Things That Make Me Smile

Looking for happenings in my week to make me grateful, I choose to focus on what has happened to make me laugh at least smile a little bit.  It's Friday and time to write my Friday Fave Fives and link them to Susanne's blog.

1.  Sometimes I am ambivalent about teaching.  I love to teach but in the spring, particularly after Easter Break, I am weary and am ready to retire.  I'm sure most teachers experience the same feelings of ambivalence.  Then I have a week like this one.  My students obviously took time to write carefully utilizing the skills I've taught them, and their paragraphs show their love of writing and the advances they have made in the past eight months.  Listening to them read their stories, I am encouraged.

I don't teach for the income;

I teach for the outcome.

2.  Last Friday, I went with friends to visit one of my favorite Los Angeles landmarks: The Getty Villa.  The Villa is a replica of the Villa de Papyri in Italy which was commisioned and financed by J. Paul Getty to be used as a museum. I never grow tired of returning there.  I love to wander through the museum and around the gardens.  It was gray and raining, but that didn't dampen our spirits or interest.

The pond near the gift shop was still beautiful in the rain

Oh yes, I could enjoy this kitchen garden!

3.  The Beatles.  Love their music!  Tonight at the university a Beatles Tribute Band called Paperback Writer performed in the large area in front of the library.  For two wonderful hours we watched people of all ages dancing, rocking, singing to those tunes memorialized by The Beatles and sang along too to "Hey Jude" and "Yellow Submarine" and "Penny Lane".

4.  Things that make me laugh.  On the way home from the university this evening, The Professor spied an unusual sight.  He spotted an opposum cravenly cowering, standing majestically, squatting by the side of the street near our neighborhood.  We seldom see possums around here, at least not live possums.  Usually they're road kill.  Possums, as you may know, are not noted for their large brains or high intelligence.  In fact, possums have notoriously tiny brains for the size of their bodies.  Jokes about possums abound.  So we wondered--had the possum already crossed the road or was it waiting until the traffic waned (our one and only car in sight) to dare the dangerous road crossing?  You know the joke about possums?  Question:  why did the opossum cross the road?  Answer:  We don't know. No possum has ever made it across alive.  Poor possums--I always laugh when I see one; they're just so dim witted.  I admit it; I have a weird sense of humor.

5.  Plants for my garden.  Last Saturday, we ordered four heirloom Sungold cherry tomato plants for the local hardware/garden shop.  Some years, for some unknown reason, the order isn't filled. So just in case the store wasn't able to fill our order, after class today I stopped by another garden center and bought four heirloom Sungold cherry tomato plants and two Roma plants.  That's six tomato plants, in case you're counting.  When I arrived home, I noticed there was a message on my phone.  The first garden shop had called to say that my order for the four Sungold plants had arrived.  Oopsie.  I now have ten tomato plants. And one rather small garden plot.  So if you live in hollerin' distance of me, and you would like a tomato plant, let me know :)  I have a couple to share.  But really, you can never have too many fresh home grown tomatoes...

That was Willow's lovely Week.  How about you?  Did you do any spring planting? Enjoy some good old rock and roll?  Have a hearty laugh with a friend?