Schnidenfreude

Wow.... the two television shows I watch are Ugly Betty and Dancing with the Stars. Today the front-runner of Dancing with the Stars got voted off. Sabrina and Ryan were totally going to win if tonight hadn't happened...but it did.

At the same time, I feel slightly smug that they got voted off.
It is nice to see that shit happens to stars too...

I really want them to come back... kick Marie Osmund off already for Pete's sake!

Cell phone

I spent my weekend driving (total:12 hours)
6 of those hours I was completely lost.
3 were trying to find a Halloween party in St. Louis
3 were trying to find a winery in Hermann
I have fun plans....
BUT I CAN"T FREAKN" GET THERE!
(I may have a degree in science, but that doesn't mean I can't navigate out of a paper bag!)
I'm getting a cell phone

Working with people

I'm a very much a "go at it alone, and do it right, do it well" kinda girl. But at the high school we work in teams. This bugs me because I very little control over what we teach and when. Right now, the person who is supposed to be creating the plan hasn't created the plan yet, and so I have no idea what I'm supposed to be teaching on Monday. I'm a long term planner and this bugs me to no end. I really like my department, but I have a very different personality than the people I work closely with and this creates issues for me as I adapt to their personality types. It is very frustrating for me today as we were in professional development meetings. It really just rubbed me the wrong way. They are probably oblivious (and rightly so) about why I am pissed. But I so am. I'm a very opinionated person and have good ideas, but I'm too frick'n polite about things and worried about stepping on people's toes to be assertive with them.
Gah! I'm my own Catch-22

Proud

The Creighton Double-Up went went well for Truman. I've got a soft spot for that Tournament. First, Marty runs it. He's a great coach and I really respect him. If I couldn't have been on Truman's team I would have been on his. Next, all the awards are from Ten Thousand Villages, a fair trade organization. And Finally, I got the second speaker award my at that tournament, that was the only nationally significant tourney that I kicked butt at.
I wasn't able to attend the tourney this year, and I would have liked to, I have two good friends in Omaha and another in Kearney I could have visited on the way there. Also, the mid-west's finest speaker are there, so high quality debate. That tournament is forever sealed in my brain. Three years in a row I did five events and debated. The double up signifies two tourneys in one weekend. I remember the absolute state of exhaustion that I would be on Sunday night for the drive home. I was so tired I couldn't see straight. It was the kinda of tired that feels so good. I'd always have a good trophy haul at that tournament.
With in the next year or two, there is the possibility of me creating my own debate team at the new high school. The benefits: I know what I'm getting into, I know more theory than most highschool coaches, and I could totally focus on the pedagogical values as well as the competitive values of the event. The Down falls: no weekends, STL does "Puff" debate (a style of debate that I'm not used to and supposedly has less educational value) and the chance that my competitiveness will leak out and manifest itself on the kids.
But anyway, it seems that the new crop of freshman are doing well. This makes me happy. May they grow. Debate may have changed me educationally, but it changed me more psychologically and socially. Because of debate, I can actually hold my liqueur to some extent. I know how to smoke a cigar. Because of mistakes made with teammates, I know I'm not as good a person as I thought I was and that I'm way to judgmental for my own good. (Valuable Self knowledge)
Cheers to the freshman, may they get out of it as much as I did!

very healthy...NOT

Frozen, batter-dipt fish fillets with crinkle fries on the side. Fish and Chips! My meal was the same color of tan, except for the sides of catsup and mustard. MY arteries are clogging, but it may as well be worth it. YUM!

Cat Lady...

I'm thinking of becoming a cat lady. Except I have a chinchilla, so I may be a dog lady. The only problem is that my apartments doesn't allow pets in the first place. I am so moving as soon as I can. There are a couple of options for me. I'm seriously thinking about buying a small house inside the town of Troy. There are several pre-manufactured homes in the not-so-rich part of town that are around $35, 000. which I could probably do. And buying a house would be the start of investing, which I should sorta start working on.
I know that I will probably be here another year, but I don't know if I will stay here. The option of going back to Kansas is looking better and better as I'm very slow about making connections with other people. I have only one person here that I would consider a friend at this point, and she's a kindly grandma from church, certainly not some one my own age. I like my job and the town, but I am a social person (abiet one who finds it difficult to actually be social!)
This translates into the weekends going buy very slowly and the weekdays going by very fast.
Also, they pay teachers peanuts. I really have no idea how I'm going to be able to pay student loans once they are out of deferment. I guess I'll need to take a part time job over the summer while I am working on my thesis. That will be able to take the edge off of the student loans and get me out of the apartment a little.

Grades are due!

I some of my classes, no one is failing. In one of my classes, half of the class is failing GaH! I don't understand how there can be such a disparte difference. And as always, the weekend was way too short.

St. Louis Pizza

There are many things I enjoy about T-roy. The pizza isn't one of them. Circa 1970-'s the people of St.Louis decided they had an identity crisis and decided to build the arch. The unfortunate consequence is that like every other major city, they felt that they had to have their own style of pizza. What they came up with was super thin crust pizza (cracker thin) cut into squares and putting weird things on it like bacon, and very little pizza sauce and a non-mozzarella cheese. That is about the opposite of how I like it. My favorite pizza is Pizza Hut pan pizza. Thick crust, ballooned edges and lots of pizza sauce. Also, every where I go, some of my students work there. It is slightly awkward to hold a conversation with one of your students when you are holding a margarita. Also, I have to worry about the "integrity" of my food.

I watched the homecoming game with some other newer teachers. It was fun! (Although I was sidelined for most of the game talking to a parent whose child has an IEP and is in my classroom).

Fantastic

As I was driving back to Troy from K-Ville, I thought I was hallucinating. I was running a fever, and coughed/hacked through my five hour class. Staying awake and driving safetly was really hard. Then I saw five para-sailors jump out of a small plane, and para-sailed while the sun was setting into a filed outside St.Louis. I parked to car and looked out. I wasn't hallucinating, it was real. What a beautiful way to spend a Sunday Evening-sailing and swirling around in the colors of the Sunset.

Papers

I usually just stay and work late at the school. The night janitors have talked about the suspicious looking object in the back of my room. They think it's a fold-up cot. Now that I have true entertainment in the form of Bridget, I went home and took my work with me. A whole milk crate full. I average 10 hour days, but I guess June, July and August make up for that. The only thing is, June, July and August are a long ways away.

Supervisers

Yikes!
Doc, my masters degree mentor watched me in action. My academic lab (like homeroom) was "terrible" but I made up for it during actual class time. So... I'm on my way. The next step is the assistant principal come to observe me on Oct. 11th. That is my worst class, so I'm going to have to be really tough on them to get them ready. I really like htis school district, despite the distance from home. I'm applying to work at the ninth grade center next year. All freshman, all the time. What can I say? I'm a masochist. It will prevent some of the older teachers from having to up root, and the ninth grade center will become a full fledged highschool in 3 years. That means I'll hopefully be on the top of the heirachy by then.

I have to drive to Kville this weekdn, and I'm missing homecoming! Grr... I like watching football games, for the marching band and the actual game.