fresh air
First of all, my cell service is down again. I had a few days of luxurious communication, but now it seems the circuits are jammed again.
We're staying in Tampa with Lorin, a mutual friend of ours from the Writers Retreat Workshop, which Jason runs. Our friend, Brenda, lives down the street. Tonight we had sushi with Lo and Brenda and Brenda's two amazing daughters, Liz and Anna. They're "little kids"-- I don't know, maybe 12 and 9 or so-- but they made me miss my students something awful. But I spent the night bonding with them over their summer experience at "Career Camp" at Sea World and our mutual love of ocean critters and pengiuns, and for a little while life felt pretty normal. It was great. They know what's going on, Brenda even said that Anna was composing an "angry" letter to George Bush, but they're too young to really know how to talk to adults about it. But I sensed that they're intense focus on entertaining me with stories of swimming with dolphins was a conscious attempt to reach out to me. The only mention of the hurricane came in a lull in conversation when Anna blurted out "You know, we're having a bake sale to raise money for the hurricane." I said thank you, and that was that. And it felt good to escape for a little while.
I just read that Tulane is cancelling the fall semester. All week long we've heard from students who are enrolling in schools elsewhere. Early in the week there was talk about setting up a sattelite campus somewhere-- most likely Houston-- but for reasons that are probably out of our control, I think it may be too late for that. My growing sense of things is that we too may be out of commission until January.
I don't know when official word will come-- our headmistress has been without cell service or internet since the hurricane, but is relocating to NYC tomorrow. It's been frustrating to have no "leadership" this week-- it's left our whole community wondering and grasping at straws.
And I don't know what this means for me. We have the next few weeks worked out. Jason's job, thank goodness, is relatively portable. But it also calls on him to travel quite a bit-- a challenge seeing that (A) he doesn't know where he will be travelling from and (B) I left my car behind (my poor Igor, I hope he is okay, but I have my doubts). While Jas and I have been a couple for years, we've enjoyed a great deal of freedom-- at least for the forseeable future, we're pretty much a unit in a way we've never been before.
My colleagues are scattered to the four corners of the US. Some are already looking for houses. All profess a committment to return to the school to finish this school year that is still in its infancy, but we're only in the first week of our exile. It makes me very sad when I start to crunch the realities of returning-- without a doubt our student population will be diminished, and the students who return will be hurting in ways that I cannot even begin to imagine yet. While I feel tremendous loyalty to my school, I feel much more loyalty to doing the right thing by these girls. And I love my colleagues so much because I know they share that sentiment and I have faith that the majority of them will return, even if they've relocated, to finish out this year, just so the girls have some semblance of normality.
We'll be with Lorin until Wednesday and then the three of us are off to the Night Swan B&B in New Smyrna Beach where Jas and Lo are leading a workshop. After that, depending on the developments from school, we may head to Boca Raton to visit Jason's dad (from whom he's a bit estranged, and whom I've never met). And then it will probably be time for me to make a life for the next few months. Any suggestions?
Love you all.
We're staying in Tampa with Lorin, a mutual friend of ours from the Writers Retreat Workshop, which Jason runs. Our friend, Brenda, lives down the street. Tonight we had sushi with Lo and Brenda and Brenda's two amazing daughters, Liz and Anna. They're "little kids"-- I don't know, maybe 12 and 9 or so-- but they made me miss my students something awful. But I spent the night bonding with them over their summer experience at "Career Camp" at Sea World and our mutual love of ocean critters and pengiuns, and for a little while life felt pretty normal. It was great. They know what's going on, Brenda even said that Anna was composing an "angry" letter to George Bush, but they're too young to really know how to talk to adults about it. But I sensed that they're intense focus on entertaining me with stories of swimming with dolphins was a conscious attempt to reach out to me. The only mention of the hurricane came in a lull in conversation when Anna blurted out "You know, we're having a bake sale to raise money for the hurricane." I said thank you, and that was that. And it felt good to escape for a little while.
I just read that Tulane is cancelling the fall semester. All week long we've heard from students who are enrolling in schools elsewhere. Early in the week there was talk about setting up a sattelite campus somewhere-- most likely Houston-- but for reasons that are probably out of our control, I think it may be too late for that. My growing sense of things is that we too may be out of commission until January.
I don't know when official word will come-- our headmistress has been without cell service or internet since the hurricane, but is relocating to NYC tomorrow. It's been frustrating to have no "leadership" this week-- it's left our whole community wondering and grasping at straws.
And I don't know what this means for me. We have the next few weeks worked out. Jason's job, thank goodness, is relatively portable. But it also calls on him to travel quite a bit-- a challenge seeing that (A) he doesn't know where he will be travelling from and (B) I left my car behind (my poor Igor, I hope he is okay, but I have my doubts). While Jas and I have been a couple for years, we've enjoyed a great deal of freedom-- at least for the forseeable future, we're pretty much a unit in a way we've never been before.
My colleagues are scattered to the four corners of the US. Some are already looking for houses. All profess a committment to return to the school to finish this school year that is still in its infancy, but we're only in the first week of our exile. It makes me very sad when I start to crunch the realities of returning-- without a doubt our student population will be diminished, and the students who return will be hurting in ways that I cannot even begin to imagine yet. While I feel tremendous loyalty to my school, I feel much more loyalty to doing the right thing by these girls. And I love my colleagues so much because I know they share that sentiment and I have faith that the majority of them will return, even if they've relocated, to finish out this year, just so the girls have some semblance of normality.
We'll be with Lorin until Wednesday and then the three of us are off to the Night Swan B&B in New Smyrna Beach where Jas and Lo are leading a workshop. After that, depending on the developments from school, we may head to Boca Raton to visit Jason's dad (from whom he's a bit estranged, and whom I've never met). And then it will probably be time for me to make a life for the next few months. Any suggestions?
Love you all.
posted by M at 11:01 PM
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