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March 29th, 2004

06:47 pm - Rollerblading made me sentimental. Such a perfect day to be doing something outside. Not too hot, not too cold. If only there was more time and more available people around....but that's okay. Blading on my own always makes me feel better. So while I was blading around campus today I had a lot of memories come back. They mainly came back because I was thinking about the fact that in a little over a month, the place I basically call home will no longer be home. And even though the boro does have a lot of crappiness to it, there are a lot of things I will miss. I think it started out with getting a phone call after school today from Abby. She mentioned something that triggered in my brain again about the fact that after graduation, there is such a small percentage of people I will stay in contact with from college. It's kind of sad, but it's in inevitable truth. There are certain people that I do plan on trying to stay in touch with, but when all of us are going to be spread around the state/country/world, it's going to make it a little bit more difficult. I'll miss the opportunity to take a trip down to the fake lake and sit by myself late at night (or some of you might call it really early in the morning) to think about why the heck the things that are occurring in my life are happening. I'll miss the random pick up games of volleyball and ultimate frisbee to join in on any day that is above 50 degrees. I'll miss the large amount of people that I was able to convince to take very random road trips with me at any time of day or night. I'll miss having so many people come to visit me just because they wanted to see me and hang out. I don't know if I'll miss all these things, but I won't forget the things that happened to people on their way to visit me (like a snow storm (surprise) and a car wreck). I have so many awesome memories with people either who are from Edinboro or came to visit me throughout the past four years. Jo, Chuck, John, Ross, Traeger, Carrie, KK, Jayme, Katie, Eric, Joe, Adam, Nate, Ben, Rodney, Brian, Joe, Scott, Andrew, Mike H., Amanda, Abby, Melissa, Dan, Bila, Ryan, Kristi, Courtney, Julie, Andrea, Dana, Nicole, Drew, Mike (duquesne), Jen K., Dave, Becca, Tricia, Matt, Tiffany, Meagen, Jeff, Allison, Nicole, Shannon...and more I'm sure. If your name is listed, then there are still definite things that just pop into my mind that I will remember for a long time, and though some of you might thing bad things, I'm only thinking of the good times. (The names are kind of in a freshman to senior order.) I think I'm being sent telepathic messages through my computer screen. It keeps blinking just in the middle and looks like something is there...weird. Anyways....after this year, no more throwing random items off the back porch when we don't want them....no more beating up on Bob just because...no more answering machine messages that are years old...no more random crazy quotes made by Jo either when she's falling asleep or when she's perfectly wide awake...no more a lot of stuff. Yeah, I'm getting a little sentimental. A little too sappy. So....but I'm really excited for the next phase. I can't wait to move and have my own place in a new state with a real job working with kids and be close to Jeff. And...now people have a new place to come visit to. I would think Nashville would be much more exciting to visit than Edinboro anyways. I'm sweaty. Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: Dispatch - Walk With You

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March 21st, 2004

11:07 pm - Holy crap! Wow...how 'bout this folks? What can I say...student teaching keeps me quite busy. And if I'm not busy, I don't want to be on my computer because where I spend my time when I am busy. Well, I'm sure there's lots to catch up on since the last time I posted, months ago, but I don't feel like doing that. Talk about boring. Here's the latest scoop. I taught in Kindergarten until a week ago. I think I got an A in that placement but I haven't been told officially yet. I started in a 4th grade this past Tuesday and have just been observing for four days, and I get to do that again on Monday. It's pretty boring and I really want to start teaching. This place though as of now has shown me that I enjoy working with much younger kids. These kids sit in their desks and do work and don't need anything. I like working with the kids who are dependent on others. In case you don't know, the final decision is Jeff and I are moving to Nashville. I think I have a job lined up there in a Montessori school, though it's not for sure. Apartment searching has begun and I've had a lot of helpful people in that area. The weekend after Easter we're going down to check things out. Depending on my job I will be leaving probably around the beginning of June. I had a student ask me if I liked biographies. I said it depended on who it was about and he asked me about Coretta Scott King. I said I ddin't know who that was, so he pulls out a book, hands it to me, and said, "Here...read this in your spare time." I was looking through it and he said, "Oh, and it's a library book so I'll need that back by Wednesday." I told him he should probably just hold onto it but he was insistent about me reading it. In my spare time.. Out of my kindergarten experience I had: numerous children crying everyday, a child who got into stealing and lying a lot, a girl who peed her pants, a girl who would practically tell me everyday that she didn't know how to put on her coat, another girl who was really excited to tell me all about her soccer team (everyday she'd tell me when she had practice). Speaking of which, I think some of you know of the soccer myth that seems to follow me around. It happened twice just recently. First, my old co-op and I were planning my last week of teaching. She was just looking through the reading book and saw a story about soccer and she said, "Oh too bad you won't be here for that one! That'd be perfect." Then just this past weekend, Tricia tried to get her bridesmaids together to go out with Barry and the groomsmen. One of the groomsmen was talking to me asking what sports I played because I looked athletic. Before I had a chance to say anything he said, "You probably play soccer right?" Weird. So another thing about this whole fourth grade thing. I kind of miss the constant "why are you touching him? where should your hands be? please keep the paste out of your mouth? why are you under your table? please don't kick her" type of things happening all the time...fourth graders don't do that. But my second day or something this one kid was chewing on his pencil...and when I say chewing I mean taking bites out of it. A girl said to me, "Devin is eating his pencil!" So I look over and see a lot of wood and not so much yellow paint on his pencil. So I go through the reasons of why he shouldn't eat his pencil...like the fact that getting a splinter out of his finger sometimes hurts and needs dug out with tweezers. I asked him he he thinks it'd feel good to get splinters out of his stomach, but we couldn't use tweezers and we'd have to open him up and get the wooden pencil pieces out. I started talking to another student and didn't realize Devin was still standing there, staring at me kind of in shock. Eventually I see him and ask him what's wrong, and he asked, "Umm...Miss Tiberio, do you think I'm okay now?" I told him he was okay this time, but he better not eat anymore pencils because he might not be okay again. He hasn't since. One more story before going to bed...where I work (at the golf dome) there is a Dairy Queen inside it. Employees can basically get anything for free...though I only ask for things when Debbie works (I found out today that she hates being called Debra as well) because she's pretty cool. I work with this guy Keith. He was talking to me for awhile and we saw our manager get a hot fudge sundae. Keith was saying how much he'd really like to get some ice cream but he felt bad asking for it. I kept telling him that they really didn't care about giving it out. After about 15 minutes, he said that he'd only go over and ask for something if I went with him. And I had to get something as well. So I go over with him and say to Debbie, "So I'm bringing Keith over for his first time of getting free ice cream. He hasn't asked for it before because he felt bad and thought you'd get mad at him." Keith wasn't expecting me to make fun of him about the situation and he got really red..it was pretty funny. I felt kind of bad, but I think he got over it. That's all I have. I ended up being at work from 11:50-9:50. I didn't get home till 10:45. It's time for bed. Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: Jamiroquai / Whatever It Is, I Just Can't Stop

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February 1st, 2004

10:47 pm - Sadly I've given up on the lesson plan I should have for tomorrow. I should be doing one more plan....but....the way I see it is I don't have any good ideas, and I don't feel like I can get any good ideas till I go to the Math and Science Center which isn't open till tomorrow. So...that's what I will tell my co-op. I know you wanted to know. Anyways, let's see....the past week had two rough days and it made the week really really long. Thursday I got observed and though it didn't go "bad"....it wasn't good. Friday we took the entire school out (which is only one class per grade) in the snow to play. That was fun. Except the beforehand part and telling one child for 15 minutes that if she didn't get herself ready, she wasn't going outside. And when she wasn't ready when all the other kids were becuase she never does anything when she's told, she said, "Can't they all just wait for me??" I also made her cry at one point. It was for the same reasons....she doesn't listen and I told her she would stay inside if she wasn't ready by the time I was ready. Anyways...she got to go outside. So Friday night I hung out with Melissa mainly, a little bit with Amanda and Mike, but they left. We discussed our childhoods and what we did when we were kids (like fire and flammable liquids and putting Drain-O and strips of foil in a 2 liter pop bottle and throwing it before it exploded). Then Melissa and I talked about Mary Kate and Ashley Olson because there was a special about them on. By 11:00 I was beat. Fridays actually kind of suck, because it is the start of the weekend, but I still get exhausted way early and can't keep my eyes open past 11:30. So I went home. Saturday I didn't do very much. That was a bad idea. I need to start getting on the ball with lesson plans before I start getting overwhelmed and behind and lacking sleep. I did a birthday party and was at work from 3:45-7:30. It was a for a very very hyper boy who had just turned 5. His mom didn't have much control over him, but I feel that I did a pretty good job at keeping these kids in line. I enjoy doing that kind of stuff more than I do actually being in a school and teaching specific lessons. This is why the idea of having a day care is more likeable to me than getting into a district. Ugh..the decisions. So, after having some parents get a little mad at me and my boss telling me it was the worst party she had had all day (which I was amazed because I thought it was pretty good), I got a ten dollar tip and I went home. I was starving so I ate for awhile and then headed over to Stewart 7 yet again. Eventually, Allison and Nicole showed up, as well as Tricia and Barry. We were contemplating maybe just hanging out in the apartment for the night because we were having a lot of fun just sitting around. Everyone kept mentioning that we should have catch phrase and we could have been playing it. It's become the game of all time. The thought of taking it to the bar and playing has been brought up. The idea of taking it to a place like Olive Garden has been entertained as well. Anyways, we headed out to the bar around 11:00. Now when I say that we go out to the bar, let me explain what this consists of. It means that anywhere from about 6-8 of us go out to the Hotel. Amanda, Abby, and Melissa buy a pitcher, Allison gets a Kamikaze, and I don't know what Nicole gets when she actually does get a drink. We find an open booth, because we get there right before the crowd so we can have a place to sit, and we sit there in the booth. And we sit and talk. And make fun of each other.....and others, as we did last night. Later on, usually hours later, some girls get the desire to go dance, while about 4 of us hang back and still hang out. Then I leave. The end. Anyways, last night had some interesting parts. I don't feel like explaining every detail but here's a summary. There's this guy Ryan who sits in front of me in my only class this semester. He's always at the bar. He went up to Kelly last night and said, "I'm pretty good looking." Lost major points right there. Then, while 7 of us are squeezed in this little booth, Ryan is standing at the end of the table talking to us. He knows we don't like him. He knows he was kind of unwanted, and was definitely getting remarks to make him leave. But he wanted to stay. I can't even remember the things Amanda was saying to him, but they were amusing. So he finally leaves and tries to impress some other girls elsewhere. It was nice. At one point during the night, Melissa and her friend Jen broke up the 2 year relationship of their professor who was at the bar that night by talking in the bathroom about him and how he flirts with a specific girl in class a lot. His girlfriend was in the bathroom. Melissa then tried to change her identity for the rest of the night. Ryan came back to our table eventually to tell us he was leaving....as if we cared? He and Melissa got into a really funny argument, basically just trying to prove to him that he is extremely shallow. Here are some tips if you want to score points with girls in the "I'm not a shallow jerk" argument: 1. Don't have your first line to a girl be, "So, I'm pretty good looking." 2. Don't tell girls that the first thing you look for when looking for a girl is whether her thong is showing above her pants. 3. Don't tell girls that the second thing you look for in a girl is whether she has a very physically attractive body. 4. Don't tell girls that you lastly look to see if the girl has a good personality and can carry on a conversation with her. I don't have too much to say about today. Just not enough time in the day to get everything done I wanted. I really wasted Saturday. I can't do that anymore. Either I get my stuff done before Saturday, or Saturday is my work day. I even got off work early and I didn't even get to watch the Superbowl. Oh well. Blah. Almost time for bed. Current Mood: rushed Current Music: Pat McGee / Walking In Memphis

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January 28th, 2004

09:47 pm - I wore earrings today... ...because one of my kindergarteners the other day was on my level, looking at my face, and said, "Mrs. T, why do you only have one earring in?" I told her that I always have one earring in on the top of that ear, but I have the bottom of my ears pierced too. She didn't understand why I wouldn't wear earrings if I had them pierced, so I promised I would wear (and the first time I typed that I typed "wair") them today. So I wore them. The girl was absent. Little jerk. Anyways, student teaching definitely wears me out. I have yet to actually go a full entire week though. We had a snow day yesterday, and that was pretty nice. I slept pretty bad the night before, so knowing that I could sleep later than 7:30 was a relief. Except I was awakened by Billy Blanks in my living room. I decided to stay in my PJ's till about 2:30 or so. That was nice. I did absolutely nothing. I should have been doing lesson plans, but I'm a slacker...and I'm okay with that. Eventually Jo, Tricia, and I went up to Erie and went to Barnes & Noble and Best Buy. Came home. Tricia and I cooked some Chef Boyardee three cheese lasagna from a box. That was fun. Then some I-Ninja while it was cooking...then eating and watching Conan. Then doing work for an hour. Then the gathering. Then watching Tricia play more I-Ninja. Then talking on IM. Then going to bed. Then go to school. Today was a good day though all around. Except having to push my car out of the snow again for about the 4th time. This time, a guy pulled in while I got stuck (I really should know his name by now) and I asked him to help. He got another one of his roommates (who I'm pretty sure is Greg Mirotek from my graduating class at Hempfield. I know he went to Edinboro and have seen him on campus for the past 4 years, but I didn't know he lived below me) to come out to help. Then the two of them went to another apartment and got these metal things to put under my tire for traction. It wasn't working because I was so deep in the snow. So one guy tried to kick out some snow with his boot, and I kinda shoved him out of the way, fell down on the ground, practically under my car, and started digging it out. If I would have waited for him to kick the snow out, we would have been there for awhile. Anyways, got the car out..parked way down the street. Came inside, called the landlord. He wasn't home....eventually he showed up at the door saying to move our cars because he is going to plow. Finally. I had a little girl hug me today and say, "You're skinnier than my mom!" The faculty at school think I'm a computer genius. My co-op told me a story today about one of her dogs. The dog was having some trouble learning commands and such so they went with the shocker collar. They tested the product for awhile, and it worked really well. They would say, "Daisy," shock her, and then give her a command. She learned to always follow the command after being zapped. So the woman who was selling the things told my co-op the different kind of packages she could buy for the collar. My co-op said to her, "How much would it cost to buy 17 of those collars?" The woman said, "What in the world would you do with 17 of them?" My co-op replied, "Well I have 17 kindergarten students that they would work great on." She then went on and said to me, "Wouldn't it be great if Z could get a little zap every time he interuppted? Or G would get shocked every time he wasn't working?" The past weekend I ran into Megan Etzel at Jeff's show in Wexford. I informed her that I wouldn't be returning to camp and she seemed worried that I haven't told Dave this yet. I didn't see it as a big deal, and I think she was making drama out of something not so dramatic. Not a surprise. "Debbie Don't Worry" just came on my playlist. This will always remind me of Traeger. When we heard Ben Kweller play this and say the name of the song, Traeger said something like, "Awww... your name is in it....and it's country-ish." Oh that concert was fun. Driving to Genesseo (something like that), NY to see Ben Folds. Through Warsaw. Free tickets because Nac was on the "guest list." My ticket wasn't technically free, but they gave us an extra free one. Traeger yelling between every song, "LULLABY!!!!!!!!" knowing full well he wouldn't play it because he NEVER does. And Nac yelling "AIR SUPPLY!" and Ben Folds hearing him and trying to figure it out and remember the lyrics. Ah, good times. I don't like Wal-mart greeters. I have some personal reasons. And it's not because they are annoying...it's nice that those people can have a job. I feel bad for them at times too. Yeah. So.. That about ends this. Back to being productive. Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Better Than Ezra / Desperately Wanting

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January 19th, 2004

11:01 pm - What a party! So last month, Tricia, Shannon, and I went to the party store and bought a "grab bag" (aka brown paper bag) for a buck...just for fun. It turned out that inside was lots of supplies to have a fire engine birthday party! So, we had the party on Sunday night. First, we delivered our fire engine invitations on Saturday. One at Nicole and Allison's apartment, one at Amanda, Melissa, and Abby's apartment, one at Shannon's dorm room, and lastly...one at Dr. Walcavich's house. Tricia looked up her address, I said, "I know where that road is." And off we went. My car couldn't make it up her driveway cause it was pretty icy. We thought about leaving the invitation in her mailbox but there wasn't any mail in the box (yes it's a federal offense), so we thought we should put it somewhere where she'll definitely get it. That left us with one option. Shoved in the siding between the garage doors. Sunday comes...no email or call from Dr. Walcavich. No surprise. But anyways, all the others came. We had pizza and played Catch Phrase. Oh man was it fun. I love the part about catch phrase that people feel the need to scream as loud as they can as if that makes your team understand what hint you're trying to say more. We had a lot of mess ups...you aren't allowed to say anything that is in the word you are trying to get your team to say (it's like Pyramid). Jo had one saying, "Okay it's a wall...in Berlin." (Answer being Berlin Wall. Not allowed to do that.) Amanda had one where she said "When you're dreaming in the day!!!!" But she said it at such a loud, high pitch noise I couldn't even understand her in the first place. We also played a game of Cranium, which was good times as well. Like when Jo was pretending to be "The Lone Ranger" when she had know idea who that was...somehow Melissa still guessed it. After the party, I got a lot of messages from everyone who came saying thanks and all agreeing that we need to do something like that more often. It was so much fun. Anyways...this weekend Tricia and I played racquetball quite a lot. Now that we know the rules better, it's much more interesting. I seem to like to be on the floor a lot though. And by looking at my knees, that may not be such a good thing. My entire kneecap on my left knee is a disgusting black, blue, and purple bruise/ring thing. Ah well. Off to school tomorrow...unless it's canceled with our winter weather alert. Or maybe a 2 hour delay..I could handle that. Ah yes...it has not stopped snowing for 2 weeks straight now. Awesome. I want to sled ride so bad. Current Mood: chipper Current Music: Billy Joel- For the Longest Time

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January 15th, 2004

11:56 pm - Back to school...to prove to dad that I'm not a fool. Ah yes back in Kindergarten.....for the 3rd time. I love this class. The kids are great and it's very small. 17 kids...that's such a typical perfect class size. Probably won't ever happen again. And my co-op is awesome...she's been teaching for 30 years, but is quite sarcastic and always surprises me with the things that come out of her mouth. So I was thinking I could do a run down of the class for your enjoyment, but then I thought maybe I shouldn't put up all the names of my students. So, like I do in classes, I'll use the first letter. N - Youngest in the class and it shows. Likes to pretend to shove his pencil and scissors in other children's eyes. Likes to pretend he's "shy" when new people come in. He's not. At all. S - She's the 'princess.' At least, she thinks so. Everything must be her way. She feels the need to tattle a lot. She tried lying to me today. That was fun. She doesn't know how to say the word 'combination' and so says 'cominibation' (or something to that effect). B - Tallest student of the class. Likes to write his name on a piece of paper, cut it out, and give it to teachers, especially the new ones. G - Not too much to say about her. She hasn't done anything very exciting yet. Z - Very talkative, very hyper, very loud. Can't sit still for longer than 3 minutes. Likes to push his chair while he's sitting in it the whole way over to the other side of the table to push out the girl who sits beside him. She gets mad. B - The girl Z likes to push out. Very bright. Reads well. When she says she has to go potty...she's allowed to go. G - So adorable. I want to bundle her up and take her home. Very quiet but very good. S - Also pretty quiet...even when I try to get him to talk. Good listener though. E - Brought in a new Harry Potter diary today. Also brought in a beaded necklace that she got taken away by the big bad teacher (me). When I tried to give it back to her at lunch she said, "I don't want it." Abby - Good at pretending she's the teacher when asked to teach the class things. Little awkward, but cute as well. L - Drew me a picture of her and I holding hands on my first day. Cute. Although...boro softball coach's daughter. Poor poor girl. J - Likes to give hugs out to teachers. Likes to hold my hand which I always have to peel her fingers off. Likes to do every single job possible. A - Only there one day that I've been there so far. My first day she was there and extremely sick. Coughing, sneezing, sniffling all the time. Kinda gross. My co-op explained her as 'a 13 year old horomonal girl trapped in a 5 year old's body.' Extremely creative, very artistic. F - Hypocondriac (sp?) possibly. Also boy crazy. My first day, it was Jonathan. Jonathan waved to her in the hall, and Jonathan kissed her, and Jonathan is so cute. Well today, it's Scott. Scott kissed her, and she drew a picture of her and Scott holding hands and one of Scott kissing her. G - Hmm...not too much to say about him. He almost cried today because there wasn't enough room to push is chair under the table because the student beside him was too far over to the right and blocking the way. J - Gets upset when he doesn't get to sit/stand/be in a group/talk to another boy in the class for everything. Kinda rowdy...but he's a boy. You'll have that. C - Quiet. First day I met him was today. He's been sick with the flu. Seems good...but he still could be kind of out of it. Likes the number 5. And thinks that after every number five is next. No matter what number it is, 5 is always next. So there we go. No school tomorrow! Current Mood: tired Current Music: Ben Folds Five / Don't Change Your Plans

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January 12th, 2004

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January 6th, 2004

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December 18th, 2003

01:58 pm - Only in America... Er, I mean...only in Edinboro.. I think only in Edinboro can you find a town completely covered in a foot of snow, at least with more coming down continually, and find people outside shoveling their sidewalks/driveways or walking around without any winter gear on; such as COATS (big one), hats, gloves, boots...nothing. Just out there in their long sleeve shirts and jeans, "cleaning up the mess." Ah lake effect snow. I spent a good 15 minutes cleaning off my car today. I couldn't even reach the top part of the mountain of snow on my car. And after I cleaned it all off, I realized I basically just buried my tires completely. So I'm still at school. This should be apparent because I'm talking about the amount of snow I have and because I'm writing in here, seeing that I have no internet in Greensburg. I was planning on working this week and make some extra cash before going home....but no dice. Like, at all. At all at all. So I'm hanging out up in the boro by myself. Jo should be coming later today, so that'll be good. She mentioned having a second annual gingerbread house making extravaganza like we did last year at this time in our apartment, but if it happens, it won't happen at all like last year. This year, there definitely won't be any random statements to Drew like, "I think Jo is going to die." I've spent some time backing up things on my computer and it's about ready to reformat and reinstall windows. How exciting. Current Mood: okay Current Music: G Love and Special Sauce / Baby's got Sauce

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December 16th, 2003

12:07 am I just learned something kinda sad tonight. Dispatch is no longer together. That's ashame. And, they are only going to have one final show at the beginning of summer sometime. I've been wanting to see them live for 3 years now, and it has never happened. They came to Pittsburgh at one point when I didn't know about it and I missed it. I'm guessing they probably did this a few other times too without me knowing about it, but I knew about the one because I had friends that went to it. And there was not any way I could have gone. So now I am hoping that I'll get to go to that final show...bet it'll be pretty crazy. Current Mood: sad Current Music: Dispatch / Walk With You

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December 15th, 2003

05:37 pm - I'm being ridiculous. I didn't wake up till after 11:30 today...it is now quarter after five, and all I want to do is take a nap. But there's no reason why I can't do that. So I feel that this entry is for Rodney...seeing that he's the one that bugs me when I don't update. Traeger does every once in awhile, but Rodney is more consistent. So, here's a brief collection of things, but nothing much really. Friday morning was my Assessment final. The last final class wit Dr. Walcavich. It was actually pretty fun. We were presenting our final project which was a mock parent/teacher conference. We rotated three times and were in three different groups all morning. Tricia somehow ended up being in Dr. Walcavich's group two times in a row. They seemed to have a lot of fun. Everytime I looked over, they were both laughing pretty hard. that was basically all of Friday. I tried to take a nap after I got home because I was really tired...but I laid there and watched Conan and didn't fall asleep. I worked a birthday party that night for a 10 year old girl. It was the quietest group of kids I've ever worked with in my life. And they were so nice and had manners and were cute. They all go to parochial school though, so I guess they are used to being like that. I don't know. Apache...jump on it...jump on it. After the party I headed to Pittsburgh. The roads weren't very clear when I left Erie, but when I checked the weather, it said it was supposed to be fine farther south. So I was thinking once I got past Edinboro, the bubble of snowy weather, everything would be fine. Well, my prediction was slightly off. It was good until I got south of Meadville. So I was going at most 35 mph down I-79. Couldn't see the road or anywhere farther than 2.5 feet in front of me. Eventually I pulled off and let someone go in front of me because I sucked at being the lead car. So yeah...scary snowy weather. I'm really not a fan of driving in it at all. I'm probably more cautious than I have to be, but 2 accidents in it makes one much more cautious. And I'm okay with that. So I spent the weekend in Pittsburgh at Jeff's. Saturday afternoon was spent playing some old school Atari. What a great game system. That night I had duck for the first time. It was hard to start eating for me though. I just kept thinking of live ducks...floating on the lake...and now it's leg is cooked and sitting on my plate. Jeff had one piece that looked like a folded up leg...like when the ducks are in the water and their legs are tucked underneath them, that was the shape of it. But anyway, I pushed out the thought of live ducks, and took a bite and surprise surprise, it tasted like chicken. Sunday was a day of nothing...driving back to school after the snow storm that hit southwestern PA. The roads still weren't clear and I headed out at noon. Kind of surprising. Only one lane was basically okay to drive in the whole way up 79 up till about Grove City. I went straight to work where I had absolutely nothing to do. No schoolwork and I brought nothing to occupy the time. Longest 6 hours of my life. I want to know why I always tell myself, "Go to the mall, there's lots of stores there. You'll surely find something." Because it NEVER happens. I went there again today and was disappointed. I went to a few other stores and got some Christmas gifts, but the mall sucks. And another thing I don't understand. I think most of you know that I basically refuse to by anything from Abercrombie & Fitch. Basically, I find them highly overpriced and it seems that most people only by their clothes just to have the name A&F on something to wear. Pointless to me...but whatever. I only have one thing from that store and it was actually a gift 2 years ago from Jo, and it's not clothes, it's perfume, which is almost out...but I do like it. So that's the only thing I'd actually go in the store to buy. Anyways, moving right along, I went past the store today and I went in because I was thinking about getting more of the fragrance stuff...well I didn't get it. But that's no matter. What I don't understand is that aren't pictures with models for clothing lines supposed to wear the clothes to show off the fashions to make you want to buy them? Maybe I'm wrong and don't understand. But when I went in the store, there were those huge pictures all around the store with the A&F models...all naked. Naked? How does that make me want to buy your clothes? That's telling me that it's cool to be naked all the time and I shouldn't be wasting my money on clothes anymore...especially your overpriced clothes. They've just supported my not wanting to own any of their clothes. On that note, I think I'm going to take a nap. Or wait...maybe watch Conan...hmm. Something like that. Current Mood: bored Current Music: Jonah. / Above For You

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December 10th, 2003

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02:42 pm - Left unsent. I'm just procrastinating for a few minutes. Mainly because I'm not sure of how I should start my last project of the semester. I'm pretty pissed off at myself right now. Reasons I don't feel I need to put in here. I'm pretty sure I'm "mentally retarded" though. We decided that our Christmas tree needed spruced up yesterday. So, we added a sheep underneath (because we have an abundance of sheep in the apartment), then some monkeys, a bear, and some other random stuffed animals. Then, on the tree we added lots of Finding Nemo toys from McDonald's that Jo was given. I got my student teaching placements today. It's starting to hit me that I'm going to be in charge of classrooms in a little over a month. My first placement is a Kindergarten class at Ft. LeBeouf and my second is a 4th grade class at Girard. I'm excited. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get McKeever, but it's also kind of good because now I won't be living somewhere else for half a semester and I get to stay in the apartment the whole time. Current Mood: disappointed Current Music: Ben Kweller / Make It Up

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December 7th, 2003

11:26 pm - So I really should be studying.. But one can only do so much. This weekend = pretty uneventful. This evening = pretty fun. So let's start with this evening. After being awoken by a phone call during an evening nap that I did NOT want to take, I went to a concert on campus that was actually quite enjoyable. When I got home, apparently it was, "Apartment D Group Christmas Decorating Time." So, out came the bulbs and the glitter paint and the lights and on came the Christmas music on the "Edinboro News" channel (which one of the big news topics being displayed at the time right now is for the change of the 'Yield' sign in downtown Boro to a 'Stop' sign. Ooooo! Big time stuff). So we decorated bulbs putting our names on them with the glitter paints. Of course, we had to make a bulb for Bob, made by Tricia. You have to walk the entire way around the bulb in order to read it. And, his and Barry's bulb were so drenched in the glitter glue that they were dripping onto the tree. So we hung the bulbs and then began to hang the lights. The lights that are only about 3 feet long. Well, that was until Jo told me that there was another 3 foot long strand. Plus the icicle lights that aren't going to be hung outside or around a window. So, all the lights went on the tree. It looks cute. I cut out a star out of construction paper to put on the top of the tree. Jayme and I had discussed the star situation yesterday or the day before, and talked about how it should be made. I had one idea, she had another. We tried to prove to each other which would be better. Tonight, Tricia mentioned the star, and Jayme responded with, "That's a sensitive subject." I told Tricia my idea, and she agreed with me...and then Jo told Jayme, "They're ELED majors" and something to the effect that this is what we do in college. So I made my star, put glitter glue around the edge and put it on the top of the tree. Oh if were only that simple. I tried putting it on top about 5 different times, all the while with Jo taking pictures of me doing so. When I finally trim the top of the tree and put a gumband ("Does anyone have a gumband I can use?" Jo--"I don't even know what that is." I get the same response everytime.) around the top of the bristles sticking out, I put the star on...but Jo wasn't there when I did so. So...I had to take it off and do it again. Watching her pictures of me putting the star on, if you look through her camera really fast it's like a movie of still pictures...I actually move in her pictures. Kinda amusing. Tricia and Barry were working (well, mainly Tricia...Barry was becoming, as he called it, "edward-tape-hands") on cutting out cardboard and wrapping it to decorate the walls. We began to run out of cardboard after only making about 3 presents, so Jo said, "We should start wrapping DVDs." She left. So, Trish picked up a DVD Jo had just bought that night and wrapped it, and smacked it on the wall right beside Jo's door. Jo didn't figure out what had happened until we acted weird about it. So then we all go our separate ways for about 20 minutes. Then, Jo makes her rounds in the apartment asking about going to the Midnight Breakfast oncampus. The Alumni Association puts on this breakfast from 10 pm - 2 am on the Sunday before finals. I went last year....with someone or two. I seriously cannot remember who I went with it all. For some reason I'm thinking Chuck...but that seems really weird because I dont' think I did anything with him last year. It may have been Traeger? I'm not sure. All I know is I remember going, it being overly crowded, and there not being any food left. So what do we do? Pack up the car! It's time for a midnight breakfast! So, we are going down the stairs and out the door and I said that I couldn't drive because I had too much crap in my backseat to have anyone sit back there. Barry had a bunch of hunting stuff in his x-terra. I said let's take the buick, it being the largest car. So Jo (it being her car) said, "Okay....where is the buick?" Thinking for a few seconds she said, "Oh no...it's not here." She left it somewhere. I'm not even sure where. So we pile into Barry's x-terra. Barry drives, Trish in shotgun, and Jo, Jayme, and me in the back with Adam lying over top of us. Jo mentioned, "Aww..I miss Chuck. When I see a snowbank now I think, "Why am I not being thrown into that?" And it's because Chuck isn't around anymore." So, onto campus we go, and we're approaching Van Houten. It looks like there's some big celebrity or something in the cafe. Crowds of people waiting OUTSIDE to get in to the breakfast. 11:00 pm, standing in 23 degrees air, for what? To get cafe food. You've got to be kidding me. It's not worth being paid to eat there for their food. Well....I might possibly take that offer. But you get the point. So, we just keep on going right out the other side of campus and back to the apartment. Our plan was to go to the breakfast really fast, just to do it, being our senior years and all 4 roommates were home to do something together. At least we attempted. And it was fun in the effort. It's been a good night...and I just want this week to start and be over with. Next time on Delicious Dish............................................................................eggs. Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: kool and the gang - hollywood swinging - Kool & The Gang - Hollywood Sw - sonique

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December 6th, 2003

01:31 am - My neck is itchy. So I itched it. So yesterday was my last day of field. The kids were working on a "red and green project" in the other room. Dana (the other field student....the other good field student) informed me later on in the day that that was code word for "Cards for Miss T and Miss P." So I got thank you cards from all my students and they were highly amusing. They'll be stored away from my cards from my second graders from last fall. Dana and I ate with Miss Sinnott in the teacher's lounge that day. We rarely do this because it's quite a crazy place. But because of the overbearing Gannon field student, going to the teacher's lounge gets us away from her for half an hour. There are two teachers there that are crazy. I mean, they hate kids. And they're teachers. I dont' get it. Example: Setting: The students get to fill out a "compliment card" whenever they get complimented by another teacher. This is to promote good (expected) behavior. Student: Mrs. Rubin! I got a compliment today? Mrs. Rubin: Excuse me? A wha? Student: A compliment. Mrs. Rubin: (silence with a blank stare at the student and said in a mean sarcastic way) How?! Okay, so that doesn't convey her personality completely, but she shoots her kids down all the time. It's kind of sad. She gets mad because these kids want something extra for doing expected behavior according to her, but where these kids are coming from, they don't have any expectations from their parents, so it's a big deal to them. She's just the typical, "Oh I hope I don't get that 5th grade teacher. I hear she's so mean" teacher. It snowed a little here today. Nothing like the southwestern region of PA though. That's pretty amazing. Kinda sad...I wanted more snow. But, I'm sure it will come. I'm not worried. I went Christmas shopping and failed miserably tonight. I love getting other people things for Christmas...but I suck at finding those things. I went out to the Keg tonight and met up with some blasts from the past; Nate, Adam, Ben, and Anthony...plus 2 other guys that I didn't know before hand. Let's see...hadn't seen Nate since last spring, Adam since.....well, hadn't talked to him probably in over 2 years, Ben since last year sometime, and Anthony since Halloween (but before that for about 2 years). Pretty crazy. We talked a lot about wiping people's butts. Not quite sure how that subject came about...or kept coming about, but whatever. I spent time over Amanda, Melissa, and Abby's afterwards. They were all being lazy bums so I joined them and almost fell asleep. My head hurt a little cause of all the smoke I was around beforehand as well. When I walked in, Melissa said, "Oh! Debi! You're smart...I need your help." Me: With what? Melissa: An algebra type of problem. Me: Okay.. (it was an economics book/assignment) I dont' know why I put that into script. oh well. Anyways, the problem was to solve for the variable P and she didn't understand how .4P=P - 135 turned to .6P = 135. After taking a minute to look at it, I figured it out and showed her how they got that answer. And she flipped out. Telling me that I was the smartest person in the world. You know. Apparently she had been working on the problem for 3 hours and just could not figure it out, and no one else could either. She then proceeded to tell me that she was going to name her first seven kids after me. I attempted to help her with another problem before I left...this one was more economic and less algebraic, so I didn't really know how well I would fare with it. But I gave her an idea that I had for the problem, and then was on my way out. She told me she'd try it, and if it was right she'd name her next seven kids after me again. That's 14 kids named Debi; boys and girls alike. Crazy. Okay...that's enough for one day. Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: spearhead - the joker

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December 3rd, 2003

11:53 pm - I don't have much to say. It was the last day of classes for the Fall 2003 semester....dun dun DUN! Yeah. I cried during assessment this morning....yes because I was laughing hysterically. Tricia and I are hoping Dr. Walcavich will wear sweatpants to class next Friday for the final. She told us there has to be more in life to look forward to than that. I went to the most boring concert of my life tonight. The "Scholars of London." Yeah they were actually from London. They only sang 3 songs that were in English, only two that were understandable. Yeah they're talented and all...but man, not for two hours. I really don't have too much to say right now. I spent a lot of time today staring at my computer screen but not touching anything in hopes that my project would type itself. Word of advice: That doesn't happen. "It's 2003!! WHY CAN'T I TELEPORT?!?!" --Lewis Black Current Mood: tired

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December 2nd, 2003

11:27 pm - Oh! And I bought egg nog tonight! Yay! Current Mood: sleepy

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12:17 am First...Sorry Traeger. "I feel like I have nothing left to give to this school." --Amanda That was from a phone conversation today. That's about the feeling of all the seniors I know at the moment. So yeah, I obviously haven't updated since what...2 Fridays ago? I dont' even know...let me look. (pause) Okay yeah I was right. So let's see...I went to work on that Friday night where I hosted a 10 year old's birthday party. I had a really scary old man stand behind me and whisper in my ear without me even realizing he was there. He told me I was "about the size of a guy." There was other stuff to it...none that I really care to remember. I came home and started watching a movie that Jo and Adam rented. They actually got 4. We started watching "Pumpkin." I had no desire to see it in the first place...and as the movie started I remembered why. In a nutshell, it's a horrible horrible movie. Who leaves a disabled kid in a wheelchair at the beach all day long and forgets about him? How does that happen? Oh wait...it'd doesn't. That's about the time I decided I didn't really have any care to watch it any farther, and when I came back in the room, apparently Jo and Adam decided the same thing. I didn't do much Friday night...I thought about doing more work, but I knew Saturday was going to be spent finishing my case study. So I put it off. I talked to some people online. Ended up making lunch plans with a friend and dinner plans with another. I went to bed and woke up about 4 different times on Saturday morning. Each time I'd tell myself to go back to sleep because the sooner I woke up, the sooner I had to get to work on the case study. So...I obviously stayed in bed till 11:15ish...when I got up and ready to go, and waited for Dan to show up at 12:00 to go to lunch. He ended up not finding my apartment and we didn't leave until closer to 1:00. We went to.....ummm...Panera Bread. That's right..because I had a coupon for there, but did I bring it with me? Of course not. That would be the smart thing to do. We spent a good hour and a half, maybe even longer, there just talking about all kinds of stuff and catching each other up on our lives. He said he'll get me free Erie Otter (the Erie hockey team) tickets if I ever want them. So I got back to the apartment and it was time to get to work. It was hard. I was way too unfocused that day. But, long story short, I got it done. It took about probably around 3 hours to finish it. So by this time it's 6ish and I'm thinking of how I'm going to spend the rest of my night. I had no other work to do for the coming week, and I felt pretty good finally being caught up (or so I thought). Tricia told me earlier that she'd be home after 10:30 from work and we could do something when she got home, but I was ready to do something a lot sooner than that. So I call Amanda to make plans to go out to dinner with her. She was working on her case study as well, and told me to call her to go eat to give her a break from work. I sent a text message to Jeff seeing when he'd be back in Pittsburgh that night (he was on his way back from Nashville) because I was thinking of coming down since I was done with everything else. Little did I know that he was almost to Edinboro to see me. Oops...but it was still a surprise! So I went out to eat with Amanda at Perkins. We had to park really freaking far away...not a problem, but just a surprise and a worry. If you don't know, the Edinboro Perkins is the absolutely slowest Perkins you can ever go to. It has to have some kind of record or something for the worst service ever. I've waited for just getting a drink order for 45 minutes before. It's ridiculous. So seeing the amount of cars in the parking lot, I'm thinking, "We'll be here for at least 3 hours." Somehow though, there really wasn't anyone IN the restaraunt. And I know I butchered that word. Whatever. So we order our quesadillas and talk...it was nice. Amanda and I haven't had a time for just the two of us for a long time. And that's sad 'cause we used to do that stuff a lot. Especially at the end of the fall semester last year. I wasn't having such a great semester and she knew it without me even saying anything whatsoever to her. She wrote me a letter, basically to let me know that no matter what she'd always be there for me even if I didn't want to share with her what my problems were/are, and gave it to me one night as I was leaving her apartment. It's definitely up there on the list as the greatest things I've ever gotten from a friend thus far...I still have it, and read it every now and then. Anyways, moving on around the mushy stuff, Jeff showed up and I obviously was very surprised and happy to see him. I made him eat more chicken. That's all he ate all week. Oops. We watched Scotland, PA. It was a pretty good movie. We played some Super Bust-a-Move 2...he beat me a lot. And made fun of me a lot. But that's alright. At football practice on Sunday, I had to sign footballs that were being auctioned off for charity. That seemed kind of funny to me. My signature along with others was actually going to raise money? Ha...still funny. But yeah..that was the beginning of practice. And then we all got together and took a picture for the mayor of Erie. I'm thinking Tricia is going to be backing out on the football thing which is understandable. Her words were, "Our games end in June, and I'm getting married in July. If I end up tearing my ACL and have to walk down the aisle on crutches I'm going to be really mad at myself." I guess that whole wedding thing is an excuse. As for me, I just hope I am able to play and don't get kicked off the team while I'm trying to do my student teaching. So anyways, I started warming up, and I ended up getting really dizzy and lightheaded. I took a break, and then jumped back in with my wide receiver group. There were only about 7 of us in our group, which is a lot less than what we normally practice with. So basically we were constantly running. Once we finished one play we went to the next line and ran the next one. It was actually nice because I finally felt like I was finally getting a work out. My heart was actually beating harder unlike the previous practices where I felt there was a lot of waiting around time. So I really liked this practice and wanted to do it...yet that dizzy lightheaded thing happened again. To the point that I felt like I was going to faint. So I went over and got more water and sat down. The trainer, who looks just like Rosie O'Donnell, came over and took my blood pressure. It was 90/68....which is low. Again. They told me not to practice the rest of the day. That sucked. I sat there for two hours watching everyone. It sucked so bad. I really wanted to play. Hmm...so Monday. I don't remember much of it. I turned in the case study and took a test. That's all I really remember. Oh, except for the skipping of my night class. I was all ready to go to it, but Tricia and Jo were in an interesting mood. Enough so to make me skip my night class. We were going to decorate for Christmas. Did we? Well, we decided that what we needed to do was lock ourselves in our rooms to do work for an hour, and then reconvene. So we did...actually lock Jo in her room. So I started doing work..a lesson plan for field I believe...and the next thing i know is no decorating got done. So I skipped class to do work. Oh, Monday was also the day that I went to class in the morning almost without a coat, and by the time I was headed home around 4:30 it was snowing with accumulation. Field on Tuesday was nothing exciting. Stupid Gannon girl. That's all I got. I went to Jeff's on Tuesday night and he took me to see Elf. Very funny movie I thought. I enjoyed it greatly. Wednesday morning I picked up my brother Dan from the airport. Surprisingly, the airport was not busy AT ALL. I was able to pull right up to the arrival terminal without waiting in any lines. It was kind of weird. I spent the day at home with Dan for the most part. He fell asleep and I cleaned the house in the room he wasn't in. I also made 4 pumpkin pies, went to my g-ma's to get the turkey and stuffing, and did some other random things for my mom. Wednesday night was spent hanging out with Dan and playing PS2. We rented a tennis game. It was so much fun. I made a guy player named Aw Man and he was a...now picture it...6'4'', 133 lb, black man with a blonde afro. He was awesome. Although, he kinda sucked. He needs a lot more training. Dan made G-MA...she was a 5'2'', 240 lb, white woman with white hair. Instead of changing the colors of her clothes, we left her in all white because she looked like she was wearing a diaper. She's pretty bad too. But boy do they look fun! So yeah, we played that all night. Mike and Belle arrived in town around 11:30 and watched us play till about 1:00 am. That's when I called it quits because I was falling asleep while playing. Thursday was a good day. I got to sleep in. That was the first good thing. I slept till about 10:30. I got up and helped my mom with everything else that needed done. Family showed up around ten till 1:00, and then Jeff and his parents showed up right around 1ish. And of course, there was the infamous 30 minute (at least) discussion during dinner about cats. And like usual, there was more than just one discussion. During the last one was when I was thinking the same thing as Dan who was sitting across from me and decided it was time to leave the table. So we did. And played more PS2 tennis. Thursday night I went out with Drew. We went to the movies but there was nothing worthwhile to pay to see. So we went to Sharkey's and played pool. They just refilled the mint tray when we got there so my car is now stocked again with green mints. Mmmmmm! Friday I spent at the doctor's office and the hospital. I had a check up with my new doctor and I am also getting extra tests done to check out my blood pressure. I spent a while in the hospital..I had blood taken. I also got an EKG and got to watch my heartbeat. I also went to the mall that day. Somehow I was able to get in and out alive without getting frustrated. It was amazing. I had dinner at home with my mom and Dan and then headed to Pittsburgh. On my way out Meagen called to tell me she was in town, so we made plans to see each other at Jeff's show that night. And we did. She came..it was fun. We had a lot of occurances at the show (and also later on into the night) where people asked me how I met Jeff, which was through Meagen. I let her explain it because I found it humorous....basically she kept telling people that I went behind her back and got to know him against her concerns. I went with Jeff to a guy's house afterwards who was having a party and the people there were actually somewhat familiar. After standing in the house for about 5 minutes or so, I see Meagen..and the lo and behold, I see Dan Illson. Crazy. We stood there and began discussing the infamous story about Uncle Dave and his hurt foot. And his pet monkey. And the vines hanging in his house to get around. But we began to add in new parts with his wife Erin..and how she and the monkey don't get along. And the story continues from there. We also discussed the three whistles and what to do if you hear three whistles....and that would be nothing else but to get your groove on for a brief moment. I then proceeded into the kitchen where Meagen, a guy (I don't remember names), and I played the "cup game." We played this for a really long time. Like...really long. Longer than most campers even play it. And I learned that it's really hard if you aren't going in a circle. Meagen then taught me and some other people how to play the Korean Thumb Game. And that was a lot of fun too. I'm not going to get into it, but it involves slapping other people's wrists..and it was funny. Especially when the one guy would not hit me whatsover...no matter how much I tried to make him. But once I got a chance to hit him, and hit him decently hard, he felt the need for pay back when he finally got another chance to hit me. Although...he didn't hurt very much. Moving on...Saturday I went over to Meagen's house where I talked to her parents for a good hour and a half or so. They're pretty awesome. Her mom always makes the comment that I "look so good" basically because the first time she ever met me I had a 105 degree fever, was extremely pale, shivering, and tired, and I slept for 19 hours straight without food in her basement. Meagen and I went shopping for the day. I went home and watched ER with my mom (she's been catching up for the last three weeks). It's so nice to have a TV show the both of us enjoy a lot. I went up to Zaffina's (family up the street) and visited with them for about 3 or 4 hours. What am I gonna do when I can't see them every few months? I rented Finding Nemo and went and watched it with my mom. I think she liked that. Sunday I spent over at Emily's house visiting her and her family and watching the horrible Steeler's game. I had a quote in my info awhile ago from Drew with me saying, "steelers suck" and he replied, "yes but the ghostbusters are awesome." Well, I think that can be used again with me saying, "the steelers suck" and someone replying with, "yes but the Brady's are awesome." A Very Brady Christmas was apparently on at the same time as the game. Okay...so I left her house planning on going back to school, but I didn't really have any need to go back that early. So I headed to Pittsburgh and went to the church service Jeff was playing in and spent time down there. Playing more bust-a-move...and getting made fun of more. So that brings us to today. Whew...that was long. I should go to bed. Today's highlights....ummm....Dr. Walcavich told me I'm failing both of her classes because I answered one question very wrong today that she was counting on me getting right. Oops. Jo, Trish, and I had an interesting conversation in the kitchen today. I wont be able to recap it at all. But what the heck..I'll give it a horrible shot. So there's this thing hanging on our wall that Jo put up that is Christmas-y. One picture is of Santa, baby Jesus, and a sheep. Jo mentioned "I don't know how all three of those go together at all." Tricia said something to the effect of that there was St. Nick who left 99 sheep in a field to go find one. Jo then told her she was confusing "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" with the Bible basically. This then somehow got back to my comment years ago that I made without really thinking of when Jo was really confused why I don't eat meat on Fridays...and I said something like, "Because the people a long time ago didn't do it maybe" (I really had/have no idea...one of those Catholic things), and Jo said, "What people Debi?" To which I replied, again I remind you without really thinking about it, "The people that lived with God." That quote gets thrown back in my face quite a lot ever since then. So yeah...we had one of those kind of conversations today. It was fun. Okay, I'm going to bed...and going to wake up to inches and inches and inches and possible some more inches of snow. Current Mood: cold Current Music: Ramones / I Wanna Be Sedated

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November 21st, 2003

02:49 pm - Correction. In my last post I meant to type "throw" not "through." And I meant to type more for the star reference...something along the lines of, "I learned from Melissa tonight that "There are a lot of stars out!!!!", which was screamed in my ears for about 2 minutes straight." On the other side of the room at the same time, Amanda was screaming, "Kalinda Green! Kalinda Green!" Anyways. A quote from Thursday night TV night over at their apartment. Someone said something to Amanda that was disappointing, to which she responded, "Well why don't you just poop on my parade." Moments later, Melissa followed it by saying, "Besides horses, what would seriously poop on a parade?" After some laughter and some random suggestions thrown out...like cows, kids, dogs...Abby said, "Blind people." Which we all lost it and were completely confused. What we missed was Melissa asking me why there would be dogs at a parade, and Abby was saying because of blind people. She wasn't saying blind people would poop on a parade. It was just a night of miscommunications. And it was quite funny. Today in assessment class we gave our presentation. I think it actually went pretty well. We were running out of time and I had to wrap everything up and bring it to a close. So I flew through my last three slides. We were presenting on retention, basically saying that there are many alternatives to retaining a student that should be in place. So, without even planning this, this is how I ended the presentation. I stated a quote by someone saying that there should be something else rather than holding a student back or promoting them with undeveloped skills. I added, "So it comes down to...intervention, not retention. And I just rhymed. So I think I'll stop there." They laughed. Dr. Walcavich then went on to tell a personal experience in her first teaching job in Maryland. She said that 9 of her students had been retained. She asked them, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" (They were 1st graders I think.) She said, "One answered, 'I wanna turn 16 and drop out of school.' Another one said, 'I wanna catch crabs.'" That statement made the entire class shake their heads and think, "Did she just say a 1st grader said he wanted to catch crabs?" Everyone started laughing, and Dr. Walcavich caught on, and she then reminded us that MD is the "crab" state and catching crabs out of the water is very popular. Next, another student in our class (and older woman) was explaining how out of her and her two siblings, one was put in kindergarten late because of his birthday. She said, "All three of us were born in December. I guess March was a good month for my mother." Dr. W. responded, "Okay, a little more information than we needed to know." I went to learning disabilities next to which I let all my frustrations go on Dr. Murphy with what happened in field yesterday. I needed to get it out to a special education person to make sure that how I felt wasn't just my own take on the situation. At one point, I was explaining part of the story and of something the new field student said to me which was totally out of line, and Dr. Murphy said, "Did you slap her? Because that was the perfect opportunity to slap her." I felt a little better that I wasn't beind dumb. It's so nice outside that Tricia and I played tennis. Actually, I skipped music class. I got out of learning disabilities early and had no desire to sit through music today. I had a rough day and night yesterday and had a headache and wanted to just not do school related things. So I skipped. And watched Conan. And played tennis. And it was fun. I think the amount of warm fresh air does something weird to people. Current Mood: calm Current Music: U2 / Mysterious Ways

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