Trenton Interact; Unexpected Party

Went to Trenton to teach high schoolers geography on Friday morning. Fellow Princetonian Lilly and I taught two hour-long sessions. We were told beforehand that the students would be very well-behaved since this particular high school is actually for young adults over 18 who previously missed schooling (due to work, familial responsibilities, etc). Thus, they have no legal obligation to attend. Unfortunately, their behavior was lacking. On the other hand, they were certainly up for academic challenges. Perhaps we just need to motivate them more. The first week's lesson was how to use an atlas and linking countries to current events, which I think was about the correct level of difficulty. (I'm not sure what the lesson is for next week yet.)

Friday night, Princeton Hillel (or CJL, as we call it here) hosted Quipfire, a Princeton improv group, to perform after Shabbas dinner. Having seen Fizzy Dice's lackluster performance recently, I was pleasantly surprised by Quipfire's laughs per minute ratio. They had a great short-form skit where three celebrities sit down for dinner, but no one knows who they are and each pair of performers has to drop clues for the third so they can order an "appropriate" dish at the end.

Speaking of improv, I was watching Who's Line last week and Ryan Stiles, while imitating "Carol Channing with a head that sticks to things" for the game Party Quirks, slammed his head into the Drew Carey's desk. The impact shattered the neon light that outlines the show's logo -- lucky for Ryan he wasn't bleeding. I think I can use this incident the next time someone claims that the show is actually scripted.

Saturday, Chicklet and I headed into the city for Shabbat services. We went to a synagogue that Mordechai Kaplan founded! The downside was the we were the only people between the ages of 18 and 35 in the room. Still, the sanctuary was beautiful, and so was the Cantor's voice. (I should stop the list of what was beautiful here, lest I break any commandments.) We then had Thai food, and did a little shopping.

On the subject of shopping, I just made an impulse buy for the first time since ... I don't know when, but it's been a while. I was walking back from the bank (after depositing a stipend check, which probably had something to do with my spur-of-the moment purchase) and wanting to procrastinate from doing work, I stuck my head into a local bookstore. There I saw Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. I picked it up and read a few thoroughly enjoyable pages about grammar sticklers. Since I'm on the last chapter of my current pleasure book (Brian Greene's Elegant Universe), I decided to purchase Truss's work without even looking at the price. At the register, I was a little surprised by the $21 price tag for such a small volume (check out Amazon's price), but by then I was past the point of no return. It'll make a great addition to my bookshelf at any rate. (And who knows, maybe I'll finally learn how to keep my tenses consistent and properly use commas.)

Sunday, after our last training run for the half marathon, some old MIT friends stopped by completely unexpectedly. I couldn't be too upset about the lack of a warning email since they brought good news. More marriages on the way! Ah, the life of a twenty-something :)

H(eadline)OTD: "9/11 case prosecutor: 'He lied and 3,000 people died'" (CNN) -- Who, Bush?