The Twitter of Oz

I had three student 'contacts' today. All of them were individual adults. Two were lessons and one was a half hour intake. It may be immodest of me to say it, but at the end of the day I looked back and said to myself, "I think all three of those people had a good time during their lesson/intake." I think it's important to have a good time. Sometimes I leave a lesson and I feel like I'm covered in goo, like some bad energy from the room is all over me and I need a bath - not today.

My general way of being with students is to be encouraging and positive. "You'll be fine," I say. "You're making good progress." Of course it has to be true, but the two regular students I had today really are making good progress and I told the intake he'd be fine because I think he will be when he starts talking and getting used to talking. He's like the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz. He just needs someone to sit with him and constantly put oil on his jaw until it's loosened up and he can speak with some fluidity.

Sometimes in an intake I'll say, "Have you ever seen The Wizard of Oz?...No?...That's okay. Well, there's this one character, the Tin Man..." What's more important? That they understand my analogy or that I get to talk? Exactly!

It's amazing to me how few Dutch folks have seen The Wizard of Oz. They've heard of it or seen parts of it or sort of know the story. That's shameful.

My sister, Kathy, is having trouble figuring out Twitter. Hey, me too! I can do very Twitter basic stuff, like post, and reply to other people, but that's about it. I decided to only follow people I even sort of give a crap about. So, of course, I'm following Kathy, but I'm also following Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore - because they are like the king and queen of Twitterland. And I'm following Oprah, Brenda Dayne, Rachel Maddow, Ana Marie Cox, Louise Robertson and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. All the big names. (There are also some very nice people I actually know. I just like dropping names.)

And Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is following me, which I'm sure she did out of Twitter-pity because she doesn't know me from Adam. Somehow Levar Burton showed up on my feed. And Tony Robbins came with the welcome package.

Twitter is such a strange thing. It's almost like Second Life, which is a crack vile I never opened. But I think it's less toxic than a lot of things. The problem is that there's so much lingo and there are all these abbreviations. I've got to figure it out so I can run with the big dogs.

Or not.

I meant to swing around and connect my lessons today with Twitter and I can't do it. Is there a Twitter for Dummies online somewhere?

In Search of...

Fred is - at this very moment - attempting to make a meringue for the third time. He's tried it a couple of times before and something always goes wrong. We had one two Christmases ago at his sister's house. And we keep thinking that it would be a nice, light dessert for a dinner party. They're always a little brown, and they're sort of gummy in the middle.

Recipes for meringues vary widely. He found on on the Joy of Baking website. I would love to say that we're doing a third meringue, but it's his thing. He's the one searching for that illusive perfect recipe. One of the big problems is that the oven was apparently too hot, even though it was exactly the temperature the recipe called for. And we apparently added the sugar at the wrong time. And this and that. We'll see.

I'm glad to be in for the evening with little ahead of me other than finishing off a stamppot, watching a movie and knitting. I taught five classes today - one right after the other. I was only at work for six and a half hours, but the entire time was in front of a class. I took a half hour when everyone was gone to sort things and clean up the room before heading out. It's sort of exhausting to teach like that. And I feel compelled to try to have contact with each of them and let them know that I know they're there.

Still, I'd rather be doing this than...I'll just than a lot of things.

Lost and Found

I walked out on the balcony a few minutes ago and a bumble bee had apparently taken a fancy to the cactus. It reminded me of a cartoon I once saw that had a snake (with glasses and poor eyesight) trying to cozy up to a garden hose. I can't imagine what this bee was hunting for. It sort of looks like he came in for a landing too quickly. Not worry - he eventually flew off. Apparently, he really did have some business there.

This afternoon after work, I went to get on my bike and I couldn't find my keys. I looked in all my pockets and felt around in the pockets of my bag and they were just gone. They were supposed to be in the pocket of my jacket, where they always are. I thought about where my jacket had been laying. It was just on a desk in the room the whole day. I thought they had probably fallen out.

While I was walking up to look for them, I considered the possibility that one of the students could have taken them. You know, there are students who your mind just goes to when things like this happen? And I really couldn't think of anyone. I can't imagine any of my students being the kind of person who would steal from me. I like that. I have some really good (and sometimes maddening) kids.

They keys turned out to be in the bottom of my bag - where they never are. It sucked to have to go back up to my room, because I was carrying so much stuff, but it was a relief to have them and get on the bike to come home.

My students have been on my mind lately because they've been so nuts. They're antsy and they want to be out of school already. But they were all on good behavior today since I had a little "come to Jesus" talk with them. It was nice to have them calm and cooperative, if a bit somber.

I feel like I grew a new teacher muscle with these talks I've been giving. This job has been exhausting. It's so much work, but it's fascinating because sometimes I can step outside of myself and watch myself and the way I am with them. I am so much the way I am.

It has been a beautiful day. Sunny and clear with a little crispness in the air. It makes for a stuffy room in an old building, but it was nice when I opened the windows to get some fresh air. I look forward to sleeping in a bit tomorrow.

Like Sands Through the Hourglass

My whole life I've noticed that on certain free days one moment it'll be 10:30 in the morning and the next it's 5:00 in the afternoon. The whole day just flies by. It's not like I sleep the whole day. I keep busy, but suddenly the whole day is has been eaten up and the sun is setting.

Today, I kept looking at the clock and it felt like I was trying to keep water in my hands. It just kept leaking out and dripping down my arms and suddenly it was time to leave for my "evening obligation."

That's one of the things I really liked about having an office job - back when I had an office job. There was always someone bothering me, asking me if I had something done or giving me another assignment. I had structure - in the form of a loud, bossy narcissist. These days that I have to structure myself are sort of difficult. I have to decide what I have time for and what's the most important.

Today I read some short stories I want to submit somewhere and I had to fit that in with planning for my classes on Thursday and Friday, returning some emails and a short nap. Life is rough!

[Full disclosure: I've always enjoyed (and often found a way to get) a short afternoon nap and I feel like I operate best with one, so it's probably best for everyone that I get one when I need one. In fact, I've heard of companies/cultures where the afternoon nap is fully supported and it's structured into the day. Give me 10-15 minutes of sleep around 14:00 and I'm a new man.]

The idea of not having a 40-hour a week job used to scare me. I tried it in NYC when I had no idea where to begin. Now I've fallen into this teaching/training thing, which is certainly not 40-hours a week. And there are some other things I'd like to try to do. It's really opened up my options. Yes, Fred has a stable job and that's a huge safety net, but I feel like I can finally try something I've wanted to try for a while.

At the end of the day today, I got done what needed to get done. Maybe I was enjoying myself - no harm in that. And it takes time to do stuff. I think I just need to get up earlier.

Weather Update: I actually went to my class today not wearing gloves - on purpose. It turned out that I needed them, but it was do-able without them. I'll say it again - Spring is almost here.

My Afternoon Off

As I wrote the other day, I had coffee (and then a meal and then sake) with an ex-student of mine, Marco. I was just expecting coffee - and a 'gift' that he said he had ordered - and then to be on my way. When he said he had a gift that he had ordered, I thought, Oh no. Please let it be good. (I usually say that with gifts, don't I? Look back at me talking about our wedding gifts.) I thought he might have ordered yarn. It was a stretch, knowing him, but I couldn't think of what else he would have to order.

First off, he brought out some chocolate. Chocolate is good for all occasions - and this is really good chocolate. It's Lindt. Then he brought out the pièce de résistance (pardon my French), which was the Special 30th Anniversary Edition of School House Rock! (The exclamation mark is in the title, but I was really excited.) It's got tons of extras. And besides Grammar Rock, it's got Science Rock and America Rock. (And that's not all!) It's wonderful. Fred and I watched several of them the night I brought it home. He was quite engaged. I'll enjoy this for years to come.
That's the thing about Marco. I suggested School House Rock! to explain parts of speech and and he downloaded several to his iPhone. He knew I like it and he understood the place that it has in my heart. And he remembered it when shopping for a gift - which most of my students don't usually bother with, by the way. He also had the wherewithal to Google me and found the bloge. I will say that he didn't give the knitting the respect it's due, but I forgave him.

Anyway, after we had coffee, we walked around the Center, in the Red Light District, since we were planning on eating Asian food and (what passes for) Chinatown is right there. He showed me this:
I may have seen it before, but if I have, I can't remember it. He said it was the kleinste something...steeg? The smallest or narrowest alleyway in Amsterdam. It looks a little foreboding in this shot, but it's not that bad. It leads to some windows (the ones with the red lights). As I snapped a couple of photos of the opening, the guys coming out of the alley didn't look thrilled.

The alley is much less scary than it looks and quickly empties out into a wider street where the women in the windows are so friendly. They all smile and wink - but they don't wear much clothing.

The afternoon was a nice surprise. I really did expect just coffee. Instead, we walked, I snapped some pictures, we talked a lot and we ate dinner - going Dutch. How appropriate is that?

Thanks, Marco.

Working for the Man

Coming home tonight, I heard a story on NPR (from yesterday) about job fairs in the US and how jobs that aren't normally in demand are being mobbed with applicants. The specific job they were talking about was something at an animal shelter, something that entailed scooping poop. The administrator they interviewed said that most of the applicants had college degrees, a lot of them had masters degrees and there was even a guy with a law degree. Granted, it was in a small town somewhere in the Midwest (Michigan?), but geez! There must not be any jobs.

I've been in that position a couple of times. The last job I had in NYC was as a temp secretary. (Look for my new novel I Was a Male Temp Secretary in book stores soon.) Then when I got my working papers here, I took a job as a personal assistant. (I kept a separate blog for that one that started the moment I walked in the door to right when I left. It would make a fairly interesting book if it wasn't such a depressing story.)

I've had two networking meetings this week. It's amazingly helpful to talk about possibilities with unconcerned third parties. I came away with lots of new ideas both times. I've got this new freelancing status, so my opportunities have just opened up.

Years ago, when I went to the many many get-a-job workshops and seminars that I attended after leaving my art therapy job, I heard people talk about making the work you want to do. That didn't make any sense. I felt pressure to pay the rent, which sort of stifled any creativity I had regarding thinking outside the box - or whatever cliché you want to use. Now I have a job that gives me a regular, if not giant, paycheck, and I have another job that is bringing in a little bacon, though less lately. The rent situation is also a little (read: completely) different. I feel more possibilities than I ever have in terms of getting additional work, so my mind is ready.

When I asked his opinion on getting work in "this economy," one of the people I talked to said, "Oh, there's always money to be found." I like hearing that. Of course he later suggested that I quit both jobs and work solely on finding this other work. "You know, make it real sink or swim situation!" Yeah...take what you want and leave the rest. I left that one.

I think I could scoop poop if I had to. I could even work as a PA for a crazy Polish guy, an snippy British guy and a blond American woman (I'm just pulling those out of the air) if I had to. But I think it's time for something that I'll enjoy doing, something more along the lines of what I'm doing now.

Start the Spring Vacation Week

Today was the last day of school before the spring vacation - lente vakantie, they call it My students were sort of restless the whole day. They wanted to get out of class early and they had a rough time paying attention. Fortunately, I had some lighter activities planned for today. Quick grammar lessons and some speaking exercises.

When I asked them what they were going to do with their week off, I got the basics: sleep, go out, see my friends. There were a few variations, but it was pretty much the same across the board. They were just glad that they were going to be out of school for a whole week.

I had actually forgotten that vacation week is next week, but I was happy to be reminded. When asked what I was planning on doing (fair question, right?) I said that I would do some writing. That got a few of them asking questions and I decided that it would be better if I kept it vague. I didn't say anything about knitting. I'm in the closet with the knitting, as far as school goes. (Kids can be so mean!)

One of my students is a Turkish girl. During a writing exercise a few weeks ago, she wrote that she would be going to Turkey during the vacation because to not go to visit her family would be disrespectful. I read that and thought, I'm so glad I never had that trip laid on me. There are whole groups of people here who spend all (or most) of their vacation time going back to where they came from. The most common are the Moroccans and the Turkish, but I know Americans who do that as well.

Part of the fun of living here is that Europe is really close. It's literally right outside my front door. So if we get a week of vacation, or if we want a week of sun, we can go somewhere within Europe and not deal with a flight across the Atlantic. And it always feels exotic because I'm so easy to please. I'd hate to feel like I had to go back to the states for every vacation, or even every year. A trip back to Texas is not a real vacation. It's a lot of work.

My family is not the closest-knit group of people. One of the benefits of that is that I've always been allowed the freedom to stay away - for years. I think the longest I've gone without a visit is three years. It would be nice to go back more often, but it's a long way to go to say hi...and then what? Most of my family have an unspoken disrespect of who I am and how I live my life. I don't want to spend vacation time dealing with that.

The downside, of course, is that I have seen my nephews and niece only a handful of times in their relatively short lives. I have written before about being Aunt Jenny on the Brady Bunch. I'm the mysterious world traveler who lives in Europe. I'll take it. It beats being the grumpy uncle who lives next door. (I'm just sayin'.) And it would be great to see Kathy more often. We're close even if I'm a little more distant with the others. And my I speak to my mother every week.

Of course, we're not going to Warsaw or London this week. I'll just have a couple of days off. I'll do some writing - on the blog as well as on another idea I'm working on - and I'll knit. And tomorrow is some big "hand workers" thing in Zwolle. It's not all knitting. In fact, I've heard that it's heavy on the quilting, but it'll be an interesting day and there will be lots to look at. It's like a big crafting fair, I think. I'm actually not sure about what it is. Some of the knitting girls suggested we go and I said, "Sure!" And then Fred and I have a ballet tomorrow evening.

It should be a great start to a vacation week.

By the way, that pink tree is SO not what the weather looks like lately. That tree is completely bare right now. I just needed some color. It's totally gray here.

Mental Health Day

Back when I worked in a hospital and had a good union job, I would occasionally find myself looking like this. (See photo) I would call in "sick" because I just couldn't take going to work. Most of the time these days were planned. I knew that there was coverage and that I wouldn't be missed that much. And I knew that a day off would do me a world of good. I called them "mental health days," and while my clinical supervisor didn't agree that sick days should be used that way, I did. And since it was left up to me to decide what "sick" meant (sick...of working), her opinion didn't keep me from using them like that.

As I said, it was a union job. We had 20 vacation days, 8 national holidays, 12 sick days and 4 personal days. If you're about to do the math, I'll just tell you. That's 44 days off a year, not counting weekends. It was a good job in terms of vacation days. Yes, the work drove me crazy, but there was the relieve valve of time off that made it do-able. (Other than that how did you enjoy Dallas, Mrs. Kennedy?)

This morning I woke up and seriously considered taking a mental health day. I have two jobs. One of them pays only if you work (imagine!) and one of them is salaried. Obviously, it only pays to take a mental health day with the latter.

Work on Friday - as I wrote on Friday - took it out of me. The students were like a bunch of wild monkeys and due to a miscommunication, my already-long day was extended by an hour and a half, and I found out as I thought the day was over and I was putting my coat on.

I sat on the couch this morning and seriously considered calling in sick, planning out my day and deciding what I would do with a whole free day. When I had the perfect plan, I decided that I would go to work. That's just how my mind works. I don't work well with being guilted into anything. And in this case, it wouldn't have done much to try to impress on me that the students would miss something if I wasn't there. What I needed was the choice. If I know I have the choice, I'll generally do what I have to do. I just don't want to do something and feel like I have to do.

In the end, work was fine today. I decided to follow the path of least resistance and do what I needed to do without forcing things along. I have three groups of students. Young, not-so-young, and a little bit older. The young students were cooperative, the not-so-young students told me after the lesson that it was a really good lesson, and the students who are a little bit older said before class that they appreciate me and that they are glad I work there.

My mother is fond of saying, "My mother and dad would be so proud to know that you're a teacher." That makes me smile. They were teachers a long time ago in a land far far away - Texas.

It was such a relief today when I left work not feeling like I'd been put through the ringer. Yes, that's a very low bar, but for today, that was enough.

No...Just Tired

A line keeps going through my head. It's a question: "Is it a good tired?" At some point in my life, I got that as a response a lot when I told someone I was tired. The insinuation is that there's regular tired and a tired that you get from putting in a good, honest days work. The question feels very Texan, at least very Southern. It doesn't feel like a regular NYC thing that I would hear.

I feel like I was put through the ringer today. I'm just plain old tired and glad it's over. Work totally took it out of me.

All I want to do is knit a couple of swatches and watch a stupid movie on television. Speed is on Dutch TV. Fred said, "It's such a good movie except for Kianu Reeves."

I said, "I know, right?"

Schoolhouse Rock

During the course of my work, I teach grammar. I find grammar sort of fascinating, so it's fun for me. But it's not fascinating to everyone, so I have to do it in bits and find different ways to offer it up.

One thing that is sort of difficult for me to understand is that people don't have a basic understanding of what some parts of speech are - like a noun. What is a noun? I find it quite interesting - a noun is a person, place or thing. I usually sing it when I say it to my students. I almost can't help it.

When I was growing up, the cartoons on Saturday morning were interspersed with Grammar Rock (and, of course, lots of commercials for sugary cereals). One of my favorites was the one about the noun. There's also one about the verb, the adjective, the adverb, conjunctions and interjections. They are cartoons with people singing about what these parts of speech do. They're all about three minutes long and well worth checking out on YouTube. (This is only new information if you were raised outside of the US in the Seventies - or if you were in the the US in the Seventies, but were under a rock.)

What I would really love to do is have my students watch the cartoons several times. But even in the one about the noun, they sing pretty fast, so I don't think it would work for most of my students. Maybe if I put them all in a beanbag chair wearing their pajamas and eating a pop tart it would work. But my love and respect for them might have to do - in a large part - with nostalgia. Still, I've been watching them to get inspired about how to explain them to my students. (Sort of strange to have to do that when it's basically the same in Dutch, but I'm finding that people really don't know the ins and outs of the language they speak every day.)

This series is so amazingly cool. They also have the multiplication tables (here's three and eight) and bits about the history of the USA - like how a bill becomes a law. And there's science - like electricity and Interplanet Janet, which tells all about the planets. I lost an entire evening on YouTube. There's lots there - and lots to learn.

The photo above was an old house in Cambodia that was being used as a school by some monks. We went in and I read some stuff off the board so they could hear a native speaker. It was one of my favorite days. It was just as exotic and cool as you might imagine.

Blink

When I was a therapist, part of my job was doing "intakes" on patients before they were admitted into the program. Patients met with the psychologist and a drug counselor, and then with either the dance therapist or me, the art therapist. My assessment usually took about a half an hour. I had them fill out a form, draw, replicate a tile thing and talk. My job was to assess them and give my opinion of their willingness to participate in treatment, their thought process as evidenced by how they manipulated art materials and their cooperativeness.

After a while, I could generally tell what they were going to be like when they walked into my office. The way they waited or didn't. The way they took the cue and sat in the chair I had pulled out for them. How they responded to art materials. I knew what they were about pretty quickly, but it was usually interesting to talk to them and watch them draw or put the tile thing together or talk about how childish they felt being made to draw.

It's totally the idea behind Blink, a book by Malcolm Gladwell. The idea of the book is that we form an opinion of just about anything before we even realize that we've formed an opinion. I recommend the book. The opening chapter is a little tedious, but the book as a whole is really great. Listen to it if you can. He's a good reader.

These days, I'm getting intake work at my teaching job. My supervisor (for lack of a better word) is out of town and I've been given the opportunity to do intakes - and chalk up some hours. It's different in that these people aren't coming to our place of business because they have a major mental illness and they aren't doing anything with art materials, but other than that, the process is pretty much the same.

People are fascinating. And their ability - or inability - to speak English is fascinating as well. Some people are clearly nervous and some people treat me like the next thing in a long line of things they have to get done that day. Having taught many classes, I feel like I know the right questions to ask. It's mostly about getting them to talk. I ask about their job. I ask about their education. My favorite new thing is to ask them to tell me how to get from where we're sitting to their office or the front door. You'd be surprised. It's just talking to them for half an hour and then writing up a summary of who they are, why their taking English classes and what they should focus on.

My father has the ability to talk to anyone about anything. I once read a book by Larry King about how to talk to anyone about anything. It's mostly about getting them to talk. My father talks a lot, but he always enjoys a good story. Mostly he likes a good story because he knows he'll enjoy re-telling the good story.

People are pretty amazing. They all have a different story. Their ambitions aren't always what I expect. They don't always respond to my joke (even the gems). And their English level is sometimes way above or below what I initially thought it was. Some people explain how they've had several English classes through their lifetime, but still struggle with it.

People are generally on their good behavior when I do the assessment. I like that. This is one of those jobs I've had where people are nice to me 99.5% of the time. That makes up for the few things about this job that are not fabulous.

Life at Zero

Yesterday I listened to an episode of This American Life entitled Testosterone. One of the segments was called "Life at Zero." It was about this guy whose body, due to a medical condition, quit producing testosterone. The story is pretty good, and I encourage everyone to go there now and listen to the episode - but read this post first. There's also an interview with a female-to-male "person of transgender experience" (i.e. a male trannie). And a woman talking to her fifteen-year-old son about dating and girls and teenage stuff. But my point is...

The title, "Life at Zero" reminded me of a student of mine. My student, Maria, moved here four weeks ago when her husband was transferred to Amsterdam to work at a very Dutch company. The one "friend" she has is the wife of a colleague of her husband, and they're not even that close. She had friends in from her home town last week, but that's always just a reprieve from the solitude.

Moving to a new country where you don't speak the language could probably always be the stuff of a story entitled "Life at Zero." As I talk to her, it takes me back to moving here and not knowing anyone and only knowing a smattering of Dutch. She speaks no Dutch and only a little English. Geez. I can't imagine having had it that bad.

It's such a strange experience. No friends, no job, no connections. It's just you and your partner and your wits. What do you do with your day? These days I can always find something do to. I have the Internet and I have things I'm preparing for. I have my choir, my knitting group and my writers group. But when I first got here, we didn't even have an Internet connection at home and I wasn't involved in anything. You can only walk around a city and shop for so long before you just need to talk to someone, tell them about your day.

Fortunately, Maria immediately signed up for English classes. When she walks in, all the women in the office say, "Hi, Maria. How are you?" And she does her best to talk about what's going on for a few minutes until we go into a room and have a lesson for two and a half hours. It's an incredibly trying lesson for me. She looks up words in her little dictionary and I try to explain things I've mistakenly said like, "These exercises give you a little more wiggle room. There's not just one right answer...What does wiggle room mean? Oh."

It's also, at this point, sometimes explaining things like not pronouncing the 'w' in answer and the 't' in listen. But my point is that while it's a tiring lesson, sometimes doling out one word at a time, or writing what I'm trying to say on the board, I know it's really important for her to have someone to talk to. The therapist in me comes out. She's cute as a button and always has a story about trying to get something done, like talking to a person in a shop and trying to find dish washing liquid (because the word for that here is afwasmiddel) by saying, "Soap to wash the plates." She's getting the job done.

It's such an incredibly lonely time. While you don't have "zero" exactly (a good partner counts for a lot in these situations - and it's tiring for them), you have almost zero. You're completely dependant on yourself for getting things done throughout the day.

Thank God for my choir and for my volunteer work that I got involved in very soon after my arrival. It saved my sanity - and Fred's. Maria and I are going to look for some volunteer work for her. I'm going to appeal to the hearts of these volunteer coordinators and find her somewhere where she can walk in once a week and have a place and everyone will say, "Hi, Maria. How are you?" And then she'll feel at home here in this strange and wonderful country.

Work, Knit, Vote

Last Monday morning I had a dream. I was a student in school, probably college, and I had just had a two week break. Classes were starting the next day and I had not prepared for any of my classes. I was exhausted. I was bemoaning the start up of classes and I was desperately trying to find a room I could go in and cry for a bit to release my frustration. That feeling of starting to cry was right in my throat as I unsuccessfully searched for a room. Then I woke up and it was time to get out of bed. Thus, my work week had begun.

I guess I was a little anxious about work starting up again, huh? I hadn't really done much preparation and I hadn't been that interested in doing much more than knitting and reading. I had ten lessons to do this week plus an intake interview this morning, so I had a lot of my plate.

Now it's Friday afternoon and everything is done. It went well. I had the last lesson with one of my favorites this week. He was someone I really looked forward to seeing each week. I'll miss seeing him. I also had a pack of lawyers who always make me a little nervous (their expectations and demands are really high) and I had a guy who wanted to do negotiation skills, which I felt unprepared for. My intake went well. It was my first. It was a such a week. But it was probably one of my best weeks yet. I'm glad it's over.


I've been knitting on my gloves. Again, I have a picture of the gloves as they were, not as they are. They look so nice. This wool is wonderful. If you haven't used it, get some and do something with it. I've started on the fingers. I've got four done. On double points, they took an hour each. With two circulars, they are more along the lines of half an hour. then there's a little repair work and weaving in of ends that has to be done. Good work to do in front of the television.

I'm rewriting the pattern, not completely, but I added some stitches and the pattern is written for double pointed needles. I want to have it for when I do these again. I sat for twenty minutes yesterday figuring out what the stitch count is for each finger. It was a mind bender, but I did it. It's going well.

Fridays are turning out to be a day on which I am really exhausted. I've been getting up early every day (6:00) to prepare. I like being up early, but it just chips away at my sleep and I am sleep deprived by Friday. On a late Friday morning when I have nothing scheduled, all I want to do is nap, so I do. I woke up at 12:15 after sleeping for a half an hour and sprang to my feet trying to figure out what day it was and whose lesson I was late for.

I got my absentee ballot on Monday, filled it out and sent it off. After hearing Rachel Maddow say that in a primary you should vote your heart, and after listening to an interview with Dennis Kucinich, I filled in the dot next to his name and sent out the form. I know he won't win, but what a world it would be if he would - or even if he could. Of course I'll vote for Clinton or Obama, or even Edwards, when the time comes. I'm leaning towards Obama. His concession speech for New Hampshire gave me chills. "Yes we can."

I'm enjoying my job, but it's much more exhausting than I thought it would be. I didn't think there would be this constant preparation. Of course it will even out after I have a few more months of these lessons under my belt and I have more to draw on, but for now, it's exhausting.

Now it's the weekend. I'll enjoy the time off.