27, W00T! I guess.  My birthday has started to become a day that I reflect on the past a little too much.  I've been thinking today about how things have changed, how some things stay the same, how much farther in life some of my friends are; with families, married, etc. and where I'm at today.  While I'm very content with working with the kids, there is still the "BIG EMPTY" in my life to fill.

Testing my Temper

A certain female administrator at my school continues to harass me.  I'll be having a nice long chat about it with the boss when she gets back on Tuesday. I'm tired of it.  I guess she threatened to write me up.  Well, write me up!

#1. I don't get compensation for making ID cards.
#2. ID cards are less important than testing.
#3. If you come at me with a shitty attitude I will come back at you with one myself.

She needs to steer clear of me.  Writing me up for something that stupid and petty won't stick.  She interrupted testing in Craig's class in two periods today..... Both times for complete bullshit.  I know the boss lady will NOT be happy when she gets back.

Yesterday around 3 Steve called and asked me to pick up some beer on the way over.  I did, but first I ran into some students and they saw me buying it.  Too funny.

I'm Rubbing Off on the Kids....

I'm rubbing off on the kids and I don't know if that is a good thing or bad. I now have 2 students that are blogging as well. It's kind of funny. Kym started blogging too as a way to vent, now I have two kids that are doing the same. Will I remove anything that I have posted over the past 4+ years? Nope. Not a chance. Everything I have written is important in one way or another for making me the person I am. As for the kids in general, I don't think they realize (my 6th graders from last year) that they are MY kids; obviously I'm not their parent but as a class they were/are a great group of kids. If I'm still there next year, it's possible I'll have had them for 3 years in a row. I'm sad to think that there is a possibility that all of their teachers from their first year at Palm could no longer be there after this year. Two teachers are already gone, one left at the end of last year, and the final two (excluding PE) could be taking high school positions.

Ms. Lewis was the sub for Mr. Oster today. Carignan, Smith, Lewis, & I went to lunch together. Seriously we shouldn't be allowed to go places in public together. I think that when we do, there are many people that question our sanity.....Especially when they find out we teach middle school.

Steve reminded me about the river trip on May 19th. While I'm not the river rat that the majority of my friends are, I'm going to go. It should be a good time. The greatest part about it is that it's a minimum day so I won't be missing any work.

Last night I worked on Dave's tattoo idea until my eyes became blurry. Odds are it's going to be done tonight.

Yearbook pages should also be finished tomorrow. I've been waiting on a few things and I have half of them. The rest we'll get tomorrow. I still like the idea of having only about 15 kids for yearbook next year (assuming I'm still at Palm).

Last but not least...... It's the end of the year. A certain administrator keeps bugging me about the damn ID cards. I am VERY tempted to take the equipment to the office and say "Do it yourself and stop wasting my time".

Dave's Tattoo

I'm starting to "flesh out" (pardon the pun) my idea for Dave's tattoo..... I just thought that sounds weird, there is a place in MV called Dave's Tattoo.  Anyway other than that things are running pretty run of the mill.  Tomorrow I have 95 minutes in my zoo class.  Yes, I am calling them a zoo class.  They don't care about their education, they don't care about getting shit done, and a couple of them have now seen what my other art classes are like and really want to switch.  Too bad there isn't any room for swapping kids around.

As for the transfer, hopefully I will get some info this week in regards to it.  If it doesn't happen, it's still all good.  I just want to make it through the week & get the yearbook finished. While I'm on that thought, I really appreciate the kids that really do care about getting it done.  I am glad that I'm keeping the useful ones for next year; if I'm there.

Yearbook Photo

yearbook photo
Originally uploaded by GildeMontes.

I've tweaked this photo slightly.

The Past Week

Ok, this whole thing with the hot Starbucks manager has me thinking.... Do I know her from somewhere? She's attractive and looks at me with recognition but I feel like a moron for not figuring out why or how; if I do know her.

Job: Lately things have been pretty stressful; but it's not because of work.  I look forward to going every day.  With the lack of control by a specific teacher with the 7th graders, I have one group of kids that are becoming shall we say, difficult.  They ended the week on a positive note though.  I am waiting to hear back from the high school in regards to the transfer.  While this isn't something I planned on doing for a few more years, the opportunity is there now.  If the transfer doesn't go through, I am happy where I am currently and I'll be more than happy to return.  As for summer employment, I have decided to not apply for summer school.  Instead I think I might take a few art classes at RCC.  Some people give me a hard time about it asking why I would take classes I can teach, but the whole
idea behind it is to force myself to work on projects that I wouldn't otherwise get done.

Recreation: Kevin dropped by and we played XBOX with Dave (Halo 2 mostly) for about 6 hours.  I haven't played for that kind of length of time for YEARS! It was good fun blowing shit up for a while and relaxing.  Right after I left work (about 4:30) I went to Steve's, hung out with him and Darren and wished Kumi a happy birthday.  I gave her a hard time by emphasizing my congratulations for making it that far.  Steve chimed in with "Yeah, she's survived the last 4 being married to me." Those two seriously crack me up sometimes. I've been doing some research and sketches for Dave's next tattoo.  When the design is done, I'll post it online.  It's weird seeing the number of people with my artwork on their skin increasing.  Excluding myself there are now 4 and possibly soon a total of 6.

Other: I've been online since 92 or 93; I can't remember.  With my profession I've had a few students find me online; however none has been as persistent as one of my 7th graders who now has found my site.

Connect360

I have installed Connect360 on my Mac.  It works well with the Xbox 360.  It allows media from iTunes & iPhoto to be accessed in the living room and the photos are viewable on the TV.  Pretty nifty little app for those of us who refuse to run Win MCE.

Fucking Pissed

Today I found out the following at work:
1. I will have first lunch next year.
2. I will have the same shitty prep period I had last year.
3. Advanced Art appears to be scheduled at a time that my advanced students can't take it. 

Talk about shitty.

One of our newer coworkers is interested in doing yearbook.  By all means I am willing to let him help and learn the ropes next year so that I can then feel good about relenquishing control once the year is over and know that someone competent will be taking over the reigns.

On that note, um yeah..... Still not done. Grr.