i wear many hats

and today i was a cheerleading coach.

now, if you know me, even a little bit, you know i am not really a cheerleader "type" nor did i do cheerleading in high school (though i did briefly for a rec league in middle school), but i was a coach today!

my coworker, paige, has been coaching the teams this year (both the middle school jv and high school varsity squads) all by herself with no help and not a lot of coaching experience. she was telling me about how things were going, and i told her if she needed some back-up "knocking skulls" that i was there for her... and she took me up on it!

so today i was back-up bad cop for the team, and i have to say it was a lot of fun! i've done a lot of "coaching" in colorguard, horseback riding, dance, etc so it was kind of like going home to be coaching again. best of all, paige seemed really happy, the girls seemed happy, and i got the added benefit of doing something more with my day than just laying on the couch after work. i've been having a hard time getting back into the swing of working at school, and to add to that, i'm fighting off a major sickness, so i feel like crap and all i want to do is sleep. getting out today to be outside, hang out with some fun girls, and help a friend accomplish something felt really good! [east wake academy eagle pictured above]

now i guess i just need to keep it together long enough to do some school work before bed... but the sickness is trying to take hold of me, and the snooziness is taking over. we shall see :-P

so cute

once again, i just had to post this because it was so cute.

[image c/o jackie - thanks!]

is it friday yet??

demon copier... and a good day

today was a pretty good day at work. i got up, showered, got to work relatively early... though it was an hour later than usual, and i know i shouldn't be so proud of getting there early, i still am :-P

i got my things together to make copies, and of course the copier got all confused on me. i swear this copier hates me. it'll say there's a paper jam when there's not, and then after you've opened every single door to remove the jammed paper that isn't there, it tells you that the door that is obviously shut, is still open. after 15 minutes of re-opening and shutting the doors, it finally decides it's not open... by which time a long line of impatient teachers is looking at me like i'm the cause of all evil. yaaaaay!

but once i got my copies, i prepared my room and myself for class. i got my materials all set up and felt good when kids came in. i ended up altering my plans within the first 15 mins of my first class, which changed plans for the whole week, but things went really well, and the kids seem to be understanding the exercises, so i'm pleased. lunch and my afternoon classes as well as a parent-teacher conference all went well, and i went to the middle school meeting.

i hate meetings in education. they always seem way too long and way too frequent, and i very rarely get anything out of them but a fried brain. this one wasn't too annoying, but it was too long and pretty much a waste of time. still though, i left feeling good.

traffic was a little heavier than usual, but i got home safely, made dinner of honey/salt/pepper pork chops, wild mushroom risotto, and fresh brussel sprouts. i overcooked the pork, but the flavor and the rest of the meal was good. we enjoyed another bottle of our biltmore sangiovese. now, all i have to do is work a tad on grading/planning and hang out with my hubby. as my mother and brother would say (and i'd roll my eyes)... happineeeeeess.

sleepy sunday

today andrew and i enjoyed the extra hour we got by sleeping in. that was nice. then we got up and went to vintage21 again for church. while the service was extremely good, we both felt the music was lacking... the regular worship leader guy was back, and so i'm hoping that this is a fluke, and that the first service we had is closer to normal. we shall see though.

afterwards, we went out to target and got some cube-shelves rather than a dresser. we have bought the mattress, but we've decided to wait a little on the nice bedroom furniture since we found that we like REALLY nice bedroom furniture and don't want to settle... or go into debt! this will be a good temporary solution until we are able to really furnish our home as we'd like it, and i'm excited to have a dresser-like solution finally!

then we came home and i got to work planning and grading. i have tentative plans for the week, going over last week's vocabulary quiz, doing parts of speech grammar review (or really reteaching...), and reviewing summarizing and paraphrasing i hope. this week, i'll be re-reading a wrinkle in time so that the kids and i can begin reading it next week. hopefully things will go as planned! pray for me.

weekends are wonderful

last night i got off work and went out to dinner and a few drinks with paige (a coworker) and melissa. after several difficult days of work and a less than fun halloween experience, a girls' night out on the town was certainly in order. my fabulously wonderful husband agreed to drop melissa and me off at bogart's so we wouldn't have to drive, park, or wait for anything! i got a glass of wine and some she crab soup while we waited for paige to join us. for the record, while much of bogart's food is very good, the she crab could use improvements.

paige joined us, and we all ate comfort food. then we went to the red room for chocolate fondue and cocktails. it was great to have two fun girls to laugh and tell stories with. i sure missed having good friends around to hang out with when we were in boone! after red room, we wandered down to meet andrew for "first friday" and joined him at a gallery where gabe dj's. he had eaten dinner with marc and lora while we had our girls' evening. we didn't stay long, as none of us were really into the kind of art that place had, but we did wander around upstairs at another gallery that had some pretty good photography. afterwards, we stopped in the cupcake shoppe, just to show melissa and paige what it was like. no one got anything though - the fondue was enough! after we dropped paige off, andrew decided he wanted to be a fireman, and the three of us escaped the scary dark back road to the car.

this morning, we met jackie for breakfast/brunch at panera and then went upstairs and bought our new mattress! well we "bought" it... in that we chose it and applied and were approved for the financing so we don't actually have to pay for it for 18 months or something. by then, andrew will have a job, and we'll be in a much better position. we also picked out a different bedroom set at restoration hardware with extremely good construction and a much better look than the other one, but we probably won't be able to afford it, so we're just excited about the new mattress... whenever it is delivered!

when we got home, i went through a few boxes of books and school supplies and spent some time trying to plan. i didn't get a whole lot done before melissa showed up and it was time to go to cary for the band competition! the three of us headed out together and spent a few hours enjoying the performances. jordan and panther creek were both great and much improved since we saw them at the app competition. i was proud of the guard girls at jordan for how clean they were and how well they performed. panther creek also did a great job for their inexperience and age. wakefield, however, made me want to get up and leave the stadium. how can you have a marching band show with no real drums?! they used a drum machine. ridiculous. and while their band may or may not have been good, and their guard was unfortunately awesome, i was so distracted by stupid gimmicks and flashy crap, that i hardly noticed there even was a band. barf.

jackie called, and we left the competition to meet her at sushi blues for dinner. our purchase at dormia put them over the edge into bonus world, so she treated us - THANK YOU JACKIE!!! the food was great, and the company was even better. partway through dinner byron showed up, and the 5 of us decided to come back to our house and watch melissa's video project "who's your daddy?" this was a psych project in the form of an episode of sex and the city where melissa directed (and pretty much did everything else), and i was carrie. everyone got a good laugh out of my big screen debut, and it was fun to see myself on tape from a few years ago. [andrew gettin' some sweet lovin' - gosh my husband is hot!!]

all in all, this has been a pretty good weekend and a great day. now i just have to get down to business tomorrow and plan the next week... or month... or whatever. oh, and grade papers... teaching is lame! :-P

Update: So I want to fight fires

Pictured: Coolest firetruck ever.
Since I was a kid I've wanted to be a firefighter. I think this is a childhood dream for most boys. I've always been fascinated with fire/police/ems. I like the lights, sirens, and authority that these public servants have.
So last night Emily went out with her coworker Paige. Paige's husband, Jerry, is a Raleigh firefighter and has been for about 6 years. Upon hearing this Emily immediately told me NO. She knew what I was thinking. I really wanted to join Jerry as a firefighter. What sold Emily was hearing that if I were to die in a fire she would receive something like 5 million dollars. The schedule that Paige described wasn't too bad either. (on, off, on, off, on, off, off, off, off) So moral of the story, I want to fight fires. The bad news is that the new academy is starting in January and I missed the application deadline. It was back in August, while we were still living in Boone.
I've also got an interview with The Catering Company of CH. Here is the job description from craigslist. So we'll see how that goes.

The Catering Company, the leading area caterer and award winning event design company, has an immediate opening for a supervisor of our décor crew.
In this position, you will be responsible for building/repairing décor pieces; maintaining an inventory of décor items in a warehouse; and scheduling and directing staff to work both at the warehouse and on-site for installation/breakdown of events. You will direct teams in the installation of exhibits, displays, stage sets and décor. Detailed and deadline-oriented individual needed! You must have strong carpentry and basic engineering skills. We will look for you to lead by example, and experience supervising people is a plus; you will need a professional attitude and good communication skills. This is a hands-on position, which may require long hours during installations. Must be able to work nights and weekends. Must be able to climb ladders, lift 50 lbs, and demonstrate safe work habits using tools and equipment.

Job hunting sucks

So some of you may know that I'm not currently working. It may sound nice to most of you but it really isn't. Basically I have nothing to to and don't get paid for it. I need a job.
My options were working part time at Stewart theatre with no benefits or working apple retail part time with no benefits.
After talking to DJ at Stewart I found out that they really don't have the position open anymore due to Kevin not really leaving. So my option there is to be on the call list and work part part time. I also interviewed with Apple today and it wasn't what I was looking for either. It'd be selling my soul to Apple for 15-20 hours a week and making crap pay with no benefits.
These options aren't really cutting it. I need full time work that will offer me at least medical. It's been so hard to find something in the theatre field around here. I am still on hold with Theatre in the Park until Dec/Jan. I haven't heard anything back from Design Dimension. Those are about the only leads I have right now. Nothing good.