I love English, but I love this more...

Today is Friday, and only one thing is more awesome than Friday at my job. The only thing more awesome than Friday is seeing a former student being successful at something new, especially a student you knew pretty well.

In the spring, I taught a class that was full of bright students. One of the brightest and hardest-working was a young woman from a Middle Eastern country. She was about my age, had moved to the US with her husband to study, and was a bottomless pit of questions about English. She was taking some continuing education classes at the university in addition to her English classes, and I helped her with her essays. At the end of the semester, she threw a party for her female teachers and classmates (at which I felt horribly under-dressed when I discovered that women who wear scarves and veils in public look like supermodels at home). She cooked for a solid day ahead of time and made everyone feel welcome and at home in her apartment. In short, she was an amazing student.

And then her father got sick at home. She had to leave in a hurry, just a few weeks before the end of the semester. And that was the last I heard from her.

Until today! I came back from lunch and she was standing in the hallway, apparently waiting around to see me. She had had a difficult summer at home, as her father had passed away. But she was back and studying full-time at the community college, in classes every day with native English speakers. She brought me a teeny bottle of perfume from her country and invited me to another end-of-semester party in December sometime. We hugged and she promised to come back and visit again.

And that is why I have this job. I love the English language, but more than that, I love my students. And I love reconnecting with the best ones most of all.

Category 3, Round 2

Yeah, one of my category 3 students came back for round two of why he should be moved up. Because apparently talking to my boss didn't convince him that moving was out of the question. Now he hates me and thinks he's not moving because I want to make him miserable, not because my professional judgment and the fact that the TWO classes above him are full make moving impossible. Awesome.

So I had the conversation with the category 3 students...

... and it went exactly the way I expected. I even added that there is absolutely no room for more students in the level above mine, so even if I wanted to move them, I couldn't. I still got the stink-eye. I referred them to my boss, who is going to tell them exactly the same thing. No means no, people! 

Students on the move

Okay, so it's obviously been a million years since the last time I posted. But I figured it would be good to start this back up, since the fall semester has begun at my language school. Today is the end of the first full week of class, and I can say with some certainty that I have had more students moving in and out of my classes this week than any semester ever. In my experience, students who move from class to class generally fall into the following categories:

1. Registered late. This is the easiest group to deal with. They just got here late, so they show up to class halfway through the week. They don't want anything in particular; they're just late.

2. Wants to move up and should. This group was having a bad day when they took the placement test last week. They were tired, culture shocked, hungry, hung over, whatever. They would do much better in a higher class, so they need to be moved.

3. Wants to move up and shouldn't. This group has a pretty high estimation of their language abilities. They know they know more than they appear to. They're smarter than their friend who is in a higher class. They can't understand why you doesn't agree, and will let you know how wrong you are until you either give in or show them their diagnostic test score of 17%.

4. Needs to move down. This student is a fantastic guesser and somehow placed into an advanced class when they're still struggling to master the present tense. You can tell who they are by the deer-in-headlights look they give you when you ask them a question. So you have to have the awkward moving-down conversation with them, using mostly hand gestures: "Here's your test. You don't know present tense (pointing at wrong answers, shaking head). You should move down (pointing down)." And then you wait for them to say, "No, teacher! I understand! I don't move down!"

5. Can't make up their mind. They want more writing practice. Or do they? They're in your class the first day, but then they decide another class at the same time would be better. So then they're gone, until they realize how much homework the other teacher gives. Then they're back, looking sheepish.

Of course, not all moving students fit these stereotypes, and I exaggerate a little bit. But not much. I've quit reprinting my attendance sheet every time a student adds or drops my class until next week when everything is settled, because I've had to recycle at least two trees' worth of outdated attendance sheets in the last four days. We have a meeting this afternoon to discuss all the moving students, so everyone should be in a permanent spot by Monday. At which point I have to have the discussion with the category 3 students about how nobody except them wants them to move up. And then deal with the stink-eye from them for the rest of the semester. Awesome.

Language lessons

I decided last week that it would be fun to learn some basic phrases in all of my students' languages. My students get a giant kick out of listening to me butcher their mother tongues, which for me is the whole point of doing it - they enjoy being the teacher for a few minutes everyday. The hard part is that among my 30ish students, there are eight languages to account for. I do pretty well with Spanish, French, and Portuguese, and am not half bad at Japanese, but Arabic, Chinese, Korean, and Sinhalese are hard. The Arabic-speaking men in my classes are the best cheerleaders; they try to think of mnemonic devices to help me and nod encouragingly as I try to cough and wheeze my way through some of the more difficult sounds. So far, this is what I have learned to say - good morning, goodbye, and thank you in eight languages:

Spanish: buenos dias, adios, gracias (I minored in Spanish, so this was a freebie.)

French: bonjour, au revoir, merci

Portuguese: bon dia, chau, obrigado

Japanese: ohayou, sayonara, arigato

Arabic: sabah al kheer, ma'a salama, shokran (one of my students said to think of "sugar" + "ran")

Chinese: zao shang, zai jian, xie xie (the intonation is the hardest part)

Korean: an-yong, an-yong (with different intonation), kam-sa-ham-ni-da

Sinhalese: suba udesanak, tata, stuti

Aren't I accomplished? Eight languages! Now if only I could remember all of them all the time...

Midterm

So we have officially reached the midpoint of the semester, and everything is chugging along. I gave out midterm grade reports at the end of last week, and was pretty surprised when all the failing students accepted their grades gracefully. I usually have at least one freak-out, so it was nice to not have to deal with that. The freaking out actually came from the A students, many of whom wanted to know why they had a 96 instead of 100. "Teacher, WHY?" Perfectionists.

So after that, I needed a vacation. Enter spring break! Perfectly timed to come after midterms. Cary and I had a house blessing and housewarming party the first Saturday of the break, which went really well, but had me cleaning like I have never cleaned before all week. I dusted furniture crevices that will never be seen by anyone. My mom was really proud when she got here the day of the party to help set up. The clean gene is totally dominant in her, but not in me at all. I am just like my dad - where I drop something when I come in the door is generally where it belongs. I've gotten tidier since I got married, because Cary is very organized and clutter stresses him out, but this degree of cleaning was a real stretch for me. And in the end, the house looked beautiful and the party was a success. Who knows? It's taken me almost 25 years to get this organized, so maybe by the time I'm 50, I'll have some semblance of organization on a day-to-day basis.

After the party, I headed down to my hometown to help Suzanne do wedding stuff for the first half of the week. Really, she didn't need much help, as she is totally full-steam-ahead with the wedding planning, but I enjoyed giving it anyway. I went dress-shopping with her and Mama, and she found a really beautiful dress. She looked great in everything, but the dress she found was truly stunning on her. I wish I could post a picture, but sadly, I can't. I can post a picture of my bridesmaid's dress, though. I am thrilled that it's not super bridesmaid-y.

See? Very glamorous, and not something that I will cringe at when I look at pictures 10 years from now. I also got to help taste-test wedding cake - obviously a crucial job for the matron of honor. Other than that, I had a restful half-week at my parents' house, while Suzanne and Mike and my mom ran around meeting photographers, videographers, etc. How nice it is now to help with wedding stuff and not be the bride!

I came back home on Wednesday and have been relaxing ever since. I had lunch with Cary at work yesterday, and checked out five books from the library, which I've read two of already. Tomorrow Cary and I are having a date day, which I'm really looking forward to. So overall, a lovely spring break! I love my job, but sometimes I wish I were independently wealthy so I could just do fun stuff all the time. But I imagine it would get old.

What Emily Needs

I saw this on Facebook. I typed in "emily needs" on google and I'm writing down the top 10 things it came up with. I'm posting it here instead of Facebook so I don't annoy people with the tagging.

1. Emily needs to give Tim food in Social Studies today.      Ummm... right.

2. Emily needs new painting skills.    Or any painting skills.

3. Emily needs your phone numbers.    This is not working out too well so far.

4. Emily needs to get her Tortillas on Vimeo.    I'm about to give up on this list.

5. Emily needs advice.    Okay, that's more like it. I generally could use some advice.

6. Emily needs help deciding how to cut her hair.    No, I like my hair the way it is!

7. Emily needs more light on her face.   An ad for Flickr, but a little more light couldn't hurt.

8. Emily needs a job.   I have a job. I just need benefits.

9. Emily needs an iTunes gift card.   Ain't that the truth.

10. Emily needs lifelong support.    Yes! This is one that google finally got right! I do need and want lifelong support... although not in the sense google was talking about, like being on a ventilator.

How right was I...

... about Ajira Airways yesterday! I freaking love Lost.

Update on Non-Teaching Activities

Mostly what I write about on here is teaching and what that's like, but I thought it might be nice to do a quick update on the rest of my life. So here it is, in list form (because apparently lists are how I process information... who would have thunk it from a such a normally disorganized person?):

1. Cary and I are pretty well settled into our new house, which we bought in November. Most of our pictures are hung, and my mom sent us her piano (so she can turn her formal living room into a library... I want a library). We are trying to phase out our TJ Maxx art and buy real art from our friends or from the art festivals here in town. We're also gearing up for our house blessing/warming next month.

2. Atticus is growing by leaps and bounds. He is almost four months old now, and weighs five pounds. The vet says he was not properly socialized, since he was separated from his brothers and sisters so young. So basically, we have a socially awkward cat who bonds with us by mauling us. We are working hard on fixing this... and by "we," I mean Cary and me, not Atticus.

We are also getting neutered in a few weeks... and this time by "we," I mean Atticus, not Cary and me.

3. George is keeping up the hardcore hatred of Atticus. Poor guy. All he wants is some peace and quiet with Cary and me, and what he gets instead is a kitten half his size pouncing on his head. He has gone from a genial, good-natured fella to a perpetual sourpuss. He's happiest at night, when Atticus is sleeping in the laundry room.

4. I haven't had any real matron of honor duties yet for Suzanne's wedding, but she is going full steam ahead with the planning. The wedding is December 19, and she already has the church, the bishop who is going to marry them (a friend of the family), a reception hall, and a caterer. They started registering last weekend. I'm going down to Palm Bay for a few days over spring break to help shop for a dress - yay!

5. I'm in a really great Bible study at church. It's a study by Beth Moore, who is this dynamo Bible study writer out of Texas. There's a video component to the study, and I guessed that she was from Texas based solely on her hairdo in the video. Every week her hairdo gets bigger. But the study is really good, and I'm getting a lot out of it, despite the giant hair distraction.

6. My obsession with Lost gets bigger every week too. I'm really glad Cary's watching it, or I would explode with commentary at the end of every episode. My officemate Daryl watches it too, so we can discuss on Thursday mornings. Biggest questions right now: are the Oceanic Six coming back to the Island via Ajira Airways? Is Miles the Dharma video guy's baby? Is Locke really dead? Is Desmond coming back to the Island too (with Penny)? Is Sawyer going to be shirtless again? (Just kidding... but really, is he?)

So that's the rest of my life right now... nothing too exciting, but I'm enjoying it.

Happy Valentine

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so today I am celebrating with my students. I brought in those cheap Valentine cards and candy that elementary school kids give out. The ones I got are dog-themed and have pictures of dogs saying things like, "I'm yours fur-ever," and "You're the pick of the litter, Valentine!" I figured my students never got to have elementary school Valentine's Day, so I'm giving them all the cards and candy. 

One class down, two to go. In my first class, I was giving a quiz, so I gave them the candy first so they wouldn't hate me so much. And then one of them wrote the cutest thing ever at the bottom of her quiz:

Dear Emily (decorated with hearts and smiley faces)

HAPPY VALENTINE (more hearts)

Thank you always. (flower)

I love you and your class.

I heart you (flower, and she actually spelled out "heart")

I heart her too! See, this is why I teach. Because sometimes the students are mind-blowingly awesome.

I also got candy from another student, which was really sweet. I might get more before the end of the day, because international students, especially those from eastern Asia, are often big gift-givers. It's a nice perk of this job. But the "I heart you" totally made my day. 

I Have Found My People!

They are posting pictures at www.englishfailblog.com. This website documents real-world occurrences of grammatical horror. Like the sign that advertised for a "GROJ SALE." Sound it out... that's right, it's "garage sale." It bewilders and frightens me that there are people this dumb in the world.

Now, granted, a lot of the pictures are from Chinese restaurants and other places with non-English-speaking proprietors, or are poor translations from other languages on commercial products. I am not offended by them, because not speaking English well is a pretty decent excuse for not knowing how to spell and punctuate things. These are not the people I think are dumb. I work with these people every day, and they are smart, smart, smart. The dumb people I'm referring to are native English people who spell garage GROJ. WTF, English speakers? Let's step up our game a little and at least try to spell and punctuate words correctly.

So, my fellow photo submitters at the English Fail Blog are truly my people. Nothing feeds my inner snob more than working up a righteous outrage at bad spelling and punctuation, and apparently there are others who feel the same way. My people.

Told You So

I did a peer review activity with my beginning reading/writing class today, wherein they were supposed to read each other's paragraphs about a famous landmark in their country and offer advice on how to improve. I gave them very specific questions to ask about the paragraphs, so they wouldn't get confused. Most of them finished earlier than I expected and then just sat around looking sleepy, but two of them, a Asian woman and a Middle-Eastern man, got into a hardcore grammar/spelling debate. It was awesome. It went kind of like this:

Asian woman: No, you can say, "There are a lot of buildings in there." You remember "there? Say "in there."

Middle-Eastern man: No, I think just "there."

Asian woman: No, is "in there." I know.

Middle-Eastern man (conceding to the better student): Okay.

Me: Actually, he's right. It's just "there."

Asian woman: Ohhhh...

Middle-Eastern man: What I say?!? Ha!

And later...

Middle-Eastern man: Teacher! Look. I write new sentence on new line (points) or same line?

Asian woman: Same line!

Me: She's right. Same line.

Asian woman: I win!

Middle-Eastern man: Curses! Foiled again! (Not really - he said something like "Aargh!")

It cracked me up that they were so into the activity, and obviously having a good time being competitive about it. That's one of my favorite things about my job: getting to see students from totally different backgrounds helping each other learn. I love being a teacher!

List-O-Rama

Wow, I either need to start updating more frequently or cancel the blog altogether. It's seriously been two weeks since I updated? Wow. I find I process my teaching experience best in lists, like "10 Awesome Things about My Students," "Five Things I Wish My Students Would Stop Doing," etc. So maybe I'll update in that format from now on, and it will make updating more frequently easier. It's weird that lists work for me so well - I'm really not an innately organized person at all. Maybe that's why I like lists - they make me be organized, which is something I need to be if I'm going to be a good teacher. So, here are some lists:

Five Hard Things About Teaching Beginners

1. I. Have. To. Talk. Like. This. And some of them still don't understand.

2. When my elementary vocabulary is exhausted and I am totally out of words to explain what I mean, some of them are still confused.

3. I have to repeat myself at least twice for every activity.

4. They are addicted to their dictionaries and/or pocket electronic translators. I secretly fantasize about smashing electronic dictionaries with a giant sledgehammer.

5. It's really hard to explain grammar to someone who isn't really sure what a noun is.

Five Awesome Things About Teaching Beginners

1. When they finally get something, the rewarding feeling is HUGE.

2. It's amazing to see how much they can communicate with so few words.

3. They ask really good, basic questions that make me think about English. Like yesterday, we learned a new word and one of them said, "Teacher, is it noun or verb?" I said, "Both," and he said, "BOTH?!? How I know?!?" That's a really good question that's really hard to answer!

4. They generally work really hard because they want so much to get better.

5. On the whole, they're just adorable :)

Five Hard Things About Teaching Advanced Students

1. They ask really hard questions, and they know if my answer is BS.

2. Sometimes they know more English grammar rules than I do.

3. They can be perfectionists. Like, they speak great English, but because they don't sound like Kevin Costner, they think their English is bad.

4. Sometimes they're not interested in knowing something unless it's going to be on the TOEFL.

5. I have to plan more for them to do, because they finish everything faster.

Five Awesome Things About Teaching Advanced Students

1. They understand almost everything I say, so we can joke around a lot more and I don't have to talk so slowly.

2. They ask really hard questions, which sharpens my meta-linguistic awareness.

3. I get to geek out on them, because I'm teaching them aspects of English grammar and communication that my beginners aren't ready for. Like the passive causative construction, which is what we worked on in my advanced grammar class today.

4. We can do fun things like watch "The Office" for cultural awareness lessons because they can actually understand most of it.

5. I get to be a little more of a friend and a little less of a mom than I do with my beginners, because they don't need as much help.

This semester, I am teaching a beginning reading/writing, an advanced grammar, and an uber-advanced listening/speaking class. Before now, I've mostly worked with intermediate students, so this is a good stretch for my teaching abilities. I'm really enjoying myself, and am frankly a little impressed that I'm able to communicate reasonably well with both groups. Plus, I just love my students. I hardly ever have students I don't like, but I'm continually struck by how cool they all are. I'll leave you with a sample of their coolness.

In reading/writing this morning. Working on using prepositions.

Me: So, how do we fill in this blank? We want to say, "Walk ___ the church. Walk..."

Student 1: ON the church!

Me (smiling): No, walk ON the church would look like this. (Draws picture on board of stick figure on church roof.)

Class: (Cracks up)

Student 1 (laughing): Oops.

Student 2: Spider-Man!

Debriefing

So now I'm at the end of the first week of classes, and I have some time to catch my breath. The first week went pretty well. Points of interest:

1. My reading/writing class is really low. Like, I'm having to define words like "process" and "war" for them. Their listening and speaking abilities are really low too. I have to talk... like... this. After class today, I went back to my office and started explaining to my office mate about the space heater I brought in... and I talked... super... slow... until I realized he spoke English.

2. My reading/writing textbook is organized weirdly. Instead of focus on one reading strategy at a time, it focuses on like, six. I'm not sure I like this.

3. Holy level-changing students, Batman! We sometimes have to move students around after class starts, if it's apparent that they would be better suited to a higher or lower level class. I usually have one or two. But this semester, I had two move up out of my class, one move up into my class, and two move down into my class. Combine that with the fact that half the class can't seem to make it to school at 8:30, and I have a class I feel like I barely know.

4. My advanced academic spoken English class is all men. Six guys, four from the Middle East. I always wonder with Middle Eastern men think about being taught by a woman - I know in many countries, men and women go to separate schools. I was a little intimidated at first, but they all seem laid-back and ready to learn. It's a little strange being the only girl in the room though - even my language assistant is a guy. But on the other hand, I always have the women's room to myself.

5. We had a bunch of students register late, so I get to add another class starting next week, which brings me up to... full-time hours!

So all in all, things are pretty good. Tomorrow morning I'm interviewing for a full-time lecturer position at the ELI. I know whatever is supposed to work out will work out, but I'm still a little nervous - I didn't really have to have a formal interview for the job I have now - I got a teaching assistantship and then stayed on after graduation. So that said, I need to go practice my presentation. Good stuff.

Back-to-school

This week was the first week of classes for the spring, which is always interesting and challenging in an up-in-the-air kind of way. In the department in which I work, we teach only international students, and there is a lot of turnover from semester to semester. Every semester we have a lot of returning students, but also a lot of students who are brand new to the US. Because we can't be sure of whose visa will get approved, who will actually come up with the money to travel, etc., we can't be sure of who's going to be here until they're here the first week of class. That means that it's impossible to know how many classes are needed or who will teach what until all the students have been processed and placement-tested. We spend the first part of the first week of class doing that, and then we start classes a few days after the rest of the university. It's really the only way this can be done, but is a little stressful for me as a teacher because I don't find out what I'm teaching, or how much, until the day before.

This semester there was some added stress because I quit at the community college, for various reasons. Partly it's because I'm hoping to get a full-time position (with benefits) at the university starting in the second half of the semester, so I couldn't commit to a full term at the community college in case I had to leave in the middle. But even if I don't get the full-time position, I've been wanting to have full-time hours at the university - teaching international students is really my passion, and I can do that better at the university. Without the guarantee of half my income coming from the community college, however, things got a little stressful for me this week while I waited to see if I would have full-time work this semester or not. Yesterday I thought I was only going to have half-time work, which led to some fun panicky emails to check on potential tutoring jobs, but today everything worked out because I was asked to help develop and concurrently teach a spoken English class in a related department to my department. This adds a quarter time to my teaching appointment, and I will try to add another class in Spring B to bring me up to full-time again. I'm really excited about the course-development thing. It will definitely be a challenge, but I think it will be fun. The class will be small, and I know at least one of the students. I'll be in the department where I first fell in love with ESL instruction, and I think I might have an undergraduate assistant. All in all, it's going to be fantastic. I love the way God works things out.

Too cute

I don't always enjoy reading the news. There's so much doom and gloom. But today, the BBC made me rethink my anti-news-reading position, by publishing the cutest news story ever:

Child elopers' Africa plan foiled

Apparently two German kids, ages six and seven, decided they wanted to elope to Africa, and got as far as their local train station before anyone noticed. They even brought along their maid of honor, the bride's five-year-old sister. According to the article, the police managed to convince them that without passports or money, it would be hard to get to Africa, but gave them a tour of the police station to make up for it. The police spokesman was even nice enough to say that maybe when they're older, they can try again. If that's not cute, I don't know what is. Here's to the power of love.

Happy New Year

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?

Finished grad school, went to Scotland and Wales, bought a house.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don't think I had any resolutions this year. I probably should make some for the coming year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

A lot of people I know gave birth, and one of my close friends is scheduled for a c-section on January 5.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Thank God, no.

5. What countries did you visit?

The UK

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

A full-time position at UF.

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

November 17 we closed on our house. June 10-July 8 we were in Britain. July 1 was our 2nd anniversary.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Getting my master's.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Letting worrying about things take away some of the fun of life.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Not really. I had a stomach flu for a day over the summer, but I think that was it.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Our house!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

My husband is such a stand-up guy, and is always able to think of the right thing to do in sticky situations when I'm usually at a loss. On top of that, he's a really thoughtful person and always does things he knows I'll like. If that doesn't deserve celebration, I don't know what does.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

I thought the way some people acted about the election was appalling and depressing. I knew a lot of people who were able to discuss the issues in a mature and dignified manner, but there seemed to be so many people who couldn't talk without calling names and basically being jerks.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Down payment on the house.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Our trip to Britain, buying the house, finishing grad school, my sister getting engaged.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?

Probably Salsa Celtica's "El Agua de la Vida." I listened to it a billion times and tried to find the band when we were in Edinburgh.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Happier.
b) thinner or fatter? About the same.
c) richer or poorer? Probably about the same. We have less cash in the bank, but now I have a job, so it kind of balances out.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Just relaxed and quit worrying so much.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Spent too much time in the editorial office trying to get my thesis through. I wish those people had been remotely cooperative so I could have not devoted hours and hours of my life trying to fill out paperwork the right way.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

With my family.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?

Stayed in love.

22. What was your favorite TV program?

The Office.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

No. Actually, there are some people that I like better this year than last year.

24. What was the best book you read?

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Salsa Celtica.

26. What did you want and get?

I got to stay in Gainesville, and I got to be comfortable with that decision.

27. What did you want and not get?

Nothing I want to discuss on this blog.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

I didn't go to the movies much this year. Probably the most fun I had in the theater was when I saw Sex and the City.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I rode the train from Edinburgh to York to Stalybridge, took a hike in the Pennines, and ate dinner at a pub with friends. I was 24.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Less fretting, more doing.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

Whenever possible, be classy.

32. What kept you sane?

God, my husband.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

John Krasinski, Tim Tebow.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

No particular issue. Just wishing people would think for themselves.

35. Who did you miss?

I didn't get to see my traveling buddy much, so I missed her.

36. Who was the best new person you met?

Probably Gram and Hannah Alsobrook. They're way fun.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.

Cary says this all the time, from Fraggle Rock, of all places: "There are no rules. Those are the rules."

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

This is so corny, but I think about it a lot. From the soundtrack to "White Christmas:"

When I'm worried and I can't sleep

I count my blessings instead of sheep

And I fall asleep counting my blessings