80% Capacity
Listening to: Big City Rhythms – Michael Feinstein
Reading: Can’t decide what to start next
Weather: 38, rainy
Trivia: Why do we clink our glasses when drinking a toast?
In medieval times, a common way to kill an enemy was to offer him a poisoned drink. To prove to the guest that a drink was safe, the host would receive a small amount of the guest's drink in his own glass, and both would drink at the same time. If the guest trusted the host, rather than pouring some of his drink into the host's glass he would simply clink his glass against it. Although offering a poisoned drink is no longer a popular way to kill someone, the custom of clinking glasses still remains. There is another reason why the custom has held so long: in medieval times, the sound of bells was thought to scare off the Devil. The Devil was thought to frequent festive occasions, so the bell-like sound of glasses clinking was often heard at such events.
Cool word:bibliotaphy [n. BIB-lee-oh-TAF-ee]
Bibliotaphy is the practice of hoarding or hiding books, and someone who engages in bibliotaphy is a bibliotaph. Like many "bookish" words, this one includes the biblio- prefix, from the Greek biblion (book), which also gave us Bible. The suffix,-taphy, is from Greek taphos (tomb), since the books hoarded or hidden might as well be entombed. Another word from taphos is cenotaph [n. SEN-uh-taf] (an empty tomb that commemorates someone who is actually buried elsewhere), with the prefix ceno- from Greek kenos (empty). Here are more "bookish" words:
- bibliopegy: the art of binding books
- bibliopolist: a seller of books, especially rare or used ones
- bibliotics: examination of documents for authenticity
I went back to work myself today (dragged is a word that vividly expresses the truth). I think I was operating at about 80% capacity, at least until about 1:30, then I dropped to 20%. But I think I should be happy that I was operational at all.
Now I'm downright wiped out. I have the feeling that I will be crashing on the early side.
I felt as if I was the Messiah returning to the fold. The fact that I'd been out for four days was quite the topic of conversation apparently, so many people stopped in to find out if I was alive. Nice to be missed (I think). Even the principal had come in to check with my office mates to see if I was ok, saying "She’s never out for this long!"
Man if he keeps this up - this concern, this knowing who I am, this noticing if I’m around – I may die of heart failure.
It seemed as if it must have been a fairly quiet week though, as the phone messages were mostly nonexistent and the paperwork hadn't gotten too far out of hand. I was relieved to see that.
Not that I'm not a week behind in testing and report writing now.
I am.
I had one of the biggest coups of my year today.
One of the kids who came to us in 4th grade (last year) reading at an early 2nd grade level (one of the most dyslexic children I've ever seen, she sees the word "was" as "sam") was tested by our reading specialist today and was able to score an 80% on a fifth grade passage. This was reading silently and independently.
I cried.
I've been working with this kid for a year and a half and didn't know if I was getting anywhere or not. I'm thrilled for her. And she was thrilled for herself.
It also proves to the classroom teacher that I was right when I chose the reading program that I wanted to do with this child. But then I really don't like this classroom teacher. She's the one who looked at me one day a few weeks ago and said ,"Oh good, you're here to get the dumb ones."
I wanted to punch her.
I finished the book I was reading yesterday, and now I can’t decide what to read next. Not that I don’t have a stack piled a mile high. I enjoyed these last two light, fluffy romances that I read and I’d like to find something else that I could enjoy like that. It was nice to look forward to going to bed early and allotting time to read.
I know it was because I liked the characters or the settings or the plots (not that they were deep). I always enjoy Jane Ann Krentz and Nora Roberts, they somehow always manage to create a world that I enjoy inhabiting for a while. I need to find something with the same appeal. I don’t know what it will be.
I should probably go back to trying to read Harry Potter but I don’t know if they will fit my mood.
So now it's time to crash.
Did you know sunrise isn't until after seven these days? A fact that I'm sure you have no desire to witness for yourself. I'd be happy to forgo the pleasure myself.
I really am crashing now.
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