with us the way he would play with other kittens: by biting and scratching us. I'm trying to teach him that this is not appropriate behavior - I put him on the floor and ignore him whenever he bites or scratches - but he is not easily deterred.

I went online to get some advice on how to teach him not to bite and scratch. I got advice like, "Just tap your kitten on the nose when he bites or scratches. This will get his attention and then you can redirect him to something else to play with." I tried that with Atticus, and all it gets him to do is sink his claws into my finger and pull it towards his mouth so he can bite it. I also read, "Gently blow in your kitten's face. This will get his attention and make him stop." So I tried that, and what it does is make Atticus blink a few times, look windblown, and claw at the air. He is a teeny predator who will not be distracted. If he were George's size, he's be absolutely ferocious.

Speaking of George, he is highly offended at the turn of events that has brought him a little brother. Because Atticus was only five weeks old when we found him, he was too little to get vaccinated. Until he's big enough (this Tuesday), we have to keep them separated all the time, which means that when George is in the living room, Atticus is in my bathroom (where he lives most of the time) and when Atticus is in the living room, George is in our bedroom (where he lives most of the time). George is not used to not being out in the house when we're home, and can obviously smell Atticus, even if they haven't interacted yet. Atticus knows George is there, and hangs out around our bedroom door when George is in there, waiting to sprint towards him when one of us opens the door. After Atticus's vaccines on Tuesday, they can officially meet each other, which Atticus seems to be excited about, and George could probably take or leave. I have no idea how this is going to go - I'm kind of hoping that George puts Atticus in his place as far as the scratching and biting goes, but I also want them to get along.

Even with all the hassles (kind of like a small taste of having a baby, I think), I'm glad we have Atticus. He is adorable and he loves us, which I think are the two most important qualities in a pet - an animal that is easy to love and happy to see you. Cats like that are hard to come by. George has been an exception, and so far, it looks like Atticus is too.

The day we brought him home - teeny-tiny!

Hugging his daddy's hand - end of the first week.

Attacking Mama's ear.

Snuggling with Daddy after getting in trouble for biting his face.

End of the semester checklist

Teaching-related things I did this week:

1. Gave two final exams at the community college.
2. Graded 40+ final exam essays from the community college students.
3. Averaged 40+ community college final grades and posted them online.
4. Gave a two-day final exam in reading/writing class at the ELI.
5. Graded said exam and dealt with an uncomfortable identical-answer situation.
6. Averaged grades for reading/writing class and posted them online.
7. Filled out student evaluations for reading/writing class.
8. Gave a final exam for grammar class at the ELI.
9. Graded said exam.
10. Averaged grades for grammar class and posted them online.
11. Filled out student evaluations for grammar class.
12. Filled out textbook evaluations for reading/writing and grammar classes.
13. Evaluated listening/speaking exit presentations as impartial judge.
14. Proctored exit exam for 92 ELI students. Dealt with mass exodus to bathroom halfway through.
15. Attended ELI commencement. Happiness at students accomplishing something great, frustration at students talking through the whole ceremony and never listening to their classmates making speeches. Irritation that they do this every semester.
16. Attended ELI faculty holiday luncheon at Hillel Center cafe. Ate kosher turkey sub, got Secret Santa gift card to Barnes and Noble.

Non-teaching-related things I did this week:

1. Took Secret Santa gift card to Barnes and Noble, bought sequel to Twilight, and read it in one day. Annoyed by Bella's overall angst and Edward's broodingness, and can't understand why every mythical creature from here to Greece is in love with such an angsty girl, but still totally sucked in.
2. Celebrated Suzanne and Mike's engagement with champagne, and later with bridal magazines.
3. Tried to train Atticus not to scratch and bite while playing. Not successful. Atticus grounded in bathroom.
4. Went to church ladies' tea party/white elephant gift swap. Squealed along with everyone admiring Suzanne's engagement ring. Got rid of ugly windchime, ended up with grill master's tool belt, complete with holder for beer. Do not own grill.
5. Started blog in attempt to not grade papers.

Matron of Honor

So to end my week of teaching successes and busyness, my sister Suzanne and her boyfriend Mike got engaged yesterday! Yay! So I will be the matron of honor, which I'm really excited about, except for the fact that since I'm married, I have to be the matron of honor, which sounds super-old and not sexy. I feel like I should gain 50 pounds and have some gray hair. But all of that is not that important, because my sister is getting married! She is at my house right now and we're looking at wedding magazines together. Mostly we're just deciding which haute couture dresses are ugly. I'm really excited to help with the wedding planning because I get the fun of planning without the stress of being the bride. Cary wants to help taste-test cake, a job which he says is important for the brother-in-law of the bride. MmmmmMMMM!

Successes in teaching this week

This is the last week of the semester at the community college and the ELI, and while it's definitely the most stressful time of the semester for me, it definitely has its rewards:

1. One of my community college students (a middle-aged guy returning to college) who was writing F papers at the beginning of the semester got an A on his last essay. He told me that all his grades in all his classes have improved as a result of being in my writing class.

2. Another community college student won a scholarship that I recommended her for. She wrote to say thank you.

3. I was asked to interview for a full-time lecturer position at the ELI. I applied a few weeks ago and thought it was kind of a long shot, since I'm a young teacher, but now I have an interview on January 17.

4. For the final exam at the community college, I asked them to write an essay explaining what grade they think they deserve. A lot of them said in their essays that my class was their favorite. I'm not sure if they were sucking up or not, but it made me feel good :)

5. One of my ELI students baked me cookies for the last day of class. We all watched "The Princess Bride" together and they laughed at the right parts.

These are the reasons I love teaching. It is really hard work, but the rewards are awesome.

Also, I'm in it for the free samples of international food. In the last two years, I've gotten to try all sorts of things I would never have even seen before. Best: Colombian arepas. Worst: actually nothing; most of it's good. Weirdest: Arabian coffee - strange herbal aftertaste. It's not a great reason to get into teaching, but hey, it's an awesome perk.

Why I'm here

I decided to start a blog because I think it will be fun. The English major in me loves to write, and blogging gives me an easy outlet for that, which I could potentially one day condense, publish, and live happily ever after. I just read "Twilight," and while I thoroughly enjoyed it, one of my parting thoughts was, "Hey, I could do that." I know it's harder than it looks, but I'm pretty sure the hero of my story would do more than look brooding and rescue the same accident-prone girl 15 times in a row.

So here I am, mainly to write for fun. I called the blog "Excuse Me, Teacher" because that's what I hear pretty much all day from the international students I teach. Their languages all have a respectful term for "teacher" that is less high-ranking than "professor," and I can't convince many of them to just call me Emily, so I get called "teacher" a lot. I think it's cute - not really accurate in terms of English usage, but very endearing. My officemate Melina always responds to "Excuse me, teacher" with "Yes, student?" but I just let them go along calling me teacher and counting on some future teacher to tell them not to. It's just too sweet.

So in this blog, I plan to share some of the adventures I have in teaching and also in the rest of my life. Anybody who's reading this pretty much knows me, so I don't have to introduce myself and say where I live, how old I am, etc. - actually, it's probably not a good idea to put that stuff on the internet anyway. As far as teaching goes, I teach English composition to college freshmen at the local community college, and English language skills to international students at our university's English Language Institute. I really enjoy both of my jobs, but teaching international students is really where my heart is - I love to make them feel welcome and comfortable in the US, and I love learning about their cultures. I love sharing the joys and wonders of the English language, which, as a native speaker, I think are plentiful. For example, I think it is absolutely brilliant of Southerners to invent "y'all." English is lacking a second person plural (i.e. the plural of "you," which plenty of other languages have), so Southerners, in our great wisdom, came up with one: "y'all." I think this completely disproves the "Southerners are slow" theory that so many people from up North seem to cling to, and makes our language more interesting. So as a proud Southerner, I teach it to my international students on the first day of class. Joy #1 of English.