So, Valentine's Day. It was a decent one. We gave each other chocolates (I made Justin get me one of those books of lifesavers, too. For some reason they don't have the butter rum flavor anymore. How weird is that?) We went to the Vietnamese/Thai place by Lloyd Center, and we went to see 50 First Dates, which was so cute.
Today is my best friend's birthday. I'm going to call her later. I want to go visit her sometime soon, but I don't know when.
I got some Valentines from my kiddies, which was very nice. I also had to supervise the dreaded V-day dance. In some ways it is fun because you get to see some of who likes who (For some reason I'm not as up on the gossip with the middle schoolers as I was with the high schoolers. It's very sad for a nosy teacher like me). But it is also so tragic seeing kids' hearts breaking. There is this one girl that I don't even especially love because she's kind of loud and annoying, though very smart. She breaks my heart, though, because at these stupid school dances I have noticed that she takes her glasses and pushes them on top of her head. It's just so blatently obvious that she's trying to get people to notice, "Look, I really am pretty without my glasses!" The worst part is that it doesn't work--I never see her dancing with anyone. It makes me feel horrible on so many different levels.
We have been testing and testing and testing. The computers went down a few different times last week, which means that I have two classes that still have to finish this week. After this we will have one more week of testing sometime in the spring. I'm not sure when I am going to have time to fit in any teaching. The good news, though, is that Oregon is going to move the writing tests to the seventh grade level so it's not all on the eighth grade teachers.
Since Measure 30 failed there are going to be even more budget cuts for schools. Even though we have the Multnomah County tax, it could still affect my job. I'm just going to hope for the best. I wish they would just get rid of CIM. It really seems like it would save a lot of money, but I have no idea how much it actually costs. Oregon schools are in a really bad place right now. Oregon in general is in a really bad place right now, actually. I don't know what it's going to take to get better.
The good news is that I had my second observation, and it went really well. My vice principal said some really, really nice things. It was probably the most positive feedback I have ever received. She was so impressed with how they were all on-task and engaged, how expectations are so clear, how procedures are in place, etc. I felt SO good after our discussion. She also recommended me for continued employment (not that I expected otherwise, but it is still a relief). The other thing that was really nice was that she told me my team leader has mentioned several times how much she appreciates having me on the team. Anyway, she also made it sound like my job will not be cut next year (despite possible budget issues). Keep your fingers crossed.
I bought a few new movies at Best Buy, since they have some hard-to-find movies. I got Center Stage, Big, and Zoolander. I love those movies so much. I can't wait to watch them. I never really have time to watch movies, but I guess I have to make time. Do you think it is wasteful to want to replace all of my VHS tapes with DVDs? Some of the ones that I really want on DVD are pretty cheap (Clueless, for example). But at the same time, that seems really extravagent. I also have to make the difficult decision about whether or not I should get the Freaks and Geeks special edition, which has an extra two DVDs of bonus material, or the regular edition. The worst part is the special edition is $120 while the regular is $50. Seventy dollars more for two extra DVDs? However, I really want the best of the best. What should I do? They are only making 25,000 copies of the special edition.
I've been reading so much non-fiction lately. I kind of miss reading novels, but nothing really appeals to me. I am currently reading Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken. It's pretty good, but I liked Dude, Where's My Country? better. It has some very funny lines, though. For example:
But, you know what, I don't want to get into a whole partisan politics thing here. Not in this book, anyway. We'll leave that for my next book, I Fucking Hate Those Right-Wing Motherfuckers!, due out in October 2004.
I liked it anyway.
I have the day off today, but apparently no one else does. Justin had to work. I tried not to gloat too much. Oh, he also passed his police officer test, so he gets to fill out this huge background information check. It's still a long shot, but he's that much closer. We'll see what happens.
