Home again

Thank god, I am home again. And all the utilities are back!

We didn't discover until the electricity was restored that our cable was out too. The cable guy came yesterday. Hooray!

Except that today a big truck came roaring down the street and took out the cable line to my landlord's apartment. The cable guy put them back up too low yesterday. What an idiot. So the cable company has to come back out Friday to put up another cable line. I'm hoping that mine is just high enough to survive the next couple days. The idiot guy can raise mine up too, while he's at it.

In the mean time, it's nice to have heat and electricity and cable and internet and my own bed. I will be giving thanks for utilities tomorrow. :)

BRRRRR

Still no power at my house. The landlord says hopefully today he can get the electrician out to the house. I remain temporarily homeless.

A Day in the Life of Substitute Teaching

7:50am - I get to school after driving from Mom's at an average rate of 15 mph. I was supposed to be here at 7:30. Oh well. They can't fire me. ;)

8:00am - School begins. My first hour is prep. Thank god. It's quiet. I get on the internet. I munch on gold fish crackers.

9:39am - class starts. 10th graders all day today. Goody.

9:40am - The kids are supposed to be silently reading. It's a school wide thing - SSR, sustained silent reading - for half an hour. The kids hate this time. They can't keep quiet. So they're whispering. "SHHHHH." I tell them. "Sometimes we can talk," one kids says. "No you can't." "I know." okay then. shut up and read. whisper whisper whisper whisper. whispers turn into full-blown talking. "SHHHHH." "Sorry Miss T." whisper whisper whisper whisper. It's a vicious cycle.

9:45am - "Hey, what are we doing in here today?" a kid asks me. "We're doing SSR. SHHHH." "I mean after this." "I'll tell you after SSR. Shhhhhhh." "Okay."

9:50am - sweet sweet silence. it lasted about 10 seconds. whisper whisper whisper. giggle giggle. (I give them The Teacher Look) silence. whisper whisper whisper whisper.

9:54am - There's a boy poking a girl in the head, messing with her hair. WHACK! The girl just back handed the boy for it. "Did you see that?!" he asks. "I saw you start it," I reply. "Aw, see? Quit it!" says the girl. (Teacher Look to them both) Silence for another minute or two. whisper whisper whisper whisper. giggle giggle. whisper whisper whisper.

Honestly, I don't know why they just don't take this quiet time and take a nap or something, that's what I would do! That's what I always want to do at this time anyway.

10:00am - The following takes place for absolutely no reason that I can figure out:
Student 1: "corn"
Student 2: "corn"
Student 3: "soup"
Student 4: "nuggets"
Student 5: "bread"
Class: giggle giggle giggle
WTF was that about?! Honestly, sometimes I just think that they like to hear themselves talk even if it's about nothing.

10:06 - SSR is done. Thank god. Time to put in Forrest Gump.

10:15am - AOL alert: Lindsey has just signed on. Hooray! Poke Poke. Sweet, we can chat! My day just got so much better! Poke Poke. It's Burke! Hooray! This is so much better than yelling at students all day.

10:30am - Six students are kind've watching the movie. Four are playing cards in the back corner. The remaining six are sleeping. At least it's pretty quiet.

10:40am - Burke is sending me links to teaching positions at CC. Hmmm. Something to think about. Good thing Burke is on for me to chat with or I would be totally bored. Thanks for chatting, Burke!!!!

11:00am - Lindsey sends link about cruises. I pretend I can afford one and pick out a penthouse suite for the cruise to the Bahamas. This is fun! Thanks, Lindsey!!! Oh, the kids are singing now and dancing in the back corner. The card game is apparently over. They aren't too loud just yet, so I let it go. No use wasting my breath to yell at them when it won't stop them anyway.

11:30am - Lunch time. Hooray. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, gold fish crackers, bottled water, and chocolate chip cookies. This truly is a school lunch! I feel like a kid again. :) I eat in the classroom. It's quiet in here now.

11:40am - Mr. Marshall - the in-house suspension/security kind of guy just stopped by. He wanted to see what we were doing for class 4th block. Hmmm. We were supposed to go to the park for "gym" class, but it's snowing, so I was going to have them watch Forrest Gump. He says - yeah, that's okay, I just wanted to make sure you didn't go to the park. "Oh, okay. We'll definitely be here." Then he says "There's a thing we have to do do 4th hour, so I wanted to make sure you didn't leave the building." Okay, I will admit it, I am intrigued. Is it a lockdown drill? Are they going to frisk all the students? Is there a threat to the building I should know about? Interesting. Now, I can't wait for 4th block just to see what will happen. I hope it's exciting but not too exciting, if you know what I mean. Although I'm not sure how they lock down a building with open classrooms... you can't lock the doors and keep the lights off cuz there are no doors.... (There is no spoon.)

My next class is going to the computer lab. Dammit. I don't want to get up. I'm comfy. I suppose I can probably take my computer down there too. Maybe I will read a magazine for the next hour and a half instead. That could be fun too.

12:10pm - in the computer lab. I brought magazines to read. The kids are playing games and playing on the internet. Sweet. I had to go back to the class and get my laptop. It makes me nervous leaving it there. With the open classrooms and all, anyone could walk in and grab it. Not that I don't trust the poor, inner city kids at this charter school, but I know my laptop just looks like dollar signs to some of them. So I would rather keep the laptop in my own hot little hands. I'm sitting by a window. It's snowing again. It was sunny for about 5 minutes earlier today. Now it's snowing again. Goody.

1:28pm - Forrest Gump. Again. "Hey, Miss Ummm (this is my unofficial name as a sub here. These kids are so smart). Can we watch something else?" "No." "Can we go outside?" "No" "We already seen this." "Me too." "We have to watch this for a different class." "Me too." Seriously though, most of them aren't watching it anyway. I don't know what they're bitching about.

1:30pm - the excitement begins. Mr. Marshall returns. All students are to take off coats and sweatshirts, leave all belongings in the class and report to the cafeteria. Ooooo. This is exciting. We go to the cafeteria. The whole school is not even as big as my graduating senior class. All the teachers are in one room - all like 9 or so of them. This school is tiny. One of the teacher whispers to me what's going on. They brought in the drug dogs. Someone brought in drugs. Not just the usual weed, mind you, but cocaine. They're out to find who it is. They're not legally allowed to search the students, but they can search their stuff. So they put everyone in the cafeteria for a school wide lock down while the dogs go through building. How exciting! The principal gets onto the "stage" to speak. Everyone is silent. "someone has brought something into my school that I will not tolerate..." She really sounds like a mother to all of these kids. Something about her I'm-disappointed-in-you-and-pissed-off-at-the-same-time angry quiet tone reminds me of a mother. Anyway. The search lasted about half an hour. Then they let everyone return to the classes. They don't say whether or not they found anything. All of the students in my class have returned. Must not have been one of mine. The kids joke about doggie paw prints on their backpacks and "my coat smells like dog fur." "I've never seen Miss B. (principal) so angry" I hear one of the kids say. No kidding.

2:05pm - Back to Forrest Gump. Only 40 more minutes to go. Thank god.

2:22pm - I have a headache. I can't wait to get to my temporary housing so I can take a nap with my kitty.

2:29pm - Sometimes, with these students in particular, it's hard to tell if their play fighting is going to escalate into something serious. I start staring at kids when they're acting up in this way. It's wierd. I figure if they're laughing, it's all good. When and if that stops, I'll definitely intervene. Until then, I guess I just gotta watch them like a hawk. Just what I would need - a fist fight in the middle of my class when I'm subbing. Not something I worry about in other schools. Just this one. This school is special that way.... My headache is getting worse. I start staring at the clock.

2:35 - less than 10 minutes to go. I write the note for the teacher. Generally my notes are always good. The worst I've said about a class is that they get really antsy. Secret code for: they can't sit anymore and they can't whisper anymore. They're loud, They're wandering around. Maybe they're singing. Maybe they're playing games. Maybe they're chasing each other around. Maybe they're starting to wrestle around. No major issues, but definitely "antsy." Which perfectly describes my class right now. More staring at the clock.

2:42 - the bell rings. Thank god. Time to stop by my apartment real quick and go to Mom's and take a nap.

And that's a day in the life of a sub.

Nervous Nelly

I'm subbing right now. I'm getting paid to write this... Hooray! I've hooked my laptop up to the school's internet system. I can't access my email account, but I can get to some other things. Like this site, for example.

The hardest part about my temporary housing is leaving my little Chai behind while I am subbing. What if she runs out the front door when Dan or Mom isn't looking? What if she gets lost in Dan's room if he leaves his door open? What if she gets squashed by a doll avalanche? I called Mom about 10 minutes ago since this is a prep period. She called me a Nervous Nelly and assured me that my kitten is just fine and that Chai will be shut in the bathroom while her and Dan are gone this afternoon so she won't get a chance to run out the front door. Okay, okay, okay. She'll be fine. I can relax.

Now I can worry about my other pets that I left in my ice-box of an apartment. I will be checking on them after school. Make sure Tigger has food and his water isn't frozen. See if the turtles are hibernating. See if the birdies are still alive or if they've frozen to death already. Of course it's the coldest two days of the year so far. Of course there's 4 inches of snow on the ground and the high for today is around, say, 30. That always happens when there is no heat and no power.

My landlord called me last night to say that an electrician was coming today to replace the power line and that he has a call in to the electric company as well. When I called the company they said my restoration time was 11pm. When he called, they said restoration time was midnight. Either way, that's 48 hours without heat or electricity for my poor pets. I will be utilizing the couch at mom's again tonight. Hopefully by this time tomorrow the heat will be kicking at my house and it'll be toasty and warm by the time I get out of school and I can bring Chai home.

Hopefully.

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful...

So far, this week hasn't really gone that well for me. This must be what it's like to have a 'real' job - crappy weeks and good weekends.

Monday was okay. I went shopping, trying to find a shirt to go with the skirt that I am going to wear to my fancy birthday dinner. Then later I went shoe shopping with Cara - for shoes for her, mind you. We went to two stores and she got some awesome Sexy shoes and Sexy boots. I did find some shoes that I've had for a long time, but I am pretty sure I am going to return them to the store tomorrow. So Monday wasn't all bad. It was a little cold in my apartment when I got home, so I turned up the heat, put an extra fleece blanket on the bed and went to sleep.

Tuesday morning - 6:30 am. It's cold. It's really cold. I emerge from my cocoon of a bed with its three blankets and six pillows. It's down right freezing in my apartment. I check the thermostat - 56 degrees. What the hell?! I'm headed off to substitute teach, so in the mean time I turn on a bunch of lights and put the heat lights on for my turtles and for my birds. I got to school. Ahhh. It's almost warm there. Schools are kept at a steady 68 degrees to keep everyone awake. I'm still cold from my apartment, so basically, I am freezing all day. I send a message to my landlord. He checks my furnace - sure enough, the pilot light had gone out. He relit it. All better. I got home and it was nice and toasty and warm. Ahhh. Jason came over after he got out of work. I told him he should've been over last night to keep me warm. He'll keep me warm tonight instead he said. I don't need you now - the heater works again. But I suppose you can stay anyway since it's a cold, really windy night.

Tuesday night - just before midnight. There is a giant thud. Actually it feels more like an explosion has just rocked the whole house. Like the house just lifted up in the air and fell back down again. It was a huge bang/thud noise at any rate and it woke me out of a nice, deep sleep. What the hell was that?! Then the power goes out. Oh crap. The house has just been bombed by Al Queda. I'm going to die... Or not... I go out to investigate. The roof hasn't fallen in. Everything is dark, but in one piece. I look out onto the street. Everyone else has power. We are the only house without it. There's a power line down in the street. It's the one that goes from the street directly to our house. And there is a giant tree branch down on it that has ripped the power line off of the side of the house along with the giant metal pipe/bracket thingy that it was attached to. Shitty. I was sure that my landlord would call the electric company. I went back to bed. At least the heat was still working, I thought.

Wednesday morning - 3:00am. The electric company has come to take care of the downed power line. They pound so loudly on the side of the house to knock the metal brackets down that it totally wakes me up out of a nice, deep sleep. I peek out the window at them. Oh good, I thought, we'll have power again in no time. I went back to sleep.

Wednesday morning - 5:00am. Jason gets up to go to work. The electricity isn't back on. He used his phone as a flash light to find his shoes and managed to gather everything to leave. Brrrr, I thought. It's getting cold in here. I grabbed the cozy fleece blanket and went back to bed.

Wednesday morning - 9:00 am. Yawn. I wake up finally. It wasn't a very restful night. I feel like I didn't get any sleep at all. Brrrr. It's cold. I put on jeans and a sweater and Grandpa socks and get out of bed. I check the thermostat - 58 degrees. I light every candle that I have in the apartment in an effort to keep it from getting too cold in the apartment while I am still there. I call the electric company. I'm told that there are over 12,000 people without power. The gave me an estimated restoration time: tomorrow at, oh, 11:00 PM. Perfect. I send a message to my landlord - no power till tomorrow night at 11pm. What about that heat? He gives me the bad news - No power, no heat. Dammit! I could do without one or the other, I think, but not both! So I called mom - can I come over and spend the night? She said sure, that would be fine. I look out the window - it's starting to snow. Super. Could this day really get any better?! So I gathered up some stuff - magazines, computer, clothes for teaching tomorrow, my cozy fleece blanket, and my kitten Chai and all her accessories. I put a blanket around the bird cage, told Tigger to cuddle with a blankey, and told the turtles not to start hibernating yet. And I came to mom's. I didn't ask if I could bring my kitten. But, mom is thrilled that I brought her over for a visit. Thank god, cuz I wasn't going to be taking her home today. Chai spent about an hour running around smelling stuff, then playing with her mousey. She finally calmed down and took a nap. So now Chai is napping on top of the couch and purring, mom is napping in the lazy-boy and snoring, and I am sitting on the couch with my cozy fleece blanket, typing on my blog. It's really starting to snow outside now. Ginormous white flakes. It's sticking to the ground. It's sticking to my car. You can't even tell my car is green right now. At least I'm warm now though. And Chai is warm and happy. And mom isn't talking about dolls cuz she's sleeping. Well, that's it, mom's snores just woke up Chai. Chai is staring at mom looking scared. Don't worry, little one, I'll protect you from the scary snoring lady in the lazy-boy...

Tomorrow has GOT to be better, right?!

Good Times, Good Times...

I had another good weekend. It's really nice not working on weekends, so I can enjoy them now!

Friday after I work - I was subbing at my old high school again - I went to Jason's to brew another batch of beer. This one was a honey-wheat. Yum AND it was the easiest one we've done so far. After boiling and stirring and boiling and stirring and straining and gravity testing, we put the beer in a closet where it will sit for about a week until its time for bottling - then it will sit for another couple of weeks. After the fun of brewing Jason lit a fire in his outdoor woodburning stove on their back deck. It was a beautiful fall night - stars were shining, a gently wind stirred the fire, the radio played softly in the background. Perfect. ...Of course I only lasted long enough to have one beer by the fire before I had to go to bed. I was so tired I think I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Saturday we made a special delivery to Cara - her table that Jason finished for her. We brought Chai with us for a play date. It was her first long car ride and her first play date with other kitties besides Tigger. She sat in my arms the whole way and purred and slept. She was perfect on the way to Cara's. She played well at Cara's house too! A little growling at Bailey, but nothing too major. She's so little that when she arches her back and growls it's so cute and funny! "You're so vicious" we told her. :) After assembling the 'ginormous' table, Cara took us out for a YUMMY dinner! LIZARD TONGUES - YUM! Jason and I decided that it's worth the drive out to the lake shore to go there for dinner again. The jazz bar afterwards was really cool too. It was a non-smoking bar so that was a really nice surprise. We didn't stink like cigarettes after spending many hours there. Hooray! Eventually we made it back to Cara's, picked up Chai, and headed home. Again, Chai sat in my arms the whole way and slept and purred.

Today was bowling. I woke up tired and lacking energy. Great, I'm sick again. I'm not sure if it's from the kids at the different schools or if it's all Lindsey's fault since she's sick again too. ;) I told Cara I was sick and she said - "are you sure it's not a hangover?" Silly Cara... I totally know how to identify a hangover! This is definitely a cold. So we went bowling today. I actually did okay even if I didn't have any energy. I'm steadily getting better at bowling. My highest scoring game today was 124. Woo Hoo! After bowling I took a nap. Ahhhh. Then I took a shower so I didn't smell like bowling alley anymore. Then Jason ordered pizza. After dinner, Jason went home and I took a nap. Ahhhh. Now I'm going to post this, get on chat for a little while and go to sleep.

Overall, another fun weekend.

A Fabulous Weekend

This weekend was awesome. Linz - I had a fabulous weekend of laziness with a loved one, too!

Friday I subbed in Lowell. Came home. Took a nap. Got ready for my date with Jason. We went to Blue Water Grill. http://thebluewatergrill.thegilmorecollection.com/ This is one of our favorite restaurants to go out on dates to - it's got great atmosphere. They were on an hour wait, but had their outdoor dining areas were open for dinner. They have heaters outside, just like all the restaurants in San Diego did, so we thought we'd give it a try. The downstairs area was kind've crowded and the heaters weren't all that warm so we were on the way out when we saw the upstairs outdoor area was open and unoccupied. We got a table right under one of the heaters. No one sat on the upper level with us, so we had a private outdoor seating on a beautiful fall night. Dinner was delicious. We came home and opened a bottle of wine, cuddled on the couch, and watched the most recent Batman DVD. I actually liked it! We went to bed. It was a great date.

Saturday. We slept in. We drank coffee in bed. We watched tv for a while. Eventually we got out of bed. We went to Jason's and bottled his latest batch of beer. We came back to my house. We took a shower. We made tacos for dinner. We watched part of a movie before going to bed early.

Sunday. We slept in. We drank coffee in bed. We watched tv for a while. We decided to spend the day "nearly naked" - just underwear and robes all day. We had leftover tacos for lunch. We read the newspaper. We took a nap. I trimmed Jason's hair. We took a shower. We watched tv. We went to bed early.

I spent the whole weekend with Jason. It was awesome. It's been such a long time since we've gotten to spend that much time together. Even without a job I was cleaning the restaurant at night, spending time at the hospital, spending time with family, spending time in bed alone because I had the cold from hell. I felt like I hadn't seen him in months. By "see" him, I mean spend quality time with him. Now, I feel better. I've spent oodles of time with him this weekend.

We did nothing together all weekend and it was fabulous!

Unemployment Compensation

I remember this past summer when some of the girls at work were ready to quit work because it was soooooo slow. "What are you going to do, Chrys?" they would ask me. "I'm going to sub and hold out for unemployment," I told them. Why quit when the restaurant will close and I can collect some unemployment compensation?! Crazy girls actually quit! What the hell were they thinking? Today, I received my first "unemployment compensation" check. Woo hoo! I took it right to the bank and deposited it. It was the highlight of my day.

For doing nothing all day, subbing is kind've tiring. Today I subbed in Byron Center. Tomorrow I sub in Lowell, next week I sub at Kenowa Hills and at the charter school. I need all the jobs and money I can get. I'm still kind've deciding what kind of job to pursue at this time. I've still got some time before my money runs out and I really have to decide, so I'm not overly stressed about it right now. In the mean time - woo hoo! Free money that I've worked the past 12 years for!

The cold from Hell

For the past 10 days I have been sniffling, sneezing, coughing and overall feeling like crap. Finally, this week I have had the chance to relax, drink orange juice and eat chicken noodle soup. I am finally starting to feel better. Although it was a good excuse to not clean my house for a while. ;) I'm not sure who actually gave me the cold, since I was at a hospital with lots of sick people 10-14 days ago. I blame everyone who was sniffling that weekend!

Yesterday I made my first call to the Michigan's Automated Response Voice Interactive Network ("You can call me Marvin") a.k.a. the Unemployment hotline. They are sending me my first check this week. Hooray for unemployment compensation! It certainly takes some of the pressure off of not having a full time job right now. I did substitute teach on Monday. And I am subbing tomorrow morning. I will probably pick up a job for Friday too. My favorite part about subbing, other than playing games for 7 hours on my computer, is getting to be the favorite sub at the charter school. I have three more sub jobs at the charter school lined up for the next two weeks. I am the first one the teachers call, they like me so much. :) One of the administrators there asked if they had my resume on file. I said no, not yet. She told me to put it in, because you never know. They like me! They really, really like me!

Sigh. I've stopped shopping. It's been really hard. I don't like it at all. I've moved beyond selling my shoes on ebay to selling some of my many pairs of jeans. Who knew that I had 6 pairs of jeans with the tags still on them?! Selling the clothes is not nearly as fun as buying them, that's for sure. But in a financial crisis, I am sacrificing my wardrobe. Hopefully, I get a full-time job soon, so I can stop this selling nonsense and start buying and stimulating the economy again!

I've been working on updating my resume again for the real world. I have three different resumes. One for teaching, one for restaurants, and one for other jobs. I'm working on the one for "other jobs". I did send my application to a couple of places, but who knew that you need a degree in business or communications to get a full-time office job that pays well?! Crazy. My degree in History just isn't doing much for me right now.

Hopefully, Jason will decide that it would be good for us to move out of the state in the spring so I can get a teaching job and use my $40,000 education for something! In the mean time, I'll just keep subbing, selling my posessions, and job searching. It's not much fun to be me right now.