Cleaning Frenzy

There’s nothing like the potential of company to make me clean my house.  It has already been a long day and there’s much more to do.  This morning I had to act as a sub for two class periods.  Not my favorite thing to do, but it went ok.  Then I had to deal with 100+ boxes of textbooks that arrived.  I had to count them as they came in and make sure we received everything.  Now I’m not sure what to do with them.  I’ll start figuring it out next week I guess.  Tomorrow I work 1/2 a day at school then have a meeting in the afternoon.  I stayed after school a little bit and then came home to get started on the house cleaning.  I mowed the lawn and then started clearing the boxes that were left after unpacking all my books and Marvin collection.  I started the dishwasher and tidied up the kitchen.  I still have a lot to do though. 

I’m looking forward to the date tomorrow night.  Not sure what I should wear though.  He’s picking me up at 7:00 and we’re going across town to a Mexican restaurant that he likes.  Sounds good to me.  Well, I guess I need to get back to work.  My break is over.

So much for sleep!

Ok, now I’m really excited.  I must be to post twice in one night.  So here’s the deal.  I could barely keep my eyes open while watching t.v. around 8:00 so I turned off the t.v. at 9:00 and came to bed with a beer and a book.  I was reading the book and drinking my beer when my phone rang a little after 9:00.  It was a San Antonio number that I didn’t recognize.  I answered it and it is the library guy that I’ve been emailing.  He asked me to go to dinner on Friday night!   I have a date!  Can you believe it?  A date!  With a guy that is a librarian.  He plays scrabble.  He likes to ride roller coasters.  I shouldn’t be so excited.  But I am. 

Not a cold

It’s just allergies and they are still driving me crazy.  I took a bendryl last night so I slept pretty well – just not enough.  I’m becoming a coffee drinker just to be able to wake up.  I made coffee and toast when I finally rolled out of bed this morning and it did seem to help.  It was another busy day in the library with students continuing their research.  Overall, I thought they did a pretty good job considering they have no research experience.  Most used three different sources and were able to get their citation information down.  I have tons of books to put up on the shelves now.  It will be difficult to get done tomorrow, but I may be able to get a lot of work done on the computer.  I think I’ll lock myself in my office while 6th graders are listening to an AIDS presentation and ESL classes work in the lab. 

I planned to go to go try to renew my driver’s license after school today, but when I checked the website for information, they had changed their extended hours from Wednesdays to Tuesdays.  So now I have to wait until next Tuesday to renew my license which is just two days before my birthday.  I should have done it sooner, but never really thought about it.  Luckily I did find my social security card and birth certificate yesterday. 

I have to much Halloween candy leftover.  I have to stop eating it.  Maybe I should hide it from myself. 

I’m going to have to go to bed early tonight.  I’m just too tired.  Psych is coming on, but I might just DVR it so I can watch it later. 

Allergies or a cold

I can’t tell if the allergies are just getting worse or if I’m in the beginning stages of a cold.  Today I got a huge headache right before lunch.  It was bad enough that I had to take three tylenol caplets to get it to go away.  I took two just before lunch, then ate and drank a coke but it was hanging on so I took another one.  Finally after another hour or so it passed.   I had classes that I was working with in the lab all day today so it was hard to shake it.  I finally did just have to sit down for a bit during the latter part of one class.  Now I feel like something is coming on and I’m not sure if it is full blown allergies – got the watery eyes, feeling like I want to sneeze but can’t, and kind of drained.  I took a benadryl so I hope that will knock it out for the evening so I can sleep.  Band rehearsal was tough because I just wanted to get through it and go home.  My mouth was hurting by the end of the night.  Once again, we’re playing a lot of music. 

I think I’m going to get tickets to see Les Miserables in January.  The show is almost already sold out so I need to go ahead and get the tickets.  Josh and I will go since he’ll be home on break.  I’ve never seen the music, but have heard the music quite a bit and it is simply powerful.  Tomorrow I really need to go get my driver’s license renewed.  My birthday is coming up next week and I need to do it before then.  The DMV is open late on Wednesdays only.  I need to dig out my birth certificate and social security before going to bed tonight.  I think I’ll do that and then hit the sack.  I hope the benadryl kicks in soon.

I’m a hit

Today was our band concert. We all dressed up in costumes and I was a big hit.  I wore my clarinet costume from last year and everyone that saw it told me how amazing and creative it was. When I came on stage, people in the audience made comments – especially when I turned to go to my chair and they saw the back of it with the reed on my mouthpiece “hat.”  At intermission I went into the audience and a random person wanted to take my picture.  Again, lots of people loved the costume.  The concert overall went pretty well for me in spite of my favorite reed splitting right before we started. 

This morning I slept in and then spent some time getting my costume ready.  I still had it from year before last, but had to add a missing “key” and clean it up some.  I also had to glue the mouthpiece hat together in some places. 

After the concert I had to drive across town to drop my rent payment off.  On my way back I passed a Sonic and wished I had turned in to get something to drink.  I stopped at the one closest to my house and got a large cherry limeade which makes me think about my friend Andrew.  It was just what I needed.  I stopped to check my mail – nothing but bills I had already paid.  I made some shrimp and pasta for dinner and now I’m sitting on my couch watching t.v.  My house is getting in bad shape.  I should be cleaning right now, but I just don’t feel like it.  I think I’m going to at least do a load of laundry so I have something to wear tomorrow.  Then again, I might not. 

Here’s a picture of the costume.  It’s missing the “belt” divider, but I guess it works. 

Slow moving

I can’t understand why I wake up at 6:45 a.m. on Saturday when I’m allowed to sleep in.  I stayed in bed regardless and dozed off and on for another couple of hours.  Once I got up, I had my weekend cup of coffee.  This time I tried butter toffee flavor.  I wasn’t that wowed by it.  I ate some cereal and turned on the t.v.  I read the facebook updates of my friends, blog posts, and did some general web surfing.  I finally talked myself into paying my bills.  I had to set up more accounts on my online bill pay site with my bank so that took a while.  I eventually got all my bills paid except for my rent payment.  I’ll have to drive across town to drop it off because my bank can’t get it there before it’s due.  After that I couldn’t decide what to do today.  I kind of wanted to get out but at the same time I didn’t.  I took a shower and went to the tire shop because my tire indicator light had come on in my car.  They checked the pressure and filled the tires for me.  Then I went and ate lunch at Johnny Carinos.  After that I went to Big Lots.  I’m looking for a storage cabinet for my office supplies.  I saw one that I liked, but didn’t want to pay $129 for it right now.  Instead I was bad and bought some cookies.  After that I took a scenic route home to discover what was south of where I live.  Turns out there isn’t much.  Now I’m home and don’t know what to do.  I considered going to the movies but I didn’t want to drive across town.  I’ve been invited to a Halloween party tonight, but I don’t really feel like going.  I don’t have a costume that I want to wear and the party doesn’t start until 10 p.m.  I guess I’m getting to be a fuddy-duddy.

Grocery Day

The animals and I finally have food.  I went to the grocery store after work.  I spent too much money I think.  But I had to buy Halloween candy, food for all the animals, and food for me.  It’s a good thing I didn’t have to buy cleaning products.  Those will break the bank.  I need to pay bills tomorrow.  Not looking forward to that. 

I meant to go to bed early last night but ended up watching an episode of Mythbusters that I hadn’t seen.  I did find my Marvin ties – of course in the absolute last box that was hidden in my closet.  But I got a lot of compliments on the tie today.  So now I have a bunch of opened boxes throughout the house.  Maybe I’ll get to them this weekend.  My band concert is on Sunday and I need to practice.  I was also thinking of going to the movies on Saturday.  I’ve been invited a Halloween party hosted by another teacher on Saturday night.  I’m supposed to wear a costume and I’m not sure what I want to do.  I’m wearing my clarinet outfit for the band concert, but want something more simple for the party. 

We have a cold front coming in which means it will get down to a whopping 50 degree tonight.  The Amarillo area got 2.5 inches of snow today.  I’m glad I’m not living up there now.  Turns out that I’m not missing the snow.  I might in a few years, but I don’t like driving in it and I hate being really cold. 

I’m glad tomorrow is Friday.   It’s been an exhausting week that has kept me really busy. 

Missing my Marvin ties

It’s red ribbon week at school so there are dress up days.  Tuesday was wearing team jerseys but I didn’t have anything to wear.  Today was crazy sock day so I wore my Marvin socks.  Tomorrow we are supposed to wear ties.  Of course I wanted to wear one of my Marvin the Martian ties, but I can’t find them.  I’ve unpacked all my Marvin stuff and they weren’t in any of the boxes.  I’m not sure if I just stuffed them in a random box somewhere and haven’t gotten to them or what.  I guess that means I’m going to be going through all remaining unopened boxes so I can find them.  It will drive me crazy until I do.

Today was another busy day, but not too bad.  I had to leave school early to go to a meeting.  I picked up my paycheck and went to the bank to deposit it.  It will be another month before it gets direct deposited – hopefully in the right account this time.  I headed to the meeting and got out of there by 4:00.  I headed home and waited for the pest control guy to arrive.  He came and went and I cooked some frozen PF Chang’s teriyaki chicken for dinner.  I’m enjoying a glass of wine and am going to change into my PJs soon.  Then I have to start going through boxes searching for the missing ties. 

I pretty much have all my stuff on the bookshelves, but now there’s the mess of empty boxes, crates, and newspapers that need to be cleaned up.  I guess I’ll get to that at some point – after I make a bigger mess I’m sure.

I’m thinking of going out to the movies again this weekend.  I enjoyed getting out the last time I went.  I could try a different restaurant for lunch this time. 

I should be in bed, but…

The busy week is off an running.  I stayed busy all day dealing with English classes checking out books and history classes taking a survey in the lab.  In the midst of all of that, I had to adjust the school website because of an edict from the powers that be stating that no student or faculty names or pictures could be on our school website because of some stupid security breach that happened a few weeks ago.  So I had to remove the faculty listing and any place that listed a faculty member.  We didn’t have any students or pictures on the website.  I also worked on finding some research sites for students to use next week. 

After work I went to the bank to deposit some money because my local account is overdrawn.  I did that, then picked up some Bill Miller’s barbeque for dinner.  It was ok, but nothing to write about.  I liked the hash browns.  After that, I finished getting books on my shelves.  I realized that I probably bought one shelf too many, but it’s probably good that I have some room to grown.  I started filling the spaces with all my Marvin the Martian stuff.  I still have one more box to unpack and then I need to hang the shelf that I use to display the Christmas ornaments.  It’s slowly coming together.

I left for band rehearsal around 6:45 and we did a run-through of the concert which is just ridiculous.  We are playing 12 pieces and have an intermission.  I don’t know anyone that likes concert band stuff that much.  Surprisingly, I managed to play the entire night though it was getting tough at the end.  I realize that I do need to practice one piece in particular that has an exposed clarinet part.  The rehearsal ran over time a little so I didn’t get home until 10:15. 

I talked to Josh on the way home from rehearsal and heard about all the things going on with him at college.  He is still doing well and he is going to get to have a lesson this week with the composition teacher from Tasmania.  This will be the person that he will be studying with when he goes down there in the spring. 

I’m still stuffy today.  I think maybe it’s time to find a local doctor.  I haven’t really bothered with it, but I do need to have my yearly checkup and such so I might as well get on that.  There’s a new hospital and medical plaza that was built just down the road so I guess I’ll check that out first and see if any of the doctors are on my provider list.  I don’t want someone that is impossible to get appointments.  I really appreciated my doctor in back in Canyon.  I could always get same day appointments and rarely ever waited more than about 20 minutes for him to see me. 

I’m going to try to head to bed, but not sure I’ll be able to get to sleep right away since I’m having trouble breathing at the moment.  Hopefully the decongestant will kick in soon.

Books and a Busy Week

I finally got all my bookshelves put together.  I started the daunting task of unpacking the many, many boxes of books and sorting them.  I’m about halfway done I think, but I just felt tired in the middle of it all so I decided to take a break.  I think that I still have too many books.  I may have to get rid of a few more.  I’m putting all the unread books on a shelf so that maybe I’ll read one of those before I buy any more. 

This is going to be a busy week in the library.  I have classes every day, a meeting on Wednesday, and a presentation for parents on Thursday.  I also have to work on a research project for 7th grade English classes next week.

I also heard from the library guy.  He sent me an email Sunday night, but I didn’t get it until this morning.  He mentioned getting together in a few weeks so I have that to potentially look forward to.  He has some scrabble tournaments coming up so he’s not free until the 11th which is the day after my birthday.  Josh is coming in that weekend, but we won’t go to dinner until Saturday. 

I didn’t sleep well last night.  First of all, the margaritas made me dehydrated.  Then I’ve had sinus/allergy issues for the past few days so I couldn’t breath very well.  After school today I picked up a decongestant so I’ll see if that helps tonight.