Jennifer Anne Kogler

So, I’ve been a fan of Austin ever since I visited in 2006.  I really like the Bat Bridge (I don’t know if that’s what it’s officially called . . . but it’s that place where all the bats fly out at dusk) and I really like the attitudes of Austinians.  So I was predisposed to having a great visit.  And I did.

I kicked off my week there at Hill Country Middle School . . . a great school with great kids and a great media specialist, Heather Schubert and great aide Leslie Wilson.  Honestly, I am amazed at the art skills on display at many of the schools I go.   Ah, the wonder of butcher paper.  See below.

  Neat, huh?  Then I was onto West Ridge Middle School with Pat Martinez and her beautiful library.  We’re talking lamps and cozy corners and a pretty awesome u-shape.  It actually makes me want to be there right now just thinking about it.  There was a hilarious teleporter there who convinced even me that he had teleported, if only for a moment.  You never know.

I ended my week at the very literary-named O Henry Middle School.  The ebullient Sara Stevenson squired me around and also had enough enthusiasm to keep me energized even though it was Friday and I think I my sleep depravation finally caught up with me.  I’ve been bouncing back and forth, coast-to-coast so much that I think even my jet lag is jet lagged.  

I also got to visit one of my best friends who is at UT Law School, so all in all, a great week.  Tomorrow, I’ll tell you all about Tampa.  But you can move back from the edge of your seat . . . that can’t be comfortable.  g’night.

Oh dear.  I’ve temporarily abandoned blogging again.  But not to worry!  I have written myself 14 Post-Its to remind myself this weekend that some serious blogging needs to be done.  That’s all I have to report.  Yup.  That’s it.  Why are you still reading?  There’s nothing else.  I promise.

Hiya!

Last week, I was in San Antonio.  Which meant I got to stride along the River Walk and see the Alamo.

 Let me tell you the problem growing up fifteen minutes from Disneyland: I go to a really famous place, like the Alamo, and I immediately think it looks like Disneyland.  Every famous landmark now reminds me of Disneyland.  In truth, Disneyland is modeled to look like a bunch of ACTUAL famous places.  Like, as I was walking along the River Walk, I kept thinking that the it was actually where the Jungle Boat Ride meets New Orleans Square near Frontier Land.  But the River Walk was probably there before Disneyland.  

Anyway, my trip to San Antonio was great . . . and I did enjoy seeing the Alamo, but I imagined it to be bigger in my mind and also there was no basement that I could find, at least.  

I could not have started the week off at a better location – with Jamie Jennings and Shannon Sankey, the awesome, self-proclaimed “library chicks,” from Wood Middle School.   Then I was off to Eisenhower Middle School.  I was happy to have another presidentially-named middle school under my belt.  It has been a little while without.  Teresa Diaz had just moved to that media center and as far as I could tell, Eisenhower is very luck to have her.  

After that, it was on to Tejeda Middle School with Lydia Black taking care of all the details and keeping things in perfect order.  We had a couple teleporters there that got close, I promise.  Brandon and Andrew gave it a try, for sure.

I ended the week at Bradley Middle School.  They also had a new librarian, Terry Ramirez . . . not that you could tell.  Everything went off without a hitch and it was a perfect place to end my visit to San Antonio.  I left with the warmest of feelings.

Eisenhower and their staff of loyal voulunteers actually set up a little signing area of me.  Check it out:

I wonder what I’m laughing at.  I oftentimes crack myself up . . . so your guess is as good as mine.  

Random ending thought:  If anyone has any pictures of feral hogs they’d be willing to send me, I’d sure appreciate it.  I’ll explain later.  Like in my next blog.  Not to worry.  Until then . . . jak

So, um, hi.  There’s really no excuse for me not posting for the last week and a half or so.  Sometimes I just go into blogging funks.  But I’m feeling absolutely blogtastic today, so here I am.

Anyway, I finished up Atlanta in grand style.  I was at Dodgen Middle School, where Sue Klodnicki’s enthusiasm was only matched by her sense of humor.  In fact, I have a picture of her.  Are you ready?  

OMG.  Another sideways picture.  I know that you were beginning to miss them, weren’t you?  Right?  Anyway, That’s Media Specialist Sue Klodncki.  And that the cool mural in her library.  If she looks like she’s hilarious, it’s because she is!

I finished up the week at Autrey Middle School with Laura Hunter.  Autrey presented a special problem for me because it was Spirit Say.  Which sounded like a lot of fun (honestly, there were teachers running through the hallways with fairy wings and bug-eye masks on — we should all be so lucky to go to a school like that).  The problem came during my standard Q & A session.  My usual tools to signal to someone that I was calling on them didn’t work.  

“You in the red,” I’d say, calling on someone in a red shirt.  And then forty kids in red shirts would point to themselves because part of Spirit Day entailed wearing the same color.  Whoops.  

Anyway, I saw my first scorpion while running in a park near where I was staying.  It was kind of large and kind of scary.  I ran in the opposite direction, of course.  So my Flight or Fight instincts are totally intact.  But now I can check scorpions off my list of poisonous creatures left to see.  Which is something.  

On to THE ALAMO!