My Padded Cell

long over due

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:32:50 GMT

Medium length story of the birth of the cuteness that is my daughter:

On a nice Wednesday morning, I get up and go to work. I didn't sleep at all last night and I'm a little sore, but I'm also 40 pounds heavier than I'm used to (okay, some days closer to 45) and sore is my natural state.

I go through the normal morning routine. Shower, brush teeth and hair, put clothes on (brown khakis and cute peach tank top because it's mid September and still very warm). I waddle downstairs with my sleepy beagle. Let said beagle go outside to potty. Then breakfast. I know that I should eat breakfast because, hey, whole other person in there needing sustenance. I make a nice bowl of cereal and sit down at the dining room table with my baby book next to me and proceed to eat and read. One bite. Two pages. Two bites. Nope, that's it. I feel like shit. Cereal go down the drain. Let floppy eared dog back in and feed her breakfast. Her bowl is empty in less time then it took me to eat two bites.

I go to work. I'm very uncomfortable. I decide that my brain is not going to allow me to do real work with the way that my body feels. Hello Yahoo daily crossword puzzle. At about 10AM my coworker comes in for her daily talk to my belly. Baby says *kick kick* for her. Coworker sits down and says "You don't look so good". This is my only coworker with kids of her own. She gets up and grabs the clock off the wall and sits back down. "Tell me when it doesn't hurt anymore." Six or seven minutes later. "okay, that's better".

Here is my thought: This is not labor. Labor hurts more than this. I've seen lots of movies. There's screaming and panting. It hurts! Even when the women are calm in movies, the politely say "I think my water broke." But I'm not screaming, or panting. There is definitely no water. Therefore, this is not labor. However, my doctor's appointment is at 11:30 today and even if this were labor, Dr. told me to come in when I'd been in labor (contractions about 5 minutes apart) for an hour. So I'll just go to my regular doctor's appointment.

About 11:15ish, I go to my boss and say "Hey, I'm going to my checkup, and I don't feel so good, so I'm thinking I might not come back, but I'll call you if that happens.

Skip to doctor's office (yes, i drove, it's not far from work and I went slow and through residential neighborhoods).
"Well, you're at about 7 centimeters now, so let's call Dad. Do you think you can have him take you to the hospital?"
of course.
"okay, because I'm going to lunch, but I'll come to the hospital when I'm done."

Call husband: I need you to come so we can have a kid now. No, i'm not at the hospital yet, I don't think I can drive anymore. I'm at the dr's office. It's on main street. come get me.
then give husband directions.
Call back boss: nope, not coming back, having a kid instead.
Sit in waiting area with cup of water and pretend to read magazine.
Husband comes to get me. Call sister katey from car. Katey agreed to drop baby T off with his grandma and come to the hospital. We call her quickly so she can make the 4 hour drive. yup. in the car. in the firebird. husband tries very hard to go really fast, but also not let me feel bumps. such sweet husband.
Get to hospital. Park, walk in. Go past check in desk because we pre-registered since the hospital said then we wouldn't have to check in. Instead, we go up to the 3rd floor (labor and delivery) and check in there. My doctor has called ahead as well so they already have my chart pulled. The nurse there has my chart, and my check in. But I need to go back downstairs to check in. That's right, she's looking at my chart and all my information, but I still need to go back downstairs.

So I go back downstairs. and stand in line. and check in. stupid receptionist takes FOREVER figuring out our insurance (which is already on file, so all she needs is a copy of the card). I try not to comment as some helpful candy striper gets a wheel chair for some other women in line and asks people if she can cut in front because she's in labor. No, she may not cut in front of me, because I'm in labor too, and I got there first, and damnit just because I'm able to stand up and occasionally answer questions does not mean that I am not in pain. The receptionist finally prints out lots of stickers and wrist bands for hubby and me. Get back upstairs and checked into a room. By this point, it's about 2PM.

nurse please give me drugs.

before you can get an epidural, you have to be hooked up to an IV of saline and they have to get a certain amount in you (i think it was a full bag). So we did the old fashion owey contractions. now i'm screaming, this is the part from the movies! and at about 4 something nice nurse comes in with nice guy with big needle.

Epidurals go right in the middle of your back. If it's a little to either side, you end up numb on one side but not on the other. My anesthesiologist was very good because he did not stick that damn thing in my back right away. He touched it against my back and said "does that feel centered". a little to the left. no a little more. no back to the right. okay that's good.

about 4:45... i love epis. we watch the monitor. I see the contraction. I feel the pressure. I don't feel pain. I hold my husband's hand (oh yeah, his mom and her fiance got there at like 3) all is right with the world. except that for some reason i can't stop shivering.

Doctor comes in and out. nurses come in and out. At about 5:30 (dear lord i'm hungry) the doctor says it's time to start pushing. Husband takes off his dress shirt and tie (he came straight from work) and is in his undershirt. The doctor explains how this all works.

Husband is going to hold one foot with the knee bent and leg in the air. A nurse is going to hold the other. Dr. gets the great view and the catchers mitt. Dr: "When I tell you to, you're going to push like you're pooping your baby out." yes, he said it. "You're going to push until I say stop, then breathe while we count, and push again."

We do this. for an hour. Then the dr. says that most people only push for an hour. We do this for another hour and doctor cuts a little just as beautiful girl is arriving to help things out.

Beautiful girl is here. she's crying. they're cleaning and measuring. I'm crying. I'm holding. All is right with the world (or it will be after several ice packs, lots of ibuprofen and some time).

She is now 5 months old. At the last check up she was 15 pounds and 25 inches (i think).

Go look at pictures, she's beautiful :)

baby's here!

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:42:48 GMT

She was born September 12th at 7:44pm. 7lbs 8 ounces, 21.5 inches long. beautiful and perfect. I will post lots of pictures and a longer account of how she got here when I have a little more time.

big and fat

Sat, 08 Sep 2007 00:22:38 GMT

for anyone who's interested, there are now pictures up of my entire pregnancy here: http://family.webshots.com/album/560598875pfvUGr

unpacking

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:09:03 GMT

yesterday, there were movers. today there is furniture (yay for sleeping in MY yummy king size bed for the first time in...3 weeks?) but also boxes. The unpacked boxes are almost more annoying then the packed boxes because professional movers use LOTS of tissue paper so you can't just stack the boxes inside each other because the stupid paper is everywhere. plus later today, i'm going to have to walk a shit load of boxes over to the dumpster so that i can see my house again. As usual, once our furniture arrived, every room looked TEENY. I mean, i knew it was a relatively small space, but it's bigger than our last house (except that our last house had a basement where we could throw all the stuff we didn't use on a regular basis. We have a storage shed here but it's really only big enough for the lawn mower. For those of you that have never visited my home in the past two years since david and i got married (which is most of you, you slackers), we shelled out for nice furniture that we would want to keep for a long time. As a result, it's HUGE. BIG comfy couches and the aforementioned king size bed plus matching end tables that are bigger than some dressers. Even the baby's room is relatively full and we haven't even bought a crib yet.
All right, more unpacking.

goodbye midwest

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 18:08:42 GMT

we are back in the east coast! hurray!
the bad side of this is that we are currently staying in a hotel room (and have been for a little over a week now) while we wait for a more permanent living situation.
We drove for three days. got her on a Sunday. Poor hubby started his new job the same Monday. He's getting a little more used to working and i think he likes it better now that he had a weekend. I think I've found us a place to live but we are waiting for our application to be approved. It's a townhouse that we would be renting for 6 months. During that time we get to decide if we want to be here for a long time (5 years or more) or if we still want to try to move down to where my sister is. If we're going to be here for more than a year or two, we're going to try to buy a house.
I accepted a job late last week and I begin work July 16th. It is not a teaching job which makes me feel a little schizo. My resume can clearly be divided into two different career fields about every other job. I really feel like I should pick a job and decide I'm going to do that job for the next 20 years because that's what grownups do. While I think I'm really going to enjoy my new job, it doesn't make use of my degrees; I don't think it's really a rest of my life until i retire type job.
baby is doing well. she's still moving a lot and i've gained all the weight that i'm supposed to have gained for the entire pregnancy so she's obviously getting everything she needs (as is my ass).
I think that's about it for now. even if it has been a bit stream of consciousness.

today: finals, dr's, mini-celebration

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 01:13:06 GMT

Finals:
My students started their exams today. I warned them ahead of time that while they are welcome to bring food and drinks into my class, they are not allowed to leave during an exam so they should have things with them at the beginning of class. I know this seems to be a no-brainer but with the cultural differences some of them are actually suprised that they can't get up in the middle of an exam if they want to go down the hall to a coffee machine.
This morning I got to my classroom and one of my students was sitting on the bench outside with a muffin and one of those Starbucks double shot espresso things. I thought this was very funny because he was so well prepared for exams. He finished the muffin and then came into class.
Ten minutes into the exam he finished the doubleshot espresso and pulled a second one out of his bookbag. I had to hold back giggles. I love good coffee but I'm a bit of a wimp. Espresso's some strong shit and this kids going at his second double shot. About a half an hour later he pulled out his third one. The image of him sitting there with his test in front of him and three espresso cans lined up on his desk (because he waited to throw them away until the end of the final -- I guess so that he didn't have to get up until he was done) was just incredibly funny to me.

dr's: I had a checkup today. Everything looks normal, which is good. I have gained about 23 pounds, which is a little bad (not for the baby, for me after the baby). This is my last checkup with this doctor since we will be moving. Hopefully my pregnancy will continue to be without problems so that I will have the next four weeks to find a new doctor. I also found out that my glucose screening from last week was normal. I was a bit worried about this since my sister had gestational diabetes. Also, I've been craving lots of sugar and I'm not sure I could give it up.

Mini-celebration: Since I had a clean sugar test, I went to Starbucks and bought a very big decaf caramel coffee. I forgot to ask for it iced (it was hot today) so when I got home I added about two scoops of vanilla ice cream to the two thirds that were left of the coffee. Baby is happy :)

meme

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 01:03:10 GMT

i did this on isis's journal so i now feel obligated to paste it along:

1. name:
2. birthday:
3. place of residence:
4. what makes you happy:
5. what are you listening to now/have listened to last:
6. do you read my lj:
7. if you do, what is particularly good/bad about it:
8. an interesting fact about you:
9. are you in love/have a crush at the moment:
10. favorite place to be:
11. favorite lyric:
12. best time of the year:

RECOMMEND
1. a film:
2. a book:
3. a band, a song and an album:

PLUS
1. one thing you like about me:
2. two things you like about yourself:
3. put this in your lj so i can tell you what i think of you.

today's random pregnancy tidbit

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:58:17 GMT

Most of the maternity tops I have gotten so far have nice v-necks to them. I'm sure that they are made this way for the women whose boobies get HUGE during pregnancy and I am sure that I will enjoy the overlapping v-necks after I have the kid and am breastfeeding (easy access). However, what does this mean for the currently pregnant and always starving woman? Crumbs in the cleavage.

naming and registering

Sat, 05 May 2007 19:47:55 GMT

Well, as the subject indicates, we've pretty much settled on a name for the baby. We have a few favorites and if she comes out looking distinctly like one and not the other, then we might change our minds but for the most part, a name is chosen. We also registered on the babies R us website which was fun. Although david's also been doing some alternative shopping so that our girl can have cool clothes. He found a website entirely of nerdy onesies. My favorites so far are one that says "Can I make a suggestion that doesn't involve violence or is this the wrong crowd?" and one that says "I'm living proof that geeks get it on". If I can ever wake my husband up, we're also going to register at target.

On non baby related issues:
Saw Spiderman last night. It was fun. I've come to the realization that, with the possible exception of Venom, every villain in the Spiderman movies has been one that isn't actually bad but is made bad by circumstances or freak accidents. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, it makes for a better story because it's easier to believe that someone would be driven to evil than that someone is intrinsically just really evil. On the other hand, weren't there any bad villains in Spiderman? I've forgotten a lot of the story from Spiderman and I never read all the comics, just mostly watched the cartoon, but the villains seemed pretty much all bad to me.

On the moving front: We are still planning on moving in late June (probably the 21st or 22nd). We do not have jobs yet and therefore, do no yet know exactly where will be moving to. (or "to where we will be moving" if you prefer.) We realize this sucks. The problem is, most employers do not want to hire someone for a month or two in the future, they want to hire someone who can start next week.
Please do not ask me if I'm worried (I'm human, of course I'm worried on some level). Please do not ask me what we will do if we don't have jobs yet when we move. We're grown ups. We'll move anyway and we've got enough saved that we'll be okay for a few months. I'm sorry to those of you that haven't asked those questions if this sounds mean. I'm just getting tired of people talking to me like they're scared or I'm irresponsible or something. I don't even know what it is. The point is I worry plenty without anyone's help and I also know that everything will be okay. Having said that, if anyone would like to hire me or my computer geek husband, we'd love to hear from you.

I think that's all that's new.

by popular request

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 21:41:35 GMT

to see the big fat me go here: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=113366297&albumID=859856&imageID=5717458

and also, it's a girl :)

second trimester fun

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 19:12:16 GMT

Well, I'm officially into the second trimester (a little over 15 weeks right now) and there definitely is a difference. Now I'm hungry even while i'm puking!
Here's my day yesterday: Wake up. Take shower, get dressed, throw up, eat large bowl of cereal and go to work. Work, eat lots of snacks during work, come home. Eat lunch (i get down with work on Tue/Thur by noon usually), watch tv, get on IM, eat a pint of ben & jerry's, throw up again. While brushing the puke taste out of my mouth I start thinking about how hungry I am...call David "can you bring home some Arby's on your way from work?"
i think i have now eaten everything in my house.
the only other difference is that i do have some clothes that no longer fit; i'm currently sitting with my jeans undone (button and zipper), but my kitten doesn't seem to mind.
I think that's all that's new here.

fat tuesday but i'm not fat yet

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 22:53:01 GMT

I just got back from the doctor's where I saw the first picture of the newest member of our family. I'm not going to post it because I think by the time it was scanned it would look like nothing (it doesn't look like much to begin with) however, it confirms that there is in fat a baby in my slightly larger tummy and it's heart is beating (we saw and heard it).
For those of you that haven't been updated:
baby is due September 13th. (which means right now I am 10 weeks and 6 days)
1st trimester sucks. i have puked more times in a week than i had in the rest of my life combined before being pregnant. what kills me is that i'm hungry ALL the time for really yummy food. if i actually eat said yumminess, i may/will puke it up.
some things I wish I'd never known:
orange jello tastes the same coming up as going down.
you CAN throw up, even if you have not eaten for 12 hours.
the second most common symptom at this stage (aside from "morning" sickness) is constipation.
having said all that, i heard my baby's heart beat today so who cares :)

snow

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 02:57:42 GMT

just for the record: we got our first snow today. it didn't stick at all but it was coming down pretty regularly for about half the day. apparently no one has explained to the weather here that it's no where near winter yet.

here's what's new with my life: (seriously, read this if you wanna know...cause i'm lazy)

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 19:31:16 GMT

First off, i broke down and got a myspace page (same name as this one). if you're on myspace, add me. if you're not, join, then add me, so i don't look quite so pathetic.
Secondly, david and i are officially having lots of sex while using absolutely no form of contraceptive...on purpose.
We're hopeful that sometime between oh say...december and june we'll be able to get pregnant. if it happens after june that's nice too we just might have to pay for it ourselves, so keep all fingers crossed. oh and if it happens before december we might have to wait a few months before we can move. just if you're wondering.
in other news, i'm pretty sure we're doing turkey day on the east coast. possibly turkey day itself with david's parents i don't know. but we're planning on being at my parents the day after for kady's baby shower.
tentative plans for christmas are to come home for about a week. We don't know exact dates but probably it will be early (like just barely there for christmas day) because A) plane tickets jump in price quite noticeably after dec. 20th and B) i have off work dec. 15 - Jan 2nd. so it's not really an option for us to stay for new years or anything, so we may as well come home soon after christmas and have time to get settled again before having to go back to work. Plus, usually when we are in that direction for new years we hit up my sister kady's annual new years party, and as she's planning on popping a kid out around that time, i don't think that'll happen.
so, if you know your holiday plans yet, let me know so perhaps we can work something in. my dear siblings, harrass each other and decide what day we want to do kid christmas.
ummm...i think that's all that's new. people call me and stuff. i have nothing else to report.

vacation, company, anniversaries, and holidays

Sun, 03 Sep 2006 17:26:51 GMT

Well I haven't updated in a long time. Here's what you missed:
I had a two week vacation in the last two weeks of August. This was nice because I got to relax and be lazy but sucky because a) this means i didn't get paid for two weeks and b) i didn't get near as much work done as i wanted to.

During vacation we had company. My parents were here for a while and then a few days after they left Josh was here. Company is awesome because we miss everybody. It was also nice to go back to being just the two of us. This has led me to the simple conclusion that we need to not live so far away from everybody else. Then we can have company just for the day or dinner or something, and then kick them out and go back to normal life.

David and I also celebrated both the anniversary of when we first started dating (4 years) and our wedding anniversary (1 year) pretty recently. Holy crap we've been married for a year. We tried to eat a piece of cake that my parents had brought us from our May wedding cake (our august wedding was in texas...needless to say we did not save any cake.) but it had gone bad even though it was frozen. We each ate one little bite (avoiding the frosting which was really bad) and then threw it away.

Now it's Labor Day Weekend and I'm a little disgusted. Normally what this weekend means to me is getting three days off, hopefully to go to the beach or at least go swimming because after this weekend it might not be warm enough to go swimming and all the public (outdoor) pools will close. In Nebraska, Labor Day Weekend apparently means it's time to get out my long sleeve shirts and turn the heat on. When I woke up this morning (well, you know, like 10) the thermastat in our house said it was 67 degrees...inside. According to weather.com it has since gone up to 70, but it feels colder. Don't get me wrong, i'm not complaining. I realize that it's not actually cold yet. I'm just a little discouraged because if it's already time to keep the heat on (at least at night) then I'm assuming the snow will be here by like November and I don't want it.

Well, David's awake so this is all you get for now.

tattoo opinions

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 03:36:47 GMT

Also, I just thought I'd throw this out there and see what people think:

When we were in hawaii, I seriously contemplated getting another tattoo. I'm not sure exactly the details but the basic idea I had was to get a hawaiian flower on my hip. The reason is, I've always wanted to get something for david tattooed, but i'm not stupid or naive enough to actually get his name. I actually think that's bad luck. Everyone I know who has ever gotten a name tattooed on them has ended up not with that person. I didn't end up doing this in hawaii, partly because tattoos need healing and you can't go in the sun or the water with a new one.

People give me thoughts, opinions, ideas, suggestions?

thanks.

summertime

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 03:32:19 GMT

At the end of this session (we're about to start week 4 of 8) I have a two week break before the next session begins. I'm very much looking forward to this. So much so that I'm starting to slack a little bit. This week I was behind on grading papers pretty much the whole week. Never more than a day behind, but still, a very bad teacher. One of my classes joked about how they were going to take points away from me for not grading their papers the same day i collected them. They kept saying "late. late" because I take off points on their papers when they turn them in late. I am suckness.
The point of all this is...I need it to at least be August already. And that's really sad when you consider that I just had a two week vacation like a month ago. But that one was more stressful. It involved a LOT of traveling (through six different time zones) and a little stressful planning. This coming vacation will not be completely lazy because we will have company for most of it, but I will be home for the whole thing. Free to lay around, go swimming, read and be at least a little lazy. Maybe walk my crazy dog a lot and try to get in better shape. Or make disgustingly yummy meals and not get in better shape. We'll see.

happy birthday usa

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 02:03:05 GMT

I know I don't update enough, and there's probably been too much to catch everything up in one entry, so here's the fairly recent stuff. In reverse chronological order because it's easier for me to remember that way.

Today I had to work because the silly University is closing tomorrow (for the 4th) but didn't close today. Since I knew a bunch of my students were gonna skip (a third of them did) I put together a quick worksheet on The Princess Bride. So both my classes watched that today. They all seemed to like it although they all thought the ROUSs were lame, and my student who is a DJ complained about the music. I said "It's Mark Knopfler. How can you not love Mark Knopfler?" And instructed him to go home and download some Dire Straits. Then I subbed for one of the teachers that was able to take time off. (I really couldn't rationalize taking time off since I just took two weeks for the wedding/honeymoon). Subbing was actually fun because she has a lot of the students I had last session (although again, about half of her students showed up). Also, it's a reading class and today they were reading about the death penalty so we had some fun discussions.

Yesterday David and I had one of those lazy days where you sleep in and never put on real clothes. Although it was not all kinky (you pervy bastards). I did grade some papers and graciously lost a game of Mario Party 7 to my hubby.

Saturday we did two parties. First in the afternoon we went the Bellevue Baha'i Race Unity Day. That was a lot of fun. It was in a park, so we took Laika with us. She behaved beautifully and only barked when someone else showed up with a dog; even then it was just a found hello bark, not a continous pain in the ass bark. I also found the Baha'i here that brought a guitar and she was thrilled that I knew some of the same songs/prayers as her, so we have exchanged numbers so that we can exchange music since I didn't think to take my guitar with me to the picnic.

After that we went to a party at one of David's coworkers house. They had basically invited their whole block to this party so it was a TON of food, kids playing on slip and slides (and i'm sure later, drunk parents playing on slip and slides) and then a lot of fireworks. All the decent fireworks are legal in Nebraska so we even bought some and between everyone at the party, this fireworks show was pretty good.

Last weekend we went to the casinos and I won $75 bucks. Which we then spent during the rest of the weekend on luxuries like chinese food and groceries.

all right, well i'm going to try to figure out how to download stuff onto david's iPod. Wish me luck.

wedding and honeymoon pictures

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 21:09:18 GMT

here's the few pictures i have up so far (some stolen from carlie):
http://community.webshots.com/user/springblossom35

a week at my parents, a week in hawaii, and a week back at home

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 02:10:48 GMT

I haven't updated since right before the wedding (part 3), so here's what you missed.

The week at my parents house was nice. I didn't get enough days sitting on the beach because I didn't have a car to go to the beach, all my friends were at work during the day, and it rained two days i was there. However, the wedding was wonderful and beautiful. We had a rehearsal lunch instead of a dinner since the wedding was in the evening and we had a lot of people driving three hours to get there. I was amazed at how well our bridesmaids and groomsmen got along. Two of my bridesmaids had met one of the groomsmen once before, and other than that they didn't know each other at all. My bridesmaids were all sisters and friends from high school except for one (but Sarah T. rocks my world, so it's all good), and David's groomsmen were his brother and all his friends from high school except for one (same note for Josh), so I figured it would probably be a little difficult to get them to socialize; all the guys and all the girls already knew each other but the guys didn't know the girls. Well I was really really wrong, and shouldn't have been surprised because they wouldn't have been in the wedding unless they were all awesome people. So anyway, the day ended with a lot of them exchanging phone numbers and e-mail and screen names and what not, and they were the must fun I ever could have imagined. If they had been the only guests at the wedding it still would have rocked.

The weather was nice and refrained from raining during the outdoor ceremony (I only have a few pictures, I'll post them when I get more). Everything was wonderful except for the fact that we only got to talk to each guest for like 5 minutes at the most. But it was really great to see so many people that we miss living out here in the middle of nowhere.

Thoughts on Hawaii: It is definately worth visiting once in a lifetime because it is very unique and beautiful. It's awesome to see the mountains, and the ocean, and all the gorgeous flowers all in one place (again, i'll link to pictures once i've gotten around to putting them on webshots). However, we went to Waikiki which is very touristy (kind of like ocean city or florida except a little prettier and the weather is perfect every day). Since everything in Hawaii is outrageously expensive except pineapple (the extra value meals at mcdonalds are about 9 or 10 dollars, but they come with free pineapple), I think we've pretty much decided that the next beach vacation we take we'll do one of the cheaper beachs. But it was very nice to wake up, put on a swimsuit, grab a book and a towel and curl up on the sand under a palm tree. Oh, and I cut off all my hair while we were there. it's sort of between shoulder and chin length. david actually seems to like it. he says it makes me look younger (not exactly what i need when i work teaching people who are not much younger than me, but oh well).

Bach in the NE (omaha stylings): Well this past week was not as bad as I thought it would be. I had a ton of papers to grade, and had to sort out a few things because my 8:00 class had to have 4 substitutes because no one person could do it every day due to child care issues. It actually was good and bad for my students, a couple of them that had been complaining about me being too hard a grader were thrilled when I came back because apparently one of the subs was worse than me with papers. I think they also realized that I know what I'm talking about when I teach that class where as none of the subs really specialized in composition so they were just kind of winging it based on memories of their own English 101 classes. My other class that only had one sub left me a card when I got back (i think the sub bought it but they had all signed it). It was really cute. My favorite message was from my thai student and said something along the lines of "congratulations on your marriage, i hope you have lots of cute babies".

This week is finals for them and then next week starts a new session. This is kind of bitter sweet for me. On the one hand I've taught the groups i have now everything I can (except for the beginners who will sign up for the advanced class in another session); I'm ready for a new session and I know i'll teach it better now that I've done it once. I'm also hopeful that it will be easier and I'll spend less time working outside of class because I can sort of go of the lesson plans I've already written now. But on the other hand, I have two really good classes. I know all their names and I like them all. Next week I get all new people and I have to learn names again, and I might not good such good groups. I subbed for a friend of mine last thursday and both her classes were harder to keep on track then mine so who knows.

anyway, i think i've written more than enough now.

Thu, 25 May 2006 22:22:09 GMT

So the third wedding is Saturday. (1 was in front of a judge so we could have a marriage license, 2 was at the San Antonio Baha'i Center, 3 is for friends and family)

I have my dress and it's much prettier now that it fits me. My mom is started making food. I was helping but i realized i was too hungry when I kept eating the food, and came back over here to eat some dinner.
Yesterday we made a bunch of big bows to decorate the place with and next up my sister is going to play with my hair until we find something that works.

I'm taking two weeks off from work which is a little strange. First of all because it sucked to write two weeks worth of detailed lesson plans (usually, i'm not more than a few days ahead because you never know which things the class might need more time with). It's also weird because I e-mailed my boss probation forms for my three students who are currently failing and I realized that I've been gone for almost a week, it's possible that this week they all started coming to class everyday and turning in late assignments, and could, therefore, no longer be failing. but probably they still are. This also sucks because it means when we get back I will have a lot of papers to grade, and I'll have to sort of waste the first day with each class just figuring out how much they really learned from my subs. But I'm not going to worry about it until we get home sunday. Until then it's "yay, it's almost my wedding!", and then relaxing on hawaiian beaches.

I'm also not going to think about how my pets are doing. Our next door neighbor is watching them and I'm just going to assume that since she hasn't called us, everything is going fine. But I miss our small furry kids.

Okay, well off to Katey's.

I'm really excited to see all sorts of friends I haven't seen in a while :)

so incredibly tired

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 18:11:36 GMT

this is the happiest friday of my life...until i think about all the things i still need to do.

this week has been insane. I only teach 2 class, it's 18 hours a week. how come i feel like i've worked closer to 18 hours a DAY?!
When I'm not in class I am grading papers, figuring out what i'm going to do next, writing assignments (quizes, etc), entering grades and absences in the computer. My brain has completely shut down.

So far, I actually really like what I'm doing. Both of my classes are pretty good. I'm struggling a little with my lower level class because i don't like the text book for that class so i try to come up with things to teach on my own, but that takes twice as long.

Sometime this weekend i need to write lesson plans for next week, which i really should have done already because I also need to write lesson plans for a sub for the two weeks i'll be gone (which is now less than a month a way)

i'm also starting to freak out a little because i don't have everything done for the wedding/reception that i need to.

oh well, it's friday. i'm going to eat lunch and watch at least one stupid tv show before i get to the mountain of things to do.

just for fun

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 03:09:18 GMT

i was reading a friends journal (but not a livejournal, bah!) and they had one of those quizzy things. one of the questions was "how many states have you lived in?" and while my answer to that question is only 4 (i'm counting mississippi where i lived in a hotel room for a month), it made me think about all the traveling i've done in the last year.

I have been in 31 of the 50 states (32 of 51 if you count DC)...by the end of may i will have been to 3 more states. I have driven from maryland to mississippi, from mississippi to nebraska, and from maryland to nebraska. I think I'd like to be able to say I've been to all 50 states...well maybe not alaska, i don't if that's worth my while seeing as how i no longer have family there. but since i've already knocked out more than half, why not.

okay that is all.

freaky religious people

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 21:04:35 GMT

So today on campus there was a christian guy preaching at the crowd. Not a standard Christian, a super christian, you know the kind that somehow choose to pick the worst parts of the Bible and spew them at people? As I was walking to my car I overheard him talking with debating something with a student, i'm not sure what, but he was asking this guy "where in the bible does it say 'thou shalt'" whatever the guy was trying to bring up to him, and the guy said "where in the bible does it say 'thou shalt come to college campuses and piss people off'?"

it made me laugh. although not audibly of course because then the christian might have beat me up.

my first day of classes is tomorrow. wish me luck. because you know, if i suck then people have wasted their money to take my classes.

final four

Sun, 26 Mar 2006 22:50:43 GMT

GMU IS IN THE FINAL FOUR!
yes, the wonderful university that gave me 5 years of fun, education and two degrees...the university that before this year had NEVER won an ncaa game (although we should have when we played UMCP that ref robbed as and even blake admitted it)...has now knocked out two of last years final four, including the defending champions, AND the number 1 team in our bracket.
so fucking proud. even my pets are wearing green and gold. and damn i wish i could be anywhere near fairfax today. can't wait to see george mason in the final four :)