I am not one of those Facebook people that has over 1000 friends and who has never met most of them.
I also don’t play all the mafia/farm/whatever games.
What I do is try to keep in touch with people I know. And, yeah, sort of semi-stalk people.
Well, it’s not really STALKING, per se. More like “hey, this person and I were in grade 7 together and haven’t really spoken since but he added me as a friend, so I wonder what he’s been up to”. Here are some things I’ve found out that are surprising to me, or at least, are not how I saw things turning out:
- The biggest heavy-metal all-through-highschool-atheist (we would have long conversations about how he thought God was a myth and anyone who believed was just a sheep), who said that he wished all children would disappear from the face of the earth (he used to try to scare them on the bus and I would have to restrain him) has now become a devout Mormon with six kids.
- Sadly, one of my jr. high friends whose dream was to be in the NHL (and actually had people scouting him in GRADE 8 ) was in a car accident and is now on social security disability. BUT, he’s happy, and has a beautiful family.
- A guy I went to high school with is now in Hollywood. Not a movie star, but does all the CGI stuff for the movies. Nerdy nerds FTW!
I have no idea what people who read my updates think about me. Probably that I love my dogs and hate being warm.
I’ve basically avoided physically going into my classroom all summer. I brought home all my reading and prep and have been (lazily) chipping away at it. But today I had to go in. I needed to photocopy a few things, and I wanted to see if my room was ready for me to move things around and set some things up.
First things first, I went to my room.
Yeah. NOT READY FOR ANYTHING. They have half of my floor tiles removed and the contents of my closet are all over the rest of the floor.
That’s okay, I thought. This way I only had to stay for 10 minutes to make my copies.
That 10 minutes turned into 45, thanks to trusty old xerox phaser 8560. It usually works super-well, but I think it’s been sleeping all summer and doesn’t remember how to do its job. First it took about 10 minutes to warm up (usually it’s like, one). Then it made about 3 copies and… out of paper. Then it was out of ink. And I had to figure out how to change the ink thingie. So that took… forever. And I’m not quite sure I did it properly, since someone has moved the instruction manual from where it’s supposed to be… hopefully whoever else decides to come in and make copies won’t be too messed up by my shenanigans today.
We’ve decided against any camping this weekend, for a couple of reasons:
1) I need a new wig for the beginning of the school year. I was supposed to be getting some cash for some work I’d done, but that’s going to be another few weeks. So we’re going to have to take that $130 out of our budget.
2) Menstruation. Nuff said.
We’ll go on the long weekend.
Anyway.
At the grocery store this morning I tripped on some stuff that was on the floor and bumped into a lady who was working there. She dropped her barcode scanner on my foot. It was like a low-rent version of the Three Stooges. Except there were only two of us. And it wasn’t actually funny. Luckily (?) I was wearing crocs because the dogs had hidden my flip flops during the night. Lord those crocs. I should never wear them, but they are good for walking. And I figured 7h30 grocery shopping would cause me to be fairly incognito. NOT IF YOU’RE FALLING OVER, LOUISE.
They were being cute so I thought I’d ask them to pose for me. They were sitting together, cute and cuddly… then Sprocket decided I was taking too long with the camera and wanted to know what I was doing up there.
Eight years ago, we met. Six years ago, we moved in together. Four years ago, we got married.
He knows me better than anyone. I like to think that I can read him, too. We have inside jokes, weird sayings, and even hand motions that no one else would understand. We finish each other’s sentences.
He called me from work last night at midnight to tell me happy anniversary. When I picked him up at 1 (he’s working extra hours this week) we gave each other Anniversary High Fives. His parents called this morning from “up the track” (they each have an atv and on their days off they go riding around in the wilderness) to wish us a happy day. My parents too (although they aren’t roaming the wilderness).
We’re going to do the bulk of our celebrating this weekend, when he’s off work and rested up. I just wanted to mark the day by saying that I am so glad that that day happened, four years ago, and I will be every day for the rest of my life that I met this amazing man.
I was just thinking about what I thought teaching would be like, before I started my career, versus what it actually is like now, eleven years on.
When I was at university, doing my degree, we were definitely given a kind of Utopian vision of what teaching would be like. “If you do X, your students will do Y”. There was no mention of the possibility that students would do Z, or P, or even R in reaction to your X, and what you should do if that happened.
“Students are inherently honest and if you ask them if they’re cheating/lying, they will admit to it right away”.
Uh. Not really. I mean yes, it happens sometimes, but other times they will continue to lie their hearts out, even if the lies are ridiculous and no one would ever believe them. No different than any other person in the world.
Other things that I believed… I thought that I’d go to school every day at 8h30, and leave at 3h30.
I believed in the myth of summer vacation and weekends off and March Break.
I thought I’d go to school every day in high heels and fancy clothes, leather briefcase in hand, and breeze through the day like the teachers on TV shows do, sitting at my desk while my students did their work, interacting with them very formally, and that I’d come home at night and be free for the evening.
Instead, I go to work at 7h30, and leave at 5.
I do get summer vacation and March Break, but the summer is spent preparing for the year ahead, and March Break is spent marking. Weekends off? Marking again.
My high heels didn’t last past the first week. Now I wear sneakers or Docs or God forbid, even Crocs (no, not those crocs – these crocs). I do too much moving around to be wearing heels. Fancy clothes? Well, comfortable clothes first of all – not sweats or anything, but I’m not wearing blazers and skirts every day either. My leather briefcase (I actually did buy one, way back when) has evolved three or four re-usable grocery bags because I have too much stuff to bring home that would never fit crammed into an attache case. Free evenings? Maybe one per week.
I move around my classroom. I sit on the top of desks, when I sit, instead of sitting behind one. When they’re passing notes, I take them, but I don’t read them in front of the class – I think that would be too humiliating. I joke and laugh with my students. And I love it. I really, really love it.
Now here’s hoping that this year becomes the year when I magically become a super-organized marking machine.
I read Push back last year (I think – maybe the year before). It was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever chosen to read. When I was done I gave it to Rob. He finished it in one day. When he was done, he came into the room where I was, said “This book!” and slammed it down on the table.
It is really a very difficult read, but at the same time, one of the best things I’ve ever read.
I’m watching the movie right now, and while it seems like it’s been slightly toned down from the novel (although maybe that’s just my experience – my imagination usually proves better than a movie), it’s just as dark, just as disturbing.
And it’s nice to see Mariah Carey looking “regular”.
So! Yesterday was Rob’s birthday! Did you think about him?
Rob and I are very different when it comes to birthdays. I like to make a big deal out of a person on their birthday. I think that everyone should be made a big deal of sometimes, and what better day than on your birthday? But Rob follows Patton Oswalt’s birthday philosophy (caution: there’s swears):
He does make a big deal out of everyone else’s birthday (including mine), but he doesn’t really care about his own… but he does humour me and let me make it into a Big Thing, at least in our house. Not in public.
So, my big deal-making was spending a couple of days cooking for him. On Monday, when he was at work, I made a cheesecake. After work we stopped by at my parents’ and they gave him their gift from him (a small barbecue which will come in super handy when we do go camping at an undisclosed time).
Yesterday, his actual birthday, I gave him his gift, first thing. He was pretty excited. Then we took the dogs to the vet for more needles. They did not think that this was an appropriate birthday activity AT ALL, just so you know. Especially Sprocket – he had barfed a few times this week, so the vet took his temperature. He’s fine though. A little embarrassed.
When we got home, I was back in the kitchen, making jiggs dinner and a turkey (yes in August. It’s his favourite. Without the pease pudding). While the turkey was cooking and after I’d gotten the potatoes into the slow-cooker, I decorated the cheesecake with strawberries. All in all that cheesecake took a total of probably three hours (not counting time spent cooling)? And it was a work of art. Rob spoke to his parents on the phone and he mentioned what I was doing so they asked for us to send a picture of the turkey and the cake. I took a picture of the cake with my cellphone and texted it to them. And then as I was putting it back in the fridge, it slipped right out of my hands and onto the floor.
Have you ever experienced the Ugly Cry? Believe me, it was in full effect.
Now. It landed plate-side-down. Which means that about 3/4 of it stayed on the plate, and didn’t touch the floor. Rob heard the crash, and the swearing, and the Ugly Cry, so he ran into the kitchen (I had banned him from coming in). He saw what was going on immediately and picked the plate up off the floor. “I’m still eating it”, he said. Even though it was RUINED and UGLY now. The bit that was on the floor was quickly picked up and thrown away (before the dogs got too much of it).
After that crisis was over, Rob was re-stringing his gift when … the bridge broke. This is when I decided that maybe his birthday philosophy makes more sense than I’d been giving it credit for. Luckily I had purchased the warranty for it so I brought it to the store and the only other one they had instore was pink so they had to order a new one. It should take about a week to get here.
After the music store I stopped by my parents’ to say goodbye (Dad is having all kinds of scans and tests done in Halifax today and they were leaving yesterday and staying overnight) and tell them of all the craziness. Dad laughed so hard – all the while saying “I’m not laughing at you babe”.
Then he told a story of one of his first dates with my mom. Mom wanted to cook for him. They had a delicious dinner or roast beef and potatoes and whatever other foods were considered date foods in the 70s. And then, as she was bringing in the dessert (lemon meringue pie – Dad’s favourite), she tripped over the edge of the carpet and dropped it on the floor. And when she was despairing, Dad said “Well, I love upside-down cake, so I’m sure I’m going to love this too”.
It’s almost Rob’s birthday! He hates when I talk about it. But it is! So on Tuesday have a little pause in your day and think “Ooooh, Rob’s birthday!”. That’s all you have to do.
We were going to go camping on Wednesday and Thursday, but those plans changed. First because someone made things weird, but also because Rob’s friend who he hasn’t seen since before he and I met is supposed to be coming to PEI those days and it wouldn’t do for us to be out in the middle of nowhere when she’s here.
So we’re going to choose another weekend before the summer’s over and then we’ll go.
Our neighbours have friends visiting from Maine. These friends have three children, ranging in age from about 5 to 9 years old. For the past three days, starting at 2 pm until dusk, they are outside in the backyard, screaming. Not like “HEY IT’S TIME TO PLAY A GAME!” “OKAY LET’S PLAY!” normal kid stuff. Just constant constant wordless, high pitched screaming. They walk around the yard screaming. “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE” “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!” I know that they are capable of speech because they have asked me if they could pet the dogs (I said yes. They enjoyed it). But apparently this is a new form of communication that is all the rage for kids. I napped this afternoon and dreamed of whinnying horses.
