Not a Wasted Word

I didn’t mean to be gone for a week! Shit got busy!

Remember how I was so happy to have nothing to do last weekend? Well, I invited my friends and their daughters over for a barbecue on Saturday afternoon. Two moms and two girls came (and a five year old!) It was fun. I spent longer at the dojo than anticipated in the morning, and had to take an unexpected phone call in the afternoon (more on that later), so I felt a little rushed to be ready, but it all went off without a hitch. We (and by we I mean my husband) grilled hamburgers and we had a couple sides. It was very simple. I set up the old pandemic play date stuff on the patio for the five year old and we all had a great time. Everyone was gone by 9:30pm, which is about what I can handle these days.

Sunday I went for a run. The air felt cool and I was so thankful for that. I really enjoyed that time outside, after the scorching temperatures the week before. We all watched Thor Love and Thunder in the afternoon, since my husband hadn’t seen it yet.

Monday night my husband and I went to a comedy show. We never go out on weekday nights, and we almost cancelled, but we decided last minute to make it happen. My parents came up to watch the kids, which they haven’t done at our house in a loooong time. The show was fun and we ate a tasty meal before hand, but I definitely can’t handle week nights out like that on the regular.

Tuesday was kind of a shit show work wise. I realized I had skipped an activity at the beginning of the year, and then realized I did that because we started a week later than last year. Day of the Dead always happens on November 2, no matter when we start, which means I need to get two units done before then which means something had to give. So I spent two hours pouring over my long term planning basically until January, trying to figure out where to fit this activity (which I love), and realized our first trimester was only 11.5 weeks long. Not a fan! Who decides this stuff?! So I sent a distressed email to the admins, who never responded back. It wasn’t until I finally worked out at 7:30pm that I could get myself out of the stress spiral I had fallen into. I’m so glad that this year I invested in a simple, $20 planning book so that next year I’ll have a detailed record of how I paced things this year. All I have from last year are some binder pages I folded into squares and wrote vague notes on. It’s a mess. The year of distance learning really messed me up planning wise.

Wednesday I had a work meeting at the other middle school. I also passed along some resources to a mom who wants to her daughter to keep learning Spanish even though the other middle school had to shut their program down when they couldn’t find anyone to hire to teach Spanish. As we walked out of the meeting the staff from my school all saw an email in our work inboxes about how we have to wear masks at work again for two weeks because three of us got Covid at the same time, and that counts as an outbreak. Again, they sent this email right AFTER a two hour meeting we had with all the staff from the other site. AGAIN WHO DOES THIS SHIT!? I don’t really understand the mask mandate – why is it only staff and not students (who have been out with Covid in DROVES this year)? I think it’s an OSHA requirement that just doesn’t translate well to a schools setting where teachers are around students more than other staff.

Wednesday evening I went to my daughter’s school’s Back to School Night. It was the first time I’ve been inside on her campus and it was AMAZING. She has so many incredible teachers – the staff is so diverse and experienced – and so many interesting classes. I left feeling really good about her school, which I really appreciate because navigating the public school system in San Francisco has NOT been easy.

Thursday I had my allergy shot and then hit up Costco, since the allergy department is right by the one that sells the coffee we like. I thought I’d be in and out but they had the toys out (for Christmas!) and I saw a couple things that I could get my son for his birthday and get his friends for goodie bags at his party. Due of the longer Costco trip, I got my son on the later side from after care and the evening felt rushed because of it. I didn’t start working out until 7:45pm, but like on Tuesday, I was so glad that I finally did.

Today was fine. I ran an errand on the way home, then took my son to the dojo. I dropped the car off for my husband to pick up my son, and then ran some more errands on my bus ride home. And now I’m writing this post.

Tomorrow we may see a concert at the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater at the park near our house. Sunday we have no plans and I will NOT be inviting anyone over for an impromptu barbecue.

What have you been up to?

I’m thankful that today is supposed to be “much cooler” than yesterday, when it again hit 101* at work and 92* in my classroom. They keep saying that the temperatures will drop, and they haven’t yet, but the air last night and this morning was/is significantly cooler than it has been. I have hope!

I’m thankful that my kids are really enjoying school again this year. My son’s Back to School Nigh zoom was last night and all the third grade teachers seem really nice and on top of it. It’s nice to be at a school with so much parent participation and support.

My daughter’s school’s Back to School Night is in person next week and I’m really looking forward to actually spending some time on the campus, getting a feel for what her school days are like. It’s been weird to be so removed from everything for so long, especially since she goes to and from school by herself (well with a friend).

I’m thankful that I don’t have to wear a mask at work anymore. I know many people still do, and I’m not 100% sure that not wearing a mask is really the best decision, but honestly I just can’t bring myself to teach in a mask again. I know I’m incredibly lucky to have had a mild case of covid and to have no one at home who is at high risk of complications, which allows me to make the choices I’m making now. There are still some kids in masks at school, but the percentage of those wearing them to those not flipped over the summer from mostly wearing to mostly not. It’s so nice to be able to hear most of my students now. Before I couldn’t hear what anyone was saying. Now it’s a lot easier.

{And, I of course support students who want to continue wearing masks for whatever reasons. It really is a non-issue at my school. No one really mentions it either way. It just is what it is, and I appreciate that very much.}

I’m excited to get my omicron booster. My husband is looking into it for us.

I’m glad that I was able to find all the parts to an old pair of bluetooth earbuds so my daughter can practice using them (and not losing them) before she gets a pair of AirPods. Having bluetooth earbuds is making not having a phone a lot easier for her to stomach.

I’m relieved that both my kids still like to play Prodigy. It helps them challenge themselves in Math, since they are both accelerated math students with no accelerated math options at school. I paid more for the better subscription, where they get more stuff for playing, and they are both still pretty motivated by that.

I’m thankful that the library by us is open seven days a week now. We go to the library a lot. We read a lot. It makes me happy that we’re a reading family.

I’m happy that we don’t have anything planned this weekend. After last weekend, and this week, I need some time to chill out.

I’m thankful that Costco had a bunch of our staples on sale this past week. I feel like inflation finally hit Costco and I’m really noticing it now. It was nice to have so many things I needed be marked down.

Speaking of money, I’m so thankful for our tax return because my summer credit card bill just got autopaid and oh boy! Was it a doozy. We don’t usually travel as much as we did this summer because we don’t carry debt on our credit cards, which means we need to have the money that trips cost us in the bank before we go. We never would have said yes to that Maui trip without the tax refund (even though it was comparatively an incredible deal for a trip to Maui – $2.5K that should be $5K+ is still $2.5K). I’m so thankful that we could pay for all the traveling we did this summer.

I’m thankful that both of us got COLA increases last spring, which showed up in our August checks.

I’m so thankful, as I start commuting to work again, that I don’t have to worry about soaring gas prices. They are much lower than they were in the spring, but still so much more expensive than anywhere else in the country. I was really surprised to see that even the gas in Hawaii was a full $1/gallon cheaper than around here.

I’m thankful that I have nice classes this year. I was worried about them, because the current 7th graders have a history of behavior issues, but I seemed to have gotten a really nice group of them. I’m very glad for that.

I’m happy that we have an elliptical machine, so I’ve still be able to do my cardio without running this week. I haven’t been on the machine much in the past couple of years, but it’s a really nice machine.

I’m also really thankful that my husband uses the elliptical now – both because it means it’s still worth having in the house, and because he’s so much happier now that he does some regular exercise (I fact that he begrudgingly admits).

But most of all, I’m thankful it’s Friday! TGIF!

It wasn’t so hot yesterday. And it was a minimum day so I didn’t have students during the hottest hours. It all offered a little relief, which I welcomed.

I’m kind of struggling this week. I feel like I’m all over the place. I can’t seem to get on top of things. Or to feel like I am on top of them. It feels like I’m constantly trying to round up a bunch of papers that are scattering in the wind.

I keep reminding myself that it’s only the third week of school. My kids started just a week before me. We’re all still getting used to our routines. We had no down time between our crazy summer and the school year. It’s normal that I feel kind of unmoored. I just need to keep at it and things will settle.

My son has another cold. His second in three weeks. My daughter is begging us for a phone. We don’t plan to get her one until she turns 13. It’s going to be a looooong year.

I’m already thinking about October. My son’s birthday and my kids’ Halloween costumes.

I’m so glad it’s already Thursday. I was wondering if the thing I like better about a day off is the longer weekend or the shorter work week. If I had to pick between working for four days and having a two day weekend (a six day week, basically) or working for five days and getting a three day weekend (an eight day week), which would I pick? I think the six day week. I like to cycle through things faster. And I think two days off would feel more restful every four days.

{I wonder where our seven day week came from. I feel like I read about it once, but I can’t remember. Definitely seems like a topic The Atlantic would tackle in way too many words.}

We don’t get another day off for a month or so. I think it’s October 10th we get off for “Local Holiday” (Indigenous Peoples Day in the city, and Columbus Day most everywhere else).

I’m a little frustrated by how hard this week as been. I had such a good weekend. I wish it were lasting longer, the high of it. I’m sure the heat wave is not helping. Tuesday was really and truly awful. Yesterday was better, but still not great. It’s supposed to keep getting incrementally better, until things are almost back to normal this weekend. I’m not used to that. Usually our heat waves end quickly, with the rushing in of the fog one night. Waiting for incrementally lower temperatures over a week is very weird.

Actually, maybe I’m having a hard week BECAUSE the weekend was so fun. Maybe this is just the hand over.

We don’t have anything planned for this weekend, and I’m glad for that.

I”m doing a good job of heading to bed around 10pm, and reading until 11pm when, I’m usually tired enough to fall asleep without taking anything. I hope I can keep doing that. I miss watching TV, but I enjoy the reading time and being able to fall asleep relatively easily.

It was 106* when I left work yesterday. 96* in my classroom. The two classes after lunch were rough. I have 33 kids in my 6th period. We were packed in like sardines in the sweltering heat.

It was much cooler in the city. A balmy 95*. And by the time I got the kids home it had fallen into the high 80s.

Today it’s supposed to be cooler, but they said that about yesterday too. I’ll believe it when it doesn’t hit 100*.

I know a lot of places get heat like this all the time, but we don’t and we’re not equipped for it. Many of my students were trying to sleep in houses where the temps never dropped below 95* on Monday night. Most of them don’t even have fans for everyone’s bedrooms.

I brought my box fan to school and then brought it back home again. It didn’t really help. Standing in front of it was like standing in front of a furnace.

I really hope it cools down soon. I can’t do too many more days of teaching in mid-90s heat.

Oh boy was it hot yesterday! So, so hot!

And we were in the city, where it was less hot than ANYWHERE else in the Bay Area.

We are very lucky that we have a downstairs area that stays relatively cool. We spent the hottest hours of the day down there, playing Monopoly and our own silly version of Pictionary. Well down there, and out in the backyard with water guns.

We didn’t go anywhere because it was just so hot, and we knew anywhere we went would be that hot, or hotter.

I did think about hitting up a mall, or somewhere else inside with air conditioning (which we do NOT have), but I assumed everyone else would be in those kinds of spaces, and we could manage the heat at home.

It’s going to be hot all week, especially down at my work, where I my classroom does NOT have air conditioning. I am not looking forward to it.

My current plan is to cart my box fan to and from work every day. We need it at home, where my son’s room gets very warm and has no air circulation. I’ll also need it at school, where they provide us with nothing to combat the heat.

But I did get some good stuff done yesterday. I managed to steam clean the floors in the kitchen and the backroom, the hallway and the stairs. I also managed to steam clean the downstairs kitchen, which was DISGUSTING. Truly, I can’t believe I got those floors clean. I cleaned the sink too, which was a mess from a protracted clog that we didn’t get fixed for several months. We don’t really use the downstairs kitchen – it’s mostly just a spot where we keep extra groceries – so it has to get pretty gross for me to do something about it. It got way past pretty gross this time.

{I think I was able to get so much done yesterday, because I am really enjoying my audiobook. When I’m really interested in an audiobook, I can stay focused on house projects for much, much longer.}

I really hope this heat dome lifts (or dissipates, or whatever) sooner than they are expecting. It is not pleasant to weather heat waves like this without any air conditioning. I was VERY grateful that the temps fell to the mid-70s in SF last night, so opening the windows finally provided some relief.

I’m so happy it’s already Tuesday.

I hope everyone is able to stay cool this week. Be safe!

It’s been a really good weekend. Just what I needed.

Saturday I took the kids to the water park at Great America. It was definitely crowded, but they got to play in the water in all the ways they wanted. Luckily they don’t care much about the slides, so just enjoying the wave pool and lazy river was plenty for them.

The day was hot, but it wasn’t the hottest day of this heat wave, so the weather was kind of perfect. In fact, by the end of the afternoon the breeze was making us all a little cold. I saw that it was a full 12 degrees warmer down there on Sunday (almost 100!). I wonder what the water park looked like that day.

We hit up In-n-Out when we left, and then I dropped them off at my parents’ house. I got home just in time to shower and put on some make up before a 7:30pm reservation.

As always, my husband had a fun date night planned. We hit up a couple different drink spots, and tried some very tasty cocktails. Since we’d both eaten earlier, we didn’t really go out to dinner, but instead ordered some appetizers at the second spot.

We headed home before midnight and watched a little TV before going to sleep.

We slept in until 9:30am on Sunday (my husband actually had to wake me up at 9:30am on Saturday too!) and took our time getting ready. We finally headed to North Beach for a 12:30pm brunch reservation at a tapas spot. Sunday was much warmer than Saturday, and we definitely felt the heat as we walked from downtown to North Beach. It rarely gets over 75* in the city, so we were definitely feeling the mid-80’s heat.

We ate way too much at brunch, but still made room for a yummy iced coffee on the walk back to BART. On the walk I realized that my husband and I should take advantage of being downtown on a holiday weekend, and duck into Macy’s to get him some work clothes. He is supposed to start going to the office three times a week (up from two times per week) and he’s been complaining that he doesn’t have enough work attire to do that. So we ducked into Macy’s and took advantage of their Labor Day sale to get him some new brown shoes and a dark grey suit jacket. We also grabbed three dress shirts. I was VERY pleased to get this done, because my husband HATES buying clothes and I was trying hard not to give in and buy the clothes for him online. Together we were able to find what he needed in record time.

I also took advantage of Labor Day sales to buy some 10×20 prints for our living room from Shutterfly. I had them ready to go and was waiting for a 50% off sale, which materialized this weekend!

Sunday afternoon my husband and I watched the first half of The Batman, which we both had wanted to see, but never could find a night where we could make it through a three hour movie. I was so pleased that I thought to take advantage of the afternoon to start it, so we could finish it later that night. I really liked the movie (the last 20 minutes were not great, but I really liked most of it), and am glad we finally watched it.

I even worked out yesterday before the kids came home!

Today I have a few big things on my to-do list. The biggest is steam cleaning the kitchen floor, which needs it desperately. I also plan to get caught up on laundry, which I haven’t had a lot of time to do so far. I need to work out at some point too.

How are you spending your long weekend? Is it just what you needed?

I’ve started three posts this week. None of them made it past a few sentences.

I feel like I can’t get my brain to stop whirring. I’m all over the place.

Yesterday was Back to School Night. I was at work for 12 hours. I left at 7:45pm, exactly 12 hours before I had to be back at work again.

It’s been a steep learning curve this year. I’ve struggled to adjust to my schedule. Teaching at 7:45am is more challenging than I thought. I have two different classes before my first break, so I have to have them planned and prepped before lunch the day before. I’m getting to work at 7:15am and leaving at 4pm and I still feel unprepared most days. I’m tired of scrambling. I’m tired.

Today is a minimum day, so we get out at 1pm. I’m going to try to run by work if it’s not too hot. If it is too hot, I’ll head to the coast.

Tomorrow I’m taking the kids to the water park at Great America. Then I’m dropping them off at my parents for a much needed date night. They get to go swimming at my mom’s friend’s house on Sunday, which means my husband and I will have the whole day to ourselves.

I really need the break. And I’m very thankful that Monday is a holiday.

I’m almost just lost this post and I can’t believe I got it back so I’m just going to hit publish. I hope you all have a restful long (if it is long for you) weekend.

It was a loooong week. It felt even longer. The first three days with students went well, but each one required an incredible amount of effort. Just so. Much. Effort.

I will admit, it has felt like I’m in a boat that is filling with water, and all I can do is bail it out with some bullshit bucket.

Which is fine honestly. I had a phenomenal summer. It was just so, so much. If I had been reading me I would have thoughts along the line of, goddamn bitch goes to all these places and doesn’t even get COVID? Because for real, how did it all go so according to plan?

It wasn’t fair.

And now summer is over and I have to figure out how to make my real life work, the one where I actually have to pay for all those trips and all that fun. The one where I have to clean my house and show up at a job and cash a pay check. The one where I have to take care of my kids and do laundry and feed the cat and fill prescriptions and remember events.

I had a bunch of stuff to write. I swear I did! But now I can’t think of a single thing. I’m so, so tired. It’s Monday now and it wrecked me. (I started this on Saturday? I think?)

The days at school are so long. I thought it wouldn’t matter, whether I was prepping at 7:45 or teaching, but it might matter? It feels like it does matter, at least so far, but I also have hope that I’ll get used to it and it will matter less. But right now, getting to work at 7:15 and not leaving until almost 4pm most days… well that is a lot and it’s making me tired.

I got a lot done this weekend. On Friday I REALLY felt like I was in a sinking boat that I couldn’t bail out fast enough. It literally felt like I was drowning in our own stuff. It still feels like the boat is going down at home, sinking under the weight of all our possessions, but I was able to do enough to keep the panic at bay. I need to a real purge, a real and massive culling of the stuff, but that requires way more time and energy than I have. Maybe at Christmas? Bwahahaha!

What a way to set myself up for failure.

This week we have Back to School Night. I think once that is done I’ll feel better. I just got to get to Friday.

I keep reminding myself that the first weeks of school require a ton of energy. You can’t just give them a thing to do and let them get to it, because they don’t know how to do anything yet. You have to explain every thing to them. You have to show them all your procedures and repeat all your directions. It’s a lot. But it’s also short lived. If I do a good job of it over the next few weeks, things will get easier. I just have to stay the course until then.

I want to write more but I need to get to sleep really early tonight. So I shall publish this post and then try to show up here again later this week.

Thank goodness the coming weekend is a long one.

Well, I did it. I survived the first day of school. And it was fine! Imagine that.

It was a short day and each period was abbreviated. 35 minutes goes by really fast!

Tomorrow will be longer and it will feel longer and I’ll have a much better idea of how this year is going to feel in 24 hours.

But right now I’m glad that I got through the first day. I learned a couple important lessons. most importantly that 15-25 minutes is not much time at all before classes start! Today I totally lost track of time and if zero period hadn’t started later than usual, I would have been five minutes late for it! Zero period is going to take some getting used to.

I’m happy that tomorrow we don’t have any meetings. We’ve had them every day so far this week and I am tired of being talked at.

First day down. 180+ something days to go.

{Um… I just published this on my old blog because I wasn’t looking carefully in my app when I started. For f*ck’s sake…}

Getting up at 6am in rough y’all. I am such a happier camper if if I can get up at 7am or later, but alas, it will never be possible with my job.

(For those of you who get up earlier just to get things done, my hat off to you. I wish I were an early riser but I just don’t think my body is wired that way. Maybe when menopause hits me for real.)

Yesterday was a good day. I stayed focused on the things I really needed to do and now I’m pretty much ready to welcome students and start the school year tomorrow. I have a tentative plan for the first three days and I have everything I need to execute that plan set up and ready.

I felt wrecked yesterday by 6pm, but then I struggled to fall asleep before 11pm. Story of my life. Tonight I will definitely take a sleep aid.

Today we have a series of meetings that usually drive me crazy because I have so much still to do. I wonder if today they will feel less burdensome, since I’m pretty much ready to go. I plan on letting my training modules run in the background while I’m in said meetings. I’ve taken them all so many times that I don’t have to listen to them anymore.

I gotta get out of bed now and start the day. Blerg. 6am is an ungodly hour. At least it is for me.