My new bike.
It's not that I'm bored and have nothing to say. I'm just so out of the habit of blogging now that I can't seem to make myself sit down and do it.
Let's see if I can condense the last couple of months into something readable.
- School is over for the year YO BITCHES I ONLY WORK TEN MONTHS OUT OF TWELVE. And yet, I felt wistful about saying goodbye to my class. They were such sweethearts, this bunch, and at the same time such a drain because, Jesus, the neediness. No matter how hard I worked, there was no way to fill the holes in some of these kids' lives.
- Josh and I drove to Niagara Falls to see Nik Wallenda cross them on a wire. It was awesome! We watched the event from the comfort of an air-conditioned bar with a big screen TV, and I suppose we could have done that just as easily from home but hey, ROAD TRIP!! AUNT CRAZY!! Plus, long-time readers know that I am more than a little obsessed with Niagara Falls.
- In September I will be teaching first grade at a different school, a wonderful school, a school that has me really excited about teaching again. My old school, you see, is broken, and I hesitate to say anything more than that. I was resigned to teaching there again next year because I just couldn't muster the energy to put together a resume and go on job interviews. But a good friend of mine emailed me and said something along the lines of "There's a big beautiful world of teaching out there. Don't be afraid to put your toe in the water." So I mustered my courage and went on the interview and knocked the ball out of the park, if I do say so myself. Go me!
- Jane came to town! I love me some Jane. She is little and cute and a very sympathetic listener. I was super chatty and quite possibly over-caffeinated. We had drinks and went out to dinner and she kept lording it over me with her private sector job perks. "Oh, let me. I'll just comp this," she would say airily. "Here, I'll pay for parking. I can comp this." And I was all, "GOD! That is so unfair! Lowly public servants like me have to buy pencils for our classrooms!" In the interest of full disclosure, I will confess that while driving Jane to and fro I made a super illegal turn right in front of a DC cop who immediately pulled us over and asked to see my *ahem* expired drivers license. I guess he didn't look too closely--he sort of squinted at it with a disgusted expression on his face and then sent us on our way with a stern warning to obey traffic laws.
- Our bikes got stolen out of my father-in-law's garage when we were in Portugal way back in April. And you guys, I LOVED MY BIKE. Lesson learned. We live in the city now. Don't keep shit that you are fond of in a garage that doesn't have a reinforced steel door. The silver lining is that now I have a BRAND NEW SHINY BIKE that is waaaaaay better than my old bike. I think I'm gonna call her "Christine". I think I will become obsessed with her and I will develop a sinister attitude and bad things will happen to people who try to come between Christine and me. I'm just speculating.
- We had a big storm and lots of damage and power outages in the middle of an unpleasant heat wave. Here at our place we lost power for 4 days, but I know lots of people who suffered for 7 or 8 days. It sucked. Except it wasn't really THAT bad because we have a generator with enough power to run the TV, the fridge, some lights, and a window a/c. I worried that some desperate soul would come and steal my precious generator and I considered staying up all night with a gun to protect it. Except I don't have a gun. Stupid gun control laws. You watch, I'm going to start getting reeeealy crazy about the coming apocalypse and the need to prepare.
- I'm not even kidding.
- My mom is doing well. I want to do a separate post about her.
I miss you guys. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo