dramedy of errors

I left for work at 6:54am; it's the latest I've left all year. On the way, a train passed-- the second train crossing of the year. And, I drove behind a guy going 35mph in a 45 mph zone that's impossible to pass. Most people go 55 or 60. Despite the rough start, I had a fabulous day for the most part. My neck aches. But, I started the ball rolling on getting a Girls on Track at my school. It looks like it will be great. And, I made reservations for the Chief and me to go on a spiritual retreat in mid-July. And, I have this incredibly strong desire to go to India. Yea, I didn't see it coming either. Now, I must go home and grade papers. No planning period tomorrow and grades are due Monday.

wired

Exhausted and overwhelmed. I have so much to do that I need to write a to-do list and break it down into manageable chunks. I'm very proud of my sister who swept the awards at her graduate program, but I'm also annoyed with her. I would love to curl up in a private hobbit hole to read, journal, sip herbal tea and eat toast with strawberry preserves for about three days so that I could build up the reserves to survive the next month. But, it's not going to happen. I must go back to the to-do list and write "purge all the abstract ideas that have hijacked my brain's function". I need to write lesson plans and take education courses rather than ponder the bigger question of "creative nonfiction and the merging of fact with imagination". I need to write out all my reactions to Biden's concept of "bending history"-- wtf! I need to run. I need to call multiple friends. I need to do laundry. I need to email numerous parents. All I want to do is read. Reading is a definite escape... my drug of choice.

Today's victory: I finally signed up to give to IJM on a monthly basis and got info on giving to the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons since I'm no tithing to a church because I'm churchless.

graduation= brilliant planning=stress

I haven't studied the transitive property in a while. My sister is receiving her MBA on Monday with the hooding ceremony Sunday night. My sister is stressed out; therefore, all of us are stressed out. She wants us to meet for dinner on Sunday before the ceremony but has yet to reveal the time and place we are to eat said dinner. And, my mom and sister both got hotel rooms, but they happen to be about thirty minutes away from each other. Yeh, sometimes picking up a phone and chatting can be good. She has everybody on a need-to-know basis, which makes us less concerned about details because we don't have any-- not that very many details concern us anyway. (Sometimes I wonder where my sister's genetics came from-- her temperment is definitely an outlier in our family.) So far, the Chief has locked her keys into her trunk, and I've had the audacity to get sick. So, that may mean I don't make the cut for karoake tonight after P's barbeque party at 5pm. My brother is still about an hour away-- so we're going to be late. But, who wants to go to a BBQ party with a bunch of strangers for five hours anyway?

My family has bungled every single one of our graduations. We're always late and discombobulated. At least two people are uber uptight (I was one at my high school graduation). I didn't bother to go to my grad school graduation; I read the commencement speach in Crux.

My sister's blood pressure must be really high today. Don't worry: I have cold medicine, and they'll be serving beer and bourbon. I need to be concerned about maintaining my equilibrium and good humor-- demonstrate the personal responsibility that I harp on my students about.

Asides: I got fried pigskins at the vending machines at the rest stop on I-40 East. I thought, "How southern!" until I read the "chicacharrones" in bigger print on the label. Ah, a little cross-cultural action, friends. They are tastey with cerveza.

I will nap now.

strawberry fields

I picked strawberries with D after a long, exhausting, stressful day. It was fun and relaxing. Strawberry picking counts as cross training, right? My birthday goal is to have more fun!

Now, I'm going to see if Books A Million has a copy of The Hobbit with pictures. My fourth grader likes pictures. Wish me luck. I think I might have better luck swinging by the Good Will.

figuring things out

I manuever through the copious red tape of education with the grace of a haggard drunk. I stumble across effective practice and good ideas like he'd run into a pole. For instance, I was lamenting the chunk of change I was going to lay down for classes I won't receive credit but have to have to get licensed. I started at a private college that charged $980 for a 3 credit hour class, then I stumbled upon a state school that charges $375, and then I landed on a community college that charges $162. The difference is staggering (keeping with my metaphor). I have nothing to prove: I have decent degrees-- I'm going for the cheapest because they are all online. Although I might splurge and take Grammar in Modern English at my Alma Mater. It's a little sick, but I'm excited about the grammar course.

I administered my first standarized test today. It was 141 minutes of stressful tedium. The test was fine and boring, but as soon as it was my students morphed into wild banshees. Of course, three of my wildest kids have run out of their ADHD medicine. Yowsers.

P.S. I loathe all forms of administration and record-keeping.

grad party and mother's day

Data:
Thursday: began Hobbit with kid I tutor, dined out with newly MBA course-work complete sister and Mom.
Friday night: micro-brewery and Symphony. It was good.
Saturday: 8 mile run, b-day breakfast at Cracker Barrel with Sis, mani & pedi, Grad party, drinks, failed venture to karaoke, dead tired.
Sunday: late arrival to church, dramatic entrance to front row (thanks, Mom), gourmet burgers, hilarity and hijinks, shopping at Tiffany's for S's grad present (very breakfast at tiffany's), desert with Aunt, siblings and Mom.

Analysis:
I've reached a work-life balance by accident/necessity. I'm starting to sift the center from the margins as an act of survival. It's good for me to be busy. My brain is still in hyperdrive, but I don't have the downtime to freak out. Note to self: running/training is something I cannot cut out and maintain sanity.

People are the one thing that the Bible states are in the image of God. How do I live that?

I'm excited about Summer Vacation but already dreading how brief it will be... and how busy I'll be. I need to learn how to pluck the day from my friends who live very much in the now. Being present is a spiritual discipline.

I gave a killer toast to my sister.

Due to my lack of internet, I'm very behind in my communication with very dear friends.

I really enjoy my family. I'm realizing how lucky I am to say that.

long and fast

This is the week that never ends. It keeps going on and on my friends. By Wednesday 7pm while I was still in my classroom, I felt like I'd accomplished enough already for it to be Friday night. But, no.

I'm exhausted and still have so much to do. My sister's graduation party is on Saturday. I have Symphony tickets for Friday night and promised my friend we'd go out to eat before the concert. Tuesday I had small group then went to my school's choral concert (I'm skipping the band concert tonight-- I couldn't stomach the squawking and honking this late into the week). And, I have my half marathon training to scrunch between the bedlam of work and my "social" life. I need to buy a plane ticket to Vancouver really soon, but the lack of internet service is making that difficult. Maybe I'll join AAA because my car with 254k miles and they could find me a flight. Do you get good deals through them?

Apparently my uncle reported about my party to my sister, "It's like B said. The people who were at J's party really love J." I think the kayaking, cookout and monsoon weren't necessarily his party format of choice. He also said, "It was cold and wet." And, it was... at the very end.

All this whining is to say, I think this level of business is helping to prioritize and not lose sleep over any one thing. Although I did wake up at 2:30 am last night petrified that none of my kids are going to pass the state test. We shall see.

This is such an interesting period of life utterly different from last year this time. Now I need to go home and mix cow manure and lyme into my soil and plant my 6 grape tomato plants and cross train. My second annual patio garden will provide some continuity. Only four more weeks. And miles and miles before we sleep. Yowsers.

pirating days

I no longer have "free internet" at my house. There's a long drawn out edition of the story that includes cocaine and drug dogs (which I slept through), but I might get shot if I tell it. A sad explanation of the spotty posting. It'll be at school or coffee shops. It's odd, but our county has blocked all private emails and facebook, etc., but we can get onto blogger.

My favorite 30 year old quotation so far is "I'm 30 but I read at a 34 year old's level," Dana Carvey said.

I'm going to spend the next hour organizing. Teaching has put the spot light on my loose organization. I not only have to keep up with my stuff, but 65 kids and 3 secretaries, 2 bosses and 1 mentor, etc. I could write a book on the mating habits of copy paper and their evil offspring: papers that need to be graded that spawn launched paper balls.

the big three OH!

I'm not sure why I decided to have a party. It turned out to be a good idea fraught with lots of work (but definitely worth it). We met on the Catawba River and kayaked, played whiffle ball, and cooked out. The older people played cards, and my uncle read Dostyeovksy's The Idiot in a foldable chair by the river. This is all to say it was low key. Twas lucky to have a beer tasting on the same grounds. All my guests had a couple of cups of microbrewed beer for free before hitting the kayaks. One person out of twenty was on time, and it was all good.

The weather was pleasant until the monsoon hit while we were eating our local, organic burgers. A lightning storm hit while we were gathered under a tin roof. It wouldn't have been that bad except for the tropical storm level winds. Everybody got soaked due to the fact that there were no walls. G said, "You're never going to forget your 30th party." "Neither are you," I replied.

The food was good. But, my favorite part of the whole shindig were my guests. My friends are such lovely folk and good sports to boot. When I was asked what the rain plan was, I answered, "You get wet." Little did I know how prophetic my smart ass comment would be. I'm such an enigma: a majority of my present were books, followed by UNC paraphenalia and then green and blue jewelry and clothes. And, the other odd detail was the drunk 47 year old woman who crashed the party because somebody had taken her keys (must have been a beer-tasting casualty).

Last night I slept like the proverbial log because I remained faithful to my training plan (6 miles yesterday before 8 am) and kayaked. Today, I ate birthday cake for breakfast, went to church, took a nap in lieu of the planned journal writing at the botanical gardens. Now I need to clean and organize and work for next week.

I always imagined I'd have it together by the time I was thirty. Ha. I don't feel mature enough to be twenty five; I guess I should make a habit of SPF 45 to compensate for the disparity in my age and compentencies! I need to come up with some goals for the year. Maybe to laugh more and listen better and listing to-do. Most people assure me that their thirties were/are an improvement on their twenties. I hope so.