Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Good Habits - August 31

So photo day is finally over. I don't have a lot to say about it. It didn't take as long as I'd figured. I have a student that is apparently very impressed by my ability to type fast. We got done early enough that I don't have anything for us to do. I'm so ready to go home. And maybe take a nap. Napping sounds good.

Everything is paperwork.

And now we're finally on afternoon announcements! Hurray!

Monday, August 30, 2010

Good Habits - August 30

So today has been hectic. Right now we're reading silently (kids' books). Somehow I got all the way to 4th block and it feels like I've barely had time to blink. I'm SO ready to go home and take a nap. I need to call the doctor to see if they can send the request for my shot over to the ER so I can get it a little later.

I am petrified about photo day tomorrow.

I need to create a sign-up sheet for seniors. And I need to schedule candids. Couldn't get through earlier because the photo place is on Central time. :P My plan period ended before they opened.

I'm tired and ... tired. I don't want to go get a shot. :(

I don't have a whole lot else to say. Or write.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

To Do

Songs to get: El Fen, 21st-Century Gypsy, When You're Evil, Zina. I wonder if P will let me borrow/have his bowler? Do this today. Done!

I have GOT to request the gym for Tuesday. Need to give the form to the office but also let the phys ed dept chair know. I think I can get by without a sub; since we're still on blocks, I've got English, JRL2, plan, and JRL1. And that first block won't be released to the gym until after announcements, so I can meet my class in the room, have them write down their first assignment, and then head to the gym, having them bring their stuff. I think they'll learn more with me in the gym than without me in the room. Do this ... well, I'll send the email today, but I need to stop by on Monday.

Need to let the church food-helpers know that we can take another few casseroles... it's just that with only two of us, it takes forever to finish off something as big as they sent last time! Maybe we can invite Mom and Dad over, lol! Do this Sunday, for obvious reasons.

I really need to sit down and plan out my JRL 1 lessons more coherently. I still feel like I'm flying blind with that class. I think I'm going to take my notebook to the workshops today and do some thinking during our down-time. Do this today. Tried. Don't know what I'm doing. EMAIL REBECCA! HELP!

Need to pester teachers to GET ME THEIR ROSTERS. Dangit. Do this tonight.

Need to pay medical bills. UGH. It's just a matter of sitting down and DOING it, but gah, that's so tedious. Maybe if the Hunk loads the dishwasher while I do it I won't grouch about it so much ;D (his handwriting is hard to read, so I get to do all the checks). Let me tell you, I am SO GLAD we have decent insurance. At this point, I'm fairly sure that we're getting out more than we've put in. Do this tonight. Need to get some one-cent stamps!

Need to respond to the writers' notebooks that were turned in. And come up with alternate assignments for the slackers who couldn't produce a frickin' composition book in TWO WEEKS, but ALSO did not come to me before or after school to let me know that it might be a problem. Do this Sunday. Need to conference with students. Check Monday's lesson plans!

Need, need, NEED to send my rosters to the media center to make sure we're clear to get online. Do this today.

Plan out how to do the stupid ID cards and have that ready for 4th.
Call Joe M back about cross-country and cheerleading. MONDAY.
Find out WTF is up with football. Check with Coach Suttle.
Get lists of who has which planning from the office. MONDAY
Get a list of student names to plan out photo day. MONDAY
Get in touch with Rebecca. Still need info about contract. Not happy. Find out about a possible plant trip. What WOULD we be looking for in a workshop?
Send rosters to library. Can my students get online YET? Grh.
Call subs for next chemo.

That feels pretty good!

Good Habits - August 28

So now I figured out why I've been so pooped - it's because I haven't had enough PARTY!

I had soooo much fun at the hafla last night. I told the other English teachers we were having a post-chemo get-together. We met up in the parking lot of a church... and then walked across the street to the dance studio I go to! ;D They had nooo clue! I'd set up a workshop ahead of the hafla and my instructor walked everyone through some basic moves... and some not-so-basic moves! There was lots and lots of giggling. I'd brought some coin scarves and fringe belts (lots of purple, of course) and everyone got to pick through. "Like playing dress-up," they said! They did SUUUCH a great job. It was awesome.

Next time, for drinks? I'm bringing a case of bottled water. :P

It was WAY more down-to-earth than last Saturday's hafla, which felt much more like a performance. After the workshop, everyone just kind of hung out for awhile, then our host went over to the CD player and said, "hey, what's everyone want to dance to?" and just made up a playlist based on requests. We didn't have coordinated costumes - I danced in jeans, which is probably part of why I sweated sooo much - and most of us hadn't brought props, so there was lots of sharing and borrowing. It was just very low-key.

Not much to say about this morning. There's more workshops today but I don't feel like rushing. Mom's coming by to pick me up (the car should be ready Monday or Tuesday) and then we're gonna go!

After next session, I will be HALF WAY DONE WITH CHEMO! Yaaay!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Good Habits - August 27

God, what a day already. I woke up well before the alarm went off and I'm TIRED. Again. Already. I did brush my teeth (yayme) but we also went by McDonald's (bad). There's too much going on and I'm constantly feeling stupid.

Like last night. We went out to eat and it... well, it wasn't horrible, but we were neglected and the food was just okay. I don't think we'll be going back; there's better places. Many of them around here! :) But then I was tired and crabby - oh, they also auto-included our tip on the bill & that was kind of icing on the crapcake - and I didn't feel like going to dance, but I asked the Hunk to take me and that kind of made it better. So we're driving to class and I realize that I don't remember taking my laptop in from the car after dinner. And I look around. And I don't see it IN the car, either.

F.

In fact, perhaps even FML.

AURGH! And even now, I'm writing with them and there are students who have decided that my assignments don't matter. Little pishers! "Fill the page" does NOT mean write three words per line with holes in between them. OMG-WTF-EVER.

So anyway. Fortunately we were able to call the restaurant. Asked them about the laptop, said we'd just been there, they asked, "Oh! Are you the ones who were reading?" So we did get a bit of a laugh out of that. The Hunk dropped me off at dance and then went back to get my computer. He is so amazing. I don't deserve anybody that wonderful.

Lately dance class has been ... invigorating, certainly. But it leaves me feeling stupid. I suck at remembering choreography - I just can't GET it the way everyone else seems to. It's like four weeks into a seven-week class and I'm still muddling through the very beginning. I feel unbelievably incompetent. It sucks.

Then this morning. Ready to go, we get in the car, and she's giving us trouble shifting. Agatha, come ON! We just had her in the shop in... July, I think. So we get down to the second stop sign and she WILL NOT go into first gear. We finally managed to get her into reverse and drove in reverse back that block and back into our driveway. I am SO GLAD my parents had moved to the area or we would've missed the whole day. Ugh.

GAH! I wrote this on Friday but I'm not posting it until Saturday. Tells you what kind of day it was :P

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Good Habits - August 26

So some of the comments on an EC Ning post brought up some really painful memories. We live in the Deep South, and while back north of the Mason-Dixon line I was slightly right of the area's center, here I am apparently a liberal heathen. For the most part, I just suck it up and soldier on, because I don't know how to do otherwise with any grace.

I would hope that, if I were an area where my views weren't on the fringe, I would still retain an awareness that there are those to whom they seem preposterous. I know that I don't understand, for example, what it means to be ... racially oppressed, I guess, comes the closest to what I mean. I've lived in places where I was a racial minority, but even there being white meant privilege.

I'm not apologizing for it. I am who I am, and if it's not something I can change, I'm not going to waste time moping about it. Privilege is awfully nice. It's nice to feel valued. It's nice to truly believe that what you say, or do, really matters. It's nice to have agency.

Tangent: haven't heard back yet from the salon where I ordered my purple wig. I really really really hope it comes in today or tomorrow! I sooo want to wear it for the hafla tomorrow night!

Back to the point: There are many ways in which I'm privileged. Most of them, in fact. But one instance in which I've missed it is in being female in a subtly patriarchal culture. In this area, it is taken for granted that women are supposed to want marriage and children. It is taken for granted that men are the primary breadwinners, and that a woman's work outside the home is secondary to her role as primary caregiver. It astounds and horrifies me that people (can) say that as a wife, the only decisions I should make are those that my husband delegates to me.

Other than that, I love living where I do.

I am absolutely overwhelmed with the revamping plus having three preps at once. I feel like I'm always behind. I'm always tired - not physically exhausted, or sleepy, just tired. It's not too bad. But there's always an undercurrent of stress. There is just SO MUCH to do. I don't have a sub for tomorrow. I spent most of my planning time calling and leaving the same damn message. It was incredibly frustrating, because there is so much other stuff to do. AURGH! Photo day is coming up and I'm scared because we've got a new photography company and I don't know quite what to expect.

And Pipsqueak is not working. ONCE AGAIN! I get so tired of this crap. It's absolutely ridiculous. So do I NOT write and just go police the room? Or do I write with them, which is what everyone says I should be doing? The quickwrite I assigned them was about their ideal day. Pip was also supposed to come by yesterday for detention and did NOT. So I guess I get to write him up. Woo.

My ideal day would be one in which I woke up and found that everything had been arranged already. Photo shoots had already been scheduled, the whole way through the year. Lesson plans were all transferred over onto the inconvenient form that our administration makes us use. All of the messages left for me with questions about senior portrait retakes had already been answered. All my announcements had been turned in to the front office. All of our ads had been sold for both the newspaper and the yearbook. All students had ordered and paid for a book and had already received their receipts. All of the students in my classes had completed their homework and turned it in and it was already graded.

"Overwhelmed" only BEGINS to describe it. I don't particularly want to go to bellydance tonight. Right now I just want to go home and vegetate. I want to tell this class to just read for the entire period. I don't want to bother with lesson planning. I'm tired of students trying to squeeze two extra minutes - the pass says you're excused at 1:45, kiddo, I'll let you out of the room when the clock says 1:45 and not a moment before.

Some days make me wonder...

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Good Habits - August 25

So every class begins with a quickwrite. And I'm supposed to write along with them. Does that mean I'm supposed to write for the first 10 minutes of every class period? That's an AWFUL lot of writing. Plus also I'm supposed to do attendance during that time and make sure the door is locked and my lesson plans are posted and whatnot.

I'm perpetually tired. I'm definitely not looking forward to chemo on Friday. Right now I'm just feeling overwhelmed with everything I'm supposed to be remembering to do. I also need to contact the cheer, football, and cross-country coaches about times for their meets and I don't even know who they are. *sigh*

Today in Journalism II we are going to plan out our yearbook pages, contact our advertisers, and choose the teachers we're going to contact for beats. I need to collect writer's notebooks tomorrow and Friday. I'll have my sub pick them up during that last class and then give them to one of the teachers coming to the hafla. (They don't know it's going to be a hafla yet.)

I went for a walk in the park this evening! Plus I packed my lunch and it was a salad. I did pretty good today. I just finished up my WoW jewelcrafting daily quest, and now after I turn it in I'm gonna go soak in the tub.