10 Things I Need to Remember to Tell Christie About My Conference in Bellevue

1. While standing in line to get my boarding pass, the woman in front of me turns to me and says, “I know this is really dumb, but …” I hear this all the time because, apparently, I have a very common face. This conversation usually ends with me telling the (true) story of a girl I knew in college who had a picture of me at her family reunion in Tennessee; of course, it really isn’t a picture of me, just one of my many doppelgangers. However, the woman at the train station followed “I know this is really dumb …” with “…but do you teach high school in Oregon City?” It turns out that her daughter was one of my students in my first year at OC. Her family was headed to Chicago to see her (my former student, mind you) perform at scene from a play she wrote at the Steppenwolf Theatre, which is a damn fine theatre company.
2. After I settled into my seat on the train, the people across the aisle from me look at me and say, “I know this sounds really dumb, but …” It turns out that they are the parents of a student I’ve had for the last four years at OC. He just graduated a couple of weeks ago. It’s a funny little world, isn’t it?
3. Mt. Ranier is nice, but Mt. Hood could totally kick its ass in a fight.
4. I am staying in a hotel with no free breakfast and no free wifi.
5. I am staying in a hotel where I can’t find the Cubs or the Mariners on TV.
6. I am staying in a hotel that doesn’t have Comedy Central.
7. I am staying in a hotel where I can plug my iPod into the clock radio (very cool!) but I cannot get the M’s on the local radio station (very uncool!)
8. Recap: I am staying in a hotel with fewer amenities than my house. Does anybody know the score of the M’s game?
9. Free wifi at Tully’s costs $4 (I gotta get the coffee of the day tomorrow; a week of iced mochas is going to bankrupt me).
10. A double decker taco costs $1.29 PLUS (brace yourselves, fragile Oregon readers …) $.12 in tax. I spent $2.82 on a couple of $.99 tacos. I’m totally homesick.
11. I just noticed that the keyboard of my laptop does not have a key for the cent sign. Check yours. Do you have one? What happened to the cent sign? Are you suggested that modern computer keyboards have no cents?

Go By Train

Christie has become a major sushi addict. I won't go near the raw fish, but I can always find a thing or two to fill my belly at most sushi places. Our favorite place by far is Sushi Takahashi because a) it's cheap, and b) the food is delivered by a little train that circles the restaurant. It's fun to see what's comin' round the mountain, as it were.

Last night, the Sushi Train came with an added bonus. One of the other customers was passing notes on the train. Some notes gave commands ("Clap your hands" or "Say Buttery Scotch Hands Out Loud" for example). Other notes asked questions. I couldn't help myself, so I contributed a note or two, too. Part of the fun was trying to figure out who was starting the notes. It was a great source of mystery and amusement.

On our way out the door, I dropped a "Thank You" note on the train. Who knew that dinner and a train could be even better than dinner and a movie?

Mugshot

Busted for public nose picking, pick pocketing of precious teacher appreciation week pen, defying the laws of gravity in door jambs and trees, public nudity, and being smarter than her dad.

Just What I Wanted for Father's Day...

... competition in the poetry biz!

Wrig recited this poem for me at dinner tonight:

"The Poem of the Peas"
by Wrigley Kline

In a bunch of peas
there is a poem.
It wants to be written
but no one can figure it out.

Debut

Ed forgot to mention that he was there to witness his own daughter's acting debut. Wrigley and Ed studied her lines every night for a week and a half for Wrigley's witch role in Alice in Idaho. You'd better believe she knew each and every one of them! Wrigley was thrilled to be acting on a real stage. The whole thing was very fun and funny.

Next Circle, Please

One of my favorite things about fatherhood has been the random glimpses into the wide variety of possibilites that eternal damnation might hold. For example, I once thought hell would hold nothing but an infinity of teething infants. And for a while there, I was certain hell would be a small room packed with three year-olds.

Ah, but today! Today I was invited to a two-hour performance of theater by children younger than 11. Two. Hours. Children. Oh, lordy.

The children were adorable. The director was a saint. But when they decided to take an EXTRA five minute intermission to get the smoke machine up and running, I felt fairly certain I had stumbled into a lost chapter of Dante's Inferno.

Fatherhood? Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

Hello Blogosphere, Remember Me? (This post goes to eleven)

10 things that made me happy this week:

1) Seeing the first clematis blossom of the summer.
2) Watching Wrig make aphid soup (yes, that said aphid soup. She liked boiled aphids so much she made her own soup with cardamom, garam masala, and cumin. Oh yeah, and aphids. Smelled great, but she couldn't get me to taste it).
3) Freewriting with my creative writing class (down to eight kids now that the seniors are gone!).
4) It's ice coffee season! Well, it was earlier in the week anyways.
5) Freeing butterflies with W&C in the backyard.
6) Freeing butterflies with students and colleagues at the OCHS Memorial Garden Opening Ceremony.
7) Listening to my class discuss Arthur Kopit's play Indians. They sure sound smart. They must have a great teacher (see #9, below).
8) Seeing an original scene written by a graduating senior performed at the Drama 4's Final Curtain Call. Saying farewell to some much loved seniors.
9) Reading reflections from my Creative Writing class about what a great teacher I am.
10) Staying up too late playing clay-marble sudoku with beautiful Christie.

And, at no extra charge, 11) Having enough time and energy to sit down and blog.

Marble's Morning

Hmmm. Blogger is making us sign in through yahoo and we have only 1 yahoo identity. I don't know that we want more, so this post is really Wrigley's.

Marble's Morning Routine:

• gets up
• eats breakfast
• watches birds
• sits by heater
• little more breakfast
• goes downstairs to nap