Cough! Hack! Wheeze! Will this horrendous cold / virus that the doctor says there is no medication for ever go away.
Woke myself up coughing far too many times last night. Just when I think I'm asleep, here it comes again. That urge to cough, especially if I just rolled over.
It's spring break and far too early to be up, but if I go to bed, I cough and lie there awake. So, I'm up and working. Some spring break.
Well, I guess I'll have time to polish part 2 of Life on my Own. Look for installment 2 sometime this week.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
POSTPONED BY THIS DISGUSTING COLD
I was sincerely hoping to post part 2 tonight, but this cold / flu is winning. Will have the second installment up soon.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
LIFE ON MY OWN (part 1)
I had graduated with honors in May, and by late July, I had eagerly accepted my first teaching job in central California. I loaded up my Saturn with the belongings I thought necessary and assured my mom that I would rent an apartment in a good location and find a Goodwill or Salvation Army for whatever I might need.
Driving across the country excited me, but the journey took me longer than I had planned. I stopped at an amusement park, the Grand Canyon, and other attractions that billboards told me I just couldn't miss. By the time I reached California, I had little more than a week to find an apartment and get organized. Yeah, right!
Since I had been hired at a Midwest job fair, the administrator expected me to report to the offices the Monday before school started. The Monday, that is, that I arrived in California. The enormous high school complex made me think twice. Could I really handle a job teaching high school theater? Would the students respect and listen to someone only five years older than they?
Well, after Mr. Oats, one of the assistant principals, finished his comprehensive tour of the campus and his lengthy dissertation on new teacher expectations, I panicked. I had thought I would have a week to get settled, but there were new teacher meetings to attend. I had no time to apartment hunt. So, I found a cheap motel that rented rooms by the week and stacked my boxes in a corner. I fell into bed each night that week after midnight only to be up at five in the morning. I had a grade book to set up, curriculum to learn, and lesson plans to write.
By the weekend, I was exhausted and willing to pay for a second week at the motel; even though, it was located, I had come to realize, in a “rent by the hour” operation. I busied myself typing and preparing; if not that, sleeping. If the sun shone, I didn’t know.
Monday morning the alarm seemed to shriek its warning to get up. As I dressed, I realized I was shaking. I ran my schedule over in my head as I drove through traffic that hadn’t existed the week before.
As the students filed into the classroom behind the theater, I felt small. Many of these creatures dwarfed my 5’4” frame. I soon learned the distressing fact that counselors dumped a wide variety of students who had no interest in theater into theater courses, especially first year theater courses.
As the final bell of the day rang, releasing the students, I realized I had survived the first full week of my teaching career. My stomach growled and I realized that I was starving. What I really wanted was a large iced caramel coffee and an order of cottage fries from Sam's Bistro. The quiet restaurant was just what I needed to calm my frazzled nerves.
While I sat under an umbrella on the outdoor patio, I enjoyed the warm breeze coming off the ocean. The salty aroma of the ocean calmed my nerves as I ordered.
"So, you made it through your first week. Congrats. Coffee’s on me." I had become a regular at Sam’s, and Jeff had been my waiter. I knew it was expensive, but even if I had had the energy to shop for groceries let alone cook in the evening, the motel room didn’t have the facilities.
When Jeff came back with my coffee, he had removed his apron and had an iced coffee for himself. "Mind if I join you?"
"No." The cool iciness of the drink soothed my throat. "It’d be nice to talk to someone other than a student. It's so different here."
"Where are you from?"
"Illinois.”
“Why so far from home?”
“I took the first job I was offered. I told the recruiter that I was willing to move anywhere. Now, I'm not sure. I'm looking at a weekend with nothing to do."
"Are you serious?” Jeff cut in. “You're in Cali. There's always something to do."
"Well, I suppose I’ll have to check the local newspaper for events."
"Look," Jeff interrupted my thought, "if you wouldn't think I was being to forward, I could show you around town and take you to the local music festival."
"I've still got to find an apartment I can afford and unpack." I tried to sound firm, but Jeff's offer sounded wonderful. I could use time away from work.
“You’re not living in your car, are you?”
“No.”
"Then, I could pick you up tomorrow and help you apartment shop. I know a couple of places that have vacancies. Then, I could help you unpack. That is if you wouldn't mind. Look, think it over and call me." He handed me a napkin on which he had scrawled his name and number.
(next installment on Thursday)
Driving across the country excited me, but the journey took me longer than I had planned. I stopped at an amusement park, the Grand Canyon, and other attractions that billboards told me I just couldn't miss. By the time I reached California, I had little more than a week to find an apartment and get organized. Yeah, right!
Since I had been hired at a Midwest job fair, the administrator expected me to report to the offices the Monday before school started. The Monday, that is, that I arrived in California. The enormous high school complex made me think twice. Could I really handle a job teaching high school theater? Would the students respect and listen to someone only five years older than they?
Well, after Mr. Oats, one of the assistant principals, finished his comprehensive tour of the campus and his lengthy dissertation on new teacher expectations, I panicked. I had thought I would have a week to get settled, but there were new teacher meetings to attend. I had no time to apartment hunt. So, I found a cheap motel that rented rooms by the week and stacked my boxes in a corner. I fell into bed each night that week after midnight only to be up at five in the morning. I had a grade book to set up, curriculum to learn, and lesson plans to write.
By the weekend, I was exhausted and willing to pay for a second week at the motel; even though, it was located, I had come to realize, in a “rent by the hour” operation. I busied myself typing and preparing; if not that, sleeping. If the sun shone, I didn’t know.
Monday morning the alarm seemed to shriek its warning to get up. As I dressed, I realized I was shaking. I ran my schedule over in my head as I drove through traffic that hadn’t existed the week before.
As the students filed into the classroom behind the theater, I felt small. Many of these creatures dwarfed my 5’4” frame. I soon learned the distressing fact that counselors dumped a wide variety of students who had no interest in theater into theater courses, especially first year theater courses.
As the final bell of the day rang, releasing the students, I realized I had survived the first full week of my teaching career. My stomach growled and I realized that I was starving. What I really wanted was a large iced caramel coffee and an order of cottage fries from Sam's Bistro. The quiet restaurant was just what I needed to calm my frazzled nerves.
While I sat under an umbrella on the outdoor patio, I enjoyed the warm breeze coming off the ocean. The salty aroma of the ocean calmed my nerves as I ordered.
"So, you made it through your first week. Congrats. Coffee’s on me." I had become a regular at Sam’s, and Jeff had been my waiter. I knew it was expensive, but even if I had had the energy to shop for groceries let alone cook in the evening, the motel room didn’t have the facilities.
When Jeff came back with my coffee, he had removed his apron and had an iced coffee for himself. "Mind if I join you?"
"No." The cool iciness of the drink soothed my throat. "It’d be nice to talk to someone other than a student. It's so different here."
"Where are you from?"
"Illinois.”
“Why so far from home?”
“I took the first job I was offered. I told the recruiter that I was willing to move anywhere. Now, I'm not sure. I'm looking at a weekend with nothing to do."
"Are you serious?” Jeff cut in. “You're in Cali. There's always something to do."
"Well, I suppose I’ll have to check the local newspaper for events."
"Look," Jeff interrupted my thought, "if you wouldn't think I was being to forward, I could show you around town and take you to the local music festival."
"I've still got to find an apartment I can afford and unpack." I tried to sound firm, but Jeff's offer sounded wonderful. I could use time away from work.
“You’re not living in your car, are you?”
“No.”
"Then, I could pick you up tomorrow and help you apartment shop. I know a couple of places that have vacancies. Then, I could help you unpack. That is if you wouldn't mind. Look, think it over and call me." He handed me a napkin on which he had scrawled his name and number.
(next installment on Thursday)
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
SPRING TEASE
Spring teased me today. Since it's only the middle of March, I know full well that winter can still rear its ugly head, and we could get a snow or ice storm before the sandal, shorts, and t-shirt weather arrives.
As the sun played in the sky and the temperature tease me with numbers in the 60s, spring fever began to take over my soul.
Although spring isn't due till March 21, a gentle breeze slid in through the open windows of my classroom sang a different song, and rays of light peeked though the pulled window blinds. I threw my bags over my shoulder and my jacket over my are and locked the door to my classroom. As I left the building, the warmth of early spring gave me the motivation to walk the dog when I got home.
Harley was impatient to get outside; he'd been home with the cat since I left for work this morning. When I came outside with the leash, he couldn't contain himself. In fact, he took me for a walk. I thought a walk would exhaust him, but he had enough energy to ask to go out before bedtime and just laid on the driveway enjoying himself.
As the sun played in the sky and the temperature tease me with numbers in the 60s, spring fever began to take over my soul.
Although spring isn't due till March 21, a gentle breeze slid in through the open windows of my classroom sang a different song, and rays of light peeked though the pulled window blinds. I threw my bags over my shoulder and my jacket over my are and locked the door to my classroom. As I left the building, the warmth of early spring gave me the motivation to walk the dog when I got home.
Harley was impatient to get outside; he'd been home with the cat since I left for work this morning. When I came outside with the leash, he couldn't contain himself. In fact, he took me for a walk. I thought a walk would exhaust him, but he had enough energy to ask to go out before bedtime and just laid on the driveway enjoying himself.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
BROADCASTING INTELLIGENCE
In a day where electronics can record and broadcast our "DUH" moves and behaviors, discretion and common sense MUST be used.
Hourly, people are taking pictures and making recordings of life as they see it. Most cell phones are equipped with photographic and video capabilities, as well as immediate internet access. You take a picture of you and your friend at a concert and post it on your Facebook page. You record a fellow worker putting excess salt on a co-worker's lunch and post it on You Tube.
But, before you post that picture or video, or even speak out against your employer, STOP AND THINK. Employers check out their employee's Facebook pages and other social sites.
It is not, I repeat NOT, wise to record you and a co-worker goofing around at work, playing a prank on a fellow employee, or even recording your antics outside of the workplace and then post your pictures or "home made video" on You Tube or some other comparable website.
"Why?" you ask.
At the work place, you are representing the company you are working for. If your friends can find the video, so can your employer, the competitor, and those who are your employer's customers. Think about what your "video" says about your employer and, if applicable, your employer's product. Would you do business with someone whose employees act like your video suggests? Would you buy a product from them?
Your employer has a right to discipline you as an employee for unacceptable behavior. You could be fined, suspended, or worst of all, fired.
In a time when broadcasting can bring instant gratification, it is imperative that you think BEFORE you publish or broadcast. Step into your employer's position. What action would you take against a person who did what you just did?
Hourly, people are taking pictures and making recordings of life as they see it. Most cell phones are equipped with photographic and video capabilities, as well as immediate internet access. You take a picture of you and your friend at a concert and post it on your Facebook page. You record a fellow worker putting excess salt on a co-worker's lunch and post it on You Tube.
But, before you post that picture or video, or even speak out against your employer, STOP AND THINK. Employers check out their employee's Facebook pages and other social sites.
It is not, I repeat NOT, wise to record you and a co-worker goofing around at work, playing a prank on a fellow employee, or even recording your antics outside of the workplace and then post your pictures or "home made video" on You Tube or some other comparable website.
"Why?" you ask.
At the work place, you are representing the company you are working for. If your friends can find the video, so can your employer, the competitor, and those who are your employer's customers. Think about what your "video" says about your employer and, if applicable, your employer's product. Would you do business with someone whose employees act like your video suggests? Would you buy a product from them?
Your employer has a right to discipline you as an employee for unacceptable behavior. You could be fined, suspended, or worst of all, fired.
In a time when broadcasting can bring instant gratification, it is imperative that you think BEFORE you publish or broadcast. Step into your employer's position. What action would you take against a person who did what you just did?
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
A DOG'S LIFE???
There are some people out there that believe a dog has a perfect life; however, I'd like to argue that, in reality, a cat actually has the perfect life, or at least my cat does.
I have both a dog and a cat; both are foundlings. In other words, both animals were rescues. Harley, our dog, was adopted from the animal shelter. A garbage man had discovered Harley and his brothers and sisters. The puppies had been placed in a plastic bag and thrown into a dumpster. When we went to the shelter to find a puppy, Harley was the only one of the "foundlings" left. Spike, the cat, was also a "foundling," but he had been discovered with his brother under a co-worker's hedges. The two kittens had been abandoned by the mother, not the owner. Now both loving pets dwell in harmony.
Spike is a smaller creature and a cat, and it is virtually impossible to stop cats from jumping onto furniture and counters. So, whereas Harley is not allowed on the new furniture, Spike can be found snoozing on the back of the couch or crawling across my stomach to snuggle under my arm as I type. Harley is kept off the furniture and curls up in various corners. Wouldn't you rather be a cat?
Even on the coldest winter evenings, Harley must be let outside to "do his business." The cat, on the other hand, has a litter box under the sink in the bathroom. Which pet would you say has the better deal here?
Although Spike generally gets his bowl filled with dry cat food, on Sundays he gets treated to a pouch of moist cat food. Daily treats, as well as catnip, are put in his bowl at random. Harley's bowl, however, is filled with the same food day in and day out. His treats come every time he has done something rewardable, like staying in his yard when I decide it is too cold for me to traipse outside and wait for him to do his "business." Harley will also find himself the recipient of various table treats. On diet, I'll agree that the dog might have it better, except that it is legal for the cat to get "stoned."
Dog or cat, there are many days that I would love to lay around all day in the patch of warm sun and take a nap when I want.
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