Goal: Read Ron Clark’s The Essential 55 in its entirety and incorporate the ideas into my classroom
This morning was interesting. I had a service appointment for one of our vehicles, so Caleb and I were out of the house by 9:30 AM. After waiting at the café in the shop for about an hour, I was told by the guy at the desk that they had to order a part from a nearby shop, so we were looking at at least another hour. He wanted to check with me about waiting because I had Caleb with me—I thought that was nice of him. Caleb was holding up okay—overtired and fighting off a nap, but not fussy and mostly content with “people-watching”—so I thanked the guy and told him we would be okay. While Caleb attempted to settle in for a nap in his stroller that the guy brought out for us from the back of our vehicle (again, quite nice of him!), I took some time to read some Ron Clark. I got through about 25 more pages.
After about another half an hour, the guy came back out and said that they found a leak in the steering column. For the sake of convenience, he wanted to set me up with a rental car (covered under warranty, so I wouldn’t have to pay anything) so that Caleb and I could get out of there. Fair enough, I thought. I’d never rented a car before, so I figured I’d chalk it up to another interesting life experience. In fact, I was kind of thinking to myself too bad this isn’t on my 100 Goals List.
Unfortunately, I jarred Caleb’s leg a skosh taking him out of his stroller, so his first few minutes in the Buick Regal were a little rocky. I fed him a bottle in the backseat while parked in the parking lot, and that and some soothing words had him back to his sweet self in minutes.
Despite the delay, Caleb and I were able to get some last minute X-mas shopping done, which has been a long time coming. Caleb nodded off, so I dropped a few items in the cart for him while his eyes were closed (though he woke up and started peeking—he takes after his mom).
This was not the way I envisioned our morning playing out, but I have no complaints—the course of events gave me something to write about. Also, I appreciated both “the guy” (I feel bad calling him that, but I’m not 100% sure of his name—Jeff?!) at the shop and the rental car lady (again, I apologize here for my informality) for taking pride in doing their jobs well. I find that refreshing wherever I go. Ron Clark would respect them, too (tieback, tieback!).
Goal: Continue working hard in the kitchen (splitting dinner duty with Amanda, trying new recipes, experimenting with pairings, etc.)
Speaking of my wife being a “peeker”, she and I decided to exchange one gift tonight. Long story short, my wife needed a certain kitchen utensil, and I hinted that she may or may not have exactly what she needed out in her stocking. All it took was that intimation, and she was ready to dump out the whole stocking and go to town (okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit, but still…). Since she got a gift, I thought it was only fair that I get one, too. She agreed and presented me with a wrapped gift that was clearly a book. An English teacher knows a book when he feels one, wrapped or not. It was indeed a book—Food & Wine Annual Cookbook, to be exact. According to the cover, I have “over 600 amazing recipes” to choose from. That should keep me busy for almost two years if I’m doing the math correctly. I mention this because one thing I love about my wife is that she knows how passionate I am about going after my goals, and she often has them in mind when she gets me gifts. And for the record, I love that she peeks, too!
