Old Pursuits

This long weekend I took the time to relax, unwind and tried not to dwell on the amount of school work I have ahead of me. This is a busy time of year for teachers and I have been swamped with paperwork. I will start taking education classes in the coming semester, add that to my work case load and I'll be quite busy.
But not this past weekend. No, instead I read a Tennessee Williams play that I really love, drank some coffee and tweaked three of my own scripts in the process. It's the first time since the move that I made an effort to sit at the computer and revise my own writing. Two of the scripts I have been working on for quite some time and I am aiming to submit them within the next few weeks. The third script was just a fun little idea I had which has led me into a completely different realm than I originally planned.
Writing has been a big part of who I am for as long as I can remember. It would be a shame to let my new 'career' overwhelm that passion. I must remember to write.

It made me giggle

I was sitting at a red light when I noticed that the Chevy Astro Van in front of me had an 'Autism Awarness' Ribbon Magnet. It's just like all of the other Ribbon Magnets, except instead of a solid color it features a jigsaw puzzle pattern on the ribbon. Then I look down on the bumper and read:

My Kid Got Autism From A Vaccine And All I Got Was This Lousy Bumper Sticker!

The New Year!

HAPPY 2007!
I can't believe it's here already. Last year was busy year for us what with all of the changes we dealt with it seemed like the new year would never get here, but thakfully it has.

The holidays were good. Spent time with family, read a book that was in no way related to my job, and tried to relax. I was excited to have a 'winter break', but it, too, flew by.

So here we are, Jan 2007 and all of the sudden my job kicks into high gear. In the next week I have to gather, and organize all of my data collection on my students and their educational goals so that I can write progress reports (We don't give ABC grades), I have to rework my entire Alt Msa binder as I have made mistakes on every single objective, and I have several meetings about my students to review their current status. It's all a bit overwhelming for a guy whose getting on the job training by being thrown to the wolves.

This semester I will start back to school, taking classes towards my certification, so hopefully pieces will start falling into place and my general anxiety about fumbling through the first few months of my job will be replaced by my expanding knowledge and a sense of ease. To think last year this time all I had to worry about was pouring Sangria and learning a new wine list. It's funny for me to look back and remember the times I freaked out when I would mess up someone's drink order, or forgot to order a desert - teaching's just a little more involved, and I'm guessing the consequences are more significant.

Oh well, you know the old saying - Anything worth doing is something that you may not always feel like doing at the time, or probably were never shown the proper way to do, and might eventually look back and say 'wow, why did I do that thing that way when I should have done that thing this other way?'. (Not really sure of the exact quote.)

Gee Doc...

"... In the last month and a half or so I've moved fromChicago, started a job that I'm a little overwhelmed with, found an apartment, moved again, proposed to my girlfriend, bought a car and I've been bitten twice by the same student. It's been a little stressful."

* I was sitting in the emergency room waiting to get a tetanus shot after beeing bitten on the forearm by a student, and the doctors and nurses were a little alarmed by my elevated blood pressure.

Been A Little Busy

I've been meaning to write but I can't find the time...

I've had my hands full...

I've been really tired lately...

Swamped with paperwork...

Busy Xmas Shopping...

Overwhelmed...

...Or maybe I just haven't had anything interesting to say.

She Said Yes...

That's right, I got down on one knee and asked the woman I loved to marry me. I told her she couldn't get the ring until she answered and it better be the right answer ... it was.

For those of you who know us it shouldn't come as a surprise that she said yes, and I'm sure I have a bunch of 'Well, it's about time' 's coming. Details will only be given to those friends whom we deem worthy, or who care to ask.

Things Are Looking Up

Sara is finally here on the East Coast. We found a way out of our Chicago lease which meant that she was free to leave the Windy City and fly to Maryland. Thank God!

Today we signed a lease for our new apartment. 2.2 miles off of General's Highway, back in the woods is a secluded neighborhood called Epping Forest. A friend of a friend's was renting the top apartment of a two story, split level duplex. A two bedroom apartment w/ a working fireplace, dishwasher, a full-sized toilet (That's important), and a balcony that runs along the length of the house. We're on a hill that overlooks the South River in the fall and winter months and during the rest of the year the leaves are, apparently, too thick but you feel like you're living in a tree house. The neighborhood has a Community Clubhouse, tennis courts, and a public beach, and we're paying less than we did for our apartment in Chicago. We'll be living above our landlords - hope that works out... they seem very nice - and the apartment is farther away from downtown Annapolis than we had hoped but soon we'll both have cars and then everything will be within driving distance.

It'll take sometime to adjust to not living in the big city, but we're off to a pretty good start.

Pay Attention...

Ask - verb: to put a question to; inquire of/ to request information about/to try to obtain by using words,/etc.


Ax - noun: an instrument with a bladed head on a handle or helve, used for hewing, cleaving, chopping, etc.


Just wanted to make the distinction myself.

Playing Catch Up

One of the more frustrating aspects of my new teaching job is the fact that I've come into the school over two months after the start of school. I don't have a history with the students and as a new teacher I'm fumbling around trying to figure out the correct way to do lesson plans, progress reports, behavior plans, CBI forms, etc. Perhaps even worse yet is trying to organize the confusion that was left for me, and the paperwork that goes along with everything. There are educational goals that I have to gear my students towards, there is standardized testing that I have to prepare them for, and there is data collection that has not been done to help me judge where the students stand as far as the educational plans. It's a lot to take in considering that I've been working for almost 2 weeks and my County Employee Orientation is tomorrow. Hopefully they'll give me more paperwork and forms to fill out... I'd love that!

What Did You Say?

I was on my lunch break in the teacher's lounge (I'm still getting used to that... I take my breaks in the teacher's lounge.) and one of my fellow educators was enlightening everyone on a few of his conspiracy theories. Apparently the government is not only responsible for the assassination of JFK, but also pulled the trigger on Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Malcolm X. No earth-shaking revelations or anything, in fact I've heard or seen most of the information that this teacher was repeating. Then he started to talk about the assasination footage of Kennedy and how the government had taken the original film and 'restorated it'.

Resto-WHAT? Restorated? Is that even a word? Just say restored? Or perhaps you meant rostrated...(Def: furnished with a rostrum.)?

I often have trouble finding, or remembering the right word, but one of my pet peeves is when a person makes up a word to sound impressive or educated. I can't take you serious after that... it's nothing personal, don't get all 'offensified'!