A Game of Solitaire and the Toilet Seat:: Knowing When You're too Young to Grow Up.

“You see, Angeee,” my father said. “This is why I always say leave early. We would’ve beat this shit weather if you had got your ass in gear.”

I didn’t know whether to say sorry or fuck you, so I just sat quiet as my mother stroked my bowing head. A quick shoulders/back work out gave me a slight hunch that my mother might have confused for dejection.

“Italian leather is so soft, Dave. Have you ever felt Italian leather,” Grandma said to my father, who wasn’t going to respond, until my mother pinched him. Grandma really was tapped, I thought to myself.

“Dave, my mother just asked you a question,” my mother said with the authority of a wife who actually has sex with her husband.

"And I would have answered her if you gave me a friggin’ chance. My mind is on driving,” he stammered. Sucking wind like a smoker on the track, my father calmed himself down enough to answer grandma. “Liv, I used to haul furniture, come on. And we have one in the house, a sofa. You know, in the living room. You were sitting on it today.” My father was particularly agitated today and he had absolutely no time for grandma’s meanderings.

“Italian leather, Andrew, do you know how soft it is,” grandma said, as she looked straight ahead. Her face didn’t even move and I wondered if she was already dead and her voice merely a recording.

My father weaved in and out of lanes like a Boston driver. A couple of times, I thought he even clipped the car that he had previously cut off. Maybe, he was trying to tip the van and start over with the lady next door.

I was compelled to have the last word in my fruitless, running argument with my father. “This weather sucks,” I muttered under my breath as we pulled up to the check in. “I shouldn’t have even signed up for this fuckin’ trip, I swear. Sucks. Absolutely sucks.” The rain now splashed down on the car in waterfall increments I did not want to move.

“Ange, stop already!” my father’s voice began to rise. “Would you have rather been the person everyone was waiting for?”

“I would have rather been the person who called in to cancel his ticket,” I spitefully commented, knowing that this would surely get him steamed.

“Well next time, you pay for your own goddamn trip!” he growled, and before I could respond, he looked at me in his rearview and said, “Just get the fuck out of the car.” Our goodbyes would have to be said over the phone.

With a huff, I slid the van door open, grabbed my duffle bag and rejected my mother’s reaching eyes. Before the door even had time to click closed, my father skidded out and nearly side swiped a bus. And the rain remained persistent as I stood outside the terminal and tried to turn my head 360 degrees to capture every instance of life. Or maybe I wanted to break my own neck, I’m not sure.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

The NY Giants are playing like the old Giants, my roommate is yelling in my ear about it and I have more work than I know what to do with it.

It's a stressful time, late October. I feel like college begins around this time, when the work never seems to stop and the teachers just pack it in without care. Sometimes, I think teachers feel that their class is the only class a student takes.

World Book Encyclopedia offered easy to use options all in one place. The search options and, particularly Educator's tools. The Create a Time line function is clever and, honestly, one of the most readily applicable educational resources.

It is especially helpful with historic events and I still, to this, day remember timelines i did in elementary and middle school on the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, the Civil Rights Movement and the Women's Suffrage Movement. Timelines really are effective tools.

Brainpop.com was a tool that I felt was very childish and watered down. it would be an effective instrument for younger children, like 4th graders. However, as the grade level goes up, the videos are not comprehensive enough. The quizzes offered do not promote learning either; they're about memorization and that is it.

Easytestmaker.com is awesome. A quick little book quiz or grammar exam. I LOVE IT!

Rubistar is an asset because I have never been a fan of rubrics. As a result, I tend to shy away from them. A website like this gives me more incentive to incorporate them.

Overall, I'm stressed; a senior in college is a strange place to be, especially when you live at Fairfield Beach and you have mounds of home work to do. But the GIANTS WON, HUGE WIN OVER THE STEELERS IN PIT!!

And the internet went down for over an hour while I was working on my blog, or else I would have been able to get it in. (Almost forgot to add that)

1 comment:

Prof G said...

Your comments were very brief this week, but effective. You stated all the salient points.

It is always fun to read your blogs because you say things so naturally...I can tell you are not only a baseball fan, but a football fan as well.

As far as work is concerned, try to pace yourself. I remember my college days - they were stressful at times for me, too. Sometimes, I did not know which way to turn. However, in the long run, things always worked themselves out.

Now, go ahead and write a great paper for Wednesday. Oops...I just added a bit more stress.