Morgan once blogged about living in the Ghetto (http://ingfamily.blogspot.com/2008/11/proof-i-live-in-ghetto.html). Well, if one shopping cart makes it so you live in the ghetto, I live in the Ghetto times seven. There are a total of seven shopping carts in my yard. (One is on the side of the house so it is not included in the picture) I will never understand the mentality of people who take shopping carts from the store and bring them to where they live. I just don't get it. If you live only two blocks from the grocery store, it does make sense to walk there. The part I do not get is why are you buying so much that you can't comfortably carry it? Seriously, the place is only two blocks away...you probably could go there next week, or even tomorrow if necessary! Another thing that I do not get about this mentality is why don't you take the cart back the next time you go to the store. Apparently, you go multiple times if there are multiple carts. Wouldn't it occur to you that "wow, I could take this back with me so it would not become an eye sore." Hmm. Maybe they do not understand that there are other people in the world. "If this cart doesn't bother me, then it isn't a problem." They do not have to walk past the graveyard of carts everyday, do they?
I would also take pictures of all the trash that they have on "their" porch, but I have a fear of them getting out baseball bats and chasing after me. Apparently, the walk to the dumpster is too far, so they just chuck the garbage out onto the porch instead of walking the fifty feet to the dumpster. Again, they are not realizing that this is a shared space and everyday other people have to walk past junk alley to get their mail.
Morgan, I think I win. I live in more of a ghetto than you! I will even dare say I live in the "geto." That is how my students grafittized our sidewalk at school one year. They thought our school was ghetto but really were so ghetto that they actually could not spell ghetto properly. I kinda take humor in all of this but at the same time am irritated by the lack of education around me on all fronts right now. I go to school and teach people who struggle so much then I go home and am bombarded by the same crap. In fact, the other day when I confronted one of the neighbor children about said shopping carts and suggested the next time they go to Smith's they could actually take a few back he responded by saying: "Oh those aren't our carts." Hmm. Funny that I often see him with his mother parking the cart there and taking their groceries out of it. Yep, they must not be yours. One of my students does a similar thing every time I confront him on inappropriate behavior or language. "Please do not swear." "I wasn't swearing, it was my mouth." No responsibility for anything. Very annoying.
So there you have my rant on the "geto" I live in!
Life has been very, very, very busy these days. A typical day has me teaching for about seven hours, coaching basketball for an hour and a half, exercising for an hour, doing some grading for about a half an hour and then going home about about six-thirty. Once home all the energy I have is to plop myself down in front of the TV and veg until about ten-thirty. Sometimes I stay up later because I feel I have not gotten enough Alice time. This is bad because then I do not get enough sleep and I am Grumpy Alice at school. I have found myself yelling at students a few times this last week. I don't like when I get like that. I don't want to be Yelling Alice either. She is not nice. The kids like the Alice who is funny and positive not angry and negative. I am aware of all these things but am having a hard time changing. I guess that is the project for me in the next few weeks.
I am very much looking forward to Thanksgiving Break. I don't have too many plans except for hanging with the Bills forThanksgiving and the day after. My friend, Ben, will also be in town from Austin, Texas and I am excited to see him. The last time I got to see him was in March while he was living in Des Moines. It will be fun to re-connect again.
This weekend I am going to the movie Twilight and cleaning. I am procrastinating getting down to the cleaning. The biggest challenge is going to be the mound of clothes that has appeared in my room. I have been so tired lately that Tornado Alice just throws clothes in piles when she is done wearing them. Non-Organized Alice has also not put the clean ones away so the hampers are out of commission for dirty clothes because clean clothes are inhabiting them. I better get to it so I can go to the movie this afternoon. I hope you are all having a fabulous day. I like weekends!
