Kinda Like a Hippie

With apologies and gratitude to Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias

To all the kids I've loved before
Who travelled in and out my door
I'm glad they came along
I dedicate this song
To all the kids I've loved before
To all the kids I gave a test
And may I say I've taught the best
For helping me to grow
I owe a lot I know
To all the kids I've loved before
The winds of change are always blowing
And even though I want them to stay
The winds of change continue blowing
And they always go away
To all the kids who shared my class
Even the ones who did not pass
I'm glad they came along
I dedicate this song
To all the kids I've loved before
To all the kids who cared for me
Who filled my days with bits of glee
They live within my heart
I'll always have a part
Of all the kids I've loved before
The winds of change are always blowing
And even though I want them to stay
The winds of change continue blowing
And they always go away
To all the kids I've loved before
Who travelled in and out my door
I'm glad they came along
I  dedicate this song
To all the kids I've loved before.I

I was thinking about all the kids I've taught and how this time of year is always kind of hard on me. Of course it is kind of hard because I have to meet over a hundred new people who will be looking at me, and looking to me to give them some knowledge for their futures. It is especially hard because I suffer from disnameia. Yes, that horrible affliction that prevents me from learning names in a timely manner. So, I will have my new students make nametags and we will use those for a week or two,a nd I will play a name game the first day hoping to learn at least a few, and eventually I will learn most. But I will still get confused and after Christmas I will have to relearn some. The poor kids who have older siblings will get called by that name more often than not. Seems once I learn a certain name paired with a last name that it refuses to be overwritten.

This time of year is hard on me because I will miss my kids. My kids from last year. At the end of the year it is hectic and crazy and everyone is tired and ready for summer, so it's hard to be melancholy when it is time to say goodbye. Plus they are always saying they will come back to visit - but very few do, because they move on as they should. I do get a little sad the last couple of weeks but, I am usually not too bothered about leaving in the spring. Somehow the coming back in the fall makes it sink in. They are really gone. They are not in my class anymore. All that bonding we did and all the private jokes that were created will be left behind. Because they were 7th graders last year and are now in 8th grade they are still at our school. I will see them. But they will walk right by my classroom. I will expect them to be there when I close the door, but instead, I will gaze at a room full of strangers. I will feel a touch of bittersweet regret and then I will smile and go on. And hopefully, not fall off my shoe or anything!

Just in case I ever get a bigger truck

Way back in July, when it seemed like there was still a lot of summer left, we went to Santa Fe.  The boyfriend flew us up there on a Friday night and we returned home on Sunday morning. It wasn't actually raining the moment we left, but I was still nervous, because, well, because I'm me. The Boyfriend assured me it would be okay (and it was). Plus he has his new cool satellite GPS toy for the plane with radar, radio and everything, so he could track the storms way in advance if needed. We got there with no problems and only saw some fast moving storms from a distance (they were moving away from us). I managed to wait until we had landed and were in the hotel parking lot before puking. I hope the rental car company appreciates me for jumping out and heading to the bushes in time!

We went for a drive on Saturday morning and ended up in Madrid, NM.

  where the movie Wild Hogs was filmed.

I remembered being there years (like 13) before with two of my Hippie Friends (love ya Tami and Will) who were living in a dome home in the desert outside of Tesuque. As you would expect creative, artsy types to be, they are imaginative and fun. (Will is a talented artist as well. Check out his website here). Madrid ... it sounded so familiar and it looked familiar when I saw the movie too ... but I was not sure until we made this trip and I saw this bar.

On the summer day we were there in 1994 (or 1995?) there was music playing and a little kid inside just spinning around to the tunes. None of us had kids yet and for some reason we seemed to find him hilarious. There were bikers there that day as well. I mostly remember laughing all the way there and all the way back to Tesuque, where we continued to amuse ourselves in unique ways... you have no idea how entertaining an improv shadow puppet show can be when performed by our friend Will on the ceiling of the dome home! Oh my, I've become lost on memory lane... jolting back now...

Okay, Madrid is this funky, tiny desert town that used to be some sort of mining town. Artists and hippie types have been living there for years before Disney found it. The day The Boyfriend and I visited there was an attempt being made to have a chili/music festival of some kind. Apparently there was some dissention in the community about this.

So there was a protest parade. The signs read "I love Madrid" and "Change with Grace".

I love Madrid because it is funky and, in a shop there, I found these:

Yes, I can now express the majority of my thoughts via bumper stickers. Classy, huh?

And just for fun... does anyone know what and where these are?

It's Summertime And The Livin' Is Easy

Or it would be if I could stop thinking about how soon it will be over ( 6 days) and how I really need to get this house sold so I can move into the "Lakefront Property". I kinda drool everytime I say that.

Already I am feeling nostalgic about this year's good ol' summertime. I am always a little freaked out when I hear parents say that they can't wait for school to start because they are ready to be away from their kids. I guess they are just not as lucky as I am and I should try to be understanding. I am dreading it. I love spending time with my son. A bad day with him is better than a day without him. He cracks me up daily.

Seriously, how much fun is this?

How will I cope without this excitement and entertainment in my life?

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.

Brand new 7th Graders!

So, this is how it goes..

We already know I love Chicago. I still do. Like a fabulously thoughtful lover it just gets better every time. And just like such, I find new things to love about it the longer I know it. I want to explore its every crevice and throw myself on it with wild abandon. I want to linger and find my place in its world, yet, like an illicit courtesan, I am forced to leave before my heart is ready.

Again, I visited Chicago. So the rest of this post could be me going on and on about the walk to the park, and finding cool shops in the rainbow district. Or perhaps I could try waxing poetic some more, and write about the images in the Art Institute and the feeling I get when I walk through urban neighborhoods with tree lined streets and brownstone houses.

I could spend a paragraph detailing my distress at leaving without seeing a Cubs game, even though I was in spitting distance of Wrigley Field for 3 days.

And all would be accurate, but only to a point.

There was more to this visit. I was there with friends. I have been to Chicago with friends before. I have been there with my son. I have even been there with a lover (a part of my personal history now I suppose, but still fond in my memory, one of those loves who will always linger).

While seemingly just more of the same, this was different. These were my new old friends. What a wonderful new experience... to meet people for the first time that you have known so long and so well.

Thanks girls. Wonderful memories were made and will be treasured.