All Hail Teachers, Tax Accountants, and Quilters!

Can I tell you something? I love being a writer. I’ve always wanted to be one, and I wouldn’t want to be anything else. But sometimes I kind of wish I were brave enough to be a teacher.

I seriously think teaching is the most difficult and important job in the universe. OK, maybe being president isn’t easy either, but you can’t take a break to surf the internet when you’re a teacher, and you can’t choose your own vacation times, and if you think you have homework…imagine being the person who has to read ALL of those papers, AND come up with the next lesson plan, too! I mean, when do they ever find time to watch Dancing with the Stars?

We’re watching The Wire season 4 right now, which shifts the focus to a group of boys in a Baltimore middle school, and daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayum, I would NOT want to teach in this school! Literally on the first day, a student gets attacked with a razor in the new teacher’s classroom! YIKES! And you know that a lot of these kids are totally smart, but it’s so hard to reach them and keep them all interested. Poor Prez! (the new teacher) I totally love these kid characters. I’ve been looking forward to this season since we started watching the show. Personally, I think any good show is inherently more interesting with teenagers in it. 🙂

But it sure does remind me that I don’t have the courage or disciplinary skills to be a teacher. I’d rather, like, come visit for a day and talk to you guys about what you’re reading and then go back home to my pyjamas and dog. Which is what I’m going to be doing in May! Woo hoo! Yes, my fearless manager (OK, I admit it, it was my mom) has signed me up for a couple of school visits in New Jersey, so I can go talk about being an author to my very favorite people: young readers. Yay!

Oh, boy, leaving the house! That’s one of the things recommended in this Salon article about freelancing. The author has a lot of suggestions about finances, but I was more interested in her lifestyle tips. For instance, “Do not wear your pajamas after noon.” But…but…what if you’re still asleep at 1pm? Aha! Didn’t think of that, eh? 😉 I agree that changing into real clothes right after getting up is a good idea, though. Or at least into a different set of pajamas. 🙂

I think my best advice for freelancers would be: Get a dog. Of course, that’s pretty much my advice for everyone in any circumstance, but seriously, that will get you out of the house, or at least make you feel really really guilty about not taking her for more walks.

Also, it’ll provide you with lots of hilarious pictures to post on your blog!

This is what Sunshine does while I’m writing (that is, when she’s not on my lap licking my fingers so I can’t type):

 Her favorite sleeping position

 My favorite of her sleeping positions

 There’s also this…

 …or this.

And here she is on our brand-new quilt!

I know, we won’t normally let her on it in case her claws snag on anything, but this picture was too cute to resist. How AMAZING is this quilt??? It was a wedding present, and it’s completely unbelievably astonishing. Can you believe someone made that for us? I’m so in awe, especially since I have no visual artistic talent whatsoever. I could never make something this gorgeous. I feel like she took our wedding day and transformed it into a quilt! Yay! Thank you, Susan! We LOVE it!

All right, time to go to bed. I’m SO glad tax time is over for this year, finally; that might be the only thing that’s easier for a teacher than a freelance writer, since I assume the school tells you how much you earned for the year, whereas I have to spend several months trying to figure it out. Keeping track of papers + math + forms + stamps and envelopes + writing large checks = everything Tui does not love. Thank goodness for the wonderful accountants that did all the math for us this year! And for Adam being very patient with me, especially as I unearth receipts, yelping: “Ooo, look, I spent two dollars on a book! That’s deductible, right? How much does that save us?” La la la.

Quote of the Day: “If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.” — Dorothy Parker

Edited to add:  OK, last night I had a dream that I was dancing in a ballroom competition at the Olympics.  And Bruno Tonioli was my partner.  !!!  Possibly I am watching too much Dancing with the Stars.  But he was very nice!  I think we had a good chance of winning.  Especially because, in the dream, I could do splits like all these dancers.  SIGH!