This blog was re-restarted because of needing a hobby.

Which is pretty much why I have told exactly one person about it. I am shouting into a hole, and for some reason, that is fine with me! I had those weighty concerns a year and a half ago or so. I am still full of weighty concerns, but at this point they have to do with the field of education, my beloved fourth-graders, planning a wedding, dancing, and the meaning of life and love and friendship. In writing for myself, I figure, why not have an unrelated, unthemed blog which only strangers who click "next blog" can read?! I love it.

So, okay. Teaching. And children. Teaching the children. I am so torn, all the way! So, so much of me is entirely frustrated (one month into my fruitful teaching career) with just how far down one has to reach now in order to get to these kids these days. That's not a lament against the district, the state, even only the country, to a certain extent. The state of the world today, my friends. Entertainment, novelty, and guaranteed success are demanded on one side; ever-demanding curriculum mastery and standardized testing expectations on the other. Same coin, that whole deal. You can't get to one via the other. That's another thing, I have to learn to limit my 'can't's. I've only been doing this for like five seconds. I just don't see using post-its as the Eightfold Path to Enlightenment. I'm a patient person, but I don't have the patience. I'm a very caring person, but I don't care enough. I have been too smart, too gifted and talented, too quick to understand the plight of a fourth-grader reading at a second-grade level. I saw home videos of myself over Thanksgiving. I was reading better when I was three than some of my kids are reading at nine and ten. Today, everyone is either "TAG" (for some reason, that just grates on my ears. It's "gifted and talented," not "talented and gifted," and certainly not "TAG") or special ed. You're either brilliant, or you have a learning disability. Oh, he has trouble with his working memory. Her testing anxiety around not being able to understand the material makes her test scores even lower than they would be. It's very hard for him to sit still for longer than seven minutes; it's also very hard for him to keep all his papers in order, which makes it difficult for him to complete homework. If it takes you longer than ten minutes to do this worksheet, then forget about it. Say you tried, and we'll go over it tomorrow. I literally could go on for hours, but these are all real-life examples that just about kill me every time. And it's the party line! These are things a good teacher does! In any case. Let me open with that.

Meanwhile...

I finished the quarter, went to New Orleans, sewed a frock coat and a petticoat, and started this quarter. Thesis is due in T minus two weeks, and I'll be figuring out My Future in that time too. Oh man. Oh also, I guess I'm presenting my research on Saturday? Yikes. Remind me why I signed up for that, someone...?

I have to plant a pumpkin! Earth Day tradition (except belated this year), started so many years ago.

Silda

John Kass' rant against Spitzer's "dragging Silda like some prop to be shamed" is a little on the misguided side. Of course I feel awful for her. Of course she's following in the footsteps of other political wives standing by their men. Of course she didn't have to do it . Kass has Spitzer "drag," "parade," and "trot out" his wife -- completely forgetting that Silda has two feet of her own. I have no idea why she went along with it, why she was up there. I can't pretend to understand; I can only have the deepest sympathy and utmost respect for whatever decision has made or will make. But the fact is, there's nothing political for her to gain - he's toast, she was never interested in campaigning, as far as I know. No one in the world would blame her if she weren't next to him for the cameras. The combination of those two may make her appearance hard to understand, but it was her own choice. To imply otherwise (indeed, to use all sorts of demeaning, passive verbs) is to assume that she is not a reasonable, thinking entity. Of course, no one knows what goes on behind closed doors - and if he asked her, that was a huge request and a huge compliance. If he didn't ask her, that was arguably an even huger move on her part and we have no place to comment.

We also have no place to read philosophical drama into the minutest of details: "At one point in the news conference, Mrs. Spitzer looked toward the ceiling to the back of the room -- and it seemed she saw infinity, perhaps remembering in a flash, all the little betrayals of a life together, some of them quite loud and fantastic, some silent and unspoken." Leave the lady alone. If you don't have anything supportive to say, don't say anything at all.

everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes

So a friend of mine the other day said online that since it was so nice out she was going to talk to campus for "fresh air and gd." Turns out she meant DG, but I really like "fresh air and God" as a reason to be outside. For anything.

You're at my school!

Seeing the children out of context is one of the best things ever. They're going to be playing in the quads today! It's so exciting to see them. Except they tend not to believe that I go to school there. I'm not sure how to convince them ("Uh.. yes I do! See that building over there? That's Pick! It's for international studies! And there's Cobb, over there, I've had Spanish classes inside! What don't you believe?!").

Some finals inspiration

Brought to you by my thesis seminar professor, Dr. David Gallo:

"So, you're all doing a great job. Just keep going... and you'll be done."

Soapbox

So I was all excited to write about Garfield Minus Garfield, the greatest thing this side of awesome. It takes Garfield out of all the strips so all you see are bizarre, depressingly hilarious frames of Jon Arbuckle and sometimes lasagna. They are objectively wonderful. But someone else who decided to show this off noted that one of them "reminds me of an inside joke, and is probably only funny to me and a handful of my co-workers." Really, Steve? Really? In addition to being outlandishly immature, referencing inside jokes to other people is downright mean. (PS, The strip is independently funny. I understand you didn't think I would appreciate it outside of your group of friends who find it funny because of some other backstory, but believe it or not, I thought it was funny of its own accord.) I know I'm overly sensitive to things that involve exclusion, but bringing up inside jokes to people who wouldn't know them is one of the rudest, most condescending things you can do in a friendly conversation. Slash blog post.

Anyway, GMG is life-changingly phenomenal, and the New Pornographers' "Challengers" video is the greatest thing this side of the Sony bouncy balls commercial.