Those Who Blog Together, Volume 2: School

I'm late to the party this week!  I've been off my game because we've been out of school, which lucky for me is the topic for this week of synchoblogging. 

Since I started at the age of four (almost five), there hasn't been a year of my life where I wasn't in school.  I went from grade school to high school to college to teaching, almost 26 years all together.  I loved being in school because I have always been a teacher's pet kind of kid.  (People pleasers unite!)  I got away with things because of it.  I will admit here and now that I did call that girl a b*tch in the sixth grade, but when the teacher said I would never say something like that I just smiled.   I mean, as a senior, my favorite teacher gave me the keys to her car and let me run errands for her during school.  Teacher's Pet was my senior superlative, people! 

When it came to college, I had no clue what I wanted to be, but I knew I didn't want to be a teacher.  (Isn't it funny how life works.)   I'd had a change of tune by sophomore year and knew teaching was what I was meant for.  I love teaching, especially middle schoolers, and can't imagine my life any other way.  (Well, okay, I can imagine myself as Princess Kate, but that's a post for another time.)

Can't wait to see what everyone else has to say! 

Those Who Blog Together (Synchroblogging): Pets

Courtney over at Chaos Theory had the idea of synchoblogging, or bloggers picking a subject and talking about it in some way on their blogs a couple times a months.  Our first topic is pets, so if you want to join, all you have to do is write and link up!  I'm hoping it will be an interesting experience, not unlike the A to Z Blogging Challenge I'm doing right now.

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Growing up in the relative country, we always had pets inside and outside of my parents' house.  We've owned a string of Siamese cats, which if you have ever had the (dis)pleasure of meeting, you know are moody little beasts.  In fact, my parents still have one, Shredder, who I've featured on the blog before.  He is evil for sport.  He almost seems to delight in the screams of his victims.  And I wish I was exaggerating.

Outside, we usually had a cat or two to catch mice (Siamese are way too picky to be bothered with mice, ew!), and most times a dog of some sort.  The word to describe these dogs was usually 'mutt,' but we loved them just the same.  One of the sweetest dogs was the dog I had through most of my childhood named Hambone.  (I named him, but I couldn't begin to tell you why that was his name. I was four, people!)  He was a big dog, and on several occasions we might have tried to ride him around the yard, but we willingly put up with it.  We've had more outside animals at my parents than I could even begin to tell you about ranging from the sweet, to the simple, to the just plain weird.  One cat loved to catch reptiles for us, so it was nothing to find a dead frog, snake or even a giant salamander on the doorstep.  And then there was Clarke, my bulldozer of a puppy (part German Shepard, part St. Bernard).  He was such a good dog.  When I moved to town, my sister took over the loving of him, but he was still one of my sweet spots.

I've written many times about Delilah, my current cat.  (Including last week.)  She's a mess, to put it mildly.  I sometimes consider gettting another kitten because I know that there are so many cats at the local humane society and what not.  I'm just not sure how Delilah would react, though I am guessing not well.  I mean, I've seen how she treats her stuffed animals.  Who knows?  Maybe I will give it a shot this summer.  But is there anything more stereotypical than a single girl with two cats?

"Go ahead.  Make my day."