working 9 to 5

So I’ve blogged about my love of Allison Janney previously, specifically my excitement over the musical 9 to 5. Well, the sad news is that the musical is being cancelled after one season on Broadway (apparently not everyone was as in love with the concept as I was). But the amazing fantastic news is that Rachel Heath and I bought tickets to go the last Broadway performance!!!! I’m a tad excited! Wooohooo!

year one reflections

I started this post the last week of school last Spring. I had every intention of working on it a little after summer had started and then posting some fantastic reflections on my first year of teaching. However, I didn’t ever go back and work on it, so I’m going to post it as it stands currently. In the next few weeks I hope to put down some thoughts about this year, but I felt they needed to be compared to last year.

1. I will always be confused when trying to refer to how many years I’ve been teaching, thanks to this whole starting midyear thing. Next year I will be a first year teacher according to the state of TN, but clearly this will not be the case as I am now wrapping up courses that I taught beginning to end. My principal is sure going to hold me accountable for the test scores my kids made this past week, next year he is not going to refer to me as a first year teacher, and yet I will be.

2. On the first day of my first “real” job I spilled orange juice all over my blouse and pants while attempting to unlock the door of the house I had lived in for less than 12 hours. Then the teacher beside me had her room catch on fire during fourth block, crazy day I tell you, crazy day.

3. I love the people I work with, love them. Each of the main people I spend time with everyday are  fantastic for completely different reasons.

4. Next year will look nothing like this year. It is not that I did a bad job this year or that there weren’t redeemable qualities, but next year will be different.

little things

I am going to try and get back in the habit of blogging. Not because I really care about the blogging so much as it is a good way to keep a journal or at least a partial hey here is what was on my mind in August of 2009.

So this weekend was about the little things. I got to spend some quality time with my college roommate, who I adore, so that was happy.

I bought a new alarm clock/iPod player that is changing my life.

I also had a spectacular egg, tomato, and cheese sandwich for breakfast Saturday. When I open a restaurant we will serve this biscuit. Happiness really is in the little things. Hope everyone has a fantastic Monday.

10 years

in the past 10 years I’ve:

• graduated high school, college, and grad school
• become an Aunt
• been a bridesmaid 8 times (the number doesn’t sound like much, but i thought about writing -have spent over 2,300 dollars on bridesmaids dresses, shoes, necklaces, plane tickets, and showers)
• driven my car to 14 states
• shared my life with 8 fantastic roommates (not even counting summer families)
• started voting
• taken my first trip to europe
• lived in 4 states
• take my second trip to europe
• had 12 new jobs (don’t worry I have one that will stick now)
• become a sister-in-law
• take my first trip to africa
• made 100s of new friends
• lived in a trailer park
• eaten fish eggs and eyes

it is weird to think about oneself 10 years ago, would a good friend from then still recognize you today? could you share a cup of coffee and make up for lost time or would there be awkward pauses?

nixon tapes

I realize that we (the American public) have had access to other Nixon tapes for years, but somehow the sheer volume of the conversations released to the public today seem even more amazing. I’m sure lots of people will (as many news websites already have) focus on the comments like the one to George Bush about how he is “not for women” but the GOP should recruit some pretty ones.* And sure that is amazing, but really didn’t we always know he was a jerk? And maybe by that same token of jerkhood we shouldn’t be so surprised and the rest of the ridiculousness offered up here. There is no sense of humility, which is something I think all good leaders possess a healthy dose of, but in its place an overwhelming tone of self-assurance. These conversations seem to be a dictator who has no concept of rules applying to himself. Power can be a scary thing when limited to one person. If anything I think the tapes make a case for increased attention to the checks and balances, Congress – the branch most closely tied to the people – should have the most power, not one person in a round room.

*As a footnote, I find it fantastic and commendable that George Bush basically blew off the power driven President’s remarks degrading women, way to go 41!

sleep walking dog

Do you ever have those vivid dreams that you just can’t believe are not real the next day? This dog has the same problem.

war snuggie

So it is nowhere near football season, but man I can’t wait if it means team logos on the snuggies!! As one of my dear friends pointed out, clearly this has been the tension between UA and AU fans for all these years, we simply needed an efficient way to get our hands free while still being cozy. Also of note would be how fast the blond boy switches team allegiances.

going green

Every morning my office-mate walks in and inspects my outfit to see if I am wearing a proper amount of green. The initial inspection is always followed by one of the following statements: “Oh Ann, you need to home and change, I don’t see any green,” or “Oh Ann, you have your green on!” For the first few months this bugged me, I mean green isn’t even my favorite color I just happened to have a green tote-bag (which I use everyday because I don’t change my school bag everyday) and a green overcoat (which also crazily enough I used everyday during WINTER when I started the job). But I’ve come to the realization that although red will forever be my favorite color, I am in fact in a green mood lately.

Several of my favorite outfits and bags are green, my camera case is green, my shampoo bottles are green, actually almost all of my toiletries are green, my new blog layout is green, and I bought a green sketchbook a few days ago. The decision process of choosing the sketchbook is what made me realize why I’ve been in such a green mood the past few months. It is because green is the color of fresh, living, growing, and creative things. That has been my mood since waving goodbye to my PhD program and tackling the world of public high school. I really am excited by my job every morning -> even on those days that I dread or am intimidated by some specific obstacle. So when I stood there choosing a sketchbook yesterday, I picked the green one. The brown one was more aesthetically pleasing; but the green one made me feel more creative, which seems like a good idea in a sketchbook and in an attitude.

springish break

I can’t really get my mind around the fact that spring break is almost over. This week has gone by soooo fast. I spent last weekend bumming around Chattanooga, celebrating birthdays with Bess and Shannon, baking cool cupcake pops (I’ll post pictures at some point), and packing for my big trip this week. Monday morning my fantastic sister took me to the airport at 5:40 (yeah she is amazing). I arrived in Denver midday, just in time for Katie and I to stop for a late lunch at our favorite mexican restaurant in South Denver. My visit was fantastic – but all the pictures are on her camera so once again I’ll post later. We spent one day experimenting in the kitchen (we tried homemade fondant!!!) and then yesterday Phil took off work and we spent the day in Ft. Collins touring New Belgium’s brewery (the place that brews Fat Tire Ale – one of my favorites). By last night we knew a blizzard was going to hit today so Katie and I left for the airport early hoping I could get a earlier flight out and she would be able to make it home safely. Well she made it back to Colorado Springs safely, but all the flights out of Denver were cancelled – so I’m spending the night in a hotel and hopefully flying out tomorrow morning.  So far it has snowed about 5 inches in Denver, but it is still coming down, so I really have no clue what tomorow will hold. Oh the fun!

bitch-in-kitchen will never do this, well at least not on accident

For those of you who don’t know, I am going to be starting a blog soon (hopefully leading to my eventual stardom as a Food Network Personality) titled Bitch-In-Kitchen. It will be amazing. I am currently jotting down notes that I think are good ideas, as well as bad ones. And let me tell you this Paula Deen mishap is going on the bad list, I mean if you are going to be dropping your drawers you should at least have on fun undies.