1. Photocopying is your mostest bestest friend.
2. 15-year-olds in the suburbs don't give a crap about politics.
3. Spending your weekends doing things like moving dozens upon dozens of cases of wine does not contribute to you being alert and happy come Monday morning.
4. Abused kids can manipulate the hell out of you.
5. I spent an apparently abnormally small amount of time on my hair as a teenager.
6. Kids that can scream loud enough to make you cringe during rehearsal can't talk above a whisper when they're on stage.
7. I was happier to have forgotten the necessary logistics of most teenage romances (ie, they only see eachother at school, so they, uh, express their feelings there).
8. Build a coffin along with your set--it's cheaper and more likely to be needed during prep for extra-curricular productions. Update it every few years as you gain or lose an unhealthy amount of weight.
9. One Acts are either really boring or too advanced for Drama 10. (I compromised by giving them one of each.)
10. Even when *everybody* (student, teacher, parent, administrator) tries their best, some kids just aren't that bright.
11. If outside attempts at help could blow up your classroom, you'd be "pathognomonic," too.
12. Dry erase markers in the hands of high school kids can be remarkably hazardous. Ditto with the erasers. My poor warm-up description... :-(
(Hi, Micah! Nice to hear from you!)
11/28/2006
11/20/2006
Hilow
So the past week or so has been full of ups and downs. Exams went all right, but I missed my Assessment final. The time and location weren't in the syllabus, and, silly me, I assumed it was during class time like my other exams. Yeah, no. I got to write it Friday morning, though, so it was all good.
Not so good was Thursday night. I got an e-mail from this guy in my Drama class saying how I humiliated him and he hopes I never EVER become a teacher. He then proceded to demand an apology for my unspecified act. I was confused and upset. I wrote back saying just that, and Cc'ed a copy to the prof, since she's a very involved person. I got a reply back from the guy saying that if I didn't know what he was talking about, then it just went to show how horrible I was. That did not encourage me to apologize to him. The prof wrote us, saying we both screwed up, and the matter of what I did wrong was clarified. On October 23rd (so, a while ago) I'd told him that his sentences ended in upwards lilts during his peer teaching, and that it was therefore difficult to tell when he was finished talking. I wanted to use the term Half Cadence, but nobody in the class except me knew what that was, so I wound up having to imitate it. I said many times that I wasn't trying to insult him, that it was just something I noticed, but apparently he didn't believe me. The prof, who wasn't there, but had heard about it, thought I hadn't been as professional as I could've been, though, so I sucked it up and apologized for hurting this guy's feelings. But I said I stood by the message I was trying to convey. He hasn't e-mailed me back.
The worst part, though? The initial e-mail he sent me, talking about how horrible I was, was Bcc'ed to the entire class. Yeah, the rest of the class was not impressed by that. I found this out through Joyce, though, who was told by Maura, a friend of both Joyce and I who was in the class. *That* sucked.
So I was stressed and nauseated and whatnot from that this weekend and was not looking forward to going to do my IPT. I knew it would be fine, but I couldn't nod last night without nearly blacking out, I was so lightheaded. I went, though, and it was all good. I have an assignment for my classes that should eat up a week or so. I'm gonna give them a scene of two people talking about the weather, without any stage directions, and get them to memorize and interpret it in a performance. I took the scene from a short One Act my mentor teacher had called Just One Day. The play is about a girl who's been knocked-up deciding to have an abortion, but the first while is just her and her friend waiting to meet with her boyfriend, and they're talking about how Spring has come early. Should be neat.
And tonight, I got home and got some very happy news via e-mail: My wallet has been turned in at the Music Office!!!!!! I knew it hadn't been stolen, but I had given up on finding it. Luckily, my credit card was only put on Protection, rather than having been cancelled outright, so all I have to do is call them back up when I have the card and it'll be usable immediately. Not that I have a lot of room on it... ^_^ But things like my Health Care card won't have to be replaced, which is nice. In celebration, I think I'm going to go get myself a glass of warm chcolate milk. :-)
Not so good was Thursday night. I got an e-mail from this guy in my Drama class saying how I humiliated him and he hopes I never EVER become a teacher. He then proceded to demand an apology for my unspecified act. I was confused and upset. I wrote back saying just that, and Cc'ed a copy to the prof, since she's a very involved person. I got a reply back from the guy saying that if I didn't know what he was talking about, then it just went to show how horrible I was. That did not encourage me to apologize to him. The prof wrote us, saying we both screwed up, and the matter of what I did wrong was clarified. On October 23rd (so, a while ago) I'd told him that his sentences ended in upwards lilts during his peer teaching, and that it was therefore difficult to tell when he was finished talking. I wanted to use the term Half Cadence, but nobody in the class except me knew what that was, so I wound up having to imitate it. I said many times that I wasn't trying to insult him, that it was just something I noticed, but apparently he didn't believe me. The prof, who wasn't there, but had heard about it, thought I hadn't been as professional as I could've been, though, so I sucked it up and apologized for hurting this guy's feelings. But I said I stood by the message I was trying to convey. He hasn't e-mailed me back.
The worst part, though? The initial e-mail he sent me, talking about how horrible I was, was Bcc'ed to the entire class. Yeah, the rest of the class was not impressed by that. I found this out through Joyce, though, who was told by Maura, a friend of both Joyce and I who was in the class. *That* sucked.
So I was stressed and nauseated and whatnot from that this weekend and was not looking forward to going to do my IPT. I knew it would be fine, but I couldn't nod last night without nearly blacking out, I was so lightheaded. I went, though, and it was all good. I have an assignment for my classes that should eat up a week or so. I'm gonna give them a scene of two people talking about the weather, without any stage directions, and get them to memorize and interpret it in a performance. I took the scene from a short One Act my mentor teacher had called Just One Day. The play is about a girl who's been knocked-up deciding to have an abortion, but the first while is just her and her friend waiting to meet with her boyfriend, and they're talking about how Spring has come early. Should be neat.
And tonight, I got home and got some very happy news via e-mail: My wallet has been turned in at the Music Office!!!!!! I knew it hadn't been stolen, but I had given up on finding it. Luckily, my credit card was only put on Protection, rather than having been cancelled outright, so all I have to do is call them back up when I have the card and it'll be usable immediately. Not that I have a lot of room on it... ^_^ But things like my Health Care card won't have to be replaced, which is nice. In celebration, I think I'm going to go get myself a glass of warm chcolate milk. :-)
11/14/2006
And it Squeaks on Contact ^_^
Yeah, so I have failed to find my wallet thus far. When University buildings open again tomorrow (since today is Fall Break) I'm going to go back to Campus 5-0 and ask if anything's been turned in yet. I've now got myself an interim driver's license and a new bank card, plus a new Amex on the way and my both my mom's and my Visas are on "protection," which means that nobody can use them and I have to call to either lift the protection when I find the cards or cancel them when I give up. I have not yet bothered with a new Alberta Healthcare card or ONEcard. I'd really like to find my wallet, since things like my LaSenza discount card an my CostCo card, which I probably won't bother to replace, are in there. I've checked everywhere my wallet could reasonably be. You name it, I've checked there. I am annoyed...
Elsewhere, my finals start tomorrow with Inclusive Ed. Yaaaaaay!!!!! ...or not. Oh, well. At least now those classes will be over. My group got a 91% on our IPP project, so I'm not too worried about my grade in that class. I am, however, rather uncertain as to what to prepare for my student teaching. But we'll jump off that bridge when we get to it, as they say.
I've switched my Blogger account to the Beta, and the "Labels" bit is kind of odd. The examples they have are "scooters, vacation, fall." Huh. I wonder if I should start a "rant" category, or a "ramble" one. Or rather use the labels as a rating system for how stable I'm feeling that day. I could rate them from 1-5 and be able to trace patterns of my bad days, as well as giggle at my choice of words at those times. They see a Rolodex, I see a hammer. ^_^
Elsewhere, my finals start tomorrow with Inclusive Ed. Yaaaaaay!!!!! ...or not. Oh, well. At least now those classes will be over. My group got a 91% on our IPP project, so I'm not too worried about my grade in that class. I am, however, rather uncertain as to what to prepare for my student teaching. But we'll jump off that bridge when we get to it, as they say.
I've switched my Blogger account to the Beta, and the "Labels" bit is kind of odd. The examples they have are "scooters, vacation, fall." Huh. I wonder if I should start a "rant" category, or a "ramble" one. Or rather use the labels as a rating system for how stable I'm feeling that day. I could rate them from 1-5 and be able to trace patterns of my bad days, as well as giggle at my choice of words at those times. They see a Rolodex, I see a hammer. ^_^
11/10/2006
Mmm... SIN...
I just got my very first piece of honest-to-God spam at my current e-mail address. (EDIT: I mean the first piece of spam that made it into my inbox. I pay almost no attention to my junk folder.) Prior to this, the closest thing I got to spam was people e-mailing stuff to a girl who had the same name but at hotmail.fr. I imagine that the spreading of her e-mail address with the .com mistake is what got me the spam. Seriously, I've had this address for *counts* roughly seven years and I've never gotten spam before. But this girl (I can't remember her name off the top of my head) seems to have gotten into the habit of giving out her e-mail address left, right and centre lately. I've had to block deozens, maybe even over 100 people who have mistakenly added me to their MSN list. Based on those people's screen names, this girl lives somewhere where the two main languages are French and Arabic, and I've asked people before where that might be, but I can't remember the suggestions they gave.
But, anyway, I just got a vital message from yourDICK_isSHORT and I am amuzed. ^_^
In other news, we sold our old house last night. We got less than the asking price, but more than we actually wanted for it, so it's all good. They take possession the first of December, which means that we have to get our wine coolers in at the new house and our wine but into them so it's not laying around when the new owners arrive. And I still have some blankets over there, which annoys me because I thought I had all my stuff cleared out, and now I don't know where I'm going to put blankets. Plus, I'm also annoyed that I haven't had them all along because it's cold in my bedroom and I want blankets. :-( My mom actually came into my room last night and remarked about how cold it was in here. She then said that something would have to be done about it and left. I sighed because I've been telling her since we moved in that we need some heavy-ish window coverings because the big picture window is what's making it cold. Plus, when I got out of the shower yesterday, there was a guy driving a Bobcat around our backyard and I was only wearing a towel. B'oh...
Today is the first day of my five-day weekend, but I'm waiting to be taken to the University. My car is, of course, not finished at Fountain Tire, and I can't borrow my mom's car because I have no driver's license because I've lost my wallet. I think I left it in the computer lab in FAB yesterday after I printed off my Policy Studies paper. Stupid 12 cents per page. Did I mention that there's something glitchy with our printer at home? I don't know what, but it doesn't want to work properly. The computer releases print jobs to it and it doesn't do anything. But, yeah, I'm just waiting for the real estate agent to show up (she should be here within five minutes) and my parents to sign the sale papers so that my mom can drive me to FAB and possibly Campus 5-0. There was no money in my wallet, but there was everything else. Except my passport and SIN card, but you really don't want to carry those around with you. GAH IDENTITY THEFT!!!!!!111!!!!!11
Oh, hey, the real estate agent's here.
But, anyway, I just got a vital message from yourDICK_isSHORT and I am amuzed. ^_^
In other news, we sold our old house last night. We got less than the asking price, but more than we actually wanted for it, so it's all good. They take possession the first of December, which means that we have to get our wine coolers in at the new house and our wine but into them so it's not laying around when the new owners arrive. And I still have some blankets over there, which annoys me because I thought I had all my stuff cleared out, and now I don't know where I'm going to put blankets. Plus, I'm also annoyed that I haven't had them all along because it's cold in my bedroom and I want blankets. :-( My mom actually came into my room last night and remarked about how cold it was in here. She then said that something would have to be done about it and left. I sighed because I've been telling her since we moved in that we need some heavy-ish window coverings because the big picture window is what's making it cold. Plus, when I got out of the shower yesterday, there was a guy driving a Bobcat around our backyard and I was only wearing a towel. B'oh...
Today is the first day of my five-day weekend, but I'm waiting to be taken to the University. My car is, of course, not finished at Fountain Tire, and I can't borrow my mom's car because I have no driver's license because I've lost my wallet. I think I left it in the computer lab in FAB yesterday after I printed off my Policy Studies paper. Stupid 12 cents per page. Did I mention that there's something glitchy with our printer at home? I don't know what, but it doesn't want to work properly. The computer releases print jobs to it and it doesn't do anything. But, yeah, I'm just waiting for the real estate agent to show up (she should be here within five minutes) and my parents to sign the sale papers so that my mom can drive me to FAB and possibly Campus 5-0. There was no money in my wallet, but there was everything else. Except my passport and SIN card, but you really don't want to carry those around with you. GAH IDENTITY THEFT!!!!!!111!!!!!11
Oh, hey, the real estate agent's here.
11/06/2006
Bypass the Release Mechanism
I just caught up on my blog reading. I haven't done that in a while. I hadn't seen any of the enitre front page of Jo's blog. I hope Jazz lives! I actually listened to people have a conversation about how bettas don't die easily today. ^_^ And yay, Morgan, on your job! Working equals money equals being able to live and stuff.
On a similar note, I had a bad weekend. I got Lindsey Coulter to cover my shift on Friday because I just couldn't do it. I woke up just before nine that morning (I don't have class on Fridays) to the sound of my dad yelling. I tried to stay asleep, and he kept yelling. Just after ten, my mom came in to give me the all-clear and started crying. Turns out, the builders had put the duct for the vent hood over our stove in the wrong place in the wall. And they're saying it's my dad's fault. I have no idea what the specifics are, and I don't care to know, but my mom has been coming into my room and crying quite a lot lately. She has trouble dealing with my dad when he gets stressed or upset or anything like that, especially if she's also stressed. Three cheers for being my mother's therapist.
On Saturday I did go to work, and I was angry to discover that I was on reception. I had asked the logistics manager for more shifts in the Jazz and Classical room. The shift Lindsey had taken the night before was a cash shift, and, in total, only 45% of my assigned hours for the month were in CDs. I was not happy. The logistics manager showed up, though, which is worth noting because he doesn't work weekends, usually, and he was chill and whatnot, and he cheered me up. I didn't mention my annoyance to him. He was around to move CD shelves because of renovations that started today. The area that used to house the clearance section, as well as the reception desk and the Entertainment Playground Theatre area is being walled up and converted into backroom area. The Jazz and Classical room is being re-expanded. I was quite excited when Lindsey told me about all of this.
Anyway, so once I cheered up, I was all productive. The general manager asked me to clear out the reception counter because we were moving the reception area that day, but after he told me to do that, he disappeared and the logistics manager went home, so nothing actually got moved. And since I had been all productive and whatnot, I ran out of things to do and got bored. So I sat around being bored for a while. I text messaged Joyce about the ironic contrasts within my work day. And then I got laid off.
Seven people were let go due to budget problems, all from the CD/DVD department. I was not exactly thrilled. It's on good terms, though. They're giving me severance pay, and if I call them on Thursday, the manager says they'll have another job opportunity set up for me with another company. That part surprised me. It makes sense, though, since everybody in the city is desperate for employees. I was especially taken by surprise with the being laid off because I didn't think that happened these days in Alberta. I'm not sure if I'll take another job, though, since I start student teaching on the 20th, and another job probably won't have anything to do with my degree.
I had already made plans to go to dinner with Jenilee and Peter that night, so I did, and I had a good time. I crahsed at Peter's place because my contacts were really bothering me and I didn't have my glasses, so I couldn't drive myself home after taking my lenses out. I woke up the next day and discovered why my leneses were bothering me--the right one, at least, was ripped all to hell. It probably happened when I was rubbing my eyes while crying after losing my job. I made it out the door, though, which at least one girl didn't before she broke down into tears. I feel bad for her. Anyway, Peter drove me home so that I could get my glasses.
My mom was not in a good mood when I got home, and I wound up being stuck there for a while doing cleaning before I could drive Peter home. He was not impressed. My mom had put bedding on my bed, and in the process had switched out my pillows that I had especially chosen and bought and wanted to keep. Getting them all back into my room (and the other ones out of my room) was not something my mom approved of, however, and she tried to kick me out of the house. As in tell me I could no longer live there. Again. She gave up on the notion really easily, though, which makes it kind of worse in a way, since she's throwing around big threats like that more and more casually. She was very affectionate by dinnertime. Three cheers for being my mother's six-year-old.
Today I've been feeling sick. I've been all nauseated and dizzy and I've had this weird kind of fuzzy headache, and I can't tell which of the three is causing me to have trouble focusing with my vision. I nearly asked Peter to drive me home this afternoon, not sure I was feeling well enough to do it myself. I had things to do, though, so setting the precedent that I wasn't good enough to drive would mean that I'd get absolutely nothing done, so I toughed it out. This evening, I went over to Peter's place and we watched Prison Break, and as I was driving him over to his mom's place afterwards, I realized that I have a flat tire. And no spare. So I drove the couple blocks to his moms, left my car there, had Peter drive me home, and tomorrow morning I'm going to get my dad to drive me back to the old house on his way to the hospital (I don't know why he'll be there) so that I can catch a bus to school. There's no bus service out by our new place yet. It'll take a couple of years, at least. *sigh*
On the plus side, I have now moved everything of mine out of the old house. Except for a pair of "boyfriend" pillows that I guess I'll put in the garage sale pile. There was a showing tonight. I have no idea how it went, but hopefully the answer is "well." It'll be nice having all my sweaters and cardigans and whatnot close at hand again, now that I've brought them over. I've been cold lately.
On a similar note, I had a bad weekend. I got Lindsey Coulter to cover my shift on Friday because I just couldn't do it. I woke up just before nine that morning (I don't have class on Fridays) to the sound of my dad yelling. I tried to stay asleep, and he kept yelling. Just after ten, my mom came in to give me the all-clear and started crying. Turns out, the builders had put the duct for the vent hood over our stove in the wrong place in the wall. And they're saying it's my dad's fault. I have no idea what the specifics are, and I don't care to know, but my mom has been coming into my room and crying quite a lot lately. She has trouble dealing with my dad when he gets stressed or upset or anything like that, especially if she's also stressed. Three cheers for being my mother's therapist.
On Saturday I did go to work, and I was angry to discover that I was on reception. I had asked the logistics manager for more shifts in the Jazz and Classical room. The shift Lindsey had taken the night before was a cash shift, and, in total, only 45% of my assigned hours for the month were in CDs. I was not happy. The logistics manager showed up, though, which is worth noting because he doesn't work weekends, usually, and he was chill and whatnot, and he cheered me up. I didn't mention my annoyance to him. He was around to move CD shelves because of renovations that started today. The area that used to house the clearance section, as well as the reception desk and the Entertainment Playground Theatre area is being walled up and converted into backroom area. The Jazz and Classical room is being re-expanded. I was quite excited when Lindsey told me about all of this.
Anyway, so once I cheered up, I was all productive. The general manager asked me to clear out the reception counter because we were moving the reception area that day, but after he told me to do that, he disappeared and the logistics manager went home, so nothing actually got moved. And since I had been all productive and whatnot, I ran out of things to do and got bored. So I sat around being bored for a while. I text messaged Joyce about the ironic contrasts within my work day. And then I got laid off.
Seven people were let go due to budget problems, all from the CD/DVD department. I was not exactly thrilled. It's on good terms, though. They're giving me severance pay, and if I call them on Thursday, the manager says they'll have another job opportunity set up for me with another company. That part surprised me. It makes sense, though, since everybody in the city is desperate for employees. I was especially taken by surprise with the being laid off because I didn't think that happened these days in Alberta. I'm not sure if I'll take another job, though, since I start student teaching on the 20th, and another job probably won't have anything to do with my degree.
I had already made plans to go to dinner with Jenilee and Peter that night, so I did, and I had a good time. I crahsed at Peter's place because my contacts were really bothering me and I didn't have my glasses, so I couldn't drive myself home after taking my lenses out. I woke up the next day and discovered why my leneses were bothering me--the right one, at least, was ripped all to hell. It probably happened when I was rubbing my eyes while crying after losing my job. I made it out the door, though, which at least one girl didn't before she broke down into tears. I feel bad for her. Anyway, Peter drove me home so that I could get my glasses.
My mom was not in a good mood when I got home, and I wound up being stuck there for a while doing cleaning before I could drive Peter home. He was not impressed. My mom had put bedding on my bed, and in the process had switched out my pillows that I had especially chosen and bought and wanted to keep. Getting them all back into my room (and the other ones out of my room) was not something my mom approved of, however, and she tried to kick me out of the house. As in tell me I could no longer live there. Again. She gave up on the notion really easily, though, which makes it kind of worse in a way, since she's throwing around big threats like that more and more casually. She was very affectionate by dinnertime. Three cheers for being my mother's six-year-old.
Today I've been feeling sick. I've been all nauseated and dizzy and I've had this weird kind of fuzzy headache, and I can't tell which of the three is causing me to have trouble focusing with my vision. I nearly asked Peter to drive me home this afternoon, not sure I was feeling well enough to do it myself. I had things to do, though, so setting the precedent that I wasn't good enough to drive would mean that I'd get absolutely nothing done, so I toughed it out. This evening, I went over to Peter's place and we watched Prison Break, and as I was driving him over to his mom's place afterwards, I realized that I have a flat tire. And no spare. So I drove the couple blocks to his moms, left my car there, had Peter drive me home, and tomorrow morning I'm going to get my dad to drive me back to the old house on his way to the hospital (I don't know why he'll be there) so that I can catch a bus to school. There's no bus service out by our new place yet. It'll take a couple of years, at least. *sigh*
On the plus side, I have now moved everything of mine out of the old house. Except for a pair of "boyfriend" pillows that I guess I'll put in the garage sale pile. There was a showing tonight. I have no idea how it went, but hopefully the answer is "well." It'll be nice having all my sweaters and cardigans and whatnot close at hand again, now that I've brought them over. I've been cold lately.
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