pipilo

The White Sox are in baseball's world series.  They haven't won since 1917.  Astros look like they're headed there too, for the first time since their team was formed in 1962.  It's nice to see these teams still in the hunt, especially after the big Red Sox win last year.  For you non-USA friends out there, yes, we know it's not really a World series, just our US-Canadian championship.  Still it's pretty exciting for us over here.

By the way, I was watching cricket from India on TV yesterday.  I don't know anything about that sport.  It seems a little like baseball.  I hope it's on TV more often, so I can figure out how it works, and how they score so many runs!

On Friday I had meetings at three different colleges.  Two department meetings at colleges where I now teach, sandwiched around a meeting with a teacher at a different college, where I've never taught.  My two current college employers are asking me to teach again in the spring, and now I've been offered another job teaching at the new college.  Am I crazy?  I love teaching and this will be great.  One of the courses is organic and biochemistry, neither of which I've taught in a while, but I think I'll do okay.  I still have my other job too, but that will have to take a back seat to all these teaching assignments.  It's where I want my life to go.  Teaching gives me energy and satisfaction.  I love to see when students "get it," and that happens pretty often in a chemistry class, if the students let themselves learn the stuff.  Some students have a hard time getting themselves to pay attention and learn, for various reasons. Most of my courses are intro courses, so it's not like they're expected to come in with any knowledge.  They just need to be ready to learn.  The challenge is reaching the students who aren't quite ready.   Next semester, the challenge may also be staying organized enough to remember what I'm doing, and how the students are doing, in each course.  Wish me luck!

Matt came home from college to visit this past weekend. It was a very nice surprise for us, as we really didn't expect him to return until his birthday weekend later this month.  On Friday, he called and said that many of his friends were going home to get things that they'd forgotten, so he would rather come home and watch his brother in the band tournament.  Actually, it was good timing because the time I have missed him most was at last week's high school football game.  It just wasn't the same without seeing him in the marching band and up in the stands with the pep band during the game.  Susan and Scott drove up to get him right after he called, and picked up another of Matt's friends at a different college, on Friday night.  It was great having Matt around the house again.  I drove him back on Sunday morning so he could get his reading done before class on Monday.  Sounds like his schedule is quite demanding, with lots of reading and writing of papers in his humanities and political science classes.  I have a feeling he'll come home like that once in a while, but also think that a trip home may be too much of a disruption to the normal routine of studying, eating, hanging out, etc., and that most of the time he will just be staying up there on weekends.  Maybe in a few weeks or so , we can go visit him and watch a concert, go to a museum or something.   That would be nice.