"Call me, woman"

I'm really tired and want to sleep, but my neighbors upstairs are playing the guitar above my bed, and there's some serious foot tapping going on. Seriously, who has the audacity to be loud after 10? Don't they realize that all three members of apartment 2 are snuggled up in bed by then?

I always see on the news that Bin Laden or someone else posted a new video on the internet ("Death to America, blah blah blah"), and I want to know how I get on the Al Qaeda website. Can I get directly on the website that Bin Laden blogs on? I'm not sure why I have some fascination with it, but I do. Oddly, a google search for "Al Qaeda offical website" turned up nothing, but I did find what apparently used to be their website a few years ago, though now when you get to the website, it just says "Hacked, Tracked, and now Owned by the USA"


Where can I see the webcasts for myself? And can I post messages for Osama to answer??

So, I've worked for 4 days (in a row!) and I'm kind of over the whole thing. I'm on two "teams" at school, which is kind of exciting since I haven't been on a team since broomball. I like all of the reading specialists that make up one of my teams, and we all knew each other before anyway so that's fun, but the professor that we work with is, in my opinion, a big dumb animal. I know I'm guilty of sitting through meetings/class and having my eyes glaze over, but I feel like she spends a greater percentage of time in the glazed-over state, than in the conscious and alert state. Then, if you talk to her, she repeats your question with her eyes closed at least 2 times. Plus, today she pretended she was 5 years old while I had to assess her. It was so much more fun playing school when I was 7...I felt a little stupid.

Next week all the kids come though! I can't wait to see their faces when they realize their parents did not in fact sign them up for 6 weeks of camp, and swimming, soccer, and ice cream parties, but instead for 6 weeks of school. It's going to be fun! Reading, writing, math....all through the summer!!!!!!

New Charles River Run

Check this out:




I ran a 5k! And I accomplished my goal of the race to run the thing A) without stopping to walk, and B) without dying. I'm kind of excited...there was definitely a time when I thought running a mile was some rare form of torture, but after yesterday I actually kind of like running.

It's hard to say whether my favorite part of the race was when Gillian sang the theme song to weight watchers to me, as we both said "I can do it! I can do it!" or when around mile 1 I suddenly saw my parents wandering along the side of the course, presumably trying to find a place to snap some pictures at the end. You'll note that you can actually see at least one other runner who was laughing as my parents fumbled to get out the camera, but I can safely tell you I heard some other giggles.



Since an hour before the race, until about an hour ago (a good 36 hours after the race) Gillian has told me at least 2 dozen times that she hates me for convincing her to get up before 8 on a Sunday to run in it. But we're forging on, and our next goal is the 4.2 mile race in August, right Gill??

It's all about the conservation

Sixteen years ago I participated in my elementary school's "Fun Run," which was a (fun) little probably 1/2 mile run around the school yard. I don't remember for sure, but I'd be willing to bet I only ran it for the popsicles at the end.

Being 7 or 8 years old, I had an interesting training idea in my head. Unlike Thanksgivings around that time, where I used to "practice" by stuffing myself at most meals for the week leading up to the big day, I decided to get ready for the Fun Run by conserving all of my energy in the days leading up to the event. That meant no running, no excessive playing that involved running, and basically just moving as slow as I could for the days before the race. A decade and a half later, that logic seems a little faulty.




Nevertheless, here I am getting ready for the second race in my life tomorrow, and I feel like I'm practicing the same training regimen. I was doing alright with some running, until it all of a sudden got abnormally hot & humid for mid-June, and I decided I couldn't do much running. I woke up this morning to a light rain, and thought I should go running, since I've skipped the past two days. But then I thought, "are you supposed to run the day before a race?" I wasn't sure if it would tire my legs out. So, I took today off as well, to conserve energy.

It's not going to be pretty tomorrow.

Summertime, in the city

I wish I could sing the rest of that song. I can't though. You wouldn't want to hear my attempt anyway.

Happy summer solstice, by the way.

I can't believe the school year is already ending. I saw some kids at the bus stop on my run this morning holding flowers and gift bags filled with useless things like candles and hand lotion, that teachers don't want. I wonder if it's tacky to provide my students' families (in my hypothetical future classroom) with an end-of-the-year wishlist so that I don't get stuck with 25 "A+ Teacher!" candles and doorknob decorations. If tacky isn't the right word, I'm sure "unprofessional" probably covers it.

Since today's the first day of summer, I think it's fitting that basketball finally ended last night, and the hockey season ended the night before. Maybe if I followed those two sports more closely I wouldn't care that they seem to last for 3/4 of the year. But does anyone else thing those seasons are ridiculously long??

I'm hoping to have some more interesting things to write about starting next week when I begin working. My daily activities are even boring me.


Bienvenue a Summer. Now go cook up some s'mores! P.S.: Roommates, can we make them on the stove tonight??

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

It's been quite the nice week. I've hit up the beach. I've read nearly two books that were both good. I've played for 2 straight days at the pool. I got my fancy educator's license in the mail after a long wait (although I was disappointed that it's just a piece of paper and not a laminated card for my wallet that says "I'm a Teacher!" or something like that). And I passed my fourth, and last, massachusetts teacher test.

But, I'm seeing the end of my vacation rapidly approaching. I have to begin my practicum a week from today. I was under the impression that there's a reading specialist in the school, but then the four other reading students and I practice our stuff kind of as backup reading specialists. But then I found out that we're the only ones, and that i'm THE reading specialist for the first and second grade. Which is kind of scary. And scarier still is that I'm supposed to be a mentor for the regular student teachers in the first and second grade...like, have them observe me teaching different kinds of reading/writing lessons, or observe them & give them feedback. Since I'm the only one of the five reading specialists who hasn't had her own classroom, I don't quite feel qualified doing that. I can't imagine it'll take too long for the student teachers to realize that I have no idea what's going on.

But, in a mere 8 weeks, I'll be totally done. And have an M.Ed. after my name. I like it because if you look quickly it almost looks like MD, except it took me two years to earn my title, not 8. And I fully intend to sign everything that way, at least for the first day.

Sugar and coffee and sunny days make me happy

It is gorgeous outside and I really really really want to take my book out and read for a few hours before babysitting. I put sunscreen on and everything. But alas, I need a job. And so now I'm inside, blogging about how I need to get some cover letters and resumes in envelopes and high-tail it to the post office.

Here's another picture from the weekend...it's Josh & me on the firetruck enjoying our treats from the ice cream truck (thank you pete)...this was just after we played tag, and just before the real fireman yelled at us.




Have you ever tried the brown sugar and cinnamon pop tarts? They're pretty incredible.

Spring Chicken

Last night Kerrin, Kristen, and I went over for a dinner party at Caitlin's new apartment. When I was little and used to imagine what it would be like when my friends and I were all grown up, I imagined nights like last night. Caitlin, because she's Caitlin, found a couple of recipes in Bon Apetit, and we all brought some dishes relating to her Mexican theme. It was a really fun time catching up over some glasses of Sangria :)



But then after dinner, we reverted to our high school selves, and made good use of Caitlin's gigantic living room. From the moment I walked into Caitlin's new apartment, I knew it was perfect for cartwheels.



Caitlin's having a big summertime bash on July 8th, by the way, and you're invited. (Caitlin said so).

I think the return of spring weather made me very eager to be 8 years old again during most of the weekend. After lunch today, Josh, pete and I took over a playground in Coolidge Corner, and played some wiffle ball and tag (with a lava pit) on a monkey bar fire engine in the playground.

And then.....THE ICE CREAM TRUCK CAME!!!!!

We...er, Pete, bought us ice cream, and we sat in the front seat of a fire engine enjoying our popsicles until a real fire truck drove by and one of the fire fighters leaned out to tell us that we were too old to be doing that.

It's all making me very excited for summer. Minus the working. Two more weeks of vacation. I think I'm going to the beach tomorrow.

toad

I'm so confused about what day it is, what time it is, and when I have to be up tomorrow. Kate, Pukes, and I went out to dinner tonight, and then ended up at a neat little bar that holds about 50 people and is across the street from us to listen to some ok live music and watch the sox game, on kate's phone. We hadn't been to this bar in probably a good 8 or 9 months, mostly because the last time we thought everyone there was too old (and kind of ugly). I've renewed my interest in the bar though since Theo Epstein showed up as a surprise to play guitar there a few weeks ago. I figure if I go 7 nights a week for the next 2-3 years I'm bound to catch him. But it was a fun time, maybe because we were with a little group, and the people there didn't seem as old (or ugly). (As a general rule...some people there were both old and ugly). One of our neighbors was with the band though, and that was exciting, because it was almost like he was famous, and I like seeing famous people. I once had my picture taken with a meteorologist.

But now I'm all confused because I had two beers, ands I have to be up at 6:40...or 6:05 if I decide to run, and it's an odd occurrence for me to have any drinks on a weeknight. This is an odd post...I haven't slept well the past few nights and I think I'm somehow bordering on drunk/tipsy. I'm just going to put myself to bed now.


This reminds me of those glow-worm dolls everyone had in elementary school in the 80s

Jobbity job job

It's after midnight. I can't sleep. I even tried lying horizontally in my bed. I have to be up in a little over 6 hours to run & then get ready to go to an interview. The interview is for a weird job...an "associate teacher." It's a term this school made up...it's not an assistant teacher, but it's not a head teacher. I'm getting the idea that it's kind of like teaching with some training wheels still on. Originally I thought it was a bunch of bologna, but the more I hear about the job, the more I think, "Yeah, that makes sense...I need this one more year of practice before I am thrown to the wild animals (and have 20+ little angels of my own to mold for 9 1/2 months)." I hate that his potential job has made me think this way, because now I'm getting super nervous about having my own classroom and am starting to convince myself that I need more training wheel time. But then of course my ego steps in and doesn't want the job. I've spent the past two years getting my master's, and going the extra distance to get two licenses, and then all just to say I'm an associate teacher?

Of course, who knows if they'll even offer me a job there. It's just frustrating that I have no other bites at my resume so far. Though I guess it still hasn't been THAT long that I've been looking for a job, and schools will still be hiring for the next 2 and a half months. I just really wanted this process to be easier, and a little bit more fun. No one really gave me the heads up about that part, did you? Well now don't you feel a little sorry that it resulted in you wasting 3 minutes of your life listening to me whine?

And that is a piece of what has been going on in my head for the past 2 hours since I've been in bed.

Did you hear about the people betting on whether or not the world would end today, on 6-6-06? Could someone explain to me how that bet would work out exactly?

Here brotherman, have two.

I have two burning questions. One, why do they usually have to kill horses when they break their legs? Let's say even if the horse could never walk again, I don't get why it can't just lie around? There are plenty of people who do that, and we don't shoot them.

My other question is why when that horse Barbaro break his leg did people hold up signs when he was being carted away? Stuff like "We love you Barbaro" and things along that line? Barbaro can't read. And Barbaro doesn't even know that the signs are for him.

In between napping/reading on the beach and making scavenger hunts for my 3 year old buddy, I've been working on getting some job applications out this week. My mom has been bugging me to apply to the school that she works at because she knows of a position there. I really don't want to work in that school unless it was my only option (and I was offered a job there to begin with). It would be way too uncomfortable because a)My mom works there, and b)I attended that school from 1989 to 1992. Some of my old teachers still work there and it would be too weird. My mom knows that I don't want to work there, and has been pushing me to apply because, so she says, it's one more place to apply to, and even if I don't want to work there it'll be good interviewing practice. And I agree on both of those points.

However, she has been nagging me so much that I think she has alterior motives. I know that two teachers who are already working in the school as paraprofessionals are applying for the job, and my mom doesn't really like either of these two people, and thinks they're both lousy teachers. I have a strong suspicion that she just wants to see if I get offered the job over the two people she doesn't like. Which I'm guessing won't happen anyway, but it's all very awkward.

All in all I give the past weekend my seal of approval. I was napperific on Friday night and didn't really feel like going out, but after about 29 texts from Kate I hauled it over to Copley where her coworkers were helping to wrack up at $200 bill with lemondrop shots and lots and lots of coors light.



Then last night Lucas & Jeremy had a going away party for Puker before he ships off to Chinese bootcamp and then off to the land of communism & dog-eating. We eventually made our way over to BHP, which was packed more than usual since the bouncer told us as we walked in that he didn't feel like starting a line to have people enter, and asked us just not to start any fires since they were way over capacity. I got caught up staring at some bimbo girl wearing a sailor-style (complete with that bib thing) dress/shirt, and lost Kate and caitlin, only to find them parked in front on MartyBen at the bar, and Kate snapping pictures of her favorite bartender "in action" with her new Razr.

And then I have to give a big thank you to Gillian, who graciously woke up when we called her in Davis Square after we got to our apartment and realized neither of us brought our keys out and we didn't Gillian's key to get in. So thanks, we've got your back the next time you lock yourself out.

I'm off to get my nap blanket & crystal light, and camp myself in front of the sox game.