The number of school days left until summer vacation...amazing! My week is even shorter because I was sick on Monday and stayed home all day watching TV and reading The Brothers K. I am loving this book about baseball and religion and how they both affect the relationships of one family. Here's an excerpt about the oldest brothers growing up and apart:
"To me it felt as though two old and intimate friends, after sixteen years spent hiking shoulder to shoulder, had come to a fork in the trail, and without even noticing had taken different paths. When they first looked up and saw what had happened, they were not at all far apart: they could still speak quietly to each other, could still see each other perfectly well. But they just kept going! All those years spent side by side, yet they didn't hesitate, didn't wave goodbye, didn't even acknowledge that they'd parted! Somehow this chilled me to the heart. It seemed that only I understood that, blithe as their divergence had been, it was permanent. So as my big brothers hiked intrepidly on, I--the slow, over-round, over-adoring brother who'd spent his whole life traipsing happily along behind both of them--just stood back at the fork, watching them veer farther and farther apart, and grieving for us all."
Tonight one of my students' parents had their daughters' teachers over for dinner. They have a great outside patio where we ate and visited. It was a really nice way to feel appreciated and rejuvenated for the end of the year. Another thing that is rejuvenating is getting a good laugh at my students. By this time of the year I really enjoy and appreciate them (some days that's easier than others), and joke around with them, and sometimes get a long, good laugh at their expense.
So last week we were reading To Kill A Mockingbird and one of my students fell asleep with his head on his desk. I guess he fell into a deep enough sleep that he was dreaming and he thought he was falling down the stairs, so his body jerked like he was trying to catch himself, and he ended up catapulting himself out of his desk and almost fell on the floor. I couldn't help but crack up, along with the rest of the class, at how ridiculous it looked. It was even better when he looked around with his half-asleep face trying to figure out what was going on and why everyone was laughing and that he was not actually at the bottom of the stairs, but in English class. 12 more days of fun stories like that, and then I'm on summer vacation! What a good job!
