self-control

I just got a Tivo this weekend. I like it a lot, but I'm still working on getting it to improve its suggestion feature. Right now, the Tivo seems to think that I'm a tweenage girl, and it keeps recording episodes of That's So Raven. I think this is probably due to the fact that I set the Tivo to record every new episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation. I haven't checked out That's So Raven yet, but I have a feeling it's going to be vastly inferior to Degrassi, especially since it stars that annoying Olivia from The Cosby Show. For a while the Tivo was also recording random Lifetime movies, like this one called Dying to Dance about an anorexic ballerina, but it seems to have stopped that now. I guess that's probably a good thing, but part of me thinks it might be a good idea to have a few Lifetime movies saved up for some kind of emergency. I don't know what kind of emergency would require a stockpile of Lifetime movies, but I'm not ready to rule out the possibility that that type of emergency could occur.

I've had the Tivo for less than a week, but I already have a pretty big backlog of things to watch, including O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Maria Full of Grace, and Dirty Dancing. I missed out on the Dirty Dancing phenomenon the first time around; the movie came out when I was in fourth grade, and I wasn't allowed to see it at the time. I remember my friend Sylvia's parents let her watch it, and one day in class when we were supposed to be reading The Swiss Family Robinson, I asked her what exactly "Dirty Dancing" entailed. Sylvia told me that the dancing in Dirty Dancing was considered dirty because it involved "humping," a term that I was unfamiliar with at the time. I asked her if "humping" meant sex, and she said that it didn't necessarily, but she didn't want to explain in any more detail. So then I tried to get her to reenact "humping" using her shoelaces to represent Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze. She took two of her laces, smushed them up against one another, and sort of wiggled them around, but the whole thing didn't really make a lot of sense to me at the time. Anyway, at some point later in life I eventually watched Dirty Dancing, but I don't think I was in the right mindset to fully appreciate the movie, since I don't even remember the "Nobody puts Baby in the corner!" line being said. So I figure I should give it a second, more attentive viewing at some point.

As you can see, my life is pretty exciting right now. Lately I've been getting recorded messages from the Cragmont Elementary School principal, Jason Lustig, on my answering machine. Today Principal Lustig called and left a message telling me that the children did a wonderful job during today's fire drill. The children modelled excellent "Self-Control," which is apparently their new "Cragmont Cares" word for the week. The children also had a short assembly on "Self-Control," and according to the principal, I am also supposed to discuss the importance of "Self-Control" at home. So to anyone who is reading this: remember to control yourself.