Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Snow! Tomorrow!

My oldest heard it on the radio. My husband saw it in the newspaper. Snow, coming our way! Both of them sometimes tend to make things sound more sure than they are so I wanted to read the article for myself. Bottom line--possible flurries. IMO, the word "flurries" does not even deserve to be spoken in the same sentence as the word "snow". When spoken together, as in "snow flurries tomorrow" all people hear around here is the word "snow". Then excitement abounds, along with stories of how we behaved the last time it snowed (and stuck to the ground), which was somewhere around 1992, if my memory serves me right. At the present moment, it is raining and cold.

It is finals week at work and yesterday and today, I proctored a couple of finals. One of them was a Psyc 101 class, where one of the students taking the final was a big tall basketball player. You know what I love about some of the male student athletes I have seen so far on the job? When they have to take a test, or ask you for special permission to get in a class that is already filled (and they forgot on the way over from their advisor's office what it was they were supposed to ask for), if you watch real closely, you can almost see the wheels turning in their brains! (Oh that is a shameful observation! But notice that I did not say all male student athletes are that way!)

I also enjoy interacting with the international students. I think it must take great courage to come so far to school, and in some cases, barely knowing the language. I am amazed at how they can still manage to make good grades in spite of English not being their first language. Today, while proctoring the exam, I had to try and explain to an Oriental student what the word "depict" meant. That was a tough one to be asked to explain, given the cirumstances. Poor thing, I gave an example and asked if that helped and she said "yes" but I don't know if she really understood, or was just being polite. I helped her with a registration problem at the beginning of the semester and now when we see each other out on campus, we always speak to each other. She probably gets a lot of impatient stares tossed her way so I do try to go out of my way to be kind to her and others like her.

And finally, a comment or two to Tab Calhoun, formerly known as Simple Blog writer: When I signed on to do this post, I saw I had a comment from you that needed to be moderated. I think I needed to "approve" it because it was a comment on an older post. Anyway, you said:

"Soda is the devil's juice. Whatever vocabulary you use, it's bad for you and your new-new doc is right about that.

Albert, huh? I was just wondering if muses have to be women and you answered that questions."


The devil's juice, huh? I like that! I'll have to remember the description if I am ever tempted to take a swig again!

Spooky Rach mentioned her muse's name once, and it was a male name. I decided if she could have a male muse, so could I!

7 comments:

  1. Woohoo! Not only was I excited to see a new post from you, but I see my name in it. I raise my cup of chickweed tea to you in toast on this strangly warm night in NYC.

    Keep writing, Annie!

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  2. More and more, I see teens and twenty-somethings as kids trying to make their way in this big ole world and my heart melts a little. It was good to read your words about your work, Annie.

    Mich

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  3. Hey, send me a snowball!! So did you get "snow" or did it just flurry and melt when it hit the ground? I hope you took a picture! Just don't send that white stuff this way. Weather has been mighty wicked here today.
    I don't see a thing wrong with having a male muse, but then again I wouldn't.
    Finals week, yee-gad having an ugly flashback to college days when I would pace in the hallway and recite bible verses in my head...

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  4. Tab Chickweed tea? I may have to try and find that one. I have been drinking more tea lately.

    Mich I agree with you (and silently wonder if that only means I am getting older!)

    Ayekah We got enough snow to show in photos. I will probably upload them sometime over the weekend.

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  5. Hey annie! I heard on the radio this morning that there was snow on the ground in New Orleans. I wondered if y'all had gotten any! We didn't here - only a few misguided flakes.

    I think you are doing a wonderful thing by being patient with those students and going out of your way to interact with the one's you've tried to help. It will make a huge difference for some of them.

    My muse's name is Ichabod. 'Cause he's a scrawny, bookish adolescent boy. Sometimes he gets me into trouble. Sometimes he gets a new video game or something and ignores me for weeks on end. And sometimes he's a lot of fun.

    WV: prigness - something that Ichabod finds very amusing, I'm sure.

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  6. SNOW!!! Woo hoo! I thought about you getting it while we got rained on here...
    :-)

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  7. The snow came back on November 22 and hasn't left. I know I will feel differently in March, but right now it comforts me like an old friend. We went for a walk last night to take a look at the river. A bonus was seeing the big old moon low in the sky. I tried to get a picture of the moonlight on the snow, but it didn't work...

    Thank you for the Christmas card. It's beautiful! I'm going to frame it.

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