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2002-06-16 - 8:33 p.m. Has anyone ever actually seen my diaryland banner? I'm just curious if it ever went up because I never once saw it, and I saw Epiphany's banner ten million times. Long time, no write. This has been the last week of school, so that's where I've been. We had a review day on Monday, along with an HOUR AND FIFTY MINUTE assembly. It was supposed to be forty-five minutes long, and the awards kept going and going. Some teachers talked for what seemed like hours. I decided not to give any awards. My actual plan was to give the awards in class, but somehow that never happened. The kids didn't seem to notice. Poor kids. Tuesday and Wednesday were the sophomores' final days. It seemed to go fairly well. Most did fine. It was all multiple choice so I graded it in class. Actually Tuesday I was gone for two of the finals, and the teachers who were subbing for me graded them for me. That was a nice surprise, to be sure. I was at one of my curriculum meetings again. So Thursday was a half day for the students, and their check out day. That was sort of hectic because we have to make sure they have all their books in and have to sign off on their sheets. While in theory that would be calm and orderly, in reality it consists of ten million people wanting you to fill out their sheet at the same time. While I had them pile their books and sheets on my desk, inevitably I was interrupted ten million times by kids saying, "Did you do my sheet yet?" "Can you sign my yearbook?" "What am I supposed to do with the folder?" "Where is my grade printout?" "Can I go try to find the book in my locker?" "Can I go get a new sheet from the office, I lost mine?" "Someone stole my pen. I hate this class; I can't believe someone stole my pen!" So each time I lost my train of thought and had to reorganize myself. That's one of the biggest things about teaching that you don't really realize. At all times there are at least five different things going on. You have to constantly multitask and try not to get stressed out. Anyway, then we had this quick staff meeting, and then we had the end of school party at Mr. Hardteacher's house. I was able to bring a most popular item: Coronas. I had two of them, plus chili, chicken wings, two slices of cheesecake, and tons of barbecued oysters. They were actually good. I discovered either you love or hate oysters, and I seem to love them. Everyone of the oyster barbecuers were really excited about that, and kept force feeding me them. I had to finally throw out my plate to get them to stop handing them to me. I ended up staying at the party about five hours, so I must have been having a good time. I also got a cool present--the newer teachers got presents of office supplies because it was a big joke about how toward the end of the year the secretary noticed we kept going to the supply cabinet to try to find supplies. Apparently all the other teachers know that by that time of year there are no more supplies left. Anyway, it was very cute and I liked the supplies they gave me. I also did actually have a good time hanging out with the other teachers. The principal's wife is really nice and she talked to me a lot of the time. I didn't actually talk that much to anyone, but a lot of people talked to me, so I didn't feel lonely. I always feel good when I have a decent time at a social gathering because often I just feel really awkward. Friday was a work day, so I spent the day getting my room in order. I didn't completely finish, so I went in today to get my stuff more organized. I now am pretty much done. I have one box of stuff I would like to go through, but it can wait until next year. I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but a lot of the sophomore girls wrote very nice things to me in their journals about how they enjoyed my class and stuff like that. It was a pleasant surprise because things with the sophomores can be very crazy and up and down sometimes. I also didn't really expect it coming from them because it's not like with the seniors where they are at the end of their school career so they are sort of reflecting on who helped them in high school. Oh, and I also got a very nice email from one of my senior parents. She thanked me for keeping in touch with her through email (we had been emailing regularly the last six weeks of school so we could stay on top of her son), and said her son showed her the card I gave him and how nice it was. It was really very sweet. Anyway, I'm still feeling the sort of panicked--"What am I forgetting to do?!" feeling that comes with being a teacher. Hopefully I'll get over it soon. I spent this first weekend off just relaxing, other than going in to school today. I ended up renting a few movies. I got On the Line with Lance Bass from N*Sync. Now, I know you are thinking I'm a dork to rent such a movie. You know, I really am. As you know, I love N*Sync, but even I knew that this movie would be bad. I was just hoping it would be a so-bad-it's-good movie. No, it was a so-bad-it-sucks-worse-than-your-worst-nightmare. The worst part about it, or the best, was that it was PG-13 so they said things like, "We really messed Kevin over." intead of, "We really screwed/fucked Kevin over." The highlight of the movie was when Chris(?) and Justin were in the credit reel and they were pretending to be hairdressers for Lance and Joey. Justin said with a lisp, "You mean N*STINK!" and it cracked me up. It was the only time I laughed during the entire movie. Even the soundtrack sucked, having only one good song on it (And there weren't even any videos on the DVD extras!!!! HELLO, it should be a given on a movie starring members of N*Sync to have videos on the extras.) The other movie I rented was Hard Eight by the director of Boogie Nights and Magnolia. It was either his first film or one of his first films, and it had people who were in both of those movies as well. I liked it, but it wasn't great. It was kind of depressing. I definitely liked the other two better. I also ended up finally getting to watch a movie I've been dying to see for awhile. Startup.com was on the Sundance Channel. It's a documentary about two guys who were friends in high school starting a dot.com and you see the progress of the building of the business. It was pretty interesting, but also depressing. I also ended up cleaning my kitchen and living room and doing massive amounts of laundry. So exciting, yet so necessary. I also packed for my trip to Seattle. We're going for three days. I'm hoping it will be fun. I'm not sure what we're doing because Mark and Elizabeth planned the trip. Jason is coming as well, so we are all five going to be in one hotel room. That should be interesting. Sometimes I wonder how he feels to always be the fifth person who has no girlfriend, but he doesn't seem to mind. I'm still not sure if we will have time to meet Jasmine for a drink or something. I would like to call her to arrange that, but I'm not sure what we're doing since it's not really my trip. I guess I can wait until we get there. She has a cell phone and all of that so it is easy to get in touch with her. Tomorrow I'm working on the curriculum stuff for awhile so I am (of my own free will) getting up early. I said I would work sometime this week, and I really can only do it tomorrow or Friday, so I figured I would do it today. If I owe you an email I promise I will write you back when I return from Seattle. I'm sort of short on time tonight because of my quest to get up early tomorrow.
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