what happens when people mess with andy's food

I had to eat chicken livers again tonight. Of course I love the family I went to visit and so I said nothing about it, but there is no disappointment quite like when you are expecting a nice, tasty, home-cooked meal and the mother brings out chicken livers. It’s kinda like finding out there is no Santa Claus, no Easter Bunny, and that the Tooth Fairy isn’t some philanthropic fairy do-gooder but just your parents getting rid of spare change. Maybe I exaggerate, but chicken livers… {shiver}.

On the other hand, I had one of those This-Is-Why-I-Teach moments today. In my fourth grade class we were talking about pets and what they like and what they don’t like. (Aside: Who, I ask WHO?!, decides that “tarantula” is an appropriate word to teach 4th graders? I can barely pronounce it. I thought their little heads were gonna explode.) In the textbook, one of the characters had a parrot. It so happened that a kid in the class who NEVER talks also happened to have a parrot as a pet. And so I asked him questions about the parrot and he just opened up. He even went on to volunteer to answer other questions. I felt great because I saw an opportunity and took it and maybe, just maybe, that kid will think English is cool. That’s my thought at least. At any rate, it felt a lot better than trying to swallow chicken livers without chewing…

* Thanks to Jessica for the picture from our adventures this summer in Veliko Turnovo