My weekend wasn’t that great, but it wasn’t horrible.
Saturday I had the orientation for a two week professional development I’m doing this summer. Ultimately I will be paid for this time, which is amazing (I’ve never been monetarily compensated for a professional development before), but that won’t happen until March of 2020. In the meantime, it’s still hard to give up a weekend day to basically be at work.
The good news is the professional development felt worthwhile. I learned a lot, and already have new ideas for how to start the next school year. I do think it will be a good use of two weeks this summer. It definitely feels overwhelming, and the fact that they are paying us definitely ups the stakes. And the commitment is significant. We have to complete more units in the fall, along with attending four follow-up Saturday sessions. We also have to earn professional development points – by both learning AND presenting what we’ve learned – before March. So yeah, it’s a significant commitment but I feel hopeful that it will be worthwhile.
I brought the necessary gear to run after the class, and after I asked around, someone recommended an open space preserve near by. I drove there, but there wasn’t anywhere to park near any of the three entrances I saw on the map (well, there were places to park but it wasn’t allowed – I have never seen so many No Parking signs in my life), so I had to park a ten minute walk from the entrance. Then I ended up running two miles to the top of a high ridge. I actually felt pretty good running up that massive mountain (I’m not an enthusiastic hill runner), and I enjoyed the view from the top, but I was stressed about time because the whole ordeal was taking way longer than I intended. In the end I was in the park for almost 90 minutes. It was stressful to be behind schedule, but it was really good to be outside.
I got home pretty late, and my husband was pouting a little from being left alone with our son all day. I tried to ignore it, because evidently this is as good as I’m going to get in my marriage and I’m going to have to be okay with it. I was pleasantly surprised that he had picked up the house – my son had a play date and he felt he had to – and I thanked him for that. After bedtime we watched John Wick 2, which was exactly the plotless, action driven two hours I needed after the mind-f*** that was Suspiria the night before.
Sunday morning my MIL texted to let us know our daughter had been up all night puking. My ILs actually took her both nights this past weekend (at our daughter’s request), so we hadn’t seen her since Friday morning. Her being sick threw a wrench in our Mother’s Day plans. My husband did “get up” with our son, but he still ended up in my bed before 7am. It’s a good thing he’s so cute. I also realized I had started my period (they have been pretty unpleasant these days).
My mother was out of town, and my in-laws had offered to make my favorite breakfast so we went over to their house. My daughter was still in rough shape, and I felt pretty bad myself. The breakfast was yummy, but since our early-afternoon plans were cancelled, we ended up just hanging out there all day. I was very touched my in-laws offered to make me breakfast, but just being at their house all day was not what I wanted to do.
The good news is my daughter felt better by 2pm so we could still make our 4pm movie. We saw Detective Pikachu (my son is WAY into Pokemon right now), got In-n-Out for dinner and went home.
I had graded papers at my in-laws (seriously best thing I did all day), so I could watch Game of Thrones, but by 10pm I still hadn’t started. I realized I didn’t really want to watch the episode, but I also didn’t want it spoiled, so I put it on. It ended up being way more disappointing than I was even expecting, and I went to bed pretty upset. I’ve invested countless hours in this story, not only watching the series on HBO, but also LISTENING to all the audiobooks (each one is 40-50 hours long). So yeah. watching them end it the way they are ending it is way more rage-making than I’d like to admit.
And that was my weekend. Not how I wanted to spend either day, but there were bright spots in both.
Next weekend I have a mixture of things I want to do and other obligations that will make it much of the same. Hopefully things will get calm down in the summer.
Your life NEVER seems to really calm down. But I cross my fingers in hope this summer it will.
Soudns like a terrific class you are signed up for, lovely to be paid for the work and development. I would be interested in generic ideas of what the new thinking is for classes and teaching and suspect many of your other readers would be also. I say generic as do not want you to share in depth ideas others developed but broad strokes that you see as possible trends in education. I sit here remembering all the educational trends I have seen in my life from euphonics to the back and forth about teaching phonics to read, to emphasis on self-esteem to highly regimented charter schools versus individual led learning.
So sorry your daughter was ill and glad she recovered enough for you all to go to the show. well done on acknowledging the positives of the picking up and ignoring pique at actually having to be the present parent.
You will make it to school year end! Be safe with your commute.
Our weekend went to sh*t first thing Saturday AM when my daughters incision from her surgery early in the week busted open. I had to rush her to Childrens where we spent the rest of the weekend admitted and re-doing her surgery. While at first I was panicked – it turned out to be okay in the event I didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything other than comfort my daughter and chat with the drs. I am just happy we are home and on the mend (again). It was the first time in 5 years I had so much one-on-one time with my eldest. She really is just a delight even sick and in pain. Bright spots can be had anywhere and really if changes in plans due to children isn’t the exact definition of motherhood I am not sure what is.
Very glad it all went well in the longer run. That is a scary event. Glad you were able to get to a right hospital and things were fixed so fast. Good wishes.
Heard a close to 50 yr old woman professor, the most published member of her department, who has effectively due to husband’s illness (not known when conception occurred) and then fully due to his death been single mom-ing a now mid-teen child, who also teaches a full course load and has other significant departmental responsibilities, talk about her emotional reaction when she hears her male colleagues, who are not publishing research, who are not on intensive committees, who have spouses who are full or part-time at home taking full responsibility for all household maintenance and rearing of children, complain how desperately difficult it is for them if that spouse goes out of town for 2 or 4 days and they have to prepare meals, run dishwasher afterwards and supervise 1 or 2 elementary or older children to bed and up and off to school in the morning. Note: these men do not need to shop or meal plan or clean house or go to any appointments for the children because spouse did all that in advance.
Woman experiences ‘absolute rage’ at such hearing complaints (which she hides and is polite about professionally) and wondered if her anger might be a sign of menopause. I said “No, it is reasonable response to the inequality and assumption on the men’s part that marriage and parenthood should take no time, and impose no responsibility, or infringe in any way on their enjoyment of their life.”
And I thought of you all. THANK YOU.
Thank you for all you do.
Love your response to the woman professor. Absolute rage is definitely a reasonable response in that situation.