The Life of Writing

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Here, writing at 8:12 a.m. on a Monday morning, I missed writing over the busy weekend.

I have settled into kind of a sweet pattern of being able to write while substitute-teaching on many weekdays, which I'm doing now at that surfside haven called San Dieguito Academy.

Over the weekend, I attended World Baseball Classic games Friday and Saturday nights at Petco Park, then church Sunday, then babysitting our grandchildren with my wife Dianna. In short, I never sat down to write, whether by choice, the amount of activity, or whatever.

Now, sitting again in a classroom first thing on a Monday morning, my time is structured: I have to be with the class, though the students are all working independently on a--guess what?--writing assignment (Catcher in the Rye, which, as an English teacher, I never assigned). I'm inside. I have access to a computer. Voila.

Plus with most schools going to a block schedule, an hour and a half up to almost two hours per period, a lot of time yawns before me.

If my duties allow--in other words, if I'm not teaching an active lesson, which in high school as a sub I usually don't do--and if the class is under control, often I can pen a few "palabras" on my blog.

I have a backlog, too: two WBC games, assorted interviews with La Jolla High athletes, etc.

It's good to be back at the keyboard.