(no subject)
I'm eating nori. You know, the seaweed paper you use to wrap sushi rolls in. It makes the same sound when you chew it as walking through leaves in the fall. It feels like you're chewing some kind of spawn of saran wrap and tinfoil for about half a second, then it becomes rubbery mushy and awesome. It also some how leaches your mouth of all moisture for just about .5 second, and then somehow GIVES IT BACK. How? How?!
Last Wednesday I tried smoking a cigarette I'd wrapped in nori, and it was really gross. Every couple of nights I think about running to the corner store for some cigarettes just so I can soothe my mild insomnia by learning how to blow smoke rings. However, I hate spending money, and addictions in concept creep me out. Sometimes I think I'm the only person around me who isn't aiming to get fucked up. I don't know if I'm ok with all these substances. It's not just high school marijuana fog anymore, there's cocaine everywhere for one, and to be perfectly honest I'm really just afraid of it. I don't mind being innocent. I think my generation especially has a problem with innocence, that they equate maintaining innocence as maintaining ignorance. There is, as ever, one of those fine lines in there.
My job is the best part of my life. I scheduled in a new student today, a third grader named Taisha. Her reading level: 1.4, as measured by the SAYL assessment. I first met her two Saturdays ago at Saturday school where she took the practice test for the verbal TAKS (for all you Mainers, the equivalent of the MEAs but much much more pressurized for all parties) and scored a 9. But our first session was all in all a series of pleasant surprises. She's smart. It's always refreshing to find a student like her, who obviously has the intellect to tackle the work but got left behind somewhere and continues failing further as a result. One-on-one tutoring is EXACTLY what kids like her should have gotten in the first place, and they often improve at a much faster level than their on-grade-level peers. It is not impossible for them to finish the year at their appropriate grade level, even.
I got chased by a pitbull. Yeah, sometimes I forget what neighborhood I'm in. I was literally about twenty paces out of the schoolyard when it raced up, cornered me against the fence for about ten minutes, got distracted by another dog which it raced away to check out, then saw me running like the Dickens and decided to chase me into the school building. At least the first grade class was there to cheer me on, and treated me like I'd slain a dragon even though I'd just narrowly avoided getting my butt bitten.
My team drives me crazy. My team leader and our new teammate act like children, and they fight about the things children fight about. Nothing, ever, is just "let go." Or if it is, it is lauded soon after as a reason the defending party was good and righteous and acted the bigger of the two. In conclusion: when I populate my own island country by a strict invitation only method, only those twelve and under will be invited to apply.
Last Wednesday I tried smoking a cigarette I'd wrapped in nori, and it was really gross. Every couple of nights I think about running to the corner store for some cigarettes just so I can soothe my mild insomnia by learning how to blow smoke rings. However, I hate spending money, and addictions in concept creep me out. Sometimes I think I'm the only person around me who isn't aiming to get fucked up. I don't know if I'm ok with all these substances. It's not just high school marijuana fog anymore, there's cocaine everywhere for one, and to be perfectly honest I'm really just afraid of it. I don't mind being innocent. I think my generation especially has a problem with innocence, that they equate maintaining innocence as maintaining ignorance. There is, as ever, one of those fine lines in there.
My job is the best part of my life. I scheduled in a new student today, a third grader named Taisha. Her reading level: 1.4, as measured by the SAYL assessment. I first met her two Saturdays ago at Saturday school where she took the practice test for the verbal TAKS (for all you Mainers, the equivalent of the MEAs but much much more pressurized for all parties) and scored a 9. But our first session was all in all a series of pleasant surprises. She's smart. It's always refreshing to find a student like her, who obviously has the intellect to tackle the work but got left behind somewhere and continues failing further as a result. One-on-one tutoring is EXACTLY what kids like her should have gotten in the first place, and they often improve at a much faster level than their on-grade-level peers. It is not impossible for them to finish the year at their appropriate grade level, even.
I got chased by a pitbull. Yeah, sometimes I forget what neighborhood I'm in. I was literally about twenty paces out of the schoolyard when it raced up, cornered me against the fence for about ten minutes, got distracted by another dog which it raced away to check out, then saw me running like the Dickens and decided to chase me into the school building. At least the first grade class was there to cheer me on, and treated me like I'd slain a dragon even though I'd just narrowly avoided getting my butt bitten.
My team drives me crazy. My team leader and our new teammate act like children, and they fight about the things children fight about. Nothing, ever, is just "let go." Or if it is, it is lauded soon after as a reason the defending party was good and righteous and acted the bigger of the two. In conclusion: when I populate my own island country by a strict invitation only method, only those twelve and under will be invited to apply.