three on thursday

 

Thing one: I need to stop shopping.

Thing two:  I need to purge my wardrobe.

Thing three: I need to declutter my ottoman, which has become the dumping space for random items I don't want to deal with.

honoring all who served

 

currently

I am...

Reading: Winter Solstice by Rosamund Pilcher

Listening to:  an Annie Lennox concert

Thinking: my reading has slowed down considerably since I hit my goal of 100 books

Feeling:  pretty terrific

Celebrating:  I submitted my letter of intent to retire to both the superintendent and my principal

Grateful for:  a massage appointment tomorrow afternoon

Enjoying: milestones

 

Weather:  35° and mostly cloudy

A quote I want to share:

sunday stealing

Click the icon to play along

Meaningful Questions

1. If you could go back to any age, which would you choose and why? I would return to 22, but I wouldn't want to stay there for too long, just to re-experience some of the best days of my life

2. If you could snap your fingers and change any single aspect of your life today, what would you change? eliminate debt; I need to be more disciplined

3. Define a "good" or "successful" life. I think a "good" or "successful life is one filled with purpose, people, curiosity, laughter, and enough little joys to make even an ordinary day feel special

4. What's the best compliment you've ever received? the other evening I was at dinner and the waitress was a former student and she told me how much she loved having me as a teacher--and that her daughter loved having me as a teacher, too

5. What's the most valuable thing your parents taught you? This, too, shall pass.

finished reading

I love stories centered on multi-generational friendships and found families, and this book delivers just that. The narrative follows Libby as she questions an unfulfilling eight-year relationship and breaks away from merely taking the path of least resistance with her parents. Alongside her journey is Frank, a delightful man searching for his 1960s lost love by riding the London bus line where they first met. Together with Libby's nephew, Frank's punk carer Dylan, and Esme, they form a truly heartwarming found family. I particularly appreciated how thoughtfully the author handled Frank's dementia and Dylan's role as a caregiver.  It may have been slightly predictable, but it is definitely enjoyable.

From the publisher:

Strangers aboard a London bus unite to help an elderly man find his missed love connection in the heartwarming novel.

When Libby Nicholls arrives in London, brokenhearted and with her life in tatters, the first person she meets on the bus is elderly Frank. He tells her about the time in 1962 that he met a girl on the number 88 bus with beautiful red hair just like hers. They made plans for a date at the National Gallery art museum, but Frank lost the bus ticket with her number on it. For the past sixty years, he’s ridden the same bus trying to find her, but with no luck.

Libby is inspired to action and, with the help of an unlikely companion, she papers the bus route with posters advertising their search. Libby begins to open her guarded heart to new friendships and a budding romance, as her tightly controlled world expands. But with Frank’s dementia progressing quickly, their chance of finding the girl on the 88 bus is slipping away.

More than anything, Libby wants Frank to see his lost love one more time. But their quest also shows Libby just how important it is to embrace her own chances for happiness—before it’s too late—in a beautifully uplifting novel about how a shared common experience among strangers can transform lives in the most marvelous ways.

postsecret

 

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard. I like to post one that speaks to me each week.

saturday 9

One Less Set Of Footsteps

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) Jim Croce sings that "tomorrow is a dream away." What are you dreaming about today? an acquaintance of mine mentioned going on a Mediterranean cruise in June.  I'm intrigued.

2) He promises that his lover will soon hear one less voice a-talking. Who is the most recent person you spoke to? (Texts, e-mails and IMs don't count.) this morning was a Breakfast Club morning!  I sopke to my dear friends.

3) He admits that he and his lover have run out of things to say to one another anyway. Let's turn that around: Is there someone in your life with whom the conversation always flows freely? most of the people in my life, there's just one person who is not fluent in the fine art of conversation

4) He mentions the jeans hanging upon her door. Do you often wear blue jeans? daily

5) As a high school student, Jim Croce was not especially interested in music. During those years he concentrated on foreign languages, especially German. Say something to us in German. danke 

6) His focus changed when he got to college. That's when he joined a choral group that was chosen for a foreign exchange tour of Africa and the Middle East. When did you first travel far from home? Where did you go? in 1987 I went to Cork, Ireland, to attend University College Cork

7) In 1973, when this song was popular, Norman Mailer was atop the best seller lists with his controversial biography of Marilyn Monroe. When you curl up with a book, is it more likely to be fiction or non-fiction? fiction although I'm trying to read more non-fiction

8) Home calculators were innovative in 1973. You could choose a large desktop calculator that featured big keys and plugs into the wall, or a hand-held, battery-operated model. Today every cellphone and laptop has a calculator built in, so do you ever still reach for a stand-alone calculator? because we are phone-free at school, I do reach for a stand-alone calculator occasionally

9) Random question: Here's $100. What will you spend it on? snax 😏

finished reading

I truly don't know how Louise Penny manages to make each book better than the last, but I will keep reading and enjoying them. The previous two books were darker and more politically charged, which felt like a real departure from the comforting rhythm of Three Pines. Returning to the village I love so much in this installment felt like coming home.

All of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache's neighbors and friends step up to offer their signature support and quirkiness as he and his team set out to solve this murder. It is always a joy to spend time in Three Pines alongside characters who feel like old friends. Louise Penny once again balances a compelling puzzle with deep warmth and humanity. Incorporating a forgotten and shocking historical event and the titular Miss Wolcott's story, it's another fantastic addition to an extraordinary series.

From the publisher:

“There’s a body in Lost Nation.”

“Where?” demands Armand as he scribbles on the pad by his bed.

But the line goes dead before Chief Inspector Gamache can question the caller.

The head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec has no idea where Lost Nation is, or who woke him in the small hours of the morning at his home in Three Pines. What he does know is that the man was terrified.

And so Armand is thrust out of a deep sleep and into the surrounding forests in search of the mythical Lost Nation. And a body.

When he and his team of Jean-Guy Beauvoir and Isabelle Lacoste find both, the situation only grows more bizarre. The unidentified dead man appears to be from an era more than a century old. He’s lying in a long-abandoned cemetery, on top of a grave with a date, but no name.

Adding to the mystery, the early morning call appears to have come from Gamache’s friend and neighbor, Clara Morrow. While she denies any knowledge of it, it becomes clear there is some connection between her, the Morrow family, and Lost Nation.

Soon, Gamache and his team are faced with tracking down not just the legend of Lost Nation, but a lost ship, lost documents belong to an eccentric Victorian botanist, , and a mysterious plant not seen in a century, that might save, or take, countless lives.

As the murder investigation deepens, nightmarish spectres from the past begin to haunt the Sûreté officers, only heightened by the appearance of one of Gamache’s former and now disgraced proteges, with whom he must form an uneasy alliance.

As the ghosts begin to gather, Gamache, Beauvoir, and Lacoste, with the help of Reine-Marie, Clara, and the other villagers of Three Pines, realize that the body on the grave is far from the only death. To solve the crime and avert catastrophe they must look to rancid secrets and old lies no longer dead and buried.

three on thursday

 

One:  this has been a particularly rough week; I am very glad today is Thursday.

Two:  it's been a long time since I had a meltdown- but meltdown I did!  A class of entitled, arrogant boys mixed with blasting heat (it was above 80°), Capstone essays that were awful, colleagues wanting attention/advice, students in turmoil and seeking advice, the time change, detention duty with horrible miscreants, and a flu shot.

Three: but for as shitty as this week has been, I showed up and didn't take any of it out on my students. 

dona nobis pacem

 The world is uncertain.  I am putting peace into the universe.  Peace begins with me.

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