First Friday

I had some variation of the following conversation at least 4 times today:

Colleague: "Thank goodness it's Friday! I can't believe it's only the first week! It feels like we've been at it for months!"

Heidi says it's just because everyone is out of practice, and in that in a few weeks we'll all be back in shape and hitting our stride. I hope she's right, because otherwise?

It's going to be a realllllly long year!

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

I was talking today with our Instructional Technology Coordinator about the details of rolling out the iPads for the new sixth graders. I really like her, but I'm feeling a little skeptical about the plan they have in place.

"Oh, they should know it from 5th grade," our ITC assured me. "Watch." She turned to a random student. "What elementary school did you go to?"

The student told her.

"Did you use google.docs there?" the ITC continued.

The student nodded; the ITC winked triumphantly at me.

"Do you know your password?"

The student hesitated. "Wait. Did you say 'google'?" she asked, frowning. "No. I don't think so."

The ITC sighed.

The student turned her head. "Oh. Wait. Yeah. We did use that."

The ITC brightened.

The student shook her head. "I forgot my password, though."

Something Old, Something New

On a day when so many of this year's sixth graders are still just one in a jumble of faces and names, a woman caught my eye as I dashed into the grocery store on the way home from work and held it. She was finished with her own shopping and an adorable little girl danced along behind her, swinging one of the grocery bags.

"Ashley!" I cried. "Is it you?" because she looked exactly like the grown-up version of one of the students in my first class, ever.

"Yeah!" she answered in amazement. "What's your name again?"

"Ms. S! Your sixth grade English teacher!" I reminded her.

"Wow! I can't believe you remember me! You really haven't changed a bit!" she said.

And two thousand or so kids later? I accepted the compliment gleefully, though I knew how wrong she was.

Intro to Sixth Grade

"What are you going to do on the first day of school?" a colleague asked me last week.

"Oh, I'm not quite sure," I answered, "but I know it will involve popsicle sticks and index cards."

And it did.

And it was great!

No Thumbs

A few years ago I sat next to a colleague in a meeting and she distracted me the entire time by showing me her "trigger finger," an odd malady that made her finger visibly stutter at the joint each time she bent it. "Isn't that weird?" she said.

"Does it hurt?" I asked.

"Not right now, but they say it will. Then I'll need a shot of cortisone and maybe surgery."

I nodded sympathetically and mentally filed the conversation under thank goodness that's not me.

Sadly, I've had to update that file. I was sitting on a hop-on, hop-off tour bus in Vancouver a few weeks ago when I noticed my right thumb joint clicking any time I bent it. The area below it on the palm of my hand was tender as well, and it didn't take much googling to turn up several articles on what it was. I had trigger thumb.

Since then the joint cracking has definitely been distracting, and sadly the pain has been gradually worsening, but although the time for medical intervention may be drawing near, for now it has been amazing and instructive to me just what I do and do not need my thumb for.

Sergeant Pepper Reporting for Duty

It has been extremely satisfying using our new dehydrator to preserve food this summer. Well, I say "food", but the truth is the only thing I've dessicated so far has been peppers, but I have dried a lot of them. In fact, I have about half a pound of gorgeously-hued red and orange chili powder in the kitchen right now, neatly divided and clearly labeled as mild, medium, and hot Hot HOT. It practically glows in its plastic bags.

As a rule, spicy food does not bother me, and I love tasting the different flavors of the peppers that linger beneath the heat, but perhaps I got a little carried away today when at the grocery store I bought a six pack of habanero IPA. Yeah, that was a little too much for me, but I happily used it to steam the shrimp I bought as well. Five more beers? More shrimp can be arranged!

Laws of Productivity

I've always found the Saturday of a three day weekend to be a most productive day. Somehow, knowing there are still two more days off before you return to work makes so many things seem do-able. Today was no exception.

In the morning, I gardened and cooked and canned and dehydrated like nobody's business. I also paid the bills, read the paper, gathered the recycling, and caught up on several magazines that had been sitting around so that I could toss them in the recycling, too. But I wasn't through yet. No, then I hemmed a pair of cut-off shorts that I made from the pants I ruined back in that unfortunate spill I took in May. After that I read an article on writing and teaching, finished one book, and started the next. I'm sure I'll get a few more things done before bedtime, too.

It might seem ironic that a gal who is just coming off ten weeks of vacation is in such a rush, but the fact is that days like today are even better than summer, because there is a sense of urgency:

Work
is
coming!