Today (Yesterday) was the first day of summer. It rained. So, first day of summer in the pool? No, thank you. Instead, I took a trip to Wal*Mart (yipee!) for some last minute essentials for the trip. Then, we discovered that our “fridge decided not to fridge” anymore, as I explained to a friend. I thought it might be something simple like the coils, but I tried everything I could do and a few YouTube suggestions, but none of them worked. So, now I have to call a repairman tomorrow (today).
So, not the most stellar of first days of summer. However, I more or less finished my PD work developing the new class for next year. Granted, a colleague helped, but I won’t have to worry about that during the trip. I can just “have my existential crisis on a Florida beach” as I’ve been telling people.
The Prompt
No, Thank You: If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?
Like yesterday’s joke prompt, this is a tough one. I suppose that they are supposed to be difficult and make you think. However, having just completed one of the longest and most emotionally taxing school years ever, I have little capacity to think right now. And, so, for these last few entries, you get minimal effort.
Sorry, Buddy.
One of the reasons this is difficult is that I’m not one of those people who gets angry over language. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I realize that words have meaning and that we need to say what we mean to say. But, it only bothered me for a bit that literally became a contranym. Honestly, once I learned the word contranym, it no longer angered me.
So, I can’t think of one specific word that bothers me enough to ban it. As I’ve told my students and own kids more than once, it’s the intent of words that bother me. They can swear all they want around me (it bothers Christine, so different rules, which also teaches a time and place, hopefully) as long as their intent is not to hurt someone’s feelings. That’s where I draw the line.
The Adventure
I think I already regaled you of my lack of adventure today (yesterday). So, I won’t reiterate any of that here. Today (tomorrow) is already looking like a day to finish up some last minute things before we travel tomorrow (Thursday). As I write this, in about 24 hours, we will touch down at our destination in Florida. I got confirmation texts from both the airport and the hotel this morning. It’s real.
Epilogue
So, no, I can’t think of one specific word that makes me say no, thank you. I want to ban that word. Maybe at certain times in my life. I know it really bothered Christine when Aiden started saying “Yeet” all the time. I mostly just laughed and tried to kill it by using it in my lame Dad manner. Eventually, it either worked, or he got sick of the word himself. Either way, the problem solved itself. Usually, that’s what happens. If you give the word power, it abuses that power. If not, well, eventually it solves itself.
That title looks like something vomited out by the reject Joker from The Suicide Squad movie. You want me to “tell us a joke”, do you? I, uh, I am not great at telling jokes. Granted I tell them better than my mother. I guess you will just have to take my word for it since many of you have probably never heard my mother tell a joke. We’ve arrived at a similar place as my classes. How much do you trust me? I mean, seriously. I just admitted that I can’t tell a joke very well. So, I suppose that gives me some credibility. Right?
The Adventure
Today (Yesterday), I went into school for the last teacher day. I worried that I might not be able to finish all of my tasks in a timely fashion. A few times I discussed with people that I didn’t know if it was an ADHD thing or a guy thing, but I felt very overwhelmed by the to do list given to us by administration Instead of being able to chunk the tasks, my brain kept telling me that I needed to finish all of them simultaneously.
Well, armed with this minor bout of anxiety, I faced the list with a tenacity not normally associated with me. I checked off the things that I knew I finished on Friday even if they didn’t feel finished. They were finished, but for whatever reason, I convinced myself there was more to do than there actually was. At approximately 1:15 pm, I went into my neighbor teacher’s classroom to celebrate my completion of all of the tasks. I visited a couple of other times to update her on progress.
After school, some teachers went to a local golf club. My kayaking partner in crime (well, we actually only had one trip last year, but I want to get out more this year) convinced me to go out because she promised to treat. And, she bought me a soft pretzel with cheese that was so good! So, the outdoor adventure wasn’t so much outdoor, but it was still fun.
Tell Us A Joke
No, I don’t think I will. I legitimately don’t have any jokes other than the stupid ones that I wore on my math shirts every Friday. Now, I feel like that needs to be explained. One of the science teachers came up with the idea for them to wear science T-shirts and for us to wear math themed shirts. I didn’t have any, so I had to purchase them.
The names on mine were different, but this was my favorite one to wear. Get it here.
Epilogue
Talking with a trusted associate, we asked one another how our days went. I answered with, “Relieved. Excited about the trip on Thursday. Happy I got to hang out with other teachers. So, I’d say mostly good. Actually all good. No need to qualify it otherwise.” Today (Yesterday) was a good start to summer. As with most things, today (tomorrow) represented a bit of a crash back to earth. But, they can’t all be winners.
Today’s Prompt: Describe a moment of kindness, between you and someone else — loved one or complete stranger.
But first, I have to play the hits for the fans. When I said this metaphor to someone, they responded, “Are you sure anyone likes you enough to use that metaphor?” I surround myself with such love and compassion. Frankly, finding a moment of kindness will be breeze. To be fair, I thought to say that before them, but wanted to give them the chance at the punchline.
With friends like these, amirite, Groucho? I don’t actually know if it was Groucho, but I’m giving him credit because he is such a comic genius.
Today is Father’s Day. Yesterday, Christine and Aiden discussed getting me a gift. It started when Aiden said that he wanted to go to Wal*Mart to get more YuGiOh cards. Like me, he goes through phases where he is interested in the game. Like her, he periodically goes on cleaning sprees. Sometimes those sprees end with him throwing out his YuGiOh cards. And, so, every few months or so, he ends up rebuilding his collection.
Christine asks him, “Are you going to get your father something for Father’s Day?” He replies, “I don’t know what to get him. What do you want for Father’s Day?” “Nothing.” My standard response when asked. I promise you it isn’t simply for the sake of argument. I genuinely don’t want for anything. Plus, our commercialized society needs to chill. But, as you know, none of that has anything to do with a moment of kindness.
The Adventure
Yesterday (I’m writing this as if it was still Sunday), I went kayaking for over four hours. Today’s plans were to go see The Green Sisters at Stone Cow and then head over to the in laws for a cookout and hopefully more kayaking. I first thought that they started playing at noon and that we might miss them because I chose them to work out as she floated in the pool. Luckily, the show started at 2pm. Unluckily, none of the boys wanted to join us there. Just have to remind myself that their grandfather is a father, too.
As always, The Green Sisters were amazing. We sat in the grass off to the side since they set up outside instead of in the barn. Good choice. The breeze in the shade was perfect and it would have been way too hot in the barn. We stayed for about two hours, long enough for us to have a beverage each and to share one. They also played my favorite song.
This isn’t from that show, but it is a great rendition of the song.
We left because Aiden texted to tell us that everyone was waiting for us to get there for dinner. So, we never made it out on the lake. It took some time to get dinner ready, so we probably could have gone out for an hour or an hour and a half. However, we visited and listened to The Green Sisters again because both her sister and parents were supposed to go with us. Plus, we really just love their music. The rest of the night involved eating dinner and playing games in the yard.
The Prompt (For Real This Time)
Today’s Prompt: Describe a moment of kindness, between you and someone else — loved one or complete stranger.
I may have told this story before. Maybe even on this page. I was in counseling and the therapist asked me to talk about just this scenario. Tell me about something kind someone did for you in the last week. I thought for a good 5 minutes before I said, “Uhhhh,” and stammering something about how my department head bought me a coffee and I guess that’s pretty cool. Wow, that’s sad, the therapist said, that it took you that long to think of that. I shrugged.
Aside from being unnecessarily judgmental, the comment made me realize. I posted a few sappy Father’s Day posts to Instagram and Facebook. In one of them, I said that humans are designed to forget the negative and accentuate the positive. That’s definitely true in the long run. Otherwise, how do you explain nostalgia for Woodstock ’99? That concert was a dumpster fire (literally) and yet people talk about it as if it changed minds and hearts and ushered in a new era of peace an prosperity.
In the short term, I often struggle to see the good in things. It hasn’t always been this way. I used to be a more optimistic person. I guess that life accomplished its goal of beating me into submission. But, I’m back and better than ever and without a single fuck to give. (Sorry for the PG-13 language.) Even though I can’t specifically name one, I have witnessed many acts of kindness this year. Let’s see if I can narrow it to just one.
Moment of Kindness
Never mind. As I walk around the kitchen (it is now Tuesday instead of imaginary Sunday) and think of the year, I want to talk about the last few weeks. Our English department gives the students an assignment to write a letter of appreciation to a teacher. A few students wrote their letters to me. Some were expected. Several were a surprise. One or two even reminded me the impact that you can have without even knowing how.
I promise that this isn’t a flex in any form or fashion because I truly am not sure that I deserve all of the praise that I received. However, I am thankful for it and the students themselves. I wrote another sappy post about being a teacher and feeling like Dad to many of my students. It feels good to have that feeling validated, even if only momentarily. Even as “school Dad”, you still understand that you only get 4 years with the kids. I mean, social media has allowed us to stay more in touch, which is nice.
So, my moment of kindness is actually about a dozen moments when my kids at school handed me their letters and gifts. I keep saying that this is simultaneously the longest and shortest year ever. Also, in a year that could have been one of my worst, it was actually one of my best. I owe that all to the students teaching me what I loved about teaching.
Epilogue
I thought summer might bring more time to journal and more regular updates to this and the main page. Chris and I planned to record about the new Masters set in MTG for the main page, but first I flaked on it and then the second time was supposed to be today (Sunday, yeah Father’s Day) and we promised if it didn’t happen, we’d never discuss the podcast again. So, I’m not sure what’s happening there. We talked about shifting the focus to retro gaming, which would mean we wouldn’t have to be timely with our topics. Who cares if you talk about Mortal Kombat (the original) now or two months from now? It’s a 25 year old game.
None of that is relevant, of course. Well, some of it is. I’m finishing this entry two days late. However, I plan to catch up today and tomorrow to get “current” with my daily prompts. Who knows what will happen after Thursday as we are traveling to Florida. Maybe I will write the prompts in a notebook to post to the page when we get back in a week. That actually sounds like a good idea. For a week, you will get Florida Man perspective on the page.
What the hell is that tagline? First, some background.
Yesterday I attended my first high school graduation since I left Athol High School. My new school graduated “a small but powerful class” according to our principal. Yeah, they laid it on pretty thick last night. But, I suppose that’s fair. This crew of seniors did have their last year and a half of high school more or less cancelled or “postponed”. Postponed until when, I’m not entirely sure. Honestly, though, that is neither here nor there. I met about 20 of the seniors either by having them in class or meeting them through their siblings or friends.
And, so, like the last graduation I attended, I had a vested interest in this one. Speaking of that last graduation, one of those graduates contacted me last week or the week before because her husband was playing one of the local establishments. We couldn’t make it that performance. However, another popped up for this most recent Thursday. I promised to stop in for that one. I did, we visited for an hour, and it made me feel a bit better about this year’s seniors graduating. As a teacher, you know that you only rent the kids for four years at the most, but it still hurts to lose them when they leave.
So, what’s the point? You must be new here. It often takes me some time to actually get around to the point of a post. It’s either endearing or infuriating depending on your viewpoint and how much time you have to spend here at the page. Okay, from here I can go one of two places. Either explain the tagline or continue to stall. Of course, there’s only one logical choice. Once upon a time…Okay, I kid.
The Prompt
The Prompt (from here): Often, our blogs have taglines. But what if humans did, too? What would your tagline be?
I enlisted the advice of a trusted associate and they suggested the tagline in the title. I promised to use it without context or explanation, so there you have it.
The Adventure (Part 1)
Finding Motivation: A Play in 3 Acts, Act 1
The day started with catching up on Magic the Gathering quests. I wasn’t able to play last night because I got in late from the graduation and was spent from all of the emotion of the night. While I played, I watched some of the Euro 2020 futbol tournament. Christine came up with the idea to go kayaking. She made an appointment for an end of school year massage, but had a couple of hours before she needed to leave, so she figured we could take that time to go to the lake. Aiden and Quinn went to a friend’s house. Liam hung out at home with the dog. And, I sat on the couch and tried to find the motivation to load my kayak onto the car for our adventure. I honestly have to say that it could have gone either way. I wanted to kayak, but I also wanted to sit on the couch and play MTG and watch the futbol. Which impulse wins? Stay tuned!
The Adventure (Part 2)
Finding Motivation: A Play in 3 Acts, Act 2
As you can see, I chose kayaking. Or, did I? *insert spooky cliffhanger music* Maybe this is an old picture. I suppose you can verify that by checking the image properties. How invested are you in proving me a liar? I mean, you know that I will eventually reveal that I ended up kayaking, right? Or, will I? *insert spooky cliffhanger music* I will. I’m usually bad at keeping secrets. Though, I have kept secret where Christine and I are going on our 20th wedding anniversary trip. I slipped earlier and told her the state, but not the actual destination within that state. Maybe I’ll keep you in suspense until the finale.
The Adventure (Part 3)
Finding Motivation: A Play in 3 Acts, Act 3
Okay, you win. Or do you? All right, I give up. I can only take a joke so far before I get sick of it. Among other reasons, it’s why I never became a stand up comedian. So, yes, I chose kayaking. I tied it on the roof, pulled out of the driveway, and passed Christine on her way back to the house? Why, I wondered is she driving back home? I figured we would just meet at the lake. Perhaps she had no faith in my follow through. To her credit, she does have 25 years of experience of me flaking on commitments.
The Adventure (Epilogue)
Finding Motivation: A Play in 3 Acts, Epilogue
After setting up my kayak, I went to pick up Christine’s from a friend’s house while she talked to those friends. I avoided them again because I’ve been avoiding them for the better part of 6 months now and it would honestly be more awkward to just walk up to them and say, “Hello, fellow humans.” Then again, that is an odd way to start a conversation just in general. Either way, I told Christine it was because she only had like an hour and a half to kayak before her massage appointment. More than a modicum of truth in that, but not the whole truth. Oh well. I enjoyed our time together and got to tell her all about the stories from graduation the night before. Parents and teachers. We just talk constantly about our kids.
The Adventure (Post Credit Scene)
Finding Motivation: A Play in 3 Acts, Post Credit Scene
All in all, I spent four plus hours on the lake. Most of it was spent being blown around by the wind and unsuccessfully fishing. However, I deliberately rowed into the far cove to try to fish there and then to my other favorite fishing spots. No fish at any of them, but one of my turtles friend hung out on his favorite branch, allowing me to get a picture. Turtles have great significance for me as my father loved turtles and their symbolism. So, any time I see one, I take a picture. Because, you neve know.
Epilogue
I successfully included the tagline without context or explanation. We made it outside for the better part of the afternoon and early evening. Honestly, I only came home because Christine texted me that she went to Crazy Noodle in Amherst after her appointment and got me Pad Thai. They make the best Pad Thai I’ve ever tasted. Then we watched the new Disney+ movie, Luca as a family. Well, Liam went up to his room to chat with friends, so it was most of the family. I finished out the evening by getting frustrated at the hockey game and then switching over to the watch the Sounders score two unanswered goals and win their game. All in all, today was a great first day of summer. Sure, I have to go in on Monday to finish clean up and such, but then I’m done. And, we’re off to Florida on Wednesday/Thursday. Maybe my tagline should be, “Endless Summer”. Nah, that’s been done.
