It’s been an incredibly busy week... hence, the lack of posts. Fortunately, I can now unwind and review posts that I wrote last week, but didn’t have time to edit. Then it’s off to Cape Cod for the weekend. Geez, I’ve got it rough.
Lots happened last week. So much happened, in fact, that I ran on six hours of sleep a night instead of my standard eight. And, that did not always make a happy camper.
On Tuesday evening, I joined friends at Central Park for a free concert by the New York Philharmonic. I took one of Ben’s large blue folding chairs that can be carried like a backpack because it had rained earlier that day. The chair is big on Ben, so it basically ate me when I put it on.
I went into Duane Reade (with chair on back) to get snacks for the concert and totally knocked out an elderly couple as I cleared a shelf of products. Tourists in buses snapped pictures of me as I blazed a trail up Broadway and flattened throngs of pedestrians and strollers that got in my way. The giant chair embarrassed me, but I knew the humiliation would be worth it once I got to the park and didn’t have to sit on wet grass. As it turned out, the rain never touched Central Park and the ground was dry. Typical.
On Wednesday night, Ben burst through the front door after a three day business trip and excitedly announced that an almost new micro-suede couch sat on the curb one block from our house. After living in the city for almost a year, I immediately grasped the gravity of the situation and we headed down the street. I inspected the couch as Ben gathered the couch’s history from the building’s doorman. Who previously owned it? Why did they toss it? Did they have pets? Yadda, yadda, yadda.
Then Ben realized the couch came with a twin size hideaway bed. Jackpot! Decision made. We hauled the couch off the curb and carried it home, where it now sits perpendicular to the floor and on its side until we decide which couch to keep – the Craigslist couch or the curb couch. Either way we’ll sell one and make some extra cash. Hopefully.
On Thursday, I survived the last day of school at both my Upper East Side and Harlem schools, a true feat. An achievement that tells the world “I worked full time in the New York City public school system and lived to tell about it.” Something that I will always refer back to when trying to one-up somebody.
We also managed to fly out of LaGuardia airport on Thursday night to make it home for a wedding that I was in over the weekend. When our plane landed in Louisville, I breathed a sigh of relief, happy that the week’s chaos was behind us and we could finally relax and enjoy the wedding weekend. Unbeknownst to me, the next morning, my crown would pop off my tooth and hit the mirror as I flossed my teeth before the bridesmaids’ luncheon. Ay yiy yiy.
Life is never boring. Never.
This might be the first time I have ever said this…
But, thank God it’s Monday.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Different Kind of View
Snapped a picture of my flip-flops. They looked so warm and happy as they basked in the afternoon sun at Central Park.
* I posted this picture with my readers' health in mind. Weak stomachs couldn't handle the picture of Ben and I - two albinos stranded admidst a sea of tan bodies. We reflected (rather than absorbed) the sun's rays that day.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Perspectives: Part III
Some kids are just extra cute. They’re cuddly and their parents wiggle them into colorful outfits with matching hair bows and socks. They're always polite, well mannered, and love to do their best. These kids bombard me when I enter the classroom. They sit on my lap and hug me, excited to show me the good work they’ve done.
I work with a lot of kids like those.
And, I work with a few kids who are all that and a little bit more.
As I helped one of my favorite little girls, she leaned against my arm and exclaimed, “Your arm cold.”
I replied, “You’re right. My arm is cold.” (Squeezing in that opportunity to stress the usage of a verb).
“It cold and shaky,” she said as she jiggled the fat of my underarm for the entire class to see.
Ah, yes, it cold and shaky.
I work with a lot of kids like those.
And, I work with a few kids who are all that and a little bit more.
As I helped one of my favorite little girls, she leaned against my arm and exclaimed, “Your arm cold.”
I replied, “You’re right. My arm is cold.” (Squeezing in that opportunity to stress the usage of a verb).
“It cold and shaky,” she said as she jiggled the fat of my underarm for the entire class to see.
Ah, yes, it cold and shaky.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Perspectives: Part II
Leave it to an innocent kindergartener to put me in my place.
I worked with a new student and informally assessed his knowledge of core kindergarten concepts - one being “colors”. He named the color of his shirt, my shirt, his pants, my pants, his shoes, my shoes, his hair, and then… my hair.
His assessment? (Never mind the multi-tonal highlights my stylist strategically places throughout my head to create natural depth and contrast).
“Black with a little yellow. Yes, black with yellow.”
Ouch.
I worked with a new student and informally assessed his knowledge of core kindergarten concepts - one being “colors”. He named the color of his shirt, my shirt, his pants, my pants, his shoes, my shoes, his hair, and then… my hair.
His assessment? (Never mind the multi-tonal highlights my stylist strategically places throughout my head to create natural depth and contrast).
“Black with a little yellow. Yes, black with yellow.”
Ouch.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Deja Vu
Yesterday morning, Ben yelled “Get a paper towel!” I immediately knew what was up. I grabbed a paper towel and skidded across the floor where he waited, poised and ready to strike. Or so I thought. I should have known better.
I thrust the paper towel in his hand and narrowed my eyes at the spider that treaded across the wall, inches from the pillow on the bed. I encouraged Ben with a high school cheer. I built up his confidence and waited for him to bravely squash that spider. I waited for him to make me proud, restore the confidence lost the last time we encountered a bug in the apartment.
He eyed the spider (timidly) and struck. He reeled back with a triumphant smile and held the squished paper towel out to me. I shook my head.
Ben wheeled back around and we watched the spider trot away behind my side of the bed.
“I thought I had it,” he said (rather unconvincingly).
“You were five inches to the right of it,” I said.
“Oh. I really thought I had it.”
“Yeah, right,” I said. “Now it’ll crawl into our clothes chest and have babies. We’ll probably swallow it tonight when sleeping…” I continued, scaring Ben into action for the next time. “Actually, it will probably bite our face and lay eggs under our skin where baby spiders will burst out of our skin when hit by a ball.” It happened to a kid in our high school, so my prediction was not totally unfounded. And, he knew it.
“Oh, man. I should have tried harder,” Ben said. Unfortunately, the waver in his voice and the twitching corners of his mouth told me otherwise.
I thrust the paper towel in his hand and narrowed my eyes at the spider that treaded across the wall, inches from the pillow on the bed. I encouraged Ben with a high school cheer. I built up his confidence and waited for him to bravely squash that spider. I waited for him to make me proud, restore the confidence lost the last time we encountered a bug in the apartment.
He eyed the spider (timidly) and struck. He reeled back with a triumphant smile and held the squished paper towel out to me. I shook my head.
Ben wheeled back around and we watched the spider trot away behind my side of the bed.
“I thought I had it,” he said (rather unconvincingly).
“You were five inches to the right of it,” I said.
“Oh. I really thought I had it.”
“Yeah, right,” I said. “Now it’ll crawl into our clothes chest and have babies. We’ll probably swallow it tonight when sleeping…” I continued, scaring Ben into action for the next time. “Actually, it will probably bite our face and lay eggs under our skin where baby spiders will burst out of our skin when hit by a ball.” It happened to a kid in our high school, so my prediction was not totally unfounded. And, he knew it.
“Oh, man. I should have tried harder,” Ben said. Unfortunately, the waver in his voice and the twitching corners of his mouth told me otherwise.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Field Trip
Today, I accompanied my kindergartners on their field trip to the zoo. My favorite exhibit involved two frisky prairie dogs that humped for two minutes straight and the twenty five children that watched with wonder and excitement.
“They really like each other!”
“They’re friends!”
“Look, they’re playing with each other!” (Not an entirely wrong generalization).
When one child asked me to elaborate on the rendezvous, the only answer I could muster after hours in the hot sun chasing five year olds was, “Watch Animal Planet.”
“They really like each other!”
“They’re friends!”
“Look, they’re playing with each other!” (Not an entirely wrong generalization).
When one child asked me to elaborate on the rendezvous, the only answer I could muster after hours in the hot sun chasing five year olds was, “Watch Animal Planet.”
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