Listening to: Watermark - Enya
Reading: Ransom Julie Garwood
Weather: sunny, 40
Trivia: Why do we say someone has "gone to pot?"
When something or someone degenerated from a formerly noble position, we say they've "gone to pot," a term taken from a long ago household customs. English squires of the 15th century ate much more meat than do most modern people. Beef was favored, but
mutton and pork were also consumed in large quantities. After the best pieces were cut off a roasted joint, the remnant was likely to be used in making stew. This meant that it went into a pot along with potatoes, onions, rutabagas, etc. Hence the term "gone to pot" referring to a once prime cut of meat which has been cut down to the point that only stew meat is left.
Cool word: wont (wont) - A habit or custom.
"As was her wont, Jane held her donut in her coffee for entirely too long, causing it to become so soggy that it fell apart into her lap."
Field Trip
As much as I love going to conferences, coming back can be nerve wracking. I always find a pile of notes and phone messages on my desk that have to be dealt with. What I can’t figure out is why they only seem to happen when I’m not in the building. There are days that I don’t get a single call (thankfully) or a single note from anyone.
Then there was the unexpected addition of having a field trip today.
I hadn’t originally planned to go on the field trip. I was going to use the day for report writing and planning. But then a colleague asked if I’d take her class so she could take a personal day to see her daughter get an award at her school. Of course I said yes.
The field trip itself went just fine. The only problem was that it was one of the most boring things we’ve ever done. We took the kids to see a production of "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder.
I love the theater. I hated this play. But then I’ve never liked this play. I’ve always found it to be slow moving and without much point.
Now I grant you that I am so crazy about musicals, that I rarely spend money on straight plays. They cost just as much of a musical and I’d rather have the singing dancing and sets. "Our Town" has chairs and a bare lightbulb.
The production was slow moving and poorly miked, so difficult to hear. It’s confusing enough to a fifth grader, but even worse if you can’t hear what’s going on! I have to say that the kids were very well behaved, though. I just hope we haven’t killed a love of the theater for them. Last year we tortured them with a production of Shakespeare’s "The Tempest" which was more or less indecipherable (and I like and understand Shakespeare).
We need to take them to something with a little bit of pizzazz!
Dee and I went out to dinner tonight, as we both needed a break. As usual we spent too much time dissecting the chorus and wailing about it.
We need to stop having the same discussions over and over. Even I am getting bored. We need to get the issues that are eating at us resolved once and for all.
I had to come home and try to straighten the place out a little bit. I got a call from my landlord last night announcing that he was coming at nine tomorrow morning so the ceiling could be plastered.
I was pissed.
The one thing I’d specified was that it would need to be at my convenience, so I could be home. The landlord decided that he could be here. Wrong. Sorry. He’s as much of a stranger as anyone else. Why should I trust him? That just puts two strangers in my apartment when I’m not here.
Fortuantely my sister-in-law agreed to come and sit here while the plaster guy came. There is no way I can take tomorrow off. I have a complicated parent meeting at 1.30. Which may put me over the edge in any case.
So now I need to go shift a few more piles of stuff around so the place doesn’t look so bad. At least I can watch the millionaire show while I do it.
I wish I could get through on their phone line. These questions are incredibly easy.
Easy to say from my couch I suppose.
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