Ten on Tues... Wednesday

1) I pretty much skipped Tuesday this week. Too sick to deal with it.

2) I'm sick.

3) Yes. Again.

4) I'm not sure what kind of sick it is. I've got 3 options:
       a) It's my body's new way of handling being sick, where I get to experience all the normal fun aspects of the cold (sniffling, coughing, runny eyes) along with a wretched sore throat that makes everything so. much. worse.
      b) This time around I was lucky enough to catch a cold (separately) while experiencing the sequel to the ever-so-fun Sore Throat of Summer '09. This would be better.
      c) I've got strep throat, tonsilitis, or any number of serious throat problems, which were not caught during previously mentioned Sore Throat of Summer '09, and which I will be doomed to experience over and over until I pony up the money to go back down to urgent care. And that's only if they actually diagnose me with anything more this time than "a really bad sore throat."

5) Option a is not what I want. The teacher I work with at the school, Michelle, claims that every seven years or so, the way your body handles things is supposed to change. If this is the way my body is going to start handling colds, then... then... well, drastic measures will need to be taken.

6) I'm really quite miserable.

7) On the brighter side, I've had some down time to put into easing back into school. Let me tell you, not having to do homework for two and a half years really makes it hard to write that 750 word essay on service learning.

8) Yes, I know 750 words is nothing in college. I'm a big, fat school wuss right now. I may be in denial about the whole thing, in fact.

9) I did finally find some info on the No Child Left Behind Act. Quite a bit actually, and I now understand the pros and cons and consequences and demands and all that good stuff. Still not sure how I feel about it all yet.

10) I finally received my textbook today. It only took three calls to three different post offices and leaving a note on my front door instructing the post man to "leave the package the heck on my doorstep and not take it to one of the three aforementioned post offices without leaving me a note like the last two times." I think the note was the thing that did it.

11) Also, I've been wasting time this afternoon (not opening my new textbook) playing with my webcam's picture taking abilities. And I just realized I'm holding the books the wrong way to read the titles. Oh well.

***Please forgive the crabbiness of this post. I really don't feel well. :(

No Child Left Behind

My first assignment for Foundations of Education is an essay on the No Child Left Behind Act. Unfortunately, I have yet to receive my main textbook from an Amazon seller, so I'm stuck searching the internet for some clear definitions.

Sure, I can easily just read the law myself on the education website, but seriously, there's a lot of legal-ese in there. I don't have time to search through all that mumbo jumbo to figure out exactly what is mandated.

Unfortunately, I'm not having much luck finding a watered down version anywhere. You'd really think there'd be some kind of simple checklist or something for it. Number one: all students pass such and such test. Number two: All teachers pass such and such test before being credentialed. Number three: Here is how much money you will get for meeting these standards.

I mean, how are the rest of us supposed to figure it out?

So far, all I've gathered is stuff I already know. Teachers must be credentialed and show a mastery of a single subject. Standardized testing is how the feds determine if a school is up to par or not. The hard part is figuring out what the penalties are exactly.

If anyone has any suggestions of some good websites that can explain it all to me, please let me know. This is going to drive me crazy all night.

Zoey: 5 Months

Jenafer decided to make a deal with me concerning baby pictures. She decided in exchange for me doing a photo shoot with Zoey, she would cut and color my hair for free.

Awesome!

The OSF especially likes this deal, because he'd been wanting me to go blonder for awhile now.

So we went and did Zoey's second photo shoot at the beginning of February. 

Let me tell you: that kid is cu-ute. I can't handle it. And she's soooo photogenic. It's really unfair, because it makes my part of the deal so easy. 

I mean, come on. Look at her.

Zoey seems to like the photo shoots, too. I mean, sure I have to let her suck on the camera strap every once in awhile to keep her entertained, but it's worth it to get these kind of photos.

And then, just when you think she can't get any better... Jen busts out the pink flower headband.

(which Justin finds absurd, but he wasn't home yet.)

Jen had wanted to get some shots of Zo in her I Heart Daddy shirt as a surprise to Justin for Valentine's.

(FYI: This is the look that gets you whatever. you. want. Not that I've ever tried it, of course.)

(Wink.)

But Justin came home from work right in the middle of this part of the shoot and spoiled the whole surprise. What a punk.

(FYI: This is a cute little family.)

The next weekend, Jen made my hair look amazing while we had a great conversation about the old days. I really appreciate friends like Jen and Justin, who've literally known me since elementary school. It rocks so much.

9 Months

... is how long I've been with Chris.

Picture from 04/2009

And it's pretty much rocked the entire way.

Picture from 04/2009

In case I haven't made this clear enough in my past blogs, I love this guy so much. It literally hurts sometimes.

Those of you in love, you know what I'm talking about.

It's kind of hard to write about actually. Because when I actually sit to put pen to paper (or keystrokes to blog document, I suppose), I find that I have no words to explain it. I just love him. He is amazing to me. And to just type out a list of the qualities I love about him wouldn't do him justice.

So suffice it to say: He is great. Amazing. Wonderful. Not to mention smoking hot.

And I'm so blessed he's mine.

My internet has been very spotty for the last ten minutes...

So I had to go for some non-internet activities to keep me occupied. My time-wasting poison of choice lately has been pulling up Photoshop alongside my Photos folder, finding an old school picture, and messing around with textures, layers, and actions until I get something cool.

This picture came from the February 2009 folder. In fact, it was almost exactly a year ago today this was taken (this day was the 28th). I've realized, now that I'm not doing Picture of the Day this year, how fun it is to be able to go back exactly one year, and see what I was doing, or at least what I thought was interesting enough to take a picture of then.

I may be picking the project up again in March. I'm pretty dissatisfied with the lack of folders in my 2010 Pictures. I think there were only 4 days in January that I took any pictures at all.

The previous pictures of the OSF and I are from a spur of the moment, Hey! I need to get back in the habit again! He happened to have the most amazing light coming in through the window, and I started snapping pictures of him, then self-portraits of myself, which eventually led to cutesy couple pictures where only one of us is ever in focus each time.

But at least we're making pictures. That's all that really matters, right?

*Even if I'm the one who's always blurry?

All right, now that this here internet is back up and working, I'm off to finish up some to-do's for National.


* Story of my life

Look at how cute we are.

I know. I, too, sometimes find myself disturbed by it.

Valentine's Day

So... Chris has had a Valentine's surprise in the works which he had been taunting me with in the weeks leading up to the 14th. Well, okay, I guess taunting isn't accurate. It was more like:

Me: "What are we doing?"
Chris: "Not telling you."
Next day:
Me: "Where are we going?'
Chris: "Wouldn't you like to know."

What a punk!

I did know we were going out to eat. Had no idea where.

I figured it out when we reached North Park... and the street started looking really familiar....


Flashback- May 13, 2009


The First Date


The week before Sonia's wedding, the OSF took me out for our first date. We went to a restaurant he'd been to recently called Vagabond- a client at his work had taken him and few of his co-workers there for a thank you lunch. I had a yummy caesar salad. I think I was also sick. And the OSF was so forward as we walked back to his car that evening- just reached for my hand like he already had me won over. (Okay, he had.)

So there we were, wandering down a street in North Park, until he spotted Vagabond and we parked. We were among the first couples there and got a great table to the side. They had a set menu for the night, where we had three choices for our appetizer, salad, and main dish: We each chose the filet mignon for the main dish, and oh my gosh, it was amazing. I was very said when that part was over. ;) We got free champagne, too, and a little cake/mousse thing for dessert. It was such a nice little dinner with my favorite person in the world! I love him to pieces!

That was the end of the planned surprise, he said, and I was ecstatic about that, since I'd felt soooo tired all weekend, even throughout our dinner. So we went home and started a movie, Winter Passing, that he'd grabbed from his parents' DVD collection when were up there for his mom's birthday. The movie had Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrel in it, so we figured it was going to be a winner.

We watched to the part where Zooey Deschanel's characters drowns her kitten in the river, before Chris reached for the remote and snapped the TV off. "Valentine's Day downer movie!"

And after that we talked and snuggled.

It was a great night.

Notes from the Big V

We're off for our Valentine's Day date! Have fun, everyone else!

Five on Friday

I know. Right after a Ten on Tuesday. Weird.


(Really, I just have a few things to mention that I don't want to make into full-length blog posts.)


1) Got my hair cut and colored by the beautiful Jenafer yesterday. I LOVE talking with Jen while she cuts my hair. We've known each other since junior high (fifth grade for Jen), so it's so great talking with someone about past stuff when they've actually been in your past. And of course she did a great job with my hair. I absolutely adore the cut, and she highlighted the heck out of it so I'm actually blonde (and not dirty blonde/light brown) again. Chris is very pleased as well.


2) I had the day off today, since the school gives us a four-day weekend in February, instead of two Monday holidays. Slept in until eleven, got my nails done (for the first time ever!), dropped off Zoey pictures at Justin and Jen's house, and went to Joann's before meeting the OSF back at his house. And at 7:30 we went to....


3) ...my older sister's beautiful new house. Some of you may not know I have an older sister: she's a half (from my dad's first marriage) who's ten  years older than me. She and her husband Trevor just moved from their condo on a golf course in Dehesa to the new development of super nice houses on the hill overlooking the new 52/67 highway connector. Basically they're up on a hill with an amazing view of El Cajon and Santee. They just got an adorably new puppy that she's been texting pictures of to me. I've been looking forward to introducing Chris to the more "normal" members of my family, which is essentially Jacqui and Trevor. Tonight we went over for gluten-free brownies, beer (him) and pomegranate vodka (me) and hung out for awhile. So great to catch up with them. And now Chris knows that not all my family is crazy!


4) I started my new hours at the school on Wednesdsay. I go from mornings at the Woodman classroom (in South County) to the charter school headquarters up in Sorrento Mesa (just north of Miramar). Quite a difference. It only takes me about 20 minutes to get from one to the other on the 805, so it's not that bad. The thing that sucks is getting back from Sorrento Mesa. I had anticipated some horrible traffic coming home that first day; I did not foresee a 45 minute wait to get the six blocks down Mira Mesa Blvd. back to the 805. Forty. Five. Minutes. And I hadn't even gotten to the freeway yet. When we get back from Chris' house this weekend, I'm hitting up the library for any book on CD that sounds good. Apparently I'm going to need a stock to keep in my car for my rides home.


5) I had a traumatic experience earlier today: I went to get my nails done with Jenna.


Disclaimer (and I know some of you people may be appalled by this): I had never gotten my nails done before today.


I'm okay with it. You should be too.


Anyway, all I wanted out of the experience was French tips on my fingernails and toenails. Through a lack of communication (they didn't quite speak English most of the time) and a sudden influx of customers right when they started on Jenna and me, they somehow failed to give the French tips. And I, who had never done this before, just figured the tips went on at the end, so I was just waiting for them to do it. Until Jenna realized they should have done it first... so they ended up re-doing my fingernails (they look amazing, FYI, except I immediately chipped my right thumb polish trying to get my keys). I didn't have the heart to ask them to redo my toenails since they had so many people in there at that point. 


So at least I know now. 


And really, the nail thing wasn't for me; it was for the OSF. 


He likes when I get all "girled up." ;) 

Ten on Tuesday

1) I signed up for my first 3 months of classes at National! Chris and I drove through the rain and traffic to get to National headquarters. He came along because he wanted to know about the loan application process, but we ended up not meeting with the financial aid guy. So no news on aid, but I start classes in March. 


2) Anyone have any suggestions for good shaving cream or lotion? These dry winter months are killing my legs!


3) I just found out that I'm moving up to 40 hours at the charter school, which is excellent news. I get to work in the "library" at the main office in Sorrento Mesa. Don't know what it entails yet, but it's something to do with all our textbooks and lesson guides!


4) The rain sucks and here's why. a) I don't like my feet being wet. b) Several strands of my hair start doing this wavy thing that would be cute if it were my whole head of hair and not just here and there pieces; it just looks like I couldn't decide how to do my hair that morning. c) People are rude in the rain; they only care about getting out of it themselves. Example, it took me 10 minutes to merge a lane over tonight on the 15 north. Then when I finally went for it, the guy sped up, forcing me back in my lane. Horrid rain people.


5) Had dinner at La Salsa with the OSF tonight, while we waited out the traffic, rain, and horrible rain people. A delightful experience as always.


6) The OSF's taking me out for Valentine's Day... but I don't know what we're doing! This has caused some speculation amongst the people I work with.... and yes, they're thinking what you're thinking.


7) I wasted a lot of time tonight trying to download youtube videos.


8) I found a youtube video of the German (I think) cast of Spring Awakening! It kind of sounds awesome in (I think) German.


9) No news on the writing front. There hasn't been much writing in the past week or so. There has been much getting inspired by reading the blogs of other authors though! That counts, right? Right?


10) And for our number ten spot we have the birth of the new Burmeister Baby: Micah! A.K.A. Hamster Cheeks, for obvious reasons. Fresh meat to photograph. I love it.

If you call, they will answer

The day after I posted the OSF's funny about people in the scrapbook biz, I found this in my email:

Hi. I saw your blog post. I wanted to check to see if anyone from Making Memories had contacted you for help.
Let me know.
Thanks

This was from Jenny. From Making Memories. 

Since then I've been in contact with the service department at MM, and my Slice is back up and working (with the exception of tiny designs that still distort a little bit, but really, that's just nitpicking right now). 

Who would've thought posting a quirky comment from the OSF would get me such a quick answer!

Thanks, Jenny, Ashley, and Making Memories!

Sick = Sad face. :(

I hate being sick. It's the lamest thing ever!


I have an unusual cold right now. Unusual in that it does not follow my usual cold pattern which goes like this:


Day one and two: sore throat
Day three and four: runny, itchy nose and watery eyes
Day five and six: gross cough
Day seven: pretty much good to go


I like patterns. They are predictable. Also my colds have always responded to either Dayquil or Tylenol Allergy relief meds. As in, six out of those seven days I'm fine enough to carry on with life without too many problems.


But this cold is shaking things up a bit:
Day one: sore throat reminiscent of the crazy sore throat I had back in July, complete with accompanying headache and earache.
Day two: fine
Day three: mid-afternoon slap in the face with runny nose, itchy, watery eyes
Day four: Same thing
Day five: Brief reprieve
Day six: Slap! The worst! Couldn't make it through the workday without a box of Kleenex next to me. Meds are helping for about an hour and then I'm on my own. A hint of a yucky cough mixed in with a sneeze foreshadows darker days ahead.


Michelle, at the school. says maybe it's the seven-years' change, where supposedly every seven years your body finds a new way of dealing with things. Kristen thinks it's just allergies. I do not like either of these suggestions. One, I was fine with my old cold pattern. It was cake. Two, if this is allergies, please do not sign me up. What number do I need to call to get me off this list?


Now if you'll excuse me, it's been four hours and I have another two tablespoons of Dayquil waiting for me in the kitchen. 




Signed,


Sad Face


:(

The funny for today...

So Chris overheard me leave a message at Making Memories, about my awesome wonderful beautiful amazing Slice die-cutting machine... that is suddenly not working properly. I had received a ticket number when I contacted them via the website a few weeks ago, but when I hadn't heard anything, I went to check the status of the number, and it said the ticket number had been completed and closed. 


I was sad about this.


So I called and left them a message explaining the situation. And when I got off the phone, Chris piped up with this:


"You know, I bet it would be really great to work at a scrapbooking company."


To which I replied, "RIGHT?! WOULDN'T IT?! IT'S MY DREAM!!!" Because, see, I didn't realize his statement was a) facetious, and b) leading to something else.


He continues:


"Because all day long you'd get people calling with (switch to girl voice), "Um, hi! So sorry to bother you, and I hope you're having a great day and all, but I have a problem with my scrapbooking machine, and, um, see it won't cut out my star! And really, all I want is to go back to my scrapbooking! And I really, really love your products, so hopefully you can help me fix this star problem please?"


Touche, OSF. Touche.


But, um, seriously, Making Memories? If you end up reading this, I would really love it if I could cut things out again. Pretty please?

This and that from this week

Hung out at Jen and Justin's Sunday night. We ate homemade pizza, watched season two of the Big Bang Theory, and Jen made us some seriously amazing peanut butter cookies. Best I've ever had in my life.

I stopped in at Target for grading pens on Tuesday. Let myself walk through the clothing section. Which ended up being a mistake (sort of) as I ended up buying a bunch of stuff. Curse my love of new, cute clothes. But it was also good, in that I got a lot of things I've been meaning to add to my work wardrobe, all on clearance. And the OSF got a fashion show later that night.

Had honey tangerines for the first time on Monday. Yum. But they've got seeds.


Watched a kid at school learn an important lesson this week. I overheard him dropping a few choice words around one of my favorite kids, and he began to irk me. At lunch, I mentioned to the other teachers that I was disliking this kid, and Sandee and Anthony were shocked, as this kid is considered one of their favorites. Sandee talked to the boy after I'd gone for the day, explaining how "a colleague of hers" (me) had overheard him and gotten the idea that he didn't have very good character. Poor kid felt so bad! And I understand- it sucks when you get caught doing one thing wrong and you feel labeled for it, even when you do a million things right. But what a great lesson for that kid to learn as a high school student- that sometimes you can give off the wrong impression even when you think no one's listening.


I like it when I'm hauling twenty-two books from my car to the library drop-off box and I pass someone who smiles knowingly at me. Because I know they're on the return trip from dropping off their excessive book loans.


While on a special Saturday afternoon visit to Chris' office for some printing work:
Jordan: "Oh, look at that. You've got two monitors."
Chris: "Yeah. Want to see how it works?!"
Jordan: "I'm good."


Fun meeting this week for the charter school. This month they combined meetings for South and Central, so we got to see Brian and Alicia, who work at the North Park classroom. Talked about wedding rings, grading rigor (our own kind of rigor, that is), and walked to Office Depot to search for the optimum grading pen.


Did not find the optimum grading pen at Office Depot. Or at Target. I've got strict criteria here: good roll, comes in multiple colors (preferably some fun colors too), almost looks like a fine tip sharpie, except it does not bleed through. And is not a gel pen. So far the Bic Z4 is the only pen that measures up, but I can only find them online at Office Depot. And shipping's $10 bucks. For four pens.


8 months with Chris has officially begun. He had to work late last night, on the official day, so we stayed in and did nothing.


However, today is turning out to be quite a fun experience: sushi lunch (with best fried rice/vegetable blend I've ever had), stop at the candy store, hit up his work while he completes more of the Friday night project, and soon we'll be off to meet Ryan at Gordon Biersch (with the bill on Chris' boss, since Chris has to work so late so often), and then the National Comedy Theater, where the OSF has never been before.

I ponied up the $60 for the application fee, so I'm definitely in for the teaching credential/ Master's program at National. Good-bye, freedom!

Still working on my writing. It's been a good week, but still coming slowly. I'm hoping to have an official rough draft done for my young adult book by the end of next week. Exciting! I've been motivated by the list of recent ALA winners that just came out for 2010. I haven't read any of the Newbery winners, but I'm looking forward to adding them to my library list soon.

Poor OSF

His monitor just couldn't take it anymore and decided to collapse on him today. There he was, just minding his own business, editing pictures of his super cute girlfriend, and BAM! That monitor got taken down. 

And then the poor guy had to think. How was he to make this new format work?

Could he some how fix the hinge on the back and call it a day?

Nope. For awhile he just went about his business, one hand holding the monitor up, and one hand operating the mouse as he continued his photo edits. Until I asked him how long he planned for that to continue.

Then I was rewarded with this look.

Meanwhile, as you can see, I was happily snapping away. Some day he'll think this is a funny story, and he'll be so delighted that I documented it. He'll say, "Babe, you're so amazing at keeping track of all the mundane yet comical moments of our life. And now I'm going to go out and buy you a brand new desktop computer, because you're just that amazing!"

Yep. That's what he will say.

Trust me. I know this guy.

Eventually he lay the monitor back down and just continued his work this way. He was clearly very dedicated to making this picture of me look amazing.

Poor monitor. Poor OSF. Poor me who had to search all of Fry's for the only two Samsung monitors that the sales guy said were definitely in the store, just probably in someone's cart.

But on a higher note, we did get to stop at the Corner Bakery in Mission Valley for dinner, and I discovered the amazingness of their chopped salad. So the day wasn't a complete wash.