Groundhog Day

I've been experiencing Groundhog Day for the past week while polishing off the chapters in my new book. If all goes well, I should be able to send the manuscript off to a potential publisher by early next week. It's about the teaching career, and through its unfolding, I've been able to relive a multitude of happenings within my 33-year career.

For example, yesterday--ironically--I polished off the chapter entitled "Ya Mean She Taught the Pope." I was actually printing the pages when I heard news that the Pope had been rushed to the hospital. Sent an email to former student, Cindy Wooden, who's covered the Vatican and the Pope for more than 15 years now.

Anyone who wants to know more about what happens with scares such as yesterday can read a story I wrote about Cindy's experiences on my website (www.mariannelove.com). It's in the archives under "Love Notes."

I've also returned to zany highlights involving my nine years as the Sandpoint High School Drill Team adviser. One of these anecdotal accounts included a pie-eating contest in 1973 that went bad. It can be found in a chapter called "Ponderettes and Pie, Not a Good Mix." I worried about the status of my future employment with the school district after 40 cream pies began to fly all over Bulldog Gym.

This morning I'm finishing off a chapter called "You Are Now What You Were Then." Readers will, no doubt, be surprised to learn that a model student, I was not. What "I was then" came back to haunt me one time while conducting an in-service seminar for teachers in Thompson Falls. Unfortunate for me, there were a few naughty "Marianne's" in the crowd; I definitely experienced payback time that day.

The book has 15 similar chapters, 300-plus pages---most funny, some poignant. It's been fun revisiting the shadows of my career at Sandpoint High School. I've done a lot of LOL while writing and polishing.

I hope readers will enjoy it too.