Teachers can send such mixed signals.

Hello, dear un-commenting readers. Laura Hammer here.


Claire has, most unfortunately, posted before me.

Now isn't that a nice surprise?


Ok. Sarcasm finished.


Well, today we had a non-uniform day in school. Great, if you (like Claire) favour hoodies and nice jeans. Not so great, if you (like me) favour quirky one-of-a-kind fedora hats with a waspleg black and white print. I spent the entire day hiding my hat in my book pile, since Miss Prittstick (vice-principal, standing in for the real principal who has hopefully been taken back to her home planet by her alien granddaughter-in-law) has a thing for non-individuality. Here is how one of our conversations went.

LH: *walks to classroom wearing fedora*
MP: *stares*
LH: *confused*
MP: Why are you wearing a hat?
LH: Um, Miss, it's our retreat*. It's a non-uniform day. The hat's just.... *trails off, waiting for Miss Prittstick to recieve the point*
MP: But why are you wearing the hat?




However, the hat (which I put on at the 11 o' clock break. Take that, MP) can also bring people closer. For example, today I was walking up towards the Home Ec rooms with when suddenly Miss Twig pops up from a manhole. Or something.


MT: *smiles manaically*
LH: *goes rigid*
MT: I love your hat!
LH: *tries to move lips numb with shock, after all this is the teacher who is amusingly ignorant to other cultures where they stick mechanical pencils in their messy bun/ponytail thing*
MT: Really, it's a very wacky hat!!!
LH: *tries and fails to form a coherent sentence and ergo settles for a supressed smile of disbelief*
MT: Well I must go destroy more rainforests! SYS BBZ! **



You see the reason for the title? Yesterday, two pencils are practically the start of a nuclear war. Today, she is pretty much the president of the

"LET'S ADMIRE LAURA'S HAT! CLUB"

(membership costs €29.95 per month with a free TRIAL MONTH if you subscribe next week and have no car insurance or macademia nuts in your house)

On a completely different note (so far) my sister Niamh got whacked in the face by a ball kicked by a guy in her class, at which point she spouted more blood than a garden hose filled with blood and she actually could not get up. I fear she is concussed, although she is probably not.

On another slightly-the-same note, I went to see Singin' In The Rain at the local(ish) theatre tonight. It was highly amusing and the voices were all good. However, I am absolutely nearly positive that the man playing Cosmo stared at me a lot. Either it was my dazzling good looks, the fact that I was the only member of the audience wearing a hat, the fact that I was sitting exactly in the centre of the audience, or the fact that my eyes were shining brightly with the effulgent glow that only musicals can inspire.

We can only guess.

* A retreat is a day when you go to school but don;t have books or classes or anything and it is basically a chance to commune with God among our classmates and teachers. I like it cause we can wear our own clothes and get no homework , but whatever floats your boat.

** Yes, I am completely aware of the fact that she did not actually say this (or at least the last sentence. I swear, the first part is true. How wacky.