Crossfit, The Washington Examiner, and Hamilton

      So yesterday was just a day at school.  I didn't have to teach and so I spent most of the day working on lesson plans and my teaching portfolio type thing, more commonly referred to as a Teacher Work Sample (TWS).  We had a Relief Society activity last night and at first I wasn't sure if I was going to go.  It was a workout at a fitness center called Crossfit.  Well as you probably know, I don't go to the gym.  I was on the fence about going, but I knew that if I was going to make friends I had to go where the potential friends would be.  So I went.  I almost died, but I went.  We threw ten pound balls at the wall and jumped on 24 inch tires.  We did sit ups as fast as we could and did these tortuous things called "burpees".  I was so pooped by the end that every muscle in my body felt like mush.  I could hardly get them to do anything.  After the gym we went to a girl's house and had smoothies.  That's more my style.  I had three. I had to try every flavor, naturally.  I went home, showered my stinky mushy self, and went to bed as fast as I could.

      This morning I woke up still feeling like mush and pretty tired.  I got ready and went to school.  When you come up out of the Metro station, there are like six people selling different newspapers.  One guy (he always seems to be right in the middle) has a very distinct voice.  Every morning he says "I've got it right here in black and white" (apparently the newspapers these days aren't red all over) and then of course like every good advertiser he shouts the name of his newspaper, "It's the Washington Exam-NER!"  It's just not a normal morning if he isn't there.  Well today we came up and I could feel the tired, worn-out expression on my face, but I couldn't get it to change until he looked at me and said, "Put a smile on your face. It's Thursday!"  I was beaming the rest of the walk to school.

      When I got to school, I helped a group of boys with their homework.  Then I went to go see if any of the other students that had shown up early needed help.  That's when I talked to Hamilton.  He's in my Algebra II class.  He's really smart and really quiet.  I asked him how was and by his response I could tell that he was down.  Echoing the Washington Exam-NER man, I tried to make him happy with the fact that it was Thursday.  He didn't buy it.  I thought that he was just ready for it to be Friday, but I couldn't have been more wrong.  He was dreading Friday.  Friday was the day of the Winter Formal and they elected him to be "the stupid duke", the sophomore class version of the prom king.  He wasn't going with anyone in particular but he must have a lot of friends if got voted to be the duke.  I told him that I would bet that all the girls were going to want to dance with him.  He thought that it was just because he was going to be the duke.  I corrected him and told him that it was because he was cool and he was nice.  He looked back at me as if no one had ever told him he was cool or nice before and asked, "Really?" I reassured him and he seemed to cheer up.  I felt so good that I was able to connect with a student and make him believe in himself.

      I got to teach first period and then the principal asked if I could chaperon a field trip.  So thirty minutes later I went on my first field trip in four years.  It was so fun!  We to a dance performance that was put on by The Children of Uganda.  It was amazing! The whole thing was cultural dances from Uganda.  I was amazed that they could dance like that for that long.  I would've died.  Maybe I just felt that way since by then my mushy muscles were starting to become achy muscles.  We got back to school in the middle of lunch, I finished out the school day and went back to my apartment.  Tomorrow we're having a sleep over at our director's house and going to Gettysburg by dawn's early light on Saturday.  I can't wait! It should be a blast and a half!!