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December 7th, 2006
07:57 pm - The best Christmas present I ever got...
On Monday of this week, my beautiful little girl, Bella, jumped the fence and ran away from home, on a cold afternoon while my husband and I were at the grocery store around the corner. The boys playing ball across the street saw her and tried to catch her, but only managed to scare her into taking off at a run. We searched for five hours in below-freezing temperatures but did not find her. My parents helped, so did Everest's sister, so did one of my students from last year whom I bumped into in the neighborhood. At one point, I took Henry out into the front yard and we sat and howled together, hoping she would hear and answer. We slept on the sofa and floor of the den, with our eyes on the back door, just in case she came home. We got up at sunrise and began searching the neighborhood again. We put up or handed out approximately 500 fliers on Tuesday and Wednesday. When I was searching, I was usually able to keep it together, but every time I stopped for a break, I cried like somebody was ripping my heart out of my chest. Neither of us went to work--all we did was search and carry fliers around and walk through the shelters (visited the pound four times in two days). We received many calls, some of which seemed extremely unlikely (like someone who thought they had seen her about 10 miles across town a mere two hours after she'd run away), but we checked out every single one. Nothing. We did find one person who definitely saw her at the Hardees a mile or so from our house within an hour after she ran off, who tried to coax her into his car without any luck, and today Everest heard from a man who saw her running full-tilt, scared out of her mind, down the median of the Parkway, on Monday night. That thought terrifies me even now that I know she's safe.
Today we had to both go back to work. I changed the outgoing message on our answering machine to give my work number and cell number. I left the house at sunrise to go search before school. Once I got to work, I started the day by giving every teacher in my department a flier and asking them to put it up in their room. And then, at about 9 AM, as I was discussing symbolism in The Great Gatsby with a room full of sixteen year olds, my cell phone rang. It was a woman saying that she had my dog. I asked her over and over, "You have her? You actually have her???" and she kept saying yes, so I grabbed my stuff and ran out of the school, leaving my inclusion teacher in charge on my class (second period I have planning--don't worry, no wee children were left unattended). I drove back towards the house, back along the route that I normally drive to work, but which I hadn't driven for three days while we were searching, and arrived at a business within a mile of our house, where I found my sweet girl waiting for me, with a wonderful, compassionate angel named Sandy who had found Bella sleeping outside of her office door that morning, caught her when no one else had been able to, and brought her inside, and tracked me down. Bella looked a mess, but healthy, and she started rubbing her head all over me, kissing me, and wagging her entire back end. And thus I received the best Christmas present I've ever gotten--my little girl, home safe and sound, after three days of crying, praying, and searching by a lot of people, some of whom I've never even met (my mom called in the reinforcements--for instance, there was apparently a large group of Jehovah's Witnesses scouring the area this morning, looking for my dog).
There's more to the story--I might get around to it later--but for now I'm going to sit on the sofa and enjoy having my pack whole and entire again. Merry Christmas everyone!
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December 2nd, 2006
05:02 pm - A harsh truth that needs to be spoken...
From the most recent post on Baghdad Burning:
"A final note. I just read somewhere that some of the families of dead American soldiers are visiting the Iraqi north to see �what their sons and daughters died for�. If that�s the goal of the visit, then, �Ladies and gentlemen- to your right is the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, to your left is the Dawry refinery� Each of you get this, a gift bag containing a 3 by 3 color poster of Al Sayid Muqtada Al Sadr (Long May He Live And Prosper), an Ayatollah Sistani t-shirt and a map of Iran, to scale, redrawn with the Islamic Republic of South Iraq. Also� Hey you! You- the female in the back- is that a lock of hair I see? Cover it up or stay home.�
And that is what they died for."
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September 30th, 2006
07:13 pm - Snippets o' Stuff
1. Took my second real sick day of the year this week, leading to rumors that I'm pregnant (because I'm known for never taking sick days). But I'm not, unless a 100 degree fever, sinus congestion, sore throat, and flu-like muscle aches are symptoms of being knocked up. I sure hope not, cuz nine months of this would really suck.
2. Bob Riley was in town recently campaigning. He's got a new proposal for education--providing all public school k-12 teachers with liability insurance, at the government's expense. Now, this sounds great, and totally unlike Riley as he is generally a Scrooge-like miser when it comes to benefits and salary increases for teachers--but here's what the newspaper didn't mention and what most non-teachers probably don't realize: This is clearly a ploy to break the strength of AEA, the education lobby in our state. You see, the reason most teachers pony up $40 of our earnings every month to AEA is that AEA provides liability insurance to all of its members (and yes, today's teachers need liability insurance very much--parents can and do actually sue us as individuals for all kinds of crap)....soooooo, if Riley starts providing liability insurance for FREE, many teachers, especially conservative ones, would probably drop their AEA memberships. Sneaky, huh?
3. Totally ripping this one off from somebody at Needcoffee.com: Here's a really cool site for all you Shakespeare geeks out there. It's called Shakespeare Searched, and on it you can search through all of Shakespeare's plays for particular words and phrases, and it organizes the hits into categories. Brilliantly useful when developing a close reading. Whenever I get to teach a class involving Shakespeare again, I'm definitely going to use it.
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September 15th, 2006
09:41 am - Home-Sick
I am actually taking a sick day, and actually staying home for the entire sick day, for the very first time since I started this job, two years ago! The funny thing is that I really should have been home yesterday, since that's when my stomach was really upset, but the school day had already started when I came down with the bug, so I just shouldered on through and then went ahead and signed up for a sub for today, in case I was still unwell. So far, I'm feeling OK, but I haven't eaten breakfast yet, so we'll see how that goes. However, I am resisting the urge to check on whether or not they got a sub for me, because goshdarnit, even if they didn't, I deserve to take ONE day and actually get to be off.
The good news so far this year is that I like my students. I've got what, so far, appears to be a good group, with just a couple of doofusheads (like the two who decided to head-butt each other during my lecture yesterday, but managed to do so without getting out of their desks). It's good to have kids that you actually look forward to seeing. Part of it is that my schedule worked out well...I have my largest, rowdiest class early in the day, right after my planning period, so I'm at my own peak of energy for the day when I deal with them. And in my last period of English, where I'm kind of tired and tend to get a little goofy (you would too, if you were leading an hour-long lecture/discussion that you'd already led almost identically four times that day), I've got a fairly mature, reserved group of students, so my own silliness doesn't wire them up too much--it just gets them involved in class more. I'm a big fan of using humor to get kids engaged, plus, as an actor, I just love getting the laughs. Getting the laughs helps keep me going.
So now it's time to eat some breakfast and begin considering getting out of my pajamas. No hurry on that, of course =).
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September 9th, 2006
07:00 pm - Proud of my pup...
Today I took Bella to a Dog Fair. There weren't any ferris wheels or funhouses or even cotton candy, but there were LOTS of dogs and LOTS of dog people (including one German woman with a Doberman who had turned a pair of rabies tags into earrings for herself!) and much fun to be had. We watched exhibitions of obedience and agility, as well as a Parade of Breeds, and we participated in the fetching contest, played around on some agility obstacles, and ran our very first Rally-Obedience course. Bella was a little freaked out at first by the crowds and the gazillion dogs, but she settled down and by the end of the day had been loved on by many people and had nice sniffing sessions with many, many dogs. She was very well-behaved and walked around on a loose leash in the midst of extreme distractions--I'm very proud of her!
She was tired for a while when we got home, but now she's up wandering around, trying to entertain herself while I'm on the computer. She has started taking items out of my beach bag, which is also my travelling-dog bag, and bringing them to me, like her tennis ball and collapsible water bowl. Then just a moment ago she brought me her treat bag, one of those little drawstring pouches which I wear clipped to my waist band, filled with treats and kibble. But it's not filled with them anymore! Apparently, she thought to open the drawstring and clean out the treats before she brought the bag back to me! Now she keeps picking it up and trying to give it to me, as if to say, "Hey, you need to fill this back up!"
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September 7th, 2006
04:43 pm - Must-See TV!
Jon Stewart took Bush's press conference from Aug. 21 and did a seven-minute, very very funny segment dissecting it into little tiny totally laughable bits.
But the very best part, Stewart didn't really have to set up at all. At around the 3:00 mark, you'll find an exchange between Bush and a reporter, where Bush starts talking about 9/11, the reporter asks "What does 9/11 have to do with the war in Iraq?" and Bush responds:
"NOTHING."
Yep, that's right. He finally admitted it, although from the confident, off-hand way that he said it, you'd think that that's what he's been saying all along. Guess that's what the Ministry of Truth told him to do.
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04:25 pm - So that's what it means to be a Republican now...
From an article on CNN.com about Southern women's decreasing support for George W. Bush:
"There are some people, and I'm one of them, that believe George Bush was placed where he is by the Lord," Tomanio said. "I don't care how he governs, I will support him. I'm a Republican through and through."
Explains a lot, doesn't it?
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September 2nd, 2006
04:22 pm - Adventures in the Great Outdoors
I'm hanging out at Haven today, entertaining myself while our Intrepid Explorers tramp about getting themselves killed in George R.R. Martin-land. Spent some time grading papers and reading out the really terrible bits for all to enjoy. I didn't get very many of them done, but I enjoyed myself at least. Then I loaded Bella into the truck and took her just down the road to the Greenway.
We hiked almost all the way from one end of the Greenway to the other (we turned around about a fifth of a mile from the parking lot at the far end) and back again, for a total of about 3 1/2 miles. We stopped along the way twice so I could throw the ball into the creek a few times, thus both entertaining Bella and cooling her off a bit. I saw a couple of hawks, including one that screeched impressively as it flew over. The sky was a beautiful blue with big puffy white clouds, and although the sun was hot, in the shade it was quite cool, and there was a nice breeze. Sooooo wonderful to experience after a week in the windowless caverns of my school! We also got a fairly close-up look at a cow that was just across the creek from us. Bella took a long look at it, with her ears perked up as if to say, "Huh. What a weird looking dog." I was quite proud that she didn't get scared or bark at it. We also visited with a few people along the way, with whom Bella was a little shy, but she still let a little boy pet her even though he kind of darted up and darted away, and she didn't bark at anyone. Then when we got back to the big field by the parking lot (which is tucked back in a residential neighborhood, not near a major road), I let Bella off of her leash and threw the ball for her some more. Eventually a lady came up with a sweet five-month old lab/beagle mix named Annabelle (funny, huh?) who wanted to play, so we let the dogs introduce themselves on the leashes and then let them loose. They ran and played like crazy--and Bella generally did a very good job of coming back to us when I called her. I had a nice chat with Annabelle's owner and then she went on her way, and we headed for the car.
All in all, I'd say Bella and I both had an awesome time. And now she's laid out flat on the floor, barely able to keep her eyes open. Mission Accomplished!
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August 23rd, 2006
08:01 pm - Things suck, and then they get better, and then they suck again, etc.
So, to continue....The PTSA open house went fairly well last night. All of the parents who talked to me individually were at least fairly positive. No big controversies or complaints so far *knock on wood*. And I had one parent tell me that I and one of my coworkers had really shaped her son's life (in a good way =), and that felt awfully nice. I came home feeling pretty good, if exhausted, and found that Everest had not only picked up Bandito for me to either have for dinner or take to school for lunch, he had also done some house cleaning. That was also quite a nice surprise. But of course, the nice warm fuzzy feeling couldn't last for too long.....
Shortly after I got home, I went into the den and found scraps of plastic wrap littering the floor. I immediately recognized it as the plastic wrap used on Bandito Brownies (yes, I eat them A LOT). I asked Everest if he had left a brownie in the kitchen and he said that he had put one on the counter for me. There was no brownie on the counter. Apparently, one of the cats had knocked the brownie off of the counter and then one of the dogs had eaten it. Now, normally I wouldn't worry too much about a brownie, but Bandito's brownies are so rich and chocolatey that, well, I completely freaked out. The dogs seemed to both be fine, but information I found online said it could take a few hours for symptoms to appear, so I went to bed in a very stressed-out state.
We made it through the night OK, but this morning I realized that Henry was panting and much more excitable than usual. Since excessive panting and hyperactivity are symptoms of chocolate poisoning in dogs, I REALLY freaked out. I couldn't leave him at home all day unattended, so I asked Everest if he would please take Henry to work with him and keep an eye on him. And, sweet man that he is, he agreed. So off Henry went to work, and off I went to school, where I was still completely and utterly freaked out until I heard from Everest at about 10 AM, when he said that Henry seemed to be doing fine. Of course, by that time, I had already been to the bathroom about a million times, due to the continuing joy of IBS. But once I heard that Henry was OK, I heaved a deep sigh of relief and managed to get through the day.......after which I had to go immediately to the dentist's office and get my teeth cleaned.
Yes, this is one of those weeks that I might just erase entirely from my memory, given the opportunity. Oh, but there was one more bright spot....I caught my first plagiarist of the year! My students have an essay due tomorrow, and I had encouraged them to bring their rough drafts to me for help. A few did, including one who dropped his off this morning to pick up in a later period. My first clue that it was plagiarized was that it didn't seem to have much to do with the assigned topic (although that doesn't always mean anything!), and then I caught a couple of sentences that really didn't sound like student writing. I typed one of those sentences into Google, and voila! There was the entire first two paragraphs of the student's paper on an online term papers site. I printed out the page, wrote "Don't waste my time!!! This isn't even on the right topic!" on the printout, paperclipped it to his paper (which I wrote PLAGIARIZED across in big pink letters), and handed it back to him without comment in the afternoon. The look on his face was a sort of amused awe. That was nice =).
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August 22nd, 2006
05:08 pm - WARNING: This post may contain Too Much Information...and whining.
You know, there are days when I just long to be a housewife. Some people are type A personalities--they live to work. They hate sitting still and not doing anything. They want to be on the go from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to bed. They need careers. I think perhaps I have a type B personality, because really, I have no ambition, no drive to "be successful." If I can get away with being lazy, I will, as often as possible, until I start feeling really guilty. In school, as a student, I've always worked very hard and enjoyed it much of the time, but that was out of a love for learning and a love for the little ego-boosts associated with good grades. And although I am not the housework-queen that my mother is, when I'm not teaching during the summer, I keep up with it fairly well and even sort of enjoy it. Working very hard as, well, a worker, pretty much sucks 98% of the time.
Honestly, I think that in a lot of ways, we women got gypped by the whole "women's lib" movement. Yes, we got the right to an education (which is one of the parts that I AM really glad about) and a career, but in exchange we lost the right to stay home. Women with young children can still stay home without suffering from accusations that they're slackers or prima donnas, but those of us without kids or with older kids are expected to get our butts out the door and get a job AND still do at least 80-90% of the housework, errand-running, and child-rearing. We added work for ourselves, but didn't get to drop most of the work we were already doing before at home. And meanwhile, we changed the American economy so that almost no couples seem to be able to live on just one income anymore, even though it used to be no problem, trapping ourselves in this situation.
In case you're wondering what brought all this on, let me tell you about my day. This is the TMI part of the entry, so stop reading now if you're squeamish. This morning I woke up at 5:45, because Tuesday is Make Up Test Day. When I got to school at 7 AM, a student was waiting for me, and more came in continuously until my first class started at 8. I lectured all day. Around 10 AM, I had to run to the bathroom between classes, at which point I experienced what can only be described as a full intestinal purge. Did I mention that I have stress-induced IBS? About an hour later I had to go to the bathroom again, at which point I discovered that--SURPRISE!-- I had started my period a day early. Yay. Then I had to spend my twenty-five minute lunch period supervising in the incredibly noisy lunchroom. Finally, at 3:10, after six classes of lecturing and repeated trips to the bathroom in between, I finally got to leave the school....but I have to go back in about an hour (at 6:30) because tonight is the PTSA Open House, where I am required to spend about three hours meeting with parents and explaining my classroom procedures to them. I am not paid for this work-time, of course. Then, after I have spent a total of nine hours lecturing for the day, and eleven hours of work without a paid break (since I had to spend my lunch time supervising students, as I do every Tuesday), I get to come home with my incredibly sore throat and collapse into bed, and tomorrow morning, go back and start all over again, with another six hours of lecturing to go.
And in the meantime, the dishwasher is full of dishes, the sink is full of dishes, the cats' litter box is so disgusting that Emma peed on the paper outside of the box this morning so the house reeks of cat urine, the carpet is covered with dog hair, laundry needs to be done, stuff is strewn across every horizontal surface (oh, and there are still thank you notes that need to be written), and I don't know what the hell I'm going to eat for dinner tonight before I go back to work. But I just can't bring myself to start working on all of that stuff because I'm already so fucking exhausted....and because it seems so damn unfair that I have to work my butt off both outside the home AND in it. Didn't it used to be one or the other???
GAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!
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