Party Animal

This week has felt a little like this... 

That's me. Being a zombie. Most people think that summer break is the best part of teaching, and in a way it is. However, I would definitely prefer to go year round. Having 3 months off with nothing to do but lie around your house baking and watching the X-files, then being expected to have your classroom together and prepared for students in one week is too much. It takes me one whole week for me to re-learn how to get up at 6am! (I still haven't managed to get up before 6:40 this week.) Not that I'd complaining- Ok I am. I'd just prefer to go year round and have 3 months on then 1 month off. But work is good. I'll have before and after pics of my classroom and a recap of this weeks fun in the near future. We have all new principals, and so far I like them! Worst part is definitely not having Mary around. It's incredibly depressing to find someone you get along with so well and then not have them there anymore. Don't get me wrong, I love Amanda and Anne a ton. But I miss sitting in my room with Mary listening to obscure music and complaining about our "little angels." :)

Speaking of little angels- We got a new camera! Quincy loves it! Or not.

I also cut off my hair in preparation for school. I wanted something kind of drastic, but it ended up being my same old cut. (I promise I asked her for something different!) To be completely honest, she gave me a bit of a mullet at first until I told her to take the bottom inch off. Good grief! I really hate finding people to cut my hair. But she was fun to talk to and I do like my hair, so I would go back again.

Tonight Robert and I partook in one of Knoxville's most fun traditions- Feast with the Beast at the Knoxville Zoo! It was a lot of fun. It consists of walking around and sampling food and beverages from local vendors. Most of the food involved some sort of meat of course (welcome to East Tennessee), but we did find some gems! Our favorite was a deep fried mashed potato dumpling thing from the Roaming Gnome. OMG! I wish I had taken a decent pic, but I ate them before I even thought of it. Here's the best pic I got- They burned a batch, so here are some waiting to be cooked at the tent. They would be the things that look like coconut sno-balls. Seasoned mashed potato rolled in bread crumbs then deep fried and served with sour cream or ranch dressing. How could that not be delicious? I only ate two of these and about a bite or two of everything else that was meat free. It didn't seem like a lot,  but boy do I have a food baby! Groan!

Probably the most interesting (and popular) vendor of the night was a legal moonshining company. Now, Robert and I are both from the south and neither one of us have had the opportunity to try this, so we had a moonshine soaked maraschino cherry each. Robert said it was like "drinking fire!" Ha ha! He wasn't kidding. We also had tiny sips of the apple pie flavor and the lemon drop as well; they were pretty good actually! Much less "fire-y" than the plain corn moonshine. Not my favorite thing ever, but a nice cultural experience for us. Later, while laughing hysterically at the man on the merry-go-round who was literally spanking his carousel eagle, we came to the conclusion that a lot of people were enjoying a bit more than just a cultural experience! 

Here's a really cool tree lady on stilts! More laughable mischief: Random guy walking past says, "Does that tree have a face or have I had too much moonshine?"

We couldn't help but take a carousel ride after we saw how much fun the "eagle spanker" was having. :) I was kind of miffed that they charged us a dollar after we paid so much for our ticket, but whatever!

I chose a gorilla while Robert snagged the coveted "Republican Sponsored" elephant. 

See? I'm not lying. And even though I looked for a Democratic Party sponsored donkey, it was non-existant. Welcome to East Tennessee, again. 

This just makes me really regret that I didn't take a photo of the life sized cardboard cut-out of Obama that I found in a Bearden High History classroom during inservice on Thursday. It made me laugh a lot, because it was really out of place! I wish I had a picture. Actually I'll be completely honest; I wish I had one for my classroom!

And because you can't go to the zoo without hanging out with the animals... 

Ball python! 

I hope that he was named Monty.

Robert's favorite- the elephants! :D

They also had a giant white rat you could pet, and we spent some obligatory time with the rhyme-nocerouses. Most of the animals were off exhibit for the evening, so we had to make due with watching the drunken homo sapiens. It was just as entertaining, ha ha! All in all- a really fun night! Even if we did leave before 10pm. *Cough* Losers! *Cough*