Friday, September 21, 2007

Study Hell

Everyone who has ever been in a classroom has heard some form of the "I-just-gotta-get-outta-class-if-it-kills-me" question. Today it came from a student I have never seen before....keep in mind I have been there since the first day of school.
"Miss- I need to go see miss so-and-so." says random student
"Do you have a pass?"
"No, but yo if I dont get down there soon see im gonna be in trouble you kno dat and then yo I just gotta go cause i gotta."
"oh i see. silly me. well....here's the thing. we have a test today and since I dont know your name you obviously dont have any grades in the book so "yo" you need to take the test to make up fo' time you see cause you gotta pass this class, and I dont even know your name "yo" to write you outta pass to see miss so-and-so." I say all of this with a little funky groove beat behind my big bad rapper self....and random kid looks at me. Tells me I am "whack". Then sits down to silently begin his test....until miss so-and-so calls for him. turns out he wasnt lying.

Friday, September 14, 2007

School Days.

So school has started, and I hate getting up early. I really went into the wrong profession. During first period today I was falling asleep with my students. I'm student teaching in an 11th grade English classroom in Rochester. I can't tell you what school because I'm supposed to promote to the public, my friends and family, perfect strangers, and potential Roberts Wesleyan College students that I have a wonderful student teaching placement, that Rochester City Schools are run wonderfully, and that Roberts truly cares about each and every one of its student teachers. So I um...love it there. Yup sure do. And I love me students. This I am not being sarcastic about. I love them. They have such character and wit and are down right hilarious. I can't use their names either due to privacy laws and the fact that I can neither spell nor pronounce most of their names. One girl with a 25 syllable first name told me that its a combination of "my mamma's name, my daddy's daddy's name, my neighbor's name and my mamma's first dog."
"I'm sorry? Did you say your mamma's first dog?"
"Uh-huh. So what? You don't love your dogs?"
Her name was something similar to Sha'earl'Na-Spot. I'm not kidding.

Its going to be an interesting semester.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

red or white?

I'm starving. Completely famished....and grumpy. I haven't eaten since 6:20 this morning. I have been at school in a 90+ degree classroom all day with kids I don't really care for. I have a 35 minute drive home on construction ridden roads complete with detours. I have to be at work in three hours. and I CAN'T MAKE DINNER because the contractor is busy ripping out my kitchen floor piece by tiny piece. In fact there is a plastic wall between me and my kitchen. I can't even put the milk I bought on my way home in the fridge because there is no way to get there.

I could have a glass of wine since the wine rack is in the living room and I carry a bottle opener with me everywhere I go....only I have no glass....

hmmm.....

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

My perfect little world

In my head I had imagined putting an addition on my house would be a breeze. Some handyman would come, build it, leave, life would go back to normal.....in my imagination there was also a significant number of fluttering blue birds, whistling dwarfs and a princess crown on my head...you know how it goes.


Who would have guessed that as they tore the floor up from a 108 year old house that they would find the entire sub floor dry rotted to dust? Who would have known that more concrete would need to be poured and molded as the foundation crumbled between their hands? Who knew that an easy no-big-deal project would be RUINING my LIFE right now? Who knew?

Monday, September 03, 2007

Mine, Mine, Mine





Here is my house getting bigger.



Now that the door has been moved, I realize I will need to have the deck extended, or steps built or simply acquire longer legs to make the leap into the house. How come every time it seems like we are making progress and moving forward I find a million other things that need to get done?


Where the yellow stops used to be the ceiling.


I am excited that I will be able to stand up in the dining room now. And someday in the near future I hope to be able to have more than one person eat dinner with me, because there is room for me to put chairs all the way around my table and not only on one side. I can't wait until I can blow my nose and not have sawdust come out.......Life is good.