How it all got started

I started this blog for several reasons. Mostly to say that I have a blog but hey it's almost like tattoos these days, almost everyone has one. But what really got me started was a friend and her sharing her blog. Now, one day this friend called me and said, "You haven't commented on my blog!" And I said no I haven't I don't really do the whole blog thing so much. Well, now I have my own Blog and all I want to do is call my friend and tell her, hey why haven't you commented on my blog recently... but instead I'll write a blog about it.

Now i know she's trying to make eggs change color but will drinking the die make her change colors too?

A Knit Tank

And i thought Tasha had too much free time, or that chick who knit the thing for the tree, but this... well at least this can have some political commentary!
Knit Tank

Really...

Really I've had moments when i thought this was going to happen to some kids in class. Damn Kids!

My Brother's Show!!!!

Evil Job Interview

So yeah I've been bitching about this job thing for a while but i did have an interview this morning with Sycamore Valley Elementary School in San Ramon CA. Now, it started off all good and sweet. I got there early and was able to start the interview early, a good foot to start with. The principal was a very nice man, in dark jeans, a Ralph Lauren button down and a bad yellow tie (but he did have neat glasses). He started the interview by saying how i was a very strong canidate, like everyone he was interviewing today, and he was sure we would all get jobs, if not in the San Ramon Schools district somewhere else (great dude... that doesn't change much that just tells me that if you don't like me well i should still feel good about myself... whatev!). So the interview started and it was one of those interview where they ask you a question that is a big question like "You know reading a a big part of first grade, how would you teach that?" and stair at you. How would i teach it, i would use all the resources avalible to me... blah blah... pause to breath... doesn't look like they are happy with my answer (i'm not happy with my answer) some more blah blah (good god he's twiddling his thumbs i need to wrap this up). Each question felt like a trick. After I answered them i wondered... did i leave something out... was he looking for a different answer. Now, i will say i didn't BOMB any of my questions, every answers was more or less on point and did answer the question (as veg as the question was... that's what they get back a big veg answer...) i mean really "How would the children you've taught describe you?" Which kids. The kid i had to bench for recess for like a whole week... or the kid who i worked with to control her ADD or the kid who love the fact i let her be creative... which kid? I don't lie, i let them know about each of the kids, about the fact i will not be loved by all 120 kids in the grade level. I will have kids that think i'm the greatest and others that think i'm mean as hell and that's fine with me... shouldn't it be? AHHHHH, it's like second guessing hell!

PS> I didn't get it. He had a long term sub who he had lined up ie: it was already filled but he had the interviews set up so he had to go though with it.

MFing Orinda

So i'm in the teacher's loung of the Orinda school where i've commited a week of my time to teach a rough group of kindergarteners and an other sub, whom i've meet before, looks at me and goes "You're fully credentialed right?" I say "Yes." "Oh," she says, "because one of the first grade teachers is retiering and there is an opeing." "That's funny," I say. "Because Juanita just told me there weren't any opeings or interviews going on. Well, maybe they've already filled it."
Than later durring lunch I hear an upper level teacher talk about how she's moving to Vermont. "It's so hard to find a house when you live 3000 miles away." Oh so wait i think i'm decent at math (much stronger than my spelling) and that adds up to two(2) opeings. Two openings at one school... that i heard about in one day. Mother Fuckers!

My Bedside Table

No this isn't dirty. This is my To Read pile. These are all the books friends have sent, told me to read, that i have bought while bored and not at working (why i always find myself spending money when I'm not making it... God knows).


Gregor and the warm bloods (third book of a series i was reading to the third graders)
Around the World in 80 Dates (that's Tasha's recommendation)
Middlesex
Sex, Murder, and a Double Latte (Bought in a weak moment)
Lessons In Duck Hunting (Bought in a weak moment)
Between Boyfriends Book
Life a la Mode (picked it up at the Teacher's lounge)
The Sunday philosophy Club (Given to me for my b-day by Emily[that was in Feb...])
Washington Story (Emily's recommendation, I read the first)
Everyone Else's Girl

Orinda

I have given three months of my life, more if you count up all of the other subbing I've done, oh and the aid work I did for three months. The getting up at 6am being at school at 7am and there until 4 to get $85 a day. I did this for over a year and today I call the head of human resources to find out when they will be interviewing and she tells me there aren't any k-5 job opening. Out of 4 schools there are NO k-5 openings. I gave them my sweet and tears literally and this is what i get... no god damn jobs.

I know... I know she had no control over any of it. And i know i shouldn't be planning my Tanya Harding moment... NO JOBS!!!!
Dear San Ramon Valley Unified Schools,
PLEASE hire me. I am a wonderful teacher.
From,
The desperate "teacher"

Today's Entrie is brought to you by the letter B

B... now to most people a letter doesn't have that great of a significance. But B, well B is B. So B was my high school sweetheart, kind of. We didn't date 'til the end of our Sr. year but we were friends, "best" friends for a couple years before. Now... B is.. well so we had these morning meetings at school and they were promoting Jr. Prom and this one person said "And B***e you can bring Aundra's mom." Hahaha, sounds all funny if it wasn't so true. There was one moment where he parked his car on a hill by the science building hood open, doors open, showing it off. Now i took the end of a broom and beat the crap out of a concreat piller until i had to ductape it together to continue the beating. (We are not going to talk about the anger issues that that moment brings up...) So yeah i dated B for the longest nine months ever, that first year of college. A year of drunken phone calls and tears and that relationship was over. We didn't talk for four or five months, but he still talked my mom. Well, that's when i felt that THAT is too weird and I needed to be friends with him again. As my sister in law says, "Don't you ever want to yell at him, 'YOU'RE NOT MY BROTHER!'" So a few weeks ago my mom tells me "Oh, so B has a girlfriend, didn't he tell you?" uhm, NO! so i leave him a message like hey... so you tell my MOM you have a girlfriend but not me. Now yesterday, oh yeah Easter, my mom says "So B has moved in with her." WHAT! They've dated for a little over a month. WHAT!!!! I know with in a few weeks he meet her parents and i know she bought a houes and his lease was up but... to move in with eachother the first month.... I also know she's creeping up on the big 30... I know what stress she is feeling/thinking (or i think i do) but does B. Does B know what he's gotten into?

Meeting People

When i told my mom i broke up with my college boyfriend, again (but for real this time), she told me "well, i hope you thought about this. Meeting people is hard after college." Now one has to keep in mind my mother was married at 20 and had her first kid at 24. So... hmmm.... Really what does she know. So my college boyfriend and i broke up (a month before my birthday and i had my get over fling) and graduated and I moved home... While home i went back to school to get my teaching credential and met another boy. This was a serious thing, we thought about moving in together and then i realized he was an alcoholic ass (oh yeah i pick winners). I meet a few girl friends while in the teaching program but lost most of them as life went on.
So now I've been out of my teaching program for over a year. I've been in and out of half a dozen schools working but only meet a could people i could see myself be friends with... I had once closest girlfriend of mine move away to be with her man(you go girl) and another who bailed on my birthday and has never contacted me again. My three closest girlfriends live back east. So here i have these wonderfully close people (not physically obviously) and one or two people here in CA that are close me but no one like my three that are away.
So now I'm out of school... yet there most days (working) and I look at these teachers who surround me and wonder how do i become friends with them... i see them maybe once a month in a work setting for 20 min. "Hey, we should hang out some time?" Seems like an easy thing to say but totally not. Not so someone i see for 20 min... who is surrounded by other teachers. I asked a friend if i should e-mail this women i use to work with and ask to hang out... she said it was a cop out. I should ask her in person... but how? How when i don't see her...
Well, I have tried reaching out to people on Myspace that i use to be friends with.... I've tried going to a knitting group to meet people... but really...
So example two: in Trader Joe's and there is a hot guy (tatoo on the elbow totally my type {remember they type i pick]). What am i to do? Walk up to him and ask him about apples... mellons... and give him my number... (i know tasha not what your told to do in the He's Just Not That Into You bible)... but really. There needed to be a signal out there for people who are single. The whole wedding ring is great for the long term commitment but what about the short term... can it be a string... a rubber band... a signal that says "Oh, yeah you think i'm cute but so does my GIRLFRIEND!!! and she got this first"

If only I knew a silly test could know me so well

How You Life Your Life

You are honest and direct. You tell it like it is.You're laid back and chill, but sometimes you care too much about what others think.You prefer a variety of friends and tend to change friends quickly.You tend to always dream of things within reach - and you usually get them.

How Do You Live Your Life?

March

I'm not talking about the whole imigration marchs going on (dude our country would fall apart without illigal imigrants who work for half the price), I'm talking about the fact that in March the Bay Area has 27 days of rain. That's four days of sun. Four days of sun. Ugh

Taliesin West

In late 1937 Wright purchased land in northeast Scottsdale, Arizona, where he and his young apprentices took on the task of building Taliesin West as a winter "camp." The complex of buildings included residential spaces, theaters, a shop, and an architectural studio and drafting room. From its inception, the buildings at Taliesin West astounded architectural critics with their beauty and unusual form. In it 1956 report Architectural Record called a visit to Taliesin West "an experience in color, light, and time . . . Most of all, the building is an experience in time: approach terraces, the steps, the long walk under the pergola, the penetration into the heart of the building itself: all these form a subtle sequence of varied spaces, scales, and shapes . . . Perhaps never since the baroque period has the element of time been used so skillfully in realizing the enchantment of an intricate work of art."

The guy was a bit of an ego maniac but hey if you never retired; he died at the age of ninety-two and still got commissions to do homes and buildings you might have a bit of a right. It was odd being there. Part of it reminded me of my house and a lot of the furniture reminded me of Tao's stuff. Did you know he didn't just design the house, but the furniture, the carpet, the silverware, the art that got hung on the wall? If you had a FLW home you could not move the furniture without his "permission". WOW a bit of an ego... maybe. The piano in the living room has never been moved from it's original placement. As the tour guy said "If he came back to life and walked in this room it should look the same to him." CRAZY! but it's a fine line between great art and genius and the CRAZES!

My Calling

My calling is to sit in the sun next to a pool and read a girlly book. Yes, it will get boring some times, and yes i might have to get up to keep from being lard ass next to the pool, but when it's your calling sacrifices must be made.

friendster... myspace... and such

So the internet is an amazing thing. I can go to myspace type in the first and last name of anyone i know, from high school, college, horses ect and 7 times out of 10 they are there. The thing that's weirdness me out is seeing into these peoples lives, this sliver of who they are now, who they are one... three... or even five years after I've last talked to them, seen them, spoke to them. Where is this going... i'll get there>
So there is a guy i was real close to a few years ago. Had this natural connection with him. I did some stupid things, made some bad choices about him, with him, and we lost touch. He'll always be my "what if" according to Maya (one of the few people in my life who met him). Now, here i am 2006, I last saw him six years ago. Six years (makes me feel old). I found his band on google, than him on myspace and here he is. Six years older. Six years of his life i have no clue about. Six years of tattoos that i can only guess what they mean (last time i saw him he had gotten the first part of his sleeve and i remember thinking "Damn my mom won't like that").
So I'm being a bit of a stalker snoop and reading some of the comments on his myspace. I notice that there is one chick who has left like a gazilion comments so i look at her myspace. She considers this guy and his best friend (a person my guy has been friends with since... god... they had been friends for like 6 years when i knew them so a friend for like EVER), she considers them her family. She has a little boy and these two "men" with tattoos and plugs in their ears the size of a nickel who i use to hang with a drink beers with and who taught me to drive a stick, her family.
Wow what can happen in six years. How life changes and rotates and moves on. It always moves on, and to me that's what i notice most about friendster or myspace or any of these things, is that life keeps going.

AZ

So this is a picture of the AZ sunset. It lasted a long time, and really did look better than the pic but hey i try.

This is some endangered plant down here. It has cool red flowers at the top. My mom has a fake on in the house down here. I think they are kind of cool.

Art at Arizona State University

So I'm down here in AZ all by my lonesome. Well, i just dropped my folks off at the airport and stopped by the ASU museum of art (or something). Well these were two pics that caught my eye. Once again, it is only a picture phone so the color is not so good.

Now this one was amazing. The yellow with the black... It actually got me to stop and stare for a bit. And that's a feat all on it's own. Now, don't ask me who painted it or the name of it... I just know what it looks like.

This was part of a whole gallery in the museum. Very, industrial age meets eco 00's. I liked it.

Spam

and i don't mean the kind that comes in a tin. This is the bullshit e-mails, comments, messages that show up that tell you about secret shopping, or about how to make money sitting on your ass. Fuck that people. Really, if you can make money consistently by sitting on your ass would you just become a lonely fat blob... Oh wait this is America and most of the US are lazy, fat, lonely, blobs. Well, maybe it does work... I'll be damned. But hey it's not my thing so for god sake LEAVE ME ALONE about it!

Like Martha

So i was getting tiered of all my knitting being in like 12 different places. My wool in basket with half my needles. The needles might be with their mate but who knows, and oh yeah, who can find the size on those pesky double points and who knows where my needle sizer is or my measuring tape. So here it is... my latest "knitting" project. It is a bag. A bag that holds "all" my needles (the one's i can find) and my two projects I'm working on with easy and a fair amount of security. I also have room for a book or two. I know I know I'm a genius.

This is the weather that is expected in the bay area for the next... 10 days! high of 56, low of 46





This is the weather where i'm going for the next four days! high of 88, low of 57

Hells yeah baby i'm going to Phoenix!!!!! I'm all over that, i'm packing sun tan lotion, a swim suit, a skirt. Maybe i'll being a sweeter... for the plane.

Jobs

Yesterday I sent out 10 resumes and wonderful cover letters (thanks to Tasha) to 9 priviate schools in the east bay area and one application to a public school distirct. I did the same thing last year, just letting these private schools know that I am avalible for any jobs. Who knows if it works. I got one call last year but i made the mistake of asking for a pamplit about the school (their website wasn't working so I couldn't find much out about them) and never heard from them again. I guess live and learn right.

Stich 'n Bitch

Okay, so the stich 'n bitch has been around since... well probibly since the words came about. Well, I'm not a New Yorker (i've actually never been there) but that doesn't mean i can't be pissed about this shit. Check it out!
http://www.freetostitchfreetobitch.org/

Button Willow

I said I would post about my track event. I'm start with it all went well until my last run. Not to toot my own horn, but i had one passanger who, when we finished the run, told me I was one of the smoothest drivers he's been with. AHHHHHH!!!! That's like the ultimate driver complament!! So this guy told his friend to sit with me. This is what happens. I'm going to blame my brakes, brake fade. When you ask your cheep ass (meaning the stock) breaks to work at 100% lap after lap for 20 min... well they get tiered. Well, mine got tiered and I ended up in a hair pin turn going 3 ft forward and 1 ft sideways. I ran out of track and found myself some nice soft mud. Mud that was stuck in my car for a 24 hr and twisted my plastic under carage cover two inches.