Save-the-Date Prototype Front:



(Gold will be a background frame for a picture of us holding hands, focusing on the hands.)


Opens to:

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/2751/photo28ai2.jpg

(Pictures of us photo booth style with a sign that says "Save the", "Date", "August 22, 2009")

The purple insert doubles as a magnet, and will haev information printed on the back about hotels where we block out rooms and attractions to check out in the area.

I kind of sucked at doing my list this past year, so I'm trying to make it more doable. I did about half, but I like to shoot for 70% or better. I also tried to make more of them things that are measurable, which usually makes it a little easier to do them, rather than generic "Be less _____" or "Do more ________" goals.

Anyways, here's the list!

( 108 Things To Do... )

Also, this journal is friends-only, so comment to be added.

... there's never been anything false about hope.

- My neighbor had my RAM. They brought it over. I don't know why they signed for it when I was home. At least I got it. However, Apple overcharges and does a really dumb thing (sends you 2 chips of half the size instead of 1 chip of the full size.) I am thus mailing back the Apple RAM, and bought RAM through Best Buy for about $130 less. Best Buy was the worst customer service experience I've had in a very long time. Do not get me started.

- Installation was ridiculous. Really, I Mean, it was me AND Dan BOTH pressing down with the maximum force possible. I really mean maximum force possible; my fingers are slightly numb and dented still 24 hours later.

- That being said, SO WORTH ALL OF THAT. 2GB of RAM is awesome, and my computer can do so much more without a hitch, and I already had a pretty damn awesome computer with an awesome processor, and now I have 2 GB of RAM.

- School is going well. My students are still absolute hellions but cuter while being hellions and completely growing on me. I like this age far more than I originally thought that I would. I mean, I like teaching autism, period, but I never, in any of my thoughts of teaching, pictured myself teaching middle schoolers. Teaching middle schoolers is HARD, and far far far less people decide to teach middle school, even statistically speaking.

- Mercy NOT going so well. HATE HATE HATE towards everything that is Mercy. And especially towards people who have no effing clue what they are talking about, and yet are trying to tell me that I don't know. AKA teachers who have bad ratings telling me that I don't know about our autism kids; teachers who have never taught autism saying I don't know what is a best practice. STFU.

- I WANT to clean my apartment tonight, Monica-clean my apartment, because it needs it, and because I like doing that. But my energy levels are flagging far more than they should ---

- Probably because I have not remembered to take my vitamin for the past week. Bad me, bad me.

- It's a three day weekend. And that's awesome.

- I am SO playing WoW this weekend.

People are dumb. Someone stole my $200 package including 1GB of new RAM. They signed for it, but they are not me, nor do they live at my address. My RAM is off floating somewhere in the open world and I don't know where :(

exhausted and thus cranky, but a few things to say:

A) I've totally gone off my healthy-eating kick this month. Starting tomorrow, I'm going back on. High protein (well, normal protein, really... I've been eating low protein which is no good) and good carbs and veggies and fruit and fiber.

B) I need to also get back to the gym, or get that punching bag that I want, becuase I need WAY better stress management than "get cranky" or "eat tons of ice cream."

C) My kids are still crazy, but they're growing on me.

D) I'm ALMOST back to a normal life. I just have a crapload of stuff to laminate and velrcro tomorrow/Friday, and then I'm back to a normal life, where I only do schoolwork for maybe an hour outside of school each day, rather than an extra 25 hours a week (or more.)

E) I'll be able to play WoW again! I haven't played in weeks :( Dan bought it, and now we can play together! Except that I'm not sure when our characters will be in the same place and able to communicate, I might have to play one of my other characters.

F) My first Leadship Institute is this Saturday. Woohoo. The agenda is PACKED, but the post office is my friend. They lost the textbook I am supposed to read by Saturday, and so now I don't have to read it until after they give it to me. I love the Post Office (for losing stuff.) Did you ever think you'd hear someone say that??

G) Dan is awesome. I've been major stressed, snappish, cranky, and pretty much not myself, and probably not that much fun to be around, but he makes me smile and feel non-snappish, or at least nto feel too bad when I do snap (such as when my stupid printer kept interrupting Heroes, which was awesomely good.)

H) The new HOUSE was awesome. Without Cameron, Foreman, etc... House is why HOUSE is House. You will know what that means if you watch the show.

I) I'm $80 away from getting yoga mats for my students. If you want to donate (even $5 helps!) or know someone who might, pass along the link, it's tax-deductible:

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=110732

http://teachersnetwork.org/tnli/fellows/newyorkfellows.htm



More of an update later?

The end of the second week, and things are still difficult. My students are adorable, still, but very energy-consuming. It was only a 3 day week, and yet I was exhausted Wednesday night into Thursday. I have lists and lists of things to do this weekend, and I've barely made dent into them. However, hopefully I will get the biggest priorities done, and I still have two and a half days in which to do so.

Tonight's goals are to work on outlining where I want to go and what I want to teach this year, which shouldn't take too long due to having my curriculum. Also, between doing centers 3x/week, and workstations 2x/day, there are not that many group lesson periods... A couple of periods for mini-lessons each week, a couple periods for full lessons with guided practice, and a couple of cooking periods. That's it.

My other goal is to get the furniture that I no longer want out of my house this evening, so that I can properly clean my apartment this weekend. Everything is almost done as far as the redecoration. I still need to get a bookshelf! And Dan has another shelf to hang up, as well as 2 wall lights. Then, done! I cannot wait!!!!

I gave Dan his birthday present last night! It is a Photo Replica of Kermit! It's the official replica, so it is made of very similar materials and the same design as the puppet that is used in all the photographs. I've been so excited and waiting, waiting, waiting for it to come so I can watch Dan open it! He loved it! I put pictures on Facebook. I also went to dinner with Dan's family in NJ, the same place as Thanksgiving last year. It went really well, I think! I am glad that his family likes me and enjoys having me take part in things, and I'm glad that I am more comfortable --- last Thanksgiving, I was pretty much terrifiedly nervous, haha. Much better this year.

And so I should get back to doing some work, or at least pretending to do so.

My students are amazingly adorable, but so entirely completely obnoxious. I say this with the utmost love for them. But it is true, nonetheless, they are obnoxious. One made donkey hee-haw noises, continuously, throughout the day. At a loud decibal. On top of kicking and spitting, ripping work, destroying glue, amongst other things. Continuously. Another refused to do his work, even though he was perfectly capable, and instead of doing his work -- spitting, eating glue, eating chalk, putting other students in the closet, screaming, running around, eating paper, and so on and and so on. A third refused to do his work or anything else. Out of four.

They exhaust me. Beyond exhaust me. Overwhelm me.

I felt like crying at the end of today, because I simply was just so completely blahhed out. Completely overwhelmed and ridiculous. Chaotic. My room is chaos, there is no other word for it. I've got a thousand things to do, and my list just keeps getting longer.

On the bright side, although my room feels chaotic and I feel like I have no control, things must be going better than my perfectionist self seems to believe. Last week, my substitute paraprofessional said that she really enjoyed being in my room for the two days and would love to come back. Today, one of my crisis paraprofessionals told me that she does not give compliments often, but I really seem to have my stuff together, be on top of things, and know what I'm doing, and that she thinks this is going to be a good year, and that I'm one of the best teachers she has worked with in years and years. High praise.

But it still feels like chaos.

It is hard to believe that the weekend is 3/4 of the way over, just one afternoon and evening left. Time flies! Next weekend will be awesome, with the whole four day weekend business, although I could potentially be spending one of my days off at the Social Security office and the DMV. And the whole getting-ready-for-school to REALLY start (no more assessment activities, but actual lessons) business. I actually am looking forward to that, because it is hard to keep coming up with more and more filler activities, although this week we are going to go over names and procedures the way last week we went over rules and making good choices.

I worked out a schedule that will hopefully help me to manage my adorable hooligans, especially once they really start to get into the routine of things. They really need to be into a set schedule, but it's hard to do when you are first meeting them and especially since I had no idea what I was walking into. As soon as we get back frmo the four day weekend, though, it will be routine-routine-routine, so hopefully by the first week of October, they will be into the flow of things.

As far as non-school, we celebrated Dan's birthday yesterday by going to Modest Mouse and the Jekyll & Hyde club. Modest Mouse concert was definitely awesome. The venue that was holding the concert was at a park, where there used to be a giant pool. It was an interesting experience, and had kind of a picnic, BBQ in the park, summertime feel. The first opener was crappy, but Love as Laughter was pretty good, and Modest Mouse was awesome. The lead singer, though, is one odd duck, and I have no idea what he was talking about during ANY of his audience banter, except when he was talking about falling over an amp. They are definitely one of those bands that are better in person, not to say that the CDs are bad, but they just are pretty rock out live. While it was no Decemberists (could anything ever be?), it compared favorably to Zero 7/Sia, which was, in and of itself, and awesome concert last year.

Afterwards, we went to the Jekyll & Hyde club, which is this place near Central Park that Dan really loves, and is generally awesome, though slightly expensive, so perfect for special occasion meals and celebrations, more than the casual and light dinner. (Be warned, get cash out beforehand! They don't take most cards and their ATM charges $3/transaction.) Anyways, I ordered a drink from the bar, and it was a Midori-based drink. I drink Midori Melon drinks (such as the Midori sour) almost every time I do go out, and can generally handle them well, for me. I'm definitely a lightweight, but I can usually have 3-4 Midoris in a 2-3 hour period, if I drink water liberally along with it, without having ANY effect on me, really. However, I did NOT have water and the drink I ordered was about 3x the size as my usual Midori --- and had Vodka and Triple Sec mixed in. I did not handle it as well as I thought I would, haha.

So needless to say, by the time we left, I was pretty much a giggling mess, who was saying every fleeting thought that passed through my head. The good news is that when I get tipsy --- or beyond tipsy into drunk as it were --- I don't get mean or agitated or anything, I just get very silly. And I laugh. A lot. I also do get a bit clumsier, and I'm already clumsy to begin with. However, I tend to only have this happen when I'm with Dan, as I am very, very careful about what I drink and how much water I drink when I'm out without Dan. Anyways, I was laughing like crazy, announcing the subway stops, declaring that hair places should be open 24/7 for hair emergencies, talking about Harry Potter in a pseudo-English accent, and very, very insistent that we get Indiana Jones on DVD, amongst other things. I don't remember most of the silly things that I said, but I do remember that Dan said at one point he needed to start writing these down, and that he could not wait to tell Jenny and Grace about this. I also know that I logged on to the Internet when I got home and gave Dan a gift on Facebook --- a teapot, with the message, "Happy teapot!"

Hahahaha.

Oooh, I think I am going to get an iPhone. It was not worth it at $500, too many problems that hneeded to be ironed out, and not enough love for the whole touchscreen screendirtyfromgreasyfingers thing. However, at $300? SO MUCH MORE interesting an idea to me. I need to get a new phone this Fall anyways, because mine is on the verge of being completely broken (I keep my phones for two years and they tend to be rough around the edges at the end.) The only thing that I am concerned about is that Cingular will want a huge deposit --in order for me to get an account there by myself - if they do, I'm not going to go for it, because I can just stick with Verizon --- and stay on my mom's family plan. The other thing is that most people I know have Verizon, so right now I have free texts and minutes to all of them. But I won't. Still, iPhone for only $300.

EDIT: Holy shenanigans, I Just realized why my kids are SO INSANE, full of energy, and ridiculous... I was trying to figure out why my older students, even though they had plenty of bad behaviors, energy, and needed mucho prompting and redirection, were easier to control right from the start, easier to direct, while these kids are hoollligans. Lovely, adorable, entertaining hooligans, but hooligans nonetheless... And I realized --- autistic or not, they are still pre-teens, adolescents, on the cusp of turning 13. This is like the craziest, most rambunctious, most out of control age that there is to teach, whether Gen Ed or SPED, from everything I've heard, and from my own experience of being that age and watching my sisters go through that age. The start of being a teenager! They are going to be quite the (adorable) handful! At least now, having realized that, I can keep it in mind when working with them each day!

Today was the end of the first week of school, and it has been great. My paraprofessionals seem to be amazing, although due to unfortunate circumstances, I did not see much of some of them this week. I love my new school, in that the Assistant Principal is not scary and bitter (as was my last AP) and the unit teacher is more no-nonsense but in a great, insanely helpful, really on top of things kind of way. The coteachers are pretty cool, although one of them and I got into an insanely heated debate in the staff room today, but that's because it was an insane debate --- how can someone who knows nothing about politics attempt to debate ME, who is an avid follower and passionate political science major? I tried to stay cool and calm, but she was goading me and I fell for it, gah. Unfortunately, she is not the way Eddie (the 226 ESL teacher) is, where he goaded me deliberately but it was all in good fun and interesting and awesome, but in a way that made me feel irritable and blah.

Anyways, my students are absolutely adorable, but are also quite the handful. I only had half of the class this week, but it exhausted me nonetheless. I cannot even imagine what it will be like when there are all six! (And yes, they did ALREADY fill my open spot, of course.) It is nonstop behavior issues. I'm really not exaggerating on that, either, and then they feed off each other, and it's just a crazy cycle of all kinds of behaviors. It's hard to even figure out what to address first, or isolate something enough to determine the cause.

They are generally lower-functioning than the students I had last year for the most part, especially in the limits on their attention span. Because of this, it is also quite the struggle to get them to sit and attend to lessons, especially in the afternoon. I think that I need to schedule in more breaks, but the hard thing is that it can be very, very difficult to get them back from breaks --- and I have also yet to discover any kind of "choice time" activity that actually interests them. I think I am going to try to plan most of our hands-on activities for the afternoon due to that, such as community walks, cooking twice a week, hopefully going to the gym once a week, but that is only a partial solution, if it is a solution at all. And it's not just the afternoons that are the problem --- it's just that the afternoons are far worse.

That being said, I love them, already. They are incredibly cute, and I think have a lot of potential, if people would stop teaching them the same inappropriate crap and teach them some stuff that is new, age-appropriate, meaningful --- and more importanty, challenging but not over their heads. Cut the crap on the still matching color to color for hours each day! Let's take those little skills and put them to use in some real life scenarios!

In non-school news, as if that exists, nothing too much. Dan's birthday is today (Happy Birthday!) but I did not get to see him :( However, Modest Mouse concert is tomorrow, and that should be fun. I also have to do laundry and some other crap tomorrow, in the morning. Although I think I MAY have just enough clothes to make it until Thursday (no school!), should I not get to the laundromat. I have craploads worth of stuff to do for school, but most of it is stuff that can wait until the four day weekend, so that is awesome. What cannot wait is calling UPS and Goodwill --- yet I of course forgot to do that!

Tomorrow is the first day of school, and I'm more than a little anxious. Strangely enough, I may be more anxious than I was last year, and that was my first year of teaching. However, I knew more going into the game last year. I had previously established relationships with some of the staff and students, due to working at the school over the summer, and the atmosphere was much more laidback. This is not to say that being laidback was a good thing, because it also meant that the students are being shortchanged in many areas.

But this school is different, and it's wonderful. They are much more no nonsense and expect the best. They have been labeled an exemplary school. This, however, means that I have a lot to live up to. I'm sure that I would be fine if I stayed the same as last year, but I cannot. I want to be better, do more, and live up to my own high expectations as well.

This does mean, though, that I have plenty of work to do. More than I ever had to do last year, because I want my room to be better and done now. I found through the course of last year that if I wanted something to be a part of my classroom, it really needed to be done right away, at the beginning of the year, or at the beginning of a semester, because otherwise, school happens. You get swept away in the lesson planning and the paperwork, and there is no time to do all those other things. The list of things that I want to do is kind of overwhelming, and the first few weeks will be very crazy.

This is what stresses me out so much, though, I have so much to do!

And on top of all these things that I have to do, I am walking into unfamiliar territory in so many ways. I don't really know anything about my paras, and their style seems very different from the style that I am familiar with and comfortable with. The school atmosphere is different, and everything is done very differently. I am learning and unlearning everything at the same time. Furthermore, I know little to nothing about any of my students. Once again, overwhelming.

I'm also trying to decide whether to purchase a set of books. It is a book of TEACCH workstations and such. I think that it could be very beneficial and helpful, plenty of brainstorming and takeoff points, but it also costs $130. I ordered one book on the TEACCH methodology by the TEACCH people, so hopefully that will help me know a little better how to organize things.

Today is the second day of school, and I am nervous. While the switch remains a good thing, it also is something that makes me feel quite lost and lonely. At my old school, I was known and loved by everyone, as I also knew and loved (almost) everyone. Here, I know no one, and am not loved and respected yet. At breakfast yesterday, I sat all alone, and felt so eh. The workshops went well, and were not the worst thing at all. I met two of the other classroom teachers for my site, but they will both be teaching 12:1:4, which is not the same, and I'm not sure if they liked me or not, as I am more prepared and that seemed to be weird to them. I hope so, though, because they seem fairly nice, and are young, and it would be good to know and make good friends at my new school.

Today I will be meeting my paras, and learning some things about my students, and it makes me nervous. We will be decorating the classroom and arranging the furniture, and I am very good at these things and can be trusted to manage them very well. My new paras will not know that, and will, I'm sure try to get me to keep the same arrangement and everything as has always been in there. This might be fine, as I have not seen the room, or it might not. But I am never good at asserting myself first, not when I am just meeting people. I like to build a relationship, get along, and then assert myself. So I am nervous.

I have one more day off. This is awful. Vacation ended so quickly, it seems. Here, then gone. I guess it is that whole "time flies when you're having fun" thing, and I had such a great time off, but it has been so great that I want more! Just another week would be perfect, and then I'd be ready.

I have done not much to get ready for going back to school, but I know little about the students, not even most of their first names, and really need to see their IEPs before I can plan much of anything. I also need to see my classroom before I can design too much for my classroom. I made bulletin board signs, but that's it. I don't know what size to put anything. Friday will be a very, very busy day and night.

Luckily, as far as curriculum, I just have to plan some assessment activities for the first week or so, because thanks to my curriculum, I already have an outline of what I would like to teach this year. Unfortunately, I have not worked on my curriculum much over break, but I think I needed a break from all of it, really. Mercy, teaching, curriculum work, all of it. I did nothing much of anything for the past two and a half weeks, and I feel all the more relaxed and refreshed because of it.

In non-school anxiety-anxiety news, Dan took me to IKEA and bought me things for my apartment for my birthday. It was such a nice, nice gift, and I feel so much better about my apartment! It's a place to relax and unwind and feel comfortable now, with everything organized and where it belongs, as well as bright and colorful!

We got a new chair that is way more comfortable than the one I had, a new desk wth storage, some pillows and blankets, new curtains, and little things here and there. We still have to get a new desk chair and bookshelves, and a curtain rod --- as well as some frames for my artwork. We thought we found a bookshelf, but there was no way to fit it in the car, so I have to go somewhere and get two little bookshelves instead. I also got new art for my room from D.C., and picture frames, and it just looks so much better. Once all those things are done, I am going to take lots of pictures and post them up, because it looks so nice (gracias gracias gracias mi amor) and I want to show it off!!

Vacation was so great! It was incredibly nice to spend so much time with Dan, and was generally a very happy, lovely, wonderful time, with lots of smiles and laughter and closeness, and little moments that can be described as nothing less than perfect. It was a fantastic way to celebrate my birthday, our anniversary, and just being around each other. We spent a lot of time in the car on the first day, but we made it to the beach early enough to spend the evening browsing the Boardwalk, sitting on the beach at night, and to see someone crazy preaching about Jesus in front of sand castles in the shape of Jesus and Moses (I think?). The sand castles were pretty awesome, despite the overall fundamental craziness, but I wish there had been cool sand castles that were not tainted by that craziness --- they would have been even cooler.

After that, we went to DC, where Dan found this amazing hotel. Amazing. It was so nice and luxurious, with this crazy fluffy bed, a flat screen television, and an oh so comfy divan for reading. I wanted to steal the bed, or at least the pillows. We did not do much in DC on Friday, but we did go outside of DC to meet one of Dan's friends that he had not seen since graduation. She was very nice, and funny. It was a very calming and peaceful evening, in which I had the most delicious chocolatey coca-cola-y starbucks something alcohol something drink as well. I was going to share, but then it was so good that I drank it all, oops, haha.

On Saturday, Dan and I went to the Spy museum, and the National Gallery. I love art museums, although I am still not too big a fan of most modern art. Or post-modern art, perhaps is a better term. I'm not sure, as my Art History studies usually ended around Impressionism. I enjoy things such as Van Gogh and Picasso, but the later stuff with just blocks of color that a 6 year old could do... It's harder for me to understand the brilliance of it. I do like the Museum of Modern Art here in NYC, though, which is why I think it must be post-modern stuff that I do not like... We got artwork for my apartment, and saw some Degas, Van Gogh, O'Keefe (who always makes me smile a bit), and Monet. It was a little more confusing to navigate than the Met for some reason to me, but it was nice all the same.

We saw The Bourne Ultimatum (brilliant, by the way) and I accidentally got swindled out of $5 by a man who may or may not have been homeless. In order to get away from the creepy man (who asked us how well we knew the area) we crossed paths with the Washington Monument, which led to visiting many monuments, as I had not seen any of them -- WWII monumnet, Vietnam War Memorial, Lincoln... Then I got dressed up to go out to dinner. We did not go anywhere fancy, but it was fun to dress up nonetheless!

On Sunday, we went to the Zoo. It was great, but we forgot any sort of timekeeping device, and accidentally spent a couple more hours at the zoo than had been originally intended. This meant also that I was kind of dehydrated, and very hot and tired when we left, which makes me cranky :( Other than that, the zoo was nice, EXCEPT that I did not get to see the baby panda, although I did get a giant stuffed penguin. Because we spent too much time at the zoo, we did not get to go to the art museum that we intended originally to see, and went ot the Smithsonion Museum of Natural History instead.

Monday, we went to the Holocaust Museum, which I have wanted to see for years, but had never been able to do. It was very heart-breaking and sad, but I'm glad it is there, and I'm glad that it seems to always be busy, and that people are hearing these stories, and hopefully thinking long and hard about it. What made me the saddest, though, was one of the other nonpermanent exhibitions, where trends in antisemitism were explored including up to the current day. It is so hard for me to understand how people can feel such things, think such things, and act on such things, ever, but especially in this day and age... It makes me mad, frustrated, sad, and upset.

And then it was time to check out, so we had to hit the road. We hit a really cool restaurant on the way back, and IKEA, althoguh we still have to go to the IKEA on Long Island. I think I will really be very very happy with my apartment once Dan and I finish it. It will make it a lot easier to stay here through the winter, way more comfortable and content. It also will all be stuff that I can take with me whenever or wherever I eventually move.

By the end of the trip, I really did not want to come home, wanting delays to come up whenever possible, and was rather kind of sad when we got back. Vacation was so lovely, and for it to end... it was a very bittersweet feeling, at least for me. Being alone in my apartment at night last night was just not as nice as reading a book while leaning my head on Dan's shoulder, and the 66* temperature with gray, cloudly, overcast skies today is not helping with that whole feeling.

I forgot my camera in the car for most of the trip, so I have to wait for Dan to give me a disc of pictures before I can share any of them, but hopefully I will get the disc soon. I have a few pictures on my camera, but my camera is not charging for some reason :( :( :(

Anyways, I do have lots of stuff to do over the next week before school starts back up, from going to Atlantic City to fixing up my apartment to getting ready for school, which is also bittersweet. I am looking forward so much to starting at a new school, meeting my new students, and being back at work, but this vacation has been so wonderful in so many ways, that it seems almost like a dream, and I don't want the dream to end. I'm just not ready for it to end yet.

Sleeping late is the best, but it makes me be less productive overall... I missed my haircut appointment today :( but I have been doign a little exercise every day, at least. Not necessarily bad, considering it IS vacation, but I do have some things that I must do eventually...

Like get ready for school for the upcoming year --- the current debate is whether I would like my students to keep their classwork in folders, binders, or those foldfolio things. A silly small decision, it seems, I am sure, but it can make a big difference on whether the classwork is actually organized or not. Last year we just put work in folders in a desk, btu then I had to sort it by subject myself constantly --- I'd rather them stay on top of it, I'm just not sure whether different colored labelled dividers, a labelled folderfolio thing, or a different colored folders is the best manner. I know that it will depend upon the students, but there are some things that would work more universally than others. And there are some things that have to be done regardless of the students --- lesson plan for the first few days (assess! assess!), signs for the classroom, organizing everything to take back to school...

In other news, tomorrow (my birthday! holy shenanigans! 22!) we are leaving on vacation, and it is going to be so much fun, I think. Ocean City sounds so awesome, with a perfect little Boardwalk --- including Boardwalk beach food, ferris wheels, nighttime bonfired, putt putt golf and lots more. I'm not exactly sure what we will be doing there, or in DC, but I'm sure it will be great either way. It's going to be such a great trip!

It is hard to believe that a whole year has already gone by... Time just goes by quicker and quicker. 22 feels weird to say. It's not that I think it is old or anything, as it so obviously is not, but it just sounds different. It sounds grown up, less party-party than 21 does. Not that I was ever a party-party person, but you know what I mean? How some ages just sound older, even though they aren't really at all? I mean, before I was the only person my age out of college that I knew, now everyone my age is out of college, for example. Anyways, it was a great year, and I'm hoping for an even better one coming up, if that is possible!

Feels strange to be out of school. Very short vacation though --- only 13 working days off... Far from the whole "two to three month vacation" that most people cite as a reason for teaching. Not too much stuff to do, so I get to sit around, read books, watch TV, etc... All I really have to do is some laundry, get my haircut, return some library books... That's really it. Some stuff to prepare for the new school and new students.

Usually I would get sick of that pretty quickly, but I haven't really had more than one working day off since Christmas that I could actually enjoy --- February break was stressed because of the feces student and class changes, and Spring Break was filled with mononucleosis induced bedrest. I have a feeling that it will go by far too fast!

Very hard to remind myself to keep up the working out and eating well. I want to be on vacation from everything, including eating right and dieting. LUCKILY, I do not have too much junk food, so once my chocolate chip cookies are gone, I'll be out of junk! I may very well eat all the rest of them today, though... On the bright side, at least then I will be out of junk food.

Weekend has been fabulous like crazy. Awesome day with Dan: Central Park, Museum of Natural History, Serendipity, hanging out, general wonderfulness. I got a stuffed penguin, and it is adorable... The Mythic Creatures exhibit was interesting, but I wish a few of the things had been more expansively exhibited, and I really wish that we had been allowed to take pictures. I'm not sure why they have a rule that you cannot, but it was quite unfortunate --- pictures with unicorns, dragons, sea monsters, and giant birds would have been tres cool.

On Thursday, we are leaving for vacation. It's going to be so much fun! We are going to the ocean for a day even, on our way to DC,and I am beyond thrilled. I have not been to the ocean once this whole summer, and it's been killing me. It's going to be the most amazing time --- I've only ever been on vacation with family, which generally means stress, crying, and drama, but instead this is with Dan, which means romantic and sweet and fun and brilliant. What a wonderful way to spend my birthday and the week and the weekend!!

Ooooh, Dan and I also swung by the Apple store yesterday... I almost replaced the remote for my laptop but I do not think it is really necessary, as I have made it a year without it --- especially when it is $30 for nothing really. I did, however, made the mistake of picking up World of Warcraft. I did not think that I would really be into it, because I tried playing a mmorpg once before, in Final Fantasy, but I could not get into it... Too complicated and the graphics were not that awesome. I do know several people who love WoW, though, and have been recommended it on multiple occasions. It took five million hours for me to install it (whoa patches) but I started playing it this afternoon.

And thus the reason I say, "made the mistake" of purchasing it. I totally played for like four and a half hours, and want to play more more more. Combine that with my six servings of cookies today, yuck, yuck, yuck me. I am going to do some kickboxing later, though, so at least hopefully I will not GAIN weight this week. Back on track tomorrow!!!

What the hell, New York, what the hell? Yes, it rained hard. Yes, the thunderstorms were so insane that I did not sleep well. Yes, there may have been a tornado.

But what the fuckin hell?

This morning, because of "flooding" pretty much all trains in New York City were suspended from running service. No one was told this until they reached the subway, and then they were redirected to alternate routes --- only to find these also suspended. The rain stopped at 7AM. Yet, when I left school at 3PM, EIGHT HOURS LATER, only 4 or 5 trains were running their regular routes, and these were with heavy delays. Many, if not all, of the rest had suspensions and diversions and overall difficulties. It caused a nightmare of a morning, and not that pleasant of an afternoon.

My morning? I catch the N at 7AM, which is earlier than usual, but I figure that I can have time to get stuff for field day. Only I sit on the N in Queens for FIFTY MINUTES --- the ride from Ditmars to Queensboro usually takes about 8 or 9 minutes, fifteen at most. We find out at Queensboro that the N is not going to be running into Manhattan, and to switch to the 7. I attempt to switch to the 7 but five other cancelled Queens trains are now also using the 7. In order to fit on the 7, I stood in a contortionist type bend and twist for twenty or twenty-five minutes (3 stops, by the way. It should not have taken so long.) It pained me. I then get out to switch at Grand Central Station for the 4/5/6, only to discover that NO 4/5/6 trains are running. This is bad enough news but I then find out that nearly all trains are suspended, and you are urged to take the bus service. Only wait --- when you wait for the bus, you find that the buses are virtually full, and the wait lines for the buses last for BLOCKS. There is also very very few empty cabs to be found. I cannot go home. And I have spent an hour and a half at this point trying to get to school, so I walk. I walk over 2 miles to get to school (beyond my normal 1 mile each way day). I am not going to the gym today.

This is nothing, though. My friend Lisa had to take a bus, because she was coming from 180s. She sat on the subway for an hour before giving up, and then waited for a bus. She took a bus from 168th street --- and ended up spending literally four and a half hours on the bus in order to get to school. Oh yeah, all the buses continued to charge each and every person as well, which kind of annoys me, that given everything, they could not suspend that too for a bit. Another person at my school, coming from the same area, ended up walking all the way from 86th street and 7th (my school is at 15th and 1st), because it was impossible. Jenny did not even make it in; there were no trains out of Brooklyn, and there are very very few buses that run from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Erica had the same problem --- after being told to try three different lines (all of which were not running by the time she got to them), she tried to get a cab. And had to race someone in order to beat them to the cab and grab it, because she stood there for a very long time with NO EMPTY CABS.

This would not irritate me so much were it truly a very rare scenario, something that never happens. However, on the N/W, and often the F/V/R/E, this is not a one time occurance. I have lived in NYC barely over a year and have had suspensions and diversions due to rain at least 6-7 times, sometimes meaning that I get home an hour and a half or more later than I usually would, always at least 45 - 60 minutes later than usual. And I say at least, because I have not kept count and it could very well likely be far more than that. I can predict with near certainty days that I will have trouble getting home, and I wonder --- with so many years of using this system, with so many updates and construction and new things, they cannot put in better freaking drainage?

I also wonder --- this is because of rain, and the city stopped. What would happen if we were attacked at the subway? Are we at all able to handle it? It truly is the heart of NYC, and without it, nothing can really turn. The city stops. People cannot get to work. It is a nightmare. A freaking nightmare.

Unfortunately the heat index is climbing sort of high here, and so our field trip today and tomorrow was cancelled. I am unsure exactly as to why it was cancelled; when I walked home, it really did not feel so bad, and I don't believe it came anywhere close to the predictions. Either that, or growing up in Virginia has numbed me to the pain of a heat wave. The heat index in Richmond (VA) is 110 today, and that is not really that outlandish. I mean, it is awful, but the 90s are normal in the summer, and the humidity is awful, so heat indexes of the high 90s at the least are not entirely uncommon.

However, I am so eternally grateful for having air conditioning this summer. Last summer I made it through without AC, but I am not entirely sure how I did it. I just remember laying on my bed and doing absolutely nothing, because my body was so "Ugh." Inside the apartment tends to be far worse than outside, because the air is trapped, and stagnant. But not with the AC.

In other news, I have three days left before I leave my lovely 226 students, and it's making me terribly sad. I am not as sad about my colleagues, because I know I will be seeing most of them with regularity, due to kickboxing. But my students... It's sad. It's good, that I am going, and I am so excited about the new school, but it is sad nonetheless. I did find out some information about the class that I will have in the Fall. So far there are only five students, but the sixth spot is likely to fill up. As of now, there are two girls, and two students with the same name. All of them are just turned 12 or about to turn 12. Babies in comparison to my big big guys that I had this year.

I asked my landlord if I could have a second cat, because Kinsey's laziness is going to extremes. He was never like this when he had another pet to play with, and I think he would really benefit from a companion. They said no. They also did it in a slightly nasty way. Everyone said to sneak one in, but I live in an apartment where my landlord knows everything --- I am under watch, basically. I've been contemplating moving, because it would be nice to be able to have a studio that is slightly bigger, or even a 1BR, or at least landlords that don't watch me, but I don't want to pay a broker's fee. There is a slight chance that my para might rent out his spare apartment to me when his friend moves out of it in November, and so far that is by far my best offer --- a 2BR directly in the middle of the East Village, at no more than $950/month, because if it is higher than that, I will just find a roommate and split it. He doesn't ask more than $1500 - $1600, and that's amazing for the location and all that is included.

If I do not get that, I guess I will sit tight until next summer and then move. Either way though, I have to get the walls here back to their perfection. I need to get some stuff to spackle paint it, because the mounting tape that was supposed to be for walls does not seem to want to come off, and even where it comes off, it leaves marks. And my landlord will so charge me for that. (Does anyone have any tips?) I think that's really the only thing that they could complain about. I keep things pretty neat --- it doesn't look like that right now due to the 5000 bags of stuff that I have for Goodwill, but my apartment is clean and organized for the most part.

I guess that is really all of my news!