In Which it is Summer

Today the temperature reached 86 degrees. Tomorrow it will be up to 90. It's very confusing to me. It's not supposed to be warm yet! I'm going to have to buy more clothes for work. I have 20 sweaters, but wool is not preferable right now. I want to sit on the porch and read novels, not go to work.

I took the Praxis II exam for teacher certification on Saturday morning. It's the last one I had to take. I did pass the other 3 required tests. I got completely lost trying to get to the tiny office building/college in downtown Arlington where the test was held, and then got a written warning from a police officer when I made a U-turn illegally trying to find a place to park. It was a fun morning, let me tell you. I really wished I could have stayed home and sat in the yard, soaking up the heat.

Fortunately, in the afternoon, I went to the Air and Space Museum Udar-Hazt building. Or Udpar-Hazy. Or is it Upuir-Hazhy? It's a big hanger with lots of antique airplanes and an observation tower. I saw the Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic boms in WWII. I saw some of the earliest planes. I saw a big shiny plane from the '50's, which looks like something that Indiana Jones would have flown in. I saw the Space Ship Enterprise (really!), but not Captain Kirk. I also got a nice picture of the Washington-Dulles airport from the observation tower.

On another note:

In the May edition of Smithsonian Magazine (which I obtained with my shiny-new membership card), I learned an interesting fact about Rochester, NY. On May 16, 1939, the USDA started the first food stamps program in an effort to get surplus food from the farmers to the urban poor. The program ended in 1943, but it was the first in the nation.

In Which I Bcome A True Virginian

I got pulled over for the first time in my life on Wednesday. I was coming out of a school parking lot on my way to another school, and hesitated in the middle of the street because I couldn't remember if I was turning left or right. The cop pulled me over, not for my evident lack of safe driving skills, but because I didn't have a Virginia State inspection sticker on my car.

There is a very good reason why I didn't have one. The DMV told me I didn't need one because the one I had from NY was valid.

SURPRISE!

The DMV was wrong. The cop was very nice. Of course, he was about 12 years old and I had my teacher face on. He did not give me a ticket. But right after work, I got a Virginia inspection. Ironically, I had been at the garage the day before to get an oil change. Alas, the NY sticker had to be scraped from my windshield. All vestiges of my Yankee heritage have been swept away, and I am now a True Virginian.

In Which I Eat

I went to Philedelphia last weekend to visit some relatives there. We went out for Philly cheesesteaks and real stromboli. Yum. It was the best sandwiches I have ever eaten! I could have eaten them all weekend. If you are ever in Philly, stop and get some!

In Which it is Spring

It is definitely spring in Washington. The dogwoods are blossoming in big snowy white tufts, and the annual cherry blossom festival started last weekend and runs through the next. Today was the last day of the peak of the blossoms, so I ventured to go see them (along with about 2 million other people). For those who have been to DC, the cherry trees grow around the Tidal Basin, and a few other patches nearby. The trees were a gift from Japan in 1912.

Today was a Japanese street festival, so there were a lot of ladies in kimonos and people eating chicken teriyaki. It was kind of fun, but I missed most of the big performances because it took over two hours to get there. I had to wait in line to get on the metro rail, then the train had to wait because trains were backed up. Then I had to wait to get out of the station because there were so many people. Getting home was even worse; there was a 20 minute line just to get into the station! It was definitely worth it, though.

In Which Something Important is Created

I heard on the news a few days ago a good reason to buy an iPhone. It has a program you can download called "Got2P". Using GPS, it tells you the location of the nearest bathroom and how to get there. How cool is that?

In Which I Start a New Fashion

After spending 4 hours taking practice tests, I went out. First I changed into more appropriate clothes and put on make-up and jewelry. I spent an hour reading professional journals at Starbucks, then ran a few errands at stores and the library. At my last stop, I caught a glimpse of myself in my car window. Apparently, I had put on two different earrings. One was a dangling fuchsia flower. The other was a dangling blue and white oval on a gold background. This could catch on....

In Which I Study

....and now for an "I hate Virginia" moment.

I think I have discovered why Virginia has to import qualified teachers.

I have spent today (and will spend tomorrow) studying for the three state licensing board tests I will be taking next Saturday. Two are tests of basic reading and writing. The practice reading test was straight-forward, if oddly weighted down with passages about non-WASP cultural practices.

The practice writing test was bizarre. It requires writing a summary of an article because, apparently, summarizing in written form is essential for Virginia teachers. I can honestly say that I never, in 5 years, wrote a summary while teaching in New York. The test also requires the standard 5-paragraph persuasive essay, the bane of college professors everywhere. It is by far the most boring form of essay writing. The funniest bit, though, was the the example of a strong response. Besides being woefully informal (I was taught NEVER to use contractions in an essay), it has several major grammatical defects, including at least 1 run-on sentence.

One wonders, "Shall one eschew the use of poly-syllabic verbage in favor of a more simplistic rendering of one's opinion in order to facilitate accessiblity to the text by those grading (who undoubtedly graduated under the afore-mentioned flawed educational system), thus maximizing the potential for successfully navigating the clearly inadequate system, yet betraying the principle of always performing to the maximum of one's potential?"

One sighs. Then one inevitibly answers, "Yes."