Happy New Year, 2014. With Lice and Willie Waught.
Mamacita says: The first day of 2014 finds us looking out at a green lawn with very confused crocus bulbs a few inches below, wondering if maybe they should take a chance and peek up and bloom a little early. I’ve seen crocuses in January and February before, but not very often. My advice to the spring bulbs is to wait a bit longer; the forecast for the coming week is snow. If the tulips and crocuses are blooming, I want to see them. This is Indiana, so I’ve seen crocuses bravely peeking up through the snow. I’m a little confused, too, because New Year’s Day is winter, and the world should look like winter, not spring. Ah, well, it’s Indiana; I just need to wait a few hours. . . .
I’ve been blogging for almost ten years now. I’ve made many new friends, some of whom I’ve met in real life. However, and I’ve said this before but that doesn’t prevent me from saying it again, my blogosphere friends I’ve never actually met are just as real to me as if they lived next door. Bloggers have redefined “real life.” There are many different levels of real life now, and they’re all real.
I hope all of you have a wonderful and positive New Year. I hope nothing bad happens to any of you, and I hope you are all safe, and healthy, and happy, every single day. You, and everybody who is precious to you.
This song always makes me tear up. Even back before I knew what it meant, something about it was both sad, and happy, and sentimental. Harry Burns tried 
to explain it to Sally Albright, but his explanation was more desperation than fact. Robert Burns could be like that. Remember, you’ve quoted a line from his poem about a louse crawling on a woman’s hair all your adult life: “O wad some Power the giftie gie us, To see oursels as ithers see us!” (You do NOT need that translated, right?) I thought not.
Here is Robert Burns’ (no relation to Harry Burns) most famous poem. It was set to music years later. (traditional folk melody.)
Should auld acquaintance be forgot, (Should old acquaintances be forgotten,)
And never brought to mind (And never remembered?)
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And the days of auld lang syne. (And days of long ago.)
And surely ye ‘ll be your pint’ stowp (And surely you will pay for your pint)
And surely I ‘ll be mine (And surely I’ll pay for mine)
And we ‘ll take a cup o’ kindness yet (We’ll drink a cup of kindness yet) (booze)
For auld lang syne (for the days of long ago.)
We twa hae run about the braes (We two have run around the hillsides)
And pou’d the gowans fine (and pulled the daisies fine)
But we ‘ve wander’d monie a weary fit (But we have wandered many a weary foot)
Sin’ auld lang syne. (Since the days of long ago.)
We twa hae paidl’d in the burn (We two have paddled in the stream)
Frae morning sun till dine (From noon ‘till dinner time)
But seas between us braid hae roar’d (But seas between us broad have roared)
Sin’ the days of auld lang syne (Since the days of long ago)
And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere (And there’s a hand, my trusty friend)
And gie ‘s a hand o’ thine (And give us a hand of yours)
And we ‘ll tak a right guid-willie waught (And we will take a goodwill draught)(that means, take a drink together)
For auld lang syne (For the days of long ago)
[CHORUS]For auld lang syne, my dear (For the days of long ago, my dear)
For auld lang syne (For the days of long ago)
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet (We’ll take a cup of kindness yet) (booze)
For auld lang syne (For the days of long ago.)
To answer the question of whether or not old acquaintances should ever be forgotten, the answer is, most emphatically, “NO.”
Not till the Alzheimer’s makes me say “Oh Baby” to the nursing home orderlies.
I love you, dear friends. And I wish you were all here so we could take a right guid willie waught together. I’m really up for some good willie waught.
All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months! ~Edward Payson Powell
Conversation from the Teachers’ Lounge
Mamacita says: Have you ever wondered what teachers talk about in the lounge?
It depends on who’s in there and what time of day it is, of course, but the conversation really doesn’t vary much from building to building, or even from level to level. School problems are pretty much universal. It’s education problems that differ.
And, of course, as in any business or institution with many employees, there are those who are brilliant, those who are wonderful, those who mean well, those who have given up, those who are mediocre, and those who are toxic.
Here are some conversations I have heard with my own ears. Some of them I have participated in. As to those, I have since learned the error of my ways, or discovered that I was a lone voice of reason, found out that I was an ass, or learned that maybe I knew more than I thought I did. Sometimes, I didn’t know where I stood on an issue until many years down the road. Remember, too, that a lounge is free therapy for frustrated professionals who might vent more harshly than they really feel.
1. “The mother from Hell is in the hall. Everybody beware.”
2. “That horrible ___ kid is absent today. Let us give thanks.”
3. “That sweet ____ kid is absent today. I hope nothing is wrong.”
4. “Does anybody have any spare copy paper?”
5. “The printer is down again.”
6. “I hate kids.” (said by our gym teacher at the beginning of every lunch period.)
7. “I wish we could give an award for a kid who’s just plain kind.”
8. “I hate it when they ask me questions I can’t answer. It makes me feel stupid.”
9. “I love it when they ask me questions I can’t answer. It makes me feel like I’m doing something right.”
10. “I wonder if ___’s parents will show up at conferences tonight.”
11. “The coach refused to help chaperone the dance again. He’ll expect us to volunteer at his game, though.”
12. “Thank God that kid will be gone next year.”
13. “I wish we could keep that kid forever.”
14. “I wish that kid’s IEP would let us get him for bullying.”
15. “I wish we could catch the kids who are bullying the Reading Room kids.”
16. “I’m sick of being forced to make exceptions for kids who refuse to do any work at all.”
17. “I wish ___’s parents would show up to conferences. I really want to talk to them.”
18. “I’ve been worried about _____ all semester. Has anyone else noticed the change in her?”
19. “Listen, that kid’s supposed to start tonight, and I don’t want any of you to put him on the bench because of your stupid class.”
20. “She got right in my face and DEMANDED that her daughter be put on the cheerleader squad even though they were still in Cancun during tryouts.”
21. “That kid simply cannot sit still, so I assigned him two seats. Worked like a charm.”
22. “I wish I could take that kid home with me so he’d get a decent meal and some new clothes all his own.”
23. “If ___ ‘s mother doesn’t keep THIS appointment, I’m calling CPS.”
24. “No pass, no play. Tell your player’s father we’re not backing down.”
25. “It’s so unfair that the good kids have to put up with the constant disruptions and touching of that ____ kid.”
Some of these are fightin’ words, some are proof that good people are trying hard, and a few are proof that there are people in our classrooms that don’t belong there.
The best way to change the bad things, or keep the good things the same, is to get involved and stay involved. Just because your kid is in middle school now doesn’t mean your job as involved parent is done.
Another piece of advice from me to you: Let your child know you love him/her unconditionally, but do NOT step between that beloved child and the consequences of his/her own choices or actions. Your child must learn that he/she is responsible for consequences; that’s how people learn to 
make better choices. So back off.
The backing off and watching consequences fall is really, really hard. And more valuable than bitcoins.
Remember, too, that consequences work both ways. Good choices and positive actions have good, positive consequences.
‘Till next time, eavesdroppers.
Christmas 2013: Jazz Hands
Mamacita says: Another Christmas has come and is almost gone, except for those people who use December 25 simply as an excuse to actually do the things they only think about doing the other 364 days; Christmas for these people is every day. It’s just that we act on the feelings Christmas instills in us in a larger way, instead of the more subtle way we do these same things the other days of the year. Which is a very awkward sentence, mixing tenses and persons and leaving parallel structure out in the cold.
It’s Christmas, so let’s leave a lot of things out in the cold.
Bad feelings, for example. Kick ’em out into the cold and slam the door on them. Hard. That list of what we used to call the “Seven Deadly Sins.” Out into the cold. All of them. Wrath. Greed. Sloth. Pride. Lust. Envy. Gluttony. We need exactly none of these things, and none of them has ever done so much as a particle of good for anyone.
I think all seven sins could be summed up with one expression: lack of self control. Without self control, people do terrible things to themselves and to others.
If everyone exercised some self control, we wouldn’t have to worry about any of those stupid things. Even when we call it “self expression” and “freedom” and “rights,” it’s still a simple matter of rationalizing away a lack of self control.
At Christmas, people with no self control can become monsters. At all other times, too.
At Christmas, people with self control can become heroes. At all other times, too.
This is the time of year when good people actually behave like the people we hope we are all the rest of the year. At Christmas, we discover who we really are, and sometimes we get a peek at who others really are, too. Most of the time, those peeks show us an almost perfect world. Sometimes those peeks show us what the monsters under the bed look like. And who they are.
This Christmas, my sisters and our daughters and I all got wonderful warm gloves from our brother in Idaho, so we sent him a picture of our smiling faces and awesome jazz hands.
I said “awesome” and I meant “awesome.”
My sisters and I are awesome. So are our daughters. And our sons. And our mother, and uncles, and aunts, and cousins, and neighbors. Our cats are awesome.
And so are you and yours.
Merry Christmas, beloveds. I can’t quit you, and I don’t want to.
And your little dog, too.
