AuburnChick's Adventures

Oh, how I do love the Olympics and am thrilled that Joyce included some Olympic-themed questions this week!  Play along.  Answer the questions on your own blog and link back up with Joyce!

1.  Are we always responsible for our actions? Are there any exceptions?

I say that we are always responsible for our actions.  I teach high school students who usually want to deflect responsibility for their actions to other people.  The standard argument is, “What about ‘so-and-so’?  You never get onto him/her.”

My response is that a police officer doesn’t care about the three cars that were speeding in front of me.  He/she only cares about me and the fact that I broke the law.  I can’t blame those speeders, because I chose to speed.

We have become a nation of accountability-deflectors, and I think that is one reason why our morals are declining.  Hardly anyone wants to admit that he/she made a bad choice.

2.  Has anyone from your home town become famous?

We had a football player from a local high school get arrested for breaking some major laws after he went to a very famous college on a football scholarship.  We also have some politicians from our area who are famous.  Oh, and we had a rather scary incident happen in our district that made a woman quite famous.  I’d give you more details, but then you’d know where I live.  😉

3.  January was National Slow Cooker month. Do you own a slow cooker/crock pot? Did you use it last month? What’s a favorite dish you make using a slow cooker or crock pot?

The timing of this question is uncanny!  I recently blogged about my recent crock pot cooking adventures.  I’ve been using my crock pot almost every week to make various vegan dishes.  I love my crock pot.  I don’t use the microwave…EVER…so I have a small crock pot at school to warm up my lunch.

4.  How do you feel about private companies collecting data about you?

I think this is an invasion of privacy and completely uncalled for.

5.  The Games of the 2014 Winter Olympics kick off with their opening ceremony this coming Friday….will you be watching? Which Winter Olympic event would you most like to see in person? Have you ever been to Russia? Any desire to go, Olympics or otherwise?

I am an Olympics junkie and will watch pretty much any sport…winter or summer games included. I will be watching the opening ceremony…eager to see each country’s outfit. I really look forward to ice skating, skiing, luge, and bobsled events.  I’d love to watch ice skating in person.  Their movements are similar to gymnastics…my favorite summer event (plus ice skating is indoors…much warmer).  I have never been to Russia and, although I’d love to do some traveling, would be leery after the news report I watched yesterday evening.  Did you see it?

6.  Share a good or bad sports related memory from your childhood or teen years.

Oh yes…I have a doozy for you.  I’m not sure if I’ve shared this story before, but it’s a funny one.

I played attempted to play basketball during my high school days.  I wasn’t very good and only went in when we were too far ahead for me to lose the game for us or too far behind for there to be any hope that I’d catch us up and help us win.

I didn’t come off of the bench too much.

One game, I finally got put in, and played the position of point guard.

Well, I’m dribbling along, happy as can be, when my bra strap completely pops.

Back in the 80’s, there were no sports bras around.  We wore our regular stuff.

I don’t think well on my feet, or else I would have handled this issue much more comically.

Well, actually, what happened was comical, but in an embarrassing way.

I didn’t know what to do, so I immediately crossed my arms in front of my chest and began running down the court.

My coach didn’t know what was wrong, and I was so mortified, I didn’t know what to say.

I finally told him that my bra had popped, and he put in a substitute for me.

What I should have done was whip that sucker out of my jersey and played on.

I was seventeen and not endowed, if you get my drift.

Nobody would have been the wiser.

But nooooooo.  Do you really think I was cool like that?

To this day, my classmates still remember that incident.

7.  What’s a must have song for you on a work out play list? If you don’t work out, run, swim, bike, walk, or anything else that could be construed as ‘exercise’, then what’s a song that motivates you to at least get up off the couch?

Work out?  Seriously?  Surely you jest!

My brain is the only thing that gets much exercise these days, although I do plan on working out this summer…taking my dogs for walks and biking.

What gets me in the mood to work (i.e., lesson plan) is a bit of Ingrid Michaelson.  I love, love, love her voice and her style of singing.

8.  My Random Thought

I think I’ll use this week’s Random Thought to share with you an awkward moment.

I could fill volumes with my awkward moments (see #6 above).

Anyhoo…

Yesterday, during my last class, the kids were working on a flipbook for our current unit of study.  It was relaxed in my room, and one of my guys asked me to put on some music.

I started up my Ingrid Michaelson playlist on Pandora, and the following song began to play…

Read the lyrics that follow and pay attention to the line I’ve highlighted…

“You And I”

Oh, let’s get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France
Let’s get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance
Let’s get rich and build a house on a mountain making everybody look like ants
From way up there, you and I, you and I

Well, you might be a bit confused
And you might be a little bit bruised
But baby how we spoon like no one else
So I will help you read those books
If you will soothe my worried looks
And we will put the lonesome on the shelf

Oh, let’s get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France
Let’s get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance
Let’s get rich and build a house on a mountain making everybody look like ants
From way up there, you and I, you and I

Oh let’s get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France
Let’s get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance
Let’s get rich and build a house on a mountain making everybody look like ants
From way up there, you and I, you and I

Well, the room was DEAD QUIET at the beginning of the song, so that line played LOUD.   AND.  CLEAR.

My students started giggling and then broke out in full-fledged laughter.

Um…yeah.

I realize I teach high schoolers, but I try very, very hard to keep things uber-clean.  My students know this.

Um.  Yeah.

I might as well have played some of their music (aka not clean).

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: olympics, teaching, Wednesday Hodgepodge |