Going...Going...Gone

Long Time...

It's been a long time since I blogged. I've been very busy lately with my class and my student teachers. One of my teachers is well...not quite where she should be and I've been spending a lot of time working with her.

My field coordinator called Tuesday and said we FINALLY have a school to go to...HOORAY! But, it's going to press us for time because they go out there Monday and I have to meet the teachers and that only leaves me tomorrow and Friday and the students have to teach a lesson in the week of October 7th which leaves me Friday, Monday and Wednesday and BLAH BLAH BLAH. Now they're all spazzing because they don't know how to write a lesson plan and I told them we'll just do the best we can with what we've been handed.

So, that's what's been going on. Short and I hope sweet, but I'm tired!

I Did A Stupid Thing

I did a really stupid thing that I wish I had not done. It will be with me for a very long time. The stupid thing I did was to view the tape of the man that was beheaded yesterday. I don't know what I thought I would see, but it was the most horrible thing I have ever seen or ever hope to see. I guess I thought the camera would cut away or it would be done like in the movies; show up to a point and then...I don't know. I began to cry and an anger rose in me that I didn't know existed. It was cruel, barbaric and evil. This type of killing has gone on in that area of the world for literally thousands of years. In some places people are still stoned and women killed if they are not a virgin. For those of you who think they all operate like civilized human beings forget it! All you have to do is take a look at that tape and you'll know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are not dealing with anything we've ever known.

Life

My father-in-law is 81. He'll be 82 next month and he's at a point in his life that no one knows what will happen. He's loosing his mental facilities and doesn't really know what is going on anymore. He hasn't know my husband the last two weeks he's talked to him and says he is "just hanging on." It's sad because this man had great intellect. He is a WWII veteran and was serving on the Nevada when it was hit at Pearl Harbor and survived to tell the tale and now, he is losing all his memories to a disease that is nearly as hard on the relatives as it is the victims. It's no longer safe for him to drive and the family will be taking his keys this week. It's a sad ending for a man who's lived the life he has with so many stories now locked away in a place where no one can ever retrieve them. My husband and I both look to possibly the same fate due to grandparents and in his case, also his father.

So, I'm going to live life to it's fullest and let the people I love know that I love them. I'm going to tell all the grand adventures I've had and write down the memories so that if one day, this fate befalls me, all will not be lost.

Nice Fall Day

Well, nearly Fall anyway. Fall is in the air! Even the sunlight looks different and there is a slight coolness in the air. Indy (our dog) stayed out most of the day just enjoying the day as did Jason our cat who really deserves the name Scaredy Cat (sp?) since he's afraid of everything.

I finally have my new computer, monitor and a really nice computer cart. I carved out a little niche in the living room where I can look out into the backyard and enjoy the scenery. My monitor is a 17 inch Sharp flat screen TV/monitor. Awesome, truly. So far, everything is working well and now I don't know how I lived without my new, little toy for so long!

Students are behaving well after I informed them they could not enter class without a Dr's statement if they had been absent one time or more. I've had some trouble with students not turning in work (I was sadly mistaken thinking that not doing work was left behind once they graduated H.S.) I've never had this happen before to the extent it has with this class. So, now they know if work is not turned in they will receive an Incomplete for their end of year grade. Mind you, this was all in the Syllabus, but some felt they had to test the situation. Field is still not set up yet, but hopefully the coordinator will find someone who will take the students in for field experience. Keep your fingers crossed!

Ah...so as I relax to romantic jazz playing through my new speakers and sip on a glass of wine I sign off wishing you all as good an evening and tomorrow as I had today.

Life Rolls On...

I'm tired! I'm living the life of "Murphy's Law" at the moment, 'anything that can go wrong will go wrong.' And believe me, it has! It's just been one thing after the other with no time off for good behavior! Work, students, home, cars, comuters, kids you name it, it's gone haywire. Later...unless a bus runs over me!

Ticked Off
I'm ticked off at hubby. I had 3 kids when we married and all my kids had a job at 16. Now step-son who I have tried to treat as my own is special where my hubby is concerned because he is his. He made me make my kids go to work at 16 and I respected him, but his kid is 18 and has worked for only 1 month. Now he says he only has a short time with his kid. How silly, I only had a short time with my kids too! My son I sent to live with his dad when he was 14 because hubby hounded him. He got on to him for sassing me and told him he was not going to talk to his mother like that, but when his kid called me a bitch and a whore and hit me, he told me he was going to divorce me because his kid was scared of me. How absurd! Now he's trying to get me to give Son his computer we bought for him and I won't do it because before we bought it Son broke into our locked room and took a marijuana pipe I took from him. I told him if he didn't give it back he wouldn't get his computer. He chose the silly $27 pipe over a computer! I gave him another chance to give it back and he wouldn't. Hubby keeps trying to talk me into giving Son the computer and I won't. He doesn't deserve it and he chose not to anyway. The pipe means more to him. So now Hubby is asking me what I am typing and I told him. Well, I will go home in December if he keeps coddling Son. I've treated Son as my own and tried to get him ready for the world, but Daddy keeps coddling him as if he didn't have a lick of sense and he doesn't because Daddy has robbed him of it. All my kids are productive because their dad and I worked together. It's sad for Son that his dad is so protective with him. He sure wasn't with my kids.

Students
I have this smart-assed student in my class. She's very confrontational and I noticed this the first few days but since she wasn't that way with me, I said nothing. So today, she doesn't like that she has to do homework this weekend and says something. I let it slide. Then she gripes about the group she's chosen to be in because she wants 4 in a group when I said 3. I didn't notice her giving up her place for the person she wanted in. Next she gripes about the amount of time a project will take and doesn't like the due date. I finally told her that this was college and did she really think she'd go through the entire 4 years without ever having to do work outside of class? She shut up then. She really annoyed me. I'll be ready for her next time!

World of Work; World of Frustration
In my lovely day of work I hit a high and then a low. I have not been able to get 5 days of my field set up because the principal I was working with didn't contact me last week like they said they would so, I talked to the field coordinator and found out the class doesn't require as much field as I'd been told, I was okay with what I had set up. I had been stessing about it for awhile now so when I heard, "You don't have to do anymore," I was sooooo happy! I go home, look at my e-mail and there's one from the principal I should have already heard from and it says that none of the teachers want to mess with it this year, they're sorry and hope it's not too late to set up with another school. YIKES! Umm yes, it is too late (well, almost.) I called the field coordinator and told her and now she is going to see what she can get going. As for me, I'm done messing with it. Whatever she sets up is alright with me; I'll work around it. Umm Ok.

Also, my shoes kept flinging off whenever I went up or down the stairs. They're not exactly sandals, but have no backs. I got tired of chasing them and finally took them off. Of course then, everyone kept asking me where my shoes were.

Tap dancing on your head if you ask me that again cause I've already told you why they're off and where they are okay????

Ramblings
My new computer is on its way, but I'm still searching for a monitor. I think I know the one I want, but we'll see.

I'm worn out this week and so is my brain! I become brain dead when I have to extrovert to much. I'm more of an introvert and setting up all this field work and worrying whether it's going to work out or not is making me tired. Introverts would rather not participate in public speaking or setting up things. It's not that we can't do it, it's that a lot of mental energy is used which then makes you mentally tired. Introverts think to talk and extroverts talk to think.

I'm also having writer's block. I haven't written any poetry in months. I just don't seem to be able to get motivated. Maybe I need a change of scenery or a trip home...something. The entire family except one of us are in a kind of bog. It's not that anything is exactly wrong, but life has been a drudge lately. Nothing funny has happened. Nothing is going on. In fact, it's been boring. It seems none of us have any energy or motivation to do anything. BLAH! I am glad we paid off my car. We've got a lot more money to play with now. I guess that's something to be happy about.

Oh well, I'm out of here.

Rantings
After years of sharing a computer with hubby, I finally decided to get my own. I ordered it last night and it should be here in about a week due to Labor Day causing a delay. I had a monitor picked out and at a good price too, but due to hubbies procrastination, when I went back to buy it, they were all sold out! I think I found the same one even cheaper on line, so maybe all will work out.

My dishwasher is a piece of junk and I'm going shopping for a new one tomorrow. When I pulled out the upper rack today, it fell down on the lower rack. The only think that saved it was one screw. Too, the water is really hard in Terre Haute and it leaves a white film on everything. We'll have to rent a water softener or we'll have to change the faucets, hot water tanks and everything. I've been in this situation before with hard water and don't care to go there again.

My class is going okay I guess. I'm going to have to nail some students down on their absences because a lot of them have already used their one absence and being in class is part of their professionalism grade. I still haven't heard from the principal on the field experience I'm trying to set up. I was supposed to have heard from them last week so now I'm going to turn it over to the field director and let her deal with it. I still haven't paid for a parking sticker yet. It costs $100 for both semesters and I'm not sure I want to teach this class again so why pay all that for 4 months? Hmm, I'll have to think about it.

I'm thinking of a career change. The problem is I like so many things that I can't narrow it down to what I'd really like to do. I do know that I enjoy independent work where I intermingle with people, but they're not in my face. For example, I like photography, ceramics, writing, certain types of biology, etc.

Life has held no surprises for a long time now, nothing funny or unusual so, I guess that's it for now. Later