2001-09-24
Weekend was good - MSU game, more, posted at 7:27 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I never thought I'd be one of those teachers that gets to school really early. But, today, I was the first teacher here, by a long shot. I had to wait in the parking lot for at least a half hour to get let into the building. My workout partners, one of which is the Assistant Principal who unlocks the door every morning, apparently skipped the morning weights session for the second school day in a row. I'm disappointed about it, and disappointed no one called me. I'm feeling sluggish.The weekend was surprisingly very good, if a bit short. On Friday night, I ended up staying at school until about 8:30pm, because the "Beowulf Barbecue" that some friends in the English Department were putting on for their students was being held at 5:30, and I stuck around in the mean time to finish up on some paperwork and start my parental e-mailing list. It made for a long day, but it certainly was a motivating force to see 25 city kids staying after school to learn about "Beowulf." They had barbecued burgers and chicken beforehand, and S'Mores afterwards. Most of the kids had never seen a S'Mores before, which was funny and odd. We had to give S'Mores-making lessons. The performance by the teachers and students of some excerpts of "Beowulf" was quite good.
Friday night was a good example of the kind of internal battle I'm having with new and old friendships right now. I spend almost all of my out-of-class time with my roommates, and they were going to a baseball game on Friday night. Yet, I stuck around at school, supporting a program put on by my new friends. I'm the big baseball fan in the house, and really wanted to go to the game. But, for some reason, I thought it was more important to show support for my new friends and foster those frienships more than go to the game with the friends I've already made. Plus, I had heard that all the teachers were going out to a bar after the BBQ on Friday, which would have made it more worth it. We didn't end up going; I'm not sure why. I was exhausted, so I didn't object too much. Still, I was disappointed that I had to miss the baseball game. Instead, I sat at home alone for a few hours on Friday night, which actually wasn't too bad. I watched the big telethon, which I thought was phenomenal. I wasn't expecting to like it, but the music was so good - I loved Wyclef Jean's treatment of "Redemption Song," and loved the Fred Durst/Johnny Reznick collaboration on "Wish You Were Here," loved Alicia Keys, thought U2 was awesome. Heck, I even liked stars that I usually hate, like Mariah Carey (I thought she was okay, even though I still think the lyrics to "Hero" are banal) and Celine Dion. I want the CD. I didn't donate any money (I almost did, but then remembered that I'm $30,000 in debt and still haven't had a real paycheck yet), but Jason's mom got to talk to Tom Hanks.
Saturday was a great day. Jason and I braved the rumors that Washington DC was going to be bombed on Saturday, and we accepted the invitation we received from Mike and Jessica, two folks that I taught with last year at Eastern High School. Like me, they both found the East Coast calling to them after the year, and are both now teaching down in the D.C. area. Mike has joined the D.C. MSU Alumni Chapter, and invited us to a group viewing of the MSU/Notre Dame game on Saturday. It was fun, although had a bit less mingling than I would have hoped for. We pretty much stayed to our own table, but we did invite a guy over who was there alone. Because everyone showed up at 2:30 (game time) and pretty much stuck to their own tables and just watched the game, I didn't meet too many people. But it was still a lot of fun. We sang the fight song a bunch of times, and the game was good despite the fact that it was football. We all drank a lot of beers and saw the Spartans win.
After the game, the four of us decided to do some more bar-hopping in the D.C. area. We scooted off to the Adams Morgan area of Washington, which is apparently the primary bar district. We went to a little hole in the wall place called the Toledo Lounge, and had a great time. Since we'd been drinking since about 1:30pm, we were pretty much ready fairly early (10pm), but it was a lot of fun. It was nice to see Mike and Jessica. I actually went with Mike to elementary and junior high school when I used to live in Redford; we played the french horn together and he used to get me in trouble because our names were similar and our teachers confused us. Never in a million years that we'd be hanging out fifteen years later in Washington DC.
After returning home late on Saturday night (more like Sunday morning) - I had stopped drinking fairly early and was okay to drive by around 2 - we went to bed and awakened to plenty of work to catch up with on Sunday. I brought home a lot of paperwork and needed to get through it by the end of the weekend. I also needed to do some grocery shopping, and wanted to get some cleaning in before my parents come and visit on Friday. I ended up doing everything I needed to do except all my grading. I have decided that I won't continue to bring home all these papers to grade; I don't grade at home very well, and should just stay at school a bit longer and get my paperwork done here. I don't get paid enough to bring my work home every day and work on it until late at night; I should really try to keep my work and my home more separate.
This week should be okay. We're starting "To Kill A Mockingbird" in my 9th grade class today. It's a book that I haven't read since my freshmen year of high school, so it's not fresh in my mind at all. I got a few chapters into it again over the weekend, so luckily I'm ahead of the kids. This is not the most ideal way to teach a text, but I feel like I'm so damn busy right now that I couldn't do any better. Next semester, when I teach two sections of freshmen English, will be so nice, since I've already done a dry run this semester. I am feeling pretty damn lucky to have this 4X4 class schedule. I know what you're thinking - hey, didn't you go out on Saturday? How could you say you're busy? Well, I really needed the Saturday - so bad. "The Scarlet Letter" is going excellently with my sophomores.
Also this week, I called my landlord and left a message on her machine asking her if I can get a dog. I decided it was better to ask her rather than get one on my own and try to hide it. She hasn't called back, which leads me to believe she's out of town. I think she'll make me pay an extra bit of deposit, which I think is fair. Even if she were to up the rent a tiny bit ($20) or so, I'll still do it. I was brutal in my message. I told her that I knew the Jimmy (former tenant) had a dog, and that was one of the reasons the place was attractive to us. Then, I told her that I was going to wait a while to get a dog, but have been persuaded by the ads on the TV talking about all the pets in need of owners after the tragedy killed a lot of pet owners ten days ago, and that I have been looking into that. This is true - I would love to take on a dog that has been left ownerless, as it would make me feel like I'm really doing good and sort of contributing to the healing process after the tragedy. But I did bend the truth a bit, sort of implying that I was inspired by the tragedy to try and get a dog from that situation to try to "give back." I was trying to make it impossible for her to say no; how could someone say no to helping out with the national healing process? It wasn't an out-and-out lie, as I have been checking into it, and even called the United Way and checked out the websites. But they've obviously got other things on their plate right now than the well-being of dogs, so I've hit some roadblocks. I'm not sure if that's where I'll end up getting a dog; it may be better and just as socially responsible to get a dog from the Humane Society. We'll see. But I have made the plunge and asked my landlord if I could have one.
Some goals for the week:
*Buy Macy Gray's new CD
*Complete a new seating chart for my Freshmen
*Finish reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" and decide what essay my freshmen will have to do related to it.
*Bring less work home and instead stay at school longer and work on it there.
*Get all of my students' work back to them by Tuesday.
*Enjoy as many of the season premieres and new shows as I can this week. Escapism = good.
*Clean, clean, clean. I want my parents to be impressed with the place. Also, find them a hotel to stay in and decide how I'm going to entertain them.
*Made good use of my professional development time that I have on Wednesday. Hopefully it won't all be spent in boring departmental meetings.
*Work out hard. I've only been marginally active since Thursday, and my body is feeling it. While at home sitting around, I keep thinking to myself, "If I had a dog, I'd be taking it for a run right now" and then using the fact that I don't have one and an excuse not to go. If my workout partners keep flaking out and not coming, I should still work out.
*Start laying guilt trips on my Michigan friends so they come and visit me. I miss them. I did a good job with Gale and Erin last night. Next up: Hugasoul. (She reads this, so hopefully she'll be amused by my plans.)
*Get another long distance plan, one that doesn't cost 30 cents a minute on weekdays.