Thursday, March 23

Thursday, March 23

I slept so well in my own bed.  My comfortable “just right” bed that is neither too soft nor too hard with my “just right” pillows that are floppy and soft but firm enough to cradle my neck and head comfortably.  And my own bed isn’t lonely as each of the three cats joined me for snuggles throughout the night.  I slept peacefully, and I only had to get up to pee twice.  I didn’t get out of bed until after 11.  It was glorious.

When I got up, I discovered that my Chewy.com box full of Sheba pods had been delivered.  It was much heavier than I expected it to be.  I had just used up my last Sheba pods last night, so these were very needed.  The kitties gobbled their portions up.

I didn’t accomplish much today.  I picked up some of the clutter the cats had scattered throughout the house, watched several more episodes of 911, and cleaned the litterboxes in the breezeway.  I was hungry, but all I ate until nearly 8 pm was a couple handfuls of tortilla chips with salsa con queso.  After I cleaned the litterbox, I fried a couple of eggs, slapped them between two thick slices of artesan bread, squirted them with catsup, and ate a tasty fried egg sandwich. 

DeAnn and I never set a date for our “make up” Zoom meeting, so I am going to assume we aren’t doing one until our regularly scheduled Sunday “social” zoom.  I plan to sleep in again tomorrow—and then, I hope, I will feel more productive and get some work done.

I still have the load of socks and underwear in the dryer that needs to be folded.  There is a bunch of old stuff in the fridge that needs to be cleaned out.  I have a pound and a half of hamburger that needs to be turned into something—I’m thinking spaghetti or maybe meatloaf.  I have two steaks that need to be cooked. The area rug in the office still needs to be vacuumed, and I have some stuff that needs to be filed in the office.  I have a bunch of garbage and recycling that needs to go out to the bins, and I have to unpack and put away the cat food in the Chewy box and the stuff I bought from Target in the other box.  All  the upholstered furniture is covered in cat hair and needs to be vacuumed. 

The two days I spent with Lily sort of sapped my energy and evaporated my motivation.  Also, either the damp cool weather or the uncomfortable bed I slept in there has made my knees and shoulders ache.  And for some odd reason, my left hip has been aching for the last three days too.  I don’t know what I might have done to it,  but I never remember hurting myself.  I only wonder what I did.  Like the huge bruise I have on the top of my right foot.  I have no memory of doing anything to it.  But the size of the bruise which covers most of the top of my foot indicates  that it was something fairly significant.

Oh, bother, as Pooh would say.

 

I had a dream while I was staying at Lily’s house that I was working on my Shakespeare unit.   Then I dreamed that I was teaching one of my classes.  The kids always whined about Shakespeare when we did the unit on Romeo and Juliet when I taught 9^th grade.  I was never delighted to teach Romeo and Juliet.  I would rather have taught MacBeth, which is my favorite Shakespearean play.  But I did grow to appreciate Romeo and Juliet after teaching it four times a year, every year, for fifteen years.

I always followed it up by comparing it to West Side Story.   The kids were not delighted by West Side Story in the beginning either, but eventually most of them got a grudging appreciation of it.

Anyhow, I dreamed I was talking to the kids about the joys of broadening your horizons, which I did constantly when I was teaching.  I was giving them the “Ignorance is a CHOICE” speech, which I constantly preached throughout all my years of teaching.  I always told them that stupidity is something you cannot help.  Stupidity is genetic like brown or blue eyes or being short or tall.  But ignorance is a choice.  People choose to remain ignorant or to “cure” their ignorance by learning stuff. 

One of my other frequent lectures was “Only boring people are bored.  Interesting people always find something interesting to be interested in.” 

I don’t know why,  but I go in streaks where I dream about teaching—either working on my curriculum or actually teaching classes.  I really loved teaching.  The teaching part of teaching, that is.  I hated all the bullshit and I really despised the fucking morons in administration and how all they were concerned about was the sports programs or screwing the teachers out of decent salaries.  I also hated the lazy asshole coaches who were only there to coach and relive their own “glory days” of playing sports but didn’t give a damn about actually teaching their classes or whether the kids learned anything in them.  Then there were the power/control freaks who were taking vengeance on their own high school bullies by bullying the kids.  But they never bullied the bullies—only the poor little dorks who were already being bullied by the current crop of kid bullies.  I really hated those people.

I loved working with the kids and finding ways to ignite that *spark* and fan the flames of growth and learning that the spark ignited.  I miss that.

I don’t know if I have the stamina and strength to ever be able to teach a full load again.  I’m old now, and worn down.  I still have my enthusiasm for the subject matter, but I don’t know if I could handle the load and the pace.  And I sure as hell cannot handle the bullshit any more.  I’ve developed a real “fuck you” attitude for petty little dictators in administration.  And I have always had issues with authority figures.  I’m just more blatant in my lack of respect for them and for “playing the game” that everyone plays where you pretend to respect them and they pretend to be competent.

Haha.

Well, that’s all I have for today.  I’m going to bed shortly.