Sunny days to come

It's amazing how just one warm and sunny day can bring things around. Knowing yesterday was going to be almost 80, I wore my favorite spring time floral skirt (on which I got many compliments, by the way). It was fabulous to leave the house without a jacket. Of course, though, being the first hot day of the year, the school building was absolutely steaming. My 5th period classroom was swampy, in fact. I was already feeling a bit nauseous after lunch and then you add the heat and stale smell of 9th graders...yuck. I took the liberty of holding class outside. I switched things up a bit so that we could just read for the rest of the period (We're in chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby, personal fav). Fortunately, my 5th period is just 12 juniors, so I knew I could "manage" them outside. We walked out to the picnic tables outside the cafeteria, and there we basked in the sunshine...reading and enjoying a nice breeze. The best was that EVERYONE read. After we do some whole group reading, I let them choose to read independently or aloud with a partner, and I even saw a group of my most rambunctious boys at a table in the shade reading as a whole group of 5. Fabulous. I sunned and simply enjoyed the quiet time outside. I didn't even do work. I partially re-read...but I mostly enjoyed :)

One brief glimpse of what April can bring! (Aside from all this rain, today..of course)

Sleeping Kitty

Slowly blinks an eye closed
Then open again
Then closed
Wiggles his ears at the sound
-of a footstep
I encroach on his space
He licks his big white belly
and paws his eye before it closes once again
I cautiously pet his back
and he purrs
purrs
purrs
Then snatches my hand,
locking it in his giantjawssharpclaws!
Vicious kitty.


^^^ My latest masterpiece ;)

my, myself, and I

Today I remembered how much I love good quality time with just myself and my thoughts. I've always been someone who has enjoyed "me" time. I'm not saying that I'm comfortable enough to go to a movie alone, but I do love to lunch alone, and I honestly shop much better when I am on my own as well. I had a doctor's appointment this morning and decided that instead of taking just the morning off and rushing back to work for lunch, planning, and one period to teach, that I would take the afternoon as a mental health day. Healthy, it has been!

I stopped for some quality eats at Panera and just soaked in the meal and let my mind wander. This is where it wandered to:

~Last night I practiced yoga at a new studio in Bel Air. Tom, the instructor, guided us through some hip openers. Someone once told me that we hold our tensions, stresses, and fears in our hips. This certainly explains why they are often so tight. It is a relief when breath can bring relief to those areas. Perhaps metaphorically as well as physically, I mean. Kind of a nice way of looking at stress right? Oh this is just a tight muscle, I just need to breathe deeply and things will loosen up and I'll be open to bigger and better poses/life experiences. Anyway, as we made our way into half pigeon, I found myself excited to get back into it and as crazy as it sounds, actually hoped we'd be there for awhile. You have no idea how much thinking I do while not thinking during that pose. Phew.

Of course, during this delicious meal of broccoli cheddar soup and a Mediterranean veggie sandwich, I spend time people watching and eavesdropping. I can be such a nosy person. I know there are lots of fellow people watchers out there who can agree with me. I often have fun imagining lives for people I see in random places. I can create a whole fantastical world for someone--oh see that lady over there with her laptop and her thai chopped chicken salad? She's some fancy shmancy lawyer working on a huge case. That guy drinking his coffee in his way-too-short running shorts and grey hoodie? He's planning his next big hiking trip. Anyway, I'm sure you see how ridiculous this is. Weird, maybe. Entertaining, definitely.

Now here I am, enjoying a quiet afternoon watching daytime TV. I have my two kittens snuggled up next to/on top of me, and I am grading some papers. I accidentally just checked my work email--25 new messages since yesterday evening. I think I'll put those on hold until tomorrow. There is always something more to do. The earlier that I accept that, the more I can let myself enjoy a day off.

Renew yourself daily

(This photo was taken for a photo-essay assignment in my grad class last year for the fabulous Kevin Burke. It is a mural inside of the school where I did my student teaching. )

I first experienced half-pigeon pose in Margo's vinyasa 2 yoga class one Wednesday evening. It was the most difficult pose I had experienced. Not difficult in the sense that I couldn't find a way to fit my leg there or here or around there, but difficult mentally and physically. This isn’t one of those cool and graceful looking poses, at least not when I do it. It is excruciating. Lying there for about 3 minutes used to be nearly impossible. Mind wandering, I would nearly be crying by the time she finally counted down the last ten breaths.While in pigeon, I have to accept and even embrace the pain of the pose. I breathe into it, giving my muscles the breath they need to survive even though each breath brings more discomfort. Soon, one leg will go numb. Each time I feel that familiar tingling sensation, I let out a little smile. By then, I know I’ve made it.

That feeling of absolute relief and simultaneous fear throngs itself forward. Fear of what? That my hips would cramp up? that all those crazed emotions would pour forth into public light? I'm not sure which was stronger. This was renewal for me.

I try to remind myself of this advice on those long days when I'm ready to pull my hair out. Heck, I remind myself this on the short days when I have a to-do list longer than I am inches tall.

For me, this is part of teaching that I LOVE. It is a built-in opportunity for me to renew myself each day. Students are forgiving (even if districts, policy-makers, and fox news reporters may not be...). One day I may be ready to crack, but it's the nature of my profession and my personality that I go home, reflect, and come in with a fresh start the next day. Even if my enthusiasm or my renewed confidence is a facade, it forces my to recharge and renew.

I suppose I don't need to walk past this mural everyday to remind me that self-renewal is what helps me to grow. It was there for me when I first needed it, though.

Telling it slant

I'm a first year teacher looking for a creative outlet--that is what this is. Granted..I'm creating this after many delirious hours of grading/browsing the web with little to no sleep. So, again, consider this an experiment.

My goal is to do some creative writing at least 1-2x a week (hopefully more!) There might be some stream of conscious writing in here, there might be some responses to the cheesy prompts I give my students, there might be some ranting and raving, there might be some sentimentality, there might even be a pony. Who knows.


This blog got its name from one of my favorite poets. Here's the original:

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant---
Success in Cirrcuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightening to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind---

~Emily Dickinson