so someone recently said to me, "you are great at writing...so your masters program must've been easy for you!" (excuse me?) first of all, writing for pleasure and writing a paper are two totally different things. i mean, most times, i don't even use capitalization for christsake...this is far from "scholarly" writing. secondly, do you know who i live with? the offspring that inhibit my house made my masters program seem far from a walk in the park. for example, do you know what it's like when you are a parent and you try to get on the phone? the house can be silent, but as soon as you put that device to your ear to call someone...barnum and bailey suddenly set up shop and your house becomes a legitimate circus. ("can't you see i'm on the PHONE!?!?") well, the same thing happens when you are trying to read a passage or write a paper. it seemed as soon as i opened the laptop...all hell would break lose. laptop closed: kids playing quietly in the next room. laptop open: one kid flushing a toy down the toilet and the other one trying to reinsert herself in my vagina. (you get the point.) i will say that my husband was good about giving me time to get shit done, but sometimes he would get sidetracked with things like couponing and his efforts to control them would fall short.
that brings me to my next topic...butch's coupon game has been strong lately. (joy.) he took a brief hiatus for a while, but he's back. since he's head of the newspaper club at his school, he somehow worked it out that they deliver sunday papers to him in great numbers...coupons and all. in the past month, he has added 12 jugs of laundry detergent, numerous bottles of body wash, and approximately 46 tubes of toothpaste to his hoard. (no bullshit.) he's like a dentistry ghandi when friends come over and passes out crest like candy on halloween. we had a new guest in our house prior to a penn state tailgate and he said, "do you need some toothpaste!?" she said, "well i saw all of that in the bathroom and was going to say something....what the ?!??" (what the ?!?? indeed.) she accepted his offering and then laughed. people think i make this shit up, but it really happens. he sent another set of friends home with a care package filled with his latest treasures. fen recently had a birthday and her gift bag was overflowing with fun things like laundry detergent. the list goes on. i recently told him i needed some new makeup and he said i "better not" buy it full price because he can get it for "free." (for the love of...) he tries to suck me into his couponing ways, but i cannot be swayed.
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| i do not lie. |
now that i'm done my masters, i feel like i need to get a new hobby. (not couponing.) it really wasn't "hard" per se...but it did take a lot (A LOT) of time. having a full time job and a family, and just life in general...there are 2341 things i would have rather been doing with my time then writing another paper each weekend. do i think that having this makes me a better teacher? well, maybe in some ways...but i have to say i am a little frightened about where education is heading. (hear me out.) in the month of october, i spent one day out of each week testing my kids. i was out of the classroom and that instructional time was lost...all in the name of data. not to mention a plethora of other crap things i have to write up to hold me "accountable." (hello SLOs.) teaching isn't teaching anymore...it's turning into a data driven profession...proposed by people who have never set foot in a classroom. (it's sad.) so anyway, after getting word that i "passed" and was done this week...i was happy, but i was generally overwhelmed by other stuff. the weather was beautiful that day and i decided to take part of our science time to go outside and teach the kids...how to properly roll down a grassy hill. did you ever watch a kid do this?! it's pretty awesome. their joy that day became my joy and i needed that moment to remember why i became a teacher in the first place. (the kids.) afterwards, they ran around in the sun and they were all smiles. (so was i.)
so i woke up this morning and was overjoyed that i didn't have to do any "scholarly" writing today. my three year old tapped me tenderly in the eye socket and as i slowly opened my eyes...she asked me to blow up a balloon. if you have ever questioned whether you want to be a parent or not...ask yourself if you can muster up the energy at 5:17am to blow up a goddamn balloon. my first activity of the day and i had to channel my inner bozo. i mean, don't let me sway you one way or the other, but then my 5 year old came downstairs wearing only underpants and asked me if she could have halloween candy for breakfast. (no.) that being said...they are both snuggled up to me now on the couch watching cartoons and my coffee is nearby. they are being awfully quiet even though the laptop is open, because somehow they know i'm not writing anything for grad school...kids know things they shouldn't know. case in point, every single day this week i had to shake them awake to get up for school...but here were are at saturday and carrie came over even earlier and inserted her finger in my eye socket. (how do they KNOW!?) now that i am officially finished my masters program, my husband has announced that he is thinking about going back to school for...his doctorate. (DR. BUTCH.) i'll give you a few days for you to wrap your head around that. until next time, bozo the balloon making clown...over and out.
