Been awhile

I’ve been buried under a mountain of work.  It is a crazy time of year.  I’m trying to deal with all the fixed assets at the school which is an extensive task.  This past weekend was our middle school UIL contest and that took up the majority of my time over the past few weeks.  I was working with students, making arrangements for travel, ordering lunches, and preparing to run all the speaking events on the day of the contest.  Luckily I made it through everything.  Unfortunately we had several students that didn’t show up the day of contest.  The contest that I ran went well, and one of my students placed 2nd in her event.  We had a total of 13 students compete and 4 of them placed in the top 6 in their contests.  My principal thanked me for the work I did.  Now I have to try get everything done that needs to be done in the next few weeks before the end of school. 

I have had some fun too.  Matt and I went to Fiesta Texas this past weekend.  We rode the new Iron Rattler rollercoaster twice.  The second time we waited for a front row seat.  It was a really great ride.  We’ll be going back on June 1st for an ACE event at the park.  My friend Kirsten is coming down for it and Josh will be going as well. 

I’m going to go back to Canyon this weekend.  A speech teacher friend of mine is retiring and there’s a party for her on Sunday.  It’s a chance to visit with a lot of my old friends that I haven’t seen in a while.  Plus I can eat at Taco Villa. 

So I think Matt and I are destined to be together.  How do I know this do you ask?  Well, we got confirmation of it at Six Flags.  It was a hot day and when you need to cool off for a bit, you go shopping in the air conditioned shops.  While browsing, I saw this exactly as it is pictured:

I’m not sure what it means that my name was on top – but the two name plates were just like that.  I was just casually looking around and noticed it so I had to snap a picture.  Now if Matt could just deal with his final commitment issues, we would be good to go.  I think part of it is still dealing with his mother.  He did take a small step.  Her birthday was this past weekend and he sent her a gift card and a note stating that we wanted to visit her sometime.  We’ll see if we get an invite or not.  I guess whatever the answer is, it will at least be an answer.  It’s not going to change our relationship.  I think he hopes that she’ll approve of me, but if she doesn’t, we’ll both move on. 

Roller Coaster Riding

It was a very long day of waiting.  I set my alarm for 6:07 but was awake shortly after 5:00 a.m.  I got up around 5:45.  I left the house right at 7:00 in hopes of avoiding bad traffic and I was lucky in that respect.  It slowed down slightly near downtown, but wasn’t bad at all after that.  I got to the park around 7:40.  Once there, I turned in my release form and then went through security.  We had our pictures taken with our names for identification purposes.  We headed over towards the coaster around 8:00 but ended up going past it to another area where they served us breakfast.  I honestly thought it was going to be a smaller group of about 30 or 40 people, but there were over 100 there.  Breakfast was decent – lots of fruit and pastries.  Then we waited and waited.  One of the guys directing the commercial came around and starting pairing people off. At the end there was a group of “singles” that hadn’t been paired and I was one of those.  I feel like an outcast being one of the last to be “picked.”  I got a partner but we ended up being nearly last in line.  Then we waited more.  We finally headed over the the coaster a little after 11:00.  Then we waited.  We finally got up on the platform and they sent a couple of trains with people through.  But then they had technical difficulties.  It was close to noon so they had us leave the platform and go eat lunch.  They served us a choice of BBQ brisket or grilled chicken with beans, potato salad, and cobbler.  So we ate.  Finally we got to head back to the coaster around 1:00.  Again, I was at the end of the line.  I finally got a ride shortly before 2:00.  It was a great ride – I love the hybrid compared to the rough coaster it was before.  After that ride we had to go back down to the ground level and get in line again if we wanted another ride.  Slowly people started leaving.  They had to do reset cameras again so I had to wait another hour or so.  I was able to get a second right around 3:15 – second to last car in the back.  Event though they were going to open more coasters and keep going until 8:00, I had to leave by 3:30 to go to a meeting for UIL.

I made it to the meeting with time to spare.  We had to grade the papers for the writing events.  Luckily I was able to choose a smaller group of papers and we finished by 6:45 when I had to leave to go play my last orchestra concert for the season.  I got home shortly before 10:00 tonight.  I’m going to head to bed shortly since the Spurs aren’t playing very well tonight. 

Time to clean the garage – again

For those loyal blog readers that have been around a while, you know that I have made numerous posts about cleaning my garage.  I think it is a never ending battle.  I thought that perhaps when I moved to a new place that I could for once and for all have a nice clean garage.  No such luck.  When I first moved down her to San Antonio, I did have a fairly clean garage that wasn’t really filled with all that much stuff.  When I moved again to the house I’m now, the garage was mostly filled with empty boxes and the regular tools and such.  Then Matt decided to get rid of a storage unit at his apartment and he moved a bunch of his stuff into the garage.  Slowly the piles started to grow.  We’re moving Josh back home this weekend so we needed to make sure we had space to put his stuff in there until he moves again in August.  So Matt and I worked on de-cluttering.  We really just threw a bunch of stuff away and then reorganized the piles.  At least there’s room to get Josh’s stuff in.  I think if Matt ever wants to park his car in the other side of the garage, we’ll need to get a storage shed in the backyard for the lawn stuff and some of his items like his fishing gear and golf clubs (though he doesn’t play). 

In other news, on whim I applied to be in a commercial shoot for the new Iron Rattler at Fiesta Texas.  I don’t know if I’ll get selected, but I thought I’d give it a shot.  I’d have to take a day off of work, but it would be cool to get to ride the coaster before anyone else does.  --- UPDATE--- I just got an email back from the park stating that I’m going to be in the shoot … how awesome is that!!

Things at work are busy as always.  The conference I went to in Ft. Worth was pretty good – got several ideas, but I need time to sort it all out.  As soon as I got back I had to handle a week of technology testing.  This week I’m having to work on fixed assets which means I’m going to be all over the school looking for technology equipment.  Next week is UIL which means I’ll be going crazy getting all the stuff ready for that.  After that I have to start trying to get in all the overdue books and work on textbooks.  The end of the year is just crazy, but I’m excited about summer break coming soon!

Conference Going

I went to my first library conference for the last several days.  I left on Wednesday afternoon and drove to Ft. Worth with Matt following behind me in his car.  He took his own car because he had to come back early to work on Saturday.  I stayed through the end and was glad because I finally got to attend a fairly useful session in addition to hearing Nia Vardalos and Neil Gaiman speak.  The rest of the conference was hit or miss.  They had some other interesting speakers like JR Martinez and Dan Ariely.  Some of the sessions were good, but others weren’t very helpful or informative.  I struggled to stay awake in some of them.  But I did get a lot of information to take back with me and new ideas to try next year. 

When the conference was over, I headed over to Garland to see my cousin, Amanda, and her family who just moved there from San Diego.  I’m excited that they are now in Texas and are relatively close.  I left their place a little after 6:00 yesterday.  Most of the drive was uneventful.  I was kind of tired, but had a Dr. Pepper and a coke to wake up.  When I got to Austin, there was a brief stint of heavy rain.  It was gone by the time I got out of the city limit, but when I got to San Antonio, it was storming pretty hard and I was driving with white knuckles on the steering wheel until I got home.  I think we’re supposed to get more storms tonight.  We could use the rain.  Matt has been trying to get the yard looking nice and there are some spots that just need a lot of water. 

We went to church this morning at 10:30.  I had to settle for the Blue Haired choir because Fiesta was going on and we couldn’t go to other one we intended.  That and I needed to sleep in this morning.  I had my concert this afternoon.  I needed to practice some parts of my music, but I never found the time.  So I faked a few spots in the music.  The concert was very long – two hours, but we had Mariachi players for about half an hour of it.  After the concert, Matt and I went to a Mexican restaurant across from the venue.  I had enchiladas and a very large margarita that made me very happy.  I wanted to go to Kohl’s afterward, but I decided that I just wanted to sit at home and do nothing.  I’ve been going nonstop since Monday so I think I deserve this time to just relax. 

Proud Mother

Well, my son had his senior music composition recital this evening.  He is an amazing composer.  I'm very proud of him.  He wrote some very interesting and beautiful pieces of music.  The players that performed his pieces did very well.  We had a very nice reception afterward (paid for by my aunt and uncle).  Maybe when I get a CD of his music, I'll post some it on here so that you can hear some of his music.  It's been a very exhausting weekend, but very fulfullilng.  I know I'm only giving you a tease right now.  I'll try to write in more detail later.  I just wanted to let you know that I've been busy with all of this, and my son is simply amazing.

Dress Shopping

I wanted to find a new dress to wear to my son’s upcoming recital, but it was a daunting and depressing task.  I’ve slacked off on the exercise so I don’t fit into anything any more and trying on bigger sizes just makes me sad.  I found a dress that I liked at one store, but they didn’t have it in my size.  Today I went to four more of the same stores in town trying to find the dress.  I finally gave up and went to a different store where I found the same dress in multiple sizes and found one that fit me.  It was larger, yes, but it didn’t accentuate the rolls of fat on my hips.  I’m going to make the effort to start using the treadmill again next week.  I really need to do something.  I bought the complete season of Columbo and first three seasons of the Big Bang Theory to watch.  The problem is that we haven’t been able to get the tv mounted in front of my treadmill. 

Yesterday I took my car to the Toyota dealership to have the oil changed.  Matt and I went to a BBQ place in New Braufels for dinner after stopping at Kohl’s first.  I didn’t find a dress there, but I found a great dress shirt and tie for Josh and we found some nice shirts for Matt as well.   After dress shopping today, I started cleaning the house until I realized I was out of floor cleaner.  I had to go to the store to get more cleaning supplies.  I got all the tile areas mopped.  Matt and I went to late church tonight so now I’m trying to get a few more things done before bedtime. 

Tomorrow and the next three days I have to teach dictionary lessons to the history classes.  Those will be exhausting days.  My aunt and uncle are coming on Thursday and then on Friday we are heading to Nacogdoches.  Well, I better get more cleaning done – or maybe I’ll have some ice cream. 

Is it Friday yet?

I’m sure I’ve used that headline before, but this has just been one of those very long weeks.  Yesterday was a very frustrating day.  A student made an accusation against me that was completely unfounded, but it had to be investigated none-the-less.  I made a statement refuting the accusation and I was proven right, but it was ridiculous altogether.  I didn’t find out that it had been resolved until this morning, so last night was a long night.  I went to the store after school about bought lots of chocolate.  Luckily I didn’t drown myself in it.  I had a beer and took a sleeping pill instead. 

So today I was exonerated and I got to leave work early to go to a meeting.  We even got out of the meeting early. I finally won a game of Scrabble tonight so I’m in better spirits about the game.  Thankfully tomorrow is Friday.  Unfortunately, I have to go to a band board meeting after work. This weekend, I need to have my oil changed in my car and have my tires rotated.  I also need to clean the house more since my aunt and uncle are coming next week. 

Josh has been accepted to three schools now and he has to make a decision by Monday.  I think he will choose University of Houston which will be nice that he’ll be close to home.  Can you believe that he will be graduating from college in May? 

Well, I’m going to watch The Big Bang Theory and then call it a night. 

Scrabble Sucks

First of all I should confess that I’m writing this after consuming two rum and cokes.  (Or a little coke with my rum)  Matt was watching the Spurs game and I was happily playing Trivial Pursuit on my phone.  I offered to play him in Trivial Pursuit and he countered with Scrabble.  So I foolishly played Scrabble against him.  I don’t know why I do it because it’s not just the fact that he beats me most of the time, but it’s a pound my face into the dirt kind of beating.  Lately I’ve either just drawn horrible, horrible racks or I just suck at playing Scrabble.  At Scrabble practice on Thursday, I lost both games I played.  One game I didn’t even score three hundred points.  The second I scored around 301 after I got the extra points from my opponent’s rack. 

I just threw my phone at him and now he has to finish playing the game by himself.  He calls me a sore loser.  I don’t think that is accurate.  While I certainly don’t like losing – I can handle it if I played my best and it’s not a total beating.  When I can’t even score 300 points, it ticks me off.  I know it seems petty, but I’m a competitive person who is also a bit of a perfectionist.  Maybe I need to find something else to do.  Maybe it’s time for me to work on the jigsaw puzzle again – though I’m sure I could turn that into a competition as well.  Maybe I should just put away the bottle of rum. 

What an exciting weekend

Matt and I went to dinner at a new local seafood restaurant yesterday.  We were going to go two weeks ago, but it was jam packed during Lent and I refused to wait that long.  So last night we tried it and it was decent.  Nothing spectacular, but service was relatively fast and the food was hot at least.  After that, we headed home and worked on some house items that needed to be addressed.  Matt has been proving himself to be more handy than I first thought.  He changed the float in my bathroom toilet and now it doesn’t run any more.  I tried installing the brace for my new tv that goes in front of my treadmill, but I couldn’t get it done.  I stripped the screws so we headed to hardware store to get more and then Matt stripped those.  So now we’ll have to get more screws and try again. 

Today I worked on a flyer for Josh’s upcoming senior recital.  He liked the way it turned out.  My aunt and uncle sent me $250 in gift cards to use for his reception after the recital.  Now Matt is yelling at the tv watching the basketball game.  He’s wearing a Wichita shirt that he had back in his college days.  I told him as long as he didn’t wear it in public that would be ok.

I guess I better go cook some dinner.  I may have to leave the room if Matt keeps yelling at the tv.  Luckily I have a wireless router.  I can just take my laptop upstairs if necessary. 

The Joys of State Mandated Testing

How would you like to sit and watch students test ALL day long?  Don’t be jealous – I know you would all trade with me in a heartbeat.  Remember though, you can’t just sit.  You have to “actively monitor” so you have to walk around every once in a while.  I had a whopping three students today but even so I got up every 10 minutes or so.  There’s no boredom quite like the doldrum of testing when you can’t do anything but sit and watch students take a test.  Of course you can’t really watch – you can glance – make sure they’re not cheating, but no looking at actual questions or the answers they put.  You can’t read, write, check email, or do anything else but sit and monitor.  I got a whopping 7 minutes to scarf down a lunch and one bathroom break. 

Now I’m debating whether I’m going to go to band tonight.  I’m feeling tired after my exciting day.  Nothing wears one out like sitting and doing nothing all day. 

I’ve actually been doing some house cleaning.  I’m trying to get ready for my aunt and uncle coming at the end of the month.  I did a LOT of laundry this weekend.  On top of that, I even folded and hung it all.  You can actually see the floor in my bedroom and my closet.  I also cleaned the kitchen.  I still need to tidy up the loft/craft room area.  I’m thinking that if I don’t go to band, I will have to do some cleaning in exchange.  I have 10 more minutes to decide.  What to do?