Once a Linguist...

 I'm sitting here on the sofa with a margarita perched next to me, enjoying my Friday Bloat and Sloth Night. To quote Master Yoda, “Sitting upstairs, watching Star Wars the children are.” Chuck is on the phone with his mother. It has been a good day: my greens are all sprouting; the sunset is gorgeous; Guadalupe School's PTA treated us to a beautiful lunch (FLAN!) for Teacher Appreciation Week; there are grosbeaks and tanagers in the yard. I think the day's high point was standing on the edge of my greens bed, looking carefully at the soil and seeing that faint green mist in rows that means lettuce! Cilantro! Spinach! Cabbage! Now, if only the peas would sprout.

Here is the layout for the Adult Education office in the new Guadalupe School.  I'm not totally done working with the designer (this may be the only time in my life that I have said "working with the designer"), but it is getting closer to what  I want.
 
Also very pleasant was working in the office with Mel and Elisabeth this afternoon.  Mel had her Queen album playing, so we were jamming to "I Like to Ride My Bicycle" and "Someone to Love".  Elisabeth and I were talking about the possibility of her going to graduate school.  I'd like to see her go for an MA in Teaching English as a Second Language.  I kind of miss being a student.  There are times when I regret not having pursued a PhD.  I decided not to after discussing it with a former professor from my graduate program who volunteered at Guadalupe.  I told him that I was considering it, and he raised his eyebrows.  He looked around our kind of dumpy little school and asked, "Would a PhD get you a significant raise?  A major promotion?"  Well, no.  "Then be practical. Don't bother.  Don't spend the money unless you're going to get a return on the investment."   So, I didn't.  But I regret the decision sometimes. 

Last night, very late, Chuck and I were curled up in bed, dozing and telling each other bits and pieces about our day.  We got on the subject of languages somehow.  Next thing I knew, our lights were back on, I had found my glasses and was scanning the bookcase for an old text book.  We talked about the  lineage of Arabic.  Chuck read aloud from his book, "Guns, Germs and Steel" about early writing systems. We had to drag ourselves away at 1 AM. Chuck and I love to talk about language. Maybe I should go back and re-read some of these old books.