I can almost smell the paychecks

My 20 or 21 consecutive years of education is officially over, and tomorrow's the day I enter the working world. It's really weird. I've picked out my first day of work outfit, and had a dream last night that I forgot what I was going to wear and decided on jeans and then felt dumb for the whole first day. I hate the idea of starting to work for the next 40 years of my life or so, but I was pretty, pretty bored all this past week on vacation. There was only one good beach day, and our internet and cable were on and off all week. It was hard, really. What, no sympathy from all of you working people? Well ok.

I feel like I'm getting ready for my first day of school. I thought carefully about what to bring for lunch and what to wear, and just packed my bag with my brand new notebook and a pen I like. I'm kind of nervous, but mostly because I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing in the meetings all day tomorrow, and I don't like not knowing anyone else there. It's pretty similar to my first day of first grade. Except that my mom made my lunch. I'm still bringing the same old PB & J and an apple though...You can't go wrong the classics.

Goodbye Unemployment

Today I was offered a job, and I'm planning on accepting it tomorrow. I'm a little excited to say that I'm a preschool teacher, and come Labor Day, I'll have my very own class of 18 preschoolers. It'll be interesting, to say the least. I don't really know so much about teaching preschool, but I guess I'll figure it out as I go along. I figure my kids won't know much about preschool either, so it works out.

Last weekend there was a lot of celebrating because it was the end of grad school. This weekend, I'm thinking there should be a lot of drinking because I got a job. There should maybe be extra drinking because now I can afford to keep living in the city, and that's good news. Oh, and I don't want to drink alone, so who's with me?

I'm going to need a good reason to celebrate next weekend though, so get thinking.




I'm not sure what the promise is, but I hope it involves chocolate cupcakes.

Aufiderzein (i have no idea how to spell that)

Our internet has been slower than me when I attempt to run after housing a bowl of salsa and a bag of tortilla chips. It's made me really, really angry. I was hoping one of my roommates would get on the phone with the comcast people and fix it, but alas, the job was left to me--the one who does not work.

I had to embarrasingly hang up on the comcast people the first time I tried, because I couldn't find the modem and I didn't know what I was even looking for. After wandering around Kate's room for an akward 45 seconds, I told the lady that it was buried and I'd call back soon.

But then I tried again, and wasn't even tricked with a nice man named Lee told me to do something with the router too. Right now I'm feeling on top of the world. Not only does our internet work again, but I can find both the modem AND the router.

In sadder news, I think our cute neighbor is moving away. I saw the moving van and assumed it was for the new people moving into the third floor, but then I saw the cute guy going out to the van. Seeing as though those guys moved in right before Helen moved out last year, my suspicious is that it's time for them to head on out of Scummies...

I am back on vacation as of this week, and although I do enjoy having the whole day to do whatever I want, and get whatever I want done, I forgot how dull it can be. I enjoyed having something to do all day, and at the end of the day actually feeling like I did something at least mildly important.

The only fulfilling thing I did today was finally track down the lotion that I really like, after searching in half a dozen stores over the past few weeks. I feel like getting drunk. Anyone?

What happens in Cabo stays in Cabo

Ok I remembered the last bit of exciting news from last week. So, my roommate is a music fanatic, and knows a lot of useless lyrics and facts. As such, she has brainwashed me to not only like her music, but to memorize lots of random knowledge about her favorite bands and songs. Someone can mention Stone Gossard, and before you know it, I'm off on some tangent, throwing out stuff like "Brad" and making connections to Chris Cornell. I was really really hoping that one day something would come up in real life (eg, not on our futon) where I could all of a sudden babble out what I know, and impress everyone around me.

Last week, I went to trivia downtown with some people, and lo and behold, I heard an obscure question that I was able to answer because of all of the dumb trivia I've memorized! It was amazing! I never thought that moment would come.

I think that this past week I forgot that I'm not 20 years old and in college anymore. I've been heading out to the bar during the weekdays, and staying up past 4 in the morning on weekends. It's been rough. But fun. Losure's back in the big T, and amazingly he spent 12 hours at our place and nothing was broken! (that we know of). I have yet to hear the accident report from Pete. I imagine it's pretty lengthy, after 2 weeks of Losure habitation.

Well, tomorrow's a big day. I'm off to get ready for bed....

p.s.--3 days until the new season of Laguna Beach starts.

I think I can still feel my coffee

So, 3 big pieces of news.

1) I just got home and Kate left me a bowl of buttery popcorn. It's amazing. I'm not sure how, but I forgot dinner tonight. I think that's the first time that's ever happened. So the popcorn is good. And salty.

3) I can't remember what number two was. Maybe it'll come to me when I finish 3, and I'll add it in at the end. But, in less than 12 hours I will be done with grad school. That's two whole years--done! It is a really strange thought that I'll actually be done, since it still amazes me that I'm old enough to be done with college, or even high school. I'm so excited because I finished all of my work tomorrow so I can sleep in until 6:45 on Friday morning...and then never see the world that early for at least a little while. Hopefully not too long. I feel like I get to snooze so late that I decided it would be a good idea to go play drinking games in Brookline until 11:30. And now I'm sort of drunk, and gobbling up popcorn, and way too excited about finishing up to fall asleep anytime soon.

The plan is to go to school for the morning, and then the reading teachers get to leave at noon. I'm going out for lunch & drinks with the other reading teachers, and then beginning some more drinking around 2. It will be quite the day.

I have a feeling I'll be reaquainting myself with my pillow shortly after dinner time Friday night.



Done!

Caitlin and her birthday bonanza

Yeah! Pictures! And flattering ones!











And, happy early birthday to Caitlin!!!

Sunny D--Summer Forever!

I got into work today just before 7 AM, so when I finished bus duty a little after 3 this afternoon, I decided that I'd finish up a small bit of work, and head home to do work there and have a change of scenery. I'm not sure why it always seems like a good idea to leave and try to do work at home, since I inevitably get very little done. As it turns out, I had a snack and lied down on my bed to sort of regroup for a few minutes before facing my diagnostic assessment report (sounds fancy, doesn't it) head-on. About one hour later, I woke up really hot and confused, wondering whether it was 5 o'clock AM or PM, and if I had in fact fallen asleep in my work clothes and slept through the night. I was too delirious to think through the idea that I'm pretty sure I could never sleep for a whole 13 hours in a row, let alone miss dinner & a night time snack.

On Saturday we celebrated Caitlin's birthday and the fact that Losure is in town. After many games of flip cup, a shared pitcher of beer, and a few rounds of shots for every time we lost at darts, I was kind of wishing I could still hold my alcohol the way I could senior year of college. My body was in pain for a lot of Saturday. Well, also do in part to the hours spent Sunday afternoon running around the park playing wiffle ball, soccer, and hanging on the monkey bars. Caitlin sent some fabulous pictures from her birthday celebration evening, but I can't seem to get them online to be able to share.

I feel like my liver could be in for another beating this weekend...I sort of want to celebrate the end of grad school, and then end of 20 consecutive years of education that concludes on Friday. Come on, that's a reason for binge drinking if I ever heard one.

Yikes! Stripes! Fruit-striped bubble gum! (Name where that's from...)

Hooray! I've got just under two weeks of teaching at summer school left. That's just 18 more lesson plans to write (not counting the 2 that I already taught today but never got around to writing up the plan), 16 more sessions with my reading groups from hell, and just 9 more opportunities for Trevon to tell me it's "straight up cheap" when I ask him to stop singing songs about Jamaica in the reading room because it's making it hard for the other students to be good learners and for me to be a good teacher.

Losure and his fellow Texans arrived in the city this weekend. So things should get interesting...and by interesting, I mean drunk and broken. I was feeling under the weather this weekend and not up for painting the town red, but I plan on making up for it next weekend (which is also Caitlin's big birthday weekend). And, I hope to celebrate big-time the following weekend, which is Losure's last weekend, and also the official end of grad school for me. It'll be even cooler if I have a job by then. I'm not sure what to say when people ask what I do...right now I say I'm in grad school, but if I can't say "I'm a __ grade teacher" after school's done, should I just go into my explanation about how I'm comfortable with my afternoon tv lineup but still unsettled for the morning since Katie Couric's departure?

Well, I guess there are still a few weeks left to work on that response. In the mean time, I'm living in a dump of a room. Off to take care of that.

Been talking to my priest today

Well. It's been awhile. I figured I'd have lots and lots of stuff to write once I was "working," but I never want to be sitting at my computer once I get home from "work."

I do actually have some good work stories...like my little buddy Trevon who is 6 but probably weighs close to my weight, and has more attitude than I'll ever have. He was convinced I wasn't giving him as many opportunities to do some minor activity as the other kids in my reading group, and remarked to me, "That's straight up cheap!" Later I heard him say that an activity in the classroom "sucks." Luckily, the lesson was planned by a student teacher, and not me.

I went to Cape Elizabeth last weekend, and I was hoping I'd have some pictures to share, but for some reason I can't get them to work on here. I'd draw a picture, but I'm kind of lazy right now, and sort of in a food coma.

So instead, I'll post some special pictures, because....

Losure arrives this weekend! With real live Texans! Get your bids in now for what he'll knock over or otherwise destroy!





And of course, what is soon to come from a visit from Losure:

Worth a visit, worth a lifetime

Oh man. Killer of a week. It was too hot even for me. I'm surprised more people with normal body temperatures didn't die. I don't know, maybe they did. I didn't watch a lot of the news. Is this going anywhere? No, probably not.


I had my first observation as a reading specialist yesterday. It wasn't all that bad, but it's nice to have it over & done with because I wasn't really looking forward to having two professors sit and watch me and take notes. So the good news is that my second one is already coming up in a week from today. I like getting feedback about what I'm doing right or wrong, but I just don't like adults watching me do my stupid "teacher" act. It's sort of embarrassing. Luckily, there's no singing involved in any of my reading lessons.



I'm headed off tomorrow for my yearly mini-vacay with my fam & our Londonderry counterparts. Did you know that in Maine beer is like $1.00? Sure, you have to look at people with 4 teeth, and watching siblings make out, but it's all part of the experience.


I just know that if they'd open their mouths they'd be missing some teeth.

mmm sweatbath

I'm in my own personal Survivor contest as we speak. It's me versus the heat, day 1. I live by the philosohpy that it's so cold most of the year so you're supposed to be hot in the summer, and so I've decided that this summer I'm going to leave my AC in its box. Or, I was kind of lazy and it hasn't been too uncomfrtable up until now, so I thought there's no point in it since I've already made it through June and half of July. I figured there's really only maybe 5 or 6 nights out of the whole summer that I actually need the AC on to sleep, and so I'd rather have all of my windows open and unblocked for all of those other times. But tonight is sort of hot. I hung out in the freezer section of the supermarket in between writing lesson plans tonight. And I'm about to take an ice cold shower before settling into bed (no down comforter tonight!), as I drift off to dreamland, listening to the cruel hum of the air conditioner above my window in the upstairs apartment. Tonight's one of those nights when I have to sadly shake my head and admit that I wouldn't be able to live year round in southern Texas, like I undoubtedly think would be heaven every year around January. Oh well, it's only one night. Tomorrow night my roommates and I are having a sleepover in Kate's room. She doesn't know it yet, but it's going to be great! I'm bringing the popcorn and trashy magazines.



Oh, and a shiny quarter if you can guess what I'm wearing on my shoulder. Thanks Molly. And Kate for documenting it.

Shouldn't it be Friday by now?

This Zidane headbutt game is pretty fun. You're Zidane, and you get to headbutt the Italian guys until the ref gives you a red card.



In other news, I've decided to quit grad school. AND, I've picked out a new career. I'm going to be a professional baby smiler. I'll spend my days walking around malls and parks and just smiling and waving at babies. I'm really excited for this new endeavor in my life.


I like babies. They generally like me.

Pugs comes to visit tomorrow!

Infectious diseases and whoopie pie

I wish someone would remind me everytime I re-enter the "working world" how much it sucks to have to do something 5 days a week that requires at least 90% of your brain to be functioning. This is no fun at all! Well, it's a tiny bit fun, but I'd still rather be able to go to the beach when I want and watch what all of our neighbors do during the daytime...

Anyway it's been a rough transition from looking out my window to teaching today's youth to read. Add in a case of measles at the school last week, and it's been one incredible week. Let me know if you get a rash that starts on your face & spreads to all over by the way. I could be incubating. Who gets the measles anyway? When they first told us a teacher had it, I immediately thought of Charlotte...because who gets TB??


I don't know about you, but I had no idea how gross measles are


I can't get myself into a running routine because it's been too hot most days when I get home from work, but I'm pretty horrified that starting tomorrow I might be getting up around 5:20 to run, at least a few days a week. I'm pretty sure it won't actually happen more than once or twice...but I can't think of any better idea than just going in the morning. I'm guessing though that this great idea will be over & done soon, and before I know it, I'll get to be on Maury because they'll be cutting my obese body out of the apartment!! That's a whole hour of fame! (They'll dedicate a whole show to my removal, right?)

I tried a google image search of someone getting cut out of their house, but nothing came up.

Beam me up

I had the coolest dream last night. NASA sent me up to space on the shuttle. Unfortunately, my alarm clock went off before my shuttle actually took off, but I had awhile to explore the shuttle, which was by far the coolest thing I've ever been in...there were bedrooms, stairs leading up to different levels, a huge pantry which for some reason was stocked with about 20 different kinds of beer, and really thick white carpet that felt great under my feet.


If you look closely, you can see me waving out that window, with a corona in my hand

I'm not really sure why I was being sent up to space. I only remember that I was nervous about feeling sick when we got high enough to where there was no gravity. Oh, and I was a little nervous about the seating arrangements on the way up to space. Apparently, the fellow astronauts and myself were allowed to walk freely around the shuttle, up and down the stairs and through the pantry and the game room and all of the other fun stuff, but only once the shuttle had gone high enough up...until then, you had to stay strapped in your seat without moving for 20 hours. For some reason, kate was also on my shuttle, and we found out we had to sit next to each other...we tried explaining that we wouldn't get along if we were sitting together for so long, but the other astronauts just didn't care. Then I walked around the really cool shuttle for awhile longer, and then my alarm clock went off.

And then I spent the morning thinking maybe I should be learning to be an astronaut, instead of a teacher. It was a really fun, short-lived career.

Summer school started today though, which was ok too. I'm still not doing so much since it's too early to start all of my fun reading specialist duties, so it was a lot of collaborating with the other reading specialists in my program and getting to know the kids in my class. Who are, for the most part, really cute. We had a pair of identical twins that I can't tell apart, one girl who covered her face when I tried to get a conversation going with her, and then later cried, and two boys that I think will drive me bonkers, and make me thankful that I'm just the reading specialist and don't have to be in the room all day long. All in all, it should be a decent summer though...especially because in 5 weeks from Friday I am DONE with my master's!

"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.