lightning fast trip

Winter break was a quick one.
Our flight D.C. to Detroit went quickly and well. David did pretty okay on his first fight ever. We landed in Detroit, ate some lunch and hung around David's parents' house.
The next day, we went to meet up with Amanda and exchanged gifts. It was nice to see her again, if only for a short amount of time! We also tried to see David's grandparents, but couldn't get ahold of 'em. We drove back to Warren and went to Bo's family Christmas. We came back so late we decided to do Christmas at 2 AM and sleep in the next day.
Christmas started off with a huge, delicious breakfast. Two of David's uncles came over. We watched movies, Superman, and lazed about. We ate dinner with them and then headed to Kzoo. We got to Kzoo about 9:30. We waited for Meg to get home and then decided, since it was late, we would open presents, get it over with and sleep in the next morning. We did. Megan liked her two seasons of Gilmore Girls, my mom's "tea for two" set (two cute mugs and four loose leaf teas) went perfectly with the tea kettle my dad got her (we had no idea we were getting gifts that would go so well together!) and my dad liked his coffee. I love giving gifts. David and I got some awesome stuff. I got some socks from sock-dreams.com (wooooonderful socks!) and enough money on a gift card to get a CD player installed in my car (yesss!). David got a very nice outfit that is very appropriate for internship/grad student life.
I soon realized I was the only one without a laptop. Meg has a beautiful iBook, David has his huge laptop, my dad has a tablet laptop (where you can flip around the screen and write on it), and my mom has a laptop, too, now! David and I made a joke about how we should all be on our laptops and also talking on Instant Messenger. So, we showed my parents how to use AIM! Now they are totally caught up in the technology world.
We headed to Rocket Star for some quality coffee shop time. I dropped off two copies of my zine in the zine library. Meg, David and I showed each other the newest funny videos on youtube we've been laughing at. It was nice.
The next day was our first full day and started off pretty rocky. Brody has been acting up recently and decided it would be a good idea to latch on to Megan's hand with his teeth and not let go. Luckily, Megan's hand is okay, just swollen and has a few wounds on it. No broken bones or anything like that. Whew. Brody will also be going into training after he is out of quarantine. I hope it works and that Brody and my family can live in harmony and finally relieve some stress that dog has been putting on my family.
Mike came to stay with the family for a while. It was nice to see him, as always. It was especially nice to see him since he brought along a Wii! What a blast that stuff is! I was sore from boxing Megan and Mike and I swear I pulled a butt muscle bowling.
We also went to get tattoos. David got the golden spiral, I got my other hip Hedwig tattoo done and Mike got his Harry Potter tattoo touched up. It was awesome to see DJ at the shop. He seems like he's doing fantastically well.
Anyway. David and I went out separate ways, hung out with all our friends, went to coffeeshops, bars, wherever. We caught up with Kalamazoo and tried to see everyone we could. Here's where I will name drop--it was wonderful to see (mostly in order of how I saw you): Clay, Mike, April, Ian, Johnboy, Quaz, Natalie (!!), Scotty, Traci, DJ, Kim, Dan, Bill, Emily, Brian, Katy, Spock... hopefully I did not forget anyone. Congrats to Dan & Emily, who are now engaged.
It was strange being back in Kalamazoo. I was looking forward to being there and seeing friends, but I also felt myself slipping back into bad habits. I used the move to Virginia to start on everything I wanted to do and be. Being back in Kalamazoo, I realized I was being the old Alison. Not that I'm that much different, but it's different enough to bother me. It was really awesome to see my sister, family, former co-workers, friends, etc. But I don't really belong there anymore. Most the people that live there I don't keep in contact with and they don't contact me. No big deal. Kalamazoo moves on without me. Yes, it would be nice for someone to say they missed having me there, but they have no reason to. I wish I could bring some people here with us so this town would be more interesting, but I have no interest in moving back to Kalamazoo. First off, no jobs. Secondly, Michigan is depressing. I'm enjoying Virginia much more. Thirdly, most of the people I still keep in contact have moved other places. David and I were talking about how, in a few years, most of the friends we had in that city will be in other places. That's good, though. Kalamazoo seems to have a way of stagnating people. Anyway, it was good we were only there for a few days. Now it's time to get back to business.
The flight back to VA SUCKED. First, we were supposed to take off at 9. We boarded the plane at 8:30. We sit and sit and sit some more. Finally, the captain comes on and says something like, "Well, folks, if you've looked out the windows, you've seen the fog. The fog's even worse in D.C. and they're not letting anyone fly in." So we sit. Sit more. Finally, at about 10/10:15, they let us leave the plane to stretch. We re-boarded at 10:40 and sat for about 30 more minutes. Finally, we took off. We were supposed to land in D.C. at 10:10. We landed around 1:30. There was about a 30 minute wait to land in D.C. from the back-up of flights. It was so long of a wait that the pilot said if we had to wait 20 more minutes, we'd have to fly to Atlantic City to fuel up. The bright spot of this flight was the head flight attendant who decided to change up the original flight safety spiel. It started off with the usual stuff and then she pops in (not even breaking character) "please pretend to pay attention". She also had other gems popped in there like: "...then we would not have come to work this morning.", "If you are sitting next to a child or a politician, please secure your mask before securing theirs", "For those of you that have never been in a car before, this is a seatbelt. Please secure it tight and low around your waist like Britney Spears' jeans", "the in-flight movie is Gone With the Wind", "The lights in the cabin will be turned off. If you look above you, you will see a white button that will turn on your own personal reading light. Do not press the blue button, as this is your seat ejection button". The best part is that most people didn't even notice because she kept the same tone of voice (and it was very stereotypical flight attendant style) and the other flight attendants didn't even flinch! Everyone acted as if it was totally normal. The people that did notice were laughing their asses off, though. It was priceless.

I've put all the pcitures I took on my flickr site, along with a TON of wedding pictures (by Beth) that David's parents scanned in for us and put on a CD.

Also, Chris and Cherie were broken into before Christmas and hit pretty hard. While we were in Kzoo, we talked to a few people about collecting some money to replace stuff/repair their window. We're going to buy them a few movies they had stolen. If you're interested or if we already talked to you and you can spare a few bucks, let me know.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and that you have a good New Year's Eve/Day. Ours will probably consist of Yuengling black & tan and continuing watching the Twilight Zone marathon on Sci Fi.

hang in there

I had a wonderful plan for my day today that involved getting the required "what I did on my Holiday Break" blog out of the way. Unfortunately, I will explain and update tomorrow. This update will be the most epic blogging you have ever seen in 2006.
Or maybe just on December 31, 2006.
And possibly maybe probably not that epic.
But it has a 70% chance of at least being a little entertaining.

with a quickness

This week we made cookies. One batch of ginger snaps that were far too ginger and one batch of oatmeal/banana/chocolate chip cookies that were deeeeeeeeelicious!
I got a lot of cards from students and teachers. I got candy and cookies from a few students and one of my co-teachers. My other co-teacher gave me these three beautiful candle holders that say, "peace", "joy", and "noel", plus candles. Now I must find something or make something (food-wise) for my two co-teachers to thank them.
One student gave me a cute snowman candle. One of my students made me two "snowmen". They were made of three marshmellows on a stick, dipped in chocolate and white chocolate, meant to be stirred into hot cocoa. She also gave me a card that said I was a great teacher and, even though she may not say it a lot, she appreciates everything I do. It was amazing! I gave her some hot cocoa mix. Other teachers were jealous of the stuff/cards I got... I was totally not expecting anything!
This week, I made copies and put together my first (kinda crappy) zine. It's rushed and kinda disorganized, but it'll work and the next one will be better. I wasn't sure what I wanted out of this one, but now I know for the next one.
Today, so far, has involved packing (pretty much finished), cleaning, and getting the apartment ready for the pipe replacement that's going on while we're gone. We have to move everything off the counters and from around the kitchen sink in the bathroom, remove everything from one of our storage closets, and remove everything from the bathrooms. Ugh! This also means the cats will be stuck in our computer room the WHOLE TIME we are there because they can't be loose while the dudes are working. Carly is going to check on them mid-way to make sure they're doing okay though, so that's good. (It still sucks that they'll be in one room for a week. ugh.)

And we're off!

list it out

What have I done recently?
-Decorated a Christmas tree that is very tiny.
-Remembered how chilly 20 degrees could be.
-Remembered how much I liked 50-60 degrees.
-Laughed at people from the South who complained about 35 degree mornings. It's not that cold. C'mon!
-Started to get my zine together.
-Got excited about giving two people the perfect things. Oh yes.
-Got excited about going back to Michigan in a little while.
-Put on my Canada Olympic team vest. Missed grandpa.
-Found myself hating Virginia a slight bit, but only because I'm frustrated by other things.
-Sang and danced and looked forward to being able to listen to something other than the radio in my car soon.
-Stressed about money. Bah humbug.
-Looked into programs for my master's. Got excited about what I found. I think I found exactly what I'm looking for.
-Wondered if teaching was really what I should be doing. I suck, man.
-Felt frustrated with teaching, the "system", "The Man", students, etc.
-Was disappointed by students being one day behind where they were supposed to be. The whole students not taking responsibility for what they were supposed to do and, instead, deciding to whine has really gotten old. (Then I remember that there are "adults" who do the same thing in college and beyond. Is that more or less depressing? I can't figure it out.)
-Decided to take a day off to avoid mental breakdown and maybe even choking a child or two. I am looking forward to tomorrow. Mental health days, man. That's where it's at.

don't you let them tell you that you're wrong

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists on Saturday was amazing! We got there pretty early, hung around, waited for them to open the doors. When they let us in, it seriously looked like some prom-type stuff! They had snacks and drinks. It was caaa-razy. My camera was dying, otherwise I would've taken a picture. The place was a good-sized ballroom, but it was only about half-full. Only a handful of people actually knew who Ted Leo and the Pharmacists were, some of those had only recently found out who they were (through Death Cab's recent tour).
The first band was from WBG and sucked. Really bad. It was... oh my. Painful.
The second band was from Sweden, Sirqus Alfon. They were hilarious. They did all covers of popular songs. Some examples: "Crazy in Love", "Can't Touch This" (Yes, MC Hammer. It was awesome), the Mario Bros. theme.... and many more I can't remember. They have a website, you should check it out and get an idea of the craziness we saw: http://www.sirqusalfon.com/

Ted Leo had a sinus infection. It did not show at all. If this show was him at his weakest, holy moly-- he must be amazing when he's healthy. Everyone now and then, after he finished singing, he would play his guitar and cough his lungs out! The dude was so sick! It was awesome to see him live and, especially since he just opened for Death Cab about a month or so ago in Norfolk. The tickets for that show were something like $30 or $40! We heard that he only played stuff from Shake the Sheets. This show, he played stuff from that album as well as Hearts of Oak. They played forever! Plus, he took audience suggestions and played songs that he claimed they rarely play.
What they played (not in order, I can't really remember the order):
Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?
I'm a Ghost (one of those "rarely played" ones)
The High Party
the Ballad of the Sin Eater
Bridges, Squares
Me & Mia
The Angels' Share
Counting Down the Hours
Little Dawn
Heart Problems
Bleeding Powers
Walking to Do
and one from Tyranny of Distance that I can't remember the name of, but was also one they rarely play.
Basically, it was an amazing show!


This week, I had a rough start. My throat started hurting Friday afternoon. Stayed kinda ache-y through the weekend, and Monday/Tuesday, it hurt to talk a lot. Yesterday, it became really dry and it was difficult to keep my class on track. Today, though, I feel much better and had a day where I didn't have to go to school. It was my 2nd BEST training day and it was pretty useful. It's nice to have those day-long breaks every 2 months to get a little advice and be able to hang out with the other first year teachers from my building. We are the worst students there, I swear! haha.

whoa there, weather

This whole past week I've forgotten it was the end of November and first of December. It was upper 60s to low 70s all week, with a few rain showers and some crazy heavy fog in the mornings. Yesterday was so beautiful, we were missing a good chunk of students--haha.

After much complaining about how Williamsburg never has shows (and the closest ones are a good chunk of time away), and that no one ever comes to Virginia, anyway (unless you count D.C.)... Ted Leo is playing a FREE SHOW TONIGHT. So, we go. Yesssssss!

that's about it

It's been a while!
Not a whole lot has gone on.
The week leading up to Thanksgiving break was long, but worked out. My PowerPoint on the 1940s/1949 went over well. Wednesday we got hit with a nor'easter, but still had to go to school. I had about 7-9 students show up for a class that usually has about 25-27 kids show up. We watched newsreels from the 40s. They got as much of a kick out of them that I did, which was good.
I've been grading essays and getting ready to start reading the Catcher in the Rye on Monday. My department head told me that she's not worried about me at all and that I'm doing fine. She really enjoyed the PowerPoint, too (she came into one of my classes to observe).

For Thanksgiving, we went over to Corey and Megan's apartment. It was in a part of town that was mysterious to us. The mystery is now solved: it's the Super Suburbs (complete with water fountains/waterfalls installed on the outside of HUGE houses! Woohoo!). We had a huge spread! We brought the green bean casserole (it was very tasty) and I made my mom's cheesy stuffed bread. I made a loaf and a half (used the other half the night before to make sure I made it right.) and it was gone quickly! Apparently, it was "on point" and I got asked for the recipe. Awesome. After we ate, we played Settlers of Katan (Catan? I can't remember how to spell it) and Cranium (while watching Elf! awesome!). It was a good Thanksgiving.
We actually went shopping yesterday at Target and Plan 9. Found good stuff for good prices. Some DVDs, some CDs, some tights (I always seem to leave Target with tights!), and some laughter at crazy Christmas shoppers.

inside and outside of my dream

I woke up at 5:49 A.M. this morning. Jackie got me up. I leave at 5:45 each morning. CRAP!
I was up and out the door at about 5:53-54 (the clocks were all different). I AM AWESOME.
A shower after school never felt so good. The whole day I kept thinking, "That shower this morning would have been so nice. I am so incredibly greasy and dirty feeling today."

This week at school has been pretty awesome, so far. I think the 4-day weekend for the kids was exactly what they needed. The knowledge of a 2 1/2 day week next week probably doesn't suck so bad for them, either. This is perfect timing. Of course, having so many days off really sucked for the whole "bring back a rough draft!" homework assignment, but the kids out of my 5th bell surprised the holy crap out of me by bringing in a whopping 10 completed rough drafts! I told them their class was well on their way (and way ahead of the other classes) to the free movie day. For the first essay, they were the class with the most turned in on the due date. So, hopefully they win it. If they're working this hard, they deserve it.
Monday was an all-day professional development day. It was completely mind-numbing. It was 6 different sessions. A lot of info. Not a whole lot said. One session was AMAZING. One of my co-teachers, Sue, and I were both there and decided we would definitely use it for the next essay.
Tuesday after school we had this loooong meeting (seriously. It went from 2:15-3:45). The first part was about recognizing possible gang-related tags, tattoos, etc. This year, so far, they've already had 9 gang-related issues in the school. As Mr. D said, "Last year, as you all know, we had zero." So. We got informed about all the different signs, tags, language, etc. and the three major gangs they've identified in Norfolk. Ugh. I'm pretty sure of a few of my students being related to gangs or in gangs. I don't ask, they don't offer. I told a few of them that that crap doesn't belong in school and especially not in my classroom. I told them to watch what they put on their folders and their papers. So far, I haven't had a problem. Other teachers (mostly 9th grade) have apparently seen kids flashing money, hand signals and all that crap. I'm glad that the few kids that would just LOVE to show off like that just don't do it in my class. But... those 9th graders, man. They're a different story. I am not looking forward to the kids in the 9th grade coming into my class. I do, however, trust the 9th grade English teachers to whip their snappy attitudes into shape by the end of the year.
Speaking of attitudes, my two "bells from hell" are actually IMPROVING in their response, attention, stamina, and general respect for themselves, classmates and their teachers. This is wonderful. Sue and I are definitely enjoying it. Yesterday and today was Picture Day (yaaay.). They took pictures in their English classes--oh joy! I told 2 of my classes who had a high-risk of being complete fools not to embarass me. I gave them a list of what to do and what not to do. I can say that my students were some of the best behaved students down there. I was proud of all my little hooligans. Especially my 8th bell. As one of my students in that class said, "Man, Mrs. Pushie, this WHOLE CLASS has, like, ADD or something!" Truer words have never been spoken. They did fantastic though! They followed all directions even when the other classes (which were 11th and 12th grade classes! They were crazy!) came down and started acting like fools. It was amazing. Again, I was very proud of my students.
Yesterday I stayed after school with a few students to answer questions and help them outline their essays. The essay they have is tough. It involves a lot of interpretation and inferencing, which a lot of these kids are completely intimidated and uncomfortable with. They're all doing fine and know what they're doing, but, since it's all kind of new to them, they're in panic mode, which makes the writer's block come on hardcore. I stayed until 3:30. The last half hour, we just talked about starting up a discussion club and then went into talking about a GSA. One girl (who is a friend of one of my students and a student of the teacher who I share a classroom with) said she thought there was a Gay/Straight Alliance last year, but there was none on the list this year. We were talking about why they're so controversial and a problem to start up and all of that. One student said he wanted to start up a HIV/AIDS awareness group to educate other students. Basically, I love my students. I would say 80% of my kids enjoy talking about politics, social issues, etc. They are way more socially aware than I expected and more aware than I remember my classmates being at that age.
I was supposed to stay after-school with some kids today to help them with late work and essays, but all after-school events were cancelled in Norfolk due to weather. All day we've had a Tornado Watch. Apparently, there was a tornado in North Carolina. We had some power surges in 8th bell, which made it so much fun. The power flickered a few times and went out at one point in time. I totally thought it was the light bulb in the overhead projector until I looked into the hallway.

Anyway. In non-school news... Glenn might be coming down for an extended visit with us. Details are still being worked out. I've been super tired recently since I've had to stay so long at school then come home and do everything else. Tonight I'm going to try and relax and read something of my own choice! (and not student work!) I'm starting to really look forward to the trip back to Michigan for x-mas now that it's getting closer (and now that I've started making "dates" for the few days we'll be in Kzoo).

west philadelphia, born & raised...

I HAVE FALLEN IN LOVE WITH A CITY!
Since I had Friday off from school, we decided it was a perfect weekend go to visit Miss Amanda in Philadelphia. What a wonderful decision! We had so much fun.
There's a lot that we did and I'm kind of tired and would like to rest a while, so this will be in list form.
Friday:
-After facing much traffic and the worst IHOP IN HISTORY, we got to Philly about 7:30. We took a wrong turn, but it didn't matter because we were close enough, had time and noticed there was a power outage that took out all the traffic lights in the area
-We called Amanda to let her know we were in town (she worked until 11). Walked around U of Penn's campus and had some pizza.
-Called Amanda back and asked for directions to her theatre so we could pick up her keys. Hung out with Elliott for a while in her apartment until she called me at 10:45, asking to be let in cause she got out of work early. yesss! We spent quite a while talking and sipping on mimosas (we brought stuff to make Amanda's favorite drink, of course!) until we passed out from exhaustion (but not until after giggling and talking in the dark like a slumber party for a while)

Saturday:
-Woke up around 10 o'clock to a beautiful sunny sky. Amanda made apple pancakes. David went to get coffee and spilled his all over the porch because, as he put it, he couldn't see why he should put down one of the coffees to get his cell phone out to tell us to let him into the house.
-Walked to trolley, hopped on the subway and headed into Center City. Went to the Indepence Hall Visitor Center to buy tickets but found out (since it was Veteran's Day weekend) that it was FREE! Walked past the Liberty Bell (line was way too long!)
-Saw the most amazing looking carriage driver EVER! He had white hair, all crazy Einstein looking, and some pretty wicked looking facial hair. Basically: he wins.
-Went to Independence Hall. Saw the most amazing "guide" ever. David did best impression of "guide" ever. We then became the assholes giggling in the corner during a patriotic weekend in a very patriotic place.
-Walked over to George Washington Square and the Grave (Tomb?) of the Unknown Soldier (I probably got the name all wrong, I know)
-Walked down to Moriarty to have lunch. Saw a "celebrity"- Rake Yohn of "CKY" and "Viva la Bam" fame. We spent about 2 hours there, enjoying the food and the drinks. We also had some coffee to give us some energy to continue on our journey.
-Introduced Amanda to LUSH.
-Walked towards Museum district. Saw a plaza-type area that had game pieces all around it. Some pieces from Monopoly and Sorry!, dominoes and chess and bingo pieces. Also, the biggest mayor statue EVER.
-Went into Love park. Y'know, the park that's in tons of skateboarding videos and also famous for the love sign that's in it.
-Walked to the most amazing fountain ever!
-Walked in circles (and past many historical signs) to get to H&M as the sun set. Now... the day was so unseasonably warm that we barely needed the jackets/sweaters we had until about 7/8 o'clock. That was amazing luck, 'cause it was the perfect day to be walking around the city. The bad part was that all of the businesses were SO HOT because they all had their heat on already! H&M and LUSH were both so warm! (Some of the stuff in LUSH was melting because it was so stuffy in there). We took a quick look around H&M before leaving to walk down to the Delaware and Penn's Landing.
-Stopped in 7-11 for some energy drinks
-Walked by a lot of amazing swanky and nicely designed restuarants. So many different types of food! A lot of them had really nice outside seating areas, too. I love when cities have areas like that.
-Got to the Delware and saw an amazing memorial for Irish immigrants. One end started at the beginning of their journey and the other ended with them landing here. It was pretty amazing.
-Walked back up Walnut to Eulogy, a Belgian tavern. We went because Amanda told me that their upstairs part had coffins for tables. SOLD! We needed a break from being on our feet most of the day, anyway. We split a pitcher of Belgian beer that was both sweet and tart and also a 500 year old recipe. We also shared some Belgian meatballs that were delicious.
-Walked to the bus stop and found the saddest journal ever. Left it behind,
-Got some Chinese food
-Ate food, hung out and introduced Amanda to "shoes"

This morning we got up, got bagels and coffee (or tea) at the Green Line Cafe and then we headed out. The drive back was so much quicker and nicer than the drive there. A lot less traffic. Whew!
The rest of my photos from the trip are on my flickr site, if you want to see them.
All in all, an amazing weekend. I am in love with Philly and I told David that he's going to have to look for jobs there. Amanda said she's been checking out schools for me-- awesome! So, who knows? Maybe we'll be in Philly in 2008.

still alive! really!

Long time, no post. This week I either didn't have enough time or energy to post due to being really, amazingly productive, or I didn't feel I had enough to say.
This past week was amazingly productive. I had everything planned out and it all went pretty smoothly. Comparing and contrasting the trailers for "Ju-on" was an amazing thing to do. The kids really enjoyed it and I really enjoyed being able to do that. In my 5th bell, after having a "coming to Jesus" chat with them, they've been a lot better and also supplied me with the funniest thing of this week. Since the computer in the room we have class in doesn't have big speakers, but just the built-in ones, I had them come around the computer and TV area so they could see and hear better. One of my students (whom I adore!) was a little pensive about watching them. In the Japanese release trailer, it starts off very slowly and silently. It pans slowly over to the bed, where the protagonist is laying, and her eyes slowly open and look over to her right. BAM! Sound effect and creepy little kid! It's a very creepy moment that only gets creepier, but at that exact moment, this students jumps and yells a little, causing others to jump and yell. Then we all laughed. It was a good, shared laughter. Some days, I really love that class.
This next school week is going to be awesome because we have only 3 days with students. Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday it's school as usual. Tuesday is Teacher Records Day. Friday is Veteran's Day, so we all have it off. The students get a four-day weekend (!!!), we only get a 3 since next Monday is a district-wide prof. development day (joy!).
Since this upcoming weekend is a 3-day weekend, we're going to see Amanda! I am totally excited! We've already figured out what little treats we will be bringing with us. Seeing Philadelphia will be cool and hanging out with Amanda in Philly will make it even better!
This weekend, we went to see The Prestige. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you see it. It was amazing! I love Christopher Nolan's style. The story was great, the actors were some of my favorites and how could you say no to David Bowie as Tesla? It was amazing. When Mr. Bowie first appeared, I heard little whispers around our area in the theatre, "Is that... David... BOWIE?!" I said the same thing to David. haha. We also got Saw 2 and High Tension from Netflix and watched them early and late on Saturday. Saw 2 was okay, there were some pretty nasty parts. High Tension made me feel literally sick to my stomach because I was so uncomfortable. It was an amazingly well done movie. The background music, sound effects, realistic feel and creepy-as-hell twist at the end made me incredibly nervous. I could barely watch it.
Since we've recovered from the shopping trip to Norfolk, we've gone back to our weekly buying of an album each at Plan 9. This week, we found some good deals and both walked away with 2 albums of our choosing. I chose the Blood Brothers's new album (very good!) and Thunderbirds are Now!'s new one (it wasn't there a few weeks ago, I was glad to snag the only copy they had). David found a Hank Williams album and also Kings of Leon. I already know what I'm going to look for next week. Too many good albums out right now! I'm so glad we can finally buy CDs again. Now, if I only had a CD player in my car...
By the way, the picture with this post is Jackie making a frozen pizza box her bed. We left it there for her for 3 days and she kept on using it. What a strange, lovely cat.
Also, happy birthday to Natalie and Chris this upcoming week!

playing catch up

The past week was basically cleaning up my mess from the week before. Falling behind, being lazy and unmotivated, and not having the heart to be The Teacher 100% of the time, which led to problems in keeping my classroom under "control". Since I decided not to tell most of my students about what I was going through, a lot of them had snide little comments at times, like "Awwww, is Mrs. Pushie having a bad day?" in a very mocking, baby-talk kind of tone. I also had strange insult/compliments like, "Mrs. Pushie, you are my example for a round character. I never know what to expect from you." Um... cool...? Thanks? It was a funny moment. The classes that did know cut me some slack, but Spirit Week quickly erased any thought of forgiveness for grief from their minds. Oh well. I'm back and ready for 'em this week. Finally caught up, found motivation and, hopefully, things will get back to being right. (Plus, Homecoming being over is a HUGE plus... no more added craziness from that) By the way, speaking of Spirit Week, I posted some pictures on my flickr site that I took this week.
Today, at Target, we found the most amazing "playground ball" (like for 4 square or kickball). It had a skull and crossbones on it. They had HALLOWEEN THEMED PLAYGROUND TOYS! Holllllyyy moly, I was happy. And the ball was $4! It is now my "Ball O'Doom" for the classroom. A nice toy to toss around/at people during discussions. I also had a brilliant idea for my cart and how to re-organize it to create a small library to give those overacheiver kids something to do with all that free time they have. You better believe it's gonna have BUST, Adbusters, Mental_Floss (which a lot of the kids are really enjoying when others read it for their Reading Minute) and maybe an issue or two of Bitch? Maybe I'll risk it... haha. I'll probably stick some zines in there, too.
This week I get to include horror movies into my teaching of compare/contrast writing. I am brilliant. We'll be comparing and contrasting the movie trailers for the Romero "Dawn of the Dead" and the new "Dawn of the Dead" OR the trailers for the American release of "Ju-on" (the Grudge) and the Japanese release of "Ju-on" (because they are, amazingly, completely different). I hope the kids like it as much as I will. They really love talking about horror movies. Plus, tomorrow and Tuesday, it's been requested that we read a few spooky stories, so I'm taking in my big book (with creepy pictures) of some good ghost stories. My 1st bell were so amazingly well-behaved (seriously, it was a miracle. I was so suprised) that we're going to have a small little reward day. We're bringing in snacks and all of that and I'm taking in a movie for them to watch. They were totally excited! haha. I am going to make them sign a contract saying they will do the daily work (journal and reading minute) and clean up after themselves, or there will be no more reward days ever. again. (plus a few detentions/conduct notices)
As I wrote in the letters I sent out, things can only get better. (adding an extra hour to this day didn't hurt, either)

autumn sets in

Let's catch up.
We had a nice relaxing weekend. David and I went to Cheeburger and the movies on Friday night. Cheeburger is a very interesting place. HUGE portions, delicious onion rings and fries (and you can get a side basket that has BOTH.), and a TON of milkshake and soda flavors, oh my! Pretty good prices and pretty cute decor. We went to see Man of the Year, which was pretty hilarious and good. I wasn't sure how it was going to be, but they pulled it off and we both enjoyed it.

We went to Norfolk on Saturday. We stopped by Granby, so David could see where I go to Monday through Friday and then we headed downtown, to the Macarthur Center. We hit up Forever 21 (for me, but David found a good jacket), H&M (finally open! eeeee! got some cool stuff for good prices), the Body Shop (I bought two full sized things of that line of perfume... loooove it), and Nathan's, to finally try some of those "famous" hot dogs. We now have a few more clothings items, a nice, hip pair of leather gloves, perfume, and an understanding why Nathan's has "famous" hot dogs (they were pretty delicious-- and their fries! oh man! so good!).
On the way back, we stopped at Trader Joe's to check out what all the buzz was about. It was okay, I wasn't too impressed. They did have some pretty good prices and some tasty strawberry rhubarb pie that we have devoured, but beyond that... not much different from anywhere else. Maybe it was because it was crowded? Who knows. We did buy some beautiful flowers, the picture is from yesterday, when some of them started to bloom more.
Today started "Spirit Week" for Homecoming at school. Today was Hillbilly Day-- it was hilarious! One of my students had a jug with XXX on it and some home-made suspenders... priceless! I took a picture of him. Tomorrow is "Blast from the Past" day (I'm going mod), Wednesday is Celebrity Day (at a few students' requests, I'm going to dress at Molly Ringwald), Thursday is "Stunna"/Dress to Impress Day and Friday is, of course, Comet Pride day (we're the Granby Comets). It'll be a fun week.

incredibly difficult and uncomfortably close

This week has been rough. Being far away from everyone who has known me for longer than a month or two definitely is not helping in finding closure and comfort. Grandpa's passing away has brought out every little drop of loneliness and homesick feelings that I had tucked away to wait out the transition of moving. Now it's going full blast and I am desperately craving being near people who I've known and who've known me before August.
I was doing pretty good in school with dealing with everything. I had a little less patience, cried a little in front of one of my classes when I thanked them for being really well behaved (embarassing) and generally more exhausted than usual. As long as I kept my mind off of everything else and focused on what was going on in class, I was fine. Last night, it all came crashing down. I left early today.
Thankfully, everyone at school has been very understanding and very kind. Chandra ordered me to not come to school tomorrow, but we settled on my leaving early today. Rebecca was very understanding-- I couldn't ask for a better department head. I'm going to apologize to my co-teacher for giving her very short notice on having to cover 8th bell today (it was shortened to about a half hour because of the PSATs). I thought I could keep it together, but last night and today everything sunk in completely. Jerilyn (one of the teachers I share a room with. I'm in her room 3 times, I like her room the best) had a similar situation in her life, so it was nice to talk to someone who understands. My students have given me hugs, kept it quieter and more mellow in class (if they knew. I told only one class up front, at the beginning of class, that i was going through a difficult time and needed them to try and keep the usual rowdiness in check a little and try to make me laugh a lot, as they usually do), and written notes to me in their journal. One student almost made me cry (again) in class when he said, "You know... he's never really gone, he's always right here" and pointed to his heart. Sweet kids.
Basically, I'm avoiding being alone or not keeping myself busy with grading, planning, playing SimCity, singing at the top of my lungs in my car, dancing like a crazy woman--anything to get me through this, keep my stuff together so I can keep being a mildly successful first year teacher.

words can't even begin

I love you and I'll miss you a lot.

you'll be somebody's girlfriend

It's been a pretty easy week. I knew where I was going, went there, accomplished some stuff. It's such a nice change having students who respect me (minus a small few) within the first full month of school. They try, they have direction, they're creative, they're honest and up front. Basically: how the hell did I get so lucky? I asked my department head if it was okay if people came to visit. I wasn't sure if they allowed visitors to follow teachers around. I was mostly thinking of when Meg comes to visit for spring break. I don't want to leave her here all day, every day, and she mentioned wanting to see the school. Rebecca said there's no problem. I think Meg will be very jealous of this school and wish she had gone there. haha.
Anyway. Week started off with parent/teacher conferenes. I had less than 15 parents, finished reading The Color of Water, and talked with another new teacher, Ms. H (she teaches three levels of Spanish! holy crap!). We shared wedding photos. She got married in August and has an adorable two year old. Today was an "early release" day. I had no 8th bell, only 2nd and my caf duty. During my cafeteria duty, I got to watch the "gang squad" pull kids in one by one, take some pictures of some of them, question them, search them-- all that fun stuff. Apparently, I missed some crazy stuff go down after school yesterday. One gang (grown men, as one teacher told me), pulled up and surrounded the school because one of their kids was threatened and told he was going to get jumped after school by the rival gang. I know a few of my kids are in gangs. I told them as long as they don't bring any of that crap into class and make a problem for all of us, I didn't want to hear about it. I haven't had a problem.
Cafeteria duty is kind of fun. Not only do I have a group of students who come to say hi and chat, I also get to see kids searched, handcuffed, pulled in to security, interviewed, etc. They aren't usually arrested for anything big. The other day, they caught two girls smoking cigarettes in a bathroom (right by the cafeteria! Did we want to get caught, ladies?) and other cops had to come in. One of my students was in some sort of fight and was in the security box being interviewed about it before suspended. I only have about one student per week that blows past me/doesn't listen/lies to me. Security usually catches 'em in the hallways, though.
Since it was an early release day, I spent the rest of the day (two hours) in professional development. I chose "Unit planning" because NPS uses a special kind of planning called "Understanding by Design" and I kind of wanted to know what that was all about. Funny enough, quite a few other new teachers (to Granby in general, not just first years) were there, too. It helped out a LOT.
Funny moment of the week: Chandra was telling me about this one kid that runs his mouth a lot in class. She kept trying to give him the subtle hint of holding one finger up against her lips (y'know, the "Shhh!!" without any noise). He asked her, "Why do you keep doing that?" She said, "I'm trying to subtly tell you to shut your mouth. You know... there are two people in this world: those that can take the subtle hints and those who need to be yelled at and told again and again what to do. Those that need to be told again and again usually end up in jail. You're kind of small and pretty, someone's just gonna love you and your green eyes. You're gonna be someone's girlfriend." (Or something along those lines) I laughed so hard when she told me this, I couldn't believe she actually told some kid that! And with a straight face! hahahaha.
One funny/strange thing that happened this week: We read a story by Chinua Achebe about a man getting robbed. We were talking about connections to our own lives. The kids were shocked (seriously!) by what I told them about Kalamazoo and my few brushes with being robbed/broken into. That shocked me. Norfolk is bigger, but has less crime than Kzoo. That is crazy and pretty depressing.
David's been gone since Tuesday. His program took a little trip to D.C. and they come back today. It's been weird to be around the apartment alone, but I've had more than enough crap to finish for school.
Today is such a beautiful day. It's sunny out and cool, but not too cool. Just perfect. I wish David was here and we both had free time to go take a bike ride or something. Or I'll just eat the pumpkin fudge we bought to celebrate that it finally feels like fall here. Sounds like a plan.

except for maybe sumi wrestling

This weekend was an eventful one. We hosted a poker/game night on Friday. It was tons of fun and a great chance to get to know some people in David's programs. They're hilarious. I got to chat with two others in the "wives/girlfriends" category, which was nice. After a few of the dudes got out in poker, we played Apples to Apples (of course). After poker was finished, we played a 12-person game of Catch Phrase. A few people left and the remaining people watched Nip/Tuck with us.

Saturday we met our first Nor'easter. A nor'easter is a weather thing that happens on this coast that was new to us. It rained a lot. That's an understatement. David forgot to put my rear two windows up after running an errand Friday night and four hours of dumping rain drenched a good chunk of my backseat. My car is still drying out. The whole area is drying out. This picture is of Monticello Road, right near us.

We did make it to Plan 9 to pick up our weekly allowance of music. We checked out Books A Million and found they have a great selection of magazines and a pleasant environment. Also, we checked out the sandwich place Subway Station, which always smelled really good. It was amazing. Almost as good as the Pita Pit, Scott.

Sunday, we went to see Sandra Day O'Conner speak. What an amazing woman. I have two videos of her and tried to take a good amount of pictures. I'll put them up on the flickr site soon. She has quite the sense of humor and an amazing point of view. Very intelligent and very fair. It was a nice way to see her, too. It was a completely informal feeling set-up. We sat on the floor of the University Center (as David put it: The Bernhard Center/Bronco Mall with class.) like an assembly at an elementary school. Kids were everywhere. They had a panel that asked some great questions and then the crowd got to ask some questions. It was wonderful.

After the assembly, we were walking back to downtown/the car and saw a HAWK EATING A SQUIRREL. It was CRAZY! I wasn't the only person to take pictures, either. That bird was huge and it was just tearing that squirrel apart and daring anyone to come near it. It was pretty amazing. I called Meg afterwards and told her about our eventful day.

This morning was relaxed. I was able to sleep in until 7:15, get up, slowly get ready, go to WaWa (it really is a glorified 7-11... with amazing food) and get some coffee, and drive into work. Today was our first full Parent/Teacher Conferences day. It went from 10:30-6:30 and wasn't too shabby. We got to go out for lunch from 2-3, so everyone was starving by then, but it was a pretty laid back day. I finished The Color of Water because I didn't have too much left and didn't have too many parents come by. Ah well.

make history

This past weekend was a good one. We finally checked out the local music store, Plan 9. In a word: Awesome. We found a lot of good stuff and had a good chat with the employee. As we left I told David: "There are normal people here!" haha.
We also headed to W&M's campus on Sunday. My bike is getting easier to ride. We headed over to the library to see what they had to offer at the book sale (not much.) and then went into Merchant Square-area to Mermaid Books. There was some sort of festival going on, possibly an art festival. It was a beautiful day for it. Sunny, perfect temperature and breeze. We headed into Mermaid books, found some good deals and then went to Retro's and enjoyed some hot dogs. Mine had coleslaw and sweet potato mustard, David's had chili, cheese, onion and jalapeno. Crazy kid. We also finally went to see Little Miss Sunshine at the New Town theatre. It was a nice walk over and a very nice theatre, too. There's a fountain outside, as well as the ticket booth. David and I both had the same thought about that: What happens when it rains? But the movie was fantastic and I've been suggesting it to everyone.
This week at school has been draining. I had a lot to do until today, mostly to prepare for today, which was my first BEST training session. I realized I forgot one thing: a roster for my 2nd bell. (Since I have a co-teacher 8th bell, she has access to the online attendence book) Crap! Oh well. Those kids are good. The BEST training session wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Plus, they gave us breakfast, coffee, oj, soda, tea and cookies. It came at a perfect time for most people; most of us needed a little break away from school. I'm ready to go back, though. And I have more ideas. Mwahahaha- watch out, kids!
Parent/Teacher conferences are Monday, but I think I'm ready for them.
LOST starts tonight, wooohooo!
I put up some pictures taken with my new camera on my flickr site, if you click on the cool picture box thing to the right, you can see them. Some of them are of New Town. It's like a little downtown area that has independent stores and restaurants, but also chains and mall stores. I took a picture of one of the roads being developed/built right now. So far, there is a Barnes and Noble (almost open), next door to that: Old Navy, next to that: Lane Bryant, across the street: Anne Taylor Loft. See what I mean? A mall downtown area. Crazy.

major moments

You can officially be proud of me:
-Submitted/submitting the first interim's grades (progress reports) and I can say I have less than 5 kids getting E's and maybe 2 or 3 getting D's. The rest are C's and above. One class has a majority of A's. Thank you, thank you.
-Had a very productive first bell. We started off on track, but the stereotyping activity went into a discussion about homosexuality. It turned out to be the best class we've had so far. Hopefully, it can keep up. That class is coming together nicely.
-In that same class, I have a student who loves to ask those personal questions. Today's question was for another student whose pants were so low I had to remind him twice to pull them up 'cause I got tired of seeing his butt crack. Near the end of class, he was walking from the computer to the seat and she blurts out, "Where's your dick go in those pants?" (He wears those skinny indie/hardcore kid pants that ride really low and are pretty tight) My jaw dropped. Then we all laughed about it. Then I asked her to please keep personal questions on either a low volume or outside of class. Also, the language needs to be changed. She's hilarious.
-I brought out the Serious Teacher Voice in an appropriate situation and it worked. Also, I made sure to talk to the students involved afterward to make sure we all understood what happened. It was a situation of disrespect that I felt I had to make sure to squash before it got out of hand (and with that bell, it would have). I was worried that maybe I was too harsh, but I think it was okay. I guess we'll find out on Monday when I see them again.
-A student who gives me lots of trouble in one block (he wants all the attention) came into my first one to ask one of the students something before the bell rang for class. As he was walking in and realized it was one of my classrooms, the lady friend he was with was like, "Why are we here? What are we doing?" and he said something along the lines of, "This is Mrs. P! My best teacher!" Thanks, kiddo.
-I got an oil change! I took David with me to have a comfort blanket-type situation, but at the end they told me my serpentine belt was about ready to pop. It was dry rotted and cracking. I went yesterday to see if I could get it changed, but the belt guy wasn't there. So I went back today. Did you get that? I went back by myself to deal with a car issue. I am a responsible car owner. Way to go, me.

Now I will enjoy a weekend mostly for myself. Only two more essays to grade, put grades in, submit them and I'm done with grading for the weekend! I have some planning I want to get done for the short story unit.

a buliding to get lost in

Today I enjoyed my camera and a nice break from grading. This picture is for my mom, who wanted a picture of the high school. Maybe next time, I'll be able to fit in the whole thing, but I was in kind of a rush after school today.
It's a big building. Huge. There are still sections of it I've not seen, I think.
The most exciting part of my day was the part of my week that's usually the most boring: caf duty. I saw a girl who looked to be in handcuffs escorted out, heard many stories about fights and saw a milk bottle go up into the air to land a few tables over on some unfortunate students. The kids were excited, but complained because it threatened their chance at a pep rally. One of the security guards's birthdays was today, him & his twin sister. What a birthday for him. He told me these kids would be lucky if they got a pep rally, the way things were going today. I love this school.

disorder, discussions, and illegal electronics

I am so glad to be done with over half of the essays I've had to grade this week. I guess sometimes it's good that students don't turn their stuff in on time; otherwise, I would be going crazy right now. Today we had our first test, but I think I'm going to hold off on grading that until this weekend (after grades go in), so the kids have enough time to worry about their essays that haven't been turned in or other classwork they've missed. These kids need organizers. Not that it would really matter, though-- part of their crazy mess is developmental. It's starting to rub off on me: I question my spelling and I'm a complete disorganized mess (well, not complete... but way more disorganized than usual). I even searched all over for a student paper I wasn't sure I left somewhere around here or at the oil change place or at school. I'm not even sure he turned it in-- I can't remember. I should have organized my crap better. I really hope I didn't lose his paper, that would be horrible.
Which brings me to how I spent my lunch today. First, let me explain the class schedule, so that everyone can know what the heck I'm talking about. We have an 8 bell (blocks, but everyone here calls them bells) every-other-day block schedule. On odd number days, we have our 4 odd bell (1,3,5,7). On even number days, we have our even bells (2,4,6,8). I have plan 4 & 7, cafeteria duty the last half of 6th bell. The way the lunches work is so: 4 lunches(roughly 500 students/lunch) during 5th/6th bell, which makes 5th/6th about 2 hours. (It's about 1hr, 40-50 min on early release days because of the lunches. Early release days are like half days, except you get out at 12:05 instead of 2:05. They still serve lunch and we still do professional development, but just not as long--yes!! I like it) Anyway. My 5th bell, since we are in a Academy C room, has the second lunch: 11:58-12:28. This means we're in class for a little over a half hour, go to lunch, and come back for an hour. It's kind of nice. usually, I go try and eat a quick snack in the work room, talk to Chandra for a while, and then check my groupwise e-mail and clean up anything before the kids come back. Today, though, one of my students hung back and asked if she could stay in the room. I've seen other teachers do this, so I wasn't bothered and I let her hang out there while I ran around the floor for a while. When I came back to the room to check my e-mail, we started talking about school, the system, how people act and why, etc. It was really nice because she sits in the back and kind of keeps quiet. It doesn't help that my 5th bell has a lot of needy, attention loving kids (who I love, but they take me away from those quiet kids, ya know?). It was a nice way to spend a lunch.
This morning, however, sucked. My first bell has some cool kids in it, but they're hard to get focused on the task at hand. Right near the end of the test, as we were getting ready to transition into the intro activity for short stories, one student who I wrote a pass to the bathroom came immediately back in saying, "They're coming to do a random search!" The poor girl had already been waiting about 10 minutes to go! haha. Right after she entered, the school police officer and two security officers (one male, one female) walk in and describe what's going to happen: It's a random search; they're searching for electronic devices like cell phones, ipods, cd players, etc.; you can refuse because you have (some) rights, but it'll be 10 days out of school and some sort of court procedure or administrative meeting (I can't remember what they said). They pull up students one by one, wand them down, make them pull up their pantlegs, shirts (only half-way up and I think they only did that with the guys), went through their bags... it was fun. One student jokingly refused the search, then said he was going to do it. About half-way through the search of the classroom, he got up, grabbed his stuff and left. He will now miss a lot of work because of that. Great. It was an interesting experience, for sure.
But today had a lot of good things: the amount of essays I've had to grade has gone down, grades have gone up due to students turning in late work, grades being caught up, class sizes are levelling out (but unfortunately I have two new students that I don't know what to do with-- we just finished an essay and a test! what am I supposed to do with them?!), we're starting a literature unit next, and my classes are generally getting better behaved as we fall into a nice routine. Oh! And I got major kudos from two experienced teachers on my Reading Minute idea. Wooo!
Non-school related good things that happened today include: finally getting an oil change (and finding out I need a belt replaced- a very important belt! I'm getting it replaced tomorrow.. otherwise I risk my engine getting messed up), getting my digital camera in the mail (!!! it's amazing!!), and getting to rest a little while with Jackie and Gabriel. Gabriel has a weird skin breakout again, but not flea related (whew!) and has found a new sleeping spot-- on top of the big bookcase. Whenever he jumps down, it's crazy. He manages to make a big BANG!!#%!#%! sound (seriously-- little punctuation marks pop up. He's magic). Jackie has been a lot more cuddly and has, in her own way, been following me around and laying in ways that say, "Admire me! I am adorable!"
Bottom line: Things are good, my car no longers groans or creaks, and I am caught up enough to be organized once more. Whew.

follow the white reflective line

Yesterday, we finally had a chance to go get some much-needed bike tires. David had replaced the front one on my Schwinn for my birthday (to make up for the one stolen from the bike last summer), but the back one went flat twice since we've been here. His bike needed two new tires since the ones that were on the bike were crap. We replaced all of those and took our first bike ride together downtown. Hooooly moly! That heavy ass bike could really haul (compared to how it used to attempt to go over 5 MPH). It sure does make a difference having tires that are actually inflated to the correct pressure.
On our way back, we had a fun time of getting through a stretch of road(s) without any street light. We hadn't bought lights yet and just missed the bike shop downtown's hours, which ruined our plan to buy some on the way to Aromas. Crap. Williamsburg still has these nice stretches of country-like road where there are no streetlamps. I kind of like it... unless I'm on a bike with no light. It was pretty exciting though. All we heard were bugs, squeaky bikes, and silence. Every now and then a car came along. Once we got to the light on Monticello, it got a lot better (more cars and a few streetlights). It was dangerous, but exhilarating. After we got home, it was agreed we would (probably) never do that again. We bought a headlight and two rear lights today.
If my writing is extra sucky tonight, it's because I just finished reading about 1/4-1/2 of my students' papers (I have about 130 students. That was a good chunk o'papers). Near the end there it got kinda dodgy. I don't know if I know how to write anymore. Or spell correctly. Or even think in ways that make sense. The kids have heart, but a few of those papers left my brain twisted up into one giant question mark. Their ideas somehow got all twisted on the page. I think maybe they got intimidated by the extra formal feeling of the paper, so tomorrow we're going to review the purpose, audience, etc. of the paper. Hopefully that will help out a few that wish to re-write and up their grade and those that have not finished yet. Ugh. Starting off the year with the most difficult and boring type of essay is a tough situation, ladies and gentlemen.
I am tired and still have some planning to do. This week we start short stories- hallelujah! Literature! How I've missed you!

In weather news, after a few days of freezing (50-60degree) mornings and somewhat cool(er) days, the temp went back up into the high 80s and low 90s. We were enjoying having the windows open, hearing the birds and weird huge bugs buzz up to our screens, and feeling the breeze, but, unfortunately, had to turn the A/C back on for today. It's supposed to go back down into the 70s or low 80s, so it'll probably be turned off again soon.

Two extras:
David now has a blog. There is a link on the right side of the page. He has a great writing style and sense of humor.
If you haven't noticed yet, you can post comments even though you do not have a blog through Blogger. A few people mentioned that they didn't want to get an account/didn't have an account, so they couldn't comment. There ya go, folks.

Happy 19th birthday, Meg!
Congrats Jen on being a contracted teacher for KPS!

yaaaay, let's buy stuff!

I haven't bought a whole lot of stuff recently, just stuff I've been meaning to buy. For example, some more teacher clothes. I found some good deals at Target and I have my eye on some stuff at the outlet mall. When that stuff goes on sale, ohhh my! Will I have some teacher clothes? I love clothes.
I also bought the fancypants camera you see above. I got it for a killer deal on amazon.com and also managed to snag a memory card for a good price, too. It was sent yesterday, so it's already headed my way! Once it gets here and I make sure it's what I want and everything works correctly, I will be sending Miss Katy my digital camera for a few dollars (price still to be determined. I'll see what she's will to pay for it. The whole camera works except for the zoom.) as well as a book that I suggested to her before I left Kzoo.

This morning I was having this wonderful dream about not having to get up because it had snowed! It felt so realistic: I got out of bed, shivering, and looked out the window to see more snow than I'm sure they're used to here. I was jumping around for a while, all excited about not having to go to school, and then went back to bed. Then my alarm went off and I realized that none of that actually happened. I was sleeping really good, too. It ended up being a good day in school. The classes were kind of unstructured because of the essay due date being today. Half of my more rowdy class on the "B" day (today) was in the library, finishing typing up their papers with my co-teacher. I was stuck playing babysitter to the already finished (and bored) and the completely unmotivated (and sort of whiny about having to write a paper). I had to explain multiple times things I've already explained and I had to explain why we're writing this paper and how, basically, no- it's not very fun for anyone and no- it's not a very good way to start off the year, but if we get past it, we've all overcome a big, boring obstacle and the rest of the writing for the year will seem soooooo easy. Ah well. That class needs more structure on most days, otherwise they regress into children. Which is usually managable for me, but the crushing weight of essays finished and unfinished and having to read so many of them the past week gave me a big, fat headache. Most of the students were pretty understandable and told others to quiet down. Since the season's changing, quite a few of my students have had some major headaches that we can do nothing about since I can't give them any drugs and they can't take any in school. I told them, basically, "Listen. I have a headache. You'll have to excuse me for any snappy attitude I may give you at this moment. I don't mean it and you'll have to show a little maturity and patience that I know you have. We all have those days, as I've seen from you-- now you're seeing one from me. Next time, we'll all be back to 'normal'." I'm glad most of them understood. I still felt pretty much like a failure at the end of the day and I knew I could've done this unit a lot better. Next time, I know exactly what to do. Lucky for me, I have an amazing department head and two great co-teachers who understand this is the first time I've ever done a unit all on writing one specific type of essay. Whew.

crazy recap!

I am writing this from David's snazzy new HP laptop he finally recieved today.
I've sent out a lot of mail and I'm looking forward to one specific package coming towards me soon. Oooh, fancy and mysterious!
School is amazing. Every day it gets better. The kids are just... wow. I have a few talkative kiddos, but for the most part, they are wonderfulcoolfunnyrespectfuldrivendeterminedamazing and so on. They turn in their essays tomorrow and we will all be happy to be finally over with the SOL (it's like the MEAP) test essay. Thank jeebus.
By the way, some interesting things: First, this is the first time since early elementary school that I've had to stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning. I'm totally not used to it and I always forget. A lot of the kids drag their butts out of the seat. Most of them don't recite it. But. They always respect the moment of silence we have before the pledge.
Also, I have quite a few gay or questioning or sassy youth. It's really awesome the way that most of them do not care whatsoever what their peers think. The stereotype of the South from us Yankees is that Southern folk hate everything, right? I've heard a minimum of "that's gay" or "fag". The "fag" usage is usually in jest, which is nice. Yesterday, though, a sweet girl in one of my early classes asked a classmate:
"Wait. Are you gay?"
He nods.
"You don't look gay. I wouldn't have ever told."
I ask: "How exactly is a gay person suppossed to look, my dear?"
"He looks like a gay thug or something! I mean, I would have never guessed!"
Other students talk about it. We talk about the guy from Real World that was "thug" and gay.
Then she asks him a personal question that ended with something like "...it hurt?"
He nods.
THE KIDS FLIP! OUT!
I ask her, "Did you seriously just ask him a personal question in front of the whole class?!" (I'm thinking: No sex life talk from anyone, thank you.)
He says, "What? Am I suppsed to be ashamed of it?"
Cue me feeling proud of him. I talked to him about how I wasn't trying to make him feel ashamed or that he had to hide anything, but I just wanted to make sure he wasn't going to be hurt by some of the reactions. He wasn't. Yes!!
Anyway.
This week also included an Open House on Monday. I met quite a few parents. They were very nice.
Not much else. I went to the ';[ppppppppp';] (gabriel says hello) Post Office and met the most efficient (but most likely to be a serial killer) post office worker ever. I saw the arty part of Norfolk and ate some delicous indian food with Carly. I told her she would love Kalamazoo (I'm pretty sure she would). I miss Mugsybugsy, Nataliesussenhose, Amandafancypants, Miss Katyloo and the idea of having friends nearby. soon, soon, soon.
Megan's going to be 19 soon! Make sure to say happy birthday to her.

cat vs. bird

Yesterday was spent mostly downtown. Parking was a hassle as it was Saturday (usually a busy day for Colonial Williamsburg) as well as the first football game for W&M. I believe they won against Maine. I also noticed, while I was watching the news last night, that Western Michigan won against Virginia. David said this was a big thing for WMU because Virginia is a good team. I know nothing about football, so, okay, sure, whatever.
Anyway. David had another panel to go see at the school of law, so we ran some errands, searched around for parking, finally decided on the buzzkill of a parking ramp (although it's a very beautiful and cute parking lot that goes along with the colonial theme) that charges $1/hour. We went to B&N where I found that all the Postsecret books (all 35 copies they had) had gone to some event. I finally decided to buy that book and it's gone. Damn. It's okay though 'cause I found it on Amazon for cheaper PLUS Amazon is selling a package deal: Postsecret + Found Magazine book (#1) for about the same price I would pay at B&N for just the Postsecret book. I'll probably do that later on. It was a day of disappointment at B&N. I got spoiled with Kazoo Books and find the price of books at B&N pretty scary. I checked out their magazine selection. Bust has nothing new out. I didn't see Bitch yesterday, but I think it's there usually. Some girl took the last Nylon and Venus was boring. The only interesting thing on Venus's cover was for a book review of Amy Sedaris's cookbook that finally came out (which I will probably look in to buying later on.). What a bust.
After David left for the panel, I wandered around a bit. I sat at Aromas drinking a mocha that was made with powdered cocoa. It was... kinda gross. Everything else they make there is good, but that powdered chocolate stuff is something I won't touch again. As I sat there reading and sipping, this couple with a tiny, adorable dog came. Someone stopped in the middle of the road to tell them how cute their dog was! And, of course, all the sorority girls flitting about stopped and asked, "Is that a chihuahua?!" (it was pretty obvious that it was not.. but. I guess small dog=chihuahua?) The best part was when this group of four people came strolling buy with their two giant dogs. The dogs got a long great and, as the group started to continue on their walk, the older gentleman with them started telling everyone outside Aromas to have a good day. It was adorable!
I finished up my "mocha", headed into Mermaid Books. I love that cluttered little basement. I found a copy of Julius Caesar for 75 cents, which will help me with planning. I headed over to Biggs to see what the Bonus Days gift was all about and the woman working the counter came over and said, "Can I help you with anything? I just love your hair color! That's natural, right? Don't ever mess with it!" I love this town.
Last night we booked our tickets to Michigan for Christmas. I was worried that if we waited any longer, the prices would keep going up. We found a good deal for one round-trip ticket at $123. I figured we should take it since we can afford it now and not wait to see how high it'll go. We leave December 23rd from D.C. and fly into Detroit, then return to D.C. on the 30th. It'll be a little trip from one side of Michigan to the other and back again. Whew!
I've also looked in to ticket prices for Germany in April. I found a good deal from D.C. to NJ to Berlin for $630. Hopefully, I'll be able to find that same price later on when I can actually afford it! I've also priced new digital cameras and I found the one I wanted: A Canon PowerShot A530. I found it for under $200 on Amazon and it's waaaay better than the digital camera I have now. When I buy it (sometime in the future), I'll be sending my old camera to Katy for a few bucks.
Oh and we tried a really good Mexican place: La Tolteca (spelling may be wrong). David and some people from his program went there after his first panel he had to go to Friday night. There was a lot of food and it was really quick. It was even good the next day when I ate what I couldn't eat the night before. Natalie, you would love this place.
The picture in this post is the cat that hangs around our building. She sleeps in that corner sometimes (very cute) and brings her kills to the building. After Ernesto, a squirrel showed up. We're not sure if somehow she got it or it drowned and she dragged it here or what. A mouse also showed up on the stairs. Yesterday, we opened our door and found a bird at the bottom of the stairs. I have another picture of the feathers that were a few inches away from it. She's a very good hunter, it seems.

calm and calamity

Today every seagull found a home on top of a lamp post on the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. We were going slow enough for me to finally enjoy the scenery. The sea was calm, the rain had paused, the seagulls rested and traffic flowed nicely. It was a nice moment to cap off a nice day.
Most of my classes are good. Two of them range back and forth. One of them usually ends up with me feeling like a complete failure (That will change soon, though). I've been observed for the first time by the many people who must observe me. It was okay, haven't heard any feedback yet. Everyone seems to be very supportive of first-year teachers and pretty laid back in general. My co-teachers are amazing women. I've met some of the sour teachers in school and survived. Too bad for them. They don't know how good they got it here. Maybe I can appreciate this so much more because it is such a positive change. The atmosphere in this HS is so much different from the schools I know (and love). It's not as draining. There is hope. Most of these kids have goals, they know where they're going and they're doing what they need to get there. The district gives them a chance to succeed.
I miss my sister. I'm looking forward to a new digital camera, plane tickets to Michigan for the holidays and to Germany for spring break, and see Amanda's new city. I'm enjoying getting mail and writing back. We're enjoying being able to buy groceries again.
Speaking of food, Williamsburg has really good food. Last week we finally tried Sonic. It was delicious! And they have so many flavors to put into smoothies, slushies, sodas, etc. Oh my! But as for the independent food places here, they are even more amazing. We finally went to one of the pancake/waffle houses here (there have to be about a million! Or at least ten.), Mama Steve's, and it was so freaking good! We had really been craving something resembling an Old Standby from Crow's Nest and I think I found my substitute (it's even better). The pancakes were delicious as well. We're also enjoying Aromas and Retro's.
Soon David's laptop will be here. We will be able to fix his bike and look into getting me a lighter bike for the roads here. The weather is beautiful and cool. The rain comes in waves in small drops and small downpours that are beautiful to watch.
The most entertaining thing that has happened today involved a batch of notes. One showed up on the banister for the stairs. It said, basically, that the people in #1 saw a mouse and have heard noises. They asked if anyone else had seen or heard anything, because our landlord/realtor will not send someone out unless it is an infestation of the whole building. Someone else near them wrote another note and mentioned they heard noises. Someone else writes a note that we should get together an army of cats (I liked that one). And, finally, someone replied with what we were going to write: There was a dead mouse on the stairs. We figured the community cat found and killed it. I'm interested in seeing where this goes. Maybe the salamanders (or something close to that, they always move too fast for me to check them out), the toads, and the community cat can bond together and get the mice out?

and on to the next..

Okay. So. Let's recap.
My first day came with my first feeling of pure panic. I almost ran out of the room as students started filing in. I was really tempted to start screaming, "WAIT! I can't do this! We've all made a huge mistake!" I had no clue what to do. My first block was awkward and weird, by the third class I had, I had it down and got the hang of it. Now things are going okay. I've got a few problems to smooth out, but those mostly come from being new to everything: school, area, teaching, etc.
On Thursday night, David and I went to a dinner for the Public Policy grad students. It's an informal thing where each student hosts a week, others sign up to come, everyone brings something. It was really nice to get out.
This weekend we were met with a Boil Water Advisory. I guess that's better than getting hit with another hurricane/tropical storm/depression. By the way, Ernesto costed Virginia about $90 million in damages-- half of that in Richmond alone (they were floooooded, man. It was crazy to see on the news). Anyway. The Boil Water Advisory. James City County/Williamsburg were under this advisory because of a leak in a water main that may have contaminated water. On NPR in the morning, on the way to school, I heard WBG maybe wasn't affected by it because, apparently, WBG gets most of its water from Newport News. So, I don't worry about how I brushed my teeth, took a shower, put water in my nalgene and the cats' dish with water that may be contaminated. I get home and the news has changed: Everyone needs to be careful and boil water before they drink it or use it for cooking. My thirsty dumb ass doesn't even think, drinks some water and then realizes, "Ohhh, yeah... This is the water they're talking about. Oops." The advisory of course made David and I feel a thirst like no other because all of our juice was gone and we already drank all of the water left in the brita. Oops. It was hilarious, the psychological effects of the Boil Water Advisory. We ended up going to a gas station to get some pop/tea. Ahh.
Saturday we went to the outlet mall. I love that place. So cheap! David found some shirts and a pair of pants that are worthy of a grad student. I found a comfy pair of green Keds slip ons for $10 (now to be known as my Old Lady Yachting Shoes) as well as some hot stuff for teaching clothes. Like I said, I love that place.
Today started another week in school. Things went fine. I felt a little headache-y all day. I was really light-headed and kinda queasy my first block. I told them that if I passed out, not to laugh too hard. I got about two laughs for that one. The rest of the kids were like "You are really bad at telling jokes." Thanks, guys.

a quickie

First week is over with. My students are amazing, funny, kind and very respectful. Sure, I have a few that'll take a while. But definitely not as many as last year. Maybe next week that will all change. Who knows?
I survived. I'm tired. That's about it right now.

wish me luck! here i go!

lotsofwork.jpg
Originally uploaded by alipants.

This last weekend before school kicks in started off a day early, when Ernesto hit us. It was crazy! Lucky for us, we live in the perfect area to avoid the flooding that the rest of the Hampton Roads area got. I'm sure if it had been a stronger storm, or a hurricane, we would have seen a lot more. Our power flickered a few times before finally giving up, but was only out for a few hours. It was light enough to open the blinds and use that as light to get around the apartment.
Besides that, I've been trying to figure out what to do with this first unit. It's probably the hardest thing I've done so far because I've never done a unit on writing alone, especially this genre of writing. It's very specific as to what they have to learn and when, so I've been feeling the pressure! After this, the other units will probably seem a lot easier to plan.
Yesterday I was freaking out a little bit because I wasn't sure what to do, when to do it and so on. I don't really know how it's usually done and I'm not sure how we're expected to go through with this. Finally, I decided I had to take a breather or I was going to go over the edge. We went to Aromas, sat outside (it's now cool enough to do so), and I read some more of Everything But the Burden. This little time out gave me a nice recharge and reminded me that I can't do this wrong, as long as they're learning what they need to. Also, I shouldn't try to teach the way someone else has if it doesn't make sense to me; I need to make things work my way. Plus, my department head, AP and principal would let me know (in constructive ways, too) if I stray off-track and help me to figure out how to make it work. I'm glad I'm around people who realize that first (and even second and third) year teachers need a little more patience and advice. Otherwise, I would be majorly freaking out right now.
So, school starts tomorrow and I meet my students for the first time. I only have two big classes, which is nice. The rest are 19-22 students. I've been going back and forth between feeling confident that I can do this and survive and asking myself, "Why the HELL am I doing this to myself?! I can't be a teacher! I'm going to totally suck!". Then I remind myself: You cannot and will never be the worst teacher in history. I'm sure it'll all go well. I'm preparing myself for the ups and downs, but I'm pretty sure anything has to be better than my internship. It already is a lot more positive, helpful and supportive.

hello, ernesto.

And the rain came. And kept coming. Until everything was closed and roads were under two feet of water. Oh, what a day for a walk to the mailbox.

get that wavy feeling

workroom06.jpg
Originally uploaded by alipants.

This week has been exciting and boring, long and too short all at the same time. I now have my classroom on wheels set up, my books in my three seperate classrooms, discussions about space in those classrooms are finished, etc. etc. I finished typing up and making copies of all the stuff I wanted to hand out on the first day and those are all tucked away in their folders. I've been hearing pretty good things about the students and every English teacher has been very helpful. Some I've hit it off with right away, others will take more time because we're awkward/shy/distracted/have nothing in common just yet.
The drive hasn't been too bad. Until today. Well, yesterday, really. Due to the rain, people have left earlier than usual the past two days, probably thinking to themselves the same thing I was: It's raining out and may get a little crazy, better leave a little earlier! Driving across the bridge and into the tunnel yesterday evening was a wonderful event since rain was waiting on the other side, causing people to go slower. I snuck a few glances over at the ocean where there were these huge, dark clouds on the Hampton side of the tunnel, I could see some rain pouring down and the water was going ca-RAZY!
Today was even worse. Since it rained most of last night, Hampton was flooded in places and the schools were closed down. So, I left a little earlier just to make sure I got to school on time just in case some of the highway was flooded. It wasn't, but because of the rain, a LOT of people had left early so there was already about a 1/2 mile of back-up towards the bridge-tunnel than there would be at that time. Oh well. Coming back tonight was another story. There were back-ups everywhere, every single tunnel in the Hampton Roads area. The traffic reporter, when she got to the accident report after reporting every back-up (and the location where you hit the back-up), said, "Well, there are way too many accidents to list them. Just... be careful. It's so easy to hydroplane and some secondary roads are flooded." Going across the bridge and into the tunnel was... awesome? The waves were high, almost able to break over the bridge. The wind knocked my car around a little, once I could speed up to 55 again. The water was very dark and you could barely see the ships. It was kind of spooky and probably wouldn't have been as crazy-feeling if I had had someone else in the car with me.
That's the reason why I got most of my work done today. I'm not alone, either: most teachers seemed to be preparing just in case the roads were flooded and we were told not to come in.
But there is some light at the end of this tunnel: Yesterday, a letter came from Amanda, today, one came from Katy and Megan left me a message saying she sent me a letter back and it should be here soon. Megan gets to go see Wolf Parade in Kzoo. I hope she has a lot of fun. The letters were awesome, but I miss them all a LOT!
Also, we scrounged up enough for rent money, with about $20 left over. (David gets in Fin. Aid check this upcoming week and I get my first paycheck a week from tomorrow. That's great, but left us a little uncomfortable in the time period between moving and payment.)
Natalie flies to Germany today. I miss her & can't wait until April when I go see her. I will do it! I have to! I'm not sure if she got the message I sent her this morning, but I hope her flight went quickly and was somewhat entertaining.
This weekend will involve much planning and hopefully no flooding in Williamsburg (and I hope there is little to no flooding in Norfolk, too... but I only work there, so what do I care?! Haha, just kidding. I would hate to see all my pals there floating by on their couches...)

world class

Another hot and humid day. This week, I asked teachers from Virginia and surrounding states if fall ever happens here. They laughed and said, "Oh, sure. Sometime near end of October, November." But, then again, most of them acted as if Michigan was a frozen tundra year-round. I'm sure we'll get used to it. Plus, it'll be really nice to not have piles upon piles of snow for a good chunk of the year. I guess when it snows down here (well, if it flurries, rains and freezes a little, or accumulates the tiniest bit of snow), EVERYTHING closes down. David said someone in his program told him that it was because people can't drive down here, so they do it as a protection.
Driving down here is different: there are a lot more accidents, people are completely reckless and you see bad driving you wouldn't even see in the Detroit/Chicago area. I'm stunned they have to have so many traffic reports just to let you know where the accidents are. There are usually 2-3 at any given time. Holy crap! Oh, and when it rains, even if it's just a sprinkle, people freak out and slow down! Traffic about stops on the highway. I am totally stunned. David and I were having a good laugh imagining what driver's ed is like down here because it seems that no one knows how to drive! But, then again, we all make mistakes and everyone has their driving style.
So, the week is over. I finished up New Teacher Orientation and feel pretty confident (still a little nervous) aobut starting the school year. I got to see the curriculum for 10th graders and I love it. I love the school I'll be working in, the people I'll be working with, the English work room with its huge windows. Basically, it's perfect and, even though everyone else thinks I'm crazy for driving to Norfolk, I'm glad I chose NPS to work in. It does make the drive worth it and the drive isn't even that bad. This is one of the best districts in the country and is exactly what I was looking for. So, I'm happy.
On Thursday, there was a little event for David's program at a bar in New Town. New Town is this strange place. It's like a huge strip mall, but not. I have conflicted feelings about it. I love it because it's within walking distance of our apartment (two blocks. Downtown Williamsburg is close by bike, but walking would take 30-45 minutes and is kind of dangerous in parts) and they are using a smart technique to keep it feeling like a neighborhood/downtown area and keep land usage down. But, at the same time, it's got this ritzy, overpriced strip mall kind of feel. For example: the apartments there are totally overpriced (but really fancy and nice!). There is a Barnes and Noble being built (there are only two used book stores in town, the only independent bookstores I've found so far. Both are kind of far away) and an Old Navy right next to it. There is a movie theatre, places to eat, shop and whatnot. It is really nice because it feels like you're walking around a little city. They are seriously building a "New Town". So, I guess it's okay. If they would add in a little market so we could walk and get groceries, that would be perfect. So far, we have a Food Lion up Monticello (it's like Kroger or Harding's) and a Ukrop's the other way up Monticello (almost as big as Meijer, but only food... kind of like a big D&W). Both we'd have to get to by bike or car. Oh well.
Anyway, This event we went to. We had food, free pool, and I got to meet some of his professors, the head of his department and some of the other guys in his program (and their girlfriends/fiances). Everyone was super nice and we played two games of pool. I was totally nervous during the first one, but the second one I actually did pretty well.
Yesterday started my weekend. I got to sleep in! I slept until 10:30, got up, made some tea and sat on our porch and read before it got to hot to sit outside (plus, our porch is in the sun for the afternoon/evening). When David got home, we started our productive weekend: we set up our bank account, bought David's books (Over $500!! Holy crap!), cleaned the hampster cage, and vaccuumed a little. We also got to watch some of the Netflix movies we've had since before the move: Howl's Moving Castle, Hustle and Flow and Match Point. Match Point was the only one I wasn't too hot on. Today we cleaned the rest of the apartment, kind of starting a project: Don't live like we did on Davis Street. haha. We still have to put up decorations and pictures, but we still have time. We both have a lot of reading, preparing and whatnot to do for the next week (or for me: the next year).
And now, for the funniest/strangest moment of this week. I met Carly, a math teacher on my academy. We're pretty close in age and have a similar sense of humor. Basically, she's awesome. On Monday, during the meeting for the HS, we had to introduce ourselves. Basic stuff: our name, what we're teaching, where we're from and our worst job. After we were done and waiting for our lunch to arrive, she asked me: "So, you're from Kalamazoo, right? Do you own a moped?" I kind of laughed and asked her, "What do you know about Kalamazoo and mopeds?" She explained that she knew someone in the Mosquito Fleet. What a strange, small world.