Work continues to be nuts. Today, we had a meeting with a young man who is 18 years old, and still needs most of his credits in order to graduate. He is being sent to the alternative school for behavior. Of course, being 18, it is his choice whether he wants to go to the alternative school or sign himself out of school altogether. With ten people present at the meeting, including his parents, he said, “Fuck it, I’ll stay.”

I enjoyed the reaction. He will be in my class. I know him well because I have had him on homebound before. I wrote about it quite a bit a couple of years ago! Too bad I don’t have my old blog to link to! So this will be another new adventure in my classroom. Ha.

I made the basket above for our wonderful secretary. I’m ticked off because by the time Sage’s piano lessons were finished, the good nursery was closed, and I was left with a meager selection at Lowes. So I don’t have any tendril-type things hanging down…:-(

I’m definitely in making things mode. I’m making two clocks out of these 50′s Ford hubcaps. One of them is for my classroom, where I think my guys will enjoy it. The other one will probably end up gracing our living room, since Greg is already enamored of the idea.

I made another one of my first grader vases. I noticed that behind the vase is a photo that I don’t look at often enough. It is a picture of me on the edge of the Mogollon Rim. That thing down at the bottom is a road. I love the mountains, and we had a great time camping there. It’s a reminder that I used to be a lot more fearless.

And speaking of traveling, I spent some time on Couchsurfing last night. There are lots of couchsurfers in Mexico, many of whom will give two people a bed. So that’s an option. I really don’t want to stay in a hotel because it will be boring. At the same time, I don’t know how I feel about hopping around for a couple of months, either. It would get old. Maybe.

And, just now I interrupted Sage while he was doing his homework. He had such an intense look on his face, which you cannot see, because my camera, while better than the old one, still has a pretty annoying delay on it. In fact, it is just the right amount of time for children (and some adults I know) to stick their fingers up their nose.

The school I work at is really special. Today, I went to every single person on campus to get money for a gift card for our secretary for Admin Assistant week. People were just amazing. Everyone chipped in from five to twenty dollars, and no one bitched about it. It’s times like these when I realize that I have the privilege of working with a really amazing team of people.

It’s a good thing, too, because the morning started out with one of my kids getting arrested and another getting ticketed. This gave my classroom a tone that wasn’t really pleasant, and to add to it all, I got a new girl who’s really cute. There are only two girls in my class, and boys from the neighboring class kept finding excuses to come by and check her out. Meanwhile, my guys were showing out in all their macho glory. I ignored a lot of nonsense today.

I’m thrilled because I did the intake on the new girl, and I had to do it in Spanish. The interpreter never showed up, so I did it all by myself, and it went well. I think it has something to do with my plans to go to Mexico this summer. I’ll lie in bed at night and imagine myself living in Mexico again, conversations and all. So basically, speaking Spanish in my daydreams has upped my fluency. Who’d have guessed? I suppose that’s one way to practice.

So yeah, I’m thinking of taking Sage and going to Mexico. I really can’t stand the idea of staying here this summer. Last summer, I was so thrown by not going to work everyday that lethargy attacked me and I didn’t do a damn thing. Never again! Here’s the thing though. I have to admit that I’m worried about going. Here’s the fear: What if (typical beginning to a panicky statement) something happens to me? What will Sage do?

Anyway, so I have to get past that. Get a plan. Something. I also need to decide where I’m going. I’m familiar with Guanajuato, and the tourists there are Mexican, European and Japanese, so I’ll be forced to use my Spanish. I also have a couple of friends there and know where to go for language lessons on the cheap. I’ve thought about going somewhere different, just because, you know, why stick with the familiar? But then again, given how I can be about traveling, perhaps sticking with the familiar is best. I just don’t know.

So I’ll figure it out.

Photo: Magnusvk

Today is so nice–finally the rain went away! We went to the nursery and picked up some new plants. The photo above is my first attempt at making a color basket. Given that I got the basket at a garage sale, and only paid about five dollars for the flowers I put in it, I figure it’s a good thing to learn. I did burn the heck out of my thumb when I was using a hot glue gun to line the basket with plastic and hot-glued my thumb instead of the plastic. Ouch! Anyway, this is what I’ll be making folks for Mother’s Day this year!

It was just so nice out today that everyone was out. There were about seven other people at the nursery, and none of us realized at the time that it was closed! Fortunately, it opened up at one, so we didn’t have to wait too long.

The cookies Sage and I made last weekend were soooo good. They’re all gone now.

I’m still pretty motivated. I’ve pretty much finished clearing all of the junk off the back porch and am now working on transforming it into a craft space that also happens to have a computer, table for a puzzle, and a couch and TV/game system. I’m going to paint it an orangish-red, and leave the old windowsills white. I think it may end up being my favorite room!

“You must remember one thing, Mr. Nick,” Ghulam said. “Seeking redemption is a man’s biggest mistake. Man cannot redeem–only Allah. Your job is to change the path you are walking on. Not try to make up for all the bad things you have done. That will only lead back along the same path, so that the past will become destiny. What is written, Mr. Nick, can never be unwritten.”

I’m really enjoying Fidali’s Way by George Mastras. I keep forgetting the book is classified as fiction. It is altogether engrossing, and rings true from the accuracy of the setting to the philosophy it subtly espouses.

I haven’t read a book this good since I read A Thousand Splendid Suns. That part of the world fascinates me, and has since I was ten years old and wanted to be an archeologist over in those parts.

It is a particularly timely book given the current political situation in northern Pakistan.