A nice day!
Oct. 15th, 2022 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorcyressIt was a pretty nice day!
It was, first off, literally a nice day because of the really quite perfect fall weather. Cool in the shade, warm in the sun, and 4/6ths of the first of us at bells wearing flannels (to be fair, we might all just be kinda gay).
Austin and I biked to bells in the morning, and we arrived just a minute or two late. Practice went really excellently well --it was a beautifully mixed-skill crowd, and I think everyone got some nice things to ring. In addition to the normal ringers present, my WorkBestie came to see what this was all about, and he thought it was really cool! (it is unclear whether he will become a ringer someday, but he'll definitely be back at some point so his rad wife can see all the cool touristy parts as well!)
I felt surprisingly together running practice. That's been a bit of a mixed bag of late, but I think it only really seriously stresses me out in weeks where we have beginners and no other teachers. I'm much less stressed when I can pass off parts of the teaching to other ringers (and also in general I'm trying to get better at passing off parts to other ringers, while still forcing myself to pitch in and say go and stop occasionally or whatever.) I gave Clayton a chance to try handling, and he took to it quite well (which is always really satisfying), and got to bring him and new-from-Smith ringer Cara up to see the bells while they're rung. "This is my favourite place in Boston" I said as we arrived, and that genuinely is the truth. It's such a beautiful and loud and cool thing!
After, lunch on the greenway was _splendid_. There were pigeons! There was sunshine! There were slowly-dwindling numbers of us hanging out chatting, and the last five sticking around until nearly three-thirty (not including Clayton --he left at like three to go do grading-- but including both our newest regulars who'd been present today!) We talked about all sorts of things, and watched the birds, and soaked in the grass and sun and one last perfect shred of summer.
Austin and I got on our bikes then and traveled to Malden, which was a much-better-than-anticipated ride. There were even ~flex posts~ for some of the trip. (This is not actually anywhere close to the gold standard, but I'd give it a solid D+, maybe even a C- if I'm in a good mood. Paint-in-the-door-zone gets a "you tried" star and a request to please turn it in again so you can actually pass.)
Why Malden? Because they and Haverhill have voted to strike, in response to school committees that refuse to create fair contracts. The numbers were something like 94% of Malden teachers, and 97% of Haverhill --which is _unheard_ of. Do I know what teaching contracts are like in those towns? I didn't, but I've got a pretty good sense now!
It was really quite cool to attend the rally and pretty affirming and pleasing to hear all the speakers echo reminders that the people deserve fair treatment and a living wage, and (though no one used these exact words) that a rising tide lifts all boats. At least two of the speakers were from other cities near Malden, which have experienced quite good contract successes recently from strong union presence or disruptive actions, and were here to support the idea of Malden and Haverhill following in their footsteps. Solidarity motherfuckin' forever!
I wore my union shirt, and really _really_ enjoyed the game of "count the cities" I could spot on other people's shirts or signs. I think I hit a dozen before the speakers started, plus representatives of the MTA (Massachusetts Teacher Association) and NEA (National Educator's Association). Oh, and the local 25 teamsters sent a truck which kept circling the block playing loud and enthusiastic music, and every ten minutes or so would pass by again and honk its horn.
We biked home after the rally (and celebratory milkshakes) where we both kinda went into parallel-play shutdown mode for an hour or so, until Ezri fed us tuna sammiches and leftover Thai food we had from last night. That perked us up enough for me to show Austin the first episode of Over the Garden Wall, while we baked cookie dough Ezri had made last week.
After cookies were made and we went upstairs, Austin declared he had enjoyed the show, and would like to watch the rest, so we curled up to do so. OtGW is a fairly unique piece of media, in that it's a single cohesive story, made as a series of ten ten-minute animated episodes. There's not a season two or extra spin offs or anything, they just told their story perfectly and released it to the world. It is a perfect love story to slightly-spooky Americana folklore.
(It's possible I slept through episodes 5-8, but I woke up for 9 and 10, and then immediately after finishing, Austin declared that he wanted to rewatch some and so we did 6 again.)
Now it is approaching sleepytime. Tomorrow is service ringing, and then maybe hopefully some actual work getting done, so I don't have to wake up at evil o clock on Monday in order to prep before school or whatever. Goodnight!
~Sor
MOOP!
It was, first off, literally a nice day because of the really quite perfect fall weather. Cool in the shade, warm in the sun, and 4/6ths of the first of us at bells wearing flannels (to be fair, we might all just be kinda gay).
Austin and I biked to bells in the morning, and we arrived just a minute or two late. Practice went really excellently well --it was a beautifully mixed-skill crowd, and I think everyone got some nice things to ring. In addition to the normal ringers present, my WorkBestie came to see what this was all about, and he thought it was really cool! (it is unclear whether he will become a ringer someday, but he'll definitely be back at some point so his rad wife can see all the cool touristy parts as well!)
I felt surprisingly together running practice. That's been a bit of a mixed bag of late, but I think it only really seriously stresses me out in weeks where we have beginners and no other teachers. I'm much less stressed when I can pass off parts of the teaching to other ringers (and also in general I'm trying to get better at passing off parts to other ringers, while still forcing myself to pitch in and say go and stop occasionally or whatever.) I gave Clayton a chance to try handling, and he took to it quite well (which is always really satisfying), and got to bring him and new-from-Smith ringer Cara up to see the bells while they're rung. "This is my favourite place in Boston" I said as we arrived, and that genuinely is the truth. It's such a beautiful and loud and cool thing!
After, lunch on the greenway was _splendid_. There were pigeons! There was sunshine! There were slowly-dwindling numbers of us hanging out chatting, and the last five sticking around until nearly three-thirty (not including Clayton --he left at like three to go do grading-- but including both our newest regulars who'd been present today!) We talked about all sorts of things, and watched the birds, and soaked in the grass and sun and one last perfect shred of summer.
Austin and I got on our bikes then and traveled to Malden, which was a much-better-than-anticipated ride. There were even ~flex posts~ for some of the trip. (This is not actually anywhere close to the gold standard, but I'd give it a solid D+, maybe even a C- if I'm in a good mood. Paint-in-the-door-zone gets a "you tried" star and a request to please turn it in again so you can actually pass.)
Why Malden? Because they and Haverhill have voted to strike, in response to school committees that refuse to create fair contracts. The numbers were something like 94% of Malden teachers, and 97% of Haverhill --which is _unheard_ of. Do I know what teaching contracts are like in those towns? I didn't, but I've got a pretty good sense now!
It was really quite cool to attend the rally and pretty affirming and pleasing to hear all the speakers echo reminders that the people deserve fair treatment and a living wage, and (though no one used these exact words) that a rising tide lifts all boats. At least two of the speakers were from other cities near Malden, which have experienced quite good contract successes recently from strong union presence or disruptive actions, and were here to support the idea of Malden and Haverhill following in their footsteps. Solidarity motherfuckin' forever!
I wore my union shirt, and really _really_ enjoyed the game of "count the cities" I could spot on other people's shirts or signs. I think I hit a dozen before the speakers started, plus representatives of the MTA (Massachusetts Teacher Association) and NEA (National Educator's Association). Oh, and the local 25 teamsters sent a truck which kept circling the block playing loud and enthusiastic music, and every ten minutes or so would pass by again and honk its horn.
We biked home after the rally (and celebratory milkshakes) where we both kinda went into parallel-play shutdown mode for an hour or so, until Ezri fed us tuna sammiches and leftover Thai food we had from last night. That perked us up enough for me to show Austin the first episode of Over the Garden Wall, while we baked cookie dough Ezri had made last week.
After cookies were made and we went upstairs, Austin declared he had enjoyed the show, and would like to watch the rest, so we curled up to do so. OtGW is a fairly unique piece of media, in that it's a single cohesive story, made as a series of ten ten-minute animated episodes. There's not a season two or extra spin offs or anything, they just told their story perfectly and released it to the world. It is a perfect love story to slightly-spooky Americana folklore.
(It's possible I slept through episodes 5-8, but I woke up for 9 and 10, and then immediately after finishing, Austin declared that he wanted to rewatch some and so we did 6 again.)
Now it is approaching sleepytime. Tomorrow is service ringing, and then maybe hopefully some actual work getting done, so I don't have to wake up at evil o clock on Monday in order to prep before school or whatever. Goodnight!
~Sor
MOOP!
no subject
on 2022-10-21 02:36 am (UTC)