Weekend Update
Friday- I babysat for my twin cousins, who are 3. I pulled them a mile in their wagon to the lake, where we had a picnic. And someone told me that my kids were cute, which was scary because they could be my kids, and if they were, I would have them out of the house by the time I'm 39!
Saturday- I woke up early, for a breakfast date, which I thought would be really fun. I got stood up, because apparently there are 5 restaurants with the same name in Uptown, which isn't a very good excuse because there aren't. But I got to spend quality time with Spike and Mo, two cute kitties, and then I spent the rest of the day writing out my curriculum plan calendars for the school year. I love being productive without time constraints! And I looooove post-its. Last September, I started working the 1st day of teacher workshop, so I'm going to be much more prepared this year. In the evening I went for a run, but it was still way too hot. It's gross to run in this weather! My hair was wet when I got home and my ipod buds wouldn't stay in my ears. And there were huge swarms of those little white bugs everywhere, so my run was quite zig-zaggy and probably hilarious to watch.
Sunday- I'm going to go to church in the morning, then continue lesson planning.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
the tribulations of my day...
my grandpa took me to edward jones this morning to manage my investing. i learned that there is absolutely no way i can invest now, since my loans are so overwhelming. well, yes, i knew that, and it's not much fun to have someone give you a pity look. so i almost broke down in my broker's office and then lost it while driving my grandpa home. but i finally realized that i am so much luckier than many people...for example, i had surgery in march, which cost $15,000, and my health insurance covered it all! plus, although it was probably a mistake not to, i didn't have to work this summer and i still got paid. and someday i'll be out of debt. my only monetary goal, which was so difficult to discern when i was asked this morning, is to be able to send my children to any college they want to attend and to take care of them when they make mistakes with money, like my parents did for me. while i still thinks it's essential to find a career that you love regardless of the paycheck, i've learned my lesson that you need to be aware of money, where it's going, and how to be smart about it. i really should have gotten a scholarship for graduate school! i lived on loans for 17 months, while also paying out-of-state tuition. silly me.
anyway, i'm so excited to get ready to start work again! i've got all of my organization ideas in place and i just need to get my class lists and hit up office max. i'm giddy as a school girl about school supplies! i'm going to buy a ton of clear plastic three-ring insert pockets. i also bought a 4-ft. diameter blow-up globe (apparently from a brad paisely video) on ebay. it's going to hand from the ceiling in my classroom!! i also have my class blog set up, my class website updated, and a webquest about angkor wat for my students. i want to be super prepared so that i can have a social life this school year!
i'm so tired from running around the lakes, so i'm not going to use caps. deal with it:)
my grandpa took me to edward jones this morning to manage my investing. i learned that there is absolutely no way i can invest now, since my loans are so overwhelming. well, yes, i knew that, and it's not much fun to have someone give you a pity look. so i almost broke down in my broker's office and then lost it while driving my grandpa home. but i finally realized that i am so much luckier than many people...for example, i had surgery in march, which cost $15,000, and my health insurance covered it all! plus, although it was probably a mistake not to, i didn't have to work this summer and i still got paid. and someday i'll be out of debt. my only monetary goal, which was so difficult to discern when i was asked this morning, is to be able to send my children to any college they want to attend and to take care of them when they make mistakes with money, like my parents did for me. while i still thinks it's essential to find a career that you love regardless of the paycheck, i've learned my lesson that you need to be aware of money, where it's going, and how to be smart about it. i really should have gotten a scholarship for graduate school! i lived on loans for 17 months, while also paying out-of-state tuition. silly me.
anyway, i'm so excited to get ready to start work again! i've got all of my organization ideas in place and i just need to get my class lists and hit up office max. i'm giddy as a school girl about school supplies! i'm going to buy a ton of clear plastic three-ring insert pockets. i also bought a 4-ft. diameter blow-up globe (apparently from a brad paisely video) on ebay. it's going to hand from the ceiling in my classroom!! i also have my class blog set up, my class website updated, and a webquest about angkor wat for my students. i want to be super prepared so that i can have a social life this school year!
i'm so tired from running around the lakes, so i'm not going to use caps. deal with it:)
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
The Middle East
Every day, as I watch the continued destruction in Beirut, I keep wondering about the how hate like that can be sustained. I don't know as much as I should about the history of the conflict and the reasons that there is so much anger towards Israel, but I can't relate to ongoing hatred, passed on from parents to children without end.
Last night, I watched a show about art history on PBS. There was a study about death and what motivates people to harm those with different beliefs. It proved that when people are forced to think about their own mortality on a daily basis, they are almost always more vindictive and aggresively harmful to people who think differently. And I think that's why I can't understand the war in the Middle East. I rarely need to think about death; mostly I avoid thinking about it at all. When every choice you make is life or death, your enemies must seem much clearer. So maybe forcing representations of the humanity in the apparent enemy is the only solution. There's a program in Israel, like the Boys' and Girls' Club, where Muslim, Christian, and Jewish teens perform community service together. It doesn't seem like education alone can promote peace- there needs to be friendship, and the fear of death needs to end. Which I think would work better than my mom's idea, which is to put all of Israel and Palestine on cruise ships for a month long vacation, while the debris is removed, the bullet holes covered over, the signs of hate removed, and everyone can return to the holy land with great tans and no lines of division:)
Every day, as I watch the continued destruction in Beirut, I keep wondering about the how hate like that can be sustained. I don't know as much as I should about the history of the conflict and the reasons that there is so much anger towards Israel, but I can't relate to ongoing hatred, passed on from parents to children without end.
Last night, I watched a show about art history on PBS. There was a study about death and what motivates people to harm those with different beliefs. It proved that when people are forced to think about their own mortality on a daily basis, they are almost always more vindictive and aggresively harmful to people who think differently. And I think that's why I can't understand the war in the Middle East. I rarely need to think about death; mostly I avoid thinking about it at all. When every choice you make is life or death, your enemies must seem much clearer. So maybe forcing representations of the humanity in the apparent enemy is the only solution. There's a program in Israel, like the Boys' and Girls' Club, where Muslim, Christian, and Jewish teens perform community service together. It doesn't seem like education alone can promote peace- there needs to be friendship, and the fear of death needs to end. Which I think would work better than my mom's idea, which is to put all of Israel and Palestine on cruise ships for a month long vacation, while the debris is removed, the bullet holes covered over, the signs of hate removed, and everyone can return to the holy land with great tans and no lines of division:)
Monday, July 24, 2006
Camp du Nord
I got back from family camp on Saturday and I'm already in camp withdrawl. I miss all the singing! It was just like regular camp, except I didn't have my own counselor because I'm an adult in their eyes. I was so jealous of the kids' activities...they got to play predator/prey and have pirate day. I did the adult activities, like basket weaving and canoe trips. My basket is cute, but kind of trapezoidal, and I realized that I hate canoeing with family. My brother cannot steer to save his life and my parents, who never fight, get vicious when there's any competition. I have a horrible- and somewhat gratifying- canoeing-cut on my thumb. And a huge bruise on my arm from sailing.
There was a group of Korean students visiting for the week, so I drove down to the nearest town (Ely) to look up Korean phrases. John and I mastered hello (ahn-nyung-ha-say-yo) and good-bye (ahn-nyung-hee-ga-say). My favorite part of the whole week was the night hike to Ol' Baldy (which sounds way too camp-like, but truly named). We left at 9:30 with a big group, but didn't start coming back until 10:30. It was a steep and narrow trail, but so much fun, since you had to rely on your other senses to keep from falling down! It made me laugh hysterically! It was like "there're roots, rocks, more roots, ooh big rock!" My adorable cousin Pete was like a little white ghost in front of me in his white sweatshirt.
I got back from family camp on Saturday and I'm already in camp withdrawl. I miss all the singing! It was just like regular camp, except I didn't have my own counselor because I'm an adult in their eyes. I was so jealous of the kids' activities...they got to play predator/prey and have pirate day. I did the adult activities, like basket weaving and canoe trips. My basket is cute, but kind of trapezoidal, and I realized that I hate canoeing with family. My brother cannot steer to save his life and my parents, who never fight, get vicious when there's any competition. I have a horrible- and somewhat gratifying- canoeing-cut on my thumb. And a huge bruise on my arm from sailing.
There was a group of Korean students visiting for the week, so I drove down to the nearest town (Ely) to look up Korean phrases. John and I mastered hello (ahn-nyung-ha-say-yo) and good-bye (ahn-nyung-hee-ga-say). My favorite part of the whole week was the night hike to Ol' Baldy (which sounds way too camp-like, but truly named). We left at 9:30 with a big group, but didn't start coming back until 10:30. It was a steep and narrow trail, but so much fun, since you had to rely on your other senses to keep from falling down! It made me laugh hysterically! It was like "there're roots, rocks, more roots, ooh big rock!" My adorable cousin Pete was like a little white ghost in front of me in his white sweatshirt.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
*I spoke much too soon*
I went out on a bad bad date tonight. It involved the following dialogue:
Him: "Do you like Burrito Loco?"
Me: "Oh, absolutely not! I feel like it's the Pepsi to Chipotle's Coke."
Him: "Do you like Coke?"
Me: "Um, yes?"
Him: "Uh, yeah...me, too. Well, no... (loooong pause) I like diet Coke."
Me: "Alright." (painfully long silence).
Him: "So I guess you like Chipotle."
I worked very hard to be nice throughout, but there were horrible long silences, when I desperately hoped someone I knew would walk in and save me...I should have gone with the "emergency" phone call! The whole time, I wished someone else was there, so I'm pretty excited to see him again:)
I went out on a bad bad date tonight. It involved the following dialogue:
Him: "Do you like Burrito Loco?"
Me: "Oh, absolutely not! I feel like it's the Pepsi to Chipotle's Coke."
Him: "Do you like Coke?"
Me: "Um, yes?"
Him: "Uh, yeah...me, too. Well, no... (loooong pause) I like diet Coke."
Me: "Alright." (painfully long silence).
Him: "So I guess you like Chipotle."
I worked very hard to be nice throughout, but there were horrible long silences, when I desperately hoped someone I knew would walk in and save me...I should have gone with the "emergency" phone call! The whole time, I wished someone else was there, so I'm pretty excited to see him again:)
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
My Summer Vacation
Now that I'm on vacation, I've been keeping busy with three things:
1. Running
I've been going crazy with my running. I love it! It feels like cross country all over again. I run around one of the lakes near my house...it's about a 4-5 mile run and I have a route that doesn't stay on the lake running path very much. Since I have a short attention span and I am so goal-oriented, I need hills so I have something to push myself to complete. I just started late June and already I've lost weight and my legs feel like springs. I just need to cool it a bit; this morning, I had to walk almost all the way because of shin splints. A 70+ man shuffled past me and then two elderly women skated by on rollerblades, just to embarrass me more. So my plan is to ice and heat, whatever, and take advil before I run. I need my endorphins:) Here's my sprinting hills mix (cheesy, but it works):
Fell in Love with a Girl- The White Stripes
Lose My Breath- Destiny's Child
Ride- The Vines
I Will Follow-U2
C'mon C'mon- The Von Bondies
Knock on Wood- Amy Stewart
Run Away- The Real McCoy;)
2. My Final Project for Graduate School
Grr! I need to finish this! It's an incredibly detailed mini-unit, based on content-embedded language instruction. To give you an idea of how structured the assignment is, there are 19 grading points on the rubric. So there are 19 facets of instruction that I need to consider and find research to support in my planning. Grr. I mean, I think that I should have plans this thoughtful for all the teaching that I do. But when you're dealing with 8-year-olds, instruction has to be fluid, spontaneous, and essentially dictated by behavior. If I have one cah-razy student in a class, even if a 30-minute lesson is highly structured to meet all National Standards for No Child Left Behind, no learning is going to happen unless I can find a way to entice that student. 10 pages of justification for 2 1/2 hours of instruction are not going to make a difference in that case. And I hate hate hate APA citation style. Why don't they teach that in high school? I swear, I learned one way all my life, and then it's like, oops! it's so juvenile, figure out the APA style on your own, usually by pouring over an internet site or devouring an instruction manual. I still hate it. I'm definitely going to whip out everything today, though. I don't want to worry at the last minute about this, my last school project, probably ever.
3. Eating Differently
When I started my hell week of classes in June, I suddenly realized that the reasons that I usually use for eating the food that I did are so misguided. I used to eat a ton of reduced-fat pringles as a reward for hardwork, as a way to unwind, but it's really like 30 grams of fat. And when I had a bad day, I would eat comfort food to make myself feel better. So I was relying on food to manipulate my emotions, which obviously isn't the purpose of food. When I started thinking about food as nurishment for my body and as a means of my goal to become more healthy, it completely changed what I ate on a daily basis. Now, I only keep food in my house that's healthy, so if I'm really hungry, I can always eat a lot without feeling guilty. Because I hate the post-eating emotions, too. My new favorite foods are watermelon, roast chicken breast with Franks hot sauce, cottage cheese with melba toast, Spinach salad with cottage cheese, a little cheddar, and a few croutons, and fat-free cool whip for dessert. I also only eat substantive carbs for breakfast. It makes me feel so much more in control of being healthy. The running and changing menu made me realize that gimmic diets and programs are so unstable...it really has to be a change that you create on your own, work at, and eventually develop as habit, hopefully. Let's see if it lasts with all the beer and chips that my grandma will lay out everywhere on our family vacation...it will be like booby traps everywhere.
3 1/2. ooops. Another thing I'm doing is going on a lot of dates. It's like Next (on MTV), but the guys are actually smarter, less cheesy, and I get to "next!" Eventually, I want to narrow it down, but it's fun for now.
Now that I'm on vacation, I've been keeping busy with three things:
1. Running
I've been going crazy with my running. I love it! It feels like cross country all over again. I run around one of the lakes near my house...it's about a 4-5 mile run and I have a route that doesn't stay on the lake running path very much. Since I have a short attention span and I am so goal-oriented, I need hills so I have something to push myself to complete. I just started late June and already I've lost weight and my legs feel like springs. I just need to cool it a bit; this morning, I had to walk almost all the way because of shin splints. A 70+ man shuffled past me and then two elderly women skated by on rollerblades, just to embarrass me more. So my plan is to ice and heat, whatever, and take advil before I run. I need my endorphins:) Here's my sprinting hills mix (cheesy, but it works):
Fell in Love with a Girl- The White Stripes
Lose My Breath- Destiny's Child
Ride- The Vines
I Will Follow-U2
C'mon C'mon- The Von Bondies
Knock on Wood- Amy Stewart
Run Away- The Real McCoy;)
2. My Final Project for Graduate School
Grr! I need to finish this! It's an incredibly detailed mini-unit, based on content-embedded language instruction. To give you an idea of how structured the assignment is, there are 19 grading points on the rubric. So there are 19 facets of instruction that I need to consider and find research to support in my planning. Grr. I mean, I think that I should have plans this thoughtful for all the teaching that I do. But when you're dealing with 8-year-olds, instruction has to be fluid, spontaneous, and essentially dictated by behavior. If I have one cah-razy student in a class, even if a 30-minute lesson is highly structured to meet all National Standards for No Child Left Behind, no learning is going to happen unless I can find a way to entice that student. 10 pages of justification for 2 1/2 hours of instruction are not going to make a difference in that case. And I hate hate hate APA citation style. Why don't they teach that in high school? I swear, I learned one way all my life, and then it's like, oops! it's so juvenile, figure out the APA style on your own, usually by pouring over an internet site or devouring an instruction manual. I still hate it. I'm definitely going to whip out everything today, though. I don't want to worry at the last minute about this, my last school project, probably ever.
3. Eating Differently
When I started my hell week of classes in June, I suddenly realized that the reasons that I usually use for eating the food that I did are so misguided. I used to eat a ton of reduced-fat pringles as a reward for hardwork, as a way to unwind, but it's really like 30 grams of fat. And when I had a bad day, I would eat comfort food to make myself feel better. So I was relying on food to manipulate my emotions, which obviously isn't the purpose of food. When I started thinking about food as nurishment for my body and as a means of my goal to become more healthy, it completely changed what I ate on a daily basis. Now, I only keep food in my house that's healthy, so if I'm really hungry, I can always eat a lot without feeling guilty. Because I hate the post-eating emotions, too. My new favorite foods are watermelon, roast chicken breast with Franks hot sauce, cottage cheese with melba toast, Spinach salad with cottage cheese, a little cheddar, and a few croutons, and fat-free cool whip for dessert. I also only eat substantive carbs for breakfast. It makes me feel so much more in control of being healthy. The running and changing menu made me realize that gimmic diets and programs are so unstable...it really has to be a change that you create on your own, work at, and eventually develop as habit, hopefully. Let's see if it lasts with all the beer and chips that my grandma will lay out everywhere on our family vacation...it will be like booby traps everywhere.
3 1/2. ooops. Another thing I'm doing is going on a lot of dates. It's like Next (on MTV), but the guys are actually smarter, less cheesy, and I get to "next!" Eventually, I want to narrow it down, but it's fun for now.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Quick thoughts...
*I love cottage cheese. It's so delicious! I think I was a yodeling, German girl in leiderhosen in a former life, because while I eat it, I think about being Heidi in the mountains.
*It's schmaltzy, but my friends are the best. It's so amazing how you can stumble on such a sweet group of people just by coincidence.
*Summer vacation rocks. I have two dates this week :) and I can run around the lake every day, if I want to!
*I love cottage cheese. It's so delicious! I think I was a yodeling, German girl in leiderhosen in a former life, because while I eat it, I think about being Heidi in the mountains.
*It's schmaltzy, but my friends are the best. It's so amazing how you can stumble on such a sweet group of people just by coincidence.
*Summer vacation rocks. I have two dates this week :) and I can run around the lake every day, if I want to!
Monday, July 03, 2006
My favorite things about the USA:
1. We can make a cake with our flag on it.
2. Our society eventually overcomes prejudices.
3. Upward mobility.
4. Freedom of Speech and the Press:
this is a wonderful example, an article by Frank Rich in the New York Times.
5. I see amazing acts of selflessness and volunteerism everyday.
6. We have social services established to help our citizens who can't take care of themselves.
7. Freedom of Religion.
8. Our diversity is beautiful!
Happy 4th of July
1. We can make a cake with our flag on it.
2. Our society eventually overcomes prejudices.
3. Upward mobility.
4. Freedom of Speech and the Press:
this is a wonderful example, an article by Frank Rich in the New York Times.
5. I see amazing acts of selflessness and volunteerism everyday.
6. We have social services established to help our citizens who can't take care of themselves.
7. Freedom of Religion.
8. Our diversity is beautiful!
Happy 4th of July
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