My first period is writing an essay on The Crucible. Yesterday I walked around the room helping them with their first drafts, going from kid to kid to make suggestions. Several kids kept stalling and I told them, "Wouldn't you rather write the paper right now while you're stuck in class anyway and I'm here to help you than wait until you get home, have other things to do and I'm not there?"
Today the rough drafts are due so the kids can peer edit. The same kids who were dragging ass yesterday came in with no essay today, sat down and asked me, "So how do I start?"
Some days this job just blows your mind.
In the meantime, I'm getting ready for Christmas.
For my present my Stepdad is getting me a new laptop so I'm very excited. I gave him a few suggestions - thanks to all those who gave me their recommendations except all you lunatic Mac people - so hopefully I'll get something superior to the Acer Travelmate I'm currently rocking. It doesn't even have Word and it heats up to about the temperature of the sun after ten minutes and if you unplug it while it's still on it goes all blue-screen-of-death.
My mom got me a plane ticket to North Carolina. I have issue with that as a gift because really that's a present for her as much as it is me. I wasn't planning on coming home this year but she really wants me to. It'll be good though. I can use the quiet for a few days and I am almost jumping out of my skin with impatience over an evening I have planned with an old high school friend. So I'm glad I'm going.
Unfortunately the flight leaves from LAX at midnight on December 23 and arrives in RDU at 5 am Christmas Eve Day. Because my flight is so close to Christmas every single person I know in LA will already be gone so I'm trying to figure out whether or not to save money by taking the bus to the train to the shuttle or spend $35 on a cab or park my car in one of the lots near the airport for $65. Then there's the matter of what to do about the cat. If I leave him alone for five days he'll destroy my apartment so that's another $35 to get somebody to come play with him for a couple of days.
But I still have three weeks to solve that problem.
After I arrive in the Old North State my mother wants to go shopping for the little stuff she's going to put under the tree for me, then I have to make black bean spirals for the evening's family thing (we always have assorted appetizers for dinner on Christmas Eve and then the big meal the next day), then we go to some new church I have absolutely no attachment to because the Episcopal church my family went to since I was a child has started suggesting that God does not hate The Gays. Then we all have our evening family get together where inevitably the discussion will turn to how awesome and misunderstood poor George Bush is and my Uncle and I will suddenly get really excited about the cheese balls so we can suppress our desire to speak out.
I can't wait to do all this while jetlagged.
I can't bring my laptop on the plane to watch episodes of Buffy like I usually do because I'll be bringing back a new one and my current one shuts down unless it's plugged in. So I think I'll be reading Writing Drama until I fall asleep. Dear God, I hope I fall asleep. Otherwise I might tumble face first into the chip dip right in the middle of my British Grandmother's rant about the liberal media.
I love my family.
An old trick for the plane - 1/4 dose of Nyquil will help you sleep, but not make you loopy out for a day and a 1/2. Not as fun as a tequila shot, but far more effective.
ReplyDeleteMy new trick for my rightwing family this weekend was to be deeply sympathetic... by bringing Larry Craig up ad nauseum. And follow it up with deeply sympathetic emails this week.
Which has been loads of fun, since I think we're up to 8 men who claim to have had Teh Gay sex with him.
Getting to LAX is always a pain in the ass.
ReplyDeleteDon't blow money on a cab. Take Supershuttle or Prime Time Shuttle and get the same service as a cab but for only $25. I know some people hate these shared vans, but they've always served me well.
For those on a budget, the FlyAway bus is awesome. Take the Red Line to Union Station, then the FlyAway bus will take you direct to LAX. Total cost is $4.25 ($1.25 for the Metro and $3 for the FlyAway). And it's way faster and easier than taking the subway all the way to the airport (which involves changing trains twice and then taking a bus at the end).
Can you get me Clay Aiken's autograph?
ReplyDeleteGo to North Carolina and make your mother happy. It's the holidays. She carried for 9 months -- so you owe her one! In the 90s, when I lived in Boise, ID, I had to trek west for the holidays to spend it with my folks. But that plain fare was only like $100 round trip.
ReplyDeleteDon't know how you interact with your family, but mine is getting more and more strainted as the years go by. I LOVE writing and movies, they love OTHER stuff. I'm starting to have a greater, and greater problem relating to people who aren't into what I'm into. Guess that's a sign of selfishness. For that the inner relating with family members over the holidays, I'm proscribing for myself a series of 40 proff mixed drinks, 1 hour before I have to socilize with them -- am I on that right track, Emily?
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA