this week's chief annoyances:

1. getting yelled at by an uppity white parent who thinks that i am a) unprofessional because i have closed body language and i don't make eye contact with her pain-in-the-ass-cheerleading-too-cool-for-school daughter, b) creating a poisonous learning environment in which her daughter does not feel safe to learn, and c) using inappropriate language with her daughter, such as "your attitude needs to change." and let me tell you, there is much more where that came from, but i shall spare your senses and tell you that i thought the mother-daughter dream team were both pains in the ass and i don't give a crap what they say. so different from when we had this EXACT SAME CONFERENCE last year. i cried then because i felt like the world's worst teacher. this year i cried because i was frustrated that my team needs to deal with idiots like that. that, and it was a half-hour of my life that i was never going to get back.

upside: my team scraped me off the ground and we fled campus en masse to get snacks and yummy drinks at starbucks immediately afterwards. also, all my administrators were on my side and rolled their eyes at hearing about the conference. booyah.

2. my other chief annoyance this week is the fact that there are fifty million "greatest hits" albums out right now. for some, i could understand. nirvana. pearl jam. they've been around for a while, the bands have been out of commission ... they put out some good stuff. it's not new, but i think after x number of multi-platinum albums, u2 deserves to have a greatest hits collection. the borderline case, i think, is no doubt. they're a great band, but honestly ... not enough clout, time, and albums to necessarily warrant a greatest hits cd. moving along the spectrum, i don't think cheryl crow deserves one either, especially since she is a home wrecker. (two totally unrelated topics, i realize.) and then ... there are the wtf's. i's sorry, but backstreet boys????? britney spears??????? and as much as i love her, mandy moore????????? give me a friggin' break. they're like 10 years old, and they think they should have a greatest hits cd? that's total crapola. especially since their music (as fun and as guilty-pleasure-oriented as they are) it must be said, SUCKS. honestly, what is the world coming to?

i'm getting off my soapbox. all this being said, i really wanted to buy the britney album.