Saturday, April 30, 2011
Long time, no see!
Hi all!
It has been a while since a real update, so here goes!
1. School. It's going alright. This last week off was a Godsend. The week after such a late Easter is not a good time for a Spring Break. The musical is over (obviously). See "Drama!" down below for an update on that. We are preparing for a huge round of state testing now, and there are only 7 weeks of school left, if even that many. Our last day is June 16th; I will be leaving straight away for Turkeyfest '11, and then I unfortunately have to come straight back for training for the Freshman Academy. This brings us to the Freshman Academy! Things are going really well with planning for this. I am extremely excited. Nothing is official-official yet, as I haven't technically interviewed for my job, but I'm all prepared to apply and go through the process. Meanwhile, I'm still taking part in all of the prep work for the academy: we are planning curriculum, having professional development days where we learn how to teach in 90 minute blocks, and generally planning ourselves out for next year. As I'm sure you can imagine, I'm thrilled! This is so much fun!
2. Drama: The musical is over, and in case I didn't mention it, my title was "Assistant to the Director," which made me feel very Dwight. No one else seeems to think this is funny. I had "An Evening of One Acts," to which we got about 90 people. The first night, we had 8? I think? Anyway, it was three nights of audience-induced torture, but the kids did amazing. My drama III kids directed a show each, and I had one student do a monologue. They all really pulled it together and did some amazing work. Now the only not-class-related thing I have to do is Thespian inductions on the 14th; it is going to be torture for me. I'll sit in the school for 7 hours while the kids run everything. Originally, this started at 7:00 AM and went until 9:00 PM. When I said that I could not imagine that they are doing worthwhile things for 14 hours, I got mean stares and lots of attitude. So, I told them I would open the school at 11, and I wanted to be out of there by 9:00. apparently, I get to sit in the auditorium and watch movies on the big screen for the day. We've had three meetings about this so far, and I have not seen a whole lot to make me feel confident. At least after this I am done with extra curriculars. In terms of class, things aren't going so well. My drama 1s have essentially stopped trying, which is making me insane. My drama 2s were writing a play, but they decided they couldn't and I was unwilling to let one person write the whole show. Drama 3 and 4 are done with their jobs, so I don't know what to do with those kids. And please, let's just not talk about stage tech. The sooner we're done with this year, the better.
3. General Life: I've decided to go back to school for an MFA in creative writing from Chatham. It's a low-residency program, which means I get to do it online. It sounds AMAZING. I'm in the process of building up the confidence to e-mail professors that I had 4-5 years ago and ask for recommendation letters, as the committee wants recs about my writing. I have 5 really good rec letters, but they mostly discuss my teaching ability. So, I am trying to decide how to approach these e-mails. I'm tempted to send a picture of myself, and the papers that I wrote for them to help jog some memory. Would that be inappropriate?
I'm also looking for a new apartment, preferably on the second floor with a balcony and free heat for the winter. I was wandering the apartment today and realizing I'm going to have to pack up everything again soon, and that makes me really really sad. I think I'm going to have a packing party: I get lots of food and booze and bribe my friends here to come and help me pack it all up. *cheezy thumbs up grin.* I cannot see that not working.
4. Health: I'm OK health wise, except for my left knee. It has been bothering me A LOT for a while, and I'm going to an orthopedist on Friday. I'll keep you updated! My biggest fear is that I'm going to have to get surgery or something and then I won't be able to walk well for a while and Sadie will hate me cause of short walks and how will I get around all by my lonesome and lions and tigers and bears oh my! ;)
5. Sadie: Sadie is still a sweetie. In a wonderful show of solidarity, Sadie's back left knee keeps popping out of alignment, so we'll be on a walk and she'll start being a hopper, just sort of bouncing along as she lifts her back leg to give her knee a break. According to the vet, this is pretty normal for little dogs, and I should be giving her daily vitamin supplements to help her knee stay strong. I firmly believe that my dog already eats better than I do, so rather than pills I give her special doggie treats for joints. She hates them.
That's my life in a nutshell, people. I was supposed to get my hair cut today, but my lady has strep throat. I might head down to the mall anyway, just for some human contact, but we'll see what happens. Until I make up my mind, I'm going to read "A Raisin in the Sun," which I start teaching on Monday, and then watch some more Leverage or other equally awesome show on Netflix. Oh, for all you instant queuers out there, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is only available until Friday, so watch it again now! :-D
Ciao! -Bethie
6. Anything else?
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