The Weekend...

...was slow. What else can I say? I really didn't do anything, so I didn't have much motivation to post. There was a trip to Obihiro, two runs, laundry... Also worth mentioning was that Monday was about the same. Just a normal day. I should probably look at the situation as half full because, really - as far as Mondays go - nothing dastardly happened; no roofs caved in; no one was injured; no loud scary noises; not even an incident with spaghetti. So heck yeah - it was a good Monday. I can feel blue sometimes dealing with the daily bureaucracy of any job, but whenever I see my kids everything feels right again. How long has it been since I woke up every morning in a great mood, happy to be alive, engaged, excited, amazed at everything and ready for anything? My kids are always happy to see me and I think they are very kind.

Following from my teaching phosophy that I should be learning with the kids, many interesting things (to me) about human nature that can be gleaned from watching them. You can see how violent small children are (without intenion or knowing), how they justify bad behaviour, and how possessive a child can be (say of a toy), but all of this is overshadowed by how kind they are; how when differences fall aside how giving children can be. It's a very humbling experience to work with children. I don't want to focus on the unusualness of the topic because this is the kind of enviroment I work in everyday.

What else? To completely change the subject, I have become increasingly fustraded with my spelling skills (or lack thereof). I've always been a bad speller. And I realize the irony of beginning an English teacher and not being able to spell. It's absolutely maddening that sometimes I mange to stump the spellchecker, the Mac OS X dictorary and google's dictorary. I think what I find most depressing about the whole situation is that it is the simplest of word. I mean, sure, they are along, but there not way-out there, rarely used words. I don't have a clue what to do but I think my brain is seriously busted.

I have also made some conclusions about my hobby of running. Oddly enough, I have been enjoying spinting more and more recently. For the last three years I have had goals of long distance running. And overall I have loved it. It's great for the heart and lungs and is the best stress relief ever. But I have been stuck on the forty minute barrier for a long time. I have run for an hour in the past, but I find that: 1) I get bored after around 30 minutes, 2) I don't have the time to put in a solid hour (or more) of running everytime I run. I'm too busy. So for the past month I have been putting in a good forty-five minutes at a quicker pace. I have been surprised how much I like it. It feels good to get the whole body moving fast and I hope to work on my pace over the next couple of years. I still plan to do plus one-hour runs every once in the future when time permits. I guess some context is in order about my philosophy of running to make it clear what I am trying to say but it's time for me to start dinner: I'm making Yaki Soba tonight! I also plan to write a bit and read, of course.

Next weekend is going to be very very full, with several commitments Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So the two weekends compliment each other nicely.