Wildlife

It's not unusual to see deer on my commute to work, but this one made me look twice:

Like much of nature, it was difficult to capture the fleeting beauty, but I tried my best to snap a photo of the herd as I drove past:

Now We Are 35

My birthday weekend began with a trip to Alamosa with the speech team.  While spending 7 hours on the bus wasn't an ideal way to celebrate, we did kick some serious butt at the meet.  On top of 35 awards including 7 first places (out of the 9 events we competed in), Alamosa's coach decided to give out an award to the school with the most points overall.  We won it by a landslide, much to the delight of the students.

I got home a little after 11 PM Saturday night and crashed.  When I got up the next morning, I though I was going to be a little late for church but it turned out I was super-early for Stake Conference.

The afternoon was spent doing laundry, cooking meals for the week, and talking to friends and family members on the phone who called to wish me a happy birthday.  Rachel, Ben, and the boys descended on my house to bring gifts, dinner, and a birthday pie:

Yum!

They also brought chaos.  There's nothing like a couple of children to show you how incredibly not child-proof your house is.

It was really fun to see them all and celebrate.  Rachel got me a labelmaker (hurrah!) and made me a crocheted baby Groot for my desk at school (much to the delight of my students).  Ben got me a canvas print for my bathroom, which I love, and Jack made me some artwork for my fridge:

The "M" stamps are for "Manda", he explained.

After the Masons left I talked to Mom and Dad for a bit and opened their gifts.  In a revival of my childhood years in San Francisco, they got me some tap dance accessories, including a portable dance floor that Natasha immediately laid claim to:

As if that wasn't enough, Fara told me a few weeks ago that she was taking over birthday celebration plans.  All I had to do was give her a guest list and a couple of open dates, and she texted me back a bit later this cryptic message:  "We're picking you up at 6:00 PM on Monday."

I was ready and eager Monday evening to find out what they had in store.  I had no idea that my friends would find one of the best possible things to do on a Monday night.

Fara, Rachel, Tammy, Lisa, and Cindy surprised me with tickets to a quote-along viewing of The Princess Bride at the Alamo with a live screening of Cary Elwes reading from his new memoir before the film and a Q&A with him after the film.  Plus, the tickets came with a slew of bonus items:

• An inflatable sword to use during the fencing scenes (bonus points if you start out with it in your left hand), 
• Bubbles to blow when Buttercup jumps out the window, 
• A bell to ring whenever there's kissing (since it is a kissing book), 
• An Alamo-exclusive souvenir pint glass with art depicting the tumble down the mountain side, and 
• A signed copy of Elwes' new book.

It was ridiculously fun.  I've never seen it on the big screen (and, oh, the textiles!  I did not appreciate the use of trim in those costumes when I watched that movie as a youngster), and I loved seeing it in a room full of fans.  There were even people in costume.

Truly, my friends outdid themselves.  Fara told me her first suggestion to the group was that we all go paint vaginas on dinner plates a la Judy Chicago (an excellent example of why I like Fara so much), but "that idea flatlined."  I assured her that this was absolutely perfect.  It made my month that I got get together with such good friends to fan girl over Cary Elwes (and Mandy Patinkin and Wallace Shawn.  Yes, he's short, but he's a writer, an Oxford alum, and a Fulbright teacher so he also = HAWT.)

This pretty much sums up how I feel about the entire occasion:

For the First Time in Forever

During Check In for Speech class:


"Hi, I'm Waterhouse, and I'm super excited that we don't have a speech meet this weekend."

Gasps of (mostly) mock shock and horror from the students.

"But, Waterhouse!  Don't you love us?" they exclaim.

"Those two things are not mutually exclusive," I say.

"How can you say that?" they exclaim.

"I can still love you and want two days away from you," I say.

"But what will you do without us?" they ask.

"Not speech!" I say.


Hello, weekend.  I've missed you.

Careers

A member of my church's stake presidency stopped by on Sunday to visit with me.  He asked me to be a member of the stake's mid-single committee (i.e. adults aged 31-45).

I told him I was concerned about the time commitment.  He said it wouldn't be much - a monthly meeting and the occasional activity.

"Here's the thing," I said.  "I'm a high school teacher, and I am the theater director and the speech coach at my school.  That means that from October to the end of January, I work pretty much every weekend.  I wouldn't be able to commit to any activities on Fridays or Saturdays during that time."  I didn't bother mentioning the long weekdays, the musical, or my habit of running away every summer for weeks on end.

He said he'd have to think about that and get back to me.  I told him I understood and walked him back to my door.  As I opened it, he turned back.  "So that sounds like a fun hobby," he said.

"What does?" I asked.

"That speech and theater thing," he said.  "Quite the hobby."

I dropped some of my conversational politeness in my surprise.  "It's not a hobby," I said flatly.  "It's my career."

He left after that, but I find his off-hand remark so belittling, so insulting, that I'm having a hard time letting it go.

It doesn't help that he said this at a time when I am wondering whether I can even continue as a teacher.  With my own district continuing to shrink in population and in funding and with districts across the nation moving more and more towards using standardized tests to determine not only what teachers should be paid but what should be taught, I cannot say with any certainty that I can hold this job for the rest of my working life, let alone for the next ten years.

I don't know if theater teachers will still exist in the public schools in the near future, and I don't think I want to keep teaching if all I teach is English.  Public education is changing.  It's changing dramatically, and I'm weighing the wisdom of waiting to see how long my position lasts against getting out ahead of the game.  Suddenly I find myself wondering something I thought I'd already decided:

What do I want to be when I grow up?

Honestly, I want to be a teacher.  I want to teach theater and Humanities and, heck, even speech and debate.  I want to do what I'm doing now, ideally with a bit more money and a few less hours riding a school bus.

I want to be a teacher, but I no longer think that'll always be an option.

But if I'm not a teacher, what am I?

I Have Spirit!

It's football season, which means it's time to play dress up!

I'm referring, of course, to the bi-annual high school spirit week, which necessitates a series of themed costumes.

While I abstained as usual from the ever-popular "jersey day," I do feel compelled to participate in the other costumes of the week.  One of them posed a bit of a challenge this year, though: Superhero Day.

I pondered out loud what I should wear as Tiffany and I drove home from school the day before.  "Just tie a sheet around your neck and call it good," she said.

Clearly, she did not understand the obligations I am under as The Drama Teacher.  Tie a sheet around my neck?  Really?  Without creating a personalized decal in color-coordinating fabric and lining the entire thing in something shiny first?  I mean, has she even met me?

I banished the thought of a cape.  It was too obvious, and it's not yet the time of year when my sewing machine stays on my kitchen table.  I needed a superhero that a) I liked and b) wore clothing that I already owned.  Then, around 8:30 PM, inspiration struck:

Black dress?  Check.

Black high-heeled boots?  Check.

Blond hair?  Well... not so much, and my blond wig was put out of commission by the last play we did.  Purple hair will have to do.

Accessories?  Hmm....  If I was going to be a vampire slayer, I needed a crucifix.  Curse my Mormon devotion!  Not a crucifix in sight.  I'll just have to make one.

My first attempt involved cutting bamboo skewers to size, wrapping them together with string, sealing the string with candle wax, then coating the whole thing with a bit of spray paint.

It turned out well:

...but then I discovered that I had no way to hang it as a pendant.

So I busted out the soldering kit and my jewelry supplies and soldered myself a cross:

It's a but rougher on the edges than the first version, but it works!

The necklace was too subtle, though.  There are plenty of students and staff at MTHS who wear crosses on a daily basis, and I wanted to stand out.

I needed a stake.

And that's how I wound up using a butcher knife to whittle the handle of my meat mallet to a point:

But to too much of a point.  It was for school after all:

I spray-painted the rest of the meat mallet handle to give it more of a "fresh stick" look, and my accessories were done!

It was subtle enough that many students didn't even realize I was in costume until I pulled Mr. Pointy out of my boot.  They liked it, and were impressed by my soldering.  "I can picture you spending your weekend making props like this," one of them commented as he admired my rough carving.

"The weekend?" I scoffed.  "Try 10:00 PM last night!"

Such is my measure of devotion  - enough to stay up late carving a fake vampire stake, but not enough to buy a sports jersey.

Zen Stress Levels

Sometime early this morning I reached a new state of stress.  I just stopped feeling all of the pressure and frustration and suddenly I was just fine.  The stack of papers to be graded and 62 unread/unanswered emails and the lack of judges for the meet this weekend were all still staring at me, but I sipped my glass of Carnation Instant Breakfast and felt totally okay about it all.

This was a nice change.  Some last week when I noticed I was developing my third cold sore in six days and my right shoulder started clicking when I rotated it from muscle tension I finally tallied what exactly was causing me so much grief.  In the last two weeks or so I have:

- Set up and run two field trips
- Arranged judges, concessions, and materials for the Home Speech Meet this Saturday
- Handled group ticket sales for eleven different shows for a dozen or so people
- Held auditions for the fall play
- Started pre-production for the musical
- Coordinated a on-site playwriting workshop for my classes and the entire English department
- Repainted the dressing rooms and backstage area
- Taught my classes
- Tried to keep on top of grading
- (Begrudgingly) accepted a new weekly detention supervision duty
- Fulfilled various church duties
- Fought off a minor cold (still ongoing)

It might be okay that I've been feeling stressed.  Or, rather, that I was feeling stressed until I found my new Zen level.

Om, etc.

Speech Meet No. 1

 Well, the speech season has begun. Yesterday I took 25 students to a nearby high school:

And they brought home first place trophies in three events. They did very well for the first meet of the year. In fact, these are all of the students who placed in the top six:

Don't they look smart?

Because it was a novice meet, The students could only compete in the events that were totally new to them. This meant that a couple of my varsity players spent the day judging instead of competing.

I think the power may have gone to their heads.

This Year's Speech Hoodies

In case there was any doubt that geeks do speech:

At least I talked them out of capes again.

Teacher Technology Training

I'm in the midst of a Teacher Inservice Day.  As seems to be the tradition here at MTHS, the district has slated this as yet another all-day training workshop on a new program that, if tradition follows, will be obsolete in two years.

This one's extra fun since it doesn't currently support any of my course curricula.  I pointed this out to the workshop leader at the beginning of the meeting.  "Oh," she said.  "Yes.  We don't have those classes in there yet.  Could you use the World History curriculum?  Is that close enough to yours?"

"Not really," I replied.

"Well, you can just watch what your neighbors are doing instead."

My neighbors dutifully worked on their assessments for about an hour.  Then, as humans do, they gradually stopped paying attention to the presentation.  My neighbor on the left is researching trips to southeast Asia.  My neighbor on the right keeps nudging me to show me pictures of her latest Renaissance Faire exploits.

I gave up on today actually being productive a while ago.  Instead, I've been making this list in my head:

Things I am Expected to do as a Teacher
That Teacher Trainers Never Do

- State the objectives of the lesson at the beginning
- Use a pre-assessment to determine what your students already know
- Cover more than three items in two hours (seriously - two hours in and we've only looked up the website, logged in, and clicked on the first link)
- Differentiate the instruction to account for different student abilities (Man, I miss IB during days like this!)
- Adjust the environment to make sure all students have access to the materials (As gorgeous as the full-length windows in our cafeteria are, they do not make seeing the projected instructions easy)

I'm trying to be a good student.  I promise, I am.  It's just difficult when I don't have access to the examples, the instructions, the assignments, or the settings to create for my dang self what doesn't exist in the first place.

Le sigh.

Grandma Cook

My grandmother, Lois Cook, passed away two weeks ago.

I wanted to write about this sooner.  I was asked to give a speech at her funeral, something I was glad to be able to do, but for the week in-between her death and the ceremony I found that composing a blog entry in my head was muddled with composing a eulogy in my head.

The weekend in Salt Lake and the funeral itself was as nice as such things could be.  It was good to see family again; and although I miss her and I'm sad that it feels like a door has been permanently locked on one part of my life, I know that this is what she wanted.

I learned a new favorite story about her.  She was serving as Gospel Doctrine teacher in her ward.  She's done that calling before - we used to talk about her lessons when I would go over to her place for Sunday dinner, and I know that she enjoyed it.

Apparently she was called into the Bishop's office several months ago.  He told her that she was going to be released from the calling.

She said no.

That... that just doesn't happen.  It's rare to say no when they offer you a calling.  It's downright unheard of to decline leaving it.  She kept the calling for a few more months.  Then, when she was too tired to continue, she informed the bishop that now she would be released.

She was smart, stubborn, opinionated, devout, compassionate, and she was my friend.

She decided when it was time to go, but I'll still miss her.

Dig Brush Step, Dig Brush Step, Dig Brush Ball Change Dig Brush Step

One of the benefits of travel is the humility it brings.  I find that having my vocabulary reduced to less than a dozen words, my ability to understand the written and spoken words around me minimized, and my knowledge of basic etiquette and routines befeuddled works stagnant areas of my brain and reminds me how much a little kindness, patience, and assistance matters to someone in a new situation.  It's healthy to be the minority once in a while.  To be the stranger or the foreigner.

Rachel and I attended our first tap class last Wednesday, and as I struggled both with the basic moves and with being the one in the class who couldn't do even the basics, I recalled the humility in travel and realized that this class was giving me a healthy dose of humility in education.

I'm not used to being at the bottom of the class.  The studio offers classes on a rolling basis and people seem to come and go as they can, so last Wednesday's class consisted of me, Rachel, and two other women who have been taking tap for several months, possibly a year.

This meant that when the instructor, a gray-haired lean and angular man named Dennis, had each of us take turns crossing the floor to practice shuffle-flap-ing or flap-heel-toe-ing (or my least favorite: step-toe-heel-heel-step-ing which takes you backwards across the studio), Juila in a spandex skirt executed the moves with little hesitation; Maria of the Yellow Shirt tap-tapped her way across in double time with little spins thrown in every now and then; and I ventured forth slowly, skipping beats, and cursing my left foot for its inability to hit with the same volume and finality as my right foot.  According to Rachel, I also apparently twitch my hands in step with my feet, giving me a semblance to a marionette jerking on its strings.

I found myself entirely out of my comfort zone, but I was quite pleased to be there.  I was nervous and embarrassed, but I was also having fun.  It also felt really useful to be there as a teacher. Being the one who's behind, noticing which accommodations worked and which ones didn't, feeling frustrated when my mind understood perfectly what I was supposed to do and yet being unable to get my feet to do it right - these are good things to be able to recall when I go back to my comfortable classroom and encourage terrified freshman to stand up in front of everyone and act.  By 30 minutes in, I decided that every teacher should be required to take a class in a subject they know nothing about as part of professional development every few years.

I was also gratified when Dennis told Maria of the Yellow Shirt and Lithe Julia that it was my and Rachel's first tap class ever.*  They both exclaimed in disbelief (and kindness), and I breathed easier knowing that they knew we had a good reason for being so terrible.

Happily, when we returned tonight for class #2, I discovered that I actually improved!  I am still nowhere near graceful, precise, or quick; but I understood the terms Dennis threw out, I was better at the floor work, and I even recalled a bit of the combo we worked on at the end.  When I realized the hour was almost up, I was disappointed that we had to stop.  I was sweating, and I was getting it more and more.

I'm really looking forward to next week's class.


* My mother will argue that it was not my first tap class.  True, I studied tap for a bit when we lived in San Francisco.  I had to give it up when we moved to Germany,  and I truly do not recall a single thing from the class except for watching episodes of "Square One" in the back room after class, the way my shiny tan tights felt, and the fact that the two songs we performed at the recital were "That's Far Out!" and "Accentuate the Positive."

This was 26 years ago.  I think I'm justified in claiming that last Wednesday was my first tap class.

Sadly, though, I did not wear a fabulous leotard tonight like the one I had before:

Nor was Rachel wearing a tiara and puffy sleeves, although I'm certainly going to encourage her to add them to her outfit for next week.

P.S.  Rachel took a video of the combo tonight so we could practice and/or laugh at ourselves when we're tapping experts a year from now.  Head over to her blog if you want to check it out!

New School Year, New Hair Color?

I was originally only going to keep the purple hair until the end of the school year.

Then it was just through New York.

Then it was just until after Asia/Seattle.

Then it was until the end of summer.  The school year was a good time to go back to brown, right?  It's a clean break, a time to start over.  Except the closer I got to school starting up again, the sadder I was to lose the purple.  When I tried to make an appointment with my stylist, I discovered she was on vacation all week.  The soonest I could get in was Saturday, the day after I had to report for duty.  I figured it would still work - I would be brown before I saw any students.

But the more I lamented the change, the more I wondered if I needed to change it at all.  Surely I could find the time once every few weeks to redye it ("Ha!" laughs future mid-speech-season me).  I wasn't sure if purple hair was really kosher for teachers at my school, though.  I mean, I could justify it easily when I did it since it was a result of a bet with the students - I was motivating the Promise of Tomorrow!  But now....  now it was just for me.

Since I couldn't change it beforehand anyway, I went to school Friday planning to see how my principal and superintendent reacted.

And they didn't.  Neither one said a word to me about it or even gave me a questioning glance.

And so I gleefully told my stylist Saturday, "We're keeping the purple!"

"Oh, good," she said.  "I wasn't really sure how to undo it yet."

In progress shot with judgy Luke Perry wanna-be pursing his lips at the camera

Results shot

New Things

Work started up again for me on Friday.  It seemed odd that the Powers That Be decided we teachers should come back on a Friday (the students resume next Wednesday), but it certainly made the transition more bearable knowing that I would get a weekend after just one day's work.  

Of course, it also means that we have to put in an extra-long day on Monday for Back to School Night.  That is a less-than-pleasant way to begin what will surely be an exhausting week.

Tiffany and I met up Friday morning to carpool to work.  John normally drives with us too, but he was diagnosed with a brain tumor over the summer and was operated on just last week.  Happily, his prognosis is good, but he is the second teacher at our school to be diagnosed with and operated on for a brain tumor in four months.  We only have sixteen teachers on staff, so the remarkable statistics led to many jokes at staff meeting about the need to get the water tested and/or issue foil-lined hats to the staff.

Anyway, as Tiffany and I drove up the mountain she lamented the number of things she didn't accomplish over the summer.  I thought about my own list and was pleased to discover that I didn't feel like I had any projects left undone.  I certainly traveled, I checked off the housekeeping projects I wanted to do, and I spent the last 1.5 weeks of summer (post-travel, pre-school) trying out new things.

For instance, I taught myself how to sew shirts:

This was shirt #3.  I felt more confident after the first two shirts, so I played around with the sleeves and collar and I tailored the overall shape much more than the original pattern called for.  You can see the difference if you compare it to this shot of shirt #2:

Additionally, Rachel and I together are finally doing something that's been on our lists for a while.  Can you guess what it is from this picture?

How about now?

Yup!  We're taking tap dancing!

After a lot of schedule comparison, we found a class that might work for both of us.  We're going to do a drop-in this Wednesday, which will certainly double the anxiety I'll already be dealing with for the first official day of school.  I took tap in San Francisco (so... 7 years old?  8?) but gave it up when we moved to Germany since that type of dance class was not available there.  Rachel's never taken tap and, in her words, she wants to learn enough to quit having to fake it whenever a tap number comes up for musical choreography.

I'm nervous, as I always am before things that put me squarely outside of my comfort zone, but I'm excited to try it out, especially with Rachel.  I am also thrilled that I had a good excuse to buy a pair of tap shoes.  They make such happy noises!

Blue Apron

About a month ago, one of the bloggers I follow wrote a sponsored post for a new company called Blue Apron.  A subscription to their service gets you a weekly delivery of groceries for three different meals, recipes included.  At $10 per meal, it's about what I pay normally for dinner since I tend to eat out a lot during the school year.  I decided to give it a whirl to see if this would be a good option to cook more from home.

The Wednesday after I got back from San Diego, I found this waiting for me in the afternoon:

As promised, the box was refrigerator-packed and the food could absolutely sit on my porch for several hours without being compromised.

The recipes were on top, along with a weekly letter that talked about the three meals on the menu.  The tone of the letter was a bit overly enthusiastic, although I appreciated learning that in some versions of the Prometheus myth, a branch of fennel was at the center of the infamous flame.

Here are the full contents of the box:

I especially liked the packaged bags of "knick knacks"

which turned out to mostly hold spices.  Here are the beef ones:

And here are the resulting meals:

Roasted poblano peppers, rice and beef sautee with peptias and currants topped with lime-cilantro Mexican crema

Pan-seared salmon with marinated fennel root and an heirloom potato salad made with whole-grain mustard.  I added a bit of pain Greek yogurt on the side to cut the bitterness of the fennel.

Chicken sate with jasmine rice, marinated green tomatoes, and peanut sauce

The meals were tasty, healthy, and certainly more varied than I usually get.  I liked learning how to make peanut sauce, the green tomatoes in sweetened rice vinegar were a tasty discovery and my favorite food of the week, and I cannot describe how much easier it was to only shop for food for breakfast and lunch.  I signed up for the minimum order - 2 servings each of 3 different meals - and had enough to cover 6 dinners plus a couple of lunches.

The downside to the whole endeavor is the time - the fastest meal (the last one) took 40 minutes.  I've made a few more since this first week, and generally they clock in at 45 minutes-1 hour to prep and cook.  I don't mind that so much now, but I have my doubts about my willingness and ability to sustain this when I start getting home at 6:00.

P.S.  Blue Apron just notified me that I have earned credits to give away meals to three friends/family who haven't tried them yet.  Nice!  If you're interested, shoot me an email.

San Diego 2014

A few weeks ago I joined my family for my final summer trip of 2014 - San Diego.  Or, as it was aptly renamed, Sandy Lego.

Top on the agenda was a trip to Legoland.  While not high on my priority list, Jack is apparently just the right age for it, so my parents, Rachel, Ben, Jack, Sam, and I met Memere and my aunt Nathalie at the front gates Friday morning.

I would agree with what many of my friends said - Legoland is a lot of fun if you're 4-8 years old.  The rides and sights were tame, shade and benches were plentiful, and it's easily doable in a day without getting overwhelmed.

A few photos:

Rachel and Ben ditched their kids with my parents, and the three of us ducked out for the evening to see "Guardians of the Galaxy" - a movie that's so fun I didn't object one bit to seeing it a second time with Lisa less than a week later back in Denver. 

Andy and Jenn arrived late Friday night, and we all met up with the rest of the Waterhouse clan at a park to enjoy a picnic.

Then the rain came:

Pepere, Jack (with his back to me), and my cousins - Lexie and Sadie

Rachel and Sam prioritized shelter over appearances

The rains turned into sprinkles after not too long, and Larry scored a picnic table with a roof; so we were able to stick around the park after all and visit for the afternoon.

Sunday was slated as Beach Day.  The weather was iffy to being with.  We did a little shopping at a nearby mall, then made an attempt to enjoy the ocean.  Alas, the rains foiled our plans once again:

Although Andy resolutely got in at least far enough to get his bathing suit wet:

After drying off and warming up, the whole family met up for dinner.  As we crossed the parking lot, I noticed a sign that looked familiar:

Could it be the same place where Jason and I breakfasted each morning in Seoul?

After dinner, we stopped in to check it out:

It is!  They even have the same wooden trays and tongs:

The pastry selection was a little different; and while Jenn picked out a few treats, I scoped out the grocery store it was attached to:

It turned out to be a Korean grocery store.  It had many familiar products, all of the signs were bilingual, and yes, they even had three different brands of Mochi for sale:

We also noticed a Japanese book/stationary store next door as we were leaving, but it was closed by then and it was our last night there.  I'll have to come back to check it all out the next time I'm in San Diego!

Week of Crafts

With a week between trips, I spent most of the last few days working on projects. As often happens, I now associate the items with whatever TV show I have on in the background while I work.

Project:  Fix blinds in office, cut and install ceiling-mounted curtain rods, sew curtains

Show:  House of Cards (Season 1)

Project:  Replace accordion door for front hall closet after it fell out for the 27th time, but this time made it official by doing this when it landed:

Solution:  Install sliding rod from IKEA, reject all of Ikea's pre-made panels in favor of making my own:

Show:  Orphan Black (Season 1)

(Although this show wound up tripling the amount of time I spent on this project because it turns out that you don't so much watch it while working on other things as you stare unblinking at the show while your fabric sits unmeasured and uncut on the floor and your cat settles in on top of the fabric because you haven't moved for 2.5 episodes.)

Project:  Sew a shirt

(The top of which can kind of be seen here)

Show: Dance Academy (Season 3)

Not pictured (still in progress):  Crochet a sweater

Show: Doctor Who (Season 7B)

Hurrah for crafting outside of production season!