Monday, February 28, 2011

Chicken, it's what's for dinner... or not

My dad and I went to the store yesterday. New York Steak was on sale as was whole chicken at $.75 a pound. My dad made hash browns and started to tenderize the steak for dinner. My sister came in as he was doing this and asked, "are you making the chicken?" He said no, he would do that Monday night since I wouldn't be home. Sister threw a fit that my dad has made chicken on Sunday for the past 3 weeks and he needed to do the same this week. Sis complained that she needs fried chicken since it is a Sunday thing. Sis wants chicken noodle soup to eat for lunch this week fro it.

My idiot dad almost gave in and said that he would cook the chicken in addition to the steak. My mom protested saying that was a "stupid idea because I don't want leftover chicken for dinner on Monday." My dad exclaimed, "but Sister wants it." My mom said that was not the issue, that it was not about her, that he was just plain stupid.

Thankfully he didn't make it.

I am getting tired of this chicken pattern.

I am tired of my sister.

And my dad giving into her.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

What are you doing this weekend?

Thursday

Mike and I had plans to hang out Thursday night, and that we did. We went to Pancho Villa's that we had thought about the other day. We have a little bit of a hard time getting there. I knew the way, that wasn't the issue, but the street that it was on was located on both sides of the freeway, and so I didn't know exactly, but thought I did. We got it all solved. He told me what a bad navigator I was, but I used my phone to prove to him I knew what I was talking about. At the restaurant we order a bunch of appetizers- ceviche, avocado salad, y enchiladas. I make fun of Mike for his inability to pronounce words like aguacate, or avacado y even enchiladas. We watch the mariachis perform at the different tables and he is glad they don't come to serenade us. While there we talk for the greater part of 3 hours about teachers. He told me about the "Finding Superman" movie that he watched, we talked about teaching, bad teachers, good teachers, the teacher's union, Michelle Rhee, and we are on opposite sides of the spectrum on most things, but he understood my concerns, and he was glad that I am not going into teaching for the wrong reasons. He was impressed at my knowledge of some of the issues. Overall, while the conversation pissed me off and made me sad, it was nice that at the end we reached common ground and he knows I am in teaching for the right reasons. I still question daily why I am going into teaching. I would love to go into the business world, somewhere, something, where I can learn/use a new set of skills.

Mike asked me what I had planned for this weekend again. He actually texted me Tuesday night when I was in class asking if I had class next week and whether I had a break. He wanted to do a roadtrip or take me along on his business trip this weekend. He has to go up to San Jose today, Sunday, and wanted to go up there Sunday-Tuesday with me. I wish I had a week off. I'm mad that I don't. Damn new school schedule with back to back classes and no break. Damn Monday night classes.

We go back to his house and watch American Idol and a couple talk shows on his Tivo. While we were sitting on our respective couches I got a text from Linda about 11:30 telling me that she got a text from a teacher that wanted my sub number so she could request me since her mom was rushed to the hospital. I texted Linda and then called into the system to get the job. Mike and I watched TV until midnight and I told him that I could either take off, otherwise he might hate me for having to wake up at 6:45 to get to work on time. He said it wasn't a problem. I said that as long as he wouldn't hate me I'd stay the night. He said he had to get up at 7. We go into his room and watch "The Nanny," or something like that on TV until we fell asleep. I didn't sleep well that night.

Friday

We woke up at 6:45 to my alarm. My alarm sound was the ringtone on his iPhone, which was funny. I throw on clothes and head out of the house about 6:51. I stop at Jack in the Box on the way to work. I made excellent time. It only took me 20 minutes to go 21 miles. I made better time than I usually do on my way to work.

I have a great day at work and the classes are good.

Mike texts me about 3:30 as I am at the post office getting the mail asking if I'm coming around that night. I told him I would. I go home, shower, change clothes, and set up Netflix for my parents on the Apple TV. I drive to his house and get there about 5:30. Mike is on the computer looking for memory for his computer. Amazon, Best Buy, and Staples have poor memory search sites, so he tries Fry's. Fry's has it. He asks if I know how to get to Fry's, and whether City of Industry is closer than Anaheim. I said it may be, at least with traffic on a Friday night, City of Industry would be better because of the number of freeways we have that we could take home. We drive over to Industry and make fun of the name of the city. We talk about all sorts of things in the car like work, school, and my sister. He thinks I'm too hard on my sister. We also talk about the new Southwest Rapid Rewards program, which I don't like. He likes it because he is a last minute traveler who always books in the business class, so for him he will earn tons of rewards. For me, based on the new program it will mean that I have to use my Southwest Credit Card in most places like when I dine out to earn a trip a year to a destination I want to go. Prior I had no problem accumulating flights.

We go into Fry's and get the memory, then walk around, and in line search for a restaurant. He stumbles upon an expensive French restaurant in Whittier that he thinks we should try. We struggle with the poor reception on our phone to get directions to the restaurant. We wonder how standing next to each other he tends to have better reception than me. We enjoy Whittier. It had some really nice houses and trees, and an old charm to it. We have a hard time finding the restaurant in their little downtown area, so drive around a couple times.



We go to a French Cafe that he gets reservations on Open Table for. It was cool to go to the table and see the reserved placard on it. We debate over appetizers or meals. We are a little bothered that the price range opentable said was not true. Entrees were $20+ a piece. He chooses a shallot thing and I choose the pork chop with apricot sauce. The apricot sauce was not my favorite because I don't like sweet on my meat. Sorry. He keeps encouraging me to gnaw on the bone and get all the meat off of it. I tell him that my dogs are for that. We do dessert too, which is the best part of the meal. I get the apple tart, which we have to wait 15 minutes extra for. The coffee he orders with dessert is cold and he isn't happy since he doesn't do cold coffee. I don't recall what the conversation was about in the restaurant, but I do remember a little about the eccentric people we saw, how Whittier is definitely a place we should return to, the things we could have done in San Jose, and his interesting coworkers. We talk about how much Mike makes in a year. He gets excellent money for what he does and how money is never an issue for him. It makes me kind of sad it'll take me 2 years or so of work to make what he does in a year when I start out in my career.

We drive back to his place and are surprised how his navigation system routes us. It routes us around a few accidents on the 10 and 210. We hit some heavy fog on the 15 going back to his house.

I fall asleep while he puts "My Girlfriend's Boyfriend" on Netflix. I am asleep within probably the first 20 minutes. It is midnight. I wake up in the last 10 minutes of the show and joke that I think I got the show after I heard the line about how she was afraid she couldn't get pregnant and I hear about how I did not miss anything.

We make our way into bed about 12:40 and go to bed.

Saturday

Mike and I play around- we cuddle and he sucks me off. We get up, shower, and then he tells me he needs to get his rental car. We are amazed how hail is coming down in buckets outside. It is absolutely pouring. No snow like the weathercasters predicted. We go to the airport for the car and he says we will spend the day out somewhere. I suggest LA. I drive him to the airport and we leave my car at the mall. We cruise to LA in his rented Ford Taurus, which for being such an expensive car is lacking in some features and has an uncomfortable center console that really makes the car feel confined, and we hypothesized for anyone who was heavyset that it would be an issue. He didn't look bad in the Taurus let me say... lol. We go to Olvera Street in Los Angeles.

We walk around Olvera Street and he deems he needs a margarita. I tell him 2 of the ok restaurants, but both of those don't serve alcohol and don't have outdoor seating. We settle on the expensive one, La Golondrina. The margaritas were good, but $12. The meal was about $80 for the 2 of us, so we deem it a tourist trap. I joke how we should have gone over to East LA to El Tepeyac or something just down the street where we could get cheap and authentic food. He gets the enchiladas de mariscos, pero he couldn't pronounce mariscos. Boo. We share ceviche and I get the enchilada plate. I tell him about the history of Olvera Street. As I'm doing that he stops me and tells me I have one thing that really bugs him. I say the same thing over and over in conversation and probably don't realize it. He asked me if I knew what it was. I told him no. He said I always say, "AND EVERYTHING." I chuckled. I never would have guessed that. I don't recall, but he said I insert that into conversation when it isn't necessary. I told him I didn't think so. He told me to listen and I told him I know I'll start picking up on it because he pointed it out. He told me his phrase is during trainings where he says "best practice says," and I made fun of him for sounding like a training manual, and how he probably doesn't have any fact behind the best practice. He said he has a coworker who says "like" constantly. He told me his friend Candy always was written up in her reviews for always saying, "so basically." I told him at work the kids would probably say the thing I say over and over is "you think?" We ate and decided to split the bill, then walk around Olvera, and I almost said "and everything" again in conversation but I say something just slightly different. He starts laughing and I hit him a few times playfully. He decides he doesn't want to venture over to Chinatown since it is too authentic for him, so we head out.

He has me google a few places to possibly visit, and he looks up places. He looks up cafes and I look up the train museum from "The Big Bang Theory" on CBS. We drive over through the Fairfax District, WEHO, and Beverly Hills to some cafe just off of Rodeo DRive that he saw on the show. He was surprised it wasn't busy. We drive down Wilshire and there is a protest for Libya in front of the LA County Cemetery that is really holding up traffic- it takes us 30 minutes or so to go down Wilshire. We go into Brentwood for Pinkberry. We head to the train museum, which is somewhere near Griffith Park. We get to it and discover it closed at 5. It was 5:15. We decide to go to the Griffith Observatory since we both had never been. We drive up and admire the views. We talk about things we had seen at the Greek Theater. Then we see how crowded it is, but also because it was raining and it would be hard to see the clouds it was definitely a weekday thing. We decide to head back to get my car and he is tickling me a good part of the time. We are listening to 971 AMP Radio as we drive. He drops me off to the mall to get my car and we agree to meet back at his house.

Back at his house we watch "Old Christine" and he packs. I start to watch "Bi the Way," while he packs, but realize it is kind of blah. It doesn't give much fact about bisexualism, which is what I was hoping for. I turn it off when he is done and then we watch "Old Christine." He microwaves some fries and we snack on those with barbecue sauce and ketchup.

About 10:30 we head to bed because he has to get up early.

Sunday

We woke up at 6:30 and make out. He gets up and says that he wants a later flight because 6:30 is too early. All the later flights were booked, so he gets up and showers. I shower after him. He finishes his packing and then we head outside. It is 30 out. There is ice on his rental and ice on my windshield- thankfully not a thick layer that I just run the windshield wipers and spray the windshield wiper fluid to clear it. It is 30 out. My car said icy all the way home.

I got home about 8:10 and stopped at McDonalds for breakfast for the family to let them know I still care about them since it had been so long since we'd seen each other... lol.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Keeping up with our new Wednesday tradition

The Guy texted me last Saturday about hanging out on Wednesday. I told him it was a plan and as the days got nearer we confirmed with each other, and had actually texted about random happenings in our lives over the past couple days. When I confirmed Tuesday night he told me to meet him at his place by 4 on Wednesday and to just make myself at home since he was not going to be there until then.

I get to his place at 3:15 and work on my computer. When I say work I really mean update my amazon.com wishlist.

The Guy pulled up about 4 exactly. He just got a haircut. He said the plan was that Joe wanted to hang out, Casey wanted to hang out and needed his computer returned to him, and Bear wanted to hang out since his boyfriend was out for the night. While heading down to pick up Casey, The Guy got the scoop on Mike. He was amused and was happy for us. He was surprised at how different we are and how I must not be compatible... lol. He asked if that was alright with me, and it was. The plan was to go get Casey, one of us would go with The Guy to pick up the dogs, and then Joe would meet us at The Guy's house. Bear found out later his boyfriend wanted him home and couldn't do dinner, but could do drinks afterward. The Guy finishes up Casey's computer when we get back to The Guy's house. Then the two of them go to get the dogs, so I kill time on my computer, and in that time Joe shows up. Joe sits next to me on the couch and we start talking about our favorite iPhone apps. He asks me to go to a website that has song meanings and I knew I had it bookmarked since I couldn't remember the name. He sees my bookmarks and we find ourselves scrolling through the hot guys at Cocks and Asses Only. Joe was curious if it really was only cocks and asses. He realized it wasn't and was turned on by the guys.

Casey and The Guy get back with the dogs, Bear texted he was not able to go to dinner, and we were all hungry. We went to dinner. We went to what The Guy claimed was the best Mexican food place up the street from him. Bitter Mexican food if you ask me, my inner Mexican died. The guacamole had no flavor. The ceviche was yummy, though. Chili powder and tomato sauce should not cover an enchilada. It can have both, but it should have more of an enchilada type sauce with a mix of the two. It tasted like it came directly from a can. Everyone else seemed to be happy. We talked about lots at dinner. We talked about me applying for my credential on Monday, the inefficiency at my college, Joe's graduation from vet school, whether we are doing graduation announcements, bad TV like anything on LOGO like A-List and Big Gay Sketch Show, bad dates, WIC, and welfare.

Walking back to the car we talk about speedos and Joe's big dick. Joe becomes the butt of all of our jokes after that. At The Guy's place we look at queerty and other sites while we pass time. Bear shows up a few minutes later. We go in the kitchen and open a bottle of bad wine and then compare it with good wine. We then go in the living room and watch 2 episodes of Downton Abbey, which was really good. The Guy raved about it, and I understand why. Great show. It is about life in 1914 after the sinking of the Titanic it seems. It is about a rich family and their maids and other things it seems. We watched 2 episodes. The Guy got stoned and tried some doggy pills that were safe for humans according to Joe. He was pretty spacey and we made fun of him for that. I was tired about 10:30 and took off right after Joe. I left his place at 10:37 and got home at 11:07. 30 minutes, which is my record for getting home from his place.

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Got a call at 7:05 to sub at the high school about 5 miles from my house this morning. This was my first time at the school as a substitute. I had heard the school trash talked by those that went to the high school I went to/student taught at, but it was an assignment that I couldn't resist. It was 3 hours of Spanish I. I throw on some clothes and head out. I get there a little early to find out where to go/park/all that jazz and as I'm in the administration building, Luis from school comes walking in. We had an education class together last quarter and one this quarter. He teaches at the school. I wouldn't call us friends, rather acquaintances, and I'll work with him when we are placed in a group together. We just aren't on the same wavelength personalitywise. Anyways, I hear him yell out "MIKE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" I told him I was called to sub and he asked if I'd ever been there before. I tell him no and he says that there was no way I'd find the room on my own, so he showed me where to go. He showed me where the restrooms were and where to park next time. He saw an administrator out as we were walking and told him that I was a friend of his and to check me out. And he did come to check me out in my 3rd period. I was leading the class through the vocabulary that they were memorizing. I want to teach Spanish and just need to take the test again, so I have to give Luis props, plus the exposure/good word he gave about me. Hopefully Luis and I have class so that I can thank him and tell him about my experience. And the kids weren't bad at all. They were wonderful. They lacked the attitude of middle schoolers and the rich kid attitude at the school I student taught at. I felt like this is a school I would like to work at.

Stuff you should be listening to

Because Mike is doing it - it's cool

My Kinda Party - Jason Aldean

I Can't Love You Back - Easton Corbin

Good to Be Us - Uncle Kracker ft. Kid Rock
- Not a huge fan, but it sounds different than everything else on radio, and so it is a-ok at the moment - next week my response may different
Rolling in the Deep - Adele
BUY HER ALBUM!

Video Killed the Radio Star - The Buggles

Monday, February 21, 2011

Where are we going to eat?

Mike texted me yesterday, Sunday, and I was tempted to say I wasn't free. I wanted to stay at home because how many nights have I been there this past week? I think I've slept in my own bed 4 nights last week. LOL. And mom, dad, and sis are all noticing. I haven't been naming Mike exclusively. I've mentioned The Guy's name too just to keep things cool. Minor lie on my end. Oh well. Not that I would be hesitant to introduce them to Mike...

Anyways, I texted him and said I would be free after 5. He said ok. I texted him as I was heading out and get to his place about 5:15. He is sitting on the couch when I walk in on his laptop looking at things to do at the casinos on a Sunday night- President's Day weekend. Nada. No concerts. I wasn't surprised, but he was. He looks at things to do out in Palm Springs, Orange County, and the Inland Empire. I look at ticketmaster to see what is going on on a Sunday night. I mention Disneyland, and for a moment we were going to go had my pass not been blocked out. He didn't want to go out to PS and drive an hour just for dinner. He said fish tacos would be good. I search on yelp and find a Mexican food place I bought a coupon for at restaurant.com. It has fish tacos, so we decide to go there.

I orient him in the direction and as we drive through the parking lot to the restaurant discover it is closed on Sundays. His response was "on a holiday weekend?" He said he had another idea, the really fancy smancy hotel in my city's restaurant 20 miles from his house. The bar at the restaurant was closed, so that was a no go. I mention a local bar there and he drives around, but decides he doesn't want to go. We drive through my city and I mention what is off each exit. Nothing much more than fast food and he is surprised how bad the choices are in my city if you don't want a chain restaurant. I told him I think his city has a better selection as there are more Mexican food places, Chinese, etc. We go to the mall and the new Mexican food place that opened looked to be just a loud place with a TV blasting. For a minute he said Yardhouse would be good. He asked me to check out a Mexican restaurant 30 miles away in Fontana called Pancho Villas that had mixed, almost better than Taco Bell reviews. Nope. So we drive 30 miles to Ontario to go to Panda Inn. Panda Inn is owned by the man that started Panda Express. This was his first restaurant. He has one out in Pasadena too. He opened these up first.

We go in the restaurant and go to the bar for drinks while waiting for the table. No bartender. We wait and wait. There is a loud party at one of the tables at the bar. We hang around more. He asks me what I'm going to drink and I tell him whiskey and coke. He joked I really am from West Virginia. My family is- I'm Not- I made that clear- I just like the burning and hard taste to it. Finally a guy takes pity on us and we order a drink. I said because he teased me I was going to do a complete 180 in what I got and ordered a coke and amaretto. The drinks were not great.

We are seated a few minutes later and he tells me I can order nonvegetarian if I wanted. The scallops sounded fine, so I said that would be good to me. He ordered the honey shrimp. As we were waiting he ordered the calamari appetizer. He asked for the wontons with no meat, but the came with chicken. We only realized that as we were mostly done. The food was not as good as it used to be and left a lot to be desired. I hadn't been there since I was really little. Dinner conversation was interesting. He made fun of me for my inferior California education. He is in this northeast state of mind that New Jersey is best for everything. He made fun of me for the film classes I took at my college. I did focus a lot on film. I love pop culture, which I pointed out to him was why. This lead to a conversation about old tv shows. We talked aout "I Love Lucy," "Maude," "The Jeffersons," and "Laverne and Shirley." He never watched Maude. The Jeffersons were reruns to him. He liked Laverne and Shirley. He asked if I watched ALF. He told me how lame ALF was. I was offended. I love ALF. I can recite just about every episode and found myself doing that when I got all of the seasons on DVD, and I hadn't seen them since I was a kid. He asked how I saw ALF considering it came out in 1985 before I was born, but it was on TV daily and nightly as I recall and it ended wheN I was about 4 I think. He told me how hokey that show was. We talked about the spinoffs of "Golden Girls" and he couldn't remember that it was "Empty Nest." He didn't remember "Father Dowling's Mysteries." He talked about his new obsession with "V," the 80s miniseries and the ABC show picks up where that left off. We talked about "Facts of LIfe," "Growing Pains," and he didn't remember the spinoff of "Growing Pains" was "Just the Ten of Us." Do you guys remember that one? That was another one I liked.


We talked about "Melrose Place" and "Beverly Hills 90210," which apparently I need to watch.

We go back to his place and he asks me if I want a pair of sweats. I said sure. He decides we will watch TV in his bed in case we fall asleep. We brush our teeth and I head out to my car to get some nose medicine. I was so congested. We watched "The Sweetest Thing," which I told him I hadn't seen, but as we watched seemed more familiar. I'd only seen it recently. It was fun, though, and I played it off like I'd never seen it. We cuddle in bed some. He lays his legs on me.

We fall asleep watching "The Nanny." I sleep alright until about 3a.m., then I toss and turn until 7:30 when we wake up. I'm tired of the cat kneading 2-3 times a night and needing attention. LOL. We woke up and played around some. He showered and then I did the same.

He asks if I want McDonalds for breakfast, and again this is where to eat. I said sure. He drives past the McDonalds on the highway and we go to the next city. He tells me he wants Mimis Cafe. We go to Mimis and discuss how it is just an upscale Cocos. We decide the food is not more upscale and probably worse. It was worse. We had the crepes, which were so overcooked and hard. They were disappointing. He had a soggy eggs benedict. It looked good, but wasn't he said. I wish I had brought my giftcard that I got for Christmas from there. Oh well... I didn't know because again I didn't know we were going. He paid. Next time we'll stick to McDonalds.

We go back to his place and watch "The Talk" on CBS and look into getting tickets to see that live. We look into all the tickets we can get. We watch a couple episodes of "Food Network Challenge," where the contestants are trying to make a dog for the Westminster Dog Show and some of the cakes look bad. We laugh. I take off about 4pm to head to school.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday

Wednesday
- Got called at 6:30a.m. for a 2 day sub job at the school I'm usually at
- Special ed = easy
- big flirt was my aide
- saw my cousin, drove down to San Diego

Thursday
- Day 2 of sub job - it was hard to wake up at 6:30a.m. after getting in after 1a.m.
- Pretty easy day overall
- Dinner with the teachers from school- there ended up being 11 of us
- Mike hadn't texted me and didn't text me until 5 to say he was free, so I ate already. He said he still wanted to hang out.
- Went to his place and we watched Thursday night TV like The Office
- Went to Ralphs for ice cream- we ended up with mint and chip
- Ran into my cousin that works there
- Went back to his place to eat ice cream
- Sub system was calling constantly for me to take jobs and I refused
- About 11 he asked me if I was going to stay the night - I already subbed 3 days this week and was wanting a break, since I was not working I said sure

Friday
- Left my phone in Mike's living room because I knew I'd hear the sub system calling really early in the morning
- My 2nd alarm to wake up went off at 6:30 still... oops
- Had close to 30 calls to sub yesterday
- I got a request from Mel to sub for her- I didn't pick up the phone
- Mike and I played around some, which was really hot
- He got up and showered
- My dad called my cell twice to say that the office manager needed me to come in and promised to make it worth my while
- Great day and good pay!
- I asked Mike to make sure he was ok with me leaving and he said yes, especially for the pay
- Big flirt aide brought me pizza for lunch
- Drove home after work and changed clothes, showered, and turned around to go back to Mike's
- Got to his place about 6
- Went to a new French restaurant in his city
- We drank a bottle of 7 Deadly Sins together and I had some authentic French chicken that he said was good when he used to eat meat
- He was trying to get me tipsy and he did
- During dinner I told him about my aunt/grandma situation
- He told me about his family/ dad/sister issue- same sort of thing we're going through
- Cute older old money couple at the restaurant who were very cute together
- Reminded me of my grandma
- He got me very tipsy, but insisted it was ok because he was driving
- Back to his place
- I was mesmerized by the live version of Kelly Clarkson's Beautiful Disaster

- Watched the Where Are You From show profiling Rosie O'Donnell
- We were both on opposite couches and both fell asleep
- I was really out of it and still tipsy - he woke me up at 12:30 to go to bed
- Brushed teeth

Saturday
- Woke up and watched Sell It on HGTV
- He made breakfast for us- eggs and toast
- Watched more Sell It, or whatever it was called
- Some ugly houses on there- we have quite a bit of the same tastes
- Mike looked for tires for my car since I need them... cute... lol... it'd be cuter if he wanted to pay for them
- He asked where we were going to go and what we were going to do
- I didn't know
- We get in the car and he drives to Tai Pan Trading Company and The Alley
- The 2 stores can be summed up as Tacky and Mormon
- Random stuff there too
- Went to PF Changs for lunch- had a wonton appetizer with pork, which was suprising since Mike is a vegetarian
- Had my first Pinkberry experience... it was pretty good
- Back to his place to watch Design on a Dime
- Left his place at 3:30... concert with my mom at 8 tonight
- Going to see The Grassroots, Buckinghams, and Turtles

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Night out with cousin

My cousin, the one who likes to make random plans when flying in from other states, the one from Oklahoma, that cousin texted me at the beginning of February to say she would be here sometime this month. I pressed her for a date. She said after Valentine's Day. I texted and pressed her for more info and we decided Wednesday or Thursday of this week we would get together. I got a text at 10:40 last night asking if we were still meeting tonight. I said yes. I told her I would plan the Mike Style Adventure, which entailed going to a hole in the wall Mexican food place in San Diego. We chose one way out.

I got called to sub at 6:30 this morning and will be there for the same teacher tomorrow. I knew I had a long day. I got a couple texts from my cousin, including one asking me to change to tomorrow night, but I said no. Mike and I may hang out tomorrow night, but also the teachers from school are having a get together. She said we would meet later than 5 if we were still going to do this. I told her that was fine. As soon as i could leave I was in the car and on my way to San Diego. I spent my prep period today looking for restaurants.

It took me 2 hours and 25 minutes to get to SD. I was coming from work, so add another 40 minutes onto the trip than usual, plus the rain and heavy fog made for slow going and heavy traffic. I got to San Diego at 5:25- meaning I parked my car at Mission Valley to go to Nordstrom Rack. I texted my cousin and asked if we were going to meet. She said she didn't know and needed some time to think about it. I made it clear both in my call and several texts to her it was either tonight or else. I ooooooh and aaaaaaah at shoes I really want at the Nordstrom Rack, but because they are expensive refrain from buying. I head down to Hillcrest, the gay neighborhood to walk around and check out the cute undies shop. I get a text from my cousin telling me where she is staying and that I could meet her at her hotel. She was staying in La Mesa, about 10 miles east. Great. The 8 wasn't moving. I knew there was another way around it. I found it! The 805 south to the 94 east and then wind through Lemon Grove/Spring Valley/La Mesa. They all seem to go in a circle. I'd never been that far east and it was cool to see the area, especially because I studied about Lemon Grove so much en mis clases because of the 1931 Lemon Grove incident- 24 years before Brown V. Board of Education.

I get to the hotel and she had just gotten out of the shower. The hotel had a chinese theme to it and had doors you had to slide to go inside. Kinda neat. Anyways, I wait on the second floor and there she is. We hug, then make our way out to her car for luggage, then back down and out to my car. I was hoping she would drive. I drove with iPhone in hand. I was on a search for a really highly rated Mexican place called Ranas Mexico City Cuisine. It was pretty good and authentic. The service was exceptional. The owner was so cool, so concerned, brought samples, yes, samples of the food for us to try. I was so tempted to go with the chipotle cream chicken, but settled with some spicy enchiladas. They had a good kick. My cousin loved the decor- bright green, but the artwork complemented and made you feel like you were inside the paintings. The owner talked to her about the paintings/inspirations for them. We were impressed.

We debrief on the family, work, school, and life. I wanted to ask her about her personal life. She asked me to tell her my htoughts about a gold chain she bought today for a male. I told her about my outing. I didn't come out to her, though, but I am sure based on that she can draw her own conclusions. We went back to her hotel and chatted. We had a good time. We talked about Sea World, Wild Animal Park, and zoos in general. She may go. So much we didn't get to talk about!!! I was disappointed. It was 11:10 and I said I thought I should head home since i have to get up at 5:45. I needed to blog first and get everything out of my system. If only I had someone up to call and tell. I'm in a chatty mood. I left officially at 11:20 after we took bad facebook photos in the mirror together of her hotel room. I got in the car at 11:20 and turned the car off at 12:43. Not bad timing for having to drive the extra distance. I will shower in the morning. Not a morning showerer, btw. Also only got 28.8 miles per gallon on this trip. I got Arco gas this morning. Arco gas is a big no no. I don't like it. To and from work I've been averaging 32mpg or so on Shell or Chevron, so I was disappointed. I just went to Arco because it was $.25 cheaper.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Sis has to take the train

My sister was out on the town with my mom Saturday afternoon. Apparently her driving was scary enough it warranted my mom taking away the keys. I guess she made some scary lane changes at excessive speeds. Mommy put sissy on the train for the next week to get to school until she can learn to drive better. Sis didn't object too much. Sis complained, but mom said there would be none of that. Mommy dropped her off at the train at 6:30a.m. Monday and daddy picked sissy up at 9p.m. when her class was done. Sissy didn't have school today. Sissy gets to repeat this tomorrow. Go mom!

Fav. iPhone Apps

Stephen, over at State of the Nation UK, has made a list of his favorite apps inspired by an article in the Sunday Times. I decided to list my favorite apps and would love to hear what yours are.

Pandora Radio- Radio custom made for me- artists I like, and few that I don't. I get to tell Pandora which songs and artists I don't like so that they can custom tailor a station just for me.
Shazam- I love the music identification in seconds. It is a great tool to remember a song I want to download, or tag a song that I haven't heard whose title I would like to know.
Macys iShop- Macys coupons 1 click away. Enough said!
Words With Friends- Scrabble! At any one point I have 3-4 Scrabble games going on with bloggers, classmates, and my cousin. I'm pretty good I think. Those of you whom I play with refrain from comments. LOL.
Yelp- I love the restaurant reviews and ratings right at my fingertips. It makes finding restaurants easy.
AT&T Mark the Spot- I have the worst reception and I feel that AT&T should hear about it. A few clicks and AT&T can pinpoint where you are having reception issues, whether it is a data or dropped call issue, and hopefully, maybe make the AT&T network better?
Express Men's Clothing- My Express coupon right there on my phone. Perfect. More stores should put coupons in their iPhone apps- I'd be a fan.
Beejive- All of my instant messaging programs and accounts in one place and the ability to talk with friends on AIM or Yahoo wherever I am.
Amazon Mobile- Do I want to buy the product in a store or can I comparison shop quickly right there and see that amazon has it cheaper?

What are some of your favorite apps?

Monday, February 14, 2011

My V-Day

Happy Valentine's Day, guys! Hope even if you don't have a special someone you got to spend it with those that cared.

Lots of chatting with Mike. I thought we were going to hang out. We would have gone out to Palm Springs to hang out with his
boss had my idiot professor not emailed me saying he wanted to meet me at 4:45 to discuss my paper, and instead discuss how badly I did on one of the quizzes for 30 minutes.

I sweetened everyone in my class up tonight with some Mrs. Fields cookies. We were all having a bad day/night. 2 of us had bad headaches (I did), 1 had pneumonia, and none of us really wanted to be there. The apathy was amazing that blanketed the room. Everyone loved me by the end of the night, and I got many thanks from Shelley, Brandy, and a few others.. The sweets weren't enough tonight, though, we all went from being apathetic toward whatever the prof was talking about to being enraged with the lack of direction from the professor.

I walked out of class tonight. OMG. Idiot professor. I had a very specific question that the 8 other people in class had. He didn't get it. I asked him what he wanted in the methodologies section of our research paper- give me guidelines, damn it! Instead he told us the methodologies section was important and decided to show us a Powerpoint on how to create a Powerpoint. At first the class went from being dead to major hysterics. We were all giggling, especially Shelley and Myself. The professor knew we were all giggling, but was oblivious as to why. Shelley said it was a cute Powerpoint, but she already knew how to do that. I giggled even more. Shelley got up suddenly and walked out scolding the professor for not getting it. Brandy followed. After all of the cutesy sounds in his Powerpoint I gave up and walked out too. We hung out in the hall talking about how we can never get a direct answer. We eventually did go back into class and the professor told us if we needed a bathroom break he would have been more than happy to give it, apparently our bladders were all working on the same clock. LMAO. If that's what you think, great, keep thinking that.

So I left class early, as did Shelley and Brandy. I texted Keith and his friend Rogerabout meeting up for drinks since they were running errands. Keith said meet for drinks at Yardhouse. It was super packed. I walked next door to Elephant Bar and found a table. We joked, talked about bad dates, and work drama. Keith wants to see my panties in a wad state since he found it comical I walked out of class. It was a nice surprise. 2 margaritas also worked wonders in curing the headache that I had.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Sunday night frustrations- Sunday started good

I texted Mike this morning about 9:30 to tell him I was sunburned. It was because we were out in his convertible yesterday. He texted back an LOL and told me he told me that would happen. LMAO. He said his friends wanted to meet in Brea, not Palm Springs at 3:30. He asked when I was ready. I told him about 11:15 since I was putting together my TV stand. He asked if I wanted him to pick me up in my city. I said sure. He asked where. I probably should have said my house, but out of convenience, or so I thought said the Albertsons shopping center down the street about 4 miles close to the freeway. I thought that would be best because it was right next to the freeway, but with all of the construction, the fact the shopping center has a Dennys that is super crowded on Sundays, it probably wasn't the best idea. He found me and he was driving his new dark gray Crosstour since he figured I didn't want to get sunburned again. I laughed and told him I was fine.

We go to Fry's Electronics where he looks for a monitor switch and I look at HDMI cables, but then find a VGA adapter for my laptop instead. He finds some wifi thing for his electronics. After, we look for a place to eat. He wanted pizza, but there were no eat in Pizza Huts in Anaheim we could find. We settled on El Torito- an El Torito I went to with Ry- but of course he didn't know that. They were having their Sunday buffet, which he was hesitant to try. It was alright, but nothing super. We drank raspberry collins and Coronas and talked about politics in education- namely how the union works- of course NJ is better than CA he thinks. We go to Nordstrom Rack and Sears Outlet after to kill time. We both wound up with a pair of shoes at the Nordstrom Rack in the same size. I joked we're going to share since they're the same size- and it is unusual I can fit in a 12. We go to ChaCha's in Brea for margaritas before the movie. It was happy hour, so we had their house for $5. He invites me out to Palm Springs tomorrow, and at the time sounded good, but I had school I had forgotten until we talked about it in the car tonight. DAMN.

We meet 2 hot and cute guys that are good friends of his, Bryan and Ryan (I think- one of the guys looked like a friend of mine from high school and I kept wanting to call him that, so his name just isn't sticking with me.) We saw "The King's Speech," which I could tell Mike was getting restless during. We began poking and rubbing each other's legs. We went to TAPS Fish afterwards where Mike and I split appetizers- the margharita pizza and calamari. The calamari was good. I talked to the friend that looked a lot like the one I went to high school with- his boyfriend was a 6th grade teacher- anyways we chat just about subbing mainly, since that made for lots of convo. Mike didn't mention the specific site we met on when he asked how we met. It was one of those moments where it felt like we were in a relationship... lol.

On the way home Mike is playing with his iPhone switching songs and we are at a light. A police officer comes up beside us, it is dark out, notices us playing with the phone, chuckles, and makes it clear he knew we were in the wrong. It was funny. Mike blamed me for not telling him. He also blamed me for the fingerprints on his mirror. I told him my fingerprints were much neater than that. I have beautiful hands, that's why. He dropped me off at my car about 8:30 and we may hang out tomorrow.

I have to say I am getting the feeling where I feel like I am falling for him. I feel the sadness when I leave him, the wanting to be with him, feeling frustrated being at home, and the general like for him.

I am so frustrated with my dad on another hand. I bought a closet organizer for my closet. He decided to put it together for me since it was just sitting in my room. I didn't ask him to. I don't know why he insisted. If I do it right, I damn well know it will work, or I will make it work. He assembled it wrong and didn't even assemble it in the closet. I take everything out of my closet tonight to fit it in. I don't know what my dad did, but there are pieces missing or something. Don't touch my damn stuff if I didn't ask you to. You'll break it. So now the rack is vicariously leaning in the closet. I'm not sure how it'll stay. I shot my dad a snide email telling him he should probably fix it and where the directions are. Wrong way to handle it, on Valentine's Day, when there are so many other little issues going on, especially when I won't be home tomorrow night and don't want my dad in my closet because he'll have to take all of my clothes out, mess up the organization, etc., but I don't care.

I am just annoyed about a few other things with him. I'm annoyed at my mom and the whole thing with my grandma/aunt. My sister. I never got that Excel assignment fixed that my sister deleted. I need to redo it and am running out of time. My sister did it at a time when I was feeling so overwhelmed with everything else, and I still feel that way, and I have no motivation to redo it. I hate her. I don't really care how I do on the quiz for that class this week- I'll probably get a B+ as it is because of her. I know I shouldn't blame other people and it is a weak excuse, but I am. Grrrrrr.

I'm frustrated with school and put off doing all of my homework this week. It is so unlike me. I'm behind. I didn't do a quiz because I bombed the one last week. I tried. I plan to wake up early and knock everything out tomorrow morning.

My plan for tomorrow:
6:30 wake up
7:00 breakfast
7:30 start on the reading/quiz
9:00 write my paper/thesis deal
11:00 done
seriously considering ditching class tomorrow... it is Valentine's Day and Mike is free... but then I'd lose 7.5% of my grade for that class with 1 absence, but I'd find some excuse. It's not like I'm getting an A anyways after my sister.

Wining and Dining

Friday
- Ikea with my mom for my TV stand- a late birthday gift
- Get home, unbox it, decide not to build it
- Check the mail and have a box of delicious cookies waiting for me. Open, eat, drive home
- Text Mike and decide on a time to meet for dinner
- We meet at 4
- Go out in Mike's new car
- Drop the keys to his old Aztek off- he texted me Thursday night he found the super deal he was looking for
- Rave, ooooh, and aaaaaaah at his car
- Discovered we are both big Adele fans

- We also like Sugarland, Journey, and other 70s
- He played his newly downloaded/newly released Lady Gaga song "Born This Way"
- Drive out to Victoria Gardens for dinner- we were going to go to Joe's Crab Shack, but it was all fried stuff. Thought about Candelas, Yardhouse, and the Italian place, but all had a long wait.
- We settled on the sushi place. The sushi place was alright. Nothing to rave about. The fish wasn't as fresh as it could be. Poor service at the sushi bar. The sushi was sliced too thin. Tried the paradise sushi- salmon and mango and a cream cheese, spicy salmon, and something with calamari egg and yellowtail.
- The bill was $9 and Mike knew that was wrong. He was paying. The waitress didn't seem to care Mike was being honest, that we spent more than that, and just walked off when he tried to hand the bill back. They'd already ran his credit card. We were thinking of doing a dine and dash as several minutes had passed since we had tried to reconcile the bill, and she was nowhere to be seen, but she flagged us down as we were walking out.
- Go to see the new Jennifer ANiston and Adam Sandler flick, JUST GO WITH IT- It was cute, Jenn was good, and this may be Adam Sandler's best in my opinion. Mike wasn't impressed. I'm not an Adam fan, but I could tolerate him.
- Went back to his place to watch American Idol
- Went to bed about 12:30
- He sucked me off before bed.
- Cuddled in each other's arms most of the night

SATURDAY
- Woke up and played around some more
- Showered
- Brought in my overnight back Mike encouraged me to pack
- Mike made fun of me and was critical of the knicks I made while shaving. I hate shaving. I have the most sensitive skin.
- Decided to go wine tasting in Temecula
- First time wine tasting- I stuck to mostly white wines- the fruity ones. Only one was acceptable. The rest were not great. I sampled one of Mike's that was a really honeysuckle flavored sugar overload that he wasn't fond of, but I liked. It was different!
- Lunch at the Spicy Pickle... yuck for tasteless pasta salad and flavors that just don't work on a sandwich
- Listening to Lady Gaga and Adele again

- Back to his place to watch Oprah's Season 25 Behind the Scenes
- Took off at 4:30 to meet my mom, Linda, Dennis, and Mel for the hockey game tonight that Linda had tickets for
- Suite at the Ontario Reign game- lots of good food- shrimp, pizza, artichoke and spinach dip, and more shrimp
- Reign won 6 to 5 in overtime - Crazy game that was really bad through the first period, but after the fight, the team was suddenly energized, and had a come from behind win
- Assembled my TV stand when I got home
- Now I'm thinking of bed
- Palm Springs tomorrow?

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Finishing up the week

Need to vent about this week...

Work:
- I subbed Tuesday, and while at the school I never was face to face with the principal, but saw him from a distance 4-5 times. Each time he gave me a blank stare like I wasn't welcome.
- Linda had an issue with the principal today and some things came out that make me even more sure it was nothing that I did, and a completely made up accusation.
- Regardless, I'm still trying to meet with the principal to make sure nothing is written in my file.
- This still kind of has me in a funk, although I know I did no wrong. I hate the lies and deceit. I hate that I have to have a meeting to make sure nothing is put in my file. I hate the extra stress. What I hate is that big topics I'm sensitive about are the ones he used as reasons for getting rid of me, and because I put extra concern into these issues I am worried.
- It was funny while subbing on Tuesday- 1 kid told me I gave up on him, another told me I got tired of him, and lots of other random comments. I was next to my old classroom and the kids saw me when I was subbing. I am glad. I think they were actually riled up because I wasn't there. I know that the teacher that took over was having some issues with 3rd period after they saw me. She was throwing kids out left and right. I only sent 2 kids out from that class in my 4 weeks, and 1 was because she cheated on a test, the other was just mouthing off and I don't take that.
- I picked up my letter of recommendation from my master teacher at the high school this week. It was nice and refreshing to think that someone at least thinks good of me. I know, I know, many do, but after these past few weeks any sign that I am still liked is a good thing and is appreciated.

Home:
- I am very productive on days I don't sub. This week I took my car to the car wash. Damn guy bent my hub cap on my car trying to get the car on the track to pull it through the wash. I realized that later.
Other things I did:
- Cleaned the bathroom and washed the bathroom mats in the washer
- Vacuumed the house
- Mopped the kitchen floor
- Cleaned out 2 random cabinets in the kitchen
- Cleaned out the freezer

School:
- Frustrated and lacking motivation
- The professor for my supposed masters thesis class sent us out a sample paper to help us. He said this was a bad paper and to just do a better job than the bad paper he sent us. Um, that's not teaching. I'm sorry.
- I want to bang my head against the desk every Monday night when I have to sit through that professor's class.
Facebook chat has become my new best friend on Monday nights. We've had a date each week, and it has been wonderful. I got caught up with Marci and Eddy last week.
- It is my goal to finish my paper Monday or Tuesday.
- I have a quiz to complete this week. His quizzes are sooooooooooooo poorly written. The class average was a 2.1 out of 5. I got a 2.25. Each quiz is 5 points. The class is 100 points. Already my grade is about a 93% and lowering because of these dumb quizzes and my Excel assignment.
- This same professor can't give us a direct answer. Ugh.
- My paperwork for my teaching credential STILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL has not been processed. Hello, I submitted it December 27 and it is now February 10. I'm glad I am in no hurry to teach.

Friends and Family:
- I love them. They listen to me bitch and whine. I try to keep that to a minimum, and do a pretty good job. Keith listened to my bitch fest tonight. Bless him. Hahaha.
- Mike got his new car today and I get to see it tomorrow
- My mom and I are going on an adventure to get my TV stand that I wanted for my birthday tomorrow. Woo!
- Linda insisted I invite a friend to go to the hockey game Saturday night. I invited Dennis. Should be fun.
- Sunday I'm going out to Palm Springs with Mike
- The Guy and I will hang out next week when he is back from Sin City.

Music:
I'm really into Rick Treviño after iTunes recommended him to me the other day. I had an epiphany and suddenly I remember my grandma singing his song "Running Out of Reasons" when it came out in I'm guessing about 1996.

And what's really cool about Rick is that he doesn't speak Spanish, but he crossed over and I guess has a pretty good Spanish following. I am on the search for other Spanish country artists... lol.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Wine bar

Mike and I went to the wine bar near my house that I'd been to once before with Keith. It was so disappointing this time. It all started out this morning. I got a text from him about 8:30a.m. inviting me to Palm Springs this Sunday. We got to texting back and forth, and he said he'd text me later to tell me where we will go for dinner. He texted me about 4:30 and asked where I wanted to go. I named about 8 places in my city and he narrowed it down to 2- sushi or the wine bar. I chose wine bar because I had sushi for lunch. I was down near the mall and had a craving, so I popped into this place with really cheap sushi. I find sushi doesn't always fill me up. After a few hours no matter how much I eat I find myself hungry again. Plus, eating it earlier I thought this would be the safer choice.

It wasn't. The food was horrible. I am not a fan of the Cheesecake Factory. I like their dessert, but their food is disappointing. I find myself trying a new dish everytime in the hopes of finding something I would like to eat on a regular basis when I go there with friends. I've yet to find that dish. I ordered the lemon chicken there once, and the lemon chicken at the wine bar tasted just like that- lemon was the spice. Lemon is not a spice. There should be hints of lemon, or a lemon sauce on top, or lemon zest to tell you that it is lemon chicken. Not marinated in lemon and lemon is all you taste. Mike was disappointed by the clam linguini. We'll see how long I get to pick out restaurants after this. Anyways, the only good thing was the truffle mac and cheese, and that was a small appetizer no bigger than a small ice cream bowl for $11.00. It was $32 for both of us, which was excessive. We did have a glass of wine, but still. The all you could eat sushi was only $21.

We do have some good conversation about hoarding, the area we were in, school, work, the lack of diversity in the restaurant, and earthquakes. Mike has never felt an earthquake in So Cal beyond rattling of the windows. And he never felt the Easter earthquake last year. Where was he? Traveling? He wants to feel one and thinks So Cal needs a wakeup call. I pointed out the 5 and 14 collapsing during Northridge was not enough, but he claimed it was too long ago. No. No earthquakes, thanks.

Weekend wrap up Wednesday

Bullet style because I'm late!

- Hung out with Mike Friday and Saturday night
- Friday night we went to an Italian restaurant that is definitely one of my new favorites- he took me there one of the first few times we hung out
- We were in the neighborhood of where all my family lives, and we had talked about where they live, so I showed their houses. Basically the convo was about how they all got took to live in the area they chose to
- Went back to his place and watched 30 Rock or some other TV show - we both fell asleep about 10:30
- We were up and fooling around early
- Saturday morning he made cheese omelets and bread for breakfast
- Went car shopping- Mike is looking to lease a new car since his Aztek has almost 100,000 miles. He likes unusual cars and was looking for an unusual one as a replacement... you can guess what he wants as a replacement
- Went to 4-5 different dealers in 4-5 different cities
- Went for empanadas, which made my day, and Mike liked them he said
- Went on a search for a Redbox - he asked if I was staying the night- wasn't planning to- but did- we watched Toy Story 3
- Went on a search for furniture - the signs said model home furniture closeout, and the house was a mid 80s track home... umm... sketchy
- Fell asleep on the couch shortly after watching some other random shows
- Woke up about 8:30-9
- Mike made omelets and bread again for breakfast
- We watched a few shows on Tivo, then I took off around 12
- I texted my cousin for a number for a dryer repairman for him

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Media Notes

Ryan Fox will take over for Ginny Harman on KKGO, Go Country 105, starting on Monday morning. He is a big country DJ in Dallas who seems to be pretty well known. Thank goodness. Ginny Harman and Ashley Paige drove me crazy in the morning. It was like an estrogen party every morning that I could not listen to. Ashley Paige will still be on the show, and should be great since she is good at playing devils advocate instead of agreeing with everything the other DJ says, like Harman.

Speaking of GoCountry, they now have a food truck. They are bragging they are the first radio station in the country to have one. Shouldn't they focus on music? I can't say I have much desire to try the food.

Sean Murphy still has not found a damn suit jacket. Its winter! And something about the way he dresses, perhaps the Dockers pants just looks so tacky. And many times he wears combinations of shirts and pants that just don't look good.



KTLA has a slew of new reporters including this dude from Sacramento. Originally it seems he is from the New Orleans and has a deep southern drawl at times and that seems to go with his overdramatizing every story. Oh, and his eyes are pretty eerie to watch.



Elizabeth Espinosa of KTLA was also voted off of "Your OWN Show" on Friday night. She was competing for her chance for her own show on the OWN, Oprah Network.

KABC 7 has a new reporter named Elex Michaelson. Usually I like the new hires at ABC 7, but this guy is pretty bad. His bias is evident in many stories, such as one he did about the Mosque in Temecula a few weeks back. Oh, and his hair/facial gestures/cutesyness/opinions in some stories are awkward.



Mike Nolan is no longer doing traffic in the mornings on KOST, which is weird, as he has been on the station for nearly 20 years. He can still be found on KFI in the mornings. Rosie Redell is taking his place and doing the news on the station.

Karen Carson, who voicetracked (prerecorded her show for Los Angeles from New York) on KOST 103.5 is gone. Rumor is that KOST is looking for another Clear Channel DJ somewhere around the country to voicetrack their show on KOST.

Evelyn Erives from 991 KGGI is back on the radio days after having her baby, broadcasting live from her house. You can watch her on the baby cam.

And Jillian Barberie Reynolds is now a singer. My life is complete. Well, technically she did sing "Landslide" with Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks at Howard Stern's wedding.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

What happened - in response to the cryptic post

I probably should have been less cryptic in my last post, but I was being very ambiguous because I wasn't sure about what was going on/what had been said/what was true.

Here's what happened. I felt like a failure. I have had the assistant principal in my room most of last week during my last period class. They were my worst kids. On Thursday the AP came in and tried to put words in my mouth, then made 2 severe accusations against me. Severe because these are 2 of the top reasons that teachers can get fired/transferred/first year teachers are terminated. She then went on to tell me things aren't just working out and Friday was my last day as a long term sub. When she told me these 2 things I took them very seriously. I first told my parents. My parents didn't believe it. My mom believed there was an alternative motive. Driving to work Friday I was in a bitter mood. I was hurt that these accusations had been made and I hadn't heard about them prior. The principal should have been talking to me if that were the case. Driving to work Friday I had a revelation. I knew who my replacement was, and it was all suddenly clear. The sub who is taking over for me is buddy buddy with the principal and needed a job. She has a different credential than me and could easily slide her in my place. Friday afternoon I talked to Linda and told her the story. I told her the accusations. I told her the replacement. It all made sense. Replacement is drinking buddies with the principal. I asked Linda her thoughts on the accusations and she dismissed those. The more we talked about it the more it seemed how implausible these accusations are because of the things that I did do- I reached out to parents in English and Spanish- I did many other things that made me more skeptical. We talked for over an hour. We talked to the office manager who told us what she was told. Basically it comes down to politics- this gal is well liked and there was NO reason to get rid of me (other than now they don't have to pay me long term sub pay and they save a lot of money for that ~$500), but to make it seem like there was a problem the principal and assistant principal made up these allegations. When the principal saw I was walking his direction on Friday at lunch he darted into a classroom as quickly as he could. Basically finding out what I did from the office manager did put my mind at ease, but I do want and need to talk to him, and have an appointment hopefully tomorrow to confirm that these allegations aren't real.

So basically in breaking down the last post-
I tried- I tried my best and came up with lots of creative activities to help the kids.
Its one of those things that until you see both sides, you should not judge. - Principal didn't come into my room and was making up this stuff, and if it was the basis on my bad class you were choosing to dismiss me, then you should really see what is going on in there.
You should have been the one there trying to help- that is your job. - If I had an accusation about something against me, you, as principal have it in your best interest to help/confront me. That will help me grow as a professional.
If you had a problem, why not come to me? It is about professionalism.
Maybe I should have spoken up, but given my position it was not the best thing to do.There is always risk in that. I was not given a ton of support outside of friends and family. It is hard to spoke up when you are not a tenured teacher. Subs are disposable. I was truthful, but maybe should have been more vocal. I really wanted a job at the school. Now, I'm questioning whether I want a job there.
I did exactly as I was told. I did exactly as I was supposed to. I even added my own ideas to ensure success. I question what I knew going in and whether this was part of the plan, and if I was used in that way, then it was very wrong to do it that way. - I took the resources that were left for me to run the class, I added my own ideas so that it wasn't all just worksheets. I added supplemental materials, videos, Powerpoints, and internet websites.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Fail.

I tried.

Its one of those things that until you see both sides, you should not judge. You should have been the one there trying to help- that is your job. If you had a problem, why not come to me? Maybe I should have spoken up, but given my position it was not the best thing to do. There is always risk in that. I was not given a ton of support outside of friends and family. I did exactly as I was told. I did exactly as I was supposed to. I even added my own ideas to ensure success. I question what I knew going in and whether this was part of the plan, and if I was used in that way, then it was very wrong to do it that way.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Guilt over people

My classes continue to get better at work. 5th period has dramatically changed since Monday. I'd like to credit that to mis habilidades a hablar en Espanol con padres. El apoyo de padres es increible. I sent notices to the parents informing them of their child's poor behavior. I threatened the kids if I didn't have it back we would be staying after school the next day to call mommy and daddy.

I got in trouble yesterday at work. I was following what someone told me to do, but someone else had an expectation I would do something different. I didn't like the AP and her cold response toward it. That stuck with me and was still on my mind today. I hate getting in trouble. It was something I could have easily followed through with. Now I know. I should have gone with my instincts all along.

Mike's friend Candy is here through Friday. I kind of figured this morning when hearing the snow reports all of the country. Her flight yesterday was canceled.

I got a shout out on the radio this morning. It took me 68 minutes to get to work today. I was stuck in traffic. There were 2 jack knived big rigs on my way to work today due to the Santa Ana winds. Those weren't affecting traffic since they were on the other side of the freeway. What did affect my drive was a tree down on the 60. I sat in the backup for nearly 20 minutes and hadn't heard the incident on KNX, KOLA, KFROG, HOT 923, or STAR 987. I decided once I past the tree to give a call to the Ralphs Saving You Time Traffic Line, and told them I was listening to 991 since I knew they would be doing traffic in a moment, and Diana Olea always says to give her a call. I did, and she reported the tree down, and gave Mike a shout out for telling her about it. That was cool.

I hung out with The Guy today. I texted him yesterday and asked what was up, and when he was free. It was nice. I texted him about a week and a half back, and we had some good conversation via text about speakers, and at this time he said things are getting better.

I get a text from him about 2:45 telling me he is free after 3. Originally he had told me 5:30. I finish my grades at work and take off.

As I'm leaving, M yells for me. He is outside of my classroom on the field waiting for the soccer game to start I go over y conversar con sus padres (talk with his parents) and tell them how proud in the past week or so since our conference he has become a leader in the class and raised his grade nearly 10%.

Anyways, I get over to The Guy's, and like usual he is on the phone with work trying to solve an issue. He manages. We hug a couple times. I came in with a present in my hand. I got him the 1970s version of "Bionic Woman" on DVD. He couldn't believe it. He said things like "no way!" I figured he would have seen it as it had popped up in my recommendations on amazon, so I figured it was being widely touted since that's not something I'd be likely to watch. We hug and he thanks me. I also bring back the camera I borrowed to videotape my lesson. He tries to rip the show to put on his Apple TV. I tell him about Mike and what happened with Ry. He was a little surprised.

Oh, and while I'm thinking about it Ry messaged me Monday night inviting me over to his place Monday night to watch Rue Paul. I told him I have class.

The Guy and I decide to head out to Target, but change our mind when he doesn't think he can hold a trash can in his car with the dogs. We instead go to Petco. As we were walking out of the house I brought up my issues with getting my teaching credential thanks to my college. The Guy told me how ridiculous that was. He asked if I ever feel worried about what people think of me for standing up for the right thing. We know I'm vocal. With the whole teaching credential issue I have not only talked to my advisor, but the head of the education program for the satellite campus I attend, and now I CC/carbon copy the head of the education program for the main campus. I get results. I told him not really. It is other people who are inefficient. The other people should be handling something and they are not. I said that with my college it is really trickling down to 1-2 people and this week one of the persons is in the hot seat. I don't feel bad when I'm getting screwed over. He told me how he feels bad for complaining and has been talking to his therapist about it. He went to the gym the other day and it was filthy, especially in the restroom. He told me he wants to switch gyms. He asked if he should feel bad. I told him I didn't think so since the gym complaints are so often not handled. I know this because Gonzo worked at a gym. I heard how the complaints go. I said I would call/email corporate, and he did. He said he just feels bad since he complains and he does so little sometimes at work and other things. I pointed out these people are not doing their jobs. He complemented me on how I am willing to take a stand and am persistent.

We go through Petco and I tell him about how I got in trouble at work yesterday and how the woman was not apologetic about it. I told him how I was told to do one thing and follow what someone else had done, and I got in trouble for doing that. I told him how I can see all sides of the issue, but I got in trouble. I told him I got no apologies. Somehow this fit into all that we were talking about. I think my point was I have guilt over what she said.

We go to Trader Joes and start really healthily buying broccoli and carrots, then as we get down the middle aisles end up with hamburgers, pulled pork, and a few other things. We talked about how we were both hungry, and he again complemented me on how I'm good with portion control.

We go get the dogs at the pet daycare. I told him I hadn't told him about my sister. I told how she is a TA. We talked about the distinction. I told him how I was angered by it. I mentioned how I'm waiting for all of this to hit the fan. He said he could tweet, like my sister, that she is a professor, but it is just talk. He said that he doesn't think that will get her in trouble despite having her real name over everything. He thinks it will be my sisters inability to deal with people that will cause everything to hit the fan. He thinks it will be she tells a student to do something, then goes off on them. He thinks it will be she is ill prepared for something and it comes out. He told me I'm approaching this the wrong way- instead of being frustrated I need to laugh at her and her fantasy world. We talked about how she is convinced she has her own reality and that she is a professor, and us telling is not enough. She needs therapy. Something.

The Guy had a big lunch at work and brought the leftovers home for us to eat. We put the groceries away, cleaned up the kitchen, did the dishes, and then he warmed up some delicious baked chicken with a greek yogurt/garlic sauce, and made some fresh Crystal Light. We don't talk much during dinner. The Guy was tired since he only got 2 hours of sleep last night since he was up all night watching "No Ordinary Family."

I take off about 6:30. We plan to hang out every Wednesday, which should be cool.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Do you work out?


Why yes, I do.

I wore this to work today, and one student in my 4th period asked while I was checking homework if I worked out. Suddenly the kids were so interested in that and telling me how strong my arms looked. LOL. 2 of them said they're going to work out too to look like me... LOL.