Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Why?

Going back to work this week has been tough. I'm trying my best to not get Dooced here, but I'm not going to lie, this week has been AWFUL.

Monday morning, I'm in a classroom, on the phone, when I hear sobbing outside the door. I think nothing of it, because I teach middle school and parents are always hauling their kids in the next school day after report cards come out to clean out their lockers. These kids are always getting hollered at and it usually leads to crying. A dear friend of mine, comes in and asks if I knew that one of our students had passed away this weekend. I knew nothing of it. Apparently, the deceased student's parents came in first thing Monday morning to clean out her locker and dear friend was in the hallway when they came down with the counselor. We knew the student hadn't been sick with anything, and quickly racked our brains about any car accidents that had happened this past week(end).

Long story short, there was a car accident. The student of mine was in the backseat without a seatbelt on (everyone else, including the little ones were buckled up in car seats so the student was probably being an 11 year old rebellious child). The driver hit a patch of black ice, spun, then flipped into a ditch. Everyone else but the student walked away without a scratch on them.

Like I said, this week has been awful. It's been tough walking past her locker, helping students grieve, and establishing a collection the kids can make as a memorial. It just makes me think, why this student? This student was an average, good, sweet natured kid. Suddenly, I feel guilty as hell for giving the student a 10 minute lunch detention last fall for the student constantly wanting to talk to a friend during instruction. I know I'm hugging my loved ones closer and not sweating any small stuff, but it's still rough, ya know? It was a KID. I can't imagine what the student's mother is going through right now. What if the mother and the kid had gotten into a minor parent/child spat just before getting into the car and that's why the kid was not wearing a seatbelt? What if the kid had taken off the seatbelt to get something one of the younger siblings had dropped and then failed to put it back on? What if I had mentioned in class how important it is to wear seatbelts at all times? I have a million what ifs running through my head and all I can do is cry.

I went over to the family's house with a colleague after school to deliver food and drop off sympathy cards the kids had made. The student's bedroom was off the kitchen and the door was open. I couldn't help glancing in, and I noticed there was an unmade bed with a stack of clean laundry on it. I lost it looking at that. This poor kid left, with their family, being a typical middle school kid, leaving a stack of clean clothes on top of an unmade bed thinking the student could put them away after they got home.

I keep coming back to one question. Why?

Friday, March 27, 2009

Random Thoughts From My Week Alone

Holy crap, where did my week go? I got almost everything accomplished on my checklist except get my hair cut. That got postponed until next Monday because the hairdresser's mother in law had a stroke out of state. Instead, I replaced it with a 3 hour trip to the DMV to get my address changed on my license. Boy, if you want to feel good about yourself, go spend some time at your local DMV. Between all the douchebaggy high school kids, the senior citizens with canes and hearing aides, and white trash people, you should leave there feeling lucky. Feeling lucky, you say? Why? 1) You aren't in high school, you aren't dressed like an idiot, and you don't act like you are from The Hills, 2) You feel lucky that you are young enough still that you do not have to have the need of a cane or hearing aide, and 3) You just generally aren't white trash.

My sister was home this week on spring break and it was quite nice to be able to spend some time with her. She and I have a relationship where we are close, yet we end up fighting most of the time. I'm proud to report there was zero fighting this week. We went to IKEA together with my Mom, she helped me hang pictures, and she went curtain shopping with me this week.

I finally got curtains up! My apartment has tons of windows for it's shoebox size (I had to buy 10 panels for a studio apartment). I haven't slept in almost a month. I live on a semi-busy street now and there are quite a few cars that drive by all night long. Additionally, there is a mini-strip mall across the street and semi-trucks full of supplies show up early Monday through Saturday. On top of the noise, there are about 3 street lights that manage to shine right into my apartment and create a spotlight on my bed. Dear boyfriend ends up sleeping with a pillow over his face. I ended up buying those thermal lined, black out, noise reducing curtains. They work! It can be a sunny day out and if all the curtains are drawn, I have to turn on a light to read a book. I'm hoping since the windows are ancient that the thermal, energy efficient part of them will kick in and lower my heating/cooling bills. I'm hoping to take some pictures of it as soon as I find my camera.

The boyfriend comes back from his spring break trip to Colorado tomorrow. He has been sending random pictures of the scenery there all week, trying to convince me to eventually move there with him. I keep telling him no because they just had a blizzard there this week. I also keep reminding him I don't do cold weather very well and I don't like to do things outside in the cold. I am also blaming him for bringing back the snow with him. It hasn't snowed here in over a month, yet the day he comes back from skiing, we're supposed to get 8 freakin inches of snow. Mother Nature, need I remind you that Wednesday is APRIL FIRST?!?

Side note, Memphis screwed me in the tournament last night. I was in 3rd place in my pool (out of 58 people I might add) and was in great shape to win the whole damn thing. I really could have used the $450. Stupid Memphis.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Spring Break

I'm on spring break this week and looking forward to it. I plan on doing NOTHING related to work over this break.

My goals to accomplish this week:
  • hang curtains in the apartment
  • keep up my new workout motivation
  • go to IKEA
  • finish unpacking
  • watch chick flicks since the boyfriend is out of town
  • return things I've purchased that won't work in the new apartment
  • get my hair cut
  • go to my girl doctor's appt. (ugh).
  • sit on my butt

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Girls Rule

I'm not your typical girl. I love watching basketball, especially college basketball. I played varsity basketball in high school and it was in high school that I got suckered into filling out my first bracket for a dollar. I came in 2nd place out of a group of 43 boys. I was the only girl. After that year, I ran my own pool for a couple of tournaments. A few years later when I was a brokeass college student, my Dad fronted the money for a pool at his place of employment and I picked the teams. He promised to split the moolah with me 50-50. We each won $300.

Dearest boyfriend and I have always had a good-natured competitive spirit. For example, he loves watching college football (he's a football coach---for awhile, a defensive coordinator at a local college). During the Saturday night game-of-the week-special-games, we would bet on who was going to be the winner of the game. No money involved. Generally, it involved favors, like doing the dishes or even occasionally bragging rights. If a random game is on, we might place a friendly wager like that.

Fast forward to today. My dearest boyfriend's brother-in-law runs a huge pool. For shits and giggles, I filled out a bracket and persuaded dearest boyfriend to pay my $10 entry fee. Guess who is tied for 2nd place out of like 70 people? Guess who is not only losing to his girlfriend, but also his mother? Sucker!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Temperature Tricks

I'm one of those people that is generally always cold. I'm usually the one in a hoodie running my errands on a 70 degree day. Anything below 80 degrees is "chilly" to me. Needless to say, living in the Midwest, I always spend my winters bundled up like the Nanook of the North.

This weekend, it was one of the first days of early spring in which the temperature got above 50 degrees. Guess who was running her errands around town and went for a long walk with the boyfriend in a t-shirt and just a light fleece? It felt like summer. Fan-freakin-tastic.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

New Digs

So. I disappeared. Long story. But I'm back now. Between the finishing up classes and my action research paper for my master's degree and the not living anywhere with internet, I didn't get a chance to blog.

Anyways, I just recently moved into a studio apartment. It's at a price I can afford, save money, and still be able to go out and have a good time. I'm kind of scared about living on my own, but then again, this has always been a goal of mine: to be able to stand on my own two feet and support myself. It's all mine and I couldn't be more excited.

I spent my first weekend here cleaning everything. It's a studio apartment attached to a 3 bedroom ancient house. Even though the landlord had the carpets cleaned and repainted the place for me, I still needed to clean. It's just something about me. I'm not one of those people who cleans obsessively, yet I'm not a total slob. I just like living in my own dirt. It took the entire weekend to clean here. (Did I mention the previous tenent was a stripper? Totally found one of her blue fake fingernails behind the pedestal sink when I mopped. GROSS.)

I've sunk some into my savings and my tax return to set up my new place. I had a bed, dressers, and dishes from the college days. However, in the past two weeks, I've been a one woman economic stimulus plan. Seriously. In the past two weeks, I've had to buy a TV, couch, chair, table, and a TV stand. Oh, not to mention curtains and bathroom things like towels. Outside of the couch, chair, and table, I bought everything at my local friendly big boxish discount stores. Even the table I bought on clearance.

Everytime I walked into a store, I was constantly harrassed by at least one, if not two or three salespeople. I needed to buy a couch and when I walked into one furniture store, a saleswoman practically begged me to purchase a couch through her and not any of the other sales associates because they worked 100% off of commission. Her husband has been laid off for months and they have 6 children. It just so happened that the couch I liked the best in my budget was from her store. So, the sucker that I am, I bought the couch from her. However, karma bites in the ass. I bought it a week ago, paid to have it delivered, and I'm still sitting on borrowed lawn chairs. I look like white trash. I have this nice new TV and I'm sitting on freaking lawn chairs in a tiny apartment to watch it. Yeah, I'm looking like total white trash. Klassy with a K as I say.