Smart Phones

I have owned my Iphone 4 for 3.5 days. I have emailed, texted, listened to my itunes, checked the weather, checked stocks (that weren't even mine), started a game of WordPlay, played other games, analyzed a dream, and wikapedia'd something. I have used my Iphone as an alarm clock, a mirror, and a flashlight. After years of longingly looking at other people's smart phones, I finally have my own. I heart it.

The 5-Day Work Week

I know that this post will receive few, if any, sympathy votes outside the bubble of education, but I need to say it anyway. Though I have been "back to school" for almost a month now, this has been my first full, 5-day, week of work. 5 FULL days. In a row! With no break! Those around Girls Prep (adults and kids combined) found this week to be pretty grueling. To be up and at school, ready to think, by 8am every day after 3 months of summer?? To pick out an outfit that is within dress-code 5 times?? It's just too hard! This has been the conversation all week. Some people have confused days, some have not been able to keep the weeks straight, some are struggling to keep all their balls in the air, and others, like myself, are doing all of these things. I have referred to "tomorrow" several times while actually meaning to say the day after (this causes quite a bit of confusion). I was sitting, blissfully ignorant on my couch one night, when I was scheduled to be visiting a dorm, not to remember until the next morning when a student asked where I had been (I didn't know what she was talking about, I stared at her blankly for a good 2 seconds). I forgot to bring my supplies for one of my classes on Thursday, and I am constantly thinking it is next week instead of this week. My reason for this rant is that I am, as of 2:00pm today, done working. I cannot make my little brain think anymore. Happy Friday everyone, I'm going to go watch some field hockey.

Non-Skirts

The Harbor Cruise is a tradition at Girls Prep. Every year the entire school (students and faculty) load up on school buses (9 in total) and caravan to the Boston Seaport. There, we are all aboard the Provincetown II for a two hour tour of Boston by sea. There's music, there's dancing. Its a fun time all around. Adding together the years I have worked here and the years I attended, I counted this as my 16th Harbor Cruise. Over the years, I have realized some notable changes that I am not all that comfortable with. For starters, this year I was considerably more shocked by the outfits on many of the students (mostly seniors) than in the past. Sometime in the past 20 years, this tradition has become a display of apparel. I am not sure when... I do not remember anything I wore myself as a student, except senior year when I think I wore all black? It's a little hazy. Did I wear heels? I don't know... did I own heels? I must have, right?? Times (or I) have since changed. Sitting on the boat deck on Monday, basking in the warm sun, I could not open my eyes and not notice the skirts. Or, should I say, non-skirts. These questionable skirts, could have been confused for a small nightie, or a tube of jersey, or a shirt with a belt. Several did not clear the upper thigh and so required spandex shorts underneath to keep them from being completely vulgar.
By the end of the day, I had been stunned more time than I could count. I can't tell you what horrified me more, the inappropriate lyrics to god-awful songs, or the hooker-ish looking outfits (did I mention that most of the non-skirts were white?? ERRR not at all flattering) with those crazy heels that you see most often on Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Heidi Montag.

I am officially an Old Fogie.

Ode to the List

I love lists. The idea for this post came from a conversation with my friend about organization and keeping lists. We both agreed that lists are the only way to go. They are the only way to keep track of all of the things we need to do every day. I don't remember when I started making lists. I guess it came about in high school when I had to write down my homework every night. But I remember the moment I started to use the list as a working tool. It my first year out of college, working at my first corporate job and one of my bosses was coming back from a week-long trip. She had left a list of several things to do, that I was unable to finish due to unforeseen issues that came up in the office. She was not pleased and the conversation went something like this:
Boss:"GEM, I thought you were going to file all my catalogues"
GEM: "I couldn't get to it, I didn't have time"
Boss: "I don't understand, what were you doing?"
GEM: "Umm... I had this and that and umm.... (weak, I know, but did I mention I was 22?)
Boss: "I just don't see what could have taken up your time, I didn't leave you that much to do, I expected you to have this done, I don't see what took up all of your time"
GEM: "Ok, I'll do it now" (run to the bathroom to cry)

Ok, so maybe this doesn't seem so traumatic in retrospect. But this was the first time in my professional career that I had disappointed someone I was trying to impress. And what was the worst part, I had been REALLY busy. I had A LOT to do that week, but I just couldn't remember it. I hadn't written it down. I just stuttered and sounded generally useless. From then on, lists have been my life raft keeping me afloat in the working world. At first they were simply to document my time, but increasingly to keep track of all the small things and get them out of my head and onto paper. I make lists daily. I have special list paper. Sometimes I rewrite the lists so they look pretty. I just love them. Watching a person try to recount in their head the things they need to do makes me nervous. It's right up there with people who don't keep calendars. SDM, you know who you are:)

Back To School

I have to say, this post began last night and I was feeling a little more optimistic and a little less overwhelmed than I am feeling today. Needless to say, it had to be reworked.
It is back to school time! While it may say August on the calendar, this week marked the official start of my 8th school year at Girls Prep with preseason and faculty meetings. I started the week off excited, I love the fall, I love crunchy leaves, I love crisp air. I love my wool sweaters. These are the fun things that I think of when I hear "back to school". What I seem to forget, is that "back to school" also means BACK TO SCHOOL: Meetings, and schedules and class work and more meetings and then some more meetings.
It's good then, that I was doing something else in the summer. I very much needed the change of pace and the change of atmosphere (little campers vs. high school girls). It gave me a chance to breath, relax and get some distance during which time I romanticized it all and made Fall into a pretty rose-tinted bubble that has now popped over my head. I was in meetings from 8:30-10:00am, 10:30- 12:00pm, 12:00-1:00pm (race home for 10 minutes to walk poor Petunia) and then 1:00-1:30pm and then 1:30-3:00pm. They are interesting meetings for the most part, all discussing important items, but as you can see, very little time in between to get anything else done. Because of course, as all of you know, you don't just get to go to the meetings and then walk away. Meetings almost always end with some sort of action plan and to-do's that you need to then....do.
Which brings me to my apartment right now at 5:15pm. After going back to my office at 3:00pm, checking in with my boss and with the students, and running home to feed Tuners (who didn't get to eat before because I was too late for the meeting), I came home at 5:00 to breathe. I need to go back over at 6:00pm for a dinner and then Target for some office shopping... then tackle that pesky to-do list.

Book Challenge

As you may have gleaned from my previous blog, I love to read. I enjoy reading all kinds of books for the most part: bestsellers, historical fiction, chic lit (although I like those less after the annoying genre name was created). I also love classics. I am on a personal mission to read lots of classics. This secret obsession for classic books has pushed me through Gone with the Wind (I think I was 15 when I read it), The Portrait of a Lady, Crime and Punishment, and others. But this week, while on vacation, I have embarked on perhaps my most ambitious read ever.It was given to me by my mum, who got it from work from a woman who couldn't even stand to hold it, let alone read it. I understand,it's a very heavy book. A Suitable Boy. 1500 pages about finding a husband in 1950's, Post-British, Post Partition, India. There are an unknown number of characters (all connected in some way) that I keep track of with a family tree chart. I started it on Sunday, August 15 and currently I am on page 320, I give myself to Christmas to finish it....

Beach Bikes

The last bike I owned was from when I was about 8-12 years old. It was pink and said "Miss Sassy" on the side. I installed a basket (Strawberry Shortcake, from my older bike) in which I shuttled around my guinea pig, Jingles. I would bike around the block (on the sidewalk), or around a parking lot at the end of my street. Occasionally we would ride on the Minuteman Bike Path, other times on the Mystic River Bike Path. Maybe once or twice a summer our family would go to Maine or the Berkshires and we would ride bikes on quiet roads. These are my biking memories. All very safe, all very conducive to bikes and bike-riding. Since I haven't had a bike since then, I tend to get a little nervous about them. I know how to ride one of course, but am still attached to kids bikes. Bright colors, fat tires, and pedal brakes. The biggest problem I have with bikes these days is the hand brake. It seems totally foreign to me. If I want to stop my feet, why would I use my hand?? Shouldn't it all be related?? Shouldn't my feet control what my feet are doing?? I will definitely still ride on "grown up" bikes, but it just makes me nervous. And biking on the road makes me nervous, probably because I don't feel very stable. All of this leads up to a very happy surprise this morning. I am in Nantucket this week, dog-sitting a lovely Irish Setter named Maisy. Bikes are a pretty standard mode of transportation in Nantucket, so I knew I would be on one at some point. But we are in Sconset, and it is summer, and it is crowded so I was also dreading having to clumsily maneuver myself around lots of big huge cars. This morning was the first test, we open the garage, see several very cute beach bikes with baskets (Petunia is not as malleable as my guinea pig was, she won't get in). I take a deep breath and get on, and LO! Pedal Brakes!!! Hurrah!!!

A lovely, breezy, scenic bike ride along the Sconset Beach followed. How relaxing!!!