Mountain 911: What a Gas!

Hello students!

And yet another valuable life lesson has been learned this week: never blog about lacking drama. In other words, be careful what you wish for! Not that I was wishing, but maybe subconsciously I envied Aidan's whole being carried down the mountain on a stretcher thing. Well, I ended up on a stretcher after all.

Now picture, if you will, a giant turtle resembling yours truly, stuck on her back, and literally unable to move, stand up, crawl ( I tried), etc. That was me. Standing and walking with assistance led to sweating and crying and some possibly inappropriate exclamations of excruciating pain. So, after 4 hours of general immobility and agony, we called the ambulance at 3:00 a.m. and asked them to sneak into our house, so as not to wake the children. Having two paramedics in your bedroom at 3 in the morning is an unusual experience, but I have to confess, when they brought on the laughing gas to get me out of the house and into the ambulance, I have rarely felt so happy. I was crying from the pain, but also giggling uncontrollably - I could kind of see how absurd the whole situation was from the outside. Anyway, the nice paramedics told me to take as much gas as I needed, so in a relatively pain-free blur, I was transported to the hospital. Once in the ER, I was suitably x-rayed and  injected with morphine and muscle relaxants, etc., so I could move again.  Walking is highly underrated. I am now seeing a specialist who injected some large needle into my SI joint, so hopefully things are improving. Other than that, I'm trying to get over the loss of a whole ski season, but we'll see how things go. (Note: This story is in no way intended to promote, support, or positively reinforce any use of drugs. Just say no, unless you are in the care of medical professionals.)

As for the main issue on all your minds - the learning - yes, I am on top of it, even from the couch! Our goals for this week and next are to finish reading the Rodriguez essay, Aria: Memoirs of a Bilingual Child; read Bilingualism in America; read one more essay next week by Eric Liu; prepare for The Catcher in the Rye test next Wednesday; and keep writing your essays. I am suggesting you are finished the intro and first body paragraph by Monday, and then I think the second body paragraph could be written next week. You will also do some peer-editing next week to make sure you are on track. Finally, you should really be thinking about persuasion and argumentation to prepare for that particular section of the AP exam. That is a lot, and the pressure is on, so try to set a pace for yourself, and keep up on the work. 


For this term, my plan is to mark the Edmunson question set - coming back to you next week; the Catcher test; the journal you just wrote; your peer-editing; and maybe a couple of other assignments. Even though I am away, I really am working closely with the TOC's to keep things on track. I will also update the blog for you, so you know exactly where we are headed. Finally, if you have some burning questions about the curriculum, assignments, etc. you may email - no questions about laughing gas, please!  

Must stagger to the doctor again now. Bye.