Long Week

Last week seriously was one of the longest weeks ever. It seemed that it would never reach Friday. And once it did reach Friday, Friday never seemed to end. Now it is before 8 am on Sunday morning, and I am bright eyed and bushy tailed and annoyed. I paid one of my credit card bills on Friday with the hope that it would clear before today so I could go grocery shopping. Sadly, it did not clear yet so it looks like I'm going to have to go grocery shopping sometime during the week. If you have caught on to anything from reading this blog, you know that during the week I am usually too tired to do just about anything. But seeing as I have very little food in my refrigerator (but I have plenty of Lean Cuisines so I may be ok for lunch for a couple of days) this was not what I wanted to wake up to on Sunday morning.

One of my teacher friends and I teach the same prep. We got together a couple of weeks ago and planned out what we were going to do each day through the first week in March. It has been great having a general idea of what I am doing everyday. And I thoroughly appreciate it now, seeing as I don't have to scurry around trying to decide what I am going to do each day during my first two blocks. The one thing that I wish we had done was go through and make our PowerPoints and what not. While copying and pasting is not such a huge deal, it would be nice to have all of that done as well.

Another of my teacher friends went shopping yesterday and had on the CUTEST outfit when we went to dinner last night. She went to my home base, NY & Company, and got a lot of cute stuff. She said that most of their spring line is out right now. I will be making my way to the mall at some point today. Especially since I cannot go grocery shopping like I had anticipated.

Last week I had the pleasure of talking to my cooperating teacher, whom I miss dearly. She really did become one of my closest friends. We are very much alike, but very different, so we work together as friends very well. I miss her and all my students from last year so so SO much. Apparently, she has not been as lucky this year with having as good of an experience as she had last year. I mean, I was her first student teacher and, let's be honest, I did set the bar pretty high. :)

I feel like everything over the past week has really just annoyed me. I don't know if it's because I'm really tired or that I have no money or that I am just becoming more easily annoyed. But I mean EVERYTHING was annoying me: people, things, places, my car, my apartment, everything. It's been very strange. I may take this week to just refresh and rejuvenate and lay low. I don't have any money to go do anything until I get paid again in the middle of the month, so the next two weeks will be very nice to just sort of relax and get back to normal. The new semester has sort of taken me by surprise.

On another note, Happy Birthday to my parents!!! Mom's b-day was Thursday and Dad's is tomorrow. Hope the days are wonderful!! Miss and love!

A Week of Venting

I have had plenty to vent about this past week. While it was exciting to get a new group of students, get my new purse in the mail, and enjoy my fourth block planning that I have this semester, many thing have certainly not gone my way.

1. My eyebrow dilemma. I have been been getting my eyebrows done by a professional since I was in the eighth grade. I have always had multiple options for where to go right around the corner from where I live. When I was at Clemson, I typically just waited until I went home to visit my parents to get my brows done. Since I have relocated, I have only ventured to two different locations. One was a local salon that did a semi-decent job. It was not horrible, but I just felt like I could have gotten more bang for my buck. At the suggestion of one of my fellow teachers, the next time I was due for an "arch," as opposed to just a wax, I went to Ulta. Now, Ulta was certainly a bit more expensive, but the girl did SUCH a fabulous job that I was totally okay with paying twenty dollars for my brows. WELL, I am about 2 weeks overdue for a brow arch. I went into Ulta on Monday and the girl was not in. So I made an appointment for Wednesday. On Wednesday when I arrived at Ulta, I was thoroughly annoyed that the eyebrow girl had been sent home because she was sick. AND THEY DIDN'T EVEN CALL to let me know that she was not in. I was pissed. So I was planning to try somewhere in the little town where my school is located, but I was hesitant to do that. So I tried Ulta AGAIN on Friday after school. Much to my chagrin, the eyebrow girl was still sick. So here I am, with no eyebrow arch and a thoroughly annoyed attitude.

2. My common cold. I have been coughing and nursing a runny nose for about a month now. This is probably due to the cold weather and the fact that I try to keep my heat on only when I get home after school and not when I sleep. My cold has gone from a sore throat to a mere dry cough, which in my opinion is worse than actually being sick-sick. I have been using Halls Defense cough drops, which work sometimes, and taking Mucinex before I go to bed. But seriously, I'm just ready for the cough to go away.

3. My Internet dilemma. For the past two weeks, I have been having issues connecting to my internet network. Instead of connecting to my actual network, my computer has been trying to connect me to the guest-version of my network. It is thoroughly annoying and has prohibited me from completing a lot of my day to day activities, such as email, weather updates, Facebook, etc. I have unplugged both my modem and router, to no avail. And when I called my internet provider, they told me I needed to call the router company because they don't really deal with the internet connection. Needless to say, again, I was thoroughly annoyed.

While these things may seem minor, they have certainly managed to damper my mood severely. Hopefully all of these things will improve over this coming week. I'm ready for the semester to get underway and to continue with my first year of teaching!

Bag Addict

I am what you may call a bag addict. I love purses and accessories almost more than clothes. When I was in high school, I feel like I carried a different purse every week. My first year and a half of college was the exact same thing; I switched bags depending on the season. My sophomore year of college, though, I received a bag that I would carry for the next 3 and a half years of my life: The Longchampe Le Pliage.

I absolutlely LOVED this bag. I believe one of my sorority sisters purchased one and it struck my eye. I got the large size and this bag served not only as a purse, but as a school bag for my last two years of school. Well, unfortunately, my wonderful bag has met its demise. The corners of this bag, because of the continual use everyday for the past 3 years, have been tearing for quite some time now. It was not until this past weekend that the holes became so large that items began to fall OUT of my purse. It was a very unfortunate event and I was unsure of what to do.

Friday night, I began my quest to find a new bag. I started searching online to see what I wanted. I found several quality selections that I felt would be suitable replacements for my beloved bag. I was skeptical, though, because I none of these options really jumped out at me. Today, after waking up from an almost 4 hour nap to try and rid myself of this terrible cold I've got, I found my replacement bag.

Kate Spade's Boerum Hill Rue bag will be my new bag of choice. I chose the all black option, just because tan and black are not a favorite color pairing of mine. This bag will be able to be used year long and is open and will have enough space for all my essential purse items: wallet, Ipod, umbrella, pens, glasses, sunglasses, medicine pouch, random items pouch, koozie, etc. Part of the reason this bag was chosen was because Kate Spade was having a FABULOUS sale in which all of their sale items were an additional 25% off. And I even had the surprise of getting free shipping when I checked out! I paid a very reasonable price for a leather bag. It was a very good way to top off a day where I have not been feeling up to par. This weekend I traveled to Barnwell, SC for a forensics tournament to help out one of my teacher friends. It wasn't as fun as the first trip I went on, and the fact that I was not feeling 100% up to par did not help matters. I'm feeling better now, so I'm hoping this carries over to Tuesday when I get my new batch of students!

Ice Storm?

Last night before I went to bed, I got that phone call from my school district saying we would have a delay this morning for inclement weather. I hoped and wished and prayed that I would get another call this morning saying that they just decided to give us the whole day off. Well low and behold, I got my wish!

While it is not blizzarding in South Carolina like it is in Atlanta, we've got LOTS of ice. I awoke to rain, which until I put my contact lenses in, thought it might be snow. When I looked out my window to see rain, I was slightly disappointed. Then, I attempted to go and retrieve my laundry from the clubhouse in my apartment complex. Much to my dismay, covering the steps, sidewalk, and my car, was complete ice. It was not just rain that was falling, it was FREEZING rain that decided to become ice upon finding a surface.

I successfully made it to get my laundry without busting it outside, but I think I'm going to spend this "snow day" curled up in my room with a good book.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

Instead of making one of the final exams that I've got to give this week today, I decided to conclude my reading of The Hunger Games triology. This Young Adult literature series, written by Suzanne Collins, captured my attention after several of my students were constantly reading it. I asked one of my students, who previously lived about 20 minutes from my old home in Georgia and who is a huge fan of The Office, if she had the books that I could borrow. She lent them to me and I did not think much of them until I noticed them sitting on my nigh table a couple of weeks later. I picked up the first of the three and within minutes, I became hooked. In my true fashion, I sat and read the book until I finished it several hours later. (Yes, that is correct. I read this book in a matter of hours.) I simply could not put it down until I knew what had happened.

The Hunger Games combines drama, action, and romance into one completely interesting tale. Yes, it is more science-fiction-ish than I typically read, but I am not one to resist a story of compassion, romance, and action all rolled into one. It was not until yesterday that I picked up Catching Fire, the second installment, and continued on with the journey of Katniss Everdeen and her story. Again, in true fashion, I sat yesterday and today and finished the series. The books were really attention-grabbing and thoroughly enjoyable. Of course, my curiosity was peaked, so I had to Google the series and see what the internet world had to say about my newfound finished read. And what do you know? OF COURSE Hollywood has also decided to turn this series into film adaptations. Now, there's no doubt in my mind that these books would make fantastic films. But Hollywood does not have a good track record with books that I have loved. The Twilight series started out TERRIBLE on film. They completely ruined essentially the entire plot of The Other Boleyn Girl, which is hands down my favorite book. They did not do justice to Harry Potter. Let's face it; Hollywood is running out of ideas, so it's using fabulous books to emulate onscreen. The only problem is that you cannot possibly translate an entier 300+ page book into a 2 hour movie. It is an impossible task and no one in Hollywood is that talented. It really is a shame, but don't let the fact that these books are being stolen by Hollywood deter you. They are fantastic and I highly recommend them to anyone.

Resolutions

I realize that New Year's was over a week ago, but I feel like I need to constantly remind myself of my resolutions in order to help keep them. My first conundrum with deciding on my resolutions was how many to actually have. There are so many things I want to try and do with a whole new year to try and do it that I simply could not decide. I feel that 5 resolutions would suffice.

1. Stay in touch with college friends. 

My college friends are all over the place. From New Orleans to California to Atlanta to just a road trip away in the upstate of South Carolina, there are so many places and opportunities for road trips. As many people may know, I greatly dislike talking on the phone. However, my goal for 2011 is to keep up with my girls via phone AND email. I feel that I can accomplish this, seeing as when I get home from school, whatever time that may be, the first thing I do is get on my computer to check my gmail.

2. Read one non-school book a month.

I had planned to do this once I started teaching. However, upon actually realizing how little time teachers have outside of school, and my level of exhaustion this first semester, this simply did not work out. I am hopeful that with one semester of plans under my belt, I will be able to achieve this goal. I am currently about halfway through the second novel in The Hunger Games series. This is a Young Adult fiction series that many of my students are reading. I feel it's really important that I stay "in" with the texts that they are reading as well as focusing on my own reading enjoyment. I will say, this YA series is FANTASTIC. I'll have another blog about this soon.

3. Keep up with my blog.

I epically failed at this during 2010. I had hoped that this blog would serve as a way to keep my family and friends updated on my new life with a big girl job and what not. Again, my exhaustion and very hectic schedule, prevented me from doing that. In 2011, this will change. I plan to blog at least every Sunday, if not more.

4. Be happy and HEALTHY.

While I was, for the most part, happy during 2010, healthy was certainly something I struggled with. No, I did not pick up any unhealthy habits such as smoking or excessive drinking, but I certainly was not as healthy as I could have been with my eating habits or working out habits. It is true that I do not eat nearly as bad as I did prior to going on Jenny Craig. However, there are lots of things that I could improve on. My goal is to walk at least 3 times every week, which I feel is achievable seeing as that technically only means walking one day during the school week, and to cut back on the sweets. Notice I said cut BACK and not cut OUT. :)

and finally,

5. Have more of a social life. 

While I have certainly not been a hermit this first semester of being an adult, I could DEFINITELY have had more of a social life. I hung out with all my new teacher friends, but I feel like our hanging out was always grabbing dinner after school or getting together to plan or grade papers. I know, doesn't being a teacher just sound so exciting? I live in a city that has SO much to do! Whether art festivals or film festivals or sporting events or simply enjoying the historical significance of just walking around downtown, the possibilities are entirely endless. My goal for 2011 is to become more familiar with my new city and to go out and enjoy life in my 20's.

I say 2011 has endless possibilities. I am so excited to see what all is to come!

Back to Business

Christmas break is one of those things that so many individuals look forward to, especially in high school. As a high school teacher, the anticipation of Christmas break was almost overwhelming. When it finally came, it was as if a big sigh of relief simply left my shoulders. I knew that I had 2 whole weeks to get all of my stuff together and ready for 2011. Seeing as it is now January 3 and I'm getting ready to head to school in just a few minutes, I feel completely pissed off at myself for being such a slacker over break. On the one hand, I know I needed the break to just relax and stay sane. On the otherhand, here are all of the things that I have got to get done before next week:

1. Complete an online training - which would be so much easier if my computer could actually pick up the entire screen that it needs instead of just half of it
2. Make all 4 final exams for my classes
3. Finish grading my research papers - I'm almost done with this one.....there are just 3 or so that I have left to do
4. Revise my LRP's for next semester

Now....this list is not exactly extensively long; however, making a final exam is probably going to take at least a couple of hours. And seeing as I've got 4 to make...well, you do the math. I had an entire to-do list of things that I wanted to get done over break, but it just didn't happen. Instead, I slept, overate, drank too much, did not work out, and stressed about the pending doom of payments to get started paying off the dreaded student loans. Maybe my New Year's resolution should be "Become more adapted to adult life." I didn't really make any resolutions this year; I simply want to continue living my life, taking one day at a time, and get through this first year of teaching. And seeing as there's no time like the present, I suppose it's time to be off to school.