Reading Writing Watching Wanting

Reading

I just finished To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris. I was disappointed.

I'm trying to put on my big girl panties to review this year's yearbook, but, as always, I get super nervous. This is only made worse by the fact that last year a nearby school district accidentally handed out their book, only to find out that there was a picture with a soccer player who was... hanging out... of his shorts. 

I've been reading The Nowhere Box by Sam Zuppardi to Sawyer lately and I can't wait until he's old enough to give a box and some crayons to. The possibilities are endless.

I also have a stack of timed writes my students wrote on an excerpt from Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. The ones that I've read so far aren't bad, making me feel that maybe I've done a little good this year. Or maybe it was just easy.

Writing

I wrote a guest post over at We Are Book Punks about coercing kids of all ages to read. Their blog has such a cool design to it- check it out!

I started my next project ("novel" makes me feel presumptuous), the one I wrote about a few weeks ago, complaining about how I had no clue where it was going to go. I finally bit the bullet when I was home with my roseola-rashed out child and busted out five pages. It feels good. The file is entitled "kale" right now. 

I'm also putting together a resource guide for a committee I'm on at school, providing teachers with places to go when they teach Night, Farewell to Manzanar, and The Lord of the Flies. 

Watching

I've started watching more TED Talks lately, since I can always find one at a length I have time for. Plus they make me feel a little more educated. I think after I watch five or so I'll put up a quick post with links.

Don't tell my husband, but while I was working last night I watched/listened to the movie he was watching, Whiplash, and I really liked it. It's about this tyrannical music instructor and his student. I need to play some clips for my students so that they'll be more thankful for my tactics.

Despite my irritation with Lena Dunham's memoir, we're still plugging away at Girls. And I still like it.

We need to also catch up on Jane the Virgin on Hulu. It's such a smart, light-hearted watch.

Wanting

I've had cabin fever lately (probably because Sawyer has been sick with his ears, fever, roseola for over a week), so I want to just go do something fun. Nothing crazy. Bowl? Go to the Huntington Library? See Pitch Perfect 2 in a few weeks? Things are in motion, the planning machine has been put in gear.

This is going to sound ridiculous, but I want a set of wool dryer balls and some essential oil to take the place of our dryer sheets. I had no clue they existed until someone posted some of Instagram. They dry things faster and are better for the environment than dryer sheets.

The book Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill has hopped in and out of my cart on Amazon the last few days.  

Some peace and quiet.