Conversation with Molly

             Recently all of the English 12 classes had a Skype discussion with Molly, a Marshall alum, about her blog Confessions of a First-Time Mom, college, The Lovely Bones, and everyday life. Molly's blog is about her raising her son Liam, and balancing being Liam's mom and being her own person. One of Molly's recent posts was published on CNN and we got a chance to ask her about that.

Picture Thanks to Ms. Kosmatka 

           Before we started talking to Molly some people in the class were nervous. Nervous to talk to her, nervous that there might be technical difficulties, and nervous about possibly getting a bad grade. I thought of it as just talking to another person, and the worst thing that could happen is I get a bad grade (compared with some of our fishbowl discussions it couldn't be much worse).
           Once we actually started talking to Molly things got much better. The first group went a little slow and looked a little nervous, but Molly was such an easy person to talk to that after that it seamed like the question and answer turned into a genuine conversation. She told us her thoughts about the book, her experiences at Marshall, and her fight to be her own individual instead of just Liam's mom. Molly told us how she doesn't want to be the mom that cleans up all of Liam's messes, she said that he will need to learn to pick them up himself.  "People grow up by living" and that is just what Molly is going to let Liam do (19).   Her stories about Liam and her time with Dr. Nygaard were very amusing and made the class period fly by. Before the class we were fighting to come up with questions to ask her, but as the conversation her her flew by you were fighting to ask your best questions in the 10-15 minutes you had.

Ping Pong

Later in the day after our "Failed Trip", we had a ping pong tournament. My dad started the fire in our garage as soon as we got back from ice fishing. My dad and i spent almost the rest of the day and night in the garage; we finished cleaning the garage and kept the fire going. While my dad and i were in the garage my mom and sister were in the house making supper. They made taco meat with chicken and re-fried beans for tacos and made Swedish meatballs and cheesy chicken wings. Many people came, including Pierce and his parents, and the whole day and night was spent talking and playing ping pong until one in the morning.

Basketball

           Now that basketball is over I had a free weekend for the first time since early November. Slowly i have been getting more and more tired and sore. Going into the weekend I told myself I was going to do something productive and fun that i wasn't able to do during basketball, something like ice fishing or walking around our property in waist high snow with my dog. What actually happened was much different I woke up at 11 am when the night before I fell asleep at 10 pm. That set the tone for the weekend because that night the same thing happened, I fell asleep at 10 pm and woke up around 11:30 the next morning. That is 26 hours of sleep in two nights. It turned out all I did over the weekend was sleep, eat, and watch television. Even tough I didn't actually accomplish anything it felt good. I had no commitments, and could do whatever i wanted. Yes, I miss basketball the after school practices and of course the games, but one thing I will never miss are those Saturday morning practices that make you wake up early and put a kink in your whole day. The sleep and rest felt really good, my body and mind needed it. Now on Monday i am not groggy and sleepy like most Monday mornings during basketball season, but instead i'm awake and attentive.