I had a fantastic weekend. Let me tell you about it.

Friday! Immediately after school, we met with a parent to talk about their student. Insights were shared; perhaps minor epiphanies were had. I think that so much of the point of discussing each kid's needs is to help us teachers to hold on to compassion-- they're not acting this way to drive us crazy, it's just where they are right now. After the meeting, I went home and got all dolled up (not really) to go see A Midsummer Night's Dream again. This time, it was young professional's night, and I had high hopes of meeting fellow young people who like theatre. Alas, it turned out to be a much less mingly, sociable event than I had expected. But hey, the show was still excellent. Well worth the $20, I say. I love getting discounts for being young.

Still Friday! I headed just around the corner from the theatre to Hill Country Barbecue, where the band that a couple of my co-workers/budding friends are in was playing. They'd already been rocking out for an hour or so, so everyone was warmed up and into it. The folks dancing had already had a drink or two. It was a lovely time to join in. I danced intensely, as always. At one point, the lead singer/guitarist stepped off the stage to dance with me while still playing guitar. Swoonable, ladies and gents. Totally swoonable. For the last song of the show, he invited me to dance on the stage. Someone asked me afterwards if I'm a dancer. I felt like the coolest person.

STILL Friday! I hung out with the band after the show, seeing as I'm friends with half of them already. Hill Country was closing up for the night, so we headed across the street to a bar with a couple skee ball machines. Yes, skee ball. I don't think I'd played since the last time I was in a Chuckie Cheese, which was probably when I was under 10. The guitarist bought me a cranberry club soda, because drinking is still weird and I definitely don't want to do it anytime near when I'll be driving a car. Lots of bad jokes were made. I gave piggy-backs to a couple big guys who didn't think I'd be able to do it. I went to bed around 4:30.

Saturday! I went to see a room in a house in Old Town Alexandria, where I'm thinking about moving. My current house is dark and un-homey, and Annandale is not close to much of anything except for Korean restaurants. I decided I didn't want to move into this house, but I had a lovely walk around Old Town all the same.

THEN on Saturday, I went to a lecture by Alfie Kohn, who is pretty cool. He gave me some food for thought. He is against a great many things that are pillars of American education, like homework, grades, praise/punishment, etc. It was sometimes unclear how much his criticisms applied to me as a Montessori teacher, but he had some interesting things to say anyway. One of the parents in attendance spontaneously thanked me afterwards for putting together the Pride and Prejudice book club because her daughter loves it.

Sunday! I had a date! How novel. Guy from OkCupid. I think it was the best OKC date I've had yet. I don't want to jinx anything, though, so I think I'll leave it there. (Ok, ok, I'll share one more thing. I noticed that he had long nails, and he said that the nails on his right hand were long for guitar. I slapped my hands down on the table, he noticed my nails, and we excitedly talked about music and guitar for a few minutes. He revealed that he had a guitar in the trunk of his car. We sat on his trunk in the parking lot and played for each other. It was like a romantic indie flick.)

Right-o. So that was the weekend. Moving on to today.

The Pride and Prejudice book club met. It's going swimmingly. Elizabeth is at Rosings and the plot is about to thicken-- I can't wait to hear what the kids have to say about it next week. One of my other students asked me when book clubs are going to start for everyone else. (I had told them that the P&P book club was like a pilot program.) I got the go-ahead from Ms. Lead Teacher to start up more of them. SO PUMPED. Reading high-quality literature with elementary students and discussing it with them! Having them choose and discuss favorite passages! Overhearing conversations around the classroom about what they think will happen next! Yes! This is why I'm a teacher.

After school, I headed to my local rec center for the start of my spring classes: beginning Vinyasa yoga and intermediate/advanced belly dance. The yoga was fantastic. I'm already head over heels for this instructor. I like her voice, I like the amount of talking that she's doing, I liked the pacing, etc. Good stuff. As for the belly dance, it was better than I had expected. If you recall from the fall/winter session of belly dance, I am not wild about the instructor. She's overly chatty and she doesn't explain things well. She goes off on weird tangents. Well. The other students in this class have been taking it over and over, some of them for years. They are quite a cast of characters. They're a RIOT. They roll over her a bit when she starts rambling, so it keeps her in line. I like this.

That brings us to this moment. I am sitting in my hand-crafted chair in my beautifully painted room, looking forward to a night of sleeping soundly in my comfy bed. Life is great.