Master Pencil Sharpener

First graders break their pencil points a lot. First graders take forever at the pencil sharpener so that they can waste time. First graders aren't strong enough to use the pencil sharpener on the wall. My first graders broke the electric pencil sharpener that I bought. Therefore, whenever they "break" their pencil, I make them give me the pencil so I can sharpen it. I am not lying to you when I say I probably sharpen 20-30 pencils each day. Each student magically loses their pencil overnight. Each morning, the pencils somehow don't have a point anymore. This year, I have definitely spent more time sharpening pencils and attempting to get my class to behave than I have taught. Oh well. I can't wait for next year!

Snapchat

I'm not sure why, but I joined the Snapchat band wagon this past weekend. Snapchat is a pretty ridiculous app where you take a picture or video, add a caption, send it to friends, and it disappears in 10 seconds or so. What's the point of it? I have no idea. The creators thought it would be good because if you take bad pictures, there is no trace of them. However, friends can save that picture if they take a screen shot of it. Naturally, I would assume Snapchat has a server where all pictures are saved somewhere. It's just another lame app for people to take selfies and make fools of themselves. Unfortunately,  I'm now one of those people who have this app.

Slow Cooker Fail

You can't burn anything in a slow cooker, right? Wrong! Whenever I cook pulled pork in the slow cooker, I typically put it in around 10-11PM before I go to bed. I put it in with soda and some spices so it can break down. Then around 12 the next day, I drain it, shred the meat, then put BBQ sauce in it and stir often until dinner. Yesterday, I put my pork in with soda and spices at 2:30. Before I went to bed, I shred it and put in BBQ sauce and didn't touch it until this morning. I walk over to the slow cooker this morning and see the meat was pitch black and crusted to the pot. I was not happy! I have been soaking the pot for over an hour. I'm not looking forward to trying to get the burned meat off. Oh well, you live and you learn.

5AM

I cannot tell you the last time I went to bed at 5AM. I've seen that time when getting up, but rarely do I see it before I go to bed. I've also seen that time when I've done overnight shifts at the grocery store. Other than that, I'm guessing the last time I went to bed at or after 5AM was prom night 10 years ago or so. It's unheard of for me. My body physically can't stay up that late. However, last night it somehow did. My friends and I normally hang out until late. Last night was even later than usual for some reason. As always, I had a ton of fun. However, I'm paying the price right now because it's only 6:42 and I can hardly function. I plan on going to bed early tonight, but whenever I plan to go to bed early, it never happens.

Grits

Everyone down south has told me that I have to try grits. If you don't know what grits is, it's basically a white oatmeal. I finally tried it yesterday. I was told I had to put butter and shredded cheese in it. I had no problem adding either since I love cheese. It tasted bland. The texture was weird. It was only okay. I had it at the school and as we all know, school food isn't the best. I still have to try grits somewhere else to get a better opinion of it. There is still a whole lot more southern cooking I have to try while living down here.

Another Book

I need to get motivated to write another book. I'd have to be extremely careful if I were to write this non-fiction book. The stuff that happens in the "school" I work at is unreal. When I tell people some of the things that happen I get two reactions. One is the jaw drop and the other is that I have to be lying. I'm a fiction writer and I can't make up the stuff that's taking place. If they had cameras in the school, it would make for an outstanding reality TV show. I should start keeping a log of the crazy things that happen so that I can eventually write a book. I'm just too darn lazy to do that though. We will see what happens.

Glasses vs. Contacts

I'm not a fan of wearing glasses. However, I would never want to wear contacts. I couldn't stand putting something into my eyes. Everyone who owns contacts says that they don't feel it. No thank you. I'd rather not try that. I'll stick with glasses. I really need new frames since I've had these since sophomore year of high school. They are in awful shape but they do the job so I'll keep them instead of spending $500 on new ones.