Friday my mom took the kids for a visit, freeing Chris and I up for thrift store shopping and lunch. He searched for ammo for his ugly seater contests and we discussed possibilities for this year's Christmas portrait. Last year we were an 80s family, inspired by our own family portraits as kids; I glued a Magnum PI stache on Chris.
I think the elegance of this project was that many people can't tell it's a joke.  

At a mediocre Chinese restaurant after shopping, I tried to cheer Chris up by globbing as much hot mustard into my mouth at once.  I considered how my reaction to physical pain is laughing hysterically.  

Saturday I bought myself running shoes from a dedicated running store for the first time in 17 years.  Which is only the second time.  They feel great.  I wore them out of the store and stopped at a park for a jog.  It was freezing and drizzling and every gust of wind made me laugh out loud.  I lasted 5 minutes.  I colored my hair pink again in time for my date with Chris.  BJ and Andi came over to watch the kids.  We went out for Italian food and brought back pie and wine.  The girls recited Science Verse for our guests and I was really pleased that they chose to demonstrate something cute and impressive instead of equally possible admissions of doing nothing all day as homeschoolers.  

  

In the middle of the night, Chris ate the rest of the pie and I didn't get any!  It took me a day to realize this and when I accused him, he laughed hysterically.  Totally worth it.  To see him laugh like that.  

Monday I ran at the gym and my legs are still sore.  In class, I was inspired to actually make art - which I have a huge fear of doing in class in case my students think I suck.  But I was filled with the magic I used to get filled with.  I have been thinking about the sky as an open matrix and fixating on how fall leaves pass through space that is normally empty.  Blossoms and birds do this too.  Also, when we went to Hawaii, I so enjoyed the sensation of flying over and with the fish while snorkeling, which is also an open matrix with things temporarily passing through.  I thought about how these two things were similar and made big charcoal scrawlings about these ideas about space.  A student said to me as I did this, Miss, you gotta teach me to draw.  I said that's what I've been trying to do.  ...Where have I gone wrong?  I thought about it and then announced at the end of class that from now on, they can replace the assignments with their own ideas if they wanted.  I told them that I respected that so much of their time is accounted for in doing things they don't want to do, to jump through the hoops to get to what they need.  I thought we had covered enough basics that this class didn't have to be one more thing like that for them.

Eleanor had a sleepover at Grandma's this weekend, so Charlotte had to have one tonight.  Eleanor cried a lot about Charlotte leaving.  

Today I colored my hair dark golden blonde because that was the color that was deeply discounted at Target.  And because the pink wasn't done right.  I also cut bangs down to my eyelids.  I also cut Eleanor's hair and then asked Sue if she could take her to Great Clips while I was at work so they could fix it.  This all made me late for work, but not as late as my students.