Queen of Rambles

How many times do I start out an entry with “I am so tired?” Probably way too often. Why can’t I go to bed at a decent hour like my dear, darling son? Then I would be refreshed and ready to go when he wakes up at the crack of dawn.

I think the jet lag is doing funky things to my brain. They say it should take a day per hour, so that means I should already be cured, but I am totally funkified and tired and need bed.

Yet here I sit.

I really want to play some Scrabulous, but the evil makers of Scrabble have finally put an end to the copyright violation. I don’t blame them because I hate copyright violation, but it seems like they could have made a lot of money if they would have worked with the developers instead of putting an end to it. I guess they’ve released their own version of the game, but I hear it is really crappy so I’m not going to play it (yet).

My preschool lesson went just fine today, except for the part where I got in a physical altercation and ended up bleeding! My finger is sore and swollen and was covered in blood. I guess that will teach me to keep my fingers out of the mouths of 10 month olds. She was such a cutie and wanted nothing more than to chew on my finger. I don’t recall Erik ever drawing blood, but I don’t think I was ever stupid enough to let him bite me.

I did my hour on the elliptical machine and thought I was going to DIE. Two weeks away from exercise with a bout of stomach flu in between? Does not a good training program make.

They’ve hired more new people at the childcare and I think I’m going to have to say something to the director again. They weren’t as bad as the last two girls, but they didn’t greet us when we came in and the guy just sat watching TV every time I walked by the glass window.

Later, we went swimming and ran in to one of the ladies I always see at Body Pump. Erik was really excited since he knew her kids from the gym, so we had a little chat about the two people working today and Body Pump. We are both impressed that we can do push-ups now.

I never thought I’d be able to do a push-up. In fact, when I started Body Pump I sort of just laid on the floor and cried inside while everyone else was buffing out. Now? I can do them with the best of them. I was reading on some site that a group of people are trying to train to do 100 push-ups in a row. I’m thinking I need to practice as well. Wouldn’t it be the most awesome thing ever if I could do 100 push-ups?

Just to clarify, I do them girl style on my knees. I have not seen anyone in our class do them on their toes, including the instructors and the rare male participant. Maybe I should try to work up to doing them on my toes. I can do the plank quite well, so that would be a start. This latest release (66) had a ton of push-ups in three different areas. I’m already in training and I didn’t even know it.

Let’s not mention just how suck-tastic I am at tricep dips.

Is this a fitness blog, or what? I’m sure you all care deeply about the state of my push-up muscles. I don’t even know what muscles are in charge of push-ups.

I’m almost done with the Einstein Never Used Flashcards book. It is taking me forever, but it’s pretty heavy. I want to know how I can advocate for more recess. I’m very liberal, so of course I’m voting for Obama this fall. I can’t wrap my brain around McCain winning, but I couldn’t wrap my brain around Bush winning again either. My question: Obama will instantly suspend No Child Left Behind, right? What about McCain? How is it possible that this program is even still in effect when it is so clearly grossly negligent and against all scientific data about how children learn?

I want my child to be able to solve problems creatively. I don’t give a shit if he can recount rote facts that some distant educator thinks is important. If he can use a computer, he can find out rote facts. Where’s the revolution? Sign me up! I’m ready to fight.

Except I am a big wimp and I don’t want to use bullets or have tear gas thrown at me or anything like that. As much as I think homeschooling is often wrong-headed and harmful (or at the very least not helpful), I sometimes fear that I’m going to have to homeschool Erik because the current system is totally ridiculous and possibly harmful. This is not an attack on homeschoolers who are thoughtful and know what they are doing and take the time to make sure their kids are well-adjusted socially. As an educator I did see those types of homeschoolers and I have nothing against that for them. I just don’t want to do it, because doing it right is a shit load of work. I also saw the other kind–the kind that had no idea what they were doing and were using homeschooling to either A) promote an extremist agenda that was not in line with reality B) avoid getting their kid up in the morning and dealing with the demands of schedules and such or C) controlling their children’s lives to an unhealthy degree and creating a dependence that did not allow the children to grow up.

Wheeeee! Controversy! I better go to bed!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 9:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.