I Will Miss You, Mr. Bradbury.

Even though it will already be two years this fall since I left my job as a high school English teacher, at times it seems like yesterday I was in my classroom, teaching American Literature to 15 and 16 year olds. When I was assigned that task- teaching sophomores all about the wonderful works of so many amazing American authors- I felt excited, and a little scared too. I knew I would be tackling a novel in the spring, and it was important for me to find exactly the right one.

So I chose Fahrenheit 451 to read with my kids. Everyday for a month we would crack open our old, 1950s dog-eared copies and read. And listen to Ray Bradbury himself while we did so, hearing the novel read exactly as it was meant to be read, gruff-voiced and enthusiastic. We read about Guy Montag, and Clarisse, and made connections to that life and to this one. And so many of my kids loved it, and so many of them got it- really, really got it.

For five years I experienced Ray Bradbury's genius through so much of his beautiful writing. Along with my students we explored his novels and short stories, and got to see ourselves and society's choices, through all of the eye-opening alternate worlds he created. Hearing news that Mr. Bradbury died today made me sad and nostalgic, but also so grateful that all of the amazing things I was able to read growing up, and still enjoy today, will forever be there for Henry and anyone else who might need a little magic in their life.

I will miss you, Mr. Bradbury.

Just ugh.

{old photo from 2009}

I'm not feeling so upbeat today. In fact, I'm feeling pretty crappy. On a good note though? My mouth is starting to feel better. But the combination of too much time inside, not enough substantial food, no exercise, and having weird medicine in my body from the surgery and afterward (I rarely even take Tylenol for a headache), I am feeling kind of down.

I wasn't sure whether or not to even write this post- I like to focus only on the positive here as much as I can, but Henry is napping and I've reached the end of Pinterest (is that even possible?), so here I am, typing it out. Sometimes I hold back from sharing sadness or negativity because it makes me feel like one, I'm complaining. And who comes to a blog to read complaints?! And two, I know my complaints are not a big deal whatsoever in the span of all of the other things going on in this big, wide universe. But here in my little world, they do seem like a pretty big deal, as most negative things can sometimes do. It's not even like anything is going wrong; mainly I'm annoyed at my mouth, my numb lip and chin, my inability to eat normal food, and the fact that I just feel so blah and depressed. I hate feeling like this- like I have no motivation to do anything. And typing it out makes me feel even more ridiculous for feeling so down about all of it.

SO with that said, I thought you could do me a favor.

I was hoping that you could all leave a comment telling me something awesome that is going on with you! Good news, something that made you smile today, whatever it is that you want to share. I'm excited to get some positivity going again!