Intuitive Painting (aka BYOB, we provide the tempera)

Friday night me and Sarah went to an intuitive painting workshop. There was a DJ, people brought snack food, we brought a bottle of wine, and the girl who ran it provided big sheets of paper and big bottles of tempera paint. And then you just kind of went at it. The only rule was that you weren't allowed to say anything, good or bad, about anyone else's work. The idea was to paint for the process, to enjoy the act of painting, and not worry about the finished product. I always worry about the finished product, so it was hard to turn that off, but I really enjoyed playing with goopy tempera on big sheets of paper.

Oil painting is so high-commitment, in that canvas is expensive, paint is expensive, and set up and clean up take a while. If I don't have several hours to devote to painting, I don't do it at all. Which means I haven't painted anything since I made a couple paintings for Christmas gifts this past December. It was really, really good to put colors on a sheet of paper and just enjoy how they looked.

The girl running it would come around and offer suggestions like, "Okay, now if there is one color that you're really feeling pulled by, where you're really feeling that energy draw you in, which one would it be? What would you do with that color?" And things like that. It was awesome.

We had a great time painting, and I was actually really happy with how mine turned out! I'd been wanting something more colorful than my "Girl with the Pearl Earring" print to hang in my living room, and I got it! I might just go out and buy myself some tempera, and leave the oils for the nice Christmas gift paintings. Hooah!

A month of summer condensed into a paragraph.

I haven't written in over a month, it seems. A record, of sorts. I'll give you all a quick rundown of the last month. Ready?

Drove to Florida with my family, saw cousins, giant spiders, drove down nature trails on a golf cart, beach, pool, pool, food, 12 hour drive back to Charlotte, AT for hike number two, Blue Ridge Parkway, hike, sleep in a shelter with a family of bats who dive bomb us, hike, feel like dying, hike hike, EAT MORE FOOD MOLLY, hike hike, get a call in the middle of the wilderness that I have a job back at West Meck teaching Honors Civics and AP Psych, hike, views!!!! sunsets!!!! beautiful!!!!! hike, get a ride to Buena Vista, eat half a delivery pizza, a mexican combo platter, a hotdog, a fried bologna biscuit, and a bag of nachos, drive back to my car through a cloud on the mountain, then back to Charlotte, hurt my foot running, gain five pounds, join the YMCA, Teach for America training, CMS teacher workdays, move my stuff to a trailer classroom, plan like crazy, live at Amelie's for two weeks, wake up at 4:30 this morning, chase a cockroach behind my classroom whiteboard, bell rings, kids arrive!

Whew!

My first day back to school was great. I'm teaching solo this year, which I'm excited about. I'm teaching Honors and AP kids, which is going to be very different in some ways, but I'm excited about it. I'm actually organized to start the year, like, I have binders with all my papers, I'm in the process of making files for each student, I've got my computer file structure all nice and tidy. If you know me you know what a feat this has been. I saw a bunch of my kids from last year at school today, and was reminded again of why I love this job... I love those darn kids.

I'll get some pictures of my classroom once I get my new posters up. And I'll have a new wealth of wonderful student quotes to share, no doubt, although I don't know if anyone can top some of my students from last year for saying the smartest funniest things. A kid today wrote about Civics and Economics, "I thought this class was about cars. But government sounds interesting too."

I love my job. Every so often I just stop and think about leaving Chicago and my hedge fund job and all of that...and I think "Damn.. Best. Decision. Ever." Bring it, school year. I'm ready for you.