The Ups and Downs of a Day

I've been debating what I wanted to post today. I've got some fun student-related stories that I could share, but I've also got a tale about the first time I saw The Lumineers (who are on The Way Back's playlist). Rather than post about either of these things, however, I've opted to reflect on today's highs and lows.

The day started out on a high... which is possibly because yesterday ended on a high. What happened is this: About a year ago, I read a book by Lisa Smith called Girl Walks Out of a Bar. It's a memoir about a high-functioning alcoholic and her struggle to achieve sobriety. I loved it; her story really resonated with me.

Those of you who know me know what I do with books I love. I paint their spines on my fence!

I painted the spine of Girl Walks Out of a Bar on my fence two summers ago, but it was only a week or so ago that I thought to share this with the author. You see, after finishing her book, I sent Lisa Smith an email and told her about losing my brother to alcoholism. She responded within a week and said some of the kindest things.

She responded within a week this time too! She was very flattered and asked if she might be able to repost the picture, along with my website, on her social media pages. Now it was my turn to be flattered! And last night, she tagged me in her story on Instagram:

Needless to say, I went to bed feeling pretty good.

When I woke up this morning, I checked my email before getting out of bed and saw that I had a new subscriber. This always brings me such joy -- you don't even know -- but in addition to a new subscriber, I also had an email from the subscriber! Her name is Alyssa, she heard about my website via someone who shared it, and she likes my writing so she signed up to receive notifications for new blog posts. And she's from BILLINGS, MONTANA! Isn't that exciting?! Billings is the eleventh city on my list of places I'm trying to gain readers! Alyssa for the win!!

The morning was fine until I was driving to work. For reasons that I cannot begin to understand, I became very sad. Maybe this is because I was listening to Dispatch. Their song "One by One" always makes me think of Pip. Even though it's an upbeat song, the lyrics really make me miss him.

Even more than Dispatch, I'm sure my moodswing was largely to do with the time of the year. Monday, October tenth, is the anniversary of Pip's death and the days leading up to that day are always... emotionally confusing.

I blinked my tears away once I got to school and had a great morning, though! My homeroom students are the nicest group of kids a teacher could ask to have for four years in a row. We're having breakfast together on Friday and everyone's bringing something. I'm in charge of hot chocolate.

In first period, I had the absolute BEST conversation I've ever had about Something Wicked This Way Comes. I've taught this novel for years, but this particular group of kids went to town when it came to making predictions about what fuels the carnival and who's going to ride the carousel. Remember Mr. Personality from a previous post? He cracks me up. Today, while slouched in his seat, he raised his hand and said, "Yo, Miss! I was thinkin' 'bout Charles Halloway yesterday and how he thinks he's so old" (we've been discussing motif and are focused on age at the moment) "and I thought, 'Dang... when I'm old, Imma look back on my life and think I should've done more when I was young.' But I'm young now and I don't wanna do nothin'."

I was like, "That's actually a really profound statement, Mr. Personality."

The Intuitive One and Old Newspapers, two of my other students, also had some impressive thoughts. The Intuitive One thinks that the carnival feeds off of a person's energy and steals it in order to stay alive; Old Newspapers agreed and made some comparison to a movie or something that I had never seen. They were so animated about their discussion and got really into it! Scooby Impersonator chimed in with some great stuff too, and all the while The Wordsmith listened. The Wordsmith usually pipes up with insightful observations, but he was surprisingly quiet today... until the end of class when he said, "I've got so many ideas bouncing around in my head right now, but I need to think about them for a day before I share anything."

It was just such a cool experience! It was one of those classes where you wish PBS was filming it for a documentary on education or something. It was great!

For the most part, the rest of my school day was fine, but I'd just experience little moments of sadness along the way, you know? I'd think about Pip and miss him... so then I'd distract myself with grading. I got so much grading done today!

After school, I was hanging out with a friend who knows nearly all of my friends and she gave me one of the nicest compliments I've ever received. She told me that I'm essentially a friend magnet and that all of the people in my world are so colorful and strong -- like characters in a book! But they're not in a book. They're in Gettysburg, of all places, and I've managed to surround myself with all of them! As an author who becomes very emotionally attached to fictional characters (especially my own), this was such an amazing thing to hear! It's sort of like I'm living a work of fiction... but I'm not!

At the moment, I am feeling very upbeat, but I know that the days leading up to Monday will be up and down, like a pogo stick or a jump rope or some such other piece of sporting equipment that makes one bounce.

I also know that I will survive them because of my nonfictional friends.