Today I will resist once again explaining where the Big Block of Cheese Day reference come from, and why a post like this would be more suitably named after a Take Out the Trash Day reference, and why I prefer the Big Block of Cheese Day reference even if it's more appropriate. Instead I'm just diving into tonight's list of mini-topics:
**My phone is suffering from old age. Smartphone generations seem to be about two years and mine is going on three. I'll spare you all of the nitpicky details, but suffice it to say that by the time all of my contacts just randomly disappear on a restart for the second time and need to be re-synched from back up and individual ringtones reassigned, it's a good sign that it's time to think about upgrading. I'd be ready to take care of it right now if I hadn't been reading rumors about an iPhone 5S coming out this summer, so now I'm playing the hunch that it will be worth waiting. I think I can make it as long as my phone doesn't completely give out; I don't make a lot of calls with it, and I could probably get by without texts for awhile if I had to. Other than that most of my phone use comes from a frustrating amount of Candy Crush Saga and almost too many games of Words with Friends to manage, including one particular game that has now lasted longer than most of my adult relationships. Can I hold out for a few more weeks until the news breaks and the announcement hits? I hope.....
**My birthday yesterday was a good one. One of my hallway neighbors sabotaged my room with a door sign and a banner above my desk, then also gave me a shiny birthday sticker to wear. One of her second graders gave me a bracelet made of small and colorful vinyl-covered paper clips that I'm proud to say I wore the whole day. My students covered both of my white boards with dry-erase graffiti, and two cards group signed by two different classes appeared on my desk during the day. There was also a certain Marilyn Monroe quality to the day, which, now that I think about it, was really the second time that's happened in some manner over the years. But the highlight of No. 45 was one particular gift, the kind that would seem completely meaningless and oddly inappropriate were it now for the layers context that made it so awesome. Plus it brought the first time in a long time I can remember someone bouncing in excitement as I was about to open a gift, as well as having to close my eyes before I could open it.
**Now that my birthday is out of the way, I'm starting to notice a lot of routine events popping up that signal the end of the school year being close. The last of my classes finished off their last round of computer-lab testing today (except for a few die-hards who aren't done yet), which is always a big springtime milestone. Memorial Day is coming up in a few days, which will be the first day off we've had from school in something like seven or eight weeks. We had our Track and Field Day info-dump meeting today, which is when we all start crossing our fingers that the weather is going to cooperate when the day arrives. I'm finding myself with more restless evenings than usual because I don't have to invest the same amount of energy into school work as I typically do earlier in the year, and start refocusing my teacher brain toward closure instead of progress. In just the past couple of days I had a conversation with my teaching partner evolve into a planning session where we more or less organized our schedules for the rest of the school year. I'd really like to start thinking ahead to summer break, but I'm finding it hard to do that just yet. There are still a few loose ends about this year that need to be securely tied off before I'll allow myself to think that way.
**Seems like outside of my posting marathon, I've got my editor hat on
more than my writer hat these days. Another teacher just today asked me
to look over some writing work from one of her talented students just to
offer an opinion, which I'm happy to do. I don't miss teaching writing
out of a prescribed curriculum so much, but I do sometimes miss the
discussions about writing when one of those kids with some real game
comes along who seems to really get it. But right now I'm also giving a
first look to a manuscript one of my writer cousins just finished. We've
always been good about helping each other out back and forth. I'm glad I
can help him out, but it's also a big help for me. Summer is almost
here after all, which for me means some concentrated writing time. I
think there are few better ways to prepare for more writing than forcing
myself to look at someone else's work analytically. That, along with
this daily posting business, is starting to get my writer brain stirred
up.
**Summer plans, math and weather all came up as topics when I went fishing for ideas tonight on Facebook before I lazied my way into another Big Block of Cheese post. I think I'm going to table those for now and see if anything bigger can come from them, now that I only have about another week of daily posts to go. Because I'm telling you, the writing of the posts isn't really that big of a deal. But a new stinkin' idea EVERY DAY? That's no ride around the lake.
I promise something real tomorrow....
