January 31, 2008

1. Just home from the musical at school.  They did Urinetown, and it was a weird story, but an interesting one and the production very well done.  I found myself feeling awful that I had given homework to the kids in it.  I found my self thinking that it was so much fun, that really that is all we should be doing all day long, and Ancient Civilization is crap in comparison.
2. I also wished that the lead characters knew who I was so I could be popular and cool.  There is something so on the outside about being a teacher.  People like you, but they move on and have other teachers, and OH YEAH, THEY ARE TEENAGERS, WHY DO YOU WANT THEM TO THINK YOU ARE COOL.  See.  I’ confused.  I think it is probably more about wishing that I could sing and dance all day, and be in that spazzy adrenaline excitement of a production.
3. The only negative, and it really put a damper on my mood as I was leaving, was that I went backstage to find the director to congratulate her and some punk told me I wasn’t allowed back there.  In a snippy fashion.  Exsqueeze me?  Three things punk: 1. Just because you are on the tech crew and wear a black shirt, doesn’t mean you are the boss of me; 2.  I work here.  I have keys.  I can go where ever the hell I want.  It is a privilege of my office that I can roam the school at will.  3.  I am 42, you are 17.  Mind your manners.
4. Every night this week has been a night with meetings or things like the play.  I don’t know why I am doing so many things.  I used to have a handle on saying no, and now it seems I want to say yes, and participate in things, but I just don’t have enough time to do my work. OR hang out and not do much, which is important to me.
5. I am tired and not making much sense.

January 29, 2008

1. Finished the grading.  Never ceases to amaze me how a kid who turns in very little, even having to be prompted to “bring something, anything, that you have written for the paper grade, no matter how little,” then asks can’t this 68.9 be rounded up to a 70.0.  How about hell to the no?  I jest, but it is actually really hard for me so say no, and I have managed over time to develop some defenses against rounding (I really feel like I give ample opportunities to turn in assignments late and eek out every possible point) like “It actually takes a lot of points to move up those tenths,” and “I only consider rounding if all of your assignments have been completed,” or “If you had added pictures to your essay, as was required, you wouldn’t have needed any rounding up,” but no matter what I say, no matter how well reasoned my argument and no matter how well the kid takes it, I still feel bad.
2. Violet has been sneezing and so I took her to the vet.  The vet says it is probably just a little cold, and to just keep an eye on her.  Mr. Kevin who despises the vet is now hissing at her because she smells like vet.
3. I haven’t read a paper in weeks.
4. Tomorrow is Wednesday coffee time, so maybe a peek at the paper will be possible.  I don’t have an early class on Wednesday, so I have a sit and a coffee.  Ali comes sometimes and that is fun.  It is nice to have a little something took look forward to in the middle of the week.

January 28, 2008

1. Excitement today was a power outage while everyone was doing their grades at school.  Fortunately the grade program automatically saves, so I only lost a few things, and I had it written down anyway.  But the break in the power gave me time to pick up a little and plan for tomorrow.  I only have some papers to look over tonight and then enter tomorrow, and then I will be done with that.
2. The only minor problem, is that I am feeling unsettled in my stomach and a little feverish in my head.  I rarely get sick, so these feelings usually up and get nasty, but it is simply not allowed at this moment.  I have to export my grades before 3 pm tomorrow.  There can be no illness, thank you very much.
3. One of the computers was delivered today, but neither Paul or I was home to take delivery, so I will have to go pick it up tomorrow.  Of course I want to run out right now and get it, but I must grade.  MUST. GRADE.
4. I hate grading.
5. Note to self.  Write about the nice church history that CB wrote that was given out at the Annual Meeting.

January 27, 2008

1. The church dinner last night was excellent.  Old Merrow Hall was really gussied up and there was a good crowd.  Then entertainment went very well, I thought, though the climax line from the voice from above was not on the mike, so it was hard to hear.  Finally this morning I realized what I should have done.  I should have grabbed my mike and said “Oh voice from above, We can’t hear you, you must be using the Nave sound system!”  BWAH!  (That’s actually funny, if you know our nave sound system stinks.) 
2. I am looking forward to sitting down with some PBS Jane Austen, and my knitting this evening.
3. My 3×5 card organizational system is off to a great start.  It is terribly nerdy, but really helped me stay focused yesterday when there was lots of running around and toting of fog machines, etc to be done.
4. These days, I always seem to have a notable amount of lint and cat hair on my person.  It is disturbing.  I feel like Pig Pen from Peanuts.
5. Jane Austen time.  Break it down ya’ll. (Hammer Time reference.)

January 25, 2008

1. What a great morning class! I did the Tai Chi lesson as a close out to the China unit, and the class of crazy chatty boys went along with it, some even liking it very much!  Hooray! Is miracle!  I wonder if I can get them to do yoga at the end of the India unit?  It would be really eat if I could figure out an end event like that for all the units.  I am already planning a morning of “the Spartan Workout” for Greece, where we will do running, sit-ups and push-ups…and then kill a man.
2. Successful in the last class of the day too!
3. So now I am hanging out at school until dance time.  First priority is non-school: finish the script and handout for the show.  After that grading I suppose.  I sure do hate grading.
4. In an inspired vision I remembered that I have a 3×5 card notebook.  I think it could be an interesting sort of organizational thing.  A page for things to do that day, and then pages for categories: home; church; school; projects; The cards in each of those can move to the today section on the day they need to get done.  It is funny, I was given that 13 years ago as a gift from the teachers at the school at which I student taught, but I could never figure out how to use it, and then LO!  Like a bolt from the blue I get it! 
5. I have stacked all the notebooks I have to grade on my desk, so there is a two foot wall.  People keep coming in and not realizing I am here.  I call it my fort, or ”The Fortress of Solitude.”

January 24, 2008

1. I have so many things happening right now it is hard to keep them straight.  I think I am going to sit down and write an email and other things pop into my head and push the thoughts away.  I must, this second, go send an email about some performance stuff for Saturday night’s show.
2. Ok, that’s done.  The show is called “A History of Maintenance in Three Acts,” and I am most pleased that in the new song I have managed to rhyme “Infrastructure” and  “Juncture.”  Eat that Rodgers and Hammerstein! 
3. I have set the goal of organization in one year, and am working right now in the “deal with the crisis phase,” and “add in some routines to solve small problems.”  So for example I made a short list of things that tend to get neglected, but could be done in the 20 minutes when I first come home. (unload dishwasher, fold and put away laundry, vacuum, clean the bathroom, sort through mail)  If I could do even one of those things a day, that would help with dealing with basic house chores.
4. But mostly, it is all about crisis, and of course, avoiding the crisis by knitting and other nonessential but necessary things.
5. I’m chaperoning a dance tomorrow night.  This is a plus in that I will just stay at school until it starts, and get some grading done.  This is a negative in that I have to chaperone a dance.  I commit, in my head, to doing two dances a year, and this is number two.  It can be fun visiting with the other teachers and with the kids, but watching them dance is generally disturbing.  Most of the time they just jump up and down, which I like, but occasionally they try to do this suggestive freak dance, which really is entirely gross, but they are too young to understand what it is all about, so it is just awkward.  It is not as bad as the high school dance though.  After one of those I just wanted to bleach my eyeballs.  I like to dance, but baby, that ain’t dancing.

January 22, 2008

1. All the delicately balanced piles of papers in my life are about to come tumbling down.  They lurk just behind me at all times, letters, notices, emails, papers to grade, transparencies to file.  It is reaching crisis proportion.  All sorts of things coming due, and some of them I can’t even remember.  I must get it together.  How much happier I would be if I was organized?  Very, I think.
2. Even before I realized this crisis was upon me, I vowed that by next January, there will be no more piles of paper etc, at home or at work.  All will be dealt with, with systems in place to handle the incoming.  A lofty goal, I know, that is why I am giving myself a year.
3. Crisis that occurred this morning: I couldn’t find the list of Geography Bee finalists for the championship round.  It was resolved, but oh so painful in the quest.  Not worth it, when 20 seconds to write the names down and put them in a safe place would have done the trick.
4. This is the 4 day countdown to the church dinner where I am leading some small entertainments. (“A History of Maintenance in Three Acts.”)  Tomorrow is script evening, and finishing the one new song.  Of course, I have misplaced the lyrics my mother gave me (pattern developing, anyone?) so the search through piles will commence first.
5. Yes, I’m a kitty cat, and I dance, dance, dance, and I dance, dance, dance. Yup, still in my head.

January 21, 2008

1. So the big secret was that the rector asked me to be the Easter 2009 Altar Guild president.  After consulting with my mother to make sure she’d be there to bail my ass out, I accepted.  It really is exciting, but pretty scary.  Yesterday in church I was sitting in the front row with the past, current and next president and I saw all the bright -n- shiny things in the church and I can’t imagine that they are going to have me be responsible for all that.  But of course, I will become drunk with power, and touch the brass with wild abandon soon.  My reign of terror begins next January.  You may refer to me as “El Jefe du Altar Guild.”
2. The discernment training was very interesting.  It is not, as was in the past, that a group of people decides that someone is or isn’t suited for ministry.  It is a group that listens and questions and helps the person think, perhaps in new ways about what they are pursuing.  There is lots of silence, and a concerted effort to feel God doing his thang.  I was pretty tired afterward.  I am not used to that sort of prolonged concentration.
3. I only had one major drift, when I looked across the room and saw the sun shining on on the floor, which made me think about this kitty nap in a sunbeam, and that led me to remember this kitty cat dance.  A message from the spirit? Not so sure, it’s just hard to stay focused for that long.
4. “Yes, I’m a kitty cat, and I dance, dance, dance, and I dance, dance, dance.”  Gets stuck in my head.
5. Today I helped Commander Dave (an older fellow at the coffee shop) order his first computer.  He is in his 70s and has never really used one, and had been holding the whole thing at bay, but has now bent to peer and Paul pressure!  After we put in the order, I showed him Google Earth and he was quite dazzled.

January 19, 2008

1. Our school has several programs in it, and one is for older kids who have only been in the country a little while and are learning English.  It was really cool to see them and their teachers playing in the snow Thursday.  Some of them have never seen snow.  It was clear they just put down their books and headed out.  After lunch they headed out again, and here comes their social studies teacher carrying a big purple sled.  Kind of made me wish I was a little more fun at school, and I think if I had older kids I might be, but the 8th graders can spin fun into chaos so quickly it is hard for me to loosen up.  I do want to try though, because I think I am getting the reputation for being a bit bitchy.  (I have to point out that if they wouldn’t keep screwing up I wouldn’t have to keep on them, but I do need to gentle my tone I think.)
2. To follow up on this I had a terrible moment where about 5 boys lied to me about skipping class.  Bold as brass those young upstarts!  I told the skipping made me sad, but the lying made me furious.  Good times.  Afterward  I forced myself to go into the cool teachers room, next door where everyone hangs out.  Made small talk with my evildoers about Led Zepplin and hummus.  It was good.  Sometimes school is nothing but up and down.  Hooray three day weekend!
3. Yesterday afternoon, Paul and I went to Orpheus records in Clarendon, which is closing.  Not til April, but you’ve got to get a jump on these things.  We had a nice time.  I will be sorry to lose the record shop, because it is fun to look through all the album covers, and try to guess at the quality of the unknown artists, and then come home and listen to them. I bought a swing album by a guy named Johnny Long.  No idea who he was, it just looked interesting!
4. Various events and the snow have kept me away from the workout for a week, and I feel like a big tub of goo.  Blech.  Gotta start walking the neighborhood again, and get back to the workout next week.
5. I was up early today, took Paul to work, and now it is time for coffee and off to church!  Hooray for Saturday!

January 17, 2008

1. Big fluffy flakes of snow for most of the morning.  The kids went ape.  We are at about the only school I know where you can not only touch the snow, but you might have time to go out an play in it.  I love our principal, because he made an announcement that they should have a great time in the snow, but remember to leave it outside and only throw snowballs at their friends. 
2. The felted sweater jumper came out great and was very well received by the birthday girl and her parents!
3. This weekend is training for the discernment process for David, which means lots of quiet and contemplation.  Must. Refrain. From. Irreverent. Jokes.  The book even says so!  Seriously, I must, because it is not all about me.  In fact it is not at all about me!
4. My eyes are all stingy, like I might be getting a cold.  Hope not.
5. Back to the beautiful snow.  Please, oh, please, freeze up so we can have a two hour delay.  I could really use that time to work on my desk.  I have taken some steps (new desk supplies, new coffee mug (aesthetics count) and am ready to attack.