Eclipsed

It's been a month since I last posted... Oops.  This last month has been madness!

I left Alaska on May 28th to start my 7-day drive to New Orleans.  The drive was pretty uneventful.  I am pretty sure I was delusional last year when I drove through Canada, because NOTHING looked familiar, especially while I was on the Alaska Highway.  There was a time that, for about a 2 hour timespan, I was beyond convinced that I had taken a wrong turn and was lost somewhere in the Canadian wilderness.  But I knew I wasn't because I hadn't turned from the Alaska Highway at all, and I was supposed to drive that road until it ended in Dawson Creek.  Finally, I made it to Dawson Creek, so obviously I had been on the right road all along.  I passed a lot of animals, including moutaing sheep and a bear!  The only bear I'd ever seen was the one my dad shot and had hanging in our house in Virginia.  The rest of the drive was really boring, especially through Wyoming, Colorado, and Oklahoma.  I didn't actually start seeing things until I got to Dallas.  And that last day of driving, Shreveport to New Orleans, was the longest day ever... It was only a 5 hour drive, but it felt like it was taking 500 hours.  For real, the longest day was my 3rd day, Dawson Creek, BC to Helena, MT... That was 17.5 hours on the road.  In-freaking-sane.

I made it to New Orleans and Ron's mom called me and talked me through the directions to get to their house.  I ended up staying with Ron's parents for 5 nights.  I love them.  They are so sweet.  We went to see Sex and the City 2 while I was there.  Ron's mom and I had talked about going, but I was upset about something after my interview on Friday, so she, Ron's dad and I went to P.F. Chang's for dinner and went to see the movie afterwards.  I took my car to Goodyear while I was there, too, to get the oil changed, and ended up having to buy 4 new tires because the ones I did have were all chopped up.  Ron's parents told me a lot about what goes on during Mardi Gras, and they took me into New Orleans.  They showed me the Superdome and told me about all the damage that happened during Katrina.  We found a parking spot downtown and went to Cafe Du Monde for some beneigts... Amazing!  Then we went for a walk on Bourbon Street.  That was interesting.  I don't have any desire to experience that during Mardi Gras, though.

I met with the lady at Loyola University about the 3-year-old job, but after talking with her and observing for a day at the center, and crunching numbers with Ron's dad at the house, I just wasn't confident that I would be able to afford to live there.  Plus, after observing there for the day, I realized that I would be bored there.  I would be working Monday through Friday from 9:00 to 5:30.  Three hours of the day, the kids are outside.  Two hours of the day, they're napping.  It's definitely a job that wouldn't kill me, but I like to be challenged.  One of the things I liked about being in Northway was how absolutely challenging that job was.  There were never two days that were the same, and every morning that I went in, I had no idea what kind of day I was in for.  So, I told her I'd think about it and she told me she'd call me, and I moved up to Birmingham on Tuesday, June 8th.  I just realized that I still haven't heard from her... But I'm not exactly heartbroken about it, so all's well, I guess.

When I got to Birmingham, I stayed with Ron for a couple of nights.  We introduced Augie and Harley, and they are not fans of each other.  I decided that I'd keep Harley in the guest bedroom since it was Augie's house; I didn't feel right about shutting her in a room when it's her territory.  However, she kept sneaking up the guest bedroom door and sniffing; she knew something was in there.  Part of me thinks we should have just let them both out and let them hiss and swat at each other... Let Augie put Harley in his place.  Eventually, I think they would have come around to where they could tolerate each other.  Maybe.  I seem to remember talking about bringing Harley over there for little short visits and let them get used to each other in doses... But I might be making that up.  I can't remember.

I moved in with Katie on the 10th of June.  Her parents own a townhouse in Hoover, and it is a beautiful house.  I have my own bedroom and share a bathroom with Adam, one of the 4 people living here.  He's hardly ever here, so sharing a bathroom with him hasn't really been an issue.  When he is here, he's always really nice to me.  He's in the process of finding someone to sub-lease his room until his lease ends in November.

Michael took 3 weeks of leave and decided, for some reason, to spend it all in Virginia.  After a week, he texted me and asked if I was in Birmingham yet and if I had a sofa he could sleep on.  He ended up flying down to Birmingham for 5 days to hang out with me, which was really nice seeing as how we hadn't seen each other since September of 2008 when he graduated from boot camp in South Carolina.  He stood in line with me for almost 3 hours at the DMV while I got my Alabama license, car tags, registration and car title.  I took him to Auburn the day before he left because he wanted some Mike & Ed's BBQ and he wanted to talk to an Admissions Counselor about going to Auburn in a couple years after he has his Associate's degree and has gotten out of the Marine Corps.  He met Ron while he was here and thought he was a nice guy.  I don't think I have ever eaten out so much in my life after that week that he was here.  I am really glad that he was able to come down and visit me.  I'm hoping that I'll eventually be able to go over to California and see him.

As for the job hunt, it's still on.  I've applied for a bunch of different positions at schools... teacher, substitute, PE aide, special ed aide.  And I haven't heard anything yet.  There's one school I really like in Pell City that might have a Kindergarten opening, but they won't know for sure until probably the end of July.  Whether or not the opening is available depends on how many Kindergarten students register for school, and there is another registration day on July 22nd.  In the meantime, however, I've applied for a bunch of non-school jobs... Bed Bath & Beyond, numerous banks, Auburn Spirit, Office Depot, Books-A-Million... I've given my name and phone number to a couple Curves locations.  I've applied to so many jobs now, I don't even remember all the places I applied to.  I'm also working with this guy at a company that matches people with job openings.  He's contracted by big companies who have openings, but for whatever reason, can't fill them on their own... They may be too busy to go through all the applications, or their HR department might not be big enough to handle hiring a bunch of new people.. Whatever.  Anyways, I filled out an application with his company, sent him my resume, and then went to meet with him on Monday.  I had to take four computer tests -- 2 typing tests (66 wpm and 78 wpm), one on Microsoft Word (29 out of 30) and one on Microsoft Excel (29 out of 30).  If he has any jobs that he thinks I can do, I would want to do, and the company would want to look at my resume, he'll call me, explain the job to me, and ask if I'm interested.  If I say yes, he'll forward my resume to the company.  If I say no, he says ok and keeps calling other people.  He's already mentioned one job so far and I told him I was interested.  It's with a bank in the area and if I got the job, I'd be processing mortgages.  It'll be interesting.

I know something will come up... It's just the waiting around and watching my bills pile up in the meantime that is stressing the hell out of me.  It's so discouraging!  I've actually had dreams that there's some national blacklist thing that if your name is on, getting a job in any field or industry is next to impossible.  And guess who's name did I dream was on there?  You got it.

So if you pray, or talk to the Man in the Moon, or whatever... please send some thoughts up for me.

I'm still on for grad school in the fall... As soon as I get my goal statement sent into my advisor.  I don't know why on Earth I keep putting it off.  It's not like it's even that difficult to do... Just a little one page doo-dad about why I want to go to grad school, why I chose the program I did, and what I hope to get out of it.  I think all this applying to jobs and not hearing anything nonsense has sucked the motivation out of me.  Which is not good, because now is the time I should be full of motivation and drive.

On that note, I'm going to go get ready to see Eclipse.  I purposely saved $20 from Christmas just to go see this movie.  I didn't think I'd be going by myself to see it, though.

Done!

My first year of teaching is DONE.  Unbelievable.  The day I thought could not get here fast enough is finally here.  All that I have left to do is turn in my laptop, finish inputting grades, and take my checkout paper to the District Office. 

Then all that's left to do in Tok is to set aside what is being mailed to me later in the summer and pack the rest into my car!  I am aiming to leave the house around 7:00/7:30 am on Friday.  The port of entry into Canada opens at 8:00 in the morning and I want to be there as soon as I can.  I packed most of my stuff into the car tonight.  I was planning on using 4 plastic totes - one big one in the trunk and three smaller ones going across the back seat - but I think I've been able to get it all into the big one and two smaller ones... Which is awesome.  I should be a professional car packer.

We had our all-school picnic today at Dead Man Lake.  It was fun, even though I feel like I spent most of the day walking around aimlessly and just watching people.  Seven of my students were there, and most of them had family members with them.  After the picnic, Kelleigh and I went to the school so I could take down a bulletin board and finish my teacher checkout form with the principal.  I also had to finish report cards for the Kindergarten students since theirs aren't done through the District Office.

34 more hours...

Begin Feeling

I stopped at Chevron on my way out of Tok this morning, and on the gas pump, instead of saying, "Begin Fueling," it said, "Begin Feeling."  I took out my cell phone to snap a picture of it real quick, but the screen changed before I could get to the camera function of my phone.  It was nice to start Monday off with a laugh, and for the whole drive in, I was thinking what a good sign it was to have Monday start off on such a good note.  Wrong.

I've decided that, since I'm not old enough to drive the school district's vans and therefore can't take my students anywhere fun for the end of the school year, we're going to have a Pajama Party on Friday of this week.  We're going to spend the whole day relaxing and having fun.  We'll watch a movie, play outside a lot, do arts and crafts, and read stories, and for lunch, I'm going to have my mom or dad bring down pizza from Fast Eddy's.  Hopefully, it'll be a really fun day and the kids will enjoy it. 

11 more days!

Mother's Day

Mom and Dad are en route back to Fairbanks from San Diego today.  They're not getting back to Tok until around midnight, so I'm staying the night here just to make sure they get back.  Plus, if one of their flights is late and they don't get back until tomorrow, I'll be here to feed Jack.

I was going to go out to Northway to do lesson plans, but I decided not to.  I have almost everything I need here; the only thing I don't have are the titles of the math lessons.  And I can do that in the morning.

I had a whole list of things that I wanted to get done this weekend, but I chose not to do ANYTHING yesterday.  I got changed so that I could go to the grocery store to get stuff for lunch and dinner, but other than that, I spent the day in my pajamas, playing on Facebook, watching movies/TV, and sleeping.

I plotted my escape route for my trip.  Two insanely long days at the beginning.  One of them is really long distance-wise, but the other day is long time-wise.  19 more days... I'm so ready.

So close...

3 more weeks!

:)

Bored

Allergies = FAIL!

I drove back into Tok last night because I have to observe at Tok School at 9:45ish.  I could have gotten up and driven in this morning, but it was easier to just drive in yesterday, mooch a free meal, sleep in a nicer bed, sleep in a little this morning, and drive 5 minutes to school.  I have to turn around and go back out to Northway after the observation, so I'll get back right before lunch, but we are dismissing right after lunch because everyone is going to a funeral in the village.  Our principal still wants to have our weekly Wednesday PLC meeting.  Hopefully it won't last long, because I'm sure one of our teachers will want to go to the funeral.  I forgot the title to my car at my house out there, so I'll be going out there anyway.  I have to go to the DMV to put the Mazda in my name...  I'm going to need it to be in my name in 23 days... =)

Speaking of that...  23 days!!  I'm so pumped.  Like... time cannot tick by ANY slower...

I'm staying in Tok for the rest of the week and will be commuting to Northway and back each day.  Mom and Dad are leaving this evening to head to the airport in Fairbanks to go to San Diego to see Michael.  I get to house/dog sit for them while they're gone.  I'm bummed that I can't go with them, but I have zero days left to take off work.  Sucky.  I was hoping that I'd be able to see him when he comes up here, but it looks like that's not going to work.  He would rather go to Virginia before coming up here, and because I have plans for the summer, I don't know when I'll get to see him.  I did tell him that if he wasn't in Alaska for Christmas, his ass was grass and I was going to be livid with him.  His response was, "Yes, ma'am.  Christmas in Alaska.  Got it."  He better be here.  I'm just sayin'...

I can't believe my first year of teaching is almost over.  It's been a rollercoaster ride of a year, and I definitely learned a LOT this year.  I was put into situations and dealt with things that we never even TALKED about in my classes at Auburn.  And through observing other teachers at other schools, I got a lot of ideas of things to do in future classrooms.  It'll be a bittersweet end of the year.  I really will miss my students, as crazy and wild as they are... But I'm excited to have a break!

TGIF

If things go according to plan, I'll be starting classes for my Master's degree on September 7.  I decided to get it from Walden, like my mom did, and get it in Elementary Reading and Mathematics.  I'd be certified in K-6, which is what I want.  All I have left to submit to my advisor is my Professional Goal Statement, which I'll probably work on this weekend.

The elementary teachers in the district have a workshop to go to all day on Saturday about this Language Arts Four Block thing that the district wants us to start doing in our classes next year.  It's a sucky way to spend a Saturday, but I think it'll be really interesting.

Michael got back to San Diego on Sunday night.  I am so thankful that he made it home in one piece. 

I am supposed to be getting a phone call from a lady at Loyola University in New Orleans about a job.  It's for the lead 3-year-old teacher position at the university's child care center.  I am really hoping I get it.  It sounds like a really good job, and I think it would be a good job to have while I'm working on my Master's.  It'd be from 9:00-5:30, though... So, they're really long days.  But I don't think I would have any papers to bring home and grade or anything like that.

19 days of school left...