I didn't realize that I hadn't updated this blog since before I got back from my trip. Oops. Not that anything exciting has happened, but still, blogging is good for the soul. So let's catch up shall we?
I turned 27 the day after we got back. It wasn't bad, and I got a sweet backpack out of it for school. I also got a book for the ages, The Bitchy Waiter. I've been following Darron's blog for years and to have his book with some of my favorite stories in it is awesome. I got many other gifts but those were the ones I was most excited about.
June 14 marked the beginning of ESY. Through bargaining I was able to be with the kid I was supposed to be with, and three of her classmates. I'm not going to get into how much our on-site administrator messed up, she wasn't even there for the first week and we weren't even in our original classroom. The first week was rough, with no printer, a teacher who has never taught elementary, let alone autism, and an EA who just wanted to leave early. But I had my kooky pants, so I was happy. This week was better, we got back into our old classroom which has more materials, we have a new administrator who really knows what she's doing, and it's just all around better. Only nine days left.
J turned 26. It was a pretty good birthday for him...let's just leave it at that.
And now, for OT things.
I'm registered to take my CPR class July 1st. Monday I'm going to call my doctor to get my shot record and make sure I'm up to speed. The only foreseeable problem is my name...I know that my name is Kathryn and that there are at least a dozen different ways of spelling it, but it still annoys me when they get it wrong.
So last week I went to get my badge picture taken and after walking over from the OT building to the hospital, I notice that my name is spelled wrong. I had to walk all the way back in the sweltering New Mexican heat to have them fill out a new form and then walk back, hoping that the fact that I sweat like a man won't mess up my hair and makeup. So I get it fixed and the security guard says that my name is already in the system. So I get my picture taken, they print out my badge, and halfway back to my car when I see that my name is spelled wrong, which means that it's spelled wrong in the system...sigh. And my adviser is two steps away from popping out a baby and going on maternity leave. So at some point, I need to email her and see what I need to do to get my name fixed.
Oh, and one more thing. My car. I finally was able to figure out what the problem is, and it isn't the ignition switch. Turns out it is actually the radio. It's malfunctioning, Even though it's turned off there's a part of it that is still on when the car is off which is draining the battery. But I know what it is and I can maybe go somewhere and have them disconnect it until I can figure out what kind of radio I want to replace it.
And that's really it for now. I'm still excited about the comment I got on my last post, woot! Until next time!
Friday, 24 June 2016
Friday, 3 June 2016
From California to Nevada
What a vacation this has been. Let's go by the days.
Saturday: We didn't do much. J and his cousins played games and I played with my Nintendo DS. I was a little restless due to the craziness that has been by life the past year but I'm slowly learning to relax.
Sunday: We wanted to go to lunch and see a movie. And we did. Only we wanted to take my car and I left a light one. Yup, dead battery. As if my car wasn't going through enough problems. We were able to jump it and drive around to where we wanted to go though. We saw the new X-Men movie and I honestly can't understand the bad reviews it's getting because I actually liked it.
Monday: Again, we didn't do much. I got a new straightener and tried it out. It's one of the ones that looks like a brush. It works okay, but I'll know more when I'm in a modern bathroom.
Tuesday: Great day. We went to the water park with J and his cousin. It made me nostalgic for the days when the Beach was still a part of Albuquerque. I had so much fun and the best part was I didn't get sunburned due to winning at sunscreen application. The boys? Not so much. Luckily J's aunt has Aloe Vera plants aplenty. I think the best part was the wave pool for me. Swimming out there against the waves, finding a tube, getting in it, swimming out even further into the heart of the waves and riding them back. I loved it.
Wednesday. More car troubles. My car died yet again so we had to take J's cousin's car to San Diego. It was me, J, his cousin, his cousin's wife, J's mom, and the longest most annoying lawn decoration for two hours. We survived though. And had a great time at the San Diego zoo. I loved it there and even more so that I got to see panda bears for the first time. I got a ton of pictures. We didn't get back until late, but even then J's uncle was willing to take a look at my car. He thinks it might be the ignition switch which makes sense because the ignition was ripped to shreds last July when some assholes decided to try and steal my car. We got it started and charged up the battery overnight.
Thursday: We were going to go to the beach but since the boys got sunburned we went to the brewery and tried out some beers instead. As per usual, I learned that I love the dark chocolate beers and DESPISE IPAs. Afterwards was bowling where I was terrible as usual but did improve my score from a 51 to 69. That night was a party for J's grandmother who's birthday is on Sunday. She has the sweetest little dog that I love playing with. She's very sweet too, and in need of some care, as she only weighs 68 pounds. But she agreed to move in with J's aunt which I'm happy about because that way she will get the care she needs and she can gain some weight. She really is very nice and very sweet and I want to see her again, healthy.
Which brings us today: Spent the morning in a car and dropped J off at Excalibur on the strip in Vegas to have fun with his buddies. Then I drove to my aunt and uncle's house where food and comfort were waiting. J's aunt's house was so hot (they hadn't turned on the swamp cooler yet) and my aunt's house is so nice and cool. I even got to gamble some with them. I lost pretty bad. $40 of my own savings plus a $20 my aunt gave me and I got $3.28 out of it. Yeah not for me. And now I'm showered and ready for bed, sitting in a guest room blogging. I get my own bathroom which is nice. And a humidifier that is nice and loud for white noise.
I miss my house. I miss Albuquerque. This is the longest I've been away from home since before I started college. But it's been fun and I know I won't have a vacation like this until after I finish grad school probably. So I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
Saturday: We didn't do much. J and his cousins played games and I played with my Nintendo DS. I was a little restless due to the craziness that has been by life the past year but I'm slowly learning to relax.
Sunday: We wanted to go to lunch and see a movie. And we did. Only we wanted to take my car and I left a light one. Yup, dead battery. As if my car wasn't going through enough problems. We were able to jump it and drive around to where we wanted to go though. We saw the new X-Men movie and I honestly can't understand the bad reviews it's getting because I actually liked it.
Monday: Again, we didn't do much. I got a new straightener and tried it out. It's one of the ones that looks like a brush. It works okay, but I'll know more when I'm in a modern bathroom.
Tuesday: Great day. We went to the water park with J and his cousin. It made me nostalgic for the days when the Beach was still a part of Albuquerque. I had so much fun and the best part was I didn't get sunburned due to winning at sunscreen application. The boys? Not so much. Luckily J's aunt has Aloe Vera plants aplenty. I think the best part was the wave pool for me. Swimming out there against the waves, finding a tube, getting in it, swimming out even further into the heart of the waves and riding them back. I loved it.
Wednesday. More car troubles. My car died yet again so we had to take J's cousin's car to San Diego. It was me, J, his cousin, his cousin's wife, J's mom, and the longest most annoying lawn decoration for two hours. We survived though. And had a great time at the San Diego zoo. I loved it there and even more so that I got to see panda bears for the first time. I got a ton of pictures. We didn't get back until late, but even then J's uncle was willing to take a look at my car. He thinks it might be the ignition switch which makes sense because the ignition was ripped to shreds last July when some assholes decided to try and steal my car. We got it started and charged up the battery overnight.
Thursday: We were going to go to the beach but since the boys got sunburned we went to the brewery and tried out some beers instead. As per usual, I learned that I love the dark chocolate beers and DESPISE IPAs. Afterwards was bowling where I was terrible as usual but did improve my score from a 51 to 69. That night was a party for J's grandmother who's birthday is on Sunday. She has the sweetest little dog that I love playing with. She's very sweet too, and in need of some care, as she only weighs 68 pounds. But she agreed to move in with J's aunt which I'm happy about because that way she will get the care she needs and she can gain some weight. She really is very nice and very sweet and I want to see her again, healthy.
Which brings us today: Spent the morning in a car and dropped J off at Excalibur on the strip in Vegas to have fun with his buddies. Then I drove to my aunt and uncle's house where food and comfort were waiting. J's aunt's house was so hot (they hadn't turned on the swamp cooler yet) and my aunt's house is so nice and cool. I even got to gamble some with them. I lost pretty bad. $40 of my own savings plus a $20 my aunt gave me and I got $3.28 out of it. Yeah not for me. And now I'm showered and ready for bed, sitting in a guest room blogging. I get my own bathroom which is nice. And a humidifier that is nice and loud for white noise.
I miss my house. I miss Albuquerque. This is the longest I've been away from home since before I started college. But it's been fun and I know I won't have a vacation like this until after I finish grad school probably. So I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
Friday, 27 May 2016
Vacation
School is out. Work is over. Which means I spent about 12 hours in a car driving to California with J to meet his family. So here's the lowdown on what's been going on.
School got out on Wednesday. I did some cleaning in my room and then no longer felt welcome in there by being ignored by the teacher and getting daggers from the EA. So I turned in my keys and left about an hour early. Should I feel guilty? Yes. Did I feel guilty? Kinda but screw em. That part of my job is over.
I then proceeded to attempt to watch all three Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Extended Editions in a marathon to end all marathons. It was... okay. The giant cockroaches that showed up in the middle of the night didn't help, nor did the fact that I'm not going to be in the room I'm supposed to be in for summer school. I managed to get into autism preschool but they weren't even going to offer me autism! Not sure how that's gonna work out and the teacher/my friend is really stressed but hopefully things work out before the session starts.
And today, like I said, I spent hours in a car driving to California. But now that I'm here I'm glad we got to come. J's cousin and his wife are around our age and so we should have a lot of fun. I'm excited for what's to come.
Well, I haven't slept very weld the past two days, and I might not blog as much since I'm on vacation, but I'm not setting deadlines for this blog this time, so maybe that will encourage me to update more. We shall see.
Good night to you all.
P.S. Wind turbines are fucking majestic and I'm pissed off that New Mexico doesn't have them.
School got out on Wednesday. I did some cleaning in my room and then no longer felt welcome in there by being ignored by the teacher and getting daggers from the EA. So I turned in my keys and left about an hour early. Should I feel guilty? Yes. Did I feel guilty? Kinda but screw em. That part of my job is over.
I then proceeded to attempt to watch all three Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Extended Editions in a marathon to end all marathons. It was... okay. The giant cockroaches that showed up in the middle of the night didn't help, nor did the fact that I'm not going to be in the room I'm supposed to be in for summer school. I managed to get into autism preschool but they weren't even going to offer me autism! Not sure how that's gonna work out and the teacher/my friend is really stressed but hopefully things work out before the session starts.
And today, like I said, I spent hours in a car driving to California. But now that I'm here I'm glad we got to come. J's cousin and his wife are around our age and so we should have a lot of fun. I'm excited for what's to come.
Well, I haven't slept very weld the past two days, and I might not blog as much since I'm on vacation, but I'm not setting deadlines for this blog this time, so maybe that will encourage me to update more. We shall see.
Good night to you all.
P.S. Wind turbines are fucking majestic and I'm pissed off that New Mexico doesn't have them.
Tuesday, 24 May 2016
I have come to a conclusion...
Today hates me.
Maybe it was the kid that tried to run off campus that I had to chase down, who needed to be escorted back to the classroom where he continued to show signs of violence by hitting and kicking objects. All over a bracelet he left in his jacket.
Maybe it was the kid that decided to attack all of her classmates, run out of the room and into another room, try to bite my breast and undress me so that I had to hold her hands down, and then had to be transported/dragged by four of us to the Social Worker's office.
Maybe it was the kid who had a massive meltdown in front of another class because he wanted to go home...30 minutes before the bell rang.
Maybe it was giant gust of wind that covered me head to toe in dirt.
Maybe it was the dinner I barely ate because it tasted disgusting.
Maybe it was the idiots who were on Final Fantasy that made for such lame dungeon runs.
I don't know, what do you think? It's been a day, and right now, I cannot be more thankful that school is ending. Last week I thought I was going to miss my students. But today made me really challenge that statement. And it's currently still being challenged. But I'm tired. Maybe things will look better on the other side of the night.
Good night.
Maybe it was the kid that tried to run off campus that I had to chase down, who needed to be escorted back to the classroom where he continued to show signs of violence by hitting and kicking objects. All over a bracelet he left in his jacket.
Maybe it was the kid that decided to attack all of her classmates, run out of the room and into another room, try to bite my breast and undress me so that I had to hold her hands down, and then had to be transported/dragged by four of us to the Social Worker's office.
Maybe it was the kid who had a massive meltdown in front of another class because he wanted to go home...30 minutes before the bell rang.
Maybe it was giant gust of wind that covered me head to toe in dirt.
Maybe it was the dinner I barely ate because it tasted disgusting.
Maybe it was the idiots who were on Final Fantasy that made for such lame dungeon runs.
I don't know, what do you think? It's been a day, and right now, I cannot be more thankful that school is ending. Last week I thought I was going to miss my students. But today made me really challenge that statement. And it's currently still being challenged. But I'm tired. Maybe things will look better on the other side of the night.
Good night.
Monday, 23 May 2016
The sad thing about typing on my tablet is...
...is that if you want to lay on your back and type because you're tired, you're kind of SOL. But this boots up faster than my laptop so there ya go.
Today was pretty hectic for the last Monday of work. I had to drop off my car to get an oil change and to see if they could get my radio to work, since it has recently decided to lose the will to live. Afterwards J took me to work where I spent a blissful morning in my old room with my old kiddos. I missed working with them. In the afternoon however both the teacher and other EA showed up so I had to find something else to do and I did not want to go back to my old room. Then I remembered that one of my students was in inclusion for the afternoon and off I went to "check on him" and spend the rest of the afternoon with him. Not spending the day in my current classroom was pretty fun and I am dreading tomorrow when I go back to my old room and my fellow EA gives me dirty looks and refuses to talk to me because she's 12 and is mad that I'm not someone she can gossip and talk shit to. Suck it up buttercup.
So a couple of weeks ago my advisor for the OT program emailed us a form that said she was allowed to register us for our fall classes. Not that someone else would take that spot since it's a closed program but it's still easier. I saw it, and promptly forgot about it until she sent us a reminder last week that I saw as I was walking into work. I saw it, and promptly forgot about it again. Today, when she sent us another email about our school emails, I remembered, and just about had a heart attack since it was due last Friday. Luckily since I emailed her right away about it, she put me in to be registered and I was able, through some pretty crazy logistics, to get the form to her. So that's taken care of. Now all I need is to get my CPR/First Aid training and my shots updated. Things are coming together!
Whew, I'm exhausted. Field/Water day tomorrow at work. Let's get ready to get wet.
Until next time...
Today was pretty hectic for the last Monday of work. I had to drop off my car to get an oil change and to see if they could get my radio to work, since it has recently decided to lose the will to live. Afterwards J took me to work where I spent a blissful morning in my old room with my old kiddos. I missed working with them. In the afternoon however both the teacher and other EA showed up so I had to find something else to do and I did not want to go back to my old room. Then I remembered that one of my students was in inclusion for the afternoon and off I went to "check on him" and spend the rest of the afternoon with him. Not spending the day in my current classroom was pretty fun and I am dreading tomorrow when I go back to my old room and my fellow EA gives me dirty looks and refuses to talk to me because she's 12 and is mad that I'm not someone she can gossip and talk shit to. Suck it up buttercup.
So a couple of weeks ago my advisor for the OT program emailed us a form that said she was allowed to register us for our fall classes. Not that someone else would take that spot since it's a closed program but it's still easier. I saw it, and promptly forgot about it until she sent us a reminder last week that I saw as I was walking into work. I saw it, and promptly forgot about it again. Today, when she sent us another email about our school emails, I remembered, and just about had a heart attack since it was due last Friday. Luckily since I emailed her right away about it, she put me in to be registered and I was able, through some pretty crazy logistics, to get the form to her. So that's taken care of. Now all I need is to get my CPR/First Aid training and my shots updated. Things are coming together!
Whew, I'm exhausted. Field/Water day tomorrow at work. Let's get ready to get wet.
Until next time...
Sunday, 22 May 2016
The eve of the final week of work
Tomorrow begins the last week of Albuquerque Public Schools and I for one can not be happier that the year is over. I have two and a half days left and then onto freedom and summer. While this year has definitely had its great times it's also had its challenges. The bureaucracy and drama that is APS knows no limits and as much as I try to stay away from it, when the fellow EA in the room thrives on it, it gets annoying. But either way, I'll be spending most of my time in my old room where we keep to ourselves and focus on our jobs rather than gossip.
Once the summer comes I'll be embarking on a road trip through several states including Arizona, California, and Nevada. It'll be fun, and a lot of driving. Once I get back, I need to figure out how I'm going to welcome my 27th year of life and then the summer school sessions start. I already know I'm going to be in my old room which makes me happy. Working with two new people? Not so much.
And once that is all over it's just a period of waiting until OT school starts. I'm excited to begin this new chapter in my life and begin learning. J has already finished his first year and thinks I'll do well.
Anyways, it's late and I'm exhausted. It's going to be a long day tomorrow and I need sleep in order to survive. That and a certain amount of caffeine. While I'll do my best to update this new version of my blog, I can make any guarantees. I can only promise to update it as much as I see fit. I don't like dealing with my laptop in my best of moods, but I like dealing with my tablet so maybe that'll be my medium. We shall see.
Good night for now.
Once the summer comes I'll be embarking on a road trip through several states including Arizona, California, and Nevada. It'll be fun, and a lot of driving. Once I get back, I need to figure out how I'm going to welcome my 27th year of life and then the summer school sessions start. I already know I'm going to be in my old room which makes me happy. Working with two new people? Not so much.
And once that is all over it's just a period of waiting until OT school starts. I'm excited to begin this new chapter in my life and begin learning. J has already finished his first year and thinks I'll do well.
Anyways, it's late and I'm exhausted. It's going to be a long day tomorrow and I need sleep in order to survive. That and a certain amount of caffeine. While I'll do my best to update this new version of my blog, I can make any guarantees. I can only promise to update it as much as I see fit. I don't like dealing with my laptop in my best of moods, but I like dealing with my tablet so maybe that'll be my medium. We shall see.
Good night for now.
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