Time for another round of "Gifts from Middle-Schoolers."  

We have an elective class at my school which is kind of a combo of metal shop, wood shop, and other technical stuff.  The students have recently been working on creating wooden letters, and they gave us each an ornament with our initial on it.  Before I got my initial ornament, though, one of my former students walked in my classroom.  "I made you this ornament!" 

"Wow, thanks Bob!* Uhhhh, what is 'AM'?"

(*name has obviously been changed)

I tried thinking through it.  Maybe he had started to write "math" and decided not to finish the word for some reason? 

I mean, "A.M.?"  What does that mean?

Nope.  Couldn't come up with anything.  I just stood there looking at him/the ornament with a puzzled expression, while a class full of students eagerly awaited his response.  In truth, it probably lasted 4.3 seconds, but it was long enough for a plethora of thoughts to cross my complicated mind.  

Brandon then explained: "It's A&M!"  

I laughed.  Out loud.  A lot.  And then I showed everyone whose path I crossed.  

I love it.  

Later last night, my roommates attended a Christmas party thrown by a friend of theirs.  For whatever reason, the city of Austin has become fascinated with plaid.  Hipsters wear it.  Musicians wear it.  Construction foremen have worn it for years.  Burberry is known for their plaid.  Naturally, J.Crew now sells it.  My roommate Amanda found out and immediately hunted down their version of the plaid shirt.  (I'm not exaggerating.  She searched online, discovered they were sold out, and had to track down a local store with her size in stock.)  She threw on this shirt to wear to the party and I jokingly (but also sincerely) told her that I wanted a count of the number of plaid shirts at the party and the ratio of plaid shirts to total shirts worn.   

Note: I'm a geek.  Yes.  This is not news.  

Anyway, she sent me a text message a few hours later asking how many people a plaid chair was worth in the count.  Then she sent me a picture of her sitting in the plaid chair.  

It was splendid.