13 Days Later...

I have survived another two weeks. Wednesday was the watershed "field experience." That's teacher code for "we're going on a field trip, but not really because we're going to make the kids work some." I suppose 'experience' makes the trip sound more meaningful and learn-a-riffic. Personally, I'm a-okay with anything that mixes up the daily routine. It was a lot of work, and we got rained on for the last twenty minutes, but breaking the daily grind was priceless. I would've shown up to work sick and vomiting to make the trip and then used sick leave for the day after.

After the trip, as I was cold and wet and supervising kids, I had a craving for a drink Carrie fixed for me yesterday: Irish Coffee. Coffee is the devil, but the Irish make it in a way even I'll drink it! Specifically, when I'm cold, wet, and tired. I would've loved one in that cafeteria...especially because I was out of my true love: tea. Don't worry, tea.  I haven't forsaken you..., but I may be adopting a special coffee for special occasions. Carrie's thrilled she finally got me to admit to liking a coffee. She made homemade cream and she made one for her mom yesterday to show off how she converted me to the 'dark side.'

It's been a while since I updated, so I guess I'm going to do a 'bullet dump.' That's where I throw up a 'click to read more' and drop a bunch of bullets about random crap that's been going on the past 13 days so that no one has to read it unless they click.



Work:
-I feel like I'm earning every last cent I'm paid this year. The kids are nice, but very varied in ability and I'm working my fanny off.
-I didn't aggressively campaign for many "Exceptionals" in my self-eval due to last year, but it's looking like my evaluation will be all right this year. There's some sort of drama going on upstairs (ever see someone storm out of a meeting talking to themselves only to have an admin show up later and go track them down?), and my evaluator has been telling me she keeps hearing good things about me.
-I have one kid in one of my classes who "is going to be the death of me" as my teacher roomie says. I know that this is the same kid who's under the skin of several teachers I've talked to. Here's to hoping I survive this one.
-I have a few kids who keep surprising me in every which direction. That's why they're special, though! We just took a pre-test of ALL the content of my grade level throughout the year. One kid took over two days and scored a 70%! Then I had another kid who scored a 0% after taking the test for all of -5 seconds. I was helping a kid with logging in, and this kid managed to open the test and submit it before the everyone else started to take it.
-I have a mentee at work I think I'm going to really like. My first mentee got transferred into one of my classes where I have to be a drill sergeant. Being a mentor is supposed to be for a kid you don't teach to keep it a non-judging relationship, so I requested a switch before I actually introduced myself. My new mentee already seems to have bonded to me and ran home and googled a song I randomly mentioned for all of 3 seconds at the mentor program kickoff (Re Your Brains....Halloween's almost here and he mentioned scary songs). He was singing it in my learning seminar class the next day.  Whoops.

Tutoring:
-Why did I never do this before? Oh wait, I did for $20 an hour way back when. I wasn't as confident about what I offered then I guess. I also didn't feel like I bonded with the kid that time, so I wasn't 110% committed.
-I do feel bonded to my pupil this time and his family. I think they're good people and I feel like I'm making a difference with what I'm doing. The mother already asked me if I'll be helping throughout high school too.
-I've forgotten a lot of higher math. The mother has asked me to help her older daughter with algebra 2 a couple of times now and it always takes me a minute or three to dredge the material out of the depths of my memory. The first time, I mistakenly used the acronym FILO when I should have been using FOIL. For those non-mathy people, it's not a big mistake, but when you're supposed to be teaching something it's not the best to mix up a sorting method with a way of condensing polynomials.
-Over the summer, I had to bring Shane with a me a few times and he got to play around with the rest of the family while I tutored.
-I hope I can keep up the good work! I'm glad I'm only doing one pupil because I don't feel like I have the energy or time to focus on more.

Shane:
-This kid is STRONG.
-His growth rate has slowed down, but he's able to take steps without holding on to anything now. He can cruise with one hand on an object and sometimes (when he has too much energy) I let him crawl up the stairs (under close supervision of course).  When Carrie's mom was here, Shane went up the staircase four times in a row before he got bored and wanted to crawl after the cats.
-I've been seeing more and more complex behaviors from my son. In "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" he first reaches to the hole in the middle of the page to pull it up, and then he reaches under the newly lifted page to turn it.
-On days when I'm exhausted I sometimes feel guilty that I'm not devoting more energy to Shane. Those are the times I just lay on the group and let him crawl all over me, while I make the occasional sound effect and try to sleep.
-Shane does not like me being on the computer. He's horribly offended by anyone being on the opposite side of a barrier where he's not allowed to roam. The boy is a born explorer.
-Shane got his first ear infection last week. Carrie had one too! I was getting ready for work when she said that she needed me to stay home. It didn't help that the cats were all boot-scooting around the carpet because I switched their foods too quickly.
-I can't help but feel proud of my son already. He's one good-looking baby. I can't help but feel we missed the boat in not getting him an agent sometimes!

Miscellaneous:
-Igor's bday was a lot of fun. It was nice seeing everyone for at least an hour and a half! Of course, Shane decided to have trouble sleeping that night and Carrie sent me a text asking me to come back and help.  It's like the boy knows when I'm out.
-John is still ignoring/blocking any time I call. I keep trying, but he's never forgiven me for 'moving on' with my life and getting married and having a family I guess. It's hard to know for sure when he won't talk about it for the past years. I'll keep calling every now and then to see if that ever changes, but you can't make someone pick up a phone.
-Fantasy football has been fun! I'm first in the home league and next to dead last in the friend league. Go figure. I'm playing Carrie in both leagues this weekend for some spousal rivalry.
-"Evolving Plots" is by far my most clicked journal, which I find hilarious. I guess I really am on Google somewhere and if someone searched deep enough (past all of the relevant material) they may stumble across my post when looking for writing advice. Weird.
-One of my sisters got (legally) hitched last week. It was a courthouse affair, but it still counts. Both she and her now-husband work for the government and if they weren't married it would've been problematic in making sure they got posted within the same country! A big congrats to her! I'm a lucky guy in that I like both of my brother-in-laws....and I've also beat both in the fantasy league this year, but who's keeping track? I'm sure there'll be a real "wedding event" later.
-I've been feeling a bit of wanderlust lately. Maybe I'm too young to have been in the same position for four years (life-changing events like marriage and baby or not!). I've been looking up random places on wikipedia and looking at photos on of my friends posts of random things he spies in Seattle (http://oneemptyspace.tumblr.com/). When Shane is older, I WANT to take him to live somewhere other than here for at least a year. I don't think it's healthy to spend all of your life in only one place.
-Another of my friends was making "american sushi" last night. French fries, popcorn chicken, mcnuggets, and I don't know what all else rolled up in bacon. I should be in awe, but it just made my stomach hurt to look at it. Yet another sign I'm old, I suppose.

That's all for today. Shane's keeping me busy. He first woke up at 4 this morning and then he got me up for good around 5:15 AM. He took a short nap which allowed me to start this journal entry, and now he's back to demanding Da-da-da-da-da-da time.