Dan in Real Life deserved every one of the two and a half stars it received (on average). Unlike most of the movies I get from Netflix and watch while Ben is away, I was able to watch the entire thing without my usual breaks: twice for snacks, three times for internet breaks, and once for good. I watched it to the end! But can't tell you how it ended. I think ambiguously.

Keeping it short and sweet. Because if I launch into the topic that's constantly on my mind, renting our next apartment, I very well could go on for hours.

Not to gloat or anything, but....

School's! Out! For! Summer!

School's! Out! For Students! (tomorrow) *

School's! Out! For! Teachers! (the next day)

School's! Out! For! Ever! (I sure hope not, but you never know.) **

* And all I have to is bake some Costco pizzas and assure all my kids that they'll pass for the year.

** Because I don't have a job yet, so this really could be the end of my teaching career.

I'm celebrating by baking 3 pans of brownies (again for the studes), eating some delicious red chile that Ben made from chile pods hand carried over by our NM friends, and then watching Dan in Real Life while searching for apartments on Craig's List, my favorite new pasttime. (Just the Craig's List part, not the DIRL part.) Ben's working tonight so I can do whatever I want, even watch mediocre romantic comedies! I love life!

graduation day

On Saturday, Ben and I attended the high school graduation. We got there at 6 a.m., and the kids started arriving at 6:30, having been told to be there by 7. It was the first time any of my students have been early since I've known them. I was in charge of the "VIP tent," where such dignitaries as Board of Education members, our county councilwoman, and the drug court judge who will soon be sentencing some of the graduates were feted with banana bread and fried rice. I dragged Ben along as my muscle, forcing him to endure a seven-hour day of carting coolers to and fro, chasing teachers down in an attempt to give them their leis, and being embarrassed by me during the ceremony as I shielded his bald spot with my program.

The keynote speaker, a delightful woman who was the perky head cheerleader when I was a freshman and is now a teacher and radio deejay, gave a funny and lively speech full of classic pidgin phrases, mildly insulting shout-outs to the principal ("When I heard he was the principal, I thought, did they do a background check on this guy?"), and jokes that would be racist were we not in Hawaii ("You Filipinos out there know what I mean.....[silence]......ho, where all da Filipinos? Had plenny when I was in skoo."). This particular joke had to do with describing the location of one's "na'au," some kind of Hawaiian center of power, which is located in the gut, which is, coincidentally, Filipinos' favorite pig part to eat! HA!

Several times throughout the speech, she paused to "break it down," cuing Jawaiian music and dancing around the stage (at one point imitating the principal's Elaine Benis-like dance style), which caused the seniors to cheer and leap from the bleachers to skank in their shiny green robes. Amazingly, they sat down and resumed listening to her when the music stopped.

On the last "breakdown," she delivered her final, inspiring words over the even more inspiring lyrics, "Pakalolo, hula girls, and getting laid....."

Word.