I am excited beyond my wildest dreams……………i know I will be smiling all day during our Inaugeration party with friends and family. Wish Inaugeration Day was a holiday from work where we could all dance in the streets and bring in the new administration…………have a countrywide party !…………..I know we are in trouble, but oh I have such ‘hope that springs eternal’

I don’t know where to post this but I am outraged that the judge did not revoke Madoff’s bail since he CLEARLY violated it. If it were me, I would be immediately taken into a 6’x6’ while awaiting indictment and trial. One wonders which piece of jewelry the judge received in exchange for his leniency! Shameful, just shameful but I am not surprised.

I am so sorry for those that were affected by this horrible man. I hope the prosecutor is able to convince the judge that he needs to be jailed and out of his multi-million dollar penthouse sending out one million dollars worth of jewels to family and friends as gifts (?). Whar ‘chutzpa’ but then again he is a sociopath and needs to be taken off the streets before he manipulates another scheme. As for me, i still have my teacher’s pension and social security ( I am keeping my fingers crossed). If all fails, my kids promised to send cans of tuna !!!!!!!!!!! To the rest of you, good luck ………….perhaps our new president will unwind this mess. I have such hope…………………………

Afraid of Sarah Palin…………….indeed! Afraid that the RNC will elevate her according to ‘Murphy;s Law” and then where will we be ?

Thanks for your advice. I do know about CASA and I did call them right after I retired but at that point it seemed too much of a responsibility having just left a very responsible position. But thank you, I just may do it now. I think I am ready.

From the time I was a young, I always wanted to teach. I loved children and thought I could make a difference in a child’s life and I am proud to say that with one young child I was her mentor in 3rd grade, her ‘go to’ person when she was in trouble as a young teenager, and now a proud unofficial “adoptive’ mom and gramma to her and her children. This has been a special relationship for over 20 years . I am now retired and find that the passion I felt and the satisfaction I got establishing relationships with some of the ‘babies’ in my elementary school classes is missing. As my principal said at my retirement party, “She never met a kid she didn’t like.”………..I am now 66 years old and feel at loose ends trying to fill my days with ‘stuff’ . What is my passion today ? I wish I knew, I wish I knew. ‘Old age ain’t for sissies’, so said Bette Davis, but neither is retirement.

Coulter makes me ill. My T.V. will not be tuned to ‘The Today’ show tomorrow morning. While I believe in the right to free speech, I believe I have the right to hit the off button when someone spews evil words…..

Me too !!!!!!!!!!!! My hair is my achilles heel. When I walk out the door it is passable……………then a sight breeze or touch of humidity makes me look unkempt (and I am certainly not that…….. I take pride in what I wear, how my make-up looks, etc,)……….i would go to the hairdresser weekly/biweekly but when I wake in the morn my ‘3’ hairs are standing on end ……..any suggestions………..truth be known, however, if this is the extent of of my problems, I’ll live with it !

Brooklyn, thanks for the info on “seat credit”…………….however, does the child get a grade for just showing up ?……..how does this awful practice work or better yet, make sense to any educator ? The only thing I can think of is that the state pays for every warm body that is in attendance. What else can the explanation be?

Ro, not that it matters because it is the wish that counts but “Kwanza” is the correct spelling…………..my best to you for the coming year.

What is ‘seat credit” ? As a retired teacher from Miami. Florida (Rudy Crew, anybody), I have experienced your frustration and then some. I am SOOOOO happy to be through witht the BS, the unendng needless paperwork, the teaching to the test so you can receive a pittance of a bonus, the flow charts that leave nary a second to incorporate a teachable moment, and the never ending “new’ ideas that come down the pike from people who have not been in a classroom for years (these new ideas are not so new if you have been around for awhile……… ‘everything old is new again’, so the saying goes ). On a positive note, I have made and continue to have some wonderful relationships with students that I had over 20 years ago………….that has been my reward, seeing the success of these now adults and being important enough for them to share it with me after all these years. I am truly blessed and I guess all that nonsense made what I have now, worth it..

Too much going on in the world tonight to care about JLo and her impending divorce. Who cares !

I hope we can all be there without the glare of the press picking apart why he died, how he died, and his past medical history. No one deserves that kind of horrific scrutiny at this time or for that matter, at anytime. Their lives have been forever changed.

My heart goes out to the Travolta’s. This is not the way it is suppoed to be.

The election of Barack Hussein Obama……..I am elated…………YES WE DID ! And to those of you who lost a loved one this year, I am sorry. I hope and pray that you find peace and acceptance in the coming year……it is a long, hard road…………. I know it all too well.