This is amazing…

 

I’m not sure anyone is really reading this anymore, but here is a quick update.

• My yearbook kids not only made their first deadline, but submitted the first section a whole 7 days before our deadline!! Only four students cranked out 17 pages in less than a month, and ALL of them are brand new to yearbook.
• Our Gold Canyon Candle sale made us about $1500 dollars that helped us get closer to paying the $7500 deposit. We were still short and only sent $5000.
• We have custom screen printed Nalgene water bottles and custom engraved VGHS carabiner keychains on sale which are pretty sweet if I do say so myself. I’ll work on getting pics uploaded of those.

So, basically yearbook has consumed my work and home life, but it has already been super amazing to watch the kids turn into rockstar photographers and design gurus overnight. Can’t wait until the actual book comes out, and YBK camp in San Diego again next summer!

 

Success!!! Today the “dream team” (my 4 favorite [most talented]) kids in Yearbook got 3 major things done in like 30 minutes that should have taken them 3 days. They are truly fulfilling the name I have for them!!

I also got three–read that–THREE fundraisers squared away. Yearbook will need extra money since it’s hard to sell yearbooks in a bad economy in a low socioeconomic area! We are selling custom screen printed Nalgene water bottles with our school logos and mascot on them! Also we are doing order form sales of See’s candy and Gold Canyon Candles! YAY for a tiring but successful day! Now I need to find someone to take me out to dinner to celebrate!

Sooooo, where have I been? I don’t know that I have enough time to describe it all in proper well written paragraphs so I’ll go with a bulleted break-down of the last year.

• October: DC was Great! Four days was not even close to enough. Photos are on flickr. Ben and I decided we will go back for sure.
• October/November: Got back from break and started focusing hardcore on where I was going with my career. I either had to pass my interview w/ Hamilton and make it to the new H.S. in town, or decide what job I would have instead. I had already made the decision that I was definitely NOT going to stay @ CGUHS knowing who the admin. team was going to be.
• November :my grandma got really ill and I had to drive out to Murietta, CA with Mom to help. Grandma was in 3 different hospitals and went through several procedures. Docs said she had only months to live. We left a week later and finally came home.
• December :we flew to Wyoming for a couple days to visit Ben’s family. It was cold and snowy and super awesome for it to feel like winter/Christmas season.
• January: Grandma got worse again and ended up in a skilled nursing facility because she couldn’t live by herself. She passed away and mom had to go back to make arrangements. I couldn’t go with her, so my Uncle Roger went out there and helped her pack up Grandma’s apartment and haul a bunch of stuff back to AZ.
• February: found out I was hired by Hamilton to go to Vista Grande H.S. One of the best days of my life. Not allowed to tell anyone for like a whole month while he finished the interviewing process. For the rest if the school year much jealousy and rudeness came spewing forth from many of my coworkers. On the other hand, many who I am still in contact with were very happy for me because they knew how much it meant! Torturous last few months.
• March: nothing really astounding happened…
• April: On the 29th Ben and I celebrated 6 years. Still can’t believe I was lucky enough to find someone so perfect for me!
• May: School ended the last week and I packed up 4 years worth of teaching accoutrement. It sucked. Mostly because Ben was already doing river trips and mom was my only help. Not so much because I was sad to leave. Forced to be totally gone and bare-roomed by last day of school or I would not get ny last check. Found out later that was an illegal move, but too late to do anything about it… Again, the ill treatment by colleagues…not cool.
• June 7th:Finally went on another River Trip in the Grand Canyon with Ben. Theis time it was a seven day and a three day. It was amazing as always. I would live down there if I could. Great people on the trip, some of whom i still keep in contact with through Facebook! Pics of this trip are on flickr.
• June 22nd: Started moving all my school stuff from the garage at home to my brand new classroom!!! So exciting, but confusing…how do you now where to put everything when you’ve never done it there before. *I’m still getting used to where everything is a whole month into school!*
• June 26th: Ribbon cutting ceremony at Vista Grande High School. Ben and I helped set up and Jason Peters from Skydive Arizona did  a demo in with the American flag. super cool. My photo of Jason swooping the flag made it into the Casa Grande Dispatch as the background photo in the thank you ad from VGHS!
• July: @ end of June we left to Laramie, WY for our annual summer trip to visit Ben’s fam. It was beautiful weather and a good time as always.
• July 23rd: Left for San Diego with Kaitlyn my Editor in Chief to yearbook Camp @SDSU. Camp was great but while I was there I had what I later found out was my first panic attack. Despite the 9 hours overnight in the hospital, camp was super informative and Kaitlyn and I left chanting”yearbook is my life” and plotting our amazing book the whole way home!
• August: First week was spent in school meetings and finalizing my room/plans, etc. Teaching Freshman English, Beginning Yearbook, and Photography Academy this year. Very excited, but also admittedly nervous about teaching in a block schedule this year. Turns out block schedule is no big deal. I actually like it a lot better from the perspective of an English teacher. The night of the first day of school I had my second panic attack and ended up in the ER again. I took the next day off from work and went to see my regular doctor who put me on a steady dose of Klonopin and gave me some Atavan for emergencies. I have been diagnosed as having an anxiety spectrum disorder. To get a more specific diagnosis I would need to see a Psychiatrist, but almost all of the non-whack job ones in AZ are booked solid for like 5 months. I’m doing fine on my current meds and am waiting to decide if I will pursue further diagnosis. Being yearbook adviser has already been TONS of fun. One of may favorite students from last year got his schedule changed to be in YBK and has turned out to be an amazing photographer. I am soooo inspired by my YBK students that seem to have a natural gift for photography. It has been great watching them get so excited about being behind the lens. I guarantee the first ever Vista Grand High School Chrysalis will be absolutely amazing!

PHEW!  Well that’s it in a nutshell…  Not sure if anyone was reading this anyway…but here’s your update if you were waiting for one!

I am going to Washington, D.C. for Fall break!!!!

Ben is helping out a couple of friends by doing ground crew on a skydiving demo for an NHRA race in Richmond Virginia. He was going to be flying out on 10/11/08, staying overnight then returning home on Sunday (10/12/08). 

We were talking about him being gone during my Fall Break and how disappointed I was.

THEN….

We realized DC is only 98 miles from Richmond, VA!!!!!! So, Ben’s plane ticket is free, and he’s getting paid, so we asked the guy to book 2 flights and use Ben’s pay to cover my ticket and he will pay the difference!!! So, we’re going to DC and pretty much only paying for hotel, gas and food! We will leave on the 11th and do the demo on the 12th and then have the 13th -16th to explore DC and go to the coast in VA. We will fly home on the 17th, just in time to go see =w= on the 18th!!!!

I have soooo many things I can’t wait to see, and take pictures of. Every time I think about going I literally jump up and down with 5-year-old excitement.

I just watched an hourlong TV show that if I remember right, was originally created for teen viewers. I used to watch it years ago. I only rediscovered it recently while Ben was on the river, I was bored, and the TV helped kill some time in between grading papers. All of the characters in the show are no longer in high school, but have moved on to other facets within the community and the school. ( you might have guessed the show by now… hint: it’s not on one of the 5 major networks) 

Tonight’s episode revolved around the death of one of the fictional teenage characters. The show is really well written and the cinematography is amazing. Ten minutes into the show I was balling. I always cry easily at movies and sad TV shows. I just assumed that’s why I was full on crying sitting here by myself on the couch. 

Then I realized it was something totally different. I realized I wasn’t crying for the fictional character on the show. I was crying for Nana and Dad, and all of the people I’ve loved who are dead. I was crying because any reference to death makes all of the grieving I’ve done boil right back up to the surface. 

So, now I’m going to put my headphones in my ears, listen to some Dylan, and try to heal all over again. 

There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.

                                                                             ~ George Eliot

 

I dream…

of weird things, people from my past, people from my present, people I’ve never met and places I’ve never been. 

my dreams have been so vivid and odd lately. and I only remember them for a short time after waking. sometimes I start where i left off days later. it’s like i’m reading a really weird book off and on when I have spare time. picking it up for 5 minutes at a time, or an hour here or there. I guess i might get another glimpse tonight! 

sweet dreams

You have to check these guys out. They are using their tough exterior to help animals, and crack down on the assholes who abuse them. Love it!

Here’s the slide show

and here’s the article from the NYTimes

this is sooooo what my life needs to be like in 10 years! But with more dogs!

Ever since the proverbial shit hit the proverbial fan today at work, I can’t stop thinking about the movie Empire Records. I know, you’re probably thinking “stupid teen angst movie”, but the message at the heart of this movie is fighting for what you believe in. The parts of the movie that keep ringing in my head today are the ones where the characters say “Damn the man”. They are on a quest to save their independent record store from being taken over by a big conglomerate in a buy-out. In their case “the man”  is the conglomerate. In my case “the man” is the school district who is NOT making decisions based on WHAT SHOULD BE THE ONE GUIDING QUESTION: What is best for our students?

I am really getting to the point that I feel like I must stand up for what is right, or I’m just part of the problem. I can’t tackle this by myself, but I have to if I want to keep my job. It’s messy, and will be stressful, but I just can’t sit by and let it all go to hell. so……..

DAMN THE MAN!

My crusade begins tomorrow.