Confessions of a Book Addict

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 09:09:53 GMT

Well it's a comfort to know that it is just fanfic being idiotic and not entirely my readers neglecting to review. I went to my review page and found that I did have a couple (ie 2) reviews on chapter 18 of my story and a couple more on earlier chapters that had come in since the last time I'd checked but for some reason the site has not managed to get the email alerts to me that I usually get for reviews. Still 740+ hits translating to two very short reviews was a little disappointing. Ah well.

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:52:55 GMT

Perhaps insanity running in my life would be a better description. I don't know quite what is up with it the last few weeks. Murphy out to get me maybe? First the car thing... then the broken tooth (temporary fix taken care of but it needs a crown though seriously yay no root canal this time apparently)... then it was the car again needing a new headlight (it also needs a wiper blade I've noticed since) and then on Tuesday I in my amazing clutzy-ness managed to trip at work during my break and hurt my knee. It is bruised at bone level and hasn't really colored up (yet...I'm just waiting because from how it feels I have a feeling it will be vivid yet) but it sure did/does hurt. I have no clue why I both had trouble falling asleep and woke up at 3:30 a.m. either. Work is going to be a thrill and a half today.

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:20:54 GMT

A questing we will go again then... yeah. The rumormill at work has projected that they'll be laying off those of us that are temps in my department in about two more weeks. Joy. I hate job hunting. It's a grumbly sort of week (sad when it is essentially just Tuesday - yes I know the clock says Wednesday but it is still "Tuesday night" by my standards). One of my co-workers for whatever reason guessed my age and guessed it higher than it actually is :( seriously I don't look 37 do I? Sheesh. I've been stressy but I don't think I look that old. *mutter* Despite the bumps in the road there are at least a few things in November to look forward to like Meat-a-palooza and Turkey day. Here's hoping that a job will be forthcoming with far more promptness than the last time I was looking for one.

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:26:51 GMT

Finally Prostaff found me something again. Lifetouch, a company that does school photos, is gearing up for their busy season again and thus is hiring people. I'm going to be working 2nd shift doing photo touch-ups on the computer. I'm guessing I'll get to start next week given that I go in tomorrow to do the paperwork/drug test and it takes a couple days for results apparently. All in all a good thing though. September is a happy month anyway. When I signed my lease last year I found out the twelfth month would be rent free and September is that twelfth month. Great timing for my bank account I must say. The new job has the possibility of overtime I'm not entirely sure on what the hours/days will be since the lady at Prostaff mentioned 4:30-2:30 (which is 10 hour shifts) and the possibility during the busiest times of half days on Saturdays. I totally don't mind a lot of hours at this point given the job drought I've had I can certainly use the extra money. I'm looking forward to the party on Saturday. In other news I've been writing on fanfic.net a Harry Potter timetravel piece. I'm rather fond of how it is coming along, though at the moment I'm not quite in writing mode which makes getting chapter 14 done rather difficult. Perhaps tomorrow. http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5191906/1/Ritual_at_Summer_Solstice There's a link for anyone interested in reading along.

Sooooooo

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:27:51 GMT

It finally occurred to me that I had this livejournal again.....

It also happens to be my birthday today. Mom and dad were up for the weekend. They have now left. I see from the /small/ look that I had at the friends page that some of you (you know who you are) are up to your eyeballs in getting ready to move. Can't say I envy you. I would, however, like to go see the new Harry Potter movie sometime if anyone is interested. Shoot me an email to that effect. Doesn't matter really if it is during the week or on the weekend. The mortgage analyst job did NOT last until December as anticipated which is a bummer so I'm back to the thrills of job seeking. Joy. That's about all I know at the moment. I don't particularly feel like a long entry. Good luck with that closing date.

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:56:53 GMT

And thanks to good directions from Nikki, neither was I when I went to Meatapalooza over the weekend. It was lots of fun, nice to meet a few new people, and I think a good time was had by all which you can't always say of many gatherings. I did forget again that I should see about getting some more people's lj info so I can friend them, but eventually no doubt I'll do that. It was a fun bit of wandering, though and I got to see a little more of the state since previous to Meatapalooza this was as far into Minnesota as I've ever been.

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:44:11 GMT

Yesterday I went over to IKEA (and I must say it is convenient having it so close) and got a smaller bookshelf for my cookbooks, the evil one my sister having donated to me being full of fail when it comes to being assembled. I saved it under my bed for someone (probably my mother) with a better dexterity roll to put together someday. Today I put the bookshelf together and much to my delight it fit not just the leftover cookbooks that I hadn't put on the little bookshelf that I /had/ but ALL of my cookbooks. So the small one got relegated to the living room and filled. :D And I made brownies. Chocolate = goooooooooooooood. I'm set up for subbing for Minnetonka now, having finally managed to stop playing phone tag with Leila in HR, but I have to stop over there and sign one more paper that oops didn't get signed when I was at orientation (oh well). I even got my check card in the mail from TCF. So that's good. For having started off uber lazy it's been a fairly productive week.

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 19:22:28 GMT

I figured I deserved a break so I went adventuring and brought my laptop along. After going down Nicoliet a wee bit (try a couple dozen blocks) too far I realized I had long since passed Betsy's Back Porch... it turned out I was looking on the wrong side of the street for it or I'd have seen it the first time around. Oh well. Wi-fi in public locations is gooooooooooooood. So is the double chocolate frappe and chocolate cake I'm having. :) My living room and bedroom are starting to actually look like rooms instead of box storage areas. The dining room however.... I still have to shovel through more and get the kitchen unpacked into the kitchen more. Still things are definitely coming along. I had my orientation with Minnetonka School District this morning. That went very well. The HR lady I met with actually did ask if I was interested in more than just reserve teaching (as they call subbing around here) and when I said yes she said she'd leave my application active. So that's nice. Now I can fill out internal applications instead of the big long form. I hear Beth's got a show tonight so the mapquest directions are waiting in the car and I plan to adventure that direction. It's been a busy and productive week. I talked to dad yesterday and he's back on solid food finally. He might be released Saturday morning. It sounds as though he's still doing very well which is really good. I'm looking forward to my wireless getting fixed up Sunday morning, though I've been so busy that I've missed it less than I might have otherwise. Wednesday I put together two bookshelves and my dvd/cd rack/shelves from IKEA. They were actually pretty easy to assemble. The bed frame, however, was a pain in the rear. At each corner you had to put a large screw on the baseboard side and a small cylinder with a hole in it and a flathead screw top on one end on the interior frame board. The large screw went into the hole in the small cylinder. This is where it gets tricky as a one person job. You have to tighten the cylinder with a flat head screwdriver WHILE cranking the large screw with this octogon? shaped tool that came with the bits and pieces. Three of the four sides I got the large screw flush with the head board or base board. The fourth one? Sticks out almost a half an inch. However since I couldn't pull it out I called it good since the cylinder thing ended up with a stripped flathead screw top. So that was my excitement last night. I opted for dinner out after that (my kitchen isn't really quite cooking ready yet) and discovered... Southdale Mall. I ended up at the Cheesecake Factory since I was kind of indecisive on what I wanted to eat and they have a fairly varied menu (and cheesecake).

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 01:46:56 GMT

Dad update: He came through surgery in 3 1/2 hours. It was a triple bypass instead of a double. However, his two surgeons were very pleased with him. It went very quickly apparently. I was in the middle of truck loading insanity when my sister called to let me know that. We were allowed to see him around 5 (I got there about 5:15 since I desparately needed food having missed lunch due to packing & loading). He was starting to wake up and did not like his breathing tube. He was much happier when they took it out. That the breathing tube could come out only 3 hours after surgery is pretty darn good. His nurse, a nice young man named Keith, said he was doing very well. By the time we headed home around 7:30 he was asking questions, sucking on an ice chip and starting doing breathing exercises with one of the nurses. He's in for a busy night since they will be having him do things about every four hours, not counting the tests and monitoring they do anyway. We'll be stopping in the morning before we leave. I'm going to stop briefly since I have to be up before Todd goes to work so I can get the key, but mom and Jen will stay until about 9 and then head out. The nurse said he might even be sitting up tomorrow. He'll start walking a little around then too (or maybe late tonight).

My mom and sister stayed at the hospital during the operation. I, of course, after waiting with dad until they took him, had to go home to finish packing and loading. The truck is loaded. We have a few boxes that were designated car that have to go in still and there's laundry (the bedding!) that I'll need to throw in a bag. So that's coming along. I'm hoping to get the last things from the basement upstairs so it will make for the easy 'last minute' loading tomorrow. Hopefully the drive will be nice and smooth. Mom and Jen are 'driving buddies' so Jen will drive Mom's car and follow the truck until they get close at which point she'll pass and guide mom to the apartment. So that should work pretty well. They'll have company for stopping for lunch and all that. I'm not going to push super much but I'm aiming to get there by 2 at latest since I need to be in before 3 to get the key from the apartment manager that lives on site. He's got another job that he has to be to at 3. And for now I'm off so I can get the rest of this stuff upstairs to wait for morning and get to bed once the stuff is out of the dryer.

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:47:12 GMT

It's been a crazy few days. Oddly not very much of that has to do with moving right now.

On Thursday we went out to celebrate my parents anniversary.

On Friday my dad was supposed to have a CAT scan (and did) to check on a lump on his throat. No clue the status on that.

As he was leaving the hospital after the CAT scan he wasn't feeling great, as he put it 'it felt like there was an anvil sitting on his chest'. So he went to the emergency room. They decided to keep him overnight and were going to run a stress test this morning. However the blood work came back and showed that he had a minor heart attack. So the stress test got cancelled and he was scheduled for a cardio cath today. There's pretty much 3 scenarios on that procedure and in two of them they can just do a angioplasty and get rid of the blockage without surgery. Dad, however, had to go with door number 3. He's got 100% blockage in one rear artery (luckily he apparently has a natural bypass with a smaller artery on that) and 90% blockage on a front artery and so he'll be having double-bypass surgery tomorrow. I'm not sure what time yet since the surgeon will be coming to talk to him this afternoon/evening. They'll keep him for 4-5 days after the surgery. So it should be an interesting couple days.

On the moving front... the truck is already rented and I have orientation for the school district that hired me for subbing on Friday so the move is going forth as scheduled. It does make me feel pretty bleh moving when my dad is in the hospital, but I admit that I'm glad he went back in Friday. If he'd had a heart attack during the move I'd have felt infinitely worse after all. My sister is taking two days off to go along now since dad, obviously, will not be going this trip. Poor Mom has by default become the driver of the truck. I'm to the almost done point on packing but there's still some to do which no doubt I'll get done tomorrow. Today I'm chalking up as pretty much a wash aside from the laundry I'll throw in later. Too stressy to accomplish much, but since yesterday I was about triply productive I guess it all balances out.

Dad's surgery will not be tomorrow as the doctor who did the cardio cath thought, but rather on Monday at 11 a.m. This is because that's the earliest that the surgeon who will be doing the double bypass could assemble the team he wants. Personally I think it is all to the good to wait until Monday and have him have the team he wants rather than take pot luck with what is available on Sunday. So Monday should be all kinds of interesting. We are loading the truck Monday afternoon. I guess we'll also be checking in with the hospital Monday afternoon. I'll see him in the morning before they start prepping him at 9, probably after Mom and I go to pick up the truck. I'll also go visit in ICU in the evening, though chances are that he'll be sleeping (and who can blame him? Surgery seems like an exhausting business if you ask me). In other news breakfast for supper was good and I finally got rid of the headache I've had all day.

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 07:28:34 GMT

Things I know about insomnia... could probably fill a book but here are a few:

You can be perfectly tired at 11 and lie down and still come out wide freaking awake within the hour.
Sometimes it makes you hyper-productive.
It does not, however, spare you from sharp yet invisble things in the carpet.
When it makes you hyper-productive it does not increase your likelihood of getting sleepier.

Packing for the move is coming along. In fact I just got two more hours of well... not box filling, but cleaning, throwing away, and dumping in the huge bag destined for the shredder. In the process I managed to scrape my foot on something sharp in the carpet which was, of course, thrilling. Packing for the move really has not done much for the battle against clumsiness let me just say. Scraped foot, scraped hand, bruises multiple places (some that I would not have guessed that I would ever manage to bruise myself much less that the bruise would show... I actually managed to get a visible bruise on my stomach.... running into the corner of a box = bad).

I still have a fairly huge to-do list, but there's been a good deal of visible progress over the course of the past week. Tomorrow I mean to get ahold of Todd (the on-site manager guy) so I can see about the key and stuff. I've also got to call my grandmother and see if she wants to have lunch either Thursday or Friday (*sigh* obligatory family visits can be painful) and whichever day she vetos I'll probably have lunch with Becky. In the meantime tomorrow is a heavy packing day since today was a lighter one.

We've managed to recruit a couple extra sets of muscle down here for loading the truck so that's a good thing. Becky's going to park the girls with her sister or mother and come help and one of mom's friends from church has a grandson (who I used to babysit when he was little) who is going to help. "Young Bill" graduated high school last year and certainly should be helpful. He's a nice kid. I'm still wrapping my head around the whole this time next week I'll be moved thing. My father keeps asking me if I'm almost done packing yet...which makes me laugh because even though I've filled a lot of boxes I could not even begin to predict how many are left to pack especially since I'm still doing a fair bit of sorting and getting rid of stuff or putting it aside. I've started another bag for half-priced books which I'll take up when I go see grandma. My book collection will no doubt spark the comment it usually does when I move "do you really need all those books?" I really only get rid of books that either I don't like, are 'fluff' but not by an author I'm particularly fond of, or that I don't think I'll read again. Most of my books I've read twice at minimum. I couldn't even tell you how many times I've read my Mercedes Lackey books.

I managed to make up address cards for the family and Becky. For you guys up Minnesota way, Eric's got the address. I mailed the one for my aunt and uncle in New York, the others I can hand deliver since I need to see people anyway. It seems it's a good thing I used a cut on this because as I suspected it's getting long and rambly. And I'm still wide awake. Bleh. I guess I'll go play dumb games on pogo in hopes that it will bore me into sleepiness.

Success!

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:59:53 GMT

And the winner is...... Richfield!

The second apartment we saw today was definitely the nicest. There was a bit of a trade-off with the price, but given they include ALL of the utilities... I think it is probably well worth it. Especially since it is near a number of very good school districts. It is actually a very nice size, lots of storage, good neighborhood and near lots of things (the grocery store is only 2 blocks away which is handy). Looks like lots of good prospects nearby too if I decide I want to see about a part time job a couple times a week to suppliment subbing so that's good too. Definitely a hectic trip, but very productive. It was good to see Beth and Eric again. Jen and I enjoyed Masa, though she talked me into Dairy Queen when we got back near the hotel (there was one a block away from the Ramada). That pushed the edge from comfortable to OH MY GOSH I'M FULL. Drive back was pretty uneventful aside from the large amount of cops still out and the excitement of dumb people who can't seem to handle merges when there's construction. Nothing new. I'm rather hoping for a call from the apartment office people on or by Friday, but I won't be surprised if I don't get it until next week given.... holiday weekend. They seem very flexible on move in date which is very nice too. :)

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:38:52 GMT

hahaha I'm reading the 4th Rogue Angel (this one is The Chosen, they are by Alex Archer and the first three are in a handy dandy bound edition called Renaissance) book.... great quote here: Annja was surprised to see the three out at such an early hour. They were clearly science fiction fans, or a closely related genus. She'd always thought the earlier before noon they rose, the more strain it imposed on their nerd metabolisms. Apparently they were dedicated to their mission.

Other new discoveries that I'm very much enjoying: Charlaine Harris - the Southern Vampire novels. I've read the first three and they are awesome. I hope to acquire more soon. :D

I watched Freedom Writers over the weekend... very good movie /not/ a chick flick. Its based on a true story about a new teacher who managed to make a serious impact on her students. I know, that's not the most exciting description. It is definitely a good movie though.

We just changed over from summer school math and we're doing reading now. I lost one of my kids to the class next door and I have one new one... but there were a lot of absences today. I hope that I'll end up with about the same number coming as last session. Eight was a very nice number. Four (which is what I had today) is too few. I don't mind if all twelve of the students I'm supposed to have come by any means though, I kind of lucked out on class size. I ended up buying more stuff for the reading section. The pencils that were provided were (surprise surprise) used up during the math section... needless to say they need to do writing during the reading section sooooooooo I got pencils and a number of other things.

It looks like its going to be a busy sort of week. My sleep has been off too so I might not be online as much as usual. I've been having trouble focusing the past week. That's okay though. This is a good week in some regards for taking a bit of time off (not so much since I really should be doing something with some tinyplot stuff on the game but eh. Whatever) since I have the yearly "bah, forget this getting older nonsense" day on Saturday. Going out with my sister Friday night for supper and a movie. That should be fun. Becky is apparently going camping this weekend but maybe I'll drag her out next week or something. Or... I dunno.

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:59:51 GMT

My stubborn of email tag, phone tag and where oh where on the website are you has at least paid off with a one year teaching license for Minnesota. They do things a little differently with their licenses. In Wisconsin you do your coursework, you take the tests (PPST to get into the teaching program and the Praxis II for content area) and you're done. Apparently in Minnesota if its your first year teaching there you get to add yet another test to your repetoire - the Praxis II Principles of Learning and Teaching test for the level you're teaching. So joy, another 85 dollars and a standardized test. At least I tend not to have trouble with them. Now that being said I want a job to go with the license. I'll have to go back to the places I applied (at least I bookmarked those websites) and change the license no (applied for) to just plain yes. Had a nap after work which just made me sleepy. Funny how that works.

Book meme

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:56:02 GMT

According to The Big Read, the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on their list.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare -- Well, I've read most of them
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens --> I *hated* having to read this in high school
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Well I have way more than six anyway. There are a couple more that I can't quite remember if I read or not...I might have read them for a class or I might have started reading them on my own. Who knows. I just bolded the ones I know I've read.

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:34:58 GMT

It only took 62 pages to find my course descriptions in the online graduate catalogue... of course it was the 2003-2005 catalogue but the only other option was 2007-2008 so I figured the older one was a better choice given that I finished my certification in 2006. I've sent the course descriptions off to Debby (who I must say is wonderfully prompt about responding and I'm quite grateful about that) so I'll be crossing my fingers that a lack of phys ed in my content methods class won't be enough to stop them from issuing my teaching license....because that would just be rather stupid. On another up note I noticed when I was browsing through my school's website that they actually have a branch in Minnesota in Edina so I might just have to check with school down here and see if I can finish up my master's classes up there without much issue. That would be good. Though the last time I was at school they said I could probably either do them online or long distance anyway. That teacher was back today so I just had my rambunctious seven students. That was helpful but oh boy were they wound up today. I'm glad tomorrow is Thursday, I'm looking forward to the weekend. The next two weeks of summer school are 3 day weeks - next week because of the 4th and the following week because we have an 'optional teacher workday' on that Thursday. Once I know more about what's going on with the licensing stuff I'll know what my option will be on that... I might option to get the heck out of town. We'll see.

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:40:17 GMT

This week is not going so hot. My 2nd graders for summer school are a cute bunch... a few on the mildly naughty side, but that isn't odd really. One very whiny one, again, not untypical. The last two days though we've had 4 kids from one of the other classes (the teacher didn't get a sub and so they split the class between the other 2nd grade summer school classes....word in the office is that she had food poisoning and will be back tomorrow at least). It's amazing how throwing 4 kids in a room can totally change the dynamic. They aren't even bad kids but... wow. Way more chaotic and not in a particularly good way. My excedrin bottle and I have been together muchly this week. Then today I got an email from my friendly MN dept of education licensure lady, Debby, who is kind enough to email me that they received the form from my school....which is good....but that she can't find x y z on it. Now that wasn't a hundred percent problematic...I pointed out the appropriate course numbers for her, but one of the courses didn't include 2 of the things that she mentioned as being required for licensure in Minnesota. In Wisconsin we have to have content method for art, social studies, science and math. Reading is its own whole separate category but yes, we certainly do that too. We do not, however, have requirements to have music and physical education. Those are a separate license in Wisconsin so it isn't the expectation that the regular classroom teacher will be doing them. Though naturally most of us handle the health education stuff (not hard) and might do a little music in the room (once again....with a music kit and some cds...not impossible...) the days of teachers learning to play the piano and having one in the classroom are past not that I wouldn't argue that it can be nice with a young class but realistically there's so much to do in a day that once you get past the early grades even if you do know how to play you probably won't have time for classroom singing much unless your school really DOESN'T have a music teacher/program at which point you'd probably squeeze something in. Somehow.. so now I'm kind of worrying about whether they're going to insist I take classes for teaching phys ed/health and music which would be kind of problematic. They aren't offered at my school in the education department that I'm aware of and classes aren't cheap. Subbing while getting them... not ideal. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I have to wait and see what Debby says to. She pointed me at a link for elementary educators with a specialty though...and I kind of wonder if she wasn't doing that for a reason (with a double major undergrad having a specialty in social studies or language arts is not at all impossible...history and English are useful majors in THAT regard anyway). So I guess I'm just having a down feeling sort of day. Things feel very up in the air right now. Though one up note... my parents leave on vacation tomorrow in the wee small hours of the morning - so I get a vacation from them. That will be good. I hope that Debby has some positive answers for me tomorrow. A subbing license would not be at all ideal.

Friday the 13th.... the Drive

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:53:09 GMT

Soooooooooooooooooo, I left Minnesota ~~this~~ yesterday morning around 8:30-9ish and given I wasn't super awake I autopiloted myself onto 35 and then through whoopsing ended up on 36 since I wasn't in the right lane. All was well though since the nice lady at the BP told me I could take Dale alllllllllllll the way to 94. So yeah. That was the start of my driving adventures for the day/evening/wee early hours. Other highlights? My toooooooootally unnecessary course diversion to Tomah, I-94 starring as "the parking lot", and of course flooding EVERYWHERE. Essentially after two hours of parking lot conditions on the highway I finally inched my way off near Mauston. I-94 had flooding between there and Portage apparently. I'm really glad I called my sister though because it also apparently had flooding by Johnson's Creek (southeast of Madison) and by Delafield (also on my way home) which meant I had to take a completely different route that wasn't remotely on the way.... This actually didn't seem too bad when I finally got to said other way given it was.... after ten by that point. Going towards Janesville and getting to drive the speed limit was shiny. Except, naturally that wasn't free of complications either. Apparently highway 50 which runs into Kenowhere has some construction right through the middle of Lake Geneva. Instead of telling you that if you exit 43 N on it you instead end up after driving down 50 a while getting sent to pick up 43N at another point so you can take the convoluted route. And also high water signs are oh so fun when it's almost midnight. I had to squint at it a while before I realized the water was all on either side of the lanes....driving in the middle was completely dry. The other side of the highway was more puddly. It is really, really, really good to be home. Thankfully for all of the stopping and starting most people weren't driving like complete twits either. I could have driven to New York in the amount of time that took, but at least it didn't take the amount of gas going to New York would have required since I did manage to put my car in park or turn it off periodically.

Fri, 23 May 2008 05:02:50 GMT

And even though it's way too late to be up given that I have to be up in ugh six hours I figured since I was anyhow a brief update was in order. So.... what's up with me:

Yesterday - unexpected day off due to no subbing jobs (oh can you sense the agony of that... a day off so hard to take) I got to go over to Best Buy and use up the reward zone gift certificates I had :) I replaced my lost Solace cd because for some reason I can never keep that Sarah McLachlan cd...this is at least my 3rd copy maybe the 4th, and I got a couple other cds and some paper for my printer. So yay for that.
Today - best 4th grade class in 5+ years of subbing *cheers for the 4th graders on being awesome*
Tomorrow - 1/2 day with 3rd graders, then over to Becky's to hang out since I haven't seen her in a couple weeks. That will be good.

I have, of course, done more applications since my last post but no bites yet. I'm going to probably start checking into the larger list of private schools for applying next week. I went up to Cardinal Stritch last Wednesday to get that missing form taken care of... the certification officer at school said she'd mail it to me so I could send it up to the Department of Education but I haven't seen any sign of it yet. I'm starting to wonder if she changed her mind and mailed it there directly. I emailed the lady from the Dept. of Education though who told me the form was still needed (apparently the copy of the one I had from school wasn't okay because it wasn't on their form) to check on that and to alert her that I was working on getting it in any case since if it arrives later than June 2nd they're going to issue a short-call subbing license. She said the date could be extended if need be. I'd rather have my real teaching license thanks... so hopefully one way or another that piece of paper gets where it needs to go. Insomnia's been just lovely this week which makes for some interesting mornings but I'm managing (thank you overpriced coffee drinks).

I've been reading a lot lately which isn't really any great surprise I guess. I'm contemplating boxing up some of my unread pile so that I have an instant selection of unread books for after I move since funds may be a little tight for a while if I end up having to substitute teach for a while. The early part of the school year can be bad. I know though, that if you aren't too fussy you can work nearly every day once it gets going. So it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Nothing exciting planned for the holiday weekend, though I must say THREE DAY WEEKEND YAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll probably watch 27 Dresses since my sister got it and loaned it to me. Aside from that... no real plans.

Monday....VERY Monday

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:57:45 GMT

It was so VERY Monday today. I got woken up about a half an hour before my alarm was scheduled to go off which in the scheme of things isn't that long, particularly since I went to bed at a decent time last night, but still manages to throw me off for my morning (and makes me a bit cranky since I'm not really a morning person to begin with). My head kind of felt on the verge of a headache too - the weather has been for crap and I've gotten 3 or 4 sinus headaches in the past week and a half. I wasn't the only one having a Monday either...one of the kids came in with an obvious chip on his shoulder. Thankfully by the end of the morning that one was fine. The afternoon class though...WOW. There's a little boy with a disability of some sort (I have my guesses on that) and I went to take him on a walk with him riding his little bicycle. I'd done that on Friday with no problem. Today though when we passed the M&M room (Music & Motion) he got off the bike and ran in there. Since it was empty it wasn't that big a deal I thought - I'd just get him and bring him back to the room. Wrong. He wasn't having any of that. He started pitching a fit and in the process of trying to keep him from bashing his head on the floor he pulled out some of my hair (I should know better than to not braid it when with early childhood), smacked me in the head, bruised my hand, scratched me (which I didn't notice until I got home) and bent my glasses out of shape pulling on them. I thought he was going to snap the stem right off. The teacher I was working with let me leave early so I could go to Lenscrafters and get them fixed. They are nice enough that they didn't even charge me to fix them (which since I got them there makes some sense, but they are nice like that anyway). I ended up running in the Gap afterwards and got a blouse and another pair of the colored khakis that they've got right now that are so comfortable. I was tempted to get some ice cream while I was out but in the end going home and putting my feet up won out over another stop. I could also use a good cup of tea....but I think I'm feeling too lazy to go upstairs and make some. Oh well. I wonder if I have any chocolate. *ponder*

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:55:05 GMT

Yesterday was pay day which is always nice. So today I got the bills ready to send off. Yesterday I went to Barnes & Noble and naturally enough I didn't escape unscathed. Yeah... I don't have much willpower to resist in books stores. Not that this particularly concerns me. So for those who are actually interested in my acquisitions...

I got:

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (You can find it in the kids section and let me just say having finished it about an hour ago it is well worth the read. A very fun book, apparently there's another in the works with the same characters, they had a teaser chapter at the back. Yay)

The Jacket by Andrew Clements - this was a very quick read for me, but then I didn't get it so much for me as for my classroom-to-be... Clements writes a lot of very good books for kids and they tend to be a bit more thought provoking as well. This one the main character confronts the issue of prejudice, in another that I've got around here somewhere, Frindle, it's an interesting book that show just how words sometimes make it into dictionaries. :)

I got two more for my classroom to be... for now they are tucked away in my bag o tricks for subbing. One is called The Grapes of Math and I don't recall the author on it. The other is a Jack Prelutsky book with a title that is something like 'The Dragons are Singing Tonight'.

There were also some books in a buy two get one free section... I found:

Teach With Your Heart: Lessons I Learned from the Freedom Writers, a memoir (Not sure how good it will be but if it isn't good? I'll consider it to have been the free book and I won't feel bad as I take it to Half Priced Books in the next batch to sell).

Auralia's Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet, which seems to be a fantasy novel.

Peony in Love by Lisa See, this one is a historical novel set in China, I read her previous book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan which was good.

However... I'm not reading any more of the new ones until I've finished Lucia since I do ordinarily try to finish a book before starting another... for some reason I've started more than one at once recently. It's rather odd.

On the job hunting front, my licensure material is all off in the mail now and actually I could probably check to see if it's been received since I do have a tracking number. Perhaps I'll grab that when I next get up. I might have to email Roseville because I got an email from them to mail certain materials...which I think was one of the automated emails that those sites send when you complete an application. However, since the same site said not to send materials that had been uploaded to the site it's a bit of a dilemma. I already sent off the documents that I couldn't upload. I don't want to send duplicates of things if they actually do not want them.

I'm kind of hungry but feeling lazy about actually doing something about it. My grandmother is down for a day (or two or... well I'm really not sure, no one mentioned she was coming so I haven't the faintest idea how long she's staying). In any case she and mom went out for supper before 4:30 so I didn't end up going along. I'll probably end up just snacking. Not the best solution but its easy.

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:57:40 GMT

Well I was subbing a half day with 2nd grade today and that in itself was just nice. Nice kids, they behaved well and I got to leave a glowing report for their teacher. Always a pleasure to do that. Tomorrow I also have 2nd grade, I'm hoping to get my favorite bunch if I'm there early enough since Wilson's 2nd grade teachers are having a planning day which means all of them will have subs. If I'm the first one there I hope to get Mr. O's class because they are a bunch of cuties that I've subbed with about four times now so we understand each other quite well. When I checked my district email at lunch time I had some good news waiting for me, I got an offer to teach summer school and better yet it's for second grade with those same Wilson kids who are so sweet. So I'm looking forward to that. The teacher that recommended I apply is one of their second grade teachers who does summer school, I'm looking forward to working with her she seems very competent. I got a couple pastries from Calleo (yummy Italian cafe) and brought them over to Becky's to celebrate. Marcella (her 4 year old) thought the little mini chocolate tulips with mousse and fresh raspberries were the neatest thing ever. *grin* So it was a good day. I was about to close and mail the envelope with my licensure stuff when I realized that oops... I still need to go get fingerprint cards done again...because it DOES have to be on their cards. So that's kind of inconvenient, but my sister said there's a cop on her street that owes her a favor (he apparently had something very stainable fall on the frieze carpet and she got the stain out before his wife got back from a trip, heh) sooooooo even though the local police department only does them electronically and on THEIR cards I should be able to get them done with ink how the dept of education wants them on their cards without too much difficulty. So I suppose I ought to start using hand lotion again since apparently that's a good idea to get a good set of prints (they actually tell you that stuff on the info sheet that went with the cards *smirk*) who knew? I can't recall if I mentioned it before or not but 'The Drowsy Chaperone' was pretty darn funny. Good musical for those who like musicals and possibly even for those who don't care much. The man in the chair is the lead and he gives a hilarious commentary throughout the whole thing. I highly recommend it if it comes your way and you're looking for a fun show to go to or take someone to. That's about it with me at the moment. I should get back to putting more applications out there. Didn't do much since the whole weekend I felt very head cold-ish. Oh well.

The week in review

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 06:09:08 GMT

I'm starting to rather hate late winter/early spring. Sure the grass is going from dingy brownish yellow to green now and we can actually SEE it which is something of an improvement... but its also the time of year when the days off are few and far between unless you "cheat" and take a sick day like I did today. I had a lousy week and a lousy headache which lasted most of the day anyhow. Job hunting tends to make me kind of stressy and sets those moods a-swinging. Wednesday? I think it was Wednesday anyway I got a fair bit of applying done and such. Did a little bit yesterday. Today all I managed was dropping some materials in the mail for one of the districts that I assembled things for on Wednesday. Oh well. Hopefully I haven't been too grouchy with anyone. I felt far more upbeat and optimistic about the whole job thing a couple years ago when I was doing the 'looking for a teaching job' the first time around BUT I am trying a whole new area so that's both a bit exciting and a bit scary. Part of that is because education, like any other field, DOES hire based on networking at least some of the time. The year I taught in Special Ed was because my sister pointed me at the HR people in Racine... the slightly evil math job I had at the beginning of the year that turned into my current insane (but within my certification at least) elementary subbing was once again someone I knew who knew one of the principals at that building and recommended me. I still had to interview and if they hadn't liked me I'm sure they'd have figured something else out. I hate interviewing (though I hate not getting interviews more). Sometimes its fine but I get very nervous and it can show. HR people being HR people they tend to take that as "too shy to manage a classroom". Ugh. I hate to break it to them but a 9 adult panel is not the same as a class full of 8 year olds. Smaller interviews are a bit easier but some districts do that 'interview by panel' now. I guess they don't really care how comfortable the candidates are and I'm sure its very nice for the very outgoing ones. The first two days this week were really lousy subbing days - I was at a school that is either wonderful or horrible depending on which class you get. Unfortunately for me I got one that probably would have been fine if it hadn't been Monday and the second day was a class that the teacher assured me are bad even for her (they were having a planning day so they were at school in meetings while substitutes were covering their classes). By Wednesday my throat hurt - Wednesday's class was nice kids, but loud. This didn't help my throat much since I had to talk louder than usual AND resort to attention getters like clapping. So lame, but they work. Thursday thankfully was a nice class that could manage to not be loud but after the rest of the week my throat still hurt and late in the day I developed the headache that pretty much lasted until late this afternoon. The common side effect of all this is I've been spending more than I usually do on stupid things like lunches I didn't have to make for myself, cinnamon dolce lattes/hot chocolates, and my new favorite flavor at Cold Stone (which is not exactly one of THEIR flavors) Cherry Pie - sweet cream ice cream, double cherry pie filling, graham crackers and a little bit of hot fudge. Yum. And today I made a Barnes & Noble visit (always dangerous). I stayed there and previewe some books a while and ended up with three by Susan Wiggs (they fall in the the 'fluff' category - books easily put down if you have to do something else) and a book called Lucia - A Venetian Life in the Age of Napolean by Andrea di Robilant which is from the history section. It's a biography by her great-great-grandson (at least I think it was two greats but I'm not going to look right now). I just dragged myself away from Pogo Addiction Solitaire...like the name implies it isn't a game that you stop playing easily. Yeah I spend a little too much time on pogo.com but there are worse things I suppose. The yearly membership isn't that bad. Of course there's a free version but I got sick of the ads interrupting for 30 seconds at at time every so often. It's much nicer not to have to see them. I tried calling the lady my sister said is "very excited" about me who apparently wants me to work with gifted & talented kids this summer... It's the second time I called. Last time she had meetings all day so that was no big deal. The secretary mailed me the application. Today she was on the phone so I left a voice mail. She didn't call back, but maybe Monday. Who knows. I did let her know that I'm usually done earlier on Wednesdays so maybe I'll just get a message arranging something for then. I should probably write in this a bit more often. I'd probably ramble less if I did. I might watch Firefly disc 4 this weekend. I'm not sure yet though. I definitely should hook up my new printer though. It's wireless. That's so shiny. :) My sister pretty much decided to get me one for my birthday (which isn't until July) so she announced that we were going to Circuit City and Best Buy and she had the ads in hand and it was funny...we went to Circuit City first (her choice, not that I particularly cared mind you) and she asked one of their sales guys the difference between the two she was eyeing, the price difference on the ink cartridges etc... she eventually settled on the one that we got....but they were out of it. The guy sent us up to the desk to order it (it would have taken 6 days to ship) but the guy up front asked if we'd checked to see if Best Buy had it in stock because they couldn't order it unless they didn't. So essentially they gave away our business. We were mildly amused by that. Monday I've got a job that is just a half day and in the afternoon to boot. That should be nice. It's second graders and they are usually very sweet. Usually. Tuesday I've got 2nd graders again at that school from Monday and Tuesday this past week....BUT 2nd grade is consistantly awesome there. :) The 2nd grade teachers have a planning day. I'm going to ask if I'm the first sub there if I can get Mr. Orton's class because I've subbed with them 3-4 times and they are great kids. Though I don't mind if I sub with the class next door to them, those are the two classes I'd prefer. It would be nicer than going into the class that I haven't subbed with, though granted I've had some of those kids in the reading groups. One or two of the ones from the reading group were on the wild side. Wednesday I don't have pre-arranged so it could be anything and then on Thursday I start a job that will be approximately two weeks long with pre-k at a decent school. I worked with that group once before on a half day. It isn't too bad. The day tends to pass by fairly quickly with pre-k. Its an assistant job (which normally I wouldn't take for that duration, but they specifically requested me) which means I get breaks in addition to my lunch time which seemed a little odd to me at first but there sure aren't many other perks to those jobs. This one, thankfully, does NOT involve changing diapers. That's one of the worst things when there isn't anything else available for subbing and I have to take an assistant job, you seriously never know what you're getting into unless you've taken that job before. Early on when I didn't know that Special Ed T.I.M.E. was Kenosha's school district's way of saying "assistant job" I took one and I had to work with a kids who was in 2nd grade and nearly as big as I was and he pushed me when I was trying to bring him back to the classroom after he went out in the hall. Thankfully that one either didn't need diapers and went to the bathroom himself or someone else was taking care of it. It would have been a nightmare. The school year is starting to wind down, which means the kids are starting to get wound up. Oh it isn't really winding down yet, but I've heard that there's less than 40 days left. Every building I go to there's either a field trip going on sometime that week or there's field trips being planned. Subbing is a funny world with its little snapshots of different grades and classrooms. I suppose that's why I'm having a hard time believing that its over half way through April. It doesn't really seem long at all since I was reading St. Patrick's Day stories to a group, but it HAS been a month. Beth, if you happen to read this and get this far, I hope your show went well. As for me, Friday night or not I should probably stop with the rambling and see about some sleep.

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 23:59:27 GMT

Well I got a bit of productiveness in today. Perhaps I can get a bit more in yet. Just got back from errands. Granted I'd have been home a lot sooner if I hadn't sat down in one of the comfy chairs at Barnes & Noble and proceeded to read over half of the book I ended up buying. 'An Unexpected Apprentice' by Jody Lynn Nye - very good so far. I also got a cookbook, having a weakness for sweet things and poetic titles with delicious looking stuff on the cover. I look forward to trying stuff from 'Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey'. It's been a rather expensive weekend I suppose between my fruitless trip and my shopping exploits (yay sales at the Sketchers outlet), but on the up side to that I have the prospect of a part time job to go along with my full time one. Becky's husband works for the local paper and apparently they need someone for 4-8 hours on the weekend to help with the obits. Very cheerful. They definitely could use someone at the paper that can spell though and it has the advantage of making me feel like I'm actually using my English degree for once. Yay for using half of my double major. It was really nice to get ahold of my friend Karen yesterday too. Karen, you said you were going to check this and I still expect an email catching me up on YOU since we just talked about ME. :) I'm in a scattered sort of reading mood. I've got Karen Miller's newest book 'Empress' almost halfway read, though I think I'll just be putting it down until I finish the one I started today. I've also got a bunch of books waiting to be read, it's a bit of a mess really. I should probably go do that application and a couple teaching ones while I'm at it. I'm glad the transcripts came so I can send them off to Minnesota's Dept of Education. Hmm I should write a note on them for that. I'm on the tired side, but I'm trying to get stuff done anyhow.

It should be noted that River Falls does NOT equal Wisconsin Rapids

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 14:13:42 GMT

I am feeling so very brilliant this morning. Do you hear the sarcasm?

So... I heard about this career fair from Linda at Stritch. I still would swear that she said River Falls. Whether she did or not I heard River Falls. Since I didn't get that silly printer yet I didn't print out the webpage for the career fair. Instead I had in my head "Lincoln High School, River Falls". I also brilliantly did not mapquest. So yes, this was one huge oops after another on my part.

There IS no Lincoln High School in River Falls. I discovered this about quarter to eight this morning when I stopped at the hotel desk and asked. So I went back to the website for the career fair and lo and behold - it wasn't River Falls at all. It was Wisconsin Rapids.... which from the look of the map is a good 3 hours away. Needless to say that I'm not getting to the career fair. By the time I got there even if I'd left the second I'd discovered that information there would be an hour or less left of the career fair and it wouldn't be worth the twenty-five dollar admission fee. It also is located closer to Madison and since the whole point was hoping that there would be schools in THIS area there... it rather defeats the purpose. So apparently I get another lovely long drive back home to entertain me today. Oh well. I hope everyone else has a great Saturday.