Daydreamsintechnicolor: June 2010

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Retirement....so far

I jumped into so many things the first three days that now I have to recover....I went to yoga on Thursday, a new kind which focuses on proper body alignment, a great workout.
Friday I went to docent training for the new exhibition at the Houston Contemporary Craft Museum on Main Street. The gallery is filled with magical costumes made out of paper...strongly recommend that you see it.
Saturday I went to a ceramics class on making garden ornaments....it was so much fun, liking playing mudpies again. We will see in two weeks if any of my works turn out after being fired; sometimes they break.
Now I know I want to volunteer the museum as I love spending time reveling in the colors and textures....I also want to help children or teenagers, so will be looking for the right place do engage in that kind of volunteer work....

Thanks to all of you for listening to my stories so sweetly. I looked at your twitters about Scarlet Letter which we did at the first of the years----you all have definitely improved your writing!

I deleted the banned words list and rules for writing, but I find I still want to correct the rest of the world's writing and speaking!

Maddie's goals for second semester

Maddie Fogel said...

whoops I forgot to say my goals. Plus I left out a comment in the first sentence.

Goals for this semester:

Finish a monster burito at Freebirds

Find an elmo costume and wear it to
school

Appropriately sing more song quotes in class

Improve my skill on the scrabble game on my phone

Try to make my movie quotes from more than just Zoolander, Mean Girls, and the occasional Anchorman

Enjoy another cake day in class

Have a dance party on the open floor in the classroom

Finish the semester without burning all of my textbooks in anger

Run around as a banana and be chased by a gorilla

Join Latin club and attend a toga party

Dress as a ninja and go unnoticed throughout the schoolday

To be continued...
If you think this doesn't have to do with English class then you have no idea what is in store.

Also, to have the confidence and bravery to be more swift when writing as opposed to my timidness that causes me to waste hours. And maybe to be better at reading comprehension on those psycho timed writings

About Me

Though I have had my share of blows and buffets, I feel I have led an enchanted life. I have rejoiced in glorious friendships, the intensity of motherhood and grandmotherhood, and now a wonderful companion to share adventures and a beautiful house with.

I grew up in a small town in western Oklahoma, small enough that we never locked our door or took the car keys inside the house. I rode around on my bicycle stopping in parks or a wonderful quiet place called "the agricultural station" where I would daydream under pine trees and imagine myself inside a fairy tale.

Or I played with my dolls and paper dolls in my room, involving them in scenarios fed by my relentless passion for the technicolor extravaganzas I saw at our local movie theater. Living in a building with a doorman in New York City and attending cocktail parties seemed to me then to be the height of sophistication.

Movies actually changed three times a week in that innocent time before television, and I saw nearly everything from the late forties into the fifties and sixties--with my family, and later with friends. Our parents would "drop us off" at the theater, as it was perfectly safe for children to go alone. It cost ten cents for a child under twelve to see a movie.

I also loved cowboys as my brothers and I went to see westerns every Saturday morning. When we were little we had run around the yard shooting pistols at each other and taking turns playing the comic character Gabby Hayes as we could not think of enough heroic cowboys. When I had two sons of my own, I felt completely at home watching them run around making explosion noises with their mouths and crashing toy planes into the floor.

I loved reading too, of course, as I grew up to be an English teacher--Little Women was my favorite novel--and I read it again and again. Later in life, I began to see the thread of characters and stories weaving itself through my whole life down to the stories I buy for, and read to, my grandchildren, and the ones I love discussing with my AP students in high school.

Random favorites

Art museums
Tea and macaroons at La Duree in Paris
English novels set between the two world wars
Fred Astaire's dancing and Ginger Rogers' dresses
Creating a serene and nurturing environment in my house and in my classroom
I am currently passionate about Murakami novels--reading Kafka on the Shore
Names of flowers--gloxinia, hydrangea, phlox, peony, heliotrope, bougainvillea, frangipani ....
Great musicals--just saw The Drowsy Chaperone
Fairy tales and names of fairy tales: Rapunzel, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, The Juniper Tree, The Three Feathers...
Lavender: the scent, the herb, the flower... and, oh yes, the color
Divine Nonsense, see the next favorite:
Oscar Wilde, and the next:
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
Wearing hats
Teaching my classes--AP English, Shakespeare, and Film Studies
Breakfast cappucinos
D.H. Lawrence
Reading anywhere
Diane Johnson novels
Studying French
Playing with and reading to my grandchildren
John Keats' odes
Spending time and taking trips with my boon companion and beau, Hu
Daydreaming about my childhood...daydreaming period
Crocheting scarves and baby blankets for my family
Cooking for my family
Playing with interesting color combinations
William Butler Yeats, especially "Among School Children" and "A Prayer for my Daughter"
Tom Jones and Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding
Jean Cocteau's magical film La Belle et La Bete

I am glad you visited my blog. Please write me about your own musings on any topic.

I am an AP English teacher at Memorial High School in Houston, TX. I experience the best of all possible worlds as I get to spend my work days reveling in literature and writing, and enjoying my students who all have so many different talents and personalities.

I enjoy exploring interesting restaurants and movies with my companion, Hu. We also love to take trips to see children and grandchildren and to see some parts of the US and Europe that we love to explore. We are going to take a river cruise down the Rhine this summer and then to to Paris to visit my younger son and his family.

I am fortunate to have two wonderful sons with wives and children whom I adore, as well as five precious children and seven grandchildren of my companion, Hu. I enjoy the love of several very close friends and keep in touch with many of my former students.