A Better Day

Ahhhhhhh.

Yesterday was better than the day before.

1. My school's fundraising breakfast is over! Thank God! And my students were ROCK STARS! They stayed cool under pressure: remembered to breathe; to speak slowly; all the things we practiced in our numerous dress rehearsals. The audience loved them - understood them, got all their little humorous references and laughed in all the right places. Here they are, wowing the crowd at the Salt Palace Convention Center. It's a bummer this picture turned out so blurry. I remembered, with only seconds left to go, that I had my camera clutched in my sweaty palm, and hastily snapped a picture.

After the event, they were approached over and over by total strangers wanting to shake their hands and tell them how great they were. People followed us out to the elevators, down to the lobby, out into the parking structure. They were tickled. She's a housekeeper, he's a metal worker - how often do they get to tell their stories and actually get listened to and congratulated on their contributions and hard work? This event is hell to prepare for. It's a huge project for them to write a whole speech in English, correct it, edit it, and read it over and over while I correct their pronunciation and inflections. ("Frus-tra-tion. Frus-traaaaa-tion. Careful. Not 'froos'. 'Frus'." Ad nauseum.) But it's a great process-driven learning experience. I wish more of our students could do it, not just so they can learn to write and give a speech, but also so they can finally be heard and seen by people who often don't notice them.

Here's the best part. Relaxing after it's over! Nothing left to do but count the money!

So that cheered me up. As icing on the cake...

2. I called KCPW, one of our local Public Radio affiliates, to see if I could get them to air a Public Service Announcement (PSA) to recruit volunteer English tutors. The person in charge of PSAs must have had her Wheaties that morning. Not only did she offer to take care of the PSA, she offered to be a volunteer herself, and has asked me to come to the studio on Friday and do a 10-minute spot about our school.

3. A friend sent me a fun e-mail that helped me realize: I don't need to talk myself of out of a bad mood: a trip to the Dolomites is what I really need! The itinerary and activities are all mapped out! I will never have the opportunity to actually take this trip, but now I'm at least able to say, "Well, of course I'm bummed out! I'm not in a villa on Lake Como."

4. We received some more donations at the school. There were three girls' sweaters in teeth-achingly happy pastels. Super-fluffy, fuzzy chenille. They're way too small for us, but my colleague, Emilie and I each put one on and made Mark wear one, too. Charlie's Angels.

Mark, is there any dumb-ass thing you won't try on?