always watching

I am an avid blog follower of those with whom I work and stumbled across something that one of my friends wrote that, for lack of a better word, upset me.  In the enumeration of the twenty things about kindergarten, the grade her son is currently in,  I found this as part of number 20 on her list:

People say that Mom knows and she was there and all that, but I think Mom is too busy in heaven to be worried about us down here.

My friend and I share the bittersweet bond of having both lost our mother.  While her’s is more recent, it is oddly comforting that we can share this hardship with each other.  I think it makes our friendship stronger.  There is not a shred of doubt in my mind that my mother is having a BLAST in heaven.  Sure she’s busy, but I’d like to think that she’s keeping tabs on us down here.  And while it may seem somewhat corny or idealistic, it is my sincere belief that my mother has been present for every milestone in both my siblings lives and mine.

Mom was there when I walked across the stage to receive my college degree.

Mom was there when I got the call from Margie Martinez, telling me that I had a contract waiting for me at Consol.

She calmed my nerves when students started pouring into my classroom on the first day of school.

Mom was there at the birth of her granddaughter, Elizabeth Jane, and she’ll be there at the birth of her next granddaughter in about a month.

She’s been with Nate on every deployment overseas, making sure he makes it home alright.

Mom was there when Cara decided to follow in her footsteps and recieved the acceptance letter to Occupational Therapy school at UTMB.

Mom was there at Aaron’s wedding and was by his side as he traveled the long distance to accept his new job in Idaho Falls.

I remember journaling about this once upon a time, but I love that I can find Mom in the small things.  Whether it is a beautiful sunset or a corny joke, it’s pretty neat that I know she’s smiling somewhere.  There are other weird things too.  For example, I can’t watch the movies Stepmom or Hope Floats without sobbing like a baby.  I have this odd fear, however, that I’m going to forget the sound of my mom’s voice and, along with that, the sound of her laughter. Thankfully, I have my sister, who is a constant reminder of my mother.  Not only is she the spitting image, but she is my best friend and sounding board – the same role my mother played.

So to my friend whose blog post I referenced, please don’t hate me.  I know that you know that your mother was there, even if she IS having a good time in heaven (maybe she’s met my mom…I bet they’d get along famously!) I’d like to think that she has her telescope set on the big (and small) events in the lives of her babies.

the angry tenant

ten·ant n. – One that pays rent to use or occupy land, a building, or other property owned by another.

Let’s focus on the “pays rent to use” aspect of this.  The great thing about living in an apartment is that when something breaks and it’s not your fault, you get to have someone come in and fix it for you, right?

Wrong.

When I’m paying you $585 a month for a mediocre apartment, I expect some damn service.  Let me tell you a little story.  About 3 weeks ago, I got back from Evan’s lakehouse and noticed that my bathroom floor was soaked.  It was at this point that I noticed that the water line to my toilet had a small leak.  Nothing major, just a little drip every few seconds.  “I’ll just turn off the water line.  Problem solved.”  And it worked!  I fixed something!  Every time I used the bathroom, I would remember to turn off the water after I was finished.  Life was great.  I reveled in my self-sufficiency for about a week.

…before my world came crashing down on me.

I soon realized that the drip was steadily becoming a trickle of water.  Then a stream.  Then a river.  Only now, for some mysterious reason, the water line that formerly shut off refused to do so.  It was at this point that I called the front office again to remind them that my problem still hadn’t been fixed.  “Sorry, we’re really backed up with air conditioners right now.”  Air conditioners?!?  I can’t go to the bathroom without worrying about 40 days and 40 nights worth of flooding and you’re worried about AIR CONDITIONERS?  Those people can experience mild discomfort.  My toilet is falling apart.

So, here we are, 3 weeks after the slow drip began and as I write this, my bathroom is steadily becoming a swimming pool.  Excuse me while I go for a swim/drain the water.

No pun intended, but take care of your crap, Scandia.

grammar…augh!

Here’s the deal – there is no easy way to teach grammar.  Ask any English teacher across the United States and you might find a handful that would disagree.  I learned this the hard way this past week when I realized that my formal grammar education was lacking.  SO, on the way to a Houston Texans game I taught myself (with the assistance of BRP) gerunds, infinitives, participles, auxiliary verbs, linking verbs, action verbs.  I think he was astonished that I was teaching myself what I had to teach to my kids the next day.  I struggled.  So did they.  I had a bad attitude all week, cussing grammar publicly to my colleagues.  I hate not being good at things, but I learned from my mistakes this week and now it’s time to move on.

There may not be an easy way to teach grammar, but there are most certainly fun ways to teach it.  On their third day of high school, my emotionally fragile and petrified freshmen were in for the surprise of their lives.  The lesson for the day – how to stop a run-on from running on.  Now, if you do the math, by this point they had spent a grand total of 100 minutes with me, so imagine their looks of shock and horror when they show up to class on Wednesday and a man they barely know is wearing a t-shirt, athletic shorts, bright yellow sweatband, and purple-striped tube socks.  Not only this, but he commits to running in place throughout the entire period until someone stops him.  How, you ask?

Well, Randy Run-On can’t stop running so he needs some water, of course!  I cleverly labeled three bottles of water corresponding with the three ways to stop a run-on (semicolon, comma & coordinating conjunction, semicolon + conjunctive adverb + comma) and when the time came to discuss them, would sprint to a student that I had randomly given a bottle to on their way in the door and shout something cheesy like, “Oh great!  It’s a semicolon!” before downing about half the bottle in dramatic fashion.  I’m pretty sure that at one point I heard “Oh no” from one of the students that I had given a bottle to when I started running towards them.  It was a great lesson and I plan on using it again next year to break the new fishies in.

I had to pee a lot that day.

As good as it gets?

When trying to come up with a catchy, edgy name for my blog, I was pretty much at a loss. Don’t get me wrong, I had fantastic suggestions:

- caleb sucks

- cahoots and quips

and my personal favorite:

- Phillips Fill-Ups, where you can fill-up on all of your favorite Phillips news!!! (thanks EWo)

So why, after the clearly impeccable suggestions I was given, would I go with what you see at the top of this page? Well, I’ll tell you. For those who do not know me so well, my current profession is that of a high school English teacher. I teach Honors Freshmen and On-level Juniors; talk about opposite ends of the spectrum. I am inundated with “crazy” every day.

I also work with crazy people, but “good” crazy. Crazy like me. Crazy about their jobs (most of the time), crazy about English, and crazy about their kids.  Crazy people who form city league adult kickball teams to pass the time during the summer.  Who knew that one could have best friends for colleagues? Not this guy.

Then there’s my amazing family. Let me give you a brief synopsis. I come from a family with three (yes, three) sets of twins. My dad has a twin brother, I have two older twin brothers (one in the Air Force & the other with Del Monte), and I’m a twin (my twin sister is in Occupational Therapy school in Galveston). Craziness personified. We’ve been through some crazy (both good and bad) things throughout our lives. The separation of our parents, the death of our mother, my sister and I putting a garage sale, whitewater rafting, etc.

So, you see, this infamous Nicholson quote could not be more applicable. Is this as good as it gets? I hope so.