REMEMBER me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

Christina Rossetti

leaping before looking

just responded to a post from my friend ryan's blog

http://1-peach-2-peach.livejournal.com/50569.html

now that school is (nearly) over, i'll have much more time for conversations like this one. at least i hope it turns into a conversation.

let's see....exams given? check. exams graded? check. grades entered into the gradebook? check. grades uploaded to edline to give students a chance to complain before i make it official? check. looking forward to tomorrow being the last day i have to get up at 5AM for three months? check.

feels great to be a teacher right now.

busy busy busy tomorrow. school/end of the year breakfast tomorrow at 7:30. getting all checked out, hopefully by 11:30, earlier if i can pull my butt out of bed (we're contractually obligated to be there for four hours tomorrow and can leave once that's done). then, weather-cooperating, i'll head to the island for my first beast fix of the season. maybe a couple. then home to prepare for my audition at 5:00ish. then to the fox and hound for some post-school-year reveling. looking forward to some good, unhealthy fried appetizers and an adult beverage or two (probably just one, knowing my cheap ways). then to bed so i can get up early to drive up to weirton/pittsburgh saturday morning. nothing like hitting my summer vacation running.

things i NEED to do in the next week....

• call for an eye appointment (i am out of contacts and it's been two years since my last checkup)
• call a tree guy to get jarnsaxa healthy
• figure out financing for getting jarnsaxa healthy
• figure out financing for a new computer
• make a list of house-related projects for the summer
• start going to morning prayers
  
• sleep. a lot.

things i'd LIKE to do in the next week....

• do a little volunteering at the fringe festival
• get on my bike and ride
• get off my butt and use the Y membership i've had for five months but never used
• figure out some kind of road trip for this summer
  
• meet the love of my life
• sleep. a lot.

we'll see.

time to do a bit of reading. relaxing. last school night for a while. and all the teachers say, "amen."
Æ

Tunes: suzanne vega - the queen and the soldier

down to two

can someone please tell me why none of the media players i have on my computer allow me to play songs from my mp3 player?

thanks.

first day of exams went smoothly - only one exam, so i spent the extra time tearing down my room, getting everything put away for the summer, packing up books, etc. mostly done with that, which means tomorrow i just have to give my exams and then grade them, which hopefully i'll finish before i leave the school tomorrow. my exam is way too easy, but then most of the evaluation over this stuff was done during the trimester - seriously, if i wasn't required to give an exam i so wouldn't. such a waste. yet given such importance in our school. ah well, 'twill all be over by this time friday.

actually by this time friday i hope to be well into reveling at the fox and hound.

i've also decided to celebrate the end of classes by heading to KI and riding the beast a couple of times in celebration, before i head home to get ready for my midsummer audition. been rereading the play this week, and have a good idea of how i want to read the two characters i want most (bottom/puck). here's hoping it's what allen is looking for, too. i thought about asking him, but somehow that seemed like cheating. not sure why i feel that way - maybe i'm just trying to stay away from favoritism? or even the hint of favoritism? i know it's an unavoidable part of the process, but no use compounding the difficulties, right?

i got lazy this weekend and so am growing my beard back out. i'm in the stubbly wino phase right now - here's hoping it gets better by the time this weekend rolls around.

right...this weekend. heading to pittsburgh to visit brent and ikea. and pick up some steelers stuff since, oddly enough, i can't find any here in cincy. be a quick turnaround - probably less than 24 hours there. going to head up early saturday morning, come back sunday. sunday will be....interesting. see if you can follow this: my friend beth is getting married sunday afternoon. i, however, did not rate an invitation to the wedding. however, beth asked bea to invite me as her date, but not so much so bea has someone to go with but so i will be at the wedding so i can (finally, after months of prodding) meet beth's friend jessica, who is the "artistic coordinator" for beth's wedding. still with me? now from what i've been told, jessica is "perfect" for me. beth (jokingly, i hope) refers to her as my future wife, which was echoed by someone else who met her. even her future husband is actually excited about this meeting.

no pressure or anything.

i'm not opposed to being set up, though it has only happened a handful of times in my life, probably because i give off that "i'm comfortable being single" vibe (that's the explanation i'm sticking with anyway. i don't like the other options....). and if nothing else, it will be fun to meet someone. i'm a bit guarded, though, trying not to get my hopes up too high. the comfort of the pessimist - keep the threat of being disappointed to a minimum. but who knows what will happen.

curious collision: last night on a whim i met bea and went to see friends with money (sorry gina. just kind of happened). the movie rang "true" - the characters seemed real and not mere tools to be used by the director/writer. and the cast was wonderful, especially ms. mcdormand - hilarious. anyway, joan's character raised a question i've pondered myself before - do i have friends who are friends just because i met them at the right time? that if i met them earlier or later in my life, we would never have become friends? it's all about timing, right? anyway, bea and i were talking about this after the movie and i mentioned my friend jennifer - the doctor i've known since we were in grade school. our lives are quite different from the ones we shared while we were growing up and last time i saw her, i wondered if we met at a party or a club now whether we would even have much of a conversation. now, i haven't heard from jennifer since last time i was nyc, which is what, two years ago now? three? and she's moved to florida and gotten married since. i've sent out a couple of e-mails, but nothing, which made me sad because she's one of my oldest friends and i would hate to lose touch. anyway, i opened my e-mail today and there waiting was a change of e-mail address from her. again, timing. so i'll be writing her again and hopefully she'll respond this time. keep your fingers crossed.

spew spew spew.

ok, i have e-mails to write and a poem idea to get down. the year is almost done. and as i mentioned last night at house church, i'm looking forward to taking some time to gather the scattered pieces of my life and seeing what they look like now. who knows, maybe it will be a whole new picture....
Æ

Tunes: rush - ceiling unlimited