Late, Tired, and Wordy

Lake Tahoe, CA

This past week and a half have been busy, to say the least. A few thoughts:

- I went to IB training (IB is basically an international, "whole student" approach version of AP, to make a long story short) in Lake Tahoe last weekend and was amazed by how beautiful, useful, and fun it was (fun was thanks to the colleagues, not necessarily the sessions). I truly appreciated the intelligence of the other attendees and how well-read the English teachers were. I kept a list of book suggestions mentioned during the classes to someday buy. Such a great experience. I can't wait until next school year.

- This weekend I went to Vegas and it was far from literary. I brought my book and read 0.0 pages. There's something about car rides and cabanas that is much more conducive to magazine reading. 

- I am failing miserably at the Don DeLillo project. Time to amp it up- I can't fail again. If I read a hundred pages a day I'd have it done before I go out of town next...

-  I received the ARC for new Victor Lavalle book, The Devil in Silver. I have absolutely no idea what it's about and don't give a crap- Big Machine was so fantastic it wouldn't even make a difference. I also have Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carole Rifka Brunt, which has received some excellent praise so far (I think it's been released, though, so my ARC is a little less-advanced). I do need to stop requesting books; I have plenty and keep feeling the itch to buy a few that I've been eying.

- I think some people sometimes take this blog too seriously; they decide I'm this crazy person and like to decide that I'm automatically mad if they decide to read, say, Fifty Shades of Gray. This blog is for fun, folks! Do we automatically assume the narrator of a novel is in fact the author's voice? The speaker of a poem the poet? Yes, I do feel strongly about quality literature, but the 75% of my blogs are labeled with the tag "being over-dramatic" for a reason. I just get enthusiastic. So, anyway, if you admit to reading less-than-literary fiction to me I may tease you, but seriously, I have bigger things in my life to worry about than what you read. Like world peace.

By the way, this isn't rooted in some sort of confrontation, or anything. The people that really know me know better. I wish I could report on some sort of juicy fight I had with someone where I started yelling at them about the literary merit of Oscar Wilde, but alas, not so much.

- I am done with Summer Academy, meaning I'm done with my daily readings of the high school biology book. Like I've said, it was a good experience in the sense that I now know I can teach science and survive, but it definitely made me miss teaching English. This was probably apparent when I assigned an essay to the poor biology students... sorry, guys. Now I can finally enjoy my summer and recharge for next school year.