All My First World Problems

06 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by in Beauty in the Dishsoap, Stuff I Want to Tell You About

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I’ve made the last of the edits, and have sent far away, my 3rd semester project, which was an essay on writing about the mundane in a compelling way. (Goodbye, 3rd semester project!)  Frankly, I read it so many times it didn’t make sense anymore, the same as if you said “goggles” over and over again until you fall on the floor in a fit of laughter because you can’t believe “goggles” is actually a word.

Yes, I’ll wait while you go try that.

Couple my third semester project work with teaching and parenting and wifing and daughtering and Christmasing and you’ve got yourself not only far more than a couple, but also a whole lot of rolling around on the floor in a fit. And by “yourself” I mean me.

Finishing my 3rd semester project means I’m 3/4 done with my degree.  And earning a degree in the midst of a full and busy life ain’t for the weak, Ima tell you something. But I’m almost there.  And if I finish on time I’ve promised myself a party.  (A party of one on a beach downtown in a lounge chair in the sun with a beer.) I look forward to that.

Somehow still, through all this excessive craziness, it has never stopped feeling like the thing I should be doing, so I’m just going to finish it up.  In six months that is.  I’m staring down a clear and present six months of danger of not only struggling to balance the insanity that is life right now, but also the fact that Luke has decided to be on the swim team this year.  And guess what he just walked into this very room and asked for?

New goggles.

 

Things I Have Actually Said

17 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by in Beauty in the Dishsoap, Meet the Students

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I find that there are basically two responses I get from people who learn for the first time that I’m a teacher of 8th grade students.  One:  they tell me it takes a “special person” to teach kids that age and that I’m basically going to heaven just for showing up.  Or two:  they tell me I’ve got the best job in the world, what with all that time off and all.

Neither are exactly correct.  But for the record I still love this work I do, even when it melts and stirs my brain.

In the past two weeks alone:

To an empty room and computer screen, when a colleague emailed for help covering her (combined with another grade and enormous) class, on the day after a schoolwide Project Day and four days before Christmas break:  “I just can’t.”

“Did you just ask Ethan if he thought you should put that in your mouth?” This, to a young man holding a plastic dreidl that had been used all day long.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t in the mood to listen to you.”  To a student who was telling me how hard it was to walk her dog around the block so her mother could change her clothes, finish making dinner and give her little brother a bath.

In response to this, for the 19th time this week – when is Christmas? – I said, “Mary Mother of God.  It’s the same day it has always been.  Maybe it changed this year, though, just to confuse us all.  Or because GLOBAL.  WARMING.”

Upon overhearing a boy in my class say I shot a moose with my bare hands!  I responded, “where do you keep your cape?”

It’s a fun thing these days to cram classmates in lockers, if they can fit.  Doesn’t that sound fun for everyone?  To a young man doing the shoving, and who will certainly be driving a car in the next 18 months, I said “people. locker. no. why. bad.”  

During directions for a class activity, a boy asked me if he could go to his locker for a piece of gum.  I responded “just ask the 8 ball on my desk and hope for the best.” 

In searching for a box of tissues I thought existed, I said to a classroom full:  “where are those, like, pieces of paper you put boogers in?”

To a student who needed help making a bow for a project:  “just make a loophole and your problems are solved.” 

To a colleague who reminded me I had lunchroom duty later in the day:  “Make me.”  

Folks, I’m tired in a lovely way.  I’m tired in the way you climb into bed at night and think just half a thought before drifting off – and that thought sounds something like this: life is beautiful and … 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Real Holiday Wish List

12 Saturday Dec 2015

Posted by in Stuff I Want to Tell You About

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  1.  A bladder that holds for more than 35 minutes.
  2. An answer as to why that little red thing is in the center of green olives.  Delicious?  Yes.  Necessary?  You tell me.
  3. Donald Trump to slither back into the hole from whence he came.
  4. Endless coffee.
  5. One more day with my dad.
  6. To continue to strive for integrity.
  7. The song “I Will Survive” to play every time I get out of bed.
  8. A brain made for learning foreign language.
  9. To learn to play chess well.
  10. More laughter.  Okay, lots more laughter.

There is no thing whatsoever that I need for Christmas. I realize the blessings of my life.  All I want is the house full of my kids, a break from my job and maybe a little shot glass full of egg nog.

It’s a wonderful time of year for those of us not actually fighting ISIS, or walking away from our homes as refugees, or reeling from losing a loved one in a public shooting. I’m glad I’m able to afford to buy my boys new thick smartwool socks so when they shovel out the neighbor’s walkway they don’t lose their toes.  But I am crisply aware of that privilege.  I have a job, I have money for socks, my kids have toes. Perspective has never been clearer than it is around here lately.  With no thanks to Donald Trump.

May our holidays be filled with gratitude and true understanding of what’s important:  love, health, togetherness, truth, goodness.  May we all walk steadily toward the light.