Tales of a Warm Person

One of the things you may not know about me is that I am pretty warm. That is to say, my internal and external temperature is warm.  I might also have a warm personality, but that is probably only on display for a select few people.  This seems to serve me well as Canada heads into colder months.  It didn’t serve me as well when I lived in Japan and had to endure 38 degree temperatures and tremendous humidity.

The other way that this serves me well is that people who are cold, are very surprised if they happen to bump into me or clasp my hands. I am, in the words of some (and that includes my girlfriend) “a stove”.

As the temperatures get colder at night, my cat has become much more affectionate. He would also like to partake in my inferno like heat.  In the summer he preferred the sunbeam rather than bother me.  As we close in on Autumn, however, he has been spending much more time at my side and in my lap.  He is also keener on sleeping next to me despite my tendency to roll over a lot.  Seems like a Perfect Moment to me.

On a side note, my current teaching job is going to have quite a bit of writing to mark. I took in a number of pieces today.  I spent some time at work going through half of them.  This is certainly better than putting them all off to later.  Unfortunately, I cannot pat myself on the back because I did not get them all done and I am far too tired as I write this to do it tonight.  Hopefully, I will arrive early enough for work tomorrow that I can finish them before the class starts–and probably start the lesson by taking up their mistakes.

Deliberately Taking a Nap

Photo by Ihsan Aditya on Pexels.com

 

I used to think that there were two kinds of people on the planet: those who took naps and those who didn’t.  I was firmly in the no nap side of the debate.  I mean, every time I took a nap, I woke up completely confused.  Actually, most of the time, taking a nap usually meant falling asleep while watching TV or falling asleep because of some instrumental music on the CD changer.

These days, my opinion has changed. Perhaps I have watched my cat curl up in box or stretch out across a sunbeam once too often.  I am not sure why, but I have come to regard occasional naps as something good.

Today, mostly because of the sunny skies, which belied the cooler temperatures outside, I decided to take a nap under the bright sun and it was good. I got some much needed rest and I got the chance to dream about a bike trip in a foreign land–don’t ask me which foreign land because the dream dissipated too quickly for me to figure that one out.  I awoke feeling refreshed and happy.  Obviously this nap, taken under warm covers, is Today’s Perfect Moment.

Looking to read one of my other blogs, check this one out:

Sleeps Like and Angel

What Student Notebooks Teach Us

Yesterday’s Back to School Post must still be stuck in my head because it slightly affected the my world today. I teach ESL to adults in the Toronto area.  These are not immigrants, but rather people who want/need to improve their English.  They aren’t like high school and middle school students, who need to do any back to school shopping….or do they?

You see, some of these adults arrive without pens or notebooks. Others have brought the remains of their high school equipment.  Some of my older students have liberated some of their children’s things.  Yes, that means a 50-year-old student could conceivably (and has) show up with a Barbie eraser and Little Mermaid Pencil case.  Add this to the fact that my students come from all over the world and what passes for high school cool or grade school cool in their countries is not the same as here.  While some of the stuff they have gotten their hands on is better than I could find here, some of it is definitely weirder.

While I might find it humorous, I also find it rather refreshing.

Today, I caught sight of one of my students’ notebooks. The only thing I could think of was that this was the definition of cute.  When she caught my eye, she immediately explained that she loved cats and was, indeed, a cat person.

Looking at it again, I wonder if this notebook is trying to be cute, looking for juxtaposition, or trying to teach us about tolerance and the need to defeat racism with love.

Also, I remember watching a vlog (video blog) shot in South Korea that used similar images of black and white cats to warm against North Korean spies.  If anyone is in South Korea, and these posters still exist,  maybe they could post some of these images.  They are quite interesting.

When I took the picture, I just thought it was cute, but then again, I have a black cat of my own.