3 is for 3 Day Weekend and 3 More Weeks

Traditionally Memorial Day marks the beginning of summer, but around here, not so much. Because of our opening date in September (Labor Day really does mark the end of summer for us), we'll still have more than three weeks left when we return to school on Tuesday. I'm not complaining-- I'm not in any rush to say good-bye to my students. Even though I'll see most of them next year, it won't ever be the same again. How could it be? Spending 180 days working so closely is an intense experience and when it's over, it's over. I'll be their "old teacher" and they'll be my "former students."

Sure, we've had some ups and downs, and some days have been way better than others, but in general, it's been a great year. So, while I'm enjoying my three days off, I'm thinking about school, too, and I'm looking forward to three more weeks with some really amazing people.

Life Lesson: Enjoy it while it lasts.

J is for Jersey Girl

From the time I was 4 until I was 13 my family lived in New Jersey. Personally, I was very happy there, and I had a lot of pride in my state. In middle school I joined a history club called the Jerseymen, and we even went to a convention in Atlantic City where I was elected Lieutenant Governor for Burlington County. A few months later, my family moved to Saudi Arabia, and I had to resign my office.

In Saudi, my brother and sister and I went to an international school with kids from all over the world. There were kids from all over the United States, too, and it was there that I met my first Texan. We were actually pretty good friends, best friends, really, so you can imagine my surprise the first time we ever talked about how great our homes in the States were. "New Jersey?" she sniffed. "What could possibly be good about New Jersey?" And then she laughed before she continued. "Now, Texas..." and blah, blah, blah, she was off on how much bigger and better everything was in Texas.


"New Jersey is just as good as Texas!" I insisted, "If not better!"

"Ha!" she answered. "Let's see. We have Houston." She looked at me like, top that.

"Well, we have... um, we have... well Philadelphia and New York are close by."

"They don't count. We have the Alamo."

"We have Atlantic City?"

""OK," she shrugged. "We have blue bonnets."

"We have blueberries. New Jersey is the Garden State."

"Who cares? We have Dallas."

"We have the Pine Barrens," I said, "AND the Jersey Devil!" It was my turn to look triumphant.

"What are those?" she said. "Wait, it doesn't even matter, because nobody outside of New Jersey even cares." She laughed at her own joke and then looked at me, her best friend. Her expression became kinder. "Oh cheer up!" she said and threw her arm around my shoulders. "Nobody here even cares if you're from New Jersey!"

But I cared.

Life Lesson: Pride doesn't have to come at the expense of someone else.

K is for Kansas

The Wizard of Oz has long been one of my favorite movies. When I was little it was only on TV once a year, and for my brother and sister and me that night was a very special occasion. It was almost like a holiday. All day long we waited in anticipation; we drew pictures of our favorite characters and acted out our favorite scenes. That night, we were allowed to stay up late and have popcorn and soda when it was on.

I liked the Scarecrow best; the lion and the Wizard really annoyed me. I thought Toto was the bravest, and the flying monkeys were super creepy. Of course the witch was... terrifying!  I had nightmares about that scene where Dorothy sees Auntie Em in the crystal ball and right as she's trying to talk to her the image changes to the Wicked Witch of the West. Eeeeeeeeee!!!

Most of all, I loved the part where the movie turns from black and white to color, and I remember when I "got it" and understood that by doing that the film makers were communicating something important about the difference between Oz and Kansas. Even so, I was never sad when it turned back. There was always something comforting about those warm shades of grey.

Life Lesson: (What else?) There's no place like home.

I is for In the Weeds

The end of the school year seems hectic to everyone. Students feel pressured to prepare and do well on standardized tests, teachers feel that deadline, too, and the change in everybody's schedules makes things feel a little off balance. In the food business, there's an expression for being waaaaay behind in your work. When that happens, you're in the weeds.

Every other job I've ever had besides teaching has been food-related: Before I was a teacher, I worked as a professional cook, and before that I waited tables, and before that I was a student manager in my college cafeteria, and before that I had kitchen duty in high school. So you could say that I know what it's like to be in the weeds.

In addition to my regular planning, teaching, and grading, I have a lot to do in the next 29 days-- meetings, unit plans, observations, field trips, team activities, and lit mags all need to be checked off my lengthy list. Wait! What's that I see all around me? Yep... it's definitely the weeds.

Life Lesson: The view is worth the climb.

O is for One Way Trip

In the science section of The Washington Post this morning, there was an article about journeying to Mars. It seems that some scientists believe that people will be ready to go and explore the red planet a lot sooner if we don't have to worry about getting them back... Yes, you read correctly. The mission to Mars would be one way. Explorers would have everything they needed to survive and start a colony, except a way back to Earth.

Nobody thinks that life on Mars would be easy, or even last very long, but it would undeniably be one of the greatest exploratory expeditions ever. In fact, over a thousand people have already informally volunteered to be a part of the project.

Think about it though: how different would the experience of going to Mars be than that of most people who immigrated to America a hundred and fifty years ago? Not much-- leaving your family then was almost always a last good-bye, and yet millions of people made that choice. In fact, most of us wouldn't be here if they hadn't.

Life Lesson: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

W is for a Wild Animal in My Garden

It's funny how kids become famous in a family for certain things they said or did when they were little. My sister used to say "Mo," when she meant "No," and my brother was well-known for his fish face-- the extreme pout he put on when he was verrrry displeased.

Our next generation have all had their memorable moments and quotes as well. When he was two, my nephew Riley fell flat on his bottom after trying and failing to give our cat a good kick in the butt. We scolded him soundly, of course. "What were you thinking!?" we asked.

"I just wanted to kick him over," he answered honestly.

His brother, Treat, is remembered for many things he said when he was a wee beastie, and one of them was, "I'm just going to skip time out... yeah, that's an option." It really wasn't.

Our godson Josh desperately wanted a pet hamster, unfortunately, the one he got was not a very friendly fellow-- he would bite anybody who even tried to pick him up. "He's not a ho'din hamster," Josh would tell us sadly.

Kyle, our nephew, used to call our dog Isabel, "Lisabel," and Lizzy is still one of her nicknames.

When he was very little, my youngest nephew, Richard, loved diggers and trucks. One day, as a dump truck rattled noisily past the house, he ran to see what it was, then turned to us with two thumbs up. "That guy was movin!" he reported.

His sister Annabelle, once saw a possum in the back yard. To this day she'll tell you about it, breathlessly: "I saw a wild animal in my garden!"

Life Lesson: Kids say and do the darnedest things, and even if they usually don't remember them, no worries-- that's what the older people are for.

L is for Lee's Woods

Arlington National Cemetery might be one of the most famous cemeteries in the world. More than 300,000 people have been buried there in the last 147 years, but few people know that it was designated as a cemetery in part to punish Robert E. Lee. Until the Civil War, the land that ANC lies on today belonged to Lee and his family. Their mansion still stands on the hill overlooking Washington, DC and surrounded by thousands of graves. When Lee made the decision to fight for Virginia and the Confederacy, his land was confiscated by the Union. Montgomery Meigs, a former friend of Robert E. Lee, and the Quartermaster General of the Union Army ordered the first soldiers buried in what had been the Lee's garden, because he knew that once that was done, the Lees would never return to live in their family home again. Meig's son had been killed in the war, and Meigs was so angry with Lee's betrayal that he wanted to make sure he lost his home.

It's amazing to think about all the history of that location-- both human and natural: because the grounds used to be private property, there is a stand of woods that is one of the last old growth forests left on the east coast. (Most woods in the United States have been cleared and farmed or settled at one point, and have now returned to forest, but an old growth forest is one that has never been cut down.) Right across the street from the mansion, are some woods, and some of the trees growing there today were standing when Robert E. Lee was alive, 150 years ago and longer. There is also a huge wild raspberry patch-- don't ask me how I know-- but around the fourth of July, you can pick ten pounds of berries if you know where to go. Watch out for the poison ivy, though.

Life Lesson: The life of humanity is so long, and that of the individual so brief... it is history that teaches us to hope. ~Robert E. Lee