Wannabe

I want to be a blogger.  That is, I want to actually update this blog on the regular.  I'm such a procrastinator.  I had this list of things I was going to do this summer--not the fun "vacation" type things, but things around the house that a responsible person who has nothing else to do should be completing.  On that list--hang all my framed pictures and put the bout posters around the house.  Also, spray the backyard with weed killer.  Aaaand...blog on the regular.  None of that has happened yet.  Though I did do laundry yesterday (party, bonus!).
Also, I feel I've limited myself in content somewhat, by choosing the name Misadventures of an English Teacher for my blog.  I feel like all I should do is talk about teaching, when in reality, all I do talk about is derby.  I should change the name to Misadventures of an Ass Kicking, Booty Blocking English Teacher.  At any rate, summer is flying by.  I have less than a month left of summer.  I'm sure to anyone who is not in education this sounds pathetic and cry-baby.  Waahhh I have all summer off while everyone else works all year round, but the difference between teachers and most people is that their average work week is somewhere around 70 hours.  Sometimes more. And for 10 months, I don't really have a real weekend.  So, I feel summers are well-deserved and I'm bummed that mine is half over.
I'm so looking forward to RollerCon though.  However, RollerCon means summer is over because the Friday after I return from Vegas, I have to report to school.  Ick.  I wish I could win the lottery and stay home and do nothing but skate and blog :)

Santa Cruz Beach & Boardwalk

Today, I chaperoned the 7th grade field trip to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.  I've been looking forward to this all week.  Mostly because being outside in the sunshine and going on rides is obviously better than being in school with the kids who didn't go (see: all the behavior problems), but I really only went on three rides and the rest of the day, walked around with some of the other chaperones.  As I was walking back and forth, I realized I was almost always looking for my students.  They always at least smiled and waved as the passed by, but they also yelled to me from the rides and even stopped frequently to tell me about the things they'd done since the last time they'd seen me (usually only 30 minutes).  It was on the bus while I was watching a group of boys chat and smile and laugh with each other, recounting their day to the people around them, that I realized that the best part of my day was seeing the kids have fun.  The smiles on their faces and the knowledge that they had the best time was way better than the actual trip to the boardwalk. The kids were all really wonderful and the trip went on without incident.  Even when our bus was 30 minutes late and they had to sit on the sidewalk and wait, and were clearly getting restless, they were great.  Today, I truly loved my job.  For all the stress it brings me, and for all that I DON'T want to teach middle school, I really enjoyed my students this year and will genuinely miss them next year.

Another highlight of the day: Bumper Cars.  When else do you get to take out your aggression with your knucklehead students without really hurting them?  And when else do they get to bash around their teachers?

One of my students today said, "It was nice to see the teachers actually have fun for a day."  I thought that was cute.  They must think our lives suck haha.  I think kids forget teachers are human.  It's like they think we just roll out a sleeping bag and live in our classrooms.

8 school days left!

Easter Eve

  Happy Easter Eve!  There's something about Easter that makes it my favorite treat-holiday.  It's not my favorite holiday (that is Christmas, hands down), but I love that Easter is all about pastels.  Pastel M&M's by the handful?  Don't mind if I do!  Pastel frosted sugar cookies?  Yes, please!  I love everything commercial about Easter.  I love decorating eggs.  I curse my age every year, for I want nothing more than to participate in an egg hunt (something I haven't done since I was 10, probably.  My parents got lazy after they thought I was too old).  I haven't spent Easter with my family in 8 years, and even when I did, it wasn't a big thing.  We didn't grow up going to church or identifying with any type of religion.  It was solely about seeing what kind of haul the good ol Easter Bunny would leave for us.  But I still have fond memories of Easter and the feeling of togetherness it brought.  Anytime my family woke up and spent a significant chunk of time together in the morning was a good morning.  It didn't happen often.  We did not live close to any relatives, so there was no going to grandma's for Easter dinner, or any of the usual traditions.
   After I went away to college, I started spending Easter with my roommate Siobhan in Sacramento.   It became a tradition for me to go to her house and do the traditional Easter I never got as a kid.  I think there have only been a few years in which I didn't go.  This would be one of them.  This broken ankle really puts a damper on my fun!
   The most comforting thing though, is that still, no matter what, my mom always sends me an Easter basket in the mail--even though it is so expensive to ship.  Happy Easter, everyone.  I hope you are continuing with your own traditions, or creating some new ones!

Good day :)

Nothing particularly awesome happened today, but it was a good day anyway.  My students were pretty good.  They all had very pleasant attitudes and smiling faces (with the exception of my not-so-good class, but even they were okay.  I really am going to miss them next year.  I really enjoy these kids.  Even when, as a group, they are not the best, as individuals, they are awesome kids.  I never thought I'd get this attached to middle school kids as I never wanted to teach middle school.  And really, I would jump at the chance to teach high school again in a second, but my 7th graders are great. :)

Spring Break

I had so many plans for Spring Break.  I was going to o into my classroom and CLEAN it.  I was going to organize all of those leftover handouts from lessons long ago into organized binders.  I was going to plan out at least the first part of the quarter.  I was going to go back to Zumba.  I was going to skate the rec trail at least 5 days a week.  I was going to sit by the ocean and soak it up.

Instead, I am laid up in bed with a broken ankle.  I broke my ankle at practice on Wednesday, March 9th, just ONE HOUR after Rack broke and dislocated her ankle and was taken away via ambulance.  We were scrimmaging; I went in for a good hit, knocked myself off balance, and came down on it wrong.  It was the worst pain I'd ever experienced.  One of the girls in my league is a firefighter and an EMT (see: NOT a doctor or a paramedic) and she assured me it wasn't broken.  I should have realized she wasn't qualified to tell me whether or not it was broken and gone with my gut instinct, which was that it was broken and I should have gone to the ER.  But I wanted to believe her (and I know she was just trying to help!) because a sprained ankle heals much more quickly than a broken ankle.

So, instead, I went home and spent the rest of the night in pain.  After Beans got home from work on Thursday, she took me to Urgent Care, where I was x-rayed and found that my ankle was, indeed, broken.  They gave me a gel brace, some crutches, and a list of orthopedists to call.  I went to work on Friday which sucked.  I made an appointment with the orthopedist that Monday.  He then told me I was going to need surgery.  My mom came up Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, I had surgery.  They put in a plate and 4 screws.

My mom left today and I've felt very sad and lonely without her.  It's funny, I was so looking forward to Spring Break, to being able to lay in bed and do nothing, and now that I can, I'm terribly lonely.  The difference though, is that before I broke my ankle, it was a choice to lay in bed and do nothing, and now I basically have no other option.

My friends and derby sisters have been great.  I am so thankful to have them, but it's not the same as having your mommy there. 

This weekend, our travel team, The Beasts of Eden, have our first away game ever.  I'm extremely bummed about not playing in the game, but I am excited to be the bench coach.  I only got to play one game this season, and now I'm out for 12 weeks.  I really, really hope that I will be able to at least play in one more game before the season ends.

I am not looking forward to going back to work on crutches. Crutches are whack.  But I am not going to let this injury take me out of derby.  I will heal and I'll be back on skates again in no time!

I was featured on Sometimes Sweet!

I know I am terrible at updating this blog, but perhaps that will change for a bit seeing as how I am laid up in bed with a broken ankle--had surgery yesterday morning.  That's besides the point.  The point is that I submitted my own "A Slice Of..." feature to the lovely Danielle over at Sometimes Sweet (one of my favorite blogs of all time) and it was posted today!!! 

Check it out!
http://sometimessweet.blogspot.com/2011/03/slice-ofmonterey-ca.html

Also---tumblr

I also have a tumblr---follow me-- http://xlitteredshorex.tumblr.com/  :)

Gorgeous Saturday

Oh hi there!  So despite my superstitions regarding 2011, it seems that this year is off to a really good start!  Home teams were announced and I am on the team I wanted to be on (Babes of Wrath just sounds so much more fierce than Cannery Rollers--though both are rad names), even though I feel that their team is stacked compared to ours.  Aaaaand, I made the All-Star Travel Team!  In addition to that, my 7th graders are still pretty cool, and there's a chance they're switching my 4/5th period class from the stupid scripted program to a transitional 7th grade class that uses the core curriculum.  SCORE!  I was also appointed as the head Fresh Meat coach for the league :)  And and AND I have three TA's this semester, so I have less work to grade--only the really important assignments.

Despite the grading I have looming over me at the moment, I am in a cheery mood. I woke up and went on a 7 mile skate with some of my girls along the coastal rec trail under a gorgeous sun and beautiful weather, had a good lunch with my Fresh Meat committee, shopped a little with Rack, and really just enjoyed this gorgeous Saturday.  Later, I'm going salsa dancing for the first time to celebrate the birthdays of two of my derby girls. I hope you all are enjoying your weekends just as much <3

Welcome, 2011

I'm superstitious about some silly things, and I have this weird thing where I believe that January 1st is sort of a microcosm of what how the year will go.  I know it's silly, but I can't help but enter 2011 with trepidation because I spent January 1st in bed.  I've been sick since Tuesday, off and on.  I've had weird stomach pains and I'm not sure what is causing them.  I hope this isn't a sign of things to come this year.  I really, truly hope that 2011 is awesome.  I haven't had an "awesome" year in a while.  I have a teacher work day tomorrow and the kids come back Tuesday.  I'm really not looking forward to it, though I did find that I missed most of my students over this break.

I do already know that there will be some positive points this year:  we're forming home teams and are going to have our first derby season!  I also got new skates for Christmas and will be breaking them in!

Some things I'm all about right now:  Ben Harper, The Big Bang Theory, and Butternut Squash soup.  And the nerd in me is smiling at the alliteration in that list :)