Buried

I'm still here... just totally buried. I can't even begin to explain how incredibly busy I have been. I'm overwhelmed with the planning for the upcoming NFL tournament. Right now I'm watching American Idol and entering all the tournament information in the software program. I was disappointed in Lacey Brown's performance on American Idol. She is from here - Amarillo. I hope she gets another chance and makes it through next week.
Grade school is kicking my butt. One of my classes requires an assignment every week that take a lot of reading, writing, commenting, and citations. The other is a web design class which takes me about 3 hours to complete a practice assessment. This weekend I drove down to Denton (6 hours away) on Friday after school and went to a panel discussion presentation on Saturday. I drove back home Saturday afternoon. I sang in choir at church on Sunday and then took a nap because I was just plain tired. Once I got up I spent 6 hours trying to find research studies on an upcoming research assignment that is due on Monday. I finally emailed my professor telling her that I couldn't find anything. She was kind enough to allow me to use other articles instead of research studies for my paper. There are some books on the topic I would like to see if I could get. I hope to make it to town tomorrow to check out the bookstore.
Last night I was supposed to have a band concert but we got another bout of snow and it was canceled. That was good since it allowed me to get my homework done that I didn't get done on Sunday. I also spent two hours working on setting up some assignments for a student in prime time. I didn't get to bed until almost 11:00. This morning I had to get up early so I could get to school and leave sub materials and turn in the prime time assignment. Because of the weather I knew I would need more time so I left at 6:30 a.m. I got the stuff done I needed and then headed to the admin building for a meeting with the district librarians. It is part of the checklist I have to complete this semester so I helped them with preparations on a project they are working on.
Tonight I had to run by the grocery store to get food for the animals. I knew I would be in trouble if I came home empty handed tonight. Of course they have plenty of "dry" food, but they are spoiled. I had cereal for dinner since I ate a HUGE lunch of enchiladas and rice today. I probably totally blew the diet, but it was quite good. So far I've lost about 11 1/2 pounds. I haven't had to pay for gaining weight at least. I've either lost or stayed the same. I need to get back into exercising a little, but there's that time factor that seems to get in the way.
I posted on some of my class discussion that is part of my assignment and now I'm working on the tournament set up for the tournament that starts on Thursday.
So that's my life in a nutshell. I didn't go into all the details of dealing with grades, yearbook, lesson, etc. that are a constant. This is just the big stuff for now.
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I haven't even been on facebook much. I still have two episodes of Psych to watch. I'm still here but posting might be scarce for a while. I really appreciate the concerns from Mago and Summer and anyone else that reads. I'm really just hanging in there right now.

Managing

All I can say is that life is insane. I never have time to get anything done at school. I'm mostly hanging by a thread. As much as I know I need to grade papers and such at home, I just can't bring myself to do it. I don't know if it is a mental block or extreme laziness, but I bring papers home nightly and just take them back the next day. This is one of the reasons why I'm not destined to stay a teacher.
I have officially lost 10 pounds. Although I wish it was a little more, I can't really complain. I'm mostly dieting. I haven't found a lot of time to exercise lately. Last night I had a paper due for my class and I didn't even start it until I got home from school. I had to miss band rehearsal to finish it. I did get it done though and posted response discussion at school today.
Not that I don't have enough on my plate right now, I'm going to Dallas next weekend. Well, Denton, really. There's a library panel discussion that I thought would be good to go to. Plus it gives me some bonus points for my class.
I'm trying to teach my senior English class how to write a research paper. It's a very daunting task. Just writing one bibliography citation is difficult for them. They are panicking over writing a minimum of three pages. It's not like I'm having them analyze difficult literature or authors. Their paper is over a career they are interested in.
I guess I'm probably rambling. I'm not going to grade papers. I'm going to watch the episode of Psych that I recorded on Friday and call it an early evening. I was really tired this morning.

A Nightmare

I'm dealing with a nightmare. I don't even know if I can explain it in a blog. For the past two years I've been elected to be part of the NFL district committee. This is a group of three people that are responsible for planning the district speech and congress tournaments in which we qualify students for nationals. It is a horrible position to be in because we have two groups within our district that despise each other and nobody is happy with any decisions that have been made. I'm caught in the middle of it because I've always been relatively neutral and have stayed on good terms with both sides. Until today at least. We've had bickering via email going back and forth about decisions that have been made, questions that haven't been answered, and general nastiness from some very strong personalities. For the most part I've been a passive member of the committee and haven't really made an effort to be more active. Generally I do what I'm asked and offer my opinion when asked. Now I'm trying to step up and get some things done because it's not going very well. I sent out an email today first apologizing for my lack of stepping up to the plate and finding out the answers that needed to be provided. I also commented on the fact that the original email sent out should have be directed specifically to the committee rather than the entire district. I answered the concerns aired the best I could. A few people responded in support. Two of the original email people responded by questioning some things I said. A third called me a liar and said I should be ashamed. Ultimately it all boils down to a total lack of communication which is ironic since we all teach "communication." I'm just tired of trying to remain neutral, not tick anyone off, and keep everything going. I guess I have to realize that I can't please everyone. It's just very frustrating and disheartening. Well, that's my vent right now. The arguments are still going and I'm trying to stay out of it. I'm voicing my opinion to the committee as needed, but I don't know if I should continue to straddle the fence or choose a side. I hate the idea of burning bridges.