boo to being sick

(warning: long post!)

I should have listened when everyone said, in response to my complaining about my sore throat, 'oh, that's how it starts...'. Turns out, they were right. By the time I got home last night (at 10:30, having missed Friends because of the Grad Fashion Show..more on that later..somebody update me on what happened, please!) I was a wreck. Headache, fever, chills, sore everything. I called in sick at 9:30 last night, from school, and the lady I called was peeved that I hadn't called earlier. It's hard to get supply teachers for our school, it's in a rural area, and it's for a Friday too. Well, I'm sorry. I did actually feel pretty bad though, but I figured it was better to call last night at that time than to wait and see how I was feeling this morning (still terrible) and need a supply then. Anyway, one of my carpoolers reassured me with the fact that she's called in sick twice this year, both times at 6:30am. The one other time I called it was around suppertime, so I figure I'm pretty good.

I had to get up early today though, my dear sweet Morty is having some UTI issues again. He hasn't had any problems for about 2 years, and it doesn't look like it's too bad this time, but it's bad enough to cost $170. That's with new food and drugs, and an x-ray to make sure he wasn't blocked up anywhere...but also with a free examination voucher that I got when I took him in for his shots in the fall. I get overly emotional when I'm sick, so I'm sitting in the waiting room near tears because I'm worried about Mort. It only got worse when this family came in with their dog, obviously to put him down. I nearly lost it, I sat there and sniffled and dabbed my eyes until they finally called Mort in. The dog was pretty old-looking, and could be a rabid child-eater for all I know, but it's still really sad. On a brighter note, Mort's fine, but doesn't like his new food. Those of you who know Mortimer will find that pretty funny, because I've never known Mort to dislike any form of food. Before he had to go on his special diet a couple of years ago, he used to beg for (and get) a taste of everything. His favourites were yogurt, bananas, and hotrods. He still wants very much to eat all of those things, but they would mess with the pH balance of his digestive system. Or something.

The fashion show. It was a good time, I'll say that much. I was placed in charge of music. It was decided at first to use instrumental Disney songs. Barf. But, being a good little delegatee, I downloaded and burned a cd of music. It was awful. Ok, not awful, but painfully slow and impossible to walk to, especially for a bunch of grade 12 students who, for the most part, are wearing cute and/or very casual, fun outfits. So, next it was decided to use....something else. Nobody got in touch with me, I didn't talk to the woman organizing the show on Wednesday, and the last I had heard I was to try to find some cool, upbeat songs to use, so I thought on it all day Wednesday, and then took a couple of hours out of my night and made a great cd. I get to school yesterday, to find that the organizer woman has delegated some kids to make a cd out of karaoke songs ('the words are too loud and distracting'), which they have done. Now, I'm annoyed for a couple of reasons. One, I was already starting to feel like crap, as evidenced by my last post, and would have rather slept or vegetated than have made a cd. Two, it was a huge waste of my time and energy, which could have been avoided by an incredibly short phone call to me, letting me know my efforts were not needed. When I went to talk to the organizer, she just smiled and said she didn't think I would want to bother with doing it. The thing is, I was told to bother with it, so I did. Three, if any of you have ever sung karaoke or listened to a karaoke cd, you'll notice a couple of things that make the songs a bit odd. There is a good 10-15 second gap at the beginning of each song, where the words and the cd company and crap appear on the screen. When it's just audio, it's just dead air. Also, the songs still have the backup voices in them, so you're going along listening to your song, which once it has started sounds good, but then at the most unexpected time you get these random 'oooo's and 'yeah yeah's. Very strange. So, and really not just because I had made the cd, I thought mine was better. I had also put some thought into what songs could be used for different types of outfits, where the girls with the karaoke songs hadn't so much, but they were also limited with their selection of cds. Anyway, the cd they made ended up not working because it was burned on a cd-rw, which most not-new cd players don't like. So we used mine, I fixed all the handouts and things with the old song names on them, and the music was great. I got to control it too, which was fun. And anyway, now I have a fun cd to listen to with my classes.

I realized at about 5:00 that I hadn't eaten anything today, so I went to S'store to pick up a chicken for tonight and got an Iced Cappuccino at Tim's on the way back. Tasty. I also got myself an oatbran apple muffin, my favourite from there. I didn't eat it yet though. I had a neocitran and napped away most of the day, and am feeling marginally better now. It's also gorgeous outside, and I have the windows open to get some fresh air in. After my big adventure to Superstore though, I need another nap.

sick

literally. My throat feels like some giant prickly thing has moved in...rather unpleasant. I always get sick this time of year, but that doesn't make it any better, really. I feel like ass.

Rogers has been improving in my books lately. They came and delivered me a new modem the other day, then today we had a power outage, which for some reason fried the digital cable box. So they came and gave us a new one. Sweet. It's smaller, which in electronics necessarily means it's better, and way faster than the other one. It used to take a second when you would hit menu or info or page down, now it's instantaneous.

I'm staying late tomorrow night at school to help run a fashion show. I'm getting someone to tape Friends for me, CSI I guess I'll survive without, and if I'm not home by 11 for ER, I'm going to shoot myself. We came home early today because 2 of the teachers I drive with have interviews for the same job at a school in town. Awkward, no? I'm rooting for one of them, because she's been surplussed out of our current school, and she taught at this other school last year, but was surplussed out of there. Bad luck, needs to change. No word on jobs for me yet, not until the 10th, so I'm just waiting.

Best Pick-Up Lines. Or not.

"Are you a parking ticket? Because you have FINE written all over you.":

McSeagull's Restaurant

I made this! It's not fancy, by any means, but it does the job, and it is actually getting viewed, so I'm pretty excited. Please go admire the menu page, and let me know if there are any mistakes...I think I caught them all though.

it's pretty cold for looking so very nice outside. My apartment is all clean and tidy, and I'm having myself a nice big steak for supper. Right now I'm waiting for the Rogers guy to come look at my modem, it going offline quite often, like...whenever I look at it sideways. rrrg.

so bored

I'm cleaning the apartment. I've gone through 2 mystery boxes that have been sitting on the floor since we moved here in August. I went through my clothes, rehung some curtains so the whole window shows when they're open, and am about to head out to buy a shelf for my cookbooks, which are presently laying on their sides on top of the microwave. I need a more prominent display for my sweet Jamie.

This is what happens when nice weather coincides with my being bored, apparently. I clean.

I hate American Idol

I've seen a total of about 30 minutes this season, but it's just rediculous. The voters have serious musical-appreciation-deficiencies. That's all I have to say.

It's Friday, and I'm glad. I took my grade 11/12 class to the art gallery to see the graduating Fine Arts students' work, and it was really good, and good for them to see what they could be doing in 4 years if they chose to pursue further education in the field.

In less good news...sort of mixed really...my job is not up for grabs for next year. Not because it's mine, but because a teacher from my school who has been on leave for 3 years and taught art at some point (is not an art teacher, but then neither am I...) might be coming back, and might want the job. It's the only one available that she could do, so they have to leave it open for her. The whole thing sounded suspicious to me, but I've checked it out and for once, things are being done properly. I can't say that I'm happy to be out in the cold with nothing to fall back on, but this does save me the awkwardness of having to go to my principal and tell him that I really don't want to be there in the fall. It came at an interesting time though, because I had been putting together an order for some books and posters and thinking they wouldn't be much use this year, but they would be good for next year...that I could get used to the school and learn to just ignore the things I don't like or agree with, that I would probably be permanent next year and thus be more free to voice my opinion on things. Then I find out that's not an option. Irony, folks. The rest of the one-year contract teachers are getting screwed too though, only one of them even has her job posted, but because it's posted, of course, other people can now apply for it and will get it if they've got more experience. It's fair, in a way, but it still stinks. The rest of us don't have the option to even apply, and have to look elsewhere. Also, one other new teacher who got her permanent contract this year at the school has been 'surplussed' out, and has to leave. She was also thinking of going elsewhere, but to have the option of staying taken away is more than a little unsettling. I have to wait until May 10th for the next round of jobs to come out, I can't apply for the first round because I'm not on a permanent contract. This is good and bad, annoying but there might be even better jobs in the next round with all the shifting around. I'll keep you posted, as always.

I have no plans this weekend except to maybe clean up a bit. Only one new movie came out today, Man on Fire with Denzel. I don't have a real burning desire to see it. I wouldn't mind seeing The Prince and Me, or maybe 13 Going on 30 again. I'll have to find a date though. Any offers?

why I don't live by myself

I just made myself a wonderful supper of salmon and a sidekick. No worries, simple enough. I made the salmon in the little toaster/rotisserie oven. I listened and waited and did dishes while the timer on it ticked away the minutes. It dings, I go to take the fish out...it's cold. I have forgotten to plug in the oven. *sigh* The good news is that the Singapore curry noodle sidekick is absolutely delicious. I threw some raisins in for extra flavour, that must have been something my parents did when I was younger. It's good. So I'm eating that, waiting for the salmon to cook, again.

We did end up getting an xbox. It's really fun. I bought myself the Shrek game. It's fun, but surpisingly hard! I got really annoyed last night trying to put a bunch of egg-babies back in a nest, while Humpty Dumpty was beating me up because he wanted to teach them to fall off of walls. I've just now found the website, and was very helpful to find the 'tips and tricks' section, but it isn't all that helpful. It offers such advice as "Evil fairies are very hard to catch...because they are evil.". Thanks. Maybe I'm just retarded, but I find the game pretty challenging. I am still getting the hang of it, but I'm not sure if a younger kid would find it really easy or too hard.

Tomorrow we have grade 8 orientation at school until 8. Sweet ass. It's just me and one other carpooler who have to stay, so we're hoping to make it back here in time for Friends, since it's new. Apparently we're down to the final 3 episodes.


edit: my internet was just down for like, 20 minutes, so I couldn't post this. Rogers sonsofbitches. It's all good now though, and my salmon is darn tasty.

having a conscience sucks

and costs money. I stopped to get some cat food today. Now, I buy a giant bag of vet food, 8kg, which lasts a few months. It's pretty pricey, so I was pretty surprised when it rang up at $34 for the food and a bag of treats. I wait, check the receipt to see if maybe she punched in the wrong number, but no, it says 8kg. I still figure, something is wrong, they didn't lower the price $20. So I mention it to her, and sure enough, she has accidentally charged me for the dog food. I was thinking it was unfair dog food being so much cheaper, but then I thought, dogs eat a lot, so it's good that their food is cheaper. I did manage to save some money tonight though, Sears has their 'sears days' (as the Bay has its 'bay days') sale on, and everything is really cheap. Half price bras! That's a big deal, those things are friggin expensive.

well holy shit

I had a whole post done, but then Blogger did what Blogger does, and it's gone now. I talked about how I'm getting to try gmail from Google, about showing the movie The Shape of Things to my 11/12 class, about Grant going to Florida. I can't be bothered retyping it all, so use your imaginations, and find the links yourselves.
ha

how can you not love this guy?

he's so friggin cute.



I went to see 13 Going on 30, and it was just terrific. The theatre was *packed*, which was unexpected, but ah well. We ended up sitting very near the front, which took some getting used to, but it was alright. I don't know that it will win any big awards or anything, but it's worth it just to see Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo. They have to be 2 of the cutest people on screen. I would definitely run away with Mr Ruffalo, if he were to come calling. I'm sure Grant would understand.

I'd also like to point out that my sister, as usual, found him way before me. She has this knack for doing that. I almost always come around, but I have to say, she's responsible for influencing much of my taste in music and movies. I have to say also though, her tastes have been straying a bit lately. hehe.

anyway, go see the movie next weekend.

yay, I can eat McDonald's again!

not that I ever stopped, but I did feel bad about it.

A while back, I posted a link to a story about a guy who ate nothing but McDonald's for a month. The link is dead now, but basically he just went to hell in a handbasket. He had to eat everything on the menu at least once, and couldn't eat anything else, not even water from home. It's now a documentary. Just this morning, I stumbled upon this little news bit, which I'll post for posterity, instead of posting the link, which will die.


Filmmaker sets out to debunk Super Size Me

WASHINGTON - A filmmaker has set to out to create a documentary that will attempt to debunk the documentary Super Size Me, which follows one person eating nothing but food from McDonald's for a month.

The director, Soso Whaley, is halfway through her own 30-day diet of McDonald's meals. She says she is feeling good and has lost five pounds.

"This experience has taught me not to think of food as good or bad," Whaley said. "Food is food, plain and simple. It's not inherently evil, and our only 'problem' is that we have been very successful as a species in learning how to create easily accessible food sources."

Whaley is an adjunct fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Once her month of fast- food dieting is over, she will compile the footage into a narrative.

Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me will goes into limited release in the U.S. on May 7.

Top 100 Movie Characters of All Time

according to Premiere Magazine. They've got quite a mix of characters in there. I haven't seen all the movies, but judging by the ones that I do recognize, I think perhaps I have some movies I ought to be watching. I was pretty excited to see Indiana Jones and Captain Jack Sparrow on the list, myself.

wow

I'm so tired. I've just been waiting for it to be 10, so I can go to bed without feeling like a total loser. Even though I've been nodding off on the couch for the past hour. I was just about to go to bed and noticed a message from Tiresa about big news from the dept of ed. They're cancelling the P.E.! They're going to bring them back next year, but at a lower grade, so at least 2 years of kids won't ever have to write them. For those of you not from NB, the P.E. is something you have to write in math and English in grade 11, a standardized test that is thus a bit of a farce, and not an entirely accurate picture of how you're doing in English or math. Teachers always end up freaking out a bit, and then completely teaching to the test, which is just stupid. That's not a test of the kids' comprehension; that's them knowing what's going to be on a test. Anyway, the fact that they're cancelling it is strange, especially now with the test only 2 months away.

This week was just awful. Meetings until 5:15 Tuesday and Wednesday, and then we had to stay at school for an entirely useless 'help your kids pick courses' fest until 7:30 tonight, where nobody even came to see me, natch. No wait, I lie, I had another teacher sit with me, and some kids that we both taught came to chat and ask us why we had to be there. Good question. A couple of good things did happen though. One of our supply teachers, who happened to be pregnant, went in to labour yesterday, on the last day she needed to get in order to qualify for maternity leave. We covered for her, of course, and were all very excited, and glad to find out everything went well and she had a little girl (she already had 2 boys, so yay). I covered one of her classes, and it was all grade 9s, who I know all of now, and they were all like 'oh, Miss S, we love you! are you going to be back next year? you're the best teacher! you have to come back!' and so on. Just when I think I've decided for sure that I'm outta there in 2 months, these little bastards make me feel guilty for even considering not returning in the fall. It's not entirely up to me where I'll be, I'm definitely going to explore my options. At the very least I'd like to be teaching a combo of art and something else, not just art. I also had my official evaluation yesterday, which went swimmingly, so if I'm still here next year, I will very likely get a permanent contract. Big load off. I wasn't worried, really, but you always worry a little bit when you know you're being evaluated.

I really have to go to bed now, my eyes hurt. Anyone want to go see 13 Going on 30 tomorrow night? There's a sneak preview.

*sigh*

well due to a miscommunication with the carpool this morning (not my fault), I waited at one woman's house while she waited here. I booted it to work, in my own car by myself, to arrive not as early as I wanted to, to photocopy a bunch of stuff for my 3 new classes. I got whistled at by somebody in my grade 10 class when I stepped out from behind the desk, but since I didn't see who it was I just ignored it. Plus, I was looking pretty hot, so who can blame him. That, sadly, was pretty much the highlight of my work day. New classes are exhausting. You have to go over all the rules and expectations, where the bathrooms, fountains, fire exits are, why they shouldn't throw scissors, why art IS important and how they can all pass if they put in some effort. 3 times.

So that was fine, I was looking forward to my prep and then to going home at a decent hour. Since I didn't have to drive anyone, and couldn't see staying late, I figured I'd be able to skidaddle. Wrong. There was a meeting for grade 11/12 teachers after school, which I won't bore you all with the details of, but suffice to say it was completely idiotic and not at all useful with all the stuff we've already done (PT interviews, progress reports, and report cards coming out this week). And, as usual, it was totally unnecessary that I be there. I doodled, covering 3 sheets of white paper. The music and phys ed. teachers, beside me, read the textbooks for the law class that's usually in there. They tell us we have to go, try to make us feel important, the 'specialty' teachers, but we're not, and we know it, and honestly, I'd rather be useless at home, or at least in my classroom, than be made to sit in a meeting where my input is meaningless. Good times. So I left school at 5:15, more than 2 hours after I sat my ass in the chair at the start of the meeting. And don't even think about commenting on how early we get out at the end of the day - we get only one break, in the morning, and lunch is 42 minutes.

I have to go eat some chocolate.

a collection of four chicken pieces. In the classical style.

Child Prodigy Compared to Mozart

Easter goodies / fun with photoshop

Happy Easter!


A little gift for the messengers among you.


My sister sent me this one, I've seen it before though.



enjoy!

Lucky me! Marks have to go in first thing Tuesday, which means I have to actually mark a bunch of stuff, tally them up, and then fill in bubble sheets. I really, really don't like the bubble sheets. We have to bubble in 2 comments for each student, which is stupid. I don't have 2 comments for each student. The choices are totally stupid, like 'finds subject diffucult', and there's no 'good', just 'superior' and 'satisfactory'. To me, satisfactory is almost insulting, so I try not to use that one, unless I want it to serve as a written *shrug*.

The Easter bunny found me this morning, at Grant's house. How did you all make out?

wisdom from the Mike's Hard box

If you lose your sense of direction, find your sense of humour.

Life is a mystery to be lived, not solved.

You'll find that all great ideas seem absurd ar first.

Looking back won't get you ahead.

(my favourite)
Mike's is hard. So is prison. Don't drive drunk.

amazon.com kicks ass

I know, supergiant companies are evil, but they just make everything so easy. And cheap. I managed to get 3 books (Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country and Notes from a Small Island, and a book for Grant), as well as the movie You Can Count on Me for like $50. Granted, there's exchange on that, but with free shipping and my mom coming up in a week, it's a great deal. The weird thing about them though, is that 'gold box' feature. Sometimes it seems to know me really well, like when it suggests a set of pretty green ramekins, or a DSL router. Other times it suggests these weird wine re-corker things, or like, an iron. Odd. I did just check my 'new releases' page of recommendations though, and they're bang on. I can't remember if I mentioned having watched My Life Without Me, with Sarah Polley, but I did, and it was great. You should rent it. Amazon told me to pass that along.

Grant and I are thinking about buying an xbox (yes, I'm thinking about it too). My question to you all is, do you have one, or do you have another gaming system, and what would you recommend? xbox seems to be a good price and have a good following, but I know Microsoft is sort of evil, and there don't seem to be many games. I'm pretty happy with racing games and Tetris, I'm more about fun / puzzle-type games than, say, Grand Theft Auto-type...pick up some hookers and beat them-type games. There's a system at Costco that's $300 for the system, an extra controller, the dvd remote set-up thing, a Star Wars / Tetris combo game (I don't know how those two go together, myself) and a racing game. Seems like a good deal.

My big plan for tonight is to print off my tests for tomorrow. I have to do 2 different ones for my 2 grade 10 classes. They're basically exactly the same, but with either 'period 2' or 'period 3' on the top, and a few questions changed around. My grade 9 one is all made up, and the 11/12 class doesn't write until June. As of tomorrow after school, I'm officially 75% done. Pretty crazy, this term went by super fast. Easter is this weekend...my dad's coming up for a day, Erin might be coming down, tough to say. I think we're going to have supper on Sunday with Grant's family. In honour of Easter, I bought myself a bouquet of tulips at Costco. I'll take a picture later, they're quite nice.

so not trendy

why is it that at American Eagle, all the clothes look like somebody has been wearing them constantly for a week. They're all worn and tattered, and wrinkly. Especially the guy stuff. I don't really like the 'new clothes smell', but I do want my stuff to look new. I can go to Goodwill for used shite.

all about posting

Lissa Explains it All
This little gem I stumbled upon a few years ago, and recently discovered it's run by like, a 14 year old, but she knows her stuff. It's really good to get you started, if you want to break away from the blogger templates, or just spice things up a bit. Figured I should give some credit.

My other 2 boyfriends.


this guy, I think, needs no real introduction.





this guy, we know and love as Mitch. I didn't want him to feel left out of my photo-love. He's very intense here, showing off his climbing prowess. This is one of my favourite pictures of him, which is lucky, because it's also one of only 2 pictures I have of him in total. Other than the naked ones. hehe.

oh, yeah

and I dyed my hair red. "spiced tea" actually. I like it, as do most other people I ran into today. Grant's parents were a bit shocked, but that's the way with parents. It's a wash-out, so in a couple of months I should be back to semi-original colour.

a treat for the lay-days

I am a comment whore.

Jenn says so.

so sue me.

Went to see Hellboy and Walking Tall. What to say about those movies. The first was decent, reasonably entertaining, but you won't lose anything by renting it. The second....well. I love "The Rock". I'm a little disappointed though, he was going by his real name (Dwayne Johnson), but is back to his good ol' WWE name for this one. May have something to do with the fact that the movie as a WWE production. Regardless, he's a hottie. Certifiable. And, as expected, he kicks some serious ass in this movie. He also gets his ass kicked a bit though. You know, keepin it real. It's 'inspired by' a true story, but I'm not sure how much has to be true for that description to hold water.

We watched Something's Gotta Give this weekend too, it was pretty good. Keanu's such a cutie. I couldn't really get past the 20-somethings going for old man Jack, but other than that it was good. I think we're going to watch Runaway Jury tonight. It didn't appeal to me at all originally, but everyone I know who has seen it said it's good, so I'll give it a shot.

In other news, I had guests in today to talk to my grade 11/12 class about pinhole cameras, it was pretty interesting. One of them is coming back Wednesday to help build the cameras. I'm pretty happy, because before I took this job, I had never even heard of a pinhole cameras. Don't tell my students! haha. I have to be honest, I'm not liking my job any better. I do love the staff, but the job itself, not so much. However, in 11 weeks I'll be done, and hopefully sometime before then I'll find out what I'm doing next year, and hopefully it'll be different! whee!

Music | Sarah's Edge

My sister has known this for years.