Not Today, Children

"Take your hood off, please," I asked a student who came to my room for the after school Anime Club.

"Why?" a friend of his asked with some attitude. "School is over." She looked at me with more than a little defiance.

"Oh yeah?" I said, meeting her gaze. "Then go home."

He took his hood off.

She stayed.

What is Jeopardy?

I like the game; I even tried out for the show, but in truth, I haven't regularly watched Jeopardy in years. I'm usually writing or cooking at that hour, and so the show dropped from my routine.

But, the same was not true for my mother. She was an inveterate fan, even going so far as to record the show on her DVR so that she, and any guest, could watch at their convenience. And we did! In the many days I was fortunate enough to spend with my mom in the last months of her life, we watched Jeopardy together on most of them. Last April we saw James Holzhauer's first victory and in October we saw the waning episodes of his championship in reruns at the hospital. Like so many devotees of the game, my mom was both impressed and dismayed by his dominating, 2 million dollar, buzzsaw reign.

And of course, when I saw that he had made the finals of the Tournament of Champions, along with Francois and Emma, champions I had also watched with my mom, I had to tune in. So tonight? I am multitasking: both typing and calling out my answers, all of them in the form of a question, obviously.

In Negotiation

Call me crazy, but with limited space in our apartment-sized living room, I don’t think a 6 foot tall cat structure should be part of the furniture. Oh, it was me who ordered the monstrosity, but it was Heidi who really wanted such a thing, and I guess I figured with a new, more compact couch and chair, that we could accommodate it. But once we put it together and the cats loved it, the battle lines were drawn.

But really? It is 3 to 1 with an abstention from the dog, so I guess it stays.

For now. 

Invaluable

"Is that Apple Watch worth it?" asked the young cashier at the grocery store next to the gym as I tapped it on the card reader to pay.

I shrugged. "Well, it just did that," I said, "and I use it to track my exercise." I gestured at my workout clothes. "And," I continued thoughtfully, "I'm a teacher, so sometimes it's helpful to be able to check my texts without looking at my phone."

But I had lost him at "teacher".

"Props to you!" he exclaimed. "The most undervalued profession!"

"Thanks," I told him.

"I mean it!" he said. "I am in touch with all my teachers even though I graduated a couple of years ago. They have given me so much! I will never forget them! Thank you for being a teacher!"

I'd say the watch was worth it just for that.

I Heart Buffalo

Even when you have a long road trip ahead of you there is nothing so magical as waking up to snow silently falling. A pretty dust on the grass and and a wee bit of white clinging perfectly to every pine bough and tree branch is also impossible to disdain.

Especially when the roads are clear!

Long Distance Notifications

From time to time today my watch would chime with some alert or another. Twice it was to tell me that there was a severe traffic incident back in Arlington, which, given the location would not have affected me even were I not 500 miles away in Buffalo, NY. Once it was to say that we no longer need to boil our water in Arlington, which was an ordeal resulting from the water main break that I was relieved to miss.

And three times I was notified that light rain was starting in Minneapolis, which was so sorrowfully irrelevant that I got a little lump in my throat.

November Winds

On this November weekend in Buffalo we walk the dog along the same neighborhood streets as we do in July and at Christmas. Gone, however, are the long golden evenings of summer, not yet replaced by merry lights reflected on blankets of snow. Instead, bare boughs shake in a blustery gale blowing dry leaves over faded pumpkins.

I consider myself a cold weather person, always preferring to be too cold rather than uncomfortably warm. Today, though, the wind was a scalpel resecting any hearty resilience I might muster. Shoulders hunched and head bowed I cringed against the cold and wondered what this winter will bring.

Because I know that the weather is far from out of the ordinary, and the rawness? Is all mine.