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Tales from the Steppes


2004-11-29

9:41 p.m.
you wear sandals in the snow and a smile that won't wash away

So I sent a note to the MM's teacher, asking for a conference while yet expressing concern about animosity in very non-confrontational terms. This morning I recieved the following email:

"Hi. My concern was that Geoffrey seemed to be spending a lot of time thinking of ways to correct me. I could be speaking to the class as a whole or him personally. He usually can come up with a word I used incorrectly and I have to explain to him that I either did not mean what he is thinking or yes, I did exaggerate. With 27 kids in the room and all the needs that go with all those kids, his comments are using up an innordinate amount of my time. He also does it more when I have denied him something that he really wanted (more time to draw, time to talk to someone....little things.) So he'll wait for me to say something and then correct me. Maybe if you could talk to him about how much I have to do in that room he might think twice about reminding me that I said one minute and it was two or something like that. Thanks. Tom"

I see.... The picture becomes oh so much clearer now. And it is exactly what I thought it was. The concern is not that Geoffrey is hurting another child's feelings, no, it is that he is correcting his teacher in public. I have spoken with the boy but now I really need to speak with the teacher. It seems that today Mr. Gray yelled at him because he asked for an envelope and said something to the effect of "And you'll ask me 20 more questions in the next 5 minutes." Now I am aware of just how annoying my son can be but my next note to Mr. Gray will have the words "inappropriate" and "belittling" in it.

This year I am really going to try to have a bit more Christmas spirit than the last few. I used to love this time of year but last year I was so bad that I didn't even want to hear holiday music on Christmas itself. By the time the day roles around, I am sick of it. There are radio stations playing nothig but holiday music. Since before Thanksgiving!!!! Now I fully expect the greedy retailers to start putting stuff out right after Halloween but must the rest of us follow? It is still November and people are talking about "last minute Christmas shopping." I know there are those that are super organized and shop in July but I thought they were a wretched minority. I guess I'm a curmudgeon but I will not decorate before the 10th of December. If I had my way, we would follow the Victorian tradition of the Christmas tree being part of the celebration rather than another decoration. But the holidays are not about me and my preferences, so I will go along with my family's wishes.

I am not sure when I became so grumpy about the holidays. I can remember even making Christmas cookies while off at school. Until we got bored and started with the roadkill cookies. I have tried to pass that particular custom to the mongols but they were not all so amused by this. Probably have better taste than I do. But I digress. Maybe it is the whole commercial aspect has gone over my personal tolerance level. I really love buying presents for people and spend lots of time plotting these things out - what sort of thing would be perfect for the person. It totally kills me when I am given a list with exact model numbers and pages in a catalog. Where is the joy in that?

And while I am ranting about the holidays, can we talk about the damn jewelry store ads? I am really glad to hear fewer fertility clinic ads at this time of year - that would just be too cruel to play them often. But the jewelry store ads are killing me. I don't think we all want or need diamonds for Christmas, contrary to what the jewelers think. Are people so unimaginative they cannot come up with something better than shiny rocks? It is often so little of the giver and more about an object.

I don't really have an issue with jewelry - I wear some myself. In fact, the original reason I got my ears pierced was so that various boyfriends would not have to work too hard at figuring out presents. Since I don't collect anything, it just seemed like it made things easier for them. But of course I only have two ears, so there is a limit to the number of earings I actually need.

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