Compliments don't make me spend money.

I received so many compliments over the last few days about the skirts I've been wearing that I went out and bought $420 worth of new clothes from Old Navy.

Before everyone who knows me has a heart attack, I brought them home so my mom could help me sort through them. I'm returning $320 worth sometime in the next ninety days....and I know Dave is going to bug annoy harass gently remind me about them to make sure they get returned. Thanks in advance, sweetie!

DAMMIT! I forgot to call Ticketmaster. I bought Kit Phantom of the Opera tickets for her birthday/Christmas present and they were for a night that she's got a final exam. Grr. I've been meaning to do this for a week now. Sorry!

Ok, I'm going to bed. If I'm asleep by 1030, I'll get eight GLORIOUS hours of sleep.

PS...where the hell is this week going?? I've only got a day and a half left (Friday's a half day) and then a three day week next week (Monday's a holiday and there's a ProD day on Tuesday that I'm not sure I need to attend.)

Me and my diet tonic water

Holy crap it's hot. I didn't realize until I got home from Vancouver and it was 31 degrees. My room at school is usually freezing cold, so it was NIIIIICE today. I'm drinking my room temperature diet tonic water and wishing it was colder. Hmm...my gin's in the fridge...maybe I should partake. Better yet, my vodka is in the freezer...

Tonic water would be even more bitter if there was no sugar in it. Proof of how much sugar is in tonic water.

It's like a billion degrees in here, which oddly, is the temperature Dave usually insists that I'm at. One would think I would be comfortable. One would be incorrect.

I wore a skirt yesterday...it was wonderful. I almost cried today when I put on my jeans (track meet...didn't want to wear the skirt again).

A list of those family members who have this address...hello everyone!
My cousin Victor (go buy his CD. It's so very very good.)
My cousin Erin
My Auntie Janet (and by extension probably my Uncle Jerry)
My mom and dad and brother (although I don't think they read)

Anyway, I'm currently writing an email, writing this post and working on my lesson plans for a couple of weeks from now. I am doing all of these poorly, so I'm going to publish this and get it out of the way.

BTW, I've posted every day this month. Just thought I'd brag, since it's been half the month. (Watch this space...tomorrow I won't post. :P)

When I'm tired...I sound like the Tick.

(MSN message sent to Dave)
Karin-could I actually...be getting better??? says: time for me to beat up my headache with the stick of sleep

I'm going to look at this tomorrow and wonder why I found it so hysterical....I just know it.

YAYY!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm THIS CLOSE *fingers pinched really close* to being completely better. This weekend was enough to shove this cold/flu/plague out the door. YES!

Also, I am jealous. I wish to go here. Maybe next summer. I also want to create a labyrinth in my backyard.

I've gotten slightly rehooked (is this a word? do I care? nah.) onto gardening and want to redesign my parents' back yard. Currently it's very shady with a lot of lawn and places completely groundcovered and a half assed vegetable garden. Oh, and a cute little shade garden that I found and added to a couple years ago. I would like to open it up to the sun and create a bunch of smaller spaces to move around in depending on the mood one is in. I would also like to clean out the (ugly!!) ground cover and make my vegetable garden full assed and tidy up the shade garden and plant a few more things there.

Yikes. And I was planning on having ANY spare time this summer??

Huh?

What? These flowers? They're for my garden. Why do you ask?

Oh...huh. I'd better get you something, huh?

Kidding of course. Mother's day was nice...lunch (European style smorgasborg) and presents with my mom and dad, then Chinese food dinner with Dave and my mom and dad.

I want to do some serious gardening now. Eep. Too many hobbies all want to get time...I've got to be careful. :P

Happy Mother's Day!

Heartsick

Something happened today at school with a child who isn't in my class. Obviously I can't go into any detail about it in this forum, but it's really bothering me. :( And the worst part? There honestly, seriously, isn't anything that I can do. This isn't one of my kids, which I'm glad of, because it would completely eat me up. THIS is why I couldn't go into policing. THIS is why I couldn't go into counselling. How do I shut myself down so that it doesn't destroy me? Next time it could be one of my kids...someone I've made a connection to. I guess the real question is, "how do I keep myself separate emotionally, without sacrificing building relationships?" (And if I could tell you that I could probably write a book and make a million dollars being on Oprah. [I don't actually care too much about Oprah, but if I had a book, I'd go everywhere to promote it. {I hope this doesn't hurt my chances to get on Oprah when I get my novel published.(Gwyn: I think you just start over again when you run out of brackets...although it should technically be the pointy brackets.)}])

Time for a nap.

I am so happy it's Friday.

quilt detail, originally uploaded by Random Synapses.

More pictures...click the link. :D

Passive aggressive bullsh*t.

Someone at school today wrote in the sign-in book "Could the student teachers please remember that coffee and tea are fifty cents. Container is on the counter."

Ok. Let's count the things wrong with this.

1) There are three of us. Only three. If you have a problem with us, talk to us...not the book where the WHOLE STAFF can see it. We've gone out of our way to be approachable. Approach us!

2) One of us has paid a $10 fee. This is the price for the whole year...not for the three months that we are there, so technically, she's paid for all three of us, if we wanted to quibble.

3) The other two of us can't drink coffee because it makes us sick, and we haven't had any of the tea. I get water out of the kettle (which I ALWAYS refill, even if I only took a little bit) or the side of the coffee machine (which instantly refills). It's all coming out of the tap.

4) It seems this person has had it out for me...again with the passive aggressive. This person is in charge of the laminating for the whole school and bitched about my laminating to my sponsor teacher who had told me I could get it done. Nice. Very nice.

Anyway, I've got photos ready on my desk to be scanned.

(BTW, I realize and fully embrace the irony of how passive aggressive a blog is. Just so you know that I know.)

I should be sleeping.

I'm not. I'm an idiot.

But! I'm an idiot with photos back from being developed. Watch this space...tomorrow...there will be paper quilt and dragon photos.

(ps, I'm still sick, blah blah blah...screw off. Goddamned throat and lungs.)

Look! It's bedtime!

I'm feeling so good about teaching this week. Thank goodness, because last week I was in a deep dark funk because of the whole plagiarism-that-wasn't issue. Being ill probably didn't help at all.

But this week is good! And I am going to be in bed before 10:30 tonight so that hopefully I will be even better. DAMN this cough and aching throat. This is getting ridiculous. Day 12 of being sick, ten pounds lost (BTW, seriously, the next person who claims to want this "diet", I'm going cough right in their face...I've already threatened to twice today.) My right ear has been plugged since last night...it's bugging me a lot and I got a sharp flash of pain this morning and a dull ache happening now. Please send anti-ear-infection vibes at me.

Something that's been bugging the hell out of me lately: song lyrics that reference a storm, but put the thunder first, and then the lightning. Also, it irritates me when lightning makes a noise...I submit as proof:

Garth Brooks, The Thunder Rolls: "And the thunder rolls/and the lightning strikes..." (Probably the most famous of them all. Grrr...love the song...hate this.. SO. IRRITATING.)

Johnny Reid, Time Flies: "Mountains move, rivers run, shadows fall with the setting sun/thunder rolls and lighting strikes the darkness covers and
swallows up the light… and time flies" (This one annoys me because it's the SAME LYRICS as above. Please, if you're going to pay homage to a song, make it factually accurate! Or else choose different verbs.)

Thunder, Distant Thunder: "I hear the sound of distant thunder, it's coming closer every day/Soon there'll be lightning crashing to the ground" (Lightning's already hitting the ground, unless it's going from cloud to cloud, which is cool...BUT! Lightning. Does. Not. Crash.)

Live, Lightning Crashes: "Lightning crashes, a new mother cries" (Please see above about the whole lightning not crashing thing.)

Norm Hacking, Thunder and Lightning: "Thunder she'll roll you and roll you and/Shake you to the bone./There ain't no sky too dark/For Ol' Man Lightning." (this one's a bit of a stretch...ok. But the imagery is there...)

It's actually just the first two that really annoy me. (Yes, they're country songs. Yes, I listen to country and it doesn't annoy me. Shut up, Bill. :P) The other ones I had to Google, and boy...does the word "thunder" look WEIRD to me now!

Ok, really going to bed now. I got caught up in researching all those damned songs.

Holy traffic.

Today on my way to Gigabyte, there was a majorly huge accident directly on my route. I know it was bad because there was a Med-Evac helicopter enroute to a different accident, but the other one took priority and they sent it towards my area instead. Dave knew that it was on my route at the time I drive it, and that it was really serious, so he called my cell phone to make sure it wasn't me. Luckily I'd figured he might do that, checked my phone and had to turn it on. I haven't heard anything but I hope everyone's ok. :( Someone found my site looking for "Barnet Highway webcam", which I'm afraid doesn't exist to my knowledge.

I made it to Gigabyte three minutes before the bell rang to let the kids in, and I made it there safely. I never was so thankful and thoughtful about how lucky I am all the time.

In lighter news, I did indeed make a dozen lemon poppyseed muffins. I tried one last night and was fairly disappointed. I've been craving them for several weeks now, and had what they "should" taste like in my head, so anything else would have been a disappointment. My dad liked the one he tried, so that was good. I took one to school today and OMG. The flavours melded together...oh my. They were fantastic. I then arrived home and discovered there were only three left. Hehe. Dad found that they're better the next day too. :)

*poof!* There goes all my free time...

I just discovered fan fiction. About Labyrinth, Firefly etc. Oh my god. I'm not even going to start with the Buffy fanfics because I don't want spoilers...but there are 28,000 entries for it.

If anyone needs me, I'll be at my computer...(and I thought that blogs and webcomics were time eaters...)

Carb craving

If you're hungry, you may want to skip the following...

I want to make, and gorge on the following:
-lemon poppyseed loaf/muffins
-cornmeal bread/muffins
-chocolate chip cookies
-rice krispie squares
-white bread soaked in syrup so it's like candy
-cinnamon toast on white bread
-vast quantities of pasta with alfredo sauce and chicken or shrimp
-cheese and crackers
-chicken noodle soup from a box
-Kraft dinner
-Rice a roni (chicken flavour)
-Mr Noodles

If I ate even a bite of each of those, I would gain back the nearly ten pounds I've lost while being sick. Therefore, I will go eat a sensible lunch and hope that some of these cravings will diminish. Otherwise, I'm making the first two on the list, and damning the consequences.

This Day in the Life

This will hopefully be a running thing, because I'll be somewhat near a computer most of the day, unlike last month. Like last month however, I'm still sick. BOOO! Watch this space...I'm going to keep adding onto this same post.

1200-I am in a dark theatre with Dave on one side, Jeff on the other side watching Tom Cruise doing one of several things...jumping on a couch, running very rapidly towards a fight, running very rapidly away from a missile/bullet shower/helicopter, being in a gun fight or else we were watching his stunt double do something mean to Phillip Seymore Hoffman's stunt double.

1220-The movie is over, and we're rather impressed, despite this being the sixth or seventh movie in a row that we've seen that didn't have an Easter egg at the end. Honestly...if we're going to look like dorks and sit to the end of the credits, at least reward us ONCE in a while. Driving home, I pretend that the cars are following me, which is fun until I get nervous that one of them actually IS following me. What is it "they" say about paranoia?

1230-I get home and remember that I need to start this post. I run to the bathroom first.

1231-I remember that I forgot to refill the toilet paper, and since I don't share a bathroom the only one I can blame are the spiders. Damned spiders. Problem easily solved.

1235-Why does all the toilet paper have to be all the way upstairs. *grumble and decide to begin post*

1240-When Dave calls, I make the good decision to have us just go to bed in our respective houses because I'm still sick and coughing, and I teach T tomorrow morning.

1242-I start this post.

1252-I am going to go away from the keyboard, but I feel as though I should continue typing as an internal monologue while I go and do the things I need to do to get ready for bed. Maybe I should type into the future...oh dear. The cold medicine seems to have rotted my brain because I'm actually worried about this. Dave? Is this meta? I'm so confused. ok...solution...

1254-prediction: the quest for toilet paper, writing in my paper journal, getting changed for bed, setting my alarm for 930 *get giddy at the idea of sleeping in until 930* *ignore needling thought that I won't actually sleep that long*, read a little bit of my new Sara Douglass book (God's Concubine...book two of The Troy Game) and hopefully be asleep without the use of a roofie-pill.

0200-I actually get to sleep around this time becaues I was enthralled with my book. DAMN, it's a good series.

0910-I get a phone call from T's mom saying that tutoring is cancelled for this morning. How annoying...I'd changed my plans last night to reflect the fact that I was going to be tutoring. I try to fall asleep again and fail.

0920-I start reading my book again.

1030-I finish my book. This is something like five huge novels I've read in the last week or so. I've MISSED reading!!

1037-check email and blog roll, then head upstairs for some food.

1043-while idly surfing around blogs and referrers, I discover MC Hammer's blog. This has to be fake...one would think that MC Hammer would have enough money to have his own domain name at least. (God, I'm such an internet snob.)

1050-Dave calls me and while I'm talking to him, there's a knock on my door. It's him! On his cell phone! Awwwww... :)

1051-*censored* ;)

1245-We go to the mall for lunch and drugstore stop. I get some Contact-C since I'm pretty much out of the stuff I like. I get a BURRRR-EEEEE-TOOOOOOOOOO and rice. We wander around for a bit, and since I took a non-roofie Contact-C on a stomach that'd been empty since early last evening, I start wigging out. I'm high as a kite, giggling, getting distracted by little Winnie the Pooh figures in animal costumes and purple dragons, which I coveted. I was wandering around in a complete daze and talking nonsense. Dave figured that I was just saying whatever came into my head, like I had no internal monologue. I know this sounds like me on a normal day, but it was really uncontrolled.

130-We get home and I lie down in bed and despite the allegedly non drowsiness of my pill, I nearly fall asleep while pulling the covers over me. When I pulled them over me, I twisted my leg into an uncomfortable position, which kept me awake long enough to get up, make my bed, recite a short impromptu soliloquy about how primitive bed clothes are and how sleeping bags are far superior for their instant climb-in-ability. Dave thinks that's pretty funny. I really should record the stuff I say when I'm tripping on cold medicine. I get into bed and fall asleep while Dave does stuff on my computer.

420-I wake up a little when Dave comes over to cuddle with me.

530-We both wake up. Dave does some more stuff on my computer, and I think I read for a while. Dave marvels at the sheer amount of stuff I've got set to tape on my computer.

630-I take a shower which steams out my stuffy nose and makes me feel a bit better and actually a little hungry.

700-We have dinner upstairs. I have salmon in dill sauce, asparagus, mashed potatoes and corn. Oh, and green tea.

800-I drink my tea and read while Dave does some stuff on my computer. (I'm such a cliche...I just need a cat on my lap and I'm the stereotypical English major on a Saturday night!) I now have my TV hooked back up to cable, a headphone extender for my stereo (whee! I can move the bike back from the TV!), a working webcam, a tidy desk, my PC tower back where it's supposed to be, a wireless game controller and probably a few other things that I'm unaware of. Yay!

900-Dave and I watch last week's Alias that we recorded on my computer. I <3 my computer. I don't <3 this episode of Alias. :P Too...forced.

1030-Dave goes home and I read for a little while, then come and update.

1100-I;m planning on taking a roofie based cold pill, quickly check my blogroll, then will probably do my squished tree journal, read a little of my newly begun book and pass right out. If I do something wonderous and amazing, I'll be sure to update. :) Sorry this day wasn't very interesting...most of it was spent asleep and/or reading. :P

Edited: I started reading blogs and now it's midnight. I haven't taken my roofie yet, and my chest hurts really badly and it kind of hurts to breathe. I think I coughed too much today. I had a bunch of coughing attacks...time for bed and medicine. Good night!

Sunburns

Yesterday was interesting. My sponsor teacher was sick (whoops.) and so I was supposed to have a substitute because legally I'm not allowed to be in a classroom completely by myself with no one in the school to supervise me. There was a screwup with the system though, and I didn't have a sub for the morning. All was fine, and there were many people checking in on me throughout the morning. I was supposed to teach most of the lessons at that time anyway. The afternoon was interesting as well. There was a district wide earthquake drill which involved us being on the field for 45 minutes. That's a really long time for six year olds. I got a little sunburn on my face. But all was well and the kids were really good while we were out there.

Then today was massive giant garbage pickup day. The whole school got gloves and went around the community picking up litter. It was fun, and got us out of the school between recess and lunch. Then, since it was a half day, the kids all went home.

The End.

Oh, right. Illness update. I took my roofie cold medicine last night, and was out cold in half an hour. Forget sleeping pills! I'm just going to take a Contact-C. I'm feeling better than I did yesterday...I even went out in the garden for an hour and a half and attacked dandelions and planted vegetable seeds. This year I have somewhat of a machinegun/Darwin approach to gardening...ignore how far apart stuff is supposed to be and just scatter seeds around. Something's bound to grow. The last few years I actually tried doing the whole "row" thing, but meh. Too tired and chaotic this year.

And now because I'm completely insane, I'm going to go see a movie with Dave and Jeff. I'd better take a non-roofie pill because otherwise I'll irritate everyone with coughing like crazy. I hope that the popcorn smell isn't going to make me sick...last Monday I was very ill...and I'd just eaten popcorn. Mmm...taste aversion. :P

*cough*

Yup, still sick. Yesterday at about 8:00 I took a night time Contac-C and did the paper's Sudoku while I waited for it to kick in. (For reference: Extra strength Neo-Citrin kind of puts me to sleep...doesn't affect me much.) I started drooping over my newspaper in about fifteen minutes, then got up to put my dishes from dinner away. The world started spinning and I ricocheted into several pieces of furniture/walls like a pinball ball before I made it into the kitchen. I was slurring my words, talking about weird things...it was like being drunk. It was insane. So I stumbled downstairs, quickly did a couple lesson plans (which I haven't looked at yet...I wonder if I'll be able to follow them this morning...) collapsed into bed and was asleep before nine.

I woke up briefly at 1 am or so, back to sleep, then woke up again at 0400, back to sleep and then asleep until 6:30, which is when I needed to be up. I'm totally refreshed, although still sick (STILLL!! ARGHHHHHHH!!!) but I'm at least functional.

And now to school.

...


...


What? Why are you still looking expectantly at me? OH! The meeting yesterday! It was fine...and Gwyn...turns out it was at 9-930, so your thoughts were right on target.

*pout*

Don't WANNA go to school today. I still feel as bad as I did yesterday, and Monday, and Sunday...I mean, shouldn't I be feeling better? At least a little bit?

Today I have a meeting with my teacher sponsor and faculty advisor. It's a normal one...halfway through my practicum* and it's mainly just a checkup, but it seems to be more than that because of the whole plagiarism kerfuffle. I'm sure it'll be fine, but on the off chance that someone is reading this before 8:40-9:00, think happy karma thoughts at me.

*Oh my GOD, I'm halfway through my practicum!

Remember that the 6th (Saturday) "Blog what you did in an excruciatingly detailed fashion" Day. I'll be doing it. Will you?

*insane, humourless cackling*

Hello, hubris? This is Karin. Piss off.

After writing the post below, I checked my email. There is one from my faculty advisor who asked me to call her immediately because she thought I may have plagiarised an assignment.

What. The. Fuck?

If you all know me, (which granted...most of you don't...) you would realize that I am probably the least likely person to copy someone else...partly because I'm just so darned smart that I could do a better job on it than anyone else.

Things I've Never Done That Most People Would Find Surprising
-smoked pot
-taken any illegal drugs except for a little alcohol before I turned 19 (some of which my parents let me have) and my brother's Tylenol 3's because the Percocet that I had been prescribed were too strong for me.
-cheated on a test
-cheated on an assignment (including plagiarism, or letting someone else use my work)
-lied to a telemarketer
-lied as a retail employee
-stolen anything (except for some earrings when I was four because I thought the store lost them and didn't want them any more, and the cashews in Dave's room that I can't stop eating!!)
-lied to get a day off work or school
-skipped class before university

Anyway, the whole thing seems to be ok now. But oh my god, waiting for her to call me back was among the longest half hours of my life.

Of course, I'm still sick, and in fact I'm home today. It doesn't have anything to do with the stress of yesterday...more to do with the stressing of my throat yesterday. My throat is currently sore up to my ear.

On the plus side, I learned two great number songs from a Mr. Dressup that originally aired when I was in grade nine. Who knew that children's programming could be such a resource to me now?!

o/~Let's do the number rumba (cha cha cha!) o/~

Oh my GAAAAHD...

It's already the first of May. Where the hell did April go? Oh, right. Practicum.

Seems to me I was just saying "Where the hell did October go?" and now it's suddenly May? Holy crap.

And another holy crap moment...in thirteen weeks, I'm going to be a qualified teacher (yadda yadda, barring unforseen etc. ad nauseum)

THIRTEEN WEEKS!!!!!

In sickness news (because I KNOW you all don't hear enough whining about how I feel...) I think I'm running a mild fever (Mom tested..."I think you're a little warm"), my throat is WICKED sore again (taught PE to 20 five and six year olds...no matter how good they're being [and they were AWESOME today] I'm gonna have to yell, plus I did an hour of track and field coaching...again with the yelling, since it's outside. [And WTF is up with me and all these nested brackets lately? I'm going to rename this blog Random Bracketses.])

Now I shall eat my jello with marshmallow and fruit, as it's the only thing that appeals to my poor raw throat, and drink my neocitrin, whilst typing furiously to send off my lesson plans before I fall asleep on my keybob bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbjjjj jjjjjjjjjjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuu uuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmm