I'm officially a mother-in-law

My daughter was married on Sunday to a perfectly lovely young man. It was a wonderful day - everything was just about perfect.

Wish I had a poem - does anyone write nice things about their in-laws?

I was so lucky to have a great mother-in-law and I sure wish she had been there to welcome our new son into the fold.

Now the calm after the storm. Only 8 student days left. I hear a beach calling me!

I wonder if I could get away with this every day!

Today we had a "poetry slam" in my AP English class - each student brought a poem and read it for us to simply ENJOY - not analyze or critique, just listen, savor, and enjoy. Some were better than others; some were spectacular. I wish I could do this every day - actually, I wish I could teach a whole quarter of just poetry to students who REALLY want to get into it. I admit that I haven't always loved it, but now I think I'd teach poetry all the time if I could.

I have a whole new stable of poets to learn from and about. We even had one poem recited in Spanish - sounded like music to me!

I really wish I could have had this crew NEXT year after I've had a whole year to learn what and how I want to teach. I have learned a lot about what is important to an AP English class - and it isn't just the test, of course. I don't think I did any real harm to this class - just that I could have done a lot more good. But they are so sharp, they'll do just fine in life.

Tomorrow I have a day off - then Friday we get to talk about their Screwtape Letter projects - FINALLY! Next week I essentially have two days with them - we're doing "character chats" where they have all chosen to be a character from any of the works we've studied this year. Then I choose a topic and pull four or five of them out of the class to discuss that topic. Just picture Katherina from Taming of the Shrew having a conversation with Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights and Gregor Samsa from Metamorphosis. Talk about a Kafkaesque scene!!! I've never tried this before - wish me luck!

Do yourself a favor - read a poem today. If nothing else, you can go to poetry.com and find their poem of the day.

I feel like a poem!

My daughter and my future son-in-law are so smart! They are having their siblings read poetry at the wedding. Brian's sister Megan is reading one called "Touched by an Angel" which, I admit, sounds a bit hokey, but my daughter assures me is NOT. Megan is an improv comedienne and promises to read it with her best Della Reese accent. My son, on the other hand, is reading an Ogden Nash poem, which suits him totally. In eleventh grade, he WAS Ogden Nash for an Honors English assignment. Can't wait to see how THAT one turns out!

My student, Daniel, just had a wonderful poem published, bless him. I like to think that I have had something to do with it - after all, I have had him in class TWICE - but the truth is, he is a far better writer (and probably was even before I had him in tenth grade) than I can ever hope to be. He is one of those students who humbles me, but also energizes me and makes me even more passionate about good writing.

Cross fingers and toes that the forecast holds up. I will just keep reading soothing and inspirational poetry so that I can be the most serene MOB ever known!

These guys will kill me!

Okay, okay, I get it. I teach Greek drama; I understand hubris.

But c'mon! After the best week in recent memory, the Phillies went belly up this past week - swept by the Brewers and then kind of embarrassed last night by the Red Sox - I was there - ick.

Surrounded by Red Sox fans - quite an experience. Made me almost proud of Phillies fans.

But the Sox are still my favorite AL team.

And I was near where Ortiz CRUSHED the ball for his homerun. Being in that section, I can scarcely believe that Barry Bonds hit one HIGHER and LONGER than that one!

Well, as tough a loss as that one (and COLD - I thought it was May, for goodness sake), I'm not down. They will bounce back. And even if they don't...

WEDDING IN 8 days!!!!

Pray for good weather - it's outside !!

Today was a good day...ask me why!

Today was a teacher in-service day (because of election day) and we had regular work in the morning and then "Wellness" in the afternoon.

I did a yoga class, had a shoulder massage, and then finished the day with a lovely facial.

THAT is my idea of a nice work day!

An Embarrassment of Riches!

Did I say WOW to Cole Hamels?

Well, then I need to do a WOW! WOW! to Jon Lieber. The man put down the first 20 guys he faced and finished with a one-hit shutout through 8 2/3 innings. What a week! Only blemish was that embarrassing loss to the Mets - and even that was okay because SIL-to-be - a huge Mets fan - was there. So we throw him a bit of a bone!

April truly was the cruelest month for the Phillies.

Now, it's May and all is right with the world.

Exultation...and a brief explanation

Wow! All I can say is "COLE HAMELS"!!!!!

Very exciting stuff...struck out Ken Griffey Jr. twice...and the Reds are sorta hot right now, too.

And just in case anyone was confused (like my first-born), the new addition to my family is BY MARRIAGE!!!

Beautiful weekend. Anyone have a good poem to celebrate it?

Face plants and other wonders of baseball

It takes so little to make me happy.

Last night, Aaron Rowand endeared him to the crabbiest bunch of baseball fans on the planet - sacrificing his nose to take away a triple and preserve a rain-shortened win for the Phils over the dreaded Mets (sorry Brian!)

Tonight, the phenom of the future, Cole Hamels, had a very nice major league debut (although a no-decision) against the Reds and we got homers from Ryan Howard and Shane Victorino. Got to love those youngsters!!!

What is it about baseball fans? I enjoy basketball, especially college ball, and I can get up for an Eagles game, but for sustained live-and-die fandom, baseball does it for me. I remember one radio sports guy saying (about the four major sports) that basketball was his favorite sport to PLAY, hockey was his favorite to watch LIVE, football was his favorite to watch ON TV, and baseball was his favorite to TALK ABOUT. Makes sense to me. I can remember plays from playoff games in 1977 - and our family still talks about specific plays in the 1993 World Series.

It may not last, but it's so much fun right now.

Adding to the family

In 17 days, I gain a new son. The cool thing is that when my first born came along, 26 years ago, we debated between two names. We chose one for the first born - my SIL to be has the other. So I get both. Lucky me!

I've become a poem freak!

I guess you can credit/blame my AP English Literature class for my new obsession with poetry. Even now, I'm trying to figure out how much of it I can teach next year. My guys all picked a poet and did presentations on and they were wonderful. So, if you find great poems, could you share them with me?

Meanwhile, on a different note...

GO PHILLIES!!!