Planning for the Future

Today I saw my teaching schedule for next year -- and it made me deliriously happy. If you get a schedule with good classes -- the ones you hoped to teach and that other teachers hoped to steal away from you -- you always feel relieved. The woman who runs the SPED department in my school is a phenomena -- she is everything one would want in a department chair. She is fair, she is honest, she loves kids, she is a strong supporter of good education, she supports both the school and the district in fundamentally sound ways, she carries enormous power with the administration, and she is pro-union. I respect her on a level I have only held for one other boss, also a strong, intelligent woman.

Anyway, my teaching schedule for next year is a sweet one. I have first period off, which I really, really like. I almost always get to school an hour before the kids. We have 90 minute periods -- only four a day. With first block off, this gives me plenty of time to do lesson plans, get copies made, sort books, arrange desks, etc. I much prefer the early morning preparation routine as opposed to staying after school for an hour or so. And because I'm really not a morning person, I don't have to face kids until 9 a.m. I'll continue to teach my English classes -- grades 9, 10, 11, 12 -- one of each, though the 11th & 12th are a combined class. One of the newly hired SPED teachers this year desperately wanted to "steal" one of my classes, but so far, she has not managed this feat. I didn't campaign to remain in my position -- simply said that we had enough students to separate the English 1 & English 2 classes. Luckily, so far, I'm scheduled to teach them both. Hurray!

I won't complain, though, if the schedule changes - as it is apt to do before next August. As I told the SPED chair: "I count myself so lucky to be in this school and working with this great staff that whatever you want or need me to do, I'm up for it!" And I meant that. Luckily, though, so far, I'm not faced with having to live up to those words.

PS -- if you want to contact me on Facebook, send me an E-mail at millywlly@earthlink.net and I'll send you an invite to become my friend. Having 20 friends would make me feel really "cool!"

Facebook

One day about ten months ago when I had 15 minutes with nothing to do I thought I'd check out Facebook. I actually did the same thing with Twitter but I have to admit I find no interest in Twitter at all. I like long winded sentences and writing with three or more paragraphs. Momentary comments don't interest me at all. I have no interest in telling -- or in knowing -- that the soup is hot or the phone is ringing or the dogs need to go for a walk. Facebook was just interesting enough that I made a homepage. Facebook then looked in my address book and determined that I knew two people who also had Facebook pages. I contacted one of them, a dancer in Chicago that I communicate with regularly. She kindly accepted my request for friendship.

A week or so later the other person contacted me. I then had two friends on Facebook. Months elapsed. Celebrities and young people got 300 friends. I remained static with my two. I forgot to check the page but when Facebook sent me a message that a third person wanted to befriend me, I ducked in and accepted her. Facebook then told me that two other people I knew had accounts. One was so darned handsome (and very sweet natured) that I actually asked him to be my friend and, being so good-hearted, he kindly accepted. I rather patted myself on the back that now I had at least one "status" friend -- not that the others weren't cool and interesting -- but they were all my age and steady good folks. This guy was H O T! Of course, in my defense, I also asked his wife to be my friend -- and she accepted, too -- and she's pretty darned HOT in her own right.

Now Facebook tells me I actually have 12 friends. I'm rather amazed. None of my family (count that one sister-in-law) has a Facebook page, so these are people aren't actually required to know me. Then the amazing happened. I actually was "found" by a person from my long-long-long ago past. I'd heard that folks from your high school days were contacting each other (God forbid!), but that never happened to me. This person was even further back than high school!

Facebook has lots and lots of features. You can "poke" people -- though I'm not sure why. People send each other cyber-gifts through Facebook. You can't seem to do anything with these gifts but people do seem to like to collect them. People take all sorts of quizzes on Facebook to prove they are human, angels, devils, smart, or Baby Boomers. I don't actually get that either. You can use it like Twitter -- jot down your immediate thoughts or activities. I have no interest in exploring all the features of Facebook but I'm actually kind of proud that I have 12 people who were willing to befriend me.

I honestly am quite the loner, you know. In real time -- I can't claim to have 12 true friends who interact with me regularly.

Totsie Comfort

I gave up anklets / socks ever since I graduated from high school. During my teen years I religiously wore a pair of Weejun loafers with white cotton socks, never rolled, always pulled higher than my ankle. I didn't own any sneakers or casual shoes. I had a pair of brown Weejuns and one pair of black heels. Shoes were meant to be utilitarian in my household.

During my 20's I made up for my shoe dearth with a vengeance. I owned over 300 pairs of shoes, usually high end (but not like today's shoes which cost $300 and up) and I had a rainbow of colors. This time around I went in for the "dress" shoe, mostly lower heels and flats, because I seem to have always had really bad feet.

During the 1990's my feet got really bad. Plantar's fasciitis took a deadly toll, as well as ingrown toe nails. Eventually I took to wearing ugly tie-on shoes -- even more pricey than my beautiful rainbow dress shoes -- that provided excellent support for my feet and plenty of room for ouchy toes.

In my 50's I gave up the dread panty hose and switched to tights. But after three years in construction, even that seemed to complicated and dressy. Now I wear socks, good old cotton socks (blended with nylon and synthetic fibers).

The problem for the last five years, however, was that I didn't buy socks, I just acquired them. Garage sales had been the major source for socks for me in the past. I'm not rough on them and these socks lasted and lasted. They just weren't pretty or interesting or even very well fitted. They did not, however, have any holes.

Last autumn we found a sock outlet going out of business. I went in and bought every single -- YES, you heard right -- EVERY single pair of socks they had. The socks were 75% off. I spent $350 on socks but only paid $85 for them.

I unloaded all the old, dull socks, and now I have soft, pretty, interesting socks for every occasion. I love them! Every day is a new sock adventure!

Long Time No See

Whoa! It's been a long time since I've check-in here. I miss writing . . . but lately I haven't had the energy to even jot down boring daily occurrences. Maybe I'm turning a corner, though, because in the last few days I've felt more energized and less totally exhausted. I've managed to clean up things that have been hovering over me for the last 12 months. It feels good to get the long-term things accomplished as well as the short term items I've been putting off.

I paid the bills this month. Last month I didn't -- except for the credit card statement. All the utilities were a month in arrears. I finally found out how to get the state teaching license for the state I work in now -- I hold a life-time license for the state I live in -- but I somehow could never manager to acquire the proper license for the neighboring state. And I've waited long enough so now the procedure is a slam-dunk. Three years ago when I started it was a horrible ordeal.

I got "sending" capability for my PC e-mail. Once we had the PC wiped clean I somehow lost the ability to send e-mail but Earthlink finally managed to hook me up. I cut out e-mail services I'd been paying for the last ten months that I never used -- granted it was only an extra $10 a month but after ten months that does add up to a hundred bucks.

My whole like hasn't been a bout of procrastination, though. My class at school is happily wading through Shakespeare -- and doing a damn fine job of it, too. I been good with the doggies -- changed Gus's diet so he would lose weight. We got him a full dental and poor boy lost a few more teeth. Mostly the laundry gets done in a timely manner. The PC has been completely restored -- except for the e-mail thing. Today I down loaded my favorite recipe program and even got the newest version. I had been using MasterCook 4.0 and today I got 9.0 which is quite a difference from what I had been using. I wallowed through Holy Week and Easter and we even cooked Easter dinner at home. I got the winter clothes put away -- mostly -- and the summer clothes out -- mostly. I got enrolled for grad school for summer and even had a talk with my advisor about how many courses I had left to take -- dear heavens! way too many.

There are still things that need doing - hair cuts, house cleaning, MAC instruction, and this blog to update. I'll get to it all eventually.

Spring Break

Last spring Hubby cleaned out the basement -- where I store the summer clothes. He brought in a huge dumpster and managed to clear out 34 years of accumulated crap; both us tend to be pack rats. He also tossed out MY summer clothes. Most of his he managed to keep -- not all, but most.

Last summer and early autumn were tough on me. I had only a minimum of clothing to wear unless I put on the winter stuff. I still suffer from awful hot flashes (23 years of 'em) so long sleeved, heavier clothing just wasn't an option. I've got GREAT winter clothing -- pretty, comfortable, and varied so once the weather turned crispy, I was fine. But I wore the same pair of black Capri's until they were wash-worn and ragged.

Early this morning we piled in the old jalopy -- dogs, hubby, and me -- and headed out for the closest outlet mall (three hours drive down into the Ozarks). The day was overcast but the weather tolerable; we only had sprinkles a couple of times. We missed our turn-off into the heart of the Ozarks and instead went an hour in the wrong direction, forcing us to make another hour's correction, but in the end we got to the mall with plenty of time to shop. We only needed two hours, actually. We did exactly four stores.

I bout nine items at the Koret store -- only most of them weren't from the discount racks so my bill was substanially higher than usual. I needed spring / summer gear and it was the winter stuff that was drastically reduced. I did get a pair of winter "happy pants" for $5 and a $10 tee to match one of my winter suits. Most importantly, I got three pairs of Capri pants in plain, solid colors so they will go with any of my tees (those I seem to have plenty of). I got a pair of "happy pants" jeans for $7.49. And I bought one good outfit -- matching tee with capri pants and the shocking total for the whole thing was $60. That's a ridiculous price but . . . I really liked them.

We spent quality time in the bookstore, coming out with three huge shopping bags full of half price books. I wandered through the Christmas store and got four odd Christmas candles at ridiculously cheap prices for my classroom. At the Harry and David store I bought Hubby his favorite diabetic chocolates.

Then it was time to turn around and drive home. I got enough light clothing to last until the fall when I can pick up the bargains. Also we will be reading in bed through the hot summer nights a ton of mystery and detective stories. We had a very nice day together.

We're Getting Older

Yesterday was Hubby's birthday. He turned -- it seems impossible to me -- 74.

I first met him when he was 37. I was a blushing 26.

We started "dating" when he was 38. We had two dates, actually, in March of 1973. We've been together, a couple living together, ever since the end of the second date.

We got married when he was 43.

He nearly died when he was 71 -- but he was just too stubborn to realize that the aneurysm he suffered was supposed to do away with him. Every day since then has been a bonus.

He's getting deafer. His knees are shot. He's insulted because his optometrist told him he was getting cataracts. His blood pressure is very difficult to control. He has diabetes.

He's always lived life on the edge, never traveling the safer road. In 1973 he told me he wouldn't live past 50.

I see him as invincible. It's been more a struggle for me than for him to admit that there are physical things he can no longer do. In my eyes he's the same as he was in 1973. He's been more accepting of the indignities that occur with the aging process.

So we head into his 75th year, our 36th year together, our 32nd year of marriage. There is both security and fear in these numbers.

I've Been Stimulated!

Got my paycheck this afternoon with the new tax table applied -- supposed to help stimulate the economy, don't ya know, when you have more cash to spend.

My stimulus package: a whopping $3.04 for a two week period.

Damn. I'm rich! Wonder what thrilling thing I can spend it ALL on?