Ugh!

The custodian in question (see previous post) denies the allegations and the head of maintenance believes her. I have no reason not to and can't prove anything about the errant student papers, so the mystery continues.

I am hot on the retirement trail. I only have a couple of weeks to make up my mind for this year, so I have meetings... I'm not at all convinced that I'm ready, financially, but I certainly am ready emotionally!

The gap between my students and me widens daily. On Monday, we read Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech". The last line reads something like..."we can live out the words of that old Negro spiritual 'Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!'" I asked my kids what a "Negro spiritual" is. Not a single one knew! One student asked when African Americans were free...."I mean, before the speech or after?" I tried to explain that they were free since Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation...but that there was discrimination a hundred years later. I'm not at all sure that they "got" it. I LIVED the experiences that they are trying to learn. They will have their own history, I guess. When my students get to be my age, they will know how I feel.

I don't know what the future will bring, but I've been laying the foundation for that (albeit flawed) for many years. I made a ton of decisions about my life based on my former husband's career, etc. ('Tis the reason I'm in Indiana.) Post-divorce, I learned that no one was going to take care of me--and Meg--but me. Now it is crunch time. Meg and I are together...and that is the best it can be, for now. My baby and my baby's babies are all under "my" roof...and I couldn't be happier about it. I would not trade one second of being with them for all of the independence in the world! When I die, I can say that I have no regrets.

To bed with me. Nightie!