So, I was suppose to have a second piece of a new fic I was writing done by the end of the weekend, and instead it is Wednesday, I'm sleep deprived, the fic is half done and I've drug home a boatload of grading.

On the upswing of things, new dining room table came on Saturday (computer still on the floor, bad). Also good, Back to School Night is over. Parents, you have no idea how hard that night is for us teachers. You complain about having to go....we have no choice, and there is always the smart ass parents that belong to smart ass kids who ask you questions...things like, since we're doing so well now, does that mean the school sucked before?

Ummm....no. The school didn't have power standards, or collaboration in the departments and among the departments and we weren't prepping our kids, not to mention motivating them to even show up to take the test.

One asked, when I said I answer any and all questions whether or not if one sechronized swimmer drowns, they all have to drowned....That was the last class of the night. I was just happy I wasn't jibbering like an idiot. Okay, maybe I was a little.

Other good things....School restaurant open! WHOO HOO! No more having to take lunch, the kids can feed me. Thank God for Mom D. (Teacher)

Carpooling with my cool co-worker. He usually doesn't say anything about the volume of the radio and we pass the time talking about the kids or what we did the night before and what not, but this morning as Kevin and Bean were on talking with this girl who had apparently engaged in a threesome with a busty, beautiful Asian woman and a Veteran of the Iraq war, he asked if he could turn it up louder. I tried not to snicker the rest of the way to work. :-)

Journaling with my students. Some days I go ahead and write a journal on the board while the write it on the paper. I really enjoy it. The other day I Free Wrote about the saying, "So Say We All."

Monday's topic, What metaphor from nature best describes you?
I wrote a beautiful response and the kids were all..."That's writing?"

Yes!

So I'm gonna, you know, like, go.

Ali

I can't believe that it is already September. I keep telling myself that I'm gonna post here, but I put it off and now I've got six million things here.

1st. I moved!!!! Yeah! I'm finally out of my parents' house and in a very nice aparment. Swimming every chance I get, and even better a great mall to walk to across the way. In fact, sipping a Starbuck's as I type. Nice neighbor, I just met yesterday, everyone else is quiet.

I just spent the last of my Summer School money paying off IKEA, which I used to furnish my apartment. Unfortunately, I don't have a desk yet, so I'm having to type on the floor of my apartment. Not the most comfortable.

Classes- I have 4 US History classes and 1 Eng 10 this year. Have yet to have any grading that I couldn't pass off to my TA's. Friday I was so bored I spent my prep spinning in the office chairs in department office. Bob the Rover thought I was nuts.

Upside, I'm carpooling with a cool co-worker, nice meandering drive (okay when he's driving).

New Car (Scout) is going in for repairs tomorrow. Mean illegal immigrant couldn't park and so She has a little boo-boo. Okay the poor woman wasn't mean, she looked scared, but still. 3 Days with a rent-a-car.

One week until BSG comes out on DVD!

Can't wait.

Thank God! I made it to spring break. I almost strangled a few of the kids, but my TAs held me back! I left my grading, read 1 of the 30 books that I want to read, but haven't yet. I've even gotten most of my chorish type items done. Still have to make my car payment, but taxes are done, people are paid, and I've even done the girly shopping thing.

Only 6 more days left...Okay, what am I suppose to do now?

:::Shrug::::

Maybe I'll write. There is a plot bunny or two lurking in my brain.

Useless Trivia: There is not a single HUD home in Southern California. That's just pathetic.
A condo that was sold just a month again is up on the market for $4k more than they paid for it. Escrow has barely closed on that puppy.:-(

I'm so happy! I've got one more day of ELO class left! The Pain, the humiliation, the lack of sleep and life will soon be over. And I'm celebrating with a mental health day. I'm gonna sleep in and leave my students to the tender mercies of a Substitute, one who isn't my father. ::::Evil laugh:::::

Seriously though, (actually I was completly serious before, but what the heck) as stressful as last week was (Career Day, grades due, English classes starting the final stretch of big-do-it-or-fail-the-entire-course- paper, Final observation, meeting for final observation and benchmarks(I hate testing) oh...even better, grandma visiting) means that I can relax this week...kind of. Regardless, I have just this week until Spring Break. Can't get much better than that.

I invited (bribed) my friend mckennitt to give a spiel on her job as a geologist. She totally rocked and even though I had to pimp her presentation with extra credit and the words, "She gets to play in the dirt all day" (worked surprisingly well) my students were actually fascinated with her job. That's what really rocks about our school. The kids may start out cynical and snarky, but they come through for you in the end. :-)



Have I mentioned how much I love the end for BSG 2003? You got to love that Ron Moore has balls. As long as he doesn't hit the galactic reset button, I'll happily follow him through the hell he creates.

It's 6 o'clock on a Thursday, and I'm trying to figure out why I'm still at school! I know why, but it doesn't make me feel any better. I should be grading, I should be making parent phone calls; instead, I'm on the internet. This is bad. I need to go home. I need to get sleep. I need to stop thinking about how depressed Longfellow (the poet) makes me. We read in my afterschool class, "Psalm of Life." I was talking about doing something more than slacker things, being inspirational and stuff. And I realize, that I live an uninspirational life. Longfellow advocates stepping away from the stable and the secure to find what makes us happy, but I'm doing stable and secure and I still can't afford to move out of my parents' house. Longfellow obviously didn't live in Southern California during a housing shortage. :-)

Happiness kinda abounds. I went the the William S. Paley Festival and saw both the Battlestar Galactica and the House seminars, which was interesting and fun, kinda like a podcast with the whole cast. The Battlestar people were very upfront. When asked how they came to be on the show (by the dorky moderator), most of the stories started out with the phrase, "Well I sat down to read the script with a big bottle of wine..." Jamie Bamber responded, (paraphrased) "Well, I had just gotten my then girlfriend--now wife-- pregnant and decided I needed something to pay the medical bills." Okay, not really, but close. :-) But I think that I agree with my friend mckennitt that the only thing I was uncomfortable about being at the festival... was being a fan. For Battlestar it wasn't so bad, most of the audience questions were about creation and production and really just...intelligent questions that you wish you could ask, but don't.

Cool Factor: Kevin Smith (from Dogma, Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Chasing Amy) sat two seats in front of us, which is cool, 'cause, hey, someone who does write such sophisicated and brillant dialogue likes BSG! (I mean all dialog besides "Jay's" lines)

The House cast was hilarious. They were amusing and energetic, and incrediably tired. They had just come from shooting the show, which means they were late and they didn't pause for the pictures out front like BSG people did, and I felt kinda guilty that I had paid to make them come talk about the show. Especially when the "Trekkie" type fans got the microphone handed to them. Like the cast is suppose to know what to say to a person with Vasculitis that wants to thank them for bring awareness to the disease. (I watch the show pretty religiously and I couldn't tell you what Vasulitous is.) So anyway, I enjoyed myself immensely, as long as I didn't have to hear the fans speak. (Way too much stuff like seen on bad internet chat groups.) Things like "I'd love to see more of Hugh Laurie's biceps please." Things that make me cringe when reading Livejournals. :-P

In this case, Sci-fi fans ruled in behavior and intelligence. I should have known....afterall, House is on Fox.

Ali- headed home now from RHS.