The Podcast

We have a new podcast right here. We're trying to get people of all ages to comment on our cast. Our goal is 30 comments. Please help if you can. We read Bright Path and Ledgerbook of Thomas Blue Eagle and Children of the Indian Boarding Schools. I learned a lot and the peeps certainly wrote some passionate scripts for this podcast.

On the home front, I'm collecting Pennies for Peace. I have a jar on my kitchen counter. Don't be alarmed if I ask you if you have any pennies. I do it to everyone who enters. Mostly I'm asking the kids' friends. Because they're the only ones who have come over this week. I'm surprised they don't have any pennies. I have a jar at school too. So far, I seem to be the only person putting pennies into these jars, but that's okay. The pennies are going to add up. I'm on a mission.

The Clarifying

This wintry cold is keeping me hibernating.  We tried to go see Slumdog, but it was sold out so we came home and I returned to my earlier occupation of doing nothing.  I did take a nap so that was my main accomplishment.  I think of a nap this way because In The Open Road, Pico Iyer describes the Dalai Lama's view on sleeping like this:

 

"His energy is discernibly lower as the day nears its end, and the Dalai Lama often talks about sleep as one of the most important activities of the day, even calling on old texts to suggest how sleep can in fact be positively used, as almost anything can, for the clarification of the mind."

I do feel my mind is clearer and I am now ready to watch part 3 of John Adams and have a glass of wine.  Cheers, pals.

The Partnership

After school I went to a meeting about school partnerships.  After a lot of talk which I found a little obvious and time wasting, I left feeling down and disgruntled.  When I offered one opinion about partnership possibilities, I felt others responded condescendingly to that opinion. It's possible I may be overreacting, as is my wont.  I'm having some self doubt today.  But that's not necessarily a bad thing.  It could be.  But maybe not. 

The Rebuilding

  I'm going to an IU basketball game tomorrow.  This is our rebuilding year, so I have no expectations.  I'm just there to support the team and be there for them.   

Inauguration Day

The Trip

The afterschool program had a contest and 2 of my peeps were winners and they get to go see the Inauguration.  One of the winners is my most incorrigible peep, so while I'm thrilled for her, I'm also thrilled for me, because she'll miss 2 days of school next week.  Thank you BARACK!

The Rays

The report cards were a pain the neck this week, but they're handed out and I'm feeling much less stressed.  Tomorrow an 8th grader is going to interview me about what changes I think Barack Obama should make to our educational system.  I will tell him that Barack should do away with report cards.  

The Return

I worked hard to be upbeat and animated today.  I think it paid off because chatty girl wrote me a letter that said, "You are pretty.  You are a sun rise."  Now that's a pretty good letter.  

The peeps were in pretty good form, but they kept interrupting me to announce how much time remained of the school day.  "3 hours left."  "There's about 1 hour and ten minutes left."  It's weird that they had no clue how to do a time related math problem during math groups at the end of the day.  This was the problem:  Sue woke up at 6:45.  She left for school at 7:30.  How long did it take Sue to get ready?"  

"2 and a half hours," said Sassy girl.  

Me:  "What if it's 6:30 and then an hour passes?"

Kids shouting out randomly:  6:00!  8:00!  3:30!"

Me:  "Okay, think about this. What if it's 6:00 and then an hour passes?"  

Them:  "7:00?"

Me:  "Right!!!!  So if it's 6:30 and then an hour passes, what time would it be?"

Them:  "10:00?  7:00?  8:00?"

Geezlouise.  Let's get out the cardboard clocks on the morrow. 

The Movie

Mitz and I headed out for our Sunday night ritual of watching a movie at localtavern.  We're usually the only peeps at the movies, so it's like a private screening.  Everything goes wrong at this place so we weren't surprised when the movie time came and went and we were sitting alone in the room, with no movie in sight.  We tracked down our waitress who called a guy named Crowbar and asked why he wasn't there to show the film. He had forgotten about his job as a projectionist and he told the waitress he would be there asap. Waitress asked if he would talk her through the procedure, but he said he was hopping on his bike at that very moment and would be at local tavern within 5 minutes. Waitress tried anyway to get the film going and when Crowbar got there he was none too happy about how she had moved the projector and messed up the focus.  "You never should touch this," he told her, acting all high and mighty. After more waiting, he turned to us and said, "I'm really sorry about this."  

"It's okay, Crowbar," I told him, but to tell you the truth I was feeling quite a bit annoyed about the whole situation.  Blue Velvet is a great movie, so once we finally got the show going, my mood improved considerably.  If you haven't seen this one in awhile, you might want to check it out yet again.

The Change

#1 son has a new antibiotic, so now maybe his fever will stop.  

I'm having a little bit of nostalgia for my vacation.  I find I'm quite fond of roaming about, wasting time.  Tomorrow I'll go into SCHOOLSITE for a few hours and organize classroom events for the next week.  I do want to see those little peeps again and yet I wish we could just have some bagels together, catch up, and then take the rest of the week off to continue our quests for personal fulfillment.  That would be asking for a lot, but easing in to the working week has obvious benefits.   

  

The Ishiguro

I just finished When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro.  It's odd, but a little fascinating.  If you want to read it, you should.  

After I finished that book, I skimmed through Shakespeare Wrote for Money, a collection of Nick Hornby's columns about reading for The Believer.  Each column begins with 2 lists:  Books I Bought and Books I Read.  Hornby didn't buy or read any Ishiguro that I know of, but he read quite a lot of other books and he's so funny and kind about all of them.  

I'm not sure what I'll read next.  Middlesex or America's Hidden History.  Or Toni Morrison's new one.  

Here's a sad thing:  I can't find the usb cord for my camera so the cool pix of pandas I took at the Atlanta Zoo will have to wait for awhile. I get annoyed when I can't use my camera.  Remember when my battery charger was lost in Chicago?  Remember my distress?  

Poor #1 son has had a fever and some leg aches for 2 days.  I always get worried with fevers when they persist.  I had to stop googling viral meningitis tonight because it was pretty clear even to me that his symptoms weren't matching, no matter how many sites I clicked. His sickness has made this day kind of a lazy one:  tv, itouch, tv, etc.  But, as I've stated above, I finished a book (the Ishiguro) so I feel something was accomplished.  Still, it's always discomfiting when your kid is sick and there's nothing you can do about it. I read a few chapters of The Hobbit to him in the afternoon when the fever was up to 103 and he was looking especially out of it and muttering something I couldn't understand about bedspreads.  The Hobbit is a good book too. And easier to read than I expected it to be.