Another free Monday

Tonight is another break from orchestra rehearsal.  Tonight is for the strings only.  That means that Josh and I were able to go to the grocery store tonight.  Josh helped me financially by paying for it tonight.  My student loans kicked in this month so now it’s going to be tight money-wise.  I’m hoping that I’ll be able to sell my house in Canyon this summer to my aunt and uncle and use the money from it to pay off a few things and the rest for a down payment on another house.  We’ll see how that goes.  I do want to get my own place that I can do with as I please.  I especially want a pet door. 

Today I worked on a lesson over dictionary skills for some of the English classes.  I’ll teach it to three classes tomorrow and see how it goes.  Tonight I’m watching the episodes of American idol that I missed.  I think I’ll start my next Sue Grafton book and just take it easy tonight.  I got blisters on my feet from walking to church on Sunday so I don’t want to do anything but sit. 

Matt emailed me today and said he would pay my entry fee for the next Scrabble tournament.  I guess I’ll try it again.  He assured me that there will be more people at my level this go around.  I don’t know about that, but I guess I’ll give it a try.  We have to decide whether to go up late on Friday or leave really early Saturday morning.  I’ll get some studying in and some practice and see what happens. 

I suck at Scrabble

I was thinking that I was relatively decent at Scrabble.  Certainly not a top competitive player, but thought I could hold my own in a tournament in the 3rd division.  Turns out that I’m either not a very good player or have the worst luck in the world.  But first let me offer the excuses.  There were only four people in the division.  Two of use had never competed before.  The other two have been active competitors and aren’t really “novice” players.  I also had relatively lousy draws.  In one game I drew all vowels twice in a row.  In another game, I had all vowels, exchanged most of them, then drew all four S’s and more vowels.  S’s are considered power tiles, but you don’t want all of them in your rack at one time.  I only scored over 300 points once in 6 games.  It was a pretty disheartening day.  I also didn’t like the fact that most of the time I played on really closed boards – meaning you couldn’t play any long words because there were no open spaces.  I had several bingo word possibilities that I just couldn’t play.  So I don’t know if/when I will do it again.  I guess I will try to just get more practice and see how things go.

In other news, Matt heard from his mother.  He has been relatively estranged from her for a number of years.  He sent her a letter around the first of the year and she sent him a note back to him this week.  He had mentioned me in his letter and she commented about him bringing me up sometime to visit.  I may be the bridge between them building a relationship again.  We are now talking about a time that we can go up to St. Louis to visit her. 

Matt and I went to church together this morning.  Since I’ve been here and going to church, I have not really attended the same church twice with the exception of the church that I went to confession at – and then later a service.  The thing about the churches here is that they are simply beautiful.  They are older and very ornate.  We went out for breakfast afterward and then I headed back home and took a nap.  I still need to catch up on sleep.  Matt is coming over this evening for pizza.  I need to pay bills and do some house cleaning. 

The month of February is going to be a busy one for Matt and me.  Next weekend we are going to a Spurs game.  The weekend after that will be the symphony and then a Scrabble competition in Salado.  (Though I’m undecided on competing.)  The weekend after that is my band concert followed by the orchestra concert the following weekend.  Josh leaves around 17th.  My friend, Kirsten, is coming around the 8th.  Somewhere in there we are going to go see One for the Money. 

Sleep must be overrated

I tried getting some sleep last night.  I was in bed before 11:00 at least.  And wouldn’t you know it, we had two major thunderstorms roll through the area last night.  The first one came in around 1:30 a.m. and the second rolled through around 4:00 a.m.  So I didn’t get much sleep last night.  Now it is 11:22 so I hope I get some sleep tonight.

It was a pretty decent work day.  I had classes in doing testing and I worked on the magazine order for next year.  I dropped a bunch of magazines that nobody ever read like Texas Monthly and ordered a bunch of new stuff for the students.  Hopefully that will encourage a few to read more.  I left around 12:45 and had to go to the bank.  I was charged a “maintenance fee” on my account this month and I had them take it off because I’m not supposed to be charged as long as I have monthly direct deposits.  I think the issue was the fact that I was paid much earlier last month and it more than 31 days passed before the next deposit.  Thankfully they put the money back in my account.  I picked up some lunch and then headed to our monthly librarian meeting. 

After the meeting I stopped by the store to get salad fixings and stuff to back a pineapple upside down cake for dinner.  Matt and his friend Jason were going to come over for dinner.  At 6:30 Matt arrived but said that Jason couldn’t make it for dinner but we would go over to his place for Scrabble practice after we ate.  So Matt and I had spaghetti, salad, and garlic toast for dinner.  We took the cake with us to Jason’s house and everyone enjoyed it as we practiced. 

Matt brought me home after practice and we cuddle for a bit.  He left a little while ago and I’m going to try to finally get some sleep tonight.  Tomorrow we have our regular Scrabble practice and we are meeting at Taco Cabana for dinner.  I’m not sure if I’m ready for the tournament this weekend, but I think I’ll do ok if I draw reasonably well. 

Still tired, but still moving

I hit the snooze on my alarm clock twice this morning.  That’s all I could afford and still have time to take a shower.  I barely made it to school by 8:00 this morning which is when I am supposed to sign in.  I usually get there 10-15 minutes early.  I also made some coffee and took it with me.  It helped for a while, but I was dragging again this afternoon.  I spent the day cleaning out the textbook room.  I’m making a bigger mess, but that’s how I clean.  It always gets worse before it gets better. 

I left school right at 4:30 and picked up Sonic for supper.  I ate and then watched t.v. until I had to leave for band rehearsal.  I just got back and my mouth is sore.  I’m still tired.  I’m going to head to bed shortly and hope that I can finally get enough sleep. 

It’s a Monday

It wasn’t really bad, but I’m dragging today.  I actually did get to bed early and slept well, but had to get to school early.  I got there at 7:30 to get things set up for the professional development today.  The presentation that another teacher and I had to do seemed to go well.  We ended up with a longer lunch so I picked up something and came home to eat it.  I changed into jeans and a t-shirt so I could do some cleaning in the afternoon.  I worked in an extra classroom that has been used for storage so I could move some stuff out of the back of my library storage area.  I got a pretty good start, but I hope to keep working on it this week and then get all the textbooks that are sitting in the front of my library put up.  I came home and felt the need to take a nap before going to orchestra rehearsal.  I did sleep and was having some weird dreams.  I dreamed that my sister was pregnant and about to have a baby, but she had a hysterectomy when she was 29.  It was very strange.  The alarm on my phone went off at 6:00 so I could get up and get to rehearsal on time, but I decided to not go.  I am one of four clarinets so it’s not like I’m going to be completely missed.  I did email someone to let them know, but I decided I just needed a quiet night at home.  I had lots of dishes that needed to be washed, laundry to do, and I just wanted to take it easy tonight.  So that’s what I’m doing.  Tomorrow I have band rehearsal and then on Wednesday Matt is coming over for supper and we are going to do some Scrabble practice to prepare me for the upcoming tournament this weekend.  Things just seem to keep moving fast here – which isn’t bad, but I’m finding I simply needed a break this evening. 

A hangover

I have to admit I drank too much this weekend.  But I guess I should start with Friday.  Matt and I went to see the move “The Artist” on Friday and then we went out to eat at an Italian pizza place.  I stayed at his place and came home Saturday morning since he had to work on Saturday.  On Saturday, I did a little work on the website, started reading the next Sue Grafton, and mostly just lazed around.  Matt went to mass at 5:30 and I didn’t go with him because I was supposed to go with a friend from school on Sunday morning.  The friend (who is the school nurse) called and cancelled around 5:00 while I was in the shower and it was too late to meet Matt.  She was coming down with the flu or some other crud she picked up from the students and didn’t think she would be feeling up to going.  I texted Matt, but he doesn’t always carry his cell phone with him.  We were supposed to go to his friend Jason’s house for Scrabble, but those plans never came through so Matt came over around 8:00 with steaks and we cooked those for dinner.  We had some wine with dinner and then more wine.  And then we both had way too much.  I probably had a glass too many because I ended up getting sick.  It was not fun.  But Matt was good and he took care of me.  He wanted me to come over to his place with him this morning and hang out, but I still wasn’t feeling all that great and I had to work on a presentation I’m doing tomorrow during inservice.  I slept in a few more hours, worked on the presentation some, took tylenol, took a bath, slept some more and then finally pulled myself together enough to get ready for church.  Matt took me to the Cathedral for mass at 5:00 and then I took him to dinner.  After dinner we hung out at his place for a few hours before I had to head back here.  I have to get to bed early because I have to get to school early to set up for the professional development tomorrow.  Even though it wasn’t an ideal situation to get totally blitzed, we did have fun and lots of good conversation.  I think he is going to be a keeper.  I haven’t scared him off yet and he still seems to adore me.  He tells me all the time how lucky he is to have me in his life. 

So much for being a player

I guess I’m not a complete loser.  I won one game tonight (by a point).  I got called out on stupid mistakes and lost turns.  It was a bit frustrating.  On the upside, I did play four bingos.  One of them was pretty impressive with the word ‘massagers’ where I had to play through an ‘a’ and an ‘s’ already on the board.  I feel like my vocabulary is very limited and I really need to take time to really study.  I’m slowly learning my three letter words, but I also need to learn the bigger q, j, x, and z words.  I’m not sure if I’m ready for the competition on Saturday.  It may be a huge disappointment for both me and Matt. 

Today at school I had to take another teacher’s class all day and give a test.  It wasn’t too bad as her classes were all small.  Tomorrow I am dealing with more make-up tests as well.  At least it gives me time to study words since I can’t get much library stuff done. 

Tomorrow Matt and I are going to see the silent movie “The Artist.”  On Saturday we are playing scrabble with friends.  Sunday I’m going to church with the nurse at my school.  She has befriended me and wants to get together this weekend. 

There’s not much more to tell.  Life is about the same as always.  I’m still happy, but also still really tired.  I’ve been drinking coffee every morning if that tells you anything.

Just another day

It was a busy morning for me as I had to deliver dictionaries to 13 classrooms.  After that, I had to prepare for testing students in the library.  Testing took about 3 hours.  After that, I didn’t do a whole lot.  I did some reading – library magazine and a book called “How they Croaked” which was interesting and a bit gory.  I left school around 4:40 and headed home.  I was feeling pretty tired so I rested for about an hour before I got up to make dinner.  I finally decided on a website host for the scrabble website that I’m going to create for Matt’s club.  I spent most of the evening looking at other sites and jotting down ideas for it.  I also watched the season premier of American Idol.  And that’s all the excitement here.  I’m really just tired and need to get more sleep.  Last night I woke up several times and I’m not sure why.  One time was due to a nightmare, but I don’t know about the other times.  I probably need to get back on ambien.  I think I’m going to call it a night and try to get some better rest.

Last Minute Attitude

One of the things that drives me the most crazy about working in this district is the last minute attitude it perpetuates.  For example today during 7th period (the last period of the day), I was told that I needed to have dictionaries in each teacher’s room for testing tomorrow.  I also found out after school that instead of relieving other teachers tomorrow, I will be testing students.  It is very frustrating to have to make changes and do things at the last minute.  I had to stay until five getting all the dictionaries ready to hand out to other teachers tomorrow. 

I came home from work and just felt tired.  I didn’t even want to cook so I had an ice cream instead.  I finally made myself get up and go to band rehearsal.  I stopped at McDonald’s on the way and ordered a happy meal for supper.  Band rehearsal was ok, but once again, we are playing too much music without enough rehearsal time.  I don’t know how much longer I will want to stay with this band.  I would rather play fewer pieces well, than more pieces badly.  The only good thing is that playing first part is more of a challenge for me. 

I’m still debating whether I’m going to give Matt the link to my blog.  I do wonder how much I would self-censor knowing that he reads it.  I do some censoring already because people I know in real life do read it.  But a part of me thinks that I should be completely open with him.  He should know the real me – all the good and the bad.  And if it doesn’t scare him off, then he is definitely one to keep.  I’ve only let one other boyfriend have access to my blog – and that was Marty.  I did it because I felt I could trust him.  And honestly, I didn’t censor much – I actually did some venting on the blog knowing that he would read it.  So I will give it some thought for a few more days and decide.

To Share or Not to Share

I’m debating about whether I should give Matt the link to my blog. Surprisingly, he hasn’t made the effort to find it though I’ve told him that I’ve blogged for several years. I asked him why he hadn’t tried to find it and he said that he would wait for an invitation from me. It’s not that I have anything to hide, but I realize that there are probably some things I’ve written about that he may not want to know, or would be surprised to know. Then again, I doubt he’s going to get through 7 years worth of blog entries which totals 2,009 posts including this one. I skimmed through several entries over the past few years and I discovered a few themes if you will.

1. I don’t like to clean my house and only do it out of desperation.

2. My garage will never be clean.

3. I don’t understand men and probably never will. (Hoping that Matt is an exception to this general rule.)

4. I like to sleep in. Sleep is good.

5. Teaching was frustrating and overwhelming.

6. I’m an overachiever.

7. I’m very proud of my son.

8. I’m not afraid to give my heart away, but unfortunately, I’ve given it away the wrong men too many times.

9. I’m a hopeless and sometimes hopeful romantic.

10. Sometimes I’m really lazy, but I also thrive on being busy.

I’m sure there are a lot more themes, but these are a few that seem to stick out in my blogging. Perhaps some of my faithful readers can share a few more. I must be feeling pretty serious about Matt if I’m going to let him read and get a view into my daily life.

I’m going to go take a shower and then head up to his place. We are going to go to dinner before I have to go to orchestra rehearsal tonight.