Monday, April 19

We were up before 6:30 this morning. Skipped my exercises, of course, as I will all week, because I'm doing a photography workshop at a local school.

We arrived at the school around 8:30 to set up for classes. My contact at the school was unavailable, so another staff member had to help us get maintenance stuff out of the supply room (we thought this would be done before we got there).

Two of the young teachers with whom I'm working this week were unaware how we were to handle the situation of where I would do the workshop...would I move from classroom to classroom, or could a room be found where I could set up so classes could come to me? Since I am working with trays of chemicals and have multiple totes of stuff for the workshop, it became obvious to the teachers that it wasn't feasible for me to move from class to class.

They found me a science room that is ideal, except that the supply room/darkroom is quite a way down the hall. I'll just have to deal with that. In order for me to have this room, the teacher who usually uses the room had to move to the art room. "That's okay," he joked, "I'm always the redheaded stepchild here."

He was much more pleasant about having his space usurped than was the maintenance guy, who complained unhappily to Hubbie about our rolling carts of supplies out into the hall so I could set up a darkroom. He felt we should have been put in another room way-y-y-y down the hall. Staff disagreed, so maintenance guy had to find another place to house his supplies for the week.

He was none too happy, either, when he learned he needed to bring a dozen more chairs into the room. But he did it.

The first 40-minute morning session was going along smoothly, until one of the girls jumped up and bolted from the room, upchucking all the way. There was a lot of groaning and ew-w-w-ing among the students, but we ploughed on as Hubbie used paper towels to cover the mess.

When we got ready to go outdoors to make sunprints, I grabbed the doorknob and, you guessed it, got a handful of the mess. While the students marched down the hall and outdoors, I rushed in the opposite direction to the bathroom to scour my hand.

In the meantime, a teacher had alerted the maintenance guy to come clean up the mess. I met him in the hallway. He glowered at me as we passed. Obviously, I'm making his life miserable.

I was surprised when I went out to join the students that the weather had turned sharply cooler, and there was a chill wind. The teachers and the kids were under dressed in summer clothes...capris, shorts and t-shirts. Hubbie and I wore knit shirts with long-sleeved shirts over them, so we were comfortable enough.

The 80-minute fifth grade class came in next, and we successfully completed sunprints, and then watched a video on how to take better pictures. After that I discussed one-time-use cameras, and what kinds of images to look for in a photo safari to the playground tomorrow.

Then it was time to come home for lunch and take care of Shih Tzu. Mother spent the day here, just in case something was needed. She had prepared a lunch of homemade tomato soup and deli turkey sandwiches for us, because we had only 45 minutes to travel the 10 miles home, eat, take care of Shih Tzu, and return to the school. But we did it with a few minutes to spare.

The second fifth-grade class began a few minutes after 12:50. We repeated the sunprint and video session, which was supposed to end at 2 p.m. But since this was only a 70-minute class, the teacher held them over a few minutes until I could complete a short lecture on camera use.

The last class of the day was third-graders, who did not show up at the appointed 2:15 hour. After time dragged on to 2:30, I became worried and went in search of the teacher. She was in her classroom, unaware that she was to bring her class to the science room. The other two teachers failed to let her know our plan, I guess. So she was waiting for me, and I was waiting for her.

Since our time had now been cut to about 25 minutes, I hurried to get them through the project. There was no time to explain anything or relate what we were doing to their studies on light. We just quickly got their design onto photography paper and hurried them outdoors. We finished at 3 p.m., just in time for them to line up for the school buses.

Hopefully tomorrow will be smoother.

We were back home around 4 p.m. Mother had heated the leftover pork roast and veggies for supper. She went home afterward, and Hubbie and I collapsed in front of TV.

First we watched the movie "Secrets of the Mountain." A public defender single mother takes her kids (two of whom are teens) to a mountain cabin she inherited from her uncle and end up embarking on an adventure that changes their relationships with each other. A family movie thriller.

Finished the evening with "Dancing with the Stars."