Miscellaneous Missives

"Ass biting cold" The white text is difficult to see. I'm not sure if this is about learning and/or rediscovering.  Today is the third day at home due to the cold temperatures.  It's actually warmer today than it was yesterday.  Although I may be alone, I'm glad we had school on Monday.  Tuesday was OK.  I worked out, refigured my school lessons, and read a good book .  Life was good being at home.  I felt accomplished.  Yesterday, I went out and had my taxes done and started reading another good book .  Then, as evening came, I became bored and fidgety.  I called a good friend and talked to people on messenger.  I learned/rediscovered that I don't do well when there's nothing to do.  It was too cold to do anything.  Today I started with working out, changing plans (again), and reading, but I'm learning that it will be brutal spending one more day locked up inside.  Yesterday I learned that I was super bored....

Sometimes it's difficult to find hope.  Lately, I've been doing my best to ignore the news.  The winter brings darkness although it is staying light later.  Students have so many issues that keep them and others from learning, and it's often challenging to find hope.  I have realized, however, that hope is everywhere even in small things like a dark sky if I look close enough to see the clouds reflection.  Earlier this week, I physically held a girl back from going after another student (many thought I should have let her go).  We breathed together, and then, we walked the halls together until she was calm enough to go to the dean's office.  As we walked, we talked about alternatives to fighting and escalating behavior.  She was respectful and calm as we kept walking.  Later in the day, she sent me this email.  Although the writing shows her lack of skill, it was sweet and gave me hope.  I'm sorry what happened to hope you can ...

I've been a Rams fan since their first Superbowl.  I was a young, rebellious youth rooting against my mom's team.  For some crazy reason, I've been a Rams fan ever since.  I still have stuff from when the Rams played in LA before moving to St. Louis as I still have St. Louis stuff.  Yesterday, I wore my new LA Rams socks, drank from my old LA Rams mug, and wore my St. Louis Rams sweatshirt.  It was obviously a successful combination.  The Rams are now playing in the Superbowl. Unfortunately, I did no grading yesterday, so I need to be successful getting grading done today. Plus, I also successfully finished the January Blog Challenge although I'll still try to continue to post. #gorams . #success

One of my Favorite Mary Oliver Lines I've shared Mary Oliver's poems frequently in this space.  Her poems really speak to me.  She writes about nature, interactions, observations, life, love (all the things poems should be about) without it being complicated.  She passed away this past week.  This is a loss for the writing community.  I first learned of Mary Oliver in my church space of the art gallery.  Her poems were often shared before we blessed the space.  They were shared as a way to focus and add peace.  Recently, I read her anthology of poems.  I truly wish there were more to come.  For dog lovers, she even wrote an entire book of dog poems.  Maybe more of her poems will be unearthed as we continue this passage through this crazy world.  RIP Mary Oliver Everything by Mary Oliver I want to make poems that say right out, plainly, what I mean, that don't go looking for the laces of elaboration, puffed sleeve...

I have this young man in my advisory first thing in the morning.  He has grabbed my heart this year even though he frequently misses advisory and, for that matter, also misses a lot of school in general.  His grades falter because of missing school, but he really does care.  Each time I give him extra time, he is thankful although I'll be the first to admit the work doesn't always come in.  Recently, it came up in his writing (journal maybe) that he has family in the Hiawatha Homeless Encampment .  When we discussed interviewing someone for our upcoming culture project, he was at a loss.  I suggested that he talk to a family member in the encampment about their culture.  In this case, I wasn't merely talking about the American Indian Culture of pow wows but a deeper culture caused by decades of being a marginalized people.  Although I didn't use these words with him, this young man is intelligent, and I think he understood.  The encampment...

Not the eagle but an eagle... the Lake of the Isles eagle looked the same. I decided to skip church today to go to Brian's spin class.  It's his first Sunday morning spin class in about a year.  He does Wednesday evenings, and I love his class.  He challenges me, and of course, it always brings joy to me.  Joy, however, is something that needs to be shared.  On my way to spin class, I was driving around the southern tip of Lake of the Isles when I saw a bald eagle in a tree.  I slowed down (making sure no one was behind me) to gawk at the bird.  Two walkers were coming toward me on the path.  I kept waving at them from my car and motioning to the tree.  At first, I think they thought I was crazy until they saw the joy I was trying to share.  Both stopped on the trail and waved back in appreciation.  Joy shared.  As I kept driving on to spin class, I was disappointed that I hadn't stopped to get out of my car and take a ...

Today is Pat Benatar's birthday.  It seems weird that I know this, but it showed up in my memories on Facebook which means I knew it last year for some reason.  In celebration of her birthday, I listened to her on the way to school.  Some songs I remember more than others because I spent a lot of my childhood running and playing basketball with Pat Benatar blasting out of the speakers of my boom box.  In fact, I know most of the words (if not all) to her songs.  Perhaps I should add her to my workout mix.  Maybe core tomorrow will be done with Pat Benatar music.  In high school, a science teacher (who literally sucked at teaching science) had a cool project where students would take a song and put images to it (awesome assignment that had nothing to do with science).  Anyway, I remember him showing an example from the previous year.  Someone had used Hell is for Children to put together a video about child abuse.  I remember it to be...

I ache for my phone.  It's sad, but I really don't do well without having my phone with me.  Although it's an addiction, it's not an addiction I'm ready to fight.  When I received a staff email today stating that Yondr pouches would be used at today's staff meeting, I lost my shit.  The first thing I did was walk to a colleagues room (who was teaching at the moment) to share my frustration.  She asked if I was feeling sick knowing that the ache for my phone would not allow me to sit through a staff meeting without my phone.  Next, I marched down to find an administrator.  Certainly they needed to know if they planned on locking up my phone, I would need to call in sick to the meeting.  Luckily, I was told it would be voluntary.  Relief, I would not have the ache of being away from my phone.  Plus, it allowed me to take a picture of someone else's phone, locked away, in the Yondr pouch and send the picture to a friend. 

The Minnesota Writing Project has posted a winter break writing challenge, but fellow bloggers and I are making it into a January Blog Challenge.  As MWP posts new each day, they add, "Post a 10 word response in the comments."  I'm going to start with the 10 word response. January workout goal is push, pull, core, spin, and yoga. As I mentioned earlier, after finishing the swing challenge, my friend R came up with a new January workout goal. The original goal was a push, pull, core workout.  Three days a week for four weeks.  After finishing the first two days (push and pull), I decided to expand my goal to include spin and yoga.  My schedule would look like this:  M yoga/spin,  T push,  W yoga/spin .  Th pull .  Friday core  Sa yoga/spin .  Su . yoga/spin This goal is going to take more work than I thought. Yesterday, I rode my bike outside instead of doing spin, but I skipped the yoga. Today, I set my alarm for ...

I'm not a person who does New Year's resolutions, but I am a fan of a challenge.  After finishing the 10,000 Swing Challenge, my friend R has me in a new workout (push/pull/core) for January.  Although it's early in January, I think it will go well.  She also challenged me to a dry (no drinking) January which might be more difficult.  After all, there is a happy hour this afternoon which I will attend and drink water.  It doesn't seem as fun.  This leads me to another January challenge.  I think we need a blogging challenge.  My idea is to steal from the Minnesota Writing Project's Winter Break Writing Challenge .  As of this morning, they have 13 prompts.  My thought is to write about 8-10 of these prompts in January.  Is this a good idea?  Who's in?  Any other ideas?  Let's do something in the form of a January blog challenge.  If everyone's in, I'm counting this as my first entry since I'm kind of writing...

As I've been taking down decorations, driving around to Iowa (and around town), doing school work, etc., I've been listening to some amazing stuff. 1) Dessa- After reading her memoir, I'm really into her music.  2) Barack Obama's 2018 Playlist- Although I don't like every song, he has an interesting mix of songs on this playlist.   3) The Broken Ladder:  How Inequality Affects the Way We Live, Think, and Die - Speaking of Obama, I read (I listened to this since it was on his top books of 2018).  4) Prince:  Piano and a Microphone 1983 - I've also been listening to this and love it.  5) Dopesick:  Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America .   - To be honest, I probably read this since my brother has struggled with heroin and seems to be winning this struggle.  This book, however, is an interesting look at the opioid crisis in America.  It was one of my top nonfiction reads of 2018 even though I listened to it. ...

I'm home in Okoboji for a quick 24 hour trip.  Last night I arrived and drove the corridor to see what had changed and what had remained the same.  For some reason, I believe that Okoboji will always be "home" even though I don't have as many friends and family here as I once did.  The last three or four weeks have been emotional.  Much of it deals with the holidays, but I also need to contribute a part to questionable decisions on my part. Last night a dear high school friend and I sat down to dinner.  She's an amazing, caring listener, but she is also realistic because she knows me.  We laughed.  I got teary eyed.  We enjoyed each others company.  I left feeling full.  This morning I woke up in her guest room looking at the frozen lake feeling thankful for home which is the water (even when frozen) and my childhood friend.  I am truly blessed to have awesome people in my life. This morning as we drank coffee and looked ...