….and it’s easy to believe
maybe this year will be better than the last…”

Last year we got out for Christmas Break on December 15, but this year we drudge on until the 21. Tomorrow is the shortest day of the year, at least in daylight hours, but I think it will be a long one for me, as I will be teaching all 6 classes, finalizing my packing, cleaning the house a bit, completing Christmas cards, and doing all those last-minute right-before-a-vacation household chores. We wake up early Saturday morning to head to the airport to catch our flight to SLC (we’ll end up in frigid Pocatello). The only sanity-saver I have is knowing that I won’t have to go to work for 16 days, and that I will get to spend time with friends and family in the meantime.

Although this trip will be a time of catching up with friends and family, I have calculated that on each day of this break, I must grade 3 senior papers. I also have to grade 30 mitosis labs, 30 photosynthesis labs, 70 biology notebooks, 30 AP Bio Mitosis and Cell communication tests, 30 AP Bio photosynthesis tests, and 70 cell quizzes. As you can tell, I am a bit behind on my grading, as I was out sick for 3 days last week and I simply have not caught up. At least my Christmas shopping is finished, right?

I should go to bed so I can face the last day before break as a well-rested human being!

This weekend (and most of this month) has been rainy, but we managed to have a good bit of fun anyway. Justin and I went out for Thai food, went to a photography show in a coffee shop, went for a walk around Ballard, got some tea, and caught a movie on Thursday night. Saturday, after a big breakfast, we went to see Twelfe Night (the first folio spelling) at Seattle Rep and then got ready to have another couple over for bread, homemade potato soup, salad, and homemade plum-peach cobbler. We had fun just talking with our company for about four hours–something we rarely get to do. Today after church we drove up to Capitol Hill and went to the bike store so Justin’s tires could work again, and then we went for a walk in Volunteer Park in the rain. I could have walked for longer, but we were expecting a Craigslister to drop by. Knowing that I had grading to do, I did what I always do in the face of grading–procrasti-baking. Now I am procrastiblogging, but earlier I made pumpkin muffins, which were quite tasty. This weekend I’ve also been knitting quite a bit on my niece’s baby kimono. Who knows when I will be finished with it. The process is quite fun.

This week is going to be extra-crazy, as I have school- or education-related events every night but Monday this week–including Saturday and Friday. While I’m not doing that, I’ll be reading The Great Divorce for the C.S. Lewis book group I’m in.

It looks like the owner of the MacBook Pro I happen to be typing on needs his computer back (*ahem* Justin) so this mini-blog will have to do.

Today begins the start of our 6,000 mile road trip. It’s beginning kind of late because of our procrastination in getting things packed, cleaned, and ready to go, but hey–that’s why we’re taking a car and not scheduled for a flight.

Tonight we hope to end up somewhere in Montana–as far as we can drive in 10-12 hours, at least. Our car is ridiculously full of everything we’ve packed, but I hope to spend very little on eating fast food, hence the cooler and 2 bags of food we’ve stashed in the car.

Some tasks I’d like to accomplish while Justin is driving include:
read the rest of Love in the Time of Cholera
knit baby bibs and washcloths for Joanna’s baby
work on AP Biology curriculum
grade papers and notebooks from Upward Bound Summer School
read lots of other delicious books

The weather here has been ridiculously cool, so I hope we get some not-scorching weather in Arkansas, although the last I checked, it was going to be over 100F each day we’re there. Better swimming weather, I suppose.

We’ve had an excellent visit with my friend Bethany since she’s been out here from Missouri. We’ve gone blackberry picking, we played soccer with my team, we went to my book club with Dawn and Erin, and we went to the Farmers’ Market and Pike Place Market, the Elliot Bay Book Company, Andaluz, Fireworks, and Cafe Ladro. She got to come to my classes with me and went to the UB summer banquet and picnic. We’ve had an excellent time and I’m sad to leave her here, but I know she’s going to have a great time with Dawn and the rest of the gang here in Seattle.

Oh goodness! We’ve got to go! Hopefully I’ll be able to make some updates from the road.

I posted more photos to flickr recently–they are of wildlife from when I went with my students to Northwest Trek. I tried to link there but my site got switched to a different server and well, it didn’t work. Anyway, check those out!

Right now I’m just enjoying summer (or what’s left of it). We’re cleaning the house today, or at least doing all those de-cluttering and purging things that people do when it’s summer. We’re getting rid of lots of tech stuff we’ve been keeping for no real reason and I’ve started some new filing systems. All in all, I’m feeling more organized, even if it feels like we’re moving and a million boxes are still in the hall.

On a more fun note, I’ll probably work on one or more books this evening and possibly lesson plan a little for this week. I recently started Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s book Love in the Time of Cholera, and I’m almost finished with Eat, Pray, Love. I’m reading so much more this summer than I usually do, and I hope to be finished with 10 books by the end of summer (I’m only at almost-4 right now).

Other plans for this week include:
Wii game night (and chicken curry dinner) Monday
Bela Fleck concert at the Zoo Wednesday
New Soccer Season starts Thursday
Film night Friday at Daniel’s

I want to start knitting again, as this stopped for me in April. I have plans for a baby kimono for Joanna’s little girl, but I think I need yarn for it. This will be a perfect project for our road trip.

I also want to start running again, which is not perfect for a road trip…I haven’t really run since last fall. I’ve been relying on indoor bikes, 10 lb weights, exercise videos, and soccer to serve as my workouts, but there’s nothing like a good run. We’ll see how that goes.

Well…until my next post…adieu!

This will have to be brief, disjointed, and unedited as I have to catch a bus in a while, but I just got back from Upward Bound camp in Sequim, WA. What an adventure we had on the way home…more on that later. I walked from the ferries to lower Queen Anne when we got back, luggage in tow. It was 2 miles of awesome walking, so I got an iced mocha when I got to Queen Anne/Uptown.

I’m heading to my cousin’s wedding and I’ll get to spend lots of time with my little sister. Yay!

Gotta catch my bus…it’s going to be fun in the 90+ heat. Sheesh.

This is because I can cook on a whim (biscuits and gravy at 9 p.m., anyone?), go to free museum nights without the guilt of not grading papers, sit outside in the SUN, read books for long stretches of time, nap at the drop of a hat, tend my verdant garden, and…did I mention the sun yet?

I am obviously enjoying my summer off. By off, I mean not full-time teaching. My part-time job still requires work, but it’s SO much fun to teach these students. I’m also finished by 11 each day, which means I take the bus home and can take my time if I want to. Or stop at the Bubble Tea place nearby. Or get my nails done at the South Seattle Community College training salon. Or….do anything I want :).

Upcoming Events: Film night Saturday, Camping for 2 nights with students of Upward Bound, travel to Arkansas for my cousin’s wedding, host book club, and more.

Recent Activities: Free night at Seattle Art Museum. More on this to come when I feel inspired. Walked to movie (Ratatouille) and dinner (Tutta Bella) with Justin in Columbia City for birthday (movie was a grand total of $7 for both of us!). Uneventful, yet productive, 4th of July. Recovered from food poisoning Monday. Watched Volver.

That is all. More summer deliciousness to come.

It’s been a rather cool and drizzly weekend even though the end of the school year is quickly approaching. We have only 5 days of school left, but a stressful 5 days it will be! This is mainly because tomorrow is graduation and rehearsal, which is hectic as I have to make sure the show runs smoothly. This year I created documents with directions. It took me all afternoon, but it will be worth it.
Also, I’ve spent part of the afternoon working with a student who is trying to graduate and has resubmitted his paper about three times today. Sheesh. The other factors that make this a hectic week are that we’re going on a field trip Tuesday, and finals are Thursday and Friday. I have to be packed and checked out, with all grades done, by Friday afternoon. As you can tell, I’m a bit concerned about this.

In other news, I may be running in a 24-hour relay with a team in late July. It will be a bit pricey, but I may decide to go ahead with it for the adventure. Plus, I’ll have something to start training for when I run again this summer.

Lastly, I just bought tickets for my cousin’s wedding back in Arkansas. I’ll be there July 11-15, although I leave and arrive at ungodly hours.

Well, gotta go grade. I’ve been putting it off all weekend.

We just got back from our trip to Camano Island. What a relaxing weekend it was! I didn’t get much work done, so in many regards it was a retreat. I had a great time, but I left feeling guilty about what I didn’t do as far as paper grading. Aaron rented a beach house from a coworker, and Elaine, Jesse, Raleigh, Daniel, Aaron, Andrea, Asher, Justin, and I were there for the weekend. The “cottage” is 2 bedrooms/2 baths/2 stories and it’s right on the beach. We got there Friday night and mainly stayed inside for the whole weekend, as there is a lot of living space and the weather was unpredictable (mainly rainy and cool). That was fine, though, because we played ping-pong, watched Shallow Hal and Lemony Snicket, played Wii games, had a late-night poker game, talked, beach-combed, kayaked, ate A LOT, and just had a great time. I finished reading The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, which was one of my personal solitude treats. I ate some of Theo Chocolate’s Bread and Chocolate bars and drank my miracle red tea while finishing the book. This is one of my favorite things to do–drink hot beverages and eat chocolate while reading a book with a nice view nearby. Bonus points if it’s raining or if there are friends or family sitting quietly by, doing their own thing.

By the way, I call it miracle red tea because I kept whining about not having brought my own rooibos tea, and I asked Justin to find some while he went to the store Friday night, but since we were in a rather rural area, there was none. I whined some more the next day about my lack of red tea, and decided to make some of the Celestial Seasonings tea that a previous guest left behind. Upon opening the box, lo and behold, I found a solitary packet of red tea flavored with vanilla! I really appreciated the tea, savoring every sip.

Now I must work. Monday morning calls my name. I only have two more Mondays of teaching this year–and the last one doesn’t count since I’ll have a sub while I help with graduation rehearsal.

Summer is my one time to get away. Last summer I definitely did that–I had an excellent summer full of adventure on a 2-week road trip, a week-long workshop near Mt. Rainier, and almost two weeks in Hawaii. This summer does not yet have anticipation built into it, and because of that, I am feeling restless. I’ve had my first taste of summer this weekend, and because I didn’t have many plans Sunday, I got that listless, bored, sleepy feeling that I despise so much. don’t get me wrong–there was plenty I could have done, but I just didn’t feel like it–there was no pressure to do anything by a certain time. All I did was read and nap before my friend’s going-away party.

I can see my summer days becoming like that since I am not in grad school and I have no job or definite plans. This troubles me. I want to be someone who can just wake up and take care of chores around the house, read, tend my garden, visit with friends, and more without feeling like that isn’t enough. What I REALLY want to do this summer is take a cheap, hassle-free trip to a developing country–all arranged by someone else–and explore it while helping other people. I want to go to Costa Rica, Peru, Thailand, Kenya–anywhere where they’ll take me! I need something to wake up for each morning, yet I don’t want to have to wake up early EVERY morning. I also don’t want to necessarily be in Seattle all summer.

Why am I so restless? Why can’t I be content to enjoy Seattle’s excellent, tranquil summers? I know I’m afraid of boredom even though there’s so much to do around here. I want to escape here when the chance arises, because once the school year returns, I am tied down again. Grrr….Any solutions?

Tonight I am baby-sitting an adorable 9-month old. He crawls, pulls himself to standing, and tastes everything. Every detail of the world is new to him; he seems to be learning something new every second. Since no one else was around, I found myself making the dumbest noises around him in a seemingly instinctive effort to teach him words, music, rhythm, and sounds.

When I heard him uttering sounds and babbling to himself, I began thinking of the reverse of childhood–the childhood of senility, adult dependence, and aging. This childhood (and sometimes infancy) is obviously not the childhood most find endearing. There is a loss of hope that comes with observing babies and children, for when watching this group of tiny people, one is yearning for growth and learning. One thinks, “When will he take his first step? I wonder what he will be like when he is a teenager?” The hope for one who is in the second childhood or infancy is more of a time of reflection, regression, and, at times, depression. The hope in this case comes for life after death rather than for physical or mental progression in this life.

Sadly, some children stay in a state of permanent infancy or childhood. One of my students was relating this to me today in a class discussion. Her ten year old sister has the mind and actions of a one-year-old due to her mother’s heart medication while breastfeeding. I think one of my worst fears might be having a child that does not progress physically, mentally, socially, or spiritually. Another of my worst fears is facing the aging of my parents, my siblings, and my husband. I know if the time comes for me to confront any of these fears in the future, I will be given the strength. Who knew babysitting could prompt such reflection?