Words and Sentences

So. NaNoWriMo started November first, and, in typical fashion, I am getting around to it late.

Tyson and I can't in good conscience (or good credit) get each other the iPhones we were going to for Christmas, so we're going to write novels together. We figured we've got an extra hour or two in the evening that we might as well be using for something productive.

So I got an idea, and let me tell you--actually, I can't tell you. My idea is literally so good you will be unable to keep from stealing it and writing your own thing, or selling it to a producer of movies.

People who have writing to do sometimes need to find an activity that puts that writing off for just a little longer. One of the things these people do is join or keep a sentence a day blog where they post a daily word count and the best sentence they wrote for the day.

Here's yesterday's:
"All in all, Stephen looks as though he might have just emerged from the dryer."
Word Count: 514, plus 2 pages of notes
Total Words: 514

GRE Jitters

I sometimes really thrive on living life at the last minute.  I am taking the GRE a week from today, and I have't taken a test that was both difficult and important in about 10 years. (I took the Praxis II, which was important since a non-passing score meant no teaching license, but it was not difficult in the least, except not being able to leave or read a book when I was done.)

I decided, for sure, about a week ago that I really did want a Master's, so I found a school I could afford, filled out the online application, requested information on financial aid, ordered transcripts from UNLV, and registered for the GRE.  All in one night.

The next opportunity for taking the test on a non-school day would have been late February, way later than I wanted to do.  I want my score as soon as possible so I can do a retake if I need to, or just walk around feeling good about my score for that much longer.  Which means Monday.

I tell myself it's not a dumb decision to prepare in only 7 days.  After all, even if I signed up 6 months in advance, I doubt I'd start working on test prep until about a week before.  Example: I was engaged for a year and a half.  I started trying on dresses 4 days before the wedding.  

But I'm still nervous, and excited, and know this kind of pressure pushes me to do my best.  It's been a long, long time since I've felt like this.

"I lost my URL; can I have yours?"

I was playing around with my template today, trying to get everything to appear in a nice three-column format, but something was wrong and I didn't have the patience to learn html today when I was just tooling around to avoid doing real work. Anyways, in the course of backing up and reinstalling my original template, I lost some code somewhere and part of that was my links list, which I hadn't really updated lately anyway so it was no real loss.

So if you want a shout out vis-a-vis my blogroll, let me know and I will hook you up.

Edit: Actually, when I took Windows off my laptop and installed stupid Linux, I forgot to back up my bookmarks, so if you have anything in your "daily read" that you'd recommend, send that along as well.

Gak!

Okay, so I am poking my head in here really, really quickly. You should be reading this post in a high-pitched, manic voice because I have like 5 minutes of free time today.

Why, you ask? Well, let me tell you:

thejuniorshavecrucibleoutlinesduetomorrowandthefreshmenturnedtheiressaysintoday andimstillbehindongradingfromlastweekandneedtocatchupdidimentionthatmyjuniorshave morethan40assignmentssofarthisquarter? insteadofthesmarter(andmoreboring)choiceofworkingallweekendweallwenttocaliforniainsteadwhereitwascoldandtheboysgot somefishbutthatmeanttodaytherewasallkindsofstufftodo
thenigotalovelynotefromastudent-parentsayingtheyhad "moralissues"withtheessaypromptandthereforeshehad"excused"herselffromtheassignment sotherewasthatdramaandididntreallyknowwhattodoaboutitbesidesstew

whew

iwassupposedtostarttutoringforproficiencyexamstodaybuttherewasnoannouncementsandno flyersandnoplansoranything(thatonesmyfault)soanywaybut thatmeansihavetokicksomebuttbeforewednesday
soiamheretakingaquickbreakbecauseimfeelingguiltyaboutalsonotbloggingbutthereislaundry readytocomeoutofthedryerandahandouttomakeforact3ofthecrucibleandineedtomakeagrading sheetfortheoutlinesthataredueandifidontgetsomeofitdoneithinkmybrainwillexplode.

So there's that. Hope your weeks are starting out manageably because I seem to be stressed enough for everyone already.

Summer is almost over!

In fact, my first class starts in just over 12 hours. Crap.

Not that I haven't been bored as hell lately, but still.....

And there's not really anything to worry about on the first day, but still.....

And I know that I'll do a good job, but still....

*****

I have a short list of things I need to be doing tonight so I don't have to do them tomorrow, but I'm not doing them. I've tried all my procrastinating techniques: cleaning the house, playing video games, reading all my blogs, and now I'm here (that should say something about the hard-core procrastination I am doing right now). Officially, my excuse is that I need some of the files that are on my jump drive, and I don't know where my keys are, and, hence, my Swiss Army Data Knife thing. Tyson may have them actually, and he's at Wal-Mart with our JVO swimmer getting swim and school supplies.

So too bad, so sad, I guess my homework will just have to wait. Seriously, none of it is for tomorrow, anyway, just stuff I should print up and get to graphics by the end of the day tomorrow. School gets out at 1:15, so I'll have more than an hour before I have to leave, and I will definitely have my keys then, and I will possibly be more motivated.

One thing I am....let's say apprehensive....about is that when I got my rosters on Friday, I had between 40 and 45 kids in each class. That is scary. And I saw some kids wandering around the halls doing whatever kids who come to school a week early do, and they are so huge. I don't know how 45 of us are going to fit in my room. Probably between 5 and 10 each period won't show up, on the first day or ever, but I only have 37 desks in my room. I'm trusting in karma to take care of me on that one; I figure I'm a decent enough human being that things will just "turn out," without me having to worry any more about it. I'm getting tables eventually anyway, and you can always cram one more kid if you have to, if nobody is too particular about their elbow room.

So anyway, I will keep everybody posted about how the first day goes. Right now, in my head, it's going alternately perfect or horrible, but I'm sure it will be somewhere in between.

So I haven't posted anything lately because I was waiting for a lot of little news to come in. Now that it has, and now that I'm stuck in a public, wi-fi enabled place with nothing better to do for the next hour or so and no book to read, I suppose it's about time for an update.

Some newsworthy items:

1. Tomorrow and Friday are staff development days, which is sort of like a holiday because we'll get to learn some things and we won't have to see any kids, plus we'll have hour-long lunches and the occasional department meeting where we'll be given a "homework assignment" that entails going to our rooms and doing all the stuff that was just going to keep us late today if we'd stuck around to do it. And they're feeding us breakfast for the next two days, and a "soul food" potluck on Friday. All in all, I could think of worse ways to spend two work days. Sometimes it's nice to hang out with the other grownups.
   
2. I have a half-hour presentation to do tomorrow for the WHOLE STAFF on some of the stuff I learned at the National Reading Conference. It is sort of starting to scare me, and Tyson finds it incredibly amusing since half of our staff has masters degrees or higher and all but a handful or so have been teaching longer than I have.
   
3. Tyson was doubly amused, then, when I was invited to miss a whole day of school last week (with the sub paid for, even!) to a meeting where I told a group of Title I principals about this system we only sort of use at our school. I say "sort of" because we really don't do any paperwork on it or anything, so it can't really be tracked or measured in any significant way, naturally an issue of concern to Title I administrators in the height of testing season.
   
4. I'm being distracted by the pleasantly dorky-looking drummer of a small blues ensemble at the coffee shop.
   
5. I am waiting at this coffee shop because a whole bunch of students from my school are, right this moment, loading up a bus to come to a UNLV basketball game tonight. I haven't been to a real b-ball game in a hundred years and I'm actually really looking forward to it.
   
6. In one of my classes we are drawing comic strips about someone who survives a shipwreck. I wish you could see some of them. They are really, really great.
   
7. On that note, there is a new Scott McCloud book on drawing comics that I would LOVE to have...hint, hint, Tyson....
   
8. I have not made any more bread lately, but I did whip up a nice frozen-box lasagna last night for our Tuesday night date.
   
9. Tyson and I are sharing a classroom bunny. Pics to come. Eat your heart out, Deidre!
   
10. I am taking off next weekend on my first solo trip in a while, probably to Utah, and am really looking forward to it, although secretly I think it would be more satisfying if I were leaving Tyson at home rather than going on a trip to avoid being left at home, myself. Enjoying yourself is always so much easier when you can think about someone you know who isn't.

Finally,

11. It has been around 70 degrees every afternoon for the last few days. The rest of you are having some kind of cold snap, right? How's that working out for you?

My new 'do

So I converted to Blogger Beta. You like? Ees very good, no? I was ready for something to do besides the lesson plans I really need to work on.

I brought you comics instead.

Yes, I am aware that for some reason, Blogger has chosen to remove the bottom sections of two of the comics. Yes, I tried uploading them again. I also tried exporting them from Picasa, but no luck there, either. Just get over it, will you?

Because I'm a bad and negligent person I have forgotten where I found these, but if I ever stumble across that site again, I'll be sure to give props and a link to the site. Promise. Please don't send the Copyright Police (C) after me!

Tyson and I actually do play this game. I wish for just thirty seconds at a time that I taught high-school English (chiefly grammar) so that I could use this to talk about how the placement of hypens is important. Somehow, I don't think it's appropriate for seventh grade.

Man, oh man

I hadn't realized I'd been almost as negligent as Deidre, but I guess I have been. Sorry 'bout that. (Is it weird to you that neglige, as in, the lacy little nightie, and negligent probably have the same root? It is to me, too. As soon as I get some things off my chest, I'll look it up in my OED. Yeah, that's right. There's an Oxford English Dictionary on my desk, and it kicks lexicographical ass. Just you wait.)
So anyways, I'll just take a cue from Deidre, and since I have probably three more devoted readers than she does, I can always pretend I came up with the idea first: a list. And using colons.
1. The first quarter ended last week. WOO HOO! That means there are only 29 more weeks of school left!
2. I am going to LA for my first-ever professional conference and we're staying at a seriously swank hotel called the Standard that is so hip, they write their name upside-down. And they project movies onto the side of the building next door and you can watch them from your balcony or from the rooftop bar. How cool is that?!
3. I bought a table saw and put it together myself. Then I used it to put new flooring down in about half my house. If the batteries in the digital camera were charged up, I'd take a picture, but it would take to long, and I'm really just writing this until the dryer dings so I can hang the clothes that will wrinkle if I don't do them right away and then I'm going to bed.
4. Ummm......I think those clothes are probably about done, and it's getting late (for me, anyway).

So, the negligent/neglige question. They both mean the same thing, we just stole the word for the undergarment from French. I guess because if all you're wearing is your negligee, then you must have neglected to put clothing on. Or something like that. It's a bit anticlimactic, really. I could tell you what year the French version crossed over into English usage, but the print is really, really, really tiny, and, anyway, I already closed it up and don't want to be bothered finding it again.

Besides, I have laundry to take care of.

A new, better poster from Tyson

Here is a newer, better entry from Tyson, who is supposed to be in his "office" doing "work" but is apparently poking around on the internet.

I made this one because I, too, am poking around on the internet instead of doing any kind of constructive and useful work. That is, after all, what this competition is all about.

Whew!

After 5 days of hard work (interspersed with long and frequent bouts of laziness), I finally finished the floor in Nick's room. I don't have the camera in the house at the moment, or I'd post a few pics so you too could bask in the glory of a project finished. My only regret is that I'm always so gung-ho to get going on a project like this that I usually forget to take "before" and "during" pictures so you can really see the change. But trust me, the painted concrete is much, much nicer than the 30-year-old maroon shag carpet that was in there, plus there's the peace of mind that comes with having vacuumed up a thick layer of fine black dirt that was trapped underneath the old mohair padding (yes, this was pre-synthetic stuff here) .

See, the nice thing about painting floors is that you do work hard--pulling up carpet and tack strip, scraping glue, cutting the heads off nails with the angle grinder, making showers of neat sparks in the process, even donning heavy gloves and a dust mask and eye protection--but then you get to take a long break. Sometimes even a 24-hour break. But during the entire time you spend playing the Sims on the computer waiting for the paint to dry--and this is absolutely the best part--you still get to tell yourself that you're painting. No kidding. If somebody calls on the phone, and it's three in the afternoon and you're in pj's because you got up at nine, put a coat of primer on, went back to bed for a few hours, got up, made a grilled cheese, took a look in at the semi-dry paint, then settled in to your video game, when they ask, "What are you doing?" you can still say, without a trace of irony, "Painting." In that way, it's a lot like spending the whole afternoon "doing laundry."

It's also nice, as I sit staring my last ten days of freedom in the face, to have achieved something tangible. I spent so few days in a row at home this summer that I never really settled into any sort of productive routine. I had intended to get some wall painting done, as well as pull up more carpet, and it wasn't until Nick went back to Texas that I realized if any of that was going to get done this summer, I had better get on it. Really, I'm one of those kinds of people that only gets anything accomplished under pressure. Actually, I'm already in the middle of ripping up the rest of the carpet in the hallway and the dining room so we can install laminate flooring in the rest of the house when Tyson gets back and we get paid again. I'm looking forward to that because when I painted the house four years ago, I assumed we'd be replacing the flooring sometime soon so there's all sorts of paint blobs everywhere. It'll be nice to have everything in a state of presentability, so we don't feel like we have to apologize or explain things when we give people a tour of the house.

Anyway, thanks for reading and as soon as I can (Thursday?) I will post the pictures for the two of you that are probably interested (Mom and Kathy). Incidentally, Thursday is my birthday and I could really use a table saw (cheap) or one of those fancy retracting dual-angle mitre saws (expensive) for my floors (hint, hint, Tyson).