handwritten on March 5, 2019
Last night, I happened to be at school until 7:45 PM trying to plan for a substitute teacher. For those of you in the field of education, you understand my pain. Teaching seems to be one of the few professions where planning a whole day down to the very minute is necessary when absent. Unlike other occupations, we cannot disappear without first planning our day for our children. And let me tell you, though a teacher of four years, this process never gets easier. In my heart, I cannot leave unworthy plans for my students for one day. Because though it is just one day, it is still their day and their time and their hearts that should be growing even when I am not present. Call me crazy-but...
handwritten on March 3, 2019
I have to say, sometimes pretend is just as good as the real thing. As a kid, I was always into pretend. My brother and myself used to spend hours in my grandparent's house in Queen's New York making paper food and setting up a restaurant in the "secret back porch." We baked cookies, flipped burgers, made eggs and pasta and sausage. We made authentic food, we watched the stove so it didn't burn and often times we had customers who came to eat as well. We truly thought we were part of a five star restaurant in that very cold, but also cozy back porch. But those were authentic moments. Pretend was the real thing. Marbles stood for beverage liquids and the pink stripes on the bacon looked just...
handwritten on March 2, 2019
You know, it could just be my extended family, but my mom's side of the family has always seen the power and the whimsy in reminiscing about the "Good Ole' Days." My grandfather in particular has told so many stories over the years about his Notre Dame Football days down to the reinactment of the speeches his coach used to give, his buddies and other stories in between. And I used to think to myself: How does he remember all of those details? But now I think to myself-If those were his most whimsical moments, how could he possibly forget them?
Some may see reminiscing as a weakness or just a sign that you are living or maybe even stuck in the past. However, I have never seen these stories...
handwritten on March 1, 2019
This fine evening, I had the pleasure of going to my first ever comedy club performance with a friend visiting from Seattle, my brother and his fiance. My brother has the tendency of liking to walk to various destinations. He also tends to widely underestimate the distance in which one has to travel by foot. Flashback to Denver Colorado, he had the entire family walking 45 minutes to get to a particular destination. It's safe to say, we saw the whole city that day. After walking all the way down the hill to the restaurant, he realized, there would not be enough time to walk all the way up the hill to grab our car and thus began our Uber adventure.
I have to say, any time I have been in an...
handwritten on February 28, 2019
This evening I had the pleasure of meeting some teachers after school for dinner and then I headed over to our fifth grade and middle school conjoined band concert. I admittingly had not sipped but rather gulped two large cups of coffee before the concert began at 7 P.M. I always attend the band concerts at our school for two reasons: I am great friends with the band director (I think he does the most beautiful job with his students) and I do feel that the teachers who teach the arts are not always supported as they should be. Would it not be nice if every teacher from our school was required to attend the concerts in the evenings? Imagine how our students would respond to that as well.
As...
