whack or poppin?

I think we may have invented the greatest game ever at school today. As I was decompressing at the end of a fairly insane day with two other teachers, our already mildly delirious conversation took a turn for the...delirious-er(?) as we created "whack or poppin?" Here's how you play. Pick something that exists in the world. then ask, is it whack, or is it poppin? You can play in a group or by yourself and the fun goes on forever. Here are some examples to get you started:

• sentence fragments: whack or poppin?
• A: whack

• global history: whack or poppin?
• A: poppin
  

• Bon Jovi: whack or poppin?
• A: you already know it's poppin
  

now try a few on your own:

1. Tom Brady
2. Eli Manning
3. No Child Left Behind
4. puffer fish
5. the electric slide
6. Stanford
7. Cal

It's no Jump to Conclusions mat, but I think it's poppin.

(The correct answers are: 1. poppin 2. whack 3. whack minus 4. poppin 5. whack plus 6. poppin 7. what's lower than whack?)

where's alice cooper?

i don't want to have to teach tomorrow.

it's not that i dislike it--i actually find it really exciting and blah blah blah. but really? 5:30 am wake up call? i've really enjoyed the past week of sleeping in until 5:50 am. it's been special. also, i've been able to actually partake in viewing the rising sun from the comfort of my apartment window like a regular human being. today i went a little crazy and bought myself a hot chocolate. slow down there tiger!

but beyond the extended wake up time, i have that "sunday night dread" of the regular week, only times 4 right now. which is doubly lame since it's tuesday. it's 11:14pm. i should've been in bed over an hour ago--thanks for an hour of time wasted, "The Office" reruns on tbs! but syndicated television aside, i'm wired. not as in "The Wire" (which yes, I am slowly getting into. i hope we can soon have meaningful conversations about McNulty and the wider implications of this gritty show, but really i'm only on episode 7 of season 1. i still can't keep all the characters straight. i hope to some day be as well versed in the trivia and character arcs as you already are, friend), but as in first day of school nerves!

you'd think that after a good four years i'd be so over the first day jitters. especially seeing as it is january, and decidedly not the first day of school. but any time i get a brief reprieve from the work grind, i get nervous about going back. like when i take that F train down to york street, i am marching to certain death. or at least severe teenage angst and grumbling.

look--i am so distraught i forgot to consistently use proper capitalization, friend. keep me posted if you have any words of wisdom, similar stories of back to school blues, or a fancy red pen with which you plan to correct my multiple grammatical errors.