School time

I am still here, in Texas. That's not bad news. Okay, that's not real bad news. It could be worse. I could be dead-- my heart gave me a bit of a shock on Saturday. But I'm fine. However, pictures of Paris are making me homesick.

I have a question for anyone who attended school in France. At the age of 15, what classes were you taking and how many hours of study did you normally have? I ask because my students are preparing for state tests and I worry they are not ready. School is not all that important to most of them.

Here is a typical schedule for a 15 year old (most likely this person is a freshman.)

Algebra or geometry
English
Physics or chemistry
World history
Computer
Speech/Health
Physical Education

If the student plays a sport; currently baseball, softball, golf, track or tennis; eight hours or more are spent practicing or playing.

Study time?

The school day is 8:00am to 3:08pm. Include 30 minutes for lunch and four minutes between classes, thirty minutes for tutorials after lunch and seven classes and you get 48 to 53 minutes for class.

How does this compare? Anyone?

countdown

Just a few more...years. Sigh. Then Paris will be my home. C'est la vie!

my school

I live in Central Texas, not a state so much as a way of narrowing down where in the vastness of the state I reside. Lurking nearby (in Texas parlance 'only an hour away' - that's Texas distance for you- given in time not miles) is an organization far superior to Scientology but cultish in its ways: Texas A and M University. They seem to own the word 'tradition.' Getting your class ring is a REALLY BIG THING. They have a ceremony and a weird 'dipping the ring' in a pond thing. This ring is how they spot each other in crowds.

My collage had a ring available. I think. I don't have one. They cost money. Back then we didn't have money. Unlike A and M, Slippery Rock University is a local collage. We didn't try to impress anyone. We did have to try to convince people the place was real. (Heheheheh.)

And today, I saw this on Facebook: :)

One of three

I saw my gyn today for my yearly checkup. Now, you would expect the doctor who sees me once a year would need to glance at my chart to remember my case. Nope. His nurses know me, too.

You see, in 2003 and 2004 I had surgeries with the doctor. Not everyone goes under the knife twice for a hysterectomy. Obviously, the 2003 surgery is NOT when he removed the parts in question. He opened my abdomen and saw the worst case of adhesions in his 30+ year career. After a consult with a surgeon (the same one he worked with earlier in the year on my gall bladder/take-a-peek-at-the-baby-maker-stuff surgery), I was sewn shut. That's right; open and close and nothing was done. Doctors remember stuff like that. The decision was to discover what was under the scar tissue before cutting into it. Several tests later we get an answer: endometriosis. So much of it that it had invaded the bowel. At least I wasn't going to die. Yet.

After 10 monthly shots (for which I had to drive to Waco, an hour away- one way, just to get stabbed) and time to heal, the following summer I went under again. Three doctors worked on me: gyn, general surgeon, and urologist. They took everything, with my blessing, patched the colon, and discovered a narrowness in one ureter. This resulted in months of stints to widen it. And almost constant pain meds.

One year my New Year's resolution was to not get put under anesthesia again. I succeeded.

Why does my doctor remember me? Of the three women he has 'opened and closed' without removing anything, I am the only one still alive- the only one who didn't have cancer.

Today I came to appreciate my life a great deal more. I've been given a gift. Even with coronary artery disease, I have my life and I need to take care of me. Thank you, God. Thank you, Doctor.

Deal

I've made a deal with myself. If I lose a certain number of pounds by a certain date, I will go to Paris again next March during Spring Break. Now that's a good deal!

Miller Odd (Aud)

Romeo and Juliet, Rosenkrants and Guildenstern are Dead, Dacula, Godspell, God's Favorite, Man of LaMancha. Just a few of the shows I worked on during my college years at Slippery Rock University. The students who worked there, like me, learned every room, every prop, every costume. We knew that place in the dark. I still remember visiting a very hidden room. No windows, no door, it was accessed by jumping down into the room. Only a person with good upper body strength (or a friend) could get OUT of there.

I mention this because it is all going away starting this summer. Miller Auditorium, home of many good and strange memories, is getting a complete redo. I'm told I won't recognize the place when the remodeling is done.

Does that mean Emma Guffy Miller and the other ghosts of the place will be without a home? What's a theatre without a ghost or two? "Why, in my day Sonny, if the ghosts wouldn't play along then we created our own!"

Poor little backwards placed theatre. It's about time it got some lovin'.
(Picture found with Gooogle. I like the ghost lights on the front.)

Give up what you want to take?

Are Christian Americans who are against other religions willing to give up the same rights they want to take from others? No head scarfs for Muslims, no cross for Christians. No call to prayers five times a day, no prayer before a sports game. No Jewish New Year celebration for Jews, no New Year celebration for Christians.

I hear people say "The US is a Christian nation." No, we are not. We are a nation of people and the majority of us claim Christianity as our religion. There is no religion requirement when becoming a citizen. One may worship any deity or none.

Easter 2012

Happy Easter! He is Risen!

(Picture found with Google.) 

Pittsburghese

Someone posted this poster on Facebook and I just had to have it! I know what everything on it means! ‘Nebby’ is nosey- as is ‘you are being nosey by asking personal questions.’

I moved to Pennsylvania in the Fall of 1972 when I was 11. I was in the 6^th grade. Slowly these expressions became part of my lexicon. One word was FORBIDDEN in our house- yinz. It is Western Pa for ‘you’ plural. I could say ‘ya’ll’ but never ‘yinz.’ And I never did. Eventually, I learned the plural of you is… you.

Any questions about this? Please post them in the comments section. 

I found this picture in my files and the only thing I know about it is when I uploaded it to my laptop: July 15, 2010. It may have been taken in Pennsylvania.

It got me thinking about what belongs and what doesn’t. 80+ temperatures in March. Raisins in hard candy. Parents sitting at home when their kids are playing in a home game. A flower growing out of a cement step.

Determination. That is what this flower means. Don’t give up. Keep trying. You can make it.