For the first time since we went online for the Pandemic back in March of 2020, I started a new school year ready to meet some students face to face. To be fair, a year ago, we tried what we’re trying now, but I opted to stay completely online, which worked out to my benefit since it wasn’t long before everyone was online.
But now, a year and a half into this thing, I’ve got a couple of classes which are going to meet in person and last week, the first week of school, we did. It was nice to be in front of a roomful of students, to be able to see and hear their reactions, but even so, it was a bit disconcerting with everyone wearing masks. As of this coming week, I’m supposed to monitor them all (and each class has more than 60 students) to make sure they’ve been vaccinated and if they haven’t, to ask them to leave. And if they don’t leave, I’m supposed to leave. Continue reading “It’s been a week…”
It started with the car radio.
Day One
This is a story about the importance of words and their meanings.
As is my wont these days, I tend to analyze the question a bit before answering. One of the things living in Europe, especially Eastern Europe, has taught me is how America-centric things are. Now granted, I do spend a fair bit of my time looking at and reading things in English, but still, there’s this huge bias about things which would be incredibly easy to do/see/acquire/accomplish were I in the States, but that become incredibly difficult on this side of the Atlantic. 
Had an interesting moment today. Monki and I had a fight. Not a big one mind you, but an important one. See, every day, we change the calendars. Over here in Lithuania (and maybe the rest of Europe, I can’t really say), calendars come with a piece of elastic with a little red square for putting over the date. Handy, right?
We’ve been talking about getting Monki a new bed for a while now. She’s four and a half, sure, but she fits just fine into 122/128 (that’s 7/8 for you Americans) and she tends to thrash a bit when she sleeps. What this means is that the bed she’s had for the last couple of years is actually getting a bit too small. Now, a couple of things have been interrupting this conversation. One, beds are expensive as hell (and there’s a whole host of subcategories that go along with that) and two, we weren’t sure how a new bed was going to fit into her room. 
It’s been a year, huh?
It seems like I haven’t written anything here in a while. Part of me wants to say that’s because not much has been happening, that we’ve been trapped in the house due to the pandemic and life has just sort of…stopped. But that’s not true. Not in any sense, really. 
Well, this week, Monki and I turned a collective 57 (or, on average, 28 1/2 each). Personally, I think get the better side of that since in reality I’ve just turned 53 (Holy shit that’s a big number) and she’s just turned 4 (which, in its own way, is also a really big number). 
Now, about four years into this whole fatherhood thing, I’m realizing something I only understood intellectually before – I don’t know shit. When talking to my friend 
I like 
About 6 weeks ago, we entered our apartment. And there, with the exception of a few forays to get food and necessary supplies, we stayed. And, in fact, it was pretty much only me going out, so Rasa and Monki, they really stayed. Monki hadn’t left the house since the 13th of March (remember, we 
Last August, we figured it was time and signed up our relatively freshly minted three-year old for a public kindergarten (which is pre-school in America – the terms are flopped here). And so, on the second of September, when school started for everyone, Monki was ready. Off we went to her new school, dropped off a crying little one with her new teacher, and went about our business for the morning. 
It’s strange to think that yet another year has passed, that in the arbitrary marking of the start and end point of the annual circle of the planet around the sun, we’ve come around yet again. But we have and so I’m going to set down some thoughts on the 12 months which just passed and 12 which are in front of us, just to take stock. 
Getting the Hang of Thursdays 