Thursday, Dec. 09, 2004
They're fun, you know, posted at 9:28 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com It's 9:30, and I just returned from school after what was a pretty decent day. I'd worked three doubles in a row and working just one job sort of felt like a Saturday or something. The kids were in good moods and I always prefer my "B" days to my "A" days.I've set up EasyGradePro on the new computer and decided to stay until I got through two whole classes tonight of grading. I literally stayed until I got kicked out. I posted grades via the mythology character and British author psuedonyms I gave them (my other six classes have American Authors, characters in To Kill a Mockingbird, Poets, Romeo and Juliet characters, and playwrights). It's actually pretty fun to play around with this program; hopefully it will motivate me to keep up with grading a bit better than I have.
I'll be more than ready for the weekend. I work the holiday tea party at the restaurant on Saturday at 2, but have Friday night off, and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm heading over to Ryan and Charity's for a holiday evening with friends, and I'm excited about slowing down for a bit and enjoying time with them.
My supervisor, a friend of mine, ate lunch with me today. He looked at me with my bloodshot eyes (still from the eye surgeries, but exacerbated from being tired) and disheveled hair and said, "So you think you'll be sticking with this second job for a while, eh?" I think I must have looked tired today, because a few people commented. (It also could have been the wine last night.) I told him I thought I needed to, that I make $2200 a month teaching and have $1641 in bills every month, and have to get groceries and save for the summer from that excess. He said I'm ahead of where he was when he was my age, knowing my budget like that. I told him I probably would look elsewhere for the summer, somewhere that has a decent amount of business during those months.
He paused. Then said, "I don't want to work anywhere this summer. I want more time with the little one at home." His wife gave birth to a baby in October. He must be dying, because he's the head basketball coach and doesn't usually get home until after 8pm after being the first to arrive in the mornings at 6:30. He paused, then really looked me in the eye. He sort of gave me a half smile and said, "They're fun, you know?"
It wasn't the sort of "They're fun, you know?" that you share with anyone. It was a "They're fun, you know" specifically intended for a guy pushing 30 with no prospects for a family because he doesn't allow himself the time to pursue one. It was a "They're fun, you know" intended to remind me that life shouldn't be about work, that it should be about more than that. It was a "They're fun, you know" intended for me, who pours everything of himself into the 170 kids he teaches and the 25 kids he coaches and none into bettering what goes on outside the walls of the school in his own house and life. It was a "They're fun, you know" who has only found longterm compability with a job he loves and never with a person.
Or maybe he was just telling me that babies were fun.
Back to making a brilliant lesson for tomorrow while I eat frozen pizza and wonder if that smell is coming from the bottom of the unwashed dishes in my sink or the cat litter in the basement.