market runs

We all tend to work long hours and it is often difficult to get to a store to buy anything.  If we are lucky enough to be in a city with shopping near the arena, we simply shop between shows.  If not we need to depend on the bus to transport us before or after shows. Recently I have started to wonder what the employees of these stores think when we pull up at midnight and 50 people spill into the store. We generally have only an hour to shop, pay for the items we are purchasing and get back to the bus.  Often the people working in the store look completely shell shocked and other customers become annoyed by the long lines we create.

Life

I was thinking about how different my life is here on the train.  Having a home that moves from place to place and the fact that all 300 neighbors move each time I move.  We have a dynamic that is very much like  a large family or a very small town.  Everyone knows everyone else's business, your life becomes public knowledge.  Because of this I have chosen surround myself with all of the G rated people. On the train runs we play board games, have potluck dinners and just laugh and entertain each other.  Sometimes though we need to get into some mischief just to stir things up. 

One of our clowns is a little too serious, so he is a great target.  We cooked up a plan to kidnap one of his door magnets.  We carefully constructed a ransom note by cutting up food packages and then we took his Jack magnet and left the ransom note held up by a new Santa magnet, and waited. He left a lost poster on his door with a drawing of Jack asking for his safe return but refused to meet our ransom demand.  We didn't hear anything else and I just about to return the magnet when one of the other clowns told me that she had accused of taking Jack.  When we heard that we decided that the magnet needed to be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome and we started taking photos of him during our travels and leaving photos with notes on the clown's door.  We decided in Washington D.C. to return Jack to his rightful owner, I guess it is time to find some new mischief.

Baltimore

We arrived in Baltimore on Monday, Tuesday was a dark day so a few of us decided to go explore.  We thought that our first stop would be Charm City Cupcakes, but after walking through some very scary neighborhoods and not finding the cupcake shop we decided to head down to the water.  This part of the day was very enjoyable we shopped, saw some things to do on Monday and had a wonderful lunch. We decided that Monday's outing will not include any of the ships that we can tour but The American Visionary Art Museum to see some kinetic art and possibly dragon paddle boats.

Washington DC

We spent all of last week in Washington DC, Jackie (the other teacher) and I got out to see some of the sights. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom and quite beautiful.  Much of the national mall is undergoing restoration, so it is not as visitor friendly as my last visit. Thing are going great at work, all of the kids are trying to get caught up with their studies and with Jackie here they have plenty of help. 

New teacher

Sorry that it has been so long since I have last posted, so many things have happened I am not sure where to start. First Jackie arrived and it has taken so much pressure off to have another teacher here.  We have added time to our workday but it has allowed us to offer individual attention to our students and it will be good for everyone.  She is smart, friendly, a hard worker and very easy to get along with,  I am happy that she is here. We spent last week in Charleston, SC and this week is Cincinnati, I always like when we are near the water, I find water very relaxing.  Our train run was not easy this time we arrived over 12 hours late and as a result our GM canceled school today.  We are taking this opportunity to get caught up on some administrative duties.  We are also going to walk over to the Underground Railroad Museum, we may take the kids there this week. I need to get going, I will try to post more often.