"So Hip To Be Square"

I completed my first week of actual tutoring yesterday. The more I do this, the easier it seems to be. The system they've put in place is pretty straightforward and easy to follow, it turns out, and for the most part I enjoy what I'm doing (when I can get past my nervousness at jumping into a new, if only part-time, job). Working with elementary school students is very different than working with high schoolers. Part of it is their attitude: these kids haven't hit that point where learning is an unpleasant or undesirable thing yet. I remember high school with at least a measure of clarity still (I mean, it's only been a decade since I was there), and I do recall a certain reluctance to listen to most of my teachers and a general lack of desire to work or put effort into things. Admittedly, I apparently had the same lack of initiative back in elementary school and middle school, at least according to my parents, so maybe I'm not a good case study. But these kids, for the most part, are really enthusiastic about the tutoring, and they generally have a good attitude and do whatever I put in front of them.

Thanksgiving is fast approaching. I guess we're doing it with Michelle's folks again this year, as has become our tradition. I do admit that I rather miss some of my old traditions, such as falling asleep on the couch while football plays on the TV.

We're still trying to figure out what we're doing for Christmas: staying here or going up to New York. I'd personally like to go to Oklahoma again, but I know it's unrealistic and not something we can really handle again just yet. We're thinking about it for next year, though, which'd be nice. And I'll see the family in March anyway for Clif's wedding...and again in May for Scott's wedding.

Part of me really wants to hear the new Guns 'N' Roses album, Chinese Democracy, that comes out in a week and a half or so. Not because I particularly like the band, but because any album that took something like 15 years to get recorded is either going to be pretty solid or really, really crappy. I kinda lean towards crappy, but like I said, I'm not really a fan.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Huey Lewis and the News, "Hip to be Square"