Skip to main content

first day


This morning I dropped off Jack for his first day of second grade. It was no big deal for him, but I left a little sorrowful that he's so at ease with the school routine. He put his backpack in line and hugged me goodbye, then walked away. I felt like Peggy Lee. Is that all there is to the first day of second grade?

I had a first day, too. First day back in the classroom with younger three-year-olds, and I felt like it was the first day back to a job I enjoy. Though I started last school year as a lead teacher with high hopes in the older threes classroom, as the year progressed those hopes were dashed against the rocky shore of a difficult group of kids and a co-teacher whose philosophy differed greatly from my own. This year I'm back with the age group I enjoy and two teachers whose philosophies complement my own.


When I picked up Jack at the bus stop, we were both satisfied with a good first day. We're neither of us used to concentrating like that after the lazy days of summer, so here's to a lazy Monday evening. Cheers!

Comments

sulu-design said…
I'm glad to hear that you're back in a space that's good for you. Sounds like Jack is, too. Happy new school year to you both!
auntie m said…
Glad to hear you are happy.

Popular posts from this blog

memory

expanding my culinary horizons

After last night's culinary debacle, today's culinary surprise was particularly welcome. My dear friend Rukmi brought me lunch! Rukmi is Sri Lankan. She cooks the best food. I ate a fish and egg croquette, lentil curry, saffron rice, all with delicious chicken and what I thought might be tuna. I asked Rukmi what the meat was, and she told me it's all chicken. "The flat, triangular meat? With the spices? Is it tuna?" She laughed lightly. "That's a wegetable," she said, in her lovely Sinhalese way. "Oh, yeah? Like a beet?" That made sense, because it flaked like tuna steak or like beets might. "It is jackfruit." Jackfruit? Jackfruit! I ate jackfruit today. Rukmi told me all about it: she used canned young jackfruit she bought at G & L Market on 22nd St.; fully grown jackfruits are gigantic and if one fell on your head it could kill you. When fully ripe, jackfruit is full of big pods that each have a seed in the middle, like a p...

in which I get knocked down

Sickness saps my energy, both physical and mental. It's surprising, really, how seldom I get sick, since I work in a petri dish. When I do get sick it lays me low and happenings that I might normally take in stride just completely knock me down. Last week I was diagnosed with an embarrassing viral infection, the symptoms of which on their own couldn't possibly have dragged me this deep down: sores in my mouth and throat that blistered and peeled and made every mouthful feel and taste like shredded pennies; an itchy rash around my mouth and nose and on my chest. Compounding that: knees that felt packed in hot wax, the backs of my eyeballs aflame. No fever, so no H1N1. Negative strep. Malaise. But I soldiered (martyred?) through most of the week at work, because I could, and some of the other teachers had to stay at home with their diverticulitis and kidney stones. On Thursday night my laptop died. On Friday night I felt I could deal with my weekend obligations. DH went out of t...