Today was one of those days. So many things going on, but nothing happened that motivated me to take pen to paper, or fingers to the keyboard. So, instead, I’ll just tell a few of the random activities of my day.
It’s the five-day period at Ethical ELA called Open Write. Teacher-poets write poems each of the days and post them, commenting on each others. Today’s prompt was “The ‘Re’ in Relationships.” Andy Schoenborn challenged us to write a poem about reconnecting, reprioritizing, or reinvesting in a relationship of our choice.
I was not at all taken by the prompt today, so I looked for a form to try. I found something called Ae Freislighe and tried it. I tried writing about my dear friend who was the maid-of-honor at my wedding, but with whom I have been sorely out of touch. I would love to reminisce and laugh with her again in person.
An extrovert dynamo
You were my “dating” teacher
Showing me moves apropos
Did you ask, “how’ll I reach her?”
Standing up in our fun weddings
We’ve lived in many locales
Now, four decades’ unthreading
A chance to build our morales
Let’s spend the day together
Life’s big events we’ll compare
Is it foul or fair weather?
We won’t even be aware
From morning ‘til evening prayer
We will sit in the kitchen
Love and hate from anywhere
We will stoke each other’s bitchin’
However, I am not inspired at all about this prompt or my silly attempt. It’s just been a weird day for writing.
An update on my singing lessons. A month ago I signed up for Zoom singing lessons through our church skills classes. At the time I wasn’t even sure I would have courage to go to the first class. Now, tomorrow I will have my fifth and final lesson for this session. My teacher asked us to send a video of ourselves singing the song we chose (mine was Happy Birthday, but she did have me pick a second one so I wouldn’t get bored). The second song I’m singing is “Do, Re, Mi” from Sound of Music. I thought maybe I could learn more about notes by singing that song. Go figure. I didn’t really, but today I sent her a video of myself singing. It was painful. I can hear the mistakes, but I have no way to figure out how to tell my mouth, throat, diaphragm, lungs, whatever, to sing the correct notes. I have learned some good things, though. First, I have become braver. (I sent that video of me singing!!) Second, I have definitely learned some basics and improved my singing. Third, I learned that singing is work and good singing is a skill that people work hard at.
We are starting to work on getting ready to go back to school. I will actually be the substitute for the teacher who is replacing me. She can’t come to Bahrain yet, and I can’t leave due to Covid, so we are being partners. She’ll teach the online kids and I will teach the students who choose in-person instruction. But really, who knows what will happen between now and in two weeks when school is supposed to start.
I did have one success today in the kitchen. I surprised my husband with his favorite green curry with paneer. He said it was the best I’ve made so far.