may's end: school report: the easiest school finish in memory... though you wouldn't have heard me say this two weeks ago... because all senior grades were due last week... and i was crunched... but it happened... nothing like a do or die deadline to concentrate the attention. this has been my first and perhaps only year to teach only senior classes...

sad to find some good teachers moving on: scott brown, beth ahlgrim, joe molloy... three bright lights... as i see it... and will miss them... and we'll have three new english teachers in the fall...

next year i'll have two sections of sophomores... which tosses me back into the u.s. lit arena... i get to do huck and gatsby and walt and emily... and holden... again. and i get to teach some grammar and some speech...

but having only seniors leaves year's end kind of empty... all grades were done by last thursday morning... so i filled time friday by attending the senior brunch... then monday and tuesday of this week i sat in my empty classroom, doing what could be done, reading some, organizing the online summer reading stuff (the message board for midnight's children), drinking some bad-for-me coffee, packing up the room... wednesday evening i attended the faculty dinner... mostly because my pal theresa kaiser was being honored for thirty years at carmel... but i ended up getting a certificate for five years... why all these increments of five? i always felt fours to be more natural... o well... i guess none of it is...

other reports: in which i tell you more than you'd ever care to know about the ins and outs of being me these days...

cat report: she only eats the canned stuff in moments of desperation... usually around two or three in the morning... then she pounces on me for more because she knows i'm not going to drag my sleepy butt down to the kitchen for a re-fill but will instead reach for her beloved old dry food... yum... the lump removal spot on her face is filling in nicely... look... to the left of her nose... hardly a mark (yes, i've tweaked the shot... but nothing is hidden)...

her shaved butt is slowly growing back... (sorry no picture... i tried & got no cooperation) and finally... after three weeks... the mineral oil in the rear fur is dissipating so it's no more punked out spikey butt cat for us (if you haven't noticed, the word of the day is butt)... despite her newly weird and minimalistic eating habits she's got some energy... leaping up to the bed in one bound... exploring the hall... scoping out the ceiling fan in the next room... hissing at dominic as he goes by... generally busy being the queen of the place...

doctor report: teeth: had a great dental checkup awhile ago... even got complimented for my fine flossing job, for which i can't take a lot of credit because since he replaced a crown i've had a largish space back there and stuff is always getting stuck... so i pull out the floss to get it and then figure i might as well do the whole mess of them... so i do...

doctor report: eyes: summer's time for a new checkup, but i haven't noticed any huge changes in the glasses... which is odd because i have noticed bigger (negative) changes in what i can/can't see when i take them off... without this optical technology what would my life be?

doctor report: blood et al: i've been neglecting the tests they say one needs... don't know what my numbers are at present... this is passive-aggressive behavior on my part... i'm ticked off because i get no help from the doctor's office... after a visit they never write anything down or tell me exactly when to have things checked again... it's completely up to me to remember or invent the next appointment... and i never do... i need reminders... and then... just yesterday dom and i discovered that our good doctor has vanished... left the group... and we were never informed... ah... american health care... finest in the world... (i'm sure you've got yr own stories too)... remember the good old days when you stuck with the same doctor for years and years? and he/she really knew you... and at least pretended to care... or was that just a dream i had?

reading report: i'm trying to finish The Iceman Cometh quickly because i'm curious about its direction... though i've got some clues... don't tell me... cleaning off my classroom shelves the other day i found a copy of flann o'brien's The Dalkey Archives and am thinking of ripping into that soon... and i've a copy of w. g. sebald's The Rings of Saturn... just because he's been mentioned often enough for me to finally check him out... morrison's Song of Solomon will be added to ap lit.... so i'd better read it... and these two volumes of The Tale of Genji have been casting come hither glances... and loren webster's recent readings of robert lax make me wannna read Love Had a Compass cover to cover... the other day my pal theresa asked me what kind of summer stuff i'll be reading because she's reading some danielle steele and john grisham and all... so i told her... and she said "o you read the classics"... and i guess i've turned into the kind of person who doesn't want to spend much time reading throw-away stuff... especially since my reading endurance quotient is not what it used to be... but i intend on checking out some recent ya fiction that i've been missing... stuff recommended by the adbooks list... on which i lurk... now here's a random shot...

music report: currently piled on my machine: lots and lots of Low... best of Morrissey... charlie musselwhite's Sanctuary (still)... hélène grimaud piano disk Credo by corigliano beethoven pärt... johnny cash tribute Dressed in Black... coltrane's A Love Supreme for the transcendent drumming of the recently departed elvin jones... the specials Singles Collection

and i believe i've gone on long enough...

The media transforms the great silence of things into its opposite. Formerly constituting a secret, the real now talks constantly. News reports, information, statistics, and surveys are everywhere.

Michel de Certeau

talk to me

brtom.org