Going the Distance

If I could figure out how to comment on Marissa's blog, I'd tell her she writes some of the most lovely run-on sentences I've ever encountered.

I've been engaged with the text for so long, we're practically married.

Liana catches me as she looks out the kitchen window; I'm pulling into the driveway. You'd think in the seven years she's known me that she'd at least have had suspicions before now, but somehow it's evaded her notice. Maybe she's just persuaded herself that it wasn't happening, pushed the obvious truth to the back of her mind.

"So who is it with?" she asks.

"I don't know. Anybody. Nobody. Myself."

"And you go through the whole thing?"

"Just my side of it."

"And how often are you doing it?"

"You know, whenever."

"Whenever I'm not around?"

"I guess. Yeah."

"It's not normal."

I admit it: I talk to myself- little half-spoken soliloquies, throughout the day- in the shower, in the car, in the neighborhood on a dog walk, in my classroom before school... I replay the previous day's conversation and preview the next day's. I rehearse witty replies to future biographers and radio talk show hosts. I try on different phrases with every possible inflection; I'm constantly revising, but the final drafts of these conversations never quite reflect the hours of effort I put into crafting them.

It's why I find comfort in blogging. I get to sit down and try my thoughts out before they stream out of my mouth and call everyone's attention to the fact that I've no idea what I'm talking about.

It's been a week since Matt S. asked us all what the point of blogging is, and you've all given me- and your peers, I hope- plenty of food for thought. I've seen insights, revelations, anecdotes, poetry, rants, and eloquent observations of the relationships that make up our lives. Admittedly, the teacher in me had visions of a lot more engagement with texts- but I feel like I've gotten so much out of reading what you've been willing to share here that I'm okay with letting some of that go.

But then I remember that the beauty of this project is that you are engaging with text, because each of us is a text, to be read and pondered and responded to, and then the teacher in me is sated.

Why We Blog

Oh, this is lovely. I spent a rather relaxing, paper-free hour last night perusing the new blogs, most of which- authored by the bloggers whose handwriting I could read from the spiral notebook- are now listed on the right-hand side of your screen; take a few minutes to open a new window in your browser, navigate to each blog in your class, and cut and paste the url into your link list.





The title box actually refers to the name of the list itself- name it something that will remind you that it includes members of the accelerated class (I've named my fifth and sixth periods, respectively, "the skinny pedal" and "the gas"- get it?). In the New Site Name box, type the name of the person whose blog you're linking. Do this with every member of your class and, if you choose, the other accelerated class.

I'm glad most of you are picking this up fairly easily. There are of course, a few of you who are still a little unsure. Matt S., struggles with the existential crisis of why we blog in the first place:

I've never blogged before and I don't really know why people do it. The phone was made for a reason, so we can talk to each other freely, well at least most of the time. What's the big deal about it? Why do people do it? And what makes it so special?

I have my own answers to these questions, but I'd like you to comment on Matt's blog with your ideas first, if you've got them.
I love you. Blog on.