Mein Chupacabra Haus

I know I haven't written a proper blog for a while but--can you blame me? This summer I almost moved to Salt Lake City,
painted and re-arranged my whole Provo house, roasted a pig (head on) with Christian, planned (and tried on) numerous "teaching outfits," and made lots of playlists. [No picture of my Provo house because, sadly, it's not as good as the one we almost bought in Salt Lake. Poor Provo house.]

While I was trying on teaching outfits I also had to create and plan my Honors 150 class--which I haven't taught for two years.

Today was the second day of class and I'm already going off about King Ding Dong. I don't' know why. Usually I wait a lot longer. Usually I'm well into the semester before I feel comfortable enough to launch into one of my topics. (If you ever read this blog you could probably name two or three of my topics pretty easily.) It's not like I planned it or anything. We were talking about the writing process and it just came up.

But the exciting thing happening in my class--what I am most looking forward to--is the naming contest next Tuesday for the mangled G.I. Joe that was found in my classroom. I think it's great for kids to have a mascot. It gives them something to rally around. When I worked with the Young Women I created and soon became obsessed with the personification of a clipboard (named Conducto) which the older girls used when they conducted meetings and made announcements. Conducto had a pen and mints attached to him. When he spoke, he spoke with a Spanish accent. This is what he said:

"Hi! I am Conducto the conducting clipboard. I am very fancy and special (just like you). I can make opening exercises more spiritual, organized, and fun but you have to use me and BE PREPARED!"

As was often the case during my brief stint with the Young Women--I was more into it than they were. (But that's just because they're dumb and I'm cool.) I am having a premonition of future deja vu regarding my writing class. Weird.

In the spirit of contests and naming things and trying to make my Provo house feel better even though it has a LOT more vinyl on it than the charming 1950s bungalow in Salt Lake City, I want to name my house. You know how Martha Stewart has Turkey Hill and rich/British people name their houses? Well I want to do that. And I want to refer to my house by its name all the time to give it more dignity. I've been wanting to do this for a while and have the kids come up with suggestions but you know how it is--if you ask your kids for suggestions and they come up with dumb stuff it's hard to dismiss them without sounding, well--cruel. So I open this up to you. I hope you come up with something perfect. Just so you know, my house is white and I live by a goat farm. So maybe something like, "White Goat Manor," but better. I am excited to hear your ideas. If you don't come up with anything good, I'll see what the kids have to say and we will probably just go with "Poo Poo House," because that's what Ben names everything.

As an interesting sidenote, I want to tell you a story. This is a true story about a man named Henne Gansfleische. Henne didn't love his name which translates, roughly, to "gooseflesh." No matter; he was industrious, driven, and smart. He worked tirelessly on an invention that would significantly change the world. Henne's house was called zu laden, zu Gutenberg. Gutenberg is a lot more dignified than gooseflesh and that is why you know Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press, by the name of his house, rather than his ancestors. Inspiring? Totally! Now let's get to work on naming my house.