the absence of the countdown chain

i love countdown chains. love. them. unfortunately, i have to exert some self control and save them for major events. because if you had a countdown chain for just every little thing, they'd lose their magic.

one of the first things i got excited about after taking this teaching job was the prospect of a glorious countdown chain. i figured that since the cruise was so close to the end of the quarter, i'd just make a chain to countdown to the trip. i was tempted to make it right away, but decided to hold off. my goal was to make it past the 'honeymoon' stage of the job, and bring in the chain when things started feeling dull. but all those silly snow days kept me from needing extra motivation and alas, i waited too long.

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cruisin' with the classics

one short week from today i'll be setting sail for a week in the carribbean, where it is a lovely eighty degrees. just me, my mom and a rousing group that is essentially made up of senior citizens.

a few months ago my mom started talking about wanting to go on a cruise with the classics from church. [read: the sixty and over crowd] she asked around to see if any of her friends would be interested and/or available to go and when they weren't, i got the nod to be her roommate. score one for me. i immediately went to work convincing bonnie and gary to come along as well.

i envision a lot of laying in the sun, reading, playing games [bonnie LOVES games] and most importantly...eating. i am so looking forward to multiples meals of real food every day. we're sailing from ft. lauderdale on a holland america ship and will be porting in grand turk, san juan, st. thomas and half moon cay. we've looked into shore excursions and i'm holding out hope that we might even get my mom into a kayak.

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the ninth on the ninth

it is 9:12 in the morning. right about now i should be inspiring my students with examples of cause and effect words and other such riveting subjects. but i am not. instead, i am at home sitting in a chair, because we are having a snow day. our ninth snow day. ninth. the most snow days in the history of the world.

when this teaching opportunity first came along, i was hesitant about a few things. one of which was the full time nature of the job. lucky for me, full time has been a relative term this quarter. we have had exactly one full week of school. ironically, due to holidays and teacher work days, the next opportunity for a full week of school happens to fall on the week i will be on a large ship, sailing through the caribbean.

in the few and far between days i have actually been at school, i've discovered i sort of like having a job. maybe not so much that i need to have one all the time, but it has actually been kinda fun. i love my cart, which i've already mentioned, but it bears repeating. i love the organizational side of being a teacher, specifically entering grades into the grade book. it's heavenly. i like having co-workers and immensely enjoy the four minutes we have every hour to stand in the hallway and talk. [when i'm not busy running students over with said cart] i even like my students. especially my fifth hour, they're my favorite. i'm not sure if you're supposed to have a favorite, but i do. i like going to the same place every day and having something to do. i love checking things off my to-do list.

of course there are also my not-so-favorite things. i'm not especially fond of my alarm clock and the fact that it wakes me up every day at 6:20am. lesson planning is still a challenge, but i haven't had a repeat of my near nervous breakdown from my first major lesson planning session, so i'd say i'm improving. i don't especially like it when i have to teach a b-o-r-i-n-g lesson for forty seven minutes, six times in a row. those days are dull.

thankfully, my 'likes' are outweighing my 'dislikes' at the moment, so snow days and all...it'd say it's a pretty good gig.

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