Olney / Takoma Park / DC

Sundays are usually my least favorite days.  Especially at the start of the school year it meant working 12 hours writing lesson plans, grading, contacting parents, etc.  They got better, but not much.  The shot below shows break time.  Ash is a canaries fan.  Evan is home on weekends, which is always good.

The drive to Takoma Park from Olney takes about 30 minutes, but can be longer if traffic is bad.  Sometimes it takes over an hour.  If we are in a hurry and traffic is good, 23 minutes.  The drive to work Monday morning is not the greatest since it is hard to sleep on Sunday.  This shot shows New Hampshire Ave.  Sometimes, to entertain myself, I pretend I am in a video game and am trying to weave through traffic.  I am not sure if this is always safe.

On Tuesday, we have campus families.  If we have time, Jenny and I will bake something to take to the kidlets.  Jacqueline's cookies now have a school-wide reputation.  I think there are students who only like me because of these cookies.  Fair enough.

I always feel happy when I have completed Wednesday, since Thursday is one of my favorite days.  It's a little easy to get lost in the hallway midweek, so my classroom has a convenient duck-tape number line sticking out of it.  Plus, you can do graphs on the floor and stuff.

For a teacher, Thursdays are Fridays.  At least, that's what I think.  If we do anything fun during the week, it will be on Thursday evening.  Thursdays are sunny, as clearly shown below.

Fridays are always a happy, short day.  I like the time after school when students are still hanging around.  Everyone is exhausted, but happy.  Exhausted and happy is a good combination.  Once back at the apartment, Evan and I might have a nice cup of coffee, or kick the soccer ball around in the parking lot.

We don't go into DC that often, because it takes about an hour from Olney.   Sometimes we make the trip on Saturday, and we will invariably stop at Peregrine Espresso.  On one such occasion, Brian and Tiffany and I quizzed ourselves and the friendly barista with a Trivial Pursuit book.

Someone please wash the dishes

Working on my lit anal paper late at night produced thoughtfulness (although any homework assignment has the potential to inspire totally unrelated thoughts). Alban, who is sitting here screwing up his physics homework, asked me if I felt guilty about having the friends I do.

No, I don't. I used to feel guilty sitting with my friends in the cafe or cloistering myself away to play effing hail with Alban and Alex. But then, I remembered sitting by myself in the cafe at Evergreen and watching movies in my empty apartment in Olympia. I've been to the valley and I am not about to repent for standing on the mountain top. When I think about the people I hang out with, and especially those I live with, I am overcome with an intense joy. Maybe it's gloating, but I would rather be with the people I am always with than with any other group of people on the planet.

We can't seem to stay on top of the dirty dishes. Oh, and someone keeps getting food spots on the dish rags.