The Emotions

On the way down to Georgia, we stopped at a hotel for the night. We got some sad news via telephone between our trips to the pool and the happy hour. My mom was in the emergency room because she had a stroke that day. Her stroke is called a TIA stroke and it doesn't leave your body damaged, but it is a scary episode involving slurred speech, massive headache and raging blood pressure. It was surprising to walk into the house the next day to see my mom in the kitchen making a green bean casserole. I had mixed emotions because I was so relieved that there would be green bean casserole, but felt that maybe my mom should be resting comfortably somewhere. My mom just laughed at this idea and began pulling out ingredients for the pecan pie. Again, I felt conflicted. So happy about the pecan pie. But also worried that something bad might happen to my mom right there in the kitchen. Everything turned out great. Dinner was fantastic and we had a splendid visit with my mom and dad and sibs. I don't know why I didn't inherit my mom's toughness. Last week I was on the couch for hours depressed because of a sore pinky toe. It still hurts a little and I haven't been walking because of this malady. I'm going to stop spending valuable time googling "sore pinky toe" and get out for a little walk today. I'm pretty sure my mom would do the same.

The Trip

We're heading south. We have a good book for reading aloud and #1 son has made a great mixed CD for listening to. I'm not packed yet, but every bit of laundry is done, so that's not going to take long. I have the cards made but now I think I picked the wrong picture. I wish I had picked this one instead. Oh well, it all turns out in the end. Happy Winter good friends!

The Shopping

I'm very happy to say that (to my mind at least) the holiday shopping is complete. Stick a fork in it. I have the cards. I simply have to sign them and send them.

The Problems

Despite the pervasive holiday mania I'm living in right now, I was pretty pleased with getting through the day with everyone still alive and accounted for. But this pleasure was not sustainable because, lo and behold, during end of day procedures, someone screamed out, "Allison's hurt!"
I ran over to Allison who was sobbing and holding her leg.
"What happened?" I shrieked at her.
"Alvin kicked me. HARD!" She wailed back.
"Where is Alvin?" I asked scanning the postage stamp sized room.
"He took off," several peeps said in unison.
Turns out, with only 5 minutes left to the day, disgruntled peep Alvin decided to kick and run. Administrators found him about 10 minutes later, hanging out in the playground. I wonder what his problem was/is. I told him he couldn't take the hamsters out, but really? Was this response called for?

And speaking of kids with problems, tonight I visited former peep in a hospital for kids with problems. I didn't even know this hospital existed until I moved to newschool. It's kind of a sad place. I brought gifties from me and Good Pal Menosky. Menosky's package had food items, including home made cookies. Those were removed from the bag as contraband, but former peep was delighted with the rest of the gear, and we read a few Spiderman books together before I had to leave. He asked the supervisor if he could keep the stuffed dinosaur with him in his bed, but it had to be locked away with the rest of the belongings. He dealt with it well, but asked me to visit again this weekend. I said I would try. On the way home, I ate Menosky's cookies and thought about how long tomorrow would be.
Ho hum, ho ho ho. I'll keep you posted.

The Podcast

First off, we have a new podcast. It's about Sammy Lee, the Olympic diver. The book we read is called 16 Years in 16 Seconds. It's darned good. And so is the podcast. Have a cup of tea and sit back and listen. You will not regret it.

Secondly, I'm loving the book that is called It's Not Quite What I Was Planning. It's a collection of six word memoirs.

The Kick

Most of the peeps did v. well with the guest teacher. One peep had a slight lapse of judgment when he suggested that she might want to suck part of his body. He got a few recess detentions for that. But before I even got a chance to talk to him, he had an altercation with a fellow bus rider that led to some hitting. More days in recess detention. I had a limited amount of patience with this small peep when he hauled off and kicked a fellow learner for no real reason except that the mere presence of the other kid seemed to be annoying him. Which can happen, I have no doubt. But then the peep wouldn't go to the office and someone had to come for him. Awkwardly, the security officer who came to escort him happened to be the dad of the kickee. Schoolsite can be full of uncomfortable moments like this. We all soldier on bravely. And tomorrow's always a new day.

The Highlights

From NRC, here are the highlights: Visual arts comments by our discussant Peggy, political cartoon talk with Mitz, sessions about Photovoice and Writing Process, Digital Writing Tools, Little kids writing/ playing with technology. Town Meeting. Visiting with pals. Souffles. Poolbar.

A quick fun trip. I'm happy to report I have no work to do today. We will get the tree. Tonight we'll see the one act plays directed by senior year students at our local high school. One of these plays is directed by Teendaughter. I'm pretty sure it will be my favorite.

The Aura

Yesterday I had one of my rare pre-migraine aura at school, in the morning. It's a horrid feeling to have a big splotch of shiny zigzaggy waves right in the center of your vision. It's nauseating and even a bit frightening. After 45 minutes it was gone, but I felt so tired and headachy that I didn't do my optimal teaching for the rest of the day. When I got home after working on stupidsubplans, I had no desire to work on my talk so I just watched Viggo in Return of the King and headed to sleep. So today I was under a lot of pressure to perform. On all cylinders. When another aura appeared around 9:15, I thought I was going insane. I have a migraine every year or 2. How could I be having a 2nd migraine in 2 days, right before the big conference, the one where I'll be speaking on a talk I'm not ready to give yet??? What was going on here? So another horrid day ensued and then I went to fakeclinic and the doctor told me I was having migraines. I get that, but I don't want to have one tomorrow, I told her. There's nothing she can really do about it before hand. After the fact, I can take pills that will make it very difficult to give a talk that anyone would be remotely interested in hearing. She suggested that I may want to avoid WINE tonight. "Give up my ritual?" I asked, but she didn't back down. Obnoxious. (Please send good thoughts my way, Thursday around 1:30). (I'm not kidding).