16th Aug 2007
back and tan
I am back in the work saddle after four days down the shore (as my students have taught me to say it, in correct Jersey parlance). What I think of as the East Coast branch of my family — New Yorkers, although one cousin now lives with his wife and kids in San Fran — had a family reunion in Avalon, NJ, just above the very southernmost tip of Cape May. The beach house was unbelievable — with pool and outdoor shower, which I am now hooked on — and the ocean was even better. I am a chicken when it comes to large bodies of water, probably from having grown up in a land-locked state. Add waves and an undertow, and usually I won’t go in very far. This was warm and shallow and we could go far out and still be able to stand up, jumping the waves and bobbing in the surf. I got tan for the first time in years and have more freckles than Raggedy Ann. My cousins’ kids, six of them all told, let me run with the pack and we played Wii and some sort of splashing game in the house pool that let me defuse all the anger I think I’ve been carrying from a long year and summer. I didn’t bring my laptop and only checked email once. It was a vacation in every sense of the word, and deeply needed.
Plus I have some good news. The publisher bit on my book idea — tentatively titled iWrite — and is sending a contract along. I can’t even tell you how excited I am. It’s about the writing process and how technologies can and are being incorporated into writing by adolescents. Yeah. It’s a big goal, to write a book this year, but I want to do it and will use this blog, among other things, to keep track of my progress and think through/reflect on my writing. Should be interesting, at the very least. Can we say self study?
Congratulations…on both having a REAL vacation and getting a possible contract for your book. I too have developed extra freckles this summer b/c of sun contact…isnt it lovely? The book idea sounds like something that teachers are in dire need of reading—and “regular folks” too…. and there doesnt seem to be too many substantial published books out there on technologies/writing/adolescents… I’m glad things seem to be taking a turn for the better.
Yikes…didnt realize I had already commented on this post of yours.
Anyway….your students misinformed you! Saying you go “down the shore” is something bennies say…but if theyre from up here, they they ARE bennies. Bennies are what people “down the shore” call us folk from North Jersey. I am in a bennie/North Jerseyan transitional phase… grew up by Toms River but now live in Morris County.
Be a “cool,” non-conformist benny. Simply state where you went instead of using the all inclusive “down the shore” phrase
Example: “This week I went to Ocean City.”