Halloween

Here we are in all our Halloween glory. I was the spider witch and Ang was very official in her doctor scrubs. She ran around all day announcing she was late for rounds and using her real stethescope to listen for brains in students' heads:-)
It was a good day, my kids seemed to really like the movie I showed them - 1931's Frankenstein, in black and white, which threw them a bit. Then we read a poem based on the movie and talked about how the moster was really just lonely and sad. All and all a great educational holiday!
Then we hurried home to pass out treats. We didn't think we'd have many kids as Ang had hardly any last year but we had tons. Our 30 carmel apple suckers were gone before 7 and we had to tell several kids we were out (even though we'd taken down the sign already!).
So happy halloween, hope you ate some candy for me!

Fall

Today feels like fall officially. When we left this morning it was cool. And when we got out of work tonight it was warm but that warm that is just sun and not heat. I wore a sweater to school today, thank goodness, the air conditioning made my room a freezer all day!
Tomorrow is Halloween, I can't believe October is done already. I'm showing the 1931 version of Frankenstein in class tomorrow so we'll see how that goes over. The kids will be confused when it's in black and white:-)
Also, I am back writing again. I had a bit of a slump after finishing Patricia but I'm back at it with Molly's story so don't fear. I plan to be on your local Barnes and Noble shelves in no time!
Happy Halloween everyone! Eat some treats for me:-)

My birthday!

Here's a pic of me on my 29th birthday. Note the jade necklace I am wearing, compliments of Angela. We found it in Mexico for a song!

My new glasses

After several years (maybe 4 or so) I finally have vision insurance again and was able to get new glasses with my new prescription, which oddly, went down meaning my eyesight is improving with age. Interesting. So here they are - my new specs. My students told me on Friday they make me look smart. I wonder how I looked before:-)

The day of the faux pas

Thursday was quite the day in seventh grade for me. I was feeling good about things. We did spelling review, we did a unit test review, and we began the very arduous process of learning to write an outline, complete with a thesis statement. This will be a year-long process and I was happy we got several sentences nailed out. It didn't matter that they didn't start with capital letters or end with any punctuation but we did it!
But there was also tribulation in my day - surprise! shock! awe!
First off, I had a form to give back to my students. The problem was the forms only had parent names on them. So I was being a super slueth and silly me, I thought if the last name was the same, it must be that student's. Nope. I asked a girl if the form was hers, if this was her father's name and she informed me her father had passed away. And this was in the first five minutes of the school day.
I made it all the way to the end of the day without another faux pas. It was seventh hour when we all started to lose it. We were all tired, I love my seventh hour kids but I was tired of them, of it all by this point. Coming back from vacation was taking its' toll on us all. And I was trying to teach outlining to them. Nothing exciting about this. And they were giggling. Even the boys. I couldn't keep their attention to save my soul. It had been this way for a good hour. So I started our new activity when one of my favorite students yells at his best friend across the room, "Shut up Retardo!" And I lost it. Because the boys name is Ricardo and this was funny. I was up in front of the class, with their attention (supposedly) focused on me. And my face betrayed me. My muscles took over and began to form a smile much to my desire to frown. But I could NOT help it. And everyone's looking at me now, of course. And I chuckle. (Aside - I laughed so hard I cried when I told this story to Shannon and Angela after school and I am laughing again now, outloud as I write this!)
And then Ricardo looks at me and says, "You're laughing at me?" with this little smile. And I say, "No, you all just are so weird. Let's get going." But they all knew I was laughing and I knew it and let's just say, I was glad when the bell rang:-)
Now I have to be vigilant every time I see Ricardo not to call him by his unsavory, but hilarious, nickname. :-)

It's a tough job Charlie Brown

Within three weeks of the new school year we lost our first teacher. She packed up and moved back to New York City where, apparently, the pay is better even if the walls don't have paint. She was my across the hall neighbor, taught special ed, and her name is still above the door. This may be why I cannot ever remember the long term sub's name. Ever. Even though she talks to me ten times a day. I know, I am a horrible person.
Then today, one quarter and one day into the school year, we lost our second new teacher. This time an eighth grade math teacher who's been having troubles with classroom management. The interesting thing is he's resigned (so we hear) but requested to stay on as an aide in his classroom, with a permanent sub who's barely out of college. Weird. I say good for him for wanting to learn but I doubt I could do that. That takes guts. To go from being the teacher to being the aide. For the kids, and eighth graders at that, to see that. Wow. It makes sense, because they'll fulfill their contract to him but I would have probably requested a different school.
So yeah, two down. I think I'll make it but I am bound to get some static this week. That's just who I am:-) I like to ruffle the feathers a bit.
On a brighter note, we just finished watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. If you are not watching this show and you care anything about good writing and interesting, intelligent entertainment, PLEASE WATCH THIS SHOW. It's endangered but it's smart and engaging and I love it. It's so fast and you have to pay attention and you'll want to, I promise. I promise or I'll refund your money. Now that's a bargin. Also do it for me because the television drama and comedy shows as we know them are highly endangered. NBC just announced huge pay cuts all across the board and announced they'll no longer buy any new dramas or comedies for their eight o'clock hour. It's all going to be reality programming. And while I know those shows are also written, it's just not the same. And because I want to work on a really good show someday, please watch them now so I'll have the chance. Please please please.
Ok - getting off my soapbox. I'm stuffing it under my bed with the boxes of every card and letter I've ever received. I'm heading to bed. Five fifteen comes very early here in the west:-)

Issues

Apparently my blog is having issues - i.e., being invisible to all of my loyal readers (i.e., Mom!) so if you are reading this without your x-ray glasses, please let me know.
On the up side, Ang and I spent a leisurely day in the car today, driving to San Diego and back home again, picking up my car on the turn. It is all better and best of all - it was all free! All under warranty. Which seemed suspicious at first, seeing it's over 50,000 miles but I am not one to question ANYTHING free:-)
Have a super Sunday everyone. Love to all!

Another year older

Is it possible to grow older without feeling older? Because that may be what's happened this year. I certainly don't feel wiser but I suppose that's par for the course...
Nevertheless I had a wonderful birthday! I talked to my parents on and off all day:-) and I got some lovely gifts, gifts that were so thoughtful. Whoever would have thought I would be so excited to get scissors for my birthday!?!? But I was, they are beautiful, handmade sewing scissors for my cross-stitch work. And I am wearing the goregous jade necklace Angela picked up for me south of the border;-)
So another year older, another new beginning. And many wishes to come true...

The city of angels

I've officially been there. The place that is idolized in television and films, the mecca of plastic surgery and surfers, la-la land. And let me tell you. It was pretty great. It reminded me of other big cities, like Chicago, there was a lot of traffic and there were a lot of pretty people. But there seemed to be a lot of normal people and I heard tons of non-English speakers (and not much Spanish).
Friday we drove up and got there around 3. We found Santa Monica pretty quickly and our hostile was right where it was supposed to be:-) with a parking lot directly across the street. The hostel was a great experience, relatively inexpensive (we had a private room with 2 twin beds and it was $164 for 2 nights) and very clean. There was a kitchen area where we could buy breakfast ($1.75 for a bowl of cereal but hey - we figured it was the cheapest breakfast in town), a movie room, quite a few open spaces to relax in, and friendly staff (not at all hostile like the guidebook warned).
Friday night we had dinner at Buca di Beppo which was scrumcious! The best green beans and ravioli and tiramisu! Then we walked all along the 3rd Street Promenade (tons of people and great shops) and the Santa Monica mall (not too prosperous on a Friday night). We also rode the ferris wheel (even though it was cloudy) on the pier.
Saturday we took an L.A. bus tour. We left at 9:30 and got to see some stars' homes (Bill Cosby, Steven Spielberg, Drew Barrymore), and then they dropped us off at the Getty museum. The Getty was something, sprawling and beautifully designed. We saw a great photograph exhibit and some Impressionist works and the amazing garden and then laid on the grass a while, and ate what may have been the best sandwich I ever had - ham and brie.
Then the bus picked us back up and took us to Rodeo Drive where we had 40 minutes to window shop, the air even feels expensive there, and buy 3 dollar diet cokes. Then it was onto Sunset Blvd and then Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We took pictures of Big Bird's star and Penny Marshall's star and then ate gelato across the street. Then we headed up to Mullholand Drive and took photos with the famous Hollywood sign (which I didn't know used to say Hollywood Land, and was a for sale sign, and then they took the Land part off and left the rest! trivia for the day).
All in all a busy day and then we went back to the promenade and paid $10.75 for a ticket to see Man of the Year, which was pretty funny.
All in all, L.A. wasn't too expensive. We managed to eat for about $10 a meal (except for Buca) and most of the sightseeing was free (our tour was $64 and we got a $12 discount for staying at the hostile) and the best part is the ocean is free:-)
I can't wait to go back...and see where the magic happens;-)

Me and my car

And so the saga continues.... (I'll post about the L.A. trip in the next post)
This morning I ran into Angela's room victorious, and announced, "My car and I do not have Munchausen Syndrome!"
But let me back up a bit.
Sunday morning we left L.A. and were almost to San Diego when - guess what! - the service engine soon light came on, again. So I hemmed and hawed and decided not to leave my car in San Diego after leaving it last week and the Saturn guys telling me they could find nothing wrong with it.
So we kept driving. We got about 20 minutes outside of San Diego when - boom! - the cruise control goes out. So of course I am frustrated and just a little angry and we decide to turn around and leave the car in San Diego with a note that says please fix it or give me an appraisal. I won't take a broken car 3 hours home again.
Then I got a call this morning, and surprise! My car is really broken. They found some "codes" in the computer and apparently the transmission case is not working and needs to be half-replaced. Something about torque and who knows what else. The only part I concentrated on was Jesus, the service guy, telling me that the part is under warranty from Saturn. Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!
So I still have to get it this week but maybe we'll make a day of it and go to the beach again or Fashion Valley and window shop:-) I just love semi-happy endings.

Another weekend at the beach

But a different beach (okay, same water, same seaweed, but different locale). We're heading to L.A. in the morning to the international hostel in Santa Monica. Yep! Another adventure! We got a private room (shared bath) for 2 nights/2 people and it's only $64! Woohoo! And sheets are included (though Ang is worried about pillows so we'll throw ours in). It's on 2nd Ave right near the beach and the Santa Monica pier with it's solar powered ferris wheel (which Ang is also worried about as it's supposed to be cloudy this weekend).
I am excited. It's about a 4 hour drive to L.A. and Santa Monica's half an hour north. We're hoping to take a bus tour and go to the pier and walk the beach in Venice and go to the farmer's market and just have fun and relax!
I'll write if we don't stay in the sand:-)

The West Coast

We returned last night, after two days in San Diego. We had a great time and only got a little lost:-) But that's the fun of a road trip, right?!? That and the snacks you get to buy at the truck stops.
Sunday we got to town and headed straight for the beach, a different beach this time, but still the beach. We found a great little restaurant where we got to eat outside that had huge salads (this was pre-lettuce recall, oh joy), called The Green Flash. Then we walked in the ocean.
It was a little cool but not bad once you were in the water. It was sunny and the tide was out. And we found sand dollars! It was so cool. There they were, just like you see in the shops or on the necklaces. We found a ton of them. We washed them off and laid them in my sandals and carefully brought them home. Very cool. We brought cracked ones home to, to break, to find the doves, which we did. God amazes me so much. To think that he put these here just for us to find. I mean why did they wash up but not the other shells of animals? Amazing!
Then we walked around the gaslamp district which was hopping because the Padres were in town. We ate at Buca di Beppo which had the most awesome Italian food and tons of it then we ended up in this restaurant/bar called Dick's Last Resort. We had drinks and a great brownie ice cream dish and lots of laughs. The band was funny, and not bad. They all had black afro wigs on and sang a lot of 80s/90s favorites. And the waiters are all obnoxious and scream and throw napkins and wrap the children in paper table cloth paper and make them giant hats that say things like "I fart a lot" or "I pee in the bathtub". It was pretty great. Also, the party behind us was 3 women and 3 kids. And the one woman had her little boy deliver a "note" to our cute waiter with her phone number on it. Gotta love moms who use their kids to hit on the nice waitstaff.
Monday we hit the Zoo. Highlights: the baby panda sleeping in the tree, the huge brown bear taking a soak in his pond, the polar bears jumpin in for a mid-morning splash, the dancing elephant (she just stood there swaying back and forth as if she had her ipod on!), the koalas lunching on leaves, the baby meerkats playing, the lionnesses chasing after lunch (which was being thrown by a zookeeper), the baby giraffe posing for a picture. It was a great zoo day, warm but not sunny. And the animals were pretty active which rocked.
All in all, a great weekend on the coast. I can't wait to go back! (Which we have to do since we left Ang's car there at the Saturn dealership. Oh and a note for all of you following my ongoing VUE saga: after driving it 3 hours to San Diego and the techs there driving it 30 miles on Monday, they can't find anything wrong with it! So I brought it home. Lovely.)

Vacation!!!!

It's official, we made it to intercession. What that means for us teachers is that we don't go back to school for 2 whole weeks. I am mighty excited. We started the break off right yesterday, Susie came into town from Michigan and we met Shannon and Pedro in Algodones for lunch and some shopping. It was fun to have some who speaks Spainish there to haggle for us. (But we did have to walk away a lot, Pedro is pretty particular and knows when they're robbing us blind.)
In a few minutes we are off to San Diego. Today I think we're going to be beach bums and walk along the coast and just hang. Tomorrow we'll go to the Zoo and maybe hit the outlet mall on the way back. That is if my car doesn't cost me an arm and a leg. I am going to drive it to San Diego and leave it at the Saturn dealership so say a prayer for it. I am hoping we don't have to put her down:-)
In other news - woohoo Tigers. It's been a long time coming since '84. Oh, I also survived my first parent/teacher conferences. I had less than 3o parents come and of course none of the ones I really needed to or wanted to see about behavior issues. Go figure.
Ok - we're heading to Southern California;-) Aren't you jealous. It's 80 degrees and perfect here!

Europe is champion!

That's right, this afternoon North America was relegated to second place when Angela's team Europe won two out of three spell offs to become the first ever Spell Off champion team! Congrats to all the kids. It was pretty great to watch the kids spell all day, to hear and see what they know, to watch them cheer for one another and try so hard. They had 126 spelling words this quarter and their practice paid off. It was especially impressive because Angela's kids are all in intervention classes while mine are on-level. So I am doubly proud of the Europeans today and will start making my kids work all that much harder tomorrow:-)
In other seventh grade news tomorrow I have my first parent teacher conferences, 1-6:30pm. And we have to be to school for a 7:30am meeting so tomorrow will be a very long day. But it will all pay off Friday at three when we go on vacation for SIXTEEN whole days!!! I'm just a wee bit excited. We're going to Mexico Saturday, then to San Diego when Susie visits then to L.A. I can't wait!!
Now it's off to bed early so I am bright-eyed and busy-tailed for my families tomorrow.

Patricia

I know it's morning because there's a morning dove outside my window singing. Not so much singing I guess as warbling. But it is morning nonetheless. It's Sunday morning at 12:37. And I am excited because I have just finished part one of my novel. I've finished Patricia's story. Fifty-three pages. So tomorrow it's time to move on to someone else. I'm not sure who yet, maybe David or Harold or Molly or Crystal. All their stories have begun but they have a ways to go.
I know this isn't a big deal to anyone else but it's big to me. It's been a project I have been working on for ten months. It's been a lot of late nights and sitting down to write when I'd rather have been out playing or on the couch or reading a book. But I'm excited for it. For what it might become.