It isn’t hard to understand why you’d be on cloud nine if you won the lottery. A few years ago, shortly after Texas started having a lottery, I purchased about five guesses at a buck apiece. I didn’t win the jackpot, but on one of the five tickets had four out of the six numbers correct.
Matching merely three of the six numbers, something I had done before, means that you win $3.00...no big deal. However, matching four of the number meant that I had two-thirds of the winning numbers and that’s 66.6% to you and me. This had to be at least enough to buy us dinner.
As it turned out, I won $100! But you would have thought I had won the big jackpot! The guy at the 7/11 hands me ten crisp ten-dollar bills and I strutted back to the car like I was Donald Trump.
It’s funny how something so relatively small can fill someone with such a huge amount of joy.
I saw a wonderful example of this yesterday.
A student of mine, who is sweet person, but who struggles academically and typically doesn’t do very well on things like spelling tests, made a 100 on the spelling test.
When I saw the grade I went crazy. You would have thought she had won the big jackpot! Once again, I found myself strutting around like I was Donald Trump. I dragged this child and the test out in the hall and started bragging to everyone I could find.
I even had her take the test and show it to the principal. I wasn’t there, but evidently our principal didn’t miss a beat. She even gave her some candy.
Winning the lottery would be really nice, but I learned an important lesson from my student yesterday. Everything in life doesn’t have to be as big as winning the lottery, but if you allow even the small things to make you that happy…then baby, you win the big jackpot!
And who knows, maybe the principal will give you some candy.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Friday, March 17, 2006
Spring it just about fixed!
This week was spring break for Richardson ISD, as well as most of the ISD’s in and around Dallas.
As for us, we took a vacation to McKinney, Texas. McKinney is about 30 miles north of Dallas straight up I-75. My in-laws live there and we just needed to be somewhere that wasn’t home.
We were only there from Saturday to Wednesday, but I was quite surprised at how “vacationish” those five days felt. I guess it was just being away from our stuff. Stuff like our TV, our phone, and our kitchen…basically being away from our house is what gave it that vacation feel.
Saturday was our seventeenth anniversary and we stayed downtown at the Tartan Thistle, a wonderful old house that’s been turned into a bed and breakfast. Here's their web site. Thank you Phyllis and Homer. The rest of our stay we spent at my in-law’s house.
On Monday, I went car shopping with Homer. I’ve mentioned Homer, the king of car shoppers, here when he helped me buy a car. However, last time I was in school when he did all the behind the scenes, Internet wheeling and dealing. This time I got to witness some of the game. He spent all day Sunday sending emails to dealers all over Texas and a few in Oklahoma requesting price quotes on very specific cars and trucks.
Monday, we drove to Weatherford (west of Fort Worth) just to meet the salesman, check out the cars and then drive away. “It’s all part of the game.” Homer said. “I need to see how badly he wants to sell me that car. I’ll poke around, toss out some numbers here and there, then we’ll drive off and leave him guessing.” Homer asked the salesman to email him a quote on a specific truck we had been looking at. Then we left and drove back to McKinney.
Two hours on the road, an hour and a half at the dealership, and a two-hour drive back without a new anything. Oddly enough, I think it went just the way he had it planned.
I’m afraid I don’t have the patience for that kind of car buying. I fall in love to easily with a car and decide I have to have THAT car. But that’s not how Homer works. “If they sell the car I’m looking at then I’ll just find the same thing somewhere else or I’ll look for something else to buy.”
I got the feeling that doesn’t happen very often. I mean there wasn’t a long line of people standing there waiting to drive off in new cars.
So that was Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday were just lazy days sitting in front of a 72 inch TV doing my best to watch everything that satellite dish has to offer. (We only have an antenna in the attic and nine channels)
Spring was broken, but it’s just about fixed, and I got a little time away from reality. Come Monday morning, spring will be fixed and school will be ready to commence, right on schedule.
But, do not shed tears for me!
I had my fun, my time away from it all, my “break” as it were. I’m rejuvenated and ready to teach again. I’ll be there on the front lines, shooing away cobwebs from young minds.
So no, do not cry for me. Mine is not a job, but a calling.
And besides…there’s only 10 more weeks ‘til summer!
As for us, we took a vacation to McKinney, Texas. McKinney is about 30 miles north of Dallas straight up I-75. My in-laws live there and we just needed to be somewhere that wasn’t home.
We were only there from Saturday to Wednesday, but I was quite surprised at how “vacationish” those five days felt. I guess it was just being away from our stuff. Stuff like our TV, our phone, and our kitchen…basically being away from our house is what gave it that vacation feel.
Saturday was our seventeenth anniversary and we stayed downtown at the Tartan Thistle, a wonderful old house that’s been turned into a bed and breakfast. Here's their web site. Thank you Phyllis and Homer. The rest of our stay we spent at my in-law’s house.
On Monday, I went car shopping with Homer. I’ve mentioned Homer, the king of car shoppers, here when he helped me buy a car. However, last time I was in school when he did all the behind the scenes, Internet wheeling and dealing. This time I got to witness some of the game. He spent all day Sunday sending emails to dealers all over Texas and a few in Oklahoma requesting price quotes on very specific cars and trucks.
Monday, we drove to Weatherford (west of Fort Worth) just to meet the salesman, check out the cars and then drive away. “It’s all part of the game.” Homer said. “I need to see how badly he wants to sell me that car. I’ll poke around, toss out some numbers here and there, then we’ll drive off and leave him guessing.” Homer asked the salesman to email him a quote on a specific truck we had been looking at. Then we left and drove back to McKinney.
Two hours on the road, an hour and a half at the dealership, and a two-hour drive back without a new anything. Oddly enough, I think it went just the way he had it planned.
I’m afraid I don’t have the patience for that kind of car buying. I fall in love to easily with a car and decide I have to have THAT car. But that’s not how Homer works. “If they sell the car I’m looking at then I’ll just find the same thing somewhere else or I’ll look for something else to buy.”
I got the feeling that doesn’t happen very often. I mean there wasn’t a long line of people standing there waiting to drive off in new cars.
So that was Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday were just lazy days sitting in front of a 72 inch TV doing my best to watch everything that satellite dish has to offer. (We only have an antenna in the attic and nine channels)
Spring was broken, but it’s just about fixed, and I got a little time away from reality. Come Monday morning, spring will be fixed and school will be ready to commence, right on schedule.
But, do not shed tears for me!
I had my fun, my time away from it all, my “break” as it were. I’m rejuvenated and ready to teach again. I’ll be there on the front lines, shooing away cobwebs from young minds.
So no, do not cry for me. Mine is not a job, but a calling.
And besides…there’s only 10 more weeks ‘til summer!
Thursday, March 02, 2006
What Were You Thinking?
What were you thinking when you pushed her?
What were you feeling the first time your fist drew his blood?
What was going through your mind when you found him hiding from you?
What thoughts do you have when you’re causing pain?
What words do you whisper to yourself to justify what you do?
How powerful does it make you feel?
How easy is it to convince yourself that she deserved it?
How do you make yourself believe that he likes it too?
How many times have you promised that this is the last time?
How hard is it to look at yourself in a mirror?
Why is he always so afraid of you?
Why do you let your anger take control?
Why is she always crying?
Why did you ever let this begin?
Why haven’t you stopped?
What were you feeling the first time your fist drew his blood?
What was going through your mind when you found him hiding from you?
What thoughts do you have when you’re causing pain?
What words do you whisper to yourself to justify what you do?
How powerful does it make you feel?
How easy is it to convince yourself that she deserved it?
How do you make yourself believe that he likes it too?
How many times have you promised that this is the last time?
How hard is it to look at yourself in a mirror?
Why is he always so afraid of you?
Why do you let your anger take control?
Why is she always crying?
Why did you ever let this begin?
Why haven’t you stopped?
Note: This poem was prompted by a particularly stressful situation at school. However, things have been taken care of.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)