Hilton, Paris and You

So, it's Sunday afternoon. I'm in a hotel next to the Albuquerque International Airport. It's a chain hotel. The air is crowded with stale scents (all rooms are non-smoking. Mine smells like an ashtray over powered by incense).

I drove down to the big city yesterday. I stayed at a motel downtown and went to see Dervish, a traditional Celtic band, last night. This morning I went to the never-disappointing flea market at the fair grounds. I've learned from past experience that the most interesting finds are on the outskirts. I found a stack of CD--at a buck a piece they're hard to beat (as long as they play). I also found some well-aged photos from Paris (the Norte Dame one will need to go in my study...when I have one) and one from Switzerland. I like old black and whites.

I went to lunch at The Frontier Restaurant (a regular setting found in some of the Tony Hillerman novels). I'm always impressed with the quick service/ fast food/ semi-healthiness of it all (the tortillas, chili, beans and orange juice are all fresh). I read some of my biography on Edgar Cayce while I waited for my number to come up.

I'm settled in and feeling like I should sit down and work on my fiction writing. I've been feeling like the spoiled kids who keeps saying, "I don't like crust"...only I'm saying, "I don't want to write a query letter, synopsis or cover letter". So, it'll happen. I just need to sit down and work at it.

Cosmic Karmic Train

I have a kind of Saturday schedule. It goes like this--get up, have coffee, drive to Cortez, have coffee, visit with friends (if possible), walk to the Methodist Thrift Store, drive to the library (check email...this is where I'm at right now), do some shopping for the week (always groceries...but sometimes other things too), drive to the gas station, gas up, and drive back to Teec Nos Pos. It is my day in the "big city", so I usually take my time and get back to Teec just before sunset (the sun and driving west near sunset can be challenging since my shader (is that what you call it?) broke off). I unload my groceries. I go for a walk with the campus dogs (short if it's cold and longer if it's warm). I eat dinner. I try my best to put one hour into writing every night. After writing, I either read or watch a movie.

Today, I met up with my friends Babette and Wayne at the coffee shop (I say it's a purple building, Babette says it's blue). We visited. I brought photos from my Costa Rica trip. We talked about work. Babette described her situation, "It feels like I'm stuck on flypaper." I can relate. If it weren't for the kids, I'd say my job was just to make money. The kids make it worthwhile though; sometimes they come in to bring writing for the writing club, sometimes they bring in drawings, sometimes they just come in to visit. The Beclabito kids are a great group!

I'm not stuck on flypaper. I'm in limbo. Some people never experience limbo. Some people spend their life in safety. They believe what their parents believe. They usually stay close to where they grew up. They are so fearful they never jump into limbo and see what happens.

The limbo state may have something to do with me moving my own cheese. I want to find my place in the sun. I have let the principal and others know that I will not be staying at the job I'm in. I want the stability and simplicity of having a job I can walk to from my very own home. My resume' is off for Wellsboro, Pennsylvania (where I own a home) as well as the first school I taught at (Moffat in the San Luis Valley of Colorado).

I feel like my cosmic karmic train is about to pull into the station. I look to be getting on board. Limbo isn't too uncomfortable when you know there's a seat soon enough.

Baby Shower

My dvd/cd player isn't working. I always have music playing in my apartment. So, life has been different.

I have an old 2$ radio in the kitchen. I can only get a really bad country western station in on it. It sucks! Still having some twang in the background gives me company.

It has been an especially quiet week in my classroom. One day one student. Another day two students. Today will probably be different. Why? Well, because there will be a baby shower for one student's newborn. Luckily for me, the principal will be coming to do my observation today (it is much easier to see me teaching when I have students).

My drive in this morning had some excitement. The bus that picks up local high school students had bottomed out in the wash area it turns around in. The back end of the bus was hanging way out into the highway; I drove around.

I'm struggling to get over my bad ass cold. It's worse at night. I guess it give me something to do besides listening to music (who doesn't enjoy the sound of their own hack!).

Campus Lice

My time with a former girlfriend was short and sweet. I guess it could worse (long and bitter comes to mind). Anyhow, we have agreed that we're not all that compatible. She might change her mind if I begin driving a Porche. I might change my mind if she becomes much nicer.

As sometimes happens on school campuses, today several students were found to have lice. One little girl let me know she had them by whispering in my ear, "I have L-I-C-E-S. Don't tell anybody." She was close enough to leave me scratching. Parents were called to pick up their kids. Kids were left to wander into my classroom. I am seriously considering a brush cut (why not...spring will be here soon).

I'm starting to materialize my next professional move. Work or no work? East or West coast? Teach or don't? It's coming together. This may be the year when everyone is left saying, "Wow! Joe finally made it. He has a stable job (let's hope it's not cleaning up after horses!)".