I am not complaining….I will not complain…. I have had some good things happen in the past few weeks and I can see the end of the PhD in sight as well as a break next week to finish up some items. I have been able to spend time with some good friends catching up both in person, on the phone and via Skype.
One of the things I LOVE about Southern Cali is the consistency of the weather. There are not radical changes in the climate - yes it is hot during the summer but not stifling humidity filled heat and yes, it gets a little cold but it is more like Spring weather in SC. It is cool in the morning and then it gets warm so you layer. However, the past two weeks has brought a lot of rain and cooler temperatures. I will not complain…… it is nothing like rain in SC and my hair does not frizz so it does not bother me. In addition, I have not had to close up the apartment and turn on the heat because it does not get THAT cold. I actually love sleeping with the windows open and snuggled up in the covers. However, I am not sure how I ever surveyed without seat warmers!!! The Jetta I got last year has seat warmers that I did not really use but the past three weeks I have REALLY enjoyed getting into the car with it being chilly and turning on the seat warmers to warm my TUSHIE and not have to blow a bunch of hot air. The seat warmers send heat up the back of the seat and it is toasty warm!!! I never thought I would be so pampered to ned something like seat warmers but I don't ever want to be without them now. :( It makes me wonder what else I am missing in cars…….ummmmm…… better stop thinking about that.
December 16, 2014
I have to stay that it is only Tuesday and I have been thinking all day that it is Wednesday. Can I tell you how sad I was when I remembered that it is only Tuesday. However, I also found out that I am not the only one and a lot of people were thinking it was Thursday. We are looking for break a few days too early!!!
I have decided the only part of my job that I really dislike is lunch duty / line duty. I am so tired of kids trying to break into line for lunch. If they would just stand in line and quit trying to rush and crowd the area, everyone would eat lunch a lot quicker. They do not understand the idea of a funnel and therefore they end up bottlenecking in the line. It is actually sad. But the kids get so upset when they have to go back to the end of the line for cutting in line. I did bust a kid for throwing carrots today off the only second story building we have. Poor little 9th grader, I think I scared him. I made him sit in discipline and stew about it and then finally got him out of discipline. We then went and sat at the tables and talked about why his behavior was wrong and the problems it causes. I made him sit there and watch some of the custodians use the grippers to pick up the trash and carrots like the ones he threw. He seemed to feel terrible. I then gave him a choice of discipline. He could do lunch duty trash pickup for three days (the rest of this week) or two Saturday schools. Guess what he decided??????? Yep, he decided to take the three days of trash duty. And he constantly apologized. I almost felt sorry for him. Rich, another assistant principal, just laughs and feels bad for the kid who has to deal with me because I make them sit and listen to me and feel really guilty. I told Rich I don't think I am that effective but he is convinced I am. Who knows…..it helps me develop better relationships with the kids!
Husky has developed a new trick. She likes to play fetch with a little green stuffed mouse. Tonight she has run back and forth off the bed to get the mouse and bring it back. I promise I think she has turned into a dog. It tuckered her out and she slept the entire night. Here is a short video of a few of her runs but she must have downs this about 50 times over 90 minutes. She just kept going and going and going.
December 17, 2014
So there was rain again this morning. Can I have my sunny, lovely Southern Cali back please!!!!!! I know that we need the rain and therefore it is good for the water reservoirs but I would like to have my weather back that I love so much!!! I woke up this morning with all the rain pounding down and it was very nice to snuggle in the bed with the kitties who are so nice and warm! The drive to work was relatively busy because of everyone driving so slow. I did not get there until 6:45 which was 20 minutes past the time that I am usually there!
Today I spent a good bit of time meeting with students who have been struggling in school. Most of the students I meet with are good kids they just need an advocate in their corner and someone to talk about issues. Overall things were good today. I have to say that I am Christmas Partied out. Between the Holiday party on Friday, the Secretaries party on Tuesday, the Potluck today, the staff meeting with cookies and then the food that will be around for the TA's, I am tired! While all of them have been fun and good to see people and spend time with them, you always eat at these things and I am trying to watch what I am eating! Zumba today was hard but I am not sure if it was because of the playlist I made or the ton of food I feel like I have eaten in three days without making it to the gym!!
Today was another technology clean up day for me. I keep thinking that it is done and then low and behold I find something else. This time about 15 old computers were moved for disposal. I know that I have found another "stash" or materials that need to be cleaned out also. I can hardly wait for all the old materials to be out. Yes, I know that it will continue but hopefully by that time I will have a good inventory so I don't have to worry about finding items and running into equipment that should not be there! Fingers crossed!!
Thursday, December 18, 2014
It was a little cold today but staying busy helps ignore the cold. This morning we did Donut Patrol and the first classroom we hit had no tardies!!!! Hooray!!!! We ended up with some left over and was able to visit another small class and they had no tardies also!!! Hooray!!! Two Times!!!!!
I met with a lot of students today to check on them before they go to break. It was a pretty lively day. It was good to check in with them and see what they are planning for Christmas. I also got to go and see some of the plays the Theater groups were putting on. The students did a great job and it was nice to see them have fun.
After school I had some students who came and sat with me to chat which was great. These are some of my favorite students that are trying to turn their lives and education around and do better in school and life. They are so cute because they have a hard time having a full conversation with anyone but they really are trying to do better. They are in that awkward stage of adolescence where they are not sure if they should laugh at everything or take is seriously when they don't understand or in odd situations.
Weekend in Vegas with the USC Group
On Saturday morning I took a drive to Las Vegas from Murrieta. On the way in, I picked up Chic-Fil-A for Josh, who has been living in China, since he discovered there was not a Chic-Fil-A in Vegas - Oh! The Horror!!! So, with two Chick-Fil-A sandwiches in the car, it was off to Vegas. It took about 3.5 hours, which is not too bad. Traffic was moving pretty well but it amazed me that as you go into Vegas, it turns into a two lane highway which gets a bit congested! I picked up Benetta at the Vegas airport on the way in and then it was off to get into trouble after we checked in at Bally's where we were staying.
Now, I am here to celebrate Erin Hahn's wedding this weekend. It is funny how small the world of Athletic Training is and how connected we are through the University of South Carolina. Stacey, who will be here tomorrow is the oldest of the four of us that hang together, I am the next in line, with Benetta a year behind me. While I was in grad school at Furman, I met Erin who was a High School student taking an athletic training class at the career center I taught at. Erin when to USC where she met her friend Josh and we have all introduced one another to each other over the years. While the world is incredibly large, it is funny how small the athletic training world is. In fact, the athletic trainer at my high school attended USC as well. I guess we could do Six Degrees of USC and we could probably connect each athletic trainer with all the connections each of us have. Josh is now working over in China at a school and is widening our circle even more. We met one of his friends here in Vegas that he became friends with while in China - CrAzY!!!! Josh was so sweet that he even brought us Christmas presents from China in the form of pearls!
Needless to say, they are beautiful and of course I wore them. THANKS JOSH!!! We met up with Erin and Tony, her fiancé, to eat dinner at Señor Frogs and ended up with crazy hats on our heads. Who would have known that balloon hats are just created there for our pleasure to take pictures with. I also love the fact there was all kinds of cool quotes / mottos on the ceiling. Unfortunately we got so busy talking, I forgot to take a few pictures. However, one of the cool things was as we were leaving, we did get to see the private ship used in Miss Congeniality II - and yes, it is way smaller than it looks on TV and no it did not sink!
After dinner we ended up in Erin and Tony's room in order to see their view and watch the Water Show from their room with the music on the TV. It was a beautiful view. Josh decided he wanted to go to another bar and let me tell you, there is no way we should have been here for an extended period of time.
When we got there at 10:15 pm, the club had just opened at 10:00 pm, so we were excited to get to see the club before things got hopping!!!! As we found a place to sit we talked about what we were going to order and let me tell you, I almost died. I don't think you can see the pictures really well but let me tell you that most of the drinks on the menu were bottles of liquor and ranged from $235.00 - $126,000. What the heck!!!!! - that is more than my salary!!!! Who in the world???? I wanted to stay just so that I could see who would purchase a bottle of $126,000 liquor. We eventually left and while it was only 11:20 pm for me, for Benetta it was 2:20 am and for Josh it was actually Sunday morning at 5:00 am for it being Saturday at 11:20 pm at night. Time to get to bed!!!!
Sunday was the big day for Erin. Benetta and
I went to pick Stacey up at the airport at 10:00 and and then went to IHOP to
eat off the strip, just to try and save a little money and time. It was
great to catch up with Stacey and what is going on with her new house she just
bought as well as hearing about the Shine Bowl and her work with Barry this
past week. When we got back to the hotel it was off to do some shopping
before the wedding. The four of us had a theme as you can see in the
picture below and no, it was not Christmas, it was USC - we all decided to wear
garnet and black for the wedding since that is how we all knew each other.
The wedding was beautiful and I can finally say I have seen a Vegas
wedding. Erin and Tony chose to get married at the Bellagio on the
courtyard veranda with the fountains in the back and we all laughed for their
closing song with was Vive Las Vegas! Lots of pictures were taken by all
of us so I am sure they will appear on Facebook at some point.
After the wedding we did go and eat with Erin, Tony
and Erin's family but by this time it was 9:00 pm at night and that means about
12:00 pm for everyone else. Needless to say with Stacey coming in at so
early she was up extremely early in SC, Josh is on China time and did not get
in until 5:00 am this morning anyway, we all crashed for the night.
Monday morning we all met for breakfast at Paris and ate out on the terrace. This might have been the best meal of the trip. Everything was yummy and we had a great time sitting and just chatting. We then walked down to the Venetian and just windowed shopped for a bit before we went back and packed up all of the items to leave Vegas. Overall, it
has been great to all be together without an NATA convention pulling us all
together. This will be our "ATC Girls" trip for the year and it
has been a fun and interesting one!
No comments:
Post a Comment