IT LIVES!!!!

so i got my laptop back today. it only took six months. and the floppy drive still isn't fixed. but who needs floppies when you have a jump drive?

in other news... school's all right. the kids are good, for the most part. a little ornery, but still pretty good kids. standard-issue, small-town kids. which means that there are parts of them that i cherish and parts that i'm having a hard time with (the tendancy to slam all things gay being one of them). we're kind of in a bit of a head-butting contest right now, because they haven't had to actually work in their english classes for a long, long time, and i raised the bar when i walked into the school. "we have a quiz? already???" "what homework?" and the talking. i'm not used to the talking any more. we're going to have a quiet day in 8th hour tomorrow.

on the first day of class, we had a young bird fly from the hallway (where it had gotten in through an open window) into my classroom. one of my seniors calmly walked over to it, scooped it up, and deposited it outside, where it promptly flew into the 3rd story window above ours and shat on another teacher's hand. the perfect beginning...