Coming Home

Wow, two more sleeps. Two more sleeps until Tina and Isaac return home from their trip up North. They left September 12 and the arrival of Wednesday will make their journey a total of 17 days.

In the span of our lives, this is but a fleeting moment. Next year this time, I won't even remember much of what I did while they were away. Two years from now, I might not even remember what days or even month, they were gone

But for now, I can say their absence has been hard on me.


This is the longest mrs c's been gone since she moved down from Canada in February. A married friend of mine told me that you'll begin to realize the sacrifices and compromises that come with marriage after a few months of cohabitation. So, I wondered what it would be like to finally live with Tina. Eight months have passed since she moved down and it's been absolute bliss. Compromise and sacrifice imply a loss; I've lost nothing and gained everything by moving in together.

Although we talk everyday, sometimes for several hours, it's no longer enough. When we were dating and even recently married, that "see each other every few weeks lifestyle" was all we knew and thus tolerable. But now that I've sampled the good life, time apart is almost intolerable.

As for little Isaac, he has shifted our Universe ever since he arrived in July. Everyday, we're amazed by his growth and his affect on us. Tina said that he's gone through a growth spurt and is no longer the newborn. He's now wearing his 3-6 month clothes even though he's only 2.5 months. He's already outgrown outfits that I have yet to see him wear. His personality has changed, and he's got more motor skills and control now. Tina said that he's now a little more clingy to her, crying a little more when others hold him.

Being on the fringe and not being there for all of this has been tough. On top of that, although I know he'll eventually get over it, I'm afraid and nervous that he won't recognize me.

My dad use to have work assignments in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia that would take him away for most of the year. Now I realize how tough that must have been on him and my mom.

I don't like being apart from my family. It was much harder than I thought it would be. In the future, if I can avoid it, I will.

To be fair, this trip was a necessity. Tina's mom hadn't seen Isaac yet, and since she couldn't come down to visit, we had to bring him up to visit her. Also, Tina was getting homesick and wanted to see her friends and family. This trip was good for her.

I will be extremely HAPPY to have my FAMILY come home. Yet part of me will be sad, because I know part of Tina will be sad. Hopefully we'll be able to go to Canada soon, as a family.

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As the World Turns

Drama. It has reared it's head at Contra Costa College, once again.

T.C.
T.C. was in one of my Prealgebra (4th grade) classes two semesters ago. He dropped out due to health reasons. Last semester I saw him at Del Norte BART, limping around on a casted foot. He had just gotten discharged from the hospital, which was good. But, they had to amputate a few of his toes, and that was bad. This semester, he's better and back in school full-time.

T.C. has the potential to be a good student. His writing/reading is still about two grade levels below High School, but he's dedicated and works hard. He's probably about my age, or a little older and has the wisdom of experience to fall back on. Unfortunately, he's not use to having a full load. He's found himself favoring his Reading/Writing course, but spending less time with my class.

Result: T.C. got an F on my math test.

Boy was he pissed. In his own angered words, "This is not acceptable. This is not acceptable."

Well, we talked it out during my office hours, where he came up with a game plan that would hopefully get him back on track.

D.M.
D.M. is a returning student. She's probably in her 50's and now in my Intermediate Algebra (3rd year HS) class. Dawn has done great here at CCC. She wants to get into Counseling and is taking this class to transfer out to a university. In math, Dawn started out in my arithmetic class and followed me through the next class, Prealgebra. She went through another instructor for beginning Algebra, and is now with me again.

D.M. is a high-maintenance student. She has a case of extreme math anxiety, yet has managed to deal with it up until now. Today D.M. cried in class. She's behind in her reading and feeling overwhelmed with my pace. While I began helping her with an in-class problem, her voice started quavering, her eyes started watering, and her nose commenced a-running. I went ahead and let her cry as I walked her through the problem. Another student came up to ask a question, saw that D.M. was crying, and went back to his desk.

After class, D.M. apologized for crying and explained that she was starting to feel overwhelmed. I told her that it was pretty bad and that she should be embarrased. I asked her why it was taking so long for her to get it, when everybody else seemed to be ok with the material.

Just kidding.

I listened patiently and told her not to sweat it. Then we worked on a plan for her to catch-up and to feel less overwhelmed.


Last week I gave four exams. Two of my classes did well. So, I'm either getting better at teaching, my students are better at studying, or I'm grading easier. I think it's the last one.

Off to grade the exams from the other classes.

Oh...did I mention that I miss my family :( but I'm hanging in there. 8 more sleeps before they come home.

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I now know how to keep my head up!

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Withdrawal

I can't help but come back to look at my previous post whenever I get back to my desk here at work.
Today I've also caught myself waiting for my screensaver to kick in waiting for it to display all my pics of Tina and I.

It's now been a little over 24 hours, and I have 2 weeks 2days to go until Tina and Isaac return home to the US. They're visiting Tina's family and friends in Vancouver.

Yeah, I miss 'em terribly.

Just gotta keep myself busy with work, working out, reading, and fishing.

Congrats to Kevin and Katrina Podmore of N. Van on the recent arrival of 6.6lb baby boy, Caleb! In my Paul Vitti crying while watching an TV commercial state, I couldn't help but get misty-eyed when looking at Caleb's pics in the hospital :)

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Hi!

Here's a recent pic of me. Thanks for the cool fits, Tita Cristina. BTW, Daddy wants to know if you can get him a set too.

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3:17 a.m.

It's 3 in the morning, and the little one has finally dozed off. He slept for most of the day and woke up just after midnight raring to go! Isaac's been vocalizing much more now, tonight singing off a lovely string of "oh-kus", "oh-guhs", and "ayyyyahs". Then he got fussy. If Tina tried to put him down, he wailed. If she tried to feed him, he wailed. It seemed he just wanted to be held...upright at least cuz he wailed when she cradled him. I took over Mr. Fussy while Tina napped. All of a sudden he got quiet. His face became intently serious, with slightly furrowed eyebrows and pursed lips. Without blinking, he let loose a nice "rat-ta-tat-tat", 5 second, non stop fart. That's a lot of gas for a little baby. Sure enough, the diaper got warmer and that baby-poo smell began to engulf us both. After changing him, Mr Fussy was gone and Isaac was back to his "oh-guh"ing and "oh-kuh"ing self. I would now like to state that I'm very proud that Isaac has inherited Daddy's BM's ;)

At the end of my hour, I handed him off to Tina for a feeding, which finally put him back into deep REMs.

It's tiring. But it's been great. He's been grinning more while awake. Every once in awhile he'll give one full blown ear-to-ear smile. Those are still pretty elusive, so I'll post a pic of one when I can take one.

On a side note, I've started visiting EBAY again to search for items like this. I still have to decide whether or not I want to bid on it.

On a further side note, this finally came in. Yeah, there's some geek in me...but who cares. It's still a cool T-Shirt.

ok g'nite....

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