too hot...

Will it ever cool down in Southern California? Is it going to stay hot forever?

I'm soooooo ready for some rain.

For sweaters.

For hot chocolate.

For cozy blankets.

For something other than HOT!

insomnia sucks

At the sound of the tone it will be...

4:53 am


(I've been up since 3:00)

drama students are crazy

I'm probably stating the obvious here, but they are!

Let me go back a bit...

I have taught 9th grade English for 8 years. Nice little freshmen, cute freshmen, small classes of cute little freshmen.

This year I have 10th grade English. Monster size classes of nasty sophomores.

When I say nasty I mean nasty. Now, when you talk to them one-on-one they are actually nice kids. Put them in a group of 45 and they are out of control.

So needless to say I have been a raging bitch since school got underway. I can't get ahead of them, I spend too much time trying to grade papers. (Our principal ended the days of TAs to grade papers, the TAs have to be "learning" something). They don't listen to instructions, so I have to give them 45 times, once to each student. They don't want to read, they don't want to discuss, they just want to sit and stare at me.

Because I teach the Theatre classes at the end of the day they receive the wrath that is left over from the English classes. I feel bad about it, but can't seem to get into a good mood.

Now, here is where the drama students being crazy comes in...

Two students went to the store to buy supplies to ask a girl to homecoming (I don't get the having to do something creative to ask someone to a dance, but okay...).

While at Michael's they discovered there is a pet store next door. So, with the dance theme being "Under the Sea" they decide that the boy should buy the girl a fish and write the invitation to the dance on the bowl. Cute, yes.

Then they decided they needed to buy me a fish...


They named the fish "Mr. Raschal Paschal", I just call him fish.






He's a pearl fish. To me he looks a lot like a goldfish.

What in the world made them think I needed a fish?

I guess they just wanted to make me smile...It worked.

I walked, and I walked and I walked some more...

Almost 2000 women and men walking.

100s of volunteers and crew members.

100 of people cheering.

More than 3.6 million dollars raised.

Lots of funding for a tremendous cause.

This was probably one of the most powerful experiences in my life. Yes it was hard, yes I'm sore (very sore), yes I have blisters on my feet, yes it's all worth it.

Do I plan on walking again next year...Heck yes!

And yes, that is me on the front of the Press Telegram (it's a local paper in So. Cal).

anything for a cause

After months of fundraising, months of (not) training and lots of anticipation it's finaly here, The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

I will spend Saturday and Sunday walking to raise awareness of this terrible disease.

In honor of the big event I started my day looking like this...

And ended it looking like this...

If you still want to make a donation, you have until the end of Friday night to do so online.

www.avonfoundation.org

walker # 661441

I dyed my hair pink...what would you do for a good cause?

what a week!

Completed my first almost full week of school. I am getting into the swing of things, although the kids are not happy that we are already working. What do they expect? To play games until Christmas...WRONG!

I was really worried about my Theatre 1 numbers, but got 4 new kids on Friday.

I have a student who I was told didn't speak any English (the other kids who were translating for me). That's okay, I was told they would be moving him, I said I would keep him if he wanted to stay (he doesn't). Then low-and-behold yeterday he asked me if he could go to the restroom, and then when I said I thought he couldn't speak any English he said (mind you in perfect English, no heavy accent) he couldn't. I think I've been had!

Thursday my grandma had to go in for triple by-pass surgery. That was freaking scarey. She's old. I mean if I'm old, she must be really old. Anyway, I spend Thursday evening in Los Angeles at the hospital waiting for her to come out of surgery and to make sure she was okay.

Got a phone call from my mom last night, grandma had made 6 lap around the nurse's station over the course of the day yesterday. They don't waist any time getting those cardiac patients up and moving now do they.

My mom and I are going to see her today. It should be a good visit.

My package of shirts finally arrived. Now, not only was it almost a week late, the box was all crushed and mangled. As I said before, I will NEVER use UPS again. DHL (thank you Chatty) or the US postal system from now on. If it needs to get there fast, FedEx here I come.

My sister, niece and I put the shirts on while we were at the hospital and gave my mom her's.

As well as these Paloma Picasso earrings. Notice how they look kind of like the cause ribbons?

She really liked them. It was her first "little blue box".

I'm sorry, no woman should have to wait until she is almost 60 to get a little blue box.

The best things come in that little blue box. Trust me I know. I know my Tiffany!

Speaking of the blue box. While M and I were at Tiffany to buy the earrings we were looking around the entire store. I mean you can't go to Tiffany and look at ALL of the pretty shiney stuff. We went in to the "Diamond Salon". This is where they keep the diamonds and engagement rings. M likes to have the workerbees pull out stuff for us to look at up close.

So, he has them pull out this one ring. It's kind of a bluish/gray colored diamond. The guy says we have to look at it in the viewing room because of the cost. Would you blieve I held in my hot little hands an 860,000 dollar ring! I was so scared I would lose it.

Apparently it is a blue diamond and very, very rare. If you get a chance to see a blue diamond, do. They are stunning.

So, I pretty much think that was my week in a nutshell. I hope you all had a good week.

Now it's time to do something I haven't done all week...clean my poor little house.

I hate UPS!

UPS sucks ass!

I ordered some shirts from cafepress.com, very cute cancer shirts. My sister, my niece and I were going to wear them to our end of summer bbq in honor of my mom finishing her radiation treatment.

Two days ago the shipment was set to arrive today.

Today as of 4 pm, no shipment.

Checked the tracking number, UPS rescheduled the shipment to arrive next week. Not early next week...LATE next week. How do you go from arrive on one Friday to arriving the next Friday!

I am so mad. I had all this stuff planned for the bbq to really celebrate the end of this ordeal. And now, it is all shot to shit.

We will still toast the end. I will still give her the Tiffany earrings I bought. But I won't have the shirt for her..."I beat cancer and all I got was this lousy T-shirt".

My 9-year-old niece won't have on her "my grandma kicked cancer's butt" shirt.

My sister won't have her "my mom is my hero" shirt.

While the shirt will still be cute, they won't have the punch as they would when we walked out with the chapagne wearing them.

I send UPS an angry email. And I will never use UPS again!

My new shipper of choice those guys in the yellow trucks...now if I could only remember the company name.

I survived!

I survived the first day of school...YAY ME!

It wasn't easy at some points. I have 45 kids in each of my English 10 classes. That's a lot.

The period 4, lunch, mixed class thing was a colossal mess! Administration made an announcement that the 9th graders were to go to lunch and the uppers to go to period 4. My 9th grade period 4 students were never told to come to class. They came in after the 9th grade lunch and then got a second lunch at the end of that period because I wasn't about to give up my lunch.

It was a mess, but it should be better tomorrow. I hope!

The Advanced Drama kids were funny. And already out of control. Doing Oedipus is really going to be a shocker for them. I hope they like it.

It's going to be a great year!

let the chaos begin

Tomorrow morning bright and early I will begin to prepare for the rush of students who will come into my room seaking their class locator cards. Lucky for me I have the letter "D" (the "G", "L", "M", and "N" people have it rough).

I am SO not ready for school to start. But, is going to start ready or not.

The school isn't even really ready.

This year we have jumped on the Freshman Year restructuring band wagon. It is all good in theory to put 9th graders in houses. I even agree with a lot of the data, but man has our school really created a FUBAR situation.

For example, the freshman have a separate lunch(with a different bell schedule), part of which is designed to enable them to attend mandatory tutoring if they have a "D" or and "F". They will not eat with the upper classes. Now, here is the rub, I teach beginning drama period 4, I have freshmen in period 4, freshmen lunch is during period 4, my drama students need to be outside to rehearse during period 4. Do you see the problems yet? think...

If you guessed, freshmen can't go to lunch during their class, that the class can't rehearse outside because it campus is full of freshmen you have guessed correct.

I sought adminstrative guidance on how to deal with these problems. Here are the answers...

1. These freshmen will eat with the upper classes.
2. My drama class will rehearse in the theatre and the grassy area in front of the school.

I'm fine with this. But doesn't the freshmen eating lunch with the upperclassmen defeat the purpose of separating them from the upperclassmen in the first place?

I'm so confused.

one sleepy girl...

After the incident on Sunday, and drinking way too much wine and staying up way too late I had to report to work on Monday morning.

If we taught our classes the way they ran our first staff meeting we would all be fired. It was awful. One data rich/information poor powerpoint after another. Much of it stuff that we have been told before. It really was painful.

Then I had to drag my sorry ass to the Dave Matthews Band concert at the Hollywood Bowl. I didn't even know if I liked DMB, but I apprently do. I had a great time, although I was very, very, very tired. He puts on one hell of a good show.

Now, I am up and running, ready for the next set of meetings and some classroom prep time. I can't beleive I will have students on Thursday!

YIKES!

I have a lot to do.

Where did the summer go?

ARGH!!!

Ok, I know I have named several posts the same thing, but damn, I'm angry.

M and I got into an argument tonight.

I don't feel like I have done anything wrong.

I don't feel like he has done anything wrong.

We just don't see eye to eye.

He is complaining that I dont' want him to hang with my friends.

He is complaining about friends who I don't see very often.

Is it wrong of me to want to spend a little bit of time with them before I bring him into to the mix. Just to get the connection flowing again?

For example, I have a friend, a friend who has gone through a MAJOR life change (long story, really not my place to tell). and I have seen her 4 times in the past 2 - 3 years. He is upset because I haven't made a point of setting up a time for them to meet. Keep in mind that while we love each other, we don't make a huge effort to see each other.

My feeling is, we don't spend that much time together to begin with, if you get to meet her great. If not, she must not be that important. (d0n't get me wrong, I love this girl, but we aren't that close).

Am I making sense or has the wine taken over (the wine that I will regret tomorrow morning has I have to get up and start work after 2 months off).

It's not that I don't want him to meet her, it's that she and I don't spend that much time together to begin with. Why get upset about it?

Am I being stupid or his he being a nutty boy?

There's a second story, I'll make it short. I have a friend. A really good friend. We had a falling out and have recently gotten reconnected. I wanted the first few times (exact number - 3), we got together to be about she and I restarting our friendship. He is upset that he hasn't been invited out on these outtings. Mind out one of them was a bachelortte party for a friend of my friends, who I met once, and he was working.

The more I think about it, the more I think he just doesn't trust me when I am out with my friends, Maybe he needs a good ass kicking. Maybe I'm just crazy....

I hate feeling like this. It make me drink a lot of wine, and I mean A LOT of wine. and then I feel crapy the next day as well.

What are your humble opinions? I promis not to get mad. (at least not too mad).

Am I crazy, or is he just being very posessive.

Mother of the Year

Mother of the Year

In a zoo in California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set oftriplet tiger cubs. Unfortunately, due to complications in thepregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size,they died shortly after birth.The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery, suddenly startedto decline in health, although physically she was fine. Theveterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into adepression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogateanother mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve.After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce tothe mourning mother. The veterinarians decided to try something tha thad never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes a mother of onespecies will take on the care of a different species. The only orphans"that could be found quickly, were a litter of weaner pigs. The zookeepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed thebabies around the mother tiger. Would they become cubs or pork chops??Take a look........ you won't believe your eyes!!








"When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way,
You command the attention of the world"

Training

So, I have the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer coming up in 3 weeks. I was very excited about the training when it all started, but then I had the unfortunate incident with the ladder and had to stop walking. That is where my motivation train was derailed.

I haven't really trained all summer! Don't ask what I did all summer, although I know I was busy with travel and family issues, I really don't know where the summer went.

Realizing that the walk is 3 weeks away I have started training. Small for now, 2-3 miles a day. That is until today...I got less than a half mile away from the house and my ankle was screaming with pain. Not the usual shin pain that I just work through, this was my ankle and I have no wordly idea why. I turned around and figured if it still hurt really bad when I hit my street I would just go home, but hopefully it would stop and I could continue my walk in the other direction. I was hard pressed to make it to my house.

The pain is starting to ease. But I'm concerned...how the hell am I going to be able to walk 40 miles in two days with three weeks of training? Am I being delusional? Do you think it's possible that I will be able to get enough training in to make it? I think I have between 8 and 10 hours to finish the first day (26 miles), maybe longer. Or did the lack of motivation after I was released to walk again doom my efforts?

I figure I will try to walk again later today when it starts to cool down and see how the ankle feels. I was really looking forward to the 3 miles today (kind of scarey, huh?)

Hey, if you want to donate to my walk fund log on to www.avonwalk.org and look up participant number 661411. You donation would do so much to help those suffering with Breast Cancer as well as help to find a cure.

interesting stuff

Found this through Chatty's blog and found it just too interesting not to post here.

I'd just link to the article, except I don't know how, but here is the website http://www.beloit.edu/~pubaff/mindset/


BELOIT COLLEGE'S MINDSET LIST® FOR THE CLASS OF 2010

Members of the class of 2010, entering college this fall, were mostly born in 1988. For them: Billy Carter, Lucille Ball, Gilda Radner, Billy Martin, Andy Gibb, and Secretariat have always been dead.

1. The Soviet Union has never existed and therefore is about as scary as the student union.

2. They have known only two presidents.

3. For most of their lives, major U.S. airlines have been bankrupt.

4. Manuel Noriega has always been in jail in the U.S.

5. They have grown up getting lost in "big boxes."

6. There has always been only one Germany.

7. They have never heard anyone actually "ring it up" on a cash register.

8. They are wireless, yet always connected.

9. A stained blue dress is as famous to their generation as a third-rate burglary was to their
parents'.

10. Thanks to pervasive headphones in the back seat, parents have always been able to speak freely in the front.

11. A coffee has always taken longer to make than a milkshake.

12. Smoking has never been permitted on U.S. airlines.

13. Faux fur has always been a necessary element of style.

14. The Moral Majority has never needed an organization.

15. They have never had to distinguish between the St. Louis Cardinals baseball and football
teams.

16. DNA fingerprinting has always been admissible evidence in court.

17. They grew up pushing their own miniature shopping carts in the supermarket.

18. They grew up with and have outgrown faxing as a means of communication.

19. "Google" has always been a verb.

20. Text messaging is their email.

21. Milli Vanilli has never had anything to say.

22. Mr. Rogers, not Walter Cronkite, has always been the most trusted man in America.

23. Bar codes have always been on everything, from library cards and snail mail to retail items.

24. Madden has always been a game, not a Superbowl-winning coach.

25. Phantom of the Opera has always been on Broadway.

26. "Boogers" candy has always been a favorite for grossing out parents.

27. There has never been a "skyhook" in the NBA.

28. Carbon copies are oddities found in their grandparents' attics.

29. Computerized player pianos have always been tinkling in the lobby.

30. Non-denominational mega-churches have always been the fastest growing religious
organizations in the U.S.

31. They grew up in mini-vans.

32. Reality shows have always been on television.

33. They have no idea why we needed to ask "...can we all get along?"

34. They have always known that "In the criminal justice system the people have been
represented by two separate yet equally important groups."

35. Young women's fashions have never been concerned with where the waist is.

36. They have rarely mailed anything using a stamp.

37. Brides have always worn white for a first, second, or third wedding.

38. Being techno-savvy has always been inversely proportional to age.

39. "So" as in "Sooooo New York," has always been a drawn-out adjective modifying a proper
noun, which in turn modifies something else

40. Affluent troubled teens in Southern California have always been the subjects of television
series.

41. They have always been able to watch wars and revolutions live on television.

42. Ken Burns has always been producing very long documentaries on PBS.

43. They are not aware that "flock of seagulls hair" has nothing to do with birds flying into it.

44. Retin-A has always made America look less wrinkled.

45. Green tea has always been marketed for health purposes.

46. Public school officials have always had the right to censor school newspapers.

47. Small white holiday lights have always been in style.

48. Most of them never had the chance to eat bad airline food.

49. They have always been searching for "Waldo."

50. The really rich have regularly expressed exuberance with outlandish birthday parties.

51. Michael Moore has always been showing up uninvited.

52. They never played the game of state license plates in the car.

53. They have always preferred going out in groups as opposed to dating.

54. There have always been live organ donors.

55. They have always had access to their own credit cards.

56. They have never put their money in a "Savings & Loan."

57. Sara Lee has always made underwear.

58. Bad behavior has always been getting captured on amateur videos.

59. Disneyland has always been in Europe and Asia.

60. They never saw Bernard Shaw on CNN.

61. Beach volleyball has always been a recognized sport.

62. Acura, Lexus, and Infiniti have always been luxury cars of choice.

63. Television stations have never concluded the broadcast day with the national anthem.

64. LoJack transmitters have always been finding lost cars.

65. Diane Sawyer has always been live in Prime Time.

66. Dolphin-free canned tuna has always been on sale.

67. Disposable contact lenses have always been available.

68. "Outing" has always been a threat.

69. Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss has always been the perfect graduation gift.

70. They have always "dissed" what they don't like.

71. The U.S. has always been studying global warming to confirm its existence.

72. Richard M. Daley has always been the Mayor of Chicago.

73. They grew up with virtual pets to feed, water, and play games with, lest they die.

74. Ringo Starr has always been clean and sober.

75. Professional athletes have always competed in the Olympics.

Cheers!

Kyle I hope you had a very happy birthday...Here's to many, many more!

Now, I'm off to have a glass of wine in your honor!

have you met...

Have you met Miss Abby Cadabby?


After something like 30 years Sesame Street has created a new character. She is a preschooler named Abby Cadabby, she is the daughter of a fairy godmother and is a fairy in training. She moves on to the "Street" and is filled with wonder at her new world.

I am so excited, I can't wait to catch an episode of Sesame Street and hopefully get to see her. This is so big NPR interviewed her! Now that's big!

wine

This is an area in my living room. This does not include the box in the hall closet or the wine in the two different wine racks.


Yes, I like my wine.

MEN!

The man who is doing my refinance is an idiot! Why this man thinks I will sign the title documents without knowing the following is beyond me...

1. What type of loan is it?
2. What is the interest rate?
3. What will my payment be?
4. Why the hell is it for almost twice what I owe on the house?

Now, I may be blonde, I may not understand all the finance crap, but I do know not to sign a document involving money when I don't have all the answers.

And to make it worse...this guy is a friend of mine! Some friend!

no....I don't wanna go.....

Yikes, only one week left before I have to head back to school! Not that I don't love my job, not that I don't love my students, not that I don't love directing plays...I just don't wanna go back yet.

I feel like this summer has been a whirl-wind of a ride. Between lots of travel (not all of it fun), a death in the family, and the dentist visit from hell, it seems like I haven't done anything productive.

I still need to buy clothes to start the year, finish planning theatre for first quarter, start planning for my new 10th graders, do my background work on the two fall productions, read stuff for the musical, and my room, let's not even talk about the state of my classroom. I stuck my head in today while at a meeting...wholey cow! The custodians waxed my floor, fab! They have not put the desks/tables back down on th floor, they are still on my stage. I can't do anything! But I love my newly waxed floor!

I suppose I shouldn't be here rambling...I should be getting ready for the real estate appraiser to come on Friday. With the state my house is in, he won't get past the front door! GRRR!

Camping

We had the opportunity to go camping this week. If you have never camped at the beach I highly recommend it. M and I took his youngest daughter, B, with us to camp with my aunt, cousin, nieces and my BIL. We had a great time.

It is a sort of family tradition to camp at Carpenteria State Beach (when we can actually get a site). The beach is nice and we can walk in to town for dinner, which is what we did all three nights. I mean why cook when you can have margaritas at Cabos and pizza at Rusty's.

The kids all got along so well. Playing in the surf and sand, doing skits and singing WAY too many camp songs. I took this as a good sign. B normally doesn't go to many of my family functions, so she really doesn't know the kids. But to watch her fit in so well with my family was really nice.

After three days in the sand and dirt we came home and I immediately started getting ready for the school year. It was nice to get in one last trip before the end of summer.

What was your last adventure?