Weekend Report

I've been offline (mostly) all weekend, spending time with my hunny, Nap. I love spending time with him; it's so comfortable and wonderful and fun. We had a blast! We had a nice dinner of grilled steak tips from The Meat House on friday night, then we went stargazing. and no, that's not a euphemism for shagging (that was later), we really did go stargazing. He has a telescope and it was a full moon, so it was a brilliantly clear night. we saw the craters on the moon which were AWESOME!! i saw the rings of Saturn, Jupiter is really red, and Mars is BRIGHT!!! it was sooooooo cool seeing these through the scope (and even more fun spending the time with Nap!).

Saturday we ran around doing errands since he left for a week in Vegas this morning (lucky bastard.....it is "work," but it's still Vegas...). we stayed that evening and had chinese food - we found GOOD chinese food in Lowell (there's hope for that place yet!). Sunday I had to vacate the premises so his kids could come over for an easter egg hunt, so i spent the time being productive and cleaning my car, looking for jobs, etc. the rest of the day was spent hanging out and watching/helping him prepare for the trip. it was sad saying goodbye; i so wish i could have gone with him. but he'll be back next week, however i still won't see him until after my show on friday night - total suckage. :( sad panda

anyway, today i didn't have a teaching job, so i spent the day trying to find temp agencies in Lowell, to no avail. i found 10 places online, but NONE had websites - kinda fishy if you ask me. I went to 2 of them, both were closed. so instead of running around town trying to find the others, i decided to call - 5 were out of business, one didn't speak english, one was labor only, and the other seemed kinda sketchy. So total loss.

i shut down - i mean, talk about discouraging - so i had a quick meltdown, the decided to head back to Boston and hit a few agencies there. I had MUCH better luck!!! i met with 2 agencies, both which said they could help me - one even has a potential job in Lowell! i sent them my resume online; let's hope i hear from them soon!!!

so yeah day started off crappy, but ended on a good note. and i even got to spin!! yippee!! i'm so proud of me - it's been about a year since i started and i got a few compliments tonight about how good i'm getting. i'm a LOOONGGG way off from "good," but i'm happy with where i am compared to where i started. go me!!

tomorrow: no idea. no sub job yet, but i have a feeling i'll be getting the call in the morning to go in last minute. this is the major issue with this system, but whatever. soon i won't have to worry about it; i have a good feeling about these agencies.

and now, i'm off. more tomorrow.

hum...not doing so well on this blog thing

second time i missed a day. my bad. sorry for those of you who care.... ;)

so, since it's late and i'm tired i'll make this brief:

yesterday: didn't work. had a bunch of appointments i had to go to. one was to meet with a career counselor to go over my resume. it was very helpful. i now at least have one so i can go to temp agencies and lok for an admin job. decided i need to do that now; as much as i love subbing it's not paying my bills. :( so i suppose i will eventually have to change the name of the blog...

had speech therapy as well, which i'm loving. it's great to be feeling better about my voice and not feel like i'm always ready to be a sex phone operator (although i'm sure there are plenty of people out there who would love to hear that...). it's also helping me with learning my lines for the Vagina Monologues. Yippee!

went for a nice long walk around the local track with my staff. did 2+ miles, spinning most of teh way. was a lot of fun - got a lot of funny looks. but i don't care. if anything i'm exposing people to the art of spinning, so...neh. :)

today i took the day off with the intention of hitting a few temp agencies. started the day with another walk around the track (sans staff). did 2.5 miles, half jogging. felt good. got home, showered, fought with my printer (I WON! HA!) and headed out. had a quick lunch with a friend, then attempted to hit some agencies, with not much luck. that's ok though; i've got a strategy so im' feeling good about it.

cleaned an apartment tonight as well. it amazes me how messy this woman gets in less than 2 weeks; i really should take pictures and post them. and she works from home - one would think that someone who is in their apartment ALL the time would be a little neater....anyway, my back is killing me, so i'm off. managed to squeeze in a bath - ironically we hire in a housekeeper to clean. hell, i'd take the $ of i thought #1 would approve of my cleaning...i'm *sure* she'd find something wrong with it...whatever.

ok, i'm out. i'll be out of town for the weekend, so you pretties will have to deal without me. enjoy you weekend!

Snicker snicker snicker

(oops! sorry! this posted twice and for some reason it won't let me delete it.)

today i taught 5th grade. when i walked in the room there was an aide, so i knew the day would be relatively easy. generally when there is an aide in the room i dont' have to do a lot of work. ;) of course, it's because they know what's going on, whereas i don't. so it works out.

we started the day with a video called Liberty's Kids, which was pretty cool. it was about the american revolution and the kids enjoyed it. (and it killed an hour). we moved on to more social studies, reading about the Battle of Bunker Hill. they had to write a letter to a family member, talking about how they felt about what's going on, either from the view of a Patriot or a Red Coat. The letter was going to count towards their final grades and this was the first draft. they worked well, then it was off to lunch. middle school lunch is 10:55 - it seems weird, but strangely it seems to make sense when you're there.

after lunch was math; they worked on packets silently.

and then...DARE.

let's just say i was entertained and i learned stuff. honestly. but i admit, the topic was marijuana cigarrettes. yup.

no comment.

snicker snicker.

anyway, i got out early since they had a special (art) last period; they let me go early. i zipped home, packed a bag, and headed to Nap's house.

decided since it was still early and i'm stressed beyond beliefe, that i was going to go spin. so i went to the local town park and spun and walked around the track (at the same time most of the time). i had a blast. as the sun set i decided to fly my tiny kite. for dinner: a salmon steak marinated in a bourbon sauce, baked to just crispy, and a salad that had almonds, peach bits, apricot bits and a peach vinaigrette. it was amazing!!

and now, i wait for my hunny...a good day. indeed.

4th grade and the 50 states

this is a short one today, as i'm exhausted.

work:

surprisingly, the 50 states was not on the agenda that the teacher left, but the kids insisted that i hear them sing the song at the end of the day. i said if they were good they could - and happily for me (and them) they were good.

today's class was 4th graders in the new school. they just built the middle school here - when you walk in it even has that new school smell (kinda like new car, except no leather and more paint). there are SMART boards in every classroom which are awesome, except for the fact that as a sub, i can't log in. i had to have an aide do it for me to watch the video for the day (not the states). they learned all about the Southwest; it was a pretty good video. overall the day was one of the easier ones.

i was impressed with their knowledge of the song; most knew all the words.

life:

we have HEAT!!! WOOT!! however, now that means i have to clean my dishes. boo.

sad to say that Nap had a rough day; just stuff, but ended with having to bury his little dwarf

hamster that they had for 18 months. RIP Ninja Mouse. :(

i went spinning tonight - first time in a few weeks. i missed it, although my elbow didn't. when i say spinning, for those of you who don't know, it's not on a bicycle, it's a staff - long stick basically. generally i do it on fire, but mondays is practice. see....fire!!

I also breathe fire...i'll post that one another time.

ok, sleep...

Day whatever: Damn, missed a day and lost count

and i'm too lazy to go back and figure it out...

that's fine. i was getting tired of counting anyway. :P

Saturday: you know, it was so long ago...

ah, yes, now i remember. i spent the morning doing a Taskrabbit gig, cleaning someone's house for a party they were having that evening. was good work, but ruined my favorite capri pants with bleach. damn. i guess that means i'll have to go shopping...

it was a dreary cold day, so on the way home i stopped and got some soup. when i came home the apartment was wide open, music blasting from the tv, lights on.....and no one home. #1's car was gone...WTH? about 2 minutes later her friend (whom i met the day before) waltzed in...

"Where's #1?"

"Oh, she left to get a massage. I'm putting the shelves in (the pantry)."

I head down to the basement to flip my laundry and hit the last step - SQUISH!!

?????

the basement had flooded.

i went back upstairs and asked him "any idea what happened in the basement?"

apparently the boiler exploded, sending water through the front half of the basement and through the radiator on the top floor (hence how she knew it happend). the boiler guy had already come and gone. i ran upstairs to see the damage in my room (since the bathroom is right next to my room) and thank goddess there was nothing. i decided to get into #2's room - she had flooding. i called her and left her a message:

"I dunno if #1 called you, so if she has, forget this message. if she hasn't, call me asap."

she called about 10 mins later and was heading home. no, #1 didn't call her (no surprise there). she was as pissed as i was.

#1 finally showed up about an hour later. when i asked her what happened, she said the boiler blew and that we probably weren't going to have heat/hot water until at least monday, maybe tuesday.

AND YOU WERE GOING TO TELL US THIS WHEN?!?!!?!?

i gotta get out of this place....

yeah, i didn't actually say that, although i should have. instead, i shut my mouth and called a friend to go to his place and take a shower.

hate her. hate her. hate her.

at least i had some fun later that evening......

there is a roaming art-thing that my friend invited me to a few months ago; people rent Uhaul trucks, create an art installation in them, then the all converge covertly in a place that they don't tell you about until it starts for people to come check out. the last time was ok, but they got busted which too the fun out of it. this time i was hoping it wouldn't happen again (the bust) and it didn't. the truck were ok, but there was one that was AWESOME - they build a ball pit!!!!!! just like the ones at chucky cheese, except for adults (and a futon mattress underneath). it was fun - i went through it 3 times. 5 of us could fit in there relatively comfortably.

I WANT ONE!!!

BALL PIT!!

Sunday:

since we have no heat, i pulled out the heavy down comforter around 3am (insomnia wins again...or it might have been the icicle that was once my nose). i was warm and snuggled this morning when i woke up, so it was difficult to yank myself out of bed, but i had plans for the day. i was going to go plant myself in a coffee shop and send out 5 resumes and cover letters.

was there for 5 hours.

got 2 out.

ok, so not as productive as i had hoped, but i had to rewrite my resume, which took forever. and i did job search for about 2 hours of that. so now i've got 25 tabs with jobs open in my browser window to work on for the week. so i wasn't *totally* unproductive.

now i'm off to dinner with friends and hopefully an episode or two of Top Gear. i know there are no new episodes, but i just started watching it and they have ALL the seasons downloaded, so i'm sure we'll find something....

tomorrow: 4th grade. W00T!!!

brraiaaaiinnnssss!!!!

Work:

taught health today. 6-8th grades. it was a lot of fun. i truly appreciate the teacher who leave explicit lesson plans; it makes the day SO much easier.

the 6th graders learned about the brain...we made brain hats. they had to cut them out and paste the different parts on. it was fun, but took a little longer than it should have; they didn't finish so they brought them home.

i got that one kid who was so disrespectful that i kicked him out within 20 minutes of the class. he was such a little prick; i feel sorry for his parents. i warned the other classes throughout the day that i already kicked someone out, so they best dont' test me. i find threatening does work sometimes. :)

the 7th graders (I only had one class) took a test. it was about stress and depression. i took the test for curiosity...and i got 100. i know those subjects all too well these days...

the 8th graders answered questions and we discussed violence. it was actually a really interesting lesson; we talked about the difference between violence in the media vs real life...what's teh difference, why, what kind of effect do each have on people, children, etc. they were very engaged and enjoyed the discussion.

during one of the classes, the phone rang.
"hey, you have a class right now?"

"umm....yeah..."

"I've got a treat for you."

"well, thanks but i'm not Ms. R. she's out today. I'm Ms. B"

"OH!! LOL!! ok, seems all my friends are out today. well, come get the cupcake anyway!"

so i stopped in after class to introduce myself. she handed me a Guinness cupcake with baileys icing. well, what a pleasant surprise. made the day for me!!

Life:

I got a massage.

and not where you'd expect.....

I had speech therapy today. I've been in and out of speech therapy for a year since I had nodules on my vocal cords. started taking care of it in Maine, moved here, finally got insurance, found a new doctor (one of the best around; he was trained by the guy who fixed sandy duncan and steven tyler) and started again. it's been a long road, but today we really made progress. she massaged my neck and voice box - it was cool and creepy at the same time. i heard my throat clicking as the muscles released and the voice box started to move. apparently i hold a lot of tension in my neck (no surprise there). i'm going to be learning more massage techniques that i can do on myself, and hopefully Nap will be willing to massage me. ;)

The Roommate Chronicles:

hate her even more today.

i popped home between school and therapy. she was home and i asked if she was going to be around tonight; she said no. i said "ok, i was just asking because i wanted to do laundry."

she lied.

instead of going out, she had 4 people over. 2 in the afternoon (when i returned around 5:30) which is when the drinking started....2 more joined 2 hours later. it is now midnight - they are drunk and loud and obnoxious and i'm THISCLOSE to calling the cops. they are singing bad 80's songs at the top of their lungs. hate. hate. hate this place.

this weekend:

will work tomorrow cleaning a house, then job hunting, job hunting, job hunting. and trying not to stress out too much. i haven't slept well in a week for various reasons, and i don't see an end in sight. i try to have faith, but it's hard.

i think i said that yesterday. i think i'll say it again sometime soon.

anyway, it's midnight so i'm putting this puppy to bed. goodnight.

The Roommate Chronicals

for those of you who follow me on Facebook (which I'm guessing is the majority of you at this point and time), you know about my roommate situation. I live with 2 girls I met on Craigslist. the primary roommate is a complete bitch - she didn't start off that way, or so it seemed when I met her. she seemed nice; so nice in fact that I practically begged her to let me move in (not to mention the fact that my living situation at the time was, shall we say, less than desirable). i didn't meet roomie #2 until after i moved in.

Roommate #1 has lived in this place for the last 6+ years. it is CLEARLY her place; if anything is left in the common areas it is banished to a corner. any time you're not in a room, she turnes out the light. she's a complete ana retentive bitch, and not a nice one at that. at some point she turned; she was nice when i first moved in, even inviting me to stay (in my own house) for thanksgiving with her friends (i moved in Nov 1). but after that, something shifted. she became a real bitch. so much so that when i had a chance to chat with #2 a few weeks ago, we decided to compare note - turns out she feels the same way.

#1 is the main reason I want to get out, #2 confirmed my thoughts. i wish i could go back and find all the posts i have written about her on FB, but i won't. i will, however, begin to cross post them here (also at the advice of T). it's even to the point where Nap and #2's boyfriend don't feel comfortable coming over; there is ice in the air when she is here. whenever i pull into the driveway and see her car, i cringe. when i don't, i giggle with joy.

i've got to get out.

so here's tonights quick rant about her....GOD does she PISS ME OFF!!!!

**********************************************

Dear Roommate:

I know you're an anal retentive bitch about turning off lights when you're in the room, but you seriously feel the need to unplug my fucking TOOTHBRUSH that I *just* put in the bathroom last night? Thanks - now I can't brush my teeth because the brush has no juice. I hope you at least have enough respect to read my note that I just put there: Leave this plugged in overnight, it needs to charge - thanks. WFT??? do you REALLY think a TOOTHBRUSH is going to drain so much electricity that it will make a difference in the bill?

F*@k YOU!!!!