I was excited for today because it is, well, Friday and who doesn't love the promise of the weekend? Fridays are typically dress-down (a.k.a jeans) days at my school, and today I made the ultimate mistake. Knowing that it was picture day (when will I stop getting excited over that?) I wore a dress. I barely got into my classroom when my teammate (whom I love dearly, by the way) slid into my room and gasped. She gave me the third degree over wearing a dress instead of jeans. I tried explaining that it was picture day, but she wouldn't take that as an excuse. It was at this point that I took a deep breath and explained to her the pleasure I get from dressing up. I love to dress, and in recent years I have also taken great pleasure in accessorizing. It's almost like a game to me - how good can I make this outfit look?
I blame this seemingly sick fascination on my grandmothers, actually. From the time I was little I can remember both my Italian grandmother and my Irish grandmother dressing up before leaving the house. Even my Italian grandmother's housecoats were beautiful. They both wore jewelry - my Italian grandmother wore gold and my Irish grandmother wore mostly costume jewelry (I can still remember sitting on the carpet in front of the big boxy television watching Mr. Rogers and playing with the Cool-Whip container of clip-on earrings. My two favorites were lavender and orange.). I loved wearing dresses and perfectly matched outfits to elementary and middle school, but in high school I tried the grunge thing. Turns out it wasn't my thing. College was a different story because it was easiest to wake up and throw on some jeans or "lounge pants" and a sweatshirt and run to class. But once I started working in the real world I couldn't wait to get my cash on some clothes.
I'm a total bargain shopper (this I attribute to my mother, who would never buy us regular priced clothing. I HATED being dragged straight to the clearance racks to look for school clothes. But now...)... If it isn't the right price I won't buy it, even if I think I love it. Because the reality is that it's just clothing, and I can't love it enough to justify spending too much for it. I look for clearance and sale signs only. Again, it's like a game for me to find high quality clothing for screaming deals! I love the thrill of chasing down that perfect item of clothing.
Dressing up gets me up in the morning, plus I think it's important for teachers to dress nicely to impress and command the respect from students. My kindergarten teacher always had the best outfits - I even remember a specific pair of silver flats that I would find myself hoping she would wear every day, which of course she didn't because she had a different pair of shoes for each outfit. In fact, I saw her a couple years ago and she showed me the bag full of shoes she keeps in her car so she can change them throughout the day. She's in her 70s now. I love her. However, I haven't mastered the shoe obsession yet, only the clothing collection.
Anyhow, after this long and stressful week, I treated myself to a massage this evening. Massages are heavenly. I love the feeling of knots being released from my back muscles. Many times, if I'm lucky and focus only on my breathing, my muscles will relax and I will go into a state of awakened sleep, if that makes sense. Luckily that happened to me tonight and I am looking forward to a good night's sleep!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Fundamentally Wrong
So, I have to admit that I haven't been watching television lately because I've been too engrossed with reading, which I am finding to be much more entertaining. Why do I pay for cable? Anyway, this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise then when I mention that yesterday was the first I had heard of an extreme Christian fundamentalist pastor from Florida planning to burn Qurans on the anniversary of September 11th. I am sure that my jaw dropped open when I heard. Naturally, today I googled and youtubed and bbc'd everything I could find on this situation. I saw the request from President Obama on Good Morning America to cancel the plans, and I read the comments underneath the online articles detailing the situation. W.O.W. Some comments literally threw me decades back in time. I found myself thinking questions like: Can people really be that ignorant? I can't bring myself to repeat or copy those comments on this blog because they were so full of hatred and ignorance. We are a country that was founded on the principles of freedom and tolerance, so why is it that some people don't get that? I'm thinking we need to redesign our educational system to make sure those elements of our nation's history are embedded into people's brains.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
FML
For me, today started at 11:50ish last night. The first day of school is always exhausting, so I went to be on the earlier side. A few hours into that sleep a thunderstorm rolled through, waking me slightly. I surmise that I drifted back into a light sleep, but soon after a gigantic, house shaking BOOM woke me up. That's an understatement, actually. I nearly jumped out of my skin. It turns out the BOOM wasn't caused by thunder. Already sweating with a racing heart, I went to the bathroom and got a drink of water. I stumbled back into bed and started to fall asleep again. Until I heard sirens and voices outside my window. I jumped to the window to check things out and saw a firetruck parked outside our neighbor's house. Several neighbors were outside shining a flashlight into the tree-covered power lines. I saw smoke. After a few minutes the firemen got back in the truck and drove away. So I returned to bed, but not before noticing that our alarm clock was off. Great, no power! (It's a good thing I'm neurotic and always set my cell phone alarm, also.) I climbed back into bed and attempted to sleep. No dice. Two National Grid trucks roared down the street about a half hour later with their spotlights shining and CBs (I'm guessing?) blaring. Greeaaat! They left around 3:30. The alarm went off at 5:30. Two a little more hours of sleep for the second day of school. Yippity skippity!
Fortunately our power was back on when it came time to dress for work, otherwise there's no telling what I would have stumbled into school looking like. I left early so I could get a jump-start on my day. Apparently the universe had other plans. When I appoached my classroom door, I realized I left my ENTIRE school bag at home. With my room key. Fantastic! I ran all over the building trying to locate a custodian. Luckily our custodians are unbelievably kind and he let me within without a problem. I vaguely remember saying something about how I hoped forgetting my bag and key weren't an omen for how the rest of my day would unfold. Ha ha ha.
Yesterday a student brought me flowers so I had them standing in a glass vase of water on the counter by my sink, which happens to be right next to my classroom window. Things were getting a little stuffy during my third class of the day, so I opened the window to let in some fresh non-germy air. When the period was over the students opened the door and began exiting the classroom. I felt the immediate breeze from the window and turned toward the window. In what seemed very much like slow motion the vase fell over, throwing the flowers to the ground and leaking water all over. Then the vase started to roll...right off the counter onto the tile floor. SMASH! Water and glass in a million pieces. I picked up the phone and called the custodian. Again.
When the custodian finished cleaning up my mess (I offered to help, but he insisted I stay away), I walked across the hall to my teammate's room to tell her the story. As I walked out of her room, things fell off her shelves and a stack of clipboards fell to the ground. What the heck?
I immediately went to the phone and texted my husband. It went something like this: Forgot my bag, computer, and key, along with rings so hands feel naked. Vase of flowers crashed to floor with glass and water everywhere. FML.
I get a charge out of using FML. I have never thought it to be appropriate, but sometimes it just makes a story sound funnier.
I finished off the day with a trip to the movies with a girl friend. Eat Pray Love. I thought it was o.k. Liz's trips to Rome and Bali were more interesting to me than the trip to India, although I'd love the opportunity ( I think) to meditate at an Ashram. Here's the best part. The cell phone of the girl behind us rang three different times during the movie. And SHE ANSWERED IT all three times, each time having a rather long-winded conversation. Did she miss the public service announcement before the previews that orders people to silence their cell phones? That's why I love teaching. If I can get 75 kids a year to grow up being able to choose correctly between good and bad behavior, then I'll consider the year a success.
Fortunately our power was back on when it came time to dress for work, otherwise there's no telling what I would have stumbled into school looking like. I left early so I could get a jump-start on my day. Apparently the universe had other plans. When I appoached my classroom door, I realized I left my ENTIRE school bag at home. With my room key. Fantastic! I ran all over the building trying to locate a custodian. Luckily our custodians are unbelievably kind and he let me within without a problem. I vaguely remember saying something about how I hoped forgetting my bag and key weren't an omen for how the rest of my day would unfold. Ha ha ha.
Yesterday a student brought me flowers so I had them standing in a glass vase of water on the counter by my sink, which happens to be right next to my classroom window. Things were getting a little stuffy during my third class of the day, so I opened the window to let in some fresh non-germy air. When the period was over the students opened the door and began exiting the classroom. I felt the immediate breeze from the window and turned toward the window. In what seemed very much like slow motion the vase fell over, throwing the flowers to the ground and leaking water all over. Then the vase started to roll...right off the counter onto the tile floor. SMASH! Water and glass in a million pieces. I picked up the phone and called the custodian. Again.
When the custodian finished cleaning up my mess (I offered to help, but he insisted I stay away), I walked across the hall to my teammate's room to tell her the story. As I walked out of her room, things fell off her shelves and a stack of clipboards fell to the ground. What the heck?
I immediately went to the phone and texted my husband. It went something like this: Forgot my bag, computer, and key, along with rings so hands feel naked. Vase of flowers crashed to floor with glass and water everywhere. FML.
I get a charge out of using FML. I have never thought it to be appropriate, but sometimes it just makes a story sound funnier.
I finished off the day with a trip to the movies with a girl friend. Eat Pray Love. I thought it was o.k. Liz's trips to Rome and Bali were more interesting to me than the trip to India, although I'd love the opportunity ( I think) to meditate at an Ashram. Here's the best part. The cell phone of the girl behind us rang three different times during the movie. And SHE ANSWERED IT all three times, each time having a rather long-winded conversation. Did she miss the public service announcement before the previews that orders people to silence their cell phones? That's why I love teaching. If I can get 75 kids a year to grow up being able to choose correctly between good and bad behavior, then I'll consider the year a success.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Over and Done
Well, today was the first day back to school for teachers and students here in upstate New York. All in all, I would say it was one of the best first days I've experienced. Things were chaotic and seemingly disorganized, but ironically things flowed smoothly. I am optimistic about this year!
Normally, I am so exhausted at the end of the first day that all I can think about is going home and putting my feet up. Today I found myself tired at the end of the day, but not exhausted. My feet and legs hurt from standing for so many hours, but for once I found the necessary energy to hoof it (well, drive it) to the gym and work out. I did my cardio workout on the bicycle, though, for fear that my legs might actually turn to jelly and give out on me. After my workout I raced home for some leftover lasagna and then went for a fifteen minute walk. I followed this with some quality garden watering time and some games in the yard with Moe. NOW I'm exhausted! Good night's sleep, here I come!....so I can do this all over again tomorrow. Lather, rinse, repeat. Gosh it's hard to get back into a routine after being so free for the summer!
Normally, I am so exhausted at the end of the first day that all I can think about is going home and putting my feet up. Today I found myself tired at the end of the day, but not exhausted. My feet and legs hurt from standing for so many hours, but for once I found the necessary energy to hoof it (well, drive it) to the gym and work out. I did my cardio workout on the bicycle, though, for fear that my legs might actually turn to jelly and give out on me. After my workout I raced home for some leftover lasagna and then went for a fifteen minute walk. I followed this with some quality garden watering time and some games in the yard with Moe. NOW I'm exhausted! Good night's sleep, here I come!....so I can do this all over again tomorrow. Lather, rinse, repeat. Gosh it's hard to get back into a routine after being so free for the summer!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Goodbye, Summer!
Well, today marks the end of summer. For most people, summer ends on September 21st, but for teachers and students (at least in the northeast) it ends around Labor Day. I'm always sad to say farewell to summer, but this year it's a little different. I had the BEST summer I can remember. It kicked off with a trip to Denver, Colorado with my mom to visit my brother. A couple weeks later my husband and I spent a week in the Adirondacks with his family. And we just returned from two weeks in Maui, Hawaii! Basically, I was on vacation for half of my summer break. Who can ask for a better summer than that? Certainly not me!
Here's to a wonderful school year!
Here's to a wonderful school year!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Hawaii 1-0 continued
Okay, so those "teaser" pics from the previous post, in order, are of Honolua Bay (great for snorkeling, although I did not do it for fear of fish swimming in my face and touching my skin), Olivine Pools (I also did not swim here because, hello, the bottom is invisible and the fish were BIG - plus there were jumping fish that would jump from one little pool to another. No thank you!), and the Nakalele Blowhole (where some complete morons were not only standing OVER the blowhole, but were allowing their kids to play around it as well, even though there were clearly marked signs detailing warnings to NOT go near the blowhole for risk of injury or even death. There must be something wrong with me because I was definitely disappointed when I didn't get to witness a drowning.)
So, in addition to visiting those three places on a tour of West Maui, which consisted of driving extremely slowly around hairpin turns on the edges of cliffs with no guardrails (not kidding), we did some other stuff, too. One day we took a helicopter tour of West Maui and a neighboring island, Molokai. Our pilot's name was Glenda (seriously!) and she even kind of looked like the Good Witch. More ironically, one of the characters in the book I began reading that very evening was named Glenda. Don't tell me the universe didn't set that up.
On the same day of the helicopter tour, which was amazing and allowed us to see the 3,ooo foot cliffs of Molokai caused by landslides many years ago and the 180 foot waterfalls, we drove the Road to Hana. Again. And probably never again. Remember the hairpin turns from West Maui? Well, these are worse, and there are more of them. It's an all-day event, in fact. Fortunately there are gorgeous waterfalls, pools, overlooks, and dense rain forest sights to see on this drive, which makes it all worthwhile. We also went to Black Beach and ventured through the naturally formed lava tube. Some guy with a snorkel mask and bathing suit (no flippers or flotation device) swam out pretty far past the dangerous shore break to explore the black lava rocks jutting out of the water off shore. He swam like a fish, very fluid and never struggling, even through the strong currents. Needless to say, we were impressed!
My favorite day, however, was probably the day we rented boogie boards and took them down to Wailea Beach (South Maui) to test them out. Note to everyone: bikinis are no good for boogie boarding. Not only did my sorry New York butt get tossed, tumbled, and dragged through the Hawaiian sand, but my stomach had sand burn for almost the entire two weeks we were there! I'm actually convinced that there are real sand particles embedded in my skin. No joke. As an after thought, I'm not really sure one-piece bathing suits are suitable attire, either. My mother-in-law had some difficulty with sand getting into her bathing suit, particularly between the liner and actual suit. We called her Linden for the rest of the day ;)
Since we stayed in a condo we had a full kitchen and made most of our meals. However, we did venture down to Lahaina for some grub on a few occasions, and we found ourselves quite smitten with Cheeseburger in Paradise. I fell in love with the guacamole burger and accompanied it with a mojito. Yum, yum, and numb ;) It was here that we got to gaze at the ocean and watch the sun set, paying particular attention to the reefed sailboat in the distance. Apparently the story is that a man sank all of his money into a sailboat and then didn't moor it properly. The ocean waves pushed it toward shore, banking it on a reef. The Hawaiians are very protective of their reefs (some places don't even allow you to use sunblock before going in the water), so they refused to rescue the sailboat from the reef, insisting it would do more harm to the reef than good. Better luck next time, buddy?
Jay and his dad went surfing; I did not. Instead, I took some pretty captivating photos and lived vicariously through him. I love being at the ocean, love the sound of the waves, and even enjoy swimming and boogie boarding when I can touch and feel in control of my body. But the surfing area was filled with rocks and supposed sea urchins and I wasn't having any of that!
We had a fantastic vacation and are very grateful to have had the opportunity to visit Maui again. I hope we are able to go back one day!
Some things I learned in Maui that might help you if you ever get the itch to go there:
1. Wear 60+ sunscreen at all times. You will still get a tan. (I disregarded this little bit of information on the last day visited Maui four years ago and I ended up sitting up straight as a board for the entire 8 hour flight home because of a really bad burn. Not fun.)
2. Don't even attempt to go in the ocean at Big Beach if the waves are mild to moderately rough - it will toss you out and laugh in your face as it drags you through the sand trying to kill you. If you make it out without drowning you're a lucky S.O.B.
3. Wear a shirt over your bikini when boogie boarding and tie the bottoms SUPER tight! If they make suspenders for bikinis, even better!
4. If your child needs a flotation device (life jacket, swimmies/armies/water wings, tube, etc.) in the hot tub, THEY DON'T BELONG IN THERE!!!! Especially if they still wear a diaper. Ew.
Aloha and Mahalo!
So, in addition to visiting those three places on a tour of West Maui, which consisted of driving extremely slowly around hairpin turns on the edges of cliffs with no guardrails (not kidding), we did some other stuff, too. One day we took a helicopter tour of West Maui and a neighboring island, Molokai. Our pilot's name was Glenda (seriously!) and she even kind of looked like the Good Witch. More ironically, one of the characters in the book I began reading that very evening was named Glenda. Don't tell me the universe didn't set that up.
On the same day of the helicopter tour, which was amazing and allowed us to see the 3,ooo foot cliffs of Molokai caused by landslides many years ago and the 180 foot waterfalls, we drove the Road to Hana. Again. And probably never again. Remember the hairpin turns from West Maui? Well, these are worse, and there are more of them. It's an all-day event, in fact. Fortunately there are gorgeous waterfalls, pools, overlooks, and dense rain forest sights to see on this drive, which makes it all worthwhile. We also went to Black Beach and ventured through the naturally formed lava tube. Some guy with a snorkel mask and bathing suit (no flippers or flotation device) swam out pretty far past the dangerous shore break to explore the black lava rocks jutting out of the water off shore. He swam like a fish, very fluid and never struggling, even through the strong currents. Needless to say, we were impressed!
My favorite day, however, was probably the day we rented boogie boards and took them down to Wailea Beach (South Maui) to test them out. Note to everyone: bikinis are no good for boogie boarding. Not only did my sorry New York butt get tossed, tumbled, and dragged through the Hawaiian sand, but my stomach had sand burn for almost the entire two weeks we were there! I'm actually convinced that there are real sand particles embedded in my skin. No joke. As an after thought, I'm not really sure one-piece bathing suits are suitable attire, either. My mother-in-law had some difficulty with sand getting into her bathing suit, particularly between the liner and actual suit. We called her Linden for the rest of the day ;)
Since we stayed in a condo we had a full kitchen and made most of our meals. However, we did venture down to Lahaina for some grub on a few occasions, and we found ourselves quite smitten with Cheeseburger in Paradise. I fell in love with the guacamole burger and accompanied it with a mojito. Yum, yum, and numb ;) It was here that we got to gaze at the ocean and watch the sun set, paying particular attention to the reefed sailboat in the distance. Apparently the story is that a man sank all of his money into a sailboat and then didn't moor it properly. The ocean waves pushed it toward shore, banking it on a reef. The Hawaiians are very protective of their reefs (some places don't even allow you to use sunblock before going in the water), so they refused to rescue the sailboat from the reef, insisting it would do more harm to the reef than good. Better luck next time, buddy?
Jay and his dad went surfing; I did not. Instead, I took some pretty captivating photos and lived vicariously through him. I love being at the ocean, love the sound of the waves, and even enjoy swimming and boogie boarding when I can touch and feel in control of my body. But the surfing area was filled with rocks and supposed sea urchins and I wasn't having any of that!
We had a fantastic vacation and are very grateful to have had the opportunity to visit Maui again. I hope we are able to go back one day!
Some things I learned in Maui that might help you if you ever get the itch to go there:
1. Wear 60+ sunscreen at all times. You will still get a tan. (I disregarded this little bit of information on the last day visited Maui four years ago and I ended up sitting up straight as a board for the entire 8 hour flight home because of a really bad burn. Not fun.)
2. Don't even attempt to go in the ocean at Big Beach if the waves are mild to moderately rough - it will toss you out and laugh in your face as it drags you through the sand trying to kill you. If you make it out without drowning you're a lucky S.O.B.
3. Wear a shirt over your bikini when boogie boarding and tie the bottoms SUPER tight! If they make suspenders for bikinis, even better!
4. If your child needs a flotation device (life jacket, swimmies/armies/water wings, tube, etc.) in the hot tub, THEY DON'T BELONG IN THERE!!!! Especially if they still wear a diaper. Ew.
Aloha and Mahalo!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
The Great New York State Fair!
I just came back from the NYS Fair, which if you've never been, is an experience in itself. There are people form all walks of life there, AND there is a MULLET count board. When I walked past today at about 5 o'clock it read 204 mullets had been sighted. Wowie! I believe it, especially after attending the Lady Antebellum concert there this evening. Today wasn't the most ideal day to visit the fair: the temperature was in the 90s and the sun was blazing hot, Justin Bieber was playing at the Grand Stand, and Lady Antebellum was playing for free at Chevy Court. A triple threat at its finest! There were teeny bopper girls dressed in homemade Justin Bieber "I LOVE YOU" shirts, and one girl even had one that said "The future Mrs. Bieber". Yah, O.K.
We got to the fair at about 4 o'clock, even though the Lady A concert wasn't set to begin until 8, but Chevy Court was already packed to capacity. We walked around, ate some Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, bought a Smart Cart for my Regional Market trips, and jockeyed for a spot. The closest we could get was the very back and we stood the entire time. Of course, everyone around us was a smoker and naturally blew the smoke in our direction. Fun times! The concert was good, although I only recognized a few of their songs. It seemed like they sang a a few songs by other artists, especially Tom Petty ("Free Falling"). That was interesting and unexpected. I still had fun! Our feet started to really hurt and my second hand smoke tolerance level was dropping rapidly, so we headed for the exit in an attempt to beat the crowds to the shuttle buses. Now it's time for bed!
I'll pick up with more Hawaii stuff tomorrow!
We got to the fair at about 4 o'clock, even though the Lady A concert wasn't set to begin until 8, but Chevy Court was already packed to capacity. We walked around, ate some Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, bought a Smart Cart for my Regional Market trips, and jockeyed for a spot. The closest we could get was the very back and we stood the entire time. Of course, everyone around us was a smoker and naturally blew the smoke in our direction. Fun times! The concert was good, although I only recognized a few of their songs. It seemed like they sang a a few songs by other artists, especially Tom Petty ("Free Falling"). That was interesting and unexpected. I still had fun! Our feet started to really hurt and my second hand smoke tolerance level was dropping rapidly, so we headed for the exit in an attempt to beat the crowds to the shuttle buses. Now it's time for bed!
I'll pick up with more Hawaii stuff tomorrow!
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