Case of the mondays...

On days like this, when the weather is less than stellar and my mood is blah, I make a list of things I am looking forward to. This is in no way related to the other list I have that dictates all of the things I need to clean in my apartment. Let's make lists to distract ourselves from other lists... this is healthy, right?

#1 NYC! In a few short weeks I will be headed to New York to shop and hang with ma dukes. I haven't been there in awhile, but going there always centers me. It's like being somewhere that big regenerates me, and puts the world into perspective.

#2 Philly! I love to travel, and although I have been to areas around Philly, I have never actually seen the city. The National Convention for NCTE is there, and I am a presenter. I hope to learn a lot from other teachers, authors, and teacher-educators. Plus I get to spend a weekend with Joyce, which is guaranteed to be fun and crazy.

#3 Graduation! This is bitersweet, but right now I could really use a paycheck (see previous blog). Class is my haven. Nothing beats a classroom of people who are as smart, or smarter, than me engaging in a juicy discussion. I miss this already, but I do really love being in the classroom. I'm ready to move on with the next stage of my life.

A bookshelf made of cinder blocks...

Recently our professor introduced me and my friends, as graduate students, to a retired teacher from a local district. Upon hearing that we were getting our Masters, the teacher remarked on the stereotype of a graduate student. He said, " Oh, you are grad students, which means you are so poor that you must have an array of furniture made out of cinder blocks." We all laughed... and laughed, but inside I was thinking how close that was to the truth. Of course, I don't have actual furniture made from cinder blocks, but I have been experiencing poverty in a variety of other ways.

Have you ever been so poor that you had to wait to turn on the heat until well after the first snowfall? Even when it is so cold in your house that you leap from the bathroom rugs into the warm shower to avoid having your bare feet touch the frigid floor? How about when said heat is turned on, it is set at a maximum temperature of 59 degrees? Yea, that is in Fahrenheit. As I sit here typing this blog, I think about days ahead when I will get my first job. Will I still need to sit in my own apartment wearing a winter hat for warmth, or have my nose so cold that I haven't noticed that it started to drip onto my laptop? I hope that, although a teacher's salary is not a wealth of riches by any means, I will someday be able to jack the heat without remorse or fear for the financial repercussions.

I have to say that despite the legitimate icicles forming on my eyelashes, I am thankful to finally be doing what I love to do. I have more books than dollars, and I'm ok with that. Being able to finally teach is worth vying for survival in the frozen tundra that is my little apartment.