Monthly Archives: August 2012

Attitude change in 3, 2, 1…

Why? Because I almost made a list of everything that’s making me mad lately, up until and including last night. But instead, I have made a list of everything I need to do today. Yay, how about that? Proud of me?

I like having school start on a Tuesday every year. We had contract day on Friday, then the long weekend. Excellent. We got to see our baby grandson Mr. A. yesterday, and the Js spent the day with us earlier in the week. I’m good for another few days. :-)

For the past week, I’ve slowly begun to get myself back into the school sleeping/waking mode (in bed by 10:30, read till 11, up at 5). Didn’t quite make it today. I wanted to be out of the house by 7…ain’t gonna happen. I haven’t even had coffee yet, child. Lawd.

Anyway, here’s to a fabulous week for us all. I hope my fellow pedagogues reading this are excited to begin, and that you’re not thinking about, you know, the 7 years, 9 months, 11 days, 3 hours, 34 minutes and 6 seconds until retirement.

:-D

Have a goody!

More stuff I want

Of course, to get my mind off the upcoming week, I needed some brainless wandering this morning. Oh boy, do I want stuff.

I know I should want this for my grandsons (I’m sure they would each love one), but with my extremities coming up on their winter of discontent (translation: frostbite in the house because the Thriller insists on turning down the thermostat to the “frigid” setting), I can see myself lounging comfortably on the couch at night with it.

A cell phone pen. ‘Nuff said. Or maybe this cool Green Phone that recycles when you’re done with it. Awesome.

Of course, these two items are just in the concept stage. Who predicts that telecommunication will one day be inside our bodies, and we just speak a command to page someone? I predict this.

I want everything from this site. Yes, I admit it. While I’ve been forced to wait an extra month for my next cake decorating class to begin, I have found a new obsession.

Hahaha. I don’t want a pug, but this made me laff.

SHYEAH!

A meatball grilling basket? Why don’t I come up with these ideas first?

I know Williams Sonoma makes a hamburger grilling basket for people like me who are clumsy and tear apart the meat trying to flip over the burger. But spaghetti with meatballs that were cooked over a charcoal grill? That is a taste I want to test drive.

So if you’re going out today, fiends…

:P

Going out in style

On my last official 24 hours of vacation, the Js are going to come spend the day. Fun! I’m not sure what all we’ll do, but we will definitely find some kind of mischief to get into.

Tonight, the Thriller and I will dine on the beef stew that cooked all day, and have a relaxing evening at home. Once tomorrow hits, the insanity begins. Yippy. Into the Great Wide Open.

Of course, that journey begins with the video on bloodborne pathogens, union meeting, two staff meetings (those of us who teach both middle school and high school are lucky like that), finishing up the last of my classroom preparations (I admit I have yet to file last spring’s music), and doing some more lesson planning, copying, cleaning, and phone-calling. Then I’ll be ready for Tuesday.

Why do I have Monday off? I dunno. We’re just awesome like that, I guess. Or they did it so chumps like me could spend the whole time at school anyway.

OK — boys arrive in 25. Gotta get the coffee refilled and on with the day. Hang in there, fiends — it’s almost the end of the week!

Schedule? What schedule?

How cool is this? I got my final schedule of classes, a full six days before school starts. Not bad:

1st per. –  7th/8th choir
2nd per. – 6th choir
3rd per. – Black & Gold
4th per. – Music theory
5th per. – Lunch
6th per. – HS choir
7th per. – Tech
8th per. – 5th grade
9th per. – Prep

I think putting morning announcements on the district site at 1:30 p.m. is not ideal, but it’ll all work out. That’s what lunch at your desk is for, right? And something totally new this year (this will interest you, Bando): I no longer share a period with any band at any level. How awesome is that? Good for Abe and the bandies, too. Had to give up 5th choir for it, but that’s OK. I’ll endeavor to make singers out of ’em anyhow, like I did in the early days.

Only bad part of this schedule? No more lunches with my awesome fiends Wendell, Stoney and Abe. :-(

Today I am off to the school house to meet with the guy who installed the fantastic new mixer board and speakers in my classroom. We scheduled the training session for closer to school time so this old dino-bot could retain a bit more information. After that, I print out, fold and stuff 150 letters that will be mailed home to parents, and try to stop by to meet my new super and new middle school principal. Definitely not a stressful day: a good way to begin.

Hey. I thought today was Thursday.

?????

Finkosaurus

Monday lunacy

All right, stop it. I’m doing it again. Looking at a list of 25 “things” I need to get done not as a separate delineation of tasks, but as a huge cloud of ain’t-gonna-happen. Why do we big-picture thinkers get into trouble like this?

I think it’s just laziness. I don’t want to actually get up, make the decision to dive in, and dive in. I like the planning/thinking stage, and the getting up isn’t a problem. It’s the starting; the initial stages of “I have such a long way to go” that I hate.

Or, I could just shut up, quit complaining, finish this post, and dig in.

Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. After coffee, breakfast, a walk on the treadmill, and catching up on last night’s episode of The Newsroom.

:P

Last four days of freedom, here I go.