It’s
amazing how tired one can get just sitting all day.  We had a
district meeting all day … a crummy, insulting-to-one’s-intelligence
meeting.  Yuck! 

After work I had to go to an orientation program for my MFCC (masters
in marriage, family, and child counseling) program, which starts next
week.  The orientation was great; the other students were
wonderful.  Even though everyone is coming from different
experiences and backgrounds, we all seem to have the same passion for
helping others and for learning from others as well.  I am nervous
about handling the stress of work and school, but, at the same time, I
am excited about this new adventure.

And, as a postscript, after seeing all of the suffering going on in the
wake of Katrina, everything else seems so petty.  I am reminded
how blessed I am to have a home, food, a  job, and my loved ones
near me; my heart goes out to those who have suffered such unimaginable
loss. 

More closet cleaning today … well, actually I’ve moved on to the closet restuffing stage.   
I also washed my car today so it won’t gross out my coworker when we
carpool tomorrow.  And that’s the cleaning update for today. 

Good night!

Today
was the first official day back at work.  I’ve actually been
unofficially going for a week.  The kids don’t start until next
Tuesday.  This week is full of meetings all day and preparing the
classroom in the afternoons. 



So, I spent my day emptying
out two closets so they can be removed from my room.  Two newer
but smaller closets will take their place, which means that I have to
get rid of a lot of stuff.  It’s unbelievable how much garbage I
was able to fit in those two closets!  It literally covered every
flat surface of the classroom when I took it all out.  My
principal came in to show them to one of my coworkers to see if she
wanted them, and when he opened the door he caused an avalanche of
junk. 
Yes, just like in the cartoons.  So I turned to my coworker and
said, “See?  It’s really great when you have to do that last
minute cleaning for open house … just shove everything in  and
close the door!”

Anyway,
I did get a lot done, but it wasn’t easy since my air conditioner isn’t
working and it was over 80 degrees in the classroom.  Tomorrow
will be meetings in the morning to analyze last year’s test scores and
then more of the same jolly good time cleaning the closets in the
afternoon.  Sheesh!  It seems like I’ve been blogging a lot
about cleaning these days.

I need to give credit where credit is due.  Toshi not only spent
his weekend helping me clean my sisters’ bathroom, he also came this
afternoon to help me in my classroom.  And he brought me lunch
too! 

Two recent dreams


Friday night:

It is the first day of
school, and I nervously enter the classroom to find all of my students
sitting on top of my high cupboards.  No matter what I do, they
won’t come down.



Last night:

I am teaching a lesson and
turn around to find that all of the students are playing with
playdough, and they refuse to put it away.



Hmmm … do you think I might
be nervous about the first day of school?  My dreams aren’t ever
very cryptic … they’re more the type where the deeper meaning slaps
you in the face. 



This will be my tenth year of
teaching, and the first day of school still makes me nervous, as though
I may have forgotten how to do it over the summer.  It’s like
riding a bike … it all comes back pretty quickly.




This
weekend was not a particularly exciting one.  Sick and tired of
hearing everyone at my parents’ house gripe, I spent my last two days
of summer vacation and about $100 cleaning and reorganizing one of
their bathrooms.

  My three younger (but grown) sisters are all living there rent
free and can’t manage to lift a finger to clean up after
themselves.  So, I swept in and did white tornado on their
absolutely disgusting bathroom so my parents won’t have to be
embarrassed when company comes over. 

“I’m going in!”

Instead
of being grateful that they no longer have to live in their own filth,
my sisters got pissed off because I asked them to go through their
bajillion bottles of products and sort them into the cute boxes I
bought for them. 
I scrubbed the toilet, sink, counter, mirror, and bathtub.  I hung
the shower curtain and window curtain.  I bought all the supplies
and spent two whole days on the project.  All they had to do was
sort their junk.  So, anyway, I ended up throwing it all in a box
and leaving a note saying that anything remaining in the box will be
headed for the trash tomorrow afternoon, so we shall see.  If they
think I’m bluffing, they are sorely mistaken.

So, I came home and cried, and now I have to get ready for my first day of work tomorrow.    Yippee …

Quote of the Day:

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — Lao Tzu

The saga continues …



Lo and behold, last night
when I came back from a barbecue at a colleague’s house, Toshi had done
the dishes.  Yes, he really did them … well, except for a few
that I guess he just doesn’t like (the salad spinner and the
silverware).  Then this morning, without being asked he took out
the trash, and it wasn’t even overflowing yet!  Will wonders never cease!



Now I just have to break him
of the habit of announcing the completion of each chore.  I think
I am supposed to thank him effusively or congratulate him or
something.  I’m sorry, but taking out the trash does not qualify
one for the Nobel Peace Prize or anything. 

Perhaps the best
method to discourage this behavior would be for me to proudly share
every time I complete a chore.  Since I do at least ten times more
than he does, I’m sure it would get annoying pretty quickly and he
might take the hint.  “Toshi, I just sorted all the laundry … I
just put the laundry in the washer … I just moved the laundry to the
dryer … I just folded the laundry … I just put the laundry
away;  Toshi, I just clipped the coupons … I just sorted the
coupons … I just planned all our meals … I just did the grocery
shopping … I just carried all the bags from the car … I just put
all the groceries away.”  Then after each announcement I will wait
with the same look of expectation he has on his face when he declares a
chore complete.



Or, I can just be happy that
the trash has gone out and the dishes have been done and succumb to
giving a little pat on the head and a treat to reinforce such positive
behaviors.  See, I’m thinking like a therapist already!

This just reminded me of a cute Sandra Dee movie I saw years ago.  In the movie,If a Man Answers,
Sandra’s mother gives her advice on how to maintain a happy, harmonious
relationship.  The advice comes in the form of a book … “How to
Train Man’s Best Friend.”  Sandra grudgingly gives the
dog-training strategies a try, and of course, wacky hijinks and
pandemonium ensue.  Cute, cute, cute.

Quote of the Day:

“People will accept your ideas much more readily if you tell them that Benjamin Franklin said it first.” — unknown

Or maybe I just needed to say that Ben Franklin said it first. 

Okay, I am a total dork.  Somehow I’ve gotten sucked into So You Think
You Can Dance.  Two whole hours of my life have just completely
disappeared.  I think I have a crush on the little spiky anime hair
guy.    Hey, at least I’m not on the phone voting.  That’s where I draw the line … for now anyway.

Does anyone know why guys think that putting the dishes in the sink and
filling it with water is the same thing as actually doing the dishes? 
Toshi has two jobs around the house.  He does dishes and takes out the
trash … supposedly.  However, usually the dishes sit “soaking” and
the trash starts overflowing until I can’t stand it anymore. 
Of course that’s probably the whole point; I think he knows that if he does a pathetic enough job, I will just do it myself.

So, tonight I am declaring that I WILL NOT succumb to psychological
trickery and take out the trash or do the dishes myself, no matter how
bad the stench or how scarce a clean plate.  Instead I will …
hmmm … nag?

Why I will not have children with Toshi 

Quote of the Day:

“The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power.  You just take it.“  –Roseanne Barr

Okay, I’ve fallen off the regular posting wagon again.  Hmmm … updates for all three of you who read this …



The Last Hurrah

Toshi
and I went to Big Bear Lake on a spur of the moment trip.  Despite the
legions of cute rental cabins, we stayed in Motel 6 … his favorite.
(yes … beanie wienie, velvet paintings, AND Motel 6)  Anyway, I am
now obsessed with someday having a cabin.  I imagine myself escaping
for weekends to my own little piece of paradise. 

However, since Toshi
is “underemployed” and I’m going back to (very expensive) school, I
guess we’ll have to settle for buying the goofball wooden bear holding
a welcome sign, put it in front of our condo on Fridays, and pretend.

Back to School

Two
and a half weeks of summer left … for the kids anyway.  I actually
have to start going back next week to get the classroom ready.  My
classroom is a portable (like a mobile home), so I have floor to
ceiling bulletin boards.  That means a couple of days of doing the
equivalent of wallpapering a trailer with butcher paper and a stapler. 
Fun, fun, fun.  I can’t believe how quickly the summer went by, but I
do feel refreshed and have started to miss my kids.



Back to School … Again

In
September I am going to be a student again.  I am starting a program to
get my masters in marriage, family, and child counseling.  At this
point, it is difficult for me to imagine leaving teaching, but I never
want to be a teacher solely because I don’t have a choice.  I abhor
what the government is doing to education and I deal constantly with an
internal struggle over doing what I’m told and doing what I know is
right.  If the proverbial pendulum doesn’t begin to swing again, I can
see a point in the future when I can no longer in good conscience be a
teacher.  So, I figure that whether I remain in teaching or not, the
skills I acquire in this program will be useful.

So,
I decided to take advantage of summer and buy my books early so I could
get a headstart.  Yesterday I casually picked up The Ego and the
Mechanisms of Defense by Anna Freud thinking I would just take a quick
gander at the first chapter.  Here is what I found …

 

“Whenever interest was shifted from the deeper to the more superficial
psychic strata, it was felt that here was a beginning of apostasy from
psychoanalysis as a whole … When the writings of Freud took a fresh
direction, the odium of analytic unorthodoxy no longer attached to the
study of the ego and interest was definitely focused on the ego
institutions.” 

Side note … I LOVE the way Matt Damon’s smile creeps across his
face.  Good Will Hunting is on cable, but I am going to exercise
restraint and go to bed. 

Quote of the day:
“You can live to be 100 if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be 100.” — Woody Allen
I thought everyone knew about beanie wienie casserole, but I’ve been discovering that’s not the case.  Hmmm
… maybe beanie wienie is like the birthday mouse and get-it-yourself
night … traditions unique to my family.  As the name suggests,
get-it-yourself night is a night when everyone is responsible for
getting their own dinner.  It has actually become the modus
operandi at my parents’ house now that my sisters are all grown up, but
somehow it hasn’t gone over that big over here with Toshi.

Typical get-it-yourself night fare …

Confession
and cautionary tale:  I am addicted to Lucky Charms. 
SHHH!  That’s a secret between you and me.  I can’t have the
stuff in my house or else I would eat it for breakfast, lunch, and
dinner.  That’s what sugary cereal deprivation in youth leads to
in adulthood.  Yep, they’re magically delicious. 


Well,
video poker in Vegas held me hostage and inhaled all of my summer play
money, so I guess the summer play is pretty much over.  Perhaps
it’s time to get back to the real estate course since I’m only on
Chapter 3.  Well, wasn’t that money well spent?  Apparently I
wasn’t as hard up for things to do this summer as I initially thought I
would be. 



The
highlight of Vegas had to be the “bevertainers” at the Rio.  For
those who have never had the pleasure of witnessing such a spectacle, a
bevertainer is a cocktail server who periodically steps up on a teeny
tiny stage in the middle of a bank of slot machines and sings a bit
off-key at the top of his/her lungs or attempts to do a seductive dance
number in four square feet of space.  To the uninitiated, myself
included, this can be a somewhat shocking development.  “What is
the cocktail guy doing up there pretending he’s an extra in a Night at
the Roxbury?”  Add to that the fact that my cocktail server looked
EXACTLY like Kevin Spacey (nothing at all like the beefy guy in the
picture below) and the whole thing is just a little wacky.