October 21, 2009

1. I spent more than one moment today wandering around in tired confusion.  I need some down time to recharge, because all is haze and nuttiness.  My headaches still linger and the water problem has not really been addressed.  Must drink more. (water.  Other drinking might not be as helpful.)
2. Just a little salute to my pal Liz, who makes staff meetings fun.  Also lunch.  If we could install some sort of dumb-waiter, or pneumatic tube system that would enable us to send jokes and odd objects back and forth between our classrooms, that would be great.
3. We probably won’t get to do that, since there will likely be pretty strong budgets cuts this year, I found out at  a county teacher meeting yesterday.  Could get a little ugly, and of course, pneumatic tube system innovations will be the first to go, I don’t have to tell you.
4. The chorus concert last night was great.  My favorite part was when the high school men’s chorus sang with the middle school men’s chorus.  The contrast between those little sixth graders, that are just pocket sized and the senior boys, was so amazing.  How can they grow so different in just 6 years?  The instrumental concert is tomorrow.  I am going for perfect attendance this year, so I feel committed to doing it, but it is not helping my overall frazzle level this week.  On the plus side, I have a little found time since our early release activity was postponed.  I hope a little lunch and coffee shop run will help me have some good productive hours before the concert.  My classroom is in serious need of cleaning.
5. Still waiting for my TV to come back from repair.  The store hints it may be soon.  That would be helpful.  I am actually going to bed extra early tonight, not only because I need the rest, but so I can get up early and watch Glee online before I go to work.  Yes, I am the saddest no tv havingest person ever.

September 21, 2009

1. It feels like we have been back in school for about 6 months, but Back to school night is just tomorrow.  I’m really wiped out tired, but I am having fun teaching.  Sociology is still a sticking point, but Ancient Civ and Geography are great, well, Geography is great, AC, pretty good – fun to teach but needs lots of prep to keep it lively.
2. Somehow next weekend I have ended up saturday on altar guild crew, then painting the food pantry, on Sunday,  layreader at the 7:30, , doing the Tanzania presentation at 10:15, vestry greeter after the 11:15.  Holy Moly!  It’s a good thing I love Jesus.
3. Made some inroads on decluttering the upstairs room, my parlor, I think I shall call it.  Finished my bulletin board.  Took me a while to figure out how to hang it, but I bought a stud finder. (Insert joke here.)
4. I’ve been lax on photographing the garden.  It is a weird surreal place now, with sunflowers that are heavy and bent, squash with a dusty blight and tomato plants that are extending their reach out of the box and everywhere!  Tonight I made a tomato mozzarella salad(I do have a picture of that) with tomatoes, basil, oregano, and parsley that I picked from the garden as I left school today.  Very, very delicious.
5. Big exciting news!  Elder Bro and family will be stationed here as of December.  The last time he and I lived in the same town we were in high school!

September 16, 2009

1. I’ve often lamented my clutter and it is even harder to bear when things are busy, because more and more just gets put aside to be dealt with later, and later is so very far away.  I wrote this down this morning at work.  “I want my house to be a place I want to come home to, not another job to do.”  It’s not a sanctuary if there are always major projects to do.  I know the fly lady has the answer, small routines that gradually whittle it all down, I am just, as always, seeking some discipline to do it.
2. School is off to a rocky start.  I feel cluttered and disorganzied there too, and my schedule is not what I would like, so I am just a big pile of bitch.  The students are fine though, and I deliver on most lessons.  Just like at home, I’d like to get out of the whole and be able to enjoy things.
3. I still love my new car.  It makes me happy.  I’ve kept it very clean.  It’s the least cluttered place in my life.
4. The TV is on the fritz, and I need to take it in for some work I think.  I catch up on shows I want to see, like GLEE, online.  I wish I knew what the problem was.
5. Schoolwise I was on the roof on Monday, really not wanting to teach a particular subject, but my friends talked me down.  We have a little support group – WiNC.  “Why I am Not Crappy.”  
6. PS I woke up today and Paul had left me a little collage painting he had made of the Washington Monument.  It was a lovely beginning to the day.

September 9, 2009

1. First day is easy. Second is where things get tougher.
2. But first day is tiring, and I was about out of my mind mad when we got to our group training, and they wanted us to do the scary workout challenge on the first day.  I’m worried the three new people are going to be so sore today they will never come back.  Also I was tired, and didn’t want to.  I got everything done except the laps, My achillies is hurting.  I need to go see my foot guy.
3. I’m feeling very worried about our exchange student from Kenya.  He is in my sociology class, and even though they have an independent assignment today for a discussion Friday, I hope he comes.  I don’t know if he even has a login for the computer system, or what his experience level with computers and library research.  I’d like to get hime a one on one tutorial with the librarian.  I hope he does come, and if he doesn’t I’ll go looking for him.  Having a “Lab Day” could be pretty different from his usual experience.  I wish I knew what his experience was.  They should give us some sort of dossier on exchange students, that very specifically describes their circumstances.  After the experience in Tanzania, I imagine it could be very very different than what he is experiencing here.
4. AB and her parents came over for the newly reinstated “Dog Swim” in the last hour of the Fairlington pool season on Monday.  I love the dog swim.  The seem to get so excited and before they get the courage to jump in, they all run around the edge of the pool and shimmy with excitement.
5. I want a balanced life.  Also a balanced diet.  Need fruit delivered to my desk.

September 7, 2009

1. School starts tomorrow and I am not at all excited, just resigned, which is a little sad, and I hope that feeling is just a slump not a permanent one.
2. I am trying to be a team player and get involved with things outside my room, but I also am looking forward to things starting and being able to withdraw into my room.
3. All in all I feel quite strange.
4. Very nice trip with my pals to MD yesterday on the candy tour.  Chronicled here.
5. I made cake pops for the seniors.  Wish I had taken a picture of them.  They looked cute.  They were supposed to have little smiley faces, but the pen didn’t work right.  Probably for the best.  Had they been in the back seat as I was driving them to their doom that would have creeped me out.

September 3, 2009

1. Went to the county social studies meeting yesterday, which, shockingly, actually made me get a little enthused to refresh the ancient civ class.  I’d been wanting to do that, but had been lacking motivation.  Talking with the other county ancient civ teachers, who are nice and irreverent bunch, skeptical of authority, helped, as did the work two of them had done this summer to redo some organizational stuff.  That organization gives me some structure I’ve been needing.
2. It is possible, however; that ancient civ may be warming up its swan song.  Some chesters in the state legislature have made economics/financial literacy a graduation requirement, and when that kicks in, I feel pretty confident that they will have to stick it in the 10th grade year where ancient civ and AP modern European history, both electives, now reside.  It’s pretty criminal that Ancient Civ isn’t a requirement anyway (it is elsewhere in the state at 8th grade, I think, where geography sits in our county, and that is a whole ‘nother can o’ worms)  and the fact that the Greeks and Romans may get dropped so we can make sure people need to balance their checkbooks…Crazy.  The execution of all this is probably two years out, but I’m announcing right now, there is now way in hell that I am teaching economics, and those of you who have seen me handle money, are I am sure, right grateful.
3. My first group of 8th graders are seniors now, and I went to their first little meeting last night.  They are organizing for the first day of school.  They all talk at once.  pretty funny to watch.
4. My last workout with Captain kick ass was yesterday, which makes me a little sad.  Now I have to try to get some discipline of my own.  Oh dear.
5. In other summer news my garden is really doing well.  I need to get some pics.  the sunflowers are all huge, and even though the squash has some sort of blight, it is still producing.  Today I am going to take some mozzarella and invite people down for a tomato, basil, mozzarella snack in the gazebo.  If I get to school and someone has taken my 4 tomatoes that are just about perfect, I’ll have to cut someone.  There’s definitely been some pilfering, which I am ok with, as long as people don’t take everything!

July 30, 2009

1. 19 days until I leave for Tanzania.
2. 32 days until I go back to work.
3. 40 days until the children come back to work.
4. Seems like alot when I look at it that way.  I really do need to start thinking about the trip and school.  Went to scout out a field trip today.  The western civilization section of natural history.  Needs dusting.
5. Nice dinner tonight with friends.  For a person without cable, I sure can talk about TV.  I’ve been obsessed for the last few days watching (online) clips from “Say yes to the dress” (wedding dresses are surprisingly ugly) Cake Boss and Ace of cakes. (Cakes are pretty, and very hilarious when they are accidentally dropped down the stairs.)

June 18, 2009

1. Registered for my high school reunion today and found out that a college friend is in town, all through the magic of facebook.  I find Facebook hard to keep up with, but occasionally it wields some treasures.
2. Cleaning my room at school for summer school which is being held in our building this year.  Unfortunately there is lots of flinging things into boxes, and that will have to be sorted out later.
3. Really enjoying my new car.  Tomorrow I’ll turn the red menace over to my old school, the county vocational school.  Well done thou good and faithful servant!
4. I went to a retirement for the art teacher from that school, and it was great to see everyone.  I was very touched because he gave out six photographs from the area near out school (He commented on our dear Columbia Pike and it’s notable architecture – Art deco meets strip mall) and he gave one to me!  I was really surprised because there were some major ACC luminaries at the event, and I couldn’t imagine that I was that important.  I’ve always really admired this teacher.  He is a brill ant artist and was able to express ideas about education that are the best I have ever seen, both in concept and in the way he expressed them.  It was neat to think that he might see me as having contributed to his experience.  Neat but incomprehensible.  He joked that he had picked the six by homeland security random retinal scan and even though his picks seemed to have significance to him, when he called my name, I thought, Oh, well it is random!  However it was, I am very happy that he gave one to me, and will hang it in a place of honor.  It’s a picture of the Columbia Pike McDonalds!
5. The 8th grade graduation was very good.  Not perfect, because we missed one kid and had to double back and get her.  But otherwise it was good, and the children were charming, and had a good time at their dance following.  Pretty much everyone stayed even one girl who is not real clicked in with the rest of the class, and she confided in me “I’m having such a great time!  I wasn’t even planning on staying!”  Then she ran back to the dance floor.  It was lovely.  It was also one of those good nights at our school where a lot is going on and it is very peaceful.  The 8th graders dancing in the cafeteria, the parents chit chatting in the library, some seniors painting their wall and the rest of the seniors practicing their play in the auditorium.  Relatively little supervision, and no chaos.  The vision we have for our school really does play out sometimes.

June 16, 2009

OK, so they can be a LITTLE cute.  Sometimes.

This will only be up a little while, but I thought you might like to see my darling punks.

June 7, 2009

1. “And the devil will drag you under, by the sharp lapels of your checkered coat, sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down sit down you’re rockin’ the boat!” (Watching the tony’s tonight, reminded how fun musicals are. That’s from guys and dolls for those who are playing the home game.)
2. Had a lovely family birthday dinner saturday at the sushi place and we got the sushi boat!  Hooray! That is a wooden boat about 2 feet long filled with delicious sushi and sashimi.  Tip, before the sushi boat, don’t fill up on bread.  I don’t know if I will have any particular observances tomorrow.  Just the usual 21 gun salute maybe.
3. I went car shopping this weekend.  All due respect to the red menace, but that car’s time is DONE.  The engine hitches if it gets about 50 mph, and it has been raining like crazy around here and I have been scrambling to find rides or drive in the breaks in the rain since the windshield wipers went dead.  I know I could have it fixed, but that seems a waste of money since the grim reaper is banging on the windshield. So I test drove the Honda Fit and the Hyundai Elantra and the Elantra touring (which is kind of a code word for “station wagon.”  I was really focusing on the fit, but I was so impressed with the test drive on the elantra that I think that is the way to go, and mama may just have a little wagon to drive around right soon.
4. I started working out with a trainer on Friday,and go again tomorrow  For the time being, until his personality is revealed, we shall refer to him as “Captain Asskick.”
5. Two weeks left of school!