Filling the Well

Now that the chaos, otherwise known as JUNE, is over I can concentrate my energies upon "refilling the well". I have willingly although sometimes snappishly worn myself out on behalf of my family and my students, and now it's time to replenish my spirit and my strength.


June, as all teachers can attest, is the month that saps one's resources more than any other. Year end trips, culminating activities, exam preparation, IEP meetings, graduations, proms, shopping expeditions for said prom and graduation dresses, packing up the classroom, exam supervision, report cards all contribute to the bittersweet emptying of what was, the previous September, a very deep, very wet well.


On the last day of school my inner well resembled that dry and dusty pit of despair as illustrated above. But the proms and graduations are over, the exams are marked, the report cards filled in, lockers are empty though still smelly and supplies are packed into boxes to await another September.


Let the refilling begin.


The refilling of my well began at about the same time that my daughter filled out her prom dress and struck a pose with her beau. She puts a smile on my face and joy in my heart.


Stay tuned for more wellfilling moments.........

THURSDAY THIRTEEN #7

Thirteen Indicators that Your Almost 18 Year Old is Growing Up!

1. She is writing her final highschool English University level essay and asked me to edit it. (She's never shown me any essay she's ever written before on purpose! I may have accidentally peeked but that's a different post.)


2. She tells me on the drive home from school that she's looking forward to doing her homework tonight because of how good she'll feel when it's all done. (Yes, she is my daughter, I checked her DNA!)


3. She is gainfully employed. (In fact, she may have two jobs as she has another interview tomorrow.)


4. She postponed her driving test because SHE feels she needs more time to practise. (Hallelujah, praise the Lord!)


5. She has been going out with the same boy for over a year and he's the first boyfriend since Gr. 9 four years ago when she chose them for their "cute" factor. (Not that this one isn't cute, but he is also gainfully employed, also heading off to university in the fall, and wants to be a LAWYER!)


6. She told me not to buy water in plastic bottles anymore and carries a reusable water bottle.


7. After four years of spending her wages on cafeteria food and fast food lunches she now packs a lunch each day with fresh vegetables, fruit and yogurt. (Maybe I should get that DNA rechecked!)


8. She offers to do the dishes. Offers.


9. Anti-exercise all her life except for highland dancing, she now walks, jogs and goes to hot yoga. (Have aliens landed and I wasn't informed?)


10. Wanting to keep up with world events she watches the news. (This is the same girl who thought Much Music was the only channel on TV. )


11. She told me the other day that if I was having a bad day or was having any problems that I could talk to her anytime if it would help. Awwwwwwwwwww!


12. She has cleaned up her room several times over the past few weeks WITHOUT me asking her to! This is MAJOR!!


13. She bought me a new set of plates because she felt bad about breaking one.

I'm sure more indicators will be forthcoming - I can't wait until she can kills spiders on her own!

For more Thursday Thirteen lists click here.

Best Buddies - Track and Field

My student, in blue, is running the 400m helped out by three members of our Best Buddies Club: one girl jogging ahead on the left, another pointing as she runs and a third jogging along on the other side. With the help of her buddies she kept running all the way around the track.
Our first place ribbon winner in the long jump. I love my other student watching in the background (grey T-shirt, blue pants) as he is jumping at the same time.
My best picture poser! "This is a shotput. See?"
"And this is how you throw the shotput!" She was third overall.
Our buddies sure had fun, even though it was so cold. How cold was it? I don't know, but I saw a lawyer with his hands in his own pockets.
Running the relay, despite a valiant effort in the last leg by our 100m 1st place winner the gap was too big to close, but we cheered all the way to the finish line.
I call this photo "The Agony of De Feet."
But we can never be sad for too long, not when we are surrounded by best friends and blankets."Wow, I sure threw that ball pretty high!"
(That's me smiling - I think my smile froze into place!")
Making it to the finish line is a wonderful feeling.

A day with my best buddy is the best kind of day.
Meeting up with an old friend who moved away a year ago.

Tears of happiness.
I love my yellow baton. I don't really want to pass it on. Maybe I'll just keep it. Maybe no one will notice.
I am fast, I am Superspeedyfeet woman!
Look at my form, look at my steely-eyed determination, look at the goosepimples on my arms and legs. Hurry up and start the race already!

The End

Trailer Made!

You will notice that my blogging output decreases in direct relationship to good weather and "trailer time!" Last July I purchased a trailer in a summer park just outside Bayfield, Ontario. It was the best money I ever spent. I lead a somewhat (hah!) stressed existence as a single parent of a university bound 17 year old child/teen/woman (cheeman...chilteman...cheenan?)

The other major stressor in my life is my job. I love my job, don't get me wrong, but it wakes me up about 3 or 4 times a night. I jolt awake and wonder how to convince "Sam's" father to accept some help, like a support worker for Sam, a medical checkup....etc when he sees any recommendation as a sign he is a failure as a father (she just moved in with him last August after her grandmother died and we just want to help him out but he sees it as interference). A little while later I open my eyes and worry about "Tanya", a student with autism who is graduating this year, she is 21, as her parents have made no plans for her - what is she going to do all day? Then about an hour before the alarm goes off I sit upright and hope that "Rusty" remembers to take his medication for epilepsy when he goes on his overnight trip with his Gr. 9 band class. And on and on it goes.

When I go to the trailer I can leave all of these worries behind me. When I am at the trailer I am no longer a teacher. Instead, I am someone who can take apart a large, heavy sofabed with a hammer, a screwdriver and a pair of scissors. (It came with the trailer but it needed to go and it wouldn't fit through the door so I took it apart- it was for the best as I was able to recycle all the metal and kept the wood for burning in the firepit!)

When I am at the trailer I become a beachcomber, walking the shoreline everyday picking up kindling for that night's fire. I become an expert at recognising birdcalls, and keep my eye on the birdfeeders and bird houses nestled in the trumpet vines across from my trailer. My heart rate slows down and the most important thing I have to do is ride my bike into town to drink iced coffee in front of the Bean Bag, buy delectable pastries at the bake shop for tomorrow's breakfast and a bottle of wine for tonight's BBQ. Well, that's important!

This week's trailer task is to take up a futon to replace the sofa bed and two storage ottomans to hold my daughter's clothing/stuff. Hopefully it will be sunny so I can finish raking the leaves and plant the climatis I bought a week ago and plant the native grass seeds a friend gave me. Then we'll be ready to stay through the Victoria Day weekend, better known in Canada as the May two four weekend (in reference to a case of 24 beer bought by millions of Canadians as we kick off the long-awaited summer party weekend season.)

I'll stick to a six pack myself.

Walk Don't Drive

With the nicer weather I have felt compelled to get outside more - I've wanted to see firsthand the many signs of spring that you can't see as you're whizzing around in your car.


With a busy lifestyle as a single parent and Special Ed Teacher I had to get creative to find the time to get out and about using my own two feet.


So I've started to do my daily errands by walking to local businesses in my own neighbourhood.



First stop yesterday was to the local video store to drop off a movie. It had been a very windy day and the sand from a long winter of sanding roads and sidewalks was turning into an interesting pattern of sand dunes. (note to self - find a synonym for the word sand).


Next stop was the local bank where I used an ATM to deposit a cheque from my insurance company for my daughter's last trip to the dentist.


A sure sign of spring there was the young boy selling chocolate bars outside the front door. No I didn't
buy one tho' I'm sure it was for a
good cause :(

As I made my way across the street on my way to the Giant Tiger store my heart soared with joy as I noticed a Zeller's employee sitting atop bags of fertilizer perhaps waiting for someone with a key to the Gar_en Shop! Yes - the Garden Shop is getting ready to open! (We'll take a short pause while I dance my happy dance!)


Then I briskly walked on to the All Canadian Giant Tiger store so I could purchase an umbrella for my daughter. Battling hurricane force winds and rain that morning (her words) on the way to the bus stop her umbrella had turned inside out so many times it was a tangled mass of broken spokes.
Inside Giant Tiger everything related
to spring was on display: BBQ utensils, beach towels, gardening tools, swim suits and sandals. I was tempted, but only bought an umbrella.


As I headed homeward, I walked by the local cinema to see what was playing. I am very lucky as my cinema shows films that are a few months old and a matinee is only $2.00. I was happy to see that Juno was still playing, as I haven't seen it yet.


I arrived home with errands finished and more sure than ever that spring is here to stay. I also have to say that walking through my errands is much more pleasant and relaxing than racing around stressed out in my car looking for parking spots in a myriad of over-crowded parking lots, and a lot more environmentally friendly.

And the view is infinitely more interesting!

Beach Donkeys Lay Down for Their Rights!

As I lay back on the bed, I closed my eyes and luxuriated in the soft music, dimmed lights and the gentle touch of a stranger's hands as they carressed my arm.


Yes, it was my regular blood donation day.


As a single parent of an almost 18 year old girl/woman, you take your pleasures where you can.


In that twilight zone of lightheadedness combined with no actual responsibilities for the next 45 mintues or so, my thoughts ran to solutions for those poor beleaguered beach donkeys so recently featured in the local rag.


(That was after my usual fantasy that the nurse was suctioning fat out of my hips as opposed to blood out of my vein.)


You see, there are some 900 beach donkeys hard at work on England's beaches lugging about increasingly supersized burdens on their already swayed backs. Donkeys UNITE! Well, they have and now limits are set on the poundage of the children allowed to be placed on a donkey's back. About bleeding time! Have you seen the size of some children these days?


As I became ever more lightheaded I came up with what I thought were some good solutions to this problem of child obesity so that any donkey would be happy to see them clamber up. I mean, how mortifying to have to step on a scale before getting on the donkey of your choice: "Sorry Mortimer" (that's what they call their children in England) "you're a tad bit over the limit lad, sorry ol' chap, can you say Atkins?"


So here are my solutions:


1) Fat Transfusions: If we can donate blood to someone who needs a transfusion why not suction off a few gallons of child fat and ship it overseas to all of those starving children in India and Africa? What with the increase in population and decrease in food production it seems a win/win solution all around.


2) Or, even better - Student Exchange: last year we had a student from France stay with us and then my daughter went and stayed with his family. Why not send those obese children to Ethiopia or Kenya and take a child or two or three in return (equal in weight to the obese child) and unexchange them when they have either fattened up or slimmed down. Think of the opportunities here for cultural exchange, learning a new language and so on.


Perhaps when my blood levels get back to normal I'll see things a bit differently, then again, maybe not!

Foo Fighters Claim Canada the Best Country in the World

Last night, Thursday, March 20th saw the greatest rock band currently in business, the Foo Fighters play an exhausting two hour concert at the John Labatt Centre. Not that I'm biased or anything, but I did have to agree with singer, songwriter, drummer and guitarist and frontman for the band, Dave Grohl, when he rejoiced in Canada's status as the best country in the world. Who am I to argue with Dave?
It was a wild and crazy night as Dave ran up and down the central runway strutting his stuff like some sort of grungy, scruffy supermodel, pausing here and there to slam a few great riffs into adoring fans' ears.



For those of us down at the other end of the arena the best part of the show was when a circular stage gently descended from the rafters settling down just a few feet away from us. Dave and the gang played "Skin and Bones", "Marigold", "My Hero" and more in an acoustic set complete with keyboards, accordian, violin and a great "triangle" solo by percussionist Drew Hester.



You had to be there!



What is it about Dave Ghrol that his fans, including yours truly and my 17 yr. old daughter, eating out of his hand? It can't be the Grizzly Adams appearance with hair constantly hanging in his face...can it? Or his nondescript basic black grungy clothing. Or the fact that every other word rhymes with puck and pit.



No, I would have to say it's because of his massive talent and equally impressive charisma (like I said, you had to be there) that left us screaming for more. He certainly delivered the goods, especially when standing on top of the speakers letting loose with one of his rock god screams.



The last time the Foos were in London it was to open for Bob Dylan. Let's just say they more than made up for Bob's coldness and total lack of charm that night. Sorry ceeb, I know you're a big Dylan fan, so am I, at least of his music, not so much of the performer. It was as if Bob deigned to honour us with his presence, whereas Dave made us feel there was nowhere he'd rather be.

Just How Nutty Am I?

I have to say that I like all kinds of nuts. Just keep your mind out of the gutter, however, and we'll get along just fine. I only talk about walnuts, pecans, brazil nuts etc and....oh yes, I often refer to myself and other folk I know as "nutty" or "off their nut" and if I get really upset I just might whip off a bold "nuts to you" type comment.

Take today for instance. Although I am well past my lunch-time I have yet to leave the computer to go downstairs and partake of some. Instead, I sit here trying to start up a blog in the hopes that there just might be some people out there, like me (hear me out), who will stop by to visit and share their wisdom with me from time to time.

People like me could be over 50 years old (yikes, I admit it, I'm over half a century old - but only on the OUTSIDE!), a single parent, (I have a 17 year old princess but that's another post, or even another whole blog...hmmmmm), a teacher, a family history researcher, and/or could be trying, really trying to live a simpler and hence greener lifestyle.

So welcome to "Just How Nutty Am I?" and let's explore the world's nuttier side. So many nuts, so little time....