Question

So Thanksgiving dinner did not include the usual teacher bashing relatives.  My mother finally came to her senses on that one.  My sister taught up until giving birth in 2010.  So, she had to ask that question:

"What is all the new stuff you have to do?"

She wanted to hear it from a teacher, not an administrator like her husband.  So I told her.  Everything.  Afterwards, she said that a therapist she knows had said that she has a number of teachers as patients and most of them are in tears a lot.  This helped my sister understand why.  And no, she will never go back to teaching.

On the bright side, I managed to get the whole house decorated in two days.  The tree will go up tomorrow.  I do not have hubby help me other than bringing boxes up and down.  He tends to break things.  I have also relaxed a wee bit and have been reading like a beast.  I got through a couple of magazines in a couple of days - Yes!, The Nation, Against the Current - and am slogging my way through the book "A Socialist Tradition".  This one is a heavy duty history book written by a man who is not a Socialist.  It is really just so packed with information I need to take it one chapter at a time.

Tomorrow I drop off a photo to a gallery in Brooklyn. The trip is so laborious, I just wish I could teleport myself there.

Portrait Shoots and Homework

So the Photo I classes continued their in school studio portrait shoots today.  I was having so much fun just walking around the rooms watching them doing their stuff.  I also took some pictures to show the kids in process at the art show.  Too many people - kids and teachers - have no idea that we have a darkroom and that the students put an amazing amount of effort in to their work.

But...

Foundations students are to have e-mailed me a head shot by tomorrow morning before school.  As of right now, that grand total of images is two.  Hubby said I was checking my e-mail too early.  This was after our 6.00 pm dinner.  What the heck ever happened to doing homework as soon as you got home to then have the rest of the evening for fun and reading?  Am I too corny and old?

Vinyl!

Yesterday we went to the annual WFMU record fair.  I was super excited since last year's fair was cancelled due to Sandy issues.  This year, they made it later in November.  I was all set with my shopping bag and cash.  I managed to get a slew of nice CD's and a couple of pieces of vinyl.  I also bought a few cool band pins.  The vendors were actually really nice this year.  The Brit selling the pins was super nice.  The vendor I bought a super 7 inch from was so cool to talk to.   There was only one smelly person (male record collectors tend to spend more time with their records than on hygiene) and no one was outright rude.  All in all, a pleasant experience.

Afterwards, we went to a political bookstore that has been having financial troubles.  We bought some fine reading and snickered with the shop lady about the prior customer.  He was talking about not wanting to be bitten by a dead person.  He works in a hospital.  We were baffled.  I guess the zombie apocalypse might actually be coming.

Operation Flea Control continues at Casa Vasa.  Hubby takes no part in this, of course - unless you count his fretting over my "hurting" her.  Me hurting her?  I am the one that bleeds after a combing session.  Sigh.  On the bright side, Millie seems to have very few fleas and I have not been bitten by a flea in a week and two days.

I so wanted to go in the garden and pull up some of the dead tomato plants, check on the beets & fennel and cut the calendula flowers.  However, today's high was 29 degrees.  Needless to say, I spent the day reading...  At least we are getting winter weather before Thanksgiving.  It always seems somewhat wrong if it is warm at this time of year.  I don't like eating tofurkey and mashed potatoes in warm weather.

Generations I can't remember what number...

I am excited to have a photo going into the bi-annual show at the A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn.  I love this show because the proceeds from the sale of work helps out a select charity each exhibition year.  It is also made up completely of women artists.  At the show four years ago, my sculptural work was hanging a couple of feet from a work by Yoko Ono.  Not bad, I guess....

This is a huge deal for me because I haven't had a lot of time for my art lately.  Hubby and I have been doing political work in our town - volunteering for candidates and such.  And I have been doing a ton of reading up on education issues.  That takes up a lot.  I joined a couple online groups that enable me to know what is going on in other states.  Whoa...  I know where I would never want to teach, that's for sure.

Today I had a former student come to visit for portfolio advice.  Which leads me to a problem I have had with photo for quite some time.  The student have deep, introspective thoughts (for the most part) but have trouble translating that to the images they shoot.  I was quite disappointed with the visual results of Photo II's Analysis of Beauty project.  They were so blah.  And I told them that.  So I went in a totally different direction for the Analysis of Ugly introduction today.  I had them read something I received in my weekly educator's study guide from The Nation.  It was an article on farm workers and was published in 1981.  It covered the poisons in the pesticides and the issue of child labor.  Then we looked at images from Jacob Riis' How the Other Half Lives from the late 1800's and Lewis Hines' work form the early 20th century.  One girl said this was like a history class.  Hooray!!!  That's what I was getting at.  I wanted them to know the history behind these harrowing images of child labor, inner city ghettos, brutalized farm workers, etc..  I thought that if they thought about the potential ugly side of the things they find beautiful, that would be one creative step overcome.  Then we talked about how other factors can take the beauty out of things.  I ended with the fact that child labor still exists, nature is still being ruined, and left them to ponder....

They had to read a lot, they did not like it, and I am proud of the job I did.  Let's see how tomorrow goes...

More Stress

Who needs a calendar to know when it is a full moon when I have the kind of commute I have?  As if work isn't completely stressful enough.

I have two former students coming in this week after school.  They want to meet because of stress regarding their majors.  They are coming on separate days.  I have to figure out how to calm them down.  They are going through college crises.  My attitude is, the traditional "you'll definitely get a job out of college" majors aren't getting jobs anyway, so major in something you love and hopefully that passion and enthusiasm will help you get meaningful work.  Also, the transition from high school to college is very hard for some.  I have to smooth that out...

Budget due this week.  For next year.  We just started the second marking period.  At least I make fewer mistakes as the years pass.  It was hard when I never knew how many classes I would have.  Now I know there will be eight.  Phew.  But we still run out of something crucial - film or paper.  It's like trying to make up your Christmas list for when you are 17 when you are not yet 5.  How the heck can we plan that far in advance?  But this is how all the schools do it.  And not many other subject teachers understand other than P.E., music and Home Ec..  I saw a P.E. teacher with the same bleary eyed look and knew.... budget stress.

And this weekend was Operation Flea Control at home.  Millie still has fleas.  Since the end of August.  I have been bitten more times than I can count.  Hubby, no bites.  I have tasty blood.  So we have been washing everything, cleaning (and we are already clean freaks), spreading the powder, you name it.  Due to the fact that this is a result of my babysitting my parents' cats, they owe me big time.  This year, when I tell them I want no Christmas gifts, just donations to my favourite charities, they will have to listen.  Heck, I am the only one who takes care of their persnickety cats.  I think I have an edge here.

Election

Election on Tuesday.


Very stressed.....



My art is falling by the wayside.  I have missed some submission deadlines.  My hair is going grey.