Being Behind

I think as a teacher and a writer and a parent one gets quite comfortable with being behind on things, such as housework and grading.
I am dismayed, however, that by Day 5 of Write a Poem a Day I was already behind! However I caught up.
The problem was, I was too ambitious with poem 3, so I got tripped up....but I chose to write short and easy poems for 4 & 5 and thus was able to go back and finish 3, trying to just finish it and not make it awesome.
I love the assignment part of NaPoWrMo. It's pretty fun and once in a (great) while I come up with something I like. But even without that, I learn something. (Like what a Golden Shovel is. I wrote one last year and it's the form that tripped me up on Day 3! Lesson learned! Don't be so ambitious on Day 3! Listen to William Stafford: Lower your standards!)
In any case, Easter is going quite well so far, because I prepped the lamb last night so all I had to do was pop it in the oven (popped!). Then cut up potatoes and make some herb salt (too easy!).
Then later I will make some salad which is pretty easy, though not as easy as EASY. In any case, pretty easy.
Also, Son is back in the fold and though we are back (less than 24 hours!!) to our disagreements about the computer, I also took Son swimming this morning, which makes my heart swell, just a little. I had a heart to heart with him, in the pool, about the fate that is his a la genetics: whatever sport he chooses he will be good at it. So just choose already! He is smart so, of course, he wants to debate with me about the value of teamwork and working the body, etc., versus the mind. I am willing to engage in such debates, but ultimately I will make him do some kind of physical activity.
Well, this catches me up on one thing: blogging!
If you want to read my poems and also Hightouch's poems, they are at our old and now New Again! blog, the Poem a Day. (see blog roll on the right).
Peace Out, Tulips!

Too Busy

I'm too busy to post.
Oh, you say, she must be writing and doing teaching related things.
No.
Okay, a bit, but mostly what I have done is: speed work at the track; sprint workout with Master's swimming masochists; pool Friday with colleagues (this didn't involve swimming so much as drinking and sunning) ; much watching of "Battlestar Galactica"; shopping at the Farmers' Market (purchased: tomatoes, basil, arugula, more tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, peaches, blackberries, bread); made pesto; ate pesto on delicious bread with sliced tomatoes; drank wine; made peach-blackberry cobbler (oh! my! goodness! so delicious!); ate cobbler & ice cream; slept (a bit!); ran 9 miles with friends; made French toast for Son (he said I make the best French toast! but I claim it is the bread and the expensive vanilla!); made eggs and toast for myself; ate eggs and toast, then the last piece of French toast; logged all my workouts on-line; drank some water (and some coffee, and some Gatorade).
Add in there a fair amount of email (at all hours of the day and night) with students that involved adding students to classes, reading their on-line introductions, and calling the help desk to get a student added to the on-line portion even though she was already enrolled in the class, and adding homework to the website because the bookstore doesn't have the book yet (let me not go off on a rant about that!!).
All in all, a crazy and crazy first half-week of school. I am not dreading this next week as the first week demonstrated to me that I am actually a teacher. And I actually like my students. See? Not so bad.

1 Down, 59 to go

Not that I'm counting. Actually, last night that feeling of dread I sometimes get at the start of a semester (what if they don't like me? what if, as son has written, I actually am an "ediet"? What if I forget to put on my skirt and walk in wearing just tights and boots?) was entirely absent. I was actually 100% dread free.
This may be explained by the fact that I didn't have to teach until afternoon. So I got up and wrote. Can you imagine such a thing? Writing! And I took Son to school and I came home and did some other stuff and went to Costco and then ate a big salad and a Boca burger. Boca!
And my classes were good. Mostly, I believe, because I concocted a little activity that forced them to interact and also to practice some skills that we will be "honing" in class. We hone. That's what we do.
And then I went swimming and then I took the bus home and ate like a piggy. Oink!
Tired yet?
Also: I'm mostly excited about my trip to NYC with HighTouch and OtterButt (well, not so much with Otterbutt as I hope I get to see her repeatedly! alot! daily! hourly!) at the end of January. But I will be traveling with Hightouch and I hope we remember to buy excessive amounts of magazines like last year. So I already have something to look forward to.
And I'm looking forward to my fiction class tomorrow, which I must prep for. So farewell, for now.
Also, could someone tell me why I gave up drinking for January? (that is, all the parts of January that are not in NYC) Because I could really use a drink right now. Oh. That's why?

Things to do Over Break: A List

As MB said, This is the end. It's been a fun month that went way faster than one would think it could. But now I have things to do over break (once I finish grading and submit my grades, that is):

1. Baking: chocolate chip cookies, this bittersweet chocolate and hazelnut cake I make every year from my and MB's birthdays, boob cookies (a family tradition, basically a small peanut butter cookie with a Hershey's kiss right in the middle), seven layer bars, some kind of sugar cookie for Son to decorate.
2. Tree: This year we are finally getting a tree. Maybe tomorrow. I am looking forward to having the good-smelling, well-lit, glowy thing in our living room for almost a month.
3. Reading: A lot. I just want to read some trashy detective fiction, and maybe finish a few more of the books that haunt my nightstand.
4. Writing: I'd like to work on my novel (the old one), send out some short stories, and take one more look at my collection before I submit it to another publisher, just so I don't fall into despair about the publisher that my collection is now languishing at, unread and unloved.
5. Sleeping: A radical notion, but maybe I'll go to bed earlier. Maybe.
6. Swimming: Try to get up earlier to swim with the Serious Swimmers (otherwise known as the Masters. But I'm not the slowest one! So there's that.)
7. IKEA: MB and I have an IKEA date. When Son is in school we're going to go shopping.
   
8. Breakfast: MB and I also have a breakfast date. We drop Son off at school and then we go have breakfast. I'm hoping we can try a new place.
9. Movie: I hope to see a movie in a theater. It's a radical notion, but it just might happen.
   
10. Appetizer date-night: MB and I usually go out for our birthdays. This year we are going to IKEA. But I hope we can still squeeze in a date that goes something like this: appetizers and drinks, movie and popcorn, dessert and wine. That sounds like an ideal birthday to me and covers a few things on my list: baking (the dessert), movie, and this one of course, number 10. The end of the line. As far as we go.
    

The Day Before the Day Before Thanksgiving

The day begins as most do, only earlier. For some reason, you feel compelled to get out of bed around 6:15-ish so that you can make it to the gym by 6:30-ish. Oh, that's right. It's all part of the go to bed earlier, get up earlier plan that will result in being able to get up in time to be at the pool at 6 a.m. on the day before Thanksgiving. Like all plans, it begins a day early.
Even after swimming, there are things to do: papers to grade, crossword puzzles to complete, folders to lose and then find again, writing center hours.
Also: a friend from high school (high school!) to pick up at the airport with her significant other. Unlike many high school friends, she is crazy in a way that is familiar and comfortable. She is crazy in the same way you are crazy. The things you had in common then, you still have in common. You can talk about creativity and art and food. She took the photographs of your wedding. You take her and Man to a brew pub for lunch. You drink beer. You take her to one of the cool places in town for tea. She photographs everything in sight, including you doing a Serious Author face and the bookcases which are organized by color (red, green, etc). She finds a yellow one that says "Revolt" and places it in among the red. She is able to see things that are invisible to others. But you see the monkey holding two candles lamp. It seems important.
Picking up Son from school is different with Friend. You see the chaos for what it is: an intricately choreographed dance of attraction and avoidance, of deferral and intersection. The direction and energy of the children is inversely proportional to the direction and energy of the adults. You can see this now. You worry about the parents who worry too much. You want Son to move like a dervish through this hallway, to move out into the world without damage or care. Instead, he finds a turkey made from a pine cone on the playground. It is a treasure. You make him return it, imagining the child who misplaced it, distraught and unanchored, turkeyless.
There is more: the dog who jumps on all visiting strangers, the phone calls with directions, visits to the neighborhood bakery which is only open this one day because it is the day before the day before.
And then: good-bye to Friend and Man, the gift of a pumpkin, the roasting of pumpkins, eating of leftover chili, watching of wizard movies, the staying up too late, the inevitable fit, the sudden drop into noiseless sleep, instant and complete.
There is more to do, accomplish. The making of soup, the making of pie, the purchase of the turkey.
But first you must sleep. Tomorrow is the day the plan begins, and you must get up in seven hours, regardless of when you go to sleep. So sleep now.
Tomorrow is the day before.

Things to Think While Swimming

I'm back on my swimming jag, which is good as, besides running for the bus (and walking home when I miss it. Damn!), it's the only exercise I get! Here's what I think:

1. Hips, hips, underwater, underwater. See, it seems that one should roll one's hips while swimming. Also, one should focus on the hand that's underwater. I seem to forget that, especially when I'm breathing.
2. "You must have fallen from a star, you must have hmm de hmm de hmm de haw." Lyrics to songs you know are good to sing to oneself while swimming. Did you notice what I said there? Songs you know. But I like to sing songs I don't know, like the one above from "Once." So I just sing that same line, with the hmming, over and over. Luckily I'm not breathing, so all the singing is in my head, so no one notices that I don't know the words.
3. "I wonder if those lifeguards think I'm like the world's worst swimmer." I wonder a lot what the incredibly bored looking lifeguards are thinking as I swim and flip and swim and flip. I actually don't think they are thinking anything, they look that bored, but if they are thinking something I also sometimes imagine they are thinking, "Wow, she's hot. She's a fantastic swimmer. How did she get so hot and fantastic?"
4. "I wonder if the lifeguards notice that I sometimes take an extra breath before I flip and think I'm lame." I have to take an extra breath sometimes because I don't want to drown while trying to flip turn. Also, I'm afraid. Also, I almost drowned before. But that was a long time ago.
5. "I wonder if the lifeguards would save me if I hit my head while trying to turn because I misjudged the distance between me and that wall." This is why I sometimes flip too soon and end up having to just swim with no cool push off to propel me forward.
6. "I wonder which lifeguard would give me mouth-to-mouth if I did almost drown. I hope not the one with the mustache, because mustaches give me the creeps."
7. "Was that 100 yards or 150? How far have I swum? Am I a good swimmer?"

That's all for now. Middlebrow is demanding his computer back for something called work. Have you heard of this thing?

If it swims, grill it!

When I worked at a summer camp the year after I finished college, I became good friends with the lifeguard. She and I would take nightly trips into the closest grocery store for ice cream and double dipped chocolate peanuts.
Once, we wandered back to the seafood department where we found and stole a sign that proclaimed, "If It Swims, Grill It!" She kept this sign inside the pool shed. I like to think it was a warning to wayward campers.
It seems appropriate this week, as MB and I have finally become the proud owners of our first grill. It was no easy process, acquiring this grill. We had to go to no less than three stores. We waited at the second for them to tell us that they didn't actually have the grill we wanted in stock. Off to store three, where we obtained the grill in no time flat.
Then the real fun began. I should have taken pictures of what I like to call "Assembly for Humanities Majors." Every instance of confusion was seized upon by MB as both an example for him to share with his classes AND as the epitome of bad technical writing. For us, what the box proclaimed was a grill that "assembles in minutes!" became a one hour plus extravaganza of trying to figure out the difference between a 20 1/4 X something screw and some other screw that looked exactly like it only was thicker and shorter. Whatever. Luckily we had plenty of beer and hard lemonade on hand to assist us.
To christen our grill, we had tuna.
Tonight we had friends who moved away (to Nebraska) and who are back for a short visit over. I took the opportunity to make something new. Lamb burgers with apricot salsa using a recipe from Bon Appetit. I've never made anything from that magazine before, because it usually looks too complicated or has tons of cream or cheese. But I highly recommend this. I made the salsa using apricots from our beloved Farmer's Market. I ate one this morning. It was delicious. The salsa also had red onion, roasted red peppers, pistachios and mint. It was a hit!
Our friends brought over their son who is Son's age. They also have twins who are about 17 months. They are incredibly adorable and surprisingly low maintainence. They just kind of hung out and walked around. Even Gus was good. Big fun all around.
I might post pictures of MB manning the grill eventually. But we expect to eat a good portion of our meals outdoor and straight from the grill.
*As a side note, while looking for a grill we found a stylish outdoor bar complete with bar stools and umbrella. That's going on the wish list.

My Turn with the Comic

Day Four

Word count: 1,871
Must now go swim. Need exercise. Feel crazy.
I think everything I am writing/have written this week is pure crap. But I'm doing it. I hope that as I go along, the writing gets better.
At least it's not pure gibberish. I think.

Recipe for Happiness

1. Swim often. Why do I continually have to relearn this? I finally bought a new swim cap ($8.95 at Pool and Patio) and then made it to the pool around 2 pm. The hours this semester are better, meaning I may be able to swim three days a week. Hip hip hooray!
2. Don't stay up too late drinking wine and watching the new DVD you just got in the mail, "Grease." (I blame Amazon and Middlebrow for this. But it's so tempting to begin a movie library. So far we have: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Hannah and Her Sisters, Annie Hall, Monster in a Box, When Harry Met Sally, and of course, Grease. Next I'm lobbying for Saturday Night Fever.)
3. Write every day. Again, I still haven't learned this. Even if it's only one sentence, I need to write every day. My sanity depends on it.
4. Play games with your child. It's fun! It has been too long since I sat down for a good game of Uno with Son. So today I did. He ate Triscuts while I munched on carrots. We each won one game. All fair! We are also fond of Blink, Clue jr., Dinosaur Dig, chess (well, he's fond of it. and I try hard), Connect Four, and any card games.
5. Get your errands out of the way. This, again, is a lesson I constantly relearn. Why do I defer? I finally got over to REI and they replaced part of my binding for free. Free! And I returned some pants and then I got my new swim cap, all things I've needed to do for what feels like forever.
6. Sometimes, eat canned soup for dinner. This goes to sanity. Sometimes, I just can't care about cooking. Mostly the day after I stayed up until 1 a.m. watching movies. But it's okay. Also good: bagged salad, and sandwich night. All good. And the added bonus of very little clean up.
7. Take Son sledding or skiing. Must get outside. Ignore inversion. Get ya-yas out. Must get ya-yas out.
8. Take time to chat with acquaintances. I'm always pleasantly surprised when I see someone I know at, say, the grocery store or the library. I like to chat with them. It makes me feel like I live in a community rather than a city.
9. Sometimes, sit and stare into space.
10. Ignore your email. Every once in a while.