First DC Snow...Just in Time for SITSmas!

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake

The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep.

La Famila Scribe wishes you & yours
a Very Merry SITSmas & a festive, fun holiday season!

Editor's Note: Thanks to all y'all who contributed to Mrs. Scribe's fanTAbulous SITS Featured Blogger Day. Probably gonna take me mucho tiempo to respond to your dozens~dare I say hundreds?~of comments, but respond I will. And remember: I'm still available to cater your next cyber-affair! PS: The Superior Snap above captures only the beginning of last Saturday's snow. About 6 inches accumulated in our DC 'Burb...with more forecast on the way, today!

She's Available to Cater Your Next Cyber-Affair...

Dateline: Somewhere in the DC 'Burbs~Melissa B., the intrepid former newspaper reporter known in the Blogosphere as Mrs. Scribe, welcomed members of the SITS cyber-community to her blog today.

The high school English teacher, who also slaves away as a student newspaper and yearbook adviser, said she was all agog at the hubub caused by her SITS Featured Blogger Status.

"I just don't know what to say, y'all," the Native Texan gushed. "I'm not used to receiving all this adulation. You know, they don't call me The Humble Scribe for nothing."

Mrs. Scribe credited her new-found fame to Heather and Tiffany, proprietresses extraordinaire of The Secret is in the Sauce, a social-networking site dedicated to "sharing the comment love."

In fact, Mrs. Scribe said, she hoped her 24 hours in the SITS Sun would help her to "connect with new cyber-friends, and perhaps generate a little social networking of my own."

Melissa B., who has been a blogger since March 2008, rides herd over about 150 students each year at Our Humble High School in the DC 'Burbs. As part of her duties, she not only teaches the curriculum mandated by the School Board & Principal Man, but also:

• Copes with crises:"Seven Years Ago Today"
• Interacts with members of the school counseling staff: "Would You Like Salsa on that Transcript?"
• Teaches her high school journalistas the value of self-censorship: "No Sex for Santa This Season."

Mrs. Scribe is also loving wife to Mr. Fairway & Mommy to 2 fabulous chicas: Ella Numera Una, who is in her first year of law school, & Ella Numera Dos, a college sophomore who is a blogger in her own right. In fact, you should check out Dos's photoblog, MOO.

Melissa B. tries to serve as an arbiter of good taste & pop culture in the blogosphere as well, using her daily cyber-forum to comment on everything from traffic to politics to manners. In this role, she:

• Counsels readers on handling big-rig mayhem on the highways: "What's the Word Wednesday: Hyperbole"
• Comments on the de riguer nature of decorating: "The Christmas Breasts"
• Cracks wise on the phenomenon of drugs in professional sports: "Well, We All Can't Be Michael Phelps"

In addition, Melissa B. is the Original Superior Scribbler, with more than 1,350 of her Superior Scribbler Awards to date distributed worldwide. And she hosts her weekly Silly Sunday Sweepstakes, encouraging readers to get their goofy on with crazy photos & captions.

"I just can't say enough about what blogging has meant to me over the past 21 months," said Mrs. Scribe, who prides herself on posting daily & keeping her insights fresh & her commentary relevant.

While she says that teaching "is the best job I've ever had," Mrs. Scribe continues to look for writing opportunities in the blogosphere. And as a prolific, poignant & on-point wordsmith, she's always ready for guest posting or book, movie & product review assignments.

"I'd love to figure out a way to make this blogging janx a permanent gig," Melissa B. said. "As it stands now, though, I'm available to cater your next cyber-affair..."

Sx3: Supernatural

DC & environs received our first snow of the season yesterday. In fact, we got a whole heckuva lot more than the Weather Dudes anticipated. Let's just put it this way: There's more of the white stuff blanketing the ground in DC, which is supposedly in a "temperate" zone, than in Madison, Wisconsin, where Ella Numera Una is about to sit for her first round of law school exams.

Thought I'd thaw out by featuring a more chill snap of my eldest, in honor of the occasion & all. You long-time Scribe followers know all about our summer swim team janx & how the coaches like to dress up & all. Here's one interpretation of the Super Heroes theme. Take what you wish from it.

And you know what to do next, don'tcha? Take a gander at this Superior Snap. Then, conjur a caption for said snap & tippy-type it, real quick-like, in the comments section of this post.

That's all there is to it, folks! Of course, you'll win nothing tangible for all your trials & tribulations. Only the knowledge that you've given a whole herd of us a good Sunday giggle...and what could be better than that?

Yes, a Room with a View

Editor's Note: My contribution to 6-Word Saturday is above, in the title of this post. The following is a student-written editorial in the recent issue of Our Humble High School's student newspaper. Thanks for the forum, Cate!

We are watching you.

For those of you who don’t know, the Journalism classroom is located in Rooms 215 and 218, on the back hallway overlooking the beloved senior parking lot. We produce this newspaper during fifth period, which also happens to be home to our school's three lunch periods. Our location provides us with a prime place to watch skippers.

After years of observing you from our perch, there are a few parking lot anecdotes that we would like to share with you.

Number one is tripping. You would not think it was as common as it actually is. We see five to six people a week trip over things. Sometimes it’s a rock, or some other piece of debris; but more often than not people simply trip over themselves. This tripping phenomenon keeps us quite entertained. So, next time you trip and think no one is watching, we want you to know there is an entire classroom of students laughing at your lack of coordination.

Another parking lot regular is dancing. We see dance-offs once a week or so and we can now predict when one is about to erupt as groups of students congregate.

Our favorite weekly pastime, however, is watching the loners, dancing their way to their cars, believing they are invisible.

We also take note of the food choices of the students at Our Humble High School. Chipotle definitely comes in at number one. The infamous brown bag filled with tin-foil covered burritos graces the arms of most lunchtime skippers. Coming in at number two is McDonald's, most likely due to the proximity of the school itself. Bagel Bakery, Popeye’s and Starbucks follow close behind.

And we have seen countless people hide behind cars as the security golf carts round the corner. We watch you inch around your car, hoping to stay out of site and not get caught. But we love it when you do get caught. We always see it coming. It’s like a car wreck that can’t be prevented. We know it’s going to happen and there is nothing we can do to stop it.

The best parking lot view, however, is the hammock-hangers. Every once in a while, a group of students hangs a hammock between their cars and just chills out after school. We want you to know, hammock-hangers, that on days when we have a deadline, and nothing is getting done, watching you swing in your hammocks makes it all a little better.

We journalistas get much enjoyment out of watching the “regulars” every 5th period class as we write our stories and lay out newspaper pages. But just know, next time you trip, dance, skip, or hang a hammock, we are watching you.

Commuter Heaven: Voluptuous Afternoon View

Usually, the view out my front windshield is an immovable barricade of wall-to-wall cars. Depending on who's doing the measuring, DC & environs rank either 1st or there-abouts in worst traffic, nationwide. All I know is it doesn't matter when I start the trek home~at 2:30 p.m., shortly after school lets out, or at 5, when all my work is actually done~I'm going to hit the wall. It's enough to drive one to vehicular homicide...but I won't go there now.

In other words, I face some version of Commuter Hell most days. Although I have to say that when the big rigs get involved, it's more interesting than that car wreck known as Tiger Woods' marriage.

Imagine my surprise, then, yesterday afternoon around 3:30-ish~I was in a chipper mood anyway, 'cause Thursday afternoon means Friday's right around the corner, correctamundo? When what to my wondering eyes should appear but this voluptuous cloud bank.

Please don't turn me in for whipping out my camera for a quick shot. I promise that traffic had slowed to a mini-crawl...

No Sex for Santa This Season...

Writer's Workshop is brought to you each week by Mama Kat.
My assignment? Numero Tres: Open letter to Santa Claus.

Dear Santa:

I'm fed up with Christmas. It's over between us. I'm tired, frustrated, & just a wee bit ambiguous about the whole durn season.

You may recall that I'm a teacher. High School. English, to be precise. Oh, & Journalism, too. I'm adviser to both the newspaper & the yearbook at Our Humble High School.

Yesterday, one of my cherubs, a certified journalista, asked me a question. And as we all know, I'm a great proponent asking before doing. In fact, "Question" is my middle name.

"Mrs. Scribe?"

"Whatcha need, sweet pea?"

"Do I need to be PC?"

"I don't know, do you?"

"I mean in the newspaper."

"What's the topic?"

"We're writing a Top 10. About things to do over winter break."

At that point, I was sure that my journalistas were planting the seeds of insurrection again. I knew for a fact that they probably were going to start writing about sex. I played it cool, though. Didn't reveal the panic that was welling up inside of me like a liter of Coke after some chemistry students drop a couple of Mentos down its throat.

"O-kaaaaayyyyy..." I offered. Long & drawn out, just like that. Yup, sex, for sure, was on their agenda. I just knew it.

"Well, we wanted to say something funny about Santa."

That's it. Better censor them now before Principal Man gets to 'em. Or worse, calls me down to his office for another 2-hour pow-wow.

"O-kaaaaayyyyy...like what?" I presented a poker face. Didn't want to reveal my hand.

"Like, maybe, one of our Top 10 could be, like, Cut in line at the mall to sit on Santa's lap. Make a little kid cry. Like maybe something like that." Remember, my journalistas are teenagers~average age, 16. They think making little kids cry is downright lol.

I waited, quasi-patiently, for the punchline. My cherub needed some prompting, was all.

"And...?"

"Oh, that's it. Are we allowed to, like, mention Santa in the newspaper?"

"Well, sure. He's a secular holiday figure, after all."

"What's that? That's not like, something about sex, is it?"

Only if Santa ends up in jail, sweet pea. And no, I didn't say that to her. But I sure did want to.

Hope your season is filled with joy. No, not that kind. This is a family blog, after all...

Grandma won't get run over by a reindeer this season, will she?

Your friend, Mrs. Scribe

A Scribe Disclaimer: Photo courtesy of Stéfan's Flickr Photostream.

Pretty Darn Cheesy!