Cat makes chicken noise

are you on the registry?

2009-09-06T10:25:00.003-06:00

It's still hard to believe this wonderful woman won't be celebrating our wedding with us and that we won't be visiting her to take the wine tour we planned. I miss you E.

A Perfect Match

ring shopping in saskatoon

2009-08-14T08:46:00.003-06:00

H is all of a sudden really showing me up in the blogging department...

It's 90% wedding stuff around these parts these days. I'm fairly determined to have pretty much everything done before I go back to school, since I'm pretty certain September is going to blink by in about 3 days.

One of the things we'd left a little on the late side was finding/getting our wedding bands. We both had a fairly specific idea on what we wanted, but weren't sure if what we though we wanted would actually be what we wanted once we saw it. So, one evening in the 45min after H got off work and before we met my dad for supper we zipped around and looked at rings at People's, Ben Moss & Heinrick's. H managed to figure out what features he liked in a ring, but those features did not exist anywhere in one ring. Me, I was totally out of luck. Apparently women only want different sized versions of the exact same diamond band these days. Bleh.

Just in case, I took a quick trip to GMG the next day solo (since this was where my engagement ring came from) to see if they had anything a little closer to what I was hoping to find. Unfortunately, the sales lady there must have been new since she treated me like a total alien for wanting to modify/have a ring made. She also told me tall tales of the months and months I'd need to wait to have it done. H had my engagement ring custom made there and it took no time at all. So little time that he had to leave it in the store for awhile cause he knew as soon as he had it he'd want to give it to me. Stupid woman.

All of this landed us in the office of Ken Paulson. We told him what we wanted and in less than 30 mins he'd designed two rings for us that were a combination of what we liked and of what he knew would look good. He'd also cut my ring in half and taken it away from me. Would have likely paid to see my face after that little manoeuvre. Thankfully he returned it the next day clean and fitting better than ever. In one day (!) he was also able to show me the almost completed wax mock-ups for both our rings. Compared to everywhere else we went, working with Ken was awesome. He wasn't pushy, his jaw didn't hit the floor when I said I didn't want diamonds, he was fun to work with and he was right on budget. Can't wait to see the finished rings when he gets back from holidays!

the swine

2009-06-25T23:19:00.003-06:00

H and I both got sick very soon after our trip to New York. Because I (genetically) am lacking some tact and sensitivity and just generally don't know when to keep my mouth shut, we joked that we came home with the swine flu. Har har. Or oink oink rather.

Well wouldn't you know, H1N1 is now rampant in Saskatoon, and I'm fairly certain that this time around I actually have it. I'd just like to say it was more fun as a joke. Seriously, the speed at which this thing went through my school was frightening to say the least, even more so when doctors are more concerned about what the fall version of this bad boy is going to look like. I feel particularly bad for a friend of ours who it would appear I infected simply by looking at him at a wedding we both attended on the weekend. Sorry! Maybe you'll thank me if we're resistant in the fall?

One of the symptoms they forget to list on the WHO website is a little something I'd like to call "brain meltdown." It occurs when you have H1N1, but don't get in quite as much sleep or napping as you'd like. If calling it brain meltdown doesn't suit you, you can also call it "test your relationship with your ridiculousness." To his list of accolades, H can now add being very tolerant and patient towards a totally delusional and illogical fiancee for a week. He's going to be great with a toddler.

While I don't think I'll be running out to buy a "I survived H1N1" or "I survived The Swine" I am happy to be on the mend. Having the flu, no matter how novel a flu, is after all, having the flu.

a world of hurt

2009-06-08T22:09:00.003-06:00

In the interest of staying healthy, I occasionally entertain the idea of "working out." Problem is, I don't enjoy most activities that fall under the large umbrella of "exercise." I'm embarrassingly terrible at most sports. I mean, I suppose I'm at an age where there must be people who have become equally as terrible, but I'm too lazy to search out the options for this. I hate running. Rach tried to get me into it on multiple occasions, and I just can't do it. I don't mind going to the gym, but without a partner I wind up never making it and regretting paying for the membership. I like walking, but in terms of exercise, I feel like I should do something a little more strenuous than the mall walkers. In the last two years I have discovered a love of yoga, but H and I decided we would do it together at home instead of paying the insane class costs, only to find out that according to H "the roof is too low" and that we'd need to get the hardwood in upstairs before that was really an option.

Fast forward to two weeks ago. There are a few of us at work who for various reasons are there everyday til 5. The trend of P90X seemed to be going around, so we figured we'd give it a try. It had the elements I need - different things everyday, cardio and weights and a partner to do it with on most days. It also had a lean program option, which appealed to my girly self. We even agreed that we'd have a standing deal that whoever didn't stick to the program on our alone days would have to buy the other person lunch on Fridays.

Well the first day was "Core Synergistics." We had a great laugh at the never ending stream of warnings that precede each of the tapes, one of them saying something to the likes of "If you don't meet the minimum fitness requirement, P90X is not for you." Well, within 30 minutes I was rolling on the floor laughing at my inability to do anything, between giggles stating that "I don't think I meet the minimum fitness requirements!" We finished up to the best of our ability, and somewhere out came my stubbornness deciding that "dammit, I can do this."

Before I got too attached to my decision to see this ridiculous program through, I thought I'd look up the minimum fitness requirement. They might as well say if you can breath, you'll be fine. 3 push ups from your knees, an attempt at a chin-up and a stretch and jump test that anyone with regular mobility would have no problem with. OMG. 3 girl push ups is supposed to get me through AN HOUR of push-ups? And not just regular push-ups, all sorts of bizarro variations to make them harder than regular push-ups. Oh lord.

I made it through day 2, and day 3 and all of week 1. Turns out that first day is the hardest of the week. And, I felt great! Everyday I was waking up with energy, instead of cursing my alarm clock like usual. My partner however, had decided that it was maybe just a little too much and jumped ship, opting for a different program to follow. Luckily, H decided he needed in on the fun, and joined in for week 2. Week 2 did not see the same benefits in energy as week 1. In fact, week 2 became increasingly more difficult.

Today was the first day of my week 3. I'm not hurting nearly as much as I was, and I'm starting to notice some improvement in what and how much I can do. However, my muscles are so tired it's ridiculous. H and I are sad sad sights. Today we're hobbling around like 80 year olds just out of hip replacement surgery. Not going to lie, I'm totally looking forward to my recovery week next week, even if it is just 6 days of slightly less intense working out.

things i am currently annoyed at

2009-05-20T18:07:00.003-06:00

Facebook asking me everyday "WILL YOUR DRESS FIT?!?"
Now I am sure the makers of that particular advertisement are not actually yelling at me, but seeing that ad everyday for the last 8 months sure makes me feel like they are. Also, I feel annoyed that if someone keeps asking that question, you eventually start to wonder. Why are you trying to give me issues facebook? Why? I don't need to have body issues AND my dress will fit. You know, cause it has an adjustable back.
Ridiculous articles on how to save money while planning your wedding during the recessions.
At first glance this wouldn't seem like it was something that was annoying. And I keep reading them because I keep hoping they might be helpful. Wrong. Saving 10K on a 100K wedding is not "saving money during the recession" it's being 99.5 percent stupid instead of 1oo. Gah.
The weather.
nuff said.
My neighbours garbage.
Seriously, these people produce more garbage than a small apartment complex. The piles of trash behind your garbage can annoy me, and not just because it's sorta gross. It's 2009, RECYCLE. Something. I know we have to pay for our blue boxes, but as soon as we started using it we were down to one bag of garbage a week. If we get a compost box from the city, I'm not even sure we'll have garbage. Start small. Just start please.

must have fallen asleep during the training video...

2009-05-01T13:29:00.003-06:00

(Yes I am going to totally pretend like it hasn't been ages since I posted last.)

Originally when we were making plans for our kitchen renos, H and I decided we would wait to replace our fridge. Since there was nothing actually wrong with ours, waiting 6ish months to change it out would be no big deal. We did need to replace our dishwasher and microwave however, and unfortunately this means shopping for the fridge first since it's the largest appliance and in the end we wanted them all to match. We would randomly go look at appliances, and change our minds about which one we liked best and what features were most important every time we went to a store.

Fast forward to the kitchen install - interest rates were essentially zero and our old fridge looked absolutely ridiculous in the very large hole we had left for our would be fridge. We decided to replace everything but the stove. Now that we were seriously looking for a fridge, we quickly realised what our priorities were and that our options were very limited so we started shopping around to make sure we knew what all the counter-depth options out there were.

We hit up all the local stores first, and then made our way to Sears. It was scratch and save days at Sears and they were having some kind of appliance sale on top of that, so we were looking to see if anything we had seen elsewhere was on sale. While standing in front of one of our options, a rather pricey Jenn-Air, we were approach by a salesman. We quickly told him what we were looking for - counter-depth, French doors, stainless - and asked what else in store fit that description.

Oh, he said, we don't really have much that fits that description, but I do have this Samsung over here on sale for $1700.

Yeah, we're really looking for something that's counter-depth we replied.

Yeah, but this Samsung is a great deal for $1700,

Yes, but we are also looking for French doors.

But it's $1700!

I think we'll keep looking around...

It was at this point that we bolted towards the exit, shaking our heads at how embarrassingly incompetent this man was. I mean, it's great that he wanted to save us some money, but he clearly hasn't figured out how his commission works.

save the date

2009-03-03T21:30:00.003-06:00

Check it out, it's my first officially completed wedding project! I totally love them, and wish we were sending them to everyone instead of just people who might need a hotel. Stupid budget.

typical, really

2009-02-13T10:14:00.003-06:00

If you weren't aware (and I'm assuming most of you weren't) Saskatoon Public and Regina Public became "partners in learning" at the end of last year. My understanding was that this partnership was to support both divisions in their pursuits of renewing their respective collegiates, and the practices that occur there.

You can imagine how dismayed I was, to hear that after visiting with presumably the downtown voices of Collegiate Renewal, all the deputy director took away was that Regina Public was ahead of Saskatoon Public because Saskatoon just built two brand new schools, using the exact same blue prints. This is 100% true, there is one extra locker in Tommy Douglas compared to Centennial. Now, I by no means support how the new schools were designed, or that to save money the possibility of making improvements to the original plans for the second school wasn't even considered. However, the deputy director's statement underlines (at least) two huge misunderstandings about what Collegiate Renewal is.

1) If, the partnership with Regina was forged as part of our system's plan for Collegiate Renewal, there should be no competition between our divisions. It's not about who's "further ahead," it should be about using our shared experiences to learn and grow to be better educators. There has been a large focus about minimizing the competitiveness that can occur between Collegiates in the city so we can focus on collaborating instead of worrying about enrollment numbers. It seems like a ridiculous waste of energy to compete with a Division that we don't even share students with when the reality is both Division have extremely large amounts of work to do in regards to updating their practices.

2) If the deputy director had spent any amount of time with the research on successfully engaging students in their learning, he would be aware that while the physical shell of the school can have an impact on student engagement, it is one of the least cost efficient way to approach engaging students and does not guarantee to engage at all. If he truly wanted to have a meaningful "competition" with us, I would much prefer he start talking about how much more comfortable his teachers are with new instructional practices, with new assessment models, with responsive programming that respects student needs, with superior professional learning opportunities for staff, essentially with anything a little more substantive than "we're going to build better buildings." You can have the nicest, most functional, most modern building in the world and if your teachers are still teaching like it is 1851 what good does it do anyone?

Now, I am sure the deputy director thinks in a way that is slightly more advanced that "our buildings are better than theirs," but his comparison undermines all the work teachers here and in Regina are doing. The programming being put into place in his new building is far more important than the building that houses it. If our jobs are reduced down to no better than the buildings and equipment we have to work with, the possibilities for improvement are few and our efforts quite futile. I think I prefer my visions for Collegiate Renewal, and in that respect, you are way behind Mr. Deputy Director. Luckily, Collegiate Renewal is about learning and growing, so there's a chance you can join us sometime in the (hopefully) near future.

the not quite conculsion

2009-01-27T22:30:00.003-06:00

Hoorah!! Marks are in, comments are finished, and it's officially the start of second semester.

Even though they had already negotiated their marks prior to the final, no one in my gr 10 class blew out their final. In fact, only one student was out by over 10% which if compared to a regular classroom and final exam marks almost never happens. I'm not sure if this is because they prepared well knowing they needed to support their chosen mark or if they spent more time during the semester learning concepts so the final seemed easier. Right now I'm so burnt out I'm not sure I care, mostly I'm just relieved this experiment didn't turn into a disaster at the last minute.

Unfortunately this process really highlights the many flaws in my assessment and evaluation practices. Not to mention the very way most of my lessons are constructed and the activities that support. It's big work, overwhelming work, and the frustrating part is "doing little things" as everyone suggests is hard. Doing it all is impossible. So I guess the little things will have to do for now.

An open letter...

2009-01-21T16:12:00.003-06:00

To ridiculous co-worker,

I am inquiring as to who exactly you thought would be sympathetic to your incessant bitching today. You were incredibly vocal at being displeased at having to mark 18, single page (double sided granted) modified math exams. IT'S FINALS. Over 90 staff members in our building are busy marking exams. The majority of the classes have a minimum of 30 students. Aside from some sigh-ing, there was no complaining. You know, because it's their job. If you did yours, maybe this wouldn't seem like such a burden to you.

Sincerely,

She who DID NOT mark your exams for you (even though you tried to make her)

P.S. We all also have a lot of meetings to go to at this time of year, so you likely shouldn't complain about that either.

the interviews

2009-01-14T21:24:00.004-06:00

It's finally the time where I had to sit down and negotiate a mark with my gr 10 students. The whole idea made me nervous as who knew what they would say. Would they have greatly overinflated perceptions of their abilities? Would they not take it seriously and just randomly pick a number hoping I would do the "hard part" for them?

I'm about halfway done, and neither of the issues have come up. What have come up are different issues, ones that simultaneously make me feel terrible about the whole process and reassure me that though there are a whole lot of changes that need to be made, this is a step in the right direction.

It had been my observation that marks often get in the way of students really focusing on what they did or didn't know. The number was all they would look at when I gave them back a test or assignment. This semester, my gr 10s had a lot more conversations about what they knew, and what they were still working on. In a class of 33, a very minimal number or students shirked the task of "doing more" when they didn't fully understand a concept, the vast majority of students were quite proactive about redoing questions, getting help, and redoing evaluations. I don't think any of these students are functioning at a level where they would not be successful with traditional evaluations. Anticipating this from the beginning, it never occurred to me just how terrible I would feel asking them to numerically quantify a learning process. Especially when I think about how incompetent I felt helping them along.

I have one student who has not been able to give herself a mark. When we first sat down, I could tell she was very uncomfortable, so we talked a little and she eventually told me "I'm an 80-85 student." A large part of her identity is wrapped up somewhere between those 2 numbers. Anything less than an 80 is cause for a mini-identity crisis and she has no real desire to try to push herself. A 90 is nice, but elusive and almost magical. When I tried to get her to look at her portfolio to talk about what she had been able to show mastery of, she was absolutely lost - not even able to identify what were concepts we spent more time on as a starting point.

Another student's performance was all over the place, but he's had many difficulties with exams - making evaluating his performance more difficult since there are discrepancies between what he does during class time, and what he does on exams. He did a whole lot of extra work at home, and I honestly believe he understands more than he has shown. That considered, I'm not sure he can produce work to quite the level he imagines - yet. He too has a large part of his identity wrapped up in these numbers, and having to assign a number based on performance this early, relative to his learning seems like it will cause more harm than create motivation.

Many teachers, parents and students will argue that grades are necessary and difficult as it may be to believe, I used to be a student who would fight for every last percent and always wanted to know the class average. Once you start looking at the alternatives however, it seems the numbers really fall short of communicating much of anything.

le cafe

2009-01-06T11:26:00.005-06:00

I love coffee. Pretty much everything about it really - the way it smells, tastes, even just having the warm mug in my hands makes me happy. Considering this, I don't drink a whole lot of it - typically one mug in the morning when I get to work, and somedays a second in the later part of the morning or early afternoon if I'm cold.

I do however, typically feel terrible in the mornings. This, I attribute to the very nature of mornings, not a lack of caffeine. However, not having done proper research this may be a faulty conclusion. So, I have decided not to drink coffee for the next week, possibly two, to see if it makes getting up any easier.

I'm biased to hope it won't, cause I will miss my morning coffee, but willing to test it out just in case. An no, just going to bed earlier is not being considered as a variable for this experiment.

a wedding related post, dun dun dun

2009-01-04T00:45:00.004-06:00

I've been thinking I should post about the wedding planning process for awhile now since I'd like to have some memory of it in a few years, but have been far too lazy. December can do that to a person. Tonight we went to see "Seven Pounds" and one of the previews just happened to be for "Bride Wars" and it pushed me over the edge.

I know, I know, this movie is supposed to be funny because it's so over the top and ridiculous, but I just can't get behind re-enforcing and even encouraging the trend for crazy, over the top, weddings that have nothing to do with getting married and everything to do with status and showing off.

Right after (and who am I kidding, before) we got engaged I started looking at wedding blogs & websites for ideas for our wedding. It didn't take me long to figure out this is essentially the female equivalent of porn. It's just all so pretty! I mean, who doesn't love a perfectly decorated room, with matching linens, gorgeous centerpieces, matching letter pressed menus and a "lounge" area with new furniture and accessories. If you're not careful, you could even start to believe that this is totally normal and even expected for a wedding.

Until you make up your budget of course. Make up your budget and then figure out just what that dollar amount gets you in wedding-land. If your budget looks anything like ours, it's not a whole heck of a lot. The real brain blowing part comes when you try and calculate what the cost of these "Real Weddings" featured across the interweb must be. This part, this is where my brain explodes. These "Real Weddings" rarely come with a price tag less that $50 000, and I think in many cases that's a very conservative estimate.

Not only do they cost ridiculous amounts of money, but they are all about "the invitations," "the cake," "the florals," etc. There's a piece of the trailer for "Bride Wars" where the vendor for the hotel asks both brides if they'd like to consult their husbands to be about the date they are choosing for their weddings and with barely a hesitation both girls give a firm N-O. Because clearly the fantasy wedding that happens at the Plaza after receiving the ginormous Tiffany's ring clearly has nothing to do with their husbands at all. They are simply another accessory that will be perfectly decorated for the day.

I don't know how anyone justifies spending the equivalent of a serious down payment on a home on one day. There are some who say if you have it to spend then why not, and I agree with this to a certain extent. I understand being too lazy to shop around, too busy to do some things yourself, but the sheer waste on one day still doesn't make any sense - especially when many couple put themselves into serious debt for their weddings. We all know where those $3000 invites wind up, and just how many days does $5000 worth of flowers last for anyway?

Don't get me wrong, we are putting some effort into making things look pretty. It is however, more comparable to the kind of pretty you'd make your table for Christmas or someone's birthday, just slightly larger scale. Also, I love paper, so the whole "need to make invites" thing is right up my alley to obsess over - just not in the $3000 obsess kind of way. But what am I really expending all my wedding related brain energy on? How to have a ceremony that's meaningful to us. How to spend as much time as possible with our guests. How to properly celebrate with those people who are close to us the commitment to one another that we are making, the beginning of our married lives and just how much we appreciate the support from everyone present that helped us to this point. Oh yes, and of course, how to do this on budget.

You see, I can't help but think that if we thought a little bit more about the marriage, and a little less about the wedding our marriages on the whole would be a little more successful. Or at least that's what I'm hoping for.

happy 2009

2009-01-01T17:06:00.002-06:00

I was thinking I would sit down today to do a reflection on how I fared with last year's resolutions. Then I realized going through the archives it would appear I didn't make any, at least not publicly on this blog. And if I made them personally, I don't remember what they were. So much for the reflection plan.

However, 2008 was a pretty crazy year for me both personally and professionally. Ringing in the New Year last year at a wedding with H, dating for just barely a month, I never would have imagined how different our lives would be this year at the same time.

Things I did for the first time in 2008:

rode a zip line
bought a house
painted a deck
hosted a party where guests really were expected to bring nothing
visited Wilkie
learned how to ballroom dance
agreed with a student that my assignment was unnecessary
traveled to Chicago
got engaged
bought shoes on the internet
took a real summer holiday
stuck to my Christmas budget
watched live election coverage (twice!)

I actually think this list is a little longer but I can't seem to remember anything else right now. Here's to 2009 being yet another year of firsts!

when your own words fail - use someone else's

2008-12-12T15:05:00.003-06:00

I am so glad Jaimie is much more eloquent than I - this is a far better representation of the person Erica was. This is the eulogy given by her best friend Monday.

"Hi Everyone,
When Jaci first talked to me about doing this, my biggest fear was standing up here before you and not being able to get these words out. But after Erica passed, my fear changed. I wasn’t nervous anymore about standing here and crying, I was nervous about finding the right words. It’s enough pressure for anyone to eulogize their friend, but to do it for a woman who always had the right words – whose eloquence, creativity and wit were evident to everyone she came in contact with – is a truly daunting task. Whenever I was at a loss for words, whenever I needed help with grammar and punctuation, whenever I needed a Scrabble triple-word-score worthy word, I always turned to Erica. And here I am now, left to my own devices, so E . . . let’s hope you taught me well. Here it goes.
Erica, E, EJ, Murray 1, Reekie, Beek and always her favorite . . . Erica…names for an extraordinary woman who I have always been, and will forever be, so honored to call my best friend. [Note from Jamie: The former “Erica” is pronounced the way Erica pronounced her name (with the emphasis on the 2nd syllable), while the ladder “Erica” is pronounced the traditional way (with the emphasis on the 1st syllable). Clearly, the joke loses something when reduced to writing!] I could stand here before you today and talk about Erica’s compassion, her intelligence, her sense of humor, her smile, her sparkling eyes, her incredible love for her family and friends. But these are things you all already know. So my job now is to tell you a few things about Erica you may not know.

Like how Erica’s closest friends throughout her life were just the right combination of alike and different. Erica was one of those very rare and special people who enjoyed the company and friendship of people who didn’t always share her views or who said things she would never say herself. For instance she often times left it to me to make an inappropriate, politically incorrect joke while she laughed and shook her head at me all at the same time.
Or how, before her days of hob-knobbing with other over-achieving, international do-gooders at Fletcher, Erica was a rugby-playing English major at Oxy. And before that, she graced the halls of St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Santa Maria where she swam, was homecoming princess, and worked at Hot Dog on a Stick . . . oh that’s right . . . Hot Dog on a Stick . . . sorry E.

Or how she’s a canuck! That’s right, she was born in Canada. Her Mom Judy lovingly described Erica’s birth on the blog that Erica kept as a way of sharing her journey over the past few years. In the post written on Erica’s 29th birthday, Judy wrote of her baby girl:
“At precisely 7:47, 29 years ago, the sweetest most beautiful baby girl arrived in West Vancouver British Columbia. She was the cutest little baby weighing in at 6lbs 10 oz with the most engaging smile ever. Today, this same lovely little baby has metamorphosized into a wonderfully strong, intelligent, inspiring and beautiful young woman.”
Another thing you may have not known about Erica is that her favorite city in the world was Paris. Up until about a year ago, she always said that she didn’t have a favorite city, but sometime recently (and I think I know why), that changed, and she said she knew that she would always feel at home there. So, the next time you are in Paris, please think of Erica. Visit a museum for her. Sit at an outdoor café, sip espresso, and people watch for her. Try speaking French at the risk of being laughed at . . . and when that happens, laugh too because you know Erica would have been proud of you.

Erica once said to me that she felt like she was a jack of all trades but a master of none. She knew she was talented and creative but didn’t feel like she excelled at any one thing. But I beg to differ. Erica was truly a master of human relationships. She had the most amazing ability to make everyone she came in contact with feel like her best friend. And she made friends to the very end. She was naturally the most welcoming and friendly person I have ever known, and she brought together people from around the world as her friends. Very shortly after Erica was first diagnosed she created a top ten list of the best things about having cancer . . . leave it to Erica to find the bright side of having cancer ;) The number one thing on her list was bringing her loved ones together. She said: “I love it when people from different segments of my life have the opportunity to meet and get to know one another. Jamie called it my ‘elf on the wall’ trick (the joke sort of deriving from me being the obvious elephant in the room, but trying to be like a fly on the wall), but many hours of each day were spent in a semi-snooze listening to my Mom get to know my friends, or my sister get to know my graduate school colleagues, or a friend from Japan getting to know a friend from high school. I loved just listening to their precious voices and knowing they were there.” And Erica has accomplished this more than she will ever know. I realized yesterday that while I may have lost my best friend, I have gained another mother and another sister in Judy and Jaci.

To my Chinese mother Judy, thank you from everyone else who loved Erica for not only caring for her, but for us too. You shared your little girl with so many people, and we will forever be thankful to you for that gift.
And to Jaci…I know Erica told you constantly just how she felt about you, and I could go on and on about her love for you, which was clear to anyone who ever saw the two of you together. But I’m not going to, because it was SO evident to everyone in this room and because, honestly, I don’t think either of us could handle it. So all I am going to say, one last time for Erica, is “big wing.”

A few days before Erica passed, an anonymous Oxy staff member wrote one of the most beautiful posts I have read so far. The part that touched me the most was about Erica’s smile. The post read: “Her ability to take us along on the tragic and cruelly unfair journey she has been on these past few years, with grace, dignity, intelligence and humor is truly amazing. It speaks volumes about her strength, and her inner beauty that is matched so completely by that radiant smile she so often beams. I think it is her smile, immediately engaging, immediately inviting and immediately warm that radiates and gives you a sense of comfort in her presence. In Oxy staff meetings I would often look across the table and see that smile, matched equally by her intelligence and enthusiasm, and I would think to myself - wow, she is something.” I don't think I have ever known a more beautiful smile. I hope that none of us will ever forget that smile…I know I never will.

A week before Erica went into the hospital for the last time she asked me what I thought would happen to her after she passed away. At the time I gave a basic and reassuring answer in an effort to calm her and ease her fears. But when I think about it now, I like to think that Erica is now forever enjoying what would have been her ideal day here on Earth. She is with her Mom, Dad, Jaci, and Linda. She is surrounded by her aunts, uncles, cousins, and countless friends. Her days consist of a rotating schedule of crossword puzzles, card games, group reads, yoga, political debates and dim sum. Barak Obama is President for eternity, and not recycling is a crime punishable at law.

It was clear to me from very early in our friendship that Erica had a special combination of compassion, integrity, sense of humor, strength, morality, and world consciousness that very few people have. She made an immediate and lasting impact on whomever she met and encouraged those around her to strive to live life to the fullest.
Erica taught us all many things over the past few years. One of the things that I am most thankful to her for is teaching me the true meaning of the word “selfless”. I saw it everyday that I was with Erica. She was by far the most selfless person I have every known. She would do things for other people no matter how badly she didn’t want to just because she knew it would make them feel better.

One last thing that I want to mention was her sense of humor. The girl knew how to tell a joke, was always quick with a great come-back, and could find humor in just about anything in life. This was evident in most of Erica’s blog posts. The blog was created to give Erica’s loved ones updates on her health and treatment but quickly took on a life of it’s own. Some of her more creative and humorous posts over the past two years were her December 2007 “12 Days of Cancer” post and, my own personal favorite, her October 2008 missing I-phone post. My favorite part of that post being: “The search for the missing iPhone has been conducted in a professional and thorough manner. Amber alerts have been issued on the 101 and 280 freeways. Digital Voicemail-sniffing dogs scoured the patient units, the 3rd floor VIP room, the cafeteria, and the radiology ward, places EJ's Mobile's owner has frequented lately. As each hour passes, the owner has less hope that the mobile device will be found intact. ‘I have had it for about a year and half,’ the owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, said. ‘I'm not sure how I will be able to fill the hole its absence has left in my purse.” The girl was funny!

Over the past few days I have been looking over old blog posts, e-mails, and letters from Erica, searching for some of her words. As you can imagine, I had an endless supply of poetic passages from Erica that I could have shared with you. But the words that I have chosen aren’t necessarily the most poetic, but the most poignant. In an e-mail from her to some of her closest friends on January 13th of this year (two weeks before she relapsed) she said:
“The first year of treatment was awful, the only specks of sunlight being the love you all showered on me. 2007 was a year marked by growing strength, growing hair, growing happiness. While undergoing treatment, I completed one year of my master's degree and managed, despite my family's and doctor's worries, to still do some of things I love, like traveling. Still, I'm not sure I can remember what it's like to be 100% pain free, to not be anticipating the next invasive needle, to not know which of the cocktail of drugs I'm on is causing today's particular pain. My optimism for 2008 is severely hedged by cautious anticipation of lingering side effects and, of course, relapse concern, but I still think that getting this far is worth a bit of a celebration.”

So that is what we will do for you today, my dear. We will celebrate your life, our love for you, and your love for us. We will laugh and smile and cry in your honor, and we will do it knowing how much fun you are having watching us. We love you, we miss you, and we will forever be better because of you. I love you E!"

celebrating life

2008-12-09T19:35:00.002-06:00

It is with unbelievable sadness that today I'm celebrating the life of Erica Murray. I've posted about Erica quite a few times over the last few years and am still in disbelief that the unthinkable happened - on Thurs Dec 5th Erica lost her long hard battle with cancer.

Erica was an incredible person and friend and it's not an exaggeration when I say that today people across the globe are mourning and celebrating her life together in their own way.

One of the very first times I spent any time with Erica was right after she moved to Japan. I went over to visit her (when she first arrived we lived a couple blocks from one another) and we spent an entire evening chatting and laughing on the floor of her 8 x 10 apartment as they didn't have any furniture yet. It was one of those evenings where your stomach and your face hurt for days and when it's all over you have no idea what was so funny. I think the evening ended in "stealing" furniture from the garbage collection at a strange hour of the morning. We had many more ridiculous times, but the first has stayed with me as it's so rare to find such a connection with someone you barely know.

Erica made me want to be a better person pretty much from the day I met her. She had traveled more, studied more, had better relationships, better decorating sense, better time management, and this outlandishly positive attitude just to start off. Yet there she was, making perverted jokes and down to earth as anyone.

I am very grateful we got to meet up both in Boston and in Montreal - short visits, but we fit quality time into both somehow. Erica's house in Boston was such a home - it was filled to the roof with art, books, games and pictures. If it wasn't for the detailed list in the bathroom of her meds and the container of syringes by the vanity you'd have had no idea someone undergoing chemo far from home lived there. Our Montreal visit was more reminiscent of Japan - we just sort of stumbled around enjoying what Montreal has to offer in the summer. I'm trying not to get to caught up in the visit to California that I had planned that was still yet to come.

E, you fought this right up until the very end and I never for a second thought the cancer would/could win. You are so loved and missed, and now without pain.
Love you always,

evidence

2008-11-19T20:55:00.004-06:00

Wondering what I've been up to lately? Well I've essentially been consumed by two rather large projects.

The first is my job. Specifically the task of gather large amounts of evidence to look at with Dr. Anne Davies next Friday. Learning Leaders and Principals have been assigned this task so we can have a discussion of what quality evidence of change would look like. While this sounds reasonable, my math background is putting me at odds with the majority of evidence that we have access to. You see, none of it will reflect improvement over time. It all shows very lovely snapshots of the fabulous things going on at our school (which is quite valuable), but we do need some way of measuring that there are more fabulous things going on at this time next year. On the other hand, measuring things just for the sake of measuring them doesn't make much more sense. So yes, this is what I think about almost all the time.

The second is wedding planning. I saved it for second because it is much more fun. The internet is a deadly trap though - there are so many pretty things to look at that it is easy to lose sight of what's really important to us. My love of all things paper doesn't help. However, I find having a budget to be the easiest way to come back down to reality as the thought of spending $1000 on invites, flowers or even a dress makes me a little sick. Not only is it not budget friendly it just seems so wasteful. So I spend an equal amount of time trying to negotiate how we can have a wedding that reflects who we are as a couple and lets us spend as much time as possible with our friends and family.

We've also been doing some minor home renos (I have another red wall!). We might even get our new kitchen in before we get married. No guarantees about that one though. The fabulous JJ came to visit, and we will have more company this weekend. Christmas is almost here and I can't wait for everyone to be home so that I can have a new hobby of staying up too late visiting and trying to cram 6 months of hanging out into 2 weeks.

correction

2008-11-11T14:44:00.002-06:00

In the interest of our wedding not costing a million dollars a new date has been chosen. This makes me a little sad for no rational reason other than I picked the 3rd dammit! On the plus side we will be married a week earlier. So, officially, we shall be wed Sept 26th, 2009! Anyone got a super idea for a ceremony site that is weather friendly?

interviews

2008-10-21T21:42:00.003-06:00

This year's parent-teacher interviews were border line fun. It's my third year at my school, and for many families their second child through my math classroom. For the most part they come to check in, and just to visit. However, these families have also been watching from the sidelines as I've gone through some pretty significant growth as a teacher.

The only thing I was a little apprehensive about this go round was explaining to all my gr 10 parents how and why I was planning on implementing a no marks classroom. It was a much easier sell than anticipated. In fact, almost all of the parents seemed to have no issue whatsoever with the idea. There was one parent who really reassured me that this is the right thing to be doing.

"So what you're saying is that your class is going to be about learning instead of about marks?"

Exactly sir. Exactly.

gulp

2008-10-14T14:14:00.003-06:00

So I just took the plunge and decided to run an almost entirely markless math class. The kids seem into it (shhhh, don't tell them it's more work for them in the long run...) so we'll see how it goes. It will also be a little bit of work for me to make sure I am keeping up to date in holding kids accountable (not a real strong point for me) so I guess we'll all be working. Wish me luck!

tales of engagement

2008-10-12T11:56:00.004-06:00

I had absolutely no idea how wonderful getting engaged would be. I mean, I knew it would be a pretty fabulous event in the lives of H and I, but I neglected to imagine just how excited everyone else would be for us. There was a whole lot of congratulations, hugging, screaming, and even some happy crying going on. If you combine all that with the whole actually being engaged (!) thing, yeah, pretty awesome.

One group of people who I didn't expect to be excited or even really care was my students. I knew some of the girls would be excited, but as a whole I just assumed my engagement would go largely unnoticed. Boy was I wrong.

It was adorable. My grade 10s had already heard from another teacher, and they entered class Wednesday practically dying of curiosity. Student after student entered offering congratulations and wanting to know all about it. Even the boys were totally interested in all the details. They wanted to know all about H, all about our wedding/life plans (I was continually reminding them that we had just gotten engaged, and no, have not planned out the next 5 years of our life), all about colours, dresses, family, you name it.

At some point in the conversation they asked me if I was going to change my name. I answered that yes, I was planning on changing my name (groans all around at the prospect of having to call me something different). So of course they wanted to know what my new name would be. I told them. Another questions was asked, and then one boy put up his hand and very sheepishly asked

"Mme, what kind is he?"

I just about fell off my chair laughing, as did the rest of the class. Several students admitted they were trying to think of a polite way to ask the exact same question. After I stopped laughing we had a mini history lesson on H's family history, which concluded with another kid exclaiming in an exasperated tone,

"You guys, he's brown!"

I suggested they maybe needed to request some supplementary vocabulary from their history teacher as it's clear it's lacking... Then I remembered who their history teacher was, and could imagine myself having this exact same conversation with him so, I suppose that explains a lot!

the terms of engagement

2008-10-04T17:49:00.003-06:00

This past Tuesday marks an awfully special day - the day H decided to ask me to be his wife! Of course I (quickly!) has to ask myself if I really wanted to spend the rest of my life with someone who:

brings me supper every Thursday when I am working.
has a mother who insists on filling our fridge with food at every available opportunity.
makes me put my clothes away.
plans and cooks fabulous meals several times a week.
suggested we take ballroom dancing together.
is wonderful to travel with.
wants to travel.
re-watches movies a billion times, no matter how terrible they were the first time.
makes my lunch.
watches all "my" tv shows with me, even the ones involving dancing.
uses google calendar for everything - including things like picking up our dry-cleaning.
washes the dishes at least once a day.
likes all my friends and family.
always gets blog posts done faster than me.
takes care of me when I am sick.
indulges in my need to pretend to budget.
bought me season tickets to Persephone just a month after we started dating.
insists on having no less than 30 bottles of wine on hand at any given time.
has fabulous friends who have welcomed me into their circle from day 1.
is always up for a concert, a ballet, a walk, and anything really.
is worth getting up 20 mins early to go for breakfast with.
listens to me blabber on and on and on and on about my job.
supports me unconditionally.
puts my water glass away before I'm done with it about 3 times a day.
cracks his knuckles constantly, even when he sleeps.
tells me he loves me before we fall asleep every night, when we wake up every morning, and multiple times a day.
is so much more than to me than I can express in a bulleted list.

The answer of course is YES. Yes I want to be your wife, yes I want to spend the rest of my life with you, yes this post is way to sappy.

Clear your calendars for Oct 3, 2009 folks, that's the day I will officially be a wife!

je ne comprends pas

2008-09-23T21:11:00.004-06:00

Yesterday I went to pay a little visit to my old stretch math class. The one that when I think about it it hurts just a little bit that I don't get to teach it. It was my baby. Those kids, I miss them. True I was super frustrated with them at times, but I love them. Really wanting to understand their learning issues taught me so much about being a better teacher. (gag, I'm sorry, I'll stop now.)

So I visited. And observed a lesson by the teacher who is not me. Typically the same resource teacher who was in with me would be in the class but she had meetings so I opted to fill in. Since the beginning of the year we have been trying to support the teacher who took over for moi - securing planning time, bringing in experts who really helped me out in the beginning, etc. I have been very pleasantly surprised with how easy my replacement has been to work with. Considering all possibilities, we've had an excellent working relationship.

Now, I'm trying to wrap my brain around what I observed and how to best approach the issue, if I can address it at all. Said teacher is going through notes with the students, but the vocabulary is way out of their league. The examples and speed are excellent! The notes, they are making little to no sense for the kids. Teacher keeps bringing focus back to how they don't need to worry about the notes, about how the examples are what are important, but is still having them copy out the notes. The ones that make no sense with the accompanying explanations, and will certainly make no sense later without an explanation.

So after the lesson we are chatting, this that and the other thing. I decide I should lightly give a little critisism (after of course complimenting the speed and clarity of examples) and point out how the notes were an obstacle for them - not understanding makes many students shut down before they even arrive at the examples. Teacher replies with "Oh I know, that's why I kept putting emphasis on how they weren't really important." I didn't know how to tactfully say that they should have been removed then but couldn't think of a way to approach this.

Today, I am still annoyed. Seriously, freaking cross them out with an overhead marker. Tell them not to copy them. WHATEVER. I don't understand why you would have them do things that you know are useless, not just useless actually but counter productive. Last time I checked one of the learning outcomes was not printing practice.

I know I make tons of mistakes in my teaching. All the time really. Likely at least once an hour if not more. I don't understand purposefully doing things in a way that make your job more difficult in the long run though.

rocketman!

2008-09-17T20:41:00.002-06:00

If you've been living under a rock for the last 3+ months, you maybe weren't aware that Sir Elton John is on a Canadian Tour. A huge tour where all the shows sold out in 3ish minutes. I live under a small-ish rock, so it's no wonder I didn't really know when tickets were going on sale in the first place and no real surprise that by the time I realized they were going on sale they were sold out. So, ummm, no Elton for me.

I was okay with it, I'm not Elton's biggest fan or anything, I don't own anything with his name or face on it except the Lion King DVD. But, it is Sir Elton John we're talking about here. So when last minute tickets became available, the only reasonable thing to do seemed to be purchase them. It's not like he's going to live forever and be back anytime soon. Or ever.

Arriving at CUC we had no idea what to expect in terms of seats. The tickets were "bleacher" seats and weren't on any of CUC's seating plans. I didn't understand how magically, 12 hours before a 100% sold out show, a whole batch of tickets could come available. Until we found our seats. Behind. the. stage. Seriously. They found some hockey bleachers in a closet somewhere, lifted up the screen a little, and sat us directly behind the stage. Turns out? Some of the best seats in the house.

True I have no idea what kind of crazy faces the guitarists may have been making, or what was on the giant screen, but we were second row kind of close, with the bonus of being up a level so we could see everything going on. We were essentially right on top the percussionists, which was very fun to watch. I might even have developed a wee crush on the secondary percussion dude - before the show he totally raided an elementary school band room and was playing every gizmo under the sun that you could hit or shake including a set of cowbells, two vases, martini shakers, and more tambourines than any one person should need. He also liked to entertain himself by making faces at the other band members (or maybe no one) and throwing his various hitting things around. Fun!

Elton was of course awesome. 40 years later and he's still amazing. He's pretty entertaining to watch also. He's quite stiff in his movements and loves to point at himself and then the crowd. It was a little unreal to see the crowd from almost the band's perspective - 10 000 people is a lot! The sound quality was fantastic, me thinks Elton and his crew must carry some supplementary equipment or the CUC has really upgraded their stuff since the last time I saw a concert there. He also finished with my favourite song, so thanks for that E!

time warp

2008-09-04T18:02:00.003-06:00

I was thinking of posting a week one back to school update. Then I realized I've been back at school for 2 minus a day weeks. How have I been back at school for two weeks?

If you haven't talked to me, myself and the two other learning leaders were in charge of organising our entire staff PD day on the second day back to school for teachers. This involved hours of meeting time, not sleeping Sunday night, more hours of work, and a general feeling that I may have been just a teeny weeny bit totally batshit crazy when I applied for/accepted this job. Guess what? Success! Everyone totally loved the day (for real, not in a we're just saying this so you don't cry, kind of way)! So at least our staff doesn't hate us from the get go. That part can happen a little later when we really dig into things. Just in case you're thinking when I say "my staff" I mean a happy little elementary school staff of 30ish people I do not. I mean 110 cynical high school teachers who instinctively roll their eyes when I get up to talk at least 50% of the time. The love, I rarely feel it.

So, as I'm sure you can guess, all the typical back to school things are good. My kids are great, classes are good, blah blah blah. The teaching bit, I still love it. I'm also really gaining some appreciation for the comfort factor that has really let me become a better teacher 6 (6!!) years later. My new job, however, is best described as challenging on steroids. It's a very bipolar position - one minute I'm just so excited about the dialogue and things happening, and the next I am beyond frustrated. There are lots of little pockets of very exciting things going on, they just happen to be buried under administrivia and garbage, not to mention a huge lack of time, clarity and real direction. I just hope the good parts are enough to outweigh the million frustrations as the year progresses.

So that's my first two weeks back. I'd be kidding myself if I thought it was going to settle down any in the weeks to come.

it appears i never learn

2008-08-31T21:45:00.003-06:00

Today we needed a few last minute groceries for supper so I grabbed my bags and headed out while H attended to the ribs. And for the umpteenth time I went to Extra Foods. I have no idea why I do this. It's just so convenient - across the street and down a path, but it's just so terrible.

Today I had to circle the produce department several times. They had no cored pineapple, the lemons were gross looking unless you bought a 3lb bag and the carrots were mutants. When they didn't have any BBQ beans I put my basket down in frustration and abandoned shopping.

Of course I did what I should have done in the first place - walked the extra block and a half to the Co-op. It's glorious there. It took me all of 10 minutes to find everything on my list. So convenient! Not only do they carry such complicated grocery items like "lemons," "carrots," and "cream of tartar," everything is fresh AND easy to find. It's clean and organized. The check-out girl even asked me if I had remembered to check my eggs. Do you know what the surly check-out girls at Extra Foods do? They punch your eggs when you're not looking.

I don't know what it is about that extra block and a half walk that turns my brain into mush when deciding where to grocery shop. Somehow, I always think "I only need a couple things, Extra Foods will have them, it's faster!" I am always greeted with aisles full of abandoned stock, rotting produce, crazed shoppers with overflowing carts and 15 year old workers that aren't too sure what basil is, let alone where they'd find it in the store (assuming you could find it at all...). And of course, I must have the craziest taste in food because it's a guarantee that they will not have something. It baffles my mind that there are always so many shoppers there, do these people eat a solid diet of presidents choice hamburger helper with some frozen dinners thrown in for variety? I can be 100% certain that if I had to drive for groceries Extra Foods wouldn't occur to me as a possibility.

I'd like to pretend like I've learnt my lesson. But I know, sometime next month I'll need "just a couple things" and somehow I'll wind up back there. Wandering dumbly around the aisles, confused and/or frustrated, not understanding how a grocery store doesn't carry bread, swearing from now on I'll just go to the Co-op in the first place.

annoying, sir you are it

2008-08-14T16:31:00.003-06:00

Yes I'm aware I still have a Chicago post to finish up. I'm bored with myself. Sorry.

At the end of the school year a Math conference was offered (for free!) to our division. I do love the free, and it was going to be facilitated by Florence Glanfield who I have never worked with and is a big guru around these parts.

Drawing closer to conference date I was growing more and more skeptical of my decision. There was no information about the actual plan except the title "Coming to Know... Mathematics" and my gut was telling me it was going to be 95% elementary teachers. Not that I have anything against elementary math teachers, we just typically have different concerns and issues. Finally, the day before the conference, they posted an agenda - it did not reassure me that this was going to be two awesome days, totally worth giving up precious deck time to.

Whatever. I got up this morning and was determined to be positive about it. I was pretty sure I would learn something, even though it might not be as action packed as I have grown accustom to over my last year of absolutely stellar PD. They were providing early coffee and lunch on both days so if I needed to bail Friday afternoon so what?

I arrived and had my initial concerns somewhat validated - the secondary crew was very petite. And "the plan" evolved very slowly as our two facilitators appeared to get caught up in vocalizing their own ideas for just over an hour before moving to engage the rest of us. However, aside for that, I had the good fortune to sit next to a man who was clearly much more unimpressed than I. Not only was he unimpressed, he thought the simple commonality of our shared grade level would make us allies in complaint all day long.

After today, I have serious concerns about the future of Math in Regina. This man could not be appeased! We had excellent dialogue as grade group specialists all day (on and off topic) and he was just so focused on what he would not do - which was almost everything. For some reason, he kept trying to draw me into his little world of hate, even after I said I was likely one of those "touchy feely math people" (that he really doesn't like, damn huggy elementary teachers!), said I was very against old evaluation practices, and thought I'd made it very clear that you would use more than just a traditional pencil and paper approach in my room.

I would have been slightly more sympathetic to this man and his hatred of all things not drill related had he simply been an old math teacher. Old habits are hard to break, change is difficult, these new questions have no real "comprehension" as of yet - math teachers are still really questioning how to marry this new trend to really encourage deeper understanding with being able to do. I think elementary teachers, little credit we give them, are far more comfortable in this regard, even if it is because their curriculum is less complex and their standards slightly more flexible. This man, however, isn't an old close to retirement senior math teacher pining away for the good old days when kids would memorize their trig identities and regurgitate math algorithms. This man, is the math consultant for the entire Catholic School Board. Someone promoted him into a position where he is supposed to support teachers in getting kids to love math and he is rolling his eyes at the back of the room at the very notion that we should share our ideas on a piece of large paper with everyone else. He is trying to sabotage professional dialogue because it feels a little too touchy feely for his liking, a little too fluffy.

I hope he chooses not to come tomorrow.

some random observations about the windy city

2008-07-27T22:52:00.004-06:00

H did such a bang up job blogging about the rest of our time downtown I'm going to save myself some time and suggest you go read it here. We totally didn't pay that much attention to detail when we were there - our handy dandy Go Chicago! books filled in some details I think. Instead of paraphrasing I'll take some time to share some of the quirky things we noticed while in Chicago.

The first thing I noticed were the French people everywhere! Les francais, les quebecois, they all seem to have been visiting at the same time as us. I'm not sure what exactly makes Chicago such a hot spot for the French inclined, but it was sort of fun hearing them everywhere we went.

Also, and I'm sure I was supposed to know this and not be surprised by it at all, was the number of black people in Chicago. Yes, this is probably like me being surprised by the number of Asians in Vancouver, or Ukrainians in Saskatchewan but sometimes I forget things while I'm busy living under my little rock. Visually seen, about 50% of Chicago's population is black. Nifty.

People of all races are stupid over Apple stuff. I am a lover of almost everything Apple makes. I own a nano, a macbook, and if my budget allowed I would likely own many more toys from the Apple family. I however, cannot understand how every single time we walked past the Apple store there was a huge lineup just to get in the store. I understand why Apple would want to limit the number of people in their store (hello Vegas Apple Store, you could take a hint here) but I don't understand why you would stand in line to look at stuff you can buy at any larger chain store. Unless of course they give out cookies while you shop, then I would totally understand (and be a little sad I didn't stand in line.)

Marketing has really been taken to the next level in the States. Wednesday morning before we got started we were too full for breakfast but were looking for a coffee before we headed to the museum. There was an ING cafe right across the street from our hotel so it seemed easiest. This cafe totally did its job of making me want to bank with ING. The baristas and *insert name of male equivalent of barista here* were actually all bankers in disguise. Friendly - and one French - bankers. They cut their schpeel on ING rather short when they realized we couldn't become customers, but they were still super nice and even offered to let us use the free internet. As we were doctoring up our coffees a regular customer came in for coffee and they knew her name and what she wanted to order. If my bank wanted to buy me coffee everyday I think I could get behind that!

So I think I should wrap this up here as it's taken me two weeks to finish this post... I'm definitely looking forward to returning to Chicago and would highly recommend it as an American holiday. Ok, done now.

downtown - day 1

2008-07-26T20:52:00.004-06:00

Tuesday morning we awoke fairly early to catch the 930 train into the city. I knew we had started our trip off right when the train showed up on the opposite platform we were standing on - we had to book it with our luggage over to the other side Amazing Race style. To be fair we were in better shape than the several families with young kids and strollers and the elderly couple to be making such a dash. The train has (likely several) "conductors" on it to sell you your tickets - he was fabulously cliche as he hollered "ALL ABOARD" and patrolled his cars reprimanding teenagers and punching tickets in his conductors cap.

We arrived without other incident at Ogilvie Station and took a cab to our hotel not wanting to deal with walking or public transit and our luggage. We stayed at the Sofitel Water Tower Hotel and were very pleasantly surprised to find our rooms ready for us way before check in time. Our room was pretty crazy - the bathroom was about the same size as the room itself and was 80% marble. The bathtub and shower were separate and there was a speakerphone by the toilet. No saving the planet here by reusing your towels either - they didn't just replace them daily, but twice daily! Once in the am and then as needed at turndown. Seemed a little excessive, but it was fun that they cleaned up the bathroom so often.

As soon as we had ditched our bags and found a restaurant to have a reasonable lunch at (not our hotel!) it was time for our sightseeing extravaganza to commence. We underestimated distances a bit while planning - my guess at a 30min walk turned out to be much closer to 45. Tired of searching for the planetarium, we stopped to take in the Shedd Aquarium. Chicago only appears to do one size - huge. The sheer size of the place was likely the most impressive part, maybe I'm getting cynical, but between Marine Land and the Biodome there wasn't really anything new to see in terms of species or display. We also missed the dolphin show not realizing that they only block off the majority of the entrances to the viewing area but not all. We did run into the people sitting in front of us on the train on the way in to town proving that no matter where you go it's bound you run into someone.

After the Aquarium, we were up for continuing our walk to the Adler Planetarium. It didn't hurt that we clearly saw the planetarium from the inside of the aquarium and were much more confident that we could finish up the last 5 minutes of the walk. The Adler Planetarium was also gianormous with several theatres (two with domes) and all sorts of exhibits and things to see. We rested our feet and took in two shows - one on the seasonal stars above Chicago and one on cosmic collisions. We didn't spend a tonne of time looking at the exhibits as we closed the museum down and they didn't seem too keen on extending their hours for us. The planetarium boasts the best view of the downtown, so we hung out appreciating the skyline and just how far we had walked before hopping on a bus back to the Water Tower area.

This was really the only day we figured we'd have any time to do any shopping, so we started by hitting up Michigan Ave - The Magnificent Mile as they call it. Neither of us had much luck, so we headed over to Macy's since Jeff raved about it on their trip to NY. I've always thought I hated department stores, Macy's solidified my hatred for the gigantic monsters. Unless you're looking for homestuff or make-up, finding anything amongst the 8 floors is just way too frustrating for me. Macy's organises everything by brand instead of by type of clothes. Seriously? You want me to peruse 6 floors of women's apparel for a dress without even sort of grouping like styles of clothes together? As if. H had a little more luck in the adjoining mall and picked up some shirts at Abercrombie and Hollister. I have no idea what they make their shirts out of, but the fabric feels like heaven.

Our last mission of the day was to find someplace to eat. This seemed like it would be a pretty simple task since we were staying in a very busy area. Oh right, simple things rarely are while on vacation. We walked for ages, stopping at every restaurant we saw to look at the menu - it all looked delicious and was priced accordingly. It also all seemed to follow the HUGE rule. The size of the steaks on people's plates as we walked by? About the same size as my head. We also saw a couple with a quarter of a carrot cake, not a short one either, one of those totally ridiculous 4 full layer cakes. Not really what we were looking for... I finally convinced H that the Cheesecake Factory we saw right at the beginning of our trek would have something reasonable and delicious for supper. Not wanting cheesecake for supper he was pretty skeptical, but happily it didn't disappoint. It was huge, but reasonably priced, and H even said it was the best burger he's ever eaten. Point - me. Of course our waiter convinced us to share a dessert and we left to pack it in for the night feeling uncomfortably full.

suburbia here we come!

2008-07-26T00:37:00.004-06:00

So we've had an awesome time so far during our trip. H has really been showing me up in the blog department - no real surprise, but he likely has the nanny to thank for finding him some spare moments to update and to edit his photos.

We have been staying in the picturesque town of St. Charles - a suburb of Chicago which boasts rather large, very gorgeous houses that have small parks as backyards. It helps that no one here has fences, and there seem to be pretty strict rules about yard upkeep. Even the houses that are empty and for sale only have weeds in the flower beds and the lawns are still mowed. I'm pretty sure I'd fail the test that lets you into the neighbourhood based on my gardening skills alone.

It's been a bit of a shock to the system to be staying in a house with three kids under the age of 6 - they never stop! To their credit they are insanely cute and aren't nearly as devilish as their mother makes out. This likely half due to the fact that we're new faces and they just LOVE playing with us and half due to the fact that this is temporary so it's okay to have three kids using us as human jungle gyms for a couple days. Since none of the kids have met me before, they seem to be especially smitten with having a girl to play with - you know, between getting scared by their uncle and watching Mickey's Christmas. Until today the youngest (just turned 2) was calling us both "mit-chel" when asked who we were. Tonight when going to bed he did say goodnight to his "Uncle Month" - secretly I hope "mit-chel" sticks.

Since we arrived on Friday, we got a chance to do some family friendly tourist things on the weekend. Saturday everyone but the youngest packed up to go to the Museum of Science and Industry. The Museum is so massive there's an entire airplane and the captured German U boat, among other things, right in the museum. The girls' favourite part by far was the kitchen galley in the sub. After the museum we drove around downtown a little bit - past Obama's house, through the hood, and to Oprah's studio.

On Sunday we packed the whole family up and headed to the Kane County Fair. The weather was a little intense - these crazy brown people seem to forget that us fairer folk get a little crispy when out in the 30 degree heat for several hours! We started off looking at the animals and taking the kids to the petting zoo where we almost had a casualty when one of the girls got taken out by a couple of goats. After we had an awesome time taking the kids on the rides. I think I'd forgotten how lame most of the little little kids rides are - different vehicles moving either in a circular or oval pattern. Watching them try out some of the more "grown up" rides was hilarious - mostly because of how concerned H and his sister were while the girls were having a total blast screaming and waving their arms around.

Monday everyone was back to work, including the nanny so H and I had a relaxed morning and then went to a nearby box mall to try and find some sandals since I had failed in this mission before leaving home. We went several places, and were eventually successful - I managed to find a pair of flip flops at DSW that I thought would be comfortable enough to make it through our trip into the city. I also might have developed a little crush on a store called Crate and Barrel which sells all sorts of things I don't actually need but sure do think are pretty (and sometimes practical, you know, for those occasions in my life I need a punch bowl). Monday evening we just hung out and visited. H also pulled out his "big camera" (I'm not the only who complains he's always got that thing in my face!) and got some fabulous pics of his nieces and nephew before we headed off.

All in all a very successful visit to Suburbia!

chicago bound!

2008-07-18T05:31:00.003-06:00

Well we're in the Saskatoon airport (welcome to the year 2008 Saskatoon, it's about time you got the internet) and so far our trip is going swimmingly. We're flying AirCanada, always a real treat... I miss you WestJet, I know you're rapidly expanding could you read my mind and please fly to my next unknown travel destination please?

Customs was super - I was selected for every random security check possible. Which totally means I got asked if I'd prefer a private room for my groping. Not wanting H to get the wrong idea, I declined, preferring to get my groping done out in public. They're thorough! I can say my chest has never been fondled in such a manner by another female before today. My ankles either for that matter. Little known fact - they also check your hair to make sure you're not hiding anything in there either.

H says he will be updating his blog on a daily basis while we're gone. I plan on keeping us busy enough that there won't be time for such things, but I guess we shall see. We will be updating our twitter accounts for the duration.

frustration, i am living it

2008-07-08T13:13:00.003-06:00

So, among the many things I would like to get done this summer holiday season, close to top of the list actually, is to stain the deck. Our deck is not huge, it's looking rather worse for wear, and we are having our housewarming this weekend so it seemed a reasonable goal - at the time - to get said staining done before Saturday. Before Saturday really means before Thursday as that's when the Sidewalk Sale starts and I have agreed to work all day everyday with the promise of pretty underwear dangling over my head.

Not being a fan of manual labour (and an avid watcher of lame commercials) I decided using a pressure washer would be the best way to strip the old paint from the deck. Borrowing a pressure washer was no problem. Getting it to work... For some reason this particular brand of pressure washer has a "male" piece where the garden hose should be attached. Problem being, the garden hose, on it's free end is also a male bit. No problem! says boyfriend, just go buy a coupler - turn the garden hose female and voila! Actually purchasing a functioning coupler? Two day adventure involving many stores. Finally, thanks to Canadian Tire, problem solved.

The pressure washing itself worked almost as good as I hoped. I was hoping for a slightly higher paint removal ratio, but all the loose ugly stuff did come off. Now I am totally ready to get my stain on.

Cue rain. And more rain. But, there's the sun! Oh, no more sun, it's summer, what would the sun want to hang around outside drying off my deck for? How bout grey and cloudy? Things still dry when it's not rainy so I suppose it's acceptable.

Distraction - make a cheesecake! (It looks SO good)

Finally, after waiting an entire half a day in the gloom, decide that if you start with the railing it's probably okay to start staining. Hopefully by the time you get there those not quite dry floorboards and stairs will be ready for you.

The staining, it's easy! So much better than anticipated. Sure I'm banging my hand trying to get the sides of the rails, but the stain is covering really well, maybe even one coat well for this part. Hey, it's the sun! This isn't so bad, it's nice, it's sunny 50% of the time...

What? Is that rain? Serious? I'm about 6 rails in, you have got to be kidding me. It is rain. Frick.

Does anyone know how to create a bubble, with hot air dryer over my deck? Just til tomorrow...

life lessons

2008-06-09T22:39:00.003-06:00

Some things I have learnt recently:

gardening isn't as bad as I thought, especially if it happens almost by magic
baking scoops are awesome (I bet they have a more technical name, but I don't know it)
Canadian Tire does not sell metal potato mashers
kids are just waiting for someone to call them on their BS, then they will pick up their socks (most of the time)
pink lemonade + cupcakes = delicious
females have to be twice as smart as males, even in the teaching profession, since for some reason we need to trick them into thinking everything was their idea. this is not fair.
ordering shoes online rules
McNally has fabulous stationary
who you are willing to cry in front of at work is a good indication of who you trust and respect
picking my clothes up isn't that bad

Overheard in a basement in Saskatoon

2008-06-08T12:24:00.002-06:00

Guy : You're just like me, except that you're a chick and you're dirty.

(that's not clean dirty, not perverted dirty you bunch of sickos)

a little perspective

2008-06-02T22:39:00.003-06:00

I'll admit it, I lost sight of the big picture. I have become that teacher. The one who is just. so. frustrated. Your lack of effort? It bothers me. Please, there are 10 days left. Could you just learn this last unit so we can all move on?

Friday, I followed a girl into the bathroom. I wasn't particularly mad, but I did know she was going to the bathroom to text someone and I planned to catch her in the act. You know, make her feel sheepish, cause some mild embarrassment and confiscate a phone for an hour or two. Fun teacher stuff. (seriously, I LOVE catching kids with phones and making them live without them for a day.) I was not expecting her to exit the stall in near hysterics.

What ensued was likely one of the hardest things I've had to deal with yet in my teaching career. It's certainly something they don't prepare you for in University. No one tells you what to do when a student comes forth and tells you their friend is being abused, mentally and possibly physically. That your first reaction will be to want to go find that missing student, to make sure they are okay yourself. That luckily you are slightly smarter than that and you will simply offer hugs and an escort down to student services because you sure hope they know what to do in such a situation. That you will feel just as helpless as the teenagers themselves. That you cannot imagine living with such a burden at 15.

Math seems very unimportant at times like these. Two of my students have been carrying around this terrible knowledge and feeling of helplessness for 6+ months. One has been living it. In my naivete I blamed hormones, spring, turning 16, typical teenage stuff. It's just all so much bigger than me and my classroom...

la resolution

2008-04-27T08:45:00.002-06:00

Student #1 - We let her stay. It's conditional of course, she will need to redo two units of her Math 10 in resource in order to receive her Math 10 credit in June. If this doesn't happen, she will return to Math 10 in the fall. She also needs to be successful in all of our new Math 20 things, or she will not return with us in the fall. I would like to pretend that this is enough motivation for her get her priorities in order, but such things take time so we shall see.

Student #2 - Has found a home in modified Math until the end of the year. If things go well for him there (ie. he shows up and is awake) he will be put back into regular programming in the fall.

So that's that, the start of Math 20 has been good times, it's pretty awesome to see the evolution in these little kiddies.

dilemnas

2008-04-21T22:01:00.002-06:00

They passed! They passed! Well almost all of them did anyway, which leads me to the dilemmas.

Student 1 - Has been with me since grade 9 first semester. Decided to go the way of the "bad girl." Insists on getting into control struggles with 90% of the adults she meets. You know, because she's female and wants to win. Somehow, the two of us have avoided that and occasionally she's been known to listen to me, connect with me, and some rare times engage in math class. I fought hard to get her into the stretch program last year, because her second semester math teacher wanted her to fail, to teach her a lesson. Not that my coworkers would ever enter into such a power trip with a 14 year old or anything... Anyway, fast forward to this year. We can't exactly say school has been a top priority for this young lady. Faced with failing at the end of first semester it was pull your socks up time or face the reality of repeating her grade 10 math. She met us about halfway. She redid a few things with her resource teacher, and appeared to be putting in more of an effort. She was supposed to redo more things then she did, to bring her mark above a passing grade. This didn't really happen. She did however, pass the final (or parts of it, enough to merit an overall passing grade). She didn't pass it by enough to bring her mark up to above a 50%. Do I

fail her? She had tons of opportunity to pull her mark up, receive support etc etc etc. We told her she would fail if she didn't do the list of things we provided and she didn't. It just kills me to fail kids who are capable. Not to mention ones that I feel a little invested in.
conditionnally pass her? She still has resource and I could make her continue to redo things during that time. This would be alright if we hadn't already given her this option before... I mean, how many chances do you give someone? Eventually there needs to be some follow through...
pass her but make her leave the program? We could still make her pull up her mark in resource by redoing some key concepts for us and remove her from our program. She could handle regular programming in the fall, though she certainly runs the risk of failing due to poor choices not lack of intelligence and less understanding then she's received from us.

Student 2 - Is an ESL student from Japan. Not the smart kind who want 110% in everything. The kind with an uninvolved family, who runs the street with various gangs. He has done a huge nothing for us all year. Typically he sleeps. Our EA, potentially the most patient lady ever, tries to work with him when he's conscious. We gave him the benefit of the doubt - he doesn't understand us. Thanks to his slightly insane girlfriends, his English has improved dramatically and he certainly understands us. Needless to say, sleeping hasn't been to condusive to him learning any math. However, by some black voodoo magic, he passed the final. Not by much, but enough that says he must have learnt something by osmosis, or recalled some previous knowledge somehow. Now what do I do with him? The choices look much like above, only with a please stop taking math addendum.

les nerves

2008-04-16T15:55:00.000-06:00

I piloted a new math program at my school this year. We took the regular Math 10 and 20 classes and stretched them out over three semesters (instead of the usual two). It's nothing revolutionary, and is actually happening all over both systems here in different shapes and forms. However, we really tried to go the extra mile and approach learning math from all different angles, instead of just giving the kids more time to continue to not understand things. This class has certainly had it's high and it's low points, but all in all it has been just an awesome experience watching struggling learners have success at something they totally hate.

That in itself was something of an accomplishment. And no, of course they didn't all succeed all of the time. But, attitudes have changed, work habits have improved, and every student has received good marks on different units. (yay us!)

Now, back to reality. We have to wind up the Math 10 course. We have to have a final. There is nothing more scary to these kids then a final exam. It's one last chance to mess everything up. So we've broken it up, used all sorts of memory recall aids, spent lots of time coaching them on how to get through it as best they possibly can. I'm still feeling very nervous for them. I want them to do well, and I know they can do well, but getting past this whole "I can't remember ANYTHING!" mentality has been all but impossible.

I think we will all be pretty happy come Tuesday and the start of Math 20...

how i didn't get set up

2008-04-13T01:08:00.004-06:00

Once upon a time there was an attempted set up. It went a little like this.

jeff: so i hear you are single again
and i have single friends
and i like you both
discuss
chelle: LOL
i am glad you like your friends
jeff: heh

This may have set little old me into a bit of a panic. I didn't want to be set up. I didn't want things to be weird. I knew exactly who Jeff was alluding to and I really was enjoying doing my own thing, and spending large quantities of time alone with a book, my tv shows, and making a real effort to see friends I hadn't seen in awhile. And we all know what chelle does best when faced with even the mention of such things. She puts her foot down, loudly, shakes her head violently and essentially screams NO.

However, the friend Jeff mentioned in his roundabout way just so happened to be quite a bit of fun, and so we started hanging out without Rach or Jeff since they had returned to Montreal and we were both missing our sidekicks. Jeff didn't mention anything again, I was very clear with Rach that I wanted nothing to do with their set ups and that appeared to be the end of it.

Then came the Grey Cup. What a surprise that I don't love football or have any interest in watching it on tv. I don't mind the occasional live game, or group game - I'm all about the visiting and food. This year, however, I'm sure you all remember that the Roughriders made the Grey Cup. Not watching the game didn't seem like an option, so when I was invited over to Friend's, I accepted.

We spent all day together, sort of watching the game but mostly talking. I'm pretty sure I saw most of the important bits. And I know we won, so that's all that matters right? After the game, we went for supper and talked some more. Then we went back to him place and watched some tv and talked even more. Finally it was more than time for me to leave. It was easily midnight and I needed to work the next day. So I'm getting my stuff on, saying my thank yous and goodbyes when I notice Friend is standing much closer to me then the rules of personal space really permit. It is then that my brain dies. "He's going to kiss you!" I panic. I say goodbye so fast I almost run into the doorway and I do trip over the threshold. Luckily, I don't fall. I get in my car, fully aware that my brain has just malfunctioned, and wondering how exactly at 27, I have just reverted to being 14. I burst out laughing, and laugh to/at myself the whole way home.

Luckily he didn't hold it against me, and somehow he did get the courage up again to actually kiss me. Second time around I didn't run into any doors. With the exception of of a few days where one of us has been out of town, we've spent every single day since the Grey Cup together.

For his birthday he requested I change my facebook status to "in a relationship" mostly because it's something I said I would never do. You know, much like I said I would never take part in this little set up. Happy birthday boyfriend, a blog post will not do justice to just how great you are, or how happy I am because you came into my life but we are certainly "in a relationship."

chelle's guide to buying, selling and moving in less than a month

2008-04-13T00:39:00.003-06:00

Part 2 : Selling

So I arrived home from winter camp, exhausted, disgusting, and pretty much dying to know all the details of what boyfriend, his realtor uncle and his lawyer aunt had done while I was away playing in the snow. Turns out there weren't all too many more details than were communicated via text messages - all I'd missed was returning to the house and the stressful offer, counter, re-offer, and the waiting game played between those things. I may have gotten off pretty easy by not being around... So, having only one week to remove conditions, selling my condo became top priority.

Agree to let realtor uncle sell my condo. Bonus, he already had a couple in mind.
Try to make a bank appointment. Realize your banker no longer deals with personal banking stuff. Find out that all bankers at your branch are booked solid for a week. Spend a lot of time calling the bank. Have an acquaintance's mom agree to meet with you at the end of her day to help you out.
Get approved (with flying colours) if and only if condo sells.
Have a couple try to come look at the condo. Due to their work and needing to go to the mosque this proves to be difficult.
Couple sees the condo, loves it. Feel much relief.
Couple can't seem to get their financing in order, they are banking through the states and an old student loan is giving them grief. Wait. Stressfully.
Get extremely stressed that your condo is still not listed and now you have 5 days to sell. Question realtor uncle's master plan silently and not so silently.
Try to be patient with realtor uncle as he assures you things will be fine. Sit on your hands as not to harass him with endless phone calls as you would someone who was not related. He's helping you out, he's family, surely he has a plan?
Consider calling to put your foot down and demand the condo be listed.
Out of nowhere, receive an offer!
Offer is a good one, uncle was indeed working some kind of silent non communicated magic with a different couple.
Accept offer without countering.
Remove conditions! Realise you are now actually buying a house.
Decide you can probably tell you family now. This proves to only require one phone call - in some weird alignment of the planets your entire family sees one another that day, passes on the news and then calls you to confirm.

chelle's guide to buying, selling and moving in less than a month

2008-04-05T22:42:00.004-06:00

Part One: Buying

Randomly think that it might be nice to live somewhere where you have neighbours that don't play music 24 hours a day. Or at least it would be nice to live somewhere that your neighbours played good music 24 hours a day. Become an MLS junkie, if only because you love seeing what other people's houses look like on the inside.
Find a cute, very recently renovated 650 sq foot house that is in your price range. Go see said house thinking "if it has a basement, it could work." Realize instantaneously that there is no way you can even imagine living in less than 900 sq feet, and that by 900 you mean 1000.
Have your boyfriend's landlord sell his rental property, thusly evicting boyfriend in 31 days.
Feel stressed. Schedule a lunch meeting with the boyfriend to discuss housing options. Spend over 30 minutes talking about random things, 10 minutes discussing various housing options, and another 15 minutes off topic. Wrap up the lunch once again on the subject of housing, realizing you have decided nothing.
The next day, find an okay looking house listed privately online. Make an appointment to see the house for fun.
Walk around the house feeling lost, doing a perfunctory opening of closets and cupboards. Make awkward conversation with the seller, including awkward conversation about what one would do if they were potentially maybe interested in making an offer.
Get in car and commence conversation with the boyfriend. Realize you both like the house. In fact, you really like the house. No, you really like the house. Hypothesize what to do. Look at other houses out of obligation? Seems like a waste of time. Make an offer on the first house you've looked at? Seems crazy. Decide to call in a realtor uncle for a second opinion.
Go winter camping! Leave your boyfriend with all the responsibility and enjoy yourself for a day and a half before you let curiosity as to what is happening in regards to your potential house offer get the best of you. Turn your phone on.
Become bombarded with text messages.
"Uncle said house is way overpriced...by about 50K. He gave me the history of it. I told him what we're looking for and he's on it."
"My lawyer aunt is writing up the offer
""We offered ***. They countered ***. We said okay. They accepted! Omg as you put it."
Commence crazy texting. Officially lose your shit when you realize you have a) put an offer on a house and b) can't get real details until you get home over 24 hours from the current time.
Arrive home to a to do list a mile long. Top of the list - sell condo in less than a week to secure financing to remove conditions. Thank a random deity that in the current housing market this should not be an issue.
Tell no one what is going on, lest something not workout...

on business

2008-04-04T15:24:00.003-06:00

I know I've been busier than usual lately, I just didn't quite realise how much busier til right this very second.

3:15, Friday afternoon. School has just finished, most of my students have left and a few are stopping by to see me since I was away at PD for the morning. All of a sudden I realise I have to pee so very badly I can barely move. As I'm hurrying down the hall to the washroom it occurs to me that clearly I have been ignoring this need for what is very likely quite some time. Then it hit me. Folks, I am so busy I have started ignoring regular body needs.

Something needs to give here, and I am very sure it's not going to be my need to use the bathroom.

all worth it

2008-03-18T12:12:00.003-06:00

Being a teacher beats you down. Students are regularly apathetic, frustrating and lazy balls of teenage hormones. I connect with these little people on a personal level everyday, and that is great and can be quite rewarding. However, there is always the underlying "but they still don't get it!" They don't quite see the potential that I see, and have no idea how to go about achieving it.

But then they do. Today a student I taught for the last three semesters, who was nothing short of brilliant, who I had the most interesting conversations with, who just would not do homework and assignments, and who's mark hovered around a 50% the entire time I taught him came to see me. He came to share that he had just received his average for his current math class - and it was an 80%! This is nothing short of miraculous for a student who is truly gifted but just could not be bothered to put his current book down to see what unit we were studying.

It makes all the frustration worth it to know that these little people care enough to share their successes. To know that they do eventually sort out how to balance the different parts of their lives without compromising what they really consider to be important. Even better when they come let me know so I can celebrate with them!

wow

2008-03-15T22:17:00.002-06:00

Turns out I might not be quite as at odds with the universe as it feels some days. Remember my wants post from not too far back? Well a month and a half later here's the update.

I want my arm to stop hurting.

My shingles cleared up in what could likely be considered record time if family history is any indicator to how much you should suffer. The rash is still visible, but I don't think there will be any scarring. Yay!

I want my Pom girls to do okay tomorrow in their first performance.

They did okay. The season is now over, and it was an okay one. I'm not willing to give it more than okay, cause, well, I re experienced what being a teenage girl is all about (and it's not pretty...). I'm pretty happy to be finished for the year, but am going back for round two next year.

I want Buns to get the job at my school cause she'd be awesome and a perfect fit.

She did get the job, and she is a perfect fit. I love working with her (we co-teach a class) and know that she is doing a super job everywhere else she works. I'm also pretty pumped I've got another person on staff to back my crazy proposals.

I want you all to put yourselves on the Bone Marrow registry.

I don't know, did you do this? Canada has just switched to the super easy cheek swab method so if you just couldn't make time to go in and give a tiny vial of blood now you have no excuse. They send you the kit, you swab and send it back. Do it.

Most importantly I want Erica to be well, to know we're thinking of her, to find a donor - life is so f'ing unfair to the most amazing people.

SHE'S FOUND A MATCH! An imperfect one, but a viable donor. I won't lie, I cried with happiness when I found out while watching this. Now there's quite a few things that need to happen before the transplant and let's all really really really hope it all goes perfectly.

I also got a few wonderful things that weren't on my wants list, but more on that soon.

much easier than typing myself...

2008-02-27T16:36:00.004-06:00

Wondering what I've been up to? My boyfriend was nice enough to blog about a piece of it for me! Unfortunately he didn't also blog about all the other things I've been doing lately, so maybe you'll have to call me or something to find that out since I'm a wee bit behind...

A quick trip to Jasper

really now?

2008-02-07T19:32:00.000-06:00

Overheard by the phone by the front entryway, right after the beginning of first period:

"No, I guess I like totally don't have school today."

Is this all the imagination we're requiring of our youth?

fwd: save a life

2008-02-03T12:47:00.001-06:00

This is from Rach. Instead of sending you to her blog, I figured I'd just repost it here.

This is a quick public service announcement.

Cancer sucks.

My friend's friend has been battling leukemia for a few years. I don't know her very well, but I have had the pleasure of meeting her twice: once in Boston and once in Japan. She is one of the those people who seems to be fantastic at everything she tries, but you can't hate her for it because she is so nice and genuine. (I think that Jeff may have been a bit smitten with her...)

Any ways, her leukemia has just relapsed. There isn't a current match in the bone marrow registry for her. I don't really think that anyone who reads this blog is a match for her (what would the odds of that be) but you could be a match for someone who needs your help.

The process of donating to the bone marrow registry is easier (and less painful) than you think.

1) Go to the www.onematch.com website run by Canadian blood services.
2) You have to read a bit about bone marrow donation and then you take a quiz!
3) Fill out the online application form.
4) Canadian Blood Services will contact you so that you can come and give a sample.
5) You give one vial of blood.

That is it. If you are a match for someone, they will contact/find you. Chances are you may never be needed. Or, you could help save someone's life.

If you're american the process is even easier!

1) Go here!

2) Read some things and fill out a form.

3) Take a swab of your cheek cells when you get your kit in the mail.

4) Mail cheek cells back to the registry.

There is a special need for people of mixed races to join the registry - your unique genetics make finding a match next to impossible. Thanks folks, I may or may not stop asking you to do things now.

wants

2008-01-31T21:48:00.000-06:00

It seems I have a good many wants these days. In ascending order:

I want my arm to stop hurting.
I want my Pom girls to do okay tomorrow in their first performance.
I want Buns to get the job at my school cause she'd be awesome and a perfect fit.
I want you all to put yourselves on the Bone Marrow registry.
Most importantly I want Erica to be well, to know we're thinking of her, to find a donor - life is so f'ing unfair to the most amazing people.

happier

2008-01-29T12:21:00.000-06:00

I survived shingles. Technically I still have them, but I am done with the anti-viral medication and things are generally looking much better. The shingles themselves have scabbed over, and have returned to a much less aggressive shade of pale pink. For awhile I thought I was dealing with some severe blood poisoning/infection issues - pretty! This process was hella itchy. Itchy pain is an interesting combination - on one hand, it's itchy! and painful! but on the other hand, you don't scratch and make things bleed because of the hurting. I'm crossing my fingers this has prevented pretty scars from forming.

I decided to today was the day I was considering myself better not just because most of the icky is gone, but because it is the first day in over a week and a half I have been able to bear wearing a real bra. This is what I measure progress by!

I still have at least a week of nerve medication to take, I'm going to decrease dosage then and see if life is grand of if there is that lovely residual stabbiness following me around. For right now, ignorance is bliss!

not for your house

2008-01-22T15:39:00.000-06:00

After sitting through my final this morning I realised I couldn't handle the pain til tomorrow morning. I mean, the constant pain wasn't so bad, but the random but very regular intervals where someone was stabbing me just weren't working out for me. I started calling around, looking for a walk-in clinic with the shortest waiting time. Somehow, though I'd talked to them yesterday and they suggested waiting til Thursday, this was my regular doctor's office (not my doctor).

The doctor took all of 2.5 seconds to make a diagnosis. I have shingles. The doctor asked me what I'd like to do for the pain. "I'd like it to go away." was my answer. I'm not sure if this was the right answer, or what exactly he was looking for in an answer, but seriously, little man stabbing me, you need to die. Thank god teachers have prescription coverage. I left with 4 different prescriptions - one for the virus, and three for different kinds of pain. If you're hurting in the next month or so, I've likely got something that can help you.

My biggest issue is I'm not allowed to take any of them til later tonight - apparently there's a good chance the nerve pain one will mess me up properly until my body gets used to it. Mess me up more than the lightening bolts in my side? I'm not sure about that.

good thing i'm not dying

2008-01-21T16:31:00.001-06:00

It has come to my attention that there may be a few problems with our health care system. I have a health issue - no need to go into details here - but suffice to say, it's painful and is starting to definitely feel like it merits the attention of a doctor. Family, it is not serious, just uncomfortable and I'm hoping they're not going to say something crazy like "you have shingles!"

So, I call my doctor's office and request an appointment with my physician. The receptionist cheerily lets me know that the first available appointment, at any time of day, is February 5th. Seriously people? I squawked at her. You know, that high pitched incredulous "What?!" Waiting 15 days to see a doctor is simple not acceptable. I mean, either I'm going to be dead by then or I'm not going to have an issue any more.

I politely informed the receptionist that it was sort of a pain/severe discomfort issue. She suggested I see one of the walk in doctors. Last time I saw one of their walk in doctors he asked me "What I thought we should do about my illness and treatment?" so I wasn't feeling particularly keen on this thought. I like decisive answers and treatments from my doctors. No worries, even the walk in doctors are booked for the next few days. What is the point of a walk in doctor if they take appointments and are full?

Somehow, she created me an appointment on Wednesday. Chances are this is going to involve a 3 hour wait in a waiting room full of Norovirus. Awesome.

2007 resolutions in review

2008-01-07T16:50:00.000-06:00

All of a sudden it's 2008! Happy New Year everyone. I thought it might be fun to see how I fared with last year's resolutions before I even consider making new ones.

1. Consume less and consume more intelligently.
I think I did pretty well here. Honestly, I really kept purchases to a minimum last year. What I did purchase was clothes and shoes, and most recently my macbook (but it was becoming very needed). One success!

2. Moisturize more often.
If we look at the year as a whole, I failed. If we look at November/December, I'm rocking this one. As the new assessment practices are teaching me, it's only most current behaviour that should be assessed however, and that means I get to say I succeeded with this one. 2 down!

3. Drink more wine.
I said this was going to be my attainable resolution and it most certainly was. 2007 saw the arrival of a wine drinking Chelle. I now drink wine because I enjoy it, not because I'm trying to make myself like it. The arrival of Invisible Roommate and her extensive knowledge of good, reasonably priced wine has not hurt my cause any. 3/6!

4. See Nelly Furtado.
I failed. Miserably. But not because I didn't try, because I somehow slept in and missed my flight. A big shout out to Westjet who managed to get me to Montreal on April 5th anyway. A big boo on me for being in transit during the show. Sigh.

5. Revamp the way I teach Math 10.
I am happy to say I have more love for Math 10. I met some fabulous resources and was given some pretty fantastic opportunities this last year in the means of professional development. I have definitely changed the way I approach the course in a much more concrete way - an I anticipate doing a much better job of marrying my new knowledge and my teaching style when repeat the course next year. I think it means good things that my grade 11s have been a little jealous that they didn't get to do some of the things this year's 10s are doing.

6. Get out more often.
Just a meh here. I did alright, but there is certainly room for improvement. I do have more friends in the city now, and that was a year long project in itself, so I suppose there are small successes here. I'm looking forward to my new semester (no core french!) and the return of Rach and Jeff to be sure. JJ and her boy are also moving to the queen city, so I anticipate monthly visits in at least one direction to be sure.

All in all, I'd say 2007 was pretty successful and 2008 is shaping up to be even better.

totally floored

2007-12-20T11:37:00.000-06:00

The original desire to win a pizza party, followed by the desire to be the winning class, has somehow lead to my class raising over $500 for the foodbank this Christmas. My class alone raised what the entire school set as its goal this year. The generosity of these 25 students is totally amazing, especially since I know for almost all of them it was their own money they donated.

always amazed

2007-12-12T08:54:00.000-06:00

Our annual foodbank drive started Monday. I've found the kids here to be really generous with their money in general, but one kid just blew me away this year. He handed me $100 of his own money. When I asked him if he was sure he wanted to donate that much money he replied "I have more money right now than I have in my entire life and I have nothing to spend it on." This seems like a pretty mature realisation from a 16 year old.

I'm sure a few other students overheard pieces of our conversation, and shortly after asked him how much he'd donated. Again, I was surprised by his reply. "I didn't donate a lot of money just so I could brag about how much I gave." And that was that.

Wow.

brrrrrr!

2007-11-30T13:00:00.001-06:00

I walked out of my condo this morning and thought "wow, it's much nicer out today." People, it was -20 degrees plus some added coldness from the windchill. I'm sure that's it for the best that -20 is my new "warm" but still. I don't want global warming, but a little prairie warming likely couldn't hurt...

already?

2007-11-13T20:52:00.000-06:00

Seriously, how is it already November? The good news about this must be that Christmas will be here before I've really registered that's it's November.

Things are still just as crazy as previously mentioned. Last week, while running late, I even managed to have a shower and not wash my hair. For those of you who don't know about my self-cleaning policies, on most days this is the only purpose of even having a shower. So by 7:45am, I'd already failed in one of my more important daily goals. Of course, there was no real way to rectify this situation until 6:30pm. Gross.

This is also the time of year when I leave the house in the dark and don't get home until it is dark. If my classroom didn't have windows I could viably look into becoming a vampire and have it not affect my daily routine in the least. This would simplify the difficulty I seem to have finding quick protein sources for one.

Have I mentioned most of my students are grade 10s? Typically lame at the best of times, entering into these thankless weeks before Christmas really brings out the best in them. I mean, currently I'm expecting them to breath AND stay awake at the same time. I know, my expectations, they are too much.

How many days til Christmas?

happy coming out month!

2007-10-23T21:35:00.000-06:00

I've been meaning to post about this for a week now, but I have literally been so angry at the whole situation that it just hasn't been possible.

In case you were unaware, October is international coming out month. Now, I don't really know why (and haven't really bothered to look into it too much either...) but regardless, coming out month. My GSA, being the crazy awesome group they are decided my school should celebrate coming out month. True, they didn't ask the school's permission, but who doesn't love a celebration? For the first of the month the decorated the hallways - rather sparsely, it is a huge school - with posters and set up our closet. The closet says "closets are for clothes" and everyday of the month another celebrity "comes out." Huge kudos to the kids in our building - our posters have remained up and our closet remains intact.

Imagine our surprise, when last week, one of our APs approaches my co-advisor with a few concerns. It appears he has had a few complaints from other staff members about the "offensive" posters the GSA has up. Not really wanting to get into this discussion, she politely asked him to our meeting, which just happened to be at noon that day. My co-advisor is a force to be reckoned with so I'm sure he figured that would be a much simpler way to attain his goal.

Our meeting was already underway by the time he decided to grace us with his presence. The girls quickly wrapped up whatever business we were tending to so that our very busy AP could get back to whatever it is APs do. It all went downhill after he stood up. You see, because after he stood up, he opened his mouth. As often happens, words came out. He opened with a long list of people he knew. This is never a good sign, the simultaneous assertion of importance and confirmation of "common allies." He was searching so deep for these common allies that he was bringing out the siblings of my co-advisor. I could barely contain myself from rolling my eyes.

He then launched into full on "it's not me but" mode. He stated that a couple teachers had sought him out to tell him that they found two of our posters offensive. That we needed to be respectful of people of different mind sets then ours. That some people who are not homophobic might take offense to the fact that we are saying there are homophobic people in our school. When he was done talking, there was silence. For a few seconds I was very concerned none of the students were going to be able to say anything, and I was already fuming angry at this man and his ridiculous claims. So I not so respectfully told him, and the room, that those people were ignorant and it was their choice to be mis-interpreting what our group was saying and doing.

Almost as soon as I opened my mouth, the hands started creeping up. It was almost as if they needed a little push, just an "it's okay, we are not going to let this man come in here and undo what we are doing." Never in my life have I been prouder of a group of students. They were polite, they were articulate, they were logical, they were all of the things we worry young people won't be. Our poor AP didn't see it coming. He was completely unprepared to be dealt with in this way. So he started digging himself a hole. A large hole. He gave these kids more ammunition then they ever could have hoped for. Some gems include

we don't want to encourage the "gay lifestyle"
he knows gay people
we don't put up posters about being Christian or Muslim (when really, we do, we have an ISCF)
well, I had to answer in an "old school" kind of way (when asked how he responded to the complainers)

On top of this, he keeps falling back on his argument that he's not telling them they need to do anything, he's not asking us to take down our posters, he really just wanted to come and let us know that he had had two complaints. It is becoming more and more obvious he has no reason to be at our meeting. The kids are far too polite to point this out. So me - now with permanent contract! - asks him flat out "So, Mr. AP, this is a building of 1500 people. We have over 100 staff members. You keep telling us that you have only had 2 people approach you with concerns, and that you aren't asking us to take down our posters. So what are you doing here?" He couldn't answer. There was time for a few last questions and remarks before lunch was over.

I was shaking I was so mad. This man is supposed to be a leader in our school. This man is supposed to set aside his personal beliefs and advocate for students. Instead, he is a bully. A passive aggressive bully. I cannot believe he honestly thought he would walk into that room and magically "deal" with the GSA and their rainbow posters, just in time for Parent-Teacher interviews I might add. It is his own fault, that he never even dreamed this story could have another ending. He has stirred something in these kids that was likely dormant in most of them. You see, until now, it was all fun. Sure, the issues were out there, and there was work to do in raising awareness in our school. But making positive space posters, holding a day of silence, having coffee with other GSAs, bake sales, marching in the pride parade, etc. it was all fun because most of these kids had never really seen what the ugly two faced beast of homophobia looks like in person. He made it personal. He made them see that there is a fight here, and instead of beating them down like he was hoping to, he wound them up.

I'm not sure he's realized his mistake quite yet. But he might by the end of the year when instead of carving themselves a little niche in the school the GSA has permeated the very fabric that it is made of.

SURPRISE!

2007-09-29T18:29:00.000-06:00

I think all 8 of you who read this are aware I have a new roommate, she is often not around, but when she is she is full of awesomeness. For the purposes of this blog she shall henceforth be known as Invisible Roommate.

I finally crossed paths with my Invisible Roomate Thursday. She was basically home for a little bit to relax and pick stuff up to be gone again for another couple weeks. We caught up, and then she went to her boyfriend's before starting the marathon tour of SK an AL for work.

While living on my own, I developed habits of not closing doors, and not being particularly concerned about my state of dress. For Invisible Rommates sanity and general peace of mind, I keep my clothes on or close my door when they need to be removed. It's pretty easy to fall back into not doing these things when I know she's not home. Yes, I am aware I just admitted to being too lazy to close a door, even partially.

Imagine my surprise Friday morning as I am bent over a drawer wearing only my underwear to hear a very cheery "Good Morning!" from the hallway. It's not ideal to be scared shitless before you're fully awake in the first place, it's even less ideal if you have no clothes on and are further than an arm's length away from the door. I'm am also sure it's even more less ideal to have the first thing you see in the morning be your naked roommate. I need to work on the whole door thing.

awesome

2007-09-20T21:29:00.000-06:00

My conference has been awesome. Practical, useful, insightful, and mostly, real. Maybe I can evolve into a leader. A stealthy leader.

Day 2 tomorrow.

lead who?

2007-09-06T09:25:00.000-06:00

I've been identified as an "emerging leader" in my school. This sort of freaks me out. I mean, for now it just means they're going to send me to a conference but what about when they want me to actually be a leader?

done like dinner and other things that are done

2007-08-02T10:13:00.000-06:00

As of 15 minutes ago I am finished my calculus course. Ugh. It's funny how you work so hard for something and then it's just over.

The exam was even more of a monster than I expected, full of tricks and exceptions (and things we weren't supposed to know!). There will be no 100% on this one as in my attempt to finish off everything I didn't understand, I forgot to go back and finish a question I did understand but got stuck with. They sure don't mess around with their time restrictions here at McGill! The dude barked at me to "PUT DOWN YOUR PENCIL!" when I tried to finish a sentence I was writing after time had been called. Yipes.

I do know I got at least 2 questions right as they were for the bits we weren't supposed to know and el proferino told me to leave them as is and they were right up to the point I'd done them to.

Marks will be out on Sunday (claims el prof), til then it's shopping and time for more house guests!

UPDATE: It's Tuesday and there are finally marks on my transcript. An A, followed by a GPA of 4. Boo!! Don't get me wrong, both of those things are good things, things that make me happy, but there is a critical piece of information missing. The number. The difference between an 89% and a 92% is huge in my world and I want to know. I really want to know. I know, I'm a teacher and I tell kids not to worry about "their mark" all the time, I'm supposed to be in it for the learning, but goddammit, I want that final number.

lists

2007-07-30T19:30:00.000-06:00

Things I really enjoy:

Having house guests. They will eventually all merit their own post.
People in my calculus class who have started seriously referring to denominators as dominators. People who are native English speakers.
Our new fan.
So You Think You Can Dance. Ya, I went there.

Things I don't enjoy:

That "due to the high class average on the midterm, the final will be A MONSTER." (okay, he didn't call it a monster, but he did say it would be hard)
Anything "polar."
Limits.

Things I am indifferent about at the moment:

My final. WHAT? I really need to study...

OMG!

2007-07-23T08:44:00.000-06:00

I got 100% on my calculus midterm. It would appear my 8 hour math days payed off!

I will try for a real update soon!

mcgill vip treatment

2007-07-12T09:07:00.000-06:00

Our professor was away today, so we had a guest lecturer. I feel like McGill was feeling rather generous today and gave us suckers taking Cal2 (as it appears they call it here in m-town) a free ticket to the Just for Laughs festival, Calculus style.

This dude was so funny that even Ms Condescending couldn't help but laugh. Often! He started off the morning with a "tip for champions" and just kept getting funnier. Now I know what you're thinking "tip for champions isn't very funny." You clearly have forgotten what your Math 140 class was like. It sucked. Your prof didn't speak English. It was a very very dull hour out of your day 3 times a week where you madly scribbled foreign symbols down hoping you could decipher them later. Maybe you cried, I don't know.

If only all Math teachers were a little ADHD and as obviously in love with math as prof Charbonneau. Then we could fondly look back on our notes and try to remember what exactly "that cloud thing" was...

hallellulah!

2007-07-11T15:35:00.000-06:00

I've made school friends! Sure they don't speak French, but they could potentially prove to be valuable resources once the course get harder.

I say potentially, because somehow, I seem to have the best understanding of what's going on. How did this happen? 9 years ago was when I last visited Calculus... I mean, I liked it and stuff, but not enough to have remembered any of it. So at the moment, I'm using the technique of better understanding something through explaining it/my reasoning to others. So far so good. I probably need to run through a forest with my arms outstretched after saying this, but I'm getting it!

At least I'm not annoying know it all girl (she occasionally sit beside me). She has a severe sighing and eye-rolling problem. Anytime anyone asks a questions (be it intelligent or otherwise) or the prof deviates from some imaginary set of strict course material, she cannot help but sigh, roll her eyes or do both. If the question just so happens to be approaching the limit of not so smart, she also mutters. Yesterday, while trying to draw concentric circles, the prof made fun of himself since his circles were less than circular. He took all of 3 seconds to also mention that he's seen a clip on youtube of someone who can infallibly draw perfect circles by hand. I thought she was going to have a seizure. Maybe she did have a petit-mal, it's tough to tell what with her regular state of annoyance.

It's funny that from either side of the teacher's desk, she is the one I always want to sucker punch.

what exactly are we talking about?

2007-07-09T17:21:00.000-06:00

My first day of calculus went by surprisingly well considering I haven't touched anything calculus related in 9 years. Deriva-what? That stuff got replaced with phrases from Harry Potter and song lyrics ages ago. In one of my wiser moments (they don't happen very often...) I remembered to snitch one of the new high school calculus texts from the school before I left and spent some time reading it during the drive. Certainly doesn't rank anywhere near recommended reading of any kind, but it was a good warm up stretch before my first class. It kept me from wigging out when my prof started talking about limits anyway. Ya, that's right, my level of confusion is rating somewhere around the wigging out level.

My prof seems alright. His English is passable (thank a random deity!) and his accent rarely throws me off. It took me a few times to realise he pronounces the letter a e (ee). Which is really weird to me. How do you speak really well, yet not know how to say the first letter of the alphabet? Not to mention the letter a comes up a lot, so I am always having to double check what letter he actually means.

There is one little speech issue that I'm having massive difficulties with. We were discussing some kind of function - surprise! - and he kept referring to the nominator. Which, ok, you can't say numerator. It's only a couple vowel sounds. When he started talking about the dominator however, I lost it. Dominator is quite a ways away from denominator. And it's hilarious. Just try and discuss a dominator of x squared without laughing. This might be my pick me up all summer - just thinking about dominators makes me laugh, no matter where I am. Which of course makes me very cool, ie crazy. Thanks professor Laayoumi, I am now crazy laughing metro/walking/random girl because of you.

the not so long day

2007-07-07T15:06:00.000-06:00

Day 1 of our drive to Montreal was by far the best. It was also by far the shortest. That was only partly what made it the best day. Really, the bestestness of day 1 was due to the friend factor. Yay friends.

Knowing it would be a short day, we left early which made lots of time for breakfast in Regina. We met up with the NSFG, D, Not so Cambodian couple and their friend from Cambodia, Chourn. (I think) everyone had a good breakfast, specifically Chourn who was served 3 buttermilk pancakes that were each the size of his head. I'm sure this wasn't his first exposure to the ridiculousness that is North American restaurant culture since he'd already been in Canada for a couple weeks, but it was still pretty awesome to watch his try and make his way through one of the mammoth pancakes.

My Human Rights Club wound up choosing the school Chourn and some others started in his home village as our international charity this year. While really all I did was make sure no one got stabbed during meetings (that is why teacher supervisors are necessary for everything isn't it?) I was the only member of the group available for photos. Isn't it amazing that after only 2.5 hours in the car I'm already a greasy mess? Beware my powers folks...

After breakfast we continued on to Brandon, where we were welcomed with extreme hospitality from JJ and Wade. It would appear owning a house transforms you into domestic gods and goddesses. Seriously, JJ has put together a house that looks like it might be showing up in some home magazine any day now. It would be funny to pretend that Wade had participated in any of the decorating... I'm sure his level of participation included approving of the floor colour and requesting that no more vases be purchased...

On top on the fabulous job they've done with the house, the have also stepped up the whole "hosting friends" thing to the next level. JJ had stuffed mushroom cap appetizers ready for us. Seriously, if that's not a huge step in the direction of adulthood, I'm not too sure what it. Shortly after a few drinks, appetizers, and visiting, Wade stepped up to prove he has also entered some realm of domesticity - by cooking a most delicious salmon BBQ. Mmmm.

Trying to prove we haven't yet entered too far into the adult world, we decided we should at least make an attempt at leaving the house - knowing full well at the first side of being bored we'd be back on JJ's couches in a second. Since it was Canada Day, there was hope of decent music followed by fireworks in the park. The music was pretty good (the lead singer was amazing), there were lots of kids to keep us laughing, however, we got there a little too early to really be able to stay entertained until the fireworks. No problemo, Montana's was just right across the street. It was entertainment in itself watching Wade finish off 3/4 of a mile high mud pie all by himself. We were back in the park with lots of time to spare.

Brandon fireworks, expected to be on the very weak side, actually put Saskatoon to shame. They were also accompanied by a very strange death fog that floated in just as quickly as it floated out. JJ is suspecting there were some special circumstances leading to a rather large firework budget, regardless, they were really good! So if you're ever driving through Brandon on Canada Day, it might be worth it to stop. Assuming they've fixed the parking problems by then...

After all the excitement it was time to go back home. The boys crashed almost immediately and JJ and I weren't far behind. It was great to finally have a reason for going to Brandon, if only for half a day.

The rest of the drive was just that, a big, long drive.

save 140$? yes please!

2007-07-05T18:06:00.000-06:00

Part of getting ready to leave for Montreal included some rather expensive car repairs. Apparently my brakes needed to be fully replaced (ouch!) so while that was being done I asked the nice folks to make sure nothing else needed to be done before Bluey II attempted a 6000km round trip.

This of course was asking for trouble. A belt needed to be replaced. Or several. They quoted me $160 to change all of them. I sighed, grumbled a bit (a lot), and said fine, do it. My childhood memories are filled with our car breaking down on road trips. None of those memories are particularly fun times. Then I talked to Big Red, grumbled some more. Being the calm, gentle person he is, he insinuated that the car place may be lying to me in a very reasonable tone. I actually quite like my mechanic, and don't think he would lie to me, but none the less, it merited checking out.

So I approached the car guy at my school. Contradictory to what Big Red was screaming into the phone, it would seem it was perfectly plausible that I needed one (or more) belts replaced. He, however, seemed to think it would be no trouble to fix it at the school. He implied this would be much cheaper that having it fixed chez my mechanic. So I called my mechanic back and told him not to fix the belts. Being the nice guy he is, he said no problem and somehow managed to fix my breaks cheaper than originally quoted.

The next day I took Bluey II in to be looked at by Murray's car guy. Indeed my belt was a little frayed, and while it might make the trip there and back, fixing it was most likely a better option. If any of you are curious as to how much a belt costs, it's $15.

So, I took car guy out for lunch, and then we swung by Part Source to pick up the belt. Then we went back to school so it could be replaced. By me. At first, I thought car guy was joking when he told me I was going to fix my own car. And then I realised he wasn't. Ok, well for a savings of $140 I was pretty sure I could get a little dirty.

So car guy pointed at things, handed me tools - mostly wrenches of various sizes, taught me about leverage, and used the lift. I did what he pointed at, loosened bolts mostly, managed to get both belts on myself and then tightened things back up. Car guy double checked everything, and it appeared that all was good to go.

The whole process took me 45 minutes. ME. 45 MINUTES. It is mind blowing that a garage was going to charge me over an hours worth of labour for something I did in 45 minutes. Needless to say, car guy is my new best friend and has volunteered his minions to fix any future car problems I may have. Whoot!

i'm back!

2007-07-05T17:54:00.000-06:00

Enough time has been put between me and then end of the semester that I actually feel like blogging again. Which is sorta funny since I'm guessing no one reads this anymore. C'est la vie.

Oh yes, and I'm in Montreal now. So I've got new stuff and old stuff to post about, in whichever order I feel like. Have I mentioned I love summer?

victory!

2007-06-20T08:40:00.000-06:00

I made it. Essentially anyway. Finals start today (for me) and even with all the marking it feels like a holiday.

it's almost over

2007-06-14T23:15:00.000-06:00

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itsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostover...

good pd?

2007-06-05T22:36:00.000-06:00

An opportunity arose for some PD revolving around assessment for any interested staff. Paid PD! It is true that all PD has a severe chance of being boring, useless, and an extreme waste of time. However, it looked like it had potential, it fit in perfectly with a program I'll be teaching next year, and downtown was footing the bill. If nothing else I would gain two free lunches and two days outside of school.

It was awesome! Between 5 schools, there were only 11 participant, but quality participants indeed. From my limited experience, it is very rare to walk away from a workshop with a drastically improved understanding of the topic addressed. Not only did we discuss many really interesting ideas, controversies and difficulties surrounding assessment in depth, many really good improvements and practical suggestions came out. I left wanting to do things differently AND knowing how to.

Fabulous! I'm very impressed someone pulled this together at the end of the year. Secretly I also hope I will get to count this towards my accreditation...

a very official proof

2007-05-31T23:06:00.000-06:00

While having a discussion with a colleague today after our department meeting, she interrupted our highly academic train of thought to ask me, in a rather surprised tone, if I had a black eye. I assumed, in typical me style, I had managed to get pencil, marker, or worse on my face.

Upon closer inspection, requiring two other teachers, it was decided that no, those must just be your veins. Corollary, you must be tired.

WOW.

my favorite time of year...

2007-05-31T09:12:00.000-06:00

Finally some sun! I know I live in a bi-polar weather region, but the sun usually sticks it out with us through the mood swings. It's that time of year at school, and the miserable weather so close on the heels of 30 degree very lovely summer weather was enough to turn my classrooms into packs of whiny, unpleasant adolescents. It's hard being 16! The expectation of showing up with a textbook is just plain not fair! ohmygodpleasehelpmenow.

With only 13 actually physical classes left, and even that is best case scenario since there are assemblies, pep rallies, and fire drills that have all been left to the last minute it is serious crunch time. How can I have a full unit left to do, if not two, in all of my classes? That does not include final review, or any of the "fun" stuff I've been trying to incorporate into the geometry units.

On the plus side, in 13 days I don't need to worry about any of it. But who's counting...

(Attempt #1 at fun failed miserably, and by the end of the class they were essentially begging for notes. So much for experiential learning. Attempt #2 goes today...)

WAHOO!

2007-05-23T09:07:00.000-06:00

It been very unofficial, on the down low, blah blah blah that I would have a job at my school next year. Not that I was feeling unsure about this, or particularly concerned, I just wish administrivia wasn't so complicated and time consuming.

Today I got the official hand shake with a congrats you're here full time next year! Something about you're a good fit for our school, we like you, good times. What I heard? FULL TIME JOB BOTH SEMESTERS. This means I can pay my mortgage, something the bank enjoys even more than I do. Also, I'll be teaching essentially what I taught this year. All these good ideas I've been having lately won't go to waste.

I WIN!

29.75 sleepathon?

2007-05-20T11:54:00.000-06:00

Yipes, life is hectic! It's the long weekend and I have no plans. Don't really want any either. A big thanks to queen Vicotria though, Monday is going to feel like heaven.

Due to working at school that never stops with the activities, unfortunately my Human Rights group had to organise their annual 30 hour famine for the long weekend. We also had to change the name since we are not sending the money raised to World Vision, so the 29.75 hour famine is born. I'm guessing it would never be a particularly easy task to get supervisors for such a big block of time (it is broken down into 2 hour shifts), the long weekend made it essentially impossible. Being the only advisor without other life commitments, I agreed up front to supervise the deathly 1:15am to 5:15am block. I also was feeling generous enough to sign Big Red up to assist me in my supervising.

As doom time approached, I was feeling less and less keen to force myself to stay up with 25ish hyperactive teenagers when my body was making it abundantly clear it really wanted to be in bed. I did go however, and was totally unprepared for what I found.

Upon arrival, I was a little confused that the two supervisors we were replacing were sitting completely removed from the kids, they appeared to be supervising a couple of chairs and a table in fact. The door to where the crazy should have been coming from wasn't even open. I congratulated them on their clearly superior supervising skills. Anything could have been going on in the auditorium, and here they were, making sure the table didn't move. That is dedication.

This is when they informed me that they were all sleeping, and had been since just shortly after midnight. WHAT?! I knew I was risking waking them all up, thusly creating 25 energetic since we just had a great nap students, but this was something I could not believe without seeing it. But it was true! No whispering, no fidgeting, just sleeping. What kind of teenagers are these? I was secretly dreaming that they would choose to at least try to sleep at around 3ish, but sleeping at midnight? In a large group of their peers? On the Friday of the long weekend? The bizarro situation almost made me want to go wake them up just to explain how my brain could not handle them acting in such an atypical fashion.

I didn't. Big Red and I then proceeded to sit for 4 hours, in a school without heat, never hearing a peep from anyone until our replacements showed up. I'm not even sure there were students present.

mmmmuffins!

2007-05-08T23:04:00.000-06:00

I ran into Xtina today, and as was bound to happen, we made fun of other people. This always happens, it's what we do. Not in a "we're totally evil bitches and we're going to hell because we say these things behind people's backs" kind of way, but in a "we're totally evil bitches because if they were present we would say these things to their faces" kind of way.

So I make fun of Xtina's lululemon pants, she makes fun of herself, segueing nicely into making fun of someone else, and while I'm laughing I hear her refer to someone as a "muffin-top." I had to stop her mid-sentence to repeat "muffin-top" for me. Of course she looks at me like I've lost it, muffin-top being choice vocabulary to describe a common affliction I need to comment on all the time.

Gold! It's the perfect description for a condition so rampant I've almost stopped complaining about it. I've replaced it with "why are you not wearing pants?" on my list of fashion faux pas to complain about if you were interested. Anyway, muffin-top! The condition where for reasons unbeknownst to other humans, girls insist on wearing pants 3 sizes too small. These girls typically aren't particularly large, but when forced into eeensy pants, their non-existent bums are forced up and over the waistband of their pants making them look totally ridiculous and much fatter than they actually are. The big mystery to the muffin-top is WHY do you want to make yourself look fatter? Buy pants that fit people! Do you have any idea what a pair of proper fitting pants can do for your bum?

While I would like to wage a war on the muffin-top, I'm sorta scared of strange girls. They could beat me up. So instead, I would just like for us all to bask in the glory that is the term muffin-top. It is up to all 10 of you who read this thing to spread the love and teach your friends. Hopefully, it will make it into the Webster's 2009 edition.

you want me to what?

2007-05-05T22:07:00.000-06:00

A little while ago, the other GSA advisor was approached by one of my former students to present a session on homophobia at a Western conference they were hosting in town. Originally, my partner in crime had agreed to do it solo - apparently she does the conference thing fairly regularly. Then, slowly - and without my forcing I might add! - she realised we should get our youth involved. Yay! Then she wanted me to present as well. What? I've done the small group session at a conference before, but never the lone person at the front of a huge room. The thought was intimidating to say the least. I mean, sure they are just teenagers, but there was going to be one hundred of them!

By the time we had gotten the youth presenters committed, we only had a week before the conference. So in a very focused planning session over a noon hour, we banged out what we wanted to do. Working with other advisor was interesting as when I work with youth I tend to get them to do everything (Totally a cop out for me, but also the way it should be. Convenient eh?) and other advisor loves to talk cause she doesn't want anything she thinks is important to get missed. Watching her brain acclimatise itself to giving over responsibility was really interesting. Not that she was overly resistant to it or anything, it just made me realise how much work needs to be done in changing the way adults think of working with youth. Her brain just wasn't used to thinking "the kids can do that, and that, and that..."

The conference itself was awesome. The kids did a great job, I didn't talk too fast and just may have pulled off sounding articulate, and other advisor's love of talking came in handy when we had a few extra minutes to fill. The kids in attendance, for the most part, asked intelligent questions and participated as well as could be expected after a full day of conferencing. The reason we were asked to come was very recently one of the youth in Saskatoon's Jewish community came out and they were looking raise awareness and tolerance. I thought this was so fabulous on the part of the organisers - opinions on homosexuality in the Jewish faith are mixed so for them to step up and be over the top accepting is really wonderful.

I'm guessing now that word is out there that we do public presentations there will be more requests, but I'm all for some revisions and letting the kids run it all!

doomed to be a crazy cat lady

2007-05-02T15:31:00.000-06:00

Why is it that groups of people (teachers) love to sit around complaining about how things don't work, yet treat you as if you have severely advanced dementia when you propose a solution?

boston, part deux

2007-04-25T20:28:00.000-06:00

After a very early starting and busy day one in Boston, we allowed ourselves a bit of a sleep in (9:30!) while making sure we still hit up the free continental breakfast. The one free meal of the day is a pretty important one when you are traveling on a budget.

The it was back to Boston Common to walk the Freedom! Trail! It is very full of freedom, the Freedom Trail. Also, it is painted with a big red line, so the tourists don't accidentally make a wrong turn and find themselves on the slavery trail. Handy.

Here we are at the beginning of the trail, each representing a piece of freedom.

Education:

Employment:

And Jeff, the most pious of all, representing Religion:

Plenty of things to see on the trail, but one of the best had to be the birthplace of the tastiest bun ever, the Pakerhouse Roll (now unavailable in Stoon *pout*)
One of Boston's most famous historical figures is Paul Revere. He's essentially the Laura Secord of the States, but clearly not as important or cool as I don't see him with his own line of delicious chocolate products. Rach and I stopped to reenact his famous "midnight ride."
The trail to freedom ends at the Bunker Hill Monument. Freedom, it would appear, is a big phallic symbol on a hill. We (I) thought it would be fun to try and get a group picture for jumpingphotos.com . Turns out we're not quite ready to be "famous" for our jumping skills (or lack thereof.)

After getting our fill of freedom, we headed out to Harvard to wander around the campus. We looked so natural in that environment that several different people came up to ask us information or directions. That's right - WE PASSED FOR HARVARD STUDENTS. Clearly you can see why,

After Harvard, we headed back downtown to try and secure some kind of tickets since we needed to occupy ourselves until midnight. We wound up with tickets to "Shear Madness" a bizarre murder mystery that is the worlds longest running non-musical play. It was no Blue Man Group, but I can think of worse ways to spend an evening.

After the play we went to Cheers! for supper and a beer. Turns out we accidentally missed the replica Cheers! while walking the freedom trail thinking it was a tourist trap/trick and instead visited the bar that was the inspiration for Cheers! We even watched the end of a Boston RedSox baseball to complete the official Boston pub experience. Since we were traveling on a budget, I had Jeff take my picture with my Cheers! beer mug as opposed to actually buying it. I'm crafty that way.
After Cheers! and trying to find a gas station in downtown Boston, it was finally time to go pick Erica up from the airport. It would of course be my luck that the one weekend I go to Boston, she would be busy gallivanting around the Galiano islands in BC. Her flight finally arrived just before 1am. I hadn't seen Erica since I left Japan in 2003, and if was fantastic to finally get to see her again after all this time, even though our visit was brief. We did meet up for lunch before we left town and hopefully we'll be able to arrange a longer visit this summer so I can bask in the awesomeness that is Erica for a little longer.

Thanks Boston!

you want stress?

2007-04-25T18:44:00.000-06:00

Dear coworker:

I am writing to inform you, that while previously I had doubts about your professional capabilities, I no longer hold any respect for you as a professional. Someone who cannot be trusted with a dainty tray and some fruit certainly can not be trusted with forming the minds of the next generation.

Regretfully,
Mme Chelle
~~~~~~~~~~~~

After school I received this email from a coworker who had already proved herself ridiculously unreliable, prompting me to write the above reply.

I need your help. Would you be able to help me tomorrow at lunch? I bought some snacks for our multi-school department meeting and they need to be organised. I'm all alone - [two other teachers] can't help me. I'm really stressed!

Woman, if I were you I would stay away from me. After this, you have NO idea what you're getting yourself into next time you ask me how it's going...

do you? do you really?

2007-04-16T20:25:00.000-06:00

My human rights group/Gay Straight Alliance is holding a Day of Silence on Wednesday. This is a national movement that will be occurring on Wednesday in High Schools across Canada.

The students, around 20 in total, have been pre-identfied to their teachers and will also be wearing lanyards so they will be easily identified. These are awesome kids. Most are top students and are actively involved in other extra-curricular activities. I don't think any are struggling academically. On Wednesday, they will also be carrying around cards that say the following:

Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I am participating in the Day of Silence, a national youth movement protesting the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies in schools. My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by harassment, prejudice, and discrimination. I believe that ending the silence is the first step toward fighting these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today. What are you going to do to end the silence?

There are a few exceptions to the silence. Students with pre-scheduled presentations may not use the Day of Silence as an excuse to not participate. If they need to ask a school related question that can't wait to a teacher, they may.

So you can imagine my surprise when a teacher came to see me today to double check that students had to still talk to teachers. I answered that if absolutely necessary of course they could, but the idea was for them to not talk between the hours of 8:30 until 3:15 when as a GSA we would officially break the silence and debrief about our day. The teacher continued, unsatisfied with my answer. I need to be able to ask those students questions. Do you? Really? Everyday, in your class, you ask EVERY SINGLE STUDENT a question? You evaluate them on their response? There is NO WAY you can go 1 HOUR without talking to those students? In your classes of 30 students, those 2 or 3 must be called upon?

Really? Then I would like you to also stop taking your basketball team to tournaments. They also NEEDED to be in my class for that hour you made them miss. Jerk.

road trip!

2007-04-12T23:28:00.000-06:00

(All photos courtesy of Jeff since I was too lazy to take my own camera. Thanks Jeff!)

Wednesday night as I was getting ready to leave, Rach sent me a text to bring my passport "just in case." That just in case turned out to be a little plan Rach had been hatching for who knows how long - spinning it, twisting it, and then presenting it just right to Jeff and I. She certainly knows how to work us both. The plan? Boston! I certainly didn't see that coming (I was thinking she would say NY or Toronto). Tired from all the work we had all been doing, Friday was a much deserved sleep in day and we didn't really firm up what our tentative plans would be until late afternoon. Jeff was in it for the Blue Man group, I was in if we could do it VERY cheap, and Rach? well she just likes to hang out with both of us. Since it was already late, we decided to run errands Friday and leave early Saturday morning so as to save on a hotel room.

Saturday morning we made it out of the house running only 10 minutes behind out proposed schedule. Jeff had preprogrammed his new GPS the previous evening and we followed it the entire way. It certainly used a more "creative" route than we probably would have taken ourselves, but then end result was our planned hotel in Boston. Which looked much much nicer on the internet...

So it wasn't the prettiest hotel in Boston, but it certainly got the job done AND served up a good continental breakfast. Waffles! Who would have guessed?

After checking in, we headed off to the Museum of Science. Considering the number of big name universities in Boston, I was sort of expecting something fabulous. I mean, a city can't very well be the home to MIT and then have a crappy science centre... It was pretty average though. I remember the one in Ottawa or Toronto being much better, but that could have been because I was young and impressionable the last time I was there...

Obviously Rach has more practice at this, check out that perfect hand placement!

After running around the museum taking funny pictures, we went to a show at the Planetarium called "Far far away." Jeff really wanted to go since it was all about the Star Wars galaxy. I wasn't super keen, but I do love a good planetarium regardless of whether what I'm looking at is real or not. The show was a total bust. It was a movie, projected on both sides of the planetarium, that talked about the earth's various stages and how those stages could be compared to Star Wars planets. LAME! Every once in awhile they would randomly show stars on the planetarium, as if this justified putting the show in there as opposed to on a white screen in a corner somewhere. I took this opportunity to have a little nap in the comfy chairs they provide for you so you don't have to strain your neck looking up.

Well rested after the show, we took a DUCK tour of the city. This was money well spent since I knew NOTHING about Boston, and our guide seemed pretty well informed. He was rather entertaining, and Canadian. At first we sorta though the Canadian bit was just a gimmick, but then he was saying "aboot" all over the place and was very excited about us being from Saskatchewan. He actually said aboot! I thought just Newfoundlanders did that! The DUCKs themselves are these nifty army vehicles that drive on land and then turn into a boat on the water.

After the tour we made our way for dinner (not supper, apparently they don't call it that in Boston) somewhere called the Rock Bottom Grill. We had quite a bit of time to spend there before our show started, so when Rach finally caved and made us order desert, our waitress seemed very pleased and assured us it was the greatest thing ever. Really? I take my desert very seriously as you all know. She, however, was not lying. Check this thing out! So much icing, so much caramel, so much everything in fact!

Lastly we headed off to the Blue Man Group show. It was even better than I was expecting. We laughed pretty much solid for their entire show. I was also pretty entertained at what a possible "audition" might look/sound like. Are you constantly annoying people because you insist on playing percussion with any available "instrument" on any available surface? Can you catch a ridiculous amount of marshmallows in your mouth with physics defying precision? Can you then regurgitate those marshmallows into "art"? Can you spit paint creatively? Do you really like the colour blue? Lastly, do you enjoy making messes? Yes? Hired! I would definitely go see these guys again in a second.

All in all it was an excellent start to our whirlwind Boston tour.

a day of firsts

2007-04-10T12:06:00.000-06:00

Finally Easter holidays are here. For a the break, I am out in Montreal visiting Rachel and Jeff. Yes, I am aware that I will be moving here in two long months, but they will be back home at the time. So to factor in the "visiting" part, here I am.

My first full day in Montreal encompassed some pretty important life firsts.

1. My very first Krispy Kream doughnut. I was very skeptical about this. I mean, what could really be THAT great about a doughnut. So we watch the doughnuts being made for 30 seconds. Then Rachel turns around and says "here's our sample!" I was expecting a small piece of a doughnut on a toothpick. THEY GIVE YOU A WHOLE DOUGHNUT. A whole doughnut people. They are so confident that their doughnuts are warm, iced, and delicious and that you will want more, they give you an entire free doughnut every time you come in the store. Oh they are right. We did briefly debate just leaving after our free doughnut, but then the cream filled chocolate was just too much to resist. That not quite boston cream was the best doughnut I've ever eaten.

2. My first Guitar Hero experience. I had pretty much been ignoring all the guitar hero hype. I don't have a system that will play it anyway. Too bad it meets pretty much all my qualifications for a good game. Do you need to be able to manoeuvre in 3-D? No. Is it played to music? Yes. Do you need to tap to the music? Yes. Are there different colours to be played? Yes. Seriously, this is DDR for the lazy. (And the potentially more hand-eye coordinated than myself.) Awesome.

3. The first time I have been made fun of by a Costco employee. Rach and Jeff needed some groceries, and Jeff has a certain fondness for Costco pre-made meals. We also needed a GPS. While waiting for them to finish the shopping, I headed over to the books. They sell a whole series of enrichment books for elementary school kids for French (and math). These look awesome for a lost and struggling core-french teaching me. So I pick out a few in the gr 3 to 6 level. As we get up to the till the cashier must have noticed Jeff and I were speaking English since he greets us in English. Then he looks down at my only purchase, the 4 French books, and says "Well I guess it's never to late to learn!"

juno festivus

2007-04-02T22:43:00.000-06:00

Oh Juno weekend, how you turned my little city upside down for about 48 hours. You made so many of us very very happy indeed!

In all honesty, I really didn't want too much to do with the actual Junos themselves since I rarely watch them and tickets were astronomical prices. To pay close to $200 for something I typically ignore seemed totally bonkers. I stand by my decision.

Junofest, on the other hand, was SO worth it. True, there were way cooler people who could have agreed to play shows (Tegan and Sara, Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, Joel Plaskett, Sarah Harmer, Trag, and cool French bands where were you guys?!? Especially you Sarah, I know you were in town!) I digress.

Friday evening saw me at the Pat. Oh dear. This in itself is a sign of my love for Wide Mouth Mason. We arrived promptly at 10, and avoided massive lineups by mere minutes. A large-ish amount of beverages were consumed to make being at the Pat for 3 hours listening to terrible music bearable. However, it was all worth it. I wound up front row for pretty much the entire show and - terrible sound system excluded - wasn't disappointed. I realised about 15 minutes in that I have been standing in that exact same spot at WMM concerts for 10 years now. They played most of my old favourites.

Saturday evening we went to Louis'. We arrived early as I would have killed my concert going companion if we would have not gotten in. The quality of the evening was WAY better than the previous evening. I enjoyed all the groups, except the first. Enjoyment aside, I was really there to see David Usher. He was amazing. The small venue, the sound quality, I was pretty much bursting with happiness the entire show. So much love for Dave. He even played St. Lawrence River for the last song of his encore which pretty much proves he loves me too.

So thanks for bringing Dave to town Junos!

mon ame!

2007-03-28T09:02:00.000-06:00

The weather is seriously breaking my soul. This needs to end, preferably before I wind up in a puddle of my own tears in the middle of my living room floor.

worst scam ever

2007-03-21T08:46:00.000-06:00

DEAREST ONE,
IN BRIEF I AM MISS RACHEL ADAMS FROM IVORY COAST. I AM THE ONLY DAUGHTER OF DR. BOUGADUGU ADAMS FORMER DIRECTOR OF IVORY COAST COCOA EXPORTING BOARD, HE WAS ASSASSINATED BY THE REBELS FOLLOWING THE POLITICAL UPRISING.BEFORE HIS DEATH HE MADE A DEPOSIT OF TEN MILLION DOLLARS ( 10,000,000.00 DOLLARS ) HERE IN IVORY COAST WITH ONE OF THE LARGEST SECURITY COMPANY. THIS FUND HE INTENDED TO BUY A COCOA PROCESSING MACHINE.I ONLY WANT YOU TO HELP ME AND RETRIEVE THIS FUND OUT OF THE SECURITY COMPANY AND TRANSFER IT INTO YOUR ACCOUNT IN YOUR COUNTRY OR ANY SAFER PLACE FOR SECURITY REASONS JUST AS A FOREIGN BUSINESS PARTYNER TO MY LATE FATHERS DUE TO MY AGE.AND THIS IS FOR PROPER INVESTMENT AS YOU WILL BE THE BENEFICIARY AND RECIPIENT OF THE FUND .I PROMISED TO SEND TO YOU ALL THE DOCUMENTS ISSUED TO MY LATE FATHER DURING THE DEPOSITION OF THE FUND IN THE SECURITY COMPANY.I REALLY NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE IN MY LIFE FOR NO ONE KNOWS WHEN THIS POLITICAL PROBLEM WILL END UP IN THIS COUNTRY ( IVORY COAST ) AND FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE TO ME IN THESE TRANSACTION I WILL OFFER 25% OF THE TOTALL SUM.THANKS FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION AND MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING.I AM WAITING TO HEAR FROM YOU URGENTLY.THANKS AND GOD BLESS YOU.
YOURS FAITHFULLY.
FROM MISS RACHEL ADAMS

I get this spam at least once a week, often written in very good french. I don't get it. What does the sender get from this? I can't suddenly realise me penis is too small or that I really do need to lose! weight! now! and spend money. The reply email given is in Japan of all places. What's the deal?

not stabbed!

2007-03-20T17:53:00.000-06:00

Just in case any of you were planning on watching the news tonight, I did not get stabbed. I trust the news will manage to at least convey the message that it was two males involved in the stabbing at my school, but just in case they only get the former student part down, said former student is not me. I would also like to think that were it me, they would call me a former student AND current teacher, but Global was first on the scene; nothing should be assumed.

I'm guessing the media is going to make a huge deal of out said stabbing. To be fair, it probably is the most interesting thing that happened in toon town today. However, a stabbing between the young gentlemen involved was just as likely to happen on 8th, in front of Safeway, or in Kilburn Hall. They are the kind of gentlemen who stab one another. The media, I'm sure, will be running with not so logical conclusions. Safety in schools! Gangs! Poor supervision! Bad teachers! Metal detectors! and so on and so forth pretending that the rest of the 1500 people in their general vicinity were somehow involved.

Our neighbouring Catholic school is probably holding a party right now, in anticipation of a higher grade nine enrollment next year. Their school didn't have a stabbing after all. Bah.

A real update (band trip!) maybe once interviews are over...

mathletes

2007-03-08T22:37:00.000-06:00

Last weekend I was lucky enough to chaperone a group of students down to Regina for the SK Math Challenge. What Saturday don't I want to get up at 4h45 to ride on a yellow school bus for 2.5 hours on an icy highway? Oh wait... all of them. Nothing says comfort like having your knees up around your neck and very little heat. The wheel well I sat overtop of turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it kept my feet off the ground, and apparently at least 5 degrees warmer than everyone else's feet.

When we finally arrived in Regina I was very happy to realign my body and partake in the 8h30am cookie break provided for us. Cookies at 8h30? I was slowly warming up to these math types.

After everyone was cookied and juiced, it was time to get things started. A very impressive number of 242 students from gr 8-10 were present (technically we snuck some grade 7s in...) The students wrote 3 rounds - one individual, two group. While they were all writing their individual rounds, I met some math types and helped out with door prizes, supervision, etc.

During the two group rounds, I supervised a room with 3 different groups of students. One from my school, one from a Regina highschool, and one from a small town. Before coming, I had been told our students were out to win. Not having much prior involvement with the students or this particular math competition, I really wasn't aware of just how serious they were. Watching our students compete was something in itself. They had a game plan and strategy that had obviously been practiced. They divided and attacked the first round and seemed to compile their answers as some kind of technicality. The second round was divided, but more group discussion took place. It is fantastic and hilarious to watch kids get this into math. Large arm movements and heated discussion was going on at all 3 tables. I felt bad, because one (presumably grade 9) boy from the Regina school kept coming to ask me questions, but as he would walk towards me he would have the most intense look of concentration on his face, that it was hard not to laugh. I hope he also does drama. Seriously. The third group was there for fun and may or may not have gotten one of the second round questions correct but they were still very entertaining.

While the kids were writing away, I got to visit with another teacher from a small town close to the border who's name I've already forgotten. She was shocked to see how into it my students were, and it is pretty amazing that somehow a reverse sort of peer pressure has built up around the math contests and math club. Someone must be doing something right if you're a "loser" if you miss math club.

The least pleasant part of the day? Lunch. It was loud, the kids were all riled up, and an idiot designed the setup. Everyone got into a large line that did a bit of a Disney wind to first get their drink. So far so good. Then, the drink line branched off into 2 different lines for pizza acquisition. Also good. However, instead of getting a plate and then pizza, you were supposed to walk past the pizza to the far end of the table for you plate and then back around in a circular pattern. Who thought of this? Instead of 4 lines, there were two very chaotic circles. And only one girl bringing out new pizza. Have these people never seen 14 year old boys eat? The pizza girl never had a chance. I was very happy NSFG and Mr. T showed up to have lunch with me. We had a nice, albeit quick, visit while the students were receiving a tour of the University.

Back for award time. Wow. Our students took home pretty much everything. 7 of the top ten grade 9s, 6 of the top 10 grade 10s, and all but one team award. The grade 7s and 8s from our feeder school also cleaned up and only 1 of their students went home without a certificate. I even won the good door prize - $75 to spend on NCTM stuff. Whoot!

On a bit of a math (and sugar) high, the bus ride home was a little on the painful side. Ok, by the time we hit Hanley, very on the painful side. I'm certainly looking forward to next year when it's in Saskatoon and I can just witness the math parts!

hello friends!

2007-03-05T21:38:00.000-06:00

Last weekend JJ and Waderick were very kind and stopped in on their "prairie vacation." While not quite the Mexican vacation they originally had planned, it was still fantabulous to see them. We enjoyed a great sushi supper where we all ate too much, a bottle of wine, and much visiting. I'm not sure going to bed at 1am on a Sunday was the best way to start off a busy week, but I'm still here.

I'm very excited to hear they're trying to leave Brandon ASAP. Not cause I have anything against Brandon, it's location is just not ideal. Too far for a weekend trip, too awkward to fly to. Let's all hope JJ gets a great job either very close, or somewhere with good shopping ;)

Love you guys!

blizzard-shmizzard

2007-02-23T16:50:00.000-06:00

OMG, it's snowing out! Someone organise traffic advisories in case the roads get icy, someone else update the "blizzard's" status at all time, someone else send out emails making it sound like no one will make it home tonight and you, over there, make sure you tell people about the wind - that thing that blows the snow around in an annoying fashion. Mostly, let's get everyone all panicked, because this is a serious situation.

It would appear that once you actually have a serious blizzard, all blizzards are very serious. It's currently snowing. And it's windy. And for some reason, there is a whole lot of to do over these two events occurring simultaneously. I get that there was a very serious blizzard a month ago, blah blah blah. But seriously, think of what you would say if someone asked you to describe Saskatchewan in the winter. Windy, snowy, and cold - in the order of your personal preference. Not to mention, the roads have been overly icy all winter because of the messed up weather we've had.

What comes next? The "War on the Weather?" That we should all be on "high alert" for winter? Get over it people, at least it's not cold.

je ne comprends pas

2007-02-21T18:34:00.000-06:00

Rarely does my age ever cause my any grief at my job, ha ha yes I know I look just like a student ha ha. Typically my ideas and work (or my student's work rather) say enough that I really don't think anyone really thinks about it. Today I was reminded just how annoying it can be to be "the young one."

Core French. Grrr. Anyway, my class has requested that we read a 'real book' instead of the junk they typically water down for non native French speakers. I really enjoy this play called "Zone," and have taught it before, albeit in an immersion setting. However, I really don't recall it being that difficult since it's something done in grade 9. As an added bonus it matches two (2!) of the three topics we will study and lends itself really well to class discussions on current issues, youth issues, and slang/language.

So I go to see the main immersion teacher about using "Zone." Mainly because I figured she would need to teach it at some point in the semester and book sharing would need to coordinated. She hmmm-ed and haww-ed and suggested a few other books I could do. I didn't really want to, but didn't want to be rude. One of the books she suggested was Les Mis. I guess there is a decent shortened version floating around and students have really liked it in the past. I suppose you could say she sold me on the idea, mainly cause I love Les Mis and it did open up the opportunity or watching the musical and doing stuff with some of the music.

Until of course I asked my class, to double check that they hadn't read it. They had. With her. In grade 10. Ugh. No harm done, I still have my original "Zone" plan. So I go back to talk to her about when I can use the books. Again with the suggesting of different books. Again with the explaining of why I want to do Zone. This is getting frustrating since I've already explained numerous times one of the main reasons (aside from the sound curricular ones stated earlier) I'm set on "Zone" is that I've already taught it. I have material, I have ideas, I might even have projects lying around somewhere. I even went so far to say that I could order the books from downtown if she was really that concerned that we'd need them at the same time.

To this she responded "How about "Les trois mousquetaires"?" She is normally such a lovely lady. I just don't understand what the big deal is. If there really is one, come on out and tell me about it. If you have a feeling it's going to go over terribly and I will deeply regret this decision at a later date: 1) I would not feel bad at all abandoning the play and admitting it was a rotten idea to my students if it really was that bad, and 2) please just let me fall on my face on my own. The weird part is, it's not like she's secretly wanting to do it herself with her students next year - these are grade 12s.

In a week I may just go upstairs and take the books without reconsulting her. If she wants them, she knows where my classroom is.

february break - the condensed version

2007-02-19T20:17:00.000-06:00

So I had an eventful and an uneventful February break all at the same time. In no particular order:

The most time consuming part of my break was spent with Big Red. You see, the Friday prior he got a waaaaay overdue nose job. If you think you may need a deviated septum repaired, may I suggest you do this sooner than later? Since this was something that should most likely have been fixed, oh say, at least 10 years ago, it was a pretty big deal. Not only did they have to straighten his septum, they also needed to relocate cartilage and "shave" off a large amount of bone. Big Red spent most of the break not being able to move and swallowing large amounts of blood and gel foam. On top of the other stuff, they had to move a nerve to properly repair his nose so his mouth and teeth hurt and will continue to hurt for the next 3ish months. Awesome! Now that most of the swelling is gone and his splint is off, I enjoy staring at him. He looks the same, but different. He says I'm the only one who will notice since I spend a considerable amount of time looking at him, but I think it's fairly noticeable and that the gentlemen and ladies alike will notice his spiffy new nose.

Institute and Convention were blah-ish. The only thing I got out of the first day is that there are a lot of unintelligent teachers out there. I'm sure they are good teachers (well most of them) but most of the conversations I overheard people were raving about the keynote. It was a continuation of last years dreary, never ending presentation of brain development and the media. Yet again, there never was a real point made, or any tangible solutions, or well anything of substance. However, it seemed that since she could competently talk about YouTube, blogs and MySpace, everyone loved her. Boo. Not that I'm a genius or anything, but I'm pretty sure I could have given her entire 2 hour talk in no more than 20 minutes. So much filler.

Day 2 was slightly more inspiring. Mostly since I was able to participate in some really good discussion with a small group of teachers in the afternoon. I would call the morning a total waste of my time, only it did give us a catalyst for the lively afternoon discussions. Nothing too world changing came out of these discussions, but it is interesting for me to kind of realise that I am slowly solidifying some strong beliefs, values and opinions about my position as a teacher. It's an interesting evolution to chart if I think back to when I was an intern in 2001. Ya, that's right, 2001. Did I mention they've given me a student teacher for the next 2 weeks? In Core French. Gong show.

I didn't get as much planning as I'd have liked done (do I ever?), but I did put in some quality hours. What I did do was take a mental vacation from the stress Core French is putting on me. I think this is most likely as valuable considering the enormous feeling of hatred that would overcome me just thinking about it before the break has turned back into a feeling of disorientation, but also something that could be fun.

Oh yes, Big Red and I also played a ridiculous amount of Twilight Princess and watched and entire season of Scrubs.

Back to work tomorrow.

i guess you had to be there...

2007-02-08T19:01:00.000-06:00

Often I try to tell stories of the weird and wonderful projects my students make up for me. Normally, I do a piss poor job and everyone looks away awkwardly (except Rach, who wishes school was still about making funny videos...). So, thanks to YouTube, I can now share these darling projects with you. This is my most recent acquisition. Voila, le future simple and le future proche for your enjoyment!

Update
It looks like YouTube isn't cooperating with me right now. I can't even access YouTube since I'm at school so I'll have to fix this later. Stupid school board and their blocking antics.

Update #2
It would appear YouTube and I aren't friends anymore. You would think since google bought both Blogger and YouTube using the same account between all three would be simple. YouTube currently thinks doesn't think my blog is mine. So go here to see the video.

uma!

2007-02-06T20:15:00.000-06:00

I was having a terribly depressing day. Full of stupid stress, just counting down the hours until February break when hopefully I can finally get a handle on all that I am supposed to be doing and accomplishing right now.

I'm not sure if I've ever talked about Erica on my blog. My bad if I haven't. You see, she's over the top amazing. Many of my happiest times in Japan involved la belle Erica. Then, because being the regular kind of amazing - you know, all around good person with an attitude and the patience typically only awarded to people in make believe stories, crazy intelligent, empowered, going to change the world type of amazing - she had to go kick leukemia's butt as well, just to add that to her long list of credentials.

One of her very good friends, Uma, had a brain aneurysm this week. Now, while a young person having this happen to them definitely doesn't bring joy or happiness, seeing this just kinda snapped me out of my way overly self involved pity party.

Screw you school, stress, and the non essentials. I have way better things to focus my energy on and have nothing to complain about. So send some happy thoughts and energy the way of someone you know who truly needs it.

tales of gr 10 repeaters

2007-02-05T19:52:00.000-06:00

S: Ms did you get your hair cut?
Me: Nope.
S: Well are you wearing a new sweater or something?
Me: Ummmm, no S, I change my clothes every day. It's kinda my thing.
S: Oh. You just look different today.*

The class approved of me changing my clothes, while S persisted with "no but she really looks different!"

*I was wearing my contacts. And a different sweater.

so this is what everyone was talking about...

2007-02-01T20:28:00.000-06:00

I think I've unfortunately found out what everyone was complaining about back when they were first year teachers. Up until now, I thought the rumours of never going home, of having no resources, very little support and always having something to do were just a wee bit exaggerated by people who for one reason or another, just aren't efficient. This might still be true, but to those of you who were genuinely working your butts off, I'm sorry.

So, on year 4, I have been reduced to that person who has nothing. Today was the first day this week I wasn't at school til way after even the extra curr activities has gone home. Mainly because I had to be at the store, looking after other people's boobs. Also, our school is hosting a big basketball tournament this weekend and I have decided to let all my classes "support" the games as a coping mechanism. Essentially I am buying myself time. 3 blessed days before I need to magically understand how to teach kids French.

My staff has attempted to be helpful, by saying things like "there's some stuff in this book, and this book, and this book over here" and then following it with "but I don't really teach Core French so I'm really not the best person to ask." The girl who is the person to ask, lent me her binder (thanks!). Unfortunately, it is full of grammar worksheets and things that make me hate French. She tells me she had "a lot of fun!" with her class last semester, but I have no idea how if this binder truly represents what went on in her classroom.

To top it all off, I was pretty sure Core French involved putting on skits and eating fun things. I was sorta hoping for cupcakes. My students have asked if we can read a novel. Bless them for wanting to learn, but seriously. You want me to be good at this? It's going to be a long semester.

ears,noses and throats, oh my!

2007-01-23T16:33:00.000-06:00

I have been waiting since early October to get in to see an Otolaryngologists. There aren't very many (read, 1) here, so while my symptoms weren't anything serious, I figured if something needed to be done I better get on the waiting list while I could still walk. You see, my sinuses/throat always feels like there is something stuck in it. I am constantly trying to swallow whatever that may be, and honestly, it's pretty gross. And never goes away. Also, not really a huge concern of mine, but hypothetically due to the blocked sinuses, I have started snoring. Super awesome for Big Red.

So finally the big day. Since I'd never been to this particular office, it was decided by someone that was not me, that I needed a complete exam. It must all start with the ears or something, cause that's essentially what the full exam entailed. First, I had to sit down so she could check the pressure in my ears. She assures me this won't hurt. Then she starts reefing my ears into unnatural positions so she can shove a mangy looking piece of plastic in to them (apparently the "nothing bigger then your elbow" rule doesn't apply here and sterilization is optional). Once she seemed happy with my level of discomfort, she began to blow air into my ears. I must have misshapen ears, because more reefing and pulling was necessary to get the plastic bit to seal properly so maximum pressure and discomfort could be attained.

Next, I needed a hearing test. To perform said test, they close you in a room that looks like it was fabricated in Russian during the first World War. Only, instead of feeling safe in my own personal "bomb shelter" I had the feeling that if a bomb were to go off, somehow that room would implode while the rest of the building just shook a little. Anyway, the hearing test is no big deal, but they totally try to trick you. The first beeps come rhythmically, so you feel that you should be hearing the next one. The you worry there is a next one, but you can't hear it. So then you imagine noises and you press the button anyway. What started as a tiny concern about excess snot has now wound up with me getting a hearing aid...

Finally, I'm done with the technicalities and we can focus on why I'm really there. My nez. I explain my problems to the doctor. He looks at my tonsils - they are apparently a normal size. The rest of the exam is going to be much more serious. So serious it necessitates a metal forehead reflector. This makes me happy indeed. The rest does not. After careful placement of forehead reflector, he stuck a mirror waaaaay back in my throat so he could look up my nose. This was kinda like having a throat culture taken, but it took longer, so I was starting to have issues with not gagging. All clear! You would think this would be good. Not so much. Having a clear nasal passage meant he wanted to look down my throat. OMG. So he takes gauze and pulls my tongue out a painful amount. Then he takes a crazy snaky mirror and weaves it under my tongue and down my throat. Then he reminds me to breath because I am freaking out and holding my breath. I'm sure this took all of 45 seconds, but it felt like forever. The verdict? All clear.

What? So he's explaining to me that there is absolutely nothing blocking my throat in either direction. That my tonsils are totally normal and not causing the problem. And I have no adenoids, so that's not it either. I must have had a very confused look on my face. Cause I can feel something, as he's telling me this, in my throat. His assessment? Stress.

Stress? I wasn't aware I was stressed?! Not being aware that I have enough stress to make me think I'm sick makes me more stressed! As one final last shot I ask why I'm snoring. He takes one look at my profile and says "Oh, you have an out chin." Like that explains it all. Reading my mind he continues, "People with out chins tend to swallow their tongues when they sleep." Great...

So all this time I have been (unsuccessfully) trying to swallow my tonsils. But somewhat successfully swallowing my tongue. Awesome?

someone call the darwin awards...

2007-01-11T16:39:00.000-06:00

I've always known I was an idiot. This stopped surprising me eons ago. I catch myself surprising other people with just how stupid I can be all the time, but I thought I'd run out of things to surprise myself with. Laugh and shake my head at me, sure. But actually be surprised, not likely.

Until today. Home, since school was cancelled, I was making an attempt at being productive. Bathroom cleaning ranks highly on the list of things to do while being productive. So I'm cleaning away, almost finished, when I go to clean the mirror. Not thinking I spray Windex away to my hearts content. And it registers. My toothbrush sits right next to the mirror. I have solidly sprayed my toothbrush with orange, anti-bacterial, Windex. Awesome. Remember when it blizzarded out yesterday? I'm not going out for a toothbrush. I'm also not not going to brush my teeth. If I die, just tell them what happened and save them all the trouble of figuring out how I was poisoned...

clearly the world is ending

2007-01-10T15:25:00.000-06:00

They actually cancelled school this afternoon. I cannot recall any other time in my history of living in Saskatchewan that I was present for schools being closed. Hell has frozen over my friends. Seriously, all them little demons are wearing ice skates today.

Of course, it needed to be done as awkwardly as possible. So the school board waited until everything in the city shut down first - universities, SIAST, the buses. Really, I'm pretty sure that's the only reason we got to go home at all - if we didn't send the kids home right then, we would have been stuck with them til tomorrow. While superintendants may be crazy, they do have a vague idea that that would be a bad scene. On the plus side, my neighbour and I already had a plan hatched out so that we would get the cookies from the cafeteria before anyone else even knew what was going on.

Interested in knowing what it looks like here? I'm too lazy to post my own stuff, so go check out Jeff's blog.