Miz S

Thanks. Thanks a million.

Happy Thanksgiving to all y'all! 

Would you like to see what some of my students are thankful for? Sure you would.

Aw. I'm sure she does cook yummy things. Moms rock!

This little guy is thinking ahead. In a somewhat garbled manner.

See now, this surprises me. The story she told about what Mommy did to her brother's pet turtle when she was drunk was the exact opposite of "fun."  Especially for the poor turtle.

Hell yeah! Me too!

Aren't we all?

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Various crap at my school has caused me to veer from anger to despair to a sort of numbed listlessness over the past 3 months. Some of this crap is stuff that teachers everywhere put up with, while the rest is specific to the administration at my school.

Still, I try to hang on to the fact that I love teaching these little guys.

I wish I could show you all the pictures of my students making pumpkin pie in the classroom. The looks of pure joy on their faces as they measured and mixed and stirred were priceless and made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Kids need to do that stuff at school. 

Ask any decent early childhood educator, and she or he will tell you the same thing:  We need to focus more on what is developmentally appropriate for young children and less on the stupid crap that politicians and administrators and curriculum writers (who haven't been in a classroom for years, I guaran-goddamn-tee you) tell us to do. 

A special thank you to friend/team-mate/work spouse Ellen, for reminding me of this almost every day, and for nudging me when I need it.

T. and C. working on that pie crust.

They LOVED the rotary egg beater.

Crimping the edge of the crust with the end of a measuring spoon was a solemn business.

Buying all the ingredients and hauling cooking supplies/utensils to school and cleaning it all up afterwards was a pain. But it was so worth it.

Fine, I'll just go ahead and say it even though it pains me:  I am thankful for my job.

All in all, it was a good weekend.

Item #1:

Pushkin digs our new living arrangement, especially the radiators.

See the bust? It was made by Josh's grandfather, who was a doctor but also dabbled in the arts.

See all the medals around the neck of the bust? Those were won by Edgar Allen Poo in his many obedience competitions.

See the bag next to the bust? It contains my mother-in-law. In ash form.

I kind of want to put the bag away somewhere, like on a closet shelf, but I don't want to overstep my bounds here. Pop-Pop put the bag there. Maybe that's where he wants her. I don't know. It is in the dining room, very close to where she presided over many a meal so I guess it's fitting.

In any case, Pushkin often sits there.

Item #2:

I think I mentioned that I have been taking una clase en los sábados.  So now I can hablo español like a madre-fucker. Oh, lo siento. Pardon mi lenguaje.

The point is: the class is over since yesterday afternoon. Which means that I can have my Saturdays back and maybe Josh and I can start working on getting our house ready for rental.

It's such a liberating feeling to know that we will be getting rid of a lot of our possessions.

There are a lot of things about my life that I want to change. This is a start.

Item #3:

Today, Josh and I were in the car together, driving down 16th Street on our way home after visiting my parents and doing a few errands. Josh was doing the actual driving. I'm not going to say exactly what happened. But I will tell you this: Josh executed a very smooth move that unfortunately violated a number of traffic laws. There just happened to be a D.C. cop right there in his cruiser, who immediately pulled us over. Josh cursed himself while fumbling for his drivers license. And I was all, "Ooooooh, you're in so much trouble!" 

The police officer said, "Sir, do you know why I pulled you over?"  I leaned over and asked helpfully, "Was it because he was driving like an asshole?" The police officer handed back the driver's license and said, "Sir, I think you're in more trouble with her than with me. You can go."

All in all it was a good weekend.