One Day More...

Okay, Blogger belched big time yesterday and swallowed my entire post--I've never been so grateful for a computer taking a dump in my life, because it was more self-indulgent crap about how much my job sucks, and, truth be told, I'm tired of hearing it and I'm living it, so I was glad to spare everybody else out there!

I worked some on the baby sweater last night (anybody remember that? I started it in, like, August? It's a good thing I sized it up...unfortunately, I think I sized it to fit Arwyn NEXT August, but, hey, she'll get some wear out of it this year...) and it was a welcome change. I love baby socks. I love baby hats. But I'm on my 4th set of 9 now, and it's starting to feel like the SAME baby sock and baby hat, so I'm taking out a few other projects (a pair of socks out of Cherry Tree Hill Yarn, the baby sweater, the baby dress, yeah, I've got some UFO's...) and trying to make some FO's.

Of course WIP's aren't a problem... it's been getting cold enough to wear my scarves--I've got about ten, most of them made with bright acryllic yarn--and the kids are begging for me to make them something... I kind of like doing this, although I usually charge them, just so they don't take it for granted--of course, EVERYBODY has a preference...the good news is that it's a place to use my acryllic yarn:-)

I'm liking my kids right now...I sort of had a long talk with myself about finding the joy in my work again...even if I want to do something else, I've always had a joy in my students, in teaching, and some of it came back today. Part of it was watching my 2nd period get nuts about 6th Sense-- a lot of them hadn't seen it before, and suddenly, the light went on. "Oh...foreshadowing was when they gave us hints that Bruce Willis was dead!" Lights on, concept home--it was a nice moment. The other good part came when my 3rd period watched the end of Last of the Mohicans--they were so into the end of the movie--and event though Michael Mann has completely lost his mind and cut the Clannad song out of the end of the director's cut (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I played it for them via a complicated arrangement of i-pod, boom-box, and tape translator, and they liked it. (I played it for my 4th period DURING the part it should have been on in the first part and they REALLY liked it. What kind of drugs would you have to do to think that cutting that song was a good thing?) But they liked it--they loved it, in fact. (My gang kids especially like the bloody hand-to-hand combat. Maybe now that one kid who got expelled from summer school for weapons will only find it necessary to carry knives instead of guns too.) Anyway, they liked it. They loved it. And I suddenly feel like I didn't share something with people who delight in crapping all over me. Much better feeling, trust me.

Of course, all of this unbounded optimism might be because a cautiously positive thing happened yesterday. About a week ago, I called both the agencies I sent my manuscript to and asked for a note on my progress. I got a call yesterday apologizing for the wait and telling me that they just hadn't gotten to the manuscript, but that they were working on it. I know, I know--it's nothing, really, a courtesy call. However, for the first time I don't feel like I'm shooting T-shirts into the stratosphere out of an air-gun, with some logarithmic chance of getting them back or having anyone else getting them and appreciating them. That one phone call makes my whole endeavor that much less random, and that's a good thing.

So, for those of you familiar with Les Miserable, you've got two songs to choose from:

At the end of the day you're another day older, and that's all you can say in the life of the poor...

OR...

One more day. One day more.

The weekend's in one more day. For teaching, I've had one day more:-)