Had a date this week. Went Ok though as I implied in my post asking what to do on the date we had hooked up first and then had a date. Yes I know I am doing it wrong!!

Anyways she is older than me and a little chubby but is nice and fun and witty. The first date went good (4 hours) over dinner. Mostly small talk and getting know each other. I wish I could expand more but it honestly was just a normal date with lots of talking. No craziness. We shall meet again this weekend.

I also have another double date this weekend but no wingman this time as the girl my friend met has a friend who wants to go out on a date too. I shall see how this goes.

So yea a 2 date weekend I guess. Hope it goes well.

Here is the first blog I have ever written. I am faced with a dilemma do you spell blogging with a double g or not. According to the phonic rules we definitely put in the double g; but who knows how closely the person who started using the term blog followed our phonic rules?

If I was not still hoping/waiting for the job overseas I'd be going on more dates as I turned down/postponed 2 of them recently.

So I guess last night was a date but a friend needed a wingman as some girl he liked asked him on a dinner date and was going to bring her friend so he needed a wingman. I said free dinner (he would reimburse me for my dinner) sign me up!!

I built up my friend and how great he was and I was my usual charming witty self, but not THAT charming as the point is to make the friend look good.

The other girl was average. I mean she was nice and attempted to be funny (she wasn't but hey at least she tried). Her skin was awful though. Would I see her again? Maybe. Though I am pleased my friend was able to connect better with his date.

Tonight is my monthly karaoke party and pre-karaoke dance party with friends. All nighter as usual and again a crapshoot if I find my...

After a few hours of shopping and errands, the beautiful temperatures and mild breeze beckoned us to stop off at a local park. My husband followed my 5-year-old daughter, who raced for the playground. I headed for a trail, along with my 3-month-old son and a jogging-style stroller. (Side note- I’m not actually planning to jog with this, because jogging is more of a torture for me, and I avoid it if at all possible. The “jogging” stroller is much easier to push and walk behind when you are above-average in height-- no more hunching-over-to-reach and kicking-the-contraption-with-every-step moves.)

As I was saying, I was off to the trails with my newest side-kick and a really great stroller for an afternoon of new insights…

1. Little League practice is pretty chaotic. I don’t know that any of the young boys actually made contact between a ball and bat or even caught a ball, but they had a great time chasing after the balls and cheering for each other. ...

Remember when microscopes were pulled out of the vault once or twice a year, reverently removed from their screw-mount wooden cases, and carefully set up using a level and probably a T-square? We viewed them with a sense of wonder and talked about them in hushed tones, despite the fact that we couldn't see ANYTHING half of the time, much less what the teacher was expecting.

When I began my teaching career, I was honored to carry on the tradition of the awe of the microscope, hoping I could handle this great responsibility; I'm also happy to say it's currently NOT happening in my classroom!

When I moved into this lab, I immediately set up two microscopes on a side counter. Only a couple of the microscopes had their protective paper removed from the lenses, and I wanted to justify the time I spent peeling it off and preparing them all. I placed items related to our studies in baskets and trays, and allowed students to head over after their assignments...

HOT. It's September for crying out loud, and it's HOT! Unbearably HOT. DANGEROUSLY HOT. I remember one time at the end of a school year, we had a heat wave come through. The outside temperature was in the low 90s. That wasn't bad. I could deal with that. Unfortunately though, our school wasn't air conditioned so it was pretty darn hot in the classroom. I actually brought a thermometer from home to measure the heat inside. It topped out at 120º.

This week, cities across the midwest are topping out at 100º+. That has to put those classrooms without air in the 130º-140º degree range I figure. The main effect of this kind of heat is the melting of what little logical rationalization THE POWERS THAT BE have left.

Here's what I mean by this-

We all have SNOW DAYS, right? In my district, they also have a formula when dealing with extreme cold. If the windchill temperature is below -20º, school is cancelled. Why? Well, for a very good...

Today the "school train" left the station. A former colleague described the school year this way, that teachers & students board the train in September and there is no getting off until June. True, we may have vacations and days off scattered throughout the year, but we continue to chug along at relative full speed.

Today was the first day in my new position. I am trying to follow my own directions, and listen twice as much as I speak. So far, I have mostly been hearing about the teacher who was in my position before. While people have spoken favorably about this individuals work with the students, the feedback I have heard hasn't been particularly positive regarding interactions with other staff members. I try to nod and smile, and then redirect the conversation.

So I feel like I have a bit of a mountain in front of me, because I am inheriting a position that was regarding rather negatively. I am trying not to let it get to me though,...

I have a teenage daughter. She's fourteen. Her mother and I are in agreement that she will not DATE until she is sixteen. I think that's a smart move. Still, we have that kind-of-dating thing girls her age like to involve themselves in. If you're not familiar with that, it basically entails a few simple rules that involve Facebook:



1. The boy and girl have to exchange cutesy messages. They have to end with <3. Little do they know that on a Mac, they can use the real thing like this- ♥.



2. As soon as they figure out that they dig each other, they have to list themselves as each other's spouses. Yep. There it is in all its glory. Johnny Jones, MARRIED TO: Cindy Lou.

...

Monday marked the first time in 20 years that I didn't begin the school year with my colleagues.

Tomorrow marks the first time in 20 years I won't be spending the First Day of School with my new class.

I knew it was coming. Of course. I had no idea how badly it would hit me.

Some of you have been my PT friends for years..and you might have thought that I fell off the planet. (For others, this might be the first entry of mine that you've ever read, because it has been literally months since I posted!)


Looking back....many of you were there to give me support and encouragement during my darkest days, when both my husband and my mom passed away less than 2 weeks apart. (I instantly became a widow and an orphan!) Believe it or not...and I find it hard to believe myself...that was 4 years ago! I've "popped" into PT here and there since then, but haven't posted very often. I just felt like I didn't have much to say that I hadn't already said. (I figured the last thing anyone needed to hear was me elaborating about the sorrow I've endured.)


Meanwhile....I've come to realize that I will carry my losses with me throughout the rest of my life...BUT I still have a lot of life left in me and it's time that I become...