I'll Take Potpurri for $1000, Alex

So.  Some stuff has happened.  Just not anything that wanted to turn into a post.  Now that it's been a week, allow me to just smash all of the things together with only the faintest hint of a transition between them and call it a post.

My drive down here last week was pleasantly uneventful.  My mom's friends, sort of my other mothers, Jean and Mary rode down with me so they could visit my mom and see the babies.  We made it to Oklahoma on Tuesday night, where we encountered our camo-clad hotel clerk friend who, seeing the Wisconsin plates, asked if any of us were from Madison.  I said I was and he told me that my money was no good there (Sweet!) because he can't stand all of those God-and-country-hating hippies from Madison.  Sure.  Yes.  That's me.  He accepted Mary's Footville, Wisconsin-based money, we spent the night, and rolled into San Antonio late Wednesday afternoon.

Then on Saturday, I took the Texas Examination of Educator Standards (TExES) (seriously).  I wasn't overly concerned going in since standardized tests are sort of a special gift of mine.  On the other hand, it was pretty important that I pass it since not only would school districts not even interview me until I passed, but also I did not want to pay another $117 to retake it. 

I used only an hour and a half of the FIVE HOURS allotted to finish the test and walked out with absolutely no idea as to whether I had passed.  I've never been one of those people to say "oh, I don't know if I passed" just to get people to say "of course you did, you smartypants, you."  Because, really.  False humility: what is the point?  This test though, involved quite a few questions that were basically judgement calls on the best way to handle a classroom situation.  I knew what I would do, but not whether that was considered the right answer.  Turns out, enough of them were.  I got my scores today and out of a possible 300, I scored whatever was enough to pass and that's all that matters.  Whew.

Hey!  Look!  We have ads!  Over there to the right, below all of that other stuff.  Alan put them up for me today, which, folks, is why we stay friends with ex-boyfriends.  To make them keep doing stuff for us.  I don't think I'm going to make my fortune or anything but it would be nice if at some point, this blog would begin to actually pay for itself.

And finally, a lot of people over the years have seemed to find the depth of my love for Tim Russert a bit odd.  But if you saw the tribute on Sunday, you saw his friends confirm all of my impressions that had so endeared him to me.  That even more than smart, he was endlessly curious.  That he saw his role in large part as that of educator.  That he felt strongly that politicians should be held accountable for what they did and said, particularly when those two things did not align.  And that he was good friend, husband, father, son, and above all, an honest-to-God decent human being.  Our country is the poorer for his loss.