Thanksgiving break!

Oh, man. Thanksgiving break has officially begun for me. I just e-mailed in my paper on Charleston, and now I am eating dinner in peace and no stress for the first time in about two weeks. It's going to be glorious. James is going to be in Boston for the weekend!

the Thanksgiving crunch

The last paper I have to write before Thanksgiving break is giving me the fits. It's about Charleston, S.C., and how it fits the characteristics of a typical Atlantic city, unlike Boston. It's for my history colloquium, and it's crazy hard. A lot of reading to go over. The structure should be pretty straightforward, but there are a TON of reading to go through. Ugh.

The paper is due the same day as a dress-up day at the school, so it's going to be a double-whammy Tuesday. I bought a suit for the occasion on Tuesday. Should be exciting. My very first suit. :)

sick, sick, sickity sick

I've been sick for seven days now, but the end seems near.

It all started last Thursday, when I got a flu shot. Me, healthy, adult. Flu shot. Apparently, getting my first flu shot equates to getting my very first flu. I worked on Friday, and everything was fine. My arm was a bit sore, but it was OK. On Friday afternoon, I got this horrendous sore throat. Stuffy nose followed. I got a bit better on Saturday, meaning that the sore throat was gone, but the stuffy nose was there, and the sneezing started. On Sunday, I called in sick to work because it just wasn't happening. Plus, getting 27 kids sick -- not so good. On Sunday, I started on decongestants. It worked ... and then I ran out of medicine. On Monday, I developed a slight fever, and I got more medicine (generic DayQuil). New symptom: Because my nose was stuffed up, I was having a hard time breathing. It rained on Monday. I called in sick. Fever is no good, either. Tuesday afternoon, a miracle happened. The nose decongested, and all is almost well. I returned to work Wednesday in time for the field trip to Discovery Museum, but I still had runny nose. TODAY, oh, TODAY. I almost lost my voice. I croaked my way through school. My students kept asking, "are you sick?" Yup, I am! I'm still sick from the two days I wasn't here. It was a little helpful, though. I told the kids that it hurts to speak loudly (very true), so they will have to be quiet. Anyway, I think I've regained my voice, but the yellow phlegm started today, so that's fun.

Just as a side note: While I was sick, I wrote one six-page paper (should be eight ... ), one four-page paper and read 366 pages of slave history. I got about a total of six hours from Friday until Monday afternoon. Thanksgiving crunch sucks.

whoa, BCS

OK, keeping in mind that I know enough about the BCS to talk about it but not to REALLY understand it, here is what I THINK is going on.

* Louisville lost to Rutgers on Thursday, so Louisville is going to get bumped down below USC.

* Arizona beat California, so California is going down the standings ... bad for us because we play them next week.

* Georgia beat Auburn, so Auburn is dropping from No. 6 ... good for us because we're 7th

* Florida had a REALLY close game (down to the last few seconds with a blocked field goal!) with South Carolina, so I'm hoping they just stay put

* K-State just upset Texas, so Texas is going to drop from No. 4 in the BCS.

So that leaves Nos. 3 (Louisville), 5 (Texas) and 6 (Auburn) potentially open, so HOPEFULLY is we win tonight over the Ducks, we can leap over Florida and take No. 3 or stay behind Florida and take No. 4.

Again, rankings, not my thing. But, oh, the drama! :)

Fight on!

blogger is having issues

I think Blogger is having problems with its e-mail-posting system because the last two times I tried to post via e-mail, the entries didn't show up. Just now, when I tried to e-mail a post in, my "Still here" entry from Monday jumped to the top. WTF? So confused. It's never happened before.

Anyway, this is what I wrote from my e-mail that Blogger is not posting, apparently:

I am taking a class on how to teach bilingual students and another class on Lincoln's speeches. woohoo! :)

I also bought my first Christmas present on Wednesday on Amazon. They're already showing Christmas commercials on TV. And it's not even Thanksgiving! I feel I should preemp everyone by buying a Christmas tree on Labor Day. That'll show 'em!

my apartment is really hot

and I am sweating. I just opened my window in hopes that the cold outdoors would slowly filter in.

I am supposed to be writing a short summary of my hugely huge paper-presentation, but I am dawdling instead.

Recently, I've been feeling a bit blue about teachers. Not the teaching profession, mind you, but the people who educate and disseminate information to kids. How do you respond when a teacher tells you on Friday that she didn't know the voting age was lowered to 18 in a Consititutional amendment? What do you respond when teachers mispronounce simple words such as drawing (draw-ring) and frustrated (fuh-strated)? I am at a loss and feel so alone. :(

Now that I'm depressed, I'm going to go researching stuff about literacy in the second language. Should be loads of fun.

I wrote this through e-mail earlier, but .... anyway, the point is, I'm still alive ... which is always a good thing.

Howdy guys. I'm still here. I think I have narcolepsy. It's a little frustrating that I can't stay awake. I think something's wrong with me. Other than the allergies, the chronic cough (what? you didn't know? ask someone and catch up!), the flat feet and other foot ailments, the scoliosis, the vision problems and the brain malfunctions around paper time ..... I think I have narcolepsy.

I bought two little notebooks at Target the other day, and I wrote down my paper-writing schedule for the next two weeks ... basically, through Thanksgiving. All I need to do is to get through Thanksgiving. Because that is when my history-from-hell colloquium's load REALLY lessens. The big paper is due on Nov. 21. After that, I have one more paper for one of my ED classes and a paper-presentation for another ED class.

I register for classes on Thursday. It's a sorta scary proposition as I don't know what I will be taking like I usually do.

Also, it's getting REALLY cold here. And I hear from other people that it's only going to get colder. Brrrrr. There isn't even SNOW yet. Officially scared. Shiver.

Still here.

Howdy guys. I'm still here. I think I have narcolepsy. It's a little frustrating that I can't stay awake. I think something's wrong with me. Other than the allergies, the chronic cough (what? you didn't know? ask someone and catch up!), the flat feet and other foot ailments, the scoliosis, the vision problems and the brain malfunctions around paper time ..... I think I have narcolepsy.
I bought two little notebooks at Target the other day, and I wrote down my paper-writing schedule for the next two weeks ... basically, through Thanksgiving. All I need to do is to get through Thanksgiving. Because that is when my history-from-hell colloquium's load REALLY lessens. The big paper is due on Nov. 21. After that, I have one more paper for one of my ED classes and a paper-presentation for another ED class.

I register for classes on Thursday. It's a sorta scary proposition as I don't know what I will be taking like I usually do.

Also, it's getting REALLY cold here. And I hear from other people that it's only going to get colder. Brrrrr. There isn't even SNOW yet. Officially scared. Shiver.