Adventures of a Shockingly Average 30-Something

Another busy, hectic, crazy day.  And I loved absolutely every second of it.  I spent most of the morning while the kids were at their special (today it was music) in the teacher's room, making copies of work sheets and things like that.  All was going well until the copy machine jammed and I didn't know how to fix it.  Luckily another teacher was there, and she helped.  Then it was out of paper and I didn't know how to put more in, but luckily (again) someone else was there to help.  I got back to the classroom when the kids were doing calendar, and spent a bit of time correcting homework and morning work. The class is broken into reading groups based on their reading level, and I work with the more advanced readers in the class.  That was a bit crazy for me today because while the girls were listening and ready to read (they're so eager to please, I love it!), the boys in the group were goofing around and not listening.  I think they...

Today was my first day being in a classroom!!!  I was in a first grade classroom, and that's where I'm going to be on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next 4 weeks. I got up at 5:15 this morning so I could leave my room by 6:20 to meet my friend I was getting a ride with by 6:30 so we could be there by 7:30 so she could drop me off at the school I'm assigned and still be at the school she was assigned on time.  Her GPS was wrong though, and it did NOT take us an hour to get there. We were actually there right around 7:10, so we just sat in her car in the parking lot for a bit. Once we could finally go inside, me and the others assigned to the same school, we sat in the lobby outside the office waiting for our coordinator to get there so she could give us a tour of the school.  We were all talking about how nervous we were for this, but we were all excited at the same time.  Well, I was anyway.  And I'm assuming they were as well.  The school was small, bu...

A friend of mine needed a model for a shoot for her photography class, and she asked me if I would be willing to model for her.  Of course, I said yes! The shoot was today.  It was an insane asylum themed shoot, and was a TON of fun to do!!  My hair refused to cooperate and be messy - even with hair gel! - so we had to get it wet and work with it like that to make it be messy (because I was supposed to look crazy).  I poked myself in the eye more times than I could count while putting on eyeliner, and then she did the rest of the makeup on me.  I wore a white long-sleeved shirt in the first few shots we did, and then changed to a white tank-top.  I was wearing skinny jeans (because it's been yucky and rainy outside and all my jeans are too long on me except for skinny jeans, so if I wear skinny jeans the bottoms don't end up all wet from walking in the puddles that are impossible to avoid and deeper than my shoes.) but I brought a pair of khakis and chang...

Do you ever have a conversation with one of your friends, and that friend says something that... it just hits you.  It's not something you'd thought about, but the more you do, the more you realize that "oh. Yeah." I was with one of my friends last night and we drove past one of my other friends.  She was walking with someone, but I didn't catch who.  "Was she with (name)?" I asked, hoping he would say no.  Which he did.  I smiled, not meaning to.  "He's nice and they seem happy and all, but... I don't know.  Something about him just bothers me." It was quiet in the car for a second before he responded with "Because she's with him and not you?" I was quiet, not knowing how to respond.  I did like her at one point, but not any more.  I mean, I didn't think so anyway.  We're friends .  He is nice though, and the two of them really do seem happy together.  So then what is it about him that bothers me?  I don...

Well I was watching Pretty Little Liars, but the livestream I was watching it on stopped working right after the first commercial break, so now I've got to wait a bit until I can watch tonight's episode.  So I figured I'd write on here for a bit.  I actually wanted to make a youtube video, but my camera isn't charged right now.  So writing it is. It hit me last night as I was falling asleep that almost my entire friend group from my first year here at Potsdam is going to be gone next year.  A few are already gone, transferred to other schools.  Like Sam.  He was pretty much my best friend up here my first semester here, but that closeness was short-lived, and by the second semester of school, he'd moved on to other friends, leaving me behind.  That hurt, but I'm used to it.  He transferred to another this semester.  Anna is going back to Vermont after this year.  Sara is done after this year.  Ben is graduating this year...

Do you ever dream of getting away?  Doesn't every small town kid dream of leaving that small town and never looking back?  I can't even count the number of times I've heard "I hate this county/town. I can't wait to get the **** outta here!"  I mean, I've said it too.  I've said, so many times, about how one day I'm going to leave and never come back.  How I'm going to go to Australia and never come back to the states.  And especially never go back to the county I grew up in. But honestly? I really wouldn't mind spending the rest of my life in that county.  I have so many memories there that I don't want to let go of.  I photoshopped this picture the other day, of me when I was a kid and last year.  I'm in the exact same spot in both pictures -- leaning against the tree in the churchyard across the street from my grandparent's house. I really feel like there's something special about that.  You know? I can see mys...

I feel like it's been forever since I just sat down and wrote down my thoughts.  I don't even know what I want to write right now, but I just want to.  So I'm going to sit here and type until I decide to stop procrastinating and go take a shower so I can get to bed at a somewhat reasonable time seeing as I have to get up at 6:30 in the morning to be at class at 7:30.  What?  It takes me a while to wake up in the morning. I've taken the first step in applying for student teaching, which is insane to think about.  A year from now, I'll be student teaching.  A year!  That's hardly any time at all!  It's less than a year, actually.  It's more like... ten months.  Scary and exciting at the same time. I haven't written anything in my book for several days now.  I think it's been about a week.  I have the ending written... I just have to figure out what still needs to happen before then. There's a dance at school in a couple mon...

I turned twenty-one just about exactly four months ago, in October; it'll be exactly four months on the tenth.  Everyone looks at twenty-one as exciting and great.  They say you're in best years of your life.  Twenty-one is such a glamorized age, but no one ever talks about the down-side of being twenty-one. Growing up, my sister and I weren't told that we weren't allowed to have alcohol while we were at home .  It was something that was allowed - not as an everyday thing, but on special occasions like holidays, birthdays, or sometimes just dinner at grandma's house. Yes that is wine in the glass. Because it was never made into a big deal at home, it never felt like a big deal as I was growing up.  I had friends who went out drinking and getting drunk before they were twenty-one, but I was never into that.  I didn't have to sneak a drink.  If I wanted some wine, or a rum-and-coke, or anything, I just had to ask permission first. ...