WELL, THAT WAS PRETTY RANDOM.

Been meaning to blog since getting back from Birmingham, so I'll just cram it all into one posting. First, a rant. Not in the mood for a rant? Skip to paragraph 2. I'm now totally fed up with the lack of things to do on the Coast. While at my sister's for the 4 day weekend, I went biking on a spiffy trail and also walking at a beautiful garden. I found all kinds of cool foods at World Bazaar. And we shopped at Aldi, too. THAT'S RIGHT, Birmingham is so cool that they now have one of my favorite German groceries right there in town. Saves a lot on airfare if you suddenly crave stollen. I also got some Speculaas, vollkorn biscuits, and Bahlsen hearts. I loaded up on marzipan and bought a chocolate advent calendar, too. When I got home, I felt lousy that there's nothing that nice down here. I wish they'd stop building all these stupid condos and put in a decent bike trail someplace. I miss the one down by the boardwalk! There's nothing to do here. I want to go do something. I miss Funtime USA! I miss the bumper boats! Can't they at least build a putt putt place? What are all the vacationing kids going to do here now, spend all their time at the casino arcades? The only thing left to do is walk on the no longer pretty beach or eat at some overpriced buffet.

This afternoon, I got a little relief. Ryan's theatre department put on a show - a romantic comedy. So it got me out of the house. Thanks for that, Ryan. I especially needed a reason to go out this afternoon since my air-conditioning has been on the blink the last two days. Last night, Terry and I played Risk (to curb our boredom), but it was so hot I could barely concentrate on the game! The maintenance guy came by and put some more gas in it, so I think it's good to go now. You'd think that by late October, it would be cool enough to go without a/c, but not so in South MS.

It's 10 days until I leave for Camp with the 8th graders. We'll be in AL from Wed through late Sunday night at a Science Camp. At first I was reluctant to be a chaperone, but now I've gotten used to the idea and am starting to look forward to it. The kids are beside themselves with excitement, so that's helping me get into it. School is so busy now, I'm surprised I have time to ever get bored. I'm trying to not be a work-a-holic, but I haven't quite gotten the hang of having a social life since returning. I'm just at the point of having down time with nothing really to do. I guess I should enjoy that while it lasts. At first, work was kind of freaking me out. Junior High is more of a change from Elementary than I was expecting. But I'm getting more involved and I'm getting to know the kids better, and that's helping. I am working with the newspaper staff and the drama club. We just put the finishing touches on this year's first edition, and we'll distribute it this week. I hope we caught all the typos. In drama club, we are in the middle of casting for the winter show - a musical variation of Dickens' Christmas Carol.

The 8th graders put on their production of Hamlet on Friday. It was an OK performance, but it was hard to enjoy it because the kids in the audience were being so rude. It gave me an idea for a video short. It would be neat to have some really bad kid actors putting on Hamlet and to have the real drama in the video going on in the audience - along some of the same themes as the ones in Hamlet, but in modern terms. Maybe I'll file that idea away for later.

My brother's family will be coming over from Germany this month. I can't wait to see them! He emailed asking what kind of chocolate to bring me. I had to tell him to skip it, since I already went overboard at Aldi over here. Hopefully, he'll bring me some, anyway.