[the general]

so take your shower and shine your shoes
you've got no time to lose


-dispatch


[simple life]


a random listing of mish-mash...











1. um, excuse me, but how is it MARCH 25th already???

who said this could happen so suddenly?

i'm pretty sure just yesterday i was in the midst of csap, i was just at home for Christmas break, i was just pondering the thought of Tofurkey, i was just packing and getting ready to move out here.

i'm not sure how time works, but whoa. spring break is only 6 teaching days, 4 tests, and 1 IEP meeting away :) one of the many perks of teaching are the breaks....go figure.


2. there are two ways to identify your arrival into Commerce City: 1. the smell. there's always some ghastly, sulfurous stench as soon as you pass the welcome sign. 2. the massive amount of semi-trucks that crowd the streets, creating an impassable roadblock of infuriatingly slow speeds. it makes me happy to be there. really.

3. random phone calls and text messages from friends keep me grounded. out here it's sometimes easy to forget who you are and what you came from...until you have the little message icon on your phone's screen from people you camped with, taught with, drank with, and enjoyed life with back home.

4. camp never leaves you. i donned my rain jacket on Tuesday as my students looked incredulously at me. "What about dismissal? How can we go out in the rain?" they fretted. Oh, silly children. "Rain or shine, dismissal happens." Upon saying that I was instantly transported to a rainy camp day, the game stations up and running after an indoor breakfast and chapel session while lightning flashed and the rain pounded on the lodge rooftop.

5. this summer brings the promise of a two-week adventure at Arches and Canyonlands, as well as the threat of a two-piece bathing suit...something i haven't squeezed into for 4 years. get ready, Colorado, for my great white belly!

6. in a month i'll be 24. i've started looking at marathon schedules for this year...it's time. i made a promise to myself that i would run 26.2 miles consecutively before i turn 25. this year is the year. it's slightly exhilarating, yet terrifying at the same time. it is such a daunting task, but i know i can make it happen. (plus training will help me get ready for the ominously looming bathing suit season. eek!)

7. i feel like a twelve year old with an adult's to do list. pay my accountant, fill out my census form, write IEP goals, pay the rent, get an oil change, schedule a hair appointment, etc, etc, etc. part of me wants to scribble all over it and run outside to play, but there's another part of me that is filled with pleasure at these mundane tasks. they're now mine.

i am responsible for me.

while at times this can be overwhelming, it's also kind of thrilling, in a way.

don't get me wrong, i don't dig my bank account getting progressively smaller after paying for my apartment, my car, my electricity, my water, and my insurance. but i do enjoy being independent.

8. food poisoning is death. i have never been so sick in my entire life. literally, it took me a week to finally regain my health and normal digestive functioning. i wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy (not that i really have enemies, now that i think about it) even though Phil was a champion and took the day off to take care of me :)

9. the phone never fails to ring while i am doing dishes. though, i vastly increase my odds of the phone ringing while i do dishes by doing dishes all the time. i'm convinced i do more dishes than anyone i know. this may or may not have something to do with my phobia of standing water, and a distinct distaste for dirty dishes piled in sinks.

10. i have puppy fever. i. want. a. puppy. this is compounded by the fact that i live in a state where everyone and their mother has a dog. i could be rapidly approaching puppy malaria status. wooof.

enough of the random listings - it's time for this old lady to hobble off to bed.
it's finally friday eve!


peace.

[cannonball]

and it's not hard to grow
when you know that you just
don't know


-damien rice


[one round home]


i think it's funny to see who we end up with in life.



there are people in your life that come and go. they enter suddenly, leave an imprint, a memory, a feeling, possibly carve a niche in your heart, then go, sometimes just as abruptly. their time may be brief, it may be a summer, it may be years. but just as we ourselves grow and change, so do the people in our lives. not everyone is meant to stay, but the ones that made a difference will always be remembered. Kristin Chenoweth said it best when she said, "you'll be with me, like a handprint on my heart."



and then there are the people that stay. (i'm exploring that one. more to come)




so here's to lovely weekends playing with pottery, irish pubs, and frolicking in the spring-like sun.
and here's to exploring.



peace.

[forever young]

reminisce
talk some shit
forever young is in your mind
leave a mark they can't erase



-jay-z


[do you remember]


a lima bean plant grows in Commerce City.
















in the meantime, a schedule also grows in Commerce City.
more specifically, in my modular.















the picture you behold contains the documents from just this past week's scheduling fiascos with the infamous CSAP (that monster of a test that demands advanced performance from Colorado students). i have literally been inundated with bits and pieces information which have caused me to perform countless revisions, write a billion emails, and all KINDS of organizing that has left me with a giant headache and a craving for Ben and Jerry's (my two favorite ice cream men.) in the wake of preparation for this life-changing event, i've managed to knock down a small forest.

CSAP, which has been looming ominously in the horizon, is finally and unfortunately upon me. it will take over my life for not one, not two, but three weeks of my life - just as i've gotten my 5th graders to bloom as brilliantly as my plant with their learning and just as i've recently inherited 8 new 4th graders after a fellow learning specialist was taken from the building (which caused yet ANOTHER scheduling change. big surprise.)

the thing about special ed is that it never stops changing and you never stop scheduling.


so here's to three weeks of students showing what they know and three weeks of providing accommodations so that those students can shine.


woooooof.


is it April yet?


peace.