Expect the Unexpected

Crazy is as crazy does....a little poetic license from Forrest Gump!  As I had previously noted on this blog, I started a performance club at my school.  The response was unbelievable: 157 students signed up.  More showed interest later but we had to say "no" due to the response.  I also had four other teachers offer (out of the goodness of their hearts) to help out.  How lucky am I? There was no way I could have possibly managed that many children by myself.  

Well, I had already planned to split the group into two: primary and intermediate.  Two of the teachers would help on Tuesday, the other two on Thursday of each week.  

On Monday, I received an email basically saying, "We are splitting from the intermediate group and having a performance in December. We have picked our own play.  We talk with you about the details later."  

Hmmm, was I just bumped from my own program?  Confused and surprised, I later did meet with the two splitters.  Now, normally, one would be upset about someone or ones coming in and hijacking their project.  Not me!  It is turning out even better than I had hoped or even dreamed!  You see, my original purpose and goal was to provide a club or activity for the students at my school.  It was never about me.  I wasn't looking for glory or an opportunity to put on a stress-filled performance with a bus load of children!  I do still have a little sanity! Now our students have a primary performance club and an intermediate performance club.  But wait! It gets even better.  The intermediate group has also had a bit of a split.  As luck would have it, the art teacher (one of the glorious volunteers) has created a stage crafting club for students in the performance club who want to participate but not necessarily perform.  That makes three clubs from the original one.  How exciting is that?  Who knew that all a person had to do was get the proverbial ball rolling and the altruistic, dramatic die-hards would literally pounce out of the wood work to get involved.  Isn't life a wonderful thing!  You just never know what will happen when you start your journey.  I am so glad I was able to part of such a funny, clever little adventure!  I will keep you updated.  This is only the third week.  Who knows what else could materialize!

A few days ago, I accidentally stumbled on to an inspired blog created by someone is consider to be very special. I have been writing term papers and required reports for over 16 years. Now I want to spend my time writing creative pieces and exploring a more the wonderous side of the written word. I was stunned by the injustice of not even being considered to be invited to such a glorious endeavor. Am I so innocuous that it did not occur to any of my three somebody specials that I would hop, skip, jump, crawl, and beg to be included?
"Well" my hateful, fanged twin sneered, "I will just start my own damn writers' workshop with much more interesting and talented people who I like so much better than you bunch of grapeheads!"
Unfortunately, I don't know any other group like them. Drats! Foiled in my own revenge. Where can I find such an eclectic group of writers without all the silly hang-ups of the people I am surrounded by? Without actually leaving the comfort of my little home...no where: that's where!
"Hello, everyone out there in cyberland, wanna write and share, and write, and share and eat and drink and critic?" I ask desperately in my little corner of sincity.
If you are fun-loving, uninhibited by fear of failure (that doesn't mean human doubts occasionally), willing to push the envelope, unwilling to accept the quid pro quo, and authentic in your reach to explore life, then you can be part of my blog....any takers?

Wishing for a small 85

Wow, 85 looks like such a wonderfully small group. The number is now up to 150 lovely little elementary students. My principal continues to chuckle as he passes me in the hallway while I deliver reminders to these drama stars. Maybe if I don't hand out reminders, then the numbers will dwindle. No, I would probably just have to field more phone calls. Not that I mind speaking with these exuberant parents, it is just that there are only so many hours in a day and so many days in a week.

I must give credit...There are four other teachers that have jumped on the "crazy drama cart" and are volunteering their time and talent. Thank goodness. I really cannot imagine how I would ever have managed to handle all of these children alone.

The response has been heartwarming. Children stop me in the hall daily, reminding me that they "saw" me in drama club. It's like being at the grocery store and being spotted by a student. They seems so surprised to "bump" into: like I am a real person or something crazy like that.

Thursday was the open house at the high school and so I was there to meet my daughter's teachers. The principal happily offered to let our "little" group use the theater for our performance in the spring. He seems genuinely pleased that we had started this group at our elementary school. I must say that I was take aback. Most responses that I have received from teachers and administrators alike is..."Have you lost your ........'n mind? Are you getting paid for this? NO? insane, that is what you must be!" So when this student-focus administrator smiled and said it was a great project, I could almost feel flowers popping out of my head and float up into the air! How's that for drama!!!!
Now, just to figure out what to do with them all next week....stay tuned!

Stop the bites!

I have a past blog about how I had bitten off more than I could chew!  And yet, here I am again.  Except this bite is turning out to be a HUGE bite: huge as in  85 students and still more signing up.  

You see, I started this performance club at my school.  I have been pushing to have a club at the school for the 5 years that I have been there.  Well, my principal finally agreed and I wrote a grant...hopefully it will be approved... and then I distributed a sign-up to all the 1-5 grade students then I sat back to see if there was any response.  

Did I say 85 yet?  and the deadline is not until Monday.  My sister asked what my expectations were from the start.  I guess I thought that about 40 students would sign up.  I have decided to keep a blog about this experience.  That way, at the end of the "experiment", I will be able to reflect on the experience and decide if I should question my sanity and see a therapist.  

So happy acting to me- everyone needs a little drama in their life.

Finished Finally

After what seems like a billion or so years, classes and dollars, I have proclaimed myself DONE with school. I now have a high school graduation degree, a B.S. in Elementary Education, a M.Ed in Educational Technology and now a M.Ed. in Leadership. I have spent the last 38 years in school in one form or another: as a young child, teenager, young adult, pregnant married lady, divorced single mom and recently a frustrated "sort of "old lady! Of course the "old" is a relative term-old as a student!
I have fulfilled the requirements of public education, taken 164 undergraduate credit hours, and 69 graduate credit hour and an additional 12 graduate hours to obtain my TSLE (teaching second language education) endorsement. That does not include all the training hours in MASE(math and science education) and FOSS(full option science set) and Success For All and.... Does it seems like I have been focusing on my temporal advancement? Well, yes, maybe but we are encouraged to learn as much as possible while journeying on this little planet of ours!
Many years ago, I received my personal compass and blessing that stated that I would be a teacher. It really said that. I went on my way and forgot all about it. Funny how those things turn out to be true. It also said that universities are great places to learn but that higher learning happens in those building on the top of the mountains....
I guess it is time to start focusing on those eternal lessons since I have proclaimed myself to be done with temporal education! So I must not really be finished. I sure hope that I get better benefits in my new course of learning. Do you think I can learn Spanish without actually taking a class????

Running Around With My Head Cut Off: Even a Chicken Has More Sense!

This week has been a test in how many different and creative ways I can over-extend myself and thereby, display erratic, unpredictable, and totally irrational behavior. It's not enough for me to be completing my M.Ed in Education, working on papers until all hours of the night and morning, attending Arts Night at the high school, taking my daughter to get her driving test, moving into another home, creating an exciting lesson about Argentina with handouts and treats for 160 second graders, but also accepting to teach the lesson on Sunday morning all within the same seven days. My delusion of being Wonder Woman has suffered irreparable damage. Not to mention that I have spent hours on the phone being transferred, rerouted, recorded on message machines, and missing calls because, not only did I get charged twice for my graduation garb (required to walk across the stage) but there was not even a record of my order. I can happily report that I did finally receive my supplies but am still waiting on the extra $200 that was so conveniently removed from my account. And since when does $75.00 fee mean the same thing as "We will waive the fee..."?
Luckily I was able to save some time by going through the drive-in window to pick up my prescription. Too bad over half the prescription was missing from the bottle when I opened it at home. Another call, put on hold, can you please come back to our store.... Wow, I sure am glad I took that time-saving measure.
Of course, by then, I was ornery, stressed, and needed to find an enjoyable distraction. This is when I tiredly pulled my exhausted self to the computer to read the newest blog of my favorite author. But, wait! What? Teachers are scoundrels and the cause of all the world's problems including but not limited to global warming and poverty. (No, it didn't really say this. It was just my rose-thorn colored glasses tinting my perspective!) Well, let me tell you, I wasn't going to take this abuse any more and I let those blog followers have it! Then I went to bed.....
...And woke up very early the next morning feeling like a putz! I had realized sometime during my fitful sleep that I had just spewed my venom on the blog page of a woman that I adore, admire, and think is one of the most creative thinkers and writers that I have ever had the privilege to know in my short embattled excuse for a life.
Cautiously and full of remorse, I went back to her blog and in a very feeble attempt, apologized for my attack. I still feel awful.
I then proceeded to prepare to teach my awe inspiring lesson at church. Talk about feeling like a complete and utter moron! My humble self came out from around the corner and kicked my self- righteous, prideful butt right off the cliff and made me land smack dabble on my knees. Can you say: REPENT, REPENT, REPENT....I sure can, now!
Of course, being the graceful, poised woman that I love and respect, she never even mentioned my appalling behavior and continued on with a lovely blog about solitude and Solitude: the mental state of being and a beautiful album she was asked to review.
I have learned from this experience that the danger of stretching oneself too thin is not the act of producing shoddy work and incomplete projects but in acting in a manner that is not consistent with one's own nature. I became an ogre, not only to strangers (those poor in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time victims) but to those people I respect and love. I have learned that sometimes, asking for help is not only helpful (duh) but imperative! So if you ever feel guilty for saying "No" just remember this horrid tale you have just encountered. Hopefully you will remember the woman who encountered even more guilt because she said "Yes" when she should have said "No".
Sorry, DeNae…

Hell has Snow

As everyone that is divorced and shares a child or children know, conversations with the ex can be strained at best. Fortunately, my ex is pretty reasonable and the post-marriage conflicts have been limited, not because we live in different states or only see each other at drop-off times. No, I excel at placing myself right in the fire. Why wait for trails to find me when I can circumvent fate and plunge directly into the flame? No, in my great wisdom, I tend to follow my ex, not really him, but more my daughter's father. You see, I got tired of driving two hours to drop off or pick up my little darling, not that I didn't enjoy the car time with her on drop off days. I moved about a mile from my daughter's father to make it convenient for her and myself. That way I also have access to her school, friends, and weekly activities. I, also, petitioned my district church leader to let me attend the ward in his area because she prefers to go there. Yes, we have a lovely time at church, sitting together on the same pew with our princess between us. You know that old saying: Love one another. I'm sure we are confusing some of the less informed members into thinking we are a happy little family. Maybe that is why I never seem to have a date or get asked out...go figure!
We share my daughter's time. One year, I get to be Disneyland mom and the next; he gets to be Disneyland dad. Flexibility has always been our motto along with "spare the rod and spoil the child". As rotten as my ex was as a husband, he is oppositely equal as a father. In other words, I don't think he can even reach the pedestal that he has put her on. Hmm....that pedestal looks remotely familiar...careful, it is quite a fall!
So, when he called me yesterday and asked if I had a few minutes to talk, I thought, "Oh, great, what did I do this time?" Of course, I said, "Sure, I have time. What is it you would like to talk about?"
He proceeded to tell me what a wonderful daughter we have and how he attributes that to me being such a wonderful mother....Wait! Back the truck up...What did you say?
Yes, it is the honest truth. He said that. And not only that, he went on to say that I have done a great job raising her and he really appreciated me. Wow!
I think I better go play the lotto or try MegaBucks! Obviously all the planets are aligned and God has opened the Heavens! It just doesn't get much better than this!