Four miles in 45 minutes, 12 seconds today on the guinea pig wheel, aka the treadmill. Woohoo! My sneakers were like tiny rockets, flames blasting from their heels. Smoke billowed up from the rubber conveyor. Smokin'!
As it turns out, I lost three pounds at the residency. Makes me rethink my diet strategy. Move over Jenny Craig. Outa the way Weight Watchers. No exercise, extreme sleep deprivation, college cafeteria food, tables sprinkled with mini-candy bars, occasional cookies, plenty of carrot cake and ample amounts of alcohol consumed well into the wee hours - that's the ticket. Follow that with a train ride and three days eating hunks of halibut as big as your head, wash them down with heavy ale and those pounds just melt away.
As I read the job postings for English Composition and Creative Writing instructors at colleges across the country, I can't help notice one glaring element they all have in common; college teaching experience required. I have teaching experience, but I don't think it will impress the interviewers of academia. It's all the outdoor variety and has nothing to do with writing. Unless you view carving turns on the corduroy as a type of artful script. Powder 'S' anyone? Man, I'm getting the itch to slide. It's August. There's an El Nino forming in the Pacific. Could be an epic winter. Anybody got any frequent flyer miles they can't use?
I met with an English professor at UH Hilo Tuesday to discuss how I might pimp myself out to him as an assistant in his creative writing classes. He was smart, cordial and supportive, but told me it's too late for this semester and referred me to four books on pedagogy to prep for teaching English Composition to students of diverse backgrounds, primarily, as he called them, dialectic speakers like many who attend the local schools. OK den. He suggested I assist with English Comp and actually enroll in his senior creative writing class. Maybe. I'm already paying bookoo kala to attend a masters program in Alaska, so the notion of paying for yet another class gives my wallet da kine chicken skin. He's a widely published professor with vast teaching experience, not to mention an exalted reputation with his students. No doubt, I'd learn gobs.
Yesterday, I contacted the director of what's called The Learning Center at Hawaii Community College and offered my services as a writing tutor. Bingo! She was very enthusiastic about bringing me into the tutoring fold, signed me up for tutor orientation and promised to call next week to schedule a meeting. Cool. Tutoring might be a better, more practical place to start.
So, things are looking up here on the rock. I still want to go home, but it doesn't have to be tomorrow.
Hoppsy rolled on a dead rat this afternoon, so it was bath time for doggies tonight. The walls are still wet with shake spray.
A hui hou. Aloha!
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