Wishing, Day 1, A Trip and School, School, School, written evidence that the Carr Family was here for week number 4.
Wishing
Over the summer, I caught Nathalie telling Julia to stop “wishing your days away”. I think it was in early July, and she was longing for our end of the summer cruise to hurry up and arrive. What she never seemed to get her head around was that with the arrival of the cruise meant that it was that much closer to school. I think we are all victims, at one time or another of looking forward to something in the future so much that we in effect wish our time away. When we are young, we want to be older, when we love to ski, we long for snow in the middle of the summer or around February 10, us living in the north are always wishing for April 1st.
I only wonder if there is some way to collectively create some kind of space-time continuum, that would allow us to do both and still be happy, wishing for something in the future, but NOT affecting time. Because just as I suspected, our cruise finished last week, and here we are back at school, and all I can think about is wishing I was back at the start of July, over hearing a conversation between Nathalie and Julia about wishing her days away.
Travel
As I said in my last post, I love to travel with my family. The girls are so great in the car. We laugh at silly things, and sing loud at our favourite songs and just always have a good time during our adventures. Our second “mini” vacation was to run just outside of Detroit to visit Pat and the boys for 4 days. We normally end our vacation with a stop in these parts of the woods, but my work commitments had us rush back after our cruise for a couple of days of meetings. Then we got to head back out on the road for a 4 hour drive for a quick visit and some back to school shopping in Michigan. I came back one day earlier on the train, so I could DJ a wedding Saturday night, so it was Nathalie left to her own devices for the bulk of the BTS shopping and lonely drive back home on Sunday.
It was not the longest visit but it was a nice one and each time we go, I am so amazed and in awe of how much the boys have become men and how much of a great job Pat is doing running such a busy household. Thanks again for playing host to the whirlwind that is the Carr family!
Day 1
Today, for what I estimate is the 50th time, I stood in front of crop of 1st semester radio students and talked about the course I love to teach the most at Seneca. Over the last 17 years of teaching it, I have meet more then 1040 students in this same way, talking commercials and interviews and the 15-minute radio shows in the first semester production course. All, with the same jokes I have used over and over, complete with my favourite Karate Kid movie analogy. And after looking over my master list of all past students, to arrive at this magic number, with the flood of old student names, came flashes of past projects, smiling faces, laughter and even tears.
Although the names and faces have changed, what makes me laugh each year is that I always have the same type of students. The quiet one, only brave enough to speak when spoken to, and never offering more than required. The loud one holding court and amusing all with a “you will never believe what happened to me” story from the past, and the happy go lucky, just pleased to be part of something student, all ready and willing to learn. I love this class, because I meet the future each year. For in the shinny new black chairs of room S2026, sitting before me today, is the next generation of broadcasters, hitting the floor running in just a couple of years from now and it all started with a day 1.
School
Another Labour Day, and yet another first day of school for ¾ of our household. It was also Nathalie’s first day back at work since before we left for New Orleans, so a big day in the Carr household for sure. The girls got to meet their new teachers, and although the teaching assignments did not work out for the little one, quite as she had originally hoped, in the end and after some discussion, everyone is happy with the arrangements.
They are each in classes with handfuls of old friends, and some friends they have not had too much time to get to know yet, so I think all in all it will be a great year for the girls. I meet half of my new students, and not only did Nathalie get a hug from her boss, but she also got a “We really missed you” too, so I think in the big book, when the dust settled on this day, the whole Carr family had a good experience for the 7th of September. Ohh and I almost forgot, Bentley the super dog celebrated in his own way today as well, turning a happy 14 years old.
In closing
I had thought I was going to have each of the girls write a paragraph on their summer vacations, to close this week’s blog, but one thing led to another and time got away from me. Not to mention, at the mere suggestion of “I have something I want you to do girls” the eyes glazed over and it ended up seeming like a little too much like work, so I opted for just their input. I asked them both, while parked outside of Shoppers Drug Mart, what it was that they wanted to say about their summer vacations.
The first thing they both said, in unison was “The cruise” and I guess that was expected. So, I asked, “Ok, what was your next favourite thing about the summer”, wanting a little more then a sentence to end, my epic “what I did on my vacation” blog, and so this time, they both said “The pool”. I am thinking, clearly I need to look for a different way to ask the questions if I want more then one word answers, so I say, “If you had to tell all your friends in front of your class what you did on your summer vacation, what would you say?” After a long pause, Jordyn with a smile on her face says, “I had a fun summer because I went on a cruise, got a pool and played with my friend Nicole” Now we are getting somewhere I am thinking, and Julia pipes in “that’s the same for me, all but the my friend Nicole part!”
And now I understand how homework is going to be this school year!
Thanks for reading and have a great and safe week!
Jim
“I only wonder if there is some way to collectively create some kind of space-time continuum, that would allow us to do both and still be happy, wishing for something in the future, but NOT affecting time.”
Oh how I wish you could create that! Time is going so quickly… perhaps we ought to reserve our neighbouring rooms at the old-folks home, because our 90’s are coming on quickly. It seems like yesterday I saw that pre-teen in the driveway and wondering who the exceptional kid was that had caught my father’s attention. 🙂
As far as my busy household – it was running at about 50% when you were here! I just wish when I slowed down, I wasn’t so exhausted. (there’s that darn wish word again – get that collective space-time continuum in the works!)