2001-11-13
A lot to do, posted at 7:48 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I have so much to do this week.I bought a TV stand from Ikea this weekend, in between bouts of fever-induced chills. It was $40 and is fairly nice. I put it together no problem, and last night I stained it. Let me tell you, it's tough to stain things in 40-degree weather at night. It took over an hour. And that was after I drove all the way out to Loew's and had them specially mix for me a stain color that they call "ocean blue." Today, I want to polyeurithane it, which will mean another trip all the way over to Loew's. Damn it that I didn't think of it last night.
The house needs to be cleaned, badly. With friends coming down this weekend, I really want the house to look nice. I seem to have inherited some of the Puritan work instinct that always annoyed me about my father - I'm not very good at sitting around when there's stuff to do. My roommates don't seem to have that problem.
I need to clean up the living room, dining room, and pingpong room, and vaccuum all of them. The bathroom needs a good cleaning. I don't think the tub has been cleaned yet. My bedroom needs a thorough picking up, too - vaccuuming, getting my clothes in order, sweeping the bare floor part. I'd like to do laundry before they come, so I can organize all my clothes in my dresser that my dad and sister delivered a few weeks ago that still hasn't been used, instead of having them lying around in big piles everywhere.
Then, I need to do some cooking. It's Jason's 25th birthday on the 22nd, and my friends and I were thinking of having an impromptu birthday party for him this weekend. I'm going to bake a cake. I'd like to do more - like, say, buy him a bed, but I just don't think I can afford it right now, and I think he would feel weird about it anyway. I'm also going to make this wonderful egg casserole stuff that I made when Dad and Heidi came and that turned out excellently even with vegetarian meat in it. Then, I'd like to make something for them for dinner on Friday night - either Mexican food or homemade pizza.
So, I've got to do all that this week. Plus, there's that whole job thing that keeps me busy no matter what. I've been feeling pangs of guilt for deciding to show Dead Poet's Society to my sophomores, and am thinking the Mark Twain Bio Film may be better, or at least easier to defend (since we're about to start Huck Finn and all). I still don't have a clue for a film for my 9th graders to bridge them between To Kill a Mockingbird and Their Eyes Were Watching God.
And there's lot of great TV on this week. Last night, we sat down for a typically engaging, if slightly over the top, hour of Boston Public. Then, we enjoyed a reinvigorated Ally McBeal, which is becoming just as amusing as it was back five years ago (I still remember the day it premiered, during my first year as an RA, in the RA office with Nathan Robinson, and then watching it with Michelle and Jake ever Monday thereafter back in Holmes). Jason and I have had a fun time watching it together this year, because he seems to think that he can translate all the situations in the TV show to my life, and spends the whole hour chiding me about what I should or shouldn't do. Of course, the end result in the show is not the results he wants, and at that point, he says, "Well, it's just fiction!". Ha.
Tuesdays, with Undeclared and that new show 24 (we're all hooked after the first episode), now appear to be good nights - the one night that I considered dry is dry no longer. Wednesday are awesome (what are we going to do this week, when Malcolm in the Middle is up against Ed?). Thursday night this week we have the concert, so the evenings are pretty well planned out. I need to finish my shit before that 8 o'clock hour comes around.
My mentor teacher from last year is coming down for the conference, and is coming to visit my school. That'll be cool. Right now, many of my students hate me for grades, particularly in the last class period. All grades are broken down at the school as follows: 50% tests, quizzes, and papers / 25% homework / 25% participation. Participation is the kicker, because it's tough to objectify. I basically did it fairly subjectively, going off the advice of other teachers. I have a group of very talkative young women in my 7th period who talk a lot - sometimes good, sometimes bad. I balanced it out and gave them an 80 or 85 for participation. They did not take it too kindly. I had a little group of girls so mad at me yesterday for it, saying things like, "There are kids in here who don't do nothing and got higher grades than us. You're playing favorites!". And I'm not. I enjoy them in class, when they're working well. But that's not often enough. They come tardy, talk incessantly, often do not raise their hands. They knew that was all part of participation, as it was on my syllabus.
One of the girls said to another one, "Fine, if he's going to be like that, we might as well just come into class, do our work, and not say a word. Then we'd get a 90 on participation just like so-and-so."
Fine by me.