I’m a procrastinator

I admit it.  I put things off.  Oh well, it’s summer, I should be able to enjoy some of it shouldn’t I?  Not that I’m doing anything major, but I have been reading more which is always great.  I’ve re-read the entire Harry Potter series and since then have finished about 4 other books.  It’s been nice to be able to read something unrelated to library science.  I do have to turn in an assignment tomorrow.  It’s done except that I need to go through and update it and make corrections.  Tomorrow morning I’m going to to go to the local library and sit and work on it.  I had intentions to clean house but am not progressing very fast.  I did unload and load the dishwasher and put my comforter in the washer so that’s a little progress, right?

Yesterday I spent several hours up at the school.  I’m making what I think is good progress in preparations for next year.  There are some things I’ve wanted to do for a few years now, but never seemed to find the time to get them done.  Of course I’m not making any progress on the yearbook, but neither are my students.  I’m about as apathetic about it as they are.  But I do have high hopes to start the year in a better organized state which I hope will ultimately help me stay on top of things during the year.  It may be wishful thinking, but hopefully this will be my last year teaching, so I want to make it as good as I can. 

Last night I watched the movie Valentine’s Day.  It was good – not quite as good as Love Actually, but not bad.  Of course it just reminds me of the fact that I’m still single with no hope of a relationship, but that’s just the way life is right now.  I’m on eharmony again but I’m still fairly jaded about it.  I do have two guys with whom I’m communicating with right now, but can’t say either look promising.  One is a lawyer in Dallas which seems great, but he also seems very busy and communication is very brief right now. 

I’m getting back into the bad habit of staying up late and sleeping in mornings.  I haven’t been to bed earlier than 12:30 a.m. it seems.  I need to stop that as I have to go in for more Macbook training on Friday.  I guess I’ll see if I can get myself motivated to start doing some work around here. 

What happened to summer break?

I went up to the school to work on Friday afternoon and on Saturday from 10 until 3:30 foolishly thinking that my yearbook kids would come up to work on their pages.  I got a lot done, however.  I hooked up all my computers in the room according to my new layout.  I still need longer ethernet cables for  my phone and two computers.  I also need the divider wall in the middle of the room taken down.  I reorganized my new desk area moving the desk hutches over where my computer cart is.  I made plans for organizing next year and left myself sticky note reminders of things to do and plan.  I have ongoing “idea” and “supply” lists.  I tend get ideas for things I want to do but if I don’t write them down, I forget them.  Today I have read and critique the paper of one of my peers in my class and they will be doing the same.  I’m also playing at church this morning.  Of course I haven’t gone to church in three weeks.  I’m kind of getting out sync in that regard and need to get back on track.  It’s just one more area where I’m not really motivated or focused right now.  Tomorrow will be dubbed “clean the house” day.  I really need to get the house picked up, cleaned and organized.  My goal is to start my school year with both my home and workplace organized.  Surely that will help me to do a better job! 

Well, I’ve got to go dry my hair and head to rehearsal for Mass.  I’ve it a little bit of a funk right now, but that’s just a bunch of stuff swirling in my head.  I know I’ll snap out of it… just got to get more productive. 

Need to focus

I’m actually trying to stay on top of things and get my homework assignments done early, but I still have a hard time getting focused.  I actually started work on this current assignment yesterday and I’m about halfway done but this is amidst several distractions and breaks.  I don’t know why I can’t get myself focused.  And thus the blog post because I’d rather do this instead of work on the assignment. 

So what’s new you ask?  I came home from Kansas City feeling sick.  The day we left I had a sore throat and just felt generally blah.  I let my colleague drive the first part to Oklahoma City and I drove from there to my house.  I pretty much stayed in bed for two days once I got home.  I didn’t go to church – I feel bad, but I’ve already missed three weeks now so I have to go to confession at some point anyway.  I stayed in bed and read books.  I read both book 6 & 7 of the Harry Potter series over the course of Saturday evening through Monday morning.  My dad came by on Monday to pick up the old air conditioners that used to be in all the windows of the house.  I hadn’t seen him since last September.  He was here briefly and then I piddled around the rest of the day.  I did go to the store that evening but mostly read and did stuff on the computer.  I updated my coaster count and have discovered that I’ve now ridden 156 coasters.  We were able to go to Worlds of Fun in Kansas City and it had some great rides. 

On Tuesday I went up to school to get some work done.  I was there from about 10 until 2 before heading home.  I made hamburgers last night and got started on my assignment.  Then I got confused and decided to give it a rest.  I started up again this morning around 11 and have been going at it off and on since then.  I am finally getting it after asking different questions but I’m still not focused.  I don’t have to turn it in until tomorrow at 10 but I’d like to get a little more done tonight.  Tomorrow’s deadline isn’t a final one, but a preliminary deadline where our draft is read by another person and critiqued before turning in the final part next week.  But if we don’t turn it in on time we lose points on our final grade so I want to make sure it gets done.  But I don’t think I’ll be doing a lot more tonight. 

I’m too distracted at the moment.  I’ll spend tomorrow finishing the work, I hope. 

A busy summer

This summer has just been one thing after another.  Vacation was great.  The best parts were the coasters at Busch Gardens and getting to visit Harry Potter world at Islands of Adventure.  It was truly amazing.  I already want to go back!  As soon as I got back from vacation, I washed clothes and repacked and then headed to Denton for my class.  I drove down there – it was a 5 1/2 hour drive, checked into the hotel and then a friend of mine who is also working on her library degree called and we all went to dinner at PF Changs.  Then I had class for four days and it went fine.  I am very excited about getting to do roller coasters for my organizational project.  I returned home on Wednesday and then I spent two days working up at the school, got my hair cut (again), did laundry, repacked yet again and headed to Kansas City for the National speech tournament.  It was a long drive but it was somewhat split up and now I’ve been here for three days.  I’ll be here until Saturday and then we’ll head back.  It will be good to just be home for a while… well for a month.  Then I’m heading back to Denton in order to take some students to a yearbook workshop.  Then I’ll head back again in August for yet another class. 

Today wasn’t too bad.  I wasn’t scheduled to judge until 1:45 and it turned out that I didn’t have to.  So I waited the requisite 30 minutes before getting “released” and then headed back to the hotel which is right across the street from where I was going to judge.  I sat outside on a patio area and crocheted for about an hour.  I then came inside and decided to take a nap.  So I napped for about 45 minutes then got up and waited for everyone to get back so we could go to dinner. 

Tomorrow I’m scheduled to judge congress again which is a 4 hour session but it is at a different hotel.  I don’t know if I’ll get lucky enough to not get called again, but we’ll see.  I need to start reading through some of my class readings and work on my assignment that is due on Thursday, but once again, I’m lacking motivation.  I’m not going to the baseball game on Wednesday night so I’ll focus more then.  I’ll also take the readings with me tomorrow and see if I can get some of them done.

Well, I’m going to read for a bit until we meet to figure out our scheduling for tomorrow.  There’s four schools staying at the same hotel and we’re shuffling students around because they have to be in different locations (different schools) and sometimes the coaches are scheduled to judge at a different campus so we work together to make sure that we can get everywhere we need to be.

Vacation!

Josh and I have been in Florida for the past three days and it has been great.  We arrived late Monday around 9 p.m. Florida time.  We got our rental car with no problem and headed out except my GPS decided we were still in Texas.  I had to reset it to get it realize we’re in Orlando.  It finally got us to the hotel and we checked in easily – they were actually waiting on us as we were the last reservations to check in for the day.  The hotel is nice (except the elevator is worn and seems a bit rickety) but the rest of it is very modern.  We’re staying at the Hyatt Place right across from the theme parks.

On Tuesday morning we headed out for the long walk to the park.  We could have taken a shuttle, but we wanted to get in right when the park opened.  We spent day one at Universal Studios.  We rode the new coaster “Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket” first thing and were lucky enough to get a seat in the front.  You’re supposed to be able to listen to music as you ride but it didn’t work the first go round.  We then hit some other rides like “The Mummy”, “Disaster!”, “Jaws”, “Men in Black”, and “Twister”.  We then took a second ride on the coaster and this time we got to hear the music as we rode so it was pretty cool.  It’s a nice ride.  We were finished by 1:00 that day and decided there wasn’t anything else we wanted to do there so we headed out.  We stopped to eat at an Italian place on the City Walk and then headed back to the hotel.

We took naps, then I took a shower and then we went to the mall for a bit.  I found new sandals and two new books.  We then went to eat at Don Pablos which has Mexican Food and it was decent – for Mexican food that is.  We were going to play some miniature golf but a storm was coming in so we couldn’t play.  We came back to the hotel and I did some web surfing and called it a night.

Today was spent at Busch Gardens.  We left around 8:15 and arrived about the time the park opened at 9:30.  We first rode Montu and there was no wait in line.  It was a great way to start the day.  We then rode Scorpion followed by Kumba which was also amazing.  I tried to get on Shei-Kra (the newest coaster) but it wasn’t opened yet.  So we then headed to Gwazi which is the wooden coaster.  For a wooden coaster, it wasn’t too bad, but I still prefer steel.  We then rode Kumba again and the wild mouse coaster called Cheetah Chase.  Finally in the afternoon Shei-Kra opened and I got a ride in.  It was pretty awesome.  It has a 90 degree drop straight down and the car hangs there for a few seconds before plummeting downward.  It was great!  We took two more rides on Montu – in the back and then the very front which was the absolute best.  We took the Sky Ride across the park and took a final ride on Kumba in the front row in order to get a really good picture.  I have to buy at least one coaster picture on my trips.  By then my feet and legs were aching so we headed out.  I stopped to buy a t-shirt and then we headed back to Orlando.  The drive is a little over an hour. 

Tonight we went to Walmart so I could get a new pair of cheap glasses as I left my pair on one of the rides – or they fell out of my pocket.  We had dinner at Golden Corral but I’m irritated because my credit card was declined.  This ALWAYS happens while I’m on vacation.  While I appreciate the fact that the bank is looking out for my account, it is very annoying when they decline my card and it’s after business hours and I can’t call them.  It’s a card with my local bank so there’s no 1-800 number that I can use to contact them.  Luckily I had cash and I have a back up card just in case, but it still annoys me. 

Tonight I’m going to take a shower, read, and call it an early night – maybe.  Tomorrow we’re going to Islands of Adventure and I’m looking forward to riding The Incredible Hulk.  Tomorrow evening I’m meeting friends of mine from Amarillo that just moved here.  We fly back early Friday morning and then I head out again on Saturday for my class in Denton.  It’s going to continue to be a busy few weeks – but I’m really enjoying vacation right now.