Life

my year is going fine. I would say great, but it just is not great...I just wish people would stop asking me "How is it going?" It is just fine... This is not my dream job, most of the time I am a glorified baby sitter. Many of the classes I support really don't need my support very often. Sometime it allows the teacher to leave the room or one of the kids to go use a computer lab because I, as an adult can go with them, but really I feel pretty useless most of the time.

I don't mind helping people who want to be helped, but I would rather not force learning on people who do not want to learn. I did have a pretty good day today. Justin (an almost non verbal young man) and I did a cooking demo for his final. I talked him into a fairly simple recipe (Banana sour cream pancakes) we had to research a chef and then do one of their recipes in front of the class.

He and I researched the chef, Ina Garten, and today gave the presentation. I made the recipe over the weekend to discover any bugs so was pretty prepared. We measured out all the ingredients and while I read the recipe Justin dumped things in and mixed. He did all the actual measuring before hand though and even zested the lemon and cut the bananas.

When it came time to read the biography I whispered to him "OK you read the first paragraph and I will read the next" :) I wasn't really certain what he would do, but he said "Ok" and just started reading. He was pretty quiet, but got most of the words right. He sort of missed on the city and state, but was so quiet that no-one noticed. I read the next one and he read the next one. Then I read a few and left him to read the list of her books. It worked out pretty well and the kids were amazed that he spoke. So was the teacher. I guess I get some props for that. Also the kids loved the pancakes... of course the other group made marinated goose steaks, which did not go over too well with the crowd.

Maddie stopped by for about 10 minutes on Sunday afternoon to pick up some costume books and stuff on her way back from Geek Kon 2009 in Madison. I made waffle cookies (I got the recipe from someone in the bookshelf) I am going to try to drive up to RF this Friday to see Urinetown. Puck is busy so I will have to go alone if I can't find someone to go with me, but I am hoping to get a chance to visit with Maddie for a little bit longer and find out how school is really going LOL

ETSY sales have been picking up so I really need to start weaving ... I am just so tired when I get home.

Yami is failing again and seems to be very needy. He absolutely hates the injections of fluids though and it is hard to torture him with that just to save his life. Maddie said he looked sad, and I guess that about sums it up. I haven't seen him eat anything for a day, but I have not been home all day either so am not certain. Although he has now taken to peeing on the carpet in our bedroom he also has been caught twice peeing in the toilet. I really cannot invite anyone over until we get through this crisis and can clean my carpets thoroughly.

well that is about it. Yippee it is a three day week and Monday is over

Deep Thoughts

I have had a rather normal week. Walked to school did my job, some days went better than others, but all in all it was ok. We had a big pot luck and I brought Fritos because that is easy to carry. There was way too much food of course, but it was a lovely lunch.

One Wednesday I got an e-mail from one of my friends at the middle school who was getting together a bunch of girls for pizza and pictionary. Frankly it was the pictionary that pushed me over the edge of not going. I love games and never get to play. I am by nature rather a hermit and it is difficult to pry me out of my shell.

We had a great time,we were terrible at pictionary, but then we played catch phrase and now I want one for Christmas. That was really fun and we had loads of laughs... that is something I can always use.

We recently refinanced the house. That was scary, but we have finally paid off a butt load of credit card debt and that makes me feel a little more flush. We will never have the house paid off, but we now have a fixed interest rate for 10 years. We shall see what life holds then. Maybe the market will be back up.

Yesterday I had to get cat food so I drove to Janesville. I looked at the kitties at Mounds again like I always do and there was a beautiful buff colored male named Tarzan that has caught my eye a couple times now. If I didn't already have two cats and one of them ill I probably would be taking Tarzan home. He is fat and they said he was quite a lap cat. That got me to thinking about my friend Jean whose husband just passed away. The last time I talked with her she had mentioned really wanting a cat. We both thought it was pretty soon to be getting an animal, but I know how comforting it is to just have your hand on a purring cat or a softly breathing dog who is warming your lap or toes.

Anyhow I went to Goodwill of course and found some things for Maddie and a food processor which was great since Puck broke ours (well he was using it at the time it broke anyhow) Then I went to target with the intent of buying one of those memory mattresses, but they were a little too expensive. I will have to save that purchase for another time. I got to thinking more about Jean so I bought a couple pints of Hagen Das coffee ice cream and headed over to her house. I didn't think she was home, but there she was. I told her to grab two spoons and she laughed. She told me she has not been eating and is not feeling well. Well we later laughed about the both of us scarfing down all that icecream. One of the first things she talked about was getting some cat books from the library so I brought up Tarzan. I think she is ready for a friend at home and something to take care of and talk to. We shall see what comes of this, but ice cream was a good idea yesterday.

What started this blog entry was Spidey's blog entry about knowing all of you for so long and that it was comforting knowing that people would worry if you didn't show up. I had been listening to a show on public radio in the car while I was driving around about a kid who went off to the peace corp and died in a freak accident. His mother told how angry with God she was and how horrible the whole thing was and then two years later around the time he was to have come home they got a letter from him. He apparently had signed up on some online site to have a future letter sent to him in two years. They dutifully sent the letter, which his roommate and friend sent on to his parents. It was a weird and wonderful letter and gave them great comfort.

Another part of the show talked about the popularity of another kind of online site where you give them all your personal information to be doled out at the time of your death. They send you e-mails on a regular basis and if you do not respond the send out all this stuff to the people you listed...weird huh? The whole show was very interesting... they also talked about saving your intellect on a hard drive of some kind (not possible at this time) it was very thought provoking

I finished my Mantis

This is the weaving drawing I have been laboring over in Art class. This first black and white image is the rough draft. First thing is to draw the face or whatever. Next you draw contour lines over your drawing following the hills and valleys of the shapes of the face you are trying to portray. Once you have all those done you go back and erase lines to create the "woven effect" That is the tricky part. Keeping all those dang lines straight was amazingly difficult.

Once the lines are placed you trace using a light board onto a good piece of paper. The reason for not using the good piece of paper becomes pretty obvious once you have erased for the fiftieth time. You then fill in all the negative space using an ink pen. All the lines get outlined in pen as well. The last step is to shadow each of the woven cross pieces to give dimension.






This is the finished head and it turned out rather well if I do say so myself. I tried to outfox myself a little and did some weird weavings around the head. I also ran into a small spot where my end dropped off into nowhere so I sort of folded it back on itself.
















This is detail of the piece where you can see more of the way it was done. I have to say actually going through the whole process definitely gave me a better appreciation for the work the kids did and how quickly they got theirs done. Of course I started a couple weeks late and mine was more intricate than most. All in all it was fun and I rather like the result.

The actual piece is on a 16 x 26 inch piece of paper so is rather large. I might just have to frame it :)

Too much sadness

I have been overwhelmed with events around me of late. The latest one has affected me personally the most. My good friend Jean, who was the library aid when I worked in the computer lab at the middle school lost her husband on Tuesday. It always sounds a little odd to say one has lost a person when they have died, but I am certain that she is feeling very lost without him or at least she certainly will once the shock of living alone becomes real.

Jean retired almost 5 years ago along with my friend Donna. They are best friends and I am peripherally another of their best friends. When we do see each other we laugh and love each others company.

Anyhow Jean's husband was 76 and rather ill. He had some kind of rash that they were trying to figure out and were giving him all sorts of medication. Some of that was Steroids which made him bloated and uncomfortable. Apparently on Tuesday He called to Jean telling her that he could not breath. She found him struggling for breath in bed and called a neighbor who knew cpr for help (they live quite a ways out of town) Then she called 911. The friend worked on him, but he never regained consciousness. When I die I would like to go like that.. quickly and with the people I love around me. I tried to call her that night, but only got the machine. I left her a message to let her know I loved her and was praying for her. I called our friend Donna the next night and she said Jean would probably enjoy a call. I did and we talked for about 45 minutes. By the end of our conversation she sounded good and relaxed again.

I am glad I could help a little. The funeral is tomorrow. It will be difficult. I guess I have reached an age. That makes me sad.

Last week the mother of another co-worker passed away and her substitutes father died as well. Another co-worker/friend's son crashed head long into another car and was injured, the other person was killed. The boy had spilled a soda and was grabbing for it when he drifted into the other lane. This has been very sad too.

All of it has begun to overwhelm me I think.

Well that is the sad part of the past two weeks. Today is homecoming. It is weird being at the high school for this event. They take it all so seriously. I never was a big sports fan so it all seems a bit much to me. The kids seem to enjoy themselves, but I will be ever so glad to be back in a schedule again. I am walking to school every day, but I come home starving so am not in any better shape for all my good intentions.

I am getting used to the routine of the high school, but have trouble with kids that do not want to do any work. That is frustrating. In the art class I support I am simply modeling appropriate behavior by doing one of the projects that the class did. I get out my pencils and get to work. I would not have thought it would have much of an impact, but interestingly enough once I began working on something so diligently and asking for opinions, some of the behavior of the rambunctious kids got a little better. I could feel more respect towards me as well. I hope I have enough time to finish the picture by the end of the semester. I might have bitten off more than I can chew :)

I would like to start welding in my welding class, but don't want to take any time from the students.

Foods is going ok but the kids need a great deal of help and I often find myself helping everyone in the room. The teacher seems to make many assumptions about what the kids should know.

wish me luck dealing with stuff