Spaghettios and other Important Stuff

Ever try mindfully eating spaghettios? It's one of the most important things I've done all weekend. When I drove home on Friday afternoon I had big plans for enjoying the 2 days off. I was going places, buying things, creating things and learning a bunch of new stuff. It's Sunday afternoon now, and I can tell you, the weekend didn't go like that.

My car didn't move after I parked it Friday night. I haven't learned anything or talked to anyone except my family. I blew off grocery shopping and decided to live dangerously with only one bag of kitty litter. I don't know why, but it seems like backup kitty litter is important.

I didn't make a thing, though I moved around some art supplies. I didn't make any lists other than the grocery list that didn't make it out of the house. I didn't go to the bookstore or the park.

Though nothing went as planned, I'm more at peace than I thought possible. When I finished my spaghettios I realized the importance of all I already have. Realized I don't have to have new things, new experiences or new knowledge to make the weekend worthwhile.

While I have been fascinated by the whole "getting things done" movement, it doesn't really seem to work for me. "Adding value" to myself and my life doesn't make much sense to me right now either. The things that are important to me this Sunday night as I look back over the weekend are the number of times I petted my dogs, the smell of laundry detergent on my clean clothes, the time I spent sitting in mom's back yard, the naps I took, and the realization that spaghettios are good in this moment, not simply because they remind me of comfort food from the past or because they have iron and vitamins in them that might benefit me in the future.

Life is good. Right now. Just as it is.

Connections

I earned three stars out of five for my first Spanish composition. Three stars is not so good, but I am excited anyway.

I was reading through the pile of three hundred and forty some articles that had accumulated in my reader, when I came across Livemocha. I have had it in the back of my mind that I need to learn Spanish for a long time. And I have also been too scared to study it for a long time. I tried twice. And failed. Miserably. It was not because the language is too difficult, but because I was too scared to make mistakes. I was afraid of sounding stupid. So I said nothing.

I signed up with Livemocha and began my lessons. I couldn't believe it when, in lesson one, they told me to write about six people. They didn't even give me any cheat notes. I had to rely on memory of the vocabulary I had just learned. Now I know what my students feel like when they don't know how to spell the words they are writing. I held my breath and wrote as fast as I could, trying not to judge myself too much. When I finished, I submitted the lesson and went about other business since I didn't have a microphone for the spoken part.

I was checking my email when I saw one with very unfamiliar characters in the title. It was from a woman who is learning Hindi. She had graded my writing and highlighted my many mistakes. She is a native Spanish speaker.

I am excited. This time I am not afraid to try. Tonight I will go buy a microphone and see what people say about my oral Spanish. I can't believe that while I sat around waiting for the grocery store traffic to die down on a Sunday afternoon, I have communicated with two new people from two different countries.

This is way more fun than safely saying nothing! It is still a stretch for me, but I can't wait to try again. I bet this time will be different.

Doing Virtually Nothing

I made a dent in the chair! I got up a few minutes ago to get more diet dr. pepper and when I came back to sit down at the computer I could see where I have been sitting for 2 days, doing virtually nothing. Well, depending on how you look at it.

I've played with facebook, twitter, NCTE Ning. I joined a walking site & created a profile. I used a map to save walking routes with distances. I ordered new clothes, browsed books, spent hours reading blogs. I took surveys on educational materials, updated my profile for the State Board of Education, completed 6 required online trainings for my school district, and googled ideas for working as an inclusion teacher. I searched professional development offerings and registered for the NCTE national convention. I looked at maps and hotels for Philadelphia. Bought a plane ticket and saw where I would be sitting on it. I registered my mom for jury duty. Checked out the dating profile of the guy my friend was meeting for a first date. I cleared some of my work emails. I went to the Real Simple website to see if there was anything that needed simplifying in my life. I checked my bank statement and my financial profile. I looked up heart attack symptoms on the American Heart Association website when my mom got indigestion. I filled out a survey to estimate my own risk for having a heart attack in the next ten years. And last of all, I checked to make sure there are no hurricanes brewing anywhere in the world.

All that, and I made a dent in my chair! Now, it is a holiday weekend. At least I can say that. And I enjoyed all of it. But really, a dent?