fun words

these are some of the words that popped up on the images page of Bing today as i was searching for some pictures:

wozniaki
kipu
philomachus pagnax
raja binoculata
xisca
caligula


two of them are people, two are animals, one is either an artist or a statue, and one is a waterfall.

that crazy Bing!

rudy knows spring

then perhaps a little rain falls, and all the trees and the bushes and the bamboos and the mosses and the juicy-leaved plants wake with a noise of growing that you can almost hear, and under this noise runs, day and night, a deep hum...


that is the noise of the Spring -- a vibrating boom which is neither bees, nor falling water, nor the wind in tree-tops, but the purring of the warm, happy world.

-rudyard kipling, the spring running

sock monkey prom dress

this saturday is prom. naturally, 90% of the upperclassmen girls today were extremely pre-occupied with tomorrow's plans (hair appointments, makeup appointments, nail appointments, pictures, dinner) and vocalized their excitement in giggly, high pitched voices.

i remember prom. not the most fun i've ever had, but i really did like dressing pretty. at least, i thought my dresses were pretty at the time. in hindsight though, the periwinkle thing with shimmery star-flecked gauze over it was a bad choice. and the gold one-shoulder number would have been nice had my bosom not been so big. ah....prom fashion - who isn't a victim?

i get to go to prom tomorrow but as one of those nerdy teacher chaperones. my dress is little and black and plain (but classy because i wore it to my sister's wedding) and i've just reminded myself that i need to go get shoes for it. i don't think i run too much danger of hindsight embarassment this time around.

i have to confess,though, that i am far more excited to see fellow prom dress victims tomorrow night as opposed to anything else.

26 days

there are 26 days left of school and this morning, as i sip coffee and look at my laundry list of tasks, the last day of school is 26 days too far away. at the same time i freak out a little because my laundry list is quite long and i fear 26 days may not be enough to get everything accomplished. i've still got lessons to plan for things i'm not quite sure how to teach (or have never taught before in my life), i've got mounds - literally - of paperwork and data collection to complete, meetings to schedule with parents who don't answer their phones, books to read, worksheets to make, an essay to write, and students who are so behind in their work i have no idea how to get them caught back up.

so i take a breath, sip a little more coffee and smell the rose scented candle on my desk. because in the grand scheme of things laundry lists are very small and 26 days will turn out to be just enough to finish well.

dirty hot

on the days i'm just too tired to take a shower and am a dirty, grody mess -- i apparently appeal to the high school asthetic. at least one student on these particular days will say something like:

"ms. van dam, you look pretty today."


dirty.hot.

that's me!


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google + china =

i happened upon this picture today during a search for something related to china:

needless to say, it was a day maker.

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now you know.

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do you ever get yourself into situations where all you do is think about what you need to do, and thinking about what you need to do is all the farther you get? you actually never even get around to doing the things you've spent vast quantities of time thinking about doing. you just think. i need to do that. i should probably do it this way. i need to do that, too. but after i do that first thing. i want to do this first though. but don't forget to do that first thing. what was that first thing? i need to do that. but after i remember what i should have done in the first place.

that, my friends, is exactly how november until now has gone in regards to this blog. i've spent a lot of time thinking about writing on this; a lot of time thinking about the clever things i could post if only i had the time (thinking about what you want to do and how you want to do it is a lot less time consuming than actually doing it in real life). i realize now that you cannot read my thoughts - and if you can, please stop - so i will have to break the cycle and stop thinking about what i want to write and just write it.

i decided to call this blog 'the wild canary' because the state bird of iowa is the gold finch, or as it's known to the more learned - the wild canary. it's a cute, delicate bird that has a pretty song and is a fair representation of the state in which i was born and now reside. plus it flies, and if i could have any super power it would be the ability to fly. so now you know the story behind the title.

fact: originally i wanted to post a picture of a canary with a photo-shopped tattoo on it so my blog would have a mascot (i wanted the tattoo to say 'wild' - get it?). it turned out to be a long, tedious project so i put it on the proverbial backburner and just went with the lemons.

i've shared enough secrets for now. thanks for stopping by and be sure to visit some links before you go.

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the first official (nearly)

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i wanted to wait until i had this blog 'all together' before i posted anything on it and made it official. 'all together' in my mind meant 100% fully desinged just the way i wanted with everything in it's place, clean, neat and pleasing.

i then came to the realization that 'all together' for me never is, nor ever has been, a reality but more like a lovely dream.

in this dream world of 'all together' my apartment is completely spotless, wonderfully and creatively decorated, and furnished with more than just a bed. my lesson plans are fool-proof, me-proof, student-proof, and guaranteed to elicit the appropriate learning behaviors; not to mention the fact that they cover the next two years. i visit my friends and family frequently and we do massively entertaining things together. i use proper grammar and have impeccable spelling. i am culturally relevant. all my bills are paid. i exercise all the time. i write books. i do crafty things. i cook. i watch TV. and i still have free time.

in reality - my life seems very much like this blog: unfinished, awkward, behind, unedited, meandering, time consuming, curious and probably more than just a little odd. but moving forward. moving towards completion. changing, catching up, getting there, and all the while surreptitiously unapologetic about it.

as i've said before (yes, i AM quoting myself) in the mongolian version of these little animal-inspired-piece-of-the-internet-universe-electronic-logs, "what you will find here is just the life i'm living within the context of my surroundings. and in the fashion of a good old human being, i long to share my experiences with other human beings. my job is to make it as enjoyable as possible. and hopefully also meaningful. i'd like to think that what i post will be good enough so that when you finish and go back to whatever you were doing before, this will have added to your day. in reality, though, i just hope you make it past the first paragraph."

the background for this life is green striped and festooned with lemons, for now. that will probably change at some point (unless it grows on me). it goes by the rather random name of 'the wild canary' which i will explain later, and will probably not change at any point because i like it. here at the wild canary, things will never be 'all together.' in fact the 'all together' has been set aside with a certain amount of resignation in order to capture the messier and more entertaining scope of existance -- which sounds a lot more interesting and fun in my opinion. so with that said, i want to welcome you, my friends and family and strangers just passing by, to the not-all-together-lemon-festooned-weird-little-entertaining-goings-on of the wild canary!

it is now official. almost.



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