college

My son got into college! The letter came two weeks ago, and he was thrilled. Probably the smartest of my three kids, he is lazy and tries to get by by doing as little as possible. Last semester of his junior year he realized that he had screwed up big time, and set out to get better grades. He worked hard, but a 1.7 is hard to overcome with the best grades. He was turned down by four schools and though he'd be spending a year at CPCC. Nothing wrong with that, but he's ready to leave and I'm ready for him to go! He's going to Lees McRae, a small school in the mountains. A year there will help him get his act together ,and get his grades up enough to get into Appalachian. He's still close enough to go to the football games, and he's right in the middle of great skiing, so I think he's happy. I hope so.
My sister got a forwarded email from our sister-in-law describing a dinner she cooked Saturday. She detailed everything from the sauce to what she drank, and how she placed her hoses aroungd the yard to water the flowers. As boring as it was to read, I can't imagine what the people that were there wanted to do. Glad it wan't me.

Did anybody see the lunar eclipse Wednesday night? it looked like the earth stood still for a minute suspended in time, a sliver of live shadowed by the forces of the universe. Breathtaking!

Valentine's Day

Finally, Valentine's Day is over. I never know what to get my husband. He still hasn't worn the clothes I bought him last Christmas, he already read Robert Parker's new book, so chocloates were in order. I went to Target after school yesterday and they had two boxes left. I bought both. We went out to dinner ( Hickory Tavern) not romantic, but reasonable with good food, and he could watch basketball and not talk. I think he believes he only has so many words allowed a day, and he doesn't want to use them up. On the other hand, I have an endless steam of words- just read my cell phone bill....

Friday

TGIF!
im sitting here at work in a little room waiting for students that don't come to help them with their writing. Most really don't want help, they want me to rewrite their papers for them. I've graded my students papers for the week, planned my lessons for next week, and now I have no excuse not to work on my novel. Wait, I want to talk about the movie I showed in class yesterday. Bowling for Columbine. What a great movie. We are learning a bout multimedia approaches to argument and I think this movie is a perfect example. Whatever you think of Michael Moore, his subject matter appearance etc., the man is a genius! He intersperses humor amid the horror of Columbine, uses music to make his point, employs clips from Southpark and Chris Rock to show our love affair with violence in this country to create a tight, compelling story of gun violence in America. Most of my students liked the movie , and made some very thoughtful commets, one made my heart soar, when she responded to my comment that many people didn't like Moore. she said "He tells the truth".. I said , " Do we want to know the truth"? and she replied, No, I guess we don't. Just when i think I'm teaching to the wall, somebody gets it, and I am thrilled. If you're not a teacher, at any level, you can't understand that wonderful feeling, when a student sees the light.
I'll live on that all weekend.
Peace

Estate

Both my parents passed away last year, and now my siblings and I are in a big fight. I thought that once there wasn't anybody to compete for attention some of this craziness would go away. I was wrong. My brother is executor of the estate, and he refuses to move forward. He has made many glaring errors in his handling of things so far, and when he has been called on it he has told the rest of us how stupid we are. I found a bag of trash in front of the house before Christmas, and called him to tell him there were unpaid bills in the garbage with account numbers and large open balances. he sent me a nasty eamil that told me he wasn't born yesterday, and I didn't know what I was talking about. I'm a college professor, but Iguess in his eyes I'm too stupid to recognize a credit card bill. I made copies of all the bills and sent them to the family attorney who was shocked. My brother told him the bills didn't exist, and then swore that he had paid them in full. Not true. Oh well, I could go on for hours. I'm sitting at work getting ready to grade papers. My students are freaking out because they don't understand what to do. They get caught up in the wording, and don't realize how simple their task is. I try to break it down for them, but at some point they will have to realize they are in college now, and they are going to have to learn big words. They are for the most part a good group, some of the girls need to get out of the high school mindset, i guess it will take a while. All of now.
Peace
marion

Finally

Well, Ifinally started a blog. Today i told my freshman writing students that bloggers weren't reliable sources of information. Now, i'll try to prove myself wrong. This is one of my first steps in my new writing life. My intentions are good, but after teaching all day ,then reading student papers, getting the words in my head on paper proves to be a monumental task. I am going to discipline myself to write every day, and if you by chance read this please encourage me, scold, me and wish me well. I have written two short stories both of which got very nice rejection letters ( as opposed to don't bother us again letters) and I am currently working on a novel that takes place in Charlotte's NoDa neighborhood. I guess i'll stop for now and try to write a few pages of my novel.. My main character has just met a very interesting looking guy at the local dog bar... more later .
Peace