Stupid is as stupid does.

Phone call home to my dad today (well, truth be told, I call him everyday, but this is an excerpt from today):

Dad, maybe you can just clarify this for me, but will I really have to deal with BS for the rest of my life? I thought just maybe that since I graduated from college, maybe, in graduate school, I might deal with MATURE and GROWN-UP people, but I guess I'm wrong. So really, will this be how the rest of my life is?


...Today was a good day, although the end, at class tonight, was a reality check for me. Sometimes I think my optimism can bite me in the butt (I can't think of any other phrase! :P). I've realized that while I may choose who I consider a close friend and the people I spend most of my time with, for the rest of my life, there will always be people who I have to interact with who on occasion drive me a little crazy.

Tonight was just one of those nights when it hit me, and it was kind of a bummer. There will always be people who don't grow up, despite the fact that many of us grow up far before we should. Maturity does not necessarily come with age.

...and while I do genuinely like 99.9% of people and I try to be open-minded (and I will also give the people who drove me a little crazy tonight 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and millionth chances if it comes down to it), I have to toss these quotes out there:

"Don't waste my time, cause I'll never get that back." -Nnnenna

"I hate stupidity." -Chris and Dad...perhaps it's a family motto?

I really do hate wasting my time, and I also hate stupidity. (FYI as far as I'm concerned, stupidity has nothing to do with actual intelligence. In fact, I know a couple extremely intelligent people who I would consider stupid in some respects).

Long story short, I don't want to be judgmental, but the truth is, that's the heart of this post. It's been a long day, I'm tired, and I'm venting. This is momentary judgment on my part, and I'm not necessarily proud of it, but at the same time, every now and then I have a day where this is how I feel. Tomorrow, I may feel different.



In other news, I have a kid who wore a fedora to school last week.

Crazies.

My voice is back!

Good news-I can talk. It hurts, but I can talk.

Bad news-Sleeping all this weekend means that the getting ahead I had planned to do=lots of catching up to do now.

This is just frustrating, because it means that instead of getting to recover, I'm just pushing forward and hoping I stay where I'm at and don't get sick again.

In many respects, I feel REALLY good, but in others, I'm bummed. It's stressful having all this stuff to do and feeling like there really isn't enough time in the day to get it done.

Example:
Today, I woke up at 6:35.
Left for school at 7.
Photocopied/set-up/etc. from 7:25-8.
School 8-3.
Staff meeting 3-4.
Grad school seminar 5-8.
Office Depot run, dinner, shower, work. 8:30-11.
11:12-Write a blogpost. :)
Time for bed.

**I recommend buying stock in Office Depot since I spend so much money there, surely stock will go up.

"Teacher, what's wrong with your voice? Do you feel bad?"

Well, we survived Friday. In fact, we did more than survive. I didn't have to move ANY clips on my behavior chart on Friday, which was VERY exciting. Everyone went home with a sticker and a pencil for being awesome.

However, I still cannot talk! In fact, it's worse! Yesterday I was able to make it through classes, but today I have barely been able to get out a whisper. Actually, I know it's bad to try to whisper, so I tried to talk normally when I asked my roommate to go buy honey for my tea, and my voice just comes out as a whisper!

The good news=I have no symptoms apart from losing my voice. I've coughed maybe twice today, and Thursday was the only night that my throat hurt. I had trouble swallowing food then, but the past two days I've been fine. I was actually very excited to go out this weekend and ENJOY being in San Jose since I don't feel as stressed by all the work I have ahead of me for teaching. Last weekend I felt quite the opposite!

The bad news is obviously that I still have no voice, and I have four days of teaching ahead of me. Plus, there really is nothing I can do except drink fluids and rest my voice.

So, fingers crossed that my voice will recover by Tuesday. Thank goodness for the long weekend!

Please send any magic cures for laryngitis my way!!

Easier but not easy

Each day is getting easier, but it's certainly not easy yet, and I don't expect it to ever be that way.

I am really proud of my students for how they have been making good decisions and helping each other, and while I feel that we have a challenging class, I can see how hard everyone is trying each day. I cannot wait to see how much my students grow and blossom this year, because I firmly believe each of them can be ready for 1st grade at the end of the year.

Also, I am very excited about the fact that the kindergarten team seems to be working together more. There are 8 of us, and for some reason, the team has never really worked together that well (or so I've heard from everyone). However, today, when my co-teacher left, she told me she hasn't felt this happy in a long time, and she really thinks that we are getting to a point where the 8 of us can make our classes great.

I told her I intend on being the glue that makes our team stick together. :) ...and she said she thinks I may be just the person to get us working as a team...so let's hope she's right, because I think if we're going to give ALL our kids the best start to school then we need to work together.

Off to bed.

(Oh, and by the way, I am currently driving a Jetta. It's odd having 4-doors on a car. Hopefully mine will be fixed by Friday...for those of you that don't know, someone made a 6-inch cut in the convertible top back in June. Pointless, but I had to get the entire top replaced so it's finally in the shop.)

September is...

September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness month.

Many of you may know this is a cause very near and dear to me, and the statistic I'll toss out this year is:

* The overall five-year relative survival rate for all women with ovarian cancer is 46 percent.
* However, the survival rate improves greatly to 93 percent if the cancer is diagnosed at an early stage before it has spread. Only 19 percent of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed at this local stage.

If you, your sister, your mom, (etc. etc.) are diagnosed early enough, the survival rate is FAR greater than the later stage diagnoses. If you don't know the symptoms, it's hard to know the questions to ask a doctor and to catch the disease early.

Friday, September 4th, is National Teal Day. "Teal is the ovarian cancer community’s color and serves as a reminder that ovarian cancer is the deadliest of all the cancers of the reproductive system and a leading cause of cancer death among women." (ovariancancer.org)

I hope you wear teal on Friday!

Oh, and by the way, I REALLY want this shirt. :) Perhaps when I finally get paid...


P.S. I am getting pretty darn good at making up songs for pretty much anything for my class.