spritechan | Entries tagged with parkway

Former student and me cheesing after haircut

( Read more... )

My former school district and many of my friends have been striking since Tuesday:

My friend Nicki's sign

Marching downtown

Protesting in front of Parkway, the school I used to teach at

Shared by a U of M account that works with Middle schools, of a march our kids did in 2017.

Today was my last LAST day at my jobs. First I went to Nokomis and moved all my stuff out. I was smart about this time and packed everything up nicely and was able to get basically everything easily into my trunk. I was surprised at how little I was taking, and proud of myself for not haphazardly throwing things in and taking things I’ll definitely never use. Then it was over to Parkway, where mostly I just chatted with people, looked for my iPad, and gathered what little I had in Tue’s and Tealie’s rooms.

It was very weird and a little sad to walk away from Parkway for the last time as a teacher. It was actually pretty surreal, I mean it’s the place I’ve had the longest time with in my whole life, job wise, and the only solid place I’ve worked as a teacher. It’s so weird to think I’m going to be somewhere completely different, with a whole different set of colleagues, in just a few short months.

Then I went to hot yoga and Hannah was subbing. It was great, but I am so sore from doing yoga yesterday! It’s crazy how much I’ve regressed, but it always feels good to do yoga. Steve and I ate Catrina’s right before I went to yoga, and we went a littler later than expected because nick was late, so my tummy was soooo full of tacos and made it hard to do compression poses because I was at risk of vomiting all of it back up. But otherwise it was really good.

The rest of the night was chill! I honestly don’t remember much of anything else! END OF AN ERA!!

Last day of school. I was very late as usual. Brian asked me to either cover for him for something, or test Vincente. I opted for testing Vincente, which worked out best for everyone because Vincente loves me so much and would do anything for me. Testing reveals he does not have a learning disability. He is very smart, too. He was very good for testing, trying his best.

We went to the auditorium and had awards, which were adorable and fun. Then we had field day, which was also very fun. The kids did so many cute activities, and Malik only got mad when the girls won tug of war and he thought I helped them (for the record, I didn’t, I just told them I was going to). He got over that much faster than expected and we had such a fun time. We did kickball, three legged race, water balloon games, and of course the tug of war. As always, pics are clickable for higher quality.

I spent the rest of the day fielding Malik and Vincente and saying goodbye. Malik took my leaving well and said I could find him at the community center this summer, and Vincente kept saying I wasn’t leaving. I found my desk graffiti’d later in the day, which I 99% suspect was Vincente, that said “Leah is the best teacher”. He gave me like 5 hugs, and Malik let me squeeze his shoulder affectionately when I said goodbye. It was very bittersweet.

After all that emotion I had to race home and pack for Madison! That’s right, my day wasn’t close to over.

I downloaded Name of the Wind, our next audiobook adventure. Steve smartly suggested it after we finished game of thrones. If you haven’t read it, you HAVE to read Name of the Wind. It’s slightly slow as the setup happens, but that’s only for the first 3 chapters. Then it takes off, and it takes off fast. I’d say in every session I have teared up from how intense and powerful the book is. It’s amazing, one of the best of all time, Patrick Rothfuss is a ridiculously talented author. I should also clarify that I’ve read his books several times.

We arrived at Ben and Sean’s in time for a late dinner at Cafe Hollander, which Steve and I picked after they told us we are “honorary Madisonites” and are also now residents of their house because we stayed there when they were gone and fed the cats and watered the plants. So honored. It was chillier than we anticipated but we sat outside anyway. I ordered a veggie burger with what they called a garlic aioli but was actually a bad mayonnaise and did not hold a candle to French Meadow’s real aioli.

After dinner we walked around a little playing Pokémon go, and then it was time to head back to the house and go to sleep.

Tealie pointed out that today is our last ACTUAL teaching day together. When we found out two years ago that I would be with Jenny last year, we both got a bit emotional about the fact that we were breaking up as co-teachers, and now we're making it permanent! We tried, we really did!! It was actually sad to think about, because I feel like there was so much we didn’t get to do together this year because of various roadblocks, but overall the year was good. We didn’t have any real conflict that I can think, no tension between us or struggles. We got along really well and are much closer friends outside of work. She even has begun sending me more “home life” snaps that are more personal. It’s cute.

Today was another long day. At Nokomis I started going through and organizing my files intermittently, and then I went up and pulled Idrew to talk about his services for next year. Janice had caught me in the hallway and said he seemed a little less happy to see her, and she was worried he was upset about qualifying. So he and I had a really good conversation about what the services will look like for him - they won’t be much. At this point it will just be a study skills class to help him with his work. He is smart, so he’ll be in gen ed classes all the way. I gave him the rundown of the structure of the day there, how teachers will help him, how he’ll definitely make friends (and several of his peers will be attending Parkway too). At one point I asked him what his biggest fear is about going to middle school, and he gave the cutest answer: “Like I’m the new kid and everyone will be staring at me.” Awwwwwwww.

I went back to Parkway to finish testing Miracle, and that took almost 2 hours because I was giving her breaks and chatting with her and Aazariah. I hadn’t had a chance like this all year to really connect with her, and I know both of their older brothers. I never had either of them in class, but Miracle’s brother Tre was in my buddy room a lot. He seemed like a cute kid, just some difficulties with focus and I know he has an untreated hearing problem. Miracle told me he got arrested this year for breaking into someone’s house, and she went on at length about how he’s not a bad kid and he’s been mixed up with a bad crowd since going to high school and his life has been threatened as a result of the fact that he’s trying not to run around with these other boys after going to court and having house arrest. She’s really worried about him and said she’s still mad at him for behaving that way. I know she’s just really worried about him and her family means so much to her.

After testing I drove us to Dairyette. It’s like a Dairy Queen, but it’s a one-off establishment that’s been around forever on the east side. I bought them each a treat for staying so long after school with me. While there I ran into Gustavo! He goes to the high school closest to Parkway. He seemed good, he asked about anime club and the kids he was hanging out with completely reminded me of the group in Spider-Man: Homecoming - unapologetically geeky but also really funny. He seemed sad that I wasn’t gonna be at Parkway next year even though he never even visits, lol.

I walked the girls across the street to the apartments where Miracle lives. She harassed her mom about,eating us in, banging on the door and calling her several times in the span of 30 seconds, and her mom came storming to the door yelling, and the look on her face when she saw me was hilarious. She of course stopped yelling immediately and apologized to me, saying that Miracle will often call her from WITHIN the tiny apartment. I told her she didn’t need to apologize to me, and that I had told Miracle she was being annoying. Lol. We talked about Miracle for a bit, she signed the papers I needed her to, and I was on my way home.

Once I got home I realized I was so damn tired. Steve and I laid down for what we thought was only a short amount of time, but turned out it was almost 2 hours!! We must have been really tired. It felt sooo good to sleep but it meant I was too hungry and low energy for yoga, unfortunately. I fixed us up some delicious potato kale soup with leek, and it was AMAZING. I toasted some bread cubes and pumpkin seeds and that took it to a whole new level. Soon after we ate we both realized we didn’t have near enough calories for the day, so I suggested maybe we get ice cream from Dairy Queen. When we started walking, I opened Pokémon Go to find I had an EX Pass! Gasp! And it isn’t for this weekend, thank god, since we went be in town this weekend. I practice,y yelled at Steve to check his phone but didn’t want to give it away, so I got to watch his face light up at his own surprise invitation. It’s for next Tuesday to catch MewTwo and I could not be more excited.

We made the short trek to DQ, he got a seasonal fruit blizzard (small) and I got a salted caramel blizzard (mini). They were perfect to our needs and a great treat to end the day, but I was SO thirsty by the time we got home.

I wish I could say my last classroom days at Parkway have been bittersweet... but they really haven’t. Partly probably because I’m leaving for good, but also partly because I’m just so tired and overworked right now. But there have been a few sweet moments - me teasing down Malik’s hackles when I had to interview him for his 3-year re-Eval (which was simply done by talking to him and asking him questions about his life, which I do often, and embedding the questions I needed to ask within that conversation). Much like when I wrote Harmony’s eval for high school, his is rife with information where I’m lowkey imploring whoever works with him in the future to take heed of his intense needs if they want him to be successful and if they want to have an easy time. He’s a gentle souls who needs so much TLC. He barks loud and can have a good bite, but he’s had so much trauma, so many letdowns by adults, and he’s so damn sensitive. He’s also deep, and funny. I just want people to know that he comes off as so intimidating but he’s a big softy on the inside.

Anyway. My first block was spent getting info out of Malik and eventually helping other kids on their work, and then we went outside. Second block we continued watching Spider-Man: Homecoming while I worked really hard on eval stuff for Idrew and answering emails.

Nokomis was pretty good, just incredibly busy and stressful, more Idrew stuff, consulting with the psychologist and speech therapist, etc. I left at 1:30 to go home, eat lunch and nap (because naturally I couldn’t sleep last night). I went back to the meeting for Idrew at 4, and the meeting got a little intense at times, with Mom getting emotional about different “maybe” diagnoses her son has from Gillette but that we didn’t see in our EXTENSIVE evaluation of him (depression, ADHD). He does qualify for special ed under the Traumatic Brain Injury label after a car accident fucked him up a couple years ago. Which REALLY sucks because the poor kid loves football and is really smart, and not being able to perform in school or sports like he used to just sucks!

I was able to get home around 5:30, and Tyler had bailed on game shopping. Steve suggested that we maybe go to this other game store a bit away, and I was totally down for that! I love little trips to cool places! It ended up being a bust, but Steve *almost* found a couple things he was looking for. In particular he was interested in a game for the Sega CD called Time Gal, and it was definitely one of those games where if he had shown me all the games for sale for the system that day, I would totally have known it was one that he wanted the most. Unfortunately, it was supposedly still sealed and he’s 100% not interested in paying “unopened” prices. What’s the deal with sealed games anyway? Like, anyone can seal games these days, it’d be really hard to prove a game's seal is original, and WHY do people want to own things you’ll never open?? I feel the same about figures. I much prefer to enjoy them as they were meant to be enjoyed.

I really wanted to buy Jocelyn and Elba flowers to say goodbye, especially after I found out that Jocelyn believes that most staff at Parkway don’t like her. It might be true, but I don’t feel that way. She has a hard job, and she has changed a lot of positive things about Parkway’s climate. I appreciate what she has done for the school. So I asked Steve if we could pick up some flowers for the two of them, and while we were on our way to the flower shop I found, I realized we were in the same area we visited before Cayden and Clyde’s birthday party! I suggested we stop at Half Price books after flowers. I bought Jocelyn pink and cream carnations, and Elba lime and orange carnations. I also put them in matching vases with ribbons and bought them cards.

Half price books was also a bust, and Steve was heartbroken that there were 3DO games but no 3DO. Sad face. But still a fun time! Right about then we realized we were quite hungry and we wouldn’t make it back in time for Catrinas, and anything we made at home wouldn’t be consumed for at least another hour. We were right by a Chipotle, and that’s the Catrina’s equivalent. So Chipotle it was! We ate outside and it was sooo nice. <3 I love cute days with Steve, they’re so relaxing and fun.

Finally I was able to get up and wake Steve up in time for morning coffee! Yay! It’s sooo hard to wake up when the snuggles and sleep are so good. Also I realized I wrote day 14 twice, whoops, gotta fix those lol.

Tealie told me last night that she was calling in because she’s trying to sell her house and needed to schedule several appointments, which intellectually I was totally fine with and support her, but also it’s so annoying and stressful (at least until first block gets going). For some reason every time she’s gone I am max annoyed for foundations and the beginning of first block, but then I remember everything is fine. It’s not like the kids only behave for Tealie, but they ARE rude to subs usually. Thankfully (tbh) she didn’t appear to have one, so I got to spend the first half of first hour with Nicki covering for Tealie. I liked having nicki in the room, because she has a loud voice and at the beginning when I couldn’t find the math review she gave them a stern speech about when they go to 7th grade and the expected noise level. After math review, things went smoothly. We were doing an activity that measures and compares the hand span of everyone in the room, and the way I structured it really worked for them. When we were finished, we went outside for like a half hour (our classes are 80 minutes). Malik of course fell down immediately and bloodied his leg up somehow, but he was back eventually. The rest of the kids organized a couple of games of tag or did little competitive things on the swings. It was relaxing and fun.

Even though I get kind of annoyed, and I’m sure she does too when I’m gone (and I had a lot of paperwork days this year), we never are snippy with each other about it because we’re always being supportive. She texted me halfway through the day checking in, because Kristin made sure to text her and let her know no sub showed up for her, stressing her out, but I just reassured her and she cheered up.

Second block was good, I spent the time running between each kid basically in the first group, and it was uneventful and nice. Second group Dyshawn asked if he could be reading his book for English in the pod, and he sat right outside the door and did read for a decent amount of time.

I had to be at Nokomis at the right time today because my replacement was shadowing me today, and st first I was a little stressed, but since she’s been in the district and has already done split schools, it was wayyy more relaxed than I thought it would be. It ended up being an easy day other than talking a lot about students we’re finishing up, including talking to Brian and Todd over the phone about kids at parkway.

I came home and tried to nap because I was sooo tired, but first I got distracted with Steve, which we both weren’t even expecting and was a nice way to spend my getting home. Lol. THEN I tried to nap, and I think I dozed a little right at the beginning but after like 10 minutes or so I just couldn’t sleep. I only had like a half hour until I was supposed to go to yoga, and when it was time to go I felt so tired it was like I was sick, but I need to stop being reluctant to go to yoga when I love it when I’m there. And I’m so out of practice it’s absurd and frankly makes me sad. So I got up and changed and headed out. It was easier to motivate myself because Hannah was teaching the class tonight, and she’s still by far my favorite instructor. She was subbing for Brittany, and Brittany loves handstands and other inversions, so we spent the hour working on shoulders, core, and legs. I like Hannah’s way of doing core, which is insanely hard but atypical. She has us use our blankets to go from plank to pulling our legs in, in various ways. Vs several others who like to basically do sit-ups and other lame things. The last time I was working on handstand I was able to do L pose pretty good, but today my back was not having it. Which was okay. I felt so good just doing yoga again. When I looked at the schedule, I saw Hannah’s back to doing hot yoga on Saturday mornings, and I just have to go. My favorite time period of doing yoga was when I was consistently able to go to Hannah’s hot yoga class, which at the time was on Monday. I just love how long you hold each pose for, and that it’s the same poses and yet they never get old, and you can really monitor your flexibility and accuracy in the pose.

This was something Steve and I talked about later, about how I was happiest and felt the strongest and healthiest when I was going to yoga almost every day. I asked him to encourage me to go to yoga when I’m being lazy, and he reminded me that people (me) can get belligerent when asked to get active when they’re (I’m) not feeling like it for whatever reason (usually because I’m tired). So we talked about and agreed upon a silly and horrible “code phrase” that he gets to use if I refuse.

I was feeling pumped up still after getting home, so I decided to play some ITG after Steve was done. By the time I got home he’d basically completed his sit and was tired, so I hopped on while he played Owlboy. Shoe-wise it was a bad day, my feet were extra slippery in the shoes (whereas last time I thought I was getting used to to them). However, even with the mild tantruming I did, I did improve a few scores. Most notably I finally got a 98% on Cryosleep, which was one of my oldest scores, from October of last year. Lately my TimeHop has been showing me when I got old scores over the last 5 years, and even from two years ago it’s crazy to see how much I’ve improved. It’s nice to see that progress!

I’ve continued to chat with and encourage Noah on mfp and he and Steve and I have been a good mfp team!

Friday was a really chill day at Parkway - Tealie and I had the kids work some more on their work before taking them outside and that was really fun. We chatted a lot about jobs and life, and Andy and Todd also talked to me about jobs. I had forwarded them all an email from the SpEd supervisor, Julie, in the district I'm moving to, and also to Jan (but Jan said she couldn't leave St. Paul). Andy contacted Julie and he wasn't sure he'd fit in because he wants and ASD-exclusive program, not cross-categorical, but on Friday he said he found out the assistant principal at my school is an old colleague of his, so he plans on contacting him to get the scoop. Todd had initially thanked me for sending the info but thought he definitely wouldn't leave... and by Friday he was like "I'm calling her today on my prep." I teased him and said "Hey, there's another opening at Maplewood Middle and I'm pretty sure it's for reading support... wanna be a team again next year?!" Personally I think Todd and I make really good counterparts to each other and we're both hard-asses with high expectations but also have the ability to connect with the kids and loosen up. I legit would love to be a team next year if he could swing it.

Oh, speaking of loosening up-

lollll "They can actually take jokes." Natalie is a Hmong student with a non-montessori background who has done so well in our class this year. I love her.

2nd block we went outside because it was Fun Friday. The first group was chill, I sat on a bench across from DQ, who spent the entire 20 minutes or so yelling "help" for his own entertainment and to annoy Chanel I'm pretty sure. Chanel is good with consistency but god does she talk too much to kids when they're trying to get negative attention. I thought DQ was being kind of funny, and his yelling was just silly. Like he does things to purposely upset her even if he has a consequence. For example, the other week he refused to pick up a waterbottle he left on the ground before we went in, because SHE told him he needed to, and mentioned like a thousand times he was gonna go to Reset if he didn't. This week he ate two bags fruit snacks and dropped the wrappers on the ground, and I reminded him that those needed to be thrown away. He did the "what wrappers?!" thing and covered them with his feet. While Chanel would say something in a serious tone and threaten reset, he and I bantered back and forth about the crazy disappearance of bright pink wrappers, and I said to just not let them blow away before we went in. And then he picked them up without me asking him to when we left. Part of it is he can obviously get a reaction/attention/verbiage out of her, and I think with me part of it for most kids is that I just kind of make it clear what my expectation is with the tone of "I know you'll do what is needed and I'm gonna just leave it at that" - like, they're old enough to know what to do and I trust they'll do it. (And of course when they DON'T, I'm very much like, "Ooookayyyyy then, that sucks but I'm still not mad here's the consequence you knew was coming"). Anyway, in my second group only Dyshawn wanted to go outside and he asked if he could bring a friend so we grabbed Dacarie, and Tealie's class was outside too so we got to talk some more!

Tealie and I have gotten a lot closer this year, and we got pretty close last year even though we didn't work together. Our first year together we spent a lot of time stepping around each other and had a couple of tense weeks where we weren't talking things through, and then our second year we were much better but still had some tense moments. Working with Brian changed Tealie's attitude, and this year we've been REALLY chill and not taken things too seriously, and now that she's got all of her curriculum down she's not spending the time she was with planning and creating the same way she was before. We also received a lot of mixed messages about our roles in the classroom during our first two years, and with more clear expectations, we are much calmer. Also maybe with Anna gone - her previous work best friend (they're still very close outside of work and I think they're connected by a marriage in their families or something) - she feels more free to hang out with me. I was worried for a bit because she and Steph were teacher leaders at CMStep in Cincinnati last summer and are still helping out with that, that I'd get pushed out because Steph is so needy, but after the first couple of months and things settled, Tealie still prefers my attitude to Steph's generally. I'm really gonna miss her, we always referred to each other as the "dream team" even when I was teaching with Jenny Madden and she was teaching with Brian. I have a feeling though we'll stay in touch and hang out more outside of work instead!

At Nokomis I spent the afternoon testing a couple kids, one for a complicated initial eval. He got into a car accident a couple of years ago and has a diagnosis of TBI. From an academic standpoint, he's doing just fine. He's personable, conversational, and quick. On reading he stuttered frequently over words which is not a part of his speech patterns. I have some more testing to do on him next week. He seems like a huge sweetheart. I met with my special ed lead for Nokomis, Shannon, and asked her to do some observations and a parent interview for him (I like observations but they take time and I HATE interviews). Yay! I also sent home some forms for his family to fill out.

This weekend is Gamer Weekend aka picking up Noah. i came home to a sleeping Steve and cuddled into him and watched Hearthstone while he napped and I unsuccessfully tried to nap. I woke him up at 4 and we headed down to Fairbault. We hit some random annoying traffic beginning in Burnsville whichslowed us way down, but otherwise it was good. I finished most of one of my mom's gloves - got the ends weaved in (or knotted when I got sick of it) and the bulk of the second one done too. Driving down with Steve was cute and I love spending time with him. We had to go straight back home because I had plans to see my dearest Breanna!

At nick's suggestion we met at a place called Pinstripes. It's in a rich city that's about halfway between our houses. Meals are $15-25 and drinks are an average of $11 per. Bre really wanted to walk around the lake/park and I was in my wedges, but two drinks was the perfect amount to distract me from any pain I might have encountered while walking. Mostly we talked about our various lives - catching up on her nursing school stuff, my work, her moving back with Lamin now that she's finished studying, updating on her parents (back in love) and aunt (enabling) and cousin (alcoholic + meth) and brother (still mentally ill and just moved back home) and our mutual friends (off and on with Holly and about to take a trip with her, off with Lindsey), making up with Hannah, Gleb's sister just had a baby, and random high school peeps. For my part I didn't really talk all that much other than about my family and Steve, and work and summer, and offering opinions or asking questions (talked about being off birth control, asked about her plans for kids etc.).

We walked and talked or sat in the gorgeous park for most of the night, with me sending pics and updates to Steve, as I think this was the first time I was out alone for so long since Feb and I didn't want him to worry about me. Bre commented a couple of times about my texting him, but I just told her he missed me. She was okay with that.

At midnight the park and restaurant closed so we headed out. It was really good seeing her, and I'd like to spend more time with her in the future. In a dinner-like or relaxed even capacity though, not on the daily. I'm too much of a loner for a lot of hangouts, like she and Holly are going on TWO camping trips over the next month. Not the thing for me! Only if I'm with Steve basically am I okay with that at this point. lol.

Came home and hung out with Steve and Noah for a bit but I was SO TIRED. So bedtime it is.

Thursday. The third day*. Today was the first blazingly hot day of the year. Like, the kind of day where the weather screams, “REMEMBER ME!?!?! MINNESOTA, WHERE THE TEMPERATURES ARE ALWAYS EXTREME MWAHAHA!!!” It was 93 and humid, and it was 86 degrees before 9am. So sweaty. I wore a nice new flowy soft dress, and the rest of my school year is going to be almost exclusively dresses, as neither of my schools have air conditioning and it is so sweaty.

My morning was good, we switched to mean/median/mode/range and plotting and analyzing data, and that’s been going well. Helped Vincente and Malik on their stuff of course, talked about silly middle school things like how the space between the crook of your elbow and your hand is the same length as your foot, how even though Malik is only 12 that he already experiences “tall people problems” such as hitting his head on the bus door and that his bed is too short and he has to spread his legs to sit on the toilet because the wall is too close and his femurs are too long. I’d like to add in a side note here about this specific one, where he told me this last one the most innocently a kid could, like not at all thinking about the fact that to sit on the toilet he would need to be pooping and of course it is taboo to admit you sit on the toilet in middle school - though this generation is way more open to talking about pooping/farting etc. than mine was... I might have actually melted into the floor if ever it was suggested I do either of those things during ANY of my school years. XD

2nd block was fine, the first period was kind of annoying because Chanel was gone again, and I let the second period be super low key because there were only 4 of them and Dyshawn was really in the mood to talk to me today and it’s the end of the year so I let him. He’s the ringleader of a trend of timed “slap boxing” matches at school. Slapboxing is exactly what it sounds like: like boxing, but you hit with an open hand so as not to leave marks or do lasting damage. The new game invented and going around the school is to get filmed slapboxing with someone for 10-15 seconds and then you’re done. I asked Dyshawn what the purpose of that was, and why it was fun. He said a lot of people kind of want to fight or prove themselves, and a timed match (supposedly) means no one gets mad, hurt, or (probably most importantly) caught fighting at school. He showed me a couple of videos - Brian had angrily told me that Dyshawn was targeting the 6th graders but there were kids of all ages in our school participating - and everyone is smiling in them before and after???? So like, it seems to be working for now... but you KNOW someone’s gonna play dirty and it will all fall apart. Really interesting though. When I was in school play fighting was really rare, because it ALWAYS turned into a real fight. And in my hometown, if you were caught fighting, both parties went to court. Always. No exceptions. It was a great deterrent. I’d say from 7th-11th grade (I didn’t go to high school for my senior year) I witnessed 4-5 fights in total. A couple of years ago that was the daily average at my school, a school of 500 kids. Anyway, kids are ridiculous and endlessly interesting.

After that I went out to Eden Prairie to meet Steve, Nick, Quimby and Courtney for lunch. Since Steve’s last day at Supervalu is tomorrow, and they all work out in EP, Steve invited me out with them. My car’s air conditioning is broken and I like the windows down anyway, so I was a sweaty mess by the time I got all the way out there (about a 35-minute drive). We went to India Palace... Wait. India Palace is in Woodbury! Jk, this is a different India Palace. They’re franchised, and this place was good, but not as good as the one we love. But it was definitely tasty. We took our time eating and chatting, and invited people to hang out today after work. Then we stopped in at Starbucks because it was in the same strip mall. Then Steve and I said cute goodbyes and walked to our cars... and I couldn’t find my keys. Kay, I REMEMBERED locking my car. The first thing I thought of was how I’d JUST locked my keys in my car twice over the last 3 months. Awesome. But I distinctly remembered tucking them into my purse! Wtf! I started kind of panicking, because I didn’t see them in the car, so I didn’t think I locked them in. And then I turned and Steve was walking back to me! He came back to bring a drink to his coworker Jay, and I filled him in on my problem, and we went into the Indian place again, thinking maybe I left them on the table. Nope. Went to Starbucks, not there either. We walked back to my car and peered in super intensely. Didn’t see them. Went BACK to the Indian place. Back to Starbucks. KAYYYYY. I knew I drove there using my keys??? I could NOT figure it out. Steve had to get back to work, and I really needed to get back to work, and I was so afraid I’d call AAA and they’d open my car and the keys wouldn’t be in there, and then what? Eventually Steve had to leave but he felt really bad, and I started to call AAA but decided to retrace my steps one more time (I tend to panic when I have an audience and can’t see or think rationally because of embarrassment/insecurity/idk), and lo and behold, found them on my walk. THANK GOD. Called Steve, so relieved, jfc.

I still had enough time to make it back to Nokomis without getting in trouble (as in, with enough time to be face-to-face with kids). Today was actually a concert practice day for the younger kids and the older kids are finishing up a poetry residency with real poets, so I spent a lot of time in the E2 classroom talking with Nicci, one of the E2 teachers. Then I decided to take Jeremy for some work, and he asked if he could bring a few friends with since it was gonna be just him. I said sure, and so he and 3 friends ended up in my office for about an hour. They were all super cute, like, “So this is where you go every day” and one of them even asked me if I lived in that office. I pointed to my comfy chair and said that’s where I slept. They all figured out I was joking, but in that kind of innocently suspicious and somber way younger kids who don’t understand dry humor do. It was still funny. They were all working really hard, and two of the boys were so happy when I helped them figure out how to do some of their math work, and Jeremy was just beaming with excitement of being able to work with his friends in my office. Every so often one of them would quietly say, “It’s so nice in here. I can actually think because it’s *quiet*.” Aww.

I got home around 4:35, and Steve got home soon after. We picked up and put away laundry and collected alllll of the dirty clothes and got them downstairs, and the house is vastly improved. Someone in the gaming community died today, TotalBiscuit if you’ve heard of him. He had cancer, and he was 34. People told the Hearthstone streamer Trump (not to be confused with the other guy) WHILE on stream, and he told a few stories of his interactions with TB and Hearthstone beta etc., and the stream comments were a mixture of support and comments about cancer and TB’s experience, and he suddenly broke down into tears. Chat immediately turned into a bunch of hearts and “everyone cries” and people encouraging him to end the stream to grieve. He initially said he’d be fine, just needed a few minutes, and mentioned how surprised he was that he started crying. He broke down a few more times over the next 10 minutes or so and was finally like, “Okay guys, you’re right, thanks for understanding, gonna take tonight off.” it was quite sad, poor Trumpy boy, heart hurts for him. I think Steve and I both got somewhat choked up just in sympathy.

Eventually Nick, Courtney and Scott came over and we went to Catrina’s for burritos. They were yummy as usual. Catrina’s is a local Mexican food place, like Chipotle but better in every single way except for the fact that they don’t have a vegetarian meat option, just beans. Catrina’s opened a few years ago, and we know the owners pretty well. They opened another location a year or so ago, and they’re just about to open a third location, and they were recently featured on a national news segment. They’re delicious and we go there every week at least (they’re also within walking distance of our house). Good thing we didn’t decide to walk today, because it started storming after we got there. Phew! Today I decided to mix up my salsa choice because the citrus jalapeño just looked too fresh and good. Today was a good burrito, as usual.

When we got back to the house, Scott played the remastered Shadow of the Colossus, we put on the Office, Steve started a game on the SP, I continued working on Mom’s fingerless gloves after Steve guilt-tripped me EVEN THOUGH I wanna knit my shawl instead (“Leah, it’s getting way past Mother’s Day and I don’t want you to be giving these to her for NEXT mother’s day“). I’m actually almost done with them now, just gotta finish the cuff on the second one, knit up the thumb, and add the kitty heads. And weave in the ends of course but that’s a given. And THEN I can work on the shawl. The next thing I start should be the afghan Bethany wants for her wedding. I can work on it alternately with my shawl or other projects.

On my knitting podcasts, a frequent topic is whether the people in question stick with one project, or have several going at once. When I began listening to podcasts, I thought that I was basically a “one project at a time” person, because even if I’d have multiple projects started, I was never working on more than one thing at a time. Unfinished projects were projects I’d abandoned but not emotionally given up on and didn’t want to admit that I’d never finish them. Now that I knit like every day, and more seriously, I generally have 2-5 projects going at any given time, and I’m confident in where I left off and that can and will finish it. It’s funny, when I thought about how I only worked on one thing, it made me feel very knitters, but that was only because I associated multiple projects with not finishing them ever. Now that I actually have been consistent in getting things finished, and working on different types of projects at the same time (more mindless things for on the go, more elaborate ones for home), I feel way more knitterly smug than before. Also I just really love knitting.

All day and night Steve and I were texting each other cute texts. We’ve been so good lately, he makes me so happy. I love spending time with him and we have so much fun. SO MUCH LOVE!!! So goosh <3

I spent this morning being stressed about work because I knew it was going to be a ridiculously busy day from start to end, and then we would immediately segue into Gamer Monday. Because I had gotten so much sleep during the day on Sunday, I wasn’t as tired as I could have been even though Steve tossed and turned forever, to the point that every time I’d fall asleep he’d roll over and wake me up, and then he tried to turn Hearthstone on his phone after having built a little pillow wall to block the light from me (this failed because I just woke up to his movements lol). Eventually he left for awhile so I could fall asleep and he could get tired. I assume he tried to sleep on the couch and when that failed he came back and I was sleeping enough to stay asleep after he got back into bed.

The morning was pretty similar to Friday - morning basketball with the boys, Josie as the sub, running various boys back and forth to reset and teaching Malik more 2-step equations patterns. Jane, the nurse, told me she visited with my Nokomis principal over the weekend (they’re friends outside of school) and Melissa told Jane that she was going to miss me. Aww. 2nd block was decent, again with walking through 2-step problems with the groups. Seriously, do you remember learning 2-step equations? Not only are they really fun and easy. Once you know the pattern, but they’re directly applicable to a myriad of real-life situations. I was in advanced math all throughout my school age years, but I did not internalize these concepts AT ALL when I was learning them. I really enjoy them now as an adult and I try really hard to impress the value of specific concepts like this that are valuable to everyday life.

Best part of my day: coming home to see Steve for 10 minutes as I grab food for lunch before heading to Nokomis. I cut up a giant apple and gave half to Steve and added the other half to some cantaloupe and took my Naf Naf leftovers. We talked about the rest of the day plans and professed how much we were missing each other. I did get to talk to him on the phone several times today while transitioning between schools and that was really great.

Nokomis was really busy, as Mondays are my busiest kid days. Any spare second I had was spent working on the evals and IEP for the afternoon. All too soon it was 2 and I needed to run back to Parkway to present my academic findings for Kee, one of Molly’s OHD students in her setting III ASD program. That went a lot better than expected and I was able to leave by 3. Elba, the assistant principal, and I walked out together and she put her arm around me and said she understood how hard it was to go between two schools and that everyone wants you full-time and you work so hard, etc. She’s never been affectionate with me before and it was really cute.

Okay, BACK to Nokomis and finishing up some last-minute things on Jeremy’s IEP. Jeremy’s parents are the cutest, and they were actually really relieved when we told them that Isabella doesn’t qualify for SpEd at this time. You never know whether parents will be happy or upset to find out their kid doesn’t qualify for services, because some parents see the benefits of SpEd while others worry about stigma, etc. But thankfully they were happy and we talked about how at the very least, Isabella has no delays and is in fact above average in some ways, but she’s young and immature and struggles with focus and it will be a good idea to keep an eye out for changes in the future, whether her attention improves or worsens. Jeremy’s IEP went well; he’s old enough that I felt confident speaking to his 5th grade year and beyond to middle school (and Jeremy has a sister that goes to Parkway so parents are familiar with it). By the time they left it was 5pm. Ugh, such a long day ;A;

Raced home to Steve, watered my plant, and we went to pick up Tyler for game shopping. We also played and talked Pokémon Go, did a Gengar raid, and Tyler opened my whole world up by notifying me of an app that rates your Pokémon’s IVs and potential. Weeeee! No games were found today and we only went to Level Up, but burritos were had and they were delicious. After we dropped Tyler off, Steve and I came back home. He played a couple arena games in Hearthstone and I wound yarn for a shawl I want to start. I got a tangle in one of the yarns right at the end of winding (I believe it started that way, lame) and that took forever to fix, so I didn’t actually get to start the shawl today, but maybe that’ll be a thing tomorrow. I’ve been really wanting to start one of my cool new knitting projects with the beautiful yarn.

I participated in a sock knitting contest, where you try a technique you haven’t done before and post it in the thread on Ravelry - it was aptly named the “Never Have I Ever.” It was super easy for me, having only knit one pair of socks prior to the contest, lol. I had a feeling I’d win something even though over 150 people entered (I am generally a lucky person with contests and such), but often times I get the Monkey’s paw when I do win. That’s a tad dramatic, but what I mean is, often I get the “worse” or lamer thing, and I would say I definitely DID win the lamest prize - a slipper/sock/foot covering book. But I haven’t actually SEEN the book yet and I could easily just be a crybaby because I ALWAYS want to win yarn, basically exclusively, lol. Anyway, it’s still exciting to win something and hear your name read over a podcast. Pretty sweet.

Tealie is gone for 2 school days, Friday and Monday. For Friday, her sub was Josie, which was nice, because Josie has been subbing at Parkway for like 2 years, and she puts up with a lot of shit. Like, not only are our kids extremely difficult with subs generally no matter what we do, Josie is trans and that concept is very difficult to middle school children. Particularly students living in more "ghetto" areas... and toxic black culture makes it really difficult to accept homosexuality as a general rule, and add in trans issues? Tough. There are a lot of kids who staunchly refer to her as a "he" I know some change has been occurring, but most of my African American boys still don't even tolerate any male wearing pink (though picking like, pink pencils, pencil pouches, binders etc. is acceptable) and call it gay - what is this, 1985?

Anyway, I let Josie handle the class as a whole because she's persistent, and I got to spend most of the time teaching Malik 2-step equations. I really enjoy teaching 7th grade math, and him knowing he was learning 7th grade math concepts made him try REALLY hard. I made him a folder and put it in a special place and everything and he was so proud. Later in the day Pa sent a picture of a billion tiny pieces of paper that used to be his social studies test, and I found it really funny. Pa is so goddamn annoying, always complaining, and she has just been getting worse and worse. She never sees the humor in what kids are doing and I refuse to play into her negativity. I got so pissed at her for a bitchy email she sent to like 20 people but directed at me (asking a question I had ALREADY ANSWERED HER A FEW DAYS AGO) calling me out, and I started typing up a super angry response before going to one of the school social workers and having her help me write a more professional email. lol.

After I was done at Parkway, I headed out to Saint Paul to meet Bethany and Haley at the place where Bethany decided to order her wedding cake from for, you guessed it, a cake tasting! I knew exactly where it was because MHR (where I worked when I was a mental health case manager) is two buildings down from it. When we walked in, Haley of course got off on the wrong foot with the cake lady by telling her that she was Bethany (after the lady had already addressed Bethany as herself), and she did not find Haley's trickery funny. Then EVERYONE got off on the wrong foot, because the lady noticed that the wedding date is a Wednesday, and said they don't deliver cakes during the week. Bethany countered that over the phone she had been quoted a *delivery* fee and she had given them the date, and they went back and forth a bit with the lady basically saying they only hire drivers for Fridays and weekends, and Haley jumping in now and then to try to push the lady to "make an exception." Both Bethany and I got the vibe that it was non-negotiable, and everyone was annoyed. I was very surprised that Bethany didn't just walk away (she later said she had been considering it), because the woman was LEGIT judging Bethany for having a weekday wedding, saying "no one" gets married in the middle of the week and eventually straight up asked, "So why did you pick that date?" Bethany and Jake picked 8/8/18 because when they started dating, they each owned cars with the license plate 808, and 8/8 happened to fall on a Wednesday.

The cakes we tasted were all very good, my top favorites being lemon, a strawberry/fruity concoction, and a Bailey's/fudge. Bethany said she doesn't really like lemon, but her two favorites were the other two that I liked. The Neopolitan was also good. Bethany wanted a cheaper cake because she and Jaked don't even really care about cake or what it looks like, and I think she did pretty well at $475 for 90 people.

When we were finished with the cake and the humorless woman, it was time for lunch (and clearly me playing hooky... whoops). We went to JSelby's and Bethany got a caesar salad and I got a "philly" (again, everything there is vegan) and it was NOT good. But the chips and dip were fine.

I dropped the other two back off at their cars, and then called Steve and asked if I should go to work for 45 minutes orrrr just come home. We both voted come home. HAPPY FRIDAY YA'LL.

Steve showed me the changes he made to the game room when I got home. He's been cultivating the perfect layout, shifting things around as systems filled up, and now we're to the point that mid-room shelving is necessary, and he'd found a layout he liked. I love going into the game room while he shows me either games, or room arrangements, or we just kind of sit in there and chat. I particularly love just laying out on the floor, and the cats feel the same way. They're not allowed in the game room (we keep the door closed when we're not in there) because they're naughty and will knock everything over, so when WE are in there it's this rare forbidden treat for them to join us. Also I think it's one of the coolest, temperature-wise, in the house. Feels nice and it always smells good in there.

Once we were finished with the game room we decided to walk around the neighborhood doing raids in Pokemon Go, and wandering around the park spinning stops and catching Pokemon. It was really hot out again and we sat in the shade for awhile at the park scrolling between social media and P-Go, and it was just really nice. A lot of people were at the park, the baseball fields, the skate park and there was a family having a graduation party and grilling too. Good vibes. We started getting hungry and couldn't figure out what sounded good, just that we wanted to be outside. I suggested Jamba Juice and Five Guys. Of course I meant "Let's get the Mango Chia seed Jamba drink and eat Five Guys fries because they have a patio and a smoothie isn't enough to sustain either of us." We did exactly that, except Steve also got a burger from 5 Guys. Even if I ate meat, I would not want a five guys burger. They are the most lamest of burgers. We ate our food and caught mmore Pokemon. It was awesome.

Eventually we agreed we were both quite tired and decided to go home and nap. We ended up falling asleep for like, 4 hours. Lol. Then Steve got up and it was like 9:30 and Andy had been texting him all day about coming over for a bonfire. I had initially encouraged him to go, but he was reluctant. When we got up from the nap Steve said he felt like he should go, but I was feeling really tired and lazy and wanted to either go back to sleep or just lay in bed. Steve didn't think he'd be gone that long and I ended up slightly more awake, thinking he'd be home within an hour or two. I just scrolled on my phone and tagged Steve in memes and talked with Bethany and Haley in the group chat, but mostly I was bored and lonely and wished I'd gone if I'd known Steve was gonna be gone so long (but I also was enjoying being in bed, god is it nice not to have to leave lol). Steve got home around 12:30am, which was pretty late considering we plan to get up early enough to beat the rush at Birchwood Cafe for breakfast. It was nice having him home again, and a very cuddly sleep ensued, and quite easily considering how much we'd already slept!

I got to work st a reasonable time today, which was nice. Not super reasonable, but before the bell. I wasn't going to be in first block for most of the time because I was testing a student for Brian. I also went to teach him how to do the ELL curriculum-based testing since I'm not going to be there next year and this is supposed to be the standardized/normed test for students who speak English as a second language, and I'm concerned he won't give it with fidelity. Lol. Even though I made this clear to him, he was still in and out of the room like 4 times... and then at one point, I shit you not, he BURST into the room to yell, "DID YOU GUYS SEE A MOUSE?!" a couple times, because apparently there was a mouse running in the pod outside of the classroom. I was literally doing a timed oral reading with her and she was in the middle of reading out loud. This is an adult man who KNEW what we were doing and we were the only people in that room so it wasn't like he was talking to anyone else. What I do know is that if the ELL coordinator was there observing, she would have lost her shit at him for like trying to ruin the test.

2nd block has been going really well, I pushed about a third of my kids into 2-step equations even though they continue to struggle with remembering inverse operations, and it's been going really well. I forget how much I enjoy teaching at the front of the room with a group, calling on each student in turn in order to give them all practice. In my first group I somehow got not just Ben and Kayly, but Ashawn and Konmeng too! It's like, I got so used to dealing with behavior issues and it being impossible to work with more than 1 kid at a time that I let it fall to the wayside. But I'm gonna keep pushing it toward the end of the year because it's so fun.

I finally did my cognitive observation on Jeremy's little sister, and she is really interesting. She doesn't qualify for Developmentsl Delay but I needed to get an observation on her. She just appeared to tune in and out when she pleased and was generally hilarious to watch. I got the cutest picture of her when I stopped to ask her wtf she was thinking about (I got a giggle and "nothing!").

I couldn't wait to get home to Steve, who is thoroughly enjoying his coasting to a week off. I told Tealie I planned to call in the Tuesday after Memorial Dsy so we could have a long weekend, and I'm so excited. Steve has never just had relaxed free time between jobs really, having only worked at Rainbow, and then Thomson Reuters, which he was laid off from (as has been a large percentage of the company by this point).

I was really in the mood to hang out outside for a bit, so we took Ben's book outside to read while I knit. It ended up being too bright for Steve, who, for no logical reason, refuses to wear sunglasses. He insists that the world is less vibrant and is tinted. I have tried to explain the transitions lenses... *transition*... so you don't notice the shift and it really isn't dark! But still, he refuses, and I ended up reading aloud for awhile until the sky became cloudier and Steve had gotten used to the brightness.

Remember the apple tree in our backyard? It's got beautiful blossoms.

Soon after we started reading, our neighbor's dog came outside. He's about a year old, and he's a Rottweiler, and people are really weird about dogs, so we haven't interacted with him much. But he seriously wants our attention every time he's outside. He huffs and puffs through the fence holes and stares intently at us for long periods of time in between bouts of exploring his yard. We've had bad luck with people like... getting MAD when their dogs come to us, so it's pretty safe to say we're wary. But today he started whining so pitifully that I had to chance it. I furtively started tiptoeing across our yard, CONFIDENT that the dog would start barking the second I got close. To my great surprise, not only was he silent as I walked up to him, but he IMMEDIATELY sat down in a submissive posture for me to pet his back and head, and then got soooo excited for me to scratch his head and neck and just really wanted contact. I talked to him about how I was so happy he was so lovey but I was afraid of us getting in trouble (not sure how our neighbor feels about his dog standing up against the fence), but I couldn't NOT give the pupper some of the love he was desperate for. Eventually I went back to Steve and the reading and the dog (I THOUGHT his name was Roscoe but I'm not sure about that) merrily went to play.

Dinner tonight was Naf Naf. Hummus bowl with couscous, falafel, all the fixins (including extra pickles because they have the BEST pickles), and Naf fries. Soooo gooood. While Steve was a darling and got that, I started playing ITG, dying out my new Fitkicks. Steve, Ben, Dmac and I are all "sock" ITG players. Many ITG players of course play in shoes, but those of us that have our own pads will modify them so the arrows are more flush as opposed to recessed in the pad, making it easy to play in socks. My problem with playing in socks is that my feet require a lot of annoying specifics, particularly when it comes to slipperiness. If it's too slippery I fly off the pads and can't get stable, and if it's too sticky I can't move fast enough. A lot of people in our ITG Facebook group love this type of kind-of-shoe, and they're cheap, so I thought it worth it to give it a try. So far my thoughts:
Pros:
-satisfying tapping to hear the rhythm
-good traction but not too much traction
-Steve and I can switch off because his pay doesn't affect the pad slipperiness with the shoes
-I can see theme being so much more consistent and so much annoyance will be reduced with trying to find the right socks for that day

Cons:
-I often rely on my socks for fast songs once I get going, and sort of fudge it. I've always known this wasn't the true way to play, but of course it's a hard adjustment
-kinda similar but different, because the soles are rubber, if I don't pick up my feet, the rubber will drag and it will fuck me up
-even though I bought the smallest size, supposedly for 5.5-6.5 feet, there's enough room that when I play, my foot slides forward and my big toe gets pushes super hard against the front. I eventually was able to play fine with two pairs of socks on, filling out some space in the shoe and also providing more cushion, but now both my big toes are throbbing and the toenails are sore. Boooo.

After my blood sugar settled, I had a decent ITG day, getting two new 98's, including one that had previously been a 95! Usually my improvements are small and inconsistent, so improving a song I'd been struggling with for so long with such a big leap really made my night.

The other thing that super made my night was brought to us by the amazing and lovely Steve. With me leaving SPPS, I have to turn in the computer I've been using for 4 years, as well as the iPad. Steve had suggested I get a tablet instead of a laptop and I thought it was a good idea. I was upstairs getting ready for ITG, and I couldn't find the shirt I wanted to wear. I saw my suitcase sitting on the bed, still mostly unpacked from when we went to Madison last weekend. It was put on the bed several times this week by Steve, and I just assumed he moved it when cleaning and would put it back on the floor when it was bedtime. Today I decided to dig through it to see if my shirt was in there. What did I find?? A BRAND NEW IPAD!! It's the 256Gig 10.5 inch 2017 version, which is precisely what I wanted. I'm sooo excited to get a keyboard case for it to turn it into a mini laptop, but I've been of course having fun with it, getting it set up and apps installed and whatnot. He wrote me the most adorable note to go along with it, and talked about it was an anniversary present but he just couldn't wait (our anniversary is May 29th). He was getting us food when I found it, so I couldn't attack him right away, but I might have gotten tearful with joy when reading the note and bursting with love. Definitely top 3 love notes. Oh man. This boy.

My morning summed up:

1. Vincente in Reset (hiding in the chair)

2. Malik putting binder clips in his hair

3.Self-explanatory XD

4. Tre'Kari loves taking pics on my phone

The best part of my day was getting rid of my compliance stop signs, making phone calls and planning meetings. I talked with Vincente's mom today and she said he's acting up because he's been at his dad's a lot more lately and she going into the hospital for a week starting on Friday and he's really struggling with it. She sounded so sad, but we had a good talk.

After work I came home and napped a little, and then Steve needed to go get fitted for his suit for his friend Andy's wedding (he's a groomsman). That took us to Grand Ave, which then of course afterward we needed to eat somewhere on Grand, and we went to Cafe Latte. I got a cheese sandwich, salad and broccoli cheddar soup, with a decadent turtle cake slice for dessert. It was amazing. Cafe Latte used to be the "go to" place for the girls group to go in high school for birthdays. We would always either go there, for sure with Bre, Lindsey, and Holly, and sometimes Brittni. We would ALWAYS get the cheesecake. If we didn't go, the others in the group would pitch in for a cheesecake from there for the birthday girl. It was an exciting adventure because we lived just far enough outside of the Twin Cities for it to be out of the norm.

This was my bday cheesecake in 2008-

After Cafe Latte we made a pit stop at Mississippi Market Co-op and got some food to tide us over. Mostly fruits and veggies, and some other things like chia seeds, Ripple milk and agave. It was really warm today, 87F/30C, and it was so nice. Looooved it. I wore a dress and that really helped. Periodically I listened to snaps from Haley and Bethany.

After we got home it was already past 8. We went to the park for a little Pokemon Go, and then I watered the plants when we got home before doing a little Instagram scrolling.

Oh, and our leaning apple tree has started blossoming and it's adorable (don't you dare judge the apple tree; its doing it's thang!)

-----------------------------

It's really interesting how I generally struggled to write entries on a regular basis, but now that Steve and I write them together and make it a part of our routine, it's so much easier, and we enjoy how much we often find that we have to say about each day. Some things are pretty samey, but there are so many little details that get lost if you wait too long to write about them. I'm really enjoying that we are doing this.

I didn't get a chance to do any things of "substance" today, such as knitting, playing ITG or reading. But it was still a relaxing and fun day.

I'm feeling increasingly worse about my body though, I'm around the heaviest I've ever been, at 159lbs. My face looks fine and I think I wear it well, but I don't really like being as hefty as I am. Especially in the arms and belly area. This summer is the summer of getting fit again. Steve and I talked a little tonight about the fact that there's a good chance we won't actually make it out to Cincinnati this summer because of the timing of his new job (among other things), but we were planning on going to Disney World this winter with Ben and Sean and we have weekend trips vaguely planned. With that out of the cards, I think it will be a really good opportunity for me to get a handle on my eating and exercise legit regularly and not randomly.

I drink a fair amount of coffee. I consume enough caffeine that I can go a day or two without coffee, and there's enough in my system that I don't get withdrawals immediately. I'm NOT one of those people who says "I'm not human until I've had coffee" or whatever. I simply like the taste, it's part of my routine, and I'm generally more pleasant when I drink it. It does NOT make me feel more awake. But it gives me something to do with my hands. My point is, we always have coffee on hand. Except not today. When we went grocery shopping last weekend, we made the mistake of thinking we had enough coffee to get through the week, and forgot to pick some up at any point DURING said week. So today, we were out. Sadness. Instead, we had some black tea on the couch this morning, and while far more watery and far less coffee-y, it was still quite tasty and cute.

Friday means basketball during foundations, and Todd told me he plans to try to get the kids in the gym for Tuesday and Thursday and play dumb about the "cleaning." I told him to go for it but you all know how my gym battle went all year.

First block started out today much like yesterday, with me taking someone to Reset, only today it was Chaz. Chaz decided to stand on a chair and sing the "Charge!" song like they play at sports games, only instead of the "dun-dun-duns" and "charge," every sound was replaced with the word "Shit." Awesome. So I took him into the other room while I wrote out the write-up, and there's a box for "Perceived Motivation" - options include obtaining peer attention, obtaining adult attention, avoiding peers/adults/activities, etc. I asked him why he did that, and he said, "Because I wanted you to take me to get my iPad." Okay, so I asked if he wanted my attention. He said yes. Lol. Easy peasy. I told him he could have just... ya know... gotten my attention normally. We walked up to reset and after we processed, we got his iPad from Corri (though it wasn't as easy as I'm saying and actually took about 15 minutes after the "Listen to Corri vent" tax) and went back to class.

Kids started their presentations today on their Real Life project. Malik went first, but requested Tealie present for him. He had a super goofy filtered pic of him on his first slide, and he was trying SO HARD to keep a straight face when people giggled at it, saying "What's funny?!" but totally giving himself away. I saw Tealie trying to grade on slips of paper so I texted her from across the room telling her I was grading them right in Schoology. It was funny.

2nd block Vincente requested to work in my room instead of going to his electives, and I try to grant this request occasionally because I know it makes the teachers' lives easier and he usually works for me. He did work for the entire first skinny (40 minutes), and in the second skinny he had stopped working but he stayed quiet. Tre'Kari's dad showed up unexpectedly and we had a super awkward confrontation that resulted in Tre having to go in the hall with him and get yelled at.

Stopped home, saw Steve, had a super difficult time leaving. I cut up our last two mangoes and we ate them while talking about our plans for the evening/weekend, and when we planned on leaving. I reminded Steve to eat the food in the fridge and then headed to Nokomis. I only saw Leon and Jeremy today, as Maddy went out of town and Khilanni was in lesson. Today Olivia and Lynnea read their current story ("Bugs!") and we did the first comprehension page. They did SUPER well today and I didn't even have to argue with them about WHEN we color. The outcome is ALWAYS the same, not sure at this point why they try, though it's gotten to the point where they talk about coloring as they get their folders or word cards, so maybe it's just habit still.

I debated whether to dip out early or wait for Janet, the social worker, who wanted to stop by and see me. Janet works for both Nokomis North AND Nokomis South, and it sounds like she's often got her hands full at North, so we rarely see each other. She did eventually make it in and we talked about a couple things we need to take care of, and THEN I left. On the way home though I did stop at a gym and take it. Naturally.

When I got home I decided to water the garden and my hanging plant quick, and while I was outside Steve came out to meet me. I THOUGHT he was just so excited to see me, but instead he was VERY nervous and did the like, "Remember how much you love me when I tell you what I'm about to tell you..." and I immediately tried to brace myself for him telling me that one of my shirts was ruined, which is a lot bigger deal to me than you'd think. I'm so autistic when it comes to my clothes, I get more devastated than the average person about those things. I was sooo stressed and then Steve pulls out this tangled mess and confesses that he washed one of my latest projects. The glove itself was fine, as it turns out, just the remaining yarn was basically ruined because it half-felted into itself and it's not worth it to try to mess with. Guess what though? That was a mini kit and each glove had its own skein of yarn anyway. No problem! God, it was funny. Steve is so cute.

So Steve had done the laundry (yay!), which meant it was super easy packing up, just making sure I remembered my yarn, needles, and patterns along with the projects I want to be working on this weekend. I brought Mom's gloves I'm working on for Mother's Day, as well as Steve's sock, and of course the materials for the project for tomorrow. I'm sooo into knitting these days. On the 4-hour drive I got the majority of the first glove (take 2) done. It's looking MUCH better this time around. For some reason I just am not that great at chunks of colorwork, especially in the round. My tension gets so wonky and is a terrible show of my actual knitting skill, so my solution is to do the colorwork on the cuffs, but the cat heads I'm duplicate-stitching on.

We had planned to stop at the vegan place we ate at when we were in Wisconsin Dells, but it turns out it wasn't where we thought it was, and by the time we would get to it, it would be too close to closing. I recognized where we were though, and that cute cafe we went to after getting massages was open, and had delicious food. We got the same appetizer as last time (goat cheese, roasted garlic and peppers), and I tried their veggie burger. This cafe is so out of place in such a small town... the food is really good and there's a decent variety of vegetarian items, in this weird-ass diner-style cafe. In the bathroom there was a sign saying that the building and its accompanying plumbing is over 150 years old. The only other thing of note there was that Steve went into a bathroom (single stall) that turned out to be labeled as a women's bathroom, but he couldn't have known that because the door was wide open and the men's bathroom was hidden, so it just seemed like... a one-person bathroom. Which it was. A grumpy looking old lady waited outside for him and then made it her business to notify him that he used the wrong bathroom. Steve, caught unawares, was classic Steve and was like, "Oh, I had no idea! Whoops!" The old lady was not having it though and CLEARLY thought he had violated some prissy code in her head, and I had like a thousand sassy comments plus a fist for her stupid face if she said one more thing to him. Like, has she never had men in her HOUSE, where ALL bathrooms are gender neutral?? Twat.

We left there a little after 8 and had about 45 minutes to go. We listened to Game of Thrones the whole way, as we do. We've got less than 5 hours left of Book 5! OMG!!! We're actually almost caught up with everyone else, which is both exciting (because of course everything is so interesting and it'll be nice to have all the info) and stressful (I WANT MOOOOORE!!!). Now we're relaxing at Ben and Sean's, so tired. The plan is to get up and go garage sale-ing, Madison-style, before my class tomorrow. But for now, couchpod and sleeeeep.

Another day, another fail at waking up. However, the difference here is that I was able to wake Steve up in time for him to shower (and for me to lay in bed for 15 more minutes because I'd showered at night), and actually sit up with coffee. That was nice, minus the fact that I pretty much dreamed all night about heartburn I was having in real life, and woke up a bunch of times in burning pain. Ugh, awful. Heartburn is the worst. Also I stayed up until basically midnight because I am stupid as hell and midnight is the time my body naturally wants to go to bed, even though I am supposed to wake up at 5:30.

The morning was interesting, Vincente just got back from a week trip to Florida and came back with a terrible potty mouth and complete lack of respect for basically everyone. I redirected his nasty comments for about 10 minutes before I told him I needed to take him to reset so we could get a handle on it. He's funny because he will curse up a storm around me, tell me no, and ignore my requests for him to stop, but he has never actually sworn at me or NOT come with me when I've laid down a consequence. So I went in Tealie's room to grab write-ups for him, Malik and Isaiah (who were also fucking around). I always do these things matter-of-factly like, "Well fine, I guess this is the choice, I wish you made a different one now both of our lives are going to get temporarily derailed brb" and not like "YOU ARE PUNISHED I AM MAD." While I was getting the write-ups they were still goofing off, and Brian made the mistake he does of getting involved, and he fucking opens the door (disrupting Tealie's morning meeting) to ask if I was handling the situation EVEN THOUGH I could hear all three boys yelling that I was taking them to Reset. And then proceeded to bitch at me about their lack of listening. Which, again, I told Malik and Isaiah to go into Tealie's room and I would be back for them when I was finished with Vincente (we process with one kid at a time for obvious reasons), and they went and Tealie said Malik was good once he was in the room and Isaiah walked out once but came back. Pretty good for them.

When we were in Reset, Vincente was acting pretty petulant (again, more around me than at me) but he answered my questions and we would meander away from the topic and come back to it as I asked questions about his trip. I didn't figure out why he was being so rude, but we talked about his behavior in general and his mood and developed a plan to get back on track. He still was struggling with his rude behavior towards both peers and staff on the way back to class, but once we got in the room, his behavior returned to normal and he was in a pretty good mood and joked around with us and eventually got started on some work. He's proably overwhelmed from missing so much school, and it's hard to build up the resolve to catch up when you're so behind. Halfway through class, a behavior point sheet showed up for him from Brian, which we scored together at the end of class.

Tealie has been teasing other boys for copying Malik's habit of wearing his hood up. Malik's hood is not a battle I fight, because he doesn't make his hood an issue. When Jocelyn said she was going to be strict about hoods, I did have him meet with Elba when he refused to adhere to the expectation, and nothing changed, so I assumed it was okay for him specificially. I'll write it into his IEP for next year that he can have his hood with no penalty, because it's such a frickin SMALL thing. Anyway, boys copy Malik by wearing their hoods now (but NEVER say "But Malik gets to!!" when called out), and Tealie has found that by pointing it out ("Wow, you must really look up to Malik to copy him!" etc.) their hoods magically come off when we're not looking. Haaa. It's hilarious.

For 2nd block I had promised the kids we'd go outside today because it's supposed to be cold and rainy tomorrow (for Fun Friday), and even though it was a little chilly, we stuck it out. The first group were silly and being kids playing tag while Chanel and I talked, and the 2nd group was only 4 of them and they were playing on the swings and then demanded I take pics of them.

Elijah (2nd from the left) made these funny faces for every pic. They are all so goofy. Dyshawn there on the right trying to look tough but he's just as young in his heart too. The other day he hurt himself messing around and asked me to rub his shin and when I refused, he pulled a tablecloth over his head, said "RIP Dyshawn" and later rose up as a zombie version of himself. He also asks me to push him on the swings every day. XD I LOVE MIDDLE SCHOOL!!

After that I ran quick to Nokomis, talked with a couple people about my leaving at the end of the year, and then I met Steve for lunch. Lunch was good, we had Naf Naf Grill. If you have a Naf Naf in your area and have never been there, GO! Their hummus bowls are to die for, especially if you add couscous or rice. A bowl is the way to go because they give you a pita anyway!! Like, why get a pita if you can have a bowl AND a pita?! Their falafel is delicious as are the sauces, and don't even get me STARTED on the pickles. Tasty. Since Steve is quitting soon he took full advantage of an hour and that was really nice. I love seeing him in my day, it really helps me survive and picks up my mood.

When I got back to Nokomis I mostly putzed around until my meeting at Parkway. We talked about plans for next year, but I really wanted to leave by 3:30 to pick up Joe Waid, so I left at that time but ran into Hser (student) on the way out. She always has a hug ready for me, and she asked me a bunch of questions about my plans for next year, saying I should look for somewhere I can be full-time again (I haven't told the kids yet of course), and saying I can'tcome work at the high school she's going to because she wants us to be Snapchat/FB friends (she knows I have a policy of not being social media friends with active students, though I allow them to message me if they have questions or things for me). Then she told me she's going to really need help with math next year and we need to set up "dates" after school. Awww. I love Hser. She also talked about how she doesn't like Steph (music) or Jen (bitch I also hate) and that Jen makes her meet with her as the school counselor and Hser said she makes it a point to tell Jen that me and Nicki are her favorite teachers for a variety of reasons.

Andy caught me on the way out, telling me all the reasons why he has been thinking about the fact that I'm leaving next year and how he turned down a sweet position because he thought he was building a program and now Jocelyn is trying to mix ASD and EBD and now his ASD students aren't getting any services and he can't select his own staff anymore and Jocelyn isn't following through on disciplining shitty staff etc. etc. etc. All points I have also voiced and was frustrated with. We talked about it, standing by my car for another half hour, mostly him venting all the things I agree with. It ended with him telling me to keep an eye out for an ASD position.

I picked up the Joe Waid and we met Steve at home. We all chatted for a bit, catching up on the general happenings in each other's lives, and then I finished the first of fingerless mitts I'm making for Mom, while Steve started Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on XBox360 and Joe Waid looked at his phone for awhile before deciding to start Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. Forgotten Sands looks really good, from my perspective, like a prettier version of Sands of Time on PS2. It has everythign a good Prince of Persia game should, at this point. I'm excited to see how it all plays out.

I was really excited to have finished one glove, until the light caught the ball of yarn. To my extreme dismay, I realized that i had been knitting with blue for the cat heads when I wanted black (my mom and stepdad have 2 black cats). To be fair it's a really dark navy, but the fact still remains. I lamented and mourned for the next hour or so, before resigning myself to the fact that I just have to rip back and start over with black. Ugh. This is coming on the heels of the older ladies in one of my podcasts (2 Knitlit Chicks) saying you never grow out of making dumb mistakes, like knitting with the tail end of your yarn or accidentally getting turned around in your knitting or twisting your yarn when joining ends. It was really funny to listen to, and reminded me of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (YarnHarlot) telling many a funny mistake story, but when YOU are the one making the mistake, it's the goddamn worst!!! I was really hoping to have them done to like, mail to my mom tomorrow since I'm not seeing her this weekend. Alas, I need to do it right. I can't tolerate blue cat heads. I want gloves she'll be really happy to wear, and black cats are the way to go. Lucky for me I have a 5+ hour drive ahead tomorrow with Steve on down to Madison to rectify and redeem myself.

I made the mistake of staying up past 11 last night, and this morning I could NOT drag myself out of bed. It was basically impossible. Thankfully I had my work training today, and even though it started the same time as school, I was still able to sleep in a lot later somehow. Probably because I didn't put on any makeup or shower, and I wore a hat. lol.

Brian was harassing me about some special ed documents over email before I left, and then he CALLED ME even THOUGH he knew I was at my training. TWICE. I was sitting in the very front and the trainer lady kept standing DIRECTLY behind me breathing down my neck (and spent a lot of time just being by our group), and Brian did not help my case. I definitely got the feeling she was trying to intimidate me somehow, and I'm really not one to be messed with when it comes to that stuff. I was knitting the whole time, but I was also doing the work. I didn't need to look at my work, and I ended up starting and finishing an entire fingerless glove today, and it was the first time I'd ever knit a glove starting with the thumb and attaching it to the ribbing. The yarn I'm using is gorgeous and vibrant; it's a hand-dye I got at the Sow's Ear.

We were surely the most remedial group (me, Tealie, and Rachel): Tealie can NEVER not talk at things, I was knitting, and Rachel is a space cadet. It was a pretty redundant training anyway. We did get our next project updated using their conceptual framework and added into their resources page, so we weren't total jerks.
Oh, and if you want to see my classroom (with the lights on, ew - we NEVER have the lights on) and Tealie, here's a short video that was filmed of her last week!

We had to leave a bit early to go to Jocelyn's budget meeting. It DOES sound like they got the money for a half time Montessori coach, so Tealie's gonna see what that's about. Steph was clearly upset about the Montessori 101 class and something else to do with electives, but Parkway isn't losing much staff positions next year, and the ones they're losing are due to misuse of funds anyway. She didn't let anyone know who is leaving, and I finally got the opportunity to tell Jenny that I was leaving. She had a Jenny-style sad reaction (a little tearful) and said she's extra sad because she had been secretly hoping I'd be able to co-teach with her next year. A high compliment, I must say. Jenny is such a sweetheart and I miss her a lot. But she understands, and is supportive and happy for me.

I came home, texted with Bethany and Haley about food, weight loss and Haley's boy drama before kind of napping for an hour and a half while Steve played ITG. He improved some tough scores and I'm disappointed I wasn't awake for them, but I'm proud of him and there will be other times. I was too tired to function!

Dinner tonight was rice and canned indian for Steve, and a homemade tofu soup for me (with broccolini, napa cabbage, carrots, and bok choy), an herb and greens salad with Drew's roasted garlic and peppercorn dressing, and a little bit of rice and tamari.

After this, we're gonna have a little date of playing a bit of Rummikub and then reading some of Ben's book in bed. Hopefully we'll get some real Z's tonight. It's gonna be tough to leave this spot though because of this huge orange purr machine nestled deep against my arm.

I started taking SAMe a little over a week ago... my doctor brought it up awhile ago but I know there are conflicting reports on efficacy of improving depression. Haley started taking it at the beginning of the month, along with a bunch of other supplements, and she reported really "feeling" it in her system and freaking out and not liking that it made her feel different. I thought it would be interesting to take for comparison.

So far what I've noticed is that I appear to be MORE depressed since beginning to take it. Interestingly, SAMe can increase symptoms of mania in people who have bipolar disorder. I mean, I can't conclusively say that the SAMe is what's making me feel worse. I just don't feel any *better* at this point. Although I do kind of pendulum more than I used to. For example, this morning at Parkway I was actually in a really good mood. Kids were just being funny and adorable and cute and I remembered why I fucking LOVE middle school kids.

Then I got into an argument with the ELL lady at Nokomis and normally I don't get so mad but she was really pissing me off. I hate that it's hard for me to explain or articulate WHY I don't think this particular student needs special ed services - at least in the moment, I know I sent a really good explanation via email a few months ago - HOWEVER, he only receives LANGUAGE services and he's NOT on my caseload so I got pretty heated that this lady was coming at me asking for "numbers and data" when he's not even my kid!!! Also why the hell did she ask me for his IQ when she should KNOW that we don't take a formal IQ on non-native English speakers?? I just don't like her. She annoys me. I also deleted a bunch of really boring rant about testing and her being more of a bitch! So boring.

We met as Montessori staff on Friday to discuss "where we are at and where we want to go" with Montessori at Parkway. It became clear that we are not being taken seriously as a Montessori and we can't compete with OWL because they have a high school. It's this vision that's too big and we're not supported. We opened with a quick-write about what our dreams were when we started at Parkway. I couldn't wait for Kareem to speak, and he didn't disappoint - he told this analogy of the donkey who carried a load of salt across a river, and it melted away, so the next time his owner put wool on his back and he almost drowned. He said that it's "easier" this year because he's tired of fighting and would rather have the salt on his back. That for the last 4 years we've had wool on our backs and he would rather go home and be able to focus on his home life "and not going to Kinko's at 2am." Everyone else echoed that sentiment, but of course there are others who say we will always be fighting and they want to fight.

I'm tired. I don't want to fight anymore. Not when it's not just a hard fight, it's an impossible mountain. It's just a fact. I'm not being defeatist about it: someone or some people lied - whether it was just to us or to our old principal or both, we were lied to about the district's intentions and everyone is being let down. Tealie will definitely at least have offers before the end of the year. I'm waiting to see what Melissa says once she gets her budget... can she offer me full-time, or even .8 or .9?? But I'm looking elsewhere anyway, because even though elementary is in some ways a lot easier/calmer, I am, in my soul, a middle school/junior high teacher. 11-15 are just the best ages.

I ~~hope~~ think my depression is related to my unhappiness at my job. Historically speaking, this is the longest I've ever stayed in a position by far (4 years). The longest otherwise I've ever worked for a specific place was 2 years with People Inc. for mental health, but even with that I moved laterally within the company and worked for a different location after a year (though I probably would have stayed for awhile in the position I was in if my hours hadn't been eliminated and I was forced to apply to a different position that ended up being WAY better). Once I get that itch, it's impossible to ignore.

And I started writing this before I left for the day, and now I'm home and I think I got my final sign:

We as a staff are literally getting point sheets, basically. Click for a better view. But it is micromanaging to the extreme. This kind of thing makes me immediately say I'M OUT.

I've been taking a LOT of depression naps lately (no energy) and doing a lot of moping. I'm probably also depressed because of my knee problems and as a result I haven't been active in a month. I have an appointment with the orthopedist on Thursday.

The last week of school before winter break was a whirlwind of putting fires out and planning for the coming year. Students were crazier by the day, but in all honesty it wasn't nearly as bad as previous years. However, unfortunately, I appear to have decided that I don't want my current job after this year. Once my brain makes a decision about a job I have found it to be impossible to rid of. Even today, the second I got to work, I found myself pulling up the employment pages in the nearby districts. I think the problem I'm experiencing is endemic within Saint Paul, not just at Parkway. But for comparison, I got no emails from Nokomis over winter break, and by contrast at Parkway I got about 20.

It's funny, you watch all those inspiring documentaries about ghetto schools rallying, or you read books like Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire, and you think about how you wish you could be so amazing. You don't REALLY think about how those people literally dedicate their lives to that work. They eschew everything else for their job. I love making a difference and teaching is fun, but it is NOT my life. I do not live to work. All break I thought again, incredibly selfishly, about how wonderful it was not to work. GOD would that be the best life. Anyway.

My sister Bethany and I went to our first kickboxing class on that Friday, and it was really fun. We were both DYING and out of shape. There were only like 3 other people there, as it was right before Christmas. We got everything signed up and agreed to come at least once a week but twice a week is the goal.

Saturday night Steve and I exchanged gifts. I got him a Legend of Zelda engraved controller, a mashup hoodie of Dunkin Donuts and Donkey Kong, and a Gwendolyn figure from Odin Sphere that he's been dying to get for like 3 years. He got me a Twitch hoodie and an ITG shirt, both of which I wore constantly over break, a swift and winder, and the comics LIGHTS made to accompany her last album. It was a super awesome couples Christmas.

JWaid helped me make the vegan dessert cookies and those were awesome. Haley and I got drunk the night Noah left after spending the weekend with Steve and myself, and Noah really guilted me about being so busy that I didn't spend time with him. Haley spent the entire evening barraging JWaid with personal questions, and I was blown away that he answered them!!!! He's always been a super private person, but Haley is relentless. He finally lost his virginity and really likes this girl so I think that's spurred him into being more open. I learned way too much about his body and nether regions (not that I mind, it's just funny) and for the first time in the 9 years I've known him, he told us that he thinks that I'm hot. I legitimately have always thought he DIDN'T think I was attractive based upon the girls he's crushed on, both famous and not, and assumed he saw me like Harry saw Hermione - more of a big sister. That was surprising. It was really good to hang out with him, but I stayed up WAY too late before a big family event.

Sunday was Christmas Eve, and Steve and I drove out to my mom's house in the morning. It was a good time, pretty relaxed. We ate lunch potluck style, and I made this AMAZING vegan cheesy pasta. YUM. Gift giving was kind of a disaster with a lot of inexplicable duplicates, and Steve was soooo funny when Bethany was anxious about a dupe Steve probably got - he opened a tiny corner of each gift and said loudly "OHP! NO DOUBLES HERE!!!" and Bethany got all relieved and I could not stop laughing until she finally realized he was tricking her by being cute.

Steve and I needed to leave early in order to get up north at a reasonable time, as well as feed Nero and give him his shot. My parents were annoyed about it, but like, it's not our problem that Ann and Nicole didn't want to come over when our other family was there. The drive up north is like 4 hours and we needed to pack and stuff too. The drive up north was surprisingly easy, but it was damn cold out. All weekend it was -36* windchill.

The first night Steve and I played some Hearthstone dungeons for awhile, and continued some more the next day. I also worked on my knitting all weekend. We listened to a ton of Game of Thrones Book 4 on the way there and back. At Steve's sister's house we played white elephant (somehow Steve and I managed to get our gifts back AND Steve got a $10 gift card instead of random crap. It was funny). The rest of the time we spent with his niece and nephews, who are like 7 and 8.

During the week last week, we played A LOT of Hearthstone, I knit a bunch, I organized my yarn in new cubbies (and updated my ravelry with my needles and stash), and dyed my hair. We also got the Playstation VR and EVERYONE played a shit-ton of VR games. It's REALLY fun.

( Pics! )

Nick loved the scarf, by the way. He was VERY cute about it. I was awkward about it, as per usual. ^_^

That quote is from Nick Offerman's (Ron Swanson) book. I'm almost finished with it, and as has happened with every single non-fiction book I've listened to that is narrated by the author, I want to start it over again to relive the joy of listening to him speak and talk so frankly about his life. Other favorites include Amy Poehler and Anna Kendrick (her book I HAVE listened to twice). They're amazing, and funny.

HOW has it been a month. HOWWWWWWW. God there is too much to write about!!! How will I ever catch up?!?! Even now while I'm writing this, I feel like I don't have the time to. Ugh. So damn busy. Because of this, I have also fallen too far behind to catch up on the entire last month of reading my friends page. So sorry! I've kind of gotten bits and pieces over the last week but it's not enough and I hope you'll understand.

I just checked when my last entry was... I DIDN'T EVEN WRITE ABOUT ERDKINDER?! oh my god. Okay. I'm making a list for myself on entries I need to catch up on. In the meantime, things have been up and down.

I can't wait for winter break. It's simultaneously too far away and too soon. Too soon because there is so much to do. When I came back from Erdkinder there were FOUR new initial evals waiting for me, so stressed! Todd wants me to do some testing on a kid I don't know (which I'm doing tomorrow), mine and Tealie's class is coming apart at the seams (to be fair, the whole 6th grade is), and I'm gonna put Brian's head through a wall because he can't prioritize.

Example, he emailed me tonight saying that one of my students has an IEP that says she should be receiving all of her services in special ed but she only get's 11% pullout at this time, and he had the fucking nerve to say, "Is this something that will be revisited in her IEP meeting?" I went from zero to red zone immediately and started typing out a really bitchy response about 1. He was looking at the wrong IEP and 2. To mind his OWN FUCKING BUSINESS and worry about the students on HIS caseload, who are ALL having much more issues... before deleting it. Instead I called Tealie and vented and then just sent a terse response about the current IEP vs her old out of district IEP. Tealie said I should confront him in general about putting his nose in my business (and everyone else's) and acting like our boss when his own shit isn't getting taken care of.

On a good note, on Friday we had a college and career day for the 6th graders, and I brought in Courtney, who does graphic design work, and my vet Dr. Clinch. It was sooo much fun and it sounds like it went really well overall. They each got a couple thank you cards from kids, and the spellings were sooo damn funny. Dr. Clinch got "Dr. Flinch" on a card, and Courtney got 1 that was spelled Courtnie and another that was Quartney XDDDD She was so adorable grateful for the opportunity and said she had a lot of fun. It was really cute having her there. I thought her presentation itself was amazing, but she was pretty quiet and non-emotive when she was actually presenting. I was surprised, because she is really animated when talking generally, and anytime we were interacting during the day she was expressive and giggly, but even during her 3rd and 4th presentation she was still pretty quiet. Luckily students signed up for ones they were interested in, so the kids were able to deal with it, but I think it would have been better received if she had acted more excited and less like she was at a conference. Since she does graphic design as a job, of course her PowerPoint was insane with graphics (tastefully) and her art and color schemes were everywhere. It was really neat. I loved seeing her professional work. She also came up with an activity for kids to design their own logo at the end of the presentation using the three tips she gave. AND she created and printed a list of graphic design jobs that students could do in the future depending on their interests. She was great!

( College and Career Day! )

My math class has been going really well overall. Students are working on grade-level adding and subtracting integers, and I really like how they're doing. I bribe them with Goldfish crackers, but that's a small price to pay for some learning and work. I think it's all ending soon because we're creating a resource room and my name is on the schedule for one of the periods, which I assume means combining my two pullout math classes. That will likely be a disaster, as kids are split on purpose into each section to avoid conflict. It will be okay though. I've had worse.

Last week I had training in the evening two of the days 4pm-8pm and Tealie and I had a training during school another day. I was basically never home and the house became a complete disaster zone. So Saturday Steve and I deep cleaned and got some organization done. It's beautiful. The upstairs is so much bigger and nicer with the ITG machine not taking up the living room. We moved the bookcase upstairs that Ron made me when I was like 12, and it looks really good there. Steve and I have begun reading at the table during downtimes drinking tea or eating meals. Having the bookcase there really helps. We pared down the books we love and got rid of ones we don't. We put all our signed books on display on top of it too.

We've been playing a ton of ITG, and the other day I got FOUR new tri-stars (99%). It was awesome. I've been getting pretty good at ITG accuracy on the Officials. I should really start practicing for the upcoming tournament. The songs in that are very different from officials, but having good general accuracy helps. I'll be an insane amount better than I was a year ago. I might still be in the bottom tier at the tourney, but I'll have a fighting chance.

I've been obsessively watching health and food documentaries lately, and I realized this weekend that it's not about the information really anymore, I feel like I know a lot about that topic and how food interacts with the body, etc. and how to reduce cancer and other illness. It's that I just find seeing good food, particularly produce, inspiring to eat more. I love seeing the colors and arrangements and meals made with fruits and veggies. I like seeing sustainable farming and the passionate people in those jobs. I've doubled down on eating right for me, which looks like a crapton of greens (in smoothie form in the morning and a salad at night, plus embedded within my lunch), some sort of bean dish for lunch (this week it's lentils, last week it was chickpeas), and a bean or noodle dish for dinner (this week it's a pinto bean chili).

I really encourage people to check out The Blue Zones. I finished the audiobook and it makes a great case for living a long and healthy life.
( Food! )