Monthly Post

My relationship with this blog is rapidly changing, and I'm not sure how things are going to turn out before it's all said and done. Normally a posting lull is just that I'm busy or over thinking blog posts to the point that I don't write about them anymore. But this lull is different. This time, there's a fundamental shift these days in my thinking. Over the years, my internal monologue will just occasionally jump into blog mode, and whatever I am thinking is suddenly running through my head as if I were sculpting a blog entry. A trip to the dentist or a ho-hum school day will turn into fodder for a blog, turning the mundane into something that may or may not be worth reading. But as of late...nothing. My internal monologue just hasn't been writing blog entries. It's been reeling for sure, but there just hasn't been anything coming that I think that I should be made into a blog entry.

Part of me thinks of not blogging anymore, retiring from this blog. Part of me thinks about deleting this blog, which I ultimately decide against because of how it is a testament of quite a journey over the last several years. Occasional posts are just not my forte. I like for things to somehow be complete, but that's especially troublesome for a blog. I do still blog; it's just focused now over at the band's blog about the record. Most of my regular readers have stopped coming altogether. A few check around sporatically, but why keep doing it if there's nothing new?

November and December may yield all kinds of new things to say. Or not. For now, I'll update when I think of something other than a list of news happenings for me, and I'll leave things as they are and see if this slump is going to be permanent or not...

Michael Jackson Day

It's homecoming week with its obligatory dress-up days, and the ultimate in sign of the times is that a new day has been added to the usual college sweat shirt day and tacky day: Michael Jackson day. It's so funny to me how death has revitalized the career and legacy of the man who until summer was the brunt of jokes when called the King of Pop.

Even when I had this same age group two years ago, Michael Jackson was the same comic caricature that all the kids I'd had previously had seen him. In creative writing assignments, he usually appeared in their horror stories as both the scariest and funniest thing they could put in. You would be amazed at how often he showed up in certain assignments. With his death, they are now writing about him in the essay for someone who should be honored by having their face put on a postage stamp, trumping both Martin Luther King and Barack Obama this year. There's no talk of his strange high voice or "where there's smoke there's fire" accusations of child shenanigans--it's all about how hard he worked for children in need and how he could sing and dance and how great his songs are. I guess he can't challenge their sexuality now that he's dead, but it's so interesting to me how quickly everyone can change their mind about someone. It helps that 80s nostalgia is at a cultuaral high, so the music and fashion are more familiar and admirable than when I was in high school in the mid 90s.

I had always hoped Michael would somehow wow the world again with new songs and subsequent tour that would make everyone respect him. Instead, his death made those old songs relevant again, re-visited since everyone somehow seemed to know them all anyway. Good for Michael, as this is perhaps the best way he could have ever been restored in reputation and relevance.

The kids are wearing white gloves and R.I.P. tee shirts today while "Beat It" and other songs are played over the intercom during class change. There's a dance contest today. I thought this would be the day with lowest participation, but no, the kids are really into it in costume, and I think it's a nice little send-up. As kind as feelings are for him now, I don't think there will be quite the honor for him a year from now, but I would guess that many people thought the Beatles would die out soon after their break up. But their enduring qualities are a blog for another day.

Amber Alert

I was checking the band's MySpace account yesterday (because we have posted "Know It All" from the new record--check it out), and it had a big banner on it that said, "AMBER ALERT."

Without looking, because it's MySpace, I immediately thought that clicking on this would probably link me to either a beer site or a bikini model named Amber who "wants to get to know me better."

Obviously, no thanks.

Resolutions

Mondays are getting ever so harder. It's tougher to go to bed on Sundays and say good-bye to the weekends. Although my job satisfaction is still near its career high, I'm struggling these days to get motivated during the week. I don't sleep well on Sunday nights. Dreary weather and spotty rain have made this a tough a weekend to get anything done as well as to go to bed. Or get out of bed. Or drive to work. Or teach.

It's during this time when work is piling on my shoulders between what I don't have time to do at home and what I need to do for school that I start thinking about taking days off. My resolution this year was to miss fewer days. That was my resolution for last year as well, but after checking the dates on the computer, I found that I missed more last year than any previous year. The difference was that I was actually sick for most of them. I don't feel like I will ever accrue any days for emergencies or when my budding family may need me if I don't do better about using them, so I certainly feel like being here is the best option. It's just tough when it's dreary outside and the laundry from two weeks ago remains unfolded with the internet crashed and the un-changed oil in my car and the piles of stuff in the floor that need to be allocated to newly cleared closets, but it's just my bad hibts talking when I think the answer to that is a day off.

Long Days

This week I have two days that are over tweleve hours at school. The administration at my school scheduled a parent night for ninth grade and the whole school's parent night for the same week. So I'm here from 6am-8pm tonight after being here until 7pm on Tuesday. It's not a great feeling to come home and realize you only have two hours of personal time before you go to bed and have to go through a grueling day again. The cloudy days and rain don't help either. I caught myself sleeping before I let the kids into the classroom this morning. I am all too excited for this weekend to come so that I can get some much needed rest since I started this week tired and feeling deprived of sleep.

Swine Flu Paranoia

Sent to me via work e-mail.