loose & easy (like me!) sketching and playing in the big & little visual journal slash sketchbooks. i'm loading them into the getaway car soon for my trip up north tomorrow. catboy will probably nap on his new chair the entire week. but since he weighs a whopping 16.5 pounds and is getting portly, catnanny may have other plans for his downtime.
today i received a special email from sara – teacher/librarian in an elementary school. she's enjoyed reading about my exploits during these 10 long months and wrote to tell me about it. i was touched because i know what hard trying work she's doing. when i win the lottery i am scouring my email to find all the ones from teachers/school librarians and i'm going to take us all to a remote beach in thailand where we will live in luxurious huts over the water, swim in the moonlight, walk on the beach in the morning, and gather to sketch and write for hours every single day. we teachers are bonded together in a calamitous fellowship. i feel charged with the duty and privilege of living LARGE every moment i possibly can. for them. whether it's puttering here at home or exploring somewhere new. of course if you aren't a teacher but still feel in desperate need of an extended playdate i'm quite sure i'll hit the mega jackpot. so you can come too!
to that end this is where i'll be hanging my hat for the next week:
hot diggity dog!
happy saturday. go do something awesome this instant. that's an order!
i'll send you postcards from the seashore. xo
Phew, for a moment there I thought I wasn’t invited. 🙂
Beautiful. Perfect. Restorative. Inspiring.
oh please tell me where this beautiful get-away place is in SB. We were married there and have never found a place from where we can view the water that we can afford! I’ll savor every posting you send from there.
“calamitous fellowship” – what excellent words.
as usual
Enjoy! Looks incredible, xodonna (from somewhere along the coast of Mexico)
Keep on a movin’ on Mary Ann. I’m comin too, not a teacher but my respect for your tribe runs deep and wide. It’s a job unlike any other, but it’s also a job with a gift in it’s hands ever so often,for when a child lights up like a Christmas tree at discovering something new, or the wild abandon that crosses their faces when you show them how to capture life onto the pages of a wee journal with glue, paper and cast off bits that has to feel good. I am sooooooo happy for you knowing that you’ve been able to tramp around the globe, near and far, gather up these amazing moments, keep em safe and on going in the pages of your journals and ‘blurbs’ I know how much you love it and how vital is. You’ve got vagabond blood runnin through your veins. I’m glad knowin’ you take every moment to it’s full advantage and I’ve got a front row seat and the view is awesome. I’m pre bookin passage to that island getaway. Count me in!
Your journals always inspire me so much, so today I am definitely going to art journal, have fun on your trip up north, it’s so fun traveling with you everywhere and being there while you enjoy your time off, and I just love what you said about teachers, you all deserve so much. That would be awesome to see you all heading off to an exotic island 🙂
Amen about teachers. It is a hard role to play, but somebody has to do it. I can’t believe I am completing my 30th year in a classroom this June. 30? Wasn’t this suppose to be a temporary gig?
PS. I will take you up on the Tahitian or some exotic beach when you hit the lottery. When I win I’ll do the same back. Promise.
Oh boy. What they said. What you said. Over and over again.
Off you go, dear, off you go!~ You are SO smart to have this Sabbatical, and if I had read of your plans in years earlier, I would have gone an done the same, too! But I didn’t, so now I make Imaginary Trip sketchbooks/art journals, and it all works ok. I will be glad to hear about this trip, too. You inspire myself and my husband. Have a great time.
Sandy in Dublin, California
I am not a teacher but I am the mother of an ADHD 12-year-old. Without the support of his teachers, I would have gone mental. I respect and admire and just genuinely like you. Thanks for bringing many a chuckle my way! Have a lovely holiday1
Not a teacher, never could be a teacher (except those college summers when I thought young Girl Scouts how to swim) but have all the respect in the world for them. It’s a whole new world out there trying to teach today’s kids, than it was when I was a youngster..I’m 61 so my formative tears were the late 50s and the 60s. In those days, in my opinion, teachers had a real chance to impact the kids they taught. I remember practically worshiping some of my teachers! Today’s teachers have to compete with computer games that glamorize violence, the internet, kids that are exposed to way too much, way too soon and a general lack of respect for the property and authority of others. There is NOT enough money in the lottery to induce me to set foot into one of today’s classrooms as a teacher. Thank God for you and people like you that have had the courage and the drive to teach. You are sorely needed. I hope your sabbatical has given you the clarity of mind to see the path ahead. Will you return to teaching for a time or will you choose a new path? I think you will be successful no matter which way you go. I know just from following your blog these past few years that you are a wonderful teacher and that you have reached some of the kids you have taught. If it can be said of us that we have dues to pay, then you have paid yours and it’s time to follow your heart. When you win that mega lottery, there are probably a lot of us who could use an extended ocean front play date!! LOL! Fondly, Cat
Omg. Beautiful. Enjoy that gorgeous place & view for all of us.
In a fit of >, I let my teaching license expire last month. I’ve been a speech pathologist so long, my internal mind chatter was saying, “you’ll NEVER go back to the classroom, save yourself 95 bucks” I had a little panic attack on Friday, and Fed Exed my renewal crap to Santa Fe. What is wrong with me?
I think you represent all us working stiffs (teachers, technical writers (me), everybody) well – I’m glad you’re helping give us big ideas. From big ideas come…real dreams…which turn into reality. You help people see what they can do, and use their imagination to create their own reality. That’s powerful stuff. New beach abode looks quite divine – will look forward to the postcards. If you remember to do so, might want to ask the dolphins that you may run into if the ones in Carpinteria were, in fact, talking about you. I think they were!
Not a teacher, but a daughter of a teacher who funded four of us through college…..and years later a mother of five kiddos in public school! Wahoo! For teachers everywhere!!!
Holly
Zoockers! One of the best in Carp for dinners. And, of course, the Thai place on Linden and the Worker Bee and the place way down by the beach for Breakfast. For such a little town, sure has great restaurants.
Such a charming place you are off to..can’t wait to see dispatches from the shore! Wyatt looks very comfy there in that snazzy chair.