Nothing changes
There is one thing that always holds true about school. Nothing changes. You can be gone for a week and not think about the place, not open the tote bag, do not a smidge of work, and when you open the door and walk back in, everything rushes back at you.
The work is there, the faculty is there, the kids are there and we just pick up from where we left off.
Someday I hope there is a change.
I’m not holding my breath.
It always takes a few days to get back into the full swing, and these first few days back are exhausting.
Once I get out of the regular routine, it takes me a while to readjust my internal clock.
I was up by nine each day last week, but didn’t go to sleep until after midnight each night. Unfortunately that seems to be closer to my natural rhythm, so I had a tough time falling asleep last night. Then once I did fall asleep I had all sorts of weird dreams.
And all the dreams were about school.
At lunch today we were all talking about how we still get "school nerves" the night before we come back. It never passes, no matter how many years we’ve been doing it.
It seems to be universal among teachers and it’s really sort of strange.
There was another problem today. That of hunger. I was used to having breakfast and coffee in the nine o’clock range, not in the six-thirty a.m. range. By ten o’clock this morning I was ready to start gnawing on my arm.
By one-thirty I was ready for a nap, and was literally fighting sleep. I couldn’t wait to get home.
And what time did I get home? Four thirty.
The Pink of Perfection decided that she wanted to talk. She’s taking two weeks off to have surgery done on her carpal tunnel (or some similar injury). She is so different. She left a note in everyone’s box telling them she’d be out, but didn’t tell them why.
A few well thought out words can really go a long way in keeping the rumors at bay.
But that’s her business. For whatever reason she’s chosen to let everyone guess.
Seems strange.
Wneh I got home I did collapse for about a half-hour. I think I actually slept for about fifteen minutes and that did me lots of good. It’s given me a second wind that will keep me going for a while. Not that I plan to stay up terribly late. I’ll be happy to make it until ten o’clock.
It’s still really dark out at five thirty in the morning. I am so looking forward to the time that sunrise is earlier.
For the moment the cat seems to be on the mend. He hasn’t fallen apart on the reduced medicine dosage. It will be great to have him healthy.
I’ve totally forgotten that it’s a short month and that I need to have a new design for this page for March (something appropriately Irish). I have no idea when I’ll find time to get that done.
The three CDs of New York City music that I had ordered before vacation were waiting for me at school today. I wish I’d had them last week, they are really making me feel cheerful.
Listening to: My new New York CDs
Reading: The Pilot’s Wife Anita Shreve
Weather: rainy, 54
Trivia: Is a check written on a block of wood actually negotiable?
Technically, you can write a "negotiable instrument" (bank talk for a valid check) on just about anything, up to and including a block of wood. According to the Uniform Commercial Code, the body of law which governs things like checks, it's only necessary to include the name of the payee, the dollar amount, the name of your bank, your signature, the date, and suitable words of conveyance (such as "pay to the order of"). You do not need to include your account number or the bank identification number which are included on pre-printed checks. There have been any number of goofy checks written and successfully cashed over the years. A gentleman who was in a dispute over $30 owed another wrote a check on a door and dropped it on him from a third-story window. Said check was ruled legal payment by a court. A gentleman in England once paid his taxes by whitewashing a check for 26 pounds, 10 shillings on the side of a cow. This check was also ruled legal. And a participant in an arc-welding contest in Cleveland won first prize for a solid steel check that he hand-lettered. Compared to these, a block of wood check seems rather tame, indeed, almost childishly simple. You may, however, have difficulty finding someone who is actually willing to accept a block of wood check. A merchant is free to reject any sort of payment they feel uncomfortable with, and a block of wood check would probably fall into this category. But, should your local K mart accept it, your bank will honor it. Still, if you're planning on sending your latest payment to the IRS written on the back of the shirt, it may be a good idea to have plenty of turnaround time planned in for the endeavor.
Cool word: captious [adj. KAP-shus]
If an argument or question is captious, it is designed to trap the unwary into a calculated line of reasoning. Someone who is captious is a person who tends to point out faults and objections, especially if that person is ill-tempered and argumentative. Example: "At first we were taken in by Simon's apparently earnest objections, but then we realized they were captious attempts to derail the project." Captious sounds like capture, and the resemblance is no accident. Both words trace back to Latin capere (to take or seize). That Latin word also had a sense of deception or sly manipulation through cunning arguments. To be captious is to seize control of an argument by introducing critical comments designed to entrap the attention and lead it in chosen directions. The same Latin root has given us a large family of words, including capable, capacious, caption, captive, captor, capture, catch, conceive, deceive, except, municipal, occupy, participate, perceive,
and susceptible.
previous |
next
|
Home |
Horoscope
ARIES
It is going to be difficult to marry up your highly idealistic hopes for the future with your financial reality. It does require you to get real about what you are obliged to do in order to safeguard your long-term income and interests. Only then can you see what is possible when you have adjusted to the demands of circumstances. No one is completely free, you will be surprised at how you can square the circle if you put your mind to it.