timna

tzav gius, the color of the walls, dreams

in that order?

almond joy received her first call (tzav gius) for the Israeli army. she should come to Beer-Sheva in May for medical exams. I think she's planning to ask for the deferment.

she also got the news that she didn't get into the other summer program. if this is the trial run, she'll be fine, I'll be chopped meat by the end of the college application process. it is interesting to watch how this whole process runs: asking teachers for recommendations, finding out about deadlines (and postal deadlines and web deadlines) and then waiting. meanwhile, she has wonderful other plans that include swimming and a 12 day trip east with youth in government. I think she was not disturbed, but here I am, hovering, wanting them to know what they're missing. it's going to be a long college application season.

wall colors: on kibbutz, Yaakov from Ofakim painted the apartments. we had two choices - white or crem (off-white). I couldn't wait to get to the shikuni-vatikim where I'd get to choose my own colors. that was where the grown-ups lived, the ones who didn't move up every 2 years or so. the ones who chose their own furniture, too. most of my friends got to those apartments (getting married and having kids fast-tracked the process). anyway, here I am choosing my own colors and I've painted ceilings of white and walls of, yup, crem. and thinking maybe this is the year that I will buy my first sofa. maybe for my 50th birthday? or not.

and I'm dreaming about the kibbutz all the time. I suspect that this new 6 inches of snow has something to do with that. I know people don't have to live in places where it snows.   

The Deep and Meaningful Winnie-the-Pooh Character Test

Your Score: Owl

You scored 15 Ego, 13 Anxiety, and 13 Agency!

"Correct me if I am wrong," he said, "but am I right in supposing that it is a very Blusterous day outside?"

"Very," said Piglet, who was quietly thawing his ears, and wishing that he was safely back in his own house.

"I thought so," said O-wl. "It was on just such a blusterous day as this that my Uncle Robert, a portrait of whom you see upon the wall on your right, Piglet, while returning in the late forenoon from a-- What's that?"

You scored as Owl!

ABOUT OWL: Owl is considered highly educated because he can spell his own name (WOL) and he can even spell Tuesday... although he doesn't always get it right. Owl is a good sort, really, although he can be a bit of a stuffed shirt, and he tends to overlook the smaller details in life - like the fact that his bellpull is actually someone's tail.

WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT YOU: You are confident and you feel capable of dealing with whatever life throws at you. You know that you can handle just about everything... mostly because you know how to delegate the job of actually handling things to the people around you. You aren't one of those Bisy Backsons, who rush around trying to do everything at once. You prefer to stay at home and reflect on life, rather than go out and live it.

Sometimes, you know, you need to stop waiting for things to come to you and go out and get them. You need to go enjoy the weather, smell the fresh air, and pay attention to the little people in your life. They may not be as great as you... but maybe they could use your help.

Link: The Deep and Meaningful Winnie-The-Pooh Character Test written by wolfcaroling on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test View My Profile(wolfcaroling)

Indeed, Winnie-the-Pooh will be one of the books in the summer online children's lit class so this does too have something to do with writing the class.

Thanks to Crunchy Granola for the fun.

another really good Thursday night class

even if they said that their conclusions include an urgent need to buy guns. yikes, what have I done?!

yes, we just finished Doris Lessing's Memoirs of a Survivor and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and we're moving on to Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis and Orhan Pamuk's Snow, and the outlook is pretty grim.

the group, however, is a delight. 13 students, about half of them finishing this semester. an honors section. 6-9pm and they get there early and leave late. next week we don't have class because there's a campus-wide meeting during the day (so why can't we have class, they asked? will we have it online if we don't get to meet?). and the week after we're going to a speaker (one of our authors!) so there's no class then either. in fact, because we'll meet once online during the time we're working on Snow, there are actually only 2 class meetings left. they were shocked. I was kind of surprised myself.

what a pleasure. but I'll have to think about those conclusions. English teacher instigates arms? literature at arms? have gun, will read?

moving right along

the first coat of the ceiling is done. easy peasy. why did I think this would be so hard? I am so relieved. I can do it, though Julie's idea about an Amish barn raising might be a better overall solution.

also catching up at school, conference stuff, buying tickets for June conferences (yes!), and elsewhere.

not sure what happened last week. the dr says it's probably arthritis, maybe a bit of carpel tunnel. mostly better now after 3 days of not scraping wallpaper.

emotional ceilings

I struggled this break with how much painting I can do. The scraping hurt my hands so much that I was waking up 2-4 times each night with nasty pains, the kind that opening and closing my hands a few times just made it worse. I finally remembered that at the beginning of the shoulder pain the doctor said to take something before bed, before it hurt, and that made all the difference. Here I was all smug and sure that I could take on the world: my last physical therapy for the shoulder was the 2nd day of wallpaper removal. She said she thought I was obviously finished with pt.

The ceilings seem to be more than I'm confident that I can do. Yesterday I gave in and said, ok, I won't do them. The carpeting seems too expensive. And so my goal of getting the living room/dining room to a state of quiet nice, seemed beyond my reach -- financially and/or physically. Usually if I can't afford something, and it's really important to me, I can do it myself. I don't like the dingy wall color and I hate holes in the plaster in the doorways. I know how to fix them. Suddenly I felt too out of shape and/or old to be attempting to fix this all on my own. Today I had help and it doesn't seem quite so impossible. Maybe I just need to ask a neighbor for a 8 foot ladder? Did I mention there's going to be a large gathering at Labor Day for my 50th birthday? This painting stuff is not the nesting before giving birth, no, not at all. It's more like getting the house ready to be nice for awhile, but maybe ready to sell when we're without kids.

And almond joy is getting ready too. An odd weekend here as she was grounded from driving and she was just with us. She read Hebrew with her dad and goofed around in the kitchen. She did more bathroom cleaning than she's done in a long time. She unpacked and alphbetized all of her college materials. yikes. We both read Ceremony for her AP lit class.

I also read The Book Thief and am in the middle of Eat, Pray, Love. Probably should have reread Persepolis since we're talking about it in class tomorrow. And Handmaid's Tale for Thursday.

taking off wallpaper, day 5, and it's snowing again

why does this still surprise me?

we should finish with the paper today. maybe with the glue tomorrow. lots of reaching up very high to get the tall wall. can't even contemplate painting yet. the ceiling? what was I thinking?

ben t. is still working hard. he's serious. he's getting paid about 1/3 of the minimum wage, but he's interested in rebuilding a Yu-gee-oh deck. haven't heard a word from his best friend who left 3 weeks ago with ben t's cards (they merged their decks to make a more formidable one).

almond joy is back from her 7 colleges in 3 states in 4 days tour. she wants an urban school with a real campus and no snow. she also wants a very specific major. it's exciting to see how she thinks.

so, I guess we're not having guests over tonight even though a good friend is in town from Israel. there is no place to sit in the living room and the dining room is full of dropcloths and ladders. and this is the end of the break.

cheers.

taking off wallpaper, day 3

this is getting to be a bit lengthy. I enjoy the feel of pulling gray/green flowery patterns off of the dining room wall. but I have no confidence that we will get it done. we're at the point where all it is is a big mess.

I don't like the yellow I chose in the kitchen and I'm hoping to have enough painting momentum to redo that too.

spring break is half over today.

teen driving

the fender-benders are going to break her bank account. she hit the car in the driveway as she was pulling out of the garage. damage to one car: mirror ($150), damage to the other car: dent + paint scrapes ($600!). since we pay gas and insurance, the deal was that she pays parking and any tickets or damage. that's more than she earned last summer.

ok, we're not really going to fix at the $600 rate when we can get it buffed and touched up to prevent the rust for $75. it's a 10-year-old car. but she's got to figure that had the car been someone else's, she'd be paying what the body shop called the "insurance estimate". we may even get away with epoxy since the mirror is still functioning (though we did order the replacement mirror since eventually it will fall off for real).

I think she should go back to getting on a bus in the morning. I don't mind her driving to events after school, swimming, evening things -- she seems more alert at those times. this is her second mirror in 6 months and both were before 7am. I think that taking the bus would reduce her risks significantly.

spring break here: almond joy is off to DC to see colleges with her cousin. ben t. and I are going to take down lots of wallpaper. I'm going to write one online course for summer. it's sunny and the snow is melting. could be good.

reading The Book Thief for book club tomorrow night. I can not get into it. yet.

sunny four hour drive home -- alphabetical music list

what a great day to drive home! not in too much of a hurry and open roads were soothing.

here's what I listened to  -- I don't usually have the MP3 player in the car, and I'm not even sure where all the music came from. some takes me back to a trip home with a single CD after interviewing at another school  (and not getting the job).  ironically a book came in the mail today with an article of mine in it -- and an article by the guy who did get that job!

All at Once / How to Save a Life - The Frey

Ammunition / The Beautiful Letdown - Switchfoot

An Angel Went Up in Flames / Brokeback Mountain - Gas Band

Angels and Girlfriends / The Battle for Everything - Five for Fighting

Be Here to Love / Feels Like Home - Norah Jones

Behind the Moon / Songs We Sing - Matt Costa

Blue Eyes / Garden State - Cary Brothers

Brokeback Mountain - Unknown

Butterfly's Day Out / Classic Yo-Yo Ma - Yo-Yo Ma

Clean Getaway / Lost John - Fats Kaplin

Closing Time / Closing Time - Tom Waits

Cold December / Songs We Sing -  Matt Costa

Come Sundown /  The Pilgrim - Rodney Crowell

Crazy / The Collection - Alanis Morisse

Creepin' In / Feels Like Home - Norah Jones

Danger / Sink or Swim  - The Waifs

Darby's Castle / The Pilgrim: A Celebration of Kris Kristofferson  - Russell Crowe

Dare You to Move / The Beautiful Letdown  - Switchfoot

Dead Wrong / How to Save a Life - The Frey

Disneyland / The Battle for Everything - Five for Fighting

Dixie Chicken / The Chse  - Garth Brooks

Don't Miss You at All / Feels Like Home - Norah Jones

Don't Panic / Garden State - Coldplay

Down at the Twist and Shout/ Party Doll  - Mary Chapin Carpenter

Dreamland/Party Doll - Mary Chapin Carpenter

Dying/The Battle for Everything - Five for Fighting

Everything/The Collection - Alanis Morisse

Face to Face/The Chase - Garth Brooks

enough already.

almond joy knows that she did not get into one of the two summer programs she applied to... another 2-3 weeks until she gets an answer from the other one. next week she's off to DC to see schools with a cousin who lives there.

too tired for this new week

damn I have no idea what to do for revolutionary food and the meeting is this afternoon.

but I am 1/2 caught up with grading. probably shouldn't have read Year of Wonders (Friday night) and half of March (Sat night) or I would be more caught up with grading. oh well. (People of the Book should be in ILL soon...).

only 2 more classes this week. not bad for Mon 10 am.

I'm getting a new notepad computer from school.

the weekend was peaceful. sometimes that's really an accomplishment.

suzuki graduation concert, wrestling banquet, boys' swim banquet (for almond joy as a manager), some cooking, some jacuzzi.

driving late today to take mom home. I'll be back tomorrow night. new wrestling season starts and someone needs a driver.

can't keep my eyes open. grading until late and waking before the alarm to finish the set.

maybe I'll get out the yoga mat and take a nap. even an hour of lightbox didn't wake me today.