Birds, bees and babies

It’s been a busy week. I worked all five days this time, a first since leaving BMS (a school, I found out today, what will officially close after this school year to save money)

Tuesday I subbed in the PE department and worked with Jackie, another Guest Teacher, when time allowed. That meant we only chatted between classes, when we were both on duty in the girls’ locker room. I like Jackie. One of the Downs Syndrome boys from SpecEd the day before recognized me and gave me a hug. I gladly reciprocated.

It was hot that day and everyone in the Intro to PE had to run a mile around the track. I have that routine down well, but panicked briefly when a girl from another class started having an asthma attack and I couldn’t find the right key to open the school’s outside doors.

“Hurry, Ma’am, she can’t breathe!” said one boy, while the asthma-stricken girl looked anxiously at me, heaving for air with her reddened face. She turned out OK shortly thereafter. I don’t know how my day would have turned out otherwise.

Wednesday was supposed to be a day off but I got a call at 6:40am for a 7:20am starting time at the Clark Middle School. I was slated for math, but once there was given a computer class. I was literally saved by the bell as math frightens me. Most of the 7th-graders were on a field trip to Fairbanks, and in my first class I had no one. Second hour I had planning. This gave me plenty of time to finish reviewing for my SpecEd chapters.

Third hour was my one and only full class: a class of talented graphic artists.

“Cool, the Beast Lady!” said one charming boy as he walked in with a smile.
Beast Lady?
“Yeah, that means you’re pretty cool!” Whew. I still made everyone do their required in-class work: find 5-10 digital photos on-line and turn them into thumbnails. Now that is something I would like to learn, and these kids did it all in 20 minutes.

One kid, Tyron, hadn’t eaten any lunch in fifth hour. He wanted to go to the nurse for some crackers.
“How come you didn’t eat lunch?” I asked him.
“”Cause I don’t have no money!” he fired back. I stilled his hunger with a bag of party snacks the regular teacher left on his desk. I later wrote him for forgiveness.

Jackie was in the class across from me. She wanted my phone number. “I love talking to you and want to talk to you some more!” she explained. I am looking forward to time alone with a peer, away from demanding kids or screaming teenagers. She is always so up-beat.

I really liked working at the middle school that day and called Diane to tell her. I left a message on her voice mail. Perhaps Middle School is my calling afterall?

As usual on days when I have college classes, I stayed at the Cochise Library to idle time and surf the net. Lately it’s been reading updates on my new Facebook page, a website I created after much coddling by others who kept inviting me to view their photos on their own Facebook accounts. I have now joined the “Look-at-Me!” generation.

It was here, at 4:30pm that Wednesday, that I learned Erin was going to get induced the next day. Baby Ethan would be born no later than Friday.

I wasn’t expecting to get this news via a public Facebook “wall” but as I sat there, my eyes glued to the screen, I started crying. The young woman at the monitor to my right kept staring at me. I hope I am not the reason she got up and left?

OhMyGod I kept thinking, this is for real. I am going to be a Grandma. Were those tears of happiness or tears of fear? Or were they tears of guilt because I was 2700 miles away from my very pregnant only daughter? I had to calm myself down before my EDU222 class. I wanted to be calm enough to pass the day’s quiz we always start the hour with.

There is no turning back now, Ethan WANTS to come out, and I’m going to be a grandma for the rest of my life! That basically means that if I ever get successful now, I’ll always be known first and foremost as a “49-year-old grandmother of one”. That’s enough to never want to commit a crime and see my name in the local paper attached to the adjectival pronoun “grandmother” because that’s all I’ll ever be associated with.

I couldn’t fall asleep that night, worrying about Erin and Ethan and having fears that there were be complications, or worse, thanks to all the readings on birth defects, something major wrong with Ethan.

On Thursday I was back at the high school, another last-minute plea, and filled in for a World History class. The topic: British India at the end of the 19th century. Most students showed no interest in the subject, let alone my added impute. By sixth hour most of the students were chatting against the walls on the floor and socializing.

“Don’t worry,” said one regular teacher, “The last time I was in here there was a student sleeping on the floor!”

Well, at least I have higher standards.

Thursday night I gave my presentation on my EDU226 book-of-choice: “Schoolgirls” by Peggy Orenstein. Everyone in class knew I wasn’t happy with the book. I don’t know what my grade was—I was the last one to present my topic and went over the official class time—but I am relieved that I can finally concentrate on my Apache research paper.

And today, Friday, I went back to fill in for the French teacher. She left me a bar of dark chocolate as thanks. What a sweetie! The assignment today was watching the beginning of “Cyrano de Bergerac” in French, starring Gerald Depardieu. After the third time around I lost interest in viewing it and read my new Amazon Vine book: “Halfway to Heaven” a mostly humorous book about a middle-aged man’s quest to bag all 54 of Colorado’s Fourteeners. By the end of the sixth hour, I was half-way done.

The bird feeder was knocked over when I got home. Seeds were strewn all around the feeder’s post. Was this an attempt by Vinnie to attack a bird feeding from the seeds? The hummingbird sugar also looked sipped from.

The front yard welcomed me home in new bloom, too. The Desert Palo Verde now boasts yellow blooms, the Cleveland sage sports its first purple flower the mesquite tree continues to branch out into a mature tree.

I took the two older dogs on a two-mile walk around the neighborhood just before sunset. It was my first hike with them, I believe, since Sunday. Sara walked without a limp and seemed to enjoy solo time with her two best friends: Sammy and me. Sadie stayed home with Dad.

I heard a great horned owl hooting from the top of a swamp cooler. At first thinking it was a bushy-tailed cat walking on the roof (Vinnie did that last Sunday) I soon discovered it was an owl; it’s 90 degree head movement gave it away.

The walk ended with a hound-beagle ix running out of a door to attack Sammy. Screams and pulls on the leash did no good, and it took the panicked homeowners a few hard screams to get their dog back inside. The next time I walk the dogs, I’m bringing my stun gun with me.

It’s now just after 8pm on Friday and I haven’t heard anything from Erin yet. I figured she is sleeping off her birthing or enjoying new motherhood with Ethan. But even her Facebook Wall is silent. I’ve gotten used to getting all my baby news from Facebook rather than personal email or phone calls.

I am joining a few others tomorrow for a day of trail maintenance up a western slope of the Huachucas. It will be a ten-mile hike when all is said and done, and those ten miles will be well-appreciated because I have been so busy and emotionally drained all week that bagging a peak will be great therapy for me. I’ve longed for my mountains every morning as I’d leave for yet another day in school.

http://www.svherald.com/articles/2009/04/24/news/doc49f1682ad1b13228235274.txt
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/world/americas/25mexico.html?_r=1&ref=global-home