Today while cleaning up around the band room before his parent meeting Ryan suddenly stopped and turned to face me. "You write pretty well, don't you?"
Me: "Well, of course I do!... I mean, I like to think I do... I do, yeah.... Don't I?" : / Uncertainty crept up from my toes and began pulling me down into the floor. Fast.
"Well, do you think you could start a blog? Like for money?" he continued, sidestepping around my shriveling self-worth.
"You mean besides the blog I already write?"
"You already have a blog?" He ended the questment (question/statement) slightly higher than it began with an air that said, "But we're best friends and tell each other everything--Why don't I know this??"
"Yes. Remember the one I was writing a few weeks ago. It's still the same one."
"Oh. Right. That makes sense." He went back to cleaning, then turned again. "Can I read it?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because then you'll find out how crazy I truly am."
He blinked, then rushed his words. "Yeah, I'd rather not know."
It all stems from a conversation we'd been having earlier about how poor we are. Ah, love... It makes us think that we can get through anything as long as we have each other...or, you know, just each other and a tiny teacher's salary. There really isn't that much difference. Sadly--or maybe luckily?--we're pragmatic people. We're envelope-system-ing our little Dave-Ramsey-devoted hearts out and we can pay all our bills. We can even splurge on Sonic drinks during Happy Hour. So what do we have to complain about?
My jealousy just been getting out of hand as of late. Everyone is getting married these days. Which is great!--Woohoo!!--but then I think about honeymoons. [Sigh.] Susannah and Ben are taking the train across Canada. Heather and Jose are jetting off for two weeks in France and Italy. Sarah and Adam are in St. Lucia with teal water, white sand, and their own friggin' POOL outside their own friggin' VILLA. And me? I'm working. Just working. We're saving our money for a honeymoon later in December. Which is awesome. I shouldn't complain. I know it's not something that I should be upset about. I mean, I got my dream wedding--how can I complain?? But....I WANT AN AWESOME TRIP, TOO!!! I want to lay out in the South Caribbean and stroll languidly down the streets of a small town on the Amalfi Coast... There. I said it. I got it out of my system. Jealousy, be gone!!
Any ideas for (warm) honeymoons in December/January? I just can't stand the thought of being in a parka or sweater versus the warm breezes of the beach or a break from the sun and a cool gelato at an alley-side cafe. So any help would be appreciated.
<3
r.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Working hard for the money.
Greetings, fair readers!
I know, I know. I'm an inconsistent blogger, but it has been a time of many events. As they say, time flies, and it does so even faster when you're employed full-time, adjusting to being married to this other person who is around ALL THE TIME, and never seem to have the time to be bored anymore.
As you may or may not know, I work at our county's high school. I do something with the after school program. Don't ask me exactly what--I'm still a little fuzzy on that myself. "How is it?" you ask. Well...it has its moments. Take, for example,....well, everything.
I was hired mid-April to begin implementing a program that focuses on youth empowerment. (You know, cyber bullying, safe sex, drugs-are-bad-and-will-rot-your-soul type things.) Note the word 'begin'. Yes. Now note the ones just before it. 'Hired.' And 'mid-April'. Mmmm... Let's take a moment to dwell on those. If the school year ends mid-May, then--logically--it makes complete sense to start a new program one month before it's all over and done with. I mean, with all the public testing we've got these days, end-of-course exams, finals, seniors graduating early, etc....why wouldn't this be ideal timing?
And thus I began beating my head against a wall, which has since become my daily ritual. It began with me going around class-to-class, ducking into rooms where the teachers were glad to let me take over for a little while. I sat on a little stool and talked with the kids:
Me: "So...do you like staying after school?"
Kids: "No."
Me: "Okay. Why's that."
Kids: "I'd rather hang out with my friends and do something fun."
Me: "Well, what if I made it fun?"
Kids: "............."
Me: "Okay. If you could design a program for after-school, what would be involved?"
Kids: "Dance team." "Forensic science." "Movie editing." "Video games."
Great. Loads of things I'm neither qualified to do, interested in, nor know anything about. Greatttt.
So now it's rolled around to summer school--where my program keeps on chugging along--empty.
Every now and then (Mondays at 12:15), my supervisor drives up from Knoxville. I'm not employed by the school itself, but by an organization that receives grants for the state for their activities. She asks how things are going, and I've almost got my reply down to an art. "Well, if I had just had an opportunity to get to know some kids before the end of the school year, I think this might have been a little more successful. It's hard calling up kids and asking them to give up their summer to come listen to me preach at them about not having sex or drinking alcohol." Seriously.
So I spend most of my days in my office, reading blogs and stalking various websites (helloooooo, target.com, bedbathandbeyond.com, and ikea.com!!!) because there is literally nothing for me to do. Seriously. I feel so guilty about it. I've done everything I could thing of to lure kids in: pizza, ads in the paper, calling them, calling their parents, offering free guitar and piano lessons from my husband... (I feel like one of those 14-year-old girls who follows around her 19 year-old-crush, praying to God, "Pleassssssse....")
Oh--and I have I mentioned my co-worker? Jimmy "runs" the other after school program. Currently at summer school, that involves serving lunch, administering breaks to the students on the computers doing credit recovery, and napping 2-3 hours a day.
Yeah...
I know, I know. I'm an inconsistent blogger, but it has been a time of many events. As they say, time flies, and it does so even faster when you're employed full-time, adjusting to being married to this other person who is around ALL THE TIME, and never seem to have the time to be bored anymore.
As you may or may not know, I work at our county's high school. I do something with the after school program. Don't ask me exactly what--I'm still a little fuzzy on that myself. "How is it?" you ask. Well...it has its moments. Take, for example,....well, everything.
I was hired mid-April to begin implementing a program that focuses on youth empowerment. (You know, cyber bullying, safe sex, drugs-are-bad-and-will-rot-your-soul type things.) Note the word 'begin'. Yes. Now note the ones just before it. 'Hired.' And 'mid-April'. Mmmm... Let's take a moment to dwell on those. If the school year ends mid-May, then--logically--it makes complete sense to start a new program one month before it's all over and done with. I mean, with all the public testing we've got these days, end-of-course exams, finals, seniors graduating early, etc....why wouldn't this be ideal timing?
And thus I began beating my head against a wall, which has since become my daily ritual. It began with me going around class-to-class, ducking into rooms where the teachers were glad to let me take over for a little while. I sat on a little stool and talked with the kids:
Me: "So...do you like staying after school?"
Kids: "No."
Me: "Okay. Why's that."
Kids: "I'd rather hang out with my friends and do something fun."
Me: "Well, what if I made it fun?"
Kids: "............."
Me: "Okay. If you could design a program for after-school, what would be involved?"
Kids: "Dance team." "Forensic science." "Movie editing." "Video games."
Great. Loads of things I'm neither qualified to do, interested in, nor know anything about. Greatttt.
So now it's rolled around to summer school--where my program keeps on chugging along--empty.
Every now and then (Mondays at 12:15), my supervisor drives up from Knoxville. I'm not employed by the school itself, but by an organization that receives grants for the state for their activities. She asks how things are going, and I've almost got my reply down to an art. "Well, if I had just had an opportunity to get to know some kids before the end of the school year, I think this might have been a little more successful. It's hard calling up kids and asking them to give up their summer to come listen to me preach at them about not having sex or drinking alcohol." Seriously.
So I spend most of my days in my office, reading blogs and stalking various websites (helloooooo, target.com, bedbathandbeyond.com, and ikea.com!!!) because there is literally nothing for me to do. Seriously. I feel so guilty about it. I've done everything I could thing of to lure kids in: pizza, ads in the paper, calling them, calling their parents, offering free guitar and piano lessons from my husband... (I feel like one of those 14-year-old girls who follows around her 19 year-old-crush, praying to God, "Pleassssssse....")
Oh--and I have I mentioned my co-worker? Jimmy "runs" the other after school program. Currently at summer school, that involves serving lunch, administering breaks to the students on the computers doing credit recovery, and napping 2-3 hours a day.
Yeah...
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