Mary Oliver

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?"









Thursday, January 21, 2016

Rain or Snow?

As a long time thrift store shopper, the majority of my clothes are either used or were purchased from Land's End ten or more years ago. I buy good, expensive shoes now, ever since I dealt with plantar fasciitis, and I buy new undergarments, but other than that, it's mostly thrifted stuff. As a result, sometimes I have stuff that doesn't work and I mostly have separates, and since we live in a house that was built in the fifties, our closets are small and crowded. The other week I had the idea that I needed to pull everything out and either start wearing the stuff I own or give it back to the thrift store. Surprisingly, it didn't take me very long to match up separates to create "outfits" and as a result, it's been kind of fun this week choosing a new look to wear each day. A few things did end up in the give away bag, but not as many as I had originally thought. Turns out that I can't put things together in the morning when they're all crammed together in the small space of our closet. Who knew?

For a four day week, it's been pretty tiring and long, probably due to the fact that there is so much state testing going on in our building. We lose planning time to administer tests and we lose teaching time when so many students are being pulled out of class to test in other subject areas. Next week we give final exams, then gear up for the second semester with all new students. This type of schedule has it's pros and cons and a major con is the diminished energy we have at the start of a new semester; completely different from the start of a new school year. Another con is that you have to learn about two major groups of students a year and train them as well. Of course a positive is that if you have a particularly difficult group, you only have them for ninety class periods. And I do like the idea of tweaking and improving my lessons without the summer break affecting my memory of what worked and what flopped.

By now everyone has heard of the winter storm Jonas heading to the East Coast; I live so close to the warmth of the Chesapeake Bay that our area is only expected to get a sprinkling of snow out of it. Still, things could change and if they do, I'll be ready for it. Even if I don't get a day off work, I still would love to get some snow.

I have library books, and knitting to look forward to this weekend, whether it rains or snows. Hope you are ready as well.

8 comments:

  1. Leesburg is bracing for the blizzard! I have my books and crafts. We'll see what this storm brings

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    1. We had some pretty snow but very little accumulation and now it's sleeting, but I'm snug and dry inside, so all is well. Good luck to you!

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  2. I wish we were having a blizzard! I could use a snow day -- even on a short week. Pretty sad, huh? Your weekend sounds great. I'll be cooking and cleaning this weekend.

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    1. We only had a liittle bit of snow but we did get out 2 hours early, which made my commute safe and my Friday bearable (barely)!

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  3. Sadly, what the mid-Atlantic is experiencing this weekend is merely what we here call "winter". But, we have sidewalk ploughs, apps that tell us where our local street ploughs are, and lots of shovels, boots, down coats, mittens, etc. While 20" would be a largish dump for us, we'd get on with life regardless. During the winter of 2008, when we had snow literally up to the eaves of our house, there wasn't a single snow day in our local schools. That said, I've lived in DC and know how crippling snow can be there without the routines and equipment that allow residents to cope. I wonder if there'll be extra activity on Ravelry...

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    1. You're right, we just aren't set up for much snow in most of the places getting it now. Betting there is extra activity on Ravelry and Instagram too!

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  4. Our little house was built in 1940, so I sympathize about small closets. Ours are barely deep enough for a standard clothes hanger! And no way for Rick and me to ever share a closet, ever. So I definitely feel your pain there.

    The big snowstorm hit my friend in So MD for about a foot, but my aunt in Gettysburg is buried under about 3.5 feet. It really varied. I'm just thrilled to have NOTHING IN MY YARD, FOR A CHANGE, IN NEO.

    Hooray!

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    1. Steve and I DO share a closet, but we also store stuff in a coat closet and I have plastic bins for out of season clothes in the attic, which is annoyingly inconvenient but the best I can do. Glad you didn't get snow since that was your preference. I was hoping for a day off but it's probably just as well it didn't go that way (or at least that's what I'm telling myself).

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