Writing is Hard

Today we started the first of three district writing assessments. It was painful. The same kids who pour out pages of stories in their journals cry, stomp and flat out refuse to write when required to do so. Why is that? I think it is because writing is such a personal endeavor that even kids know it's no fun to put something out there with the sole purpose of being judged proficient or not.

It is ironic to me that the rules that we work so hard to drill into students' heads, go out the window when one becomes a successful writer. I spend weeks each year teaching my students not to start sentences with "and" or "because", yet their choice library books have counteless examples of such rules being disregarded. We practice over and over writing complete sentences, only to read fragments and run on sentences on websites, in brochures and again, in chapter books. "Artistic liberty" I tell them as I explain that once you know and understand the rules that you may choose to break them. They look confused as I become one of those adults that I didn't trust when I was their age. Do as I teach, not as I do. Oh, if they were ever to read this blog, what would they think of my careless disregard for the hard and fast rules of my middle school language arts teacher? What was her name anyway?

I fear writing is becoming a lost art form. I miss the days when letters were written and received. Even my presence here in post form is becoming few and far between. Posts get pushed to the side as I respond to texts and e-mails and close the computer before pounding out the thoughts in my head onto my keyboard. I should try to get back to writing more. I love to do it. I only hope that some of my students can overcome their insecurity and put themselves out there. Not for me to judge, but to be heard, for through the writing process, some of the best insights are found.

Write on friends, write on.

Fall

Yesterday I remembered what it felt like to breathe again. It came in the form of a bicycle ride through freshly fallen leaves. The cool and crisp weather brought dry leaves which made that wonderful crunching sound as we rolled over them. The ride was to the farmer's market. I was in search of my favorite treat of this season. Liberty Apples. I wait all year for them. I should just break down and plant a tree of my own. But then again, I'd just miss out on my fun fall ride.

It's been a rough few weeks. The beginning of the school year is always stressful and this year there are some major changes going on with the change to common core and the new teacher evaluations tied to test scores. I don't believe in it at all and I'm not sure how I'm going to survive this phase of the education system. I'm going to continue doing what I know is right and what I know is best for kids. When that stops being acceptable, I'll walk away and move onto my next chapter.

I've also been pretty much sick for the past 3 weeks. I'm sure this stemmed from the nature of the job and the huge increase in stress associated with said job. Couple that with my nagging foot injury which has kept me from running for going on two months and it's a recipe for weight gain and cloudy head. Not a good combination. Yesterday's ride got me thinking about getting back in the game again.

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I'm looking at switching to biking as my thing. While my dr. continues to bring up that nasty "swimming" word, I'm much happier on two wheels. When the weather gets worse and the sky get darker earlier I'm thinking of switching to spinning. I always loved that.

Ok, time to go think about getting some additional crunch time under my tires.

Ciao'

End of an Era

Sometimes stereotypes fit. You know what they say about red heads right? Well, Bailey lived up to it. She started out life as an abandoned barn cat, left to die, by a mother who knew better. Unfortunately, my mother with her heart of gold, rescued the two orphan sisters and hand fed them until they were old enough to go to their own homes. Bailey joined our family when she was just 6 weeks old. That was nearly 18 years ago.  Today, the angry ginger left our world. She will be the last cat we ever have. In ways both good and bad, no other feline could ever live up to her legacy anyway.

Bailey was the most cantankerous cat ever. She loved small children, big black and white stray dogs, canned tuna and trickery. Her best friend ever was Marley dog. I think she gave up a little when we lost him a few years ago. She took her grief out on all border collies who entered our home from that day forward. Bailey was the reason that we couldn't keep a pet sitter for more than one weekend for years.  She made grown men scream like little girls, and was known to chase said men clear across the house. My favorite cornering involved a house guest of Sean's becoming trapped in the bathroom by the 8 pound cat.  We awoke in the middle of the night to  "Sean, come get your fucking cat."  That story still makes me chuckle. Who needs a guard dog when you have an 8 pound, hand raised kitty.

She had the tease down to an art form. We would give all house guests the typical disclaimer warning "no matter how cute the cat is, don't pet her, it's a trick."  Inevitably, they would somehow think they were the cat whisperer, who could conquer her. She'd spot them a mile away.  It always started the same, weaving between their legs like a perfect figure 8. "Look how cute I am" she'd beckon. Then she'd pull out the big guns and flip over on her back. We'd repeat our warnings, but no one would ever listen the first time. As they reached down to pet her she'd seal the deal, a small glistening bit of drool would begin to form in the corner of her mouth as she let them scratch under her neck. Then, quick as lightening it would happen. She would simultaneously wrap all four paws around their arm while pulling it to her mouth for the bite. Perhaps she had some vampire blood in that twisted gene pool of hers.  Sean and I could do nothing but exchange the "told you so" glance while going for the anti-bacterial soap and band aides.  I once had a co-worker who now wears a permanent scar from falling for this not once, but twice.

I don't want you to get the wrong idea. While she was a nightmare, I loved her. Even things that annoy us are worthy of our love. The house isn't going to be quite the same without her. She was my perfect training tool for Annie's "leave it" and "stay".  She wouldn't get within 5 feet of Bay. She knew better. I will miss her peeking underneath doors to see what we are doing. I'll miss her random swipes at the dog and my feet as we passed by.  Mostly, I will miss her spirit, because unlike the rest of us, Bailey never did one damn thing she didn't want to do. She also was never afraid to give you her honest opinion about anything. We could all stand to learn to live our lives a little more like she did.

Finally, I'll leave you with an early picture. She could be a sweet kitty when she wanted to, usually for an extremely short period of time. Like just long enough to snap a picture. You can see in her eyes, she was about ready to serve me up some ginger attitude.  RIP Miss Bailey Ross. Thanks for a great long run.

Changes

I'm typing this on my brand new MacBook. Can you tell? It's fabulous. I'm so excited but a little guilty too. My previous MacBook got me through my entire grad school career. I was sure she was going to crap out on my last year as I was studying for my comprehensive exams, but she didn't she stayed with me. I had that computer for 7 years and technically, she still works. Hence the guilt. I'm not trashing her though. She is just retired. Perhaps I'll use her to play my music in the other room. She will live in my house until the end, that is for certain. I owe her that much.

The school year is settling in and I'm back to loving my job. Not sure actually that I ever loved it before, so this is pretty new. I have a great group of kids and no other job but being a teacher. I love it. I'm so much better without all the side work. I hope the year continues to go like this.

The only down side of life for me right now is I'm injured again. Perhaps still is more appropriate. My second toe joint is all messed up and has completely affected my ability to run. My foot dr. is in the process of organizing some custom insoles which will hopefully manage to stabilize the joint through some pressure relief and allow me to avoid surgery.  I'm not interested in being out that much time (several months), although I've been out most of the summer, so perhaps I'm suffering from that at this stage anyway. Luckily we built a home gym this summer so I'm keeping myself entertained in the exercise department for now.  There isn't any substitute for running though that really gets the same results either mind or body. However, I'm at a stage in life where I take what I can and try not to complain much about it. There is always someone who has it worse so I need to appreciate what I can do, not what I can't.

Back to Reality

Tomorrow I return to work. What? How can that be? This summer has completely flown by. The last three weeks have been my favorite. I got to spend some amazing quality time camping with Sean and then we came home and dove into the house projects that I had been muddling through the rest of the summer. Boy, Team Ross can really accomplish things when we work together. We completely transformed the old office into a home gym. I'm excited to start loading the things back into it this week. It puts all local gyms to shame. I will post pictures when it's done. Needless to say, it's beautiful.

While I'm never ready to go back to work, I'm excited to only have teaching on my plate this year. With that pesky Master's Degree a fading memory in the review mirror of life, I should have time this year to better focus on my main objective. Teaching. Yay. Let's see how I am at this job without all the distractions this year.

I'm also committing to a life outside the classroom this year. This beautiful home gym should help with that. I've also got running to do and a niece, nephew and loads of family more than willing to spend time with me.

It's going to be a great year. On that particular note, I better get myself to bed before it's double digits. Getting up at dawn's butt crack makes me cranky all by itself, let alone when I didn't get enough zzzzz's.

Cheers!

Vacation!

Better late than never. I am the proud owner of the next 11 days of time with my husband.  Yahoo. We are going to rack up and entire summer's worth of fun in the next 11 days. Bring on the partay!

Zoom Zoom

That is the sound of summer flying by. I'm not really sure where it is going. I sure don't have much to show for it. My massive to do list remains undone. Little progress has been made. I've had lots of lunches out, many walks ending at a coffee shop and three great camping trips. There was the anniversary weekend at the coast full of fun memories, the sale of my beloved Subaru and the purchase of our new Honda Pilot (named Tiny). I've eaten lots of blueberries and generally had some good times.

Barrel to Keg was a blast this year. Unfortunately, my foot did not feel the same so I've spent the past 3 weeks in physical therapy and off running. So far, it feels much better and I was even allowed on the treadmill for 3 whole minutes of running this morning. I act like it was a piece of cake, and for my foot it was. But my cardio, well...that's an entirely different story. Why is it one can run multiple times a week, compete in a 69 mile relay less than 3 weeks ago, and after only 17 days of not running, I can barely maintain a jog for 3 minutes without falling off the treadmill dead? Aging, man it's a bitch!

This weekend is another in the Epic running life of Sean and Stafford. They will be competing in the 216 mile Cascade Lakes Relay. As if 216 miles isn't challenging enough with a team of 12 people, they are on an ultra team this year meaning there are only 6 of them. Crazy as shit. I just don't get it. I guess that is what separates me from the rest of my family. I like to run for fun. I don't like to run if it is too much work and I don't care if I'm running a 9:45 or a 10:15 min mile. If it feels good I'm happy. If it doesn't, I don't want to do it. Sometimes I wonder if I was just born into the wrong family and I sometimes get tired of all the running talk. I don't ever feel good enough to be part of it and it just generally irritates me. Running or exercising in general is something that should make you feel better about yourself, not worse.  That's why I love my running partners Annie and Melinda. I never feel like I'm anything less than good enough when I run with them. Plus it usually ends in coffee. Win win!

One thing I have perfected this summer is procrastination. I'm supposed to be working in the office. Well, the soon to be former office that is. After completely dismantling my grad school work space, I decided I want to turn the no longer necessary office into a home gym. We have lots of fun workout stuff but no good space to do it. I'm super excited. My work in there is pretty much done, the problem now is Sean's collection of things in there. Think, every computer part he's ever had. That boy can't part with electronics. I have my own vices mind you, so we won't talk about the other rooms in this house, I just need that room cleaned so I can finish up the transformation. I'm sure it's going to be so inspiring that I'll be a candidate for the hot tamale train in no time.

I guess, that space isn't going to finish itself. Believe me, I've given it multiple opportunities to do so all summer so I better go kick it in it's ass and get it going. I've got some fat to burn!