Window to My World

With hours of marking and paper writing laying before me, I thought I'd capture a typical morning in which I progress from mellow sleepy goodness to a state in which I question why I teach at all. In which the only thing keeping my going is the knowledge that without a paycheque, I could not affort indulgence in luxury yarns as I so deeply indulged yesterday at Urban Yarns' inventory clearance sale. Here's a photoblog of my morning.




After going to bed at a senior-citizen-esque hour on Friday evening, I awake early, shower, and turn on the kettle. After an hour on my own with tea and cats, I'm ready for a break from the marking (and Facebook procrastinating) and my lovely Hubby has made me a ginormous coffee and some warm breakfast nosh (the black lumps are dried cherries). The cats keep me company (note the two white paws peeking out under the coffee table) or at least, deign to sprawl beside me after dissapointed sniffing (and distainful nose-turning) at my oatmeal.





Perhaps, I think, now would be a good time to abandon the marking and go for a walk. What does the weather-guy have to say about that? Unfortunately, he has no good news. Its cold, its wet, and I'd have to put on socks. Erm...no. So back to the hell dimension known as my desk I trudge. I think the cat is mocking me as I leave. Cruel beast.

This is my Stygian task - to shovel the er...ink droppings my students have left armed only with a red pen and a limited supply of patience. Here's a sample of my internal dialogue. What the hell? Were you in the class while I was teaching? I'm sure I saw you there physicially - let me check my attendance records. Yup, you were there. So what the hell? If you're going to make up answers in an attempt to cover your ignorance, then at least write something plausible. Vague, generic, overly-general anwers to not earn you marks - they just piss me off because they waste my time and prevent me from getting through this heap of cr..ud on my desk faster. Screw this, I need coffee.

So, back for reinforcement I go - a stiff, bracing mug of Joe. Only now do I note how appropos my choice of mug for the morning is. I decide that Grumpy is not such a bad archtype to emulate - efficient, intimidating, perhaps one of the few Disney characters capable of genuine self-expression. No one can be as twitterpated as those freaking woodland birds and squirrels! I realize that I'm analyzing the emotional honesty of animated fauna and shake off the fug of procrastination that settles so easily when faced with a pile of cr..ud. Sigh... back again I go. I make progress, slowly, ever so slowly, but the antipathy is mounting. What the hell, I keep thinking! Finally, I take refuge in the arms of Facebook once again, concluding once again that as soon as the winning lottery ticket drifts into my possession, I'm done with teaching.

Taking Inventory

It seems that I only post up when I have an excessive number of items of my to do list. I mean, here it is, Sunday morning, with several hours of marking in front of me, multiple lessons to prep, and interim reports due tomorrow and here I am, writing a new blog entry. Oh, and lets not forget the fact that I have class tomorrow and have not touched my readings yet. And my housework...lets not go there.

So where have I been for the last month plus? Well, quite honestly, I've been hermiting, and doing very little. Lets take inventory:
1) Knitting: finished 2 sweaters (for me, yay!), and various other small projects

2) Reading: finished 15-20 books in the last 2 months, including Phillip Pullman's entire Dark Materials Trilogy (incl. the Golden Compass which is for my book club) over Friday and Saturday

3) Housework: managed to catch up on laundry and ironing for a lovely 2 weeks. Other wise,...still not going there.

4) Work: had a wonderful 2 weeks off mid-December, and managed to start the year refreshed, but since then have been bogged down by various and sundry. Spend the last day and a half interviewing candidates for a program next year and was pleasantly surprised by my substitute teacher - she did a great job and got everything done as I'd asked. I'm looking forward to my first "business-trip" in February. As a teacher, I don't get to travel for work very often but a group of us are going to Calgary for a day to check out an arts based school and try to learn new ways to incorporate arts into our teaching methods, for the Athena Arts program.

5) Family - managed to squeeze in 4 family dinners in as many days and then again spent time with family at New Years.

7) Going out - have been to the VSO twice, seen a few movies, went out to the Christmas panto at the Metro Theatre (a 5 minute walk from the house) and another play called "The Last Night at Ballyhoo". Went to TLN@B on Friday all by my lonesome, inspired by Sarah Jessica Parker. I saw a bit of a SITCity episode in which she described a perfect New York night for a single in which she saw a show on her own. I have such a hard time getting the Hubby out to theatre, and he was out with the "work boys" on Friday night getting liquored up, so I decided that rather than watching the schmaltzy Friday-night TV lineup to support our local theatre cooperative. I have mixed feelings about that adventure - I don't do as much by myself as I should, and am therefore proud that I went, but the play itself was lacking panache. Perhaps a 2008 resolution should be to continue to go out on my own as time allows. Anyhow, The Hubby and I also managed to make it out to the Vancouver Aquarium, (though perhaps I should put this into the "work" category as I went in preparation for a field trip) and to a Vancouver wanna-be Yaletownie restaurant-come-lounge called UnWine'd for "DineOut Vancouver". In one word, it was "meh." If friends wanted to go, I woudn't say no but I have no need to go back. I wasn't overly impressed with the wine list, nor the food. I ordered the sesame-seed encrusted, seared ahi tuna which I've had in other restaurants on several other occaisions. When its seared, it should be rare in the centre, but the outer 1/2 cm should be cooked. There were spots on my tuna which hadn't even hit the pan. Now, if I'd ordered tuna sashimi I'd be thrilled, because I do like me a good tuna sashimi, but I wan't in the mood. And I don't often send things back but I had to that night. My desert was overgarnished to compensate for the lack of flavor - a lime cheesecake should at least have a hint of citrus, and most certainly should not be less flavorful then the splashes of mango and raspberry coulis drizzled all over the plate.


Well, perhaps it hasn't been that uneventful. But I still have "miles to go before I sleep" and therefore must needs nip this in the bud. One more thing to cross off the list - first blog entry of 2008.