A story about a coffee mug (and a lot more)

See the coffee mug on the newspaper?   I used it this morning for my mocha (made with French roast and Silk chocolate soy milk) that I drank while sitting in my backyard, reading the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle.

The mug has a story…it’s 20 years old this summer, brought to me by a lady who was my aide for a summer school class I taught out in the rural town of Parlier the first summer I had my teaching credential.  I had no promise of a real teaching job so I took anything I could get.  This class was in the computer lab at an elementary school in a very poor city with mostly Spanish speaking students.  Although I cannot speak, I can read and understand Spanish at a very basic level.  The aide was there to help me out, and she was wonderful.

I think  I was hired to just oversee the kids doing whatever they liked on the computers, but I wanted a product (project based learning).  The regular teacher had the lab set up for games, but there was a word processing program and a small desktop publishing program on the machines so I had the little kids write their stories (most in Spanish), and the older kids put them into a weekly newsletter for the duration.  It was quite popular, and the superintendent came out one day to see what I was doing. Even 20 years ago I believed that computers are to be used for productivity, not to play games, and that is what we did in that lab.  It did not, however, get me a job offer with the district.  Now, looking back, I can be thankful as it was a 40 minute drive to Parlier and in the winter I would have suffered through fog on country roads.

Back to the mug, the lady who was my aide knew that I loved Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks and that my husband and I often hiked the trails there.  One weekend she took her family, after hearing my stories, and brought the mug back as a souvenir.  I was delighted and have kept it all these years as a reminder of a summer job, long ago, when I taught elementary children to write the stories of their life in their native language .

Hot summer afternoons

The days here in the San Joaquin Valley have been hot for the past week–over 100 every day, and closer to 108 on some.  I keep the yards well watered so the neighborhood critters will have a cool place to rest in the afternoons.

I am so thankful for air conditioning in our house, and lots of shade covering the rooftop, so that I can stay comfortable on these scorchers.  What did people do before air conditioning?

Al Capone tucked away on the concrete patio.

Although I do not “own” this cat, he hangs out in our yard most of the time, especially on these hot days.

Lilly is the neighbor’s cat, but she likes our yard because it’s quiet and cool.  Her owners have dogs.

One of my squirrel buddies

This is one of the many squirrels who come through our yard, eat the nuts I put in the tree, and sometimes hang out for awhile, especially on a hot summer afternoon.

Crazy radio

Radio La Colifata is the first radio show to be broadcast from a mental hospital.  The mental hospital is in Argentina, and the radio station is a form of public therapy.  I received a link to this podcast through Idealist, and if you listen you too can learn about this great institution that is being copied by others.

Radio La Colifata

Summer vacation

When I started teaching, 20 years ago, I got 12 weeks vacation that first summer.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  While working in industry, I was thrilled to have made it to the 4 week vacation mark, so 12 weeks was wonderful.

The next year we got 11 weeks, then for a few years we got 10 weeks.  The past two years we got 9 weeks.  This year, 8.  Ok, so it’s still more than that 4 weeks I got when I worked out there in the real world, but I don’t see that we are getting any more bang for the more time we spend in school.

When I started teaching we got an hour for lunch, or 55 minutes, and it was plenty of time to get lunch, go to the restroom, hold club meetings, work with students, hold detention, kibbitz with other teachers.  Now we get 35 minutes, and that is bell to bell.  And we wonder why clubs have trouble getting anything done.  When are they supposed to meet?  Oh, and we start school at 7:50 and run until 3:30.  Students nor teachers have time to just breath and think.

I am thankful for these 8 weeks away from school (although I have been back twice now to work on computers and projects) and we get three weeks at Christmas, just about the time I’m ready to go under.

My husband reminds me that when I go back into the private sector that I will not be getting all those days off, and I know he’s right.  But, I don’t seem to remember being so harried and overwhelmed when I worked in industry.  My weekends were my own; I wasn’t planning and grading the work I had just done the previous week.  I also remember being able to sit at my desk and think about the work I was doing.  I don’t have that luxury any more.  It seems as though the district office is afraid to give us a minute to think on our own.

Carmen & Delaine do lunch

Do you ever meet your blogosphere buddies in 3D?  Have people warned you not to do such a thing?  Hah, I say.  I’ve been meeting my online people face to face for over 10 years now, and it’s always a lot of fun.  Today was just such a day.

My good blogging buddy, Carmen Whittaker, and I discovered that we live in the same town, on opposite ends, but still in the same general vicinity.  Because of her busy schedule and my life at school, we’ve only communicated online.  Today we met for lunch, and what  a good time we had.  Since we knew each other online, it was like we had known each other for longer than just those couple of hours.  We talked about all sorts of things, and laughed about people who hesitate to meet their online connections in real life.  Now, I ask you, who would pretend to be an inner city school teacher or the wife of the head of the Southern Baptist Convention?  No one can make up lives like that!

So, if you’re ever in the San Joaquin Valley, please send me a comment, and we can meet for lunch.  And, if Carmen is in town, I’ll bet she’ll come along t00.

Ladies who lunch

What’s in your closet?

I’ve spent the past few days cleaning out shelves and closets, with the last two days devoted to the hall closets.  Oh my.  We moved in here 29 years ago and some of the boxes in those closets were deposited the day we moved in and never moved again.  I have linens going back to when I was a child (and we won’t discuss how many years ago that was) and I unearthed things that I thought no longer existed.  (maybe they shouldn’t)

After clearing out 6 boxes of books and a bag of clothes, I decided to get rid of some old suitcases (more like what we used to call train cases) and cosmetic bags.  I took those to church for a mission project that provides suitcases for foster and abused children.

Most of what I found in old boxes were items that needed to be thrown away, not given away.  Why does anyone keep old sheets that have holes in them or were torn into pieces?  Into the trash.  I found old towels, and even my baby pillow that was literally in shreds.  All in the trash.

I found two missing items that pleased me.  I thought I had given this guy away, but found him way back in a corner.  I had him made when we were first married and remember driving across town to pick him up.  He served many Halloweens on our front porch. I’ll keep him for another Halloween.

Ceramic jack-o-lantern

I have a set of Japanese teacups that go back 30 years but two have been missing.  I found them, in a box, with candles in them.  I can only guess I used them for a party or something.  I used to give lots of dinner parties but that stopped when I started teaching.  They can go back with their partners in tea.

All 4 altogether again

And, last but not least, are the old pillow cases I found at the bottom of the linens pile. Do you remember the heavy cotton cases that were hand embroidered?  My mother would make them for wedding gifts, and I somehow managed to have two of hers and a pair that I think my husband’s grandmother got somewhere.  I also have a set that I think are machine embroidered, but I have no idea how I got hem.  Maybe a wedding gift to me 35 years ago?  I’m going to give these away.

Pillow cases

The next closet is the one here in the computer room.  I pretty much know what’s in there.  Anyone want a wedding gown?

Faithful follower I would be

I love to check in with Kathy over at her blog as she is always up to something.  She turned 50 last year and tried something new every day leading up to that momentous birthday.  I don’t know what she’ll do when she turns 51!   But I’m keeping my watch.  For my faithful attention to her blog, she handed me this award :

Thanks, Kathy.  I’ll keep faithfully checking in.

The reason for New Mexico

Getting back to the trip to New Mexico… there really was a definite reason why we went.  Although we had planned to attend a wedding and it was cancelled, the trip was still on because I have wanted to go to New Mexico, especially northern New Mexico, for close to 20 years.

I am a great fan of Georgia O’Keeffe’s work.  I have a few posters of her work scattered around the house:

But, I have read about O’Keeffe for years.  It is her life story that really fascinates me.  Here is a woman, who although married to a man who could certainly help her career, was fiercely independent at a time women were not supposed to be.  She had a mind of her own and she did what she wanted, like going to New Mexico every summer, leaving an aging hubby behind in New York

All the books all about O'Keeffe

I got to visit the O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which was thrilling.  I could stand for hours and look at her brush strokes and the way her work changed over the years.

Here I am at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

But, even better was getting to spend 5 days out in Abiquiu and the general vicinity where she did so much of her painting in her last 50 years.  She lived in this remote region, painting much of it, but also loving the wide open spaces.  It was fun to visit the places where she had painted and to see her homes (although both are closed to the public, you still get such a sense of “place”).

So, that pretty much wraps up the commentaries on the trip.  I am home for a few weeks before we head out on our next adventure.  Because I don’t get enough exposure to young people (!), we are volunteering for three weeks to work with kids from elementary to high school age.  I’m sure I’ll have a few stories to tell you.

Plans for that stimulus money

My school district just came out with an offer, using federal stimulus money, to buy out 130 teachers who are 60+ and have been with the district 25 years or more.  Each teacher who decides to take the offer will get a $25,000 bonus.  The qualified teachers received certified letters telling them what they have to do to collect.  Decisions must be made by July 15.

And, dear Reader, if you are wondering about me, I don’t qualify on either count.  So, I’m sticking around and continuing to plan for next year’s classes.

More cake

Remember, dear Reader, how I have talked about loving cake?  After our trip I decided we needed a cake so I baked a coconut cake.  I use coconut water (not coconut milk) in the mix.  I sprinkle coconut on each layer before I put it in the oven.  After the layers finish cooling, I split them and spread apricot jam between them.  I finish it off with a fluffy white frosting and toasted coconut.  And here is the result:

Coconut cake