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May. 22nd, 2007 @ 07:27 pm I saved a bird's life today!
TicTac
Current Mood: accomplished
I walked into the staff room for lunch today and exclaimed, "There's a BIRD in HERE!?!?" One of the other teachers said, "Yup, apparently it's been in here for a while." Teacher #2 (of 2) said something like, "You're the animal person; maybe you can get it out!"

So I proceeded to try just that. All I could do was walk below as it flew above and I tried to get it to go out the door. I tried to get it to fly in circles (counterclockwise) so it would at one point at least be flying toward the door, instead of away from the door. It flew above the door twice, bumping into the window.

So... after a bit of this and some backup support (a custodian guy with a broom) the bird finally made a beeline into the window. Poor thing. It was a little stunned, but got back up and kept flying (the custodian missed catching it by a little bit). The bird then flew into the window near me (more softly this time luckily!) and I caught it!!!!! :)

I took it outside, then thought better than to release it from the 2nd floor (what if it was hurt and just fell to the ground). I found a part of the playground with no kids and opened up my hands. The bird took a moment (I was worried it was hurt) and then flew off. After a good distance it kinda shook itself off (in the middle of flight) and then soared!

It was awesome!

A little piece of light in the chaos of heading towards the end of school.

The next 5 or so weeks will be rough. Then my best friend's wedding. And then hopefully out of the country for a few weeks! :)
Apr. 14th, 2007 @ 10:15 pm Oprah on Happiness
TicTac
Destination Addiction
Apr. 13th, 2007 @ 11:18 pm Spring Break 2007 - NYC
TicTac
So I was only here in nyc for a few short days (wed, thurs, fri). It went very quickly, as I knew it would. Wednesday I slept in. After arriving at 2am I just couldn't force myself awake! I then just made it to a matinee, Company. Same style as Sweeney Todd, actors playing instruments. Talented people. A lot of work. Didn't love it, but had to admire the effort! I wonder if I'd like the show when done more traditionally. I'm guessing I really would! Raul Esparza in it was a very happy surprise! I like his work a lot. It was a Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS performance and afterwards he said the first Sondheim song he ever heard was played in an English class by a teacher who has since passed away due to AIDS. I love hearing teacher inspiring stories. I thank Raul for being an inspiration for students to come!

Wednesday night was A Chorus Line.

Thursday slept in a little and then the day at MCS. Talked to Annie on the phone, but we just couldn't sort out scheduling :(. I saw Kelly for dinner. Totally wonderful!

Friday all day at MCS. So many dedicated, hard-working people. I may not be helping to raise the next MLK and such but I'm glad someone is!

Ok... on plane and they're telling meto turn off my phone! GOTTA GO! More later.
Apr. 13th, 2007 @ 10:54 pm new stuff in my life
TicTac
And when I say stuff... I actually mean stuff.

Amongst the new stuff is the new sidekick. So my phone no longer has buttons that don't work, and in one case is literally missing, well, was... and due to this new phone edition I can now access my flist and the updating page again. So there's a possibility I may be rejoining the lj world. Possibly ;).

About 6 weeks about my roommate moved out, along with most of the furniture in the house. So other new stuff includes couches, tv, dining room table, dishes, etc.etc.etc. Good stuff though.

The biggest *new* thing is my dog! I got her about 2 weeks ago (march 31st to be specific) and she's wonderful! Her name is Canela and she's 6 years old. She's a nearly perfect pre-packaged dog. Totally mellow, great with kids and cats, good with other dogs, sweet, happy... yup. She's good. Oh, and housebroken! That's a plus!

So.. Things are new... and good!
Apr. 1st, 2007 @ 08:11 pm The rollercoaster of life
Painting
Current Mood: content
Current Music: Amazing Race All Stars
A month ago my roommate moved out. I wasn't sure how long I could afford both halves of the rent. The apartment, except for my room, was empty... white walls, tv on the floor, nowhere to sit... just a big, red pillow. I did have my table and 2 chairs and a few plates, bowls, and pieces of silverware. Despite postings on craigslist I had no bites.

I am now nearly furnished again... new couches, a tiny tv stand, tv trays, candles, a few framed pictures (East coast stuff)... it's almost there. And it's defintely comfortable and liveable.

Yesterday I adopted... a DOG! Her name is Canela (rhymes will Vanella (aka vanilla with an e). She's a 5 or 6-year-old Corgi. She's been a stray, in and out of shelters, rescues, foster homes and even an adopted home at one point. She's super mellow and happy and great! She's housebroken (been home for a full 24 hours now and no accidents! awesome!) She's great with kids (for a year lived with 5 of 'em) and non-chalant about cats (or at least the test cat at the rescue), and ok with dogs (sometimes has issues with other females, but not always). She's sitting on her big red pillow while I type, but her favorite place is on my bed looking out the window!

She's great and I'm hoping it'll just get better and better from here! :)

I also switched to the new Sidekick, and while it's kinda hard to type and I'm still getting used to everything it's nice having a phone with all of the buttons and with speaker phone and a headset and a camera and so on and so forth.

Thanks to Danielle my wireless internet seems to be permanently working as well!!!!!

Things seem to be really falling into place. Spring break starts on Friday. Because of the short week I prepared quickly. It's only a 3-day teaching week so it was pretty easy. I did very little school work this weekend. I think this is a good thing, but I don't want to flake out on work! (Ha! Like I could!)

Anyways... Welcome home to Canela and happy week-before-spring-break!
Feb. 19th, 2007 @ 12:00 am Detroit was...
Painting
Current Mood: reflective
enlightening, scary, informative, including, sad, interesting, enjoyable, cute, emotional, exhausting, cold, but overall very good.

Between Friday at 6am when I woke up and Saturday at midnight when I went to sleep I slept about 2 hours on the plane and an hour nap in the hotel. 3 out of 42. I mean really, we were only in Detroit for a day and a half. We had to make the most of it.

K is very cute and strong (not flimsy and floppy like most babies). She didn't know my 'smell' and so cried every time I held her. bummer. oh well. She's a really good baby!!

E was good, although she ended up getting the flu... too bad cause we couldn't see her today (her birthday's tomorrow so I'm hoping she got well enough for her birthday dinner tonight and her day tomorrow). J got gout so he has to learn to live within moderation. That's a good thing. B's doing well and it was really good to see him.

*The* conversation was enlightening and went quite well. A lot to process. They were very cool about it though and answered questions and repeated things as necessary and allowed me my feelings and so on and so forth.

The scary part of Detroit was we, Dad, J and I, went out for a snack and on our way home almost got into a head-on collision with a big flatbed truck. It was really really scary. The truck swerved to the other side of the road to avoid missing us. Luckily there was no other traffic so everyone escaped unharmed. But the vision of it was beyond scary. It made me think about how we really have no control, life is so fragile and fleeting. When talking to someone about it they said it was like an existential crisis. It really shook me up. I have not come to terms with the fact that everyone will eventually die. I am so not ok with that. But looking my dad's death in the eye (and my cousin too)... watching it happen from the back seat. yeah. existential crisis.

In closing, there were snow flurries the entire time we were there. Not much sticking (cold enough, but not enough snow coming down), but beautiful and special none-the-less.

In the parking shuttle from the airport a woman had a badge that said 3-day walk. She had done it and I told her about Babs. She said I needed to watch out (breast cancer has a genetic component, although I've heard less from an aunt than a sister or mother) It was kind of a fitting end to the trip. My thoughts and prayers go out to her friend who are in the final stages of life.

Life is challenging, but I sure am glad that those I love and care about, as well as myself, are alive and well to experience it. And to those that aren't alive, or well enough to experience it... my love, thoughts, prayers, hopes, and dreams.

Good night.
Jan. 25th, 2007 @ 09:09 pm Internet Access
Painting
Current Mood: sad
As of last weekend, I now *finally* have internet access at home! Yay. Now there's the possibility I might actually update again... and be able to read people's LJs again. I haven't been reading since I moved, so I apologize for missing what's going on in your lives... I *have* been thinking about you though! :)

Work is good. Tiring, but good. And compared to last year it's HEAVEN! haha.

I worked from 7:30-6 today and was thoroughly exhausted. It's hard to believe I did that, or nearly that, almost every day last year! Yikes!

Anyways...

I've got to get to bed. I was just feeling kinda disconnected. I've been going through some stuff and I wanted to post. And since I CAN now... I did.

Happy-Thursday-which-is-right-next-to-Friday!
Nov. 11th, 2006 @ 12:47 am Back in NYC
Painting
Current Location: Chelsi's House
Current Mood: blah
So... I'm back on the East Coast for the weekend. I'm here for Toni-Leigh's service. I really have not processed her death at all. And I'm a bit nervous about Sunday. In the mean time, I'm at Chelsi's house now and will head into the city tomorrow. I'm hoping to meet up with someone for lunch tomorrow (I've invited a few people, but with such short notice and the long weekend, some are out of town, others have plans already, and still others I just haven't heard back from yet.) I may just end up at Gray Dog Cafe solo and maybe get some soup from the place near Bank St and then head over to the park...

I'm tired and am looking forward to seeing friends, but also feeling very numb and hesitant about it all. I flew the red-eye out here and had a middle seat and didn't get to sleep much so sleep deprivation doesn't help. (Next week will be rough!)

Warmth and emptiness. Friends and loneliness. Happy and frustrated. And I've only been here 17 hours.

In closing, I read an email I received from Toni-Leigh last September. I wrote her back but she never replied. I don't know if she ever got it. I feel so sad when I think about her death. I can't believe I "haven't thought about it" so much.
Nov. 5th, 2006 @ 12:25 am Back to LA and sad news from NYC
Painting
Current Mood: sad
Tags:
Hey all-
I'm back to LA... I don't have internet service at home yet, hence the major lack of updates as well as my never reading my friends pages (I hope things are ok/good in your lives.)

Things are going pretty well here. I'm teaching 8th grade, reading, writing, and science and it's pretty darn cool! I love that the kids are in charge of their own materials so I don't have to worry about it all so much... granted, they don't always do a great job of having all their materials, but whatever.

My vice principal is... A. MAZING! I'm sooo fortunate!!! :)

And life is better than last year... by about a million percent!

I miss NYC though... I do. And I got some sad news this week. Toni-Leigh, the 5-6s teacher at MCS, passed away. It breaks my heart and I'm shocked I will never see her again. She was always smiling in the chaos of the classroom. She often wore a flannel shirt in different colors... and I had a matching gray one. She looked beautiful in orange. I don't really know how old she was, because she seemed so young. Every day when she would say goodbye she'd say "Peace and Love." Peace and Love. Honestly, if I could accomplish that in its truest fashion... that would be pretty incredible.

Toni-Leigh...
I hope on some level you knew I wanted to say goodbye. I wanted to say hello. I wanted you to continue to be my kinda "token cancer survivor." I love you and will remember you fondly. I aspire to have your smile in the midst of chaos! I hope to meet again someday.
Peace and Love,
Joy
Aug. 7th, 2006 @ 01:28 pm California...
TicTac
Current Mood: eh
I'm back.

I'm on my bed in my parent's house with KZLA on next to me and my computer on my lap and printouts next to me of apartments and cars and maps and a pen and highlighter. There's a lot to do in the next 2 weeks and it will determine large percentages of my life...

I'm a bit nervous about all this.
Aug. 1st, 2006 @ 08:45 pm 50 States in 26 Years.
TicTac
Christina and I got our fiftieth state today. We set foot (feet) down in Kentucky at the exact same moment. Pretty darn cool! :)

In other news, I can't access the lj friends page on my phone any more so I haven't read anything lately. I hope everyone's doing well. I'll be in Ca in about a week... and I'll be relieved to get there.

Anyways... I'm hoping that in my new apartment, wherever that might be, that I'll be on the computer more and maybe actually post more than once a month! haha.

Tonight - Illinois. Tomorrow - Dyersville (aka Field of Dreams). Next - Omaha Zoo. Then - Salt Lake City, extended family. Last - Las Vegas and home. (I've been out of my apartment now for a month. I'm looking forwared to a permanent home... even if it's a temporary permanent home at my parents' house ;))

AR - You're on my mind.
Jul. 20th, 2006 @ 10:16 pm Lack of posts
Painting
Current Mood: good
Wow. I basically post once a month now. That's nuts.

So...... School ended. I was pretty blase about it all. Well, that's not true... Proud, happy, relieved, will miss the kids and Kelly and Grace and such... miss a few of the kids a lot! K emailed me actually! I hope he'll keep in touch! That would rock!

So, then I moved out. Mom arrived the last day of school. We packed late into the night (2am) woke up at 6:30 and packed and worked and moved and ended up in NJ at 2:30am... thank goodness for Danielle. We were hot and sweaty and tired and breaking and... yeah.

Then... Mom and I spent a couple days in the city. 4th of July in NJ. A couple of days in White Plains and the Bronx with Audrey and Kelly, respectively. Then upto Nantucket for a couple of days to see Laurel. Then back to NJ for a few days and then the parents arrived. We went up to see Matt in a play at Bard College. Then plays in NYC, staying in NJ, and heading out on our roadtrip. Today we picked up a state for me (North Carolina) and tomorrow and the next day we'll pick up a bunch more! It's cool being in the South... yes it is.

Today in the Shenandoah mountains we saw a little black bear. YES! A BEAR! Cooool! :)

Things are good. Vacation is nice. Relaxation. and such.

oh........... AND there's job news. I don't feel like posting it here now, but I will be working come September it looks like. In my old neighborhood.

So now... onto an apartment and such.

Gotta go look at flights to go see my sister's play.

Happiness and Peace to you all.
Jun. 12th, 2006 @ 07:40 pm PS
TicTac
I know I hardly ever post on here anymore. But I'm still alive and ... pretty well... and I still read my flist. So... yeah. And, as far as I know, I still get my comments (although not on a regular basis.)
Jun. 12th, 2006 @ 07:38 pm NJ Seafood Festival and Pottery
TicTac
The NJ Seafood Festival with Aimee, Christian, and Joel was awesome. They're fun people. And they know how to picnic!

I've been taking a pottery class for the last 5 weeks and I LOVE it. And I'm really gonna miss it. I may actually see if I can find one to take in CA because I liked it so much! I actually made stuff I can use (well, maybe. They're not done yet! eeks!)
Jun. 12th, 2006 @ 07:36 pm 3 weeks...
Painting
Current Mood: exhausted
-to the end of school.
-to my move out date.
-to my last 2 temporary weeks in nyc.

It's an interesting time in life.

Lots of endings. Lots of unknowns. Lots of......

What a year it's been.
May. 20th, 2006 @ 03:36 pm Jonathan Kozol's "Ordinary Resurrections" and teaching...
Painting
Current Mood: pensive
Current Music: AR season finale
I'm kinda reading this book "Ordinary Resurrections" by Jonathan Kozol... I only read occassionally on the weekends... as it's too close to my heart during the week I guess. It is amazingly nice to read a book written by a person who loves and values kids in the way that I do... and writes about kids in the way I was taught to think about them... but no longer am exposed to in person.

I have 6 weeks left with my kids... 28 days. I really can't believe it. That means only 8 weeks left in NY (although... I really am feeling unsure of what exactly will happen this summer... I know I'll end up in CA by the end of it I guess, but not sure on the dates... the latest is I may have to leave my apartment June 30th (don't know yet)... so... it's all up in the air.)

I.... there's a lot going on I guess.

We just had our last writing conference... It physically hurts how frustrated I am by stuff at school... and how much I want to teach as my passion instructs. And when I look back on it all... I've (we've- the first grade team) done a pretty damn good amazing job! (Mostly thanks to Kelly.) Kelly = experience, knowledge, people skills. I = strong belief in my philosophy. Grace = *amazing* organizational skills, time management, and follow-through.

While I can't wait for it to be over... It will be bittersweet and I will miss my kids and Kelly and Grace and ..... yeah. I may even miss the familiarity of it all.

The passion is still in me. The excitement is too. (Even though at times I have sincerely doubted it!) I am afraid for what the future may hold. I am... hesitantly hopeful as well.
Apr. 23rd, 2006 @ 03:26 pm From the Editor
TicTac
Current Mood: giggly
Dear Editor,

I greatly enjoy reading your site, however I note a concerning lack
of
comment towards a certain trip to the northwestern states of this
beautiful country. I am sure there has simply been some technical
error.
I look forward to this mistake being ammended shortly.

Sincerely, Concerned Commentor...

with Espresso.


Dear CC with Espresso,

The problem has been rectified. Thank you for bringing your concerns to our awareness. Unfortunately the email address to which comments are posted is check once in a blue moon. So sorry for the delay.

Sincerely,
The Editor.
Apr. 23rd, 2006 @ 03:19 pm Spring Break - come and gone
TicTac
Current Mood: mixed
So... Spring break was good.

Oregon, and subsequently Idaho and Montana (check and check), were great... wide open, relaxing, sister, dog, .... no bears or pUmas though...

We had a blast and saw mountains and lakes and sky and snow and rain and DQs and a lasso'ed calf and... it was wonderful!

When she dropped me at the airport my brain was a little confused. I couldn't figure it out until I was on the plane. There was no 'end' to the roadtrip. Roadtrips 'end' at houses... and I never went to a house at the end. so... yeah. It was a quick goodbye to Nina and then to ca.

CA was nice. pretty and sunny and friends and wonderfulness. I spent lots of time with mom and dad... some time with Jenn... not enough time with Anna... and briefly saw Judy, Guy, Jenny, and Izzy. Got sunburnt on Wednesday... well, half of me... and so despite the pain and itchiness (which made me a little frustrated) I will be darker now.. haha.

I am in NO WAY ready to go back to work tomorrow (well, in one way... I'm partially planned so that's good.) But I'm majorly jetlagged (I became nocturnal at home and that'll f ya up coming back east) so 6am is gonna feel like 3am tomorrow... great.

10 weeks. Yes. I am counting.

My brain is not in the best place... it hasn't been for a while. It makes me nervous... but I'll get through... it's not permanent and I'm hoping it'll subside.

Happy soon-to-be-May everyone.

Thanks for the wonderful Spring Break!
Mar. 23rd, 2006 @ 06:07 pm The "Gods'" upcoming visit
TicTac
Current Mood: bad
So... I call them the "Charter School Gods" and they're coming to visit next week and the stress and anxiety this is causing is.... too much.

I have been completely apathetic the last 3 days. It was a nice place to be. Now... I'm a little out of it and I miss it dearly.

Am I ever gonna be ... never mind. It's a rhetorical question anyways.

The worst part (not really) is that intellectually I'm ok with it all. But.... otherwise it's eating me up. *sigh*

In related news, my attempt at being nice and respectful and encouraging and....... has bred disrespect. So much for a classroom of community and care and kindness and safety.

How could it ... or rather... "How did I get here?" sigh.

I can't wait for life not to suck again someday!
Mar. 23rd, 2006 @ 06:03 pm Nina's quiz
TicTac
Current Mood: accomplished
So I totally just took this quiz my sister wrote... I got 5 out of 10. I thought that wasn't so hot, but it turns out that's the most anyone got... I feel better now! haha.

And in my defense (even though I just stated how I didn't need a defense) (and to show off my test taking skills) I was able to narrow it down to 2 in nearly every case (except maybe the sock one!) and I kept guessing wrong... I'm a SUCKY guesser! hahaha.