Snow and Nate

I assume a lot of people got snow last night. The kids always love the first snow and stand around gawking at it in the morning. It is supposed to be 65 by the weekend so this first round is short lived.

I went to Barnes and Nobles last night with Ingrid while the boys were at Scouts. This was a peak at how the rest of the world lives. There were two tables of women knitting and one large table of women participating in a Book Club but I didn't hear much discussion going on about a book. A man was working on a school project with his young son and then there was me with the little baby. She was basically happy most of the time but I have noticed that when a baby her age starts crying that the looks that come my way have some sort of shock that I am out with such a little one. I usually get asked if this is my first baby etc as I am alone with her. I need some sort of placard that states "This is my eighth, babies cry, and yes, I think I know what I am doing don't worry yourselves with why I am here".

I also ran into the mother of one of my students from 1987. It was a pleasure to see her and I asked what her son, who must be in his early 30's, is doing now. He is a relatively new dad and he and his wife are expecting number two now. Nate was something of a rascal when he was in school but frankly I liked him. His mother said something about how he had some trouble with the teachers back then but couldn't remember talking with me about him too much. My favorite memory of this smart child was of when he cut a hole in his dictionary just the right size to put his game boy, or whatever they called them then, in. It was reading time and he was very intent on his......dictionary.......and I was trying not to laugh but had to call him on the carpet for this. We had a sort of understanding between us that was silent but he did seem to sense that his impishness was cute but needed to be controlled. His mom mentioned the trouble he had with his eighth grade teacher and that did not really surprise me as she was a no nonsense, sort of intolerant of impish kids sort of teacher and also looked down her nose at the new teachers. I guess I had trouble with her too as surely I didn't know what I was doing. Oh.....Nate is a stockbrocker now with his dad. I didn't inquire how that was going for him......

That was the evening. Now I am waiting for the kids to finish jobs that should have been done last night. Sigh. Will we ever get going this morning????