Ever So Close

Three Days of School!

Tomorrow the students will be performing their group plays. Break a leg, kiddies! Tuesday...I suppose we'll do MadLibs and Boggle and such. Wednesday is a half day; I'm thinking that once again they'll have a big assembly. Then it will be time to pack up the rooms and GO HOME! For the WHOLE SUMMER! WHEE!!

I am very excited that--so far--I've got my same classroom for next year. Unpacking plus moving was a huge pain this past September; I'm thrilled to plan for mere unpacking.

I have no idea if there are going to be end-of-year celebrations with my school friends. The staff party was last Thursday and I didn't go. I hope to go out with my two friends N at least, for some margaritas and laughs.

I'm already trying to figure out what to do this summer. I'm doing a week of the UFT workshop with Ralph Fletcher, in mid-July. In late July, I go to Seattle for two weeks. The rest of July I suppose I will:

--catch up on doctor and dentist visits,
--scan pictures,
--post them (lucky you!),
--get into an exercise routine,
--catch up on my Netflix queue,
--think and plan and shop for next year,
--see concerts and shows in the city parks
--hang out with friends
--explore my own neighborhood
--explore the city more
--go to a restaurant with fried pickles
--continue my unofficial Tour of Nachos (with reviews on the as-yet-imaginary nachoblog.com--don't steal it!)
--eat crepes (found several creperies recently!)

Seattle is the only "travel" that I have upcoming. I think I'm too poor to think about it right now. I haven't bought tickets to go anywhere for Thanksgiving or Christmas or February break. I should be getting raises in the early fall, and perhaps I'll let myself start planning.

Have I mentioned this yet here? What I really want to do is travel for several weeks next summer. No school, no real work, other than broadening my own horizons (and walking off some other horizons, if you know what I mean). Take three or four weeks to revisit some European favorites and find some new ones. I doubt I'm spontaneous enough to just wing it; it's too tempting to make a list of all the things and places I want to see. I definitely want to revisit Prague in the summer, exploring more and of course buying more banana chocolate and hazelnut wafers. Then visit Vienna, Budapest, and Munich. Perhaps a jaunt to my old home of Paris. I'd love to re-do Rome and explore more of Greece.

But for now, all that is a pretty pretty daydream for another twelve months.

I really don't want to work this summer. I'm worried about money, though. I'm even more worried that I'll start thinking about part-time work at a coffee shop or something. Back between college and AmeriCorps, FIVE years ago, I swore up and down that I was finished with the green monster (a large corporation whose name rhymes with Bartrucks). It was a good college job but I vowed to move on. Eventually--three years later--I got desperate between the mortgage gig and New York, and went back to the beast for a couple months.

I'm terrified that I'll be bored and poor this summer, and end up going back to the monster. I don't wanna! Keep me away from the apron and steaming milk!

The prospect of teaching and only teaching next is very appealing. No silly grad school to take up time and brain (un)power. I've got the go-ahead to plan for an overnight trip next year, as well as real field day. (If anyone here has planned a real field day in New York [ie, land of blacktop not grass], I'd love to hear about your experience!) My extra thing is going to be the bookroom, and I am psyched.

The department bookroom is, first of all, in a secret, weird location. Second, it's always open. Third, it actually looks like a bomb went off inside it. Books are piled haphazardly, gathering dust. The wide variety of test books, novels, anthologies, and all manner of other resources have been flung all over the shelves and floor. It is a pitiful disgrace.

I had a group of girls bring a stack of old anthologies back up to this alleged bookroom, and they were just as astonished and appalled as I was. They were also eager to help organize it. Isn't that great? Because as messy as I can be, I LOVE to take something apart, make a huge mess, and organize the hell out of it, making it neat and pretty. So it will be a fun project this year. I will take lots of before and during and after pics for you, discerning readers!

It's my last Sunday night of the school year. Wow. Unbelievable. I still can't wrap my brain around it.

On Friday, the students filled out evaluations of the year. Those will be typed and posted soon, along with my own reflections and evaluations of the year. If I can remember anything; it has passed in a giant blur, for which I suppose I should be grateful.