Coveting Another's...

In the last few months I have discovered what covet truly means. As a good and faithful Sunday School attendee all my childhood and youth I knew it was one of the top ten. I found it a bit silly; no one could want what someone else has so badly the want will send them to Hell.

I grew up.

I have worked in a profession that is also my passion for 23 years.

Then my friend Dave quit his job and retreated to a cabin in the Rocky Mountains to edit the novel he had written on a previous sabbatical.

I covet his experience.

The introvert me covets the isolation.

The exhausted me covets the time.

The stressed-out me covets the escape.

Every time I encounter an unexpected situation; every time the stress begins to build, my mind asks, “where’s my cabin?” Coyotes, bears, and hailstorms be damned - they’re easier to deal with than people. I ponder the question, “what would happen if I loaded the car and left?”

The answer is immediate: the student loan people will still track me down.

The fantasy ends that quickly, but the coveting does not. I have been working in my house lately to build my own cabin. The garage (too small for a car, I don’t know what the builders were thinking) is becoming a workshop for handiwork crafts. My office finally has enough shelving that I do not have piles of books covering most of the floor, and as soon as I refinish the old wooden desk I have, I will have my personal reading and writing space. I do what I can with what I have.

None of this is far removed from society - I still hear the planes arriving and departing. There are no wild creatures - there are roommates. It is not the high altitudes of Colorado, but when my mind asks for a cabin, I’ll have an answer and maybe the coveting will move to wanting. I’ll plan a vacation accordingly.

Accentuate the Positive

I cannot remember a time when I have had so little sleep over such a long time as I have in the past month. As many mentions as I have made over the years to coffee and energy drinks (my webpage is called “The Highly Caffeinated Educator” after all), my thoughts now do not lead me toward another paean to the power of chemistry. This time, the energy to go on came from outright terror and the anticipation of something new and good which I was responsible to make happen.

The first week of school has passed and everything is working. Some tweaks remain to be made so everything operates as smoothly as possible, but so far everything has functioned according to plan.

Except for furniture that did not arrive until 6:00 PM the night before school opened.

And late busses.

And an air-conditioning system that randomly picks a room not to cool each day.

Our motto has become, “It is what it is.”

As easy as it might be to focus on the glitches and the inordinate amount of time they take from my schedule, these best laid plans going awry have been overshadowed by the things that have gone right. The teachers have handled every glitch with grace as have the students. Teaching and learning are taking place in all the classes. The students like and value the environment designed for them. The community is proud of the program we have in place.

The glitches have been just that - glitches. None of them harmed anyone or disrupted the activity of the school. I left work each day with a smile on my face. It is really easy to focus and point out the positives with everything working as it has so far.

The outright terror I experienced for the last month that kept me awake pondering every scenario helped get the the right plans in place. Terror can be productive that way. I did not sleep much, but my attention was focused. I have a feeling that every year I am the administrator of a campus I will experience similar terror. As a teacher and counselor, the start of the school year brought long hours and anxiety, but it was nothing like that of an administrator.

The success of the year’s start excites me and has set the tone for a positive year. My goal now is to keep the positive energy going for the entire school year.

Brain Lapse

         A night after staying up well past my bedtime to watch the election coverage to its finale with the speeches of the presidential candidates, I came home from work ready for and early bedtime. As I finished my dinner and contemplated bedtime, a calendar alert went off on my phone and computer simultaneously reminding me that it was Nature, Nova, and Nova: Science Now – my favorite night of television.

         I stayed awake long enough to find out what each show was about.

         And then I went to sleep for the remainder of each one.

         This normally only happens with mindless sitcoms. But after a night being up four hours beyond my normal time, I did not have the energy to get too educated tonight.

         My brain is full from the elections.

         Maybe that is why I stayed awake for most of TMZ.