Into the Wild Wood and Home Again

I dozed through the evening, half-listening to a silly show on Netflix. I will likely not return to it, but who knows? If I weren't always so darn tired, I'd read in the evening, but I can't focus and stay awake these days. I filled my Saturday with must-do stuff, and a few glad-I-did things. That is to say, I finished chores and whatnot right about when G pulled in from work--just after 4pm. I'm glad I went to tee ball with Holly and Tim; it's a true joy to sit in the spring sunshine and watch her learn and have fun doing something Meg did for years. I miss it so much, and it's honestly amazing to think I get to do it again. That makes my heart so happy. I don't know if I'll be able to for all the years she may play, but I'll soak up every minute I can get.  I was upstairs folding laundry when the dog went bananas. I dismissed it, after a fashion, because a/ no one was due to be at my door, and b/ she stopped losing her mind. When I got downstairs a...

Apparently, my mind is craving period drama as a retreat from the horrific firehose of terrible news items that are threatening to engulf us all. I can't directly impact any single thing that is making my heart hurt, but I can, in fact, temporarily immerse myself in Regency period films that dip into melodrama.  Last night, after Jeopardy (yes, I must be getting old-- I'm making it a habit to watch daily), I clicked into Britbox after making sure the Red Sox were not imploding in the first inning. They were not, so I was safe to venture into drama/melodrama/comfortably slushy film. I chose Mr Malcolm's List , which was delightful. Not one serious thing about it, really-- it was purely enjoyable, the costumes and settings were lovely, and I went to bed precisely at 10pm, having lost myself for a short time in an era that was ruled by high manners and minor scandals.  See why I like it? The horror show that is the news cycle today offers little to no reprieve; disasters, dang...

 Sunny? Yes, cold-- slight frost again last night (reminder that it's still early spring, eh?)--  And it's Friday. And payday.  Last night, I watched the first few episodes of The Other Bennet Sister on Britbox. It's quite good. I highly recommend it-- it connects with the things we all know from Pride and Prejudice, but the focus is on Mary, the sister no one ever seems to remember. The mother is vain and sometimes cruel, the younger sisters are still brainless, Lizzie is hardly even involved, nor is Jane... but they are there, and they are as we have come to expect them. Mr. Collins is as odious and cringey as usual, too. But Mary gets to speak! She has hopes and dreams, and a terrible sense of unworthiness rooted in her mother's suffocating behavior. Mary is becoming more independent, though, so this newfound courage and sense of self is refreshing-- even as it is thwarted, time and again, by social rules and her domineering mother.  And I'm only in a few episod...

Sigh of relief.  My students felt that the AP Lit exam was okay. We will debrief today, but then leave it in the rear view mirror.  I finished binge-watching a really complicated but well done thriller/mystery series on Netflix called Bodkin . The premise is that a man and his assistant, accompanied by a journalist who is in a spot of trouble, head to a small town in Ireland to track down an old, unsolved disappearances story for a podcast he is producing. Every step leads to deeper, darker secrets, and things get really sketchy fast.  I enjoyed it immensely! It's not my usual fare, but I'm glad I gave it a look.  And that all said, I'm hopeful that today won't be rainy. What a deluge we had again yesterday. I hope we are not getting the entire season's worth of rain in May. The drought last year was awful, and many areas are not even caught up yet. I do hope to get into my garden boxes to weed and so on this weekend, but the weather looks iffy. I'd like to prun...

Today's the day. Do or die.  Well, it's not that earth-shattering, but my students will be the first ones ever in Lisbon's history to take the AP Lit exam.  Then we'll have to wait until July for results.  Agh.  In the meantime, though, I'll have gutted classes (kids taking AP exams for other courses) here and there over the next week. We will do what we can, but mostly, it'll be marking time. Which, to be honest, I don't care one iota. We are continuing on with The Odyssey in Creative Writing, then moving immediately into drama. And in AP Lit, we'll be finishing up poetry, then moving into drama there, too. All plays, some on video, some read aloud in class.  And NO ONE IS GONNA GIVE A DAMN. Except me, of course. So, maybe we can lighten up and have a little fun.  Next Wednesday, my AP Lang kids will have to confront the hydra that is the AP exam-- I am hoping that they practice in the meantime. It's not an easy test. None of them are, but I've ...

I don't know if it's my usual imposter syndrome rearing its ugly head and butting into my teaching life (usually it's restricted to my writing), but I will be so darn glad when the AP tests are all done. For better or worse, it will have ended. I know I'm a good teacher, but these tests are looming over everything I say and do, forcing me to make decisions I'm not as sure about... ugh. And this is why I didn't want to ever do AP. I don't fully believe in it. There are good things that have come out of it, such as a laser focus on the why of things when it comes to analysis, but geez. And the kids don't seem to give one minute of care to it.  They don't care. And that makes me both sad and angry. Maybe a few do, but even so, their attitude is one of "o well, we'll give it a shot, probably gonna suck"-- and yes, that is likely the result for a lot of them. And honestly, one test (or even all of them) will not determine their lives in any...