The Spin Cycle this week is “motto.” As in what mottos do you live by?
I have an eclectic mix of mottos this morning that I will throw out there like several splashes of paint upon the canvas. If you find any of them at odds with each other, well then. You have a glimpse of what it is like for me on a daily basis.
We learn more from our mistakes and failures than we do from our successes. The growth we experience as we work through our trials takes us to a better, more aware state.
If we deny we made a mistake, or try to blame others for them, we are bound to find ourselves in situations over and over again until we work through whatever it is we are meant to work through.
Laugh and and see the humor in things as much as possible.
Be mindful. Although we do learn through our mistakes, some missteps are life altering.
We hold the power to create whatever we desire. Our ability to manifest the changes we desire depends on the depth and passion of our beliefs and on the focus of our attention.
With this understanding, we, as individuals and as society, can design a whole new future for ourselves. Our challenge is to break free of society’s world view, to truly empower our imaginations to create brand new realities. It brings a whole new meaning to ‘vision.’
What do you passionately desire for your own life? For the planet?
The gesture is the thing truly expressive of the individual – as we think so will we act.
A couple of months ago we called a plumber to snake out the upstairs toilet. He said someone is using three times the necessary TP to wipe his bum after pooping. It wasn’t hard to figure out it was the 17 year old male who grew nearly eight inches in eighteen months, eats like a lion (no horse this one, pure carnivore), and doesn’t think a minute ahead of things. We sat him down and explained that he should flush a couple of times mid-poop so he does not clog up the toidy. Not to mention go a bit easier on the bum wiping, or else space out the TP flushing as well with more than one flush. Plumber also recommended the Boy use the downstairs toilet.
Upstairs toilet was plugged again the other day. I was so pissed off at Teen Boy that I came down and handed him the plunger in front of his friends, as they all were hanging in my living room playing X-Box. I thought calling him out for plugging the pipes in front of his peers might embarrass him enough that it would NEVER happen again.
With a prouder than papa grin he looked at his friends, held the plunger over his head like a trophy, and said, “yeah boys, whose your daddy?” They all gave him high fives.
The new school year is going well so far. My students seem to be a really nice bunch of kids. Granted, they haven’t settled into their true colors yet and still are on their first date type side of their personalities. But the other day as the class ended and they trailed off to their next classes, a boy stayed behind and looked at me expectantly over my desk.
“Yes? Did you have a question?”
“I just wanted to say thank-you.”
“Oh. What for exactly?”
“For making the first day of school fun. I really liked your class today.”
Daughter took me to a play the other day. Spelling Bee. It was closing night. She tried to take me opening night but I would have none of it. I really figured a musical based on a Spelling Bee, with grown adults playing young children, sounded about as awful as a musical can get.
I was wrong. It was delightful. Funny. Entertaining. Great sound. It was run like a dinner theatre and you could eat and drink while watching the show. They had lunch carts to make it like a cafeteria. I bought one of everything. At intermission Daughter went and got a Ginger Ale, she handed me a sip and asked how I liked it (I suppose she meant the play). When I replied (apparently a bit too loud for her comfort) that it could use some gin and all would be perfect, she shook her head at me. WHAT?! It could have been the icing on the cake. By the way. I actually prefer vodka, it just seemed like a gin moment.
Did anybody out there say anything when the stupid fucking cell phone companies switched from one year to two year contracts?????!!!!! The phones they sold me at the contract signing price are all pieces of shit that break after one year. On the other hand, every other commercial on TV is for mobile phones or service. I am thinking that they should put a little more energy into customer service, and less into advertising. If I’m not blogging much this week it is because I am spending all my spare time researching which carrier I want to switch to if the one I’m using doesn’t buck up. I’m paying for a family plan and only one of three phones is working.
Ahhh Summer…. What teacher does not love summer? Those other breaks are just a chance to catch up on grading and lesson plans. It’s really hard to feel like you are on vacation when you have over 150 names on your class rosters.
This song reminds me of my childhood summers. Play it while you read the post to set the mood if you like.
I remember the summer this song was popular, I was eleven and we had just moved from the San Fernando Valley to the Surf and Sand Mobile Home Park in Malibu. I went back to the Valley and stayed for a week at my best friend's house for her annual birthday party sleepover in July. We had the radio playing outside and were jumping over a rope into the ivy in her front yard. Landing on it like it was a pad for the high jump and laughing like crazy. This song was playing, we were young, and life was good. Afterwards, her mom broke all the girls up into groups and we went around her neighborhood on a scavenger hunt. Does anyone do that anymore in this day and time? It was so much fun; kind of sad that the world has changed and neighborhood kids don't come knocking at your door asking for eclectic items. Hyperventilating with excitement and glancing across the street to see if the other girls are racing back to the house with a completed scavenger list.
I’ve always loved summer. EVERYTHING ABOUT IT. Summer cook outs, camp outs and road trips. Beach days and hiking days. The smell of freshly cut grass, salty air, and balmy nights. Summer movies and summer sunsets. Picnics and plain just eating outside at every chance you get. The chance to reinvent oneself. To make lifestyle changes and have enough time to see if these changes become a part of a new you.
Top ten plans I have for this summer…
10. Sleep more and take more naps.
9. Exercise and mix it up so nothing feels routine. Walks to my favorite park and yoga on the pier some days, and long walks on the North Shore beaches other days. Body boarding and snorkeling. Hiking on the ridges. Living room work outs with my hip hop buddy, Shaun T.
8. Meditate. Or should I say try to meditate. I have never been able to conquer the jabbering and endless list making that goes on in my head, but when I was on chemo I was able to focus on mantras at least. Giving it another shot in the arm this summer. That time slot got preempted by blogging during the school year.
7. Write. Write. Write.
6. Blog. Blog. Blog.
5. Lesson plans. I could leave it off the list, but the truth is, teachers worth their salt work over the summer. Summers between school years where I switched teaching lines I worked a lot. Next year will be my third year in sophomore English, so I won’t have to work too much. There is a new unit I am planning as well as a project. I also have notes and reflections from last year that I need to go through and use to tweak the units that I will be repeating.
4. Help my mom. Details of which could be another post or ten.
3. Read. Read. Read. Tackle that stack of books on my nightstand. Read the books for the new unit I am planning for my students.
2. Home projects. I never get to all the great project ideas I have, usually because of budget constraints, but sometimes just because of all the other things on the list. This summer my big idea is to plant a vegetable garden. We’ll see how that goes.
1. “Staycation” days. This is what we call it over here when you have no money to travel so you make it a point to enjoy some days on the island as if you were a tourist. At least once a week I hope to have a great day doing something fabulous. The particulars will depend on petty cash availability and the company I’m keeping on said day.
I know where I’ll be at the end of summer, long after I’ve gone back to work. My girlfriends annual Laborless Labor Day. For more spins on summer plans, head on over to Sprite's Keeper.
Last month a friend came to visit. First night we stopped in Chinatown for martinis (hi Vodka) at Indigo's and then went to Little Village for Chinese food. Why do we always live better when we have visitors?
Spent four hours of a weekend prepping a research project for my students.
Which included:
Guidelines for each part of the project
Timeline
Rubrics
4 weeks ago
Classes spent the week in the library, where they had three class periods to gather their research notes and sources.
Walked around and helped The Lost Ones.
3 weeks ago
Went over guidelines, timeline, and rubrics in class.
Asked the students if they had questions.
Gave them class time to work on writing up research.
2 weeks ago
Put students in groups.
Students had to:
Consolidate research, then go through and select research for group project.
Write a teacher lesson plan that included:
a way to present research that used teaching methods they wished teachers used more often.
a fun activity for students to use the information.
Consolidate research into one of three final products:
A brochure
An annotated bibliography
A traditional research paper
1.5 weeks ago
Announced after school tutorials would be everyday for students/groups that needed help.
1 week ago:
Students were given 50 minutes of three class periods to work on project.
Friday, March 13th
Group research report (brochure, annotated bib or research paper) due by 3 PM
School ends at 1:45 PM
Out of 150 students, 16 last minute wondernots show up after school and ask
Is something due today?
Can you explain it?
Can you help us?
Do they really think I am going to say,
Sure, I can help you pull a four week project out of your ass in one hour.
Since it is not PC to reply that or,
I think I should give you an “F” just for being stupid enough to ask me that.
I just go in my office and catch up on paperwork for an hour.
The fun part comes at 3 PM, when I go out to clear the inboxes and the 15 or so students working frantically on the computers create a cacophony of ear splitting cries.
You can’t buy this kind of fun. But you can watch it...
For today's Friday Foto Fiesta, thought we'd go inside the scenes. So, first a dive into the ocean that some of you have commented is such a pretty color. This is my view when I'm snorkling. BC keeps an eye on me. Sometimes, he plunges in to check on me when I'm not looking, swims up to me, and paddles his nails all over my back. If I come out screaming bloody murder, he knows all is well. That's Mr. Pseudo, son, and son's friend taking a little rest up on the beach.
That'a a school of little fish.
A shell hunting hole in the reef.
Dare devil son and dare devil pal.
They did not pay a lot of attention to the sign, yes? These two are more than just friends. They're kalabash cousins, meaning they have been raised like blood cousins even though they are not blood related. Son's pal is the son of one of my closest and dearest friends. She and I go back before the boys, before our husbands even. We were there for each other through the break ups of the ones that came before. My friend was my coach for the birth of both my children (yes, husband was there, but I knew I needed back up). I was there for the birth of her boy. These two boys, although nearly two years apart, have grown up together. Sometimes they fight like brothers, but they are very close.
Here's a video that my friend's son made of what they do for fun. My son is the silly one snorkling with the videographer. BC is featured on the ride up in the first few seconds of the video.
Hawaii public school starts on Monday. As in January 12. If you want to know how I feel about the year round calendar, check out my posts in mid-July, here or here. But this post is not about my educational philosophy. It's about my zen.
My 16 year old boy has been hanging with his friends for most of the break. But last week he graced us with a day of his company at the beach. It was a great day, a near perfect day. So this Friday Foto Fiesta is a share of what a near perfect day is in Pseudo-Land.
It starts with a swim. Then I get to take a short walk to the reef while husband and son play and swim with BC.
I sit and relax on the reef. Deep breaths.
Husband, BC, and I go for a long walk down the beach. BC gets exercised. Hubbie and I get our exercise. It's very centering and gets me out of my head. We go to the point in the far background. Son generously volunteers to watch our stuff and skip surfing so hubby and I can walk together. That's hubby and BC running ahead of me, eventually they get less ambitious and walk with me.
We came across these adorable groms enjoying their life on the North Shore.
These little guys had their surf boards behind them on the beach. They had been out surfing before playing on the rock.
