Leap Year means Pollen-Free Candy

If you were curious as to why there are 29 days this month, you should probably go ask my students. (I cleared up their misconception that February 29^th is the day the world ends, so it’s probably safe to ask them.)

Mr. Knowitall marched into the classroom early this morning already giving a detailed explanation about the exact number of days (to the nearest billionth) it takes the Earth to orbit the sun. Because our calendar year is typically 365 days, he explained, we need to have 366 days in a year every four years in order to balance the gap that is created between our months and our seasons. Without February 29^th, our seasons would be all mixed up.  And that’s not good.

“For example, if Halloween was in spring, pollen would get all over our candy.” –Mr. Knowitall

And that, my friends, would be tragic.  Thank the Lord for Leap Year. 

Enjoy your February 29^th loves, for it only comes but once every four years.  :) 

Workin' On Our Fitness

I woke up this morning and didn't know where I was. That's how deep of a sleep I was in.  And I went to sleep at 9:30pm.  Talk about exhaustion.

Friday I caravanned the five and a half hours to Virginia Tech with all of the other Group Fitness Instructors/Personal Trainers for the annual Southeast Collegiate Fitness Expo.  We finally got to our hotel a little after 11:30, only to wake up at 6:30 for a 7:30 check in for our first workout. 

Hey slackers in the front...I see you. ;)

After 8 hours of work outs (Yes, eight. Four in the morning, an hour lunch break, and another four in the afternoon) we refueled and went to the social VT sponsored for us at the Holiday Inn.  The "social" was reminiscent of sophomore year high school homecoming, complete with mardi gras masks, the Cupid Shuffle and Lil' Jon's musical artistry. It was fantastic. There was also a cash bar which some people visited entirely too often. I never once made it to the bar; instead I was hassling the servers to refill the water pitcher every two minutes.  I think my exact words were, "Sorry to ask you fill up the water again but how could you be so unprepared when you know you are hosting a room full of fitness instructors?" Ha. This girl is grumpy when dehydrated.   

 Anyway, I'm glad I stuck to just water because Sunday morning's first session came all too soon at 8:00am. Four sessions later, we were on the road back to Maryland.  

The boys took "final relaxation" a little bit too far in Body Flow.  

I slept for half of the ride home.  The other half I sort of brooded over the fact that this was my final Fitness Expo. These weekends are intense but so incredibly eye-opening.  It is amazing share our fitness philosophies and knowledge with our peers, and even more amazing to be in a room with 15+ other Universities all with one common passion: to be fit.  Working out with fitness professionals and collegiate instructors truly is in an inspiring experience.  I'm excited to bring that inspiration into my classes this week - if you're a UMD reader make sure to go to fitness classes this week to see first hand all the new material we have to offer ;) 

Workin' On My Fitness

Currently,
I am exhausted.
I am overwhelmed thinking about my career search.
I am reluctant to go back to school after a day off.
I am sore.
I am healing a severe turf burn due to illegal slide tackling in indoor intramural soccer (Too bad I was the offender.)
I am en route to Virginia Tech for the annual Southeast Collegiate Fitness Expo!

On Monday,
I will still be exhausted
I will still be overwhelmed.
I will most certainly be reluctant to begin another school week.
I hope to be injury-free.
I will absolutely be sore after a weekend of working out.


Fitness Expo is one of my favorite things about being a fitness instructor on a college campus.  It's a whole weekend of sharing our best classes and techniques; yes it is exhausting, but we also learn a lot and meet a lot of really cool people. (Read about last year's Expo at UNC here.)  My over-exhausted self will be return on Monday (potentially) with the full low-down. Until then. 

Happy Weekend :)

Interviewing, and Losing My Mind.

In lieu of teaching today, I am attending a career fair at which I will interview for three teaching positions. 

Honestly, I do not wish to teach at any of the districts represented at the expo (where the Jersey schools at?!) However, I think this will be good practice in marketing myself and preparing for interview questions.

Even if I know that there's a slim chance I will actually move to Houston, TX or Alexandria, VA (hey, you never know) I'm still going a little crazy trying to perfect every last detail to make myself the most marketable candidate I can be.  

Precisely. 

Wish me luck! 

Word of the Day Wednesday

There are some unavoidable words that come up in the sixth grade curriculum that guarantee giggles and sly smirks.  And expectedly so.  For instance, I dreaded the lesson when students had to decipher the meaning of their vocabulary word "dictate" using prior knowledge. 

Ms. Y: "Think about where you have seen this prefix before" *underlines dict*

Ms. Thang: "You mean DIC??"

Ms. Y: (as casually as possible) Dict, as in dictionary, dictator, diction.

Class: Erupts in laughter. 

Or how about in a Shakespeare poem when the word "breast" has to be changed to "chest" to appease the awkwardness overwhelming the sixth grade atmosphere.  
(I can also hear my boyfriend laughing from here.)

One word that I never thought I would have to avoid?

Doily. 

Seriously,the word was read, and giggles ensued instantaneously. 

Diva: HAHAHA SHE JUST SAID DOILY!!!!!

Really? Is there another connotation of which I am unaware? 

Gotta love the sixth grade. 

Dear Monday

A collection of brief letters intended to summarize my wonderful weekend ;)
Enjoy.

Dear Monday,

You came entirely too soon.  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were the perfect compilation of weekend and I was not prepared for your return quite this early.  

Dear Loverboy,

Thank you for coming down MD to visit with me for the weekend. Thank you for making, and cleaning up, breakfast. Thank you for paying for everything when I lost my debit card. Thank you for driving us home from Baltimore at 3AM.  Thank you for continuing to come back to College Park even after you've had two incidents resulting in having to call the police. (At least you still have your license plates this time...) I hope you had as much fun as I did - only three more weeks until our reunion in Jersey! I love you, I love you, I love you.

PS Loverboy,
You were really cute learning how to pick a crab. Not only was it comical to watch, but it made me happy to see you bonding with the Maryland fam :)

Dear Business School Student,

How many morals do you lack that you would think it was okay to smash into someone's car in the parking lot and drive away?  You are the second reason C has had to get work done on his car after being parked on campus. You give female MD drivers a bad name, shame on you.  

Dear Sweet Samaritan,

Thank you, thank you, thank you for copying down the license plate number of the girl who hit C's car and continued driving. The note we found on his windshield when we got to the car hours later truly was a gift! Your sweet actions were immeasurably helpful, and I only hope that there is lots of good karma coming your way.  There need to be more good citizens in this world like you. 

Dear Congress,

I understand it is still up in the air whether we are nationally celebrating the birth of George Washington on this third Monday of February or if we are celebrating our nation's Presidents in general, either way I am thankful for this holiday. 

Happy Presidents Day!
or is it President's Day?
..or President's Day?
Sometimes holidays drive me up a Grammar wall. 

Weeeeekeeenddd

You guys, this has been a very long week.

But it is finally Friday and I am so thankful because THIS GUY is coming to visit-

:) :) :) :) 

Oh yeah, as well as three of his teammates. So, I will be hosting four defensive linemen in my tiny apartment this weekend. Somehow I don't think the relaxing weekend I so desperately need will be making an appearance until this week. Oh well. 

Happy Weekend everyone!