Please Step Away From The Candy!

This photo (featuring my friend, Tracy) is a prime example of why you should keep children out of food stores with displays such as this one. It's hard enough on us grown-ups!

Tidbits. So the weekend was certainly blah but not without a couple of outings. I waded through a typical cold over the holidays and now am left with that hacking cough that my lungs and bronchial tubes are so famous for. The cough is finally getting better but it has zapped every bit of strength out of me (evidenced by the fact that I actually drove 2.5 blocks to see some friends so I wouldn't arrive wheezing and coughing). I dragged my butt out of bed Saturday in time to treat my friend, Tracy, and her husband, Hua, to a celebratory lunch at the Green Hills Grille. My boss gave me a nice-sized gift certificate for Christmas so we enjoyed good food and good conversation. Tracy recently completed her master's degree, she and Hua recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary, and Tracy's birthday is coming up later this month. A good reason for a nice lunch outing. After lunch, some outdoor window shopping and a nice drive along Ft. Loudon lake admiring the day, I returned to my cocoon on the couch, where I wiled away the rest of the day. Sunday was much the same, venturing out only to see the movie, "The Freedom Writers." Go see this "true story turned movie". Very inspiring, especially for teacher-wanna-bees like me. I can only imagine, however, the daily fear that comes with teaching at schools known for gang violence and racial divides. The comic relief in this movie was the one white kid in Ms. Gruwell's classroom, who looked like he was completely terrified every second of the day.
I am nearly finished with The Good Life by Jay McInerney. The book is interesting in that it sort of plops you down in NYC in the days following 9/11, revealing what it was like for New Yorkers, their continuing fears, and their ability to exhibit resilence and fortitude in the face of such uncertainty. I would hesitate to call it "essential" reading, but it is an engaging novel. The author does reside in New York City and I imagine his "fictional" accounts are more truth than not.
Spring semester classes begin this Wednesday. Isn't it odd that "spring" classes begin in the middle of winter. Back in the "olden" days, when I attended UT, we were on the quarter system and this would be called winter quarter. Now that we are on the semester system it was either "winter" or "spring." In any case, my Elementary Chinese class begins again this week. Unfortunately, I've forgotten nearly all my vocabulary from last semester. My professor told me, in a phone call just before Christmas, that my pronunciation was very good. Oh, the pressure!