'twas the day before october

the best month of the year

jarnsaxa still looks pretty green, though hints of color dance around the edges. and the air has a bit of a bite now when the wind blows. i so love autumn.

so this weekend marks my first year anniversary in the grotto. i still love it here, though much of what i had envisioned for the house hasn't reached fruition quite yet. simple things like art on the walls, flowers in the front, curtains on the window still wait for me to find the time and funds. but it's certainly home. and i look forward to what comes in this second year of home ownership. here's hoping everything doesn't fall apart now that my home owner's warranty has run out.

the white cat that likes to hang out in my back yard just got into a fight with a random neighborhood cat, chasing him at full speed across my back yard. guess he feels this is his territory. still don't know if he belongs to anyone, but he keeps showing up and as long as he's not using my yard for his own personal litter box, i'm happy to let him stay and chase all the squirrels and strays he wants.

still don't know when i need to be at the auditorium yet. figure i'll call steve if i haven't heard anything by 9:00 - that will give me enough time to get showered up, grab my grading and get up to the school if i have to be there at 10:00. would like to have known earlier, but with jack's mom dying, it's understandable. need to check with allen about arrangements, see if anyone is going to the viewing (or if they're even having one).

i decided to stay after school and finish grading the vocab quizzes so i could focus on other grading today (and i kept dozing off, which is not good) when bea came in and asked if i wanted to go get ice cream. of course, i said. then beth and annie called - they were at the brazenhead, but were leaving to hit tgifridays and told us to meet them there. so we did. had a great conversation about our roles as christian teachers in the school - how much are we allowed to say, how much should we say, should we be afraid of the consequences if we step over the line, etc. one of the teachers at the school got into a bit of hot water because a student accused him of proselytizing in class. the teacher's crime? they invited the student to a church activity. not forced them to, not go or you'll lose your grade. just a simple invitation. when did that become proselytizing? you can throw all the "he's an authority figure" nonsense at me, i don't care. i can't believe i'm going to say this, since i've mostly heard it from right-wing nutjobs, but we are promised freedom OF religion, not FROM religion. and i refuse to live in fear that if i mention my faith, the powers that be will come and smite me. we also talked a bit about how we, as english teachers, have it a bit easier, since those kind of conversations come up when we're talking about literature. little harder to make connections when you're teaching math, science, history, etc. and not have it seem like you have an agenda. of course, we then discussed that all teachers have an agenda of some sort. unfortunately, we had to cut things short, but definitely a great time hanging out and talking about stuff. should do that more often.

ok, time to go call steve, see what's happening. hopefully he knows. otherwise i'll probably just end up showing up at 10:00 just in case and if they're not there, i'll just use the time to grade. or go to half price books and lunch - depends on how i feel.
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Tunes: gary hoey - linus and lucy

the drama continues

so i get an email from brent today - he had a vcr malfunction and was unable to tape gilmore girls. in desperation, i send out an email to the district bulletin board asking if anyone had taped it. this resulted in much mocking.

• "Thurman, I meant to TIVO it, but I realized that I was a man and changed my mind."

• "I have to at least laugh a little. No mocking just laughing."

• "Brave was the man what first et an oyster." -Jonathan Swift"

That guy's got nuthin' on you, Thurman."

hilarious. glad my sense of self isn't wrapped up in my choice of tv watching (though why i should feel guilty about watching one of the best written shows on tv is beyond me).

while no one at school could help a brother out, i was able to touch base with my friend karen who had taped the episode and she'll be mailing it out to me tomorrow. hopefully it will arrive before tuesday night so i can watch it. i'll keep my fingers crossed.

rough night last night. something i ate didn't agree with me and i was up at 2AM giving my regards to mr. porcelain.

this is probably something i shouldn't share in public.

observation: people get downright giddy when they are setting you up. you can see it on their faces. which makes sense, since they want to see their friends happy and if one friend can make another friend happy, wouldn't that be great? but i gotta tell you, it makes me a bit trepidatious (this is my issue, and i own it. this is not a chastisement of what is a normal reaction). 'cause now, if things don't work out, i'm not only disappointing the girl, but her friends as well. such as what happened this summer. i know this is my over-active guilt gland, but it does throw me a bit. it doesn't stop me from trying, but, well, i worry.

first film club screening was today - the original 1977 version of star wars - you know, the one before george "fixed" everything. nice to see han shoot first. one girl there had never seen star wars, which was lots of fun. after the meeting, some of the group were going to jimmy johns and invited me along. and since i had no plans, i went. good time. fun hanging with students in a non-school situation. would like to do that more often.

friday tomorrow. all day gig at the auditorium on saturday, which is great 'cause i sure could use the extra cash. sunday is church. and somewhere in there i hope to get lots of essays graded. here's hoping saturday provides me ample time to do so.

night.
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Tunes: byron boyers - the scotsman

guess i wasn't the only one

isn't it funny how when you blow up over stupid things, they turn out to really be stupid things in the end. or maybe that's what makes them stupid things in the first place. anyway, i called time warner cable (thanks to alison who suggested it), to see how much more it would cost me to upgrade to digital cable so i could get the CW. turns out they had lots of complaints and so they added it to the basic level on channel two. this makes me extremely happy, though i keep thinking of the quote from the wedding singer:

"Gee, you know that information... really would've been more useful to me *yesterday.*"

yes, i did just quote from an adam sandler movie. there goes my elitist cred.

but at least i get to watch gilmore and veronica in real time. or at least tape them to watch them after house church.

went outside today for class - figured if we're reading a book called into the wild, might be nice to go outside into the woods behind the school. went well, though lawn mowers almost made me lose students fifth bell (they couldn't hear the whistle to come back). curious moment: during second bell, three of my students didn't come back when i blew the whistle. was trying to figure out what to do when one of the other students told me they'd seen them helping an older gentleman whose dog had tried to run away and had caused him to fall, cutting his forehead. was glad my students did the right thing to help him instead of saying, "sorry, have to get back to class."

just wanted to share my good news. nothing of significance to share. thunderstorms blowing in. need to go close the windows. leaving now.
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Tunes: of montreal - requiem for o.m.m.

I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!

proof that cincinnati has a long way to go before it becomes a real metropolitan area: no station in the area picked up the new CW network, which means i can no longer watch two of my favorite shows, gilmore girls and veronica mars. this makes me infinitely sad. which is probably infinitely sad that i care so much about tv shows, but i had so looked forward to spending my tuesday nights with lorelai, rory, vernoica and mac. ah well. at least brent said he would tape them for me, so i'll see them eventually. just not as soon as i would like.

back to school - yesterday was rough, but feeling much better now. guess the antibiotics may have finally worked. had to stop taking the gualfinex at night, since it was keeping me up. not like i need any help screwing up my sleep schedule. was better enough yesterday that i mowed my lawn using my new push mower - will take a little longer and a little more effort, but was kind of fun, especially when the neighborhood kids kept coming over and asking me what it was. i tried to show them how much fun it was, but no one took up my offer to try it. tom sawyer i am not.

house church was great tonight - long, rambling discussions about the bible, faith, etc. then a discussion of some of the logistics, which went a long way to helping it feel like a real church (whatever that means) rather than just some friends getting together (not that there's anything wrong with that). God's working and i can't wait to see what happens.

ok, need to try and fall asleep sometime before midnight for the first time in a week. the update on the search will have to wait (and you're all crushed, i know). night.
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Tunes: the blues brothers - sink the bismarck

so much for a good night's sleep

medicine has conspired once again to keep me up, now three hours after i tried to go to bed early. frustrating to lie in bed, listening to the crickets, unable to enter morpheus's realm. not even reading helped - an hour later and i'm still not tired. don't think i'll be taking the sudafedish stuff tomorrow night - here's hoping it keeps me awake during the day tomorrow.

weekend was pretty much a carbon copy of the week - a lot of lying around, watching dvds, trying not to move. most constructive thing i did was a load of laundry, unable to even get up the gumption to go grocery shopping (which i'll have to do soon). all that inactivity has gotten the best of me - i'm actually looking forward to school tomorrow. at least i was before i realized i'll probably get only three hours of sleep tonight.

i almost posted a couple of times this weekend in the throes of emotional upheaval, but luckily saner heads prevailed and i kept my ramblings to myself. simple reminder that i'm not nearly evolved as i'd like to think and i've got miles to go before i reach true maturity. though at least i recognized my own selfishness as it was occurring instead of realizing it after it was too late. and at least i was alone and could keep my infection to myself.

i'm beginning to think walt disney may have been the wisest prophet of our time...got an email from susie, the friend chris is trying to set me up with. seems she was talking about the eharmony parody i did to someone at her church, who in turn told her daughter. turns out her daughter used to live here in cincy and only recently moved back. she recognized my name from the story and figured out there probably weren't two red-headed teachers named thurman running around. so the daughter turns out to be courtney, bea's friend that i met a few times. and to further shrink the circumference of the world, bea happened to be in columbus on friday night and the two of them called susie to relay the story. seriously, i need to find a larger planet.

i hate insomnia. and no, hate is not too strong a word.

ok, time to give it the old college try again. obviously typing hasn't done me a lick of good. not sure why i always think it will.
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