EthelAlcohol

2006-04-08T15:10:00.000-04:00

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! My actual birthday was quite good. My collaborating teacher even prompted the kids to sing "Happy Birthday" to me in our last class. I had a pleasant dinner with Brett, my Mom and my brother, John. The hyacinth I had bought the day before went into full bloom for my birthday and the whole apartment smelled heavenly.

The next day though, I woke up with that scratchy feeling in the back of my throat and by that evening my voice was gone. I went to my GP and found out that I have yet another sinus infection/ear infection. He gave me some antibiotics and told me not to run this weekend.

I asked him if I could have a drink with the antibiotics and he gave me a funny look. I had to explain, "I'm not really an alcoholic. Its just that some friends wanted to take me out for my birthday and I wanted to know if I could have a drink or not." He said if I rested all day today then I could go out and have a glass o' cheer with my near and dear.

So I've sat on my behind all day and watched movies, drank tea, ate soup, took my antibitiotics and relaxed. I can almost feel my body becoming flabbier by the minute but still, its a nice change of pace.

I feel a little bad about not going to the school play though. I must try to go to the last performance tomorrow afternoon. Even if I don't stay for the whole play, I want to at least show my support.

Well, seeing as this post has been the most productive thing I've done all day, I think I'll take a nap now.

2006-03-28T15:30:00.000-05:00

I went to the chiropractor yesterday (my new hobby) and told him that my knees were sore from running nine miles on Saturday. I said, "I don't see how running more than 5 miles can be healthy." He said, "You're right. It's not. In fact, studies have shown that long distance running does damage to the heart. That's why so many long distance runners die young."

Son of a b*tch! And here I just signed up for another long race (a 15k) thinking that I was doing something good for my body.

Shite!

2006-03-02T18:06:00.000-05:00

Living up to my name!

So tomorrow night I will be guest bartending at a local pub, The Pour House. The bar was taken over a little less than a year ago and started this guest bartending deal in order to cash in on the phenomenon known as "Teacher Happy Hours." Because we get out of work earlier than most, and because working with children (esp. teens) is enough to drive us to drink mass quantities, it is a good marketing ploy. The owners realize that having one of their own serving drinks (even slipping a few free beers to friends) will attract mass quantities of teachers, most of whom will be shit-faced and on their way home by 8ish. This is perfect since the second wave of after work drinkers will begin to come in by then.

I'm doing my stint in order to raise money for the Team in Training half marathon I am running in on April 30th. I only need to raise another $200 or so to meet the minimum. If anyone is interested in donating here's the link: Gimme Dough!

2006-02-23T14:37:00.000-05:00

The CLEP

Sure it sounds like a dirty girl's disease, but the CLEP (or College Level Examination Program) is actually a good thing! I never took math in college (blech!) because, well, obviously I'm not good at it and I managed to fulfill my college's requirements by taking extra science classes. This short-coming of my education became a problem when I started my Master's program in special education.

Since, as a special educator, I'm supposed to be able to teach all subjects I needed to make up 6 credits of math in order to be eligible for my MA. I crammed for the last couple of weeks (read: two days)and took the College Mathematics (AKA math for non-math majors AKA math for dummies) CLEP this morning.

I had to relearn everything I had forgotten about algebra, geometry, exponents, bases, logic, logarithms, etc. and learn a few new things (Imaginary numbers?! I have enough problems with real numbers!) BUT, somehow I managed to pass!

Can I get a WOO HOO? Woo Hoo!

Now, I can go back under my rock and pretend math does not exist again.

2006-02-18T21:29:00.000-05:00

Yes, it has been too long since my last post but rather than bore you with lame excuses I'll just get on with it.

It has been an extremely odd week. I was told that I have the neck of 50 year old woman, my wallet was stolen, and I found out that my childhood best friend has cervical cancer.

Whew!

I went to see a chiropractor because I'm training for a half marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I've been having some aches and pains and thought I would try chiropractic care instead of drugs and hydrocortisone injections (been there, done that, didn't help). Anyhoo, on the downside: my ankle pronates, one leg is shorter than the other, I have scoliosis, and the aforementioned neck of a 50 year old. On the upside, I've been cured of my hypochondria because, as you can see, I really AM f@cked up!

I had my first adjustment on Thursday and it was such an odd sensation that I cracked up laughing the whole way through. I think my chiropractor thinks I'm insane... which may or may not be true.

Later that evening, I went to a mentoring dinner to see my sweet little mentee (Okay, not so little - she's 18). She's back at the group home because the potential adoptive mother found her "too difficult." I'm not sure what she was expecting when she decided to adopt two teenage girls, but considering that my mentee doesn't do drugs, doesn't smoke, and doesn't even date, I can't imagine what her complaints are. I wish I were in a position to adopt but I'm not, financially or emotionally. At least I know my limitations.

In any event, I went to the group home for this mentoring dinner and stupidly left my jacket in the common room for about half an hour while mentee showed me her new room. I came back and the rest of the mentors had left. I grabbed my jacket and noticed that the pocket was unzipped. A note had fallen out. I grabbed it and walked outside. When I stuck my hand in my pockets to keep my hands warm I noticed my wallet was missing. I went back to the house thinking it had simply fallen out (I'm so naive sometimes). It was nowhere to be found. When I spoke to the staff I got the impression that these things happen often enough that no one was surprised.

I only had about $35 in cash in the wallet but the most annoying part is having to cancel all my cards and order a new license, etc. I called the credit bureaus and put a fraud warning on my record so that creditors will contact me before opening any new accounts. I'll have to order my credit record every three months just to be sure no one attempts to steal my identity.

My mom informed me about the situation with my childhood best friend. Long time friends of the family told her and she passed on the bad news. I haven't seen or spoken to her a couple of years since she moved. I was told not to call her because the person that spread the news wasn't sure L wanted people to know. In which case, why tell me? I think I'll send her a card in a week or so and see if she gets in touch. I feel really sad for her because she lost her mom and her dad to cancer and she's got two small girls of her own.

Sometimes what comes around doesn't go around, if you know what I mean. The distribution of tragedy and bad luck is decidedly skewed.

2005-11-21T19:49:00.000-05:00

I've got that vile-tasting, scratchiness in my throat thing. Why do I always get sick right before Thanksgiving?

2005-11-16T21:54:00.000-05:00

IS THIS MIKE ON?
Ever feel like you are talking but no one hears you?

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT
Ever have a work friend push for more of a friendship outside of work? How do you let the person know that you want the friendship to remain status quo without being hurtful.

2005-11-12T10:33:00.000-05:00

The good news: I hired a cleaning lady!
Wow, said out loud it sound so politically incorrect - perhaps I should say I hired someone to clean my apartment. I'm done feeling guilty about not being Wonder Woman, able to work full time, go to grad school, train for a half-marathon AND clean my apartment.

Oh... yeah, I should mention that the other good news is that I signed up to do a half-marathon with Team in Training for the Leukemia & Lymphoma society - you'll be hearing more about that for sure since I haven't run (prior to this week's training) in a loooooong time! So far so good though. I've got to run at least 2.5 miles today but I'm holding off until the cleaning lady leaves.

That's the bad news... I'm feeling quite awkward sitting here on-line while a 50-something year old woman scrubs my kitchen floor. So much for not feeling guilty...eh?!

I've got a paper to write for grad school, lessons to plan for work and papers to grade so as soon as I finish this post I've got to get cracking on those.

Things have been kind of hairy at work. The kids were just pushing my buttons on Friday. Then there was a little bit of tension between me and the woman I co-teach with. I think she was getting frustrated with the class and me as well. But I emailed her and it seems that we ironed things out. I'm glad because its the first time that we've had any kind of interpersonal problem. Team teaching is sort of like a marriage and so it can be really great if you are both into it and working at it but it can be hell if one or the other doesn't want to be there or isn't trying to make it work.

My grant, which expires very soon (November 28th to be exact), is slowly getting funded as well. I helped my mom put through her donation and I discovered that there is this little message that pops up already checked that says to reserve 15% of the donation for DonorsChoose.org's administrative expenses. That kind of upset me because that means that unless you uncheck the box people are only have 85% of the money they donate being counted towards my project. That's frustrating since they already attach some administrative expenses onto my project for fulfillment costs.

Now I just hope someone (or two) comes through with the final $88. so that we can get the materials and start the kids working on their children's books. I'm so excited that we are going back again on December 20th - but they've got a lot of work ahead of them if we want them to finish their children's books by then.

2005-11-12T10:29:00.000-05:00

What is up with the delete comment function on this site?! I just tried to delete the comment that some spammer left on my last post seconds after I posted and it won't let me do it. Ugh! Well, now I just updated my settings with the word verification and comment approval.

2005-11-02T19:52:00.000-05:00

Hi again.

So its been crazy hectic here... Parent-Teacher conferences, grad school, friends, etc.

I'm now team teaching, which is mixed classes of special ed and mainstream students, so all of my classes are up in the English department. It turned out much better than I had expected. I love my co-teacher(s) (one is on maternity leave right now) and I get treated much better in the English dept.

I feel as if I've been traded from the Brooklyn Cyclones to the Yankees. I'm going to the show, fellas! The English dept. has a LOT more money and a strong administrator so we have TV's and VCR/DVD's in all our rooms; we give our students notebooks and planners; we have a much bigger list of books at our disposal.

Its sad that we have none of these things in the ISS Dept. We really are the red-headed step-children. In a way I feel guilty about liking it so much in the English department, but then again I don't. Its great having access to teaching materials and having an AP that really sticks up for you. (Even though I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of her)

Even my Parent-Teacher conferences were better this year. For one thing, people showed up. Second, there was two of us so if a Parent turned angry or creepy we had someone to have our back.

Graduate classes are tiring. I got out of my research class early so I'm actually home before 9:00 which is good. Thanks be that its only once a week.

My friends are great but there's a lot of shake-ups and break-ups going on around me. Its making me a little nervous - because you can't help but reflect on your own relationship when these things happen. I realize that I'm eventually going to have to decide whether or not I want kids - and what impact that will have on my relationship... but I'm not ready to think about that just yet.

I still haven't finished developing all my vacation photos! My house is all sixes and sevens...BUT, I've found a cleaning lady so that should be under control soon. Now I just have to clean up enough to let her come. Yes, that's crazy but you know what I'm talking about - there's a level of messiness that no one, not even the cleaning lady, can know about.

2005-10-24T17:04:00.000-04:00

Welcome friends to the new edition of my life in print!

Thank you all for taking time out of your busy day to visit little ole me. I know that this has taken considerably longer than expected and that the promised new template has not happened but I do like this shade of green, like my envious little soul.

Here are SOME, that's right I said "some," of the photos from my cross country road trip this summer. It was an absolute blast, in spite of some moments of tension between B and Me. I know that's grammatically incorrect but I'm leaving it as proof that I am taking life less seriously.

Considering the amount of dead father and other assorted inappropriate jokes I tell, I never thought of myself as one of those serious types but apparently (as I've been told) I've become a real drag since becoming a teacher and I need to "lighten up"

I think that in reality I'm like one of those Jack-in-the-box dolls, I cram every possible emotion down until it explodes.

PS I'm still seeking contributions for my class project here.