Blog-Worthy Blog Fest Events of Friday, September 26, 2008

Last Sunday, my blogging inspiration, Kathy, and I were discussing how we think both of our blogs have kind of gone to pot lately. Are our lives really that boring? Do our blogs stink because our ward ended and there's not as much fun to be had these days? Does my blog suffer because I'm back at work? These are questions that need to be addressed!

So, we decided to have a "Blog Fest" of sorts. We chose a date, Friday the 26th, and decided we would focus ALL day long on all of the blog-worthy events of that day and then get them posted by today. Well, had I known that my Thursday was going to be so blog-worthy, I would have fought for a different day for the blog fest.... but a promise is a promise, so here goes the "Blog-Worthy Blog Fest Events of Friday, September 26, 2008".

Here's when I started my day... I wish it said 6:51, so I could say something to the effect of "if you switch the minute digits, it would be when I should have gotten up". But if you switch the minute digits of when I really got up, you'd get 6:75, which normally doesn't make sense, unless you think to "carry" the extra 15 minutes into the 7 o'clock hour (math nerd speaking...) and then you'd get 7:15. But wait, then that would be an hour after I should have gotten up. So I guess I can say something to the effect of "if you switch the minute digits and carry the extra 15 minutes into the 7 o'clock hour, you'd get an hour after I should have gotten up." (Its ok if you have to read that a few times to get it... no one will ever know!)

At any rate, here's when I actually left my house. I'll spare you the weird math details of when I should have left my house and just let you know two things. First, I should leave my house about 10 minutes before this, but (and this is second), this is about when I always leave my house. So, yes, I'm consistently 10 minutes late to work. But with a student teacher, I just go there and sit anyway, and it all works out in the wash, so I'm ok with being late to work. But really, the cool thing about this is that it only took me 32 minutes to get ready for work! Granted, I didn't wash my hair, and it was "jeans and a Mesa High T-shirt Friday" so there really wasn't much to do anyway. I probably should have been out the door on time in that case. Hmm. Well, let's just chalk it up to super long, righteous morning prayers. (wink, wink)

Oh, and here's another reason it took me 32 minutes to get ready for work. When I was digging out a pair of socks to wear, I found two loose socks in my drawer that were a match! How exciting is that? When I put my laundry away and I mysteriously have an unmatched sock, I just throw it in my drawer, thinking that I'll solve the mystery the next time I do laundry. And then I always forget. But the magic sock drawer elves came to the rescue that day, so again, I ask, How exciting is that? (If you're done reading at this point, its ok, I understand... no one will ever know!)

So, I've made mention of my student teacher a few times... and here she is, Miss Katherine Mitchell from BYU-Idaho. I've actually been waiting for some "special" pictures of us to arrive to write a post about her. But we were wearing the matchy Mesa High BAM t-shirts that I bought us, so we took a picture. BAM, by the way, is a slogan of sorts made up by one of the long-time, recently retired football coaches and it means "Be Atop a Mountain". And it sounds pretty cool as a cheering catch-phrase, or something.

I did "work" on Friday a little more than usual. I had to do a formal observation of Katherine 3rd period and then I usually teach my low level classes on Fridays anyway and do some basic skills activities with them. There was one very blog-worthy event, but for privacy and wierdo-ness sake, I couldn't take any pictures. We have this student in 3rd period, let's call him Buster, who is a "special" kid with a mom that's just about as "special" as he is, if not more... if you catch my drift. He's actually not being serviced in Math Special Ed anymore, but he really should be. The poor kid tries like the dickens, but the math smarts just ain't there. Anyway, Buster sits in the back of the row and likes to shout out "his" answers for everything. They are usually so far from correct, that neither Katherine (nor I) really know how to respond to him anymore, other than just moving right along. (If we corrected the kid everytime he said something off the wall, we'd never be able to teach what we're supposed to.) Well, I haven't been in his class for awhile, and apparently Buster noticed that I was back and EVERY TIME he said something, he would lurch just his head over his shoulder to my direction, with his goofy smile, seeking approval or something. It was kind of driving me crazy and I always would look right back at Katherine, hoping he would follow my lead and focus on the teacher. (the one actually doing the teaching, that is) Buster is a sweet kid, but he's a piece of work, and I'm not quite sure how I'm going to handle being with him full-time again!

So the other thing that kept me busy at work was my unofficial duty as "Lunch Gopher". My prep hour is right before lunch AND the fact that I have a student teacher makes me a natural candidate to do lunch runs every now and then.

We decided to go to Jason's Deli and it was actually pretty easy to do the order. Everyone just gave me an envelope with their money in it and their name and order written on the outside. I called in it a couple hours in advance and then Jason's Deli had it all ready to pick up for me! They had an individual lunch sack for every order and it all just fit in one easy to carry bag. Pretty slick!

I think the hardest part was getting in and out of our closed campus. There's locks on all the gates, which I understand for the student's sake. But for my sake, this one lock is a pain in the butt to get opened. So, when I leave campus and I'm coming right back, I just pretend to lock it, like so:

Shh... don't tell. And don't worry. I fully lock it when I come back.

So, I'm afraid that's all I have to report. The rest of my afternoon wasn't that great and I ended up going to bed at 9pm on a Friday night... just the way I like it. :)

Those of you who think the single life is the life of glamor and freedom, did this post change your mind at all? Do you pity me a little bit more? :) Check out my "competitor's" blog fest entry... as soon as she gets it up.