Chris passed this video along to us in a comment to Kristi’s recent post, “Respite”. We loved it, watching it again today and deciding that it needed front page treatment here on R&K.
If you dig it, be sure to dig up the other Taylor Mali videos on YouTube. They’re all great.
Thanks, Chris. It came at exactly the right time.
Sometimes you make the right decision and know it’s going to work out. Other times, you make the necessary decision – and then make it work.
Life’s changing. We’ve both felt the change coming for a long while now, in the little frustrations and the not so little aggravations; in a gradual dissatisfaction with being dissatisfied; in the building need to build something new from the remnants of old ambitions and future dreams. We knew it was coming.
We don’t know what’s going to happen next week, when Kristi returns to work. Could be good news, could be bad. But we’re prepared to roll with the punches. Worst case scenario, we have a financial runway of about six months, plenty of time to get done what we need to get done. And so this week has been all about preparation: ordering business cards, designing new stationary and envelopes, setting up and stocking a new client database, writing new sales letters and planning out a long term marketing and sales strategy.
And gotta say, we’re kinda psyched. It’s an exciting thought. And we’re having a great time this week, both working together here in the office as business partners. The trip’s just starting.
Want to see what we’re up to? Go visit our new Destination Copy website – Kristi’s new travel writing site!
And be sure when you visit to sign up for her monthly travel newsletter, The Secret Gate. We’ve already sketched out some really great article plans, six months out – travel tips and adventuring ideas for California and beyond. So get on our mailing list and we’ll make sure you get it.
I’m pretty certain I’m done being a teacher. It’s been probably 3 years coming, since I came home from England. I wasn’t certain when I came back that I even wanted to teach again but I needed to do something to earn money. And get out of the house.
But now… things have gone from bad to worse and I’m almost sure I’m at the end of the this phase of my life.  I still love working with kids. It’s not about my students. It’s all the bullshit. Education just isn’t fun anymore. Teaching isn’t challenging anymore. State adopted textbooks have sucked all the creativity out of teaching. Standards mean we have to do things a certain way, cover specific skills and content on a scheduled pace. Uniformity means I don’t have to exercise my brain at all.
But mostly, I’m tired. I’m tired of the ridiculous nature of what is expected of me.
Wanted, college-educated individuals who are willing to put in excessively long hours without commensurate compensation; who can work under adverse conditions, with unappreciative supervisors and even more unappreciative clients, many of whom prefer to be uninvolved, as well; who do not mind having inadequate resources and support services; who agree to assume unspecified responsibilities without prior notification; but who will be held accountable for the satisfaction and performance of the unappreciative and uninvolved clients. Candidates for the positions also must be willing to receive inadequate wages and expect not to be able to double their income in constant dollars in a lifetime. Applicants are encouraged to send resumes to the Teacher Employment Office of the ___________School. (Adapted from a want ad idea of Linda Darling-Hammond 1983) (Dworkin 2001).
This is teaching in 2009, as much as it was in 1983. And right now? I can’t do it anymore and still maintain my sanity and self-worth. I don’t know what I will do now but this isn’t it.
So lately my laptop has been annoying me.
Not the laptop itself. My machine is a nice little Toshiba I bought a few years ago with a chunk of first quarter money; it runs Red Hat Linux, has all the upgrades and customizations I need and is pretty well tied in to the rest of the house network. Even when I’m working in the office – sitting at my desk, in front of the two big flatscreen monitors that serve as my office workstation display – the laptop is still folded open in front of them. The laptop is a trusty friend. It’s the thing hanging off the laptop that’s been annoying me: my portable hard drive that contains all the business files, connected to the laptop via USB cable. Wherever the laptop goes, there’s the hard drive, hanging off the end and looking for a place to comfortably rest while I’m working.
So anyway, I got tired of messing with it and tucking it out of the way. We got down to Office Depot to pick up some early year tax deductions and I bought some heavy duty velcro tape. Some tape on the laptop, some tape on the underside of the hard drive, a little extra tape for a cable restraint.. and TADA! The hard drive and USB cable are now mounted securely and snugly to the lid of my laptop! And the best part is, if and when I want to unmount it, it’s velcro!
It appeals to the geek in me, velcro’ing things to my laptop. Now I’m looking at the digital recorder and the office phone. Contemplating what I can velcro to the office monitors. To the office white board.
I could probably velcro something to the cat. It’d be an easy way to keep his meds handy, and we still have plenty of this stuff left.
Sunday morning we decided to take a short road trip to nearby Knight’s Ferry, a local Gold Rush town that is now a charming little historical side spot along the Stanislaus River. We’d gone out to do some site research for some upcoming writing projects. Brought the dog, the digital recorder, a handful of things.. and of course we brought along the GPS, suctioned to the windshield and cabled to the car’s lighter. The cable runs down the dash and over and around.
I looked at the cable, thinking. “You know hon – I know the perfect way to keep that cable out of the way.”
“SHUT. UP. IF. YOU. WANT. TO. LIVE.”
“We can strap it right to the side like this..”
“I’m serious.”
“We’ve got plenty left.”
“God give me strength.”
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