Meme-ing in March
Mar. 25th, 2023 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maeve6615. Are you satisfied with your sleep?
God, no. I get my own sleep schedule so far out of whack by deliberately staying up later than I should because I want non-work fun time, and then I want to sleep too late in the morning (and I partly can since, until August, I am still working from home), and then it gets worse on weekends, and then I also just want to sleep ALL THE FUCKING TIME, because I am hella depressed.
16. What cultural mores, pleasantries, or standards do you not agree with
I'm not great at responding naturally to "How are you?", as I distrust blithe bullshit, and know at some level that no one wants one's real, authentic response.
17. What is a habit you were successfully able to break?
"I've gotten slightly better at remembering they/them for singular." What Microbie said (again). Anything else? I guess, back in childhood (pretty fucking late childhood) I was successful at breaking my habit of sucking my thumb. Not sure there've been many such victories since then.
18. What are your top five favorite concerts?
I haven't been to a ton of concerts, really, unless you count small venue folk concerts, which I will. So, let's see.
Pete Seeger and Florence Reese, at some Northside hella woke church in Chicago around 1981?
Holly Near and Ronnie Gilbert, same church, at least once, possibly twice.
Éritage, a Québecois folk group, at Holstein's, a folk bar in Chicago, in... 1983, probably?
The Smiths, at the Aragon Ballroom, in 1984 or 1985 -- whenever the Meat is Murder tour hit Chicago.
Depeche Mode, at the Sharktank (San Jose Arena) in... 2005, maybe? We had nosebleed seats and mostly saw the band members on jumbo screens. But it was really good anyway.
(other memorable concerts, since I go to so few: Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nanci Griffith, and oh, god, I always forget WHICH feminist singer songwriter trio this was... Dar Williams, I think -- at the Fillmore, around 2003 maybe? Green Day doing their play/opera whatever, somewhere here in the East Bay, maybe 2004? Not sure; Neil Young, with Lucinda Williams opening for him (first time -- okay, only time I saw, but first time I heard her), 2003; oh, and Billy Bragg twice in Chicago in the mid 1980s -- once at the Cubbie Bear a bar kitty-corner from Wrigley Field, small space, fairly small crowd, which is hard to believe, and once at I think the Metro? Or else at Links Hall? With Michelle Shocked opening for him, then)
19. What is the best thing you’ve created?
Hm. I used to write and illustrate amazing letters to friends, including large size illuminated manuscript ones. I've also made illuminated manuscript letters as models for an art/history project when we've studied the medieval period, and I am proud of those.
20. What are you looking forward to in the near future?
Spring Break is very late this year, but it starts April 10th, and I am looking forward to that. Grades are due for Quarter 3 April 4th or something like that, so I will feel (I hope) fairly unburdened by work.
21. What would you ask your older self if you could?
What a very strange question! I have never imagined asking my older self anything. (I have read Proust, though... a French Studies degree will do that for you). If I... had to? I dunno. I honestly cannot imagine this circumstance. I can imagine warning my past self of at least one thing. But asking my future self?
22. What is your dream job?
Being a published writer (if I could plot mysteries? Not sure). Or an editor. I'd be a really good editor.
23. What is a high and a low from your week so far?
A high last week? Huh. I found out a mug I adore (is it ridiculous to set such store by small objects one owns?) and thought had been lost or broken was not. It is the dumbest thing -- but I like it. I have several mugs I cherish. Most of them are probably ones that are sanctified by being from my family or childhood or both. But this one is a relatively recent purchase (six years? something like that) by a company called Calamityware, and it is in the style of Blue Willow Ware, but in addition to miniature pagodas and bridges and willows, there are also monsters and UFOs and dinosaurs. The company calls the mug "Things Could Be Worse" and I am just ridiculously fond of it.
A low last week... I dunno. I feel uninspired, teaching right now. Kids are very unengaged, and I keep getting new (unengaged) kids, which is hard when I am teaching all three damn grade levels. One of my new students came for three days and then I got an email after I enquired about her subsequent two day absence from Zoom, from a counselor at a community intervention service, that she is in the hospital because she tried harming herself. So that sucks.
God, no. I get my own sleep schedule so far out of whack by deliberately staying up later than I should because I want non-work fun time, and then I want to sleep too late in the morning (and I partly can since, until August, I am still working from home), and then it gets worse on weekends, and then I also just want to sleep ALL THE FUCKING TIME, because I am hella depressed.
16. What cultural mores, pleasantries, or standards do you not agree with
I'm not great at responding naturally to "How are you?", as I distrust blithe bullshit, and know at some level that no one wants one's real, authentic response.
17. What is a habit you were successfully able to break?
"I've gotten slightly better at remembering they/them for singular." What Microbie said (again). Anything else? I guess, back in childhood (pretty fucking late childhood) I was successful at breaking my habit of sucking my thumb. Not sure there've been many such victories since then.
18. What are your top five favorite concerts?
I haven't been to a ton of concerts, really, unless you count small venue folk concerts, which I will. So, let's see.
Pete Seeger and Florence Reese, at some Northside hella woke church in Chicago around 1981?
Holly Near and Ronnie Gilbert, same church, at least once, possibly twice.
Éritage, a Québecois folk group, at Holstein's, a folk bar in Chicago, in... 1983, probably?
The Smiths, at the Aragon Ballroom, in 1984 or 1985 -- whenever the Meat is Murder tour hit Chicago.
Depeche Mode, at the Sharktank (San Jose Arena) in... 2005, maybe? We had nosebleed seats and mostly saw the band members on jumbo screens. But it was really good anyway.
(other memorable concerts, since I go to so few: Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nanci Griffith, and oh, god, I always forget WHICH feminist singer songwriter trio this was... Dar Williams, I think -- at the Fillmore, around 2003 maybe? Green Day doing their play/opera whatever, somewhere here in the East Bay, maybe 2004? Not sure; Neil Young, with Lucinda Williams opening for him (first time -- okay, only time I saw, but first time I heard her), 2003; oh, and Billy Bragg twice in Chicago in the mid 1980s -- once at the Cubbie Bear a bar kitty-corner from Wrigley Field, small space, fairly small crowd, which is hard to believe, and once at I think the Metro? Or else at Links Hall? With Michelle Shocked opening for him, then)
19. What is the best thing you’ve created?
Hm. I used to write and illustrate amazing letters to friends, including large size illuminated manuscript ones. I've also made illuminated manuscript letters as models for an art/history project when we've studied the medieval period, and I am proud of those.
20. What are you looking forward to in the near future?
Spring Break is very late this year, but it starts April 10th, and I am looking forward to that. Grades are due for Quarter 3 April 4th or something like that, so I will feel (I hope) fairly unburdened by work.
21. What would you ask your older self if you could?
What a very strange question! I have never imagined asking my older self anything. (I have read Proust, though... a French Studies degree will do that for you). If I... had to? I dunno. I honestly cannot imagine this circumstance. I can imagine warning my past self of at least one thing. But asking my future self?
22. What is your dream job?
Being a published writer (if I could plot mysteries? Not sure). Or an editor. I'd be a really good editor.
23. What is a high and a low from your week so far?
A high last week? Huh. I found out a mug I adore (is it ridiculous to set such store by small objects one owns?) and thought had been lost or broken was not. It is the dumbest thing -- but I like it. I have several mugs I cherish. Most of them are probably ones that are sanctified by being from my family or childhood or both. But this one is a relatively recent purchase (six years? something like that) by a company called Calamityware, and it is in the style of Blue Willow Ware, but in addition to miniature pagodas and bridges and willows, there are also monsters and UFOs and dinosaurs. The company calls the mug "Things Could Be Worse" and I am just ridiculously fond of it.
A low last week... I dunno. I feel uninspired, teaching right now. Kids are very unengaged, and I keep getting new (unengaged) kids, which is hard when I am teaching all three damn grade levels. One of my new students came for three days and then I got an email after I enquired about her subsequent two day absence from Zoom, from a counselor at a community intervention service, that she is in the hospital because she tried harming herself. So that sucks.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-26 02:53 pm (UTC)I had the best exchange with another alt school teacher on Wednesday.
Her: Hey, how are you?
Me: Doing okay, you?
Her: Hanging by a thread.
Me: Oh thank fuck, me too.
I should invite her out for a beer sometime this century.
A low last week... I dunno. I feel uninspired, teaching right now. Kids are very unengaged, and I keep getting new (unengaged) kids, which is hard when I am teaching all three damn grade levels. One of my new students came for three days and then I got an email after I enquired about her subsequent two day absence from Zoom, from a counselor at a community intervention service, that she is in the hospital because she tried harming herself. So that sucks.
I'm sorry. That's been my experience all year and it's so demoralizing. I try to bring the energy for the kids but at a certain point I'm just spent.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-26 11:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-03-27 02:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-03-28 05:21 am (UTC)Really sorry about that student. It's just rough out there.