20 December 2002 ~ Tact, Aunt Helena style...

Just wrote my self-evaluation for my writing class.

I HATED that class.

A few factors complicated my hatred of this class. First of all, this past quarter, I was taking a 16-credit program, and this writing class, which was 4 credits. And my professor from the 16-credit program is married to the professor of the 4-credit class. And I really LIKE the 16-credit woman. She's the one who gave me her home phone number so that I could reschedule an appointment with her, even though the only reason I missed the appointment was because I was stoned.

I hated her husband's class. That's a sucky situation all the way around.

It just WASN'T a good class for me. I mean, you could break the entire class into two parts: 1.) Don't be scared to write (you see, most of the class was terrified to try spelling their own names...), and 2.) Here are a few nice little tips about outlining and all that bullshit. So, it was a great, great, wonderful, fantastic class for people who were scared to write and who had never learned to make an outline. But really, the technical parts of the class all dealt with stuff I learned in like, sixth grade or so. And yes, I am QUITE serious. I really thought you were sort of supposed to know basic outlining and drafting skills before they let you out into the world. Then again, I still don't know shit about algebra, and I KNOW you're supposed to know that before they let you out into the world.

Anyway, it was a great class, and I fucking hated it.

I pretty much wrote that.

Heh!

The evaluation I got from my other professor (wifey), accuses me of being "tactful," so I figured I'd try to live up to that. It wasn't easy.

By the way, if anybody ever tells you I'm tactful, laugh at them.

Aw hell.

Anyway...

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The other day, I met Jake's nephew in the driveway as he got off the school bus. The bus driver kind of gave me a weird look. The Kiddo uses a wheelchair, so the driver helps to unbuckle him, and watches him steer himself onto the ramp every day. From what I've seen, Jake or one of his parents usually watches for the bus and goes outside to open the door for the Kiddo. Naturally, the driver wasn't too thrilled about leaving him with some strange chick she'd never seen before.

The Kiddo reassured her: "She's my aunt."

I just about wept. It was just about the sweetest thing I've ever heard.

The bus driver smiled, made some dorky small talk, and left.

*smile* I have a nephew. Kinda. I adore that kid. He's a pain in the ass sometimes, but what the hell -- everybody is when they're twelve. Instead of just opening the door for him, I handed him the dog's leash and told him he was in a sleigh and that the dog was a reindeer. He giggled like this was about the most hilarious thing in the world. He was grinning so wide I thought some of his organs would spill out. Okay, so the reindeer thing WAS pretty stupid, but the giggling was infectious, and pretty soon, it WAS the most hilarious thing in the world, and we were both laughing helplessly in the driveway, tangled up in dog-leash and sort of howling. The next day, he made me a picture in school, which is actually very beautiful, and which I'm going to hang up someplace special. Damn, I love that kid. Even during the occasions when he's bugging the shit out of me or his Uncle Jake.

I like this "aunt" business.

I don't have the money for a bunch of Christmas presents or anything, but while I was sitting on the bus today, I thought of the perfect gift for Kiddo. When I was just about his age, somebody gave me this ancient, beat-up old book by a woman named Madeleine L'Engle. There were four books in this series, all about time/space travel, and all about the same family. After finishing the first book, I literally saved pennies to be able to afford the other ones. I saw this beautiful set last week of all four books, but I can't afford it: not by a long shot. And my copies are torn to shreds from me reading them so often. I STILL read them; "young adult" my ass -- I LOVE those books. After I leave school, I'm going to try to track down a halfway decent copy of that first book, "A Wrinkle in Time." It occurred to me that I finally have somebody to pass this on to. I hope he'll love it as much as I did/do. *big grin*

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I gotta jet. Don't forget to look at yesterday's entry... *smile*

~Helena*