Pain

My arms still hurt - so do my shoulders and back. Just wanted to whine.

Next BLOG

Have you ever spent time clicking "next BLOG" and reading random snipits about people's lives? It's always interesting, and sometimes disturbing - like peoplewatching in public places at a much deeper level. I came across this post tonight - very creepy:

Friday, May 27, 2005

First read this, then this and finally this. It's a fucked world we live in.
posted by ryansenseless at 7:50 PM 0 comments

Memorial Weekend

Friday evening we went out to Shilshole Beach on our motorcycles - it was 89*!!! There were hundreds of people out having BBQ, volleyball games, frisbee, flying kites, kids daming up tide pools and playing in the surf, a huge group of people in a circle singing songs and dancing, people with bongo drums....it was like one of those idealistic scenes of Memorial Day in movies that you know never happens in real life. We bought popcicles and strolled among the crowd - it was fascinating.

Saturday we started out early at the car wash and cleaned our bikes - all of that shiny chrome!!! We then went out to West Seattle to Alki and again experienced Memorial Day as it should be - it was only 83* , but we saw the stereotypical skanky girls in shorts rollerblading, families out having fun, one girl posing in her thong, people playing in the sand, more volleyball, and lots of too white people rapidly turning red. Unfortunately we both had work to do and John is still hacking like he will bring up a lung so we headed to Starbucks for worktime for a while and then home.

Towards evening we hopped on our bikes again and went to Pioneer Square for gyros. We parked in front of the Central Saloon with a bunch of other bikes and walked to get food, then sat out in front of the New Orleans drinking a beer, listening to live jazz, and watching all of the people. The trouble with riding a motorcycle though is that you can only have one beer and establishments tend to frown at you for taking up their tables without ordering after a while.

We ended up back at Starbucks again for more people watching. One guy was determined to paralell park his huge Escalade truck thing in a space that was way too small - he tried 5 times, then pulled a u-turn in front of traffic and parked with only 2 tries in the loading zone on the other side of the street. Just then a mini-cooper pulled up and neatly zoomed into the space he had been trying to get into. This caused much laughter and a few cheers for the mini-copper driver and the determined guy who was now j-walking across the street. The determined guy raised his arms triumphantly to those sitting in the sidewalk tables and the mini-cooper driver looked a bit confused since he hadn't been there to see the whole drama unfold.

Hmmm....anything else exciting....oh - more drunk people at 2:15AM. The bars close at 2 so we often get the drunk idiots coming down our street to claim their cars. This group was screaming obscenities and ripping parking signs off of poles by kicking them repeatedly.

Today - not so exciting. I worked on stuff for our last project that is due Wednesday and my arms are really sore from...
oh yeah...
I forgot to tell about that part.

The thing is, when you wash a motorcycle you need to be a little more careful than with a car - water can sometimes get where it shouldn't. When leaving Alki, my bike wouldn't start and John pushed it for a little ways and then it started fine. So later that afternoon I decided I would go out for a little ride by myself. (This was before Pioneer Square) My bike started fine, I got up the hill to first ave, stalled it, and it wouldn't start again. So, I pushed it along like John had, trying to start it - nothing happened (remember - I am on 1st avenue now - lots of people). I continued to push, panting a bit now - my bike weighs 500 pounds - and the valet at El Goucho (swanky steak house) offered to help me push it to the corner where I could then glide down the hill and start it. Well, it didn't start going down the hill and at the bottom of the hill I had to walk it another block to sit in front of our place and wait for a few minutes for it to make up it's mind and stop being contrary - it started after sitting for about 5 minutes. My arms, back and legs are really sore today!!!

Left Ya Hangin'

Sorry to have left you all hanging...no I did not end up sending a letter to the superintendent. I went in and told the VP that I was offended and talked to him about it. Apparently it was more of a jab at the Principal and VP and their history of poor inventory control...there have been people who walked off with things. Whatever...I was still insulted.

Right now I am supposed to be working on my final assignment in DataMining - unfortunately my head hurts and the loud Calipso music coming from somewhere down the street isn't helping. I left class yesterday to go to the doctor, apparently I have a sinus infection. No fun.

John and I have decided what to do with the week betweeen the end of school and starting my new job. We are going to a culinary school in Napa Valley called Casa Lana. It's run by a chef who wanted to teach and open a B&B. The B&B part is already full so we have to stay elsewhere, but it will still be a lot of fun.

MMMRRRMMR

Today I sent an email to all Riverview Staff advertising the teacher stuff sale I will be having on June 13th to get rid of all of my classroom stuff. Here is the flickr link if you are interested: http://www.flickr.com/photos/teachersale

At 5:00 today I was entering the cafeteria for Heritage Night with my 200 8th graders, their parents, end of unit projects, and food from their country of origin. I saw my vice-principal - he said something that really annoyed me. Here is the angry first draft of my email to him and the superintendent:


I was really offended by the fact that the first thing that was said to me this evening as I entered the MPR for Heritage Night was about the fact that my superior had already had an email from the superintendent asking him to make sure I wasn’t selling district property. There I was, once again giving up my time for the benefit of the kids (even though I was supposed to be in one of my graduate classes) and my superiors think I am somehow conniving to sell off district property.

I have spent the last nine years accumulating a wealth of resources so that my students can have what they need to feel comfortable, learn, and succeed. I have spent THOUSANDS of dollars of my own money on curriculum materials, classroom books, organization equipment, learning tools, and environmental enhancements. I did this because the district could not afford to buy these items and my students needed them. I also spend more time in my classroom than I do at home during the school year, so I have made it a pleasant place to be. Unfortunately, I do not have any room to keep most of these things and find it necessary to sell them. Because I prefer to sell them to people in the district so that “our” kids can still benefit from them, I sent out an email to the Riverview Staff.

After all of the thousands of hours I have spent doing so much extra for these kids, this school, and this district, I can’t believe ....

I got a bit upset at that point and stopped. Obviously I did not send this email at the time. Still considering if I should respond.

Is it time yet?

I am ready to get this all over with. I want to be completely finished with classes and teaching. We are doomed in the nest two weeks.

• Saturday 14th - data base management progress paper due - exercise 4 due - class from 8-5
• Wednesday 18th - final project due in data mining - Heritage Night@ Tolt 5-7 - Class session from 5-9:45
• Friday 20th - E-Business project 3 due - data base management test 2 due
• Saturday 21st - Class from 8-5
• Wednesday 25th - Exercise 5 due in data base management, Final Exam due in data mining - class session 5-9:45
• Friday 27th - final project due in E-Business
• Wednesday 1st - Final project due in data base management, presentation due - class session 5-9:45

oh, and yearbooks arrive next week - and I have to .... never mind, I am depressing myself.

Procrastination Station

I think that today I am tuned to the procrastination station. I have many papers to grade and 2 assignments due in database marketing, yet here I am blogging instead. I am actually sitting in my classroom typing with a pillow case over my hands so that I can't see them. I am a pretty fast typist in my own way, but I never learned to touch type the way "normal" people do. I rely a lot on my eyes so in an attempt to break myself of the habit I am making a fool of myself. Better now than in front of clients who I am supposed to be training.

I was looking at Alaskan cruises last night. Since there are boats leaving from 3 blocks away it seemed a reasonable vacation option. I will have to see if they have any last minute walk-on specials.

More about my new job

My new job title will be Training Consultant and Courseware Developer. Concur Technologies makes expense reporting systems that are web-based and integrate with all of the major accounting software, all major credit card systems, etc. My job is to train implementation teams at the corporations who have purchased the product. It involves travel in the US and lots of opportunity to design tutorials/web curriculum as well as giving "stand and deliver" training.

I start on June 27th so I have a one week vacation between the end of my teaching career and the beginning of my tech training career. Between now and then it will be a rough road.

Weird day

I am in demand. Last week I had my 3rd interview with Concur Technologies in Redmond. I had to present a training on a subject of my choice to three managers. Long story short, I did swimmingly well and I got the job!! I tried to post an audio blog about this when I was super excited and ended up hanging up because John called.

So the weird part is that on the way to this interview, Regence Blue Shield called me and offered me a job, and right after the interview (while I was in Safeway) I got a call from Comcast asking me to interview with them! Oh - and then right as I got to the check out line John called and said he had stopped by the market and bought steak, onion, zucchini, and potatoes - I had steak, onion, zucchini, and diet coke in my basket!!! NO we had not discussed what to have for dinner - weird.