Enjoying Myself

Yes, yes, it's true. I haven't been on the computer much (a few of you have noted this!). But don't fear, I am alive and well and enjoying myself, my family, and my vacation. So far I've read an entire book in 4 days and am almost finished with another I started yesterday. The first was "Julie and Julia", a memoir about a woman named Julie approaching her 30th birhtday who decides to cook every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. 1 in one year. I highly recommend it, a great read. I constantly wanted to share tidbits with my family, and occassionally did. She talks about politics, living in NYC, chopping up a live lobster, eating entire sticks of butter in one recipe, just great stuff. Now I'm reading "Big Boned" by Meg Cabot which is the third in a cute chick-lit mystery series I am enjoying. Both gifts from Ang! Also, I am beginning Stephen Colbert's "I am America and So Can You" - again, great reading.

In addition to all that literary stuff, we've seen a few movies notably yesterday's "Juno" which features an excellent screenplay and equally excellent actors. Allison Janney, Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, J.K. Simmons, Jennifer Garner, and in the title role Ellen Page who can I just say is too beautiful. One of those girls who is ridiculously beautiful like Mrs. Affleck. The story was so good, so well written, one of those that makes me want to do that for a living, for my life. Makes me just want to be a part of GOOD movies, good stories, good stuff. Go see it!

We also saw Shrek 3 last night and can I just say, I hope they're putting the other Shrek's on a hold for a while until they find some new, good story to tell with these characters? It's sad that the best parts of this movie were the gingerbread man's life flashing before his eyes and a few lines by the minor characters like Puss in Boots? So went downhill from the last ones. Glad I only Netflixed it. We're in the middle of Harry Potter 4 right now, we're going to finish it tomorrow when everyone's wide awake and we're hoping to see National Treasure 2 uptown tomorrow too, big plans people!

So yeah, I'm enjoying myself. Another week left on vacation, family to enjoy, another Christmas to celebrate, good times to be had. And yes, I'm loving wearing my cuddle duds under my new hood WMU alumni sweatshirt! I like being cold (well not Kalamazoo cold but this cold is okay!).

Christmas Day, Christmas Day, Time is Drawing Near

That's a line from a song Angela and I picked up somewhere during our childhood that we sing on occasion, all year long because really - it's always coming no matter if it's the day before Christmas or the day after - technically!

But it is drawing near today and we're about ready. Looks like it will be another brown Christmas. We had that glorious snow last weekend and flurries last night but it's all melted and we're back to cold and wind. Alas, it's Christmas anyway! Ang said it's official because I got up and started playing carols on the piano this year. It was great - my dad came in and sang along for quite some time, the perfect way to start Christmas Eve!

I hope that all of you have a wonderful holiday. Our vacation has been good so far, Chicago was a whirlwind but good. Wicked was wonderfully funny, so well done! I think I need to go back and watch the Wizard of Oz now to appreciate more of the story. But check it out if you get the chance, well worth it!!!

I am full of anticipation, this is my favorite feeling of all. We have one Christmas dinner in a few short hours, then church tonight. Singing Silent Night in the candlelight is one of my favorite traditions by far. Then it'll be Christmas morning. And I'm still a big kid because I love opening gifts and even more so, watching those I love open their gifts. We get to go extra slow this year because dinner isn't until 2:30pm tomorrow so that'll be nice! Maybe Santa'll bring a few surprises!!!

Merry Christmas all - may your celebration of that little baby's birth be the great beginning of another new year! I love you all.

It's beginning to feel A LOT like Christmas...

Angela and I have arrived in Michigan, our plane was only about thirty minutes late last night and it was a slow drive to Howell from Detroit - 30 to 45 miles an hour but we made it by 9:15 and my mom had meatloaf on the table which was wonderful!

This morning we awoke to over 5" of the cold stuff and it was officially declared a snow day. Which meant no church and no going anywhere, even to the Knapp Family Christmas (which has been rescheduled for Jan. 1st for all of you who were worried!). It's still snowing and blowing with a wind chill in the single digits and even though it's a pain, I LOVE IT! It finally feels like Christmas. We're going to wrap presents and sit by the tree and just enjoy the season! I wish the same for all of you today!

A flood's a comin'

It is, I can tell. How you ask? Well, it's been raining for almost five hours now. That's about four hours and fifty-five minutes more worth of rain then we've had in the past six months, maybe longer. It doesn't rain in the desert, hence it's name: the desert. So yeah, I am guessing tomorrow all the trailer parks and the grocery store parking lot will be under water. It's kinda like when it snows up north.

The kids were so excited for rain today, my curtain rod is broken in my classroom so they could see outside and they kept watching for drops. Rain is a big event down here. It's so weird. It feels normal to me. I have my window open right now listening to the patter on the roof. I love it!

However, something I noted today that makes my heart sad. The rain seems to bring out the homeless in Yuma. We saw more than one man walking today, near our apartment complex and around town, touting belongings in plastic bags, trying to get out of the rain. We have shelters here but they're a few miles from us so I hope they get there tonight as it's getting cooler at night. But it just makes me sad.

It's been a busy week. We are on the downslide before Christmas break at school, ten school days and counting left. I am excited, the kids are excited and we are all ready for it. But things are going really well inside my four classroom walls. Outside the door is another story. Word to the wise: don't go to work for a school that is in year four of a school improvement plan and about to be taken over by the state/federal government (worse-case scenario but a real possibility). The politics are nightmare-inducing, literally, just ask Ang.

Today we read and analyzed the poem "The Highwayman" about a stage coach robber in England in the 1700s who's love kills herself to warn him that the Redcoats are waiting for him. It's really a heavy poem, tragic and full of symbolism and unfamiliar language. But guess what? My kids loved it! I can say it's really the first selection from the text that we've read in fifteen weeks that they've gotten excited about. They asked questions and discussed theme and just totally rocked this poem! I loved it. And I was observed today (surprise!) and my kids and I were complimented which is very cool. So all in all, a great day to be in room 109!

Thanksgiving Weekend

It's almost over but it's been good. Not the same as being home in Michigan in the cold, visiting friends, watching the Fantasy of Lights parade, but it's been a nice weekend.

Wednesday we got out of work early, before 2pm which was great (the kids leave at 1pm on Wednesdays normall anyway) so Ang and I went out to lunch (we are calling it lunch because if we call it dinner at 4pm Ang insists were worse than the snowbirds). Then we went downtown and to the mall Christmas shopping. It was great, there was no one around and there were a lot of the same sales we saw Friday when we went back (yes, I know, a lot of shopping but mostly browsing, what else is there to do on Black Friday?!?!).

We also saw the movie "Dan in Real Life" which was great. We snuck pumpkin ice cream in from Coldstone and laughed and cried and enjoyed ourselves. A great movie - really, it's nonviolent, there's no swearing that I can recall, and no sex, just a good family movie! I give it an A+ (and so did EW and a lot of other critics, which is awesome).

Thursday we had Thanksgiving with our friends the Phelps and some British folks they know who are stationed here with the British Royal Army and their parents. It was quite the group. We ate good food, drank good wine, played apples to apples for over four hours, laughed at the kids (ages 3, 1.5, and 1) and just enjoyed the day.

Friday Ang and I made a quick trip to Mexico (under an hour, in and out) for vanilla that was being requested from up north and then hit the mall. And promptly left the mall. We didn't have a problem finding a parking spot at Kohl's but when we got inside (we were just looking for the $2.99 bath towel sale for Ang) the check out line was literally all around the store. Insanity!!! But we did get a few gifts at Target (surprisingly, not at all busy) and Sam's and then headed home to rest and shower before heading out Friday night with the girls, Julie and Christina. And guess where we went for Girls' Night? Yep, right back to the mall! Ah well, such is Black Friday!

Oh, and we also decorated for Christmas. Ang made the executive decision that we would not have a tree which is fine, I understand. But I also miss getting all Christmasy. So I put up our decorations anyway. And bought a super smelly vanilla candle and have been lighting candles all around the house every night and playing my new Charlie Brown Christmas music. (Yes, we have to open the windows because it's so hot but the cool breeze helps me think of snow).
Check it out:

A Quickie

I'm tired. Exhausted, physically and well, just physically. I have been at the Y 3 out of the last 3 days. Ang commented tonight that we aren't at home much anymore and I guess that's a good thing. I am really trying with this exercise thing but it's kicking my butt so far. And yes, I know that's a good thing.

Other than that things are normal. School is good. I feel caught up and am getting stuff done for the next few days. Including tomorrow we only have 19 more school days left until Christmas break. I am way too excited. I'm dealing with a few discipline problems and a few Fs but other than that it's great really. We made these really great projects after we finished our last novel - Tangerine - and I thought they looked so cool so here's a peek:



I'm still fretting about the Writer's Strike which is nearing week three. Here's an interesting take on the issue if you're so inclined and wonder what's going on (it might not seem like a big deal but if you are a fan of any nonreality show, it will or already has affected you): http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20159387,00.html

Oh, and I'm really homesick. I miss everyone and I can't wait for Christmas break. I am just really feeling the need to be around family right now. So yeah, Thanksgiving will be interesting:-)

Ok, off to sleep - 5:30 comes awfully early! Hugs and kisses all around.

P.S. - My email is not working properly which is ticking me off! I can read all your messages but can't reply. So I'll try from work tomorrow or from Ang's computer tomorrow night. So don't think I'm ignoring you all. Ang has decided my PC is just angry about the new Mac in the house. Whatever:-)

I can see clearly now...

I could before but you know, it's a catchy tune. Yep, these folks, are my new glasses! I didn't need new glasses, my prescription didn't change but I do have vision insurance which pays for about 75% of new glasses so I thought what the heck! Who knows where I'll be next year when it comes time for an eye exam so I'll get them now!

It's been a good long-weekend. Today has been really good. Ang, my ever-trusty assistant, helped me all morning work on getting the paperwork ready for two more grad school applications - USC (University of Southern California, a private school) and UT Austin (University of Texas - where a certain Texas family is really pushing for!). It's a lot of filling out online forms, the printing them, then copying them and mailing them tomorrow - when the post is actually open! (Watch Ang's blog for a rant about the lovely post office!) But right now I am really happy. Here's why:

It's something about the air. We have all of our windows open, something we haven't been able to do since oh, February. It's in the 70s and perfect. And it feels like fall. It feels like those days when the leaves just start to crunch (though we don't have any leaves - so thank you for the picture mom!) and the tree frogs sing. It's a night I don't want to end. I really can't explain, it's perfect. It's just a feeling. It's like knowing something really great is going to happen soon and you just can't wait.

And yes, fall is here and that means the holidays. And I am really excited to be going home to Michigan soon. I mean really excited. Like I am already thinking about what to pack and how I can't wait to curl up on the couch (yes, I hate our futon here) and look at the Christmas tree. Yesterday I bought myself a pre-Christmas present, pj bottoms with snowmen on them:-) I can't wait to go home and wear them (it's too warm here for long pants). So yeah, it's just perfect right now. Anticipation - my favorite word. My favorite feeling. Only a few more weeks...

Travelogue 4 - The Final Installment!

On Wednesday, October 17th we began my 30th birthday celebration a little early by checking in to the Bellagio! Can I just say, money well spent? A true luxury experience! I felt like a princess. A princess not allowed to touch anything from the sensor-controlled minibar but a princess nonetheless.

We headed out to Harrah's to check out Toby Keith's "I Love This Bar" which turned out to be a great hangout. I had the best chicken and dumpling soup. There was a live band playing, Lefty Lucy, and I even got asked to dance. Granted the guy was about 75 and a half foot shorter than me but it was fun anyway:-) And I was the only one of us who was brave enough to accept his offer. We headed back toward the Bellagio near midnight and it worked out perfectly, I got to watch a fountain show as I turned 30! Very cool!

On Thursday, my actual birthday, the girls let me sleep in and then gave me presents! I got an awesome frame from Susie that lists 30 Reasons Why I am a Superstar. Yes, I teared up! And I had a whole bag of rockin' gifts from Ang!

We ate lunch poolside and went swimming (mostly hot tubbing as it was only in the 70s) and then headed to Fashion Show where we browsed and Ang became a proud owner of a Macbook! Then it was back to change and we headed off to New York New York.

We had the best dinner here, at Il Fornio, Italian food and Italian margaritas. We had such fun that the gentlemen next to us struck up a conversation and bought us a second round of drinks! Then we played a few slots, headed to MGM (shots and slots), and Ang and I stopped off at Paris where we visited our favorites - the piano bar and the bakery. We topped the night off with one last fountain show and then headed back to our hotel where I discovered computer blackjack and free drinks just for betting a dollar! Hooray for Vegas.

Friday Ang and I were lazy while Susie had to head home. We stayed in bed until 9:30 and then ate gelato for breakfast before headed out of town. We got home just before 7, completely exhilarated and exhausted. What a trip!!!!!

Travelogue 3

Angela, Susie, and I spent most of Saturday, Oct. 14th in the car. About 10 hours and we didn't even take the long route to San Francisco. We cut across California and avoided the coast. All in all a good drive which was helped by lots of laughter, singing, and listening to Harry Potter on CD. When I have the time I so want to listen to all the HP books this way. It made the time fly by! We got into SF at 6:59pm, it was 63 degrees, and we found our way to the hostel at Fort Mason without too much hassle (one phone call, several trips around the wharf and block).

The hostel was great. We had a private room for the three of us and it was just over 300 bucks for four nights, what a steal! The bathroom was right across the hall, there was a kitchen, free parking, etc. We walked down to Fisherman's Wharf, found Ghiradelli Square and ate sandwiches at Lori's Diner before going to bed. Sleep we did until I woke everyone up at 3:45am when I quickly realized I had either the stomach flu or food poisoning. Needless to say, Sunday was a wash for me.

Monday I felt better and we went to Alcatraz. This was the best part of the SF trip for me. What a cool experience. We took the ferry to the island and spent hours touring the cell house and grounds of the prison. Then Ang and I spent a small fortune on souveiners for our classrooms. Last year I got a class set of the novel "Al Capone Does My Shirts" (so so good, read it even if you aren't still in 7th grade!) which is about a family living on Alcatraz in 1935. I'd been telling my kids about my trip over break and promised to bring back cool things to start our novel with and I didn't let them down. We got convict flashcards complete with mug shots and rap sheets of every prisoner ever housed there. We got books and maps and escape plans. We got posters. We even got a piece of the "rock" - a hunk of cement from the prison for six bucks!

Once we made it back to the mainland we headed for lunch and then back to the hostel as I was feeling worse than Sunday. I rested and then insisted we go out sightseeing again. I made it to the top of Lombard Street (the crookedest street in the world) before almost passing out so we went back to the hostel and had soup. Ang and Sus were so great, making sure I was well taken care of!

Tuesday we hit the Exploratorium, a hands-on science museum and then went to Fisherman's Wharf. We took it easy and I was feeling a bit better. We got souveniers and ate at the famous Boudin's Sourdough Bread Co. And we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. We'd intended to walk over but missed the exit (note to travelers, the guidebook is not lying when it says it comes up quickly) and ended up in Sausalito. But it worked out well - as we drove we watched walkers who seemed to be freezing. I was happy to be in the car!

Wednesday we were back in the car by 7:05am and oddly enough, it was 63 degrees, the same temp it had been when we arrived and about the same temp it had stayed all week. I can't say I wasn't glad to be heading back toward Vegas, this trip to SF was fun but it was also a bit tainted by that dumb stomach issue. However, when I go back someday, and I will, I am going to ride a cable car! Mark my words:-)

P.S. - My kids love the Alcatraz stuff. They can't get enough of the prisoner cards and I even had to make a copy of one for a student to take home to show her dad because she swears he looks just like her uncle:-)

Travelogue 2

On Monday, October 8th we got to Vegas a little after 4 and it was almost 90 degrees, perfect Vegas weather - hot but not too hot (the last time I was there it was about 120 in the shade, no joke). We checked into our room at Bally's and settled down for the week, a nice change of pace. We unpacked and spread ou which was easy to do as they put us in a handicap-accessible room, the only one left with two queen beds. So we had tons of space, seriously, enough room to do yoga next to the beds. The bathroom was huge as well with one minor set back: the shower had not tub, just a drain in the floor. So every time one of us showered, the entire bathroom flooded. Needless to say we went through a lot of towels over the course of the week.

We quickly headed off to dinner - another buffet, this time the Bellagio. I'm not sure if it was that we were all so hungry (we'd been eating mostly PB & J out of the trunk all weekend) or that it really is an amazing restaurant but it was some of the best food I've ever had. Well worth the near $30 a person price. And I made it my goal to try new foods that night. I ate quail (I did not know it actually looked like a bird when they plated it), buffalo (a little tough), veal osso bucco (some awesome stew!), sweet potato mash (heaven on a plate), pesto mashed potatoes, etc. Then we hit a fountain show outside the Bellagio and walked down the strip visiting the Monte Carlo, New York New York, and the M & M Factory before collapsing into bed.

Tuesday Mom surprised us by taking Ang and I to the spa in Bally's. We all had massages and then had full use of the spa for the afternoon. We hot tubbed and showered and were completely pampered. Dad enjoyed himself at several casinos but met us for a trip to the new Planet Hollywood's Miracle Mile shopping mall. Then we got all gussied up to go to the Venetian to see Blue Man Group. Here's an interesting fact: we actually had tickets for Wednesday but luckily the customer service there rocks and they got us the same seats for that night. What a show! It's not even possible to describe it except to say there are men in blue paint making music, making us laugh, and covering the entire audience in paper. You have to go if you ever get a chance. And pay the extra for good seats, it's worth it.



Wednesday we discovered the wonder that is Paris in Las Vegas. Paris is where we would eat many a snack (i.e., exquisite, expensive, so worth it pastries), meal, and spend a lot of our time. Paris is connected via walkway to Bally's and guess what, we never ate at Bally's. Not one meal.

This was the day we went to the top of the Stratosphere, well part of our group did. Dad hung out with the slots, then we went to the Wynn buffet for lunch. Three words: homemade coconut ice cream. So worth the price. The food was okay (I know, I know, I've now become a BIG TIME food snob if I'm saying the freaking Wynn has just okay food) but what most impressed us was the actual dessert chefs making the dessert as we watched. And the array of sugar-free options for Mom. Rock on Wynn! (Just don't expect us to play golf there - $500 greens fees and the woman didn't even offer to make us a tee time.)

To burn off our millions of calories we spent the afternoon shoe shopping (while Dad worked the slots): we found out that Vegas has not one but TWO zappos.com outlet stores. Hundreds of pairs of shoes in our sizes. It was great. Mom and I walked away with a pair each but don't worry - at the mall Ang made up for it. We found magnalite pans that we just had to get (mom swears by hers thirty years later) so into our already small and fully packed car we added two large boxes of cookware! And by the way, this would be the only day that I'd make a profit at the slots - I put two bucks into a quarter slot machine in Paris later that night and walked away with twenty. Didn't pay for the shoes or much else but it sure was fun!

Thursday we managed to get in line early enough to actually eat breakfast in Paris at the Village Buffet. Good food but a bit pricey for what we ate but I did have a fresh crepe so why am I complaining? This was also the day of the naps. Exhausted from walking and eating and pushing slot machine buttons we all crashed and either slept or read for a while before heading to the Palms for our second buffet of the day. A decent meal for the cheap price, I had Thanksgiving dinner as every buffet has turkey and potatoes and the stuffing here was so good. But the Palms underwhelmed me. Not sure if I was expecting more of what I see on tv at the celebrity poker tournaments but it wasn't anything too exciting, at least not at three o'clock in the afternoon. From there we parked at New York New York and trammed down to Mandalay Bay then walked through the Luxor, Excalibur and then MGM where the lions were sleeping. Glad that exhibit was free.

We decided to go out that night and headed down to Napolean's piano bar in Paris. While singing along to old favorites and sipping cosmos we celebrated being together and of course, headed next door for some dessert.

Friday, our last day in town (for a few days at least). We were preparing to go out walking when the fire alarm went off. Now, if anyone out there knows my sister Angela, you'll know that this caused a certain amount of panic in our room. Having been through a fire, she was understandably upset, especially when we opened our hotel room door to be greeted by fire fighters in full gear asking us to stay IN our room. So we did, for an hour while the alarm sounded and a voice told us loudly over the intercom in our room to stay calm and await instructions. Over and over and over again. Turns out it was a faulty motor in a shaft somewhere. All I can say is it's a good thing we all made it out of that room in one piece!

Once the fire trucks left we headed to Caesar's to browse and then to the Bellagio for a goodbye lunch buffet (by far the best in town). Then we got all dressed up to go back to the Bellagio to see Cirque de Soleil's "O". Again, a show that's almost indescribable. There was acrobatics and diving and swimming and a story involving audience members and clowns and again, well worth the price of great seats! It's no wonder the show's sold out every single night. We concluded our evening with dinner in Paris, where I had a hamburger topped with brie. Amazing.

On Saturday we took my parents to the airport (seriously almost as easy to navigate as Yuma's or Howell's airport - well designed) and picked up Susie Hanner, our friend from Howell and hit the road for phase two - road trip to San Francisco.

Travelogue 1

I know I'm a month behind but I am finally feeling caught up. I've balanced the checkbook, done all the mail, cleaned the house, read a few of the magazines, gotten all the photos organized and prints ordered, and settled back into the pace of seventh grade. It's taken a while. So now I get to blog. I'll do it in pieces, like Angela is (she stole my idea!) and hopefully I'll get it all out in the next few days. Here goes:

Fourteen days, 2200 plus miles, the stomach flu, a birthday, my parents, our friend from Howell Susie, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and more Vegas. It was amazing. Exhausting, relaxing, wonderful. I am so fortunate to have been able to travel so much since I moved down here. I really am.

Angela and I headed to Vegas on Friday, October 5th. We'd had three days of parent-teacher conferences at school and were so ready to be done. We hadn't made it out of Yuma when I told Angela I had to go to sleep. I had a headache that wouldn't quit and I knew it was due to lack of sleep. Even though I'd started packing Monday night, I had been busy every night until after 11 and up by 5 most mornings. I was running out of steam.

Sleep I did, instantly and for several hours before a semi almost forced us off the road and we swerved and I woke up. Ang was awesome to keep driving even though we were both a bit shaky (and bruised from our seat belts). Five and a half hours after we'd hit the road we arrived at the Golden Nugget downtown Vegas. It was a beautiful 62 degree night and though Mom was fast asleep (it was after midnight their time) Dad took us to dinner in the hotel and we played some nickel slots. The hotel is lovely even though we didn't get to spend much time there. I'd love to go back when it's warmer as the pool looked really cool, you can take a slide down through a shark tank!

Saturday morning we enjoyed our first of what would be many buffets on this vacation, at the hotel and then headed to the Grand Canyon via a sightseeing drive down the Strip and across the Hoover Dam. About six hours later headed into the Grand Canyon National Park which is a beautiful place, even before we reached the Canyon. It was 48 degrees that evening and while it was a beautiful sight, it was chilly and we walked a bit but headed back to town to eat and catch the IMAX movie which was different. It contained amazing footage of places we'd never be able to see within the Canyon but also interwove stories about people who've called the Canyon home over the years.

Sunday we spent all day in the park. It was 35 degrees outside when we headed in but warmed considerably as the day went on. We attended a Ranger Program about the geology of the Canyon and learned a lot. Do you know how the Canyon was formed? DUDE! Which stands for deposition, uplift, downcutting, and erosion:-) We had lunch at the gorgeous El Tovar Lodge. It's a toss up as to which was more striking, the view or what we ate. Excellent food and a pumpkin creme brulee I'm sure no one will ever top. Then we drove the 28 mile Desert View Drive and saw sunset at the edge of the Canyon. Spectacular.

Monday we headed back to the Canyon to say goodbye. It's really a spiritual experience, hard to describe. It's just so unreal and yet it's right there. It was windy (and as a result, incredibly cold) so we headed out. We stopped at the Hoover Dam this time through and toured in the lovely 87 degree sun before heading on to Vegas.

Pencils down means pencils down

Monday at 12:01am the Writers Guild of America will go on strike. Now this might not seem like a big deal to the average American living outside of Orange County. And yet it's freaking me out a little. And Ang even more than a little. You see, the WGA is the screenwriters' union. And just this past week I sent in my first application for film school. That's right, I want to be a professional screenwriter. See the trouble brewing?

The WGA voted today, they've been negotiating for a long time. They want a fairer contract regarding residuals dealing with DVD sales and new media (internet, etc.) and the studios won't budge. I feel very strongly about this because hopefully, God-willing, I'll be a member of this union in just a few years. I know I will need to be a part of the guild because of the structure they provide - health insurance and the like. And I appreciate the members who've spoken out so far saying that they're not doing this for themselves only but for the next generation of writers - essentially for me.

Angela is worried, rightly so, because we are looking to move to LA in about eight months. A WGA strike will have severe, trickle-down effects on the whole city's economy. The last WGA strike was in the early eighties and it apparently affected everyone right down to waitresses and chauffers. I'm worried because while a strike will require screenwriters to not write anything for studios, it doesn't mean they can't write spec scripts (screenplays written without a contract that one hopes to sell - I have my own spec scripts). And when the strike is over, the market will be saturated with spec scripts. Fan-freakin-tastic.

I know I can't worry too much about it. It's not my strike, not my fight, not yet anyway. But I'm interested. I'm about to go into a great deal of debt to get an education that will help me get into a profession that is about to go on strike. Tens of thousands of people who do what I want to do are going to be walking picket lines. So yes, I'm interested.

Halloween

Last night at spin class our instructor played Halloween music. I haven't been feeling very Halloweenish this year but this got me more in the mood. I don't know if it was being gone on vacation or just being busy but we didn't even get out our decorations. I have a few cards out but that's it. Also, no one ever comes over so it would be just Ang and I to see them and then put them away tomorrow. But last night as I was spinning my seven miles I started remembering Halloweens from the past.



When we were little my mom and her best friend Marilyn made Halloween into a family holiday. They would make a big dinner, usually sloppy joes and jello and a cake, and then we'd go out trick-or-treating. Usually my dad and Marilyn's husband, Michael, would pass out candy first (average number of trick-or-treaters at our house back then - 800 or so, at least that's what it seemed like) while the moms drove us to the grandparents' neighborhood. We'd get our pictures taken; there were four of us, Ben, Liz, Ang and I, and then we'd get special treats from them, usually a bag of candy or cookies or a bigger candy bar or something. Then we'd head home and the dads would take us walking around our neighborhood. It was always cold, usually rainy, and we'd have to try to fit winter coats under our costumes. You never could tell exactly what at least one of us was.

Then came the fun part, "the sorting" as Ang wistfully called it tonight. We dump all our treats into the big mixing bowls from the kitchen and start dividing it into piles: different kinds, sizes, etc. And we'd try to keep our dads away from the candy (Michael always always always stole some!). Then we'd trade with each other and give the grownups what we didn't like. It was great. One of the highlights of being a kid. A no-pressure holiday, something I long for.

I am glad I have these memories, and new ones. Today was fun at school. We read a poem about Frankenstein and the kids wrote Halloween poems and decorated them to take home. There was construction paper and glue and markers and joy. They were so proud of their work. And then tonight Ang and I sat outside for two hours in the beautiful 70 degree evening and passed out all of our candy. We had big kids, little kids, adults, and infants come around - all with hands out. Interesting to say the least. But fun. We socialized with different sets of neighbors who were all out enjoying the fresh, cool air and we just sat and smiled and said "you're welcome" a lot. A no-pressure holiday. Just like I remember.

I love it when...

something makes me laugh. Not chuckle like, "oh that's cute," but really laugh. When something surprises me and I just can't contain myself. It's happened several times lately and Ang and I were talking about it today. She noted that she loves when she can make me laugh like that and I agreed! Here are two times recently when this happened (maybe you'll laugh yourself, you never know!).

1. On Saturday we were running errands after we'd both come from massages. Now these aren't your ordinary, incense-filled, enjoyment producing massages. These are kick your butt, physical therapy-type massages. So we were both tired and a little out of it. We went to sell back some some stuff at the book store ($5 for a Will and Grace first season DVD I got years ago that I never watched, not bad when I saw it at target for $20) and as we were walking out I walked behind Angela. She had a green t-shirt on and that's when I noticed she had her shirt on backward. I might not have noticed except it was a V neck:-) So right there on the sidewalk in front of Hastings I cracked up. I could not stop laughing, not sure why this was so funny but it just was. And I could not tell her why I was laughing because I was laughing so stinking hard!

2. This morning Ang and I were in the restroom at school. I was still very sleepy as we got to school at 6:25 to get in line for flu shots (no, we weren't the first ones there and yes, there was a line by the time we got ours). I realized as I was sitting there that I had black underwear on and I have on a cream and black skirt. I explained this to Ang in the next stall. She said she had black underwear on as well or else she'd switch with me. I said that was weird, and she said, "why, that's what friends are for!" And then she said, "well that's not the only thing..." and I cracked up.

Here's hoping your Halloween is full of laughter:-) I'm going to try to post more today, we'll see!

I made it through another Monday

I want to blog about vacation but again it's 9:30 and I haven't showered yet and I have to go to bed and...yes, I'll blog soon. But today is over and that's a start. It was a busy day. I had two formal observations - one by my principal and one by a person from our district office. The good news is that I aced them both. I got an 8 out of 8 on my evaluation this morning from my principal and the woman from the DO had only nitpicky things to say which I think is a good sign. All that and I got all ready for the rest of the week after school today.

Another cool thing happened today. We started reading Al Capone Does My Shirts, a novel about a kid who's family lives on Alcatraz in 1935 and my kids loved it! I got them all hyped for it last week by telling them about my trip and then today I took in all the books and fun stuff I bought for them. First thing in class they each got a big flashcard with a convict on it, his rap sheet and all, and they had to journal about what they'd ask him if they could interview him. They loved this, they wouldn't stop talking about it all day. I thought that was pretty cool. So I guess all the money and work getting ready for today was worth it. Also, we did a writing lesson on sequence and they got it. They totally got it. That never happens. So all in all a pretty darn good day in 7th grade.

I am off to sleep. I am still feeling tired from vacation but we're finally catching up. We've been cleaning and I've been writing and OH YEAH! Today I sent in my application for admission to film school at UCLA! (And my money of course.) It's official. Now I need to get my applications out to the other 3 schools in the next couple of weeks.

Appeasement

I've started getting the inquiring comments about when a new blog is coming (okay, okay, one email but it made me feel guilty!) so here it is, albeit a very short one.

I am home from my 14 day, 2300+ mile vacation. I survived, had a great time, turned 30 and am back at work. I am also tired, still unpacking, mentally a little weird, tired, and oh, did I mention tired? I have tons of vacation blogs planned in my mind, really I do, and photos but they'll have to wait a day or two more. But here's a little update to keep you posted:

I had an awesome 30th birthday on Thursday. Thank you all who called, emailed, left me messages, sent packages and flowers, and spent the day with me. I am still celebrating, I think I will celebrate until the end of October so feel free to keep the birthday fun coming! More on my celebrations in a later blog...

Today we got our held mail and it was piles and piles, mostly junk. But hidden inside were two very interesting envelopes. The first was my official GRE results. I got a 5.5 out of 6 on the analytical writing section which puts me in the top 12% of test takers so that ROCKS! And then the second envelope: a grand jury summons. I've been called to participate on a grand jury in Phoenix (yes, that Phoenix, 3 hours from my house) 7 days a month for 6 months! I know - the insanity! I replied tonight on their form that this would cause an extreme hardship so here's hopin' and prayin' that the jury gods feel pity for me. Please, please, please.

So that's all for tonight folks. I need to write some postcards (so what if I'm already home, they're still fun!) and then go to bed. I really want to watch TV (so much good stuff to catch up on plus I got the whole series of Arrested Development for my birthday AND we just got the latest DVDs of Entourage from Netflix - ooh, shout out to the Office and their HILARIOUS nod to Netflix recently plus the great ep where Pam and Jim spend the night at Dwight's farm/not B&B. It's genius folks, download it now!) but I think I must sleep first. More to come soon, I promise!!!!

Until I return...

The past week has been a whirlwind. We ended our first quarter at school and have had two days of parent teacher conferences, with day three ending tomorrow at 2:30pm. These wear me out. I'm anxious sitting there, waiting to talk to parents, wondering if they'll argue or agree or just nod silently. And the noise, 40-some teachers in a room, talking to parents and kids, it's quite a buzz so I can't focus at all. I managed only a bit of paperwork and certainly no grading. But I have seen over 50 parents which is good considering I only have 90 kids.

And then there's getting ready to go on vacation. We leave tomorrow at 2:31pm for Vegas. My parents are flying in tomorrow afternoon and we'll all meet up and spend the night at the Golden Nugget downtown Vegas. Then Saturday we'll drive to the Grand Canyon and spend a few days there. On Monday we'll head back to the big city and spend the week at Bally's. We'll hit a few shows, so far Blue Man Group and Cirque de Soliel's O. On Saturday my parents fly home and Susie flies in to Vegas. We head up 8 hours to San Francisco and stay at the Fisherman's Wharf hostel until Wednesday when we'll travel back and spend two nights in Vegas at the Bellagio where we'll celebrate my big 3-0 birthday in style!

And yes, I'm ready for a vacation. In a week that's seen me take the GRE, prepare report cards and handle conferences while still having school every day, not to mention dealing with crisis after crisis at work and home (work - calling a mother to tell her that her son is telling kids he plans to commit suicide, not a highlight of my week & home - dealing with crappy insurance and mail-order prescription companies with Angela and the oh-so-slow USPS, ugh!), I am ready to leave it all behind and escape. So escape we will. I'll blog when I return...

I did not fall asleep!!!

Yes, it's true. I made it through the GRE (Graduate Record Exam), which is an entrance exam for graduate schools, without falling asleep! As some of you know, on Monday while taking a practice exam after work I fell asleep in the middle of writing an essay (a very interesting essay mind you!). That did not happen this time. This time Ang and I made it to San Diego State University with a few minutes to spare, realized we had the complete wrong directions (thanks ETS website, you stink!), and then found out it was family weekend to boot! However, Ang was so great and she got me to the test building and then parked all by herself and entertained herself for the three hours I was testing.

My unofficial scores are 450 for the verbal section and 480 for the quantitative (math) section. Not super high scores but not low scores either. I was in the 54th percentile for the verbal section which means I scored better than 54 percent of people who take the test. And I was in the 20th percentile for the quantitative section which means I scored better than 20 percent of people who take the test. So all in all, not fantastic scores but not bad scores certainly. Also, can I just say, I still do not understand how I scored better on the math section than on the verbal section. I haven't got a clue.

So I am going to work on my grad school applications this week. A lot of the paperwork is done, it's just organizing and proofreading now. But I thought I'd include one of the pieces I wrote for USC's application, an autobiographical character sketch in the form of a short story. So here it is, my raison d'etre:

Her Life

She’s almost ten years old, and Sarah can count the number of movies she’s seen on her little fingers. It’s 1987 and while many movies have come and gone in her short lifetime, she’s grown up in a small town in the middle of Michigan with a one-screen movie theater and it’ll be five or six years before a VCR shows up under the Christmas tree.

A trip downtown to the show is a big event, and this time it’s undertaken by her father and the father of some friends. The men corral the children into the darkened theater and they await their film: Harry and the Hendersons. Two hours later when the lights come up, Sarah’s in tears. And of course, the boy next to her pokes her and makes a joke about being a big baby. She’ll never forget this moment but not because of the ridicule.

There in that theater, she became a member of the Henderson family. She felt their fear, their excitement, and ultimately, their sadness. Sarah connected with Harry, the furry giant who endeared himself to a human family. And right there, at the end of that aisle with the sticky floor and worn-out seats, she wondered if she could create a story that made people feel something.

For the next ten years Sarah wrote. She filled up spiral notebooks and composition books. She crafted long, involved stories of women who had to support their children on their own, of families who lost loved ones, of people facing illness and loneliness. She wrote settings that went on for pages and chapters of dialogue. She even tried writing a screenplay about a girl who sneaks into the wonderful world of Hollywood and is accepted as one of their own.

And then, right one schedule, real life intervened. Real life whispered in Sarah’s ear that she needed to put away her stories and notebooks and concentrate on getting a real job, one that would make her family happy and would provide her the means to support herself. So she plowed through college, taking an occasional creative writing course, and walked away with a journalism and communication degree; the ticket to acceptance and normalcy for writers. And by the end of that summer she had a job, as a secretary.

It didn’t take Sarah long to realize this was not what she wanted out of life. Sure she got to write and research stories while her boss was out of the office but it wasn’t enough. So she did what any smart girl just out of college does and applied to graduate school. She was accepted at the one university she applied to, into the one program she’d researched and before she knew it she was studying organizational communication, a topic she’d barely touched upon in her undergraduate work. But she was back in school, it was familiar, and she was doing something productive. She was learning and exploring and she loved it. Her family loved it and she met people that would stay with her for her entire life.

Meanwhile, Sarah still had that pesky problem of supporting herself. So she accepted the university’s offer of a teaching assistantship. Although terrified, she quickly realized this was something she could do, and do well. She’d go on to teach for the next eight years and not regret a single moment of it. She’d made a good choice. However, it still wasn’t enough.

Upon completion of her Master’s program, Sarah bought herself several screenwriting books. She immersed herself in others’ scripts (being couch-bound for several weeks due to a broken ankle was the perfect excuse to do nothing else) and started writing and rewriting her own. By the end of that summer she had a finished screenplay but no job. For the real world, this was not enough.

So Sarah went back to teaching and even landed a part-time job writing for the local newspaper. She learned about deadlines, editors, copyeditors, working with others, and good writing. She learned more than she ever did back in college. For the next four years Sarah taught, wrote, edited, consulted, and did more than she’d ever imagined, professionally. And all the while she kept writing, entering countless competitions, sending query letters, even contacting a script consultant in Los Angeles who read her work, for a fee, and suggested she change everything about it. Along the way, Sarah had made a life for herself in that city. She had a strong community of friends, she was part of a large network of professionals who kept her in mind when jobs came up and were eager to work with her and yet, it still was not enough for her. She wanted more.

It was spring and Sarah was walking the Celery Flats, a gorgeous set of trails in the middle of her busy city, when she finally knew what to do. She knew she had to jump, not just move, outside of her comfort zone. She realized she’d done all she could in the world she’d created for herself. So she took a job offer in Yuma, Arizona, 2100 miles away. She sold most of her belongings, packed the rest in her car and took off for the desert.

For the next two years Sarah would live a life unlike anything she’d ever imagined. She’d teach reading and writing to seventh graders in a town bordering Mexico. She’d deal with parents yelling at her in Spanish, gang violence, fights over teddy bears, black widow spiders and nouns all in the course of a job that paid her just enough to share an apartment with another teacher. She’d fall in love with all of her students and make friends that would change her perspective on life. She’d visit new places and care about test scores and spend endless nights grading poorly written essays. And she’d write in the ten minutes before she’d fall asleep, knowing all along, that it was good and it was where she needed to be at that moment in time, but it was still not enough.

Then Sarah received a gift from her little sister, the sister who had gone to school to be a teacher and who would always teach middle school because that was more than enough for her. It was a little yellow bubble magnet, no bigger than a nickel, and it said “my life is up to me.” Every day as she sat down at her computer, she saw that magnet and she thought about it. And finally she made the decision that she’d wanted to make for so long. She’d try to do it; she’d learn how to be not just a good writer but an excellent writer, an award-winning, script selling, better than the rest writer. And so she started applying to graduate schools.

No one, not even Sarah, could have imagined that a showing of Harry and the Hendersons, twenty years ago, would inspire her to attend film school. No one in her family remembers seeing the film and others are still skeptical that she’ll make it in the business they all read about in the entertainment section of the newspaper. But she’s determined and because her life is up to her and only her, she’ll do it.

Touching base

I don't have anything great to blog about. It was a pretty okay, regular Monday. My kids did great today, they took notes on characterization and then they read their novel with partners and reading buddies. They love their reading buddies, boys and girls. I have this gaggle of stuffed animals in my room - lots of beenie babies, etc. and they get to use them to read with when we read our novel. It's pretty cute to see my kids all lying on the floor, hanging out in their desks, clutching a teddy bear or a stuffed kidney (some were donations from a pharmaceutical company).

Report card grades are due on Thursday, it hardly seems possible that the quarter's over next Friday! Time is flying here in Yuma, what about in your part of the world?

Ang is having a big Mary Kay sale at school tomorrow and for the next week, so keep your fingers crossed that she sells enough to hit some posh places in Vegas. She's got some new meds for her headache and good news, along with learning to give her shots, I now get to learn how to check her blood pressure! I can't wait. I will be ready to hang with the peeps on Grey's Anatomy soon enough.

The fall television season is upon us once again and we kicked it off by watching Shark last night which was not as impressive as last season but I think they're just trying a little too hard. We'll see if they improve. I'm excited for NCIS, The Unit, and House tomorrow night, and of course Thursday night which brings us so much joy: The Office, Grey's Anatomy, CSI and the return of Michael Vartan, I cannot wait even though his show Hot Shots is not getting good reviews. (I have faith in Vaughn!)

Also, I am taking the GRE this weekend and I'm a tad bit nervous. I took another practice test this afternoon and was apparently a wee bit tired from school. I fell asleep while writing the essay and woke up with the computer timer going off telling me my time was up. Fan-freakin'-tastic! Ah well. The good news is my math (quantitative) score was significantly higher this week. The bad news is my verbal score was lower. We'll see how it goes with the real test.

Ok, off to help Ang pack up her Mary Kay for the big school sale and then go read some Tangerine so I can catch up to where my kids left off today. Do your part now: Touch base and let me know you're out there!

The Kingdom

Saturday night Angela and I went to a sneak preview of the movie The Kingdom about an FBI team (Jennifer Garner, Jason Batement, Chris Cooper, & Jamie Foxx) who go to Saudi Arabia to investigate an attack on the American compound in that country. Others in the movie include Jeremy Piven, Peter Berg (who also directed), Tim McGraw, and some fantastic new faces including Hrach Titizian who played a Saudi military colonel assigned to babysit the FBI team).



When I first saw previews for this movie, I was excited. I love Jennifer Garner, I love her in Alias and think she's at her best when she's kicking some major butt! And the rest of the cast looked awesome (including West Wing alum Anna Deavere Smith) and I love Peter Berg who's in the movie and directed it. So I was very excited to find out Yuma was getting one preview showing 2 weeks before it was released.

And surprisingly, the movie lived up to my expectations and surpassed them. This was one of those movies that just felt right from the first strains of music to the thoughtful, not neat and tidy, ending. I loved the way the story was completely serious yet added humor when appropriate (Jason Bateman is great, so great and Jeremy Piven played an older, more mature Ari if Ari worked for the U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia).

Definitely worth your time and money next week when the movie opens, really. It's well written, emotional, violent and terrifyingly real. While it doesn't take us to Iraq and the war, it does take us to the Arabic world, the world we as a nation are so flummoxed by right now. We have this love-hate relationship that we must negotiate and balance in order to serve our own interests and that of humankind and this film does an excellent job of telling that story.

One more thing, about five minutes into the film, when things start to go wrong, I got goosebumps. It wasn't cold in the theater. I was just so affected by the way this story was being told. I was affected and that's exactly what I hope people feel from my writing. Someday...

Thursday Tidbits

It's been a crazy busy week but in a good way. I've gotten a lot done beginning Monday when I was home sick. I did a lot of writing and got all my new samples done for submission. Ang said she was amazed that I'd written one of the scenes in one day. I just hope someone at one of the four schools I'm applying to is equally amazed.

I'm feeling better, apparently Airborne (or Walborne, the kind I bought at Walgreens) works wonders just like everyone says because I've been feeling much better. And it happened very quickly. So stock up for cold and flu season!

School has been hectic. I am teaching my kids to write a short story and while it's fun, it's also very unorganized. We did brainstorming today and there was a lot of talking, sharing, and confusion but they have some awesome ideas and I can't wait to read their stories. I've also been busy with parent meetings dealing with kids' issues. Today's meeting was frustrating because Mom spoke almost no English and I had a very hard time focusing on her and the translators and trying to get my message across. And basically we spent an hour explaining to her what she knew and ended with her still not knowing how to help her kid. We'll see what happens.

But some cool things are going on in school. There was the first 'pizza with the principals' party today where kids nominated for improved behavior got to go have "pizza, salad and cheesecake!" with the principals and hang out for an hour and come back with a certificate. One of my boys was very excited to have gone, it was very cool for me to see that success. Also, I am finally feeling on top of the paperwork and only have one thing left to grade right now which is excellent! No work this weekend is my mantra.

I went to spin again Tuesday and tonight and I am sore. But good sore because I never think I'll make it through class and then I do and I am excited by that. I still haven't lost ANY weight despite sticking to my points (I'm seeing a nurse practitioner in a few weeks and I'll be asking about this) but my arms feel stronger so that's something. Must be those 60 push ups Julie made us do on the bike today!

My kids started their fundraiser this week and I am psyched because you can get magazine subscriptions through it so I totally am buying something this year:-)

I am still struggling to study for the GRE. The math part is kicking my butt. I am doing really well on the verbal practice but I guess we'll see in a couple of weeks. I am hoping the rest of my application packages speak for me instead of this test score!

Four weeks from tomorrow at 1pm Ang and I head north to Las Vegas where we will be meeting my parents! I am so excited. We have a week of the Grand Canyon and Vegas then a week with Susie that includes San Francisco (I already booked our Alcatraz tickets!) and the Bellagio in Vegas. Rock on!

My dear friend and cousin Jamee turns thirty this week, mere weeks before I do and I have been thinking a lot about that. It doesn't seem like a big deal though I know it's kind of a big deal. We'll be in Vegas and I want to do something fun but I also know that this is just the start of another exciting chapter in my life. I only hope the next thirty years so as well!!!

I am off to watch another episode of Monk. Ang and I are in the middle of season 3 and are loving this show! Go rent it if you haven't seen it or download it from itunes, seriously funny stuff here! No wonder it's won some serious award bling. And I am having fun comparing Ang to Monk, the main character. I now refer to her in private and public as Little Monk! She loves it!

September 11 through new eyes

It had run across my brain several times in the last week that we were approaching 9/11. I several calendars to remind me and I noted that it was on a Tuesday, just like back in 2001. I hadn't put much thought into it until today. I gave my students the writing prompt of journaling about "Patriot Day" as it's now been named, and what this day means to our country, and what significance it has to them. During my first two classes of the day they wrote, asked questions, made comments about planes and buildings, etc. but we moved on quickly. I had one boy who told me they'd visited Ground Zero a few years ago.

But then came announcements after lunch when there was a video tribute complete with sorrowful sounding songs. I braced myself for the barrage of comments I'd be sure to hear. The problem with this age group is they were only five to six years old when this happened so while they don't know a pre-9/11 world, they don't remember 9/11 either. So we watched.

There was old footage of the towers being hit and people running and screaming. There were short interviews and shots of wreckage. I was immediately taken back to that morning. To sitting on the old brown couch in our apartment in Kalamazoo, trying to comprehend what was happening. I remembered getting the email from my cousin in Canada who wanted to make sure we were okay and said she couldn't get through on the phone lines. I remember being scared and having no idea what to do but sit and watch the television.

I had goosebumps and I felt tears but I held them back. I had girls in my room who were crying visibly and I don't know whether that was for real or for show. Either way, it affected me. I knew I needed to set a good example and sit there and watch, pay attention to the video but I didn't want to watch it. I'd watched it all the first time, and the second, and every year for the past six. I've seen those planes hit those buildings enough - they're ingrained in my memory, I don't need to see them again.

My kids were quiet during the whole ten minute presentation. I was impressed. On a good day we make it though the first news segment before their mouths' are off and running. But even if they don't really know why, they understand that today is a special day, it's a day to remember.

Intense

That's how things feel to me right now: intense. I am balancing work and exercise and grad school applications and the nagging need to write, write, write. And it's a lot for me. I am prone to these mini breakdowns every night (usually it's just me saying I can't do this and Ang saying yes you can and then we continue on with whatever we were doing but for me, it's stressful).

Work is good, today was midterms - already 5 weeks into the quarter! I only gave out 2 Fs so that's an accomplishment for the kids. And I am feeling caught up finally. The paperwork has calmed down and I've had a few hours this week to actually do my own work at school while the kids are working or while other people are in meetings and I have "free time" that's on the clock (almost never happens which is why I was giddy when my department meeting got cancelled today - a whole "free" hour!).

Exercise is going good so far although right now, my butt is killing me! I've been going to spin classes (indoor cycling) and they rock - burning 600 or more calories in 45 minutes is awesome. And it doesn't hurt my knees and I can feel my heart going. But that little seat, oy vey! I joined the local Y and really like it there. I don't feel self-conscious like I did at the gym. There are real people there and the lady at the front desk already knows my name which I like. Also, our friends Julie and Christina go there too so it helps to have that positive peer pressure (like when Julie called to tell me she wasn't going to yoga tonight but to weight class this afternoon and would I like to go? friends are so great!).

Grad school applications are kicking my butt. So far I'm applying to USC, UCLA, Cal State Northridge, and UT Austin (if Texas will let me freakin' into their computer program!!! Ugh!!!). I know the drill: transcripts which are costly (don't ask me why UCLA needs 2 official transcripts from each college), letters of recommendation mean I need to bug all of my awesome friends and colleagues and professors again, and then there's the endless online application process. And the statements of purpose and the essays and the portfolios and the scenes to be written and the emotionally intense moments to relay.

Ang is awesome, she's helping me make checklists and read through the fine print but it's a lot and I know it'll be worth it, I keep telling myself that but it's so much right now. So much.

So I am going to bed. I'm going to sleep and pray that this is the path God has chosen for me or at least the path He'll help me down and that the universe really is conspiring with me. I have an attitude of expectancy and I know it'll be worth it. It will. It has to be...

Well, that was a day

We got up early this morning and when I say we, I really mean Ang who was up and at um at 5:20 am. I know, that's ridiculously early. But we start teaching, with real live kids, at 7:12 am and it's hard to get ready to do that with only 10 minutes prep so we went to school about 6 am. And then Ang decided she really wasn't feeling well so we took a little field trip to the ER via Urgent Care.

Yep, another round of a little game I like to call sit and wait and pray they figure things out quickly. But today went well and I was so proud of Ang for trusting her gut (and her head) and knowing she wasn't overreacting and needed to go to the doctor. She called both her primary care doc and her neurologist, neither of whom would see her (booked, whatever! boy do I miss Dr. Earl and the good old days where you'd call and they'd say, "Come in now," even if it was 5 pm).

She'd been feeling dizzy and had blurred vision and knew she needed to rule out some serious neurological issues and they finally did. There was a CAT scan involved and IV drugs and antibiotics and after all was said and done, turns out the sinus infection she had early in the month never went away and got way worse and her sinuses are almost completely blocked. Thus, the horrible pain when exercising or doing lots of other things.

So she's getting fixed up with the right meds and it only took 6 hours which isn't bad for the ER in my experience. And Yuma Regional Medical Center gets props in my book for customer service as well. I didn't have any cash on me - like I was literally counting dimes to pull some together. And I went to the coffee shop near the ER and of course, it was closed. So I finally got some pretzels (love debiting one whole dollar!) from the gift shop and a can of diet pepsi from the machine but I was still hungry yet not wanting to stray too far from Ang. And then these women arrived pushing a cart of sandwiches and juice. FREE FOOD! It was so great. By then it was 6:30 or so and lunch was long gone (on Wednesdays, early release at school, our lunch is at 10:45 which is ridiculously early). And the food wasn't just for patients, it was for families. At first I was hesitant, I mean it was a sandwich like you get out of the vending machines but then I said screw it, poured on the mustard and ate and it was GOOD. So that was a blessing. We went to Walgreen's after (Ang will blog on that I am sure, they forgot to include a prescription in her bag and we have to go back tomorrow - ugh!) and got home after 9 pm. Another long day. But a happy ending. Ang is not in mortal danger, I didn't have to run home for a scarf to cover her head (she kept asking me to promise to get her a scarf if they had to shave her head, yes yes, we've been watching too much House), and she's sleeping off the morphine soundly now. All's well that ends well....G'night!

I love water!

It's true, I do. I love an ice cold drink of it when I am super thirsty. I love being in a swimming pool (although it's summer here in Yuma which means we can't go in our pool, we have to wait for it to cool down in the fall). And I love to bathe in it. I'm serious people.

I go back and forth on baths. I like relaxing in them and lately I have been shaving while in the bathtub (my arthritis is making it uncomfortable to stand on the side of the shower stall - and yes, worried family and friends, I am going to call a doctor this week, I promise!). But it's weird, whenever I am super tired, the kind of tired I get that comes along with tension in my head, not really a headache but again, an uncomfortable feeling, the only thing that helps is a long, HOT, shower. The kind that steams up the bathroom, leaves my neck and upper body red from the heat of the scalding water. I love standing under the stream, washing my hair and just generally, feeling very clean.

I am guessing I am not alone in this liking of H2O. But it's just what I am thinking about right now. I just got out of the bath and I need to dry my hair so I can go study integers and multiplying fractions. Yes, middle school math, apparently all that is required to do well on the quantitative part of the GRE. Wish my luck, math was never my strong suit!

Then it'll be a little ice cream and another episode of the new season of House which came out on DVD today (God bless Netflix shipping new releases before their release date!). It was a long day and I am once again, as always, pooped. I tested today, and got some down time to grade papers because I had a sub in my room but I paid a price for that down time. After school I spent two hours calling parents about kids' names who were left by my sub. So no kids, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Never. Don't eat it, it may be poisoned!

For them and for no other reason

Today was a very long day to top off a very long week. Yesterday was capped off with Back-To-School night, basically an open house where families follow their kids' schedules for an abbreviated 10 minutes per class period. By the time we got home it had been almost 14 hours since I'd seen my house. And after what happened then, it could have been 14 more.

Since residing in the desert for over a year now I've seen my share of cockroaches. They're ugly, fast, and freak me out less and less. I'd yet to kill one but I'd seen the scurry away in the copy room at school when I turned on the lights. I knew they crawled up drains and came searching water and food. Then this week I had the well-know black widow spider incident (sidebar: Yuma Pest Control was in my classroom at 4pm today, telling me all about the nasty looking spiders and spraying for them, let's all say a prayer it works!). And then last night I had the cockroach incident.

We got home and ate a snack before falling asleep in front of the tv. At 10:15 I woke up with a start and knew I needed to take out my contacts and brush my teeth and go to bed. So we head to the bathroom and I sit down on the toliet and Ang starts to freak out a little. I am still so asleep I can't understand why and then I see it - a giant cockroach. I am not exaggerating. It's got to be six inches long. So I freak. And we go get running shoes on under our nightgowns and I grab my steel-toe shoe to kill it with and Ang, to her credit, chases after it. But it's fast. And then it STARTS TO FLY. Yes, it flies. I did not know cockroaches could fly. Today I find out that we have the super duper kind of roaches called Sewer Cockroaches that are huge and fly and come up through the drains in search of food. Fantastic. Really, this is great news.

Eventually we get it into the hall and I stand on it. I am afraid that it won't die because I've heard it's hard to kill them so I instruct Ang to get a container to capture it with. But I press down with the many pounds I have, all of them into that foot and praise God literally, he crunches and dies. (I had to step over that spot on the carpet this morning, seriously.) Needless to say, no one slept well in our house last night.

Thus, morning comes way to early and we get to school and it's a rough start. I have a nasty row (I like to pretend to sound British, it's so cool!) with a co-worker who chews me out in the hall and then have both the principal and the vice-prinicpal visit me within an hour to make sure I am okay and to let me know everything will be fine (my chewing out was not called for and an apology, such as it was, was made). But through it all, the exteremely long day, the crazy schedule of taking my kids outside to another room to be tested today, teaching them how to monitor their own progress (something now required of us and the kids in all subjects), and all the crazy adult stuff going on, it was the kids who got me through.

They were all smiles and good mornings and hellos and calling on me to popcorn read when they could have picked any other child in the room. They were telling me about books their reading and begging to take the spelling test today when they came in late. They were troopers who were quiet in the halls and the testing room. They were respectful when applauding their peers for being helpers of the week. They volunteered in droves to help serve lunch in the cafeteria next week as part of our new drive to encourage community service.

On child in particular touched my heart today. He's a quiet child who's always got a book and is very attentive to his work. Today he returned the second Harry Potter book and when I asked him if he enjoyed it he replied, "Oh yeah, I've read it a ton of times before. But my copy's all messed up and I just wanted to read a brand-new copy." I loved that! LOVED IT! That I have a brand-new book for him to read and that he's reading his so much it's all messed up.

So today was all about them. One class in particular rocked today because I knew they were tired and they could tell I was and I made the decision to read our class novel Tangerine first instead of last to give us all a little reprieve. Well we were all so into it, as I haven't read the book before and their class is furthest ahead, that we just kept reading the whole period. And I didn't see or hear a single kid not into the book. It was great.

So I'm going to sleep now, hopefully for a very long time. Ms. Knapp is exhausted. But happy too.

All I can think of is those spiders from Harry Potter...

So today was a fine day, we had art day in class. My kids wrote poems about their first week of school and then got to illustrate them with colored pencils, crayons, and clippings from magazines. There was talking, laughter, learning, and some music. A good day. I didn't have any meetings, even better. Then after school Ang and I worked in her room a while then moved down to mine to work. That's when things went bad.

We are rearranging a bit, we have 2 consumables for each child this year (a writing handbook and a reading handbook), a journal, and a portfolio - all things that need to be kept in the room. So I decided to make little areas for each of my 3 classes. I decided to put 1st hour in the farthest corner of the room by the window. Ang moved the 3 empty milk crates that had been sitting there waiting to be filled. As she did she says, "Hey, look at this cool spider web" then proceeds to scream, drop the milk crate, jump up ON TOP of one of my desks and walk across the desks to the back of the room. She's yelling for her shoes that she'd just taken off (by now we've been working over 10 hours) and I am looking at her bewildered. This behavior seems just puerile (rock on! that's one of the 36 new words I've learned in the last 3 days from my GRE prep program I've put myself on - by the way, it means childish).

But she's still screaming and I take her the shoes and then look in the crate. And there it is, an ugly black spider, which I know she hates, but I freak out too because it's also orange. So I back away and follow Ang from the room. She runs down the hall to Leslie's room to hide and I am sent to find the "boys" (aka janitors). They are no where to be found. So I go to my boss's office and ask her to call them to my room on the radio. She smiles and does saying, "Spider rescue to room 109". Here's the funny part. Two of the boys heard her correctly and opted not to come, I knew they wouldn't unless forced too. They hate spiders as much as we do. But a minute later I hear keys jingling down the hall and I see Bill running with a fire extinguisher. I say, "What are you going to stomp on it with that?" and he says, "No, I heard they needed fire and rescue in room 109!" Gotta love miscommunication.

So he goes in the room and I follow him and I look in the crate and the spiders gone and I'm like, fantastic! great! super! But wait, no there it is, in another corner of the crate. And Bill looks in and puts his arm toward me and says, "Move back." So I do, to the doorway across the room. He says it's a baby Black Widow Spider. And I freak out. Silently of course, but I still freak out. And leave the room. He goes to get the ant spray the school supplies them with (why in the world we don't have raid I don't know, no one can explain it to me) and goes in to kill it.

So apparently these spiders are becoming a noisome (another GRE word - meaning nasty) nusiance in our school. They caught 7 of them in our conference room last week and one wouldn't die. It looked like it was rearing on it's hind legs and coming toward the ant spray, according to Bill. This did not make me feel ANY better. And the boys were surprised the spiders had gotten to this side of the building, far away from the fields.

So yeah, I've seen my first, and God-willing (I am seriously praying for this) my last, black widow. Rumor has it they fight each other and don't travel in packs, which is good news for my classroom but I figure if it's a baby, there's got to be a mama somewhere. So I will be on the lookout from here on out. Also, I am never going barefoot in school again (something I did a lot in my carpeted room), I'm going to start wearing my steel-toed Doc Marten shoes, I'm going to buy myself a can of Raid for my closet, and I have to check everything I touch now. Or just not touch things where they might hide.

So yeah, that's Yuma for ya. Not only do we have six inch cockroaches, we've got black widows. And it's even too freaking hot to go swimming. What could be better?!?!?!

Puking Pastilles

You know in Harry Potter how the Weasley Twins manufacture and sell puking pastilles that get students out of class by bringing on sudden vomiting? I think one of my students got his hands on some this afternoon.

My class was working quietly, taking the reading pretest and all of a sudden one of my kids is at the trash can throwing up. It was fantastic. I wasn't quite sure what to do at first because he just kept throwing up. So I sent him to the nurse but of course because he's only been at our school four days, he didn't know where the nurse was so I had to explain that. And then I called the nurse to let her know he was coming down and I didn't know his name, I had to look him up on the seating chart. It was great. Then I called down to the office to get a janitor and the secretary was like, let me make sure I've got it right, "Wet cleanup on aisle 109?" Yeah, it was great.

So that was my excitement today. Other than that things went well. My kids have their first spelling test tomorrow and I have a lot of papers to grade and lesson plans to make this weekend so Saturday I'll be back at school but I know it'll get better soon. Also, on a really exciting note: I've had eight kids check out books from me this week. I don't think I had eight kids borrow books from me all last year. I sent home with them three Harry Potters, Charlotte's Web, Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and many others. I'm excited - they like to read! Woo Hoo!

Also, I took a three hour nap today when I got home and now I'm going to head to bed. It's been a busy week!

The amazing flying temporary crown

Yes, yes, that's right. Today I went in for my root canal and in the process, my temporary crown went flying into ANOTHER room! The dentist looked surprised and had an assistant go get it. I don't even know if they washed it off. Whatever. It was not a fun way to spend an afternoon. In fact, I had to have double doses of Novocaine while in the chair. Nothin' like feeling the drilling, as if the sound of it isn't bad enough.

But there was an upside to my visit this afternoon. I got to the dentist office and found out the receptionist, who's super sweet and always gets me in and lets me pay later after she calls to check on my insurance and stuff, had forgotten to schedule me in. So after some worry and work on her part, the office decided to stay late and do my root canal at five which I was happy for. A) because I needed it done, it hurts and B)I am getting my permanent crown on Monday. I had to wait an hour and decided there wasn't enough time to go home so I sat down to read some magazines and it was really great. I was reading my daily devotional calendar this morning (from my lovely friend Leslie!) and it was about waiting and using the time God creates for us to wait in to the best possible use. I decided that God wanted me to wait today, most likely so I could just breathe and relax after another long day at school. And that I did. I read some People magazines and then kept falling asleep in the chair while having the root canal. (Note: This is not a good idea. The doctor kept asking, very nicely to please open my mouth wider because the more I felt sleepy, the more it closed....).

So all in all, an okay day. A solid C for average. The downside is Ang has a bad sinus infection but she went to UrgentCare and got some drugs so hopefully that will help. And tomorrow's Wednesday which is our first short day with the kids who go home at one and then we have meetings until three-thirty. Yippee!