Reader: Goodness happens, too

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Goodness happens, too

If you have been putting up with my sadness-anger cocktail the last few weeks, you will have noticed that in my last post, I begged for something, anything good to happen.

I have the following to report:

1) Merry is home from her summer travels, and we spent a few hours walking the park today. I can't tell you how much better I felt after laying out all the cards for Merry. I felt better, almost instantly. Whew!

2) I went to a staff meeting tonight for the other college I am working for this semester, a college we will call Awesome U. * Guess what? I will be teaching a night class populated entirely by local union workers... (that is good news, people) and better yet... my only mandate is to teach them to express themselves. I have taught classes of this kind before, and let me tell you, they are fun. I get to teach them to write not about academic blah - di - dah - but about whatever they want to say about themselves or about ANYTHING. Fun, fun, fun. I learned, therefore, the following about my recent teaching meltdown: It only applies to bullshit four year universities with all their snotty muckity muck. I can happily teach at vo-tech colleges, two years colleges, and adult education colleges, where there is a MINIMUM of academic snot-nosed posturing... because the lack of it usually means maximum focus on student needs and student welfare. And that is what I dig.

So, I begged for some goodness. I got it.

Thank you for reading.

* in case you are keeping track of all the colleges in (and out) of my life:

Awesome U: Night class this semester.

Panic-Hire U: Morning class this semester.

Sweet Little College: My distance education job, without which I would be done for.

Hoops U: excellent public college, mostly known for its basketball team. I got my MA there.

Prestigious U: The nutty place I worked before I landed at Awesome and Panic.

Merciful U: called so because I am enrolled in their PhD program, and they have not yet kicked me out... (I very much deserve to be kicked out, in case you were unaware).

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Who are these people?

Bibi - God bless the guy who gets Bee. I can't even think of anything obnoxious to say about her. She can eat pasta without gaining weight, she can run the ridges at Gertrude's Nose with no fear, and she is by miles the best climber of all of us. She's going to Kili with us. Hell, she'll be leading.
Buzz Elder Brother. Cross me at your peril.
Jib computer wizard, entrepreneur, stand-up comedian, stand-up guy I can count on to catch a movie and hold hands in the dark without it having any meaning whatosever. Every woman needs a man like Jib.
Joe - locquacious, flirtatious, 40-something hiking buddy - also, ex-manfriend of Pax.
Larry, WPITW - climber, hiker, badass (not in the good way, either). At a given moment, at least half of us are not speaking to him.
Liam - My nephew, whose favorite words are "noing," "Bobby," "dumptruck," "job-site" and "Daddy." He also says "obstreperous" "pulchritudinous" and "Nina" upon request.
Merry - Australian BFF spends the summers on a yacht, nannying for a celebrity couple with two children. She lives in a brownstone and she has a chauffeur. And we have no idea who she works for.
Newsy has been my friend for about 22,000 hours. Or more. I don't have a calculator. She has about 3423% more professional and personal commitments than I do, and yet she still finds time to think about me. I find this astonishing. If you knew her, you'd be astonished, too.
Pax - climber, hiker, corporate warrior, used to date Joe. Sticks by Larry in spite of his horribleness. None of us understands this.
Skatey- he rides a skateboard. He can dance. He can throw a frisbee and he's not bad at karaoke, either.
Sri - Bengali princess who, aside from kicking my ass at climbing, and aside from being a smokin' hiker, brought down the evil empire of Larry and also once told me that "even girls' are turned on my breasts." Also never turns down "one more round."
Supajewie - Long distance drinking buddy, just about the only person I know who "gets it". And no, she's not Jewish. It's a long story.
Tex - is what happens when you take a normal man, add alcohol, subtract common sense and tact, and then buy him another drink.

English Teacher Disclaimer

I teach English, and I sometimes get a emotional about grammar, punctuation, and usage. I sometimes write posts about other people's grammar - or mine. This does not mean, however, that my blog is without errors. I constantly go back and edit for typos and sometimes even... misspelled words *clutching skull and gagging*. If you find a mistake feel free to call me out on it. I will persist in making mistakes whether I attempt to catch them or not, and I will continue to be my bitchy English teacher self despite my capacity to screw up just as often as the next person... and maybe more.