The Job Hunt

I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.
Lily Tomlin

Well I am at it again. Looking for a new job. I love the students at the school where I currently work, but the hours are just not conducive to raising a family. (The pay isn't either!) Meetings at 7:15 in the morning every other week? It makes for a logistical nightmare! Especially when school doesn't start until 8, you live at least 35 minutes away, and your daughter's preschool doesn't open its doors until 7.

So Monday night I stayed up late, made and Xeroxed multiple copies of my resume, transcripts, licenses, etc and addressed and labelled several envelopes and mailed them all off. Today they all came back. I hadn't put enough postage stamps on them! I really hope this is not indicitive of how my job search is going to go!

PostSecret

Secrets are things we give to others to keep for us.
Elbert Hubbard

I have always liked the website, PostSecret. All of the creativity, heartache, joy, angst, and yearning (among other things) that can go into a simple 4 x 6 piece of paper is simply amazing. I had heard that the best of the best had been published in a book, so I went and bought it last night. I read it from cover to cover with tears streaming down my face. Some of the anecdotes are cute, others are humorous. But some are just heart-wrenching. There are those that make you feel like there is someone out there who really does know what you are going through, others that make you aware that your problems are minute in comparison, and still others who make you realize that your life is actually quite wonderful and definitely worth living.

License Laxity

Procrastination is the bad habit of putting of until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.
Napoleon Hill

Procrastination is a disease. And have I got it bad. I am always waiting until the last minute, or conveniently forgetting. But it seems to always catch up with me, sometimes even biting me in the butt. Yesterday, one of my latest (and greatest) procrastinations did just that. I have been here in New England for about 8 months now, but I have yet to register my car and get a CDL,(which I finally figured out was a Commonwealth Driver's License...duh!) So yesterday I am tooling around in my soccer mom vehicle when a police officer starts following me. He followed me for at least a mile before pulling me over. Of course now I am a little worried because there is one detail I forgot to mention...that my CA tags on my plates have also expired. So Mr. Police Officer asks me if I knew that my tags had expired. "Yessir" I said, with my sweetest smile. I am embarrassed to admit that I played it dumb..."I have only lived here for a few months"..."No, nobody told me that you had only 30 days to register your vehicle"..."You know I have tried to get it registered, but everything here closes SO early...it's nothing like California"..but I walked, no drove away with only a warning. I'm sure he was saying over and over in his head "Stupid Ditzy Blonde", but if it means no fine........Of course, that leads to the question of why has it taken me so long to get things switched over in the first place. Could it be that I am still trying to subconsciously hold onto any small vestiges of the life I left behind? Hmmm...at least I will be able to keep my CDL, the CA one that is. I have two. One to replace the other one which I thought I had lost. Ok, I know I know. Can anyone say DITZ?

Control Freak

Being the control freak that I am, I want to know everything beforehand. At this point I'm just going along for the ride.
Gina Gershon

Once in my not so recent past I was accused of being controlling. At the time, I thought it was based on the deterioration of my marriage. Now I seem to be going through the same cycle all over again. Am I really that controlling? In both instances the issue lies with communication. I feel that it is a basic common courtesy to let your partner know if you are going to be running late, particularly if that time becomes extended. My partners seem (or seemed, in the case of the former) to disagree, and dub me with the "controlling" label. Am I wrong to be upset? Or is this another one of those areas where men and women are bound to be different, and I should just get over myself?

Inservice Introspect

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
Will Durant

Ever felt like an old dog? Boy did I ever today. I went to an inservice at my school regarding new reading research. Most of the teachers are these pert young things just out of college, and just entering grad school. They are all taking grad classes that offer the latest in research...all of which is scientifically based and carefully studied and assessed. Definitely not the whole language approach that I was taught back in the dark ages! I must admit, that while we were discussing the topic, I really felt out of touch. Whenever one of them would rattle of the latest acronym (and Education has a gazillion of them) I would have to stop and ask "What's that?" or "Does that stand for....?" However, at the same time it did make me look forward a bit to going back to school and getting my Masters. I guess that is why I went into education in the first place...a love of the continuum of learning, and the act of learning itself.