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Our Maeby

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Maeby is seven years young, and currently an only fur-child. I had been nagging my boyfriend (now my hubby) that his dog needed a companion because she was getting older and seemed lonely. A friend on Facebook said she found two dogs abandoned on the side of the road while on a day-trip outside the city somewhere. The puppy was the most perfect, sweet-faced, little pot-bellied, golden retriever baby. I knew from the moment I saw her on that Facebook post, that I had to have her. I discussed it with my parents (who I lived with at the time) and boyfriend (hubby)--my parents made it clear that they would not be financially responsible or end up cleaning up after her or any of her other many needs. I had just graduated from college, and was pretty much living at my boyfriend's (hubby's) house. My hubby agreed that he would care for her with me, and thus, our journey with Maeby began.  I went to meet her and instantly fell in love. She had the sweetest demeanor and happy-go-lu
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On Human Emotions: Inspired by the musical, The Waitress

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matter by Heather Lynne Watching this music video while on the umteenth day in quarantine, I remembered something a very anti-empathetic person once said to me. One day while chatting about musicals and listening to Hamilton with two past acquaintances/friends, I recommended The Waitress to these die-hard Hamilton fans. The older woman of the two turned to me in disgust and said something like, "The Waitress?" Her words dripped in contempt, she continued, turning her face away from me. "Why would I want to listen to a musical about LITERALLY just baking stuff? They are just singing exactly what they are doing...Stupid."  But isn't that was all musicals are--stories of people and them singing about their lives? Haha.  There's so much complexity to the human emotion that every story captivates a person in different ways. The raw honestly of this character is seen and felt within the metaphor of baking pies. (Goodness, could my negat
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On Quarantine: Only beginning to understand WTF is going on: Day 10

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Well, it's well into quarantine day 10...and I'm just now feeling like I can unpack my emotions of the past 240hrs. I was supposed to be substitute teaching for my favorite high school English class for 20 days starting on March 5th. I got to Wednesday the 11th when all chaos was unleashed across the world, and the creeping effects of the COVID-19 virus started to seep into our daily lives. Wednesday, March 11, 2020: It was a half day block schedule for the kids, so we only saw 2nd, 4th, and 6th period that day. There was an odd staff meeting called that basically said, "Please show up PROMPTLY at 1:20 pm. We cannot write this in the email, so please be on time..." With that ominous note, we all thought we were going to get notice of the school district closure. Nope, we just got the announcement that one of the vice principals was going to be moving to a middle school...at the end of the year. THAT WAS IT. Go on back to your rooms, now. (Unbeknownst to us at ab
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Life Thoughts * March 2020

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“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.” -Seneca After quitting full-time teaching in 2015, I am still drawn to substitute teach because I love humans. I love trying to understand the complexities of what makes a certain human act the way they do.  I love helping other people understand things about literature and characters' motivations and then essentially about themselves. About three and a half years ago, I found a school that I just LOVED going to. The kids were a little bit rough around the edges, but also sweet...(as sweet as high schoolers can be...haha). And here I am, still going back for my favorite teachers almost 4 years later. The reason I like this high school and these people is that the teachers seem to have a similar mindset: better the soul and it betters the mind. The number one thing that is important to most of the staff is other people. They are not imprisoned by rubrics and statistics that jail them into thinking they aren't good
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