Day 64: Movie Donation--10 Things I Hate About You

Stopped by the library today to pick up The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and I donated a movie to their bin. I had purchased 10 Things I Hate About You several years ago with the idea that I could show it in class while reading The Taming of the Shrew.  I sat through the whole thing excusing the parts that were not school appropriate as "not all that bad, until the totality of the "not all that bad" became too overwhelming and I knew that I would never show the film in class.

If I have any more movies to give away, I probably will.  I'm not the type who collects movies to view over and over. I collect books.  I watch movies for a second time of they happen to be on TV during a rainy day or a lazy Sunday. This is why I've seen Out of Africa and The Sound of Music so many times.

Day 63: Ohio Valley Voices

I gave $1 to Ohio Valley Voices today at White Castle while buying my morning coffee.  This time I was sure that the money went to the correct place. I saw the cashier ring it up, and then he handed me a coupon for a free coffee.  I'm so glad organizations like White Castle make this opportunity available to customers. Obviously, they could just donate part of their profits to OVV each year, but they make the effort to get the customers involved--to give everyday people the opportunity to give as well.

Day 62: School fundraiser

How convenient. Today during conferences, students came around with baked goods to raise money for cancer.  I purchased two brownies (one for me and one for another teacher).  I gave an extra dollar donation, and now I've completed my giving for the day. This was especially good on a day when I'm at work for over 12 hours. There was, of course, another option for today--blood drive. So many of my students came back with horror stories about having to be stuck three or four times, though, that I was able to just sort of let that one slide.

Day 61: flowered shirt to Salvation Army

This shirt, probably less than a year old, was in really good shape. I washed it last night, so that I could give it away today. The only problem with the shirt was that the pink and cream flower pattern reminded me of something Half Pint would wear on Little House. I tried to deny this for a while, but in the end I thought it best to give the calico-print catastrophe away. I may regret this one day this spring when I can't find anything colorful to wear and am staring down a closet full of black, grey, and brown.  We'll see. 

Day 60: $1 to fight brain cancer in children

As today draws to a close, I'm moderately satisfied with what I have accomplished. Paradoxically, in order for me to catch up on my work, I had to take a day off from work. I've named this phenomenon the English Teacher's Dilemma. I know other teachers out there understand the situation--grading backed up, bureaucratic paperwork piling up, letters of recommendation overdue, and it goes on.

The good part of taking a personal day on a random Tuesday, is that my donating was incredibly easy.  I "Paneraed" myself this morning--this part of the vernacular of my Milford colleagues. We have to Panera ourselves in order to grade without distractions. It works best in the community room at Panera and in the early hours. Without hardly thinking, I gave $1 to Share the Bread. This is becoming customary for me.  I enjoyed my breakfast and graded about 60 essays in 2.5 hours.  Not bad.

Later in the afternoon, my sister and I went to Gold Star Chili for lunch. The goal was two-fold. I had heard on the radio that Gold Star was collecting dollar donations for something (turned out to be for a charity that fights brain cancer in children). Also, I noticed on the internet yesterday that Gold Star now has vegetarian chili burritos, and I thought this deserved a try. The burrito was fine (maybe the vegan chili would be better on a three-way, though) and the box to donate a dollar was conveniently placed by the register.  I also got to donate a quarter to another children's charity to fight lymphoma.

Back to grading. Even though it's the evening, there are still papers, and stacks to grade before I sleep, and stacks to grade before I sleep.  (OK, they aren't stacks.  They are electronic).