Going, Going, Gone..............

Well this week has flown by. The best part about this week is that one of my problem students withdrew from school. Shit, was I HAPPY. Things have been a little better without him there.

Well, I've gone and done it....I went ahead and scheduled my surgery. I will be under the knife or should I say lazer tomorrow at 1:30, and my gall bladder will be going bye bye. I'm looking forward to being able to eat and drink whatever I want again, but the best thing is that I can have coffee. It's a necessity when you wake up at 5:30 everyday. I've never had any kind of surgery before so I don't really know what to expect, but I'm just hoping for the best.

Today I Got to Watch Oprah

Thanks to Rita, we got to leave early from school today. We dismissed at 1:45, not because of weather conditions, but because of the damn traffic. I swear, the past two days it seems I was the only person heading towards the opposite direction on I-10. This morning the other side of the highway heading into San Antonio looked just like the scene out of "Deep Impact" where all the cars are pulled over and on the road trying to outrun the meteor.

We'll see what will come of this hurricane, its just sad that it has to occur only three weeks after Katrina. I still am not over the damage that it caused to New Orleans. New Orleans will always hold a special place in my heart because I had the best time there! I probably have some of the last pictures of the way the city looked prior to Katrina since I was there exactly a month before it occurred. All we can do is pray now.

Right now I'm really tired but it's too early to go to bed yet. I'm alone right now because Roger and Danny are at Sunset Station watching some heavy metal bands. I had dinner with them at Aldacos then headed back home.

I'm thinking I will go downstairs, get comfy on the couch and order a movie on pay per view. Adios!

Good Day at Work

Today was a great day at work. I can't believe I actually just typed that. The reason my day was great is because my problem student was suspended. Yesterday he slammed another student's head into her desk and she lost a tooth. I will also add that the other child did nothing to provoke this and I had just had a conference with this student, the principal and his mother that very morning. The kid is a moron, I'm sorry to type that but it is what it is. Personally, I don't feel that he should be around other students out of concern for their safety and well being.

Today was also the first time that I allowed my students to sit in groups. Yesterday afterschool I rearranged the room because I felt that they could handle the new seating arrangement and today they proved to me that they could. It is amazing how one child can disrupt the entire class and the days activities. We got sooo much done and the other kids were happy that he wasn't in class today. Unfortunatley, he will be back tomorrow and will probably be full of energy and I will come home crying and frustrated as usual.

BEST TEE I EVER HAD

Beverly reminded me of the awesome shirt I got at Gary Allan's concert Friday night. It is super comfortable and I love the way it fits....here it is....




Thanks Maribel for spotting me the cash to get this shirt. Would you or Bev do me a favor and email me your address so I can pay you back?

A Hot Friday Night With Gary

I am exhausted from this past weekend. On Friday I hit the door running at 3:45...that was the earliest I have ever left from work. I drove into San Antonio and picked up a quarter pounder at McDonalds and headed home to catch the last 15 minutes of Oprah. Sadly, it was a rerun and just not something I wanted to see while I was eating. Oh well, maybe next time.

I took a shower and got dressed then headed to Beverly's apartment so we could leave for Floores early enough to get a good spot at the concert. This time we weren't right up in front, but we were about 3 people behind so it was ok. It really is so much better to be the first people upfront because you can lean on the railing and take the pressure of your feet and knees. It was so FREAKING hot!! It was almost as hot as New Orleans but not as humid and I was kicking myself for not brining a rubber band for my hair.

Aaron Watson openend up and this was the first time we had seen him, and he was pretty good. He seems like someone you would have gone to school with...just the boy next door. He played for about an hour and then Gary came on at 10:30. He was awesome as usual and was even more talkative than the last time we saw him. He came out wearing that nice brown jacket he has on in his promo pics, but as hot as it was, it was almost painful to look at him wearing that jacket. He took it off after the first song and was wearing an awesome Rolling Stones vintage tee, true religion jeans and a cowboy hat. I will also add that his belt was pretty cool too!







He played for about 2 hours and we heard the usual songs but also heard Wake Up Screaming, It Would Be You, Don't Leave Her Lonley Too Long, Devil's Candy, I Don't Look Back, part of What would willie do... Gary had to stop the song cause he forgot the words and didn't want to "butcher" it, Showman's Life, Going Where the Lonley Go, Me and Billy the Kid, Can't Do it Today, Bourbon Borderline and Long Long Year. We even heard new songs off the upcoming album...He Can't Quit Her, No Damn Good, Tough All Over and Putting Memories Away. One of my favorite moments was when he performed "Best I Ever Had", we noticed that he sang the entire song with his eyes closed and the whole audience joined in singing with him..it sounded great.

I also got to meet Beverly's friends Miguel and Maribel who were great....nice to meet you guys! It was a good night and one that I really needed because I never once thougt about my problem students during the entire show! Floore's was a fun venue but the heat was too much and there was hardly any breeze at all....hopefully the next show will be indoors or during cooler weather!

On Saturday we headed to Eagle Pass for Roger's grandpa's party. Since I wake up at 5:30 for work everyday, and also stayed up late for the concert the night before, I was DEAD tired by 1:00 a.m. I swear, I have never in my life been so tired, I went out like a log. On Sunday, the party continued because more family arrived from out of town and since Roger had had a few toooo many, I had to drive back home while he slept. We got back into San Antonio around 12:30 a.m. I only slept about 4 hours or so last night so I am still damn tired right now. I'm hoping to hit the sack early. I'm outta here!

Foamy the Squirrel

http://foamy.libertech.net/kat.swf

A Movie Review

I loved the movie "Before Sunrise" and it always fascinates me because I think it was a hard movie to shoot. The actors (Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy) have to have some kind of chemistry in order to keep the dialogue flowing throughout the entire film. I bet the majority of it was improvised. The conversation is believable and it almost seems that the movie was shot in one long entire shot without any major editing. At the end of the movie I am dying to know whether they really met each other at the train station 6 months later, I want to know what became of their relationship. It's the same feeling I get from watching "An Affair to Remember" except no one is hit by any car or is paralyzed.

Well you can imagine how excited I was when I found out they made a sequel to this film..."Before Sunset". I didn't get to see it at the theatre, but this past Saturday night I was home alone and to my surprise, HBO was showing it. Of course I was glued to the tube. After seeing this film I have to say I am disappointed...Yes, I know that most sequels suck, but this one had such promise. It could have been great. This one has a lot of Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah....and just too much conversation about the meaning of one's life and environmental issues. Ethan Hawke's character is married in this film and it takes over an hour before she even asks about this. Come on people. The ending also leaves you wondering, I mean it's no secret that they probably have sex, but do they stay together? Will he leave his wife? Did he miss his flight home? I dunno, it just seems that they shouldn't have left any questions unanswered in this film, we did after all wait 9 years for this sequel. Maybe we will have to wait another 9 years for the third film titled "Before Noon".

Worst Week Ever!

Just when I was feeling that things were getting better at work and the kiddos were finally getting good with the rules and procedures.......I had the worst week ever. Mostly it was all do to Pablo my trouble maker. He was actually worse than the 9 year old in my class. Also, I got another student added to my class so now that makes 21. I can't freaking believe I have that many students in a supposed bilingual class.
Over three days Pablo managed to do the following:
*Talk back rudely to me twice
*Push and knock down a girl who hit her head during recess
*purposely slam into a girl while walking in class
*Kick another student during class
*Knocked down my 9 year old student after hitting him in the arm (this one didn't bother me ;)
*Pulled the chair out from under another student, causing her to fall
*Made several messes in the boys restroom with soap and water
*Stole numerous pencils and erasers from other students
*Made a horrible mess with markers when he shouldn't have been using them
*Refused to work on anything we were doing
*Was loud and disruptive
*Ran in the hall and classroom
*Instigated several fights over some stupid rubber bracelets which I have now banned from my class

On Wednesday I had had it and I sent his ass to the principal's office but he really didn't do anything about it. If you ask me, they should never have done away with spanking. On Thursday, THAT WAS IT, after telling him that I was calling his mom, he acutally said to me "You don't know the phone number, my mom's name, my dad's name or where they work." I looked at this stupid kid and stated exactly where his parent's worked and made the whole class listen as I phoned his mother at work. He began sobbing and I was loving it. I told his mom what he was up to then made him talked to her as we all watched. The rest of my class was horrified and completely feaked out. Pablo handed the phone back to me and his mom asked if I could keep him after school so she could go pick him up and talked to me. She showed up at 4:00 and we had a good conversation for about 25 minutes about him. The next day he was better but by the afternoon I had to keep on him as he was acting out again. This kid has serious issues and should not be in a regular class. He is much too aggressive and is taking a lot of my instructional time. Oh, and did I mention that it was during this time that Region 20 decided to pop up and observe me...fucking craptastic.

Now tomorrow starts of a new week and I'm praying it will be better. The only thing I'm looking forward to is Friday night when Bev and I will be jamming out at the Gary Allan concert at Floore's. I need some fun!!

September 11, 2001

Four years ago this morning I was in my apartment putting my makeup on in the bathroom getting ready for work. At that time, I was working for Bromley Communications as a Traffic Coordinator. Roger was still there because instead of going into the office, he was going to a Microsoft training. He woke up and was in the shower and I turned the tv on to NBC to watch the Today show. There was a report about a plane that had just hit the World Trade Center. I was listening as I continued applying my makeup and now I will admit that I really didn't know much about the World Trade Center..where exactly it was or what people did in it but I was thinking what a horrible accident this was.

Suddenly, I hear a big commotion from the television and I see the second plane crash through the next tower. I was in complete shock and I tell Roger what happened. I found it difficult to continue getting ready and actually leaving for work because I wanted to see what was happening. I'm in my car listening to the radio reporting on this situation when they announce that a third plane has hit the pentagon. At this moment I was absolutely terrified. It was all so surreal, I could not believe what was going on. I remember sitting in traffic on Nakoma directly across from the airport waiting to get onto 281 when they reported that all planes were to be grounded. I picked up my cell phone and called my mom, I knew she probably didn't know what was going on since she worked at a junior high.

I arrive at the office and nobody was working. All of us on the 3rd floor were huddled around a small tv in one of the creative director's offices. This agency has many ties to New York including people that work over there and people who worked with us that have family in New York. We heard about the 4th plane that went down and watched in horror as the towers fell. Everyone was crying and hugging each other and because work seemed so irrelevant amidst the events of that morning, by 10:30 we were all told to go home. I went back home and was glued to the television all day long.

Now, I remember September 11, 2001 like it was yesterday and it makes me weep to imagine what those innocent people and the heroes who emerged to help during this crisis went through. All those who perished that day were just like you and me. They were husbands, wives, children and friends who were just trying to get home to their loved ones or were working at their jobs not knowing that life as we knew it would forever be changed that morning.