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Dee Brown commited to come to our school today and talk to a group of the students. Honestly, I have NEVER seen a group of people, young or old, get this jacked up about seeing someone. You would have thought that Shaq himself was going to be in the house. Dee was originally supposed to come at 9. At 8:45, his publisist called and said that they would have to pospone until 10 am. The kids sat in the Auditorium anxiously awaiting Dee. He never showed. I've never seen a group of kids so crushed about anything.

Good lesson, Dee. Way to teach these impressionable 6, 7, and 8th graders that it's okay that you don't show up to something. It's okay to commit to something and not follow through. It's even okay to not call and tell someone that, "sorry, I can't make it".

Epecially the kids at our school. If there was ever a school that needed a postive role model, this is it. The only lesson learned today was that its okay to do whatever you want...as long as you are a basketball star. And the sorry thing is that these kids, and even some adults will dismiss it because he has a lot on his plate. Because he plays for a #1 ranked team. Because he is just so darn adorable.

When on the court, Dee is the man. He is "king of the fast break". He is cash money with the 3's. He energizes the team. He is a leader. He's great at stealing the ball.

Well today, Dee, you just dropped it.

look at me now!!!

Let's play a little "before and after", just for poops and giggles.

Barry Bonds

Before...




After...




Mark McGwire

Before...



After...



Sammy Sosa

Before...



After...



I am really proud of these boys. I mean, they eat healthy, take their vitamins, work hard, and become really strong. They can hit a baseball real far. And hard.

How does someone's head get bigger? Literally? How does someone's head literally get bigger?

As far as the baseball cards, Donruss had an ultra-awesome splatter paint. Can I splatter paint my room, mom??? Please!!! Splatter paint is so cool!!
I also love Topps' beautiful wood grain finish their baseball cards.
"What kind of wood is this?"
"I think it's pine"
"Ohhh, pine is good."
"Yeah. Pine's allright."

a great lookin' group of people

I am stressed out to the max today. It is really unbelievable. At one point today, three of my kids had a crisis at the same time. AT THE SAME TIME. One just got punched in the stomach, one lost his binder and was freaking out, and one was being sent to my office because he got kicked out the in-school suspension room. At the same time. Un-freaking-believable.
So, like any good teacher would do, I went to my office and looked up my name in Google to get some enjoyment out of something. I was not disapointed:



Excellent work again, Google. Excellent work.

By Scott Wentworth

The organ player sitting at his perch high above Bloggers Field saw the manager touch his left hand as he approached the mound. The signal to the bullpen must have been received because within moments a panel in the outfield wall swung open revealing a black chasm, not unlike the gap in David Letterman's teeth.

From this darkness emerged a figure unfamiliar to the 1,908 fans in attendance for the first of a three-game series between the River City Champs and the Lakeview Challengers. Earlier that day the Champs had summoned relief pitcher Lefty Gonvalue from the team's Triple-A affiliate, and now the gangly southpaw was jogging across the warning track, on his way to make his Major League debut.

Although the score was now lopsided, the game certainly didn't lack drama. The Challengers jumped on the River City's starter, Gerald Peters, for two runs in the first inning. But after that shaky first frame, Peters settled down and momentum shifted overwhelmingly to the River City side of the field.

Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the second, the Champs' slugging second baseman doubled home a run to cut the lead in half. The Challengers squandered a prime opportunity in their half of the third, stranding two runners in scoring position. In the bottom of the third, the Champs used gritty, aggressive baserunning--which sometimes toed the line of recklessness--to take a 3-2 lead. Then, in the bottom of the fourth, the Champs' All-Star rightfielder unfurled a corkscrew swing that turned a hanging slider into a three-run homer.

Two innings later, former Challenger "Salty" Larry Baines made Lakeview rue the day they traded him for soon-to-be-washed-up pitcher Bert Ernesto. Baines ignited a two-run rally by bunting his way on to first and then stealing second and third. And when the Champs' speed on the basepaths allowed them to push across an insurance tally in the eighth, the score stood at 9-2.

After the rough first inning, Peters' pitching--backed by several spectacular defensive plays by his shortshop--dominated the Challengers. Since the third inning, Lakeview had managed to get only one baserunner into scoring position, and that runner was thrown out stealing thrid by Champs catcher William Groat.

But here in the ninth, Peters' arm was showing signs of fatigue, so the manager decided to give the recent callup a chance to preserve the seven-run lead.

As the rookie hurler galloped toward the mound from left field, the organist tried to think of an appropriate song to entertain the crowd. The organ player felt the lopsided score merited a mellow tune, so he decided on Tom Petty's "Even the Losers (Get Lucky Some Times).

After Gonvalue completed his warmup tosses, he exhaled deeply and considered the situation. Although he was pitching with a big lead, he didn't want to surrender any runs. He knew that even if the Challengers scored just once, making the score 9-3, they would celebrate as if they won the game."

Enough is enough

It seems my blog has been contaminated by Cubs propaganda recently. I was going to post a piece about why Cubs fans are...well... Cubs fans and such. However, I realized that you all read my words very often, and they may become stale to you. That is why I am going to be bringing in an "outsider" to comment on what has happened here over the weekend.
Scott Wentworth is a graduage of a University of Illinois in Urban-Champaign. Scott got all A's. Then, Scott was going to go to Law school to be a lawyer. He decided to pursue a career in journalism instead. He just recently graduate from Northwestern University where I'm sure he again recieved all A's.
Maybe a B.
I doubt it, though.
Scott now works in Chicago and is also a free-lance sports writer for various newspapers in Chicago. I have asked him to write "My Turn" a piece that might finally shed some light on the contamination that has taken place here at "My Turn". We will be posting his piece later today sometime.
For those who need an illustration, consider this....

It's the 9th inning
"My Turn" walks out of the dugout onto to the mound.
We're calling in the lefty.
Cue the music.
Scott Wentworth is coming in to close the game.

Spring Training

Pitchers and catchers report today. Let's get those final four wins this year...

Parent-Awesome Conferences

Captain's Log.
Today marks Day 1 of 2 for Parent-Teacher Conferences.
Being a Special Education Teacher, I don't have as many students as other teachers. Also, because of IEP meetings, most of my students' parents won't come to PTC's because they will just come to the IEP in the Spring. So, from 4-8 tonight and from 8-11 tomorrow, I am in my little cute office. Chillin. Not like a villian. But like Bob Dylan.
I assume most of you reading this, however have met me in person.
How would you feel going to your PTC for your child, the child you brought into this world, care for, love, look after, and you see his teacher is some punk 23 year old with spikey/messy hair, earrings, and a leather cuff on his wrist? Good thing Kortny doesn't want me to get a tatoo, or they'd be staring at a Cross on the underside of his forearm, too.

Parent- "See, Honey. That's what we get for raisin' our kid in a liberal college town. We get one of those metrosexual teachers".

So, if you read this sometime today and tomorrow, drop me a question about your kid's education. I'll respond to you as if we were having our very own cyber-parent-world - wide- web-teacher-conference.
It will be interactive.
It will be incredible.

Band with no name

Reading Dave's blog, I got the idea for my most recent post. Dave is in a band called Jirish. I have not heard them play, but I have a feeling they are going to rock your world hard.
Because this is my blog, however, I will now turn the attention on to myself. If we were in real life and Dave started promoting his band, I would not take that conversation and start talking about my own band.
But this aint no real life. This is thug-life.
Fo' real.
So I am in a band with my friend Nathan Funk and his wife, Lynnelle. Nathan plays acoustic guitar and does the lead vocals. Lynnelle plays violin/fiddle BGV's. I play the mandolin and the acoustic, electric, and slide guitars. I also do BGV's. We have been trying to figure out a name for our band. We sing Christian music. It's all original music, and most of it is worship-centered.
Ideas of a couple of names we have thrown around so far are:
Edison Central (the name of the two schools Lynnele and I teach at. I thought it actually sounds kind of cool)
Life of Riley (name doesn't mean much, but again, thought it sounded cool)

So here's the shiz-nizzle. I am opening up the comments section to ideas for possible names for the band. I know with this invitation there will obviously be some "wacky" or "funny" names that will be written down. That's fine. Actual cool ideas for names is highly encouraged. If by for some chance we end up using the name you thought up, we will reward you with not one, but two great prizes!
1. A free copy of our CD
2. Your name in the "Thank You" section in the cover of the CD when we come out with it this summer.


So, have at it!

Long days

Yesterday and today are days where I pretty much leave The Baytowne before 7 am and don't get back until after 8 pm. These are days that I have to question why I work two jobs and why my checkbook doesn't reflect that. Okay, okay, it's not about the money. I know. I'm sorry. Don't get mad at me. Even though I am busy during all these times, it does allow me to have some extra time to think. To graze in the meadow of thought in the vast valley of my brain. Here are some things that have been circling around in my head yesterday and are on the schedule for today.
1. How sweet is it that Abe and Mandy are engaged? Even more sweet, is how sweet is it that they both never kissed or said "I love you" until they were engaged?
2. I wonder if Mandy will be jealous that Abe has told ME that the loves me. Even though we are not engaged. Hmm.
3. If TJ moves to Boston or San Fransicso, can I have all his computers?
4. If I can't have all his computers when he moves, can I have all his computers when he is dead?
5. I wonder if Motorola can make me a new guitar.
6. I wonder if I sprung my ankle and broke my neck jumping off a basketball rim, who I would rather have right away to ade me. Dave the murse, or Adam the sports therapist?
7. I wonder if Kortny wishes she was not related to Anne.
8. If George W. Bush were to become Principal of my school, would he try to take over the other two middle schools in town?
9. I would love to invite Jerry Sienfeld and Larry David to my apartment so we could play "MVP Baseball 2004".
10. I wonder what teams they would choose to be. I would choose the Cardinals.
11. When I try out for the Cardinals next year, I wonder what position I should try for?
12. What would I do if I went to school one day and nobody else showed up. Would I go home and be happy I have a day off, or should I call Kortny and ask her to buy us some roller blades and we can skate around the school?
13. I wonder what people would do if I yelled out, "French Kissing!!!!!!" in the halls really loud in the middle of class.
14. I wonder what people would do if I yelled out, "French Kissing!!!!!" in the middle of church on Sunday.
15. If I counted by 5's all the way to 100, and I did this 5,00o times, how long would that take me?


Those are some of the thoughts that I think of when I have these long, long, workdays. But really, a big ol' congradulations are in order for Abe and Mandy. And as I told Abe on Sunday, I am very pumped for them, and they deserve it and every other blessing that comes their way.

I think I'm going to sing Ashlee Simpson's "Pieces of Me" at their wedding.

Hoop Dreams

I think it was TJ who told me that he would love to come to my morning duty at school just to hear and see what goes on. Well, something excellent happened this morning.

The following is based on true events.*

This morning was butt-cold out. It was 12 degrees with a wind-chill of 8. That's cold. Some of the homies were playing their normal game of b-ball oustide of the school. Then, as it usually does, it only took one of the kids to take a 3/4 length shot to change the whole game to a game of "who can hit the 3/4 court shot" game. Kids were hitting the backboard, but nobody got the cash money shot. Then, one of the bro's took a "Hakeem the dream" shot. It hit the backboard and deflected right on to the side of some kid's face. 8 degrees. Basketball. Fast basketball. 8 degrees, fast basketball, kid's face.
Fantastic.
The kid started holding his face, in great great pain. I don't know what was worse: the kid getting whaled in the face or all is homies totally 100% ignoring their bro in pain. About 5 minutes passed (4 of which the kid spent crouched over, holding his face in his hands) and he he decided to take a shot of his own.
He takes the rock.
He Hakeem the Dream's the ball.
Nothing but frozen net, baby.
It was the American Dream. I think the kid was Republican, too. All the brothers started hootin' and hollerin'. This kid was knocked down, and was all "get up off me!" and he drained the shot others have been trying for 20 minutes.

* The kid didn't actually make the shot. He missed by 15 feet, easily. My Turn used poetic license with this story to make it extra awesome.