Bonjour, Mon Ami
I have one daughter, 28, but I got a great son when she got married (as my Vietnamese friend told me, in America, we get the boy, whereas in her country, the boy's family gets the girl!) Apart from those two, I have HUNDREDS of kids...It happens when you teach high school. They still send me cards and visit and one even flew from DC to my daughter's wedding four years ago!
But all those kids don't stop me from nagging my daughter and her hubby to hurry up and give me a grandchild! I am utterly embarrassed; all my friends insist on showing me these obnoxious pictures of their hideous little troll-like grandchildren and I only have pictures of Erin and Jeremy's dog! I need an actual child so I can show my friends what an exquisite grandchild looks like.
Speaking French is like riding a bicycle; it can feel shaky, and you can be scared once you haven't done it in a while, but you never really forget. I taught French for 15 years, then I got a "promotion" six years ago and was in charge of Independent Study and Program Management for five years, and when the funding dried up and I was back in the classroom, I had cold sweats, certain that I didn't remember anything past hello and goodbye, but once I was in the environment, it all came back, and in days I was speaking like the old days. Sometimes I would blurt something out, and my mind would do that "Hello, where the heck did that come from? thing."
My daughter took French from me for four solid years in high school, which worked out much better than I ever imagined it could. She used to go with my students and I to France in the summers from the age of 6, so French came very naturally to her. Then she took German, too, and even spent a summer in the Black Forest being a waitress in order to perfect her accent. Lo and behold, the dialect in the German Forest is one that Germans describe as "hick!" So now she has the problem of speaking a very Ozarkish German!
What utility are you needing for your older Mac? I have Macs all the way back to two SE30's and a Classic II (sold all the other ones), so I have a lot of old stuff here. Let's see, I also have an LC575, two Color Classics (one souped up with a 575 board), a 5500 totally tricked out with TV, FM, video cameras, all that...All In One G3, three Desktop G3's...and a ton of old laptops, some before PowerBooks.
I have about six boxes full of old software and I have no qualms about copying programs that are no longer under development. (Actually, that is my public statement; there are those who claim I could make more as a pirate than as a teacher. I figure that Steve said it was better to be a pirate than to join the Navy, so my rationalization is that I'm upholding an Apple tradition!)
Also, I'm great at communicating with the French, especially since I start off by telling them that I didn't vote for Bush and have serious questions about whether George II obtained the throne morally. That seems to relieve their anxiety about me talking about "freedom fries" or "freedom toast" or "freedom kissing" or my "freedom poodle!"
I haven't read your articles yet, but I am going to. I love to read what others have written. My daughter has just graduated with her degree in English Lit and is currently starting an Intern Program in Journalism. We share a lot of time reading writing!
I have spent the time since your last email catching up on email and other necessary stuff. I currently have a nauseating sense of impending doom. I have had two weeks off from school, and went home with a reasonable amount of work to catch up...and I have done NOTHING! One of my very oogie-boogie "spiritual" friends tells me that I will be stuck in high school until I learn the lessons I keep teaching my kids! Boy, is he right! The question is this: How long in the morning will I procrastinate? Will I be good? Will I spend the day thinking of explanations? Will I actually dig in? Will I spend my last day of vacation reading 20 essays? Or will I spend it writing a list of how to do it instead? Lord, I hope I don't pull another all-nighter!
Nevertheless, I have flagged your last email so that I can read it leisurely over a cup of good coffee. Reading others' writing deserves leisurely perusal!
Marla
posted by Sally at 10:01 PM
