Back in the saddle

In some ways it's like I've hardly been away from this place I lovingly call the Brain Factory. Many student faces are different, the order of events has changed and a new one was added, and I've gained a temporary but long-term appendage (my student teacher), but otherwise it's all the same. Pizza on the first day of the week, snafus with class lists, senior passes and attendance, kids being sent to the office, lines of impatient teachers at the photocopiers, yoga classes on Wednesday afternoons, and two window fans in each classroom making the interior temperature just bearable are the normal fabric of the days. The new librarian has a lot of learning ahead of her but she's trying to catch up. The same goes for the elementary art teacher who took over the Intro to Art classes when his position was eliminated: the learning curve will be steep. Neither one of them has a lot of experience among that high school crowd. With luck they won't be eaten alive.

The weather is turning fallish with chilly nights and beautiful sunny days. It's a challenge to ignore the lovely weather when I need to be indoors teaching mindfully. However, I figure it's our reward for the nasty rainy summer we had. The timing could've been better, though. Why not give it to us during the month of July?

My youngest sister is having some medical difficulties, but I'm pleased to find that her kids are becoming involved and helping her find her way through. Even a couple of years ago I wouldn't have thought it possible. My niece and nephew are good people but they didn't seem capable of taking care of someone else, including their mother. It's so nice to discover that they've grown up and are taking charge. Her treatments will take some time, but I'm reassured that things are all falling into place for her, thanks in large part to her kids who are doing the research and stepping up to care for her.

My jewelry making has brought me a small but constant stream of income, something that allows me not to have to find other work during the summer to make ends meet. It also brings me people who drive up the driveway before dinnertime to ask if I can shorten a chain on a special necklace for the wife or sell them eyeglasses holders or make a bracelet for their niece's birthday. That's okay: happy customers come back and they spread the good word about me. The reputation I've established motivates people to look for me at craft fairs and to ask me to sign the back of the little card that accompanies their Lake bracelet. I'm happy that this hobby of mine has grown into something quite fulfilling for me. Besides, it keeps me out of trouble...mostly.

Speaking of trouble, I can't figure out why my husband has trouble putting ALL the food away after dinner. How hard can it be to refrigerate the left-overs AND the tub of margarine? Is it really a challenge to put the blueberry bread made by his sister in law into a plastic container instead of letting it sit in crumpled pieces of aluminum foil on the shelf, gathering big black ants? Who knows, maybe I'm the foolish one!