Good Visit with my DAD!

I am so happy to say that the visit with my dad was fantastic - I was very unsure, as I think he was, since we hadn't spent any time alone in over 10 years.
Friday night we went to the movies with 12 of my students - I took them all to see Twilight on opening night - yes I am insane!
After the movies my dad and I went to Cabana, an amazing Cuban restaurant on Atlantic Ave - I think he was amused by the whack people that bar hop down there.

Saturday was a fun day - we went to breakfast, put my grill together (finally!), went for a walk on the beach & saw some really cool kite surfers, then we went up to City Place to go to Anthropologie and to have dinner at Il Bellagio. We were able to have some good conversation - nothing forced, everything nice. It was good.

Sunday we went to lunch & then it was time to go to the airport - saying goodbye was sad - and hopefully so much time won't pass again.
I am so glad he came to visit!

College Tour

I took a group of 14 of my 10th graders on a college tour throughout Florida this past week - we went to UCF, USF, FSU, and UF over the course of 3 days. We were on a tour with an outside provider and there were 40 kids on the tour all together - all of the other kids on the tour were disgustingly rich snotty ass white kids. For the first 24 hours together, most of these kids were mean to my kids; talking about them & teasing them - but my kids never let it get to them- they just let it roll right off & went about their business having a good time - our kids have so much class! We all learned so much on this trip - not only was it fun (most of the time...) but it was very educational for everyone.
One of the best parts was being with the kids when Obama won and being able to share that with them. Very memorable.

So much going on!!

There has just been so much going on lately - I've been a whirlwind of activity & I just don't see it stopping anytime soon

Between work and my classes, plus now tutoring has started and I am running all of the programs at our school - it's just madness! One thing that I have been making time for and absolutely loving is our JV football team. We just started it this year and the boys are amazing. They love it so much & they've formed this incredible bond. I don't even like football but I am getting into it because it's like going to see all of MY kids play. When they win, I don't think you could feel more pride radiate off of them. And since barely any of their parents are coming to see them, we are their family. I love it.

November is about to be a slam packed month for me

I am going to be out of town Oct 31-Nov 2, then come back for one night before I turn around and leave to take fourteen phenomenal 10th graders on a college tour throughout Florida from November 3-5. Can I tell you how excited I am about this? Can I tell you how excited THEY are about this? The school is paying for the whole thing & the kids are beyond themselves with the experience they are about to have. I cannot wait.

Then my 30th birthday weekend!! November 14-16. Quite a few of my VIP friends are coming into Miami/South Beach for the weekend & we are all staying at The Kent hotel and going to be living it up! I cannot believe how amazing my friends are to want to come spend the weekend with me. I feel so lucky.

And then....my dad, who I havent done anything alone with in at least 10-12 years, finally bought a ticket to come see me. He is coming November 21-23. I am so excited, yet nervous at the same time. I am trying to plan a million things to do so that we have enough to pick from and don't have any down time. I don't want down time because I dont want to have to worry about talking too much.

Then it's Thanksgiving break!

Good thing I am taking off November from University classes, right??

Oh wow!

I found out this week that I passed the Communications section of the FELE - that was the one I took right before I left for NJ
It consisted of an essay and about 40 multiple choice questions. I felt good about the essay, but not the m/c questions - so I was super excited to get my score report and see "PASS" written on it!
I have to sign up to retake the other 2 sections that I did not pass soon - if I don't have it all passed before January then I have to start all over again - I am not doing that shit!!!

New Jersey is still just as dirty and fun as it used to be!!!

Had such a good time in NJ - was able to spend Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday on the beach - all day every day - the weather was amazing & the water was nice & refreshing in the upper 60s! Haha, nice change from my 80s down here

I went into the city on Tuesday-Wednesday and had a blast with my VIP girls - it was a lot of fun.

My mom came into Jersey as did my brother & his girlfriend so we did a lot of family stuff - met my Uncle & my cousins at Pt Pleasant boardwalk and took the kids on rides & watched fireworks, went to Seaside many nights to drink with the "Silver Foxes" as the barmaids have nicknamed my 70-88 year old bar-hopping relatives, haha, had the infamous Marlin Way bbq on my last night there - it was all such a good time

Now I am back home & sick - BOO!

Going to NJ/NY!! Yea!!

I am going to NJ next Sunday for a full week

Going to visit family & do the whole Jersey shore thing - I cant wait

The best part will be going into the city for a day/night and meeting all the super hot VIPers that live up there - I cannot wait to meet everyone!

Fun times shall be had!!

Christian the Lion

This made me cry - watch it - it's touching - and it's only a minute of your time!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVNTdWbVBgc

Aww Boo

I hate the FELE - this is how I feel after sitting in front of the computer for 4 hours today and getting a "NOT PASS" at the end.
Ugh.
I honestly did not expect to pass, because I have been so busy with classes that I have not had time to study - but it still sucked to spend that much time and not pass at least one of the subtests.
So now I can sign up and pay again to re-take the test in 30 days, and hope to find time to study my ass off so I can pass - the damn thing was SO long -my god
And in the school law and school finance sections, I definitely got click happy - just didnt have a clue & clicked on whatever looked good - whatever. blah

Orlando was sooooooo amazing - we had a blast. Went to the outlet mall & did some shopping, did a LOT of drinking, and played with our new ipod touch things. Pretty nifty gadgets. I had a blast. oooh and we saw SATC again. Hellooooooooooooooooooo

Now......back to reality & these damn classes. My internship class is cake - and it's over next Monday so this weekend I really have to catch up on my log & upload it to task stream & make sure that's all done
I start my budget class on Tue - ACK!

The Principal class I am in right now is the biggest pain my arse because we do so many assignments each week and apparently they aren't worth SHIT for points!! I got 1.6 points the first week......and that was the maximum you could get! It was participation bullshit. I am so pissed that I am spending so much time doing research and citing references in all of my discussion questions for NO points. UGH - I talked to my academic advisor today & she was even surprised that he was doing that
Also, he sent me a nice reprimand about my signature line "The average DOG is nicer than the average HUMAN" and about how unacceptable that is & how I will never get a job in administration with something like that in my signature line. I started to get hot, but I replied saying it is in my signatuare line at work & I have never had a problem, however thank you so much for pointing it out & I will remove it for the purposes of this class
He replied saying that even though no one has ever said anything about my signature, he could guarantee I pissed alot of people off and that would keep me from moving up and getting a job I wanted. I told him I think the people who have bible verses as their signature line are more out of line than me, however WHATEVER - find something better to do with your fucking time you asshat! Damn, picking on me for something so tiny & unimportant
Sheesh!!!
3 more weeks of the damn shady man

I passed FPMS!!

Yay!! The bullfrog lady passed me!!

The test was hard - we had to code two 20 minute videos of teachers and then take a 75 question cognitive test -the cognitive test was so hard to me because those damn multiple question type tests trip me up everytime - they word those bitches just to confuse people like me
But I got an email from the department at the district last night stating I had passed and would get my certificate soon!
YAY!!

Now on to........................................the FELE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FPMS blows balls

OMG this has to be some kind of sick joke
First of all, they don't tell us exactly where in the HUGE district office the training is located - so I walk in at 8.33 only to be told "not that I am singling you out, but anyone who comes in late tomorrow will be asked to leave" WWWWTTTTTTTTFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!

ARGHHH!!

So I got the instructor who my friend warned me about - she looks like a grrrrribbit bullfrog
Exactly like a bullfrog
I spent 8 hours today listening to her tell me to turn the page & to highlight this, star that, or oooh double star that - because that might really be a test question!!
I did come home tonight & do my pre-test, only to find out that most of the stuff on the pre-test is stuff that we didnt even cover today - please, can I cry now??
Another 8 days tomorrow & Wednesday & then the test
For the test we have the multiple choice & true/false test & we also have to correctly code 2 videos of teachers teaching their lessons. I did good on those test runs today at least. Only got 2 cells wrong & you're allowed to get 10.
I cant wait for this to be over!
YEA!


oh, and after all that I had to go back to the devil mall to return the $300 Charles David bag that I had purchased on Sat because a metal grommet had already fallen off -- so now I am on a mad search for a nicely colored handbag - anyone want to help?
MWAH!
xoxo

Stress.........and it's the summer!!

I have so much going on right now - it's crazy
Being in Administration is what I want to do so badly but preparing for it (well, to get hired as a legit admin instead of just being a "teacher on assignment" which I am now) is so hard!
I am about halfway through my Masters now, and I am doubling - no tripling up on classes this summer. Right now I am doing my Internship & also taking a class titled "The Role of the Principal" and as soon as my Internship ends I start up "School Finance and Budget" or something like that. The work is endless. The Role of the Principal class just started on Tues and I have had an intense workload daily since then.
I have district FPMS (Florida Performance Measurement System) training on Mon-Wed of this upcoming week, and that is completed by a 200 question multiple choice test on Wed afternoon. If I don't pass it, I cannot take it again for 30 days.
I am also taking the FELE (Florida Educational Leadership Exam) this summer - the multiple choice sections (4.5 hours of test) on July 01st and then the written section on July 26th. If I don't pass these I also have to wait another 30 days to retake them.
I am trying to bust my ass & do all this during the summer in the hopes to get into PNP (Preparing New Principals) through the district during the 08/09 school year. You normally cannot get into this program without having FPMS, FELE, and your Masters degree complete, but I am going to hopefully pass the FPMS class, the FELE, and then try to talk my way into getting into it being only partially done with my Masters. I want to finish my Masters by May of next year (I am slated to be done in Aug) so that if any AP positions open up for the 09/10 school year, I am at least able to apply if I want to.......or I will be able to follow Heidi & my dream of moving to France & being an administrator there :-)

At least I have some stuff to look forward to............my mom is coming to visit next Fri-Sun and then I am leaving Sun evening to go on a little romantic get-a-way to Orlando for a few nights............YEA!!!

Hello Lover........

Sex and the City.............the movie

I went to buy tickets at 8am -lol - seriously! I was going with my Principal & she sent me off campus to buy them

The crowd was crazy this evening, finding 4 seats together was a feat in itself, but WOW is all I can say

The movie did not disappoint - I loved it - absolutely loved it

They could have shaved off about 20 minutes, but overall, absolutely amazing movie, totally did the show justice, everything was fantastic.

The outfits were phenomenal and the wedding dresses in the Vogue shoot were just amazing.

I loved it. I am so happy that I saw it!

Thursday randoms........

Teachers just send & send & send their kids out at the end of the year – nobody wants them anymore! So naturally they all end up in my room, “The Knowledge Room”, where they get to check out laptops and do projects or research. But damn, they’re coming in packs now – completely unnecessary. Perhaps I shall close next week – because I can only imagine the last few days of school shall be pure hell in here……haha

My hair is naturally curly but I blow dry & flat iron it on a daily basis – based on the humidity today, I didn’t even feel like dealing with all of that, so I wore it curly. A few kids complimented me, but the general consensus from the kids was “Daaaaaang miss! What happened to your hair?!!?” LOL, hilarious! Should I tell them I stuck my finger in an electric socket or something?

My face feels burnt from the tanning bed yesterday. Everyone always says “you live in Florida – why do you go to the tanning bed?” well people, its fucking 95 degrees outside – why would I want to lay out in that heat & humidity? I mean, going to the pool or beach is fine & dandy, but it’s hot as hell there too, and the water doesn’t even offer much relief because it’s warm from the sun. Damn Florida. So I resort to the tanning bed for 8 minutes. I realize this will likely result in skin cancer so it’s damn sad & pathetic that I can’t stop going. I feel like I look gross when I am pale. And when I think I am pale, everyone else still thinks I am tan. I think I have issues, lol.

so I went to Chicago - "The Chi" lol

Yea, so someone I'm not naming any names =) told me it would be warm in Chicago, so I wore my jeans, my flip flops, my sleeveless top - and god damn if I didnt get off the plane to some 40 degree weather
WTF?! that's colder than it gets here in the winter!!!
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
I was so so so cold, it was insane

Saturday we did all the touristy downtown shit & we set out in the early afternoon & the weather wasnt too bad, but DAMN it got so cold & windy that both of us had to stop & get hoodies at Urban before we froze into icicles! It was so crazy cold - but now I am back in the 90 degree humid heat & hating it, heehee

There's just no pleasing me!

Someone told me to blog. So I am

My friend complains that I often ramble to him about absolutely nothing - he tells me it's like I am blogging out loud - so now I am starting a blog in which I can write what I would normally ramble to him about, and he doesn't have to hear the bullshit - yay for him, right?

So what would I be telling him if I were talking to him right now?

Oh -so our school is going to start football next year! YEA!! The kids are crunk as hell about it, mainly because no one thought it would be possible until we had at least 11th grade, if not 12th - but we're making it happen with just 10th - we found out that the 8th grade boys could play up to the JV team so we figure, what the hell - let them do it We have like $45k right now just sitting there to spend on uniforms & pads - we're creating a weight room to let them start working out over the summer - the boys are so excited, they can't talk about anything else.

SATC movie comes out in two days!! I didnt really think I'd be excited about the movie, but I am, so very excited!!