No Fixed Plans

If we were having coffee, I'd say I've vowed never to sub in an 8th grade class again. The classes I was assigned on Tuesday were mainly insolent and refused to do their work. They questioned all the directions their teacher gave me. It was a long day. Luckily Monday went well as did Wednesday and Thursday. I'd add that today I took the day off and had lunch with two friends at a Thai restaurant. I got lost and then ran into numerous one way streets with speed bumps, but in the end had a great time. I got a tip that the Art Institute's Cezanne exhibit is well worth seeing.  I'd say I'm watching the Kurosawa film The Bad Sleep Well, a tale of revenge against corrupt officials and businessmen, whose illicit acts led to a suicide.  I'm reading Stendhal's The Red and the Black and Stephen Moore's Govzilla . 

  Rivertown, Southern China Here's my entry for Monday Murals, which Sami of Colourful World kindly hosts.

  Our prompt for Sepia Saturday is this photo above of four people enjoying a park while perched on a bench. How appealing to spend a morning or afternoon on a bench with friends. Here's what I found wandering through the Library of Congress: N.Y. Parks - Bench Warmers, Union Sq . , 1908. [? May 22] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2003656212/. Culter, Richard, Artist.  Fashion notes / Richard Culter + AC/14 . , 1914. New York: Published by Puck Publishing Corporation, 295-309 Lafayette Street. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2011649771/. Harris & Ewing, photographer.  Child on Park Bench . United States, 1932. [or 1933] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016889956/. To see more inspired Sepia finds, click here . 

  If we were having coffee, I'd say spring is here! Actually, the weather's been more like summer as it's been in the 80s F. I watched For All Mankind , a gorgeous documentary of the Apollo space program. Al Reiker, producer and director, watched all the TV coverage of the various trips to the moon. He found it disappointing. Eventually, he started going to the NASA film archives and watching some of the hundreds of hours of video. He decided to compile them to show the human side of the lunar exploration.It's an amazing, serene film with lots of humanity and humor. I've taught three days this week, which seems enough. I'm starting to figure out which assignments fit me best.  I got a cough on Monday and took a COVID test to rule that out. The test was negative. I've been taking commercial cough syrup, but really hate it. I decided to look for homemade cough syrup recipes and found a few like this . Today I still had a tickle in my throat so I varied the rec...

  This week's contribution to Monday Murals was taken along the springs in Old Jinan, which is getting spruced up and more teahouses, shops and restaurants are popping up.

Empire of Dreams by Charles Simic, whose birthday is today On the first page of my dreambook It’s always evening In an occupied country. Hour before the curfew. A small provincial city. The houses all dark. The storefronts gutted. I am on a street corner Where I shouldn’t be. Alone and coatless I have gone out to look For a black dog who answers to my whistle. I have a kind of Halloween mask Which I am afraid to put on.

  If we were having coffee, I'd have to make it quick this week. It's been hectic. I'm just getting to this post late Sunday after cooking and cleaning up for Mother's Day dinner. My sister-in-law, her mother, and her son came as did my brother, his wife and son. Of course, my parents were here. All went well, but it kept me busy. Yesterday I went to my aunt and cousin's annual Kentucky Derby party. The weather wasn't as good here as last year, but we were inside this year anyway. (Last year their favorite tavern had shelter's outside on the closed off street due to COVID. It was actually quite festive. Now the city won't permit them. What a shame.) No one I knew won, but the man who did got $375! Lots of women wore hats or fascinators, which added to the fun. I started substitute teaching a week ago Friday. I filled in for the library in the junior high and that went well. Monday I worked half a day at the school for grades 3 - 5. Again I signed up to w...