This slice is part of the 17th annual Slice of Life Story Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol24 I’m slicing every day this month, for the 11th year! Wahoo!!! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
You know how when you Know better you Do better?
I’m just wonder if after that, knowing new stuff and doing that new better stuff…
What happens?
Because someone is sure to tell you to Know a New thing … Would doing that new thing be even better?
What if the new better thing is now actually the old thing you did before you knew better and did better?
I know what you want to tell me. It starts with an Re ends with a search
Okay! I’m in! Research …
That means we will be using peer-reviewed research for all the things, right?
This slice is part of the 17th annual Slice of Life Story Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol24 I’m slicing every day this month, for the 11th year! Wahoo!!! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
If you see me walking around the neighborhood with my dog, Finn, there are a few things you have to understand.
I’ll tell you those things, but now I want to sing it.
If you see me walking by With my dog on a leash Look away, baby, look away.
(Couldn’t help it.)
He loves to sniff, and likes to stop often. But that’s not the issue. My ankle has been giving me problems, so I might be hobbling slowly along. But, that is also not the issue. Strangely enough, the fact that I will most likely be holding a bag of poop is also not the issue you need to understand.
You will see me talking to him along the way. It might even be in an odd accent you’ve never heard me speak in during my human interactions.
“Finny,” I might say, “You are the bestest dog.” That’s pretty normal, for dog folks, I think.
But I might also try to have a little extra conversation with him.
“Your birthday bandana is so handsome on you! You have to wear it a few more days since it’s your birthday week, Finny!”
I might even ask him questions, like, “Do you think I should try to do my work as soon as I get home, Finny? Or should I maybe sit on the couch and read? Or, I could write!”
The most embarrassing thing though, is that most likely, my “loyal” pooch will be totally ignoring me, sniffing his nose into the sun and all the leaf piles, wagging his tail, and checking out the neighborhood. Sometimes if I’m very insistent, saying “Finnegan. Don’t you want to look at me? Remember I’m the one walking you!” He will reluctantly turn his head just a little and look at me with dissapointment.
He’s embarrassed to be seen with me, I think.
Sometimes I put my AirPods in and listen to a book or a podcast, but then I feel bad for ignoring him. But something tells me that’s the way he prefers his walks.
Please understand —
If I look like I’m plugged into my AirPods, ignoring my dog, that is because of how he wants it! If you see my dog ignoring me, that is because he has an attitude, and doesn’t want me to bother him on our walks. It’s embarrassing.
So…
If you see me walking by With my dog on a leash Look away, baby, look away… And if we meet on the streets someday And I don’t know what to say (to my dog) Look away, baby, look away Don’t look at me I don’t want you to see me this way
Here are a few pictures of the bestest dog with an attitude:
Finn on his actual 8th birthday last week, ready for a walk Finn on the porch last spring, watching the neighborhood Baby Finn the day we brought him home! Baby Finn at the shelter
This slice is part of the 17th annual Slice of Life Story Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol24 I’m slicing every day this month, for the 11th year! Wahoo!!! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
6-word Spring break’s over, Sunday scaries begin.
Haiku Sunshine breaks Snow squalls Blue skies deceptively cold Clouds come again now
Limerick There once was a teacher feeling nothing but dread She couldn’t get organized for the week ahead! Work was the right thing to do – She’s supposed to do it too – But she watched a movie instead
Ballad Though spring break is ending And work will start so soon I can’t help but keep relaxing So these last hours won’t’ be in ruin
Elegy O break! My break! My spring break is done The relaxing is over now, our freedom reduced to none I am resigned to set alarms, drink coffee still in a sleepy fog and I’ll go to work with a smile, walking the halls instead of my dog But O couch! My couch! Where in the corner I love to read I promise I’ll be back, since more relaxing I surely need
Ode Ode to Spring Break
We anticipated your start and now regret your end roadtrips filled our heart and relaxing was our best friend
Your days were full of warm sun until the rain, and today’s snow squall It’s like the weather knew you were done And spring break’s spring never happened at all!
Spring break, Could you stay another weak? It’s just a small, polite request A tiny bit of scheduling, a calendar tweak That would surely be the best
It’s just because I love you that I’m asking you to stay — Or send a big storm, it’s the least you can do and they’ll have to call a snow day.
This slice is part of the 17th annual Slice of Life Story Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol24 I’m slicing every day this month, for the 11th year! Wahoo!!! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
When I walked into the Ohio rest stop bathroom, I heard someone chatting. She had a southern accent, and I couldn’t tell if she was talking to someone else in the bathroom, to herself, or on the phone. That might sound weird, but I was trying not to pay attention to her, and there was someone else in the bathroom, so who could tell?
“…drove 600 miles yesterday.” I heard her say, and I didn’t hear anyone respond.
When I went to wash my hands, I noticed that she was on the phone. Phew! At least she wasn’t having a long conversation with herself in the ladies room of a rest stop.
I couldn’t help but focus on what she was saying, and her amazing southern voice made it extra interesting to be honest. (I love listening to people speaking in different accents!)
“Yesterday I hitched the trailer up by myself for the first time. It felt great.” She said.
Then she added, “I’m riding with the big boys now!”
I glanced at her noticing her casual jeans and ball cap, as I walked to meet my sons. I couldn’t stop smiling. I don’t know how many female truck drivers there are, although my google search later tells me that it was under 5% in 2021, but in 2022 it went up to 14%. Still, I don’t see many driving trucks I pass on my road trips. So, maybe that’s why I was so proud of this stranger and couldn’t help but laugh with the joy of hearing her own pride come through in her phone call.
My two sons wondered why I was smiling and laughing when I met them outside the restroom, so I tried to explain what I had heard.
“I’m riding with the big boys now!” I ended, trying to do the southern accent without sounding like I was mocking anyone.
“I can’t be sure, but I think this woman was a new truck driver. It was cool to hear her so proud of herself! ‘I’m riding with the big boys now!’”
The boys rolled their eyes at me, as is their often reaction. At first I was annoyed by their apathy about this story, this woman. Then I wondered if maybe it was a good thing that they didn’t think this was unusual.
Maybe they don’t think it’s anything worth talking about because they just aren’t surprised by badass women.
This slice is part of the 17th annual Slice of Life Story Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol24 I’m slicing every day this month, for the 11th year! Wahoo!!! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
It’s no secret: I’m no fan of standardized tests. But, I am a fan of my son so when he asked me to sit with him tonight to do a practice SAT, I was happy to oblige. I have a lot of reflections, but honestly – watching someone take a practice SAT is exhausting.
So here’s an SAT for you. Good luck!
1. What is the best way to complete this sentence in standard English?
If you haven’t sat next to my son as he takes a practice SAT ____.
A) , I dare you to try.
B) then you might not know the truth. He’s smarter than he thinks he is, and probably smarter than you.
C) how can you call yourself his parent?
D) All of the above
2. What is the theme, or lesson of the following short story?
One evening a mom sat with her 17 year old as he completed one more practice SAT before test day. He had asked for her help, but didn’t really want her to talk. So, she stared at the screen, happy when she knew an answer, which was not often once he got to the math sections. The English part was okay, although she wasn’t sure why the SAT folks think that commas and semicolons are so very important. She wondered if the SATs were this tricky when she was in high school, and what would happen if adults had to keep taking the SATs every few years.
She made some vegan Mac and cheese for dinner since her son was hangry. But she had to do it in short intervals since she didn’t want to miss any of the riveting practice questions. Luckily there was a break between the English sections and the math sections! When the math started, her son answered math questions the same way he has always answered math questions: with strategies that to the untrained ear sound like they would never result in the right answer, but somehow they do. The mom found herself daydreaming, remembering her son in elementary school solving multiplication problems.
“Maybe she should record him solving a problem,” she thought, since she could never make up an example of his problem-solving to explain it to other people. She was jolted from her daydream by the expletives muttered to the computer screen. Her son has recently been certain that there’s no way he will get into college. The stress was high! The test clock ticked and the questions got harder. Her son was tired, feeling rushed. He finally stated it would be better for his mental health and skipped the last few tricky math problems. But, he still got a higher score than she had decades earlier.
A) Moms who sit by their 17 year-olds doing SATs deserve an honorary 1600 on the SATs.
B) Math algorithms aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, and neither are SATs.
C) If you want to succeed in life, make sure you really, really, really, really understand commas and semicolons; i.e. grammar is probably the most important part of reading and writing (and actually life.)
D) Extra time is a great testing accommodation, but we should really think of a way to let kids curse at their computers while they are testing.
3. If a student were researching testing by taking notes on this website and wanted to prove that moms are better than SATs, which note would be the best data point?
A) She was jolted from her daydream by the expletives
B) Her son was tired, feeling rushed and skipped the last few tricky math problems, but still got a higher score than she had decades earlier.
C) semicolons are very important
D) She made some vegan Mac and cheese for dinner since her son was hangry.
This slice is part of the 17th annual Slice of Life Story Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol24 I’m slicing every day this month, for the 11th year! Wahoo!!! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
What do you notice on a quiet day?
I passed a man on the phone outside of Home Goods Heard him say calmly, “Well, the big thing for me is, I got blood vessel deterioration in the brain.”
I kept repeating his words in my head, I didn’t want to lose them Well, the big thing for me is, I got blood vessel deterioration in the brain.Well, the big thing for me is, I got blood vessel deterioration in the brain.Well, the big thing for me is, I got blood vessel deterioration in the brain.Well, the big thing for me is, I got blood vessel deterioration in the brain.Well, the big thing for me is, I got blood vessel deterioration in the brain…
Just before, there had been an elderly woman with her daughter ahead of me. The checkout lady tried to convince her get the store credit card. Her daughter was silent. Was she even paying attention? As her mom was about to sign-up she finally spoke, ”Mom. It’s a credit card. Do you want a credit card?” I had wondered if this was the daughter’s technique. Was she giving her elderly mom independence? Or, was she annoyed and ignoring? Either way she stepped in.
Now, I see them walking to their car ahead of me, the mother’s arm in her daughter’s.
I walked to my car thinking about how fleeting life is. Everyone gets old. Blood vessels deteriorate. I’m the daughter who will help my mother to the car. I’m the mother who will one day put my arm in my daughters. Oh, and also, how death is around the corner.
That’s when I told myself to stop noticing so much. What we notice makes our world, I guess. So, I told myself to notice the sun, blue sky crisp air instead.
On the drive home I wondered would it be easier to not notice? Maybe it’s better to go through life in the moment not making connections and stories.
Or, would I rather be this person who notices too much?
And also – I really hope that man’s blood vessel situation is treatable.
This slice is part of the 17th annual Slice of Life Story Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol24 I’m slicing every day this month, for the 11th year! Wahoo!!! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
“Oh,” I remind my son, “Your TJ Maxx bags are back there too.”
“My God, mom. Can you just let me bring things in without it being such a hullabaloo?”
As I walk in with the Trader Joe’s bags, I think to myself how the things you might say to your friends and they would either think nothing of, or literally thank you for saying are things that can make teenagers so very, very, very mad at you.
That, or, my friends are just constantly repressing their absolute annoyance at me.
There’s nothing like parenting teenagers to make you wonder if you are a regular person with friends who actually love and appreciate you… or maybe you are actually an annoying, ridiculous, strict, rule-following, rule-making-up embarrassment to society.
I tell my 14 year-old this idea that he gets so mad at things that when I say to adults, they usually thank me. He needs an example, of course, and I point out how just a couple minutes before he was so mad when I reminded him there were other bags in the back seat.
He explains that it makes him feel stupid when I give him reminders of things he obviously knows. This is a valid feeling, but I remind him that there is no way I’d ever think he was stupid.
This tends to be how parenting goes these days.
At least they balance it out with being super sweet, and also hilarious.
“I’m just trying to teach you how to be a person!” I said recently, after my 14 year old was so annoyed by the way I was trying to help him figure out how and what to pack for a trip.
“I’m already more of a person than—” he started and I raised my eyebrows.
“Than Finn will ever be!” he finished, naming our dog, of course.
They’re stuck with me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I just might need extra reminders (for the next few years) from adults that the things I’m saying are rational, normal things.
And if they aren’t, just lie to me and say they are. Or, at the very least, break it to me gently that I am actually as weird as my kids think I am.
This slice is part of the 17th annual Slice of Life Story Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol24 I’m slicing every day this month, for the 11th year! Wahoo!!! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
I’ve been burned before by Airbnb listings that say there is coffee but there isn’t, so I was sure to double check before leaving for this last Airbnb.
“There is! Fair trade and organic” was the host’s answer, so I was happy to not have to pack coffee.
I smile when I see the coffee maker, though.
It’s not that I can’t figure out the mechanics of this pour over coffee maker, it’s that I don’t know what the ratio of coffee to water is, and it looks like that’s a metal filter, but there are also paper filters, and it’s already bedtime. I really should figure it out now.
Time to find the coffee. Fortunately, this particular cabinet is labeled.
Unfortunately, the coffee is not what I expected.
Fortunately, I know how to use a coffee grinder. It just makes me laugh. Also, now I need to figure it out before bed so the sound of the grinding coffee doesn’t wake everyone up too early in the morning.
Somehow google is not as helpful as I want it to be. It’s all complicated diagrams and things in grams. The electric kettle they show does almost exactly match the one next to the coffeemaker though, so that’s good news.
I decide to just estimate the amount, and use the advice I see to wet the paper filter.
Unfortunately the coffee grinder doesn’t seem to work. Fortunately, that’s just the outlet.
In the morning my daughter gets the coffee party started. We enjoy the time figuring out an outlet for the kettle and the ratio of the coffee, and then watching the water drip, drip, drip.
We agree that this is a little like Little House on the Prairie, especially because this Airbnb doesn’t have any paper towels, or kitchen towels, or plastic trash bags for wet coffee filters. I hand a dripping rinsed coffee mug to her and she says, “At least Ma had like a rag to dry things off. Or, did she use an apron?”
None of it matters though, because I would drip hot water over any kind of coffee beans, ground or not in order to sit with my college daughter for coffee any morning, any time.
The next morning, she’s back at her dorm. I’m making coffee myself missing her. The boys and I will be checking out of this Airbnb any minute.
I watch the coffee drip, drip, drip.
I wonder why watching coffee slowly drip is something I can only appreciate on vacation.
I throw the wet coffee filter into the plastic bag we brought from our dinner last night.
My daughter texts me that she made her espresso this morning and actually kinda misses the fun coffee drip method.
This slice is part of the 17th annual Slice of Life Story Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol24 I’m slicing every day this month, for the 11th year! Wahoo!!! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Being mindful of the moment is nice but Can you do too much noticing? This is my thought today at the bookstore riding the escalator back up to find my kids
I had gone down the elevator since the down escalator was broken and I guess there were no stairs which upon reflection seems odd
The elevator had been dark and creepy The bathroom had a dispenser labeled “Healthy Soap” what’s the other kind? The sale table had the cutest multiple choice bag 50% off but if I got it, would I be a walking advertisement for standardized tests?
Riding the one working escalator up I heard a kid, not mine, yell “No! I have too many at home.” books, I think, he must be talking about books “Jimmy!” He yelled, excited “Watch me!” I sensed, with my mom-senses, him running towards the broken escalator
“Max. Don’t!” a grown-up said calm, firm I laughed because it’s nice to be out of those days of hoping my kids don’t climb broken escalators and then I laughed because that’s both true and not true
I found my kids near the games searching for games I wouldn’t buy them lightly arguing about where to get dinner we walked to the elevator my middle child, 17 now, started towards the broken down escalator mumbling something about how he could still use it
This slice is part of the 17th annual Slice of Life Story Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol24 I’m slicing every day this month, for the 11th year! Wahoo!!! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
You just don’t know what 17 year-olds are going to say. This is the one thing about parenting that I feel I can say with confidence.
Like today in the van for example, when my 17 year old was telling my 14 year about some suffixes. I believe they started by talking about the words ending in “some.” They were intrigued by awesome being used in place of “amazing,” when it really should mean causing awe.
“Do you know what a suffix is?” H asked.
E started to answer, but H interrupted to say, “I was asking mom.”
I answered, and then was quizzed on prefix and affix. And then he started telling me about infixes – an affix in the middle of a word.
“It’s too bad you can’t teach kids this,” he said, and I wondered why he was thinking that.
“Really there’s only one infix, and it’s f***. Like in ‘absof***inglutely.’”
“Ahhh,” I said, “Like Ms. McDonough’s Valentine.”
I didn’t need to remind him of when he was making Valentine’s for his whole class and all of his teachers and he got to Ms. McDonough. He was doing an acrostic poem for her and needed a u adjective. We looked up a list of “positive u adjectives” and unf***withable was on the list. Fortunately and unfortunately, this was the perfect, if unusable adjective for his amazing teacher, one of my best friends, now gone.
You see, when your son’s teacher is his mom’s friend, an amazing meet-once-in-your-your-lifetime woman who was truly unf***withable, even before she battled cancer… you do contemplate letting your sixth-grader write unf***withable on his Valentine’s affirmation. (Instead you just text her the word.)
And, if you’re judging me about my kids’ language — which surely some of you are, at a certain point after going through things… you decide it’s okay for your teenagers to use the words they want to use. And you hope that maybe one day they might describe you and themselves as unf***withable too.
“Well yea,” H said. “But that isn’t really in infix. It isn’t interrupting a word in the same way.”
The conversation shifted a bit. We talked about our dog’s upcoming birthday, when suddenly H looked up from his phone,
“Oh my God.” He said, startling me.
“What now?” I asked him, not expecting his next query, and laughing as soon as he asked it with a lot of passion:
On a Thought 