A Great Book

I read a GREAT book this weekend. I was at the bookstore this weekend and picked up two new books because my subway reading book was getting towards the end. I picked up the book "P.S. I love you." It was a quick grab because it was only 14 dollars and I had heard of the movie, but not seen it.

This book was SO good. I got it on Saturday afternoon and finished it Sunday evening. All 470 pages. It was SO good. After looking on wikipedia it seems that there are a lot of differences between the book and the movie but I am still excited to see it. This being on the third book ever that I have read then seen the movie. The other two were with my student teaching class, Holes and Bridge of Terabethia. I am super excited to see the movie, even though they have adapted it to be in New York instead of Ireland. It was a GREAT book and an easy read. So if you are looking for a good book this is the one!

A long week

Why do weeks that are shorter seem SOO long? O wait. That's because my days have gone SOOO slow. I have worked only four days and I'm ready for a vacation. Its not like it has been a particularly challenging week but just slow.. each and every class has gone SO slow. But only three weeks till I get a week off. Spring break.

Though I am sad that I didn't have this entire week of to be with friends from Oregon, but my friends teaching in Oregon don't have a single day off (week day) until Memorial Day weekend. I have three weeks a week off then four weeks till Memorial Day. Then four weeks and we're done!

Summer school? Still not sure yet. We shall see. I kinda just want time to hang out and enjoy the city without having to teach. Or do ANYTHING but get a tan!!! Which I can do after I teach the half days of summer school but meh. A whole summer to myself and STILL getting paid would be AMAZING. I just wouldn't be able to pay for anything bc I would be spending all my money on food in the city for the day!

Great Weekend

It is the end of a long weekend for me. First, I had Friday off because it was Good Friday. Sweet. Jesus died and I get a day off!! I mean... it was a FUN day.

I spent all day Friday at the DMV. I literally spent 4 hours at the DMV. Then, in their grand fashion they took my Oregon licence (which I expected) only to give me a piece of paper without a picture on it. So they took five hours of my life and left me without photo id. I them got asked for my id twice this weekend. Once for something I cant remember, and once for the Letterman show (we didn't get on..:( ). This is Annie without photo id!

Then Saturday was amazing. Only in NYC you can you find a four block square, four different things going on. I ran into a HUGE pillow fight. It lasted over an hour. A real political rally about the war and Bush (big surprise right). A fake political rally for the new Dark Night Batman movie, Harvey Dent is running for District Attorney and they were shooting video of a fake rally. I even JOINED IN!~!! It was super fun. I handed out buttons and got on camera, being one of three girls there. And in Union Square there was also the weekly farmers market. I got some GREAT apple cider. That was all in about 2 hours!

Sunday was a day of productivity. I got up at 8. I cleaned the house, headed to the laundry mat to wash the blankets for my friends to come into town, went grocery shopping and was done with all of that by 12! Then I hung out until 1, where I was going to go check on my taxes because I haven't gotten them yet (I'm worried it's the wrong account number bc of the lack of info when I got my taxes done.) But of course, it was apparently Easter so I couldn't check on my taxes. I headed towards Manhattan, with a stop off at Borders to get a new book, I headed to the airport to pick up Meg and Brian!!! We had fun carting their luggage around Times Square, Rockefeller Center and into the Burger Joint (easily my FAV nyc restaurant). Then to Columbus Circle to head home. That was a good, productive but long day.

Monday was even longer. We were out of the house by 915. We headed everywhere. To Letterman to get tickets (which we didn't). Then to the Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art) which wasn't open on Monday's apparently. Then to the Guggenheim for an AWESOME display by a Chinese artist who apparently likes to create art using gun powder and then blowing it up! Then we headed to Limbardi's Pizza. It was great as always, if you want good authentic Italian pizza GO THERE!!! Then it was on to the World Trade Center and Wall Street. Then to the best restaurant that I can find that it unique (the Burger Joint is burgers), SuperMac is mac 'n' cheese with different kinds. I had some really goog cheese steak mac 'n' cheese! It was so good, though I really wasn't that hungry. Then, after waiting 45 minutes for a train at Penn Station, we headed home to get home at like 1030 My friends stayed up a little more and Annie hit the sack for work today! Sounds like fun hu!?!

Lookign forward to this weekend

It is going to be a great weekend. First, today is my friday! I am headed to department of motor vehicles tomorrow to get a NY drivers licence. So exciting. I just figure people are having issues finding the nearly rubbed off expiration date on my OR licence so might as well. I would get a regular id, which is 40 bucks cheeper, but this way I dont have to go through the process of getting a licence again when I move to another state. AND I can drive when I go home and/or rent a car.

Tomorrow night also opens the Duck basketball playoff run to the top. I might go watch in lower Manhattan with the Alumni chapter. It should be way fun.

The saturday I am taking my new dishes back because they came cracked. And maybe Ill see a movie or something.

Sunday. My friends from Oregon come into town. Im so excited to see them and show them my city. And because they are in town from sunday though thursday, I decided to take my frist official day off. That's right folks Annie's playing hookie from work to be a tourist guide to the city!!! Happy times. That should be my weekend..

You know. Im ok with four days on, four days off, four days on. It should be like that all the time!

Thinking of what can happen

Today at work one of my coworkers told me that her boyfriend passed away. He has been sick for only a couple of weeks. His life slipped away quickly. My friend was telling us that he had everything in order. He knew how he wanted to be taken care of and what he wanted to happen after he passed. She thought it was crazy that they had had these conversations just weeks ago and now here it was the day before his viewing. Crazy.

Situations, though morbid, make you think. What will happen to me? Who will take care of things? And what the hell am I doing now? He was completely healthy (as far as he knew) weeks ago and now hes not here. I just wonder when I will go and what the situation will be. I want to live for today. This living for today makes me want to do so many things but also makes me thankful for what I am doing. I am living for today... in NYC. I will never regret moving to NYC and the changes in my life since moving here. I do miss somethings... friends...places... but NYC was the best decision I have ever made. (<--rambling)

It makes a girl think. There is no way I want to be buried. Putting a dead body in a ground to take up more space just seems to be worthless. I want to be scattered in so many places. I want to be in NYC (Manhattan. top of the rock. statin island ferry. the bronx. the two and five trains!... Oregon. so many places in oregon. the dorms! the college of ed. cascade head up by lincoln city. newport. old town florence.) all of these places have so many of my memories. I just feel like if i was in these places the 'after life' would be SO much better. enjoying the places i enjoyed in life.

o. and yall need to celebrate my damn life. I am here to live it. and party while here. party when i leave!

A Great weekend

It was a GREAT weekend. I got to do some great stuff.
First, Friday was a day of finishing. FINALLY I got the project that my fifth graders worked on for six weeks DONE!!! It is printed and copied. They get to see them today! I am super excited for them to decorate the covers and be able to give a copy to the principal and assistant principal. The extra five dollars they cost are worth it (that way they can see what the kids have been doing!).

The other exciting thing this weekend was that a friend and I went to a Blazers game. Thats right. Blazers in the big apple. We got to see the Blazers beat the Knicks in over time. 120-114! It was a close game at the end of the fourth but Ptown prevailed. It was fun because we went with my alumni chapter, so we were in a section of Blazer fans! One guy sitting next to me had to ask me if I was with the Oregon fans or not... because I had bought a Knicks foam finger. I had to laugh. Yes, I was with the Oregon peeps, but beign the weirdo that I am (and this is partly mom's fault) I have a foam finger collection. Since I was at Madison Freaking Square Gardens, I had to buy a finger! It was awesome though. Knicks were coming back in the fourth and allthe fans were talking crap to us, because we were gunna lose. Yeah...they were quiet when we dominated in overtime! Life's great! now I shold probably think about going to teach! Love yall and miss you.

Looking toward the future.

I am looking toward the future these days. Of course, that is all I ever seem to do. Never really content in my current life. If this is true... not sure but it sure seems like it.

I am looking forward towards two things.
1: Next year. I am thinking I am going to continue in my current position. In looking at my job it seems that it would actually be easier to stay in my job. First, those students that I have this year will have me next year, know me and respect me more. Second, the principal said it was not an issue. Third, the principal also stated that we will sit down and have a discussion of what has and has not worked as well as how the job should be restructured for next year with what is and is not working.

2: The coming years after next year. It seems that I am dying to run away from hom.e NYC is amazing. I love living here and I am super excited for the summer to enjoy NYC in the hot swealtering heat. Then into next year. But after that...? I have been looking at teaching over seas. In 18 months I cannot see being in such a place that I cannot leave NYC and my job here... and over seas would be amazing. I am thinking... SPAIN!! Or maybe Greece!? I am thinking these look like freaking great experiences. Learning another language, being able to travel as well. Seeing Europe, which is something that no one in my family has done. I could see it. I could imagine it. We shall see....

Leave your thoughts!

Missing a Karen

Ahh... today ends the end of the four day whirlwind of tourism. I loved having Karen here. It was AMAZING! We went everywhere and saw everything. I miss her already! But needless to say my legs are excited to go back to work tomorrow. Should have told her to come wed through Sat instead of Sunday but o well! I lvoe her...we had way fun and took lots of pictures~ craziness!

Single

I am now single. Eric and I broke up. Just a general fyi.

Forgetting A Step

It seems that the weather around here has forgotten a step.

Back home... when it snowed, the snow melted. Not a problem. Or the snow melted when it rained... not a problem. But when it snows the DAMN RAIN IS SUPPOSED TO MELT IT!!!

It is not supposed to rain cats and dogs while there is still snow on the ground. The freaking streets here are discusting. There is snow on all of the side walks and on the sides of the streets. Now that it's raining there is plenty of water around, under and on top of the damn slush. It is freaking rediculous. And because there is so much excess water, the puddles on the side of the streets go ut at least 2 feet if not 3 or 4. That also doesnt account for the slush in these side puddles that make it look like just a little bit of a puddle, only to be stepped in and go down like four inches!!!

Needless to say it was not fun to get to work this morning... and now I have a double prep with nothing to do!

A good weekend

It was a good weekend. I did nothing really... but it was good.
I got a new couch. For those of you that don't know, I sat on my couch about three weeks ago and broke it. That's right..the couch that is less than six months old broke on me! The framing on the bottom of the couch broke. I called the company... after weeks of trying I finally got a new couch this weekend. AND because there was no saving the other one to resale it, they left the other one. So now I have two couches! It will be great when I have other people in my apt!

The other half of my weekend was productive. I got up on Sunday, went shopping for food, did laundry, tried to bake cookies (they burnt) and then made a very good batch of strognoff (sp?!) It was all in all a good weekend.

Now all I have to do is make it though the week... I have next week off and Karen will be here!!! I am SUPER excited!

Finding a ballance

As I sat with my mentor today, I am thinking ahead towards next year. The kids this year are driving me insane and so we were talkinga bout what to do. I am hoping that next year I can grow and do a better job, as it should be.

Things I am thinking about tend to center around the begining of the year. I need to

• get a grip on rules at the begining of year. rules need to include policies around computers, checking computers at the end of class, raising hands, getting my attention, plugging in computers
• also when it comes to behavior. calling home. i need to start early calling home for good and bad behavior.
• the using of a projector needs to happen early so they can get used to it
• the use of assignment sheets needs to be used early so that they can get the hang of it. start easy. a couple of steps then work up to it.
• go through the stuff i have this year and pull out good and bad stuffs. start with typing, then go with projects.

These are just some of the things that I need to do next year. Keep watch of more things to come.

an exciting project

After my kids finish their current project... newspapers, we are going to embark on movies. The kids are going to have a choice of two different projects. They may either choose to do a movie including pictures from the school (taken my yours truly) or they can use the ducky pictures that I am going to demonstrate with.
This weekend I am going to go on an adventure. As a tourist I have been a lot of places. I remember what it was like to see each for the first time and I want to convey that in video. But I really cannot take pictures of myself by myself in the city, so I have come up with a plan. It is going to be, A Day In The City with Ducky. Ducky will be getting on the subway... heading into town, getting on and off the subway, doing all the stairs and seeing the sites. Ducky is lucky because he will have me to document his journey. Then, after returning home with these documented pictures, I will be putting these pictures into a video. The cool thing that I can do is to narrioate what Ducky is doing then present the video to the kids. I am super excited about this project. It should be way fun. Hopefully I can get a large part of it done on Friday and the rest done on Saturday. Then I can spend the majority of Sunday putting the vidoe together. This is going to be super fun I hope. Ducky will get dirty, like every other NYC tourist, but we are super excited. Leave me a note if you would like to see Ducky's adventures. Maybe I will finally figure out YouTube and post it there and here. We shall see.

a great day

Sundays are usually a day of rest, or at least laundry. But this Sunday was SO awesome. Yesterday it was like 45 in the city and sunny. So, on a wim, I headed into the city. By myself.. that's it... just me. Walking around the city for like three hours.. enjoying the warm air that had just a nip of cold, the people..so many people enjoying the same, walking past fashion week, and getting a great deal on a fabulous new red top. It was a great Sunday. (ps. Go Giants! so sad I can't go to parade tomorrow..stupid people should wait till the weekend so morepeople can go!)

ah good movie

Last night I went to a free movie showing. It was for the new movie Forgetting Sara Marshal. The movie doesnt actually come out for another couple of months so it was a rough cut but the movie was REALLY good. Coming from the director (or producer i dont remember) of Knocked Up and Superbad, it was super funny and entertaining. I really want to go see the final theater cut so I can see what they took out and what they fixed but it was super funny. That's all I can really say bc I am swarn to secrecy..or I signed the weiver..

100th Post with some exciting news

So.. my friend REALLY wanted to get the new Mel Brooks cd of Young Frankinstein and we found out that he was signing them at Barn's and Noble on Tuesday in the city right... WELL!! Let me tell you.

After TWO hours of waiting in line we got down to two people in front of us. TWO!!! And they said he would not be doing any more signing. The people in front of us were very not happy. One was a bonified signature hounder and the other had worked on the opening production in Seattle this spring. Needless to say they were very upset and wanted to stay. So we stayed! After about 20 minutes they said 20 more people! BUT YOU MUST HAVE A CD! Crap. I didn't have a cd... so I let my friend go in to say hi and get a pict with my camera. O well right? Wrong.

The signature hound in front of us talked my friend into walking around the building to find the exit so we could meet him. At the back end of the building was the service entrance. Thats where he was gunna come out. WE knew it. After about another 15 minutes the big garage door opened and out poped MEL BROOKS! He stoped to sign the other guys stuff and then asked if I had anything to sign. I said no, he cracked a joke of can he read my book, shook my hand and he was off. Into his car and gone. Freaking cool! I shook his hand.

This is what NYC is all about!

Dang..gotta see movie

When the movie Spelling Bee came out I thought I would not need to see it. It seemed like a movie that I did not want to see. As it turns out.. I watched some of it with my fourth graders today and I NEED to see the rest of it.

They had watched the begining of it before I showed up and it was not over at the end of the period. I am going nutz to see how it ends!

And now I have some funny fifth graders trying to read my blog! They seem to think that it is funny to read over my shoulder when I am typing, though it seems very distracting!

Been a while

I know it's been a while.. for those loyal readers...I am sorry. Its been busy getting back to school and the swing of things.

School is...fine... kids are nutz and driving (or pushing) me in the same direction. It is state testing time here in the great state of NY so the kids are a little off. When you spend an hour to an hour and a half taking a test in the morning, computer time is not a time you want to sit and be quiet...even for five minutes apparently. I don't remember state tests being this guarded in Oregon last year, especially since they were on computers and we all took them at different times. These tests are almost as guarded as the tests I took on college to become a teacher. Its crazy... gotta love high stakes testing.

As for the home front... Eric got an internship! It is a three month internship in Seattle, WA. The company pushed it from 20 to 40 hours a week so he can actually afford to live in Seattle... if he doesn't find someone to crash with. It is a very exciting time bc this is all he needs to actually propel him into a career in marketing. The company (no idea of the name) is a SMALL company, with about 10 employees and services as a type of consulting firm (I think) and they said any interns that they have not directly hired have gone on to get jobs with their clients. So that's promising. As for actually living in Seattle... we shall see if he likes it.

Nothing else really major happening in the Annie world. I should probably get to work on some stuff for next week. Have a great day.

Ah a new year...

A new started out right... back to work on the second. Wait..that's not right.. damn them people who think we have recovered by day two of the year.

It has been a good year so far. I spent the last nine of '07 standing in Times Square NYC to see the HUGE ball drop its 77 feet to ring in the new year. After watching myself on the jumbo screen a billion times (the camera guy was stationed at our section) and walking about 25 blocks I made it home safely in about 2 hours. Not bad considering what it would have been if I had tried to get into the Times Square subway station. Suprisingly I had a seat by the second stop and slept a little once I was in the Bronx.

After sleeping away most of yesterday, sadly, it is time to return to work and make sure I have stuff for the little ones to do today during class.

24 hours....

In 24 hours I will be on a plane to come home! WooHOO! Im a little excited. It is a combination of being away for so long and needing a break from the city. I love the city..don't get me wrong, but it will be nice to go up to the cabin and enjoy the clean air and no traffic. I am sad that I have to leave the Suz home for a week by herself, but my manager is going to come check on her each day.

The issue now is... cleaning. I have to clean.. pack... and everything else that comes with leaving for a week. Dishes... clothes... Christmas light (so Suz doesn't eat them!).. all that fun stuffs. Along with being up at 245 tomorrow so I can put my clothes on (if I dont wear them to bed!!) and walk out the door to the train. Then ride the train and the buss the hour and a half to the airport. Find the right terminal and get the heack out of here!

23 hours adn about 20 minutes and counting. All I gotta do is make it through the next 6 hours and Im home free! Wish me luck!