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I just got back from the theater where me and my oldest son watched Wicked For Good in 3d. I tend to hate 3D and only bought the tickets by accident because the nearest theater didn’t have seat assignments which sent me running off in horror, away from 1998 to someplace more modern.  In my horror, I didn’t really question why the tickets were $23 apiece, vs. $18 at the other theater. I just thought that the theater with free-for-all seating was trash like Spirit Airlines or something, and didn’t see the 3D designation until my husband pointed out, 10 minutes later, that the theater I chose is showing it only in 3D.  Oh well.  I was only going so that my kid could see it, so I didn’t really care.

Surprise, surprise — I liked the 3D.  It looked REALLY good and added to the story vs. detracting like it often does. The whimsical and magical setting really popped. To be honest, I had every intention of taking a nice nap during the movie, as upright and unobvious as possible to not be sussed out by my kid.  But when I got there, it continued to be interesting enough that I stayed awake the whole time.

It was a good movie, and following in the vein of trends post Frozen, it was touching because it was just as much a story about friendship as it was romance. In fact, I’d venture to say that Elphaba and Galinda’s relationship was way more important than Fiyero and Elphaba’s romance. It was somewhat nuanced and really the only people who came off one-dimensional and terrible were Vanessa Rose and Michelle Yeoh’s character.  The wizard was a complex, flawed man, who reminded me of my own father, LOL. And the girls never came off as all villain or all good. I appreciated that.

I don’t often enjoy being still anywhere for 2+ hours, but this was an easy watch. Only 1 bathroom break and I was otherwise all in!

I’m notoriously opiniated or at least gregarious. I have a lot to say, yet as I sit down to write, I’m feeling daunted.  I think it’s partially because writing a blog, unless you have a built in audience, feels like screaming out of a window, at best, and into a toilet, at worst. I love talking, but I think it’s a cooperative process that requires getting vibes back and listening for comprehension to see if your audience is getting it. If not, try another tactic.  I’m a teacher and I think that’s one of the thinks that really helps my practice is that I’m relentless with wanting people to understand. Not to be understood– that’s from a very self-serving view.  People who just want to be understood mean that they want to just come out being natural and have whatever they say be accepted with no caveats or bumps or difficulty.  Wanting people to understand is a much more active process which requires the speaker to listen and adjust.

The majority of my students are on the spectrum, but barring that, they are ALL gifted, which means they love being pedantic and playing the game of gotcha, where they disingenuously act confused. (The words in bold and underlined are words of the week which I’ve used at school.  You can see why those two have already been introduced to the children. LOL.) Recently, I told them that being a good communicator is two-fold – it’s like playing catch.  If you’re playing catch and the pitcher throw it in the opposite direction of you, that’s bad.  But similarly, if someone throws a ball your way and you just leave your hands at your side, not trying to catch it, you are also doing a bad job.  Communication is a two-way street and you should be trying to understand as much as you are trying to be understood.  If there is effort being put forth on both sides, the odds of success are much higher.

You see?  I said I had nothing to talk about and the second my students come into my head, it’s easy to talk about.  They are so endlessly entertaining.  A mom bought me a miniature Sea Monkeys habitat kit after having heard me mention that these kids are what I wanted from Sea Monkeys.  For those of you not old enough to remember, in the back of comic magazines or any magazines aimed at children, there were these illustrated ads for Sea Monkeys.  The cartoon characters appeared to be the best pets ever.  You could supposedly teach them tricks and everything!  Oh, how I longed, no, I yearned for Sea Monkeys!  I wanted something to love and to teach.  My students fulfill the same needs and desires I had 40+ years ago.  They learn, they do their own tricks, and they are endlessly interesting. I really wanted to say unboring, but it didn’t sound great for an English teacher.  But unboring is actually more in the spirit of what I’m trying to say.  As someone with ADHD, everything doesn’t have to be top notch interesting, but it cannot be boring! With my students, every day is a new thing.  And while that may be upsetting to control freaks or people who like continuity and control, for me it’s plenty fine.  I tried corporate American when I was young and oh, could I see myself dying a thousand quiet deaths, sitting in cubicles.  I couldn’t take it.  And I had no diagnosis; I just knew that this was not meant for me. Teaching is amazing, but I thinking teaching the neurodiverse is doubly amazing!

Hey there,

I got a lot of thoughts, a lot of hobbies, and I thought it’d only be neighborly to share this with you. As a pround ADHDer, I have no unifying theme for this site, so I’ll tag stuff and patterns will form and you can just check the categories you seem to like best. Thanks for dropping by!