Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in these parts, so we'll be hosting most of my family and my husband's brother for a total of 10 at the table(s). Dinner for us is turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas, onions, squash, cranberry jelly, pickles, breads, and an assortment of pies.

I'm thankful for the bounty in my life, not only possessions but my dear friends. May you have a happy Thanksgiving, too!

Barcelona Red Metallic

Yes, indeed, I have my Prius! I'm getting used to its funky dashboard and controls, and its silence when it's not in motion but it's on. So far I'm getting over 42 miles per gallon...wooo hoo! I may have a chance to see how it does in snow tomorrow since some bad weather is on its way overnight. I will post a photo or two when I have a moment of daylight to take some.

The Last Night

Many people know me as Camry in several online chat places, and that won't change, but tonight (November 20) is the last night that my Toyota Camry will rest in the garage under my house. Tomorrow she'll be traded in for a brand new 2009 Toyota Prius. At least that's the plan. I haven't yet had the phone call confirming the final details about the Simonize interior and exterior finish, and that makes me a little uneasy, but it'll all work out somehow. When I do finally bring my Prius home, I'll post a picture of it here.

Thanksgiving is coming soon and my family seems to be unsettled over the holiday. Mom called yesterday to ask if it was Thanksgiving yet and would Sis2 be coming to pick her up. Since she'd called about an hour after I'd left for school, I called her back when I came home to find her confused message, and it sounded as though she'd forgotten she called. She explained to me again that she'd be glad to bring something but since her stroke (I don't know that anyone's determined that she's had one), she doesn't dare drive so she has to take the trolley that the retirement community provides to get to the store and back. (I'm relieved that she understands and accepts the fact that her driving days are over. I haven't asked if she's sold her van, not wanting to be the intermediary in that kind of process.) Of course I asked her to bring nothing but herself when she's chauffeured here by Sis2 and her husband.

Sis3 is also stressing about life in general and probably about spending time with Mom, Sis3 being sober for more than two months but living alone (except for her adorable puppy), on changing meds for depression, and on disability income that doesn't quite cover her bills. She always volunteers to make the pies and did this year too about a month ago, but recently she's asked that we not depend on her because of her mood swings, and I suspect her financial situation makes the purchase of ingredients to be a challenge. I've been thinking of checking with her to see if the new meds are working better for her, and if she'd make the pies with my ingredients so she'd have some part in the holiday that's very useful, but that would be 'depending on her' again so I haven't mentioned it. These first weeks and months beyond rehab are delicate times, and I depend on her daughter to guide my interactions with her.

Sis in law Ann is enduring her the holidays without her husband for the first time. She misses him terribly, and we all miss him too, but friends in VT and her college friends have invited her to spend weeks with them as she goes through this transition. Today she started her long and circuitous journey to visit family in the northeast and then to head southwest, eventually landing in Tucson for the winter. This is new territory for her, always having had her husband with whom to share the plans and realities, but most days she does well. This first year will be the worst, but it'll get better.

My husband's bachelor brother couldn't commit himself to coming here for the holiday when he was invited a week or so ago. I guess he's waiting for a more local invitation from one of the sisters so he doesn't have to drive too far. (This is the brother who's lived so frugally all his life that he didn't have to cash paychecks from his employer for months at a time, and who probably has enough cash stored in coffee cans to pay for several lavish trips around the world.) Me? I ordered a 22 pound bird to feed whoever shows up with lots of leftovers for them to take home and plenty for my spouse and me too. I've picked up the standard cranberry jelly, potatoes, frozen veggies, pickles, stuffing bread, potatoes, and festive tablecloths over the past month, so it's a matter of picking up the bird and a fresh apple pie next Wednesday, setting up the tables, thawing the pies that were bought locally and frozen, and preparing The Dip for our pre-dinner pleasure. I'll stuff that bird and slip it into the oven early on Thursday, and I'll enjoy the aroma all morning. I love hosting Thanksgiving!

Dangerous places

Through a colleague, I was introduced to the discount stores online. Through a friend in Vermont, I was introduced to QVC and HSN, shopping channels on cable television that also have sites online. Until very recently, those were dangerous places for me. It's WAY too easy to see something delectable, to check my bank balance, and to click that "purchase" button.

Granted, I've made some good purchases, things that I haven't been able to find locally, but now that it's November, I've had to pull my hand away from the mouse to prevent that fatal click. After all, Christmas is coming and I need to put the desired items on my list for Santa. If the past is any indication, Santa will lose the list, but putting a moratorium on pampering myself isn't a bad thing..for now.

I write this, knowing that I placed my last online order two nights ago. I dipped into my PayPal account to purchase three gorgeous silk scarves from India. My husband made me do it: he saw me admiring them on the computer screen, and he urged me to buy them. I think his ulterior motive is that he'll offer to pay for them when they arrive and call them Christmas presents because he likes to get me what I really want, but he's not a very discriminating shopper. A red plastic wallet is the same as a red leather wallet, for example, and the pretty, fuzzy slippers? Any size will fit. His heart is in the right place, but his attention to detail is packed up neatly in some long forgotten place. So if I mention that I received some lovely silk scarves for Christmas, you can recall this post and smile.

My student teacher is doing well in the smaller classes, but the larger afternoon classes, and the less focused kids are still giving her some difficulty. That's true for all of us, but she wants to try different techniques to see if any of them will work at least somewhat, and for that I commend her. She'd naturally let some of the kids babble during writing time, she admits, and she'd be looser on due dates and times, but she sees how those don't work for most kids in these classes. The next two weeks should be her best with, for her, a full class load.

We'll have between 8 and 10 here for Thanksgiving, and I'll know exactly how many when we're about to sit down to dinner. One relative on each side can't commit to attendance here, so we'll be open to them being here with us or not.

Good New$

Lately I've been whining quite a bit, so it's time to share a little good news. This weekend's NH Made Open Doors event that kicked off the holiday season was a success. Advertisement in both NH and MA helped to bring people from in- and out-of-state to visit the many small NH businesses My woodworking friend Joe, the bakery gal Garlyn, and I each had tables at her bakery, and there was a steady stream of visitors both Saturday and Sunday until noon. After that one couple, neighbors of Garlyn's out for a walk, stopped by, so we closed up a few minutes early, not feeling at all like we'd missed out on any traffic. Even with the purchase of a half price sweatshirt and a handmade wooden trivet/standing basket, I managed to come out comfortably ahead by the end of our event. It was nice to have funds to deposit in my rapidly diminishing business checking account. Fees for table space aren't high at the craft fairs I choose, but when they're added together, they form a noteworthy chunk of expense, second only to the purchase of materials. I hope these next weeks are as successful for me as this past weekend was.

Fallacy

The belief is that when a student teacher works with a seasoned teacher, that seasoned teacher can sit in the teachers' lounge, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper all day long. That assumption is made even among teaching staff. Ah, would that were so. The idea is to give the student teacher the "real" teaching experience, not to overload her and break her spirit, so although I do have a very strong teacher candidate this semester, my days are still filled with teacher obligations.

I teach four different courses, three as single sections and two sections of the fourth course. That's not a typical load. Most teachers teach two courses with multiple sections of each, and once in a while three courses. This is the third or fourth year in a row I've had this assignment, given to me because I'm a long-time teacher and my department chair (who teaches AP and honors 11th grade, two sections of each) feels I can handle it well. Most times I can because I've taught the courses many times before. However, this year includes that "class from hell" in the mix. More on that later.

All honors sophomores read The Kite Runner unless the parents will not sign the permission slip to do so. (Yes, even at high school age there are some pieces of literature that a parent here and there will consider their child too sensitive to read.) Since the book was brought into the curriculum, one student per year has had to have a separate book and curriculum running collaterally with the class's reading of The Kite Runner. It's hard enough to guide teenagers through a book assigned to them with class discussion, journal writing, assessments and films, but to run two concurrently in one class is a real challenge. Expecting Gina to run both lessons at the same time would be an abnormal load for a student teacher, so here's one of my continued obligations: take the one student who can't read TKR and work her curriculum with her.

One of the senior students in British Lit (one whose attendance for the past two years has been horrible due to anxiety, willfulness, and an encyclopedia of real and perceived medical conditions) received special permission from the Superintendent to miss two weeks of school to accompany her mother to China. The family adopted a Chinese boy, and the Chinese government finally gave the okay for them to come pick him up. Fine. As requested, we provided photocopies of the materials in the girl's textbook, asked her to bring her vocabulary workbook, gave her the lessons for the two weeks, and kept the homework web page up to date for her to access while she was away, at their request. Then came the notification that the Chinese government had presented a situation requiring a longer stay. The girl returned after more than three weeks away, having read the play that was sent with her but not having done any vocabulary work or a research paper that requires at least five citations (modern version of footnotes), and she's now a week behind (a whole unit) in the textbook because those pages weren't given to her before she left. And then, after being present for three days, she's absent again, having handed in none of the catch-up work requested of her. So today, Day 2 of parent/teacher conferences, guess who's the only appointment. It looks like this child will be my responsibility, too, while Gina keeps her focus on the class as a whole.

There's a child in one of the honors sophomore English classes who was abused when she was younger, who has lost more than 100 pounds through surgery, and who has great difficulty relating to people. She is extremely demanding while also being emotionally volatile. The girl was not recommended to this level by last year's teacher because her basic skills are poor (she was coded and used Special Education services last year but the coding was ended this year), but she wants to be a writer (oh, if I had a nickel for every student who professes that desire!) and she refuses to attend any classes taught by the other sophomore English teacher. In class she refuses to peer edit with anyone but two girls whom she sees as sympathetic to her because she's known them since first grade, and when she agrees to read her writing aloud as the class is requested to do, if the students don't all praise her or applaud, she makes snide comments. The girl was out for two and a half weeks following surgery, and despite her promises to keep up with her work which was accumulated and given to her ahead of time, she did none of it: no reading of TKR, no vocabulary, no research. Now she has gone to the director of guidance to essentially demand the same services - extra time, extra help, one-to-one tutoring - while she complains about the work level and expresses the need to stay in the honors class. Guess whose job it is to work one-to-one with this lovely child during her study hall time to try to urge her to do her work (she'll do one task on her list and then stop, saying she's tired, and then will pull out her own leisure reading book as I'm on my way out the door) and to help her study for her quizzes, even though that's her own responsibility and something that honors students typically do on their own or with a peer.

There are more (Gina didn't understand the deadline for having grades uploaded so I had to take two of her classes to give her time to do them; I still teach the class from hell, etc.), but I need to stop whining. I'm not sure why so many exceptional occurrences are happening this year, but I keep thinking next year will be better because it has to be. Then again, maybe that's a fallacy, too.

The afternoon of November 4 can't come too soon for my taste. That's when I'll finally get to vote for the presidential, gubernatorial, and senatorial candidates of my choice. I've known for a while now which of them I'd support, so the incessant advertisements, propaganda in my mailbox, phone calls, some from recorded voices, and visiting campaign supporters have become annoying, and I'll be thrilled when they stop. Two more days, two more days...

The one thing I'll miss when this election is over is the very clever political parodies of the presidential and vice presidential candidates done courtesy of Saturday Night Live. Tina Fey is the spitting image of Sarah Palin, and the other cast members (Fred Armisen as Obama, Darrel Hammond as McCain, Jason Sudeikis as Biden, Will Ferrell as Bush and Amy Poehler as Hillary and the wacky elderly woman from McCain's audience) portray the other politicos with uncanny and sometimes side-splitting accuracy. If NBC or Lorne Michaels doesn't produce a dvd of these pre election sketches, the opportunity for them to cash in on a hugely popular collection of skits and for people to own and watch them in their entirety will be shamefully lost.