Lame and getting Lamer (is that a word?)

This morning my friend said my blog from yesterday was pretty lame, not as entertaining as my previous blogs. Well, hate to say that this blog entry is no different. Today was an ordinary day. Tomorrow we have a field trip, so towards the end of the day I totally held it over my kids' heads, or as I like to call a motivational tactic. It definitely worked. My kids were working towards keeping the privalage to sit next to a friend and talk. They lost the "choose a friend to sit next" part, but after that it was nice and quiet. It was awesome. I'm excited about tomorrow, but the rest of my team is..well...not. I'll see tomorrow if it's what I thought it would be. Here's hoping!

What are you doing? Come on!

When my students start doing things that are just plain ridiculous I use a special phrase that expresses my deep frustration "What are doing? Come on! That phrase was in constant use today. Like my friend Katie, my students seem to be playing catch up. Making up for all those relaxing days that they had given me. Perhaps the fact that Friday is a field trip has something to do with it too. This afternoon was highlighted by a particular student. A boy in my class who has attention issues was giving his attention to paper plane folding. His parents and I had talked to him about his paper airplane hobby and how it was not an appropriate school activity in December. When I told him that we had already talked about the paper planes earlier on in the year he furrowed his brow and told me he doesn't recall such a conversation. I was like, come on, you know what I'm talking about, but he wouldn't fess up. So I pulled up the email that I had sent his parents in December and read it to him. I asked him if he remembered now and he thought about it and said nothing, but I could tell that he knew he was caught in a trap. He went back to his desk and secretly pulled out another paper airplane. What are you doing? Come on -------? (insert name). He brought the airplane to me and swoosh, perfect shot into the trash can. I immediately wrote his parents an email and they assured me that they would have an in depth converstation about the whole thing. I hope this time it sticks!!!!

On to Thursday!

You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone

Okay, so I went to my parent's house to search for my W2 tax form. When I first got it I took it to my their house because my dad and I were going to work on my taxes since it would be my first time. Without thinking of the consequences I left my form at the house and trusted it would be there when the time came. Well, low and behold, no tax form. I scoured the study, but couldn't find it. I asked my mom and she said she saw it, but didn't know where it was now. Apparently, she had "fixed" the files a few weeks ago and probably, in all her organizing frenzy, threw away my tax form or "misplaced" it. She helped me search, we were unsuccessful. How can we find something that is probably lying at the bottom of a landfill?

Before I left, my mom asked how Dusty was doing. I said fine. She then remarked that she misses him and it seemed like a shame that I am keeping him at my apartment just so I don't have to clean up after him. I told her the reason I'm keeping him at my place was to escape the drama that seemed to generate around him. She said there was no drama and I left it at that. I bid her well and went home.

I received a warm welcome from Dusty. I had dinner and sat in front of the television watching Real Housewives of New York City. Suddenly the phone rings. My first thought is, alright my mom found my tax form. It was my mom, but no tax form. She called to tell me that the Dog Whisperer Cesar Milan (I think that's how you spell it) was going to be interviewed by Bill O'Reilly and that I should watch it and make sure Dusty watches as well. My dad and I used to watch his show so I was happy to see the interview. After watching my mom called again and said she loved what Cesar's message and agreed with it all. She liked how he said that every family should have a dog because it helps them to connect to mother nature. She went on to tell how Dusty helps us calm down and think about how we should treat eachother because his love is unconditional and constant. I gave the occassional uh, huh's and before the phone call was over she told me how she dearly missed Dusty. I said, "Okay...bye".

Wow, my mom never calls me at home unless she needs some of my things delivered to her house or she wants to take some things back that she had given me. Up to the day she has now repossessed my brown suitcase, a comforter, and metal storage unit. Now she wants Dusty back. My god who knew that Dusty would be my competition for my mother's love.

Well, my friends told me distance makes the heart grow fonder, my mom is pining for my dog.

Dusty's Independence

Okay, due to recent issues with my mom and Dusty being at my parents house, I've decided, along with advice from family and friends, to leave Dusty at my place while I'm at work instead. This morning I made sure to feed him early enough, so that when the time came for me to leave I would be able to take him out to do his business, entirely, if you know what I mean. After I took him out I expected for him to be at my heels as I walked out the door, but it seemed that he knew what was happening this morning and was at the top of the stairs. I bid him well and reminded him that the bathroom is outside and he would not be able to go until I came home later that afternoon. I turned the alarm on, opened the door, and drove off.

I have to admit that during the day and more than once thought about Dusty and hoped that he would be able to "hold it" the entire day. Katie and my other team members kept ensuring me that everything was going to be alright.

After school I went to the Roomstore to purchase my new bedroom furniture and then rushed home BEFORE I went to the grocery store. I opened the door and called for my baby. He didn't come and I worried for a second that he didn't come because he felt guilty about something. I had an idea of what it could be. I looked around as I walked up to the living room. YES! Everything was fine and there he was wagging his tail sitting on the couch. How could I ever have doubted you Dusty?!

It was a great thing to come home to. A pee free home and a happy dog.

Check Please!

After school today a group of fellow teachers and I went to Sherlock's to celebrate the coming three day weekend. Sherlock's has become a popular meeting place with my friends, but unfortunately the service we've received hasn't been so great. The first time we went our first waitress took FOREVER to bring us our drinks and would rarely ask if we needed anything else. She took so long in fact that we developed a strategy to help make the wait between drinks shorter. HINT: when you finally get the attention of the waitress go ahead and make two drink orders so by the time you finish drinking the first one the second will be on its way.

Well, low and behold, today we got stuck with the same time challenged waitress. Well, we were impressed that she increased her waiting record from 10 minutes to 15 minutes. You can see that she has really been working on her customer service the last time we were there. After that waitress "abandoned" us Katie finally had to flag down another waitress and inform her of our situation. She responded with little enthusiasm and "wished she had been told" that we were her new table. She brushed it off and began to take our orders starting with Kari and I. We both wanted Miller Lite so she asked us if we would prefer a pitcher instead of order separate glasses. We literally had about 5 seconds to think it over before she, apparently frustrated with how long we were taking to order, asked us "do you want me to come back when you're ready to order" in a not so nice tone. I ordered the pitcher and she moved on to the others, who also received the same question with the same amount of annoyance.

After we were finished and asked for the checks she came back with a mistake. She had charged three pitchers of beer to the others instead of two. After arguing with her about the mistake and explaining that another friend of ours who left early had paid for one pitcher already she simply rolled her eyes and went to fetch the manager as requested by Jessica (first grade teacher). Before the manager returns the waitress comes back with the checks fixed and informs all of us that she fixed the checks for us (as if she was doing us a favor). No apology for her rudeness or mistake on over charging them an extra pitcher. Finally, the manager arrives and hears us out. He responds by saying he doesn't want to make excuses, but here are a bunch of them anyway. He tells us that she is his best waitress and blah blah blah. We all thought that if she was his best he really needed some help, but anyway. He apologized shortly and was about to leave when Jessica stopped him and told him that he would need to remove the charges for the two pitchers, oh and my pitcher as well to make up for the hassle we had just gone through. He agreed and went to the back to fix the checks.

He wasn't even going to give us compensation for the rudeness and poor service we had just experienced. If a customer is displeased with their service then you as the manager should be trying to do everything you can to rectify the situation, but this manager did nothing of the sort. The customer had to actually force him to do what any good manager would do.

After we received our checks I noticed that I got only one copy of the receipt. No copy that I could keep for myself. Okay, you're thinking who cares, you'll just throw out the extra copy anyways. No, not the case. You see the last time I went to Sherlock's I was charged an extra $5.00 for no reason. I found out by looking at my online bank statements. With that history I knew I needed a receipt. I told the waitress I needed my own copy of the receipt and she rolled her eyes as if giving the customer their own receipt was a special request. Hello, isn't it my right as a customer to get a receipt?! Again, after a while the manager came out with a copy of my receipt. I thanked him politely and filled it out. TIP -/-/-/-/-/ NOTHING. I believe very few if any tips were given that night from our table.

So long Sherlock's, it's a pleasure LEAVING you.

The Case of the Brown Crappy Suitcase

Okay, so my mom has really upset me again. If you don't know already, my mom is very good at this. Today as I cooked my dinner my mom called and inquired after an old 1 foot by 1 1/2 foot suitcase that they had let me have. You see the last time I needed a suitcase was for my sister's wedding. The brown suitcase was the one on reserve for me to use while everyone else got to use the nice decent sized suitcases. So here I am with my crappy suitcase and she calls saying she needs it back. Apparently my sister is going on a day trip and needs the crappy brown suitcase and it's the only one that will serve the purpose. Not the other thousand bags that my mom has, that are nicer and newer than the crappy brown suitcase. No, they're not right for the job. She needs the old, worn suitcase. I proceed to tell her that I'm cooking my dinner and she says, no problem. Finish cooking and doing that and then come bring it to the house. Karem needs it tonight, so yeah bring it over. ARRRRGGGHHH. I was so upset. I couldn't believe she was expecting me to drive back to the house to deliver this suitcase. Why wasn't my sister or her coming over to come pick it up. They are the ones that needed it. Can you imagine if I needed something from the house and I called her to tell her she needed to bring it to my apartment. OF COURSE NOT. In any normal society the person who needs something usually will go pick it up. Not expect someone to bring it to them. Well, my family is not normal society. Help me, I'm living in the twilight zone!!!!

They're Back!

First day of school after Spring Break has come and gone with not much to report. The students were pretty much the same as they have always been. I must say, I have a pretty good set of kids minus the drama between the girls and the tattling. Although, I have to say the tattling was absent today. Of course, I did have three absences, so that might account for it. When I have students missing you can certainly tell the difference. With less bodies in the classroom the kids seem more in control of themselves and make better choices, with little guidance from me. Well, Dusty is downstairs, doing God knows what, so I'll go see watch going on. Let's hope for a similar day tomorrow or even better. That's optimism at its greatest!

Household Sunroof

This afternoon my sister called and we talked about her new house and what was going on. She proceeded to describe the house and said that the upstairs level had "a sunroof". A sunroof I thought hmmmm. Do you mean a skylight. She paused. Thought about it and laughed. Of course she meant a skylight. I told her it was okay and understood how she could get confused. Right? I mean a skylight is similar to a sunroof excepts for two MINOR differences. A sunroof is in a car and can open and close. Similar right? Oh well. She had a second moment in our conversation of interest. We were talking about her new washer and dryer. The washer has the door in front instead of on top and the the dryer was the same. We talked about how we preferred the washers with the door on top as opposed to the front opening washer. She thought dryers usually had the openings on the top instead of in the front, too. I informed her that actually dryers usually have the door on the front and NOT the top. Another long pause followed and the usual realization of confusion. It was a great conversation and a time to catch up on life.

Exercise and Lounging

Yesterday I woke up and got ready to go to my Fitness Group; we're called Peg's Proud Warriors. Our trainer, Peg, worked me really hard last weekend because she thinks I can win my age group in the 5K we will be doing in about 8 weeks time. She apologized for working me so hard because my personal goal was just to run the entire race, but not to actually win. She's taking it a little easier on me and understands I didn't want to push myself so hard. I did about four laps of running to warm up. We then proceeded to drills, I find the lunges the most difficult. Then we were seperated into groups based on our abilities. My group jogged 30 minutes straight and we all felt pretty good and weren't really tired. I find that when you run with a group the time goes by quicker, your talking, so that means your breathing, and it's more fun.

We finished our session and went our seperate ways. I always go to Smoothie King after my Saturday fitness group. After my smoothie I returned home to Dusty and had some leftover chicken that I had made the previous day.

Another day of nothing much, but enjoyed the downtime.

Bravo TV

One of my favorite channels is Bravo. I love the reality shows, such as The Real Housewives of New York City, Project Runway, Make Me a Supermodel, and Top Chef Chicago. Although, I don't know if they are showing another season of Project Runway. Yesterday and today has been pretty dead in terms of going out with friends, so I've had a lot of time to catch up on my shows. Yes Katie I do watch TV, just not a lot of it.

I like Real Housewives of New York City more than Real Housewives of Orange County. I don't know, the New York people seem more real to me and more involved in their families. I love how one of the families encourages their kids to speak more than one language and I totally agree with what one housewife said (Alex), " I think parents are doing their children a disservice if they don't encourage them to speak more than one language." My favorite housewives so far are Luann and Bethenny.

My favorite model in Make Me a Supermodel is Shannon. I think she has consistently did well on almost all the challenges and deserves to win. We'll see. She was in the bottom three last night, so we'll see how America votes.

All and all these have been two great days of spending some exercise time outside, bonding with Dusty, and relaxing in front of the television.

Uneventful, yet Satisfying

Today was an uneventful day of Spring Break compared with the other days this week. I woke up at 9:45 and got ready to exercise. I knew the weather today was going to be nice, so I took Dusty out expecting clear skies and a warm breeze. However, this morning it was completely overcast and there was even some light drizzle. Well, since the weather was pretty crappy I decided to go down to the Post Office, for the third time this week. Shalinda and I had ventured to the Post Office to apply for our Passports earlier in the week. The first day we had come, what we thought at first too early (at 11 and they opened at 12). The following day we went back around 12. Big mistake. Now there was a line. An employee soon came down the line and said that the back of the line (where we were) would be waiting at least 3 hours. We left.

Today I made a solo attempt at the passport thing. It took about two hours, but I took that time to catch up on my reading. I'm currently reading a book titled "Many Lives, Many Masters" about past lives written by Brian L. Weiss, M.D. I would definitely recommend it. Anyway, after reading several chapters I was finally up to bat. The process went fairly quickly and after about 15 minutes, my application was in and I was officially ready to go to Greece and Italy.

Afterwards I returned home to Dusty, took him out and had a late lunch (grilled cheese, yum). The weather finally cleared up an I went out to run, jog, and walk. I did about 4 miles and came home tired and sweaty. I went to HEB with Dusty has my driving buddy. He waited in the car as I went in to stock up on the essentials, fruits and vegetables.

We went home with a lemonade shaved ice and started watching Make Me a Model. Episode after episode, dropped model, after dropped model. I personally LOVE this show and it's so addictive.

Although I didn't go anywhere special today, it was nice to relax at home with Dusty on the couch.

Kayaking, Hula Hut (NOT for the first time) and The Clay Pit

Third day into Spring Break and still going strong. Katie and I decided to venture out and enjoy the beautiful day by Kayaking at Lake Austin. ***Pause***Dusty wanted help onto the bed *** We decided to take our business to the Rowing Dock. I've gone there a couple of times before and the rates are pretty inexpensive, like $10 bucks an hour. After losing our way through high-end neighborhoods, in which Katie and I will each be purchasing a home within the near future, we finally found the Rowing Dock with the help of Kaite's friend, TomTom. We soon rented the Kayaks after signing a release saying that if we drown it isn't The Rowing Dock's fault because hey they gave us a life jacket. Apparently the kayak that Katie used was the favorite of the guy who worked at the Rowing Dock, but I noticed that mine was exactly the same except it was orange instead of blue, whatever.

After playing bumper kayaks for an hour Katie and I docked back at the Rowing Dock and decided to have a late lunch at Hula Hut. It was good except that we had both ordered Strawberry Daiquiris, for which we were carded for, and when we drank them it tasted like strawberry slush WITHOUT any alcohol. We were carded for rum, we paid for rum, but NO RUM!!! None that we could taste.

We soon left and spent some time at Katie's playing Cranium Pop! with Jesse and Alice. We had to stop the game because we needed to get ready to go to the Clay Pit, but Jesse and I were in the lead with three chips, Alice and Katie had none.

The food at the Clay Pit was great, but we were lucky because Alice and her boyfriend were experts, so they knew exactly what to order for our tastes. Apart from the continuous loud gaggles of a group of older women sitting next to us the dinner was great. We had pretty much finished our meals and were signing the checks just as a bachelorette party strolled in and took a table behind us. We all agreed that a bachelorette party at the Clay Pit was a strange pick.

Katie, Jesse, and I returned to Katie's apartment where we did some scouting and played a quick game of Pop Culture Trivial Pursuit. Jesse won, of course (he was made for these games as he himself stated), Katie in second, and I dead last (I was not made for these games). We were all pretty tired so we left to go home, update our blogs, and sleep the rest of the night away.

Wine, food, and uhhh....a partial game of Marry, Date or Dump

Katie and I drove over to Shalinda's new house (another fourth grade teacher) for, of course, some wine, oh, and appetizers. At any get together with our teacher friends wine will almost always be a part of the menu or at least some type of alcoholic beverage.

After chatting it up and inspecting Shalinda's awesome laundry shoot we plopped ourselves on the couch and lazy chair for a game of Marry, Date, or Dump. In this game one person rolls the dice. The dice will determine what type of relationship choices you will have to choose from (marry, date, or dump is one; there is also live with, party with, or wrestle with; be your lawyer, surgeon, or pool boy; etc.) That person will then choose a card and on it will be a list of three male celebs. That same player secretly decides, depending on the roll, how each male celeb would fit into a relationship with them if they ever had the chance. The other players then try to guess what the rolling player decided on. The more accurate you are the more points you get. Well, if that confused you too much just know that it's a pretty fun game. Katie was definitely in the lead, but unfortunately the game was not completed due to...I'll leave it at that. If you were there you know what happened.

We abruptly stopped playing and went back to sipping wine and chatting. Finally, and I don't know how, the conversation turned to my hair and its curliness. Within minutes most of the girls started attacking my head of hair and fluffing it up and out to create, what another fourth grade team member called "an afro". I struggled to get away, but was pinned by Shalinda's muscular legs. I will go no further, but I will say that Katie was one of the main offenders. If you have curly hair you understand how important it is NOT to mess with it otherwise it will frizz to no end. However, my friends all have perfectly straight hair and are ignorant to the troubles those of us with curly hair go through.

First Blog-Hockey, IHOP, Scrabble, and Pop Culture Cranium

I've never kept a diary or journal before. There's been plenty of beginnings, but I've just never kept up with it. I am determined to keep this one active. Having viewed a few friends' blogs I think I have an idea of what to write about, although mine may not be as interesting or humorous as others, I'll do my best.

Yesterday was an eventful day, one of which consisted of an Austin Ice Bats game, a dinner at IHOP, Scrabble, and Pop Culture Cranium.

I was invited to my first hockey game by my friend Katie, who also happens to teach fourth grade with me. Accompanying us was Katie's close friends Jesse and Wendy. I was definitely excited to be going. The ice rink it took place at was one on which I had ice skated on before, so you would think I would have dressed more warmly than I did having experienced the frigid atmosphere before, but no. I brought only a light jacket and wore flip-flops. I was cold, but happily enjoying the game with occassional cheering and yelling. There were two 15 minute breaks in the middle of the game. During these breaks the Ice Bats' Mascot would come out onto the ice and try to entertain us. As Katie said, it was their way of trying to help us forget about having to sit for 15 minutes for the game to start back up again. The Ice Bat (i don't know if he had any particular name) would throw some shirts to cheering fans and it seemingly all depended on which section could cheer the loudest. Being my first game and all I cheering and shouted hoping to leave that rink with a free t-shirt. I did not leave with a t-shirt and on top of that the Ice Bats lost due to a penalty shot in overtime.

Afterwards, we hopped on over to the IHOP (notice my attempt at humor). My friends all had an evening breakfast and I had a grilled sandwich from the healthier choices section of the menu. How much healthier was it? I'm not sure, but knowing I ordered from that section gave me some peace of mind. I've always been a careful eater I must admit, but on top of that I'm training for a 5K run, in which my trainer thinks I will win, so-yeah-anyway. You can read more about the Mystery of the Blue Maple Syrup that took place there at Jesse Sosa's blog.

Following dinner and breakfast we traveled to Katie's apartment to play a game of Scrabble. I entered the game pretty confident. I'm usually a decent player and I had just beat Katie the night before at a game of online Scrabble (my score was in the 200's). Little did I know that playing an online game with Katie is much different than in person. You see Katie likes to carry on a conversation during the game with you and all the other players. Katie's conversation are also usually pretty animated and in this case included baby pictures, pictures on her computer and even a story of a sick little fish whose environment is being polluted. The game ended with Wendy as the winner, Jesse following closing behind, Katie in third, and me dead last "not even breaking a hundred" as Jesse kindly pointed out.

Alright, after my depressing defeat we moved on to a game of Pop Culture Cranium. I was fearing another defeat in this game, I don't consider myself very knowledgeable about Pop Culture. Jesse and I were a team competing against Wendy and Katie. The game was actually not that bad and much of it I was relatively familiar. I did have trouble with New Kids on the Block and Bono, both of which I attempted drawing to help Jesse guess. My illustration of Bono was a poor attempt. Jesse couldn't get passed his crappy hair cut and shades. In the end Jesse and I were victorious against Wendy and her ever chatty partner.

I learned that day that hockey is fun to watch, IHOP makes mistakes with their syrup, never to play a game of Scrabble with Katie in person, that axel is spelled axle, and that Jesse is a marvel at taking my pitiful clues and making them into something meaningful.