oh, right, this thing
I hear it's helpful to you fine folks if I actually write in this damn thing once in awhile, no? Don't take it personally, though, it's not just livejournal that I've been neglecting. Lately, I just feel like I have neither the time nor the patience for most internetting in general. There are piles of emails that I've only given the most cursory of responses to, because I just can't deal with sitting down to write out a longer response. Many evenings, I don't bother to turn my computer on at all, because I'd rather be reading, knitting, watching tv with Brad, doing stuff with friends, or some combination of the above. Thus, I'm still way behind on all of your entries, although when I do turn the computer on, reading them generally takes precedence over writing my own, which would explain why I haven't written anything in 18 days. :-/
So I've got one week left of work, and I'm very much excited about that. All of my reports are finally written, though I know I'm going to have to have a bunch of the parent feedback meetings in September. Don't even care, honestly, I'm just glad to be done with the reports. We had our allocations meeting super late this year, but I got to keep 4 of my schools and get rid of the one I really didn't like, so I'm happy about that. I picked up another school in its place, but it's a small school, so I think I should be less crazy busy next year than I was this year, and that will also be a relief. And next week will mostly be a lot of nothing and eating, very little actual work will get done. I might have a few parent meetings if the schools can manage to schedule them, but otherwise, it's mostly just little organizational things that need to get done. We're having a department potluck lunch on Tuesday, for which I Gabe made jam tarts yesterday (more on that later), and then Thursday is our final staff meeting of the year, and lunch is provided then. So hopefully this week will go by quickly and I can start relaxing and unwinding.
Other fun things that have happened: World Wide Knit in Public Day was June 9th, and I had a lovely time but got myself sunburned on my legs. Brilliant move on my part, because I simply didn't put sunscreen on my legs. :p Then the 15th was our annual psych/social work baseball game, which I actually played in this year. We lost by one point to social work, but I actually hit the ball during the game, so I was okay with that. I had more fun than I thought I would, given that I generally hate baseball, so I'm glad I went, and I will probably go again next year.
There's also no shortage of activities planned already for the summer. Yesterday I went over to Gabe's to see her new place and to bake for the potluck. This turned into her making jam tarts for me while I mostly stood around her kitchen watching people out her window. :p I did offer to help, but she instructed me to "tell stories and supervise" so I did my best to be amusing. I had also brought over sourdough, brie and strawberries for lunch, so at least I fed her bribed her with food, lol. Then her friend Tzarina (sp?) came over to fix Gabe's hair; Tzarina is a hair styling student who had dyed Gabe's hair platinum blonde and wanted to touch up the roots and make the color more even. I watched (and took pictures) during the process, which was highly entertaining for me, haha. Afterwards, I asked Tzarina if she'd be willing to trim my hair at some point, because it hasn't been trimmed or cut since Amanda cut it in the beginning of January, and she offered to do it right then. She spent a long time on it, but did a really nice job with it, and I was super pleased because she actually did what I asked her to, and just trimmed it without taking off a ton of length! Definitely a pretty sweet afternoon if you ask me.
Then, this Thursday, I'm going to see Matchbox Twenty and the Goo Goo Dolls in concert. I just have lawn seats, because there was a groupon for $15 for those, and I'm going by myself, because Erin, who wanted to come, wasn't able to get the groupon before it sold out, but hopefully it'll still be fun anyway. Oh, and either this Tuesday or next Tuesday, some of us are going to see Monsters University on one of the half-price days; we just haven't established which day yet. And next weekend, a bunch of us are going over to Erin's new house for brunch and to help her make knit and crocheted flowers for her wedding. I'm sure it will be a good time, because it always is. :) I've got a few weeks of down time before the next fun thing, which is the TTC Knitalong on July 20th (cannot wait!). And then, yesterday Erin bought tickets for us to go to the Neil Gaiman booksigning on August 6th, which I am also super excited about. Hopefully I'll be able to get his new book before then, so I can get it signed, but either way, it'll just be awesome to see/hear him speak in person.
With any luck, somewhere in there, I'm going to try to squeeze in a trip to the States. Actually, based on the timing of aforementioned events happening here, if I go, it'll pretty much have to be from July 21st to August 4th or 5th. Which is fine by me, timing-wise; the only question is how we're going to be able to afford it. While I will actually be getting paid this summer, that doesn't mean we'll have enough extra money for me to be able to get down there. I wish there was something like kickstarter that would just be for general life-funding purposes. Like, hey, I'm the sole breadwinner and my husband and I are just trying to get started in life from under a mountain of student loan debt - who wants to help pay for us to be able to do a few fun things here and there? Sadly, no such thing exists, so I will have to look for other funding options. We'll see what happens, and I'll keep you guys posted. Now I'm going to try to see how many entries I can read before I have to go grab a shower at 10:30. Hope you're all doing well!
So I've got one week left of work, and I'm very much excited about that. All of my reports are finally written, though I know I'm going to have to have a bunch of the parent feedback meetings in September. Don't even care, honestly, I'm just glad to be done with the reports. We had our allocations meeting super late this year, but I got to keep 4 of my schools and get rid of the one I really didn't like, so I'm happy about that. I picked up another school in its place, but it's a small school, so I think I should be less crazy busy next year than I was this year, and that will also be a relief. And next week will mostly be a lot of nothing and eating, very little actual work will get done. I might have a few parent meetings if the schools can manage to schedule them, but otherwise, it's mostly just little organizational things that need to get done. We're having a department potluck lunch on Tuesday, for which I Gabe made jam tarts yesterday (more on that later), and then Thursday is our final staff meeting of the year, and lunch is provided then. So hopefully this week will go by quickly and I can start relaxing and unwinding.
Other fun things that have happened: World Wide Knit in Public Day was June 9th, and I had a lovely time but got myself sunburned on my legs. Brilliant move on my part, because I simply didn't put sunscreen on my legs. :p Then the 15th was our annual psych/social work baseball game, which I actually played in this year. We lost by one point to social work, but I actually hit the ball during the game, so I was okay with that. I had more fun than I thought I would, given that I generally hate baseball, so I'm glad I went, and I will probably go again next year.
There's also no shortage of activities planned already for the summer. Yesterday I went over to Gabe's to see her new place and to bake for the potluck. This turned into her making jam tarts for me while I mostly stood around her kitchen watching people out her window. :p I did offer to help, but she instructed me to "tell stories and supervise" so I did my best to be amusing. I had also brought over sourdough, brie and strawberries for lunch, so at least I fed her bribed her with food, lol. Then her friend Tzarina (sp?) came over to fix Gabe's hair; Tzarina is a hair styling student who had dyed Gabe's hair platinum blonde and wanted to touch up the roots and make the color more even. I watched (and took pictures) during the process, which was highly entertaining for me, haha. Afterwards, I asked Tzarina if she'd be willing to trim my hair at some point, because it hasn't been trimmed or cut since Amanda cut it in the beginning of January, and she offered to do it right then. She spent a long time on it, but did a really nice job with it, and I was super pleased because she actually did what I asked her to, and just trimmed it without taking off a ton of length! Definitely a pretty sweet afternoon if you ask me.
Then, this Thursday, I'm going to see Matchbox Twenty and the Goo Goo Dolls in concert. I just have lawn seats, because there was a groupon for $15 for those, and I'm going by myself, because Erin, who wanted to come, wasn't able to get the groupon before it sold out, but hopefully it'll still be fun anyway. Oh, and either this Tuesday or next Tuesday, some of us are going to see Monsters University on one of the half-price days; we just haven't established which day yet. And next weekend, a bunch of us are going over to Erin's new house for brunch and to help her make knit and crocheted flowers for her wedding. I'm sure it will be a good time, because it always is. :) I've got a few weeks of down time before the next fun thing, which is the TTC Knitalong on July 20th (cannot wait!). And then, yesterday Erin bought tickets for us to go to the Neil Gaiman booksigning on August 6th, which I am also super excited about. Hopefully I'll be able to get his new book before then, so I can get it signed, but either way, it'll just be awesome to see/hear him speak in person.
With any luck, somewhere in there, I'm going to try to squeeze in a trip to the States. Actually, based on the timing of aforementioned events happening here, if I go, it'll pretty much have to be from July 21st to August 4th or 5th. Which is fine by me, timing-wise; the only question is how we're going to be able to afford it. While I will actually be getting paid this summer, that doesn't mean we'll have enough extra money for me to be able to get down there. I wish there was something like kickstarter that would just be for general life-funding purposes. Like, hey, I'm the sole breadwinner and my husband and I are just trying to get started in life from under a mountain of student loan debt - who wants to help pay for us to be able to do a few fun things here and there? Sadly, no such thing exists, so I will have to look for other funding options. We'll see what happens, and I'll keep you guys posted. Now I'm going to try to see how many entries I can read before I have to go grab a shower at 10:30. Hope you're all doing well!