Christmas in CA

Sunday was "get back on the horse" workout day!!  I got up and went to the gym to walk on the treadmill and try to get back to a gym routine.  Upon completing that I finished up the few errands that had to be done and get items for this week.  I was out of veggies and needed to get the materials to make salad for dinner at the Roe's tonight.  Dinner at the Roe's tonight was fun.  Steve Brockman joined the fun.  He is a cheerleading coach, ASB director at a local high school and a friend of the Roe's.  He is the educator that Michael Roe had "Fun Banter" with and they both made videos about the other team.   It is nice to make connections and get to know people.  Steve is a great guy and he is from Wisconsin and guess who the Carolina Gamecocks play at the Capital One Bowl.  So of course the conversation started about who was going to win the bowl game - Go COCKS!!!!!!!  It was nice to come home and be able to relax and not have to worry about going to work on Monday.  However, I ended up with a rash on my neck which was extremely itchy.  I ended up having to take Benadryl to get the itching to stop.

So I was going to wake up early on Monday and go work out but when I did I realized that I was still a little dizzy and sleepy from the Benadryl so I went back to sleep.  I had a doctor's appointment at 8:05 am with Kaiser Permanente so I slept until it was time for me to go.  Now, let me explain this doctor's appointment, Kaiser has been bugging me to choose a doctor and come in for a check-up to establish my presence in their system.  Really!!!!  I am not sick, nor do I need anything.  However, I will play by the rules of Kaiser since they are more about preventative care.  So I made the appointment during the holidays so I did not miss work.  Now, I also had my medical records sent from SC to Kaiser but get this.  Kaiser sent them back to me and told me to take them to the doctors.  Well I took them and all they did was flip through them.  What the heck????  All that work, emails, faxes and phone calls and they didn't really even look at them other than to flip through them to tell me that it was normal stuff and nothing that needed to be recorded as medical history.  Needless to say, i was a little irritated.   After the doctor's appointment of which I had to get a flu shot as well and was told that I might have some flu symptoms in a day or so as my body built up an immunity.  However the thing that drives me nuts about that is - really on my break????  So as I left the other thing that drove me absolutely nuts was their check out system.  There is none.  Since it is a co-pay situation, there is really no direction when you leave.  Not what I am use to.  A different system - not necessarily good or bad, just different.   However, on a plus side, I did not have to wait as long as you did in SC.  LOL!!!

After I left there I did make it to the gym and was able to get in my workout, come home and get started on the research.  I was able to go back through Chapters 1, 2 and 3 and get a handle on what I need to do with the coding, changing some word choices and fixing some APA citations.  Overall it was a productive day.

PhD Mess on the Floor 

It's Christmas Eve and I am one workout in and am going to Riverside for a salon appointment and a Mexican Christmas Eve.  A fellow AP, Victor from another high school invited me over his house with his family for Christmas Eve.  Of course his enticement was to experience a real Mexican Christmas of which I said yes.  Now, Victor told me the family goes from house to house for Christmas and they start at 12:00 pm and goes into the evening.  I figure that I would be able to go for a little bit and then come on home.  So I was suppose to meet them at 4:00 pm and I figured I would leave around 6:00 pm.  Victor and his family are fabulous.  Jenny, his wife, is fantastic and he has the two cutest kids.  I am not going to name them here simply because I want to protect their identity but they have the most adorable personalities and are true characters.    While I was at Victor's I have to say that I thought we would be at his and Jenny's house and people would be coming here.  However, that was not the case, we went to Victor's parents house.  Victor's family are absolutely wonderful and welcoming.  There was a table full of food for everyone to try.  Victor's mom was so funny, she was trying to feed me meat and Victor told her I was a vegetarian and the pause and look on her face was priceless.  The entire experience was fun and interesting.  I got to try some new foods and meet new people, which I always love to do.  Most of Victor's family has graduated from North High School, where I work so it was fun to talk with them to see who is still there and who has left.  There family is bilingual and they spoke mostly Spanish while I was there.  It was interesting to hear because I could pick up the majority of the verbs so that I new what the action was but it was hard to follow at times because of the fast pace.  This was a great learning experience for me because it puts into perspective what we do our ELL / AEL students or when Spanish speaking parents come into my office.  We left Victor's mom's house about 11:15 pm and I made it back to the apartment by 12:15 am.  It was much later than I expected but I had so much fun and it was great to see how another family celebrated Christmas Eve.

So today is Christmas Day and it has been hard.  It did not turn out like I wanted to.  I did not get my Christmas wish.  Nope, the little PhD fairy did not come and finish my PhD for me.  LOL!!  I chose to stay in CA to work on completing the analyzing of my data and then Chapters 4 and 5 to be done.  This has to be done by June 1st so that it can get to my committee and then defended this summer.  Well since the PhD fairy did not come today I spent this morning catching up on electronic correspondence and needs.  Squeak and I celebrated Christmas this morning with opening our presents that were sent to us and that I bought her.  Of course she could not wait to get into the tuna when I opened it for her.

Squeak could not wait for her tuna to be put on the floor.

My resume is up-to-date, LinkedIn is updates and my Weebly has been updated.  I did make it to the movies today with Erin and Michael to see Anchorman 2, which was extremely funny.   After the movie, I stopped by 7-Eleven (which is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, so they don't need locks) and yep, they were open to get a Slurpee.  So I have made it through the day today.  Yes, I have cried because I did not get to see the people that I normally see and wanted to see.  Yes, I have cried because I did not get to talk to everyone that I wanted to but I knew this would be the case when I made the decision to stay.  I am not whining, pouting or complaining.  I had a choice to make and I made it.  It is important that I use this time to make some decisions and complete the work that I need to in order to graduate from my doctoral program.  Hopefully the next week and half will look better for me.
So today is Thursday and I need to get going with the research.  I have used the time so far fixing my APA citations and reviewing my research questions to ensure that I can code correctly.  I should say Thank You to my friend Erin and her daughter Bri who got me wall art for Christmas so that I can look at this when I am feeling defeated about situations.  I put it over the door so that as I walk from my bedroom to the kitchen I see it and when I am sitting in the living room I can see it.

I got up this Thursday morning (6:00 am) and went to workout then came home (7:30)  and got a few things completed and began looking at my data.  Whew!!  This is going to be a long process…..  So, I worked on that until about 12:30.  Well at this point, it was time to take a break so I went to visit Kara in Riverside and we hiked Mt. Rubiodoux which several people at work have told me about.  The view from the top of the mountain is beautiful and allows you to see all of Riverside!!  It was great views and great company.  Kara is truly a fabulous teacher and professional and it was nice to get to talk with her outside of school.

Love the mountains here!!

You can't see the school I work at but it would be in this picture!!

On the way home I went to Target but I have found that I spend twice as much time in Target now using the Cartwheel App than I usually do. Tonight I was about to save $4.18.  I question if the savings is worth the extra time in the store???  I really want them to make an app so that all the discounts are there and they just scan the app so that I don't have to search for the discounts.  In fact, better yet, just apply the discount for everyone and don't have an app at all so that everyone saves money.  I like the stores that don't have "cards" or papers that you need in order to get the savings.  

Friday was fun and productive.  I got to hang out with a friend on Friday morning and then I worked on my PhD for a bit.  Around 5:00 pm I went over to the Roe's to hang out and got some girl time with Jessica.  We went to eat dinner at Panera at 7:30 pm after the kids were put to bed and it was nice to just sit and be able to talk with her.  Of course we "closed down Panera" (LOL!!!).  How funny is that?  We did not close down a bar or night club!  Is this a sign of getting old or just that we had so much to talk about that we never really get to talk about when the kids are around and always need thirty things???  I am going to go with so much to talk about because there is no way that I am getting old.

Saturday was all about the PhD but for some reason every time I started reading I would get tired and begin to fall asleep.   I think I took about three naps yesterday and each were about 30 minutes long.  I really did try and stay awake to get some work done.  Needless to say,  it was a long day but I did make some more progress.  I went to a Christmas party on Saturday night at another Asst Principal's house, Michael Rhodes, who lives about 25 minutes away.  The house is absolutely beautiful and it was a great night getting to meet his wife and some of their friends.  I know, I know… too many Michael's in my life so it is hard to keep them all strait but all the Michael's that I have met are great people and very supportive so I am happy to have another friend named Michael.  This Michael has lived all over the United States and therefore knows all about SC and the Southeast.  It is fun to be able to talk about things with him from the east.

I have to say that this week has been relaxing and good.  I can't remember when I have been able to just  relax and get some items done.  I have another week of this and I am sure that I will be bored and ready to go back to work - or not - depending on how much work I get done.  I do miss everyone and wish I could have seen my friends but this dissertation has to get done so this is the price that I am paying for it.  Much love to all!!!