I've been accused of having just that many a time. Some days I think to myself how I'd like to be someone different. Other times -- usually while I'm in the moment -- I'm perfectly happy with the label. I think the thoughts against it happen on the days that I don't feel like keeping up appearances. Or I just start thinking that there should be more to life.
Friday night only one teacher was able to make it out with me. We had loads of fun though. Eventually Grasshopper showed up. I didn't see much of her though. I was in full social butterfly mode by then. I ran into this one woman I met weeks ago. Don't ask me her name. I really don't remember. I was busy having a smoke at the time with the lead singer of the band even if their keyboard player was not present becasue he is currently playing with his other band -- one that I am sure that y'all have heard of. (I learned that real musicians play because they love music but that they rarely make money from music. Actually, I suspected this but the guys were able to confirm this for me.) She wanted to know if the band was any good. We told her that they most certainly would be. She then asked if the music would be ass shaking good. The lead singer suggested a couple of songs and she had a puzzled look. We then explained to her that he is in the band. The lead singer then told his wife that she should probably get out and shake her stuff as well. I ran into this hot guy who still works at that bad place. Apparently while he was walking in, he bumped into Grasshopper. She said that her thought was, "Please feel free to run into me anytime." I just kept reminding myself that he spent that year we worked together seeming to suck up to the powers that be. No matter how hot I think he is I just can't stand that. OK. I'll admit it. I did hug him though. Because he's hot. Once the music started, things became a blur. I do know that I was in slightly past closing time. A couple of the guys from the band gave me a ride home. And the drummer stuck around. I know. I'm supposed to avoid musicians. I don't recall ever dating a drummer before though. Usually it's guitarists or bass players. There was that sax player with whom I was obsessed in college too. But no drummers. He doesn't live in the immediate area but now he's planning trips back. Poor thing thought that I was younger than he is. And he's 28. Kind of the upper limit of my span. Kate, my college roomie, says that he's still too young. She keeps trying to remind of her ten-year rule. I just laugh in her face when she mentions it.
Chef guy was supposed to call on Sunday. He never did. I thoght that I would have to figure out how to juggle the two guys. I've never really done that before. I tend to be a one guy at at time kind of chick. They were both cool in their own ways so I couldn't figure out which one to keep. Now it's a no-brainer.
Oh, and on the 30th the band is doing a benefit show in SF. And BWB has assured me that it is a totally cool organization. Somehow I just knew that she would know the organization. Cause she's hip to the nonprofit scene like that. The next weekend there will be a benefit for what was the formerly known as the Alice Arts Center. Alice Arts was known for introducing kids ot the arts. I'll probably be at that benefit as well. i know that the arts are very important to kids. I could probably write a whole post on that -- as well as why I think the current season of Survivor is detrimental to education. And let me remind folks that the show comes on at 8 p.m. I guess if I was a part of the dominant "race" in our society, I would think the whole thing was kind of neat -- kind of like how Jim Crow laws were neat. I would like to argue that we were more advanced as a society from those times but I often doubt that we have made much progress. Especially when folks proclaim how cool the new season of "Survivor" is. I like to think that those folks are delusional. (Bring on the attacks. I can take it as well as dish it out. Just don't cry after I smack you down with my response.)
Now I'm off to the challenge of the kids. And letting them know that my classroom is not about "racial" division. We are all one people and we are here to get along. I will also need to let them know that I won't be at work on Tuesday because I'll be gone at a training. They'd better treat the sub OK. I'd better not hear some crap about how the sub had it out for them because s/he was racist. That's their favorite excuse, you see. The current season of "Survivor" just feeds into this thinking. All I know is that if I hear that anyone has given the sub a hard time, heads will roll. And I don't care about "race" -- as I have told and shown my students on numerous occasions over this last three weeks.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Saturday, September 16, 2006
I am super!
I actually took this quiz some time ago but Tami beat me to posting it. Yes, that's right. I periodically sit down and take a number of quizzes in a row and then save them up for Saturday posts. Now you know my secret.
OK. I have issues with that last part. Batman not a true superhero? Grrrr. Oops. Did I just let my inner geek show?
And now I'm going back to sleep. Because last night was a long night. And I might need to go out again tonight.
| You Are Batman |
 Billionaire playboy by day. Saving the world by night. And you're not even a true superhero. Just someone with a lot of expensive toys! |
OK. I have issues with that last part. Batman not a true superhero? Grrrr. Oops. Did I just let my inner geek show?
And now I'm going back to sleep. Because last night was a long night. And I might need to go out again tonight.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
The horror!
Thursday started off as a hellacious day. Then I was lulled into a false sense of security.
Wednesday a couple of kids had a complete meltdown in my room. Basically they were as fed up with their classmates as I was. One student became so frustrated while waiting for her classmates to quiet down so that she could tell them how horribly they were acting, she ended up in tears. Another student then told the rest of the class, "Some of us are here to learn. If you're not interested in learning, then why bother showing up?" I told you my students were bright. I then explained to the class that it is a good thing that I have a strong ego. Otherwise I would go home each day in tears. I also told them that every day when people ask me about my day, I am honest. The sad thing is that no matter how badly the students act, I still like them. Yes, I told them this. I started to see some improvement then but we still had a lot of ground to cover.
Today's class opened with a team building activity. It was a good day at school. Well, if you disregard the three students who ended up in tears throughout the day. The first was because I sent her off to "Siberia." She just doesn't play well with others. It just didn't seem fair to allow her to sit with others when she was making their lives a living hell. I gave her some tissue and basically told her to suck it up.
The next tears came from one of my Latino students. He wanted to work with his buddy instead of his table group. I told him that we had had this conversation way too many times and got him some tissue. I then pointed out that his group, and many of his classmates, did not like working with him because he either wanted to play around or to insult his classmates. One of the girls in his group stepped up and offered to help him. When I checked back ten minutes later, he was working and smiling.
The final tears came from a student who thought that she couldn't do the math work. She was a little off but not that much. Before I got to her desk, she had answered some of the questions but had chosen to erase her answers. The answers she had erased were right. I gave her some tissue and a little ego stroking. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a pro at handing out the tissue. Of course, in the past I taught middle school so there was a lot less tissue going around. Well, at least not in my presence.
Before lunch, I complemented the class on their ability to stay on task. With the way they had been acting a few days ago, I would never have been able to fully deal with the meltdowns. If things had not turned around today, I may have had a meltdown.
Tonight was "Back to School Night." Per usual, I was nervous. One of my friends, a fourth grade teacher, asked if I was nervous beforehand. I said, "Of course. I have just learned over the years to not show my nervousness." You never know which parents/guardians will show up. Fortunately, the aunt of the kid in "Siberia" showed up. All day long the kid had been telling me that she was going to tell her aunt about what I had done to her. I told her to go right ahead. After I met the aunt, I learned that the girl had not said anything to her aunt. I now have added the aunt's number to my directory on my cellphone. I love meeting parents/guardians who are on the same page with me.
Now the true horror begins though. I got home and discovered that I am out of toilet paper! I usually stockpile the stuff. How did this happen? I know what I will be doing over this weekend. Not tomorrow though. Because tomorrow is "Teachers gone wild" night. Yep, that's right. I'm heading out with the ladies tomorrow night. (There is this one male teacher. He teaches kindergarten. We should ask him to go out with us because we've all agreed he's kind of hot. Oh. But that might be sexual harrassment. Oops.) So if you're in the Bay and you read this blog regularly, you'll know where to find us.
Wednesday a couple of kids had a complete meltdown in my room. Basically they were as fed up with their classmates as I was. One student became so frustrated while waiting for her classmates to quiet down so that she could tell them how horribly they were acting, she ended up in tears. Another student then told the rest of the class, "Some of us are here to learn. If you're not interested in learning, then why bother showing up?" I told you my students were bright. I then explained to the class that it is a good thing that I have a strong ego. Otherwise I would go home each day in tears. I also told them that every day when people ask me about my day, I am honest. The sad thing is that no matter how badly the students act, I still like them. Yes, I told them this. I started to see some improvement then but we still had a lot of ground to cover.
Today's class opened with a team building activity. It was a good day at school. Well, if you disregard the three students who ended up in tears throughout the day. The first was because I sent her off to "Siberia." She just doesn't play well with others. It just didn't seem fair to allow her to sit with others when she was making their lives a living hell. I gave her some tissue and basically told her to suck it up.
The next tears came from one of my Latino students. He wanted to work with his buddy instead of his table group. I told him that we had had this conversation way too many times and got him some tissue. I then pointed out that his group, and many of his classmates, did not like working with him because he either wanted to play around or to insult his classmates. One of the girls in his group stepped up and offered to help him. When I checked back ten minutes later, he was working and smiling.
The final tears came from a student who thought that she couldn't do the math work. She was a little off but not that much. Before I got to her desk, she had answered some of the questions but had chosen to erase her answers. The answers she had erased were right. I gave her some tissue and a little ego stroking. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a pro at handing out the tissue. Of course, in the past I taught middle school so there was a lot less tissue going around. Well, at least not in my presence.
Before lunch, I complemented the class on their ability to stay on task. With the way they had been acting a few days ago, I would never have been able to fully deal with the meltdowns. If things had not turned around today, I may have had a meltdown.
Tonight was "Back to School Night." Per usual, I was nervous. One of my friends, a fourth grade teacher, asked if I was nervous beforehand. I said, "Of course. I have just learned over the years to not show my nervousness." You never know which parents/guardians will show up. Fortunately, the aunt of the kid in "Siberia" showed up. All day long the kid had been telling me that she was going to tell her aunt about what I had done to her. I told her to go right ahead. After I met the aunt, I learned that the girl had not said anything to her aunt. I now have added the aunt's number to my directory on my cellphone. I love meeting parents/guardians who are on the same page with me.
Now the true horror begins though. I got home and discovered that I am out of toilet paper! I usually stockpile the stuff. How did this happen? I know what I will be doing over this weekend. Not tomorrow though. Because tomorrow is "Teachers gone wild" night. Yep, that's right. I'm heading out with the ladies tomorrow night. (There is this one male teacher. He teaches kindergarten. We should ask him to go out with us because we've all agreed he's kind of hot. Oh. But that might be sexual harrassment. Oops.) So if you're in the Bay and you read this blog regularly, you'll know where to find us.
Monday, September 11, 2006
What I did over the weekend
Ideally this post title should have had the word "who" in it instead of "what" but alas, it was not that kind of weekend.
After going through hair hell on Friday, I finally managed to get my butt up around 6 p.m. on Saturday. I woke up before then a few times but B&N kept convincing me that it was time for another nap. This gave me just enough time to clean myself up so that I could head out. I met up with Grasshopper only to discover a bar full of ugly men. *sigh* But our fave bartenders were there -- and they're hot enough to make up for most of the ugliness that was around us. Bottom line is that I am still a frustrated girl.
When I finally awoke on Sunday, I called my dad to see when I needed to show up in Sack of Tomatoes. (Sunday was my stepmother's birthday. Also I needed to make my payment on the money I received from B of D. B of D requires personal appearances in lieu of monetary payments.) I hit traffic so I was 30 minutes late. I went with my dad, stepmother and stepbrother to a new restaurant in Elk Grove. The restaurant probably will not last long. The food was OK. The service was great. The manager is a brainless twit. We had finished our meals and had received the check when two of my dad and stepmother's friends showed up. They just wanted appetizers and so joined our table. The manager took it upon herself to take back our check to make a correction. It seems that now we were a party of six and so she had to add the gratuity. Never mind that my dad had had the check for a long enough period of time before the arrival of the friends that he could have paid it. She did the same to their check as well. My dad questioned her on this. She said, "But now you have six people sitting at the table." The gratuity was for 15%; my dad had planned on leaving at least 20%. He told the manager this. She said that she would "do us a favor this time and remove the gratuity." My dad said he would pay it but that she should let the server know that by her actions, she cheated the server out of extra money. The whole ride back to the house my stepmother ranted about the whole thing. My stepbrother, the photojournalist who used to occasionally dine with a food critic at his newspaper, and I said the whole problem was that they added the gratuity after they had given us the check. We also said that if this was their management style, they probably would not be in business six months from now.
I just realized that I probably have not spoken of my stepbrother and his ordeals. A few weeks ago, he was leaving work and passed out. He was rushed to the local hospital where they discovered that his kidneys had failed. He just got out of the hospital a week and a half ago. Because he is not completely well, he needs someone to drive him to his dialysis treatments. His apartment is a studio so there is no room for someone to stay with him. His mom and my dad decided that he should stay with them until he is well enough to take care of himself. Thankfully my stepmother just retired back in May so she has loads of free time.
Oh, and while in Sacto on Sunday, I found out that my cousin in Nashville's husband is now in the hospital. Something about congestive heart failure. Ummm. He's in his 40s. I am so tired of illness in my family. Just when I think that I am out of tears, I discover that I was mistaken.
On my drive home, I decided that I needed some entertainment. I called up the Chef. He hasn't had a day off in so long that he can't remember when his last day off was. He has promised to call me next Sunday. He thinks that the following weekend, he can finally take a day off and we can go out. If he wasn't so cute and cool, I would have written him off long ago.
And today? The morning of September 11, 2001, I was hopping into a rental car in Hampton, Virginia to drive up to DC. I had a flight out of Reagan National that afternoon. I had been attending the second funeral of a close family member in a three week time period. I ended up staying in Hampton and flying out of Norfolk. Nothing like staying in an area with loads of military installations while the country is under attack. And I will never get the image of the second tower collapsing live on TV out of my head. During that same time, my father had had a heart attack and it was the one year anniversary of my grandmother's death. Oh yeah. And I was interviewing for a new job because I was about to be laid off. By November of that year I was in therapy because I was so depressed. The therapists told methat I was supposed to be depressed. December I flew to London for a week because I had sworn that the next time I got on a plane, it would be for a happy occasion. January I decided that I hated my new job and that I would go back to school to get my teaching credential. Actually I decided in December that I needed to find a new job; January was when I knew what the new job would be. 2001 was a painful year but I also know that I would not be who I am today if I had not gone through that pain. The next time I need to make a major life change, I hope it's a little easier. And no one should have to die.
After going through hair hell on Friday, I finally managed to get my butt up around 6 p.m. on Saturday. I woke up before then a few times but B&N kept convincing me that it was time for another nap. This gave me just enough time to clean myself up so that I could head out. I met up with Grasshopper only to discover a bar full of ugly men. *sigh* But our fave bartenders were there -- and they're hot enough to make up for most of the ugliness that was around us. Bottom line is that I am still a frustrated girl.
When I finally awoke on Sunday, I called my dad to see when I needed to show up in Sack of Tomatoes. (Sunday was my stepmother's birthday. Also I needed to make my payment on the money I received from B of D. B of D requires personal appearances in lieu of monetary payments.) I hit traffic so I was 30 minutes late. I went with my dad, stepmother and stepbrother to a new restaurant in Elk Grove. The restaurant probably will not last long. The food was OK. The service was great. The manager is a brainless twit. We had finished our meals and had received the check when two of my dad and stepmother's friends showed up. They just wanted appetizers and so joined our table. The manager took it upon herself to take back our check to make a correction. It seems that now we were a party of six and so she had to add the gratuity. Never mind that my dad had had the check for a long enough period of time before the arrival of the friends that he could have paid it. She did the same to their check as well. My dad questioned her on this. She said, "But now you have six people sitting at the table." The gratuity was for 15%; my dad had planned on leaving at least 20%. He told the manager this. She said that she would "do us a favor this time and remove the gratuity." My dad said he would pay it but that she should let the server know that by her actions, she cheated the server out of extra money. The whole ride back to the house my stepmother ranted about the whole thing. My stepbrother, the photojournalist who used to occasionally dine with a food critic at his newspaper, and I said the whole problem was that they added the gratuity after they had given us the check. We also said that if this was their management style, they probably would not be in business six months from now.
I just realized that I probably have not spoken of my stepbrother and his ordeals. A few weeks ago, he was leaving work and passed out. He was rushed to the local hospital where they discovered that his kidneys had failed. He just got out of the hospital a week and a half ago. Because he is not completely well, he needs someone to drive him to his dialysis treatments. His apartment is a studio so there is no room for someone to stay with him. His mom and my dad decided that he should stay with them until he is well enough to take care of himself. Thankfully my stepmother just retired back in May so she has loads of free time.
Oh, and while in Sacto on Sunday, I found out that my cousin in Nashville's husband is now in the hospital. Something about congestive heart failure. Ummm. He's in his 40s. I am so tired of illness in my family. Just when I think that I am out of tears, I discover that I was mistaken.
On my drive home, I decided that I needed some entertainment. I called up the Chef. He hasn't had a day off in so long that he can't remember when his last day off was. He has promised to call me next Sunday. He thinks that the following weekend, he can finally take a day off and we can go out. If he wasn't so cute and cool, I would have written him off long ago.
And today? The morning of September 11, 2001, I was hopping into a rental car in Hampton, Virginia to drive up to DC. I had a flight out of Reagan National that afternoon. I had been attending the second funeral of a close family member in a three week time period. I ended up staying in Hampton and flying out of Norfolk. Nothing like staying in an area with loads of military installations while the country is under attack. And I will never get the image of the second tower collapsing live on TV out of my head. During that same time, my father had had a heart attack and it was the one year anniversary of my grandmother's death. Oh yeah. And I was interviewing for a new job because I was about to be laid off. By November of that year I was in therapy because I was so depressed. The therapists told methat I was supposed to be depressed. December I flew to London for a week because I had sworn that the next time I got on a plane, it would be for a happy occasion. January I decided that I hated my new job and that I would go back to school to get my teaching credential. Actually I decided in December that I needed to find a new job; January was when I knew what the new job would be. 2001 was a painful year but I also know that I would not be who I am today if I had not gone through that pain. The next time I need to make a major life change, I hope it's a little easier. And no one should have to die.
Saturday, September 9, 2006
Another hitch in my plans for global domination
| You Are 40% Sociopath |
 From time to time, you may be a bit troubled and a bit too charming for your own good. It's likely that you're not a sociopath... just quite smart and a bit out of the mainstream! |
I guess I still have some morals left. Such a pity.
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