Week of September 22nd

Sunday, September 21, 2014
There are so many people who ask me why I moved to Southern California when North South Carolina is so beautiful and the people are so nice. (Yes, sometimes they forget there are two Carolinas, kinda like the Dakotas).  There are quite a few reasons I wanted to move but I think this quote sums them all up, "Don't let your history be missed opportunities."  I did not want to look back on my life and career and wonder, "What would have happened if……" or "Did I accomplish this because…..?"  While I know some will argue that that I could say, "What would have happened if I would have stayed in South Carolina?," I was not willing to take that chance because I wanted to do something different, meet new people and give others a chance.  I have always try to take advantage of opportunities that arose and do my absolute best to make every opportunity, decision and situation successful - sometimes to a fault.  As I reflect today, Sunday, September 21, 2014, I can say that I do truly love my job, even if it is long hours, I love my friends here in CA and the weather.  This weekend, I got to spend time with some of my friends on Saturday morning, at the Homecoming Dance and on Sunday for dinner.  And while it was very hot this past week, it has cooled off and I have been able to open the windows and turn of the AC.


Monday, September 22, 2014
So, if you have been following my blog, you know that last week a cat was found in the office, of which we named Husky.

I had brought Husky home on Friday night and another teacher was willing to take her.  Since I have been trying to "tame" the stray kittens outside the apartment I was willing for her to go to another good home so that my home was free for another stray.

Well it looks like Husky is coming back to me.  Things did not work out at the other teacher's house so she will be coming back to me on Monday night.  I hate it did not work out for a few reasons but also because this is more time she has to spend in the car going back and forth to and from Riverside.  I am not having the luck I thought I would have with the strays at the apartment so this may be what is expected to happen.  I just hope Squeak will tolerate her.  On the way home from Riverside, she wanted out of the carrier so I tried to open the top and just pet her but she kept crying.  Me, being the sucker for cats, put her on my lap and she sat with me petting her the whole way home just purring.  She really does just want to be loved.

I let her out right away once we got to the apartment and while Squeak did hiss at her, she did not attack her and hurt her.  Squeak has been sulking on the bed all day long, she did come out to eat and sit next to me for dinner only to see Husky and go back to the bedroom.  I don't think Husky has ventured past the bathroom with the litter box.  It is obvious they have claimed certain areas of the apartment at this point but at least they are getting along - somewhat.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Well I took my official first non-duty day while students were at school that did not involve Professional Development.  Last year, I took a few non-duty days but only so I could 1) go to conferences, 2) work summer school or 3) they were forced because the school was closed.  Today, I spent the day - yes the entire day - working on PhD revisions.  So, yes, I did do two loads of laundry,  I did run to the dry cleaners and shoe repair shop so I was gone a total of maybe 30 minutes but for the most part I only worked on the PhD revisions from 7:00 am - 8:40 pm today.   Wait a second, Ali called and we talked for 20 minutes so that may have been a total of 1 hour that I was not looking at a computer screen or journal articles and boy am I tired!!!!  I can say that Chapters 1-3 are thankfully revised and sent to my chairman for review at this point.  I will be interested to see what comes back from her.  I have another friend reviewing my data for coding to see if she is seeing the same thing as I did.  I am hoping to be able to move forward again in a few weeks and I am planning on taking a few more non-duty days in the future along with the three presentations that I have coming up for science or math conferences.

I updated my phone to IOS 8 this past weekend and spent the evening working out the bugs in one of the programs that I use all the time.  My mSecure / password protector did not update and has been totally cutting off when I put in my password.  I had to delete it and re-add the program.  Oh the scariness of that, to think everything was almost gone.  Whew!!!!  I needed it a few times today and did not have access and it was somewhat freaking me out a little.  I think I need to figure out how to open the electronic backup in excel or word…….Might be a good task.

So, I had my phone turned off today so I could concentrate.  I would like to say there was 79 emails on there and I was able to quickly delete some of them so there are only 44 that require responses.  Looks like I know what I will be doing tomorrow since I did not do anything with work today.  I literally took the entire day away from North in order to work on finishing up my graduate program.  I feel like I can see light at the end of the tunnel but somehow I am not sure it is truly there!!!


Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Well I am exhausted!!!!  My feet hurt, my head hurts and I am not sure I will be able to sleep I am so tired.  I did not fall asleep easily on Tuesday night and ended up falling asleep around 12:00 pm but only to toss and turn through the night and wake up at 4:45 am to get ready for work.  I got to work by 6:20 am to answer the 48 emails that were waiting on me from the day before.  I started on those only to continuously get pulled away.  At 9:00 am, we had a report of problems between some groups of students on campus from the day before that was continuing on campus today.  With that being said….. that means no office work is getting done because we are going to be out and about on campus.

Well lunch is where it really got ugly and began.  We had a student approach another group of students and start "talking S__T" to them.  This of course started everyone "Manning Up" on each other and words exchanged.  We had to have one of the kids carried away by one of the assistant principals.  Now, we knew we might have trouble so we had some extra police officers there but that still did not help the "scuffle."  We had some students refuse to obey the police officers and therefore that caused other problems.  Needless to say, we had some students who were taken off campus for resisting / defying a police officer today.  In the end, after all the statements were read, share, investigated and film watched, we will end up recommending expulsion for several students but a number of them will be going on a 5 day suspension.    I have to say that my BFAWs came through for me today.  While all this was going on my BFAWs at EOC and Ramona came over to help out at the end of school. Thanks Victor for sending Alfredo and thanks Lanna for coming.  We truly appreciate your presence on campus and helping us out today.  You guys are awesome and I am so happy that we are here to support one another.    Thanks also to Katie Grimble at University Heights Middle School for helping out with campus supervisors coming down to help out. We truly appreciate all your hard work.    Thanks for your help today!!!

Needless to say, I was at school until 9:15 pm playing catch up from my day off yesterday.  I had to put printers in rooms, clean out another room of the boxes stored there.  I also had to get another room ready for group counseling that will start next week.  There really is always something going on and something to do at a high school.  At least we/I feel ready for tomorrow.  However, after walking around all day, exploring the areas for fights after school, Chromebook training, leading a Zumba class and moving technology equipment around, I am literally exhausted!!!!!!!


Thursday, September 25, 2014
Thursday was one of those crazy days were you are working and working and working and before you know it the day has gone completely by and is over.  We were all on high alert today after yesterday's events and therefore the day flew by.  There were no issues and all the students were great.  Of course there are the rumors - the ones that are saying something is going to happen and it will happen at lunch or after school.  However if there was nothing that happened after school at Patterson Park then I feel fairly safe nothing is going to happen today at school.  We had extra adults on campus and all the teachers came and hung out at lunch with the students as well so that students felt safe.  At the end of the day, I thought I was going to get to go home at a decent hour and then low and behold, I remembered there was PTSA!!!!  So off to a meeting I go until 6:30 pm and then catch up in the office. I got home at 10:00 pm only to fall into bed to get ready for Friday.


Friday, September 26, 2014
Friday was uneventful other than I got to do some discipline this morning.  Since last year when we decided to re-arrange duties and one person was doing the discipline, I have not done much in terms of discipline except for with students who are arguing with one another.  It was nice to get to talk to see students that I worked with last year and talk with them about how things are going.  Lunch went well and after school we had our homecoming tailgate event where student groups had lots of tables out selling items to raise money for their club / activity.  It was a great success and wonderful to see so many students involved.  The Homecoming theme this year was based off of The Wizard of Oz and one of the nicest young ladies at school won homecoming.  So excited for her.  This year is the 50th Anniversary of John W. North High School and one of the sweetest things was finding the former Homecoming Queens and inviting them to the event to be recognized.  The pictures I am including here are not ones that I took but were some that were taken at the event.  It was a fabulous homecoming and I really like the themes that are done here, which is different from the East coast.

North Faculty and Staff that are also Alumni

Fireworks at the end

Homecoming Queen

Saturday, September 26, 2014
One of the nice things about being in an area with such a large hospital system is that they do appointments on Saturday so I had a follow-up doctors appointment this morning.  I was in and out in about 20 minutes with a Flu Shot and vaccine for a Whooping Cough.  Not sure that I need both of them but hey, I was there and it was a vaccine fair as well as the fact I work around kids.

My afternoon involved playing Santa to 5 teachers on campus as I dropped off sets of 40 Chromebooks in their classroom for them to find Monday morning when the get to school.  Now, I did email them and tell them they were coming but were unsure when.  Now I can have my office back since 210 Chromebooks are out of my office and in the hands of teachers and students who will be using them.  I also spent the afternoon trying to solve a problem temporarily for a science teacher until they can meet with their department and come up with a more viable solution.  This involved coping 72 sets of papers front and back for two different teachers which took a couple of hours to get it all done, stapled and in their boxes.  

Ali and I went to dinner at The Yardhouse.  This was my first time there and do you know what????  They have a VEGETARIAN MENU section!!!  LOL!!  It was really good also!!!  I had Vegetarian Buffalo Bites and a Pineapple beer, which was very interesting.    We also say The Equalizer movie and let me say I love Denzel Washington as an actor so the movie for me was awesome.  However, it was in an IMAX theater and the sounds was phenomenal but may have been a bit too much.  There was a lot of killing in the movie and in some unusual ways that were loud and therefore it let you hear the bones crunching and blood dripping.  That kind of thing does not bother me but it can be too much for some.  

Pictures of the new addition and yes, Squeak is tolerating her…..

Week of September 15

Week of September 15

I had every intention of blogging during the week but that did not happen.  I was suppose to take off Monday to work on the PhD but we ended up having to do schedule changes over the previous week to balance classes and therefore I did not feel like I could not be there when we did classroom changes. Monday afternoon we also had a new teacher meeting for teaches to work on learning more about Aeries, the grade book RUSD uses.  It went well and while I did not lead the session the teachers that did got a a lot covered and our new teachers feel more confident with the program.  I tried to get some more computer / furniture / inventory done but did not get very far this week.  Little things kept me from finishing this task that is not urgent.

This week brought along with it incredible heat.  Now, I know, it is not South Carolina so I am not complaining.  It was very warm / hot / miserably hot, but not as miserable as South Carolina heat because there was no humidity!!!!  However, the funniest thing was talking with a student at school and we were talking about how hot it was and he looked at me and said, "It is not so much that it is hot, it is the humidity."  I about busted out laughing because he is correct, there was some humidity in the air but not like there is in South Carolina.  Buy hey, at least he understood it!!!

an interesting event.  On Wednesday I taught Zumba and while we were inside it was so miserably hot outside that it was a tough class to teach.  There were not as many people there as the past few weeks but it was still a fun class!  I left school the earliest I have since August 1, 2014, which was 5:15 pm.  I needed to stay longer but I left in hopes to make it to make it to get to Murrieta to get my nails done.  The traffic was terrible and since I don't leave until 6:00 pm or so I forgot how much traffic there is right around this time with UCR and people leaving.  I made it to Murrieta at 6:00 and was able to get my nails done.  I love coming to my nail place because they always do such a great job that lasts about three weeks.   Today I really needed to be pampered a little after such long and hard weeks with drama over the past few weeks.

Well I probably should not have left early on Wednesday because on Thursday morning I entered work to find a pile of pooh on the floor in the main office.  Yes, you read that correctly - POOH!!!!  I could not believe it!  Who brought in a dog and let it go to the bathroom on the carpet and not clean it up???? I went ahead and got it cleaned up so that no one stepped in it.  I had to go to training today off campus and around 11:00 am, I got a text from Ali who said that the Pooh was from a cat that just ran through the office.  I mean, my goodness, a cat in the office.  It has to be the cat that was under the vending machine outside the past week.  I texted Mike, the night custodian, to ask him to bring some food for the cat so we could try and find the kitty in the office that night.  Well, needless to say, after college night, everyone leaving and cleaning up, as Mike was setting the live trap with the food we were looking in a few places.  Mike walked to the back to open the doors of the offices and saw the cat in Miranda's office.  Ali and I went and closed the for looking for the cat and found the kitty behind the printer.  I caught it after it jumped all over the room by scruffing its neck and it laid in my arms and calmed down really easily.   We took it into my office and fed the little girl as she sat on the table and ate.  We decided to name her Husky as she continued to eat and purr on the table.  She then walked over and decided to cuddle to us making me wonder if she was even a stray.    We left her in the closet over night in hopes to find her a home the next day by sending out a picture of her to the faculty and staff.

Husky at work

On Friday, when I got to work and she was tucked up in a corner of the closet and hissed at me but then came right now for me to climb up on my lap and let me hold her.  I took her into the office and she wait in my lap for about an hour while I replied to emails.  

Husky

She truly is a cute kitty and several people came by to ask about her and see her.  Someone said they would take her so I sent out an email to the faculty saying she was taken but then an hour later they came back and said they could not take her.  So….she ended up coming home with me on Friday night so that I could take her to the vet on Saturday.  I got home after the football game, of which we lost and are not 0-4, and got the bathroom ready for her.  She stayed in there overnight and slept.  

Thank you to my friend Sara who helped me this morning.  I love that I have friends who I have not seen in awhile and if I need something they are willing to help.  I have made such great friends over the years that it is heartwarming.  I was able to help another friend through using my computer skills and organization with Sara's help to create a resume to start their job search in the field of research.  Thanks Sara!!!  Love you girl!!!

On Saturday morning I checked on Husky and she is filling out nicely.  She has eaten and her face looks a little cooler and her tummy is bigger.  She likes to stand up and put her paws on you as a sign to be picked up and then she rubs you under the chin and wants to rub on you.  She really is a sweet kitten.  She went to the vet today and got her first shots, a dose of revolution and found out she is negative for feline leukemia.  I brought her back home and really want to keep her but another teacher, Arlene Golds, has been emailing me and asking me if she can come and get Husky and take her.  I have such mixed emotions about this.  I have really grown fond of the kitty and she is very sweet!!!  I would like to keep her but if someone is willing to take her  then it allows me to be able to adopt a cat that no one wants which may be a little later.  Of course, there are four strays that are hanging outside my door right now that I am trying to tame!!  

Kittens on Tuesday

Mommy Cat and Kittens on Thursday - they are getting tamer.

The homecoming dance was Saturday night at the school.  I went to school at 1:00 and was there until 11:30 pm to get caught up, get some work done and chaperone the dance.  The dance was outside again and it is a good thing it has cooled off since Wednesday and Thursday.  It is not as hot and miserable and in fact it was a little cool at the dance.  The kids were great except for a few.  We had three boys try and sneak into the dance and there was a stolen car from somewhere in Riverside that involved a police chase by the front of the school but other than those events the dance was a huge success.  I was home and in bed, with a messy apartment by 12:15 am since I did not put anything away but crashed in the bed.  

I got up in the morning and checked on Husky.  She is so sweet and wants so much love and attention.  She is going to be a fabulous kitty but alas I have decided to let Arlene come and get the kitty.  I love her and want to keep her but the truth is that someone is willing to take her an there is going to be another cat at some point who is going to need a home and no one will be able to take the future kitty.  Arlene is going to be a great kitty mommy to Husky and I am sure she will send me pictures.  I am torn up about this because she really is a sweet cat and I know we would get along well together but again, there are four strays here at the apartment complex and there are three cats under portables at school.  If I can find a home for a kitty to provide another home for a future one then it is the best thing.  

Today is not filled with excitement.  I did things on Saturday with and for friends so today I have to get busy and work on getting ironing done, working on some recommendations for people and getting ready for the week.  I am taking Tuesday off so I can work on the PhD so I need to get everything done today to only do that on Tuesday!!  

Of course, I do think Squeak is happy she is a single kitty!!!

Squeak

Oh My - TGIMI - Thank God I Made It!!!

Week of September 8th

Well this has been a very weird and hard week for me.  Harder than most weeks anyway.  I about two weeks things will start to settle down a little but right now it is early mornings and late nights as the Master Schedule changes happen to balance classes and yes, you read that correctly.  There are still changes to the master schedule and there will be / can be until the 25th day of school.  Now, let me explain this.  California is a Teacher Union state.  Remember that South Carolina is not so the Union is new to me.  While I am not part of the Union because I am considered a Manager, I have to be careful of the Union contract which by the way is different in each district in CA.

Teachers in Riverside are only suppose to have 36 students in their classes.  Now, remember that not all classes most likely have 35 or 36, there are some classes which are smaller but we are only funded on a 30:1 student:teacher ratio and therefore we should have plenty of space….EXCEPT, we have added over 100 students in the last few weeks.  This is good because the district has given us additional sections to address our extra students.  Now, this would be great but we have some teachers who are on release periods because of district requests, or programs we have at school so therefore they do not have classes on certain periods.  We also have a odd situation were almost 30% of our students take more than 6 classes.  Most of our students on a 7 or more period day is because either 1) they are trying to boost their GPA or 2) they messed up their freshman or sophomore year and therefore they are trying to fit in as many classes as they can to be able to graduate.  This creates another problem in itself because we have a lot of period 0 classes which happens before the "normal" school day or 7th period which is "after" the normal school day.  In addition, we have some classes that should be full not full like our PE classes which can have 52 students in them or band classes which can have unlimited students, within reason of course.  

Here is the issue; the Union contact for Riverside Unified School District for High School says teachers are only suppose to have 36 students in their class and only reach 175 in a day over the 5 courses they teach.  So if you do the math, 36x5 = 180, which is 5 students over so you really have to think of it as 35 students per class.  This past week was about balancing classes and making hard decisions.  Do you have any idea how terrible it feels to realize you have to force students out of a class because it is over 36?  Now teachers can sign a wavier saying they will take students over the 36.  I get that as teachers you would not want to sign waivers for 5 kids in each class because that is actually another class but when it is a class that only has one or two sections and a speciality class that is only a few over it is hard to take kids out knowing that you cannot put them anywhere else because there is not another class.  I totally get it if it is 6-10 kids over but for only 1-5 in this situation it is heart-wrenching.  Students and parents don't understand and in some cases don't care so guidance counselors and administrators get beat up over it, which puts everyone in a no win situation.  In South Carolina, we always called kids in before school started and had students make choices ahead of time as compared to balancing classes after school started.  I am not looking forward to the "fall-out" that will happen over this starting Monday.

It has been so crazy around here that I have to say that I missed an appointment on Friday that I had after school.  I got the times wrong…..and it was on my calendar. ……  Okay, so that should tell you how crazy it has been and how stressed I have been lately.  I really do need a great massage and some stress relief.   Jessica and I decided to try to relieve stress by visiting Disneyland.  We had a great dinner at the UVA bar on Saturday night.

While it was a fun trip it was over a busy weekend so we did not leave until Saturday afternoon around 2:00 pm and we got back on Sunday around 1:30 pm.  While we had a lot of fun, it was a short trip and I am still tired.  Of course I have tried to take a break from looking at emails and doing work but today, Sunday, there has been several emails going back and forth about school situations and balancing questions so it is constantly on my mind and I am having a hard time letting it go…. so two more weeks and maybe this will pass…….

So, not sure what my next adventure will be.  The next few weeks are a bit fully with the Homecoming Dance next Saturday night, a doctor's appointment the next Saturday and then we have hit October already….. Wow, where has the time gone.  I miss hiking and my slow Saturday mornings with breakfast and relaxing.  I think I need to get back to that soon for my own piece of mind.    I have started teaching Zumba at North and have done two classes.  There has been a really good turnout and it has been fun.  Here is a picture of one of the kids of one of the teachers that attends, the young lady was excited that we were wearing the same colors.  This is actually a much needed outlet for me and I had forgotten how much I love teaching Zumba.

Lily and I after Zumba

Second Week of School

Monday, September 1, 2014 - Labor Day

Well, I have to tell you I did not do anything special on Labor Day.  I spend the day playing catch up with various tasks and working on my PhD.  I got up and worked in the morning on Chapter 3 of the paper and then ended up falling asleep on the couch for a little bit.  I hate doing that because I feel lazy when I waste part of the day but I really do need the rest so it was not a bad thing.  I ended up laying with Squeak the majority of the day as well and watching The Hobbit, part 1 and 2.

Week at School

School this was CrAzY!!!  Each day this week I started at 6:15 except Friday because I stopped to pick up bagels for the math department, and ended no earlier than 8:15 pm.  It has just been one thing after another this week to get tasks done.  I have wanted to get into classrooms but every time I went to get out someone grabbed me and needed something.  Lesson learned - take the iPad with me when I go to morning duty and go from there so no one knows where I am and I can see some awesome teaching and spend time with students.  I have started the furniture and technology inventory as well in the evening as well so that has taken some time.  This involves going in and out of classrooms to look at various items because we moved teachers this summer.  It seems a lot of items that were supposed to be in one room got moved to another room and those that left the school passed on their items to other teachers therefore moving their location, so now I have to go through the school and re-inventory.  

On Friday we were awarded an additional 1.0 FTE at North to help balance classes since we are 32 students over in enrollment.  This completely took over the day because this allowed us to add 5 sections of classes and then we are collapsing three, using our last .2 and then "buying" a .2 in order to add 10 sections of classes.  So at 11:00 am we had to go out and talk with 10 teachers to explain what was about to happen to their class if we collapsed it, who needed extra sections and what other items we were changing.  That evening Aeries was shut down at 7:00 pm so we had to finish and come back on Saturday.  

On the way home I went by the Football game at Heritage to watch the Huskies play.  We did not do well but it is early in the season and Heritage was CIF champs last year so there is really no shame in losing this game.  It was a great chance to just relax with some others and watch our students have fun.  

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Well today was a work day and fun day.  I got up early and had to have my car at the VW dealership for the oil change and 20,000 mile check today.  I dropped it off at 8:15 am and had a friend pick me up.  It was a relaxing morning as we grabbed breakfast and was able to sit and talk to catch up with what has been going on in our lives.  Anyone who knows me knows how much my friendships mean to me, especially the ones that I have had for a number of years so it was good to catch up.  I had to be at work at 11:30 am to work on getting in the Employee Benefits Application (EBA) for the 10 sections we are doing and Ali met me to put in the 10 sections in the Master Schedule so the guidance counselors can start moving students and balancing classes on Monday morning.  

At 4:00 pm Dee came and picked me up and we headed to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater for the Dave Matthews Band Concert.  We ended up eating at Flame Broiler and walking over to the theater which was across the street.  While there was a lot of people there it was not crazy!  We got in line and they eventually let us in to make our way down to the Amphitheater.   We made our way to the lawn where are seats were and found a spot near the fence to sit, relax and listen to great music.  Keri and Shawn were at the concert as well and came to join us from their seats on the lawn to hang out.  Shawn and Keri even brought me a small gift for the concert, a mini-bottle.  LOL!!!!!!    

We actually had two shows going on at the same time.  The actual DMB concert and the couple in front of us who were so drunk they could not stand and were falling all over the place.  It was hilarious to see them stagger.  The poor guy was so enamored with his girlfriend he continued to literally take his shirt off and put it on again and again as he continued to climb on her as they laid on the grass.  Now, I am making this the G rated version because I don't know who reads this but I will stay that people were walking by and taking picture of them so you can basically use your imagination and I will leave it at that.

August 25th - A New School Year

Sunday, August 24, 2014

True Blood is over and I am so sad and disappointed.  While I know that it was not going to end the way the books ended, I was hoping for something a little more descriptive of what happened with Sookie at the end rather than an "Alcide" look-alike.    I have also finished watching The Walking Dead, all four seasons an I need October 12th to come around as quick as possible because right now I feel like my closest friends and family are locked in a boxcar and waiting for me to let them out.  LOL!!!  This is what happens when you watch too many episodes of Zombies back to back.  I find myself driving and thinking about where I should go when the Zombie Apocalypse hits. LOL!!!  I think I need to stop decompressing with TV at night and work on sleeping more…….


Monday, August 25, 2014

Well…..Up and at them at 4:30 am to be at school by 6:00 am for schedule distribution and the first day of school.  Of course that included an upset stomach - classic Leann for the first day of school and a trip by Starbucks for a Skinny Vanilla Latte to stay away today.  Ali met me at 6:30 am to help pass out schedules this morning and we were joined by the principal, assistant principal and USL kids who did a fabulous job handing out schedules.  We had all kids in classes by 8:20 am!!!   I was able to check on all teachers including the 12 new ones and drop off a small gift to our new teachers as I visited the classroom to make sure the air was working, everyone was okay and no teachers were Duct Taped to the wall!!!  All was quiet!  In fact, it seemed that things were quiet all over the place.  Guidance was quiet and all kids were in classes, my secretary had an issue to take care of off campus and she was able to leave without any problems.   The students got off campus with no problems this afternoon and all was well at the end of the day with very few problems.  Classes for the most part are about 40 with a few above 40 but only because we are over in numbers and need more teachers but that problem will not be solved in the near future - meaning this week.  A lot of people said it was the smoothest school has gone in a number of years.

I stayed until 9:10 pm tonight to get caught up.  The agendas are counted out thanks to some TA's and good students so they are ready to go.  Ali printed the sign-in list for the agendas and I sent out the email tonight for this.  We are good to go and ready for them to be handed out.  I delivered the printers, picked up the old equipment in the rooms and had Mike Linares adjust the LCD projectors for several teachers.  The Chromebook carts have the appropriate documentation inside of the doors and workorders are put in.  The drive home was tiring and I was ready to fall asleep.  I made it home only to see a fire burning on the hill across the west.  I am hoping that it will be put out soon.  Tomorrow the carpets get cleaned so Squeak will have to spend some time in the bathroom - hope this does not traumatize her.  LOL!!!    needless to say - it was a good day - although busy and tiring!!!  


Tuesday, August 26, 2014

The second day of school went well but I am exhausted.  I was at school until 9:30 pm moving more technology around and making sure teachers had what they needed in their classrooms.  It seems like every time I turn around I get called in a different direction to do something else so I cannot get it all done during the day.  Gee….imagine that….  The kids / students are great.  I love seeing them and talking with them about their summer and how things have been.  I love being at a high school.  Recently I have been wondering what would have happened if I would have sucked it up and stayed in Laurens?????  What if I never would have gone to the Joe Adair Center (JAC)?  I just truly love being on a high school campus and working with this age group and reflect back on my time at the JAC and I realize it was time that was necessary for me to realize how much I love the secondary age group 6-12. Well needless to say on Tuesday I was extremely tired by the end of the evening and I of course crashed when I got home at 10:00 pm.

I do have kittens outside the apartment right now from the momma cat.  There are four.  Two are pretty brave and two are skittish.  There are two orange and white tabbys and one black and white tabby.  The last kitten I have only seen one time but it is gray with a white belly.  They are all very cute but they are not friendly right now and it is going to take a little time.  I have been sitting at the door with the screen closed feeding them and talking with them so they get use to me.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Today I got to work at 6:30 am and it was one heck of a day.  My secretary has been out a lot this week with her husband being sick and now she has picked up what he had.  Due to this there has been a lot of little things that I have had to do because she has not been around such as items getting out, items getting ordered, working with the TA's/OA's to make sure they are taken care of and just in general trying to take care of issues from parents walking in the door.   We had to get the student planners out today for two reasons, 1) the passes are in the back, 2) the rules, consequences and bell schedule are in the planner also.  There were a few mistakes in the planner so that had to be taken care of as well.  I can't tell you how happy I am to have the Agenda / planner again!!  I absolutely love using these!!!   The little things she does helps me and therefore gives me more time but since she has been out it has been a lot of little things as well.  I decided to try and get home earlier tonight so I left work at 8:00 pm rather than 9:30 pm and only because there were parents around that needed to be taken care of in the evening and I spent three hours from 5-8 returning the emails that I did not get to the last two days, which made me feel awful because it usually does not take that long for me to return emails.  

Thursday, August 28, 2014 

Today is game day for USC in South Carolina.  The game is at 6:00 pm and of course that means 3:00 pm here in CA.  I have downloaded the App to listen to the game and I am wearing my USC shirt today!!!  The funny thing was that April Aldrich wore hers as well.  How hilarious that two girls on John W. North's campus had on Gamecock shirts.

Of course I tried to listen to the game this afternoon but it did not work, every time I thought I would have a few minutes, there was something going on with parents on campus.  I got to listen to the very end but it was pretty depressing since USC lost so badly.  The gamecocks will get them next time!!!!!  Needless to say, April and I were both disappointed.  Overall it was a productive day.  I feel like I am slightly caught up now. LOL!!!  There is never any catching up but at least I don't feel so far behind and that is with working the last three weeks constantly - including weekends.

I stopped at Target on the way home for a few things and realized how little I have eaten this week.  It seems like every time I turned around, I had something to do and had no time to sit and eat lunch.  So rather, I eat junk that is lying around.  I believe today was more about ChexMix that someone brought that actual real food.  My guilty pleasure recently has been Nutella Peanut Butter and apples.  While it is not awful for you the peanut butter is not exactly great for you either.  I finally saw the inside of the apartment at 10:15 pm, only to take off my makeup and lay down with Squeak coming up next to me and falling asleep immediately.  As I laid in bed I realized that I have not checked the mail in a few days and that the dishwasher needs to be emptied from the run that I set it on yesterday.  LOL!!  Oh well, first week of school - things get left to the last minute.  This weekend is a three day weekend.  I can catch up then???????


Friday, August 29, 2014

ITS FRIDAY!!!  I will be able to sleep in 17 hours.  It is 5:00 am and I am hoping that I will be back by 11:00 pm so that I can crash.  I have to tell you that I don't usually do coffee but I have been doing lattes this week just to keep me awake while I am at work.  When I get this tired, I get a little loopy and start saying the first thing that comes to mind, which is not always the best thing for me and people around me.  I know that I will need to be careful this today and this weekend.  The last time I was this tired was the end of June and my tiredness cost me a relationship that I held close and miss dearly.

The morning started out with no eventful situations.  I visited a lot of teachers to try and get things taken care of and worked out as we move into the weekend.  We had our first assembly today for the school year, of which we did in the stadium.  Of course there were ice bucket challenges and I have to tell you that while I completely understand the purpose these challenges have been going on for about a month now and I have been able to avoid them until today.  The United Student League (USL / Student Government) decided it would be fun to douse the administration so I was up for the ice bucket challenge.  Now, if you know me and my work as an athletic trainer, everyone knows this does not bother us.  We make large 10 gallon containers of Gatorade that has to be stirred (sometimes with plastic bags over our arms), dive into ice cold whirlpools for items, put our hands into ice buckets for ice towels to cool off players so while I have been seeing these on Facebook, it has not been a huge deal for me.  So I was the second admin to get doused and I have to tell you - considering how warm it was for 9:30 am in the morning, it really felt good and as I told the kids - I have curly hair, it dries and will be fine - I just brought a change of clothes.  I donated $20.00 to the Law and Protective Services Academy and $20.00 to ALS.

  After changing clothes the rest of the day went well.  We do not have students wandering the campus due to the use of the Agendas.  We have students dressing better and it does not look like the JWNHS Club, which is a good thing.  Lunch duty was uneventful and the kids were excited about the game on Friday night.  While we did loose everyone there was in good spirits and supportive of the team!!!  I made it home by 11:00 to jump in bed and sleep until 8:30 am the next morning.


Saturday, August 30, 2014

  As I woke up this morning, later than usual (8:30 am) I was still tired.  Today was a day that I was looking to relax and take it easy.  I got up and changed the sheets on the bed, started laundry, paid bills and cleaned a bit.  I went to get my nails done this morning.  While I was there for a bit, I was not there forever.  I tried to do North Blue and yellow dots but the blue came out more like a black so I went with white dots.

By the time I ran to the grocery store for a few things it was 2:00 pm when I got back.  I did not think I took that long to do the tasks for today - where has the day gone……  Well I guess 5 loads of laundry does take time as well as bills.  I sat down on the couch at 3:00 only to find myself waking up at 4:15 pm, not realizing I fell asleep.  I left to go to the Roe's for dinner right aways since I was suppose to be there at 4:30 pm.  I never even realized that I feel asleep.  I never sleep in the middle of the day so you know that I needed it!  Jess and I sat and talked about everything that has been going on the past four weeks since we have seen each other.  I really miss her and today has been tough.  Today was the one year anniversary that I have been in my apartment.  One year ago I was moving out of the Roe's and moving in.  Rachel was here and my items from SC were on their way.  It is hard to believe how much has changed in the one year with friends and situations.  Megan leaving….Rhodes getting a new job….getting a new car…changing positions at RUSD….principal changes….. this list goes on and one and while change is constant and expected, it can be hard.


Sunday, August 31, 2014

Today is Brianne's birthday and Stephen, her boyfriend has created an all day event for her and her friends including Sue, Erin, Alicia, Brooke, Paige, Patrick, Danielle and I.  This morning we met at Swami's in Carlsbad for breakfast 9:30 am.  The breakfast was good but the service was terrible.  We were suppose to catch the Coaster to go to San Diego at 11:10 and at 11:00 we were still waiting for our food and we had been at the table since 10:20.  Needless to say we had them pack the food up and ate it on the train.  This is the first time I had been on the Coaster and it was fun. 

 

It goes down through the beach cities and dumps you off in San Diego.  There is also the Sprinter (another train that goes inland), the Link (a bus system), the Flex (you arrange for it to pick you up at a specific location at a specific time), the Lift (for handicapped people who need public transportation).  North San Diego County has a very interesting and intricate public transportation system.    So we made it to Petco Park and into the game with no difficulty. 

 

The Padres did not do well today against the Dodgers but the game itself was fun.  It was Military Appreciation Day so there were lots of people at the game today and while the stands were not PACKED, there was really not any open blocks of seats either.  When we left we headed back to the trolley and where we ate dinner in Old Town at a great Pizza Place called Pizza Bella.  The food was wonderful and the atmosphere was great on the porch outside.  We walked about Old Town a bit and made it back to catch the train at 7:16 pm to head back to Carlsbad.