Oh My Blog

It started with a 3 day weekend due to MLK Day.  Then came the cold front/winterymixpocalypse. FBISD cancelled school for Tuesday and Wednesday.  It looks like we'll be going back for a 2 day work week.

I'm catching up on things I should have been doing and one of them is blogging.  The journal prompts I've missed are below.  Don't expect full responses to each - some of them suck.

I'll be back to blogging in less of a list type manner starting tomorrow.  Looking forward to the weekend! lol

5. A time you don't want to forget. My wedding.  I had so many people there who I loved.  We all had a great time.  I danced and danced.  Everyone was happy. 

6. A trip you want to take this year. I don't know.  I don't have any specific places in mind.  I'd like to see people.  I'd like to see my family and friends in El Paso (for a fun trip, not the result of something bad happening), my sister Jerra (and maybe meet my nephew), perhaps a trip to Arizona to see Alex and California to see Michael.  There are so many people I'd like to see.  Heck, maybe I'll just take a cruise with Dan.  I just need life to be less filled with bad trips so I can make time for good trips.

7. Your top 3 priorities. Family/friends, my library and its minions, my health.  I know I need to up my self care...

8. A list of places you have visited. Skipping.

9. Do your actions match your words? Yes.  Sometimes my words are quite lofty.  I try.

10. One thing you have learned about yourself last year. I am ever the optimist.

11. A challenge you have overcome. Fucking 5:30 am alarms (excuse my language).

12. A need you can meet. Doing more things which make me happy - like blogging, reading, and spending time with people I like.

13. A place you have been recently. Tul-sa, Oklahoma.  I don't know why I break Tulsa down into two separate pieces when I say it... but yeah.  Visited for Jono's graduation.  It was an adventure.  I'd never been there before.  It's VERY wide open.

14. Someone who made you proud. There are people in my life who make me proud every day just by getting up and doing what they do.  Sometimes that is a battle.  Know I love you and appreciate you.

15. A good idea. Sleep. Reading. Travel. Adventure.  These are all of my favorite good ideas.

16. What are your personal gifts. I'm resourceful and kind. 

Ice Breakers, Eye Patches, and Garbage, Oh My!

Going back to work excites me.  Ice breakers?  Not so much.  It's no secret to anyone, including the people I train with on the regular, that I loathe ice breakers.  While today's wasn't as bad as the picture below, it was an ice breaker, nevertheless.  To make up to everyone else for the ice breaker I didn't force us all to do, when I had to do some training in the afternoon, I opened the library cafe for free coffee, hot chocolate, or tea for everyone.  No ice breakers, only happiness in cups.

In other news, I achieved 1 of 3 goals I set for myself this month in my first post.  I went to the eye doc today.  He gave me a hard time about not wearing my glasses.  I suggested I just get an eye patch to cover my right eye ("the bad one").  While an obviously stylish choice, he vetoed the idea and again insisted I just wear my dang glasses.  I agreed I would and put my glasses away as I left his office.

Today's journal prompt was: "Something that you're looking forward to".  I wasn't inspired by that because I already answered "What are you most looking forward to" as my first prompt.  I feel like this list of journal prompts was something that was an assignment a student turned in, expecting the teacher to not actually read it and notice that half of it was garbage.  

Anyway.  Instead, I'm going to leave you with a quote, because I want to: "What you allow, is what will continue." - Unknown

Top 10 Things That Make Me Happy

While in El Paso, I watched a show with my mom where two celebrities listed the top 10 things that make them happy. Friends, family and health are givens. Here's my list followed by some explanations. What makes you happy?

1. Traveling
2. Having a great book to read
3. Writing
4. Game nights
5. Teaching
6. Someone singing to me
7. The smell of rain
8. Fountains
9. PJs
10. Crafting

Traveling - There is just something about leaving your life behind (not forgetting it, mind you) and seeing some place new. It's the adventure of being out of your own element and in someone else's. Nothing compares to being able to travel and experience something new you would have never been able to if you had stayed in one place.




Having a Great Book to Read - The next best thing to traveling will always be having a great book to read. Done well, great writing transports the reader to amazing places, real or not. I've been given some flack for reading mostly fiction or humorous non-fiction; told that it is second best to reading to learn. I whole heartedly object to the idea that reading fiction is not reading to learn. Fiction teaches the human condition.




Writing - Though I've lost touch with much more than blog writing lately, it still makes me very happy. It's like watching TV (which I don't do much of at all) or reading a great book, but with the ability to control where the story goes. I can create all sorts of adventures and choose where they go and how they get there. It's better than dreaming.




Game Nights - Growing up, my family played board and card games together. We are all competitive by nature. I love getting together with my friends or family for games. The games are really secondary to the laughter and fun of being around great people.




Teaching - I'm probably the only teacher on the planet who hates summer vacation. True, I get to travel. There is that, and I'm grateful for having the time to travel. However, I miss the kids. I miss bringing new ideas to them in fun and interesting ways and seeing them respond. They're also just dang fun to be around. It's truly the kids I loved about working at Disney. It's awesome I get to recreate that magic in a classroom.




Someone Singing to Me - It can be any song, even sung badly. Singing solo or along with the radio, making that connection lyrically, possibly emotionally (depending on the song) just makes me smile. It's like having my own personal rock star, performing just for me. Love it.




The Smell of Rain - It's the smell of the rain hitting the hot pavement (or sand in the desert) which hits you before the rain actually begins to fall that I love the most. The smell of the rain once it starts to fall isn't quite the same.




Fountains - No idea where I picked up my love for fountains. Even the most basic fountains draw me in. The more elaborate fountains absolutely enthrall me. I'm compelled to get in all of them... It's a serious battle of willpower not to.




PJs - I'm not talking about sexy nighties. I'm talking about super soft to the touch pants and matching tops, often with polka dots or absurd prints. At the end of the day, it's fantastic to slip into a pair of PJs and relax. My mother used to buy me PJs every time I was sick. They always brought me comfort and made me happy.




Crafting - It's about the challenge, not necessisarily the finished product. Trying new crafts, gluing, twisting, sewing, hammering things together to create something new is always something I'm willing to do. I'll see something and think, "I can make that." It's the process of trying to figure out how to do it, then actually doing it that I like most about crafting.

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The Sword of Awesomeness

While the best word to describe my teaching methods may be "episodic", sometimes I still don't understand some of the things I do in the classroom.  I'm nothing if not visually interesting for one reason or another.  Sometimes, it involves wearing a chipmunk costume.

Others, it involves flailing my arms for no apparent reason.  Which brings me to the story of the Sword of Awesomeness.

As I was creating a spur of the moment, full-blown story for my students, one of the important items in the story became the Sword of Awesomeness.

Each time the item came up in the story, I would raise my arms in a rounded victory V sort of way.  I didn't even realize I was doing it until the students started doing the same each time I mentioned the Sword of Awesomeness.

As entertaining as it was, I didn't think much about the whole thing again until today, weeks later, when one of my students was sharing his 11 page (yes, he's a 6th grader!) imaginative story with the class.  At one point, he describes his characters battling through a hoard of zombies in order to retrieve the Sword of Awesomeness.

As he said it, he turned his attention from his paper, set it in his lap, grinned and raised his arms in the special salute.  I couldn't have been more proud.  Not only had he remembered the random thing I did and included it in his story, he also remembered the lesson and applied everything when he wrote his amazing story.  I was truly impressed.

Belated Two Things Tuesday

My evening was very busy yesterday, so I did not get around to posting this on the right day. But, seriously, who cares when I post these things anyhow?



Two Things:

1. I hate UTEP - I cannot overstate this. While, yes, I had a handful of fantastic professors during my time in college, the whole experience is severely soured by my dealings with the administration.

Without delving much into past events, let's just jump to today, rather, last night, when I received an email stating that there had been a grade change initiated by one of my instructors, changing it to a score which implies I never finished the course.

Ahem, I GRADUATED 3 YEARS AGO! I wasn't even aware they could change grades after a degree had been awarded, especially so long ago. Without a grade in the course, I would be lacking enough credits for my degree, possibly rendering my degree invalid. You can imagine my fury last night after reading the email. I was literally shaking. I thought I was done with UTEP.

It became my mission today to short things out. It's a good thing I don't live in the same city anymore. Instead I started calling this morning, trying to get ahold of anyone who knew anything or could do anything. That became a chore in of itself. It took me 9 phone calls to the operator and transfers to the Registration and Records office before I bypassed the operator and just called directly repeatedly. Each time, no answer, transfer to voicemail, voicemail was full. The operators had tried transferring me to two real people instead of the main number. The same thing happened, no answer, transfer to voicemail, voicemail full. After 6 more phone calls to the Records office, I finally got someone. She was kind enough to giggle at the situation and remark that I shouldn't have graduated. I reiterated how important it was to get things sorted today and she promised someone would call me back. I was less than hopeful. After some extra help from a few fantastic people, I did receive a call back. Everything would be sorted out ASAP. Apparently, no one signed some sort of paperwork and the system caught it in an audit. Whatever. It's done.

2. Getting Organized - I bought Dan a shelving unit for his pint glasses. They used to be stacked in groups of 2 or 3 on top of the game cabinet. Nightmares of a cat jumping up on top of the game cabinet out of curiosity drove me to my purchase. It looks much better and makes me feel better, too.