Friday, I completed my lesson plans for the coming week...the first time in a very long time I was able to do that. I wanted to type up my homework sheet on Friday, but it was almost 8PM.

Saturday, I woke up about 6AM...the first time in a very long time that I was up that early on a Saturday. Unfortunately, I slipped into my old habit. I slept most of the day away. About 4:30PM, I got on the train to go to Target to use the kiosk to develop the photos of my students' doing the class science experiment. Somehow all of the photos on the memory stick were erased. First the memory stick got stuck in the wrong slot, then the teen clerk started pushing the buttons on my camera. I don't know what buttons she pushed, but now my camera says that there is a formatting error.

Tomorrow, I will be going to the movies with my epal. We are going to see a small independent film downtown. After, we grab something to eat for dinner. Luckily, my lesson planning is all done. This is the first weekend in a very long time, I don't have "I need to do my lesson planning" hanging over my head.


Completion Date - Saturday, May 31, 2008 10:48PM
Post Date - Saturday, June 28, 2008 12:59AM

I found this on the internet. I thought it was amusing.

Tuesday, May 27th
Rainy morning.
Weather reports all said that it would be a wet rainy day. Our field trip to Central Park Zoo was cancelled. I was happy. I was worried that we would be forced to go like the fourth and fifth graders last week who went to NY Aquarium. It rained off and on all day. I thought the same thing would happen today, but as soon as the trip was cancelled the sun came out, and it stayed out for the whole day...that is, until it was time for me to return home. It started raining while I was on the train going home. The sun came out once I got home. The day was okay...relatively speaking. Sneak was not feeling well, I could tell because he stayed in his seat for most of the day (and wasn't very talkative). Oh, while collecting trip money and permission slips, would you believe that Princess Beady had the nerve to hand in a permission slip and money. Normally, I try to be positive in my no, but this time I almost went ballistic. I had called her mother almost every single day (4 days out of 5) about her disruptive behavior. And to think her mother really thought that she should be allowed to attend really annoyed me.

My plan was to be out of the building at 4PM, then 4:30PM, then 5PM. I ended up leaving at 5:30PM. I wanted to resume exercising, but once I returned home, I was asleep right after I ate dinner. My new epal called about 9PM, I learned a little bit more about him. We will be going to the movies on Sunday. Once again, he came up with a movie suggestion I was thinking about, but wasn't sure he would be interested. I thought he would only be interested in science fiction, but I was wrong. We talked for about an hour. Once again it was nice hearing my thoughts coming out of someone else's mouth. It is an interesting feeling.

Well, I better go. After the conversation, I fell asleep. I woke up about 3AM. I told myself that I would get online only to Google the movie theater, but here I am, it is now 5:26AM. Now, I'll just have to stay up. Hopefully, today will be an easy day.

Completion Date - Wednesday, May 28, 2008 5:28AM
Post Date - Saturday, June 28, 2008 12:48AM

One of my epals sent me this motivational message. I liked it so I thought I would post it. Thanks Peter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The Tongue Can Be Your Worst Enemy!

Your words, your dreams, and your thoughts have power to create conditions in your life.
What you speak about, you can bring about.

If you keep saying you can't stand your job, you might lose your job.
If you keep saying you can't stand your body, your body can become sick.
If you keep saying you can't stand your car, your car could be stolen or just stop operating.
If you keep saying you're broke, guess what? You'll always be broke.
If you keep saying you can't trust a man or trust a woman, you will always find someone in your life to hurt and betray you.
If you keep saying you can't find a job, you will remain unemployed.
If you keep saying you can't find someone to love you or believe in you, your very thought will attract more experiences to confirm your beliefs.
If you keep talking about a divorce or break up in a relationship, then you might end up with it.

Turn your thoughts and conversations around to be more positive and power packed with faith, hope, love and action.
Don't be afraid to believe that you can have what you want and deserve.

Watch your Thoughts, they become words.
Watch your Words, they become actions.
Watch your Actions, they become habits.
Watch your Habits, they become character.
Watch your Character, for it becomes your Destiny.


The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settle for.
Thought I would share this with you.



In the search for Me, I discovered Truth.
In the search for Truth, I discovered Love.
In the search for Love, I discovered GOD.
And in God, I have found Everything.

Be Blessed

Watch how your circumstances and situations begin to change when you change the way you speak.
Pass this on to as many people; as you can, so they can change their lives, too.

'Life is like melted butter. . .once things cool down, it can be reshaped!'

--
Azul Claro



Post Date - Saturday, June 28, 2008 12:42AM

May 26th
The Memorial Day of a Hermit. Not much to write about so this should not take long. Today is Memorial Day, I spent it pretty much the same way I've done other day offs...I slept most of it away. While my bathwater was running, I got online telling myself that I would only stay online for a few minutes. About an hour later, I was still online when my epal called to say hello. After the phone call, I decided to get offline and get in the bath. After relaxing in the bath, I was back asleep in bed. At about 3PM, I decided to get up and do my lesson planning for this week. Since it was a four-day work week, with tomorrow being a trip day, I actually was able to complete most of my planning. It has been a long time since I've done a plan for the week. Lately, I've been so out of it, with one deadline overlapping another. And letting stress take over my apartment and my life. Anyway, I managed to do about 85% of my lesson plans. It isn't completed, but I still feel like I've accomplished something. If I am lucky, I will be able to fill in the gaps tomorrow. And if I am really lucky, I will be able to complete my lesson plans for next week by Friday. I would be really nice to leave school on Friday with no planning to do over the weekend. We'll see if I succeed.

After I was finished as much as I was going to do with my lesson plans, I did my laundry. Since I did not do my laundry last weekend, I had 4 loads to wash (two white loads and two color loads).

Now what I need to do is complete my homework sheet for this week. I already have a pretty good idea of the assignments with be, so I really don't think it will take long. My goal is to be in bed by 10:30PM or 11PM. Tomorrow, I want to catch my early train so that I can arrive in school about 7:15AM. I want to photocopy some assignments for those kids not going on the class trip tomorrow. I also want to make the copies for the homework assignments on the faculty copier instead of my personal copier. My ink is running low, so I ordered another cartridge from Staples online. I also ordered an electric pencil sharpener for myself. My students will still use the manual pencil sharpener. I like the manual sharpener for my students because it cuts down on playing with and around the pencil sharpener. However, I'm sick of the manual. I spent about $231 at Staples.com. I finally figured out how to do a hyper link.

Well, I better go. It is almost 10PM already.


Completion Date - Monday, May 26, 2008 9:51PM
Post Date - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 9:49PM

A nice day. A nice event. I started off the day kind of wishing that I had not signed up for the group meeting event. However, I'm glad I went. It wasn't great, it wasn't good (per se), but it was nice. I only say it was not good in the sense that I really did not feel like a belong there. I'm not a die hard movie fan, nor am I a sports fan, so I really did not have much to do but nod my head and look interested.

About a month ago, I signed up for an online meeting group. The group was one of the movie and a dinner group. I chose this time because it was a three-day weekend, and I like science-fiction/action and adventure type of movies.

I started this morning late still a bit sluggish from the cold I just got over. After messing around online for a couple of hours, I had about 30 minutes to take my bath. Since I would be meeting a group of strangers, a bath was a necessity. I really wanted to relax in the tub, but I was pressed for time. My bathwater was ready hours ago, but again, once online, I tend to lose track of time. Anyway, I had to jump in and out, dress quickly to catch the 12:30 train into NYC. I caught my train and arrived in midtown about 1:10PM. Since the weather was nice, and I had time, I decided to walk to the theater rather than take the subway one stop up. I stopped off at the bank to make sure I had money for the dinner afterward. I Fandagoed my movie ticket so it would be there when I arrived. It is actually more expensive to buy your movie ticket online through Fandango, but the event organizer said that the movie might be sold out. The meetup was at the movie theater at a midtown Loews. I was surprised by how empty the theater was. I was expecting it to be full of people. The lobby was empty, and the theater was about 2/3 full. I ordered a small popcorn ($4.75). Since I was still fighting the lingering effects of a cold, I sat near the back. Actually, that was the excuse I had lined up if anyone asked why I was by myself. However, no one asked. Everyone was fairly spread out.

So how was the movie "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Kingdom"? It was okay. If you are a stickler for realism in your sci-fi movies, than you probably won't like the movie. If you are willing to suspend realism for the sake of entertainment, then you might enjoy the movie. I thought the movie was visually stunning. They really went all out to give the movie the look and feel of the 1950s. There were parts that were annoying (like escaping a nuclear blast by hiding in a lead-lined refrigerator). I also thought the movie was a bit too long due to chase scenes that seemed to go on for ever. After the movie was the group dinner.

The group walked a few city blocks to a local Italian pizza restaurant. On the way, a lady in the group asked me questions about Harrison Ford like was he still going out with the skinny woman (Calista Flockheart), and did I think he look a little bit fatter in this movie(the guy is over 60 years old, what did she expect).

In the restaurant, tables were arranged for the group of us (16 total participants = 10 women and 6 men). The woman sat at one end and the men sat at the other. The event organizer sat almost near the middle. The people were very nice, but I really didn't fit in. I was just a sitting wall flower. The women mostly talked about other movies (dramas and indies) and online dating. The guys mostly talked about sports. And I just mostly nodded. I ordered Penni with sausages. When it came time to pay. Each person was supposed to pay for what he or she ordered. I thought I was covered by putting in $20. On the menu, my meal cost about $14. However, when the bill arrived, somehow my sausages were "opened grilled". I ended up having to put in another $10. The total bill for the group's meal was about $312(including a %20 gratuity). Oh, and my meal was very salty. So, would I do it again? Yes, I think I would. It was hard work (for me) because I don't have the social skills or interests to carry a conversation. Hopefully, if I joined more meet ups, then it should become easier. However, I'll wait for another Sci-fi or action movie. I'll pass on the dramas.

After the dinner the group split up. I decided to walk off the salty Penni dinner by walking to 42nd street. I made a stop to visit my foster father, then I headed for home. I stopped off at the local bodega to buy a pint of Haagen-Dazs(butter pecan).


Completion Date - Sunday, May 25, 2006 10:51PM
Post Date - Saturday, June 22, 2008 11:11AM

Saturday, May 24th

A week in review. I started off the week in a very good mood. Within 2 hours, I was in a bad mood. And by Tuesday, I was feeling angry and burned out. E-CLAS(a early elementary assessment) was due, but then another deadline was added. I started the week eager to get out of the building about 4PM, but by the end of the week, I was repeating previous patterns(left late, crashed at home, morning rush, and the cycle continued).

Wednesday was a wasted evening of calling parents who only seemed interested in money. I called Squeak's parents. Squeak is a relatively quiet (but an excessive) talker. He also does annoying things in a quick quiet way, then argues about anything and everything. He'll argue if I yell, he'll argue if I ask politely. Anyway, my phone call to his mother about his behavior, and lack of focus, and lack of pencils was quickly conferenced to his father(3way calling). The conversation was about the dollar I took from Squeak. Nice parents. Both seem to have that "we know our kids can be a handful/no nonsense" attitude. They also seem to understand why I took the dollar from Squeak(it was out and he was using it to disrupt my lesson), but the conversation kept going back to the dollar.

The phone to Princess Beady's mother was basically the same. Her kicking, crawling, cursing, and calling out took a backseat to mother's concern for the refund I told the kids that I would give to anyone who did not go on a trip...even if it meant that I would have to take the money out of my own pocket. The money was all...all the mother wanted to talk about. Even though I was disgusted, tired and fighting a cold, I stayed to change my bulletin board. See attached photo.

Thursday was "Family Night". To avoid insulting anyone, I will pass on a couple of observations. Summary:

During Family Night, the school is opened for the families of the students that attend. Faculty is asked but not required (which is nice) to set up a table to inform or entertain the visitors. Since I'm usually in the building late, I volunteered for the set up committee. My plan was to finish up my E-CLAS reports. However, knowing that the building was opened late had the opposite effect...I fell asleep at my desk, so I didn't get the reports done. About 6:15PM, I was awaken to the sounds of kids running through the hall -- no one was suppose to be on the second floor. Since I was up, I did my usual Wall Flower Routine at the party in the gymnasium (alternating between holding up the wall and wandering aimlessly). One the teacher's church had a food table, so I bought an order of lasagna, a brownie topped with cake frosting, and BQ chicken wings. The lasagna was cold, but good. The brownie was good also. I saved the wings (Actually, I am about to heat them in the microwave after I finish this blog entry). The food was good but expensive, or I'm just being a cheapskate.

Back to the party. One incident. One 5 or 6 year old went thugging through the hall. Quick summary(according to an eyewitness):

Baby Thug jumps a smaller boy with glasses. a couple of girls stop him, so Baby Thug attacks them. One against two, the kid was not too bright. Since they beat the snot out of him, he spent about 15 minutes (this is where I came in)seeking out revenge, with mommy trailing behind like a broken record, "Baby what's wrong. Why are you so angry?" Obviously, someone has been cutting anger management classes, or skipping his meds.

About 7:30PM, I see AP2 packing up her table, so I offered to help. I ended up moving boxes to the closets, and helping the custodial staff move the tables and chairs, and helping to sweep the floor. My plan was to just show my face and leave, but I got carried away with being Mr. Helpful. I was a bit annoyed that people (visitors and staff) didn't feel the need to move while I was moving tables and chairs. Mrs. K (the nice, but extremely talkative kindergarten teacher) got in my way ...twice. First, she was trying to take off the students' artwork that she must have offered to decorate the walls. Me trying to lay the folded tables against the wall was not an incentive to move...she had to have her students artwork. Later, me holding a box saying "excuse me, heavy box" also wasn't an incentive to move. Once she starts talking, it is difficult for her to stop. She is a very nice person, but just way too talkative. Oh, the box wasn't really very heavy, but it was the principle of the situation.

Friday, was a relatively okay day. I was worried that the computer teacher/tech guy would be closing shop early. Last year, the computer lab was closed sometime in May. He already sent out a letter requesting the return of all borrowed laptops because he has to start getting the computers and the computer lab ready for summer storage. Since he is the main/only tech-savvy person in a low tech environment, his position is cushy. Second only to the music teacher. The tech guy is the go to guy for a piano player for assemblies and graduations. Recently, I think AP2 (who is in charge of scheduling, but a bit lower on the admin hierarchy) must have been flexing her admin muscle. Lately, she has been scheduling out of classroom teachers to do more classroom coverage. Good for her!

Friday was also the due date for the E-ClAS reports and completed bubbled grids. I had been carrying around the E-CLAS materials for the last couple of weeks, telling myself that I would do it when I got home, only to not even touch my granny cart when I got home. I did end up finishing about 7PM. I was in the Bronx waiting for my train north about 8:30PM. I had an order of beef lo mein (very greasy) for dinner. When I got home, I had a pint of Haagen Daz ice cream (telling myself that I will start exercising next week).

Today (Saturday), I slept most of the day away. Well, that is about it. I wasted another Saturday. Tomorrow, I will be joining a group movie/dinner event, we will be seeing the new Indiana Jones movie "The Crystal Skull". I think about 25 people will be attending. I signed up about a month ago. A part of me does not want to go, because I am still a bit drained from the cold I have. Also, I need to get organized and clean my apartment.

Completion Date - Saturday, May 24, 2008 8:12PM
Post Date - Friday, June 20, 2008, 12:51AM

Monday, May 19th
Another stressful day. I did manage a smile for a good couple of hours before my students with their usual determination, wiped it right off. So, a quick (I hope) summary of my weekend.

On Friday(evening), May 16th, one of my epals sent me an email cancelling our planned walking trip through the Bronx Zoo. All week, the news reports mentioned Saturday being a cold and wet day. I was planning to send an email to suggest a change from zoo to movie, but I got beat to the punch by minutes. I already had my email written with the movie schedule saved for Saturday on my desktop. I started watching movie trailers, and lost track of time. I got the cancellation email minutes before I was about to send mine. Problem? Not really. It seemed a bit strange that he had to go out of town at the last minute, but that could have happened. I was watching the trailer for Kung Fu Panda -- it looks very funny!

Anyway, since I no longer had plans to do anything, I fell into my old weekend hermit habit, I slept Saturday away. I was a bit annoyed that the weather turned out to be very nice. I was also a bit annoyed with myself because I had wasted my chance to get organized, and with nothing exciting, or at the very least interesting to do, I answered an online ad from someone seeking "anyone interested in going to the movie tomorrow to see Prince Caspian. Normally, I don't read ads below the age of 35. I also don't like last minute plans. However, on an impulse, I answered the ad agreeing to go. The ad maker was 32yrs old. Moments after getting a "hello" email, I quickly fell into my old hermit habit. I changed my mind. I even started a "Cold Feet"(I won't be able to attend) email. Since the guy left his phone number, I thought the least I could do was to cancel in person.

Well, within minutes of answering the phone, the guy was already offering to buy the tickets and making arrangements to meet. I froze and agreed to go. The meet up time was 3:15PM. The guy also mentioned that if I got there early, we could "get something to eat". Normally, I would have gotten there early, but I was not comfortable with the idea of being stuck with a face to face meeting with someone I had not met before and may have nothing in common with. My plan was to arrive on time which would have kept the possibility of a long conversation to a minimum.

Sunday morning. Still having done nothing in the way of lesson planning, laundry, or shopping. I was both excited and nervous. The weather returned to cold and damp. I cut and shaved my head, took a bath and was out the door about 1:50pm. My plan was to take the bus because the MN train would have gotten me in NYC too early. The bus only operates 2 per hour on Sunday, so I was not expecting it to be more than 5 or 10 minutes late. The bus was over 15 minutes late! When it arrived at my stop, there was no one the bus, but it was still late. Ten minutes into the ride, the driver informs us (the passengers --all 6 of us) that due to a parade, he would have to make a detour. After about a 10 to 15 minute detour and the driver needing confirmation from the officers blocking the street and his dispatcher, he decides to pull over and wait for the parade to pass. Most of the 6 of us got off the bus. I decided to walk to the Yonkers MN station and take the express train into NYC. I walk about a block and the parade of high schoolers stop at the intersection I want to cross to do a number. I walk a couple of blocks then a guy with a horse of a dog who had his dog aside maybe due to the loud music disturbing the dog starts walking in front of me at a snail of a pace. He also had his young daughter with him. A few more blocks, the parade's path was a right angle into the Yonkers MN station area. I felt like I was in one of those movies or comedies when the main character has one obstacle thrown in front of him.

Anyway, I arrived at 34th street about 3:40PM (movie start time). Since it was raining, and I was only about a block and a half from the theater, I just walked as quickly as possible. The guy was not there. I was annoyed and embarrassed at being late. I bought a ticket knowing that the guy had already paid for my ticket online. Since the guy did not have the cell phone area code of 646, I just assumed that I had his home phone number. I didn't think to call him. I'm not too bright.

Anyway, I got my ticket with the idea that maybe after the movie ended, I might see the ad poster (he attached his photo to his post). I walked into the theater with the idea of sitting as far back as possible (still annoyed, angry, and wet).

Well, it turned out I sat down right next to the ad poster. Amazing!!!

The movie was nice. The special effects were great. After the movie, my epal asked if I was interested in getting a drink. Coffee at Starbucks.

Short story made long...sorry. I need to wrap this up. Long story short, I was amazed at how much we had in common. It was strange meeting someone who shared the same interests that I do. Also amazing was that his conversation almost seemed to be a step or two from what I was thinking. Even about an hour ago from typing this blog. I was thinking about what kinds of city type activities I could suggest. I thought about museums, but I thought that was something he might not be interested in. I was wrong. I wanted to meet my new epal again, but next week (even though it is a three-day weekend), I thought it might be difficult because I was planning to make arrangements with "Macy's Walker" epal. I also signed up for a group meet up next week. Well, my new epal told me that he couldn't do anything next week. Amazing!!!


Completion Date - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 12:08AM
Post Date - Monday, June 16, 2008 7:10PM

Quick blog entry. This weekend was busier than usual. Saturday, I was up early (for me) to go shopping for a gift for my foster father's lady friend, and I bought a new granny cart.

Today I went to my foster father's place. He had mentioned that he would be going to visit his mother's grave site, and I was invited to join. I was told that the cemetery opened at 9AM, so I told my foster father that I would be at his place by 8:15AM (via the MN train). When I arrived at my foster father's place, he was already gone. On well. I really didn't want to go. I was just trying to be supporting.

I have to go. I want to get back to regular routines again.

Completion Date - Sunday, May 13, 2008
Post Date - Monday, June 16, 2008 7:01PM

Hello. Yes, it has been a while since I've blogged. Reason? As the blog entries collected in my draftbox, I began to notice that I was repeating the same boring day to day activities. And in about a month's time, I have not accomplished much. The same ol same ol. Today (the day before Mother's Day), I went out to see if I could buy something for my father's lady friend. I finally settled on a water filtering pitcher and a $50 gift card to Target Store. I love gift cards! I always try to buy something along with the gift card so the person has something to actually open (that's why I bought the filtering pitcher.

I also bought a new granny cart, my other one met with an untimely ending. A couple of days ago while riding up the subway escalator, some guy seemed to be in a hurry to get up the escalator. Even though the escalator was only about 2ft. wide, I tried to make room for the guy to pass. He either stepped on the wheel or dropped his cello-like package on it. Either way, I did not notice anything until I got off the escalator and my wheel looked like it was hit with a sledghammer. I was annoyed, but in the end, I took it as a sign that I needed to get rid of the granny cart, and the back-breaking loads that I used to carry. Well, by Friday evening (having to carry two bags worth of books, papers needing to be graded, and my papercutter, I came to my senses and told myself that I would get another granny cart on Saturday.


Completion Date - Saturday, May 10, 2008 7:35PM
Post Date - Sunday, June 15, 2008 12:01AM