Anticipation

I've always hated it when people start out by saying, "I'm sorry I haven't written in so long..." but I'm tempted to say it myself this time. I haven't written a blog in 3 months(!) and it's not because I was lacking things to write about. On the contrary, it's been quite eventful around here.

First, the anticipation: We're leaving in a few hours to catch a plane to America to attend Carlin's wedding! We'll be gone for 2 weeks, including a short stop in Las Vegas, a week in Phoenix where the wedding will be held, and a side trip to the Grand Canyon with the boys after the wedding. It'll be great! Unfortunately, my brain left about a week before the actual trip began, and last week at work I: forgot my keys on Monday, forgot my glasses on Tuesday, forgot my lunchbag on Wednesday, and finally LOST my keys for good on Thursday. Obviously, I need a vacation. I promise to write blogs all about our trip when we get back because I'm sure there will be lots to tell.

Now a snapshot of everything that's been going on during the last 3 months:
• I'm teaching one class of Year 7 English this term. Yea! I love it. The girls are sweeties. Am scheduled to teach at least one class next year, and I'm trying to get more than that.

• Big excitement at work trying to catch a thief who was stealing money from the library. Secret cameras, night vision, bait, sensors, etc. This sort of thing is pretty thrilling in a librarian's world. We feel like we're on CSI. The plan worked. Our money (mostly overdue fines) is safe again.


• Even grander drama at work involving a less-than-glowing performance review, and the resulting backlash at those who submitted the aforementioned less-than-glowing comments. Different people are in emotional meltdown on different days. There's too much friction everywhere and we're caught in the middle of it. I'm too old for all this drama. Vow to find someplace sane to work. Start applying and interviewing for other jobs, as are 75% of my co-workers.

• Went to Melbourne for 4 days in September for Curt's birthday. Vow to write some blogs about that, too. Curt did some sketches, and we went to museums, beaches, gardens, markets, etc. Excellent trip. I definitely needed a break at that point (see above) so it was especially good.

• Spent about 6 weeks catching up on the family photo albums, which were 10 years behind. It was fun to go through all the old pictures and re-live our travels, but it's sure a big job. Feels so good to have it done finally! Vow not to let it get so far behind next time. Can remember making that vow last time ... about 10 years ago.

• Curt painted/redecorated the guest bedroom (formerly purple!) in anticipation of Carlin & Kristen visiting us after their wedding and after a honeymoon in Fiji.


• New Zealand's national rugby team, the All Blacks play in the World Cup and the entire country is obsessed, getting up at 4:00 a.m. to watch the games taking place halfway around the world. Inexplicably and possibly unforgivably, the All Blacks lose in the quarter-finals, and the whole nation goes into mass mourning mode.

• Went to see the musical "We will Rock You" based on songs by Queen. The pulsing bass line, vibrating the floor, takes me back a few decades. Good fun.

• Spent lots of time planning for the wedding: I had to find a mother-of-the-groom dress (I'm not much of a shopper) and fancy shoes (I'm a sensible shoes-type). I had to get hotel rooms reserved, car rented, and show tickets purchased (Las Vegas). I made a spreadsheet (well actually it's more of a matrix) of who's arriving when ... and who's staying where ... and who's doing what. It's a masterpiece. Most importantly, I identified all the locations of Mrs Fields Cookies stores in Las Vegas and Phoenix. I'm ready to go.

So. Maybe you can see why I haven't written in a while. I vow not to get so far behind this time. Really.

Our 2nd Son is our 1st Houseguest!

TUESDAY:
Our #2 son, Nolan (a.k.a. Best Bud), and his girlfriend, Erica (a.k.a. Buckwheat), arrived in NZ this morning and will stay for two months. Nolan just graduated with a degree in Philosophy and French, and Erica graduated with a degree in Environmental Science. The trip to NZ is their graduation present from us.

Curt and I took the morning off so we could pick them up at the airport. On the way home from the airport, Curt decided to try a "shortcut" which quickly became an "adventure." We still get lost in this city, which seems to have an aversion to a normal parallel grid street system, preferring their streets to be meandering and illogically organised.

Nolan and Erica had been flying for the last 18 hours, so they took showers and naps while Curt and I returned to work. Except Curt hopped on his bike and rode off with my car keys AGAIN so I couldn't return to work right away. I had to wait for him to bring the keys back home 30 minutes later. Brother. Both of our cars were sitting in the driveway, but both sets of keys were in Curt's pocket. WHY DOES HE NEED SO MANY KEYS WHEN HE'S RIDING A BIKE?!?

Later, when Nolan and Erica woke up, they called me at work 3 times to find out 1. where the nail clippers were (in the jewellery box), 2. where the nearest cash machine was (turn right at the end of our street) , and 3. whether we locked our door (yes). I like getting lots of calls at work. It makes me feel needed. But I kept wishing I was home with them instead of at work.

Curt and I both got home at 5:30 and we took them for a walk along St. Heliers beach while our dinner was cooking in the oven. It was a nice way to introduce NZ to them.

WEDNESDAY:
I took Nolan driving after work today, his first time driving on the "wrong" side of the road. He did pretty well, and just needs more practice getting used to the gearshift on the left, and figuring out the roundabouts. We drove a few circles around the neighbourhood, which also helped them learn their way around. I made Erica mapigate us back home.


THURSDAY:
Nolan and Erica drove the car to the nearby train station and took the train downtown. Driving and parking downtown is NOT a good idea for beginner drivers. They found a nice market and had a good time even though it was raining most of the day. That evening, we took them to a new shopping mall and looked at wool sweaters for Nolan and rain jackets for Erica. Nolan really wants a wool sweater from New Zealand, where wool is our biggest export. After all, this country has 4 million people and 40 million sheep!


SATURDAY:
Today we decided to go on a little day trip to Rangitoto Island, a dormant volcano in Auckland's Hauraki Bay. It's the youngest of about 50 volcanic cones and craters in the Auckland area. We drove and parked downtown, which turned out to be a bad idea even for us experienced drivers (we had a few Adventures looking for a car park). We also wandered through another market, looking at wool sweaters for Nolan. Then we caught a ferry out to Rangitoto and enjoyed the 45-minute ride, the view and the sunshine. At least it wasn't raining today.

There's a variety of trails on the island and we'd chosen the 1-hour (2 km) hike to the summit so we could be back at the dock in time for the return ferry. The hike was harder/longer than I thought ... maybe because I'm turning 50 in a few weeks? Or maybe because we gained 259 meters (850 ft) in elevation? But I charged ahead - with a lot of complaining on the way such as, "I'm too old for this!" - and made it to the top. We were all really sweaty and got a good workout! Erica especially likes the scientific and nature stuff like black volcanic rocks all around and exotic birds & plants. She even takes pictures of lichen.

After the ferry ride back to the city, we drove home and stopped on the way at Fishmonger for authentic fish-n-chips take-away wrapped in paper. Mmmm.

The last thing to do that evening was read the paper while Curt gave me a foot rub. Ahhh.




SUNDAY:
Nolan and Erica went to church with us. I made Erica drive us there while I mapigated. It was her first time on the motorway. They're both getting the hang of it fine.

Everyone in the choir was excited to meet them, and during the service the choir director went up to the microphone and introduced them to the whole congregation. Nolan doesn't really like church very much, but kept busy doing an Easter word search that was on the children's page. They both enjoyed talking to people after church during tea. They said afterwards that it was the most they'd talked to Kiwis since they'd been here.

After church, our neighbour came over hurriedly to ask me to watch their two little boys while he took his wife to hospital for x-rays. She'd fallen off her bike when their dog darted in front to chase ducks. I had fun hanging out with their kids while Curt, Nolan, and Erica went grocery shopping. Nolan predicted that he'd be able to get Curt to buy all sorts of crap since I wouldn't be there. Just like old times. They also went to the top of One Tree Hill to see a nice view of Auckland and how it's laid out. Eventually everyone came home successfully - Annette's arm wasn't broken but in a sling anyway. Nolan didn't talk Curt into buying too much crap.

Nolan and Erica are leaving tomorrow for 4 days in Rotorua. They'll get to see geysers, hot thermal springs, Maori performances, etc. And I'm sure they'll have lots of "adventures."

One last stop in La La Land

After saying goodbye to everyone, kisses, hugs, and buckets of tears, Scott drove us 100 miles from Bellingham to the Seattle airport. Our flight had a L-O-N-G stopover in Los Angeles, where Curt's brother lives, so we arranged for him to pick us up at LAX and spend the day together.

His brother Kevin is a commercial artist in LA and has made a living at it for the last 30 years. He used to do mostly illustrations (for book covers, greeting cards, advertisements, etc.) but now does more murals and fine art (paintings). Curt is an engineer by day, but an artist at heart, and he is always excited to see the latest work in Kevin's studio.

Before we could get too excited about Kevin's paintings, however, we had an important errand to do: We had just discovered my mom's car keys in Curt's pocket. Oops. This is not where they were supposed to be. This is not the first time that Curt has possessed keys that he shouldn't have. Remember the time he went to work with both sets of keys and left me stranded? What is it with him and keys??? Regardless, we needed to mail them back to her, and decided to do it from LA rather than waiting to mail them from New Zealand which would take longer and cost more. So we were off to the post office with our little package. Sorry about that, Mom.

As we were walking throught the shopping district, we stopped at a card shop and I had an interesting discovery.
Kevin was looking for ideas for a Valentines card to make for his wife. Apparently, he paints a card for her every year, and she has collected them for the last 30+ years. OK. You can probably see how this interesting discovery would lead to an interesting conversation that goes something like this:
me - Curt, I have 2 problems with you neglecting to honor St. Valentine (and me) year after year: a. Kevin gives his wife a Valentine's Day card every year and 2. he paints it himself.
Curt - Oh.

Now back to the artwork: Kevin is the one who introduced Curt to Yupo, a synthetic watercolor paper, and in fact Kevin now works almost exclusively on Yupo. Curt, too has become a Yupo convert. His painting of sunflowers in blue watering cans is done on Yupo, as is his larger painting of me standing in a field of sunflowers. I can remember him working on that painting years ago: my dress was blue with a little white flowered print, and he "painted" the little white flowers by lifting off the blue paint with a cotton swab.

Kevin's website is www.watercoloryupo.com if you'd like to see some of his work. While we were there, we got a painting of sunflowers to go in our kitchen with all the other sunflower paintings.

Too soon, our visit with Kevin was over and he took us back to LAX. There, we had a strange experience: We happened to be entering the airport at the same time as somebody famous named Sasha. The poor thing was protected by her handlers, but still surrounded by paparazzi. People were yelling "We love you Sasha." Only in LA. We saw her again later, beyond the security area, and she was blissfully paparazzi-free. What puzzles me is that we had no idea who she was. Perhaps someone out there can clue me in? Is there a singer named Sasha? Or an actress? She looked like she was in her twenties, and was tiny and waif-like, but that describes almost everyone in Hollywood. Her boyfriend had a LOT of tatoos. We were clueless.

After that bit of excitement, we were off. Away from America and its Hollywood stars. Away from snow and into summertime!

Penultimate Day

Well, I resigned. It's sad. I hate to face the fact that I've failed in this job, but as one teacher friend at church told me, "You didn't fail; the system failed you!" (She's referring to a dodgy issue involving an extra half-day planning per week that the Ministry of Education allows for all overseas teachers. But my school doesn't give it to me. They also don't give their beginning teachers a full-day planning that the Ministry pays for. More about that some other time.)

The second term ended June 30 and that was my last day. Fortunately, here in New Zealand teachers leave in the middle of the year frequently so my resignation was not all that unusual. Heaps of teachers go to places in the northern hemisphere (mainly UK) to teach for a few years and plenty of northern hemisphere teachers come to New Zealand. With the northern school year happening from Sept-June and the southern school year from Feb-Dec, there's constant turnover year round. At my particular school of 15 teachers, I'm the 4th one in two years who left before the year was over. That shows you how common it is. But it also shows you how tough my school is.

My second-to-last day was almost as eventful as the previous post I wrote. Here goes-

First of all, Curt rode off on his bike and took both sets of car keys with him. Remember, he's on a bike. He doesn't need ONE set of car keys, let alone two! Aargh. So I couldn't get to work. I finally got a hold of him 40 minutes later and he borrowed a friend's car (thanks, Jon) and drove home to deliver me the keys. I thought about having my sweet neighbour lady drive me to school, and I'm sure she would have been glad to ... but I needed my car at 10:30 to go to a job interview for a school library position. Meanwhile, I called my school to let them know I'd be late and that someone should unlock my classroom and watch over the kids while they change into their PE clothes for aerobics. I arrived right as the bell rings. No time to catch my breath, just hit the ground running.

I had already arranged for 2 other teachers to watch over my class while I went to the interview. But Maria, who was going to watch them after recess, was home sick so I scrambled to get a third person to help out instead. My first helper arrived right on time and my kids were playing Bingo with Maori numbers so they were behaving pretty well. (I had a Maori student call out the numbers because I can't pronounce anything "right" in English, let alone Maori!) I raced out the door and drove to my librarian interview, which lasted about 40 minutes. I came back to find my class in the hands of Maria's reliever (substitute) instead of the third helper I'd recruited. Oh well. At least someone was covering for me.

So far, so good. There have been a number of glitches already but it's worked out.

Then about 1:30, Tim got indignant about being told three times to stop talking, and threw a chair through the window. OK, it didn't exactly go though the window. It's more like it hit it and bounced off. But it broke the window big time. There was broken glass inside and outside. I sent Patricia to go get a principal or deputy principal. They both came and took Tim away. Later, they came to get a few more students/witnesses to tell them what happened. Meanwhile, I was still trying to carry on with the reading groups on the carpet at the back of the room and make sure nobody went over near the broken glass. At least they got REAL quiet after the glass shattered all over.

Eventually the principal sent Tim back in to apologise to the class for losing his temper. He will have to pay for the new window. And he will spend tomorrow in the office doing work all alone instead of in here with the rest of the class. He's actually thrown his chair once before, when I confiscated his orange-coloured drink to see if it was "fizzy." Carbonated drinks aren't allowed and teachers just pour them out. When I took his drink that day, he threw his chair and stormed out of the room. He walked all the way to the back of the property and started heading out the gate as if he was going home. But he came back about 15 minutes later. Anyway, it wasn't his first chair-throwing incident. Then there was also the chair-throwing incident with Zann and Mitch, but that will story have to wait, too.

School finally ended at 3:00 but I had to stay till 5:00 for a parent conference. We had conferences Tues. and Wed. earlier this week, but one mom couldn't come then so she came today at 5:00. We finished at 5:30. Everyone else in the school was already gone. I was the last one out. I locked the doors and set the alarm. It was dark and lonely. It had NOT been a good day.

On the way home, I realised I should be thankful that Tim threw a chair through the window today because it reminded me why I was quitting. Ever since I submitted my resignation, I've been going back and forth, wondering if it was the right thing to do, feeling guilty for abandoning the kids and deserting my principal. But having a day like this reinforced my decision. I'm still sad and I still feel like I failed, but I think I made the right decision anyway. Tomorrow I finally get to tell the students that I'm leaving. It will be my last day, which may be even sadder.

PS - I didn't get the librarian job.