My voicemail light was blinking yesterday afternoon, and come to find out it was the office manager at the lower school calling to tell me that my first born had injured himself at recess.  Something about falling from a height and hitting his head on a pole.

So, I called right back to see if he was concussed, and Carol explained that he actually just sort of ran into a metal pole on the playground. He actually hadn't fallen off of anything. He had a big goose egg, but was not seriously hurt. She seemed sheepish telling me this, but I recognized this sort of behavior immediately.

I actually chipped two teeth because I ran into a pole when I was in fourth grade.  Then later in college, I ran into a huge cement pole on a sidewalk that I really should have seen coming, except that I didn't.

Later, Shef and I had a good laugh about the pole incident.  That's really all you can do when you're the type of person who runs into stationary objects with any kind of frequency.

I'm watching a What Not to Wear that's really stressing me out.  The contributor doesn't want to listen to anything that Stacy and Clinton have to say.

Why won't she listen?  Why is she wearing short shorts and too-small tops?  Why is she saying mean stuff about Clinton's outfit? Why won't she spend the money and look awesome? 

Also, she won't cut her hair or stop wearing false eyelashes.  I saw a little teaser that makes it seem like Stace and Clinton are going to give her old stuff back and send her home.  That's never happened before!

It's crazy!  She's driving me insane!  But I can't stop watching the show.  I can barely type because I'm so mesmerized.

Ever since last winter, I've been paying more attention to what I wear.  Basically, I just try every day to dress interestingly and look nice.  It's kind of a hobby or whatever, and I got into it because while "disheveled" really fit my style profile from the ages of 17-25; I found that as I got older, I'd occasionally like to be dressed appropriately.  At 32, I finally realized that dressing appropriately actually takes effort.  And planning.

As part of my new initiative, I started reading some style blogs and subscribed to a couple of style magazines.  One of the magazines had a how-to on fall and winter layering that featured a red sweatshirt.  A red sweatshirt!  How inventive and inexpensive!  The magazine said a red sweatshirt could be "as versatile as an oxford"!

So, I went to Target and found a red sweatshirt in the men's department for six dollars.  I took it home and tried it on with a few things, and realized that: a) red doesn't look all that good on me; and b) an ill-fitting men's sweatshirt just really isn't going to work as a piece in my regular work wardrobe.  In short, it's not "as versatile as an oxford."

Duh.

Because Dan is Dan, he can't just let this fashion mistake fade into history.  Instead, he's been making fun of my red sweatshirt pretty much constantly.  When I wear the sweatshirt (to bed or to lounge around the house), he says stuff like, "Wow, it must be fashion week!" or, "Does this red sweatshirt have any special washing instructions?" 

It's a laugh a minute here in the house with Pronto.  He never makes a fashion misstep, btw.  Never ever.

My friend Erin left me a voicemail this afternoon to say, "You're HOSTING Thanksgiving?! You're so grown up!"

It's true. I'm, like, officially a grown up. But, Shout Out to all the other people who washed all the dishes, made delicious sides to share, and played with the children. Good work, Team!

Tomorrow, we're heading out of here to enjoy a sprawling indoor waterpark in The Dells of Wisconsin. We discovered two summers ago that a waterpark vacation is pretty perfect for our foursome. What you do is, you rent a big room at a resort. You bring some food and some friends. You wake up in the morning, eat breakfast, and go to the waterpark. Then you swim and slide until lunch time, at which point you come back to the room, eat and rest. Then, you go back to the park until dinner time. Finally, you shuffle back to the room, eat, and then watch tv until everyone crashes.

From the parent perspective, it's really pretty easy. And, as we know, easy makes great when it comes to vacay with smallish children.

Mac's school started offering violin lessons during extended day, and Mac wanted to play. The Suzuki teacher was going to show right up at school every day and instruct him, and we'd never have to commit to at-home practice.  That was a major plus because we both remember behaving like absolute terrors during at-home practice when we were kids.

We might look happy here as preschool violinists (I was especially happy in my shiny red knickers), but as I moved through elementary school,  I remember screaming, crying, lying, and pouting over my practice sessions.  Finally, after like eight or nine years of lessons, I shoved the instrument under my bed and refused to play ever, ever again.

This time around, if I don't feel like practicing, I probably won't cry. I'll probably just take a couple days off.

The eighth graders at my school give persuasive speeches to a big audience of their peers.  We've been working away in class on these speeches for weeks now.  In the last few sessions, the kids have engaged in a master class with a totally rad speech coach who uses theater techniques to help them gain confidence, poise, and to use their body energy and voices to their fullest potential! 

During the coaching session today, a kid gave an interesting talk on how the act of giving increases your happiness and health.  I'm so glad to hear it!  In fact, the #FridayTen giving initiative has considerably increased my happiness.  So far, I've given ten-dollar contributions to EIGHT different organizations.

One of the most fun parts about the giving is that I usually make the donation in honor of someone, usually the person who told me about the organization.  Occasionally, the organization will send that person a card telling them about the gift.  This brings THEM happiness!  The goodness of #FridayTen goes on and on!

On Thanksgiving, I'm planning on making a follow-up #FridayTen video in order to collect a new list of organizations that might get to receive contributions. So, attention Thanksgiving dinner attendees: the video process will go more smoothly and you'll feel less harassed by me if you come with an acceptable organization (not associated with "conservative values" or the GOP) in mind.  Also, please be willing to appear on camera.  This will save a lot of coercion and increase everyone's happiness!

Last weekend, my bio-mom expressed her approval for #FridayTen, which once again brought me happiness.  "I'm surprised that hasn't totally taken off," she said.  I was flattered, but I'm pretty sure she was overestimating the reach of this blog.

The book I'm reading - Detracking for Excellence and Equity (Shout Out to my professional book club!) - is making me feel sort of like a sell-out for leaving my old job and starting my new one.  You see, the book is about committing to making our public schools fair and fantastic for all students by eliminating tracks and providing an awesome college-prep curriculum to everyone.

Of course, I now work in an independent school.  I love the school so much.  I have cool students, creative colleagues, and the ability to do my best work without a lot of barriers in terms of administration and/or bureaucracy.  Also, the school is much more racially diverse and outwardly committed to pluralism than my previous school.  But, we don't have the same amount of heterogeneity in terms of student achievement because, well, kids have to apply to get in and then achieve at a certain level in order to stay in.

So, even though I don't regret my decision to take my new job AT ALL, I do feel like there are other teachers out there doing more notable and noble work by digging in with more diverse learners.  I feel sort of like a traitor for reading this book that's pretty much meant for them.

Luckily, my other book club book (Shout Out to the Mother-Daughter book club!) is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  I probably won't have an identity crisis over that one, so I can't wait to start it.