First Book Club Meeting

This morning the 8th graders and I tried out the new in-class book clubs for the first time. I was super jazzed about the whole thing but you won't be able to pick up on that by listening to the sound of my voice...I sound like I'm drugged up. Do I always sound like this? And man, I always manage to forget about what a strange accent I have until I actually listen to a recording of my voice. But the kids sound great. I circulated around the classroom while all the students were meeting in their assigned book clubs and had some time to join a few of the discussions. Here's a recording of one of the groups made up of 2 boys and 1 girl. The boys took over most of the conversation. I tried to get the girl to talk a couple times, but she didn't feel like saying much. This particular group is reading a fantasy novel called Curse of the Shamra, but we don't end up talking much about that book in this recording. I had a good time.

This Morning I Woke Up Thinking About How...

One time this guy I was dating came over to my place to pick me up in a car that wasn’t his own. He normally drove an old truck with bondo on its side, but this time he was driving a shiny black Porsche. I soon discovered that how he got a hold of the Porsche wasn’t nearly as interesting as it should have been. Don’t think I haven’t realized that showing up in a Porsche is supposed to be impressive or something. But the truth is that I very much preferred his old truck with bondo on its side. Sometimes guys are dumb.

Why It's Hard for Me to Make New Friends

I don’t do very well in large groups. I’m usually much more comfortable in a one-on-one type of situation. One time I drove to the local movie theatre to meet up with my good friend Dave and about a couple hundred of his pals. Upon arrival it became clear to me that Dave was the only person I knew out of everyone making up his gigantic crowd. I was actually coping with this situation until I took my seat in the theatre. Dave sat down to my right and one of his girlfriends was sitting down to my left. Dave was nice enough to introduce me to this girl before he got up to go to the snack bar. At that point I said hi to my new acquaintance and offered to share my box of Junior Mints with her. She said no thanks to the Junior Mints (What kind of person says no to JMs?!) and then proceeded to ask, “So, how do you know Dave?” Little did the girl know that this question is one of my top ten least favorite questions of all time. So, how do you know So-And-So? Aside from a formal job interview sort of situation, I think posing this particular question is not only arbitrary but also completely useless in obtaining any meaningful information about someone you’re really trying to get to know. Well I met him while waiting in line at Café Rio about two years ago. So what! Because of my low opinion of the question, I quickly deduced that this girl wasn’t trying to get to know me at all. So I took the low road and replied by telling her that I was Dave’s 2nd cousin from Las Cruces. I guess I had New Mexico on my mind that night. This answer seemed to satisfy her curiosity as she didn’t ask me any other questions after that. I know that fibbing was more than a little bit childish of me, but I was annoyed and had a feeling that I wouldn’t be seeing more of this girl in the future…She didn’t strike me as the type that enjoys associating with people from Las Cruces.