Thursday, Dec. 23, 2004
Christmsa break, posted at 4:36 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com The day before a vacation is a completely exhausting day for a teacher. This is especially true when it's the day a big project is due. I think I heard the phrase, "Mr. Epiphany" exactly 37 times in the first ten minutes I was in the building.Still, it's not a bad day to be a teacher at my school. I got to see a gospel choir concert that turned into a revival (separation of church and state does not really apply). The performance was incredible. Afterwards, I was telling the kids, "Nice job. Great performance." I overheard another teacher say, "Thank you so much for that. It brought me such joy." I liked hers better and while I never used it, I thought it all morning. Even though I'm not religious at all, hearing a gospel choir is still inspiring.
We had a potluck - I crockpotted vegetarian chili at around 2am last night, and it came out just fine - and did a book exchange. I received a book picked up by a co-worker at a used book store in the seventies. It contains an original copy of JD Salinger's story "This sandwich needs mayoinaisse," which was written before The Catcher in the Rye but kills off the character of Holden. Knowing my love for the book and the character, he couldn't think of a more fitting book. He wrote me a really nice letter as well.
I got a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird to a colleague who has never read it. It's the 40th anniversary text. That's the one where they asked Harper Lee to write an introduction to it, and she replied with a letter stating that she hates introductions, that all they do is bore the reader, and then the sneaky publisher used a portion of the letter as an introduction. I think that's kind of funny.
I'm really tired, and have an incredible amount of work to do tonight, including all (!) of my laundry (it's going to be probably 10 loads; thankfully the laundromat has 75-lb washers), wrap all my presents, pack, and clean. I'm planning on leaving at 6am. I'm worried I'm not going to get done by that time. I'm actually thinking about taking a nap right now to give myself some energy.
I need to enjoy this week off. My soul feels like it's not breathing right now.