A bit of a hike to the post office. Another weekend off to a procrastinatingly bad start. Last night I was so tired that I feel asleep here at my computer before I could answer the 3 e-mails in my Inbox. This morning I took a bit of a unplanned hike. A little background information.

Last week sometime, I purchased a couple of DVDs online during a moment of boredom. I received the postal delivery notice that delivery was attempted on Tuesday or Wednesday. I assumed that they would probably redeliver on Saturday. Up here, the post office closes at 5pm (Mon thru Friday), and at 1pm (on Saturdays). Just to get out of the apartment I decided to walk there and pick up the package myself. Remember, I think I’ve mentioned that I’ve used to live here before I moved to Japan about 6 years ago, so I had a vague idea where it was. Now, I am the kind of person that has the strangest of luck. Could the package have been sent to the post office that is near the Yonker’s Metro-North station. I have a monthly pass that would have allowed me to travel without extra expense. Or, I could have walked the 20 to 30 minute walk…no problem. The Yonker’s station is also pretty much a straight walk…no real hills to deal with.

However, my luck sent the package to another post office, one that (I must have mentally blocked this memory) was about an hour’s walk away...one way. The walk started with about a 10 minute walk up a 45 degree hill. I’m talking steep! My memory was playing tricks on me. I was sure the walk was about 30 or 40 minutes…not an hour one way. The post office was located in a kind of suburban office complex where most of the buildings are only one store high. Oh, and the post office (of course with my luck) was located at the very far corner of the office complex. From the entrance of the complex to the post office was about a 6 minute walk…without a sidewalk in sight.

So, you are probably thinking I hated the walk. Actually, I enjoyed it. I just liked complaining. After picking up my package (only one DVD arrived, the other will be delivered February 1st.), I stopped by the Dunkin Donuts in the office complex. I ordered something called an omelet supreme with a plain tea (no sugar or milk). From the look of the menu, I thought I was ordering a super sized, but it turned out to be fairly regular. The cost was $4.86 for the omelet and tea; I could have gotten a meal at McDonalds or Chinese takeout. The tea was about 16oz, and very, very hot! I was being a bit of an old fuddy-duddy. I didn’t like the plastic sipping lid. After a bit of a struggle to get the lid off, I wondered if that was a bright idea. The cup was filled to the rim…piping hot. And, I had a wobbly table. Why did I take off the spill-proof lid?

Not really being a social drinker, I had not idea how spill-proof (or dribble-proof) the lid was. Being the old man that I am, I was not impressed with the fancy lid. It looked like the lid of a baby’s spill-proof lid. Besides, if I am going to put something piping hot to my mouth, I want to see what it is. Don’t I sound like a cranky old man? The very kind I swore I would never become.

Well, moving on. After Dunkin Donuts, I went to the bank to take out $40. I am low on funds until next payday. The walk home was peaceful and uneventful. I enjoyed the walk. At home I watched the DVD. Actually, it was a bit of a waste of money. After the DVD, I watched a couple of Sci-fi shows on MY 9 channel 9. Around 5pm, I walked up the hill to the Chinese takeout to buy an order of fried chicken wings with an order of shrimp fried rice. I also bought a couple of iced honey buns from the nearby store. I did not have my regular appetite, I almost did not finish the rice, and I only ate 2 of the 5 chicken wings. After dinner, I read a few back newspapers from last week. And now, I am writing this blog offline. I will now log online to post this entry. Hopefully, I will be able to answer the e-mails in my Inbox.

Two here and there. I made it to another weekend with the goal of getting organized. I just got home a few minutes ago (about 9:17pm). I am writing this blog entry before I log online. I computer tends to disconnect from the internet rather easily now that it is slowly breaking down. Anyway…

Today was another day fairly similar to all the other. About 4 of my students were absent (including my most hyper one), the day was okay. My plan was to leave school about 5pm, but I ended up leaving about 7:30pm. Today was an early dismissal for students and staff (2:20). The sane staff members not doing after-school were out of the building about 2:30. From 2:30 to about 3pm, I attended a UFT meeting. From 3 to about 4 I was just bone tired and did not do much of anything. Only at about 6pm, did I get the strength to do a little bit of packing, vacuuming, and a little bit of preplanning for next week’s lessons. I love my copy machine. Is it possible for a man to love a machine? I love being able to print out a quiz or indoor assignment at a moments notice. Well, before I left for the weekend, I printed out a couple of chapters from various teacher’s manuals, so that I would not have to carry the textbooks to and fro. I still had a shopping cart full of ungraded papers, other planning materials, so I was still doing my imitation of a pack mule.

After leaving school at about 7:40pm, my plan was to catch the 8:20 Metro-North train in the Bronx. That meant about a 10 walk to the 125th train, and about a 5 minute wait for the #1 Bronx bound train. Next is about a 20 minute train ride. At 225th street, I have about a 2 to 3 minute walk to the Metro-North train station…that is to say…when everything goes right. Tonight was one of those evenings when the trains were not on schedule. As I walked to the 125th station, I see about 3 trains coming one after another. I arrived on the platform, and I waited…and waited… and waited.

I waited about 12 to 15 minutes for the #1 train. Near the end of my ride (about 2 stops from where I would have gotten off), the train I’m on decides to skip the next two stops. Most of the people get off at the 207 st. station (skipping stops 215th st. and 225th st [my stop]). A couple of minutes, another train comes. I arrived at my stop at 8:22…two minutes after the Metro-North left.

I ate dinner at Subways restaurant. I ate the footlong chicken teriyaki sub meal. After eating, I went to McDonald down the street to buy a couple of apple pies. The Subway’s apple pies are more expensive (about $1.50 or $1.70 for one). At McDonald, you can get two pies for $1.08 (including taxes). I ate one pie while I waited for my computer to boot up (it is very slow), and I am about to eat the other pie while I logonto the internet. Again, that is slow as well.

Well, I just felt my first slight doze, so I’d better post this blog entry before I fall asleep.

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I just logged online and checked my e-mail. Wow, there were 3 new e-mails in my inbox.

January 23, 2007

Elegant Dining. Nice, but not what I was expecting. Today, was the elegant dining reward for those students who had perfect attendance for the month of December. I (and a couple of other teachers) did not hear about the details of the trip until 10am. The students who would be attending would need to be down stairs about 10:15am The trip was okay, but not too well thought out.

About ……

January 25, 2007

Sorry, I fell asleep at the computer while I was typing the above blog entry. Rather than try to pretend and try to complete it, I am just going to leave it as is. Long story short. About 80 kids were able to attend a trip to a regular McDonalds. So many, that my group had to wait in a nearby park for about 30 minutes.

There is not much to write about. This week like so many other weeks, was mainly me playing procrastinating and catch-up. This evening was the first time (in a very long time) I did not procrastinate. I came home (about 6:30pm), I micro waved my dinner. I ate, washed the dishes (that had been sitting in the sink for almost a week). I took out the trash and did my lesson plans for tomorrow. Oh, for dinner, I had leftover yellow rice, green beans, and breaded fish.

A couple of weeks ago (see previous blog entry), I wrote about a big food shopping trip. Well, a couple of the things I bought were a couple of pre-cooked frozen meats (chicken and a pack of chicken). My thinking then was that if I had the food, I could come home tired, and hungry and could have a full dinner in a matter of minutes. Today was the first time I was able to try it out. I need to stop eating on the run. I don’t think I mentioned this, but recently, I’ve had to put away my skinner pants (waist size 34), and return to my regular size (waist 38). I’ve been stressing, eating, and pushing myself to very unhealthy limits. The result was that I’ve gained my weight back. Lately, I’ve been too stressed and tired to do much of anything, but eat junk food, drink juice, and surf the internet until early hours in the morning (only to get up about 6 in the morning). There were times I was getting about 2 or 3 hours of sleep only to spend the next day, yelling, standing and stressing myself out. I hope this evening is the beginning of a new better chapter in my life.

Last night I could not get online to check my e-mail. I wasn’t too stressed out because I had not received new mail in weeks (if not months), I just surfed the net. This morning I did a quick check only to discover a couple of e-mails. Both were a response to an ad that I’d place a while ago (seeking a walking friend). Who knows, I might be able to do some walking on the weekends, instead of sleeping the weekend away. However, to do any walking, I will have to get organized. Well, I better end this entry now so that I can go online, post it, answer those e-mails, and call it a night. No surfing this evening.

The procrastinator strikes again. Another stress-filled day of being referee, bodyguard, babysitter, entertainer, servant, etc…oh, and teacher. Today, I was sure I would be out of the building by 4pm. I had it all planned out. I almost succeeded, until I answered a parent’s e-mail. That threw off my plan. Before I knew it, I was leaving the building at 6:44. I went to the bank, then I went to Staples to buy some golf pencils. The stubby pencils are my poor solution to kids who keep losing pencils. In Staples, I bought two packs of 12 dozen pencils, a pack of 100 sheet transparency for the overhead projector, and one small $1.29 handheld pencil sharpener. The total amount…about $54 dollars.

I took the bus back across 125th street to the west side, to transfer to the subway, to get to the Metro-North Station in the Bronx. Since I missed the 8:20 train by about a minute, I had to wait for the 9pm train. I had dinner at Subway’s restaurant. I arrived home around 9:15pm. To unwind, I finished the Doritos from my Subway meal deal. And now I am writing this blog entry. I have to end this now and go grade some papers. I should be in bed by 11 or 12am.

Tomorrow, my school is having a reward for those students that have perfect attendance. Usually, those perfect attendancers would receive a school lunch served to them by the upper grade students. The meal is called “elegant dining”. Tomorrow, the students with perfect attendance with being having “elegant dining” at a local McDonald’s.

Hello. I'm tired. It's late. I am starting another week unprepared and procrastinating, so I am not in a good mood. All last week, I've been fighting a cold. This weekend, I slept most of Saturday away. Sunday, Only went out to do my laundry and to buy the Sunday paper. My chairs and cart arrived from Staples. I put those together (see attached photo). One chair will go in my bedroom at my "hobby" table.

I baked some chicken legs for dinner. Not a very productive week. I hope next week will be better.

Old man shopping. Once again, another perfect opportunity to get organized has come and gone. Now I sit here procrastinating further. Another wasted weekend of not doing much. Yesterday, I went shopping for a shelving unit for my mini stereo system. I want to keep my stereo on wheels, so that I can roll it to anyroom I go to. After my experiences in the South Bronx where people would have their music blasting. I told myself that I would not have my music blasting.

Today, I started the day online shopping. I bought a case of paper for my classroom photocopy machine. Unfortunately, I am blinded by the super convenience of having a copy machine readily available at a moment’s notice. I also bought another toner cartridge. The copy machine cost me about $200. However, the ink at $88 per cartridge is killing me. Next month, I will have to reply the drum, that will be another $189. I’ve already bought about 2 or 3 cartridges already. This copy machine is turning into quite an investment. However, like I said, I’m blinded by the super convenience of having a copy machine.

Since I was already online at Staples, I decided to buy a couple of task chairs to replace the folding chair that I’ve been moving around each time I move. I also bought a mobile file cart. I really need to get organized. It really bothers me that people have lives, familes, and the ability to enjoy their evenings. Whereas I struggle to keep up. I am single, no kids, and no expensive hobbies, but I barely seem to be able to keep up.

After surfing for a couple of hours, I took a bath. After the bath? My plan was to go the the shopping area to pick up a chair. Confused?

This weekend, I finally unpacked the last of the boxes that seem liked they were planning to take up permanent residence in my bedroom. On Saturday, my bedroom set was delivered and set up. With the bedroom set up and the boxes, my room looked a bit small, but once the boxes were removed, I moved my bed over to the left side of the room, I discovered that my bedroom was much larger than I thought. At the moment, I am using only about half of my room. I decided to get another card table to put in my bedroom, and a strange looking …for lack of a better definition, a folding pocket chair. It looks (to me) like a big pocket. When I saw the new layout of my room, I thought having that pocket chair would look perfect by the bedroom door. Although, I tell myself that I will use it to have a place sit after I take a shower or bath. However, the reality is that it will probably become the place I throw my just “laundered clothes but I am too lazy to fold and put away” area. The card table will be my hobby table, for the jigswas puzzles never begun, and the paint by numbers, I’ve never finished.

I went to the imitation 5 & 10 store to buy the card table and the folding pocket chair. Since the Metro-North only comes once every hour, I tied the table and the folding chair to my mini shopping cart and walked back home (about 30 minutes). Once I got home, I discovered, that the chair was broken. I waited for the next Metro-North train, with the plan of taking the bus, or walking back. Oh, on the train, I only need to go one stop, there was a guy who must have been in his late teens or early 20s. Anyway, on the way out, of the train, on the platform, the guy held open the door leading off the platform. After I walked through, I said, “thank you”. To which, the guy, said….

Are you ready for this?

The guy said, “you’re welcome, sir. Sir! Did he need to say sir? I know today is Martin Luther King’s birthday, and now, it is a national holiday. I should be proud that a younger person called me sir…But, do I really look like a sir?

Sorry, I got sidetracked.

It turns out the chair did not take that long. I was able to return to the Metro-North station in time to catch the train heading North.

Once I returned home, I started cooking spare ribs. My plan was to do some lesson planning for next week, but I started reading the newspaper…procrastinating.

For dinner I had barbeque spare ribs, precooked microwavable brown rice, and green beans. After dinner, I watched TV, and now I am typing this blog entry. More procrastinating. Now, I am too tired to do anything but sleep.

Shopping, Shopping, and more shopping. Yesterday was payday. I was happy to have received my first of the month salary before Christmas, but having spent most of it, I was really eager for the next payday to arrive. I was also happy to discover that the signing bonus of the new teacher’s contract would be included. I had an extra $600 (after taxes) to spend. And….

I spent it all.

Yesterday, as soon as I received my paycheck, I called the furniture shop (it is a small mom and pop operation…literally). When I made my down payment a couple of weeks ago, the owner had told me that I only needed to call him when I was ready to make my final payment, and I would not need to go to the shop. He told me that I could pay the reminder when the furniture arrived. Anyway, he seemed to have forgotten. He told me to come Saturday morning (the sooner the better to get the items from the warehouse sooner). Since Saturday is usually my sleep all day recovery day, I was not really in the mood to go anywhere. Since I missed the 9:30am train I need to ride one stop on the Metro-North, I decided to walk the nearest shopping district about a 20 to 30 minute walk. The walk used to take about 30 minutes, but the more I walk the route, the shorter the time.

Anyway, I arrived about 10:25am. The shop was closed. Other shops were opening, but the shop was closed. I had forgotten my cellphone, so I tried to call on a pay phone, only the phone swallowed my quarter. I finally arrived at the shop. One of the owners sons arrived about 11:15 to open the shop. I paid in full and got a delivery time of between 12:30 and 1pm. Since, I was in the shopping area, I decided to go to the local 5 & 10 imitation shore to buy curtain rods for the bedroom. I ended up buying curtain rods, a mini stereo system, and a plastic shelving unit. Since my hands were full, I took the Metro-North back home. I arrived with about 15 minutes to straighten up the messes I’d neglected in the bedroom. When I was cleaning up the livingroom, I made the other rooms a low priority…now I was paying for it.

About 12:25 I received a call from the driver letting me know that they were on the way, and how to get to my place. About 10 minutes later the driver called again to say that they were downstairs, but did not know were the building was located. I offered to come downstairs…I ended up holding the lobby door opened. The drivers turned out to be the shop owner’s sons. One of them, I saw when I made the downpayment. He was sitting in a chair playing with his Playstation portable. They arrived, they set up everything. The owner told me that they would deliver and set everything up for $25 dollars. The kids (the oldest was probably in his late teens or early 20’s. The other son was probably in his early teens). I thought they did a nice job setting up the pieces. I only wished they had taken the boxes with them. I gave them the delivery fee plus another $25 dollars ($50 total). Since my bedroom is still not cleaned, I have not attached a photo at this time.

After admiring my new bedroom set, I fell asleep. The bedroom sets is a bit small (like kids furniture), but since I live a lone, the set should work nicely. After I woke from my nap, I was planning to go to the post office to buy some stamps – I have a snail mail pen pal in Brazil. Since I was tired, I was not really in the mood for chasing the train. I told myself that if I missed it again, then I would walk to the shopping district again.

And, I missed the train. I walked back to the shopping district to go to the post office. Man, walking into that post office was like stepping into a time machine. The building was old and the service was slow. I was surprised to find that that main branch post office did not have any of the vending machines that could be found even in the rinky, dinky post offices in the South Bronx.

After the post office, I did a little shopping in a local 99 cent shop. I then ate lunch at MacDonald’s. Next, I went to pick up a few items at the large supermarket. I ended up buying about $216 dollars worth of food products. I took a taxi ride back (the ride cost me $7 dollars plus a $2 dollars tip. The taxi driver was explaining how there were about 4 shootings in this area in the last few weeks.

Once home, I put the food away. I then took the furniture boxes to the trash compound.At this point, I was too tired to cook, so with $216 worth of food sitting in the kitchen, I went to get Chinese take out. I watched a little TV and did a little chatting online. Now (after posting this entry), it will be my bed time.

Day 2 of the students test. Today the kids were their usual hyper selves. Luckily most tried to contain a lot of the hyperactivity during the test. This morning there was not the “breakfast nonsense” of yesterday. I think my phone call of everyone saying that they wanted breakfast was a bit of a coldwater splash in the face (to put it politely). I’d forgotten to mention in my previous blog entry, that my school has a free Breakfast program.

Well, it is getting late. And, I am starting the yawns. I will need to keep this short. Today, I left school at 4:40pm. It felt great to be out of the building while it was still daylight outside.

For dinner I ate a foot long sandwich from the Subways shop.

Testing time. And testing the limits. My students (and all students in public school from grades 3 to 6) are taking city-wide test in the next few days. I thought it was a bit strange to have a test almost a week, after the Christmas vacation, but what do I know. So, how do I think my class did? It is difficult to say, but I am sure they did not do great. They were a little hyper, but they showed some self-control that they are usually lacking. I did have a bit of a strange experience that I wanted to write about. Usually, there is a general "suggestion" that students have a good breakfast before a test. Today was the first time it seemed to be more than a "suggestion". This morning (actually yesterday morning), the principal got on the loudspeaker and announced that anyone who did not have breakfast that morning was to come to the lunchroom (note. announcement was made about 15 minutes before the test was planned to start). I call the office for confirmation, and yes, I was told that anyone who did not have breakfast was to be sent down to the lunchroom. I ask the class, "who did not have breakfast?" Do I really need to write the response here...Well, just in case some of you are a bit slow (like me), yes every hand went up. I called the office to let them know that every hand went up, and I was told that I needed to bring the whole class to the cafeteria. Being a bit stressed about this test, I really was not in the mood. I told my students that anyone who did not have breakfast, would receive a letter home...A second hand count was made and...only one hand went up. Later, I spoke to his grandmother, and she told me yes he did have breakfast. He had breakfast every morning. Then, his story was that he was still hungry. He gets to choose what he wants to eat. That morning and he had chosen toasted poptarts. No, not the healthiest of choices, but not the negligent case of hunger. His grandmother told me that he will usually have a choice of hot or cold cereal.

Oh, I almost forgot. Today left school about 4:45, that is early for me. What did I do? I stopped off at the bank to activate my new ATM debit card. When I arrived from Japan, the bank had just given me a regular bank card. I was always confused when a clerk would look at my bank card and say that I could not make a debit...only at a few stores. See, I told you I was slow.

I arrived home about 6:15, I stopped off for an order of Beef with Broccoli from a local Chinese takeout restaurant. I ate dinner, and promptly fell asleep about 7:15. I woke up about 3am. I am now typing this blog and I will try to squeeze in a couple of hours of sleep before I have to repeat the day again.

Oh, I almost forgot. Yesterday, I was planning to start rowing again. I got home about 7pm, I had eaten leftovers from my Sunday dinner (a cheap cut of steak and mac & cheese from the box), unfortunately, the heat and the hot water was not on, and had not come on the next morning. So, no exercising. Now, I probably won't start exercising until Saturday (or Sunday). My plan was to grade papers, but I was too tired this evening to even open my shopping cart. Yes, shopping cart. I stopped pretending that I could squeeze everything in a backpack. Once I get organized, I should be able to return to using a backpack.

Happy New Year!!!!

I thought I would make a quick blog entry since I had not done one in a few days. This pass week was fairly uneventful. My plan of using the one week vacation to be totally organized did not pan out. As a result, I was even more disorganized than usually. Plus, I discovered…or should I say rediscovered the “entertaining” value of the internet (not a good idea to surf the internet when you are alone or bored). This pass week, I’ve been online until about 3am every night, only to have to get up at 6am. Not very smart on my part. I could do the “irregular” sleep routines when I was younger, but now it is much more difficult. In the past I’ve had a super efficient internal alarm clock. I would only have to think about the time I needed to get up, and I would usually get up around that time. However, where work is concern I never depended on my “internal” alarm clock.

Unfortunately on Tuesday, my “internal” clock almost shut off. Having gone to bed about 3:20, the electric alarm clock went off the usual 5:50. However, a couple of blinks later, I was waking up again at 6:30. The 6:53 Metro-North train is the last train that I can take to get to work on time. Luckily, I made it! Unfortunately, I was still a bit out of it; somehow I missed my train stop. Luckily the difference was not that great. I was able to walk to the nearest connecting NYC subway train. I arrive to school with about 5 minutes to spare. One of my new year’s resolution was not to depend on the 6:53 train, I really need to take the next earlier train, but up here, the Metro-North does not come as frequently. The next earlier Metro-North train is 6:23. If I get organized, and get to bed at a decent hour, the 6:23 is not a very difficult train to catch. If I caught the 6:23 train, then I would arrive at school at about 7:10. If I could arrived consistently at school at 7:10 everyday, I could also get better organized, and be able to leave school around 4 or 4:30pm (another new year’s resolution).

Below are just a couple of comments before I wrap this entry

* Other than the train and the surfing, there really was not much to write about the previous week. Oh, I did not get on my rowing machine at all. Yes, I’ve started gaining…Actually, I’ve already gained a few pounds. I was so exhausted from my irregular sleep routine, that I have not had the strength when I return home to do anything be sit, surf, and sleep.

* Monday, I cut my hair. I was long overdue. It is a pain in the neck, but it is cheap than a barber shop. After cutting my hair with clippers, I then shave my head as a way of making sure I did not leave (or miss) any spots.

* My apartment windows are not mostly covered (except for the kitchen window), It is very nice to walk around without ducking under, and jumping pass windows when I am not wearing clothes. If I lose my jelly belly, then I might not care about who sees me, but I need to get on my rowing machine…consistently.

* Next week, I get paid…finally. I went overboard during the gift buying last Christmas. It is nice having a regular paycheck. My bedroom set is on layaway; it is a cheap (but nice looking) combination set. When it arrives, I’ll add a photo on my blog. For once I did something smart, I resisted the impulse to spend now and worry later (my usual shopping habit). I would not have had money for the two weeks until my next paycheck. Now, I am currently in a fight to do the same with a new computer I need. My old (second hand) computer is on its last legs, now, in starts getting hot within minutes of me turning it on. It also freezes frequently. I saw a nice one in the Sunday newspaper ($599 for a Dell Desktop). Now that I have DSL (not hooked up yet), and a few web sites that I would like to visit, I think a desktop would be more durable than a laptop. I also have a bigger place now, so I have the space, not to mention a new computer cart (which was a pain in the neck to put together), I am looking forward to a desktop. Why Dell? The price seems right. Teachers receive a 15% discount. Also, I also qualify for an educator’s no tax discount purchase. Although the sale ends at the end of January, I really should not make a purchase like this until February. I really have to start saving money and stop living paycheck to paycheck. Stay tuned to see if I “smarten up” this year, or will I repeat the stupidity of the previous one.



Oh, before I go, I almost forgot. I just replied to an e-mail where one of the comments was about Friends. I liked what I’d written, so I decided to cut and paste my definition below. My e-pal was responding to my comment about me not having any friends, but having what I called “situational acquaintances”. Below is my attempt at clarification:

-- For me, "situational acquaintance means someone I know from the situation I am in at that moment. For example, I have coworkers at the school where I currently teach. They are very nice, and very friendly. But since, I don't speak, or see them outside of school, I would not consider them "true" friends. However, if I were to say I have no friends, they would quickly say, "I'm your friend". I consider them friendly, but I don't consider them friends. It must be me. I've met people who have only known someone for a very short time, and can say, "oh, so and so here is my friend". I don't say anything, but I've always found that a bit strange. Or maybe I just have the wrong idea of what a friend is. For me, a friend is someone who shares interests and time outside a regular meeting situation. A friend is someone who active seeks you out, and not just waits for a situational meeting (ie coworker at work, or a neighbor who frequently visits because you are neigbhors). A friend talks to you, not at you. A friend listens not hears. Friends enjoy playing tag-team, not follow the leader. I hope my definition made sense. I also hope you don't mind, I kind of like what I wrote. I'm going to add it to my blog. Don't worry, I am only going to add the friend part that I wrote.

Well, new day, new year, new attitude, but same old nonsense. Today, was the first day of school after the winter vacation. My plan was to start the new year off with leaving early (for me) from school. I also wanted to get home early to get on my rowing machine. However, I left school about 7:15pm. I went to Staples to buy copy paper for my classroom photocopy machine. I ended up returning home about 9:20pm. I ate dinner at Subways before catching the Metro-North.

Today, I also received another student (internal moved). She was moved to my classroom because another student cause her to get a head injury requiring stitches.

Happy New Year!!!

Hopefully this year will be better than the last. While I am waiting for my leftover spaghetti dinner to heat in the microwave, I thought that I would do a brief, very brief blog entry. So, what have I been doing these last few days...cleaning and getting organized. Attached are a couple of photos of the results. There is still a lot to do, but it is a start. Until next time...