#WINNING

I'm not going crazy!  I'm winning!  I promise!

Although, I'm making a promise to myself right here and now.  NEXT YEAR I WILL FIND A FUN WAY TO TEACH SHAKESPEARE.  I've never been shy about my distaste for the old, crusty, white Elizabethan one.  I get that he's a legend, and I get that he has had a huge influence on our modern English language.  It doesn't change the fact that I still dislike studying him in depth.  I didn't like him in high school.  I didn't like him for four years as an English major in college.  And I still don't like him as an English teacher.  And if I have to teach him, I much prefer to teach his poetry.  After all, he did consider himself a poet-- and only a poet.  Yet we're so consistently mired in his plays.  Anywho, enough about Bill.

The stress has eased just a tiny bit on the job front.  Apparently a ton of teachers in the district, and specifically in our department, have taken the rather hefty resignation incentive offered by the district.  And that leaves more room for those of us who actually want to stay and teach next year.  So that helps a tiny bit.

But then there's gas.  Gas prices seem to go up ten cents every two days with no end in sight.  The cost of food and clothes is also going up.  Does anyone else feel like we're living in Stalinist Russia?  Luckily, my sister who has an incredible apartment in downtown Houston said we can come see her for a mini vacay.  So we can have a little get away without feeling like we're breaking the bank.  And my handy dandy new membership card to the Dallas Museum of Art finally came in.  Free admission to all Late Night events!  Woo HOO!  And let me tell you, the weather is ripe for perfect happy hours on the patio.  So we're making the best of this economy that is decidedly #NOTWINNING.

So in closing, Shakespeare and the price of oil are driving me to drink.  And that is all.  :)