20150312.0723

Work continues, of course. Classes are gearing down for Spring Break, which is a mixed blessing; the break will be welcome, and not just for them, but it does make the few days remaining until the break more annoying. We are not done yet, but they do not want to work anymore. Many of them have never wanted to work, looking at my classroom as being just another set of hoops through which to jump on the way to credentialing. Despite my efforts to tie the materials to their future lives and make my teaching engaging, this is so. It is so despite my no longer teaching at a technical college, during which work I addressed the issue. What to do...

That the break will be welcome does not mean that I will be taking time off. Instead, I will be working otherwise than in the classroom. I have been told by a freelance client that a number of write-ups will be waiting for my attention, and so I will be attending to them. I also hope to work on one or more papers that have needed my writing, and I will be preparing for job interviews, since I seem to have them coming up. (I am happy about the last. They offer hope for a continuing position.) So I will be every bit as busy as I normally am, although perhaps with slightly different tasks than I usually have.

The Mrs. will also be working, perhaps pulling in more hours and thus more money. We can certainly use it, as we do still have a baby at home. We are no longer buying formula, which is helpful, but diapers still cost quite a bit of money, and Ms. 8 is not quite to the point of eating all of the same foods her mother and I eat. I know that I do poorly to hope for various parts of growing up, but I am looking forward to no longer having to change diapers and spoon-feed pureed foods out of jars. I am looking forward, too, to having Ms. 8 tell me what is wrong rather than cry or scream incoherently as I try to figure out what the problem is and fix it in haste.

Writing offers opportunities for reflection, and sometimes the images that return to the eye strike it oddly and badly. Whether it is because the surface of the mirror is distorted and deformed or because that which it reflects is distorted and deformed is unclear; it is only through the mirror that the reflection can be seen, and only through the reflection that the thing reflected can be perceived. In some sense, it makes no difference which one is messed up; the image will be as it is in either event. But there are other reasons to try and figure out the truth...