Comment Cards....Check

Well, I have finished the first drafts of 24 Project Adventure comments.  Happily, I got them done on Saturday, so that I still have tomorrow to plan for the upcoming weeks.  Hat Tip: To my loving wife, Karyl for getting me "Adele: Live at the Royal Albert Hall", which helped me greatly plow through these bad boys.

This means that all tests have been graded and recorded, paragraphs read, commented and filed.  Excellent.

I am pleased to be done with them, and still with a couple of hours left in the afternoon to change bike tires, read books, and perhaps even walk the ever-patient hound.

Rug Doctor - 2011

This is my close personal friend, the Rug Doctor.  On Tuesday, I rented this bad boy for a couple of hours, and then I came home and gave our tired carpet "what for". 

Three loads of soap and water later I was done, and an amazing amount of dirt had been pulled out of the ole homestead.  Kinda gross how dirty the water was, but then with lots of pets and people, I suppose that is to be expected.  The carpet looks a ton better, so all the effort was worth it.

Great time had by all...

Happily Lost..."Before I Go To Sleep"

Yesterday, on the way to the roller garden, I started reading, Before I Go To Sleep.  I had naively assumed the main character was a man, and so when the story opens with the character in bed with another man, I was surprised - (which is sort of disappointing).  The story really caught my attention when the main character goes to wash her hands, and thinks, "those aren't my hands".  Wow, what a twist.  It turns out that she is an amnesiac who lives day to day.

Okay, so where can the story go from here?  Will she try and find her past?  Will she recover?  This morning I read some more and in this woman's journal one of the first things she has written is "Don't Trust Ben" - her husband.  I also learned that she was hit by a car, and that is what triggered her amnesia. So...was Ben driving the car?  Why can't we trust Ben?  This is is going to be good....

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So, several days later I have answers to some of my questions.  Ben can't be trusted because he didn't tell Christine that she had a son, and that she had written a book.  

That said, I have a half book to go, and I am not sure where the author can take all this.  It looks like that Christine did not get amnesia from a car accident, but there was another traumatic event that sent her spiraling down.  So Ben's car accident story is even more fishy.  Why would Ben lie about stuff?  Christine is slowly getting her memory back, but where will this all end?

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I finished this late one night when I couldn't sleep.  Wow, what a plot twist.  Nice diversion into another reality, one that I am happy I don't spend much time in....

Missed Your Calling....

A.  I have heard too much of this story all ready.

B.  This attorney missed his calling.  He should be writing fiction.  "teaching disadvantaged boys to shower" - Really?  That's the "A" game at this point?  Whewww...

Great News, a 25 lb Lead Weights, and The Beat of a Distant Drum....

It is good that winter break is just around the corner.  Emotionally, I feel as if I have a diver's belt on (25 pounds of lead weights).

On the upside....there has been some exciting news on the family front.  More on this later, as it is not my news to broadcast...

And now to the 25 pound lead weights...At school we have had one girl who was a bit too rough and she knocked down a teacher.  Unfortunately, our solution was to suspend her for the afternoon.  Her mother arrives and wants us to press charges against her daughter.

Really?  Did you just say, "Press charges"?  As in you want us to call the police and have your twelve year old formally charged with assault?  Wow....at the end of your rope, are you.   Nice.  I wonder if my wife will allow me to adopt a twelve-year old....

I hope this child survives winter break...two weeks at home with "Press charges" Mom.  What a delight that must be....

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I have a student who desperately seeks out attention.  She writes movies in which she is the star, director, head of casting....She routinely dresses in ways that aren't so appropriate for a 12 year old.  This past week she has repeatedly been less-than-honest about science assignment.  Today, I tried to talk with her about where she is going.  What is her plan?

When I imagined the conversation, I thought this would be a chance to get her to reflect about her direction in life.

I started out asked her what she thought the consequences might be for lying to everyone.  No verbal response.  I went on, but when she shared her thinking I had the feeling that we were falling down one of Alice in Wonderland's rabbit holes.  Nothing is ever really her fault.  Her eye shift back and forth and she conjures up the details of a overly protective father and how everyone doesn't give her a fair shake.  All I can think of - "Holy shit - you are so far down the rabbit hole, you haven't seen the sun for days."  This child needs serious counseling in a major-league type fashion.

Take a deep breathe and let it out slowly.  Wow.

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Finally, at work there are two colleagues, who are wonderful people, who I thought were dating.  Then I find out they aren't or something.  It is "complicated".   I don't have any idea why it is so confusing, but it is for them.

Seems simple enough to me, "Hey, you're cute as a button.  What do you say we give it a whirl?"....

Peace.