March 30, 2009

Redemption

While teaching writing is not nearly as satisfying as writing, it is less work in some ways. And there is a limit to how much you can give to your students, and how long you will work on an assignment.

All that said, I am grateful to be back in the classroom, albeit on something of a lark. There has been no contract to sign, I have completed paperwork but received no official notification from anyone that I am the instructor of record. No, I just showed up with good intention, and the office staff also showed intention by making me a mail folder and being patient with my stupid somewhat irritated questions. The paperwork may come eventually, and I think I have to wait eight weeks for the first miniscule check.

I don't get paid enough, and neither do they. So we're all in this collective that decided to do this community service project, and make it look like college. The trick is that the accreditation people take this very seriously, as they should, and so we must all act like it is a very very important thing we do.

But in the end, it isn't all that important. I show up to work, I do some good, I go home. The student show up, think about stuff and go home to their lives. That's how it should be, really. I'm no saint, I'm no better than my students. I just have a body of experience and knowledge that they have some murky idea that they "need." What they want is not to spend three hours in a room with me twice a week, but if that's what it takes, then they are willing. They will gladly pay that in order to get the reward.

The best thing about these international students is that they have overcome big obstacles to get here, even if it was simply a matter of travelling many hours, filing the right paperwork and coping with the weird life here in America. One student from the Middle East appears to be from one of those mega-wealthy families, but he is the only one who has that air of entitlement, and it's hardly noticeable.

They are polite, filled with gratitude, eager to learn and somewhat shaky at the prospect of doing a full-on writing class IN a FOREIGN language where proficiency is expected rather than coached. And they show up.

So must I. But it beats asking "whip or no whip? skinny? decaf?" I too am grateful. Why? There's a darker reason.

Many years ago, in another state, I had the fortune of teaching at both community college and university in a town where writers were a dime a dozen. Swing a sack of dirty socks and you could hit a writer. But somehow I had an inside track on this shadow life of contractual employment, semester-to-semester.

Except for the time when my father had a stroke, and I missed several weeks to be by his side, cheering him with crossword puzzles and specially prepared thick soups and other things. And I missed all kinds of deadlines for re-applying for work. I was simply NOT available when the call came, and I found myself in November buying groceries on credit cards, and by December, I was buying wine on credit cards.

It was a dark time. I took temporary employment as an admin with a machine shop for three days, and walked out after lunch on the fourth day. I also made up some dramatic story why I had to quit the data entry job. I could not go into good honest labor. I felt ruined.

Somehow, someone needed an English instructor at a distant, new community college campus - some place just south of town where a large percentage of Hispanic and tribal folks took classes. In a weak and reluctant moment, I agree to teach two classes, both at the worst possible times.

Too far away from my house, too far away from my regular haunts, too far away from my recovering father who was not quite the same, not enough money to make ends meet, I felt compelled to do something unforgiveable. I was also applying for full-time jobs, and I agreed to take one MID-TERM. It was about 6 or 8 class meetings into the semester. I cannot remember if I had graded a set of papers or not.

But I quit. I told the dean, who could barely disguise her displeasure. She shifted quickly and professionally into CYA mode, finding someone to cover my classes and minimize the damage to students. My replacement was much less forgiving. I met both classes with him, introducing him and then slinking out like the ratfink I was.

I left town two weeks later to take that job, near my parents in my home town.

Though I returned to teaching four years after that, I never did penance, really. I justified and rationalized my actions. But this morning, as I prepare for class, I see clearly and objectively that I violated a near-sacred trust. I left my students in the middle of a semester. Granted my schedule prevented any other jobs, and of course the pay was horrible. I would not have been able to sustain myself for the full 16 weeks, so what happened, happened.

Many years later, though, unbeknownst to them, my students are providing me with something very important: the opportunity to meet the challenge, to foster their education, and to redeem myself on a karmic level. Even though I am compensated, it's not enough for the hours and work. But this is me paying it back (paying it forward) in a roundabout way. When the semester is done, we're even, and I can move forward.

But no way am I going to tell them that, nor should I. It will be my little secret. And ours.

March 28, 2009

I Really Do

I see dead people.

In my dreams.

Last night, it was my brother. He was around the house, organizing or bossing something, and I ignored him. Later in the dream, I had to turn to him and apologize.

"Oh, I'm SO sorry. I was ignoring you as is my wont. But I forgot that you're dead, and so that was rude of me when you've come to visit me." Forehead slap. "Want a beer?"

I then had to go out in the front yard to ask the neighbors to move their cars from my front lawn. In the dream, that is. They were very polite, so for now, they were not zombies.

Big Living

It's Saturday, and I have no intention of going anywhere, unless it's to get gas, buy a book with a 40% coupon, pick up a CD I want (yes, I am old school - I like to hold the factory product in my hands), and maybe buy some crickets.

I live big.

What felt a few weeks ago like surrender and not caring anymore now feels like harmony, if not peace. I don't get much done. The floors are still not swept, though the dishes are done and new ones accumulating. I have laundry to fold and more loads to process. It gets done, eventually.

I'm cleaning out a couple of dusty and hairy corners in the dining room, trying to make it a room where art will get done OR dinner eaten. It used to be that I could whip up dinner at the table from 3 hours to 30 minutes. Now? It's been at least a month since anyone has sat at that table, much less eaten.

This is another thing I tried to get my shrink to address: my list. I could sit down and write a list of all the things I need to do. That part is easy. It's doing them. I never actually got to show up my list, much less come up with strategies for accomplishing things. I realize now that I was pretty much just wasting my time with him, though I'm sure it was nice to have him "be my friend" for that year. In retrospect, he wasn't exactly listening to me, and he had no agenda for "our work." His main goal seemed to be getting me to take anti-depressants. When I succumbed and tried 3 weeks of Vitamin P, I had such a panic attack at the gym no less, that I didn't go back for 3 months and I quit Vit. P on the spot.

So, though he was handsome and laughed at my jokes, it was a wash. Now where am I? wishing I had someone to talk to in a therapeutic environment? probably. Wishing for a grief group? maybe so. Lately, a nice hearty cup of tea has chased away the anxiety, but a cup of real coffee can trigger it. At least caffeine is a legal and very cheap drug.

A bright spot: I am good at something. I mean really really good. At Luxor. Ha! I lost my one game where I had 8 million points and was pwning everything the game dished out. So I had to start from scratch. Two hours later, and I'm back to 2.5 millions. PWN!

I found some sketches by the lad and decided that I would make a "coloring book" of his work, along with my dad's. Kind of like an album, except it's their drawings, maybe for coloring, maybe with some colors. The photo album thing in iPhoto is perfect for this sort of thing. That feels good. That's a nice kind of productive.

Back to the dining room. The lad is out of the house for a party, and will come home unhungry, but maybe tomorrow we'll eat in there.

March 26, 2009

Random

I've had quite a few thoughts in the past couple of days. Not sure if any of them will get fleshed out, but this is a journal, right?

It's high time I wrote a book, published it and all. Question is, which one? I have two novels in the works, a novella, a couple of short stories, more ideas for short stories. I have a number of guidebooks and e-books to write for "passive revenue streams!" Rock on. I have a couple of workbooks and a non-fiction book about creativity in draft somewhere.

I have a coloring book idea to develop, and a couple of patterns to write up (mostly embroidery and little felt figures for sewing).

I really should do something with my father's sketches - I have hundreds of them.

If I win the lottery, I want to get this house fixed up, buy another house with a pool, and a vacation home somewhere. Then I'll have enough wall space to hang all the art I own and want to make.

The car and garage need cleaning out. Working at home is very difficult for me, as I'm completely isolated and barely productive. But working FT in an office is hard because I get so tired, there's all that OFFICE nonsense and I despise wasting my day indoors.

I am filled with contradictory beliefs about life. "The Secret" for me is to reconcile them, not simply to (buy a book and then) imagine how it will be.

I believe chocolate is part of a balanced diet.

Incompetence and mediocrity (mine and esp. that of others) are the bane of my existence.

Sometimes even junk mail triggers my anxiety.

I would like a week's paid vacation, complete with maid service and a personal chef. Someone to do the morning school run would be heavenly too. Massage 4X that week, a hair and pedicure appointment, and perhaps a nice lunch in the sunshine with my erstwhile main squeeze.

The other night, when I wasn't sleeping, I had a complete and total epiphany about how Photoshop and Illustrator work, and the difference between them. It was rather profound, and everything has been easy since I figured that out. Now, THAT'S a Secret that works!

And here it is: Illustrator works as vector art, using points on the X/Y axes. Single points, and you tell those points what to do with each other. That's it.

Photoshop works like a grid, using ALL the points (72, 150, 300 dpi, or higher) in a square, along with "millions" of colors. Each pixel has be one of 256/1028/millions of colors, and they combine to make images. (When you think about inks, overlays and separations, it gets more complicated.)

But the simple explanation: Illustrator is a small collection of points in 2D, along the X or Y axis. Photoshop is a grid and each box in it must have a color value, even if it is black or white. And this stuff matters to the machines that are used to reproduce the images. It matters a LOT.

Neat, huh?

I dreamed the other night of asking for my old job and salary back. I think that's because I'm stressing about money, and also about moving forward. Going backwards in time is psychologically safer because it's a known.

My mind is a dark and scary neighborhood where no one should have to go alone.

March 24, 2009

Introvert v. Extrovert

(please note, Keirsey people: it is EXTROVERT, not extravert, for the love of god.)

As previously mentioned, I have started testing as an I instead of an E in the MBTI personality type tests. I have two theories about this.

1. I have always been a "slightly expressed extrovert." That is, I was a few degrees into E territory. Now that I've lived a while, and gotten used to myself, know myself more, I am now testing more on the other side of neutral, as "slightly expressed introvert." A change by a few degrees, but nothing earth-shattering.

2. I am grieving and DIFFERENT, and am testing as an introvert, because of the decided lack of interest that everyone has for interacting with someone who is grieving. No one wants to hear about it past a month. No one cares, apparently. You get a lot of "I wish I knew what to say." Yeah, well, if you have that much trouble reaching within to find something for me, then either you are shallow and not good friend material, OR you have some block about the whole thing, and I really need friends who grok the grief thing, even if they are projecting, intuiting and guessing, rather than working from experience.

Maybe it's both. I find myself feeling closer to people who have lost someone they love to death. It's not enough that they don't get along, or have been shunned or whatever. There's still a chance of a conversation.

I remember acutely hearing my mother's voice on the answering machine months after she died. I saved and saved that message. When I changed accounts, I made a special point to record the message so I would have it always. I know the words by heart.... it wasn't her last message to me but it was the "wedding" call.

When I went to record it, somehow it was gone. I'd saved and saved it... for months. Resaved and resaved. But it was just ... gone.

Yeah.

So maybe I'm not a very fun person to be around, and that's why I withdraw from folks. My interactions lately are not satisfying and "energizing" me. They deplete me. (Ha ha, Jerry McGuire joke.) I just cleared out my In Box, for example. At least four messages have made me physically cringe. I'm cutting down on the volume of email, but still having to deal with it pulls me down.

The phone calls. Thank god for Caller ID.

It's almost mind-numbing to think of how taxing it all is lately.

And so what I wonder is: is this permanent? will it change when I'm "done" grieving? what am I missing by not "getting back on the horse"?

If I were to get back on the horse, where the hell is it?

(Jots down on list "Look for the Horses.")

Inconsolable

One thing my shrink did help me with (though I still have issues with how he left things with no closure, like stale bread)... my moods do seem to dictate how I'm doing re: grief. When I'm rested and well-fed, exercised and satisfied, I am in a pretty good mood and therefore, I can handle the grief and loss. (or is it the other way around? when I'm coping ok with the grief, my mood is good?)

but a critical mass of sleepy/tired, hungry, angry and lonely, and watch out - everything is hell in a henbasket (ha ha). I'm bordering on that for a couple of reasons.

One, I started a new teaching job and it's demanding a big amount of energy. Sustained energy for prep and for actual teaching. It's a long class so there's no way I can just skate. However, I am learning about pacing, and giving them time to talk. And they are a good group. Not a bunch of entitled snobbish teenagers, which was the "gene pool" I used to teach.

But still, that's a lot of human contact, responsibility and focus, and there is no ramp-up. Come classtime, it is ON, and I'm in charge. Not sure exactly how I feel about that anymore.

Secondly, tomorrow is the anniversary of my brother's death. His ashes are still not completely dealt with, and the family is having trouble coming to a consensus on dates for scattering. It involves a rather elaborate trip somewhere to honor his wishes... while I know he doesn't care wherever he is, which he believed was nowhere... it is a dangling chad that needs to be dealt with.

Thirdly (did I say only two things?), I haven't been sleeping well at all. Like hardly at all. I am aware of the passage of time, I sleep so lightly. I had a dream last night about moving back to my old town and asking for my old job back, and that somehow it would be all wonderful and cheerful with those co-irkers that I really really couldn't stand (which is why I left in the first place!). So, yeah, very very weird dream.

In the end, I'm really at a loss on how to grieve. I need to move on, but there are still so many dangling chads. I wonder if time will heal them, or if I need to actively do something. I'm so busy, and not in a really good way either. And I get no feedback from my dead family members. That's the roughest thing. I want to tell them, "hey, this is what I'm doing to honor you, to remember you. I miss you all." Just a little contact, a little encouragement from them would be nice.

So yeah, that's why I feel inconsolable. There doesn't seem to be any closure to this grief stuff. No consoling, no satisfaction. I understand now why married couples sometimes die close to one another... it's easier to do that, than it is to figure out how to move on. But I'm a young (ish) woman with a half-grown kid, so I'm in the big middle of life. Waiting for death is not an option.

March 22, 2009

Exhausted

It's 1130 on Sunday night, and I'm tired but not sleepy. I'm in pain, and stewing over something minor. About 15 minor somethings. This is the time when it would be nice to have some anti-anxiety meds. But when you ask an MD to Rx them for you, they think you are drug-seeking. Well, duh. I am. But really? seriously? 10 last me for six months. TEN. And I split them in half.

I start a new PT job tomorrow and will have students for the first time in 7 years.

It was a good Sunday... we walked in the park with dogs and it was gorgeous and windy. No one was out because people in this town are either godly or too cool for a park where there's a tad of mud and wind. I say bring it on.

Had an awesome lunch and a beer. Had a good nap, but now? I'm a little antsy and so all the demons are right there, ready to plague me. I hope I can sleep soon, but the alarm will go off at 6am, and spring break is over.

So many bittersweet thoughts, so much sadness. I see on Facebook how people are having lives, chit-chatting, making plans with friends, reporting on events. I got nothing. I have work where no one really knows me or cares to know me. I have the new job where I'll be as foreign as my students, and I have .... not much else.

It's this untetheredness that bothers me most. It's not having someone who really cares where I am, what I'm doing, if I'm ok. I do have the compassion and friendship of some awesome online folks. I cherish that. But it's not a substitute for the RL connections. The phone calls, the plans, the events, the chit-chat, the nicknames.

This could all change, but how? I just don't know. It's been like this since we moved here. And it doesn't help that I get email from someone I used to love (and could again) that confuses me and makes me pine away. And ponder what went wrong. We are so right for each other

Time to hit the sack again, tame the aches and pains and see if sleep comes.

The lad is good... he told me that his spring break was awesome. That's solid gold.