those new glasses

There they are. They're kinda bronze-y colored and pretty snazzy.

Yesterday, my department chair basically kicked me out and demanded I go home. I was super dizzy, sick to my stomach, all sorts of confused and really wanting to cry my eyes out (not quite sure why, maybe all the stress of the school year so far? i was pretty freaked out at the time, feeling like that and needing to lead students is not a great feeling). I told her it would pass , but she said I needed some rest, since it'd been happening on and off all week. I guess I didn't miss much but kids being kids and the 3rd day with no A/C. That may not sound too terrible in October, but at this point in time, we need the A/C just to keep the rooms from getting stuffy. The rooms with computer labs got up in the 90s. Mine stay around 80-82 degrees, but with only one window for air and 20-30 bodies in a smallish room, it gets stuffy. The kids weren't happy and neither were the teachers.

My head is killing me today, probably due to the rain, so I'm not gonna get much done. Ugh.

ugh

I finally went to the eye doctor. I'm trying out new contacts, which are amazing so far and I ordered new glasses that are really amazing looking. It was hard to choose! The woman that helped me and I picked out about 20 pairs that were similar, but had different colors, slightly different shapes, etc. We narrowed it down to two different pairs and it was so hard to choose! I noticed one pair was by Vera Wang, which prompted me to ask "Does every designer have eyeglasses now?". The anwer is: Of course. Duhh.
I ended up with a pair by Furla, they look similar to this, but a darker color:


I think these are the ones I almost got (or at least, this is the closest picture I could find):


There are two downsides to finally going to see the optomitrist, getting new contacts (yay), and glasses (yay), all in the correct perscription (yay).
1. He dialated my eyes. I don't know if I've ever had this done. It was creepy, though. Are you supposed to be able to see the veins in your eyeballs when they shine a light into them? And why is my right eye still dialated?


2. My Flex Medical spending account is totally screwed. I thought I had $75 left in it from last year- jk! Apparently, when they said "Claim it by 11/31/07", they meant "Spend it by 8/31/07". As we all know, it's no longer August. Thankfully, I had $150 in it, so that paid for the exam and this new patient contact package. My insurance actually covers a lot when it comes to getting glasses, it knocked about 100 bucks off, but due to the mix up with the flex account, we basically only get $50 covered by that. Blaaahhh. I should read the statements closer.

upcoming, up & coming, coming up...

I've been making a mental list of things to write about, all that deal with school. I may put some of the belief essays I wrote along with my 11th graders up, just to break up all the teaching-related stuff. What can I say? My life doesn't consist of much else right now.

Here are a few:
Support System = Success (I would say 'parents', but a lot of my students don't live with a parent, which is a whole other topic)
Student Parents
Teachers who are also Hypocrites
Should I Really Be Doing This? (The question every [esp new] teacher asks at least once a week, I swear!)

I would start this now, but I am super tired & sore. I went to my new dance class last night and it kicked my ass. I worked it hard and now my hips, butt and upper thigh mucles are hurting.

I'll leave you with this moment that gave me my laugh for the day yesterday:
(Lawrence is a boy in one of my 10th grade who is very helpful and is always cheerful. I love having him in class.)
Lawrence: Mrs. P, I can't find that PSAT practice workbook you said was in here.
Me: Like I said, you have to shake the workbook.
Lawrence: [shakes it] Seeee?
Me: [takes book and shakes it] Hmm...
Lawrence: [picks up PSAT workbook FROM THE FLOOR and grins] Heehee. I made you shake it.

That cracked me up! But it's probably more of a 'you had to be there' moment.

what a week.

Six parents. That's how many I saw at P/T Conferences. 10:30-6:30: Six parents. Six! Last year, I at least got close to ten. But, six?! Oh well. I got a lot done, like planning and finishing Slaughterhouse Five. Yep.
Wednesday was the first meeting of COMP (the workshop for 2nd year teachers). LONGEST DAY OF MY LIFE. It was a repeat of BEST (1st year teacher workshop last year) and alllll of my ed college courses. Plus, the woman treated us like children! Seriously, she lectured us and gave grown people "teacher looks" (similar to a "parent look"). The Granby table of teachers were the worst behaved-- we totally got split up. hah! We were passing notes, being very critical, giggling, etc. Bad, bad teachers. Oh well. We were trying not to fall asleep or scream in agony. Our biggest complaint, beyond what I already mentioned of it being a repeat of everything we already know, was that the first speaker wasn't following what she was telling us to do with our own students. Gotta love it, right?
Thursday morning, I got stuck in traffic for an hour. A whole hour! I didn't get to school until 7:35 (the tardy bell rings at 7:25). There was a multi-car crash in the tunnel, and I was stuck right near it for 30+ minutes. It took another 30 minutes to get through the tunnel and to Granby. ugh! Thank goodness I don't have a 2nd bell!
Friday was actually pretty good. The kids were a little wound up because it was the end of Spirit Week, and there was a Pep Rally for Homecoming at the end of the day. I was a little irritated with my 7th bell when they whined about me making them do their journal.

I'm glad this week's over. Now, I take a walk.

Conference day!

Today was Parent/Teacher conference day.
Plus: I got to "sleep in", as it didn't start until 10:30.
Minus: It goes until 6:30

There's more (and more that goes beyond this day), but I'm tired and it's time for Heroes (and Megan and I to discuss Heroes while we watch).

For now, take a guess as to how many parents/guardians I saw between 10:30 and 6:30 (with an hour break for lunch!). I'll give you a hint: it's more than I saw at the Open House this year, but less than I saw on P/T conference day last year.

O SNAP

I had a completely new and exhilirating experience in teaching today:
Being electrocuted/shocked by the mobile laptop lab.

I was plugging a charger back in and got that wonderful tingling and aching feeling traveling quickly up my arm from my knuckle to my elbow. My arm felt strange the rest of the block. I made students who are more daring and don't care for a shock to plug in the others. I hate the mobile lab. It's not enough that the laptops are cheap Dells that are probably from the late 1990s/early 2000s, it also has to shock me.
One of my students said, "I really want to laugh, but I know it's gonna happen to me some day." I told him to go ahead and laugh, then plug in a few of the chargers. Most of them asked me if I was okay or were so into typing their personal essays that they didn't really notice. Thankfully, it happened so quickly and didn't hurt that much (I was more shocked that it happened, it'd never happened before!), I didn't say anything inappropriate, ha! That would have been interesting.

P.S. The title of this post is totally a real license plate I saw on the way to work one morning. This was the day after seeing FOSAMA. I love personalized license plates.

adventurous day off

Our internet was connected, but not actually working, so I took a little walk to Panera. They have all their fall seasonal treats going on right now and I treated myself to a pumpkin spice latte (the girl that made it asked me if i wanted whipped cream on it! blasphemy! haha). I sit down, submit all my grades, but that's not all. No, no--I was treated to a very "The Hills"/"Laguna Beach"/whatever other reality show involving uptight parents and rich kids you can think of episode next to my table. A mother and daughter sit down, daughter cries, there's a lot of "shshshhhh Mom, mom, mom, listen!" and the mother saying several things through tight lips. Wow. Take it somewhere else, really. This kind of conversation is not appropriate for Panera. I seriously almost looked around for the cameras, it was so ridiculously over-dramatic and inappropriate for a public place. Who goes somewhere to have a fight with your mother/daughter? There wasn't even any talking pre-bickering, they pretty much dived right into this whole... whatever they were doing.
But they finally left and I ended up chatting with a guy sitting at the next booth. I mean, we talked about a lot of different topics ranging from politics to education to kid's TV to feminism to Norfolk to the MPAA and other "gatekeepers" to...who knows, I can't even remember. Either way, he ended up giving me him & his wife's e-mail address (not in a creepy way) and told me he was interested in having me look at some of his writing. He also was interested to talk to David and had some blogs to recommend.
Aaaanyway, I got my grades in, walked home, heard a "Hey Pretty! Need a ride?" as I crossed the street into our complex and seriously resisted the urge to flip the jackass off. I planned, printed and dropped off the rent and dance tuition checks. David came home, we talked about his day and then we headed to.... the dentist.
One thing I really hate about going to the dentist is that I have had many different hygenists, none of which know me (there was a time where my hygenists knew me). I swear that their thought process goes something like this: Never seen this girl before = She's never been to the dentist before and knows nothing about her own teeth. The hygenist today and I got off on the wrong foot when the first thing she asked me after "How are you today?" was "Are you interesting in whitening your teeth?" Actually, it went something more like, "Are you interested in whitenin--" "No." "Oookay, I was just asking because we're having a special." "Nope, not interested." My teeth have never been white, since I can remember, and they probably never will be. And guess what? I'm okay with it. The hygenist then gives me the most painful cleaning I have ever had. I mean, I almost had a few tears spill out. She was stabbing and prodding my gums with those sharp little tools, complained about how I don't floss every second and that my teeth are so close together, and made parts of my gums bleed that have never bled before! It was simply amazing. And she even went, "Wow, your gums bleed a lot." What?! Of course! Look at my facial expression! My face must have been in a constant look of terror. My back was tense the whole time. Oh! Oh! And then! She used a toothpaste that was some sort of pink, fruity, sickly-sweet smelling crap. I usually just go for the mint. No cinnamon, no pina colada, no cherry--no. Mint and mint only. Uggggh. Honestly. I really dislike when hygenists act as if I've never been to a dentist before and assume I know nothing about my teeth or how to care for them. Yes, they're no longer straight and I have fillings and they're not white--that does not mean I don't know what's wrong with them, why they're like that, and what to do to take care of them. At the end of the appointment, when I thought I was finally done, she asked me how much sugary stuff I drink in a day. I was so irritated with the whole thing that I almost said, "Listen. My teeth aren't like this because of soda. I barely drink the stuff." Instead, I was polite and told her that I drink mostly water and rarely drink soda. If I do, it's a can-sized portion. I can't take much more than that, to be honest, it's way too sugary and sweet. Then she told me to be sure to floss every night and make sure to buy some mouthwash and toothpaste that had teeth whitening properties. Wow. Thanks.