Miscellany

Man, it feels like it's been forever since I posted last. (It hasn't. I posted those recipes an hour ago.) Work has been insane because we have doubled the number of students in the building while simultaneously losing one of our teachers. (Indira is jumping ship. I wish her the best and also burn with jealousy.) The usual difficulties of orienting new students are heightened because there are so stinkin' many people in the building. It's been chaos.

There's also been the matter of my back. For over a week, I was a bent-over, wheezing, delicate old man. But apparently, the trick is to walk around the Toledo Zoo for a couple of hours on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. Once I did that, I felt as right as rain. Now I can stand up, get out of the car, and even go to the bathroom without crying out in pain. Yay for me and mi spina.

Something occurred to me the other day when I was talking to Maryn and Avery's principal: I don't like dealing with people who are paid to smile. Politicians, salesmen, PR people, grade school principals - you get the idea. It's their job to seem happy, upbeat, and positive. While there's nothing wrong with feeling/being that way, I have a natural distrust of people who have to do it. What if they don't feel that way at all? What if they're lying? What if they're just telling me what I want to hear in order to get me off their back or to buy something from them or to get me to vote for them? I just don't like it.

Anyway, on a happier/sadder note, tomorrow is the Lost season finale. We get to see how the Oceanic 6 finally ended up getting off the island and, presumeably, why nobody else did. (Ben and Locke move the island?) This is happy news because I'm all pumped to see what weird, islandy goodness the writers have cooked up for this two hour Lost-fest. It's sad because then the show will be in reruns until some stupidly distant time like December of 2011 or something like that. Seriously. Long summer breaks are lame when it comes to my favorite tv shows. On the bright side, Suzanne and I will be using all that extra time to catch up and review. I never saw any of season one and so I'm making up for lost (heh) time by renting the DVDs and watching episodes 2 and 3 at a time. With no commercial interruptions, they last just over 45 minutes and it's real easy to watch an episode or two once the girls have gone to bed. I still have all of seasons 2 and 3 before being entirely up to date. I won't be completely without my Lost fix for a while.

On a more literary note, I came across a copy of Chaim Potok's Zebra and Other Stories at the Salvation Army the other day. I had no idea he'd written stories for young adults but I picked it up and started reading the title story while Suzanne rifled through endless racks of junk looking for diamonds in the rough. I was totally sucked in and I'm so happy to have found another wonderful book by Potok. It shows me that the Asher Lev books weren't a fluke and that I should probably read The Chosen as well. (And anything else Potok has written. I just really like his style, his characters, his stories, etc.)

I'm also working on Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides and thinking about getting back to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Of course, by the time I get really ramped up and back into the pleasure-reading mode, it will be time to pick up school books again and prep for my QE over the summer. Ah well. I'll enjoy it while I can.