Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Last week was the first week back to school for us in upstate New York. Staff were back on Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday was Freshman First Day and then Friday all students in grades 9-12 came back. And with the first week, that means the age-old question “so, how was your summer?”

Like “hello, how are you?” where how are you is usually rhetorical, “how was your summer?” fills the hole of something to say when you’ve been away from students and colleagues for a gap of time. Most don’t really want a play-by-play of your summer, but for those that do, mine could be summed up in one Pinterest-worthy quote: “Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.”

Between house remodeling and a family business, vacations and activities are usually done in short bursts and were not expensive (I do want a kitchen sooner than later). So I filled my days with reading from a twenty-four hour readathon to reading the Harry Potter series, I got lost in books and let them take me places when I didn’t go anywhere. And if you were to ask me whether I had a wonderful summer, the answer is yes.

My sons would likely answer the same: having read endless Calvin and Hobbes comics along with Harry Potter, Dog Man, and Stick Cat. Yes, we biked and relaxed along Lake Ontario, but what’s important is that they also felt fulfilled with adventuring in books too.

In thinking about our students returning, I hope that it is the same for them. If they did visit the beach or attend a festival, great, but if they did not get to every county fair or get to visit family in the city, I hope that they went places in books. And I’m going to make it a point to recognize that when we speak.

Where did you go in your books this summer?

For close to two weeks in August, my mother in law visits from Minnesota. The days are typically filled with activities and family time leaving little time for me to read independently but the one thing that is substituted is time to play Bananagrams.

By far, this game is an all-time favorite. On par with rummy and now chess (see previous post here), I love the challenge of making words. The competition is secondary. As a reader, words have deep meaning. Sentences move me. Paragraphs are photographed and saved in folders for me to reread. I have pages from The Lovely Bones photocopied just to go back to read when I want. I have bookshelves of books that have changed me.

One of my favorite slides to end on during book presentations is the reminder that all books are made up of just twenty-six letters– think of the magic that just twenty-six letters rearranged can have on people and for writers, the magic they weave with them. There is a power of one word or in a dozen words. And Bananagrams allows you to appreciate it. There are some games where I want to take pictures to remember the words I used. To clarify, not that they’re overly intelligent words or pulled from a huge lexicon I have, instead, because I’m proud of the English language. The game keeps me mentally sharp and reminds me that in a time when words are being replaced by emojis and abbreviations that words a beautiful. And they’re built through reading.

Today I used words like quotidian and shamrock. Yesterday I used words like toxin and extensive. Again, not overly complicated or long, but sometimes just their meaning or usage is a reminder of how words can hurt or help, tear down or build us up. Words are powerful. Remember that. Then play a round of Bananagrams. And if you don’t have anyone to play with, give me a shout and I’ll bring my A-game.

… and likely will finish with part IV by the end of summer. It’s been a bit of a slow go as many of the extra ingredients needed for some of the sandwiches are ones not normally found in our home. It’s requiring some quick trips to the grocery store but with so many of them also needing fresh ingredients, the quick trips are also necessary. There’s a lot of competing fridge space with our weekly CSA vegetable share.

At this point with a handful of sandwiches left, not only are these not ingredients that we keep in the house, they’re also sandwiches that I’ve never had at a restaurant or otherwise. I’ve never had the Monte Cristo, likewise, chicken and waffles. So these sandwiches are taste adventures. But we also threw in an old faithful, for whatever reason waiting until this next batch to build our grilled cheese and “ultimate” grilled cheese because what makes a grilled cheese better? More and different cheeses all stacked up on the bread together.

Enjoy the culinary adventures of the next batch of Sandwiches! foodstagramming style.

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