January always sucks here in the Northeast. It’s grey and cold. We’ve all had the same virus for the past three weeks, trading germs back and forth. I need to give the entire house a Clorox bath to get rid of these lingering evil bugs. Faded Christmas trees lay sad and lonely waiting for pick up by the garbage truck.
A story that I did in December was just published. I posted it here. Happy to talk about it in the comment section. I’m working on something totally different right now. It’s an upbeat story about a school in the South Bronx for emotionally disturbed children. (Yes, it’s a happy story.) I’m also editing a document right now for a long term project. So, there’s a lot of work to do.
I was at that South Bronx school earlier this week and had a great time, except for the horrible drive through the Bronx. With streets full of pot holes, sudden turns, unmarked roads, and drivers who don’t obey normal traffic rules, I was having anxiety attacks as I navigated my way there. But I did it. Yay me.
Jonah’s home still, which is awesome. Sniffling like the rest of us, he’s been looking at the career development website for school and trying to figure out what he’s going to do after graduation. What a bucket of stress!
Other kids in town are using their winter break to do informational interviews with alumna from their schools at various companies around New York City. I’m just hearing about this from other parents. Neither Jonah nor myself got the memo that this is what kids do during winter break now, until it was too late. So, he’s surfing websites about careers, rather than sitting in an office with a suit. Sigh. Parent fail.
There is a RIDICULOUS level on stress on kids about jobs. Here’s an article in Vox describing it. And this stress isn’t totally crazy. Millennials are burning out in their jobs. College graduates aren’t finding work.
I’m moving my family to a bunker in Vermont where we’ll make artisanal goat cheese.
Apt. 11d 
We don’t get sick very often here (and are not sick now) (I give credit to my poor housekeeping. A dirty house is a house that inoculates you against germs!), but other than that, we are having the same dreary January. I’m not sleeping well because of lots of situational stress, including my mom and a good friend having health problems.
Oh, totally irrelevant but interesting factoid. I asked my students yesterday if they knew where the phrase “going postal” comes from. They had no idea.
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“I asked my students yesterday if they knew where the phrase “going postal” comes from. They had no idea.”
That’s good!
There’s a good Terry Pratchett book with that title.
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“There’s a good Terry Pratchett book with that title.”
Don’t tell MH, though, he is still reading Mort. I thought Raising Steam was the best of that set, though they are all a bit programmatic. For late Pratchett, I prefer Tiffany Aching, particularly Wintersmith and I Shall Wear Midnight.
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I’ll get through it eventually.
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I have to fess up to not actually READING Terry Pratchett. My husband and big kids read the books, and I like the movies.
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Wait. There are movies? Why wasn’t I told before?
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