Sunday, October 08, 2006

A week in seven paragraphs

Last weekend: best. visit. evar. with my sister. It was like she lived down the street and was just coming over to hang out, which, when you think about it? We don't do enough these days. It's all destination visiting. When you come! We'll go out! And see Mt. Hood and Mt. Tabor and the Pearl District and Twenty Third and we'll eat! At all these cool restaurants! None of that. We got up, hung out in our PJs and did insane crosswordage (speaking of which--where's my crossword book?) and our only Destination Planning was a Farmer's Market that had a guy standing there in his North Face fleece vest and his pants that zip into short while his daughter in a crafty poncho dangled around his knees, and that guy was talking to another couple in his back-of-the-throat surfer Northwest way, "Yaaaa, we're just raaacing... through the farmer's market todaaaay..." while we debated whether we wanted apple cider or not. Lee also got to witness one of my best teaching days ever, so double bonus. Someday I'll write about it. So, yeah. Incredible gift to have Lee here. Plus? Crazy Matilda lurrrrved her.

Monday: drop Lee off at the airport on the way to school, day doesn't end until 9 when I leave the television studios. My geek squad? Was on TV. Heh. I was there to cheer.

Tuesday: Day didn't end until I got home at 9 AGAIN, after doing lines at the volleyball game. Which I love saying, because it totally sounds like I'm doing coke under the bleachers, instead of standing for almost two hours waiting to call in, out or touch with those flight-attendant-like hand motions.

Wednesday. Three words. Parent. Teacher. Conferences. Yes, already. I don't know why, it's not like we've done enough work to actually have a real gradeor anything, but it's nice to meet most of the students' parents. No gnarly or angry ones. No real good stories, in fact. I just kept talking until 6:30. "Yes, hi! Oh, your son/daughter is xxxx. Here's a grade printout, this is their grade, here's where it's broken down into homework and tests..." and then it's choose your own adventure! Does your son or daughter do their homework? Yay! Advance to go, collect 200 dollars! Does your son or daughter not do their homework? Agonizing discussion on why they don't. (Secret--in almost all cases? I don't care. I can't make them do homework, I see them for an hour a day! Exceptions, of course, apply--living with grandma and grandpa because mom took off to Las Vegas etc etc etc? Let's figure something out. Can't put down the videogame controller and/or telephone? Not my problem, and in fact, anything I do will be undermined at home.)

Thursday: first day wherein I get home before 5. Sweet sweet relief. So to celebrate? Wake up at 3:30 a.m. and be unable to get back to sleep. Jackpot!

Friday: Nap from 4 to 7:30. Wake up to go out to dinner. Get home from dinner, go to bed at 10. Sleep until 7.

And this weekend: Mellow, with a side of slow. Did I leave the house yesterday? Yes, I must have, right? I think I did. Hmmm. Ah well, I will today, I have kickball, so in an hour or two I'll force myself to do something. Probably.

And that was my week in seven paragraphs. Yay. I'm going to try not to stay away for so long again, because if I do, so many stories get bottled up it becomes hard to share any of them.