I Need to Get Back on Track

I think the title says it all.  Lately, I've been very frustrated that my finances are a messy shambles.  I've been getting very tired of living paycheck to paycheck, having no clue where my money goes, or how much I spend in any given day, week, or month.  Scrounging around for loose change to tie me over until next payday was really hitting the bottom of the barrel.  Today, I finally paid my cell phone bill, so now I have access to the Internet on my cell and tablet.  AT&T has been a real "pill" about their bills.  They shut off my service with the bill only 15 days late.

On the left is a photo of book similar to one I bought at Staples today.  Starting tomorrow, my goal is to record ANY and ALL expenses made on a daily basis (anything from bills paid, to buying a daily newspaper.  I need to know where my money is going.  How is it a single guy with my car, family,  addictions, or other expenses, can't seem to keep money in the bank.  I'm getting older now, I need to keep better track of how much money I spend and where my money goes.  Right now, my goal is to carry this booklet around (the way I do with my calendar booklet).  Hopefully, if I keep track of all of my expenses for 4 or 5 months, I should begin the Year 2013 being able to create a realistic budget, and a better understanding of my finances.  I do know one of the things I'm going to have to stop doing is spending hundreds of dollars on school supplies and resource books.  Every school year, I start off spending 1 ~ 2 thousand dollars on classroom materials and supplies.  I'm not doing that this coming school year....I can't afford to.

Exercise has been another inconsistency.  Although, I've been running from time to time, I haven't been consistent with it.  Strange that my body has adjusted to the hourly runs so quickly, but hasn't shown real results. 

I just finished reading "Daemon" by Daniel Suarez for a book club I joined recently.   The book was okay.  It turns out the 617 page book was only the first part of a two part book.  Even though it ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, I have no interest to read the other half of the book.

I could go on, but it is past midnight.  I need to get up early so that I can do my morning run.     

Let's Try It Again

Hello Readers, if there are any here.

It has been awhile.  I've been a bit out of it.  This will be a ramble to get the ideas out as quickly as possible.

Braces
I've had the braces for a while, and I am starting to get used to them.  A few times I've needed the dental wax, but I think my mouth has adjusted to the scraping. I'm still annoyed at the cheese-grater like fell of these things.  It doesn't matter how careful I chew, food gets stuck so easily.  Pain, well other than the heavy-handedness of the dental assistant putting in the wires and ties, I haven't really felt pain, just discomfort.  My dentist told me a couple of days ago that she isn't ready to close up the gaps yet because my teeth still need to be repositioned. 

Philadelphia
I was lucky enough to be invited to an educational convention in Philadelphia.  It was a nice experience.  I upload some photos...eventually.

Hamsters
A colleague at work, had a litter of hamsters, one an impulse, I offered to take one.  I ended up spending about $95 dollars on equipment for the little guy (or gal).  We agreed that I wouldn't take one of the hamsters until after spring break.  I finally set up the cage, which was a pain in the neck to do. It looks really cool...from a distance.  However, up close, it has that cheap "Made in some third world" quality.  I'll need to buy some needle nose pliers and wire to secure the cage.  Well, in my excitement to make sure my hamster would have everything, I forgot the buy a water bottle, bedding, and a food dish.  So, with the pet store across the street from my dentist, I went shopping for the hamsters -- The hamsters had another litter of babies right before the vacation and again on an impulse I offered to take another one, so my hamster wouldn't be lonely.  When I left the store, with the few items (water bottle, bedding, food dish and a few chew toys), I spent another $50.

American Museum of Natural History
Basically, it was an informative experience. Not what I was expecting. The museum didn't do a very good job of providing information for the different events. Once paid for, the only information provided on the receipt was the "showtime" and a partial title. It turns out the "show times" were just times given for crowd control purposes. The extra exhibition fees were basically for the decorations accompanying the 5 ~ 10 minute video clips that repeated every few minutes. A greater attempt to let customers know the locations of the special exhibition would have been very helpful. Oh, and avoid the elevators if you can, they seem to be always crowded and move as slow as molasses.


Movies
I'm currently on spring break vacation/recovery.  I went to a couple of movies recently:
John Carter in 3D
The Lorax

Mirror, Mirror
It was a fairly entertaining movie. I didn't laugh as much as others did in the theater, but I did laugh a few times. I thought the movie was a great starring movie for Julia Roberts. I thought Julia was better in the movie than Nathan Lane. I don't know why, but his character really annoyed me. I also thought the actor playing the prince (Armie Hammer) did a very good job. I thought all of the actors really enjoyed working on this movie, I just think Roberts and Hammer did better jobs with what they had to work with. Lastly, I wasn't too fond of the evil queen's "ending", but I suppose when that queen is played by an internationally known movie star, They don't want to out right kill her off -- unless the actress wants the character dead.

Wrath of the Titans in 3D
 This was an enjoyable movie. It wasn't great, but it was entertaining. I believe there was a lot more action in this movie than in the first one. As long as you can suspend belief in what you're watching, I think you will enjoy the movie. My main complaint is the lack of consistency with maintaining the "god/human" balance in Perseus (Sam Worthington). Although, the movie tried to show that Perseus was human by the excessive amounts of moaning and groaning he was doing and the wounds he received.  After awhile, I lost count of how many superhuman feats Perseus went through. I can't even guess at the number of walls he was thrown against or through. A nice movie if you enjoy fantasy movies. After the movie, I was flying solo for dinner at Dallas BBQ across the street. The food was good. The service was also fast. When I was done there, I went across the street to the Venus Diner for a banana split and a slice of apple pie.

Exercise/Dieting
Until today, I was eating like there was no tomorrow, all the while with the idea (lie) that I would start exercising.  If you've been following me on FourSquare, you will know that for the last few months, I've had dinner at one fast food place or another.  And about 3 times per week, I would end with a pint of Ben & Jerry's or Haggen Daaz ice cream.  Today however, was the first time in almost a year, I went to the local park to do a bit of lite jogging.  I followed the plan from the book, "Run Your Butt Off".  It felt good to be back in the park, I'm going to try to keep it up this time.  Today, I did the walk for 4 minutes, and run for 1 minute for 30 minutes (Stage two).  I also ended up jogging for another 6 minutes afterwards.  Tomorrow, I'm going to modify Stage three (walk for 3 minutes and run for 2 minutes). 

Crazy week.  Stressful too.  This was suppose to be a different start to the new school year, but everything seems to be playing out like a broken record. 

Quick summary because it is very, very late.  With relative certainty, I'll be teaching 6th grade this year.  With that, I did what I do when I'm nervous about the coming school year, I went shopping. 

Yesterday, I went to the teacher's store in Brooklyn.  They (in my opinion) have a better selection of middle school materials.  The plan was to get there at opening to avoid the crowd.  I managed to be the second person to arrive before the store opened up.  My plan was just to briefly look at the books --with the idea of not spending more than $100.  Well, when I left, I was about $300 poorer.  From there, my plan was to go home, drop off the purchased materials and then continue on to the mall to go clothes shopping.  But since it was getting late -- the last evening bus from the mall is 7pm.  The problem with depending on public transportation is that you have to plan around the bus and/or train schedule.  At the mall, I needed to buy some "back to school" clothes for myself.  Unfortunately, I tend to wear clothes until they are falling apart.  By the time it was time to go, I was about $300 poorer.  I caught a few sells, so I was pleased about that.  I purchased a couple of pair of shoes, 3 slacks, 5 shirts (three color, and two white), and underwear.

Today (Sunday), the plan was to go to the teacher's store closer to where I live (Lakeshore).  Lakeshore is a bigger chain of educational supply stores.  I went to try and exchange the 4th grade materials that I had purchased.  I thought it might be difficult to exchange, but it was very easy.  I just said that I wanted to exchange....Before I finished my sentence, the person behind the counter just said, "don't worry, I can help with your refund."  I also went to use their laminating machine.  Wow, it was very convenient.  It was a bit annoying waiting on the line.  I was a bit annoyed at a couple of people on the machine when I arrived.  One lady was moving as slow as molasses, another lady was making her (center) signs while she was using the machine.  One lady on line complained about how slow the line was moving, and yet, when she got to the machine, she had about 15 or 20 hand-made charts that she was planning to laminate. AND, she was picking through her pile trying to decide what she wanted.  The lady in front of me was nice, but she seemed a bit old.  Not that there's anything wrong with an older person teacher.  I just thought she seemed a bit out of it.  Not to mention the very old poster she was laminating.  It must have been from the 70's.  The poster was of an African-American family (with Afros) sitting around and reading.  Behind me, there was a guy complaining loudly about his new teaching assignment and how he wasn't spending any money now.  He said he might spend some after he assesses his students.  When it came my turn to use the laminating machine, to be fair, I offered to use it for 5 minutes, then I would let the next person use it.  And then use it for another five minutes, and then let the next person go, etc... After laminating, I went to briefly look through the materials for 6th grade materials.  And, I ended up leaving about...$300 poorer.  Since I had to travel by bus, I decided to cut and trim the decorations and posters so that they would be easy to carry.  It ended up taking about 2 hours of cutting.  When I finished, I discovered that about 1/3 of the items didn't laminate properly.  At first when I went the the person behind the counter, the manage was about to say it was my fault that I didn't have the machine on hot enough.  However, when one of the cashiers mentioned to him that another person had the same problem earlier, he went straight to the machine, and tried to solve my problem.  I was impressed that despite the crowd, when the manager said that he would return in a couple of minutes, he actually did!  He used one of the two laminating machines that was broken to feed in my posters and decals one by one until the heat melted the plastic lamination.  AND for my time wasted, he gave me 3 coupons for free laminating (15ft. each). 

No exercising today.  I hadn't eaten anything since I had a can of V8 this morning, so I was hungry.  I went to Wendy's restaurant on the way home.  I was thinking that a 1/2 lbs burger and medium fries would fill me up.  NOPE!  While I was waiting for the try, I ate the fries.  I finished off the hamburger minutes later.  I avoided the soda because I know it has a lot of calories.  The strange thing was that it felt like I had eaten a White Castle burger.  I was ready for dinner.  I settled on a Healthy Choice sweet and sour chicken meal.  I also drank a liter of ShopRite Zero Carbs and Calorie Free Sugar Free and Caffeine Free soda. 

Well, that is ....

Oh, I almost forgot.  I just finished looking at the materials that were in my Amazon.com shopping cart.  When I first found out I would be teaching 4th grade, I went online to purchase 4th grade copies of the 3rd grade versions that I liked.  Well, when I found out I would be teaching 6th grade, I did the same thing.  Luckily, I was able to delete some of the items since I had already purchases them.  In the end, I spent about another $200.  My credit card is smoking like a five alarm fire.  But there is one more thing I really, really, need to get.

Even more than a decent photocopy machine, I need a grading machine.  My school is very, very big on "Data Driving Instruction".  I was drowning in paperwork last year.  I will lose my mind if I have to try to keep up with testing paperwork again this year.  This machine (and others like it) can do in about 30 seconds, what it would take me 2 hours or longer to do (grade a class set of a single test AND provide a data analysis for each student).

Now, I think  that's it...

Quick Update

Quick update.  For those that are interested, I am still on my diet/exercise routine.  To keep with the new schedule, I haven't been going online.  In the past, a quick online visit would usually throw off my motivation, and a quick visit turns into several hours later.  Even now, I should have just prepped for bedtime. 

Quick Summaries:

I'm not doing my run/walk in the neighborhood park.  I walk/run around the two baseball fields.  My body has been adjusting to the walk/run a bit too quickly.  By the second day, I start to lose focus and motivation.  Now, instead of stickly with the book's pacing of one stage per week, I'm going to move up the stages every two or three days.  Tomorrow, I'm going to go to stage 4 (30 minutes of 3 minute walk, 3 minute run [or what I've been calling the "turtle trot"])

On an impulse, I visited one of the old social networking sites and replied to a profile that I've replied to before.  Much to my surprise, he responded.  It turns out the guy lives in the very next block.  We walked around downtown for a couple of hours, we had a lot in common.  It would have been cool to have someone in the neighborhood who shared similar interests.  Unfortunately, we had different ideas about friendship.  After my refusal to see friendship the way he did, I think he lost interest. After first planning to do another walk around, the epal ended the last text message with "have a great day".

My new black backpack arrived within about 3 days.  There was a bit of a mixup at the post office, but I finally have it.  The bag looks nice, however, I am a bit put off by the number of buckles and clips on it.  I'll try it out and see how it is.

Well, I better go.  I should have been in bed, but I thought I should do a quick entry letting the two or three people who read this blog know that I am still in the game so to speak.  I started my liquid diet on June 1st, and I still have managed to stick with it.  The problem?  Even though I am staying withing the suggested calorie intake of 1,784 calories per day, I don't seem to be losing weight.  The morning walk/run really isn't burning many calories (probably due to my body needing to adjust to the running.  I am going to try to use my stationary bike starting tomorrow in the evenings.  Once I'm able to do a consistant cardio workout for 30 minutes or more, I think I'll start to see the results.

DMV

I felt much, much better today.  For one of the few times this summer (or any summer), I was up and out of bed before 7AM.  I needed to get some cold medicine.  Although I was feeling better, I didn't want to push my luck.  I also decided to order a pancake breakfast from a local diner.

After a quick (unplanned) nap, I decided to go find out about the $509 bill my HMO sent me. I wanted to go in person.  My thinking was that I get better results if I handle paperwork in person.  Well, I was wrong.  I was quickly (but politely) informed that they "don't deal will insurance claims...".  I had to call a 888 service number.  I never got around to it, I'll do it tomorrow.

On my way back home, my plan was to stop at a local downtown store to buy a floor lamp.  Since I was downtown, on an impulse, I decided to finally get my driver's license updated.  I've lived in my current apartment for about 4 years, and I've never gotten my license changed.  I was planning to just pick up a mail-in application.  However, the lady was very nice (and polite),  I decided to get it over with.  The waiting time was not bad (about 15 minutes).  Unfortunately, my life wouldn't be mine if there wasn't confusion.

When I completed the application, I filled in the "Change Location for Voting Registration" section.  The guy ripped that part off without looking at it.  I wasn't thinking about it at the moment.  However, when I received my temporary license ($18) it stated that I had elected to not register to vote.  I went back to the guy and showed him the mistake.  I had filled in the bottom part of the form for relocation of where I wanted to vote.  He told me that I didn't need to worry about it.  I just needed to go to Customer Service Desk and ask for a mail-in form.  So I go to Customer Service (a different lady this time). 

Me: Mr. J told me I could just pick up a mail-in form for voter registration.

NL: (New Lady) Who told you that?  You have to wait in line.

Me: Mr. J. (as I pointed across the room).

NL: You can't skip the line. Tell him to just cancel the license and issue a new one.

Me: (back to Mr. J.) The lady told me to tell you that I can't get a form.  You have to cancel this license and issue me a new one.

Mr. J: (Shouting to NL). "NL, just give the guy the mail-in form it's right there on the left."

NL: (Shouting to Mr. J.) "He can't skip the line (gesturing to the long line of people waiting).  Just cancel the license and make the correction".

Mr. J. :(Sucks his teeth).  Just a minute, I'll get you one.  He doesn't go to NL, but to another area to look for the form.  He can't find it, so he goes to ask another lady for the form (she sends him to another area).

I get the form.  On my way out I see that it asks for me to fill in the same information I just filled in on the other form plus I had to write the correct address for my voting district (which I didn't know).  Yep, I had to go back to Mr. J to ask.  After that, I decided to fill out the form and mail it off then and there.  I was just so annoyed at the lack of service for my $18, I knew I probably wouldn't do it once I left the DMV.

From the DMV, I went to buy my new floor lamp and headed for home.  At home, I worked on the right side of my living room.    I moved the furniture along the right wall so that I could wash and wax  that side of the floor.  Tomorrow, I will move the furniture back.  I'm going to put everything back the way it was except for the bookcase.  I'm going to reposition the bookcase so that I can get another one in that corner.  Anyway, the perimeter has been washed and waxed leaving only the middle of the living room floor to be washed and waxed.  The last area to clean will be the hallway.  My apartment will be finished.

Oh, I also stopped by the post office to pick up my School House of Rock DVD.

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I got the cartoon from the internet.  It just seemed to fit.

Bus Ride

Today I scheduled another social networking event for my group. And, as usual, none of the members signed up to attend. So this was a solo excursion. The event was to Rye Playland Amusement Park. Although I went alone, it was a nice trip. Not great or exciting to go to an amusement park alone, but it was still nice to get out of my apartment.

What was the most eventful thing about the excursion?

The hour and 10 minute bus ride there.

This young mother and her son(3 years old approx.) and her friend (with her son [5 or 6 years old approx.]). The kids' behavior and attitudes were atrocious (the 3 year old much more so). The 3yr. old threw an open bag of Doritos in my direction. Yes, the bag hit me (spilling Doritos onto the bus floor). The mother yelled, pinched, and pulled the 3 year old, but he just ignored her. After about 3~4 minutes, the kid finally bends down to pick up the Doritos. The three year old picks up a single chip, and then he picks up the bag. After putting the single chip in the bag, the other young lady snatches the bag. They were speaking in Spanish, but from the body language, I'm guessing she didn't want the dirty clip in the bag. After debating what to do, she balls up the bag...and goes back to the loud conversation the two young ladies were having. The Doritos were left on the floor. The boys went on being loud, and too playful for a city bus. However,...the ladies conversation continued. After about 10 minutes, the mother of the older boy puts a plastic container (about the size of a five pound bag of sugar), filled with cookies and a variety of candy. The kid played with the junk food, picked at the junk food, and of course, he ate the junk food. And then when he finished, he decided to lay across two seats (shoes on[of course]) to rest. About 15 minutes later, the older boy is playfully taunting the little boy, who was from time to time screaming for his mother (who is sitting right next to the two boys). However, the "adult conversation" wasn't interrupted. The ladies kept on talking, and the kid kept on screaming. That is...until the 3yr. old decided to throw a plastic shovel at the 6yr. old (again in my direction). The mother of the 3yr old snatches the shovel, and slaps the boys hand. The boy's reaction?

He snatches the shovel back and stares at his mother. The mother mumbles something ....and continues her conversation with her friend. Yep, the boy kept the shovel.

Near the end of the bus ride, both ladies now have their sons in their arms smothering them with kisses and baby talk.

True Story(with details left out). The only thing that kept flashing through my mind was that I would eventually have both boys in my classroom (metaphorically speaking).

Lazy Summary

I've been in my lazy summer mode. I'll try to recollect the past couple of days:

Monday
After sleeping most of the morning away. I decided to go for a walk downtown. I took the Metro-North express train into Grand Central Station (42nd. Street). I walked to 14th Street and Union Square. I went to see the movie "Despicable Me". Although I paid for the ticket, I did use points on my movie card to order a small popcorn($6) and a small box of candy($3). Yep, those two items combined would have cost $9.00. A single hot dog would have cost $6. Normally, I don't buy food at the theater.

Back to the movie. I really liked that movie. It was very entertaining. I liked how they threw in the occasional adult humor. Adults were laughing just as much as the kids.

After the movie, I walked back to 42nd Street, and went to visit my foster father.

**I forgot to mention the drunks who rode the trains. The subway had a single drunk who talked to himself and other passsengers, and cursed God. Asking passengers if they wanted to fight him. Finally, he decided that he didn't want the train to move, so he stood between the doors so that the train doors wouldn't close. Finally, the guy got off the train expecting to be arrested, because he told the the train conductor (who came to see why the guy wouldn't move), "You're gonna arrest me". The good news was the train went express to make up for lost time. From the subway, I got on the Metro-North train, and....I got on the train that had a group of drunk guys coming from a baseball game. One guy kept getting up to check what station he was at. Another guy kept going on about how he was going to fight the conductor if he (the conductor) asked for a ticket. Both guys were very loud.
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Tuesday
Another lazy morning. Today I have a social networking event that I planned. Only one person signed up for the panel discussion at the Museum of the City of New York. The panel discussion was nice. Not great, but nice. It lasted about 2 hours. One of the panelist seem to have some interesting stories to share, but it was difficult to hear him. Near the end, the audience had to remind the guy to speak up. Overall, the event was okay. At 2 hours, I was expecting something a bit more substantial. It seemed to just be a presentation of a group of individuals who seemed to be sharing a bit of past recollections. Although the stories were nice, there wasn't much substance to them. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures.

Venice Beach

Monday, July 20th

I took the two-hour "Homes of the Stars" Tour. After, while I was thinking about what to do, I decided to call the only pen pal from LA who kept in contact with me after I placed my ad in the "looking for a platonic friend(in L.A.)" ad on an online personals website. It turned out he was free and wanted to meet. The person who arrived was not what I was expecting.

The guy who arrived was tanned, slim, and driving a black convertible. I've never been in a convertible before. My LA epal (electronic pen pal) suggested we go to Venice beach. When we arrived, LA epal spent about 10 minutes driving around looking for a parking space. We walked along the beach for about an hour. We had pizza for lunch, it was on me. Since my epal drove us down to Venice, I thought paying for lunch was the least I could do. The pizza shack looked a bit ratty, but the pizza was surprisingly good. We walked a bit, then we had to return. Unfortunately LA Pal (in wanting to save money by not going to a parking lot), ended up receiving a parking ticket for $50.

On the way back, LA Pal had to do some quick banking business "Upper-Class" style. He has an account at a private bank where customers have to be buzzed in. There was something very "Hollywood" about the exchange he had with the bank person. On the one hand they both did the hugs and squeezes with the cute names, but every once in a while they would cast a quick "glance". It was almost like they were checking to see who would drop the falseness of the situation first. Neither did. Oh, and one more "Hollywood" moment. While riding back to Hollywood Blvd. Janet Dickerson said hello to LA Pal. I didn't recognize her until LA Pal told me who she was. She stuck her foot out of the window.

On the way back, LA Pal offered to take me to dinner later on that evening. At first I was going to say yes, but after I thought about it, I wasn't in the mood for expending so much mental energy stressing about dinner, so I cancelled.

I spent the evening walking about the Hollywood neighborhood. What I found a bit strange was that once I walked off the Hollywood Blvd. There was a plainness about the place I wasn't expecting. Both New York City and Tokyo seemed to have a "big city vibe" that seemed to be woven through various neighborhoods that let you know you were in a big city. LA didn't seem to have it. I took a picture standing in the middle of the street of Hollywood Blvd (the heart of Hollywood), other than a few flashing lights, it was relatively quiet. Where New York and Tokyo stay on all night, Hollywood, seem to have a bedtime.

Well, instead of going out and exploring, I decided to take some time to update my blog. For the last couple of days, I've too exhausted to do any blogging when I return to the hostel, so I thought I would do it early this time. Today is the last day of the GO LA Card. I'm going to try squeezing in three activities today. If I accomplish these three activities, then I will feel like I got my money's worth. I'm going to head over to one of the "Hollywood" museums I missed. I then want to visit the Japanese American Museum. I will try to then squeeze in Universal Studios. However, if I don't do anything but wondering around the neighborhoods, I don't think I'll be too upset. This is after all a vacation. I should be relaxing not stressing myself about schedules and deadlines.

The attached photo is one I took on the way down to Venice Beach. I will upload a slideshow of my other photos at another time.
Completion (first draft) - Tuesday, July 21, 2009 11:30AM
Post Date - Saturday, August 8, 2009 1:00PM

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

The Quality Review is over!!!

This week, and pretty much last week as well, I've been a bit of a daze. Leaving school at 8 or 8:30pm, getting home at about 9:30 or 10pm, and then stressing about school work at home. The strange part, I was not really nervous about the Quality Review, I was just feeding on the negativity around. The Quality Review is where the School as a whole (and the principal to a certain extent) is given a grade. Last school year, my school received an "A".

Back to the quick summary. While other teachers were stressing out about things like putting Post-its on each piece of students' work, I just laugh...just a bit. When AP1 came in my room for a last minute inspection the day before the Quality Review stressing about Post-Its on kids work (that were already graded, and already had teacher comments), I politely said that I would add it to my list of things that needed to be done. However to myself, I was saying, "This lady must be smoking something".

Anyway, there was a lot I needed to get done, but that was just in general, not because a visitor was coming.

Let me do a quick summary, so that I can call it a night. Hopefully, I will go into a bit of details another time.

Up at 2am
procrastination and preparation
Taxi to work after a later MN train
Literacy block was (relatively) nice
Group meeting with the Quality Review Rep.
Drama in the lunchroom
Program for conflict resolution rep. arrived 40min. late
Planned to be out of building at 4:30pm
Out of building at 5pm
Target to buy cap (lost another) running for the train.
Home about 6pm
Cooked Dinner
Bath
Watched Smallville
Fell asleep about 9:15pm
Woke up about 1am
Now, I'm finished my blog
A bit of lesson planning, then, I'm calling it a night.


Post Date - Friday, February 1, 2008 2:09AM