Hello, Welcome. I’m Renée Valentina and this is Musing Interruptus. Listen to Musing Interruptus if you like stories and learning idiomatic phrases in different contexts. You can read along; just click on continue reading in the description to open a Google Doc with the transcription of this episode. The idiomatic expressions are in italics. Try to get the meaning from the context and then look them up to see if you were right. If you like it, subscribe, follow, and share, but more importantly, continue the conversation. Drop a comment with your answers to today’s questions! I love hearing from you!

Why do you do what you do?

This is a question that might plague you on restless nights.

Why did I do that? Why did I respond that way? Why didn’t I say this or that?

Oh, if only I had said this, things would have gone differently.

Those pesky hypotheticals that take up your time, thoughts, and energy. All of which should be focused on sugar plums, jumping sheep, the monster under the bed, or Mr. Sandman. I wonder if there is a Ms. Sandman by now. These are thoughts and energy well used before sleep, which should take us to a good place in our dreams.

However, the would haves of the day or worse, life, can and will keep you up at night, if you don’t put them on a leash. That’s right, you’ve gotta tether those thoughts, rein ‘em in, just like a cowboy does with cattle.

I loved watching TV when I was a kid, almost as much as I loved diving into my fantasy world. Sometimes, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on my dolls for their next dialogues and adventures. Whenever I write, I visit that place. Whenever I’m invited to play, even if it is just for a moment, I get transported there. That was the magic of teaching children for me. We played, and I had to oscillate between keeping the peace and being the guardian of the rules. Not as difficult at you might think. When I was in a classroom, my height helped. However, when I became a high school teacher. I went back to being short. It’s all relative, you know?

Teaching is a very safe place for me, I need it as much as my students need it. And I love that. (I’m glad you can’t see me as I write this. There’s blubbering.) Teaching is a love language and a huge responsibility. Sometimes we have the opportunity to make up for other teachers’ shortcomings, and I pray that other teachers are able to do the same for mine. I’ve been thinking a lot about this recently because a student talked about feeling safe. That made me think about all the mistakes I have made. I hate them. Mostly because I hope they didn’t affect my students. Teaching is an awesome responsibility.

Learning is not always easy. We have to face hurdles sometimes.

Hurdles like explaining that water, although considered tasteless and odorless, is not all the same.

But wait. Isn’t it two hydrogens and one oxygen? I mean, that’s it, chemically speaking.

It’s true, but there is more truth than meets the eye.

So I’ll tell you a story

https://tinyurl.com/mwk7psr2

You could have

Right off the bat, you know that this is going to be aggressive. You could have…

This is how you are alerted that someone is about to throw something in your face. Not a cake, mind you. Although you might wish it were a cake, it would probably hurt less and you could lick some sweet frosting or whipped cream off your face. I would. I might wish someone would throw a cake in my face. Yellow cake with sweet whipped cream. As metabolisms change, you make nutritional decisions that make sense for a healthy body but not for cravings. You realize the only way you get a taste of sheet cake is if someone slams it in your face. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I imagine that is why the older you get, the more irreverent you get.