Friday, October 23, 2009
Insanity
I've officially lost it! I signed up for the NaNoWriMo challenge. Kristyn talked me into it, but the funny thing is she doesn't know she talked me into it. NaNoWriMo participants must attempt to write a 50,000 word novel, beginning from November 1st and ending at midnight on November 30th. I did the math and it averages to about six pages a day. I have to teach all day, grade papers on my weekends, spend time with my kids, go to kickboxing, attend small group, and do basic housecleaning at least once in awhile...how am I possibly going to squeeze in six pages a day? But on the bright side, the website acknowledges that they expect pretty lousy work. The idea is to allow yourself the freedom of "literary abandonment." With such a small time frame to work within, it allows writers to do what basically amounts to one long free-write without the burden of second-guessing themselves or aiming for perfection. I don't know if I feel excitement or dread right now. But I just have to try it, at least once. I guess the worst that can happen is that I am the one and only participant that winds up with "zero" words by November 30th.
Aces Breakfast
Three years ago me and another teacher, Naomi, decided to start doing what we call an "Aces Breakfast," where we make breakfast (eggs, pancakes, sausage, and juice) for all of our students who received an "A" on their report card for language arts. We have our Aces Breakfast three times a year: at the beginning of quarter two, quarter three, and quarter four. Last year, another seventh grade language arts teacher, Denise, loved our idea so much that she wanted to get in on it. So now there are three of us teachers sponsoring this event, and after so many times of trial and error, we have the whole thing down to a science. We can quickly and efficiently serve breakfast to about seventy students within a twenty minute window, all while being silly and having a good time.
So how on earth did today's breakfast wind up being such a disaster? First of all, parts of the eggs were burnt to a near crisp. Clint scrambled five dozen eggs last night, but what he created was far from burnt...in fact, it was quite the opposite. He added milk in them to make them fluffy and moist, and also added cheese to enhance the flavor. But our crockpot (one that I have never used before, I should add), which was on "low" last night to keep the eggs warm, decided it would be more fun to scorch the eggs instead. I didn't have time to replace five dozen eggs, so I just mixed them up as best as I could and hoped students wouldn't notice the burnt egg pieces within their breakfast, or the fact that their eggs were a strange hue of brown instead of yellow, or the fact that they smelled a little like burnt rubber.
Despite the charcoal brioche eggs, everything else this morning seemed to be running very smoothly and perfectly on schedule. Denise arrived nice and early to my classroom, got the griddles fired up, and started making pancakes. Meanwhile I set out all of our paper-ware, butter, syrup, and apple juice. Naomi began heating up the sausages, and things were looking great. Then suddenly we had an electrical short and I lost power to my room. Students were lining up at the gate, getting ready to come into the school, and here we were, three teachers in aprons, scrambling around my room, trying to figure out a way to magically know something about electricity so we can fix the problem and resume our cooking. Luckily another teacher walked passed and saw us panicking, and was able to locate my electrical panel and help us resolve the problem. But unfortunately, by the time everything was said and done, we had a gazillion students in my room waiting for food and nothing to give them (but some gourmet eggs).
By the time the bell rang for first period to start, several students were lucky to have eaten even one pancake, unlike the three or four they normally digest when we hold this function. I was shoving plates in students' hands as they ran out the door, telling them "Have your teacher call me if they have a problem with you eating in class!" Four girls stayed with me to help clean up the mess, and I still had pancakes going on the grill, so I had them randomly deliver breakfast to nearby teachers. They didn't know who they should give breakfast to, so I just told them "pick anybody." Later, I had teachers approaching me saying "Thank you for breakfast this morning!" and I just felt so amused, because of course I had no idea that I had "given" them breakfast. How nice of me--I rock. =)
Throughout the course of the day, I tried to explain to my students that the Aces Breakfast isn't usually such a disaster, and my kids seemed confused by this. They thought the whole thing was great, and one student, Thomas, declared "those were the best eggs and sausage I have ever had!" Apparently Tommy likes the taste of burnt cheese. To each his own, I suppose.
So how on earth did today's breakfast wind up being such a disaster? First of all, parts of the eggs were burnt to a near crisp. Clint scrambled five dozen eggs last night, but what he created was far from burnt...in fact, it was quite the opposite. He added milk in them to make them fluffy and moist, and also added cheese to enhance the flavor. But our crockpot (one that I have never used before, I should add), which was on "low" last night to keep the eggs warm, decided it would be more fun to scorch the eggs instead. I didn't have time to replace five dozen eggs, so I just mixed them up as best as I could and hoped students wouldn't notice the burnt egg pieces within their breakfast, or the fact that their eggs were a strange hue of brown instead of yellow, or the fact that they smelled a little like burnt rubber.
Despite the charcoal brioche eggs, everything else this morning seemed to be running very smoothly and perfectly on schedule. Denise arrived nice and early to my classroom, got the griddles fired up, and started making pancakes. Meanwhile I set out all of our paper-ware, butter, syrup, and apple juice. Naomi began heating up the sausages, and things were looking great. Then suddenly we had an electrical short and I lost power to my room. Students were lining up at the gate, getting ready to come into the school, and here we were, three teachers in aprons, scrambling around my room, trying to figure out a way to magically know something about electricity so we can fix the problem and resume our cooking. Luckily another teacher walked passed and saw us panicking, and was able to locate my electrical panel and help us resolve the problem. But unfortunately, by the time everything was said and done, we had a gazillion students in my room waiting for food and nothing to give them (but some gourmet eggs).
By the time the bell rang for first period to start, several students were lucky to have eaten even one pancake, unlike the three or four they normally digest when we hold this function. I was shoving plates in students' hands as they ran out the door, telling them "Have your teacher call me if they have a problem with you eating in class!" Four girls stayed with me to help clean up the mess, and I still had pancakes going on the grill, so I had them randomly deliver breakfast to nearby teachers. They didn't know who they should give breakfast to, so I just told them "pick anybody." Later, I had teachers approaching me saying "Thank you for breakfast this morning!" and I just felt so amused, because of course I had no idea that I had "given" them breakfast. How nice of me--I rock. =)
Throughout the course of the day, I tried to explain to my students that the Aces Breakfast isn't usually such a disaster, and my kids seemed confused by this. They thought the whole thing was great, and one student, Thomas, declared "those were the best eggs and sausage I have ever had!" Apparently Tommy likes the taste of burnt cheese. To each his own, I suppose.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Teaching in Jammies
Remember that post a couple of days ago where I mentioned that Clint and I were going to turn off all technology and spend time "connecting" with eachother? Well, Operation "Spend More Quality Time Together" went pretty well. Here's a transcript of our conversation:
--"So babe...how was your day?"
--"Pretty good! How was yours?"
--"Good!" (long pause) So...." (longer pause) "What do you want to talk about?"
--(shrug) "I don't know..." (long pause) "So..." (painfully awkward pause) "Are we allowed to
get on our laptops now?"
--(laughing) "Whatever woman."
So we lasted about forty seconds, but it's baby steps, you know? I'm sure for our next attempt we'll get to a full minute, but I don't want to be too optimistic.
Moses is getting so big. The bigger he gets, the more irresistible he is to me...I just love giant dogs. When we were in Lake Arrowhead on Sunday, I got to see an almost full-sized Newfoundland, which is rare...you don't see a lot of newfs in CA. This one was adorable; he was chocolate brown, which was the original color I wanted (I wanted a furry brown one so I could name him Chewbaca). He was a beast of a dog, but his feet were the cutest things of all. At that size you could really see his webbed toes, and it almost looked like he had flippers instead of feet. I don't think Moses will wind up with those giant flipper-feet, but he is going to be a huge mass of a dog when he reaches his full size. Thank goodness he's finally doing better on a leash. I took him for a nice long walk yesterday and he only drug me for about a block. After that I actually got to lead, which was cool. Except for he has this habit of lurching forward every time a car passes, and I need to break him of this soon before I wind up flat on my face, eating asphalt.
Halloween is getting closer, much to my chagrin. I hate Halloween. We are supposed to go to an overnight Halloween party tomorrow at the dojo, but I keep going back and forth as to whether I want to go. I have an adorable leopard costume that my friend from work is letting me borrow, but I always feel awkward and a bit silly when I'm wearing a costume. I feel like a kid playing "pretend" or "dress up"...a kid who is just a touch too old for such games. Costumes, in general, make me feel uneasy. So do the decorations...every part of the holiday leaves me feeling unsettled. At the same time, a lot of our really good kickboxing buddies are going, and I know it's going to be a fun crowd. If we don't go then we're probably missing out on a really great time, not to mention missing out on a chance to build some fun memories with the people in our class.
Speaking of dressing up, today was "Pajama Day" at my work. I love wearing jammies to work because they are so comfy, but the downfall is that it actually makes me feel more sluggish. Weird psychological thing, I guess. Plus, it's really hard to discipline adolescents on such days...apparently trampeding around with froggy slippers on your feet makes you less threatening of an entity.
--"So babe...how was your day?"
--"Pretty good! How was yours?"
--"Good!" (long pause) So...." (longer pause) "What do you want to talk about?"
--(shrug) "I don't know..." (long pause) "So..." (painfully awkward pause) "Are we allowed to
get on our laptops now?"
--(laughing) "Whatever woman."
So we lasted about forty seconds, but it's baby steps, you know? I'm sure for our next attempt we'll get to a full minute, but I don't want to be too optimistic.
Moses is getting so big. The bigger he gets, the more irresistible he is to me...I just love giant dogs. When we were in Lake Arrowhead on Sunday, I got to see an almost full-sized Newfoundland, which is rare...you don't see a lot of newfs in CA. This one was adorable; he was chocolate brown, which was the original color I wanted (I wanted a furry brown one so I could name him Chewbaca). He was a beast of a dog, but his feet were the cutest things of all. At that size you could really see his webbed toes, and it almost looked like he had flippers instead of feet. I don't think Moses will wind up with those giant flipper-feet, but he is going to be a huge mass of a dog when he reaches his full size. Thank goodness he's finally doing better on a leash. I took him for a nice long walk yesterday and he only drug me for about a block. After that I actually got to lead, which was cool. Except for he has this habit of lurching forward every time a car passes, and I need to break him of this soon before I wind up flat on my face, eating asphalt.
Halloween is getting closer, much to my chagrin. I hate Halloween. We are supposed to go to an overnight Halloween party tomorrow at the dojo, but I keep going back and forth as to whether I want to go. I have an adorable leopard costume that my friend from work is letting me borrow, but I always feel awkward and a bit silly when I'm wearing a costume. I feel like a kid playing "pretend" or "dress up"...a kid who is just a touch too old for such games. Costumes, in general, make me feel uneasy. So do the decorations...every part of the holiday leaves me feeling unsettled. At the same time, a lot of our really good kickboxing buddies are going, and I know it's going to be a fun crowd. If we don't go then we're probably missing out on a really great time, not to mention missing out on a chance to build some fun memories with the people in our class.
Speaking of dressing up, today was "Pajama Day" at my work. I love wearing jammies to work because they are so comfy, but the downfall is that it actually makes me feel more sluggish. Weird psychological thing, I guess. Plus, it's really hard to discipline adolescents on such days...apparently trampeding around with froggy slippers on your feet makes you less threatening of an entity.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Life is Short. Have an Affair.
This is the logo of an up-and-rising website that is putting a new twist on so-called "dating services." Clint and I saw an interesting commercial on television for a company called "Ashley Madison Agency," and he got curious as to what exactly this agency was. So we looked it up online, and it turns out that this agency is an online dating service for married people. According to the company's description, Ashley Madison is "the world's #1 married dating service specifically for ATTACHED men and women who are looking to have an extra-marital affair." It is basically a "match.com" designed specifically for those who are looking to cheat on their spouse. It cost $250 to sign up for Ashley Madison's services, but they do guarantee that you will have a satisfying extra-marital affair within three months or your money back. And the website currently has over four million members. Staggering.
That being said, what...the...hell? I guess I'm completely naive, because I had no idea that such blatantly immoral sites actually existed. Can we possibly come up with any more creative ways to desanctify marriage? But it's honestly not surprising...just look at the time we're living in. The liberals "gray area" has become like the Blob, oozing into every crevice of our value systems, slowly spreading and growing with each ounce of morality it gobbles up.
That being said, what...the...hell? I guess I'm completely naive, because I had no idea that such blatantly immoral sites actually existed. Can we possibly come up with any more creative ways to desanctify marriage? But it's honestly not surprising...just look at the time we're living in. The liberals "gray area" has become like the Blob, oozing into every crevice of our value systems, slowly spreading and growing with each ounce of morality it gobbles up.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Randomness
Just some random things....
First, I just read my sister's blog regarding our day at the shooting range, and it tripped me out because you could swear that we copied off each other. We basically described our day yesterday in the same manner. So is this a twin-thing or a lack-of-creativity-thing?
Secondly, I was thinking about the other day in kickboxing, how Sensei Brandon had us do 175 crunches. Every time he looked over in my direction, I would do the crunches quickly and enthusiastically, as if there was nothing in the world that I would rather be doing than those beautiful crunches. But every time he turned in the other direction to monitor other students in the class, I would slow down and do these fake type of "barely" crunches...or I would take a quick break--and then of course continue on the moment he looked in my direction again. I don't know why I'm bothering to write about this. I keep thinking about that saying "A true judge of character is what you do when you think no one is watching." I guess by this criteria, my true character is pretty lazy.
Third random thing: I've been sneaking and reading Kristyn's blog. I only say "sneaking," because on my last e-mail to her, I told her that I would no longer frequent her blog (or something to that effect). I actually meant it when I said it, too. And the funny thing is I never actually followed Kristyn's blog before the whole explosive e-mail incident. I read a couple things here and there, but that was about it. But now I can't seem to stay away. Her posts just have a down-to-earth quality to them that keeps me wanting to read more. The reason why I bring this up is because my sister commented on Kristyn's latest entry, and in Kristyn's reply back, there was the suggestion that she reads my sister's blog. This surprised me...I had no idea she followed Shannon's blog. So then I connected a few dots and figured out that, since I am listed as my sister's sole follower on her blog, there is a possibility that Kristyn is also reading mine...or has read mine in the past. I highly doubt this, because I just think she would find my blog incredibly uninteresting and boring to read, but there is that possibility. So if Kristyn is reading my blog, I guess this is my way of confessing to her that I have been reading her's, too.
Fourth random thing: Clinton and I have been having issues lately. Nothing big, but we both admitted last night that we've been experiencing somewhat of a "disconnect" with each other lately. There are nights when I go to bed and realize that we didn't share a single part of our day with each other. We think the Internet might be a big part of the problem. We both love being online, so we can easily sit next to each other for two hours on our laptops and never once have an actual conversation (other than the occasional grunting or monosyllabic words). We are the proverbial little old couple, sitting next to each other in our rocking chairs but never truly communicating (well...minus the rocking chairs and plus a little technology). So Clinton said that when I get home from work this evening, we are going to turn everything off, turn a little music on, and do nothing but talk for at least a half hour. That is why, for the first time ever, I am typing a blog entry from work...this way I won't be tempted to type one when I get home. Of course, now I'm negating work responsibilities, but that is neither here nor there.
Last random thing: I wasn't able to sleep with my gun last night (since I left it over at Shan's), which made for a rough night of sleep. Before Clint left last night, I was complaining that I had no way to protect myself. So then he gives me a sword. A friggen sword. I was dying laughing. I can just imagine... "Excuse me Mr. Intruder Sir, would you mind stepping back four feet so I can cream you?" I finally traded the sword for a more common place knife. I hate knives though...they make me shudder (I know, this makes no sense in light of the fact that I have no problem with guns). I'm ready to have my gun back. But when am I going to have time to drive up the mountain to go get it this week? Sorry--rhetorical question.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
I Killed a Bowling Pin
I'm going to make this one quick because I have to get some laundry done before bedtime. It would be really great to have something clean to wear to work tomorrow, instead of having to "spot clean" my work pants and throw them in the dryer.
I went to the shooting range today with my mom, dad, Shannon, Jeremy, and my niece Cassidi. It was so exhilarating to be able to shoot my gun...the last time I shot it was the day Adam and Sarah separated. I remember because it was on Clint's birthday, and we went to the gun range down-the-hill to celebrate (that was Clint's idea of fun). I believe that was two years ago now, but I'm really bad with tracking time because it seems to be going faster and faster. Anyway, today was such a pleasant day. The weather was beautiful--mid seventies and sunny. I've never been to an outdoor range before and I really loved it. We stayed for quite a long time, and I'm pretty sure that by the end, we had all shot to our heart's content. During our last hour there (after endless tries), I was finally able to shoot a bowling pin and a clay pigeon.
After we finished at the gun range, we were all ravenously starving, so we drove up to the village at Lake Arrowhead to eat lunch. Shannon, Jeremy, and my mom wanted to try this nice-looking Mexican restaurant, but my dad and I didn't want Mexican because we had just had it the day before. So we swayed them toward this new little cafe, and it wound up being pretty terrible. The place was messy, they were sold out on half of the items on their menu (which were already overpriced), and the server was not exactly what I would call "professional" (he was wearing a rockstar-looking shirt and his hat was on backwards). But we did have a great view of the lake, and the food, while mediocre, was still pretty satisfying (hunger makes you less picky). Still, we probably should've just gone for Mexican.
After lunch we perused the shops for a little while, went to a little bakery that had the most delicious chocolate chip/walnut cookies imaginable (and their pumpkin-spice chai was to die for...I stole a few drinks from my sis), and then headed home. I was so proud of myself, because I managed to drive home by myself from Crestline for the first time ever without feeling that panicky feeling I usually get. This time the landmarks finally stood out to me in a more friendly, familiar way, and I never had to call Clinton or my sister once to get directions. I know it's ridiculous to be proud of such a trivial, "normal" thing, but I can't explain how accomplished I felt making that drive today. Now it's officially on the "safe" list, and the fear of that drive will never again be a reason that I can't visit my sister.
The only downfall to the whole day was that I forgot to bring my gun case home...along with everything in it. Clint made me feel sort of crappy about this when I got home, but he later apologized and now seems to be over it.
I went to the shooting range today with my mom, dad, Shannon, Jeremy, and my niece Cassidi. It was so exhilarating to be able to shoot my gun...the last time I shot it was the day Adam and Sarah separated. I remember because it was on Clint's birthday, and we went to the gun range down-the-hill to celebrate (that was Clint's idea of fun). I believe that was two years ago now, but I'm really bad with tracking time because it seems to be going faster and faster. Anyway, today was such a pleasant day. The weather was beautiful--mid seventies and sunny. I've never been to an outdoor range before and I really loved it. We stayed for quite a long time, and I'm pretty sure that by the end, we had all shot to our heart's content. During our last hour there (after endless tries), I was finally able to shoot a bowling pin and a clay pigeon.
After we finished at the gun range, we were all ravenously starving, so we drove up to the village at Lake Arrowhead to eat lunch. Shannon, Jeremy, and my mom wanted to try this nice-looking Mexican restaurant, but my dad and I didn't want Mexican because we had just had it the day before. So we swayed them toward this new little cafe, and it wound up being pretty terrible. The place was messy, they were sold out on half of the items on their menu (which were already overpriced), and the server was not exactly what I would call "professional" (he was wearing a rockstar-looking shirt and his hat was on backwards). But we did have a great view of the lake, and the food, while mediocre, was still pretty satisfying (hunger makes you less picky). Still, we probably should've just gone for Mexican.
After lunch we perused the shops for a little while, went to a little bakery that had the most delicious chocolate chip/walnut cookies imaginable (and their pumpkin-spice chai was to die for...I stole a few drinks from my sis), and then headed home. I was so proud of myself, because I managed to drive home by myself from Crestline for the first time ever without feeling that panicky feeling I usually get. This time the landmarks finally stood out to me in a more friendly, familiar way, and I never had to call Clinton or my sister once to get directions. I know it's ridiculous to be proud of such a trivial, "normal" thing, but I can't explain how accomplished I felt making that drive today. Now it's officially on the "safe" list, and the fear of that drive will never again be a reason that I can't visit my sister.
The only downfall to the whole day was that I forgot to bring my gun case home...along with everything in it. Clint made me feel sort of crappy about this when I got home, but he later apologized and now seems to be over it.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
My Lil' Blogger
Trinity created her own blog. She's been itching to have one of her own ever since she saw mine, so I finally sat down with her this morning and helped her to create one. It is really cute and I hope she sticks with it. She loves to write, but the only thing that I can see being discouraging to her is how long it takes her to type. Plus she's somewhat of a perfectionist and wants everything spelled correctly (she just asked me how to spell "exhausting," followed by "amphibian"). Again, I really hope she sticks with blogging...what an awesome hobby for a 4th grader. Sure beats playing video games.
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