Carrie and Tala: BFF

Dear Vons,

I was excited to try your online shopping and delivery service because I dislike grocery shopping. I am looking forward to trying the service again after you get some of the kinks worked out. I personally experienced the following kinks:

1. Delivery was an hour later than the window (window was 5-7, groceries were delivered at 8)
2. Dish soap was squished and thus exploded over all the other groceries in the bag creating a sticky mess.
3. The vegetarian rice I carefully ordered was replaced with chicken rice (I’ll have to give it away since I am a vegetarian).
4. I received cheese that I did not order and did not pay for (it’s okay, I’ll eat it anyway).

I hope this information helps you improve your processes.

Sincerely,
Carolyn Hayden
Order #: 25614

http://cyhayden.net/gallery/Wildflowers

As I near the home stretch for the school year I find myself more and more eager for some time away from the kids. Just normal teenage stuff is really getting on my nerves. The kids are just as eager for summer as I am. We all have June jitters.

At school, we got two pieces of news today. First, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) granted us a six year reaccreditation (the longest possible). I was part of the WASC leadership team, so I am very proud.

Next, we got our 2004-05 Academic Performance Index (API) ranking. We ranked 3;10. That is, with ten being highest, our standardized test scores rank 3 state-wide but 10 compared to schools in our demographic category (racial and socioeconomic). That means that even though our kids are still deficient, compared to other minority low-income kids they are doing the BEST!

Friday was the prom. I wore the same dress as at the wedding and encountered no problems, zipper or otherwise. The prom was on the Queen Mary and felt more like a wedding than a prom until they starting playing really loud reggaeton, at which point it just felt loud. The prom included a sit-down dinner and the food was actually really yummy. The vegetarian plate was pasta with vegetables in a parmesan butter sauce. Mmmmmm.

On Saturday, I went climbing at tick rock in Santa Monica.
Pros: close.
Cons: not much climbing.

The trip was rather ill-fated. When we got there, no one else was there and we set up a top-rope. After a little bit, another climbing party arrived. I was about 60 feet up on the rock when I looked down and realized that some lady was climbing directly beneath me and was only a few feet below me. Now, for those who don’t know, it is very poor climbing etiquette to climb below someone. If I had fallen, I would have kicked her in the head. She also clipped into the same anchors that I was using which was really weird/rude. This would be like someone going up to you in a grocery store and starting to use your grocery basket. Later, on a different route, Keith took a magnificent 8-foot lead fall and scraped himself up, so we decided to leave early.

***Dentist Update***
I went to the dentist this afternoon after dreading it all day. The dentist seemed impressed by my hole and confirmed that it was not a cavity hole but a natural crevasse. I was so scared of getting it drilled because I have never had to have a tooth drilled before and I have heard that it is very unpleasant. Actually, it was no big deal. The dentist just poked around at the hole a little bit to make sure it was okay and then slapped some epoxy in there and $200 later I was on my way. No drilling. I feel really good about my new filling.

***Teacher Appreciation Update***
I bought three boxes of See’s Candies Nuts and Chews for the three other members of the special education department. Tonight I am working on writing really nice thank-you notes to go with the candy so they know how much I appreciate them. I think that See’s Candies are way better than a pace message.

***Prom Update***
Prom fever is in the air. The teachers are especially excited about this prom. 80 students bought tickets and 40 teachers bought tickets. Did you have a 2:1 student to teacher ratio at your prom? The prom is themed “masquerade”. The math department (Joe, Alex, and Dan) went over to the costume store in Torrance to buy masks and I entrusted them to pick one for me. Would you trust three male math teachers to pick out a mask for you? I am excited to see what they picked out.

Today is California Standards Test testing. Do you remember taking long boring standardized tests? I do. I remember them being really awful. Proctoring them is almost as bad as taking them. The difference is that when proctoring them you can play on the internet but it is still really boring.

I am proctoring special ed. kids, so I try to make it as painless as possible. I get them breakfast and drinks and candy. I also give them breaks and lead them in stretching exercises while playing loud music. Maybe this is not the best way to give a test but it does keep them from falling asleep (mostly).

Today is the dreaded dentist appointment. Oh gosh.

ATTENTION READERS: This week is Teacher Appreciation Week!!!

So far I have been appreciated in the following ways:

#1: Thank-you Note
I received a sweet note from a ninth grade boy who wrote, “Thank you for understanding me and thank you for believing in me.”

#2: Teacher Appreciation Lunch
We had a big catered lunch today. The theme was soul food. Vegetarian choices included mashed potatoes, biscuits, mac & cheese, and other similarly greasy food with soul. Due to the sensitive nature of my tummy, I generally partake in such foods with moderation. However, in my appreciation ecstasy, I gobbled up too much greasy food and felt sick for the rest of the day. There was also cake (my nemesis) and I ate a lot of that too.

#3: Pace Message
This evening I received a recorded phone call from the superintendent of Inglewood School District. She wanted to give every Inglewood District employee a personal thank-you. This struck me as odd for two reasons. First, I do not work for Inglewood School District, so I wonder how she got my number. Second, although she specifically said that her message was intended to be personal, it was prerecorded and it sounded like it was sent to all district employees. But hey, I know that she took the 10 minutes out of her schedule to record that pace message, so thanks, I feel appreciated!

You can listen to This American Life with streaming audio at http://www.thislife.org/. I often do so while I am doing the dishes. I would like to recommend last week's program, Lockup, which has various stories about prison. I always thought that it would be fun to teach at a prison. For one thing, there would be no behavioral problems because if I student was being bad, you could kick him out. For another thing, in prison, school is a privilege. What a wonder it would be to teach students who see school as a privilege and an opportunity.

Speaking of prison (haha, bad joke), I will most likely be signing my contract tomorrow, which means I will be at ECHS for at least one more year.

When I was 10, I got a filling but not a cavity. One of my molars had a deep crevasse and they decided to fill it in so it wouldn't attract a cavity. The filling fell out and I have a big gaping hole in my tooth. It does not hurt or feel strange in any way, but it is strange to have a tooth with a hole.

I have to go to the dentist but I have no dental insurance. I wonder how much this will cost.

Today I was tortured for 8 hours at UCLA and tomorrow I’ll have to endure another 8 hours of torture. I am taking a 1 credit class called “Health for Teachers”. Today I learned about mental health, asthma, childhood obesity, and reading food labels. The only worthwhile session was the one about food labels, which was actually very interesting. I learned that I need to stop eating so much sugar and should eat more fiber. Then I went home and had pasta and two nutty bars (all sugar, no fiber, oh well!).

Yesterday I went to REI to use my member special 20% off coupon. I got a book called “Sport Climbing Southern California” which has some information about some new climbing areas that I am excited to check out. I am going to set up a trip for Tick Rock in Pacific Palisades for next Saturday. I’ll post a full report later.

In other news, there are a lot of field trips coming up at school soon. Normally I really enjoy field trips. They are a chance to get out of the classroom and try something new. But right now I just don’t feel too excited. These are trips with mostly general ed. kids and it is exhausting to have to monitor kids that I don’t know very well. I wouldn’t mind if I only had to work with my SPED kids, but that is not how it works.

Today I had to take care of several chores and errands. First I went to the mall to return the Anne Taylor dress. I told the employee the story of the zipper and the wedding and she was satisfyingly appalled and apologetic. I want the dress because I want to wear it to prom and any other formal occasions coming up, but they didn’t have any in my size, so I ordered it.

Next I went to the bank to deposit the $3,500 worth of paychecks that I have been negligent in depositing for the past month.

After that, I went over to Old Navy to use the $25 gift card Mommy gave me in Texas and got some new climbing pants.

Finally, I headed to Trader Joe’s for some much needed groceries. I dislike grocery shopping and do it as seldom as possible. I can get away with only going once a month or so. I challenge myself to spend as much money as possible and usually average about $200. I try to buy like, 4 boxes of granola bars, 6 boxes of cereal, 12 cans of soup, etc. to stock up.

I went to the gym today and climbed that 5.10c that I couldn’t do last Monday, which was nice.

Today was the first day back to work after a few days off with the trip to Texas over the weekend. Going back to work is always hard, but today went well. I did some meetings, did some assessments, talked to some parents, and taught my classes. This next couple of weeks is going to be hard because I have my dumb health for teachers class this weekend.

The big thing coming up soon is the prom, which is two Fridays from now. Due to circumstances described in other blog entries, I have no dress and the mere thought of shopping for one is awful. *sigh*

Mommy, sewing me into the nightmare dress.