Full of wisdom?

No, not really. Just contemplating the toes inside the shoes

School let out a bit ago. The last day of kids was two weeks ago. A half day. Mass. Awards. A few hugs. Mostly there’s this odd push forward to get through the day and then you realize it’s gone. Poof. No time for anything but what had to be done. And then… some of them I will never see again.

Took the photo of my shoes outside of Mass. I act as “security” out front during the celebrations.

You’re special

I got three awards this year, which is pretty unusual. For the first time I remember the 8th grade class gave awards to the teachers. I got two. I have to say… I think they did pretty well in nailing it. I guess they did have me for (well, some of them) nine years. They should know me. Here they are - FULL SEND and HUMBLE BRAG.

Both things I feel pretty good about, really.

At the staff lunch my fellow teachers awarded me with the “Loudest Voice” award. What?! But. You’re not loud. Well, no. Not most of the time. But when I need to I can unleash the beast and shout over the chatter of 180 lower school students at lunch and get them, and the neighboring middle school classes, to be quiet in an instant. True. Shocked my fellow teachers the first time I did it too. Now they call me over when lunch gets out of hand. Admittedly, I have developed the vocal power a little from coaching. You do have to yell pretty loud at times when kids are far away.

I’m not sure how I feel about being the loudest teacher. Honor? diss? hmm.

The countdown

A couple weeks before school was out parents started to ask me if I was counting the days. Uhm, no. I like school and the kids. They give me energy and power. They keep me going. If I were counting down it would only be in a regretful way.

So am I spoiled? Well heck yeah. I like my job. A lot of people don’t. I’m not driven by material things. A lot of people are. I do like to be in control of what I do… I largely am.

Run away.

We had a week of teacher work days. A weird private school thing that public school’s don’t seem to engage in. I spent a lot time doing techy things. Then. I got on a train.

Coach from Salinas to Seattle. My nephew got on near Oakland. I convince the conductor to hold the seat next to me because, “my nephew is getting on and we’ll be going all the way to Seattle together”. He was a good fellow and set us up.

After S got on I realized I didn’t really indicate that my nephew is over 6’ tall and 30 ish. yeah.. the conductor guy was probably picturing some little kid. Still, a good deed done. I sure appreciated it.

24 hours later we got off in Tacoma, took a lift, rented a car, drove to my aunts, spent the night and went to a family reunion the next day.

Sister drove me back to her place after the party. Her hubby of many many years died 5 weeks ago after a long long long cancer battle and a short period on hospice. Sucks. We’ve had some good talks. It’s been good to spend some time with her and my nieces.

Now I’m hanging in Oly with fabulous friends. Currently they are allowing me to subject them to some Lexie Liu pop music. Mwa Ha ha.

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… that’s all for now. Partly just trying to get back into the rhythm of writing. I’ve slowed down more than I want to.

Hug someone.