7 July 2009 Tuesday, Jul 7 2009

I spent the most fruitless day at a training seminar today, and now I am tired.  I left at 6:30 this morning and due to traffic and rain, did not get to the venue until 8:00.  The drive home took about 45 minutes, for a comparative note.

Anyway, yes the seminar was not informative for me at all.  The trainer running this series of seminars spent all day talking about how great the teaching profession is and where to look for a job and how to look for a job and who to talk to about a job and what to wear to an interview for a job and what not to say in said interview for the job, ad nauseum.  There were a couple of bright points to the day, though.  1) I saw many of my classmates today, most of whom I was surprised to see for some reason.  It was great to be able to catch up with so many sweet, sweet people.  2) Something clicked in my brain today while I was sitting in a room filled with 300+ teacher candidates.  I have five weeks before I am officially a teacher.  I will be a teacher really, really soon.  I am a teacher.  Holy sh*t!  I’M A TEACHER!  *gulp*  So, yeah.  There’s that bright little point.

I’m really tired and want to go to bed, so I’m going to clear off my camera phone and call it a night.

Calculus teacher at work

This is a picture of Mr. H, the calculus teacher I was an SI for last semester.  I took it on the sly, can you tell?  Hee!

Flooded street

About a month before we went on vacation in March (making it February, which really sounds too early, but my memory is foggy so deal) we had a horrendous rain storm that flooded the streets in less than an hour.  We had dropped the Kiddo off at a friends house before the rain storm came through, and went to get him while the storm was tapering off.  The roads betwen our house and his friend’s were flooded and many of them had literal waves of water rippling across them.  This is the water plume from one of the front tires of the car.

Hot Springs, Arkansas

This is a pic from our vacation to Hot Springs.  It’s a view of the lake and dock from the back porch of the cabin.

Neptune - up close & personal

My sweet baby girl!  She was laying on my belly, giving me looks of lurve, which probably could be better translated into looks of, “You will pet me now, slave.”

It's my stapler.

This is a really bad picture of the stapler I ordered to use in my classroom.  It’s the stapler from Office Space!  My stapler – give it back.  I love it.  It has green staples in it!  Hee!

Driving home

I got a wild hair up my rear the other day and snapped a few pics of the scenery in my ‘hood on the way home.  This is one of the main streets through the neighborhood. Lots of treeeeessss.

Driving home in trees

This is after the first turn I have to make once I’m in the neighborhood.  More treeeeessss!!!  That driveway on the left actually goes to a small apartment complex.  Yes, we’re a subdivision with an apartment complex in it.  We also have townhouses and patio homes.  And an elementary school!

Deer Crossing

That’s one of the many deer crossing signs you’ll see in the neighborhood.  We have nice-sized herd of deer that are seen frequently during warm weather.  Although, with every new house that is built, thus clearing another lot of foliage, we see them less and less.  Sad, really.  They’re very pretty.

Turn two

This is after the second turn I make to get to my house.  The house on the right is a huge colonial.  All you can see in this pic are the pillars supporting the two story covered driveway at the very front of the house.  It’s very reminiscent of the antebellum homes in Georgia.

The big house

This is probably the largest home in the neighborhood.  What you’re seeing is one wing.  The entire home is over 8000 square feet.  I only know because it was up for sale when we first moved to the neighborhood.  The asking price was well over 1 million dollars.  There are no other houses that can even come close to comparing with this one.  The average square footage in the neighborhood is between 1700 and 2500 square feet, with a sizeable number being under 1500.  So, this house is not representative of the neighborhood, but it’s pretty to look at.

Wally World

Sometimes, things strike me in just the right way and I find them hilarious.  This is the local Walmart just a few weeks ago.  My first thought was that they were trying to command something named “ood” to come inside.  Then I noticed the “Always” and for some reason that made it even funnier.  Like caveman-speak or something.  I may have been a tiny bit tired when I went shopping that night, because it’s not as funny now.  Ah well.  Live in the moment.

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6 July 2009 Monday, Jul 6 2009

Well, today is my last day of freedom until next Wednesday.  I have training seminars beginning tomorrow that I must attend for my alternative certification program.  They are the next step in being okayed to take the PPR exam that I’m still missing.  I have to take the on-line practice exam that my ACP offers, and pass it, before they’ll submit my name to the state as an “okay person to take this test”.  But before I even have access to the practice test, I have to finish fourteen trainin sessions.  So, beginning tomorrow, I attend two per day for seven days (we’re off Sunday), and hopefully I’ll have access to the practice exam afterwards.

My summer is very quickly coming to a close.  Once I’ve finish these training seminars, I have 2-1/2 weeks before the Kiddo begins summer marching band.  The week after he starts, I have orientation followed by inservice for a week each.  Then, school starts for both of us.  I’m startled every time I think about how little time I have left.  This next school year may prove to be one of the most difficult I’ve ever had in terms of stress and workload.  On the other hand, I may find that I settle into it as if I’ve been doing it all my life.  Which, honestly, I can really see happening.  It could be just blind hope talking, but the work I did for my education classes, especially when preparing a lesson, was such a natural thing for me to do.  It all made sense and things generally fell into place quite nicely.  Sure, I stressed about them, but it was because I had to have such a comprehensive lesson done, because it was a school assignment and not a real lesson.

I’ve spent some time this summer purchasing things I need and want for my classroom.  Just lately, I bought a rolling storage rack of drawers from Office Depot.  I’ve had my eye on storage racks like this one, but they’ve been a little too expensive.  Office Depot had it on sale last week for $20 off, putting it just into my price range.  And it went together so smoothly!  I’m not entirely certain what I’ll use it for, but since it has wheels, there’s no telling what I can find to put in it!

credit: Office Depot

While I was at the office supply, I also purchased a couple of huge, metal pencil cups.  The students in my district aren’t allowed to carry pencils or pens, and the teachers all are supposed to have writing implements available in the classroom.  Students grab a pencil at the beginning of class and turn it in at the end of the period.  At least, that’s what they were doing when the Kiddo attended school there.  But two years and a brand new building can change a lot of things.  Even if they’ve changed their policy, I wanted to make sure I had a good supply of pencils available in my classroom at all times.  If the kids are now allowed to carry pencils and pens, that’s fine.  Kids are constantly forgetting to bring pencils to class, and I never want this to be a reason why a student could not participate.  I will loan pencils, as long as a shoe is given as collateral.  I tried this when I was subbing and it really works well.  When you give me back my pencil, you’ll get your shoe back.

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The Hubby had a three-day weekend so that he could celebrate the holiday with his family.  Friday was a veg day for everybody.  He was tired, I was tired.  But on Saturday, we went over to one of his co-workers houses for bbq.  We got there around two and didn’t leave for darn near twelve hours!  I felt as if we’d overstayed our welcome, but apparently our hosts did not feel the same way.  It was a lot of fun, the food was terrific, and the men had plenty of beer to keep them hydrated.  *snort*  Most of our day was spent outside under their covered porch and in front of a fan, but by 7pm I had become lightheaded and nauseated.  I wasn’t even drinking alcohol!  Gatorade was my drink of choice on Saturday!  The heat was just unbearable, though, so I excused myself to the living room.  The hosts live in a very old neighborhood, in a very hold house.  No central a/c – just window units.  Outside it was over 100 degrees, inside was in the mid-80’s.  There’s just no way for a window unit a/c to cool off a house when outside it’s 102.  But it was a little cooler, so I felt a little better.  Yesterday though, I felt so wrung out and exhausted that it was like I’d gotten the hangover the Hubby, by all rights, should have had!  But it was just the heat and the dehydration, and today I feel fine.

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Well, I just realized that my library books are due today, and all of the machines in the laundry room have stopped, and the cats would like a clean litter pan, please.  Hopefully I won’t be so exhausted that I won’t be able to update tomorrow night.  But no promises!

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21 June 2009 Sunday, Jun 21 2009

I signed my contract last Wednesday.  I went to the district administrative offices and spent two and a half hours signing my name, writing my social security number, and writing the date.  Tedious, to say the least.  Although my contract was part of what I signed, I also had to deal with all of the health benefit packages, retirement plans, etc. that the district offers.  They actually offer quite a nice benefits package, and for the first time in my life, I’m actually going to participate in all the retirement plans that my employer offers.  As we stand now, the Hubby and I have no retirement other than what we’ve had deducted in Social Security taxes.  Beginning in August, I will no longer work in a job that participates in Social Security, and there’s a very good chance that I never will again. Regardless, Social Security is not enough to retire on.  Even the pension plan that the district offers in lieu of Social Security won’t be enough for retirement.  And, strangely enough, the Hubby’s job doesn’t offer retirement to their truck drivers.  I guess they don’t expect any of their drivers to work there long enough to get to that point.  So, until he is able to change jobs and work for someone who does offer retirement, I need to be taking advantage of everything my district offers.

I’ve personally been on edge this past month, waiting for the contract signing to happen.  Apparently, everything else having to do with teacher certification was waiting, as well.  One of the papers I had to sign, initial, and date was a checklist of things the district needs me to do as a new professional employee.  About half of them were details handled during the paper-signing extravaganza, such as signing the Social Security statement and completing a W-4.  The other half were tasks dealing specifically with my certification.

I’ve done a lot towards getting completely certified to teach.  What I’ve done so far has barely touched the tip of the iceberg in terms of everything that needs to be done.  What I’ve finished to this point was everything that could be done prior to signing a contract with a school district.  Now that that contract has been signed…  I spent Thursday on the phone and on the internet, getting the ball rolling on the next phase of my certification.

I need to submit a copy of my probationary teaching certificate to the district.  In order to get my probationary certificate, I have to apply for it through SBEC.  Part of applying for my probationary certificate, I have request a fingerprinting kit (also from SBEC).  Requesting this “kit” does not mean that an ink pad and paper are sent to my home.  It means that I am provided a list of approved fingerprinting labs so that I can contact the one closest to me and set an appointment with them to come in and be fingerprinted.  The cost of applying for the probationary certificate was over fifty dollars.  The cost of requesting a fingerprinting kit was around forty-five dollars.  The cost for the appointment at the fingerprinting lab was around ten dollars.  Apparently, the state has no conception of what “poor college student” means!

Once I’ve applied for my probationary certificate, SBEC sends the application to my alt. cert. program.  The program then checks to see if I’ve submitted three forms (something else I had to do on Thursday: find a fax machine so I could submit those forms), and if I have they will send their okay for me to receive said probationary certificate.  But I’m still not done.

In July, I have fourteen training sessions I must attend – two per day – in order for my alternative certification program to approve me to take the second of my certification tests.  (I took the first one – my content exam – during my last semester of college before I could forget everything.)  This second exam is called the PPR, which stands for Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities.  Before my alt. cert. program approves me to take this test, I must complete all fourteen training sessions, and pass their on-line “practice” PPR, which is infinitely harder than the actual test.  But I’m still not done.

Once I’ve passed the PPR, I can then apply for my standard teaching certificate and submit both my passing PPR scores and a copy of the standard certificate to my district.  These things must be done before December 30th this year.  In other words, I have to finish my certification and exams before first semester is done.  Throughout the school year, I am required, both by the state and my alt. cert. program, to complete professional development hours.  I can’t remember how many hours per school year the state wants me to complete, but the alt. cert. program requires that I complete fifty before the end of my first year of teaching.  In addition to the professional development hours, I also have to complete a certain number of observations of other teachers, as well as have other people observe me a certain number of times.  The professional development hours and observation hours must be distributed throughout both semesters of the school year.

And then, maybe, I’ll be done.

And then, I’ll start graduate school!  Yay!

This flurry of activity and paperwork just showed me how starved I am for purposeful activity and goals.  I need something useful to do.  I was hoping to get a copy of the teacher’s manual before the end of the school year, just to give me an idea of what kinds of lessons I should be prepared for, but I never got a response from my assistant principal.  I also asked for a copy of the district’s Scope & Sequence, which is a detailed outline of what each grade/subject covers and in what order for an individual district.  I wasn’t able to get that, either.  I’m wondering if I would be able to find the S&S on the district website, and failing that, check the department of educaton’s website to get their list of what is supposed to be taught per grade and subject.  I feel a need to get some kind of general lesson plans together.  Very general, since I don’t know what order my district goes in nor how long they spend on each topic.  But at least I’d be able to research the different skills and topics to find some fun things to do with those lessons.  Developing specific lesson plans that stem from the textbook and worksheets will be super simple and fast.  What I wanted to do over the summer was find some other activities that were still applicable to the subject, but that would change the routine a bit and keep things from becoming boring and stale.  Fun worksheets, puzzles, games, research and art projects, even books or poetry I could share with my classes.

Of course, to do this requirest that I get my lazy bones out of bed before noon, and into bed before 4am, so that I actually have the energy to spend a few hours on my computer.  I’m working on that.

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13 June 2009 Friday, Jun 12 2009

So, the DTV changeover is nearly a day old.  And the world didn’t end.  Lordy.  The local stations were talking about how 60% (or something like that) of Houstonians weren’t ready for the change to digital and how horrible it was that people weren’t ready and how critical it was that we get ready.

How about this, newsmongers?  Television isn’t vital to life.  *gasp* It actually is not needed for life to go on living! 

How about this other one, newsmongers?  Most people are procrastinators by nature and will put off changing to digital (i.e. buying the converter box) until they have no choice.  Furthermore, if we lose our TV signal, we won’t die!!!

Gah.  Mountains from molehills and all that.

I realized today that I have five days before I go to sign a contract with the District that hired me.  Yeep!  I had a little panic attack today because I looked at my watch and saw that it was the 12th (it was about five minutes ago), and for some reason my brain decided that I was really supposed to be at the administration office on the 12th and not the 17th.  My brain was wrong, and it’s a good thing I wrote down the date while I was on the phone with the District lady who scheduled me because I would have had a total meltdown otherwise.

I went to Lee College last week and requested updated transcripts and they came in two days later.  Now, if a little podunk junior college in the backend of nowhere can get me my transcripts in two days, could someone please tell me why it takes a major university a month to do the same thing?

Anyway, I need to bring all of my transcripts with me to the pending Contract Signing, and although the transcripts I already had from LC would have sufficed, I wanted to have the most current one in my personnel file.  I want whomever who looks to see those additional three degrees.  *snort*  I am such a degree snob!  I would love to get updated transcripts from UHCL because they’ll show my membership to Phi Kappa Phi, but I knew it was pointless to even put in a request for them because they’d never get here in time.  Le sigh.  Such is the way with universities.

I went to the library yesterday to turn in all those Jim Butler books I had checked out. I’ve finished the Aleran series and wanted to get started on the Dresden Files.  The first series only had five books written for it so far.  I really like them, but I’m done.  The Dresden series has at least ten books written, and I was looking forward to getting into a series that would keep me busy for a while.  Eh, not so much.  The only books they had on the shelf were numbers 5, 7, and 8.  This does not help me.  When reading a series, it helps to start at the beginning!  I have the list written down and in the bag I keep library books in, so maybe when I go back in three weeks, the first two or three will be there.  I need to check their catalog to see if they even have them, but I keep forgetting and it wouldn’t make sense for them to have 5, 7, and 8, but not 1, 2, and 3.  But stranger things happen in this library.  The Kiddo wanted to check out a couple of books in the Starcraft series, but the library only carried three.  Two were checked out and the third one was a graphic novel.  The Kiddo, unlike every other 14-year-old boy in the universe, does not enjoy reading graphic novels.  He wasn’t much interested in anything else, so no books for the Kiddo.  I wandered around the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section and the New Releases for nearly an hour before I finally made a couple of choices and checked out.  It was so frustrating looking for books there because I want to get into a new series, but I couldn’t find any that had the first two or more books on the shelf.  But then, I’ve made a tw0-page list of books I wanted to find and check out, and ended up finding exactly two of them when Iwas done.  The library has them listed in their catalog, but they’re not on the shelf.  Yes, I know they could have been checked out, but their on-line catalog tells you that, and they weren’t, so there.  The Baytown library just leaves a bit to be desired.  Unfortunately, the Crosby library is even worse, and I don’t even bother trying there anymore. 

As much as I love living away from major cities, I would move to downtown Houston in a heartbeat for the public library there.  But I can’t afford the rent, or the gun I’d need to carry so that I’d fit in with the locals.

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7 June 2009 Sunday, Jun 7 2009

Never fear; you’re in the right place. I just had a need to do move some furniture around. I’ve been using the same theme for this blog for long enough. It was time for change. Poke around and let me know what you think of it!

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28 May 2009 Sunday, Jun 7 2009

(Edit: Apparently I wrote this entry, saved it as a draft, but never published it.  So, here it is.  Belated, but there.)

Happy birthday to meeee!!!  I had forgotten what day it was until someone actually wished me a happy birthday.  Funny how important this day was when we’re kids, but as an adult, I can actually forget about it.  Mom and Dad surprised me with this cake from Dairy Queen.  It’s an ice cream cake, and is quite pretty.  Taste-wise, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t what I expected an ice cream cake to be, either.  There was no cake!  There was a top layer of vanilla ice cream, then a thin layer of chocolate fudge and cookie sprinkles, then a bottom layer of chocolate ice cream.  No cake!  But the ice cream was tasty, and it hit the spot after a long, hot day.

So, last time I wrote, I talked about finding this new author, Jim Butcher, and how I checked out his whole Aleran Codex series on the recommendation of a friend.  Well, I finished the second book last night and discovered an excerpt at the end for Butcher’s “new” series: The Dresden Files.  I realized immediately that this was the series I had been referred to, not the one I stumbled upon in the library.  Well, I’m going to chalk it up to a happy accident because I’m really enjoying the current series and find Butcher’s style of writing easy to read but entertaining and engaging.  Now that I know he has a second series out there, I’m even happier because it just gives me more to read from him!  The Aleran Codex is more of the traditional fantasy series set in more-or-less medieval settings and dealing with swords and knights, kings and lords, and monsters that need slaying with magic.  It looks like the Dresden series is more modern, in that it’s set in modern-day US cities, as they currently are today, but with an out-of -work wizard thrown in the mix to spice things up a bit.  So, I’m looking forward to working my way through both series.  It will be interesting to compare them.

There’s nothing else really interesting going on today.  I got up and did a little housework, worked on the laundry (still working on the laundry, actually), cooked a dinner of spaghetti, meatballs, and French bread, enjoyed the cake, and now I’m here.  I should mention, before I forget again, that the post office finally delivered my first order of classroom posters.  WOOT!  I ordered them from this website. So far, I’m really pleased with what I got.  They will laminate most of the posters they sell for a small fee.  The only ones they won’t are the really, really huge ones that don’t come in pieces.  I had requested that all the posters I ordered be laminated, but they only did half of them, which is a little disappointing.  They didn’t charge me for the ones that they didn’t laminate, so that’s okay, but I would have preferred them laminated.  The website allows you to create a wishlist, which I did so that I could list all the posters I had found from their catalog that I wanted.  When I tried to move items from my wishlist to my basket and still ask for lamination, I had some trouble.  I’m pretty sure this was why only half the order was laminated.  Next time I place an order, I’ll just delete the items I want to purchase from my wishlist and find them again to add to my basket, requesting lamination at that point.  That’s is what I did for the part of today’s order that did get laminated, so since the other part I didn’t do this with was the only part without lamination, apparently I need to do this for my whole order.  It sounds like a pain, but it really isn’t and it certainly won’t keep me from ordering more posters from them.  In fact, once I’ve balanced the books this weekend, I’ll probably go ahead and place a second order.  The current posters fall under the “character building” category.  The next order will strictly be math posters.

Okay, I’m off to go watch Mike Rowe do a few more Dirty Jobs.

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6 June 2009 Saturday, Jun 6 2009

Happy June, everyone!  Yesterday was the last day of school for the Kiddo, and he couldn’t be happier.  Actually, he could be MUCH happier.  He really liked his junior high and his band director there and he doesn’t want to change to the high school next year.  He’s met the high school director and doesn’t have a very high opinion of him.  But I was the same way when I was his age.  I LOVED Mr. Cornell and Mrs. Orr, my junior high directors.  They were kind but firm, and they really encouraged me to excel.  I’d met Mr. Fariss once or twice during my junior high years, and thought he was an old, mean, curmudgeon.  Once I got to the high school, though, I got to know this great man and wouldn’t replace my time under his teaching for the world.  Although the Kiddo’s teachers are not mine, I pray that he has the same experience I had and that his high school director grows on him.

And besides, it doesn’t really matter that he’s not excited about going to high school, because I’m probably excited enough for the both of us!

Well, all except for that thing about having a kid in high school, anyway.  Am I old enough for that?  I don’t feel old enough to have a child in high school, but I guess I am because I do.  It probably doesn’t help that all of the Kiddo’s friends’ parents are older than me and the Hubby – by a decade or so, usually.  As much as those parents have in common with us, I still feel a disconnect between us because there’s such an age gap.  I doubt anyone else feels it, because I’m probably the only one who notices!  Ha!

On Thursday, the Kiddo came home with a letter from the high school band directors, giving us information on the summer marching band rehearsal schedule.  I knew it was coming, and now that it’s here, I have so much sympathy for what my parents went through when I was there.  Good god, the schedule.  And this band isn’t quite as hard-core as the one I was in, so his schedule isn’t quite as tight.  When I was in band, we would practice marching in the morning, have an hour or so off for lunch, and the practice playing inside for the rest of the afternoon.  I think our rehearsals ran from 8am to 4pm – again, with a lunch break in the middle.  Most of the Kiddo’s rehearsal days are half days, with two hours of marching, a half-hour off, and then two hours of playing inside.  There are a few days that are full days, but the schedule those days if from 7:30am to 2:30pm.  And they have nearly two hours off in the middle.  As “easy” as his schedule is compared to the one I had, there’s still a lot of work on my part, carting him to and fro.  Water will need to be taken in the morning, and I suspect lunch money will need to be provided because I doubt he’ll want his mommy to pick him up for lunch every day. 

He starts summer practice on August 3rd.  That first week is mainly freshman marching clinic and the schedule is slightly more crazy than the next two weeks.  Lucky for him, this is my last week of freedom before I begin the new job, so there are no issues with transportation.  The second and third weeks of summer practice are giving me some headaches.  The second week of his rehearsals is my first week of inservice.  I’ll be able to get him to rehearsals, but I won’t be off in time to get him home.  That week is just inservice for new teachers, though.  The third week is inservice for all teachers.  My district and the Kiddo’s district are on very similar schedules for next school year (thank God), so his directors will be in inservice during the day and they’re holding rehearsals later in the afternoons.  My issues with transportation reverse the third week, and I’ll be able to pick him up but I won’t be able to get him there.  It’s very frustrating.  I’m fairly sure that between the other drivers in my house, and other band parents, he’ll be able to find a ride.  I hate depending on other people, though, so it frustrates me to resort to that.  I’ll do what needs to be done, though.  Lord knows, when I was in band, I carpooled with friends and other band families that lived in our neighborhood, and Mom took her share of band kids home.  It’ll work out, but it doesn’t stop me from gritting my teeth in frustration every time I think about it.  WHY does my job always seem to interfere in family stuff?!?

Anyway.

When the Kiddo got home from school yesterday, he came bearing another letter to the parents from the high school band directors, giving us information on the spring trip they’re taking next year.  During my stint in high school band, we took a spring trip every year.  Every other year, we’d take an out-of-state trip (usually to Orlando, FL., or Washington, DC).  The other years were in-state years and we ended up going to San Antonion twice by accident.  I think they tried to alternate between San Antonio and Austin, but there was a mistake made the second in-state trip year and we repeated our San Antonio trip, much to the dismay of the seniors (like me) who had to endure it.  Spring trips are so much fun, and they’re usually very safe because they’re so well chaperoned, but I never felt like I was restricted too much either.  The Kiddo’s band only goes on trip every other year.  His freshman year, next year, will be a trip year, and they’ve decided to go to Honolulu, Hawaii.  Oh. My. GOD.  Disneyworld pales in comparison with a hotel on Waikiki beach, and tours of secret islands! 

Because the Hubby was not in an extra-curricular activity in high school, he has no idea what spring trips are like.  His first reaction was, “Well, we’re trying to save to buy a house and that comes first.  Trips to Hawaii are just going to have to wait.”  It took a lot of talking to change his mind.  And when he saw the final cost for the trip, plus what that cost included, he was sold.  We’d both love to go, but neither of us have the hours to volunteer in the band boosters enough to be eligible, and I really wouldn’t be able to take the time off during my first year teaching.  I’m pretty sure it would look bad to my AP.  So, we’re going to make sure the payments are sent in on time and send him to Hawaii without us. 

I hate to say it, but I’m a little jealous!

Next school year was going to be busy just with me starting to teach.  Adding high school band to the mix is just going to increase the chaos.  I already know I’m going to be too busy to think straight, and I just need to come to terms with it.  Regardless of how crazy our schedules will be, it’s certainly looking to be a very fun year, as well!

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26 May 2009 Tuesday, May 26 2009

I trust everyone had a pleasant holiday weekend.  Ours was very quiet with just a little bar-b-queing, but nice nonetheless.  The Hubby had Friday through Monday off – a nice four-day weekend! – and the Kiddo had Monday off, so it was family time.  Not that the Kiddo spent much of that “family time” at home.  He spent most of his weekend doing what teenagers do best – hanging out with friends.  He got a good head start on his tan by spending Saturday at the neighborhood pool, Sunday at Galveston, and part of Monday back at the neighborhood pool.  I’m starting to see what the summer is going to be like this year.  At least I won’t be hearing him whine about how bored he is! 

I have a headache.  It’s mostly because I stayed up until 5am reading.  Carrie, I could strangle you for ever suggesting Jim Butcher to me!  Gah!  I went to the library last week to do the usual turning in and checking out and was looking specifically for a series of books by Jim Butcher.   I didn’t know what the series was called; I only knew the author.  The only series carried by the library I frequent is the “Aleran Codex” series, which is the books he wrote about the furies.  I hope that’s the one you meant me to get, Carrie!  They had books two through five, but not book one.  I was so desperate for new reading material that I checked them all out anyway. 

Yes, I was contemplating reading a series without reading the first book.  I’m dangerous like that. 

I also checked out a book by Jeff Overstreet called Auralia’s Colors (I think), as well as four books by Anne McCaffrey – the “Freedom” series, I think.  (I don’t have the books in front of me and I’m not willing to get up right now to go look.)  I finished the Overstreet book: Not bad.  I may consider checking out the next book in the series, if the library has it. 

The last time I went to the library, I stocked up on books by Neil Stephenson.  I had read his Anathem, and really liked it, and was totally surprised to find a good fantasy book that had math nerd stuff in it.  I picked it up from a display on a whim, so it’s a funny coincidence that the basis of the universe in the book is math-centric.  He even went so far as to put a couple of mathematical proofs in the appendix, and although the proofs were far from formal, I would hedge a bet that a lot of people still wouldn’t understand them simply because it’s math.  Folks are funny when they’re reading “math stuff,” and have a tendency to just mentally shut down.  It’s like there’s a presupposition that, simply because it’s math, they won’t understand it.  But I can understand thinking that way, because just a few, short years ago, I was the same way. 

I’m seriously digressing here.  My point was that since I liked Anathem so much, I might like other works by Mr. Stephenson.  What I didn’t account for was the fact that it took nearly 1000 pages of reading Anathem before the book got good enough for me to not want to put it down.  Apparently, all of Mr. Stephenson’s books run this way for me because the next book, Cryptonomicon, was the exact same way.  And when I started reading a third novel that was forming the same shape, I decided that I’d had enough of Mr. Stephenson for a while.  I appreciate his writing, but that’s a lot of reading to do before you’re engaged by the story.  So, after striking it out with Neal Stephenson, I was really looking for something new that would be immediately engaging, and my BFF had perfect timing in suggesting Jim Butcher.  But, as I said, I was missing the opening number by not being able to check out that first book.

I decided to read the Overstreet novel first, and it’s a good thing I did because it bought me the time I didn’t know I needed.  A couple of days later, on Friday, the Kiddo and his girlfriend wanted to go see the new Star Trek movie, and I was more than happy to play chauffeur and chaperone.  Goody for me, because there is a Waldenbooks in the mall.  Even gooder (hah!) for me was the purely accidental finding of book one of the Butcher Aleran Codex series.  So, I bought it.  I’ve never read a single word written by Jim Butcher, but I still bought a book he wrote.  (I also expanded my personal collection of “classics” by purchasing Rabbit, Run by John Updike and The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer – neither of which I’ve read before but both of which are constantly referred to in popular culture, but you’d only know it if you’re familiar with the books, which is why I bought them.  And I bought a couple of book thongs.  And if you don’t know what they are, check out this site.)  So, I spent a day finishing the Overstreet, and then picked up the first book of the Butcher series on Saturday.  There wasn’t a lot going on in the house this weekend, but everyone was home, so I had a hard time settling into reading a new book.  But yesterday was apparently book-reading day, because both the hubby and I hibernated in the bedroom most of the afternoon reading our respective books.  (I checked out the Taltos series by Steven Brust for him.)  By the time everyone gone to bed, I was completely lost. 

I took about an hour out to watch the new season opener of Jon and Kate Plus 8 on TLC, then read for an hour.  Then, I called an old friend who is in town this week ( having dinner tomorrow night!  woot!) and talked to her until 2am, then went back to the book again.  I finished right before 5am, and was snoring not long after.  And now, I have a headache.

Of course, staying up late means getting up late – especially if you have no job – and when I got up at 11, there was no one home besides me and the animals.  The Kiddo was at school and everyone else was at work.  When Dad got home, he bade me good morning and started mowing the lawn.  I’m not sure what it says about the schedule I’m keeping lately when seeing me at 2pm elicits a good morning from my father.

Anyway, we have a band concert to attend tonight.  It’s the last one of the school year.  I can’t seem to get it through my child’s head that he doesn’t need to spend every minute before we need to leave at his GF’s house.  That’s where you spent your entire weekend, you nit wit.  How about spending some time in your own home for a change?  Gah.  Teenagers.

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17 May 2009 Sunday, May 17 2009

I’ve had an interesting past couple of weeks.  With me being an out of work college student for the past 5 years, and only recently having taken temporary part-time work, and even more recently having said temporary work end, we are understandably short on cash these days.  However, the Hubby and I have tried to go out either just the two of us, or with the kiddo, about once a month.  Most of the time it was just a quick dinner.  Sometimes, it was dinner and a movie.  With this in mind, the past couple of weeks have been extravaganzas of going out for us.  A couple of weeks ago, the Hubby got off work early, so he and I met for lunch at a local Chinese place.  We love the food there, and the presentation of the food is very cool to us, but we just don’t go very often.  A lunch date, mid-week, with my husband is nearly unheard of, and it was nice to be able to sit and talk for a couple of hours without worrying about being anywhere.  Then, the Saturday before Mother’s Day, my parents took us all out to our favorite Italian seafood restaurant in a neighboring city.  SO good, and so nice to get out.  After dinner, the Hubby and I (the Kiddo was with the MIL for the weekend) decided to catch a late movie.  We saw the new Star Trek, which was a really well-done movie in my opinion, and a good time was had by all.  Just one week later, yesterday, the Hubby, the Kiddo and I met with a newlywed couple-friend of ours for dinner and a movie at The Movie Tavern, wherein we watched X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  Again, we enjoyed the movie, had no complaints about the story line (which is astounding for the fourth movie of a series), and only one complaint about special effects.  Three meals out and two movies in the span of 2-1/2 weeks is so unusual for us that I’m a little stunned today.  My birthday is coming up at the end of the month, and I’m telling you, not a single person need get me anything.  I have had quite the gift these past couple of weeks, being able to spend time with over good meals with people I love, and being able to watch kick-ass movies with them, to boot.

It’ll probably be October before we go out again, but for now that’s okay.

I was in Wal-Mart the other day and saw a sign advertising the new The Sims 3 coming out on June 2nd.  *sigh*  If I have a video game obsession, it would be The Sims in any of their evolutions.  I guess I’m a control freak at heart.  Unfortunately, my Frankenstein of a computer won’t run it.  Even if we upgrade everything on it to the max it can handle, it barely meets minimum requirements for the new game.  And if I know anything about The Sims, I know that they are video intensive and memory intensive games, and if you only have the minimum, you’re going to be stuck playing a clippy game.  Not fun.  So, I’ve decided that I need a new computer.  The one I’ve been using for the past four years, we’ve had for closer to seven.  It was built, piece by piece, by the Hubby, and has been in a constant state of being upgraded ever since.  Nowadays, with the price that assembled desktops are selling for (and the low, low prices on RAM lately), it’s not worth it for us to build our own.  We can by a pre-assembled unit and just upgrade what it lacks (usually video and RAM).  My monitor is about a year old and is a flat panel, my keyboard is perfect for me and is completely in good shape, even my mouse and speakers are fine.  I just need the tower unit.  And, it looks like we’ll be able to get what I need for about $500-$600.  And that’s with upgrades.  Fortunately, for me, I can justify spending money on a new computer when we are in a money-tight situation, because my current machine is having quite a few problems, and I’ll be starting a new career come August.  I’ll need a reliable computer that can do what I need it to do and run the programs I’ll need to run and, oh yes, run The Sims 3, as well. 

The cleaning schedule is still going well.  I didn’t do any of them on Friday, which means my floors did not get cleaned, and you can tell.  The good news is that part of the chores that earns the Kiddo his weekly allowance is to vacuum.  So, when he gets home this afternoon (currently at a pool party), guess what he gets to do?  The sweeping and mopping still won’t be done, but at least the carpets will be clean.

I just remembered that I have an errand to run tomorrow.  I have to treck up (down?) to UHCL to pick up an honor society packet.  I was invited to join Phi Kappa Phi and accepted, but chose not to participate in the ceremony.  It’s been about three weeks, and I keep forgetting to go up (down? over?) to the school to pick up my packet.  I have put it on my to-do list for tomorrow, so that’ll be another chore done!  Yay!  I know there is a certificate that I’ll be receiving, and I think there is a pin, as well.  I have both of these for Phi Theta Kappa, so it’ll be nice to complete the collection with this one from UHCL. 

Speaking of certificates, I seem to have an overabundance of them that need framing.  I have my Bachelor’s, of course, and it’s going to need a big frame.  But the framing I wanted to have done includes a box for my tassel.  I’ve priced these frames, and it looks like I’m going to be dropping a couple hundred dollars on it.  Yikes!  In addition to my Bachelor’s, I also have four Associate degrees I would like framed, as well as both honor society certificates, AND the Presidential Honors Award in Technical Writing that I received at Lee College.  What I think I’d like to try to do is to have all four Associate degrees framed within the same frame.  The actual certificates are about half the size of the Bachelor’s, so the frame for them would be larger than the one for the BA, but would contain all four.  I’ve seen something similar done for children’s school pictures, so that parents can display all of them together.  The mat simply has cut-outs for each picture.  Well, my idea for the Associate degress is similar.  Each one would have matting around it, but would be in one frame.  I’d like to do the same for the honor society certificates, and then frame the technical writing award separately.  I suspect that my framing expenses are about to skyrocket.  Now I just need to find someone who does custom framing…

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13 May 2009 Wednesday, May 13 2009

Things get going and I forget to update.   What’s new, right?  I can’t believe I haven’t updated even once this month, though.

Well.  Things are going really well.  My students at Lee College took their final Monday, so my job there is finito.  I haven’t taken my name off the sub list yet because…well, because I feel like it would be weird for me to have gotten a job with another district, telling them that I was currently employed as a sub for this district, just to up and quit that job before the new one even starts.  Of course, it’s probably weirder for me to stay on the sub list, but to avoid the calls that come in from it day after day.  Last week, I could have worked every day between two schools that kept calling me.  This week, nada.  I was telling myself that I might just decide to take another job or two before the school year is over, but really, I’m lying to myself.  I don’t want to work right now, and I don’t have to work right now, so I’m not gonna work right now.

Not working leads to its own set of problems, though.  I am a structure- and schedule-oriented person.  Without said structure, I tend to get mildly depressed, which leads to anger issues with the people who live with me.  (Did you know, Carrie, that our problems stemmed from my depression?  I didn’t!)  I just become very intolerant of individuals’ idiosyncracies.  Mine, of course, are perfectly acceptable.  Yours, however, are not.  Such is the ridiculous non-logic of my screwed up brain!  So, considering this, I gave myself a job.  I’ve tried this before, but I was too draconian about it.  I would try to schedule eight hours of work, and would micro-schedule every minute.  Seriously, I would draw up a schedule that was broken into 15-minute intervals!  It’s like, I know that a schedule will help me stay mentally healthy, so if a schedule is what I need, I’m going to overdose on it because that will make me even more healthy!  Yeah, not so much.  Before the end of the first day, I was making deals with myself and procrastinating on every little thing I had to do.  And believe me, when I started mentally making a new schedule for the summer, I definitely started off leaning in the micro-managed direction.  (Whoever thought you could micro-manage yourself?!?)  Before I even committed a single word to paper, thus making it gospel, I had to force myself to be more realistic.  My goal was to give my day a small sense of structure without taking away the feeling that I am on vacation.  I also needed to take the household needs into consideration, as well as my sleep schedule. 

Here’s what I finally decided.  I am the chief cook and bottle washer of the house.  I accept that, and it makes sense since I am the one home the most, for now.  If the hubby is at work for 14-16 hours a day, I have a responsibility to make his life a little more pleasant when he can be at home.  Does he expect this from me?  Absolutely not.  He doesn’t even expect me to cook him dinner.  As long as I’m happy and healthy, he’s happy.  But I can’t live with myself if I don’t make an effort to contribute to his working efforts.  When I work, or when I’m in school, I don’t think this way, because I am helping him by going to work or school every day.  I treat school like a job, just one that takes ever so much more time at home than typical jobs do.  So, my “schedule” this summer should focus on the things that normally get neglected when we’re both out of the house at our respective “jobs” every day.  In other words, housework. 

The hubby and I made a decision to start treating this house as “practice” for when we are in our own house (one year to go!!!).  Well, when we move, I’ll still be a teacher, and I’ll still have my summers (mostly) off.  So, this summer needs to be practice for that future.  I made a mental list of all the major household cleaning that should be done on a regular basis.  Most of these jobs get done sporadically, as we have time and energy, and leave me feeling like the house is never really “cleaned up.”  So, for each day of the week, I made a short list of cleaning tasks I will do.  The tasks start at the top and work their way down (from ceilings to floors).  There’s one day given over to grocery shopping and time given to laundry.  I don’t “work” on Saturday or Sunday, and have chosen to leave those open for family activities since this is when both the Kiddo and the Hubby are more likely to be home.  This is my first week of “work,” and I really didn’t get started until Tuesday, but so far I’m not minding it at all.  There are no time constraints.  I don’t have to rush to do any of the jobs.  I can do one, then sit and rest before I tackle another.  I don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn, nor do I need to make sure I’m in bed early.  Most of the jobs I have to do (except vacuuming) can be done even if the rest of the household has gone to bed.  And the house is getting cleaned and maintained on a regular basis.  Here’s the schedule:

• Monday: Put away & declutter tables & counters; dust
• Tuesday: Declutter; clean & sanitize bath & kitchen counters; wash/dry laundry
• Wednesday: Clean toilet & tub; clean & sanitize bath & kitchen sinks; clean stove; put away laundry
• Thursday: Grocery shopping
• Friday: Vacuum, sweep & mop floors

Right now, the house is in terrible shape.  It doesn’t look like a hoarder’s house yet, but it could definitely use a thorough cleaning.  I don’t expect to end this week with a spotless house.  The kitchen counters and living room tables, for example, are so cluttered and crowded that I could spend the whole week doing nothing but clearing those off.  BUT, some things did get put away this week, and next week even more will get put away.  After three or four weeks, we’ll be able to see a real difference.  I figure that after a month of working this schedule, most of the jobs will be quick since I’ll just be maintaining the deep cleaning I’m needing to do now and that takes so much more time.

I don’t know what I’m going to do when I start work again, though.  Maybe by the end of the summer, the house will be in such a state that all I’m doing each week is maintenance cleaning, and I’ll find that I have time to continue these jobs in the afternoons when I get home.  Of course, since I’ll be back to working full-time, I won’t be the only one doing them.  I’ll divide them between me, the Kiddo, and (occasionally) the Hubby (he gets a little bit of a break since he’s usually leaves for work at 4am and often doesn’t get home until after 8pm).

It’s sad to realize that this is the extent I have to go to for the house to stay as clean as I like.  Most people do this automatically!  I have to make myself a schedule to get it done! 

Okay, I have a grocery list waiting to be made, so I’m off again!

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