traffic court

In an earlier episode (the day I went to see Twilight), I got a fix-it ticket for my tail light(s) being out. I got it fixed five days later, but still had the paperwork issue to deal with. On Saturday I went to the nearest police substation to get the repair validated — and they were closed! So I went back this morning. I was the only one there who wasn’t there for an impounded vehicle, aside from a girl talking to the police officer I needed. One group there for an impound looked like something out of Judge Judy. I’m not sure they even managed to determine who actually owned the car in question!

So Officer went out with me and checked my lights and signed off on the paper. Then I had to go downtown to traffic court. “Go downtown” should strike terror in your heart, because it was designed by Satan himself. You have to guess where everything is, including streets that seem to move when you’re not looking. I found a parking garage, which meant I got my exercise looking for the city court building! I also found the county court and federal court in the process. And Immigration. And HUD. And Food Stamp eligibility. And I won’t remember where any of those are if I ever need them again (which I don’t actually foresee).

Now we pause while you imagine what City Court looks like. Or else imagine what I thought City Court would be like. Wrong. I got in and it was very much like the DMV except for the security checkpoint and the plexiglass (or bullet-proof glass) in front of each station. I got a number, which was coded like at the DMV, so while I was waiting for I943, and they were on I922, I also had to wait for D, A, F or P (I forget which), and another letter as well. So we all sat their waiting for our chance to go sit at a window.

While I was sitting there, someone behind me tapped me on the shoulder. I must’ve been in the “there’s too many people here” zone because I didn’t notice them until I was tapped. But I did immediately discover why I forget things — my brain is too full of other stuff! Behind me was my dear student K from last year — the part-time one. He was there with his mom, so we chatted a little. As I suspected, they moved back to Nogales, so now she could be by her mother who was sick a lot last year. I also asked about the sister, who was like 19 but he had to miss school because she was in the hospital and mom had to sit with her. For a second I was stunned when he mentioned something about being in fifth grade, but then I remembered that I hadn’t retained him. But of course as we sat there I remembered everything about him and his family.

I also learned something interesting sitting there — you can’t go to traffic school more than once in a two-year period. So if I had a traffic violation and had to go to all-day-school, I couldn’t do that again for two whole years. I’ve never had to do it, but I do know someone who has claimed to have to do it a few times!

Anyway, it was finally my turn at the window. She took care of my paperwork and suspended my entire fine (instead of getting a lower one for having the repairs done, I had no fine at all!). That made my day! So since I was downtown and had to pass the library, I went in and paid that fine. Eventually I made it home, not making too many wrong turns in my attempt to escape from downtown!

photos from my mother’s side

These are photos that my grandmother had given me.

According to what she wrote on the back, on the left is her brother Joe Vernon (his middle name is Vernon, and that’s what he was called), and my grandmother. There were a bunch of kids in the family older than her, and one or two younger. I think (especially looking at the photo of five of them) that Uncle Vernon was younger than my grandmother, so the names may be backwards here.

I know it’s not clear; it’s old! Back: Gladys, Reed. Front: Grandmother, Vernell (the baby of the family), Vernon.

Samuel Nacy Huffstedler, July 1942, age 83. My grandmother wrote “Pappy” on the back, so I think he’s her grandfather, making him my great great grandfather.

The back says Joe Bridges, Claud Bridges, Dad & Brother. Her father’s name was Joe Henderson Bridges so if the names match the posing order (which they didn’t for the above picture of the five) then the one on the left is my great grandfather.

Top: Billy Joe and Harold Kee; Bottom: my mother and her brother Jerry.

1977, the 50th wedding anniversary of my mother’s Uncle Ernest and Aunt Bessie — the parents of Billy Joe and Harold. Harold is the man on the far right (his daughters are around my age) and Billy Joe is the second man from the left (not the real young one)

Blizzard of 2008

I got a gift certificate to Bookman’s http://www.bookmans.com/ for Christmas, and still had some left over from my birthday one, so I decided to go shopping for books. It was awesome, of course. It’s been raining, and when I came out of the store into the parking lot, it felt different — colder — icier. Then I looked at my dark jacket — IT WAS SNOWING ON ME! OK, it was snowing independent flakes, none of which joined its buddies, and it melted as soon as it touched the car and the ground. But dang, those were little white flakes on me!

Yes, that’s the closest I’ve been to snow since I left Wisconsin.

Christmas 2008 pics

These are the pics from being at Dad and Dottie’s today. I don’t have pics yet of last night, because other people were taking pics.

more pics

I recently found a bag with photos in it. I scanned some of them this morning while my sister was sleeping.

This is a few months before my grandmother died. My mother was pregnant with me. If I recently posted a picture of the infant Liane (my cousin) in my grandmother’s arms, this is the same event — Memorial Day weekend, 1957.

above: Anthony’s first Christmas
below: Betty’s first Christmas

Baby pictures: my hospital photo and me at 8 weeks old

Anthony at 2, at his baptism, Betty’s second birthday, etc.

my high school graduation

Donna

I think that’s all the ones I scanned! Of course I have more to scan, but I have a short attention span!

Shhhhh…

There’s a cat on my lap and a sister sleeping on the couch. Or sofa. Depending on where you live.

I’m exhausted and couldn’t figure out why my arms and shoulders were achy — and then I realized that I actually moved furniture yesterday when I vacuumed. I have a coffee table that was Dottie’s that’s as solid as if the tree were still rooted into the ground. I also moved the couch and recliner, two other coffee tables, and hung livingroom curtains (burgandy on the two sides and sheers in the middle). These are not the things I usually do! Plus all the other cleaning yesterday…no wonder I’m pooped!

Donna came yesterday afternoon and made two loaves of banana bread from her recipe. No one ate them yet, but we can have them for breakfast! Lots of people came, and they brought lots of food. The group that was here: Dad, Dottie, Donna, Buz, Jemma, Jaeden, Del, Laura, Cathleen, Diana, and I was here too! We ate pot roast, potatoes, peas, green corn tamales, carne seca tamales, eggplant parmesian, green olives wrapped in cheese and salami, baked goods from various sources including Dottie’s cookies, candy cane pie (chocolate with a peppermint kind of whipped topping), black olives, green olives, raw veggie platter … there may have been more but I’ve forgotten at the moment. Plenty of leftovers!! After we ate dinner, we opened gifts, and then we ate dessert. When everyone left Donna, bless her heart, did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. I just couldn’t move. I could barely stay awake! But it was a great time.

The Desert Duck wishes you and your loved ones a very blessed Christmas and New Year!

half

Yes, the school year is officially half over now. My mind hasn’t grasped that it’s Christmas vacation yet, since I still have U of Px stuff to do, report card stuff to do, and lesson plans. I also have to get ready for my new SFA group. I really liked the last group. They were mostly third graders and some 4th graders, reading on a 4.1 (first half of fourth grade) level. According to the story tests they took, I recommended that two definitely be moved up to 4.2, but also that there were at least four others who could make the jump as well. We make recommendations because they tend to go by this official test that we administer but never get to see the results of, so if the kids don’t do well on that test they don’t get moved up — unless you let them know that you think the child is ready to move. So I get my new list, and it’s a hard group again. Not only that, it’s kids who mastered 3.2 but are going straight to 4.2 and skipping 4.1. These are kids who are behind — 4th and 5th graders. Why? Well … it seems that every single one of my last group passed the reading test and moved up to 4.2! All of them! So they think I must do a good job and are giving me a hard group!

We had our violin concert the other morning. Do not confuse this with the music extravaganza at SJB. It was our class, followed by another one. The audience was maybe a dozen parents, the class following us, and a third grade class. Our rehearsals — didn’t exist at all. We didn’t even know about the concert until a week before! All things considered, we sounded rather decent, and the teacher gave us a 5 out of 5, and pointed out that earlier groups were lucky to get a 3. When we were done, we sat and watched the next class, partially so that they could have an audience, and partially to give my class a break. Plus it’s nice for them because they get no cultural events at all — no concerts, plays, etc. But as I sat there, I realized really how lucky they are to have OMA http://www.omaprogramaz.org/. Every single one of them gets to learn how to play the violin in 4th grade and how to read music. She plans to have them writing their own music as well! Recorders are third grade, violins are fourth grade, and then everyone learns a band instrument in fifth grade. First or second writes their own opera. I sure wish we got to see that!!!

Thursday afternoon I signed my evaluation, and she said she was happy that I actually wanted to be there at that school. Not a lot of people do! Thursday morning the principal walks in with this guy. He’s going to shadow me. “Today??” I asked. Yep, the last day before vacation, when the kids are bonkers, that’s the day he’s going to shadow me. They’re trying to prepare him to teach one of the fifth grade teachers — a teacher who I guess was told today that he wasn’t coming back after vacation. The new guy taught high school, so he should be able to handle that fifth grade class, in theory. He was very helpful in the room, though. Not one for sitting back and taking notes.

Done Christmas shopping except for the Sunday Brunch Bunch, at least some of whom will be over Christmas Eve for dinner. I hate that I second-guess myself. I get something for someone because I know they’ll totally love it. I can see them using it, wearing it, doing whatever is meant to be done with it, and loving it. Then I start thinking “What if they think this is so stupid? What if they don’t know that they might love it?” It’s a challenging time of the year. No matter. I still love it.

Note to everyone who isn’t in Arizona: There’s a place here called La Encantada http://www.laencantadashoppingcenter.com/events.asp?id=55. The radio has been promoting this event:

Snowfall ‘08
Now through Saturday, December 20, 2008

La Encantada is proud to have the Enchanted Snowfall this holiday season.
Guests will be delighted with holiday music from the Tucson Harmony Group, an amazing snow show and hot chocolate from Williams-Sonoma and Frost Gelato.

Enchanted Snowfall will be a weekly event taking place on Friday and Saturday evenings in the Tucson Lifestyle Courtyard. Each 15-minute show begins promptly at 6:00 pm with an encore show taking place at 6:45 pm each night.

Shows will be held:

November 28 & 29
December 5,6,12,13,19 &20.

Be sure to come early! No fee.

What does this mean? They are making it snow in the courtyard! On purpose! So that local people who don’t get to see snow or whose children haven’t seen snow can experience it! Think about this as you look out your window at yet more of that ghastly white stuff: We have a place that’s creating snow twice a night for entertainment and education. I’m almost tempted to go!

Vista

In my Master’s class, each class inevitably ends up discussing Vista. There are those who hate it, and those who think we’re whiners who can’t handle change. The following is an analogy I wrote to explain Vista. For those of you blissfully ignorant because you’re using an older computer with XP, be VERY nice to that computer. Kiss it good night. Tell it bedtime stories. Keep it happy and healthy. Otherwise, Vista is in your future!

The analogy:

Imagine this. You come home from work and want to get a cup of coffee. Your wife lets you know that she’s redone the kitchen. That’s fine. It’s her area of expertise, and if she’s happy, you’re happy. You don’t see the coffee cups. You go to the cupboard where they used to be, and it’s locked. You open the cupboard with the key that’s on the counter — to discover another door inside the cupboard. You unlock that, too, to find another one. After you unlock the third inner sanctum door, you find the cups and grab one. But where’s the coffee pot? After hunting all over while debating whether or not you should just skip the whole thing and get your coffee from McDonald’s from now on, you discover that the coffee pot is in the fridge. Why did she put it in the fridge? It was a more efficient use of space than just leaving it on the counter. So you pour yourself a cup of cold coffee and look for the microwave. It’s in the bathroom. Why is the microwave in the bathroom? Well, it just wouldn’t be change if things were where you were used to finding them, now would it? So now you’ve figured out that if you want a spoon to stir your coffee and you want to put sugar in it, there’s no point in looking in the silverware drawer for the spoon or the sugar bowl for the sugar. Perhaps you’ll learn with time where she put everything, but even then: is it really more efficient to put the coffee pot in the fridge and to lock the coffee mug cupboard three times?

That’s Vista.

dream

I dreamed I woke up and opened the front door — and there was six inches of snow on the front porch? Snow? Porch? I was back in Jefferson! I went to that side window that I never opened in the little library room by the bathroom, and of course there was more snow. I could see Tania and someone else in the church parking lot. They were calling me and waving, so I waved back and told them to come over. It was still snowing, by the way. Then I kept thinking that I had to take a picture of the snow to send to my father. But I was also depressed that I had to shovel the porch and sidewalk. And it didn’t make sense. Didn’t I move to Tucson? Was Tucson just a dream?

We really are supposed to get snow tonight, but that’s in the upper elevations, not down here in the valley. We’ll be able to see nicely powdered mountains without shoveling. Works for me!

On Friday the school superintendent came to see our school. I don’t know what she thought or anything … but she was in the Sunday paper. She talked about school overcrowding and stuff, and said she’d never send her kids to a school with 900 students! Our school was built for 500, the article points out, and the rest are in portables. Yes, I don’t like being in a portable. But our children don’t get lost in the shuffle. Many people know them because each quarter it’s possible for them to have a different SFA (reading) teacher. The groups are according to reading level (in theory), so they get to know many students and teachers each year. The problems at the school have nothing to do with the size of the student body.

typical day … ish

I got a call from Marvin last night — the teacher I carpooled with at the beginning of the year. He needed a ride this morning. No problem. So I picked him up in the totally pitch black, knowing that it won’t lighten up outside in the morning until after Christmas. Fun.

I’m not used to talking to someone (again) on the way to work, so I almost drove right past it! We got there at 6:50 and it was still dark. It was only the quickly approaching school crossing signs overhead that tripped my memory.

Once in my lovely trailer, I turned on the two heat units (like window air conditioners without the windows, but they are my heating and cooling sources). Then I cranked out a 3-page writing lesson plan, printed out division timed tests, typed up lesson and learning objectives to post, and gathered up what I wanted to take to the office (which doesn’t open until 7:30). We got an e-mail about a mandatory survey so I took it last night and printed out the validation. That’s what I took to the office. I got there and one admin said to someone about needing to mention the survey at the meeting today and I held up my paper that proved I took it already. Bravo me!

So it’s a typical day at work — We do (once again) graphic organizers in my never-ending quest to extol the virtues of prewriting (especially since it’s on the report card). Our next writing test is a personal narrative, so my sample for this particular version of a graphic organizer is flying with Ginny — bringing my poor cat on the plane with me when I moved here. They love hearing stories (hey, I’m fascinating!), so I use my own examples when doing these things. I ended up telling them the near-drowning in the middle of the street story too. (We talked about how stories about things going wrong can be more interesting.)

Next we went to OMA. That went fairly well. We plucked (played pizzicato) and then used bows to play Mary Had A Little Lamb, Hot Cross Buns (here called Taco Shells), and one other song. Then it was time to leave.

That’s when we got the lock-down announcement. On the plus side, usually I’m dying to go to the bathroom by then, but this time I wasn’t. Good thing. Lockdown entails all classroom doors being locked, everyone being in a classroom, and sitting on the floor with the lights off. There was an accident outside the school right before the bell rang, so many people were late, including the OMA teacher. Had she been on time, we would have been outside when the lock-down was called. While we were there we practiced the fingering to a few songs because apparently we’re having a violin concert next Wednesday. Who knew? The all clear was about half an hour later.

The story was that two girls were taking the recycling bin to wherever they were taking it, and they saw a strange guy walking on the playground. Said strange guy opened his sweater, displaying a gun tucked into his pants. Joy of joys. So at SFA time, which was about ten minutes later, a student said to me “I’ll be coming with L from now on.” I asked why and she said that L was now her partner or walking buddy or whatever the term was.

It has always creeped me out that the kids go alone to the bathroom on the compound. That’s one reason I take the whole class. But I decided that if another teacher can do that, I can too. So I assigned each child a partner of the same gender, trying to avoid people who are friends. In the case of those most likely to mess around, I gave them a partner from their list of least liked classmates. Sure, you can go to the restroom, but Least Liked is going with you.

I miss doing Angel Books with my students this time of year, but it’s not a public school activity. So I adapted it this afternoon. I made a sheet for each student and myself that says “I am making the world a better place”, and we wrote our names above that heading. I also made a larger copy that we all signed. I’m posting them on a board that’s been used for something else. Every time we do something nice for someone, we can write it on the sheet. You should’ve seen kids falling over themselves to do a good deed right before the bell rang! So right before they go home for Christmas vacation, I’ll give them a huge sheet of construction paper to fold in half like a card. Then they’ll put there list of good deeds in the card for their parents.

I hate lock-downs. For the record.