mid life

THIS week, out of the blue, one of my closest friends from middle school called us on the phone. Mind you, this is someone I haven't seen since 1969!

She finally got around to getting a facebook account and went looking for me. Once you find my last name, it's pretty easy; there aren't many of us.

She had a turbulent life, but seems good now. I think of her often. She was a person I really admired. I was deep in the angst of trying to fit in at a new school, and it had some SERIOUS cliques. The kind that won't include you if you make other "unacceptable" friends. You know -- poor kids, smart kids, fat kids. I wanted so badly to be liked and was secretly ashamed to be ashamed of some of my less "popular" friends.

Lynn was a great role model. She made friends with whomever she liked with no apologies and had the best time. The way she completely ignored the "popular" rules inspired me to "let it go". Still, it was never pleasant at the country club when the other girls would snub me. Yes, the country club. In that dry county we belonged so that Dad could take visiting business people out to dinner *and* get a martini. The only parts I liked were that they had a color TV in the lounge for Bonanza on Sunday nights, and Tab Wickman was sometimes there -- an adorable but unpopular guy 1 year younger than I. He became a "boyfriend"; as much as any 13-14yo had a boyfriend then.

Anyway, HURRAY for finding Lynn again.

Long ago, newly out of college and relocated to Austin, I was dating a fellow programmer at TI. A new guy came into my group fresh out of school, and I broke him in. He was a newlywed; proposed when he got the job offer. They got married and moved to Austin from Minnesota.

Somehow or another, in spite of the many differences between we and they, we became fast friends. We became family. We played bridge almost every Friday night till the wee hours, went on overnight trips to 6 Flags. He ushered in our wedding.

We left Austin in 79, and visited once in 83. After that, a few sparse phone calls, then a few emails, and the connection faded away.

A couple weeks ago, I got an email out of the blue from Glen that he'd be doing a conference in Staunton and could drive to see us Sat. afternoon.

How strange an afternoon. He looks about 1 week older than he did in '83. His startup has done well and has 30 employees. Pat is Pat's Games -- they built a little castle where she runs Magic The Gathering tournanments. Our children have grown and fled without us ever meeting the other's. His daughter majored in Physics after a messed up college year or two and coping with dylexia, oddly mirroring our daughter's difficult time adjusting to post-High School life.

We went to Valhalla Vineyards for our "local color" expedition; a perfect intro to Roanoke.

It just left a warm fuzzy smile on my face.

My daughter sent me this link. It's an internet musical made during the writers' strike... it's by Joss Wheadon


http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog

Doing a new job, sure makes you find new stuff on the net.

I've been browsing for not-completely-math-useless movies I might use as emergency substitute teacher lesson plans.

Try this Abbott and Costello clip..
http://www.math.harvard.edu/~knill/mathmovies/m4v/inthenavy_28.m4v

This site has bunches of little clips about math from tons of movies.

And I found a bio of Richard Feynman -- Infinity, and what sounds like an absolute Jewel of quirkiness -- Insignificance -- DiMaggio, Marilyn Monroe, Einstein, and Joe McCarthy meet.

I still haven't managed to find a clip of Danny Kaye's song about the Pythagorean Theorem from the movie Merry Andrew. The net looks like it *used* to be there but got scrubbed. Can't even find a dvd copy of the film to buy.

Made the blues festival at Chateau Morrisette Saturday. It was a little hot; but better than Roanoke. When the sun went under a cloud it was perfect.

Great way to spend an afternoon. I'm not sure what they intended for the "no picnics" change these last couple years; I don't see people eating much, so I'm not sure the vendors are happy. I know we mostly eat in Roanoke before we head up there.

It was a good day for a cold white; we did a bottle of Viognier and a red sangria each.

I even spent money at the arts/crafts; been years since something caught my eye. Bought a cool necklace with braided leather and purple freshwater pearls, and pottery bowl with "ash glaze" dripping down towards the center.

A very good week.

A job offer from the PH math department, long after I had given up hope of them. Still playing phone tag 'cause of the long weekend but hopefully the deal will be sealed monday.

At the lake, my little nature trail through the woods took a bit hit I think Fri. night. I went up with a hand saw to do some light maintenance and found two monster trees down across it. I enlisted the help of my BIL and we worked for the next couple hours. He went on way too long; his back was killing him afterwards. But the trail? It's in super shape.

The upstream and downstream neighbors had amazing fireworks this year; every bit good enough to prevent any wistfulness for driving into town for the mob scene.

One more crazy thing.. through the quirkyness of regulation, I am getting a new 26 weeks of unemployment benefits. I *did* work at least 30 days in the last 6 months -- doing substitute teaching. That entitles me to benefits. So, they go back and compute the *amount* of benefits by looking through Jan-Dec 07. Well, that includes 6 months at CAC, and all the lump sum stuff at the end. so, this year, I get even more per week than a year ago 'cause the benefit levels were bumped up by the government. Happily enough, I won't use much of it since I'll start working for the City in mid August, but who would have thought?

-- Miss, Please come back to your assigned seat.
-- Why should I have to? Everybody else is our of their seat.
-- I'm working on that. Please come back so James can seat in *his* seat.
-- Why? Nobody else is.
-- Are you saying you refuse to sit in your seat?
-- Why should I have to?
{calls principal and writes referral)

Note surprised students. They seem a little thick. They think since they sat down after I picked up the phone they shouldn't get in trouble.

Just another confirmation that warnings are stupid discipline procedures. Why teach someone they can defy you *until* something or other. They know the rules, they break them, I remind them. That's it. After that, it's too late.

And what strange logic says that because someone else breaks a rule it's no longer a rule?

I've had my last interview for now. Dunno. I could get an offer, but it's not really clear. I don't get a real "wow" feeling from these guys. I think I'm just another "new" teacher with a lot of miles on the engine.

or at least so I thought.

In the dim light of dawn as I walked back after putting the garbage out at the curb something GROWLED! from directly behind me.

I darted for the porch door in a panic, but glanced behind and promptly tripped over a water hose and fell flat, well, more twisted actually. Wrenched muscles everywhere, instant puffy knot on my right elbow.

At the point, I realized the scary animal about to "attack" me was little Rags from next door. She's stands all of about 7 inches high and is sweet as all get out. I guess she really meant to say hello but it came out as a growl. She was terribly embarrassed. Skulled around her master's feet for the entire conversation. Seemed afraid I'd spank her.

I'm so a klutz. A sore klutz.

Out of the blue, a Curves workout friend who hasn't been to Curves in forever emailed and invited me to sub in her ladies' afternoon party bridge.

What a delight! I was decades younger than these people, but they were all perky and smart a**ed (in a very ladylike southern way) great company. Some of their cultural references were too old for me, like someone's hair being like "gravel gertie?" from Dick Tracy? I'm not sure anyone other than my friend who extended the invitation has ever worked outside the home and even she has been doing weird just-for-fun jobs for probably 20 years. And yet, the conversation was issue oriented rather than the endless gossip about other people's lives whom I'd never met.

The cool thing about these ladies was the civilized way they discussed issues without assuming that everyone agreed with them or that they already knew everything there was to know about the topic.