completely & totally not dead

It's weird being in a city again. I keep remembering there's lots of stuff to do!

What we've done so far:

• Unpacked, cleaned, and went to Ikea to get some important things (like a sofa, chair and wardrobe)
• Figured out how to function in a smaller apartment
• Remembered what it was like to live in an apartment with no central air and no dishwasher again (that wasn't too difficult, it was only 2 years that we lived with those luxuries)
• Celebrated our 2 year anniversary by walking over to a wonderful restaurant called Kuba Kuba
• Many walks. One of those walks was to Plan 9, which I knew was a bad idea to begin with because I saw their vinyl collection when I was there with the family, and ended up finding a few good things.
• Got my moped running!!
  
• Got David a Schwinn Varsity for $50. Considering we spent about $200 on my female Varsity, his was a steal. It's a pretty green one that
  
• Went to see The Dark Knight with two lovely ladies. It was awesome, even though I was hungry and had to pee really bad by the end of it (TMI? I'm sorry).
• Met most of the people in the building.

Not much, but I've been trying to not spend too much since I still don't have a job. I know I'll probably have one by the time school starts, but I really don't want to chance our finally-somewhat-stable financial situation just in case I don't hear from anybody or get an offer.
But that's enough of that. Thinking about that just makes me anxious.
Plus, it's my summer vacation. I'm not going to worry about finding a back up job (positive thinking: because I won't need one) until school starts, so I've been enjoying that thing called sleeping in. I've also been trying to read The Pillars of the Earth--that thing is a beast! Since I don't teach during the summer, and my day to day activities of sleep in-read a little-check email-slide on the wood floors to Bikini Kill because I just moved to this lovely city and lack friends, places to go, a job, etc. isn't really interesting to anyone but me, I've been thinking about all the things I've been meaning to sit down and write all year. Being a second year teacher actually gave me a second or two to remember: oh yeah, I actually had other stuff that I did before I was swamped with planning, grading, giving a crap, etc. So, I'll try and get some of that down and hopefully some of it will be interesting.

first few days

So, we've moved 98% of our stuff to Richmond. We still need to go back to pick up some small stuff and clean the apartment. We still need to buy and install some shelves for the bathroom and the kitchen. We're waiting on our sofa and wardrobe (for me) to be delivered. Whew. Moving is awesome and crappy at the same time. It's settling down now, though. I still need a job... (that "..." is a hint to keep me in your thoughts/prayers/positive chi/energy to envision me getting an amazing teaching job, ok? Please? When I asked people to do that before we moved to VA, it worked out great! Do it again, okay? Thanks.) Yeah, that whole not having a set job thing is kiiiiind of making me anxious. Not all the time, but I do have moments where I stop and start thinking "OH NO! YOU HAVE NO JOB! NOOOO JOB AT ALL!" and then I miss GHS, my colleagues and my students.... and the security of knowing where I'm going to be teaching next year. This is the point in the summer where all the negative memories go away, I start to remember all the good things and I start to miss all my crazy students and their energy.
Aaaanyway, I love our new apartment. It's smaller, but the space has a lot of potential. It reminds me of friends' apartments back in Kzoo and what we wanted our Davis St. apartment to be like. I have some pictures of the mess we have going on right now, but I'm lazy because today is the first day in about a week that I haven't had to run around from sun up to sun down.
Speaking of Kzoo, Rocket Star is closing on the 13th and the last show is tomorrow. If you are still there, go! I'm sad to see it close and sad not to be able to go one last time, but I know that something else will pop up- Kzoo always does that.

I have a lot of good memories there, so it makes me a little sad to see it go.
Oh and P.S.: I hate all y'all for getting me hooked on John and Kate Plus 8. I hate you. Really. But at the same time: I thank you. Also, I got D hooked. HA!

I know you want to see the new place, right?

Jackie's ready to move! She did this while I was packing up some kitchen stuff today.

Today was the big day! ...sort of. We got the keys. Our bathtub is being redone tomorrow and we can't use it for 3 days. That's okay because we're not getting our truck until the 3rd and not moving the "big stuff" until the 4th. We dropped off some books, CDs and DVDs, though, to get them out of the way.

View from the door.

Living room/dining room rooms.

Back living room/dining room. I'm pretty sure this will have a couch and tv and whatnot.

First bedroom by the door. This will probably be our computer room/study/whatever.

Second bedroom, closer to the back. This will probably be our bedroom because it's larger and doesn't get full on sun, so it keeps nice and cool.

Bathroom, in between two bedrooms.

View from the back of the apartment to the front.


The kitchen. That wooden thing attached to the wall is a table that folds up and down.

The pantry.

Front porch. We have a back porch, too, but I didn't take a picture of it.

movin' on up?

So, the big news in our world is that David received and accepted a job offer in Richmond. You'll have to ask him the specifics of what exactly he'll be doing, because I have an idea, but don't want to get it wrong.
The past week or so, I've been slowly getting together the paperwork, letters, references, student work, etc. to start the whole interview process again. I have one job fair tomorrow, another on the 22nd. I'm not sure what to expect, but it'll give me an idea of what is in the area. Hopefully, I'll have a job before the end of June. That'd be nice.
People at school aren't happy. Rebecca wrote me an amazing letter, but was hoping I wouldn't go. Teachers I'm close with and students were both a little sad and told me I couldn't leave. One of the students I've very close with, Billy, asked me if I was joking, then looked like he wanted to cry and slap and/or punch me in the face. Haha. This morning, I said good morning to the principal. He called me back and told me, "Tell your man he needs to find a job in this city." It's nice feeling like I was a part of this school. I was worried that I'd tell people and they'd shrug their shoulders. It's a kind of area that has people moving in and out all the time, so I was sure that they'd be used to people coming and going. It's nice to feel like I'm wanted there because I bring something unique and special, though. Sometimes, I think, it's easy to not feel that way in such a big school.
Some of my students said they want to do a going away thing at the end of the school year, but a) that probably won't happen and b) I'm not sure if that's what I want to do. I'm so bad with this type of thing. Do I want to go out in that style? A big, tear-filled party? Or do I want to just fade away?

I'm sad I have to leave the school I'm at now, mostly because I really loved my time there. I'm afraid that I won't be able to find a school where I feel like I really agree with so much of what goes on there. What if I get hired on in a district I don't agree with? Or with other teachers I don't like? What if the students are completely different? Then I remember that we'll at least be out of this area, David will have a job, and I've been through worse, so I will survive anything. Even though I have to leave my school, the pros still outweigh the cons.