Tuesday, November 13, 2007

General Ramblings

I think I figured out what is wrong with my camera. I think the camera is fine, but the Compact Flash card is not working. I guess that means it will be an easy and fairly inexpensive fix. After payday I'll get another card and try it out. I have more rosaries to put up on my site, but I can't get pictures of them. I guess I've gotten pretty good use out of the card. I've taken over 6000 pictures with it and it has lasted me for five years.

We had a mandatory meeting at school today to cover more information about the state testing and special education referral process. It's just one of those things that settles it even more that I need to get out of teaching. It is so frustrating to have to document, verify, record, modify, accommodate, adjust, and keep track of everything all the time. We have an upcoming school visit by the some state agency and we're all being put on the offensive to make sure if we are questioned that we answer appropriately. It's not that our school has done anything wrong, but we happen to have a lot of English language learning students on our campus (it is a heavy migrant worker area) and since we receive state and federal funding we have to be held accountable for it.

Tonight I was able to simply sit and not think much about work. I didn't have homework to grade and I have enough clean clothes to survive the rest of the week. I went to the store to get groceries to last until Monday. Now I'm on my music download service trying to find Christmas songs to put on my mp3 player. I'm going to try to get into the spirit more this year. Last year I didn't even put my tree up. My goal is to clean my house during the Thanksgiving break and get the tree up.

I'm feeling pretty tired already. I should go to bed soon, but I want to keep finding my Christmas music. It is my favorite time of year and I love playing the music in the car. I use my mp3 player all the time and I love it. I can go more than a week playing it in my car on the way to school and back every day. It is one of the best gifts I ever bought myself. I felt incredibly guilty buying it, but I don't really regret it. Of course I feel guilty almost every time I buy myself something. Maybe it's a mom thing or simply that I often feel the need to be self-sacrificing. I live a pretty simple life. I don't do or have anything extravagant. I don't get my nails done. I get my hair cut only when it is driving me nuts and I have the money. I drive cars until they literally fall apart. I wear clothes and shoes until they've worn out. I usually only buy new clothes at the start of every school year. I'm not sure where I was going with all of this, but I'm going to try to wrap up my music downloads and call it a night.

3 comments:

Mama Llama said...

Hello!

1. Interesting, work-wise it sounds like you are in an area where I should be. I so enjoy working with the local migrant population and helping when possible.

2. Have you ever looked into Freecycle.org? It is an international effort whose general purpose is to keep trash out of the landfills. My point is, you can get rid of things that you might think have no further use, and someone else might be looking exactly for that item (ie wine corks to make a corkboard)...but it works both ways. Someone else might have bought, say, a pair of jeans a year ago that they just don't fit into anymore, were worn once, and are perfect for you. It is all web-based, all local (in your area) and you make arrangements with the individual for pick-up of the item in question (you can either pick an item up from the front stoop of someone's house or arrange to meet in a public parking lot). Just something to think about; I have been able to get rid of toys my children have grown out of or old appliances, but have also been "gifted" some really nice children's clothes, which has helped the budget out a lot.

I hope your week slows down a bit and you can thoroughly enjoy the anticipation of the coming Holidays!

Andrew said...

Are you sure it's compact flash or a SD(secure digital) card. I have a 4gb SD card I can email you that works with my Canon. Missing you this morning and thanks for your comment yesterday. I didn't know you were the payee for your aunt. You must feel like my father reading my whining posts.

Andrew said...

err... LOL. I can't email it to you, but I can snail mail it to you. Forgive my faux pas. I am in email mode this morning.