Oops.

I keep meaning to update this, but then I get distracted by something else.
Recently, I've been trying to hit my 50 books in 2008 goal. After the 2 books I have left to read from the library, I have 2 more to read to reach my goal. I think I can actually do it this year!
I've finally caught up and gotten on top of things school-wise. That feels amazing. My to do lists are shorter and get done quicker.
We went to Michigan for Thanksgiving. It was kind of a crazy idea, but this year we could actually afford to do both Thanksgiving and Christmas and we had no plans in Richmond, so why not, right? It was nice to get a few extra hours with both families.
Speaking of Christmas/winter break, we will be in Warren from December 20-24th and Kalamazoo from the night of the 25th-29th. I hope to see some of you then.

Old Dominion
Robert Hass

The shadows of late afternoon and the odors
of honeysuckle are congruent sadness.
Everything is easy but wrong. I am walking
across thick lawns under maples in borrowed tennis whites.
It is like the photographs of Randall Jarrell
I stared at on the backs of books in college.
He looked so sad and relaxed in the pictures.
He was translating Chekhov and wore tennis whites.
It puzzled me that in his art, like Chekov's,
everyone was lost, that the main chance was never seized
because it is only there as a thing to be dreamed of
or because someone somewhere had set the old words
to the old tune: we live by habit and it doesn't hurt.
Now the thwack... thwack of tennis balls being hit
teaches me and it is the first sound of an ax
in the cherry orchard or the sound of machine guns
where the young terrorists are exploding
among poor people on the streets of Los Angeles.
I begin making resolutions: to take risks, not to stay
in the south, to somehow do honor to Randall Jarrell,
never to kill myself. Through the oaks I see the courts,
the nets, the painted boundaries, and the people in tennis
whites who look so graceful from this distance.

why Halloween was just okay

I know that most of you that read this have not had the joy or opportunity of being in a room full of teenagers on Halloween, let alone a Halloween on a Friday.
Let me tell you, it can either be incredibly fun or a living hell. I had both yesterday.
The day starts off calm, but then they start eating sugar and more sugar. By the end of the day, they are rabid animals ready to kill you if you don't add to their sugar intake.
Add that in to a variety of ignorant (mostly racist) things coming out of my 10th graders mouths this week and you can maybe understand why my Halloween spirit was killed.
There is a longer post in all of this, but I mostly just wanted to let all of you (all 2 of you!) know that I'm still alive and at some point in time will update you on how this school year is progressing.
Real talk, I feel like I'm in Gorillas in the Mist, studying a species I've never had the chance to meet up close and personal before. I'm not sure if I like it. (BTW, I miss having kids that preface their serious chats with me by saying "Real talk, Mrs. P...")