so today . . . i realize it has been several days since i have blogged. here's why.
1. my allergies are still trying to kill me. i am better than i was last week, but it is still an issue. every time i wake up, one of my nostrils is fighting for it's life! so i am not sleeping too well, which results in daytime tiredness. which results in a sluggish brain. which results in staring at the words "so today" on my empty blog page, unable to think what to write next.
2. diandra has been gone. i realized this week that she is one of the catalysts to my crazy way of looking at things. sometimes it is because she is part of it. sometimes it is because of the places we go together (ok, i know mostly we go to target, but stuff happens there...) but part of the problem this week is that i find i am more interested in hearing about her adventures than i am about having my own. especially since, you know, breathing continues to be an issue.
3. i've been busy. sometimes busyness makes for good blogging material, but this has not been that kind of busyness. this has been of the school work, house work, church stuff variety. it has been the "put your nose to the grindstone and get it done" type of work. it has been the "just get through the day and then flop exhausted into bed" type of work. this type of work doesn't leave my brain much room for the kind of mental excursions that make for a good blog. if i had to live like this all the time, i might be tempted to flee to jamaica...
(oh wait, i AM tempted to flee to jamaica...)
4. rollie has been busy. waaaay busy. his brain has been otherwise occupied, which means our conversations mostly consist of these phrases:
--"how was your day today?" which is usually answered with "ok" and then we hope the other one had something happen that they can talk about, because we just need a minute to veg...
--"where do you want to eat?" because that is a decision that has to be made. if it isn't, we just go to rubio's. sometimes, even when we decide to go somewhere else (like jack in the box,) if i am driving, my car just whizzes right past jack in the box and goes to rubio's--even though jack in the box was probably my choice. yes, we eat at rubio's way too much!
--"i'll see you...(when?)" because, some days we don't see each other from the time we leave for work in the morning, until the last one of us finally makes it to bed. so rollie isn't much of a source for blogging material right now either.
5. my new class is chatty, chatty, chatty. i have high hopes that they are going to be a good source of hilarity this year--especially the little ones. i think this, because as i watch my assistant, ms. claudia, work with them, i hear her laugh quite frequently. but for now, at the beginning of the year, we are learning to STOP talking while we work. and i am still getting organized. so we haven't had a lot of blog-worthy conversations. yet. but just wait...
i am going to be out of town this weekend (no, not doing something fun--just more busyness,) so i probably won't be blogging again until next week. then again, every single time i say that i won't be blogging, something funny happens and i do. so you never know...
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
real, actual history was made today
so today . . . it was 113 degrees in downtown L.A.! yes, you read that right, 113 (sadly, there are no capitals for numbers) DEGREES!!!!!!
it was the hottest temperature EVER recorded in downtown L.A.-- not just for this date in history, but EVER. in the history of the world, there has never been a hotter day in L.A.
and i was here. i was a part of history. in the coming years, when people say, "do you remember that day that it was 113 DEGREES in L.A.?" (and they will say it with capital letters, because it was THAT hot,) i will be able to say, "yes, I WAS THERE!!"
(of course, by "there" i mean in my air-conditioned classroom, my air-conditioned car, and my air-conditioned house. stop rolling your eyes! i had to walk from the car to the classroom, and from the classroom back to the car... and THEN i had to get out of the car in my very NOT air-conditioned garage. i suffered, people!)
we are all complaining about the heat. well, except for that one tiny woman on the news who said, "it wasn't bad--just drink a lot of water!" i am guessing she spent the day inside an air-conditioned building. but the rest of us are complaining. i am 100 percent certain that everyone who is on twitter has tweeted about the weather at least once in the last couple of days...
yesterday i was complaining. loudly. yesterday it was about 105 degrees, and we had a commitment in the afternoon to attend a retirement ceremony. in a building with no air-conditioning. in our "church" clothes. i knew i was going to die. i knew i was going to be sick. i knew my feet and fingers were going to swell to heretofore unheard of dimensions.
i don't deal well with extreme heat.
for a place that really has no weather (southern california weather reporters are probably the most overpaid people in the country, considering that their job mostly consists of saying, "tomorrow the sun will shine and the temperature will be somewhere between 72 and 85 degrees." ) we spend a lot of time talking about it. i have written 27 weather blogs. today @briannaglenn tweeted, "every person in cal is tweeting about how hot it is. we do the same thing when it dips below 60. if it's not 75 and breezy, we aren't happy."
i think this is true--except for the breezy part. when you live in the shadow of hollywood, you come to expect perfection. i don't want to be cold, but i also don't want to be hot. i don't want to be wet, but i also don't want everything to dry out. i want it to be perfect. every day. and it is perfect often enough that i don't find that to be an unrealistic expectation. even if it is.
we are spoiled. that is why we complain on those rare days when it is too hot or too cold or too wet or too windy. that is why out of 534 blogs, only 27 have been about the weather--the other 507 days were perfect. or at least perfect enough. because you know, if they weren't, i would have been complaining about it. on my blog...
...where i can't actually SEE your eyes rolling...
it was the hottest temperature EVER recorded in downtown L.A.-- not just for this date in history, but EVER. in the history of the world, there has never been a hotter day in L.A.
and i was here. i was a part of history. in the coming years, when people say, "do you remember that day that it was 113 DEGREES in L.A.?" (and they will say it with capital letters, because it was THAT hot,) i will be able to say, "yes, I WAS THERE!!"
(of course, by "there" i mean in my air-conditioned classroom, my air-conditioned car, and my air-conditioned house. stop rolling your eyes! i had to walk from the car to the classroom, and from the classroom back to the car... and THEN i had to get out of the car in my very NOT air-conditioned garage. i suffered, people!)
we are all complaining about the heat. well, except for that one tiny woman on the news who said, "it wasn't bad--just drink a lot of water!" i am guessing she spent the day inside an air-conditioned building. but the rest of us are complaining. i am 100 percent certain that everyone who is on twitter has tweeted about the weather at least once in the last couple of days...
yesterday i was complaining. loudly. yesterday it was about 105 degrees, and we had a commitment in the afternoon to attend a retirement ceremony. in a building with no air-conditioning. in our "church" clothes. i knew i was going to die. i knew i was going to be sick. i knew my feet and fingers were going to swell to heretofore unheard of dimensions.
i don't deal well with extreme heat.
for a place that really has no weather (southern california weather reporters are probably the most overpaid people in the country, considering that their job mostly consists of saying, "tomorrow the sun will shine and the temperature will be somewhere between 72 and 85 degrees." ) we spend a lot of time talking about it. i have written 27 weather blogs. today @briannaglenn tweeted, "every person in cal is tweeting about how hot it is. we do the same thing when it dips below 60. if it's not 75 and breezy, we aren't happy."
i think this is true--except for the breezy part. when you live in the shadow of hollywood, you come to expect perfection. i don't want to be cold, but i also don't want to be hot. i don't want to be wet, but i also don't want everything to dry out. i want it to be perfect. every day. and it is perfect often enough that i don't find that to be an unrealistic expectation. even if it is.
we are spoiled. that is why we complain on those rare days when it is too hot or too cold or too wet or too windy. that is why out of 534 blogs, only 27 have been about the weather--the other 507 days were perfect. or at least perfect enough. because you know, if they weren't, i would have been complaining about it. on my blog...
...where i can't actually SEE your eyes rolling...
Thursday, September 23, 2010
allergies? i sort of hope so...
so today . . . i am a bit loopy.
i know, some of you think i am always a bit loopy, but i am serious! i have been so busy that i didn't recognize the signs of my allergies sneaking up on me. last night they finally jumped from behind the bushes they had been hiding in and ruthlessly attacked me.
i do NOT want to be sick again. i've been ok all summer, but have been a little apprehensive about what was going to happen once i exposed myself to all the germs a classroom full of four- and five-year olds bring. so i choose to believe that i am NOT getting sick--i am just dealing with allergies...
and so, last night when my allergies finally showed their evil side, i fought back. i rinsed my sinuses--yes, we are back to that again. as much as i hate doing it, i think it helps. i took an allergy pill--although my doctor says it takes a few days for those to really kick in, and i don't have a few days! i would sort of like to be able to breathe through the clogged sinuses and see from the watery eyes RIGHT NOW!! so i also took a sudafed... and not just any sudafed, but the super, duper, guaranteed to make you feel better one. i still couldn't breathe, so i raided the medicine cabinet and found some afrin. i am not a fan of nose sprays, but i was desperate. i snorted the maximum dosage up a nose too congested to breathe, and hoped for the best while not really expecting much.
after 10 minutes, i suddenly realized i was not having to use my mouth to get air into my body--my nose was actually doing it's job, unimpeded by mucous. (mucous--could there be a more descriptive word for the gunk that tries to take over one's sinuses? onomatopoeia at it's finest! which, in itself, is a pretty fun word to say...)
i was starting to feel goooood. i knew i was going to hit the sheets and have a wonderful night of drugged sleep! but i didn't. i laid there for two hours trying to sleep! there was no reason for me to not sleep!! i was tired, i was drugged, i was breathing just fine... but it just wasn't happening.
and then my alarm went off. i still felt drugged, but at least i was still able to breathe clearly. i thought this was a good sign. i was even thinking that i wouldn't have to take any sudafed today. i would be upright--i would just blow my nose and everything would be fine! this cheery thought lasted until i got out of bed and stood up and helplessly felt my blasted sinuses begin to clog up once again.
ok, sudafed was going to be necessary. i took one, tucked another one in my pocket, and rushed off to work--because, you know, that is what i do! i blew my nose a few times and reached an uneasy truce with my sinuses. i tried not to think about it, and instead started my day at work...
i might have been fine if i worked in a cubicle. but when you teach four and five year olds, you kind of have to be on your game or they will take over! i tried to focus. i tried to write lesson plans. i tried to stay awake. all i wanted to do was take a nap! i finally told ms. claudia, my assistant, that if she found me staring off into space, she should jostle me to make sure i was alive. fortunately things didn't progress that far, but i did have to deal with that loopy, spacey, out-of-body feeling all day that sometimes comes with certain medications...
i'm pretty sure it is the sudafed that is causing this reaction. and now i am also pretty sure that maybe this loopy feeling one gets is why i have to fill out all that paperwork to purchase it.
i think maybe it is a good thing that tomorrow is friday...
i know, some of you think i am always a bit loopy, but i am serious! i have been so busy that i didn't recognize the signs of my allergies sneaking up on me. last night they finally jumped from behind the bushes they had been hiding in and ruthlessly attacked me.
i do NOT want to be sick again. i've been ok all summer, but have been a little apprehensive about what was going to happen once i exposed myself to all the germs a classroom full of four- and five-year olds bring. so i choose to believe that i am NOT getting sick--i am just dealing with allergies...
and so, last night when my allergies finally showed their evil side, i fought back. i rinsed my sinuses--yes, we are back to that again. as much as i hate doing it, i think it helps. i took an allergy pill--although my doctor says it takes a few days for those to really kick in, and i don't have a few days! i would sort of like to be able to breathe through the clogged sinuses and see from the watery eyes RIGHT NOW!! so i also took a sudafed... and not just any sudafed, but the super, duper, guaranteed to make you feel better one. i still couldn't breathe, so i raided the medicine cabinet and found some afrin. i am not a fan of nose sprays, but i was desperate. i snorted the maximum dosage up a nose too congested to breathe, and hoped for the best while not really expecting much.
after 10 minutes, i suddenly realized i was not having to use my mouth to get air into my body--my nose was actually doing it's job, unimpeded by mucous. (mucous--could there be a more descriptive word for the gunk that tries to take over one's sinuses? onomatopoeia at it's finest! which, in itself, is a pretty fun word to say...)
i was starting to feel goooood. i knew i was going to hit the sheets and have a wonderful night of drugged sleep! but i didn't. i laid there for two hours trying to sleep! there was no reason for me to not sleep!! i was tired, i was drugged, i was breathing just fine... but it just wasn't happening.
and then my alarm went off. i still felt drugged, but at least i was still able to breathe clearly. i thought this was a good sign. i was even thinking that i wouldn't have to take any sudafed today. i would be upright--i would just blow my nose and everything would be fine! this cheery thought lasted until i got out of bed and stood up and helplessly felt my blasted sinuses begin to clog up once again.
ok, sudafed was going to be necessary. i took one, tucked another one in my pocket, and rushed off to work--because, you know, that is what i do! i blew my nose a few times and reached an uneasy truce with my sinuses. i tried not to think about it, and instead started my day at work...
i might have been fine if i worked in a cubicle. but when you teach four and five year olds, you kind of have to be on your game or they will take over! i tried to focus. i tried to write lesson plans. i tried to stay awake. all i wanted to do was take a nap! i finally told ms. claudia, my assistant, that if she found me staring off into space, she should jostle me to make sure i was alive. fortunately things didn't progress that far, but i did have to deal with that loopy, spacey, out-of-body feeling all day that sometimes comes with certain medications...
i'm pretty sure it is the sudafed that is causing this reaction. and now i am also pretty sure that maybe this loopy feeling one gets is why i have to fill out all that paperwork to purchase it.
i think maybe it is a good thing that tomorrow is friday...
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
do i LOOK like the white rabbit...
so today . . . i was on time for work. again. it is starting to freak me out just a little bit...
i have to punch a time clock at work. real teachers are on salary and don't have to punch a time clock. but i teach in a private school, and the rules are different here. we punch a time clock.
i understand the reasons why this is a necessary evil--the truth is, if there were no time clock, some people would take advantage and always be either arriving late or leaving early. i admit, i would probably be one of the former. there must be something in the nether-reaches of my family tree that predisposes me to lateness (at least that is my story!) i am not one of those people who are so late that everything has to wait for me. oh no, i am always just slightly late--you know, five minutes, seven minutes, never more than 10 minutes, but still late.
i usually don't plan to be late--i plan to be on time. and yet it never happens. as i have talked to other chronically slightly late people, two things emerge... we are all oddly married to people who think being on time means arriving 15 minutes early, and we are almost always late for the same reason--on our way 'out the door' we stop to do 'just one more thing.' but we do that several times before actually making it out the door.
i would love to blame my lateness on rollie. i think i can make a pretty good case for that. i don't like to be the first to arrive at an event--too much pressure for socialization--and his time frame always makes us the first to arrive. so when he says to me, "are you ready to go?" at the time we have agreed to leave, my response is always, "yes, as soon as i get my shoes on." or "yes, just let me grab my (fill in the blank.)"
one day, after hearing that response from me for the gazillionth time, he said, "why do you always say yes you are ready to go when you aren't?" i just looked at him blankly. "i don't," i said. "why do you think that?" "because," he said, "you say you are ready. i get my keys out. i walk to the door, ready to leave, but you are nowhere to be found. and when i ask where you are, you are always doing something. you are nowhere near the door!"
i guess we have a difference of opinion about what being 'ready to go' means. to me, it means i need to put my shoes on (which means a trip upstairs,) turn off whatever electronics i am using, find a jacket or sweater (which means another trip upstairs, since i didn't think of it the first time,) retrieve my phone from wherever i laid it down (which isn't easy, since it could be ANYWHERE! and don't say call it, because i usually have the ringer muted,) check to make sure i haven't left anything out that the dogs might enjoy chewing up, decide if i should use the bathroom before leaving, look for my chapstick, and finally grab my purse.
to rollie it means walking out the door.
you can see we have a problem. and it is compounded by the fact that rollie has finally made an attempt at compromise by generally agreeing that being 'on time' means arriving at the stated start time for any event. this means we have no margin for error. or phone retrieval.
my response is to send him to the car.
now when he says, "are you ready to go?" i still say yes, but then i add, "go to the car. i'll be right behind you." he fell for this the first time. he even went for it the second and third times. the next few times, i think he had his doubts, but he still went along with it. finally he came to the conclusion that it was a lie--i was not going to be right behind him--i was going to be at least another two or three minutes... maybe five.
BUT i can't really blame rollie's need to be early for my lateness, because i tend to be a little bit late even when i am not going anywhere with him. and this is most evident every weekday when i head to school...
in my defense, the time clock and i have been at odds for quite some time. the last couple of years it has been five minutes fast. we have whined and complained to the powers that be, but they are convinced that the clock is set by some atomic device and cannot be wrong. i am of the opinion that all of our cell phones (which, btw, all show the same time) cannot be wrong. and yet, i am not the one in charge here. so every morning i rush around, think i am leaving on time, only to find that when i punch the time clock, i am late.
this causes me much stress. i've tried setting my alarm earlier. i've tried tricking myself into thinking all our clocks are slow. i've even occasionally left the house with a naked face! and yet, every time i stick my time card into the hated time clock, i find i am late.
this year, at our first staff meeting, we were informed that the time clock had somehow gained three more minutes. so we were going to be given a few minutes of grace to compensate. this was a nice idea, but i still felt late--only now i felt really late!
and then, a few days ago after my usual mad dash to school, praying my way through mostly green and yellow lights, i punched the time clock only to see that i was...NOT LATE!! the time stamp actually said 8:01 instead of 8:08 or 8:10! i was stunned. it had to be a mistake. i must have left earlier than i had thought. but on the third day of not being late, i finally asked someone about it and learned that somehow, miraculously the time clock had been reset.
HAAAA-LE-LU-IA!!!!!
i like not being late anymore. although i'm not quite used to it yet. i still look at the clock in the kitchen as i am grabbing my breakfast and think, "i'm late! i'm late!!" and then i go rushing out the door...
which is probably a good thing. because as you may have noticed, i am still not exactly what you could call early...
i have to punch a time clock at work. real teachers are on salary and don't have to punch a time clock. but i teach in a private school, and the rules are different here. we punch a time clock.
i understand the reasons why this is a necessary evil--the truth is, if there were no time clock, some people would take advantage and always be either arriving late or leaving early. i admit, i would probably be one of the former. there must be something in the nether-reaches of my family tree that predisposes me to lateness (at least that is my story!) i am not one of those people who are so late that everything has to wait for me. oh no, i am always just slightly late--you know, five minutes, seven minutes, never more than 10 minutes, but still late.
i usually don't plan to be late--i plan to be on time. and yet it never happens. as i have talked to other chronically slightly late people, two things emerge... we are all oddly married to people who think being on time means arriving 15 minutes early, and we are almost always late for the same reason--on our way 'out the door' we stop to do 'just one more thing.' but we do that several times before actually making it out the door.
i would love to blame my lateness on rollie. i think i can make a pretty good case for that. i don't like to be the first to arrive at an event--too much pressure for socialization--and his time frame always makes us the first to arrive. so when he says to me, "are you ready to go?" at the time we have agreed to leave, my response is always, "yes, as soon as i get my shoes on." or "yes, just let me grab my (fill in the blank.)"
one day, after hearing that response from me for the gazillionth time, he said, "why do you always say yes you are ready to go when you aren't?" i just looked at him blankly. "i don't," i said. "why do you think that?" "because," he said, "you say you are ready. i get my keys out. i walk to the door, ready to leave, but you are nowhere to be found. and when i ask where you are, you are always doing something. you are nowhere near the door!"
i guess we have a difference of opinion about what being 'ready to go' means. to me, it means i need to put my shoes on (which means a trip upstairs,) turn off whatever electronics i am using, find a jacket or sweater (which means another trip upstairs, since i didn't think of it the first time,) retrieve my phone from wherever i laid it down (which isn't easy, since it could be ANYWHERE! and don't say call it, because i usually have the ringer muted,) check to make sure i haven't left anything out that the dogs might enjoy chewing up, decide if i should use the bathroom before leaving, look for my chapstick, and finally grab my purse.
to rollie it means walking out the door.
you can see we have a problem. and it is compounded by the fact that rollie has finally made an attempt at compromise by generally agreeing that being 'on time' means arriving at the stated start time for any event. this means we have no margin for error. or phone retrieval.
my response is to send him to the car.
now when he says, "are you ready to go?" i still say yes, but then i add, "go to the car. i'll be right behind you." he fell for this the first time. he even went for it the second and third times. the next few times, i think he had his doubts, but he still went along with it. finally he came to the conclusion that it was a lie--i was not going to be right behind him--i was going to be at least another two or three minutes... maybe five.
BUT i can't really blame rollie's need to be early for my lateness, because i tend to be a little bit late even when i am not going anywhere with him. and this is most evident every weekday when i head to school...
in my defense, the time clock and i have been at odds for quite some time. the last couple of years it has been five minutes fast. we have whined and complained to the powers that be, but they are convinced that the clock is set by some atomic device and cannot be wrong. i am of the opinion that all of our cell phones (which, btw, all show the same time) cannot be wrong. and yet, i am not the one in charge here. so every morning i rush around, think i am leaving on time, only to find that when i punch the time clock, i am late.
this causes me much stress. i've tried setting my alarm earlier. i've tried tricking myself into thinking all our clocks are slow. i've even occasionally left the house with a naked face! and yet, every time i stick my time card into the hated time clock, i find i am late.
this year, at our first staff meeting, we were informed that the time clock had somehow gained three more minutes. so we were going to be given a few minutes of grace to compensate. this was a nice idea, but i still felt late--only now i felt really late!
and then, a few days ago after my usual mad dash to school, praying my way through mostly green and yellow lights, i punched the time clock only to see that i was...NOT LATE!! the time stamp actually said 8:01 instead of 8:08 or 8:10! i was stunned. it had to be a mistake. i must have left earlier than i had thought. but on the third day of not being late, i finally asked someone about it and learned that somehow, miraculously the time clock had been reset.
HAAAA-LE-LU-IA!!!!!
i like not being late anymore. although i'm not quite used to it yet. i still look at the clock in the kitchen as i am grabbing my breakfast and think, "i'm late! i'm late!!" and then i go rushing out the door...
which is probably a good thing. because as you may have noticed, i am still not exactly what you could call early...
Monday, September 20, 2010
the tweet that never arrived
so today . . . i know i need to blog.
my recent blogging has been somewhat sporadic, as most of you know. i've just been either up to my neck in work or too exhausted to think. but today i left work on time, for the first time in three weeks! so i have hope that life is on it's way back to normal... and that means blogging.
so let's see... what to write, what to write...
this morning i had a thought i wanted to tweet. so i did. i thought. but when no one had commented on it by noon, (i knew someone would) i went online to check. i thought maybe the comments just hadn't come through on my phone. so i went to facebook, but my status hadn't changed. hmmmmm. ok, i just improved it a little bit and tweeted it again, because sometimes the twitter app on my phone doesn't work, especially since i spend my days in a basement! but it still didn't show up on facebook. i checked my twitter page (which i NEVER do, because if i really want to read what you tweet, i am following you on my phone!) and my new attempt didn't show up there either.
this was becoming annoying. it isn't that my tweet was all that exciting, but i knew a couple of people would get a chuckle out of it, while the rest would just go "huh?" which i think is the best kind of tweet! i was just about to try it again, when it occurred to me that maybe those two tweets were going to eventually show up--maybe they were just out there floating in cyberspace somewhere. and if i kept trying over and over and over again, i might end up with 47 status updates basically saying the same thing...which might make me look just a little bit self-absorbed.
so i gave up. which is kind of too bad, because it was sort of funny.
but here is the worst part! now i can't comment on any other blogs today! because when a blogger comments on another blog, sometimes other readers will click on the commenter's name to see what sort of blog they write--that's one way to get new readers. but now i have written this very ordinary blog about non-existent tweets! if you had never read my blog before and this was the first one you read, would YOU come back to see what i have to say tomorrow?!?! no, probably not.
so i guess instead of going to read blogs, i will just go to bed. it's late, i'm tired, and today i'm afraid i'm just ordinary...
...although i did wear a pink dress to school :)
my recent blogging has been somewhat sporadic, as most of you know. i've just been either up to my neck in work or too exhausted to think. but today i left work on time, for the first time in three weeks! so i have hope that life is on it's way back to normal... and that means blogging.
so let's see... what to write, what to write...
this morning i had a thought i wanted to tweet. so i did. i thought. but when no one had commented on it by noon, (i knew someone would) i went online to check. i thought maybe the comments just hadn't come through on my phone. so i went to facebook, but my status hadn't changed. hmmmmm. ok, i just improved it a little bit and tweeted it again, because sometimes the twitter app on my phone doesn't work, especially since i spend my days in a basement! but it still didn't show up on facebook. i checked my twitter page (which i NEVER do, because if i really want to read what you tweet, i am following you on my phone!) and my new attempt didn't show up there either.
this was becoming annoying. it isn't that my tweet was all that exciting, but i knew a couple of people would get a chuckle out of it, while the rest would just go "huh?" which i think is the best kind of tweet! i was just about to try it again, when it occurred to me that maybe those two tweets were going to eventually show up--maybe they were just out there floating in cyberspace somewhere. and if i kept trying over and over and over again, i might end up with 47 status updates basically saying the same thing...which might make me look just a little bit self-absorbed.
so i gave up. which is kind of too bad, because it was sort of funny.
but here is the worst part! now i can't comment on any other blogs today! because when a blogger comments on another blog, sometimes other readers will click on the commenter's name to see what sort of blog they write--that's one way to get new readers. but now i have written this very ordinary blog about non-existent tweets! if you had never read my blog before and this was the first one you read, would YOU come back to see what i have to say tomorrow?!?! no, probably not.
so i guess instead of going to read blogs, i will just go to bed. it's late, i'm tired, and today i'm afraid i'm just ordinary...
...although i did wear a pink dress to school :)
Friday, September 17, 2010
alert!! possibly whiny blog ahead!
so today . . . my house is a mess. i have laundry to do. i have a bag full of school work. i have music to work on. and cds to burn (oh, diandra is going to kill me when she realizes i am so far behind...) i'm so very tired. and i have no weekend...
well, actually there is a weekend, but it is full of obligations--that means events i have to attend and things i have to do that i don't necessarily want to do. these are all things i agreed to, which means at some point i wanted to do them. but that was a few weeks ago when i didn't realize what my last couple of weeks were going to be like...
when i am out of the house as much as i have been these last few weeks, i find that i am only home long enough to make a mess. rollie doesn't understand how this happens. that is because he never makes a mess--or rather, he never leaves a mess. but sometimes i am just too tired to put my stuff away--usually because it requires decisions to be made, and when i am tired, my brain leaves me to fend for myself...
what i find odd, is that at school i am uber-organized--which is why i have been working until 5:00 or 6:00 almost every night, trying to get my new room put together! i know where everything is, and i put things away as soon as we are done with them. it has to be that way in order for me to function. unless i want my class to resemble a pinball machine with 14 balls pinging around, i have to be able to put my hands on stuff immediately--i can't turn my back and go looking for something or chaos will erupt behind me. i know this. i have seen it happen.
but then when i get home, i sort of go on auto-pilot. i see things that i should do, but when i assess my energy level and brain functioning, i usually decide to just leave it until another day--a day when surely my neurons will be firing. (i sound like annie--"tomorrow... tomorrow...") and since i have been practically living at school for the last three weeks, i am waaaay behind at home. and now i have school work to do. and worship band music to arrange. and blogging. and it is already friday night. and i am tired.
so i am giving up, at least for now. there is no way i am going to get everything done this weekend. no. way. and thinking that i can start out next week all fresh and orderly is just going to discourage me when monday rolls around and reality rears it's ugly head.
so, giving up. i don't think i've ever actually done that before. i am always thinking, "well maybe..." or "if i just tried..." but that is exhausting! i'm not giving up for good, though--then i would just be dead! but i think for this weekend, i give up. i surrender. i quit.
except for the laundry...
well, actually there is a weekend, but it is full of obligations--that means events i have to attend and things i have to do that i don't necessarily want to do. these are all things i agreed to, which means at some point i wanted to do them. but that was a few weeks ago when i didn't realize what my last couple of weeks were going to be like...
when i am out of the house as much as i have been these last few weeks, i find that i am only home long enough to make a mess. rollie doesn't understand how this happens. that is because he never makes a mess--or rather, he never leaves a mess. but sometimes i am just too tired to put my stuff away--usually because it requires decisions to be made, and when i am tired, my brain leaves me to fend for myself...
what i find odd, is that at school i am uber-organized--which is why i have been working until 5:00 or 6:00 almost every night, trying to get my new room put together! i know where everything is, and i put things away as soon as we are done with them. it has to be that way in order for me to function. unless i want my class to resemble a pinball machine with 14 balls pinging around, i have to be able to put my hands on stuff immediately--i can't turn my back and go looking for something or chaos will erupt behind me. i know this. i have seen it happen.
but then when i get home, i sort of go on auto-pilot. i see things that i should do, but when i assess my energy level and brain functioning, i usually decide to just leave it until another day--a day when surely my neurons will be firing. (i sound like annie--"tomorrow... tomorrow...") and since i have been practically living at school for the last three weeks, i am waaaay behind at home. and now i have school work to do. and worship band music to arrange. and blogging. and it is already friday night. and i am tired.
so i am giving up, at least for now. there is no way i am going to get everything done this weekend. no. way. and thinking that i can start out next week all fresh and orderly is just going to discourage me when monday rolls around and reality rears it's ugly head.
so, giving up. i don't think i've ever actually done that before. i am always thinking, "well maybe..." or "if i just tried..." but that is exhausting! i'm not giving up for good, though--then i would just be dead! but i think for this weekend, i give up. i surrender. i quit.
except for the laundry...
Monday, September 13, 2010
just TRY and follow this one...
so today . . . was kenneth's last day in my classroom. thank goodness!
now before you light up your torches and prepare to run me out of town, let me just say that i like kenneth. but having him in my class for the last two weeks has created something of an issue...
kenneth was one of my pre-k students last year. while most of the students have moved onto their new classrooms for this coming school year, kenneth's new school doesn't begin until tomorrow. so he has been in my class for our first two weeks of kindergarten....
i also got a couple of new students this year. their names are luke and kevin. these are children who started out in public school, but when their parents realized they were going to be in a class with 28 other kindergarteners and one teacher, they went looking for a better child/teacher ratio...
today we read a story called "we are all alike, we are all different." it talks about how we all have similarities and differences. but my class was looking around like, "well, some of us are boys and some of us are girls, but that is where the differences end." because most of my students are asian. they have dark, smooth hair and dark eyes. i, of course, can tell them apart, but to the untrained eye, some of them do look similar...
i have taught for several years. a lot of students have come through my classrooms. it is always nerve-wracking when i see a previous student at jack-in-the-box or the mall. because they run up to me and call me by name, and their parents smile and look at me expectantly, and i just stand there smiling, saying something like, "hi! wow, look how big you have grown! what grade are you in now?" do you notice that the child's name never falls from my lips? that's because my brain is like a sieve when it comes to those names. once they are out of my class, their name goes too, because i have a whole new set of names to learn...
(don't worry, i am going to tie all of this together in a minute. keep reading.)
last year i had a megan and a michelle--two girls whose names both began with the letter m. although one was chinese and one was vietnamese, they both had medium length straight dark hair, they were both slim, and about the same height. i mixed their names up ALL YEAR. i was constantly calling them by the wrong name. they kept correcting me. i started getting it right some of the time. but i would look at one of them, the "m" would form on my lips, and i would blurt out the wrong name. they would just roll their eyes.
kenneth was in that same class. for some reason my brain refused to let me call him by his correct name. my brain thought he should be called kevin. so i did. and he corrected me. about mid-way through the year, he decided to go by ken (i think because it was shorter to write on all his papers.) you might think this would help me, but it didn't. i just couldn't call him ken. every time i started to say it, my mind would say i should be addressing a tall, slender, blonde-eyed, plastic man with flat feet--yes, barbie's boyfriend! thankfully, unlike poor megan and michelle, i did finally call kenneth by his correct name. most of the time.
but wait, i'm not done... sometimes a child just looks like someone else to me. this year i have a kaitlyn, who i am sure must really be a megan. she looks like a megan. except i also have a megan, who just confuses me, because i know i don't have two megans in my class. and since i want to call kaitlyn 'megan,' i just look at megan blankly...
and now i also have a kevin, which is what i used to call kenneth. so now i am back to calling kenneth 'kevin.' and of course i am also calling kevin 'kenneth.'
now do you understand why i am glad today was kenneth's last day? i am hoping that once he is out of the picture, i can at least get kevin's name right. although...
...this morning the kids were sitting on the rug as we prepared for story time. one little boy was squirrelly. he was wiggling and talking, and was turned around backwards. i kept saying, "brian, turn around. brian, listen to my words." he seemed to be ignorning me. i hate that. so i looked right at him and said, "brian, i am waiting for you to be ready to hear the story." by then, i was leaning toward him as he was repositioning himself. finally i looked into his eyes and said, "brian, are you ready for the story now?"
and he looked at me and said, "my name's not brian."
yep, it was kevin. that boy sure looks like a brian.
now before you light up your torches and prepare to run me out of town, let me just say that i like kenneth. but having him in my class for the last two weeks has created something of an issue...
kenneth was one of my pre-k students last year. while most of the students have moved onto their new classrooms for this coming school year, kenneth's new school doesn't begin until tomorrow. so he has been in my class for our first two weeks of kindergarten....
i also got a couple of new students this year. their names are luke and kevin. these are children who started out in public school, but when their parents realized they were going to be in a class with 28 other kindergarteners and one teacher, they went looking for a better child/teacher ratio...
today we read a story called "we are all alike, we are all different." it talks about how we all have similarities and differences. but my class was looking around like, "well, some of us are boys and some of us are girls, but that is where the differences end." because most of my students are asian. they have dark, smooth hair and dark eyes. i, of course, can tell them apart, but to the untrained eye, some of them do look similar...
i have taught for several years. a lot of students have come through my classrooms. it is always nerve-wracking when i see a previous student at jack-in-the-box or the mall. because they run up to me and call me by name, and their parents smile and look at me expectantly, and i just stand there smiling, saying something like, "hi! wow, look how big you have grown! what grade are you in now?" do you notice that the child's name never falls from my lips? that's because my brain is like a sieve when it comes to those names. once they are out of my class, their name goes too, because i have a whole new set of names to learn...
(don't worry, i am going to tie all of this together in a minute. keep reading.)
last year i had a megan and a michelle--two girls whose names both began with the letter m. although one was chinese and one was vietnamese, they both had medium length straight dark hair, they were both slim, and about the same height. i mixed their names up ALL YEAR. i was constantly calling them by the wrong name. they kept correcting me. i started getting it right some of the time. but i would look at one of them, the "m" would form on my lips, and i would blurt out the wrong name. they would just roll their eyes.
kenneth was in that same class. for some reason my brain refused to let me call him by his correct name. my brain thought he should be called kevin. so i did. and he corrected me. about mid-way through the year, he decided to go by ken (i think because it was shorter to write on all his papers.) you might think this would help me, but it didn't. i just couldn't call him ken. every time i started to say it, my mind would say i should be addressing a tall, slender, blonde-eyed, plastic man with flat feet--yes, barbie's boyfriend! thankfully, unlike poor megan and michelle, i did finally call kenneth by his correct name. most of the time.
but wait, i'm not done... sometimes a child just looks like someone else to me. this year i have a kaitlyn, who i am sure must really be a megan. she looks like a megan. except i also have a megan, who just confuses me, because i know i don't have two megans in my class. and since i want to call kaitlyn 'megan,' i just look at megan blankly...
and now i also have a kevin, which is what i used to call kenneth. so now i am back to calling kenneth 'kevin.' and of course i am also calling kevin 'kenneth.'
now do you understand why i am glad today was kenneth's last day? i am hoping that once he is out of the picture, i can at least get kevin's name right. although...
...this morning the kids were sitting on the rug as we prepared for story time. one little boy was squirrelly. he was wiggling and talking, and was turned around backwards. i kept saying, "brian, turn around. brian, listen to my words." he seemed to be ignorning me. i hate that. so i looked right at him and said, "brian, i am waiting for you to be ready to hear the story." by then, i was leaning toward him as he was repositioning himself. finally i looked into his eyes and said, "brian, are you ready for the story now?"
and he looked at me and said, "my name's not brian."
yep, it was kevin. that boy sure looks like a brian.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
9/11
so today . . . is the ninth anniversary of a terrible tragedy that has forever changed our country.
usually i try to write about something that will make you laugh or smile or at least take your mind off more serious things. but today doesn't really seem like the appropriate time to do that.
i spent an hour today at my church. we provide a hot meal and showers to the people in our community who don't have regular access to either of those things. it is a new endeavor, and for now, we only have the resources to do it once a month. today it was my turn to share a few words with them. i did not talk about the tragedy that happened nine years ago. i would be kind of surprised if most of them even knew that today was the anniversary of that event. i suspect that when your life is not ruled by a job or electronics or tv shows, or when you don't have a wall on which to hang a calendar, you might tend to lose track of what the exact date is. instead, i talked about timeless truths--even though most of us are ruled by time.
i saw several posts online today in honor and support of those who lost loved ones on this day nine years ago. and it is right and good that we would continue to honor and support them. but today i was reminded of another group of people whose lives have been forever changed by the events of september 11, 2001...
my friend m'chel was at our church today too. she had come to sing a couple of songs before the dinner was served. today is m'chel's birthday. it has been her birthday for more than 30 years--long before those two towers collapsed. and yet, because of that event, her birthday will never be the same. when people find out her birth date, they often don't quite know how to respond. birthdays are supposed to be "happy." that's why we sing "happy birthday to yooouuuuu!" but for americans, it has become a day of sadness, and remembering great loss. will m'chel ever again be able to celebrate her special day with abandon? maybe, but maybe not. and what about all those couples who chose september 11th as the day they would promise to love and cherish each other for the rest of their lives? how do they spend the day celebrating their love with the backdrop of such terribleness all around them?
i would guess that we will see very few september 11th anniversaries in the coming years, but babies are another story. my "nephew" (the quotes are because i am not really sure of our familial relationship--he is the son of my cousin--but it doesn't really matter, because i think of him as my nephew,) and his wife just welcomed their first baby into their family. she was born on september 9th.
they had no control over the day she arrived, but i have to admit that i was really glad she chose to join us on that day, rather than coming a couple of days later. her arrival was a happy, happy occasion. if she had been born on september 11, all of us who know her family would still have been happy. but in coming years, while she was blowing out her birthday candles to celebrate the beginning of her life, the rest of the country would probably still be focused on the tragic ending that took so many other lives.
how long will the sadness last? i don't know. when i was 5 or 6, my grandfather died. he had cancer, and we had lived with my grandparents for a while to help take care of him. he was a daily part of my life. but "in those days" if you had cancer, you eventually died. and he did. on thanksgiving day. and every year, for a long time after that, i would remember, "this is the day grandpa died." i still think about it sometimes, but i confess that there have been several thanksgiving days when we have eaten turkey and watched football and made shopping lists, and i haven't thought about him or his death. at all. does that mean i didn't love him? no. does it mean he wasn't an important part of my young life? no. it just means that time does heal the pain--but sometimes it takes a LOT of time.
as a nation, and as people, those of us who lived through it will never forget watching those airplanes crash into those towers. we will never forget the shock and horror we felt as we sat glued to our tvs. we will never forget the uncertainty of knowing who was actually in those buildings at that particular moment. we will never forget the bravery and endurance of the men and women who worked until they dropped, searching for possible survivors. we will never forget the search dogs who became so depressed, that workers had to let the dogs find "pretend survivors," so they could continue to do their jobs.
and we will never forget the families whose moms and dads, aunts and uncles, sons and daughters, nieces and nephews never came home from work that day.
but babies will continue to be born--some of them on september 11th. and while we will never forget the pain and loss of the past, i hope that we will also be able to embrace the hope of the future.
because we haven't seen the end of the story just yet...
usually i try to write about something that will make you laugh or smile or at least take your mind off more serious things. but today doesn't really seem like the appropriate time to do that.
i spent an hour today at my church. we provide a hot meal and showers to the people in our community who don't have regular access to either of those things. it is a new endeavor, and for now, we only have the resources to do it once a month. today it was my turn to share a few words with them. i did not talk about the tragedy that happened nine years ago. i would be kind of surprised if most of them even knew that today was the anniversary of that event. i suspect that when your life is not ruled by a job or electronics or tv shows, or when you don't have a wall on which to hang a calendar, you might tend to lose track of what the exact date is. instead, i talked about timeless truths--even though most of us are ruled by time.
i saw several posts online today in honor and support of those who lost loved ones on this day nine years ago. and it is right and good that we would continue to honor and support them. but today i was reminded of another group of people whose lives have been forever changed by the events of september 11, 2001...
my friend m'chel was at our church today too. she had come to sing a couple of songs before the dinner was served. today is m'chel's birthday. it has been her birthday for more than 30 years--long before those two towers collapsed. and yet, because of that event, her birthday will never be the same. when people find out her birth date, they often don't quite know how to respond. birthdays are supposed to be "happy." that's why we sing "happy birthday to yooouuuuu!" but for americans, it has become a day of sadness, and remembering great loss. will m'chel ever again be able to celebrate her special day with abandon? maybe, but maybe not. and what about all those couples who chose september 11th as the day they would promise to love and cherish each other for the rest of their lives? how do they spend the day celebrating their love with the backdrop of such terribleness all around them?
i would guess that we will see very few september 11th anniversaries in the coming years, but babies are another story. my "nephew" (the quotes are because i am not really sure of our familial relationship--he is the son of my cousin--but it doesn't really matter, because i think of him as my nephew,) and his wife just welcomed their first baby into their family. she was born on september 9th.
they had no control over the day she arrived, but i have to admit that i was really glad she chose to join us on that day, rather than coming a couple of days later. her arrival was a happy, happy occasion. if she had been born on september 11, all of us who know her family would still have been happy. but in coming years, while she was blowing out her birthday candles to celebrate the beginning of her life, the rest of the country would probably still be focused on the tragic ending that took so many other lives.how long will the sadness last? i don't know. when i was 5 or 6, my grandfather died. he had cancer, and we had lived with my grandparents for a while to help take care of him. he was a daily part of my life. but "in those days" if you had cancer, you eventually died. and he did. on thanksgiving day. and every year, for a long time after that, i would remember, "this is the day grandpa died." i still think about it sometimes, but i confess that there have been several thanksgiving days when we have eaten turkey and watched football and made shopping lists, and i haven't thought about him or his death. at all. does that mean i didn't love him? no. does it mean he wasn't an important part of my young life? no. it just means that time does heal the pain--but sometimes it takes a LOT of time.
as a nation, and as people, those of us who lived through it will never forget watching those airplanes crash into those towers. we will never forget the shock and horror we felt as we sat glued to our tvs. we will never forget the uncertainty of knowing who was actually in those buildings at that particular moment. we will never forget the bravery and endurance of the men and women who worked until they dropped, searching for possible survivors. we will never forget the search dogs who became so depressed, that workers had to let the dogs find "pretend survivors," so they could continue to do their jobs.
and we will never forget the families whose moms and dads, aunts and uncles, sons and daughters, nieces and nephews never came home from work that day.
but babies will continue to be born--some of them on september 11th. and while we will never forget the pain and loss of the past, i hope that we will also be able to embrace the hope of the future.
because we haven't seen the end of the story just yet...
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
but broccoli and cauliflower don't squish!
so today . . . i ate two tiny tomatoes.
i hate tomatoes! i think it might be a texture thing, but it is also a taste thing. which is weird, because i like tomato sauce and salsa. although i don't eat the chunks of tomato in the salsa--i just dip my chip into the juice. that gives my chip a nice zesty flavor without any of the icky tomatoes making their way into my mouth. so maybe it is just the texture. although that doesn't explain why i don't like ketchup. but i might just hate ketchup because i am never really sure if i should call it ketchup or catsup--i've seen it spelled both ways. i just can't bring myself to call it catsup. i'll bet you can guess why...
anyway, today i ate two tiny tomatoes. i have fallen so far off the healthy food wagon, that i have to go back to my own personal food boot camp to get myself back on the straight and narrow. that means eggs for breakfast, salad for lunch, meat and veggies for dinner, and nuts and cheese and sugar-free orange jello for snacking. (i have to keep it simple or i start sneaking contraband foods in--a little cracker with my cheese here, a french fry or two there...) when my lunch time rolled around today, i really wanted to go somewhere with a salad bar for lunch. i didn't really want a salad with meat in it--i wanted lettuce and eggs and peas and broccoli and garbonzo beans and shredded cheese and sunflower seeds. i wanted a salad from hometown buffet! but i only had half an hour today, and hometown buffet can get pretty busy. so i went to chick-fil-a instead. chick-fil-a has a really big side salad, and i was hungry. it has lettuce and broccoli and carrots and that shredded purple stuff. and sitting right on top, in the center, are two tiny tomatoes.
i hate tomatoes. but i have been thinking that i should learn to like them. they have lots of good, nutritious stuff in them, and i learned to like broccoli and cauliflower, so my next vegetable project is the tomato.
i thought the small ones would taste better. so when i saw those two tiny tomatoes looking up at me today, instead of giving them to rollie, i decided to eat them myself! a few bites into the salad seemed like a good time to eat one. i stabbed it with my plastic fork. i swirled it around in some ranch dressing. but tiny tomatoes are shiny and slick--the ranch dressing just slid right off! this was a problem. i was depending on that ranch dressing to disguise the disgusting thing. i gave it one last dip and popped it into my mouth...
...and sat there, not chewing. because now that it was in my mouth, i was having second thoughts about learning to like tomatoes. i knew i was going to have to bite it. and when i did, it was going to squish in my mouth. i hate it when things squish in my mouth! that is why it took me so long to learn to like grapes--the squish and squirt that happens when you bite into one. and don't even get me started on blueberries...
i finally decided i either needed to bite the stupid tomato or spit it out. as i said, i only had half an hour for lunch! so i did the brave thing and bit into it. and it squished. majorly!! it was too gross to spit out, so i started chewing. the ranch dressing deserted me quickly, and all i could taste was tomatoey yuckiness...
i ate a chicken nugget. (see, there i go sneaking in contraband. but it was chicken... and it only had a few breadcrumbs on the outside of it... and i had to go inside chick-fil-a to get my food today, and the smell of cross-cut fries almost pulled me over to the dark side...) then i continued to eat my salad, while the other tiny tomato mocked me from it's comfy bed of lettuce.
i don't like to be mocked. if there is any mocking going on, i want to be the one doing it, not the one to whom it is being done! (i used "whom." wow! i should be a writer!) so i had to eat the other tomato. i thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad if i ate it with some lettuce and carrots, and maybe that purple stuff (which i am not completely sure i like, either.) i stabbed the tomato (at least that was satisfying!) added some other salad ingredients (which helped to hold onto the ranch dressing,) opened wide and shoved it all in.
it still squished. but at least there were some other things in my mouth to temper the effect just a bit.
i am not sure i am going to be able to like tomatoes. i don't remember having this much trouble with broccoli and cauliflower. and since i have another chick-fil-a salad for my lunch tomorrow (yes, i bought two--it saves me a trip!) those evil little red orbs are going to be in my face again. i haven't yet decided how i am going to handle them.
maybe i should just start by eating the chunks in the salsa...
i hate tomatoes! i think it might be a texture thing, but it is also a taste thing. which is weird, because i like tomato sauce and salsa. although i don't eat the chunks of tomato in the salsa--i just dip my chip into the juice. that gives my chip a nice zesty flavor without any of the icky tomatoes making their way into my mouth. so maybe it is just the texture. although that doesn't explain why i don't like ketchup. but i might just hate ketchup because i am never really sure if i should call it ketchup or catsup--i've seen it spelled both ways. i just can't bring myself to call it catsup. i'll bet you can guess why...
anyway, today i ate two tiny tomatoes. i have fallen so far off the healthy food wagon, that i have to go back to my own personal food boot camp to get myself back on the straight and narrow. that means eggs for breakfast, salad for lunch, meat and veggies for dinner, and nuts and cheese and sugar-free orange jello for snacking. (i have to keep it simple or i start sneaking contraband foods in--a little cracker with my cheese here, a french fry or two there...) when my lunch time rolled around today, i really wanted to go somewhere with a salad bar for lunch. i didn't really want a salad with meat in it--i wanted lettuce and eggs and peas and broccoli and garbonzo beans and shredded cheese and sunflower seeds. i wanted a salad from hometown buffet! but i only had half an hour today, and hometown buffet can get pretty busy. so i went to chick-fil-a instead. chick-fil-a has a really big side salad, and i was hungry. it has lettuce and broccoli and carrots and that shredded purple stuff. and sitting right on top, in the center, are two tiny tomatoes.
i hate tomatoes. but i have been thinking that i should learn to like them. they have lots of good, nutritious stuff in them, and i learned to like broccoli and cauliflower, so my next vegetable project is the tomato.
i thought the small ones would taste better. so when i saw those two tiny tomatoes looking up at me today, instead of giving them to rollie, i decided to eat them myself! a few bites into the salad seemed like a good time to eat one. i stabbed it with my plastic fork. i swirled it around in some ranch dressing. but tiny tomatoes are shiny and slick--the ranch dressing just slid right off! this was a problem. i was depending on that ranch dressing to disguise the disgusting thing. i gave it one last dip and popped it into my mouth...
...and sat there, not chewing. because now that it was in my mouth, i was having second thoughts about learning to like tomatoes. i knew i was going to have to bite it. and when i did, it was going to squish in my mouth. i hate it when things squish in my mouth! that is why it took me so long to learn to like grapes--the squish and squirt that happens when you bite into one. and don't even get me started on blueberries...
i finally decided i either needed to bite the stupid tomato or spit it out. as i said, i only had half an hour for lunch! so i did the brave thing and bit into it. and it squished. majorly!! it was too gross to spit out, so i started chewing. the ranch dressing deserted me quickly, and all i could taste was tomatoey yuckiness...
i ate a chicken nugget. (see, there i go sneaking in contraband. but it was chicken... and it only had a few breadcrumbs on the outside of it... and i had to go inside chick-fil-a to get my food today, and the smell of cross-cut fries almost pulled me over to the dark side...) then i continued to eat my salad, while the other tiny tomato mocked me from it's comfy bed of lettuce.
i don't like to be mocked. if there is any mocking going on, i want to be the one doing it, not the one to whom it is being done! (i used "whom." wow! i should be a writer!) so i had to eat the other tomato. i thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad if i ate it with some lettuce and carrots, and maybe that purple stuff (which i am not completely sure i like, either.) i stabbed the tomato (at least that was satisfying!) added some other salad ingredients (which helped to hold onto the ranch dressing,) opened wide and shoved it all in.
it still squished. but at least there were some other things in my mouth to temper the effect just a bit.
i am not sure i am going to be able to like tomatoes. i don't remember having this much trouble with broccoli and cauliflower. and since i have another chick-fil-a salad for my lunch tomorrow (yes, i bought two--it saves me a trip!) those evil little red orbs are going to be in my face again. i haven't yet decided how i am going to handle them.
maybe i should just start by eating the chunks in the salsa...
Monday, September 6, 2010
did i teach last september?!?!?!
so today . . . there were no new adventures--consequently no chuckles. i've been writing lesson plans...
last year, because of enrollment considerations, i taught a combined pre-k/kindergarten class for the first time. this meant two small groups of students who had to be taught two different curriculums, and two different schedules which had to be adjusted into one. oh, and all this had to happen in a different room (because the kindergarten room is not rated for pre-k.) and the only available room was tiny--like smaller-than-a-one-car-garage tiny!
i was not a happy camper.
at least i still had a job, so i did my best to make it work. it was hard, but i got through the year, the kids learned the things they needed to learn, and i looked forward to going back to kindergarten this fall...
but here is the problem with working for a private school--enrollment can fluctuate wildly from year to year. a few years ago i had a class of 16! all by myself!! the next year i had 2. yes, 2. needless to say, adjustments had to be made... and then last year i had the combined class. so when you work for a private school, you have to be somewhat flexible if you want to keep your job. which i do. because my school is just a mile from my house, which allows me to sleep longer in the morning...
this year i thought i might get to go back to all kindergarten again, but enrollment issues continued to force flexibility. so last week i spent long days moving to yet another classroom and trying to find a place for everything. which i did. and as i was leaving friday night, i looked around and felt pretty good about what i had managed to accomplish in one week...
...until i realized that not one lesson plan had been written.
yeah, lesson plans are kind of important. i usually keep the ones i have written and reuse them as i can. but last year in september i was trying to figure out how i was going to make this whole two curriculum thing work when i was the only teacher in the classroom. this required some trial and error, but by october i had it under control. unfortunately, i didn't write down what i did in september. so on friday when i pulled out the old lesson plans from last year...there weren't any.
so here i am, surrounded by papers and files and books, trying to decide what to do next week...
but you may notice i took a little break to write this blog. and post it. before 11:00.
one goal down, three to go...
last year, because of enrollment considerations, i taught a combined pre-k/kindergarten class for the first time. this meant two small groups of students who had to be taught two different curriculums, and two different schedules which had to be adjusted into one. oh, and all this had to happen in a different room (because the kindergarten room is not rated for pre-k.) and the only available room was tiny--like smaller-than-a-one-car-garage tiny!
i was not a happy camper.
at least i still had a job, so i did my best to make it work. it was hard, but i got through the year, the kids learned the things they needed to learn, and i looked forward to going back to kindergarten this fall...
but here is the problem with working for a private school--enrollment can fluctuate wildly from year to year. a few years ago i had a class of 16! all by myself!! the next year i had 2. yes, 2. needless to say, adjustments had to be made... and then last year i had the combined class. so when you work for a private school, you have to be somewhat flexible if you want to keep your job. which i do. because my school is just a mile from my house, which allows me to sleep longer in the morning...
this year i thought i might get to go back to all kindergarten again, but enrollment issues continued to force flexibility. so last week i spent long days moving to yet another classroom and trying to find a place for everything. which i did. and as i was leaving friday night, i looked around and felt pretty good about what i had managed to accomplish in one week...
...until i realized that not one lesson plan had been written.
yeah, lesson plans are kind of important. i usually keep the ones i have written and reuse them as i can. but last year in september i was trying to figure out how i was going to make this whole two curriculum thing work when i was the only teacher in the classroom. this required some trial and error, but by october i had it under control. unfortunately, i didn't write down what i did in september. so on friday when i pulled out the old lesson plans from last year...there weren't any.
so here i am, surrounded by papers and files and books, trying to decide what to do next week...
but you may notice i took a little break to write this blog. and post it. before 11:00.
one goal down, three to go...
Saturday, September 4, 2010
the best laid plans . . .
so today . . . it was HOT!
it was so hot, i didn't want to go out to lunch, (and you know how i love to eat!)
it was so hot, the dogs stayed in the house instead of going outside and laying in the dirt. (i don't know why they do that--they lay there and squint into the sun...)
it was so hot, i loaned my car to diandra since she had to go shoot a wedding today. (not so good if your wedding photographer shows up drenched in sweat because she chose to buy the fun jeep wrangler with no a/c instead of the pt cruiser convertible her mother thought she should get... which i am sure would have had air conditioning.)
it was so hot, i waited until the sun went down to start the laundry (so now i will be up half the night finishing it. because since i don't iron, our clothes have to go straight from the warm dryer to their hangers.)
it was so hot, i drank a whole 2 liter bottle of pepsi one. by myself. (i know i should have been drinking water or iced tea, but it was so hot and the pepsi was so refreshing.)
(perhaps i should mention here that we do have air conditioning. and it was on. and working just fine. but i knew it was hot outside...)
we have had a lovely, temperate summer, but it is looking like we are going to have a searing hot september. when it gets over 90 degrees, i prefer air conditioning to fresh air. so we had decided to just stay home today. i was settled in with my computer and scanner, digitizing old negatives, and rollie was watching sports or something. we were perfectly happy.
and then the phone rang.
yesterday rollie took his car in to have the oil changed. when it was done, he came and picked me up from school. he hit the button to open the trunk so i could put my stuff in, and nothing happened. we quickly discovered that the electronic locks weren't working either. so the car had to go back in so that they could fix whatever they broke while changing the oil.
it was just a burned out fuse, but it required an overnight stay at the mazda dealership--which required us to go out into the 95 degree heat at 2:00 this afternoon to pick it up. at least, that is what they said when rollie answered his phone.
i drove. i got to the mazda lot and slowed down just enough for rollie to leap out of the car. because you know, if i had stopped, the air conditioning would have quit cooling. i made a quick turnaround and headed home to the air conditioned cool of the interior of our house. but as i pulled into the driveway, i remembered that i had not taken my handbag with me--i had just grabbed my sunglasses and my wallet when we left. this meant that i did not have a house key and was now locked out. in the heat. we have a key hidden in a secret place in the backyard, (go ahead stalkers--just try to find it! even if you do, you will never make it past our vicious attack dogs. and even if you survive being licked to death, we do have an alarm system. and the police do come. even when the house is a mess...) but it was so hot, i didn't want to go all the way around the house, make the dogs bark, come back to unlock the door, go back around to replace the key... it all sounded like too much trouble. i decided i would just sit in the shade and wait for rollie to come home. he should be right behind me. he should be home any minute...
and then i thought, wait. what if there is a problem? what if his car still isn't right, and i need to go back and get him? what if he has an accident on the way home? what if the repair cost thousands and thousands of dollars, and he can't pay for it until after i get paid at the end of the month? (because my paycheck is soooo huge!)
after i sat there in the shade for a couple of minutes, thinking these terrible thoughts, i realized that not only did i not have my house key, i also did not have my cell phone... which meant if any of those terrible things happened, he would not be able to reach me.
so i trudged around the house, made the dogs bark, retrieved the key, came back to unlock the front door, and returned the key to it's hiding place... and then rollie drove up.
maybe we should have just gone to lunch...
it was so hot, i didn't want to go out to lunch, (and you know how i love to eat!)
it was so hot, the dogs stayed in the house instead of going outside and laying in the dirt. (i don't know why they do that--they lay there and squint into the sun...)
it was so hot, i loaned my car to diandra since she had to go shoot a wedding today. (not so good if your wedding photographer shows up drenched in sweat because she chose to buy the fun jeep wrangler with no a/c instead of the pt cruiser convertible her mother thought she should get... which i am sure would have had air conditioning.)
it was so hot, i waited until the sun went down to start the laundry (so now i will be up half the night finishing it. because since i don't iron, our clothes have to go straight from the warm dryer to their hangers.)
it was so hot, i drank a whole 2 liter bottle of pepsi one. by myself. (i know i should have been drinking water or iced tea, but it was so hot and the pepsi was so refreshing.)
(perhaps i should mention here that we do have air conditioning. and it was on. and working just fine. but i knew it was hot outside...)
we have had a lovely, temperate summer, but it is looking like we are going to have a searing hot september. when it gets over 90 degrees, i prefer air conditioning to fresh air. so we had decided to just stay home today. i was settled in with my computer and scanner, digitizing old negatives, and rollie was watching sports or something. we were perfectly happy.
and then the phone rang.
yesterday rollie took his car in to have the oil changed. when it was done, he came and picked me up from school. he hit the button to open the trunk so i could put my stuff in, and nothing happened. we quickly discovered that the electronic locks weren't working either. so the car had to go back in so that they could fix whatever they broke while changing the oil.
it was just a burned out fuse, but it required an overnight stay at the mazda dealership--which required us to go out into the 95 degree heat at 2:00 this afternoon to pick it up. at least, that is what they said when rollie answered his phone.
i drove. i got to the mazda lot and slowed down just enough for rollie to leap out of the car. because you know, if i had stopped, the air conditioning would have quit cooling. i made a quick turnaround and headed home to the air conditioned cool of the interior of our house. but as i pulled into the driveway, i remembered that i had not taken my handbag with me--i had just grabbed my sunglasses and my wallet when we left. this meant that i did not have a house key and was now locked out. in the heat. we have a key hidden in a secret place in the backyard, (go ahead stalkers--just try to find it! even if you do, you will never make it past our vicious attack dogs. and even if you survive being licked to death, we do have an alarm system. and the police do come. even when the house is a mess...) but it was so hot, i didn't want to go all the way around the house, make the dogs bark, come back to unlock the door, go back around to replace the key... it all sounded like too much trouble. i decided i would just sit in the shade and wait for rollie to come home. he should be right behind me. he should be home any minute...
and then i thought, wait. what if there is a problem? what if his car still isn't right, and i need to go back and get him? what if he has an accident on the way home? what if the repair cost thousands and thousands of dollars, and he can't pay for it until after i get paid at the end of the month? (because my paycheck is soooo huge!)
after i sat there in the shade for a couple of minutes, thinking these terrible thoughts, i realized that not only did i not have my house key, i also did not have my cell phone... which meant if any of those terrible things happened, he would not be able to reach me.
so i trudged around the house, made the dogs bark, retrieved the key, came back to unlock the front door, and returned the key to it's hiding place... and then rollie drove up.
maybe we should have just gone to lunch...
Friday, September 3, 2010
moving. AGAIN!!!
so today . . . i am tired. i am sore. i have no brain.
i have lived at school since wednesday. i worked thirteen hours on wednesday and thursday with just short food breaks, and today i worked eleven hours. my feet are killing me...
why, you ask?? because we found out just a couple of days before school was starting that some of us had to switch classrooms. and if you are a teacher, or know a teacher, you know how much stuff we tend to accumulate. so moving has been no small feat!
this is the third year in a row i have had to move to a different classroom! and the last two times, circumstances dictated that i could not move all of my things. which was a pain, because i had to choose which materials i really, really needed and leave the others. so i took the more useful ones and left the more fun ones--not really the way i prefer to teach, but it's just the way things had to be. but this time, i was able to move ALL of my stuff. i'm excited to have easy access to more puzzles and games and toys. as i was moving stuff, it was almost like christmas! ("oooo, i forgot i had this!" ) but it was a huge job to accomplish in a short amount of time, while also trying to keep my classroom functioning and training a new assistant...
i am so tired, i cannot talk at the same time i am doing anything else! really!! my brain cannot seem to process language while i am thinking about what i am doing. this morning i was just standing in the kitchen, trying to figure out how to get cream cheese onto my bagel at the same time i was trying to talk to rollie, and not doing either one successfully! rollie finally said, "just talk--i'll fix the bagel." and he did.
i got to school, faced with what i hoped would be my last day of moving AND teaching a new class of 12 little dumplings, and was soon immobilized by the enormity of the task. i just stood there and looked at the half-filled cabinets and the tables stacked with puzzles and toys and books and art supplies. i couldn't organize my thoughts as to where to put anything! so i did the only thing i could do... i drank a diet coke.
i came home about 7:00 tonight, dropped my aching body onto the couch, and wondered how i would get up. i plugged in my computer (because i haven't been on the internet since my lunch time on wednesday!!!) and tried to catch up on my internet activities, but my brain is oatmeal...
so i am going to bed. and i am going to sleep, sleep, sleep for three days. i will probably not blog--unless something really funny happens. but what could happen to me if all i do is sleep??? probably not much...
so have a great three day weekend, and i'll be back next week--hopefully with cute stories from my new favorite kids!
i have lived at school since wednesday. i worked thirteen hours on wednesday and thursday with just short food breaks, and today i worked eleven hours. my feet are killing me...
why, you ask?? because we found out just a couple of days before school was starting that some of us had to switch classrooms. and if you are a teacher, or know a teacher, you know how much stuff we tend to accumulate. so moving has been no small feat!
this is the third year in a row i have had to move to a different classroom! and the last two times, circumstances dictated that i could not move all of my things. which was a pain, because i had to choose which materials i really, really needed and leave the others. so i took the more useful ones and left the more fun ones--not really the way i prefer to teach, but it's just the way things had to be. but this time, i was able to move ALL of my stuff. i'm excited to have easy access to more puzzles and games and toys. as i was moving stuff, it was almost like christmas! ("oooo, i forgot i had this!" ) but it was a huge job to accomplish in a short amount of time, while also trying to keep my classroom functioning and training a new assistant...
i am so tired, i cannot talk at the same time i am doing anything else! really!! my brain cannot seem to process language while i am thinking about what i am doing. this morning i was just standing in the kitchen, trying to figure out how to get cream cheese onto my bagel at the same time i was trying to talk to rollie, and not doing either one successfully! rollie finally said, "just talk--i'll fix the bagel." and he did.
i got to school, faced with what i hoped would be my last day of moving AND teaching a new class of 12 little dumplings, and was soon immobilized by the enormity of the task. i just stood there and looked at the half-filled cabinets and the tables stacked with puzzles and toys and books and art supplies. i couldn't organize my thoughts as to where to put anything! so i did the only thing i could do... i drank a diet coke.
i came home about 7:00 tonight, dropped my aching body onto the couch, and wondered how i would get up. i plugged in my computer (because i haven't been on the internet since my lunch time on wednesday!!!) and tried to catch up on my internet activities, but my brain is oatmeal...
so i am going to bed. and i am going to sleep, sleep, sleep for three days. i will probably not blog--unless something really funny happens. but what could happen to me if all i do is sleep??? probably not much...
so have a great three day weekend, and i'll be back next week--hopefully with cute stories from my new favorite kids!
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