Monthly Archives: March 2005

Summer!

Posted on by
8

Okay, no, it’s not summer.  It’s not even spring yet.  But, I have some new plans for summer that are making me feel good.

For one, I found out today that my contract is not June-June, but Sept-August, which means I will get paid until August 30. DAMN. That is so. cool.  I will have the summer income, and NOT have to take some retail job or temp assignment to make ends meet.  Regardless of what happens with grad school, my meeting with That Guy, etc, I am set until September 1.  And at that point, the jobs that I am most qualified for at this point start up. Ed teching, subbing, tutoring — all academic year positions. Yes, yes yes yes. This is GREAT NEWS.

I also turn 30 this summer, which is kind of big and weird, no?  And I’m thinking I need to do something cool, so I think I might rehash my ideas of another NYC trip again.  I had talked about going last year, but we bought the house, and I spent sooo much time in curriculum and other workshops, that it felt like I had no summer at all.  With the paid summer, though, it wouldn’t be completely out of line to take my birthday money and use it toward an Acela ticket (or maybe air, honestly, it’s probably the same cost when you figure in the bus to Boston, and I would train just because I LOVE trains) and a cheap hotel room. Okay, so it won’t be the Unbelievably Free Trip of 2003, where I got to shack up at the Tribeca Grand and look like some sort of vagrant on the lift with people asking me how it compared to the Millennium. ("Oh, this place is nice.")  I now know how Dave felt when he was on that Vegas assignment for the opening of the Palms, and had an all access pass to everywhere in the building, and when he wasn’t shooting, he was in the Ghost Bar alongside some Real Worlders, and people kept talking to him… one of those "if they are THIS dressed down, they must be trying really hard to look poor" when in fact, no, we’re just poor.

So, yes. Another NYC trip would be nice, and for more than 2 nights this time. Maybe 4.  And I could do all those things I want to do Pre-baby. And if I’m knocked up, I can, I don’t know, get a cool baby book at Kate’s Paperie or something.  When I went in 2003, it was just such a good reminder of the pieces of me that exist separate of my marriage, or my job, or my ovarian pursuits. You know?

Yay! Paid til August! (Regardless of when I give notice, because my contract is for the academic year and I choose year round paychecks instead of academic year checks) And Yay! NYC!

Day 2

Posted on by
1

Since there’s alllll kinds of weather predicted for this week, I did another day today.  I got in four running sequences (up one from yesterday)  and didn’t have an asthma attack.  I did have a side-stitch, which blew, but what are you gonna do?  My body is FEELING it, too.

I figure I covered just over a mile today.  (I drove it to get some good estimates of distance.)  The cross streets are 1/10th of a mile, and I ran four of those, so I ran about 40 percent total.  I feel like my stride is clunky, but it will work itself out, right?  Because I’ve started all sick-like, I may repeat week one next week just to get a true Week one in. Woohoo!

Cool!

Posted on by
1

My bedside lamp has a ball & chain pull, and the ball makes a wicked racket when it bangs up against the base. (Both are metal.)  I solved the problem by putting one of those tiny elastics around the ball, so that it makes a dull thud, instead.

In the middle of the night, though, it started clanging and woke me up. The bed was vibrating, and my first thought was that Dave was having a seizure.  I put my hand on his back, and he wasn’t moving, he just groaned in his sleep as a reaction to being grabbed.  And then the shaking stopped.

My second thought was earthquake, but that was ridiculous. In Maine? So I decided that the bed was possessed, our house haunted, and I would deal with it in the morning.  I looked at the clock, and it was 1:20 am.

I mentioned it to Dave this morning, and he thought it was one of the big planes that land overnight.  Those don’t wake me up, usually, and the bed was moving which was weird in and of itself.  But, sure, maybe low-flying plane (we’re on the flight path when the weather turns, but most of the time the air traffic goes in the opposite direction of our house) was what woke me up.

I googled "earthquake maine" this morning though, and HO-LEE SHIT!  I was totally woken up by an earthquake. I’m bummed it happened in the middle of the night.  What’s odd is that the last quake in Maine, I WAS awake, drinking tea at Amy’s apartment at the kitchen table, and she totally felt it, and I felt nothing.  But last night, I was woken from a dead sleep by one. Huh. 

And, I’m glad that my husband has not developed a seizure disorder, and that my bed is not possessed by angry spirits.

Ugh.

Posted on by
2

Well, the easiest way to undo the "whoohoo!" of moving my big fat ass, is to then try to wrestle said ass into new clothes. Specifically, a bathing suit and/or sports bra. Yeah.

I really wanted a tankini for our trip to Florida next month, and it took a while, but I found one that will be okay.  The bra shopping was more ridiculous, on account of my big giant maneating tits.  I tried a Jogbra in XL that just didn’t work (I’m a 40DD) and I tried an XXL racer back tank top that had a shelf bra built in. I wasn’t wanting to use it as a bra, but something to wear over a bra, but even then, the shelf bra was HYSTERICAL.  It didn’t even begin to consider coming down over the big girls. Not at ALL.  So, I just ponied up fifty bucks for an Enell Sports Bra, as mentioned by Oprah, and several other resources as THE bra for the well endowed.  It ain’t sexy, but I bet it works. IT BETTER.

Even MORE depressing, the whole time I’m trying on these garments, I have elbow-socks on.  My eczema is in a horrible flare up, and out of desperation, I cut the toes off of some crew socks, slathered my inner elbows with Vaseline, and pulled the socks on so that my elbows rested in the heels.  SEXY. I also picked up some Aquaphor, as the internet says that it is great for eczema, and my prescription has expired for my regular stuff.  At least the socks keep the Vaseline from staining my clothes, from blood staining my clothes (yeah, it’s gross) and from me digging at the itchiness.  I can scratch on the outside of the socks and get some relief without all the nastiness.

So yes, me, sick, naked but for elbow socks and underwear, wrestling my giant tits into bras that are XL if you consider B cups XL. UGH.

Day 1

Posted on by
2

Despite the fact that I still feel awful, and am only getting about ten percent of my RDA of Oxygen via my nose, I started. I did it! I did more of a Day .75, as I did 3 sets of Run for 60 seconds before I thought I might fall over head first in a snowbank, but I did it anyway. I found that the 5 minute brisk walk could route around a small side street, and that the cross streets between the main roads over here are good for exactly 60 seconds of running. Nice.  It worked that I could walk on the plowed, but still snowy/icy sidewalks, and run on the clear and untrafficked connecting streets.   I ended up being out for 23 minutes, which is seven minutes less than the C25k goals, but for my first day, and being sick, and staggering in to beg Dave to run upstairs and find my inhaler, not so bad. You know?

Continue reading →

Full Circle

Posted on by
Reply

My first mentor teacher, in the 5th grade, is fabulous.  I did my practicum with her in Spring 03, and was supposed to student teach with her, except that after 3 days I was hired into middle school.  She was definitely a major influence on the whole process.

She’s also a cartoonist, and has had some books published.  She has big prints that hang around the school, and one of my favorites hangs in the special ed conference room where we hold PETs.  It totally sums up what is going on around me, and how I feel, and why I worry for my kids.

Click on the image of this book.  My favorite cartoon is the cover art. Exactly.

“We MISSED you!”

Posted on by
1

I took a sick day yesterday, which means I’ve worked three days in two weeks. Oh well, I have the sick time, and I can’t get it paid out when I leave, so whatever. And I needed it, bad.  I spent the day blowing my nose and napping.

Today, when the kids arrived, more than one — even kids who ‘hate me’ — said "Oh, THANK GOD! Mrs. S is back!"  Way to make me feel good about my decision, kids! Not that they know my decision, but the suckiest part is that I’ll not get to work with middle school kids anymore, and that makes me sad. I know, I know, "aren’t middle schoolers at the WORST age?" and for most people, they are, but for me, I love them at that age.  I can make their day, I can understand them, and I can piss them off (even when I’m their favorite teacher) by calling them on their bullshit.  I gave out a detention today, and a mid-quarter to one kid who was equally pissed off at the detention as she was excited about her MQ grades. But, with the New Plan for next year, I wouldn’t be able to build those relationships, anyway, which sucks, because middle schoolers NEED people that they can equally despise and adore, because that is what pre-adolescence is all about.  And the person they despise/adore needs to understand that it’s  always a mixed bag, and the kid that ‘hates you’ will be the first one to ‘miss you’ if you let them know you give a shit, no matter what. And dammit, that’s what blows.  I love my kids.  I love that when they say "what page?" after I’ve said "Page 75" fifteen times, that I can say "eleventy-fifteen" and they know that they need to ask someone else already or pay attention, and they laugh and roll their eyes.  I love that I can put my nails on the chalkboard and not even scratch and they quiet down. (That sounds more barbaric than it is, but trust me, worst way to quiet a classroom is to "sssshhhhhh."  All you do is get yer germy spit everywhere. No one ever notices.)  They have inside jokes with me, and I’m sure that other teachers in the building are totally perpelexed when they run into a conversation in the hallway where I am answering my students’ every word with "ribbit."  I’m sure I get looks when I take the magic fairy wand to assemblies to fend off the bad-bleacher-behavior-gremlins. But, fuck it.  My kids know. I know. 

What my kids don’t know is The Plan, and they don’t know that I’m eyeing mid-June like the finish line of a marathon.  They don’t know that the only reason I would stay would be to stay with them, and that I think what the administration (from local to federal) is screwing them over. (Well, they kinda know I think that.  When they were asking "ANOTHER assessment?" I said "hey, not my choice, it’s the law. If it were up to me, we wouldn’t have them.")  That part sucks. I wonder what they’ll say. I wonder if I’ll tell them before the end of school.

So, anyway, I’m still sickish.  I considered calling out today, but the state standardized tests start on Monday, and I needed to get some more probability into my 8th graders.  I plan on starting the C25K tomorrow, but I warned emmalola that it might be Day .5 instead of Day 1, but my goal is to bundle up and at least go for a very fast walk.  I’ll do the five minute brisk walk and see how my breathing is, and then go from there.  I’ll update in Bodyish when I have completed it, and I have some other ideas for the Bodyish category, too. 

To bring up the mood of this post, I have this link, which is a .wav file, so it might not be the most worksafe. It is gay-ron-teeeed to make you laugh, however.  I promise.

Saturday, then?

Posted on by
2

Since my body is on strike: no baby, and now some sinus/cold thing that had my students calling me ‘grumpy,’ and has me passed out on my couch surrounded by kleenex that are being used, but not providing relief, I will not be starting C25K today.  However, some internet interest has been sparked (Jstrizzy, Princessjeanne, and Emmalola, go TEAM!) and so I’m putting Saturday on the table for the start. Assuming I’m sitll alive. Pass the tissues.

English Genius!

Posted on by
Reply

English Genius
You scored 100% Beginner, 93% Intermediate, 100% Advanced,  and 77% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I
can’t find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon
intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don’t. You
have an extensive vocabulary, and you’re not afraid to use it properly!
Way to go!

The Commonly Confused Words Test

(Now I’m wondering what I got wrong!)

Memo to Princess H:

Posted on by
5

"Oh, good! I’ll be sure to let UNICEF know they can go back to focusing on real tragedies.  Enjoy your appetite."

Okay, that’s what I WANTED to post in the Wedding Mania thread, after hearing that her wedding planner had "had her ass handed to her" before she was able to "go to Pelican Bay and crack some skulls." 

Seriously. The Internet can be great, but then there are assholes like Princess "My ring is SO HUGE I must turn it on the subway, but my fianceeeeeeee loves me so much, it had to be that big/I am leaving my lucrative law school program to teach because teaching in a wealthy, white, suburban preschool is so challenging and fulfilling!" Heatherina.  Blech.  I mean, it’s the same old story that makes internet people suck; it’s all me me me me me and zero contribution to the conversation.

Snow day.