Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Sounds like there are crickets in the room.

Today I was sitting in my two-hour senior research symposium (which sounds all big and official but is really one of the most laid-back classes I have ever taken) and during a lull, one girl said, "It sounds like there are crickets in the room."

We'd all noticed it, because it DID sound like there were crickets in the room.

This guy who was sitting next to the first girl, who actually goes by "T-Bone" and openly talks about his sex-life and recreational drug use in class (it's a class on love; anything goes) said, "I don't think it's the crickets I have in my backpack, let me check" and lifts the bag up to his ear. "Nope!" he said, setting it back on the floor.

We all chuckle, because 1. why would he have crickets in his backpack and 2. why would there be crickets in our academic classroom at all, but then he got a confused look on his face. "What?" he asked, looking back at all of us. "I think my crickets are too hot to be making that much noise."

THEN HE PULLS A CLEAR PLASTIC BAG FULL OF CRICKETS OUT OF HIS BACKPACK.

He actually had crickets. Literally every single person in the class thought he was just being sarcastic and making fun of the girl for asserting something silly during class, but no. He was being dead serious. We were rolling with laughter for at least five minutes.

Also, the cricket noises WERE coming from his bag, obviously. He was getting defensive about his "well-behaved" crickets, but WHERE ELSE WOULD IT BE COMING FROM? Oh, maybe it was the crickets in MY bag. Or the professor's bag. That makes sense. xD

So for the rest of class, any time it got quiet enough to hear them chirping away in his bag, we all burst into laughter. Needless to say, we didn't get quite as much done as our professor may have hoped today. Also, we made him put his backpack in the hall.

Sometimes I feel like I have to really pull to find things to write about in this blog, and other times they just fall right into my lap. Today, my life was a sitcom.


Now I have a midterm to study for that I am absolutely unprepared for, and food to eat. Because one poptart is just not a sufficient amount of food to have eaten by five o'clock in the evening.

Also my talented and attractive boyfriend's new album "Erase This" is available for presale today, so if you're into music that is easy on the ears made by people who are easy on the eyes, you should go check it out.

I know it's quite early on in the series, but what's your opinion- David Tennant or Matt Smith?
I think the way that Doctor Who is set up, with regeneration being a driving force in keeping the show going, lends itself to not having to choose between different Doctors. Matt Smith is still the Doctor, and I like the choices he's making with the character. Especially in the scene with young Amelia Pond when he's trying all the different foods and spitting them out. I loved David Tennant, but I am not going to let that love stop me from growing to love this new Doctor.

Did you hear anything from ANTM?
Not yet! They said it would be possible that they don't even contact the winners until a week before the move-in day, so I've got my fingers crossed still.

Book Banning?/Censorship?
I remember in 6th grade we did this unit on fantasy books. I was in the group that read "Dealing With Dragons" by Patricia Wrede, but another group in our class read some book that apparently had a pretty steamy little love scene in it. The kids giggled, made jokes, and the rest of us were jealous that we didn't choose that book, but nothing bad happened to any of the kids who read that book. There were no lasting negative implications on their lives, it didn't encourage them to go have sex at age 12, and we even sat down in class and had a discussion about the function of romance in literature. I feel like if every book that might cause a child to giggle a little bit was removed from libraries, we'd be missing out on not only some great literature, but an opportunity to talk to young children about maturity and the topics themselves that we'd be censoring from them.
Obviously as a writer and fairly liberal human being, I don't think we should be taking any books out of circulation. I do understand that some books can promote things that aren't appropriate for schools, which is fine, but that's not the case often with the books that are banned from schools. Often books are banned because adults/parents/staff do not understand the themes the writer was trying to explore, and that's what makes me sad.

What is your favorite (non-alcoholic) drink?
I really like apple juice. And those tall/skinny Cascade something-or-other drinks; I can never remember what they're called.

Last google search: "dealing with dragons"
Chipotle burritos: 9

18 comments:

Christina said...

That is the most hilarious thing I have ever heard.

Sabrina said...

Dealing with dragons was my favorite! I have the whole Patricia Wrede series. (It's the centerpiece to the "dragons" section of my bookshelf, right alongside "spies" and "time travel.")

Kristen said...

Don't you mean OUR attractive and talented boyfriendS? haha ;)

Also- well behaved crickets? wtf?

<3

Unknown said...

my class was once distracted for almost an hour because we could not determine what kind of animal was lingering on the fields outside the window. we ended up having a student run outside to see what it was. it was a bag of oranges.

Aly said...

I read dealing with dragons forever ago too xD

allyson said...

Oh gosh. Did you ever find out WHY he had a BAG OF CRICKETS in his backpack? haha

Kai said...

I do not want to know why he had a bag of crickets with him . . . . haha.
though i am a little curious.

Julia said...

Haha. Wow. I'm curious about why he had the crickets. That's pretty weird. We used to have crickets in our classrooms all the time in Arizona, so I didn't get why that was odd to hear a cricket at first :P One got in my bag once and I took him home with me, but that certainly wasn't on purpose...

Crystal said...

I LOVE when you update your blog. Seriously.

My high school German classroom was placed next to a courtyard, and there was a hallway that went out and around my German room, so the courtyard was fully enclosed. Senior year, a mom duck laid eggs right outside our window. We got to watch them hatch, grow up, and learn how to fly. Needless to say, we didn't learn too much for a few months. xD

seurat2 said...

You could make a short story out of this cricket incident, and the great thing is it could turn into almost any kind of story. I'm glad an awesome anecdote dropped into your lap, happily for us it happens a lot.

MissMarilynDarling said...

lol now the question begs what was he going to feed the crickets too ??

Aly said...

Can you talk about what you think of the girls on this season of ANTM and who you're rooting for?

Ravenclaw2313 said...

I love that your last google search is one you did while trying to answer one of the posted questions. Did you ever find out why he had crickets in his bag? A lizard, a snake, a weird foods cooking class? You're right sometimes things do just fall into your lap. This post certainly made a stressful Tuesday much brighter.

Anonymous said...

He probably has a pet spider or scorpion so that's why he has the crickets. Still pretty funny though!

My boyfriend used to have a pet spider and I remember the nights that I would stay over at his house, all you could hear when you were trying to sleep were crickets chirping and moving around the plastic box. So annoying! haha.

Natalie said...

Everyone around me thinks I am crazy as I'm just sat giggling at my ipod. This has to be one of the best things that's happened today. I say 'one of' because I've just been to a show where three of my male friends dressed up in leotards and performed the single ladies dance because of a bet. This story has made my day, don't you just love it when people surprise you?

Julia said...

This may seem like a joke, but my primary school banned Harry Potter because it was about witchcraft and we were a Christian school. We all thought it was ridiculous and read it anyway, but seriously, they would confiscate the book if you were seen with it. I don't understand how they thought we would take the book and exercise our own real magic with it. It teaches good over evil and most importantly - it's a story!
There is a deatheater called Rookwood. That was my head teacher's name.

Unknown said...

Haha, that reminds me of my vet class. We have 2 bearded dragons in there and they eat crickets. So, whenever it was silent you could always hear them and we would always laugh if it was an awkward silence. :P

Chantel said...

I got really excited when I saw you mention Dealing with Dragons. I used to love that series.