Friday Five (the travel edition)

Five cities in the US that I want to visit outside of the NY/New England area:

• San Francisco
• Chicago
• New Orleans
• St. Louis/Kansas City (I’m not sure how close they actually are, but I always link them because I imagine them as endless supplies of steak and blues/jazz)
• San Antonio

Canadian cities I want to visit:

• Toronto
• Montreal
• Quebec
• Vancouver
• Moose Factory (yes, really)

5-5-5 The Number of the East

1. Seeing ficklechick’s post about her cats reminds me that I once had birds. Their names were blue one, green one, and white one. I often tell my students this to demonstrate the difference between unique (I bet no one else had birds with those names) and creative. 
2. I told my students two college-related stories. The first one was about how in the spring, the squirrels used to come sit on the windowsills and listen to the lectures. Smartest. Squirrels. Ever.
3. The second story was about how the college was next to a mental health facility and how the patients with day-passes used to walk around campus. We eventually noticed that the closer it got to finals week, the more difficult it was to distinguish the patients from students. 
4. This past week as re-solidified my faith on law enforcement, first responders, and the healing powers of sports and music. And re-solidified by absolute disdain for news media. 
5. I hope everyone is safe and everyone has fun at CHSH. Some day I will meet some of you people. I have my list. You’re probably on it.

Friday Five

1. My landlord told me the plumber would come fix my bathroom sink on Thursday (yesterday), and he’d (the landlord) come install the new vanity in the bathroom on Saturday (tomorrow). They both showed up today (Friday), which is perfectly consistent with how my landlord plans things.
2. Tumblr died then rose from the dead. Let’s eat bacon to celebrate.
3. I finished reading Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and now I want to read all the books on mythology (that I haven’t already read).
4. Watching Motley Crue’s live Carnival of Sins video. There were 20 year old (or so) girls singing along to “Home Sweet Home” and I yelled at my TV: “You were probably CONCEIVED to that song!”
5. My mouth is feeling better (except there’s still a giant hole in it) but it’s hard for me to eat anything that isn’t mush-like (mush-ish). Don’t worry, I have ice cream.

Friday Five (for fighting)

1. Sabres are playing the Bruins. We really need a win. Or blood. Or both.
2. I bought discounted Valentine’s Day candy today and I’m not sorry.
3. I made pasta with meatballs and sausage for dinner (and tomorrow’s and Sunday’s and Monday’s).
4. I had Da Vinci Chianti with dinner - quite good.
5. I hope everyone has fun at the Snark thing in the city. Looking forward to seeing the pics of people behaving badly.

Friday Five

1. One of my classes think I’m 007 because I did my Sean Connery impersonation for them. Of course, they knew him best from Celebrity Jeopardy on SNL.
2. My sinus infection turned into an abscessed tooth and I missed two and a half days of school this week. The kids were all concerned about me and loved hearing my tales of the emergency room and green and black puss.
3. I almost lost it today when someone parked a wood chipper outside my classroom window and started disposing of all the branches they clipped for the next thirty minutes.
4. Last night was Open House. Out of the hundred students I have, I got about twenty-five parents. Much better than the last couple years. I guess parents are getting interested in the children’s education again?
5. This bullet is not about teaching. 

Friday Five

1. My shoulder has been hurting for the last, oh, I don’t know, fifteen years. I think I may need Tommy John surgery, but I don’t think it’s career-ending.
2. My brains are slowly leaking out of my nose.
3. My head is pounding.
4. My throat is sore and there isn’t enough tea to make it better.
5. My eyes keep wanting to close, but you people won’t stop posting, so I have to stay awake to hit refresh.

Five Friday Thinks

1. I think I might hook up my webcam again and post a video with my voice and stuff this weekend. Or not.
2. I think I’m going to be very upset if the hockey season isn’t played again. Especially since I’m a Bills fan and their season is basically over in November.
3. I think I will need to buy some pumpkin and Oktoberfest beers this weekend.
4. I think I will probably spend most of my weekend grading papers (already) and i may have set a bad precedent in my class by having so much work due this early.
5. I think I may have over-estimated my ability to post five semi-interesting things.

Beer.

Friday Hi-Fiver

I liked doing this last week and everyone else seemed to like it, so let’s do it again. Virtual hi-fives for the following:

tracingben - Every time I read the things you post about your son and the every day struggles you go through, I pause and think about students in my class who have special needs and what their lives must be like outside of my class. You inspire me to be more patient and understanding.

kaiserwilhelm - I love that I found you because you responded to something I posted about annoying PBR hipsters. Your argument was valid so I started following you and every day your posts fill my dash with the quirky intelligence I look for.

fifthand57th and misterbillforeal - Tiffany, I’m so happy that you’re happy - you’ve come through everything and are absolutely sparkling. Bill, you’re dating one of the most popular and beloved women on Tumblr and handling it all with such grace and humor. You must be as great as Tiffany says you are. Best of luck you two.

vergeofbliss - Trey, you’re Tumblr’s honorary rock star! And a single dad with a full-time job and in a band with your ex-wife. That all sounds like a crazy sitcom, but you make it work wonderfully and you’re daughter is gonna be awesomely cool.

bestgirlbetty - Fight!!! We’re fighting with you.

Five For Friday

1. Sometimes I save reblogs as drafts just so I can find them whenever I need them.
2. I just wrote twelve pages of my thesis. That leaves, ummm, about a hundred or so.
3. My mother walks around the house saying the same thing over and over again hoping that as she walks into a new room my father will be there to hear her. It’s quite amusing to hear from upstairs.
4. Yes, I’m back in Buffalo. I avoided what I thought might be a disaster at the Financial Aid Office, but the woman seemed more worried that I may have taken the wrong “financial aid counseling seminar” online. Like I couldn’t just spend five minutes and take the right one. Crisis averted.
5. Also, can I say how unbelievably rude I find it when people say they’re going to call or text and they don’t. For some reason, this seems to happen all the time. Seriously, I thought the tattoo on my forehead said “Blow Me” not “Blow Me Off”. 

Cinq Pour Vendredi

1. Someone just sent me a surprise smiley face fan mail that absolutely made my day. Sometimes it’s the little things. 
2. I am once again having tooth issues. About two months ago I had a root canal and the tooth on which I had said root canal is again hurting. It started with simple pressure sensitivity and Wednesday became a constant throbbing pain. I called my dentist to find that he is on vacation until Monday. So I guess it’s just me and some painkillers until then. So for the next few days, if my posts seems erratic and non-sensical, I blame the pain meds.
3. Regarding the previous post - what is best for a toothache: vodka, bourbon, beer, or wine?
4. My Master’s Thesis is progressing nicely and I had hoped to start actually writing it this weekend. However, see above tooth pain.
5. And I like to have fun with language. In class, I constantly switch back and forth between Spanglish, Frenchglish, Italianglish, and Latinglish. My kids, at first confused, begin to play along and, in the end, come to a better understanding of prefixes and suffixes and the inter-relatedness of the European languages.