The Summer Chronicles

I just don't get it. I've got more kids failing than ever before. They don't attend or they don't hand work in. and when I ask them about it the response is a shrug and a "meh". Can not get them motivated. and it's not just me apparently. My colleagues are talking about it as well. It's like someone put complacency in the water. Total weirdness. And when kids miss class they expect to be excused from the work. What? Don't think so. Some of my colleagues believe it is the whole Professional Learning Community concept, and the fact that we let kids turn in work whenever they feel like it, and we don't grade homework, we just give feedback, and they can take the test as many times as they like until they pass, and it's never the students fault for failure.. only the teachers. As I type this I agree. Way to grow a generation of lazy do nothing expect everything people. This is as bad as the whole language movement of the early 90's. Don't we learn from our mistakes? Good teaching has nothing to do with a "movement" or a "concept".

I've started making a big deal about turning work in, and actively talking about assignments. I post a list on my board that is freakin color coded. I rarely give homework either... mostly daily work.. and they still can't turn it in!

bah. takeout food is here and I don't want to type about work anymore.

consists of working and towing the line from Sunday evening to Friday afternoon, then cutting loose and running wild from Friday afternoon until Sunday mid day. It's a hard routine to keep up, but i find myself looking forward to the weekends... if it's wednesday and I don't have Friday and Saturday lined up I am bummed and searching for something to do.

That said, last weekend I was in Omaha watching my favorite band play.. decided against after hours and got home at about 2:30AM... On Saturday we loaded up the car and hit the road for Sioux city Iowa to see the band again. It was supposed to be a surprise, but they knew we were coming.. oh well. The crowd was dead, but we didn't care and hit the dance floor to have a good time. The after hours was not what I expected... people were tired and crabby so we didn't do much but hang out and talk...at one point in time all 7 of us in one room fell asleep. Yeah, it was a crazy party.

I've been playing guitar for 2 years now.. and I take lessons every week. I can play and sing like a fool in front of close friends, or friends who don't play, but I get real intimidated to play in front of people who have talent.. so I've not done it, that is, until last night. I sat for 3 hours and played with an amazing musician and had so much fun. Don't know why it took me that long to feel comfortable, but I'm glad I'm over that hurdle.

Ok... first. I bought a terracotta rice steamer. No instructions were included. I've searched online and can't find a darn thing. Anyone know how to use this thing??? (it's a terracotta pot with a small inner lid with two small holes, and a larger outer lid with one small hole.)

If you have a tangine, do you use a cookbook and if so which one? I've been looking but haven't really found a comprehensive collection.

thanks!

# What are your favorite smells/scents? Eucalyptus and salty sea air
# Do they bring back memories for you? If so, what? They do... it meant coming home
# What are your least favorite smells/scents? perfume and patchouli
# Do they bring back memories for you? If so, what? no, I just don't like manufactured scents
# What are your favorite perfumes/colognes? Don't have any.. see above

flew in without a hitch. Spent Christmas eve with the family.. very low key. Went to bed early. Spent Christmas again with family... very fun, also went to bed early. went for a pedi/mani with grandma and took her to lunch then went to hang out with my brother and scored some amazing indian for dinner. the next day we tried to go out on the bay but my bro's friend's boat broke down and we drifted for about 30-40 minutes before we were able to get close enough to a dock to lasso ourselves to safety. The next day we went to San Diego where T marched in the Holiday bowl. he also went to the bowl game the next day. Flew home without a hitch. Had an amazing New Years Eve. layed around on New Years Day, ran errands today, stayed in tonight, and have two more days to burn before going back to work.

1. What is your biggest waste of time in your home? TV and Internet

2. When at work, what is the activity that you find wastes the most time? Meetings. Hands down the biggest time waster.

3. When getting busy with a date or significant other, what ritual could you do without? um, nothing.

4. What is the biggest waste of time on the Internet? livejournal and facebook.

5. What do you do at a restaurant to waste time when waiting for your meal? socialize.

Stolen from tishie, then mangled to suit my own needs :)

we're getting ready to leave town to see family for the holidays, but I'll miss home.  As nice as it is to see everyone I can't help but miss the warmth of my kitty, my most awesome sunroom where I spend most of my time when I'm home, my friends- new and old who have really helped me define who I am, my newfound passion for music, and just knowing that this is where I belong, truly feel comfortable, and am able to be myself 100% of the time.

It's easy to complain about life and the little things that bring us down, and I do my fair share of that.  but, I've really got it good and I need to remember that more often.

guitar theory.

ugh.

I get it, but I don't get it....

so I was kinda bah humbuggy about this holiday season.  Not overly religious but like to spend time with friends and it looked like it wasn't going to happen so I was not too excited.

But... we got the tree up yesterday, lights are up and they look good, indoor decorations are up, Christmas cards are written and addressed, party invitations are coming in, so all in all, my mood is much better.  Still have to do baking, but thats no biggie.

since I've updated and in my narcisistic way I'm  sure you all missed me :)

well today is the birthday.  So far so good.  Had a decent day.. kids sang to me, got a few presents that were cool, had a nice dinner with the SO and am now home being mellow with lots of indian food in my belly.

I've had a rough couple of weeks of emotions but I think thats mainly over so I'm looking forward to regaining my peaceof mind.

Work is good.. need to get going as I've not accomplished all my goals for the semester.

other than that.. heading out friday to see my friends gig,doing the t-day thing with the in-laws and I've got papers to grade, so it'll be a busy couple of days.

the weekend didn't quite go as planned but that was okay... Friday we skipped the cd release party and gig.  Sounded like everyone was pretty much in for the evening, and our friends that were going to go had raw sewage backed up in their basement so they had to stay home and deal with plumbers and sanitation people.  Had yummy soup and salad for dinner and played my guitar with a friend.. it was fun.  Saturday I decided to stay in and make indian food with the boy and sit around the fireplace but my omaha friend called and really wanted me to come up and as she's made the trek down here the last 4 times I've seen her, it was my turn.  It was ok.  Her husband was being a jerk and took it out in front of me... can you say awkward???  yeah, it was.  Once she and I moved out to the garage it was much better.  Got home late and missed seeing some friends in town that were looking for me, but thats ok too.  Today I motivated early and did the grocery store trip and made my lunches for the week, studied guitar theory, took a nap and am now looking forward to dinner.

so this week was a long one... as I've said many times before i need to grow up and stop going out on work nights.... but it is just so much fun!  Tuesday about killed me... the excitement, the passion, the winning!  It's still following me as I'm very tired.  But will that stop me from having a great weekend?  No way.  Heading out tonight to a cd release party and catching up with some friends.  Tomorrow I think I'll head to Omaha to catch up with some other friends.  Sunday is going to be a day of rest.  Serious rest.  Going to build a fire in the fireplace, make some comfort food, wear sweats all day long, and be a couch potato.

1. Could you live without your phone for 1 week for $500? yes.  I love my phone, but I could do it for money

2. Whom do you talk to on the phone the most? thats tough... depends on the week...I'd say Tami if I had to choose

3. Whom do you no longer talk to on the phone but wish you still did? julianna

4. If you could get ahold of one celebrity phone number, whose digits would you want? um... ben stiller?

5. Do you talk on the phone more or less than you used to? probably more

It was one of those nights where I will always remember where I was and what I was doing.  Started off by voting, then heading home to make 100 phone calls to remind people to vote, then I met friends for nachos and beer, then walked over to the democratic party get together which was amazingly fun, then I went out to a bar to meet up with friends to watch the end of the race.  It was awesome to be with such great friends ushering in this new era.

we dressed as tacky tourists... fanny packs, hats, hawaiian shirts, it was fun.  We also had a vamp, frankenstein and his bride, a cowboy, witch, angel/devil, another witch, someone from Animal House, an egyptian cat, a cat burgler, cat in the hat, evil wizard guy, a few more witches, and a couple that showed sans costume.  It was fun.  The house is trashed.  Seriously... all I want to know is how the celery ended up all over the room.

Norman Dority to tune your piano... seriously.  He came recommended and he was cheap, but he handed me McCain material when I entered the house, and when I told him thanks but no thanks he called me a baby killer... proceeded to tell me that I was from AidsVille when I mentioned San Francisco.  I told him to leave but he's blind and his ride was an hour off and as angry as I was I'm not that bad of a person... so I used the time to educate him about Obama, liberal causes and feminism.  Then to top it off he didn't charge me since he said he was sorry he was rude and disrespectful.  I sent him down the driveway with some choice tidbits.. nothing offensive, just good positive hippie liberal vibes to soothe his angry fundamentalist nerves.

why yes, yes I am.  I am my mother's daughter and as such I will be planning what I'm serving on Halloween.  And yes I will be writing it down so I don't forget something and have to make a zillion trips to the store.  Sue me... I'm a planner.

So far I've got the house decked out in huge spiderwebs with a rather large spider over the entry to the house.. the back is also covered in webs... not super creative, but hey, at 99 cents each they were the cheapest decoration I could find that I liked.  I found last years black lights, so those will go up.... hauled out last years halloween stuff and scattered it amongst the house.. I just need to locate a ton of candles and I'll be good to go.

The menu so far is:
muffaletta
curry dip with veggies
apples and caramel dip
candy corn and peanuts (T's contribution)
Rum Cake

hopefully this party will be as much fun as the last one...
In other news I got a piano!!!! And it will be in tune by Friday so the 4 musicians that are here will have another toy to play with.
 

It's been a whirlwind of music and irritation... alternating between the two.  Thursday I passed out flyers to promote my friends band then went to see ESM (Electric Soul Method), who were incredibly fun, but I had to bail early as it was a school night so I was irritated by that. Then on Friday I hit the FAC with KLB, then handed out more flyers, then went back to the bar to watch Bruce Katz.  The only irritation occured when my friends were hungry for dinner, and I didn't care where we went yet they insisted I was part of the process, which really involved waiting for the band to decide what they wanted to do... I dont see a need to be a part of that... decide then tell me.  Easy enough. Went home earlier than normal as Saturday night was the night we had planned to go crazy.  Saturday night I could not get T out of the house... in fact he started showering when we were supposed to be leaving.  Then he had to find his keys, and his shoes, and feed the cat, and look for his jacket.... I was irritated.  Then he drove like a turtle downtown and of course the first two ATM's we hit were down, so getting cash became an issue that slowed us down.  The Saturday show was fun, but not as much fun as I thought it would be.  When my boys hit the stage it turned into instant fun!  Then I took one look at T.  Somehow, somewhere he ended up drinking way too much.  After the guys took their break we went back to our table and T just sat down and closed his eyes... 20 minutes later he was getting sick in the bathroom, and 10 minutes later we were in the car heading home.  Irritation set in.  I wanted to go out and he knew it... we'd talked about it...I moderated he did not and it really made me mad to be heading home sober and bored to put his drunk ass to bed, while all my friends were heading out for fun.

so today I am sitting here irritated... it's my first day of fall break and I woke up to an email telling me the plumber was coming between 12 and 2... great.  I have a guitar lesson that I'm trying to reschedule between those times.  So T reschedules for 9-11... awesome as it was 8:45 and I've now got to get in a shower.  So much for my lazy morning of coffee drinking and paper reading.  Now I've got this asshole of a plumber in my house... seriously.. he is anti-social, not that I want to be his friend, but saying "good morning" is not so hard.  All he did was bark at me "where is the problem!", and "ha, good luck finding a replacement handle on that!". 

dude, fix the plumbing issues and GTFO of my house.

When did you last...
1. scrounge for change (couch, ashtray, ect) to make a purchase?  about three weeks ago

2. visit a dentist?  last summer... due again in december

3. make a needed change to your life?  this fall- learned I can no longer lift more than 25 lbs and you don't realize how much stuff weighs until you have to actually think about it.

4. decide on a complete menu well in advance of the evening meal?  usually, although I am lazy so I change my mind often.  I always have something in mind but if I forget to defrost, well then it's usually sandwich night or take out.

5. spend part of the day (other than daily hygiene) totally/mostly naked? none