Time Change

Ok, wtf?

I thought cell phones were supposed to automatically keep pace with a time change. My new cell phone, no problem. It accurately reports the "correct" time, after we "fell back" this weekend.

However, such is not the case with my old cell phone. I keep my old one around to use as an alarm clock. I never could get used to the jingle jangle of new-fangled cellphone alarms, and prefer the old beeper. I *thought* that my old phone also kept pace with the new time. I was wrong.

I set the alarm for 5am last night as I usually do. I get up when it goes off, head to the shower, sit under the cascade of water and wash my hair till I wake up. Head downstairs, check email, and then... I wandered into the living room. This is where I notice Time for the first time. I turned back my clock in there. It reads that it's 4:45am. Wtf? You mean to tell me I got up at 4am, instead of 5?? That I could have had another hour lounging in bed?

sigh.

At least I have extra time to read this morning.

Yay! A date :D

I had a date last night, it was wonderful :) I'll call him Mr. Music. I'd met him at my church a month ago, and we'd been exchanging emails. I finally got up the nerve to offer to be a tour guide.

All told, the date was about 12 hours long hehe. I picked him up, as he is 2 months new to Atlanta. We headed to Lil 5 points, but man there were SO many people... nowhere to park. Then we realized it was also game day, and part of the crowds were game "tourists" wanting to see the granola capital of Atlanta.

So we skipped that, and instead I took him to a bluesy BBQ place. He plays guitar, so I figured he'd appreciate it. And he did. We had the obligatory boring "this is my life" conversations, and moved over to my school for more of it afterwards. We walked and talked there, then had a lil time to kill before the Cemetery so we got a beer.

The Cemetery was really really cool. Oakland Cemetery is a victorian style cemetery from teh 19th century. They offer Halloween tours, and this was originally the "date" part of the evening. The paths were lit with luminaries, and torches, and our guide led us to different mausoleums. These were open, and had a "spirit" who told us about his life and relevance to the history of Atlanta. The tour took about an hour, and they offered $1 coffee and cookies etc afterwards. There was also a goth gal playing violin hehe.

After the cemetery we went to the church halloween party. I changed into my costume there. I was gum on the bottom of a shoe :P Other costumes were: pregnant nun (guy had a beard), 2 guys with beards dressed up as girl scouts, a girl dressed as Eddie Munster, a pirate, a wench, Dracula's bride, Shaggy (with stuffed animal Scooby), cheerleader, the red head from desperate housewives, harem girl, cowgirl, monk, Jet Li, King George Bush, and pippi longstocking.

Mr. Music played his guitar after an hour of socializing. I sat at his feet in awe, and eventually he became the focus of the party. He has a lot of fire and passion in his playing, and he knows a TON of songs! From Who to Rolling Stones to Beatles to Radiohead, to Nirvana. We finally left there about 1am, and went back to his place to talk and cuddle. I got home about 4am (3am new time).

And I woke up around 8, then 10, but stayed in bed till 12 hehe.

All in all, an excellent date! Much more so than I expected, as I'm very comfortable around him, and he makes me laugh.

Can I Get A Do-Over?

Well, today has been a day of mistakes, and I feel rather crappy. I guess it goes along with the weather, but it's worse because somethings I did and didn't do caused 2 others injury.

The first, and most recent, has to do with a cople of people in the K hall. They are GA bull dog fans, and one of them was here very late last night making a banner for the hallway, saying go dawgs, down with the gators, etc etc. There are 2 teachers that have quite a clemson tigers/ george tech rivalry, and when they make hall banners and such, each goes to destory / vandalize the others banners. So.... when I saw this today in the hall, not realizing how much work had been put into it, and not realizing the care people had... I made a great big ol' gator over it. I covered the G in "go dawgs" and made an N. My next door coworker got so furious she ripped up the whole banner. She asked me about it, and I apologized. I hadn't meant it in a rude or disrespectful manner. She said if it had been this other guy that did it, one who's really a FL fan, and made his own banner for her to destroy, if they had agreed to it, she wouldn't have been pissed. So... I'm learning the hard way that I don't have the kind of comraderie that they have. I don't really care for teams either way, I'm not a huge football fan, I don't talk football... and maybe that was why it came across even worse than it was ever intended. All I can do is apologize and move on, and give her the space she needs.

The other was an accident, pure and simple. Because of it, I will never do a cooking center by myself again. My assistant was out proctoring, I had a cooking center going with the toaster oven and pumpkin seeds. My third group, a boy brushed his arm up against the oven, even though I'd told them it was hot and could have hurt them. He said he hadn't been looking. The odd thing is, he didn't cry out, didn't yell, he just said "I'm burned" I took one look at his arm, and there was a small patch of skin pulled off, like peel on an apple. The flesh was pink underneath. Immediately I got him over to the sink to put cold water on it. Just then, another boy's tower of blocks falls on his own hand, and he starts crying. So I'm in the room by myself with 25 students, one is burned, and one is crying and his hand is hurt. I was seriously hoping it wasn't broken. And it wasn't. I got a teacher in the other room to come to mine, and took the kids to the nurse. Both got ice, and I did my best to contact the parents of the boy who was burned. I did talk to the mom finally that afternoon, and I felt like there was nothign good I could say. She wasn't mad at me, I think she knew I had had the best of intentions.

All the same, it's a day I wish I could get a do-over for.

Wednesday morning

You know one of the things I miss about not having a man in my life? :P I *always* have to take out the garbage lol. Maybe that's a stereotypical statement, but there it is.

I've had my shower. I'll let you in on a lil secret.... I'm.... a shower sitter!!! Yes, I turn on the shower, get it going full blast, and then I sit down in the tub and let the water cascade over me. Especially nice for a morning like this, where I went to bed with a stiff neck.

Why is it that my outlook on the whole day can start just by knowing what I'm going to wear or not? Days I know what to wear to work are days I feel more put together. If I'm scrambling to find something clean, something comfy, the day seems more jumbled and less organized?

I had a parent conference yesterday afterschool. It made me think. I'm introspective by nature when it comes to my teaching, and this parent made me think about a couple of things. One, is that she asked about her son. Her son is a bright, smart, creative guy. Sensitive, he's quiet and bothers hardly anyone. With 25 kids, am I'm doing the best of my ability to make sure *all* students are reaching the best of their potential?

Am I just waiting until 6 or 7 kids are moved from my room to the new teacher's room? Is that a justifiable reason? And then there's the uneasiness I feel about making kindergarten less kid friendly... and by that I mean, kindergarten isn't the way it was when I started teaching in 1998. It's not like it was when you or I were in kindergarten. Children are now expected to come out of kindergarten reading and writing. There's less and less time for arts and crafts, hands on cooking, a love of science and exploration at the child's own pace. I guess with all the new standards coming about in our schools, I feel like I'm just barely treading water to keep up with it all when what I want is to be SUPER TEACHER and have all these great little centers that kids can go and imagine, explore, and make discoveries in.

Sigh.

Boob a Thon

http://www.boobiethon.com/

The 5th annual Blogger Boobie-a-thon for Breast Cancer.

The main page is work safe. I donated a photo of mine :P