The fun side of tutoring

Every Monday afternoon I tutor a third grade boy in reading and math.  While he is a little behind his grade level in both subjects, he frequently surprises me with his thinking.  For example, before Christmas break we were working on filling out a multiplication chart and, while he had told me he didn't know how to do multiplication, he figured out quickly that, in the 'threes' for example, each number in the sequence was just three more thatn the one before.  Today, we worked on a page of multiplication problems and, while he referred to the chart for some answers, he was counting by twos, threes, fives etc. to solve the others. It was fun to watch.  Each week we also play a math board game and I was very pleased that today he suggested some variations on the game.  It's such fun to watch children's brains work. 

So now I know.

I only subscribe to the Sunday Journal Gazette these days, otherwise I just end up recycling lots of paper without having read much of the contents.  Every Sunday morning when I get up, usually about 7:30 or 8:00am, I open the front door of my apartment and there's the paper, hanging in a plastic bag on my doorknob. A side note here - those long narrow plastic bags are perfect for packing shoes when traveling. I've been mildly curious about what time the paper actually gets delivered.  Not curious enough to get up early to check it out but mildly curious.  Today I got my answer. A friend who was visiting for the weekend got called into work unexpectecly and had to leave here at 5:00am. As I was walking her out to her car to help with luggage, etc, the paper person was walking down the other end of my hallway hanging papers on doors.  By the time I got back up to my apartment my paper was waiting for me.  So now I know, 5:00am is the time (just in case I ever have insomnia and need my newspaper fix).  It did occur to me that this paper delivery man has a pretty nice route.  I din't know where else he covers on his route but walking up and down hallways has got to beat walking from house to house, especially in five degree weather. No wonder he was smiling.

Cheers for "Red"

I saw a really fascinating play at First Presbyterian Theater this evening.  "Red" is the story of the artist Mark Rothko creating a series of murals for the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York City. While it sounds like a possibly dry subject, the intense interactions between Rothko and his assistant were complimented by some great humor and the whole play (5 short acts with no intermissions) was extremely well done.  I came away wanting to go visit lots of art galleries and pick up a paint brush.  I recommend "Red".

How do they do that?

I just finished watching the women's division, National Figure Skating Championship competition which determined who goes on to the Olympics.  Keep your eyes on a young lady named Grady. I always marvel at these graceful souls who can make twirls and spins look so effortless.  I know they have practiced for years and years.  I can't help wondering what the early years must have been like when a coach somewhere said "OK, now I want you to skate real fast, leap up into the air, spine around three times and land gracefully on one skate blade." Yeah, right.  I'm certainly glad I'm not a judge at this event because I still can't tell a triple lutz from a triple toe jump. I watch what looks like a perfect jump to me (she didn't fall down) and listen as the comentators say that it was a little too slow or she didn't do the full three spin rotation ot the last half spin was on the ice not in the air.  I'm glad they know what they're looking for.  The part that always amazes me the most is the spins.  How can a skater start spinning and speed up while squating down then standing up on one leg while lifting the other leg up over her head and holding it there with one or both hands. I'm sure that even in my most flexible youth I could never lift my leg up over my head like that while standing still on firm ground, let alone while spinning on ice.  Ah well, it's beautiful to watch and I will just enjoy it. Let the judges do the judging.  

my current favorite joke

I'm not claiming this is original but here is my current favorite joke.  It makes me laugh because it's so true.  I'm planning to be cremated when I die.  It's my last chance to have a smoking hot body.

more soecial days

I received my apartment newsletter yesterday. This is the one that includes interesting special days but some are leaving me with questions this month. For Instance today is "Drinking Straw Day". I didn't even know you could drink straw, sounds dry to me. Next week Monday is "Bubble Bath Day" but "Rubber Duckie Day" isn't until Saturday, the 13th.  Shouldn't those two be celebrated together? 

There must be a mistake.

I flew home to Fort Wayne yesterday from Spokane, Washington where I spent a week with family.  My oldest brother traveled with me. Spokane, and especially the courtryside where my younger brother and family lives looked like a winter wonderland, snow covered the hills and distant mountains and flocked all of the evergreens.  The temperature was a reasonable wintery 29 degrees. I wasn't expecting anything much different here (except for no mountains of course) but as we were approaching Fort Wayne International Airport the pilot came on the intercom to announce that the current temperature in Fort Wayne was minus 18 degrees centegrade, minus 2 farenheit. I thought there must be sone mistake, maybe I misheard him. A few miles closer, about midnight now, he announced that the temperature was minus 13 in Fort Wayne, farenheit that is.  I really didn't want to hear that. We had driven to the airport in my brothers old van and I was really hoping it would start after sitting in long term parking for a week. A side note here: the weatherman on the 11pm news just said that our low last night (it really was -13) was the same as the low last night in Antarctica. I'm sure you're as excited about that as I am. 
I do want to offer kudos to our local airport. Not only did we get cookies as we stumbled off the plane at 12:30am, we also had shuttle service. I think this is a fairly new offering. When we parked in the long term lot a week ago a free shuttle pulled up just as we were unloading our suitcases and the nice man loaded our suitcases in his shuttle, drove us to the terminal and carried our bags in as far as check in. Of course we tipped him but what a nice service. When we got to luggage pick up last night the same helpful man was waiting to shuttle another person to the parking lot. He agreed to take us along also, loaded our bags in our van, waited to be sure it would start (it did!) and even scraped the windshield for us.  You can be sure he got another nice tip.  Excellent service Fort Wayne International!!