30 September 2006

Life, in a nutshell

What is happening with me, you ask? Some recent developments:

1. I am looking for a car.
2. I am moving at the end of October.
3. The school might be moving in December/January.
4. I am playing in a wedding tonight.
4a. I don't have the music yet.
5. I am applying to the University of Cambridge for next year.
5a. The deadline is October 15.
6. I will be applying to other grad school programs, whose deadlines are hopefully later than October 15.

There is some stress going on. Back to work.

PS- But how cool would it be to study in Cambridge?!

16 September 2006

Back after extended period of laziness

So I recently realized I haven't posted to this blog in nearly a month....er, whoops. I actually have had some interesting thoughts (!) that may have been worthy of sharing (!!), but I haven't had the access. Oh well. Today, you're stuck with caramel-macchiato-fueled, slightly-congested me, Internet world. Brace yourselves.

First on the agenda, as always, is school. And let me just tell you that beginning the year at an established school as a SECOND-year teacher is about 2371893659287437 times easier than the hell that was last year. No kidding. The kids are one year more mature, have attention spans larger than that of a fruit fly's, and understand what I'm saying. That little last bit has made the hugest difference: I tell them to clean up, they clean up! I tell them nice job, they smile! I tell them to quit shrieking while playing with the dinosaurs, they do...sometimes. The best of all, though, is that there's no longer the permanent question of 'are they acting up because they don't understand what they're supposed to do, or are they just obnoxious little children'. Because the answer now is the latter.

Seriously, though, I have heard from various sources that my class is the quietest, most well-behaved class in the school. And I've got the crazed ADHD kid in my class. Granted, this compliment is only comparative, but still. I rock.

However, I'm not getting too complacent in my job, because we all remember what happened last year when I thought I was going fairly well. So I've still got grad schools in the back of my mind, which I'm going to start contacting once I get this project for the Wittenberg program done. That's right, the project that I supposedly 'started in July' and 'have been working on all summer'. In reality, it hasn't really been started yet and most definitely hasn't been worked on since that day when we had to present the projects. It has to be turned in by Wednesday. Guess what's on the schedule for today and tomorrow. My work ethic has certainly changed since college, though, because I feel that at least one person in the program is going to be doing a half-assed job, and why should I put in all this effort and make an awesome project when they clearly are going to be BSing it the night before? That's bad, I know...but I figure my version of 'zero effort' is actually more like '85% effort' and I'm trying not to drive myself crazy. Conceited, what?

In other news, I am in the process of buying a car (still looking around) and will be moving at the end of next month! Tough decision, this one; I really like where I am now but will be paying less than half my rent by doing this housesitting gig. You just can't beat that. Until then, I am enjoying my current location as much as I can: walking to the movies, going to Izzy's, etc. Both of those things will be much harder to do once I move.

I think that's about it for right now. Consider yourself caught up. (and then go see 'Little Miss Sunshine,' one of the few movies that actually made me laugh out loud, no kidding!)